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Chapter Fourteen

Like an arrow loosed from the bow of God himself, I erupted from the still forest and onto the road, charging straight towards the gate. I can only imagine the shock that must have burst into the man's mind at the sight of several dozen feet of black scaled, painted helmet clad dragon springing out from the trees, and running straight at him. He would have only a heartbeat to register what was about to happen before I was upon him. Yet for me, that single heartbeat seemed an eternity.

As if time itself were mired in quicksand, I could nearly feel the blood pounding through my veins, rushing through my limbs, and wings with the hammering of heart. I could see every little detail across the man's body, from the tarnished dullness of the metal studs that coated the padded leather he wore in neat little rows, to the stitching where several sections of that same leather had been bound together. The unshaved stubble that coated much of his face, the fear slowly dawning in dark brown eyes, hair sticking out at odd angles beneath his simple iron helmet. His hand reaching for his sword, fingers wrapping around smudged and dirty leather-wrapped iron hilt. The scabbard buckled in a simple black belt around breeches that had once been dark blue but were smeared with mud and unwashed stains.

The glint of morning sunlight upon sharp steel as he pulled the blade from it's sheath. Four or so inches of gleaming steel unveiled just as I crashed into him. I lowered my head as I ran, and rammed my broad, horned head directly into his chest with all the force I could muster. I was not ramming into him, I was ramming through him. Hell, I was ramming my way through the wooden gate he stood in front of, he was just in the way. There was a loud metallic CLANG as the metal of my helmet met the studs in his armor, a battle my helmet won with overwhelming force and complete casualties on behalf of the armor.

The CLANG echoed loudly enough around my ears to nearly overwhelming the great coughing exhalation of breath the man gave as I hit him. The last breath that would ever fill his lungs, as it turned out. I hit him so hard that that the metal studs meant to protect him punched backwards through his armor and into his flesh, his ribs and sternum shattered and collapsed in on his organs, and if the man was not already dead by the time he was crushed against the gateway, he would be any moment after that. The second impact forced a spray of blood from his mouth that splattered my helmet in more red blotches and speckles. No matter, that would only add to my appearance.

I knew from my reconnaissance the night before that the tall, wooden gate was not as sturdy as it looked. Sure, no single human or even group of humans could likely break it down without at least a battering ram, but I was hardly a human. With a helmet and a naturally thick skull I probably wouldn't have been injured anyway, but I might have jammed my spine in the process. Thankfully, I had a human to cushion the blow for me.

The absolute full force of my momentum transferred first through the human and then into the gateway, and then beyond it. My neck jarred painfully and would probably be quite stiff the next day, but already the delicious flood of adrenaline was pouring through my black scaled body, draconic endorphins crowding out the worst of the pain immediately. The gate was essentially two tall wooden doors that when opened, swung inward on simple metal hinges set in place on either side of the wooden wall that surrounded the village. The gates themselves were kept locked by simple but sturdy wooden crossbars set in three places across the gates, held in position by metal brackets they were placed into.

Though more then strong enough to withstand any force a human could muster without the aid of tools, they were in no way meant to withstand the full force and fury of an angry dragon. As my forward momentum continued to transfer, the doors buckled inward against the crossbeams which could not stop such incredible force. For a moment they bent in a way wood rarely bends, and then they simply exploded with a crack so loud it sounded like nails were being driven directly into my sensitive ears. I continued forward, and as it worked out, so did the doors.

As the crossbars exploded, the doors shattered as well. One of them broke in half, the other was wrenched from it's hinges and hurtled forward. Thick jagged chunks of wooden shrapnel and splinters fanned outward from where the gates once stood, a large chunk of former crossbar wood imbedded itself in the throat of the man standing on the other side of the gate. Grasping his throat, blood poured over his fingers as a heavy section of door fell against him, pinning him to the ground. Though crashing through the gate had slowed me somewhat and left my ears ringing, I was still running. I trampled the man beneath the shattered gate, stomping a hind foot down upon what was left of his face to make sure he was dead. No sense in leaving him to suffer from what would eventually be a mortal wound, I thought

My initial attack had taken only a matter of seconds, and I had already killed two of the men I was here for. Two down, several dozen to go if I was lucky. The violence and volume of the gates destruction had gotten the attention of town, I was sure. Though probably not quite as much as the sight of a blood splattered dragon literally charging right through the gateway! I heard screams from both men and woman, and up the main road a ways it looked as though some sort of market place was going on. Or at least, had been going on up until a few seconds ago.

And still I saw almost everything as if in a strange dream played at half the speed of life. I saw a man cruelly shaking a woman selling meats she was cooking above a small fire, probably just because she'd asked him to pay her for once. His shaking came to a stop, and when he turned eyes upon me, I could see the terror even at this distance. He shoved the woman back into her own stand, topping the small wooden structure where she'd hung and displayed the various cuts of meat she had for sale. As it collapsed beneath her, the man began to draw his sword.

Elsewhere, men and woman both were hawking other wares. Several small canvas covered wagons were joined by bands of colorful cloth strung between them, and a long, narrow stand set up in front of the wooden wagons had all sorts of silks and bolts of various fabrics for sale. Crates with chicken and other fowl were stacked one on top of another, near a basket of straw and fresh eggs. Feathers flew in all directions as the birds erupted into squawking madness at the sight of me. Another cart was set up near the braying donkey that usually pulled it, several baskets filled with various fresh fruits were on display, filling the cart with an admittedly striking array of color. Red, orange, yellow, even green and purple. They certainly had a lot of fruit here.

Strange the way I'd been seeing things this morning, as though I were suddenly appreciating everything in a whole new way. Perhaps it was the potential of facing my own death today, in this village. Or perhaps it was something more.

The townspeople and merchants all turned away from their wares and began to run down the street. Some screaming in terror, others screaming for weapons, more yet screaming for the soldiers who'd taken over their village to do something to help it, for once. If only they knew why I was here! For another heartbeat, I watched the men in leather armor and chain mail attempt to organize themselves in the chaotic market. They shoved villagers out of the way, called their comrades to arms, sent out word to ring the alarm bell. It was so strange the way everything was so slow! Steel gradually drawn, arrows pulled from sheafs, nocked into bows on inch at a time.

Whatever strange sense had come over me was shattered an instant when pain exploded in my back, near my wings. I snarled in surprised pain as an arrow suddenly lodged itself just on the inside of my wing joint, hot pain throbbing steadily around it. Though it had felt like I'd stood there watching for minutes, I knew it had only been seconds at most since I'd crashed through the gate. And the arrow had come from above, one of the sentries most have seen me the moment I'd come out of the forest, and reacted more swiftly then the two men I'd killed had been able too.

In a rush, everything returned to me with the pain. If things seemed to have been moving at half speed before, now they were moving at double! A wall of men was charging straight towards me with swords in hand, and an arrow whistled past my ear, narrowing missing the very tip of it. I pivoted around on my paws and bolted forward, tightening my wings up against my body as I dashed down a narrow alleyway between two gray brick buildings.

Behind me, I could faintly hear the voices of the men. I heard someone call out something to the extent of "Don't let it get away!" Hmmph! As if I was an "it"! And as if I had any intention of getting away. But I was happy to let them think that, let them think I was afraid of them, that I had made a mistake in coming here. Even as I ran down the alley, I could hear another voice, likely the same sentry who had shot me, calling out to the soldiers below.

"It went down that alley, on your left! Behind the- AH! AAAAAAAAAH!" THUD!

What an odd way to end a sentence. I was thankful my ears were sensitive enough to pick what they were saying as they yelled to each other over a distance. And I was thankful enough to hear the man hit the ground after Kylah put an arrow in him for me! It took me a second to realize the first yell was in pain as the arrow hit him, and the second in fear as it caused him to topple over the wooden railing around the top of the watchtower. The thud of course was him hitting the ground.

Three down.

Unlike the wide flag stones that paved the main street, the alley was only roughly cobbled. This was not a big town, and they did have not a lot of money to waste paving areas carriages and wagons were not likely to go. What stones did cover the alley were old, rough and smoothed by generations of feet. The alley was shady and cool, and with buildings on either side, it likely only saw sun around noontime. The bottom bricks and stone that made up the foundation of the buildings on either side were covered in a slimy looking green moss. A rat scurried ahead of me and ducked into a crevice between foundation stones.

I passed one intersection of alleys, and kept running. Now I was passing buildings that were either older, or constructed by those with less money to spare, or both. They were simple wood frame constructions, overhanging roof edges were pock marked with insect nests and decay, the walls looked slick for some reason and an very unpleasant, sour smell of rotting food and garbage filled the air. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I didn't like it. There were no cobblestones here at all, just muddy dirt that splattered my paws and my legs as I ran.

When I reached the next intersection I turned left, this turned out to be a smaller side street covered in old gray cobblestone. I turned right in front of a small tavern, and a bearded men in a dirty blue tunic stumbled out and down the wooden steps to the street, already drunk. He stared at me as I passed, and turned to stumble his way right back into the tavern! Across from the tavern, several horses were tied up to a long wooden post supported by two smaller posts in front of another building. The horses all screamed and whinnied, bucking against their ropes and rolling their eyes in terror. I wished I had time to take in the details of all the strangely foreign human buildings, but I only had to time to roll my eyes right back at the horses as if teasing them. If I survived this, and Kylah was right about the town not turning on me, perhaps I would have a chance to wander it later on and satisfy my recently surfaced curiosity about her home, and her people.

I could still hear the humans chasing me, and I turned left again, around the side of the tavern the drunkard had gone back inside in order to drown my image in his ale. Right back down another muddy alley where I picked up my pace until buildings of wood and stone whizzed by me like the blurred images of a half forgotten hatchling dream. At the next intersection I turned left once more, my paws skidding through the mud. When I had my footing I hurled myself down that narrow passage as fast as I could, just in time for one of the soldiers to cross the intersection ahead of me.

I leapt at him, hurtling through the air until I smashed right into the hapless human. Like a phantom in the darkness of some twisted childhood tail, I must have looked as though I erupted from nowhere to snatch the soldier from their midst. I landed with him beneath my claws on the other side of the intersection. We skidded together through the mud and even before we'd come to a complete stop I lashed out again and again with my front paws, claws fully unsheathed. The first blow took his helmet, the second took his face, the third his life, and the rest were just to make sure he was dead. Perhaps subconsciously, they were revenge for a generation of dragons lost to the cruelty of men.

I supposed in some twisted way as I bounded away from his corpse, the extra blows were also for what his comrades had nearly done to Kylah, what they'd done to the other women of this village, and what humans everywhere had done to my people since before even my lifetime began.

The men were closer behind me after that attack then they were when I'd first broken through the gate, and that meant they were almost literally on my tail right away. Which was fine with me. Picking them off one at a time was going to tire me out eventually, I would need to start taking numbers down. As I formulated my next move, I wondered briefly where Kylah was. She was supposed to be watching my back, and she'd already taken down the man who'd put an arrow in it. An arrow that was still throbbing, and grating against my flesh with every step I took.

Painful as it was, my adrenaline had taken the worse of the discomfort out of the equation, at least for the moment. I had no time to deal with it, I was just glad it was only a minor wound. I had long since discovered that arrows at close enough range had more then enough punch to them to penetrate my scales in some areas, but my natural armor usually provided enough protection to stop the vast majority of the arrow's force. Which usually left those that didn't bounce of my scaly hide wedged just deeply enough inside me to be quite painful but rarely did they go deep enough to cause me any serious harm. Of course, an arrow straight through a dragon's eye and into his brain would kill us in an instant, and an arrow penetrating the thinner scales of our chin, or our upper throat would leave us to writhe in agony and die a slow death.

I could only assume these humans knew that as well as I did, and I would have to fight in ways to minimize my exposure to such an attack. Thankfully this was no where near my first battle with humanity. I could hear them on my tail, at this range I could nearly feel their stinking breath across my scales. I knew they would split up soon and try to surround me if they hadn't already, probably try to flush me out into the open so their archers could take their shots. If they had any spears or lances, I'm sure they would have already called for soldiers to gather them. Though a sword was more then long enough to penetrate us all the way into our most vital organs, a pole arm did a much better job.

Dashing down yet another grimy ally, ( didn't humans ever clean their alley ways? ) I slowed just enough to let them close in, turning the corner behind me, and then in the only area I had room to turn, I whirled around on them. I thought I'd heard one of the men behind me shouting orders to the others in his group, and I waited just until he was close enough to make sure I had a shot at him. My patience was rewarded.

Just as I had whirled around to face them, I saw that the first man around the corner was wearing a shirt of chain mail, which from what I could tell was only provided to the men in leadership positions. He also had a more elaborate metal helm atop his head, a long sword in one hand, and a shield strapped across the other, the rectangular shield emblazoned with their image of the triangle and sword. A shield that he raised with a startled cry as he saw that I had stopped running and turned to face them. A shield that would do him little good as several of his men collided into him and sent him sprawling forward, flat down on his belly in the mud.

I had already taken a deep breath as I'd spun around, and I stepped forward to put a paw on his sword hand and make sure he wasn't about to stab me in the throat or belly. His men, a half dozen or so, all turned and began to run like the cowards they were. Rather then try and assist their fallen commander, they preferred to try and save their own worthless hides. Not that it would matter.

I put my other front paw down on the struggling man's head, pressing his helmeted face into the mud, the metal of his helmet cold and rough against my pawpad. Relaxing a muscle deep in my chest, I roared, and as I exhaled, that pent up flame gas that had been causing a slightly uncomfortable pressure on my lungs met the fire bile I squeezed from the gland in the roof of my mouth, and brilliant liquid fire streamed into the air in front of me. Twisting orange and red flames painted the stone walls on either side of me and the muddy ground beneath my feet in flicking, shimmering orange. And the screams of the six men bathed in my fire painted the air itself with colors of wretched pain.

I felt a little sorry for the men that they had to die this way, but I told myself they had brought this on themselves. They had taken an innocent town hostage, and now they were paying the price as someone finally stood up for the people who had not yet been able to stand up for themselves. They could not commit atrocities against this city and expect to go unpunished forever. One by one they staggered down the alley, bodies engulfed in rolling flames, like human torches illuminating the dank alleyway with an insidiously twisted version of autumn colors. Sooner or later they all dropped to the ground, writhing for a little while before their screams gradually faded.

I was not a cruel dragon, at least I did not think of myself that way. I took no pleasure in their especially painful deaths, it was simply the easiest, safest way for me to take down a number of them all at once. And though they had been attempting to flee, I was not going to kid myself. Given a chance they would just as easily have slunk around behind me to come up alongside me and drive a lance into my bowels and leave me to die in my own agony.

Something smacked sharply against my underside, near where my belly and my chest met, stinging pain spreading along my underbelly. The little bastard I'd pinned down was smacking me with his shield! He was just lucky he didn't have the leverage to hit me in the balls with it, that would have really pissed me off. I hadn't yet put my full weight against his head because I wasn't sure what to do with him, and I didn't want to press so hard that the metal tore beneath my weight and cut into my paw pad.

That was easily taken care of. I yanked the helmet from his head and as surprise dawned on him that a dragon might have the foresight and the dexterity to do that, I quickly beat him to death with his own helm, then tossed the bloody object aside. I turned away from his muddy and bloodied body, and from the still burning corpses of his men. The smell of charred skin, flesh and hair had twisted into something stomach churning and repulsive, even to a creature who aged prey for months at a time. It burned my nostrils, overwhelming all other scents in the alleyway as the black smoke rose and curled, the breeze sending puffs of it wafting through the ally in disgusting little waves.

Time to find new targets. I could hear men shouting in the distance, and if they didn't know where I'd gone, the smoke rising up over the buildings around me would surely clue them in now. I ran back to one of the lightly cobbled alleyways I'd first turned onto after the arrow hit me. Just as I neared the main road, near the ruined gateway I'd come in from, weight landed sharply against my back as I human leapt from the rooftop onto my. One booted foot landed against my right wing joint, the other kicked the arrow imbedded near there, breaking the shaft off and sending a fresh wave of pain through my.

I couldn't help screaming in agony, all my spiny frills and crests flared out as I stumbled down the ally. Damn it! I'd forgotten to watch the rooftops! Where was Kylah? She was supposed to be watching my back, and trying to help keep these men off of it! A sudden fearful chill gripped my heart, slithering like an icy snake down my spine till it coiled in my belly, making me shudder from muzzle to tail tip. What if something had happened to her?

I had little time to worry about that now, I had to deal with the man on my back, first. With stone buildings rising up on either side of me, I had little room to maneuver, I could hardly spin myself to fling off. I rammed myself up against one wall, then hurled myself across the ally back up against the other wall, bruising my sides and my haunches, but unable to dislodge him.

"Die, monster!" the man screamed, driving his sword down against my back.

This time I was lucky. My scales did their job, helped along by my movement. His blade ended up coming down against my at an angle instead of straight down, and it skidded harmlessly against base of my neck. He cursed and lifted it again, giving me just a moment to glance back at him. He was an older man with a weatherworn face, and gray shaded his dark hair just as gray scales peppered my black. Unlike the others this older man wore no armor, just a simple black tunic with the red and gold triangle and sword sewn in emblem in the corner of it. An officer perhaps, not on duty or relegated to some desk somewhere, who picked up a sword at the call to arms. He was braver then the others, I had to give him credit for that. But it didn't mean I wasn't going to kill him.

He'd planted his feet against my wing joints, bracing himself against my back and forth movement and the jarring impacts that rattled even my bones as I banged myself up against the wall once again, scraping my sensitive wings painfully. Since that wasn't working, I had a new tactic in mind. I felt him shift and brace himself for another attempt to drive his blade into my spine, which would be crippling at best, even for a dragon.

As soon as I felt him shift his weight to raise the sword up over his head, I reared back onto my hind legs, putting all my weight on my hind paws. It was an uncomfortable position to take for too long, a dragon's hips and hind legs were powerful and while they could bear his weight when needed, they were not designed to do so for more then a little while. But I forced myself to rear back as tall and straight as I could, pulling my wings tightly against me, and gravity did the rest. With a startled scream the man fell off my back and down onto the hard cobble stone. I dropped back onto all fours and cracked my tail like a whip, lashing it's tip against his face, right between his eyes. My tail hit his skull with a force easily equal to that of a stone shot from any sling and cracked his skull just as easily. The impact made my tail ache, I might have even broken the tip of it, but like the arrowhead still lodged in my back, that was a worry that could be addressed if I survived this foolish assault.

I got back onto the main road and took a moment to survey what I could of the town, still hoping Kylah was alright. The market place and surrounding streets looked nearly empty of anyone who wasn't a soldier or mercenary. I saw a few other civilians huddled behind one of the larger stands down in the marketplace, and for a moment I wondered why they hadn't run away.

Then I saw something that answered two of my questions at once. Kylah, crouched in an alleyway on the other side of the street, behind some wooden crates. Arrows dotted the front of the crate, as across from her ducking behind the huddled civilians, were two archers. Using the townspeople as shields to keep Kylah from firing back at them. And as they kept her pinned, I saw another soldier slipping down the alley next to her, no doubt to come around behind her and cut her throat while she was occupied with the archers.

Damn these men! It was a very dirty tactic to use, and it reminded me exactly why I was here. These men didn't care one whit about the people they were oppressing. Kylah on the other hand, was unwilling to loose even a single arrow for fear of hitting her own people. She couldn't even turn and run down the alley without getting an arrow in the back.

And the people stuck in the middle, whoever they were, looked absolutely terrified. They both flinched and ducked their heads when the sharp twang of bowstring snapped right next to their ears, and almost immediately they were hoisted back up to make sure Kylah couldn't retaliate for the arrow that whizzed just over the top of the crates she was huddled behind.

Further down the street, I saw more armed men rounding the corner of the big intersection in the center of town, and start towards me. I would deal with them eventually, but one thing at a time. I took a deep breath, and then hurtled down the street as fast as I could. When my lungs were full, I let out the most ferocious, feral roar that I could! I roared so loud, so guttural that it hurt my throat. I'd just have to add that to my growing list of pains. But I wanted to make sure every enemy human in this town heard that sound in their nightmares if they survived the day. I wanted them to remember where they were when the sight of the blood splattered, helmet clad dragon charged them down, when his roar made them piss themselves in terror, and I wanted them to remember what they'd done to deserve it.

It had the desired effect, though I couldn't yet be sure if either of the two archers had actually pissed themselves. They both turned towards me, one of them nearly dropped his bow as he stumbled back. The other was quicker, notching an arrow and firing it. It flew true enough to strike me in the shoulder, though the arrow only just penetrated my scales and did not slow me down, didn't even hurt as much as the arrow that hit me in the back. The fact that I now had several arrows sticking out me of and hadn't even slowed down was probably as much of a morale wreaker as anything else.

One of the townsmen cried out in fear, and managed to twist himself away from the soldiers, flinging himself beneath an overturned cart, then reaching out to drag his companion down out the way with him. Good. I didn't mind terrifying the townsfolk right now, it would keep them out of my way. And the moment they got away from the archers, Kylah put an arrow in the chest of one of them. Her arrow punched through his thin boiled leather armor as easily as theirs had punctured my scales, only Kylah's went deeper. He stumbled back, blood pouring over his lips, eyes wide with the specter of death haunting them.

I reached the row of stalls and carts where the archers had taken cover with their hostages. The remaining archer ducked behind an overturned stand that was painted blue and with images of white flowers. But before he could nock an arrow and pop back up, I simply grabbed the stand and hurled it out of my way. It lazily toppled end over end before crashing in the middle of the street, shattering and sending blue wood and flower-painted debris in all directions. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement behind Kylah. The soldier sneaking up behind her no doubt assumed she was too distracted by my own appearance to notice him, and while I was fairly confident she already knew he was there, I wasn't going to take the risk.

Instead, I picked up the cowering archer in both front paws, reared onto my hind legs again, and pivoted in Kylah's direction. As I turned I threw the archer through the air. And just like the blue flower stand, he topped end over end through the air, limbs flailing like some kind of comical marionette. The only real difference I could tell between the way he toppled through the air and the way the stand did was that the archer was screaming! All the way until he arced back down towards the earth and crashed right into the legs of the soldier sneaking up on Kylah. He'd been so fixated on his target, so convinced no one had noticed him, that he didn't even realize the object flying through the air was not only a man, but a man aimed directly at him. The archer hit him at the knees and knocked his feet out from under him, leaving the archer to roll along the alleyway and the soldier to fly forward right onto his own face. His nose popped and split against the pavement, a rush of crimson was instantly gushing out to run in the cracks between cobblestones like a tiny red river running through a miniature valley. Kylah wasted no time in drawing the dragon bone sword and using it to finish off first the downed soldier, and then the dazed and battered archer.

When she turned away from her gruesome task, she called out to me across the street. "Thanks, Vraal! Guess we're even, how many is that?"

"Not enough," I snarled back at her, turning my attention towards the men rushing towards me. "Watch my back!"

Kylah shifted herself in the allyway, spinning to the other side of it and peering down the street behind me. Now freed from the archers who had her pinned, she could make sure no one else jumped on my back again. Out of the corner of her eye, I saw her nock another arrow, and a moment later, I heard a scream behind me, and then a sick, wet thud.

"Roof top archer!" She called out, drawing another arrow. "I'm almost out!"

Down the street, I saw two more archers nocking arrows behind the advancing line of soldiers. There were at least six or eight men in front of me now, and they wore heavier armor, some of them in chain mail, some of with sturdier metal breast plates and pauldrons across their shoulders, and a large shield across one arm. They were organizing now, and sending out whatever heavy armor they might have, regardless of rank. I knew there would more men circling around behind me. When I saw the archers taking aim between the ranks of the soldiers, I grabbed one of the remaining stands, covered in apples, and tipped it up onto it's side. As the apples all spilled out and rolled across the flagstone road, I dropped down behind it. Arrows immediately punched through the wooden countertop that now shielded me, but they found themselves stuck partway through the stand. That would hold, for a moment at least. I quickly toppled a few more of the remaining stands and carts over, trying to create a little wall to protect myself from the arrows for a few minutes at least.

I crawled along my belly to where the two archers had taken shelter, and snatched up the sheaf half full of arrows that had been left behind when I tossed one of them through the air. I twisted back around, just in time for another arrow to slice through the air just in front of my snout. Damn, the archers were smarter then I'd hoped. They could probably see me slinking around between the stands, and rather then try and punch their arrows through or slip them through the small openings, they were arcing them over the top of my makeshift shields, and trying to drop them in on top of me. I wasn't going to be able to stay here for long!

I glanced to Kylah, she was shifting back and forth across the ally, trying to keep track of both sides of the road at once. I shoved the sheaf of arrows as hard as I could, it slide across the road, spinning a half turn but not losing any of it's contents before it slid into the alleyway Kylah was sheltering in. She snatched it up, and held it up over her head, as if shielding herself from something from the sky.

"Now, Vraal, now! Now!" She yelled at me.

Good idea. I grabbed the same stand I'd initially topped and rolled onto my back, trying not to crush my wing while holding the makeshift shield above me and praying to any God who would listen that this worked, and that the arrows didn't pierce my paws and nail them to the stand. It worked, for now. With a loud POP POP two more arrows exploded through the wood, one of them inches from my paw, the other stuck hovering just above my throat. I rolled back to my side, and realized it was time for a new tactic. Sooner or later the archers would stop shooting together, and wait for me to block one arrow before the other one loosed his own volley, aimed at whatever part of me was exposed.

"Keep them busy!"

An idea was starting to form in my head. Sooner or later the heavier armored soldiers were going to advance close enough to attack me. If I stayed here they'd be able to surround me, and that would be dangerous even for a dragon. And if I got up to move somewhere else, the archers would stick more arrows in me. Those were going to add up, even if they weren't fatal. The more pain I was in and the more muscles they buried their bolts in the harder it was going to be for me to stay agile. Old as I was, I had enough trouble keeping myself quick and mobile! And there was always the chance an archer got a lucky shot that was either fatal or debilitating.

To keep them from firing at me while I crawled behind the formed from the market debris, Kylah poked her head out just long enough to fire an arrow. And when the archers moved to retaliate, she fired a bolt from the crossbow she'd loaded up and set aside. Then once more she was back behind the wall and the crates, safe from the two arrows loosed when the arches returned fire. Neither of her shots hit the mark this time, but at least the soldiers lined up in front of the archers were forced to take cover for a moment beneath their tall shields. And when her bolt punched tip nearly punched through the metal of the lead soldier's shield it forced them to slow their advance and decide how to deal with two targets. I doubted they even realized she was with me until she started firing. For all they knew it was just some townsperson using the chaos I'd created for a chance for revenge.

I slunk along as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the increasingly throbbing pain in both my back, and my shoulder. The second arrow hadn't bit too deeply, but it still hurt like hell and was irritatingly lodged just far enough beneath my scales it wasn't coming out easily. I tried to remove it, and was rewarded by breaking it off at the haft. Perfect. Deciding I had to just deal with the pain for now, I crawled the rest of the way over to my objective, the same area the two humans had ducked beneath the overturned cart.

They were still there, I could tell because one of them had his boot sticking out from beneath it. They were going to get themselves killed if they didn't get to safety. I flared my crests in frustration. They weren't making it easy to protect them, where they. I stuck my paw under the edge of the cart and before some human could get it into his head to stab me, I flipped it over. They were both cowering, though one of them had a long knife in his hand, and raised it up as soon as they were exposed. I yanked my paw back and hissed at them.

"I don't want to hurt you!" For a moment, the slack face of shock registered across both of their visages. They probably didn't know if they should be more surprised that I could talk, or that I didn't want to harm them. I quickly pointed a paw towards the nearest and currently unoccupied side street. "I'm trying to help you people, I came with Kylah!" It occurred to me it was quite possible they might not know who the hell Kylah was. I just wanted them out of the way. "Get the hell out of here before those soldiers kill you. Go on! GO!"

They'd seemed almost too shocked to move, but when I snarled the last word at them they both got the idea, and quickly scrambled away. An arrow whistled past their heads as they ran for the side street, passing in front of me like and whizzing by like an extremely angry wasp. I was glad the people were not hurt, and I hoped that showed them who their enemy really was.

Kylah took the opportunity to take a shot at them while the archers were distracted, and she was rewarded by burying her arrow in the shoulder of one of them. He staggered back with a cry of pain, clutching the arrow, and fell to his knees. That was as good a time for any as me to act. I wasn't sure if my plan was brilliant or idiotic, but I thought there was only one way to find out.

There was an immense oak cask that rested near the cart the townsmen had sheltered under, and though I didn't know exactly what was inside it, I recognized some of the symbols. It was heavily marked between the iron bands that circled the wooden container, and some of the symbols were exactly the same as though as the symbols that marked kegs of very potent spirits I'd previously raided from humans.

Very flammable spirits.

I hoisted up the keg in my paws, punched a hole it with a single claw and hurled it down towards the group of soldiers. The cask flipped and rolled through the air, a stream of pale, strong smelling liquid pouring out the hole I made. The stream of liquid broke into fat droplets that sparkled in the air like tarnished diamonds for a moment before splattering all over the flagstone, leaving a trail all the way down towards the soldiers. My aim was more or less true, and really, it only had to be in the general area. The iron bands popped open and the cask exploded, spraying the harsh spirits over every soldier in the area, as well as the two archers behind them. Before they had a chance to do anything about it, I took a breath, and blew a hot stream of fire against the trail of liquid.

Instantly it ignited in brilliant red flame, tipped in blue. Faster even then I could fly the fire spread, shooting down the trail of liquid, jumping from splotch to splotch as the vapors between them ignited. In the span of a breath since I'd ignited the spirits, the flame reached the area where the cask had exploded, and the soldiers were engulfed in a ball of fire. They vanished with a towering, mushrooming sphere of swirling orange, reds and yellows that shot up into the air as all the spirits and all the vapors ignited at once.

Some of them were able to scream.

Those that could not simply fell where they were, the others staggered and stumbled about the street a little bit. Kylah popped out to see what I'd done, and gave a whistle of appreciation. "Great thinking, Vraal!"

I smiled, allowing myself a moment of smugness. If the humans hadn't died so quickly I imagine they would have been quite surprised to see that a dragon was not a mindless beast, and could in fact think of complex solutions. Or at least ways to kill people. With that in mind and my tail tip flicking smugly, I watched one of the last men still standing staggering towards the side of the road, screaming and waving his arms above his head as though that would actually somehow put out the fire that was slowly consuming him. I imagine my ability to think would have been nearly as surprising to him as it was to me when I realized he had just fallen atop a few more casks just like the one I'd hurled down the street.

Oh dear, I thought.

"Oh shit," I said aloud, choosing the more accurate way to describe my feeling at the time.

I ran across the street to the alleyway where Kylah was, not sure if she'd seen what was going on. She opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a startled chicken-like squawk when I snatched her around the middle, threw her to the ground, and dropped myself down next to her. Only a moment later, there was a tremendous explosion that shook the not only the air, but the ground beneath my scales. My ears rang in high pitched alarm that wasn't quite enough to drown out the sound of shattering glass as windows blew out all around us. The buildings around us protected us from the worst of the shrapnel even as shattered glass fell atop me from the window overlooking the alley we were sheltered in. It skidded off my scales and sliced through my wings in several places, but thankfully my body shielded Kylah from the worst of it.

Then a piece of flaming debris landed right in front of my snout, and the heat coming off of it made me recoil quickly, scrunching my muzzle, my nostrils burning. A few more bits of burning wood and what looked like a mangled, flaming arm landed in the alley as well, but my luck continued to hold, and nothing that landed on me was on fire at least. I took a moment to catch my breath, and pushed myself back up onto all fours. Carefully, I turned around in the narrow alley, doing my best not to bruise myself even further or step on Kylah.

I licked my muzzle nervously, and peered around the corner to survey the damage. I whimpered, and pinned my ears back against my head, tail lashing back and forth. "Oh..."

Kylah sat up, rubbing her head. "Vraal, what the hell just happened?"

"Kylah, don't be angry..." Then as much to myself as to her, I added, "I hope that's not a very important building."

"Vraal?"

"Kylah," I said again, looking back at her, swiveling one ear to the side in anxiousness. "I think I just set your town on fire."

Chapter Fifteen

Alright, so maybe I hadn't set the entire town on fire. At least not yet. And it wasn't my fault, was it? I'd only lit the soldiers on fire, it was that damn archer who stumbled his way onto the casks of spirits, as though with his last breath he was cursing the town who finally had a chance to reject them. A chance that suddenly didn't seem quite so bright. The explosion had the entire town honing in on me now, and people who had previously been unaware of exactly what was going on were now venturing to his part of town to see, or finding the courage to come out of their homes to see what was happening.

The explosion had blown off the outer wall and most of the roof of the nearest building, and lit the rest of the building on fire. It seemed that even human buildings which appeared to have a stone facade had a lot of wood and other flammable materials in them. And when the casks had erupted in a powerful fireball, they'd spread fire to the nearest buildings around them, and dropped flaming debris in all directions. Which had the effect of catching at least one roof on fire, and one doorway aflame. Probably more.

"The dragon's burning our town!"

Oh shit, indeed. Those words came not from a soldier, but from a townsperson. The exact opposite of what I had intended. "Kylah..." I said softly.

"Vraal , behind us!" Kylah snatched up her bow again, fitting one of the confiscated arrows into it, and loosing it immediately as she pivoted around It flew straight and true into the chest of another soldier who'd been creeping up behind us in the alleyway. Just how many damn soldiers were there left? We had to have been thinning their ranks considerably. I would have bet we were half way through their number, or at least a good third. Or so I hoped.

"We have other problems, Kylah," I hissed. The townspeople were arming themselves. While I imagined normally the occupying force of their own wouldn't allow it, the situation dictated new rules. If the townsfolk were willing to help slay the dragon, no doubt the bandits who'd claimed their town would happily let the oppressed risk their own lives in place of the enslavers. "I didn't burn your town!" I cried out, doubting they would listen to me. "I swear it, I came to help you!"

Someone threw something that looked sharp at me, and I ducked back into the alleyway. This was like a hatchling's egg rolling downhill, and it was picking up speed by the moment. If we didn't do something soon to stop the momentum, it was going to get dashed against the rocks at the bottom and our once hopeful plan would never quite breath the air of life.

"They think I'm attacking them!" I snarled as I backed down the alleyway.

"I see that, Vraal," Kylah replied, tension straining her voice.

"Well, do you have a plan?"

"I'm starting too, but you're not going to like it."

"What do you mean I'm not going to like it?"

Oh, how I wished I hadn't uttered those words.

"Watch my back!" Kylah yelled at me, as she ran forward out of the alley and into the main street, in full view of both friend and foe.

"Kylah!" I cried out, then hissed the dirtiest, foulest word I could think off in my own language. "Traagnoshtk!" Which roughly translated too...Well, suffice to say that when Niara and I did it, it was bliss, but if Kylah and I ever tried it, it would probably kill her. Only much filthier.

She was going to get herself killed!

There were quite a few people gathered in the street now, many of them rushing with buckets of water to try and quell the various fires I'd inadvertently started. In the distance the steady peal of an alarm bell howled as someone pounded it again and again with a mallet. To their credit the people of the town were not going to stand idly by while their town was destroyed around them. A shame it took an event like this to awaken them from their slumber. Perhaps it was as Kylah said. Resentment to the men attempting to force their rule upon the town had been simmering for a long time, and now it was finally boiling over.

Those who had gathered but were not trying to douse the fires were forming up into...well, I couldn't think of anything else to call it other then a mob. Some of them had brought weapons with them. Swords and knives, axes used for chopping wood, longbows used more for hunting then for battle. Others were scavenging weapons left by the dead soldiers, one snatched up a sword and shield that had been blown out of the dying man's grasp when the first cask exploded.

"Kill the dragon!"

"It's burning out town!"

"It's killing people in the market!"

That was not the sort of praise I'd be hoping to hear. And while technically I was burning their own, it was an accident! And so far the only people I'd killed in the market had been the men who were this town's enemies. Granted, to anyone who just ran out onto the street, the charred bodies around the burning tavern could have easily been anyone. They probably thought I was just killing everyone I came across. Which was a good enough reason for them to attack me, I'm sure. They probably thought if they didn't kill me, I was just going to burn the whole town down. Just as I was, they were more then willing to risk their lives for friends and family even without armor. I was impressed by their bravery, they showed even more of it then some of the so-called soldiers who had conquered their village.

I did not want to harm them; after all I was ostensibly here to liberate them! But I would protect myself against them if I had too. Though where would that leave Kylah? If she brought me back here to save her town and I had to kill some of it's people to protect myself, would she turn on me too? Or worse, would they turn on her? I didn't want to be responsible for getting her chased out of the town she came to save or worse!

Mixing in with the growing mob of townsfolk were more soldiers filtering in. They'd already proven they had no qualms about using the civilians as shields, but none of the people running out into this street from homes, businesses and other parts of town had any idea about that. No, now the soldiers were lining up with them to show their "solidarity", yelling to the townsfolk that they were with them, that they would help them slay this evil. I saw men standing behind the mob knocking arrows, soldiers gathering behind the group of townsfolk. No doubt planning to let them go first, while ordering their archers to take any shot at Kylah and I they could.

It was into all this that Kylah ran. She burst straight from the alley, a sword in either hand, screaming at the advancing mob. "Stop! STOP!"

That was her plan? To yell at them to stop? Good God, I could have lifted my tail and found a better plan! She really was going to get herself killed. Or, perhaps she knew what she was doing. Someone near the front of the mob must have recognized her, just as they were advancing down the road towards the alley I was peering out from, in typical angry mob fashion, one of the men near the front of it came to a stop. He stared at her a moment, the sword in his hand slowly wavering. Following his example, everyone else slowed down and a murmur went through them.

"Kylah?" One of the men asked. "Is that you? I thought you..."

"Yes, Ravek! It's me! But I don't have time..."

She wasn't exaggerating, either. As if sensing the crowd was at a turning point, two soldiers who'd been holed up nearby suddenly ran out at Kylah, coming at her from either side. They screamed something about her being a traitor, about her leading the dragon here to destroy the entire town. I wasn't sure how likely that story was to be believed, but I suspected given what they were seeing, most humans were more likely to believe that a dragon was here to kill them then to protect them.

The soldiers knew exactly who she was, though. I would have liked to think that it scared them to see her now, with sharp steel in her hands and rings of chain covering her body. They'd deemed her such at threat earlier that they had her arrested, and shipped off to be executed quietly so as not to be a martyr. Yet, here she was, not only armed once more, but leading a dragon of all things back into her city. I also would have liked to think that if the people really knew what was going on, they would have been inspired. This woman, who would have fought to the very death had I not been there to save her, had given up a chance at safety somewhere far from here just to return home in an unlikely attempt liberate her people. And above all that, she'd talked the very natural enemy of her species into helping her. They should be inspired by her example, if they but knew it.

There was only one way to make sure they knew it.

I ran from the alley, and bounded towards Kylah, just in time to see her prove her claim to be good with swords was no mere bravado. The soldiers both came at her with blades drawn, both taking swings with their steel at the woman. They were not planning on arresting her anymore, they were just going to kill her. And yet no matter how well trained they may have been, Kylah made them look like clumsy oafs, stumbling about and blinding swinging away.

Kylah looked to be dancing between them, spinning and whirling amongst the two men, her two blades flashing in the sunlight. She was so quick they looked like lines of light arcing around her. I could barely keep up with her movements as she pivoted, parried, steel clanging and clashing against steel. There was a spray of blood in the air, and one man fell clutching his throat. Even as the first men fell she stepped away from the second, knocking his blade aside with hers, then removing his hand in quick back stroke. As he screamed and staggered back, she stepped forward and thrust her blade through his chest. The blade forged to kill dragons and to pierce our hardened scales cut through the padded leather he wore just as easily as it punched through his sternum beneath it. Blood ran from his mouth, shock and pain flared in his eyes, and lifted her foot to press her boot to his belly, and shove him off her sword.

Just as fast as the two men had appeared and attacked her, she'd dispatched them and turned back to the crowd, now staring at her in uncertainty. "My name is Kylah! All of you either know me, or know of me! For too long these men have had their way with us, with our town! They have clutched our throats, pushed our faces to the ground, taken our livelihood and smothered our pride! We have always been a proud people, and yet we let them do as they wish, and why? Because we're afraid of them? If we don't cast them off, we'll always be afraid of them. But it is they who should fear us!

"In fact, they already fear us! When my friend and I rose up before, what did they tell you they'd done with me? Taken me to jail? They took me because they feared me, feared that I would show you how we can cast them out of our home! They took me to execute me, to rape me, humiliate me, and then to kill me! They feared what would happen if you knew they'd killed me, and that's why they took me away to do it in secret. Because in truth, they are little more then bullies and cowards! The same bandit rabble we have forced from our lands time and time again!"

By now I had come to stand behind Kylah. I wasn't sure if the townsfolk she was addressing were paying more attention to her or to me. But from the way some of them were murmuring, glancing back and forth at each other, and the way some of the archers and soldiers were beginning to back away, it seemed at least part of her speech was getting through. Kylah, sensing an opportunity was at hand, sheathed one of her swords. She turned herself a little and put her hand against my neck, rubbing my scales. As if playing a part in some strange play, I lowered my head to nuzzle her hand, and even made sure the people could see me lick her fingers.

There was a strange sort of silence for a moment. Flames crackled on the buildings around us, people ran here and there working to douse them. Acrid black smoke was filling the air, burning my nostrils, mingling with hissing steam where the townspeople were having the most success against the flames. But for a few moments Kylah's people simply watched her pet my snout, staring incredulously at the woman who had against all odds, befriended a dragon.

Kylah rubbed my nose again, and turned back to her people who seemed almost hypnotized by what they were seeing. "Do you know how I escaped? The men who were to kill me and dump my body in some lake decided to have their fun with me first! They had me against a tree, and though I fought them, in the end I was overwhelmed. But I was saved." She stepped forward, and thrust her hand back at me. "I was saved by him! Saved by a dragon! His name is Vraal and I owe him my life! I debt I shall always, always have to him! When men, the same men who seek to use our village as an example of their so-called power deemed me worthy of nothing but utmost humiliation, and death, a dragon deemed me worthy of living! These same men stand among our now, watching you, listening to me! You all know them well. You know they take what they want, when they want. You know what they do to our women, you know they beat us if we disobey, they send us off to die if we fight back, they burn us out of our homes if our families do not bow and kiss their feet!

"I say, enough! Vraal says enough! This dragon, my friend, he is not here to hurt us! He is not here to burn our town, here is here to help us, to save us! This dragon is my friend, and here is here to fight for our freedom! He is here- "

Kylah's speech was cut short by a scream as an arrow from a hidden archer blossomed from her shoulder. She stumbled back against me, blood running down her arm. I caught her as she fell, and I knew the soldiers had heard enough. Someone had given the order to kill her to silence her before she could sway the crowd any further. With one front leg I pulled her up against my body and turned around, using myself to shield her. A few more arrows were loosed at her, but instead of striking Kylah, they struck me. Fresh pain exploded in three places along my right side, crimson blood striped my black scales, and I felt steel scrape bone. At least one of the arrows was wedged between my ribs. That one hurt, and it was going to hurt a lot until it came out of there. And probably for a while longer.

"They shot Kylah! Kylah's right, we can't let them do this to us any more."

Good, that was what I needed to hear. Though I was barely listening. My heart was hammering not out of pain and fear for myself, but fear for Kylah. The arrow had punched through her chain mail and into her shoulder from what I could tell, but I didn't know how badly injured she was, or how badly bleeding she was. She had slumped to the ground, but was now leaning up against me, grimacing. Dark brown hair obscuring her face and her beautiful green eyes. She had one hand wrapped around the arrow, like she was going to pull it out of herself.

"Kylah! Kylah, are you alright? Kylah, please, I can't lose you now..." I wasn't really sure why I added that last part, it just rolled off my tongue before I could bite it back. "Kylah?"

"I'm...alright, Vraal," she said, though the pain that strained her voice told me she wasn't. "I've...had worse."

"You have?"

Kylah gave a clipped laugh, then shook her head. "No. But it's not fatal. Help me up."

"They'll shoot you again!"

I helped her up anyway, but I kept my body between her and whatever archers had hit us last time. I suspected some of them were trying to loop around behind us to get at her from my blind side. I was starting to suspect we might not make it out of this alive, and yet, strangely, I wanted to make sure the town carried on with us. I started to help her to the side of the road, and another arrow hit me, this time near my hip, just above my haunch. I cried out in pain, every arrow seemed to be getting worse and worse! My ears were watering and I was limping now. I was probably starting to look a little pathetic, by my count I had at least six arrows in me, some of which were still sticking out of my body. I must have had blood all over me, from my helmeted face down to the base of my tail, and by now, a lot of it was mine.

But I wouldn't let them hit Kylah again. I walked her all the way to the side of the road until she could get down behind some cover that would protect her from at least one direction. In the process I took two more arrows, that upped my count to eight, most of them now jutting from one side of my scaled body.

"....Stop shooting him!" A voice cried out from the crowd. "He's...He's just protecting Kylah!"

Well, at least one person was on our side. Panting in pain, I managed to give Kylah a lopsided smirk. "At least we gave it a good try."

She lifted her hand, and rubbed my jaw line beneath my helmet. "...We did. You...You should go, Vraal. ...We tried..."

I should...go? Oh no, that wasn't going to happen. If I left now, what little support we had would likely fall apart. The remaining guards would quell the unrest while it remained concentrated in a small area, and this time they would not hesitate to kill Kylah in the town. They'd not give her a chance to do something like this again. There was no way I was going to live her here alone to die. Either she lived through this, or we both died.

"No," I snarled at her, pulling my head back. "I'm not leaving you. Or your town. We're going to win, and we're going to live."

Something sparked in Kylah's eyes, and a smile slowly spread across her crimson lips. She shook her head, clearing the hair from her eyes, and tightened her grip on her dragon bone sword, lifted it and pushed the tip into the ground, then used it to leverage herself back to her feet. "Right, Vraal."

Another arrow whistled through the air, this one flying right over my head. I'd had just about enough of that shit. I could hear the humans talking, and same voice called out. "Stop shooting at him, damn it! Can't you see he's just trying to protect her?" I thought I recognized the voice of reason as the man who'd recognized Kylah earlier.

One of the soldiers called out over the top of his voice. "She's a traitor, you all know that! She's lying, she brought this dragon here to destroy the town! He's probably ensorcelled her!"

That was it. Enough was enough. I was going to finish this now, and get this town on our side, or I was going to die trying. I nuzzled Kylah, and licked her cheek for good luck, and just in case I never came back to her. Then I growled a warning. "Wait here!"

With arrows protruding from the side of my body like twisted rows of spines, I whirled around from the pile of debris where I'd taken Kylah. The soldiers and then townsfolk were arguing now, but it seemed the people from town hadn't yet decided who's side they were really on. Maybe I could help sway them.

"Everything Kylah said is true!" I yelled just about as loudly as I could, my voice was more then enough to drown out every human voice rising in front of me. And I was going to make sure it stayed that way. "Kylah is my friend! She told me of your town and what happened to it, that the men who were about to rape her had taken it over! That they treat you all like garbage, that they are slowly but surely grinding your town into dust! I know what that's like! You think of us as monsters, but we are not! Every day I feel sorrow for the end of my people, I shed tears to think that the stars of our futures have all been cast upon the ground! We are a shattered race, and our time is up, and yet, I am here to protect you! Not in revenge, not in anger, but to save your town from sharing our fate! And whether you are with me or not, I will rid this town of the plague that's rotting it from the inside, or I'll die trying!"

As I spoke, I'd been steadily advancing on the crowd. Some of them had fallen back, some of them stood their ground, and once more the archers took aim. This time they aimed at my face, and as I saw them pull their strings back, I turned my head, lifted a front leg to protect my face, the moment those arrows hit me I was going to charge my way through the crowd and kill those damn archers! I just hoped the townspeople got out of the way first.

Yet the arrows never came. Instead, I heard yells and screams, and when I looked again, I saw the man called Ravek standing atop one of the archers, plunging his sword into the fallen men's chest. Another man nearby lay on the ground with an arrow in his chest taken when he came to Ravek's aide. And like an avalanche starting with a single rock before eventually consuming the entire mountain, the crowd began to turn on the soldiers who oppressed them. It all began with Ravek, Kylah's apparent friend who turned on the archers first to try and protect me from their volley. A second man joined him, was shot with an arrow, and that was all it took for seeming chaos to erupt in the street.

The other archers with arrows nocked panicked, and sent them not at me, but into the crowd. As several men fell, the archers were soon overwhelmed by the rush of men and woman, pinned to the ground and beaten with fist and boot, and blade. The soldiers, some of whom where in heaver armor of metal plate laid over chain, tried to fight back. The one who'd been yelling for my death tried to give orders, tried to organize his men, but they were soon being pushed back. And though people fell around them, it wasn't long before they turned and ran in the streets. Some in the crowd picked up the archer's bow and arrows, and began to lob bolts at their heels, dropping one of the retreating soldiers.

Now that the tide was turning, I wanted to make sure they understood what was at stake. More then this little skirmish here, on one road, they had an entire town to retake. The remaining soldiers would regroup if given a chance, fall back and set up positions to use their archers as snipers, and send their best soldiers into the fray, armed to the teeth. _If_they had the chance.

"Free yourselves!" I screamed, as loudly as I could. "Free your town! Now is your chance, free yourselves!"

Much to my surprise, people actually cheered. They were no doubt cheering the sudden advent of a chance to retake their freedom, but for at least a moment, for at least a moment...They were cheering a dragon. I had never imagined I might someday be cheered by humans, unless they were gloating over my corpse. And for that brief moment I could have sworn they were actually cheering me, my heart soared, my pride swelled, and for a little while, the numerous arrows in my body ceased their throbbing pain.

My reverie was short lived, but at least it was ended for a good reason. The man named Ravek approached me, bloodied sword in his hand, but lowered towards the ground to show me he meant no harm. He called out to me, lifting his voice above the din that filled the town. "She said your name was Vraal, right?"

So, someone was listening after all. I turned my broad head down towards him, trying flatten out my crests and spiny frills. They tended to flare out when I was in pain, and though my helmet kept my center crest covered and flat, those behind my ears were sticking out at their full extent. I tried to flatten them back anyway, I didn't want too look too threatening to this human. Still, given the amount of blood and paint across my snout, paws and my helmet, and the way I imagined my pale blue eyes looked piercing and wild peering through the eye slits of the helmet, I probably looked damned intimidating.

I liked that.

"Yes, my name is Vraal. You are Ravek, right? You are Kylah's friend?"

The human almost seemed surprised I spoke his language so well, but we didn't exactly have time to get to know one another, or for me to give my typical speech on how dragons were so highly intelligent. "Yes, I am," he replied, answering both questions at once. "They told us they were going to put her in jail, back in their fortress. We all figured she was probably dead, though..." He paused, then shook his head. "There's no time for that. I'm gonna be honest, and say I don't completely trust you right now."

I chuckled to myself, I didn't blame him there. I didn't trust him, either.

"But you risked your own life to protect Kylah, and I trust her. And she seems to trust you, so there we are. When I saw you expose your body to those arrows just to protect her...I knew she was telling the truth. I don't know what your reasons are, and I don't have time to ask. But I need to know, can you keep fighting a little while longer?"

I looked back at myself, dotted with arrows and streaked with blood. Thankfully, I had a lot more blood to give. "I'm in a lot of pain, but I am not near done fighting. Take this one out," I said, pointing to the arrow in my shoulder. "And the third one back along my side. Those are the only two causing me real problems."

A saw a smirk spread across his lips for a moment. I think something about the no-nonsense way I picked only the worst placed arrows for him to remove to save time endeared me to him for some reason. He didn't bother to tell me it was going to hurt, and he didn't need too. It wasn't the first time I'd had arrows in my body. He grabbed what was left of the arrow's shaft in my shoulder, and in a single smooth, steady motion pulled it free. I hissed in pain, and pounded my right paw against the ground, but didn't complain. Ravek simply dropped the blooded arrow head to the ground as fresh blood ran down my front leg. I turned my head on my long graceful neck to lap at the wound, the coppery taste and scent of my own blood filling my muzzle for long moments. I needed to get it to stop bleeding before I took off running again.

As Ravek went for the arrow in my ribs, I lifted my head a little and looked him over. He seemed fairly slender by human standards, though I was not exactly a good judge of that. But as the soot and blood stained dark blue tunic he wore had no sleeves, I could see his arms though lithe rippled with tightly packed muscle. I also noticed that he had no hair atop his head. Though I vaguely knew the term bald, I had no idea if he simply cut all his hair off, or if he was naturally that way. Perhaps something to ask Kylah about, assuming we both survived.

"You are good with sword, and bow as well?" I had seen him fell one man already, and Kylah told me her people were natural hunters, and warriors.

He wrapped his hand around the arrow in my ribs, and once more slowly eased it free. This one hurt a lot more, enough to make me cry out and coil my tail, then lash it back and forth. "Gaaaaah!"

The man grimaced in sympathy, and when the arrow was free, he tossed it away. He cut some cloth from a dead soldier's uniform, and pressed it forcefully against my wound to help staunch the bleeding. As he held it in place, he glanced up at me to answer my question. "Yeah, good enough I guess. Why?"

"Because that means you get to go and watch over Kylah while I bring down those watchtowers, and help take care of the rest of the soldiers."

"But I..."

"It is not a request. She is my friend, and she is injured. I wish to be there for her but I have other things to do, first. You are also her friend. You will take a bow and arrows and go make sure no one sneaks up on her while she is wounded. Have I stopped bleeding?"

I could tell from the face Ravek made he didn't like the idea of being away from the uprising he'd helped to get started. That was too bad, because I wanted Kylah with someone she could trust. Luckily Ravek also didn't look as though he wanted to argue with a dragon, and he nodded in acquiescence. He pulled the cloth away from my wound, the once blue fabric now long since stained deep purple with my scarlet blood. More blood ran from the wound and dribbled down my ebony scales in fresh red stripes, but it wasn't bleeding as badly as it had been when he first yanked the arrow free.

"It's slowed down, but..."

Good enough. Without waiting, I bound away from him. Arrows jostled agonizingly in my flesh across my body. My strength was starting to wear down, and I was probably running entirely on adrenaline by now. I would have been feeling my age creeping up on me even without all the arrows bristling me, and the blood I'd lost, but I couldn't stop now. I had wrapped myself so completely in the blanket of this town's peril now that I was either going to finish fighting my way back out of it, or it was going to smother me.

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That's it for this update! Only a few chapters left till my planned "stopping point." In the meantime, if you enjoyed, please FAVE! And leave your thoughts on the story so far, and on these chapters. Thanks for reading!