Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor)

by Robert Barton

  Veer unfastened a bedroll and wrapped the shivering girl in the wool blanket. He noticed that two baby dragons had followed him and were watching him and Shira. Then he caught site of Green Eyes and the larger dragon that had fought with the nasty creature - both dragons looked ruffled but otherwise fine. “Too bad he didn’t kill you Green Eyes,” Veer spat at the dragon and Green Eyes spread her wings and hissed back at him. Veer picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the green eyed little dragon which leaped to the side to avoid being hit by the flying rock and let out a small screech of anger.

  Still early in the day, Veer sat down beside the shivering bundle that was Shira and seethed in anger that the little dragon had bitten the only person in the world who Veer now knew. Frustration started to rise up in Veer as he thought about the time that would be lost as he waited for Shira to recover or die. Every hour lost was an hour that his enemy could get farther away and would become harder to find. In frustration Veer picked up another stone to hurl at Green Eyes but when he looked to where the tiny dragon had been a few moments earlier the beast was gone. “Any dragon will do,” Veer said out loud as he turned his attention on the two dragons sitting a dozen yards away watching. Pulling back his arm in preparation for another throw Veer looked into the blue eyes of one of the little dragons. The eyes of the little dragon looking back at Veer seemed strange and familiar at the same time; somehow not as reptilian as they had looked before, they were almost human looking. Veer didn’t know how but he felt certain that the little dragon sitting looking at him was the one which had stayed next to him while he was sick from the poison. Remembering the rock that was still clutched in his hand, Veer angrily slung the stone into the water of the nearby stream saying, “I guess you didn’t do anything.”

  A rumble drew the attention of the young man and he realized that he was hungry. A day with little food and then three days unconscious with nothing at all to eat was starting to catch up to him. Veer knew that he must hunt or fish to get some food for himself and for Shira if she woke up. ”No! When she wakes up,” he snapped out loud at himself. Veer looked around him to try and take stock of what they had to use and what they would need. He noticed that Shira was no longer shivering and seemed to be in a deep sleep which he felt was a good sign. As he looked at her lying there he just suddenly knew that the girl would recover. Veer didn’t know how he knew it but he was as certain of it as he was certain the night would come in a few more hours.

  Veer knew that he couldn’t take to the surrounding hills in order to hunt and leave Shira poisoned and sleeping, with wolves, bears, hill lions and poisonous baby dragons wandering about. Fish it would have to be, and so Veer turned to the shallow stream. The young man recalled that there were no fishing supplies in the packs so he would have to use his bow. Veer remembered the voice of his grandfather teaching him how to get fish from the mountain streams. ‘Now boy, see what you do is find yourself a shallow crossing or a ford where you can walk across the stream but with a deeper pool just upstream. Now stand and face upstream right next to the water so that the flow of the water is coming to you. Look into the shadows where you can see what’s under the water and just stand and wait until you see a fish. Aim your arrow just under the fish because fish have a magic that makes ‘em look like they are in one place when they are really just a little bit deeper than they look. When you hit the fish just wait for him to stop his thrashing around and then walk out into the stream as the water brings ’im right to you. Simple as that.’ As Veer had been reliving that memory he had also been doing the exact same things and was now standing beside the stream looking at a fish in a deeper pool just upstream. Releasing the arrow at a spot just under the fish, Veer watched it fly home and saw the fish begin to thrash about. And then just like he had been taught he waded into the stream and grabbed the dying fish as the water tried to carry it downstream.

  “Fish tonight,” the young man said to himself as he waded back to shore with his prize. As Veer reached the shore, where he had left his bow hanging in a bush to keep the string dry while he waded into the water, he heard a loud crashing in the underbrush - the sound of something large and quickly moving toward him. A loud baby dragon sized screech also came from the brush. Dropping the fish, Veer grabbed his bow from the bush and rapidly nocked an arrow and brought the bow up with the string next to his cheek. Pressing the bow forward he began to put tension on the limbs of the weapon while sighting the arrow toward the direction of the noise. As his arm reached full extension and the arrow was ready to release he saw the brush ahead of him shake and a large stag, still with velvet covered antlers, leaped into view. As the stag saw Veer it turned sharply to the left presenting a moving broadside target to the young man. Though young, Veer was an experienced hunter and instantly sighted and released the arrow on a flight slightly ahead and above the chest of the stag; a flight that he intended to strike the deer as it took the next leap. As he released the arrow into the air he saw that the young dragon with human like eyes was bursting from the brush in a low flight and snapping at the hindquarters of the stag - driving the harried beast forward. Just as Veer had known it would the stag took a leap that carried it to meet the arrow perfectly. The stag was feathered very well and only managed another ten yards of fleeing before dropping to the ground in a heap. The baby dragon following the deer landed on the ground beside the fallen animal and turned to look at Veer.

  Ordinarily Veer would follow Hillfolk custom and dress and butcher the deer after carrying it away so that the waste and scraps would not attract unwanted neighbours to camp. But he was not willing to leave Shira, unconscious and defenceless especially with baby dragons wandering the area. So he set to the task of dressing and butchering the animal right there where it fell just yards from camp. Within an hour Veer had managed to get the stag dressed and quartered and had carried the meat back into the camp. Veer decided to see to preparing a meal since he was still hungry. He built a small fire and got the fish cleaned and cooking over the fire and added a few strips of venison. In case Shira should wake Veer also started a small pot from the packs to boil and added some venison and some wild herbs from around the area in order to have a broth ready for her. All the while as these tasks were keeping him busy Veer noticed that there was one dragon sitting just at the edge of the brush watching the girl as she slept and the human eyed dragon was also ever present but more focused on the young man.

  Finally, Veer was able to sit and eat his fill of fish and meat along with some of the herbs that grew wild this time of year. It was a very welcome meal and he felt his strength returning bit by bit. Frequent checks on the sleeping girl assured Veer that she was still alive even if she slept so deeply that she seemed to be on the edge of death. Veer still felt hungry though he knew that he had stuffed himself earlier and he thought to himself it must be the result of his days of illness. He noticed that the human eyed dragon which had driven the deer out of the brush was sitting watching Veer with glances toward the meat. “You did help catch it I guess so you can eat some too,” he said to the dragon which looked at him twisting its head slightly in the way that a puppy does when it listens to a person speaking. Carving pieces of meat off of one of the haunches the boy began to toss the hunks to the dragon. As the dragon ate the pieces of meat Veer noticed the baby dragon that seemed to be keeping watch over the girl was glancing toward the meat but seemed unwilling to leave its place so Veer tossed some food to the second baby dragon which also began to eat. Before long other baby dragons seemed to drift to the edge of camp as darkness descended and Veer tossed meat to them also reasoning that at least if they have eaten they might not try to attack during the night. Then he noticed Green Eyes sitting in a tree just outside of camp watching them all. When the nasty dragon saw him glance up at her she hissed and spread her wings. No meat was tossed to her.

  Four

  Eventually the baby dragons seemed to grow full and even Veer now felt full himself. Night had fallen and he knew that there was
no way he would be able to stay awake permanently so he prepared camp for the night. First the meat had to be tied high into the nearby trees so nothing could steal it in the night. Next he moved the girl so that she would spend the night with one side protected by the fire and Veer with his weapons on her other side. Veer built an unusually large fire for summer but he knew that it would burn longer and offer more protection. He would also keep his bow strung and arrows ready so if anything did wake him up he could draw and release quickly. With the sword drawn and lying on the ground beside him and with his fighting knife next to it Veer sat leaning against a stone so that he would be sitting up and never fall into a deep sleep and only take short naps through the night. As he sat there he periodically moved to add wood to the fire and keep it well fed and he watched the sparkling dragon eyes at the edge of the fire light. He knew that he and the fire would be the only protection Shira would have if the dragons decided to attack again or if any other animal showed up. Occasionally he would snap awake and realize that he had been napping and he would build up the fire, and sit scanning the darkness until he would doze again. The night wore on this way allowing Veer to get some sleep and still keep the fire fairly large while making sure the girl was safe and the dragons kept their distance.

  Suddenly awakened by the sound of a screaming dragon Veer reached for his bow. Nocking an arrow as he sprang to his feet Veer started looking around to see which dragon was again after the girl. Though it didn’t feel like a whole night had passed it must be nearing dawn since the sky was showing that pre-dawn brightness and Veer could see fairly well around himself. It was good that the sky was starting to lighten because the fire had died down to embers this last time while he had slept. He could see some of the dragons but they were not facing toward the camp but outward toward the forest. Now he could hear the sounds of several things moving quickly through the underbrush and he started to catch glimpses of things that looked large and dog-like. Wolves he thought to himself, wolves and only one person to fight them off from the girl who still lay between him and the embers as though she were dead. Veer waited for the attack which he knew would come when he heard another draconian scream as the first wolf broke through the brush and leaped. His arrow took the wolf in the throat and quenched a snarl as surely as a bucket of water would drown a torch. As the first wolf collapsed several more followed out of the forest and Veer knew that his bow had done all that it would do and that blades would be where their protection would now be found. Throwing his bow clear of the area Veer stooped and grabbed both his sword and his knife from the ground and raised them to point at the wolves now starting to fill the empty space between he and the forest.

  He had chosen the camp site well with the stream at his back so there was little space for anything to get behind him and with the bed of embers closing off one line of attack he could position himself so that the only way a beast could get to Shira was to pass his blades. He could not count how many wolves were in front of him as they moved for position but he could see that it was a large pack of the beasts. With snarls, two wolves leaped, one directly at Veer while another tried to pass by him to get to the stricken girl. He lashed out clumsily with the point of the unfamiliar sword toward his opponent. It was not a very effective strike and at the moment when Veer knew that he could not win this battle the air around him filled with the shrieks of two small dragons. There was a streak through the air as a dragon far smaller than a wolf slammed into the beast attacking Veer and a similar streak intercepted the second wolf before it could reach Shira. As both wolves went down in tangles of lupine and dragon Veer managed to get the point of his sword into the chest of a third wolf that came leaping toward him. The force of the airborne wolf still drove the boy back as it died with his sword buried in its heart. The sword was pulled from his hand by the falling beast which had the blade embedded though bone. Veer brought his knife up to meet the onslaught of four more wolves leaping to attack. Veer resolved that he would not be driven away from his friend and then he felt the jaws of a wolf lock onto his thigh. As he felt the tearing pain of the bite to his leg four more streaks in flight slammed into the leaping wolves and they all went down each locked in a struggle with a dragon much less than half its size but with a twisting serpentine body that writhed with surprising strength and speed for such young animals.

  With a moment to see the battle unfolding Veer watched the remaining wolves leap back into the forest. The dragon which had been watching Shira was literally standing on the girl as it finished its battle with its dying opponent. The human eyed dragonet pulled away from the body of his wolf, Veer just knew that this little dragon was a he, and crawled to stand in front of Veer hissing into the forest after the fleeing wolves. Two of the battling wolves freed themselves from their little enemies and fled to the forest with the rest of their pack. The remaining two wolves died as wounds or poison ended their lifelong hunt. Of the six dragons at his feet Veer noticed that two had already moved to start trying to pull the body of one dead wolf off of another dragonet who had battled the animal and an been pinned under the beast as it fell. The dragon which had defended Shira was draped across the chest of the girl trying to raise its head weakly as it seemed to be bleeding a green ichor from several bites. At his own feet struggling to stand was the human eyed dragon which was also bleeding from a serious bite to its leg.

  Of the dead wolves Veer saw that one had actually died across the legs of Shira and another lay on top of a twitching dragonet as two other dragons tried to pull the wolf away to free their sibling. One wolf lay on the ground with a sword still lodged in its chest. Though he could feel the wound to his leg Veer knew that he must get the wolf and dragon off of Shira so he hobbled to her side and rolled the dead lupine away from her. Almost gently he lifted the dragonet off of the girl and carried it some feet away and placed it on the ground where it couldn’t suddenly decide to hurt the girl. Looking at the two dragonets pulling at the body of the wolf which lay on top of the fallen baby dragon made Veer feel sorry for the animals and he bent and half lifted and half rolled the wolf off of the baby dragon. The two unharmed dragonets lay down and wrapped themselves around the body of the smaller dragonet. They looked to Veer as if they almost could feel love and were trying to help the injured dragon.

  Veer could feel the bite to his thigh and knew that he had to tend to it so he limped to the packs and found some strips of linen which had been rolled for bandages and a jar of a salve which he could tell, by the herbal smell, was for injuries. Unfastening his belt and trousers he lowered them to the ground as he sat down to tend to the pulsing injury on his thigh. He looked down at his bare leg and there was nothing unusual, no bite, no scratches, nothing. Veer sat there and stared at the place on his thigh where he could feel the pain of the injury. He remembered feeling the wolf bite into his leg during the battle. It must have been one of the wolves which fled because the wolves which he saw attack were all dead. This wolf must have come around to the side because he never saw the animal which had bitten him, but he had felt it. He could still feel the injury. But there was nothing there; his leg was untouched. Standing, he pulled his trousers back up and fastened everything in place once again.

  Now to get rid of these dead wolves and set the camp back to rights. Veer looked at the baby dragons around him and knew that he would have to be careful with those poisonous little beasts as he moved the injured ones away. Then he saw the human eyed dragon which was looking at him. He remembered how that dragonet had, just a few minutes ago, fought a wolf, a wolf more that twice its size, and won. He remembered how the dragon had stopped the wolf that had marked Veer as its intended victim. “Why, why would you do that?” Veer asked to the dragon lying on the ground in front of him. Veer glanced to where he had moved the dragon from Shira and saw that the little beast was slowly crawling toward the sleeping girl. “And why would you protect her?” The young man stood there feeling confused and noticed that the human eyed dragon was starting to try and crawl towar
d him. He felt his leg throb badly and winced from the pain of an injury that wasn’t there. He could see that the dragonet was only using three legs to try and move itself as it had suffered a bad bite to the thigh of a hind leg.

  Veer felt unusually sorry for the animal as he looked into its eyes. At that moment he knew that this little dragon would not bite him or try to hurt him in any way. Veer didn’t understand how he could be so sure that this venomous little serpentine beast would not turn on him, but he was certain. He picked up the salve and bandages and sat on the ground beside the dragonet and tended its wounds. As he applied the healing medicine to the bite he could feel the pain in his own leg begin to lessen just a bit. Next he moved to tend the injuries on the dragon that had been hurt protecting Shira. Scratches and small bites but nothing had seemed to be broken on either dragonet because the bones felt whole. Next he moved toward the little one which had been crushed under the falling wolf. This dragonet was the smallest and Veer was amazed that it could have killed a wolf even if it had died doing it. There was nothing he could do for that one but maybe bury it. But he noticed that it still seemed to be alive somehow. It was breathing shallow and slow, but still breathing. Veer looked at the two dragons which were unhurt as they lay curled around their fallen sibling. “I hope that you know what to do for your sister.” Then he wondered how he could just know that the stricken dragon was a girl. Strange things happening here, Veer thought to himself. Veer started to feel exhausted and knew that he needed to rest after the battle. First he needed to build up the fire and he refilled the little pot with water and put it near the fire to heat for broth in case Shira woke. Then Veer sat down and drifted off to sleep.

  The next day Veer woke in the late morning feeling very hungry and to find a baby dragon curled up beside him just looking at him with those almost human eyes. Looking around he saw that the other bandaged baby dragon was sleeping curled aside Shira and that there were still two dragons curled around the little dragnet which had been fallen on by the wolf. Veer decided food first for everyone and then clean the camp and remove the dead wolves.