Of Men and Dragons: The last Knight

~Chapter 9~

Once they were far enough away from the battle it was quiet. But not quiet in a good way. William has long since gone silent and was no longer squirming. If it was not for the occasional sniff he heard Cyrvanyx could have thought that he fell as sleep. Although most of the sounds coming from him were drowned by the sound of the wind as he flew through the night alongside Arylaryl.

He did not know for how long they had been flying, but what he knew was that they would not be able to make it to their clan in one night. Cyrvanyx was about twice as fast as a galloping horse, but he could not keep that speed up for long. He knew that Ary was faster than him, but they both preferred to stay together for the time being, it was safer that way.

They had to rest soon. They did not have any opportunity to sleep and after the battle they had just taken part in sleep was more than welcome. Cyr already felt how his eyes got heavier by the minute and his wings began to tire out.

"Ary!" He called out to her, breathing heavily. "We have to find a place to rest!"

"No!" She snapped back at him. "If we don't get Gareth any help he might die and I won't allow that to happen!"

"We will never make it to the clan in one night! Why do you even think that they will be able to help him?"

"The clan won't!" The twisted her neck to look him right into his eyes. "But the humans will!"

Oh, right, he almost forgot about them. There was a small group of humans who lived a simple live in the mountains alongside the dragons, far away from politics and wars, just like the dragon clan. He did not know a lot about them, all he knew that as far as he could remember they had always been there. The humans who lived within the borders of Albia called them "highlanders", probably because they lived in the mountains, but Cyrvanyx never bothered asking.

"You won't be able to save him if you kill yourself!" She looked away and focused on the way ahead instead. Why won't she listen? "Ary, please, we need to find a place to rest. We will find a way to keep him alive for the night, but we need rest as well."

There was silence between them for a few moments, and Cyrvanyx glared at her all the while. He could see in her eyes that she was beginning to realize that he was right.

"Fine..." That was all she had to say.

He just sighed and decided to not press her any further and just look for a suitable place to stay overnight. Luckily dragons had good night vision compared to humans, so it was easier to make out the landscape underneath him, but he still had to focus to see clearly. Not after long he spotted the outline of a cave at the foot of a small mountain, almost small enough to count as a hill.

It was not much, but it would be enough for the night. "Ary, follow me! I found something!" He called out to her as he did a little dive to lose some height. Then he stopped flapping his wings and let the wind carry him the rest of the way. When he was about to land he bet his wings against the wind to lose his speed, blowing up some leaves from the forest ground.

He was very careful when he landed, trying to land mostly on his hind legs. The landing was surprisingly smooth, if one considered that he landed on his hind legs and merely used one of his fore paws as support as he did a few awkward steps forwards. He set William down on the ground just as he saw Arylaryl land behind him, almost as smoothly as him.

Cyrvanyx watched as she put Gareth limp body down on the ground. She stared at Gareth, waiting for him to open his eyes or show in some other way that he was not dead yet. Just seeing Arylaryl sad made him sad as well, or rather even more so since he did not cope with Henry's death himself. It would take some time for him to get over that.