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Ch 2 Friends and Enemies

"Wow, it feels good to release some tension", I said after I had chopped the last practice straw-dummy in half.

One month had passed since I had been knighted, and I was happy that I was now a friend of the princess. We always had fun together but I soon realised that being a knight and a lord was hard work; I had to train the new recruits, and as a lord I was required to attend meetings with the king. The meetings dealt with everything from disputes over land ownership to rodent infestations in store-rooms. At such a meeting I told the council that I would personally take care of the infestations, and when they asked how, I told them

"Hey, I can always use a good snack". Then I leaned back and enjoyed the look of horror and disgust on their faces - sometimes it's those little things in life.

When you live in the wild, rodents are the hardest to get under control, so it's convenient to kill AND eat them - you see, I never waste any good meat. "When you live in the wilderness for a decade, You'll have this kind of stuff happen to you", I told my fellow Lords. They asked about my age and I calculated that I must be at least 70 years old, give or take a few years.

"But you look so young in your human form", they flattered. "Tell us how it's possible to be that old, yet look so young?" I explained that dragons don't age physically and are immortal as such, but we can still be killed by weapons. I also explained that werewolves on the other hand are immune to poisons and can only be killed with silver weapons. I felt uncomfortable about revealing my weaknesses, so I asked the other lords to get on with the meeting.

After the meeting we began to leave the hall, but on my way out I heard lord Feneral's voice. "Why is that monster a Lord and a knight? It should be disposed of, instead of being let into the royal palace".

I walked up behind him and said, "Now, why do you think I need to be disposed of, eh Feneral?" He turned to answer the question then noticed who he was talking to. "Oh you heard that?". "These ears are not just for show", I said. "Now if you have enough time on your hands to complain about me, you can worry and complain about feeding the livestock and prisoners. Now, I have new recruits to train, so if you wouldn't mind I would like you not to talk about me behind my back - ok?"

He nodded in embarrassment. "Good! now lets get to work", I said with a smile.

Some time later that day, I sparred with a young recruit. Steve came up to me while we took a breather, and said, "I'm going on a hunting mission. Care to come along?"

"I'd love to leave these walls some time soon", I said, "but this position gives me little free time. I'll get back to you when I can".

Hours of training went by, before I could finally join with Steve in the woods. Our task was to hunt for food to distribute to some of the local villages. "Ok! thats the last one", I said and placed a boar in the cart. "This is for the village in the south".

"I sure hope so, or we will have big trouble at the castle", said Steve and inspected the contents of the cart. "-but how are we going to get to the south village without horses?

Easily, I said and shifted into dragon form, "I'll use this form".

"I always forget that you could do that", said Steve and laughed.

"Well, I never really get to use this form at the castle much" I said, "but I practice on changing into dragon form whenever I have a little private moment. Well, lets get going - we don't want to loose our pay by being late".

Hours later, we were distributing food to the villagers.

"All right, listen up everyone", shouted Steve to the hungry villagers. "Two boars per household - and no complaining! We'll do this right. and everyone gets something to eat".

We were doing all that we could to provide food and water, but the villagers were so starved that they struggled to stay in line, and fights over food broke out frequently.

"Well Steve, I wish we could do more to help than this but..."

"It's the best that we can do to help out for now", interrupted Steve. "We're part of a neutral kingdom. It'll be damn hard, but at some point we will have to pick a side, or this kingdom will surely fall -either from starvation, or from an random attack by the fighting armies."

"I know Steve, I know", I sighed. "but I can't choose any one side, because I'm both dragon AND werewolf".

At that very moment, a woman wearing a cloak came up to me and asked for my help.

"What can I help you with, mam?". The woman told me that her cart had broken down, and I followed her to the cart. "I heard something break and now the wheels won't move", she said. I knelt down to take a look at the axle, and I sensed the woman coming up behind me. "Well, the axle is done for, but we can fix it in the village." I said and turned around and in that very moment, the woman lunged at me with a knife.

"DIE! AND LEAVE ME ALONE", she yelled as she stabbed at me.

The woman was desperate and crying loudly, and the knife bit into my arm painfully. I tore off her hood with my other arm, and I saw that she was a werewolf.

Stop!, I yelled. I'm a friend. She stopped her attack, and eyed me with suspicion.

"Gods, woman! What IS your deal?" I said, and changed into my werewolf form.

"You're not one of them?", she realised.

"I'm not", I replied, "and keep it down, because I'm considered dead by both the werewolves and the dragons".

"So YOU are the one that all the weres talk about", said the astounded werewolf. "You are -the Changeling".

"Well, since you already know of me" I said, "That's half an introduction already. What might your name be, she-wolf?"

"Grace", she said.

While we walked back, I explained about the werewolf attacks and she put her hood back on, as not to scare the villagers.

"I see why they would be scared", said Grace. "I mean, who wouldn't be scared of a pack of werewolves wanting to gain ground in the war against dragons - but taking the princess of the land hostage, only to use her ability as a seer for a weapon..."

"-damn brutes", she sneered.

"You do know that you're talking about your own race, right?", I asked.

"I know, but that's why I travel", said Grace, "I want to show that I'm different from those brutes in the army".

"So Grace, what do you have in this cart anyway? It feels too light to break an axle".

"Well then, take a look" she told me, and as I looked under the blanket three little pups jumped on me at the same time -normal wolf pups though. I began to laugh, as the little balls of fur ran around me, licking and tickling.

"Ok, ok! I give, you little buggers", I said and laughed out loud. "Where did you find these wolf pups? I haven't seen any feral wolves in ages".

"I found them on the side of the road" said Grace.

"So they were abandoned by their parents? No worries", I assured her. "I'll take them off your hands -you can live at my place if you wish. I barely use it anyway. I'll find a way to visit you and these pups whenever possible".

I got up and one of the pups was still clinging to the top of my head. Several villagers and guards watched me balancing the pup, and they laughed at the scene. "Wow, I never thought I'd see the commander of the royal army getting taken down by three pups!", laughed one of the guards, and I looked around with some embarrassment. "What can I say? I have a soft spot for puppies". I lifted the pup off my head and put him back in the cart with the other two. "So Grace, will you accept my offer? You'll be quite safe here".

Grace smiled at me. "Of course I will -the pups like you, so why not?"

After I got them settled into my home, I was called to the kings throne-room.

"My dear friend", said the King. "I have a mission for you -a very important one."

"Ask, and i will do it for you my Lord -whatever it may be, and to the best of my abilities", I assured him.

The king looked at me and there was sorrow in his voice. "A powerful creature or person has threatened to destroy our land, and its people, unless we give in to their demands. We ask of you to rid us of this foul thing, before it stays true to its words."

Passion and determination burned in my veins, as i looked up to the King "I will do my best, my Liege".

The King gave me directions to where this thing had been seen - and now lay waiting for us. I started to get nervous, about whatever this thing was. We knew that it was able to take on the humans that I had personally trained.

As i went further into the hills, i saw it charging at me - staff in hand. I immediately knew what it was -It was a lich king, a formerly powerful mage now turned undead. But before I could even wield my weapon, something terrible happened.....