The Lord and Saviour

There weren’t always dragons in the valley.

There are stories passed through my family from my great grandfather’s time that speak of the first days that the great kites descended from the skies, a time before when humanity was free. The great ones had come when they had completely exhausted the wastes of the north for every possible resource they could have, the very land left hollow and dead in their flying wakes. Each one’s individual greed pushed them to attempt to take more and more a diseased obsession that only made them emptier and paranoid inside. Constant infighting between the Lords had withered not only the land, but their very species to the brink of non-existence to a point when only their strongest competitors were left. Kings of rubble,

The final 5 Drakonic Lords, ageless and vast.

When they came south they changed their tactics, this time around they had learned that humanity was not a pest to be cleansed from the landscape and instead decided that to cultivate a strong herd and rule over the humans would benefit them far greater than to simply reduce us all to ash. Despite still warring amongst themselves each of the remaining lords spread across the continent and they began to overthrow the great human kingdoms of the Valley, becoming absolute rulers over massive patches of land and all they could survey. The once free people were powerless to stop them with almost all of humanity falling into their clawed grasp in less than a fortnight.

The choice presented to them was simple, serve or burn.

I stood silhouetted against the Eye of my Lord, massive in the darkness around me, so much green and yellow with glints of gold, like staring into the face of the moon only separated but the large vertically slit pupil so black it looked almost wet to the touch.

I held my ground against the stare.

Even in this lurid state I could feel the lurching of the wheels underneath me, like a boat on the sea, while I attempted to understand more about my overlord.

“Master Kane?” a soft voice spoke as I stared into my eyelids,

Alerting me right back into my body. I opened my darting eyes as I sat up straighter, now surveying the real world full of its real problems, but I remained completely motionless. I was still in the carriage, it was a beautiful craft of red cloth and polished wood, slatted window frames and two small coaches adorned with candles that sat opposite each other. I looked into the face of a young man, he had a darker almost soil skin tone and eyes so brown they bordered black making his pupils shine when he spoke. A person who had lived an easy life with none of the physical or emotional scars in his expressions.

My eyes showed my unhappiness at being awoke, sleeping for me was a challenge at the best of times.

“Sorry to wake you, but your helmet had become loose, I had remembered you said that under no circumstances are we to be without armaments outside of Braust.”

I lifted my hand to my head and could feel that he had spoken the truth, this wasn’t my normal helmet it was a glamourous mass with allot of décor to show status, the thin chin strap was more ceremonial then purposeful.

I nodded.

“Thank you Plucky,” I said weakly, while I fixed my helmet.

We both sat awkwardly in these fine handcrafted suits of plate, the kind designed for ceremony as much as real battle. Plucky wasn’t his name, but a squire only earned a name when they impressed me enough, until then they all would share the name “Plucky” or be dismissed from my charge. We were both members of the Order of the Fang, the personal guard to our sovereign Lord Axtra The Sunder, ruling the massive empire of Braust in the southlands. Our kingdoms colours where brass red on yellow to mimic the beauty of his scales.

A gleaming constant reminder of who you are loyal to, who you serve.

I could feel Plucky wanted to ask me something, but he wasn’t sure how.

“Get back to your studying, a true knight fights on every battlefield.” And with that I leaned further over to have my back supported by the corner where the seat met the wall. I looked through the window’s wooded slats into the grey countryside and I listened to the soft rain tapping loudly on the roof as the cart ran along the trampled soil. These were not the immaculately carved stone streets of our home country, here we travelled exposed on the merchant paths in the Savage Lands between kingdoms. I could hear the labored work of the hundred other carts in our convoy methodically moving like cattle down the path. The horses and men who sadly had to walk in this miserable weather, trudging through the mud. We didn’t want to be out here anymore then necessary, so resting was out of the question. The downpour was awful and oppressive, but perfectly matched how I felt. Every time I really slept I just saw their sad faces and the horrid eyes of people who felt the total betrayal of a loved one.

My families eyes.

Crying, screaming, deranged and terrified faces harder and harder to remember.

I had threatened them with hate and violence, not just my wife, but my children as well.

I had to give them up for a higher purpose.

I was honour sworn by credo to serve Axtra, the Order of the Fang as his personal guard and most trusted knights. Though the idea that we would ever be needed to save his life was laughable.

Dragons were titanic in stature.

The Great Wyrms were the size of whole keeps, one of Lord Axtra’s smallest claws would stand a little taller than myself. His throne chamber had been carved from the very stone of the Iceflow Mountains in Braust, right next to the capital city where he oversaw his court. His influence spanned hundreds of provinces and duchies pulling power back to the centre of his mountain stronghold catering a horded trove beyond human comprehension. Each of the kites had the knowledge of the ancients and a strength greater than any force on Earth. To actually kill one was a folly of a dreamer, an adult Lord possessed scales too thick for any metal to pierce, too large to damage any organ fatally, no poison could even weaken them. They were for all purposes immortal.

A duty beyond the value of my own life.

This was the reason I needed my family to leave.

I drove them away from me and into hiding. Pushed them away as hard and fast as I could as if my skin burnt to have them nearby. I screamed, acted violent and deranged. I saw the tears in their eyes as they begged me to bring back their husband and father, the one with open affection. They tried to stay, tried to still love me, but I made it impossible for them to even want to keep trying. That mental image of them so worn down and finally leaving had killed me long before my actual body would stop drawing breath. I needed to have them away from me at any cost and this ensured that they would be unrelated to me in any way when I completed my grim task, when I turned my back on my creed.

When I commit royal infanticide.

I last saw them 2 years ago. I looked to the countryside. The rugged landscape and treeline of the path. Maybe they were out there somewhere hiding from the same storm as me.

I hope they are safe.

The Lords do not age, or weaken, or become soft of mind, they are eternal and mythically powerful, they have no vulnerabilities.

Their only weakness appeared to be each other.

Their pride.

Our King has referenced the death of other dragons who had succumbed to wounds from fighting, so they did actually possess the power to kill each other and this lead me to realize their one disadvantage,

Legacy.

Their distrust for each other also meant that no new heir has been born in all the time that the serpents have held humanity in a cage. They still remain 5 that stand alone. Until now when Axtra would form a very shaky alliance with Drailya the Queen of glass in an attempt to unite their strength and produce a new Prince.

This may be my only chance, one feeble human’s attempt to ruin God’s paradise, I had no real evidence, but I had to assume the children must be more vulnerable than the adults. Possibly their scales could be thinner or more susceptible to disease. The death of a perfect heir being might destabilize their peace, it would ensure that one less of their kind would rule and could have huge repercussions for their species. And if I could pretend I didn’t act alone, possibly even under the influence of another kingdom’s Lord, maybe I could force them into conflict,

Bloodlust, hopefully even killing each other.

A tyrant’s child would still be about the size of a large elephant no easy task, maybe a boar spear right through its jugular or eye socket. Possibly a very virulent poison a concoction of the deadliest plants. It’s not like the dragons practice medicine even a minor wound could kill the Prince.

It wasn’t the plan of a sane man and surely it would throw our continent into absolute chaos, but it could reduce the great serpents numbers and one day humanity may free itself.

I couldn’t risk my families safety, they were everything I had ever wanted. I had already accepted that my plan would obviously lead to my death, but I didn’t want them to meet my fate for my actions.

After all this may not even be possible and I would be acting alone, conspiracy against a dragon was not possible. Their senses were so developed it gave them an almost “all knowing” quality. They could hear a mouse draw breath six counties over, they could taste the very air to sense a liar’s body heat change, their eyes see the most minor facial movements in a nervous twitch and they may even have senses that humans don’t possess.

Having been in close service to the King Axtra his abilities gave him an almost divine disposition because he could tell so much about you and nothing ever seemed to surprise him. Before you had even realized something about our kingdom he had sensed it days earlier, scouting was almost pointless because he knew where the enemy was, what they thought, their numbers and their machines and he made us do all the work anyway just to see how close we were to the truth, like getting your favourite dogs to fetch a stick.

“Pretty exciting huh.” Plucky said without looking up from the books he was holding.

“Hmm” I hummed with half closed eyes.

“I’ve never left Braust before, this is my first real assignment.”

Plucky was furiously eyeing a whole page, packed with little pockets of information about the local region, diverse customs and even their Monarch Lady.

“Have you ever met anyone from Delian?” he now looked to me with expressive eyes far too similar to my own son’s.

I couldn’t meet his stare as I spoke.

“I have fought many opponents from the neighboring lands, Delain’s soldiers are extremely skilled and famous for their archers. I have taken prisoners in our skirmishes and we have spoken about home life.”

Now Plucky put the book down, his eyes brightening as I spoke. All of the 5 great kingdoms were in a constant state of war that went from fiercely active and then benign as no single power ever seemed to get very much advantage over another. Peace was always out of the question, just in case the enemy had something we might possibly want, it’s what made negotiations so difficult among the rulers, they hated ever giving anything up, even something we had gross excess of.

Plucky was now abuzz with inquiry “Do you think we will stay in the castle? Do they have a castle? What do you think Queen Drailya looks like? Is the-”

“Plucky!” I yelled a little too harshly.

He quickly dropped his eye stare, “I’m sorry sir.”

I slowly inhaled. “This mission reflects on his royal majesty, he is courting the Queen to further his majestic reach and bring into the world a new Prince and future sovereign ruler, he relies on our 18 battalions to be his greeting force and once we have ensured his safety he will take wing and join us in Delian for the “bonding” ceremony. Until then we remain vigilant for any sign of danger.” Poisonous lies dripped from my lips

“Danger?” Plucky looked confused at the implication.

I continued, “Though we are welcome guests we cannot overlook the risk to our King, if we should need to lay down our lives to preserve his it will be our honour, but this is the first alliance between two kingdoms in our history and how do you think this will this look to the other 3 nations?”

Plucky’s face showed he now understood the underlying trap we sat unsprung in. “You think they may attack?”

I shrugged a little. “maybe, but either way we need to be more vigilant than ever this could bring our master even more wealth for his trove and possessing an heir would make him the strongest Lord on the continent and we will do everything in our power to ensure success.”

The venom wouldn’t stop pouring now. I had lived this double life every day for the past two years. On the outside I was a captain amongst our most elite guard and beyond loyal to our sovereign ruler and on the inside I plotted his death every single day in my mind.

I wasn’t lying my exterior personality truly believed these facts because any hesitation would mean discovery as a traitor and I knew that even now so far away from muddied road Axtra could probably hear me speaking.

With the conversation over I leaned back into my sleeping position. I did a visual sweep to ensure we kept our armaments close at hand and I looked to my war-hammer resting on the floor, next to my shield leaning against the seat, it had the illustration of the great red dragon himself wide mouthed in a huge roaring motion.

Why Plucky seemed to bother me so much was that he was a little too much like myself from just a couple years ago, when I was whole.

I lived and breathed my duty to my Lord and never once questioned his decisions, I lost countless friends and siblings in his service and I never faltered because I knew I served the higher power, the greater purpose. I held a pride in my heart and I loved my position, until I realized where it all lead, until I realized I wasn’t his faithful dog I was his lamb to slaughter.

My restless eyes held closed and my mind wandered back to the day I broke free from my Lord’s embrace, the day I couldn’t just play along anymore. Roughly three years ago we had made the first real advantage in our almost hundred year war against the Emerald Tyrant Sportious when we advanced on the settlement of Brightgrove. A large swatch of valuable farming land known for its vineyards and rich soil. We used war machines and cavalry in an all-out attack, even the royal guard had come to the battlefield for this operation. Our men had broken through their defensive walls and had properly routed the enemy forces. It was a desperate last clash between ourselves and the remaining defenders. We were pouring into the fields and soon would have actually taken and secured the settlement proper .We charged the field against their fewer troops, combat was bloody as I swung my hammer without fear or falter, each strike in Axtra’s honour. I was a zealot to his cause and my swings were an execution of his will crushing men under my frame breaking flesh from bone.

We looked to the scared defender’s fighting for their home’s and their own families, but all I saw were pagans, outcasts and people who were wrong to not be in the loving clutch of Lord Axtra.

I wanted to win this battle in his name,

I wanted to be the Elite guard of the most powerful Lord in the world,

Until the sky darkened as if the sun itself began to hide fearing what was to come.

We ignored the signs, still in the wraps of conflict, a live battlefield absorbed in the clash of steel, the spray of blood, the screams of men.

Our dull child-like human perception was unable to sense the growing peril we all found ourselves in. Unknown to us, Sportious had taken to flight from his capital in an attempt to destroy the invaders in a single swoop and at the exact same time Axtra had flown here to meet him head-on right overtop the battlefield. Even before they had collided their masses forced the very air of the sky to plummet to the ground pushing apart the two fighting lines. This was the rarest of rare events as the Lords never fought each other earnestly. Too much at stake to leave their domain even for a second, lest another lord destroy their entire kingdom in an instant. Though from the ground we had no idea what was happening, it looked to us like a massive thunderstorm had blown in from both directions as goliath plumes of pitched smoke filled not only the sky, but the very horizon itself, reaching like huge fingered palms to intersect as hot wind was pulled through the trees and over the grass enveloping us in the black sphere.

In the time a man could blink the sun’s warm light faded to grey and then to the inky blackness of dark night as a sunset and eclipse occurred simultaneously in the shadow of the gargantuan forms blocking out the very blue of the heavens. Horses screamed hysterically as they could sense the storm brewing, sense the world’s love flee from around them, men were thrown from their steeds as some bucked horribly like they had lost their minds and broken their wills.

Then we heard the first fierce crash high in the air.

A force so loud you felt the air shake in your very bones, making even the strongest man kneel in cowardice.

In an instant the fighting of titans had begun, but on the battlefield we could only see the flames and the lightning blasted outward from the clouds being evacuated in the severe gale winds. At this moment no person was an enemy or a soldier or part of any kingdom, we were all just victims.

Just lambs.

The firestorms fell upon us in crashing tides as both sides began to run in screaming panic as incinerating storms passed over the land. People fled at full sprint, running as if there was anywhere to go. I had taken to the protection of the ground lying like a child who was scared of the night hiding in bed, I couldn’t move my body as I feebly tried to protect myself from shear winds so strong they peeled the very skin off of any exposed flesh. Just peeping through my crossed arms right before seeing gales tearing the trees and rocks from the soil tossing them easily into the air. Fire ran rampant ablaze all around us chasing men faster than any horse just to pass over their humanoid forms which vanished as if by magic. Lighting blasted in huge screaming faces souring the sky, illuminating the silhouettes to oversee and cackle as the fodder died. In the sky the clouds roiled like boiling water as every motions of the Lords brought new storms and plagues upon us.

We were all ants in the presence of god’s wrath.

And then suddenly as rapidly as they had arrived they were gone, their bodies dragging away the clouds in their wake.

The two had exchanged minor blows before both simultaneously returning to their own lands to prevent the loss of something of actual value. The pitch clouds parted as light cautiously peered into the land again now that the real monsters had gone. All that was left of the two brave armies were some broken and terrified men. People who had been blinded from the white hot flashes of fire, clumps of metal upon the ground that may have at one point been a knight running for his life, smoking blackened Earth that had once been rich soil and was now deader and harder than rock.

Brightgrove was gone, annihilated, sent to the far beyond.

The entire settlement scoured in the blasts, no vineyards, no land, nothing was left behind but a few harrowed townsfolk.

Gone.

That’s when I knew that the Kings would never see us as anything but cattle, every conflict a game for them to observe, but never really take an interest in winning, a pastime for them while we died out here. We gave everything to their causes and they used us before casting us aside. They would reduce the Valley to nothing, just ash like they had done to the wastes before they arrived.

They had to be stopped at any costs.

We took our shattered men and left Brightgrove, it was nothing now and we redeployed to another post, another keep, another battlefield and I began to plot.

I was never again proud of my status.

I sense danger.

“Tink” a noise occurred as something thudded into the carriage.

Without thought or even real recognition I dropped lower into my seat. I had heard this sound many times and in only a fraction of a second I was getting ready to react, this was the sound of a crossbow bolt impacting into wood.

“Plucky!” I yelled attempting to reach to pull him to me, but it was too late,

dozens more sounded, “Tink, Tink, Ti, Tink” as the rain of bolts assaulted the carriage walls, some passed through the windows. One must have struck Plucky which forced him forward and to the ground with me. He had fallen to his side eyes wide, he was very afraid.

I could hear the shouting of men outside of people screaming to warn each other of the surprise attack. Familiar voices yelling to form together in the panic.

I rolled Plucky onto his back his eyes were full of tears. I could see the blood begin to pool out onto the floor beneath him, his mouth moved, but no noise escaped. I ran a hand under his back and felt the smooth shell of the plate intact the injury was somewhere else.

As I pulled him closer I could see now a bolt had passed through the back of his neck and the tip stuck shortly out the front just beneath his shirt hem.

I took some cloth from my side pouch and began to apply it wrapping it snuggly around his neck, but as I did I could now see that his mouth was filling slowly with blood. I attempted to tilt his head to clear his mouth, but before I could clear his airway he softly shuddered twice and now laid completely still.

Looking up and away from me at the ceiling, Plucky was dead.

I just shook my head, even with the sounds of battle outside I reached a slow hand over his soft face touched his eyelids and closed his unseeing gaze.

This was it, their perfect world.

We would fight and die and spend our short lives as playthings for them. They never risked themselves it would always be us, our struggle. We were nothing to them and tomorrow it would be another child, or my children or my grandchildren on the ground dead.

I reached for my war-hammer felt its cool matte silver and weight in my palm, I lifted it with malice in my hands and took my shield into my other arm. I couldn’t shake the feeling that more were going to die before me right now, and yet were any of us really enemies?

Or did we all just serve some higher power?

I stood rapidly, kicked open the door and jumped into the fray.