"The Drow and the Dragon"

An original series by Darkness Tigerpaw
(c) Darkness Tigerpaw, all rights reserved
Not to be used without permission under penalty of law.

Chapter 4; Page 023

Lammina could feel the cold sweat on the elf’s hand. Terrified, he shook a bit as the two sat low against a natural column, a legion of military Drow marching behind them, leaving through the same tunnel that the two just entered from. They were both visibly shaken, A’arch more so because of the shock of seeing Shi’n lead them into the tunnel, no doubt to find them.

The dragon pulled her knees in tight against her chest but her left leg slipped out of her grasp, her leg kicking out in front of her, expelling small stones outward with a small cloud of dust. The two held their breath when the sound of her foot kicking stones around could probably he heard by the passing Drow army.

A’arch stared at Lammina in total horror, resigned to the fact that they were discovered. The Blue mouthed the words “I’m sorry” silently and her blindfold started to pool with moisture as she began to cry. She immediately felt as if she failed him. A’arch pulled out his sword and readied for the worst... but nothing happened. They heard the army march past them into the tunnel. The echoes of their heavy footsteps began to fade into the distance when A’arch stood up, spun around with sword in hand to find... absolutely nothing. No one was there.

The elf finally exhaled. The Dragon did too when she felt the tension in her orbit subside.

A’arch whispered “They’re gone.” and Lammina jumped up and grabbed the elf in her powerful arms, picking him up off the floor, embracing him tighter than she ever had before. The elf was grateful that he was picked up, his wobbly legs could barely hold him anymore and he was afraid he was going to collapse from the scare.

The elf dropped his sword on the ground and hugged her back tightly. Even though the moment of fear had passed, they were both still very terrified.

-----

Shi’n was extremely uncomfortable marching next to Gres’pol; The general of the Talathan Militia, the second megalomaniac in House Talathan, solved problems the only way he knew how: With brute force. The Mother Matron Sun’re Talathan supported and encouraged this behavior from him as she and her daughter Elor’a handled the more spiritual affairs of the House.

As Shi’n marched, he couldn’t help look down at the floor, paying particular attention to the small patches of dirt. As an assassin for hire, his tracking skills were second only to Ferelia, his deadly yet beautiful competition.

Gres’pol kept stealing glances at Shi’n. He was ordered to murder the assassin once A’arch was captured and the Dragon was slaughtered, a task he couldn’t wait to fulfill. The Drow general with his monstrous stature, slowly put his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword and waited for just the right moment. He really didn’t care when the assassin was supposed to be murdered, Gres’pol was ready to do it whenever he wanted to.

Shi’n had no idea how close he came to getting his skull separated from his torso when he noticed tracks in the dirt. He said nothing as he saw boot prints that seemed to be facing the opposite way they were walking. The thought ran through his mind that it may belong to A’arch, but until he saw a larger clawed paw print of a humanoid-sized dragon next to it, he’d dismiss the prints from his mind.

The legion was now deep enough into the tunnels to be out of sight and sound of the Drow Kingdom. The grunts marching in formation had to tighten their ranks from four wide to two wide to fit in the narrowing tunnels.

While everyone there with the exception of Shi’n was privy to the Mother Matron’s orders, no one said a word. As they marched, the general began to slowly unsheathe his sword to strike the assassin down but Shi’n suddenly ran ahead for no reason, staring down at the ground the whole time. The general raised his hand signaling the march to halt.

“Shi’n!” Gres’pol bellowed. But the single Drow just kept looking down at the ground ahead of them. Angered, the general walked up to the assassin ready to behead him right then and there when the murderer for hire pointed to the ground and started giggling. Looking down and sheathing his sword slowly to not make a sound, Gres’pol noticed it too: The footprint of Lammina. It was facing the opposite direction they marched. It was obvious to both of them. The tunnel they took from the Drow Kingdom had no side passages. For this footprint to exist at this point in time, the Drow and the Dragon were already within the city.

Shi’n burst out into a howling laughter, much to the disgust of Gres’pol who started to slowly pull on his sword again. The general had more than he could stand of the mere existence of the assassin. He pulled his sword out and held it front of him in an aggressive pose to challenge him. Shi’n stopped laughing when he noticed the sword, a massive piece of shining steel almost the entire length his own body pointing at him. Shi’n straightened his body and swallowed hard. He was being threatened by the general of the House Talathan, backed up by a legion of highly trained Drow warriors, heavily armed and not at all sympathetic to him.

Shi’n stood there calmly as his mind panicked, sweat beading up on his forehead. He did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Knowing her extremely sensitive hearing would probably pick it up, he inhaled the largest breath he could, turned towards the Drow Kingdom and screamed “Lammina!”

Why he did it, even he didn’t know. The Dragon had flattened his nose in anger countless times, slammed him into walls and generally used him as a trainee mannequin. Shi’n was rude to her, vulgar and insensitive. Would she really come? He didn’t think so, but the Dragon was the only thing he could think of at that moment who stood a chance against the army what was about to slaughter him. This was the most valuable gamble he had ever taken with his life: Asking for assistance from someone he had threatened to kill.

-----

The large, pointed ears of the Blue Dragon started to twitch and turned to face the direction of the tunnel. She heard the cry of someone calling her name. Because of the faint strength of the echoing sound, she couldn’t identify the voice. But someone called her name. Someone sounded like they were in trouble.

She opened her arms and let the Drow she was embracing drop like a rock to the floor. He landed with a comedic “Oof” on his rear. She leaned down, grabbed the elf’s wrist and started running for the tunnel at top speed. The elf’s feet left the ground as she ran, he only felt air rushing towards him as he opened his eyes and saw he was horizontal and looking up at the roof of the tunnel he was being pulled though.

Her speed was amazing. A’arch had never known any Drow or living creature of any species move this fast before. Why hadn’t she mentioned she had this special ability before? he wondered. Only knowing that he was being pulled (quite painfully) by his wrist at incredible speeds by a species that was probably the last of her kind, he finally realized what a unique situation he was truly in.

“Lammina! Please release me!” he screamed with breath that he could barely catch.

Lammina heard him and obliged by simply opening her hand, but she realized too soon that she was still running at her top speed and his landing... may hurt.

It did. A’arch hit the ground and rolled like a wheel head over heels, over and over, arms flailing, legs twisting. He finally came to a dead stop as the back of his head hit the ground hard. He lay there on his back for a brief moment wondering if anything.. or everything was broken. He stood up slowly noticing that nothing hurt as if it were cracked, he drew his sword and started running down the tunnel in the direction of the now out of sight blue Dragon.

-----

Lammina already had the soldiers in her sight. Since the tunnels were narrow, they were standing in formation two Drow wide. She smiled wide knowing this was going to be simple and stretched out her two arms beside her, extending her sharpened claws to remove their heads as she ran past them. It only took a moment for her to finally reach the legion where heads began to roll. The soldiers never even felt it.

-----

A’arch started to limped along at a quick pace, his legs, although not visibly injured began to ache from the landing. He sprinted along, sword in hand down the dark tunnel for a just a few moments until he caught the scent of blood. And there was a lot of it.

-----

Lammina’s hands began to hurt and swell from the pressure of her sharp claws beheading every Drow soldier she passed. Her high speed had diminished down to a simple run and the army in front of her had noticed the hissing noise blood makes from a gushing torso. She had already beheaded 90% of the soldiers behind her and the few left in front of her were ready, swords drawn. She finally stopped running and came to a complete halt, splashing in the widening pool of blood.

-----

A’arch was still running when he came upon the long row of corpses. A river of warm blood flowed around his boots as he attempted to step over the piles of bodies, he held his hands outwards to balance himself, sometimes holding on to the walls for support, slipping in the warm blood. Once, his foot hooked on a hidden arm under a pool of blood and he fell face first with a massive splash.

-----

A soldier’s sword swung down towards Lammina. Luckily, her quick reaction was to punch it aside and put her fist through the Drow’s chest. She then grabbed the soldier by the ribcage and threw it at the wall where he went splat.

“Kill it!” Gres’pol roared in the background. He could easily see his ranks had been devastated and only a handful of soldiers remained. The blue Dragon was easily tearing his men in twain with very little effort and he began to panic a bit. He turned his attention away from Shi’n who was taken aback at the massacre before him.

“Lammina?” Shi’n whispered.

Gres’pol had seen enough. He turned his attention to Shi’n to finish him off before he went after the Dragon. It was his fatal mistake. He took a menacing step towards the assassin with a wild smile on his face, raising his giant sword above his head with a loud growl. Shi’n closed his eyes and resigned to his fate.

Gres’pol’s sword swung down and stopped only a hair length from the skull of Shi’n. When the assassin opened his eyes to find out why he wasn’t dead, he saw Lammina standing between him and the general. The Dragon had stopped the sword with her two hands as they clasped the blade between them.

It was then that Shi’n and Gres’pol had all noticed that the entire legion of highly trained and heavily armed Drow warriors had been single handedly wiped out by a furry blue dragon who was only the height of an average Drow.

The Blue’s claw twisted slightly and Gres’pol’s sword broke in two in her hands. Behind the general, splashing at top speed through he pools of blood, A’arch ran in with his sword pointed towards the torso of the massive leader of the Talathan militia. His sword pierced the back of the general, popping out the other side, appearing between the ribs that shielded his heart. The giant stood there in awe as he began to die, finally collapsing slowly on his knees, then falling over to the side dead with a splash.

The two elves stood in awe at the sight of the bloodiest war any of then had ever been witness to. Shi’n looked at A’arch who happened to be covered head to toe in blood and said “Red is not your color.”

His feeble attempt at humor was not well appreciated at that moment, but they all recognized that someone had to break up the moment with some levity.

A’arch answered “Shi’n, I certainly hope you now have a greater respect for dragons.”

Everyone then turned their attention to their savior, the blind cave dwelling Dragon.

“Lammina?” A’arch asked.

The Blue started to crack her knuckles and turned her body to face the general direction of Shi’n. “Yes assassin, you should.” she answered.

Suddenly, Shi’n had a lot of explaining to do. The presence of the Dragon scared him.

To be continued...