experience when it came to magic than fighting with anything else.
Still, I wanted to protect her and Blar. It was assholes like these guys
who had tried to put me down my entire life, and while I didn’t normally let it
get to me, I was tired of it all. I knew my skills, and I knew that even with
three-on-one they were outmatched. Not only were they drunk, but if they were anything like the idiots in my own warband, then they would be all
brawn and no brain.
It was frowned upon to kill another soldier of Odin unless necessary,
though it didn’t seem these assholes cared about that at all. I’d let them attack
first, though. They could dig their own graves, and I’d just be the catalyst to
put them there.
“I said leave,” Kaspyr repeated, and I could feel some sort of energy
radiate from her body.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I looked over to her, and
for a second, it seemed like she was almost glowing.
“The lady said to move on,” I echoed, and I stared at the black-haired
man. You had to take on the leader with these guys, anything else was a sign
of weakness.
“And why would I listen to you?” he laughed and took a long swig
from his leather pouch. Already, he and his companions were wobbly on their
feet, so they were just out looking for trouble, and there was no getting past
that. They were drunk and full of testosterone, and they’d just happened to
stumble upon us.
“Because I can either kill you where you stand or let you walk away
peacefully,” I said, and my own anger came through in my voice even though I tried to keep it level. “The choice is yours.”
Blar had tensed even more in my satchel, and something told me he
was ready for a fight, small as he was. I wouldn’t let him out, though. If these
guys saw him, then I’d definitely have to kill them. I couldn’t let them go and
spread the word of a dragon around Asgard, though I wasn’t sure how many
people would really believe them considering how drunk they were. It was
still far too risky to let them go.
“Big words for such a small man,” the black-haired guy huffed, and he
regarded me with his nose up in the air.
I knew he didn’t consider me to be a threat, since he was larger than I
was and he had his battle axe on his hip. Not to mention two goons who still
circled me. If I were any other member of my warband, he’d be right to
consider me a non-issue, but he failed to realize I had something he didn’t.
Strategy.
“Come on, girl,” the blond-haired man laughed, and he came right up
behind Kaspyr and put his hand on her shoulder. “Come with us and your
little friend here doesn’t have to die.”
Seeing him touch her made my jaw harden, and I wanted nothing more
than to chop his hand off at the wrist for having the audacity to put his hands
on a woman.
“I’d rather die myself before I went anywhere with you,” she spat, and
she shook his hand off her before turning on him with a fighting stance.
“She’s feisty,” the brown-haired man laughed.
“I’ve grown tired of this,” the black-haired one snorted, and he turned
to me with a smile filled with yellow teeth. “Take the girl, I’ll handle the
fool.”
“Bad choice,” I said with a shake of my head, but the asshole didn’t
care, he just took another drink from his leather flask and wiped his mouth on
his sleeve.
“Arrhhh!” the guy screamed as he jumped at me, ready to land a blow
on my face.
I was too fast for him, though, and before he could reach me, I
crouched down and grabbed the dagger from my boot as his momentum
carried him forward. The large male stumbled drunkenly toward the trees,
then he turned back around and saw me with my dagger up and at the ready.
“Oh, that’s the way it’s gonna be, huh,” he laughed and pulled his
battle axe from his belt.
“I told you,” I growled. “You could die or walk away. You made the
wrong choice.”
I’d given him the opportunity to leave with his life, but he’d chosen to stay and cause problems. If it were just me, I might have let them off with
just a warning, but I had Blar in my satchel, and after the way they treated
Kaspyr, I thought they weren’t worth the effort it took to merely maim them
instead of taking them out permanently.
themselves,” he sneered.
I looked over to see both of the other men stood behind Kaspyr, ready
to grab her at any second, but they made no move to do so. She didn’t look
scared, and they all seemed keen to watch the show, so I figured we better
make it good for them.
“All a real man needs is a knife,” I said, and I looked at his larger than
usual battle axe. “Whenever I see one of you huge men with your huge axes,
I just have to wonder, are you overcompensating for something?”
Kaspyr snickered at my comment, and the man looked down to his
crotch then back up at me with a new fire in his dark eyes.
“Why, you little--” the guy breathed, and he lunged toward me again,
but this time he swung his axe out in a wide arc in an attempt to hit me.
I quickly jumped back, and I could feel Blar on my hip. I had to make
sure the guy didn’t make contact with him at all.
Before the warrior could recover from his swing, I grabbed onto his
arm that held the axe and yanked his forearm backward while I pressed my
knee into his elbow. The arm snapped with a loud cracking sound that would
make any normal man ill. Those of us trained in battle were used to the
sound, though, and it was something to celebrate if you were on the giving
end of it, but it was the man’s scream that followed which really gave me
pleasure.
This sonofabitch deserved nothing less after the way he’d acted.
“What the fuck!” the blond-haired man shouted, and he came toward
me as his buddy fell to the ground in agony.
The brown-haired guy grabbed Kaspyr, then, and I nearly ran toward
her, but she stomped on his foot then elbowed him in the face so he fell
backward, and I thought she might be able to handle herself after all.
The blond rushed over to me, but I was ready, and when he got close
enough, I put my dagger in my mouth, crouched down, and grabbed him by
the waist to throw him over me. He landed in the bushes by the trees, but his
dark-haired buddy seemed to have recovered slightly.
“You’ve done it now,” he spat as he sat up, and his arm hung loosely at
his side. “You’ve really pissed me off.”
“I’m terrified,” I said with a sarcastic smile.
This guy still wanted to play tough when his first attack had ended
with him getting a broken arm? Sometimes, I didn’t understand my fellow
brothers, they were just testosterone filled idiots who would do anything to
prove how manly they were, even if it meant dying in the process. None of
them stopped to consider they could be more effective if they simply put a
small amount of thought into their strategies.
This guy now planned to come at me with his axe in his
left, non-
dominant hand. Actually, using the word ‘planned’ probably gave him too
much credit. I doubted he planned anything. If he was a wise man, he would
accept defeat and move on, but I knew that wouldn’t happen.
I heard his blond-haired buddy regain his composure behind me, and I
knew then what he’d been waiting for. They were both going to try and attack
me at once.
I smiled and waited until the dark-haired guy let out a battle cry and
rushed toward me, with his limp noodle arm swinging beside him.
I tucked and rolled to the side as the two men came together, then I
quickly jumped to my feet and landed at the back of the blond-haired guy. I
pulled my dagger around to the front and pressed it to his throat before he
knew what hit him.
The black-haired male locked eyes with me, and I saw the panic in
them at the fact I had his friend in such a vulnerable position. His eyes almost begged me not to do it, but I just smiled and slit the guy’s throat. They had
started this, and I’d given them the option to leave long before, but if death
was what it took, then so be it.
Besides, I was having fun.
“Arlock!” the black-haired man screamed as his friend’s blood
splashed over my hand and arm and spurted outward to the ground.
I dropped the guy’s body and waited for the attack I knew was coming,
but I quickly glanced over to check on Kaspyr first to make sure she was
alright.
The guy she fought with was bleeding from a few places, and I
like she was winning, though, so I didn’t worry too much about her. Instead, I
turned my attention back to the male in front of me.
“Shall we?” I asked in a mocking tone, which just made the warrior
that much angrier.
I crouched down as he ran toward me, and I was ready to deflect
whatever blow he delivered and thrust my dagger into his gut so this would
be over.
Just before he reached me, though, I felt Blar move at my hip.
My eyes widened as I realized he was out of the satchel, but there was nothing I could do at the moment, since the large male in front of me was
only a step away.
Blar scurried up my body to my shoulder, and before I could give him
any sort of command, he opened his mouth with a little squeaking sound, and
a blue stream of fire came out and sprayed the black-haired warrior in the
face. I’d seen blue flames before, they were the hottest part of any fire, but
they were often reserved for blacksmiths and cooks. Most often, a typical fire
didn’t get that hot, and the flames were more yellow and red than anything
else.
These blue flames weren’t quite like the ones I’d seen before, though.
They were a bright, vibrant blue, and they shot out of the little dragon’s
mouth in an arrow-straight line like I’d never seen before.
“Ahhh!” the man screamed and fell to the ground as he clutched at his
head with his good arm. His screams only lasted a second, though, and when
I went to examine his face I saw why.
The skin was melted, and bone poked through. Blar’s fire had been so
hot it had literally melted this guy’s face off.
I heard Kaspyr grunt, and I spun away from the dead man to see the
brown-haired warrior she’d been fighting now laid on the ground. She had
her foot on top of his head, and she picked it up and slammed her heel into the back of his neck before she tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked
up at me.
“What the hell was that?” she panted, and her breath was ragged from
the fight.
“Is he dead?” I asked to be sure.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Now, what the hell was that? Did you know he
could do that?”
“No,” I said, and I looked at the little blue dragon on my shoulder.
He stared at me with a proud smile and blinked his little blue eyes
before he let out a small burp, and a tiny puff of black smoke came up
through his nostrils.
Kaspyr and I couldn’t help but laugh at his little outburst, and I dug
into my pocket and handed him another piece of pumpkin for a job well done.
“That was some pretty good fighting,” Kaspyr remarked, and she
looked me up and down. Her statuesque face was seemingly impressed but
also unfeeling all at once.
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. “You weren’t too bad yourself. What
weapon did you have on you?”
“I had no physical weapon,” she told me.
“I saw the cuts on the guy,” I said and frowned in confusion.
“I cast a spell on the side of my hand as soon as the guy started circling
us,” she explained. “It basically renders it as sharp as a blade.”
“Wow,” I breathed, and my eyes widened with how impressed I was.
“That was discreet.”
“It had to be.” She shrugged. “They would have attacked sooner if I
had shown my magic.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” I agreed, and I regarded her with a newfound
level of admiration for her fighting skills.
“I, uh, I realize now I don’t know your name,” she muttered.
“Oh, I’m Rath,” I said, and I held my hand out.
“Rath?” she asked, and she raised an eyebrow at the unusual name.
“Well, my given name is Volrath,” I explained. “But I prefer Rath.”
“Okay, Rath it is,” she chuckled, and she grabbed my hand to shake it.
“And you’re Kaspyr, right?” I asked since when I’d inquired earlier
she’d been too focused on the dragon on my shoulder to answer.
“Right,” she confirmed. “But my friends call me Kas.”
“Kas,” I echoed with a smile.
“So,” she said, and she cocked an eyebrow at me. “You haven’t made a
decision yet.”
“Oh, right,” I said, and I thought about her insistence on coming with
us earlier. I didn’t think she’d tell anyone about Blar even if I didn’t let her
go, since I could tell she didn’t want to harm him, but she was a sorceress,
and quite beautiful, so I didn’t see a point in telling her no. She’d proven
herself to be at least a moderately capable warrior when she took out the man
who attacked her, and she was able to do spells in a concealed manner, which
I thought would definitely come in handy.
“Well?” she asked, and her violet eyes were set on mine as the wind
blew an orange curl into her face.
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “Come with us.”
“Really?” she breathed, and she cocked her head to the side with
skepticism.
“Really,” I confirmed. “I don’t think you want to hurt Blar, and we
could use some magical assistance every now and then, I’m sure.”
“Of course,” she said, and she smiled wide.
It was the first time I’d seen her smile, and my breath caught in my
chest as I took in the sight. Her white teeth were on display, and her violet
eyes crinkled just slightly at the edges, so I knew the smile was real.
She was absolutely stunning.
Blar let out a happy little bark then, and it looked like his tail was wagging.
“Are you happy she’s coming?” I asked with a chuc
kle, and he barked
once more. “He must like you.”
Kas smiled again and reached up to scratch under his chin.
“I feel like it’s strange to say,” she started, “but he’s adorable.”
“He is,” I agreed.
“I never would have thought of dragons as being cute,” she laughed,
and the sound was light and musical and made my heart skip a beat.
“I think all things must be cute when they’re babies,” I said.
“Most things, at least,” she said with a smile.
“Here,” I said, and I pulled out a piece of pumpkin and handed it to
her. “He really likes pumpkin.”
“Should I give him a command first?” she asked, unsure how the
whole thing worked.
“Sure.” I shrugged, and I turned to Blar. “Can you get down, buddy?”
The little dragon licked his lips, then he scurried down my body to
stand between the two of us.
“Breathe fire,” I said, since I wanted to see if he would understand that
command.
Sure enough, he blew out a small flame, much smaller than the one
that had killed the full-grown man behind me, but it was still quite
impressive.
“Amazing,” Kas murmured, and her violet eyes were wide as she took
in the sight.
“Good job,” I told Blar, and I handed him a little piece of pumpkin
before I turned to Kas. “Now, you try.”
I wasn’t sure if Blar would obey her or not, but he seemed to like her,
so it was worth a try. If so, then it would show dragons could bond with more
than one person, though I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that. I wanted to see
if he would do it, though, and this was the only way to know.
“Okay,” Kas breathed, and she pointed down to her boot. “Come
here.”
Blar looked at her, then he turned to me and narrowed his eyes, almost
as if he was angry I’d allowed her to try and command him.
“Try again,” I whispered to Kas.
“Come here,” she repeated, and Blar sat up on his back legs and
crossed his little front arms, like he was indignant at being bossed around.
“Do what she said,” I told him softly, and he begrudgingly walked over
to her and sat down at her feet.
Kas handed him the pumpkin, which he took and walked away to sit
down and eat.
“I think he only listens to you,” she mused as she watched him munch
on the orange vegetable.