by Billy Wong
She'd cut off its head, and Finn used its bone to make her new sword! How could it be here? She got her answer when she remembered the creature's ability to absorb magical energy. Its body must have slowly siphoned the magic Finn had put into Thorn while he enchanted the sword, maybe not fast enough to completely negate the process, but enough to heal it and make it even stronger than before. She knew too that Thorn must not be as powerful as Finn intended it to be. For a moment, Rose thought despairingly that they could never kill the Spelldrinker, never keep it down. Then, she remembered it needed magical energy to heal and grow.
"No spells! Just run!" she yelled to all present, and charged the giant beast.
Slashing at its hands, she smiled with admiration at Finn's handiwork, her new weapon easily slicing the fingers of the previously near-invulnerable beast. With shocking speed, it grabbed her in a huge hand. She drove Thorn into its wrist, and jerking it sideways made it release her with a scream. Weak though the enchantment on it might be, its own bone could cut it. The beast turned to fly away, but Rose wasn't about to allow it to escape so easily. She held her sword in her teeth and ran at the hole in the wall, leaping over fifteen feet though she didn't have her armor on to grab hold of its leg. Only then did she remember they had been on the second highest floor of the tower, and looked down to see they were over one hundred feet off the ground.
Too late to worry about that. Rose began to climb the Spelldrinker's leg, the beast trying to shake her off to no avail while flying higher into the air. But when she reached its thigh, it clawed at her and tore her back open to the bone. She kept going, using its own protective hair to pull her up its back. It reached for her again, and she realized it meant to grab her this time. She tried to dodge by throwing herself to the other side of the Spelldrinker's spine, but the monster caught her anyway and raised her in its hand as if to throw her away. Rose plunged her sword into its wrist, taking the strength out of its grip. Prying herself free, she retrieved Thorn and quickly pulled herself up the flailing arm towards its head. But it had a new trick she wasn't prepared for. As she came close to its shoulder, it opened its mouth and drenched her with a spray of acid.
She had the wherewithal to cover her face when the Spelldrinker opened its mouth, but the corrosive liquid rapidly ate through her clothes, and her body was soon bathed in liquid pain. Losing her grip on the thrashing arm, Rose plummeted through the air, only to stop her fall by plunging her sword into the monster's belly as she passed. Now she climbed up its front while it stalled in flight, barely able to stay aloft in its pain. Making it up to its chest, she sensed she'd soon get her chance to end the fight. But the creature bent its head forward with unexpected flexibility and snatched her in its jaws. Many sharp teeth pierced her, bringing back memories of the dragon of Whitehill. But even there, at least she'd had her armor to help lessen the depth of some wounds...
Rose closed her eyes with the hellish agony of her shredded flesh. She opened them again, and screaming plunged Thorn into the side of her opponent's neck to sever its spinal cord. Its wings continued to flap stubbornly for a few more seconds, slowing with each beat. Looking down to see they were now hundreds of feet higher than they'd been at the beginning of the fight, the trapped Rose braced for what had to come.
The huge limp beast fell through the air like a catapult stone, the woman who'd defeated it still held in a death grip in its mouth. Rose tried to pry open its jaws for all the good that would do, but the ground approached too fast. Before any progress could be made they hit the fountain in the middle of town square with an impact that easily shattered the marble sculpture and sent water stained with their blood flowing across the tiles of the plaza. As the onlookers stared, Rose, who had been unluckily driven straight into the fountain when they hit, raised a weary hand to her head and groaned.
Though she lay in the most terrible pain, she breathed a sigh of relief that the brutal battle was finally over. Too soon, she heard the sounds of a huge bulk shifting nearby. She opened her eyes to see the Spelldrinker standing over her. Again? Stupid regeneration! Its rage at her seemed greater than ever, and it spat its acid over her again. Rolling over in the water to relieve the burning, Rose felt broken bones grating inside her and howled.
The Spelldrinker grabbed her while she tried desperately to stand, and she realized as it reached for her with its other hand that it meant to rip her in half. Rose wasn't about to let that happen, and split an approaching finger down the middle with a stab from her sword. Screeching, the monster dropped her, and landing between its legs Rose forced herself up again. She swung her sword left, right, left, right, again and again, slicing its legs to ribbons. When the Spelldrinker finally began to topple, she hobbled away with all the speed she could muster and raised Thorn high.
The mighty sword intercepted its face, and the creature's own weight drove the blade through its incredible skull. Pinned beneath the bulk of that massive head, Rose nearly fainted dragging herself out only to realize her shirt had been torn away. Shrugging aside the embarrassment she felt at baring her gruesomely scarred breasts, she pulled Thorn out and went to bloody work.
#
Rose shivered while she drew her cloak tighter around her blood-starved body, cold in spite of the warm sun bearing down on her. She felt incredible pain and weakness as she stood to take the torch from Derrick, but the warmth of the flames which sprang up from the Spelldrinker's oil-soaked pieces when she touched the fire to them put her heart at ease. Finally, the last deadly gift Joghra and Fiona had given the world crumbled into ash and disappeared forever.
She thought of the man she loved. Finn was gone in a way; though he lived, she didn't know if he would ever hold her in his arms again. Moreover, he couldn't be the boisterous "strongest man in Kayland" who struck fear into the hearts of its enemies anymore. She took a deep breath and prepared to say something the likes of which she never had before.
"I'm Pal"—she looked down at the armor she had put on for the crowd, and saw the word was gone—"uh, I mean, I'm Rose, protector of Kayland. Anyone who wants to hurt its people or my friends will answer to me."
Iron Tears
Chapter 1
As the last ogre charged, Count Brandon parried its club and chopped into its neck with his greatsword, felling it in a spray of blood. That was it, then. They'd won the battle and again saved Resnick from, well, one band of ugly brutes. One of many, unfortunately. It annoyed him that he'd actually had to live up to his role as guardian of his people, and not been able to enjoy travel in the past few months at all. Always ogres this, ogres that... what a bore.
At times, he had a mind to seek out where these things came from and kill them all right there, so he wouldn't have to deal with them on a constant basis anymore. But not only was he too lazy to get around to doing it, the thought of facing an army of them scared him a little though he was loath to admit it.
He walked over now to the head of his guard, Clarence. "Did you find anything valuable among these creatures' belongings?"
"Just junk and their weapons," the older man said. "Nothing but a bunch of hairy savages."
"As expected. Burn the bodies and let's go. I don't want to miss dinner."
His soldiers began to pile up the corpses, but suddenly a thick rain of ogre javelins flew from the trees, downing nearly a third of them. A pang of sorrow squeezed Brandon's heart as he saw his longtime friend Clarence dead beside him, a long spear protruding from his throat. Angrily, he picked another spear off the ground and threw it back in the direction from which it'd came, then charged the new pack of ogres which had appeared to attack his band. He yelled for his men to join him, only to be disappointed by the number of soldiers who followed. Realizing how many ogres stood against him, he knew he was in for a bad day.
His sword sheared away a huge leg, and a monster fell dying in the mud. Another slash severed a spine, and a stab pierced a screaming ogre's heart. But Brandon knew his men could not be doing as well. He glanced back to see them
quickly being overwhelmed by the much greater strength and size of their foes. He rushed to aid them, taking ogres occupied with other men by surprise and killing monster after monster from behind. Then a club like a tree trunk came at him from the side. He sprang away, only to be hit and knocked down anyway by another.
The first monster raised its club to finish him, but he struck first, buried his sword in its lower belly and gutted it. Ribs aching, he climbed to his feet to chop off an ogre's arm at the shoulder. Snatching up the giant's dropped spear, he hurled it through the face of the one that'd hit him. Brandon looked again at his faltering men, and finally called for retreat before cleaving the skull of an oncoming opponent. He scrambled to protect his men's backs as they fled, taking a heavy toll on the enemy before he joined them in flight. While he ran across the blood-drenched earth, an image of ogres eating the flesh of his dead soldiers flashed through his mind and brought a shiver to his powerful body. For once, he might actually need help. Luckily, he knew just who to turn to.
#
The climb proved a little harder than she expected, and Rose joked to herself that she was getting weak in her old age. It'd been little more than half a year since her twenty-second birthday, but after everything that'd happened in the last few years, she felt even more than usual like she had already experienced more than most people ever did. She'd found love, helped bring spellcasting back to the world, suffered her father's death, gained and lost friends, gotten married, given birth, and separated from and reunited with her husband several times. She had also fought in two wars and defeated the best warriors of two nations, an archmage, and a mythical monster from ancient times, not to mention won the kingdom's biggest fighting tournament. So much sorrow, and yet so much joy—what a life! Years really were only one way to age.
Of course, it was really the strong wind and driving rain blowing into her eyes, and water covering the slippery surface, which made the big woman's progress up eight hundred steep feet of rock to the mountainside cave more difficult than normal. That, and maybe the extra thirty or so pounds she still hadn't lost yet after pregnancy. Finally she reached the opening, and threw herself—full armor, pack, and all—into the shelter of the cave. Shaking excess water off her soaked mane of wavy black hair, she strode forward anxiously. After all this time so alone, what would his mental state be like?
She walked down the familiar tunnels of the cavern, until she found her husband reclining as he did in his chamber. Seeing he was awake, but apparently daydreaming again, she yelled, "Finn! Aren't you going to give a warm welcome to your loving wife?"
Whoa, the green dragon named Finn marveled, you climbed all the way up here in this storm, carrying all that?! I bet you didn't even use climbing gear, did you?
He'd transformed himself into this, this thing, out of an obsessive desire to gain magical knowledge, and now he was stuck, unable to regain his humanity even after sacrificing his spellcasting ability in an attempt to do so. Trapped in a prison of armored scales, locked away from the man's life he wanted back. Despite her love for him, she shuddered a little at the sight of his condition, but quickly restrained herself.
"Do I ever?" she proudly replied as her scarred lips curled up in a huge smile. "So how are you holding up, my love?"
I'm decent, Finn stated flatly in her mind, his voice needing no sound to reach her.
"Have you found anything that might help lead us to a way to change you back?" She doubted they'd be so lucky.
No, sad to say. All I've found in these mountains are some really strange animals. I'm too big to explore most places made by humans, anyway. What about you?
"I'm sorry, Finn."
He couldn't hide his disappointed tone as he said, It's alright. I expected it.
"I do have some good news, though it doesn't have to do with becoming human again. The Center for Magical Study is doing really well. Even though you aren't there anymore, the researchers are making great progress. Some of them are almost as advanced mages by now, as you were after a month of studying the original cursed spellbook you used. Granted they have been studying for over a year, but you did have the magically given advantage."
A lot of good that did me in the end. For faster learning, I got to lose my humanity, and you in the process. How have you personally been doing in your studies?
"Don't worry, you haven't lost me. I'm still yours, in soul and body. I've been doing okay. I haven't learned anything I'd rather use than my sword, but then, nobody besides you has achieved proficiency in combat spells yet. It's hard for me, after all the evil magic I've faced. As for your humanity, we'll never give up on that, will we?"
I couldn't go on if I gave up. So you're right, we've just got to keep looking. But enough of such a depressing subject, how are the youngsters doing?
He meant their friends Julie and Derrick, though the latter wasn't much younger than Rose, who had fallen in love over the last half a year or so. "They're having a bit of trouble. All because Derrick hasn't really gotten over the idea of his girl adventuring with me, and wants her to stay home with him, though he nevers say it out loud."
Finn laughed. Derrick the scholar acting the same way I used to?
"It's much different, actually. You used to be threatened by my greater prowess as a warrior, while Derrick's just afraid for her safety. I can really understand that."
And you're still letting her tag along?
"Don't worry, I'm doing all I can to protect her—I've made it clear that when we get into a fight, she should stick to using her bow if at all possible for now. So far we've only seen combat together once, though it was a rough one—we took on a giant beetle that shot liquid fire out of its rear, whose shell wasn't much affected by her little arrows."
Let me guess, same one I fought before, but couldn't get? So what'd you do?
A grin spread across her round face. "Told her to hide and took care of business myself, of course. But I hit it a bit too hard and, well, its fire spilled all over me."
Ouch, Finn said with a wince. You okay?
Rose waved dismissively. "I'm here, right? It hurt like hell, true, but you know the worst part? Julie ran up to me and tried to wipe the stuff off with her hands! Good thing I stopped her—Derrick would've surely thrown a fit."
That's tough. It's like you're worse off with her help, than without. Maybe you should just tell her off before she gets you killed.
"No, she'd be devastated. Besides, she does seem to have some potential." And, she wondered if selfish motives of her own didn't play some part. "Come on, I'm not going to get killed. If push comes to shove, I'll just use her as a human shield."
You wouldn't do that.
She laughed. "No, I wouldn't. I'd more likely shield her with my body, like the time I did for Derrick, and get some nice new scars. Besides, I do have an actual shield."
Does anyone know how to enchant items yet? Finn asked, inspired by her mention of her shield.
"No, nobody can do it yet, though I wish somebody would learn. It'd help a lot to have some magical armor for sure, considering how many blades have managed to reach my flesh even through my three layers of armor. Still, I do have your gift to me, and that beauty's a great help in killing things."
I did use up all my power to make it, Finn said proudly, but with a hint of regret. He'd hoped to become human again by putting all his magic into Rose's new sword, but it hadn't quite worked, only his spellcasting power going into the blade while the energies that made up his draconic body remained. The weapon itself hadn't come out quite as powerful as he intended, much of the energy put into its creation siphoned away by the legendary monster called the Spelldrinker to revive itself one last time.
"It's still better than any weapon I've seen before. Though after the fight with the Spelldrinker, I was wishing it had a healing power too!" Rose cringed as she remembered the deathly agony she'd suffered that day. She had taken a tremendous amount of punishment, but even against a destroyer of nations her unmatched resilienc
e had allowed her to survive and win. Pushing away the memory of pain, she asked, "Do you know anything about the ogre attacks that have been so common recently? We've heard a lot back in Gustrone, but nothing really concrete."
What would you expect me to know? It's not like I hang out with humans nowadays.
His bitter tone annoyed her a bit. "I meant if you've noticed anything strange in these remote mountains. It was just a thought that maybe these ogres had a base somewhere people don't normally go, like here. It was a long shot, but you needn't be so edgy about it."
Sorry, Rose. I'm just miserable in this body, that's all. But as for ogres, why such concern? Sure they're savage creatures, but they don't have any order or organization to speak of. They're not such a great threat.
"Maybe not to us, but to your average person, they're a lot to deal with. And Finn, they've been making news everywhere. Pretty much everybody I correspond with has mentioned their increased activity, and they live on all different parts of the continent. It worries me that this race of monsters has grown so prolific on such short notice."
So people from every end of the continent are being bothered by the same sort of creatures. That is pretty scary, the dragon admitted.
"Yes, it is. So have you seen anything at all?"
I have seen a few ogres wandering around. But I didn't pay them much mind, thinking there was nothing important going on. Has anybody captured one of these ogres, maybe to find out what's happening from it?
She frowned. "I heard one was captured by Count Brandon's men, but it didn't talk, and died before they could make it."
