August Spotlight: The Dragon Dreamer, by J. S. Burke

C. L. Schneider
9 minutes ago
5 min read

Blurb

Bullied as a worthless dreamer, Arak flew far away on a quest . . . and crashed. A fearless shape-shifter octopus named Scree rescues him, and an unexpected friendship begins. Arak returns to the Winter Festival. But a devastating illness strikes the clan. Then an undersea volcano erupts, which triggers a towering tsunami and a deadly chain of events. Can Arak use and his hidden talents and a dangerous dream to save the dragons?

Excerpt: The Claw of the Storm

Black clouds rolled silently overhead, devouring stars in the darkening night sky. A sudden barrage of lightning crackled above. Startled by the noise, Arak spun in the air. Again the lightning flashed! In the blinding light he clearly saw the monstrous black claw of the storm. His body shook as powerful waves of thunder rolled through him. His heart beat with the new rhythm.

The young dragon veered left, toward the weaker side of a storm. But this storm was huge. There was no escape.

Thunder roared as jagged spears of lightning tore open the sky, unleashing a fierce hail of ice-stones. The stones hammered Arak’s golden-scaled body as he twisted and turned, trying desperately to fly above the storm. Each wing stroke was a struggle to rise against the onslaught. The hail drove him back down, battered and bruised.

Arak sought the edge of the storm, hoping to out-fly it. But it moved like a pack of ravenous dweer, spreading rapidly to cover any escape. He realized with frightening clarity that he might never see home again. The storm raged like a living creature. He was trapped.

A swath of smaller hailstones appeared and he dove for the opening! Just as he reached the storm’s edge, a huge ice-stone tore through the leathery membrane of his left wing. Air whistled through the gaping hole. Arak struggled to fly. It was like trying to breathe without lungs. Then he was beyond the grasp of the storm, falling as he flew with ragged, painful strokes.

His eyes burned from the strain as he scoured the darkness for a safe place to land. Safe? He hadn’t given that a thought when he charged out to sea, abandoning his planned route, too angry to think. A distant spot of white shone faintly on the black sea. Ice!

Arak lurched through the sky, still falling, straining to reach the ice floe before he fell into the water. Then he would be trapped in the wintry sea, unable to launch from the water, his body cooling into an eternal sleep. He would die.

The frozen sky chilled his body, numbing the pain and tugging at his eyelids. No! He could not give in to sleep. But he let his eyes close, just for a moment, and rested his wings. Gliding unevenly, he drifted toward sleep. In the misty borders of dreamland, Arak saw his sire and dam watching from the dragon shore. They waited for him to return.

Arak forced his eyes open and stretched his battered wings, wincing as he reached for a stronger stroke. He pulled his gilded arms tighter against his body, streamlined to fly farther with each painful stroke of his wings. His legs and long, slender tail trailed behind.

The small sheet of ice seemed an impossible goal, as distant as a dream. The black sea grew larger, reaching for him.

***

The small octopus looked up and stared. A golden streak seared the dark sky. A falling star! Her eyes widened as it plunged toward the small ice sheet, growing to the size of a shark. The crash shattered the night, rocking the ice and almost knocking her off her log seat. The star flopped, in a very un-starlike manner.

Scree had never seen anything like it.

She instantly camouflaged, changing her color to match the log perfectly. Scree could stretch about two feet across between the tips of her arms. But this frightful, alien creature must be at least eight feet long and it had gleaming sharp claws. She trembled and flowed away, matching the log as she moved, invisible.

Scree glanced back, ready to slip into the sea, hanging by the tip of one arm.

The creature writhed.

Scree stopped. It looked more dangerous than a shark, but it must have been injured in such an incredible fall. She felt the weight of her healer’s bag, and the responsibility. She struggled to look beyond the deadly claws, noticing instead the crimson splashes of blood that stained the snow. Scree rippled back onto the branch.

***

The young dragon gasped for breath, stunned by the crash. Red-hot fire shot through his right leg. Arak struggled upright despite the searing pain, flinching as he tried to stand. He collapsed, twisting as he fell, writhing in agony.

“My first solo journey,” he moaned.

He had reached the ice floe. But this was not the island he’d hoped to discover. Dragons needed copper supplements to survive and their mine was almost empty. Finding an island source would make him a hero. The other dragons wouldn’t taunt him anymore. Instead, his wing was torn and now he’d broken his leg.

Arak hung his head. Karoon was right, he was just a dreamer. He hadn’t even noticed the storm signs, and he had crashed on his important first solo. He would never live this down.

The pain was growing like flames and he desperately needed help. Arak automatically reached for his chest pouch. It was gone! The ice sheet was small; it could only hold a few dragons. He looked under his wings. Nothing! His eyes frantically swept the ice, probing every thin shadow.

The barren ice gleamed serenely white under the stars. Empty. There was no sign of his pouch or anything else.

Arak trembled, shaking like the last leaf on a winter tree. He had lost everything in the storm. His missing pouch held a meal, a silver flask of spiced tea, vials of rare ground metals, a magnetic lodestone, and his precious aquamarine globe . . . his trance-stone. He needed his trance-stone to contact the clan for help.

Arak was chilled to the bone. He was trapped on the ice, wounded and unable to fly, with no food or warmth or healer. So he would die here, alone. A sob caught in his throat. Arak watched the sea, sparkling with reflected stars, and tried to calm his mind.

About the Author

J. S. Burke is the creator of the award-winning Dragon Dreamer series: Science Fantasy with flying dragons and an undersea world. Burke has worked as an author, artist, and marine biologist, studying creatures of the dark abyss and diving on coral reefs. Burke loves chocolate and so do the dragons!

3 Things The Author Wants You to Know

1. I never thought I would write a novel. Then I looked at my blue ceramic bowl and knew it was a dragon’s nest. A new world grew in my mind. The series has stand-alone books that connect, for young adults 9 to 99.

2. The Dragon Dreamer series grew from years at sea, a fascination with the alien, intelligent octopuses, and a love of dragons. These stories blend imagination with real science and author experiences. The deadly sea storm that threatens Arak, a young dragon, is one I barely survived.

3."The Dragon Dreamer" by J. S. Burke has won awards, including IAN First Place for Best First Novel, IAN Finalist for Best Fantasy, and IAN Finalist for Best Science Fiction.