Ganspar wondered who even was captain now; between the duels of honour and the assassinations and plotting for promotion it could be anyone. Ganspar thought to himself that if he could only stay in a camp a few days he could perhaps duel or assassinate his way into a promotion. At least then he could stay in the camp where there was some semblance of civilization and work on his career as an officer. If he could kill the right people perhaps he could make it to major before this expedition was over. Then no more mornings like this one - like the last forty seven have been.
Just because some advisor convinced the Emperor that dragons are real and can be used to win wars. That was all that it took to send this army all the way across the mountains past the edge of the world searching among these superstitious barbarians to try and find a mythical beast. At least these barbarians were easy to kill with their ideas of hospitality toward strangers and travellers and their formal greetings. By the time they realized that there was a fight they were standing before their gods. These barbarians are pitiful; not even fit to make good slaves. Back home in a civilized place a band of unmarked strangers would never survive. With no banners or insignia of a strong house or the imperial army a band like this would be killed quickly by whoever felt like it. But not here, these uncivilized people just let you pass right by. That’s just no way to keep order.
So here he was, Ganspar, a lieutenant in the Eternal Army. In command of a band of idiots beyond the edge of the world as they search for a beast from children’s tales because someone in a palace far away decided that ancient tales are real. Sleeping rolled in a blanket, eating hard rations with nothing to do to break the boredom aside from occasionally killing a barbarian. And tea, we can’t forget the tea; every day, every two hours, one sip of this putrid herbal tea which tastes so nasty. Then every night make more tea for the next day. It is supposed to make you able to see dragons, this magic herb. Of all of the stupid duties one can be called on to perform.
“There’s a branch off of the trail up ahead there sir, going east,” came a voice from behind Ganspar pulling the lieutenant out of his bitter reverie to notice the trail in front of him.
“Do you think, corporal, that I am blind? Yes there is a branch off of the trail, and yes I see it there. It has always been there. Every time we cross back and forth up and down this damned trail that branch is there just like all of the other branches - all of them leading nowhere. Tell me, corporal is it day or night, since I may not have noticed without your help.”
“Sorry sir,” responded the same voice.
“Shut up,” snapped the officer.
As the officer reached the point where the trail branched off to the east he habitually scanned the ground for tracks and he could see hoof prints from a small band coming down from the north and then taking the eastern trail. Maybe three horses and a few small dogs with them. Then the officer paused to look more carefully. The hoof prints were a mixture of horses wearing real horseshoes and one wearing what these local animals thought of as horseshoes. While Ganspar was examining the hoof prints more closely he noticed that the paw prints of the dogs looked as little odd. Just something strange. The lieutenant shrugged to himself and wondered how a local got a couple of army horses. But his job wasn’t retrieving horses lost by someone else so he decided to continue heading north along the main trail. Then with a nauseated feeling he realized that it was time for another sip of his nasty tea so he took out his leather flask and took the smallest sip possible. Putting away the flask he glanced back down at the tracks, at the strange paw prints. A feeling of cold came over the officer. Where he had seen paw prints a moment before were now prints of something entirely different. These tracks now looked almost like some kind of bird or a large lizard. There were enough of them to be from several animals and they were intermixed with the hoof prints so that they had to be travelling with the horses and not following them.
Holding up his right hand Ganspar began to communicate with the hand signals of the Eternal Army. He instructed his eight men to loosen their swords and follow quietly. As he led his troop toward the east on the new trail he started to carefully examine the tracks. Three horses definitely, but they were lightly weighted so they were carrying small people or light packs. Sometimes the hoof prints were over the claw prints and sometimes the claw prints over the hoof prints so they were moving together. If the claws were following the horses like they were hunting them then the claws would always print over the hooves. There were lots of claws in different sizes so whatever made those claw prints, there were several of them; but none of them were large. At least three to be sure. Another hand signal told the troops to get their special ropes ready.
This was too incredible to believe but maybe there really are some dragons left. He and his troops had been sent to find some baby dragons and here are tracks that might lead right to some of the little monsters. Well, we will find out if these ropes will actually hold a dragon. The ropes are supposed to be made out of the same plant as this horrible tea and are supposed to be able to hold a dragon. Remembering the tea the young officer passed back his flask so that every man could take a sip. If this is really happening then his troops should be able to see some small dragons soon. The tracks were not old, less than an hour. The dirt kicked up around the tracks showed that the horses were moving quickly but at a quick walk only.
Overhead there started a loud angry caw from a crow but the call that started as a caw was becoming something else. Something angry and more visceral. As the men looked up they could see a green eyed crow screeching at them. They also saw the crow start to morph into something else. As the crow dived at the men they realized that dragons are real and here was a tiny one attacking. Hearing the scream of anger above them the horses grew nervous and hard to control. As the horses began to leap the little dragon picked her target and headed for the man to the rear. As she dove at him the man swatted at her with his coiled rope. As the rope hit the diving dragon it was as if she had been struck by a club and she was flung many yards back down the trail. After she hit the ground she stood back up staggering and screamed defiantly at the men. One of the men had a small net made of the same stuff as the ropes and he threw the net toward her. Seeing the thing coming through the air at her the little dragon staggered aside so that the net barely missed her. She weakly leaped into the air and managed to struggle her way into flight, now she just wanted to escape. She had never felt anything like that rope which had swept her from the air. She managed to gain altitude enough to pass the men and fly east toward her siblings screeching weakly. Knowing that the dragon would give away any surprise Ganspar lunged forward to follow at a run with his troop charging along behind.
*****
Veer and Shira heard the sound of Green Eyes screeching behind them and they turned to face back the way they had come. The young dragons hearing their sister cry in fear also spun back the way that they had come. People and dragons alike could hear the shrieks of Green Eyes as she approached and then they heard the sound of hoof beats far back on trail to the west.
Veer yelled. “We have to take to the brush.”
“We can’t.” Shira responded. “The trail is on a ridge right here it’s too steep on both sides.” With no other options Shira urged her horse forward and Veer followed as did the young dragons. The trail was heading downward and would soon be off of the ridge and flatten out enough that maybe they could get into the forest and hide. Looking ahead on the trail Shira saw two horses break out of the trees where the trail flattened out. Two riders turned their horses toward them and started charging up the trail. “Ambush,” Shira screamed.
Veer had been looking back for a moment when he heard Shira scream and as he turned to look ahead of him more horses break out of the trees and started to follow the first two riders as they charged forward toward Shira and Veer. But these new comers were soldiers with weapons and armour. Stop Veer yelled to Shira and the whole party came to a halt. Now there were soldiers coming from the front a
nd their foreign partners closing from the rear and the ridge was still too steep here to try and run cross country. Looking back they could now see the group of riders charging from the rear. Riders dressed like bandits and carrying ropes.
*****
Ganspar rounded a bend and could see three horses stopped in the trail ahead of him. And there were small dragons on the ground milling about the stopped riders. He was already planning his heroic return to the empire when he realized that just beyond the stopped horses was a party of soldiers charging toward Ganspar and his men. Wondering that they had somehow gotten reinforcements he quickly hanged the coiled rope over his saddle and drew his sword. Seeing this, his men also exchanged their ropes for swords.
*****
The sergeant of the ducal guard finally had his quarry cornered and he could see the old man and the younger man riding up the trail but now just beyond them he saw armed men approaching. “They have rescuers,” he shouted to his men as he drew his sword. His men did likewise preparing for a fight to take their prisoners.
Veer drew his sword and faced the two oncoming riders, who would reach him and Shira before the others from behind.
“Out of the way,” the first of the riders, an old man, shouted. As he made to pass by Veer the old man then saw that the way was cut off by men ahead of him. “Damn you” shouted the old man as he drew his blade and focused on Veer. The human eyed dragon leaped in front of the old rider and roared sending the horse under the man into a panic so that it reared and threw the rider to the ground.
It all happened so fast as soldiers from the front and bandits from the rear tried to join battle on a narrow trail atop a ridge. The dragons, though small, were roaring and startled horses were throwing their riders some of which rolled down the low ridge. Bandits and soldiers were starting to fight one another and were now dying. There were several little individual battles taking place, some on the trail and some on the sides of the ridge. Riderless horses were scrambling around atop the ridge and on both sides where they had also tumbled. One bandit seemed to be fighting a soldier on the trail. And dragons were screaming and some had taken flight and were now up in the tree tops with Green Eyes. Of the two riders who had ridden ahead of the troops, the older man had managed to crawl over to and cover the body of the younger man who had also been thrown from his horse.
Shira and Veer had both been unhorsed and were on foot, and each with a small dragon standing nearby roaring and threatening – two small bundles of fury.
Within moments the two men on horseback who seemed to have led each group had managed to kill one another and most of the soldiers and bandits had finished their individual battles. Seeing their leader dead and most of their compatriots also fallen two of the soldiers were fleeing back the way that they had come, with retrieved horses. Only one bandit seemed to have survived and he two had retrieved a horse and was riding back the way he had come. It had seemed like a long battle but it had actually only been a few moments. Veer and Shira were left standing there confused and surrounded by the bodies of bandits and soldiers and listening to the cries of angry young dragons coming from around them and in the tree tops. Veer noticed that the two men who had been in front of the troops were lying on the ground and the older was face down and he had been wounded at some point in the fight.
Veer went over and grabbed the older man and rolled him to face upwards and demanded. “Who are you? And why did you attack us with soldiers?”
“We didn’t attack you filthy bandits. The soldiers were after us. I guess you bandits will get the reward now. It is an old and noble house that you are helping destroy.” The old man managed to whisper with his last few breaths and then his eyes grew lightless as he left this world behind.
“What does he mean by that?” Shira asked.
“I don’t know,” responded Veer. Just then he heard a groan from the younger man under the body of the older man. Veer shifted the body of the older man aside and looked at the younger man who was unconscious. The shirt of the man was covered in old blood and he was very hot with a fever. Veer pulled open the shirt and saw a wound which looked to be several days old and which looked to have festered. “Nothing to do for this one,” Veer said as he put the young man down. Looking at the face of the younger man Veer realized that he wasn’t much older than Veer himself.
“Well, as long as he is alive we can’t leave him. It just isn’t the way of the hills,” said Shira.
Veer looked back along the trail where the foreigner had fled and then up the trail where the soldiers had fled. “One of those foreigners got away so he will eventually be back with more people and they will know about the dragons. And a couple of those soldiers got away so whoever they work for will be sending more soldiers to find these guys. We can’t do anything for the dead ones but we can take this one with us. We will have to put him over a horse to carry him. We have to get our horses and packs and get his horse too.”
“There are a lot of stray horses walking around here, just cut the straps of the tack and it will fall off of them and let them go lose.” Shira called as she set about gathering their horses and packs.
Within a short time the two had gathered their horses and the horse of the young man. They had also managed to remove the saddles and tack from all of the stray horses which were walking around. As they returned to the spot where they had left the unconscious young man they saw a young dragon standing near him licking and sucking at his wounded chest.
“We should take a couple of these ropes with us, the ones that those foreigners dropped; they might come in handy,” said Shira. Then she bent to pick up one of the coils. Overhead she heard Green Eyes screech and several of the other small dragons reacted to it by joining the screaming. The dragon which had become some close to Shira charged over and pushed Shira back away from the rope. “Ok, I guess no ropes. I wonder why they don’t like the ropes.”
“I don’t know but help me get this guy tied over his horse so we can get moving.”
“No, if he isn’t dead yet, that will kill him,” said the girl. “Help me get him up into my saddle and he can ride in front of me, I’ll hold him up.”
Soon they were moving once again and trying to hurry the horses in order to make it to the Wall and get themselves into the low hills. Shira rode with the stranger sitting in front of her and Veer took the lead. They both wanted as much distance between themselves and the scene of the battle as they could cover by nightfall.
After about an hour on the trail Shira spoke. “His fever seems to be getting better, he is cooling off. And his breathing is easier. Maybe that dragon licking his wound helped. Do you think…?”
“I don’t know how they do it. I don’t know if that one did it to him. I don’t know if those other ones did it to us. I do know that the wound he has is gone sour and he shouldn’t live.”
They rode on for the rest of the afternoon in silence only stopping long enough to let the horses rest and drink and to relieve themselves when they could hold their water no longer. Around an hour before sunset Veer said. “We’re in the Wall hills so we should leave the trail and go cross country through the hills and head south like Slance said.” As he said this, he reined his horse off of the trail and headed into the light forest of the low hills.
They rode until the darker side of twilight. Veer and Shira were both exhausted and they could see that the horses were tired; even the dragons seemed to be tired. They both knew that they would be keeping a cold camp for at least a few days. They rolled the unconscious stranger up in a blanket and they ate a meal of raw herbs and dried venison before bundling up in their own blankets. They were too exhausted to set a watch and they both dropped off to sleep knowing that if anything or anyone tried to sneak up in the night the dragons would sound an alarm. A sound woke them in the night and as they both lay there and listened they could hear the voice of the young flatlander as he talked in his sleep. They both returned to their own dreams before long and slept until the morning bird s
ongs woke them.
As Veer woke he realized that Shira was coming awake too. They had made a cold camp near a stream, so they had a morning wash as was the custom of the Hillfolk. They also noticed that each of the baby dragons had hunted in the night and had been eating various small animals. They had finished washing and they were refilling water skins from the stream when they heard a weak cry from camp that told them their stranger was awake.
They quickly sprinted back to the camp to find that the stranger had crawled out of his blankets and was gripping a tree and trying to stand. “Get away! Away!” He yelled at one of the baby dragons which seemed trying to get close to him. He saw the two people approach and called to them weakly. “What is that?” And he pointed at the baby dragon.
“A dragon,” Shira answered in a matter-o-fact voice. “If you look around you’ll see more of them too.”
“Have you taken me prisoner? Are you taking me to the Duke for his reward?” The confused looking young man asked as he sank to the ground unable to hold himself up any longer. “Where is Gofreys?”
“If by Gofreys you mean the old man who was with you, I’m sorry but he was killed yesterday, maybe by the soldiers, maybe by the bandits,” said Shira. “I’m not sure which but one of them killed him. You were very sick with a fever from an old wound and we brought you with us and I think that dragon saved your life. And no if you were a prisoner you would not have woken up with your knife next to you. Now who are you?” Shira stood there waiting for an answer.
Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) Page 9