Page 24 of Dragon Lord
“We can be killed.”He’d seen plenty of his brethren fall.
“But if you’re not killed.”She tilted her head.“Would you go on forever?”
“I am not certain.Dragons are a querulous sort.”He had to think.“I know this, I have never seen one die of old age.”
“What do they die of?”
“A stronger dragon killing them for their territory.”
“How about your family?”she wanted to know next.
“I barely remember them.I flew the nest early.”
She hesitated before she asked her next question.“Have you ever had a mate?”
“Not a mate.But I shared a cave now and then with a she-dragon.”Thinking about her always put Draknart in a bad mood, so he didn’t.
“And children?”
He shook his head.“Dragon pups are rare these days.”
“Where is the she-dragon now?”
“When I was…cursed…” Draknart turned from Einin, flopping down onto his stomach and curling his tail around himself.“She disliked it.”
Gruna had tried to eat him several times in his human form, before he’d finally wised up and left her.
Draknart didn’t like those memories.He liked thinking of the decades that had passed since even less.Truth was he’d been lonely.And aggravated.Villages were popping up all over the land, and their inhabitants were nothing if not annoying.
The first batch he’d seen in the valley threw stones and sticks at him.He thought they were a strange kind of ape, like the ones he’d seen on his longest flight to the south in his younger years.
After he’d eaten the first tribe of intruders, he had some peace and quiet for a while.Then another batch came.They had sharp stones tied to their long sticks that cut his knees.But out of all the people who’d passed through his hills, the current people of the villages seemed the worse.
They had swords now.But they kept their sharp sticks too.And they could shoot them from some contraption from afar.One impertinent little gnat not long ago had nearly blinded Draknart with what he called an arrow.Draknart had questioned the knight about the strange invention before eating him.
At least they couldn’t shoot fire, like dragons.If the little gnats ever figured out how to do that, Draknart was packing it up and leaving the hills.
As if to prove his point on the overall inconvenience of humans, one stepped out of the forest.He’d come from upwind, and the smoke of the fire had dulled Draknart’s nose.
Draknart flexed his talons as he pushed to his feet and stepped between the visitor and Einin, calling over his shoulder, “You best stay out of this.”
The young man in soldier’s armor strode boldly forward, sword at the ready.
Flying so low over the village had been a mistake.
“I’ve come to kill you, evil beast,” the youth shouted.
They always said the same thing.Draknart swallowed his disappointment.“And who would you be?”
“Jon of Fernwood,” the fool proclaimed proudly.“Dragon slayer.”
Not groaning out loud took some restraint.“Might you not wait with the title until your dragon is slain?”
The youth shot him a look of fury.Then his gaze cut to Einin, her fiery hair and round breasts.His expression changed to that of open desire.“Worry not, fair maiden.I shall save you from this vile beast and make you mine.”
Einin made a sound behind Draknart that he could not interpret, and he could not look back at her face, for the youth charged with the usual battle cry.
Make Einin his?This little vermin?With barely some peach fuzz on his weak chin?Darkness bubbled up inside Draknart.The bloodlust was instant, such as he hadn’t felt since he’d slain Fearan, who had come to the hills a century ago to take Draknart’s territory and treasure.
