Chapter Ten #3
“It is not a monster. It is a godhead.” His jaw dropped, bits of dust falling from his mustache to his beard as shouts from the other chamber grew more heated.
“It is a divine being. Danubia speaks of this in her lessons! She says that in the oldest dawn, dragons carried the very first hymnals. Few among us remember those songs, but they are eternal. They touched the divine, and the divine touched them. That is enough to unsettle the world. Dragons are holy. Their fire, ice, and thunder are the spark of creation, and their wings the memory of the cosmos. Wheresoever a dragon treads, the land remembers. So, children of the green paths, she said, honor the dragons. They are holy, born of earth, sky, and spirit. To harm one without just cause is to wound the balance of nature itself.”
He slapped a dirty hand over his face to scrub it roughly. When he lowered it, his eyebrows were disheveled.
“I should have known better. Taking a fucking druid anywhere then expecting them to see reason when faced with a decision best left to those with less sentiment about such things.”
“Let no mortals doubt. Dragons are holy. Their fire consecrates, and their roar nature’s prayer.
The beat of their wings is a hymn older than your oldest stone.
Those are the words of the goddess taught to me by Kenton and Beirich.
I will not go against my goddess’s teachings. None shall harm this divine being.”
“Beiro, sweet, listen to reason.”
“No! I will teach him what to eat like his mother would have if she had not been slain by your bloodthirsty ancestors.”
He gave my fingers a squeeze. “Look, Vol’ka Dor, I know you and this beast have been communicating in some way for days, and I respect that.
I do. I marvel over the fact that we found this nest, and I plan to send a missive to the lore keepers and historians of Grommveldir so they can come gather the remains of our ancestors and lay them in the stone where they belong, but this kit needs to join the rest of the dragons. ”
“No. No. I will not allow you to slay this holy one!” I jumped to my feet, nocked an arrow and had it pointed between his wide blue eyes before he could move.
“Damn emotional elves.” He stood. I kept my arrow trained on the knot between his brows.
“We don’t have time to play with this dragonling.
We’re on a mission for your king. Nowhere on the mission plan did it say save a fucking frozen dragon.
Now, you need to lower your bow and let me put the creature out of its misery.
” He did not have his war hammer, I noticed.
Did he plan to break Jaculi’s neck? No, I would not allow it.
I shook my head, a strand of red hair falling into my left eye.
“Chirp, we cannot bring a dragon out of this mountain. It’ll tear the lands apart. ”
“I will teach it.” He stared at me in utter confusion, mixed with aggravation. “I will teach it. It will be tamed down and—” His snort of amusement rankled me. “Tamed down, and it will live with me somewhere far from towns. It will find food in the forests as the wolves do.”
“They can fly, Chirp. And, in case you didn’t notice, when it’s full-grown, it’ll be the size of four Bhaston longhouses laid end to end.”
“I know! I am not a dimwit simply because I am not literate like you!”
Beiro friend. Food…
I winced at the force the dragon’s thoughts now possessed since it was in and out of a deep slumber. Credit given to my lover, if he was still willing to be called that after this confrontation, he did not waver, even with the point of an arrow mere inches from his head.
“I never said you were a dimwit, Chirp. I said you were emotional. That’s an elf trait.”
“Pfft.”
He gave his beard a sound tug as his sight flickered from Jaculi to me and back to the beast. “Your people for honest think these beasts are divine?” I nodded, bowstring cutting into my fingertips.
He blew out a long breath that steamed in front of him.
“By the blessed boots of the Stonefather, I wish I’d known what a ginger tempest you were deep down. ”
“Would you have turned down the job?”
“Nay, probably not. I like the feel of you spread out under me. A keg of ale has more brains than I.” His shoulders sagged.
“Fine, we take the divine one into the next chamber. You’re responsible for teaching that dwarf eater all its lessons.
The first teaching being that it don’t chew on anyone with two legs nor our fucking ponies.
First time I see it eyeing my cock when I’m taking a piss, I’ll make myself some new boots from its hide. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, we do. Thank you.” I let off the draw and lowered my bow. “Danubia shall grace you and your progeny with her loving grace.”
“Prodigy. Right, well, since that ain’t happening, maybe she can figure out how you’re going to raise a dragon instead of fixating on my spend.”
“She will guide me. My mentors will assist. The wood elves will celebrate!” I bent down to peck his dirty cheek.
“Dandelion eaters,” he mumbled before giving my cheek a gentle pat. “Gather him up, and we’ll find our way out of this den of death and misery.”
Quickly doing as bidden, I slung my bow and quiver over my shoulder and gently lifted the dragonling up into my arms. It curled into my chest, seeking warmth, so I tucked him under my clothing.
His icy cold scales made me gasp, but I cradled him there, his tail dangling out the front to tap my thigh when I walked.
Warm. Friend. Warm.
All will be well, Jaculi.
I held him closer, following Asdren back to the small, round tunnel I had seen earlier.
“I can walk through, bent over, but you’ll have to crawl,” Asdren informed me while eyeing the northwestern shaft.
I nodded. “Is it warm enough to follow?” He pointed at the ball of scales, teeth, and claws under my armor and underclothes.
The connection between us was softer now, the hum more of a sleeping mind rhythm. “He sleeps. I will manage.”
“On one arm?” I bobbed my head. “Fuck me. Give the damn thing to me.” I hesitated.
“I ain’t going to wring its neck. I got no use for the bastards, but if it’s divine to you, then it’s untouchable.
” He held out his rough hands. Hands that I wished would be on my skin tonight. “Come on then, Chirp. Time is—”
“Money, yes, I know.” I reached under my undershirt to lift the dragonling away from my chest. Jaculi growled in protest. “You must tuck him close to your heart so he warms slowly. Your hairy chest will be cozy like a bird’s nest.”
He muttered in Dwarvish as he shoved the ball of blue lizard under his shirt. “You stay close. I got good stone sense. You got no sense.” I smiled at the dig. “Don’t go off on a side shaft. Stay within touching distance of me at all times.”
“Yes, of course. I will.” He cocked a wild brow. “I vow to stay within touching distance of you. Go. Time is money.”
“Wise arse,” he grumbled and ducked down. Bowed nearly in half, he entered the dark, dark underpass. Reaching out with a hand, I found his arse and then laid my hand on it. “You being funny, elf?”
“No, I am within touching distance just as you commanded, dwarf.”
“And here I thought you was this timid little thing with bones as fine as a bird wing, and all along you was metal and spit under pretty scarlet plumage.”
I liked his poetic, literate ways quite a bit.
We moved through the tunnel, me on hands and knees, for a long time, leaving the cold behind thankfully.
A dim light broke through at the end of an offshoot that he headed down.
Creeping along with gravel ground into my hands and knees, we soon emerged on the far side of the cave where the rest of our party was busy trying to move rock from the slide.
Asdren exited, straightened, and dug under his shirt to hand the now writhing dragon over to me when I emerged. I opened my hands. Jaculi leapt from Asdren to me, using his scaly nose to burrow under my breastplate. Or tried to, at least. He gave the leather a bite.
“You three working on moving twenty ton of stone by hand shows me that you got the blood of the miners flowing through your veins,” Asdren shouted.
“Shit on a stick! We thought you two fell into a fucking ice crack,” Smuta replied as she and the twins spun about, shock replaced by happiness to see us before the happiness changed back into shock. “By my granny’s beaded tuft is that a fucking dragon?! Has your cart lost its wheels?!”
I smiled widely, holding a dragon to my chest. The soft breeze from the gap above blew over us, a chilly breeze that carried our scent to the ponies nibbling on some hay flakes in the corner.
The response was immediate. Nostrils flared, ears back, they jerked to attention as the smell of a predator hit them.
How they knew it to be a meat eater, I had no clue.
Instinct, I assumed, as they had never smelled a dragon young before.
Danger. Danger. Run! Run!
All five steeds became overwrought in mere seconds. I passed Jaculi to Asdren then ran to the horses, whispering to them, stroking them.
You are safe. It is a young lizard. No threat. Easy, easy, easy. I have apple.
That helped them settle slightly. The apple slices were brown now, dried out, but still palatable enough when one was hungry.
Once the horses were quieted, I moved closer to the huddle of little people gathered by a rounded wall speckled with frost. Asdren still held Jaculi in his arms, his beard covering the small dragonling.