“So, real dragons,” Billy said a little breathlessly. “Waited all my life to see a real dragon. Mind you I was thinking more like our dragons. Huh and look at that, they're in some kind of armor. That's gonna make them harder to kill.”
“Your dragons?” Zhoulin said.
“Yeah. Ours are more like… um dinosaur looking, yours are kind of snake… snakish?” He said, fumbling for the right word which escaped him at the moment. “I guess. Ours are like T Rex with wings. Huh! Since these dragons are real I wonder if our dragon stories are real. Maybe dragons are just a cave man way of saying dinosaur.”
There was a shout from across the stream, which was more of a pool of blood now. Then a roar!
"Oh no!" Billy heard himself say.
A cheer! They all knew what that meant.
“They have released the Dragons!” someone said.
“I don’t think I can do any more magic,” Zhoulin said beside Billy. “I just can’t.” Uncle’s staff gave off no light at all. Billy hoped it was because’ he was conserving energy.
“Ahoekahey?” He said with a little laugh.
“You have a strange sense of humor, I think.” Brother Dog said.
Zhoulin said as she watched the enemy, “I still don't understand what that means.”
"It’s a good day to die.”
“Yes... I don't know what that means, it makes no sense.”
“It was a warrior thing,” Billy said as he stood up, although at this point he felt nothing like he thought a warrior should feel. He felt kind of sick and very frightened. But he sure didn’t want these friends to know that. “Since we are looking into the face of death, it just seemed appropriate.” He finished with what he hoped was his bravest voice.
Uncle drew himself up, as his staff flickered tenuously to life. “Well, my young friends,” he said.
“Hen Gao Xing ren shi ni!”
Billy laughed “Yeah, nice meeting you too.”
The willow switch was burned to a dried stick in Zhoulin’s shaking hands. She looked around the grass for a new one and pulled a small sapling from the ground
Billy noticed his old sword was dripping with blood, but oddly enough, it seemed to feel right in his hand, but somehow these enemies, looked bigger and uglier than the first bunch. His little friend stood on his shoulder, one little hand on Billy's ear it looked at him curiously and hissed.
"You can say that again,” Billy quipped, then. “Man, I just gotta give you a name when this is all done." He thought for a moment and laughed "If we survive that is. Hey, are you getting bigger? Somehow you look bigger."
This time and there was no surprise, he threw himself into the battle. But it didn't seem to go as well as the first time, a man came at him and the little creature flew at his face as he swung the sword and took off the man’s head. He could hear the roaring of the Dragons as they approached.
He tried to fight his way toward them, but they were already in battle with Brother Dog and Uncle when he reached them. Light arched from Uncles staff. Billy imagined he could smell burning lizard, which reminded him how hungry he was, as he swung around to attack. The dragons were huge!
A clawed foot slammed into Brother Dog and he tumbled through the air like a rag doll. Not much difference Billy thought as he watched his friend hurtle past, we are all gonna be dead shortly anyway.
They began to back away from the oncoming enemy. He and Uncle helped Brother Dog get up. They only barely kept away from the swiping claws of the great dragons. Their weapons seemed to have no effect on the golden scales. It crossed his mind that they looked exactly like the carvings he had seen. Billy kept tripping over dead and dying men and animals as they backed away across the meadow. Somehow they kept the dragons and men at bay.
Uncle slipped on an arm laying in the dirt and mud and fell. A dragon jumped forward. They all took a deep breath as deadly sharp claws caught Uncles loose robe and yanked him into the huge toothed mouth. It was surreal. One moment Uncle was flying through the air, the next he was fully headfirst into the creature’s mouth. They all gasped. Brother Dog jumped onto the creature’s leg and up to its shoulder trying to stab between its armored plates, but his blade didn’t seem long enough to do any damage. Billy and his little creature tried to jump at the dragons head. Meanwhile, Zhoulin was doing a passable job of keeping the other one busy. But it was obvious Uncle was done for.
Then the thing caught Billy with a swiping paw and he found himself pinned to the ground. There was terrible pressure on his chest as a needle-sharp claw pressed into him. He stuck his blade between himself and the dragon claw, but it pushed harder. His symbiont began biting desperately at the great paw, but to no effect.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zhoulin, pinned to the ground as well. She struggled and screamed as the great dragon at first sniffed her then it opened its gaping maw revealing long white dagger length teeth. Billy watched in dismay.
Suddenly, there was something sticking out of the dragon’s eye, just as it was about to chomp down on Zhoulin. The great creature screamed and fell back, clawing at its face. Then there was a scream from the Dragon on top of Billy, and it fell off screaming and writhing on the ground it spit Uncle out as it rolled around shrieking.
Billy ran to Uncle. The old man was punctured in a few places but alive.
“Oh my god, what happened?” Zhoulin said. The Great Dragon was howling and slashing with its claws. Trying to remove a cloth-yard arrow from its face. Another arrow hurtled through the air and Billy wondered where that had come from.
Zhoulin was all of a sudden caught up in a huge soldier’s arm, who she began pummeling on the head with the hilt of her sword, to no avail. Even though it was obvious she knocked out several teeth the man held on. Suddenly there was an arrow sticking right through the man’s head. He fell in slow motion to the ground.
“What?” Billy said as he grabbed the armor of a warrior that was attacking the still stunned Brother Dog. With all his might stabbed at what looked like a chink in the armor. He was satisfied as the blade slid deeply into flesh. The huge man slumped to the ground.
One of the dragons had managed to remove the arrow from its face. The huge face was so close to him, he could smell the breath, it said. “I shall eat you all!”
Billy fell back in shock and astonishment.
Just then something flew past him and embedded itself into the creature’s mouth even as it turned and swiped at him, he saw the great claws coming for his face and then they were gone. The dragon screamed and fell. Billy ran over to the beast as it thrashed about.
“It talked!” He stammered. As another arrow whizzed past embedding itself deep into the body there were arrows sticking out of its eyes now for every arrow that bounced off, there was one that struck home.
He was dazed for a moment. He looked around the field and there were dead and dying men everywhere. Arrows sticking out of them like pincushions.
“Oh, this has got to stop, ” he said to himself as his little creature climbed up onto his shoulder. And he looked around and realized there were at least twenty men surrounding the meadow, they were facing the enemy. They had long bent bows and forest green cloaks and hats that reminded him of the Robin Hood movie he had seen not so long ago.
“Well!” A voice from behind him said as an arrow whizzed past his head. “You must be, The William.”
“The William?” he said in surprise. “My name is Billy.”
“No matter young sir,” the strange man said shooting an arrow through another enemy warrior.
“We are here to escort you at least part of the way on your journey, we must be off if we hope to survive this battle.”
Slowly the men were backing toward him and the little group. The two dragons lay full of arrows.
The field was covered with dead men and the survivors were regrouping fast. Billy was startled to hear a horse whinny and turned to see saddled horses.
“Where did you come from?” Billy asked, “how
did you get here?”
“Well, we have actually been here a while, been bloody difficult to know when to jump out of your defense, problem with wizards and whatnot is they aren’t exactly on times and dates. So we have been tracking you. Bloody awful even finding you in all this muck and blood. And your dog friend would have been on us if the Mage hadn’t sent along a helpful disappear spell”
“Please sir, get on the horse before they get their wits back. I for one don’t want to die on this particular foreign battlefield.”
He half helped, half shoved Billy up on a horse. He swung up behind, much to Billy’s surprise. Seeing the startled look he said.
“Didn’t expect me to walk did you?”
With that, he slapped his mount into a run and they were off over the field. There was a great cry as the captain of the Chinese army and his men rushed onto the field.
“Who the heck are you guys?” Billy said as they road into the trees.
“You may call me Longstrider.” the man said “as to why we are here my young friend I merely go where the Mage sends me. To wit, this journey is to keep a certain… William safe if we can, and rescue him if we must.”
“But you are not from here,” Billy pointed out.
“Oh!” Longstrider shouted with a bit of glee to the other riders around them.
“Young Billy has perceived we are not Denizens of this great and ravaged country, perhaps there is hope for him after all.”
The other riders laughed. “Aye Robert,” one of them said, “perhaps the wizard spoke some truth in the end.”
“Yes.” another chimed in, “perhaps we won’t have need to kill the old bugger on our return.”
“Kill him?” Strider laughed “I will gladly kill the old fart just over the horrible swill that we have had to endure eating in this godforsaken place.”
“Hey, he called you Robert!” Billy said
Just then the ground began to shake there was a sound, like gas hissing or a million snakes. A strange green light spewed out of the ground splitting the land between them and their attackers. The horses jumped up and down almost tossing Billy off. He saw Zhoulin and the wizard in similar situations.
Something was coming out of the ground! A creature from a nightmare, hands and legs and heads sticking out of a hideous body protruding in every direction bits and pieces of humanity mixed with god knows what. It almost made Billy want to vomit. The heads were screaming as the arms and hands were grabbing at the air the body was a misshapen spider thing.
“All the gods of hell!" Longstrider cried aloud, "what is this filth?"
Just then something new stepping onto the battleground.
"Wolver!" Yelled Brother Dog “Run! Run for your lives."
With that it was a bit of a blur, horses, diving in every direction, trying to escape the misshapen Creatures. The Wolver, now that Billy saw them in daylight, had long, shiny teeth like snakes, more than that of a dog. They looked like a cross between a lizard and a wolf. There was a smell in the air of carrion. One of them lifted his head and made a strange rattling howl that gave him chills up and down his spine. The sound that carried across the forest and horses reared up, throwing riders.
Luckily the creatures were closer to the pursuing Chinese army than to Billy’s fleeing comrades. For a moment the Chinese warriors stood their ground and fought the horrible creatures. Billy glanced back to see them being decimated, torn apart. Finally, some of the Warriors seemed to realize this wasn’t really their fight threw away their weapons and ran.
As the horses ran into the forest, Longstrider and his men were shooting well-placed arrows, at the pursuing monsters. Billy saw many a shaft strike home, but often there was no effect. The creatures didn't even bother to pull the arrows out, they just ran on like moving pincushions.
“Those things are gaining!” Longstrider shouted “We have to split up! Get to the meeting place, whatever you do. Contact Merdin, if you can, go through if you have to. Get help!”
“Will! John! With me.” Each rider slowed and began firing arrows as fast as they could. The Two men on horses got between Billy and the oncoming creatures.
“Robin Hood?” Billy said as they rode.
“Interesting name you will have to tell of it sometime, but for now, we must away to the forest”
There was a roar from behind and a scream as a giant Wolver jumped on top of a horse.
“But now we must hi! Ride for your lives!” he yelled.
As the Wolvers ran through the trees behind them, Billy could see the other members of his group. All on horses even Brother Dog, which was odd to see. But the Wolver creatures were hot on their heels and as he looked back, he realized that there were men as well misshapen, with bows and arrows running. He didn’t see any more Chinese warriors now. Perhaps they had run for safety.
“We must divide!” Longstrider yelled again “throw them off the trail.”
“No!” Billy shouted desperately He glanced at his friends as the other riders yelled
“Divide!”
Suddenly for the first time, Billy felt a shock of despair. It was bad enough being lost in a strange world, but to lose his friends, that was too much to bear. He saw the other riders veer off, for the first time he felt truly alone
“No!” he yelled “Take me back you can’t do this! I can’t do this.” As he looked back, he realized the creatures were all turning and coming toward him.
“What the hell?” He exclaimed as he realized the creatures were ignoring everyone except him! And now, strangely enough, all of them stopped, they turned as one entity and looked straight at him. The bowmen were turning as they too realized the creatures were not following them.
There was a roar from the lead wolver a huge beast with fangs so long Billy wondered how he closed his mouth. Again that strange rattling roar and all the creatures began to run. Directly at him.
He saw Zhoulin and Uncle jumping from the horses, while the archers stood guard firing arrows as fast as was possible. But the creatures ran past them anyway, completely ignoring all, even when the others swung at them or shot at them.
“They're after me!” Billy said in a shocked voice.
“So it would seem young master.” Long strider said.
Arrows and spears were in the air as Longstrider turned the panicking horse. There was a sudden sharp pain, everything went dark.
15 A New, Very Old Friend
H
e awoke with a start. His head felt like someone had hit him, and the first thing he noticed was, he was dangling over a moving horse, and the next he was throwing up on someone’s fancy pointy shoes.
“Oh my word!” someone said, in a very disgusted voice above him. A large hand grabbed him by the back of the shirt and he felt himself being unceremoniously dropped to the ground.
“Oaf!” he said, as the wind was knocked out of him. And his little friend squeaked in protest.
“Bloody hell!” the man said, as he swung off the horse and began to wipe his shoe.
“You're not Robin!” Billy said.
“Very observant lad,” the man said sarcastically “No our fair Robert is off doing his knightly duty as usual, but from the look of that lot, we might not see him again. I am not sure you have the right to such familiarity boy. Lord Robert is his title and how is it you have ciphered this information. I am sure I heard him introduce himself as Longstrider.”
“You don’t sound like you care where he is,” Billy said, a bit petulantly.
“Hmmm and you sound like you do,” the man mused. “Now why would that be I wonder? There are some strange goings on here, to say the least. But I am quite sure you have never met our fearless leader. You have a foreign look about you. And your accent I have not heard such anon.”
“Where is everybody?” Billy asked, looking around they were in a small gully with bamboo saplings all about there was no sign of the others.
“Everybody? Interesting turn of phrase. I assume you mean your motley crew of fri
ends and that, that dog… person? Probably all dead by now I would think, a terrible lot those wolf things and then the other spidery things whatever they were. Gave me the chills just to look at them never seen such a lot, and all this in some way to rescue or perhaps kill you. Depending of course on which side you are on. Hmm, I wonder.”
“Wonder what? What other things? Oh, you mean the Wolver and the spider things? Yeah, they were pretty ugly.”
“Wonder if you are worth all this trouble, I was of a mind to just turn you over and mayhaps receive a good prize from the devils that were pursuing us, but Noooo! Sir Robert said the Mage said this. The Mage said that, save the little bugger he said. He has some strange to-do on time or some such bloody lot of balderdash? I says, just give him over once we get him. This is none of our affair, regardless of the bloody mage. But no Sir Robert says. Will, he says! I am imploring you to save this little bugger, while we ward off this lot! Well, here we are then, still alive, though’ it took all I had to not get us eat especially since you were unconscious the whole way. Was inclined to dump you I was, except for His words I would and good riddance I say.”
“You’re Will scarlet?” Billy said in amazement
“The very!” The man replied with some curiosity in his voice “Odd first ye pretend to know Sir Robert, now myself, I am sure we have never met. Next, you’ll be talking in familiar tones about the young Friar. Perhaps you have a tale to tell lad, out with it! Here we are in this strange land, fighting… god knows what, and far from our own time as well! If I understand all. What do you know of all this nonsense?”
Billy hesitated, “Well I don’t know you, but I know of you. But I don’t know how you all died so or what happened to you.”
“Died!?” Will burst out with a laugh. “What happened to us? What is it you’re trying to say, lad. Out with it, I am in no mood for silly games and still, I am not convinced you are not worth the selling or killing if need be. I am not convinced you are worth everyone dying over. This tale better be a good one or I may be forced to take action of my own, regardless of young Robert and the sage.”
The Jewel of Nirune (The Sword of Time Book 1) Page 19