FA+
Shop
1215
Views
Views
54
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Size 1212 x 869
File Size 827.2 kB
Report this content
More from Clostridium
Listed in Folders
Summer, 1331
Tevean turned away from the survivors of her unit as they silently shrouded their dead and burnt sage for the burials, shaking her head. A dozen of them should have been able to kill a dragon. Hell, a hundred of them had captured the dragon queen-alive.
How did they get defeated by seven humanoids with a rogue wyrm?
She thought a bit more.
Well, one had a weapon that spat arrows like two dozen archers.
And another had been able to summon up magical fireballs.
She turned to Perigold waiting besides her.
‘Send a messenger to Gremenal. We underestimated the dragon. He has dangerous allies with deadly magicks. We will continue the pursuit, but we will need to try to assemble as many of our unit as we can. Something big is coming up with this target. We cannot underestimate them again.’
***
As soon as they were sure that their attackers had left, Logan’s party broke up camp and moved out, carefully picking their way through the rubble and broken buildings to the dragon and their horses.
“Lots of Other Men around.” Mera quietly mumbled to the Forester when the party rejoined him in the broken aqueduct. Scorched earth and charred remains with laminar armor and burnt metal scattered nearby suggested that the dragon had encountered a few scouts and disposed of them. Logan simply nodded. With no further comment the band moved on.
Back on horseback, Logan’s party moved fast, trying to clear the cursed ruins of the dead city as quickly as possible. They rode at a steady canter, as fast as possible without ruining their horses. Nobody talked much; knowledge of forces pursuing them drove home just how important their quest was. Still as he rode along with the others, Logan caught a glimpse of the wooden canisters strapped to Dr. Moller’s back. He had no idea what were in those canisters or what the Normad Lord and plague doctor were up to, but he’d continue to keep an eye on them all.
Riding almost nonstop the party finally left the dead by midmorning, only to come across a smaller and older ruined city as the sun began to set and the sky turned red and then blue: Cerrillos, yet another Alban community destroyed by the war. As twilight fell the group camped as far away from any ruins as possible and built a large campfire that they gathered together beside, bracketed by the dragon, who guarded them like a mother hen to her chicks.
The Tassurian attackers already knew that Mera is nearby so it didn’t really matter if the dragon revealed himself to them anymore. And after what had happened at Hildebrandt Logan’s party was not going to take any chances. Even the horses were tethered on the other side of the wyrm to keep them warm and to keep them close.
Almost everyone in Logan’s group had been shaken from the morning encounter, quietly licking their wounds, brushing off dust, and preparing for dinner and rest. Being the most skilled in the medical practices, Dr. Moller had carefully removed the dart from Lord de Trobliand’s shoulder and was busy treating the wound with whiskey. The Heir of the Duchy of Normad did not appear to flinch during the procedure or even appear nervous, calmly cleaning and testing his repeating crossbow. Yet he cleaned and tested his weapon again and again. Meanwhile Liza helped her plague doctor friend, stitching up treated wounds and preparing poultices and bandages, and currently she was aiding Karlen in binding up his leg.
“They still managed to hit me, being such a small target. Ugh.” Karlen grumbled as he rubbed the leg through which the corseque had gone through. “Remind me to stick around larger people.”
Sufjan silently tended the flames, though the twitching of her ears suggested that she was listening to the area around them for trouble.
Even Glib was mostly quiet, deciding to busy himself polishing his charms and amulets.
“These came in handy today didn’t they?” He asked Logan as he brought up a golden medallion.
“I don’t know how much luck we burned through, so keep doing what you need to do.” The Forester replied.
Logan himself did not have much else to do, so he busied himself cooking dinner for everyone, making a hearty soup from the carrots and lentils and whatever scraps of meat he had carried over from Compton’s Cove. While dinner simmered, the Forester pulled out a map of the area. Cerrillos was relatively close to Mount Kruast, but it was still a 150 miles away, and about a hundred miles from their last encampment site at Point of Rocks with Sarangay’s Raiders, where they had planned to rest a day or two before the final attack and rendezvous with the rest of Mera’s Squadron. That was about 10 days total. They might not have that time.
Not with pursuers.
Logan rolled up his map. “Now that we’ve gotten some distance from them, who were those people?” He asked aloud the question that was on everyone’s mind. “We saw at least a half dozen of them dead after the Devil’s Element exploded. Yet when the smoke cleared we saw no one.”
“They brought away their dead.” Dr. Moller scribbled back. “They would rather retreat than leave their fallen to us.”
“They had skill.” Liza added.
“Those were Hunter-Killers.” Lord De Trobliand replied, barely looking up. “General Gremenal’s elite group of assassins and saboteurs. He only sends them out against high value targets.”
The Forester closed his eyes. “Gremenal’s people know the dragon’s here. And that all of us are with him.” Logan concluded.
“Do you think the general himself knows about us?” Liza asked the Normad.
“I do not. We best move faster.”
“Hey we held them off.” Glib replied.
“They were good. We were lucky. Next time they’ll be better.” Came the reply.
“Aren’t you all glad I’m here. I’m always lucky.”
“Glad to have you then.”
“Oof Hunter-Killers. This is bad.” Karlen shook his head. “They led the attacks on our cities. Two dozen of them surprised our guards and seized the secondary gateway to Idria before it could be sealed. Took the city in a week.” He pulled out his pipe and lit it, quickly taking a puff. “Sheer slaughter that was. The Other Men should never have gotten that far.”
“I fought Hunter-Killers when Gremenal turned on my people and attacked our Wardens at Tameon's Pass.” Sufjan quietly added. “There were three dozen of us guards. A half-dozen of us got out.”
“We were lucky.” Lord de Trobliand repeated.
“Do they know what we’re after?” Liza suddenly interjected. “With what happened, how do we even know the Dragon Queen is still alive at this point? How do we know that Sarangay’s Raiders will show up and not Butler’s Wolves? That Mera's Squadron will follow?” The Guester shook her head. “This rescue plan is so intricate that if anything could go wrong, then this whole thing could fall apart. We could be walking into a death trap.”
Having leaned over for dinner, Lord de Trobliand stopped, soup ladle hanging close to his mouth. The entire group was silent with only the crackling flames breaking the darkness.
To everyone’s surprise, it was Sufjan who finally spoke. “Sometimes you just got to take that leap of faith.”
Logan gave a half chuckle. “Well there's no one I'd have more faith in for this task than the lot of you.”
“Appreciated.” Glib replied.
“That’s a joke.” Karlen snorted.
“We are well prepared for whatever the outcome.” Dr. Moller scribbled.
“And we have faith that you know what you’re doing.” Sufjan said, turning to the Forester with those piercing eyes. “Let our faith be justified.”
***
Night fell and Logan had second watch, keeping a guarded eye out for trouble. Mera of course was also awake and accompanied him.
“So you guys had a bad encounter this morning.” The dragon stated simply. “With Gremenal’s Hunter-Killers.”
“Yes. If it wasn’t for Glib’s magicks we would have been screwed.”
“I’m sorry. These were the people that kidnapped my Jutrstra and caused my people to be enslaved. They were after me in all likelihood. Probably for desertion.”
Logan sighed. “Well, we survived it.”
Mera gave a quiet snort. “They probably thought you guys were an easier target to eliminate first. The fools. I’m glad some of them are dead.”
Logan grunted. “Let’s not talk about those people right now.”
With the campfire gone, the Forester folded his arms and rested against his friend’s warm side.
“How are you holding up? It’s been like a month since we started hasn’t it.”
“Doing okay. Arm feels better but it’s not up to full strength yet. Would rather be using my wings. But obviously that’s not a good idea.”
“Hm.”
“Things sure have gotten crazy.” The dragon said, gesturing to a ruined keep looming over Cerrillos. It had been stormed with much bloodshed a year ago during the Santium Campaign, and with one entire side curtain collapsed and part of a turret toppled atop it, leaving an upper chamber crumpled and overhanging, the structure looked forlorn and sad as if it had watched the death of the community it once guarded.
“Remember the craziest thing you did was literally jumping off the walls of a castle and onto my back?”
Logan chuckled “Yah, those were quite the halcyon days of youth, weren’t they?”
“That was four years ago.”
“Yah…how times change.” Logan shook his head. “Heavens, we were just kids then. I was just trying to save your scaly hide from the townsfolk. Now I’m trying to save your entire peopl-”
“-as well as that of your own-”
“Yes, this does seem so much more complicated now doesn’t it?”
“So much we took for granted.”
The dragon shrugged and finally laid down in a side crescent, resting his head on the ground.
“Well, we can’t look anywhere but forward.”
Cowboy Dan - Modest Mouse
From
theRoguez! With minor adjustments of humanoids by myself.
Tevean turned away from the survivors of her unit as they silently shrouded their dead and burnt sage for the burials, shaking her head. A dozen of them should have been able to kill a dragon. Hell, a hundred of them had captured the dragon queen-alive.
How did they get defeated by seven humanoids with a rogue wyrm?
She thought a bit more.
Well, one had a weapon that spat arrows like two dozen archers.
And another had been able to summon up magical fireballs.
She turned to Perigold waiting besides her.
‘Send a messenger to Gremenal. We underestimated the dragon. He has dangerous allies with deadly magicks. We will continue the pursuit, but we will need to try to assemble as many of our unit as we can. Something big is coming up with this target. We cannot underestimate them again.’
***
As soon as they were sure that their attackers had left, Logan’s party broke up camp and moved out, carefully picking their way through the rubble and broken buildings to the dragon and their horses.
“Lots of Other Men around.” Mera quietly mumbled to the Forester when the party rejoined him in the broken aqueduct. Scorched earth and charred remains with laminar armor and burnt metal scattered nearby suggested that the dragon had encountered a few scouts and disposed of them. Logan simply nodded. With no further comment the band moved on.
Back on horseback, Logan’s party moved fast, trying to clear the cursed ruins of the dead city as quickly as possible. They rode at a steady canter, as fast as possible without ruining their horses. Nobody talked much; knowledge of forces pursuing them drove home just how important their quest was. Still as he rode along with the others, Logan caught a glimpse of the wooden canisters strapped to Dr. Moller’s back. He had no idea what were in those canisters or what the Normad Lord and plague doctor were up to, but he’d continue to keep an eye on them all.
Riding almost nonstop the party finally left the dead by midmorning, only to come across a smaller and older ruined city as the sun began to set and the sky turned red and then blue: Cerrillos, yet another Alban community destroyed by the war. As twilight fell the group camped as far away from any ruins as possible and built a large campfire that they gathered together beside, bracketed by the dragon, who guarded them like a mother hen to her chicks.
The Tassurian attackers already knew that Mera is nearby so it didn’t really matter if the dragon revealed himself to them anymore. And after what had happened at Hildebrandt Logan’s party was not going to take any chances. Even the horses were tethered on the other side of the wyrm to keep them warm and to keep them close.
Almost everyone in Logan’s group had been shaken from the morning encounter, quietly licking their wounds, brushing off dust, and preparing for dinner and rest. Being the most skilled in the medical practices, Dr. Moller had carefully removed the dart from Lord de Trobliand’s shoulder and was busy treating the wound with whiskey. The Heir of the Duchy of Normad did not appear to flinch during the procedure or even appear nervous, calmly cleaning and testing his repeating crossbow. Yet he cleaned and tested his weapon again and again. Meanwhile Liza helped her plague doctor friend, stitching up treated wounds and preparing poultices and bandages, and currently she was aiding Karlen in binding up his leg.
“They still managed to hit me, being such a small target. Ugh.” Karlen grumbled as he rubbed the leg through which the corseque had gone through. “Remind me to stick around larger people.”
Sufjan silently tended the flames, though the twitching of her ears suggested that she was listening to the area around them for trouble.
Even Glib was mostly quiet, deciding to busy himself polishing his charms and amulets.
“These came in handy today didn’t they?” He asked Logan as he brought up a golden medallion.
“I don’t know how much luck we burned through, so keep doing what you need to do.” The Forester replied.
Logan himself did not have much else to do, so he busied himself cooking dinner for everyone, making a hearty soup from the carrots and lentils and whatever scraps of meat he had carried over from Compton’s Cove. While dinner simmered, the Forester pulled out a map of the area. Cerrillos was relatively close to Mount Kruast, but it was still a 150 miles away, and about a hundred miles from their last encampment site at Point of Rocks with Sarangay’s Raiders, where they had planned to rest a day or two before the final attack and rendezvous with the rest of Mera’s Squadron. That was about 10 days total. They might not have that time.
Not with pursuers.
Logan rolled up his map. “Now that we’ve gotten some distance from them, who were those people?” He asked aloud the question that was on everyone’s mind. “We saw at least a half dozen of them dead after the Devil’s Element exploded. Yet when the smoke cleared we saw no one.”
“They brought away their dead.” Dr. Moller scribbled back. “They would rather retreat than leave their fallen to us.”
“They had skill.” Liza added.
“Those were Hunter-Killers.” Lord De Trobliand replied, barely looking up. “General Gremenal’s elite group of assassins and saboteurs. He only sends them out against high value targets.”
The Forester closed his eyes. “Gremenal’s people know the dragon’s here. And that all of us are with him.” Logan concluded.
“Do you think the general himself knows about us?” Liza asked the Normad.
“I do not. We best move faster.”
“Hey we held them off.” Glib replied.
“They were good. We were lucky. Next time they’ll be better.” Came the reply.
“Aren’t you all glad I’m here. I’m always lucky.”
“Glad to have you then.”
“Oof Hunter-Killers. This is bad.” Karlen shook his head. “They led the attacks on our cities. Two dozen of them surprised our guards and seized the secondary gateway to Idria before it could be sealed. Took the city in a week.” He pulled out his pipe and lit it, quickly taking a puff. “Sheer slaughter that was. The Other Men should never have gotten that far.”
“I fought Hunter-Killers when Gremenal turned on my people and attacked our Wardens at Tameon's Pass.” Sufjan quietly added. “There were three dozen of us guards. A half-dozen of us got out.”
“We were lucky.” Lord de Trobliand repeated.
“Do they know what we’re after?” Liza suddenly interjected. “With what happened, how do we even know the Dragon Queen is still alive at this point? How do we know that Sarangay’s Raiders will show up and not Butler’s Wolves? That Mera's Squadron will follow?” The Guester shook her head. “This rescue plan is so intricate that if anything could go wrong, then this whole thing could fall apart. We could be walking into a death trap.”
Having leaned over for dinner, Lord de Trobliand stopped, soup ladle hanging close to his mouth. The entire group was silent with only the crackling flames breaking the darkness.
To everyone’s surprise, it was Sufjan who finally spoke. “Sometimes you just got to take that leap of faith.”
Logan gave a half chuckle. “Well there's no one I'd have more faith in for this task than the lot of you.”
“Appreciated.” Glib replied.
“That’s a joke.” Karlen snorted.
“We are well prepared for whatever the outcome.” Dr. Moller scribbled.
“And we have faith that you know what you’re doing.” Sufjan said, turning to the Forester with those piercing eyes. “Let our faith be justified.”
***
Night fell and Logan had second watch, keeping a guarded eye out for trouble. Mera of course was also awake and accompanied him.
“So you guys had a bad encounter this morning.” The dragon stated simply. “With Gremenal’s Hunter-Killers.”
“Yes. If it wasn’t for Glib’s magicks we would have been screwed.”
“I’m sorry. These were the people that kidnapped my Jutrstra and caused my people to be enslaved. They were after me in all likelihood. Probably for desertion.”
Logan sighed. “Well, we survived it.”
Mera gave a quiet snort. “They probably thought you guys were an easier target to eliminate first. The fools. I’m glad some of them are dead.”
Logan grunted. “Let’s not talk about those people right now.”
With the campfire gone, the Forester folded his arms and rested against his friend’s warm side.
“How are you holding up? It’s been like a month since we started hasn’t it.”
“Doing okay. Arm feels better but it’s not up to full strength yet. Would rather be using my wings. But obviously that’s not a good idea.”
“Hm.”
“Things sure have gotten crazy.” The dragon said, gesturing to a ruined keep looming over Cerrillos. It had been stormed with much bloodshed a year ago during the Santium Campaign, and with one entire side curtain collapsed and part of a turret toppled atop it, leaving an upper chamber crumpled and overhanging, the structure looked forlorn and sad as if it had watched the death of the community it once guarded.
“Remember the craziest thing you did was literally jumping off the walls of a castle and onto my back?”
Logan chuckled “Yah, those were quite the halcyon days of youth, weren’t they?”
“That was four years ago.”
“Yah…how times change.” Logan shook his head. “Heavens, we were just kids then. I was just trying to save your scaly hide from the townsfolk. Now I’m trying to save your entire peopl-”
“-as well as that of your own-”
“Yes, this does seem so much more complicated now doesn’t it?”
“So much we took for granted.”
The dragon shrugged and finally laid down in a side crescent, resting his head on the ground.
“Well, we can’t look anywhere but forward.”
Cowboy Dan - Modest Mouse
From
theRoguez! With minor adjustments of humanoids by myself.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Size 1212 x 869px
File Size 827.2 kB
Comments