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Buddy leapt to his feet, throwing his arms around Tasha’s neck.
“You’re alive!” he exclaimed with glee, laughing. “I thought you were
dead!”
Tasha, somewhat taken aback by his exuberance, could only grin as she returned his hug. “Well... I could say the same to you.”
Buddy let go of her and backed off a step. “Hey, that’s right.” he
said, his hand going to where the arrows had penetrated his chest. He
blanched, finding bloody holes in his tunic and elven cloak. “Hey!” He
looked at her in confusion, his mouth hanging open in bewilderment.
“It’s okay. Yes, you were dead. Both of us were.” She said, which
apparently did nothing to alleviate his dilemma, for he simply
continued to stare at her, slack-jawed. She let it go, then stepped out
of the way so that he could see Drac.
“I’d like you to meet my new friend, Drac.” she said matter of factly. Buddy’s jaw fell open further.5
“But...” he stammered, then fell silent again, jaw snapping shut.6
“Hi there.” said Drac, waving a three-foot silver claw at Buddy as he
enjoyed the confusion that he generated among humanoids when they met
him in his true form.
Buddy, for once in his life, seemed to be at a loss for words
momentarily, then turned and looked up at Tasha. “What in the hells
happened while you were gone?”
“Later, I promise. Murrah’s troops are riding on the Nook right now, and Took and Eld need our help.”
“So... we ride the dragon?” he asked, them corrected himself. “Drac, I mean? Sorry.” The last was directed at Drac.
“No problem, and yes, you ride me. And it’s high time we got moving.”
Drac lowered himself and extended a foreleg for them to climb up on,
and Buddy followed Tasha up as she climbed up and settled herself. He
sat behind her, slipping his arms around her waist to hold on, and
before Drac launched them all back into the air, she turned around to
face Buddy quickly, giving him a sincere smile.
“And thanks. Thanks for coming after me.” she told him.
“Well, yeah.” he said, like there had never been any doubt in his mind,
and she thought that there probably never had been. “Not like it did
any good, but you’re welcome.” he continued earnestly, and then laughed
with sudden joy as Drac shot them into the sky, looking down at the
ground with wonderment and glee as it fell away beneath them.
*****
Armehed and Trellcon watched the piles of straw alight, then the mages
got done casting their acid spell, and six green-hued bolts of mystical
energy streaked towards the defender’s barricade. They hit with a quiet
impact, splashing magical acid across the face of it, vapor coming up
from the impact as the acid began to eat into the logs that the
barricade was constructed of. The logs seemed to begin melting, chunks
of them simply disappearing in concave sections under the attack, wisps
of vapor coming up. None of the defenders were harmed, however, and
Armehed signaled for the mages to strike again. Trellcon turned to look
at the piles again, which were beginning to burn quite merrily now,
sending flaming bits into the sky as the fire reached higher and
higher. “I still wonder what the piles are for...”
That was when the first of the oil pots that the townsfolk had hidden
in the piles cooked off and exploded with a ‘frump’, splashing burning
oil in every direction, including across their lines of men. Men ran screaming and flaming, The few that rolled onthe ground in an effort to smother the flames only serving to smear the sticky mess across the hay stubble in the field, further spreading the fire.
“Sister-raping sons of WHORES!” yelled Armehed, then the second pile
went with equal fury. The attacking lines began to break up as men ran,
not a few of them screaming and ablaze.
Across the field, Eld gave a satisfied nod looking at the carnage,
trying to ignore the almost overpowering chemical stink of the acid,
then turned to Tookey, who was still rubbing handfuls of dirt on a spot
of acid that had splashed his armor, trying to get the vicious liquid
off before it ate through to the skin. “Where in the hells did you
learn to do that?” he asked, pointing at the conflagration that
Tookey’s trap had wrought on the enemy lines.
“Weren’t in the hells,” answered Tookey with a fierce grin up at him,
before returning his attention to the spot on his armor. “Learned back
when I was a pirate, raiding the king’s shipping during the Eastern
War.”
A third pile went up with a roar, and Eld returned his gaze to the
south fields as the enemy lines broke up completely, trying to get away
from the remaining piles. “Never knew you were a pirate.” he said as a
fourth pile erupted.
“Well, let’s just keep it quiet, eh, friend?” replied Tookey, then
dropped his handful of dirt and picked up his hammer. “Time’s up.” he
said, motioning towards the enemy, who was to a man charging their
position in an attempt to get away from the blazing death behind them.
The archers on their line, Eld among them, began firing as fast as they
could nock and draw, hardly bothering to aim.
****
Tasha was talking to Buddy, having to raise her voice to be heard over
the rush of wind whipping by her as Drac made all due haste to Talon’s
Nook, tearing through the air fast enough to outrun an arrow.
“They doubled their forces somehow.” she said. “I don’t know how.”
“Slavers!” said Buddy. “Fat Murrah’s lieutenant is Trellcon, brother to
the slaver Armehed. If they doubled their number, that means that
Armehed’s slaver caravan is working with them. But how do you know they
doubled their number?”
“The Ancestral Spirits showed me, just a few minutes ago. We’re going
to be cutting it real damned close. They were already arrayed for the
attack when they were shown to me.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Tookey was preparing some surprises when I left. They might help even the odds some.”
“The odds are about ten to one, from what I saw.”
Buddy thought that over for a second. “Then we probably better hurry.”
was his reply, which caused Drac to snort an abrupt chuckle at his
bluntness. Drac reached under a scale on his chest, and came out with a
silver ring, reaching his claw up his side to where Tasha could reach
it.
“Here, take this.” She reached down his side and snagged the ring,
looking it over quickly, taking in the magic runes that were inscribed
around it and inlaid with gold.
“What’s it for?”
“I made it from one of my scales, melted it down at a dwarven forge
with my own breath and had my mother enchant it for me. So long as you
wear it, we can communicate telepathically.”
“Tele-what?” asked Buddy.
“It means we can read each other’s minds.” answered Tasha, slipping the ring on.
‘Does it work?’ she heard in her mind.
‘I guess so,’ she thought back. ‘Why, haven’t you tested it yet?’
‘Nope.’ was the reply. ‘Never messed with humanoids much before you,
except for dwarven smiths and the like, and they were awful grumpy. I
did meet an elf once, but all he wanted to do was sing these horrible,
long songs that he had written for some elf maiden. I’m not one for
elven music. And I sure as the hells didn’t want to know what he was
thinking, so I kept quiet about the ring.’
Tasha laughed, then saw smoke on the horizon. “We’re almost there!” she said aloud, unchaining her glaive.
****
Trellcon and Armehed followed their troops towards the barricade, both
of them furious. Their troops had been cut by better than a third by
the nasty trick with the oil pots, and the sound of screams and the
sickly sweet smell of roasting flesh rode with them as they charged,
weapons drawn and screaming for the blood of the defenders. Arrows were
nicking into their troops so fast that Trellcon wondered for the first
time if they had, in fact, made a mistake, but there was nowhere to go
but forward through the defenders, as the piles had ignited the fields
behind them and were rapidly burning merry hell on their trail. The
smoke was, thankfully, being carried back into the woods by the
prevailing breeze and wasn’t obscuring his troop’s view. On the
downside, however, it gave the defending archers a clear aim at his
charging men, and they were taking full advantage of the clear field of
fire. Trellcon saw Armehed’s horse take an arrow to the throat, and go
down with a gurgled whinny that sounded like a scream. As he turned to
look, Armehed rolled back onto his feet and continued running with the
men, sword drawn, so Trellcon turned his attention back forward, never
breaking his charge.
****
The first of the charging men to make it through the admirable hail of
arrows from the defenders caught Tookey’s hammer full in the chest as
he came around the end of the barricade, his chest caving in with a
sickening crunch and then falling so fast that his sword continued on
without him to clatter softly to a stop in the street behind them.
“Thar be one!” Tookey yelled, drawing back and readying his hammer for
the next bandit that dared stray into his range. Eld was too busy to
answer; like the rest of the archers on the barricade line, he was
firing as fast as he could draw his bow.
****
They broke through the cloud of smoke onto a scene out of hell itself,
the fields to the south of Talon’s Nook blazing, the bandit lines
running and screaming towards the barricade. She could see Tookey’s
massive frame as he stood at he ready. The bandit lines were almost at
the barricade itself.
‘Blast a line in front of that barricade to cut off those men, and drop
me off in front of it!’ she told Drac through the ring. ‘Make two more
passes to box them in, and then drop behind the barricade with Buddy
and help the line if anything gets past me!’
‘You’re not going to get yourself killed again, are you?’ replied Drac, swinging around to line up his shot.
‘Maybe,’ she answered him, ‘but I’m thinking that it’s their turn for that.’
A grumbling reply came back to her that she realized was dragon
laughter, and then Drac fell from the sky as she closed her eyes and
chanted “Ancestral Spirits, guide my hand in battle…”
****
Tookey stood his ground with murder in his eyes as three bandits ran
toward his end of the barricade, swords in their hands and screaming
their rage at him. He hefted his hammer, adjusting his grip in
preparation to swing at the first…
…and the world in front of him exploded into fire with a great hiss and
a wave of heat, a line of flame cutting through the three men and
continuing along in front of the barricade like divine intervention.
“What in the hells…” he murmured, then a great dark shape swooped low
over him, washing him with wind as it flapped it’s great wings to
regain altitude as it cleared its pass. He looked up in amazement,
mouth falling open as he recognized the silhouette of a dragon against
the early afternoon sky, even more amazed to see Buddy waving at him
from the back of the beast. And in front of Buddy was…
He turned to Eld, his face breaking into a delighted grin, only to see
Eld and the others quit firing as they watched the dragon circle around
for another pass.
“Gods bless my eyes, did you see that?” he roared. “It’s Tasha! She’s back! Fight for your lives!”
Eld return his triumphant grin, reaching down for another arrow as he
did. “Guess we get to keep the town now?” He said over the crackle of
the fire and the screaming of burning bandits.
“Shoot, Gods blast you! SHOOT!”
****
Trellcon was so taken by surprise by the line of fire that he ran down
one of his own men who stopped suddenly in front of him. His horse
faltered, whinnying in panic, and Trellcon was so enraged by the series
of disasters befalling him that for a brief second he wanted to
decapitate the stupid beast.
Then he saw the sleek, evil shape of the dragon swooping low over the
barricade, blasting his men into screaming, running torches that
quickly fell over and lay still. He followed the dragon as it climbed
back into the sky to the north, then circled back again, blasting
another line of fire at an angle from the first one back to the burning
piles, coming closer to him on this pass. His stomach fell as he turned
to follow it and saw that the dragon was boxing them in even tighter,
and then something fell from the sky on top of him with a jarring thud,
knocking him from his horse with a bone-rattling thump that stole his
breath as he impacted the soft ground of the south field. His sword
flew from his hand, but he was too busy trying to draw air into his
lungs to look for it. He was still gasping when he found himself
snatched off the ground. As his vision seemed to swim, two furious
green eyes appeared before his own, inches away. The hatred in them was
almost tangible to the bandit leader.
“YOU!” she snarled into his face. “You are the one who has brought this
death here, and you shall share it before this day ends.” She cast her
feeling over him, tearing through his memories like a blade through
flesh, calling out his crimes as she found them. “Murderer, slaver,
thief, matricide, rapist.” She threw him to the ground in disgust,
reaching down to scoop up his fallen sword. “And you thought to use
this one me, as well.” She said, then stabbed it through his thigh with
a quick hard thrust, pinning him to the ground with it. “You will be
the last to die, foul Trellcon. You will witness everything before I
release you to face your god. You will take the knowledge of every
death you’ve caused with you when you depart this plane.”
Trellcon lay gasping, the blade through his thigh like a red-hot poker
fresh from the fire, an exquisite blaze of pain that was all-consuming.
He grasped the blade and tried to pull it out, but she had run it deep
into the ground and it remained firmly anchored.
“VALKYRIE!” the voice of his brother boomed. “Leave him be and fight me if you want your blood, *****!”
Tasha turned to see Armahed approaching cautiously, sword raised at the
guard position as he faced her, his face pinched with concentration as
he circled around her, trying to buy time for more of his men to come
and assist him. She saw that there were about fifteen of them circling
up around the two of them, and the circle was drawing the attention of
the rest of the men as well. The arrows from the barricade had almost
ceased, as the wall of flame there had cut off their view. The forty or
so bandits in the fire trap with her that still lived all belonged to
her and the Ancestral Spirits, and she felt a rush of energy coursing
through her.
“You will NOT spill my brother’s blood without answering to me first,
*****.” continued Armehed as Trellcon lay gasping on the ground at her
feet.
“You will share his death, fool.” spat Tasha back at him. “You’ve only saved me the trouble of running you down to do it.”
Armehed gave a signal, and the circle of men collapsed on her, all at
once. Tasha closed her eyes, and gave herself over to the battle lust
completely, letting it guide her trained hands and enchanted weapons
without thought. Her body took over, weaving through strikes, slashing,
spinning, jumping, rolling, every slice of her ebony blade finding
flesh, every parry with her glaive snapping a weapon. Men fell before
her onslaught as though grain before the scythe, stacking up behind her
as she made her way through them towards Armehed, who stood there in
open mouthed shock at the ruthless destruction that she was dealing
out. There were so many men screaming at once that the sound ran
together like a symphony of the damned, a chorus of the hell-bound. The
reek of blood filled the killing ground as fully as the blood itself
covered the freshly harvested field.
Just as quickly as it had begun, it ended, and Armehed found himself
staring at Tasha. Her green eyes were wide, her nostrils flared, her
chest heaving with exertion. She was covered in bits of gore and blood
from head to toe, giving her a supremely ghoulish appearance in the
midday sun, dimmed as it was by the billowing smoke of the burning
field overhead. Realization dawned on Armehed, and he took a quick look
around at the fire, momentarily forgotten during the spectacle of the
Valkyrie killing spree that he had been watching. The fire was raging
all the way around him, blazing to the heavens with crackling joy as it
fed off the field, closing in on them.68
“You stupid *****!” he yelled. “You’ve killed us all!” Now that he was
aware of it again, he could feel the heat from the fire on him,
breaking him out into a sudden sweat.
The Valkyrie shook her head. “You’re not going to have to worry about
the fire. You’re not going to live that long.” She advanced as she
spoke, the wild look on her face replaced by a grim smile, her eyes
narrowed to predatory slits as she closed on him step by slow step.
“Then COME!” he roared in response, brandishing his sword and swinging
it back into a guard position again, the fear on his face vanishing
into a mask of fierce determination as he faced her down, stepping to
the side until they were circling each other.
But instead of charging, the Valkyrie continued to smile at him, tight
and vicious. “I have one last thing to tell you before I send you to
your pathetic god to be judged as the failure you are. When I am done
with you, I shall then kill your brother, and when I am done with him,
I shall run Carpatta’s slave traders into the ground for your sins. You
have doomed your homeland through your actions. Die with that
knowledge, vermin. All that you cherish perishes with you, vermin.”
She lunged across the distance between them, her strike so quick, so
furious, that Armehed never even had a chance to defend. He never felt
the blow that killed him, and was only aware that he was dead when his
head hit the ground face-first and rolled, eyes wide and mouth open in
a scream that he no longer had the lungs to vocalize. His last sight
was of his decapitated body hitting the ground beside him, spewing
blood from the severed stump of his neck, and the limbs twitching. Then
darkness closed in.
Trellcon was almost blacked out from the pain in his leg when he felt a
thump on his chest and jumped, the searing pain of his panicked jerk
flashing him to full consciousness instantly. He looked at the thing
that had hit him, and saw his brother’s severed head atop him. He
screamed, and then felt the sharp sting of the blade as it passed
through his neck as well, and he joined his brother in darkness.
****
Buddy stood atop the barricade, trying to see through the flames and
heavy smoke into the killing field, but there was no way to see through
the maelstrom of the blaze. The smell of roasting bodies washed over
them with increasingly cloying waves, reeking of spoiled pork. Tookey
the Keep and Eld Bradlett were behind him, as was Drac, staring for
signs of Tasha in the conflagration.
Drac was the most worried, as he couldn’t fly across the flames without
crippling his wings and crashing. He wondered how he had thought that
her idea had been okay at the time, and quietly cursed himself under
his breath at leaving her.
And then Buddy was shouting, jumping up and down on the barricade and
pointing across the field. Drac looked, and sure enough, saw a form in
the midst of the fire, walking calmly towards them, carrying a round
object in each hand. It emerged from the wall of flame, clearing the
fire and becoming Tasha, surrounded by a golden glow that was emanating
from her glaive where it was hanging from its chain around her neck.
The round objects in her hands could be seen as severed heads, dangling
by their hair in her clenched fists. She made her way away from the
heat of the fire, then she staggered once and fell forward, blacking
out as her friends ran to greet her.
****
She awoke to a distant pain of angry wounds, which advanced on her as
she roused herself until they were all fresh and thumping in her bones
as though she had taken a beating.. She opened her eyes and found
herself in a bed, a real feather bed, in a darkened room. As she
rustled, she heard the creak of a chair, and Buddy’s face appeared in
front of hers, breaking out into a grin as he saw her eyes opened.
“Hey, you.” He said happily. “I was beginning to think that you were going to sleep until the fall reaping.”
“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” she grumbled as she sat up in bed,
her wounds screaming a plethora of pain at her as she did. She gasped,
grabbing the edge of the bed for support as her vision swam with the
agony. She felt her glaive heavy on her chest, and reached up to grab
it, eyes snapping shut in prayer as she mumbled the healing incantation
quietly and fervently. Along her body, she felt nicks and cuts close,
bruises faded into nothing. All the minor wounds that she had
accumulated fighting the bandits in the killing field quickly healed
themselves, leaving her feeling somewhat less than new, but certainly
better than she had. She released her tight grip on her glaive and
stretched, then erupted into an overwhelming yawn. Her mouth tasted
like a cat had **** in it.
“Where are we?” she asked Buddy.
“Tookey’s, of course. You’ve been asleep for about six hours, ever since you stumbled out of the fire.”
The mention of the fire brought her back with startling clarity, and she drew a breath. “Is everyone okay?”
“Sure, everyone but you. We’ve GOT to work on your delegating skills
before the next fight. It’s noble of you to try and save us all, but
you need to quit fighting armies by yourself like that. You had us all
worried, you know.” Buddy’s tone was equal parts humor and concern, a
mix that Tasha thought he had down to a duck. She smiled into the half
dim room.
“That battle was mine to fight. And enough had been hurt to get me to
it.” She reached out and grabbed Buddy’s shoulder fondly. “I was doing
what I was born to do, nothing more, and nothing less.”
“Well, consider the fact that I may have been born to help you next
time, or I’ll have to rough you up some.” Buddy shot back at her with a
crooked grin, thumping his gruller stick on the floor for emphasis.
“I thought that you were just waiting for me to die so you could have
your epic ballad?” she said, her voice dripping with friendly sarcasm.
“That would be the tragedy of a lifetime. Of two lifetimes, even.
Talon’s Nook was only the first stanza in my epic ballad. How could I
call a one stanza ballad an epic?” He gave a chuckle. “No, the other
bards would just ridicule me to the hells for having a one stanza epic.
I’m afraid that I’ll just have to hang out with you and collect some
more stanzas for a while.”
“Lucky me.” replied Tasha with a roll of her eyes, and Buddy couldn’t hold back the laughter or his joy any longer.
****
The next morning Tasha, Buddy and Drac made their goodbyes to the
people of Talon’s Nook, especially Tookey and Eld. Drac was still in
dragon form, stretched out in the main street, silver scales nearly
blinding in the early morning sun as the few people that had remained
in town for the fight gathered around them. Runners had been sent out
the day before, and the townspeople were just barely beginning to
trickle back into the Nook a few at the time, most of them agog at the
dragon that rested in town, however friendly he was seeming to be.
Tookey in particular was close to being choked up, although the
ex-pirate turned innkeep was trying his best not to show it as Tasha
hugged his mighty neck in preparation to climbing aboard Drac.
“Fare thee well, Friend Tookey. We shall meet again, and mayhaps next time the circumstances will be friendly instead of dire.”
“Aye, M’lady; that they will, that they will. Won’t be no more sittin’
on our duffs waitin’ to be saved by a whelp of a lass next time, say I
true.” replied Tookey, with only the barest hint of a quaver in his
voice as he embraced her tightly, nearly cutting off her breath before
letting her drop back to the street. She gave him a smile that melted
his heart then reached up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She then
turned to Eld and stuck her hand out.
“You’ve found a home here, then.” she said.
“I have, at that.” said Eld, taking her hand in his own and clasping it
firmly. An odd look crossed his face as he withdrew his hand, looking
in surprise at the sheriff’s badge that Tasha had slipped him. “What
the hells am I supposed to do with this?” he asked.
“First, I’d round up a posse and ride out to the bandit camp. There’s
still the matter of freeing the Carpattan slaves to deal with, and
we’re heading in the other direction. After that, just keep things
straight here from now on.” She gave him a crooked grin. “Valkyrie
blood knows much of the hearts of men, Eld, and your heart is true.
You’ll find your path, and Talon’s Nook will be the better for it as
well.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Eld murmured, and Tookey clapped him on the back with a broad hand.
“Tell the lady you’ll do it, fool.” Tookey told him, and Eld nodded to
her, unceremoniously pinning the badge to his tunic with a broad smile.
She looked at them both, and gave an approving nod, then turned and
motioned for Buddy to climb up atop Drac, following him up. They both
got their seat as Drac rose up on his legs, unfurling his wings and
stretching them out as he prepared for flight. Tasha looked down at her
friends, and the others who had dared gather close to the dragon to see
them off.
“Well, met Talon’s Nook. Well met, my friends.” She gave them a wave
that was even more enthusiastically repeated by Buddy, and with a
lurch, Drac leapt them into the air, his wings snapping open and shut
to carry them off as their friends cheered them away.
****
The castle of the Earl of South Cardia was lavish and large, with
towers and battlements constructed of dark grey stone native to the
region. The Earl’s chambers were high in a tower that allowed him a
grand view of the castle and the surrounding countryside, but it was
late at night and he was instead in his bed, a huge four-poster with a
silken canopy that glowed dull orange in the firelight that emitted
from the hearth. He was gently snoring, his hand resting on the breast
of the maiden sleeping next to him, when he felt himself seized around
the waist and snatched out of bed. He let out a rough cry, which in
turn woke the maiden, who rolled over, promptly screamed in alarm and
took off running without even bothering to grab her clothes. Before he
could get his bearings, he was outside on his balcony, seized in a
mighty silver claw that had his arms pinned to his sides so that he
could not move.
You are the Earl of this region?” a voice asked him, and her turned to
look to see where it came from. A figure stood on his balcony in a
blood red robe, covered from head to foot in it. Beside her was a small
boy, who was obviously quite mad, as he was laughing so hard that he
could scarcely draw breath, his face the color of overcooked beets. He
turned to look at his captor, and found himself staring into a dragon’s
eye, at least three hands across its width, and less than two hands
from his own face. It was gripping the side of his tower with its
claws, hanging there with him so that he was on a level with the
balcony. He quickly looked down at the ground beneath his dangling
feet, seeming to be thousands of hands down now that he didn’t have the
surety of the masonry underneath him.
“Are you the Earl of Southern Cardia, fool, or shall we drop you and
keep looking?” asked the voice again, and he found his chin seized and
snatched up, facing the darkness inside the hood of the red robe.
“I…” he started, his voice trembling. “Yes, I’m the Earl.”
“Good.” the lady replied. “Then listen closely to me, as this will be
the only warning that you get from me. I am the Valkyrie Defender Tasha
Lightfoot, and I have just come from Talon’s Nook. Perhaps you’ve heard
of it?” she asked, then continued on without giving him a chance to
answer. “I know that you HAVE heard of the bandit problem that they
were having, as they have sent runners here to the castle to ask for
help, and they got none from you, not even a patrol. Only the Taxman
showed up, regular as the sunrise. But it’s okay, I did your job for
you.” She unclasped her hands, which had been joined in front of her,
and shook her arms. A severed head rolled out of each sleeve, thumping
onto the masonry of his balcony with twin thuds and rolling to a stop.
“Those are the heads of those who I killed to end the reign of the
bandits in Talon’s Nook. I’m going to leave them here to remind you of
this visit, just in case you decide that is a dream, the result of too
much ale perhaps. I have taken the liberty of appointing a new sheriff.
You will leave him there, or we will have problems. And should I return
and find that they have another issue that you didn’t help them with,
then by every god that rules the heavens, you WILL see me again, and
your head will be the next to litter the floor of your chambers, do you
understand me?”
Eyes wide with fear, the Earl could simply nod his compliance.
“So long as Valkyries walk your region, Earl, you will be held
accountable for the safety of those you reign. Do not forget that, or
next time we’ll do far worse to you than throw you into your moat with
the castle sewage.” She made a motion, and the Earl’s stomach lurched
as the dragon pushed off the castle wall and dropped, gliding over the
moat and letting go of him. He splashed headfirst and screaming into
the moat, coming up unharmed and spitting out the fouled water as he
splashed to the edge and clambered up the steep slope, sewage dripping
off him.
When he finally made his way back to his chambers later, there was no
sign of the lady, the child, or the dragon, save the two severed heads
that now rested on the end of his bed, and the word ‘REMEMBER’ which
had been hacked into the very stone floor of his balcony.
He did.
THE END...?
Copyright 2008 JS Brown
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