A Dragon’s Tale

Beth had run as fast as she could to keep up with Ethan as he'd charged across the field to save Alana. It wasn't easy, even with him stopping to throw a second round of grenades.

As he leapt into the air to get around the boulder, Kendra emerged, having taken shelter behind a nearby bush. As Ethan hit the apex of his leap, she stood up and drew her bow.

Beth charged at her as fast as she could and put all of her concentration and willpower into making her hands solid. Her plan was to knock the bow out of Kendra's hands.

It didn't work.

The dragon huntresses was incredibly strong for some reason and Beth just couldn't make her hands solid enough. Her hands hit the bow, but only slightly jarred it just as the arrow left the string.

* * *

"You fucking Saidow spawn!" Kendra screamed in rage and frustration as her bow was jarred by an invisible force just as she loosed the arrow, causing it to go off its mark slightly. The dragon howled in pain as the arrow grazed its shoulder and the crossbar slammed into the wound. But she could tell it wasn't a serious wound. It probably wouldn't even slow the beast down.

Then it was her turn to dodge as the dragon's accursed hammer came flying at her head. She leapt out of the way, her pulse racing as she remembered what had happened the last time she'd encountered it. The dragon had survived then too.

It didn't make sense.

How?

How in Illuminar's name had that beast managed to elude death at her hands; not once, not twice, not even thrice, but four times!

"Fuck!" She shouted as she dived again to avoid the hammer.

Boom!

Another one of those artificial thunder peals sounded at the entrance to the larger dragon's lair. There was a mighty dragon's roar and then a dragon twice her mark's size bounded out of its cave and took to the skies. It was coughing and spluttering as if trying to catch its breath. She didn't blame it with the amount of dust that was pouring from the cave.

Kendra grabbed her last Dragon Slayer Arrow from her quiver, nocked it to her bow, and then turned to face the smaller dragon. It was maybe twenty feet away; close enough that she probably couldn't draw and fire before it was upon her.

Havorleth roared.

They both glanced at the larger dragon, then at each other.

As much as she wanted to kill the dragon facing her, he was a much smaller threat -- literally -- than the one now flying above them. Once the larger dragon cleared its eyes and lungs, it would attack in earnest since the dust would keep everyone out of the cave with its hoard. She wasn't prepared to fight two dragons at once, and she wasn't willing to die to kill the one in front of her.

"Shoot him." The smaller dragon nearly ordered as it lowered its spear slightly.

"And leave myself defenseless." She scoffed as she glanced at her last Dragon Slayer arrow. "Never."

It growled. "We fucked up. Our grenades chased him out of his lair and I'd bet my airship he won't stop until we're all cinders. I won't let him hurt my wife."

Its eyes blaze with a ferocious intensity. "Shoot him."

She shook her head. There was no way she could risk it. This beast would be upon her in moments and she would barely have time to draw her sword.

"Shoot him now." The dragon commanded.

She locked eyes with it and could feel its gaze boring into her, a weak compulsion to obey buried under it. She resisted easily and shook her head. She wasn't going to leave herself defenseless.

For one moment, her prey looked defeated. Its bravado left and it almost looked like a man about to lose everything. It glanced at the unconscious wood elf still lying by the boulder and she could see something behind its eyes. Something she'd never seen in a dragon before.

Desperation.

"Please." It pleaded as it glanced at the wood elf again, concern written all over its face. "Not for me, for her. Please..." Its body language changed, and suddenly it looked more like a dragon protecting its gold as it commanded her. "Shoot. Him. Now."

She did.

She didn't know why.

It didn't make sense.

Something about the way it spoke perhaps. Something about its aggressive, commanding voice, or its posture maybe. Perhaps something about the urgency in its voice; the desperation of moments ago. Maybe the concern on its face when it looked at the wood elf.

She didn't know the reason.

In one smooth motion, Kendra the Dragon Huntress obeyed a dragon by turning, drawing her Dragon Slayer Bow back, and releasing her last Dragon Slayer Arrow at the larger dragon.

Havorleth roared in pain.

The arrow had missed its body but embedded itself in its wing. With a growl, the smaller dragon turned and leapt into the air, calling its hammer to its hand as it did so.

Kendra stared in disbelief.

Not only that the smaller dragon hadn't attacked her, but also that she had shot the larger one. Nothing explained it. Nothing whatsoever. She had never taken orders from a dragon before, though many of them had tried to command her.

Why?

Slowly, she shook herself out of her reverie and began to plan. She needed another arrow to kill the smaller dragon, but from where? Her first arrow was a hundred yards away and probably blunted after striking the stone. The third was embedded in the larger dragon.

But the second...

She looked around, trying to find the second arrow. After grazing the smaller dragon, the crossbar at the rear had hit its shoulder and thus it had careened off course and into the underbrush somewhere. It would take a while to find it, but with two dragons fighting it out above the field, she certainly had some time to spare.

* * *

Ethan charged his hammer as his powerful wings carried him into the skies above Havorleth. Unlike the previous night, this time he wouldn't miss. This time he was going to fry his enemy to a crisp. He felt a low growl escape his throat as his dragon nature rose in response to the other dragon nearby. He almost purred in satisfaction. He felt his blood rise and excitement grow in equal measure. The dragon inside of him was ecstatic.

At last; an equal to fight.

Havorleth was struggling to stay airborne with the arrow embedded in his wing, and it was clearly causing him a lot of pain. Ethan flew above him and released his hammer's charge.

CRACK!

A bolt of electricity arced downwards, striking Havorleth and then continued to the ground. The dragon himself cried out in pain, but otherwise didn't look to be very hurt. He flapped weakly with his injured wing, then aimed for the ground and made a controlled descent, almost crash-landing in the middle of the field.

He landed halfway between his lair and Alana's hiding place.

Ethan likewise dove towards the ground, flapping his wing at the last moment to slow his descent and dropped lightly to the earth.

Havorleth growled at him. "You'll pay for this whelp."

"Make me." Ethan laughed mirthlessly as he drew a wooden grenade and threw it at the ground at Havorleth's feet. The larger dragon wasn't taking any chances. He leapt to the side moments before the grenade exploded.

BOOM!

The explosion knocked Havorleth off balance and he stumbled, but quickly regained his balance. Evidently, Alana had been right about the shrapnel turning to ash within a short distance because he was completely unharmed.

Havorleth's eyes went wide as he looked at the small crater the grenade had left, then he glanced at the dust still pouring from his cave. "How?!"

Ethan grabbed another grenade and hefted it in his hands. He felt his blood rush as this fight made him feel alive. "You won't live long enough to find out."

He threw the grenade directly at Havorleth, who opened his mouth and spewed a geyser of flame at it. Moments later, the grenade exploded in midair between them, only two seconds after being activated. Apparently, the fuse's enchantment to draw heat worked a lot faster when surrounded by dragon's breath.

Havorleth bounded forward breathing fire, so Ethan leapt backwards and took to the skies. The larger dragon started to spread his wings, but winced as the motion jostled the arrow and he retracted them again.

That's when Rachel, Raklan and Serif charged.

Havorleth responded by turning toward them and spewing a veritable fountain of fire. Raklan and Serif took shelter behind their shields, Rachel dove behind Serif's shield and started siphoning heat away from the dragon's breath. Moments later, she condensed the heat into a tiny, fist-sized fireball, and launched it like a cannonball at Havorleth.

The larger dragon flinched at the impact and stopped breathing fire almost immediately.

Ethan dropped his hammer and called his spear to his hand. From up above, he flipped it around to use the armor-piercing spike and dove at Havorleth. At the last second, the larger dragon glanced up at the sky and jumped out of the way. Ethan flapped hard and landed where the other dragon had stood mere moments before.

Havorleth backed away as Serif, Raklan, Ethan, and Rachel advanced, the fiery mage sticking close to Serif and Raklan who held the large shields. As the larger dragon backed away, Ethan noticed that Havorleth was getting closer and closer to where Alana was lying unconscious.

He spread his wings, leapt into the air, and with a couple flaps landed between Havorleth and Alana. Unfortunately, the move backfired.

Badly.

The larger dragon glanced back at Ethan, then smiled and whipped around so he was facing the smaller dragon. He started swinging his tree-like tail back and forth to dissuade the humans behind him from attacking and then advanced on the smaller dragon.

Ethan pulled his spear up into a defensive stance, though he had no choice but to give ground against a dragon that was over twice his size.

Havorleth shot a jet of flame, which Ethan dodged. Then another, which he also dodged. The larger dragon seemed to have given up on long spurts of fire after being hammered by Rachel several times. Ethan glanced behind himself and saw he was fast approaching the forest... and Alana's hiding place.

Then he saw Havorleth's eyes flick behind him and the larger dragon smiled wickedly.

Ethan glanced behind himself and saw Kendra rooting around in the underbrush looking for something. She was barely ten feet from him and seemed oblivious to the battle, probably because of the noise she was making as she looked through the underbrush.

Havorleth looked at Ethan, smiled malevolently, and then let out a burst of flame toward Kendra.

Ethan reacted on instinct.

He wasn't sure why.

Kendra had tried to kill him at least four times now, and she was probably looking for her missing arrow to try and kill him again. She clearly hated him and wanted him dead. He didn't think she would ever stop trying to kill him.

All this and more raced through his mind as he leapt through the air toward her.

It didn't make sense.

He vaguely remembered Gabriella's admonition to not let the woman with the lighting-shaped scar on her chest -- Kendra -- die. Maybe that was the reason? Maybe it was just because he didn't want to see someone get burned alive.

Maybe it was just instinct to save a woman in trouble.

He wasn't sure, but he didn't have time to think about it, because that's when he slammed into Kendra, knocking her out of the way.

* * *

Kendra was fuming as she tore through the underbrush looking for the last dragon slayer arrow. She wanted that dragon dead.

Now.

It wasn't until she heard a cry of warning behind her that she realized she'd made a deadly mistake. She had been so focused on what she was doing and her own rage that she'd completely lost track of her surroundings. She looked behind her to see a jet of dragon fire heading for her exact position.

She was waist-deep in a bush and wouldn't be able to get out in time because it was too thick.

She was trapped.

She was going to die.

She closed her eyes and waited for the fire to incinerate her, only dimly aware that she would be burning alive long enough to wish she was already dead.

WHAM!

Something heavy slammed into her.

Strong arms wrapped around her, preventing her from moving as she flew through the air. She heard a grunt of pain as she opened her eyes and looked directly into the pain-filled face of the steel-gray dragon that she'd been hunting for the better part of a week.

Her reflexes kicked in as they hit the ground and she rolled into a crouching position.

The dragon's back was on fire and it rolled on the ground to put it out. It was wincing the whole time. It finally rolled onto its feet, pain on its face and determination in its posture as it completely ignored her and turned to face the larger dragon again.

It charged forward to meet Havorleth and she could see the burn marks on its back. Burn marks it had received by saving her from dragon's fire. If it hadn't done that, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would be dead. She'd seen what dragon's breath did to unprotected flesh. She wouldn't have stood a chance.

That beast had just saved her life.

Again.

It had killed her in the Arena, then brought her back to life, then just saved her life again.

It had killed her and then saved her life twice...

...just as Luminar Kossel had predicted someone would. He'd said it would be someone she would never suspect. He'd said that person would be her best -- and probably last -- chance in life to have a true friend. The full weight of what he'd said and what it meant for her -- and the dragon -- hit her at that moment.

"Fuck."