Interlude - The Dragon Hunter
Irvine felt sweat on his forehead. He saw his prey twenty yards ahead, gnawing on a downed tree. He reached behind him and drew his sword. It would be difficult to be quiet, to hid his footsteps, but he didn’t feel threatened anyway, he just knew that he might need to defend himself. He slowly made his way toward the animal, and was amazed to discover that he actually went unnoticed.
The dragon looked up from the tree and then surprise crossed its one eye. “Who are you, human?” It picked up the tree. “How did you sneak up on me?”
Irvine placed his sword in the ground and sat down on another downed tree. “Hunting dragons is my specialty.”
“A hunter.” It slammed the tree down on the ground in front of Irvine, splinters washed his face. “Are you related to the one who took my eye, softflesh?”
Irvine shook his head. “No, I’m not. I don’t harm dragons unless the need arises, and the need only arises if the dragon chooses it to.”
The dragon snorted. “Right. That’s what the last human said to me. He’s currently somewhere along my large intestine, and should be coming out soon.”
“I’m not here to play games, dragon.” Irvine stood and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You’ve heard of Irvine Endawa, correct?”
The dragon moved closer to him. “Don’t try to tell me that’s you. Five dragon slayers have tried to feed me that line of shit, and none of them have lived through our encounters.”
Irvine rolled up his sleeve and displayed the one piece of proof he had. A branding, in the shape of a dragon’s tooth. The brand had been placed on his shoulder seventeen years before, by the man he’d once called father, and still glowed as if it had been recently burned into his flesh. “You know this mark, dragon? Every member of the Endawa family has this on them somewhere.”
The dragon snorted again. “Your’s is not the first shoulder I’ve seen that brand. If you’re truly a member of the Endawa Clan, then you know of the pact that your family made with Harun.”
He nodded. “Of my blood, yours shall flow. Of my life, yours shall know. Of my being, yours shall understand. Of my death, yours shall grant.” It was a chant he’d recited many times in his youth. “My mother taught me that when I was a child.”
“Not your father?”
“My father failed his bloodline.”
The dragon pulled back a little. “I knew your father. He was a better man than you know.”
“A better man, perhaps, but not a father.”
The dragon lifted its head. “Not for me to determine.”
Irvine drove the topic back to the original subject. “You know my name, you know my legend. My wife and I have hidden many of your kind, and will continue to do so no matter your choice. Would you like to stay alive until human and dragon kind can come to peace once again?”
“Peace, Endawa?” The dragon moved closer to him again. “Should peace ever return to our kinds, it wouldn’t be from your hands.”
Irvine sat back down. “I’m not here to make peace, I’m here to prepare for it.” He took the sword from the ground. “If you’d please, I’d prefer an answer.”
The dragon snorted once more. “And how would this work?”
“I have a potion, it’ll disguise you as a human, one hundred percent.”
“Hide as a softflesh?” The dragon snorted out a laugh. “Why would I do that?”
“Temporary life as a human, death as a dragon. You choose.”
The dragon growled. “It’s not much of a choice.”
“I’ve done this for many of your kind.” Irvine pulled a vial from his pocket. “Take this, and no one will know the difference.”
The dragon took the vial and popped the cork. “And after I take this?”
“I have clothes that should fit your new form, and I have a contact in the nearby town who’ll help you find a place to stay.”
“And how does this work?”
“Just drink it. You’ll fall unconscious, and wake up a human being.”
The dragon growled. “Fine.” It chugged the potion down, almost in one chug. Irvine was surprised, seeing as the dragon had seemed against the idea. He watched the dragon contort, grab its neck, its chest. The dragon shrank, the scales becoming skin, the spikes on the dragon’s back sliding under the skin toward the head, where hair grew.
Irvine was quite surprised. He had assumed the dragon to be male, but the naked human on the ground was clearly female. Luckily, Sharena had packed clothes for either gender. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, she began to move, groaning. He walked over to the dragon and helped her to her feet. “You make a pretty attractive woman,” he said.
“More than a few of my own kind told me that.”
“No offense, but how can you tell the genders between dragons?”
“It’s not something humans would be able to notice.” She put a hand to the claw marks covering where her left eye would have been. “What about this?”
“I can’t do anything about that. You’ll have to buy an eye patch.”
She ran a hand through her silver hair. “So when will this potion wear off?”
“It won’t. You’ll be a human until you’re given the reversal potion, unless you choose to stay this way.”
She laughed. “Right. I hope your peace plan happens soon.”
Irvine laughed as well. “From what my wife tells me, my daughter doesn’t seem to mind being human.” He handed her the clothes. “So, do you have a name?”
She nodded. “Nynette. It was the last thing my mother gave me before she died.”
“How?”
“Childbirth. I was her second and last child.”
Irvine took a drink of whiskey and then sat his cup back down. Behind him were two fishermen fighting over a large cod they’d found together. He sighed. A war not forty miles from the border of this quaint little country, and here were two men fighting over a fish. Of course, they had no stake in the war, their nation wasn’t being threatened by the conflict, though Irvine had no doubt that it would be drawn in at some point.
Beside him, Nynette also drank. She chugged down her fourth cup as if it was nothing. At least she can hold her alcohol. He drank slower, taking his time. He was only on his first cup, and had no intentions of ordering a second.
He looked at the letter he’d found in his bag. Riley’s been doing fine the past couple days, even after all that ruckus caused by those two that the Guards were after, though I could tell she was a little concerned that everyone was after her. She and Kineas are getting along extremely well, but I never expected anything else. I’m hoping you come home soon, to meet her. She’d probably be happy to meet a ‘dragon slayer’ who prefers not to kill dragons.
He smiled. He could only assume that Kenny named his sister Riley. Irvine remembered his nephew, and missed him greatly. He’d been the one to train the boy, after all. He doubted Riley the dragon was anything like her adopted cousin, but he knew that Kenny had needed someone to take that place.
Irvine slipped the letter back into his bag. Going back home sounded like a great idea. He could get some fishing done, run the inn like he’d done long before he’d become a dragon slayer. He could meet his daughter.
“You were staring at that for awhile,” Nynette said.
“Letter from my wife.”
“She wrote you a letter before you left?”
He smiled. “She’s a sorceress. She sticks mostly to potions, but she’s good with spells. One of them is mail delivery.”
“Sounds plenty useless to me.”
“I’m sure it does,” he said, taking another sip of his drink.
She took another drink. “You mentioned a daughter that used to be a dragon. Who is she?”
“Her name’s Riley, my son gave her the name.” She just nodded. Irvine chuckled. “You seem very interested.”
“I don’t exactly have anyone else to talk to.” She ordered another drink. “So, what do you know about your daughter?”
“About as much as I’ve told you.”
“No, I mean her family. There aren’t that many dragon lineages around these parts anymore.”
“That I don’t know.”
She was handed her next drink. “Sad fact is that she’s likely related to him.”
“The white dragon?”
She nodded. “Probably not directly. We had a few cousins, but I’m his only sibling.”
“You’re the white dragon’s sister?”
She nodded, then jerked a thumb toward her missing eye. “He’s the one who did this to me. We were only children, but he was already a monster.” She took another drink. “Humans are a minor annoyance to me, but he hates your kind. Has for years.”
Irvine sipped at his drink. “Were there any hints?”
She shook her head. “Until one day, he was a well-adjusted kid. He used to love your kind, and then something in him changed. He and I were playing when the humans found us, and then all I saw was blood. Our father disowned him, we left him that day. It was a year later when he took my eye, and he’d already started to kill a few humans here or there.”
“You don’t know what caused the change?”
“No.” She took a gulp. “I just know that my brother is gone and the white dragon took his place.”
Irvine paid the landlord enough rent for three months, and then the landlord glared at Nynette for a moment before walking away. “What was his problem?” Nynette asked.
“You’re the sixth person whose rent I’ve paid in the last three months. All women.”
“All dragons?”
He shook his head. “No.”
She smiled. “Cheating on your wife, eh?”
He chuckled. “No. I love Sharena, but her sisters need to learn how to keep work.” He opened the door to the small house and walked inside, Nynette followed him. The house wasn’t much to look at, just a small couch, a coffee table and a lamp in the living room, a very basic kitchen. He couldn’t see the bedroom, though odds were good it was nothing but a plain bed and a bedside table. “I hope this is good enough for you.”
She glared at him. “It’s a step up from being on the run and you know that.”
“Yeah. This place isn’t great for work, so you’ll probably have to take the train to Ohan. The station’s probably about a ten minute walk from here.”
“Those aren’t exactly free.”
He pulled a small satchel from his bag. “This ain’t my first rodeo, sweetie. Sharena and I always provide dragons plenty of money to sustain themselves for a little while.”
She took the satchel and let out a small laugh. “Of course. So is that how this goes, now? You and I part ways and you come back if your little peace plan goes well?”
He reached back into his bag and pulled out a small rock. “If you need to contact me, just place this near a window. Sharena’s placed a spell on it, it’ll emit a light that I’ll be able to see anywhere in the sky, but as far as anyone else is concerned, it’s just a rock by the window.”
She took the rock from his hand. “That wife of yours has spells for everything, doesn’t she?”
“A lot of things, yeah. It helps.”
She nodded. “Well, don’t let the door hit you on the way out and…” She put her arms around Irvine, in a hug that he didn’t expect a dragon-turned-human to be capable of. “Don’t be a stranger, Irvine Endawa.”
Irvine spotted the tracks in the forest easily. He drew his knife and slowed his pace. Whatever it was, it was close. He stopped to take a look at the tracks, but he couldn’t recognize them. The animal was close, though, as the tracks were as fresh as could be. He wondered if he was seeing the animal without realizing it.
He closed his eyes and listened. It was something he’d learned from a Lanan monk long ago, and he’d always stuck to it. He calmed his heartbeat, and then he could hear everything. He heard breathing somewhere, somewhere close. He turned toward the direction that the breathing was coming from, then opened his eyes.
Seeing the animal without realizing it? If course he was.
“Why are you hiding there?” he asked.
The animal narrowed its eyes.
“Can you speak?”
The tree in front of him moved, bending over. It sprouted four legs and then the ‘tree’ began to shrink. Finally, the animal took its true form, a four-legged, fox-like being. It shook, as if shaking water off its body, then it once again shifted shape, into a humanoid being. The animal that stood before me looked similar to a Wolren. “I can in this form,” it said.
Irvine slipped his knife back into the sheath. “Why only this form?”
“It’s the only one that has human vocal cords.”
“You never answered my first question.”
It reached up and touched its eye. “The scarred one that was with you. Where did she go?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“It is.”
Irvine reached for his sword now. “I don’t think so.”
It shifted its hand into a blade. “You defend her?”
“She’s not an enemy.”
“She’s the sister of the white dragon.”
“I know.” He drew his sword, readied himself for a fight. “And she’s no threat to you.” He slowed his breathing, slowed his heart rate, calmed his senses. “She’s under my protection now.”
It bared its teeth. “Your protection? Why do you defend her?”
“She’s done nothing to you.”
It repeated, “ Why do you defend her?”
“Why do you want her dead?”
It looked at Irvine as if he’d just said something ridiculous. Its hand shifted from blade back to the Wolren hand that it had been. “I don’t want her dead. I promised her father many decades ago that I would defend her.”
Irvine relaxed his stance. “What?”
“Her father saved my life, and I promised him I would defend his children the way he defended me. The white dragon wants her dead, and I need to be by her side.”
“And if I don’t believe you?”
Its eyes didn’t leave Irvine. “I owe him my life, though I could not give it to him.” It knelt in front of him. “Please, take me to the scarred one, so that I may fulfill my bond.”
Irvine sheathed his sword. “I know your kind, Changer, I know exactly where to plunge my sword into you to take you out. One false move, and you’ll be dead before you even know what’s happened to you.”
It nodded. “I understand.”
Irvine led the Changer to Paum, ready at any moment to draw his blade and behead it if necessary. The trip was silent, save the occasional noises either of them made. The tension between them was almost visible, though that was likely just Irvine’s nerves playing tricks on him.
He walked up to Nynette’s door and knocked. “Just a minute!” he heard from the other side of the door. Just a moment later, the one-eyed woman opened the door and a look of shock crossed her face. “Tyrehl, you’re…”
“It’s taken me three days to find you, milady.”
Irvine simply stood there, surprised. It was almost as if a pair of lovers were seeing one another for the first time in decades. “He claims he was your guardian,” Irvine said.
She laughed. “Guardian? I saved his ass more times than he could count.” With a smirk, she added, “Of course, I never did teach him to count higher than one hand.” She reached out and threw her arms around the one known as Tyrehl. “You need to come inside.”
Irvine scratched at an itch on his left arm. “You didn’t mention him at all.”
“I thought he was dead. We were being chased, and he stayed behind to keep them away from me.”
Irvine was suddenly interested. “Chased by who?”
“I don’t know. Someone who saw me as I was flying past. Of course, they were on the bad side,” she pointed to her patch-covered eye, “and I didn’t see them.” She jerked a thumb back at the door. “Now, inside, both of you.”
Irvine looked at Tyrehl. “And you’re sure no one followed you?”
“I left none alive.”
And yet you look like you hardly took a scratch, he thought. Something felt off about the Changer, though he said nothing to Nynette. “How many were there?”
“At least five.”
“I counted seven,” Nynette said. Irvine glanced at her, then back at the Changer.
“I don’t remember. There were no less than five.”
Irvine turned to Nynette. “You saw seven?”
She nodded. “Though, two of them were Mimics.”
“Mimics? There were Mimics after you?” He was suddenly less fearful of the Changer and more for the potential Mimics that were nearby. “You didn’t mention that before.”
“No, because I assumed I killed them. That’s the only reason I remembered them.”
Irvine drew his sword. “Mimics don’t die easily. You’re sure you killed them?”
She was standing now. “You’re on edge, so no.” She looked over at Tyrehl. “You up for a fight?”
The Changer nodded, then stood and morphed into his true form once again. He laid down on the floor, much like a loyal dog, to which Irvine could only roll his eyes. He kept a hand on the hilt of his sword and moved close to the windows.
The townspeople were milling about, much as they always did. Delgrad was a typically quiet town, though they had town-wide parties every Friday evening. Irvine had been to many of them, and this one looked no different, but it felt significantly so. Clouds had rolled in. His feeling from moments ago was only confirmed.
There, a house on the right. Something on the wall shifted, moved. It stepped away from the wall, though it retained the image that it had copied to hide. Mimics were similar to Changers, but only in that they had similar survival mechanisms. Where Changers could take the shape of living beings, or other objects large enough to hide themselves, Mimics would flatten themselves against a surface and change their color and texture to match that surface. They couldn’t take the form of anything living, and to kill one was difficult. Irvine had never killed one in his life, though he’d seen one die before. He had a scar on his chest from a Mimic.
“Tyrehl,” he said, not taking his eyes off the Mimic in front of the house across the street. The Changer bolted out the door, copying the mannerisms of the fox he resembled. The Mimic backed itself against the wall of the house again, it pretended that it was nothing, though that wouldn’t be difficult, as no one was paying any attention, despite the multiple people outside.
Tyrehl’s barking started to attract attention. People looked at the fox making noise at the inconspicuous wall. Someone who lived in the house walked out and tried to shoo the Changer away. Irvine took his opportunity. He walked out and grabbed Tyrehl, picked the Changer up. “I’m sorry,” he said to the woman, “he doesn’t usually do this to strangers.”
The woman shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
He could see the Mimic glaring at him. In one swift motion, he set Tyrehl down, drew his sword and cut the Mimic, drawing bright yellow blood. “You don’t belong here,” he said as he grabbed the Mimic by the neck.
“What is that?!” the woman screeched.
“Go get your town guard.” She didn’t even acknowledge him, she simply ran. Tyrehl remained in his fox form, though Irvine assumed that was because there were people around. Changers weren’t common around these parts, so he understood Tyrehl’s desire to keep himself a secret. Irvine focused his attention on the Mimic. “What are you doing here?”
The Mimic didn’t speak the common tongue, and Irvine didn’t know the Mimic language. He held the Mimic against the wall, waiting for the guardsmen to arrive. He needed to pass this Mimic off to them so that he could figure out where the other one was.
There were screams from somewhere. Irvine turned his head in the direction of the sounds but he couldn’t see anything with the house in the way. Others began to scramble, likely heading toward whatever distraction that would cause. He whispered to Tyrehl, “Go find out what that is.” The fox nodded, then ran off.
It was just Irvine and the Mimic now. He wasn’t letting the thing go if his life depended on it. The guardsmen had to be close, if the woman managed to get to them. Even if she hadn’t, the screams would lead them to the townspeople, who would draw their attention to Irvine and the Mimic.
Something hit him in the stomach. Irvine doubled over, losing his grip on the Mimic. That was when he saw the second Mimic. It wasn’t a Mimic. The second was a Changer, just like Tyrehl, and it had been sitting in wait, disguising itself as a chair. Now it assumed its true form, that of a humanoid female.
“Thanks for showing us where the scarred one is, Endawa. My master will be quite proud of you.”
Irvine was still holding his sword, why hadn’t the idea of attacking this bitch occurred to him yet? He thrust his sword outward, a sweeping motion that caught the Mimic in the ‘chest’ and came within an inch of the Changer’s face. He hadn’t realized that the Changer was so short, probably about a foot and a half shorter than he was.
Finally, the town guard arrived, lances at the ready. Irvine was ready to cheer. “Cease hostilities!” the lead guardsman shouted. Irvine returned his sword to its sheath but he didn’t take his hand away from it. He kept a watchful eye on the Changer and the Mimic. “Irvine Endawa?” the guardsman asked.
“Yeah?”
“These are the Mimics your friend mentioned?”
Friend?
Almost as if on cue, Nynette walked out from behind the guardsmen, a look of sheer pride on her face. Never thought I’d see a dragon going to the guard to get help, but there’s a first time for everything. Irvine turned his gaze back to the Changer and saw the look on her face become one of pure hatred.
“This one is a Changer, from the Keyers.”
The guardsman nodded. “We have special cells for Mimics, but I’m sure a regular one will suffice for a Changer.”
“Don’t underestimate her.”
Once again, as if following some grand plan laid out by the words people spoke, the Changer leapt forward, toward Nynette. Irvine responded in less than a second, drawing his sword and bisecting the creature along the waist. Both pieces of her landed separately, the top half still struggling to move. She crawled toward Nynette, less than a foot away from her. Her motion was stopped when the guardsman impaled her head with his lance, driving it through her brain.
Behind Irvine, the Mimic spoke in the common tongue, “Well, this was a more eventful week than I signed on for.” Irvine glared at it, with no doubt a shocked expression on his face. “What?” the Mimic asked.
Irvine sat next to Nynette on the couch to her home. The guard captain picked his helmet up off the coffee table and held it under his arm. “The Mimic explained that it was simply hired for the job by the Changer, didn’t know why and didn’t care. It’s more than willing to do the time for public disturbance.” The captain started for the door. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s compliant criminals. Takes the fun out of the job.”
“Sorry for all of that, Captain.”
“No need to apologize Sir Endawa, everything was handled and no citizens were harmed.” The captain was about the leave the room when another guardsman walked in, carrying Tyrehl as if the Changer were a lost puppy. “Right, ma’am?” he addressed Nynette. “Is this your fox?”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry for any trouble he caused. He’s not used to new people.”
“No problem, ma’am, but there’s a leash law here.” The captain scratched at his neck. “And if it’s not too much trouble, please go see Old Man Domnall and get him checked for fleas.” Nynette laughed, and Irvine suppressed a chuckle but not his smile. The guard set Tyrehl down and the Changer jumped onto the couch and sat down between Nynette and Irvine. “I’m sorry this trouble followed you here from wherever you moved from. Your brother doesn’t sound like the nicest person.”
“He’s not, but thank you.”
“Glad to have you as part of the community, ma’am.” He nodded at Irvine. “Thank you for your assistance, Sir Endawa.”
The captain and his men left, and Irvine closed the door behind them. It only took a few minutes for Tyrehl to change into his Wolren form again. “I don’t have fleas.”
Irvine nodded. “Probably the good captain’s cat. I had to get a rabies shot the last time I was here.”
Nynette laughed. “So, what’s next for you?”
He shrugged. “There’s more dragons out there who need help. The more I can keep alive, hopefully the closer our species can get to one another when the peace finally comes.”
She stood from the couch. “You know it can’t just be solved with a magic wand, right? Adapting to being a human isn’t exactly easy, no matter how much I make it look like it is.”
“I’ve been told that by a few of you. Some adapt easier than others.”
“Like your daughter?”
“From what I’m told.”
She walked over to him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. “Maybe it’s time you actually met your daughter. A teenage dragon is often pretty emotional, and could use support from a nice dad like you.”
He smiled. “Sharena’s been after me to come home for months. I should know better than to argue with two women.”
“Good, now get your ass home and be a father to your kids. Just don’t forget to drop by and introduce them to their Aunt Nynette.”
“Aunt Nynette?”
“I plan on telling anyone who asks that I’m your cousin.”
“Wouldn’t that make you a cousin to them?”
“Cousin, aunt, either way.”
Irvine let out a sigh. “Yeah. You know how to get in touch with me, do it when you need to.”
She nodded, then pushed him out the door. He couldn’t help but laugh. Having an honorary sister - or cousin or whatever the hell they decided their relationship was - wasn’t so bad. If Kenny could do it with Riley, then he supposed he could with Nynette.
He reached into his pack and withdrew his writing tablet and pen. He wrote only a few lines, simply telling Sharena that he was on his way home after having something of a little adventure. He sealed it in the envelope she’d enchanted before he left, and then a few moments later he received a response.
The kids will be happy to hear that.
Irvine Endawa smiled and slipped the letter into the pocket on his pack where he kept the rest of Sharena’s letters. The road home had never felt so clear before in his life.
