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The road ahead was long, longer than he remembered. It has been years since he last visited Moudeir Castle. Henry rode across the only road the could still remember after all those years, a small dirt road that led trough a forest, far away from the main road. To his right, the woods were very dense. Almost no light managed to shine through the treetops, making the forest extremely dark, even at day.

The part he was traveling trough was not nearly as dense tough. The trees to his left were so thinned out that he could see the small mountain range behind them. The mountains were not too far away so he considered going there to take a look. Maybe he would find a cave or something similar where he could spent the night.

In the past few days he had to sleep on the forest floor and only managed to built himself a kind of temporary shelter out of leaves and sticks. At least he did not have to worry about food or drink or his health for that matter. For the case that he would injure himself in any way, even while in armor all the time, he took bandages and herbs with him. He did not know much about healing but it was better than nothing.

He also spent some time scrubbing all the blood from his armor so that it would not rust. And since he traveled trough enemy territory now and he had no place to put his armor, he had to wear it all day and night. He only took off his leg and arm plates when he was sleeping, because those were the parts he could put back on himself. He was used to the weight, at least while fighting. Armor was not made to wear it all day, so his muscles were feeling sore, especially his shoulders.

Henry sighed to himself, looking at the way ahead of him. On horseback it would cost him one, maybe two days to arrive at Moudeir Castle. Soon it was going to be dark which meant he had to find a place to rest soon. And judging by the clouds and the wind a storm was building up.

Suddenly a loud roar ripped him out of his thoughts.

His head immediately turned to where the sound came from, to the mountains. He stopped his horse and listened carefully. He frowned his brow as he heard a second, louder roar that also sounded like a cry of pain. He glared at the road ahead before staring at the mountains with an angry gaze. That roar came from a dragon, he was certain. And that dragon needed his help.

"Come on!" He got his horse to turn left and then ride towards the mountain range. He passed by a couple of scattered trees here and there, but after he left the forest there was a mostly plain field. The horse galloped as fast as it could, crossing the plains and reaching the mountain range in a matter of minutes. Hopefully, it was fast enough, because he heard more roars filled with pain coming from the mountains while he was on his way.

Once he reached the foot of a mountain he saw a couple of horses bound to a few trees that stood nearby. Probably dragon slayers. Oh how he hated those.

Heavy footsteps on the ground led inside a small canyon, a rather wide path in between two mountains. It was clear that the dragon must have been at the end of that path, because as he stood right in front of the canyon the roars sounded a lot clearer than before, like that dragon was just around the next corner, which was probably actually the case.

He loosened the leather strap that connected his helmet with the saddle. He took it in both of his hands, setting it down on his head. As he was Securing the leather strap of his helmet to his chin, he commanded his horse to ride forward and into the canyon.

He rode through the canyon, slower this time. The further he got into the canyon the more the grass thinned out until there was nothing but dry, stony earth. When he got closer to the corner he started hearing voices of men alongside the roars of a dragon. Once he reached said corner of the canyon his horse took a couple more steps before it stopped so that he had a full view of what was happening. His assumption was immediately confirmed. Dragon slayers.

Around the corner the canyon went on for a bit before it ended at the foot of large mountain with the entrance of a cave clearly visible. The first thing he noticed apart from that and the dragon slayers was obviously the dragon. He had dark green scales all over his body and his eyes were golden, just like Cyrvanyx´. The dragon was clearly male. He had spent enough time among dragons to spot the difference in their body form and their profile. While female dragons are often more slender male dragons tended to have more muscles.

The dragon slayers around him had him pinned down somehow. The dragon did not fight back with his claws or tried to fly away. At first he did not see why, but then he saw the hook like weapons attached to chains that dug into his scales and the flesh underneath. Those chains where then anchored to the ground, thus making every movement agonizing as hell. He could only fight back with his teeth and his fire, but that did not work well.

Henry watched as one of the dragon slayers put some type of metal muzzle around his snout while he was distracted by another dragon slayer. When the device snapped and closed the dragon did what he could to get it off him, but it did not work. He was unable to open his muzzle, which meant that he was basically unable to defend himself at that point.

"So, we have him now men!" The dragon slayer who wore red dragon scale armor said. He was probably their leader, as he was the only one wearing armor. The others were only wearing tunics or very thin padded armor. They knew how useless armor was when a dragon hits you with full force. "Now, don´t waste much time. We don´t want to risk anything." He looked over to one of his men who nodded and pulled out dagger. "Just some poison dragon, but don´t worry it won´t kill you, just put you to rest for a while. Ulric wants you alive."

The dragon glared at the man in scale armor and then at the man holding the poisoned dagger. He tried to squirm away as the man got closer, but the hooks were too deep into his flesh for him to escape without ripping himself open.

It was at that moment that Henry finally decided to do something. He pulled the crossbow from his back and loaded it as fast as he could, pulling back the string and setting a bolt down in place. Then he aimed for the man with the dagger, and pulled the trigger.

The bolt darted forward with an immense speed, flying straight towards the man holding the dagger. Although Henry was not the best when it came to ranged combat, that one bolt seemed to be a lucky shot. The dragon slayer took the bolt in the neck, dropping the dagger as he was dead in a matter of seconds. The others immediately reacted.

Some of them jumped back and others held their shields up, but all of them looked towards him. He quickly flipped down his visor before any of them could see his face, just in case.

"Who the fuck are you?" The leader shouted out towards him, a look of shock on his face. Without wasting any more time Henry threw the crossbow aside and got off his horse. He would have galloped towards them, but they had spears and halberds, not something he wanted to ride right into.

When he got off his horse he glanced towards his saddle where the big greatsword was strapped on it with two leather straps. Without a second thought he undid the straps and pulled the sword out of its sheath, the horse jumping just a little at the sight. Sword drawn he began to walk towards them, dragging the sword behind him, the sword making a horrible scrapping sound as it was dragged across the earth.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" The leader shouted at two crossbow men. "Shoot him!" They aimed their crossbows at him in an instant, but he did not even flinch when the bolts came flying towards him. He only shielded the slit of his visor with his arm. Just as expected the bolts did not hurt him. One broke when it hit his chest and the other bounced off his shoulder plate.

When they were about to reload he quickened his pace, suddenly sprinting towards them. Two others jumped in to help them, but they did not last long.

Henry parried the one with the sword, followed by a cut to his throat. Henry saw in the corner of his eye how the second tried to thrust his halberd into his armpit while it was exposed. It was a nice try, but it did not work. Henry made a side step, catching the halberd with his arm. Then he swung the greatsword at his opponents throat with one hand, barely cutting deep enough to kill him due to the lack of momentum.

The others that came at him were even easier to defeat. They all thrusted at him, they all aimed for the gaps and weak points of his armor. But all of them failed. The way he parried and dodged no weapon could injure him, but he could injure them. At that point it was getting pretty obvious that these men were trained to fight dragons and not men.

Well, too bad for them.

After he even dealt with the crossbow men there was only one man left, and that man was the one wearing scale armor. Their leader looked around all the dead and all the blood on Henry´s sword.

Henry glared at the dragon slayer with a death stare of raging fury. He walked towards him, holding his sword in both of his hands.

"Ah, fuck it!" The dragon slayer shouted out, dropping his spear and his shield, taking out a two handed mace from his belt. "I´ll sent you to hell!" He came charging forth, swinging that mace at Henry.

But Henry was ready. He parried the mace and followed the parry with a mighty swing. To his surprise, the dragon slayer took a side step and parried the blade to the side with his armored arm. At that point Henry knew that this opponent would not be as easy to defeat like the others.

After that the dragon slayer kept swinging at him and Henry parried every attack, but he could not get a swing at him, could not find a weak spot in his defense that he could exploit. He needed a shorter weapon, a faster weapon. He needed his longsword. Then he knew what he had to do.

He pushed the dragon slayer back, making him stumble backwards. Henry used that time to drop the greatsword and draw his longsword. Immediately after his opponent regained his balance he attacked him once again. But this time, Henry was faster. With his right hand on the hilt and the other on the blade, he parried the mace away, thrusting the pommel of his sword and hitting the dragon slayer in the unprotected face.

Without wasting much time, he grabbed the handle with both hands and spun around him, hitting him in the back of his knee. The dragon slayer dropped to his knees and before he even had a chance to say his last prayer Henry spun around again, cutting of his head in the same motion, accompanied by a cry of savage rage.

All that happened in the matter of seconds.

Henry stood above the headless corpse of the scale armored dragon slayer, panting heavily as he still held his sword in both hands, ready for the next fight. But there were none left. He was surrounded only by corpses and a dragon. Oh, right, he almost forgot about the dragon after that tense fight he had.

He turned around to face the green scaled creature, who glared at him with an angry gaze. Not exactly the kind of look he expected to see after he saved his life, or his freedom in this case.

Just as he was about to open his visor and free the dragon, he heard someone groan. Henry turned around in an instant to see a terrified man holding his leg staring at him as he struggled to get up and run. He would not let him escape so easy.

Henry ran towards and kicked him to the ground as he was about to stand up, holding his sword at his throat as he lay there on his back. He pressed the tip against his throat, ready to kill him. The man glared up at him with tears in his eyes, holding his hands above his head. He stared down on him, looking him deeply into his eyes. He could have killed him right then and there, but he did not. Not because he felt pity for him, but because of something else.

Slowly, Henry lowered himself to his knees, still holding the sword at his throat. As he got closer the man´s face became even more horrified than before. It was probably because of his eyes. At first glance they might just look like dragon eyes.

"Are you afraid?" Henry asked him, speaking in the deepest voice he had to offer.

The trembling nodded several times, looking into Henry´s eyes as if he was hypnotized by them. "Good. You should be." He got a little closer to make sure that he would remember every word. "I will let you live. After I let you go you will get up, take one of your horses and leave. And once you get home I want you to tell everyone what happened here. Your lord, your family and everyone you know. Let them know that they should be afraid. Understand?"

He nodded, his whole body still shaking. "Then go." Henry got up and took the sword away from his throat. Almost immediately he stood up and ran away. Henry watched him to make sure that he did not steal his own horse. When the man limped around the corner Henry turned around to once again face the dragon.

"Are you alright?" Henry asked as he opened his visor and cleaned his sword with the linen gambeson of one of the corpses. He looked at him, waiting for an answer while sheathing his sword. The dragon just frowned at him. "Oh, right, that... thing."

Henry stepped towards the dragon, looking over him briefly. His body shape reminded him of Cyrvanyx, except he was green and a bit less muscular. What caught his eyes were the wounds. Not only were the hooks still in him, obviously causing a lot of pain whenever he moved, but there were also several other wounds such as cuts all over him. Henry had no idea how long that fight went on, but the dragon slayers must have known what they were doing because none of them died before he appeared.

He reached forward to open the device that held his muzzle shut. It fell to the ground, landing with an audible CLING. The dragon fixed his gaze upon Henry. "About time." The dragon said with annoyance.

Henry raised an eyebrow. He at least expected a simple "thank you". He then walked out if the dragons sight to remove the first hook that was on his forelimb. "You know... I at least expected you to be thank full after I saved your life."

"Saved my life? I don´t think so! I had everything-AAahrr!" The dragon yowled in pain as Henry took out the blood stained hook. "... Everything under control!" He muffled trough grit teeth.

"Yes, yes... of course." Henry smirked as he took out another hook, dropping it to the ground. The dragon hissed in pain as Henry removed the third hook and then the fourth. "And I bet you would´ve removed those hooks yourself if I wasn´t here?"

"I would´ve freed myself when they expect it the least- RAah!" Henry removed the last couple of hooks, unable to take the dragon´s confidence seriously. But he knew that he was serious which made it all the more funny.

Once all the hooks were removed the dragon started stretching himself, but soon stopped due to the pain. "Are you alright?"

"Yes I´m fine." The dragon hissed at him. "Dragons heal way faster than you humans do. And we don´t have to cover ourselves in metal to survive a fight."

"I know that." Henry folded his arms underneath his chest. "But with armor on, you would´ve defeated them with ease."

"Why did you let him go? There will be more coming soon." The dragon snarled and turned his gaze away, licking his wounds.

"They would send others anyway. This land is no longer ours..." He sighed, looking into the distance, thinking about the battle at Dragonstone Castle. "Now that the order of the dragon is no more these are Ulric's lands."

The dragon raised his head from his wound, his ears perked up. "The order of the dragon? Fallen?" There was a hint of concern in his deep, threatening voice. "How many of the dragons?"

Henry looked him into his eyes and their two golden gazes met. He fought back tears just when he thought about what happened. What he lost. Who he lost. "Everyone..." He said, his emotions starting to overwhelm him. "Everyone died." The green dragon bowed his head, looking at the ground as if he was mourning the dead. Even though the dragon probably only felt grief for the other dragons he still appreciated that small amount of concern. It was not like he had forgotten that he also lost Cyrvanyx.

There was silence between the two of them for a moment. Henry´s gaze wandered all around the canyon as he thought about changing the subject to a more comfortable topic. The order and all the people he lost was still a fresh wound and he did not want to pour salt into that already painful and very deep wound.

Then he sighed and turned around. "Farewell then, dragon. I wish you good fortune." And with that he picked up the greatsword from ground, cleaning it just like his longsword before he started walking towards his patiently waiting horse. He blinked a couple of times, trying to get the tears out of his eyes. Although he has still a glimpse of hope in him, he was broken.

"Wait." The dragon´s voice did not sound aggressive anymore, but rather calm, filled with just a tiny hint of sadness. Henry stopped in his tracks and turned around. "You are a knight of the dragon, right?"

Henry looked down, brushing over the golden dragon that was engraved onto his breastplate. "I was once. the order is dead, just like... everyone I ever knew. The only family I have left is my uncle, so that is where I´m going." After he turned around the dragon spoke up again.

"I said wait." He paused, looking Henry in the eyes as he already grabbed the reins of his horse. "You don´t really want to go now, do you? The sky clearly says that there is a storm coming."

"I don´t have a choice do I?"

"Maybe you do." The dragon said, gazing around the canyon. "As a sign of thanks you could stay overnight." The dragon met his gaze again. "Just don´t touch anything or you will lose a limp for every object you touch."

Henry smiled at him, ignoring that threat. He could have sworn that he saw tears building in his eyes. He wondered why.

"Thank you." He half expected the dragon to sent him away. That sudden turn of his attitude was very welcome. He took a couple of steps towards the dragon again, the horse following him. "My name is Henry, and yours?"

The dragon lifted his head, curling his neck into an S shape. "You have to earn that knowledge, human."

"And there he is again." Henry chuckled.

The dragon snarled at him and turned around, walking towards his cave. At first he thought that little remark annoyed him, But on his muzzle Henry could see the hint of a smile.

By taking a closer look at the cave, Henry could see that the entrance had an almost round shaped opening. Stalagmites rose from the ground, some going up all the way to the ceiling, connecting with some of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. When Henry followed the dragon inside he realized how big the cave actually was. The cave he stood in was almost big enough to keep ten dragons or more inside. The ceiling was not that high, barely high enough for the dragon to stretch out his wings, but the walls were so spread apart that the cave seemed very huge at first.

But what really caught his eye was something else, a wooden wall, standing in the cave, separating a smaller room from the big main chamber although it was not reaching the ceiling. It looked like there once was a door that led into that room, but that was probably removed from the dragon because it was too small for him. That brought up a question though. Who built that wall?

When he looked around some more he found several other things that could only be made from human hands, such as crates, boxes, pieces of armor and weapons. Either those were part of a hording dragon´s collection, or someone else was here before the dragon. Henry could not help but wonder who that was. But he did care enough to ask at the moment.

"Behind that wall is my sleeping chamber." The dragon´s deep voice ripped him out of his thoughts. "You may built yourself a fire." The dragon stopped in his tracks and glared at him. "You will leave tomorrow, but if you take anything from me I will hunt you down."

"What is with the bodies outside?" Henry watched the dragon as he vanished behind the wooden wall. No answer came. He shrug his shoulders and got to work. He used one of the stalagmites to bound his horse, making sure it won´t run away. He unburned the horse with all the weight of his cargo and took of the saddle putting it on the ground right next to the ceiling.

He sighed and started dragging all the dead bodies into the cave, putting them in a far corner of the cave. He would check if they have anything useful with them the next day. He was tired and wanted nothing more than sleep.

Then he started off his armor, starting with the belt that held his longsword. Once again the only thing he left on was his cuirass, the mail and also all the clothing he wore underneath. He would really love to get out of all the things and take a bath, relaxing his sore and worn-out muscles. But it would be hell to try to get into his cuirass on his own.

When he was done taking off his boots and his leg and arm plates he did his best to get all the blood off his armor and his swords. It would have been easier if the cloth was wet but he did not want to waste any of his water.

Then he looked around for a place to sleep. There was nothing but cold stone. His eyes fell on the wooden wall as he rose his voice and shouted at the dragon he hoped was not sleeping yet. "So I´m sleeping on the stone floor then?"

At first no answer came, only the wind could be heard that got louder by the minute. Then he heard a grunt and other noises coming from behind the wall. Just as he was about to take a look some kind of leather bag was thrown over the wall, landing in the middle of the cave.

"Err... thank you." He said as he walked towards the pile of leather.

"Just don´t say any other words or I reconsider my offer and you sleep outside."

Henry picked up the leather, ignoring the dragon´s words. He obviously had some kind of personal grudge against humans, or just against him, for whatever reason. The only reason he allowed him to stay probably was the fact that he was a knight of the dragon.

He examined the leather closer. It seemed to be some kind of blanket at first glance, something a dragon would sleep on. But as he examined it a little closer he saw that it was some kind of cloak with fur on the inside and leather on the outside.

With a sigh he put it on the ground next to his armor and his other things. He laid down on the fur cloak and tried to get as comfortable as he could while still partly being in his armor. The worst thing was though that his undergarment was soaked with sweat.

Despise all these things he closed his eyes and drifted off into his dreams. But he knew he would have a nightmare. A nightmare about that battle.

Just like the other nights before.

*Authors note*

It seems Henry has found some company, although not the most friendly kind. If you liked this chapter make sure to let me know and leave your thoughts in the comments!