Dragon’s Honor, 3 of 3

A Fantasy Short Story by Joe Jackson

Dragon’s Honor, 1 of 3

by Joe Jackson

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Kari awoke with a start, but the jerk to her neck when she did so made her cringe in pain. She saw the deer down the hillside from her, and from the light, she could tell she hadn’t been out too long. She had a silent debate as to whether she was lucky the deer didn’t kill her when it fell on her, but shrugged off the feelings. There was work to be done, and as long as she was still drawing breath, there was no time for self-pity.

It took a good deal of effort to get the deer back up on her shoulders, but she managed. It was a long, arduous trek to Ashurinax’ lair and she was glad she hadn’t had to follow the tracks too far to find her quarry. The dragon could eat the carcass whole and uncooked, but Kari was going to need to cut some meat from it first and then prepare it properly. Then, she would want to tend to a couple more of the dragon’s wounds. And by the time she did all that, she imagined she’d be ready to sleep for a good, long time.

But not too long, she thought. Not yet. There’s still work to be done.

She trudged back to the cave, willpower keeping her feet moving and the buck over her shoulders. The dragon watched her pull the carcass in, but she didn’t bring it directly to him. He watched her with those golden eyes, full of a mixture of shame and wonder. Kari prepared to skin the animal, but then realized the dragon wouldn’t likely care. Instead, she cut just enough meat for a couple of meals for herself.

Kari used what little strength she had left to drag the body over to the dragon’s maw. “You’d better eat this,” the demonhunter huffed. “Not sure I’ll be able to do this again.”

She watched only long enough to see the dragon gobble up the carcass and begin to crush it between his teeth before she returned to her little campfire. There was no wood, and she was wet, exhausted, and hungry. She might be able to muster the strength to gather firewood, but she’d be hard-pressed to stay awake long enough to put it to use cooking food. She weighed her options.

In the end, she rose and approached one of the last few festering wounds on the dragon. She sliced it open and drained it, then channeled what power of her deity she was able to. She sat down beside him, then, and leaned against his scaly side near his ribs. He folded his wing over her, and Kari yawned.

“I think we might both die here,” she said. “I can’t… I can’t even crawl over there to the meat, and even if I could, I don’t have any firewood. Don’t suppose you can cook it for me?”

Ashurinax lifted his head with some effort, and drew in a breath. He managed only a few fiery belches, but it was enough to sear the meat; Kari could see that plainly enough from where she sat. She couldn’t help but laugh, and the dragon gazed at her through a single slit-pupiled eye.

“We make a sorry pair,” she muttered. She rolled onto her hands and knees and crawled over to the meat. The outside was blackened, but it wasn’t completely burnt. She put it between her teeth and crawled back over to his side, content to stay near his warmth when her garments were wet. “If anyone found us like this, they’d probably feel justified putting both of us out of our misery.”

The black dragon grumbled deep in his throat but said nothing, curling up around her while she ate. Kari consumed all of the seared venison, not wanting any to go to waste. Within minutes of finishing, she fell asleep again, wrapped under the dragon’s wing against his side.

~ * ~ * ~

It was the scratches to her face, sustained in the fall, that woke her up. Kari started when she realized she’d slept against a dragon. Ashurinax lifted his wing away from her and regarded her with a single eye. He lifted his head and shifted his weight, and Kari sprang to her feet. She backed away toward her equipment, though she made no sudden moves.

“Feeling better?” she ventured, wondering if his answer would be a blast of fire.

“Remarkably,” the dragon answered. He curled his sinuous neck to examine the wounds that were still on the mend. “It shames me to ask, but if you were to tend to these last few wounds and provide one more meal…”

Kari squatted down and then straightened out again. She, too, felt better for having eaten and gotten a sound night’s sleep. There was still pain; the effects of Dracon’s Bane never went away, and now she had the scratches on her face and hands, along with bruising on her neck and shoulders to contend with. But compared to some of what she’d suffered in her life, they were minor aches. If the Dracon’s Bane was going to give her some respite and allow her to eat, sleep, and hunt normally, she needed to take advantage of that.

The demonhunter fished the trail rations out of her pack. Some of them were ruined from having been through the water, but she took her fill of what was unspoiled. While she chewed on a handful of nuts and dried berries, she got the last of the brys’ arrows out of Ashurinax’ hide and checked the rest of his wounds. With fewer of them to heal, his body was fighting the infections better from what she could tell, though she drained the final one with her hunting knife anyway. She was leery of using Zalkar’s power to heal, as it tended to take a lot out of her, but she stanched the bleeding and then returned to her gear.

“I might have to go a little smaller on prey this time,” she said as she crouched down. She started to put on her breastplate and greaves, at least, on the off chance she encountered any more serilian demons. She had taken a foolish chance on her last hunt, and didn’t care to repeat it. If she died of starvation, her disease, or was incinerated by dragon’s breath, that was one thing. But as a demonhunter, she would take it as the grandest of insulting failures if she got killed by a serilian demon – particularly if it was because she went out unprepared. “I’ll see if I can bag some game birds here by the lake. Won’t be as filling as what I brought yesterday, but easier for me to carry – and share.”

“Yesterday?” he echoed.

“The buck?” she reminded him.

The dragon regarded her silently, and she found herself even more unnerved when those great golden eyes finally blinked. “That was not yesterday…”

“What?”

“Do you not even realize how long you have been here? How long you have slept?”

Kari reached up and felt her face. The scratches were healed over slightly. How long had she slept? Two days? Three? More? She felt like she’d be hungrier if she had gone so long without food, but Dracon’s Bane could play havoc with her eating – and sleeping. She kept waking when the sun was up, but had little else by which she could keep track of the days.

“How long have I been here?” she managed.

“Several days,” he answered. “I… was undecided whether or not to wake you. I thought you might die in your sleep, but to see you now… you have recovered more than I expected.”

“I’ve never lost track of time before, not like this,” she whispered, but then she wondered if she had and just never realized it. Days on the road could often become a blur, and in honesty, dates meant little except when she had a pressing mission before her. If she had ever slept for days in the presence of Carly and their other friends, none of them had mentioned it.

Ultimately, she shrugged. “I guess there’s nothing to be done about it,” she said. “Let me see if I can find some geese or turkeys, and I’ll be back when I can.”

Ashurinax let forth a long sigh and laid his head back down, but said nothing.

~ * ~ * ~

The hunting around the lake was good. Kari found a flock of geese a short jaunt from Ashurinax’s lair. She took advantage of the fact that killing one made the others hesitate as they wondered whether it would get back up and follow. She was able to kill nearly half a dozen of them before the others finally figured out what was going on, but that was enough for her current needs. She’d only eat a little, and the dragon could have the rest. True, they’d probably be little more than a snack to Ashurinax, but she could only do so much.

The birds were still heavy all together, but Kari strung them over her back and shoulders to distribute the weight. That left her arms free to gather some firewood and kindling, and she kept those up above the water when she waded back into the cave. She gave a short, casual wave to the dragon as though he were an old friend, but set up the firewood and got the kindling going first. It would take some time to prep a bird for herself, so she gave the rest of the lot to the dragon beforehand. Not surprisingly, he swallowed them without even chewing.

“Best I could do for now,” she said by way of apology. She knelt back down and tended to the fire for a moment before getting underway preparing her bird.

“You remind me of my daughter.”

Kari paused, waiting for something else to be said, convinced she must have imagined what she’d just heard. When nothing else came forth, she turned and looked at the dragon between her shoulder and wing. “What?”

“The black flesh, the wings, the headstrong nature that nothing can stop,” he mused. “I had a daughter many, many years ago, born of a czarikk female. And you remind me of her. I think there is more nobility in you, but she, too, was driven and fearless. How curious that your form should so closely resemble hers, just as your spirit does.”

“You had a daughter… with a czarikk?” Kari blurted, almost afraid to think how a dragon and one of the lizard-folk had even come to that point. Kari had met czarikk before, but not in great numbers or frequency.

“You must know by now that some of my kind can take the forms of men for a time.”

Well, that might explain it, she thought, but didn’t press that issue. It wasn’t exactly a polite line of questioning, and the demonhunter wasn’t sure she even wanted to know all of the particulars. Instead, she asked, “What was her name?”

“Ashanti… Ashanti S’Laviolor,” the dragon said. He looked away, out the mouth of the cave, lost in thought as he let forth a long sigh. “It is so fascinating how our lives go in circles. Something that is much more apparent to one who lives as long as one of my kind. You may not see it as easily in your own life – doubly so because yours should be cut short by your illness. But there is something to the repetition, and it leaves me to wonder…”

“What happened to her?”

“I do not know. I suspect she has passed on; I cannot know how long her life may have been extended by my blood, for the czarikk live only a few score years, just as your own. If she yet lives, she has not come to see me for centuries now. No, I suspect she joined our ancestors among the stars, in the halls of the Lord of the Green, perhaps.”

He laid his head back down and went quiet, so Kari continued with her preparatory work. She guessed he didn’t want to think about what was likely his only relation being dead. Kari glanced around the cave and considered his circumstances. How lonely it must be to be a dragon, she thought.

“Let me have something to eat, and then rest, and then I’ll go out and see if I can fell something bigger again tomorrow, or whenever I wake up,” she said, but Ashurinax only blinked at her in response.

Kari followed through on her plan, though this time, she slept near the fire and not against the dragon’s side.

~ * ~ * ~

She felt hands on her again and woke with a start, though there was no one there.

It was still dark outside the cave mouth, and Kari could see by the embers of the fire that she hadn’t slept for days this time. The dragon, by contrast, was still asleep in the pre-dawn hours. Kari had some of the leftover goose, then grabbed her bow and arrows and slipped out of the cave as silently as she could.

After taking care of her morning needs, she stood on the shore of the lake in the pre-dawn fog. She felt better than she had in some time. Hunting something large and heavy to feed the dragon would probably be pushing her luck, though, so she went in the opposite direction today to try to find another flock – or was it a gaggle? – of geese. They may have only been an appetizer for the dragon, but Kari had enjoyed what she’d taken from the bounty.

The day dawned clear and bright while she hunted, and she managed to bag a few more of the fowl. She was mindful to take down pairs, knowing that they mated for life and it was of no use to leave one behind. She further made sure not to kill too many of them; she had culled the prior day’s flock but left enough of them. Now, she did the same: Taking what was needed, but no more. Ashurinax could surely eat both flocks in their entirety in one sitting, but he would have to make do with the smaller portions.

Kari had a spring in her step when she returned to the cave, something about hunting and taking in the landscape in the waking light of dawn invigorating her. She paused as she started to make her way into the cave; she had neglected to bring firewood with her. She shrugged off the thoughts and continued on. She could go get firewood after she gave Ashurinax his portion.

It wasn’t until she emerged from the water that she realized the dragon was standing up, gazing down at her intently. They stared at each other for a few silent moments, and then he began to draw in a breath, rearing his head back in preparation.

“Wait,” Kari said, holding up her hand. “If you’re going to kill me, at least let me put my blades aside. These are truly remarkable, and I’d hate to see you destroy them.”

Ashurinax moved one of his feet and then folded his leg. He brought his neck and his head down to lay them on the floor before her. It took Kari the better part of a minute to realize he was bowing before her. When he stood back up, he let forth that fiery breath finally, but used it to char the ceiling above them, warming the cave but leaving Kari unharmed. When he was finished with his display, he stood proud before her again.

“I am Ashurinax the Black, the Shadow Walker, the Flame of the Night, the Lord of the Evening Sky,” he reiterated his previous introduction. “You, Karian Vanador, have nothing to fear from me. You have spared my life and indeed saved it, and as is customary and honorable, I now owe you the debt of my life. I will serve you or perform a boon for you, or you may take my treasures as your own, for you have earned them. This is the draconic honor-debt, and I will abide by it as our ancestors have for time immemorial.”

It took considerable effort for Kari to close her mouth. “Hungry?” she asked, swinging the birds off of her back and in the dragon’s direction.

“I feel I am able to hunt for myself now.”

“Don’t let these go to waste,” she said, laying them before him. “Now what’s this about a debt of honor?”

“Take one of my treasures, or all of them, or ask me to carry you on my back. Ask of me what you will, mortal, for you have given me life, and I owe you something in return.”

“How about life in return for life?” Kari asked, and the dragon cocked his head. “I don’t want any of your things. I want you to leave my friends alone. The nearby elves talk about all the problems they’ve had with you over the years. I can’t speak for them, but I’m satisfied letting bygones be bygones. Leave them in peace in the future, and I’ll ask them to return that courtesy. Is that too much to ask?”

“It is much to ask, but I will – I must – honor it,” he answered. “I am awed to find such selflessness. Perhaps I underestimated you to compare you to my daughter. Nevertheless, such a gesture on behalf of another deserves some token of esteem.”

Ashurinax turned and took something up in his mouth, then dropped it on the floor between them. “This was my daughter’s armor. I believe it may fit you well, and will certainly protect you well. Wear this not in honor of her nor even of me, but in memory of this moment. For I am about to do something I have never done before, mortal.”

He nudged the armor toward Kari. She had never seen its like before. She picked up the helm and noted all the holes that had to have been for horns; she could only imagine what Ashanti had looked like. The suit certainly appeared as though it would fit her body styling, but the helm was all but useless and the gauntlets were too large, fitted for someone with much longer fingers. She left the suit where it sat, though, and straightened back out.

“What’s that?” she prompted at last.

He bowed before her again. “I will call you my friend. There is no fear in you, and I think it has little enough to do with your pending doom. You respect my power, and yet you do not fear it. You leave me in awe, mortal.”

Kari laid her hand upon his nose plate, feeling the warmth of his breath blow past her. “If you uphold the promise not to hurt the elves, then I will call you mine,” she returned.

“I will honor your request for all of my days, as is right,” he said. “If I am honest, this forest has always felt… spooky to me, so perhaps it is time I flew off to bluer skies.”

“No, no,” Kari said, waving off his words. “When I asked you to leave the elves alone, I didn’t mean move somewhere else and be a pest…”

He laughed, a thunderous guffaw that blew her hair back. “I will honor your intent, not your words, Karian Vanador.”

The demonhunter smiled up at him as he straightened out to that proud stance once more. “Kari,” she said. “My friends call me Kari.”

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