Charles tilted his head back and let out an earnest laugh, “We just didn’t have a chance to this time! I had to cancel the order for, some very expensive, gorn root beer and a very, very nicely roasted pig. At least this hunt should make up for that.”
Jason raised a quizzical brow not able to follow his friend’s train of thought, “What are you going on about? Your brother didn’t show up unannounced again did he?”
Charles slumped his head briefly and sighed, “That’s just like you. Forgetting your own birthday, again.”
Caught off-guard Jason quietly exclaimed, “You’re lying. It’s not for another week.”
With a deep hearty laugh that matched his broad height and chest Charles pat Jason on his should with feigned sympathy, “And you said that…a week ago. Don’t worry, what better way to spend your birthday than on a hunt? And my gut says this will be one we won’t forget. Just go easy on the theatrics when tearing apart this beast’s fire sack. Not all of us are so carefree about getting infected.”
Jason arched his brow and gave him a long and silent sideways glare.
Rolling his eyes Charles relented, “Alright, alright. I’m just saying be careful. Joining a dragon’s horde is not a good way to celebrate.”
“I’ll be certain that won’t happen,” he finished before taking in their location and addressing the rest of his men, “The messenger’s post is right up there. I will go on ahead and scout the area. Everyone else let your horses rest but keep up your guard.”
Everyone either nodded or replied “Yes sir,” before they slowed down to a trot, moved off the raised dirt road and into the tall grass on the side to let the horses rest and graze, the grass muffling the sound of their hooves. And aside from a soft click or clank of armor now and then, their presence was almost undetectable in the night.
Jason slowed his horse down to a slow trot as he cautiously approached the messenger’s outpost, flicking his eyes across the land it stood on. The outpost wasn’t much to look at, just a small gray stone tower with a rough with wooden lookout nest constructed on top in addition to a moss-covered shack that served as the living quarters and was sorely in need of repairs. Given they had just received a message from this post there should have been torches lit and a guard on duty for the night watch, but instead, it was completely dark without a single sign that anyone had been here for months.
He pulled hard on the reigns of his horse forcing it to come to an abrupt halt as his white armor was swiftly washed in black, warning him that a dragon and its horde were near. But the night was silent and while dragons had enough wits to keep quiet, their hordes did not, making this the first time Jason’s or any knight of the King’s Guard armor turned black without the anxious chittering of a horde to announce it.
“This isn’t right,” Jason quietly muttered to himself as his heartbeat quickened and sweat began to gather on his brow underneath his helmet. He tried to rationalize the situation, think of some other reason for the black armor and complete silence but to no avail. He turned his horse around and held up his arm, the elbow square, hand open and flat to signal for the knights to approach but with their weapons drawn. He watched them arrive through the slit in his helmet, all of their armor was still a pearly white and hoped it would not turn; that what had happened to his was a just fluke. But one by one their armor changed color as well. Something had to be nearby.
Normally once their armor turned, they would dismount from their horses and set out on foot to track the dragon, normally in the midst of fighting off its horde until every last beast was slain. This time however they gathered together on the road in a defensive circle with vigilant eyes probing the land for the dragon or dragbeasts. The damp, grassy fields around them were lit just barely by the crescent moon above in the otherwise clear night. Chilling fear began to creep under their skin, the dead silence had become more deadly than the beasts they sought.
Charles was the first to break the silence and maneuvered his way over to Jason and whispered, “Do you see any signs of…anything? The outpost looks like it has been abandoned for months not just a day. Something is very wrong.”
Jason stiffly nodded in agreement, “If we were facing a dragon there should have been dragbeasts by now,” his eyes scanned the terrain over and over again when he noticed something bright glinting in the pale moonlight on the road, “There’s something on the road just ahead. Keep your shields up, swords out, and eyes and ears open.”
Charles nodded hastily, giving Jason room to move out from of the formation. Quietly he dropped down onto the road, took another quick look for any signs of immediate danger before slunk forward in a low crouch and turned his attention to the glistening object a few paces ahead.
It was a single oval-shaped stone, smooth and rich in color like the evening sun that laid flat on the road. He picked it up and took note of its decent weight as he let it rest in the palm of his armored glove, right on top of the metal hawk. At first glance, he assumed it was a piece of amber that someone must have lost and would have been dearly missed as it was completely clear with no cracks or debris in it to degrade its golden color or purity. But shortly after placing it in his armored palm it began to melt and drip down the sides of his glove and onto the road, hissing out smoke and fire. Immediately three shadows leaped from the outpost and soared into the sky followed by a chorus of spine-shivering roars.
Without hesitation, Jason ran back to his horse, jumped on and galloped back to his men yelling, “Dragons! Prepare to attack!”
He reached his mean and his Torvis broadsword and shield up just in time as the three massive beasts landed on the ground but with no hordes. And not only did these dragons have no hordes, they moved and behaved, almost intelligently, looking to one another as if they were communicating. They were nothing like the grayscaled, bat-winged, battle-worn feral beasts he’d known all his life.
While the dark night obscured their finer details, he could see that the one in front of him had wings like a bird’s, its body was covered in brightly colored feathers with no horns or spikes that could be seen. The one next to it was a deep ruby red with bat-like wings that also served as its arms that it masterfully walked upon in addition to having raised crest upon its lean face. In addition, he noted that its wings were clean with healthy thick skin without the typical tears and holes with a matching fan at both the base and very tip of its tail. Finally, the one that seemed to be in charge was almost nothing but thorny spikes, plates of bone and scales arrange on its body like armor on a knight. It also had not one, but two sets of massive ebony wings accompanied by a whip-like tail that sliced up the grass in the field around it like a scythe.
“Since when do feral dragons travel together?! They should be trying to kill each other! Are these even dragons?!” Charles voice audibly trembled as the three dragons grumbled in low tones to each other, their conversation boiling and rumbling the air around them.
“If they are dragons, I doubt we can say they’re feral,” Jason replied as he tried to hide his fear and suppress his growing curiosity.
“Not feral? No horde? What other kind of dragon is there?” Charles asked out of disbelief and not expecting an actual answer.
In unison the three dragons turned their full attention to them before a deep voice boomed out from the bone covered dragon, shaking the ground beneath them as it answered with an almost human-sounding laugh, “You shall find out. Just don’t expect that you will live to tell the tale.”
Comments (0)
See all