Dragon by Day

by Daisy Dexter Dobbs

  Maintaining a white-knuckled grip with one hand on the branch woven into the rope around D’Akola’s neck, she carefully reached into the cloth sack, fisted a rock and hurled it with all her might at the Pushgans. Jayket did the same.

  Elation flooded her as both rocks met their marks and one of the vile three-eyed beasts clasped his face while the other clutched his arm, wailing in pain. But her jubilation was short-lived when the sound of her beloved Jayket crying out in agony thundered through her ears.

  “Oh, Jayket, your leg!” Suniko cried in horror as she eyed the Pushgan arrow that had pierced his thigh. She reached for his leg, feeling helpless as her fingers connected with the warm blood oozing from his wound.

  “No, Suniko!” Jayket shouted from behind her. “I’ll be fine. Hold on lest you fall.”

  “You tempt me with your tits, wench,” the Pushgan who’d clasped his face bellowed. Once he removed his hand, the profusion of blood oozing next to the eye in his forehead told Suniko where the rock had connected. “And I’ll take the greatest pleasure ripping them off with my teeth as I fuck your cunt!”

  With that chilling vow they were met with a barrage of arrows. While the wounded D’Akola did his best to evade their attack, he was no match for the arsenal of weapons the Pushgans seemed to have at their disposal.

  Suniko noted that D’Akola was pierced twice more and struggled to keep steady as he made his descent toward the ground below. Warring to keep her balance, she suddenly shrieked as blinding pain infused her shoulder. Striving not to give in to the blackness that threatened to envelop her, Suniko gripped the branch tight.

  The sound of Jayket’s concerned shouts and the feel of his arm reaching around and cosseting her waist were most welcome indeed. But they weren’t enough.

  As they flew high above the treetops, both D’Akola and Jayket were pierced again. To Suniko’s horror the dragon plummeted and both she and Jayket fell from his back.

  That such a profusion of thoughts could race through her mind in so short a time amazed Suniko as she fell. She thought of her beloveds and the immense joy they’d brought into her life these past few days, and she also thought of her impending death, briefly wondering what it would be like to dwell among the shades in Niranjan, the spirit world. Would she meet D’Akola and Jayket there…or would she forever wander alone?

  Her wonderings were halted when she landed harshly in the midst of a bush. Suniko remained still, assessing her circumstance. With the blue skies and bright sun above, she doubted that she’d landed in Niranjan. Aside from that she was in pain. And pain meant that she was still alive!

  Struggling to separate herself from the shrub, Suniko met with thorny branches that nipped at her tender flesh. Finally she had righted herself, only to gasp when she realized she wasn’t on the ground at all, but high on a cliff, with no apparent means of climbing down. Just past the bush was…nothingness. If she’d fallen just a measure this way or that, Suniko would have plunged to her death instead of merely being scratched by a prickly bush.

  She looked all around, hoping to spot Jayket and D’Akola, praying they were still alive.

  “Suniko!” she heard Jayket call just when she’d all but given up hope. “Suniko, are you well?”

  For the first time her gaze fell to the arrow piercing her shoulder. During the fall the long stem of the arrow had broken and now just half of it protruded from just inside her shoulder. While the pain was agonizing, it was also bearable.

  “Yes. I’m all right,” she called. “I can’t see you. Where are you, Jayket?”

  “Here, in the tree,” he shouted and with a quick scan of the area she finally spotted him, perched precariously atop a tall tree.

  “What of D’Akola?” Suniko asked.

  “Below, slumped lifeless on the ground,” Jayket answered. “I don’t know if he’s still alive.”

  Suniko’s heart sank, but then she remembered it was under similar circumstances that she first met D’Akola. He’d fallen from the sky with a thunderous thud—and he’d survived!

  “D’Akola’s going to be just fine, Jayket, I feel it. But what of you and your wounds?”

  “He’s going to die just like you, pretty wench,” a Pushgan voice, threatening and formidable, answered her.

  Frightened like a child in the dark, fear held Suniko stone still.

  “But perhaps before he’s slaughtered like the hog that he is, he’ll get to watch you writhe with pleasure as you feel a Pushgan cock filling your cunt.”

  Dread and apprehension gripping her, Suniko slowly turnedg toward the Pushgan. She’d been raped more than once by the despicable creatures and the thought of repeating the horrific experience had her recoiling in terror.

  She watched him look skyward and her gaze followed.

  “Prepare to spy a worthy bit of entertainment,” he said to the Pushgans still dragon-back, hovering above them.

  “Save a tit for me to suck,” one of them called and Suniko shuddered.

  “Her ass is mine,” another cried.

  “Suniko!” Jayket cried out.

  Poor Jayket…she could hear the agony of powerlessness in his voice. Cruel that she would meet her end at the hands of Pushgans. Even crueler that Jayket would be forced to watch her gruesome demise.

  “Her cunt juice flows for me, Jayket,” the Pushgan taunted, stepping closer to Suniko. “Can you smell her musk? It perfumes the air.”

  Suniko stepped back only to be met with the thorny bush. She was trapped with nowhere to go but down. Briefly, for just a fleeting moment, she entertained thoughts of leaping to her death to escape, but Suniko couldn’t do it. Fortifying herself, she decided that, rather than give in to cowardice, she’d battle to the end in hopes of ridding the earth of at least one more Pushgan before she died.

  Her gaze fell to the Pushgan’s breeches where he fumbled to release his cock.

  “Tell me, Pushgan,” Suniko said, readying herself for the attack, “how is it that such a huge, bloat-bellied, gray-flesh creature like yourself is hindered with such an excruciatingly tiny cock?”

  His expression turning lethal as his friends guffawed and shouted barbs from above, the Pushgan roared and advanced, pinning Suniko against the rock face.

  “You’ll pay for that,” he swore, fisting the arrow in her shoulder and twisting it, which nearly brought Suniko to her knees.

  He bent close, licking her face and whispering of the deplorable acts he and his fellow dragon-riders planned to foist upon her.

  Ignoring the stench of his saliva and the warm ooze of blood trickling from her shoulder to her breast, Suniko searched the depths of her being for every measure of rage it held. She smiled into the Pushgan’s ugly face as the fury mounted inside until it spewed out in a deafening roar against the Pushgan’s ear. Then she bit the vile thing off.

  “My ear!” the great bully wailed, clapping the side of his head. “The bitch bit off my ear!”

  Suniko spit out the disgusting bit of flesh and laughed. “Why not let me suck your cock and we’ll see what I can do to that!”

  “Never have I so enjoyed the prospect of butchering a woman,” the Pushgan growled through clenched teeth.

  Giving forth another battle cry, she reached between them and grappled for his cock, yanking it as hard as she could.

  The giant heathen’s hand flew at her from the side, connecting hard with her head, effortlessly sending Suniko over the cliff’s edge. But just before she fell she found the presence of mind to grab on to him, clutching with all her might.

  “You’re coming with me, Pushgan,” she screamed, sailing off the cliff to certain death.

  They dropped through the trees, the ground fast approaching when, at the last possible moment, D’Akola swooped in and snatched her with his talons.

  The Pushgan latched on to her ankle, clinging to his last chance for life. But D’Akola clearly had other ideas. With his other talon he clasped the Pushgan’s waist and squeezed, effectively severing his body so that al
l that was left clinging to Suniko was the Pushgan’s head, arms and torso.

  A look of shocked horror on his revolting face, the Pushgan finally let loose of Suniko’s leg and plummeted to the ground.

  With Suniko safely in his grip, D’Akola glided to the earth, gently depositing Suniko at the base of the tree where Jayket was trapped. Giving her a soulful look, his tongue darted out and he licked her, paying special attention to her shoulder. Miraculously, the arrow fell from the wound and the bloodied piercing began to heal before Suniko’s eyes.

  Before she could say anything, D’Akola soared into the air, returning with Jayket a moment later and setting him at Suniko’s feet. She gasped at the sight of him, unconscious and deadly pale from loss of blood due to multiple arrow piercings.

  “Oh, Jayket,” she whispered, kneeling at his side. Try as she might, Suniko could detect no breath, no beat of his heart. His skin took on a faint bluish tinge, the same ashen color she’d seen too many times before when souls had been claimed by Shorana, goddess of the spirit world. A single fat tear coursed down her cheek, the sorrow of loss like a stab in her heart.

  Suniko’s breath caught as D’Akola’s tongue came close to Jayket’s wounds. She prayed her dear dragon would be able to save Jayket, to restore his life.

  “There! On the ground by that tree,” a Pushgan voice sounded before D’Akola could lick Jayket.

  Suniko looked up to see the Pushgans and their ugly gray-brown dragon approaching. Her gaze turned to D’Akola and she noticed a bold violet glow developing around him. With a quick, remorseful glance at Jayket, the dragon took to the air again, heading straight for the enemy’s dragon.

  Oh, my son, my son…

  The disembodied female voice caught Suniko unawares, sending a jolt of fear winding up her spine. She looked all around her but couldn’t locate the source of the mournful voice.

  But there in her arms, something miraculous occurred. Jayket was bathed in a golden light that felt to her like soft, warm rays of sun. A moment later she heard him gasp, his lungs filling with air. The deadly pallor left Jayket and the pink flush of life returned to his skin as, one by one, the arrows slid from the holes in his body and each brutal sore healed.

  Jayket’s eyes opened and Suniko sobbed tears of thanks that she was able to glimpse those beautiful sapphire-like orbs once more.

  “Oh, my Jayket,” she cried, showering him with kisses. “I thought sure I’d lost you forever.”

  “Force the dragon down!” came a Pushgan voice from above. “Slaughter the beast!”

  Suniko looked to the heavens to see the sky between the Pushgans and D’Akola darken with a thick spray of arrows.

  “D’Akola!” Jayket shouted, struggling to get to his feet.

  “There’s nothing we can do, Jayket.” Suniko held him back. It wasn’t too difficult because he hadn’t yet fully recovered his strength. “Look…see how D’Akola glows? He is being protected by forces beyond our sight.”

  As she spoke, D’Akola soared through the barrage without consequence. Bellowing obscenities and depraved curses, the Pushgans hurled spears at D’Akola along with a new batch of arrows. As if his body were made of granite, the weaponry bounced off him like harmless toys.

  Even from the ground Suniko could see the rage in D’Akola’s countenance. In righteous fury, he breathed a menacing column of fire at the Pushgans who’d tortured his friends. Shrieking a high-pitched cry, the Pushgan dragon retaliated with a scorching blaze of his own.

  To Suniko’s astonishment, the violet glow around D’Akola grew brighter and the flames exhaled by the Pushgan dragon reversed their path, turning back on the Pushgans in a raging inferno and roasting the lot of them to a crisp.

  “What just happened, Jayket?” Suniko asked in wonder. “First I was stolen from certain death, then we were miraculously healed. Finally, our dragon has transformed yet again, this time into an avenging hero, unscathed by enemy weapons.”

  Looking every bit as bewildered as Suniko felt, Jayket shook his head. “I don’t know. One moment I was watching your dire situation with the Pushgan on that cliff, cursing the air that I could do nothing to save you. Then I found myself wavering between the land of the living and the dead, accepting my fate while bemoaning yours. And then—”

  Clearly at a loss for words, he stopped, his mouth opening and closing as if to continue, but no other words came forth.

  “There is magic going on, Jayket. Just as powerful as Shivrane’s, but this magic is for good.”

  “D’Akola said his brother would help us,” Jayket said, “but I never imagined it would be by the use of such compelling magic.”

  Alighting gracefully nearby, the dragon’s expression could almost be called serene. In fact, Suniko could have sworn she detected a smile across his features.

  “Oh, D’Akola, how I wish you could speak to us right now,” she said. “I burn with unanswered questions.”

  “The sun sets soon,” Jayket noted. “Let’s hope the man D’Akola remembers what transpired while in dragon form so he can provide answers. Look, Suniko. I think he wants us to follow.” Jayket got to his feet, bringing Suniko with him and they followed the gestures the dragon made with his snout.

  Just beyond the bank of trees they discovered a small lake.

  “Water!” Yanking Jayket into an embrace, Suniko nearly squealed with delight. “Oh, Jayket, we can drink. We can bathe!”

  “There is more,” Jayket said, turning Suniko in the direction of a cache of chest-high bushes. “Though I can barely believe it…”

  As the setting sun cast its last vestiges of orange-gold light, Suniko caught a curious shimmer atop the bushes. She and Jayket stepped closer to investigate. And then Suniko realized what it was catching the sun’s rays.

  “Good gods!” she gasped. “Surely I am dreaming!”

  “If you are,” Jayket said, his tone one of astonishment, “then we’re sharing the same dream.”

  Chapter Six

  “Can you believe it, Jayket?” Suniko blurted with excitement as she fingered the rich folded fabric neatly positioned on the bushes. “Garments as fine and delicate as those I wore in Princess Aladee’s court.” She and Jayket examined each outfit, marveling at the lack of harshness so prevalent with the abrasive sackcloth they’d worn for so long.

  “Clothing and soft leather shoes for me, for you and for D’Akola,” she went on. “Ooh, and what is that I smell?” Suniko sniffed the air and hugged herself, almost bubbling with gladness. “Food, Jayket, food!”

  She and Jayket followed their noses to the small flat rocks hidden amid the bushes. There sat woven baskets of foodstuffs of the sort Suniko had all but forgotten during her imprisonment.

  “Look at it all, Jayket. Why, it’s a veritable feast for us to enjoy.”

  “But how?” Jayket wondered. “It doesn’t seem possible. Wait!” he commanded, stilling Suniko’s hand as she reached for a lush, ripe fig. “It could be poisoned. A foul trap set by the Pushgans.”

  “Eat of it freely, my friends,” D’Akola said from behind them. In their excitement, neither Suniko nor Jayket had been aware of his shift from dragon to human.

  “This sustenance, as well as a night free of the fear of Pushgan attack, is provided us by the gods,” he explained. “My brother told me of it. He and Jia–Nian, Queen of Zalvanus, petitioned the gods to provide us with food, clothing and safety for the last part of our journey.”

  “Are we that close to Zalvanus?” Suniko asked, noticing that they were suddenly surrounded by the flickering glow of lighted torches rising from the ground.

  “We’ll arrive early tomorrow,” D’Akola replied. “Danior assured me I’ll have nothing to fear from dragon hunters. The Zalvaneans will be expecting us and know that I will be in dragon form.”

  “And do we have your brother and the queen to thank for our miraculous healings?” Jayket asked.

  “Suniko and I have the queen to thank for our healings,” D’Akola answered. “But
before Jia–Nian could perform your healing through me, Jayket, I took to the air, battling the Pushgans.” He placed his hand on Jayket’s shoulder and smiled. “You were saved from the grip of death by the greatest of all deities. It is by Ko’Loran’s power and grace, the almighty god of sun and sky, that you are still alive.”

  “Ko’Loran?” Jayket wondered aloud. “I don’t understand. Why would he bother with the fate of a mere mortal?”

  D’Akola’s smiled turned wry. “It seems you’re only half mortal after all, Jayket. The rumors of your godly parentage were not exaggerated. The sight of Ko’Loran was wondrous. Majestic.” His eyes gleamed as he spoke. “While engaged in battle I glanced down and saw him for myself. Didn’t you see him, Jayket?”

  “No. I saw nothing but approaching death.”

  “I heard a woman’s voice calling for her son,” Suniko offered. “But I didn’t see anyone.”

  “It was Jayket’s mother,” D’Akola said. “My brother put the knowledge in my mind as I wondered upon seeing the image of Ko’Loran, along with a woman as fair-headed and blue-eyed as Jayket, shimmer into view.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Jayket breathed, plowing his fingers through his hair.

  “Danior said to tell you,” D’Akola went on, “that in answer to your mother’s wishes, your father took mercy on you and restored you to life.”

  “My father…so it truly was more than just my grandmother weaving fanciful tales,” Jayket said, his jaw dropping. His features took on such a curious look of shock and wonder, Suniko nearly laughed.

  “So that means one of my lovers is half god and one is half dragon,” she noted, grabbing the men into a three-way hug, clinging hard. Half crying and half laughing, she told them, “I am overcome with joy, so very thankful we’re still alive and well. I can’t imagine my life without the two of you. I thought surely today would be our last among the living. I love you, Jayket and D’Akola. Oh how I love you both.”