Dante's Awakening Chapter 3
#3 of Dante's Awakening
Chapter 3
Dante awoke the next morning tied uncomfortably to a tree. 'Figures...That crazy bitch must still want something from me,' he thought, though how the fuck she had managed to move his huge body on her own he had no idea. The stallion that she had lured him into the trap with was tied to a ground tether on the other side of the clearing, grazing contentedly, seemingly ignoring the beast that would have been quite happy to make him his breakfast the previous morning. Fresh blood tainted his nostrils with its scent, and he turned his head to see the young goat farmer's corpse, stripped of clothing and dead from a single stiletto wound to the heart lying within reach of his neck.
"Awake finally, killer?" the bitches voice asked, and he swung his head to try and locate her, but couldn't.
"Looks like it," he replied groggily.
"No need to be sarcastic...As you were hunting yesterday, I assume you are hungry. Breakfast won't run away from you now, I made sure of it," the bitch replied.
"And you call me a cold blooded killer..." Dante spat.
"His family was paid, he was a burden. It would have been crueller to leave him out here to starve to death...now are you going to eat him, or should I bury him?" Rena replied flatly.
"Hmmmph! Where are you anyhow?" he asked as he shifted against his restraints, his eyes still not being able to spot his captor. The ropes were too tight and too strong to break free from...Wherever she was, she definitely knew her knots! "If you let me free, I will dispose of the evidence of your 'gift' to me then. As you can probably hear, my stomach is grumbling rather louder than it should be."
Rena dropped from the branches overhead, bouncing of his snout in a tease before hitting the ground and rolling out of his reach, "And what is to say that if I let you free I will not become the horsderves?" she asked as she brushed herself off.
"You obviously know something about my kind...what if I give you my blood word that I will not kill or eat you, unless in self-defence?" Dante asked.
"You would bond yourself magically to me in that way?" Rena asked shocked. The beast she had tied to the tree was puzzling her more and more with his actions. She had no doubt that the evil Kalaw would be more willing to die than do what her captive was suggesting. At least from the arcane knowledge she had gathered on said Kalaw while she hunted him. There was one way she could determine if this was a ruse of course...but it would be a serious commitment for both of them..."Add that you will protect me from harm until I release you, on pain of your own death, and we have a deal dragon." She stated firmly.
"Dante..."
"What?"
"My name is Dante, not dragon. And why should I protect you? You have tied me up in the night for no reason."
"Ha! No reason eh...I fought and near killed you yesterday, but somehow you revived yourself fully. I would have cut your throat while you slept, but the mage in me wants to know how you did it. I would also not kill some-being who I was not sure of the identity of. You say you are Dante, I say you are Kalaw, the murderer of my master. You are identical in every way."
"I know of no Kalaw; and what did you say happened yesterday?" Dante asked, shaking his head to clear it of its persistent sleepy fug.
"What happened is you should be dead. I shot you with a mage arrow that was charged with my anger over the murder of my master by a dragon who looks identical to you. You survived that, so I wrapped you in a mage rope, and charged it to slice and dice you into salami sized pieces! You then suddenly burst into green flames, dismissed all my enchantments like they had been placed by a rank amateur, healed in front of my eyes, pounced on me, but did not attack me, and then collapsed. What would you have done in my situation exactly?"
"Eaten you..."
"Ha ha...I am fat enough as it is! I tied you up so I would be safe."
"Well if what you are saying is the truth, I remember nothing past an explosion and hitting the ground. And then you appearing out of the smoke before I blacked out. Why exactly did you try and kill me again?"
"Because I thought you had killed my master. I thought you were Kalaw...I am now so confused."
"What is your name?" Dante asked as tears began to form in the huntresses eyes.
"Rena," she sniffed.
"Well Rena...I can't feel my wings, but I can feel my stomach. Does this Kalaw have a scar on his belly like me...because that is something I seriously doubt can be covered up, hell knows I have tried often enough. Not exactly a dragoness puller either if it appears you have been gutted by something in the past."
"Erm...no," Rena answered hesitantly.
"Then can you cut me free, and we can discuss further the terms of my blood word. You will have to make one with me to, if you want that trust from me."
"Of course...Oh fuck it! I will cut you down then. One false move though, and I will try and kill you again." She stood and approached him carefully, slipping her razor sharp kunai knife from its sheath on her belt. She was now almost certain this dragon was not Kalaw...but he could still kill her in a heartbeat for revenge. "How did you get that scar anyway?" she asked as cut the first rope cleanly.
"No idea...had it as long as I can remember...which as you gather is not long. I do not remember my life as a hatchling, my parents, nothing...apart from the fact that this mountain range is my home." He dropped to the ground and began carefully stretching his wings and limbs out to make sure he had suffered no muscle strains. "I think I am around 300 years old."
"300 years with no real memories, must make for an interesting life." Rena commented, turning her head a little as Dante bent and swallowed the goat boy whole, without chewing.
"What? No, a lonely one actually...I never remembered my friends, so they just drifted away. Not very polite with the dragonesses either if you have some fun and then wake up the next morning and call them the wrong name. Though I always remember it about a week later...by which time of course they have fucked off to another area of the land. I can probably remember the last 50 or so years give or take, but if something happens that exhausts me, I can't remember twelve hours. So you must have exhausted me...though from the conversation, not in a nice way," Dante explained with a sideways leer.
"You can go fuck yourself if you think that was part of the deal!" Rena said, returning the grin slightly.
"More fun with another..."
Rena laughed and cheered up slightly. "So...Dante. Were you serious about that blood word?" She queried again.
"Deadly...puts your mind at rest, and I wouldn't mind a friend to talk to every now and again. You may have to remind me who you are though," he replied with a chuckle.
"How about you bind yourself to protect me like I suggested...And then join me on the quest to destroy your doppelganger. Kalaw is guilty of more than one crime against the peoples... you wouldn't want another hunter to come after you like I did. What are you like as a fighter?"
"I have no idea...but from this scar, not good. What would I get out of that aspect of the deal?" Dante queried.
"A friend as you suggested, adventure, and I will use everything in my mage powers that I can to try and solve your mystery for you."
"What mystery?"
"The mystery of why you can't remember anything clearly...and of the band on your wrist which I cannot get near because of its power. I have a distinct feeling that the two are connected." Rena said as she ate one of her journey rations.
"Mmm...I agree, but only for a period of twenty four moons. If we have not found Kalaw by then, if you have not solved the puzzle of me...then we go our own ways. Friends for life, unless we can't stand each other. I am sure you don't want to be saddled with a dragon for the rest of your life, I would get in the way of pups a little yes?"
Rena laughed, "No pups for me...friend. The path of the Mage and assassin is a lonely one. Future husbands don't like the idea that they could be fried by a mage-bolt if the catch me in the wrong mood, or wake up with a knife in their backs."
"You could always find another of your kind," Dante suggested.
"Sorry...I work alone. We are too highly strung. A shared flagon or two in the Inns is a far as we take it. The males of course take a serving wench to bed for stress relief."
"And you?" Dante teased.
"Heat suppressant herbs, and an iron conviction to my craft... Ask another question of that nature and I might make sure you will never have a stress relief issue of your own in the future..." She waved her knife at him suggestively, and he held his paws up in defeat with a grin on his face.
"Sorry...!" Dante protested, "So you in on the amendment?"
"Yes...so what happens next?" Rena asked, "I have never exactly done this sort of thing before."
"Oh that's easy... pass me your knife." She handed it over, hilt first. Dante carefully used the point to pierce the scales in the centre of his left front paw. "You do the same with your left hand," he instructed, handing the knife back. She did as instructed, watching as the red elixir bubbled up from the clean incision. "Right, grasp my paw, palm to palm so our bloods mix." She followed his instruction, wincing a little as his blood stung in her open wound. "Now we make the oath. I Dante, hereby swear by my blood that for the next twenty four moons I will never attempt to cause harm to, kill, or injure Mage Rena..." he looked askance at her.
"Cresentstar," she filled in for him with a smile.
"...Cresentstar. I also pledge to do all I can to protect her from coming to personal harm while attempting to fulfil her quest." He gestured with his free paw to her.
"Ahem...I Rena Cresentstar hereby swear by my blood that for the next twenty four moons I will never attempt to cause harm to, kill or injure the dragon called Dante. I also pledge to do all I can to solve the mystery of his wrist band and memory loss."
"Then by the sun's witness, I pronounce us bound!" He sparked his healing fire and bathed their hands in the ethereal flame as both cuts healed without scars while pressed together. "Now you know that if either of us breach that bond, we will sicken and die?" Dante asked.
"I do," Rena replied.
"So what now?" Dante asked.
Rena glanced up at the sky, gauging the position of the sun, "I would suggest that we try and find Kalaw's cold trail again, but I am still a little tired from our altercation yesterday, so I vote for staying put another night."
"What led you to me?" Dante asked, nodding in agreement with a yawn.
"Rumours...I should have listened to them more I suppose, as the villagers did say you had been around for a while, and I have travelled over three hundred leagues to get here. Everywhere I went, someone said that a black dragon had been seen before me, so I assumed I was trailing Kalaw."
"Mmm...could Kalaw have mage powers himself? It is not unknown amongst my kind," Dante asked.
"Possible I suppose," Rena mused.
"Then could what you have been following have been an illusion or a mage wraith. Sent in this direction to confuse you?"
"But why would he do that? Master was far more powerful than I am? I would have barely caused him to pause..."
"Was your master's blood the only blood present at his murder scene?" Dante pressed.
"I...I didn't check..." Rena replied breaking into tears, "I was too busy trying to save him as he died in my arms."
Dante edged over towards her huddled form, and placed a paw on her shoulder, "It's all right... it is easy to forget things in moments of great stress, we are all fallible. You loved him didn't you?"
"Y...yes...but as a father. I was dumped by my parents, and he adopted me, trained me, and nurtured me as his own. His loss was like a knife to my own heart."
"You have not grieved yet have you?" Dante asked quietly as he ran a paw through her head fur.
"No..."
"Then let it all out...I am here for you."
With that Rena broke down completely and turned into Dante's chest as he hugged her close as the frustrations and tears of grief tore from her soul to splatter upon his scales, the dust washing away to expose the armoured black leafs like Jet pebbles tumbling through the tides of time.
He held her there like an upset hatchling for a few hours until both the sun lowered in the sky and her hysteria died down to just a few gentle sobs, "Better?" he queried gently.
"Y...yes...Why did I just do that? I am always in control of myself, I have to be." Rena asked, but she didn't pull away from him.
"Oh, maybe I am just the cuddly listener you needed..."
She punched him with a grin on her tear stained face, "You are anything but cuddly you great oaf!" she replied, rubbing her fist as it had not even dented a scale.
He grinned down at her, "Oh some would say that I am...but I have been thinking for these last few hours. I would guess that Kalaw was injured in the fight and then sent an illusion of himself in this direction. He could have heard of me, even if I have not heard of him. And he assumed that you would find and kill me, thinking it was him. He must not have known of my...well let's call them powers of healing until we know otherwise."
"Mmm...so I have travelled all this way for no reason?"
"It would appear so...and Kalaw is likely to be healed and back to full strength by now." Dante pointed out.
"Shit! Well I suppose we had better head back to my home then and start the trail again. At least I have an indestructible dragon at my side now," Rena teased.
"I would rather not be nearly killed again thank you...it rather hurt! You have to try and stop that from happening you know...I am not bait!"
Rena chuckled, "I will see what I can do...now the night is upon us. If I gather some wood, could you light a fire for us to sleep by?" she asked.
"So I am just a perambulating pyrotechnic now am I?" Dante teased.
She punched him again... "Sod off...I will go fetch that wood. We will set off at dawn's first light."
"Yes Ma'am," Date quipped, and darted out of the way when she brandished her knife at him with a smile on her face...