A Rose Amongst the Dragons, page 17
part #1 of A Rose Amongst the Dragons Series
“Tell me your name,” he said.
Indy jumped back a bit, started by his words, for they were fluent. She had made noises out of her mouth before, but not like that. Thelton liked the response, so he kept talking. Indy watched but never answered. When Thelton grew weary, he closed his eyes and went to sleep. He slept through the night, and when he awoke, he found Indy still watching over him.
“Come on, woman, let me go. Whatever you want is yours. I can give you the world.”
No response, just staring.
Thelton looked at Indy. She was the oddest woman he had ever seen. She was his equal in size. Something that wasn’t common for the women of the area. Most women were a head or two shorter than him. She had wings that compacted tightly against her back. He could see hues of teal and gold mixed in the blackness of them, and even a slight bit of purple. She had very long black hair that was ratty and everywhere. Her arms were blanketed in thick dark hair, while her eyebrows were bushier than his. Her skin was much tanned, almost looking like leather, nothing soft or smooth about it. She was very husky, not from fat, but from well worked muscles.
Indy was very large and mature for her age of fifteen. It was because the dragon’s milk she had drank for the first half of her life had caused her body to grow more powerful and stronger than she would have been on her own. The milk’s growth factors had also created many dragon-like qualities to her body; the most obvious were her wings and claws. What traits she hadn’t inherited through the milk, she had learned living amongst the dragons. She was very much like a dragon, and yet, she possessed many human characteristics as well.
Thelton stopped talking and decided to stare back. Maybe he could intimidate her. He intensely bore his eyes into her. It didn’t work, for she had such a placid response. He finally looked away and then at her again. He noticed she was slightly taller than he was. Her frame was as large. He wasn’t aware of another woman in the village as big as her. She wasn’t fat; in fact she was very toned, with thick bulging muscles. She had hair as dark as tar. It was wild, long, and full of dirt, leaves, and twigs. Her skin was thick and browned by the sun. He could tell that she spent most of her life outside. As he stared into her deep green eyes, he felt a wave of emotion sweep his body.
“What was that?” He looked away uncomfortable, but quickly looked back into her eyes. Again, something overcame his body. He decided to avoid her eyes.
Indy, however, could not stop staring at Thelton. She found him so enthralling. As she studied him, she realized they were about the same. He looked like her. She wondered where he came from and if there were others like him. He had a pattern of noises out of his mouth that she had never tried. She wasn’t ready to recreate them, but she enjoyed listening to him when he made them.
They sat in silence for awhile until Thelton sat up and yelled, “My sword.” He had remembered they were still back at the dragon lair. “I can’t go on without that sword. It was a gift from the king. I slay all my dragons with it. I slay all the trolls with it. What did you do, you foolish girl? Take me back, I must get my sword.” Thelton paced around in a rage. His arms flung back and forth.
Indy watched Thelton; he was going on a rant. She could see that something changed about him, but she didn’t understand it. Thelton threw his fit for about an hour and then finally stopped. He sat across from Indy. She looked into his eyes and he had to look away.
“Who are you? What kind of woman lives with dragons and can fly?”
Indy reached forward and ran her hands through his sandy blond hair. She touched her own hair and touched his hair again. His was softer than hers. It was lighter than hers. Thelton’s skin tingled. Indy leaned into Thelton and began smelling him. She took her hands and ran them over his arms. Her touch excited him. His reactions were so new to Thelton. Indy continued to explore her prey.
After awhile, Indy grew tired. She hadn’t slept much since she had captured Thelton. Lying on the ground she almost instantly went to sleep. Thelton just stared at her. He had never met a woman that would sleep on the ground. The sounds of wolves carried over head. Suddenly, Thelton wanted to protect her. He was sure she didn’t need any, but the feelings to want to protect were there. When the howling stopped, he allowed himself to drift to sleep.
Thelton’s stomach growled and brought him out of his slumber. He was hungry. He had run out of bread several days ago. He looked over at Indy. She looked so helpless asleep, nothing like the wild beast that she was. Getting up, he decided to go look for food. As he began to walk away, Indy awoke. She saw him leaving her side. She didn’t know what to do. She felt possessive of her catch. Jumping up, she tackled him to the ground.
“I am done with this!” he yelled at her. “Get off me.”
Indy pinned Thelton down and held him there for awhile. She could feel his heat. She didn’t know what to do with him, but she didn’t want him escaping. Eventually, she rolled over and allowed Thelton to stand.
“I am hungry, I want food.” He turned and began walking away. Indy pounced on him again, using her massive strength, she held him close to the ground.
“What are you doing? Get off me!” He yelled again. He could feel her muscles press into his back. How could she be so much stronger than him? After awhile, she released him.
Thelton tried to motion with his hands the act of eating. He rubbed his stomach. “Hungry, food. Eat. Can’t you understand, eat?” Indy looked gently at him, and he thought she understood. He began to shuffle away when she pounced upon him again.
“Will you stop it?” he screamed. “What is your problem?” Thelton tried to push Indy off. The two of them rolled around. Dirt flew everywhere. Finally getting the upper hand, he pushed her off and jumped up. Indy jumped up next to him.
“Please, let me go get food.” He again tried to use his hands to show the act of eating. Indy responded by motioning him next to her.
Thelton began to understand. Indy was trying to keep him close. He was her catch. She thought he was trying to escape. Thelton grabbed her hand and clasped it into his. Although it was very rough, it was the greatest thing he had ever felt. “Don’t think that,” he barked at himself while he tried to push the thought away. He pulled at her arm to follow him.
“Let’s find food together,” he said, and surprisingly, Indy allowed him to guide her.
They walked around awhile until they spotted a fox. Thelton released Indy’s hand and reached for his golden sword. Disappointed, he remembered he didn’t have it. As he looked at a rock to through, Indy had already pounced on the small animal. It let out s shrill sound. Her thick claws pierced into the small beast’s skin. Thelton’s eyes bulged as he watched her.
“Did I just get out hunted by a woman? More than that, did I just actually see a woman hunt?”
Indy brought the fox to her mouth and tore into it with her teeth. She took several large bites and then dropped the fox at Thelton’s feet.
Thelton scratched his head. “Eww.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust, for she hadn’t even taken the fur off before she started eating it.
“I’ll take your fox, but I am not going to eat it raw.” Thelton dug a small hole and filled it with twigs and kindling, creating a small tepee of wood, and then he took out some flint and stuck it until sparks started a fire. Indy came close to him. She was mesmerized by the flames. Dragons shot out fire, something she couldn’t do, but her strange catch had just created it with his hands. Maybe she could make fire with her hands. She rubbed them back and forth like she thought he had, but nothing happened.
Thelton pulled the fox out of the fire with a stick. He brought the meat to his mouth and took a bite. The sweet meat tickled his senses. His stomach growled in approval. Indy straightened while her ears perked up. She looked to the sky. She could hear the dragons coming. It was looking for Thelton. As Thelton went to take a second bite of his breakfast, Indy grabbed his arm and yanked him up. The fox fell into the dirt.
“What did you do that for,” he growled.
As he bent down to pick up the fox, he saw fear all over her face; he followed her gaze upward. He couldn’t see him, but he could hear the flapping of what he was sure was the dragon’s wings.
“Oh man, this is not good.” He felt defenseless without his swords, feeling rather naked without their protection. Thelton looked around, for they had to hide. He had hidden from dragons before.
Grabbing Indy’s rough hand, they ran. He knew that they left a thick and heavy scent behind. He had an idea. He motioned for Indy to fly. She seemed to understand. She grabbed him and started flying. They flew close to the ground, hidden under the canopy while the dragons flew above the canopy.
…
As they flew away, the dragons reached the remains of the smoldering fire. Smoke was still rising out of the embers. Dropping to the ground, the dragons began searching for Thelton, for they could smell him on everything. Indy kept flying below the branches. When she came to a large mountain, she stopped. She let go of Thelton and sat down. She was breathing heavy. Thelton gazed at her. “I can’t believe you can fly.”
Thelton came and sat next to her. They listened for the dragons, but heard no sign of them. The dragon’s had lost Indy’s scent and was momentarily unable to track her. The two rested against each other. Thelton tried to figure out Indy, was she human or was she some overgrown fairy? He didn’t know.
Thelton leaned into Indy. “You fly, you hunt; you have WINGS! What are you?”
Indy didn’t look at him, she kept her senses alert so that she would know when the dragons were close. She wasn’t sure what to do with her strange find. She wanted to eat him, to explore him, to give him to the queen, to hide him, to leave him, and to protect him. She was full of many conflicting ideas. Suddenly, the hair on her skin stood erect. She sensed the dragons were coming; she jumped up.
Thelton jumped up also, he could see her fear. She wrapped her arms around him and started flying up. She stayed vertical to the mountain. The higher she got, the colder it became. The altitude burned both of their lungs. While they were ascending higher, the dragons reached the lowest position on the mountain. They smelt around until they locked unto Indy’s scent, and then they began following her.
Indy flew to the summit. It was bitter cold at the top. She landed on the ridge and watched the dragons fly up.
“We can’t just sit here and wait for them to get us. We must go.” Thelton yelled as he tried to pull Indy up. She didn’t move. The fear had evaporated from her face. She looked content. “Come on!” he yelled. He moved away from the edge. Indy just sat there.
“Come on,” he yelled. She didn’t respond. He wasn’t ready to leave her side, even though his life was in danger, but they had to go! He stood next to her and looked down at the dragon. Thelton noticed the higher the dragons flew, the slower they became. When they reached about five thousand meters up, their wings began to get stiff, and they started falling straight down, unable to move their wings.
“That’s right,” Thelton shouted out, “Dragons can’t handle the cold or the altitude.” Thelton jumped up in the air. “Whoopee,” he yelled out. He ran over to Indy and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
He punched the sky, “Yes, yes, yes,” he yelled in celebration. Normally he wasn’t nervous with dragons, but without his swords, he was highly skittish.
Indy wrapped her arms around her solid legs and shivered. She was only covered in Genulum leaves, they had some warmth to them, but not sufficient for the bitter cold mountain. Indy had discovered Genulum leaves when she was four. Night times could be pretty cold. The Genulum leaves had a velvety covering on both sides. At first she would drape them over her when she slept. As she got older, she had learned to weave them together using plant fibers. She started covering her body in Genulum leaves as a type of clothing. But at the top of the mountain, the leaf outfit was doing very little to keep her warm. Thelton was also cold, but he could tell that Indy was colder. They had to get off the mountain. Thelton grabbed Indy’s icy hand and they began hiking across the top of the summit while Indy violently shivered. When Thelton felt they were a good distance away from the side, he had motioned for Indy to lift them to the sky.
Indy understood his intent. She wrapped her powerful arms around Thelton’s chest. Her touch felt so good to Thelton. The two flew low above the ground, widening the gap between them and Indy’s home; the dragon camp.
After a long flight, Indy had brought them over the northeast side of the mountain. There was a village at the edge. Thelton had never been there before, and he was sure that no one in Andleburg knew of its existence. He motioned Indy to follow him into the village, because she was still shivering and he wanted to help her get warm.
Thelton grabbed Indy’s bulky hand and guided her to a tavern. Just before they walked through the doors, Thelton looked over Indy. Her wings, although contracted, were a glaringly obvious sight on her. How he wish he could disguise them. He took a deep breath and walked into the tavern.
As they went through the doors, all the men inside turned and looked at them. The atmosphere was stiff and silent. Indy froze. There were more creatures like Thelton everywhere. She cowered into his arms for she was out of her element.
The men took note of her size and her strange leaf clothing.
“What kind of manner of woman are you?” someone yelled out.
“Why she is a wild woman,” another answered.
Thelton ignored their cat calls. A big sloppy drunk man stood up to Thelton. “Listen, you’re not from our village. I suggest you take your winged-bear and go someplace else for your brew.”
Thelton wasn’t accustomed to hostility. He had spent his life being a legend. Everywhere he went in the tri-kingdoms, he was worshiped. He ignored the men, and placed five gold pieces on the bar.
“Does that woman have wings?” someone called out. “Hey everyone, it’s the fairy queen?”
“I need lodging.” Thelton said, ignoring the men.
The gold spoke louder than the drunks. The greedy bar tender scooped them up. “There are rooms out back.”
As they walked out of the tavern, a few men howled.
Chapter 12
Flance’s mind slipped in and out of consciousness. He was so cold. As he hung in the tree, the blood pooled to his lower extremities. He began having hallucinations. In them he could see his son and his father. They kept coming to him and trying to untie him. Seeing them made him wonder if his son had died and had joined his own Father’s spirit in gleaning Flance’s soul. Every joint in his body hurt. If he ever got his hands on Thelton, he was going to kill him. That was twice that Thelton left him in such a precarious situation.
Of course he knew there was no way he would get to Thelton. “I am going to die. No one will ever go this deep into the Vegus Forest.” He began coughing. His throat burned. His mouth was so dry, “What I would do for a drink of water.” As Flance envisioned a drink, a song started playing in his mind. It was one he had heard at the market once. It was about a lady that spanked her kids and they paid her back by throwing dung in her face. It was a horrible, obnoxious song, one that he detested, and yet it played with perfect clarity as his mind played tricks on him. The song was so audible it was as if the singer was right next to him. The song didn’t stop. It just kept repeating over and over. Four hours into the song, Flance couldn’t handle any more of it. If he could get to his hand, he would rip out his ears.
“Stop it,” he screamed. “Stop IT!” Flance decided to drown out the song by singing one of his own. He sang a drinking song. He sang as loud as he could. The force sent him into another coughing fit. He recovered, and tried again.
He started singing another drinking song. “And where did old Heriship go, dear Heriship? One could find him at the bottle.” It didn’t work, in fact the louder he sang, the louder the lady sang next to him. It was of no use.
“Just take me now,” he yelled. “I am going to die, so get on with it.”
“Flance, is that you up there?” he heard a voice from bellow. He didn’t open his eyes for he was tired of the hallucinations.
“It is you Flance; we heard you had been tied up.”
“Is that you God, have you come to rescue me?” Flance replied.
He heard men’s voices roll out in laughter. Flance looked down at a party of men.
“Are you real?” he asked.
“Very real Flance, and it is a fitting situation to find you in.”
“Turkish, that is you. By golly, you are the men that stayed at Firelake. Cut me down, boy.”
“I am not sure I am willing to do as much. You are a traitor to the king’s men. You belong in that tree.”
“What in the devil do you mean? My alliance has always been to the king. The traitor is Thelton. He tied me up here.”
Turkish shook his head. “Flance, we found the men in the cave. It was a horrible sight. Most of them were trees, and some of them were part trees. The men that could still talk told us all about how you drugged them with your whiskey. When they awoke, they had all started turning into trees. After Thelton tied you up and carried you away, the men were left there to rot.”
“I would have never left my men. I was dragged away.”
“Never, Flance, never? You left the men who had gotten stuck by the rock hard mud. Where was your alliance to them? You left them there to die, just like you left the men in the cave to die, after you drugged them.”
Flance had no reply, for he had left the men who had turned to stone. How could he get them to believe that he didn’t leave the men in the cave?
“How did you find me?” Flance asked.
“It wasn’t hard to track you guys down. We followed the wagon ruts all the way to the cave. Before the cave, we saw the men stuck in mud stone, we gathered them food and water and did what we could for them. Sadly, not all of them made it. Three of my men decided to stay with them.
