Steel and Fangs Read online

  With a gasp of both relief and pain, I broke the surface and inhaled the sweet air around me. It was the first breath of truly free air I had tasted in over half of my life. My moment was ruined though, as the current dragged me back under the water. I spluttered as my mouth had been open, and I swallowed a mouth full of water. I quickly kicked forcefully back to the surface, ignoring the pain that came with the hard kicks. This time when I broke the surface, I was able to stay mostly afloat and get a look at my surroundings.

  The waters had pushed me far enough away from the waterfall, that the waters were beginning to calm down now. From my quick observation, I saw trees in all directions besides the mountain behind me. The sun looked to be in an afternoon position. From what I could see, there was no one around here, and thankfully I was alone and wouldn’t be bothered for now. That was unless some monster’s territory was near me.

  The river I was in was actually quite large, and as I looked back at the waterfall, I realized that the falls weren’t the source of the river, it was just another addition to the waters here. The river flowed back through the forest, and I assumed farther away was an even more impressive waterfall.

  I pushed those thoughts from my mind though, and instead focused on slowly wading through the water until I came to the edge of the river. With an exhausted effort, I pulled my body out of the river and crawled several feet away from the river’s edge. I rolled on my back and lay their exhausted in the light of the sun. I couldn’t fucking believe it! I had started this day, accepting the fact that I was going to be executed, after living my life as a slave, and now I found myself free, and the host of some ancient dragon! As if on fucking queue, Raskorian’s deep voice rumbled through my mind.

  “You are the only being I have met, that acts like a fish out of water, while swimming in water. Were your purposely flailing about like that?! Or were you attempting to impersonate a headless chicken?”

  I lay there too tired to growl or hiss, but I did have some words for the bastard, “Oh shut up you puffed up reptile! I am starting to believe that you are as useful as a horse with no legs! You told me you could offer me power, but I don’t see that happening, as you weren’t even able to save me from falling off a fucking waterfall!”

  “A HORSE WITH NO LEGS?! YOU DARE COMPARE AN ELDER DRAGON TO A DUMB BEAST OF BURDEN?!”

  “See that’s my point I am not comparing you to a beast of burden, as a horse with no legs is incapable of carrying any sort of burden!”

  “IF YOU KILL A CREATURE WITH SUFFICIENT BLOOD ESSENCE, I COULD GIVE YOU A SMALL PORTION OF MY IMMENSE POWER! BUT IT SEEMS YOU ARE CONTENT TO SIMPLY PLAY IN THE WATER LIKE A HATCHLING!”

  The dragon seemed to really dislike any insult directed at him, I would have thought a creature as powerful as a dragon wouldn’t be affected by such insults, but Raskorian reacted as if he had rarely, if ever been insulted before. Still, I wasn’t going to complain, the dragon had been a major pain in my scales, and it gave me a large amount of satisfaction, to knock the dragon off his pedestal.

  We continued arguing back and forth for some time. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but at some point, I had begun to fight with the dragon out loud. At one point it did occur to me that anyone who saw us would probably think I had lost my mind. I was laying on the grass, wet, bruised, and seemingly arguing with myself out loud. I really didn’t give a shit though. Making Raskorian mad was becoming quite fun.

  Eventually, Raskorian angrily dismissed me, which I found ridiculous seeing as he was in my head, and told me to hurry up and kill something. My immediate concern though was finding a place to rest. I was bone tired and needed to sleep. Still, I had no intention of just laying here on the earth. Granted there was no one around as far as I could tell, but that didn’t mean no one would come wandering around while I slept. Also, any fool knew that the monsters and beasts that populated this world could be very deadly, and I knew that water tended to attract animals and monsters. I needed some sort of shelter before I could rest.

  I pushed myself self to my feet and looked around. The surrounding area looked the same as it had when I had been attempting to keep myself from drowning. I did notice some more details about the surrounding area though. The trees for one, looked slightly gnarled, not in an ugly way, but appealing. The branches of the trees stretched out and seemed to intertwine with the neighboring trees, creating a dense canopy. I hadn’t seen trees like this before, though I honestly wasn’t surprised, trees were spares in the mountains, and I didn’t have much opportunity to hike through forests when I was a slave. The river flowed down through the tree line and seemed to have provided the resources for the plant life to thrive along its edge. Overall, it made for a peaceful scene. I took a long and deep breath and enjoyed the smell of the fresh clean air, that was rarely found in the mines, or in the cities of Thuum. Such large congregations of people inevitably created a stench.

  As I looked around for shelter, I debated whether or not to look for some sort of cave to sleep in. I quickly decided against that though. Caves in the wild were rarely uninhabited, and it was usually by strong monsters, at least that’s what I overheard on of the slaves who was a former poacher say. As I was, I had no weapons besides my hands, feet, and teeth. While I would feel confident against a humanoid, against a monster, with any number of natural defenses, I would much prefer to have a weapon in hand then.

  Instead, I decided that climbing up into the branches of the trees would be my best bet. It would keep me away from most ground predators, and I would be relatively hidden from view as well. I looked around and found a suitable tree for my needs. It was tall, and I guessed its canopy was roughly 20 feet from the ground. The trunk was wide though, and It would most likely take four people my size to link arms around it. Thankfully the tree was relatively easy to scale. Its gnarled quality left nobs and nooks that my hands and feet had no problem finding grips for. Finally, I reached the spot where the branches began to spread out and link with other trees. Out of curiosity, I stretched out an arm and gently tested the sturdiness of the canopy. When I felt no give, I pressed down harder, and harder. It appeared all of the interlocking branches made for a sturdy platform. The branches flexed slightly under my hand, but not dangerously so.

  Satisfied that I could lay down in the sheltered canopy, I carefully maneuvered my body so that I could squeeze and push myself into a small gap in the branches. It allowed me to get myself into a spot in the canopy that was nearly completely obscured from the view from the ground, but with enough gaps above me that I could see the stars beginning to come out.

  I gratefully lay there, in branches of these strange trees, and for the first time in years, I would be able to sleep, without the fear of another slave attacking me in my sleep, or being roused in the morning by the whips of the guards, as they herded us into the mine for another day of back-breaking work. I smiled at the thought of freely sleeping, and as those thoughts comforted me, I closed my eyes, and almost immediately drifted off

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  My eyes snapped open. I wasn’t sure what woke me up, as I heard nothing immediately, but one of the things I had learned as a slave and a pit fighter was to trust my instincts. They had saved me countless times in the past, and if they had alerted me now, there must have been a reason why. I stayed completely still, if something or someone was out there, I didn’t want to move yet, in case I was still hidden. I had a feeling that I was, as the spot in the canopy I was laying on was well hidden from the floor below. Still better safe than dead.

  I knew my eyes wouldn’t serve me well now, it was obviously still night, as the sun was still down, and I could see the stars through the branches above me. So instead of letting my vision distract me, I closed my eyes, and let my tongue and ears do the work. I let my tongue slither out, and I tasted the scents on the air. Most of them were what was to be expected of a forest. Water, dirt, and a slight floral aroma from the flowers. After a minute th
ough, I tasted something else on the air, it was faint, but it was a smell that was well familiar to me. The scent of unwashed humans! I fought to keep a growl or a hiss from pushing its way up from my throat. Human! I disliked and hated most of the other races of the world, they all had a universal distaste, and even hate for my kind, but when it came to humans, my hate ran far deeper. I didn’t care that it had been the men of Thuum who had enslaved me and massacred my village, I had lumped all humans into the same category of hate many years ago.

  I felt as if my blood was heating up, and I found myself eager for these humans to come near my hiding spot! I was free, and I had a score to settle with humans! As the scent grew stronger, my sensitive ears began to pick up the distant sound of men trudging loudly through the woods. I wasn’t sure how many it was yet, but I knew it was at least more than two. It was too much noise for two, and the scent was strong. They were far enough away, that I could move without discovery, but I would have to move quickly. Their scent was headed my way.

  I quickly shimmied out of the canopy, and back towards the trunk of the tree. I crouched back, so I was still slightly concealed by the tree, but with ample room to see the floor below me. I had picked an area near the open grove next to the water, so now that I was no longer nearly encased in branches, I could see the grove in by the moonlight.

  That spot on the tree was where I waited. The sound of the people approaching grew louder and louder, and I could even make out distinct voices now. From what I could tell there were five different voices. They were all gruff sounding and distinctly male. So, five men, If I had weapons, I would be confident I could easily kill them. The problem was all I had in terms of arms and armor was a torn pair of stained slave shorts. The rest of my body was bare, and I had no weapons to speak of. Granted I had my teeth, hands, and feet, but if these men were heavily armed, my chances of beating them all were slim. I decided I would figure out what I was going to do once I caught sight of the men.

  “You must kill them! I sense the blood essence in them! I am so hungry! Kill them! Kill them all!”

  I nearly yelled and almost fell out of the tree. In the excitement of waking up with people nearby, I had forgotten I had a dragon living inside of my head. Why did he always choose the worst times to talk to me?!

  “What is wrong with you?!” I angrily thought at the dragon. “I almost fell out of this tree because of you!”

  I do not know how the dragon sent me a mental eye-roll, but somehow, he managed it. “If you had fallen out of the tree, then you could have sped this slaughter up. Why do you cower here in these limbs, when prey is near?! Go and hunt, feast! I am hungry!”

  “I am waiting here because in case you haven’t noticed, I am unarmed and unarmored. I just earned my freedom, and I have no intention of throwing it away, by running headlong into an unknown situation, just because some passenger in my head is hungry! And how does that even work?! You don’t have a body?!”

  “I told you, insolent half-breed, that I will explain more after you get me blood essence! Now get on with it and kill these humans!”

  “Look I plan on killing them anyway, but I have no idea what blood essence is, or how to even get it!”

  “Just kill them all, and I will do the rest!”

  With that being said, Raskorian fell silent. I now wasn’t only mad, but irritated. Still, I turned back to my observations. It was surreal talking using my thoughts. Usually, my conversations with my head were exclusively my own. Now apparently, I could talk to a dragon mentally as well as verbally. It was a thought for another time though, and I focused back on the humans. The men had grown much closer while I had been distracted by Raskorian, and their scents were much stronger now. It was a mix of sweat, grime, and the coppery tang of blood that I had not sensed or tasted earlier. The blood tasted relatively fresh too. These men had spilt blood recently. I gritted my teeth, so it would seemed they were without a doubt armed.

  I could hear them clearly now, and I decided to see what I could gather from their conversations.

  “Ahh so this is the spot you was telling us about Cedric! Open space, and away from prying eyes. Perfect!” One of the men with a gruff accent called out to one of his companions

  Another voice answered the first man, and this voice sounded distinctly younger. “Yeah, I used to come here when I was younger. I found it when I was exploring the forest. I honestly thought I would never be back in this area again. Ever since I joined up with the boss, I have had no desire to come back to these damn forests.”

  “Look on the bright side Cedric, at least now we is raiding villages and getting filthy rich doing it too!”

  The other men laughed at the last speakers’ words. His voice was the deepest of the three. I still couldn’t see them, but I knew they were close to where my tree was located. A few seconds later, they passed right under my perch. I sat as still as possible and trusted the tree, and the darkness would keep me concealed as I studied the group.

  They were a rough-looking bunch. Now that I could see them, I could confirm that there were five of them. Between the five men, they had a mishmash of weapons strapped to their belts. Two had wooden looking clubs. Simple and crude, but effective. The shortest man in the group carried a bow and had two daggers at his waist as well as a quiver of arrows. The fourth man had a shield strapped to his back, and a longsword swinging from his hip. The final man was the biggest of the group and looked to have the best equipment. While the rest of the men had a variety of poor-quality leather armor, this man wore a chain mail coat, over what looked to be a hardened leather jerkin. I saw a pair of metal gauntlets on his wrist as well. As for his weapon, he walked with a one-handed war hammer. It was about two and a half feet in length, and I could make out the hooked point at the back of the hammers head. He also had a dagger strapped to his belt, that from this distance, looked a bit better cared for than the other men’s daggers. I let them pass under my hidden perch and watched them carefully. This would be a hard fight if I rushed them, they were armed and armored. I would have to take them by surprise. If I could reach the bigger man with the hammer and take him out before they were aware of my presence, I could put that hammer to good use. They carried nothing else, but what looked to be a small chest of sorts being carried by two of the men, and two large sacks over two of the other men’s shoulders.

  For now, though, I wanted to see what they were doing out here. They were apparently bandits of sorts. I didn’t know who this boss was, but I guessed he was the leader of the bandits these men were with. The blood on their clothing indicated that they probably had just looted a nearby settlement. Shit, that meant I wasn’t as isolated as I had hope. I wasn’t sure if I was in Thuum anymore, but I wouldn’t be able to get a mercenary license here and would need to travel to a neighboring kingdom. Granted being a slave I didn’t really have much of an idea of where I needed to head. Most of the knowledge I acquired as a slave, was by listening to the news that new slaves brought with them.

  I quickly refocused on the men in front of me, they had begun talking again, and I needed to hear what they were saying.

  “Come on Merric! Let’s get the chest opened and see what those villagers have been squirreling away over the years.”

  The man who answered him was the tall, hammer wielding one. I assumed he was the one called Merric.

  “Oh, calm down dammit, the boss said the boys was free to have their fun in the village until midday tomorrow. We have all night, and most of the morning, judging by some of the pretty faces I saw in that village. That’s plenty of time to eat and enjoy the gold they had stashed away. Thanks to Cedric,” Merric gestured at the bowman, “We were able to find the hidden vault. Good work there lad.”

  Cedric grinned nastily and said, “It seems growing up in that forest village paid off in the end, I always knew where that pretentious alderman stashed the village savings. I was never able to steal the chest though. Now though, he couldn’t do anything to stop us with the boss’s sword lodge
d in his gut.”

  They all laughed at Cedric’s comment, and the men carrying the chest, set it down in the middle of the clearing. They were soon followed by the two sacks they had been carrying as well.

  Merric straightened up and said, “Oy Flint, Jasper, go and get some wood, we are gonna have ourselves a fire, and get drunk as we split the gold!”

  Everyone cheered at that, and two of the men moved off into the trees to begin gathering wood. The rest of the men began to sit down, and loudly talk to each other. They were being extremely foolish in my opinion, as loud as they were, paired with their fire, they could attract unwanted attention. Either way, what they didn’t know was that I was already eyeing them like a wolf did an unguarded flock of sheep.

  I would have had no qualms about killing these men before I heard their conversations, I was free, and a chance to kill some arrogant humans was a welcome surprise. Now however, I had all the more reason too. They apparently had raided a village and were now in the process of enjoying the spoils of their raid. That chest sounded like it was filled with money, or gold of some sort, and I guessed they had stolen it for themselves, so they didn’t have to share with the rest of their band of bandits. I was going to enjoy this. That gold could come in handy.

  I quietly observed them from my perch and waited until they had the fire started. I knew that looking into a fire would ruin one’s eye's ability to see better in the dark. They would be able to see anything within the limits of the fire, but beyond that, they would be blind. That was when I would make my move.

  Roughly ten minutes later, the group had their fire going. They were camped out about twenty-five feet from me and were now eating and drinking as they discussed the recent raid. It was time. With as much grace as I could muster, I slowly, ever so slowly, eased my body out of the branches. I preferred to climb down the side of the tree facing away from them as it would keep me better concealed, but I would have to be careful about it. Gripping the knots of the tree, I slowly sidled around the trunk of the tree like some sort of insect. Once I was a sufficient distance around the trunk, I began to climb down the trunk. Each movement of my feet were made as carefully as possible. I tested each foothold before putting my weight on it, and so far, I hadn’t made a sound. Granted with the crackling of the fire, and the conversation between the bandits, I probably would have gone unnoticed, even if I did make a bit of noise. Still not worth the risk.