"FOOLISH, FOOLISH, PEOPLE!" the dragon roared.
With a flip of his tail he sent several ships carrying flags of nations the dragon cared nothing about bursting into flames. Those were soon claimed by the sea. Hundreds of bodies floated upon the foam. Land soldiers filed along the great wooden docks, producing even more cannons and arrows, hoping to retard the dragon's advance.
"TORK THIRSTY!" he demanded. "BRING FISH WINE."
The dragon playfully splashed the water, anticipating the immediate results of his demand.
Tork paused.
He started to feel a pain in the side of his chest. At first, it was only an irritant. Then, in waves, it started to become quite unbearable.
Smoke started to rise from his mouth.
This was a rare thing for a Sea Dragon.
***
Keeth started to tie off the wheel of the Argo. Everything was going as planned, and the escape was starting to take shape.
A furious blaze had grown from the fires Jatel and Ka-Ron had set in the fields and mountains to the port side of the ship. A wind was fanning the flames, causing the entire night sky to fill with a blue haze of destruction.
"What happens now, wizard?" the squire asked. He was covered from head to toe with black soot. He was a sight to behold - that was for sure!
"We wait," was all the wizard would state.
Both Ka-Ron and Jatel gave the other a concerned glance.
"We need to do more than that, dear sir," Ka-Ron suggested kindly. There was a hint of worry in her voice that requested just a little more information than the wizard was prepared to give at this time. "If we do not move soon, we will start to burn."
"Things are not as they appear," Keeth suggested. "Patience, dear knight. Have patience."
Ka-Ron, frightened, could feel the heat of the advancing fires. Her careworn face projected this concern when she focused on Jatel's face.
"Give it a chance, sire," was all the squire could bring himself to say.
Ka-Ron closed her eyes, holding her squire tightly.
Both did their very best to hold down the volumes of their prayers.
Keeth started to project a course.
He was ready!
***
Tork felt a tiny trickle coming from the corner of his mouth. At first, owing to its being so subtle, the sea dragon had assumed that the sensation was just that of sea water. However, the pain in his side grew at an alarming rate, and it also seemed to migrate. His throat was causing him serious injury. So it was with the greatest of terror, that Tork soon noticed that he was bleeding internally!
"WHAT AILS ME?" The dragon coughed as he slammed his tail down on another unfortunate ship.
The people of Nation's Harbor, the unfortunate beach town Tork had chosen to visit, were losing most of their means of livelihood. A platoon of visiting soldiers, who had enjoyed their fine hospitality and young women, thought it best to help protect the establishment. They soon regretted their actions.
Tork's pain had caused him to change his calm ways. Soon, nothing but angered determination gleamed through his eyes.
The sea dragon spit out the last of his blood, aiming his confused frustration upon the advancing army.
None would survive.
***
Keeth, Ka-Ron, and Jatel's world soon revolved around the advancing wall of blue flames that quickly surrounded the Argo. The wizard's actions had made the ship prepared for whatever awaited it. It was with full relief that Ka-Ron discovered that the wizard had made the ship unable to catch fire by applying a fine cellular lining he had obtained from the dragon, upon the decks of the Argo.
"All is going as planned, my child," Keeth stated, paying close attention towards the row of levers and switches he had constructed next to his ship's main bridge wheel. "The dragon is starting to feel badly, I fear."
Ka-Ron's eyes widened with both remembrance and horror.
"My sword! My armor!" she said, trying her best to control the panic.
"What was that you said?" the wizard inquired, tying down the ship's wheel.
"I left my sword and armor in your house, wizard." The knight turned, looking at Keeth's home, which was starting to smoke, not yet catching on fire. "I must go retrieve them!"
"They are just items. Easily replaced, my child."
Ka-Ron turned, giving Keeth a deep and disappointing stare.
"They are my sword and armor, sir. I must have them."
As the knight kept her eye on the advancing wall of fire, she noticed that Jatel had retreated to the lower decks of the ship, quite probably making her living quarters more livable. She, momentarily, smiled - Jatel thought more of others than himself. That was, after all, his noble charm.
"Keep my squire here on board, wizard," Ka-Ron headed for the Argo's gangplank. "I shan't be long."
"Ka-Ron, this is madness!" Keeth shouted, to no avail.
"Wizard," Ka-Ron huffed, turning just long enough to make eye contact with him, "This is my sword."
Ka-Ron exited the Argo, heading toward the wizard's smoking house. Keeth was quite sure that the edifice was more than ready to burst into flames.
"I shall never understand the knightly mentality," Keeth said as he shrugged and shook his head.
The fires were fantastic!
Hot winds with the force of an attacking army kept Ka-Ron from her simple task. At least, under normal circumstances, traveling from ship to house and back, would have been simple - just under ten heartbeats of time.
These were not simple times.
Trees started to uproot and tip over as a result of the changing environment. Once down on the ground, the dry tops of the fur trees ignited into another fiery torch, adding energy to the advancing chaos.
Ka-Ron found herself, finally, at the entrance to the house, and her sword and armor lay within an arm's reach. Half the wall, opposite, was starting to ignite, proving to the knight the folly of her actions and the need for her instant retreat.
"Not without my sword!" Ka-Ron challenged.
Crawling forward, tiny steps at a time, almost on all fours, Ka-Ron finally filled one hand with the familiar firmness of steel and blade. She found herself laughing, relieved. She was genuinely in fear of losing her life.
Ka-Ron turned, aiming once again toward the Argo.
Blue flames blocked her way. There would be no choice for her but to burn.
"No," she pleaded, unsheathing her sword. "I will not exit this world in such a manner."
A wave of heat with the force of seven Xows pushed the knight back into the wizard's abode. She could react with nothing more than a tiny female groan of acceptance - she had no energy left.
Ka-Ron passed out, into the world of dreams.
***
It had taken Jatel only a few moments to realize that his master had forgotten her sword and armor. While setting up Ka-Ron's personal effects in her cabin, the squire cursed himself for being so absent-minded as to have allowed such an unforgivable thing. He had reminded himself, during their original carrying out of the wizard's plan, to have the knight's sword carried on board, but, like all servants, he allowed the events to outweigh the deeds.
"Wizard!" Jatel inquired, arriving on deck and not spotting his master. "Where is Ka-Ron?"
Keeth had placed the heavy hood of his cloak over his head, doing his best to protect himself from the heat. He turned towards the squire, towering over him by the very height of the bridge deck. Angrily, he pointed towards his home, only now succumbing to the blue fires.
"She has ventured out to retrieve her sword, of all things." he paused. "Can you imagine that?"
"Damn!" Jatel cursed. "How long before we venture outward?"
"It's all up to the dragon, my dear fellow."
"What if he refuses us the honor?"
"Let's not think negatively, dear boy."
Jatel braved himself up, and ran towards the ship's gangplank. He ran, his eyes closed, for Jatel was deathly afraid of fire, towa
rds where he hoped Ka-Ron had ventured. Several times the young man had tripped, falling, his hands plunging through half-burnt corpses of bull-deer and toads. The heat was beyond comfort, falling quite close to absolute torture and death.
"Ka-Ron!" Jatel yelled. He tried opening his eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of his master venturing his way, but the wind and force of the fire had grabbed at the squire's instincts, keeping his vision limited at best. "Master! Shout out and I will find thee!"
Jatel climbed up a wooden platform, and started to grab at his lungs. He felt that he would soon burst into flames himself. Coughing smoke from his mouth, Jatel could feel a trickle of blood dripping from his chin. He cursed himself for his limitations and cried out to the gods in sorrow that he no longer had the strength to continue.
"No!" the squire cried out. "Ka-Ron, I love thee!"
The wind left Jatel's lungs causing him to slap face down upon a wooden floor. As his hand joined his body in the resting, he barely felt the soft lump of his master's thigh.
Jatel's eyes blinked open.
"Master!"
Through the blue haze and smoke, Jatel could just barely make out the pleasant form of Ka-Ron on the floor of Keeth's cabin. In her hands were both her sword and armor. If anything else, she was prepared to die like the knight of Idoshia she was.
"You are a stubborn mess, sire." Jatel coughed, fighting the urge to laugh.
With all he could muster, the young man pulled at his master's body, finding the strength to raise her over his own shoulders and rest her on his back. He heard a faint moan come from the knight, allowing him the pleasure of knowing that she was still alive. With that newfound knowledge Jatel rose to his feet, placing Ka-Ron's sword in his left hand, and her armor in his right.
By the time Jatel had made it back to the Argo, Keeth's home was no more.
***
The Men, Women, and Children of Nation's Harbor looked up at Tork with surprise. The Sea Dragon was well into the successful destruction of the harbor town, and well within the total destruction of both army and navy, when the creature suddenly stopped, frozen. Tork remained in the deep, halfway out of the water, looking like an odd statue erected to the gods, as if to mock the event that had just taken place.
Those who could ventured toward the harbor - or, what was left of it - and questioned if the creature were still alive.
The most surprised, out of all, was Tork himself!
He wanted to move, but found that it was no longer in his power. In fact, he was horrified at the possibility that the tiny humans had devised a weapon that could do this to him.
One last wave of pain, however, informed the creature that it could not have been the harbor people. It could not have been the ships. And, it could not have been the soldiers.
Tiny cracks, insignificant at first, started to appear upon Tork's chest, looking so much like a rash seeking attention. It was not painful or irritating. It was just there. Soon, even the harbor people began to notice the curious occurrence, and some with caution.
The Sea Dragon began to vibrate like a crystal goblet.
To the horror of all, Tork's entire chest exploded outward. Chunks of the dragon landed on the few remaining ships in the harbor, totally flattening the decks, breaking both mast and man.
Cheers echoed through the entire harbor.
"Hooray! Hooray! The dragon is slain!" the voices stated.
The only one not cheering was Tork.
***
Ka-Ron's eyes popped open and she coughed out a tiny cloud of smoke. Above her, doing his best to keep from vomiting, Jatel was sooted up, and his hair was quite disheveled. The knight was surprised to find herself, once more, on the decks of the Argo.
"Jatel? Are you well?"
It took a while before the squire could answer, but, after an attack of coughing, and a sly smile aimed directly at his master, he said, "After a fashion, sire. But do not do such a thing ever again, I beg of you."
Ka-Ron soon became aware of the events lost to her in her fire-induced slumber.
"Jatel, you ventured out into a fire&to obtain&me?"
"I would walk through hell for you, sire."
Ka-Ron's cheeks began to warm, and her smile could not be conquered. The knight found that her hands shook as she reached up to wipe soot off Jatel's face.
"Oh, Jatel, that's so sweet!" the knight gleamed.
Both found themselves in the middle of a passionate kiss.
The Argo began to shake.
The entire universe, it seemed, joined in the convulsions.
"Ah, guys&" Keeth shouted from the bridge's wheel. "A little help here!"
The night sky started to quiver like a mirror. The tiny optical splinters of light, which seemed to resemble stars, began to expand. Some spidered outward, connecting with their neighbor, causing the effect to cascade. In no time, the sky exploded upwards, revealing a bright hole.
An escape!
A terrible wind started to fill the Argo's sails. Much to the surprise of all, the cloth sails held. Keeth even smiled a little with as much pride as the universe would allow a wizard to hold.
"As I had conjectured!" Keeth shouted with defiance. He gestured his fist in the air savoring the moment.
"What?" Jatel inquired.
"The prolonged heat of the ongoing fire changed the molecular membrane of the dragon's ultra-verse."
"Huh?"
"We are leaving, young squire." Laughing, Keeth took hold of the ship's wheel.
Like a bolt from a bow, the tiny ship started to rise, pick up speed, and shoot out, once more upon the Nown world.
Jatel helped Ka-Ron up, and both ran to join their wizard-friend on the bridge.
"Keeth, you did it!" Ka-Ron said, patting the wizard on the back.
Keeth was busy battling the wheel of his vessel, trying his best to keep it at a steady course. He turned, looking at his two passengers with a mixed gaze. He was just as surprised and overjoyed as they seemed to be.
"All well and good, my child," the Wizard said, "But we still have one little problem."
"What is that?" the squire inquired.
"We are still airborne. And we are not heading toward ocean."
Ka-Ron and Jatel ran to the bow of the ship.
Below them, approaching rapidly, were the gray soils of the harbor town.
The Argo was about to crash!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
"To the gods, wizard! Do something!"
Ka-Ron and Jatel's fear was only surpassed by Keeth's laughter. Upon hearing the wizard laugh, both knight and squire looked at the other in concern. Had they, all along, placed their fate into the hands of a madman?
Nation's Harbor grew closer and closer, as the Argo proceeded downward into an arc.
Still, Keeth continued to laugh.
"He's as mad as a piss-rat!" Jatel declared.
"Need I remind you children that I am a wizard of the highest order?" Keeth asked, pulling his hood off and allowing himself to enjoy the fresh air. "I would never do anything that would willingly hurt those who trust me."
"You turned me into a woman!" the squire challenged. Jatel kept switching his concentration from the wizard to that of the advancing landscape. It was quickly becoming possible to define house from tree - they were getting that close!
"And, did you not enjoy it?" Keeth challenged.
Jatel said nothing.
Ka-Ron gave her squire a knowing smile.
"Let me explain," the wizard said.
"Explain fast!" Ka-Ron warned.
The wizard walked over to his row of switches and levers, near the bridge's main wheel. He was starting to enjoy both the attention and the fresh air - it had been many seasons since he had either.
"Once, while bored, I peered into the future - other dimensions - spotting several inventive delights that had caught my eye. I have incorporated each in the building of this vessel."
"Then start incorporating something," Jatel yelled.
&nbs
p; It was now becoming possible for both the knight and the squire to be able to count the windows in each house towards which they were venturing. Ka-Ron's nails were starting to sink into the soft wood of the ship's railings. Jatel was a nervous wreck.
Keeth pulled down a lever.
Upon pulling the lever, the Argo responded instantly. The ship shook with a guttural sound, which was so powerful that it almost suspended the free falling ship in midair.
"Oh-oh!" everyone heard Jatel say.
The cloth sails retreated back into the tubular cases in which they had rested, on the masts. The masts themselves slid downwards, shrinking and folding into the ship's main deck. The wizard, admiring all, skipped around the bridge deck enjoying the show. For countless seasons, inside the sea dragon, he had visualized these devices running and performing their tasks. Now, reality on his side, he was overjoyed to witness their implications.
The main hold of the ship popped open. The cargo hold folded, and properly joined the masts, going somewhere below deck.
From deep within the cargo hold, the ship started to cough out a huge canvas. The sounds of hissing gas started to fill the ears of the Argo's crew. The canvass, as it came out and over the main deck, began to grow in mass, heading towards the sky. The canvass soon took both shape and identity, becoming a huge balloon with fins of some kind projecting from both front and back.
"For the gods!" the squire commented.
"Indeed!" Ka-Ron agreed.
Both the knight and squire were soon witness to a miracle.
The Argo stopped falling!
The ship stabilized and started to hover.
"I have never seen the like, wizard," Ka-Ron marveled, her face beaming with joy. "Well done, sir!"
"It is as if we were an island in the sky," Jatel said, looking over the side of the vessel. The ship was now starting to rise.
The Wizard came forward from the ship's wheel, pointing to all four corners of the ship's hull.
"Pray, I draw your attentions to the four points of the hull."
The Misadventures of Ka-Ron the Knight Page 17
