The Dragons Queen Saga

Part 2: Dresden Pierce, Dragon Exile

The Dragon's Queen PT2

Dresden spent only two nights in the cursed forest before veering South rather than West. His second night was uneventful. The creatures of the forest didn't dare instigate another attack on him; they had learned their lesson and left him alone. The Northern lands where noblemen lived held his past, and he was glad to be free of the politics involved in enmeshing himself in human affairs and royal courts. As he traveled farther South, he noticed a wildness coming back into the landscape. These lands were less inhabited, less wandered, partly due to their dangerous nature. Human beings had long since claimed the Northern borders for their own. They tried to encroach upon the Southern lands, but Knotwood forest and its dark inhabitants were one of many obstacles in their way. Midland dwellers were unfriendly at best and deadly to trespassers at worst.

Dresden remained unconcerned about his presence in unfriendly territory. He had ventured these reaches before. Live long enough and you see everything at least once. The far Southeastern coast was his destination. He had traveled there too long ago to recount now, at a time when the presence of people had just become established in the port town of Sveldin. It had been a homely, drunkard village with many pubs and few highlights. This obscure fishing port seemed like a good place to vanish from the world for a time. Drink never got him drunk, so he had learned to fake inebriation and excuse himself when needed. Four, or perhaps five, more days travel would get him there. He had some dried meat and stale bread when he set out from the Kingdom of Olvergon, where he had served the royal family. Leaving was less an option than it was a forced retreat. The Dragon council revealed Dresden's identity to the royal family and their subjects, exposing him in a dishonorable way. He regretted his involvement there.

Considering the landscape for a moment, he felt thankful for the greenery in these lands. The edible plants maintained his strength and stamina. Dresden required very little food to fuel him in human form. As a Dragon, however, one of his favorite meals was grizzly bear. He never tired of hunting from the air. When he was in Dragon form, everything on legs became prey. He had even picked off a few people here and there. He didn't think twice about it during the meal. In human form he wondered about them from time to time, whether they had families and what had become of his meddling, but had to push the thoughts away so he didn't become too entangled in emotions.

Easily the most difficult aspect of pretending to be a human being was the emotional sway. Fear had never been able to infiltrate his Draconian consciousness, but compassion, tenderness and love, these weak emotions were reserved for women and children. He understood honor, pride and respect, those were for warriors, shared mutually on a battlefield, engaging with skilled fighters. They deserved the right when they fought well. Treachery was met without mercy. But emotions were difficult to manage when he was around other people. Just their presence seemed to bring them out in him. Although he had never really loved a person, he had enjoyed the company of women in fleeting encounters throughout his time in human form. Human women were lovely creatures, beautiful to behold, but silly and nonessential. He could never allow himself to become seriously attracted to a woman, as they would age and die while he lived on, retaining his youth. His appearance would suggest that his age was somewhere in the mid thirties or forties: facial hair, receding hairline, some wrinkles. Middle-aged, but ageless in his knowledge and skill, with eyes that have seen too much, and from a perspective many could not comprehend.

His mind switched back towards the Dragon Council and his homelands to the West, the Isle of BasNassal; a conglomerate of islands where the Dragons had lived for centuries, untouched by the rest of the world. Only when humans became seafaring creatures did this disturb the Dragons' kingdom. Their politics were not the same as human beings' and their motivations behind them differed even farther. Since this realm was not their true home to begin with, it had been quite a struggle amongst them whether they would rule the land as more powerful overseers, or leave the world to its own devices until a time when it became mature enough to interact with them. They eventually chose the latter. This led to extremists and zealots who were cast out for their out-voted beliefs. Dresden was among those who idealized the ruling of humankind and would not sway from his viewpoint. They were children in comparison to Dragons in his thinking. So he was exiled from his kind to live among people to whatever end the fates allowed. He did not associate with the other Dragon outcasts, and could not tell you where they dwelled or even whether they still lived. He cared not what their fate had become.