I Am Dragonblood: The Grim Beast (Book Four)

Chapter Three - Memories

Hidden in a thicket of thorn bushes he crouched, a dull-grey knife gripped in his hand and a crossbow slung over his shoulder. Through the branches he could see midnight blue scales that merged with the night, the small pinpricks of light on them tiny reflections of the crescent moon.
    Grimmel took a breath. He'd never killed a dragon before, and in some ways, he did not want to. But orders were orders, even if he was just a boy carrying out his mother's commands, and he would have to take this dragon who'd rebelled against Cendane down.
    He crept out of his hiding place and cautiously approached the sleeping Night Fury, the knife handle slippery from sweat. The dragon was curled under a tree, its tail fins over its snout and wings close to its body. With a shaking hand Grimmel raised the blade, the tip aimed down for a fatal strike. With as much force as he could he thrust the dagger down, the edge of the sharpened metal slicing through scales and air and into ground. Grimmel looked up from where the knife was buried up to its hilt in the earth and saw the dragon had raised its head, a deep cut below its left eye showing where the blade had caught.
    He gulped and backed away from the uncoiling Night Fury, leaving the dagger in the ground. As the dragon padded towards him he grabbed the crossbow and fumbled an arrow from his pocket, nearly dropping it when the Fury began growling.
    His back hit a tree and he looked into the dragon's blue eyes, watching its white edged ears flatten threateningly. With his hands trembling like a pebble on a drum he took shaky aim. The Night Fury snarled, the edges of its teeth red from where the blood from the cut had leaked into its mouth. It lowered to the ground and readied to pounce, wings spreading slightly as it launched itself forwards. In a panic Grimmel pulled the trigger, not knowing where he was aiming. A howl pierced his hearing and the Fury flapped aside, trailing red drops of blood, and crashed down a bank to the river far below. He heard the splash as the scaled body hit the liquid, and the groan of pain that came after tore at his slowly hardening heart. He looked at the weapon in his hands then peered over the bank to the snaking stream, hardly believing his eyes when he saw the dark blue body lying motionless on the rocks.
    He sat back on his heels and gave a heavy sigh. I've killed a dragon, he thought. And a Night Fury at that. He ran a pale hand through his equally pale hair. He had succeeded with his task, his mother would be proud.
    Grimmel retrieved the knife and a scale that had fallen and headed through the trees towards his home, not hearing the groans of the Fury as it hauled itself to the riverbank and began to painstakingly lick its wounds.