Chapter One: Flight
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Not much could stop Jare when he
was in dragon form. Especially not the Grynns, but they still tried, and
they were commendable for that.
One of the creatures slashed at his eyes with its claws and Jare blasted it away with a burst of brimstone shards, scattering its small form to ashes. Several were clawing wildly at his rear flanks, but they couldn't pierce his thick scales no matter how hard they tried, so he decided to ignore them for the time being and trudge on through the thick wilderness. He was abnormally large for an Edinian ground dragon, walking on all fours, though still half as tall as the trees about him, dwarfing even the largest Grynn fighter.
Jare snorted as one tried to climb up his nostril, sending it spiraling into an oak before him. He deftly crushed it as though it was no more than an insect, though it was actually taller than the average human was. The oak broke and fell with a crash, and several of the little humanoids were crushed under trunk and branch.
They were climbing all over him, now. He could feel small claws raking his scales all over, and small jaws snapping at his limp, useless wings. He shook like a dog, scattering them in all directions, then picked up speed, crushing tree and Grynn alike. He would have rather gone around Grynn territory, but he would have had to swim through or fly over the Hurricane Swift, and that was out of the question, especially in his weakened state.
He normally would, in dragon form, be able to fly over both leviathan infested ocean and Grynn infested forest, but there had been an interestingly large amount of people attempting to kill him lately and he was exhausted from fighting and running for over two months.
A Grynn guerrilla party leapt from the trees before him on long, snakelike snapper vines. He kicked one of them like a ball, snapped one up with his massive toothy jaws, and thwacked one into a bog with his tail. The rest shot at him with crude weapons, or leapt upon him, slashing and biting, or simply pounded on him with their small fists, which were only half as large as his gray-green scales. For a moment all the tan creatures covering his face blinded him, a writhing mask of the hairy bipeds. He found it intriguing that they could get into such an insane frenzy from one single intruder marching through their territory.
How many of them will have to die before they realize they cannot harm me?
After shaking the Grynns from his face, he blasted the forest all before him with brimstone shards, clearing a wide path, free of both tree and Grynn, and continued marching on. He heard the loud screech of a wyvern in the ensuing silence, and the snap of a leviathan's jaws devouring it.
Suddenly a massive net of vines rose from the ground, twisting around his feet and muzzle and flipping him over, then pulling him down and smashing him hard to the ground. He bellowed and attempted to summon up his flame wall to incinerate them, but couldn't find the power within himself, obviously due to a magic block. He wasn't surprised when the dragon polymorphic spell was removed from him, and the vines closed about his now small, weak, human body. They cradled him like a hammock, though with a tight grip, and he lied back and waited, looking bored and unimpressed, though he had to stifle violent shuddering.
Even if someone came along, unless they had magical powers, he would remain unseen, as he wore a magical assassin's cloak that bent the light around him. Under the cloak, he looked completely plain. So much so that should anyone see him, they would find it very hard to recall any landmark features on his face or body.
A few minutes after his capture, a shimmering figure emerged from the foliage before him, climbing down on all fours like a monkey, blending into tree and moss and scarlet Grynn blood fluently. This was one of the hunter-killers, and a good one at that. It was always a game of predator versus prey to these creatures, and the prey seldom escaped. Jare had dealt with these creatures many times in the past, and knew their sole weakness.
The Redsteel, Jare's talisman blade of flame, rested in its sheath at his hip. It's ornate crossguard was starting to dig into his side, so he shifted in the vine-cradle, twisting his black cloak and tunic slightly, and making a small dagger hidden in his right boot protrude a little. It was all done smoothly, and looked completely natural. The HK, as Jare was fond of calling them, pulled the dagger from his boot and looked the shiny object over. It hissed warningly at him and crept guardedly to a nearby stump, which it began poking and prodding at.
Such curious creatures... their only fault, really.
As the HK jabbed at a slug, and then, after grotesquely eating it, attempted to cut a huckleberry bush down, Jare awaited the dagger's teleportation spell. He had infused it with the spell for purposes of escaping just such a trap. It was triggered to teleport him, if not in his grasp, after two minutes of not being in his boot. He searched for any Grynns that could be pursuing him, and noted the telltale lack of forest sounds. They were around him, watching and waiting. They would not dare to attack this shimmering chameleon, but as for the intruder that had slain so many of their own...
Jare was torn from his thoughts with the coming of the teleport trigger, and he shut his eyes against the swirling ethers that ensued. He opened them just at the right time, staring into the curious eyes of the HK. It sensed the dagger was the trigger and tore it to shreds in its powerful jaws, a gesture that obviously didn't impress Jare, as he backhanded the hunter in the flat, pudgy nose, sending the small creature flying into a small burrow. Jare immediately raised the dragon polymorphic spell again, growing in size, skin to scales, bone to brimstone, and eyes to reptilian black buttons. He raised the flame wall, burning the entire forest around him in a wide circle, slaying several Grynns and perhaps even the hunter-killer, and then leapt over the carnage that ensued and charged through the woods like a nether demon was on his tail.
He only stopped when he reached the edge of the woods, and by then it was near nightfall. He had lost track of his location, but had a vague idea of where he was when the hunter killer attacked. He looked back, at the trail of carnage that he had left behind. It would have taken him almost a day's travel in human form, but it had only taken him two hours as a dragon. That was one of the reasons he was fond of this form.
He turned, stood on hind legs for a moment to look farther across the wide prairie he would cross tomorrow, and sniffed the air. When he decided danger was not close enough to worry about, he lay down in a small valley and swiftly fell asleep for the night. A dark, winged form swooped overhead, blocking the stars for a moment, and was gone.