Tales of Avalon: The Maid and the Falcon

✧ Chapter 13: Vicious ✧

Penny grimaced, sticking a ball of mashed-up plants into her mouth.  Their bitter juices coated her tongue, but she swallowed the herbs without complaint, only making a slight face afterward.

So far, her vision had improved dramatically, and she'd repaired most of the rest of the damage.  In addition, she'd managed to bring down most of the remaining dragons; at most, only one or two were left.

Still, the risk was doubled for these last dragons.  Penny considered herself extremely lucky that the blast hadn't roused the nest matriarch, but a pitched battle against a large dragon close to the nest could be the final straw that woke her, and Penny knew that she could not defeat a nest matriarch and multiple other dragons in her current condition.  The only solution was to attract the attention of one of the remaining dragons and lure it far from the nest.  In an ideal world, Penny would wait several more weeks to restore herself, but she no longer had the time.  The danger was too great.

A shriek rang out over the ethereal mountain peaks, and Penny froze.  That had been a dragon, not hunting or quarreling with another, but dying, and dying in anger.  Penny risked a small amount of magic to float up beside the trunk of a dying pine tree, using its cover to look toward the nest.  Her heart sank.

It looked as if there was only one large dragon left, and that was dying, stabbed through with a glimmering snow-white claw.  Only one claw.

Penny had held onto hope that the nest matriarch might be young and small, compared to other matriarchs of other nests, but those hopes were now dashed.  This dragon could not produce a shard the size of the Crista Magna throne room, but it could rival the nest matriarchs of some of the more famous dragon nests of the world.

The matriarch raised her head and a wild roar sounded, half animal, half speech.  Penny felt a chill down her spine; a sharded nest matriarch should not be able to make any sound that could be words.  Neither should a nest matriarch be able to kill the dragons of her nest, unless... unless she was not sharded.

Penny froze as the massive head turned toward her, and the nest matriarchs giant mouth cracked open slightly, sounds echoing in her head.

"Human."

Penny didn't reply, feeling insanity lurking at the edges of the word.  She couldn't afford to listen or dwell on the matriarch's words, whether or not they were impossible.

"Huuuuumannnn.  Biting, slashing, brutal, huuuumannn.  I smell you, human.  Come here and pay us your debt!"  Penny dropped to the ground and crouched, her hands pressed tightly over her ears.  There was no doubt now; shard-madness shrieked in the matriarch's words and battered at Penny's defenses, trying to drown her sanity.

"I owe you nothing." Penny whispered, trying to fight it back.

"You owe us blood.  Blood for blood until your kind shards over.  We hunger, human.  Pay your debt."

Penny's breath came in ragged gasps as the words ricocheted around her mind.  Blood for blood... blood for blood.  Blood for–  Penny bit down on her hand, and the sharp sting of pain cleared her mind slightly.

This can't go on.  She had to kill the matriarch, and she had to do it quickly.  If she went shard-mad, could someone save Avalon from her?  And if they could, how much would it cost Avalon's people?

Penny stood, with a deep, shuddering breath.  She bundled up a wad of herbs and tucked it into her cheek, hoping the bitterness would help her keep her focus.

"Right."  She took a moment, then replied.  "You are not yourself.  You already know this.  You are not yourself, and you are in great pain.  I will do what I can to help you."