Chapter Sixty-two

CONTENT ADVISORY / TRIGGER WARNING

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DEPICTIONS/STRONG IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE OR DISTURBING:

~ REFERENCE TO DEATH AND/OR MURDER

Eskil closed his eyes and held her close while she cried, while she fought through the pain and terror that the young dragon had felt. While she relived his final moments, and when he felt his life fading, she felt like hers did too. Brenna experienced this only twice in her thirty years, and he had been with her for both. She would cry so hard, clinging to his scales, shaking and wailing until she was exhausted. But then her nightmares would start, and those were worse than when she absorbed the soul. The nightmares would last for weeks, haunting her sleep and waking her in the night. Waking him.

He had been such a fool; he had been cruel to her. Eskil gently lowered Libelle to the ground; the slayer, the cursed dragon, the elf, was breaking herself in ways he would never have been able to. Her heart was shattering into pieces. He stroked her hair as he positioned her comfortably between his bent knees. Hugging her like this warmed him more than the sun beating down on them as it slowly set behind the mountains.

How he wished he could have held Brenna like this...

"I found Brenna when she was a small child, no more than twelve in mortal years. She had stumbled her way into the dragons' nesting ground, which was forbidden at the time. Heh, for many reasons. Females are aggressive, they are strong and ill-tempered, and above all, they are territorial of their land and protective of their hatchlings.

"Somehow, that little brat had wandered into the middle of the nesting ground and found herself being taunted by several hatchlings. She was scrawny and only wearing tattered cloth. Yet she wasn't scared, she didn't back down from them. It wasn't until one of them tried to bite her that she snarled back at them, showing that she wasn't scared of them. Her snarl sent the young dragon flying away, but it also drew in a few of the females. Curious, I investigated and took her out of there before one of the females turned her into dinner."

Eskil pleasantly chuckled at the memory and leaned back on the stump behind him, pulling Libelle with him. Her sobs were slowing as she listened to his memory. "Brenna was born during a time when the slayers were just becoming more familiar, and it was becoming more common to hear about the souls of dragons being inside a mortal. At first, it was just a few here and there, but the numbers grew and many blindly followed the rule of the kings that wanted the dragons eliminated. Brenna was not like the others; she was defiant of their rule. She challenged their authority and asked questions that actually challenged both the mortals' and my own opinion on certain matters.

"She was this tiny thing at first, playing in the fields with the hatchlings and being closely watched by the females. But she grew fast; she grew into a tall and beautiful Nord. She had dark brown hair, and she always kept it short because the young ones' fire had singed it off one too many times. Her eyes were an earthy green, and they held this level of intelligence that you wouldn't expect to find in a mortal. She was not thin like you. She was taller and wider than you, but she was not as...um...curved as you are."

He saw the pink flush on Libelle's cheeks as he wiped away one of her tears. "Brenna grew up with the dragons, she was raised and taught by us. She learned our language, our history, and our culture. And yes, despite what you may think, we do have culture. She became a peace-keeper between the two races, standing alongside many of the slayers who did not want the war to continue. She was special to me and she knew it; she was always close by my side.

"She was in her early twenties when I learned she was not only special to me, but also special to the dragon and a problem to man. One of the hatchlings had wandered too far from the nesting grounds, and she went to retrieve it. The little one did not want to return and found itself in the middle of a pending war in a farmer's field. It burned a few of his sheep, and the fool killed it before Brenna could stop him.

"That was the first time I had ever seen her cry, and it was when I learned of her...unfortunate curse. The hatchling's death went into her, and she felt the infant's terror and pain while the farmer beat it and stabbed it with a pitch fork. It wasn't too long after that when our strength was being questioned by man. Suddenly, they were starting uprisings against their kings and these slayers started leading them and killing our kind. Our young were slain in their nests, sometimes before they had even hatched.

"Despite those who wanted peace, more wanted war. That was when I learned of the traitors within my ranks; dragons that wanted bloodshed. They wanted war. They even began fighting between themselves, wounding the loser but not killing them unless it was necessary. However, there were a few who killed just for the fun of it. Brenna had stepped into the middle a battle one evening between myself and two young dragons. I told her not to but she didn't listen. I told you she was stubborn, didn't I?

"It was a mess, it shouldn't have happened but it did. The young dragon would not back off, and one lost its life by her hands. For weeks, I would find her curled up under my wing crying or waking from nightmares. The pain of taking the dragon's life was too great for her gentle nature. I see her kind spirit in you, but you're stronger than she was. You may cry and you may show your pain, but you're stronger. Perhaps if she were stronger she would not have died."

Libelle's tears had stopped while she listened to him, her head resting on his chest, feeling his strong heartbeat. "What happened to her?"

Eskil paused, staring at the sun as it slipped behind a mountain peak. "She was murdered by one of my nephews. He had sworn allegiance to a mortal who had sworn to win the war between man and dragon. He had been promised petty things. I don't know exactly why he chose to kill her, but he thought that her death would lead me to break the truce. He was right, and so her death sparked the beginning of the true war."

He closed his eyes, the memory still vivid in his mind as he remembered everything clearly. Man had gathered with the dragons, and peace was meant to be spoken. Arguments broke out and the traitorous bastard...