Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (4 page)

Veer
handed the reins of the nervous horse to Shira and waded into the water toward the dead dragon. Shira watched in amazement as the young man went right up through the stench and reached out toward the dead pony and grabbed the fur on the side of the poor animal. Veer turned toward Shira and shouted. “Do ponies have these?” Veer grabbed the fur on the side of the dead beast and lifted and Shira saw him start to tear away the fur of the pony but then she saw him lift the wing of the pony into the air and stretch it out. Where there had been a pony a moment before Shira saw a dragon.

Shira screamed and tried to run away and just fell and
then she began to scramble away as Veer walked quickly toward her. She stopped trying to crawl away and just sat on the ground as Veer reached her and said. “That is what killed those men, and it was one of those that bit me, a little one with green eyes in a cave. And what is following us now is not a litter of puppies - it is a nest of those things. When I first saw it I thought it was a pony too and then it spread wings and I could see it for what it was. And when I went into that cave I saw puppies too and then one bit me and now I see baby dragons. And that isn’t howling that we hear it is screeching and hissing.”

“I don’t know
,” said Shira, as she looked back into the brush behind her. “I still see puppies and hear howling. Why do they look like dogs and ponies?”

“I don’t know, it must be some kind of magic or something that makes you think you see something else. But I do know that since I woke up
, I can see dragons. I’ll get the horse so we can start moving again.” Veer turned and walked toward where the horse was standing waiting and as he reached for the reins he heard a scream and when he spun around he saw a tiny dragon running away from Shira as she grabbed her leg just above the ankle where it was exposed. Veer pulled his knife and threw it after the dragon but it skipped harmlessly by and stuck in the ground.

“It bit me, oh g
ods it bit me,” Shira screamed. “It stings, it stings really badly.” Veer knew that the poison worked quickly he could remember being bitten himself. Veer ran to where Shira lay on the ground already starting to shiver and writhe in pain and he stood protectively over her as he strung his bow and nocked an arrow.  Veer looked into the brush and saw nine little blue eyed dragons huddled together watching Shira - and a tenth dragon with green eyes, sitting away from the rest of the little dragons glaring at him unblinkingly. Veer raised his bow and sighted the little green eyed dragon along the arrow shaft and kept the arrow sighted as he slowly pushed the bow outwards toward his target. As his arm reached full extension the arrow flew from his bow. Somehow the little dragon managed to dodge the arrow and then as the shaft sunk into the ground where the dragon had been standing the dragon bit the shaft of the arrow and snapped through the wood. Then the dragon spread its wings and hissed at Veer.

Suddenly the other dragons launched themselves forward toward Shira and
Veer. Except for the largest of the other baby dragons which instead charged the green eyed dragon driving it away into the brush. The larger dragon and Green Eyes were shrieking as they fought in the brush while the other dragons closed on Veer before he could draw another weapon. One dragon leaped into the air and took flight slamming into the bow that Veer held and tearing it from his grasp. Another dragon hammered into Veers’ chest and knocked the wind from him as Veer was thrown backwards. A third dragon wrapped itself around his ankles and Veer went down heavily.  Now the dragons came at Veer as a group snapping and forcing him backwards away from Shira. Veer had no choice but to crawl backwards away from the dragons or he would be bitten again. Veer watched helplessly as a dragon locked its jaws onto Shira’s leg. Veer could see the dragon begin to suck at the wound as though it were ravenous to feast on her blood. Veer screamed in rage and the little dragons backed away from him and he ran toward Shira and the dragon on her leg. Veer drew his sword and tried to lunge at the dragon with a dive but the dragon moved away and fled back to the brush.

All but two of the dragons faded into the underbrush and the sounds of Green Eyes and her adversary stopped. The two dragons that remained in view just sat and watched
Veer and Shira. Veer raged with frustration but knew that he had to try and save Shira if he could. Shira had already lost consciousness and Veer knew that he had to establish some kind of camp in order to take care of the stricken girl. Veer called to his horse which finally came to him reluctantly. He picked up his bow and checked it to make sure that it was still whole. He tied his bow to the saddle on the horse and then picked up Shira and began to walk back upstream. He carried Shira until he could no longer smell the rotting dragon and men behind him. He put her down near the edge of the trees in a shaded spot. There was a pile of dead brush and wood nearby which had been washed up when the stream had flooded during the storm and left behind when the water receded. This would have to do as a camp.

Veer
unfastened a bedroll and wrapped the shivering girl in the wool blanket. He noticed that two baby dragons had followed him and were watching him and Shira. Then he caught site of Green Eyes and the larger dragon that had fought with the nasty creature - both dragons looked ruffled but otherwise fine. “Too bad he didn’t kill you Green Eyes,” Veer spat at the dragon and Green Eyes spread her wings and hissed back at him. Veer picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the green eyed little dragon which leaped to the side to avoid being hit by the flying rock and let out a small screech of anger.

Still early in the day,
Veer sat down beside the shivering bundle that was Shira and seethed in anger that the little dragon had bitten the only person in the world who Veer now knew. Frustration started to rise up in Veer as he thought about the time that would be lost as he waited for Shira to recover or die. Every hour lost was an hour that his enemy could get farther away and would become harder to find. In frustration Veer picked up another stone to hurl at Green Eyes but when he looked to where the tiny dragon had been a few moments earlier the beast was gone. “Any dragon will do,” Veer said out loud as he turned his attention on the two dragons sitting a dozen yards away watching. Pulling back his arm in preparation for another throw Veer looked into the blue eyes of one of the little dragons. The eyes of the little dragon looking back at Veer seemed strange and familiar at the same time; somehow not as reptilian as they had looked before, they were almost human looking. Veer didn’t know how but he felt certain that the little dragon sitting looking at him was the one which had stayed next to him while he was sick from the poison. Remembering the rock that was still clutched in his hand, Veer angrily slung the stone into the water of the nearby stream saying, “I guess you didn’t do anything.”

A rumble drew the attention of the young man and he realized that he was hungry. A day with little food and then three days unconscious with nothing
at all to eat was starting to catch up to him. Veer knew that he must hunt or fish to get some food for himself and for Shira if she woke up. ”No! When she wakes up,” he snapped out loud at himself.  Veer looked around him to try and take stock of what they had to use and what they would need. He noticed that Shira was no longer shivering and seemed to be in a deep sleep which he felt was a good sign. As he looked at her lying there he just suddenly knew that the girl would recover. Veer didn’t know how he knew it but he was as certain of it as he was certain the night would come in a few more hours.

Veer
knew that he couldn’t take to the surrounding hills in order to hunt and leave Shira poisoned and sleeping, with wolves, bears, hill lions and poisonous baby dragons wandering about. Fish it would have to be, and so Veer turned to the shallow stream. The young man recalled that there were no fishing supplies in the packs so he would have to use his bow. Veer remembered the voice of his grandfather teaching him how to get fish from the mountain streams. ‘Now boy, see what you do is find yourself a shallow crossing or a ford where you can walk across the stream but with a deeper pool just upstream. Now stand and face upstream right next to the water so that the flow of the water is coming to you.  Look into the shadows where you can see what’s under the water and just stand and wait until you see a fish. Aim your arrow just under the fish because fish have a magic that makes ‘em look like they are in one place when they are really just a little bit deeper than they look. When you hit the fish just wait for him to stop his thrashing around and then walk out into the stream as the water brings ’im right to you. Simple as that.’ As Veer had been reliving that memory he had also been doing the exact same things and was now standing beside the stream looking at a fish in a deeper pool just upstream. Releasing the arrow at a spot just under the fish, Veer watched it fly home and saw the fish begin to thrash about. And then just like he had been taught he waded into the stream and grabbed the dying fish as the water tried to carry it downstream.

“Fish tonight
,” the young man said to himself as he waded back to shore with his prize. As Veer reached the shore, where he had left his bow hanging in a bush to keep the string dry while he waded into the water, he heard a loud crashing in the underbrush - the sound of something large and quickly moving toward him. A loud baby dragon sized screech also came from the brush. Dropping the fish, Veer grabbed his bow from the bush and rapidly nocked an arrow and brought the bow up with the string next to his cheek.  Pressing the bow forward he began to put tension on the limbs of the weapon while sighting the arrow toward the direction of the noise. As his arm reached full extension and the arrow was ready to release he saw the brush ahead of him shake and a large stag, still with velvet covered antlers, leaped into view. As the stag saw Veer it turned sharply to the left presenting a moving broadside target to the young man.  Though young, Veer was an experienced hunter and instantly sighted and released the arrow on a flight slightly ahead and above the chest of the stag; a flight that he intended to strike the deer as it took the next leap. As he released the arrow into the air he saw that the young dragon with human like eyes was bursting from the brush in a low flight and snapping at the hindquarters of the stag - driving the harried beast forward. Just as Veer had known it would the stag took a leap that carried it to meet the arrow perfectly. The stag was feathered very well and only managed another ten yards of fleeing before dropping to the ground in a heap.  The baby dragon following the deer landed on the ground beside the fallen animal and turned to look at Veer.

Ordinarily
Veer would follow Hillfolk custom and dress and butcher the deer after carrying it away so that the waste and scraps would not attract unwanted neighbours to camp. But he was not willing to leave Shira, unconscious and defenceless especially with baby dragons wandering the area. So he set to the task of dressing and butchering the animal right there where it fell just yards from camp. Within an hour Veer had managed to get the stag dressed and quartered and had carried the meat back into the camp. Veer decided to see to preparing a meal since he was still hungry. He built a small fire and got the fish cleaned and cooking over the fire and added a few strips of venison. In case Shira should wake Veer also started a small pot from the packs to boil and added some venison and some wild herbs from around the area in order to have a broth ready for her. All the while as these tasks were keeping him busy Veer noticed that there was one dragon sitting just at the edge of the brush watching the girl as she slept and the human eyed dragon was also ever present but more focused on the young man.

Finally,
Veer was able to sit and eat his fill of fish and meat along with some of the herbs that grew wild this time of year. It was a very welcome meal and he felt his strength returning bit by bit. Frequent checks on the sleeping girl assured Veer that she was still alive even if she slept so deeply that she seemed to be on the edge of death. Veer still felt hungry though he knew that he had stuffed himself earlier and he thought to himself it must be the result of his days of illness. He noticed that the human eyed dragon which had driven the deer out of the brush was sitting watching Veer with glances toward the meat. “You did help catch it I guess so you can eat some too,” he said to the dragon which looked at him twisting its head slightly in the way that a puppy does when it listens to a person speaking. Carving pieces of meat off of one of the haunches the boy began to toss the hunks to the dragon. As the dragon ate the pieces of meat Veer noticed the baby dragon that seemed to be keeping watch over the girl was glancing toward the meat but seemed unwilling to leave its place so Veer tossed some food to the second baby dragon which also began to eat. Before long other baby dragons seemed to drift to the edge of camp as darkness descended and Veer tossed meat to them also reasoning that at least if they have eaten they might not try to attack during the night. Then he noticed Green Eyes sitting in a tree just outside of camp watching them all. When the nasty dragon saw him glance up at her she hissed and spread her wings. No meat was tossed to her.

Eventually the baby dragons seemed to grow full and even Veer now felt full himself. Night had fallen and he knew that there was no way he would be able to stay awake permanently so he prepared camp for the night. First the meat had to be tied high into the nearby trees so nothing could steal it in the night. Next he moved the girl so that she would spend the night with one side protected by the fire and Veer with his weapons on her other side. Veer built an unusually large fire for summer but he knew that it would burn longer and offer more protection. He would also keep his bow strung and arrows ready so if anything did wake him up he could draw and release quickly. With the sword drawn and lying on the ground beside him and with his fighting knife next to it Veer sat leaning against a stone so that he would be sitting up and never fall into a deep sleep and only take short naps through the night. As he sat there he periodically moved to add wood to the fire and keep it well fed and he watched the sparkling dragon eyes at the edge of the fire light. He knew that he and the fire would be the only protection Shira would have if the dragons decided to attack again or if any other animal showed up. Occasionally he would snap awake and realize that he had been napping and he would build up the fire, and sit scanning the darkness until he would doze again. The night wore on this way allowing Veer to get some sleep and still keep the fire fairly large while making sure the girl was safe and the dragons kept their distance.

Suddenly awakened by the sound of a screaming dragon
Veer reached for his bow. Nocking an arrow as he sprang to his feet Veer started looking around to see which dragon was again after the girl. Though it didn’t feel like a whole night had passed it must be nearing dawn since the sky was showing that pre-dawn brightness and Veer could see fairly well around himself. It was good that the sky was starting to lighten because the fire had died down to embers this last time while he had slept. He could see some of the dragons but they were not facing toward the camp but outward toward the forest. Now he could hear the sounds of several things moving quickly through the underbrush and he started to catch glimpses of things that looked large and dog-like. Wolves he thought to himself, wolves and only one person to fight them off from the girl who still lay between him and the embers as though she were dead. Veer waited for the attack which he knew would come when he heard another draconian scream as the first wolf broke through the brush and leaped. His arrow took the wolf in the throat and quenched a snarl as surely as a bucket of water would drown a torch. As the first wolf collapsed several more followed out of the forest and Veer knew that his bow had done all that it would do and that blades would be where their protection would now be found. Throwing his bow clear of the area Veer stooped and grabbed both his sword and his knife from the ground and raised them to point at the wolves now starting to fill the empty space between he and the forest.

He had chosen the camp site well with the stream at his back so there was little space for anything to get behind him and with the bed of embers closing off one line of attack he could position himself so that the only way a beast could get to Shira was to pass his blades. He could not count how many wolves were in front of him as they moved for position but he could see that it was a large pack of the beasts. With snarls
, two wolves leaped, one directly at Veer while another tried to pass by him to get to the stricken girl. He lashed out clumsily with the point of the unfamiliar sword toward his opponent. It was not a very effective strike and at the moment when Veer knew that he could not win this battle the air around him filled with the shrieks of two small dragons. There was a streak through the air as a dragon far smaller than a wolf slammed into the beast attacking Veer and a similar streak intercepted the second wolf before it could reach Shira. As both wolves went down in tangles of lupine and dragon Veer managed to get the point of his sword into the chest of a third wolf that came leaping toward him. The force of the airborne wolf still drove the boy back as it died with his sword buried in its heart.  The sword was pulled from his hand by the falling beast which had the blade embedded though bone. Veer brought his knife up to meet the onslaught of four more wolves leaping to attack. Veer resolved that he would not be driven away from his friend and then he felt the jaws of a wolf lock onto his thigh. As he felt the tearing pain of the bite to his leg four more streaks in flight slammed into the leaping wolves and they all went down each locked in a struggle with a dragon much less than half its size but with a twisting serpentine body that writhed with surprising strength and speed for such young animals.

With a moment to see the battle unfolding
Veer watched the remaining wolves leap back into the forest. The dragon which had been watching Shira was literally standing on the girl as it finished its battle with its dying opponent. The human eyed dragonet pulled away from the body of his wolf, Veer just knew that this little dragon was a he, and crawled to stand in front of Veer hissing into the forest after the fleeing wolves. Two of the battling wolves freed themselves from their little enemies and fled to the forest with the rest of their pack. The remaining two wolves died as wounds or poison ended their lifelong hunt. Of the six dragons at his feet Veer noticed that two had already moved to start trying to pull the body of one dead wolf off of another dragonet who had battled the animal and an been pinned under the beast as it fell. The dragon which had defended Shira was draped across the chest of the girl trying to raise its head weakly as it seemed to be bleeding a green ichor from several bites.  At his own feet struggling to stand was the human eyed dragon which was also bleeding from a serious bite to its leg.

Of the dead wolves
Veer saw that one had actually died across the legs of Shira and another lay on top of a twitching dragonet as two other dragons tried to pull the wolf away to free their sibling. One wolf lay on the ground with a sword still lodged in its chest. Though he could feel the wound to his leg Veer knew that he must get the wolf and dragon off of Shira so he hobbled to her side and rolled the dead lupine away from her. Almost gently he lifted the dragonet off of the girl and carried it some feet away and placed it on the ground where it couldn’t suddenly decide to hurt the girl. Looking at the two dragonets pulling at the body of the wolf which lay on top of the fallen baby dragon made Veer feel sorry for the animals and he bent and half lifted and half rolled the wolf off of the baby dragon. The two unharmed dragonets lay down and wrapped themselves around the body of the smaller dragonet. They looked to Veer as if they almost could feel love and were trying to help the injured dragon.

Veer
could feel the bite to his thigh and knew that he had to tend to it so he limped to the packs and found some strips of linen which had been rolled for bandages and a jar of a salve which he could tell, by the herbal smell, was for injuries. Unfastening his belt and trousers he lowered them to the ground as he sat down to tend to the pulsing injury on his thigh. He looked down at his bare leg and there was nothing unusual, no bite, no scratches, nothing. Veer sat there and stared at the place on his thigh where he could feel the pain of the injury. He remembered feeling the wolf bite into his leg during the battle. It must have been one of the wolves which fled because the wolves which he saw attack were all dead. This wolf must have come around to the side because he never saw the animal which had bitten him, but he had felt it. He could still feel the injury. But there was nothing there; his leg was untouched. Standing, he pulled his trousers back up and fastened everything in place once again.

Now to get rid of these dead wolves and set the camp back to rights.
Veer looked at the baby dragons around him and knew that he would have to be careful with those poisonous little beasts as he moved the injured ones away. Then he saw the human eyed dragon which was looking at him. He remembered how that dragonet had, just a few minutes ago, fought a wolf, a wolf more that twice its size, and won. He remembered how the dragon had stopped the wolf that had marked Veer as its intended victim. “Why, why would you do that?” Veer asked to the dragon lying on the ground in front of him. Veer glanced to where he had moved the dragon from Shira and saw that the little beast was slowly crawling toward the sleeping girl. “And why would you protect her?” The young man stood there feeling confused and noticed that the human eyed dragon was starting to try and crawl toward him. He felt his leg throb badly and winced from the pain of an injury that wasn’t there. He could see that the dragonet was only using three legs to try and move itself as it had suffered a bad bite to the thigh of a hind leg.

Veer
felt unusually sorry for the animal as he looked into its eyes. At that moment he knew that this little dragon would not bite him or try to hurt him in any way. Veer didn’t understand how he could be so sure that this venomous little serpentine beast would not turn on him, but he was certain. He picked up the salve and bandages and sat on the ground beside the dragonet and tended its wounds. As he applied the healing medicine to the bite he could feel the pain in his own leg begin to lessen just a bit. Next he moved to tend the injuries on the dragon that had been hurt protecting Shira. Scratches and small bites but nothing had seemed to be broken on either dragonet because the bones felt whole. Next he moved toward the little one which had been crushed under the falling wolf. This dragonet was the smallest and Veer was amazed that it could have killed a wolf even if it had died doing it. There was nothing he could do for that one but maybe bury it. But he noticed that it still seemed to be alive somehow. It was breathing shallow and slow, but still breathing. Veer looked at the two dragons which were unhurt as they lay curled around their fallen sibling. “I hope that you know what to do for your sister.” Then he wondered how he could just know that the stricken dragon was a girl. Strange things happening here, Veer thought to himself. Veer started to feel exhausted and knew that he needed to rest after the battle.  First he needed to build up the fire and he refilled the little pot with water and put it near the fire to heat for broth in case Shira woke. Then Veer sat down and drifted off to sleep.

The next day
Veer woke in the late morning feeling very hungry and to find a baby dragon curled up beside him just looking at him with those almost human eyes. Looking around he saw that the other bandaged baby dragon was sleeping curled aside Shira and that there were still two dragons curled around the little dragnet which had been fallen on by the wolf. Veer decided food first for everyone and then clean the camp and remove the dead wolves.

The day passed quickly for
Veer as he fed the baby dragons several times with meat from the haunches of deer hanging up in the trees. Hill wolves being so very much larger than flatland wolves, he had needed to use the horse and a rope to drag the dead beasts away from the camp. A little time was spent foraging just around the camp in the forest which was abundant with food this time of year. That odd pain was still present in his leg though no wolf had actually bitten him. He felt bad for the little human eyed dragon because he knew that the real bite that the little dragon had sustained must really hurt. So much so that each time he saw the little dragon try to use the injured leg Veer could feel a strong burst of pain as though it were his own leg.  With so much to do the day flew by for Veer and as evening came he finished up the tasks for the day. Feeding all of the baby dragons except Green Eyes and cleaning and dressing their wounds again. Many times during that day he had checked the sleeping girl but Shira gave no sign of waking though he noticed that a peculiar smell was starting to surround her as though she were sweating out the poison from the dragon bite.

As the long day of late summer came to an end and the evening finally arrived
Veer was quite tired and ready to sleep. Knowing that he had no way to do all of the watches through the night he had prepared the camp with plenty of fuel and took the same precautions as the night before to build a nice fire which could protect them on the opposite side of the sleeping girl. The night passed without incident, though Veer woke up regularly to build up the fire and to check on things. He had not even tried to drive the dragonets away and so he slept with a dragon curled next to him while another dragon slept beside Shira and three dragonets slept tangled together in a bundle. At some point during the night Veer awoke to notice that most of the remaining baby dragons had joined the tangled bundle of reptiles that seemed to be protecting the badly injured dragonet. Green Eyes was the exception and Veer would occasionally wake to see a set of green reptilian eyes staring at the camp beyond the ring of firelight. The green eyes seemed to glint with hatred or maybe it was just the flickering of the fire that made it seem like animosity.

A second full day dawned and passed at this camp.
Veer was getting used to the dragons and he fed them more of the deer along with some fish from the stream.  He also gathered more wood from the area for the fire. Shira slept through the whole day still barely breathing and with the bad smell from her skin growing worse. It was an uneventful day spent with Veer trying to keep himself busy and occasionally talking to himself or to the human eyed dragon. Throughout the day the young man saw the various other baby dragons in the immediate area, even occasionally catching sight of Green Eyes which would always hiss at him when she noticed him looking at her. He kept a broth warming all day in case Shira should wake. Near the end of the day the baby dragon which had seemed to be dying stirred a bit and opened its eyes. Veer ended up slowly spooning the broth into the mouth of the tiny dragonet because it seemed so hungry and weak.  He then made another pot of broth and prepared for a third night in camp.