To have a Dragon's Heart

Chapter 4 - The Sacrifice

                                                                  Jaskar

            The morning sun shone through the tent and its rays landed gently on Jaskar’s face, but it did not wake him up. They had been traveling for a week before finally finding Maria’s lair. Last night when the scouts had announced their discovery the camp was full of celebration. This caused Jaskar to stay awake to clean up after the others. It was well after midnight before he finally stumbled in bed.

            Faver barged into Jaskar’s tent and though a breastplate at him to wake him up. “Get up and put that on!” boomed Faver. Jaskar sat up and attempted to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He looked down at the breastplate, confused.

            He was even more confused when he saw the rest of the armor. He had been with Faver on many dangerous quests and not once had he been given so much as a rag to protect himself. He tried to tell himself that he had never seen anything as dangerous as a dragon, but a sinking feeling formed in his stomach. When he was given a rusty, bent sword he questioned Faver about it.

            Faver laughed gleefully. “We need bait, boy!” he boomed. He laughed harder as the color drained from Jaskar’s face. “You’ll stand in front of its cave and challenge it to fight. When it comes out I’ll kill it. If you’re lucky you might even survive,” Faver told him. Then he added forcefully, “Don’t even think about using that sword on me. I’ll be worse than the dragon!”

            Jaskar didn’t use the sword. Faver was right, he would be worse than a dragon. Besides, Jaskar told himself, Malia was once a human. Perhaps she’ll show mercy and kill me swiftly. My life isn’t any good anyways. If she doesn’t finish me off, I’ll wind up beaten to death by Faver. With that thought, Jaskar headed up to Malia’s cave, soon to be the tomb for them both.

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                                                             Malia

            I was awakened by a shout, “Hello?!” Is anyone there?! I would like to challenge you!” Why did they all insist on fighting in the earliest part of the morning? “Can’t they just leave me alone?” I mumbled as I headed towards the front of the cave. I stopped in my tracks. Oh, for Heskar’s sake! Before me stood not a man, but a boy! I took a quick look to take it all in; his flimsy armor was defiantly not tantamount to others, he was trembling in fear, his sword was rigged.

            I took a few deep breaths and located a group of men hiding behind some rocks right above my cave. That makes this bait. I decided to act like a troublesome fish; I wouldn’t take the bait, but I would mess with it to annoy the fisherman.

            “Hello! Come out please! I would like to fight!” the boy said. I should have known a man when he used manners. I gave a loud sigh, “They all want me to come outside. Why don’t you come inside!” The boy grasped for an answer, “Uh…uh… There’s not enough room!” he finally stuttered. “But it’s warmer!” I called, “Though I wouldn’t like to ruin the furniture. The couch isn’t my size, but it looks pretty!” By my scales, this is fun!

            Again the boy was stunned. As he searched franticly for a reply, I noticed something. His hair was the same color as my uncles, his olive eyes looked just like Sonyin’s, and his face held some of the same features of them both. Interesting… It might be time to end this no matter how much fun I was having. “I don’t think we should fight,” I announced, “In fact, I think you would prefer to watch a fight.” With that I shot out of the cave and flamed the hidden men.

            “Hot! Hot!” one man started yelling. Why was he complaining? I had it on low heat. As the men ran out I saw that one held the Seqan flag. I guess this was Sovijaka’s way of saying she didn’t want to be friends. I already got the message.

            On the command of a knight in black armor, the men went at me with their weapons. The black knight screamed, “Save the kill for me!” There was a time when I would have taken those words personal, but so many overzealous men wearing the equivalent of tin cans have said that to me that it doesn’t affect me. All the men were able to do was give me a few paper cuts before I ravaged them.

             I sent a few crying back to their camp. Some left screaming, “It’s gonna eat me!” I should mention that warriors a very manly. I knocked the rest down the rocky slope where they received nothing more than scratches and minor concussions. Okay so I’m under exaggerating a bit, but it isn’t my fault humans are fragile.

            The real problem was the knight clad in black armor, who I figured was Sovijaka’s top knight Faver. To sum it up I took a few blows, gave a few blows, and threw him down the slope when he started playing dirty. When he realized everyone had retreated, he got up and left with a heavy limp. I’m sure it was just a scratch.

            I settled down to clean my wounds and caught sight of the boy. He had already taken off his armor and was being yelled at by Faver. So he looked like my aunt and uncle and was a servant for the Seqan’s, who were a little too eager to sacrifice him to me. Hmmm…

           I saw Faver strike him on the face and anger began to boil under my scales. I flew towards them and snatched up the boy before Faver could hit him again. I turned and saw Faver with his hand still raised for another blow and his jaw hanging open in shock. “I never said you could have the boy!” I called. The boy fainted in my grasp as I headed back to my cave. I guess you could call it kidnapping, but hey, they’re the ones who sacrificed him.