Something Wyverian This Way Comes

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  Twenty feet away a black head poked back through the trees and leered at Pryllan. Pryllan reacted astonishingly fast. She lunged forward, her jaws gaping open. She bit down hard and heard bones snap. However, instead of tasting blood, Pryllan tasted bark. The Zweigelan had managed to pull its head to safety at the last second and Pryllan had instead bitten the closest tree.

  The tree, a majestic pine rising well over a hundred feet up into the air, toppled over with a crash. Pryllan’s bite had completely sheared it off at the trunk. Steve and Pryllan both looked up as they heard a loud hissing.

  Both Yamira and Lamira had appeared in the midst of the trees nearly thirty feet away this time and were regarding Pryllan with speculative eyes. Lamira turned to look at the thickness of the fallen tree trunk while Yamira kept an eye on Pryllan’s location.

  “You might be smaller and quicker than she is,” Steve quipped, correctly guessing what the female Zweigelan was thinking, “but she only needs one bite to take you out. Do us both a favor and stop this nonsense!”

  Both heads vanished and they saw a fleeting glimpse of long, sinewy tail before it, too, vanished into the woods. Almost immediately the sounds of struggling could be heard. There were more hisses and several snarls as the female Zweigelan was once again pulled from the trees by its tail. Steve turned to look behind him and saw that not only had Sarah awoken, but she had found the mimet Steve had thrown to her and had replenished her jhorun. While still physically tired, Sarah’s jhorun was more than up to the task of pulling Yamira and Lamira back out into the open. She just couldn’t hold on to them for that long.

  “Nice timing, babe!” Steve called out to her. “Welcome back! How long can you hold her?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know. Probably not for long. I still feel groggy. That tree woke me up. Honey, whatever you’re going to do, you’d better do it quick.”

  Whatever trick the red Zweigelan did before to break free of Sarah’s jhorun was attempted again. Once more Steve watched Sarah shudder with pain as the female Zweigelan fought like a demon to be free of Sarah’s jhorun. Hissing and snarling, Yamira and Lamira tore up the ground, grabbed hold of nearby trees and anything else they might be able to use to escape the iron grip Sarah’s jhorun had on them.

  The strain was taking its toll on Sarah. Just as a human body can be re-energized by drinking a beverage laden with caffeine, and can be repeated over and over by consuming more of the drink, it can only take so much. Such was the case with Sarah. Steve had watched her replenish her jhorun at least a dozen times. How many times could someone recharge their jhorun before their body finally became too exhausted?

  A quick check of his sword’s scabbard revealed he only had four charged mimets left. That meant Sarah had to have used at least fifteen! No wonder she was so tired!

  Sarah stumbled and almost fell to the ground. Steve sprinted over to her and caught her just as she stumbled again. He gently lowered her to a sitting position.

  “I hate to say this but you’re going to need to let Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum there go.”

  “Can’t,” Sarah murmured. Her eyes were heavy and were practically closed.

  “Sit here and rest. Get your strength back. Pryllan, we have to let them go. Sarah can’t hold her anymore. Are you ready?”

  Pryllan nodded. Yamira and Lamira both roared in unison. Unfortunately, they were ready, too.

  With a quiet sigh, Sarah relinquished her hold on their captive. She leaned back in the grass and practically disappeared from sight. Understandably, right about then, all hell broke loose.

  Yamira and Lamira surged forward, heading straight towards the place where Sarah was laying. Before Steve could bring his hands up to retaliate, Syrreth and Ferreth placed themselves directly in front of Sarah and added their own roars to Pryllan’s.

  “Stand back,” Pryllan growled as she cautiously circled the glade. “Syrreth, Ferreth, you are no match for her.”

  Syrreth shook his head. “Faster than you, she is.”

  “More experienced at fighting, she is,” Ferreth added.

  Syrreth and Ferreth barely had time to jump out of the way as the female Zweigelan lunged toward Pryllan, who bellowed with rage and also lurched forward.

  Amazed, and a little frightened at the brutal savagery playing out directly in front of him, Steve squatted low in the grass next to Sarah. Catching sight of a tarnished silver chain around Sarah’s neck, Steve gently pulled on the chain but was hampered by Sarah’s tunic, which had been tied at the nape of the neck. Steve gently untied the leather cord and pulled again on the chain. A tarnished silver medallion with a slightly misshapen purple crystal emerged from beneath Sarah’s shirt.

  It was the gift from Shardwyn all those years ago when the two of them had set out in search of Maelnar, Breslin’s father. This medallion, Steve knew, was enchanted to repel physical attacks but was useless against jhorun. He gripped the medallion and gently twisted, activating a hidden compartment. Steve pulled the tiny crystal vial of elixir he knew was concealed within the heart of the medallion and unstoppered it. Wetting his finger with a drop of the clear potion he gently touched his finger to Sarah’s lips. Seconds later her eyes opened. She looked down at the open medallion sitting on her chest, noted that the top of her shirt had been untied, and then looked up at her husband.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Helping you. What did you think I was doing?”

  Sarah raised an eyebrow. Steve’s ears turned red. He shook his head in exasperation.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter. I was just getting this stuff ready. One of those two are going to need some help sooner or later.”

  Sitting up, Sarah retied her shirt closed and watched the battling dragons. Yamira and Lamira were clearly quicker, but Pryllan had more power. Both appeared to be evenly matched against one another. She caught sight of Dirgath’s head, leaning up against a tree just inside the forest. She couldn’t see Tirgath. She tapped Steve on his shoulder and pointed at the forest.

  “Go help them. They took a nasty beating. I’m sure they could use a drop of kaormac elixir right about now.”

  Steve ran over to the silver Zweigelan and applied a drop of liquid to each head. Tirgath’s head lifted up off the ground. Broken scales healed. The torn skin on their wings sealed itself right before their eyes. Twin silver heads regarded him for a few moments before each bowed low.

  “Why did you do that?” Dirgath asked. “That elixir must be extremely valuable.”

  “It is,” Steve confirmed, “and it’s what friends do for each other. Thank you for saving Pravara. Where is she, anyway?”

  “She is unconscious,” Tirgath informed him. “She landed badly when her mother dropped her here.”

  “And you’re watching over her?” Steve asked. He was both impressed and extremely grateful at the same time.

  Dirgath nodded. “Aye. We have been guarding her, and will continue to do so.”

  The intensity of the roars seemed to increase. As Steve turned to see how the battle was faring, he saw Lamira rear back with her fangs bared. Pryllan’s left wing had drooped down and had made a target of itself. Lamira was going to bite Pryllan’s wing! He had to warn her!

  The left wing snapped back against Pryllan’s abdomen. She twisted her torso around, pulling her left wing away from the Zweigelan. What Lamira, and Yamira for that matter, weren’t expecting was that the exposed wing had been a ploy to get the female to venture closer.

  It worked.

  As Lamira had been reading herself for a bone-crunching bite to Pryllan’s wing, and the wing in question had been yanked out of harm’s way, Pryllan twisted to her left. There before her was a prime opportunity to strike her opponent. Never one to ignore opportunity when it came knocking, she took it.

  Pryllan curled her right claw into a fist. In its clenched state the fist was easily the size of a Clydesdale horse. She lashed out at Lamira with a tremendous right hook. Lamira’s head snapped
back so hard that several fangs were knocked out of her mouth and her jaws were slammed closed. The impact was so strong that all four of the red Zweigelan’s feet cleared the ground and she was flung over onto her back.

  Yamira hissed with annoyance as she tried to regain her feet while Lamira blinked her eyes several times in rapid succession in an attempt to regain her senses. She ran her forked tongue over her broken teeth and growled.

  Standing thirty feet away, Sarah slowly rose to her feet. She had just watched Pryllan clobber Lamira, but it wasn’t the blow that had caught her attention. It was the Zweigelan’s mouth. When her jaws had been open in preparation for a bite she had seen a flash of metal amongst her fangs. Did she have something stuck in there? Was she perhaps trying to conceal something? Could she be hiding the talisman they were all looking for inside her mouth?

  “Nice punch, Pryllan!” Steve shouted. He glanced over at the female Zweigelan who was slowly rising to her feet. “Where’d you learn to do that? I can’t imagine all dragons fight that way.”

  “I have no idea,” Pryllan admitted as she slowly unclenched her claw. “I think I picked it up from Sarah’s mind.”

  Sarah suddenly materialized right in front of Steve. She excitedly took his hand and looked over at Pryllan. She tapped the side of her head.

  “Pryllan, can you hear me?”

  Aye.

  “There’s something metal in Lamira’s mouth. I think it’s the talisman!”

  Steve pumped a fist into the air. “Now we’re talking. We need to take a look inside her mouth. The question is, how?”

  Yamira and Lamira were back on their feet but weren’t moving too well. Pryllan’s right hook had knocked Lamira senseless and thankfully they weren’t ready to resume the battle. Syrreth and Ferreth wandered close. Ferreth eyed Pryllan and gave her the tiniest of smiles.

  “We need to see inside Lamira’s mouth,” Sarah explained. “I think she has the talisman concealed in there. We need to spread out and make her mad. If she gets mad then she’ll start roaring, or possibly try to bite.”

  “That’s it?” Steve asked incredulously. “That’s the plan? Make her mad? What if she attacks one of us? Pryllan is the only one that stands a chance against her.”

  Circle around her, Pryllan instructed. Keep her in the center. Do not be caught unaware. She will worry more about me than anyone else. We can use that to our advantage. We must hurry, though. Observe. She becomes steadier with each passing moment.

  For the past minute or two Yamira and Lamira had remained motionless, taking huge gulps of air. Pryllan was sure that once their disorientation had passed they would disappear back into the forest. That mustn’t happen. They needed that talisman! If Sarah wanted to peer inside Lamira’s mouth then she would personally pin that skinny red neck to the ground and pry her jaws apart with her own talons.

  Pryllan placed herself directly in Yamira and Lamira’s path. Steve was on her left. Syrreth and Ferreth were directly across from her, and after they informed Dirgath and Tirgath what they were doing, the silver Zweigelan was on her right.

  Keeping the female Zweigelan in the center of their circle, Pryllan spread her wings and snapped them closed. A loud thunderclap echoed noisily through the valley. Yamira’s head jerked up and their eyes met. The black head growled a warning. Pryllan returned the growl. Several seconds later Lamira, finally shrugging off the last effects of Pryllan’s right hook, looked over at her and growled. Unfortunately, she kept her jaws firmly closed.

  A section of a fallen tree suddenly lifted from the ground and flung itself straight towards Lamira’s head. Yamira caught the trunk in her jaws and crunched down, snapping the trunk in half. Both of the black heads turned to see Sarah wave at them.

  “A gift from me to you!” Sarah called out. “I have plenty more. Want another?”

  A second log rose from the ground and sped towards Lamira’s head. The female Zweigelan’s right head ducked, but not before Yamira caught this log in her jaws, too, and reduced it to splinters. The left head roared in frustration.

  Steve blasted a jet of fire just above Lamira’s head, deliberately missing by a few inches as what Pravara had said earlier was still fresh on his mind. Is that what they were doing? Tormenting a dragon just as a bully would torment a small defenseless child? Steve frowned. He didn’t like this at all.

  Lamira bared her fangs at him and growled. However, her jaws remained closed.

  “You are a disgrace to Zweigelans,” Syrreth accused as he and Ferreth circled slowly from the right. “Act alone, you do.”

  “You are pathetic and weak!” Yamira countered. “Unable to stand up to the tyranny of the Dragon Lord, you are. It is we who are ashamed. Ashamed to know you!”

  Two more growls joined the cacophony of grunts, hisses, and snarls.

  “They are not weak,” Dirgath snapped. He bared his teeth. “Nor are we. We do not choose to live as you do.”

  “We are male,” Tirgath smugly told her. “We are superior to you.”

  Pryllan stopped her circling and turned to glare at the silver Zweigelan. She began emitting a deep, low growl. Sarah, who had been popping in and out of existence all around the fight as she desperately sought to see the insides of Lamira's mouth, didn’t appear to take notice of the taunt.

  Dirgath looked at his twin.

  “A curious thing to say,” he whispered.

  “We must be insulting,” Tirgath whispered back. “Trying to enrage her, I am.”

  Dirgath grinned. He looked back at the female of his species.

  “No female has ever beaten the male of the same species,” he haughtily informed them. “Especially the Zweigelans.”

  Yamira scoffed while Lamira growled.

  Steve appeared next to Dirgath.

  “I think you hit a nerve! She thinks she’s better than you males. Now’s your chance to tell her what you think of her.”

  Having overheard Steve’s comment to Dirgath, Syrreth decided to take a turn.

  “Belong in the cave, you do,” he said, with as much of a sneer in his voice as he could muster.

  Lamira finally gave them a roar, but her head had angled up and no one could tell if there was something in her mouth other than fangs.

  “Have the intelligence of an immature youngling, you do,” Ferreth added with a malicious smile. “Would look to Pravara before we would look to you.”

  “We should have left you in that hillside cave!” Yamira screeched. “Scavenging for food! Almost called to Nevir, you were! This is how you thank us? By turning against us?”

  Lamira looked down her long snout and roared her anger. Sarah materialized directly in her path. Before either Yamira or Lamira could notice, Sarah smiled and vanished again, this time reappearing next to her husband. She was hopping up and down in her excitement.

  “What is it?” Steve asked. “Did you see something?”

  Sarah closed her eyes and visualized the insides of Lamira’s mouth, as she had seen it. One of the small incisors, on her lower jaw, had clearly been metal! She had seen a brief flash of light coming from the mouth as the fang had caught a bit of sunlight and it had reflected on the shiny surface. She couldn’t have thought of a better way for a dragon to hide a talisman than to disguise it as one of their fangs. It had been a perfect plan!

  Well, perfect until she had learned of its existence.

  Sarah focused on the artificial fang and asked her jhorun to teleport the fake tooth to her hand. A wet, heavy metallic object appeared in her outstretched hand. Sarah recoiled with shock. It was covered with saliva and still warm! Gross! And what was with that smell? Sarah gently sniffed the talisman. She grimaced and held the slightly curved foot long phony fang away from her. She could feel the power emanating from the talisman as her jhorun, thinking she was holding a mimet, had investigated the object but wanted nothing to do with it.

  This was it, Sarah thought excitedly. This was the thing they had been searching for! This was the source of the curse! All
they had to do now to break the wyverian curse was to destroy it. For that, she needed her husband.

  Sarah tossed the slimy metal fang to Steve, who reflexively caught it. He frowned as he noted his hand was now covered with dragon saliva. A whiff of Lamira’s halitosis wafted up and caused Steve’s nose to wrinkle with disgust.

  “Yuck!”

  “Honey, it’s the talisman!”

  Steve blinked with surprise. “What do you want me to do?”

  “What else? Destroy it!”

  Steve stepped backwards a few steps and ignited both hands. Clutching both of his hands tightly around the talisman, Steve blasted his jhorun through his hands and watched the fang slowly turn red. Within moments the fang was glowing brightly, as though it was nestled in the heart of a forge.

  Sarah was ecstatic. The talisman was on the verge of melting! Would the curse be instantaneously abolished? How quickly would Pryllan get her flames back?

  There was a loud crack, as though someone had set off an illegal firecracker. The talisman had ruptured just before it melted. The remnants of the fang dripped through Steve’s fingers and dropped to the ground. Grass sizzled and burned as the metal rapidly cooled. Steve looked up at her.

  “Now what? Is there something else we have to do?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t think so. Let Pryllan know the talisman has been destroyed.”

  “Hey Pryllan!” Steve called out in his loudest voice. “We destroyed it! See if you can use your fire now!”

  Both battling dragons paused as each turned to look at him. Lamira ran her forked tongue over her teeth while Pryllan took several deep breaths of air. Lamira roared in anger as she realized she had a certain fang missing on her lower jaw. Yamira also roared as she realized their plan had been foiled.