Dillon

It’s now or never. It’s either get this kill, or go hungry. I sat there waiting, bow in hand, for any beast that dares to cross my path.

Suddenly, I heard a loud rustling coming directly from my left. I snapped around and knocked an arrow.

It was a small lizard like creature, with gleaming red scales, and leathery, almost bat-like wings. I could tell right away what it was, a little dragon pup, probably less than a year old. I knew I needed to kill it, as we are really low on food, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

So, we just sat there studying each other, waiting for the other to make a move. The dragon made a small noise that sounded almost like a kitten. It started taking small steps towards me. For some reason, I didn’t move. The dragon was now a mere six inches from me. Now going against every survival instinct I have in my body, I picked the dragon up.

It was a strange feeling, holding the dragon. It was much softer than I expected. It must not have fully developed it’s scales yet. It had slightly sharp claws, but they were too dull to do any harm. The dragon seemed to like me, and I liked it right back.

I hugged it close to my body. “Man,” I thought, “it’s been so long since I have felt true compassion for something.” However for some reason, I felt it for this dragon.

I think the dragon fell asleep, because after holding it for a good 5 minutes, I started hearing little sounds. It’s chest was moving up and down in short even breaths. Then once again, against every survival instinct I have in my body, I put the dragon into my hunting bag and took off towards home.

The trip home was a long one, so I had plenty of time to think. “What has become of me,” I thought to myself. “I have become too kind for my own good.” “I can’t keep being soft!” I yelled out loud.

But when I thought about the dragon, all of those bad thoughts drifted away. I ran my hand through my short black hair. A bead of sweat dripped from my neck and down my back as the hot summer sun beat down on me.

I finally escaped the dark clutches of the forest and into the duchy of Lower Hildaria. The luscious green realm of Lower Hildaria. Rolling green meadow as far as the eye can see, and not a tree in sight. I distinctly remember a deer at the edge of the forest, drinking from a small stream.

It wasn’t a long walk now, I arrived at our shack in under 5 minutes. Our shack was a small little hobble, probably 5 feet by 5 feet, but honestly, that was enough.

As I walked inside, I saw Carmina had started a fire. Carmina walked out of the kitchen and walked into the firelight. I finally saw her beautiful features, her dark brown hair, light blue eyes that dance in the firelight. “Hello, Dillan.” said Carmina, and I was broken out of my daze. “Did you get what we needed?” she asked.

“Um…” I replied.  

“Seriously,” Carmina yelled, startling me, “do you even know how low we are on food right now! I can’t even…” She was cut off by a loud grumbling coming from my hunting bag.

“What is that,” asked Carmina. She started to walk over to my hunting bag, but I blocked her path.

“Get outta my way!” she yelled.

She blew by me and went directly towards my hunting bag. “Wait…” I tried to say, but it was too late. She opened the hunting bag, and to my complete horror, the dragon was gone.

As Carmina turned towards me, she froze, and her eyes filled with terror. I didn’t understand what was going on. Why was she looking at me like that?

“What is that?” Carmina asked, her eyes still filled with terror.

“Uhhhh. A baby dragon.” As I said that, I heard the loud sound of horses galloping.

“Oh no, the CLH!” Yelled Carmina.

It was the Centaurs of Lower Hildaria. The so-called protectors of Lower Hildaria. Horse men, with the top of a man and the bottom of a horse. They wield bows and arrows, and never miss. They were hired by the Duke to keep the peace. But they only care about the rich citizens that live in the capital, not us. They hate anyone who can’t pay their taxes.

We have been on the run for over two years now. We are outlaws in Lower Hildaria. We have had to steal in the past, especially when we are low on food.

“Random citizenship test!” Yelled the centaur as he pounded on our front door. The Duke had really been cracking down on illegal residents, as that has become a real problem. But I can’t blame people for wanting to live there, it was perfect.

“Coming!” Yelled Carmina as she grabbed our fake ID’s that we had gotten in Greenburrow, Lower Hildaria’s capital.

She quickly grabbed the fake ID’s and ran to the door.

“Oh crap,” I thought, remembering that I still had a dragon on my shoulder. I quickly ran to my hunting bag and tried to force the dragon inside.  I heard Carmina open the door. The dragon suddenly spread it’s wings and flew towards the centaur at the door.

“What the?” The centaur at the door froze, to shocked to move. The dragon flew straight towards him. He roared, and the centaur desperately reached for his bow. Before the centaur even had time to react, the dragon blew a jet of fire from it’s mouth and burnt the centaur to nothing but a pile of ash.  

Carmina and I both stood there too shocked to move.

“What the hell was that?!” Carmina asked.

“What, you think I know? It just did that on it’s own!”

“God! Sometimes I just can’t take your crazy antics. If you had just killed the dragon when you had the chance, none of this would be happening.”

“You can’t blame me for wanting a little bit of compassion in my life,” I yelled.

I sighed, calming down, “Look, I know I made some bad choices. But if were are going to get through this, we need to work together. We need to get moving, they’ll have reinforcements coming.”

We both walked out the door carrying only what we could carry in my hunting bag.

“So, where do you expect us to go?” Carmina asked.

“I don’t know. I was thinking that we could probably head northeast to Litan.” I replied.

“Really, Elves.” said Carmina. “Come on,” I replied, “We will only stay there until some of the heat dies down. Plus, we can stay with your cousin.”

“You know I don’t like to be half elvish,” said Carmina, “I guess it would be nice. Instead of scrapping for food we can be eating like kings in your cousins palace.”  

“Remind me why we haven’t done this years ago?  I said.

“Because we have to pass through the capital of Lower Hildaria.”

“Oh yeah,” I really didn’t know how we were going to do that. I suppose we would have to get disguises.

“Well, I suppose we should get going. It is a three day walk to Greenburrow.”

Greenburrow is the capital of Lower Hildaria. Duke Galter the Righteous and Duchess Adeline, the rulers of Lower Hildaria, sit in their castle without a care in the world while we’re down here scraping for their leftovers. He only pays attention to the nobles and the wealthy peasants. Anyone else they leave to fend for themselves.

“The road will be dangerous,” Carmina said,  “Filled with bandits, thugs and of course the CLH.”

“I know,” I replied, “I think with my archery skill and help from the dragon, we can take anyone who gets in our way.”

“I’m tired of saying ‘the dragon’, said Carmina, “We should really give it a name.”

“Okay, let’s think as we walk,” I said back.

“Oh!” Carmina exclaimed, “How about Freddie!”

“Wait,” I said, “we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl.” You check a dragon’s gender by the color of it’s eyes. If they’re blue, it’s a girl, if they’re orange, it’s a boy.

I opened up my hunting bag that it has been riding in. It stretched its wings, but made no move to fly away. Carmina checked it’s eyes.

“Orange,” she said.

“Freddie it is,” I said. “It’s getting late. We should probably find somewhere to camp out for the night.” We found a small cave in a hill to set up camp. We started a fire and settled down on a bed made out of sticks and leaves. Very slowly, I let the fogginess consume me.

In the morning, I woke up to a very strange sight. I saw Carmina asleep with Freddie curled up beside her. Sometime during the night, Carmina wrapped her arm around him. “See,” I thought, “Even Carmina wants a little compassion,” and I went out to gather supplies. I left a note.

Carmina, Went out to get supplies.

Be back soon.

-Dillan

I was walking around gathering things that we would need during the travels ahead, things like berries, nuts and water.

From behind, I heard bowstrings pullback and then fire. A weighted net fell around me and I crumpled to the ground.

“You're coming with us,” was all I heard the centaur say before my head hit a rock, and then I blacked out.

When I awoke, I was in a dark place. I opened my eyes to see nothing but blackness. I heard hooves walking on a cement floor. Torchlight suddenly flooded the place I was in.

A cell, just like I had thought. It was a small cement room with a hard metal bed and a small wooden bucket. There were no lights, no window, nothing accept the torchlight from the torch the Centaur in front of me was holding. “Wakey, Wakey,” he said. “Here’s your food, you filthy criminal,” and he threw a plate of red mush in front of me.

I recognized it immediately. It was ground up whale intestine. The stuff that we feed the pigs after the whaler has sold the rest of the whale.

“I can’t eat this,” I said.

“Well, I guess you're going to have to go hungry then aren’t you.” He replied, then proceeded spit at me. “Oh, I figured you would want some light.” He grabbed some keys and proceeded to unlock my cell.

“Oh, and don’t try anything,” he said, “One wrong move and an arrow will pierce your heart before you even know what hit you.” He walked into my cell and put a torch inside. “Now eat up, you trial starts in an hour at 5 o’clock exactly. He walked out and locked my cell back up.

When it was time for the trial, I was lead through the dungeon, and through a door labeled “Keep Out”.  Inside was a blank room with one large oak  table and one chair. Further back in the room sat two majestic green and gold thrones. On them sat Duke Galter and Duchess Adaline.

Duke Galter is a tall burly man with shaggy orange hair and a long orange beard, a green and yellow robe draped his large figure, and a gold crown with leaves embedded into it was placed atop his head. The Duchess is wrapped a similar colored dress, and a small green tiara. He said, “Let this trial commence!”

They proceeded to ask me many meaningless questions that they already knew the answer too. Questions like, Why did you steal that bread, and is it true that you have been running from the CLH?  After they were finished asking me questions they told the guards, “Take the prisoner back while we decide on a verdict.” So the guards dragged me back to my cell.

A few days later, and after being forced to eat more whale intestine, guards walked into my cell again and told me, “The duke and duchess have reached their verdict.”

They escorted me back into the trial room where they got straight to the point. The Duke said, very formally, “Dillan Northfield, you have been found guilty of treason, and are sentenced to death by beheading.”

Reviews

[Warrior]

You say you're 14, but that is very good for a 14 year old, you're not even 18 yet which means you have a lot of time and that is good seeing how you are already starting off at a good start. I like the cover it kind of reminds me of final fantasy, I don't know if you're into that stuff, but keep up the good work.

[DragonBoy]

Thank You! That means so much. The next chapter is coming right now. It will be in the POV of Carmina.