A Dragon’s Tale

Despite her best efforts to remain asleep, Rachel felt the dream world fading and consciousness returning. A quick check told her that someone had finished healing her wound after she had passed out. She guessed it was Alana, who was an incredible person and talented enchantress but wasn't as good with spells. The healing was reasonably well done, but with a little work it could be nigh unto perfect.

A few minutes of concentrating and a little mana put the wound perfectly right; just good as new, except possibly a scar.

That done, she settled back into her hammock. The moment she moved, she realized the bottom half of her shirt was missing. She assumed some had cut it away because it was wet, and again assumed it was Alana.

She smiled

Her friend was so thoughtful.

She closed her eyes, but realized she was far too awake to get back to sleep. She rolled out of the hammock, got dressed in some proper clothes, and wandered up to the weather deck. Judging by the moon's position, it was about two hours before daybreak.

She leaned against the railing in the peace and calm, feeling the cool night breeze and fresh air caress her face. Her hair moved gently in the wind and she closed her eyes to savor the moment. Anthiel was playing a slow, relaxing tune on some sort of small pipe.

It was so peaceful.

She looked down at the black mark on her finger where the will-breaker ring had been. She thought about the fact that her own father had given it to her; his own daughter. He had been so kind sometimes, yet so cruel at other times. So gentle with her, yet so harsh with everyone else.

She looked at the black spot where the ring had been, wondering.

She let her thoughts wander until she heard the door to the captain's cabin open. Turning her head, she saw Alana wander out sleepily, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Why are you awake so early?" The redhead asked with a smile.

* * *

Alana was sure she was dreaming.

She was in a small cabin that looked like a strange mix of the home she'd grown up in and the captain's cabin on the Argo. She was sitting in a rocking chair similar to the one that her adoptive mother had always sat in. She was rocking gently back and forth, singing a soft lullaby to the baby that was nursing at her breast. She could feel the baby's gentle suction and the sensation of milk leaving her breast.

There was something incredibly satisfying about it as she looked into her infant's face. The baby was alternately closing her eyes and looking into Alana's own. The look of contentment on the baby's face made the wood elf's heart soar.

It felt amazing.

Wonderful.

Sitting there nursing her daughter, she could honestly say she'd never felt so happy or fulfilled in her entire life. Maybe her wedding night with Ethan, but that was so different she didn't think she could compare them.

"Your daughter is so beautiful."

Alana turned her head to see another woman sitting across from her. For some reason, she wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed that her breast was fully exposed in front of someone she'd never met.

The woman had a heart-shaped face that was a vision of perfect femininity. Her face had the smoothness of a girl in her teens, but her eyes had the wisdom of someone incredibly ancient. Her hair was golden and so pale it was almost white, but that might've just been the sunlight streaming through the window behind her.

"Who are you?" The wood elf asked, surprised that she was so at ease around this perfect stranger.

"My name is Gabriella." The luminous woman replied with a smile. Somehow, her smile put Alana at ease and made her feel relaxed and content.

"My name is Alana."

"Yes, Alana Ejder, also called dragon-bride. I met your husband once."

"Oh?"

The other woman nodded. "Just once, but I've spent some time with one of your fellow wives."

"Who?"

"Beth. She really is a lovely girl, just like you are."

For the first time, Alana felt slightly sad. "She died though, when did you meet her?"

Gabriella smiled again. "The two of you are going to get along famously in the future."

"Oh." Alana replied because she couldn't think of what else to say.

She felt her infant daughter finish draining her left breast, and then start fussing because she was still hungry. The wood elf slipped the shoulder off her right side, exposing her other breast. Then she moved the baby to the other side so her daughter could finish her meal. The infant latched on to the nipple, and there was the briefest bit of pain before her other breast began to let down its milk to the hungry baby.

Only afterward did it occur to Alana that she'd just bared her breast to this complete stranger, and didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable about it. She looked at Gabriella confused.

"I'm glad you're so comfortable with me." The other woman said. "But I'm not here to talk unfortunately, though that would be lovely."

"Oh?"

"I have a message, something to strengthen you for the dark days ahead."

The smile on Alana's face faltered. "Oh?"

"Yes." Gabriella replied. "I have a promise from my Lord: you will have this." She indicated the room around her and then the baby she was nursing. "You'll hold the baby that's growing in your womb and nurse her just like this. At times it will seem impossible for either of you to survive, but you will. Remember that. No matter what happens, hold onto this dream; it will keep you going when the world around you appears to be crumbling under your feet... which it will. There are dark days ahead, but you'll get through them."

"Dark days?"

"But you'll get through them; both of you." Gabriella nodded her head toward the baby nursing at her breast.

Alana looked down. Her daughter was just finishing and appeared to be fighting sleep. She had this sleepy-contented look on her face that just made the wood elf's heart melt.

"And we'll both be okay?" She asked again as she just stared at the wondrous sight of her baby. She was absolutely perfect.

"You will both be okay." The other woman said.

Alana stared at her daughter for several seconds before speaking again. "And what about Eth--" She stopped mid-sentence as she realized she was alone in the cabin...

And then she felt herself begin to wake up.

"No, no not yet." She said as she looked at her baby, now asleep in her arms. She stared at her for as long as she could, until the dream faded and she was left looking at the inside of her eyelids.

She was awake.

She could feel Ethan's breathing and his arm draped over her protectively as he slept. She lay there unmoving, going over every detail of the dream repeatedly to etch it into her memory. Every tiny detail, especially the look on her daughter's face as she had slept in her arms.

There was nothing like it.

Nothing she'd ever experienced compared to the joy of holding her own baby in her arms. The feeling was indescribably wonderful. The only thing that could've possibly made it better was having Ethan there while she nursed. She lay in bed for quite a while savoring the memory.

Finally, she realized she wasn't going to get back to sleep and didn't want to stay in bed; she was too restless. She was incredibly excited for ten months in the future when she could replay her dream for real.

She carefully extricated herself from Ethan's arms, slipped on her dress, and headed out onto the weather deck, yawning and rubbing her eyes to banish the last vestiges of sleep from her brain.

"Why are you up so early?" Rachel asked with a smile. She was leaning on the railing and looked pensive.

"I had a dream and couldn't get back to sleep after I woke up."

"Oh?"

Alana hesitated for a moment, then joined Rachel at the railing and recounted the dream, including Gabriella telling her that dark days were ahead. Rachel listened without interrupting and was silent for several moments afterward.

"Hmm." Rachel mused after a while.

"What?"

"It sounds like the same woman who visited Ethan; I'm pretty sure she was an angel."

"Oh, it does indeed." Alana stared out into the darkness, her elf eyes rendering it not terribly hard to see. "I wonder why she visited us both. I mean, I believe in Illuminar and always tried to follow the Book of Light, but I'm certainly not His most devoted follower. Ethan isn't even sure He exists, so why us?"

"I don't know. I'm more concerned about these 'dark days' the angel mentioned to both of you." She leaned an arm on the railing and turned toward the elf. "It sounds ominous."

Alana put her hand over her womb. "At least she'll be okay."

Rachel smiled. "You're going to be a wonderful mother."

The wood elf beamed. "Thank you."

They were silent for a few moments before Rachel spoke again. "Any idea how Ethan plans to fight Havorleth?"

"No, but he did come up with a way to improve the grenades so we won't have to worry about a repeat of your wound."

"That was the grenade?" Rachel's jaw dropped. "From that far away?"

Alana nodded, then explained the shrapnel and Ethan's solution for it. "The only real question is how to hollow out some wood so there's room for the gunpowder."

"That's easy, I'll burn it out."

Alana raised her eyebrow.

"Seriously, it was one of the few practical exercises the court mage taught me before my father ordered him to stop. It's a great way to learn control for your ability to manipulate heat. The goal is to have the outside so thin when you're done, that you can roll it out like paper. I was never that good, but I certainly can hollow out a few blocks of wood. We have some wood that's the right size in the hold and it doesn't even take that long if you have a decent fire. In fact..."

Rachel looked around at the night sky, which was still an hour or two before daybreak. "I could probably do a few before the sun comes up if we start the breakfast fire early. You can enchant them as I finish. I bet we could get four or five done before daybreak."

Alana beamed.

* * *

Ethan felt around the bed for his lovely bride as he woke. When he didn't feel her, he reached out with his mind. *Good morning beautiful.*

*Good morning handsome.* Her cheery reply came. *Rachel and I have been working on something. I think you'll want to see it.*

*Oh?*

*Hurry. Besides, breakfast is almost ready.*

Ethan yawned and then dragged himself out of the bed. He stretched to work out the kinks from last night's battle. He felt a little stiff, but otherwise right as rain. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the sky had begun to lighten from the blacks of night to the dark blues of pre-dawn.

He left the captain's cabin and walked out onto the weather deck.

Alana and Rachel were sitting next to the iron firepan over which breakfast was usually cooked. The fire was lit, but breakfast was nowhere in sight. Rachel was staring intently at a small cylinder of wood about the size of a can of beer. A few feet away, Alana was concentrating on a nearly identical piece of wood. Nearby, Serif was whittling some small cylindrical pegs and several finished ones lay in a bowl at his feet.

"What's all this?" He asked.

Alana looked up from what she was doing a smiled broadly. The light from the embers cast a warm, flicking glow over her whole body, accentuating her beauty. He knew he could look forward to seeing that smile for the rest of his life and inwardly thought he was the luckiest man alive.

"These are the wooden grenades you mentioned last night." Her eyes twinkled.

He felt his jaw drop. "Really? So fast?"

"Yup."

Rachel spoke up. "They are a lot faster than those metal ones you had me make yesterday and take far less mana too. I burned out the inside through this hole at the top, and Serif volunteered to make pins to plug them, which Alana can then magically fuse to the grenade's body."

His wife grinned. "As long as these look right, we can fill them with gunpowder and we'll be done. I already put the enchanted leather fuses inside."

"You ladies are amazing!" He bounded over and swept Alana off her feet, pulling her into a fierce hug and kissing her like her life depended on it.

"You better watch it sir, or else..." she trailed off as she looked around at the others, then switched to telepathy. *Or else I might start misplacing my clothes.*

He felt his cock begin to stir, so he activated his disguise gem to make it appear like he wasn't aroused but still looked like himself as a dragon otherwise.

"Thank you for that." Rachel said with an amused smile.

"For what?" He asked.

She raised her eyebrow, then glanced at the disguise gem hanging from his neck, then at Alana.

"You're incredibly perceptive, did you know that?" He replied.

The corners of Rachel's mouth twitched slightly upward as she gave a subtle smile. It would've looked arrogant on anyone else, but it was slightly endearing on Rachel for some reason.

Ethan let go of Alana, walked over to the redhead and knelt down in front of her. "I owe you a huge 'thank you' for saving my life last night, and an apology." He grimaced. " I'm sorry about the shrapnel from the grenade hurting you."

She smiled back at him. "You're welcome and please don't worry about it. You would've done the same for me, and did. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still in your debt for taking that will-breaker ring off me, not the other way around."

"Well, thank you anyway." He stood up and nodded toward the grenade bodies. "How close are those to being done?"

"Very." Alana replied. "I finished three of them and I'm almost done with this one. If you can mix up some gunpowder and add it, I can seal the tops in five minutes."

Ethan looked around the ship trying to think. They were all tired, but Havorleth had taken a bit of a beating. He had probably healed all his wounds by now, but they needed to fight him anyway and perhaps the early bird would get the worm, or dragon.

"Did anyone see where Havorleth went after he fled?" He asked.

"Aye." Anthiel replied, peaking her head over the railing on the quarter deck. "It was dark, but I believe he headed toward that hill." She pointed to a hill maybe a mile distant off their port flank.

Ethan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They had come this far; there was no sense in backing out now.

"Anyone else feeling like a bit of pre-dawn dragon hunting?" He asked.

Rachel frowned. "Is that wise? I don't think any of us are at one hundred percent and a cornered animal is dangerous."

"I agree, but we can't wait around for him to attack us here again, which I'm sure he will before long." Ethan glanced at the dark blue sky of pre-dawn. "He'll probably attack again later today; I would. We'll be at a disadvantage if we wait and let him attack us here, but we'll have an advantage if we attack him on his own terrain."

"What advantage." Alana asked.

"He won't pursue." Serif said quietly. "He will remain with his golden hoard and defend it to the death. We can retreat if we are losing, but he most likely won't chase us very far, if he does at all."

"Exactly." Ethan said. "We also have a bunch of the metal grenades left that I'm leery about using. But if we can chuck them into his cave while he's in there, we might not even have to fight him; the grenades might do our job for us and we'd be safe from the shrapnel."

"Ah." Rachel said as she nodded. "That is a good plan. I can even use my magic to propel them deeper into the cave."

"Perfect." Ethan said. "Plus, we'll have a few more wooden grenades we can use if he comes out after us. That should at least buy us enough time to get away. He probably won't chase us because he'll want to guard his gold. Heck, even if we don't kill him, we might convince him that we're too dangerous to mess with."

"That's also a good point." Rachel nodded again.

"So, who's up for a spot of dragon hunting on this fine morning?"

"I'll go wherever you do." Alana replied.

"I'm in." Rachel nodded.

"I'll wake Raklan." Serif sighed.

"I'll keep the ship safe." Anthiel said.

* * *

"I'll watch your back." Beth said softly, though no one could hear her.

She couldn't think of what else to do. She had seen the whole battle between the Argo's crew and Havorleth while feeling powerless do anything. It took most of her concentration to touch something. However, she could move through walls and look ahead for them, not that she could communicate what she saw at the moment.

She'd spent all of the previous day on the Argo, watching everything with interest as they made the grenades. She had been incredibly frustrated because she couldn't ask a single question about them. It was fascinating though.

She wasn't sure what she could do to help, but she knew she wanted to do something. She watched as they all scarfed down a hurried breakfast while Alana finished the grenade bodies in between mouthfuls. Ethan was mixing gunpowder as he ate, and poured it into the grenades when the wood elf was done. Afterwards she sealed the grenade bodies with wooden pegs that Serif had made.

They were ready for war, and Beth couldn't do anything but watch.

As soon as everything was prepared, they lowered the rope ladder and everyone started climbing down. Beth followed them down, wishing she could talk with them and missing their company.

When they all were on the ground, Anthiel pulled up the rope ladder and they began to walk through the rather sparse forest toward Havorleth's lair. It was still before dawn, but not by much. Beth guessed they would reach the dragon's lair a few minutes before the sun crested the horizon.