QuarkNoWriMo

For those of you who don't know, I'm a member of Quark, the Sci Fi/Fantasy club at BYU. It just so happens that they're doing a NaNoWriMo-style event this July for those of us for whom November is an insane time to try to write 50000 words. I'm also getting off of work for the summer at the end of this week. All of which means, starting sometime this week, I'll probably be posting a lot more Draezoln than in the past. Maybe I can even get to the end of Book I!

Chapter 4-1

Chapter 4: Monster

They made good time on their way back east. They traveled quickly despite the melting snow, without making many stops at the towns on the way. Almonihah found he enjoyed the resurgence of life that came with the spring, and he especially enjoyed the seasonal thunderstorms which roared over the North Forest. Something about the wind, the rain, and the lightning touched a chord deep in his soul.

Zrathanzon continued Almonihah's instruction in the various skills useful to living in the wilderness. Almonihah took well to the teachings, absorbing all that his mentor could teach him almost as fast as he could teach. In addition to weapon training and wilderness lore, Almonihah also learned more of the religions and cultures of Draezoln. Zrathanzon seemed to have a deep knowledge of nearly every subject Almonihah could think to ask about.

“How old are you, Zrathanzon?” Almonihah asked one day.

The older half-dragon laughed. “What brought this up, kid?”

Almonihah shrugged. “Just wondering.”

Zrathanzon thought for a moment. “Well, let's just say that I've been around for long enough to see a lot of things and meet a lot of people.”

“That's not an answer,” Almonihah stated grumpily.

Zrathanzon's only response was another laugh.

They spent most of that year traveling back and forth through the North Forest, occasionally visiting the various communities at its edge, sometimes helping with some problem they had with the local wildlife. As the days started to shorten and the leaves started to change colors, they headed back west towards Llinos's valley.

One night, as the two half-dragons were sleeping in their tent, something awakened Almonihah. He blinked and looked around, his draconic eyes piercing even the near perfect darkness of the inside of their tent. It took him a moment to register that Zrathanzon wasn't in the tent with him anymore.

Just as he was about to call out, he heard a hushed voice whisper from just outside of the tent in Draconic, Almonihah, get your dagger slowly and come out of the tent. Make as little noise as possible

Almonihah's heart started thumping as he considered why Zrathanzon would be whispering like this, but he quietly moved to obey. He quickly got his belt with his dagger scabbarded in it, hesitated for a moment, then pulled his dagger out and left the belt. Then he silently moved to the flap and left the tent.

He looked around, his draconic night vision picking out the details of the night in black and white. It was a cloudy night—it had just rained yesterday—so any normal human would have been hopelessly blind in the darkness, but Almonihah could easily make out his mentor standing with his back to him, sword out, staring into the darkness.

He could also make out movements in the underbrush around them.

What are they, Zrathanzon? Almonihah whispered as he slowly made his way to the Ranger.

Get back-to-back with me, Zrathanzon murmured, seemingly ignoring his pupil's question. Once he obeyed, the Ranger answered, Fell-wolves.

Fell-wolves? Almonihah repeated the unfamiliar word as he took the defensive stance Zrathanzon had taught him to assume when at his mentor's back.

You'll see, Zrathanzon responded, Just watch yourself. They'll try to separate you from me, then kill you when you're alone. So stick with me.

Just then there was a sudden movement as one of the fell-wolves leapt out of the undergrowth at Zrathanzon. Almonihah had a brief glance of a huge, lupine shape before his guardian shouted, Duck! As he did so, Zrathanzon ducked low as well, his blade flashing across the beast's neck as it flew over the pair and collapsed in the darkness on the other side of them. Almonihah watched it, wide-eyed, as it growled and twitched in its death throes.

He didn't have long to watch, however. It seemed as if the death of the first beast was the signal for its brethren to advance. Suddenly the small clearing they were camped in was alive with huge, furred shapes, prowling around the pair, snapping at them. Almonihah could see now that they did indeed resemble wolves, though they were much larger than Garekh, and the third pair of legs was certainly not normal wolf equipment. They seemed wary of Zrathanzon's blade after what had happened to the first fell-wolf to attack, but it wasn't long before another of the beasts crouched to pounce.

Zrathanzon shouted for his pupil to duck again, but this time Zrathanzon dodged to the side as the fell-wolf leapt at him—only to slash its fellow that had darted out from the side in anticipation of him ducking again. It fell back whimpering as blood ran in its eyes from the gash in its forehead while its fellow almost landed on one of the fell-wolves circling in on Almonihah.

From then on, the night was a constant whirlwind of flashing fangs, yelled instructions, and rapid movements. Almonihah struggled to keep up with his mentor as he danced about, somehow always getting his sword between himself and the next fell-wolf to attack. Almonihah determinedly stayed at the ranger's back, his small dagger held at the ready. Once a fell-wolf got close enough for him to slash its nose before Zrathanzon stabbed it behind the base of the skull, and once one snapped its teeth so close to the little half-dragon's face that he felt the spittle spray from its mouth as its fangs clicked shut. He rammed his little dagger into the closest part of it he could find, and barely hung on to it as the wounded beast jerked away.

Almonihah glanced over his shoulder sometime during the battle just in time to see two fell-wolves attacking Zrathanzon from different directions. The older half-dragon slashed at one of the pair, which fell back. The other crouched to pounce, and Almonihah was about to shout a warning, when Zrathanzon exhaled a stream of flame at the creature. It yelped in pain as its leap turned into a painful flop on the ground. It rolled around for a bit, trying to put out its flaming fur, then lay still.

After what seemed like an eternity but could only have been a few minutes, the pack had had enough. The remaining fell-wolves fled back into the darkness, leaving several dead and dying pack members littering the clearing. Once he was sure the pack was not returning, Zrathanzon quickly dispatched the fell-wolves that still showed signs of life.

After checking the corpses one last time to make sure none still breathed, Zrathanzon asked to his younger companion, You all right, kid?

Still a bit out of breath from the ordeal, Almonihah simply nodded.

Okay then, his mentor replied, See if you can get the fire started again. We need to clean up these corpses.

******************

So, after far, far too long in between posts, I've finally updated again! Here we are, at the start of chapter 4, and we see again why the North Forest isn't a particularly friendly place to raise a kid, even if his dad was a bronze dragon. We also get to see just how awesome Zrathanzon really is. There's a reason he was able to not only keep Almonihah alive but also train him to be a deadly ranger in his own right.

As a note, I've used italics to indicate where Almonihah and Zrathanzon are speaking in Draconic. I generally use angle brackets to denote speech in an unusual language, but... the Internet tends to interpret things in angle brackets a bit differently from how I want. So I'm italicizing instead.

So this is my first real attempt at writing something of a fight scene, I think. At least, my first fight scene with swords. I was deliberately vague to some degree, at least as much because Almonihah's a bit vague on the whole thing as for any other reason (like my inexperience). So any comments? Suggestions? Complaints (kindly phrased, please)?