The two descended until they were nearly brushing the trees. Alex relaxed and let her eyes do their work. Because her eyes were modeled after Chine’s, Alex had all of the benefits of a dragon’s vision. She could see the heat signatures of the giants beneath her.
After determining their location, she swooped behind them from above and then lowered herself and Chine into the forest.
Chine touched down as lightly as possible, hardly making any noise, and they began to sneak closer to the giants. Chine took the lead on this one because Alex wasn’t used to riding her dragon on the ground.
The psychic link between Chine and Alex was strong, and Alex rarely had to communicate about things like that. It made working together a lot easier.
Alex rarely realized how lizard-like Chine could be, but she was reminded as the dragon slipped in and out of the shadows. His footsteps didn’t make a sound.
Jim was out of sight, and Alex hoped he had touched down already as well. She was going to comm him but thought better of it. Giants rarely used tech (something that didn’t seem to be affected by the Dark One’s influence), but there was always a chance they had some way of detecting electronic communications. Alex had recently been reading about the psychic capabilities of some types of giants. It would be best to play this safe.
For now, Alex would just assume Jim was as competent a rider on the ground as she knew he was in the air. Part of her wished Gill was here instead of Jim for this mission, and it made her feel like crap. Gill was great at stealth, and it would have put some of her worries to rest. Plus, she kind of missed the drow. Not thinking about that right now, Alex reminded herself. Teenage Hormone Hour is scheduled for later.
Up ahead, Alex could see a giant who was lagging behind the rest of the group. Perfect. Waves of Chine’s emotions rolled over Alex. It was something that had just recently started happening. Alex hadn’t spoken with the dragon about it yet, but whenever Chine felt something strongly, it would wash over Alex like a fine mist.
So far, it had not been anything complex—mostly boredom and excitement, but this time, it was different. There was something going on within Chine that was almost overpowering. Giddiness was the only way Alex could describe it. It wasn’t hard to figure out why, either. Sometimes Alex had an inkling of what was sparking his emotions, but this time, it hit Alex like a slap in the face.
The hunt. Something about hunting the giants was making Chine as happy as a child with a new toy. Alex thought it was kind of cute, and she let herself get caught up in it as the two of them raced after the lagging giant. Giants weren’t known for being forgiving when traveling. If you couldn’t keep up, you couldn’t keep up. It was a mindset Alex was willing to exploit.
Chine’s head snapped forward and he snatched the giant, crushing the huge creature between his jaws. Both Chine and Alex felt extremely satisfied with the sounds of the cracking bones.
Alex hadn’t been aware Chine was so good at stealth. All of the battles the two of them had been in so far had been heart-pounding, explosive situations. Alex had never heard of dragons being sneaky, but at the moment, Chine reminded Alex more of a dangerous viper than anything else.
Even with that, it was only a matter of time before the giants realized they were being picked off. Giants weren’t dumb, and the darkness of the forest was only going to obscure Alex and Chine for so long. If there had been more riders, Alex could have easily overtaken the giants she was stalking. But she and Jim weren’t going to be enough. This was going to turn into a full-on battle eventually.
There was still a fair amount of distance between the main group of giants and the few who had fallen behind. Alex didn’t know how many giants Jim had managed to take out, but she knew that once the fight started, they’d still be dealing with the bulk of the giants.
There was a bright flash of heat, something Alex was certain only she and Chine noticed. That must have been Jim. Alex realized that if she focused, she could pick up on Jim’s heat signature. She concentrated on finding different levels of heat at the same time.
Jim’s mech was hot and blew out her vision. It was snaking its way, slower but still persistently, through the forest, occasionally stopping to snipe one of the giants.
At the sound of Jim’s approach, two of the giants turned, spotting Alex and Chine. They shouted, calling to the other giants, who immediately forgot the pixies they’d been chasing.
One of the giants reached over and ripped a tree up by its roots. The yhomir threw the tree at Chine, who leaped to the side. The tree hit another, exploding into a thousand chunks. That giant really had an arm on him. Alex figured keeping her distance was the best idea. If one of them got hold of Chine, it would be bad news.
The dragon growled as he backed away from the giants. He must have been thinking the same thing, Alex thought as she scanned the environment. There wasn’t much space to move around with the trees being so densely packed. It was going to be impossible to accurately use Chine’s flames without torching the trees.
That would be disastrous. There were a host of creatures and races that lived in the woods. Alex was pretty sure the pixies were residents of the very forest cradling them now. It would mean a lot of deaths and a lot of displacement. There had to be another option.
One of the giants went flying to the left, crumbling under an invisible attack from Jim. The rest of the giants whirled, trying to
