A dragonslayers tale

The servant spat again, he was chewing on some Ghiba root and it made his spit bright blue. “He never listens to anyone but himself, but trust me, he will end up as a light fried snack soon. Just watch up folks, it would be too bad if that happened to you as well”

Phraan grinned. “We don’t plan on doing mistakes no. We have hunted dragons before”

The old man nodded. “I know you Phraan, I saw you once back then, you and the team killed a huge steel belly. I never forgot that.”

Phraan blushed slightly. “I am pleased to hear that”

The man grinned. “Go with the gods and be blessed. You are our hope now”

Phraan touched his chest and bowed his head in respect before he made the horse run again and the old man seemed to appreciate the gesture. He waved his hand after them. Phraan had to snicker, he remembered the uproar they had caused in some places. Dragon slayers were seen as something almost divine and it had been embarrassing and almost dangerous too at times. He turned to Vitile. “Do you remember that horse of yours that got shaved?”

She burst into giggles. “Oh poor old Springstorm, yes.”

Phraan smiled back at her. “I will never forget that, he did look ridiculous poor thing”

Vitile put her tongue out. “It wasn’t my fault that they thought that his hairs could work as talismans.”

Phraan smirked. “Well, they tried to make money from just about anything back then so why not? One guy tried to cut my braid remember?”

She nodded and her eyes did twinkle. “Yes, you broke his nose, and three of his fingers. What a jerk”

Phraan looked back, they were way past the camp now and he stared ahead. “I hope we won’t get that famous this time, last time was more than enough for me”

Vitile smiled. “Yes, for me too. I hope hunting will be all that we have to do”

Phraan made Drake gallop. “Indeed”

The other group did catch up with them two days later, and Phraan let them pass for he didn’t want to spend any more time with the airhead who was their leader. They seemed to be in a hurry and only the old servant did wave at them as they rode by. Travelling with carriages did slow them down but they would need every bit of equipment available. The area they were heading into was rather flat with some deep river valleys and a few oddly shaped cliffs and it was vast. Here the villages were spread out and the distances great and it was where the problem had started the last time, or rather, it was where it had gotten to when the great cities to the south finally were alerted. The place had looked very differently back then, Phraan could remember that. It had been more lush, with Holts of trees and the fields had been large and filled with everything from vegetables to wheat. Now the fields they saw were still large but they didn’t yield more than half of what they used to and some places the soil itself had burned off in wildfires. The region couldn’t feed that many people, only a third of the previous population and yet many had returned to the land after the dragons were gone to restart their lives, thinking it would be like before.

Phraan saw that the farms they passed by here and there were good, well taken care off and they ought to produce enough food for everyone but the people they did see where obviously poor. He saw skinny kids and way too many gravesites. One evening they made camp by a small village and soon many of the village kids came to take a look at them. Elves were rare in these parts and Phraan was used to getting glared at. The kids didn’t bother him, they were after all just that, kids, but the grownups were way worse. The men he could tolerate to a degree, they were often just impressed by the skills and the elegance of the elven warriors, and their weapons. Some of the women were way worse, a few acted like burrs and Phraan had more than once cursed the fact that humans did find elves so very attractive. Once he had woken up from deep slumber to find that a somewhat faded beauty tried to crawl into his bed. Dhokay often scared the children but he was fond of little ones and after a little while he often became their favorite and he was rather generous with his time when there were kids around. This village consisted of just ten buildings and they appeared to be full of people, there were fields around it and it was obvious that the village did make a living by farming flax. The inhabitants did weave and Phraan saw some of the cloth they did produce. It was nice but he knew that it had been nicer before. A couple of the village elders came to the camp that night to hear news and Phraan saw that one of them was very old indeed. He had probably seen over a hundred winters and that was a lot for a human. The man was so fragile he couldn’t walk but others carried him on a sort of chair and it was obvious that the man was very wise and not at all senile. Phraan saw that the eyes still were sharp and keen and the man sort of demanded respect. He had probably been the village leader once upon a time.

Shaluun brought the man a jug of wine and the old one grinned with few teeth and emptied the jug with surprising speed. “Thank you so much lovely one. It has been a long time since I tasted good wine. The thing my brethren here make is worse than horse piss!”

Phraan had to grin. “I see, tell me, I was here fifty years ago and the area was lush back then, wealthy!”

The old man sighed. “Aye it was, the herds of cattle were huge, and the goats fat. The fields could be harvested twice a year.”

Vitile cocked her head. “So, what happened?”

The old man made a grimace and changed his position, his arms were just skin and bones and he looked like a person who had worked hard his entire life. He looked worn, but proud. “When the dragons disappeared they took the blessings of the earth with them, at least that was what people said back then. Too much blood had been shed, the land was cursed.”

Phraan frowned. “Do you believe that?”

The old man shook his head. “I was a grown man back then, I had seen what the land could yield also before the dragons came. No, we are not cursed. But the weather has changed, the winters are longer and colder and the rain has become scarce and when it does rain it pours for hours. It washes the soil away instead of gently moistening it. “

Dhokay nodded. “It is a natural cycle, bound to happen no matter what. I have seen it”

Dhokay was very old and Phraan did believe him, it had happened before. He had read of the rich cities of the far east where huge orchards and vast fields were lost to the desert just over a couple of generations. The old man nodded. “Yes, and the way we used the land back then drained it of nutrition. If the dragons hadn’t come we would still have lost much, but it would have been a slow disaster, not a swift one. When the dragons came people did flee south, if they hadn’t arrived most would have stayed and many more would have died, believe me. People don’t want to leave their homes even if it means starvation for they will never seize to hope for a good summer”

Vitile frowned. “Are you saying that the carnage back then was a good thing?!”

The old man chuckled. “No, of course not. The dragons slaughtered thousands, and it was truly a terrible thing but sometimes I think that we were too self-confident. This region weren’t meant to be inhabited to begin with, old legends says that it ought to be left alone.”

Phraan knew that it had been a wilderness until three or four hundred years before the dragons came the last time. Dhokay did look very interested and Kapha stuffed his pipe with slow movements, he did pay keen attention to what the old human was saying. “Do tell, what legends? I have never heard of any legends connected to this particular region?”

The old man coughed and Phraan did pour some more wine, he did see that Oham did stare at the jar he held with hunger and he sent Vitile a swift glance. She nodded back, almost imperceptibly, she would make sure that the drunkard didn’t find the wine. The old man drained also this with glee and wiped his mouth. “Oh, they are old, and almost forgotten by everyone. It was one of the travelling tribes who knew them and my grandfather liked to collect lore and thus I learned of these old tales.”

Phraan stared at the old man. “Do tell please, we are curious, and the night is still young”

The man snickered. “Oh yes, I wish I was as young as that, but my bones are old and brittle and no fair maiden will want to invite me to her bed anymore, it has been decades since I last felt like a man.”

He pulled the heavy wool blanket tighter around himself and sighed. “The legends are odd, I didn’t really understand anything of them when I was a lad but now as an old man they do make more sense. “

He stared at the flames. “The land up north, beyond the great mountains, that is what this is all about. “

Shaluun looked curious. “Nobody knows anything about that area at all, nobody has tried to cross over the mountains and returned”

The old man nodded. “Yes, and the legends do explain why. I do not believe in these old tales but they are interesting and there could be some sort of truth to them after all”

Vitile looked like an eager kid. “Go on”

The old man giggled and appeared to be charmed by her eager gaze. “They say that the world was ruled by two powers in the very beginning, one of order and one of chaos, one created and the other destroyed and one could not exist without the other”

Dhokay nodded. “I have heard of that yes, it is what magicians learn when they start training. There has to be a balance”

The old man looked pleased. “Yes, that is right. But the legends do speak of a great battle, both powers tried to overcome the other and in the end they reached a truce, they were equal, none could win no matter what they did. They say that the power of chaos did create the dragons and that the power of order came up with something equally terrible but the legends didn’t say exactly what it was. “

Phraan frowned. “It seems very believable that chaos made the dragons for they are just that, chaos incarnate”

The old man smiled. “Exactly, the followers of chaos did retreat to the land behind the mountains for that was the land designated for them and there is a barrier in there somewhere. No creature if chaos is supposed to cross it and also the other way around, it is impenetrable and made to last forever”

Vitile looked confused. “But the dragons have come? Crossed the mountains?”

The old man nodded. “Yes, for not all followers of chaos do honor the truce. Have you heard of the brotherhood of dark mages?”

Dhokay hissed. “Dark magicians yes, they were eradicated millennia ago”

Phraan nodded. “None have heard of anyone being a part of that group. They are gone”

The old man shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. The legends says that the group do possess an artefact which allow them to breach the wall, and that this would happen when the last of the line of Athebar of old did perish”

Rhuk jumped up. “Athebar? That was the ancient king of Northold, his last descendant did die just two years before the dragons were first seen!”

The old man shrugged again. “Yes, so maybe there is truth in the legends after all!”

Phraan threw some more wood onto the fire. “But that was fifty years ago and nothing really happened? The dragons were either killed or disappeared and it has been peace ever since”

The man nodded. “Yes, so it is odd, but I think that if someone indeed wishes to bring chaos back to the lands those dragons were just a test, a practice run”

Vitile stared at the flames. “The weak ones, those not strong and worthy enough…”

Phraan swallowed, oh gods, was she right after all?

The man grinned and pat his knees. “Remember, these are legends, fairy tales if you like. They do say that there is one weapon which needs to be awakened within someone blessed, and one weapon must be found, the third weapon against the chaos is carried in secret. The legends didn’t say anything more”

Dhokay tilted his head. “So there are weapons against these dark powers, how splendid. I prefer to see this as an infestation of unwanted pests and nothing more. If the dragons do live up in the mountains the surplus is bound to head south looking for food sooner or later, they are like wolf packs, the young must go fend for themselves when they are old enough.”

The man grinned. “Of course, well, I am tired, and my bones are aching, it will be a cold night for sure”

Phraan leaned back, he was getting hungry and knew that a thigh of a deer was being prepared as they were speaking. “Have there been any dragons sighted this far south yet?”

The old man shook his head. “No, but a week ago a group of people were seen heading east, they were clearly leaving everything behind for they carried little and were in a hurry. If it is as bad this time as the last time you will meet more, believe me”

The old man gestured towards two of his friends and they lifted him and carried him off after he thanked profusely for the wine, he would probably sleep rather well that night. The group fell rather silent until the food was ready, Phraan couldn’t believe that these legends were true but in some way they did make sense. If there was a sort of barrier up there, and it was breached by someone with ill intent it explained why there hadn’t been any dragons around for decades. He didn’t want to believe but something about the whole thing was tugging at his mind and he couldn’t find any real rest.

The next morning Oham was nowhere to be found as they were hitching up the wagons, he had been given the task of tidying up after the camp and that meant digging dirt over the fireplaces, folding up any tents and watering the horses. Vitile was ready to blow a fuse, she had hid the wine they transported very well and it hadn’t been touched so he hadn’t been raiding that supply but he was nowhere near the camp. If he went too far away from them the spell would kick inn and kill him and so he couldn’t be further away than the village and Dhokay and Kapha went to look for him. They did find him after just a short search, in the village blacksmith’s forge. He was lying next to a pile of coal moaning and clutching a jar of something to his chest, refusing to let go. The man was pale, sweating and in obvious pain so Dhokay didn’t do anything to him except giving the wide rump a formidable kick.

The blacksmith did show up and he was wide eyed and staring at the convict. “Akhi curse it, what the fuck is he doing here?”

Dhokay bowed his head. “I am sorry, but this convict is a drunkard and it appears that he has entered your home in pursuit of booze. We are trying to sober him up”

The blacksmith sighed. “Well, he has done it then, there is alcohol in that jar but it is not drinkable, it is a liquid I use to dissolve hooves and stuff to make glue”

Kapha cringed. “And he has been drinking that stuff? No wonder he looks like shite, come on, let’s get him back to the carriages, we need to get going”

The blacksmith still looked shocked and Dhokay handed over a couple of coins. “Here, for the stuff he drank. “

The blacksmith stared at the coins with even bigger eyes as they dragged Oham out of the forge. The man was whimpering and clutching his belly and Vitile glared at him as Dhokay dropped the man into one of the carriages like he was a bag of beans. “He has been drinking something the blacksmith uses, to make glue.”

Phraan walked over and heard and he winced. “Then the poor sod is done for, it is eating away at his guts as we speak.”

Kapha didn’t look too sad to hear that. “Oh, too bad then. How long will it take?”

Phraan took a deep breath. “A couple of hours, most. It is very strong.”

Vitile was cussing and she mixed some herbs and poured some wine into the cup. “Here, drink this”

The man grasped the cup and drank it greedily, the wine was obviously more important than asking what the herbs would do. After a few moments he sort of snorted and fell asleep and Vitile grimaced. “He’ll sleep now, until the end. I don’t want a groaning screaming writhing heap of rotting flesh to scare the horses”

Phraan grinned. “Wise decision, are everybody else ready?”

Shaluun nodded. “Yes, we can go”

They mounted their horses and got the convoy on the move, Phraan felt angry and disappointed too but most of all he was stunned by the fact that Oham was so desperate for alcohol he drank something like that. It had to taste absolutely horribly and burn too, on the way down. Perhaps years of drinking whatever he could lay his hands upon had destroyed the man’s sense of taste, that could be the answer.

They had one small stop in the middle of the day and they left Oham’s body with a small group of white wanderers they came across. The travelling monks were willing to bury the body for a small shilling each and they would pray for the man too, Dhokay did insist that this wouldn’t be needed but they wouldn’t listen to that. They prayed for everyone, whoever they had been. Phraan had often come across these small groups and he did respect them a lot. The white wanderers did leave everything behind whence they joined that faith, even their own name. All they owned was the white cloak they wore and a staff and they had to beg for food. But they were surprisingly happy and he had never heard any of them raising their voice or even speak ill of anyone so perhaps there was something to it after all. Peter was asking a lot of questions regarding dragons and Kapha was answering willingly. The man had sort of thawed over the last days and he was in fact rather charming.

They met the first group of refugees ten days later, in a river valley where they stopped to let the horses drink. It was perhaps fifty people and most was women and children with a few elderly men following them. Phraan had seen that before, the village had probably been attacked and the men had tried to fight back and gotten killed. These were the lucky survivors and they did confirm his assumption. The village had burned, and most of the inhabitants had died. The survivors had survived simply because they had been by the river to fish and wash clothes when the dragons came and they had been sort of forgotten by the beasts. Dhokay did ask what they had seen and judging from the statements the attack had been swift and very determined. It had been long tails, probably ten of them and they had left a smoldering ruin in shorter time than it would take to run across a ball field. Phraan felt a bit eager as they moved forth, they were closing in on their prey now and had to be careful. He was sure that the first sighting of a dragon was just around the corner. There was just one real city in this region and it lay ahead of them now, it was called Mudwall and the name was very fitting for the walls surrounding it was made from dried mud from the river. The city wasn’t large, barely a town the way the southerner’s saw it and it had a small army camp. That was where they would set up their headquarters for now and Phraan just hoped that the commander of that camp was a decent person and not some jerk.

The city was crowded, a very bad move if there are dragons around and Phraan knew that people had forgotten what to do in situations like this. Spreading out was the best tactic you could use, not clumping together like these people were. The army camp lay just inside of the wall itself and was protected by an extra palisade made from logs. It wasn’t much but it did look intimidating. The commander was an elderly officer who probably had some ancestors way south east for he had rather dark skin and was small and lithe. Luckily he was very polite and also very glad they were there and they were given an area of the camp which could be their own. There were only a hundred soldiers there now and there was space enough for ten times that many. The commander’s name was Janok and he was born just after the last time the dragons were a problem so he didn’t remember much, only the work to rebuild the land after the years of terror. Phraan did like him and was glad they had met someone willing to cooperate. Some officers were so sure of their own power they refused to listen to anyone but themselves.

They spent the evening and the night arranging the camp and when the morning light did spread across the skies everybody were tired and also excited. This was where they would start and Phraan went to ask Janok if they had seen any dragons nearby. The answer didn’t surprise him at all, several villages had been burned, including the one whose surviving inhabitants they had met earlier on. Dragons had been seen flying off in the distance and the man did tell Phraan that a group of dragon slayers had arrived two weeks earlier and travelled northwards towards the villages along the river. Nobody had heard from them ever since. Phraan took a deep breath, it had to be Waslav’s group, it couldn’t be any other and they did need to check things out and see how the situation was so his decision was to seek them out. If they were dead Phraan would know that they were on their own.

Vitile wasn’t that willing to leave the city yet, she thought that they needed more information but Dhokay did agree with Phraan. They ought to ride out and see if that other group had encountered any dragons and two riders are not a target most dragons will bother with. So Phraan and Dhokay did leave the camp that morning and rode north following the tracks of that other group.

The change from the last time was grand, Phraan had been all over the region back then and he was shocked to see how bad things were. This land was in serious trouble even without the dragons. Dhokay was using his eyes for all they were worth and they had been riding for less than two hours when they saw the first signs of dragons. A field of cabbages had been transformed into a bog with debris spread everywhere and Phraan had to cough, the stench from dragon droppings is intense and nauseating and this was worse than he could remember. Dhokay did almost throw up and the horses were nervous and hard to control. Dragons do defecate when they land to eat and the feces do spread disease and leaves the very soil barren for years. This field would have to be left undisturbed for years to come. Dhokay did seem a bit on the thoughtful side as they rode on, he was fidgeting with his braid and his eyes were distant. “Those tracks back there, I didn’t recognize them”

Phraan frowned. “No? They were long tail tracks?”

The blue haired male shook his head. “No, long tails have three toes on their feet, these had three toes on their front feet but four on their back legs.”

Phraan cussed. “Oh Akhi, I didn’t see that, I was focusing on the number of tracks”

Dhokay nodded. “So was I at first, old habits die hard. They were seven, very large too. “

Phraan took a deep breath. “Alright, then we do know that, that is at least something”

Dhokay did look worried. “Yes, but the change? I don’t like it, I simply don’t”

Phraan didn’t say anything , he just rode on and that evening they did rest in an abandoned barn. They didn’t go anywhere near the villages which had been attacked already, they were too far away for that but they did see groups of people on the run. At least the inhabitants of the area had the wits to leave before the situation became too serious. The last time many had refused to listen to common sense and had stayed for too long and paid with their lives. They didn’t want to believe that there were dragons attacking farms and villages and that was understandable for dragons had been naught but a fairy tale for way longer than the realm had existed.

On the third day they reached the river and started following it northwards, and Phraan immediately knew that something had changed indeed. They found a farm which had been attacked and there wasn’t anything left at all. Just blackened rocks told where the buildings had been and a few scorched sheep carcasses were spread around but everything else had been burned completely. This looked deliberate, like the work of someone set on destruction more than the random attacks of a hungry animal. The dragons had been desperate with hunger the last time, eating everything they came across, they didn’t really bother that much with inedible things like buildings and such and used the flames to get to people and animals more easily. This was nothing like it, it was in a way unnatural.

They found the camp of the other slayers early the next day, Dhokay saw smoke and they rode hard along the river bank and what they saw did not come as a great shock at all. There were just a handful of men left, terrified and confused and most of all unable to make any decisions without their leader. They were in short pathetic and they had assembled around a small fire and sat there shivering. They had only a couple of pack horses left and no equipment and a few were wounded. Phraan sighed and slowed Drake down, the men heard the sound of hooves and did turn around, frightened that these were a new danger. Dhokay swore, they were perhaps eleven or twelve and from the looks of it most were servants. Phraan stopped the horse and stared at them. “So, where is your brave and expert leader?”

One of the men came forth, he was pale and shivering. “Dead, they are all….dead!”

Dhokay tilted his head and dismounted, the huge gelding he rode snorted and pawed the ground. “What happened, tell us quick.”

The men sat down, looking like dogs which have been flogged. “We arrived at the village up the river and set up camp. They had seen some dragons the day before, greybacks they called them. There was this old woman there, she said they were different, that we shouldn’t try to attack but just help people leave.”

Dhokay frowned. “Different?”

The man nodded. “Yes, she said they were larger, faster. She was old, and they said her memories were fading away. Waslav wanted to get started so we left, to find them.”

Phraan sighed. “Let me guess, it didn’t go so well?”

The man gasped. “No, oh gods,I…I was so scared, I pissed myself man, like a child!”

Dhokay grinned. “That is the normal reaction to have yes, when faced with a dragon for the first time.”

The man tried to smile but his eyes were haunted. “Really? Oh Gods, it was…a nightmare!”

Phraan looked at the man with narrow eyes. “Explain please. “

The poor human stared at the ground, almost panting. “I was the squire of lord Selegan, one of Waslav’s friends. We had arrows and pikes and we were so sure of ourselves. Waslav did know how to kill these things, it would be alright, we were so sure that we would return as heroes. I was the only one who came back, for my horse did bolt on me and I couldn’t control him so I fell into the river and that saved my life.”

Dhokay looked at Phraan who looked back, eyes half closed. “Arrows and pikes? By the mother goddess, that is truly foolish”

Phraan grimaced. “So, tell us what you did”

The squire trembled. “We arrived at a field where there had been cattle grazing, there were none there now for even the bones had been eaten and there were five dragons there, huge monsters, I have never seen anything that terrible before. Waslav….he did charge, at the one which was closest to us. He had a lance, but it didn’t penetrate the skin of the beast at all, it just skidded off and the beast…it just knocked him and his horse over with a swing of its tail and then it burned him. I can still hear the screams. The other dragons attacked the rest of us and I was at the back of the group, that was when my horse ran off and I have never been so grateful it was skittish before.”

Phraan looked down, jaws clenched and fire in his gaze. “A waste of lives, but I expected this much, he was a fool”

The squire whimpered. “The dragons came for the village later that day, we could do nothing. A few tried to help and were killed on the spot and a few of us got burned. We have been stuck here since then, waiting for death. We don’t dare to leave the river”

Phraan felt confused. “You said five dragons? Large ones?”

The man nodded. “Yes, one had some red markings on its head”

Dhokay was gaping. “Red markings? Are you sure?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I saw it good. It was that dragon which killed Waslav.”

Phraan had stiffened up, staring at the human, his mind was reeling. “Dhokay, a female! And the males weren’t fighting over her!”

The tall Luptay nodded. “Impossible, they should have torn each other apart! What is happening?”

The squire whimpered. “Please, do not leave us here, we have no idea of where to go, the dragons…”

Phraan sighed. “You have four horses, put the wounded onto them and you do still have legs don’t you? Follow the river, it runs south. You will come to a village eventually. We cannot baby sit you, we need to get moving”

The man almost wept but did nod. “I hear you, may the gods watch over you, for these beasts…they are true evil!”

Phraan mounted Drake again and Dhokay got back onto his own steed, both were grim as they made their horses gallop back towards the city. A female dragon among a herd of males like that? It was unheard of, impossible. Something had to have changed indeed. They rode hard that day and found a road leading in the direction of the city, followed that. This night they didn’t stop to rest, they just let the horses trot slowly for an elf can sleep in the saddle and the horses were strong and could handle it rather well. The sun was rising again when Phraan did see something on the horizon, at first he was afraid it was dragons, then he saw it was ravens and other scavengers and it was a huge flock of them. “Over there, see?”

Dhokay shielded his eyes from the sun, his race had much better eyesight in low light conditions than an elf but strong light was a problem for them. “Something dead?”

Phraan gave Drake free reins. “Yes, let us investigate!”

They crossed a smaller creek and some Holts of thin forest and then they reached another road, one well used and they did see a huge building in the distance, it seemed to be a sort of mansion with a wall around it. Several dead people lay scattered along the road, some dead horses too and a small carriage which was crushed to smithereens. The mansion had burned, it was rather obvious and Phraan gaped when he saw the thing laying on the ground next to a huge rock. It was a dragon and it was dead! “Dhokay!”

The blue haired male gasped and they rode over, very carefully. Neither of them had seen a dragon like this before, and the sight was sickening. It was as if someone had taken several species of dragon and molded them into one and the ground around the beast seemed to have been transformed into a glass like substance. The dragon was burned, but not by any fire they had encountered. The place did reek of something strange and Phraan felt how the hairs stood up at the back of his neck. Dhokay suddenly pointed at a rock a few meters ahead of the dragon, someone laid up against it and at first they had believed it to be a dead person but Phraan saw that he moved. It was a very young man, with a handsome face and deep auburn hair and he was breathing and moaning as if in agony. Phraan jumped from the horse and ran over, lifted the man gently and let him rest against his chest. The man wore a black and red uniform and Phraan frowned. He had seen it before but didn’t remember where. “It is the uniform of the ones working at the academy of magic in Oakfell.”

Phraan took a look at the man’s hand, he wore a ring but it wasn’t a magician’s ring and he didn’t quite understand this. Dhokay stared at the dead dragon. “Look? The jaws, and the legs, yes, everything! I cannot even begin to describe it!”

Phraan swallowed. “I know, we are in trouble my friend. This is something new”

He took a quick peek at the monster, the head was clearly that of a rock jaw but it had the spikes of a spike back and it appeared to have both fire and poison? The liquid slowly oozing from the glands at the back of the mouth was clearly poison. The body shape was like that of a greyback, but it did have wings like a long tail and yet it was armored and it was larger than a greyback, almost twice the normal size. Dhokay was hoarse. “It has the legs of an iron wolf, that makes it fast, and look, the belly. It too is armored, as on a steel belly”

Phraan swallowed hard. “Dhokay, I am starting to believe those legends.”

The tall male sat down onto his haunches. “Me too, so, what is wrong with this lad? He isn’t burned”

Phraan laid a finger over the jugular, the heart was beating steadily but the lad was burning hot and trembling and there was a lump at the back of his head, as if he had fallen backwards and hit his head on the rock. “He seems to be knocked out, short and simple. The others here are dead tough.”

Dhokay got back up, looked at the corpses one by one. Most were severely burned but one of them, a young boy appeared to have been crushed. “They were trying to flee the mansion, they were probably a noble man’s family”

Phraan lifted the young man and felt an odd chill run down his spine. He was the only one alive and the dragon had died before it had time to harm him? This had to be investigated, they had to bring the man with them. He got back up onto Drake and Dhokay lifted the man up, Phraan held him against his chest as he spurred the horse. Soon they rode as fast as they dared and the lad was moaning again and writhing. Phraan held him tightly and the body jerked and his eyes opened up, filled with terror and shock. Phraan made sure he couldn’t fall off, the lad was trembling. “Dragon…”

Phraan felt him tremble. “Yes, but don’t worry, it is dead. Who are you?”

The lad gasped. “Ivran, I am Ivran, I was escorting a student and….”

He trembled again and became limp and Phraan realized that the lad had passed out again, they needed to get him back to Vitile, the lad could know something important and Phraan didn’t like the lump on his head at all. He sent Dhokay a stiff grin. “We stop for nobody, and ride until we are back”

Dhokay just nodded, it would be a wild ride but he was ready to defend Phraan and the lad with his life. He too felt that this human would be important. He leaned forth and let the huge horse have its head as they galloped over the plain, if they were in luck they would reach the city by nightfall.