Chapter 21

There was going to be no problem with finding water. In fact, Lasser had been soaked to the bone for two solid days. Having lived most of his childhood outdoors, he had become accustomed to walking and even sleeping in the rain, but it had been alternating between driving sheets of rain and heavy drizzle ever since they left the grove. The land was becoming marshier underfoot and there seemed to be no sign of shelter in any direction. He’d even let Malek climb onto his shoulder several times, to get a taller bearing above the grass.
Rain also meant no fire. No fire meant that no matter how many of those wretched rabbity animals they caught, they couldn’t cook them. There wasn’t any fuel to burn anyway. Lasser never thought he’d be homesick for trees.
“Ow,” Iber said as he stopped his tramping through the sloshy field. Lasser prayed he hadn’t done something stupid like sprain his ankle. There was no way he was going to carry anyone through this rough terrain.
“I’m stuck.”
“On what?” Malek asked as he slocked his way back to Iber to have a look. Lasser also got closer. Indeed, Iber’s foot was firmly imbedded in something. He bent down and stuck his finger in the goo. It held with surprising force. He pulled back, only to nearly dislocate his finger.
“Ow,” he said and tried to wiggle it loose. It wouldn’t move.
“Don’t touch it, Malek,” Iber warned.
“I’m so not that stupid.”
Lasser’s back began to cramp up from crouching with his finger to the ground. He would have to sit down soon. It really didn’t matter that the ground was wet as he was wet enough already.
“I feel like my foot is stuck in a rock,” Iber said, trying to wiggle it free from his boot without success.
“Perhaps that’s because it is,” Lasser said, beginning to feel the tension mounting and creeping up his neck. He gave in and sat next to the rock with his finger imbedded.
“What are we going to do?” Iber said. He sounded near the crying stage. The wet weather had taken a worse toll on him. He was used to warm beds and feather pillows.
“We could wait here and starve… or we could hack your foot off,” Malek said. Lasser cringed as Iber let out a wail.
“He was kidding, Iber.”
“Was I? Your finger will have to go too.”
“So why does he only have to lose a finger?”
“Because he wasn’t the dolt who got his foot stuck in it.”
“You could go for help?” Iber peered pitifully at Lasser for support.
“Help? Where?” Malek looked around and swung his arms wide. “We’ve been walking for days and haven’t seen anything more than a rodent.”
A rustling drew nearer in the bushes. Lasser tried to bring his bow to bear, before realizing it was impossible with his finger stuck.
A rather pale large man emerged from the brush. He wore a strange animal skin hat with a large grass brim attached to keep out the rain. Conspicuously absent were his shirt and coat. He was clean shaven and quite flabby in places. The man carried a long metal spear and a shield made out of grass.
He saw the three men and nearly dropped his spear as he emitted a loud belly laugh that caused his stomach to ripple and jiggle.
“You idiots. What made you stick your finger in my trap?”
The man picked up a nearby rock and plunged it into the one that held the two mages. It immediately let go of their respective appendages. Lasser scrambled to his feet.
“Thank you sir. We’re not from around here.”
“I guessed that.” He cast a critical eye at their bedraggled clothing. “You might as well come with me and dry off, now that I know I’ve not caught anything. Probably made enough noise to scare any game off.”
“Iber tends to do that,” Malek said.
The man led them through the grass. He seemed to be following a fixed path, but Laser could see nothing in the muck. Suddenly they came upon a slight bump in the earth. The man grabbed a rope and swung open a door.
“This is my hunting hole,” he explained as he stuck in his head and pulled out several dead carcasses and handed them to Lasser. “You can help carry.”
After handing a few to each person, he set out again through the tall grasses. They walked for about fifteen minutes before he turned swiftly and sniffed the wind. The rain had finally stopped, and Lasser could smell something faintly familiar.
“Hide!” The man flattened himself to the ground and raised his grass shield. Covered, he blended in to the surroundings with near invisibility. Lasser, Iber and Malek however, had nowhere to go, and the smell Lasser recognized, could be nothing else but dragon.
A form darkened the sky and flew low above their heads.
“Hey, that dragon had wings!” That wasn’t the only difference between these and the ones Lasser had become used to confronting in the forest. These were not green and brown. Their stomachs were a murky gray and their backs the same golden brown of the grass. Unlike the tree dragons, whose wings were only capable of gliding, these truly seemed to have flight. This was not good news.
Lasser readied his bow and watched as the three dragons circled around their newfound prey. One blew a puff of smoke at Malek, trying to get him to flinch into a run. One reached out with claws to snatch at Iber. It never got the chance. Lasser’s arrow stuck deep into its neck and sent it crashing down, crushing a large swath of grass as it slid to a stop.
“Only three?” Malek said as he held out a hand for Lasser’s knife. He tossed it to him.
“Good thing sky dragons don’t travel in the same packs as tree ones. At least I hope not,” Lasser said as he notched another arrow and shot it into the shoulder of a second dragon. The third one made a snatch run at Malek and got a knife in his gullet for his trouble.
Grounded and wounded, dragon two began to work up a lot of smoke, ready to burn the heck out of the grass and everything in it. Lasser’s second shot caught the dragon in the throat and a fireball erupted that literally blew the dragon’s head off. The third let out a screech and flew off.
“That must have hurt.” Malek said, staring at the headless corpse.
“Mr. Man, you can come out now. They’re either dead or gone,” Iber called. The man emerged from behind his shield.
“You killed a sky dragon?” His wide eyes stared at the two corpses which began to steam as the rain began again.
“Two of them,” Lasser stated.
“You’re in trouble now,” the man said.
“Why is that? Will the other dragon come back with reinforcements,” Iber asked.
“No. It’s against the law to kill dragon.”
“And what were we supposed to do? Let it eat us?” Malek was shaking his head in disbelief.
“Yes. Come.”
“Where are we going?”
“To jail.”
“Wet, hungry and cramped, that actually sounds like a good proposition.”