Dragon Bait Chapter 14
“” =spoken words
‘’ =thoughts
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Chapter Fourteen
The moment Skif’s feet touched the ground; he bolted for the nearest shrub to expel what was left of his breakfast. His throat, which was already quite sore from screaming, now burned as he emptied his stomach. After dry heaving for a bit, Skif stumbled a few feet away from the mess before collapsing next to a large maple tree.
Leaning against the tree for support, Skif closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. ‘It’s okay. You are safe. You are on the ground. Just keep taking these deep breaths and you will be fine.’
It took a while, but eventually he was able to get his heart to settle down. The sudden desire to get a drink caused him to feebly search with his hand for his bag. His fingers soon located it at his side. On some level he was astonished that it had survived along with him, in one piece. However, the need to get rid of the foul taste in his mouth and quench his burning throat quickly superseded that thought.
The tie befuddled his fingers once again, this time as he tried to undo the knots he had tied not too long ago. It ended up taking twice as long, but he finally managed it. Skif grabbed the first water skin his hand landed on and uncorked it. Using the first few sips to clean out his mouth, Skif gulped down more than half as the cold water soothed his burning throat. Leaning back against the tree, Skif tried to relax. All he could think about was how great it was to be safe once again on solid ground.
As his body came down from its fear-induced adrenaline high, Skif found himself nodding off. He would have readily given in to an afternoon nap if it wasn’t for the most pathetic sounding whimpering noise. When he opened his eyes to see what it was, Skif noticed Llyr for the first time.
The dragon still stood where he had landed. His shoulders were hunched; his tail tucked under his body and his head was down and tilted to the side, as if he was a dog waiting for his master to punch him. Llyr whimpered again; it didn’t sound as pathetic coming from a large, vicious beast. It was clear to see that he was doing his best to say sorry.
From his spot next to the tree, Skif launched into a very sharp verbal reprimand, “You should feel bad, you bastard. You fucking promised me that you would not drop me. I told you I didn’t want to go. I told you that humans weren’t meant to fly. And you didn’t listen. I nearly died because of you.” Llyr lowered his head even more, and whimpered again.
Keeping his voice level, Skif continued, “You said we were heart links. I don’t know what that means, except you seem to think that we are tied together somehow. And that is a relationship. For humans any form of relationship has to be built on trust. I trusted you not to drop me and you let me down. You betrayed my trust, Llyr.”
As he spoke, Skif came to the conclusion that he was more disappointed than mad at what Llyr had done. Yes he was angry that Llyr had risked his life so carelessly, except he could also see that Llyr was really torn up about what had happened. And not just because Skif was mad, but because he knew he had made a terrible mistake.
Skif pushed himself up and walked over to the cowering dragon. Placing his hands on his hips, he stared down at him. “So what are you going to do about it?”
The look on Llyr’s blue face was complete shock. It was clear that he hadn’t expected Skif to ever willingly get that close to him again.
“Well…? Are you just going to sit there and say nothing? Or does my trust mean nothing to you? If I were you I would be trying everything I could think of to get you to give me a second chance to trust me. But that might be what I, as a human, would do? I don’t know about what dragons would do, but giving up doesn’t seem your style.” Skif smirked at the bewildered dragon.
Llyr jumped to his feet with joy, clearly grateful for Skif’s offer of a second chance. When he reached for Skif, he quickly backed out of reach.
“Wait. Wait. Wait!” Waving his hand and shaking his head no, Skif tried to make it clear that he wasn’t done talking yet. “I was saying I am willing to forgive you and give you another chance. Not that I’m forgiving you and everything is as it was. You need to re-earn my trust. For starters, no more flying tricks. If I’m ever stupid enough to let you fly with me again, I think we will need to work out a much more secure method of travel. Maybe some ropes tying me to your hands so you can’t drop me even by accident. Okay?”
Trying to look as serious as possible, Llyr nodded his head yes.
“Good!” Smiling with self-satisfaction, Skif let out a sigh. He was very proud of himself; he could feel his true self coming back, the person he was before the knights beat all the confidence and self-respected out of him. It had taken a surprising amount of effort to say all that and not just run for the hills like the survival instincts that had controlled him for the last years had cried out for him to do. ‘I know I have a long way to go, but at least I’m not crouched somewhere crying my eyes out.’
“Did you just want to take me out flying or was there something else you wanted to do?” As he asked he made his way back over to grab his bag.
When he turned around, Llyr was nodding yes and pointed further into the gully. “If it is okay with you I would like to just walk to whatever it is.” Llyr looked a little hurt when he started to walk in the direction he had pointed, but quickly fell in behind Skif.
The gully was more of a mini valley, mostly open grassland between the rising cliff walls. As they walked, he could see how the walls flowed in and out, alternately making the valley narrower or wider. Luckily, it never got too small for Llyr to be able to pass through.
It was clear that no one had ever lived here, but Skif could make out horseshoe tracks. The image of the Knights’ horses popped into mind. Spinning around to face Llyr, Skif just had to ask. “The horses? Did you put the Knights’ horses here?”
When the dragon nodded yes, he could have jumped for joy. Instead, Skif bolted further into gully valley searching for more signs of his precious equine friends. The gully walls closed in a little bit ahead and made a sharp turn to the left. Just passed the narrow passage the gully opened up into a large, open grassy area completely surrounded by steep cliffs. Towards the back there were a couple of springs coming out of the rock wall, Most of them flowed together into a beautiful pond resting to the right of the mini valley.
It didn’t take long for him to spot them. All six horses and the stubborn mule were grazing next to the pond.
Skif would have run right to them if he had not heard Llyr calling out from where he had left him. Reluctant to leave them, Skif was forced to tear his eyes away from them and make his way back to a waiting Llyr.
“Thank you, Llyr, for bringing me here. I’m so glad to see them safe. I was really worried that you... I mean something might have happened to them.” He just barely managed to catch himself before he said something stupid. But the Dragon didn’t seem to mind as he beamed down at him.
With Skif still focused on him, Llyr pointed at Skif, flung his hand towards the horses and then pointed at him again and then at the ground and nodded his head yes. He then pointed back towards the way they had come and shook his head no. Before Skif could ask any questions, he continued, this time pointing at himself and his mouth, then skyward.
“You are going to go get breakfast and you want me to stay here, right?” Apparently his guess was right on the nose because Llyr nodded yes then pointed at the sun and traced an invisible course through the sky till it touched where the sun would set at night. He then pointed to himself and Skif and pointed to the ground between them. Llyr then gestured again between them then pointed to the direction Skif assumed the cave was at and made the sleeping gesture.
“Okay. You want me to meet you back here at sunset and we’ll go back to the cave?” he translated. When Llyr nodded yes again Skif figured he might as well remind him about the earlier promise. “Well you better bring the damn rope with you or I will be spending the night here.”
Looking a little depressed, the Dragon agreed, and then made a stand back gesture as he got ready to take off. Skif was forced to protect his eyes from all the dust stirred up by Llyr’s take off. When he was no longer earthbound, he circled overhead several times, watching Skif from above. It was clear that he was not sure that Skif would try to make a run for it.
Offering the only reassurance he could, Skif waved up at him with a smile, even going so far as to point at himself then the ground and nod. Grudgingly, Llyr looked away and started to fly off.
Once Llyr was out of sight, Skif made his way toward the herd of horses. They were clearly shaken up a bit from seeing the dragon fly away. But Skif used his soothing voice and moved slowly, calming them as he approached.
Closer up, it was much more obvious that they needed attention. As he suspected earlier, the knights had not bothered to even take off their tack. Sir William’s chestnut steed’s saddle had slipped off his back and was hanging off the poor horse’s side.
On the whole, they looked in great condition for being trapped in their tack for three days. They all were in desperate need of a good brush down as they were coated in caked-on dirt, dried sweat and bits of leaves and branches in their hair. But none of them were limping, nor seemed to have any cuts or other injures. Skif was quite relieved, he knew how easy it was for the horses to have gotten any of their tack caught on so many things and really hurt themselves. Each of them still had the bits in their mouths; the long green grass that grew here that they were feeding on could have so easily gotten tangled around the bit and choked them to death.
The horses eventually recognized him and closed the distance between them. They trusted Skif because he was the one that always took care of them. He was assaulted as each horse tried to get his nose into his reach for pets.
“Easy, boys! It’s okay. If you just give me a minute I can get your tack off you. But you need to give me room. Come on, guys, back up a bit.” Skif laughed at the silly antics of the horses as he made his way to each of them, removing the heavy parade armour and then the saddlebags, saddle and finally the bridle. He normally would have replaced the bridles with halters, but he wanted the horses to be free and he knew that they would likely just stay in this little secret valley till the food ran out.
After removing all the pieces from the last horse, he began to pile up all of it together out of the way. It was clear that the horses and his stubborn little mule were happy to be free of the weight of the tack and heavy metal of the parade armour. Fortunately for them they had access to lots of water. In the hot summer heat, it would have been so easy for them to overheat.
To his surprise, his saddlebag with all his stuff was still attached to the mule’s saddle. Inside his bag, the clothes that he had been wearing before he had been forced into that disgusting dress were sitting on top as if they had been hastily shoved in. The fabric was shredded from when it had been cut off his body as he struggled. Skif put them to the side; he hoped he could save them with a little stitching. It would not have been the first time that he had to sew his clothes back together; the Knights had very little patience for him to take the clothes off when they were horny.
Under the clothing were his old tattered boots. He could really use new ones, but at least they fit comfortably. Placing them aside, Skif continued to search inside for a currycomb; the horses needed to be brushed down first before he would do anything. As the son of a farmer, Skif had been taught that the needs of animals came first because they were your livelihood.
When he found the comb, he made his way to the nearest horse, the sorrel that Sir Thomas always rode, Red Demon, and started working on the caked dirt on his neck. Red Demon might look fearsome; all war steeds are breed for stamina and power not for their looks. War steeds were known for being foul tempered and were supposed to be unsafe for anyone but their knights to handle. But Red and the other horses were always sweet and well behaved for him. They even had accepted the stubborn mule into their herd.
It took the better part of the afternoon for Skif to get all of them brushed. He managed to get most of the dirt off them. They really could have used a wash but he didn’t have the energy to attempt that task, or any buckets.
Using a little cooking knife that he had gotten from his gear, Skif cut up the apples and gave them to the horses equally. Skif knew that Llyr had wanted him to eat them, but after throwing up his breakfast earlier he was not quite ready for more apples. Instead, he had managed to salvage some way bread and a bit of cheese from the packs.
Resting in the shade of one of the overhanging cliffs, Skif enjoyed a little picnic lunch while watching the horses graze in the high grass. Unlike most of the grass in this area of the country, the grass here was lush and green, clearly benefiting from the available water from the springs.
‘They look so happy here. I wish they could always remain free like this. This valley is perfect for them; they have plenty of food and water, the gully aced as a shelter from most predators and it was too far from any nearby villages that it was unlikely any humans would come across them here.’ The peace of the valley sank into Skif, making him feel more relaxed then he had felt in a long time.
He knew that he should be running right now, trying to put as much distance between himself and Llyr. ‘But where would I go? I can’t go home. The villagers will probably expect me to have died with the knights. They might accuses me of being a witch just like Sir Erik did if I tell them that Llyr just let me go. So then they would even kill me for being a traitor and abandoning my master or I could get burned at the stake for being a witch.... I could stick to the outskirts of any villages till I get out of this province, but then I still won’t be able to go home ever. Even if I took all the knights’ valuables and sold them in the first friendly village, whatever I got combined with whatever coins I managed to find from the saddlebags won’t be enough to survive the winter.’
Tucking his knees under his chin and wrapping his arms around his legs, Skif continued to contemplate his options. ‘If I did figure out some way to survive after getting away, I would still have to make the run first. Llyr doesn’t seem to be interested in letting me go. He would probably hunt me down if I attempted to get away.... Running also won’t solve the problem of what will happen to the bastard Sir Erik or the other knights. After what he said about my family I just want let Llyr eat him, but that would make me no better than him... It is clear that I can’t just let them go. Sir Erik would absolutely hold my family responsible and fulfill his threats. They would more than likely bring the King’s army back here to attack Llyr.’
Letting out a large sigh in frustration, Skif let his legs go and took his saddlebag and torn clothes and brought them back to the cool shade. He dug out his travel sewing kit and set to work repairing his clothes. ‘Staying here looks like my only option. I know that if I stay the knights will live and I know that they won’t be going anywhere... Except for the whole ‘nearly dropping me’ thing, Llyr has been great. He even trusted me enough to leave me here all by myself... Well I guess that means I’m staying here. Maybe he will let me come here again.’
Skif spent the rest of the day repairing his clothes. It was a couple of candle marks before sunset when Skif noticed Llyr’s shadow racing across the valley. Skif quickly gathered his newly mended clothes and his salvaged bag and his saddle bag and made his way back to the open area Llyr was using as a landing pad.