The Dragon and The Sparrow: Chapter One

The Dragon & The Sparrow: (Revised starting 1/2008)


CHAPTER ONE: Love At First Sight

The Trader’s Market in Aleman, the capital of Calabria, was one of a confederation of Kingdoms called the Kingdoms of the Clans. Each Kingdom was ruled by one of the major clans of the People of the Clans. Calabria was ruled by the Dragon Clan, while the other Kingdoms were ruled by the Eagle, Bear, Griffin, and Tiger Clans. The People of the Clans are a race of clans who had arrived on the continent that the People named Salvacion, which in the ancient language of the clans meant salvation. It was named as such because the People arrived there after a long and perilous voyage from their original home on this world called Los Islas del Caribe, fleeing a major catastrophe that history said destroyed their original homeland. The details of that almost forgotten dark time in the People’s past were remembered by very few of the People remaining today, if at all.

In Aleman at this time of year, the People celebrated the Festival of the Harvest. This festival was a celebration of the bounty realized from the year’s harvest. Calabria was well known throughout the kingdoms for their wines. The variety of grapes, known as uvas in the ancient tongue, was in greater variety and profusion than in any other part of the kingdoms. Additionally, the wine makers of Calabria were very innovative in their presentations of the wines they produced. For example, one winemaker added various fruits into the wine casks, and then poured in the wine. This concoction was left to sit awhile with the fruits adding to the flavor of the wine. The result was a wine that had a wonderfully fruitful mélange of flavors that was coveted all over the kingdoms. No one had officially named it, but the locals called it Sangria because its color matched the hue of blood.

This and other innovations made Calabria the unequalled vintner in the kingdoms. People from all over the kingdoms and from exotic lands outside the kingdoms flocked to Aleman during the Harvest Festival in order to purchase the best vintages for their houses and/or businesses. Buying these wines at their source cost less than having them imported to their locales because the buyers did not incur any costs for shipping. Shipping anything overland through a proxy cost more due to charges added to the price to cover the cost of men to guard the caravans and the costs to feed them and the pack animals along the way.




So, those who could, travel overland to Aleman to get their wares. Those who couldn’t had to rely on proxies to pickup the wine and deliver it to wherever they were located. Due to the extra costs of these proxy purchases, the customers who lived the farthest away would also order other wares that could be found in Aleman at festival time, in order to defray their costs. At harvest time many merchants made their way to Aleman in order to sell their wares during the Harvest Festival.

As a result, there were many bargains and varieties of wares available to be bought. The variety of products for sale was astounding. Fabrics of every kind, style and color were available in the main marketplace. Livestock of almost every kind could be found closer to the gates of the city where the stables and pens were kept. There were booksellers, chandlers, artists, tailors, fortune tellers, jewelers and food stands selling various types of delicacies from around the kingdoms and beyond. Every kind of beverage from ciders and wines to ales could be bought in the main marketplace. There were even some brothels temporarily setup in various locations around the city in order to serve the more intimate needs of the overflow of men entering and staying in the city during the festival. Aleman was a veritable wonderland of earthly and sensory delights during the Harvest Festival.

Prince Balthazar de Calabria, heir to the throne of the Dragon Clan, rulers of the Kingdom of Calabria, was to preside over the opening ceremonies of the festival. This was his duty each year as the representative of the ruling clan. He was to partake of the first meal made from the food crops that were harvested, and the first drink of the newly vinted wines made from the grapes harvested that year. He enjoyed this duty more than any other of the duties of his position with the possible exception of his duties as Field Marshall of the Armies of the Kingdoms. It was really the only time he could completely relax and enjoy himself.

He had a taste of every kind of food that was available and every kind of beverage available too. The only danger was in imbibing too much of the wines and beers available thereby ending his night early. The leader of his personal guard, Sindara Quiles of the Griffin Clan who had grown up with him from childhood, would scoop him up at the first sign of intoxication, throw him over her shoulder, and carry him off to his rooms in the Royal residences located on the palace grounds. The Prince could not overrule her because her orders came directly from the Queen, his mother Zenobia. Besides, Sindara was a Hunter.




Hunters were a select group of warriors who had skills, strengths and training greater than that of any other warrior in the world. They could sneak up on anyone without a sound being made to warn the prey being hunted. They would be seen only if they wished it to be so; their skills at avoiding detection could not be duplicated by any other trained warrior in the world. If a Hunter wanted to, he or she could climb in through a victim’s window unseen and unheard, cut the throat of their prey, and leave without arousing the prey’s sleeping partner. Of course this led to many rumors and legends being created around the stories of Hunters, thereby causing even more mystery to be attributed to these special warriors.

This, of course, made Balthazar reluctant to get his childhood friend angry with him. In hand to hand combat he was no match for her. She could and would knock him unconscious in order to secure his safety if necessary. And she was the only person in the world, besides his mother of course, who he would allow to get away with that. She also was his best friend in the world, and he knew she only had his best interests at heart.

Balthazar was now ready to perform the ritual of the opening ceremony for the festival. Before him was a long table, long enough to seat fifty men comfortably. Arrayed on this table, from one end to the other, was an assortment of foods and beverages. He must take a taste of each offering, bless each offering, and thank the ancestors for the bounty they received.

In all, there were 30 different foods and beverages to partake of. This was why he had only a taste of each. Too much food would make him sluggish, too little would not help counteract the effects of the intoxicating beverages he had to partake of. But, mainly, his duty was to partake of every offering on the banquet table before him. If he didn’t, he risked offending the makers of the food and beverages he did not partake of. As the Harvest Festival was not only created to bless the recent harvest, but was also created to engender good will between the Royal Family and their subjects, it would behoove him to make sure he partook of all of the foods and drinks arrayed before him. With that in mind, he proceeded to perform his duty.

An hour later, having done his duty and having partaken of every offering on the banquet table, Balthazar was feeling a little sluggish and a little tipsy. This year there were many more offerings for him to partake of. The Harvest Festival grew each year, as more and more people showed up for the festival. This of course meant that there were many newer foods and wines being served and sold than at any festival prior to this one. As a result, Balthazar decided to walk throughout the city and make an appearance at the many locales where merchants had set up shop.

The main reason for this was to work off some of the food that presently had him feeling full and sluggish. It had the added effect of letting him mingle personally with his subjects. His preference for being among his people was one of the reasons he was so beloved by his subjects. He was seen as “one of the people” due to the fact that he was so approachable. Any of his subjects could come up to him and discuss any matters they wished to with him personally. While often times he was not able to personally help with their problems, his subjects knew that he would refer their concerns to the appropriate government officials. To that end he had brought Rafael de la Paz, the Bursar’s assistant, along with him to transcribe the requests and concerns that his subjects brought to him. He would go over them later and have Rafael present them to the proper government officials in order to have them addressed.

All of this traipsing about through crowds of people caused his bodyguards great consternation in that having that many people around their Prince made it more difficult to protect him. Of course the Prince was the best swordsman in the known world. He was very well equipped to defend himself in any and all situations. But he still felt badly for them. Their job and responsibility was a heavy enough burden to bear in the best of situations. Having so many people around him and approaching him made them more nervous than a mouse in a room full of cats!

So far, there had been no incidents to worry about. But that could change at any time. Balthazar continued on through the festival, beginning in that main market area and taking a circuitous route that would take him through all of the locales now set up in the city. When he reached the end of his tour through the city, he would end up near the palace. He could then proceed on to the palace if he felt the need to retire for the night. He didn’t worry if he missed anything along the way because the festival would run for seven days and nights, plenty of time to take in all of the sights.

After having spent a considerable of amount of time walking, Balthazar and his contingent were now coming to the last festival locale on his way home, entering it from the western end of the plaza it was located in. He stopped in the western entrance to the plaza and looked around at everyone and everything. There was a group of acrobats performing in the center of the plaza near the fountain. They had gathered quite a crowd. From the little he could see, their gymnastic abilities were amazing! Little wonder that a large crowd would be gathered around them. There were also a number of food vendors scattered around the plaza, and someone had set up an outdoor bar to serve wine and beer from.




As he scanned the plaza from left to right, he saw a group of soldiers escorting someone within their ranks through the plaza. Probably some noble who didn’t want any of the “common people” to get too close. Balthazar peered through the group of soldiers to get a glimpse of whoever was there. If he knew who it was, perhaps, if they were pleasant enough, he could show them where all the fun was to be had. Which booths or tables had the best food, which had the best wine and beer, where one could find the best jewelry, and so on. When he was finally able to see who the noble personage was, he was struck dumb!

“Be still my beating heart!”, he thought to himself. “Who is that lovely lady?”

Balthazar thought hard. Had he seen her before? No. He would have remembered her. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen! She was fluid and graceful, but yet she seemed very strong for her size. He could see that she carried her own rapier with her, hanging from her waist. She had it arranged in such a way as to keep it from tangling in her legs if she should find it necessary to run for any reason. It was also positioned to be drawn at a moment’s notice should the need arise. Her eyes scanned the way ahead of her left and right. Yes, she looked to be as prepared as one of his trained warriors would be.

She was aware of her surroundings and everyone around her. Just then she spotted him looking at her. She locked eyes with him and smiled. He was mesmerized! He couldn’t take his eyes off of her! Her eyes were radiantly beautiful. They were amber in color, like sweet honey. Her hair was brown with lighter brown highlights that made her eyes stand out even more. He felt like he was trapped in those amber eyes like an insect, yet he did not yearn to be free. Instead, he wished she would hold him so forever.

His mind was a muddle of confused thoughts and mindless yearning. He didn’t understand what was happening. He knew it wasn’t magic. He would have felt the familiar tingling sensation in his mind that told him magic was being used. No, this feeling he was experiencing was love at first sight. He had heard of it, and thought he knew how it would feel from the descriptions he had heard growing up, in the romantic tales told by the female servants to each other when they thought he wasn’t listening. But knowing about something intellectually and actually living it were two different things, he realized now.






Lady Galina dos Santos, niece to the Duke of Salas, whose father was the former Duke who died under mysterious circumstances, had decided to attend this year’s Harvest Festival in Aleman. She hadn’t attended any of the previous festivals since her father passed away ten years before. She had reached the age of sixteen summers when he died, causing her to grow up fast, and ending her childhood years on a tragic note. Since then she had suffered from bouts of melancholy. Sadness was the rule more than the exception.

However, recently, she had begun to feel restless. The Ducal palace in which she resided with her aunt and uncle, while very large and spacious, felt confining to her. She felt the need to leave the relative safety of the palace grounds to walk freely through the streets of city of Salas, the capital city named after the province her Uncle ruled.

Walking through the streets, albeit with an armed guard everywhere she went, she was able to mingle with the people and their children. The children especially were drawn to her, and she to them. Their bright smiles and general overall happiness brought her out of her doldrums. She began to see that life did not have to be the bleak existence she had made it out to be. In fact, with a little effort, she could see all of the beauty around her that the world had to offer.

It was with this mindset that she set out from Salas to attend the annual Harvest Festival. Her uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of Salas, were happy to see her out and about. She was sent off with their blessings and a bodyguard of fifteen soldiers, along with three servants to attend to her personal needs, for her protection. The road to Aleman was well-guarded by the Queen’s armed patrols and so was safe most times from outlaws and brigands. But a lady of noble birth traveling alone was a foolish person indeed. While there were no roaming bands of outlaws plying their trade on the Queens Road, there was always the possibility that a lone brigand, seeing a noblewoman traveling alone, would see the opportunity for a quick profit by robbing the noblewoman and leaving her, cut throat and all, dead by the road. As she would have been traveling alone, no one would be the wiser.

But since she traveled with an armed guard, she arrived safely and without incident in Aleman on time for the first day of the festivities. She began the day by missing the opening ceremonies presided over by Prince Balthazar de Calabria, the heir apparent to the Dragon Throne of Calabria. It was said that he was a handsome man, though not very tall. She had wanted to catch a glimpse of him to see what all the fuss was about.


Many of the ladies in attendance had been gossiping about the Prince everywhere she went. She supposed that it was because he was not yet married, and an unmarried Prince was a fine catch indeed. Well, she’d have to see for herself. Though, if she was lucky enough to land a Crown Prince for a husband, she knew that her father would be proud of her if he was still alive to see it.

“That was a depressing thought.”, she mused. “Thinking about father still hurts. I am not here for sad thoughts, I am here to enjoy myself!”

With that in mind, Galina dos Santos approached every stall and table she came to. She had a taste of every type of food she came across. The choices were many and varied. While she sampled many different types of foods, there was a spicy beef served with onions and peppers on a type of bread that had a pocket in it where one could stuff the fillings. This was topped off with a creamy sauce that offset the hot peppers mingled with the sweet peppers crammed into the pocket with the beef and onions. She bought one for herself, her three servants, and each of her bodyguards. Tasting it, she decided it was her new favorite food.

Further on down the street she found a booth that served the wine for which Calabria was famous. The locals called it Sangria, though officially it had not been named yet. This was a recent invention of the vintners of the region that had a delightfully fruitful taste that cooled the tongue as it passed through the mouth on the way to the stomach. Once inside, it also served to engender a feeling of coolness which ameliorated the heat of the day. Galina found the combination of food and drink to be wonderful! Again, she bought one each for herself and her three servants. For her guards she purchased ale.

She and her retinue of soldiers and servants found some empty benches to sit on in a side street just off the main street they were walking on. They all sat and ate their food and drank their beverages. The guards stood while eating so that they might act quickly should there be a need for action. Galina and the servants, she had three handmaidens with her to take care of her personal needs, drank wine. The guards drank ale, as it was less likely to make them as tipsy as the wine would. The guards had a strong tolerance for ale, as they drank it with every meal, thereby building up a resistance to its intoxicating effects.






As she ate, Galina watched the people passing by, and the people present in the streets around them. Most were revelers or merchants who had traveled to Aleman to either revel in the festivities, or to sell their wares. Here and there were soldiers posted to ensure the security of the people attending the festival. They were posted conspicuously at the corners of each street. There were four soldiers posted at each intersection. There would be no trouble at this festival.

Galina scanned the area and spied someone who looked vaguely familiar. She thought that she had seen him before, but was not certain where. The man in question, whose face she was only able to get a glimpse of due to the fact that he wore a cape with a hood that he had drawn over his head, saw her looking at him, then turned and walked away. But his striking blue eyes and silver goatee made him stand out.

“That’s strange! Why did that man look at me then turn and walk away? He seemed familiar. Have I seen him before? Hmm, how curious.”, she thought to herself as the man walked away and disappeared into the crowd. “Oh well. I haven’t time to worry about someone I don’t know. There is much to see and partake of here. I’d better get moving.”

Seeing that everyone in her retinue had finished their food and drink, she gathered everyone together and proceeded in the direction of the plaza nearest the Royal Palace. All members of the nobility and their servants were being housed on the palace grounds. The palace was huge and had hundreds of guest quarters available for any noblemen and women visiting Aleman for the festival. The soldiers would billet in the soldier’s barracks set aside for the reserve troops in a time of war. With this in mind, Galina had decided early on that she would end her day in the plaza closest to the palace. That way, if she was tired, they wouldn’t have far to go in order to retire to their temporary palace quarters quickly.

Lady Galina and her retinue approached the plaza from the east and entered into the plaza with her group. She saw that the plaza, like many of the streets on her way here, was filled with booths and tables set up to sell all manner of wares, from food and drink to jewelry and fabrics. In the center of the plaza she spied a group of acrobats performing many gymnastic feats, to the delight of the crowd. She watched for a while, then started scanning the plaza to look at the people there. As her eyes scanned the west side of the plaza, she saw a group of soldiers congregated around a nobleman. He was staring at her and she saw that he was mesmerized. She looked him straight in the eyes and smiled.



He stood transfixed, as if struck dumb and paralyzed. She smiled to herself. She had that effect on many of the men she had met over the years. Many men found her to be beautiful and wished to win her favor. Thus far, none had impressed her. This man, however, had something about him that made him stand out from every other man she had ever met.

He wasn’t very tall; in fact he only stood five feet, seven inches. He was lean and muscular though. He probably weighed close to two hundred pounds. There wasn’t a bit of fat on him that she could tell. He was a fine physical specimen. His eyes were either the darkest brown she had ever seen, or they were black. His hair was black, hung to shoulder length and was tied in the back in a tail. He skin was a caramel brown with no scars. His lips were full, very kissable indeed! She giggled to herself at her boldness of thought. He carried himself with a confidence that said that he feared no man or beast. He looked like a soldier, but the presence of his bodyguard spoke of nobility. In fact, his face seemed very familiar but she didn’t remember ever meeting him. Very curious.

At that moment, Galina noticed a commotion to the rear of her contingent. She turned to look and saw her guards engaging in battle with a group of what looked to be mercenaries, as they all wore differing types of mismatched armor and had no coats of arms to signify who they were in service to. In fact, the armor they wore, and the weapons they carried looked as if each piece had been liberated from a different victim. As if stolen from the dead off of a battlefield after the battle was over. Spoils of war, so to speak. Having assessed the situation, she turned to face the rear, drew her rapier, and prepared for battle.

Prince Balthazar, meanwhile, still stood transfixed. When the lady spied him looking at her, she immediately stared into his eyes. He froze, not able to look away. She was so beautiful! She was the perfect height for him, five feet, two inches. She would fit perfectly within his embrace.

“Whoa! I am thinking way too far in advance!”, he thought to himself.

When he first spied her, before she noticed him looking at her, he had noticed how beautiful her eyes and hair were. Now that he studied her further, he saw how fit she was. Her clothes were closely fitted enough that he could see the lines of her body.

She was wearing a close fitting blouse whose sleeves came down only to her forearms, allowing her arms freedom of movement. The skirt she wore had slits on either side and flared out at the waist, not showing much leg, but allowing her to move her feet and legs quickly without encumbrance. A very functional outfit when you added her short-boots, which went up to her ankles and looked very sturdy.
There seemed to be not a drop of fat on her small, muscular frame. Her shoulders looked to be very well developed. Her legs were cut and toned, the lines showing in her calves as she walked. She filled her dress top very nicely, not too much, not too little. She had perfect posture and walked with dignity. He was so attracted to her, that he knew his eyes would follow her wherever she went.

She suddenly drew her sword. It was a rapier, and she drew it so quickly that he knew that she had to have had training in the sword. He could see the cords of muscle in her forearms standing out. From his vantage point, directly across the plaza from her and her retinue, he could see a group of what appeared to be mercenaries staging an attack on her group from behind.

The Lady’s guards formed a sort of phalanx around her and her three servants in a box formation. The men attacking were at a strategic disadvantage due to the fact that they had decided to attack from a side street that led to the main avenue leading into the plaza. The side street they were attacking from was smaller than the avenue they sought to enter. This meant that they could only present a formation that was four men abreast as they sought to push through into the main avenue in order to gain some space for themselves to present a wider front to attack the phalanx with. The guards protecting the Lady saw this and pushed forward with a box formation that stood eight men across. While the group of mercenaries outnumbered the Lady’s guards, they were not able to use their numbers to their advantage.

So far, the Lady’s guards were winning and were holding their position. Each time a mercenary tried to break through; he was beaten back or killed outright by two guards engaging him at the same time. The phalanx was arranged in a “box” formation with the guards in the back closing rank and effectively closing off access to the people inside the formation that they were fighting to protect. Balthazar saw that one of the mercenaries was able to break through to the center. Balthazar saw him go into the center of the formation, lost sight of him for an instant, then saw him stagger out through the back of the formation with a mortal wound to his chest. From the size of the hole in chest, he had been skewered by a rapier, the entry hole being smaller than one made by any other type of sword.







Balthazar could see the Lady using her rapier to thrust her sword between her men to kill those mercenaries who were otherwise engaged. The battle was going well for her side. Little by little she and her men were whittling down the size of the force against her. So far she had only lost two of her original fifteen men and she was helping to whittle down the odds further. She and her men were still outnumbered, but the way the battle was going, she and her men would soon have the numbers cut down to the point where the mercenaries would realize that their situation was growing dire. At that point, Balthazar calculated, the mercenaries would disengage and try to flee, hoping to blend into the crowd and escape that way. Of course they did not reckon that the Queen’s guard would soon arrive to cut off their escape route. Then the survivors would be put to the question, and the motives and people behind this cowardly attack would be discovered.

Just then, as he was watching, one of the men in the front of the phalanx turned white. As if he was frosting over! The man was frozen in place! The soldiers around him fought frantically to protect him, as they realized that frozen as he was, he would not be able to defend himself! Then, in slow motion, he saw a broadsword swing in an over-handed motion to strike the frozen guard atop his head. He shattered into a thousand pieces as the broadsword crashed through him.

“No!”, the Lady screamed as she watched one of her men die a grisly death. Galina fought to hold back the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her. She couldn’t afford to let her emotions take over now. If she did, she would be as good as dead. She set a determined look across her face and launched an attack into the line of mercenaries trying to break through the phalanx.

Her fierce attack took the mercenaries by surprise. They fell back and lost the ground they had gained and her phalanx moved forward again, pushing back the mercenaries into the tight quarters of the side street they had attacked from. Behind them, the Queen’s Guards were closing down the back alleyways and the mercenaries used to arrive at this side street they were attacking from. The Queen’s guards consolidated their position at the end of the alley and waited for the mercenaries to try to flee in their direction. Galina was cheered by this, as the mercenaries were unaware of the situation behind them.







Galina returned to spearing the mercenaries through the phalanx’s front between her men. She was starting to take a toll on the mercenaries. In the back of her mind, she knew that whoever had caused her guard to freeze-over, was still out there waiting to strike again. She couldn’t worry about it though, as she and her men were still engaged with the enemy. She hoped that someone else would kill him for her; she was just too busy trying to stay alive to do anything about it. She turned her attention to the task at hand once again.

Balthazar, meanwhile, was still stunned by the suddenness of what had happened to the guard who had frosted over. His mind was still working furiously to reason out the situation, and his legs were rooted to the spot by the shock of it all. He knew, that somewhere in the plaza, was a Mage with the powers of an ice elemental. He had to find him before he tipped the tide of this battle towards the side of the mercenaries. Already he was taking a toll, as one by one the soldiers guarding the Lady were freezing over and being smashed to bits. He surmised that as each man went down, the odds of these men getting through to the Lady was growing. Sooner or later, one of the mercenaries would be able to deliver a killing blow to the Lady.

The number of the Lady’s men had been cut down from fifteen to ten, and then seven. Now Balthazar could see one of the mercenaries break past the phalanx as the guards were occupied by the battle in the front of the formation. The mercenary circled around the phalanx and the Lady as they were engaged and oblivious to his presence. Balthazar stood transfixed as, in what seemed to him to be slow-motion, the mercenary, who was now behind the Lady, raised his sword for the killing blow.

“No!”, he screamed. He started running towards the fray, his men coming behind him. Before he could reach her, the mercenary did something curious. Instead of delivering the death blow, he instead struck the Lady on the back of her head with the hilt of his sword, knocking her unconscious. Balthazar paused, confused by what had just happened. The men following him, rushed past him to engage the mercenaries in relief of the Lady’s guards. The man who had knocked the Lady unconscious was trying to lift her over his shoulder to carry her away. He realized then that this was a kidnapping, not an assassination attempt!


(c) 2008