The Half-Breed's Penance

"There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.”

Kai looked up at the mother and son riding in the wagon ahead of him. Cradled in her arms, the boy shook with visible terror, eyes locked on the sky for signs of trouble. He couldn’t have been older than four or five summers.

“And you’ll see,” the mother continued. “Times will come again when we don’t have to watch the sky with fear.”

Kai snorted, drawing a disapproving glare from the young mother as she stroked her son’s hair. One of the older men in the wagon squared his shoulders and glared down at him. “You got a problem, boy?”

Kai met his gaze flatly, annoyed. Typical. Another old Etashian with a chip on his shoulder. Why was it always the old men that sought to put him in his place? He could practically feel the disdain dripping from the man’s glare. It was much the same anywhere Kai went, met with withering stares or horrified gasps. Half the people in the wagon refused to even look in his direction, let alone glare at him. But not the Etashian. He wore his bias as plainly as the shirt on his back.

Readjusting the massive crossbow slung over his shoulder, Kai shrugged nonchalantly and shook his head. “No problem. I’m just allergic to stupid promises.”

The soldier escorting the wagon chuckled. Taken aback, the mother opened her mouth and shut it again quickly. She looked at the other refugees in the wagon helplessly, many of them pretending not to have heard the exchange, then dropped her gaze down to the child in her lap. She muttered something under her breath, then shifted to shield her son from Kai.

The Etashian’s gaze narrowed further, his wrinkled brows coming together like some unruly, hairy thing creeping across his forehead. Kai grinned smugly up at the old man, making a point of showing his pointed teeth. The Etashian grimaced. “Damn half-breeds,” he muttered, then spat at the ground in front of Kai.

Kai’s grin morphed into a snarl, his anger flaring hotter than dragon’s fire. He prided himself on his thick skin- he wouldn’t have lasted an hour alongside the rest of his Brothers without it- but the unnecessary hatred of his kind made his blood boil. Without them, these people stood little chance of surviving long enough to see the next day, let alone any future free of dragons.

“Kaian!” Aegis’ sharp reprimand silenced the retort burning on his tongue. Kai flinched, then shook his head and growled. The last thing he wanted was to look like a dog called back to its master, but he had little choice. Shooting one last glare at the old Etashian, Kai turned his horse around and trotted back to where his companions rode.

“Leave the poor things alone, Kaian,” Vianna chastised, but the sly grin on her lips dripped with sarcasm.

Kai flashed a smile of his own. “Relax, Vi. I said nothing that would start a fight.”

“Yet.” Aegis looked at him pointedly, then shook his head wearily. The veteran hunter had long since mastered his exasperated air after taking Kai in.

Kai rolled his eyes and sighed. Aegis wasn’t wrong. More than once, Kai’s mouth had gotten them into trouble. It was the sole reason Koros stationed them here in the first place instead of guarding the Breech with the rest of the Brethren’s best. Babysitting duty. No greater waste of a hunter’s talent.

He shot a quick glance back towards the wagon, catching the old Etashian’s gaze, and bared his teeth. “They’re lucky we’re even here to begin with.”

"Luck has nothing to do with it,” Aegis corrected, sending another poignant look in Kai’s direction. “We’re here because we have orders.”

Kai squirmed under his mentor’s gaze and focused on the creases in his leather gloves. Aegis felt more akin to a father than even his natural sire, making his disappointment even harder to bear. He hated that he’d gotten them all into this mess, but not as much as he loathed being called ‘half-breed.’ “You know what I mean,” he growled.

Aegis faced Kai, his expression stony, and started to speak when something on the wind caught his attention. Immediately, the old hunter fell silent and looked back at his pupils.

“I smell it, too,” Vianna affirmed, her crossbow already cradled in her arms. “Go. I’ll warn Regis and catch you up.” Aegis nodded, and she galloped towards the head of the caravan.

Kai breathed in deep and wrinkled his nose, the acrid scent clogging his sensitive nostrils. He knew the smell intimately.

Smoke.

Aegis wheeled his horse east and took off at a gallop, leaving Kai scrambling to follow. At fifty paces, black tendrils materialized like crooked fingers tearing through the fabric of gray-blue sky. At one hundred paces, they could see the charred husk of the village, many of the structures still alight, like coals in a hearth. The moment they crested the final hillside, the full extent of the destruction became painfully clear. Blackened tree trunks lit the village like sinister candles. Scorch marks streaked from one side of the village to the other, disintegrating nearly everything in its path. The skeletal husks of houses still burned or chugged acrid smoke, poisoning the sky as it swirled ever higher on the wind. And the smell! Gods, no other scent lingered as horribly as the devastation left in a dragon’s wake. It nearly knocked Kai off his horse.

Kai clapped a gloved hand over his nose and mouth and blinked back stinging tears, the sulfurous scent of dragon fire and burning flesh overpowering.

Aegis scanned the valley floor and sighed. “Too late. How long do you think?”

Kai sucked in a shallow breath through his mouth and shook his head. “Hours, less than a day, for certain. I can still smell its stink.”

The old hunter nodded, his amber eyes narrowed as they locked on one of the burning houses. “Check for survivors. I’ll take the left, you take the right. Meet up in the middle.”

Kai nodded, then nudged his horse down the hill. The mare hesitated, throwing her head up at the smell of smoke and death. He brushed a hand down her neck and soothed her, coaxing her forward. When she refused to comply, he dismounted and tethered her to one of the few remaining trees. Satisfied she was secure, Kai shouldered his crossbow and stalked towards the right side of the village.

Smoke choked the air. He blinked, moisture sucked from his eyes, and grimaced. Even with the light scaling that guarded the softer parts of his flesh- his eyes, neck, belly, forearms- he could feel the heat radiating from the blackened earth, even through his leather boots. Adrenalin pumped through his veins. His body became more alert, his vision focused, his hearing attuned. The thrill of the hunt, that teetering edge between excitement and fear, took over.

Glancing upwards, Kai crossed out into the open streets. The second floor of a house on his left collapsed, shooting sparks and dust out the front door and windows. Kai could feel the heat blast against his skin and shielded his face with an elbow. He coughed, pulled the scarf wrapped around his neck up over his mouth and nose, and continued his search.

Charred bodies greeted him, blackened skeletons frozen in their final moments, some fleeing, some clinging to their loved ones, some curled in on themselves. Kai purposefully avoided looking too closely at the larger body cleaving tight to the small bundle in their arms, the dragon’s flame morphing them into one. His search turned up nothing, no people, no animals. Nothing but death and destruction. He’d expected nothing less.

Sighing, Kai turned down an alley as he approached the center of the village and froze in his tracks. Hunched down on the ground before him not ten feet squatted a whimpering figure, back convulsing with her soft cries. Soot and blood splattered her dress, a ghastly pattern of black and crimson staining the stark white fabric. Kai lowered his crossbow and cursed under his breath.

“You hurt?”

The woman started, flailing up and back to put distance between them. Wide blue eyes gazed out of a pale, soot-stained face, her black hair disheveled and chaotic. She stared at him blankly at first until recognition curdled her soft features. “You did this,” she snarled, crouching down like some kind of trapped animal. “You brought them here!”

Kai frowned down at her, tightening the grip on his crossbow. “I’m trying to help. Are you alo-”

“Monster!” she shrieked. “Half-breed! Mutated freak! It’s your kind that brought the dragons through the Breech when you slithered your way into our Valley. It’s your fault they’re destroying our homes!”

Kai stepped forward, one hand extended out as he tried to calm her down. “Shut up! Do you want the damned thing to come back?” He glanced up at the sky, feeling the skin on his neck and arms tingling. “There’s still a chance it’s-”

Screaming, the woman launched herself at him, barreling into him with a force that belied her size. Pushing upwards, she shoved the crossbow up into his face and bowled him backwards. Kai fell hard, losing his wind as his back crashed against the warm stones and the woman’s weight pressed down on his chest. Blood burst from his nose and mouth where the crossbow hit him full in the face, and before he could defend himself, the woman continued her furious assault. Flailing and clawing, she battered him like a thing possessed, nails tearing at his softer skin and scratching audibly against his scales.

Instincts kicked in. His eyes narrowed, the edges of his vision shifting red. Heat burned deep in his chest, set ablaze in his veins the half of him he hated most of all. A vicious roar erupted from his throat as he grabbed hold of the woman and shot upwards, knocking her backwards. Before he knew it, the crossbow was back in his hands, the massive iron-tipped bolt locked home, and aimed at the crazed woman’s heart. She screamed again, a feral, anguished sound, and leapt at him again. Kai squeezed, braced against the recoil, and felt the pull as the giant bolt surged forward.

The screaming stopped. Kai blinked back the tears that blurred his vision, grateful for once that he couldn’t see clearly the woman in front of him, and turned his back. Aegis stood a few feet behind him, shock and understanding battling across his aged face. Kai swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I didn’t-”

Aegis nodded. “I know.” Without another word, the veteran hunter moved past him and retrieved the bolt. “We should go.”

Anger quickly replaced Kai’s guilt. “I don’t understand,” he growled. “We came here thinking we could help these people. And what do we get in return? Nothing but their spite.”

Aegis glanced at Kai firmly and shook his head. “You know why, Kaian. Don’t bring this up again.”

Kai jabbed a finger back towards the body, his voice rising in sync with his boiling blood. “It’s barbaric! They wouldn’t stand a chance against the dragons without us, but they treat us like dogs! Worse than that, they treat us like we are them!”

Aegis wheeled around and snatched Kai’s collar, shaking him hard. “Because we are, Kaian!” The old veteran stared hard at his pupil, letting him see the anger and hurt and sorrow that hid behind his own mask. After a moment, he released Kai and shook his head, recalling the same exasperated look he wore so often. “We’re half-breeds, Kaian. Scalers. Dragonkin. Mutated by magic to help ebb the flow of chaos that dragons have wrought in every world they’ve dug their claws into. And when we crossed through the Breech, they followed. We brought them here, whether intentionally or not. It’s only right we serve our penance by stopping them from obliterating this world just as they did ours.”

Guilt returned like a slap to the face. Kai dropped his gaze, his anger deflated and his hubris leeched from him. He felt a familiar weight on his shoulders, his crossbow suddenly heavier in his hands, the burden of purpose stacked higher than before. Aegis gripped his arm and squeezed. “Come, we should get back. Vi no doubt has her hands full with-”

A gust of wind battered against them, sending sparks and embers flickering as the massive shadow materialized from the clouds above. Aegis shoved Kai back into the alley, ducking down into the darkness between the remnants of two buildings. Kai held his breath. His finger twitched against the trigger as he counted the seconds waiting for something, anything, to happen. An ear-shattering roar shook the air like thunder pealing from above, cascading dust on top of their heads as the skeletal structures trembled. A bull, Kai recognized. And a big one at that.

Dust and debris swirled around them as the dragon passed directly overhead, the beating of its enormous wings keeping time like the rhythmic boom of steady drums. Both hunters peered out from the shadows as the great, black-scaled beast soared towards the west.

Towards the caravan of refugees.