The Dragon From The Rift
One of the Myths of Ixonia
This story was inspired by ’s prompt for Dragon Month and while I haven’t followed the letter I believe it fulfils the spirit. Enjoy!
Xander crept underneath the overhanging rock. Towering luminescent mushrooms glowed blue, red, and green along the walls of the cavern. Bats screeched far overhead, deep in the shadowed roof of stalactites impenetrable by light from the ground. He crouched at the trunk of a pale red mushroom, soft and firm to the touch, and spotted a herd of moluc drinking from an aquifer. The lake was too wide to cross and ran down into a tunnel that led to another gargantuan cavern miles away. The moluc on the outskirts of the herd flicked their ears to catch the subtlest of sounds. Tenom, Xander's brother, had found a scale belonging to their prey. A large, spiked glossy black thing as thick as an axe blade. Xander crept back into the dead-end cave where the others of his Expeditionary Unit awaited.
'Anything?' Beril, the youngest, whispered.
'Moluc at the aquifer. No sign of our beast,' Xander reached for his waterskin and drank deep. He could refill it at the aquifer, an opportunity he wasn't sure would present itself for awhile.
'We're far from Sprinjel, Doyen, how much further are we to go?' Algar, Beril's father, asked. He tore a strip of jerky from his pack.
'As far as it takes us. This dragon needs killing before we can utilise these caverns. There was talk of settlements when we left, the aquifer has people excited,' Xander dried his lips with his beard. He tied the skin to his belt and gathered his pack together, tent, haulage net, food, and a frying pan, he threw his cloak over the whole thing. 'We need to keep moving. Dragon moves quicker than we do if it cares to.'
'They usually don't,' Tenom said. He sat on a rock nursing the last of his kado. The rest of the unit had finished their spirits days ago.
'This one was spotted far closer to home. It's moving fast,' Xander said. 'On your feet.'
Tenom corked his flask of kado, 'As the Doyen commands.' He stood and shouldered his pack, two fine edged axes clanged together.
'Careful with those, need them to get through the scales you know,' Yullen scolded. He shook his head.
'I'm aware, I have been doing this for ten years,' Tenom said.
'Quit the chatter and move out,' Xander spat. He scanned the cavern beyond the cave. Giant slugs had begun to gather beneath the luminescent mushrooms, likely nibbling on the trunks just enough to find water but not enough to kill the fungus. 'Give a wide berth to the mushrooms, I don't want slug for dinner.'
'Aye, Doyen,' Yullen joined Xander out front, patting him on the shoulder to make him aware. Algar and Beril brought up the rear while Tenom and Cal shouldered the heaviest packs in the centre.
'We'll stop lakeside, refill our skins, then make our way down the tunnel to the north-east,' Xander ducked out from the cave and picked his way towards the water's edge. The trickle of two streams that fed the lake drowned out the crunch of stony ground. The bats squeaked continuously, some batting their wings as they hopped from stalactite to stalactite. Other bats swooped down shrieking at dwarf and slug alike to discover what was going on. Xander ignored the pests, knowing the sounds belonged to a herbivorous kind.
The watchmen of the herd of moluc began to tap their claws against the stone, their six legs tapping in a rapid sequence. Either they'd attack or retreat up the cavern wall and wedge themselves out of reach. Xander had never quite figured out how to scare the creatures, a behaviour that scared one would enrage another so he thought it best to continue on as if they weren't there. The tamed moluc, the ones farmed and eaten, had no fear of dwarves at all and would welcome a scratch behind the ear. Wild were skittish. He'd often wondered how the first moluc had been caught and bred.
They reached the water's edge, close to the stream coming through a narrow tunnel in the cavern wall. He sniffed the water first, then swilled a mouthful and swallowed. 'Have your fill lads,' he dunked his waterskin into the water, drank half of it and refilled again. The other five followed suit, save for Tenom who had yet to touch his skins. 'You can't survive off kado alone, brother.'
'I can until it runs out,' Tenom tapped the flask hanging from a string on his belt. He wore his hair loose so it tangled with his beard, while his eyebrows had grown unruly to knit with his hair. Soon he'd just be a forehead with a nose, Xander snickered at the image.
Algar braided the right side of his silver beard while the others filled their waterskins, though the cavern air and lack of oils had left the hair straw-like. Xander ran a thumb over his eyebrows, straightening the hairs, 'We'll track the waterline, head straight for the moluc. Hopefully they'll flee.'
'Away from us, I hope. I don't want to dig moluc claw out my leg again,' Yullen stroked the blade of his axe.
'One can hope.' Xander padded along the water line, his footsteps making lazy ripples in the sluggish water. The nearest moluc snapped to attention, its long brown shaggy fur dripping wet. Two black eyes watched Xander approach, its lipped beak slightly open, teeth on show. Xander loosened the sword in his scabbard and stepped nearer. The moluc made a sound between a growl and a grunt, its six legs carrying it towards the cavern walls. The rest of the herd followed. Their claws sounded like pickaxes as they drove into the wall and went to join the bats and spiders overhead. 'Alright, hurry now,' Xander ran for the tunnel leading to the next cavern. The faint glow of small mushrooms glittered in the corners and along the damp cracks of the rock. Xander and Yullen ducked through the opening, the overhead obsidian rock lined with sharp ridges that nicked the skin. A short crawl later and they popped out into a cavern large enough to house two Sprinjels. Xander lost his breath at the sight, the far side of the hollow was beyond his vision, even with the aid of a copse of luminescent mushrooms. Algar and Beril emerged last and once their kicking, scraping, and swearing finished Xander listened for subterranean sound.
Silence.
Xander searched the walls with canyons, caves, and hollows all of there own. There were no beasts in here. No bats, no slugs, no molucs, nothing but the mushrooms. There was no clicking, growling, screeching, and only the faintest trickle of water from the previous hollow echoing through the tunnel.
'Xander,' Algar cleared his throat. He sifted something from the dust and pebbles a few feet ahead of them. He held what looked like a stone the size of hand with four straight sides, one side a little concave and smooth, the other convex and craggy. 'It's near by.'
'Now wait a minute, that could be years old,' Tenom snatched the dragon scale from Algar. 'It's soft, damp on the underside...' he whispered and passed the scale to Xander.
'Freshly dropped,' Xander turned it over in his hand, sniffed the underside and ran a hand over the rough. He tried to bend it but the almost inch thick scale was indomitable. 'Dragon could be in this cavity or the next one, look for burrow marks, tunnels that aren't natural formations, droppings.' Gazing into the velvet dark above him he wondered if a dragon could hang like a bat. There were many species with a vast scope of differences and distinctive qualities. Though one with scales that large would struggle to hang, he hoped.
There was a crunch of stone further into the cavern, rocks fell with an echoing rumble. Xander motioned for his dwarves to hide behind a nearby outcropping. Xander knelt in silence, the other five huddled against the stone. He peered over the pointed lip of the rock. Five tall, lithe shadows past beneath a mushroom out near the centre of the chamber in single file. Each wore a compact pack on their back and seemed to carry curved swords but the shadows played tricks. Their leader crouched and sniffed something at the base of the mushroom and then nodded to the rest. Xander lowered himself and turned to his Expeditionary Unit, 'We have competition.'
'Another unit of dwarves?' Beril said in a whispering tone but without the whispering volume.
Xander shook his head and pressed his finger to his lips. He peeked out from behind the rocks. The others had halted under the mushroom, two were standing straight on to him. Long limbed and lightly armoured. They'd Beril, no doubt about it. Only one other peoples lived in the Everdark, at least in this cluster of caverns and canyons, hollows and grottos, that stretched for thousands of miles, or so the books of explorers claimed. There was nothing more to do. The rest of the tall party gathered beneath the mushroom, one with his scimitar in hand.
Xander sighed and stepped out from behind the rocks, 'Hello, may we break bread and share peace with one another,' he shouted in broken Alokathic.
'What are you doing?' Tenom grunted from behind the rocks. 'Get back here before you start a fight, or a war!'
'We're already at war, have been since the dawn of time but if they're here when we're here that means the alokath want the dragon too,' Xander snapped. 'Get up.'
The alokath with scimitar in hand sheathed it and the one beside him cupped his hands around his mouth, 'Hello, we may negotiate the possibility of peace and bread.'
'You lot keep your mouths shut until we've shared bread and agreed to peace,' Xander barked at his fellow dwarves.
'We don't have bread, we have jerky, barley, and hard cheese,' Algar said.
'Then that will have to do,' Xander took a long, deep breath and marched towards the alokath. Each step took the effort of ten, and time stretched on into an endless yarn. The shadows gained faces, the bodies form and colour, until Xander stood six foot from an alokath without a sword or axe in hand. He wondered how long it had been since that had happened, years, decades probably.
'Name,' the tallest alokath said, three golden crescents on his pauldron.
'Xander, yours?'
'Ureo, subedar to this band of demon hunters.'
Xander furrowed his brow and tilted his head upward as little as possible to make eye contact. 'Demon hunters? I am doyen to this Expeditionary Unit currently hunting a dragon.'
Ureo's brow perked up to one side. The woman beside, creased and leathered with solid white eyes, leaned to whisper something to him. 'How do you know it's a dragon?'
'We found a scale over by the tunnel there,' Xander pointed to the spot, holding the scale in the other hand.
'May I see it?' Ureo held out a long fingered ashen hand.
'We should share bread first.'
'We have no interest in the scale, too heavy for our needs,' Ureo said.
Xander remained silent.
'Subedar, it would be easier to be done with the slug-eaters and carry on our hunt,' one of the other alokath said. His non-existent lips peeled further back to reveal the length of his knife-like teeth.
'Silence, Vrun,' Ureo snarled. 'Xander,' his purple eyes softened, 'your folk know the dangers of demon hunting, of those which slip through and cause havoc here and up there,' he cocked his chin towards the cavern roof.
'Aye, that we do,' Xander held his tongue on details knowing the alokath would not care about the lineage of hunters he heralded from.
'Let us break bread and make peace, for now.'
'”For now”, what does that mean?' Yullen blurted.
Ureo's gaze flickered to Yullen and back to Xander, his mouth stretching into what passed for an alokath smile. 'Until our prey is dead, its hide plundered, and us out of each other's sights. Is that clear enough for you, dwarf?'
'It is,' Xander loosened his pack and found a parcel of jerky in the side pocket. In Dwarven, he told his unit, 'All of you too.'
Ureo un-shouldered his backpack. Water gourds hung from the sides, coils of wire, along with a shovel head. A thick cloak that shimmered so dark it blended in the shadow was rolled and tied to the top. He reached into the pack and removed a linen ball tied with twine. He unfurled it to reveal a dark lump of something, he tore a mouthful off and ate half before passing the rest to Xander.
Xander snapped the jerky between his teeth, and handed the rest to Ureo. He took the dark mush from Ureo and ate it without thinking. If he sniffed it, looked at it funny, it could offend. Ureo ate the jerky in three bites and swayed his head side-to-side, 'Not bad. I extend our peace to you,' he held out his hand.
Xander swallowed the mush, which had been a lot denser than he expected. Meaty with pockets of sweetness, 'I extend our peace to you,' he took Ureo's clammy hand and shook. The air grew lighter as Xander's party shared food with Ureo's, though few could speak to each other.
'Let us sit in the glow and share what we know about our demon-dragon,' Ureo smiled again, showing his long sharp teeth more like a warning than a welcome.
The two groups sat in two crescents with Ureo and Xander the only two next to each other. Xander handed the scale to him. Ureo inspected it for a few seconds before handing it to the white eyed woman.
'Dragon. Far larger than any recent sightings. Older too judging by the depth,' she attempted to snap the scale. 'Too strong for a dropped scale.' She sniffed it. 'No blood scent, no steel either. This isn't a dragon, per se.'
Yullen shifted on his spot of ground, 'What do you mean, “isn't a dragon.” You're holding a dragon scale!' His cheeks grew puce.
Xander gestured for him to quiet down.
'I would have expected a dragon hunter to know his dragons. You see the object and nothing more, how have you survived this long?' her wizened tongue whipped.
'Kreia,' Ureo shook his head. 'Your dragon is not really a dragon, it is a demon in dragon form.'
Yullen chewed the inside of his cheeks, 'Other dragons would know, they'd kill it.'
'Ahh, so the dwarf does know something,' Kreia hissed. 'The beast will be alone. It will have chosen these hollows to be alone, it's too large to move freely through the Everdark. Meaning the demon found here and then chose a form.'
Xander had little knowledge of demons, so little his great-great ancestors would be ashamed. In truth, he had no use for the knowledge, the dwarven caverns no longer reached to the Gates, nor any other opening to the Rift, and in any case it seemed demons had ceased trying to cross the Realms. 'How long as it been here?'
'Impossible to say,' Kreia tossed the scale back to Xander. Her white eyes pinned him to his spot underneath the mushroom. 'We first caught scent of it years ago but six hunts resulted in nothing. This is the seventh attempt and first of the season. This demon is unlike any we've faced before and unlike any dragon you've faced before.'
'I won't be taking advice from a woman, especially not an alokath woman,' Yullen waved her words off. He unfairly interpreted her words into Dwarven for the others.
'What is a woman doing in a hunting party, anyway,' Beril asked, in Dwarven.
'Hunting, dirt-trotter,' Kreia said, in Dwarven. 'We don't age like you do. I didn't whither after I raised my young, all five are grown yet I remain strong. Hunting is less about strength, more about wiles. You'd do well to remember that.'
The creases around her eyes, the yellow of her teeth, and the milky white of her eyes spoke of a great age but likely not even half of her fated lifespan, 'How old are you?' Xander's voice faulted.
Kreia narrowed her eyes and set them on Xander, 'One-hundred and forty-six, if you must know.'
'And we pray that you have many more,' Ureo said. 'Back to our prey,' he eyed Yullen and the other dwarves with a wary glare. 'The demon-dragon is close, a cavern or two away at most, the scent has never been stronger.'
'I can't smell anything,' Beril said. He sniffed hard. 'Damp, jerky, and sweat, that's all I get.'
Ureo closed his lilac eyes for a long moment. 'It is close, we know.'
'There is something we should agree on,' Xander interrupted. 'Spoils. Scales, organs, claws, glands, all very valuable. I propose a fifty-fifty split.'
'I make no agreement before the kill, dwarf. We all must fight for our share in the spoils, if it is guaranteed beforehand, then perhaps you fight a little lazier,' Ureo smiled his unnerving smile again.
Xander gritted his teeth. If the old alokath woman was right then his hunters were far beyond their expertise with a demon, but if she was wrong then the alokath were far out of theirs. If everyone was wrong, that meant they'd all walk to their doom or it was a demon-dragon and they'd have to work together to destroy it. 'Fine. Kill first, argue later.'
'Doyen!' Yullen and Algar exclaimed together.
'Your men aren't happy?' Ureo cocked his head to one side.
'No but they don't have to be to fight well,' Xander said in Alokathic. He turned to the Expeditionary Unit and, in Dwarven, said, 'If this is a demon-dragon then we need the alokath's expertise as much as they need ours. Fifty-fifty split is guaranteed.'
'Should be sixty-forty, they have one less than we do,' Yullen waved a finger at the blue-grey skinned lot.
'Let's kill the beast before going goggle-eyed over the riches,' Xander said. Making a thousand dinmaks meant little if they were dead.
Yullen grunted.
'All settled?' Ureo said.
'Aye.'
'We should get moving, already our lost time might mean the demon moves or other creatures move to bar our path,' Ureo stood with sudden haste. Kreia and the other alokath imitated him and in seconds the five were heading north into the cavern and toward a wide, shallow tunnel leading elsewhere.
'Up, up, up!' Xander barked.
Tenom rolled his eyes, crumbs littering his beard, the cork from his kado flask loose around the opening, 'Really?'
'Yes. We have a dragon to kill!'
Ureo drove a hard pace with his twice-as-long legs. Xander had grown tired of staring at alokath backside and fell back a few yards to gain a wider view, and to talk with less risk of eavesdroppers. The tunnel out of the cavern, large enough to house a city, wound through the Everdark in great looping coils, likely it had once been a river. The ground was a fine powdered silt with smooth rocks the size of a dwarf dotted around. No mushrooms grew in the crevices, the only light coming from a palefire lantern carried by the alokath, not that either the dwarves or the alokath needed much light to see. The best sighted amongst them required none, but Xander was far from that. He turned to his brother, Tenom, 'I'm going to need you to keep a tally of our fight.' The words barely escaped his lips.
'A tally, of what?'
'Of strikes, how many times we draw blood, whether we sever the dragon's tail, claws, or what have you, keep a tally of our performance.'
'Ohh I get you. Good to know you aren't enamoured by the greyskins,' Tenom uncorked his kado and swilled the last mouthful with a reverent grin.
'I'm here to kill a dragon and survive the encounter. I want all of us to survive, I don't care about them. If they die so we can live, so be it,' Xander said.
'I told you he hadn't gone soft,' Yullen smacked Tenom on the shoulder.
'Aye, you did.'
'Come the fight, you want us to hang back or?' Beril asked with a youthful exuberance.
'We're still an Expeditionary Unit. We will fight all the same, but not recklessly. Strike at the weak points, surprise the beast, aim to deliver the deepest wounds with the smallest effort,' Xander said.
Beril nodded, his eyes betraying a lack of understanding.
'I'll make sure we do our part,' Algar spoke for his son.
'Good,' Xander marched on ahead as the ancient riverbed looped again. A drop of water dripped from the curved rock overhead onto his lips. Fresh and clear. That meant an aquifer overhead. Once the dragon was dealt with the prior grotto would make for a fine sight for a settlement.
The dwarves rounded the corner and found the alokath waiting for them. Kreia and two of the others had their scimitars in hand. Ureo pressed a finger to his lipless mouth and motioned for the dwarves to drop their packs and crouch. The alokath had shorn their gear to on side. Xander lightened his load and joined Ureo. 'The demon-dragon is close. It slumbers around the next bend.'
Xander strained his hearing but before he heard he felt. A chill grazed his ear, so slight that he would never have felt it while moving. 'Sneak in, get close to its vitals, and strike.'
'We thought the same,' Ureo grin sent a shiver down Xander. 'Though it likely won't work, better to try to gain the initiative. You look afraid.' Ureo smirked.
'Dwarves don't feel fear,' Xander lied.
'Then we will dig your graves first,' Ureo chided.
The dwarf ignored the scold and turned to his brethren, 'Dragon's close. Sneaking in, attacking vitals. Cal, Yullen go for the back legs. Algar, Beril take the front legs. Tenom and I will take the eyes. Gre- Alokath will be assisting.'
'Assisting or...' Yullen was cut off by Xander.
'Assisting.'
'Xander,' Ureo called. 'We are ready. My troop will focus on the head, Vrun and Turu will climb atop the demon-dragon.'
Xander swallowed his disbelief in such a strategy. Climbing atop a dragon was a sure way to certain death but the distraction would provide ample opportunity for his unit. 'Say the word.'
'Kreia, lead us out,' Ureo called to his front-woman. The old crone crouched ahead with soundless steps, as did the rest of the alokath. The dwarves followed, shoulder to shoulder. They rounded the corner, a triplet of mushrooms glowed green and blue along the edge of the dragon's hollow. Giant bat swooped between the wings. Spiders nestled in the crooks of its legs, thick with spent webs and eggs. His vision cleared and Xander lost his breath at the sight of the dragon.
The beast was unlike any he'd seen before, the blue-black scales shimmered in the faint lux of the towering mushrooms, mere stools to the dragon. Four wings were curled up about its side, each with claws atop the bat-like folds of leather. The creature filled the cavern and Xander struggled to believe it could move through the Everdark, it was simply too large, at least three times the size of a regular two-winged dragon and four times that of a wingless one. Yet for all its monstrosity the demon-dragon laid its head on its front legs to sleep. The scales thinned and narrowed to skin that ceased at the gums so that the double set of teeth could be seen, the first long, thin, and wide-set with the teeth behind serrated and crammed together. Xander swallowed his fear and snuck towards the eyes, covered in a thick layer of scaled skin he was uncertain his sword or axe could pierce.
Cal and Yullen hugged the wall of the cavern, darting from canopy to canopy, watching for bats and spiders alike. Great slugs crawled along the walls, a swarm of vivid colours and patterns, some luminescent.
Algar and Beril set up at the front legs, their long-nosed axes ready to pierce the joints. Two alokath leapt atop the beast, silent and weightless, their scimitars ready.
Xander felt a chill breath wash over him. A shiver coursed his veins and he formed fists around his sword and axe hilts to keep them warm. Tenom held his long-nosed axe overhead in both hands, ready to strike the left eye. Xander nodded that it was time. Ureo made ready to strike the gums and nostrils, he nodded.
The demon-dragon's eyelid rolled back to reveal a silver eye with purple iris. Xander swung but missed. The dragon's front legs were a blur. Xander and Ureo were swiped and sent careening into a rockface. A grumble of words crowded in Xander's mind, pressing at the seams of his skull. He screamed and roiled. When he opened his eyes he saw the dragon had Tenom in his grasp, his brother fruitlessly swiping his axe at the hand that held him. The dragon spoke, not with words but with thoughts, in a language Xander did not know but understood. A primordial tongue that lived in the bones of the world.
'Do not listen to it!' Ureo screeched. 'Deaden your minds to the words lest you betray yourself!'
For Tenom it was too late. The demon-dragon glowered at the dwarf in his grip, the purple iris expanded and Tenom ceased to swing his axe. The beast lowered Xander's brother to the ground with slow movements. Releasing the dwarf he swiped at the alokath hacking at its wings, the tears through the leather seemingly unfelt. The demon-dragon reared on its back legs and stretched out its wings. Vrun slipped and fell from the beast's back and landed in a crumbled heap. Spiders emerged from the dark. Cal and Yullen had failed to reach the back legs and remained in a crevice a dozen yards along the wall. Xander found his feet and called to his brother but Tenom did not respond. The dwarf stood there, axe in hand, swaying.
A screech tore the air of the cavern and Tenom shuddered to action. He turned and charged at Xander, his eyes lost to purple flame. Tenom's axe flashed and clanged against Xander's sword. 'Tenom! What are you doing?' Xander shouted.
Tenom's answer was a swing of his axe.
Ureo stumbled towards Kreia as she clumsily righted herself. 'I'm fine. Vrun is not and soon Turu won't be either. Hali!' The crone called, flourishing her scimitar. Bats shrieked and swarmed when the demon-dragon crashed down on its front legs, wings unfurled. Spiders scurried from the beast and retreated into the darkest cracks of the cavern. Bats fled upwards into shadow. Kreia, Ureo, Hali, and Turu sprinted, vaulting over a low swipe, and darting passed a gnash of the dragon's maw. Kreia's scimitar carved into the dragon's gums with silent ease. Blood erupted and the demon-dragon roared and reeled back, stomping as it went. Vrun lay wriggling under the attention of a pack of spiders. The mammoth paw of the demon-dragon came down on the lot in an explosion of gore. A wild swing of its right hand caught Turu in the chest and flung him like a doll across the cavern. He slammed into a mushroom stalk, face first, and landed in a heap, his front teeth cratered inwards.
Xander parried and blocked Tenom's wild axe swings. 'Brother! What are you doing? Get a hold of yourself!' Xander deflected a blow at his head with both his weapons. Tenom's axe rebounded and Xander jabbed him in the shoulder, if only to disarm him. The sword tasted blood but Tenom reacted by ripping the sword free, cutting his hand in the process, and attacking as if nothing had happened.
Cal and Yullen darted out from underneath a mushroom to aid Turu. The alokath was disoriented, his Alokathic mumbled and jolting. He found his feet, spat a wad of blood, and charged at the demon-dragon. Tearing across the cavern he leapt, scimitar overhead, and tore a ten foot long gash into the beasts wing. A flap of leathery black skin billowed out. Turu continued on and his blade sank into the dragon's hide, chips of steel and scale burst along with a gush of slick dark blood. Turu scrambled onto the back of the monstrosity hacking in beneath random scales with his chipped scimitar like a shovel. Cal and Yullen watched, dumbfounded, for longer than they would later admit before bellowing a warcry as they charged for the dragon's rear legs and tail. The tail was short yet barbed but the scales were small and thin and a few good cuts would have it free.
Xander ducked beneath Tenom's high swing and tackled his brother to the ground. Tenom's long-nosed axe flew free but the thrall kicked and punched with crazed haphazard swings. 'Stop struggling!' Xander slammed the hilt of his sword into his brother's head. Tenom fell limp, blood dribbling from his ear. Xander rolled onto the dirt, tears in his eyes. He reached over and found a faint pulse.
Ureo danced around the dragon's enormous head, ducking grapples, and vaulting bites. He needed to reach the monster's right eye. Kreia could deal with the left, he hoped. Two dwarves, with similar noses and same eyes, were hacking away at the demon-dragon's flank near to Vrun's corpse. Flakes of scales and pools of blood gathered by their feet while the dragon failed to kick and claw at them. Spiders had begun to gather around them, cautious and wary yet eager to feast upon Vrun's crushed corpse. 'Look out!' Ureo called in Dwarven. Neither of the dwarves looked around, either good training or failure to hear. Ureo spun around and stared into the demon's silver and purple eye. The beast paused and regarded him. Burning ignited in his mind yet he could fight it, it would not inhibit him. He raised his sword, his arm like lead.
'Foolish mortals,' the ancient words boomed in everyone's skull. 'You disturb my drawing of power, disturb my feasting on the essence of your world, for what? Just to die? Leave me be and in due time I will return to the Rift.'
Flashes of an endless expanse filled with monstrous entities flared in the alokath and dwarf minds alike. Creatures of impossible shapes, beings with uncontrollable wills, a Plane of limitless potential bereft of time. At its far reaches were minds, concepts, of incomprehensible intent and foresight yet the one before them was not of that sort.
'You're inferior,' Ureo spat, the words burnt as he said them. His sword glanced off a scaled brow. 'Ideas of greatness yet tied to our Mortal Plane, unlike those true demons of the Rift, those far in the Void, and ones of the Deep.'
'You know nothing!' The demon-dragon moved in a blur and wrapped its claws around Ureo. The alokath struggled, swiping at the wrist, the fingers but all he achieved was to blunt his sword and chip the blade. He felt his ribs crack, his femur snap, as he struggled for half-breaths.
Kreia sneered up and darted underneath the demon-dragon's head as he reared up. She cut three wide arcs into its neck and dove out the other side. The beast shuddered, reddish-brown blood seeped out in gushes and spurts. Her cuts had not been deep enough. The demon-dragon lurched forward yet maintained its grip on Ureo.
Ureo's mind was overcome, the walls he had erected crumbled, and the demon's will became his own. He dropped to the ground, his pains vanishing. Limping he flourished his scimitar and stalked towards Kreia, the white eyed alokath. He swung hard hoping to break her guard and take her head but the woman parried him and slid to the ground. A boot cratered his knee and a second sent him prone. Standing was impossible, the broken femur prevented his leg from moving.
'I'm sorry, Ureo,' Kreia whispered.
Ureo looked up and felt fury at failing to please his demonic master. Kreia's sword slid through his throat and darkness took him.
The demon-dragon coughed and lumbered backward, blood welled between its teeth and the ground was sodden from the cut to its neck. 'Turu! The eyes!' Kreia yelled to the wild alokath atop the beast's back. Hali was nowhere to be seen and she hoped he hadn't been killed, though the penalty for cowardice was death or worse.
Xander finished binding his brother's hand and feet. Kreia stalked just out of reach of the dragon, Ureo dead at her feet. Cal and Yullen were approaching the tail while Algar and Beril were out of sight. Sword in his right, axe in his left, he swaggered up to the monstrosity that had enthralled his brother. An alokath, face covered in blood, crawled up the spine of the beast, half a scimitar in hand. 'Kreia! Attack, NOW!' Xander yelled and barrelled head first at the demon-dragon. He swung not with the hope of injury but distraction. A great paw came for him and he swung both his weapons into it, his long-nosed axe pierced the palm and burst from the other side. The demon-dragon shrieked, blood spewing from its mouth and neck. Xander severed a finger longer than he was tall with a mighty swing of his sword. The beast reeled.
Cal and Yullen approached the tail like it was a vein of ore, choosing the best spot to dig into it. They swung as the beast shrieked and found the smaller scales weaker than expected. Their axes pierced through and soon swords would follow to sever the soft flesh beneath.
The dragon roared and reared about, kicking and thrashing. The tail rose and fell, the barbed end catching Cal across the jaw. He landed in the dirt and rolled a few feet further. The tail quivered and swayed, readying for another blow. Yullen didn't wait, he slashed down with his cleaver and felt the blade slip between the opening and part the flesh beneath. The bone snapped and the tail came off with a rush of gore. The bloody stump undulated and swayed, staining the ground with brown blood. Yullen ran to Cal. Beard a mess of blood and bone, Cal opened his eyes and tried to speak. Three teeth dribbled out of his mouth. Yullen grabbed Cal by the arm and dragged him to the nearest mushroom.
'You cannot win,' the demon thought in Xander's mind.
Xander paid the words no heed, their influence felt weaker than before, lacking will somehow. In three steps he was within striking distance of the demon-dragon's maw. He swung. Turu, the alokath on the monster's head, fell to his knees and drove his broken scimitar downward. Xander's axe pierced gum and hit the root of a tooth. Turu's scimitar found eye. Jelly and liquid bubbled and frothed out of the purple iris. The demon-dragon screeched and thrashed, throwing itself around the cavern. The ground rumbled and stalactites fell from the shadowed upper reaches. Bats swarmed and fled through high up tunnels. Spiders scurried into the dark crevices. Turu held on to his scimitar and sheared the blade up through the eye until it caught on the eyelid. The demon-dragon raked at its head to catch Turu.
Finally the beast collapsed, its head slamming into the dirt at Xander's feet. Turu was twisted and deformed, a claw through his chest, on the head of the demon-dragon, his scimitar stuck in the mangled eye.
Kreia flipped her scimitar into a reverse grip and thrust it into the demon's other eye. The beast didn't respond. 'Dead, for now.'
'What do you mean for now?' Xander panted.
'Demons don't die they just... vanish, for a time. Some fail to re-corporealise, others are subsumed into greater demons, while most seem to become husks of their former selves in the Rift. A problem for my far off descendents,' Kreia cleaned her scimitar in the crook of her arm.
'I... see,' Xander swore to read his great great ancestors tomes when he returned home.
'You'll have to deal with your brother,' Kreia said. She knelt beside Ureo and closed his eyes. She took his hands in hers and began to chant in a tongue Xander did not know.
Xander stumbled to his brother, trussed up in the dirt, to find him alive but vacant. 'Tenom.'
There was no response.
'Tenom.'
No response.
Xander slapped him across the cheek but there was no response. He waved but Tenom's eyes didn't respond.
'What's up with him?' Yullen coughed. He dragged Cal, unmoving, behind him.
'I don't know. His pulse is weak but no other sign of life,' Xander said.
Algar and Beril limped into view. Beril bore a gash from ear to nose while his father held one arm to his chest, bone protruding from the wrist. 'What's wrong with those two?'
Yullen crouched to check on Cal and swallowed hard, 'Cal's dead.'
'And Tenom?'
'May as well be,' Kreia said. 'You dwarves have a sense of honour, correct?'
'Aye,' Xander replied.
'And would a man dying in battle against a demonic dragon be honourable?'
'Aye.'
'More honourable than returning home an empty vessel only good for dribbling?'
'Bury yourself greyskin! That's my brother, I won't have you belittle him!'
'You return home everyone else will. His will won't return, it was crushed by the demon's, just like Ureo's. That is a husk, your brother's already dead,' Kreia said. 'Grant him mercy or be caring for an empty vessel for the next century. I have no idea how you would feed one, they can't even sit up,' she stalked away. 'Hali! You better be dead because if I find you alive you'll wish you were!'
The dwarves stood in silence for a long time. Tenom lay there, staring up at nothing, barely breathing and not moving a muscle. Kreia had almost finished her search of the cavern before Algar spoke, 'Do you want me to... you know.'
Xander's words stuck in his throat. He coughed, 'No. No, he's my brother I should do it.' He unsheathed the knife from his boot. 'Tenom, you fought well. Your wife and children will be cared for, your share should fund them for life and if not, me and Flion will take them in. Perhaps we'll do that anyway when my first is born. I'll save you a seat at The Rusty Hammer, a keg will be drank in your honour,' Xander slid the steel over his brother's neck. There was no flinching, no flicker in the eye, not even a grimace, only a torrent of blood and the final fading of life. Xander rose and regarded the survivors, 'We'll dig two graves. Beneath the green mushroom. Make sure there deep.'
Kreia rounded the nose of the demon-dragon with an alokath in tow. She tugged on a leash and Hali stumbled into view, he tripped and fell. 'This coward will pay but not before all of Aranesh knows of his crime. As recompense I offer you a split of sixty percent of the spoils. I retain forty for the loss of Ureo and Turu as well as for Turu striking the killing blow.'
'Now wait a minute, I counted,' Yullen began.
'Yullen,' Xander whispered.
'Yes?'
'Stop.'
'Err, sure, Doyen.'
'Sixty-forty is agreed. Do you need help digging graves?'
'We do not bury our dead,' she kicked Hali, 'Get up, we need to find our carts and to gather the spoils.'
Xander trod back to his pack and untied the shovel from the side. Two graves and then the nasty business of butchering the dragon corpse. Sleep would have to wait. Grief would have to wait.
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The grill's fired up and ready for that dragon steak!
Bravo, well done.
Mixing demon and dragon into one form and bringing enemies together to kill it.