A couple of minutes passed, and I started to think that the portal may have
glitched and dropped me in the wrong place…again. The magic of the portal is kind of delicate. If
my mind isn’t clear on exactly where I want to be, I can end up in the wrong
place. I remember a time I was hired by
a chieftain of a tribe of desert nomads, and I was supposed to be traveling
into his tent. When I activated the
portal, I had been wondering if his tribe embraced the practice of polygamy and
maintained a harem like some of the peoples back on my home world. I stepped
through my door into a tent full of semi-naked and more than a few fully naked
women. I mean, I’m not complaining, but my employer was none too happy with me.
I had put my daggers away and was preparing to activate the
runes on my arm to open the portal home when a voice behind me spoke.
“I see you found your way to me after all. I had hoped you
would…” Her voice trailed off into a sultry little purr, but I’m not used to people being able to get
behind me. Throw in the fact that I was coming here to meet with a dragon, and I’m
not ashamed to admit that I jumped. I turned around and Serilla was standing in
front of me in the same partially human form she had taken back in The Bar. I
know she’s a giant lizard in reality, but this form was damned sexy.
“I took the job. You
know what that means. I’m here to kill your problem. Anything other than that will have to wait.”
“Pity…ah well, to business it is then. Come along Killer,”
and with that she walked over to the trap door in the floor and started down
the stairs.
Here’s hoping I’m not
the next entrée walking into her pantry.
The stairs were wooden and went down about fifty feet or
so. There was a lit torch in a sconce
every ten feet. They ended on a stone
landing that was roughly ten feet by ten feet and surrounded by a guard rail
made of cast iron. At the far end was an
opening in the railing indicating more stairs. The landing turned out to be
high up on the wall of a cavern. The
opening in railing was for more stairs, stone this time that led further down
into the cavern. In the light emanating from the torches which continued down
the walls I could see the glow of gold.
I glanced over the edge of the railing. Now THIS is a dragon’s lair.
“Welcome to my home Killer. You should count yourself
fortunate. Not many are invited here and
fewer yet come with assurances that they will leave again. I have lived here
for quite some time in safety and hope to continue to do so after our business
is finished.”
The implied threat didn’t go unnoticed. I turned and looked
back up the stairs at the trap door that leads back into the cottage. It seemed
odd to me that anyone would have built that house on top of this cavern,
especially if it had been occupied by a dragon. That led me to conclude that
she must have built it. Surely she didn’t live there in human form. I turned
back to her and said, “so the house is a duck blind.”
“A duck blind?”
I explained to her. “A duck
is a bird that is hunted for sport and food on my world. Hunters will build a canopy
over themselves to hide them from view from the air. The idea is to go
unnoticed. You built the house on top of your lair. You come and go in human
form so that no one will suspect the location of your true home.”
“Were we not allies, that knowledge would be your death
Killer. However, I have to give you credit.
You are not as dim witted as most of your kind. You may survive this
yet.”
With that she leapt from the ledge and a few seconds later
the stone I stood upon shook and dust fell from the ceiling. I looked back over the edge of the rail and
saw Serilla in her true form for the first time, and she was…magnificent.
I know dragons are supposed to inspire fear. A normal person who’d been confronted with a
killing machine that was three hundred feet long tail to snout would probably
have pissed themselves. The hindbrain
would have kicked in and fight or flight (usually flight) instincts would take
over. I’d beaten my hindbrain until it quit caring about life or death a long
time ago. I’m a fucking predator, not some mewling little piece of shit prey
animal. What I saw was everything I
value, everything I wanted and needed to be. She WAS death, and she was
glorious!
Like I said before, she was three hundred feet long from the
tip of her spiked tail to the tip of her snout. Her wingspan had to be close to
the same distance because folded at her side they stretched from her shoulders
to her rear haunches. Her eyes had the same glow that they had held back at The
Bar and smoke curled from her nostrils. It hinted at the inferno inside of her that
just waited to be released. Her scales had
an iridescent quality and shimmered in the light shifting hues from green, to
blue, and then to purple. Extremely well defined muscles rippled beneath those
scales. The power they hinted at sent a
shudder through me. Her talons, both fore and aft, were as thick as my thigh
and damned near as long and ended in points designed to pierce the toughest of
hides. This was a creature that could level towns and devastate populations.
The thought that the people of this world sought to destroy her triggered an
unexpected reaction. I WANTED to protect
her, and I would make these assholes pay for their arrogance.
Whoa Tole. What the
hell is that? Don’t get personal. Do the
job. Take the gold. Emotions get you killed…or worse. Let that shit go!
My first thought was that she’d put some sort of spell on me
to make me feel this way, but I’ve taken steps to prevent that. I’ve been down that road before and it didn’t
end well. I’m still working on getting
past it, and I wanted to make damned sure it never happens again.
I shook my head to clear the fog, but the anger that rose up
continued to smolder. I managed to pull
it back to a slow burn, but burn it did nonetheless. For a split second I
considered turning around and going home. I squashed that thought as fast as I
had it though. My reputation was that I
took a job; I do the job; I get paid. I
was not about to tarnish that hard fought record because of some stupid
knee-jerk, emotional reaction. I’d deal with that shit after I finish the job.
“You are going to swallow a fly if you do not close your gaping
maw. I thought you stared hard at me when I was in your form, but now…” Serilla
said. Her voice was almost the same as before just…bigger.
I snapped my jaw shut and unconsciously straightened my
shirt. I walked over to the opening in the rail and started down the stairs
which descended into the cavern in a spiral around its perimeter . As I walked
I noticed that the walls of the cavern were covered in wards, most likely to
prevent her being discovered by scrying.
Long lived beings don’t get to be that way by being careless, and again
I found myself impressed by her.
About fifteen feet from the floor I hopped the rail and
dropped the rest of the way down tucking into a roll when I hit. Granted it wasn’t as impressive as the
hundred feet or so she had dropped but then I couldn’t turn into a dragon on
the way down either. I did manage to look somewhat coordinated though. I do practice
that shit after all.
“You honestly have no fear of me do you?” she asked me.
“Most men would have turned and fled back up the stairs once they saw me in my
true form, but not you Killer. You
stride down the stairs like you have done it a thousand times and even leap into
the dragon’s maw so to speak. You are truly a wonder.”
I kind of cocked an
eyebrow at her and smiled saying, “Nothing wondrous about me. If you wanted me
dead you’ve had more than enough chances up to now. I figure you really need my services, so
until the job is done I’m off the snack list. You may eat me later, but for now
I am useful and therefore safe. Besides,
I’m warded to go boom if I’m ever killed, and it’s probably big enough of an
explosion to level your hill. However, I’m betting you already know that.”
“Truth,” she said with a nod of her enormous head.
“All of that aside though, I came down here because I am drawn
to you. I grew up reading about dragons
without ever imagining that your kind were real. I would have come down here even facing death
just to get a closer look at you. This
is not flattery in any sense of the word, rather it’s statement of blatant
fact…you’re magnificent. I can’t stop myself staring at you, at your terrifying
beauty.”
I stood there for a minute after I said that with my heart
pounding in my chest. I hadn’t felt that way since I was a nerdy teenager
waiting for the girl I had just asked to the movies to either lift my heart or
crush it. It was a very uncomfortable
few minutes, but that’s when something unexpected happened…she cocked her head
at me and looked me square in the eyes. While our eyes were locked a shimmer
formed around her and where one second stood a dragon the size of a battleship
there now stood the woman from The Bar.
“Killer…Tole…you are definitely not what I have come to
expect in a human. I think I have chosen wisely in a protector, and I would
offer you something no human has known from me, and no, I do not mean laying
with me. I offer you a glimpse at the
soul of a dragon. This is something that is not shared lightly. It is called Communion, and you will see
exactly who and what I am. In exchange I will see exactly who and what you are.
It is far more intimate than mere sex and far more intense. Do not take this
offer lightly though. Once it is done it
cannot be undone. What you will see
cannot be unseen. What do you say?”
I could tell she was extremely uncomfortable offering me
this, and again I heard “for you are
crunchy and taste good with ketchup” in the back of my mind. I know killing me would kill her too, but
that doesn’t mean I’m eager to become a nuclear warhead. Then it hit me, she was nervous, the kind of
nervous a person is the first time they’re naked in front of someone. She was offering to bare herself in a way
much more deeply than mere nudity ever could be. She was offering to make herself vulnerable
to me, and she was asking me to make myself vulnerable to her. For killers of
any race, that’s asking a lot. I felt my resolve about keeping this job
professional beginning to slip away. I didn’t really feel any urge to fight it
either, and for once in my life I kept my sarcasm in check. Likely that’s why I’m here to tell this
story. I took a deep breath and looked at this beautiful creature standing
before me and asked her, “What do I need to do?”
“Simply open your mind,” she said.
This is where it got a bit sticky, and I should have seen it
coming. I’ll admit that I was a little
swept up in the moment and that may have caused me to be blinded. I’d have to let down the wards that protect
my mind from being touched by magic. I’d be open to control again. She’d have the ability to bond me to her in a
way like my wife had before. While I had a driving need to protect her, I also
had a deep seated need to keep my free will. I reflexively took a step back.
“Is something wrong?” she asked with a look on her face that was
part confusion and part hurt.
All I meant to tell her was that I had once had a bad
experience with magic getting into my mind and robbing me of my free will. That was all I was gonna say. That wasn’t all
that came out. The next thing I knew I had told her the whole story from the
meeting her in that bar on Terra, to her death, and finally to my vengeance on
her killers. I hadn’t told the whole
story to anyone. Bobby knew, but he’d
been there for most of it. Valsh knew
some of it but not all. The really
fucked up part of it all was the fact that I still don’t know if it was my
choice to see it through to the end or if it was the magical mind fucking she
had given me.
After I finished the story I was exhausted, so I sat down on
a chest that was nearby. I looked up her and said, “I haven’t told anyone that
whole story, and I honestly don’t know why I told you. What’s done is done though, so there you go.
Now you know what you’re asking me to do.
You’re asking me to trust you, and I’m not sure I can no matter how much
I’d like to.”
She sat beside me and took my hand saying, “Be assured I
would never bind the will of another.
Freedom is at the core of everything my kind value. Being bound that way is an abomination and an
affront to all that I hold dear.
Besides, if I had wanted to make a slave of you, the wards on your mind
would not have stopped me.” She looked me in the eye and asked, “ Did you not
notice when I read your resolve in The Bar? My magic is older and stronger than
anything even the Altanian know. I would have merely swept them away like so
many cobwebs on a forest path. The wards you have in place would have watered
down the experience of Communion. If we are to share it, I would have you
receive the full experience. If you would like I can tell you if your will is
still colored by her invasion, and if so, I can cleanse your mind of its
effect.”
I nodded and mentally deactivated the wards around my mind.
Even though I was bristling with pointy goodness I suddenly felt very
defenseless. It was extremely
uncomfortable.
She took my face in her hands and her gaze deepened. The
next few minutes were very…odd. It was like being examined by a doctor. All she did was move my head this way and
that and mutter under her breath. Most
of what she said came out as “mmm-hmm” or “hmm” and even an “interesting.”
After what seemed like about half an hour she let go and sat back.
“Well that was enlightening.
I am old enough that I’ve seen Altanian bindings before. That one
was…odd. It was definitely a protector’s binding, but it was delicate. It is almost as though she saw that you already possessed the killer instinct the binding usually
instills, so all she did was touch you with the emotional bond. Even that though was light. Almost like she
lessened it over time. I would say you actually loved her after a while. The bond
was actually put there to help you NOT be a killer. When she died, the last bit
of the magic died with her. Everything
you did after that point was all you.”
Confusion and relief and elation all rolled through me at
once. The feelings brought with them a few tears. I didn’t turn into a
blubbering idiot or anything, but that kind of relief is gonna pop a tear out
whether you want it or not. I really
didn’t know how to react to that news, so I just reached out and embraced
her. Now it was her turn to be
uncomfortable. She went rigid until she realized I wasn’t going to try and hurt
her. After that she relaxed into my embrace, and we just sat there for a few
minutes. When it was over I felt like a giant boulder had been taken off of my
back. Now I know who I am…who I’ve always been. I am a killer. Period. End of
story.
“Thank you,” I told
her. “If your offer still stands, I would very much like to experience
Communion with you.”
“Of course,” was all she said and she took my hand and led
me to a kneeling position on the floor. “This is usually done between two of my
kind in our natural forms. I have never done this with a human much less in
human form. It may take a moment for me
to orient myself.”
She knelt across from me with her knees touching mine. She
reached out, took my hands in hers, and locked her eyes with mine. After a
minute or so a glow began to form around us both. Shortly after it formed I
realized that the glow was actually a ball of flame with us at the center. Strangely though it wasn’t hot. Her eyes drew
nearer until they passed right through me and I found myself in the night sky
gliding among the stars.
The landscape below me is mine and mine alone. There are
green fields, a cabin on a hill, a mountain range where unearthly light dances
among the slopes, and a scarred and burnt wasteland. All of it belongs to me to do with as I will.
I decide I should land and explore but when my feet touch ground I am in all five
places at once. Each version of me is slightly different. I realize that each
land represents an aspect of a dragon’s existence. All I have to do is
concentrate and I can slide between aspects like chasing a thought.
The night sky is freedom, freedom to go and do as I
will. It is unfettered joy. There is
nothing here that can touch me. The green fields of grass are hunting grounds.
This is where the predator stalks its prey. This is where my dominance over all
life is asserted. The cabin on the hill are safety and home. Nothing can touch
me there. It is where I find peace, comfort, love, and…family. The mountains are magic, old and powerful.
This is where my will and my intellect live. I am all powerful and all knowing.
The burnt wasteland is my rage. It is
destroyed because I wish it so, and it pleases me. When you combine all of
these things…freedom, predator, home, magic, and rage… you have a dragon. Woe
be to anyone who threatens any of it.
I could feel the Communion coming to an end, and I fought
against it. I railed against being forced back into that frail human frame. I
longed to stay and bathe in the glory of being a dragon. No matter though. The world came back into focus, and I was
looking into those glowing eyes once again. This time though there was
something new in her eyes. It took me a moment to recognize it because I hadn’t
seen it in a very long time…respect. No
one respects the paid assassin. They
fear him. They hate him. Some even look
down on him, but no one respects him.
I took her hand back into mine and locked my gaze on her
saying, “Serilla, thank you for sharing that with me. It was beautiful. You are
beautiful, and I will end the threat to
you and your brood or I will die trying.”
I felt her hand tighten on mine at the mention of her brood
and she said, “I should have realized that I could hide nothing in
Communion. I do have a small brood of
four younglings. The first for me in close to a half of a millennia. I would
have gladly died to protect them if I thought I could end the threat to
them…but Tole, now that I have seen what you hold inside I feel I should
release you from our bargain. I would not risk having someone such as you
perish. Would you like to know what I saw of you?”
“No.”
“But I think you should kn…”
“No.”
“Very well,” she said and leaned forward kissing me again
every bit as hard as she had back in The Bar. “I will know you as a human woman knows a man, Killer. Now that I know
who and what you truly are I will regret it if I do not.”
I stood and told her, “Once
I’ve ended this bastard and you’ve added his weapons and armor to your hoard,
we can explore that for as long as you’d like. Now though, I’ve got people to kill. Where are they?”
