A Dragon’s Tale

Over the next hour, Ethan and Alana moved all her valuables out of the house. There weren't many of them. They stashed the goods in the concealed storage pit Alana had in the woods nearby.

Some hours later, Ethan and Alana had taken up position in the forest close to the edge of the clearing. The moon was out, but the darkness made them almost invisible. Ethan was pleasantly surprised to discover that dragons had good night vision and he could see very well at night. They had a great view of the entire clearing, and they waited.

After an hour, Ethan saw movement. He tapped Alana's shoulder and pointed. There were two men dressed in black sneaking through the clearing toward the house. They were carrying what looked like buckets. They started pouring something all around the base of her house and a few minutes later stole back out of the clearing. Moments later they saw a tiny fire spark to life some distance away, then the fire arched towards Alana's house and a flaming arrow landed at its base.

The house burst into flame almost instantly.

At the same time, a dozen or so men ran into the clearing and took up positions outside the entrance of Alana's burning house. Several of the men took up what looked like Molotov cocktails, threw them inside the house, and waited.

After a few minutes, Hermair called out. "They're gone. Fan out and search the forest, and destroy her trees while you're at it."

The men pulled out torches, lit them in the burning fire of the house, and started to fan out into the woods. Along the way, they drew their swords and started hacking at Alana's trees. Alana sniffled and Ethan could almost feel her tension

"We should go before they find us." He whispered.

She nodded in reply and they turned to head back into the forest.

Behind them, the fire suddenly dimmed. Ethan looked behind him and saw something very strange. The fires were as large as ever, but it was almost as if someone had sucked most of the light from the flames themselves. They were massive but gave very little light.

Then one of the men on horseback extended his palm and a bright beam of flickering yellowish light shone from his palm. He quickly directed the light across the edge of the clearing until Ethan and Alana were lit up like a Christmas tree.

"There!" Hermair shouted, and his soldiers began running toward them.

"Run!" Ethan shouted to Alana. He heard the sound of bowstrings and moments later Alana cried out in pain as an arrow grazed her arm.

Something welled up inside Ethan.

A rage that he had never felt before filled his mind. It was deep, primal, and he felt it in his bones. He opened his mouth to shout at the men who were attacking them.

Moments later, the whole clearing was filled with the most terrifying sound he had ever heard. It was the roar of some great beast that chilled him to the very bone. He could feel his heart freezing in his chest and his muscles refused to move. The soldiers in the clearing faltered in their advance. Some of them cowered behind their shields. Ethan could see the sheer terror that the sound instilled in them.

He was sure his own face mirrored theirs.

Ethan drew breath and the sound disappeared. It was only a moment later that he realized: the roar had come from him. His rage bubbled over; he dropped to all fours and charged them. He was moving faster than he thought possible; doing at least twenty miles per hour.

He reached the first soldier in just a few seconds. The soldier was still rooted to the spot. Ethan leapt at him and landed feet first into his torso. The man crumpled and Ethan -- acting purely on instinct -- took a flying leap toward the mage who was shining the light. The mage dived off his horse but he wasn't fast enough. Ethan felt his claws sink into something soft, followed by a ripping sound and a cry of pain. Ethan landed on his feet beyond the horse. The frantic animal took off at top speed in the opposite direction.

The soldiers seemed to have recovered and turned to face the new threat.

"Run Ethan!" He heard Alana shout.

Ethan saw half a dozen bows pointing in his direction and ran for cover behind the burning house. Halfway there he felt a burning pain in his hind leg and fell forward. He rolled several times, which fortunately put the burning house in between him and the archers.

He looked down at his leg and saw a broken arrow sticking out of his thigh. The arrow had punched right through his scales and made moving the leg feel like he was stabbing himself with a branding iron. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have hit the bone or a major artery and he could still move.

Ethan dragged himself to his feet, despite the pain, as the soldiers rounded the house. He had just started limping away when the soldiers drew their bows back. He threw himself forward and the arrows missed his body, although a sharp pain in his tail let him know they hadn't missed him entirely.

Ethan heard the twang of another bowstring and winced, expecting pain. However, the cry of pain came from someone else. One of the soldiers fell with an arrow sticking through his chest. Moments later another fell, and then another.

"Get out of there, Ethan." Alana shouted. He could just see her nocking another arrow. She let it loose before ducking behind a tree as the soldiers returned fire. Ethan ignored the pain and ran flat-out toward Alana.

The fire behind him dimmed again. Ethan glanced behind and was shocked to see the fires burning incredibly low, as if someone had sucked them away with a vacuum. Then he saw a red glowing ball in the hand of the other mage. The mage extended his hand and the fiery ball of light shot toward Ethan. He was moving too fast to dodge it so he did the only thing he could think of.

He jumped.

The red-hot fireball hit the ground below him and exploded. Ethan was blasted up at least twenty feet into the air and his momentum carried him forward. On instinct, he twisted in mid-air like a cat and almost managed to land on his feet, but failed the landing because of the burning pain in his leg. He tumbled and rolled to the edge of the forest.

"Ethan, get up!" Alana yelled.

Ethan felt another arrow graze his back, which gave him the necessary motivation to move, despite the pain. He limped into the forest to join Alana. She fired another few arrows -- a cry of pain echoing from a soldier after each one -- then headed straight into the forest. Ethan tried to follow her, but he was in incredible pain and could barely keep up.

Alana never left him behind though.

Every time he slowed down, she did too.

She urged him on, but wouldn't leave him.

After about ten minutes, he couldn't hear their pursuers anymore and Alana stopped. "Humans can't see well in the dark. I think we can stop here for a moment."

Ethan dropped like a ton of bricks. He felt mentally and physically drained. The arrows in his tail and leg were making it hard to do anything but whimper in pain as he panted to catch his breath. "Are you... are you sure we'll... we'll be okay?"

"For a few minutes, yes; humans have terrible night vision." Alana said, then knelt down by his head and looked him in the eye. "I need to take those arrows out or the wounds will get infected. I don't have anything to cauterize the wounds, so you'll need to use magic to close and disinfect them."

"I never... used..." Ethan panted. "...it before."

"You're a dragon." Alana said calmly. "Dragons have an innate command of magic. And besides, if you don't you're going to die."

"Dying sounds like a bad idea." He groaned. "I'll do my best."

"Roll over on your back so I can take a look." She said after moving to his leg. Ethan did, though it felt like his leg and tail were going to fall off. At this point, he almost would've been okay with that.

"The heads broke off while you were running, so I just need to pull them out." Alana said. "On the count of three. One, two, three!"

Ethan felt like someone had just dipped his leg in molten lava. He kicked out in reflex and felt his leg connect with something; something that was soft and felt very much like a hundred-pound wood elf.

"Sorry." Ethan said through gritted teeth. Moments later he felt something hit his gut. Hard. Something he guessed was the foot of the same hundred-pound wood elf.

"Ethan." Alana hissed into his ear. "If you do that when I pull the arrow out of your tail, I'm going put them back in."

"I'm sorry Alana, I didn't mean to..." Ethan trailed off as Alana came into view. She had a dragon-foot-shaped mud stamp on her cheek. He couldn't help himself. He started laughing -- quietly -- but he was laughing.

Alana had a look on her face halfway between anger and amusement. Finally, she seemed to settle on amusement and started chuckling too.

"What... what are we laughing about?" Ethan asked.

"I don't... I don't know." She managed to say, despite clutching her sides and trying hard not to laugh loudly. "My entire life is gone and..." It happened in an instant; Alana's face changed as the enormity of her own words hit her.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

"My entire life is gone." She looked away from him and sniffled. "I'm sorry."

"I just kicked you in the face and you're apologizing." Ethan said. "I basically just cost you your entire life, I'm sorry."

Alana tried wiping her eyes while still averting them from him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's... I'll be okay in a minute."

Ethan grimaced as he pulled himself forward with one arm. With the other hand he reached up and pulled Alana into a rather awkward hug. It was awkward because she was kneeling and he was still lying down. Alana resisted for a fraction of a second, and then just collapsed onto Ethan's shoulder. As she lay there crying quietly, Ethan felt an enormous weight of guilt press down on him.

After about a minute, Ethan couldn't take it. "I'm sorry that I cost you your home."

Alana pulled herself together long enough to sit up. Then she drew back and glared at him.

"What?"

"Don't you ever blame yourself for that again." She said firmly. The trail of tears on her face glistened in the moonlight, but her eyes were set in stone. "You didn't do anything except save my life. The problem is Lord Delmar, not you. He sent those men, not you. They torched my home and trees, not you. You charged over a dozen men in a stupid attempt to distract them so I could escape. You don't need to apologize at all."

He smiled slightly. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She wiped the rest of the tears out of her eyes. "Now hold still while I get this other arrow out."

A few painful moments later, Ethan was mercifully free of arrows and Alana sighed, "Well, the bleeding isn't too bad, but you'll need to close these wounds with magic or they'll get infected."

Ethan flexed his leg and tail; they were a lot less painful without the arrows. "So how do I use magic?"

"Magic responds to life, especially to its will. It's fairly easy inside your own body, but it can be very draining if you haven't done it very much."

"I'll take drain over pain."

"Okay." She continued. "Like I said before, all living things pull mana from the Ether. Magic users store this inside their own bodies. Can you feel it in your body?"

"I hate abstracts, but I'll try." Ethan closed his eyes and tried to pay close attention to his own body. He was expecting to find nothing like what she had described, but he was pleasantly surprised. "I can feel it. It's like... liquid power or gas rolling around inside me."

"Good." Alana said. "That was the easy part. Mana responds to your willpower more than anything else. Now, try to move it around with your mind."

Ethan did, but it didn't seem to be paying attention. It reminded him of an ice slushy or a cloud. It was lumpy and when he tried to touch it parted before him and closed up behind.

"It won't budge."

"It usually takes years of practice." Alana noted. "Normally I'd say you were screwed, but you're a dragon. A dragon's command of magic is far more instinctive than other creatures. Give it a try and go with your gut."

Ethan hurled all his willpower at the slushy mana cloud, but it barely moved. After several minutes of trying, he still hadn't moved any part of it.

"Yeah, it's not paying attention." Ethan sighed.

"Are you trying to move the whole thing, or just part of it?" Alana asked. "It's a lot harder to move a lake than a bucket of water."

Ethan closed his eyes again and focused on just a tiny portion of the cloud. It wiggled slightly, but went no further. He threw all his willpower at it and very slowly, it started to move. It was painfully slow, like watching molasses pour in winter. He let up for a moment to relax his brain, and the mana seemed to slide back into place.

"I'm screwed." He announced.

"No, you're not. Thank Illuminar they were using bodkin arrows so the wounds are pretty small and the arrows only hit muscle. There's no organ damage and the biggest risk is infection. Focus, I'm not going to let you die like an animal tonight." Alana picked up her bow and waved it in a mock-threatening manner. "Now get started or I'll give you a few more holes to practice on."

"Yes ma'am." Ethan grinned, glad that she wasn't serious. He looked at the wound on his leg. It had stopped bleeding and was about a half-inch in diameter.

"You can do this; I closed my arrow wound while we were running." Alana turned around and Ethan could see a trail of blood where the arrow had grazed her arm. However, he couldn't see a wound even though he'd seen her get hit. There was some dried blood, but no cut.

"Focus on the mana right next to your leg wound." She encouraged. "In your mind's eye, force it to close the wound and it will do so."

Ethan nodded and tried again. He focused on the mana cloud near his leg and pushed with all his might. Instantly, pain shot up and down his leg from the wound. He strangled a cry in his throat and instantly stopped pushing the mana.

"You pushed the mana into the wound instead of focusing on closing the wound didn't you?" Alana said with a wry smile.

Ethan winced. "You could've warned me."

"And then I would've put the idea in your head." She said. "Now try again, and this time focus on closing the wound."

He closed his eyes and focused on the throbbing hole in his leg. With all his might he willed the mana cloud to close the wound. He could feel it move and there was no pain, but it was moving even slower than before. Ethan doubled down on mental pressure trying to force the wound to close.

"I... I can't..." He was panting after several minutes of trying. "It's too hard."

"You're already halfway there." Alana said. "Look."

Ethan twisted his head around to look at the hole in his leg. It was definitely smaller. It was about a half inch in diameter the last time he had looked, but now it had shrunk to only a quarter inch.

"Holy mother of..." Ethan's jaw dropped. "I did that?"

Alana nodded. "You absolutely did. How much mana do you have left?"

Ethan closed his eyes to look at the slushy mana cloud. Whereas before it had seemed to fill his whole body, it was much less dense now. It was less like a slushy and more like a cloud, and was certainly less substantial. Despite that, it seemed less inclined to move, not more.

"I'm not sure, less than a quarter though."

Alana glanced at his wounds then stood up. "Good, then you should be able to do the rest yourself. I recommend you climb a tree and finish healing."

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going to get the staves we stashed, along with a few provisions and food." She said. "If you climb a tree and finish healing, I'll be back in about thirty minutes."

"I can't climb a tree like this." Ethan pointed to his leg.

Alana rolled her eyes. "Look, young dragons are basically like mountain lions with wings, scales, and magic. Mountain lions can climb trees just as well as any other cat. You have claws and absolutely can climb a tree. You don't even need both legs to do it. Go on, give it a try."

Ethan got up on three legs and limped to the nearest tree. It was about two feet in diameter and looked sturdy. He reached up and hooked his claws on the tree. They seemed to hold well, so he did a half jump and hooked the claws of his good hind leg into the tree as well. He pushed off with his hind leg, grabbed higher with his arms, then pulled his hind leg up just like a cat.

It was easy.

Really easy.

In a few seconds, he was twelve feet in the air and lying down on a thick branch. His leg and tail still hurt, but at least he wouldn't be discovered too easily up there.

"Well done." Alana smiled. "I'll be back soon."

With that, she turned and darted off through the forest making barely a sound. Ethan hooked his fore claws around the branch for good measure, and then started healing his leg again. It didn't get any easier as his mana pool slowly drained away, though he definitely got the sense that it would take less mana as he got better at it.