Dead Battery

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: Map, Tooth, Wand

Dead Battery

He could hear the wings flapping somewhere above the jungle canopy.

Good. So long as the dragon was “up there” she wasn’t “down here.”

Josh held the flashlight in his mouth and unrolled the map.

“Let’s see,” he said, thinking out loud. “I crossed the Flow of Eternal Lava about half a mile back. That must mean that if I keep heading north, I should reach the side trail leading to the Elfin Casting Portal within an hour or so.”

The light blinked out before he could check for any signposts to help him along the trail. This was the second time in his entire life that a dead battery had made his day just a little worse. The first time had been a few hours earlier.

The day had actually started out quite well. He’d landed at the base of Jagged Mountain just as the sun was burning off the morning mist from the Everlasting Swamp surrounding the peak. He’d cast a morphing spell on himself and let his new wings carry him up and past the deadly trail; the one currently littered with the bodies of less gifted magicians who’d tried to make the climb on foot.

He’d reached the Dragon’s den unscathed. A dream spell had kept the beast asleep while he removed a ten-pound tooth. It was as he stood examining his treasure that things turned bad.

The dragon awoke sooner than expected, by about a day. He’d hoped to be long gone by then.

Not overly worried, he pulled out his wand and with a wave said, “Dragon be gone.”

Nothing happened; as is to be expected when one’s wand has a dead battery.

Now, hours later, he could no longer hear the wings.

He needed neither wand nor flashlight to tell him to run.

Word count 300