Song of the Dragoons

The monsters didn't stand a chance.

I struck first, lunging at the one closest and clamping down on the base of its neck with my fangs. It struggled and flared its fins against my strength, but the heat pouring off of it didn't do any more than annoy me, and its claws couldn't reach anywhere vital. I crushed my jaws together as hard as I could until I felt snaps and the monster stopped struggling. I tossed its corpse aside, licking the blood that trickled down my chin.

The rest of them all jumped at once, probably hoping to overwhelm me with numbers. I reared back and beat my wings down, scattering snow stained red with spilled blood and fans of flame that scorched the svarnuli's fur. Some of them persevered and bit down on my thigh, tail, and arm, only to receive another burning as their teeth broke my skin and drew blood that turned to a gout of fire.

As they turned away, I swept my tail around, catching one by surprise and carrying into the side of another, slamming them together with a loud crack. The flames pouring from wounds on my tail sprayed into the first one's neck, and the flesh on its throat blackened and cracked until all the monster could do was limply twitch. The other one pulled itself free of its sibling's body and fully ran away, sprinting across the slope as fast as it could.

One of the others dared to attack again, rushing forward and raking its claws across my side before dancing back to avoid the ensuing flames. It tried to do another run, but as it did, I bent my wing down and flared it outwards, catching the creature by surprise and impacting its shoulder, hurling it away. I leaped into the air, pouncing towards it. It couldn't push itself away as it tumbled to a stop. When my hands landed on its chest, I felt it cave in beneath me as it failed to hold my entire body weight.

Three seemed to be enough, and the three that had been circling the edge of the fight took off, joining the other one that had already fled. I staggered back towards the rock landing, feeling the strain of physical exertion and the pain of blood loss catching up to the feral strength I had gained.

Still, despite the haze I had allowed into my head, my waking mind was just lucid enough to put it together. Three svarnuli were dead, and four had fled. Where was the eighth, the one I had tossed down the mountain earlier?

I was answered when a snarl and a crash sounded from the snow drift below the landing. The last svarnuli burst into the air, followed by a swarm of ice shards it had made beneath the snow. It landed on my back, claws digging in as it tore at my shoulder joints and the icicles shattered against my scales or lodged in between them. I twisted my head around, trying to reach it with my teeth, but it was just beyond where I could get.

Then, without warning, a ball of red fire flew through the air, impacting the svarnuli's flank and exploding with a blast of flames. I shielded my face beneath my wing, feeling the heat wash over me and the svarnuli lose its grip and slide to the side. It was enough that I could shake my body and hurl it to the ground. With the monster on the ground and stunned, I had enough room to grab its head between my teeth, biting down until my teeth punctured its skull, killing it instantly.

I let the body fall limp, stumbling backwards and struggling to stay standing.

"Impressive feat!" a voice called from the direction of the cave.

I whipped my head around on instinct, snarling at the sound. A human stood at the cave entrance, a young man only a few years older than me. He held up his hands defensively.

Okay, that's enough, I told myself. My snarl softened, but didn't abate, and I felt my claws flex against the rock.

That's ENOUGH! I roared. The fog cleared, though it was reluctant to go. As soon as it did, all of the pain that had been provoked in the fight came flooding back to me like a broken dam. I collapsed onto my front, the flames flying from my wounds snuffed out in an instant and turned back into leaking blood. I felt like I had taken a dive into a pit full of nails with how many stinging cuts and piercing wounds I could feel across my body. Not only that, but I felt sluggish and weak, almost like I was on the verge of passing out.

"Oh, dear," the man said, hurrying to my side. He must have been the prince, though I had expected him to look fancier than he did. He was wearing a thick but short coat, and had on ordinary brown outdoor trousers and work shoes. The most to mark him as in any way unusual was a black ceramic lamp that hung from a chain on his belt, and his hair, which had been very carefully curated to have a gradient from natural pale brown to a dark, muddy blue as it fell down both sides of his face. Despite his outdoorsy look, his features were soft, and his pale face had clearly only rarely seen long periods of sunshine.

"You must have expended quite a lot of blood," he said. His voice was about as high as mine, and had a kind of melodic quality to it. For some reason, it reminded me of some of the creeks that ran through the mountains back home in the summer. "Are you an experienced evoker?"

«Evoker…?» I echoed. I knew the term, but the fog in my mind was back, this time from what I was beginning to think was blood loss.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," said the prince. He unhooked the lamp from his belt and brought it forward, rummaging around in a satchel slung around his neck with his other hand.

"Hold still, and drink this." With surprising ambidexterity, he at once lit the lamp with a small lever at the side that made a clapper strike flint and create a shower of sparks that fell into the small holes in the lid, and pulled a vial from the satchel, popping the cork out with his thumb. Red, sanguine flames gently rose from the lid of the burner, and I could tell from sight and smell that the vial is full of blood tonic.

They did say he was an occultist, I thought to myself, before grabbing the vial and downing the tonic in one gulp. It was a dose meant for a human, not a dragon, but I still started to feel better almost immediately. As I felt the warmth of the tonic spread through my body, the warmth of the flames spread across my skin. The prince began a quiet chant, hovering his hand over the burner as the fire reached up and out of its ceramic holding, pressing against where my wounds are like a dozen warm, healing hands.

My skin knit itself closed where the fire touched it, pulled together by magic. The light-headed, foggy feeling in my head began to lift, too, although it didn't fully go away. I get the sense that the small dose of tonic can only do so much for the blood loss, but it was enough for me to shakily push myself into a sitting position.

«Thanks,» I said hesitantly.

"Of course," said the prince. He briefly looked up as shadows passed over us, and I followed where he was looking to see Griffin and Arthur flying towards us as fast as possible, angling down towards the bottom of the slope. Brand had already pulled herself free and was working on digging the others up. Yura and Rosalie had both gotten their heads out of the snow, which was good enough to assuage my fears.

"I wasn't aware that dragoons were on patrol in the area," said the prince. "A happy coincidence, I guess!"

«There weren't,» I said. «And it's not a coincidence. We came on a mission specifically to find you. The burgomaster reported you missing. And since you're a, uh, prince and all….» I fidgeted with my claws. Should I bow? I wasn't overly familiar with noble etiquette, especially considering he was prince of a different country.

"Ah, I see," said the prince. "Still, I am very grateful. Were it not for you, I might have been stuck hiding in that cave for days!"

I narrowed my eyes. He seemed awfully nonchalant about the eight monsters that had been prowling around his doorstep. Maybe he was good enough with occultism that he could keep them out without much trouble. I felt myself deflate a little, as the importance of chasing the svarnuli off seemed to lose a little of its lustre.

I watched as Grace jumped off Arthur's back and immediately hauled Rosalie out of the snow. They stared at each other for a moment before Rosalie seemed to mumble something, and Grace put her down. I narrowed my eyes again, this time out of suspicion. There was no way those two were…never mind. I was probably being paranoid.

"So," said the prince, turning to give me a friendly smirk. "I'm sure you already know if you were sent here for me, but I am Prince Emrys Ô Laimnâch, and I am most honoured to make your acquaintance, Great Wyrm." He gave me a shallow bow, and I felt intensely uncomfortable having a royal bow to me. "May I ask your name?"

«Belfry…» I paused, thinking about it. Maybe I should have given him my sign instead of my real name? It was a little late for that. «Belfry….» Should I even give him my last name? Technically I didn't have one, and I never felt right when Grace introduced me as "Lawcrest". I didn't feel like I had earned it. «Just Belfry.»

"'Belfry Belfry Just-Belfry'?" repeated the prince. "Quite repetitive."

I couldn't help a small glare reaching him from the corner of my eye. It was an annoying joke, but it did make me feel a little more at ease, which was probably the point. «You know what I mean.»

"I do!" said the prince. "And Belfry is still an unusual name for a dragon, in my experience."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

«I used to be human,» I said. There wasn't any point in even trying to keep that a secret anymore, especially from him.

At that, his face brightened to rival the sun. "Oh, really?" he said, his voice clearly concealing a great deal of excitement. "I hadn't realised they would send you of all people for me. This is just brilliant! Do you mind if I…hmm, no, that can wait until later." He clapped his hands together, smiling wide.

«Er…yeah. Brilliant.» His excitement was a little off-putting, but hopefully that would translate to hard work on a solution to this whole thing?

The others had finished getting everyone unburied, and after Yura and Rosalie dusted themselves free of clinging snow and gravel, they rode back up the cliff. There wasn't enough room on the landing for everyone, but the others gathered as close as they could.

"Is this him?" asked Ingo.

"If by 'him', you mean Prince Emrys of Laimnâch, then yes, I am 'him'," said the prince, once again delivering a small bow to the gathered dragons.

"Good work!" said Grace, still a little breathless from digging in the snow. She glanced up at the sun, which was just falling to the point of "evening" by now. "So, prince, do you feel up to a little flying? We're losing daylight, and I'd rather not camp on this mountain just in case there are other monsters around."

Emrys nodded vigorously. "I certainly do!"

I knelt down. «Get on, then,» I said. «And hold on tight.»

Without hesitation, Emrys climbed onto my back, just in front of my saddle, holding tightly to the lines as instructed. I could feel the weight imbalance as Grace got on behind him, but it would be manageable for a short flight.

And a short flight it was, since our only real goal was to get off the mountain. We flew towards the sun for a while, powering against the wind, until we found a mesa clear of trees that would be ideal for a campsite. There was even a shallow pool that we could gather water from, and an unobstructed view of the mountaintop that made me a little less nervous about any monsters that might want to sneak up on us.

Emrys held his tongue the entire flight, possibly because of the roaring winds making chatter difficult, but he started talking again almost the moment I landed. "You are a proficient flier!" he said as he jumped to the ground. "Tell me, is it an innate skill or something you learned? I don't imagine you had much practise as a human."

«Kind of both?» I said. «I could fly from the start, but we've had training that's made us better.»

"Fascinating!" the prince did a short lap around me, looking me up and down from every angle. I felt a little like I was under a magnifying glass. "You do look fully normal for a dragon, no aberrant features or remnants of humanity in your appearance. It seems to be a complete transformation, at the physical level."

My eye twitched. «Is now the best time for this?» I wondered aloud.

Emrys paused, glancing over at the others, who were all beginning to set up the camp. "Oh, forgive my hastiness!" he said. "I should help with the fire first."

That wasn't what I meant, but at least it gave me a minute to prepare myself for the barrage of examinations he was going to try. I wasn't overly fond of him already. Not that I was expecting to be, but I hoped that he remembered that we were people, at least, and not subjects to be coldly analysed.

To his credit, he did keep his word and help set up the camp before there was any more chatter. He set his blood lamp aside for the time being, apparently reluctant to use it for anything as trivial as camp preparations. Once the fire was going, he sat himself down on a small rock he'd rolled into place around it.

"Alright!" he said. "Do you mind if I take a closer look at you ersatz? I'd like to truly know to what level of detail this transformation remains normal."

I shifted my weight where I laid a little farther away from the seats the humans had around the fire. «Fine,» I said. «Just be quick.»

He wasn't. His vision of a "closer look" had him leaning really close to stare at my eye, holding my mouth open to count my teeth, even testing the flexibility of the fins on my neck and measuring the length of the "fingers" that made up my wings and noting the scale pattern on their undersides. All the while, he kept muttering "fascinating…" or "intriguing…" under his breath. Arthur volunteered after me and got the exact same treatment, but when he asked to take a look at Griffin, he got a curt shake of the head.

"Very well," he said. "Again, you're both fully normal. I would expect the trend to hold up for Griffin here." He sat back down on his rock, pulling out a monster of a notebook to start writing in. "Would you mind telling me how this transformation first happened?"

Arthur sighed. «There was a gemstone…» he began. He told the basics of the story again, focussing mainly on the stone and exactly what happened after he swallowed it, answering Emrys's many questions as they came up. I told mine afterwards, once again leaving out the looting part to focus on the stone.

«Why all these questions now?» I asked. «You could have waited until we got back to the keep.»

"This is all of great interest to me," said Emrys, not looking up from his notes. "Waiting doesn't seem necessary when we have the opportunity to discuss now."

Yura leaned forward, his hand on his chin. "Why so much interest?" he asked. "Is it simply for the sake of the knowledge, or is this something personal? I'm curious."

"I do love knowledge!" said the prince. "It is partly that, as this is my field. As the third prince, I was afforded the luxury of being able to study something other than court duties, and I chose draconology. The powers, culture, history, all that of dragons is…wondrous is a good descriptor." He stood, marking his speech with wild gesticulating like he physically couldn't contain his excitement. "But more than that, imagine what could be done if we could recreate this phenomenon! Control it! A complete physical transformation is unheard of in magic, the discovery alone would be grand. I had already suspected something like this might be able to cure innumerable illnesses, but if it cured Arthur of his rot, then maybe it could do more. Imagine the strength and resilience, the power that might be gifted to people if only we could make these stones ourselves. Just think…."

He trailed off, staring at the sky. My ears were pinned back listening to him, and I could see Brand's were as well. I wasn't sure he knew what he was asking for. Clearly he didn't know about the invasion of your mind that came with this shape.

"Are you…is your plan to give everyone the ability to become a dragon?" asked Rosalie, incredulity dripping from her words. "That seems far-fetched."

"Well, not everyone," said Emrys. "I don't doubt that some people would prefer to remain fully human, but I think that it would be wonderful for those few who would choose change to be able to give it to them. I fail to see what the downside is. Greater strength and toughness, the ability to fly and breathe fire, powerful magic in the blood."

«Well, it comes with whispers in your head,» I pointed out. «They can be hard to resist.»

"Ah." The prince deflated somewhat, but swiftly rallied. "Well, there may be some way to modify these stones to prevent such things. I still think that many would take the opportunity, even if they needed to train their minds to prepare for it."

«I don't know anyone who would choose this even if there were no Fiends to listen to,» I said. «Giving up humanity doesn't strike me as a price worth paying. Not for me, probably not for most people.»

"I'd pay it," Emrys said instantly.

Oh. Oh. That's why he's here. It made some sense, then, why he was so interested. I wondered what would make someone want to give their life up like that, but then Griffin raised a hand.

«Me too,» they said quietly.

Then, much more shockingly, Rosalie also raised her hand. "Rosalie!?" Arthur and Grace said at the same time, both reeling back in shock.

She shrugged. "I'm not overly attached to the way I look," she said. "I would not want to deal with these 'Fiends' you spoke of, but if they were not an issue, I would not mind greater strength and the ability to fly of my own accord. It seems…freeing."

Arthur laid his head down, clearly nonplussed, while Grace stared into the fire, her hand over her mouth as she became lost in thought.

"…The transformation also may hold answers to the Mallac'ht," Emrys continued.

"The what?" asked Rosalie.

"I've heard reports of something similar called the 'Scourge' in the Vale," said Emrys. "Something has been causing citizens of our capital to transform into feral monsters and go on bloody rampages. Apparently incidents have happened in Yorving as well, one of your cities. I went to Aodh's Cairn chasing such a fiend. A bloodfiend, to be specific."

He leaned forward, his face losing all joviality. "The curse has caused…much grief back home. I took to studying it shortly after it…first appeared, and found that there is significant similarity between the fiends created by the curse and dragons. Obviously, given the transformative nature, I thought there may be some link between the phenomenon of the ersatz and the curse."

He glanced up at me, before looking back at the fire. "Is that what happened to those bandits?" Grace wondered aloud.

«Yeah,» I answered. «I think so.»

"I didn't mean to get overexcited," said Emrys. "I do have great personal interest in dragons. But I am first and foremost here in the hopes of breaking a curse." He glanced at me. "Perhaps, you might be close enough to test a cure. If some potion can return you to human form, it may work on those transformed by the curse as well."

There was a long silence as people pondered the implications of what had been revealed, which lasted until Emrys suddenly sucked in a sharp breath. "Well! There is no Mallac'ht, Scourge, or otherwise here on this mountain, so I can leave the study of that until later." He turned to face me fully. "Before we all go to sleep, I want to ask you a question. Was the evocation you performed today an effect of your transformation? It didn't seem to be intentional."

"Evocation?" asked Grace. A smile spread across her face. "Belfry, did you learn magic?"

«No!» I shook my head vigorously. «No. To both of those. It, ah…the fight with the monsters went wrong, and then I….»

I shouldn't tell Grace about letting the Fiend in, I thought. «Well, my veins all started glowing, and then there was just fire. A lot of fire. I definitely wasn't doing it on purpose. I think it was a Lock that broke. I guess the power behind it must have been some kind of evocation.»

"Oh…wow!" said Grace. "I can't believe you broke a Lock already. How does it feel?"

«In the moment, it felt like a "click", I guess. Now I just feel normal? Maybe a little tired.»

"That would be blood loss," said Emrys. "You burned a huge amount of blood in that little skirmish. I'll need to ask about this 'Lock' business another time, but for now, do your best not to evoke anymore. Not until you can get an instructor to teach you about the art. There's a reason most magi only practise occultism." He tapped the blood lamp at his side. "Evocation can easily kill the unprepared. You can't sense the loss of blood as readily as other wounds."

«I'll…try,» was the best I could promise. Hopefully if I didn't let the Fiend in again, there wouldn't be any accidental magic.

"Good!" said the prince, smiling once again. "Well! It has been a pleasure talking with all of you, truly, but the stars are ill company for the waking mind, and I need rest to ruminate on all that has been discussed. Sleep well, all of you."

He retired to his bedroll, soon followed by everyone except me and Grace as we took the first shift on watch. She still had her hand over her mouth, still lost in thought. I sat down opposite her after shifting back into human form, worrying incessantly about what she was thinking about but too scared to ask. All I could do was hope she wasn't seriously considering what Emrys and Rosalie had said. Even if I thought it was a bad idea, I couldn't stop either of those two from making stupid decisions if we found another stone, but Grace…I needed her not to suffer as I had. I couldn't bear to see that pain.

The stars slowly turned overhead, and soon it was time to wake Arthur and Rosalie for their shift. This time, I deliberately avoided listening to them, covering my head with my blanket as soon as I was in bed.