Chapter 12-1

Chapter 12: Spirit

Almonihah made his way south at a very brisk pace. No point hanging around where Galindakherithan might reconsider and decide there was some joke in Trollish he had to hear or something. The faster he was out of her territory, the better. The Ranger made a mental note to keep an eye out for other dragons' territorial markings in the future, though dragons were rather notorious for marking their territory in ways that could only be detected from the air. If they marked their territory at all.

He could tell that summer was in full swing in the North Forest. Which meant he'd been stuck in that cave for over a year. The realization didn't make him particularly happy.

It did feel good to be free again, though. Perhaps not good enough to make him forget the bitterness of captivity, but definitely good. Almonihah spent a couple of days just enjoying being able to go wherever he pleased, though his first brush with a manticore reminded him that just because he was free didn't mean he was free from danger. Fortunately, the only spike that hit him just barely drew blood. His arrow, however, drew considerably more blood from the manticore.

He neared the edge of the North Forest rather quickly, despite the fact that he slowed down quite a bit once he felt he was far enough away from the copper dragon's territory. Almonihah wasn't quite sure how he knew he was nearing the forest's edge—he just knew. Maybe it was just long familiarity with the forest or something.

It was then that he heard voices approaching from the south. The Ranger froze, brushing aside his idle speculations, and listened with his keen ears. There were two different voices, and they spoke for only a little while before they were silent again. Whoever they were, they were trying to move quietly, though they were doing a mediocre job of it. Almonihah did a much better job at sneaking towards them.

He soon caught sight of the pair. They were two human males, both with bows, arrows, and spears. They looked to be Plainsmen—their manner of dress and their heavily-tanned skin both indicated as much. That would explain their difficulty with traveling quietly through the forest, as Plainsmen usually lived... on the plains.

They were also walking straight towards a pit plant.

Quickly, Almonihah moved to a concealed position on the opposite side of the carnivorous plant and called out, “Stop.”

The two Plainsmen froze, looking around them cautiously for the source of the voice. As one of them opened his mouth to speak, Almonihah fired an arrow. It hit what looked to be a pile of leaves a few paces in front of them with a wet-sounding “thunk”. As it did, the “leaf pile” twitched, revealing for a moment a circular pattern of wedges... as well as giving a glimpse of the hole lined with acidic secretions that lay beneath.

One of the Plainsmen gasped a little as he realized how close to danger they had been. After a moment, he recovered from his astonishment and called out, “I thank you, stranger.”

He paused for a moment, and as he did, Almonihah stepped out of his hiding-place into plain view. Both of the Plainsmen gasped in astonishment and fell to their knees when they saw the half-dragon. The one who had spoken earlier then said, his voice trembling a little, “Great spirit, forgive us for not having given you proper respect earlier...”

“Stop that.” Disgust was plain in Almonihah's voice. “I'm no spirit. 'nd get up. That's ridiculous.” He gestured at their kneeling forms.

Hurriedly, the two rose to their feet. “Forgive us, spirit...”

“I told you I'm not a spirit,” Almonihah growled, making sure to speak clearly so they understood. He didn't think his Common had gotten that sloppy during his time with Galindakherithan, but it seemed like they hadn't understood him the first time.

“Yes, g...” the Plainsman floundered for a bit, then continued, “Uh... what would you have us call you?”

“By my name,” Almonihah replied, having to suppress the urge to make his disdain clearer. Then he realized he hadn't told them his name. “I'm Almonihah.”

There was silence for a moment. It seemed like the two Plainsmen were expecting him to say something more. Then it occurred to the half-dragon that humans usually had a last name. On a whim, he said, “Almonihah Zrathanzon.” That felt... right somehow.

“Almonihah Zrathanzon...” the Plainsman who had been quiet before said, carefully trying to pronounce the name like the half-dragon had.

Almonihah nodded in acknowledgement.

“Almonihah Zrathanzon,” the Plainsman tried out the name again, a bit more confidently, “We owe you blood-debt. Please, come to our camp and accept of our hospitality in token of our acknowledgement of our debt.”

It sounded to Almonihah like he was repeating something he'd memorized. But their camp was almost certainly to the south, and it would be kind of nice to get some respect after being pushed around by a dragon for a year. So he agreed. If this was what Zrathanzon had meant about Plainsmen having 'strange ideas' about half-dragons, he didn't mind them too much.

He did quickly get tired of the superstitious awe that both of them treated him with, and with how the one who had spoken first always had to keep himself from calling the half-dragon 'spirit'. He did get the other one to the point where he would actually call him just Almonihah, instead of Almonihah Zrathanzon, but it took almost the entire walk back to their camp. The other one... well, he was a lost cause.

Almonihah could see their camp as soon as they came to the edge of the forest. It was a little ways off, but it looked like it consisted of a small cluster of conical tents. He'd seen such camps from a distance before, and Zrathanzon had told him that they were long-term hunting camps. Apparently, during the spring and summer, the hunters of a tribe of Plainsmen would take these tents and spread out from their home village for a month or two at a time to bring down game to salt and bring back to their village. The preserved meat would help keep them fed through the winter.

One of the pair ran ahead a bit to tell the camp of their visitor. Most of the hunters were still out pursuing game, but the few that were in camp, along with those of their wives and children who had come with them, all came out to greet their visitor. If anything, they were worse about the whole superstitious awe thing than Almonihah's two guides. Some of them seemed quite terrified when he corrected them about calling him “great spirit” or “thunder spirit”, and it took the half-dragon a considerable amount of time and energy convincing them that he wasn't really angry at them for calling him something he didn't want to be called. He also got the impression that they still thought he was some sort of supernatural spirit creature. It was all very annoying.

He had just about decided that he'd had enough “great thunder spirit”'s when a small group of Plainsmen made their way from the other side of camp to the gathering around the Ranger. Their leader wore a necklace of claws and teeth from various dangerous creatures, which Almonihah took to be proof of his hunting prowess. The Ranger noted idly that he had killed all of the creatures whose claws and fangs adorned the Plainsman's necklace himself.

As soon as this Plainsman caught sight of the half-dragon, his face paled, and he fell to his knees. “Thunder spirit,” he began his voice trembling.

“I'm not some thunder spirit!” Almonihah interrupted, angrily. He wasn't about to let this guy start on the whole “great spirit” routine.

The Plainsman seemed nonplussed by this response. After a moment, he recovered enough to ask, “What are you, then?”

“'m what happens when a bronze dragon spends too much time 'n human form with a beautiful human sorceress,” Almonihah snapped, his frustration coming out in the bitterness of his response.

The Plainsman stared blankly at Almonihah. After a moment, Almonihah growled in frustration and elaborated.

“I'm a half-dragon. Half-bronze dragon, half-human.”

The Plainsman's stare didn't become any less blank. After a moment of silence, however, he apparently decided to simply drop the issue and asked, “How should I call you?”

“Almonihah Zrathanzon. But just call me Almonihah.”

The Plainsman seemed to be getting more used to the idea of his strange visitor. “Almonihah,” he tried the name out, doing a better job at it than most of the others had, “What brings you to our humble hunting camp?”

The Ranger simply nodded at one of the two hunters he had saved. The indicated hunter explained about what had happened, and the Plainsman with the necklace nodded.

“I see. It was right to bring him back here. You, and the tribe, owe him a debt.” The Plainsman with the necklace, who the other Plainsman had referred to as “Hunt-Chief”, turned back to Almonihah. “We are grateful for the lives of the two hunters that you have saved. You honor our camp. However, I fear that this humble camp cannot offer you much to repay our debt.”

“In three suns, we will strike camp and return to our village. There, we can thank you properly. There, our Chief and Shaman, who are much wiser than I, dwell. There, perhaps, we can begin to repay our debt to you.”

There was silence. All of the Plainsmen were looking expectantly at Almonihah. It made him feel just a bit uncomfortable.

Irritably, not quite wanting to agree to anything yet, the half-dragon asked, “Which way is it?”

The Hunt-Chief, accustomed by now to his unexpected guest asking unexpected questions, replied, “It is to the south and east, maybe four suns' distance from here.”

Almonihah shrugged. “Might 's well. Same way I was going anyways.”

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

So, Almonihah's finally free of Galindakherithan! And now he runs into the Plainsmen. This is an interesting part of his life. I must admit, though, that I know just about nothing about what life in a society like this would actually be like, so there will no doubt be... inaccuracies.

This is also posted over on the new site! Go check it out!

New site-Update!

Well, I've got the new site in working order, I think. Take a look and let me know what you think: Wordpress site

New Site!

So, for one of my Internet Programming class projects, we need to present on a web technology of our choice. One of the suggestions was Wordpress. I took one look at that and said, "Hey! I've been kind of unhappy with Blogspot in terms of what I can do to make it look the way I want, and Wordpress sounds like it's a lot more flexible. Let's do that!"

So right now, I'm working on creating a Wordpress.com site for Chronicles of Draezoln. For the foreseeable future, I'll probably keep updating both sites (when I update at all...), but at some point, I'll probably switch completely over. The site is draezoln.wordpress.com. It's still a work in progress, but I'll probably have the all of what I've written of the actual text of The Chainer's Legacy on there in a few days.

Chapter 11-3

The next morning went much as the last morning had. This time, however, when Galindakherithan went out to hunt, Almonihah carefully made his way out of the lair, nimbly stepping around the various wards etched into the cavern floors. He still had plenty of time when he finally emerged into the sunlight, but he didn't waste any time in getting under the cover of the forest.

The half-dragon stealthily slipped between the trees for over an hour, leaving the dragon's lair far behind him. Even after he felt fairly certain that he was out of sight of the lair, he kept to cover. No telling where Galindakherithan might be hunting.

Almonihah felt his heart rate pick up when he heard the sound of heavy wingbeats approaching. Quickly, he found a spot that could not be seen from the air and hid himself. The Ranger held perfectly still as the sound drew nearer, until it passed over him. He listened as the sound grew more distant... until suddenly, with a soft thud, it stopped. Then there was the sound of something large moving through the underbrush. Almonihah hardly even breathed as Galindakherithan came into view.

She was looking right at him.

I wondered how long it would take you to try to leave, she said smugly. I wasn't sure at first if you were the impatient type or the careful type. She sniffed disdainfully. I guessed right.

Almonihah resisted the urge to ask which one she had guessed, and settled for an angry glare. “Put some kind 'f locater spell on me.” Almonihah's question was more of a statement.

Of course. Galindakherithan seemed surprised that he would even suggest that she wouldn't do such a thing. Now then, I'd best carry you again. I wouldn't want you getting any funny ideas while walking back.

Almonihah had thought that being carried the last time was an uncomfortable experience, but he found that Galindakherithan had been gentle with him last time. This time, she gripped him uncomfortably tightly, and he felt each wingbeat jolting him. Fortunately it was a quick flight, but he still felt bruised and battered by the time the dragon set him down in her lair.

Now, then, I trust you'll find your way to your room while I go back out hunting? Galindakherithan said, then turn and took off again without waiting for an answer.

Almonihah picked himself up off the ground, suppressing a groan. He wasn't quite sure whether or not to be insulted that she wasn't even bothering to make sure he went in. Then he remembered that she had some kind of tracking magic on him, and decided that insulted probably wasn't the right response. Angry, yes. Resigned, eventually. But insulted, no.

He did make his way back to his room, just in case. It took him all of a minute to be bored out of his mind. He started pacing. That got boring pretty quickly, too. So he decided that the dragon hadn't told him to stay in his room, and went back out to the main lair area where there was more room to do some weapon drills.

Almonihah started to feel a little bit better as he worked through the familiar movements of his drills. He'd have to do this more often, if for nothing else than to forget for a little while that he was a prisoner. Not to mention he was going to need to work on keeping in shape if he was stuck here for a while.

You're not practicing to kill me, are you? Galindakherithan's voice made Almonihah jump.

Once he had recovered from his surprise, Almonihah turned to face her. The dragon was in human form, which didn't fully explain how she'd been able to sneak up on him. Probably more magic. “'m not that stupid,” Almonihah said.

Galindakherithan laughed. So you do admit to being somewhat stupid, then?

The half-dragon grunted in acknowledgement of her hit. He'd have to remember to beware her sense of humor at all times. It was bad enough when she was deliberately telling jokes.

After that, Almonihah resigned himself to being stuck in Galindakherithan's lair until she got bored with him. Or he learned enough Great Eagle for her to tell him a joke. Or until he went insane. Whichever she was going for.

Almonihah settled into a routine fairly quickly. The copper dragon would spend a couple hours on teaching him Great Eagle in the morning, then he'd drill while she hunted and did whatever else it was she did while she was gone, then she'd come back and teach him more Great Eagle. Sometimes she'd go to her library or study in the evenings, leaving Almonihah to figure out what else he could do with himself. It usually ended up being more weapon drills. He was making up new ones to keep himself entertained. He just regretted that there weren't really any good archery targets. Shooting his practice arrows at rocks would be a good way to not have practice arrows for long.

In time, Almonihah took to sitting at the edge of the lair for long periods, looking out on the world outside. Galindakherithan would often catch him at it, but at first, she said nothing. After several weeks, however, she finally told him he could go outside as long as he stayed within a mile of her lair, so the half-bronze dragon took to rambling around the woods around her lair. Save for the occasional patch of evergreens, most of the trees had already lost their leaves, with only a few clinging on to red or orange leaves. There was a pleasant chill in the air, not really enough to bother Almonihah, but enough for him to enjoy the difference.

As the weeks turned to months, Almonihah and Galindakherithan settled into a sort of unfriendly friendship. The copper dragon continued to make jokes at the half-dragon's expense, and the Ranger continued to see how lazily he could speak in the Common Tongue and still get the dragon to acknowledge she knew what he meant.

Sometime during the winter, perhaps because she felt a bit bad about her “guest” wandering around in the snow because he was bored, Galindakherithan allowed the half-dragon into her library. While books had never interested Almonihah much, he did know how to read, and it was something to do other than doing the same weapon drills over and over and walking the same mile of snowy forest over and over again.

Almonihah was rather surprised to find that the copper dragon had a fairly large collection of books. While several were on jokes, a fair number were on other topics—philosophy, magic, religion, even a text on draconic anatomy. All were full of marginal comments in a very fine hand, some in Elven, some in Common. The anatomy text was particularly heavily marked with rather disparaging comments, and the half-dragon recognized his “host”'s sense of humor.

Almonihah was even more surprised to find that he actually enjoyed reading. Not enough that he didn't keep in practice with his weapons and take plenty of walks outside, but he had read all of the books he was interested in by the time the snows had retreated up to the peaks of the mountains.

By this time, Almonihah was starting to feel fairly confident in his command of Great Eagle, and Galindakherithan was starting to (grudgingly) agree. The Ranger was starting to wonder if she was going to think of another excuse to keep him here or if he was finally going to be able to leave.

It was sometime late in the spring, or maybe early in the summer, when Galindakherithan finally said, in Great Eagle, Well, I think you're finally ready to hear my joke.

It took Almonihah a moment to fully appreciate what she was saying. She took his pause to be an expectant silence, and launched into the joke.

Once she was done, Almonihah snorted in amusement. She'd been waiting this long to tell him that? It didn't even make sense, even as a joke. Then he thought over it again, and realized he'd mistranslated part of it. He chuckled—just a bit—at his mistake, because it was kind of a funny error.

Ha! I knew you couldn't resist my jokes forever! Galindakherithan crowed (in Draconic). After a moment of silence, she said, a bit more quietly, Well, now that you've finally laughed at one of my jokes, you're free to gather your stuff and go whenever you'd like.

Almonihah blinked. She was really letting him go? It seemed like the world away from the lair was just a dream, it'd been so long since he'd been out there. Slowly, though, the realization that this was real sunk in.

He realized that it would probably be polite to say something to the copper dragon. Polite seemed like a good idea.

“Well...” he trailed off for a bit before thinking of what to say, “Thanks.”

Galindakherithan laughed a bit. Laconic as always, I see. Well, you are welcome. Do stop by again sometime if you're in the area. You are rather amusing company, even if you hardly ever laugh yourself.

“I'll keep that in mind,” the Ranger replied as he headed towards his room to pick up his stuff. He made a mental note to never come within a hundred miles of this place again.

******

So, it's been over a month, but I finished chapter 11! Huzzah! I'll try to be better about writing more often in the future, for my loyal readers' sakes.

Anyways, this was actually a fairly important period in Almonihah's life, and not just because he learned Great Eagle. I'm not quite sure I want to just tell you why, though. So just keep your eye out for reasons why.