The Dragon Blood Guardian *COMPLETED*

The Farmer and the Soldier

"Which of the gods possessed you to spook my cattle?"

I wiped the dirt from my face and eased my aching body onto the slope of the ditch as a very shrill and very angry woman parted the tall grass as she loomed over me from the edge of the trench.

"I...I beg your pardon?" The words crackled with stress and a dry grittiness caused by some dirt that managed to fall on my tongue and coat my throat. A few hacking coughs cleared it away, but when I looked up at the woman, silhouetted against the harsh afternoon sun, I found no sympathy.

"My cattle. You got them in a fury and now a quarter of my barley is smashed into the dirt."

"Barley?" I mumbled, raising a hand to my brow to shade my eyes as I assessed the bent stalks of gold bordering what I had suddenly realized was an irrigation ditch.

"Yes, barley," she groaned. "Barley that we should have been harvesting in a couple weeks, but now we've lost a quarter of my crop! Not to mention, all my farm hands are out there rounding up my vacombes instead of weeding what good barley I have left."

"Vacombes?" I asked, my mouth gaping as my heart slowed and my blood no longer pounded inside my ears, drowning out my thoughts. "Those things are vacombes?"

"Of course," she said, her voice dropping slightly and the curl of her lip softening as she took a slight step back. "You've never seen a vacombe?"

"We've only ever had them in the form of steaks or a hock on a spit."

"You've had vacombe?" Her sneer returned as her eyes glided over me. With my hair disheveled beneath a wrap made from the hem of a skirt that was now far too short for decent company and with what little remained of my clothes stained with mud, sand, and whatever muck I rolled in when I tumbled into the ditch, I'm sure I presented her with quite a sight. Had I been her, I would have agreed with her observation. I certainly didn't look rich enough to have eaten vacombe before. Even if she had seen me clean and pristine off the train to Delgrad, I still wouldn't have looked like I had vacombe. The beast was an exotic animal, one that was very particular about what climate it was raised in. It was a pricey meal that often was saved for grand occasions, even at the palace.

"Where am I?" I asked, ignoring her cynicism as I pulled myself up to my feet and lifted my wary body out of the trench. "Vacombes are not native to Drackenridge..."

"Drackenridge," scoffed the woman. "We are the free peoples of Nikenji."

"Nikenji!" I growled as I looked over the fields and saw a farmhouse set against the backdrop of a bustling village. "He didn't just lie to me about this place being deserted, it's not even an island!"

"What are you talking about? Of course we aren't an island." She stamped her booted foot, her long, black locks bouncing with indignation. "Maybe to you Ridgers we are but an island, however..."

"That oasis," I said, pointing back towards the sand dunes. "Is that not frequented by merchants stopping for a break during their long travels."

"Oasis?" she asked, a single eyebrow rising while a sneer of confusion twisted her sun harden face. "Why would merchants stop there when Port Zinya is just a half days journey from here by boat?" Once again her clear blue eyes scanned over me, but with each pass, her scrutiny was replaced with pity. I wasn't sure which I preferred. "That watering hole is on my land. We walk out the vacombes every few days to make sure they are drinking their water and to harvest the coconuts. Otherwise, I allow some dragon riders to use it as a pit stop for a nominal fee..."

"That fiend!" I roared before stomping off towards the farm house.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded the farmer, who chased after me with a quick step. "I don't care what you've been through, you're responsible for the destruction of my crop and if any of my cattle was hurt..."

"Get me to a telegraph office and I'll see to it that you are reimbursed for the damages."

"I don't think you grasp the extent of what you've done here," hissed the woman, who lunged through the brush, sidestepping in front of me to stop my march. She may have been a fairly short woman, but hard labor sculpted her body and her cold eyes had not seen a worthy threat in years. "Perhaps in Drackenridge, with your meek cows and lazy pigs, you can just throw a few coins at a farmer and leave him happy, but I raise quality meat here and I feed it the finest barley so that their meat is a flavor worthy of royalty." She took a step forward, her lips twisting with a smug smirk. "I'm not one of your backwoods farmers. It's going to take more than a governess like you is worth."

"Not a governess," I said with a roll of my eyes. "I was supposed to be a schoolteacher." I stepped around her and continued on towards the farmhouse. "Now if you would like to get your damn gold, would you hurry up and tell me where the telegraph office is."

"I should chain you to a post and have you serve out your debt in labor," she hissed.

"I'd like to see you try," I sighed, though my aching body would have preferred she didn't. "It's easier on all of us though if you just took me to the office so I can get in contact with my employer. The sooner I get the money to you, the sooner I can catch the next boat to the cape."

"You think some mayor or pastor will just bail out a schoolteacher. We're talking several pounds of gold here."

"Okay, I'm done with this undercover nonsense." My feet came to a halt and I spun around to find the farmer, hot on my heels, nearly crashing into me after my sudden stop. "My employer is King Staven Azaria Olivier of Drackenridge. He could buy this little farm without making a dent in the castle treasury if he wanted to. Now, your insistence on showing me as little sympathy as possible is hindering my ability to get to Port Zinya where my and the princess's kidnappers are very likely trying to fence some expensive jewels. Keep this up and it won't be the farm you are worrying your head about, it will be whether or not the king has you hunted down for impeding in the rescue of his daughter, who may be killed because of this delay caused by your self-serving attitude." I took a deep breath and continued on with a forced smile. "Now I told you I will get you your money, so why don't you quit your pathetic attempt to assert your dominance and just show me where the damn telegraph office is."

"Yes, ma'am," shesaid with a violent curl of her lip. Still, she pushed forward and led me onward. At the end of the day that's all I wanted.

***

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