THE BEGINNING AFTER THE END

Chapter 4

"The abomination must be purged." Hermair announced to Alana. "You can help us and be richly rewarded or fight against us and suffer the dire consequences. I'll give you until noon tomorrow to either give up that abomination or to put an arrow through its heart."

With that, Hermair turned and rode out of the clearing as fast as he could.

"Thank you." Ethan said to his hostess once the riders had gone.

"You did the same for me."

"You know he won't wait until noon tomorrow, right?" Ethan asked her.

Alana looked at him in alarm. "You really think so?"

He nodded. "I've dealt with middle management types like him for years. He seems like a bully, so I'd guess he'll get a bunch more men and come back as soon as possible for a surprise attack. Does he have more men close by?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Lord Delmar has an outpost nearby, to the north."

"How long would it take them to go there and come back?" he asked.

"Um." Alana paused, thinking. "If they rode their horses hard and got fresh ones at the compound, they could be back in a few hours."

Ethan looked at the sky, which was fast approaching dark. Without the lights of a city, it was well and truly dark too. Fortunately, the air was still pretty warm.

"I don't think you should stay in the house tonight." He said. "I didn't get the impression they'll be nice about trying to kill me, and they might torch it."

"If they start setting things on fire..." She looked around at the young trees growing outside her house.

"That's your livelihood, isn't it?" He asked.

She bit her lip then nodded.

"The fire won't hurt them too much, will it?" He continued hopefully.

"The trees might survive, but my staves only sell because they are among the finest in the kingdom. If they are subjected to fire, they'll be average at best and I'll never be able to sell them." She paused and then bit her lip. "My family has been farming this land for hundreds of years."

Ethan thought he saw her eyes get slightly watery. He hadn't noticed before, but they were a rich hazel color.

"Maybe it won't happen." He suggested. "But I think we should be ready if they come back."

Alana nodded. "I have several staves that are ready to sell and a hidden storage pit not far away. I doubt they know about it. I can store them there for tonight."

"How about harvesting some of these early?" Ethan gestured at the trees outside the door.

She shook her head. "They're not ready, but we should be. And thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?" He asked. "They might destroy your farm because of me."

"It's not your fault." Alana said. "I'd be dead if you hadn't saved me from Drousin and you warned me that Hermair might attack tonight, which I probably wouldn't have thought of. That's twice I owe you my life, so thank you."

"Any time."

* * *

Over the next hour, Ethan and Alana moved all her valuables out of the house. There weren't many of them. They stashed the goods in the concealed storage pit Alana had in the woods nearby.

Some hours later, Ethan and Alana had taken up position in the forest close to the edge of the clearing. The moon was out, but the darkness made them almost invisible. Ethan was pleasantly surprised to discover that dragons had good night vision and he could see very well at night. They had a great view of the entire clearing, and they waited.

After an hour, Ethan saw movement. He tapped Alana's shoulder and pointed. There were two men dressed in black sneaking through the clearing toward the house. They were carrying what looked like buckets. They started pouring something all around the base of her house and a few minutes later stole back out of the clearing. Moments later they saw a tiny fire spark to life some distance away, then the fire arched towards Alana's house and a flaming arrow landed at its base.

The house burst into flame almost instantly.

At the same time, a dozen or so men ran into the clearing and took up positions outside the entrance of Alana's burning house. Several of the men took up what looked like Molotov cocktails, threw them inside the house, and waited.

After a few minutes, Hermair called out. "They're gone. Fan out and search the forest, and destroy her trees while you're at it."

The men pulled out torches, lit them in the burning fire of the house, and started to fan out into the woods. Along the way, they drew their swords and started hacking at Alana's trees. Alana sniffled and Ethan could almost feel her tension

"We should go before they find us." He whispered.

She nodded in reply and they turned to head back into the forest.

Behind them, the fire suddenly dimmed. Ethan looked behind him and saw something very strange. The fires were as large as ever, but it was almost as if someone had sucked most of the light from the flames themselves. They were massive but gave very little light.

Then one of the men on horseback extended his palm and a bright beam of flickering yellowish light shone from his palm. He quickly directed the light across the edge of the clearing until Ethan and Alana were lit up like a Christmas tree.

"There!" Hermair shouted, and his soldiers began running toward them.

"Run!" Ethan shouted to Alana. He heard the sound of bowstrings and moments later Alana cried out in pain as an arrow grazed her arm.

Something welled up inside Ethan.

A rage that he had never felt before filled his mind. It was deep, primal, and he felt it in his bones. He opened his mouth to shout at the men who were attacking them.

Moments later, the whole clearing was filled with the most terrifying sound he had ever heard. It was the roar of some great beast that chilled him to the very bone. He could feel his heart freezing in his chest and his muscles refused to move. The soldiers in the clearing faltered in their advance. Some of them cowered behind their shields. Ethan could see the sheer terror that the sound instilled in them.

He was sure his own face mirrored theirs.

Ethan drew breath and the sound disappeared. It was only a moment later that he realized: the roar had come from him. His rage bubbled over; he dropped to all fours and charged them. He was moving faster than he thought possible; doing at least twenty miles per hour.

He reached the first soldier in just a few seconds. The soldier was still rooted to the spot. Ethan leapt at him and landed feet first into his torso. The man crumpled and Ethan -- acting purely on instinct -- took a flying leap toward the mage who was shining the light. The mage dived off his horse but he wasn't fast enough. Ethan felt his claws sink into something soft, followed by a ripping sound and a cry of pain. Ethan landed on his feet beyond the horse. The frantic animal took off at top speed in the opposite direction.

The soldiers seemed to have recovered and turned to face the new threat.

"Run Ethan!" He heard Alana shout.

Ethan saw half a dozen bows pointing in his direction and ran for cover behind the burning house. Halfway there he felt a burning pain in his hind leg and fell forward. He rolled several times, which fortunately put the burning house in between him and the archers.

He looked down at his leg and saw a broken arrow sticking out of his thigh. The arrow had punched right through his scales and made moving the leg feel like he was stabbing himself with a branding iron. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have hit the bone or a major artery and he could still move.

Ethan dragged himself to his feet, despite the pain, as the soldiers rounded the house. He had just started limping away when the soldiers drew their bows back. He threw himself forward and the arrows missed his body, although a sharp pain in his tail let him know they hadn't missed him entirely.

Ethan heard the twang of another bowstring and winced, expecting pain. However, the cry of pain came from someone else. One of the soldiers fell with an arrow sticking through his chest. Moments later another fell, and then another.

"Get out of there, Ethan." Alana shouted. He could just see her nocking another arrow. She let it loose before ducking behind a tree as the soldiers returned fire. Ethan ignored the pain and ran flat-out toward Alana.

The fire behind him dimmed again. Ethan glanced behind and was shocked to see the fires burning incredibly low, as if someone had sucked them away with a vacuum. Then he saw a red glowing ball in the hand of the other mage. The mage extended his hand and the fiery ball of light shot toward Ethan. He was moving too fast to dodge it so he did the only thing he could think of.

He jumped.

The red-hot fireball hit the ground below him and exploded. Ethan was blasted up at least twenty feet into the air and his momentum carried him forward. On instinct, he twisted in mid-air like a cat and almost managed to land on his feet, but failed the landing because of the burning pain in his leg. He tumbled and rolled to the edge of the forest.

"Ethan, get up!" Alana yelled.

Ethan felt another arrow graze his back, which gave him the necessary motivation to move, despite the pain. He limped into the forest to join Alana. She fired another few arrows -- a cry of pain echoing from a soldier after each one -- then headed straight into the forest. Ethan tried to follow her, but he was in incredible pain and could barely keep up.

Alana never left him behind though.

Every time he slowed down, she did too.

She urged him on, but wouldn't leave him.

After about ten minutes, he couldn't hear their pursuers anymore and Alana stopped. "Humans can't see well in the dark. I think we can stop here for a moment."

Ethan dropped like a ton of bricks. He felt mentally and physically drained. The arrows in his tail and leg were making it hard to do anything but whimper in pain as he panted to catch his breath. "Are you... are you sure we'll... we'll be okay?"

"For a few minutes, yes; humans have terrible night vision." Alana said, then knelt down by his head and looked him in the eye. "I need to take those arrows out or the wounds will get infected. I don't have anything to cauterize the wounds, so you'll need to use magic to close and disinfect them."

"I never... used..." Ethan panted. "...it before."

"You're a dragon." Alana said calmly. "Dragons have an innate command of magic. And besides, if you don't you're going to die."

"Dying sounds like a bad idea." He groaned. "I'll do my best."

"Roll over on your back so I can take a look." She said after moving to his leg. Ethan did, though it felt like his leg and tail were going to fall off. At this point, he almost would've been okay with that.

"The heads broke off while you were running, so I just need to pull them out." Alana said. "On the count of three. One, two, three!"