by Lola Ford
A jacket, pants and a helmet hung on a rack. They were made from soft doeskin leather, lined with what looked to be warm fur. Nerie edged closer, itching to touch the fabric.
“This… is for me?” she asked slowly, her eyes lingering on the fine buttons that made up a double row on the front of the jacket. She could understand Alaena’s feelings. She could hardly imagine herself wearing it.
“Yes. You see, when you fly, it can be colder than winter, and the air just dries you out.”
Soren was in teacher mode, completely oblivious to Nerie’s wonder. He went on about the properties of correct air wear and seating. After finally getting the nerve up to touch the outfit, Nerie was surprised to find that there were also gloves and a face mask. Then a thought struck her, pulling her out of her reverie.
“Does this mean I’m going to learn to fly with Kiriga soon?” She could barely keep the excitement out of her voice. She suddenly felt Kiriga there watching and listening too.
“It does.” Soren’s smile was nearly as large as her own.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Azelia
The sailors who had seen Zel and were stuck somewhere between pure panic and determination to slay the dragon.
Pulling herself out from between the buildings, she roared so loudly that the windows on the nearest warehouses shattered. More than one man fell down screaming, clutching at their ears.
She turned to the end of the pier where the guarded section was, half leaping, half flying her way down. Even as she moved, her tail now nearly twenty feet long, lashed around striking anything it could reach.
The men at this end were not running and screaming. Bows and swords had been drawn. They were going to try to stop her from getting to her eggs.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Breathing great gouts of flame, she mowed down soldier after soldier. One got close enough to slice open her calf before she smashed him into the ground with her taloned claw.
The ship and her eggs were in her sight.
A large three mast ship full of more soldiers who were busily unmooring it and preparing to sail. What were they thinking? That they would be able to simply float away from her - a mighty dragon?
She snarled, black smoke billowing from her nostrils.
She jumped into the sky again, this time intending to land on the ship. However, she was yanked back down to the ground. A large hooked arrow had buried itself deep in her wingsail and was attached to a rope. Dozens of men were pulling down on it, trying to bring her to the ground. She snarled again and lunged at them. Even as the rope went slack, she was shot in the other side. More men pulled her in the opposite direction.
Furious, she roared again.
She summoned the forge from within her soul, and her flame burst forth burning the men. However, the ropes attached to her, though thin, were undamaged. More men jumped to hold her down.
The ship was moving away faster than she expected. They were already shrinking in the distance. This infuriated her further. She could feel the tenuous connection with her eggs fading by the moment.
She was a dragon!
She would not let the humans get away with her eggs a second time.
Roaring again, she spun in a circle, knocking many of the men off their feet. Then, with a mighty thrust, she launched herself into the sky. She strained to beat her wings, the hooks tearing the fragile skin. Growing even larger to compensate, she pulled all the men who still held onto the rope into the air with her.
Beating her wings as hard as she could, she propelled herself forward, losing several danglers in the motion. Feeling lighter, she was able to wing her way towards the now distant ship.
Reaching it in seconds, she prepared herself to land on the stern.
As she dropped, she saw a group of soldiers holding one of her eggs. Its mottled shell was undamaged, and it was so large that they had to hoist it between them. They were carrying it to the edge of the ship.
She saw her chance and she lunged for them and the egg but was slowed by the few men still holding onto the ropes. They had braced themselves against the ship and were slowly pulling her backwards. Snapping her jaws, she tried to reach the men with her egg.
Her attention was momentarily pulled away from the egg when a man in metal armor shouted to get her attention.
“Dragoness!”
Seeing her eyes flicker in his direction he stepped forward.
“Come close enough for me to see you again, and this will be the fate of all your eggs!”
She couldn’t react fast enough, she twisted trying to get back towards the egg. But with the man’s words, the other men threw the egg into the churning water below.
Zel dived into the rapids after the egg.
The icy water shocked Zel’s hide. She could feel the bleeding in her wings slow as she thrust herself deeper after the egg. It was sinking rapidly, tumbling end over end as the strong current of the river pulled it downward.
Claws outstretched, she missed grabbing the egg by inches as a current caught her left wing and pulled her forcefully to the side. Using her tail like a rudder, she realigned herself, swiping after the egg again. This time, the egg made a quick drop downward, as it hit a spot of still water.
She passed it.
Desperately she tried to turn herself over like she would in midair. Instead of working as intended, she was pulled by the current farther downstream.
Righting herself, swimming with all her might up current, she saw the egg get caught in the current once again.
Zel was feet away from it when it smashed into a boulder, shell shattering.
She roared underwater, the bubbles from it momentarily blinding her.
She did not stop. She made it to the broken egg, moments too late. A small figure hung limply out of the shell, pressed against the large rock by the strong current. Too young to even have developed a color yet, but perfectly formed.
Zel had felt her die upon impact.
Carefully, she scooped up the tiny form, then she let the current pull her away.
The urge to go after the ship was hotter than the sun and burned inside her. She turned, the hatchling still in her grasp - but paused.
The look on the knight’s face had told her that she would never make it before the rest of her eggs were destroyed.
She looked down at her hatchling, its blue veins visible beneath the translucent skin. Two of her five eggs - gone.
Never to take their first breath, breathe their first flame.
She was pulled out of her reverie by the worried shouting from Graith’s mind. He was near. Maybe he would know what to do.
I’m coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Graith
Graith tried not to look back towards all the screaming.
He knew Zel was killing people.
Not seeing her act that way made it easier to process. He also knew she was protecting herself and her eggs. He knew that she would do anything in order to get her eggs back.
Instead, he blocked out the screams and focused on getting Mero out of the alley. He had to find Alix.
Mounting Mero, he was able to ride along the backside of the warehouses. Petting Mero’s large neck, he calmed the horse and himself as he looked down each alley for the boy. His heart thudded painfully in his chest as a scream pierced his calm. Panic seized him at the thought of the lad possibly being hurt in the mob that he could glimpse shoving itself away from the rampaging dragon.
“Alix! Alix!” he shouted over and over, desperate to be heard above the screaming.
When he reached the last warehouse, he turned Mero back to the pier. Within moments they were adrift in the tide of people.
As he sat on Mero’s back, Graith towered over the men running to and from the pier. He had forgotten how big Mero was having become accustomed to the horse pulling the cart all day.
More than one person collided with the big horse. The force of their contact nearly knocked Graith off
Mero, but he wrapped his arms tightly his mane. Mero’s ears were flat against his head, but he was responding to every nudge and command that Graith gave him. Graith sent a silent thanks once again to Ralph - the horse was a godsend - any other beast would have started bucking and kicking by now.
“Graith!” The young boy’s scream was audible above the roar of the crowd.
Graith turned his whole body looking for Alix. He spotted him as he tried to run towards Graith from near one of the ships. The flow of the mob had pushed him to the outskirts. Graith breathed a sigh of relief that the boy hadn’t been trampled.
Using Mero’s large mass, he navigated his way over. The distance, while short, was filled with panicked sailors. Roars from Zel caused Graith to glance over. She had ropes hanging from her wings and men tried to drag her to the ground. She was enormous, nearly as large as the ships in the water. Larger than Graith had ever seen her.
Another cry from Alix as he was roughly shoved aside, yanked Graith’s attention back to him. Mero shoved his body between the boy and the outpouring of people. Graith leaned over and pulled the boy onto the horse’s back in with a single yank. Mero turned and they were once again swept off by the mob of people.
They needed to get out of the city.
“Where are we going?” Alix asked.
His voice was muffled as he had his face tucked into Graith’s shoulder blades.
“As far away from here as we can get!”
Graith desperately prayed that all the guards were busy trying to deal with Zel. Otherwise they were going to be trapped in the city. He urged Mero into a gallop, not caring about the people underfoot - they could move or be run over.
They headed back up the long hill to the wet bridge. It was full of people still trying to get as far away from the dragoness as they could, but Mero shoved his way through. His gait faltered slightly when stepping from the bridge back onto the stone street. He caught himself and kept going. Graith urged him to speed up, and somehow, he did.
People on this side of the river were just now hearing the screams and understanding what was happening down at the docks. Screams and shouts filled the air as people tried to get to their homes. Shops keepers were shoving people out the doors, and people were stuck with nowhere to go. Cries of women thrown out into the streets were higher in pitch than the screams of the men that still echoed up the city streets.
Another large group of soldiers ran towards the docks, swords drawn. They didn’t even look in the direction of the galloping trio.
Sweat lathered Mero’s hide as he continued his forward motion towards the gate. The guards there had not abandoned their posts, though they too had their swords drawn and looked like they desperately wanted to go help.
The same guard who had stopped them when they entered the city hailed them. While Graith didn’t want to stop - wanted nothing more than to blow right through the gates - Mero needed to rest. He also didn’t want to draw suspicion to their small group by not stopping.
“What is going on?” the guard demanded. “We can hear people screaming and saw smoke start billowing up from the pier not five minutes ago.”
Graith sighed in relief, the man was just worried about Kelna, and wanted to know what was going on.
“A dragon! It set fire to the docks! Destroyed our cart! We have to get out of here!” Alix’s voice was fear filled and quivering, as he spoke before Graith could.
“A dragon?! Where did it come from?” The guard seemed shocked.
“No idea Sir, but we want to go home!” Graith let his anxiety creep into his voice. “Never coming to Kelna again. Dragons!”
He kicked Mero back in motion, exiting the city through the gate. No one called him back, so he assumed they were free to go. He kept the horse at a brisk trot until the city was well out of sight.
“Zel, can you hear me?” Graith shouted aloud and in his mind, however no response came.
“Is she talking to you boy?” he asked Alix after a few moments.
This distance from the city and the only sounds were the distant roar of the river and the click of Mero’s hooves on the stone road. Graith strained to hear a possible wing beat or roar but none came.
“No, I can’t hear her at all. What happened back there?” Alix’s voice was soft and muffled, still buried in Graith’s back. Graith glanced over his shoulder and saw the boy motion back towards Kelna.
“Zel lost control,” Graith said, thinking back to the moment he had heard her desperate cry, “She had to get to her eggs, Alix. What did you think was going to happen when we got to the pier?”
“I don’t know. Not that. Anything but her killing -”
Alix cut off, and Graith felt a warm wetness seeped through the back of his shirt.
“Ah lad. It’s okay.”
Graith twisted to look at Alix, and the boy started sobbing.
“I… I’d never,” he said, choking the words past sobs, “I’d never seen someone die before!”
Graith just hugged him, patting his back gently.
“Shh, it’ll be okay lad.”
While still facing the boy - even in the awkward position of sitting on the horse’s wide back - he turned Mero to follow the river. He hoped that they would see Zel - or the ship she had gone after.
After several long minutes of sobbing from the boy, Alix wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve while sniffling. Graith turned awkwardly patted Alix’s back one last time before facing forward. He was then able to navigate Mero even closer to the riverbank.
There had been no sign of Zel yet, and she still wasn’t responding to his mental shouts to her.
When he saw a body that had floated to the shore, he moved them away before Alix could see. There was no need to upset the lad again.
Silently however he felt encouraged by it - they must be getting closer to Zel or the ship.
Desperate for a response, Graith shouted with his mind once again, Zel please, if you can hear me, come back.
Like the faintest of whispers, Graith heard Zel’s voice.
I’m coming.
There was none of her usual emotion attached to it. That alarmed him, as he had expected to feel her anger. At the pier it had been overwhelming - now, there was nothing.
He scanned the surrounding section of river for her. It looked the same as it had moments before. When she did not appear immediately, Graith wondered if he had imagined her voice, it would explain the lack of emotion attached to it.
A crashing of water pulled Graith’s attention farther down the river. Zel burst forth from the churning rapids.
She was a snowy white once again.
As she landed on the ground, Graith could clearly see blood oozing from new wounds all over her body. She was holding her front claw at an odd angle, close to her body. Graith thought that perhaps she had broken it.
“Zel?” Graith asked as he approached the dragoness. Normally he could feel her presence, even hear the whispers of her thoughts at times - right now all he heard was silence, felt nothing from her.
He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he eased himself down from Mero’s high back. His legs were weak as he staggered towards her.
Zel had only ever turned white for one reason before.
“Zel?” he called again, hoping that he was wrong.
She did not answer him.
Instead she gently laid a still from on the ground in front of her. Graith’s heart broke. He took a long step towards her when Alix spoke.
“Graith -” Alix’s voice was shaking, “Can we, uh, stay back for a moment?”
Graith hesitated, looking between Zel and Alix. He stopped moving and turned quickly to face the boy.
“What’s wrong lad?” Graith asked concerned. He wanted to go to Zel, but Alix needed his attention.
“I… I think I’m afraid of her.”
Alix sounded surprised with himself that he was scared of Zel.
Oh child, Zel said. You do not need to fear me. I was tryin
g to save my clutch and those men were keeping me away.
She was quiet for a moment, and they could see her look down at the pale form she had laid on the ground.
All it got me was death. Death of more humans, and death of another of my children.
If Zel could cry Graith thought she would be as he watched her. When Alix spoke again, it took Graith by surprise.
“May - may I see your hatchling Zel?” Alix’s hand which was now wrapped in Mero’s mane, clenched as he waited for an answer.
Yes Alix, Zel said softly.
Alix slid down from Mero’s high back, and slowly inched his way towards Zel. Graith could see his legs shake as he took each step.
“It’s so small.” he whispered when he finally was close enough to see.
Yes, she was not ready to hatch. Her egg shattering killed her.
“Oh.”
Alix leaned against Zel without realizing it. She was warm even after climbing out of the icy waters and he was still cold and wet. Graith watched them both as she laid her head on the ground, her blue eyes closed. Her breathing was ragged, and Graith could see Zel’s hot breath in the puffs of mist from her nostrils. A particular wheeze caught his attention, just as she spoke to him.
Graith, I don’t feel right.
Graith walked over to inspect her wounds. Her right wing was in tatters and blood oozed out of it slowly.
I’ll patch you up again Zel. Let me get my kit from the bags.
He walked back over to the horse and started pulling the bags off Mero while shouting to Alix.
“Lad, can you collect firewood? We need to get her patched up before we can move. We need to get ourselves warmed up too.”
The boy jumped up from his spot against Zel. He wasn’t shaking any longer. Immediately he ran along the riverbed to do just that.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Graith
Graith found it much easier to stitch up Zel this time around. Maybe it was because he knew she wasn’t going to eat him or maybe it was because she was alert enough to talk during it, either way he got the bleeding stopped within an hour.
