by JManess
“Of course, you always claim a large territory.”
“Indeed. She challenged me out of desperation. I never deliberately threatened her people and she knew this. When she confronted me in my lair, she preceded her attack by asking my forgiveness for slaying me. Obviously I was intrigued, since most warriors simply charge, they don’t plead forgiveness first. So after I disarmed her I asked her why she wished me dead. That is when she told me about her child.”
“What did you do?”
Tolmac grew silent, aware that he’d just placed himself in the position of 80
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revealing an uncomfortable confession. He hoped she didn’t think less of him when he told her how the battle with the female warrior ended.
“Tolmac? You have to tell me now! You can’t just leave the story unfinished.”
“Very well, I shall tell you, but you must know that I acted out of character for me, understand. What I did in that situation was very unusual.”
“Tolmac!”
He sighed. “She told me about her child and the healer’s claim that she needed dragon blood. Of course I couldn’t give her dragon blood, it would make her babe immortal, nor could she take it from me by force or it would poison the child. When I explained that dragon blood wasn’t the answer she collapsed and wept to her Mother goddess, devastated that she could not save her child …” Tolmac paused, unwilling to continue.
“Quit stalling, Tolmac! Tell me what you did!”
“It’s not really important now, that was a long time ago …” Sondra grew so frustrated she snatched his wing and bit down, just hard enough to let him know she meant business and that he’d better continue.
Tolmac and Sondra both shuddered at the contact and the resultant desire neither expected. Sondra pulled quickly away when Tolmac’s eyes blazed.
“Finish the story! Please!” She scooted away meekly, unnerved by his reaction and her own.
Tolmac shook himself, the brilliant crimson glow fading from his eyes.
“All right, if you insist. Her pleas shook me so badly that I felt myself …
hmm … uh … um … uh … I … uh … shed a couple of tears.” Tolmac paused, embarrassed beyond measure at the confession. Dragons didn’t weep unless something truly monumental moved them, which explained why dragon’s tears proved so rare and highly prized. Well, that and the incredible healing capacity of tears shed by a magical creature as powerful as a dragon.
“Ohh, that is soo …” Sondra nearly melted into a puddle of mush on the cavern floor. Whatever part of her heart remained free of her growing love for Tolmac caved in and she fell hard. She couldn’t believe he didn’t want to admit he’d wept at the thought of a dying child and a grieving mother.
“I know it was weak on my part. I was young and inexperienced with humans then. I didn’t know how to deal with their messy emotions. So anyway, I gave the woman the tears and told her that they would cure her baby, and she raced away. She returned later and trespassed in my lair again. Apparently,
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the child not only survived but also thrived, stronger then ever before and immune to any sickness. She wanted to thank me, so she gave me her sword.
She claimed it was the greatest treasure she owned. It wasn’t much, of course, but I graciously accepted.”
That was a lie. The woman’s offer stunned Tolmac. The enchanted sword was a treasure beyond measure for the woman and her people; a divine weapon instilled with the essence of their Mother goddess. At first he refused to accept such a precious gift but the woman insisted and eventually, mindful of losing more of his dignity, he accepted the tribute. He spent many years watching over the woman and her people, determined that the loss of such a divine weapon would not find them vulnerable to their enemies. Eventually those enemies grew tired of fending off a dragon and left the people alone, and from that moment on, the people carried a black dragon as their standard.
“Tolmac … I lo—um, I really like this weapon. It feels so soothing for an instrument of death.” Sondra struggled to rally after Tolmac crashed through her defenses and laid claim to her heart.
“That weapon was an instrument of life to the people it served. It saved them and their families from slaughter at the hands of ruthless human raiders.
There are many different viewpoints, little one.” Tolmac turned away from Sondra and returned to his perusal of his hoard. “Ahem, anyway, the weapon suits your spirit more than my own. A feminine deity blessed it. I suppose it is as good a treasure as any to begin your hoard.”
“Tolmac, you’re not suggesting I keep this weapon, are you? It’s one of your special treasures.”
“Yes, well, I have many treasures. Now you have at least one, it’s a good start.”
“But…”
“Don’t argue, little one, I’ve made up my mind.” Tolmac abandoned his hoard and moved to the tunnel. “I am going to hunt some food, I will return later.” He turned to regard Sondra. “Don’t leave the safety of the lair, little one.
There are many dangers out there that you are not yet ready to face.” He left the cavern.
Sondra used his absence to face the stunning revelation she’d just had. She loved Tolmac, a dragon, and she was a human princess. They had no future together if Tolmac ever discovered the truth. She could abandon her plans to find the wizard and beg him to transform her back into a human. The thought 82
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of living forever, as a dragon, wasn’t as repellent as she at first imagined. She’d figured she would learn enough to survive on her own and then find the wizard and she would be back to a princess again, resuming her old life as though nothing had ever changed.
Now she knew better. Even if she could disregard her feelings for Tolmac, which she couldn’t, she realized she enjoyed being a dragon. She felt comfortable in her scales, content with her form and figure, pleased with her power and abilities. Suddenly returning to human form seemed like a step backward.
She’d never been truly comfortable in her life as a princess, always restricted and constantly judged on petty details, letting down her family and her people at every turn. As a dragon she felt free: free to travel wherever she wished, free to make mistakes, though some proved deadlier than others. For the first time in her life, she didn’t have to answer to anyone nor did she have a responsibility to anyone.
Yes, she could definitely see living out the remainder of her life as a dragon with Tolmac by her side. But Tolmac said dragons didn’t normally live together, unless they belonged to that horrible Circle group. Still, she believed she could find a way to remain with him. After all, he agreed to teach her everything she needed to learn to survive. She would simply have to take a long time learning it, like, say, the rest of her life. She would miss her family but she knew she would miss Tolmac more.
Then a horrible thought occurred to her. What if the wizard’s spell only lasted temporarily? She recalled that he intended for the transformation to
“make her see,” whatever that meant. What happened once she ”saw”? Would she shift back into human form? Suddenly she had to know whether the spell was permanent or not. She couldn’t risk planning her life around being a dragon if someday she’d simply change back into a princess! She needed to find the wizard immediately. She couldn’t afford to take the chance that she would shift back tonight or tomorrow or the next cycle. She needed to know for certain that her secret remained safe. And if he’d made the spell temporary, she would beg the wizard to make it permanent. She would give him anything.
She glanced over at the sword she still grasped in one claw, surprised to find that it fit so nicely there despite her size, almost as if it adjusted itself to her.
No, she wouldn’t give the wizard anything. She would always keep the sword, no matter what transpired.
The time before Tolmac would return slipped rapidly away. She suspected
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that he hunted for them both and she needed to be back in the lair before he returned with their food. She found the sheath for the sword and discovered that it too, adjusted to her size, encircling her reptilian waist with ease. She sheathed the weapon, missing its comforting weight in her claw, and quickly raced for the exit.
Sondra made it outside in record time and she didn’t spot any sign of Tolmac. She leapt into the air and winged her way south aiming for the Woods, just outside Ariva. Determined not to cause the humans any more fright, she summoned up a storm just as Tolmac taught her and pulled the clouds around her, hiding within the concealment of the stormfront. Anxiety pushed her on, faster than any storm that ever moved over the valley. She sped, using her wings to propel herself forward. In her mind she had enough time before Tolmac would return to the lair and discover her missing. She moved so quickly and desperately that she didn’t pay attention to the passing ground below her; so driven with finding an answer to her burning question, she overshot the Woods and Ariva and headed further south, moving over Passton and Ulrick Pass.
Before she realized it, Sondra glided in her stormfront over the Kingdom of Halidor. She finally slowed and attempted to locate her position but found that without the sheltering mountain ranges with its dominant central mountain as a landmark, she was completely lost and disoriented. Once again, she’d acted in haste and made a stupid mistake. She forgot that dragon flight moved very swiftly, and an adult dragon really pushing forward covered a considerable distance in a short time, just as she had. She started devising an explanation for Tolmac because she realized that she would never find her way back in time and hoped she could remain aloft long enough to find her way back by sundeath. Already her wings grew tired. Unwilling to dismiss her concealing clouds, Sondra held them close around her as she turned back the way she’d come and started making her way back to Thunder Mountain.
Hours passed and still the familiar mountain ranges failed to appear.
Suddenly Sondra realized that she no longer flew over Halidor but actually was continuing farther south and to the west rather than north. Spread below her lie the distant and mysterious kingdom of Fomoral. From books and maps, Sondra knew that the Dragon Cliffs formed the southernmost border of that kingdom.
Suddenly the name of those cliffs took on an entirely new meaning, and Sondra realized that she needed to move as far away from them and the caves 84
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she now knew housed the sadistic, draconic Circle. She needed to leave the cloud cover long enough to get her bearings. She hoped that the people of Fomoral expected dragons and wouldn’t panic if they caught sight of her. More importantly she hoped she didn’t alert any of the dragons from the cave city to her presence.
Of course, as she exited her concealment she realized her worst fears. She plunged out of the clouds and nearly collided with another dragon, an enforcer sent to investigate the curious stormfront moving at unnatural speed toward the compound. The other dragon blinked in surprise when Sondra pulled herself up in front of it. A harsh feminine voice ripped into her mind and Sondra slammed down her shields as Tolmac instructed and trained her to do, before the other dragon could sneak a peek at her thoughts.
“Who are you, from where do you hail? You are not of the Kin.” The other dragon, a female much larger than Sondra, though still considerably smaller then Tolmac, challenged her, the tone of her thoughts belligerent and confrontational.
“I am nobody, really. I just lost my way. I didn’t mean to trespass. I will leave immediately.” Sondra started flapping her wings, desperate to lift herself away from the other female. The brownish-tan dragon possessed a sickly aura that reminded Sondra of illness and disease. It swirled in a brown, murky color, but ragged holes of darkness and globs of gray, slimy smoke moved through it. Sondra didn’t need Tolmac to explain to her that this female was not a nice dragon.
“Halt! You cannot leave here. I am taking you to the Circle. They will decide your fate.” Sondra tried to escape, but flying was still new to her, and the other dragon caught her far too easily, slamming into her back and bearing her to the ground.
When they hit the ground, other dragons appeared, summoned telepathically to restrain this new dragon and escort her to the Ancient Ones.
They pulled Sondra between them and she realized the futility of struggling.
She didn’t stand a chance against one of them, much less three. The other two dragons, a greenish-brown male and a scarred, golden-orange male, also possessed sickly grayish-black tinged auras. They limited their communication with her to short commands, saving the interrogation for the old queens of their Kin.
They reached the cliffs, the dragons on either side of her pushing her off the
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edge and remaining beside her as they glided down to the closest cave entrance.
Holes riddled the entire cliff face, and Sondra saw dragons of all sizes and colors moving in around those entrances like bees in a hive. She and her escorts entered a tunnel and moved through a cavern city laid out like a labyrinth.
Tunnels meandered in every direction; they encountered many dragons as they passed through them. Most possessed the same sickly taint to their aura that her escort had, but not all of them did. Several dragons glanced up curiously as they passed by, but the majority just went about their business, ignoring the small group completely.
Dragons carried unidentifiable loads; some moved past with dead cattle or barrels and crates. Others carried strange tools and implements, and Sondra swore they passed a strange garden of sorts were several dragons labored just as human peasants might. The sight of such incredible and magical creatures reduced to mundane labor struck her as profoundly sad and disquieting. What could enslave an entire race in such a manner that they acted in a way that Tolmac assured her was completely out of character? After experiencing the freedom and power of dragon life for only a short time, she viewed this city as sinister; she could only imagine the effect it had on Tolmac when he first saw it.
It wasn’t long before her escort brought her to the Royal Caverns. They ushered her into the huge cavern carved out of several smaller caverns and filled with enough treasure to make Tolmac’s hoard look like that of a pauper. Of course, Sondra realized, this hoard undoubtedly came from tributes demanded of the people of Fomoral. She wondered how many peasants in the lands above starved while these dragons hoarded their wealth. Then she really took a look around at the occupants as they moved closer to the three crouching and horribly bloated queens lounging on their own piles of gold.
The three ancient females were all massively obese, the excess flesh of their bodies spilled out over the gold coins. Their atrophied wings curled against their back like deformed limbs, unused and forgotten. Flakes of scales peeled from their sides, and their pigment had faded to a murky gray, either out of laziness or ennui. All three appeared nearly identical, differing only in minor and nearly unnoticeable details, like the curve of a horn or the shape of a spine ridge, but they all boasted a boiling, foggy grayish-black aura that moved in her second-sight like writhing snakes over their physical forms. Sondra barely suppressed a shudder and sketched an awkward bow in her dragon form. Since 86
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these dragons desired the royal treatment, Sondra knew exactly how to act.
After all, she’d spent the majority of her life pandering to the court and the nobles that practiced their unending intrigues and power plays there.
The queens hissed in satisfaction at her gesture of respect. It suited their idea of how they should be treated. This newcomer already proved a pleasant surprise. “Welcome, ssstranger, to our gloriousss city,” the queen on the right said, her telepathic voice sibilant and cold.
“It is an honor to be here before you. I have heard of your mighty city and decided I must see it for myself,” Sondra replied
, deciding to pander to the ego of these females in the hopes of keeping them out of her head.
“You claimed you were lost!” The enforcer who first accosted her replied.
Sondra nodded quickly, irritated at the beastly guard’s memory. “Of course, I was so roughly challenged; I grew frightened by the might and strength of your soldiers and made to run away. I am ashamed, for I see now that I would have missed the true majesty of this great city if I hadn’t been able to meet you, Your Highnesses.”
The queens hissed again, very pleased with the pretty words of this new little dragon. The enforcer fell silent, realizing that her job was finished and she was out of her league within the confines of the Royal Cavern and the subtle machinations that went on there.
“From where do you hail?” the center queen asked.
“I hail from everywhere. I am an orphan since I first hatched and I made many blunders growing to adulthood, traveling alone into dangerous territory countless times. Fortunately I survived; but when I heard that there existed a place such as this where our kind came together to grow even more powerful, I searched until I found it.”
Sondra prayed they didn’t invade her mind at that moment. The lies she wove wouldn’t hold up to telepathic scrutiny. Just in case, she kept her shields up and distracted her mind from thinking of the truth. Thus far, the queens hadn’t made an attempt to read her mind. She didn’t know if she could flatter them enough to delay them. She struggled to control her nerves. As a human princess, she’d never been very good at maintaining poise under pressure; as a dragon it became critical that she not spark in fear or anxiety, revealing her nature. Tolmac told her the Circle would love to have a storm dragon under their control. So far she didn’t think they were aware of her nature, and she wasn’t about to give them any clues.
