Dragon Scales

Chapter 3

Aresa had already cooked lunch, but Sinnek did not come. She started worrying. He just probably forgot, Aresa reasoned. “I'll have to bring him his food again.” Aresa sighed.

Aresa took the food and walked into the forest. She remembered where the little clearing was, but when she came there, Sinnek was not there.

Suddenly an arrow flew past her head. She ducked and tried to get cover as a second arrow nearly hit her. Someone was trying to kill her! But who, and why? More arrows flew past her and she fell to the ground, keeping low. After a while the
arrows stopped. Whoever was shooting at her saw that he couldn’t hit her. But maybe he just waited for her to show herself and then he would shoot her. So she did not stand up.

She waited.

A cloaked figure came out of the forest and came towards her.
She did not dare to move. It was obviously a man, but she could not see his face. He pulled out a dagger.

She watched in horror as he came nearer and lifted his dagger to kill her.

Aresa did not want to die. She rolled to the side as the dagger came down. The dagger missed her by a hair. Aresa grabbed the man's leg trying to pull his leg under him out. The man
kicked at her but she did not let go. He swayed and then fell almost on top of her. She grabbed the dagger and then jumped up holding the dagger in front of her. The man had already jumped up and had pulled out his sword.

Dread filled Aresa as she saw the sword. Her chances of winning were
low.

Just then an arrow flew and found it's mark. The man fell down, blood streaming from the wound in his chest. Dion came out of the forest with Thon and Sinnek behind him.
“Aresa, are you all right? What happened? Why did the man try to kill you?” Dion yelled running toward her.

Thon was just behind him, and when he reached the groaning man, he kicked him hard on the head. The man's head sagged to the ground. “I don't know, but Grandfather, I have to tell you something. I heard in the inn that the king wants to make a deal with the dragons on the Festival of Youth.”

“A deal with the dragons? That can't be true! Aresa, are you sure?” Sinnek's face was pale.

“Yes, one of the drunken soldiers told a farmer.”

“The king has to be stopped. He must not make a deal with the dragons!” Sinnek exclaimed.

“Grandfather, how could we prevent the king from making a deal with the dragons?” Thon wondered.

“We can't, but somebody else can. Aresa, Dion, Thon, our only chance is to get the help from the Dragon Hunters. You will have to find them so that they can stop the king.”

“But why would they listen to us? To them we could be enemies who were trying to trap them,” Thon said thinking ahead. “Wait here, I want to get something for you, so the Dragon Hunters will listen to you. I will also bring some provisions, so that you can journey to the forest Jua-agar
where the Dragon Hunters are,” Sinnek exclaimed.

Then Sinnek ran of, and Thon, Dion and Aresa waited for him in the
clearing.

The man on the ground groaned. Thon walked to the man and
lifted the hood from the man's face. Aresa saw that it was the soldier who had followed her. “Aresa, do you recognise this man's face?” Thon asked.

“Yes. Today I heard someone follow me through the forest, and then I waited in the village to see who it was. It was clearly a soldier.”

“Why would a soldier want to kill you? What did you do?” Dion
asked confused.

“It just came into my mind, maybe someone saw me hearing the soldier talk about the meeting with the dragons. They probably don't want me to tell anyone about that.”

“Yes, but surly they would not kill you for that,” Thon muttered.

He could not believe that the soldiers would kill his cousin just because she heard something they did not want anybody to hear. He had always thought the soldiers to be good, until
grandfather had told him what had happened to his parents. But still he had not thought them necessarily evil. He had thought that it was the kings orders and that the soldiers only
listened because they had to. He had thought that it was the king who was behind all the evil. Now it seamed the soldiers were evil, too.

Sinnek ran through the forest. He came to the village. Some people looked curiously at him but he ignored them. He came to his house. A soldier was standing in front of the house, and Sinnek saw that the door stood open. Angrily Sinnek asked
the soldier, “What are you doing by my house? Why is the door open?”

“The commander Werlek talks with everybody, so that he can have information about the dragon attacks. You and your grandchildren were not here, so the commander waited for
you to come back. He awaits you in the house.” The soldier pointed at Sinnek's house.

Sinnek walked slowly into his
house. The grim commander was sitting in the best chair by the
fireplace. He looked up as Sinnek walked in with his bag of fresh herbs, and spoke in a friendly voice, “So you are Sinnek. I have heard you know much about dragons. Is that true?”

Sinnek decided that he was going to tell the truth. It would not help to lie. The commander would sooner or later find out that Sinnek knew much about dragons. But he was not going to tell everything he knew. So Sinnek said, “Yes, I know many stories, but I doubt they are true. If it will help you to defeat the dragons, I will gladly tell you all the stories I know.”

Sinnek said this because he wanted the commander to believe that Aresa had told nobody about the king's meeting with the dragons.

The commander replied politely, “I would very much like to hear those stories.” Sinnek started to tell the
commander about many stories he had heard his grandfather and father tell him. But Sinnek watched out that he said very little about the Dragon Hunters.

After a while the commandant got bored with the stories and said, “I will go now. I have to ask many more people.” Werlek stood up and left hurriedly.

Sinnek waited a while, then he went to the fireplace and lifted a bucked with herbs. Underneath it was a little carved out space where a little package was hidden. Sinnek picked it up and put it in a little bag. Then he took dried meat and other provisions. When he had packed everything in a bag, he took his father's weapons and put that in a bag, too. With all the stuff he went out of the house and walked off the road so that nobody could see him.

When he came into the forest, he started to run. How long had
he been gone? The sun was sinking lower. He hoped Aresa and the others were still in the clearing. He came by the clearing and found everything silent. There was no sign of Aresa, Dion or Thon.

Just then Dion's voice came from the
forest and called, “Grandfather we’re here. We heard some soldiers a while ago, and decided it would be best to hide.”

“Here are some provisions, and here is the proof that will show the Dragon Hunters you are not their enemies. Make haste, I fear that the soldiers are suspicious. Go to the big river Ror. It starts from the forest Jua-agar and if you follow it upstream, you will get to the forest. When you come to the
forest, follow the river, till you see the two mountains Dragoor and Vedor. Then you must journey towards them. The Dragon Hunters should catch you, when you come near them. You will
then give this little bag to them. They will help you and you must tell them what the king has in mind. Oh, and remember dragons scales are weaker under their wings, between their shoulder blades and at their chins, if you should ever fight one. Farewell, and come back as soon as  you can.” Sinnek's face was sad. “Till the sun rises over us again.” He quickly greeted. (“Till the sun rises over us again” means, till things get better, till they see each other again.)