“No! I would never. I will share my rations with him.”
He rolled his eyes so strongly it was a wonder they didn’t tumble from his skull. “Right, yeah, because a skinny elf’s nuts, berries, and dry bread will satisfy a meat-eater the size of a tundra wolfhound.” I frowned, the grin I had worn now gone. “Chirp, you ain’t thinking this out right. I’m all for doing what we can for the beast, but this land, Melowynn, it ain’t seen a dragon for thousands of seasons. What are we going to do with it? Turn it loose to kill livestock and villagers?”
“It is too small to kill cattle or people.”
“Now. It’s too smallnow. Look at its mother! That is what this beast will grow into. You willing to let loose a terror? We dwarves dealt with these beasts in the past. Thousands died trying to mine or just travel through the tunnels to trade, so forgive me if we ain’t as fluttery over the bloodthirsty monsters as your kind are.”
“It isnota monster. It is a godhead.” His jaw dropped, bits of dust falling from his mustache to his beard as shouts from the other chamber grew more heated. “It is a divine being. Danubia speaks of this in her lessons! She says that in the oldest dawn, dragons carried the very first hymnals. Few among us remember those songs, but they are eternal. They touched the divine, and the divine touched them. That is enough to unsettle the world. Dragons are holy. Their fire, ice, and thunder are the spark of creation, and their wings the memory of the cosmos. Wheresoever a dragon treads, the land remembers. So, children of the green paths, she said, honor the dragons. They are holy, born of earth, sky, and spirit. To harm one without just cause is to wound the balance of nature itself.”
He slapped a dirty hand over his face to scrub it roughly. When he lowered it, his eyebrows were disheveled.
“I should have known better. Taking a fucking druid anywhere then expecting them to see reason when faced with a decision best left to those with less sentiment about such things.”
“Let no mortals doubt. Dragons are holy. Their fire consecrates, and their roar nature’s prayer. The beat of their wings is a hymn older than your oldest stone. Those are the words of the goddess taught to me by Kenton and Beirich. I willnotgo against my goddess’s teachings. None shall harm this divine being.”
“Beiro, sweet, listen to reason.”
“No! I will teach him what to eat like his mother would have if she had not been slain byyourbloodthirstyancestors.”
He gave my fingers a squeeze. “Look, Vol’ka Dor, I know you and this beast have been communicating in some way for days, and I respect that. I do. I marvel over the fact that we found this nest, and I plan to send a missive to the lore keepers and historians of Grommveldir so they can come gather the remains of our ancestors and lay them in the stone where they belong, but this kit needs to join the rest of the dragons.”
“No. No. I will not allow you to slay this holy one!” I jumped to my feet, nocked an arrow and had it pointed between his wide blue eyes before he could move.
“Damn emotional elves.” He stood. I kept my arrow trained on the knot between his brows. “We don’t have time to play with this dragonling. We’re on a mission foryourking. Nowhere on the mission plan did it say save a fucking frozen dragon. Now, you need to lower your bow and let me put the creature out of its misery.” He did not have his war hammer, I noticed. Did he plan to break Jaculi’s neck? No, I would not allow it. I shook my head, a strand of red hair falling into my left eye. “Chirp, wecannotbring a dragon out of this mountain. It’ll tear the lands apart.”
“I will teach it.” He stared at me in utter confusion, mixed with aggravation. “Iwillteach it. It will be tamed down and—” His snort of amusement rankled me. “Tamed down, and it will live with me somewhere far from towns. It will find food in the forests as the wolves do.”
“They can fly, Chirp. And, in case you didn’t notice, when it’s full-grown, it’ll be the size of four Bhaston longhouses laid end to end.”
“I know! I am not a dimwit simply because I am not literate like you!”
Beiro friend. Food…
I winced at the force the dragon’s thoughts now possessed since it was in and out of a deep slumber. Credit given to my lover, if he was still willing to be called that after this confrontation, he did not waver, even with the point of an arrow mere inches from his head.
“I never said you were a dimwit, Chirp. I said you were emotional. That’s an elf trait.”
“Pfft.”
He gave his beard a sound tug as his sight flickered from Jaculi to me and back to the beast. “Your people for honest think these beasts are divine?” I nodded, bowstring cutting into my fingertips. He blew out a long breath that steamed in front of him. “By the blessed boots of the Stonefather, I wish I’d known what a ginger tempest you were deep down.”
“Would you have turned down the job?”
“Nay, probably not. I like the feel of you spread out under me. A keg of ale has more brains than I.” His shoulders sagged. “Fine, we take the divine one into the next chamber. You’re responsible for teaching that dwarf eater all its lessons. The first teaching being that it don’t chew on anyone with two legs nor our fucking ponies. First time I see it eyeing my cock when I’m taking a piss, I’ll make myself some new boots from its hide. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, we do. Thank you.” I let off the draw and lowered my bow. “Danubia shall grace you and your progeny with her loving grace.”
“Prodigy. Right, well, since that ain’t happening, maybe she can figure out how you’re going to raise a dragon instead of fixating on my spend.”
“She will guide me. My mentors will assist. The wood elves will celebrate!” I bent down to peck his dirty cheek.
“Dandelion eaters,” he mumbled before giving my cheek a gentle pat. “Gather him up, and we’ll find our way out of this den of death and misery.”
Quickly doing as bidden, I slung my bow and quiver over my shoulder and gently lifted the dragonling up into my arms. It curled into my chest, seeking warmth, so I tucked him under my clothing. His icy cold scales made me gasp, but I cradled him there, his tail dangling out the front to tap my thigh when I walked.
Warm. Friend. Warm.
All will be well, Jaculi.
