The Darkness of Old; The Ancient Crown; The Winged One

by Hans Bezdek

“I was in the middle of a conversation! Don’t you know how rude that is to just jump in and hit me while I wasn’t paying attention?”

  The red dragon came to a stop, hovering over the ships as he gave me a confused look.

  “You and these elves came here to fight with us,” reasoned the dragon.

  “Yeah, but you saw us coming!” I argued. “You came out here and it’s been a fair fight!”

  “You turned into this form in order to fight me, I presume?” continued the red dragon.

  “Naturally,” I nodded. “I was explaining that to my friends before you so inappropriately interrupted me.”

  “Then let’s get to it!” hissed the dragon, diving for me again.

  I flew forward to meet him and the two of us raked at one another. My claws weren’t able to find the gaps between his armor while his easily connected with my chest. I let out a grunt and circled around him, trying to quickly find a weak spot.

  Unfortunately, there didn’t look to be any.

  The red dragon flicked his tail at me, catching me on my back and bumping me down slightly. As he flew down at my neck, I flapped to the side with a burst of speed and grabbed onto the armor on his chest with the claws on my legs. I hoisted myself up and bit down as hard as I could on the plate on the red dragon’s side.

  “OW!” I cried, feeling a couple of teeth break.

  “Did you really think your teeth would make it through what your claws and the arrows couldn’t?” laughed the red dragon, punching me hard in the gut.

  I winced and nearly let go, but saw that my bite had ripped a few of the strands holding a piece of armor on his side together. Knowing I might not get another chance, I bit down on the armor a second time, now focused on getting more of the straps than the armor itself.

  It still hurt like, well, biting into metal, and I heard several more teeth crack. It was worth it, however, as a piece of armor the size of a keg fell to the ships below.

  The red dragon laughed again, apparently not noticing or caring about the new hole.

  “You really are a fool to do it twice,” he chuckled. “I don’t know what I expected, since you were dumb enough to come out to our island on your own accord. Ulrich will be thrilled when I bring him your-”

  “My head,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes. “I get it, I get it. You all don’t need to say it every time I fight one of you.”

  “Don’t worry,” grinned the red dragon. “This will be your last time hearing it.”

  Before he could do whatever painful thing he had in mind, I launched into my risky plan. I wrapped my legs around the red dragon’s waist, grabbing hold of his neck with my arms and yanking it to the side.

  “Let… Let go of me!” grunted the annoyed red, his wings working twice as hard to keep the two of us in the air. “You’re just prolonging your end! You can’t beat me this way!”

  “Fire at the opening on his side!” I roared down to the elves below us. I risked a glance down, putting all of my energy into continuing the dragon hug. The elves below us raised their bows and started to take aim.

  The red dragon’s eyes widened and focused on mine. “W-What are you doing?!”

  “Making sure you aren’t a problem anymore,” I said between what remained of my teeth. Assuming I survived this, I really hoped they’d grow back. How intimidating would I be in the future if I couldn’t properly snarl?

  “They’ll hit us both!” cried the dragon. “You’ll die with me!”

  “Guess we’ll see if elven accuracy is really as great as everyone claims it is,” I shrugged.

  I closed my eyes and braced myself for the sting of arrows cutting into me. Somehow, it never came. The red dragon hissed with pain as the elves found their mark and lived up to the hype. He raked at my chest again, but I wasn’t letting go. Another volley hit him, and his strength gave out.

  The two of us crashed into one of the elven boats in the back of the fleet. Luckily none of the elves were still on it, having left it earlier to join the fight. It didn’t exactly make for a soft landing, though.

  “That was fun,” I grunted as I pushed the red dragon off me and got up.

  “You couldn’t beat me on your own,” wheezed the red dragon, unable to stand. “You needed those bat heads.”

  “Don’t call them that!” I said, stepping forward. “Now, tell me what I want to know!”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” growled the dragon.

  “Where’s Ulrich?!” I demanded.

  “I’ll never tell you,” hissed the red.

  He let out a roar of pain as I pushed a few of the Zorikium arrows deeper into his side.

  “Tell me!” I growled. “Do it and we’ll save you!”

  “I’d rather die than tell you where the crowned one went,” snarled the dragon.

  I let out a frustrated grunt and let go of the arrows. I didn’t think torturing the dragon was going to do us much good, and I wasn’t exactly sure I was up to the task. It didn’t exactly feel right to hurt someone that couldn’t fight back anymore, even if it was to find out where Ulrich was hiding.

  I decided to go with a different tactic. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Ulrich isn’t going to be wearing the ancient crown for much longer. We’re going to kill him. Wouldn’t it be silly to die for a leader that won’t be one in a month’s time?”

  The red dragon spat blood in my face.

  “What’s wrong with you?!” I said, quickly scooping water out and rubbing it over my face. “I don’t know what kind of diseases you have! I could catch something!”

  “You’re weak,” laughed the red dragon. “You’re afraid to torture me, that’s why you’re trying to talk the information out of me. You’re even afraid of a little blood. You’ll never kill Ulrich.”

  I finished washing my face and looked the dragon over. He was hurt enough to not be a threat anymore, and he clearly knew where we could find Ulrich. While he might not willingly turn on the black half dragon, maybe we’d get him to slip up if we kept him around. His responses on where we would go next might give us a hint if we were headed in the right direction or not.

  “Well, you’re going to see it,” I said, taking a step back.

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing? Put me out of my misery and finish me off!”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “I’m not going to kill you,” I said, stretching out my neck. “You’re not going to be a problem for anyone anymore, so there’s no reason to do it.”

  “I refuse to be your prisoner!”

  “It’s not like you’ve got much of a choice,” I pointed out.

  The red dragon mumbled under his breath, then let out a sigh of resignation. I couldn’t hide my smile.

  “Emerich, wait!” I heard Cassandra shout.

  “Die!” shouted Emerich, suddenly appearing to my right. The elf shoved his halberd into the wounded side of the red dragon, twisting his weapon as it entered.

  The red dragon let out a final roar of pain, then collapsed, his head falling into the water.

  “Why would you do that?!” I demanded.

  “Mad I stole your kill?” smirked the elf, pulling the halberd out. He looked back at Cassandra and winked.

  “No, you idiot!” I hissed. “He knew where Ulrich was! We could’ve kept him a prisoner and tried to get him to give us that kind of information!”

  Emerich’s smile fell. “Oh... I see.”

  “He could’ve told us something valuable!” said Cassandra, clearly not happy with the other elf.

  “I… I apologize,” said Emerich, refusing to meet either of our eyes. “I acted without thinking. It won’t happen again.”

  “I’d hope not,” I growled. I grabbed the red dragon’s lifeless body and pushed the rest of it into the sea. No use in having the extra weight on the ship.

  “If it’s any consolation, it appears this first battle has come to a close,” said Emerich, gesturing back.

 
I looked up to see the remaining Greener boats quickly departing, the elves shooting at them but not pursuing. The Greeners were going every which way, but the majority were going in the direction of Gorland. I guessed they weren’t planning on sticking with the Dar’Ka.

  “It’s better than nothing,” I said.

  “Good work making an opening in his armor,” said Cassandra, patting my side. “That was smart.”

  Emerich looked displeased at this, which made me smile.

  “W-What happened to your teeth?!” asked Cassandra.

  “Uh, nothing!” I said.

  I shifted back into my human form, putting a hand up to my mouth and checking for my teeth. They were all there! At least I didn’t have to worry about getting any dental work done when this was all over.

  “See?” I said, turning to Cassandra and smiling. “Nothing’s wrong with them at all.”

  Cassandra gave me a suspicious look but nodded.

  “Can we continue on to Ra’Chok now?” I asked Emerich.

  “Okay, everyone,” said Emerich loudly, thankful to escape this situation. “Let’s work on helping the wounded and getting our boats to shore. Let’s try to make it to Khu’Mul before we have any more surprises.”

  Chapter 4

  We managed to get our ships to shore without any issue, managing to snag some of the more questionably built Greener rafts and bring them with us. Assuming we lived to see the end of this war, there was a good chance we’d need the extra space to bring back some of the troops from the other armies. Even if things went badly and there were just a few people escaping, it wouldn’t take them long to cut them loose.

  “Back to dry land!” cried Braun, jumping face first into the rocky surface. He didn’t even seem to care that he scraped himself up. “I thought I’d never make it!”

  “Traveling by sea can take some getting used to,” yielded Cassandra as she hopped off the boat. “I suppose you dwarves don’t get much practice.”

  “Nay,” said Braun, getting up and dusting himself off. “I used to go swimmin in a lake near me home during the winters. Taught meself to swim, I did. Rare for me kind to paddle about.”

  “You looked like a natural,” I chuckled as I joined them.

  We waited for the rest of the elves to depart. They were still on guard from the attack, and all of them kept their eyes on the horizon. Even I could spot a goblin here and there up on the mounds before us, poking their heads out and watching us nervously. They were fairly spread out, though, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

  “Squads L through P will remain here,” announced Emerich loudly, still on one of the boats so that everyone could see him.

  “We’re leaving people behind?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

  “If we plan on ever leaving this place then we need to have some guards set up,” explained the elf, leaving the ship as several elves got back on. “Can’t leave them around for the Greeners to steal. You saw how eager they were to run away when we beat them. I don’t doubt some of them are watching us now to see if we leave these ships for them.”

  “He’s right,” agreed Dhot, looking around with his Goggles on. “There are a couple of small groups to our east and west, but nothing too large.”

  “If you think that’s what’s best,” I shrugged, walking away and toward the mound.

  “No witty comment?” Emerich called after me.

  “Don’t want to risk you killing one of my prisoner’s again,” I called back.

  He didn’t respond.

  The march toward Khu’Mul took about an hour, the majority of it going uphill and on a rocky surface. My knees certainly didn’t enjoy the trip, nor did the rest of me. We were caught up in heavy rain the whole time, blocking our vision some and causing us to move slower than usual. The only scenery besides the black rocks and more black rocks were the occasional cluster of Greeners that would kill us if given the chance. Thankfully, it never came.

  By the time we saw our destination we were practically on top of it. The city of Khu’Mul spread out before us with tents of every color imaginable. Not only were the tents brightly colored, but many of them were painted on top of it. It almost looked like a bad circus, which I’m sure made Tad feel at home.

  “Reminds me of Kra’ Gar,” said Cassandra.

  I nodded. “I imagine people living on Ra’Chok know better than to put down permanent structures. Can’t risk it with black and reds just a short flight away.”

  “Looks like you were right about them getting taken over all the time,” said Dhot, pointing up ahead. “Maha!”

  A large white banner was spread over the middle of the city. Welcome was written in blue letters, followed by several names that were all crossed out. Hudarf’s Traveling Group, Elves of Plunder, and The Guild were ones I found particularly amusing. The only name not crossed out was The Collective.

  “How do you think they found out what we were called?” asked Cassandra.

  “Seems like they have their ways of knowing who is about to conquer them,” I shrugged.

  “They’re here!” cried out a voice from inside the town. “They’ve arrived!”

  Several of the elves around me shifted their hands to their weapons.

  “Think they’ll put up much of a fight?” asked Braun.

  We didn’t have to wait very long to get our answer. People of nearly every race came out of their tents gathered in the streets. The majority were goblins and orcs, but there were some humans, gnomes, and dwarfs mixed in. To everyone’s relief, no one was reaching for any weapons and they were all smiles.

  The occupants of Khu’Mul spread out and introduced themselves to our army. The elves seemed guarded at first, but soon freely conversed with the townspeople. I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious of the town’s motives, however. There was something a bit skeevy about them that made hesitant.

  “We’re so glad you’ve made it!” beamed a goblin as he approached Cassandra. “Is there anything we can do for you brave warriors? Would you like a beverage? A place to rest your head, perhaps?”

  Cassandra smiled back at him. “Actually, that would be-”

  “Hold up,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Is this free of charge, or are you trying to sell her something?”

  The goblin laughed and shook his head. “I think you’re mistaking my hospitality for something it’s not.”

  “You always think the worst of others,” said Cassandra, shooting me a look.

  “So everything’s free in Khu’Mul?” I clarified. “This is some sort of utopian city built on an island filled with red and black dragons?”

  “Practically,” he nodded. Cassandra was about to say something else to me before the goblin continued. “The prices are so low, it will feel like money isn’t even a concept!”

  Cassandra shut her mouth.

  “Maha!” laughed Dhot. “You almost had us!”

  “How much were ya gonna charge for her drink?” asked Braun.

  “For you four? It would be heavily discounted!” smiled the goblin. “If you’d just follow me back to my tent, I’d be happy to-”

  “Discounted to what?” I asked.

  “I suppose I could part ways with a glass of the best we have to offer for…” the goblin made a show of doing complicated math in his head. “630 quat.”

  “Yer outta yer mind!” shouted Braun.

  “Maha!”

  The goblin gave us a shocked look, placed a hand over his heart in feigned disbelief. “I… I’m afraid I don’t understand what the problem is!”

  “Ugh!” growled Cassandra, storming past the goblin. “Makes me so mad!”

  “What does?” asked Dhot as we followed after her.

  “When someone proves Reimar right…” she mumbled.

  We continued through the crowd of people, now just looking for a place to get some breathing room. We were constantly approached by residents but managed to escape them by simply ignoring them. Turning down a side street, it
looked like we’d be safe for a few minutes as we came up with a plan for the rest of the day.

  “While it will probably be expensive, I think we should stay in the town,” I said. “We aren’t supposed to meet up with Laurinaitis until tomorrow, and I don’t want to risk us getting caught up in another battle without getting any rest.”

  “This is gonna bankrupt us,” sighed Dhot.

  “We’ve got all day to try and find the best price,” I reasoned. “Maybe if we try to get some of the innkeepers in a bidding war they will lower their-”

  “Does… a-anyone else feel a bit weird?” asked Braun, taking a couple of woosy steps.

  I and the others exchanged a knowing look.

  “Nope,” said Dhot. “Looks like we’ll talk to you later!”

  “B-Blast it…” murmured the dwarf. Then he collapsed.

  “Why does he never lie down when he feels the change coming?” I wondered aloud as Cassandra bent down to check on him.

  “It’s not like he always does the most sensible thing,” shrugged Dhot.

  “I like to think he’s caught off guard by it,” said Cassandra. “But you might be right.”

  “Woah, is that guy okay?”

  I turned around to see a kobold approaching us. He was wearing a small brown trench coat that dragged on the floor as he walked, but it didn’t seem to slow him down very much. The creature kept a bit of distance as he stared down at Braun, probably not sure if we just turned on our friend.

  “He’s fine,” I said. “Well, he usually is anyway.”

  “What did he do that made you knock him down?” asked the kobold.

  “We didn’t hit him,” said Cassandra. “He… He just passes out from time to time.”

  “I could take a look, if you’d like,” offered the kobold.

  “You’re a doctor?” asked Dhot, surprised.

  “No.”

  We blinked at the kobold.

  “Then what good would you looking at him do?” I asked.

  “Dunno. It’s something I’ve heard people say before,” shrugged the kobold. He opened up his coat to show an impressive number of cracked watches. “You wouldn’t happen to be interested in some time pieces, would you?”

  “They don’t appear to be working,” I said, narrowing my eyes as I quickly glanced over them.