CHAPTER 14: How to Train your Dragon Huntress

Ethan opened the captain's cabin door only a crack to ensure he wouldn't be fried by the attacking dragon. Fortunately, the weather deck was clear and he could see the dragon circling in the night sky not far away. Alana peeked out from behind him, bow and arrow at the ready.

*Stay here and only fire from the cover of the cabin.* He instructed telepathically. The last thing he wanted was for his wife to be in harm's way, but he was under no illusion that she would sit this one out.

She nodded and knocked an arrow into her bow.

Ethan left the captain's cabin and took stock. There was a long scorch mark on the deck from dragon's fire, but the fire hadn't caught. Looking around, he saw Rachel with a large fireball moments before she launched it at the dragon. It moved slowly enough that the dragon was able to dodge it.

There was a "TWANG" behind him and an arrow found its mark on the dragon's scales. Unfortunately, it skittered off after striking them at an oblique angle.

The dragon roared and Ethan felt the full effect of a dragon's roar for the first time. The sound seemed to reverberate through his very bones. It was like being thrown into an icy pond mid-winter. He felt a compulsion to freeze or run buried deep in the roar.

He didn't listen.

Instead, he felt something else welling up within him. He felt the call to battle. Another dragon - an equal - had risen to challenge him and take what was rightfully his. Unlike when men tried, this felt different. He didn't feel contempt or the impulse to fly into a blind rage. In a strange way, it almost felt like a compliment.

This dragon wanted to take what was his and was calling him to battle to take it. He was roaring to challenge the rightful owner of the gold. Something deep in Ethan's spirit soared. He felt a rush of power that inspired him to fight for what was rightfully his.

He roared back.

He opened his mouth and let loose all the power ferocity that was bubbling underneath the surface. He wanted to take this challenger and put him in his rightful place; bowing to the superior dragon. The other dragon roared back; it was instantly obvious that neither would back down.

Moments later, the enormous dragon dove towards the weather deck and then landed just forward of the main mast with a resounding boom, shaking the Argo as the several hundred pound beast landed.

"We meet again, whelp." It hissed.

"Yet we haven't been properly introduced." Ethan countered, wanting to know the name of his prey.

"Havorleth" He looked pensive for several moments before speaking again. "You have changed. You are not the same spineless coward who surrendered his gold to me last week."

"No, I'm not." Ethan growled.

They stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up. Havorleth was much larger than Ethan. He was nowhere near Drousin's size, but he was at least twice Ethan's size. Ethan had once been within six feet of a lion at the zoo, with only a thick pane of glass separating them. The lion was majestic and deadly all at once. The creature had seemed massive and like the only thing preventing it from ripping him apart was that thick pane of glass.

This was like that, only without the glass.

Havorleth glanced around the deck of the Argo, surveying the ship's meager defenders, all of whom were dwarfed by his size. "I will give you one chance; surrender the gold-" He nodded toward the captain's cabin. "-and I will spare your lives. I'm so generous, I'll even allow you to keep the gold in your crop this time. Refuse me, and..." He exhaled a small puff of smoke and glanced at the scorch mark on the weather deck.

"I have a counteroffer." Ethan growled as he felt the dragon within him bristle at the idea of giving up its gold. "Leave this place - not just my ship but this whole region - and I won't dump your carcass in the nearest ravine for the vultures to feast on."

Havorleth laughed.

It was a deep, booming, throaty laugh. It somehow spoke of great amusement but was entirely mirthless, like he was entertained, but that had not remotely affected his disposition.

"You're not the dragon I'm afraid of little one." He sneered.

"So which dragon are you afraid of?" Alana asked from the doorway to the captain's cabin.

That wiped the smile off his face. He growled as he look at the wood elf with disdain; like she was pond scum or gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe. "How dare you speak to one such as I. Know your place, you insolent cow."

"How. Dare. You." Ethan breathed, every exhale coming out as a low growl. The dragon in him was fighting to release its rage and attack Havorleth with a fury that dwarfed what he'd felt moments ago at the thought of losing his gold. It wanted to rip this other dragon apart with its bare hands.

But Ethan had learned his lesson.

He remembered what had happened to Beth when he lost control, so he forced himself to remain standing as he was. He retained control despite the dragon in him clawing to get out.

Barely, but he did.

Havorleth looked confused. "Why such concern for a mere mortal? Do you have such concern for all your slaves?"

"We are not slaves." Hailey said firmly from the doorway to the lower decks.

Havorleth growled and puffed a small jet of flame in Hailey's direction. She avoided it by diving down the stairs, but barely missed getting singed.

"Silence cow; know your place among your betters."

"They both make good points." Ethan said with another growl. "They aren't my slaves, and what dragon do you fear?"

"Certainly not you." Havorleth snarled. "This is your last chance; give up the gold or perish with your flock of mortals."

"I choose option C." Ethan replied, then whipped his spear out as hard and as fast as he could.

Havorleth was large, but that size did have its downsides. He wasn't fast enough to fully avoid the spear, but that didn't matter because it skittered off his scales and landed on the deck. The larger dragon roared, but Ethan shrugged it off and called his spear back to his hands.

The "twang" of a bowstring sounded behind him. An arrow narrowly missed Havorleth's eye, and then only because his reaction time was incredible. The larger dragon spread his wings and leapt into the air, spewing fire at Ethan and Alana as he did so.

Trusting that the wood elf was ready for this, Ethan dived sideways instead of backwards and rolled to come up ready. A quick glance behind confirmed that the door to the captain's cabin door had caught fire, but his beautiful bride was already safely inside.

Moments later, the fire died completely as it streamed away from the door and into the waiting hands of their resident redheaded mage. He had never before appreciated what she could do when given an ample supply of fire to work with.

She was amazing.

The flame-haired beauty made a compressing motion, taking the fireball from two feet wide to two inches wide in mere moments, compressing and concentrating it until it blazed like a white dwarf star. She then released the fireball toward the dragon like a cannonball. It streaked through the sky far faster than her first attempt and found its mark. Havorleth howled out in pain as it veritably exploded on his side. There was no damage and his incredibly heat-resistant dragon scales looked unharmed, but that must've hurt.

"Holy shit." Ethan breathed.

"Yeah, it's amazing what I can do without a will-breaker ring on." She grinned.

"Incoming!" Serif shouted as another jet of flame blasted from Havorleth's mouth toward them. Rachel and Ethan dived in opposite directions, narrowly avoiding becoming overcooked brisket. Moments later, the fire died out as Rachel pulled the heat away, condensed it into another fireball, and launched it toward their attacker with deadly accuracy.

Havorleth again howled in pain again, but otherwise seemed unaffected. Moments later, another arrow skittered off it's scales and he heard his wife groan in frustration.

*How do you ground a dragon?* She asked telepathically.

*Maybe hit it with lightning?* He spread his wings and leapt into the sky, charging his hammer as he went.

A few powerful flaps saw him well above the Argo's mast, but Havorleth was nowhere to be seen.

*Above you!* Alana shouted into his mind.

He craned his neck just in time to see the massive dragon diving down on him from above. He flapped hard to avoid him, but there was no way he would be able to.

Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind arose out of nowhere, caught his outstretched wings, and blew him out of Havorleth's way. The streaked past him and Ethan's eye line went from the dragon to the redhead on the Argo, who had her hands raised toward him.

*Thank Rachel for me.* He thought to Alana as he also tucked his wings and dove after the larger dragon, charging his hammer even more as he went.

Havorleth spread his wings to slow his decent, so Ethan altered his course until he was directly above the other dragon. With a primal shout of triumph, he released the charge from his hammer. The bolt of lightning shot straight down and hit Havorleth, who yelped and snarled, in pain, shock, and surprise.

Ethan peeled off and landed back on the Argo next to Alana and Rachel, then turned to the redhead. "I owe you one."

Rachel opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted when the Argo shook as Havorleth landed on the quarter deck. Anthiel abandoned her position by the ship's wheel and gracefully vaulted over the railing to join the others on the weather deck. Likewise, Alana fled the captain's cabin to avoid being trapped inside.

The larger dragon had shock and anger written all over his face, but otherwise looked unharmed. Apparently, it took a little more power in his electrical attacks to hurt a dragon.

"How!?" Havorleth demanded as he took a step towards them. "How did a whelp like you learn to wield Illuminar's own weapon?"

"You haven't seen anything yet." Ethan said, bluffing with far more confidence than he felt. "That was just a warning. Leave, or the next one will burn a hole right through you."

Havorleth stared at him for several seconds before grinning. "You are a terrible liar whelp." He started stalking forward with a predatory gleam in his eyes

Ethan, Alana, and Rachel began to backup, trying to ensure there was enough time to dive out of the way if he started to shoot flame. Ethan started charging his hammer again, this time planning to fill it to its full capacity to make the bolt as powerful as possible.

*Spread out and stall as long as possible.* He thought to Alana. *I need more time to charge a final bolt of lightning.*

*Will do.* The wood elf broke off from them and started heading toward the port side of the ship while Ethan headed to starboard. Rachel seemed to catch on and split the difference between them.

Havorleth stalked down the stars from the quarterdeck, taking his time to observe them. He glanced back and forth between them as if sizing them up. That's when Ethan saw Hailey. She was at the top of the stairs to the lower decks, behind Havorleth and completely out of his sight...

And she was holding a grenade.

He mimed pulling the pin, but Hailey raised her hands with a frustrated look on her face. She pointed at the grenade and then silently threw her hands in the air again.

*She doesn't know how to use magic.* Alana guessed.

*Shit!* He replied while still charging his hammer. He could feel it reaching capacity.

"You know." Ethan said a little more loudly than he might've otherwise done. "You could throw the fight, then we'd have victory in our hands."

Hailey nodded, but Havorleth looked confused.

"Ready?" Ethan hefted his hammer and looked right at Havorleth, but saw Hailey nod out of the corner of his eye.

The larger dragon narrowed his eyes. He was standing in the middle of the weather deck, equidistant from the port and starboard railings. He was subtly crouch low, like some great cat about to pounce. All his concentration was focused on Ethan.

It was now or never.

*Signal Hailey!* He thought to Alana and then threw his hammer high above Havorleth at almost the same moment that Hailey threw the grenade towards them in a high arc. He had thrown his hammer harder and higher, knowing he needed it above the larger dragon to score a hit.

Ethan released the charge from his hammer as the grenade hit the apex of its trajectory. Lightning arced down from the hammer, but something went wrong. Instead of shooting toward Havorleth, it arced towards the steel body of the grenade.

CRACK!! BOOM!!

The grenade exploded a dozen feet in the air, high over Havorleth's head while the most powerful bolt of light that he'd ever released split the sky.

The combined sound was deafening.

Everyone cried out in pain and several clamped their hands over their ears. The bolt of lightning headed toward the earth, forking to miss the non-conductive wooden hull of the Argo, and disappearing harmlessly over the side of the ship.

Ethan's ears were ringing.

He couldn't hear much as the combined noise from the lightning bolt and grenade had battered his poor eardrums. He started healing them and looked at their foe. Havorleth looked extremely shaken, but mostly unharmed. The grenade had exploded high above his head and it didn't look like he had any wounds from shrapnel.

That's when Serif and Raklan charged.

Ethan had almost forgotten about them. They were both armed with long spears and large shields that looked like leather, probably enchanted. Raklan bull-rushed forwards and put his entire body weight into a thrust. It caught the dragon's scales, but they seemed to dissipate the impact extremely well and only made a shallow wound.

Havorleth howled in pain.

The moment Raklan's spear landed, Serif pulled out a set of bolo and threw it at the dragon. The twin balls flew toward the dragon, who reacted incredibly fast by raising an arm to intercept them before they hit his body. The bolo wrapped around the arm, and then magically pulled tight around it. It didn't impede his motion because it was only wrapped around one arm, but Ethan well remembered the last time he'd seen those.

Kendra.

She'd used them on him in The Arena.

Where did Serif get a set?

Havorleth turned around and spewed fire at Serif, who simply raised his massive shield and took shelter behind it. The shield took nearly five seconds of dragon's breath before the stream of fire ceased, leaving both Serf and his shield completely unhurt. Clearly it was either well-enchanted or made of something flame resistant, probably both. For some reason, it occurred to Ethan that leather made from dragon skin would probably be very fire resistant.

Meanwhile, Raklan had circled around the larger dragon and thrust his spear into him again. As before, it didn't penetrate deeply, but enough that the dragon felt it. Havorleth howled in pain, and with a jump and flap of his wings he leapt up onto the quarterdeck.

Ethan saw the trickle of blood flowing from the larger dragon slow and stop, presumably because he'd magically healed the wounds. Despite all their trying and progress, he was still mostly unharmed and they were out of tricks.

Raklan and Serif charged up the stairs to the quarter deck, moving in near perfect synchronicity. They charged at the same time and Havorleth beat a hasty retreat over the side of the Argo and began to fly in circles around it.

Ethan took stock.

Alana was staggering to her feet, a small trickle of blood coming out of her lovely ears from the explosion, but otherwise she looked unhurt. Most everyone else was in similar shape except Rachel, who was clutching her side, where a large red spot had appeared in her clothes.

*Alana, see to Rachel.* He thought to her, then said shouted aloud. "This is your last chance Havorleth; leave this entire region now."

If looks could kill, Ethan would've died on the spot. Despite that, the larger dragon appeared to be wincing slightly with every flap of the wings. He glanced around the deck at the injured crew of the Argo, but apparently decided it wasn't worth the risk.

"We'll meet again whelp." Havorleth said before peeling off and flying away.

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief.

It was over...

For now

* * *

Alana helped Rachel to lie down on the deck as the mage clutched her side. The wound didn't look life threatening, but it looked extremely painful judging from the way she was moving.

"Hey, stay with me." The wood elf said softly.

Rachel glanced down at her side and grimaced. "Yeah, I'm not going anywhere."

Once Rachel was lying down, Alana gently moved her hand to see the wound better. There was a gnarled piece of metal stuck in her abdomen, mostly on the right side just above her right hip.

"I need to pull this out before I can try healing the wound." The wood elf said.

"I'll heal it, you just pull the damn thing out." Rachel groaned. "And please get some whiskey for disinfectant."

"I'll get the whiskey." Ethan said as he arrived and then leaving just as quickly to fetch it.

"You're going to be okay." Alana said. Tithe wound didn't look life-threatening, but it was still hard to watch her friend be in so much pain.

"Here." Ethan said as he returned clutching a bottle. "Alana; if you pull, I'll pour. Rachel, can you manage the healing or should one of us do it."

"I got it." She coughed, then winced in pain as the movement jarred the gnarled bit of metal. She looked around the deck, then at Alana. "Let me have one of your arrows." She asked, and then clamped her teeth around the wooden shaft when she was given one.

She nodded at the wood elf.

Alana took hold of the gnarled bit of metal, and pulled.

Rachel clenched her fists and groaned loudly. Her arms were shaking and her agony was obvious.

"It won't come." Alana said after a moment. "I think it's caught on your clothes."

"Here, use this." Serif said at Alana's shoulder.

She jumped as she hadn't heard him approach. He held out a straight, single-edged razor, which she took. Ten seconds of careful slicing later, all of the fabric around the wound was gone. She folded the razor and put it in the small pocket on the side of her dress in case she needed it again, because Serif had left to check the damage to the Argo.

"Ready?" She asked the groaning redhead, who nodded and bit down harder on the arrow shaft.

Alana grabbed the gnarled bit of metal again and gently pulled. Rachel nearly screamed and the wood elf was surprised she didn't bite the arrow in half. The gnarled bit of metal came free and the wound started bleeding even more. Rachel nodded at Ethan, who poured some whiskey into the wound.

Rachel sucked in her breath and her eyes rolled back into their sockets a little.

Her head lolled for a moment, then she put her hands over the wound and the bleeding started to slow. The bleeding had nearly stopped a minute later, but the wound wasn't fully healed and Rachel's eyes kept closing. Finally, she seemed to pass out from the pain and lay still.

Alana put her hands over the wound and started trying to heal it herself. It took much of her mana because she wasn't good at healing other people, but she managed. Once it looked like all the skin had closed properly, she took some of the bottle of whisky and poured it over the wound, just to make sure.

"I'll get some water." Ethan said, and returned a few moments later with some water from the ship's supply.

Alana poured this over the wound too, completely clearing any blood that was left. The wound was closed. Rachel was healed. Her face seemed to relax and any traces of pain disappeared and she went from the edge of consciousness to what appeared to be a restful sleep. She looked a bit pale, but really hadn't bled very much at all. Certainly not enough to be dangerous.

Alana breathed a sigh of relief.

She would be okay.

As she looked at the place the wound had been, she couldn't help but notice the curve of Rachel's hip, which had been exposed when the wood elf had cut away the fabric around the wound. She just stared at it for a moment before realizing she was staring.

Her hip was beautiful.

Never in her life had Alana found a part of another woman's body to be attractive. Of course she wasn't blind and noticed when a woman was attractive, but never before had never before been attracted.

Except this morning...

Her cheeks got very warm as she thought about how Rachel had kissed her in the dream and how much she loved how it felt. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She was married to Ethan now; she needed to lock up these feelings. She was very grateful that she'd changed her mental defenses that morning so these feelings wouldn't leak to Ethan over their bond.

"Hey, she'll be fine." He said wrapping his arms around her to give her a comforting hub.

"I know." She replied, realizing he took her response as concern. "We should probably get her below decks to her hammock so she can sleep. Could you carry her?"

"Yeah." He nodded, then reached down, slipped his arms under her knees and back, and picked her up.

She wiggled in her sleep as he picked her up, but then mumbled "Hmm, Ethan" as her head settled against his chest. Moments later, she completely relaxed in his arms.

The flame-haired teen looked peaceful being carried by him, as if she was in the most comfortable place in the world.

Alana couldn't help but think they looked wonderful together. Her strong man carrying another beautiful woman just felt so right to her. She gave up trying to understand why and just enjoyed a feeling of contentment as her husband carried another beautiful woman in his arms.

Despite herself, she felt a tiny smile creep onto her face.

She followed her husband as he carried Rachel below decks. They walked past Serif and Raklan's hammocks to the blanket Anthiel had hung to give the ladies some privacy.

"Which one is hers?" he asked quietly after Alana had pulled it back for him.

"That one." She said while pointing to the hammock closest to the bow of the ship.

He walked over to it, then looked at Rachel and frowned. "Her clothes are wet, which definitely won't make for good sleeping. Do you think you could get her changed into something else?"

"Me?"

He nodded and smirked. "Well, it's not like she'd be comfortable with me changing her clothes."

Alana bit her lip and tried to think about it objectively.

It wasn't easy.

On the one hand, he was entirely right and she probably should be changed out of her wet clothes before sleeping. She was the obvious choice because neither Anthiel nor Hailey were particularly close to the redhead while she was.

On the other hand, the last thing Alana wanted right now was to see Rachel naked. She was entirely sure her body would respond - it was starting to already just at the thought - and she wanted to keep those thoughts as far away as possible. She was especially grateful that she'd thought to alter her mental defenses this morning so these emotions weren't leaking to Ethan over her bond.

"Is that problem?" Ethan asked, clearly confused while she was giving it so much thought.

"Well, I'd probably wake her up." She said thinking fast.

"Good point." He looked at the beautiful teen in his arms. "The pants don't look too wet, but the shirt is ruined with all the blood and that large tear. Maybe you could just cut the wet part of the shirt out?"

She nodded.

He set her down in the hammock. Her hair fell onto her face and Ethan gently brushed it off. There was nothing romantic in the gesture; he was just trying to make her comfortable. Still, he was quite tender with her.

Alana felt herself smile.

He was so kind and tender with her best friend. For some reason - and she didn't know why - but it did her heart good to see him interacting with Rachel that way. In the back of her mind, she secretly hoped there was a little mutual attraction. Her behavior toward him while she was asleep and his behavior just now gave her hope.

He was a good man and deserved a wonderful woman like Rachel. She likewise deserved a great man like him.

"I'll be over here." Ethan said as he stepped on the other side of the curtain to give them some privacy.

Alana pulled Serif's razor out of her pocket, making a mental note to give it back to him later. She opened it and carefully sliced the wettest parts of the shirt away, dropping them in a nearby bucket.

She glanced at her handiwork and tried very hard not to stare at the redhead's toned stomach. The wetness hadn't reached up to her breasts, and so they were still covered.

She tried not to be too disappointed about that.

That job done, the wood elf looked at her pants. They weren't nearly as wet, being a soft wool material which repelled the water quite well. She decided to leave them on. Not only for the difficulty of getting them off, but also because she would probably wake the redhead if she tried.

Also, she wasn't sure she would be able to resist the temptation to peek.

She found a blanket and draped it over her friend. As she stood there looking, she was struck by just how incredible Rachel was. She was kind and tender-hearted, yet an absolute beast in combat with her magic. She was not only physically beautiful, but she also had a beautiful spirit too.

On an impulse, Alana leaned over, gave Rachel a tender kiss on the cheek, and whispered softly. "Sleep well my friend."

Feeling rather embarrassed at her boldness, she turned and ducked through the curtain separating the girl's section from the rest of the lower deck. Ethan was leaning against the wall, looking at the curtain.

"She saved our lives and probably the whole ship." Ethan said as he looked toward where Rachel was sleeping.

"Yeah, she's pretty amazing." Alana agreed. "What hurt her though?"

"Let's go look."

They returned to the weather deck and found the bit of gnarled metal that the elf had pulled from Rachel.

"It's part of the grenade body." Ethan said after looking at it for a few moments.

On closer inspection, she recognized it too. It appeared to be nearly half of the grenade, but it was all warped and twisted.

"Hmm, I was worried about shrapnel, but this is..." He shook his head. "I thought making the casing thin would help, but we can't use the grenades, not if they're going to do this."

"What if we made the grenades from something else? Something that wouldn't do this?" Alana asked.

"I don't think there is anything else." He replied. "Certainly nothing as strong as steel that could hold the pressure long enough to get a good explosion, and then vaporize afterward."

She smiled broadly. "Wood. We could make them from enchanted wood."

He looked at her like she was crazy.

"I'm serious. I can enchant it to be incredibly strong; stronger than steel. And then make an enchantment to pull heat from nearby that will trigger when it's broken. It looked like that explosion was incredibly hot, so the wooden body should turn to ash within a few feet."

"But if you can make wood that strong, why don't they make armor out of it?" he asked.

"Because the enchantment I would use is different from most strengthening enchantments. It does drastically increase the strength, but it also makes the enchanted material somewhat brittle. Any armor enchanted that way would shatter like glass with a single strong hit from something pointy."

"Wait, so this enchantment not only makes things super strong, but super hard too?"

She nodded.

A massive smile appeared on his face. "You mean, we get superheated disintegrating shrapnel that's only effective out to a few feet, then completely disappears? And this shrapnel will be stronger than steel and hard like glass?"

She cocked her head to one side. "What's shrapnel?"

He explained.

"That's horrible." She shuddered. "Should we even use weapons like that?"

"Consider who we're fighting." He pointed out. "Lord Delmar, his seemingly infinite army and at least one dragon; maybe two now including Havorleth. We need powerful weapons if we're going to win. These wooden grenades are powerful weapon that won't put any of us at risk, which will prevent what just happened to Rachel from happening again."

Alana bit her lip. It had been horrible to see her friend hurt and they did need powerful weapons. If she could make such a weapon which wouldn't pose a danger to her friends...

"Are you sure?" She asked looking at the gnarled piece of metal. "Using weapons like that seems kind of... I don't know, barbaric?"

"War is often barbaric by nature." He replied. "I'm willing to use whatever ethical weapons at my disposal to win, because if I lose, everyone on this ship will probably die." He looked at her, then glanced at her womb too. "I can't let that happen."

She put her hands protectively around her belly, knowing that he was right but hating it all the same. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Me too." He nodded fervently. "I'd rather settle in a nice village somewhere to raise our kids."

"Kids?" She felt a smile creeping onto her face. "As in plural?"

"Absolutely, unless you wanted to stop at only one."

A sly smile spread across her face. "Not on your life."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly on the lips. The bit of gnarled metal fell from his hand as he wrapped his arms around her.

When their kiss broke, she stayed close. "You can put as many of your children inside of me as you like; I'll happily bear as many as you want."

He stroked her face tenderly, then said firmly. "Our children. Yes they're mine, but they're also yours."

She frowned. "I've been doing that lately, haven't I?"

"Referring to our baby as if it's only mine?" He said. "Yes you have."

"That's so strange. I'd die to keep her safe and can't wait to be her mother and hold her in my arms."

The noise Ethan made in response was a mix between and cat purring and an aroused growl. "I can't wait to see that."

She nodded. "Yeah."

Ethan yawed, then glanced at the captain's cabin. "I'm beat, we should go to bed."

"Fine by me." She gave him a sly grin and subtly altered her body language to accentuate her figure.

"I meant to sleep; we can do the other thing tomorrow."

She stuck out her lower lip in a mock pout, but nodded. "Okay."

They went into the captain's cabin. She slipped out of her dress, joined him in bed, and they snuggled together. He put his arms around her and they lay like that for a few minutes.

"What about Taloni?" Alana asked on the edge of sleep.

"Hmm, what about her?" He replied, similarly near sleep.

"Do you want to see her holding your baby?"

He made an appreciative grunt. Strangely, she found she wasn't too concerned by that. It was fine with her. If he wanted to impregnate his other wife, she didn't mind. Besides, the Fey teen would look really good holding a baby.

Of that she was sure.

Just before sleep took her, her mind drifted to Rachel and the kiss they'd shared in her dream that morning. The memory faded slowly into dream as she imagined kissing her again, and what the redhead would look like carrying one of Ethan's children.

* * *

Despite her best efforts to remain asleep, Rachel felt the dream world fading and consciousness returning. A quick check told her that someone had finished healing her wound after she had passed out. She guessed it was Alana, who was an incredible person and talented enchantress, but wasn't as good with spells. The healing was reasonably well done, but with a little work it could be nigh unto perfect.

A few minutes of concentrating and a little mana put the wound perfectly right; just good as new.

That done, she settled back into her hammock. The moment she moved, she realized the bottom half of her shirt was missing. She assumed some had cut it away because it was wet, and again assumed it was Alana.

She smiled

Her friend was so thoughtful.

She closed her eyes, but realized she was far too awake to get back to sleep. She rolled out of the hammock, got dressed in some proper clothes and wandered up to the weather deck. Judging by the stars, it was about two hours before daybreak.

She leaned against the railing in the peace and calm, feeling the cool night breeze and fresh air caress her face. Her hair moved gently in the wind and she closed her eyes to savor the moment. Anthiel was playing a slow, relaxing tune on some sort of small pipe.

It was so peaceful.

She looked down at the black mark on her finger where the will breaker ring had been. She thought about the fact that her own father had given it to her; his own daughter. He had been so kind sometimes, yet so cruel at other times. So gentle with her, yet so harsh with everyone else.

She looked at the black spot were the ring had been, wondering.

She let her thoughts wander until she heard the door to the captain's cabin open. Turning her head, she saw Alana wander out sleepily, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Why are you awake so early?" The redhead asked with a smile.

* * *

Alana was sure she was dreaming.

She was in a small cabin that looked like a strange mix of the home she'd grown up in and the captain's cabin on the Argo. She was sitting in a rocking chair similar to the one that her adoptive mother had always sat in. She was rocking gently back and forth, singing a soft lullaby to the baby that was nursing at her breast. She could feel the baby's gentle suction and the sensation of milk leaving her breast.

There was something incredibly satisfying about it as she looked into her infant's face. The baby was alternately closing her eyes and looking into Alana's own. The look of contentment on the baby's face made the wood elf's heart soar.

It felt amazing.

Wonderful.

Sitting there nursing her daughter, she could honestly say she'd never felt so happy or fulfilled in her entire life. Maybe her wedding night with Ethan, but that was so different she didn't think she could compare them.

"Your daughter is so beautiful."

Alana turned her head to see another woman sitting across from her. For some reason, she wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed that her breast was fully exposed in front of someone she'd never met.

The woman had a heart-shaped face that was a vision of perfect femininity. Her face had the smoothness of a girl in her teens, but her eyes had the wisdom of someone incredibly ancient. Her hair was golden and so pale it was almost white, but that might've just been the sunlight streaming through the window behind her.

"Who are you?" The wood elf asked, surprised that she was so at ease around this perfect stranger.

"My name is Gabriella." The luminous woman replied with a smile. Somehow, her smile put Alana at ease and made her feel relaxed and content.

"My name is Alana."

"Yes, Alana Ejder, also called dragon-bride. I met your husband once."

"Oh?"

The other woman nodded. "Just once, but I've spent some time with one of your fellow wives."

"Who?"

"Beth. She really is a lovely girl, just like you are."

For the first time, Alana felt slightly sad. "She died though, when did you meet her?"

Gabriella smiled again. "The two of you are going to get along famously. In the future."

"Oh." Alana replied because she couldn't think of what else to say.

She felt her infant daughter finish draining her left breast, and then start fussing because she was still hungry. The wood elf slipped the shoulder off her right side, exposing her other breast. They she moving the baby to the other side so her daughter could finish her meal. The infant latched on to the nipple, and there was the briefest bit of pain before her other breast began to let down its milk to the hungry baby.

Only afterward did it occur to Alana that she'd just bared her breast to this complete stranger, and didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable about it. She looked at Gabriella confused.

"I'm glad you're so comfortable with me." The other woman said. "But unfortunately I'm not here to talk, though that would be lovely."

"Oh?"

"I have a message, something to strengthen you for the dark days ahead."

The smile on Alana's face faltered. "Oh?"

"Yes." Gabriella replied. "I have a promise from my Lord: you will have this." She indicated the room around her and then the baby she was nursing. "You'll hold the baby that's growing in your womb and nurse her just like this. At times it will seem impossible for either of you to survive, but you will. Remember that. No matter what happens, hold onto this dream; it will keep you going when the world around you appears to be crumbling under your feet... which it will. There are dark days ahead, but you'll get through them."

"Dark days?"

"But you'll get through them; both of you." Gabriella nodded her head toward the baby nursing at her breast.

Alana looked down. Her daughter was just finishing and appeared to be fighting sleep. She had this sleepy-contented look on her face that just made the wood elf's heart melt.

"And we'll both be okay?" She asked again as she just stared at the wondrous sight of her baby. She was absolutely perfect.

"You will both be okay." The other woman said.

Alana stared at her daughter for several seconds before speaking again. "And what about Eth-" She stopped mid-sentence as she realized she was alone in the cabin...

And then she felt herself begin to wake up.

"No, no not yet." She said as she looked at her baby, now asleep in her arms. She stared at her for as long as she could, until the dream faded and she was left looking at the inside of her eyelids.

She was awake.

She could feel Ethan's breathing and his arm draped over her protectively as he slept. She laid there unmoving, going over every detail of the dream repeatedly to etch it into her memory. Every tiny detail, especially the look on her daughter's face as she had slept in her arms.

There was nothing like it.

Nothing she'd ever experienced compared to the joy of holding her own baby in her arms. The feeling was indescribably wonderful. The only thing that could've possibly made it better was having Ethan there while she nursed. She laid in bed for quite a while savoring the memory.

Finally, she realized she wasn't going to get back to sleep and didn't want to stay in bed; she was too restless. She was incredibly excited for nine months in the future when she could replay her dream for real.

She carefully extricated herself from Ethan's arms, slipped on her dress, and headed out onto the weather deck, yawning and rubbing her eyes to banish the last vestiges of sleep from her brain.

"Why are you up so early?" Rachel asked with a smile. She was leaning on the railing and looked pensive.

"I had a dream and couldn't get back to sleep after I woke up."

"Oh?"

Alana hesitated for a moment, then joined Rachel at the railing and recounted the dream, including Gabriella telling her that dark days were ahead. Rachel listened without interrupting and was silent for several moments afterward.

"Hmm." Rachel mused after a while.

"What?"

"It sounds like the same woman who visited Ethan, and I'm pretty sure she was an angel."

"Oh, it does indeed." Alana stared out into the darkness, her elf eyes rendering it not terribly hard to see. "I wonder why she visited us both. I mean, I believe in Illuminar and always tried to follow the Book of Light, but I'm not His most devoted follower. Ethan isn't even sure He exists, so why us?"

"I don't know. I'm more concerned about these 'dark days' the angel mentioned to both of you." She leaned an arm on the railing and turned toward the elf. "It sounds ominous."

Alana put her hand over her womb. "At least she'll be okay."

Rachel smiled. "You're going to be a wonderful mother."

The wood elf beamed. "Thank you."

They were silent for a few moments before Rachel spoke again. "Any idea how Ethan plans to fight Havorleth?"

"No, but he did come up with a way to improve the grenades so we won't have to worry about a repeat of your wound."

"That was the grenade?" Rachel's jaw dropped. "From that far away?"

Alana nodded, then explained the shrapnel and Ethan's solution for it. "The only real question is how to hollow out some wood so there's room for the gunpowder."

"That's easy, I'll burn it out."

Alana raised her eyebrow.

"Seriously, it was one of the few practical exercise the court mage taught me before my father ordered him to stop. It's a great way to learn control for your ability to manipulate heat. The goal is to have the outside so thin when you're done, that you can roll it out like paper. I was never that good, but I certainly can hollow out a few blocks of wood. We have some the right size in the hold and it doesn't even take that long if you have a decent fire. In fact..."

Rachel looked around at the night sky, which was still an hour or two before daybreak. "I could probably do a few before the sun comes up if we start the breakfast fire early. You can enchant them as I finish. I bet we could get four or five done before daybreak."

Alana beamed.

* * *

Ethan felt around the bed for his lovely bride as he woke. When he didn't feel her, he reached out with his mind. *Good morning beautiful.*

*Good morning handsome.* Her cheery replied came. *Rachel and I have been working on something. I think you'll want to see it.*

*Oh?*

*Hurry. Besides, breakfast is almost ready.*

Ethan yawed and then dragged himself out of the bed. He stretched to work out the kinks from last night's battle. He felt a little stiff, but otherwise right as rain. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the sky had begun to lighten from the blacks of night to the dark blues of pre-dawn.

He left the captain's cabin and walked out onto the weather deck.

Alana and Rachel were sitting next the iron firepan over which breakfast was usually cooked. The fire was lit, but breakfast was nowhere in sight. Rachel was staring intently at a small cylinder of wood about the size of a can of beer. A few feet away, Alana was concentrating on a near identical piece of wood. Nearby, Serif was whittling some small cylindrical pegs and several finished ones lay in a bowl at his feet.

"What's all this?" He asked.

Alana looked up from what she was doing a smiled broadly. The light from the embers cast a warm, flicking glow over her whole body, accentuating her beauty. He knew he could look forward to seeing that smile for the rest of his life and inwardly thought he was the luckiest man alive.

"These are the wooden grenades you mentioned last night." Her eyes twinkled.

He felt his jaw drop. "Really? So fast?"

"Yup."

Rachel spoke up. "They are a lot faster than those metal ones you had me make yesterday, and take far less mana too. I burned out the inside through this hole at the top, and Serif volunteered to make pins to plug them, which Alana can then magically fuse to the grenade's body."

His wife grinned. "As long as these look right, we can fill them with gunpowder and we'll be done. I already put the enchanted leather fuses inside."

"You ladies are amazing!" He bounded over and swept Alana off her feet, pulling her into a fierce hug and kissing her like her life depended on it.

"You better watch it sir, or else..." she trailed off as she looked around at the others, then switched to telepathy. *Or else I might start misplacing my clothes.*

He felt his cock begin to stir, so he activated his disguise gem to make it appear like he wasn't aroused, but still looked like himself as a dragon otherwise.

"Thank you for that." Rachel said with an amused smile.

"For what?" He asked.

She raised her eyebrow, then glanced at the disguise gem hanging from his neck, then at Alana.

"You're incredibly perceptive, did you know that?" He replied.

The corners of Rachel's mouth twitched slightly upward as she gave a subtle smile. On anyone else it would've looked arrogant. But it was slightly endearing on Rachel for some reason.

Ethan let go of Alana, walked over to the redhead and knelt down in front of her. "I owe you a huge 'thank you' for saving my life last night, and an apology." He grimaced. " I'm sorry about the shrapnel from the grenade hurting you."

She smiled back at him. "You're welcome and please don't worry about it. You would've done the same for me, and did. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still in your debt for taking that will-breaker ring off me, not the other way around."

"Well, thank you anyway." He stood up and nodded toward the grenade bodies. "How close are those to being done?"

"Very." Alana replied. "I finished three of them and I'm almost done with this one. If you can mix up some gunpowder and add it, I can seal the tops in five minutes."

Ethan looked around the ship trying to think. They were all tired, but Havorleth had taken a bit of a beating. He had probably healed all his wounds by now, but they needed to fight him anyway and perhaps the early bird would get the worm - or dragon.

"Did anyone see where Havorleth went after he fled?" He asked.

"Aye." Anthiel replied, peaking her head over the railing on the quarter deck. "It was dark, but I believe he headed toward that hill." She pointed to a hill maybe half a mile distant off their port flank.

Ethan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They had come this far; there was no sense in backing out now.

"Anyone else feeling like a bit of pre-dawn dragon hunting?" He asked.

Rachel frowned. "Is that wise? I don't think any of us are at one hundred percent and a cornered animal is dangerous."

"I agree, but we can't wait around for him to attack us here again, which I'm sure he will before long." Ethan glanced at the dark-blue sky of pre-dawn. "He'll probably attack again later today; I would. We'll be at a disadvantage if we wait at let him attack us here, but we'll have an advantage if we attack him on his own terrain."

"What advantage." Alana asked.

"He won't pursue." Serif said quietly. "He will remain with his golden hoard and defend it to the death. We can retreat if we are losing, but he most likely won't chase us."

"Exactly." Ethan said. "We also have a bunch of the metal grenades left that I'm leery about using. But if we can chuck them into his cave while he's in there, we might not even have to fight him; the grenades might do our job for us and we'd be safe from the shrapnel."

"Ah." Rachel said as she nodded. "That is a good plan. I can even use my magic to propel them deeper into the cave."

"Perfect." Ethan said. "Plus, we'll have a few more wooden grenades we can use if he comes out after us. That should at least buy us enough time to get away. He probably won't chase us because he'll want to guard his gold. Heck, even if we don't kill him, we might convince him that we're too dangerous to mess with."

"That's also a good point." Rachel nodded again.

'So, who's up for a spot of dragon hunting on this fine morning?"

"I'll go wherever you do." Alana replied.

"I'm in." Rachel nodded.

"I'll wake Raklan." Serif sighed.

"I'll keep the ship safe." Anthiel offered.

* * *

"I'll watch your back." Beth said softly, though no one could hear her.

She couldn't think of what else to do. She had seen the whole battle between the Argo's crew and Havorleth while feeling powerless do anything. It took most of her concentration to touch something. However, she could move through walls and look ahead for them, not that she could communicate what she saw at the moment.

She'd spent all of the previous day on the Argo, watching everything with interest as they made the grenades. She had been incredibly frustrated because she couldn't ask a single question about them. It was fascinating though.

She wasn't sure what she could do to help, but she knew she wanted to do something. She watched as they all scarfed down a hurried breakfast while Alana finished the grenade bodies in-between mouthfuls. Ethan was mixing gunpowder as he ate, and poured it into the grenades when the wood elf was done. Afterwards she sealed the grenade bodies with wooden pegs that Serif had made.

They were ready for war, and Beth couldn't do anything but watch.

As soon as everything was prepared, they lowered the rope ladder and everyone started climbing down. Beth followed them down, wishing she could talk with them and missing their company.

When they all were on the ground, Anthiel pulled up the rope ladder and they began to walk through the rather sparse forest toward Havorleth's lair. It was still before dawn, but not by much. Beth guessed they would reach the dragon's lair a few minutes before the sun crested the horizon.

* * *

Kendra did her third triple check of all her gear and then checked one more time just to be sure. She knew ten times was excessive, but she wasn't leaving anything to chance. Not after what happened the last time she crossed this dragon.

The previous night, she'd dropped her tiny airship into a gap in the trees where a wide river flowed. She adjusted the trim so she was only a few feet above the water, then lowered her caterpillar.

The caterpillar was an enchanted leather strip about five feet long and two feet tall with floats on it. When it landed in the water, it caught the current while the floats kept it from sinking. It was attached to her airship with a rope, and it pulled her along with the current. That allowed her to creep silently toward the dragon's airship below the tree line where she wouldn't be spotted. She was only a few hundred yards away by midnight when she'd pulled out the caterpillar and dropped the anchor.

It was a perfect position to strike at dawn.

She'd woken just before the sky began to brighten in the east. She planned to put an arrow through that dragon's heart the moment she saw the sun peak over the horizon. Now, she thanked Illuminar that they were voluntarily climbing down out of the airship.

This would be easier than she thought.

She double checked the quiver at her side - the dragon-slayer arrows were too heavy for the back - strung the Dragon Slayer, then set off after them. She couldn't believe her luck and thought that maybe Illuminar had blessed her after all.

It would be an easy hunt.

* * *

Beth followed Ethan, Alana, Rachel, Serif, and Raklan, walking close beside her husband as they went. It was strange just how much she'd missed him in the short time she'd been away. By her count, it had been nine days between her death and him rescuing her.

She smiled wryly; her death.

The Argo's crew walked in silence, though there were armed to the teeth. Alana had her bow and a short sword at her side, which she had grabbed from the ship's armory. Ethan had his war hammer and spear, as well as two satchels whose straps crisscrossed on his chest. One held the metal grenades, the other held the new wooden ones. Serif and Raklan both had long spears in their hands, longswords at their waists, and large shields on their backs.

When they were a hundred yards from the hill, the thin forest ended and opened onto a large clearing which appeared to encircle the hill. Ethan motioned for everyone to stop.

"Here's the plan." He whispered. "We're going to circle around the hill from the cover of the trees until we see the entrance. Then Rachel, Serif Raklan and I will sneak up."

Alana opened her mouth, but he held up his hand. "Honey, you're deadly with that bow from any range. I want you to stay back, hidden behind cover. Then if he leaves the cave, I want you to put an arrow through any weak spot you see. He hopefully won't notice you, and you can get a good sucker punch in."

She nodded. "I'll go for the eyes, or maybe even his mouth if he leaves it open long enough."

"Good idea." He nodded. "Once the rest of us are at the entrance, we'll use the leftover metal grenades." He indicated one of the satchels that was slung over his shoulder. "I'll throw them as far inside the cave as I can and Rachel will use her magic to give them a boost. Serif, Raklan; be ready in case he comes charging out after us."

Serif nodded, while Raklan grumbled something that didn't sound like a compliment.

Ethan ignored him. "If the first round of grenades doesn't get him, I'll toss some more and then we'll retreat back into the forest and come back later. Worst case scenario, I'll use the wooden grenades to distract him while we escape. Everyone clear?"

There was a general murmur of assent from everyone but Raklan, who grumbled something. Serif gave him a look, shook his head fractionally, and then Raklan too mumbled something in agreement.

Beth found herself wondering how Serif could have Raklan so completely under control. Raklan was easily a whole head taller and probably twice Serif's weight and all the difference was muscle. Yet the bigger man quickly and easily capitulated to the smaller.

It made her curious.

Very curious.

She looked at the sky. It was bright blue and nearly cloudless, though the sun hadn't risen yet. She thought it couldn't be more than fifteen or twenty minutes before it would, as the hue in the east was quite bright.

Dawn was coming soon.

"Let's go." Ethan said, and they started winding their way around the base of the hill.

It only took fifteen minutes to find the entrance because it wasn't concealed at all.

It was cut into the rock of the hill, and the opening was relatively small, round, and about six feet across; just big enough for Havorleth to enter without difficulty. More importantly for the larger dragon, no more than two men could come at him at once, and they would be easy prey for his dragon's breath.

Beth remembered reading that this was the reason dragons preferred caves for their hoard. The small entrances made any would-be robbers easy targets for their breath, making it easy to defend without the dragon endangering himself.

Seeing it now, it made perfect sense.

Alana found a large boulder to hide behind at the edge of the trees, about a hundred yards across a grassy field from the cave's entrance. The boulder had several dense bushes nearby so she could still see from concealment. Ethan, Rachel, Serif, and Raklan snuck up to the entrance, making sure to stay completely out of sight of the dragon within.

They stacked up next to the entrance, waiting with baited breath.

Beth - who knew she couldn't be seen or heard - threw caution to the wind and ran inside. The cave wasn't terribly deep, maybe fifteen or twenty feet before it curved to the right and up a short rise. After another ten feet, it opened up into a small room about twenty feet round with a ten foot domed ceiling.

Havorleth was there, sleeping next to a small pile of gold.

Beth cocked her head to the one side.

Why was the pile of gold so small?

The gold that Havorleth was sleeping next to was incredibly valuable. However, it was far too small for a dragon of his size according to everything she'd read about them. It seemed like a dragon his size should have a hoard at least five times this size, and ten times seemed more reasonable.

It was so small.

Why was it so small?

It made no sense according to everything she'd read. Havorleth would need a far larger hoard to get enough magic to grow to his size and still be able to enchant himself effectively.

So why?

Why was Havorleth's hoard so small for such a large dragon?

* * *

Kendra snuck toward the boulder where the wood elf in the green dress was concealed. The chocolate-haired elf was too busy concentrating on the entrance to the other dragon's lair to notice anything else, which was good because Kendra wasn't sure she could've snuck up on her otherwise.

The bounty specified both of them, and it did say alive was an option. Looking at the wood elf, she was glad the bounty was for the living.

She slipped the small vial of enchanted chloroform out of her belt and wetted a rag she kept for this purpose. The chloroform became much more potent with the enchantment. It knocked them out almost instantly and kept them unconscious for twenty or thirty minutes.

Kendra stole through the forest toward her quarry, using all her skill to keep the noise of her movement down. It wasn't easy and she was out of practice. Fortunately, the ambient sounds of the forest and the wood elf's hyper-focused attention made it much easier.

About the time the small dragon reached the other dragon's lair, Kendra was right behind the wood elf. She reached out and clamped the cloth over the elf's face at the same time that she grabbed her around the waist to prevent her from escaping.

The elf did exactly what everyone does when this happens.

She instinctively took a sharp breath in.

The enchanted fumes overwhelmed the tiny wood elf in moments and she went limp. Kendra let her to the ground slowly, making sure she wasn't hurt. She wasn't, though she'd have a nasty headache when she woke. She checked her pulse, which was still strong and healthy.

Kendra then silently drew one of her Dragon Slayer Arrows from its sheath, knocked it into the bowstring, activated her strength enhancing vambraces, and then looked at the sky. It was so bright she was surprised that she didn't see the sun peeking over the horizon. It might be another few seconds - possibly a minute or two - but not longer.

It was almost dawn.

* * *

Beth was walking out of the cave toward Ethan and the others when she noticed something in the distance. Where Alana had hidden, there was a head with very dark hair poking up. At this distance she wasn't sure, but it didn't look like the wood elf's head.

She also noticed the shadows from the sun were finally starting to disappear. The moment the sun's light fell on the dark head, a woman stood up holding an enormous bow...

But it wasn't Alana.

She was too tall and the bow she held made a stark contrast to the wood elf's bow. This one was dark gray with a wide slot in the middle and looked vaguely metallic, whereas Alana's bow was made of graceful, elegant wood. The woman drew the bow back - evidently with some difficulty - and aimed it at Ethan.

Beth panicked.

She did the only thing she could think of to save her husband. She concentrated all of her willpower into making her hands solid, then she ran at him as fast as she could. She made contact and pushed him in the chest as hard as she possibly could, throwing all her body weight into the push hoping to get him out of the way.

It only partially worked.

She got a good push for a moment, but then her concentration slipped and she ran right through him.

"What the hell?" Ethan said as he jumped back in shock.

Barely a second later, an arrow slammed into the rock behind where he had just been standing. It made a loud clanging, scraping sound as it hit the rock wall.

Beth breathed a sigh of relief... at least until she heard a rumbling from inside the cave.

"Who's out there?" Havorleth's voice boomed from the cave. The element of surprising was lost.

The dragon was awake.

* * *

Ethan heard Havorleth's question. But he stared at the Dragon Slayer arrow in shock for a moment anyway before turning to see where it had come from.

"Kendra!" He hissed.

Then he realized where she was standing.

"Alana." He breathed, as concern for his wife subsumed all other concerns.

Kendra pulled out another arrow and Ethan dived for cover. It wasn't much, but there was a small boulder about two feet in diameter a couple yards away from the entrance of the cave. Serif and Raklan had taken cover behind another nearby rock, so they were protected.

*Alana, are you okay?* He thought to her.

No response.

*Alana!*

Still no response.

"That bitch!" Rachel fumed as she hit the dirt beside him with fire in her eyes. "If she hurt Alana, I'll roast her alive." A fire blazed behind the mage's eye, leaving him in no doubt that the redhead meant the threat quite literally.

"Get in line." Ethan growled in agreement.

A subtle shaking of the earth brought Ethan's attention back to the situation at present. Havorleth was clearly coming to see what was going on and they were completely pinned down.

He did the math.

If he was going to help Alana, he needed to get out from behind this rock. But if he did, the irate dragon huntress would likely skewer him. The more pressing problem was Havorleth though. From where they were taking cover, the larger dragon could roast them alive without leaving the cave.

He needed to keep Havorleth pinned down.

He grabbed a metal grenade out of the satchel and looked at Rachel. "Get ready to boost the throw."

She nodded.

He activated a grenade and it as far as he could into the cave. The moment it left his hand, there was a powerful gust of wind that carried it faster than his arm could've alone. There was a slight shaking of the earth and it sounded like Havorleth had jumped backwards, then:

BOOM!

Ethan and Rachel were showered in earth as a huge cloud of dust poured from the cave's entrance. Rachel put her sleeve over her mouth and Ethan dumped the metal grenades on the ground so he could use the cloth satchel as a filter.

"Again" he said, lobbing another grenade, which Rachel again boosted far into the cave.

BOOM!

Another shower of dust and earth covered them, which gave him an idea.

"Rachel, I'm going to lob a few grenades to create a smoke screen so I can get to Alana. I need you to boost the throw, but don't let them get near where Alana is hiding."

"Done!" She hissed. "Kill that bitch."

Ethan dropped his weapons and grabbed three of the metal grenades. He lobbed them as far as he could over his head somewhat blindly in the Kendra's direction. He felt a sudden and powerful burst of wind moments later.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

He chanced a peek over the top of the rock. The grenades had landed more or less on target. One of them was way off, but the other two had created a nice plume of smoke-like dust that obscured both his and the Dragon huntress's vision.

He grabbed two of the remaining metal grenades, but dropped the other three metal grenades at Rachel's feet.

"Keep Havorleth occupied." He said. "I'm going after Alana."

She nodded and he took off running as fast as he could. He would've flown, but was worried the altitude would expose him to Kendra's arrows. Not long afterward, a stiff breeze arose from out of nowhere and started blowing the smoke away.

"Kendra." He growled.

He ran as long as he dared, then hit the dirt behind a small rise in the earth. He waited until the strange breeze died down, then grabbed the two metal grenades and lobbed them over his head toward Kendra again. He made sure they wouldn't go far enough to put his bride in danger.

BOOM! BOOM!

He gave it a second for the dust clouds to fully develop, then charged straight toward her, calling his dropped weapons to his hands as he ran. He burst through the cloud of smoke ready to dodge an arrow and throw his spear...

But Kendra was nowhere to be seen.

Throwing caution to the wind, he leapt forward, using his wings to give him a boost. He landed just behind the boulder that Alana had been hidden behind.

She was okay.

She was unconscious on the ground but didn't have a mark on her. He checked her pulse, which was strong and healthy. She didn't even look like she had any bruises.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

The scales on the back of his neck stood up.

He whipped around to see Kendra a mere dozen yards away. Her bow was drawn and a triumphant smile was on her face. The dragon huntress had once again laid a trap... and once again he'd fallen for it. She had him dead to rights.

She loosed the arrow.

* * *

Beth had run as fast as she could to keep up with Ethan as he'd charged across the field to save Alana. It wasn't easy, even with him stopping to throw a second round of grenades.

As he leapt into the air to get around the boulder, Kendra emerged, having taken shelter behind a nearby bush. As Ethan hit the apex of his leap, she stood up and drew her bow.

Beth charged at her as fast as she could and put all of her concentration and willpower into making her hands solid. Her plan was to knock the bow out of Kendra's hands.

It didn't work.

The dragon huntresses was incredibly strong for some reason and Beth just couldn't make her hands solid enough. Her hands hit the bow, but only slightly jarred it just as the arrow left the string.

* * *

"You fucking Saidow spawn!" Kendra screamed in rage and frustration as her bow was jarred by an invisible force, causing the arrow to go off its mark slightly. The dragon howled in pain as the arrow grazed its shoulder and the cross bar slammed into the wound. But she could tell it wasn't a serious wound. It probably wouldn't even slow the beast down.

Then it was her turn to dodge as the dragon's accursed hammer came flying at her head. She leapt out of the way, her pulse racing as she remembered what had happened the last time she'd encountered it. The dragon had survived then too.

It didn't make sense.

How?

How in Illuminar's name had that beast managed to elude death at her hands; not once, not twice, not even thrice, but four times!

"Fuck!" She shouted as she dived again to avoid the hammer.

Boom!

Another one of those artificial thunder peals sounded at the entrance to the larger dragon's lair. There was a mighty dragon's roar and then a dragon twice her mark's size bounded out of its cave and took to the skies. It was coughing and spluttering as if trying to catch its breath. She didn't blame it with the amount of dust that was pouring from the cave.

Kendra grabbed her last Dragon Slayer Arrow from her quiver, knocked it to her bow, then turned to face the smaller dragon. It was maybe twenty feet away; close enough that she probably couldn't draw and fire before it was upon her.

Havorleth roared.

They both glanced at the larger dragon, then at each other.

As much as she wanted to kill the dragon facing her, he was a much smaller threat - literally - than the one now flying above them. Once the larger dragon cleared its eyes and lungs, it would attack in earnest. She wasn't prepared to fight two dragons at once, and she wasn't willing to die to kill the one in front of her.

"Shoot him." The smaller dragon nearly ordered as it lowered its spear slightly.

"And leave myself defenseless." She scoffed as she glanced at her last Dragon Slayer arrow. "Never."

It growled. "We fucked up. Our grenades chased him out of his lair and I'd bet my airship he won't stop until we're all cinders. I won't let him hurt my wife."

Its eyes blaze with a ferocious intensity. "Shoot him."

She shook her head. There was no way she could risk it. This beast would be upon her in moments and she would barely have time to draw her sword.

"Shoot him now." The dragon commanded.

She locked eyes with it and could feel its gaze boring into her, a weak compulsion to obey buried under it. She resisted easily and shook her head. She wasn't going to leave herself defenseless.

For one moment, her prey looked defeated. Its bravado left and it almost looked like a man about to lose everything. It glanced at the unconscious wood elf still laying by the boulder and she could see something behind its eyes. Something she'd never seen in a dragon before.

Desperation.

"Please." It pleaded as it glanced at the wood elf again, concern written all over its face. "Not for me for her. Please..." Its body language changed, and suddenly it looked more like a dragon protecting its gold as it commanded her. "Shoot. Him. Now."

She did.

She didn't know why.

It didn't make sense.

Something about the way it spoke perhaps. Something about its aggressive, commanding voice, or its posture maybe. Perhaps something about the urgency in its voice; the desperation of moments ago. Maybe the concern on its face when it looked at the wood elf.

She didn't know the reason.

In one smooth motion, Kendra the Dragon Huntress obeyed a dragon by turning, drawing her Dragon Slayer Bow back, and releasing her last Dragon Slayer Arrow at the larger dragon.

Havorleth roared in pain.

The arrow had missed its body but embedded itself in its wing. With a growl, the smaller dragon turned and leapt into the air, calling its hammer to its hand as it did so.

Kendra stared in disbelief.

Not only that the smaller dragon hadn't attacked her, but also that she had shot the larger one. Nothing explained it. Nothing whatsoever. She had never taken orders from a dragon before, though many of them had tried to command her.

Why?

Slowly, she shook herself out of her reverie and began to plan. She needed another arrow to kill the smaller dragon, but from where? Her first arrow was a hundred yards away and probably blunted after striking the stone. The third was embedded in the larger dragon.

But the second...

She looked around, trying to find the second arrow. After grazing the smaller dragon, the crossbar at the rear had hit its shoulder and thus it had careered off course and into the underbrush somewhere. It would take a while to find it, but with two dragons fighting it out above the field, she certainly had some time to spare.

* * *

Ethan charged his hammer as his powerful wings carried him into the skies above Havorleth. Unlike the previous night, this time he wouldn't miss. This time he was going to fry his enemy to a crisp. He felt a low growl escape his throat as his dragon nature rose in response to the other dragon nearby. He almost purred in satisfaction. He felt his blood rise and excitement grow in equal measure. The dragon inside of him was ecstatic.

At last; an equal to fight.

Havorleth was struggling to stay airborne with the arrow embedded in his wing, and it was clearly causing him a lot of pain. Ethan flew above him, and released his hammer's charge.

CRACK!

A bolt electricity arced downwards, striking Havorleth and then continued to the ground. The dragon himself cried out in pain, but otherwise didn't look to be very hurt. He flapped weakly with his injured wing, then aimed for the ground and made a controlled descent, almost crash-landing in the middle of the field.

He landed halfway between his lair and Alana's hiding place.

Ethan likewise dove towards the ground, flapping his wing at the last moment to slow his descent and dropped lightly to the earth.

Havorleth growled at him. "You'll pay for this whelp."

"Make me." Ethan laughed mirthlessly as he drew a wooden grenade and threw it at the ground at Havorleth's feet. The larger dragon wasn't taking any chances. He leapt to the side moments before the grenade exploded.

BOOM!

The explosion knocked Havorleth off balance and he stumbled, but quickly regained his balance. Evidently, Alana had been right about the shrapnel turning to ash within a short distance because he was completely unharmed.

Havorleth's eyes went wide as he looked at the small crater the grenade had left, then he glanced at the dust still pouring from his cave. "How?!"

Ethan grabbed another grenade and hefted it in his hands. He felt his blood rush as this fight made him feel alive. "You won't live long enough to find out."

He threw the grenade directly at Havorleth, who opened his mouth and spewed a geyser of flame at it. Moments later, the grenade exploded in midair between them, only two seconds after being activated. Apparently, the fuse's enchantment to draw heat worked a lot faster when surrounded by dragon's breath.

Havorleth bounded forward breathing fire, so Ethan leapt backwards and took to the skies. The larger dragon started to spread his wings, but winced as the motion jostled the arrow and he retracted them again.

That's when Rachel, Raklan and Serif charged.

Havorleth responded by turning toward them and spewing a veritable fountain of fire. Raklan and Serif took shelter behind their shields, Rachel dove behind Serif's shield and started syphoning heat away from dragon's breath. Moments later, she condensed the heat into tiny, fist-sized fireball, and launched it like a cannonball at Havorleth.

The larger dragon flinched at the impact and stopped breathing fire almost immediately.

Ethan dropped his hammer and called his spear to his hand. From up above, he flipped it around to use the armor-piercing spike and dove at Havorleth. At the last second, the larger dragon glanced up at the sky and jumped out of the way. Ethan flapped hard and landed where the other dragon had stood mere moments before.

Havorleth backed away as Serif, Raklan, Ethan, and Rachel advanced, the fiery mage sticking close to Serif and Raklan who held the large shields. As the larger dragon backed away, Ethan noticed that Havorleth was getting closer and closer to where Alana was lying unconscious.

He spread his wings, leapt into the air, and with a couple flaps landed between Havorleth and Alana. Unfortunately, the move backfired.

Badly.

The larger dragon glanced back at Ethan, then smiled and whipped around so he was facing the smaller dragon. He started swinging his tree-like tail back and forth to dissuade the humans behind him from attacking, and then advanced on the smaller dragon.

Ethan called his spear to his hand, though he had no choice but to give ground against a dragon that was over twice his size.

Havorleth shot a jet of flame, which Ethan dodged. Then another, which he also dodged. The larger dragon seemed to have given up on long spurts of fire after being hammered by Rachel several times. Ethan glanced behind himself and saw he was fast approaching the forest... and Alana's hiding place.

Then he saw Havorleth's eyes flick behind him and he smiled wickedly.

Ethan glanced behind himself and saw Kendra rooting around in the underbrush looking for something. She was barely ten feet from him and seemed oblivious to the battle, probably because of the noise she was making as she looked through the underbrush.

Havorleth looked at Ethan, smiled malevolently, and then let out a burst of flame toward Kendra.

Ethan reacted on instinct.

He was sure why.

Kendra had tried to kill him at least four times now, and she was probably looking for her missing arrow to try and kill him again. She clearly hated him and wanted him dead. He didn't think she would ever stop trying to kill him.

All this and more raced through his mind as he leapt through the air toward her.

It didn't make sense.

He vaguely remembered Gabriella's admonition to not let the woman with the lighting shaped scar on her chest - Kendra - die. Maybe that was the reason? Maybe it was just because he didn't want to see someone get burned alive.

Maybe it was just instinct to save a woman in trouble.

He wasn't sure, but he didn't have time to think about it, because that's when he slammed into Kendra, knocking her out of the way.

* * *

Kendra was fuming as she tore through the underbrush looking for the last dragon slayer arrow. She wanted that dragon dead.

Now.

It wasn't until she heard a cry of warning behind her that she realized she'd made a deadly mistake. She had been so focused on what she was doing and her own rage that she'd completely lost track of her surroundings. She looked behind her to see a jet of dragon fire heading for her exact position.

She was waist deep in a bush and wouldn't be able to get out in time because it was too thick.

She was trapped.

She was going to die.

She closed her eyes and waited for the fire to incinerate her, only dimly aware that she would be burning alive long enough to wish she was already dead.

WHAM!

Something heavy slammed into her.

Strong arms wrapped around her, preventing her from moving as she flew through the air. She heard a grunt of pain as she opened her eyes and looked directly into the pain-filled face of the steel-gray dragon she'd been hunting for the better part of a week.

Her reflexes kicked in as they hit the ground and she rolled into a crouching position.

The dragon's back was on fire and it rolled on the ground to put it out. It was wincing the whole time. It finally rolled onto its feet, pain on its face and determination in its posture as it completely ignored her and turned to face the larger dragon again.

It charged forward to meet Havorleth and she could see the burn marks on its back. Burn marks it had received by saving her from dragon's fire. If it hadn't done that, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would be dead. She'd seen what dragon's breath did to unprotected flesh. She wouldn't have stood a chance.

That beast had just saved her life.

Again.

It had killed her in the Arena, then brought her back to life, then just saved her life again.

It had killed her and then saved her life twice...

...just as Luminar Kossel had predicted someone would. He'd said it would be someone she would never suspect. He'd said that person would be her best - and probably last - chance in life to have a true friend. The full weight of what he'd said and what it meant for her - and the dragon - hit her at that moment.

"Fuck!"

* * *

Ethan grimaced as every movement made his back feel like it was being scrapped over a bed of hot coals. He applied his mana to start healing, but it was slow going. He thought dragon scales were supposed to be heat resistant. Of course, he wasn't burned alive, so maybe they were.

Havorleth had turned around to face Rachel, serif and Raklan. The two men were spaced a half dozen feet apart to cover each other. They were advancing with their shields raised and long spears held ready. Rachel was standing by herself, as if daring the dragon to breathe fire at her again.

He didn't.

Ethan reached into his bag and pulled out the last wooden grenade. He needed to make this count. Havorleth was doing a good job at holding the others off, and victory was by no means guaranteed.

The larger dragon was clearly very experienced at fighting men armed with spears and shields. He was dodging and weaving around just enough to keep them off balance, while trying to knock their spears out of position. If he did, he could simply charge and run them over. They apparently knew this, and didn't give him the chance.

Ethan realized that he shouldn't be surprised that Raklan and Serif were so skilled at fighting dragons because Lord Borden had never seemed to fully trust him, even after he married his daughter. It made sense that he sent two men to guard his daughter who clearly had significant experience fighting dragons.

Ethan crept forward as quietly as he could, trying to get within a good distance to accurately throw. There was a tense minute as he did so, but he was finally close enough to the distracted dragon. He armed and then tossed the grenade. It bounced and rolled directly underneath the other dragon. He waited two seconds, then called out.

"Hey Havorleth."

The other dragon whipped around on all fours and Ethan pointed to his feet. Havorleth looked down and saw the grenade sitting between his forelegs. His eyes went wide.

BOOM!

The dragon roared in pain. He stood up on his hind legs and looked at his arms, shock and disbelief written all over his face. Thanks to his enchanted scales, his arms hadn't been blown off, but they were a bit of a mess. The shrapnel had pierced the scales in several places and his arms were covered in blood.

He was still swinging his tail back and forth to discourage those behind him from attacking. He started to spread his wings, then winced in pain as the arrow still embedded in one of them was jarred. The larger dragon turned so he had Ethan on the one side and the others on another. He then began to slowly back away using only his hind legs.

"You're done Havorleth." Ethan said. "Give up."

"I would never shame myself by surrendering to filthy human cattle." He spat, then grimaced at the pain of moving.

"You wouldn't losing to humans; you'd be losing to a fellow dragon. Where's the shame in that?" Ethan countered, hoping to resolve this before the larger dragon realized they were out of grenades.

He glanced at the humans, then back to Ethan. "You would make me leave my hoard?"

"I would have you live." Ethan said. "But you'll live far away from here. Here is the deal: You will leave this place; you'll leave and never come back. In return, we will spare your life."

Havorleth sneered. "We?"

"I will spare your life." He corrected himself. "You still aren't losing to humans."

Just out of Havorleth's eye-line, Raklan opened his mouth to object. Serif smacked him upside the head and he remained silent.

Havorleth stared at Ethan for several seconds. He glanced toward his cave, then at his mangled arms, then back to Ethan.

A sly smile crossed his face.

"Sure, you can have my hoard..." His sly smiled turned into a wicked one and he looked almost triumphant. "...and everything that comes with it."

"Such as?"

The same wicked smile became broader. "You'll see."

Ethan felt like he had just been tricked somehow, but didn't see another way out of this tense standoff. If it was just him, maybe. But Alana was lying unconscious and helpless a dozen yards away. He wasn't willing to take risks with her so unprotected and vulnerable.

He nodded. "Then go."

Havorleth nodded, inclining his head slightly in a gesture of respect, which seemed oddly out of place given the wickedly sly smile on his face.

He then opened his wing so he could look directly at the arrow embedded in it. He started at it for almost a full minute as he seemed to be collecting himself. Then he opened his mouth and a jet of extremely concentrated flame came out. It looked more like a blowtorch than a flame thrower.

He aimed the highly concentrated flame at the arrow's shaft. About thirty seconds later, half of the arrow fell to the ground. Havorleth screwed up his face, and in one sharp motion pulled the other half out of his wing.

He howled in pain.

After collecting himself, he began to stare at his wing and Ethan could see the wound begin to close. About a minute later, it was healed and the larger dragon flapped his wings experimentally.

He turned to Ethan. "We will meet again, whelp." Then Havorleth leapt into the sky and flew off into the distance.

Rachel walked over to Ethan and they watched together as the dragon almost cheerfully flew away from his hoard of gold.

The redhead looked at Ethan. "Did that seem-"

"- a little too easy?" He nodded. "Yeah, it absolutely did." He stared after the dragon for several moments, then remembered...

"Alana." He breathed, and whipped around just in time to see Kendra pulling her Dragon Slayer bow back, a Dragon Slayer arrow knocked into the string. She had found the arrow...

...and It was aimed at his heart.

No one moved.

He barely breathed.

Kendra just stood there, bow drawn back and eyes filled with rage, confusion and hate, but she hadn't let the arrow fly...

Yet.

"Why?" She asked as she glanced at his shoulder, where the burn marks from where he had saved her life were still visible.

"I don't know." He replied honestly.

* * *

"How could you not know?" Kendra almost spat.

Her arms were starting to get tired from holding the bow drawn despite her strength-enhancing vambraces. If she was going to kill him, she'd need to loose the arrow soon.

The dragon shrugged.

Her arms were extremely tired.

It didn't make sense. Why in Illuminar's name would a dragon that she'd tried to kill four times rescue her? It didn't make any sense. It gained nothing from doing so and put itself at great risk by the act.

So why!?

"Tell me, or this goes through your heart."

She looked into its eyes.

For the first time, she really looked at them. They were fairly typical dragon eyes; green with cat-like slits for the pupil. But that wasn't was caught her attention. She had looked many dragons in the eye before ending their lives. She seen rage, hate, disgust, disbelief, shock, and many other things in dragon eyes...

But never kindness.

Never sadness.

Never concern.

The dragon's eyes flicked to the boulder near her feet where the wood elf still lay unconscious.

"Did you hurt her?" It asked, eyes full of concern.

She could tell - she wasn't sure how - but she could tell this dragon truly cared. It was sincere in its concern. It wasn't putting on a show or bluffing. She'd learned to read people extremely well.

It really was concerned.

Kendra slowly let the bowstring back down so the bow wasn't drawn anymore, but didn't lower it.

"She's unhurt." Kendra said, but kept the un-drawn bow aimed at the dragon. "She will feel like shit for a couple hours after waking, but she'll be fine afterward."

The dragon's eyes narrowed, a different emotion replacing the concern. Something darker; something malevolent. She couldn't meet its eyes and looked away, before looking back again.

It walked up to her and stood mere feet away.

She didn't stop it.

Its head was inches from hers. She could smell its breath. She could've counted the tiny scales around its mouth. She had allowed a dragon to step into her personal space.

She hadn't stopped it.

She had let it approach.

She didn't know why, but she didn't.

She hadn't drawn her bow, warned it away, or even taken a step back. She had just stood there, unable to meet its eyes as it towered over her. It wasn't even that big, but somehow its bearing and demeanor made her feel cowed; almost like a child facing a parent after misbehaving.

"Look at me." It hissed.

She did.

"Listen." It commanded with venom behind its eyes. "I can forgive you coming after me, even after I saved your life. I can forgive all the attempts to kill me. I can even make peace with the fact that you'll probably keep trying to kill me because I won't kill you in cold blood."

She looked away, not able to meet its eyes.

"LOOK AT ME!" It boomed.

She complied.

The cold fury behind its eyes was unnerving. She had never seen such depth of emotion behind a beast's eyes before, not even a dragon's. It wasn't merely bestial rage either; this was something else. It looked almost...

Almost...

Human?

"I can deal with all that." It said, the emotion behind its eyes intensifying as its volume lowered to almost a growl. "But let me make one thing perfectly clear. If you ever harm a single hair on Alana's head, I swear I'll tear you limb from fucking limb."

It spat the words in low, quiet, and deadly tone. Not loud - that would've been more bearable - but with a conviction that was almost scary. No, scary wasn't a strong enough word.

It was truly terrifying.

Kendra nodded.

At that moment, she realized the only reason she was still alive was she hadn't hurt the wood elf. She'd seen men do incredible things under adrenaline. Something told her that even if she had put the arrow through its heart, it would've killed her before dying itself.

"Do you understand?" It hissed.

She nodded.

It growled threateningly. "Do. You. Under. Stand?"

She swallowed hard and whispered. "Yes."

"Then go!" It stretched out one of its long arms and pointed a long, clawed finger toward the forest from whence they'd come.

Kendra obeyed.

She didn't think, she just complied.

She turned and ran into the forest. She barely had the presence of mind to hang onto her last dragon slayer arrow and not drop the bow.

She just ran.

She didn't know why she was running. She didn't understand. She had never - not once in her entire life - taken orders from a dragon before. Yet today she had done so. Not once, but twice. Twice she listened to this dragon.

Why?

It didn't make any sense.

She'd had the beast dead to rights. She had the arrow knocked, the bow aimed, and her fingers primed for release. Why hadn't she killed it? That's what she'd come for; why couldn't she follow through?

Why had it saved her?

Why did it have such care and concern behind its eyes?

Why did it seem so protective of that wood elf?

She had never heard of such a thing before. Dragons weren't even protective of the women who they raped to carry their brood. But this one dragon, this one beast was different. Out of all the dragons that roamed their land, this one seemed to want to protect someone else.

Why this dragon?

Why this elf?

Most of all, she didn't understand why it had saved her life.

She couldn't wrap her mind around it.

It didn't make sense.

After all she'd done to kill it, it had saved her. It had saved her not once, but twice. The second time, it had taken dragon flames to its back to save her.

Why?

* * *

"Alana." A voice said as she felt a gently shaking

*Alana.* The voice repeated inside her head, gently nudging her mind.

She groaned. Her head felt like someone had used it for a drum.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Not so loud." She moaned as she tried to open her eyes. The light of the early morning sun viciously attacked her retinas and she slammed her eyelids shut. She clutched her stomach. It felt like a whole bowl of worms were rooting around in there.

"Are you okay?" He whispered.

"I think so." She said, but it turned out that opening her mouth again was a bad idea. She had just enough time to turn before she emptied her breakfast all over the ground. Thankfully, someone - probably Ethan - grabbed her hair and held it out of the way before she did so.

"Can you heal yourself?" He asked.

She started shivering as she tried to focus her mana. It took some time, but she was finally able to start purging her body of whatever had knocked her out. It didn't work very well or quickly. It seemed to be actively resisting her attempts to cleanse it from her body.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked as she remembered why they were there in the first place.

"Everyone is fine; don't worry."

"Okay, then I'm going to lay down." She said, making sure to avoid the vomit as she did so.

"I got you." Ethan said.

She felt strong arms pick her up and she just relaxed into them, still not opening her eyes because of the brightness of the sun. She just relaxed in the arms of her beloved, knowing he would keep her safe.

Fifteen minutes later, he gently set her down on a soft patch of grass-covered earth. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell it was in the shade. He was so thoughtful.

"We're at the ladder to the Argo, so rest until you feel up to climbing it." He said.

"Okay." She nodded. The nausea had lessened and she began to concentrate on cleansing her body of the toxins. It took the better part of twenty minutes because they were so resistant to removal, but finally she had purged them enough that she felt okay again. It probably would've taken hours without magical healing.

She opened her eyes.

Ethan was standing nearby, staring into the sky.

"What happened?" She asked.

He explained everything, including Kendra's strange behavior.

"I'm glad she didn't hurt you." Alana frowned. "But that's very strange. Why would a dragon hunter..."

"I know right?" He agreed. "I'm not complaining though because she might've saved all our lives. Shooting Havorleth made a huge difference. I'm not sure we would all be alive if she hadn't."

"And she didn't hurt me, or your baby." Alana mused.

"Our baby." He corrected.

"Why do I keep doing that?" She put her hand protectively over her womb. "I love our baby with all my heart and would never let anything happen to her. Why do I keep calling her 'yours' instead of 'ours'?"

"I don't know, but I do know you're going to be a great mother."

"Really?"

"Absolutely." He said with conviction. "There's no doubt whatsoever in my mind."

She felt her heart soar. She leapt off the ground, nearly lost her balance, and then gave him a massive hug.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." He said with a chuckle as he returned her hug.

"Me too." She let go and looked into her husband's eyes. Some part of her refused to believe she was so completely in love with a dragon, and yet she was. He gave her a lopsided grin and she couldn't help but smile in return.

"I'm so glad I married you..." She felt a familiar tingling sensation in her loins, so she added. "...sir."

"You are insatiable."

She nodded, then reached down to the hem of her dress.

"Wait." He caught her hand. "Right here?"

She looked up at the Argo and then to a nearby clutch of trees that was probably big enough to keep them hidden. "We can be creative."

He shook his head, and there was suddenly something of the dragon behind his eyes. "Not where anyone else might see."

"Okay." She nodded and reluctantly let go of the hem of her dress. "I suppose you should save your energy for Taloni anyway."

Ethan's eyes doubled in size. "What?"

"Well, we're going to free her now, right?"

He nodded.

"Don't you want to take your new wife to bed?" Alana asked, not understanding what he was missing.

"Oh." He said as a small burst of arousal come over their bond. "Yeah, I mean if we're going to free her then..." He looked at her. "And you're okay with this?"

She let her arousal at the idea seep over their bond. "More than okay. Just be gentle with her; it'll be her first time. The more she enjoys it the more she'll want to do it again."

Again, he looked confused. "...and that's something you want?"

"Mmm hmm." She nodded, the tingling feeling between her legs grew stronger. "I absolutely do."

"Why?"

"Um." She couldn't quite meet his eyes anymore and felt her cheeks grow rather warm. "Because?"

"Because why?"

"Um... I..." she stalled, trying to think how to avoid answering the question. "I just think that... That you..."

"Alana." Ethan used the side of his index finger to gently raise her chin so she looked him in the eye. "Why is that something you want?"

Her cheeks were definitely getting very warm, and it had nothing to do with the weather. "The Um... the idea... the thought, had occurred to me before and... I didn't, I don't exactly hate it."

"So, you don't exactly hate the idea of me having sex with another woman?" He raised an eyebrow. "I know you said before that you'd be okay with it. Heck, you even insinuated you wanted to watch. I thought you were joking though."

She bit her lip and shook her head ever so slightly.

"Well, well, well. Whatever happened to the innocent little wood elf I met a couple months ago?"

"She got married and..." She took a deep breath. "...and repeatedly impaled on your magnificent..." she turned beet red and couldn't quite get the word out. "Well, you know... sir."

"I do know." He gave her a sly smile. "You got repeatedly impaled by my cock. Go ahead, you can say it."

Alana took a moment to compose her thoughts, trying to prevent herself from turning even redder. "I got impaled by your... your..." She took another breath. "By your cock... sir."

She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I just said that."

He put his arms around her, chuckling slightly. "Was that so hard? Especially after what we've done in bed?"

She shook her head while leaning on his chest.

"So you'd like to be there huh?"

She hesitated a moment, then nodded.

"I suppose if Taloni doesn't mind, I certainly don't." He said with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.

She looked up, met his eyes, and then looked down again. "Really?"

"Really, as long as she's comfortable with it." He cocked his head to one side. "If she's as squeamish as you though, it might take a little while for her to warm to the idea."

"Okay, I'm patient." She felt a strange sort of calm come over her. She hadn't realized it before, but she'd been scared to admit to Ethan how much she wanted to be there when he took his other wife to bed. She wanted it so much, she could feel herself starting to get wet. Now that she'd told him and he'd accepted it, it was like a breath of fresh air.

She relaxed, and - with the anxiety gone - felt much freer to express how she was truly feeling; what she truly wanted.

"Sir." She said with a sultry smile. "Shouldn't we get you ready for you to take your other wife to bed?"

"Absolutely." He growled slightly, the desire in his voice and in their bond was almost palpable.

She walked over to the rope ladder leading to the Argo, Ethan motioned for her to go first, and his eyes on her butt left her in no doubt as to why he wanted her to go first. She had only gotten up about ten feet when she realized he wasn't behind her.

He was looking around as if searching for something.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Whoever or whatever pushed me saved my life. I just wish I knew who or what it was." He shrugged, then stepped toward the ladder.

"Hey!" He shouted as he jumped back touching his shoulder.

"What?" Alana asked in alarm.

"Something just touched me." He looked around.

There was no one there.

* * *

Kendra ran.

She ran fleeing what had just happened as much as the dragon who'd told her to flee.

She ran until she reached her tiny airship. She jumped into it and then realized that there was nowhere left to run. This was the end of the line. A sad as it was, as pathetic as it was, this tiny little airship was the closest thing to a home she had ever had.

She sat down on the chair meant for one. She looked around at the lack of space for anyone who wasn't bound and gagged.

It felt pathetic.

She felt pathetic.

She felt her eyes grow watery and resolved to put the entire thing out of her mind. This was her lot in life; to be lonely. She'd been warned about that when she'd started her training. She hadn't grasped the full meaning, but she'd been warned. She just didn't realize it would be like this.

She felt a tear roll down her cheek.

She brushed it away.

Another tear made its way down her cheek. Then another. She looked into the big blue sky and blinked trying to clear them. They wouldn't stop. That hole in her heart - the immense void left by the absence of friends and family - it was swallowing her alive. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to make the tears stop.

They wouldn't.

She barely made a sound. She just let the tears fall silently. She felt her throat get tight and her breathing became shaky. Still she didn't make a sound. There was nothing to be said.

There was one to hear her.

She was completely alone.

She slumped back and lay down, her head resting on some coiled rope that she used for a pillow. She grabbed the thick blanket she used to keep warm on cold nights and pulled it over herself. Not for the first time, she wished that she wasn't alone under that blanket.

The tears still kept silently falling.

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift. Strangely, it drifted to what Luminar Kossel had said. He'd said the person who killed her and then saved her life twice would be her best chance for having a true friend.

She couldn't believe it.

It just wasn't possible.

Not a dragon.

Anyone or anything but a dragon.

If the message really was from Illuminar, why in Saidow's Lair had He chosen a dragon? What kind of despicable torture - what kind of cruel joke was that? What kind of God would want her to be friends with a dragon, especially after everything those foul beasts had taken from her?

She pulled the heavy blanket closer and tighter, trying to wring some comfort from the weight. It didn't work. Her bed was just as empty as her heart. She couldn't bear it anymore and pulled the blanket up over her head. There, under the covers she tried to feel safe.

That didn't work either.

Unbidden, the dragon's eyes came to her mind. The care and concern in its eyes when it asked about the elf were just... just...

There were no words.

She wished that someone - anyone - would care about her like that. That if she ever found herself as helpless as the wood elf, that someone - anyone - would come to her rescue like the dragon had come to the elf's. She wished someone cared enough about her to threaten to tear anyone who hurt her 'limb from fucking limb'. She utterly despised the idea of being helpless, but to have someone care about her that much...

Despite the fact that he was a dragon, he truly seemed to care about the elf.

As she drifted off to sleep, she realized that this was the first time she'd ever thought of a dragon as a "he", not an "it". She was too tired to consider it much, but it seemed important.

That was her last thought as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Ethan looked around, trying to figure out what had touched him as Alana looked on in concern.

"I know something touched me. Maybe it was..." He looked around.

No one was there.

He frowned. "If whoever just touched me is the same person who saved my life earlier, say something.

Silence.

"Maybe they can't speak?" Alana suggested as she climbed back down.

"Okay." He nodded and said to the general area. "If whoever is out there is who saved me earlier, tap my shoulder twice. If not, tap it once."

There was a brief pause, then he felt two taps on his shoulder: Tap, tap.

"Who are you?"

Silence.

"Right, you can't speak." Ethan mused. "Do I know you?"

Tap, tap.

He and Alana looked at each other.

*What's going on?* He said telepathically.

*I don't know. Maybe try asking more questions?*

"Do you know Alana?" He said aloud, indicating the wood elf.

Tap, tap.

"Do you have a name?"

Tap, tap.

"You said I know you, do I know your name?"

Tap, tap.

"Hmm, you can touch but not talk." He mused. "Can you write your name in the dirt?"

Tap, tap.

A moment later, Ethan saw the dirt in a grassless patch of earth nearby begin to move, as if someone was writing in it with a finger. They seemed to be having trouble though. It took them a couple tries to make a vertical line. Not long after, it took them a few more tries to make a loop at the top of the line.

"P? Your name starts with P?" Alana guessed. Moments later, Alana looked up and said "One tap means no right?"

He nodded.

"Okay, not 'P' then."

They both watched as a capital 'B' was formed, followed by a capital 'E'."

"Wait a minute." Ethans's jaw dropped. "No, no it couldn't be. Is it..." He looked at Alana.

"What, do you know-" Suddenly, her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth. "Oh dear Illuminar in heaven." She breathed, seemingly too stunned to say anything else.

AS they stared at the 'BE' that was written in the dirt, another vertical line started forming next to it.

"Beth?" Ethan breathed in disbelief. "Beth, is that you?"

Tap, tap.

This time, the taps were more forceful, as if the person making them was extremely excited. He look at Alana and his mouth fell open.

"She's alive." He breathed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

***I've decided to release these on a set schedule so my amazing readers - that's you - always know when the next chapter is coming out. My schedule works best to submit them on Wednesdays, so they're usually published by Friday or Saturday (after the review process). I'll aim for the last Fri/Sat of the month. So if you don't see a new chapter on the last Friday or Saturday of the month, check my profile page and I should have an update/reason/predicted publishing date.

Thanks again for all the support and comments. I always appreciate seeing them. :) ***