Dragon's Blood

by Catherine Banks

  The largest dragon I could see was a dark sapphire blue with a fierce look in his eye and scars all over his body. He prowled across the valley and the other dragons moved out of his way, even mothers with their babies would move out of his way. He must be the leader. Were they structured like a horse herd? If so, it might be possible to find the weakest member, but I would have to do so when that leader wasn’t around.

  I decided to call the leader King since he obviously was to the dragons. I took a step back and slipped on some loose rocks that clattered down to the valley below. Most of the dragons didn’t turn at the noise, but King did. I held perfectly still, afraid that if I moved again he would attack me. King stared straight at me, our eyes connecting and fear consumed me. He opened his mouth and roared so loud that it hurt my ears. I didn’t dare put my hands up over my ears though. I had to hope he really hadn’t seen me. King jumped up into the air with one mighty thrust from his powerful legs and flapped his impossibly long wings towards me. The nearby dragons raced away from him and out of his path. In a matter of seconds, the valley was empty of dragons except for King.

  What should I do? If I ran out from the rocks I would be in the open and he would surely kill me. There wasn’t enough time for me to make it to the trees and even if I did, I wasn’t completely certain that he couldn’t breathe fire like some claimed. I was almost certain that he couldn’t fit in the forest because the trees grew too close together, but I didn’t want to risk my life on that.

  King grew closer and larger as he neared. How big was he?! He landed on top of the boulder to my right and roared at me. I cowered down between the rocks as he snapped his giant teeth at me. They looked as sharp as a shark’s, as thick as a boar’s tusk and there were so many! The sound his teeth made snapping together was terrifying. I didn’t doubt that he could snap me in half with one bite. He tried to claw me with his long nails and I was forced to lie flat on the ground between the rocks to avoid being sliced open.

  What should I do? How could I survive this?

  King roared again and flew up into the sky above me, his wings stirred up dirt and debris so fast that it stung as it hit me. I clenched my eyes shut and prayed that I survived. That jerk knew I wouldn’t survive killing a dragon. He must have found out about King and known he would be here to protect his kin. I was doomed. I was going to die here or I would fail and either outcome meant Eli would die. Maybe it would be better if I just let King kill me. One bite would kill me. If I just stood up and…

  “Be gone!” a male voice bellowed behind me and suddenly heat radiated all around me.

  I couldn’t breathe. The fire stole the oxygen from the air around me. I was going to suffocate to death or burn to death. Whoever this jerk was needed to get his head bit off for killing me in such a horrible way! I would haunt this man after my death!

  King roared above me and then I stared in disbelief as he flew away. What in the name of the goddess was going on?!

  “Are you hurt?” a familiar voice asked behind me.

  I rolled on to my back and stared at Luke. “What are you doing here?” I asked since my brain still hadn’t fully comprehended what had happened.

  He reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me up into a standing position. “I let you leave, but I couldn’t stop picturing you dying in several horrible ways while I sat in my home. So, I came after you.”

  “You scared King away, how?” I asked him.

  “King? Oh, you mean the herd leader. I created a shield of fire around you and he flew away. Dragons aren’t fond of fire.”

  “I thought you were trying to kill me,” I told him honestly.

  “If I wanted you to die, I would have stayed home,” he said with a smile.

  “Luke, I…”

  “You’re welcome,” he said, his smile widening.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly as tears leaked out from the shock of it all. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  He stood stiffly a moment and then wrapped his arms around me. “You’re shaking.”

  “I was sure I was going to die. I didn’t know what to do.”

  He squeezed me and then leaned his forehead against mine. Magic seeped into me and the pain throughout my body disappeared. “You should have stayed at my home another day to heal. Your body isn’t ready for this yet.”

  I stood a moment longer in the embrace, letting myself enjoy it and then stepped out of his hold and headed towards the woods and Bruto. “How did you find me?”

  “It wasn’t too hard since you had a very angry dragon hovering above you.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me there was a herd leader?” I asked him as we walked. “That would have been incredibly useful knowledge.”

  “You wanted to study them and I knew you would find it out quickly.”

  “I won’t be able to kill King,” I said softly. “I am going to fail and my sister is going to die.”

  “You don’t have to kill King,” he said. “You just have to…”

  I held up my hand and turned to face him so he would stop talking. “I don’t want you to tell me how to kill them. I want to figure it out.”

  “What?” he asked in shock. “I thought you wanted to kill the dragon and get back to your sister before your king found out about our involvement together.”

  The way he said that made me think of something completely different than what he meant. “If I figure it out than I am the one who did it, not you.” And it might be the only way to ensure Eli’s survival.

  “I’m not leaving you,” he told me adamantly. “I’m not going to let you get killed.”

  The brush with death made me very hesitant to do this alone. “I don’t want you to leave,” I whispered as I looked at my dirty hands, embarrassed.

  “Good,” he said after a moment and set one of his hands on top of mine. “Then we should make camp and eat before you go back to study them more.”

  I let him lace our fingers together and lead me into the forest. It felt right to be with him and felt incredibly good to hold his hand. Bruto trotted up to me when he saw us and I pet him happily. Would he have left if I had died? Or would he have stayed here?

  Another horse trotted towards us without a rider and stopped just behind Luke. Luke took the saddle and bags off of the horse and set them on the ground before turning back and speaking in a strange language to the horse. What was he saying? And what language was that? The horse bobbed her head twice and then stamped a front hoof.

  “If you take the gear off of Bruto he can go with Clara and they’ll come back to us in two days,” Luke told me.

  I looked at the colt. “Are you sure they’ll come back? He isn’t mine and I’d rather not lose him or have to walk all the way back home.”

  “I’m sure. Clara is a special horse and can understand me.”

  Odd. “Okay,” I said and unsaddled Bruto. He nudged my cheek gently, blowing his nostrils so I could smell his scent. I blew gently into his nose and then he followed the mare back towards Clinba.

  He set up a tent and then pulled out some food and motioned at me to sit on the fallen log he was sitting on. I obeyed and ate silently next to him. I had never been alone with a man like this before. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.

  “How are you feeling?” Luke asked me softly.

  I almost said terrified, but stopped myself and said, “I feel fine, thank you.” I owed this man so much and I had no way of repaying him. He had saved my life twice now.

  “You look upset,” he commented.

  “You’ve saved my life twice now. I don’t know how I’ll repay you for that,” I admitted.

  “You don’t owe me anything,” he said adamantly.

  “Luke, what if she’s dead when I get back,” I whispered. It had been swirling around in my head ever since I left. “Since they hadn’t let me see her before I left, she could be dead already.”

  “We’ll deal with it when we return,” he said.

&nb
sp; “We?!” I asked in a near scream.

  He set his food down and looked at me. “You can’t honestly think that I’m going to let you return without me, can you? If you return with the dragon’s head alone he could kill you.”

  “If he sees you with me he might kill her if she’s alive.”

  “I don’t think so. I think I might be the only thing to keep you alive.”

  “What if he attacks you?” I asked him. I couldn’t stand the thought of Luke being hurt because of me.

  He smirked and said, “I can hold my own against the king and his guards.”

  Part of me wanted to tell him to leave, but it was nice to have company. I chewed on my lip and turned away from him. What had I gotten this poor man into?

  He set a hand on my leg and said, “You don’t have to do this. If I go with you, I can get your sister freed and ensure your safety.”

  “I can’t go back empty handed,” I whispered since my throat was very tight and his hand was incredibly warm on my leg.

  “You’re very stubborn.”

  I laughed and said, “I can say the same about you. What man offers to risk his life for a woman he barely knows?”

  “A real man doesn’t let a woman do anything dangerous without assistance.”

  “I’m not weak,” I snapped. “I just wasn’t trained to take on dragons.”

  He pulled his hand away and sighed. “I didn’t mean it as an insult.”

  Instead of making more of a fool of myself, I finished my food and then headed back to watch the dragons. King was far away, but I knew he would be paying attention to us. Luke followed me to the rocks where I had been before and sat down atop the tallest one. I sat on the ground between the rocks in case any of the dragons tried to attack again.

  Luke had confirmed that they were like a herd which meant there would be less of a pecking order than wolves. I looked at the dragons one at a time, watching them for several minutes each to try to learn about them.

  The day turned to night and the dragons took to the skies at a roar from King. I crouched against the rock beside me and watched in awe as they flew in circles over the valley and then they followed King away.

  “Where are they going?” I asked Luke. There was no way for me to get down into the valley to follow them. The hill we were on was much too steep.

  “To their roost. They don’t sleep in the valley.”

  A noise below me drew my eyes from the flying dragons and down to a small group of trees where a group of four dragons had stayed. They were all large, scarred and hadn’t followed the rest of the herd. Why not? Why had they stayed if they didn’t roost here?

  I knelt down so I could look at them without feeling like I was going to fall over the edge. The four moved slowly near each other and then found spots to lie down, making odd mewling noises. Were they injured? Was it possible that they were too injured to fly so they stayed here? If so, they could be my best bet to take out, but I would have to draw them apart so they didn’t team up against me.

  “We should get some sleep ourselves,” Luke commented. “They come back early in the morning and you should watch them a full day more before you make your plan.”

  I was already formulating my plan, but I didn’t need to tell him that. I followed him back to our camp and climbed into my bedroll without a word to him.

  The dream started with me in my room at home with Eli next to me in our bed. The scent of smoke caused me to panic and realize the entire room was engulfed in flames. I could hear my mother shouting for us and the sound of swords clashing. I shook Eli, but she just mumbled and rolled over. I tried to yell at her, but my voice wouldn’t work. I pushed her off the bed and then dragged her by the hand out our window. A moment later the roof caved in and mom screamed. Dad lay on the ground with solid white eyes, his hand stretched towards our door and his sword buried in his back.

  Eli screamed as a man grabbed her. I took the sword from our father’s body and swung it in an arc just like he had taught me. The sickening crunch and Eli’s increased scream made me shudder and then I saw the head of the man I had killed. Only he wasn’t a man, but a poor boy named Robart whose mouth gaped open in shock at me. “You killed him,” Eli whispered. “You killed Robart. I’ll never forgive you.” She ran towards me with a dagger and I screamed as it sank into my shoulder.

  I bolted upright and clutched my shoulder where I could feel the phantom pain.

  “Tanya, what’s wrong?” Luke asked as he rushed over to me. He moved my hand and looked at my shoulder, but frowned when he saw nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered as well as I could with my cotton-filled mouth. “It was a dream.”

  He sat down beside me and exhaled. “Must have been an intense dream.”

  More like a memory. “I’m sorry I woke you.” I rubbed my shoulder and swore I could still feel the blade there.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked me with what looked like true concern.

  I swallowed and whispered, “No.” If I could help it I would never think about it again, but the stupid dreams continually reminded me.

  He wiped my face and held up a large tear on his finger. “You’ve dealt with so much pain already in your life,” he whispered. “Is this something the king did?”

  I shook my head and then used my shirt to wipe my face. I couldn’t talk. If I did I would start crying in earnest and I wasn’t sure if I could stop. Would he still look at me like that if he knew everything about me? Would he even want to help me if he knew about my past?

  Luke kissed me and I jerked back in surprise. “What…what are you doing?”

  He smiled. “I thought that was obvious.”

  Heat blossomed in my cheeks and the tips of my ears. “Well, don’t.”

  He walked back to his bed roll and stared at the tear he still had on his finger with pursed lips. I rolled onto my side, facing away from him, and put a finger to my lips. He had kissed me.

  * * *

  I woke up to the sound of dragons roaring nearby. I opened my eyes and found myself alone. Where had Luke gone? I took the time to freshen up as much as I could and eat some food. I needed to do some final observation today before enacting my plan tomorrow. As I headed towards the rocks I had claimed as my observation area, I spotted Luke atop the boulder he had sat on last night.

  “Morning,” I said softly to him, sitting down on the dirt and looking at the rambunctious dragons.

  “Good morning,” he replied. I didn’t even need to look at him to know he was smiling.

  The dragons went about the normal boring day. Was this all they did? They were dragons and all they did was lie around a valley roaring at each other?

  “It’s time,” Luke whispered.

  I looked up at him in shock. “What?”

  He pointed and said, “Feeding time.”

  I stared at his profile a moment longer since he couldn’t see that I was staring at him and then followed his arm to his finger and in the direction, he was pointing. Four dragons were flying in the air next to each other, heading towards the valley. A cloud of dust billowed below the dragons. Was it caused by their wings?

  I stood up to get a better look, leaning against the boulder Luke was sitting on. King roared once, twice, three times and then took to the sky. The other dragons did not take to the sky though. Instead they made two rows facing each other and stood silently. King joined the other four dragons in the sky and the cloud grew closer to the rows of dragons.

  “What…” Then I saw it. It wasn’t dust stirred up by their wings. It was dust stirred up by hooves. The dragons were chasing a large herd of oxen. The oxen ran straight between the rows of dragons and then as soon as the lead oxen reached the dragon closest to us, they began snapping them up.

  I sat down and watched them in awe. It was an incredibly smart and intelligent plan. How had they come up with it? Were these animals smarter than they appeared? Just how well did they communicate with each other?

  “T
hey’re smarter than they seem, aren’t they?” I asked Luke softly.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m going to die if I try to kill one alone, aren’t I?”

  “Most likely.”

  “If you try to keep me safe you might die.”

  “Possibly.”

  “How would you free my sister from our King?”

  “You let me worry about that.”

  “Are you sure he’ll free us?” I asked softly. There was no other way. I knew for certain that I would not be able to kill a dragon.

  Luke’s hand on my shoulder made me turn around since I hadn’t heard him climb down from the rock. He placed a hand on each shoulder and stared straight into my eyes. “I promise that I will free you and your sister from the king.”

  “What happens after?” I asked him.

  “That’ll be for you to decide,” he said and smiled. “Let’s handle this one hurdle at a time.”

  I nodded my head and looked back at the dragons that were now cleaning their claws. I for one would rather face the king then the dragons. Luke helped me climb up the rock and I numbly sat beside him. This month had been the weirdest and most stressful of my life so far. I hoped Luke knew what he was doing.

  We watched the dragons in silence, side by side, until I realized what we were doing. “Uh, um,” I muttered and stood up.

  He grabbed my hand without averting his gaze from the dragons and tugged me back down. “If you offer to repay me for my assistance I’m going to be offended,” he whispered.

  I stared at my hand still held in his. “It’s not right that you should take such risks for me without some type of payment.”

  “Your company is payment enough,” he said and then glanced at me. “You’re the first woman not to cower and flinch away from my gaze, let alone my touch.”

  “Well I figure if you wanted to hurt me, you would have either let me fall down those stairs the first night I met you or let me die in Clinba.”

  He smirked and said, “I continue to be surprised that you don’t have suitors.”

  I wasn’t. “Luke, the King might tell you about my past and…”