Hamlet Thriving (Black Lake book 2)

Chapter 14
Taiz’lin

~

I figger it had been over forty years since I visited the valley. I remember the huntin’ was good, but that wasn’t enough to keep me here, especially once winter fell. By then I was already a committed wanderer for a century. There were certainly no dragons near-about forty years ago, no two-legged kind either. Now their little structures dotted both sides of the Lake’s far eastern cove. I studied the group of much larger lairs far below, one that Ike called the Inn, no doubt. I dipped my shoulders and plunged toward the North Shore.

I landed before the often-extended, half timber-struck, half granite cabin west of the Inn as Ike directed. My dragon’s hide crawled rememberin’ there are humans and dwarfs in my friend’s village. My entire life I considered them the worst of creatures, imperative to avoid, yet Ike spoke well of them. I’m willin’ to set aside my prejudices. I corrected my thought. I’m willin’ to try to set aside my bigotry and fears, for Ike’s sake.

The door of the cabin flung inward and an ogre hen ran out, her arms wavin’ in the air as though tryin’ to take flight. Ike slid off my shoulder and greeted her as she screeched like an insane creature. Silly ogres. Emotional beasts. I hadn’t seen that in the thoughtful Ike. The hen clasped my friend tightly and spun him around and around in a circle. Bizarre greetin’ customs, these ogres.

Now she cried, no wailed, and clutched at Ike like he was back from the dead, pullin’ at his dreadlocks and shakin’ his head.

“Ya promised three days,” she shouted. From insanity to outright ire. “Ya booger. Since when is three weeks three days in anyone’s calendar? I could flay the skin off yar skinny ogre butt, I could. I may yet.”

“Where is everyone?” Ike asked.

“Hidin’ from me. Ya evil thin’, ya’ve had me in a bad temper. They would dance with the devil these days to avoid bein’ around me. Even Miss Gladys invited me to spend time seein’ to our cabin.”

The hen turned toward me, her fists on her broad hips. I had never spent any time around two-legged folk except for Ike, so while far from expert in their ways, she appeared hateful. Angry. Ready to do some skinnin’, as she said.

“If I remember right bein’ told, ya promised my mate ya would have my babe back in three days. What do ya have to say for yarself? Implies ya have little in integrity.”

I looked over at Ike, hopin’ my ogre friend would intervene. A faint smile crossed Ike’s face. He seemed happy to see his mama’s ire directed at someone else. I leaned forward so I could smell the hen.

“Pleased to make yar acquaintance,” I said, as Ike made me practice for this greetin’.

The ogre hen hit me across the snout with somethin’ hidden in her hand—believe she drew it from the wrap around her waist. It really hurt. I trumpeted angrily, but the hen didn’t back away. She waved the instrument of pain at me again. I studied the object she shook. Some round implement stuck on the end of a twelve-inch stick.

“Are you a witch of some sort?” I snorted. “Ya have twice the gall and half the brains of a goblin to strike a dragon.”

She waved the implement again. I was afraid for a moment she was goin’ to throw it at me. “Wait until some creature takes yar youngest bull into the wilderness! Ya may feel like a tormented witch yarself.”

I swiveled my head toward the grinnin’ Ike. “Suppose ya might give me a little support here with yar queen?”

Ike’s eyes turned to look at somethin’ behind me, though. “Uh oh. Looks like yar trumpet pulled someone out of her slumber.”

I wobbled to look behind me. Another dragon swooped toward us, from across the Lake. The broad reach of a queen, a golden queen, was obvious. I struggled to keep my eyes from whirlin’. Anxiety rushed into his chest.

A queen. A queen! Ike never mentioned a queen lived here.

I hadn’t seen a queen dragon in—I couldn’t remember how long. A sense similar to physical exhaustion, no, an expectation of pendin’ death, flushed through my veins. I must have been near to burstin’ in flames. I’d surely melt into the snow. This is bad. Bad. Very bad. This queen would not like findin’ a strange bull in her territory.

“Good thin’ the three bulls are off huntin’,” the ogre hen muttered behind me.

I could not care less that moment about any little bulls. How could the ogre hen possibly imagine bulls more dangerous than a single angry queen?

“One of the bulls is visitin’ Tir and Syl?” Ike asked.

“May be makin’ the Hamlet his permanent home. Brought his rider to settle in. She’s a cutie, let me tell ya. Has struck quite the competition between yar brothers. For a change, Asr may have the edge over Torc, bein’ a rider himself.”

The ogre hen’s words hinted intriguin’, but weren’t sinkin’ into my brain—mostly the who and whys. My eyes were locked on the queen that sped toward me. No time to flee. Not that I could ever out fly a queen. I prostrated myself in the snow. I had a better chance of dyin’ in the next moments as livin’. I struggled to keep that emotion from Ike. He seems oddly intuned to my thoughts.

The queen struck me hard, her mass collapsin’ on my neck and shoulders like a rockslide. Her talons dug into my flesh. Through the pain, it was difficult to remain motionless, to stay completely submissive. It was the only thin’ that might save me.

It would have been convenient if Ike mentioned one of the dragons that made the valley their home is a queen.

“Did this thin’ threaten ya?” Iza roared, buglin’ angrily without givin’ anyone a chance to answer.

“Get off my dragon,” Ike yelled at her.

My dragon? I couldn’t see how she responded to Ike, but her weight shifted. Her clutch didn’t lighten though.

“Yar dragon, ogreling? Since when do ya invite a strange bull into my valley?”

“Since when is it yar valley?” Ike bellowed.

Oh, he’s such a fool to speak to a queen dragon like that. Never realized the ogre is so ignorant. He’ll get himself killed too.

“When it comes to dragons, it is my valley!” the queen roared, the vibration hurtin’ my ribs.

“I demand ya get off ’im.”

“Ya demand? I’m tempted to snap ya in half, before I drag this trash into the Lake for the pike to pick apart.”

I couldn’t believe Ike laughed. Surely it wasn’t a laugh. Had to be distorted from the mass of dragon blanketing my torso. A deep rumble from the queen vibrated through me again. Ike was surely about to die. The terror welled in my chest. All these centuries of lonely wanderin’, to be set up for evisceration by a comely ogre.

“Since when did ya turn twice as contrary as Ash’et?” Ike asked.

It became absolutely quiet. The talons grippin’ my flesh flexed.

“That was a hateful thin’ to say, ogreling,” the queen said.

Ike laughed again. It was indeed a laugh.

“I don’t care how yar kind treat visitin’ bulls where yar queen is from, but get off my dragon or I’m gonna get mad.”

Again, with the my dragon. Ike, please don’t make the queen any angrier than she is. They don’t like to be told what to do.

“I do not react well to commands,” the queen roared. “The only thin’ that keeps me from rippin’ off yar head is the memory of ya bouncin’ off my wing and shoutin’ bam when ya were snot-high to a dwarf and twice as ignernt.”

Another laugh reached my ears. From the ogre hen. I had forgotten about her.

“I’d think Lucas would get a little upset with ya, too. Where is Lucas?” Ike asked.

I sensed the queen tense. Almost as though she’d turned to stone.

“He’s comin’, isn’t he?” Ike asked.

I hoped the fact that this Lucas who was approachin’, is a good thin’. The snow was startin’ to numb my snout. The massive dragon on top of me made it hard to breathe. As cold as it was mashed into the snow though, I realized I could smell the musk of the queen above me. An enchantingly lovely scent. The only queen I had seen in a century, I had to crash into the trees to avoid, in order to keep my skin. Those limbs hurt. Had to hide in the gloom of the trees for three days before she gave up and left.

The grip of the queen’s talons lessened, but she shifted her weight, I assume to turn and look behind her. She leaned painfully on my wing. A deep whine escaped from my chest. The queen seemed to take delight in my discomfort, and settled more heavily. Air gushed from my lungs.

“Yar hurtin’ him, Iza,” Ike snarled. “Stop it.”

“Am I. The poor dear.”

There was no sympathy, and certainly no query in her words. She knew she was killin’ me. I sensed Ike’s thought. A very clear image, of the young ogre releasin’ an arrow that plunged through the thin, delicate flesh of the queen’s wing.

“I’d put an arrow through ya right now, Iza. But I care what Lucas would think.”

A deep baritone voice, an accent I’d never heard before, flowed from the Lake’s shore below. “Ya should have done it.” The voice sounded out of breath.

The queen backed off of me, her claws intentionally draggin’ over my flesh. Relief her weight was soon to be lifted was tempered by the existin’ pain. Another unbidden whine escaped from my chest. A taloned fist pushed my snout deeper into the muck. Grass stubble poked my throat.

The light of the sun. I’m alive, and hardly bleedin’. How lovely.

I looked up to see a shorter, much thinner version of Ike without tusks standin’ near. The creature held his fists on his hips. A tussle of blond hair mopped across his head. As bold as Ike’s features, this newcomer’s were gentle. He glared at the golden queen.

Without raisin’ my head, I looked back at her. Her eyes whirled, her head rocked, lowerin’ in submission. Was this the same beast that was ready to kill me? Submittin’ to one of the two-legged kind?

I finally lifted my snout from the cold earth and slowly, painfully, retracted my bruised wings. Pain shot through my shoulders. Would I be able to fly? Ever? The yellow-haired creature stepped up to me. His soft hands investigated the joints in my wing. Ike was next to him, too. He had stripped off his shirt and used it to rub mud off my snout and chest.

I leaned forward to smell the new creature, enjoyin’ the musky aroma. The queen growled, and her head lunged forward. The newcomer slapped her on the snout. It wasn’t a mean clout, like the one Ike’s mama had given me earlier. But I was still shocked to see a two-legged correctin’ a dragon queen. They are certainly brazen beasts.

“Leave ’im be,” the thin’ snapped. “Ya’ve proven yar dominance. This is Ike’s mate. He’s welcome here. Get used to it.”

Mate? A rumble, not a happy one, vibrated from the queen’s chest.

“This is Lucas, Iza’s rider,” Ike said, softly strokin’ the edge of my jaw. “Just say, pleased to make yar acquaintance,” flowed into my mind.

“Pleased to make yar acquaintance,” I repeated. “What kind of creature are ya?”

The thin’ grinned, but Ike answered for him. “Lucas is one of the Hamlet’s humans I told ya about.”

That’s what humans look like. Not very frightenin’. A little spindly. I lurched back as I noticed the queen leanin’ toward me. I was relieved to realize she merely smelled me. Though that’s a good sign, I wasn’t sure if I could get away with reciprocatin’ the gesture. I decided I had already gotten a good snoot full, and froze, holdin’ my breath.

“Iza can make up for her rude behavior,” Ike said.

Oh, do not push it, Ike, please.

“How’s that?” Lucas asked.

“Taiz’lin hasn’t fed in a week. It’d be a kind gesture if she led him to the good winter huntin’.”

The queen’s chest vibrated in irritation. But my attention was pulled to a throng of bein’s walkin’ from the large structure across the way, the Inn. Multiple races. Oh. My jaw hung open. I closed it with a loud clack. A dwarf. Orcs and an elf. Trolls with humans. My dam told me once that those races would never stand on the same ground again, at least in peace.

They all lined up before Ike, waitin’ their turn for a hug. A burly, stern-lookin’ troll hen told Ike, “Ya need to get yarself into a bath, ogreling. Ya stink worse than a pig sty.”

I gurgled in humor over that, but the leer from the queen sobered me back up.

“So ya found yarself a dragon of yar own, did ya?” rumbled an old troll I assumed was the mate of the hen introduced as Eina. “Ash’et’s brood wasn’t good enough for ya. Good for ya.”

The queen growled again, and the troll bull laughed, and walked up to the queen and patted her hard on the neck, before wrappin’ her in a hug. A queen, allowin’—

“Ya know I have to tease my favorite dragon,” the troll told her.

Iza’s chest vibrated, but not in anger this time.

Heads turned, and I followed to see what caught their attention. Three ogre bulls walked toward us. I didn’t recognize them, but was certain they must be the ones on the opposite peak, three weeks ago. The elder carried the carcass of an elk over his shoulder. The talkative troll bull hurried to meet them, and took the deer from the elder ogre.

“I’ll get this started,” the troll said. “Visit with yar youngling.”

I found it interestin’ that the papa acted much more reserved than the hen had earlier. The bull siblings simply gave each other a punch in the chest. Strange creatures. They all gave me a reserved nod, and nothin’ more. If I didn’t know one of them was a dragon rider himself, I’d have assumed they didn’t like my kind, the little interest they showed. Maybe it was a personal thin’. Yes. Prolly.

All the two-legged started to drift back toward where the throng originated. They seemed to need to talk at once. The pushy troll hen dragged Ike along by a handful of his dreadlocks. Odd. Ike managed a wave before I lost him in the crowd.

The voices of the two-legged faded. They climbed the stairs into the Inn. I froze. What next? I know the queen continued to glare at me. Would she take this chance to attack me? Or offer peace? The latter not very likely, at least in earnest.

She grunted, somethin’ I’d heard Ike do on occasion—not a typical dragon thin’. “They were so excited to see Ike, they forgot about ya,” Iza said softly. “Demonstrates how important ya are, think?”

I relaxed a little. Despite the sarcasm, her tone implied there would be peace.

“But it won’t last. Enjoy it while ya can. The two-legged are an overly familiar bunch. Ike’s a favorite here. But he lost his number-one position by growin’ up too fast. But ya’ll be more than accepted, for bein’ his bonded mate.”

Bonded mate? I thought about askin’ who the new favorite is, but decided it wouldn’t be wise to question her—yet. Besides, she continued.

“I assume Ike’s soul got under yar skin?”

I was startled by the question. Hadn’t really considered what I appreciate about Ike’s companionship. But it’s true. I could no longer consider flyin’ off and leavin’ Ike behind, for nothin’. Under my skin. Imagine that’s a two-legged expression. I’d never heard it before. But it’s apt.

“I believe my answer to that would be, yes,” I answered. Needed some quiet time to give it more consideration.

“Then ya’re lost to him until he dies,” she said. “But they are rewardin’ enough to be around. They can be tryin’. Have way too much energy. Always have a new project underway, and they expect ya to be as thrilled about it as they are. Eat three meals a day. Can ya imagine that? What, once a week isn’t good enough for ’em? They talk overly much, about the most trivial thin’s. More than even ya stinkin’ bulls. But they love to rub our wings. And that is heavenly.

“Come,” she blurted, launchin’ into the air.

I wasn’t convinced I could fly. Fluttered to test everythin’, but the pain of her mistreatment was pretty much gone.

~

Three dragons flew directly toward us. In the last five decades of wanderin’, I learned to avoid my own kind. They tend to be more territorial than warranted. The queen’s pace was already hard for me to match, but I pushed to get closer to her. Even three bulls would reconsider crossin’ a queen as enormous as Iza. While I assumed they are her siblings, wasn’t ready to trust my life to that expectation. Even if they are, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t attack me.

The three dove at her trumpetin’, but it wasn’t in threat. She plunged earthward, and they all followed. The gut of each of the three bulls was incredibly gorged. The dragons were set for weeks of sleep.

I landed immediately behind Iza on a rocky precipice, and snuggled as near to her as I dared, without takin’ the chance of annoyin’ her. The three bulls landed heavily about us.

The tan one submissively extended his snout and let her smell him. “The huntin’ was good I see,” she said.

“Is this the bull Ike decided to run off with?” the beautiful yellow bull asked.

“Taiz’lin,” she snorted, in simple introduction.

The yellow sibling struggled on the rough terrain to waddle next to her.

“This is Syl, and Tae. Janding and Aedwin’s mates.” She motioned to the seemin’ly reserved, dark-brown bull. “And our obnoxious first clutched, Tir. Ya met Asr. His mate.”

I extended my head submissively. Wasn’t about to take any chances, after the way our greetin’s started.

The three took turns sniffin’ me, and snortin’, as though I didn’t quite measure up. A proper dragonish greetin’ for someone far outnumbered, in enemy territory. Over the centuries I’ve learned to accept the low status my wanderin’ places me.

“Bonded with that crazy Ike, did ya?” Tir asked.

Why do they all assume that?

“He is a troublesome sort,” Syl, the yellow one said. “Has caused more grief than he’s worth. Have no clue why the Hamlet cares so much for him.”

“He has more personality than any five of the others combined, that’s why,” the quiet brown one said. Tae. He’s with Aedwin, who I didn’t meet. Someone said somethin’ about her bein’ on the South Shore.

“Excludin’ my Lucas,” Iza growled.

“Of course.” Tir snorted. “But I have the poet.”

“He reads poetry,” Iza growled. “That doesn’t make him a poet.”

“He hasn’t put pen to paper, yet. He must experience more of life, in order to write about it.”

The other two bulls trumpeted with mirth. Their banter continued for several minutes.

Iza growled. “Why did Ash’et curse me with four borin’ bull siblings?”

She launched and her siblings scrambled to get out of the way of her claw-tipped wings. I hurried to follow her. Didn’t want to be left with the irritated bulls, nor fall behind, but I heard Tae, the brown bull, say to me as I launched, “Imagine how irritable and nasty she was before she bonded.”

Below, the three bulls trumpeted, enjoyin’ what must have been a family joke.

Had to be a jest. But I didn’t get it.

~