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No. This affront could not be simply delegated to my inferiors. The fact that the Knight had been brutally slain in one of my private sanctuaries was too much to ignore. I would find the perpetrator of this crime and deliver unto him a Dragon's vengeance. Ignoring the still-pale Tobias, I stepped forward into the turnabout surrounded by tall pines.

Silently, the humans who had gathered about and were conjecturing about the means and cause of the Knight's murder gave way before my bulk, driven, undoubtedly by the vibrations they felt in the ground for my heavy, deliberate steps. Extending my neck, I sniffed the pile of gore which constituted the majority of the remains of the Knight. The stench of blood threatened to override all the other scents. I knew, from the few times that I'd stored killed game, that the body was certainly fresh, killed last night at the latest. By my best guess, I would have said that the Knight died in the earlier part of the evening; the smell of the torn guts was already well progressed. I had not seen the head the humans had apparently discovered off to the side, but I knew after a few good sniffs that this was, in fact, Sir Henry. His scent, smokey with whiskey lingering in the sweat, exuded from what remained of the torn clothing. My eye-ridges raised and I snorted into the air. Lowering my head so my nose snuffled against the dirt, I caught the scent of another human. One who I did not know.

The human around me were looking with wide eyes, much like rabbits. Tobias came walking along my body as I sniffed about with my long neck. I returned to him when he placed his hand on my leg. "You seem as if you discovered something, My Lord."

I growled softly, "The scent of a man. Not Sir Henry and not anyone I've met from the village."

"It must be the murderer!" exclaimed Tobias, announcing my thoughts.

I nodded once, not minding Tobias' tendency to state the obvious in this case. After a few more steps around the area, I discovered the trail of the stranger leading into the turnabout from between the trees and exiting the same direction. There were no footprints in the area, either human or dragon, for the dark brown soil was set with numerous cobbles to accommodate my weight, but the trail stood out to me nonetheless as if the perpetrator had left a trail of white paint behind.

I looked to the tall trees between which the trail led. I knew each, having excavated each of them, and all the others, from the forest myself. It would be a shame to damage them by forcing my way through, just for the sake of a worthless human murderer. I growled with frustration. "Tobias. Surely, you can smell this man. His odor is very distinct." I said, my head between the thick pine trunks.

Tobias alone remained near, the rest of the crowd having retreated to the far end of the clearing - a wise decision on their part as my tail was lashing, occasionally striking the ground in my agitation. From where he usually stood to the side of my left shoulder, he said, "I smell nothing but the pine trees... and Sir Henry. I'm sorry but humans can't follow an invisible trail."

I was about to take to the air and see if I could at least locate where this stranger had left the estate when Tobias spoke again. "But, My Lord, I do believe that trained dogs can follow a trail of smell as you describe.

I pulled my head out from between the trees, shaking my horns free a a few caught branches. "Hm..." I grumbled, doubtful that humans and their dogs could operate in this fashion. The canine certainly had a capable nose - I'd seen wolves track their prey for miles on end - but the dog could not talk and seemed as likely to chase a chicken as obey a command; I'd discovered this much in my time among the humans. "Regardless, go fetch Richard and a good woodsman. Perhaps the this man left a trail further out in the trees..."

"Right away, Master." Tobias, the young Knight and the one human I trusted to be a faithful and competent servant, scurried off as quickly as his coating of thick furs would allow.

I left moments later, forcing the humans - the crowd seemed to be growing at an exponential rate despite the fact that this was supposed to be my private garden - to part again for my passage. With the edge of my blade-like tail spur, I scraped the remains of Sir Henry along the ground and flung them wetly off into the trees to the side. "Clean up this mess." I said to a woman who I knew to be among the staff that now maintained the grounds here. The humans seemed shocked, but the devastated corpse had nothing more to tell me and since it was not fit for eating, it was only a stain dirtying my sleeping area and nothing more.

Instead of heading back to the amphitheater, I took a side trail and walked a spiraling path to another sleeping hollow. I sat on my haunches and opened my mouth, pulling in a drought of cold winter air. It was clean. Using my tail, I scratched at an itch on the back of my neck and stretched my still sore wings; I'd not be flying today if I could help it. What had I been thinking, sleeping on my back! The fact that this murder had happened during the several hours which remained a void in my mind could not be a coincidence. What on earth could have happened that would have prompted this event?

No answer presented itself. I paid minimal attention at best to the human affairs which did not directly affect me. A horrifying thought occurred to me. If I could not recall at all what had happened in those hours, it was possible, however remotely, that I could be somehow involved in the knight's murder and simply not remember it. I had been so comfortable with the humans last night... perhaps I said something that I oughtn't have? I shook my head. I was being paranoid. Still, the absence of memory was a new and unsettling experience. My mind made a number of unlikely scenarios to fill those lost hours to torment me. I needed to make sure to limit myself in the future... no more than three barrels of drink on any one evening.

The hastily made promise to myself was soon forgotten as I busied myself about what I should do next with Richard, my head of the militia, hopefully soon to be on the trail of the man whom I'd smelled.