Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor)

by Robert Barton

  The day passed quickly for Veer as he fed the baby dragons several times with meat from the haunches of deer hanging up in the trees. Hill wolves being so very much larger than flatland wolves, he had needed to use the horse and a rope to drag the dead beasts away from the camp. A little time was spent foraging just around the camp in the forest which was abundant with food this time of year. That odd pain was still present in his leg though no wolf had actually bitten him. He felt bad for the little human eyed dragon because he knew that the real bite that the little dragon had sustained must really hurt. So much so that each time he saw the little dragon try to use the injured leg Veer could feel a strong burst of pain as though it were his own leg. With so much to do the day flew by for Veer and as evening came he finished up the tasks for the day. Feeding all of the baby dragons except Green Eyes and cleaning and dressing their wounds again. Many times during that day he had checked the sleeping girl but Shira gave no sign of waking though he noticed that a peculiar smell was starting to surround her as though she were sweating out the poison from the dragon bite.

  As the long day of late summer came to an end and the evening finally arrived Veer was quite tired and ready to sleep. Knowing that he had no way to do all of the watches through the night he had prepared the camp with plenty of fuel and took the same precautions as the night before to build a nice fire which could protect them on the opposite side of the sleeping girl. The night passed without incident, though Veer woke up regularly to build up the fire and to check on things. He had not even tried to drive the dragonets away and so he slept with a dragon curled next to him while another dragon slept beside Shira and three dragonets slept tangled together in a bundle. At some point during the night Veer awoke to notice that most of the remaining baby dragons had joined the tangled bundle of reptiles that seemed to be protecting the badly injured dragonet. Green Eyes was the exception and Veer would occasionally wake to see a set of green reptilian eyes staring at the camp beyond the ring of firelight. The green eyes seemed to glint with hatred or maybe it was just the flickering of the fire that made it seem like animosity.

  A second full day dawned and passed at this camp. Veer was getting used to the dragons and he fed them more of the deer along with some fish from the stream. He also gathered more wood from the area for the fire. Shira slept through the whole day still barely breathing and with the bad smell from her skin growing worse. It was an uneventful day spent with Veer trying to keep himself busy and occasionally talking to himself or to the human eyed dragon. Throughout the day the young man saw the various other baby dragons in the immediate area, even occasionally catching sight of Green Eyes which would always hiss at him when she noticed him looking at her. He kept a broth warming all day in case Shira should wake. Near the end of the day the baby dragon which had seemed to be dying stirred a bit and opened its eyes. Veer ended up slowly spooning the broth into the mouth of the tiny dragonet because it seemed so hungry and weak. He then made another pot of broth and prepared for a third night in camp.

  The snarl of a hill lion awakened Veer at some point just after midnight. Springing to his feet he instantly had an arrow on the string ready to draw and release at the sight of movement. He found that he could see pretty clearly in the night but he couldn’t see anything moving nearby. As he scanned the camp he noticed that the two dragons which had been nursing their tiny injured sibling were nowhere to be seen. Then he heard the snarl of the hill lion again but this time joined with draconian shrieks of rage sounding like tiny versions of the powerful earthy shaking shriek of the mother dragon days before. The sound of angry animals faded quickly into the distance and then silence fell into the area for a moment until the cacophony of summer insects and frogs resumed. Sensing that the danger had passed, Veer let his bow down and stood watching for a few moments before going to build up the fire again. As he moved from the fireside to his bedroll he noticed movement in the brush at the edge of camp. Rapidly he went to a position to block any attack as he reached for the fighting knife at his waist. At the same moment that two dragonets broke through the brush and entered camp he also discovered that once again he had left his fighting knife out of immediate reach. “I have to stop doing that,” he said to himself, “from now on that knife stays with me.” Then he heaved a frustrated a sigh.

  “Doing what?” Veer heard a female voice murmur from across camp. He quickly turned and went to the side of the sleeping girl. Shira seemed to still be in a deep sleep but somehow she just appeared more alive and her breathing was more normal. The girl also made a few small movements and Veer thought that she must be dreaming.

  “I hope you wake up tomorrow so we can get moving,” Veer whispered. “Besides, you stink and need a bath,”

  “Bath,” the girl murmured as she moved around a bit.

  As Veer was settling into his bedroll he noticed that the two newly returned dragons had snuggled back around their injured sister. He wondered to himself how he could be so sure that it was their sister. But with no idea how he knew he was just certain. Veer noticed also that the pain in his leg where he thought that he had been bitten, though still present, was getting better.

  When the morning songs of the birds began Veer got up and started to tidy the camp a bit. Then he took the razor out of the pack and headed down to the stream with that and some soap to clean up and shave though he really needed little shaving. As he knelt by the water and started to scrape the blade across his soapy jaw he heard a scream behind him. Veer nearly cut his own throat with the razor when he heard the sound. Spinning toward the scream Veer beheld an unexpected scene. Shira was on her feet trying to flee the baby dragons while also attempting to untangle herself from the bedroll. She wobbled toward the edge of the stream. Veer jumped up to run and intercept her but he was too late. Terrified girl, clothes and blanket all went down together into the water. Veer came to stand at the shore between the girl and the dragonets. Shira was safe enough sitting there in the shallows of the stream but she looked with horrified expression toward the small dragons.

  “It’s alright, you’re alright, nothing is going to hurt you,” Veer said to the girl trying to sound calm.

  “There are dragons behind you.” Shira yelled at him as she pointed.

  “Yeah, I know,” the boy responded a little sarcastically.

  “They - they bit me.

  “Not they. Green Eyes bit you. The rest have been keeping her away from us, besides they saved our lives.”

  The young woman looked at him like he had three heads and responded. “Saved our lives? They bit me and they bit you and they poisoned us both.”

  “Green Eyes bit you, just like she bit me. The others are keeping her away. And they helped fight off a pack of hill wolves and chased away a hill lion,” Veer explained.

  “I don’t trust them,” she said looking past Veer to eye the dragonets warily.

  “Well, they won’t go away. I tried, and they just stay for some reason.”

  “Alright, well help me out of the water.” Shira held her hand out toward Veer.

  Realizing that he still held a razor in one hand and a cake of soap in the other hand, Veer placed the soap in her outstretched hand and said, “nope, that’s a good place for you.”

  “What? What’s this for?” Shouted the girl.

  Veer turned and walked back to where he had been shaving and called back over his shoulder. “Soap is your friend. Use it. You stink. Blanket and clothes too.”

  With an exasperated sigh the girl set about soaping through the blanket while keeping an eye on the baby dragons in the camp who were also watching her. After she worked soap through the blanket she weighted the corner down with a stone under the water so that it would stay in place and let the current of the stream rinse the soap out of the wool. While doing this she asked questions of Veer and found out that she had been asleep three nights and that some dragonets had been hurt protecting her. Then she started to soap up her clothing while she was wearing it in order to get it c
lean and then she sat in the water for a few minutes to let the soap rinse out of her clothes.

  As she started to remove her clean wet clothing and toss the items to hang on bushes in the sun by the edge of the stream Veer got up, grabbed his bow and started to walk into the woods. “Going hunting, be back when I have something,” he shouted out as he stepped into the brush.

  Shira continued the bath and finally was down to cleaning her body. Then she rinsed off and took the blanket out of the stream with her. She draped the blanket over a bush to dry and sat on a rock to do the same. The stream had been cold and had chilled her a bit but the sun soon warmed her right up and had her dry in no time. She moved slowly toward her packs still not trusting the baby dragons. She found some clean clothes and dressed herself. Then she found the pot of broth made from bits of venison and herbs and realized just how hungry she was and she took it back to the stream away from the dragonets and drank the soup. After the sun dried her clothes she put them away and she rolled up the blanket and put it away. She examined the camp and it seemed to have everything in order, with the exception of the presence of dangerous reptiles. “Well, at least he isn’t a complete idiot,” she said quietly to herself.

  “Thank you,” came the response from Veer who was, she realized, walking through the brush toward camp carrying a deer haunch on his shoulder. “I guess the sword is getting sharper.”

  “How did you hear that?” She asked Veer

  “You said it, I heard it. That is the way ears work, right?” Veer responded sarcastically.

  “Yes – no – that isn’t what I meant. You were too far away to hear that.” Shira seemed a bit confused by the whole thing.

  “I guess not, because I heard it. Was it supposed to be a secret?” Asked Veer

  “What be a secret?” Asked a still confused Shira

  “Me not being a total idiot. Were you going to keep that a secret?” Veer arched an eyebrow as he looked at her.

  “I’m sorry. You’re not an idiot. My father always said my mouth was – never mind. I’m going to put the pot on the fire.” Shira grabbed the little pot and headed for the stream to get some water to refill it.

  The two of them spent the next couple of hours quietly going about tasks and trying to ignore one another. Shira watched warily and from a distance as Veer cut off chunks of venison and tossed them to the dragonets. She also watched as the young man added some meat to the small pot at the fire to simmer into a broth and wondered why he would be making a meat broth. She was amazed as he took the pot away from the fire and let it cool enough that he could give some broth to the tiny injured dragon. Veer even took some small bits of the meat from the pot and chewed them to a pulp to give to the little dragon. Then Veer began to change the bandages on the two dragonets which had been bitten and scratched in the fight with the wolves. As Shira sat watching how the young man cared for the little dragons she also started pulling reeds from the edge of the stream and weaving them into a small gather basket. Like all Hillfolk, Shira liked to keep her hands busy doing something productive.

  After a half an hour of weaving Shira took her new basket and walked around the woods to forage for edibles. The woods were full of wild berries, herbs, tubers and mushrooms this time of year and she soon had her basket filled with a variety of foods to go with the meat. By the time she returned to camp, the dragons were all tended to and she saw that Veer was skewering pieces of meat on withies from the willows growing near the stream. The girl went to the stream and washed all of the food that she had gathered and she quickly had the tubers and mushrooms skewered for roasting over the fire. She found that Veer had cleaned the pot while she was gone and had left it filled with water and heating by the fire. She added the herbs to the pot to cook. For both Veer and Shira having been born among the Hillfolk meant that they knew what needed to be done with little talking and they just set to the tasks at hand.

  As is the custom among the people of these foothills at the feet of the Dragon Mountains there would be one large meal each evening. This custom allows the country people to get up early and have a small breakfast and start right in on the tasks of the day and then work straight through until the twilight. Not an uncommon approach among country people. The two young people just prepared for their meal without speaking. As the food neared ready Veer grabbed an axe and split a short log lengthwise and laid the two halves side by side near the fire with the flat sides up to make a small table. They ate their food together still in silence splitting between them what was in the pot and eating the meat, mushroom and tubers right off of the skewers and then throwing the used skewers into the fire. When they finished the food Veer took the pot to the stream to wash and refill it and then he returned to put the refilled pot next to the fire. Shira placed the makeshift log table in the fire to burn along with the skewers so that there would be nothing left in camp with the smell of food on it to attract animals. A thousand years of Hillfolk customs guided the two through their tasks until finally everything was done and they sat by the fire just as the light faded and full night descended

  There was a shriek overhead and as they turned to look up they could both see a small dragon taking a night bird out of flight. It was Green Eyes hunting for her dinner. Shira broke the silence. “I thought that it was too dark to see that.”

  “It is,” responded Veer. “The last few nights, no matter how dark it really gets, it always looks like twilight. I just don’t get it. It always gets dark enough out here that it’s like being in a cave.

  “The moon must be out,” Shira said.

  “No, it isn’t out. The last three nights have been the new moon. There will only be a tiny sliver of moon tonight.”

  “That’s queer,” said the girl.

  “I know but that isn’t the only strange thing lately. Since I woke up and could see the dragons there have been lots of odd things.”

  Shira opened her mouth to speak but a rustling in the brush cut her short. Both young people pulled out their fighting knives and jumped to a crouch facing the noise. Then they saw a small dragon backing into camp dragging a newly killed rabbit behind it. It was followed closely by another small dragon with his own dead rabbit burdening him. Both dragons pulled their rabbits over to the seriously injured baby dragon and they began to eat their prizes. Veer and Shira watched as the two little dragons tore off pieces of rabbit flesh and ate it in gulps and also tore off small bits and slowly fed them to their hurt sister who was starting to move around a bit. Then two more dragonets came into camp, one dragging another rabbit which he deposited in front of the dragon with several bandages which immediately set about eating the offered meal. The last dragonet dragged in a quite sizable beaver that she seemed barely able to pull and then she dragged it over to the larger human eyed dragon and the two dragons then shared the meal.

  Both humans put their knives away and sat back down and watched the fire and listened to the sounds of the night insects around them. Finally Shira asked. “What odd things?”

  “For starters, when you were bitten that little dragon with all the bandages went to you after you passed out. The others drove me away and that one looked like she was going to bite you too but she just put her mouth over the bite from Green Eyes. I think that she was sucking the poison out of the wound like you do with a snake bite. Then when the wolves attacked she fought off a wolf that was after you and the whole time you were asleep she wouldn’t leave your side.”

  “How do you know it’s a she?” Asked Shira

  “I don’t know, I just can tell which ones are males or females,” Veer answered

  “I think you are right,” said Shira. “She just looks like a she to me too. I don’t know why. It’s crazy because I’ve never seen dragons before. But she just does.”

  “When I was first bitten, back in the cave – before I passed out – I felt one of the puppies, or dragons start to lick my hand where it was bitten. It sounds foolish but I think that maybe when she bit us others ones saved us by suc
king the poison out.”

  “You think that the other dragons kept us alive?”

  “I told you that it sounds nuts but we should have died from those bites. I think that what Green Eyes was trying to do was kill us. I think that the others saved us and that is why they won’t let Green Eyes near us now.” Veer looked at the girl as he said the last part expecting her to laugh out loud at him but instead she just nodded thoughtfully. So Veer plunged onward. “When you went to bathe did you expect to find wolf bites and scratches on your body? Could you feel them?”

  “Yes, I felt like something had bitten me or torn my skin but I was fine. I just thought that it must be soreness from the poison.”

  “I don’t know how but see the one with human eyes – the big one?” Veer pointed and Shira nodded. “When we were fighting I felt a wolf bite me really badly in the leg. But it didn’t. I checked and there was no bite, but I can still feel it. He’s the one that got bitten in the leg. And when he moves it, I swear I can feel it. I don’t know maybe I’m off my saddle from too many days of nobody to talk to but myself, a horse and some dragons.”

  Shira looked at him and said. “I don’t know, all of the legends about the dragon times say some really strange things about people and dragons working together or even being bonded to each other like sisters or something. You know that one with the bandages that you said stayed with me, she has human eyes too. The others have eyes like a snake or lizard or something but her eyes look human like the other bandaged dragon.”

  “You see it too.” Veer responded excitedly. “I’m not crazy. You can see it. Every day since you were bitten her eyes look more and more like a person and less like a snake. Really, her eyes are starting to look like yours.”