Buck Johnson

Buck Johnson, along with his slow-moving and slow-thinking sidekick Skeeter Evans, currently plies his trade as a dragon wrangler on Terul and is busting out a bunch of dracs for the repulsive Terullian Karposh. But when an unruly Red Kraken throws Buck, events take an unexpected turn.

Buck Johnson: The Dragon Drive? is the second short story in the Buck Johnson series. This time Buck and Skeeter and Snort are trailing a herd of dragons to Skrintax. If everything goes as planned, they'll sell the dragons for a good price and finally be able to get off Terul. But things seldom go as planned, especially when dragons are involved.

Buck, Snort, and Skeeter are still trailing a herd of dragons to Skrintax in hopes of selling them for enough to get off Terul and maybe get better pay, easier work, and something to drink. But the obstacles keep mounting - including a tcheka-smoking interlude, hungry dragons, insolent Terullians, and... well, you'll see.

A dragon drive is a grueling and chancy undertaking - far tougher than trailing longhorns to Kansas City. So when Buck, Snort, and Skeeter approach the drive's end at Skrintax, they're looking for a big paycheck and a little fun. But the Terullian Karposh reappears and throws some obstacles in their path. Still, after some ingenious planning on bootleg vendor Quincy Poindexter's part, it all works out in the end.

A successful dragon drive two months ago should have filled Buck Johnson's and Skeeter Evans' pockets. And it did - for a few weeks. Now they're back to wrangling dragons to recoup their losses, attempting to round up unclaimed dragons in the mountainous Leptok Territory. But rogue dragons and just sheer bad luck make this little venture more challenging than either of them expected.

It's rodeo time on Terul - bronco riding, yertl tripping, dragon team roping, korth barrel racing, and dragon riding. (And if you thought bullriding was dangerous, just take a look at dragon riding at Kerluk.) These are the events at the very first rodeo on planet Terul since the revival of the Intergalactic Rodeo Association. And Buck Johnson, Skeeter Evans, and Snort Jones are entered - using, of course, Buck's money to pay their entry fees.