June

Issue 33

        He crouched in the thick gorse-berry bush, trying to quiet his breathing. Not a dignified position for a knight, it was true.

         The creature was larger than he had expected. Long and sinuous, it stretched for many yards, though it was no thicker than a barrel. Its stumpy legs could not support such an expanse, so it moved like a snake, belly dragging on the ground. The claws on its feet were only for killing.

         This first meeting had been a surprise to both of them, which explained why he was still alive. His great destrier had stepped over it, or a part of it, lying in the road. The head was behind a rock on his right; its tail flopped into a swift-running stream on his left. It was typical of the perversion of these creatures that it should sun itself on the one half, while languishing in cool water on the other.

         Had it not twitched at just the right moment, tripping his horse, he would have slept through the encounter. Exhausted after days of climbing through the foothills of the mountain, a trackless wilderness of rocky hills, cliffs that required doubling and tripling back until he was sick with the sight of them, mud and brush and flies... Enough excuses. He had been sleeping in the saddle. The fault was his. When he had found this nameless trail, he had thanked God for the ease of passage and promptly given in to sloth.

         The horse, also tired, could not be blamed for the awkward step that dumped him to the ground. Only he could bear the blame for his confused inaction when he woke with his head on a scaly pillow. By the time he realized he had found his quarry and stood up, the dragon was in motion.

         It streaked like lightning out of the rocks, doubling up on itself. The horse bolted up the trail; he fled down it and into the brush. The dragon, torn between two victims, wailed in frustration. In that momentary indecision, it lost both of them.

         Now it skulked about the forest, hunting for him. Not that he was hiding, exactly. He had, after all, come here looking for it. He just preferred their next meeting to be on more favorable terms.