Valor's Impasse

The Dragon

Hunger.

As she flew around the mountains, one thing was on her mind. The smell of a small settlement filled her nostrils, intoxicating her. It drove her desire to become more of a need. Humans.

A little voice in her screamed at her to stop, to take something more moral, like a sheep. But none where insight and soon the dragon, the hunger, took full control, deadset on a filling meal. She glided towards the village. The dark cover of night dampened the brightness of her glittery ember scales. They didn't see her coming.

A familiar warmth filled her underbelly, as comforting as it was deadly. The hunger coaxed it, bringing it to life within her. The humans had constructed a guard tower to watch for any dragon attacks. Tiny and ineffective. Just as the guards finally saw her coming, the warmth in her belly grew to a molten hot. It begged to be released. And so it was. Fire streamed from her lips, setting the tower aflame within seconds. She swooped down to pick off the guards that had tried to escape. The hunger blinding her to their secret weapon.

The tower was a diversion. The real defense lay in wait in a trench surrounding the village under false shrubbery. They had spent the entire day digging the trench, for they knew the only way to kill the beast once and for all was to attack from below. Specifically its underbelly. As the dragon soared above the trench only metres away from the scared dummy guards, they striked. A volley of arrows and spears were launched from the trench. Most of them missed their mark, but three. Two arrows bounced off harmlessly. The last artillery, the spear launched by a giant crossbow pierced the dragon. Causing her to scream in agony, falling back. Fire exploded from her mouth all around her. Scorching the soldiers.

Before the remaining soldiers could retaliate she pulled up and retreated, wobbling. Enormous drops of blood dripped into the earth below her, causing the plants to boil. The soldiers tried to chase her, but she was able to fly high enough into the surrounding mountains where they could not reach her.

She collapsed next to a valley and slowly began to transform. Within a minute she was a small redheaded girl in a torn green dress.

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The sun rose to the east. The reddish-orange orb illuminating the grass in the valley. Valandi had awoken earlier to feed the horse and get dressed. In fact, Valandi hardly slept the night before. As soon as she closed her eyes images of that night flashed behind her eyelids and she wasn't a fan of the nightmares that followed. So instead she busied herself. Now she was gathering their breakfast and figured the princess had rested enough. Valandi was still uneasy about her. Despite her knowing her secret and far more about her than she would like, Valandi still dressed in her usual Black Knight attire. She wore the light armour that only covered critical areas liker her chest and was darkened giving her her signature name. She even wore the band that flattened her chest, despite it being terribly uncomfortable. Christan hadn't confirmed that she wouldn't tell her secret and that troubled her. She would make sure to talk to her today about it. Though, the thought of bringing up anything that happened the day before caused her discomfort. Still, they were only a couple of days away from the kingdom (their progress being made slower due to having only one horse). And she wanted to make sure she had everything sorted out before she arrived.

And another thing was troubling her. She had thought she heard something that night. A monstrous scream. It was far away but it reminded her of the attack on her family... She shook her head. If it was the dragon that was supposed to be guarding the princess then she would kill it like she had planned. She's done it before and can do it again, even if this was a much bigger dragon.