The First Spark

by T J Trapp

  “You have motivated them,” said Alec.

  Erin turned to Alec. “I can sense that most are adequate riders but need leadership. A few will bolt and run when we face the dragon, but the others will do their job. Now the important issue: How do we fight a dragon?”

  Alec thought for a second before answering. “I have been watching it. That dragon is a big biological storage container of dark energy. It seems to manipulate dark energy instinctively. I can sense it focusing and using its stored dark energy. It uses dark energy to fly, and it consumes its stored dark energy at an incredible rate. At the rate it was using dark energy, I think it could only fly for an hour or two before it must stop and recharge.

  “I don’t think I can create something inside the dragon that would hurt it, like we did against the Aldermen. Anything that I tried to create would give the monster extra dark energy, but if we can wear it down until it is low on dark energy, we might be able to harm it. I don’t think the dragon can live without dark energy to keep it alive.”

  Alec stopped again and thought for a few more seconds. “Your sword might be useful because it has a tricrystal in it. If you can get close enough, I might be able to use the sword as a focus to suck a little dark energy out of the monster. I can treat the dragon as a source and pull dark energy from it. If I could pull enough energy from it, we might be able to stop it.” Erin nodded in understanding.

  Thom and Hank had organized the riders into formations and sought her attention. Erin turned to them. “Our plan is simple,” she said. “We will divide into three groups and attack the beast. Thom, your group will take one side, and Hank, your group the other. My group will take the front. The beast will not die easily so it will take many blows to destroy it. Any group that can safely attack should do so.

  “We only have a few lances so make every one of them count. Throw your spears from close enough that they will penetrate the dragon’s hide. When the beast turns to face your group, retreat. Let’s go!”

  “A dragon to kill! A dragon to kill!” rang from the riders, giving them the courage they didn’t otherwise feel.

  Erin gave the command to advance. The dragon lay on the ground ahead of them half asleep, the bloody remnants of the last rider she had consumed scattered close about. One eye was half-open and nonchalantly watched as Erin approached. Erin sensed the dragon’s emotions as they rode closer. The tangle of interwoven thoughts within the dragon’s mind made it difficult to understand. There was one chain of thoughts from a reptilian brain that wanted to eat and sleep and survive. There was a second chain that felt magnificent to Erin, but was so alien she could not understand it – she sensed that a soul was crying for help but totally isolated from any sensory input. A third interleaved consciousness controlled the animal’s senses and body. That brain appeared to be curious and watching Erin with a detached interest. Then, threaded through all of this was a woven layer of twisted lines, binding the other three parts together.

  Erin rode closer. She sensed the dragon was not afraid of her or her riders, nor particularly interested in them. Erin could not sense any hostility from the dragon. For a second, Erin regretted having to fight such a magnificent creature.

  Her sensing was interrupted as her riders moved into formation. Erin whistled, and the three groups of riders began to circle the dragon. The dragon did not stir and seemed unconcerned. Their circle complete, several of the riders threw spears at the dragon’s side. The spear throws were true, but a dark energy lens swirling around the dragon bent the spear trajectory over her huge body and the spears drove into the ground on the other side. The dragon never flinched.

  Erin charged towards the dragon, her sword shining in the sun, glinting into the dragon’s eye. The dragon appeared mesmerized. Erin approached the giant beast and then rode to one side; the dragon moved her head to follow Erin’s movements. Several of the riders used the distraction to drive their lances into the dragon’s side. Alec felt the dark energy of the beast react to the thrusts. Even with the full weight of rider and trogus at full gallop, the lances barely penetrated her outer scales; however, the attacks roused the dragon from her fascination with Erin’s sword. The dragon swiveled, breaking the lances. The cuts in her side where the lances had penetrated hardened almost immediately, and dark energy flowed, healing any damage. The dragon turned her head and snapped one of the riders from his trogus, breaking in him in half. The dragon’s tail lashed out, and two more riders were down. Then the dragon’s tail snaked towards Erin.

  Instead of trying to flee, Erin goaded her trogus forward towards the beast’s tail. At the last instant, she prodded her trogus to jump and the trogus’ teeth and claws dug into the skin of the dragon as it clambered up and onto her back. Erin hopped off her mount and slashed the animal’s back; her sword glowed with dark energy and interacted with the dark energy in the dragon. Erin was rewarded with a line of fire along her sword cut into the dragon’s skin. Blood gushed from the slash and boiled as it touched the dragon’s burning outer flesh; the dragon screamed with pain from the flow of dark energy into the sword.

  The dragon rolled over to get the annoyance from her back. In the nick of time, Erin jumped and just cleared the rolling beast. She slid to the ground, letting the great tail slide over her sword as its weight pushed her into the soft spongy soil. The dragon roared in pain as the dark energy of the sword cut into her tail and produced another flaming streak. The dragon lifted her tail to stop the pain; then Erin saw the heavy tail flick towards her trogus. Erin sensed the trogus; her trogus recognized her and responded to her senses – it jumped and grabbed the tail with its claws. It rode the tail until the end of its arc and then, responding to Erin’s command, lept off. Erin watched in relief. She had grown fond of her trogus.

  The dragon turned and faced her. Erin looked into the eyes of the beast. Only her blazing sword separated them. She could sense the dragon’s pain, mixed with curiosity about her sword. The dragon opened her mouth and roared; knife-like fangs shone in the sunlight.

  Alec was frantic. He had to do something, and every one of his usual tricks wasn’t going to work – they would only serve to strengthen the dragon. A radical idea came to him but he had no time to think it through before the dragon started her lunge towards Erin. Focus! The dragon started to snap at Erin when a stone arch appeared, shielding Erin. Erin quickly rolled under the arch. The dragon’s teeth crunched into the stone, but the arch held steady, continually renewed from the dragon’s internal dark energy. Erin could smell the dragon’s putrid breath as she crouched only inches from the fore teeth.

  The dragon continued to bite at the stone arch, even as she screamed in pain from dark energy being pulled from her body. Then the dragon reared, pulling the arch into the air with her mouth. Alec released his focus of dark energy, and the stone arch collapsed in the dragon’s mouth, scattering pieces to the ground.

  Erin sensed anger and pain in the dragon. The rearing beast’s torso was now several arns above her, the long neck and giant head looming directly over her. She sprinted towards the dragon’s body, ready to slice again with her sword. But before Erin could reach the animal, with a great bellow the dragon launched herself into the air. She flew almost directly over Erin and headed into the sun. Erin watched the magnificent animal as it seemed to levitate effortlessly.

  Then she turned to her riders and raised her glowing sword high. A great cheer arose from her riders. They had faced the dragon, and it had fled.

  “Riders to me,” Erin shouted.

  Thom and Hank quickly called their riders, and Alec went to help with the injured while Erin mustered her riders.

  “Report in,” she said.

  “We lost five riders in the battle with the dragon and had another five injured enough that they require treatment,” Thom told her. “Ten of the new so-called ‘riders’ fled in fear during the attack. We will never see them again.” He spat in disgust.

  Hank gestured towards the Elf Mountains. “There is a village in t
he direction that the dragon went. I am concerned about its safety.”

  “Then we shall chase the dragon after we have a proper departing ceremony for our fallen comrades,” Erin said. Brun and my sweet sister will have to wait, she thought.

  She found Alec with the injured. I could feel the pain you caused the dragon, she thought to Alec. It is what saved me. What did you do?

  I was desperate, thought Alec back to her, and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “The dragon was about to eat you,” he explained, “and everything that I usually do was only going to add to the dark energy reserve of the dragon. That’s when I had an idea. I treated the dragon like a dark energy source. I focused and pulled energy from the dragon. That’s where I found enough dark energy to create that stone arch. Pulling energy from the dragon seems to hurt it. If I could pull enough energy out, I think the dragon would die. My medallion is strong enough to pull enough energy to enrage the dragon, but I don’t think my medallion is strong enough to kill it. I will have to come up with something else in order for us to defeat the dragon.”

  ✽✽✽

  Erin could sense the dragon in the distance. She had wanted to ride all night to catch the dragon, but Thom convinced her that the riders would be too tired to fight. She had a few hours of sleep with her riders, but Alec did not sleep. He had taken the opportunity to make a new weapon against the dragon – a barbed javelin, with small tricrystals embedded in its hooked end. He managed to finish making three of them before it was time to ride out.

  In the early morning as they approached the small village near the Theland border, Erin could sense intense fear. They soon met scattered groups of villagers fleeing along the path. One group cheered when they saw the armed riders, and Erin called a brief halt to talk to them.

  She and Alec dismounted as five frightened people came up to them. One, an older woman, was shivering, either from the cold morning air or from fear, Alec couldn’t tell which. He directed enough dark energy to make a warm fire emerge from the ground. The people gasped and looked at the fire suspiciously, then decided that the heat was nice and gathered around it, warming their bare hands and feet. Alec pulled a blanket from his pack and wrapped it around the old woman. She looked at him gratefully.

  Erin greeted them. “We are here to help you. What can you tell us?”

  The old woman shook her head and said, “Run! No one can fight the dreaded beast! It came in the late afternoon yesterday and wheeled in the sky above us. Then it landed in my son’s grain field, just outside the village wall. It was going to be the best crop he ever had! Then the beast landed and crushed it all.” Then she stopped, and a tear trickled down her weathered, dirty cheek. “But I guess it won’t matter to him now, what the dragon did to his crop.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alec said.

  The woman regained her composure and continued. “The dragon slept in the field all night. Then early this morning, it woke and tore a hole in the village wall. Our guardsmen tried to stop it, but there was nothing they could do even to slow it down. The beast wandered through town, knocking things down as it went. It found where we were hiding. Then the dragon broke down the wall of our house. It was as if it could sense where we were! When it approached we fled – but we ran right into it. Then, it killed without compassion. It killed my son. It maimed his consort. I don’t know where she is, or even if she lived. The only reason I was spared was that it was busy killing the others as I ran. We have run ever since, until we found you. Please help us!”

  Erin had a sick feeling in her stomach. I’m afraid we are too late, she thought to Alec. She called to Hank, “Task a few of your riders to collect the fleeing villagers, guide them to safety, and help them. Feed them and try to calm them.” Hank nodded. “The rest of us go to fight the beast.”

  Erin and Alec remounted and Erin led forward in a fast trot. The path ran straight towards the main village gate. They came out of the woods into a field of grain on the edge of the village; the stalks were crushed and broken, the heavy seed heads trampled into the mud. Erin could sense the dragon nearby, and then saw her sleeping in front of a hole in the village wall.

  Erin grouped her riders into three groups as before. The other two groups each had several of Alec’s new javelins – ‘wizard toys,’ as the riders called them. Erin led her group towards the sleeping dragon. Her task was to wake the dragon and draw the beast far enough away from the wall that the other groups could attack from the sides. Erin could sense that the dragon was no more interested or concerned about the riders on their mounts than of the beetles that crawled amongst her claws. Rouse the dragon for me, she thought to Alec.

  Focus. He gritted his teeth, then started pulling dark energy from the dragon. The dragon roared, and Erin could sense that it was in pain.

  Keep it up, she thought to Alec. I can feel her distress when you pull dark energy from her.

  Erin drew her sword. Focus. She gripped the hilt tightly. I’m not as good at this as Alec is, she thought. Then she gained her focus and her sword began to glow. Erin felt the dragon’s interest in her sword. The dragon uncoiled and started lumbering towards Erin.

  Erin had been waiting for this and now directed her trogus towards the dragon. The dragon stopped and waited patiently for the trogus and rider to come close enough to catch. Erin sensed and anticipated the dragon’s attack – at the last instant, Erin veered her nimble trogus to the side and the giant mouth closed on empty air. The frustrated dragon charged out after Erin, trying to catch her. Erin rode calmly back towards the dragon, waving her sword, luring the beast away from the village wall.

  The riders on either side used the opportunity to move in close enough to use Alec’s new javelins. A rider goaded his trogus, and the animal scrambled close to the dragon’s side. With all his force he launched the javelin over the dragon. The javelin sailed true and flew over the dragon, landing in the field on the far side. The rider attached the rope from the javelin to his saddle, turned his trogus, and pulled the javelin back over the great beast. The barbs on Alec’s special hooks grabbed and skidded over the dragon’s skin, scratching the surface of her scales, until the hook grabbed. The rope snapped, leaving the hook in the dragon’s side. Dark energy pulsed through the dragon to destroy the hook and heal the wound. The wood shaft was destroyed, and the scratch on her skin healed all the way to the hook. Dark energy pulsed into the hook and the tricrystals that Alec had embedded in the hook acted as a focus to concentrate and release the energy. The dragon cried out as the pain in her side increased. The harder she tried to push dark energy to repair the damage, the more dark energy flowed from the hook. The dragon forgot about chasing Erin and rolled on her back to attempt to dislodge the painful hook.

  “Another javelin – get its wing,” shouted Alec.

  A second javelin-thrower rode close to the rolling dragon and tossed his javelin. It sailed over the dragon. The rider began pulling the rope. The aim had been good and the hook pulled across the dragon’s wing, making a furrow in the thick skin, but didn’t hold. It popped off the wing and the hook embedded firmly in the dragon’s neck. The dragon screamed again as the pain from the second hook throbbed.

  The dragon lashed out at the riders, who by now had overcome their terror of the great beast and were careful to stay away from the fangs and claws. The dragon lunged at a few riders before she sprang into the air and flew towards the Elf Mountains.

  As the ponderous beast floated out of sight, the riders let out a cheer. They had fought the dragon a second time and won. The dragon had been driven away. They hailed Erin with shouts and whistles as she called them to assemble.

  “You have done what no riders have ever done before! You have defeated the dragon, and driven her away! You have spared Theland from this terrible beast! You are Great Riders – the greatest in all our history! I salute you and am honored to have led you in this great fight!”

  “The dragon is gone! The dragon is gone! We have conquered the dragon!” the riders shouted, ch
anting in full voice for several minutes.

  Erin raised her hand to quiet the throng. “Now I must return to my original mission. As the Royal Princess of Theland, I am returning to Freeland City. I have several tasks in the City that require my immediate attention. I would be honored to have any who want to accompany me and my Consort as Theland riders to come with us as part of our party – you will be my honor guard and escort. Any who want to stay here, or leave, may do so. It was my honor to have led such renowned riders in this great fight.”

  Only three of the riders left. The rest remained as part of the Princess’s Royal Escort.

  35 – Amelia

  Erin met with Thom and Hank. “Our first task is to connect with Ferd and the remainder of our riders before we confront Amelia. If everything has gone as planned, Ferd will be traveling on the road that runs alongside the River Ryn. We will proceed in that direction. What do our riders need?”

  “Some of our trogus need to be replaced and other need new saddles and tack before we ride. Can we get the village ostler to help?” Hank asked.

  “And healing herbs,” Thom said. “We have used up our supplies. Would the village have them?” He turned to Hank, and the two men proceeded to enumerate items needed, the probable availability in the nearby village, and other matters of logistics and preparedness.

  It was late in the evening before Erin and Alec had a chance to talk to each other. “Your new weapon prevailed against the dragon and carried the day for us. Without it, I don’t think the dragon would have fled. I sensed that the lines within the dragon were twisted and almost compelling her to fight.”

  Alec sighed. “I have been thinking about your dragon. I think that it is being controlled by the elves using some dragon-equivalent of the drone band that they used on us. You should think about whether you can untwist the lines. I fear we will encounter the dragon again.”