Dragon Blood

Chapter 3

5 years after Mour was born, she was turning into a warrior already.

"Come on, Mour! Swing it as hard and as fast as you can!"

A sword hacked at a tree, splintering it's bark. She swung again, this time, the sword completely cut the tree down, and Mour watched it roll down the hill. Val ran over to watch it, too.

"Good job, Mour."

She smiled and gave the young girl a pat before walking inside their small cabin. Mour was growing fast. For a 5 year old, at least. She was already up to her mother's shoulder height and her tail was at least 100 cm long.

But what alarmed Val the most was her strength. The child was strong enough to lift small trees over her shoulder while helping her mother, but it took a bit of practice for her to learn how to not drop them. After a while, she was lifting them flawlessly, almost as if most of them don't weigh five times her body weight.

Val began training her. She recognized the strength in her and decided she would make a great warrior, maybe a mercenary, or even an assassin. She was proud, just like all mothers should be, and despite her physical appearance, she still loved her child.

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"Mour, come help me set the table, please."

She looked over at her mother and got up, running over to set the plates on their small wooden table. It was only a table for three, but Val cooked extra large portions for her children in order for them to grow up healthy and strong. As Mour set the plates, a wooden ladle of soup poured into them slowly, along with a few pieces of carrot and potato.

Mour watched, mesmerized by the steam that came from the bowl of soup. She picked up a fork and began poking at the carrots, trying to pick one up. Val noticed and smiled softly, taking the fork away from her and gently scooping the piece up onto a spoon.

"Sit at the table, love. You don't want to spill this on yourself, do you?"

Mour pulled the chair out and climbed onto it, waiting patiently for her mother to hand her the spoon. As she handed it over, Mour gripped it carefully and turned it around, eating the soup.
She smiled softly and began eating by herself after that, only stopping to look at her older sister as she walked in.

"Hey, Mour. Watch this."
Mour looked at her. She pulled out a stack of paper that she'd drawn on with some charcoal and flipped the pages, creating an animated stick figure on the paper. Mour watched with amazement and took the paper, trying to flip it but failing.

Her sister chuckled and gently took the paper away.
"Eat your food, Mour."

As the family began eating, there was a loud roar from down in the valley next to their house. Val jumped a little and grabbed her bow and a handful of arrows.

"You pair. In the closet. Wait until I'm back

The two young children darted towards a small cupboard, opening the door and sitting inside until their mother came back.

Val ran outside to find the source of the loud roars, only to be met with a pair of ferocious red eyes glaring back at her. She was face to face with death itself, so she was rightfully scared. The large black dragon simply shoved her away and jumped on top of their wooden cabin, digging at the roof in order to obtain his offspring.

"Where is she?" He demanded, lowering his head to Vals' height and narrowing his eyes. He bared his sharp teeth as he spoke, slamming his tail into the roof of their cabin out of anger. She stood up and ran inside, watching the roof slowly begin to cave in under the pressure of Alduin sat on top of it. He watched her run in and instantly began tearing up the roof, pulling away planks and burning others until she saw them.

Val was sat in a far corner of the room, battleaxe in one hand and both of her daughters beside her. She had a glare that looked like it could burn through Stalhrim as if it were nothing. Alduin slowly snaked through the ceiling, landing with a loud thud on their table. The table flipped over and crashed underneath his weight, splintering into pieces.

He slowly made his way over to Val, edging ever so slightly, ignoring the battleaxe that she held and was more focused on the children beside her. As he got closer, the eldest pulled Mour and herself behind their mother, protecting the young dragon girl and herself from the beast that'd entered their home.

Val readied her battleaxe, determined. She'd lost a fight to him five years ago, but she was not prepared to lose another. Her hands gripped tightly at the leather handle of her weapon, raising it slightly.

"I'm not afraid of you, Dragon. You won against me once. I'm not letting you win again. You hear me?  This is my daughter. I brought her up, I gave her love. And where were you? Out fighting and killing my people for wanting to be free. Well, fuck you. You want to take my daughter? You'll have to go through me, first."

Alduin suddenly stopped. He swapped his attention from the children to Val, licking his lips with an almost sly smirk. There was a heavy silence filling the air, along with the smell of thick smoke from the burning wood above them. Val kept her grip on her battleaxe, her glare not even wavering as she watched the dragon before her. She hated everything about him. From the way he talked, to the way he looked. It made her blood boil.

"That can be arranged..."

Suddenly, the large black dragon snapped his jaws at Val, but she managed to move her battleaxe in the way, first. He bit deep into the wood, splintering it a bit but not completely breaking it. Mour pressed her back against the wall out of fear, while her elder sister helped her mother out in fighting Alduin. Her fingers pried at her mothers' battleaxe, trying to remove it from his mouth. Val turned to her.

"MOVE! RUN AWAY! TAKE MOUR AND RUN!"

She jumped and froze in shock. Her hands trembled as she continued pulling at the battleaxe, trying to stop the dragon from attacking her mother.

"No! I'm not leaving you! I won't!"

Alduin just turned around and flung Val across the room while simultaneously slamming her daughter with his tail. All that Mour could see after that was what appeared to be blood splatter up the wall from where her sister once stood. Her body broke into pieces, her bones crunching at impact. Once she hit the wall, a cupboard fell on her, crushing her head with a muffled scream and a sickening crunch. Blood seeped deep into the wood, and Mour just watched on as the battle between her mother and her father continued.

Val ripped her axe free from his jaw and slashed him with it at the pure fury and anguish that she had built inside of her after witnessing her childs' death. She cut him deep, and he retaliated for a moment, roaring in pain. However, the blow had shattered the handle of the battleaxe, and Val was left defenseless.

Mour crawled under her bed in order to try to escape from Alduin, but he was too quick. He grabbed her in his mouth before turning back to her mother.

"Mour, you're safe. Praise the Gods, you're safe..." Val embraced her daughter, not knowing that it'd be the last time she ever saw her again. Alduin gently placed Mour down beside him, cloaking her in his large wing.

"She's my daughter, now. Watch how I raise her."

And, with the same devilish smirk as earlier, he sliced her throat with his talon. Her hands instantly went to her throat where she tried to stop the blood, the red, thick liquid seeping out over her fingers as she desperately tried to stop her blood loss.

Eventually, her skin grew pale. She slumped over in a pool of her own blood, with more of it dripping from the gaping hole in her throat. Mour covered her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. Alduin looked down at her and gently wrapped her in her beds' blanket, picking her up in it.

"Don't worry. Mother will be awake. You just won't ever see her again."

He carried her off in the blanket, soaring across the night sky. Mour climbed up the side of the blanket and looked out at the sky. The northern lights illuminated the sky behind the stars, gleaming and dancing wonderfully in the dark sky.