Chapter 3) The Enemy
#3 of Chronicles of Lamok
This is the third installment of a series about me, Lamok, a lone hermaphrodite opal dragon, how I came to be, and how I survive in a world that would have no objection to the extinction of all dragons everywhere.
Note: At the bottom is a glossary for various words present in this chapter.
Chronicles of Lamok
Chapter 3) The Enemy
A season had passed, winter had come. The bats became lazy, the seemingly endless supply of guano growing less and less and the fungus that thrived on it shrank form a green carpet to small spots on the cave floor.
Myself? I had an empty belly. So I hunted.
The slug trail was old, but not old enough to fade completely from my sense of smell. The slugs had also slowed along with the bats until they hardly moved from their hiding places.
I followed the trail to a large bolder where the snail had slipped under. I tried to push the bolder out of the way. "Scales," I cursed. Since the slug was unattainable, I decided to try my luck with the bats. I've heard enough of them fall from their perches, dead. 'I may have some luck.'
I meandered through the passages. By the time I'd returned to the main chamber, I had indeed found several dead bats littering the ground, enough to take away my hunger and then some.
I curled up next to father and fell asleep, awaiting mother's return.
***
Mother was rather noisy when she entered, noisy enough to rouse everyone inside. Father was no longer anywhere to be seen. Probably returned to the monastery, he'd been traveling to-and-fro as often as he could manage just to see us and Lavisatie.
Upon entering the main chamber, I found mother to be carrying something in her jaws and left sii.
I ran up to greet her and to sate my curiosity as to what she'd brought back from her hunt. But the first thing that came to my attention when I got close to her was the scent of blood. And there was something wrong with her gait. 'Is she hurt?' I then noticed there were shafts, like quills, imbedded in her neck. There was also a few in her upper saa.
"Mother, what are those?"
"Hm? Arrows, hun. They are long-range weapons used by Humans, Elves, and Dwarves," she replied. "Others too probably."
Mother dropped two dead horses from her jaws, one of which my siblings immediately tore into. She then called me over, away from the others and opened her sii. A mass of fabric, rope, and broken pieces of wood fell to floor.
"A tent?" I asked, taking the knowledge from the inherited memories.
Something dashed out from beneath the fabric, running on its hind legs. Apparently it had bad night vision because it tripped over some rocks, echoes of fear bouncing off the walls.
"That is a human," said mother. "Go after it, show me good you are at hunting."
I jumped in pursuit, driven more so by the scent of its terror rather than mother's words. It smelled of blood and horses. There was also an underlying odor, a dirty odor.
It heard me coming and tried to crawl into a crevice. 'A lot of good that will do.' I rammed my skull into the biped's side, the foremost spine in my upraised griff easily piercing its flesh. I threw all my weight against it, pinning it there while I gripped its skull in my jaws. I applied a large amount of pressure, causing its skull to shatter easily under the weight. Its body immediately went limp. 'These creatures are weak. But then, neither was my deceased brother after Zeshen had worn him out.'
"The human, like this male, are a creature to both respect and fear," said mother. "They may seem weak but do not underestimate them. Where they lack in strength, they make up for in numbers, tool, plans, and magic."
I made note to remember her words, but right now I only thought of one thing. "May I eat him?"
"He is your kill" was all she said and left me to my meal, which I devoured messily, stringing blood and gore all over. When I was finished there was nothing left but broken bones and a few small chunks of meat which mother took care of. I had to jump into a pool of crystal-clear water to remove the blood I couldn't get with my tongue.
After I cleaning the blood from off my scales and out of my fur, mother, who by this time had removed the arrows that had been piercing her body, showed me and my clutch mates her hoard. It was small, containing little more than a few mouthfuls of coins and a few gems. Mother said that the smaller your hoard, the less likely humans and other sentient beings will try to steal it.
She had also said "We dragons, with out numbers now dwindling, must hide from the humans and other races or assassins will come and slay our families. The dragons who knew of better times are all but gone from the world. The dwarves find our caves. The elves trap us by wood and water. And humans, they adapt - destroy an army of them and be assured the survivors will bring a force too great for you to win against."
"Is there anywhere that is safe for us?" asked Zeshen.
"Yes, there is," mother replied. "There is knowledge buried in my memories, lost to me, of a continent where man and dragon coexist in harmony with one-another. Teaching each other; helping each other to grow." She said nothing more on the issue. We all returned to the egg shelf and curled up together for some sleep.
I dreamed of humans dressed in shinny metal armor and wielding menacing weapons while riding on horseback. There was an army of them. And they were attacking something I could not, for some reason, force myself to see.
I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible.
I'm always open to constructive criticism, suggestions, or requests for future chapters.
Glossary:
Drakine
Saa: The rear legs of a dragon. The three rear true-toes are able to grip, but the fighting spur is little more than ornamental.
Sii: The front legs of a dragon. Five digit claws (similar to human hands) that are dexterous enough to grasp objects.