"Dragon of Valor" by Jared Falvo
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In the land where I come from, called Kara, a man who commits a crime is punished for the deed appropriately. And Keran life is held above all else. You kill. You are killed. Swift and immediate justice is the way our system works. As a member of the Lawful Council, I knew the rules and followed them to the letter. But we are all prone to a mistake or two. And my single mistake was grievious, indeed. In chasing down a wanted felon, I became a bit too zealous in my attempt at taking him down and accidentally killed him. Though no one saw me, my sense of honor and value of life would not let me escape the justice that I must be dealt. I turned myself in. I was commended for upholding our way of life, even though it would mean the end of mine. The record of my years of faithful service was reviewed and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I would be missed, but the law must be upheld... and it was.
But death isn't via an electric chair or gas chamber or lethal injection, or any number of other methods you may know in your own kind's history. No. The way a person is "taken from us", as they call it, is found down the dimly lit passage of a cave. A dragon's lair, to be exact. And it was my turn to walk that final path.
The rock that had been rolled aside to allow me in was quickly pushed back and the shaft of light quickly dimmed to a faint glow. I had heard stories of the terrified screams and agonizing deaths people faced in this place. I only hoped I could face my executioner bravely and meet death with dignity. I also hoped it wouldn't hurt too much to be chewed up... maybe he'd simply break my neck quickly and chew me up afterwards.
As I walked cautiously down the passage, I heard distant rumblings, intermixed with other ambient sounds. Suddenly, I was clasped about my neck and shoulders by a very large, powerful hand. I winced my eyes closed and gasped. This was it. My end had come.
"Do not be afraid, Daniel. You are not guilty and your death will not be painful... nor immediate."
The voice was deep and powerful, but almost too gentle to be masculine. I opened my eyes and could just make out the large claws draped across my shoulders.
"Your people call me Feren, Swift Darkness, but my true name is Elenthis. That is what you may call me. Come. Let us travel in kind direction."
And so we walked together down the dim passage.
We entered into a large room at the end of the passage. It was well illuminated, unlike the passage. I looked around, but dared not look at my executioner. Unfortunately, that choice was not mine to make, it seemed, as Elenthis turned me around with one large claw.
"We should at least meet face to face before I must follow through with my task."
As I laid eyes upon this creature, I was awe-struck. It was neithier ugly nor monstrous. In fact, I couldn't help but wonder if Elenthis was... female.
"Yes, I am." she replied, sensing my thoughts. "And a great deal have ye to know about me and my appointed purpose than that which you've been told."
"Then what I have been told was only a part?"
"Indeed. I was born to fulfill the purpose for which I dutifully continue, but I do not relish the task. Those that are guilty are dreadfully bitter-sour to my palate. Thankfully, I am able to gulp them down quickly. Their souls I spit out, making their flesh taste at least tolerable. I take each soul I've spit out and stick it into a crevice of the walls in my lair, where it struggles in vain to escape, creating the illumination you see."
"Isn't that rather cruel?"
"It might be, but they can't leave my lair anyways. No one who enters my lair shall ever leave. The evil in them has made their souls too heavy to fly and they struggle helplessly on the ground. I simply make use of them."
"What of me and my soul, Elenthis?"
"The innocent ones, like you, misjudged by your people, are a completely different and enjoyably savored experience."
"But I have killed... am I still innocent?"
"Your crime was by mistake, not intent. That doesn't seem to matter to your people, but it makes all the difference to me."
"How so?"
"Innocent flesh and souls are free of the bitter-sour taste that evil taints them with. Their flesh is like a rare Terrenath, freshly taken from the oven and their souls are like the au jus from it."
I had savored a Terrenath meal myself a few times and remembered the enjoyable experience. It made my mouth water just thinking about it. But, knowing my fate, I had to ask. "When will it be my time?"
She looked at me and replied "When you are ready..."
I was shocked. When I was ready? But I'd never be ready to die! Well, I was, but... now that I had a choice in the matter, my resolve to live renewed itself.
"In that case, you may have to wait a long time, Elenthis."
She chuckled. "Not as long as you think. You see, eventually, you'll want me to take you."
I laughed at the notion. "Why would I want that?"
"Some mysteries are meant to remain mysteries." she answered.
However, the fact that there was no way out of her lair posed one significant problem. Food and water. I couldn't live without them for more than a couple days, no matter how much my resolve to live was.
"I see..." I said, thinking I knew the reason.
"No, you do not." she said to me. You will want me to take you when you have no logical reason to. You will not be starving, nor dying of thirst. You will, in fact, be as happy and and content as you can be, when you make your decision. And, at that time, it will be your time for me to take you."
"Planning on fattening me up for the kill, then, eh?" I said, suspecting a hidden motive.
"If you wish to be fattened up, that is your decision, but not one I have any desire for."
I was utterly baffled. She seemed to have nothing but the best intentions for me, with exception to killing and eating me at some future time, of course.
"But why kill me, then?" I asked, somehow thinking maybe a friendship could be arranged.
"I do not relish the task of devouring anyone, but it is my purpose for which I must follow through on. Our fates are sealed. You must die and I must kill you. But, as I said, it will be painless, so you needn't worry about any suffering."
"Some future I have..." I grumbled.
She leaned closer to me. "You will go on..." I was a bit puzzled by this comment. She simply smiled at me and motioned me to her alcove.
In the days that followed, she brought me the best foods and drink I could ever desire. The temperature of her lair was perfect. Everything was great. Even our conversations were enjoyable. I was quickly beginning to genuinely like her. In the back of my mind, I knew she would be my death, but eventually I stopped worrying about it. If I was going to want her to take me and it was going to be painless, what had I to fear? And then came an even greater surprise.
One morning, as I woke, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I found myself looking at a large opening in the lair. It lead straight outside! I quickly looked around. She wasn't in sight. So I cautiously stepped outside. I had become accustomed to the darker interior of her lair and the brightness outside was a bit difficult to handle. But my eyes adjusted and a sense of impending freedom I thought I would never have again came to me.
"I hope you like it." I heard her say.
I winced. It was, indeed, too good to be true. I turned to face her.
"You must really delight in tormenting me." I said sarcastically.
"Not at all. I did this to give you some sense of freedom. My lair, as large as it is, can be a bit confining, even to me. We're in the back lot of my territory. You are free to roam as far as you like and stay out here as long as you like."
"You mean, you won't keep me from running?"
"Not at all, you're welcome to run as far and fast as you can."
I couldn't believe it. Was she letting me free? I had to find out. "See ya!" I called out to her as I headed in no particular direction, but definately away from the lair. I was a good couple hours from the lair, by my watch, and I had almost reached the crest of the mountainside. But my elation turned sour as I passed a few last trees. For, before me, was an inpenetrable wall of vines and thorny brush. And, from my vantage point, I could see the entire terrain was walled similarly all the way around. I fumed. The appearance of freedom without the reality of it.
"I wouldn't look at it that way." she said, as she peeked her head through the trees.
"And how would you look at it, Bringer of Death?"
She looked hurt by my remark, but I didn't care. I was mad.
"Freedom is not always what one finds outside of walls, but oftentimes what one finds within themselves and the beauty of nature itself."
"That's all fine and dandy for you to say, you're not the one who's about to be executed."
"This is true, but I am imprisoned no less than you are."
"What?" I gasped.
Elenthis was trapped within these walls as I was?
"You see, when I was created for the purpose for which I serve, I was given this piece of territory, with the condition that I could never leave the boundaries of this territory. So, you see, we are trapped together. And, I believe, it is in our best interest that we should make the best of it."
I had to agree. Given our individual positions in this situation, we were still both prisoners of the same system. A prisoner that is assigned to lawfully execute other prisoners is no less a prisoner themselves.
But then she directed my gaze upward. "However, there is one direction they never accounted for."
"How does that help me? I can't fly."
"But I can." she said, lowering herself to the ground.
I'd never been airborne before, and certainly never ridden a dragon.
"Is it safe?"
"Upon the ground, you are mine. In the air, I am yours. In either case, I will never let any harm befall you."
Although I didn't quite understand exactly what she meant, I trusted her and climbed upon her shoulders, straddling her neck.
"Lay down and grab hold of the boney ruts beneath my scales." As I searched for the 'ruts' she spoke of, my hands and arms slipped under a couple scale plates. I started to try and pull back, but my arms were held fast, her skin having sealed tightly around them.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Making sure you don't fall off, my Rider. Go ahead... try controlling me."
Pulling on one rut made her turn her head left and the other, right. Pulling them both made her lift her head and pushing against them made her lower her head. After a few moments of this, she protested cheerfully.
"You can stop messing with my head now. We haven't even left the ground yet!"
I chuckled. Her powerful wings lifted us both into the air with ease, as the landscape below unfolded.
"To make me accelerate, just kick me in the sides a little. To make me slow down, squeeze with your legs."
"Why don't I just tell you what I want instead of these primitive motions?"
"As a ridden dragon, these are the ways we've been controlled in flight since our creation."
"You mean there are more of you?"
"Elsewhere and elsetimes that I can not recall, but they are there."
"Can we go try to find them?"
"Unfortunately, I have others I must attend to regularly."
I knew what she meant. Others that were guilty and needed executing.
"How many innocents have you come across?"
"Quite a few, but they are rare between the mass of truly guilty ones. Your kind's system has worked quite well. Very few ever break the law to the degree that is punishable by death, except those that aren't innocent."
Our flight together was something I can't put into words. Riding a dragon must simply be experienced to be understood to the fullest. But, at some point in the course of our flight, as she moved beneath me to my every whim, something happened between us. A bond that transcended every fear or doubt I ever had about her. No longer did I want to escape my fate. If anything, I now looked forward to what new adventures would be ours in the days that followed.
As we landed, she sniffed the air and quickly motioned me to dismount.
"Another awaits me..." she said with a indignant snarl as she quickly hastened into her lair.
I had barely gotten inside as I saw a shadowy cast of the scene before me and heard the terrified screams of a man who well deserved his fate. His scream was quickly silenced as she snatched him up in her jaws and swallowed. A growl of disgust and then the sound of something being spat out. And, and I peered cautiously around the corner, there on the ground, lay a glittering mass, struggling in vain, to escape. Paying little attention to my presence, she hefted the mass into her paw and quickly jammed it into a nearby crevice. Sparks of collision showered around momentarily and then the spot glowed like the numerous others in the lair. She looked at me with an almost angry glare.
"This was something you were not meant to see." she said.
I averted my eyes. "I didn't realize this was such a personal experience."
She then softened her tone. "It's not that. It's the fact that this is a reminder that you, too, must meet a similar fate with me eventually. I would prefer that you not have to fear your end, but rather enjoy your time here with me before your time comes."
I stepped closer to her. "I know my fate with you will be different, you've reassured me of that. I can't say I look forward to dying, but I know I must. I now realize that, it's not how long one has lived or how much one has done, but rather the quality of time a person has spent in their lifetime, no matter how brief or prolonged." She smiled and draped a wing over me. "You are wiser now than you ever were before our lives were entwined." I had to agree.
And so our days were spent, one upon another, conversing about our lives, things we did years ago, and getting to know each other as genuine friends... and, ultimately, more.
... TO BE CONTINUED ...
