Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  An arrow punched through the bed, dead center, hitting me in the chest again. Thankfully, the bolt was slowed enough, by both mattress and frame, to render its impact little more than a heavy tap. Still, it would have killed me if I didn't have scales. Glad to be a dragon.

  “You think you can stop us dragon? Much as Saint George, my faith will allow me to slay any of your kind!” the archer raved. “Face the light of humanity!”

  “No!” a voice screamed in panic from in front of the bed.

  That…probably wasn't a good sign.

  I threw myself to the side behind another pew as I felt a massive surge of magic in the air.

  With a boom that shook the church, blinding light struck the bed blowing it and everything in a two-foot arc around it into shrapnel. The explosion sent me and the pews skidding across the room to slam into the far row. As bits of wood and stone opened cuts and gashes all over me, I saw the remains of two Inquisitors thrown through the air, toward the front of the room. They smacked into the wall with a sickening sound next to a massive, hanging crucifix.

  Oh, fuck!

  Did he have another shot with that? I couldn't stay here!

  A twang sounded from the back of the room, and the man on the altar cursed. I heard the sound of an arrow striking stone.

  “B!” Carah charged past me as I forced myself upright, shoving half of a broken pew off of me as I rose.

  I glanced back to see if Axle…

  There was a shadow on the wall next to Axle. An extra one. “Axle!” I shouted jabbing at the shadow.

  He looked at me in surprise before turning. “Shit!” he said, scrambling backward. He fell out of sight behind the pew he was using for cover.

  I couldn't make it in time, and I wasn't nearly good enough with my fire breath to risk a shot.

  I could only think of one thing to do.

  Pretty sure that the inquisitor screamed like a little girl as the broken pew spun inches past her face. Seemed my aim also sucked with furniture.

  The figure leapt back with what sounded like a squeak of fright. That gave me just enough time to get within swinging range. I felt something snap as the inquisitor faded into sight. Well her head did, anyway, as I had decapitated the woman. Her face had a shocked look as her head bounced off the wall. I was pretty sure I’d be seeing that in nightmares for the rest of my life.

  “Don't fucking move!”

  I spun around. The man at the altar had his crossbow pressed up against Brittany's head as he covered Carah with what looked like a golden cross. From the way it was lightly glowing in his hand, I had to think it was the source of the blast that demolished the bed.

  Carah looked at him furiously but didn't move as she watched his weapon.

  “You filth think that you can win? You never stood a chance! Soon my brothers, the Guardians of Humanity, will be finishing their work at the testing grounds. They will return here.”

  “Ya think that will do anything? The city won’t let ya just walk all over it!” Charlie yelled at him.

  “Your cursed city won’t be able to stop us. Even if you did manage to kill us, more will rise up to defend humanity!” He glanced down at Charlie and then back at us--too quick for either Axle or I to do anything. But we weren't the only ones here…

  The man screamed as Jasper came out of nowhere and bit down into his shoulder from behind. Jasper sank his teeth deep into the man’s flesh as he yanked backward dragging him to the ground.

  The man yelled a curse and drove the cross into Jasper’s face. Then Jasper screamed as the still-glowing cross burnt his flesh. He let go of the inquisitor and writhed on the floor.

  “Jasper!” Brittany raised herself off the rail, trying to get to him. Both Carah and I dashed forward. The inquisitor scrambled to his knees his crossbow rising to aim at the struggling Brittany.

  Seeing what was about to happen, I put on a burst of speed and threw myself in front of the chained succubus.

  At point blank range, even dragon scales aren't enough.

  Carah finished off the inquisitor as I felt a blossom of pain. Suddenly it was hard to breath.

  “Jake!” Charlie shouted.

  I reached up to grab the bolt sticking out of my chest and watched Jasper’s face begin to melt.

  Well, fuck.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Chapter 17

  “Jake! Don't pull that out!” Charlie yelled as I gripped the shaft of the bolt. “Carah, the keys are on that guy’s belt! Hurry!”

  Carah fumbled around the man’s belt.

  “Jasper!” Brittany screamed again. “Why was he even here?”

  “He came here to save you!” Carah knelt next to her sister.

  Axle arrived on the dais pulling out several small vials of red liquid. He quickly surveyed the group, and then ran over to Jasper.

  “Axle!” Charlie warned, “don't use those on undead Changed! We don't know how the healing potions affect them!”

  Axle hesitated. “Charlie, his face is melting! Literally melting! We have to do something.”

  Carah had the keys and was working to unlock Brittany.

  Something clicked in my brain. I pulled my blood slicked hand from the bolt. “Axle… hah…” I managed to croak. Nobody responded so I tried again. “Axle…!”

  “Jake! What’s wrong?” Charlie looked at me in alarm.

  “Axle…hah…hand…hah…”

  Axel came over. “You’re going to be alright. All you need to do is…”

  “Hand…! Hah…” I held out my hand palm down. I wasn't sure how much longer I was gonna be conscious.

  “Okay, okay, but then you need to…”

  I thought through the list in my storage. There. “Release…hah…Ring of…hah…Second Chances.”

  With a glow, my blue ring fell into Axel’s palm.

  “What?” He blinked at it.

  “Jasper…! Hah…” I gasped. “Put it…hah…on…hah…his…” I was interrupted by a coughing fit. I could taste blood.

  “Jake!” Axle began fumbling with the potions.

  Suddenly Charlie was there, grabbing the potions from his hands. “Axle. Put that ring on Jasper! I’ll handle Jake!”

  I looked past Charlie as she fumbled with one of the bottle’s cork. Brittany was holding Jasper as he lay on the ground. Axle rushed to his side. He kneeled down, grabbed Jasper’s hand and scrabbled to get the ring on. Finally getting it on a finger, he shoved it on as far as it would go.

  Nothing happened. I felt my heart drop.

  Then the ring glowed. Blue light flowed up Jasper’s arm, under his clothing, and pooled on his face. I almost lost my lunch as I watched his flesh pull itself back into shape. This made it the worst possible time for Charlie to shove the potion vial into my mouth.

  I nearly spewed the thing across her whole body. Only an extreme effort of will got me to swallow it. Even as I choked down the last gulp, I felt Charlie grip the bolt and, with a sharp tug, wrench it free.

  Pretty sure I screamed.

  Blood poured out of the wound but only for a moment. Then a scab formed, closing off the wound. It hardened in less than a second and was an ugly mess of a thing, but at least I was alive. And could breathe. Always a good thing.

  I coughed up a bit more blood, but now it felt more like I was clearing the tubes, not just bleeding out from the inside. Trust me, there’s a difference, even if it’s just in your head.

  Charlie watched me for a second to make sure I was alright. Then she took a potion for herself, letting some cuts and bruises heal. Now that I had time to look, I saw they had roughed her up quite a bit. The biggest wound was a red mess in her hair on the right side of her head.

  “Feeling better?” I thought she spoke a louder than was actually necessary.

  “Getting there,” I answered.

  “B, you need to take this,” Carah said, holding a potion to Brittany's mouth.

  Brittany still cradled Jasper in her arms. “Why won’t he wake up?” she as
ked Axle, ignoring her sister.

  He glanced over at me. “I...don’t know. Jake?”

  Brittany looked over at me, a pleading look in her eyes.

  “Tell you after you take that potion.” I gestured at the vial Carah was holding.

  Brittany didn't hesitate. She grabbed the portion out of Carah's hands and downed it in one go. As soon as it was down, it was almost like her brain was rebooting. She shut her eyes, shivering for a moment and then looked up. The spark of rationality back in her eyes.

  It was then that she finally saw and acknowledged her sister.

  “Carah, I'm so sorry.” Tears welled in her eyes. “I never should have said those things.”

  Carah swallowed hard. “It’s okay, B. I...” She began to cry as well, throwing her arms around her sister.

  Good.

  First things first. I got up gingerly and went over to check on Jasper. Thankfully he was looking better. Still breathing, too.

  Charlie joined me as I lifted up his hand to check on the ring. It was black with only a tiny band of blue on the very bottom.

  “Ya had him use that thing?” Charlie raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Couldn't think of anything else.”

  “Well it worked, so I won’t knock it.”

  I nodded.

  It took a while to get everyone ready to move. I spent my time wisely, well, as far as my instincts were concerned. I looted the body of the archer and then searched for the others. After a moment of trying and failing to find the other Inquisitors I moved on to searching the other rooms.

  Seriously, being a dragon had turned me into a hoarder.

  There were a few magical knickknacks, but the biggest things were all behind a desk in the pastor’s office. There I found another invisible chest, an almost see-through scrap of cloth that felt magical, and a larger, visible chest filled with a random assortment of magic items.

  The way the visible chest was built, its massive handles along the side, the way that the banding reinforced the strength of the bottom and then the top--it was made to be transported.

  When I looked through the collection inside, my heart leapt! My dagger! I yanked the dagger out of the box and was almost dancing with excitement. At last, I stored it safely away in my ring.

  Humming a happy tune, I wrapped the semi-transparent cloth around my wrist and began to drag both chests out to where the others were.

  As I came out, the others went into high alert.

  “Shit!” Charlie yelled. “Inquisitor!”

  “I hear it.” Axle held up the lamp glaring around before jabbing a finger my way. “There!”

  “I see it.” Carah's eyes looked dangerous as they looked my way.

  “Shit! Where?” I called out, dropping the chests to summon my sword as I spun around.

  I couldn't see anything and began to retreat towards the others. I glanced back at them only to see them looking confused.

  “Guys?”

  “Jake? Is that you?”

  I cocked my head in confusion. “Yeah...?”

  “Dragon...what did ya grab?” Charlie asked.

  “I found some…stuff.”

  “And are ya using any of that 'stuff?’”

  “No.”

  “Are ya wearing any of it?”

  Charlie was just shaking her head, but the others’ expressions were a mix of amusement and annoyance.

  Brittany was on the annoyance side. “We don't have time for dancing! Jake, you’re invisible. Just like the Inquisitors. Take off whatever you put on so we can go! Jasper needs to get to the hospital!”

  Put on? Oh! That strip of cloth! I untied it from my wrist and stored it. I should probably store the chests too...

  “Now, that's nice!” Charlie called out. “But let’s get going.”

  I carried Jasper as we moved. Turns out potions, while being a great way to keep from dying, did have some downsides.

  For one, they didn't restore energy. Within a block or two, Carah and Axle had to help Brittany and Charlie walk.

  Second thing? They left some pretty bad scaring. My chest had stiffened up in minutes of being healed. This made carrying Jasper a bit of a chore.

  By the time we got to the hospital, none of us were doing too hot. By ‘none of us’ I mean everyone except Axle and Carah. They had managed to get through the whole fight without getting injured. Actually, when I thought about it, only Jasper and I had been injured during that fight in particular.

  As soon as we entered into the main lobby, Axle ran over to the desk, leaving me to support Charlie while still holding Jasper.

  While we waited, somehow Brittany ended up hanging on my other arm as she checked on Jasper. He looked to be in the best shape of any of us if you didn't count the fact that he was still unconscious.

  Thankfully, at least, the only person who really needed any doctoral TLC was Jasper. The rest of us were fine enough after the potions. I really didn't want to deal with all of that crap again.

  Turned out though, Axle was a traitor.

  Row upon row of nurses and doctors suddenly swarmed the room grabbing each of us and hauling us off in different directions. I looked at Axle in shock. He cheerfully waved as we disappeared from his sight.

  “Just relax and let them take care of you!” he called after us. I got the hard part! I have to explain what happened to the mayor!”

  I quickly lost sight of the others as I was taken up to the third floor and installed there.

  I was quickly aware that, without TV or phones, hospital rooms are totally boring, especially when you aren't given a choice about being kept in one. I did manage to get some information out of one of the nurses about what had happened at the wargs’ den. Turns out that the Inquisitors had it under siege when Sarah and the rest arrived. Sarah’s team hit them hard and managed to run them off without many casualties on her side.

  The problem with fighting invisible enemies? No way to know if you got them all, so everyone was a bit jumpy right now. With the possibility of who knows how many Inquisitors still out there, probably wanting revenge, it wasn't a surprise.

  Even these thoughts didn't keep me occupied for long, though. That’s why I was finally reading ‘Fire Magic for Dolts’ in bed when the Cyrus and the mayor walked in.

  “Jake! Good to see you’re awake!” I could hear the smile in Gloria's voice.

  Cyrus just nodded his greeting.

  “Hey, what can I do for you, Gloria?” I closed the book and set it down on my lap.

  “We've gone through the two chests you brought back.”

  I nodded. Not too long after we were checked in, Cyrus had come to collect everything of interest that I’d found. As much as it irked me to hand over all that stuff, well, if it helped to stop any further Inquisitor attempts, then it was for the best.

  “The magic items, well, we’re pretty sure they were from the Inquisitors’ victims. All of Charlie and Brittany's stuff was in there, and we’ve made positive identifications of several of the other items. They all belonged to people who disappeared lately.” Gloria blew out an angry breath. “We thought they always just left bodies, but with this knowledge, we think they were kidnapping more people than they killed.”

  “I went over the other chest,” Cyrus continued. “It seems that they rendered it invisible by nailing a scrap of fabric, much the same as the one you found, to the top of the chest. Inside were papers similar to the ones you found inside the first chest. By the way, I do wish you had taken the time to hand those over before gallivanting off.”

  “Sorry. I guess I could have handed them off to someone else to bring to you.” I rubbed the back of my head.

  Cyrus shook his head. “I do not hold it against you. The lives you saved had priority. To continue though, there was one message that did have me...concerned. It was a letter claiming to be from someplace calling itself ‘Haven.’ It stated that full humans had control of that city, having culled most of the 'monsters.’” Cyrus frowned at the wordin
g. “It also said that those in command were willing to send aid to help the Guardians of Humanity to do the same here. There was no date on the letter.”

  That... That didn't sound good.

  “From the sound of this that, Haven may be gearing up for war,” the mayor said, crossing her arms. “If it’s a fight they want, then it’s a fight their gonna get!”

  Cyrus just shook his head. “While that’s one possibility, there are many more. We need a team to go and check on the situation. This would mean a few day’s travel depending on the terrain, so supplies could be an issue. That’s why we are requesting that you be a part of said team.” He gestured at my rings. “You are uniquely equipped to solve logistic issues. This is a volunteer mission though.”

  I thought for a moment and then nodded.

  “Good,” the mayor said. “Just think. Going out into the wilderness on an adventure to find a lost city! Almost like something out of a book! I'm kind of jealous!” Even though her armor didn’t have a face, you could tell she was grinning.

  I blinked. Actually, yes. This felt almost exactly like something out of a book. I thought back to how all this had started.

  Wish granted?

  Lovely...

  The End.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Chapter 1

  I sat on the hearth, the heat of the embers warming my back. My golden-scaled tail was tucked back, curling up inside the fireplace. The metallic red spike at its tip gently twitched back and forth, making a slow rattling sound as it pushed around the remains of the logs.

  I was currently watching a short blond woman sitting with her back to me. She was hunched over a book muttering to herself while attempting to form her fingers into a strange shape.

  “You know, that newspaper works better if you actually read it.” A chipper young voice said from my other side.

  I pulled my eyes away from the blond to glance at the speaker. A younger woman sat on a stool next to the large fireplace where she was eying the large sizzling pan sitting on the coals. “Also, I'm hungry. How long till this is done?”

  I should never have let them know I could cook.

  “Few more minutes, Carah,” I muttered as I looked down at the bundle of thick rough paper in my hands.