A Bard's Story: Here There Be Dragons

Chapter Five

The days and weeks after the dragon attack are quiet, and a comfortable routine emerges easily enough. In the mornings, Oren, Geri, Leyha, and Kehdem head into town for practice with the Holy Order. Once they are sufficiently bruised, they split up. The mages have an hour or two of magic practice, while Oren usually gets swept up into the afternoon dragon-spotting watch. When Geri has given up on whatever new spell Kehdem has decided to teach that day, he hunts down Oren. Leyha has a bit more patience for Kehdem's incredibly disjointed teaching style but even she doesn't last forever. By mid-afternoon, Kehdem is usually tinkering alone in Semben's workshop.

One such afternoon, Leyha bursts into to the workshop only minutes after she's left Kehdem to it. She doesn't get out a full thought, just a breathless "—town's bells—" but thanks to the marks, Kehdem knows exactly what's going on: the town's bells are ringing because there's another dragon headed their way. So he puts down the runereading tool in his hand and gestures for Leyha to lead the way.

Outside of the workshop, the sound of the bells is far more audible — distant, but definitely tolling danger. Leyha and Kehdem hurry into town. Getting there is more difficult than usual with all the snowmelt streams that have appeared in the last week, but they still manage to arrive before the dragon.

Most of the Holy Order is in the center of town, standing near their massive crossbow. Leyha spots Oren and Geri in the group and heads for them. They arrive just in time to hear Tosun's shout of "Shields up!" The Holy Order mages throw up their famous spellshields, and then the dragon appears.

The beast heads straight for the group of people all clumped together. It waits for the proper moment before opening its mouth. Then it spits out a huge fireball big enough to engulf half the Holy Order in one go—

A few people flinch—

—but the flames dissipate harmlessly on the spellshield. The archers release their arrows, and every one hits its mark.

"Jessa!"

Tosun's second-in-command and two others are manning the massive crossbow. "Ready!" she shouts.

"Fire!"

The massive bolt flies true and embeds itself in the dragon's side. A brief cheer rises up from the Holy Order. Everything else they've done has simply bounced off the scaly hide.

The dragon thrashes about in the air, trying to get at the weapon embedded in its side — but its claws can't quite reach. All it can do is spew flames in its fury.

"Look out!" Oren shouts. And he gestures towards the dragon's flames — harmless when they hit the spellshield; more dangerous when they head towards nearby buildings, like now.

Sure enough, the first building to get hit with more than just sparks loses its thatch roof in a sudden whoosh of flame. Oren sprints towards the well, Geri on his heels and similar thoughts — where's the Order when you need them? — on their minds.

Tosun sees it and shouts Jessa's name again. She scrambles to get the crossbow reloaded and fired again. In moments, the dragon is hit. It lets out a last angry, fiery roar, before flying back to whatever distant sky it came from.

Once the dragon has left, the Holy Order moves to taking care of the destruction it left behind. Toal is sent to the bell tower to tell Sten and the rest of the Order that the danger has passed, and everyone else joins Oren and Geri's fire-fighting efforts.

In the quiet granted by the lack of pealing bells, the townsfolk emerge from the safety of cellars. The Order is the first group to appear, pouring from their barracks in an orderly manner and immediately setting up a chain of water buckets passed from the well to those standing only a few feet from the tailor's.