The female looks up at me with big eyes. “Can I come?”
The idea is so silly that it genuinely surprises me. “You want to come? Withme?”
“I can help you look. For gold and hoard!” She stares towards the sound of the approaching swordsmen.
I suppose it makes sense that a lesser creature such as this would want to help, but I’m confused about why she’s not cowering in a corner. “You’d be an inconvenience.” I start climbing the wall.
“Please.”
The noise of eager males is getting louder. They’re almost here.
I grab the female’s wrist and pull her to me. “If you intend treachery, there will be pieces of you hanging from every tree in the jungle.”
She whimpers. “I don’t!”
Well, I suppose I can sort it out later. For a non-dragon, she is somewhat attractive, and females occasionally make good servants. And of course, it may prove useful that she knows Praxigor.
Without a word I grab her around her little waist, throw her over my shoulder and easily climb the wall. I simply drop down into the jungle while the silly swordsmen yell and bang their weapons on the other side.
The woman is too light to weigh me down much, so I stride into the jungle. I can continue her interrogation in some calmer place.
4
- Morgan-
The jungle hits me like a punch to the gut. The heat, the darkness, the sounds, the movements everywhere. And the smell, always present in the village too, but so much stronger here. Decay, rot, life. And danger. Intense danger.
But that could just be Vyrathion.
For a moment the world rotates around me. I went with him. I volunteered to come with him. With thedragon.
I obviously need my head examined.
He keeps me hanging over his shoulder as he leisurely walks straight into the jungle. It gives me a good view of his rear, which seems firm and muscular enough, but it’s not very comfortable.
I start writhing. “Hey. Let me down, please.”
He slaps my butt. “Stop moving.”
“All the blood is going to my head,” I explain. “I’ll black out soon.”
“Then maybe you’ll stop squirming,” the dragon says. Then he sighs and stops. “Why must your species be so fragile?”
“Sorry.”
He sets me down and looks down at me with those icy eyes. “If it is your intention to slow me down so that your cave-dwelling suitors can catch up, it won’t work. I’ll simply leave you behind.”
“I’ll try to not slow you down,” I promise as I straighten my dress and rub my butt. The skin definitely has a hand print on it now. “And they’re not suitors so much as predators.” I can’t meet his gaze, and the terror he instils in me is showing no sign of abating. It’s not the fear of something specific he’ll do, so much as the knowledge that there’s nothing to stop him from doing absolutely anything he wants.
“Let’s see if you can keep up.” He turns on his heel and walks on, moving fast because of his long legs. If I walk and jog intermittently, I can just about keep up with him.
We’re walking straight away from the village. If I’m going to change my mind, this is the time.
But I won’t. This is dangerous, but I’m not being held in a tower like some kind of medieval princess, just waiting for the king to find a husband for her.
Or maybe I just lost my mind. Anything is possible.
I scramble over roots and past bushes to not let Vyrathion get too far ahead. Already he keeps vanishing among the greenery, and his dark scales don’t make him easier to spot.
