Tales From The Emerald Isles: Hope Chest

5

His heart began to race. But, he had a plan. He was resolved to save his people. Go. Ash darted towards his helmet. He overran it, but grabbed it in passing. He used the momentum to spin, and launch the helmet behind the dragon as he ran toward her. It hit home on the granite wall behind her echoing loudly. She opened her wings to turn towards the sound. Ash ducked under her left wing, leapt into the air, and snatched his sword from her chest. She reared up, squaring off with him with a thundering roar.

Ash raced forward. She was hurt and moved more slowly. He dodged a few swipes from her claws and then replaced the sword back into the bloodied cavity in her chest, driving it in up the hilt. She collapsed to a crouch. No longer able to stand tall under the pain of the sword lodged in her chest. He then drove it upward and pulled it toward him, like a man pulling up a fishing line. The wound began to grow upward as he cleaved her open. He struck her heart or at least severed an artery. His hands were marked by the deed, as the dragon's blood rushed forth like a water from a broken damn. It was finished. She would terrorize his people no longer.

She crashed to the ground. The heart. Marric needs the heart for that protection spell. Ash clenched his jaw as he continued his work of opening the chest of this once fine and majestic beast. By the time he had found and retrieved the heart, the sun was beginning to set. The horizon was awash with deep oranges and reds. He looked at himself in the pool beside the fallen dragon. His long blond hair was stained red with her blood. His face and hands were as well. He was filled with a sense of pride for accomplishing a task of such difficulty. No one in a hundred years had slain a dragon in these or any of the surrounding lands. But, his heart felt low in his chest. He thought about the girl he had met while on the road. How they had talked like old friends but had only just met. He thought about how her smile looked by the light of the fire. He smiled. The heart thumped softly in his hand. His face grew hard, "Selene has the jar. I must hurry." he said thinking out-loud.

Ash heard the rustling of leaves. He felt a gentle breeze blowing from the east. He turned to look for its source, spinning in a circle, blood swooshing about the grass as he searched. "Well aren't you a bloody fool." Said a voice from behind. He jerked his head and body to his rear "Who..."

The wind blew again, "there was another way" said the same mysterious and breezy voice. Am I hearing things? Ash's head jutted from side to side "I. I don't understand..." he replied to the mysterious voice. The branch above Ash shook, "Up, up, they never look up. Of course, you don't Mr., You're a bloody fool..."

The boy leapt from the branch landing just below it in a swirl of green and lively leaves. The boy danced about the swirling leaves until they settled or until he settled them, Ash couldn't really be sure which. "Did you just call me a bloody fool, boy?" Ash asked with a raised eyebrow and squinted eye. "Aye, indeed I did. You are covered in blood, and you know not what you've done. You Sir...my good sir, are indeed the bloodiest fool I've ever seen...and I've seen my share." The boy allowed his words to hang upon the air as he stood there, his arms folded. Ash stared at him for a moment in disbelief. No one had ever spoken to him like that before. The boy's eyes caught his attention, they were green like the forest, and looked just as old. Yet, the boy's smile and countenance were as sly as the red foxes that inhabited the woods of his family's kingdom.

"I will have you know boy, that I am no fool. I am the son of Alric, king of these lands. I am Ash, Son of Alric; protector of my people; heir to the throne..." The boy covered his mouth his eyes rolling towards the sky. "Covered in blood you are; you stand here, a mother's heart in your hand, boasting of your station, and you still believe you are no fool?" Ash looked to the heart he held in his gloved hand. Blood dripping. A mother? His cheeks flushed. "A mother?" The boy began to walk about the area "Aye, did ja not think about why the bloody beast was swoopin' down and eaten ya cattle and sheep, when they're hadn't been a sighting of a dragon in these parts in at least forty seasons?"