Focused on opening the release valve, he didn't see the dark shape that rose out of the trees below them until a shadow dropped over his controls.

Spinning around, he looked straight into the deadly gold eyes of a huge red dragon.

"Watch out!" he screamed.

Drawing back its sinewy neck, the monster roared and dove toward them.

Ramming the lever to his right as far forward as it would go, Trenton sent them plunging toward the ground.

Kallista's head snapped left and her eyes went wide. Surprised as she was, though, her reflexes were sharp as a blade. At the same time as the dragon opened its huge fang-filled mouth, following closely behind them,
Kallista yanked the flight controls hard to the right.

Trenton ducked his head, expecting a ball of flames. Instead a thick yellow cloud spewed from between the dragon's jaws. Kallista's maneuver avoided almost all of the cloud, but a few droplets beaded on the sleeve of Trenton's jacket. Everywhere the liquid touched, the leather bubbled and foamed.

Yelping, Trenton wiped his sleeve on Ladon's metal skin. The yellow drops fizzed a little, marking the metal, before disappearing.

"What is that?" Kallista shouted.

"Some kind of acid," Trenton yelled back.

Correcting its course, the red dragon closed on them again. Less than twenty feet above the forest, Trenton searched for an opening to fly into, but the treetops were too dense to break through.

Behind them, the monster roared and shot another stream of acid.