Blood and Dragons

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords

Corlys looked at the pot with a mixture of concern and hope. It had never been tested as to whether wildfire would hurt a dragon; they were creatures of fire made flesh, in his heart he knew that it could work but he'd need to somehow get the pot in the creature's mouth. The Doom proved that even dragons can burn, but Corlys did not have the power of a fire mountain to call to his command, just this small pot of green liquid —old enough that a single spark would ignite it.

Corlys never imagined he'd find himself in a situation where he'd be trying to entice a dragon to eat him. That was the problem he found himself trying to figure out; nothing was stopping the Dragon from releasing a gout of fire and incinerating him, he would somehow have to entice the dragon to land or at the very least shoot it out of the sky. Corlys found himself laughing to himself "Even after a life full of adventure I never expected the last act of my life would be fighting an ancient dragon in the land of my ancestors."

After securing the wildfire to a pouch on his belt he moved carefully across the ship to the bow where a small ballista was located. It wouldn't take much to remove it from the ship, but he would need to take both if his plan was going to work. With his wife being a dragon rider he was familiar with the beasts and knew that while its scales were stronger than steel the membrane of its wing was vulnerable, and a crash from a great height could damage the wings beyond repair.

The problem with Corlys plan is that the dragon in question was of gargantuan proportions. The dragon was by far the largest he'd ever seen, perhaps twice the size of Balerion just before he died; he didn't think he would be able to cause enough damage to the membrane to be able to ground the dragon. "I have to do something, Vermax would be a useful companion to have right now," he said to himself as he packed the Ballistas in the rowing boat. After gathering a few more supplies Corlys jumped back into the boat and started rowing to shore thankful that he hadn't been discovered by the dragon yet.

*ROAR*

Corlys felt fear rise inside him as he heard the sound of what could only be a dragon. He started rowing faster to the shore, but his body was not what it used to be and his muscle ached as he rowed to shore and pulled the boat onto the dark sand. Corlys looked up as he felt the beat of wings blowing wind down on him; his fear was alleviated when instead of the massive abomination he expected to see it was the much smaller Vermax that landed on the sand. He saw Jace almost fall off his dragon as he ran towards him "Grandfather!" He shouted as he tripped on the sand. His body still hadn't recovered from behind unconscious for so long, so much strenuous activity was exhausting.

"Jace!" Corlys said as the first positive feelings he'd felt in a while started to surface. He rushed towards his grandson and helped him stand up "Are you well boy?" He said as he let him lean on him, though it seemed that Jace wasn't listening as he looked up at his Grandfather in a panic.

"Grandfather you can't go through with this stupid plan, I won't let you kill yourself, it's my fault you're here in the first place," Jace said desperately as he tried to stop his grandfather from sacrificing himself.

"Jace calm yourself!" Corlys said sternly trying to snap him out of his panic.

Jace breathed heavily but his grandfather's stern words managed to snap him out of his panic. "Jace I'm going to speak and you are going to listen," He said sternly as he looked at his grandson.

"You will go back and get Daella, you will wait for me to distract the dragon and you will leave this place and never return," Corlys said in an authoritative tone.

Corlys could see Jace's objection written all over his face, but before he could speak he grabbed him roughly by the face "Listen to me, boy! Think of everyone that is waiting for you back home, if you stay here you will die and you will never see any of them again, Helaena, Rhaenyra, Daemon, Laena. You will also be condemning Daella to death, so you will listen to me boy and you will leave this place once I have the Dragon's attention," Corlys commanded.