The Dragon's Gift

Chapter 17

I wake up with an uneasy feeling. The past few nights I've slept without nightmares but that doesn't mean I slept well. With the training camps and barracks being outside one of the largest human cities in all of Ar'eile, most of the top craftsmen are here. Sorik, the most renowned blacksmiths in all of human history, is in the city. Some say he's lived for hundreds of thousands of year, but that can't be true. If it were, it would explain how he knows so much about blacksmithing, since he would've had so long to learn and master the techniques. I find Kai and grab a quick bite of breakfast before rushing to the city. Alstrein is such a huge place. I've been here so many times I know it like the back of my hand. Kai, seeming not to have been here as many times, stops at just about every stall and kiosk to stare at the strange and irrelevant goods.

"That would be a nice addition to any wardrobe," a shopkeeper says in response to Kai picking up a funny looking hat.

"No thanks," I say to the woman who loses interest in Kai, since he's not turning out to be a customer. "Let's go," I tell him before he picks something else up. We turn down an alley to get away from all the shops and eventually arrive at the Forge. I knock and then enter with Kai on my heels.

"Is Sorik here?" I ask a rough looking guy sitting behind a counter.

"Yes, one second," he replies with an annoyed tone. He shouts for Sorik and a few moments later he walks out. Before I can open my mouth to say a word, his eyes tell me he knows something we don't. He motions in one direction and we follow. We walk down a twisting hallway and through a door to find ourselves outside with a strong heat radiating from the metal forge to our left.

"You two look like you're here for more than a sword or armor," he says, looking at our weapons and attire.

"Yes, Solferin sent us," Kai replies.

"Solferin?" he asks, a bewildered yet longing tone in his voice.

"Yes, he told us to tell you to prepare the metal," I say.

"Oh, already. I had expected this to happen, yet not so soon. I thought it would be at least..." he trailed off, seemingly talking to himself. He rushes back inside and about a minute passes before he returns, carrying a box. He sets the box down and procures a key from his back pocket. He opens the box and I see a shiny material that had to be metal, but at the same time it was unlike any metal I'd ever seen. It was much more shiny and it looked weird, it had several different hues depending on where the light hit it. It ranged from red to blue to green to orange to yellow, almost every color. He took it and put the entire block into the forge. A hissing sound was made as the cold metal met the hot fire. Soon, he pulled the metal from the forge with a shovel looking object. He placed it on a table, the metal still glowing and somewhat molten. Instead of putting it in cold water to cool it off, he just set it there.

"Why didn't you cool it in the water?" I ask.

"This isn't normal metal, it's a special metal called dragon metal, if I were to put it in cold water, the final product would be weaker and soft," he says. Soon enough, the glob of metal stops glowing with heat and he gets to work on the metal right away, wasting no time. He grabs a mallet and pounds it into numerous different shapes and they soon start to look like plates of armor. This process goes on for hours, neither Kai nor I growing bored, but fascinated instead by the steps. The sun eventually sets and a little while longer and he motions for us to follow him. He takes the different plates and pieces, which were somehow dyed red, I assume during one of the moments I went off in my head just thinking. We follow him up a steep hill and around a large rock. We keep going until we're at the top of a mountain. No later than we got there did a loud flapping sound suddenly started, moments later I realized what it was. Solferin had landed in the middle of all of us.

"Is it ready" a voice thinks into my head, along with the rest.

"Yes, it is ready," comes Sorik's reply. Then, he puts one of the red metal plates on Solferin's crimson head. Then I realized that the metal plates were dragon armor. Sorik continues fitting Solferin in the armor until he's completely covered. Armor covers both sides of his neck to protect the vulnerable veins in his neck, leaving the top and bottom uncovered to allow free mobility, several small plates fitted onto his side and tail. A gold line traces the edge of each plate. Nothing was put on his wings to allow flight. By the time he was finished, Solferin looked amazing. When Sorik finished putting the armor on him, he flew up spiraling into the air, the soft moonlight reflecting off of his blood red scales and the armor, a sight to be seen. Then, he flew off, and we returned to the camp after exchanging a few words with Sorik.

The next few days go by rather slowly. Training continues, but I don't learn anything new, just get better at the things I've already learned. Today we get called to a meeting just after eating.

One of our generals starts speaking. "We've only began our fight with the elves. It hasn't been easy, but no war ever is. They've started taking an offensive stance. We've been put in a defensive position. Our villages are being raided, our cities have seen a few elves just outside the wall, no doubt planning an attack. It's time we were on the offensive. We have spotted a large elven army headed straight for one of the smaller cities. If that army reaches the city, it will most likely be captured. That will not happen, so we've gotten an army of our own. We will confront their army head on and stop them. Everyone here is going to fight. We've got other smaller armies protecting villages, but we must protect our cities. Now let's go."

Kai and I walk out and find people already walking towards the battle. We walk with them. About twenty five horses ahead are carrying supplies for at least a week or more. This was not going to be an easy battle, nor a short one. We walk for three days before we even see any sign of elves. We keep walking until we're closer. Once close enough, archers fire a volley of arrows in their direction. Almost all of them hit a target, either killing or severely injuring those targets. Yet, that was only their front line. Thousands more still stood. Enraged by the sudden attack, they charge us. Shouts and screams can be heard from a mile away as we return the gesture, and before I know it, I'm caught up in the midst of battle. An elf shoots an arrow in my direction only to have it frozen as it falls to the ground. I send a fireball in his direction. It hits its mark and buries itself within his chest, killing him. Then, an elf charges at me. The battle has been going on long enough that I had a good bit of space around me as I swung my glaive at him, knocking his sword aside. He swings again and again, each time I block with ease. He didn't seem to be trained very well. He goes for my neck, but in doing so, left his guard down and I swipe the blade across his chest. Another charges at me. Expecting a swing of his sword, I get ready to block it but it never comes. Instead, he kicks me in the stomach and as I double over, nicks my arm. I stand back up and hit him hard with the pole end in the face. While he's distracted, I knock his feet out from under him by kicking his feet. As he falls, I run the blade through him. Someone beside me just fell down but before their opponent could finish them, I whip them with a strand of water providing him the perfect chance to kill the elf. Then, I'm charged again. This time I was ready. The elf ran at me with his sword up and staring at my shoulder. I knew what he was going for so at the last second I spun and brought my glaive across his back. Drenched in sweat, I find it harder and harder to keep fighting. I wind up with several scratches but nothing serious. The sun sets as the elves return to where they had set up camp. We hadn't the time to set up camp so we did so before sleeping. Everyone took turns keeping watch. Half of us would sleep for six hours while the other kept watch for six hours. Then we switched. Soon, we were fighting again. We didn't fare as well today as we had the day before. I got more than just a few scratches in the first few hours of fighting, my muscles still sore from yesterday. More and more of us dropped. We fared worse over the next few days. Six hours of sleep was doing no one any good and we were almost out of supplies. I haven't talked much since the beginning of the fight because I was either exhausted or starving. Today I thought for sure that we'd lose the fight. I was struggling to stay alive. All of a sudden, a majestic yet terrifying roar came from the hills behind us. Solferin. He flapped his leathery wings and landed right in front of me. He roared again, louder this time. Everyone was either scared or ecstatic. He was fighting on our side, against the elves. Now I knew we weren't going to lose. The way he fought was awesome. He snapped elf after elf up and toasted others. A swipe from his claws took at least five down. This changed the odds greatly in our favor. Soon, the elves had retreated. We won. We actually won. Yet, the war was still not over, we had won a battle, not the war.