Page 12 of Dragon Heir

I blinked once, then again, but I still couldn’t believe my eyes. A tiny person clung to Allard’s shoulder with its small hands gripping his coat. The figure looked like a witch had shrunk a man to the size of a pinky finger and did the same to all his old-fashioned home-spun vest, shirt, and pants. His feet were without shoes but not bare as they were covered in a thick mess of fur that hid his toes. The only part of the tiny man that was of any great size was his hair. The shaggy brown mane flowed down his back and cascaded over his front to cover him in a homemade thread-bare coat.

Allard stared in bewilderment at the creature. “What are you?”

The tiny man scowled back at him. “That’s not polite to ask that! You should ask my name first!”

Allard took the schooling in stride and bowed his head, which forced the small man to cling tighter to him. “My apologies. My name is Allard. What is yours?”

His small attachment lifted his chin. “Sir Arthur Slechtic, Master of the Tenky.”

“Tenky?” I repeated.

“T-there are more of you?” Vargas sputtered out.

Sir Slechtic scowled at her. “Of course. What would a master be without his subjects?”

Vargas creakily turned her head toward the eagle whose eyes twinkled with mischief. A gaggle of giggles floated out from beneath his long mane.

“Quit with that fooling about and come out!” Slechtic scolded the sounds. “Come on! Out with ya!”

Chapter Eight

Dozens of small heads popped out from beneath the bird’s mane. They were close in appearance to Slechtic in that they all had long hair and rough clothing, though there were many women folk among the men, and even the tiny heads of children peeked out from beneath the plumage.

Ware’s lips curled back in disgust and he took a step further back from the bird. “Disgusting. You ferry them as if you were a mere coach?”

The eagle’s sharp eyes glared at him. “They are far more useful than your tongue.”

A blustering scoff came from the dragon lord. “W-what do you mean by that?”

The eagle cast one last dark look at him before he turned his attention to Will. “I hope you summoned us for a higher purpose than to humor your guests.”

Will nodded. “I did. I need both of you to scour the skies and the ground in search of a coach with four horses. It traveled this direction heading-” He paused and cast his eyes to Ware. “Which way were they headed?”

The dragon lord stabbed a finger in the southerly direction. “That way.”

“To the south,” Will finished as his eyes flitted between the eagle and the tiny man still attached to Allard. “And I must warn you to keep a safe distance from this coach. It contains a magical foe that may not be easy for you to defeat.”

“What sort of magical thing?” Sir Slechtic questioned him.

“A worm of sorts, covered in a black slime and very fast,” he answered.

“And with a single gray eye,” I added.

Sir Slechtic climbed to his feet and saluted Will. “Yes, sir! We shall get to it at once!” He spun around to face the eagle and his people. “Everyone off except for the younguns and enough maids to care for them! The rest of you start scouring the roadways!”

I lifted an eyebrow as dozens of the tiny folk hopped down from their feathery perch. They dropped to the ground and waddled their way slowly across the road. “How are they going to cover that much ground?”

“We Tenky have good hearing!” Slechtic spoke up as he grabbed hold of Allard’s coat and slid down like it was a curtain to be pulled up. “And good magic!”

Vargas scoffed. “How can such small creatures have useful magic?”

The leader scurried across the ground to one of the many unbroken walnuts that littered the ground. He rolled up his sleeves and raised his hands. “Like this.”

He wiggled his hands and a gentle brown-colored magic flowed from his fingers. The light enveloped the nut and the ball shook once. Then again. Then it began to violently rattle. I jumped back when the nut split open and a small sapling sprang from inside. The plant didn’t completely leave the shell, however, but clung to both ends via a magical conduit. The rest of the growing plant sprouted leaves and more vines, creating a primitive seat and handles in front of that.

One of the branches wrapped around Sir Slechtic and lifted him onto the leafy seat. He grabbed a hold of the ends of the vines and grinned up at us. “And away we go.”

The Tenky revved up the vines like they were motorcycle handles and the two halves of the spun like wheels. The walnuts spun out for a short while before grabbing dirt and zipping the little guy down the road.

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