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.