Dragon Hero

by C. L. Woodward

  I looked at the two of them, “Oh, take your time.” I casually walked toward a bench near the door.

  After they walked up the stairs, I glanced around and saw no one. Knowing Bolam, he would keep that guy busy for a good while. That elf must be stuck with the night shift and looked all too happy to talk to someone of equal intellect. It looked like this floor was clear. I carefully opened the door to the cellar and walked down the stairs. Oh man, was my pulse racing! The orbs lit up and nearly caught me off guard. I took a few deep breaths and climbed down the stairs.

  I made it down the stairs and down the hall; it felt like the longest walk ever! Goosebumps covered me and all the hair on my body stood on end. I carefully opened my pack and took out my helmet. After I put my helmet on, I grabbed Jerak’s mace and the key. I really hoped this would work. I carefully shoved the key in the keyhole and turned it slowly. After hearing that click, I felt a bit more at ease. Now came the tricky part.

  The statue stared at me like it knew what I was up to. The orb in its mouth showed no signs of life. So far, so good! I took a deep breath, put the key away and slowly walked toward the display cases. Some of the artifacts looked really tempting to grab while I was down there. The scrolls weren’t too tempting and I was sure that large tome was filled with some evil magic that would take my soul or something. But that sword looked pretty cool. No, I knew Ishould just go after the boots and not get too greedy. I held Jerak’s mace tightly and raised it over the display case. I took a deep breath and let it fall.

  The case shattered loudly as the mace broke right through it. I froze a second; I thought someone was nearby. No, it was just my imagination. As soon as I grabbed the boots the air around me made a crackling sound and got really bright. Oh, crap! That statue just shot a bolt of lightning at me! I was ever so glad that the helmet worked! I could see the orb in the statue’s mouth pulsating as it charged up another zap. I shoved the boots in my pack and closed it up. Another zap shot toward me. Once again, I was thankful for the helmet. I sighed in relief as I put my pack back on, at least until I heard a hissing sound.

  Snakes? No way! Wait… it wasn’t snakes but rather some kind of gas being exhaled from the statue. Judging from the color I thought it might be… poison! I grabbed Jerak’s mace and took off down the hall just as another bolt of lightning struck. I made it up the stairs and waited for a moment-no more zapping. I guessed I was out of range. Good. I opened my pack again and crammed my helmet and Jerak’s mace into it. They barely fit but that would do. I wiped the sweat from my face and took several deep breaths. My heart was still racing.

  Bolam and that elf still hadn’t returned from their little intellectual exchange. I sat back on the bench and made sure that I didn’t appear to have been running. I hoped Jerak and Teltar were doing alright getting the escape boat ready. I still can’t believe that we were actually doing this. It was too late to turn back now. Bolam and the elf walked down the stairs a few minutes later.

  “I will have to consider that next time,” Bolam instructed the elf.

  The elf chuckled, “I am just saying that if you channel it that way it might produce better results, but that theory doesn’t work with other spells.”

  Bolam smiled and nodded, “Well, I am sure my friend is getting bored waiting here. I will check things out in the morning!”

  The elf smiled back, “Sounds good!” Bolam looked at me and at my pack. I just nodded and gave a slight smile.

  As we left the archives, I felt a flood of relief wash over me. We made it out without anyone knowing. It was hard to resist running away from the building, but we didn’t need to draw any attention to ourselves. I could only hope that elf didn’t go check downstairs. A rush of paranoia came over me. They better have had the boat ready.

  Bolam and I walked a little faster once we got near the river. Jerak was standing next to the old warehouse where we found the old boat. He gave us a nod and appeared to be excited. Bolam whispered, “Is it ready?”

  Jerak nodded, “Yeah, Teltar has been ready for a while now.” Bolam looked at me and nodded; I just nodded back but felt a lump in my throat.

  Teltar looked at us with his typical lazy demeanor. He held onto a short rope that kept the boat from darting down the river. I took a deep breath and tossed my pack into the boat. Teltar and Jerak had their packs inside, along with two wooden sticks for steering the thing. “Are you sure this is safe?” I asked.

  Teltar shrugged, “Safer than running through the woods.” Very true. We all climbed in and quickly put the old canopy over us. As soon as the last person got on the boat, we started to move fairly quickly.

  My heart nearly stopped as we moved away from the city. A part of me wanted to peek out as it might be the last time I would ever see it without the fear of being in chains. Everyone was cramped inside and we kept bumping along on the river. None of us felt the urge to peek out, nor to help steer since even Jerak was worried about a sentry spotting us. This way, it looked like the row boat just drifted off onto the river. At least, that was what I hoped they would think.

  I couldn’t tell how long we had been drifting down the river. We were not going all that fast so there was no fear of crashing hard but we still bumped into the bank every so often. My legs were asleep but I couldn’t turn my body even slightly without sticking out of the canopy. The smell of dust and body odor was all too dominant. The boat clearly had not been used in quite a long time and none of us had bathed in several days.

  An even longer time passed as we were all paralyzed from lack of space. Jerak was the first to move and peeked out of the canopy. “What do you see?” Bolam whispered.

  Jerak pulled his head back in and whispered, “Darkness.” I poked out and couldn’t see a thing.

  My legs felt like they were pricked by a thousand needles. I cringed, “I think we are in the clear.” Bolam whispered back, “Alright but let’s keep as quiet as we can and not move too much.”

  It was nice to be able to stretch a little. Teltar and Jerak each took a side and made sure we didn’t stray off but the river was doing a fine job on its own. I couldn’t believe we had made it so far without any problems. I whispered to Bolam, “So what is the plan once we make it down river?”

  Bolam shrugged, “I really don’t know.I suppose we head west and hope to make it north towards Halatross without running into dark elves.”

  I scratched my head, “How long will it take us to reach Halatross?”

  Bolam sighed, “I don’t know.It might take us a few days traveling west and maybe four or so days to reach Halatross.” After he got halfway through, I realized the other thing he mentioned, “Wait… dark elves?”

  Bolam nodded his head though he could barely move, “Yes, we will be heading west soon and might end up in dark elf territory.” I recalled Falstrid saying something about dark elves when I first came here but kind of forgot what he told me. Bolam yawned, “It is a risk since dark elves dislike outsiders, but it also means the elves won’t be going that way anytime soon. If we remember to head north before traveling too far away from the large woods, we should be safe.” I was glad he had some form of plan. I was not too wild about traveling for several days while being paranoid about angry elves and dark elves chasing us.

  There was only enough room for two people to really lie down to sleep while two crouched toward the front to keep watch and make sure we didn’t hit any rocks. It was a bit miserable but we were distancing ourselves from the elves at a considerable pace. I shared a shift with Jerak. I asked him if we had enough food to get to Halatross since he and Bolam restocked. He told me we had plenty but I was not sure if he was aware of how long we were going to travel. I was too tired to really check. Jerak poked me which woke me from my half-sleeping stupor and pointed at a sign post at the side of the river.

  “What is that?” I asked. My brain was too asleep to translate it fast enough.

  Jerak shrugged, “It says waterfall.”

  I let out a yawn as that messag
e seeped into my brain, “What?!” I shoved my pole forward, “Help me stop this thing.”

  I could hear Bolam’s voice from deep in the boat, “What is going on?”

  I turned my head, “Waterfall.” Bolam got up but hit the canopy and fell on his back. The current started to grow stronger.

  Jerak and I shoved our poles into the bottom of the river and tried our best to slow down the boat. Bolam climbed by us, “Try to stop us!”

  I hit a snag on my pole and tried my best to not lose the grip of it and not to let the thing snap, “I’m trying!” The river floor was a bit too slick with hardly any rocks large enough to even slow us down.

  Jerak handed Bolam his pole, “Hold on, I got an idea!”

  “What are you doing?” I cried out.

  Jerak grinned and jumped off the side of the boat. He tumbled into the water but managed to get onto land. “Now extend the pole to me… oh man!” Jerak yelled as he realized that landing onto land caused him to trail behind us. He looked a bit surprised and took off running after us. Bolam leaned over to the side of the boat and extended the pole as best he could toward Jerak as he tried to keep up with us. I turned back toward the front and could see the drop up ahead.

  “Hurry!” I shouted.

  Jerak turned and saw the approaching waterfall, “Oh man!” and started to sprint faster toward us. Jerak reached and grabbed the pole from Bolam. I abandoned my pole and helped Bolam keep a hold. Jerak leaned back and used his heels as an anchor as the boat made a sharp turn in his general direction.

  Teltar got up, “Huh? What is going on?”

  Bolam turned his head, “Teltar get the packs out!” Teltar looked down and took a moment to figure what was going on. He grabbed everyone’s packs and tossed them toward land. “Blake, go climb out and help Jerak,” Bolam ordered. I just nodded my head and jumped out. He didn’t need to ask me twice. I jumped and nearly fell face-flat onto the riverbank. Teltar made his jump but landed halfway in the water. The only one left was Bolam. Bolam took a deep breath and jumped, crashing into me. Shortly after, we watched the row boat fall over the waterfall.

  “That was sure close,” I sighed. Jerak and Teltar both removed their shoes since they both hit the water. Bolam got up in a state of panic, “My glasses! Where did they go?” Jerak took a few steps and picked up a broken piece of the glasses that never had a lens.

  Bolam’s face fell into disappointment. Jerak shrugged, “Well, they were never real to begin with.”

  Bolam glared at Jerak but didn’t reply. Jerak shrugged again, “Were they of sentimental value?”

  Bolam shook his head, “No…”

  Jerak scratched his head, “I don’t think useless glasses are much use to you.”

  Bolam closed his eyes and sighed, “You just don’t understand…”

  Teltar walked over, “Are you worried about people not thinking you’re smart?”

  Judging Bolam’s response to that, it seemed that Teltar had hit the nail right on the head. Bolam took a few steps away from us and just lowered his head. I smiled, “You don’t need silly glasses to prove that.”

  Bolam turned his head slightly in my direction, “I spent most of my life being treated like some big dumb goon…” I should have known, out of all of us, Bolam is the biggest guy and if it wasn’t for his stereotypical mage-wear it might be easy to mistake him as a fighter. Jerak started to laugh.

  “You are just funny Bolam!” Jerak laughed. Bolam looked shocked and slowly stared at him. Jerak grinned, “You are the smartest guy I know! If you weren’t here we would still be stuck in the elf city trying to figure out how to get the boots or be covered in arrows.”

  Bolam looked down at the ground, “Really?”

  Jerak walked over toward him and patted him on the back, “Yeah! The only silly thing you did was wear those stupid glasses.”

  Bolam felt a burst of pride and almost shed a tear, “Thank you, Jerak.”

  I nodded, “I agree, you are very clever. I never thought of you as anything less.”

  Bolam smiled, “Thanks guys…”

  Teltar grabbed his pack, “We are in dangerous turf to have an idle chat.”

  Bolam nodded, “Right, we should depart at once.” Teltar’s boots were mostly dry but Jerak’s were soaked.

  I opened my pack and exchanged my boots with the new dragon boots, “Here, Jerak.” I handed him my old boots, they should be dry and we don’t have time to wait for boots to dry. Jerak quickly put them on, “They are a little snug but they will do.” I took a few steps with my new armored boots. They were even more comfortable than my old shoes.

  “So how do they fit Blake?” Bolam asked.

  I smiled and pulled out my helmet, “Very nice.” I might as well wear my helme,too.

  From the waterfall, we marched west. We were still in the forest but decided we should be fine as long we kept quiet and on course. “We are lucky that most of their forces are in the north. It might take a while before they found out what we did,” Bolam whispered.

  Teltar nodded, “We have at least a full day’s head start. Just to be safe, we shouldn’t make any fires. We need to try to keep moving and get out of these woods as quickly as we can.”

  It was hard to tell what time of day it was since the trees blocked most of the light. I just knew we’d been hiking nonstop for several hours with hardly a break. We were very lucky so far but it would only take one elf to spot us and we would be in big trouble. I contemplated how they would be able to track us. They might check around the city for any of our tracks. When they didn’t find any they might figure out that we went down the river and follow that way which would lead them towards the waterfall to our obvious tracks. I took a deep breath and sighed. I hoped they would very slow to discover our crime.

  At nightfall it became too dark to even see right in front of you. We decided to camp by a large cluster of rocks and make our first watch. It was totally miserable since even Jerak was paranoid at any stray sounds in the woods. Everyone but Teltar had trouble sleeping even though we were all exhausteded.

  Everyone woke up feeling almost as tired as the night before. Thankfully, nothing happened last night. We were hopeful to cover more ground with the new day.. The sun barely shone through the gaps of the leaves of the tall trees. It was much too early for my liking but the more ground we cover the better.

  “How much farther until we leave these woods?” I whispered to Bolam.

  Bolam was going to adjust his glasses but when he realized they weren’t there, he just sighed, “We should be fine after today.”

  Jerak chimed in, “Oh? We leave the great woods that soon?”

  Bolam shook his head, “No, but we will be closer to the edge of dark elf territory. Not all of the woods belong to the elves.” Bolam wiped some sweat from his face, “The west end of the great woods belongs to no one but we should still keep a watch for anything.”

  I was beginning to get sick of the pretty landscape here. One large tree after the next, big lush plants like ferns and shrubs all over the place, I just wanted to see a different color than green. The cool air was nice as we hiked hard all day but it sucked at night as the air grew a bit too cold without a fire. I was pleased to realize that, with all the hiking and fighting I’d done since I came to this world, I was really in decent shape now. Normally, this sort of travel would have been a bit too much for me, but I had become much stronger in the last few weeks.

  We stopped once again when it got too dark to safely travel any further. I took the first watch while munching on some dried fruit. A good portion of our food stocks were of dry meat and fruit. There is some other food but that required boiling water which was a luxury we could not afford. I was thankful that the armored boots turned out to be really comfortable. Well, I hadthe top and bottom parts of the Dragon Armor. I hoped the other pieces would be much easier to get.

  Morning came without any incident. The forest was so cold and wet in the morning that I put my blanket over my shoulders
as a robe in hopes that it would dry instead of getting mildewed inside my pack. We were all just tired and sick of the woods. It had been quite miserable since we couldn’t even have a decent conversation without getting too paranoid we could be heard.

  When we made it out of the huge woods, we practically cheered except we were still paranoid and too tired to cheer. The sky was getting dark but not because it was reaching nightfall. The clouds overhead were layered and dark. “This is not good,” I muttered as I could smell the moisture in the air.

  Jerak looked around, “We should go find some cover.”

  The land outside of the woods was sparse of trees and full of tall grass. There was nothing to hide under and we knew rain would fall at any moment. Jerak climbed the nearest tree to get a better view. “Find anything?” Bolam asked.

  Jerak snapped the small branch but kept his footing on another, “Ah! Um, there is a huge lake out toward the west, about a short day’s travel!”

  Bolam shook his head, “That lake is trouble. Do you see anything to the north?”

  I turned toward Bolam, “Why is the lake trouble?”

  Teltar answered, “That lake is part of the dark elf lands.”

  Oh, great! Avoid potential doom from one elf culture only to wander into another. At least the dark elves wouldn’t consider us fugitives. However, from what I’d heard, they might be a bit hostile toward outsiders. “Oh! Found a spot!” Jerak called as he started to climb down.

  “What did you see?” Bolam asked.

  Jerak pointed northward, “Up a ways there is some higher ground, saw a ton of rocks.”

  Teltar rubbed his beard, “Might be a cave.”

  Bolam looked that direction, “You think there might be bears?”

  Teltar shrugged, “I doubt it, but it is worth keeping dry.” The three of them started to walk in that direction.

  I stood there, “Wait… bears?”

  The bad news: it started to rain as we hiked toward the rocky area. The good news: we found a shallow cave. It wasn’t tall enough to stand in but deep and dry enough to rest for the night. The fact that nothing lived in there was a bonus. I longed to spend a night in a bed after a warm shower but I guess a cold shower and sleeping in a cave with a fire going wasn’t too bad either.