Three
“A girl, last time I checked,” a female voice said. Veer opened his eyes to bright light streaming in from outside of a cave and the smell of smoke filling his nostrils. He quickly looked around to find the source of the voice and though his eyes hurt from the light he could see the silhouette of a woman standing in the opening of the cave.
“What?” Veer started to ask and was immediately cut off.
“You asked what I am and I said that I am a girl.” The girl walked a bit farther into the cave so that Veer could see that she was around his own age. “Actually you have been asking that in your sleep for a while now. Are you always this confused when you wake up or only when you’ve been bitten by a snake?”
“Snake?” Veer managed to get out before being cut off again.
“Yes, snake. The fang marks in your hand.” She just kept talking as she knelt by a small fire and dipped a wooden cup in a small iron pot that was sitting on a flat stone in the fire. The cup held something steaming and she knelt beside Veer and held it out to him. “Drink this broth, three days without food is a long time.”
Three days?” Veer asked
“Yes, three days,” responded the girl. “Since that last storm. I found you in here wrapped in a blanket and nearly dead. I had come in to kill somebody and then I found you.”
“Who did you come in to kill?” Veer asked.
“A stranger,” the girl said. “I have been following some strangers. They killed my father a few weeks ago and then I found a dead ranger in a burned out village. His name was Talenger and he and my father were friends all of my life. He was also looking for the strangers and was taking a message to the capital. Calt, his horse was gone and when I saw Calt in the storm outside of this cave I figured that it was one of the foreigners and I wanted to kill him for killing Talenger. So how did you get his horse? Because there is no way you could have killed Talenger.”
“How do you know that I didn’t kill him? Do you think that I can’t kill somebody?” Veer asked.
“You use a long bow, the arrow that killed Talenger was short like the ones that killed my father. Talenger was a ranger and my father was a huntsman and they raised me and taught me how to track. You didn’t kill Talenger and so I didn’t kill you.”
“I found him that way…. the ranger. I was out hunting over night and when I got back to my village it was gone. Burned and everyone was dead, except the ranger. He gave me his sword and horse and told me to take a message to the flatlander king. But I am going to hunt down the rest of the men who killed my family,” Veer relayed without emotion.
“So we are both orphans now.” Her words stung him as he realized that it was true and he was now an orphan. “And we are hunting the same foreigners. You said ‘the rest.’ You didn’t kill the ones that I found downstream. They were tangled up in a fallen tree with a pony and some saddles. Whatever killed them was big.”
“No I didn’t kill them.” Veer said. “And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what did. I wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Ok, well you were really sick. I’m surprised that you didn’t die. I think that little dog kept you alive. He wouldn’t…”
“Dog, what dog?” Veer cut her off. “I don’t have a dog.”
“The puppy - one of the two biggest ones,” she answered. “That is one big litter, I haven’t seen the mother around, good thing that they are weaned but boy do they eat a lot.”
“I remember some puppies in the cave when I came in,” He said. “I was feeding them a deer that I had killed and one of them bit me.”
“No, what bit you had to have been a snake - there were fang marks are on your hand and you were very sick from the poison,” the girl responded. “Well, one of the dogs stayed curled up with you the whole time that you were sick and he kept licking your hand. The puppies are nice, except for the little one with green eyes, she just growls if I go near her. Anyway, I’m Shira, Shiradane Koraston.”
“I’m Veer, Veerdrayer Amicious. Thank you for taking care of me.”
“I couldn’t just let you die, not till I found out how you got that horse,” Shira answered with a small grin.
“Oh, thanks,” Veer said sarcastically but he couldn’t bring himself to smile.
“Green eyes? I remember one of the dogs with green eyes. That is the one that I thought bit me,” Veer said
“If one bites that would be the one, the mean little thing.” Shira answered him. “The one that stayed with you should be around here somewhere. Oh there he is,” Shira said, pointing into the shadow behind where Veer lay.
Veer rolled over and peered into the shadows beyond the pile of bones and large eggshells that lay near the back of the cave. Veer wondered at the eggshells since he had only noticed bones in the firelight on the night of the storm. It must have been some really large bird to have eggs that size he thought to himself. As he let his eyes adjust to the dimness in the back of the cave he could see two eyes looking out at him from the darkness. The puppy stood up and started to walk toward Veer and he could see that the puppy was not even much more that calf high yet. Then the baby dragon stepped out of the shadows and Veer panicked.
Veer let out a shriek and scrambled out of the blanket and backwards on his hands, feet and backside right out of the cave. Shira followed Veer out into the sun and she shouted. “What is wrong with you? I’ve seen people afraid of dogs before but this is ridiculous.”
“That isn’t a dog - that thing – it… it’s some kind of monster,” Veer shouted back.
Shira just stood there for a moment looking at the naked young man sitting on the ground like he had just been thrown from a horse. She glanced back into the cave and saw the little dog sitting in the back of the cave where he had fled when Veer screamed. “Harrumph” Shira said as she looked back at Veer. Then she turned and walked away down the hill toward the stream calling back over her shoulder to Veer. “Put on some pants, you’re a little too pale in some places for this kind of sunlight. We wouldn’t want your bum to get burned.”
“I’m naked! Where are my clothes? Why did you take off my clothes?” Veer shouted as he leaped to his feet and tried to cover himself with his hands.
“Yes, you’re naked, your clothes are hanging in a willow by the stream where I left them to dry after I washed them. I took them off of you because they stank and needed to be washed,” Shira shouted back at Veer. Then she turned back to face him with a grin and said “Besides that, how could I wash you with your clothes still on?”
Veer, was still trying to cover himself with his hands as he demanded. “You, you washed me?”
Shira called back. “Yes, soap is your friend. Why do you think that your clothes stank? Oh, and I had to unstring your bow too.” Then she walked away leaving Veer standing there fuming and covering himself as best he could. Veer thought that he heard her receding voice. “Not the sharpest sword in the army.” And to top it all off, Veer had left his bow strung when he was finished with it – something everyone raised among the Hillfolk knew to never do.
Veer quickly found his clothes and dressed himself and then looked around for his horse which he found eating grass in a little clearing near the stream. When he returned to the cave he found that Shira had also returned and was sitting just inside the mouth of the cave. Veer took a moment to look at the girl who seemed a bit odd, not like other girls. She was very, very blonde; her hair was almost white. And she was a little smaller than average but perfectly proportioned; just small. She looked almost birdlike. When she looked up at him he could see that her face was thin and a bit angular with high cheek bones and her eyes were slightly almond shaped and a bright icy blue. He realized that he was staring and shifted his eyes to look around a bit. “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “I know that you were helping me.”
Shira looked at him and then looked to the side and said. “I really did it as quickly as I could but you needed to be washed. And your clothes too, and your blankets needed to be ch
anged and washed.”
“Thank you. I have to get my saddle and things; I have to go find these foreigners,” Veer said.
“I have been trying to find their trail for three days around here and the storm washed it away. I don’t know which way they went,” Shira responded while looking frustrated.
“I do,” Veer answered her. “I know these trails around here and I saw which one they took and I know where it goes.” Veer heard rustling in the brush nearby and turned to look. And what he saw made him go cold with fright. There were small dragons coming out of the brush toward the cave. Lots of small dragons, nine of them actually came walking, running, tumbling and wrestling out of the undergrowth.
“There are all of the puppies.” Shira said. “All but the one that stayed in the cave with you most of the time. I wonder where they have been. It is the strangest thing but one of them already hunts. I actually saw it kill and eat a ground squirrel. Great little dog, that one. And ten puppies, that is one big litter, biggest I ever heard of.”
Shaken from his daze Veer started toward the cave saying. “I have to get my stuff. I have to go now.” He looked into the cave to make sure that the little dragon was not near his stuff and then he rushed in and gathered everything together quickly and rolled up his blanket.
After gathering his things together Veer picked everything up, packs, saddle bedroll and bow and headed for where is horse was eating grass. Shira called after him, “if we are going to kill the same people we should travel together.”
“Get your stuff then, because I’m not waiting,” Veer called back to her as he prepared to saddle the horse.
Shira raced into the cave and gathered her things as quickly as she could but by the time she came out with everything tied into a pack on her back Veer was already heading out. “Wait,” she called. “I don’t have a horse.”
“No horse?” Veer asked.
“We fell in the storm and she broke her leg,” Shira answered.
“There are three horses wandering around so we will try to find one for you,” Veer told her. “Where did you say you found those dead men and saddles?
“Downstream, not very far. They got caught up on a fallen tree, with a dead pony.”
“It isn’t a pony,” Veer said. “And those aren’t puppies in that cave,” he continued as he climbed down from the horse. “Give me your pack, the horse can carry it and we can both walk.” Veer tied the extra pack onto the back of the horse and began to walk in the direction of downstream.
“What are you talking about, not puppies and not a pony?” Shira asked as she put her pack on the horse.
“I can’t explain it. You wouldn’t believe me if I tried,” Veer said.
“I know, I know, you wouldn’t believe it yourself if you tried,” Shira responded. “You are a very strange man Veer.”
“I know, I know,” Veer said a bit mockingly and pitching his voice a little higher he continued. “Not the sharpest sword in the army.”
Shira looked down. “Sorry,” she muttered.
They walked along in silence beside the stream for about a quarter of an hour before Veer spoke. “I though that the stream would be more swollen than this after a stormy night.”
“It was swollen, three days ago,” Shira answered. “You know those puppies are following us.”
“I know,” said Veer. “That’s why we need to get you a saddle and find a horse. So we can get away from them.”
“Do you just plan on leaving them?” Shira asked as she looked over at Veer.
“Yes,” Veer said. And then he added, “I forgot about sleeping for three days.”
“You must be really strong,” Shira said. “You were bitten by a snake and three days isn’t enough time to recover. You should have died or at least still be really sick. But you’re not sick. You look like it never happened.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know anything right now,” Veer said. And then he added, “except that I know that I am going to kill three men.”
“If you mean to get a saddle for me from the tangled mess ahead in the stream don’t bother. I hid my own saddle after my horse fell, and it isn’t far from here,” Shira said. “So we don’t have to get any closer to those rotting corpses, the smell is already bothering me. They are just ahead around that bend.”
“I smell them too. We won’t bother with the saddles but I want you to see this dead pony.”
“I’ve seen the dead pony thank you,” Shira answered. “Once was enough for me.”
“No it wasn’t enough; you’re going to look at this pony. You’re going to look at it really closely.”
As they rounded the bend the wind shifted and the smell hit them both full in the face and they felt their gorge rise. “Yes, that’s definitely a dead pony,” Shira said. “All tangled up right there with some dead guys and some saddles. We can go now.” Veer heard the young dragons behind him begin to screech as they caught the scent of their dead mother. Shira continued. “See the smell even bothers the dogs, listen to them howl.”
Veer handed the reins of the nervous horse to Shira and waded into the water toward the dead dragon. Shira watched in amazement as the young man went right up through the stench and reached out toward the dead pony and grabbed the fur on the side of the poor animal. Veer turned toward Shira and shouted. “Do ponies have these?” Veer grabbed the fur on the side of the dead beast and lifted and Shira saw him start to tear away the fur of the pony but then she saw him lift the wing of the pony into the air and stretch it out. Where there had been a pony a moment before Shira saw a dragon.
Shira screamed and tried to run away and just fell and then she began to scramble away as Veer walked quickly toward her. She stopped trying to crawl away and just sat on the ground as Veer reached her and said. “That is what killed those men, and it was one of those that bit me, a little one with green eyes in a cave. And what is following us now is not a litter of puppies - it is a nest of those things. When I first saw it I thought it was a pony too and then it spread wings and I could see it for what it was. And when I went into that cave I saw puppies too and then one bit me and now I see baby dragons. And that isn’t howling that we hear it is screeching and hissing.”
“I don’t know,” said Shira, as she looked back into the brush behind her. “I still see puppies and hear howling. Why do they look like dogs and ponies?”
“I don’t know, it must be some kind of magic or something that makes you think you see something else. But I do know that since I woke up, I can see dragons. I’ll get the horse so we can start moving again.” Veer turned and walked toward where the horse was standing waiting and as he reached for the reins he heard a scream and when he spun around he saw a tiny dragon running away from Shira as she grabbed her leg just above the ankle where it was exposed. Veer pulled his knife and threw it after the dragon but it skipped harmlessly by and stuck in the ground.
“It bit me, oh gods it bit me,” Shira screamed. “It stings, it stings really badly.” Veer knew that the poison worked quickly he could remember being bitten himself. Veer ran to where Shira lay on the ground already starting to shiver and writhe in pain and he stood protectively over her as he strung his bow and nocked an arrow. Veer looked into the brush and saw nine little blue eyed dragons huddled together watching Shira - and a tenth dragon with green eyes, sitting away from the rest of the little dragons glaring at him unblinkingly. Veer raised his bow and sighted the little green eyed dragon along the arrow shaft and kept the arrow sighted as he slowly pushed the bow outwards toward his target. As his arm reached full extension the arrow flew from his bow. Somehow the little dragon managed to dodge the arrow and then as the shaft sunk into the ground where the dragon had been standing the dragon bit the shaft of the arrow and snapped through the wood. Then the dragon spread its wings and hissed at Veer.
Suddenly the other dragons launched themselves forward toward Shira and Veer. Except for the largest of the other baby dragons which instead charged the green eyed dra
gon driving it away into the brush. The larger dragon and Green Eyes were shrieking as they fought in the brush while the other dragons closed on Veer before he could draw another weapon. One dragon leaped into the air and took flight slamming into the bow that Veer held and tearing it from his grasp. Another dragon hammered into Veers’ chest and knocked the wind from him as Veer was thrown backwards. A third dragon wrapped itself around his ankles and Veer went down heavily. Now the dragons came at Veer as a group snapping and forcing him backwards away from Shira. Veer had no choice but to crawl backwards away from the dragons or he would be bitten again. Veer watched helplessly as a dragon locked its jaws onto Shira’s leg. Veer could see the dragon begin to suck at the wound as though it were ravenous to feast on her blood. Veer screamed in rage and the little dragons backed away from him and he ran toward Shira and the dragon on her leg. Veer drew his sword and tried to lunge at the dragon with a dive but the dragon moved away and fled back to the brush.
All but two of the dragons faded into the underbrush and the sounds of Green Eyes and her adversary stopped. The two dragons that remained in view just sat and watched Veer and Shira. Veer raged with frustration but knew that he had to try and save Shira if he could. Shira had already lost consciousness and Veer knew that he had to establish some kind of camp in order to take care of the stricken girl. Veer called to his horse which finally came to him reluctantly. He picked up his bow and checked it to make sure that it was still whole. He tied his bow to the saddle on the horse and then picked up Shira and began to walk back upstream. He carried Shira until he could no longer smell the rotting dragon and men behind him. He put her down near the edge of the trees in a shaded spot. There was a pile of dead brush and wood nearby which had been washed up when the stream had flooded during the storm and left behind when the water receded. This would have to do as a camp.
Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) Page 3
