The Bnomes let out a thunderous cry and ran towards them.
“We are trapped,” Xuhn said, panting. They could hear the fast movement of the undead Bnomes in the tunnel behind— thankfully the Stone Bnomes couldn’t pass through the narrow tunnel due to their gigantic size— and in front of them were the normal Bnomes.
“So it has come to this, huh?” Mortugal said.
“We’ll have to fight them,” Ritika said, and Xuhn admired the determination in her eyes.
Mortugal laughed vacantly.
“We don’t have a choice— but first climb onto my back. Don’t get left behind, you idiot,” he added to Xuhn.
Thankfully by the time the Bnomes coming from the front reached them, all three had climbed onto Mortugal’s back. The Dragon let out a cry and lashed his tail at the ugly creatures. Any Bnome that came near his jaws was ripped to pieces.
“Such bad days,” Mortugal joked, even as the first of the undead Bnomes appeared behind them, “one must fight with his food!”
Mortugal let out another war cry and tore through the wave of the oncoming Bnomes. Somehow, lashing and biting at the Bnomes, Mortugal made it to the opening. The dragon had sustained several wounds from the Bnomes and he was bleeding profusely, but he flapped his wings and made it to the open sky.
And then the arrow came. Its arrowhead glowed red with whatever black magic that propelled it, and Xuhn watched in stark horror as it appeared suddenly from below and pierced into Mortugal’s chest. Mortugal let out a groan and momentarily stopped flapping his wings. They fell.
Just as they were about to hit the ground Mortugal, with massive effort as his cry suggested, flapped his wings hard and made it back to the heights.
“I am injured, I need to land,” Mortugal said. Meanwhile the Bnomes had taken to pursuit on their flying carpets and were flying much faster than the injured dragon. Mortugal flew just a short distance, and then had a rough landing among some trees.
“I can’t fly,” he said as Xuhn jumped down to examine where the arrow had pierced him— his heart. “I am… getting drowsy.”
The Bnomes landed nearby, and rushed towards them.
“Go away, you idiot!” Mortugal told Xuhn.
“I can’t,” Xuhn cried.
“I am dying, save yourself. Go!” Mortugal said, tears in his eyes. Ritika and Ruponi grabbed Xuhn’s arms and pulled him away from Mortugal. The dragon’s eyes closed, probably never to open again.
“We must run,” Ritika said to Xuhn.
And Xuhn ran. He turned back to see the Bnomes taking out the arrow from a motionless Mortugal, and tears flooded his vision.
After they had come a considerable distance from the Bnomes and the dead dragon, the three of them stopped. The Bnomes hadn’t given them chase, their main priority apparently being Mortugal.
“They killed him!” Xuhn told the two vampires, sobbing. Ritika placed an arm on his shoulder, while tears rolled down her cheek. But she didn’t say anything, apparently at lose for words. Xuhn knelt down and closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. The beast under the lake was dead. And more or less Xuhn was the reason behind it. If only he hadn’t awoken Mortugal this would have never happened. Mortugal had become a friend of his in the two days that he had known the dragon. Xuhn felt like somebody had torn out his heart.
“He gave up his life for our cause,” Ruponi said, her voice quivering with emotion. “We can’t let them take his body.”
“No, we won’t,” Xuhn said, anger rising within him. He stood up, although he knew not how three of them could chase away an entire army of Bnomes and take back Mortugal’s body. Who knew what those filthy creatures meant to do with the great dragon? “We must take him back some way or the other.”
“The villagers,” Ritika said. “They would help.” That lit hope inside Xuhn and he looked at the faces of the two Vampires.
“They aren’t true Vampires if they don’t,” Ruponi said.
“Then let’s go to them,” Xuhn said. He was prepared to die just to get Mortugal back.
“But the Bnomes will see us if we go to the village,” said Ritika.
“Not if we make a full circle and go,” said her mother.
“Then let’s do it.”
Chapter 12
It took a good while for them to reach the village. The night helped a lot, and no Bnome saw them as they followed the route to the village suggested by Ruponi. Xuhn found it almost funny that all the houses in the village had doors and windows closed. Maybe they had heard all the noise the Bnomes were creating near the cave hill and were too scared to bother with it.
Xuhn had been optimistic when Ritika had first told about seeking help from the villagers. Seeing the situation, his optimism was leaving him. Maybe the Bnomes had already done whatever they meant to do with the dragon, who knew?
Ritika went to a certain house and knocked on the door. No response.
“Come out!” she yelled. “We need your help!”
But they didn’t.
She went to another house and knocked there too, pleading the inhabitants to come out. They didn’t either. It was almost like nobody dwelt in the houses, though Xuhn was sure that wasn’t the case.
“I can’t believe it!” Ritika’s mother said. “I never thought we vampires could be so weak.”
“Please, come out,” Xuhn said in a voice as loud as possible, “my friend is dead, killed by Bnomes. And I have no idea what they plan to do with his body. All my friend wanted to do was end the war between Vampires and Werewolves. So that all your dear ones who have gone to the borders can return home.”
And then a lone door opened. An old man staggered out.
“The Bnomes have never disturbed us,” he said, “why should they kill your friend if he meant to end the war? The Bnomes have got nothing to do with it.”
“But they do, grandfather,” Ritika said.
“That’s nonsense,” said the old man. “I met one in the outskirts of our village a few days back. He was a shy person. I can never imagine a race so shy and peaceful as the Bnomes have anything to do with a war.”
“Now when did you get used to Bnomes?” Ritika’s mother asked.
“You are Ruponi, aren’t you? You and your daughter left our village some months ago,” said the old man.
“I am,” Ruponi replied. “And we did leave, but to seek help after we discovered a special artefact. We returned yesterday. None of our villagers knew what creature a Bnome is till I was here, so what has happened now?”
“The Bnomes are good creatures,” said the old man, “they arrived some days ago for the first time, bringing all sorts of gifts with them. And they have never troubled us with any requests or such things. They even gave us several fat pigs, almost bursting with blood!”
“Well,” said Ruponi, “if you want to see the true nature of the Bnomes, you must go to the cave. Didn’t you hear all the noise sometime back?”
“Erm, I did but,” the man said, and it seemed like he was at a loss for words.
“And I am telling this to all the villagers,” Ruponi said, making her voice louder. “If you want to see the true face of the Bnomes you must come with us.”
“The Bnomes know magic!” the man said, getting agitated, “They can fly! Let them mind their own business!”
“This is our village, grandfather,” said Ritika, “and anything that happens near it is our business too.”
“Why don’t you understand?” Xuhn asked the man. “Are you afraid?”
“Afraid?” the man asked, “I have served for years in the borders!”
“He has never been known for bravery in the war,” Ritika whispered to Xuhn.
“Look, I am a human,” Xuhn told the man. “This war is no business of mine. I am from Sura.”
“And despite that he agreed to help us,” said Ruponi.
“And now, whether you come with me or not, I am going to bring my old friend’s body back, because it was I who persuaded him to come here.”<
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And so saying Xuhn turned on his heels.
“Please don’t go alone,” Ritika said to him, “the villagers will come out.”
“No time to wait for them,” Xuhn replied and marched towards the hill in the distance.
“Then I am coming with you,” said Ritika, and she trotted along.
“Listen you cowards,” Xuhn heard Ruponi say, “we have gone to the bowels of the cave in the hill. There are Undead Bnomes there and I am sure the many Vampires who have gone to the cave and disappeared fell prey to the Bnomes.”
“You are lying,” a woman said from a window.
“I am not. Come check out the Bnomes’ true nature,” said Ruponi and she trotted up to Xuhn and Ritika.
“All’s lost,” she told Xuhn, sniffling. “I am sorry for all this.”
“You needn’t be,” Xuhn told her. “You just wanted to end the war.”
“You heard what she said?” Xuhn heard the other woman say to someone, “My son never returned from the cave. His killers might have been the Bnomes! I want revenge.”
A door opened.
“I am coming with you!” the same woman’s voice called from behind. Xuhn glanced back and watched as the woman joined them.
So at least one villager had some guts.
A door opened ahead and a young girl stepped out.
“I have never liked the Bnomes,” she said, “they try to be too good. Did they cause the war?”
“Yes,” Xuhn said, “they are much more to blame than the Werewolves.”
“My brother died in the borders,” the girl said, “I want revenge, I am coming with you.”
Xuhn was surprised but in this way, one villager after the other came out of their house. And by the time they reached the end of the village street, at least two hundred people were following them. The villagers consisted mostly of adult females, but there were also many boys and girls and old men.
Xuhn, Ritika and Ruponi led the villagers to the place where the dragon Mortugal lay dead. The place was swarming with Bnomes, both undead and normal ones. They seemed to be placing the dead Mortugal on some giant carpet to fly him away. When they saw that the entire Vampire village had come to claim Mortugal’s body, they raised their weapons and came running.
The villagers picked up stones, and threw them at the oncoming wave of Bnomes. Many of the Bnomes met their ends or became unconscious when fist sized stones landed on their heads. Then the villagers picked up the weapons carried by the fallen Bnomes and attacked the remaining ones. Soon the Bnomes began fleeing in their magic carpets and before long the villagers rose victorious. But the victory didn’t come without losses. Many of the villagers were badly injured and an old man succumbed to a head wound shortly after the last of the Bnomes fled. The Undead Bnomes too retreated to the cave.
Xuhn walked to Mortugal. The Bnomes hadn’t taken their big carpet from underneath him in their hurry. But what surprised Xuhn were the medicinal pastes over Mortugal’s many wounds, and near his lips were stains of a white fluid that the Bnomes might have fed him.
Then Xuhn noticed something, and elation filled him.
Mortugal was breathing. It wasn’t very easy to notice the slow up and down movement of his chest in the flickering light of the torches that the villagers had brought. But he was breathing.
“Come here!” Xuhn called Ritika and Ruponi. The two came and Xuhn pointed at the up and down movement of Mortugal’s chest.
“He’s alive!” said Ritika with a look of great joy on her face.
The Bnomes had even taken out the arrow that had pierced the flesh over Mortugal’s heart, and had applied medicinal pastes over the wound.
“I don’t understand,” Ruponi said. “Why would the Bnomes give him medicine?”
That was one question that puzzled Xuhn as well. He didn’t understand the behaviour of the Bnomes at all. Sure, they had done a good thing, but why would they?
“First they tried to kill him,” Ruponi said, “and now they have tended to all his wounds.”
The villagers gathered around the dragon as well. They too noticed the medicinal pastes all over Mortugal.
“See?” someone said, “The Bnomes weren’t that bad. I don’t think we should have attacked them.”
“I disagree,” Ruponi told the person, who happened to be an elderly lady with a rather flat face. “They attacked him first, don’t forget that… Maybe they meant to do something bad to him after he recovered.”
That however didn’t quell the discussions of the villagers, who were beginning to repent having attacked the Bnomes. Xuhn tried to point out the fact that the Bnomes had been carrying weapons, and that it had been the Bnomes who had first come running with weapons raised upon seeing them. But the villagers didn’t pay any heed. That Xuhn was a human didn’t help either.
After sometime, however, the villagers went back to the village to organise the funeral of the old man who had died. Xuhn, Ritika and Ruponi remained with Mortugal. Xuhn caressed the face of the sleeping dragon.
“Do you think he’ll regain consciousness soon?” Ritika asked.
“Only time will tell,” he replied.
The night passed thus, with the three of them waiting for Mortugal to regain consciousness. It was only after the break of dawn that Xuhn noticed the great dragon stir for the first time. He pointed it out to the two vampires.
And then Mortugal opened his eyes and turned his head this way and that, as if surprised to be where he was. When he saw Xuhn and the two vampires, he stared vacantly at them.
“You three,” he said, and his strong voice made Xuhn very hopeful concerning his full and quick recovery.
And then Mortugal snarled.
“Go away from me, you filth!” And he got up suddenly, groaning.
“We are sorry for leaving you,” Xuhn said, although he didn’t understand Mortugal’s anger. Hadn’t Mortugal himself told him to flee?
“I don’t care,” said Mortugal. “I am going to my lake.”
“I am sorry you are so badly injured,” said Ruponi, “this is our entire fault.”
“This entire war is bullshit,” said Mortugal, harsh. “Go and end it yourself.”
Xuhn exchanged looks with Ruponi. She clearly seemed hurt by Mortugal’s words.
“What’s wrong with you, Mortugal?” Xuhn asked the dragon. Mortugal scowled at him.
“What’s wrong with me? It’s with you three that everything is wrong—”
Then Mortugal closed his eyes and his facial muscles convulsed, as though he was in great pain.
“My head feels weird,” he said, his words coming weak, “I need to go and slumber.”
The Bnomes.
Xuhn suddenly realised the medicine that the Bnomes had fed Mortugal was more than a healing potion. It had messed up his head!
And before any of them could say anything, the dragon flapped his wings and took to the air. He flew a short distance unsteadily and then collapsed onto a house located at the edge of the village. Thankfully he had only fallen from a short height and didn’t seem injured. The inhabitant of the house— a plump lady vampire, ran out through a broken window moments after the dragon fell on her house.
“Something’s wrong with him,” Xuhn told Ritika and her mother.
“He has never spoken to me like that before,” said Ruponi. “I bet it’s the Bnomes’ medicine.”
They rushed towards the fallen dragon as he scrambled to get up. Villagers were meanwhile coming out of their houses, and Xuhn now feared they would attack the very dragon for whom they had fought against the Bnomes.
Mortugal managed to get up. He beat his wings as hard as he could and took to the air. This time he soared high and very soon was a mere dot in the sky.
Xuhn felt his heart sink.
He should have never thought of taking revenge on Corpsia. He wondered now if he would ever see the village of Bindi again. Now who would take him back home? Ritika and Ruponi had made the journey to Bindi from the vampir
e village before, but Xuhn was sure it had taken them months.
“Look there,” said Ruponi, pointing behind Xuhn.
Xuhn turned around. A Bnome had appeared at the place where Mortugal had been lying unconscious earlier, and now where the great carpet lay. Xuhn reckoned the Bnome had been unsuccessful in getting away with his friends, since he was a normal Bnome and not one of the undead ones. Apparently he had been lying in wait until the moment nobody was near the carpet so he could take off in it.
An idea suddenly hit Xuhn.
“We must get that bastard!” he told the two vampires, and he sped towards the Bnome as the latter dusted the carpet and got atop it, ready to fly. Just as the carpet was getting airborne with the Bnome atop it, Xuhn leapt and grabbed a side of the carpet. He pulled himself up the carpet.
“Get away!” the Bnome said in a squeaky voice and came to push him off. Xuhn instead lunged at the Bnome and both fell from the carpet. Thankfully, the carpet had risen only a few feet and they landed on some bushes, allowing them to escape injury. Meanwhile, the carpet too fell to the ground, since there was nobody to pilot it.
Xuhn boxed the Bnome as hard and as many times as he could. The Bnome was much shorter than him and Xuhn had the advantage of height. But the Bnome was relentless, trying to hit Xuhn in all the weak areas of his body. Thankfully, just as the Bnome was about to get away, Ritika and her mother finally reached the spot, and the three of them together wrestled him into submission.
“W-what do you want?” the Bnome asked, his hands raised in surrender while blood leaked from his broken nose. The three of them stood around the Bnomes such that he had no way to escape.
“What did you feed my friend?”
“What friend?”
Xuhn slapped the short man.
“Mortugal, the dragon.”
“We saved his life!”
“You were the ones who nearly killed him in the first place!” Xuhn barked, “And then you fed him something that has messed up his brains, and now he hates us!”
“What was the point of awakening him, eh?” the Bnome said, “He’s a lazy dragon, seeking slumber all the time, and all dragons despise him for all the fur he has put on himself.”
The Banishment of the King Page 8