Vedientir

  "Follow my ravens," he said to Aris and then returned with Meden back to his group that waited for him with the night watch. The air behind his back soon filled with commands from segment primaries ordering the legionaries.

  "We'll be in Aelan by sunrise if you are fast enough," shouted Aris, enticing his men. "Follow Arnos's son! He will show you the way to the Tree!"

  ✽✽✽

  "Don't tell me that we are going back already?" asked Kerkio. "They were just about to get me something to chew on."

  "We are going. Aris's orders," answered Dion.

  "Come, we have to show them the way," he said and led his ravens back into the forest. A steady stream of men and torches followed him.

  The legionaries accepted Aris's challenge and were so eager to return home that Dion quickly found out that he had to walk faster than he wanted to. He gradually became aware of what this was, and his legs found out soon enough as well. He was leading a forced march of real legionaries who did not hold back as Kerkio did on their way to Tialoch. He knew he would remember this forest stroll for a long time.

  ✽✽✽

  He never felt more tired than he did when he finally stood once again in front of his grandfather's Tree. The legionaries who were a short distance behind him looked like they could keep going on, and he was sure about that, but he wasn't sure how much more his legs would be able to carry him. He was so thirsty that he wished he could lick off all of the sweat that was dripping from his head and arms. He looked as if it was raining for a day's part on him, but not a drop fell since they arrived in Syevnor. That reminded him of the lake and its cold waters that waited for them in the hills behind Phares.

  He quickly found the acorn of the lake Tree. He had placed it in a small outer pocket of his bag secured by a metal buckle.

  "I better open the Path right away," he told himself, planning to refresh himself in the lake while the legion catches up to him.

  "Hodam," he spoke and entered the trunk of Tree when the yellow light in the acorn started waking in his hand, ready to open the Path to the lake Tree. He turned to face the legion when the light began spreading inside the Tree. He remembered to tell them to go slow, that there is a lake on the other side of the Path, and that they will enter waist-deep water, but he said nothing. Instead, he began laughing when he saw the joy on the faces of the legionaries who saw the opened Path.

  "We are really going home!" they yelled, but their cheers were short lived, dispersed by the loud cry of the dragon.

  "Lyud!" cried Zmai in terror and rushed through the legionaries and the trees towards the Tree, but he was too far away.

  Dion felt fear pierce him first, but then he felt something on his shoulder. In the next moment he was flying through the air, pulled back by something unknown, and then he felt pain when he crashed onto the ground. He was breathless and could not even scream before he was pulled into the lake and submerged completely.

  When he finally got his head out of the water he saw that one of the magic hunters had him in his stone-strong grip, and that his boar was hiding next to the Tree.

  "Ambush," was all that he could process before fear took over once more when water covered his face. The magic hunter kept him submerged deep enough so that every breath would be a struggle to keep water out of his mouth and nose.

  "He is not alone," shouted the magic hunter. He was talking to someone close to the fishing cabin, and after a few tries, Dion managed to see a shape dressed in black. He knew who it was before she even said a word.

  "Mey zmai?" asked Roga angrily.

  "Tei zmai, al tsiela voina sah nim," the hunter answered, but this time there was panic in his voice. "Your dragon, but an entire army is with him."

  "Satvorit Put!" commanded Roga to all the hunters who were next to her. "Close the Path!"

  "I only want the dragon and the dragon-thief."

  "But they are all coming together!" nervously shouted the hunter, looking through the Path into Syevnor. He could already hear them approaching, and he looked at Roga to tell him what to do next.

  "Push them back! Keep them on the other side until the Path closes or find an acorn on this Tree and close it at once!" screamed Roga, and her hunters obeyed.

  The hunter who held Dion whistled to his boar and commanded him to enter the Tree.

  "Dragon-thief!" called Roga, and the hunter pulled him out of the water.

  "Zmai! Zmai!" croaked the ravens at the same time.

  "Berzo! Lyud uv vodi!"

  "Thank you for showing us where you wasted one of your Tree seeds," said Roga with great malice in her voice, but instead of pain or grief on Dion's face as she expected, she saw something much different. He was smiling at her, knowing that she was wrong.

  Roga went into a fury and waved with her bone-dry hands to the hunter.

  "Kill him. Drown that pitiful thief!" commanded Roga in the old language.

  Dion was once again under the surface but somehow managed to twist his body and push his head out of the water to steal one more breath. Water filled his ears and mouth, but before he was pushed under once more he could hear the voices of legionaries on the other side of the Path.

  "Break through!" he heard Aris's voice even louder than the roars of the dragon or the huffing and the battle cries of the boar that was blocking this side of the Tree.

  The hunter looked over the back of his boar and for a moment saw the dragon standing on the other side of the Path. In the next moment the ravens dived towards his face. The black raven tore a gash above his right eye and the thick spurt of blood blinded it. The white raven landed briefly onto the spear scabbard on the hunter's back and pecked at the soft tissue of his neck. The enraged hunter howled and went for the raven with his free hand but missed. The raven flew off and the hunter went for deeper water, dragging Dion along with him.

  Dion's strength was at its end; the long march to the Tree drained him completely. He could no longer fight the will and the strength of the hunter. The water was too deep. His feet could no longer touch the bottom, and the hunter kept pushing, twisting and turning him in his strong arm, as if he was a rag being washed in a stream. He tried for his sword many times, but could not pull it out.

  "I'll drown," he thought, gasping for air moments before the hunter pushed him even deeper into the water.

  "Kerkio!" he choked as he called his friend for help.

  "Zmai!" he called after his head reached the surface once more and the hunter looked back toward the Tree. He understood who Dion was calling, and for a moment the hunter's arm stopped tormenting Dion. His head rose above the water and he turned it immediately to the side, now ignoring the water that immediately assaulted the corner of his mouth, looking for hope at the Tree.

  "Zmai!" he screamed again, and not even the incessant pecking of the ravens stopped the hunter from pushing Dion back under the surface of the lake. Dion managed to grab hold of his sword finally, but his mind no longer knew what to do with it, it just wanted air.

  There was no hope at the Tree - at each exit now stood a terrible beast. The lips on both sides of the Tree spread to display weapons hidden behind them - the dragon was armed with rows of sharp teeth, the boar with two large fangs. They watched one another carefully, eyeing each other's strengths and weaknesses, showing how much pain the other one might expect to suffer soon.

  "Zmai!" shouted Kerkio as he ran towards the dragon on his right side. He threw the legion's cloak aside. Nothing must be given to chance now.

  "Zmai! Zmai!" was the only word he was certain he knew how to pronounce properly, and finally the dragon answered his call and looked briefly toward him. Kerkio waved his hand to show he means to enter the Tree on the right, but then the boar lunged forth into attack.

  The distance between the boar and the dragon was no longer than the length of the boar and in one thrust the boar and the dragon clashed inside the Tree. The boar pushed into the dragon fiercely, trying to push him out of the Tree, and it managed to do so, but slowl
y. Each painful strike of its fangs against the dragon's scales pushed the dragon backward but was reciprocated by the dragon's claws tearing through the boar's hide.

  "Zmai!" cried Kerkio while sprinting into the Tree, and the dragon remembered what the lyud had gestured earlier, but he panicked.

  The only thing he could think of doing was to allow the boar to prevail and push him out of the Tree so he did just that. A breath later the boar struck again, and the dragon allowed the strike to push him back. His claws ripped through the tree and the dirt as the boar pushed him back and upward. The boar's fangs were now on his belly and the dragon knew that one wrong move could be his last.

  But then Kerkio found himself near the two giants in their deadly embrace and in that moment he saw his opportunity.

  "Not enough room," he worried as his mind overflowed with images of both him and the dragon with their intestines spilled on the ground, but his hands were already performing the first moves of his attack.

  "You're going too fast," his mind joined his hands and advised. "You won't be able to stop!"

  He jumped into the air at that last thought and pushed his feet deeper into the ground when he descended. That slowed him down, just enough for him to have time to grip his sword before entering the Tree.

  He extended his left arm as far as he could and he pulled the sword out of its sheath. He bent his elbow and then pressed his right opened palm onto the tip of the hilt to give more power to his strike. Both hands pushed the sword left and back for that is where the boar was, and only for a briefest moment did the sword suffer resistance before it plunged deep into the soft vital organs hidden behind the boar's rib cage. Kerkio let go of the sword and fell to his side but jumped back to his feet quickly and tried continuing out of the Tree but fell once more and plunged awkwardly head-first into the lake. He pulled himself quickly and angrily out of the water and stood up.

  The hunter group on the shore was almost at the Tree, but he turned his attention to the lake and the body that thrashed on the surface of the water, held by one of the hunters. A feeling of helplessness and rage took over him. He was aware there was nothing in the lake that could help him overcome the monster, but he also saw that there was no more strength in Dion's arms and legs so he grabbed the only weapon he had left - a small legionary knife he used to eat dinner last night, and began swimming toward Dion and the hunter.

  Air!

  Dion's whole body shook as it devoured the air that finally reached his nostrils. The hunter pulled him out of the water once again, unwillingly, as he fought off the ravens, but the moment was too short, and was the last one. The hunter noticed Kerkio, and even though Kerkio looked barely a threat, the hunter decided that it was time to dispose of his catch and to focus on the next one. He took Dion in both hands and slammed him on the surface of the lake, squeezing what air and life was left in him and then ripped the sword out of Dion's hand. The hunter was ready for his next catch, but still held onto his first one.

  "Grab the dragon and you will eat it tonight!" screamed Roga from behind all this. "A feast worthy of our masters," she promised, and the battle cry of her hunters grew stronger than even her unnaturally loud voice.

  Kerkio was still swimming, and the hunter was waiting for him. Time was on the hunter's side, and the other hunters were nearly at the Tree, running heedlessly, already desiring the sweet meat of their promised prize, but their prize then jumped out of the Tree and dived underneath the surface of the lake.

  The hunters slowed down and stopped, searching for the dark shadow of the dragon who disappeared in the muddy water of the lake.

  "Dion!" cried a voice from inside the Tree and a man jumped out of it into the lake. It was Meden Tai, the first legionary of the South legion to enter the lake from Syevnor. He stood in the lake, holding his blue shield in front of him. He held his sword next to the shield, ready to stab. With a splash of water another blue shield appeared in the lake next to his, and on that shield the rightmost white dot was the largest - the dot representing Echa Doros. The second legionary held his sword the same way as Meden, next to his shield, waiting for an opportunity to stab with his sting like a wasp.

  They turned to face the roaring sound on their right, and an immense fear gripped their chest when they saw what was charging at them, but the legionary spirit soon shredded that fear into nothing.

  "Together!" they both shouted, turned right to face Roga's beasts, and walked side by side out of the lake. That way courage had no way of escaping, not even when a spear tore a piece of Meden's shield, and the strike reverberated through every bone in his body.

  Two by two the legionaries began jumping out of the Tree into the lake, and soon the lake no longer appeared green. Their shields made even the water of the lake look blue.

  "Meden! Hold on!" they cried as Meden flew through the air, kicked by a hunter as though he was some mangy dog.

  Dion was barely conscious, and could no longer understand if he was the one still moving his hands or if they merely floated in the water.

  "It is over," he thought when he saw a shadow approach beneath the water.

  "Kerkio's drowned fairy is coming for me."

  Through the fog of unconsciousness setting in he felt pain in his chest when the hunter's claws were torn off him, and then a huge wave of water clothed him in cold darkness.

  The dragon swam into the hunter with the speed of a predatory fish in its final thrust to catch its prey and he swept the hunter away with such force that he pushed him out of the lake entirely for a brief moment before they both fell back and disappeared beneath the surface.

  On the other side of the Tree the world trembled beneath the legionaries charging into the Tree. With a loud neigh the first of the hundred white horses jumped into the lake. It bore a rider whose blue cape was fastened to his shoulders with gold buttons. He wore a masterfully crafted chain mail that protected his body, and on his head he wore a white-crested helmet. It was Aris.

  "To the shore!" he commanded and led his horse deeper into the lake where his men could not walk.

  "One to the right. One to the left and around the Tree. Envelop them!" he roared, and the legionaries obeyed.

  Two by two they continued jumping out of the Tree into the lake, their pairs broken every now and then by a new rider commanding his horse to jump into the lake after Aris.

  The legionaries exiting the Tree on the right obeyed the command to turn right and climb up onto dry ground to join the wall of shields that locked the hunters away from the Tree. Those on the left turned left and ran around the Tree and into the forest where a new shield wall was forming to attack from the flank.

  The reins tightened and Aris's horse moved toward the hunters but its hooves sank into the soft bottom of the lake and it neighed while it struggled to get out of the mud. Each step was an effort until it reached shallower water where there were more stones and debris to hold its weight, and then it gained speed when its legs freed themselves from their watery shackles.

  Ten boars and ten hunters stood now against a dozen legionaries and Aris who came on their left flank after he passed by the wounded Meden trying to pull himself out of the water.

  Now it was fifteen legionaries. The torrent of blue shields poured into the lake, and Roga knew that it was all over. Hidden from the eyes of both her hunters and the legionaries who crashed into them at this small entrance into the world, she climbed onto her giant bird and vanished down the forest path that led back to Barda Rei.

  The dragon then burst out of the water, right beside Aris, in a cloud of rage, water and flame. He came to them at last, and into their midst, but he was not their prize - he was their end. The cloud of water he tore out of the lake with his legs and wings when he emerged sprayed and blinded the hunters only for a moment, but it was enough to seal their fate.

  "Strike now!" howled Aris, seizing the dragon's gift perfectly, while droplets of water still fell and blinded the hunters' eyes.

  The legionaries in
the shield wall broke their rank and struck while the men in the forest charged from the right.

  Their strike was so fast that not even in the daylight did the hunters see their end coming, and as the last of the drops of water from the lake fell to the ground, so did Roga's forces.

  A careful silence dropped over the world as the legionaries looked for signs of life in the felled enemy, and when they saw none they turned their eyes to the dragon.

  "The dragon!" they cheered.

  "The dragon!"

  ✽✽✽

  Kerkio let his knife sink to the bottom of the lake and grabbed Dion with both arms.

  "Come now, boy!" he yelled, but his voice shivered for the very first time.

  "Breathe!" he pleaded, holding Dion's head on his left shoulder and massaging his chest.

  "Breathe," he repeated over and over again as he swam back toward the cheering legionaries.

  "Breathe!"

  Chapter 19 - Homeward Bound

  A woman's voice called for Kerkio when he got close to the shore.

  "Hand him over to me," he heard Eya say from somewhere behind his back.

  "You can already stand," she instructed Kerkio, herself standing in knee-deep water.

  "Is he all right? Is he alive?"

  "I think he is."

  He concentrated his effort on finding stable ground beneath his feet, found a stone beneath one foot, muddy bottom beneath the other, and then rose up and got his chest out of the water. He felt that his arms and legs were beginning to disobey him, but he still held onto Dion tightly. He kept his left hand under his neck and his right under the bag that was still on Dion's back.

  "Careful," he said to Eya as he let go of Dion's head and she took it in her hands. Kerkio took Dion's legs and they slowly got him out of the water onto dry ground.

  A few feet away from them two legionaries were helping Meden Tai. He held onto his ribs and with closed eyes and clenched teeth walked away from the lake, sipping small amounts of air through the corners of his mouth. A third legionary was next to them in the lake, swimming to grab Dion's standard that was still floating on the surface of the water.