The Dragon Knight Prophecy

1-15 Run and Hide

 The dreary room was poorly lit by a single tall window that let in little light. Its walls were bare and contained nothing but an old table and two wooden chairs. It was a fitting place for the man whose mood matched the surroundings as he glared across the table at Dellain.

"So you let them get away?" the Father Abbot asked with all the scorn of a disapproving father.

"I didn't let anything get away," Dellain replied. "I ran the beast until it was tired and wounded. It managed to reach the trees, but it couldn't go much further."

"And yet it seems to have done just that," the Father Abbot pointed out as if Dellain had somehow missed the outcome. "How did it manage to reach the trees at all?"

"The red wench was waiting in ambush and took my force by surprise," he replied. "We have no idea where she was hiding."

The Father Abbot looked annoyed as he shook his head and pointed that Dellain's men wore heavy armor. Dellain countered by pointing out that she wasn't aiming for them. Instead, she was picking off the horses, wounding them so they would throw their riders.

"Ever the resourceful one," the angry father replied as he began to tap his fingers on the desk. "She and that miscreant, Tavid? Tavin?"

"Tavis," Dellain answered. "We saw no sign of him, but he couldn't have been far. Those two are always together."

"Of course," the Father Abbot replied and took a deep breath. "So let me see if I understand this correctly. The dragon ran into the forest, leaving a trail of broken trees in its wake, and you lost it somehow?"

"Any fool could have followed that trail," Dellain pointed out. "We dismounted and followed on foot with shields raised. It didn't run more than half a mile into the trees, but the trail comes to an end."

"What do you mean by that?" the Father Abbot demanded.

Dellain reached into a pouch and withdrew an object he had collected from the forest. With a casual toss of his hand, he threw the object onto the desk. It was a spear point covered in dried blood that was left on the forest floor. He described how there were pools of drying blood but no path to follow beyond. The Father Abbot's eyes fell upon the point as he studied it for some clue as to what could have happened. This was all becoming a mystery, with the dragon's escape from the magical chains being the start.

"And Gersius was nowhere to be found?" he stated more than asked as he was sure of the answer already.

"The beast didn't have him," Dellain replied. "We chased it for several miles, running it at full gallop. It was using all four of its legs and barely staying ahead of us."

They separated somewhere," the Father Abbot said as his face took on a faraway expression. "How long was the dragon out of sight of you men?"

"About five minutes," Dellain admitted. "We picked it up at the farm where we captured it."

"So from the time it dashed into the streets to the time you located it at the farm, it managed to hide Gersius," the Father Abbot surmised as she continued to work out the details.

"My men are searching the area, and we have pressed the city watch into helping," Dellain assured.

So Gersius has gotten away," the old man said as he leaned back in his chair. A slight smile split his usually dour face as his fingertips came together. "A most interesting turn of events."

"We are still looking," Dellain insisted.

"I assure you he is on the move and will soon be well out of your reach," the Father Abbot snapped, then paused to wave a finger in the air. "So the dragon escapes the chains, rescues Gersius, then manages to hide him before she is found again, but what about the other mystery?"