Dragon Seeker Read Online Free

fearful, growling roar that sounded as though several jumbo jets were about to land on top of them! Some stared anxiously over the broad stretch of Princes Street Gardens towards the castle, thinking perhaps, that its guns had fired an unexpected salvo, but it was only when the ground started to shake and the pavement swayed beneath their feet that the truth dawned. It was an earthquake! Startled faces paled with fear as realization dawned that the dreadful roar was the voice of the earth itself.
    They watched in awe as the TV screen showed cars braking frantically, shrieking to a halt as the road in front of them took on a life of its own. Horns blared as buses collided, their terrified passengers struggling to get out. Shoppers and assistants alike fled from stores and fought their way through the tumble of people struggling to keep their balance on the pavementbefore they, too, were caught up in the heaving, rippling roller coaster that was Princes Street.
    Stumbling across the road to the relative safety of Princes Street Gardens, they clung to the railings to keep their balance and watched, powerless, as the heaving earth continued to shake even the largest buildings.
    “Look at that!” Clara gasped, pointing to the screen as several pillars fronting the art gallery bulged dangerously.
    The cameras focused again on the garden side of Princes Street where a woman was screeching like a banshee! “The castle!” she was screaming, her face contorted with disbelief. “Look at the castle! It’s falling down!”
    Fortunately, this proved to be a bit of an exaggeration for it wasn’t actually the castle that was falling but the part of the rock that lay below the esplanade. Clara gasped. It was like watching a film in slow motion for, in front of their disbelieving eyes, a huge part of the rocky slope bulged slowly outwards and then sheered away in an explosion of sound, sending a thundering avalanche tumbling down into the gardens and onto the railway line below.
    “Thank goodness there were no trains running,” John MacLean said, as the video footage finished and the camera homed in on the castle itself, revealing the deep scar that had been carved out of its rock before panning down to the tumble of stone and earth that covered the railway line. “If that load of rock had hit the carriages, they would have been flattened!”
    The announcer was saying much the same thing as the camera showed Princes Street where yellow-jacketed workers had already started clean-up operations. “Princes Street,” he said, “seems to have been badly hit, as you can see. A complete disaster zone! We are hearing, however, that the rest of the city seems to have escaped major damage. In fact, the earthquakeonly seems to have affected Central Edinburgh.” He glanced casually at his monitor. “We’re expecting a report on its magnitude any minute now. I’ll give it to you as soon as it comes in.”
    “I wonder if it shook Arthur’s Seat?” Mrs MacLean frowned, thinking of the great hill, shaped like a sleeping dragon, that dominated the Edinburgh skyline. “I hope the MacArthurs are alright!”
    “I’d forgotten about them!” Neil gasped, for Arthur’s Seat was home to their friends; small faery folk called the MacArthurs.
    Before they’d moved from Edinburgh to the Borders, Neil’s father had been the Park Ranger on Arthur’s Seat and both he and his sister, Clara, had not only played with the MacArthurs as small children, but had also met the enormous dragon that lived with them in the hill. Despite the fact that they now lived miles away, they’d nevertheless continued to be involved in many of their adventures. Sitting up anxiously, Neil looked at the TV, hoping it would show more of the city, but the camera had changed direction and was now moving over the deep cracks, piles of rubble and twisted tramlines that littered Princes Street.
    “Maybe we could go up to Edinburgh at the weekend?” Clara suggested. “I’m