10,000 Dawns: Bonus Stories

Knights and Dragons

The horse was exhausted, he'd ridden it too hard that day, but the urge to get where he was going had pushed away his sense. They were moving at a slot trot now, towards the fire in the distance.
"Easy girl, we'll rest up soon." He patted her gently on the neck, wishing it was without his gauntlets. Finally, they were close enough to the fire he could see a lone figure sitting by it, who rose, a hand on the hilt of a blade.
"Stop. State who you are."
"Sir Archimides of the House Ahnerabe. I'd like to use your fire if you don't mind, my horse and I can't travel much farther." The figure looked them up and down, and then nodded.
"You can tie your horse up by mine. There is a pond by the tree it can drink from if you leave the rope slack enough. You're welcome to the stew as well. You try anything funny and I'll gut you." Fair enough. The figure's voice was funny, higher than he expected. Still, no complaints from him. He tied Esmerelda up at the tree, grabbed a bowl and spoon from his saddlebag and clomped over to the fire. The figure was in fact a woman. She had red hair, cut short to fit under the helmet laying beside her, and the look of someone who had been in a lot of sword fights, with the nicks and scars of swordplay visible over her form. Arch ladled out some soup, sat down on a rock (she had already taken a convenient tree stump) and awkwardly began to spoon soup in through the visor gap in his helmet. She looked at him like he was an imbecile.
"You know, you can take your helmet off." He swallowed the spoonful of stew and shook his head.
"No, I can't. That's why I'm going this way. I'm sure you know what's at the end of this road." She got up, stirred the stew, and ladled herself another serving."
"You tell me." As if on cue, another figure began to approach through the darkness. Both of them reached for their swords. The woman called out again, "Stop. Who goes there." The approaching figure stopped for a moment, as if unsure, and then replied, "Just a bard passing through, looking for coin or a fire." The woman glanced at Arch again.
"Come closer." Then approached another woman, this one in garb most bizarre. She wore a long brown coat, on the breast of which there was an emblem of a sun and a moon that had crossed their forms together. Her blonde hair was shaved completely along the left side of her head all the way from the temple down, and the rest was combed over to drop down to the other side falling just below her jawline.
"What's your name, Bard?" The woman kept approaching.
"I'm Kinan Jans. I hope you don't mind my intrusion." The red head gestured for her to take a seat, "What are your names?" She asked plainly.
"I'm Lady MacLeod, the Knight of the Songbird. This is sir Archimedes of the House Ahnerabe. My squire is around here... Somewhere." She trailed off at the end into a grumble.
"I'm pleased to meet you both." Said Kinan in the same monotone she said everything in.
"You're welcome to the stew. Jack made too much, again." Kinan's face showed no tell, but her eyes to arch showed a flash of recognition.
"Jack would be your squire then?" Songbird nodded. "And you, Sir Archimedes, I see you're still wearing your armor. Songbird here took it all off. Do you know something I don't about her?"
Arch shook his head, "I can't, er, actually take it off. That's why I'm here."
"You were saying that before she arrived." Songbird said, gesturing at Kinan with her spoon. "So, why can't you get out of your armor then?" Arch sighed.
"Well, you see I've been cursed by the queen of this land. I accidentally insulted her taste in wine, and she lay a spell on my that makes it so that I cannot leave my suit of armor till I complete a task she set for me." Arch said.
"Then we're on our way to the same place, I'd wager." Alice replied, "You're off to rescue the Queen's daughter from the Dragon's tower aren't you?" He nodded in reply. "Then are we at cross purposes?"
"Lady Songbird, I just want this curse released. If you're after the reward, you can have it."
"I am." She said.
"Lady Songbird!" Another voice yelled, "I found some berries for us!"
"Jack." Kinan said.
"Yes." Songbird replied. He approached with a bowl chock full of blackberries, which the four of them split between them. Songbird reintroduced everyone, and they settled back in.
"So then, bard, why don't you sing us a song?" Kinan stared at Songbird. Songbird stared at Kinan. Jack and Arch glanced between them.
"Sure." Kinan replied. "I must warn you though, I never said I was a good bard."
"Okay, I get the part about 'do a little dance, make a little love' , but what exactly does 'get down tonight' mean?" Arch whispered.
"Heck if I know." Songbird replied. They had been riding for some time now, Kinan walking beside their horses. She was wearing unusual white pants, but they didn't seem to be being stained by the mud. Sir Arch didn't know who their guest was, but he was fairly certain she wasn't actaully a bard. They'd have to keep an eye on her.
"There it is!" Songbird said, pointing over the hill the were cresting at the tower that was rising into view. "The Dragon's tower, if we can get in there and slay the dragon together, then get the princess out safely, we can get everything we need."
"You say 'need', not want." Kinan noted, and held her gaze up at Alice.
"I have people who need this money more than I do. I am responsible for them." Songbird checked her sword. "They need me. And Arch needs to get out of his armor. So need." Kinan nodded. "Why exactly are you here then?" Kinan narrowed her eyes as Alice reached down to reassure her horse.
"I'm here," she began, "to find knights who are going to take on this Dragon. I'm looking for new stories, after all. Oh the songs they will sing, etcetera." Alice scrunched her lips to the left. Sure, right.
"You do know no knights have returned alive from the tower, right?" Kinan nodded.
"All the better the song will be if you succeed then."
They rode down the sloping hill to the tower, which loomed over them. It wasn't actually a very old tower, it looked like it had been constructed recently and fairly hastily (recently for a tower, so maybe a decade ago, maybe a decade and a half). The walls were no nonsense rough stone blocks which rose up to a equally simple parapit at the top. There was no ornamentation on the tower, and no door. Only a charred archway large enough for two people to walk abreast, abet cramped with their shoulders rubbing.
"So this is it." Alice said, "I'm not sure what I expected."
"It looks awful simple for a tower. There's hardly any ornamentation on the thing." Arch said.
"If by hardly you mean 'none'." Kinan finished. They knew she was right.
"Tell me bard, in songs of Dragons, don't the beasts usually prefer rich and ornamented places to make their foul nests?" Kinan nodded.
"That's fairly regular in most western mythology about dragons."
"Western?" Arch asked.
"Forget it." Kinan said.
"Right, so... I guess we need to head in." They rode their horses to a tree, and tied them up, and put feed bags on them,then changed their minds and let the horses loose ("If we don't come out, no use letting them die." Alice said) together they gathered outside the entrance and looked into the darkness beyond.
"So, do we want to draw straws or what?" Arch asked. Alice rolled her eyes, put her helmet on, and stepped into the unknown.
Her boots clanked on the stone floor. Even so, she moved carefully. Arch followed her, and Kinan took up the end of the line. Alice half expected traps as she walked, but the only change they found was when her foot crunched down instead of clanked. They Stopped, and she reached down, and felt the remains of a skull.
"What is it?" Arch whispered.
"The last group of unfortunates."
"Ah." They felt along the walls and creeped through the hall, till eventually they hit a set of stairs. They carefully advanced upwards, and found themselves in a circular room that took up the whole floor of the tower. Scorch marks like the walls, and a few slits in the walls let in air and fading sunlight. A blackened steel ladder descended from a cloased trap door in the ceiling. They stepped into the room, and examined it. Something struck Songbird as odd about the room, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Looks like the only way is up." Arch said. He was right, of course. "I'll take first this time." Arch climbed the ladder, and when he reached the trapdoor took a deep breath and turned a handle on it to undo the latch. He pushed up, and the other two follow him as he signaled it was safe. Arch climbed up into a girl's bedroom, the bedroom of a girl who had been there a long time. Old stuffed animals sat on a shelf, as well as tons of books that varied across the age spectrum wildly. A set of iron doors with a latch were set into one wall, and directly across from it was a large four poster bed complete with canopy where a teenage girl sat wearing a beautiful an ornate blue dress. Her hair was black: long and intricately braided. One one of her shoeless ankles was a thick shackle leading to a big chain. That was anchored into the wall. She didn't look as happy to see him as he'd expected. He climbed up and bowed, as Alice and Kinan scrambled up behind him.
"Princess, my name is Sir Achimedes of the House Ahnerabe. This is Lady Songbird and the Bard Kinan. We've come to rescue you." The girl smiled politely.
"Okay, well, thanks for coming. But actually you should all leave. No rescuing needed, sorry!" Alice looked down at her ankle.
"It doesn't look like you aren't in need of rescuing, to be blunt." She said.
"Really? I like it here. Its a very nice tower. Look, there is even a bookshelf. No need to worry." She awkwardly made a gesture with her arms spread wide as if to say "this is all I need!"
"Princess, please, you've been here a long time. There's a whole big world out there for you to explore."
"Nope, I'm fine. Seen that world. Not my thing. Personally this room is the best." Kinan began walking through the room, examining the walls.
"There is literally a dragon keeping you here." Arch said, "It eats people."
"Yes!" The Princess said angrily, "It does, so get out of here before it returns. Do you know how many heroes have come here to rescue me? I've lost count. I really have. They've all died because they're stubborn like you and won't leave." The princess ran to the iron doors and swung one open, revealing a balcony and the sunset.
"The dragon will be here when its night. You need to leave. The dragon will kill you." Arch shook his head.
"So that's why you're pretending you like it here. You're tired of people dying for you." The princess looked even angrier, and on the edge of panic.
"Please, please you have to leave right now." She ran up to them and unsuccessfully began to try to force Arch and Alice towards the trapdoor.
"Go, go now before it eats you." Alice grabbed her by the wrists, and Arch began to look for how to disconnect her shackle.
"No, no! Stop! Please, you can't unshackle me! You can't do this! Let me go!" The princess cried. Kinan's eyes went wide, and she looked over at the trio. Arch pulled out a connecting pin, and the chain came off of the shackle.
"Aha! Done!"
"NO!" The princess cried. Kinan walked towards the thee of them forcefully.
"Princess, how big is the dragon."
"Its big! Its huge!"
"Then how did it get into the lower level when there is only a human sized doorway?" The princess stopped fighting back, and the sun lowered on the horizon.
"Run." She said.
The princess began to wretch, and as she did her mouth began to elongate. Her skin began changing color, becoming a dark grey. Her pupils turned to vertical slits, and she started hunching over, her shoulders beginning to rise up under her dress and break the fabric. Arch and Alice stood stunned, so Kinnan ran forward, jumped, and kicked the princess in the side so she fell through the trapdoor, hitting the edge as she fell. They heard her body make a cracking thud on the ground, a horrible sound, and then the sound of the dress ripping apart and the howling screech of a dragon. Kinan slid down infront of the trapdoor with her landing, and closed the door, latching it as they heard the howling screech turn into a crackling inferno. The trap door grew hot enough it changed color slightly, with a small column of flame rising up from a hole just big enough for a chain to be notched into.
"So." Kinan said. "I'd say we found the dragon."