Chapter 8
Stepping off of Lady, he began to examine the last known trails of the high-neck herd. The tracks were easy to follow, until they hit the forest, where they seemed to vanish. "Strange. A herd as big as ours should have at least left damage to the tree lines. How did they all squeeze through here without damaging anything at all?" Walking back to the roc, he saddled up and flew back into the sky. “Let’s take a good look at this forest, and see what’s around the area, before we double back towards the tracks, and see if we missed something."
Soaring high above the clouds, they began to search the forest for any abnormalities, or anything suspicious in the area. Gliding over the snow-covered mountains, he noticed a strange, white dot. Laying on top of one of the mountains, and seemingly moving towards the hunting party. Dropping in altitude, he soon recognized, it was a white dragon!
He could feel that Lady below him was tensing up, in anticipation of a fight. After all, this was the reason they bred rocs. Fighting with dragons and being able to chase the enemy to the sky was invaluable. Making up his mind before the beast found them, he told Lady, “Crush it." Speeding up rapidly, he could feel the wind smashing into him as he lowered his body to prevent excess air drag and preparing for the strike. Dipping up, she pulled her wings in, making a mad dive and racing towards the ground.
The air around him began to distort, and felt like a hurricane whipping by, as the world began to blur and the surroundings became indistinguishable. The only thing he could see was the white dragon rapidly becoming bigger. They shot forward until they were 100 to 200 feet from the dragon, and it noticed something was wrong.
As soon as it noticed them in the air, he could see the shock and fear in its eyes as they descended like a mad comet. Before the behemoth even began to react, Lady’s talons were shoved in front of her body as she connected, while grabbing hold of the beast's back and shoulders. BOOOOM!
The ground shattered as the dragon roared in pure anguish. Falling and then stopping at such a quick speed made my insides feel like jelly and my mind felt like it would never stop spinning. Despite the shock, I knew that this was the best time to strike, and I quickly grabbed hold of my poleaxe, jumping from ladies back onto the now stunned and injured dragon.
Despite having the weight of a train smash into it from the sky, the dragon did not seem to be exceptionally injured. Perhaps this was from the size of this dragon’s body, being bigger, and more muscular than Lady. Standing atop the massive white dragon, he grabbed his poleaxe and swung the hammer with all his might into the skull of the dragon. Crack! The massive hammer smashed through the dragon’s scales and cracked into the skull of the dragon, sending its head reeling and blood pouring from under its left eye.
Roaring in pain, the dragon attempted to barrel roll while Lady was trying to keep him pinned in place with her talons, still stuck in the dragon's hide. Twisting with the giant talons, the dragon was ripping apart its own hide as the talons were being forcefully dragged through the dragon’s side and back. Lady attempted to peck the dragon in its eyes as soon as his hit had stunned the beast.
However, the dragon was too quick and ducked its head down, allowing the rocs beak to hit the tough crown of the dragon’s skull, right below its horns, and only producing light wounds and sparks. Now infuriated, the dragon twisted its head and let out a massive breath of frost and ice onto them both. Fwhoosh! His leather armor was frozen solid, and his movements made it crack, with the top left part eventually crumbling into tiny fragments.
Spooked and in pain from the breath, Lady jumped off of the dragon as it wrestled itself off the ground from its side. However, he was not going to let the beast go so easily. As the dragon attempted to right itself from the ground, he brought his axe head down on the beast’s neck as he used his legs to stabilize on top of the beasts back and neck. Slam! Bright red blood began to pour from the dragon’s neck as it let out another painful roar.
Flapping its wings, Lady began to get ready to charge the dragon again. However, before she began, he heard a gutteral, bestial voice shout at him. "Stop! Let us speak!" The dragon began to speak as he observed it carefully. This was his first experience with dragons, but from what he have been told, they are tricky and cannot be trusted.
However, if a vow is sealed by a dragon pact, then that would be a different story. Thinking on his feet, he began to speak. "What are you doing out here dragon? And do not think you can lie. Why are you watching our people, and what have you done with our herd?"
Injured, and with its pride clearly hurt, the beast reluctantly responded. "I have done nothing to you or your people. I do know a little about what happened to your herd though, but if I tell you what I know, you must spare me." Wearily, Anom responded. "What do you know? If you speak clearly, and I am happy with what you say, I might spare you." With its pride already in tatters, the dragon was growing enraged. "Foolish Giant, do you truly believe I am afraid of you and your giant chicken?"
Looking at the injured but still deadly white dragon, Anom spoke up. "Ha! Well, this "Giant Chicken” and “Foolish Giant” have just bested you in combat, so you better be careful what you say." Forcing itself to remain calm the dragon said. "Nonsense, you simply cheated!" "Coming out of nowhere and slamming into me with that gravity magic! And what is your skin made of to not freeze or even be injured?"
Confused, Anom asked. "Gravity magic? What gravity magic? We simply dive bombed you with our weight, and as for your breath, I guess it just isn’t as strong as you think." Growling in irritation, the dragon refuted, "Nonsense!" "There are no giants that weigh as much as that. Is your muscle made from metal?" Thinking how to respond, Anom said. "I know no gravity magic. But cheating or not, I’m the giant with an axe head in your throat. So you might want to speak a little softer unless you no longer value your life."
Thinking for a moment, he began to look nervous. Half breed? Titan? No, no, the last true half died thousands of years ago. If he were a full Titan, I’m sure I would have heard of it, and I would have been dead long ago. Forget it; it’s not my business, and I don’t want to know. You are looking for ”Balagos”, “The Great Destroyer,", “Bringer of Fire,", “Killer of Dragons," and “The Egg Snatcher." The great red dragon, and his city of humans, and slaves."
"The dragon living there has noticed your growing tribe and wishes to destroy it. The humans, well, the humans are simply greedy for meat as the city is in a state of famine from their wars and fighting the elves. Crop failure has run rampant throughout all human territory. A gift from the elves, as they are notoriously gifted in the use of life spells with plants."
Waiting to see if anom was keeping up, he continued. "However, if you believe that makes your predicament any better, I would advise you against any thoughts of fighting back. Despite you being a rather large group of giants, I counted 50 altogether, with slepnir’s and rocs. However, despite this being a substantial force normally, you aren’t a massive threat to the city, and the dragon living there, with so few of you. If I were you, I would leave this area, and not come back."
Staring silently at the dragon, anom spoke. "What is your name, Dragon? If what you say is true, then what are you doing here?" Irritated the dragon spit out his reply. "My name is Frostfire, and I came here to see if I could find an ally to destroy Belago’s. I heard he has been particularly weary of something from this region, so I came here to see. He killed my grandfather, my mate, and devoured our eggs. He and I have been trying to kill each other for years."
Starting to see a plan in his mind, anom replied. "Well, Frostfire, since you seem to be so curious, those 50 giants are our hunting party. A small part of our clan. "Balagos" has made a very big mistake. He has every right to be weary of us."
Startled at the new information, Frostfire questioned him. "Hunting party? Then how large is your tribe? Even if your tribe is a few dozen giants bigger, it will still not be able to match the humans and dragon king." Smiling at his ignorance, and developing a plan, anom spoke. "You have severely underestimated us. What you have seen is only a small part of the tribe. The same as a finger on your hand. Come show me where this city is. Also, show me where the last place you saw the herd" Looking at anom like a fool, frostfire retorted, "There hasn’t been a gathering of giants that big since the ancient cities! I don’t believe it."
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Laughing and smiling, anom did not care what the dragon thought. "Well, that’s not too surprising, seeing as how you don’t even believe what’s weighing down on your back. Regardless, now that I have you here, it looks like we will be working together for some time, doesn’t it?" Smiling, he pulled out the poleaxe from the dragon's neck, where buckets of red blood began to cascade down the dragons throat. Roar! The white dragon roared, and pulled back in pain, as anom put his hand over the wound, and used one of the only magic’s he had learned, life.
Slowly, the wound began to glow, as the flesh began to wiggle, and tie itself back together, leaving only a thin pink scar, that was quickly overtaken by pure, white scales. Walking over to lady, he began to take off her harness and walk back up to Frostfire. "Now, are we going to do this the hard way, or are you going to let me put this on you?" "After we are finished, I might just let you go."
Nervously looking around for a way out, and briefly thinking about trying to fly away, Frostfire's head drooped, as he reluctantly accepted the harness. "Fine, I will help you for now, but after my help is no longer needed, I expect you to release me." "If you cannot promise this, then I would rather fight to the death right here and now!"
Smiling, anom agreed. "Fine, how about until we finish the fight with Balagos?" "Since you are being so reasonable, if at any point you feel you might truly die, I will even give you permission to run." "Sound good?"
Thinking to himself, the dragon responded. "hmm... fine. Deal." Smiling brightly, Anom happily replied. "Fine. Sign with a dragon pact then." Looking at the giant in surprise, he spoke. "It seems you even know our kinds tendencies, huh?" "Ok, fine." Pushing out his arm, he extended his claw and cut himself, until a drop of blood the same thickness and weight as mercury came out. Looking towards Anom, he also cut his arm, and they pressed their arms together as he began to speak.
"I swear on the dragon pact that I will follow this giant until his fight with Balagos has concluded." "I will aid him to the best I can, unless I feel mortally threatened, at which point I can retreat." "The cold manna began to circle around him and the dragon, until the end of the pact, at which point the manna entered their bodies." "Fine, done, see?"
Unsure of the full ceremony, anom replied. "Ok, that looks good." "Taking out a clay tablet and pressing letters into the clay, he began to write a letter, explaining the situation to the others and told lady to go back and give the letter to his mother, after strapping it to her upper talon.
Placing the lady’s saddle on Frostfire, he pulled himself onto him right above his shoulders. Heaving himself up, he felt he had to ask, "Am I too heavy for you to fly?" Feeling insulted, the white dragon responded by stating that, "anything a dumb bird can do, a dragon can do with its eyes closed." Finally situated on the dragon, he realized just how big he truly was.
His body from head to tail was over 60 feet long and has a wingspan of over 140 feet wide. “Before we head to the city, we need to head back, and gather reinforcements, and strategize." Running on all four feet, the dragon began to sprint and then jumped, flapping his wings once, thrusting them into the sky.
Flying with the rocs sometimes feels like riding a cloud. Everything is done softly, quietly, and somewhat gently for the most part. Flying with frostfire felt more like what he would imagine flying a jet to be like. Frostfire flies substantially faster, and because the dragon itself is so much stronger than the rocs, they were able to make sharper turns on a dime and keep going.
He didn’t realize how lucky Lady and him were when they caught this big dummy off guard. He couldn't imagine what would have happened if they had gone skyward. Thinking of that possibility, a bead of sweat fell off his temple. Let’s just not think about that. Regardless, he had a dragon mount for the moment! HAHA!
Granted, he had always been told white dragons were the weakest, smallest, and dumbest, but still. "It’s a real freaking dragon!" After spending a few more minutes getting used to the dragon's flight patterns, he leaned down and let Frostfire know to head out.
Flying out of the mountain range, they doubled back to our hunting party, where if landed. The giants were in a panic as they landed, and we were almost attacked until they realized it was him. With nervous faces, they came up to us as he jumped off frostfire and began to explain to them what had happened and asked for reinforcements.
They all looked at him like they were looking at God. "I guess getting lucky here got me a lot of street cred." haha! He explained that he had sent lady back, so his mother and father should be here soon. They all decided to wait until the reinforcements arrived before making their move.
The camp waited two full days until they began to hear the sound of hoof beats rumbling on the ground and looked up to see the silhouettes of dozens and dozens of rocs in the air. Slowly, they descended as he saw one particularly large golden roc slow down and glide to land directly in front of him. His mother descended with a worried look on her face, completely suited out in the light battle armor of the skyrippers.
Armed with a massive seige tower bow that she had taken from battle, and modified for her use on her back. He watched as she scanned the surroundings for me until she found what she was looking for. Looking up and down on him, she scanned for any wounds or missing parts, before she exhaled and relaxed. Standing, she began to ask him about the letter he sent as his father, also decked out in heavy steel armor and riding his massive slepneir, rode in with his war guards.
Altogether, there were over one hundred reinforcements, and slepneirs, with some soldiers riding double to make it. Adding the reinforcements with the hunting party already brought here, the total was closer to 150 riders. 100 slepneirs and 50 rocs. Less than half of our total warband. However, this is not a small number to be underestimated by anyone. This number could easily take over some smaller human empires.
Looking away from me for a second, my mother noticed Frostfire sleeping a few dozen meters away from us under the shade of a massive tree. "I can’t believe I lived to see the day of my son taming a dragon." Laughing, Argath spoke pridefully. "HA! He’s like me when I was young." "Taking the world by the horns and smashing anything in the way." "HAHAHA!" Smiling at the laughing fool saram responded. "Well, I guess we won’t have to worry about you not having a sufficient mount now."
Hesitantly, Anom explained their situation. Weary of frostfire getting his honor stained. "Our pact is only until this whole thing is over." "If it was a permanent pact, which dragon would be willing?" "Besides that, the one behind all of this is an infamous, massive red dragon who has been killing all the other dragons around here and even stole this one’s eggs." "If we weren’t useful and he wasn’t desperate, I doubt it would have been so simple."
Understanding her sons predicament, but still worrying about him, saram spoke. "Regardless, this is a huge accomplishment." "Tell me, does he know where the herd is now?" "Are you sure he is telling the truth?" Knowing what his mother was afraid of, anom replied. "No, he only knows the area around where they were taken." "I am sure that as long as we can find the general area, finding a massive herd of high-necks should not be a difficult task."
Feeling relieved Saram replied. "Very good." "Let us set out once the night breaks." "It will give our mounts some time to rest and give us the blanket of night to hide in." "I do not think we should take too many giants, though; it would make it too easy to be discovered." "Let’s send a group of five flyers." "Once they find the herd and make a plan, we will give them two light stones."
Pulling out a translucent hexagonal stone from her pack, she broke it in half. "These are light stones." "They emit light once you add some manna to them." "However, if you break one in half and then add manna to it like this, she began to add the manne piece that she broke off somehow and also began to glow." "As you can see, both stones glow." "They can do this across vast distances." "We will give the group 3 stones." "If we find the herd and are able to break through their guards easily, we will send back a single light stone glow." "At that point, reinforcements will come, help bring out the herd, and take out everything else." "However, if the defense is too much, light two stones, and we will retreat."
Hearing the plan Anom spoke. "That’s fine, but I will lead the group of 5 with frostfire." Expecting her son volunteering, she responded. "Fine, who will be on the scout team then?" With a slight knowing smirk anom replied. "I know what you are worrying about, but rest assured, I will lead this time." "Neither of you need to worry." "I will be able to take care of this with a few people and rocs." "Both of you know my strength, and now with Frostfire, this should be relatively simple." "And if, for some reason, I cannot do it or the defense is too high, then I will just leave."
Sighing in resignation Saram responded. "Fine, let’s do it like this." "Get ready; we will be leaving at dusk."Night soon descended as they took off from the ground, taking to the air. Easily taking the lead, Anom was even more sure that this dragon did not use his all in fighting them. Which is a good thing, but also made him worry about the enemy that even he was so scared of, he decided to use them. Looking towards the ground at all the grounded rocs and slepneirs lined up, the dragon seemed surprised by their numbers. Flying by the group, a smile slowly creeped on his mouth.