“Raise him” my brother asked me, before the dragon fell upon him.

The beast, partially blinded and enraged by Aghiard, bored through the man and struck a stone pillar behind him. The dragon’s strength surpassed anything I could imagine, as the entire rock formation trembled and numerous cracks spread through it. Very quickly, the cracks spread, and the pillar collapsed onto the dragon, which couldn’t react in time to avoid it. The scene became a tangle of boulders, scales, and fire rolling over everything in their path.

It all happened in a few moments. First, there was my brother provoking the enormous dragon, then nothing but a pile of rubble.

I cautiously approached the creature and moved some stones, uncovering one of its eyes. A transparent fluid mixed with blood gushed from it like water from a broken jug, and the pupil remained motionless outward. There was no movement, no sign of life.

The dragon was dead.

I began to rummage through the rest of the rubble. I had to find something, however small, of Aghiard, but the mass of shattered rock and the giant corpse had buried him well. Hoping to find anything was an illusion. At some point, I fell to the ground, my head light, spinning as if I had drunk a horn of mead in one gulp.

At that moment, I looked down, realizing how dirty I was with my own blood. I tried to get up, but I had no strength in my limbs, and sleep was extending its hands over me. I fought, but my body seemed to weigh as much as a boulder, and in the end, oblivion overcame me.

…

“What you did is madness!” my father shouted, beside himself with rage.

“He challenged me, invoking the name of the Lord with the Great Stages and the Pale Child. I am innocent of any accusation Helmuth has thrown at me” my brother retorted.

We were in our house, and no light filtered in from the outside, the only thing illuminating the room was the hearth in the center. My father was sitting on a chair next to it while my brother stood in front of him, next to the table where my father, mother, and I were having dinner before he arrived.

“And yet you show up here, with the child of Saskia.”

My father pointed his arm towards my mother, holding a bundle that she clutched tighter, protectively in her arms. I was standing to the side of the room, motionless, not knowing how to intervene. My gaze kept shifting from my brother to the bundle as I tried to process what was happening.

“The clan leader exposed him, he didn’t accept him into his family. I couldn’t let him die” said Aghiard.

“That’s because he’s your son,” our father said directly. “Don’t pretend with me, boy. One look was enough for me to realize it.”

“The accusations Helmuth has thrown at me are the cowardly act of a weak man. What happened-”

“It doesn’t matter” he interrupted. “What happened between you and Saskia, regardless of how it really went, has still led to this result. Helmuth was foolish to challenge you to a duel, and it’s true that by every law of our people you cannot be prosecuted now, but the fact remains that you killed the chieftain’s only male son. People won’t believe in your innocence just because you overpowered your opponent, especially now that you’ve taken that child with you. What you’ve done endangers all of us. You know what you are.”

“If that’s the problem, Hildiric can take my place. You’ve always said he would be better suited to lead our lineage, and I also recognize that I don’t have the capabilities.” my brother said.

“That’s not enough,” my father said, focusing entirely on Aghiard. “The Odarih lineage will want much more. I’m sorry, but I have no other choice. You must leave.”

It was like receiving a hammer blow to the stomach, and for a moment I was paralyzed, barely able to believe the harshness of those words, directed at his own son. My mother turned pale and turned towards her husband, pleading.

“Please, you can’t do this, not to our son” she implored, tears already in her eyes. The child, who had been kept calm by my mother until that moment, began to cry.

“It’s too great an affront. If he were to stay here, even without becoming the new head of our family, it would be a continuous challenge to their authority.”

“And so what? As long as they don’t cause us problems, I have no intention of causing them any” said Aghiard.

“Fool! This would split the clan, and a split clan is a finished clan!” my father shouted.

“It’s just as absurd to bow your head and sacrifice your son like a goat on an altar” I intervened, unable to hold back any longer. “Do you really think that in other clans all lineages get along perfectly? There’s a difference between prudence and cowardice.”

My father stood up abruptly, causing the chair behind him to topple over. His wrinkled face was turning purple, and his hand was trembling with rage.

“How dare you call me a coward! What I’m doing is protecting the family, all of it.”

“Do you really think you can protect the family by avoiding any confrontation? How can you think of defending anyone if you don’t even try to fight for your son?”

My father came at me and grabbed me by the clothes, showing great strength despite his age, managing to shake me.

“You have no idea how these things work. If we don’t resolve this immediately, it will be a catastrophe for the family and the entire clan.”

My father’s voice was labored, as if every single word he spoke was very exhausting.

I grabbed his wrists and pushed him away. That push forced him to take two steps back, ending up right against the chair he had overturned. He fell to the ground with a thud, eliciting a cry of fear from my mother.

We all rushed to him, but as my father tried to get up, his face contorted in a grimace of pain. He clutched his chest with one hand as if trying to tear his heart out, then collapsed to the ground again.

I knelt down, trying to do something, anything, to revive him. It felt as if my throat was being squeezed from the inside by some malevolent creature, my eyes began to burn, and every thought had become a senseless jumble. My father lay motionless, his eyes fixed in his last moment of pain and panic.

He was dead.

…

I woke up on the ground. A cloak had been rolled up under my head to serve as a sort of pillow, and a second one had been spread over my body. The sky had turned the color of blackberries, and it wouldn’t be long before night fell. I tried to move, but the pain made me groan and caught someone’s attention.

“Be careful, you’ve lost a lot of blood. It’s a miracle you’re still alive,” said Leodegar, the second man of the householder Rantmar. His face was dirty and full of scratches, but overall he seemed to be doing quite well.

“Leodegar, what happened?” I asked him, my voice hoarse.

“Wait, have some water” he said, taking a half-empty waterskin from his belt and pouring some water onto my chapped lips. Some of the water caught in my lungs and I coughed, but then he gave me more, and I drank it greedily.

“Thank you” I said, feeling slightly better.

“Anyway, we went to see what was happening. We saw how you lured the dragon away and came here” he said.

“And Gunnar?” I asked skeptically. I doubted he would risk his life for me voluntarily.

“Gunnar wasn’t exactly keen on coming here, but after his earlier insistence, he couldn’t back out without losing face.”

Despite the situation, I felt a certain amusement that his stubbornness had probably saved my life. At that moment, however, a thought struck me, and I felt fear grip my insides again.

“And Aghiard? Did you find my brother?”

The man darkened and looked away. He didn’t need to tell me; I already knew the answer, but that confirmation made everything much more real, as if what I had seen with my own eyes had been a terrible nightmare.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Watching the dragon, over there,” he replied, extending his arm to my left.

I turned my head with difficulty in the direction he was pointing and saw a group of people surrounding the enormous head that had been unearthed. It was too dark to distinguish their faces, but one of them turned towards me and, noticing I was awake, came over.

“Did you kill the beast?” Gunnar asked brusquely when he got close.

“No. My brother lured the dragon and…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, feeling my chest tighten.

I could read the thoughts racing frenetically in the chieftain’s face and see a glint light up in his eyes.

A glint of greed.

“Well, if that’s the case, I claim the dragon as my prey” he announced, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“What? By what right?” asked one of the householder.

“The dragon died on clan land, and no one can claim it. So I can take possession of it.”

“That’s not true. Householder Hildiric can do it” said another.

Gunnar turned towards me, as did everyone else. They all remained silent, waiting for my response.

Sure, it was Aghiard’s actions that led to the dragon’s death, and as head of the family, it might be up to me to claim that trophy. But I had done nothing; it was my brother who had sacrificed himself, and I couldn’t bear the idea of taking the honors.

I thought of my wife, my mother, my son, and everyone I knew at home. Could I really challenge the clan leader again, just for the glory of my now-dead brother? Perhaps with his support, with his grit, I could have had the courage to challenge him again, but without him, I felt as if I had lost a leg.

No, I didn’t have the strength to challenge him.

“I didn’t kill the beast, so the chieftain can claim the prey for himself,” I said, turning my face towards the sky so as not to see the faces of the others. Even without looking, I could almost feel the victorious smile spreading across Gunnar’s lips.

“Good! One of you take one of the remaining horses and bring it to where we left the carts. Also, report what happened here. Everyone else, start cutting down tree trunks. No cart can transport that thing; the only way is to create a platform and use the trunks as rollers. Come on, move!”

While Gunnar was giving orders, Leodegar lifted me up and helped me onto his horse. That brief conversation had drained the little energy I had left, and as we ventured into the forest, sleep overcame me once again.