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A tale of Dragons

When I started writing this two years ago, I was only sixteen, so please excuse any mistakes. And everyone knows that sixteen year olds aren't exactly literary geniuses; so don't expect the first half to be best work either.

Brian could only stand there, mouth gaping, as the golden dragon walked through the foliage barely two meters in front of his position in the forest.

Brian was lying on his stomach in the Amazon Forest, his two swords next to him, ready for use. He was doing what he was trained to do, he was hunting dragons.

Brian found himself wondering why he had thought that he could come here, to these forests, hunting dragons with two strips of metal, which a dragon would use to pick its teeth. Brian could readily imagine jumping out of the trees, charging the dragon, his swords whirling in his hands, bringing the swords down on the dragons head...and his swords jumping out of his hand as they vibrated hard enough to be imitation tuning forks.

Brian decided against leaving his hiding spot, unless it was to get away from the dragon as fast as possible. He couldn't believe how big it was, two men standing on each others shoulders wouldn't be able to see over its head.

Brian couldn't help admiring its beauty, even though he had been trained from birth to loathe them as he had never loathed anything else. Like most dragons, this one was unique, but, unlike most dragons, it was a completely uniform colour. The only difference in shades on its hide was how the sun shone off it. It had a wedge shaped head, with a distinctly long, slim muzzle, ending in one of the toothiest grins the world had ever seen. It had four legs, and usually would walk on all fours, but when it spat fire, or when it fought, it would raise itself to two legs. Its huge bat-like wings were magnificent, tripling the size of the dragon when they were unfurled. The long tail curled around the dragons' legs, but would drag behind it when it walked.

The dragon moved forwards, making its way to wherever it was going, and Brian stood up to follow it stealthily.

Brian jumped into one of the many trees that stood close to the ground, their gnarled branches trying to temp what meagre light there was towards them. Half hidden by a clump of bushes, Brian thought that it would be impossible for the dragon to see him. He was wrong.

As he was in the tree, balancing on a branch, he began to fall, but grabbed onto a small clump of leaves, which allowed him to regain his balance. Brian stood on the branch, and a leaf twirled from his hand to the ground, making marvellous patterns in the air before coming to rest softly on the ground. Whether the dragon heard his movement, the leaf snapping, or the leaf hitting the ground, Brian would never know, all he knew was that the dragon was now standing, facing him, a look of mingled surprise and rage on its face.

The dragon roared, and Brian forgot all about where he was, what he was doing, or what exactly was making the ear splittingly high yowl that penetrated his mind. Brian could no longer tell which way was up, or which way was down, he couldn't even remember his own name, all he knew was the pain, the pain that shot through his head, so intense it was like having a bucket of the coldest water poured in one of his ears, and travelling out the other. Brian was only dimly aware of falling, as if through a thick fog, down, down, to the ground, then all was blackness.

* * *

Brian lay in a vast cavern, which was connected to the forest above his head by a long winding tunnel. There were many torches hung in brackets along the walls, Brian wondered how they would have gotten there, and were replenished, because they would burn out after only a short time, and a dragon would not possess the correct level of finesse with its claws to replace the torches with fresh ones.

Brian was lying on the hard ground, and did not move for some time, the only sound was of air circling through the cavern, making a strange sound like that of a large beast. Brian could not believe he was alive; all he could remember was crashing through the tree to the ground, a vision of the dragon standing over him, and then blackness.

Brian heard footsteps coming down the long tunnel, echoing strangely off the walls, distorting the sound until it became impossible to tell whether it was one man or a hundred. Brian leapt to his feet and stood against the rock wall, folding himself into the darkness, trying to hide from view.

A lone figure came into sight around a bend in the tunnel. He was shuffling towards where Brian lay only moments before; his hooded head turned downwards, his body wreathed in cloaks. Brian began looking around the cavern, trying to find somewhere to hide. His eyes travelled over the almost completely flat ground, the smooth walls, and over a misshapen series of lumps in one corner. Something tugged at his mind as his eyes passed over the lumps, but he pushed it out of his mind in light of his current predicament. Brian looked up, and saw that, unlike the floor and walls; the roof was jagged and had many stalagmites hanging from it. Brian judged the height of the one closest to the wall, and ran at the wall.

Brian ran up the smooth wall for a few steps, before leaping backwards, spinning and flipping through the air, before grabbing the stalagmite, wrapping his hands and legs around it, clinging to it tightly.

The robed man continued walking with his head bowed, and just as he passed underneath him, Brian struck. Brian let go of the stalagmite, spinning his body in a clockwise direction, striking outwards with his right foot in an extremely powerful roundhouse kick. The kick connected perfectly, hitting the man in the back of the neck. The man spun sideways from the force of the kick, his neck broken, he was dead before he hit the ground. Brian quickly searched the body; his search yielded only a slip of paper with strange symbols etched in red upon it, and a small dagger. Brian placed the piece of paper in his pocket, for later perusal, and held the dagger backhanded in his right hand as he made his way silently outside.

When he finally reached the entrance to the cave, he was surprised to find that it was already night. The moon was nowhere to be seen, and it was only by the light of the stars that he could see the scene before him. A small village lay nestled in front of the cave, as if guarding it, and many men patrolled the perimeter, and Brian could see movement in the village itself, so he presumed that guards must have been patrolling the streets to. Brian made his way stealthily down to the village, making sure that no one could see him.

There were voices issuing from inside one of the buildings, and Brian lay on the soft grass outside it, listening to the voices.

"Is the sacrifice ready?" One of the voices asked.

"The priest has been dispatched to do the ritual; he is a strong man, the dragon will be pleased with his blood, and may not need another sacrifice for many days." Answered another, the tone of his voice making Brian sure that he was trying to please the one who asked the question.

"I doubt the dragon will go without a sacrifice for long, it thirsts for blood, and it was all I could do to stop it from eating the sacrifice before it was prepared." The first voice said. Brian realised then that they were talking about him; he was supposed to be a sacrifice to the dragon. Suddenly, several things made sense to him, the mass of lumps in one corner of the cave, the dagger he stole from the priest, the circulating air in the cave being warm and not like the cool night air that surrounded him. The dragon had been in the cave, bare metres from his position, as he had slept, and he had not known it!

"It needs to hunt; it does not do to lock up something like that in a cave." The second voice said pleadingly, plainly repeating what he had said many times before.

"What, so it can turn on us and kill us one by one in the night, are you forgetting what happened to the soldier who trod on its tail?" Brian heard the man say warningly, but he had heard enough. He stood slowly, holding the dagger in his right hand.

Brian slowly slid the door open, and stepped into the building. The voices were coming from a door to his left; he slid it open silently, and stepped into the room. Brian saw the two men sitting at a low table, in the Japanese fashion, a candle burned on the table, reduced to a stub, wax pooling onto the table. They had obviously been talking for a long time, and both looked very tired. Brian was about to strike, hiding from view behind one of the men's backs, when he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.

"What about that samurai that came here to rescue the sacrifice?" the first voice asked.

"He is being tortured for information as we speak; all we have gotten from him is a name, Hiroki." Answered the second. Brian was shocked; his mentor had come to rescue him. His mentor was always saying how worthless he was, he said every day that he was not worth what it cost to keep, and that it would be better to have a dog, for they earned their keep better than Brian did.

All these thoughts swirled in his mind as he reached forwards and slit the throat of the nearest man. There was a spray of blood, and Brian leapt forwards, over the table, and rammed his knife through the other mans throat before he could make a sound. Brian left the knife where it was, the bodies would not be found in the morning, because there would be no one to find them, he would make sure of that.

Brian walked outside, keeping low to the ground, trying to remain undetected. He was almost to the end of the building, when a black clothed person holding two knifes stepped around the corner, swinging his knives for Brian's throat. Brian ducked on pure instinct, the knife ruffling his hair as it passed. Brian leapt backwards as the other knife whistled through the air towards him.

They both began to circle each other warily, waiting for the other to make the first move. Brian reached the point where his attacker had appeared, and saw a pool of blood spreading from the body of a samurai. Brian gave a start of surprise; he had thought that the ninja was part of the village.

"Who are you?" Brian growled menacingly.

"I should be the one to ask that question, since you have not raised the alarm, even though I attacked you." His attacker replied.

"I am Brian, and I know nothing of this village, or where I am." Brian replied to the question.

Brian's attacker suddenly straightened, and threw one of his knives at Brian. The throw was appalling; it passed over his shoulder, missing him by a long shot. Brian spun around as he heard a gurgling sound behind him. The knife that his attacker threw was embedded to the hilt in the throat of a samurai, who was standing as if to strike him with his sword. The sword slid out of the samurai's grasp as he fell to the ground.

Brian reached over to the sword, and picked it up, grabbing the knife also. Brian threw the knife underhand to his attacker, and said, "I think we should work together for now, there's simply too many of them."

The ninja simply looked at him, holding his knives in the attacking stance, then he straightened, and placed his knives back in there sheathes with the ease of long practise, and said simply, "That would be advisable."

The ninja jumped up onto the roof of a nearby building, and began stalking another enemy.

Brian snuck around the side of the building, seeing his first target. He leapt up onto the roof, and moved silently until he was above his enemy; he then jumped down, spinning through the air. The sword whistled as Brian struck. Brian crouched on the ground, not moving a muscle, in the exact same position he had landed in. The samurai he attacked still stood there, and Brian began to fear that he had not hit him, when his head suddenly slid from his shoulders, and a great spurt of blood began to pump from his neck. The decapitated body stumbled a few steps and then fell face down onto the grass, where it began to make a pool of blood. Brian stepped over the body and continued in his path of destruction.

Brian met his next enemy in the corridor between two buildings. He approached his enemy from behind, leapt sideways, and launched himself off the side of the building, swinging his sword in a horizontal arc at the samurai's head. The samurai's head slid to the ground with a sickening thud.

Another samurai was walking around the corner in front of him, and Brian had to do some extremely quick thinking. He looked around himself, and saw no way out of the situation. The walls on either side were too tall, and if he ran away the alarm would be raised. Brian did the only thing he could think of, and ran towards his enemy. Brian swung his sword low from the right as he reached the startled samurai, and the samurai's mouth fell open even further when Brian cut him cleanly in half. Brian spun as fast as he could, bringing his sword up as he pivoted, and he did a full three-sixty degree turn before his sword connected with the samurais head, cutting it off cleanly. The samurai's face still wore the same surprised look as it rolled to the ground.

Brian was about to dispatch his forth enemy when the ninja he had seen before came jumping out of the sky as if from now where, landed silently behind the samurai, and spun, his knives slicing into the samurai again and again. Brian counted about ten slices in a matter of seconds, and then the samurai slid to the ground, a good amount of his blood splattered over the ground and the wall of a nearby building. The ninja then jumped up onto a nearby roof, and disappeared from view.

Brian turned another corner, and saw the ninja lying on the ground, eight samurais standing around him with their swords raised, one of them ready to plunge his sword deep into his heart

Brian leapt forwards, dodged between the stunned samurai, knocked the samurai ready to kill the ninja to the ground, and stood in a defensive stance, his sword held vertically, the hilt against his right breast.

The first attack came from the right, and others soon followed.

Brian brought his sword up, blocking a strike, and then pivoted, and swung downwards, deflecting a blow aimed at his legs. The ninja had finally regained his feet, and was standing with his two knives in a strange pose. The ninja suddenly spun, his knife swinging wildly. The samurai thought that the ninja was a rookie, because of his horrible attack, and some of them stepped forward. Before anyone knew what had happened, three of the samurai lay dead.

"Why can't it be like the plays? You know...take a number." Brian heard the ninja mutter as two of the samurai attacked him at once. Brian knew he was referring to plays where the enemy would attack one by one, being cut down quickly.

Brian was having trouble himself, he was blocking so much that he could not attack. Brian did the only thing he could, and lashed out with his foot, kicking one of them in the head, blocking a low strike at the same time, before jumping into the air, dodging two blades, grabbing a samurai around the neck with both feet, and slamming his sword through another samurais solar plexus. He twisted, his legs breaking the samurais neck, and his sword withdrawing from the other samurai, before he leapt forwards, slashed the already dead samurai's throat, and threw the body at the two stunned samurai who hadn't moved, amazed by the viciousness and speed of the attack. This was all the distraction he needed, and he reached down to the ground and picked up another sword, and held them in the ready stance.

There were shouts in the distance, and Brian knew that he would have to finish this battle quickly, or more samurai would come. The other samurai were not in a hurry; two circled him warily, eyeing his two swords with something akin to fear. One of them leapt forwards, swinging his sword above his head. Brian blocked with his left, and sliced the samurais arm off at the shoulder with his other sword.

Brian then spun to the right and sliced with his left sword, and was blocked, Brian had expected this, and his right hand strike quickly killed his enemy. The ninja killed his last opponent, and they looked at each other, and then both ran away as fast as they could, side by side.

They reached the cave that Brian had only just vacated, and were thinking about some different way to go, when a samurai came running around the corner directly behind them. Brian and the ninja both attacked at the same time. The ninja jumped at the samurai's head, wrapping his legs around his neck, while Brian lunged and sliced him across the stomach. The ninja rolled backward, lifting the man up, before slamming him onto the ground, almost knocking him unconscious. Brian finished him off with a stab through the heart, his sword going right through him, embedded nearly a foot into the earth. They both ran into the cave, before more of the samurai could arrive.

The warmth of the cave surprised them both, but then Brian remembered the dragon. "Be careful, there is a dragon here." Brian whispered as they walked slowly downwards.

"Then why do we enter its lair? This is suicide!" The ninja whispered, his voice going higher, making him sound almost feminine.

"We go here because the samurai are more afraid of the dragon than we are." Brian whispered.

They both walked on in silence, until they reached the cave, and Brian walked over to where the dragon had presumably lain. Brian saw why he mistaken it for a mound. A giant piece of cloth stretched from one end of the cave to the other. It was the same colour as the rock it lay upon. Brian picked up one corner of it, and made a startled exclamation. Where he had picked it up, the fabric had changed colour, to exactly the same hue as the ground, and it seemed as if his arm had been cut off.

"This could be helpful." Brian said, starting to cut the blanket with his swords. Brian was fighting down the mad impulse to start rolling around on the ground in laughter, when the ninja aired his thoughts, as if he had read his mind.

"A blanket for the samurai's favourite dragon," He crooned, "I wonder if it came with a matching pillow?"

Brian couldn't help himself, and let out a snort of laughter. Brian finished what he was doing, and handed a large piece of the fabric to the ninja. As the ninja was about to take the gift, words of thanks on his tongue, a strange voice high above them said, "So you have found the wonder of the fabric of Kuarn, and you even came to a dragon's lair to get some. Pathetic really."

Brian and the ninja both looked up slowly, each carrying a largish piece of fabric in their hands. Above them was the golden dragon, holding onto the stalagmites with its powerful claws. It looked down at them, roared, and leapt upon them. Neither of them stood a chance, and both were knocked unconscious.

* * *

Brian and the ninja awoke, strung up to the ceiling of the cavern by some very strong threads of a strange white rope.

"Now I know how a fly feels in a spider's web." Brian said, struggling at his bonds.

The dragon lay underneath them, the firelight glistening off its scales. Brian once again could not take his eyes from its beauty. The ninja, noticing his rapt expression, said, "Here we go, a swords master, who came here to steal the fabric from the dragons lair, falls in love with the beast."

"Don't call it a beast, and I came to kill the dragon, not steal its fabric." Brian said softly.

Underneath them the dragon was stirring, as if it could hear their voices. The dragon was mumbling about something, and then it stood and its words became audible. "Why can't they hurry up, so discourteous, making me wait, I have half a mind to--" The dragon lashed out with his claws, faster than the eye could follow, and struck the wall. The dragon's claws sliced through the rock as if it were made of grass.

The dragon spoke again. "Those idiots, I shall kill the criminals myself!" the dragon whirled towards them, and began to speak in a barely audible hiss.

Ist ben hart erde

Hertil gren hit grif

Hrity gret muerto

Minth grath outh

A horrible feeling began to encompass Brian. It was as if all his bones were being broken into powder, and every inch of his skin being broken by hammers and cut by blades. He was only just aware of spiralling as if through a vortex, and of screams beside him, that told him the ninja was also experiencing the excruciating pain as well. Then the world went black.

* * *

Brian awoke, and found that he could not rise, or move at all. He moaned low in his throat and felt a breeze ripple across his skin. He wondered where he was, and why he felt so sore. It felt as if every bone in body in his body was broken into three different pieces. He forgot about the pain as he fell into a deep sleep.

When Brian next awoke, he had full mobility. It was as if he had awoken after a restful nights sleep. He stood up and stretched, noticing a peculiar stiffness in his joints. He looked around, and saw a vast forest, stretching as far as the eye could see, like a giant carpet of green. He was standing on a rise, devoid of trees, covered in long swaying tentacles of grass. A slight depression marked where he had lain. There was a slight depression in the grass besides him, which gave him the impression that the ninja had lain there, even though there was no sign of him now.

Brian put all thoughts out of his head except those of food, because he realised that he was starving.

He began to move towards the trees, and wondered where he was, the only forest he had ever seen that was remotely this big was the Amazon forest, and vast tracts of it remained unexplored. Brian pulled out his sword. For some reason, he still had it. It was his sword, the one he had had since before he could remember.

The ninja was walking through the trees, not far from where Brian was, when an ear-splitting roar rent the air. The roar resounded through the forest, echoing off every surface, masking its source.

The ninja began to run, because he knew that whatever had made the roar was not a member of gods' creatures as he had meant them. The trees behind him parted to admit the very visage of hell itself. It was around about six metres tall, covered in grey scaly skin, it had a huge head, two small arms, powerful legs, and one hell of a toothy grin. The ninja had seen something like this, a skull, which many had thought to be a dragon's skull, but now the ninja realised that the beast was far too ugly to be a dragon.

The ninja ran and ran, the animal behind him keeping up, although it was impeded by trees every step that it took.

Brian was wondering what had made the roaring noise, and was just starting to worry about the crashing coming from the trees, when the ninja burst through the trees in front of him, closely pursued by the strange animal. Brian took a second to take in the massive proportions of the animal, and then he ran.

Brian and the ninja ran side by side, wending through the trees, jumping over tree roots, ducking low branches, and making impossible leaps over ditches. They were keeping ahead of the animal...just. They could smell its rancid breath, and feel it blowing over their shoulders and backs.

Brian began to tire, and the ninja was starting to falter, they were on their last legs. They suddenly reached a cliff that terminated into the ocean. They both hit the edge, and tumbled over it, too tired to care what happened next.

They hit the ocean with colossal force, the impact knocking them both unconscious. The last thing Brian saw was the animal standing on the cliff, roaring in carnal anger to the sky.

* * *

Brian awoke; the now familiar feeling of having every bone in his body broken was back. He was lying on sand, the sun warming his body, a light breeze caressing his face. He opened his eyes, and saw a beach, laying upon it a few metres away, was the ninja. Brian crawled over to him. He seemed to be struggling to breathe. Brian removed the mask, and a great quantity of sand fell out of it, and the ninja relaxed in to a fitful sleep. Brian could now see the face that had been hidden from him for so long. It was a youthful face, but one that had seen many battles. Dominating the features was a scar, a long horrible thing that arced from above the left eyebrow to the right cheek.

Brian shook the ninja, trying to shake him a wake, but he would not awaken, so Brian let him be and went off to hunt, praying silently that no misfortune would befall him in his comatose state.

Brian drew his sword, again. He still had it. He should have lost it several times while he was running, or while he drifting in the water.

Brian was walking through the trees, when he came upon a clearing, it was huge, and many animals grazed on the grass that grew in abundance in it.

Among the animals were the biggest living creatures the world has ever seen. There were strange creatures with brown hides that had three long horns sticking out of their heads, surmounted by a bony crest. There was also the tallest land mammal ever. It stood at least 10 metres tall, had the longest neck and tail you'll ever see, and had a strangely small head. It munched leaves placidly that it could easily reach from its height, but were far out of reach of any other living animal.

Brian could only stare at the monoliths that walked the plains. He had never seen something so big. Brian could only think that these were the fabled dinosaurs, the skeletons of which he had seen when he had stumbled across some men digging up one of their skeletons. Brian began to wish he were home.

Brian found a likely food source, a little animal about the same size as chicken, which walked with a strange little jumping movement. He then snuck forwards slowly, close to the ground, the long grass masking his movements.

Brian leapt forwards towards a group of the little chicken like creatures, swinging his sword horizontally, taking out several of them. The herd around him spooked at his sudden movement, and stampeded off through the trees, leaving Brian alone with the three animals he had killed.

Brian picked up the bodies of the animals, wondering if they were poisonous, when a lone figure stumbled out of the trees into the clearing. The man was not in good shape, his clothes hung off him in tatters, a travel pack was slung over one shoulder, the front pocket torn open from top to bottom, a sword hung from his side, and a dagger was held in each hand, as if he was being chased.

Brian stood up and turned towards the man, and ran over to him, where he fell to the ground in exhaustion. He seemed to be delirious, he was muttering under his breathe, with some words coming through clearly, while others sounded like he was speaking a different language.

"They're coming, get the hell out of here! Oh my god, run you fools!" The man was muttering, as if he believed the devil incarnate chased him.

Brian sat for a few seconds, trying to figure out where the man had come from, what he was doing here, and who 'they' were.

There was the sound of heavy footsteps from the forest, and Brian saw who 'they' were. The thing that came flying out of the trees moved so fast it seemed just a blur.

Brian wasn't conscious of the fact that he had unsheathed his sword until the beast was mere metres from where he crouched. Brian swung low, from his right, jumping at the end of his slash, and turning in the air to slash again. The first slash hit the beast in the leg, shearing it off just below what could be called its knee, and Brian's second slash caught it in the back of its head, slicing it open to reveal the beasts' brain cavity.

Brian stared at the creature, and saw now why the man was so afraid of it. It was totally brown all over, it walked on two legs, had sharp claws on what passed for its hands, a giant sickle shaped claw on each foot, and eyes that glistened with intelligence.

Something was tugging at Brian's mind as he stood staring at the creature he had killed, something that the feverish man had said.

A strange roaring shriek began to emanate from forest, and Brian realised that the man had said 'them', as if there was more than one of them. Brian grabbed the feverish man, slinging him over one shoulder, and then he began to run.

Brian reached the trees just as twelve other things, exact replicas of the one he had killed, burst out of the trees on the other side of the clearing. Brian began to run faster.

Several minutes later, Brian realised that running was futile; all it was doing was weakening him, while the animals chasing them seemed to be taking their time, even though they were catching him easily.

Brian dropped the man on the ground, and prepared to make a stand. Brian grabbed the sword from the man on the ground, pulling the knives out of his hand, which he had held since Brian had started to carry him. Brian then heard the sound of underbrush being broken, and whirled to face the sound, and who should walk out, but the ninja he had fought alongside that night, apparently fully recovered.

"You're harder to lose than a lost puppy. Everywhere I go; you beat me there, and are waiting for me." The ninja said.

Brian threw one of the swords and one of the knives at his feet with a meaningful look towards the trees, where a crashing noise was growing louder. The ninja said no more, not even one comment about the man on the ground, picked up the sword and the knife, and held one in each hand.

The animals burst from the trees in waves, three or four coming at them all at once, as if there was someone controlling them, hoping to tire them out after a time, instead of sending them all at once.

Brian held the knife in his left hand, back-handed, the sword in his right, mirroring the ninja, who he stood back to back with.

The first animals came bounding out of the trees, moving with incredible speed and grace. Brian could now see that they were the ultimate killing machines, unlike the beast that had chased them earlier, these were small and fast, and probably had about the same ability to kill. Since they were small, they could move faster through forests and trees, because the bigger beasts had to wend and weave through the trees, or just knock them down.

The first animals burst through the trees, a group of four, two of them angling for each of the fighters. Brian spun to his right, bringing his sword around, thinking that this was too easy. He heard a metallic clang as his sword connected with the giant sickle shaped claw on the animal's foot. Brian tried to withdraw his sword to strike again, but the animal held it fast, as if it knew that the blade was deadly. Brian began to fear that these were no ordinary animals; the way they attacked, the way they defended, it was all too ordered, too casual, as if they had been drilled in doing it day after day.

Brian finally succeeded in wrenching the sword from the animal's claw, the motion sending him off balance. So the next lunging movement one of the beasts made threw him to the ground. Brian looked up from the ground, and saw this snarling visage hanging upside down above, quickly replaced by a giant claw scything down towards his face. Brian rolled, hearing the claw sink into the ground. He then spun again, swinging out his foot, catching one or the animals in behind the knee, throwing it too the ground, and stabbed it in the throat with the knife he had managed to hold onto as he had fallen.

Brian saw his sword laying on the ground a few metres away, and made a run towards it. One of the animals saw his movement and jumped high into the air, trying to intercept him with its claw. Brian sprinted as fast as he could, seeing the shadow on the ground in front of him meaning that an animal was going to jump onto him. He grabbed the sword; rolling forwards as he did so, and then swung the sword upwards, bracing it with his shoulders and back. The sword hit the animal between the legs, there was a spray of blood, and the animal was cut cleanly in half.

Another group of animals burst from the trees, and during the respite, Brian chanced a glance over at the ninja. Two animals lay dead at his feet, one of them still kicking feebly, blood spurting from the stumps that use to be its legs and arms, as he watched, the ninja carelessly swiped the sword across its neck, silencing its futile attempts to rise. The other animal lay in a pool of blood, a ragged wound in its chest, and blood pooling from where its head should have been.

Brian turned his mind back to more pressing matters, like the snarling visage of hell leering at him from bare metres away, teeth ready to rend and tear, claws ready to puncture flesh and tear meat. Brian brought his sword up fast, blocking the animal from hitting him, leaving a long line of blood down it hide, from the shoulder to the hip, before the animals claw swung from out of nowhere and sliced deep into his shoulder.

Brian roared in pain, his hand pressed against the wound, blood seeping between his fingers. He fell to the ground, expecting to feel the cold embrace of teeth coming down on his neck, and the wrench that would break his neck and end his existence. But the expected blow ever came, and Brian looked up cautiously, expecting to see the beast standing over him, and to see one menacing the ninja, but they were gone.

Brian's eyes closed slowly, but before everything went black, he was aware that blood was flowing over his fingers, and that the man he had tried to save was no longer moaning feverishly, but was lying unnaturally still.

* * *

Brian awoke to the smell of roasting meat, and saw one of the strange chicken-like creatures he had seen yesterday, roasting on a spit above a roaring fire, there was very little wood left in the pile next to it, and Brian was about to rise to put more wood on the fire, when the ninja walked into the clearing, carrying an armful of wood. He glanced at Brian, looked away, and said "You shouldn't put any weight on that shoulder, and you shouldn't try to get up either, you might open the wound again."

"I've had worse." Brian replied.

"It was bad enough for you to be out of it for a few days, three actually." The ninja said

"Who are you?" Brian asked, changing the subject.

"I am a shadow, a wraith in the night, the one who is never seen or heard, but is well known." The ninja replied cryptically.

"Your name would help." Brian said, staring at the ninja quizzically. He had heard that the ninja were secretive, but this was way beyond secretive, more like paranoid.

"My name is of no concern. Names hold power, and I give no one power over me, no matter how small that power is." The ninja replied.

"Have it your way." Brian said, rolling over onto his back, trying to make himself comfortable, a small pain radiating from his shoulder every time it touched something.

"Only one has ever learnt my name," The ninja said quietly, "But I fear we shall not survive out here so I wish another man to know my name, and I have decided that to be you." The ninja said.

Brian rolled over again, ignoring the pain that encompassed his shoulder at the movement, and stared intently at the ninja.

"My name is Matimura Hitoshi." Matimura said.

Brian tried to keep his face solemn, even though he could not see why Matimura was making such a fuss over a simple name. "Thank you." Brian said.

Matimura stood very still, as if made from stone. His shirt hung in tatters; small scratched showing the extent of his battles that day. He was covered in his enemies' blood, which mingled with his own, meaning that he hadn't been able to wash it off. This was the last thing Brian saw before the night claimed him.

* * *

Brian awoke to the dawn chorus of the birds. Matimura was lying on his side, facing away from him.

Brian felt a breeze ruffle his shirt from behind. Then he realized that there was a breeze also on his face, and that the breeze on his back must be coming from a different source.

Brian turned his head slowly, smelling a rancid mix of decaying meat and blood, the scent of a carnivore. He saw it standing above him, its mouth open slightly, long teeth stained with the blood of many animals, pieces of old meals still clinging to serrated edges, two great eyes staring everywhere at once.

Brian reached over to shake the Matimura, and he heard him speak in a barely audible voice, just before his hand touched him. "Do not move a single muscle, or it could be the last movement you ever make."

Brian lay still, doing as he was told, for a long time. He eventually drifted off to sleep, and when he woke up, the monster was gone. Brian rolled over quickly, to see if the beast was near, and immediately regretted the action, because it caused a pain to radiate through his shoulder.

Matimura was standing, silhouetted by the rising sun, staring off into the horizon, as if looking for something.

"What're you looking for?" Brian asked.

"Dragons." Matimura replied, still scanning the horizon.

"Haven't you seen enough of them already?" Brian said, rolling over to attempt to go back to sleep.

"Yes I have, but that doesn't stop me from seeing one right now." Matimura replied.

Brian stood up fast, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, staring at the horizon also. On the horizon was a barely visible speck, gaining size as the distance between them dwindled.

Brian turned, and picked up one of the swords lying on the ground, getting ready to fight. The dragon had probably already seen them, so it was no use running or hiding.

The dragon grew steadily closer, until Brian began to realise that there was something wrong with it. It was flying like a wounded animal, its fore-claws holding its bulging stomach, wing beating furiously with the effort to stay aloft. The dragon was red in colour, giant wings spread wide to catch every draft of air. It had four legs, a wedge shaped head, a long sinuous tail, which tapered to a point, and claws on every toe, it also held something in its front claws.

Brian couldn't help staring, it was beautiful, but he also knew the difference between admiring the beauty of something and becoming its dinner.

The dragon was very close now, but it was too low, as if it couldn't keep itself off the ground. The dragon began to pitch to the earth, trilling out a series of notes that sounded equally mournful and fearful.

The dragon hit the ground with monumental force, and Brian saw what he had not seen before, a long gash in its stomach, from underneath the left wing join to the rear right leg. Blood dripped freely from the wound, spattering the ground with a paint of sorrow.

Brian walked slowly towards the dragon, his sword falling from numb fingers. Killing a dragon was something entirely different from killing a man, and every time he killed a dragon, grief would overwhelm him. His master had said that it was the dying dragons last curse, to make him feel sorrow for nothing more than a mindless beast, which destroyed all living it came across, but Brian was beginning to doubt his masters' wisdom.

The dragon was whimpering in pain, trying feebly to move away from Brian. Brian stopped, and held his hands up, palm to the sky, in a silent treaty for peace. The dragon gave what sounded like a sigh, and surrendered.

Brian continued walking forwards slowly, until he could reach out and touch the scaled skin if he wanted to. The dragon was egg-laden, which was probably the reason she was unable to fly. She should have laid the eggs already, and Brian could see that nature had taken its course while she was laying there, already two eggs lay on the hard ground, one of them cracked from its fall. The egg she had held in her hands was also on the ground, amazingly, it was undamaged.

Brian reached out, and touched the skin of the dragon tentatively, snatching his hand away as if he had gotten an electric shock when the dragon's head began to move in his direction. Brian was about to turn and run, when the dragon's head reached him. He was expecting it to open, and the rush of foul breath to wash over him as the dragon bit deep into his flank, ending his life. But that didn't happen; the dragon snorted once, and then resumed its original position. More eggs lay on the ground now. Brian placed both hands upon the dragons hide, rubbing it gently. The dragon began to murmur softly, reacting to his kindness.

Brian was still standing like that, when a thought pierced his head, like a ray of sunshine illuminating a dungeon devoid of light for a long time. The dragons aren't evil; it was just a superstitious old man being scared of what he did not understand.

Brian stood there for a long time, his hands on the dragon, while Matimura watched silently. Memories began to surface in Brian's memory, coming up slowly, as if from a yawning chasm. There was his master, handing him his first sword, then he was further back, lying upon a piece of driftwood in a storm tossed ocean.

Then the memories cleared, and he was standing in front of a dragon, his worst enemy, laying his hands upon it. Brian suddenly felt revolted, but then he thought, what's wrong with them, really? Are they really solely focused on killing only? Is there room in their hearts for love? Yes! He decided suddenly, this dragon was trying to protect its eggs by moving away, so it had to have feelings of love for the young dragonets.

The Dragon twisted slightly; trying to reach the egg she had held in her paws as she flew. Brian walked over to it and picked it up tentatively. The dragon accepted it, and then stared at it intently. The egg suddenly glowed a bright yellow, and the dragons' eyes turned red for a second. It was obviously casting magic, but it seemed that it couldn't do it properly. Its eyes slowing flickered from red to their natural blue colour, and then back to red. The red dragon strained, and finally seemed to be satisfied. She laid her head on the ground, breathing heavily, eyes closed. She laid the egg on the ground in her comfortable reach.

The dragon suddenly whimpered, and tried to move, as if something was coming after it from the trees. This happened to coincide perfectly with a start of surprise from Matimura. Brian followed his eyes, and saw, hovering above the trees bare metres away, a black dragon. It was huge, twice the size of the red dragon. Its red eyes glowed malevolently in its huge head, it mouth was bulging with teeth; its claws were longer by themselves than his sword.

The black dragon lunged for the red; spitting and yowling like a wet cat, digging its claws deep into the red dragons flank. Brian unexpectedly heard a voice inside his head. Take the egg, the one that I was holding, do that for me will you? Make sure one of my friends little ones survives. Brian knew it was the red dragons voice, but the voice was calm, impassive, as if a black dragon wasn't raking claws deeply into her stomach.

Brian shook his head, as if trying to shake something out of it, and then ran forwards, ignoring Matimura's cries of warning, darted underneath slashing claws, grabbed the egg off the ground, and ran for his life.

The black dragon saw Brian's incursion, and moved to intercept him, but, out of nowhere came the red dragons' tail, wrapping itself around the black dragons' ankle, dragging him to the ground, holding him there, giving Brian enough time to run and hide.

Brian found a cave, set into a cliff face, several hundred metres from the battle, and as he sat there, cradling the egg in his hands, he heard the sounds of the distant battle wilting away on the breeze.

"Matimura?" Brian asked, trying to get his attention, "Did the dragon speak to you?"

"Dragons don't speak. Unless you count that gold one in the cave." Matimura said, looking at Brian as if he were going crazy.

"Well this one did, it asked me to save its friends egg, so one of the little ones survives." Brian replied to Matimura's statement.

"Maybe it did, but maybe you were just hearing things, are you sure it happened?" Matimura enquired.

"I'm sure. Well, we're stuck with the egg now." Brian said.

"You can't tell me that you're going to raise that thing!" Matimura yelled suddenly.

"What do you want me to tell you then? The most important thing in a fight is information, and a dragonet is just what I need to find out all the information about dragons that I need." Brian said quietly.

"So you're going to use that half assed excuse to raise a dragonet, what's your real reason?" Matimura asked his tone acid.

"It gets lonely when you're a dragon killer; no one wants to be near you, they're all afraid of getting to know me, because they think that I won't be around the next day." Brian said.

"If that's how you feel, then don't blame me when it rips off your arms." Matimura said in a sharp tone, rising and leaving the cave.

Brian stood also, placing the egg in a well-lit place, atop a warm rock, to keep it warm until he was back. Then he walked off towards where he had last seen the red dragon.

Brian came up short when he saw the devastation in front of him. The red dragon lay nestled against some trees, which were leaning to one side with her weight, blood was everywhere, and scales littered the ground like so many pebbles.

The desiccated corpse of the once proud dragon had no eggs left in it, so the other dragon must have taken them. Brian walked up to the corpse, reaching the dragons head. He cradled it in his lap, stroking the inanimate flesh, saying prayers for the dragon to have a good afterlife. Brian stood, brushing himself off, and began to pick up the scales he could find on the ground.

His bloody work lasted only a few minutes, and then he deposited the scales in the cave, and went in search of dry tinder.

Brian returned nearly an hour later, running with his armful of wood, hoping that the egg was still warm enough.

Brian found the egg was sill warm, but the sun was setting, so he set about making a fire as quick as possible.

Brian picked up some of the bark he had collected, a long stringy piece, and began to cut it into tiny pieces with his sword. In a few minuted he had a respectable pile of string like bark. Brian then began to bang his sword and a rock together, creating sparks, the sparks fell onto the bark, and the bark caught alight.

Brian began to carefully feed the fire pieces of bark and leaves, making it into a nice roaring blaze, before throwing on a large piece of wood and a log. He then placed the egg in the centre of the fire, creating a ring of fire around the egg. Brian made sure that the egg didn't get too hot, keeping the fire well back from the egg.

Brian, satisfied by the fire and the egg, turned away and began to fidget with the scales he had taken from the ground.

Brian began to thread the scales together with string from his own clothes, making himself a red armoured suit, complete with facemask.

It took many weeks to make, because of the amount of work it took, to file out a hole in the tough scales, and then to put it in place, and thread it to the others securely. Then there were the interruptions, he had to go out about five times a day to keep the fire going, and he had to turn the egg, he also had to hunt, or he would starve.

Brian was just finished with the scale armour when the egg began rock. Brian ran outside, dragging his sword with him, and started to hunt frantically. He brought down a giant animal; it was so slow that it was hardly a challenge. But it was heavy, and took a long time to drag the body back to the cave. Brian finally reached the cave, and dragged the carcass inside, laying it next to the egg; he then began to gut it. The dragonet would need food as soon as it came out of the egg.

Brian turned to his finished scale armour, and pulled it over his head, putting it on. He then sat by the egg and waited for the dragonet to emerge. It was several hours later that Brian was awoken from his fitful dosing by the sound of the egg hatching. Brian resecured the armour to his body; not for protection, but to try to fool the dragonet into thinking that he was its mother.

Brian peered at the egg intently, as if he could make it hatch faster by the intensity of his stare. The egg finally cracked, right down the centre from the top to the bottom. A tiny snout pushed its way out of the egg, followed by a perfect little head. The dragonet lay down and rested, head moving with the force of its breathing. Brian moved over to the beast he had killed, and cut off a piece of meat, and took it over to the dragonet, placing the dripping meat in front of it, just out of its reach, trying to tempt it out of the egg further. The dragonet let out a shrill little trill and leapt for the meat, totally destroying the egg in its haste to feed.

Brian frowned; it was exactly like all the other dragons, it ate as if every meal would be its last. He could only just stand to be in the same room as it, this was different from the red dragon, because the red dragon was intelligent, and could reason, a dragonet could not.

The dragonet finished eating, and began to meep for more food. Brian listened to the shrill sound, the sound of a dragon experiencing discomfort. Brian liked the sound.

Brian moved over to the carcass and cut off a very big piece this time. He took it over to the little dragonet, and deposited it at its feet.

The dragonet trilled in happiness, and grabbed the meat in its powerful jaws and began to systematically tear it apart.

Brian reached over to the dragonet tentatively, loathing touching it, picked it up, and deposited it quickly near the open side of the corpse. The dragonets trills of indignation at being removed from its food quickly turned to trills of delight when it saw banquet in front of it.

Brian watched it warily for a second, and then moved off to the makeshift bed he had made, taking off his armour, and placing it next to him, then he lay down and stared at the back and wings of the dragonet, the head deep inside the strange creature.

Brian couldn't remember falling asleep; the only thing he knew was that the dragonet was moving hesitantly in his direction.

Brian shot to his feet, startling the dragonet, which gave a trill of surprise. He moved away from the dragonet, which had begun moving towards him again. He finally realised that she was looking for a place to sleep, and took off his shirt, folding it into a natural hollow in one of the rocks, picking up some of the grass from his own bedding, and placing that underneath it.

He then ushered the dragonet onto it, being careful not to touch it. It seemed to hesitate for a second, then fell asleep.

Brian stared at the sleeping form of the dragonet, trying to decide on a name. He thought that she was female, so he named her Miralage.

Brian moved off to his bed, and fell asleep. He was fast asleep when Miralage moved off the shirt, grabbed it in her little mouth, and dragged it over to where he was sleeping. She placed it in between his chest and the rock, and snuggled deep into it.

* * *

Brian awoke the next morning to find Miralage snuggled up against his chest, fast asleep. He looked at her blearily for a second, and then got up with a yell, brushing off his chest as if he would get the black plague through prolonged contact with the dragonet.

The little dragonet gave a trill of indignation at the rough treatment, rolled into a ball, curled her tail around her little body, and fell straight back to sleep.

Brian stared at Miralage incredulously; she acted as if she owned everything around her. Brian thought that this fit dragon behaviour perfectly, and he felt a surge of dislike for her.

Brian turned and walked out of the cave to go get some more firewood, because the stack was getting alarmingly low. Brian didn't see Miralage awake, nor did he see her move over to the scale armour, and nor did he hear her trills of mourning as she realised that this was all that remained of her mother.

* * *

Brian was walking when he saw several wraith-like creatures advancing through the foliage a few metres ahead of him. Brian didn't know what to do. His thoughts turned to Miralage, and he felt like he had to save her. He told himself stubbornly that it was a sense of duty that dictated his actions, not an attachment to the dragonet.

Brian ran towards the cave as fast as he could, holding a large forked branch in his hands, having no weapons. He was cursing himself for leaving his sword in the cave. He had never been so irresponsible before. He knew that this place was dangerous, and yet, he had gone out unarmed.

Brian could hear the wraiths bounding along behind him. They seemed to be more liquid than solid, flowing with a grace unmatched by anything he had ever seen, keeping low to the ground, making barely any sound. They flitted from shadow to shadow, trying to stay undetected.

Nearing a channel in the cliff face, Brian turned down it, hoping to find it was a shortcut. He had propelled himself several metres down the channel before he realised he was trapped.

* * *

Kershahk was being held captive by the raptors. He was a raptor himself, but he was not of this tribe. The tribe he was being held captive by had attacked at dawn, slaughtering every one of his tribe, except for him. They had only spared him because he had the gift of tongues bestowed upon him. The gift of tongues was a magical charm cast upon a soul, allowing the person, or animal, in question to transcend the barriers of speech, speaking, not from the lungs but from the heart, giving them the power to talk in any language, to any creature.

Kershahk had been bestowed with this gift by a gryphon. The gryphons were giant animal, having four legs, but the unmistakable traits of birds. They were about twice as big as any stallion, and were very intelligent. The gryphons were still dominated by primal instincts, and as such, were very vicious.

Kershahk had been working at his bonds for hours, slowly filing down the magical strands of fibre. The bonds had been placed there by the tribe's shaman, and were made from a young sapling. The shaman had taken the heartwood of the sapling, and binded it seamlessly about Kershahk's wrists. The shaman had not taken into account how far Kershahk could turn the claws on his fingers. Because of a genetic defect in his tribe, Kershahk could bend his hand downward much further than most raptors, being able to cut himself if he tried.

Kershahk had finally broken his bonds, and sneaked up behind his solitary guard. He reached out his right foot, moving it up the left side of the raptors body, turning it anticlockwise 45 degrees. He had placed the abnormally large claw on his toe around the enemies throat, and then brought his foot backwards and then down as hard as he could.

The raptor fell to the ground, blood spraying from his neck. He lay on the ground, thrashing in agony, until Kershahk lashed out sharply with his foot, snapping back its head, breaking its neck with a very audible snap.

Kershahk ran outside, as fast as he could, trying to escape while the other raptors were still trying to react. He was a velociraptor, one of the fastest and deadliest types of raptor known, while his pursuers were mere utahraptors, no match for a velociraptor in sheer speed, although they could probably take him down in a claw fight.

The raptors just couldn't keep up with Kershahk, who powered past them into the trees, aiming to get as far away as possible. He had been running for ten minutes straight, his pursuers finally giving up the chase, when he saw the man.

Kershahk was standing on a cliff, watching the man run as if for his life, a long forked branch in his hands. Kershahk was wondering why a man would be running for his life, when nothing was chasing him. Then he saw the wraiths in the shadows, and knew that the man ran for good reason. The things chasing the man were the Slanta, giant cat-like creatures. The Slanta hunted in packs, and were unmatched in speed and grace. They were also unmatched in ferocity and power.

The man ran down a small channel in the cliff face, praying for escape. Kershahk was sure that he would be trapped and eaten.

The man, of course, was Brian. Brian was unaware of Kershahk up above him. He turned back to the mouth of the channel, hoping to get out before the entrance was blocked by the wraiths. He skidded to a stop. One of the wraiths was standing right there! Brian found his face a bare centimetre from the luminescent yellow eyes of a Slanta, and felt true fear. The Slanta was the stuff of nightmares. It was six foot tall at the shoulder, with powerful Muscles bunched under the rippling black skin. Even though no wind was present, the Slanta's short black fur rippled as if there was. The fur was glossy black, and looked smoother than silk. Brian didn't care what the animal's body looked like; he was too preoccupied by the Slanta's head. It was twice the size of his head and was filled with long teeth. The canine teeth were so large that they were hanging down past the Slanta's jaw. The cat could have easily grabbed his whole head in its mouth, and crushed it.

Brian said, "Hey buckteeth." Then he turned and ran back up the channel as far as he could. Hoping that the narrow confines of the channel and the size of the Slanta would keep it from reaching him. He reached the end of the channel. He turned slowly, and found the Slanta, once again, bare centimetres from his face. This time, the Slanta roared. Brian saw the mouth open, and dropped the branch, covering his ears with his hands as the cat roared. It was like a lion's roar, only louder, deeper, and possessing a manic tone that no other big cat could attain.

The Slanta continued roaring. A shape fell from the top of the channel, and fell beside the manic big cat. The Slanta kept roaring, but a new note came into it. It sounded like a tone of mourning. Then the Slanta's head dropped from its shoulders, spraying blood everywhere. Brian looked at the severed head. The eyes looked back at him, they blinked once, then lay staring at a point over Brian's left shoulder.

Brian Stared at the creature that had just saved his life, distrust darkening his eyes. The creature was, in any sense of the word, a monster. It looked to be straight from some child's horror tale. It was about the same size as Brian, but looked far more deadly than anything he had ever seen.

The creature stood 1.7 metres tall, had brown pebbly skin, a long slim tail, which it held erect behind it, fours toes on each foot, one of which was elongated into a disembowelling sickle shape, claws for hands, a mouth full of sharp teeth and eyes that glistened with intelligence. It wasn't the creature as a whole that scared Brian, it was the eyes, and he stared into their lupine slits for a few seconds, entranced by the sparkle of intelligence in them. He realised then that he was the same as the creature that had attacked him and Matimura when he had been trying to save that man's life. The only difference was that this one was slightly larger and looked more deadly, if that were possible.

The creature moved, so fast that Brian could barely see it. The creature had leapt backwards, lashing out with its foot, striking another Slanta across the face. Blood splattered over the rocks as the cat gave a wild howl of rage and bounded into the channel.

Brian began to feel that it would be an excellent plan to vacate the immediate vicinity as rapidly as possible. He bent, and, picking up the forked branch, ran towards the opening of the channel.

Brian swung the branch from low to the left, up high to the right, bracing his shoulders as the branch came into contact with the demonic cats right temple. The cats' yowl of rage became even louder as one of the twigs on the branch entered its right eye, snapping off and hanging there, blood dripping off it slowly.

The cat that Brian had attacked seemed to be the leader of the pack, as it was bigger, and attacked without waiting for its brethren. Brian knew that the pack would pursue him, but only hoped to make it the relatively short distance to the cave, and his sword.

Brian pounded outside, only to find himself surrounded by the Slanta.

Brian knew he was in deep trouble, the cats just stood there, like some gruesome tableau of statues. He knew he should give in to the inevitable. There, standing around him, were no less than thirty Slanta, one of which was more than a fair match to him. With his sword, he could maybe take them down, but with what he had now, he might as well attack a dragon with a training sword.

Brian looked around him, the Slanta seemed not to want to attack, and they just stood there, as if to stop him leaving. This was yet more strange animal behaviour; it was as if every animal in these forests were as smart as a man. Brian began to think that where he was, was no ordinary place.

Brian finally found his way out; a creeping vine had ensnared a tree, and had completely overtaken it, the folds of the vine provided very good handhold potential.

Brian leapt for the tree, grabbing a vine and jumping to a low branch, then jumping higher up.

Brian looked down from his heightened position, and saw the cats staring up at him, their tails twitching slowly. He wanted to know why they weren't attacking, but he pushed the thought out of his mind, and began to move across the treetops as fast as he could.

The cats stopped acting like statues and began chasing. Brian looked back and saw the cats chasing him, but they were acting like it was a game to them, just for show.

Brian moved like a shadow, making the same amount of noise as a cat stalking a mouse, and moved with the same single-mindedness. The Slanta still kept after him, even if he stopped, where he knew that they could not see him, or hear him. This was how he knew that they had an excellent sense of smell.

Brian also began to wonder why they were chasing him, but not attacking, as they obviously could if they wished.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to play with your food?" Brian yelled down at the Slanta spitefully as, for the sixth time, they had found him hiding, and stood below him in a circle, just watching.

Brian was near the cave where his sword was, when he remembered Miralage, and several things fell into place for him. Why the Slanta were chasing him, why they hadn't killed him yet, everything. The Slanta had a good sense of smell, and a dragonet carried a distinctive smell, and since Miralage was snuggled against him all night, some of that smell must have rubbed off on him. This explained why he wasn't dead, the Slanta had smelt the dragonet on him, and, realising that he had no draconic traits at all, deduced that he could lead them to a dragonet.

Brian felt himself shudder at the Slanta's obvious intelligence.

None of this would stop him from entering the cave, what did he care if the Slanta liked draconic meat, it didn't concern him, he would have the sword, and could protect both himself, and Miralage.

Brian leapt out of the tree from a height of more than twelve metres, landing, rolling into a ball to absorb the impact, and then leaping to his feet, losing no forward momentum at all.

Brian entered the cave, waking Miralage, who was lying in the same position she had been in when he had left.

Miralage gave a sleepy trill, murmuring quietly, then went back to sleep.

Brian didn't even notice, he already had the sword in his hand, flicking the blade so the sheathe flew off and hit the wall behind him, and then whirling as the first Slanta burst into the cave, drawn by the smell of dragonet.

Brian stepped forwards, swinging the sword to the right, above his head, spinning, and then bringing the sword down across the forehead of the Slanta.

Blood splattered in an arc across the cave floor as the Slanta's skull was pierced.

Brian didn't stop to look at the strange colour of the blood, or the body of the Slanta slumping to the ground, twitching feebly. Instead, he leapt forwards, ramming his sword into another Slanta that had just entered the cave. His sword took it just below the throat, in the hollow there, embedding it up to the hilt.

Brian stepped to the side, his sword still in the Slanta, then he twisted the sword away from himself, pulling the sword out and slicing in the same smooth movement, catching a rearing Slanta across the throat. Brian felt a spray of blood cover him as the Slanta fell backwards heavily.

Brian kept spinning, following through with another slash, this time catching a Slanta across the chest, slicing deep into the folds of flesh, causing it to give a yowl of anger before falling backward.

Brian couldn't help but compare the Slanta to other big cat's, such as the lion or leopard. He had fought both, but they had reflexes much faster than these. It was as if the Slanta were the creation of someone who should be in a mental ward somewhere. As if the cats had been made from parts of other animals. Cat's naturally had a larger sound wave perception than humans, being able to hear higher and lower sounds than humans physically could, yet, the Slanta seemed almost deaf, and their sense of smell! Even a dog wouldn't be able to smell better than the Slanta. Brian pushed these and several other thoughts from his head.

One thought persisted though, the creature that had saved his life, it was the same thing that had he had killed in the forest trying to protect the man. Yet this one did not seem to be as vicious, or at least it hadn't tried to ram its claw through his stomach.

Brian ran towards the nearest wall, a Slanta chasing him. He ran up the sharply sloped wall, pushing off from it when he was parallel to the ground, turning in the air, and slicing downwards with the sword.

The Slanta yowled out in pain as the sword carved a line down its backbone. Brian kept rotating in the air, and then he pushed off the Slanta's hindquarters, rolling into a ball, rolling between the spread legs of another Slanta, and slicing deeply into its stomach before standing up, holding his sword ready for another attack.

All the Slanta in the cave were dead, or dying. Brian looked over at where Miralage was, and couldn't suppress a chuckle; the little dragonet was still asleep.

Brian stepped outside of the cave warily, looking everywhere for any more Slanta. He relaxed visibly when his search yielded nothing, and turned to enter the cave.

Brian didn't know what happened, all he knew was that he had stepped sideways to the left, spun clockwise, and lashed out with his sword.

The Slanta that had jumped from the trees, aiming to land on his back, cart-wheeled forwards, its head bouncing along in front of it, blood praying everywhere.

Brian stood there, his hand still outstretched in the position it had assumed when it killed the Slanta. He didn't know how it had happened, but it scared him.

Brian then jumped, as high as he could, forward flipping, his sword lashing out underneath him, cutting a charging Slanta's head in half down to the neck, and then, off balance from his landing, he stepped to the right, his sword above his head, then he brought it down, then swung it up in a perfect upwards circle slash, decapitating a Slanta that had tried to kill him from above.

Brian didn't know what had come over him, it was as if he was being possessed, his every movement controlled by some force outside of his understanding. All he knew was that he was fighting ten times better than he normally would.

Brian spun again, side stepping, swinging the sword, catching another Slanta across the forehead, cutting the top of its head off cleanly. The Slanta pitched to the left, slamming down onto the ground, blood fanning out from its head.

Brian spun again, slicing a Slanta across the back of its leg as it leapt past the spot where he had been standing only moments before, and then, the leader of the pack leapt out of the trees and attacked.

The leader, blood still spilling from the vacant hole where its eye should be, moved like lightning, and was among the most ferocious animals Brian had ever seen.

Brian spun to the right, swinging his sword, but the cat leapt backwards, showing amazing reflexes. He chased the Slanta, trying to hit it, but, always, the Slanta was just out of reach.

Brian realised his mistake, and jumped backwards, running for the cave. But it was too late. The trap had been sprung.

Brian had finally recognized the movements the leader of the Slanta had been using, it was a basic bait ploy, and Brian, overcome by bloodlust, had been too slow to see this, and now he would be killed.

The Slanta slunk forwards from their hiding spots, surrounding him, making sure that he could not get to any trees, or find any gaps.

Brian looked around himself, and saw only one way out, all out battle.

Brian leapt at the nearest cat, swinging his sword from high to low, leaving a giant red slash down the snout of one of the Slanta, and then he leapt forwards again, lashing out with his foot, catching another Slanta across the cheek with his heel.

Brian ran towards a tree, as if he were going to jump into it, like he had before, but this time, he leapt at the tree, feet first, and pushed himself off it, slicing several times at the cats as he moved through the air.

Brian flipped forwards, and landed on his feet, slicing downwards at the Slanta in front of him. Brian stood in that same position, staring at the lead Slanta, as all the Slanta around him fell to the ground, one by one, blood spilling from their wounds.

The lead Slanta seemed to swell with rage, only it kept swelling, getting bigger and bigger, now standing upright, now the fur was withdrawing quickly into the skin. Wings sprouted from the back, and the face lengthened, the nose became wider, its eyes grew large, fans sprouted from a point where it's ears should have been. Finally the head became the draconic face of the black dragon.

Brian dropped the sword, fear overcoming every other emotion. He couldn't believe, wouldn't have, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. Seeing a terrible creature become one of his most hated, and deadly, enemies was almost too much for him.

Brian knew that running would be futile, as would attacking, because he had seen firsthand how fast a dragon could move, they moved faster than anything on earth. You would feel the bite of dragon claws before you saw the blow coming.

Brian looked at the head floating above him, supported by the thin neck, which seemed not to be able to hold it up. Brian knew he was being put under some kind of spell, because the depths of his lethargy and feelings of futility went way beyond anything else he could think of.

Brian now knew what it was like to be a worm staring down the throat of a bird.

Brian knew death was coming, and didn't want to, couldn't lift a hand to stop its onwards rush. In the few seconds remaining to him, he went through his life in his minds eye.

There was a young boy, with a filthy tangle of matted hair, covered in coal, resting his head on a piece of driftwood, in the middle of a storm tossed ocean. That was Brian when he was still so young that he couldn't remember his last name. His parent had been merchants, who sailed their ship between Japan and America, 'civilising' the Japanese, as the American's called it. They were carrying a load of coal to the shores of Japan. They never made it. Pirates attacked in the dead of night. Brian's family had tried to put up some resistance, but were cut down where they stood. The pirates had set fire to the ship, and tossed Brian into the ocean, leaving him for dead.

The fire from the ship could be seen from miles away, burning on the horizon like a beacon. His new mentor, Hiroki, had seen the fire, and rowed his small two man boat out to the wreckage, where he had found Brian adrift on a piece of driftwood. His new mentor had taken him in, showing him the strange new world he had come to inhabit, a curious place where the walls were made of paper and the men carried their swords with them everywhere.

Shortly after Hiroki had taken him on, his mentor made his two swords. They were the traditional swords of the samurai, the katana.

Brian quickly came to understand why the katana was the greatest sword in the world. He had many sword fights, and showed an unusual aptitude for it.

Hiroki had taught him everything he knew about the samurai way of fighting, and Brian had become feared in the village where he lived.

The years had passed quickly, until one day, his mentor had told him of the great dragons, and how he, being the best swordfighter in the lands, would have to slay a dragon.

Brian had set out to kill all dragons, and now here he was, in a realm he had never heard of before, where dragons and great beasts stalked unchecked.

Brian's thoughts turned to Miralage, and he wondered why he had kept her, why hadn't he killed her? She was a dragon, was she not? No matter the size, she would still give him his mark of honour. But then Brian knew why, he had wanted to see if a dragon could have a heart, and Miralage had shown that dragons were not mindless killing machines, even though the black dragon above him begged to differ.

Brian had seen Miralage, the embodiment of innocence, and found that it was not the dragon that needed a new soul, but himself.

Somehow the thoughts of Miralage were reviving him, giving him strength, giving him willpower to throw of the dragon's potent charm.

Brian waited, watching the shadow of the dragon' claw drawing closer to his head, the dragon was taking its time, savouring its victory.

Brian waited till the claw was almost touching his head, and grabbed the sword, swinging it upwards viciously, and cutting off the dragons toe.

Brian ran as a roar of pure anger echoed throughout the trees. He ran as fast as he could, cutting branches out of his way with the sword as he ran, he didn't know where he was going, or what he hoped to accomplish when he got there, all he knew was that the further he was from the black dragon, the better off he would be.

There was the snapping of branches close behind Brian, and he could feel the dragon's hot breath on the back of his neck. This pushed him on faster, knowing that one wrong step was all that stood between him and the jaws of the black dragon.

Brian was running as fast as he could, and, just as he jumped a fallen log, the black dragon pursuing, the dragon let out a roar of rage, and fire chased Brian.

Brian could feel the heat from the jet of flame, and dropped to the ground, losing his momentum in an instant, protected from the flames by the small indentation he had managed to fall into.

Brian got back up and ran, wondering how the hell he would get out of his new predicament.

No matter how many trees he dodged, how many times he changed directions; the dragon was always close on Brian's heels, until he hit the waterfall.

Brian plunged straight down, into the heart of the waterfall, where it met the jagged rocks.

The black dragon stopped at the edge of the precipice Brian had fallen over, and looked down into the waterfall. She sniffed once, turned, lifted her tail, and stalked away, angry that she had been robbed of her amusement.

* * *

Miralage awoke to a cold dark cave, devoid of life. She sat up, and trilled mournfully at the entrance, wondering why father had left so suddenly, leaving her alone in this cold cave.

Miralage lay down, placed her head on her paws, curled her tail around her little body, and lay staring at the entrance, awaiting the return of father. Not knowing that a dragon had chased him to his almost certain doom.

* * *

Matimura was walking through the forest, a knife and a sword held in each hand. He was searching for civilisation, as he had been for the past few days, but the only signs of sentient life he had been able to find were some abandoned ruins he came across in the jungle completely by accident.

He had come across many strange animals in the time he had been searching, some of them were fearsome, while other were just plain strange, or stupid.

Matimura had come across a slow moving animal. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen, its tail was a bony club. It had armour all over its body that not even a sword could penetrate.

Matimura had found something only a few hours ago, and was following it as stealthily as possible. It looked to be a troop of people, in the forest, which would be the first people he had come across since he got here, unless he counted the man the raptors had killed.

He had a sneaking suspicion that what he was following wouldn't be friendly, that was why he was moving very quietly.

When Matimura reached the band of people he was following, he was very glad for his cautiousness. The group was comprised totally of ninja. They walked in a very tight formation, wary of attack. In the centre of the formation, four of the ninja carried a large cage, with a form visible in it. It looked to be a dog, covered in shaggy grey fur, but it was misshapen, and too big to be any canine.

Matimura was walking sneakily across a branch, when it snapped, and fell to the ground very audibly.

Matimura soon found himself surrounded by ninja. He looked around, counting his adversaries. There were twelve, and they seemed to have done this many times before, because they all attacked in a group, when Matimura was still lying on the grounds, his weapons still sheathed.

Matimura rolled to the side, several blades coming down upon the ground where he had lain only seconds before. He lashed out with his foot, catching one of the ninja behind the knees, sending him tumbling to the earth, where he hit his head on a rock, splitting his head open. He reached over quickly, rolling out of the way of another sword stab, and grabbed the rock, standing, spinning, and hurling the rock at a ninja's head in one smooth movement. There was the sickening sound of someone's skull breaking, and then another ninja lay on the ground unmoving.

Matimura swung to the left, sidestepping a diagonal slash at his abdomen, drawing his sword and slashing in one smooth movement. His attack caught the rival ninja on the shoulder, cutting a wide swath of skin off. The ninja fell to the ground, blood seeping from between his fingers. Matimura brought his foot up, and then down, impacting it upon the ninja's face, crushing his skull, ending his futile spasms of pain.

Matimura spun again, cutting the throats of two ninja in one slice, drawing his knife in his left hand, and throwing it. The knife hit another ninja in the throat. Blood spurted everywhere as the ninja fell to the ground, both hands clasped around the knife.

Matimura was about to kill another enemy, his sword against his throat, when he felt a sharp blow on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

Miralage lay in waiting, one eye closed, with the other slightly open, staring at the entrance to the cave. She was still waiting for father. It had been three days, but she would stay there, leaving the cave only to feed. She was young yet, but was already proficient in hunting for food, her first catch had been a grasshopper, which had unwittingly perched upon her paw. She had snapped it up, and it had signalled the start of her hunting. The meat from the carcass father had brought her was already starting to smell, so she had dragged it out of the cave, and pushed it off a cliff, which wasn't too far away from the cave.

She wouldn't touch the Slanta; there was something funny about them, their fur rippled even when there was no breeze, giving their corpses the illusion of movement.

She had lain in wait in the bushes, until a small animal resembling a chipmunk had passed her by, she could wait for it only because she was in view of the cave entrance and would see father return if he came back for her. She had bounded from out of her simple camouflage, catching the animal in the first leap, and crushing its skull between he teeth. She had done this many times, because she was always hungry, being a dragonet.

She was lying in the cave when she heard it, the sound of uneven footsteps, stumbling towards the cave heavily. She knew it would be a predator, but she still just lay there, without father, she might as well get eaten, life wasn't worth living without father. She was still lying there when the thing rounded the cave corner and came into view.

* * *

Matimura awoke in a cage, with the sound of breathing close to him. It was night, and everybody was sleeping, the fabric of the tents ranged around the clearing flapping in the wind.

Matimura looked over to the other side of the relatively small cage, to where what looked like a dog lay. It was huge, covered in shaggy grey fur; it had all the canine hallmarks, muzzle full of shining white teeth, long snout, black nose, and claws. Matimura was still staring at the dog, when he noticed something about it, something strange. Some of the joints were in the wrong place, the head was too round at the back, and some of the joints pointed in the wrong direction.

He was staring at the animal, when he realised what it was.

Oh my god! Why the hell did they lock me in with it! Matimura thought frantically, trying not to make any noise, which might awaken the animal. He was about to start trying to bend the metal bars of the cage, when the animal spoke.

It's voice held a definite feminine quality, but was still deep and throaty, like that of some terrible beast spawned from a child's mind.

Matimura wasn't truly sure what was in the corner, until now, when the words it spoke echoed around the cage.

"Oh, shut up, you idiot, the ninja don't like being awoken." The animal said, and it was in that instant that Matimura knew he was in very deep trouble, the ninja had locked him in a cage with a lycanthrope.

* * *

The lycanthropes were the beasts of ancient lore. They were basically were-wolves, only wolf round the clock. They were known for their ferocity, and cunning in battle. They were immensely powerful, their natural abilities and tools supplemented by their physical strength.

Many ancient legends concerned them, and they were often mistaken for were-wolves, because of their nocturnal predisposition.

A lycanthrope was created when a human was cursed, which was more often than most people would believe. A Lycanthrope could mate with another, and produce offspring, thus creating a race of cursed creatures, which were fiercely intelligent, and stronger than any human.

* * *

That's why Matimura was so scared to be in the cage, and he was now frantic, certain that the Lycanthrope was going to eat him.

Matimura leapt at the cage, slamming into the strong bars again and again, trying vainly to escape. The Lycanthrope stood, looked at him with an expression of exasperation on her wolfish face, and moved towards him. Matimura redoubled his efforts at the cage, until he felt the warm breathe of the Lycanthrope on the back of his neck, and the feel of razor sharp claws against his throat.

* * *

Father had come back! Miralage ran to him, trilling her jubilation at his return. Brian didn't even acknowledge her presence, but then again, he was a bit strange, so she would forgive him it... this time.

Brian limped painfully over to the fire pit, dropping the small furry animal he carried over his shoulder. He started the fire, and cut the small animal into pieces, tossing several largish one's to Miralage. He threw the other onto a stone in the fire, and began to poke at them with his sword, turning them and cooking them with its tip. He had to use his left arm only, because his right wasn't up to much.

Miralage picked up a piece of her meat in her mouth, and chewed it slowly. She then dragged it over to the fire, and threw it neatly onto the rock, next to Brian's pieces. Brian got the clue, and cooked her piece too. He didn't know why he did it, it must have been because he didn't want the little dragonet to starve, or he wouldn't be able find out anything about dragons that would help him. He had finally decided why he had chosen to raise Miralage, because he would use her to gain information on dragons in general, so he could see how to kill them easier.

Brian looked at Miralage as she ate the well-cooked meat, and wondered how the black dragon had been able to make him think those things about her. 'Embodiment of innocence?' Not a term one would usually use, and one that Brian wouldn't be caught dead saying out loud. The words had just enough truth in them to be plausible, which was why the dragon had been able to trick him so easily, he decided. She was innocent, but so was every other child. She would be just as mean, just as horrible and heartless as every other dragon when she got older and discovered the pleasure of killing things.

Brian's mind turned to some of the other things he had thought when the dragon had cast the spell on him, about how his soul was the one in need of adjusting. He killed people, that were true, but more often than not, he would show mercy to them if they gave in. Unlike the dragons, they would kill innocent people, and eat them if they weren't fast enough. But what about the red dragon, She had died protecting its eggs, and him. That was one dragon that had a soul, but what about all the others? If one had a soul, could the others dragons be gifted with one as well?

These were the lasts thoughts that swirled across his mind as he fell asleep.

* * *

Matimura closed his eyes. The lycanthrope had him in a death grip. One arm was around his throat, with the sharp claws pressed against his throat. The other wrapped around his head, the hand over his mouth, so he didn't make any noise when his throat was cut.

He could only stand there, eyes staring outside of the cage, waiting for the burning pain. It never came. Instead, the lycanthrope just held him, holding him completely still. Matimura got the strange sensation that something was watching them, something he couldn't see, but the lycanthrope could.

That something slinked slowly out of the shadows, a wraith in the night, an outline of shadow superimposed upon the darkness, black rippling fur, a Slanta.

Matimura gave a gasp of surprise as the Slanta finally entered his view, or, rather, tried to, nothing much got past the Lycanthropes paws.

How long they stood there, with Matimura caught between two sets of nightmare creatures, he didn't know. But suddenly the Slanta lashed out with a paw. It was standing only about a half metre away from the cage, and its claws hit the bars. The Slanta then repeated the movement at the top of the cage. The Slanta then reached forwards and clamped its mouth down on a bar, and wrenched it off the cage.

At this, both Matimura and the lycanthrope went into action. Matimura forgot that the Lycanthrope was a beast of hell, and they fought side by side against a common adversary.

The lycanthrope immediately moved into action, rushing the Slanta, just squeezing through the bars of the cage. The two instantly locked into a death-struggle.

Matimura flipped sideways out of the cage, just behind the lycanthrope. He hit the ground, and rolled, coming up with the bar the Slanta had removed in his hands.

Matimura held the bar in his left hand. He took a big step forwards, doing a full 360 degree turn as he stepped, the heavy metal bar spun above his head, switched hands, and then went crashing down on the Slanta's neck. There was an audible crack as the Slanta's neck broke in three places. It fell to the ground, and lay there, unmoving, its life fading fast.

Both Matimura and the lycanthrope stood staring down at the Slanta as the light faded from its eyes.

Matimura's eyes met the lycanthropes, only for a second, and the two eyed each other's weapons, Matimura's pipe, and the Lycanthrope's claws.

Matimura knew, that, even with the heavy pipe, he would be beaten easily. And even if he survived the initial attack of the lycanthrope, he would have to contend with the ninja who would wake up. He was surprised that none of them had been awaken yet.

The lycanthrope looked at him, but this time, with dawning realisation lighting up its face. It stood suddenly, and looked far less menacing somehow.

The lycanthrope then did something that Matimura wouldn't have dreamed. It bowed, to him. The lycanthrope stood up tall, and recited.

The ancient laws hold me to my curse

I forever serve the one saved me

By the ancient laws of magic

My life is yours

Matimura didn't know exactly what the words meant, but he had a funny feeling that the lycanthrope wouldn't be a threat to him any more.

"What do you mean?" Matimura inquired suspiciously, holding the rod at chest height, to fend off an attack in case this was a ruse.

"My life is yours, idiot, how hard can that be to understand that. I heard that humans were the most inferior race ever, but I didn't thank you lot could be that stupid." The lycanthrope said, with anger and resentment imbued into every word.

"Then kneel before me and offer your throat." Matimura said, no emotion colouring his words.

The lycanthrope shot a look at him, showing an amazing amount of hatred from its black eyes. The lycanthrope knelt grudgingly at his feet, turning the back of its neck towards him, ready for the blow that would end its life.

One of the tent flaps near to them opened, and a ninja in full battle dress came flying out, sword drawn, aiming for the lycanthrope.

Matimura turned, swinging the bar, blocking the sword less than an inch from the lycanthropes neck. He held the rod in his hand, twisted it, so that one end came down on the back of the sword, knocking it out of the ninja's hand, and then swung it, hard, at the ninja's face. There was a sickening crunch as the ninja's nose broke, and was forced backwards, sending several small splinters of bone through the ninja's brain, killing him instantly. The sword clattered to the ground in front of the lycanthrope.

The noise of the battle, the crashing of the rod on the sword, woke nearly every other ninja in the small village of tents.

"Can you use a weapon?" He yelled at the lycanthrope.

The lycanthrope didn't answer. The lycanthrope kneeled on the ground, the fallen ninjas sword bare inches away from its claws. It kneeled, and looked at the sword, as if considering the question, as ninja after ninja surrounded the two.

The lycanthrope only moved when they were completely surrounded. It reached forwards, picked up the sword, and used it as a brace to help it to get slowly to its feet, even though it needed no such aids to do so.

The lycanthrope flipped the sword in its hands, the blade little more than a blur of silver, the claws of its hand making little tinkling sounds as they danced along the grip.

The lycanthrope expertly swung the sword sideways while leaping forwards, faster than the eye could follow. One of the ninja fell to the ground; blood spurting from the gaping red wound that had once passed as his jugular.

Matimura took that as a yes, and pushed all further thoughts from his head as the first ninja uttered a war cry and leapt at him, sword arcing for his throat.

Matimura brought the rod up, blocking the sword with the tip, turning the bar further, forcing the sword to the side, before cracking the ninja over the side of the head with the bottom of the bar, then spinning, and bring the tip of the bar onto the top of his head. The ninja was no means dead, but he would wake up with a headache that would bring a dragon to its knees.

Matimura sensed that one of the ninja was behind him, swinging at his head. He could actually hear the sword whistle as it came it closer to his ear. Time seemed to slow down, and Matimura knew that he was dead. The sword was less than a centimetre from his ear, and no one could move fast enough to stop its onwards rush.

There was the rushing of blood in his ears, and his head began to pound, as Matimura prepared for the end.

Only problem was the end didn't come. Instead, there came an unearthly clang! The sound of two swords crossing each other, only a thousand times louder, echoed through Matimura's ear as the lycanthropes blade stopped the ninja's less than an inch from decapitating him.

The action was only a token, for, mere seconds later, the two's throats were ringed with metal, the swords of no less than five ninja's pressing against their throats at once.

* * *

Brian awoke, to find Miralage snuggled up against him again. This time he didn't yell out, but he did look at her with distaste, and rose shakily to his feet.

He stepped towards the entrance painfully, thinking vaguely about getting something to drink, but loathing walking to the river, which was when he slipped.

When he had slaughtered the small creature he had captured, he had let the blood and intestines stay on the ground, thinking that Miralage would clean it up, but she hadn't. Typical of a dragon to make things difficult, Brian thought, as he felt himself tripping backwards. He began to turn slowly in the air because of the way he had tripped. He shot out his right arm to halt his fall, a full second before he realise that, even if his arm had been perfectly alright, it was still going to be extremely painful. As it was, with his arm being in such bad condition, it only folded underneath him, causing his head to whiplash against the hard floor of the cave. When he awoke all he remembered was the fall, nothing else, and some random names and bits of information.

Brian had lost his memory.

* * *

There was something wrong with father. He just lay there, on the ground, tossing and turning, not responding a bit to her trills of worry, nor of her tongue running across his face as she tried to wake him. She was in a panic, she didn't know what to do, and she was only a week old, what was she meant to do?

She ran about the cave, becoming hysterical, trying to find a way to make father better.

She finally managed to run headlong into the wall in her haste to get from one of the cave to the other. The sound it made was funny. It didn't hurt her head, because her scales were too strong for that, and the bony crease on her head took most of the impact.

Because a dragon flies, and is so big, the bones in their body are all honeycombed, so they are more lightweight, which is why, when she hit her head on the rock, it made a funny sort of knocking noise, like two pieces of polished wood hitting each other.

She found this noise funny, but it was also loud, echoing off the walls like a hammer on an anvil.

The sound awoke Brian, who sat up, rubbed his head, and looked around the room. He stood up shakily, trying mightily to remember where he was. He saw the red dragonet standing over in a corner of the cave, staring aimlessly at the wall. He thought something along the lines I'm out of it for a few hours and she's already gone vacant. He then realised that he had remembered something, because he somehow knew that the dragon was a female, and a name was on the tip of his tongue. He also knew she was a dragon, which was something else he could remember.

Several names and bits of information swirled through his mind, each more incomprehensible as the last, making him want to fall to the ground and cry out in pain while holding his head in his hands. But, somehow, he drew strength from an inner reservoir he didn't know he had, or could remember if he knew it was there.

It gave him enough strength to think clearly through the chaos, and try to work where he was. He knew he was miles away from civilisation, because the air carried no scent of smoke, or the sound of a village.

Brian turned, and looked at the only moving object in the cave, other than himself and Miralage--hah! That was her name! --Which was over in the corner, and gave off pleasant warmth. He walked towards it cautiously, wondering what trickery made the wraith-like creature that danced upon the wood. He reached out his hand in a lightning fast movement, trying to catch the wraith so he could examine it further. But, at the last second, the wraith moved out of the way in a little dancing movement. Brian reached further into the wraiths, but quickly withdrew his hand. He cradled it against his chest as the smell of singed hair filled the cave. He remembered what the wraith was now; it was fire.

Miralage smelt the singed hair, and turned towards Brian, her aimless staring now forgotten.

Now that she saw that Brian was up, some of her anxiety left her. She trilled happily and walked over to him.

Brian looked up from his hand, all the pain forgotten in light of the strange creature that walked towards him. He began to back up, but could only go so far, because his back soon hit the wall. Brian looked at the dragon's head, and those teeth in her mouth getting closer.

He slid down the wall as Miralage reached him, sure that he was about to be disembowelled. Instead, Miralage reached him, and lay down in his lap, content to go to sleep there.

Brian sat there, not moving, waiting to see what Miralage was going to do. Eventually he too fell asleep.

* * *

"Back to square one!" Matimura cried in exasperation, as he grabbed the bars of the cage and yanked on them with all his might. The action was completely futile, because this cage was made to make noise whenever one of the bars was pulled, and the sound of the cage echoed all around the camp, waking everybody up.

It was still night, so the ninja's weren't exactly happy at being awoken in the small hours of the morning. A throwing star came flying out of the darkness, aimed squarely at Matimura's forehead. There was no time to react. He had not a chance to dodge it. He was dead.

* * *

Brian awoke, his neck and back sore from his unusually twisted position. He realised that he was shaking, because it was cold. Not the usual cold of the night, but the kind of cold that held portents of a very snowy winter.

Miralage was still curled up asleep in his lap. Brian only just realised how heavy she was, because all of the circulation to his legs had been cut off. Maybe he had been aware of the dragon's weight, but he couldn't remember.

Brian looked down at Miralage, and a feeling began to tickle at the back of his mind. It was as if he had felt an extremely strong or complex emotion for the dragon, or for dragons in particular. The only problem was that it wouldn't come to the surface, but instead elected to stay hidden, just below the surface.

Brian tried to go back to sleep, but he couldn't, he was just too uncomfortable. He moved Miralage's head off his lap gently, trying not to wake her, thinking that he would then move the rest of her body. But she woke up while her head was still in his hands.

Miralage looked at Brian for a second, opened and closed her mouth in a sleepy way, then leapt off him. She rolled over on the ground and began to rub her back up against every rock and crevice in the cave, presumedly to sooth some itch. Brian saw that, as she rubbed and scratched, several flakes of dead skin and dirt showered down upon the floor.

Brian thought that maybe her skin was too dry, and went to try and find something to get some moisture into her skin. He was doing it mainly to keep occupied, he was already thinking too much. He also knew that to get your memory back, you needed to do things that were familiar to you, how he knew this, he didn't know, or couldn't remember.

The only thing that he took with him was his sword, which he thought he might need to use if he wanted to hunt something. He began to think about anything that might have a lot of fat on its body, and was walking without really thinking, or noticing where he was going. Until something like a feathery bomb went off beneath his feet.

A strange bird like creature flew up in front of his face, cuffing him around the ears with its wings before flying a few feet away and falling back to earth in a rather ungainly fashion.

Brian took off after the bird, it was obvious that it couldn't get airborne, only hover or flap a few metres. The bird was also plump and fat, as if it was never hunted.

He was almost upon the bird, when it turned back towards Brian, and attacked him viciously, using its strangely webbed feet.

Brian ducked. It was only this that saved him. The bird's claws contained in them a powerful neurotoxin, which caused instant paralysis in most animals. He only ducked because he had been trained in battle, and his battle style had become so much a part of him that it was a reflex action.

As Brian ducked, his training took over subconsciously, and he drew the sword and slashed in one fluid movement.

The bird was caught in the neck, and was beheaded, a small amount of blood splashing the ground where it lay writhing in the dust.

Brian cautiously picked up the bird by the body, and carried it back to the cave, where Miralage was still running around the cavern, rubbing herself against everything in sight.

Brian sat down in front of the ashes of the fire, and began to cut the fat from the bird. When he was finished, he skinned the bird, and threw the rest of it onto the coals, where it immediately began to smoke, and fill the cave with a pleasant smell. He noticed as he did this that his right arm was sore, and he wondered how it had happened.

When he had the fat in one group, he put it into a hollowed out section of rock, which suited his purposes just fine. The little trickle of water dripping from the ceiling of the cave must have hollowed out the section of rock into the bowl shape it was now in.

Brian grabbed a burning branch, and put it over the fat, making the fat melt. He then used an offshoot of the branch to remove all the stubborn bits of fat that wouldn't melt.

Brian then signalled to Miralage to come closer. She was still bounding around the room, searching for a nice rough surface to rub against. She made her way over to Brian, her progress slower than it would have otherwise been, owing to the fact that she stopped every metre or so to roll on the ground and try to stop the mad itching that infected her skin.

Brian finally got sick of watching Miralage roll around, walked over to her and picked her up in his arms. Miralage gave a trill of surprise as she felt herself lifted bodily off the ground.

Brian scooped out some of the fat with a piece of cloth he tore off his shirt, which was already in tatters. He then slathered it liberally on Miralage's back, rubbing it in.

Brian made sure he got into the most inaccessible spots possible, mainly Miralage's wings, which had many strange folds and creases. They were covered in dead skin, and he had to spend a good hour just rubbing her wings free of shedded skin. After finishing her wings, he moved onto her legs, and her stomach. His ministrations didn't go by unnoticed either. Miralage was crouched to the ground while Brian rubbed her wings, crooning contentedly. When he moved onto her stomach, she actually rolled over onto her back and lay, eyes closed, completely contented, while he rubbed the dead skin from her.

He finally had Miralage's whole body completely done, except for her neck. Her neck was the only troublesome spot on her whole body. She wasn't just content to lie back while he rubbed her neck clean. She twined her head around his hand, trying to get him to caress her head. If he had thought that that was bad, he had yet to do her chin. Her chin was the last place where he had to rub, because the rest of her head was made of much smaller scales, and the skin just fell from them. He also didn't want any of the fat getting into her eyes. It was doing wonders for her body, making every inch of her gleam, and giving her a strange but not unpleasant smell. When he was doing her chin, she just couldn't keep her head still. At first, she just craned her head upwards slightly, as a cat will when having its chin scratched. But then she started to act more like a dog than anything else. She began to twine her head around his hand again, trying to get him to scratch her at the base of her skull, where her head joined her neck.

When Brian was finally finished, his arm was aching. All he wanted to do was lie down. The heat of the day, so unlike the cold nights, added to the chorus of insects in the forest, made a sweet lullaby to rock him to sleep. Miralage curled up on the floor of the cave, glad that her itching had finally stopped. She stared at Brian for a long time, her luminescent eyes two pinpricks of light, until she finally dropped of to sleep as well.

* * *

Matimura lay in one corner of the cage, blood splashed around him in crude arcs, the throwing star embedded in his throat, half hidden by the folds of his shirt. The Lycanthrope was in the other corner, cowering against the wall as several ninja with swords menaced her. The men with the swords were her only deterrent from trying to escape. A big enough deterrent, she thought, as one of the swords came dangerously close to hitting her snout. She snarled viciously, trying to keep the ninjas attention focused on her. They didn't see the bloodstained figure rise up behind them, and that was their mistake.

The lycanthrope had caught the throwing star that had nearly ended his life. Matimura had then taken the star, using the sharp edge to slit open his left shoulder, slather himself with blood, and lie down, the star held in place on his neck by his shirt.

Matimura slashed outwards with the star, the blade catching one of the ninja across the throat, and then he spun, following the same arc as before, only lower, hitting another of them across the ankle, dropping him, and then, still spinning, brought the star upwards again, throwing it as hard as he could at one of the ninja standing on the left hand side of the cage. The blade caught one of the ninja across the shoulder, causing him to grab it with his right arm, dropping his sword to the ground; the stars path took it out of the cage and into one of the trees that ringed the campsite. The trip also took it through one of the ninjas throats. Matimura scooped up the sword as he spun left, bringing his left heel into one of the ninjas throats, causing him to double up, holding his throat and wheezing for breath. He then stabbed the sword downwards through the ninja's back.

Matimura grabbed a sword lying on the ground as he spun, and swung it with force at one of the ninja, cutting him cleanly in half. Matimura swiped the sword across the throat of a ninja who was standing, staring at his dead comrades as if stunned, and then, it was done.

Matimura grabbed a sheathe off one of the ninja, nodded to the lycanthrope, and ran out of the cage as quietly as possible, hoping that the sword fight hadn't awoken too many of the ninja. He was extremely surprised that none of the ninja were awake.

Matimura didn't waste any time, and slit the throats of all the ninja, except for one, who seemed to be the leader. He slept separate from all the rest, and his clothes were made of much finer fabric than the others. He had several weapons on his belt, most prominent were several throwing stars painted black, and two swords, both of them having a strange quality about them.

Matimura looked closer at the swords, and saw that they were painted black, or rather, looked that way. They seemed to reflect darkness instead of light, causing the area around them to be more heavily shadowed than the surroundings.

Matimura took the swords, thinking that they could come in handy, and tied up the ninja without waking him. He held one of the swords against the ninjas throat, and shook him awake.

The ninja's eyes shot open, and glowed an eerie red colour. His hands were suddenly unbound, and he was standing, thrusting his hands at Matimura.

Matimura was thrown across the room, through the tents wall, and into a mound of earth near the camp. He hadn't even been touched by the ninja, and yet he was thrown a good thirty metres. His weapons lie on the ground next to him, several of them embedded into the earth.

Matimura tried to stand, but found he was completely paralysed. He looked up, and saw the ninja walking towards him slowly, hands spread out in front of him, glowing red eyes drawing closer.

Matimura found himself flying through the air again, this time slamming into a tree trunk. The blow seemed to lift the paralysis a little. He still couldn't move properly, owing to the amount of force he was just subjected to. He only just managed to hold himself up by grabbing onto a protruding branch, which had almost impaled him only moments ago.

As hard as he tried, however, Matimura still fell to the ground, kicking up a shower of twigs and leaves. He lay on his back, waiting for the ninja to finish him off. He obviously had magic, or something else like it. He was staring at the stars, seeing the familiar constellations, when he noticed the anomaly. One of the great signs was wrong. The hunter had several points missing, and two points were where they shouldn't be. The two rogue points were on the hunter's chest. He wondered how this had happened, when the two rogues's moved. It was only a slight movement, a shift of two centimetres or less.

Matimura knew that the stars didn't move around, and he finally saw the two stars for what they were, eyes. They were the eyes of a dragon reflecting light, the eyes of the black dragon.

Matimura could see the rough outline of the dragon against the sky. Darkness superimposed against the stars of the moonless night.

Matimura raised his head with difficulty, and saw the ninja standing over him, raising a sword for the killing blow. He was about to plunge the sword into his chest, his eyes glowing redder than ever, when the dragon struck.

The dragon had been leaning down above the ninja, her head close to his, her breath almost stirring his long hair. She had then lunged, and bit down hard on the ninja's torso, twice. The first bite had covered his body right down to his hips, cutting off both of his arms. The dragon had only bitten hard enough to puncture the mans lower hip, but then she bit down again, this time higher, cutting into his stomach sharply, scissoring him in half cleanly. Blood washed over Matimura's still form, as he stared up at the new apparition of terror.

As the dragon withdrew her head from the now dead ninja's bottom half, spitting the top half of him across the grass, something dangled from her mouth. It was a pendant. The chain was made of silver, miniscule rings woven together to make an almost indestructible rope. The actual pendant was only small, carved from some milky white rock with swirls of brown and red running through it. It was in the shape of a dragon, with eyes of diamond and claws of ruby. The dragon was depicted rearing up, mouth open, as if to breath fire, wings spread outwards.

It was the most realistic carving Matimura had ever seen. When the dragon spat out the top half of the ninja, she still held the chain hooked to one of her front teeth. She tossed her head backwards in a deft movement, throwing the chain clear, and then she caught it in her claw. She lifted her claw to her mouth, and deposited the pendant under he tongue.

The dragon then looked at Matimura, and her eyes glowed red. She hissed at him in a very menacing way. He felt consciousness slip away as he became aware of something else in the immediate area. He was just so tired, he knew he should stay awake, but the blackness took him.

* * *

Brian awoke, shivering from the cold. He was absolutely freezing! He knew he would need some kind of blanket soon, or he would catch something bad.

Miralage also seemed to be feeling the same way as Brian, for she lay curled into a tight ball, tail wrapped around her little body, head hidden from sight, her whole pose saying that she wouldn't move for anything, unless it was warmth. Her little body shook as she shivered all over.

Brian decided that he had to take matters into his own hands. He remembered how to skin animals, but it was just finding them. He walked over to the sword, picked it up, and almost dropped it straight away, because the sheathe was even colder than the air around it, and walked out of the cave, trying to suppress the shivers running up and down his spine.

The air was cold, and sound carried a long way. That was the only reason that he heard it--the sound of battle. Not the sound of a standoff between two men, but the sound of a full-fledged war.

Brian looked towards the horizon, turning his head to the side, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. He couldn't see where the battle was, because of the mountain ranges that obscured the main part of the forest. The sound was coming from the east, to judge by the sun.

Brian walked back into the cave, strapping the sword to his back as he walked. He picked Miralage up and held her close to his chest to keep her warm, and provide stability, because the pace he was going to set didn't leave him time to stop for anything, least of all to tend to a hurt dragonet that was injured from his stupidity.

Brian then began to jog towards the mountain that the sound of war seemed to emanate from. Using the ground-eating stride that he thought he must have used often, because his legs settled into the rhythm without any trouble at all.

* * *

Matimura awoke in the cage again, and sat up, yelling in frustration. How many times was it now? The lycanthrope was sitting in the cage with him, eating something that oozed blood onto the floor. He wondered why the ninja had given her something to eat. He stood, and threw the blanket off him with a free hand, and picked up the sword lying next to him with his other. He was half way through unsheathing the sword and slamming it against the bars of the cage when he realised what he was holding.

Why did he have a sword? Why was he covered? And why the hell were all the tents burned to the ground?

Matimura was looking out across the expanse of what had been a ninja camp only a few short hours ago, and was now an expanse of something that closely resembled a wasteland.

Several bodies lay only a few metres away from the cage. The bodies all looked to have been killed by sword blows to the head, neck, or chest, with plenty of defensive cuts on the forearms and shoulders. In the wasteland were several soldiers. They looked ragged, as if they hadn't slept in many nights, and held their swords wearily in their hands as they sat around fires, warming themselves against the cold morning air.

Matimura only noticed just then that the cage door was standing open.

Matimura turned towards the lycanthrope, and asked, "what?"

The lycanthrope took that as several questions, but only replied happily, "good food here!" taking another bite of the chunk of what looked like chicken, which she held in her hands. She held it out to him, offering him a bite cheerfully. All traces of her animosity of the previous night were gone, as if the food had some sort of antidepressant in it. Matimura declined the food; the lycanthrope shrugged, and went back to eating.

One of the soldiers clustered around a nearby fire noticed he was awake, motioned towards him with one of his hands, telling his comrades where he was going, then stood and walked towards the cage.

As he reached the cage, he motioned again, but this time at the sky, as if calling down something that wheeled above them.

Something landed in front of the cage, just forward of the ramp that extended from the front, something big, black, and with extremely large claws and a gaping beak. The creature spat out a wad of paper in the direction of the cage, and leapt to the sky, disappearing from view.

Matimura had managed to fall over with surprise, and stood up with an incredulous, "What the fuck was that?" Directed at no one in particular.

"A new friend, a gryphon." The lycanthrope said from behind him.

"A gryphon." Matimura said to himself weakly, still startled by how big and fast it had been. He walked slowly towards the entrance of the cage, and looked at the sky when he finally did manage to get out from underneath the cage's roof.

Matimura almost fell over again. There, in the sky above his head, were hundreds of gryphons. They all carried shiny things in their claws, and he could only guess that they were the gryphon's weapons. But that wasn't the thing that he feared the most, for, flying side by side next to the gryphons, breathing fire at nothing in particular, were dragons. Red, black, blue, yellow, gold, silver, bronze, green, and even the odd one that had no colour at all, and several that had all the colours in interesting patterns on their skin.

The sight of all those dragons froze Matimura in place, and it was then that the black dragon spotted him, dropped from the sky, and landed in front of him, closed her wings about him, and took off into the sky with him clutched in her claws.

The soldiers around the area looked on as if this happened every day as Matimura yelled himself hoarse for help.

* * *

Brian saw the first sign of civilisation when he crested the hill that was to the side of the mountain. The hill temporarily obscured the land on the other side of it. As he stood on the top of the hill, he couldn't help but be amazed. The land on one side of the hill was all forest, lush, green, full of animals ready to tear and rend, while on the other side, which he now started at, was more like pastoral land. It was full of valleys and mountains, with only sparse vegetation except for the grass, which caused the whole area to be a great green land.

In the middle of this lush grassland of hills and valleys, rested a camp of soldiers. Not the average camp of an army either. This camp had the look of a serious camp. One that had been there for a long time, for all that it was completely mobile. All the buildings were used only as protection and the hospital; all the others were tents of various sizes.

Brian walked down towards the camp, wondering if he would be welcomed or chased out. He took it as a good sign when the camouflaged soldier lying in the grass didn't challenge him, only laid his hand on his sword hilt. The only reason Brian saw the man was because he felt someone was watching him, and saw the movement of the mans hand towards the sword hilt. The camouflage was really good, it was striped, and blended perfectly with the grass, the lines of black in it breaking up the shape of the soldier, making them extremely hard to spot. He wasn't sure, but by the time he had reached the first tents, he thought he had passed at least a dozen guards.

He was about to ask someone where the command tent was, wondering what he was doing there, when his question was answered, but not in a way he would have liked.

It came bounding over the hill, slashing at the ground as it went, killing several camouflaged soldiers as it went, and knocking those that stood to the ground. A man came stumbling out of the tent in front of Brian, and yelled out, "Its going for the command tent!" as loud as he could. The black shape kept moving with fluid grace and power, not losing a single step as it advanced on an ordinary tent in the middle of the camp. It was a Slanta.

Brian pushed Miralage into the hands of the man who had burst out of the tent, and drew his sword, his feet already carrying him on a course to intercept the Slanta. A team of soldiers rushed out of a nearby tent, food stains all over their clothes, drawing swords even as they ran towards the commotion.

Brian was distracted by so many more men coming as if from thin air, and when he looked back at his target, he was just in time to see its tail whip around the corner of a tent, and inside the flap.

Brian reached the tent, just as two figures wrapped in combat came tumbling out of it. It was the Slanta, trying to bring its fangs into the neck of a man. Brian jumped forwards, and grabbed the Slanta under the chest with one hand, and forced it backwards off the man. It didn't want to move though, but Brian kept pushing, until he forced it into a rearing position. He then placed his foot behind the Slanta's back legs, and gave one final push, throwing it backwards, back into the tent it had burst from only moments before.

The Slanta came bursting back out of the tent, and threw itself at Brian in fury. Brian stepped right, spinning and bringing his sword in low, so that it connected with the back of the Slanta's head, leaving a furrow at the base of its skull, which quickly began to spray blood everywhere.

Brian sheathed his sword and turned away from the grisly sight of the Slanta lying on the ground, a great fountain of blood flowing from its wound.

Brian walked over to what he thought must be the commander of the army, the one that the Slanta had attacked. He was of only average build, but he exuded an aura of power. He was plain to look at, but his eyes held the glint that most people associated with intelligence.

Brian was still staring into the eyes of the commander, contemplating what to say if it came down to him saying something first, when several gryphons fell from the sky, landing with muffled whumps on the ground around the commander, immediately adopting a protective stance, crests raised, eyes staring stark fury at everyone in the immediate vicinity. Brian began to draw his sword, and it was half way out of its sheathe before he realised, that, if the gryphons were going to attack him, he would be already dead.

The commander stepped forwards, patting one of the gryphons on the shoulder gently, trying to calm it down.

"Don't worry about them," the commander said, motioning towards the gryphon carelessly, "they're a bit protective about me."

Brian figured that the commander was talking to him, and gave the smallest of bows, never taking his eyes from the commanders. The commander gave his own bow, this one low and accompanied by the little hand movements that were usually adopted by royalty. Brian got the distinct impression that the bow was just for show, the same as the imposing gryphons standing to either side of the commander. If they were proper bodyguards, they would have been with the commander all day every day.

Brian tried to find a way to tell the commander that he needed to get Miralage, when she came barrelling around the corner, closely pursued by several young gryphons. By the looks of them, the gryphons were only just able to run.

Miralage came running up to Brian, her tail held low, like a dog when it is scared, and ran behind his legs, sticking her head out from behind him and looking at the three creatures that had pursued her. She was positively shaking with fear.

Brian reached down and picked Miralage up, cradling her gently, telling her softly that it was all right, and they wouldn't hurt her. Although he didn't exactly know if she would understand, he just presumed that she would be like any other animal, and respond to the tone of his voice. He then realised that this was another thing he remembered, from somewhere. Miralage gave one of her little trills, and nuzzled his neck, grateful for the reassurance.

"I see that you are good with dragons." The commander said to Brian, watching him comfort the scared dragonet. "If you have nowhere to go, you have a place here, especially after saving my life, and killing that Slanta. Grethis, go and see who owns this dragonet." He said the last to the gryphon standing to his right.

"I look after this dragonet." Brian protested.

The commander's air of easiness vanished. He cupped his hands in the air in front of him, opened them, and threw the object he now held in his hands high into the air. The thing he threw seemed to be a yellow ball, and it flashed bright white. There was a cry from the distance, and a speck appeared over one of the hills. The speck grew larger, and resolved itself into a dragon. A great yellow dragon, that spotted the commander, and swooped down towards him. The dragon stopped suddenly, digging its talons into the ground, bringing itself to a halt in front of Brian and the commander.

The commander looked into the eyes of the dragon, and it suddenly rounded on Brian, grabbing him in its claws, bringing him face to face with it. How did you get this dragonet? The dragon asked him, eyes inches from his own.

"I don't remember." Brian said with a little nervousness.

How did you lose your memory then? The dragon asked.

"I don't remember, I lost my memory" Brian said the last three words with slow emphasis, trying to get his point across, wishing for this creature to get out of his face.

The dragon turned towards the commander, and said something, and the commander turned towards Miralage, motioning for the dragon to continue.

The dragon took Miralage from Brian, held her in its claws, and held her up to its face.

You tell the truth. But how did you get her without stealing her? The dragon said, as if talking to itself. Unless--no--that can't be--but its right there in front of me...the dragon said this as if it couldn't believe its eyes. How did you get this dragonet? The dragon asked Brian insistently.

"I don't remember." Brian insisted. But, staring up at the dragon, something in his memory came back to him. The memory was blurry, out of focus, but it seemed that there was a red dragon involved, and eggs. He told the dragon this, and it gave Miralage back to him, and perused a single claw while thinking. It remained that way, until it suddenly proclaimed. A dragon gave this man an egg.

The silence following this proclamation could not have been as loud as it seemed. Someone coughed in the background, and several people started.

"You have no memory of where you came from, who you are, or how you got here?" The commander asked Brian finally, when the silence had stretched on for several long seconds.

"I remember some things, like names, but no faces, or anything else for that matter." Brian replied. He looked around at the small crowd that had gathered. They all looked at him, and he saw that several of the spectators were not human. He was sure that, for a second, he had seen the wedge shaped head of a dragonet, but it had quickly disappeared.

"My offer still stands." The commander said simply.

"I will stay here, until I get my memory back." Brian agreed.

"No you won't," the commander replied, "You will go to the tower, and lodge with the civilians there, there are also gryphons and dragonets there, which create a healthier environment for her to grow up in." He said, motioning towards Miralage.

Brian found himself swept up in the preparations for a long trip. He was given a single guide, a big, imposing man who only spoke sparingly, and expected him to follow along in his wake as best he could. A sheathe on his broad back held the largest sword he had ever seen.

Their destination was a tower on a mountaintop, easily accessible to any who wished to get there, but hard to attack because the mountain was too steep to climb unless you followed the only path.

As they were travelling, Brian learnt much about the army he was now a member of. They were at war with the opposing force because they were only protecting what they owned. The war had been waging for years, and this army was starting to lose ground to the opposing force, which was lead by a man who called himself Shakrata.

Brian also learned what he was to become, a dragon trainer. He was to train Miralage in the art of magic, which he himself knew nothing of. He had told this fact to his guide, and he had said that he would only teach her the rudimentary magic, until he regained his memory, and then they could go on their way, if there was a world to go back to.

Brian asked what the guide had meant by a 'world to go back to', but the guide had turned and began to walk towards the east.

* * *

Matimura screamed himself hoarse, calling for help. All he knew was that a dragon had him clutched in its claws, and was carrying him to destinations unknown, and no one seemed to care. He had tried everything that he could think of that wouldn't result in him falling to his death. Now, he just wanted to get away as fast as possible, no matter how he did it.

Matimura reached up, and tried to pry the claws of the dragon off his shoulders. The claws were only just holding onto him, not even hard enough for the sharp tips to pierce his skin. It wasn't exceptionally hard to lift the thumb claw, and then the remaining ones slipped off his shoulder, just catching his shirt, before he began to fall.

The black dragon had felt Matimura prying at her claws, but didn't think that anyone would be so stupid as to throw themselves to certain death by making her release them. She dived, wings folded close to her body, making it as streamlined as possible.

Matimura felt himself falling, looked down at the lake he was speeding towards, and closed his eyes. He knew that when he hit the ground, he would die, even though he was going to land in water. He would hit the surface, and he would burst like a ripe tomato.

Matimura was still falling, thinking of all the things he hadn't managed to do in his lifetime, and thinking that he might have the chance to do them in the next. That was when he felt the rush of air around him, the flapping of wings, and the talons digging sharply into his shoulder. He resigned himself to the dragon then, not really caring what it would do to him.

Matimura eventually fell into a state of semi-unconsciousness, which he had been taught to do by his sensei, it was used primarily to slow the heart, and clear the mind during meditation, but could also be used to dull pain, which was why Matimura was using it, so he wouldn't feel anything when the dragon tore him limb from limb.

Matimura was jolted out of his condition in a most rude way. Someone had shouted at him, but not in his physical ears. His sensei had tried to teach him about listening with his inner ears, but he had never really got how to do it. He had even joked half-heartedly that earwax must have gotten clogged in his inner ear, which made it impossible for him to hear out of them. That was the first time his sensei had ever hit him, and he had broken his nose in at least three places, and then roughly yanked the pieces back into place. He didn't joke with his sensei after that. He now knew what his master had meant by the 'inner ear', and he would never forget how to use them either, owing to the maelstrom of sound in them now.

It was only one voice, but it shouted, so loudly Matimura could have sworn that the pain he felt was in his physical ears, instead of his other ears.

Matimura stood up quickly, his entire view span taken up by the lower half of the black dragon. He looked upwards slowly, until his eyes met the eyes of the dragon. The eyes of the dragon were beautiful, and he would have been the first to admit that, but they also held in them something else entirely, a cold warmth, that seemed to hold you in place, like a stunned animal staring at the one who had stunned it.

You took your own sweet time to snap out of that, didn't you? The dragon observed, staring down at him through narrowed eyes.

Matimura felt himself unable to move, but his thoughts seemed to have the alacrity that his body didn't, as if compensating for his immobile state. His thoughts whirled along all the paths he had taken to reach this point, and the only few times he had seen the black dragon. Now that he knew the end was upon him, he was able to think with crystal clarity, and a calmness that surprised him. Although his body couldn't do anything, his mind still asked questions. The first and foremost was, why aren't I dead? Quickly followed by another question that he wasn't entirely sure he had thought of. What was that pendant you pulled from the body of magician? Several more questions circled each other through his head, but those were the ones he most wanted answered.

So many questions, but the two repeated constantly? What's so important about your mortality, or about my pendant? The black dragon asked simply.

Matimura found himself in shock. The dragon could read minds!

Not exactly, it's more like reading your emotions. You humans really are complex, you have thousands of emotions that are detectable to draconic senses, and you only know of so few! Your thoughts are translated roughly into emotions, which is how we 'read minds'. When we talk, we either implant the words into your consciousness directly, or we use telekinetic magic to stimulate the tiny bones in your ear, causing them to vibrate, making you hear what we want to say. "Like this." The dragon said, the voice seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

My mortality is important to me, not you! And I want to know what that pendant was, because you don't see a dragon eat a man and pull a chain from his corpse every day. Matimura thought.

I do care about your mortality, and that pendant was mine, he stole it, from my lair, which you now stand in. It is a powerful charm that aids in magic casting. That pathetic human couldn't have used any of the spells he used on you without it. The dragon replied.

Why aren't I dead?

I don't want to kill you.

Bullshit! You brought me here, against my wishes, and you tried to kill me last night.

I tried to save you, if I was vying to destroy you, you would be dead.

So why, when I was lying on the ground, were you hissing at me in a menacing way?

Because I thought he killed you. The dragon said simply.

And why would you care about my life? If Matimura was correct, then the dragon was looking extremely uncomfortable. The way she shifted her weight from one side to the other, and moving her tail so it curled around her legs, and then so it pointed straight behind her.

I'll get to that--later.

Why did you kill the red dragon? Matimura asked coldly, knowing that no matter how nice the dragon acted, killing another dragon was definitely not nice, and she wouldn't be able to make it seem so, so now she would know that he knew that she was evil.

You think I'm the only black dragon here? She asked simply, taking Matimura aback. He had expected her to stutter and splutter, trying to make an excuse.

Then who was it? Matimura asked, but was cut short by a hurried question from the dragon.

Did the black dragon that killed the red have a vertical stripe of white down its forehead? The dragon asked, with something like fear.

Why is that important? Was that red dragon your friend? If she was you'll be happy to know that one of her young survived. I think Brian called her Miralage.

One of her young survived! You must kill it! A dragon egg, if stolen, only produces evil!

Brian didn't steal it, well; at least, he said he didn't. He said that the dragon asked him to take one of the eggs.

If that is the case, then he is the chosen one.

The what?

The chosen one, he will bring light to the darkness.

"Right, that means exactly what?" Matimura asked, finally finding his voice.

He's going to kick ass big time. That dragon replied snappishly.

"What was on the note that I didn't get to read?"

A proclamation, officially welcoming you to our little army, telling you where you will be lodging, that sort of thing.

"Now, why aren't I dead?" Matimura asked calmly. Wondering why he wasn't afraid anymore.

Now I'll tell you, because you've calmed down a little. I want you to be my mate.

Matimura turned and ran at that. He reached the end of the cave before she caught him effortlessly, lifting him high in the air with her tail, holding him in front of her face. His sword clattered to the ground, out of his reach by several metres, making the option of attacking the dragon out of the question.

Matimura tried to squirm out of her grip, but her tail was like a band of iron.

Shall we begin? She asked simply, looking him up and down hungrily.

Matimura heard another sound from the cave entrance, and heavy footsteps. He looked in that direction, and saw another dragon. This one was a blue, and from the deep rumble of its mind-voice, it was male.

You do know that it's cruel to do that. Saying that you want him to be your mate. The blue dragon then looked directly at Matimura and addressed him. And how are you today? Just hanging, eh? Well, don't worry about Kylara, she just messing with your head.

Then the blue dragon seemed to forget that he was there, and focused all his attention on Kylara. From the way they were acting, they obviously weren't casual acquaintances. They rubbed against each other as they passed, and then the blue dragon went and lay down on a small mountain of pillows in one corner of the room.

"Hey, this is the person you're dangling like a piece of meat in front of your face, I want to go home."

Impatient man, you are home. Well, this is where you'll live anyway. All the other spots are gone, unless you want to live in the wilderness. I doubt you do, you have the smell of civilisation on you. All the towns and cities are just big home bases and the like for the war, so, if you do go to one of the towns, you'll just end up being put in with a dozen stinking soldiers in a room not big enough to contain a dragonet.

"So, this is to be my home? Then where do I sleep, I see no beds, no clothes, and no food anywhere. You dragons only eat once a week, but people have to eat a lot more often." Matimura said.

Kylara flicked her tail impatiently, obviously only a reflex action, but that didn't make it any easier on Matimura, who went swinging away in her tail like a wind-chime in a hurricane.

You eat in the camp, and you'll get your clothes from the supply tent on the east side of the camp. As for a bed...well...you can sleep with me. Kylara said slyly, a playful smile on her face. When she saw that Matimura wasn't impressed, she said snappishly, okay, then, spoil-sport, I'll make you a nest from some of my pillows, it'll be more comfortable than any bed you could think of, and you won't be able to get a bed unless you cut the trees down yourself.

"What will I do for amusement?" Matimura asked, trying in vain to find something that the dragon hadn't thought of.

Well, I'm sure we could find something to do in your spare time. Kylara said seductively, purring the words. Matimura just hung there, staring at her, wondering what the hell was wrong with this dragon? She just wouldn't leave it alone, every question he asked seemed to lead to an invitation to go to bed with her. What would happen if he accepted? He gave an evil little inward smile as he began to get the measure of her.

"Okay then, lets go." Matimura said firmly, no trace of expression on his face.

Kylara looked stunned, her head moved backwards in a darting reflex movement to shock. She looked at him in amazement, and then anger as a slow smile spread across his face.

You've got to say he got you that time dear. Now put the smart man down before he dies from having too much blood run to his head, and come lie down. The blue dragon said. They both jumped, because they had both forgotten that he was there.

Oh, okay. Kylara said, giving Matimura one last look of contempt, and something like a shadow of a smile, before flicking him with her tail, sending him flying half way across the room into the dragon sized depression in the bed of pillows.

Matimura stood, and almost fell over, as the blood rushed from his head to his limbs, making him finally aware of the pins and needles in his arms and legs. He went over and picked up his sword off the ground, he put it into the sheath on his back. And said over his shoulder. "I'm going to get my stuff then."

The two dragons didn't seem to hear him, so intent on each other they were. Except for the different colour it would be impossible to tell where one dragon started and the other ended, because their bodies were so tightly entwined. Matimura followed the line of black that was Kylara's neck until his eyes rested on her head. He gave a start when he saw her yellow eyes opened and staring straight at him. Finally, after a few seconds, her stare began to unnerve him, so he left them alone and walked outside.

* * *

Brian was halfway to his destination, travelling with the stony faced guide. Miralage was walking beside him, stopping every now and again, sniffing at every tree, flower, and strange smelling substance that took her attention.

They were walking through an extremely dense section of forest, so thick they could barely see ten metres in front of them, when the ground began to rumble with massive footsteps.

The footsteps were coming right towards them, and the sound of snapping trees came from that direction.

Brian watched as the guide pulled out his broad sword, produced some kind of amulet from his clothing, and set it into the handle of his sword.

Brian stared, as the sword seemed to become surrounded by several bands of undulating red light, casting the forest around them into strange colours.

The footsteps were getting closer, and Brian pulled out his sword, hoping that the animal would pass them by.

The footsteps seemed to falter, and then resumed walking, with purpose now, as if the animal had caught scent of them. The sound of hoarse breathing came from the trees in front of them. When the trees finally parted, an animal that Brian knew was admitted into their immediate area. It was the scaly, massive creature that had chased him and Matimura of the cliff, although all Brian felt was a vague recollection, and a vague picture of one of them standing, silhouetted from behind by the rising sun.

This could have been the same one, but maybe not, this one, although massive, was quite a bit smaller than the one that had chased them, from what Brian could remember.

The guide seemed to relax, pulling the amulet out of his sword, cutting of the glow like flicking a switch.

They both made exclamations of surprise as the injuries on the great beast, hidden by the unearthly glow of the sword, became clear.

There were great rents in the beast's tough hide, it was covered in blood, and several ribs showed through one of the tears in its side.

It fell to the ground with a crash, and the guide moved forward to see if he could help, but what he could do to help with those sorts of injuries, no one knew.

Brian didn't even notice the beast falling; he was on the ground cradling his head, as a painful recollection ripped through his consciousness.

He could vaguely remember that a large red object was in front of him, filling his vision, and then there was a period of blankness, before a rearing black dragon filled his view. This came in clearly, unlike the red object. The black dragon fell onto the red object, and began to claw at it furiously. A great pain filled him then, but not physical, it was as if he had just seen his soul mate killed.

Brian finally felt his head clear, and was aware of Miralage licking his face in concern, and the guide leaning over him.

He stood suddenly, sweaty and shaking. Miralage gave a little squeal of surprise at his sudden movement, and the guide said gruffly, "You okay?"

Brian nodded, and the guide didn't pursue the matter further. Brian noticed that the guide held an egg in the crook of one arm; it was huge, just smaller than the dragon's egg he had been given. And that made Brian remember what the red object had been, a red dragon, and that was how he had gotten Miralage!

"What happened, what could do this to something that big?" Brian asked the guide.

"Only a dragon could do that, but the enemy has no dragons, so I don't know." The guide replied.

The guide handed him the egg, saying, "Don't know how it'll taste, if you want to eat it, but you could hatch it if you wanted to."

"Eggs need heat to hatch, and we need to get to the camp before something comes along and eats us, so it's no use, even if I did want to hatch it, it would get too cold before we got somewhere warm." Brian replied.

The guard wordlessly procured the amulet, and placed it against the shell. He mumbled something, and the egg suddenly became warm.

"Lets go, if it hatches it's yours, just watch it don't eat you when it gets older, or your little dragon." The guide said. Brian decided to foist the egg off to someone the first chance he got.

As they continued on their way, to wherever the guide was taking them, Brian couldn't stop thinking about the animal that had been killed, was it the black dragon he remembered that did this, as well as killing the red dragon? And if so, what was its infatuation with eggs? It had taken all the eggs from the carcass of the red dragon. Brian could remember that.

"Do you know of a red dragon that died recently?" Brian asked the guide.

The guide turned towards him, stopped walking and looked at him seriously.

"A red dragon disappeared last month, saying that she was afraid for her clutch of eggs. She had convinced herself that something was trying to kill her. Why do you ask?"

"Because I saw her die." Brian said. The guides face changed at that.

"You saw Ryshkae die." He asked, as if fearing the worst.

"She was killed by a black dragon, she gave me Miralage." Brian said.

"I knew it! I knew she was dead, my poor Ryshkae, how could you do this to me?" the guide howled to the sky.

"She said the black dragon was after her, but I didn't believe her, I thought that the stress of nesting had gone to her head. But she was right; there was a dragon after her. It's my fault she died." The guide said.

The guide stood, and said to Brian, "keep going east, you'll walk right into the main camp, take this," He said handing Brian the pendant that he had seen the guide place in his sword, "It's dragon magic, it was Ryshkae's, you'll learn how to use it, put it to good use." Before he gave Brian the pendant, he pointed it to the west, where the body of the red dragon lay, many miles distant. A light flash emanated from the pendant. Before Brian could object or comment in any way, the guide had pushed the pendant into his hand, turned and walked off into the forest.

That left Brian in the forest, with a red dragonet, a large egg, and directions to another strange place where he would no doubt feel out of place. Brian then got the strangest feeling of déjà vu. He shook it off, and began walking in the indicated direction, the large egg held in his hands, while Miralage trailed behind him, causing many interruptions every time she found something interesting that required a nosing or a sniff.

Miralage managed somehow to keep up, and actually got several hundred metres in front of Brian at one point. That was when he heard her startled shriek, and saw her come bounding back towards him, with an adolescent gryphon hot on her tail.

Miralage skidded to a stop in front of Brian, and then sidestepped behind him, peering anxiously from the side of one of his knees.

The gryphon, though only adolescent, was already twice the size of Miralage, but only half the size of Brian. When he was fully grown, he would be eight times the weight of Brian.

Brian began to wonder what the gryphon was doing out here all alone. He reached into his pack, and pulled out some dried meat, giving some to Miralage when she gave a squeal of longing at the smell of it, and then he handed it cautiously to the gryphon, who took it in his sharp beak and quickly swallowed it whole. He was obviously very hungry.

Brian looked behind the gryphon, towards where it had come from, and saw a cave inset into a cliff not far into the forest. He walked towards it, absentmindedly handing more meat to both Miralage and the gryphon, which were now following him, Miralage, because she always did, and the gryphon, because it was drawn by the smell of food.

Brian pushed away the swinging vines that partly obscured the entrance, and entered.

The cave smelt musty, but was very clean. It was obviously a well-disguised dwelling, and judging by the gryphon body on the ground, it was occupied by the parent of the gryphon who was standing next to him, sniffing anxiously at his backpack.

The cave was only a few metres wide at the entrance, but it widened out at the end, creating a room of sorts. There were several shelves of rock, seemingly naturally made, but spaced too mathematically around the room to be natural. On the shelves were several blankets, which made them seem like sleeping areas to Brian. On the walls of the cave, affixed through some means he couldn't ascertain, were several draconic ornaments.

The ornaments were handsome, but not something that a gryphon would have owned. The one closest to Brian was a black dragon with a vertical white stripe down its head, which had its tail wrapped around a wonderfully imbued sword.

Brian drew the sword, and it came out easily. It was perfectly balanced, and beautifully carved with two dragons intertwined, one to each side of the blade, their tails at the tip, their heads becoming the slide-block on the side of the sword.

Brian put the sword back, and, as he did so, he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned towards the sound, drawing his sword, and holding it in front of him.

Brian walked towards where he saw the movement, and flicked the blankets up off one of the shelves. He immediately tilted his torso backwards as something small and feathery shot past him, narrowly missing his head, or dismembering itself on the sword, before shooting outside and flying away.

As Brian had tilted backwards, the amulet had flown from his shirt pocket. He had reached out, and managed to grab the chain with his left hand, his right still holding the sword. For some reason, the chain seemed to become longer as the amulet flew the air, so he couldn't halt its progress. It was about to hit the wall, and Brian thought it would smash, so he dived forwards, trying to grab it before it hit the wall.

The amulet hit the wall, and there was a tinkling sound, then a crashing sound, and Brian knew that the amulet has shattered.

Brian looked up from the floor, and saw that the amulet hadn't shattered, the wall had, revealing a small enclosure, in which rested another amulet, which looked just like the one lying on the floor not three inches from Brian's nose.

He reached over and picked up the amulet off the floor, and then removed the one from the enclosure. He held them up to the light coming from the entrance, and noticed the grooves running around the edges of both of them. He brought the two amulets together, and they fitted together seamlessly. There was a flash of light, and then everything went black.

* * *

Matimura was walking around the camp, taking in the size and scale of it. It was massive, easily as big as any city, and didn't hold that 'temporary' look that most army camps did. This one was mostly made of stone, with huge walkways.

The camp was cordoned off into areas. There was a healer's area, a dragon's area, a soldier's area, and a gryphon's area, all of them in a rough circle. Next to this assortment of camps, was the tower.

The tower was a many turreted affair, seemingly made of blue stone. Several spires erupted from the top, spiralling into the clouds where they were lost from view.

Matimura knew that this tower was where the army's leader resided. But the feeling from the tower was very mixed.

Matimura had taught himself to be able to read the emotions embedded in an object, and was almost never wrong. The feeling he got from this tower was that it held awe for many; any who looked upon it could not help but feel awed, but the one who owned it, the leader of the armies, looked upon it as a burden, but a needed burden. He needed it to protect something, to keep something out of the hands of the enemy, otherwise he would have destroyed and lived like the rest of his soldiers, in a tent.

Matimura found himself beginning to sympathise with the leader. He was trying to make his soldiers trust him through him being like them, but his possessions were too powerful to be out in the open.

Matimura began to ask around, looking for the supply tent. He was directed towards the hospital area when he asked. As he was passing a tent, he heard raised voices issuing from inside.

"Hold him still, I can't use this if he's moving." A man was saying.

Matimura turned towards the tent, and walked in. a man was lying on the table, blood surrounding him, pooling beside him from a large gash in his chest. The man who had spoken was holding a pendant, like the one that Kylara had taken from the body of the ninja. This one was a strange flat shape, engraved with metal carvings. It was entirely milky white, with brown swirls. He was holding the pendant against the chest of the injured man, while another man tried to hold him down and keep him from moving.

Matimura walked over to the table, and wordlessly took the injured man's legs and held them still, while the other man took his arms.

They both held the man still for several long moments, while the man with the pendant worked on the gash in the injured man's chests.

He looked up after several minutes and shook his head, closing the now dead man's eyes. Matimura left as silently as he had come, not talking. He continued on his way to the supply tent.

He was pointed to the centre of the healer's tent. He was still looking for the tent several minutes later, because all the tents looked the same. He decided to enter one of the tents nearby and ask for directions.

He opened the flap of one tent, and before his eyes could adjust to the dim light inside, asked, "Hello? Does anyone here know where I can find the supply tent?"

"Well, if you looked passst yourrr nose forrr morrre than asss long asss it takesss to get yourrr bearrringsss, you might jussst surrrprissse yourrrssself." A voice said from inside the tent. It was low, and had much hissing and trilling in it.

Matimura's eyes adjusted to the dimness all at once, and there, covered in swathes of bandages, was a handsome black gryphon.

He was mostly covered in white bandages, which were beginning to stain red. Next to him were several bandages, looking as if ready to be applied in place of the old ones. The gryphon did not look happy, the one eye that wasn't covered by a bandage stared at him resentfully.

"That coming from someone with a beak that's probably bigger than his brain." Matimura retorted. The gryphon looked highly affronted, as if he was looking at someone who wished to commit suicide in the most painful way possible.

"If I could move I would tearrr you into little piecesss and ssspit out yourrr ugly body piece by piece." The gryphon said dangerously.

"Why can't you move?" Matimura asked.

"Becaussse I hit the grrround going fasssterrr than an arrrrow." The gryphon replied.

"Did the vain, pretty bird get his wings clipped?" Matimura crooned.

"Laugh while you ssstill can, it will be difficult forrr you to do it without a larrrynx." The gryphon hissed menacingly, hackles rising under the bandages. His hackles suddenly went down, and he stretched his neck as far as it would go, and tried to bite at the feathers on his neck.

"Damn thossse healerrrs, no rrressspect forrr anyone." The gryphon muttered mutinously. He was obviously trying to get at an itch, but couldn't because his neck just couldn't turn that far, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the itch was under one of the many bandages covering his body.

He was still trying to get at the itch when Matimura reached under the bandages and began to scratch the spot that the gryphon couldn't get to.

The gryphon stretched out luxuriously, impeded by the bandages, but still managing to look contented.

"A little to the left...lower, rrright therrre." He said as Matimura did as he was asked. When the gryphon had finally stopped itching, he looked at Matimura and snapped his beak at him.

Matimura stood his ground. Knowing that the gryphon was just trying to scare him.

"If you werrre to go and get the healerrrsss, I might jussst...forrrget about yourrr earrrlierrr commentsss." The gryphon said tactfully.

Matimura began to unwind the bandages from around the gryphon's neck.

"And if you hurrrt me, I might rrrememberrr a lot of thingsss you didn't say." The gryphon said in the same tone as before.

Matimura chuckled, as he began to unwind the bandages from around the gryphon's body. He was careful not to hurt the gryphon. It would take him several minutes to remove the bandages, as they were wrapped over and under each other, to prevent the bottom layer from shifting if the gryphon moved.

"So just how did you manage to hurt yourself so badly?" Matimura asked, trying to keep the gryphons mind off the pain he might accidentally cause by removing the bandages.

"And jussst how did you become ssso nosssy?" The gryphon asked by way of reply. He said nothing for a few seconds, and then he spoke.

"I wasss doing a rrreconnaissssance rrrun in enemy terrrritorrry. They shot me down with a crrrosssbow. It hit me in the wing." He said this as Matimura finally succeeded in removing his wing from the bandages. He had an ugly wound running down his wing, from the shoulder to the first wing joint.

Matimura gently laid the gryphon's wing down on the cushion next to him, which was obviously meant for this purpose. He then moved onto the other wing.

"I had to drrrag myssself thrrrough milesss of enemy terrrrain." The gryphon said as his other wing came free. This one was almost as bad as the other. It was covered in drag marks, but seemed to be unbroken. Matimura began to drag his fingers through the silky feathers, straightening them out, and removing twigs and leaves as he did so.

"They told me I might never fly again." The gryphon said quietly, no trilling in his voice, but a tone of unspeakable sadness coloured his words.

Matimura said nothing. What could he say? He couldn't tell the gryphon that it would be all right, that he would be able to fly again. Because that would just give him false hope, and make it all that much harder to bear if he was indeed confined to the earth for the rest of his life.

"What about you? How did you come to be a rrresssident of ourrr fine arrrmy?" The gryphon asked, as if he hadn't just said that he might be consigned to the worst torture a gryphon could be subjected to.

"Well, I came here because of a dragon. I was on the trail of a man named Hiroki, I was to spy on him and report his movements to my hirer. I was trailing him, and he seemed to be trailing another man, Brian. Brian seemed to be hunting a golden dragon, although he looked like he was too in love with it to kill it. He was knocked out by the dragon, and dragged into a cave by several robed men. They then went back into the camp, which was at the mouth of the cave. Brian came bursting out of the cave, and Hiroki tried to go to him, but he was captured. I was going to liberate him, but Brian got in the way, tried to kill everyone in the village. We were cornered, and had to run into the cave. The dragon was waiting for us. He knocked us out, and when we woke up, we were both tied to the ceiling. Then the dragon tried to kill us, and then I awoke on a hill in the jungle. I looked for civilisation, but I found a group of ninja's instead. I escaped twice, but got captured each time. Then, I tried to take out the leader of the ninja's but he was using Kylara's pendant, so he beat me. Then Kylara killed him. Then she took me to her cave. And that's my story." Matimura said. Finally succeeding in removing all the bandages from the gryphon.

"What happened to Brrrian?" the gryphon asked.

"Well, he came here with me, and we met several times. He got given a dragon egg by a dying red dragon, and that's the last I saw of him. God, he was hard to get rid of, I'd lose him, and suddenly run right back into him, I wouldn't be surprised if he was in this camp right now." Matimura said.

* * *

Brian awoke with a splitting headache. The amulet lay in front of him; it was now thicker than before. The two amulets seemed to have been fused together. He picked up the new amulet, and stared at it.

It was slowly morphing, before his eyes. It was flat, with several holes around the edges. It now resembled two intertwined dragons. As Brian watched on in awe, it slowly came to resemble the red dragon that had given him Miralage, twined around a blue dragon. But it just didn't have the same proportions as the red dragon. It was Miralage. Brian was sure of it, he didn't know how he knew, but he did.

The pendant finally stopped morphing, and in his hand was a beautifully carved pendant of two dragons intertwined. The chain was strung through an invisible gap under the interlocked jaws of the two dragons. It looked like the two dragons were kissing, but that was impossible, dragon mouths weren't made for that sort of thing.

Brian put the pendant into his shirt pocket, and only just then noticed that Miralage was licking his face, while the gryphon looked on in concern.

Brian stood up, and walked outside, checking the suns position. They could make it to the camp before dark, from what the guide had told him.

Brian began to walk, Miralage and the gryphon following in his footsteps.

* * *

Matimura was having trouble with the bandages. They just didn't seem to want to stay on the gryphon. He had unwound them and wound them back around again, but still, they just hung loose. He was afraid to pull them tight because it might hurt the gryphon.

"Jussst do it." The gryphon said quietly, losing his patience, closing his eyes, and tensing his muscles, bracing for the pain.

Matimura wound the bandages around the gryphon's body and wings, trying to ignore the winces of the gryphon when he tightened them.

He had only just finished when someone came in and sat down next the gryphon.

"And how are you Skeltieve? I see that you are entrusting your care to untrained people." He said, motion towards Matimura with his last words.

"Well," he said in a stage whisper, "He'sss a lot gentlerrr than thossse incompetent healerrrsss. But don't tell him that, he might think I apprrreciate him orrr sssomething."

"So, who are you?" he asked Matimura.

"Matimura." He said simply, taking in the man's appearance. He was obviously a general or something close to it; because of the way he just came in and sat down next to a hurting gryphon that looked like it would tear something apart very soon.

It was impossible to tell how old he was. He looked to be either sixty of six hundred both at once. He had shoulder length hair that looked both silver and black at the same time. He was of average build, but didn't possess a soldier's physique.

"May I ask who you are?" Matimura asked.

"I am Indeago, the leader of this army, and, since this vain bird wouldn't have told you his name, his name is Skeltieve, but don't call him that, he likes to be called Skel." He replied. He placed his hand on Skel's forehead, his eyes glowed red, and then he left as abruptly as he had come.

"Well that was different." Matimura said, looking after Indeago.

"Grrreat man, Indeago, but, yesss, a little ssstrrrange." Skel said, also looking at the tent flap.

"Well, do you feel less like killing me now?" Matimura asked.

"Afterrr you told me that I looked like I got hit by thunderrr, no." Skel replied.

"But I didn't say that." Matimura said confusedly.

"You hurrrt me, ssso I rrrememberrr you sssaying that. Asss well asss I looked like I had been drrragged thrrrough a ssswamp and then thrrrown in a chicken coop." Skel replied.

Matimura finally got why the gryphon remembered him saying them things.

"Do you also remember me telling you that you smelt like you went for a swim in a tar pit, closely followed by rolling in the compost heap?" Matimura said.

"No, but wait, yesss, I rrrememberrr you sssaying that now." Skel replied, trying to snap at him, but failing as the movement caused him to stretch his wing too far. He fell back to the cushion he laid on, giving a little cry of pain.

Matimura pushed him down firmly, making sure that he didn't move.

"If I have to lay on you all night, I'm going to stop you from moving." Matimura said determinedly, staring penetratingly into Skel's eyes. He had taken a liking to the gryphon and didn't want to see him confined to the ground for the rest of his life while he watched the other gryphons cavorting in the air.

"Okay, okay, okay no need to get pussshy. But I'll have you know, I'm going to be in this bed forrr the next few weeksss, and I'm a horrrrible patient." Skel said.

"I noticed." Matimura replied, deadpan, indicating Skel's mention of being a horrible patient.

"But you'rrre going to have to ssstay in herrre to make sssure I don't move." Skel said manipulatively. "You neverrr know. I might jussst move and rrruin my chancesss of flying again."

"And to think I was fighting ninja just yesterday, and now I'm being emotionally blackmailed by a bird. I must be slipping." Matimura said, walking out of the tent to resume his search for the supply tent.

He found it not far from the tent where Skel was being kept. He heard a song rising from Skel's tent as he walked towards the big green supply tent.

Husssh little grrryphon

Don't you crrry

Ssskel'sss gonna sssing

You a lullaby

And if that lullaby

Don't put you to sssleep

Ssskel'sss gonna catch

You a nice big sssheep

And if that sssheep

Rrrunsss away

I'll make the little

Crrritterrr pay

And if you ssstill

Won't cheerrr up

I'll yell at you

"JUSSST SSSHUT UP"

Matimura laughed out loud when he heard the end of the song. He could hear others around the camp laughing at Skel's ludicrous song.

He reached the supply tent and walked in. it was full to the roof with clothes, swords, food, blankets, and all sorts of things.

He was told to just grab what he needed and get out; they were almost packed up for the night.

Matimura grabbed two blankets. They were thick, stuffed full of goose feathers.

He started to drag them and a single pillow all the way back to Skel's tent.

"Do you need some help?" a voice asked.

Matimura looked up, and who should be standing there, but Brian. "God, not again." He groaned.

"Do I know you?" Brian asked, staring into his face hard.

"You don't remember?" Matimura asked incredulously.

"No. What am I supposed to remember?" Brian asked.

"The dragon. For starters" Matimura replied.

"Yeah, I remember the red dragon, she gave me Miralage." Brian said, motioning towards his feet where Miralage was rubbing sinuously against his leg.

Matimura gave a cry of exasperation; he couldn't even remember the golden dragon.

"She lived?" Matimura said incredulously, looking at Miralage. "Look, I've got to go, we'll continue this conversation tomorrow." He then gave Brian directions to the supply tent and told him to hurry up, because they had almost finished locking up for the night.

Matimura couldn't believe it. Brian was back, again! He walked back to Skel's tent, and set up his own little bed in one corner of the tent. He threw one of the blankets over Skel, who was asleep when he walked in. The gryphon murmured something about wanting a go on the dragon, and then fell into a deep, easy sleep.

Matimura curled into a ball under the blanket, for all that it was thick, the night air was still too cold for just one blanket. He made his mind up, and walked over to the shivering gryphon. He picked up Skel's blanket, threw both his and Skel's over the form of the gryphon, and then dove under them himself, the warmth of the gryphons body allowing him to fall to sleep easily.

* * *

Brian had gotten his blanket from the supply tent, and was looking for a place to sleep. There wouldn't be one in the camp. So he walked out into the forest, until he found a moonlit clearing. He quickly made a depression in the grass, and hustled Miralage under the blanket, crawling under it after her. He curled up to Miralage, and they benefited from each other's body warmth. Miralage curled up to him, her head under his neck, her breath tickling his neck, her body pressed against him for warmth, her tail curled up between his legs, resting somewhere slightly lower than his shoulder blades.

They both quickly warmed up, and it almost got to the point where it was uncomfortable, but Miralage still didn't move.

Brian had given the little gryphon to the orphanage in the camp, it had seemed like the right thing to do, and he didn't want to have a whole menagerie of animals following him around everywhere.

Brian fell asleep with Miralage's soft breathing in his ears.

* * *

"You might want to get up, orrr the healerrrs may think therrre'sss sssomething going on between usss."

The voice sounded far away, and it was simply too comfortable to move just to investigate it.

Matimura became awake all at once, but didn't move. He was curled up to Skel's stomach.

"You arrre verrry warrrm, but if sssomeone ssseesss me like thisss I'll never get a mate." Skel said in amusement.

"Sorry about that, it was too cold last night, I'll have to get more blankets." Matimura mumbled in embarrassment as he extricated himself with difficulty from the blankets.

"You know, if you werrre female..." Skel let his words trail off.

"Well I'm not female, for which I am very much grateful. And I wouldn't be with you if I was, no female would be able to stand within five metres of you without a nose plug." Matimura replied.

"That coming from someone who snores like he is trying to saw his way out of a steel cage." Skel retorted.

"I seem to remember someone whistling last night. It sounded like my masters old parrot. He taught it every song he knew, and he was tone deaf." Matimura said, picking up the blankets, spreading one across Skel, and bundling the other up and putting it under the gryphon's head.

"I'm going to go get some breakfast, where do we get it from?" Matimura asked.

"If you can manage to walk that farrr without falling over yourrr own enorrrmousss head, it isss nearrr the sssupply tent, even you couldn't missss it, it'sss rrright next to the grrryphon'sss food tent." Skel replied, dropping the hint that he was hungry.

Matimura stared at Skel impatiently, "Well?" he said, "what do you want?"

"Thrrree sssheep and an ox." He replied, deadpan.

"I'll see if I can you get you some sssheep, or maybe some cattle." Matimura replied, making fun of Skel's hissing. He walked out before Skel could think of some other insult to throw his way.

He walked towards the supply tent. He was about halfway there when he heard the voice behind him.

"Avoiding me I see." Kylara whispered in his ear, her breath lifting the hair on the left side of his head.

Matimura spun and drew his sword on a reflex action. He put it away when he saw Kylara smiling at him.

"I haven't been avoiding you. I just found a knew friend." Matimura said.

"A very warm friend from what I hear." Kylara said mischievously. Matimura blushed.

Having succeeded in making him uncomfortable, she walked away, humming something that sounded very much like Skel's song from the night before.

When he got the tent, he found a very strange sight. There was a massive pen next to the tent, filled with sheep. There had to be several thousand in there. Dragons and gryphons dropped in periodically, picking up a sheep and carrying it off to feed. Several men on the other side of the pen herded more sheep in.

Matimura walked into a tent that was filled with the wonderful aroma of cooking meat, bread, and other food. He took what he needed when he was told what to do by a helpful woman, and then went outside to find out how he was to get a sheep for Skel.

He asked around, and finally found that he had to kill the sheep himself.

Matimura jumped the fence, a small crowd gathering. The usual way to get a sheep was to shoot it with a bow.

Matimura reached the first line of sheep, and passed them by. They bleated at him in fear, and scattered.

Matimura ran after one group. They were comprised of fat sheep, and they all stuck together, making it hard to get one. He ran alongside them, and then leapt, turning his body as he flew through the air, grabbing one fat sheep around the neck with both feet as he hit the ground. The sheep hit the ground, and began to struggle. One twist, and the sheep lay still.

Matimura heard cheering from the crowd. He looked up, and saw something exchanging hands, and heard a man yelling, "A new record! Put that one on the board Billy!" Matimura picked up the dead sheep, tossing it over his shoulder with difficulty. He then walked towards the crowd.

When he got over the fence, several people patted him on the back, and congratulated him. One man took the sheep from him, weighed it, and handed it back. Then someone materialised from the air and handed him a large tarp.

"For Skel, he's a messy eater." She said by way of explanation.

Another man handed him something, and said, "For the faster sheep catch and kill, you are awarded a token! Lets hear it for...what's your name?"

"Matimura." He said, giving the man a look that told him quite clearly tat he thought that he was completely off his rocker.

"Lets hear it for Matimura!" Everyone cheered. Matimura made up his mind then and there that these people had lived in the camp for a little too long, or were all dropped on their heads soon after being born.

He walked away, the people still cheering.

He made it back to the tent, and set up the sheep for Skel.

"It's already shorn, so you don't have to worry about hacking up fur-balls or anything." He said as he laid it in front of Skel.

Skel didn't reply, but gave him a look that said quite clearly that this conversation wasn't over, and bit into the sheep.

As Skel devoured the sheep, Matimura took the token out of his pocket and had a good look at it. It was the same thing that the men who had betted on him had used. It seemed that they uses these in place of normal currency.

Skel noticed his token, and asked, "Whom'd you kill to get that?"

"No one, I won it, I think." Matimura replied.

"What competition?" Skel asked around a rather large piece of bloodstained sheep flesh, blood dripping from his partially opened mouth onto the tarp.

"Fastest sheep catch and kill." He replied.

"Wow, you did the fassstessst kill, prrretty good. I guessss that therrre wasss a big fanfarrre?" Skel asked.

"Yeah, anyone would think I was about to be announced emperor." He replied.

"They do that a bit. The sssoldierrrsss ssseem to think that it'sss something noteworrrthy to kill sssheep quickly. They have competitionsss like that all the time, bessst ssshot with a bow, mock-sssword fighting, axe thrrrowing, that sssort of thing." Skel said, swallowing another large piece of sheep.

"How heavy wasss it?" Skel asked as he finished off the sheep, sending a small spray of blood droplets everywhere as he shook his head to help clear his throat of blood.

"How much weight have you gained in the past ten minutes?" he asked.

"Not enough, if you asssk me, but, if I eat too much morrre, I might jussst pop out of my bandagesss." Skel said.

"Well, stop eating, I'm not going to bandage you back up again." Matimura replied.

"You'd betterrr move this tarrrp beforrre it ssstarrrtsss to ssstink." Skel said matter-of-factly.

"I'll go and get those extra blankets while I'm at it too." Matimura said, standing up, folding the tarp, and walking to the tent flap.

"You might want to ussse that token to get a hirrred woman, you'll neverrr get one any otherrr way." Skel said as Matimura exited the tent.

"At least I can get one!" He called back over his shoulder.

He made his way to the supply tent, and the woman who had handed him the tarp appeared again.

"Don't do that!" He said as he started. She had appeared as quietly as the wind.

"What, does it unsettle you?" she asked of him. Matimura was reminded forcibly of someone, although he couldn't quite place who it was.

"Yes it does, you're quieter than my mentor, and he was a master ninja." Matimura replied.

"What can I say? I get a lot of practice." She replied.

She fell into step beside Matimura as he walked towards the supply tent. When they reached the supply tent, she took the tarp from him. He walked inside and got the extra blankets. When he exited the tent, the woman was still waiting patiently, although the tarp was gone.

They both walked back to the tent together. They entered the tent, and Skel looked up, sensing that there was another person with Matimura.

Skel's eyes met those of the woman, and something like amusement flitted across his face. "Up to your old trrricksss, I sssee." He said, he obviously knew this woman, if only in passing.

"You two obviously know each other?" Matimura asked.

"Was it obvious?" The woman asked. "You don't think you could leave us alone for a few minutes, I need to talk privately with the silly bird." As she asked this, Skel leered at her, and then looked at Matimura, grinning as big as a gryphon could.

Matimura wondered what exactly was so funny, but he left. He went to the mess tent, ate some food, and while he was there, he heard an extremely interesting and informative conversation. The conversation was about dragons.

As he walked back to the tent a good half hour later, he finally figured out where he had seen the woman before, or rather, where he hadn't seen the woman.

He opened the tent flap, and the woman was sitting on one of the blankets naked, waiting for him. She patted the ground next to her, beckoning him closer. Skel looked on, looking as if he was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

Matimura lay down beside the woman.

"Before you start, one thing..." He said.

"Yes?" She asked sweetly.

"Next time, Kylara, go for a different look, maybe Asian, you just don't pull off the English one properly." He said, rolling over so his back was facing her.

He felt the blanket shift, and Kylara got up and walked to the tent flap.

"You told him, didn't you." Kylara asked Skel, who looked as if he had missed out on a treat.

"No! I didn't, I love to sssee the look on a mansss face when he rrrealisssesss he jussst made love to a drrragon. It'sss ssso funny, ssseeing them trrrying to pick theirrr jawsss up off the grrround. Skel replied, a look of gleeful remembrance on his face.

"How did you know?" Kylara asked Matimura.

"Well, a little birdie told me." He replied.

Kylara gave one last look of mistrust towards Skel, her suspicions not helped by Matimura's last comment.

Then she was gone. He heard the flapping of wings outside of the tent, then nothing.

"That wasn't nice, if I hadn't figured it out I would have gone ahead with it. While you watched!" Matimura proclaimed to Skel in exasperation.

"Well, that'sss what frrriendsss arrre forrr." Skel said, grinning wickedly.

Matimura gave one last shake of his head, and threw himself to the blanket, curling up to it and going to sleep, even though it was early in the afternoon.

Skel stared at him for a few seconds, a strange look in his eyes, and then followed his example.

* * *

Brian awoke to the rising sun. The ground was cold, and so was the air, but he was hot. Miralage's little body generated an amazing amount of heat. She was still in the same position as before. She sensed that he was awake, and nuzzled his neck gently, before going back to sleep.

Brian lifted the blanket off his body a little, and then slammed it back down again when the cold air seeped in. it looked like he would be stuck under the blanket for a long time yet.

As he lay on the ground, he wondered about what he would do. He had nothing, except his sword and Miralage. He might as well join the army, but what then? Would he just stay in the army till he died? What a way to live, having allegiance to a man you didn't even know.

Brian heard the crunching of leaves nearby. He reached down to his sword, which was resting at his back, his body heat had kept it warm enough that he could pick it up without his hands getting too cold to feel anything.

He moved the sword up his body, until the hilt was poking out the top of the blanket next to his chin. The crunching sound came closer. It was definitely heading in his direction.

He drew the sword. Miralage murmured sleepily into neck as she heard the hissing of the sword being withdrawn from its scabbard.

"You can put that away." A soft voice said from the trees where the crunching sound had come from.

Brian still held the sword in his hand as the man who had spoken walked into the clearing.

It was Indeago. He walked through the forest, wearing only a robe. How he could stand the cold, Brian didn't know.

"Who are you?" Brian asked.

"Indeago, the leader you think that no-one knows. Whose soldiers swear allegiance to him without question, and die without knowing who they die for." He replied.

"How do you know?" Brian asked, aware that this man was answering questions he had asked in his head.

"I can read minds to a certain extent, dragons are easier than humans." He replied.

Brian slid the sword back into its scabbard; he got the feeling that this man didn't want to hurt him. But he still kept his hand on the sword, just in case.

"Why are you here?" Brian asked.

"Why, to talk to you of course. You are the newest member of my army. I have already seen Matimura in passing, and will probably have a good talk to him later too. But I sense that you have questions. Ask away." Indeago said.

"Who's Matimura?" Brian asked.

"That man you met last night, although you knew him from before then." Indeago replied.

"Who am I?" Brian asked desperately.

"You were found by your mentor Hiroki from a burning ship, he raised you in Japan, on the southernmost island. You were trained to hunt down dragons. Your mentor thought that you killed several dragons, although every time it came down to it, you just couldn't do it." Indeago said.

Brian sat up, while Indeago sat down on a nearby log. He wrapped the large blanket over his shoulders, with Miralage resting on his lap. He gently stroked her head, wondering why he would want to kill something so beautiful.

"Where was I before the boat? I want to know from the beginning." Brian said.

"You were nowhere, and yet everywhere, the distinctive hallmark of a memory wipe spell. It would seem that you cast it on yourself, before morphing to a human shape different from your first form," Indeago said, puzzled, "But no child could do magic like that. And even if you could, why would you bother? Well, the only way to find your memories is to hit the trigger."

"Trigger?" Brian asked.

"Yes, a trigger is a dispel spell, which is triggered by an event predetermined by the caster. Your's will trigger when you need it, literally. It is too vague for me to tell you exactly how it will trigger, but it will remove the spell, but only gradually. I think at only one memory every few days." Indeago said, confusing Brian completely. He stored the words away in his memory for further pondering.

"Now I have to leave, I enjoyed the little talk we had, even though it didn't constitute a conversation, it was still enjoyable to delve into a mind so turbulent as that." With that Indeago stood and left, his robe swirling around his ankles.

Brian stared after him, trying to figure out why he left so abruptly, or, for that matter, why he had come at all.

Brian held the sword in his hands as he lay back down. For the first time he really looked at it. It was longer than your average sword, for some reason he knew that. It was double-edged, thin as a spear. It was imbued with long sweeping patterns indented into the blade, on either side of the line that joined the two blades. He also noted a strange protuberance on the bottom of the handle. It looked as if it could join to another sword through the handle. The problem was, there was no other sword.

As he held it, gently running his hands up the inscribed patterns on the blade, a memory came back to him. He closed his eyes to better remember. He was standing in a dimly lit room, incense burning on a bench in front of which stood a man. He was facing away from Brian, who seemed taller than usual. He turned around slowly, holding a folded navy blue cloth in his hands. There were two oblong objects concealed in the cloth.

"It is done." The man said simply, unfolding the cloth to reveal two swords. One of them the one that Brian now held in his hands.

The other sword was slightly different; the pattern was not quite the same.

Brian suddenly realised that the pattern was letters of some sort. And that it was an inscription running down the blade. He also got the feeling that the inscription was incomplete, and that the rest of it lay on the other blade. If he could find that blade and decipher the text, then he would regain his memory, he was sure of it. The only problem was that the blade was on another world. Somehow he knew that.

The memory still filled Brian's head like a film being played. He reached out to take the sword. He was still too tall, was he standing on something? He was at least twice the height of the man holding the swords. He reached out to take the swords, and Brian exclaimed aloud. His hand was massive, covered in blue scales that gripped it tighter than a glove. There were claws on the end of his hands. They were white, and glinted in the glow of the candles. They looked incredibly sharp.

Brian then moved his hand forwards, and he could feel something slide from under his tongue. It was a maroon bag, tied off at the top with a yellowish drawstring; it fell to the ground in front of the man holding the swords. There was a flash of silver, and Brian was aware that he had just slashed the bag with his claw. It spilled open at the top, revealing that it was full to the brim with sparkling gold coins.

Brian then took the swords from the man, turned and left. He reached the exit of the cave, and spread his wings. Brian could feel the wash of air as they extended. He leapt for the sky, wings powering up and down, lifting him onwards to the heavens.

He hit cloud height, and began to glide, powering along with a single stroke of his powerful wings when he began to lose too much altitude.

He was gliding towards a mountain, and it grew with frightening speed until it encompassed his entire view. He sped downwards to the ground, angling towards a cave. He was going too fast! He was going to hit the ground! At the last moment, Brian felt his body straining, his wings extending. He hit the ground light as a feather, back winging wildly, sending a wash of dust into the cave.

A red dragon uncurled from deep inside the cave.

Why can't you land like a normal dragon? It takes ages to get this dust out of everything. The red dragon asked. Brian got the definite feel that the red dragon was female.

You know I like to make a big entrance. Brian replied.

He reached the red dragon.

So Ryshkae, what have you been doing since I've been gone? Brian asked.

Brian was beginning to get the distinct feeling that this memory wasn't his.

His thoughts were confirmed when the memory-Brian went over to a deep depression on one side of the cave. It was full to the brim with clear water, Brian could see himself clearly in it--only it wasn't him. Staring back out of the water was a dragon. It was blue, with yellow eyes. They had some kind of warmth to them; the fans sprouting from the sides of his head were tipped with white points. That was all he saw before his snout was submerged in the water and he began to drink deeply, his eyes closed.

He finished drinking, and flopped down next to the red dragon. He gathered her into his arms with his paws and... Brian didn't even want to go there. Let alone remember something that he didn't do.

The memory cut off at that point, which Brian was glad of. It would have seemed like invasion of privacy if he remembered that.

He puzzled over the memory. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't his. So whose was it?

He also remembered one of the names, the name of the red dragon. Ryshkae.

It was the same dragon in the clearing that gave him Miralage! The realisation hit Brian like a bolt of lightning. He had to find that guide. He knew the dragon, maybe he could tell him who the blue dragon was.

Brian stood up at that, and put the sword away. His movement lifted the blanket off Miralage. She gave a little squeal of protest, grabbed the hem of the blanket in her little mouth, dragged it back down, rolled over, and went back to sleep. He suddenly realised that she had the right idea. It was so cold!

Brian decided that he would search for the guide after it warmed up. He leapt back under the blanket, causing Miralage to give another squeal of indignation as a cold breeze filled the gaps he created as he snuggled up under it. She snuggled up to him and nuzzled his neck when he finally stopped moving.

Brian held her in his arms, trying to get warmer. He fell asleep, finally warm.

* * *

The lycanthrope was walking along the beach, her paws kicking up dirt with each step. She clenched her claws gently, working the kinks out of her front paws. Her front paws were all cramped from running. Usually she walked and ran on her hind legs, but when she wanted to go faster she would revert to travelling on her front and back legs. She had been trying to follow the black dragon. But it was simply too fast. Even though she was a lycanthrope, she still fell far behind it.

So much for the old laws! She couldn't even keep up with the stupid ninja, let alone serve him!

Oh, well, she would just have to keep going and hope she found him.

She didn't even know his name! And she was supposed to serve him eternally! If only she could get her hands on whoever wrote that rule!

She clenched her hands, her claws digging into her palm, thinking about what she would do to that man. Her claws cramped and she immediately stopped clenching them. Then she got even angrier.

The lycanthrope couldn't wait till she found that ninja, she would make life hell for him.

* * *

Matimura was in the tent with Skel, who was, once again, whining.

"Ssstupid bandagesss. I want to tearrr them off. Too itchy." He hissed menacingly, nipping at the bandages as he spoke, tearing a few in his vehemence.

"Stop doing that, stupid bird. You'll end up cutting them all off. And you know what the healer said." Matimura said warningly.

The healer had stopped by to check up on Skel the day before. She was an older woman, but it didn't show. She looked to be about twenty-two, but was closer to thirty. She had blond hair, which was always slicked down close to her back. She had a good figure, one that most women would kill for. She moved without grace, almost mechanically.

She had stopped by, and tightened the bandages on Skel's body, not listening to his protests and hisses of pain.

She had whispered something in his ear while she was doing it, and Skel suddenly went quiet, looking like he had just been threatened seriously to have his wings cut off.

As the healer left, she said to Matimura, "If he won't cooperate, then threaten him. Just say you'll go get Threalsyfe. That'll shut him right away."

Matimura had asked who Threalsyfe was, and Skel had told him that she was a female gryphon, who was repulsively ugly, with mismatched claws, and a horrible disposition of love towards Skel.

Somehow the healers had known that there was someone else looking after Skel, Matimura tried to work out how they knew this. But they just came in for check-ups every now and again. Not worrying much about them.

"Ssso you'll brrring in a female who would take advantage of me in my injurrred ssstate?" Skel asked, as if no one would even consider something so vile.

"And you wouldn't bring in a dragon in human form and watch while she humiliated me?" Matimura said by way of answer.

Skel sunk back down on the cushions, trying to make himself as small as possible, admitting that he was beaten this time.

"You hungry yet?" Matimura asked wearily.

"Isss the gryphon the mossst beautiful crrreaturrre in the worrrld?" Skel replied.

"Then you won't be needing food for then couple of years then." Matimura said expressionlessly.

Skel hissed at him.

Matimura walked outside with a little chuckle and headed for the sheep pens.

As he was walking, he noticed a small gryphon skulking around the tents. He thought that it might be female. Why he thought this he didn't know.

It was so much smaller than any other gryphon. Only half the size of Skel, she looked like an adolescent. He also got the feeling that, small as she was; she was already fully-grown.

As he watched, some larger gryphon's walked from between some tents nearby and began to tease the little one.

Matimura began to feel the first smouldering of anger in his stomach as he watched them taunting the little gryphon.

He walked towards the antagonists. When he reached them, he could see clearly what they were doing.

"Herrre rrrunt! Come get sssome food!" one of them was calling, holding a large headless chicken in his hands, waving it just out of the little gryphons reach.

Matimura stepped in, drawing his sword and slashing several times. From where he was, the gryphons didn't see where he came from.

The gryphon holding the chicken looked at him, and said, "Pathetic aim, little morrrsssel."

Matimura stood his ground as the chicken in the gryphon's hands slowly peeled apart, it's legs falling off, and then it split in half, and fell to the ground.

The gryphon looked at the sword in Matimura's hands, and then to the chicken, and then it turned and took off into the sky. Followed by the rest of the gryphons.

Matimura sighed in relief and lowered the sword, sheathing it. There was no way he could have taken on so many enemies at once.

He watched as the little gryphon leapt at the chicken pieces, and snapped them up hungrily.

She finished off the chicken quickly, taking only a few seconds. She was obviously very hungry. She probably hadn't eaten in days.

"Do you have anyone to look after you?" Matimura asked when she finished wolfing down the pieces of food.

She looked at him, and then looked away, turning her head to one side, and talking to the ground. "No, no one wantsss a rrrunt forrr a frrriend." She said. Her voice was a soft sibilant hiss, barely audible over the sounds of the camp.

"What about your parents?" Matimura asked.

"No parrrentsss, died in battle, left me when young. Live asss outcasst, can't even fight, ssso have to beg." She said, still talking to the ground. She was obviously very shy.

"Well, come with me, I'll look after you." Matimura said with a sigh. He was soon going to have his own little army if he kept picking up every runt and injured gryphon he met.

She followed after him as he went to the supply tent. He got even more blankets. He then went to the sheep pens. The little gryphon looked at the sheep hungrily. But seemed not to want to jump the fence.

"Why don't you go get one?" Matimura asked.

All her eagerness vanished, and she resumed her position of shyness. "I can't catch them, they arrre too fassst for me." She said.

Matimura flicked his hand from out of one of his pockets as he turned towards the pen. The star he threw whistled through the air, cutting one of the sheep cleanly across the leg, hamstringing it. It started to limp away.

The little gryphons head suddenly jerked upwards as she smelt the blood. She looked eagerly into the pen. Matimura gave her a little push towards the sheep, and then turned towards the cattle pens, which were next to the sheep pens, on the opposite side to the supply tent.

The little gryphon leapt over the fence with a certain smooth grace, and hit the ground running. She leapt at the sheep, turning aside at the last second, landing in front of it, before turning and leaping again, at its face this time, she grabbed its neck in her beak, and bit down sharply, feeling the hot spray of blood in her mouth as the sheep's life drained from it. She was about to devour it there on the ground, but then she remembered her manners. She dragged the sheep towards where she had first entered, and then dragged it behind a tent.

She began to eat, and was enjoying the red meat, when she felt the meal yanked sharply from her. She hissed, and then cowered as the gryphon that was teasing her earlier picked the sheep up and began to drag it away.

Matimura was angry now.

He had just come back from killing a large bull, and his arms were straining from the effort of dragging it.

He saw the gryphon take the dead sheep from the little gryphon. He drew his sword, scabbard and all. He twisted the top of the handle, and locked it into place, which would ensure that the scabbard wouldn't come off. This was usually used for when he had to swim, so that the sword wouldn't come out and end up on the bottom of the lake, never to be found again. It would be used for a different purpose today.

He held the sword, still in its scabbard, as he leapt onto one of the tents. He balanced on the centre supporting-pole. They were rounded at the top to prevent accidents during transportation.

Matimura then leapt off the tent, twisting in the air to land next to the gryphon. He brought down the end of the scabbard in a vicious overhead swing.

There was a resounding crack as the scabbard hit the gryphon in the back of the neck, where it joined the skull. The gryphon slumped to the ground. It wasn't dead, but it would wake up with a headache that would bring a dragon to the ground.

The little gryphon leapt forwards and took her kill from his now open mouth, and slashed a claw across his brow for good measure. She then dragged it over to Matimura's kill, and put it on the tarp next the bull.

With the help of the little gryphon, he was able to drag the food back to the tent. For all that she was smaller than the other gryphons, she was still twice the size of Matimura.

"We have a dinner guest, so make yourself pretty Skel!" Matimura called as he dragged the tarp through the tent flap. The little gryphon stood outside, realizing that another gryphon was in the tent.

Matimura went outside and bodily dragged the little gryphon into the tent.

"That had betterrr not be Thrrrrealsssyfe, or I'll perrrsssonally rrrip you aparrrt." Skel warned.

Matimura huffed and puffed, it was hard to get something a big as a gryphon, even one as small as the little gryphon, to go anywhere it didn't want to.

When he finally got her into the tent, she almost trampled him as she ran for the corner. She curled into a ball and wouldn't move.

"She's shy." Matimura explained.

"I didn't notice." Skel said dryly. Looking towards the little gryphon.

Skel stood shakily, went over to the bull, and slashed at its neck, wincing as the skin over his wounds pulled taunt. He picked up the now severed head, and carried it over to the little gryphon.

Her ears perked up, her sensitive nose picking up the smell of food, then her ears lay back close to her skull as she realised what was holding the tasty treat.

The head was the preferred treat to the gryphons, although they almost never got to eat one. Most humans got a bit squeamish when they observed a gryphon pick a skull apart. Especially when the eyes of that skull seemed to fix them with a stare of sadness.

Skel gripped the head of the bull in his other hand, digging his claws into the skull. He pulled, and the top of the skull came off, revealing the brains of the animal.

Skel reached into these, and pulled them out, holding his claws under the little gryphons nose.

She finally took the food. Licking at Skel's claws delicately with her long tongue. She finally seemed to have lost her shyness, at least around him.

Skel let the little gryphon lick his hand and claws clean, and then led her over to the tarp, limping badly.

She watched Skel as he slit open the bull, and began to devour it with small nibbling bites.

She walked over to the sheep, and rammed her hand deep into its chest. Her hand emerged covered in blood, her claws wrapped around the heart of the sheep. She held this out to Skel, who ripped the heart out of the bull and handed it to her. They both devoured their meals, taking their time.

It was almost an hour later that they finished their shared meal, and, by that time, Matimura was curled up under the blanket.

The little gryphon preened herself for a few minutes, while Skel limped to his bed and lay down on it, pulling the blanket over himself with his beak. She then walked over to Matimura and crawled under the blanket with him, snuggling up to his chest.

Matimura sighed, and grabbed the other blanket he had gotten, intending to make a little bed out of it for the gryphon, and pulled that over them both.

"So, what's your name?" he asked, stroking the little gryphons head gently.

"Kerrrasssaline." She hissed softly in his ear.

She murmured something else that he couldn't hear, and moved around, trying to get comfortable. When she finally stopped moving, Matimura fell asleep, Kerasaline's soft murmuring in his ears.

* * *

Brian woke up and crawled out of the blanket. It was finally warm. Miralage gave a drowsy little murmur at his movements and went back to sleep.

Brian shook her awake gently, and then packed up the blanket, while Miralage looked on in resentment. She was still tired! Father was always bundling her off all over the place. She never even got to sleep for long enough! She wished she could tell him how silly he was, not letting her sleep.

Brian finally finished packing up the blanket, and placed it into his backpack, for later. He then began to walk towards where he had come from. There was so much to do. First he would have to see that guide, and find out if he knew who the mate of Ryshkae was, then he would have to find someone to tell him why he was having memories that weren't his.

Miralage followed along behind him, giving him resentful looks every now and again.

Brian sensed her glares, and said, without turning around, "There's no use looking at me like that, even though I woke you up, it's your fault for sleeping so shallowly."

She glared at him again, as if she understood his words, and kept walking, this time in front of him. She looked over her shoulder every now and again and gave him another glare.

Brian laughed at her treatment of him. It was quite amusing to see her glares.

It was during one of these stares that Miralage walked right into a tree trunk. She looked stunned for a second. Brian laughed. And then she began to wail in pain.

Brian walked over to her. He held her until she stopped wailing. She looked at him gratefully; her earlier anger at him now seemed to have evaporated.

By pure coincidence Miralage had walked right into the tree that marked the area where Brian had buried the egg. He dug around the roots of the tree, and eventually pulled it up. It was still surrounded by the threads of strange red light. It had stayed warm the whole time that it had been buried, and was well on the way to hatching.

Brian continued walking, wondering what he would ask the guide when he found him. The egg was in his pack, and he also wondered about it as well. The animal that would hatch from it would be huge when it got older, but maybe he could train it, teach it manners, or something like that. If you could train a dragon to be civil then you could train anything to be a good-natured animal. That last thought had his mind whirring, wondering why he thought that dragons were particularly vicious. Again, the memory stayed just under the surface.

Brian could hear the distant sounds of battle, and wondered who was fighting. He made his way towards the sounds. He crawled on his stomach, leaving his pack behind, up to a ridge.

Below the ridge was a large clearing, filled with soft brownish-grey dirt. Soldiers were surrounding a few survivors in the centre of the clearing.

The soldiers surrounding the opposing force were obviously evil. There was just something about them Brian couldn't place, but even Miralage felt it, because she started to back up slowly, stepping as quietly as possible.

Brian was staring in fascination as the evil soldiers aimed crossbows at the group of soldiers in the centre.

It was then that the ridge under Brian collapsed, spilling him into the group of soldiers, with no chance of escape.

* * *

Matimura awoke, snuggled up to Kerasaline's warm chest, her breath hot in his ear. It was so comfortable, her feathers made a sort of blanket that was so soft and silky.

"Kylarrra would ssso love to sssee thisss." Skel stated to the room at large, staring at the twin lumps that were Matimura and Kerasaline.

"And why would that be?" Matimura asked, his voice muffled by both feathers and blanket.

"Becaussse you've only been herrre forrr two daysss, and you'rrre alrrready cheating on a drrragon with a grrryphon." He said, laughter in his voice.

"She just won't give up will she, if it's not her, then it's you. I don't have a romantic interest in Kylara, or a gryphon." Matimura replied.

"Not from what I've heard." A voice said from outside the tent.

A small black dragonet walked into the tent, and sat down in the centre of the available space, looking from Skel to the twin forms under the blankets.

"And not from what I can see." She added.

Matimura extricated himself from the blankets, waking Kerasaline in the process, who looked around blearily, wondering where she was. She gave sigh of contentment and went back to sleep.

"And a sigh like that is usually only because of recent...extracurricular activities." The little black dragonet stated as Matimura finally got her into his view.

"Not again." He groaned. He had a suspicion from the moment the little dragonet had spoken, and now he knew that suspicion to be true.

"Yep, its me. What? Aren't you glad to see your darling Kylara?" Kylara asked. Her voice was higher than usual, probably because of her reduced stature.

"No, I'm not. And you shut up, Skel. It's too early for this kind of thing." Matimura said.

"What, been staying up to late? Expending too much energy? Now, what could possibly make you so tired?" She asked, giving a suggestive look towards Kerasaline.

"I'd be carrreful, he'sss biggerrr than you now." Skel warned, giving Matimura a strange look of expectancy.

Matimura took the hint, and leapt at her, slightly suspicious; Skel wouldn't volunteer information like that unless the end result involved someone humiliating themselves. But it was exactly what he had been thinking of doing. He pinned her to the ground effortlessly, holding her down with both his legs and arms, leaning into her, using his weight to hold her down.

"I never knew you felt this way." Kylara said breathlessly, staring up at him.

Matimura was about to start threatening her with any number of painful things, when she flipped herself over, twisting, and then landing on him, pinning him to the ground.

"I like this position better." She said, rearing up slightly, "It makes me feel more...dominant."

Matimura was struggling vainly beneath her. Her diminished stature seemed not to have affected her strength in any way. She held him effortlessly in place with her front paws.

Skel looked on with a grin on his face.

Kylara swooped, and Matimura knew he wasn't going to like what she was going to do.

She kissed him. Matimura spluttered as her tongue slipped into his mouth. Even though the dragon's mouth wasn't made for anything as delicate as Kylara was attempting, she still managed to do it amazingly well.

Matimura pressed the front half of his body upwards, as if enjoying it. He then slammed his chest downwards, his arms wrapping around the top half of her back. He pressed his right knee between her back legs, and heaved upwards with it, rotating backwards, using the momentum of his movement to throw Kylara clear.

She went sailing through the air, giving a high-pitched squeal of surprise as she barrelled out the tent flap, rolling for several metres.

She looked at him though the tent flap, licked her lips, and smiled at him, and then she transformed right in front of him, and took off into the air, now at her normal size.

Matimura stood up, while Skel laughed his head off. "You know, you arrre the firrrssst one thatsss rrresssisssted her, let alone ssstoped herrr getting exactly what ssshe wantsss." He said.

"Wherrre arrre you going?" he asked, as Matimura started to walk outside.

"I'm going to find some poison to wash this taste out of my mouth." He said, and walked out.

"Rrrememberrr not to get waylaid on yourrr way therrre." Skel called after him, laughing raucously.

In the end Matimura just walked around in circles for hours, wondering what he has going to do. He wouldn't be able to fight Kylara off if she tried that again. The only alternative was to talk to her, but that wouldn't work.

The fact of the matter was, he had a promiscuous, psychotic black dragon after him that had obviously missed some crucial lessons in inter-special relationships.

Matimura returned to the tent, dragging yet another large bull. He would have gotten a cow, but they were off limits because they were needed for milk.

He was about to enter the tent, when he saw that Kylara was once again in there, waiting for him.

He sighed, if he kept running away from her, then nothing would ever be solved.

He walked into the tent, and sat down facing Kylara. Skel and Kerasaline tore into the meal, and they both watched silently as they finished it, and then went to sleep.

"What do you want with me?" He asked seriously, when he was sure that both gryphons were fast asleep.

"I think you know." She replied quietly.

"Well, I can't give you that." He said firmly.

"Yes you can." She replied, just as firmly.

"What would your mate say if he knew?" Matimura asked, hoping to scare her off.

"He doesn't care, he has his own little harem of human females." She said.

"What? Why would a woman take a dragon over a man? I admit, there's probably one or two eccentrics in this camp who wouldn't mind experimenting, but you make it sound like he has them queued up waiting for him." Matimura said incredulously.

"Well, let's just say size does matter." She said, leering at him.

"That's women, but if size matters, then why aren't you with another dragon?" Matimura asked.

"Because, they get boring, you know, they don't like to...experiment..." She replied, looking him up and down.

"Neither do I." Matimura said firmly, and then crawled under the blankets, trying to go to sleep. He felt Kylara crawl under the blankets and snuggle up to his back. He could feel the wash of air from her playing over the back of his neck. He decided to let her stay there. She would give up on her own, once she realised that he was going to have none of it.

He fell asleep with Kylara's soft breathing in his ears.

* * *

Brian was in trouble, deep, deep trouble. Soldiers, all of them aiming a crossbow or holding a sword, ready to kill him should he try to run.

Brian drew his sword. Miralage gave a little squeal of terror, standing on top of the ridge, far out of his reach. The men surrounding him were all big. Each one had to be at least seven foot tall. They all wore helms made of some dark metal, making them look like something from a nightmare.

The first few men stepped forwards, and Brian brought up his sword instinctively. The men at the back, the ones holding the crossbows, holstered them, and drew short swords. The sword they had obviously weren't for show. They each had slivers of metal, pointing both down and up, meaning that, if they impaled something, they would cause a lot of damage when gong in and being pulled out.

The first soldier steep into range of Brian's sword, and he swung, a simple overhead slash. The soldier blocked it easily.

Brian wondered how he had survived before this. He must have had training with swords, but he had forgotten all of that.

Just let go... A voice said in his head. Brian looked around, his sword resting atop the soldiers' sword, which was held horizontally above his head.

Brian ignored the voice, deciding that it was a figment of his imagination.

Let go... The voice insisted. The voice was soft, feminine, but was very weak. He could barely hear it over his own thoughts. He was surprisingly calm, considering the fact that he was about to meet a very painful death.

The soldier slapped Brian's blade upwards, slicing at his stomach while his sword was high in the air, unable to do anything to help.

Brian leapt backwards, bending in the middle. The sword slashed his shirt open easily, leaving a long line of blood across Brian's stomach. The wound was only a scratch.

LET GO! The voice shouted. It was still weak, but was gaining strength with every passing second.

Brian let go.

The soldier rushed him. Brian had his eyes closed. He was letting go. The voice was obviously someone who was wise, and knew he was dead, it was telling him to let it be over quickly.

Brian could feel the rush of air from the deadly blade as it was about to be stabbed deep into his side. His eyes snapped open. He spun to the right, the sword brushing against his back, sliding past him harmlessly. He grabbed the soldiers' sword hand as his momentum carried him past Brian. He snapped his right foot up, his heel catching the soldier in the back of the head. He let his foot continue, and lifted it up, over the soldiers' head, before jamming it against his neck. He slammed the soldier to the ground, the weight of the blow, and the way Brian held his foot, snapped his neck like a dry twig.

Brian let go of the body, and stood. He held his sword horizontally, looking down the point, which was facing the soldiers.

They all rushed him at once.

Brian ducked low, letting a sword slash above his head harmlessly, holding his sword out to the side. One of the men ran right into it, cutting off his own leg just below the knee. He stumbled for a few steps, before falling to the ground.

Brian kept spinning, bringing up his sword, slitting one throat on the wind up, before slamming it, right through a soldier's sword, cutting through most of his neck, leaving his head hanging by a few threads of skin.

Brian pivoted, slashing again, at one of the men standing behind him, feeling swords pass a hairs breadth from his skin. He rolled as he finished his attack, moving smoothly onto his feet. He ran through a group of men, slashing with quick, accurate slices, swiping his sword across throats and stomachs, cutting other swords in half, batting them aside, or bypassing them completely, striking instead at the tender flesh that was no match for his weapon.

The first barrage of arrows was loosed in his direction. Brian rolled, coming up with a body, using it as a shield. Several arrows slammed into the body, some of them even pushing out the back of it before stopping.

Brian dropped the body, and was about to start hacking and slashing again, when he realised that an arrow was sticking out of his right shoulder.

He tore it out angrily, and blood began to pour down his right side, slicking his arm and making the sword hard to hold.

Another soldier came at him. This one held two swords. He slammed both of them down at once, causing Brian to drop his sword.

The soldier reversed the swords, slicing forwards, intending to slit Brians' throat.

Staring at the twin flashes of silver light that were the swords, Brian knew his time had come.

* * *

Matimura became slightly aware of his surroundings as he started to awake. He was only half awake. He ran his hands up and down the curious object in front of him. It was smooth, with hundreds of bumps along it.

Mmmmmmmmmm. Just a little lower. A voice said. Matimura complied drowsily.

His hands stopped suddenly, he was fully awake.

He sighed as he realised that the scaly object was Kylara. She was lying in front of him, nestled in between Kerasaline and himself.

She snuggled in closer, and fell back to sleep.

Matimura got up, deciding that they could all stay asleep. He went to get some breakfast. Before he left, he made a point of checking his weapons over. The gryphon he had hurt hadn't tried anything yet, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't try anything today.

He walked towards the supply tent. He decided to have a meal in the tent for once.

He also wondered about Brian. He had been in the camp only the other day, but he hadn't seen him since.

He pushed aside the flap to the supply tent, and saw someone sitting down at a table in the corner. She was tearing into a chicken leg hungrily, snapping the bone open and sucking the marrow out of it.

Matimura groaned. It was the lycanthrope.

Everyone in the tent was avoiding getting close to her, except for the bartender, who acted like he had ferocious animals in his tent every day. But then again, he had probably served the odd dragon or gryphon before, not to mention drunken soldiers.

Matimura got some food, and sat down at the seat across from the lycanthrope.

She caught his scent, and looked up, staring around the room, trying to find here he was.

"In front of you." Matimura said wearily, he realised that the last time the lycanthrope had seen him; he had been wearing his mask, and his sneaking suit. He was now wearing a simple red robe over green pants and a blue shirt.

She stared at him for a second, and then took a big breath through her nose, it flared slightly as she analysed the scent.

"So, are you still going to kill me?" she asked sullenly.

"No." Matimura said simply, standing up and leaving the tent.

"Why not!" The lycanthrope yelled in his ear.

Matimura resisted the urge to draw his sword in surprise. She had crept up behind him. She had made less sound than a mouse.

"Because, I don't want to." Matimura said simply.

"You wanted to before! You had me kneeling on the ground, ready to cut my head off!" the lycanthrope yelled. Great, other psychotic female to add to my little harem. Matimura thought.

Matimura spun to the right, drawing his sword, slicing the blade along the lycanthropes throat.

She looked stunned. She grabbed at her throat, wrapping her paws around it. A tuft of fur flitted to the ground. Matimura's aim was so good that he had only just cut off the hair of her neck, not even nicking the skin.

"You don't really want to die, do you?" Matimura said, seeing the look on her face. He sheathed his sword, and walked over to the sheep pen.

He didn't feel like running after a sheep today. He drew a star, and with a little flick of his wrist, threw it at the nearest sheep.

He was aiming to hit two, but, by pure luck, he had hit three. All of them fell to the ground, one of them twitching wildly.

Matimura jumped the fence, drawing his knife. He had bought it just yesterday from the supply shop. It had cost him three hundred gold pieces. The chit he had won was worth a thousand gold pieces. They had given him the knife as well seven chits, each of them equal to one hundred gold pieces.

The lycanthrope eyed the sheep hungrily.

Matimura finished off the sheep that was twitching, and then began to drag them towards the fence.

The lycanthrope jumped the fence, and took two of the sheep from him, helping. Matimura went in front, showing the way. They reached the tent, and, even though she could smell the gryphons, the lycanthrope walked in without hesitation.

The gryphons looked up at the strange new creature, and then continued what they were doing, Skel, sleeping, and Kerasaline nibbling at a few unruly feathers.

As Skel laid his head down on the pillow he muttered something about, "Another female to add to his collection." Matimura was obviously meant to hear it.

Matimura sighed, and continued dragging the sheep inside. The lycanthrope had stood at the door, obviously wondering what to do.

Matimura gave one of the sheep to Skel, and the other to Kerasaline. The gryphons began to tear into the meat hungrily.

Matimura left them at it, and walked outside, motioning for the lycanthrope to follow.

They both walked around the camp, with Matimura asking some pretty in-depth questions about the lycanthrope. First of all, he wanted her name. She hesitated for several seconds and then mumbled, "Debriolusa."

"Is that what you want me to call you?" Matimura asked.

"Everyone calls me Debri. But you can call me slave, or whatever else you want. Because that's all I am to you." She replied sulkily.

Matimura continued asking questions, mainly about her, and how she had come to be a lycanthrope. He ignored her comments, but her tongue could be as sharp as Skel's when she pounced on an incautious phrase.

He found out that she had been cursed for as long as she could remember. Probably before she was born.

"Why are you asking me these stupid questions? Just get on with it and kill me!" Debri Yelled at him.

Matimura drew his sword and laid it against the lycanthropes throat. She flinched. She stared at the ground, shame in her eyes for showing weakness.

"Do you really want me to kill you?" Matimura asked coldly, lifting her chin with the flat of the blade, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"No" she mumbled, and then turned away.

Matimura sheathed his sword, and began to walk away.

There was a rustling from behind him, and he thought that maybe Debri had chosen to follow him, or attack him, but then she yelped with fear. He spun; his sword sliding from its sheathe with a hissing sound.

The gryphon was rearing up behind Debri, one claw pressed carelessly against her throat, the other hand clenching her shoulder roughly; the points of several of his claws had pierced her skin.

"Sssuch a prrretty little wolf." He said, looking down at Debri, forcing her to look at him with his claw just as Matimura had done with his sword only moments before

"Do you want herrr to die?" He asked Matimura, pressing his claw harder against her throat. A small trickle of blood snaked its way through the fur of her neck.

A single tear fell down Debri's cheek as she realised that she was going to die.

Matimura stared at the gryphon. "Let her go, your fight lies with me." He said.

The gryphon threw Debri to the side. She went right through one of the tents, coming to rest against a wooden stand. She didn't move.

Matimura stepped forwards, standing off against the gryphon. He held the sword in his right hand, above his head, the point forward, facing towards his enemy.

He realised what he had to as he saw the Debri starting to stir. He just hoped that it didn't get him killed.

He stepped forwards, lowering his sword as he went, sheathing it and throwing it to the side as he neared the gryphon. They began to circle each other warily, Matimura holding his hands up in front of him, in a modified shaolin style that his sensei had developed.

The gryphon leapt at him, claws scything in from either side of its body, hoping to catch him from both sides.

Matimura ducked as low as possible. The gryphon's claws missed him by mere inches as its momentum carried it over his head.

The gryphon rolled forwards, landing on its back and rolling forwards, until its back claws hit the ground. It pushed backwards as hard as it could, rolling in the air, slashing again with one of its claws. Matimura leapt to the side, the claws scything to the side. This time the claws caught his robe, dragging him downwards. He hit the ground, and gryphon suddenly straddled him, holding him effortlessly.

Matimura looked over towards Debri, she was now on all fours, shaking her head as if there was something inside that she was trying to get out by rattling it.

Matimura wrapped his legs around the gryphon's back ones, and then twined his arms around the gryphon's front legs, so his hand rested lightly against its neck.

He tightened his grip as the gryphon realised that it couldn't use its legs anymore.

The gryphon leaned down and tried to bite his face, Matimura pushed upwards as hard as he could, his arms aching with the strain of holding the gryphon at bay and holding its weight up.

He looked over towards Debri; he couldn't order her to save him, not for what he wanted to do.

She looked over at him then, and saw his predicament. She leapt towards him instantly.

The gryphon was too occupied with trying to kill Matimura to notice the new threat.

Debri leapt on top of the gryphon, and grabbed its throat in her hands, her palms coverings Matimura's hands.

Matimura could feel steady pressure being applied to the gryphon's throat by Debri, and, after nearly two minutes, the gryphon slumped on top of him, almost smothering him. He pushed the gryphon off him with difficulty.

Matimura stood up, slightly off balance, because of the blood rushing to his head. He didn't notice the gryphon open its eyes and stare at him coldly.

"Do you know what you just did?" Matimura asked Debri.

"No." She replied nervously.

"I asked you a question, answer it." Matimura commanded.

"I killed a gryphon, master." She said with unconcealed vehemence. She looked as if she would like to tear his throat out.

"What else did you do?" Matimura insisted.

"I killed a gryphon that was trying to kill you, by choking it. Did I miss something, master?" She said.

"Think about what you said." He said as he walked over to his sword. He picked it up, and slid it into his robe again, ready for quick access.

"I saved you." Debri said quietly.

"Yes, now go find someone else to annoy." Matimura said. He began to walk towards the Skel's tent.

The gryphon sprung from its position, slashing at Matimura's back with fury.

"No!" Debri yelled.

Matimura spun, catching the gryphon's claw easily. He began to twist it, and then turned his body slightly, putting his leg down near the gryphon's back ones. He then twisted, so that the gryphon was thrown to the ground.

A quick punch to the throat was all it took to finish the gryphon off. It gasped, trying to draw air through its throat. It could feel that its throat was completely crushed. It also knew that gryphons could hold their breath for nearly five minutes.

It begged with its eyes for Matimura to end it quickly.

Matimura drew his sword, placing it against the gryphon's breast. The gryphon closed its eyes and nodded. A quick thrust and the gryphon stopped gasping.

"You planned this. Why?" Debri asked quietly.

"I don't know, because I don't want a slave." Matimura said.

"Then why didn't you kill me?" She asked insistently.

"Why should I?" Asked Matimura, starting to get sick of Debri's feigned suicide wish.

"Because I'm a lycanthrope, for starters." Debri replied.

"I've found things that a lot worse than any lycanthrope."

"Like what?"

"A psychotic female dragon that seems to think that I was put here just for her...purposes."

This made Debri laugh.

"Why don't just accept the inevitable and just...you know...go along with it." She said.

"Because she's a dragon, for starters."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Yes--I mean no--god, I don't know."

"Would you accept if she was a human?"

That made Matimura think. Kylara was the type of girl he had always hoped to find, one full of personality and independence, with that same mischievous manner that he liked, and the tendency to try and surprise people. It was like some cruel joke that she was a dragon.

"Yes." He said quietly.

"Well, why does it matter that she's a dragon?"

"I guess it doesn't, in the scheme of things, but it matters to me..."

"Why what do you have against dragons?"

"I don't know, they're beautiful in their own way, I guess, but--she's got wings! And a tail! And four legs!"

"If you found your true love, and she was deformed, or something like that, would it matter to you?"

"I guess not..."

"Well, just think of Kylara as exceptionally deformed." Debri said.

"Believe me, I already think of her as exceptionally deformed."

Debri let out a tinkling laugh, which surprised Matimura, he had only ever heard her use her growling voice, and this laugh was somewhat unexpected. He had thought that her laugh would be a low gargling sound.

"She sounds like a real character. I want to meet her." She declared.

"Well, come back to the tent, and see her for yourself." Matimura said. "But first, we'll have to get you some blankets and stuff. You can have that third sheep, if Skel and Kerasaline haven't eaten it yet."

As he turned away, Debri padded up behind him silently. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and laid her head on his shoulder, whispering in his ear. "Thank you."

"For what?" Matimura asked, turning his head fractionally towards her.

"For releasing me." She replied, drawing away from him as they walked towards the supply tent.

They both walked over to the supply tent. As he was getting another blanket, one of the men manning the tent saw him and said. "Hell, I know it's cold, but any more blankets and you'll suffocate."

"I've got a lot of friends." Matimura replied as he walked out.

When they both got back to the tent, and when they entered, they found Skel and Kerasaline asleep. Skel was still in the same position as when Matimura had first walked into the tent so many days ago. Kerasaline was on the other side of the tent, pressed against the wall, her beak almost touching the canvas. Kylara was nowhere to be seen.

Matimura breathed a sigh of relief. He was totally unsure of his feelings for Kylara now. Debri's words had really gotten to him. Did it really matter that she was a dragon? He had some serious thinking to do.

Debri went over to a corner, and curled up, leaving the sheep alone. Matimura sighed, and said, "Eat it, or it'll go bad, and then it'll be useless."

Debri leapt up and started tearing into the sheep hungrily.

Matimura left her at it, and crawled under one of the blankets he had just gotten. With so many people in the tent, it was starting to get a bit full, but rather than feeling crowded, it felt rather cosy.

Matimura wondered where Kylara could have gotten; she was usually waiting for him with that expectant look on her face, as if he might have changed his mind about her while he was away.

He was glad for the reprieve, because it gave him time to think.

Matimura closed his eyes, and tried to go to sleep. He could hear the sounds of Debri eating the sheep, and it was very distracting.

She finally finished, and dragged the sheep outside, she was gone for nearly ten minutes, in which Matimura found enough time to nearly fall asleep.

Debri came back into the tent, and silently padded over to Matimura, he was barely aware of her, but because of his ninja, even when he was asleep he was aware of danger and ready to react. He didn't remember it in the morning, but Debri adjusted the blankets, and patted them down in what could almost be seen as a maternal act, and then padded back to her own floor space, and laid down to go to sleep.

* * *

Brian stared at the twin blades coming for his throat. An arrow suddenly seemed to sprout from the soldiers face. The swords clattered to the ground, falling from the still standing, but already dead, soldiers fingers.

Brian breathed a sigh of relief. He sheathed his sword and rolled forwards, grabbing the two that were on the ground. He came up in a crouch, his swords swinging forwards, slicing the leg of one enemy and cutting deep into the stomach of another.

Brian spun; spinning the swords in his hands, slicing again. Both of the injured soldiers fell to the ground in splashes of blood.

There was a twang! behind Brian, and he spun, bringing both swords together in front of his face. The sword stopped less than inch from coming together, a crossbow bolt held quivering between them.

Several soldiers around Brian seemed to lose their nerve at this sign of obvious weapon mastery. Some turned to run, but as they turned their backs, Brian struck.

He ran forwards, jumping to the left, spinning, as he completed his spin, he struck out with his foot, catching a tree stump, pushing off, he spun to the right, extending his right sword as he went, it cut one soldiers head off. He kept spinning, striking with his left and then right sword again respectively. Two more men went down, Brian leaving one of his swords embedded in his neck.

Brian turned to face the three remaining soldiers in his vicinity, noticing that these had the look of experienced soldiers.

He stared at them coldly. He shifted his remaining sword to his left hand, drawing his sheathed sword backhanded with his right. He threw it into the air, the soldier's eyes followed it, expecting Brian to catch it again and do something flashy to try and unnerve them like so many amateurs tried to do.

Brian spun around, a full circle, releasing the other sword as he finished the move.

The sword spun on a horizontal axis, the blade glinting brightly as the sun caught it. The three soldiers would have blocked it or dodged if they had been looking, but they were all looking at the sword that Brian had thrown first.

The sword caught the middle soldier with the full length of the blade, nicking the one on the right with the very tip, causing a small spray of blood to erupt from his throat, he was as good as dead. The handle caught the remaining soldier flush in the face, knocking him unconscious. Brian held his hand up high, his sword landing perfectly in his hand. He spun it quickly, and in a flash of silver, sheathed it and fainted.

* * *

Matimura was asleep when Kylara entered the tent, she tried to sneak over to him, but Matimura woke up. He didn't move or make any indication that he had awoken. He always woke up when someone was trying to sneak past him. If they walked by normally, he would stay fast asleep. Kylara crept silently over to him. Matimura noticed that she was as quiet in her dragonet form as she was in her human form.

He yelped and jumped up in spite of himself when she placed her cold nose on the back of his neck.

She giggled and snuggled into his back as he grumbled angrily.

"And where have you been?" He asked.

"Around." She replied sweetly. Matimura could tell that she was being evasive.

"Why? Are you taking an interest in me now?" She purred in his ear, just as sweetly.

"Not really, just you haven't been here for a while." He said over his shoulder.

"I'm touched, I never knew you cared. I've actually been clearing up a little incident. Seems a there was an altercation involving a man and a lycanthrope that tried to take on a gryphon. Imagine that." She said. Matimura's stomach clenched at her mention of his recent fight.

"But it turns out everyone hated him anyway. So no harm done." She continued. She nibbled at his ear lobes for a while, and ran her tail up and down his back. Matimura knew exactly what she was trying to do.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" He burst out. "How old are you?"

"Oh, only seventy five." She replied, surprising Matimura. He had expected her to be much older.

"Well you're too old for me, aren't you?" He said, trying to make her leave him alone.

"Well, you know what they say about older women, they have more" She leaned into his body and hissed in his ear, "Experience."

"Kylara, you're a dragon, not a human, I don't think we could even do what you want to." He said, trying to get her to leave him alone with cold reasoning.

"We could, trust me on that. And I could be a woman if you wanted me to." She said.

Suddenly Matimura could feel the dainty hands of a woman running up and down his back.

"Or maybe you like men? Is that why?" She asked, and suddenly there were rough hands running up his back, unmistakably a mans.

"Orrr grrryphonsss?" She asked. And he had the sudden feeling that Kerasaline was snuggling up to him.

"Or puppy dogs?" She asked, and suddenly it was Debri who was curled up to him.

"Stop it!" He said sharply.

Kylara pouted into his ear and reverted to her dragonet form.

"What does it take to get you to leave me alone?" He asked desperately.

"Just give me what I want." She said. "Who knows, you might even enjoy it."

Matimura suddenly rolled over, grabbing Kylara and pulling her close, pressing his lips against her muzzle.

Kylara was stunned. But she quickly recovered, kissing him back passionately, pressing her body against him, feeling the growing bulge in his pants.

She purred in anticipation as he rolled her onto her back and began kissing down her body.

His hand slowly worked its way down her body, across her stomach, and then onto the soft lips of her pussy.

Kylara moaned into his mouth as he began to rub her.

Matimura suddenly stopped, rolling back onto his side away from her and looking disgusted with himself.

"Why?" She whispered in his ear.

"Too many witnesses." He mumbled back.

Kylara grasped him firmly with all her legs, and her eyes began to glow red.

Matimura suddenly found himself lying in her lair.

She rolled him onto his back and straddled him, licking his face and asking, "Now, where were we?"

Matimura kissed her again, and she began to work her body against him, rubbing the soft lips of her sex over his hard cock.

She slithered down his body, reluctantly pulling away from the kiss.

She reached his hips, and her claws flashed, tearing away his clothes, revealing his very hard erection.

She slithered back up his body, making sure that her whole body rubbed across his shaft, making him even hornier.

As soon as she was straddling him again, he reached up and engaged with her in another kiss.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" She asked uncertainly. Now that she had finally gotten what she wanted from him, she seemed uncertain about whether or not she wanted to go through with the act. "You know, we could just...pretend we did it?" She asked, half hopeful, half fearful, while feeling his delightfully hard cock pressing against her swollen and wet entrance.

"You made your bed, now you have to sleep in it." He replied with absolution.

"Or sleep with it in this instance." She said, laughing and rubbing the soft lips of her pussy across the head of his shaft, staring penetratingly into his eyes.

Matimura moaned in pleasure and grabbed her, pushing his hips upwards and kissing her passionately.

Kylara moaned as she felt his cock enter her. Her muscles tightened around him as he began to thrust, suckling on his long cock as only a dragon's pussy could.

Matimura rolled her over, kissing her neck and humping into her hot little body.

Kylara tilted her head back and moaned his name as he thrust into her again and again, her juices leaking from around his pumping member, her whole body rocking back and forth with the force of his thrusts.

Matimura began to moan her name with every thrust and Kylara began to squeal in time with the rocking of her body.

She felt his cock swell within her, and moaned out, wrapping her jaws around his shoulder gently, squealing loudly and bucking against him as she came.

Matimura thrust a few more times, roaring with pleasure as he erupted inside her, his cock jetting strong, milky spurts of cum into her belly. He thrust hard one last time, kissing her again, loving the feel of her tight pussy milking him for his cum.

He rolled to the side, careful not to fall on Kylara.

Kylara gave a little cry of satisfaction and released his shoulder, snuggling up to him for a long sleep, Matimura's cock still embedded firmly in her pussy.

* * *

Kylara awoke, leaving her eyes closed, to better enjoy the feeling of contention coursing through her body.

She heard movement nearby, and opened her eyes. Matimura was just finishing putting his clothes on with his back to her. He turned and left without even looking at her or saying a word, his attitude one of cold indifference.

A single teardrop fell from her eye as she watched him leave. She waited until she was sure that he was gone, before crying herself back to sleep.

* * *

"Jesus Christ." A voice said.

"Never seen anything like it." Said another.

The words seemed to be coming from far away, and Brian couldn't understand any of them. He entertained the notion that they might be talking gibberish, but then his mind started to pull itself together, and he started to understand some of what they were saying.

He was aware of warmth across his chest, and figured that Miralage was lying there.

"Who is he?" Anther voice asked.

"Damned if I know, that little dragon won't even let me revive him, every time I get close it tries to bite me." Replied another voice, with something close to exasperation.

Miralage hissed and snapped. Apparently, the man had tried to touch him.

"It is a girl, and it has a name." Brian said weakly. "It's Miralage. Disrespect her again and you'll have me to deal with."

"Well, Right now, I know several kittens who would be able to beat senseless in a one-on-one fight." The voice said, with something close to laughter this time.

"Do you mind calling off your little beastie so I can have a look at you?" The voice said.

Brian leapt from the bed, grabbing the man by the front of his shirt with one hand, his other hand holding Miralage gently, so that she wouldn't have been thrown to the floor when he leapt up.

He placed her one the bed, where she hissed at the man. "This is Miralage. Mess with her, you mess with me. Understand?" He asked, staring the man down.

Something in his eyes must have scared him, because he immediately apologised.

Settle down Brian. A soft voice said. I get to hiss and spit at him because I'm a female, and a dragon to boot, but if you start doing that to every one you meet, then you'll get a reputation as Mr. Surly.

Brian whirled, sure that it was Miralage that had spoken this time. It must have been her who had spoken at the battleground too.

Yes that was me, silly. You can't get angry during battle you know. You have to be calm, and thinking straight, without fear. Even I know that. And how old am I? The voice said, replying to his thoughts.

"Look, sorry." He said to the man he was just threatening. He let go of his shirt, and smoothed it down, brushing away a nonexistent patch of dust.

"People are always grouchy after casting a dragon spell." He said. "Apology accepted."

"Dragon spell?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, you just used a rage spell. The most powerful one I've seen. Well, maybe except for Ryshkae's mate. He could cast a mean rage spell." The man said, with an admiring look towards him.

"What was his name?" Brian asked, trying to keep his voice casual. He might just find out whom he was having memories of.

"Dunno, do I? No one knows. Not even Ryshkae herself knew. He just breezed in one day, met her, and became her mate. And then, about ten years ago he just ups and leaves." The man said nonchalantly.

"Any idea where he went?" Brian asked.

"Well, some say he went up north, for the warmth you know [this story takes place south of the equator], but I reckon, and a lot of people agree, that he opened a portal to another dimension." The last was said in a whisper. "He was experimenting for years before he came here, trying to find the right ley-lines or something, and he was really close just before he disappeared." He continued, still in that same whisper.

"Can dragons take human form?" Brain asked.

"Yeah, if they want, but most dragons don't. Except Kylara and Frethyl. They turn into women to go chase down human blokes." He laughed, "Frethyl almost got me once."

"Is it possible that he's still here somewhere in human form?" Brian asked, ignoring the information that female dragons were blatantly courting male humans.

"Nah. Ryshkae would have known. Even in human form, a dragon's scent and manner stays the same. Unless you mind wipe the dragon while its in human form. Even then, Indeago would still know. He knows the signature operating marks of every wizard in the world." He said.

"What do you mean I used dragon magic? I'm not a dragon." Brian said.

"You can learn to use dragon magic from a dragon. They just have to give it to you. I'd say you were given the magic by Ryshkae's mate?" He asked.

"Dunno." Brian replied unconcernedly. "No memory."

"Where is Indeago now, I need to see him." Brian said.

There was a rustle of wind, and the flap of the tent he was in opened by itself. The figure of Indeago slowly materialised through a swirling maelstrom of leaves and dirt.

"Someone call for me?" He asked.

"Check me for magic, tell me who gave this magic to me." Brian ordered. He really wanted to get to the bottom of this. It might even give him his memory back. How he knew that Indeago could tell who taught him magic, he didn't know, it was just another one of those unusual things that he just knew.

Indeago gave him a penetrating stare. Then said, "Ryshkae's mate gave you the spell."

"Is that why I'm having all these fucked up memories I don't own?" Brain asked, more than a little pissed off again.

"It is possible that, by giving you this spell, Ryshkae's mate may have given you his memories by accident. But I'm sure that Ryshkae's mate didn't mean to do this.

Ryshkae's mate was a powerful, smart magic user. Ryshkae's mate wouldn't have given you his memories on purpose, because you could use them against him if you wished." Indeago said.

"Stop calling him 'Ryshkae's mate' his names Trinyth." Brian said irritably. Everyone just seemed to be getting on his nerves.

"How do you know his name?" Indeago asked him quietly.

"Whose name?" Brian asked wearily,

"Ryshkae's mate." Indeago said, in a soft voice. Far from sounding pleasantly soft like Miralage's voice, this was a low, dangerous voice that Brain was far too angry to take any notice of.

"I don't know, I lost my memory, remember." Brain snapped, getting up and walking straight past Indeago and out of the tent. Miralage followed him, nipping at Indeago's ankles as she passed, warning him off in her mind, even though she was far to young to warn anyone off.

* * *

"Have fun?" Skel asked the second he saw Matimura enter the tent. Kerasaline's head shot up, and she looked at him half expectantly, half fearfully.

"Fun?" He asked blankly.

"With Kylarrra." Skel replied, leering widely, "I sssaw you two teleporrrt lassst night. I rrreckon ssshe finally got what ssshe wanted. Ssso, did you have fun?" He asked again.

"No it wasn't fun." Matimura said, sighing. Skel would obviously find out any way.

"You're the only male who's been with her who didn't want to do it again. And again. And ag--" Skel kept saying 'and again' over and over until Matimura finally cried out in exasperation. "I get the picture!"

"Maybe she'll leave me alone now." Matimura said, with a heartfelt sigh relief.

"Oh no." Trilled Skel. "Ssshe wantsss you for life." Skel replied.

"Life?" Matimura asked incredulously.

"Yesss, life." Skel said gleefully. "Ssshe doesss it to everrry male ssshe latchesss on to."

"She wouldn't have time to get more than one male. She's only seventy." Matimura replied, calling Skel's bluff.

"Not arrround herrre." Skel said, still in that gleeful voice. "The averrrage life expectancy arrround herrre isss only a few yearrrs. Everrry time ssshe findsss a male that ssshe likesss, he goesss and getsss himssself killed in battle. Thatsss why mossst of the people arrround herrre call her jinx." And then Skel fell about, laughing raucously, stopping only when his laughter caused his wounds to stretch to far and cause him pain.

"So I can't rid of her until I die?" He asked, exasperated.

"Nope." Skel said wisely, almost laughing again. "You arrre well and trrruly ssscrrrewed my frrriend."

Matimura gave a groan of mingled anger and exasperation and leapt onto the blankets next to Kerasaline, who had been staring at him incredulously the whole time.

"You ssslept with Kylarrra?" She asked.

"Well, I did say that didn't I?" He replied irritably. He wasn't happy about the fact that he hadn't gotten rid of Kylara.

Kerasaline gave him a hurt look and stalked out of the tent, her ruffs flushed pink, her talons digging great gouges out of the ground as she went.

"Now what am I supposed to have done?" He asked the tent at large.

"I think that ssshe thinksss that you think, that ssshe thinksss that ssshe likesss you." Skel said knowledgably.

Matimura just stared at him, completely confused.

"Tell it to me straight, stupid bird, before I clip your wings at the shoulder." Matimura said, only half-playfully.

"She likesss you, she wantsss you." He said slowly, drawing out each syllable, making the rolling and hissing even more pronounced.

Matimura gave an exclamation of disgust and threw the blankets over his head.

"You have sssome ssseriousss lady problemsss therrre sssilly human." Skel said, with a completely straight face, and then fell about laughing again.

Matimura joined him. Laughing at the complete absurdity of it. He had just made love to a dragon, which seemed to be completely in love with him, and the gryphon that he had befriended thought that he was in love with her, and thought that he had cheated on her. All that coupled with the fact that he was a human, made it just unbearable funny.

He finally emerged from the blankets, his face rather red from laughing, ready to face the world with hidden feelings again.

Kerasaline re-entered the tent just then, and gave him a highly affronted look before stalking back over to the blankets that Debri used, so that she didn't have to go near him.

Matimura began laughing again. It was a long time before he was able to stop.

"What's so funny?!" Screeched Kerasaline.

"Funny? Nothing's funny." Matimura said, laughing again.

"I think he'sss having a nerrrvousss brrreakdown." Skel said quietly.

"I'll give him a breakdown!" Kerasaline spat, advancing on the laughing human with talons outstretched.

"Don't." Hissed Skel, stopping her by stretching out a bandaged wing in front of her. This was a dangerous manoeuvre. He couldn't move very far, so the only thing he could do was stretch out his wing. But exposing the soft skin of his wing to an angry gryphon, even one as small as Kerasaline, was a very dangerous, brave, and at the same time, overly stupid thing to do.

Kerasaline turned around, stalking back to the bed, muttering the warning; "He had better make it up to me." Before grabbing a pillow and biting into it viscously, shaking it from side to side, savaging it so badly that the whole tent was covered in goose feathers.

Debri walked in then. She took one look around and said dryly, "Looks like someone get their molt."

She then turned a worried eye towards the laughing Matimura. He was almost laughing hysterically now.

"Why doesn't someone do something about that idiot?" She asked.

Skel gave her an apologetic gryphon-shrug, and Kerasaline just glared at her until she looked away.

Debri walked towards Matimura, and then slapped him hard across the face.

Matimura's whole manner changed instantly, from one of jolly laughter, to one of murderous intent.

He leapt at Debri, drawing his sword and unleashing a brutal side swing with as much power as he could.

But he was fighting with anger, not thought.

Debri stepped into the arc of his arm, grabbing his arm, stopping him before the blade got anywhere near her.

She then slid under his outstretched arm, twisting it behind his back and laying a claw across his throat carelessly as his sword fell from reluctant fingers.

"Give me a reason." She growled into his ear.

"Wake up to yourself." She growled.

While she had been holding him, she had been working a silent spell. It was a tiny fire spell, centred on each of her claws on her left hand, the one holding his arm.

She then released his arm and raked the red-hot claws across his throat, making it feel as though she had just slashed open his throat.

She then grabbed his shoulders in her paws, and threw him across the tent, twisting him so he landed on his back.

The force of him landing on his back, coupled with the misguided thought that he had just gotten his throat slashed, caused his brain to basically shut down.

When someone experiences head trauma of any kind, the brain literally stops working for a few seconds. The tiny electronic impulses sent from cell to cell are jolted so badly that they lose their pre-programmed algorithms. This is what causes the stunned condition when you are hit on the head.

The brain then has to boot each cell, cluster by cluster, to restore control. This all happens in a matter of milliseconds.

This is what had happened to Matimura, and his brain rebooting cleared away the effects of the breakdown he was experiencing.

He stood up, and walked over to Debri.

Debri's hands immediately came up into a fighting stance. She didn't have a chance this time. Against an angry Matimura, acting on impulse, she could win easily, but a calm, calculating Matimura, she didn't have a chance against.

Matimura grabbed her hands and forced them together, twisting her wrists until she was down on her knees.

He then kicked his sword up to his left hand, his right hand holding her paws high above her head, completely immobile.

He sheathed his sword, and picked Debri up off the ground easily.

He wrapped his arms around her, and placed his head on her shoulder.

Debri was surprised, but she hugged him back. "Thank you." He whispered in her ear before pulling away.

He walked out of the tent, leaving a completely confused silence in his wake. He would deal with Kerasaline later, after he had a long talk with Kylara.

"I haven't ssseen anything thisss ssstrrrange ssssince Kylara mated that gay prrriessst." Skel said, looking incredulously towards the tent flap.

"Gay priest?" Debri asked. Skel and Kerasaline laughed while Debri just looked confused.

* * *

Matimura searched everywhere, but he couldn't find Kylara anywhere. Her bulk made her instantly visible in any line-up, and it took only a cursory glance into her cave for him to see that she wasn't there.

He decided to wait in her cave. She would have to return to it at some point.

That was when he spotted the note.

It was lying almost perfectly in the centre of the room, folded as small as possible. From the flattened look of it, Kylara had stomped on it at her full size.

Matimura went over and picked it up.

The writing was thin and slanting, barely legible, and somehow conveyed a great sense of anger, even though it was made of only ink and paper.

I have gone to throw myself off a cliff. Follow and die. Was all it said. It was obviously meant for Matimura.

He sighed and started the long climb to the peak of the mountain.

He found Kylara about a hundred metres from the peak, standing on a wide, shallowly slanting ledge that ended in a sheer drop down the side of the mountain. She was at her full, intimidating size, her head just over the edge of the cliff, glaring down at the mountain as though it had done her a serious personal insult.

He had approached from the other side of the mountain, so she didn't know he was there until he spoke.

"I thought that you would have jumped already." He said observed cynically.

"I did." She said, with a look of self-disgust. "But I opened my wings every time." She then glared at him, daring him to come into range of her mouth or tail.

"Why are you throwing yourself off a cliff anyway?" He asked, crossing his arms and leaning against an upthrust of rock, seeming to be completely at ease.

She hissed at him. "Don't act stupid, you pathetic excuse for a mammal. I've seen mice with more balls than you." She said viciously, snapping her jaws at him.

"Well, this 'pathetic excuse for a mammal' seems to have made you slightly angry, so whose the lesser being here, the pathetic mammal? Or the reptile who fell in love with him?" He replied unconcernedly, flicking a snowflake off his shoulder. They were very high up.

She gave him a look of deepest loathing, and turned back to the ledge, staring down the mountain and getting ready to jump.

"Why are you so pissed off anyway? There are other men out there. I mustn't be the first one who's had sex with you just to get you to go away." He said, cocking his head to the side and staring up at her.

"Shows how much you know." She snapped, lowering herself to the ground, muscles tensing like springs, looking for the entire world like a gigantic cat getting ready to pounce on a rat.

"You mistook lust for love and affection, Kylara, there's a big difference." He said.

"What difference?" Kylara thundered, turning towards him and towering over him. In her anger, billows of steam were starting to pour from her nostrils.

"What difference?" She yelled again. Matimura resisted the impulse to cover his ears and cower, he was sure that the whole camp would have heard that. "There is no difference to you. You care nothing for anyone except yourself! You treat mating as if it just a tool for your use! You used that just to get me to go away! You should be thankful that I don't tear you limb from limb! What difference is there between love and lust?! To you, nothing! You'll never be happy! I hope you treat your mate this way, because if you do, the best thing that will happen to you is getting knifed in the back while you sleep!" She yelled, turning back towards the cliff, leaving Matimura with ringing ears.

"It was the only way to get rid of you, don't you understand that?" He asked desperately.

"Only way to get rid of me?! Mating with me was the only way to get rid of me?! That's how you tell someone to go away?! All you had to do was sit me down and tell me you didn't love me! But no! Mr. Man has to go sleep with me as a way of telling me to get lost! All the while giving me false hope that maybe you felt something for me! When all I was to you is some kind of beast!" She yelled. By this point, Matimura was sure that he would never be able to hear anything again.

"You wouldn't listen to reason! You were lust-crazed! I gave you what you told me you wanted! What else was I supposed to give you!?" He yelled, his anger finally showing through.

"You were supposed to love me!" She yelled back, turning away from the ledge again to face him fully.

"You didn't want love! You were running around like a bitch in heat, trying to get me to sleep with you! Skel told me about all the other men you chased after! I was just another conquest to you! You were nothing to me and I was nothing to you! And you know it!" He shouted, his anger fully evident now.

"You were my first!" She half-screamed, half-sobbed, yelling the words at the top of her lungs. The four syllables rang in the air as she whipped her tail at him, throwing her considerable bulk into the blow.

He had time for a look of complete and utter astonishment, before the end of her tail caught him square across the chest with rib-breaking force, lifting him up and throwing him over the edge of the cliff and out of sight.