Dragon Child

Mother and Son

Rhzvanzin walked into the room that night looking like he had been thinking hard. He sat down the food he had snuck away from the table and sat down in a now torn and clawed chair.

“Whatcha thinking about Rhzvanzin,” Drazealite asked around mouthfuls of food.

“Sara says that me and the rest of the camp are leaving tomorrow,” Rhzvanzin said looking up at his friend, “She says we can take what we can carry, but getting you, Mira, and Zahanort out of here without being noticed is going to be difficult.”

“Why not just have us travel with you?” Zahanort said swallowing a chunk of meat, “Why not just have us walk along beside you?”

“Because if you three suddenly showed up they would know I left the castle without permission,” Rhzvanzin sighed, “Then we would all probably get in big trouble for it, and these unusual dragons seem to punish heavily and frequently. I simply hurt a few of them protecting my kill and they locked me up in a small lair for nearly a week!”

“Wow they are harsh,” Drazealite said slurping on some water, “Why not just sneak us out the way you snuck us in?”

“Because the dragons on the wall would probably recognize me at this point and report me to Sara or the duke and I’d be in huge trouble.”

“So we need something big enough to hide all three of us?” Zahanort asked.

“Yes.” Rhzvanzin said closing his eyes in thought.

“Only thing near that big is the bed,” Mira snorted in dragon’s tongue.

Rhzvanzin and the two dragons stared at Mira for a moment making her squirm under the gaze of their eyes. Then Rhzvanzin leapt over to the bed, started to toss out the stuffing, and grabbed Mira’s wrist. Mira yelped as she was shoved into the mattress through the hole that had served as a nest last night. Both Zahanort and Drazealite both followed Mira in of their own free will and Mira felt the mattress shift beneath them.

Mira heard Rhzvanzin grunt and felt a swaying motion as Rhzvanzin carried the mattress around the room a few times. Mira yelped as she and the dragons tumbled out of the mattress as it hit the floor. Mira saw that Rhzvanzin was standing over them and looked rather pleased with himself.

“I should be able to carry you all like that for a few hours at a time though it will be rough.” Rhzvanzin said happily, “I’ll even take a turn at watch so you three can slip past me during my watch.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mira said as she tied a bed sheet around a cut she received from one of the dragon’s claws, “The sooner we leave the better.”

Mira was ready to leave so that shewould be free of the dragons and Rhzvanzin forever. She could report them all to the authorities and collect the reward for two dragons and Rhzvanzin. She thought that she might miss Rhzvanzin and Zahanort, but she knew that she would never miss Drazealite.

Mira thought greedily of the amount of money she would get from turning them all in. She knew that the price was a thousand gold pieces for information leading to any single dragon, several thousand for any information that lead to the dragon’s death. She also knew that anyone helping a dragon was considered a level five criminal and any information leading to him was worth two hundred gold coins. Mira knew that with that kind of money she would have enough money to buy her own home and even a butler. Mira loved the thought of her having such riches.
She snapped back into the present when she noticed that Zahanort was looking at her quizzically.

“What?” she asked as innocently as she could while speaking dragon’s tongue.

“You seemed to be looking at nothing,” Zahanort said, “Is that normal for your grdnz?”

“Only when we think about something else,” Mira said shrugging.

“Probably thinking of turning us in for that vrnsh humans’ hishp so much,” Drazealite snorted.
Drazealite was knocked off the ground as both Zahanort and Rhzvanzin struck him in the head hard. Drazealite hit the wall hard enough to crack it before he fell to the ground.

“How dare you call her a human,” Zahanort hissed.

“Nobody gravransh to be called that Drazealite,” Rhzvanzin said quietly.

“Sorry,” Drazealite said getting up and shaking himself off, “I wasn’t really thinking when I said that.”

Mira marveled at Drazealite’s resistance to damage. He had just been hit hard enough to break stone with his impact and he was showing no signs that he had been hurt. Mira wondered just what the dragon skeleton was made of, because it obviously wasn’t bone.

“Let’s all get some sleep,” Rhzvanzin said suddenly yawning, “We’re all going to need a lot of rest for tomorrow’s rrvnzsh.”

Drazealite and Zahanort both nodded and walked over to where the destroyed mattress now lay. Rhzvanzin joined them on the mattress and the fidgeted around for a moment getting comfortable before they settled down and fell asleep.

Mira was felling horrible at the moment. Both Rhzvanzin and Zahanort had just fought their friend because he called her something they seemed to think was a curse. They had done that for her and she had been thinking of betraying them.

Mira lay down on the once rich mattress that was now hardly better than the junk she use to sleep on. Once again, when she fell asleep, she rolled over, lay next to Zahanort, and smiled in her sleep. Zahanort awoke and saw her laying next to him and softly licked her face once before going back to sleep.

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The next day when Sara came to wake Rhzvanzin, she heard Rhzvanzin whispering to someone in his strange language. Sara jumped when she heard another voice answer in the same language and yet another voice chip in with the other. She also heard a third new voice that seemed to be feminine and new to the language.

Sara tried the knob but it was locked.

The conversation in the room stopped and Sara heard the sounds of bodies moving hastily about doing who knew what. Sara pounded on the door and shouted at Rhzvanzin to let her in.

Rhzvanzin opened the door and innocently asked, “Yes?”

Sara pushed past the giant wild child and looked about the room. Sara saw nobody else in the room but saw plenty of places to hide people nearly as large as Rhzvanzin.

“Who was in the room with you?” Sara demanded turning to face Rhzvanzin, “I heard other people in here with you.”

“I alone,” Rhzvanzin said calmly, “I make new voices with own.”

Sara raised her eyebrows at Rhzvanzin and he proceeded to mimic each of the voices in turn. Sara almost believed it except that the female voice was suddenly fluent in the strange language. Sara decided to look around the room just to make sure.

Sara walked over to the bed and bending down looked under it, there was nothing under the bed but two rolls of extra blankets. Sara grunted and got up to check in the closet. Sara opened the door and saw nothing but an assortment of fancy clothing hanging from a hook or lying on the ground. Sara checked under the clothing on the ground but found nothing of interest other than that it seemed Rhzvanzin had shredded the clothes on the floor. Sara muttered to her self that she could have sworn she had heard other people in here with Rhzvanzin but she found no signs of anyone.

Sara was about to leave when she saw that a lot of the stuffing had been torn out of the bed’s mattress. Sara frowned, walked over to the mattress, and saw a large hole had been torn in the mattress. She glanced at Rhzvanzin and saw that he was looking at her curiously now but he was still smiling.

Sara peered inside the hole in the mattress and saw nothing but stuffing. Sara even reached into the mattress and felt around inside the mattress to make sure that there wasn’t anyone inside it. Sara snorted and straightened up before turning to Rhzvanzin.

“Gather up what you wish to take with you,” Sara said a bit disgruntled, “We leave in half an hour.”

“Of course,” Rhzvanzin said nodding to show he understood.

Sara eyed Rhzvanzin and walked out the door and made sounds like she was walking away. Sara continued to stand outside the door and listened to Rhzvanzin for several minutes. Sara heard him hiss a sigh and start gathering things he wished to take with him. Sara soon shrugged and walked off to her room to pack her own things before she left.

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“Alright she’s gone,” Rhzvanzin hissed after he heard Sara actually walk away.

“Finally!” Drazealite hissed as he and Zahanort crawled out from under the bed, “I was wondering if she was ever going to leave.”

“She took her…” Mira started before stopping not knowing the word for ‘time’ as she climbed out of one of the clothes in the closet.

“I was actually worried that she would find Mira,” Drazealite snorted casting a side-long glance at Mira.

“Turns out she’s as good as you at hidding,” Zahanort laughed.

“You might grab what you want with you inside mattress,” Rhzvanzin said switching to English, “You be in there long time before I let you out.”

Mira nodded and grabbed what was left of breakfast and several sets of clothing she had torn down to her size and style. Mira shoved all of this inside the mattress and grabbed one of the over stuffed pillows as well.

Mira noticed that the dragons had started to gather things as well. While they hadn’t come with any thing, the dragons seemed to be gathering up the scales they had shed and objects that they had used as toys. Mira wondered about this supposed show of intelligence, but figured that Rhzvanzin had trained them to do this.

Mira stuffed the pillow into the mattress and followed suit getting herself comfortable for the ride. Almost as soon as she got in Zahanort and Drazealite poured their things into the mattress and hopped in themselves. Mira was almost overwhelmed by the spicy smell of the dragons in the mattress with her.

“Better get use to it girl.” Drazealite smiled, “Because we’re going to be in here awhile and it’s about to get more crowded.”

Mira was wondering what he meant by that comment when she felt something feathery moving around behind her. Mira turned and saw that Rhzvanzin was apparently restuffing the mattress to help his Mira and his dragon friends/pets. Mira soon had to hold her hand in front of her mouth to keep from choking on the feathers and she started to worry about suffocating.

Mira was sure that the mattress wasn’t going to be able to hold any more feathers when Rhzvanzin picked up the mattress. Mira felt him wobble for a few seconds before turning the mattress to fit out the door. Mira felt the repeated jolts as he hurried down the stairs and thought the bouncing might never end. Soon Mira only felt the rythmatic jolting of Rhzvanzin’s steps and almost fell asleep.

Drazealite and Zahanort had both already fallen asleep in relative comfort and seemed to be acting like they where use to this sort of thing. The two dragons slept comfortably in the mattress that reminded them so much of the comfortable insides of their eggs they had hatched out of a couple decades ago.

Rhzvanzin hurried down the stairs holding the large mattress on his back hopping that his friends weren’t being disturbed to much in there.

He soon arrived at the hallway that lead to the great hall and saw that several men had already shown up and where seated in little groups waiting for the others to arrive. Some of the men looked up as Rhzvanzin arrived and chuckled at the sight of him carrying the mattress to take along with him. Rhzvanzin gently laid down the mattress and laid an ear against it listening to the gentle breathing of his friends and the nervous breathing of Mira.

It wasn’t long before Sara and the other members of the watchmen clan arrived with their things. They stopped and stared at the mattress Rhzvanzin was leaning against and a few chuckled.

“Are you taking that with you?” Sara asked as she walked over to Rhzvanzin.

“Yes.” Rhzvanzin answered calmly.

“Are you planning on carrying that the whole way?” Sara asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you taking anything else?”

“No.”

“Will you give me more than one word answers?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Rhzvanzin just shrugged and Henry, Josh, and James all snickered. The straightened up when Sara turned to glare at them and proceeded to join a game of cards one group was already playing.

“Why are you taking the mattress with you Rhzvanzin?” Sara asked turning back to face him, “It is heavy and will weigh you down.”

“Soft,” was all Rhzvanzin said as an answer.

Sara waited hoping that Rhzvanzin might say more but he did not. Sara sighed and walked over to join her men at their game. Sara was worried about Rhzvanzin, he had been keeping to himself in his room a lot more lately and that had Sara worried.

Sara worried that Rhzvanzin was starting to realize that Sara and the others were if fact humans. She didn’t know if Rhzvanzin wouldn’t attack them because they had become friends or if his hatred of humans ran deep enough to where he would still attack them. Sara hadn’t reported her fears to the knight or the duke because at the time they were unbased and had no back up. She only hoped that her fears were falsely laid.

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Rhzvanzin was glad to finally be out of the city and heading into the forest again. The city had been full of corruption and hatred as well as other strange smells that were completely alien to Rhzvanzin. While the forest was still nearly a whole days travel ahead at the rate the camp moved, the farms were still a vast improvement over the evil city.

The farm they stayed on that night was full of bushes and allowed his friends an easy escape from the camp. He followed them to a small field and pointed the way they should head to get back to the forest. Drazealite and Zahanort both nodded eagerly though Mira seemed rather reluctant to head out into the forest.

“We’ll meet at the agreed upon point tomorrow night correct?” Rhzvanzin asked Drazealite.
“Of course,” Drazealite said nodding.

“Good,” Rhzvanzin said smiling, “I best get back to the camp before they notice I’m gone.”
Rhzvanzin had just left when he nearly ran into Sara as she moved through the plants with astonishing quietness for a dragon of her kind. Sara nearly jumped out of her armor as she saw Rhzvanzin stop just in front of her.

Her battle training kicked in and she recovered enough to look fierce and demand, “What are you doing out here Rhzvanzin?”

“Why you out here?” Rhzvanzin asked her standing up.

“Looking for you, I saw you leave camp and I needed to know where you were going and what you were doing.”

Rhzvanzin was silent as he tried to think of a word that would get him out of trouble. He thought to try one of the words he’d heard several other men say when they went to a large decretive room.

“Praying,” Rhzvanzin said hoping for the best.

“What were those other voices I heard?” Sara demanded crossing her arms

“Me,” Rhzvanzin said using his best imitation of Drazealite.

“Why did you bring the mattress?” Sara asked raising an eyebrow.

“Ground hard and rocky.” Rhzvanzin said after pausing for a moment.

Sara looked at Rhzvanzin with a raised eyebrow and knew he was lying because farmers always removed any rocks they found in their fields. So she was going to have to keep a close eye on Rhzvanzin now because he obviously trying to hide something and she might need to know what it was.

Though just what he was hiding she didn't know.

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Sivarria was flying through the air looking for another human settlement to watch as she continued her search for Rhzvanzin. She had watched nearly a half dozen human settlement and none of them had contained Rhzvanzin. She spotted another human settlement that looked to big to and well defended for the one described by the clan lords and was about to fly on.

Suddenly Sivarria smelled the scent that she had been searching for, she smelled Rhzvanzin and he was close by. Sivarria circled trying to find the source of the smell and locating the direction and flew towards it ignoring the smell of almost a hundred humans acompaning Rhzvanzin's.

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Drazealite, Zahanort, and Mira were walking through the forest about fifty feet away from the army Rhzvanzin was with. They were keeping pace easily enough even though Mira was having trouble moving through the foilage. Mira wondered just what the dragons where doing following the army and thought that they must be following Rhzvanzin but be nervous to get close with so many other humans around.

Mira was about to try and run away and escape the trio and report them to the duke when she heard something that made her heart go cold, she heard the flapping of massive leathery wings.

"That scent," Drazealite said sniffing the air.

"Could it be?" Zahanort said smiling and looking happier than she had ever seen him.

"It is!" Drazealite crowd happily, "Its Sivarria! Now we can all go home!"

"Who Sivarria?" Mira asked.

"Rhzvanzin's mother!" Zahanort said happily.

Mira looked up as the largest dragon she had ever seen flew over head heading for the trail.

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Rhzvanzin was trudging along with the army occassionaly looking to the forest to see if the others where keeping up when his sharp ears caught something, the sound of a dragon in flight. Rhzvanzin sniffed the air and caught the scent of his mother, she had found him! He was going home and could introduce her to the watchman tribe.

Rhzvanzin saw his mother fly over head and land on the trail in front of them about five hundred feet away where she cried happily, "Rhzvanzin!"

"Mother!" Rhzvanzin cried happily shedding the matress and leaping over the camp which seemed to have frozen.

Rhzvanzin bounded towards his mother on all fours and heard Sara and the knight shout something. Rhzvanzin didn't pay attention, he was to happy at seeing his mother to listen.

Then he heard the knight shout, "FIRE!!!"

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Sara was watching Rhzvanzin out of the corner of her eye as she marched along beside him. She noticed that he was occassionally looking off into the forest obiviously longing to return to it. Then suddenly Rhzvanzin's ears perked up and he sniffed the air.

Sara couldn't see Rhzvanzin's face but could tell something was up and was about to ask what he heard when she heard the beating of massive wings. The entire camp froze at the sound as the largest dragon Sara had ever imagened flew low overhead. Its scales where blood red and it seemed to be half the size of her village, she knew that they didn't stand a chance against it.

The dragon landed on the trail before them and hissed, "Rhzvanzin!" in a monsterous and thundering voice.

Rhzvanzin hissed something back but Sara couldn't understand what he said as he shed the matress he was carrying and leapt over the camp. Rhzvanzin ran towards the dragon on all fours and it moved to meet him. Sara paled as she realized that he was about to try and face that monster alone. While he might be more than a match for any human, Rhzvanzin didn't stand a chance against a dragon of that size.

"Rhzvanzin! NO!!!" Sara cried trying to push her way to the front.

"Men!!!" the knight shouted, "Follow Rhzvanzin's lead and make ready!"

All of the bow men unslung their bows and drew an arrow and the swordsmen drew their blades and readied their blades. The knight began to strap on plate armor and drew a lance. Rhzvanzin and the dragon where only a dozen yards away from each other as the knight shouted, "FIRE!!!"

Arrows soared through the air towards the dragon and while some bounced off its scales, some penitrated. The dragon hissed in pain and Rhzvanzin stopped cold only a few feet away from the dragon.

"CHARGE!!!" the knight roared and the swordsmen charged sweeping sara along with them.

The dragon took to the air and fled and the camp cheered as the knight said, "We've wounded it, next time we will kill it!"

Rhzvanzin hadn't moved since the dragon had been hit and Sara looked on worriedly until she noticed that his skin was becoming red. She remembered what had happened the last time she had seen that happened and began to back paddle away from him.