Dragon Hero II: Bounty of the Blood Witch

by C Woodward

  I had a little trouble getting up from being tired, sore and under the weight of the armor. She hurried on with her shoes and looked at me, “Did you stay up all night?”

  I nodded even though I knew I dozed off for at least an hour or two. She gave me a sleepy smile and grabbed the blankets.

  “Sweetie, you go sleep in the carriage, I will take care of things” she said as she crushed the blankets into a big ball and shoved them in the carriage. I tried to say, “Thank you” but it turned into a big yawn. I sat in the carriage and leaned back grabbing the ball of blankets and using them as a pillow. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but I was so tired that I slept. I woke up briefly when we started moving but Talestria just shushed me and rubbed my hair until I went back to sleep. I complied. Every so often, I woke up, due to random bumps in the road and being in an awkward position. Talestria woke me up around mid-afternoon when we reached a river. The horse was already drinking his fill and taking a bites of tall grass.

  Talestria jumped off before my eyes even adjusted to the light. She walked into the river, beginning to wash her face. “Blakey Poo! Did we buy a bar of soap?” she asked after stripping down to her under garments for a wash.

  I just laughed. “I see you have gotten used to traveling!” I teased her while starting to remove pieces of armor.

  She laughed back, “Not really. I prefer a warm bath any day! This water is freezing!” She was finished washing before I got off my armor. She was right; the water was cold, but not freezing. It was a pity we didn’t have any soap. I was thankful it was just two of us around because I wouldn’t be so keen having any guys around while she was trying to bathe. Of course, then she might skip the bath. I am now spoiled with the feeling of clean. I recall going for days without a bath during my first travels in this world. I don’t think Talestria is the type to go long without a bath before going berserk on someone.

  After finishing our baths and refilling the wineskins, we had a quick lunch of dried meat and dried fruit. Talestria was in much better spirits and offered to take charge, insisting that I get more sleep. I was very grateful because I knew that she wanted me to be in charge of the night watches. I knew enough to know she is clever like that, but I guess that is part of married life, at least for me.

  Surprisingly, Talestria had never ventured this far north. I ended up resting and made small talk with my wife. We have talked about my world and she can hardly believe a world with just humans and animals. She also can’t believe my world has no magic but still has wonderful things such as airplanes. We discussed how she might invent a flying machine powered by magic but designed like the ones in my world. I don’t know if she ever will do it. Sometimes she just brainstorms and then goes on to another project and forgets the first idea.

  By this time we were quite preoccupied. Talestria asked, “Do you think the dwarves will be fine with me?”

  I gave her a friendly smile, “I am sure they will like you.”

  She shrugged, “I know dwarves don’t like elves too well, and I am a dark elf.” I stopped her and laughed, “You remember Teltar?” She nodded.” As I put my arm around her I replied, “He told me that we would always be welcome there, and he isn’t the kind that would lie.” That helped her feel a little bit better. To fortify my words I added, “Besides, we both worked in the defeat of Xum’gol! That will count for something.”

  Laughing, she said, “Very true. I just hope the doorways in their buildings are not as short as they are.” I cracked up. We kept traveling until we and the horse were again tired and thirsty. It was nice not having to walk but we felt the need to stretch our legs. Night would fall soon but we needed to find a good place to camp. As Talestria stepped off the carriage she said, “It would be nice to have a fire but it might be safer not to draw any light tonight, and not until we reach Halatross.” I completely agreed.

  We found a nice tree near a bunch of tall grass and tied the horse to it. We set up on a small mound surrounded by a bunch of trees. Talestria was sitting on top of the blankets, chewing on some dried meat. Traveling already was getting old with her. She took a big swallow from the wineskin and let out a good burp. I took off my armor and sat down next to her to have my meal. We eventually laid back and stared at the sky.

  In time, Talestria went to sleep and I got up slowly to again put on my armor. It was harder to put on alone but it helped me kill some time. I looked at the cape attached to the shoulder pieces of the armor. The whole set of armor with the cape made me appear like some villain from a fantasy video game or film. The armor is heavy and well made. There are some scratches on the helmet which I will buff when I get the time.

  I missed my old dragon armor with its amazing magical properties. Also, this suit of armor had no curses on it and didn’t hold the soul of a dragon deity. Talestria promised that she will enchant this armor but it won’t be nearly as powerful as my previous armor. She planned to enchant that with either resistance to the elements or make it lighter and more comfortable. I wonder how we can remove her seal; I am hoping the dwarves might know something, although I don’t think the dwarves have much knowledge in magic. I let out a bit sigh and leaned my back against the side of the carriage. I heard noises a fair distance from our camp. I recognize the source; choguls!

  Slowly, I drew my sword and I waited until I could hear them a bit closer. They approached fairly quietly, although I was so paranoid, that any strange sound held my attention. I tried not to move to see better, so my full cover of armor would make me appear to be an inanimate object. I soon saw the choguls. Even though it was too dark to see them clearly, I knew they were chogul.

  They are shorter than the average human; about four feet tall. Their faces resemble a wooly ape but with a snout like a wolf and plenty of sharp teeth. They are very primitive and stupid. It was no surprise to see them in groups, I counted six of them. They smelled the air and most likely found our scent. The clear night air must have made it easy for them to track us from afar. I could see the dull shine in their beady little eyes. The horse was aware of their presence and already feeling uneasy. Talestria was still snoring away. Most of the choguls appeared to have a club or some make-shift axe made of wood, twine and a sharp piece of metal. They took notice of my presence and raised their weapons. It’s go time!

  I sprinted towards them; the armor really slowed my running speed. With my cape, I appeared larger than a normal man. A few of them stepped back to size me up. I guess they figured that six of them could take on one of me and regrouped before coming at me. I have to admit I felt excited; it has been long time since I had been in a fight, well except our recent encounter with the Blood Witch.

  The weight of the sword felt good in my hands as I slashed down the middle of choguls. I could feel the sword hit one of their weapons and knocked it completely out of their hands. Two of them took swings at me, one with a club and the other had a club with a shard of metal at the end. I stepped back and aside so both glided past me. I could see two of them trying to come around me. I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly as I thrust my sword. The chogul made a loud yelp as my blade sunk in. Another came at my side and hit my right shoulder which only made noise. I turned toward it and after pulling my blade from the dying chogul, slashed at the one who hit me. The blade sliced and I could hear its reaction to the wound. Two down four to go.

  I took one of the make-shift axes from the next assailant and felt another hit on my helmet. That created a ringing in my ears. Choguls are weak but they can do some damage to an unarmored person. It was dark enough to make keeping track of their positions difficult.

  They tried to surround me and were pretty clever about it. I turned, slashed at another. I wasn’t sure if the wound was fatal for this one but I made a wild swing at another and knew it was dead. The blade stuck in its body. One chogul backed away and appeared to realize that retreating would be in its favor right now. The other one was trying to grab my left arm. I left my blade in the fallen chogul and punched th
e one that held my left arm. These gauntlets made it easy to do some serious damage by punching. I think my fist broke a tooth but it was still conscious.

  A small bolt of lightning shot out and hit the fleeing chogul. The blast was enough to cause it to make one loud yelp and fall to the ground. Talestria was awake and cranky.

  “Can’t get a good night sleep.” Talestria muttered as she looked around. I retrieved my sword and jammed in the chogul that I punched. It made a noise of pain as I made sure it was dead. “Are you alright?” Talestria asked. I turned to look at her; again showing signs of bed hair.

  I answered as I pulled the blade out, “Yeah, I am fine, go back to sleep, hon.” She staggered back to the blankets and did just that. I found a piece of cloth on a dead chogul large enough to wipe my blade. The clean-up was a pain. I ended up dragging each one and throwing it into a pile behind some bushes a fair distance from our camp. I began checking their belongings out of sheer boredom and found a few coppers among them. It wasn’t much but could pay for a night at an inn. I walked back to my post afterwards and leaned against the carriage

  I woke up to a rustling sound. It was still night but I could see the faint glow of the sun in eastern sky. It might be coming up in the next hour. I looked over and saw the source of the noise. It was a large lizard with a long tail. It took me a little while to remember it was called a brush hunter. I recall facing one that tried to drag Jerak away and it jammed needle in my neck. The brush hunter was creeping around the dead chogul pile. I stood and watched it. The reptile looks at me and froze for a moment. It quickly bit a limb off one of the choguls and dragged it away. The lizard kept an eye on me but continued on with its meal. I didn’t mind. I am just glad it was not interested in me or my wife.

  I walked back to camp. Talestria was still sleeping with her mouth gaped open. She is a funny sleeper. The horse was awake and eating a mouthful of grass. I stood watching both of them until my wife woke up.

  I removed most of my armor and went to sleep in the carriage while Talestria took the reins. I slept a little more soundly that morning but still woke up for the occasional bumps. I really do miss cars for their comfort and speed. Talestria tried to get me to go back to sleep. I finally gave in around noon.

  She seemed to appreciate that I watch over her at night. I couldn’t ask her to do it. I was afraid of getting on her nerves and she doesn’t seem to too able to protect herself just now. She fired up a small lightning bolt but it seemed the most she could muster. She reached over to grab some food. The horse seemed to want to keep going and we didn’t see any harm in moving on. Talestria picked her teeth with her fingernails; another of her funny habits.

  “I think we might reach the Halatross limits by night fall,” She stated. I yawned. I was still tired as heck. She assumed I that agreed with her which just made her laugh. I might assume she was laughing because I still have those strange side teeth. It is the only thing that remains after encountering the dragon spirit. Several teeth at the side of my mouth remain sharp and only visible if I open my mouth wide enough. They never bother me, and actually come in handy when eating meat, and Talestria finds them interesting.

  I tried to get back to sleep but I could tell Talestria was bored and feeling a bit uneasy. I knew this because she once tried travelling up this way but had Ayjestus trying to stop her. I sort of patched things up between them so there shouldn’t be a reason for her to stop us this time. I am sort of banned from going to Halatross which might be difficult and we needed to keep low profile before reaching Trawlast.

  It was getting too hard for me to sleep. I can’t wait until we reach some even roads for a smoother ride. My body is sore from sleeping in awkward positions and angles. I finally slept with my head on Talestria’s lap. She grew bored and kept petting my head as if I were a kitten. Of course she stopped petting me occasionally to secretly pick her nose. I was too tired to object when she went back to rubbing my hair with the same hand.

  We were hit that evening before we stopped for camp. I perked up still feeling disoriented and heard another voice; male. There were three men in shabby clothing. One with a scruffy beard looked at us and spoke, “Lucky! We found ourselves some prime loot.” The other two guys laughed in such a way that made them sound inbred. Each man had knives and a club.

  Talestria yelled at them, “Be gone, before I turn you into ash!” All three thugs just laughed. The leader spoke, “Oh really? I would like to see that. Just get off of your little wagon and be so kind as to give us your belongings.”

  I didn’t have any armor on but was ready to take them on. Talestria was furious but knew she didn’t have much magic right now. I drew my sword and jumped off the carriage. My legs wobbled a little from not moving for so long. The thugs started to laugh. One of them mocked me, “You can hardly stand!” I decide to use their insults to fuel myself and was already running toward one of them.

  I came at one of the lesser thugs with my blade ready to strike. The guy appeared surprised but was able to parry with his club. The other two drew out their daggers and came at me. As the leader made a stabbing motion I stepped back but the blade grazed my stomach a bit, causing a shallow cut. The other thug stood behind the other small one looking for an opening. I lifted my blade and struck at the leader. The blade slashed halfway into his neck and blood sprayed us.

  The first thug swung and missed my head. I stepped back and readied myself for the next two assaults. The leader fell to the ground which surprised the other two. I grinned as I charged at the one with the club; thrusting my sword into his torso. He screamed and dropped his weapon. My blade went through and I was forced to let it go to avoid being hacked by the last thug. I grabbed his arm that held the blade.

  I was surprised at my strength. I was able to pull the man to the ground. He plopped over his dead leader. I pulled my sword out while pushing off the corpse with my foot. The thug turned around and stared at me, “Please!” I stood over him with my hand gripping the blade, thinking of saying some final words to him but ended up stabbing him between the ribs. A moment later he was dead and my sword was covered in blood.

  I wiped my blade on one of their shirts and checked their belongings. They had some useless junk and some coins. I quickly pocketed the coins and walked back onto the carriage. Talestria was beaming. She looked proud of me. I smiled at her. She shrugged, “I would have helped but my legs were asleep.”

  I just laughed, “No worries, hon.”

  Talestria noticed the scratch on my stomach, “You alright?”

  I climbed up and put my head back on her lap, “Yeah I’ll be fine. It might heal by morning anyway.” I went back to sleep and we started off again. We traveled until we reached the main road which relieved us both. The sky was dark and the horse was tired. There was at least an hour before we would reach Halatross. Talestria sighed a bit. She helped get the horse this far but it refused to move anymore. “We are near Halatross, but what do we do now?” Talestria asked.

  I really didn’t know. It would be great to stay at the inn for the night and get more supplies in the morning. The horse, however, was too stubborn to travel any further. Maybe it was for the better. “I guess we’ll camp here a little off the road tonight” I said.

  Talestria wasn’t too happy with the idea. I looked ahead and could see some farmland a fair distance away. I tried a different way to convince her, “Well, we both know that we might get in trouble for staying at Halatross and we might bring unwanted attention to ourselves. So we should find a quiet spot to sleep one more night. Tomorrow we’ll get supplies in town and head up north.”

  Talestria stared at me but eventually she lowered her head and agreed, “I guess that makes sense. I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed for a change.” I gave her a friendly hug and pulled the horse toward the farmlands.

  I wasn’t sure if we should disturb a farmer or just look for a place out of sight where no one would know of our whereabouts. I cajoled the stubborn horse to take us a little f
urther north and found a cluster of trees. The area wasn’t ideal for camping with a large amount of shrubs and rocks but it would keep us hidden for the night.

  Talestria and I ate a quick dinner and she went to bed. She muttered about finding rocks under her blanket but eventually she fell asleep with a loud snore. I watched her sleep as I sat against a tree. I couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic since this was nearly the same area where I spent my first night in this world. A lot had changed since that night. I collected my memories of all that happened between then and now.

  I heard yelling in the east near the farmlands. I walked over to find the source. There was a man running roughly in our direction. I was fearful. Behind him came two men on horseback. I didn’t need the ability to sense emotion to tell they were ticked at the guy on foot. As the running man came into view, I saw he was wearing fancy red and white clothing. He grasped his hat tightly in his struggle to outrun the horses.

  The horsemen waved their weapons in the air. I stepped into view. The man quickly ran at me. “Any help will be praised!” he said hastily while running past me.

  The two men on horseback stopped right in front of me. “You, there! Move aside!” one of them shouted. He held out a sword; and seemed very hostile. The man on foot was now hiding behind a tree.

  I challenged the two men, “What crime has this man done?”

  The second one shouted, “He was trying to court my woman!” I turned my head and looked at the hiding man who poked his head out. Turning back toward the two men I questioned, “He tried to court your woman?”

  The man hiding behind the tree shouted, “I only had a friendly chat with her! No need to lose my head for it!”

  I looked again at the frightened man. I felt he was telling the truth but before I could be sure, the two mounted men drew their weapons.

  “Move now or we will kill you as well!” one warned as he pointed his sword in my direction.

  “Wait?” I protested, “You guys seem a bit rash!” I could see three more men who coming to assist the two mounted men. The offended man remarked in a hostile tone, “No one dares to talk back at me and defend one I have condemned! Get him!” It seemed I was now target for their wrath!