# Fire and Ice - Chapter Four - Dark Secrets Revealed

Author: Cederwyn Whitefurr
Tags: Betrayal, Compassion, Doe, Dragoness, Fantasy, Human, Knight, Medieval, Transformation, Whitetail, trust

#4 of Fire and Ice

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Fire and Ice  
 Chapter IV - Dark Secret Revealed  
 © Cederwyn Whitefurr  
 June 2003.  
 All Rights Reserved.

Jessica rolled over and nuzzled the throat of Sir Kathis, who moaned and  
 caressed her slender jaw line, gazing into her eyes. He shuddered as her  
 sharp claw tips scratched his thickly haired chest, the sensation sending  
 his already jangled nerves to singing once again.

"Milady - I.about last night." He stammered, suddenly getting his wits and  
 bearings.

Jessica rose lithely from the bed, her cloven hooves clicking softly  
 against the hard packed dirt, her naked, furred body showing bleeding  
 scratches down her back as she stood, her hoof-paw's clasped before her, as  
 she stared out through the bedroom window, her back to him, ears folded flat  
 against the back of her neck. She seemed oblivious to the fact that she was  
 as naked as the day she had been born, clothed only in her matted and  
 bloodied pelt. For some time she remained quiet, then spoke, her voice  
 barely a whisper.

"Sir Kathis," She began, then paused and hung her head and sighed, before  
 clearing her throat with a delicate cough. "Last night, you were like some  
 wild, untamed beast. You took me as your own, ravaged me in every way  
 possible a man can take a woman, treated me no better than some common  
 street-wench."

Sir Kathis blinked and an uncontrollable shudder ran through him, his heart  
 turning to stone in his chest, his blood to ice water. He rolled out of bed  
 and wrapped himself in the sticky sheet, then came over and laid his strong,  
 calloused hand on her shoulder, feeling the young Whitetail tremble at his  
 touch.

"I - I never meant." He stammered.

"You.frightened me." Jessica admitted.

Sickened by what he must have done, yet bearing no recollection of it, he  
 tried to find words to soothe the shivering, naked Doe who stood with her  
 back to him.

"I." He croaked weakly.

Without warning, Jessica twisted about and wrapped her hoof-paws about his  
 neck and pulled him tight, her incredible warmth flooding over him as she  
 nuzzled his throat and thickly maned chest.

"Do it again." She murred.

He gasped and stumbled back from her, eyes wide in surprise and confusion.  
 Tripping over his discarded leggings and tunic, he fell with a heavy crash  
 down onto her bed. Jessica was on him in an instant, kneeling over him and  
 pressing her surprisingly strong grip onto his shoulders. To Sir Kathis, it  
 felt as if a mountain was pinning him down, yet the actual weight of the Doe  
 's hot, sweaty body against his was barely noticeable. Her eyes sparkled  
 with an intense longing that sent shivers through his body, even as she  
 pressed her hips down against him - and yet again, as if with a will of its  
 own, his body responded to the Doe's wishes.

\*

Hours later, they lay sprawled together, Sir Kathis' snores rumbling like a  
 sleeping Dragon, and Jessica tenderly unfolded his arm for around her and  
 slipped out of the bed. Flicking a quick glance back at him, she moved like  
 a wisp across the bedroom and out into the main room. With a startled yelp  
 her hoof come down on the smooth hilt of his sword and it twisted beneath  
 her, the loud crack of fracturing bones in her ankle ricocheting off the  
 walls. Whimpering, Jessica hobbled over and sat down on a chair and  
 gingerly probed her ankle, feeling the damage deep within it. Her gaze was  
 drawn back to the sword that lay half-unsheathed on the floor, the brilliant  
 blue glow of its icy flames transfixing her gaze. Unable to help herself,  
 she carefully made her way towards it, drawn as a moth is drawn to a candle  
 flame.

Kneeling, she grasped the heavy sword in her paw - then her world came  
 crashing down around her ears.

Pain! Such incredible agony seared like liquid fire up through her hoof-paw  
 and tore its way along nerve, muscle and bone, as if her very arm had been  
 plunged into a vat of magma. As she drew breath to scream, her lungs turned  
 to ash in her chest and her entire body was consumed by the unimaginable  
 anguish that flooded her very being, almost feeling as if it would surely  
 rend her very soul apart. At last she did scream, a high-pitched, long, and  
 despairing wail - before her body crumpled to the ground and lay still..

\*

Sir Kathis gurgled and rolled over, then sat up as his hands met the damp  
 straw stuffed mattress, and a cold jolt of fear ran through him, as he leapt  
 to his feet and hurriedly pulled on his leggings and tunic, then ran through  
 out into the main room. Here, he gasped in horror, seeing the twisted,  
 still form of Jessica lying sprawled on the floor, a thin rivulet of blood  
 oozing from her muzzle and forming a growing, sticky pool about her head and  
 neck.

"Lady Jessica - no!" Sir Kathis screamed in horror, as he dropped to his  
 knees and picked up her limp form, clutching it against his chest.

Jessica lay like a bag of bones covered in fur, her every muscle limp and  
 unresponsive, her neck flopping backwards as if it were surely broken.

"Come on, please.don't do this to me.not now." Sir Kathis wept, as he  
 cradled her head against his chest. "Milady, please - come back to me.."

He began to weep - something he had not done in over forty-five years,  
 since he was only a young child, and as his tears slid down his cheeks, long  
 buried memories came back to haunt his tormented mind..

\*

He had been a mere strip of a boy, barely six winters old, when he had  
 witnessed a pair of Dragon's descend down on his village and proceed to raze  
 it to the ground. They had been rampaging, unstoppable engines of  
 destruction, smashing apart the stone and thatch huts, squashing humans  
 beneath their iron-like hind talons, or worse.snatching them up in their  
 claws and devouring their screaming victims alive. As a young child, he had  
 stood rooted to the spot, as the two commanding reptiles wreaked a bloody  
 swatch of violence through his village, the screams of the dying searing his  
 ears, as the tears ran down his cheeks unimpeded. His mother and father,  
 who worked as the village blacksmith's, stood before their son, wielding  
 shimmering swords, as the two Dragon's whirled towards the impudent mortals,  
 then stopped and looked at each other. Together, they each chose one of his  
 parents, and as the terrified young boy watched, snatched them up and  
 devoured them. It was a memory that had been burned into the boy's mind  
 ever since, and it was this one act that had set him on his life's quest, to  
 hunt down and destroy Dragons.

One of the Dragon's looked down hungrily at the boy, who would not even  
 have been a snack for the slavering beast that towered above him, but the  
 other, slightly smaller one, roared and sank it's jaws into the larger one's  
 neck, just as it leapt towards the boy. Within seconds, the two Dragon's  
 were involved in a violent, bloody battle, clawing, raking and biting at  
 each other, their long canines gleaming as again and again they lashed out  
 at each other. Helplessly, the boy watched on, transfixed by the battle of  
 these two incredible beasts, but at last the larger one screamed and took  
 wing, obviously beaten in the frantic battle. Bloodied, weak and exhausted,  
 the smaller Dragon lay itself down and its great panting breath washed over  
 the boy with the smell of death and blood. Resolute, the boy reached down  
 and picked up his fathers fallen sword, and clutching it between his hands,  
 moved towards the exhausted reptile, his face not one of justified vengeance  
 and hate, but one of pity and compassion.

Before him, the Dragon only rolled its large, liquid mercury like eyes up  
 at the boy, and as he raised the sword and held it in his straining hands  
 between the Dragon's eyes, it merely groaned weakly and as he watched, two  
 large tears squeezed their way from the corner of the Dragon's eyes, turning  
 to fine crystal as they slid down the reptile's cheeks and plopping to the  
 ground. It was this one moment, that made the boy pause, and he felt his  
 rage sluice from him, and he dropped the sword and wrapped his arms over the  
 Dragon's snout and hugged as tightly as he could. Surprise come over the  
 great Dragon's expression, and it rolled its silvery eyes up and locked  
 gazes with the boy.and something flashed between them - bridging the gulf  
 between mere mortal and the genius intellect of the Dragon. It was  
 something neither understood, but both felt deeply moved by. Slowly, the  
 boy released the Dragon, who rose weakly and shook itself, the silvery  
 scales glimmering, before it looked down at the boy and executed an  
 intricate curtsey, bending its left foreleg out straight, the right coming  
 to a kneeling position, as it stretched out its neck and lay its chin  
 against the ground, the wings unfurling and sweeping back to brush against  
 the ground.

Blinking, the boy bowed stiffly in reply, then stepped back as the Dragon  
 reached out and took its crystallised tears in its claws, then squeezed them  
 shut, before it closed its eyes. A bright, almost pure white light  
 encircled the Dragon's clenched claws, then it turned them over and the  
 light vanished, before the Dragon crouched and held out its claws to the  
 boy, who looked on in awe as the two tears had been fused into perfect fist  
 sized diamonds. Nodding, the Dragon held them out, and the boy hesitantly  
 took them one at a time, then looked up in confusion at the Dragon, who only  
 smiled sadly, then unfurled its leathery wings and slowly began to beat  
 them - raising a stinging cloud of grit, dust and debris. Hurriedly, the  
 boy moved away and with a roar of wind, the Dragon leapt into the darkening  
 sky and was soon swallowed up by the swirling storm clouds far above..

\*

His salty tears spattered down onto Jessica's bloodied muzzle, then in  
 desperation, he pulled her limp, boneless neck up and pressed his lips to  
 hers, breathing deeply into her lungs. Again and again he did this, and  
 finally, with a choking gasp, Jessica stirred, then convulsed and began  
 gagging. Sir Kathis lowered her to the ground and rolled her onto her side,  
 watching as the stricken Doe bucked and retched, finally vomiting up blood  
 and bile from deep within herself, before she gurgled and lapsed into  
 unconsciousness. Relief washed from him in waves, as he crouched and picked  
 her limp form up in his strong arms, then carried her into the bedroom and  
 lay her down on her bed, propping the mangy wolf skin pillow under her head  
 and neck, before he left and returned with a bowl of water and a cloth.  
 Gingerly, he dabbed at the blood that spattered her muzzle and he stroked  
 her cheek tenderly, before carefully taking her hoof-paw in his and  
 squeezing, as he continued to wash away the blood.

\*

For three days and nights, Jessica lay in a near cataleptic state, her  
 breath barely felt and her heartbeat so low, that Sir Kathis surely felt she  
 had passed on to the next world. It was late on the third night, the  
 cottage blazing with bursts of light as the heavens outside roiled and  
 clashed, the thunder booming like Titan's engaged in some mighty war, the  
 torrential rain pounding down from the seething, boiling heavens. Sir  
 Kathis dozed quietly beside Jessica, then without warning, her catalepsy  
 broke and she began screaming and convulsing wildly, clawing at the air and  
 shrieking incoherently. Sir Kathis leapt from his chair beside her bed,  
 then pulled the shrieking Whitetail against him and held her tightly,  
 stroking her ears.

"Milady.shhh.you're alright." He whispered, trying to soothe her.

"What.who." Jessica squealed, then blinked and shuddered, going limp.  
 "What, what happened to me?"

"I was hoping," Sir Kathis spoke soothingly. "That you could tell me."

Jessica gasped and shuddered, flicking her hoof-paw's across her eyes, then  
 whimpering as her injured hoof-paw's blazed with pain. Sir Kathis gently  
 took her wrists in his hands and pulled away the bandaged hoof-paws, laying  
 them gingerly back on the Doe's stomach.

"I found you unconscious outside, in the main room. It seemed that you'd  
 stumbled over my sword, and." Sir Kathis began, then his words trailed off  
 as his eyes widened slowly. "My sword.."

Jessica's eyes widened as memory flooded back in on her, and she hurriedly  
 gave a low, whimpering cry that brought Sir Kathis' attention back to her.

"Rest here my.love." Sir Kathis spoke as he gently stroked her ears. "I  
 need to go check something."

"No!" Jessica wailed, as she clung to him. "Please, I'm scared."

Torn between his duty of care to the injured Whitetail and his niggling  
 doubts, he paused and stood trembling, then without another word, moved  
 purposefully away from her and out into the main room, the door swinging  
 closed behind him.

\*

Lying on her bed, Jessica stared at the closed wooden door, her expression  
 turning dark and predatory, as her eyes turned to a brilliant incandescent  
 silvery glow, a low, menacing growl escaping her throat before she squeezed  
 her hoof-paws tightly together and fought down the anger that blazed white  
 hot within her, but only just managing to regain her composure..

\*

Sir Kathis reeled, clutching the unsheathed sword as he stared at the  
 cerulean blaze of the icy flames that wreathed his sword.

"No." He moaned in horror. "No, it's impossible.I know what she is.."

As if in response, the sword burned colder in his grasp, its angry flames  
 flickering and waving, almost as if it had a mind of its own.

"No damn you," Sir Kathis screamed. "I know who she is, she is the one who  
 has brought me such pleasure, such kindness and above all.taught me what it  
 is like to love someone! I will not believe - "

He whirled about, as he heard Jessica's soft, pitiful sob, and she moved to  
 the fireplace, resting her paw's against the warm mantle, before she  
 sniffled and took a pitch soaked torch from the woodpile and lit it in the  
 fireplace. Sir Kathis watched her in bewilderment, as she led him outside.  
 Held high above her head, the torch hissing and sputtering in the rain, and  
 she turned her muzzle towards the sky and at a single word from her, the  
 rain turned to drizzle, the churning, boiling clouds breaking apart, to  
 reveal the full moon, its silvery face blazing down, bathing the ground and  
 cottage in its cool embrace.

"You say you love me - you called me your beloved," Jessica wept, her tears  
 sliding down her cheeks.

Sir Kathis stared, then knelt in the mud before her, placing his sword at  
 her hooves, and noticing as Jessica flinched and took a step backwards, away  
 from it.

"Milady, my heart, my soul, and my sword are yours - command me as you  
 will, and as the God's themselves are my witness, I pledge my life to you,  
 and my hand in marriage, if you would have it."

"I." Jessica whimpered, then turned away, hanging her head. "Milord.as  
 much as I would.it would be living a lie. I am living a lie.and I must  
 confess my terrible secret to you. Take the torch I bear, and I will reveal  
 that which I have hidden from you."

Confused and uncertain, Sir Kathis did so, and then watched as Jessica  
 moved herself between the torch and the wall, standing side-on to him and  
 the sputtering torch he held.

"Raise the torch and cast my shadow on the wall - " Jessica whimpered, as  
 she dropped her gaze to the cold, frosty ground.

Sir Kathis did so, slowly raising the torch, then his eyes widened as  
 Jessica's shadow rose with it, revealing not the form of the whitetail doe  
 he had come to love and take as his mate - but something from his darkest  
 nightmares....

Her shadow wavered and flickered, then solidified as the dark silhouette of  
 a dragon - its distinct head, powerful jaw-line, long - sharp canines and  
 back-swept horns at the back of the head.

"No - " Sir Kathis gasped, as his eyes widened in horror and the torch fell  
 from his nerveless grasp. "No - I know who you are...I know what you are!"

"No my love - " Jessica wept, bowing her head. "My shadow cannot lie, even  
 if I can.and have. I am not what you have taken in your arms, I am not the  
 one you have pledged your very life too. I lied to you my beloved, and for  
 that, I offer no excuse, none I could offer would suffice."

"How - how could you...." He gurgled, his face paling.

Jessica had no answers for her mate...she only prayed for a quick, painless  
 death. It was the least she deserved for her selfish betrayal. She  
 whimpered, then moved away from him, and knelt down onto the mud and her  
 body began to glow and writhe, as she screamed and dug her hoof-paws into  
 the dirt, her body stretching and running like wax, before the glow that  
 enfolded her forced Sir Kathis to look away and cover his eyes with his  
 hands.

When he could see again, the Doe he had known and loved was gone, replaced  
 with the crouched form of a majestic silver dragon, her deep glacier blue  
 eyes gazing sadly at him, as she stretched and unfurled her wings, then  
 folded them over her back.

"You.I know who you are - " Sir Kathis gasped, his eyes widening.

"Yes, I see the hate reflected in your eyes, it was I and my mate.that  
 destroyed your village, your people.your family." Whispered the dragon, her  
 head bowed in grief.

"Give me one damn reason why I shouldn't run my sword through that black  
 heart of yours!" Sir Kathis snarled in sudden fury.

"I offer no excuse.for my crimes. My only reason, was one driven purely by  
 my hate of you and your kind.for it was one of your kind, who stole  
 something from me and my mate, something that could never be compensated  
 for.not now, and not ever."

Sir Kathis paused, reeling as the dragon's words slowly burned away the  
 hate within him.

"One of your kind - a Knight, stole from me and my mate, our only  
 offspring. For decades, had we bred, yet never had my beloved's seen taken  
 within my body.and I feared I was barren. Then, once, and only once, his  
 seed did take, and grow within me - and I lay a single egg. We were  
 overjoyed, and guarded our sole egg with every known enchantment and mundane  
 ward we could.."

With a pitiful sob, the Dragon squeezed its eyes closed and shook with pain  
 that Sir Kathis was incapable of imagining.

"We were over-confidant, and it was in this, that lay our downfall.  
 Somehow, a lone knight found our one chink in our armour, and with the theft  
 of our offspring, turned my mate and I too evil and destruction. We only  
 sought he who had stolen our offspring from us, but we hunted that vile  
 thief high and low, yet never found him. Our despair and rage grew and new  
 no bounds, and we turned our hate towards all mankind, seeking to punish  
 them for that which they had brought down on us. If only now, I knew what a  
 terrible, terrible price I would be forced to pay for my hate of your  
 people.."

It's eyes opened again, and it stared deep into the stunned expression of  
 Sir Kathis.

"Yes - my brave, valorous knight - it was by your hand, that murdered my  
 mate.twenty winters past. I knew then and there, that you had come to seek  
 your vengeance for our crimes, and my mate paid his due with his life.  
 Once, you spared my life, and now - I ask, no, I beg, for you to find it in  
 your heart, to forgive me."

Sir Kathis shook with feelings of rage and despair, both equally tearing at  
 his heart and mind, fighting to dominate and conquer his emotions, for good  
 or for ill.

"I ask you this, brave Sir Knight. Do you so crave my head? Do you wish  
 to bathe yourself in my blood? I offer you no resistance - I will not fight  
 you. Take your sword, drive it into my scaled breast, and end my pain. I do  
 not deserve pity, or mercy - for my crimes, I should join my beloved in the  
 darkest depths of the hells. I only ask of you this, did you truly mean it,  
 when you said you loved me?"

"I.I loved the Doe, not some cold hearted murderer! Yes - I did mean what  
 I said, but that was to the kind, gentle and loving Whitetail.not.you." He  
 snarled, his body shaking.

"Look at me, brave Knight. Look long and hard into my eyes, for she and I,  
 are one and the same. I am the Whitetail you took into your arms, and  
 loved.the one you pledged your heart, soul and sword too." Whispered the  
 Dragon quietly, staring intently into his eyes. "Or do you so wish of my  
 head? If you do, then please, I beg of you, make my suffering end now.  
 Cleave my head from my neck, with one stroke. I will not fight you.my  
 love."

Laying herself prone before him, the Dragon stretched her head and neck out  
 along the mud at his feet, and then closed it's eyes. Sir Kathis raised his  
 sword, his tears streaking down his cheeks, as he took a two handed grip and  
 moved towards her, then stood astride her slender scaled neck, his sword  
 held ready, its icy flames dancing and flickering hungrily, fully expecting  
 to slake it's thirst in the Dragons blood. As Sir Kathis stood astride her  
 neck, his arms began to shake, then his whole body. With a snarl of anger,  
 he drove his sword down.and there was a loud, braying shriek of reptilian  
 terror and agony.

To Be Continued.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/Rm075QeD
Part of the series Fire and Ice
Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/148798-fire-and-ice-chapter-three-a-bond-is-forged.md
Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/148800-fire-and-ice-chapter-five-the-fallen-knight.md