The Half Dragon of Yaerna: The Gathering Arc Box Set: Books 1-3

by Hans Bezdek

  Just a foot or two away from me stood a black creature on all fours. Its eyes were red glowing orbs in the night, which revealed a set of long, pointy teeth below them. The creature had three tails, all of which were wagging to and fro.

  The second I met its eye line, the beast leapt on me in pure silence. I pushed up with my left hand, holding the creature back by its neck as it tackled me onto my back. With my right, I began desperately patting around on my belt for my dagger. Where was it?

  Oh… right. Broken in Stalrik’s back.

  I had meant to ask Cassandra to borrow one of hers, but it slipped my mind. I was paying for it now.

  The beast pushed down on me, causing my cut hand to flare in pain as the monster panted heavily with its mouth open, inches from my face. I shot my other arm up to keep the beast further at bay, but it redoubled its efforts. I tried to activate the goblin’s metal contraption, but it wouldn’t work. Looking up at my fist, I realized why.

  I hadn’t put it back on after going to sleep. How stupid could I be, wanting to keep watch without a weapon and not enough magic left to help?

  I glanced over to Cassandra, who had remained asleep through the attack, and took note of my goblin’s glove laying uselessly a foot away from her head. My grip on the beast’s neck was weakening, and it was getting closer and closer to biting my face off. Even if I called for her help, it would be too late.

  Ideally, I could’ve shot electricity into the beast. Unfortunately, I had used up most of my magic on the fight with Stalrik, and still hadn’t recovered enough to probably kill the beast. I couldn’t change into a dragon with him on me, but I still had one option left.

  Tilting my head back as much as I could, my throat began to burn. Literally.

  The beast tried to back off, seeing what was about to happen. I grabbed onto its fur as much as I could to hold it in place for just a second longer. The extra delay was enough.

  Fire shot out from my mouth, engulfing the beast in a roar of flames. The beast let out a loud yelp as it stumbled back, before collapsing to the ground.

  “W-What’s going on!” shouted Cassandra, struggling to her feat and pulling her daggers out.

  “Don’t… don’t worry,” I coughed. I hated breathing fire as a human. “Something attacked me. Shot it with a fire ball.”

  “What is this thing?” she asked, walking up to the creature and kicking at it with her boot. The overall composition of the beast was still intact while large chunks of its fur were completely burned off. Strands of smoke rose from its body, adding an unpleasant aroma to the forest.

  “No idea,” I said, trying to clear my throat. “Must be one of the monsters that time forgot.”

  Cassandra nodded. “Makes sense. Good thing you were keeping watch, or we’d both be dead.”

  “Y-Yeah… Good thing…” I coughed again, attaching my goblin fist and starting to move forward into the trees. “Ready to get a move on? All that noise might’ve gotten the attention of more of them.”

  “Plus, we don’t want The Guild finding the Shattered Sword before we do.” she added, following behind me.

  “Speaking of which… give me one of your daggers.”

  Chapter 14

  After getting a dagger from Cassandra, the two of us marched on through the Willow of Wander for several hours. Everything in the forest looked exactly the same. There was no way of telling how much progress we were making, let alone if we were even headed in the right direction.

  We tried to use the sun’s movement for direction, but according to Cassandra it wouldn’t help us.

  My throat eventually healed from breathing fire, and I was able to talk normally again. Cassandra’s patience was waning as we walked, though, so we mostly walked in silence.

  “What’s that smell?” asked Cassandra, glancing around and slowing as we pushed through another series of trees that looked indistinguishable from all the others.

  “I don’t know,” I said, looking around. “It smells oddly familiar though…”

  Cassandra took a few more steps, glanced at the ground, and let out a groan.

  “What’s the matter? Get stuck in more quicksand?” I asked.

  “Will you drop that already?!” she shot back, annoyance clear in her voice.

  “What is it then?”

  “Come look,” she said, pointing at the ground before crossing her arms.

  I walked over, being sure to keep some distance from the elf in case she was in a punching mood, and glanced at the ground.

  There laid the burnt beast I killed hours earlier.

  “That’s impossible,” I muttered, kicking at it to make sure it was real. “We’ve been walking for hours! There’s no way we’re back where we started!”

  “I told you no one ever escaped this place,” sighed Cassandra. “I’ve probably led us both to our deaths. You should’ve left me before we entered.”

  “Hey, you can’t put my death on your head, especially when I’m still alive,” I said. In all honesty, this wasn’t looking good, though. We had just wasted a lot of time and energy walking, and we would eventually run out of supplies. Not to mention the risk of being attacked again, especially at night.

  “Thanks,” she muttered, refusing to look at me.

  “Let me think,” I said, lining up my arm over the dead animal with the direction that we last walked. “We went this way, and we ended up back here… maybe we should trying going left or right next?”

  “We’ve got nothing better to do than to try it, I guess,” she shrugged.

  “Great,” I said, doing my best to keep morale up, even a little. I grabbed a stick and drew a pointed arrow going forward in the ground next to the beast, then drew an arrow going to the right.

  “Let’s go right, now,” I said.

  “What’s up with the arrows?” she asked.

  “Worst case scenario, we end up back here,” I said. “No reason to worry about meeting our end here until we try the other directions.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” said Cassandra, a hint of a smile returning.

  “Great. To the right it is then!”

  Roughly two hours later, we stood over the beast again.

  “N-Nothing to worry about,” I said, staring down at ground. I really though we wouldn’t end up back here.

  “We still have the left,” mumbled Cassandra.

  “Exactly,” I said. “Surely… surely this time it’ll work!”

  “It has to,” she nodded.

  This time, it took nearly three hours to return back to to the same spot.

  “We’re doomed,” I said, sitting down next to the dead animal and the arrows.

  “I’m sorry,” she sighed, sitting next to me. “It was a good idea, at least.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. “I know that’s rare for me.”

  “I’m sorry about calling you an idiot,” she said.

  “You’re just saying that because you think we’re going to die here.”

  “True.”

  I took a breath and leaned back onto the ground, staring up at the clouds overhead. So this was the end of the great Reimar? Everything I’d gone through in life, just to die, lost in some stupid forest.

  A few birds flew overhead, cawing in mockery of those down below. I was so jealous of them. They could probably come and go from the Willows as they pleased…

  I sat up straight. That was it! We didn’t have to die in here after all. I could transform into my dragon form and take us out of here. Sure, I’d be risking a lot showing Cassandra that form, along with anyone else that might see a green dragon flying through the sky. Someone would probably see me, and then word would travel that a green dragon was in this area. I’d have to run as fast and far as I could, hoping Cassandra would never let it slip out that she had met one, and knew his name. Still, it was better than wandering this place for weeks, just waiting to die.

  “Cassandra,” I began. “I need to tell you somethin-”

  “We didn’t t
rying going the direction back from the beast yet!” she exclaimed, staring down at the arrows.

  “Huh?”

  She pointed down at the collection of marks in the ground. “We never tried the fourth direction!”

  I looked down, nodding. She had a point. We hadn’t tried going back. I just assumed it would lead to the same spot again. “Sure. It’s worth a shot.”

  We got up and started walking, each of us with a little more pep in our step. For her, it was probably because she really believed this would work. For me, because I knew we could just fly out of here when we ended up back at the spot of the dead creature.

  About an hour in, Cassandra came to a stop and put her hand up.

  “Do yo-”

  “No, I don’t hear it,” I whispered, cutting off her favorite question. “Let’s just go investigate.”

  The two of us slowly pressed ahead, doing our best to not step on any twigs or brush against any low handing branches.

  “Blast this cursed forest!” shouted a man’s voice up ahead.

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure yelling at it is going to help us,” said a woman.

  Leaning around a large tree, the two of us poked our heads up to get a better look at the people up ahead.

  “It’s better than not doin anything, like ye!” shouted the dwarf that had knocked me over back in Kra’Gar.

  What luck! We had stumbled onto The Guild. Whether it was good luck or bad luck, we were about to find out.

  “Are you talking back to your leader, Anders?!” hissed a human dressed in plate armor, grabbing the dwarf by the shoulders and pulling him back.

  Anders looked furious, but held his tongue. “Nay… sorry, Brynlee.”

  “That’s quite alright,” nodded the woman. I recognized her as the one that told people to make way back in Kra’Gar. “This isn’t going as smoothly as we hoped it would. We’re all a bit agitated.”

  “What should we do?” asked another female human, this one with a bow in her hand and quiver on her back. “It seems like we’re just wandering in circles.”

  “That’s mighty good to hear, comin from our ranger, innit?” chuckled the other dwarf in the party, this one leaning against a large axe.

  “It’s not Diana’s fault we’re lost in here,” said Brynlee. “At least she was brave enough to come with us, unlike Jacob and the others.”

  “Sounds like this Jacob is smarter than they are,” I whispered to Cassandra.

  “And us,” she added with a smirk.

  “When we get out of here, I’m making sure that Jacob and his group are all dishonorably removed from The Guild!” growled the man in plate. “We’ve no use for cowards like them, nor ones that go back on their word!”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to rub all the gold we get for this in their faces,” smiled the dwarf.

  “How are we to find the Ruins, eh Brynlee?” asked Anders. “I don’t see what other options we have.”

  The woman looked around the forest, as if an idea would jump out at her any second. She cracked her knuckles as she looked, until a smile finally spread on her face.

  “We burn it down,” she said.

  The five of them cheered and immediately began pulling out torches to light.

  “Are they really going to try that?” whispered Cassandra.

  “I mean, it’s not a bad idea,” I replied. Why hadn’t we thought of that?

  “The fire will spread like crazy, probably killing them along with the trees.”

  Oh. That was probably why.

  “Do you think we should stop them?” she asked.

  I thought about it for a moment. Actually, this could work out well for us.

  “No, we let them do it,” I said. “If we get lucky, maybe they’ll burn a good chunk of the Willows down and kill themselves in the process. If the fire gets too close to us, I can summon water to put it out.”

  “Hmm,” thought Cassandra. “Normally I’m not in favor of burning a forest down but… I guess I’ll let it go given the circumstances.”

  We watched as the group lit their torches, discussing the best place to start the fire.

  Before they could get on with it, the trees to their left started to bustle with movement. The five of them planted their torches into the ground and readied their weapons.

  The trees stopped rustling as a strange creature, about the size of a gnome, popped out. Its skin was dark brown with hints of green throughout. Its feet were wide, while its arms were as thin as branches, with what looked like leaves for fingers. The creature’s head curled upwards, with a set of giant leaves that doubled as hair.

  “A treekin!” exclaimed Cassandra.

  “Bless you,” I said.

  “No, that creature is called a treekin!” she said, eyes widened in wonder. “I didn’t think they existed outside of a few parts of Aelric… and this one is so young!”

  “Do you think he’s about to attack them?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. Treekin are a very peaceful race, but they act as guardians of the forests they inhabit.”

  The treekin waddled up to The Guild, a worried look on its face.

  “E-Excuse me,” he stuttered. “Y-You wouldn’t have happened to see a dog around here, have you?”

  The group of five looked at each other, laughing and sheathing their weapons.

  “The lad is just lookin for his mutt!” laughed the dwarf with the axe.

  “I’m sorry, little one, but we haven’t,” said Brynlee, kneeling down to be on his level. “However, you best hurry back wherever you came.”

  “Why?” asked the treekin.

  “This forest is about to go up in flames,” she explained, pointing at the torches.

  The treekin’s eyes grew as he saw the torches, a look of panic crossing his face. He waddled closer to them, holding his hands out in front of him.

  “What’s he doing?” asked the human wearing plate.

  Water shot out of the treekin’s hands, drenching all five torches and killing their flames.

  “Ya stupid lil splinter!” shouted Anders, grabbing the treekin by the top of its head and throwing it back. The treekin landed on its back, struggling to get to its feet.

  “I-I must p-protect the Willows!” stuttered the treekin.

  “Don’t worry, little plant,” said Brynlee, removing her sword once again and approaching him. “We’ll make it so you’ll never see another bad thing happen to this place.”

  “We’ve got to do something!” whispered Cassandra, taking out her daggers. “We can’t just stand here and let them kill him!”

  “This doesn’t really seem like our problem, does it?” I asked. Why couldn’t the elf just let things go and stay out of other people’s problems? That philosophy had served me so well for so long.

  “He’s just a child!” she pleaded.

  “Ugh,” I groaned, pulling out my dagger. “Fine… we’ll save the dumb tree thing.”

  Chapter 15

  “Stop!” shouted Cassandra as we emerged from the the trees and into the line of sight of The Guild.

  The elf got her wish as Brynlee stopped a couple of feet short of the treekin, lowering her sword back to her side. The man in plate, the dwarf with the axe, and Diana all took a defensive stance, weapons raised ever so slightly towards us as we approached. Anders readied his weapon as well, but upon seeing me he slowly shrank back behind the man in plate. I couldn’t believe he recognized me from such a small interaction from his part, but I was happy to see he knew what was coming for him.

  “Other travelers in these woods?” asked Brynlee, eyes wide in surprise. “What are the odds?”

  “Leave the treekin alone!” shouted the elf.

  “This little pest just destroyed our only means of clearing this forest,” explained Brynlee, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a stamped piece of paper. “We are part of The Guild, and have a right to exterminate any public nuisances.”

  Cassandra hesitated as she looked back at me, a bit of concer
n on her face.

  The Guild did have the backing of all five of the mainland territories, including Truska. The Guild was payed an annual sum to help eradicate problem creatures in the land, such as wolves, giant termites, and any sort of beast that attacked citizens. The contract she referred to gave The Guild a lot of leeway, and the rules could be twisted and expanded on quite easily. However, there were still some guidelines to follow. Not to say that would stop the average Guild thug, but it was worth a shot.

  “Guardians don’t fall under the public nuisance ordinance,” I said.

  Cassandra’s eyes brightened and she turned back to Brynlee. “That’s right! And treekin are classified as guardians of the forests. The little one was just doing job.”

  Brynlee face contorted into a scowl. As I expected, this particular fact didn’t seem to phase any of them. That is, except for the woman they called Diana.

  The presumed ranger looked at Brynlee and lowered her bow. “They’re right, you know. I completely forgot, but treekin are guardians. We shouldn’t touch the creature, especially if it’s just trying to protect its home.”

  “I’m the one that decides what we do while we’re out here!” shouted Brynlee, glaring back at Diana. “This is a gray area of the law, and I’m allowed to make a decision on the spot as needed. I’ve already decided that the little runt dies!”

  Cassandra continued to inch her way forward as the group argued, trying to get to the treekin. Seeing where this was going, I began to summon energy into my hands. In the time since I fought the horrid beast where we setup camp, I was able to get nearly all my magic back. I had a feeling I was about to need it.

  “Now is not the time to be questioning Brynlee,” warned the plated man.

  “Aye,” grunted the dwarf with the axe. “Yer coming dangerously close to insubordination…”

  “This isn’t right, though!” complained Diana. “We’re supposed to be doing right in this land, not disturbing it just because we’re a little lost! I’m sure if we just talked to the treekin and explained our situation, he’d help us out.”