Robin Hood and the Dragon’s Mate

When the dragon returned to the clearing, Will was alone. “Your friends have little faith in your skills.” He taunted as he landed. Will frowned up at him, “Perhaps it is your assurances that they have no faith in.”

The dragon huffed a laugh and headed for the woods. He swiped casually at a tree and Robin fell to the ground, bleeding from several gashes across his chest. “Dragon sight sees the unseen, shifter,” the dragon chastised. He continued into the trees to change to his human form. Will ran to Robin who was bleeding from multiple gashes. None of them were deep enough to be fatal if they were treated quickly. Will was worried because he couldn’t get Robin help right now. If he was killed in battle, he would never be able to.

Robin assured him that he would be fine. The dragon, now in the form of a tall man with long black hair and a flowing brown robe, entered the clearing. He brandished an ancient looking sword that looked to be too heavy for any one man to lift it on his own. Will lifted his own sword and stepped further into the clearing. He knew that he would very likely die today. He just hoped that Robin and the others would escape to rescue Ashlyn. Now more than ever, he questioned the logic of challenging the dragon.

“In my human form, I am known as Dryden.” The dragon said as he strode forward. “You disappoint me, my son.” Dryden drawled. “I had hoped that my blood would have made you a warrior. But you,” he darted forward swinging his sword which Will parried just in time with weak block. “You don’t even know how to hold a sword.”

Will ducked under a second blow, then took a swing toward the dragon’s midsection. Dryden jumped back quickly. The sword just barely brushed his tunic. “I learned many other skills from my real father.” Will countered another blow with a quick swipe of his own.

Even though Dryden was in human form now, he still moved slowly like a lumbering beast. Will took advantage of this, using his speed to dodge in, swipe, and duck back out.

As he fell into the rhythm of the fight he realized that it was similar to when he practiced swordsmanship with Alan, except that Alan was faster than the dragon. Will continued to use his speed to his advantage. Finally a blow connected. Dryden screamed in rage that his arm had been cut. He continued his attack with renewed vigor.

Trying to distract Will, the dragon said, “Ah, the smell of blood has drawn the attention of your vampire. Now he will finish the shifter for me. Look at the hunger burning in his eyes.”

Will refused to be distracted. He said loudly, “We trust Alan with our lives. He is stronger than his desire for blood.” He hoped that he was right about his friend as he dove for a blow to the leg. The sword connected and blood poured from Dryden’s thigh. At the same time, Will was struck by the blade of the dragon’s sword before he could dive out of the way. The weight alone was enough to knock him off of his feet.

Before Will could rise, Dryden had the blade of his sword at his throat. Will’s sword lay just out of reach beside him. The dragon lifted the sword to strike off his head as Will gritted his teeth, waiting for the final blow. He refused to close his eyes, determined that he face death like every other challenge. He hoped though that his death would be quick.

“No!” A voice called from across the clearing. His heart sank to see Ashlyn and her brother standing beside John in his wolf form. After all this, his sacrifice had been in vain. The dragon would surely take Ashlyn again. John bounded across the grass and leapt, biting the arm that held the sword. Will took advantage of the distraction, rolling to the side to grab his own sword.

He lifted the weapon as he spun quickly. The blade bit into Dryden’s shoulder. John’s grip on the dragon’s sword arm would not break, no matter how hard Dryden shook it and kicked at him. It looked as if John might bite the hand clean off. The dragon screamed in rage. The scream became a bellow as he began to grow and change. John had to release his grip before his jaw was broken by the expanding arm. Will tried to stab at the dragon, but his re-formed scales deflected the blow. With one swipe the Great Dragon threw the wolf across the clearing where he smashed into the log that the slave boys had been anchored to. John collapsed motionless to the ground.

The dragon knocked Will down then poised one giant claw over his throat. Will tried not to move for fear that his throat would graze the razor sharp claw. “Where is your honor now, dragon?” Will gasped, trying to think of some way to distract the beast.

The dragon drew a claw slowly down his cheek. Will could feel the hot blood streaming from the wound to pool in his ear and onto the ground. “You broke your word, by setting the wolf on me, now I am no longer bound by mine.” His words were projected loudly in Will’s head while with his real voice he growled threateningly low. The dragon pressed a claw against the flesh beneath Will’s jaw. Holding his breath, Will wished that Ashlyn didn’t have to see him die.

He heard a scream. Suddenly Ashlyn was throwing herself over Will, covering him in a vain attempt to protect him from the vicious beast. The dragon pulled away, not wanting to hurt his future mate. “Move away, little one,” the dragon commanded with a deep voice in their heads.

Will nodded, though he was grateful for the momentary reprieve and the chance to look into Ashlyn’s brilliant blue eyes again. “Please, Ashlyn, get away while you still can,” he urged.

She pushed her soft curls behind her ear. Tears spilling from her eyes splashed into the gash on his cheek. “I won’t leave you, Will,” she cried. She leaned down and kissed his lips. He closed his eyes to savor the feel of her lips against his. She pulled back far enough to say, “I won’t leave you, I love you.” She said it softly but the dragon heard her.

The gentleness he had shown her was abruptly gone. He picked her up in one clawed hand, threw her, then he charged after her like a cat after a mouse, pinning her to the ground before she had a chance to rise from the heap she had landed in. “You are my mate!” he bellowed into their minds. “You will love and obey me and me alone!”

Ashlyn glared up at him from the ground where she had landed, “I will never love or obey you, you monster!” He roared and raised his clawed foot as if to tear her apart.

Will’s self-control snapped. A red haze filled his vision. He felt as if a burning flame was coursing down his spine and through his entire body. He screamed as a terrible pain ripped through him. Then the sound of his scream changed into a tremendous bellow that echoed across the clearing.

* * *

Ashlyn was cringing under the expectation of the dragon’s deadly blow when a terrible roar stopped him in his tracks. He spun around. They both stared as Will’s muscles rippled and stretched. His clothes ripped. Ashlyn didn’t have to turn away though because there was nothing left of Will’s human form. Red scales glistened all over and razor sharp claws grew from his hands and feet. He bent forward under another wave of pain as huge leathery wings burst from between his shoulders. He stretched the wings out as far as they would go and then folded them tightly to him.

Seeming off balance and awkward, he stumbled toward the black dragon baring his new fangs. His thoughts reverberated through everyone’s heads, “She is not your mate.”

The black dragon turned to face him, his own fangs bared then he huffed a laugh. “Do you think she’ll want you, now that you’ve proven to be a monster as well?”

Will flinched at the reality that he was now the very thing that Ashlyn had reviled. He fought his horror at the rejection his new form would bring. He sent his thought to the Great Dragon, “It doesn’t matter if she wants me or not. What matters is that she doesn’t want you, and she deserves the right to choose her fate.”

The dragons circled each other, fangs and claws extended. Will, quickly growing used to the balance of his new body, waited for the black dragon to lunge toward him before he used a wrestling move, diving low. He wrapped his arms around the dragon’s waist and knocked him to the ground. Then he bit into its shoulder, tearing a gash through the thick hide. The dragon put its feet up slashing at Will’s stomach. Using the leverage, he threw Will several yards away.

Hitting the ground hard, Will barely managed to climb to his feet before the black dragon could pin him down. They once again lunged, tearing into each other’s flesh with claws and teeth. After dodging a particularly vicious slash of the dragon’s claws, Will found himself behind the lumbering beast. He pounced on the dragon’s sleek black back, biting into its wing, even as the dragon bucked and threw him off, he kept his teeth firmly latched onto the thick muscle and the entire wing tore free of the beast’s shoulder.

The black monster screamed in agony. Blood spurted from the terrible wound. As the dark blood continued to flow, the dragon swayed from the blood loss. Will considered leaving it to die slowly from the loss of blood; but he wasn’t that cruel and couldn’t risk that it might survive. He stepped toward the dragon. Lifting one razor sharp claw, he sliced its throat. The beast collapsed onto the grass and lay still.

Will fell to his knees, his own blood loss making him dizzy. He saw through a haze Ashlyn and her brother running towards him then darkness consumed his consciousness.

* * *

Ashlyn sat staring at the flames of the fire. Robin, Will and John were all badly injured, and Alan was missing. Will had been unconscious since the day before when the battle had ended. He had transformed back into his human form. Athyn had covered him with a blanket from their packs. They had helped John and Robin to the center of the clearing and started a fire. The black dragon’s body disintegrated quickly after its death. She wiped a tear from her eye for the hundredth time then added another log to the fire.

Athyn came up beside her. He put his arm around her shoulders. “He’s going to be okay, Ash. They all will.” She nodded absently, not wanting him to see the struggle she was going through. She had told Will she loved him. Then she had seen him change forms into a monster.

He had fought like a monster and even killed like one. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that or if that would taint her feelings for him. She desperately wanted Will to wake up, but at the same time she was terrified, not knowing how she would react when he did.

She heard a groan and jumped to her feet. It took a moment to discover the source of the groan, then she saw Robin moving. She ran to his side, “Robin, you really need to stop fading out of sight. It’s making it difficult to tend your wounds,” she chastised gently.

He smiled up at her, “Sorry, habit.” His voice was scratchy from lack of use.

She pulled up his shirt to check the bindings on his chest. Everything still looked clean so she lowered the shirt and looked at him, “Are you hungry?” He nodded.

She hurried to get him a bowl of stew. “It’s not as good as the friar’s stew, but it was the best I could do without fresh meat.” She said and wiped another tear away. Robin cast a worried glance around, “Will, is he…?”

“He’s alive, but he’s unconscious.”

Robin breathed a sigh of relief. “The dragon?”

“Dead,” she answered.

“Alan…?”

She shook her head. “He’s gone, I don’t know where. He disappeared before I got there.”

Robin looked worried, “I…he was trying to help me. He said there was too much blood, that if he stayed he would be too tempted. He ran away to protect me…from him.”

Ashlyn shuddered, “What if he doesn’t come back?”

He bit his lip, “He’ll be back. I know he will.”

There was another moan. Ashlyn rushed to John’s side. “Hey, how do you feel?” She asked.

“Like I was thrown from a cliff onto a lot of pointy rocks,” he answered with another groan.

She gave him a half smile, “Yeah, that’s kind of how you look too.” He harrumphed. Laughing, she offered him some stew. When he had eaten she checked him over. He was badly bruised, but nothing seemed to be broken. “Werewolves heal quickly,” John explained.

They stayed there for the night. John changed back into wolf form to watch over the camp. In the early hours of dawn he heard a sound and howled a warning. “It’s just me, you mangy mutt.” Alan said, stepping into the clearing from the trees. Behind him came Friar Tuck. They checked on Robin and Will who were sound asleep. Then the friar set about making a breakfast fire while Alan took over the watch so that John could rest.

Before lying back down, John brushed up against Alan, to show him that he had been missed. Alan’s voice caught in his throat as he said, “I know, I missed you too. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to fix you up.” He undid the bandages that came loose when John had shifted. He brushed some blood over the wounds that were still open. “That ought to help. Now get some rest.” John growled his thanks and moved to lie beside the fire. Alan kept a tight perimeter that night so that he could keep an eye on his injured friends.

When Ashlyn woke, she saw Alan and breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re back.”

He looked up at her surprised, “Really?”

She smiled, “Of course.”

He frowned and stared at his hands, “I…I was so overwhelmed by all the blood. Will was right, Ashlyn. I’m as much a monster as a changed vampire. I only came back to lead the friar here. I plan to leave again as soon as I have given John a chance to rest.”

“Alan,” she said, “If you were a monster you wouldn’t have left. You would have given into temptation and just killed Robin. It’s not the temptations we face that make us monsters. It is how we choose to respond to them.”

She reached out and took hold of his hand. “Alan, you made the right choice, and that’s all that matters. Besides, you can’t leave. Will needs you now more than ever.” She explained to him how Will had changed to dragon form and killed the great dragon in a vicious battle.

Alan stared at her. He kept glancing at Will’s still form in awe. “I think he’s going to have a bit of an identity crisis when he wakes up,” she said. “He’s going to need his friends, all of his friends.”

Alan hesitated then nodded. He moved around the fire to where Robin was laying. After a brief hesitation, he rubbed some of his blood over the worst of his friend’s wounds.

Robin smiled without opening his eyes, “Welcome back, Alan.”

Alan waited until Robin opened his eyes and looked at him before he asked, “Am I?”

Robin nodded sincerely, “You will always be welcome with us, my friend.”

Alan looked at him for a long moment then nodded, accepting his friend’s understanding and forgiveness.

Feeling much better now that Alan had helped to heal his wounds, Robin took up his bow. He led Athyn, who had just woken up, into the woods to ‘teach him how an outlaw catches breakfast,’ he explained.

Alan sat on a log beside Ashlyn, “What about you? Are you okay after all that has happened?”

She forced a smile and shrugged, “You guys risked your lives to help me. Some of you were hurt badly. I’m not okay with that, no. I feel responsible for what happened.”

“None of this is your fault, Ashlyn. We chose to help you because you’re one of us.” He rubbed her back comfortingly. “What about Will? Are you all right, knowing that he can turn into a dragon?”

She looked away, “I…I don’t know how I feel about that.” She answered honestly.

Alan nodded, “He’s still the same Will that you know and love. He hasn’t changed, only our understanding of him has.”

She nodded slowly, knowing that he was right, hoping she could convince her heart of it. She heard a third groan and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure that she was ready to face Will. She forced herself to stand and then found herself running to his side. He looked up at her with his chocolate brown eyes and smiled, “Hey, Ashlyn,” he whispered.

Her heart leapt. She threw her arms around him and hugged until he gasped from the pain. Then he reached up and hugged her back. When she pulled away, she saw a worried expression on his face. “Everyone is alive and well, Will, except for the Great Dragon. He’s dead and gone.”

Will looked uncomfortable, “I…it wasn’t a dream then? I really turned…”

She nodded, “Yes, you turned into a remarkable fire-red dragon and defeated the monster once and for all.” Now that her heart knew that he really was the same Will she had fallen for, she was able to reflect with awe on the incredible creature he was, even the dragon half of him.

He looked away from her, “I was so filled with rage. I could only think of killing him. I’m just like him then…a monster.”

Alan stepped forward into Will’s line of sight. “Now, a very wise girl just told me about ten minutes ago that the temptations we face don’t make us monsters; it is how we respond to them. You did what needed to be done to protect yourself and your friends. No one is going to fault you for that.”

Will forced himself to look up at Ashlyn. She was beaming down at him. “You can turn into a frog for all I care. I still meant what I said.” He looked confused and she leaned closer and whispered, “I love you.” Then she kissed him. She was blushing when she pulled away, realizing that she was being extremely forward for a girl in this century.

Will grinned up at her. He reached up to take hold of her shoulder and, pulling her back down, he gave her a kiss of his own. When they broke apart to breathe he said, “I love you too.” She felt a little dopey and wondered if it was from the lack of air from the kiss or from his words.

Will sat up and said, “Hey, it’s your birthday isn’t it?”

Ashlyn did the math then nodded, “Yeah, I guess so. I’m officially eighteen now.”

Digging through his pouch he pulled something out and held out his hand to her. “I have a gift for you.”

Ashlyn was surprised as he took her hand and placed something in it. Looking down she saw that it was the thin chain he had gotten from the booth in Devonshire. Connecting the two ends was an intricately carved wooden charm carved into the shape of a rose. In the center he had embedded a sapphire colored piece of glass.

The necklace was breathtakingly beautiful, and she slipped it over her head immediately, “Oh, Will! It’s beautiful, I love it!”

He smiled at her then folded her in his arms once more, kissing her deeply before looking up and whispering, “Happy birthday.”

Ashlyn leaned into him, breathing in his scent. She looked up with tears in her eyes, “Thank you, Will.”

Athyn’s voice came from across the clearing, “Does this mean we can stay here?” Ashlyn stepped away from Will. She spun toward her brother, freezing as she grasped what he was asking. For a brief moment she had forgotten all about being dragged out of her own time. She had been so happy that nothing else mattered.

Now reality hit her like a bucket of ice water. “I…oh, Athyn,” she couldn’t complete the thought. She looked back to Will and saw fear replace the joy that had been on his face. She couldn’t just leave him, she had just found him. But here and now they were outlaws. Could she really condemn her baby brother to grow up living as a thief? Someday Robin’s luck would run out and they would all end up in the sheriff’s dungeon.

Robin came into the clearing with a deer over his shoulder, “Look what Athyn shot. He’s a natural.” Her brother beamed up at Robin, his idol. She knew that he would be thrilled to stay here. But she could hardly count on the opinion of a ten year old. She sighed at the thought of giving up color television, fast food and hot showers forever. On the other hand she couldn’t imagine walking away from Will, especially knowing that in her own time he would have been dead and gone for hundreds of years. Looking back and forth between Athyn and Will, she knew the answer they both wanted to hear, but she had to think about this. Staying here to be outlaws with their friends or going home was not a decision she could make on a whim. She bit her lip and looked at the ground.

Will swallowed hard. His brief joy had been quickly replaced by the bitter dread. A painful sense of loss that threatened to break his heart. “After we eat, perhaps we should return to the dragon’s cave. It was his amulet that brought you here. There may be something there that will send you back…if that’s what you choose.” His voice shook. He couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes as he said it.