Page 62 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

Iahir swore softly. “Even the horses know to steer clear of a dragon.”

“We cannot,” she said. “We do not know if my mother is alive or not.”

“No, I know,” he said, letting out long, noisy breaths. “I know.”

16

“ALL RIGHT,” IAHIR was saying as he paced in front of the fire. It was hours later. They had eaten only a small amount of what they had been eating, because they were trying to make the provisions they’d brought last. It was dark now. “In the stories, the dragons are often sort of symbolic stand-ins for greed. The stories are moral lessons, and the lesson is always that you must not covet things you do not have, and the hero always beats the dragon by rising above the temptation to greed.”

“This isn’t a story,” said Gathren.

He was worried about her. She seemed quite exhausted, but she was also very stubbornly determined they try again to get into the dragon’s lair, and he could understand that. “I know it’s not a story,” he said. “It isn’t going to go like that. I’m sort of wondering if we have it all wrong, dragons.”

She didn’t even say anything. She stared into the fire.

“Think about it,” he said, continuing to pace. “What if dragons do not have those hoards for themselves, but as a deterrent?”

“What?” she said, furrowing her brow.

“What could a dragon do with all of that?” he said. “What would a dragon want with it? Wealth and riches are only usable within a society, they are only usable if there is trade of some sort. And they are only worth what it is agreed they are worth. If I demand a price for something that no one will pay, then it is not worth that. The price is only whatever someone will agree to pay.”

“I have no idea what you are going on about,” she said.

“Well, they are solitary,” he said. “So, there is absolutely no point in having wealth at all.”

“All right,” she said. “I suppose. Fascinating, really, but I don’t see how that helps us.”

“They have the hoards so that the humans will find the hoards first, take the riches, and leave them be!”

Gathren sat up straight. “Possibly, I suppose.”

“They’re likely frightened of us,” he said. “We have those treaties, you know, but it’s still very common to shoot a dragon down on sight, even before it razes your crops with fire. People see one, and they go get the bows and arrows.”

“It’s a wonder that no one shot this one,” Gathren muttered. She looked at him. “Why do we not have bows and arrows, you and I?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “We didn’t really plan for this, did we?”

“But think,” she said. “For hunting.”

“Right,” he said with a sigh. “Would have been useful. All right, well, if we get to another village at some point, I will buy us both something, how is that?”

“It’s no good against the dragon,” she said, gesturing upwards.

“At some point, dragons must have figured out that if they put large piles of riches in the front of their lairs, people would just come and take that, and then they would never go any further,” said Iahir.

“It doesn’t seem as if dragons really need to worry about anything,” said Gathren. “They breathe fire.”

“Yes, and that’s why there’s ever so many of them still around, is it? They’ve all been killed, really.”

“Are we feeling sorry for the dragon?” she said. “Is that what is happening? Because I think it tried to kill us.”

“I don’t think it did. I think if it wanted us dead, it would have killed us already,” said Iahir. “I think it wants us to go away.”

“Well, we can’t! Not until we know about my mother,” said Gathren.

“Right,” said Iahir. “But that’s why I think we go back up there and demand it tell us about her.”

“And I think that’s a grand way to get burned to death,” said Gathren. “I think we need to find some way to kill it the next time it comes out and flies around. Do you think that I could get a knife all the way up—”