“I am decorating.” I shrug.
“The car?” he presses, his eyebrow rising.
“Yes, it’s called fashion,” I retort, mimicking human terms I have heard before.
He shares a look with his partner, his eyes narrowing. “Sir, can we have your license, and can you please take a seat in our car?”
“I don’t have time for this!” I snap. “I have a dragon to find and then probably kill, then I have to go to the cold, cursed, mystical mountain to find the sleeping court so they can deal with their subjects so I may retrieve my mate and have lots of sex.” I throw my hands in the air.
They both step back, holding their hands out. The one with the glasses watches me as he raises a radio. “Car 418 to control, we found the escaped crazy, standby for more details, we may need backup and sedatives. He is completely loopy.” He then looks at me with a patient smile on his face. “Sir, come with me, we’ll get you back to the hospital down the road, okay? Maybe there’s a dragon there?”
“No, the dragon is that way!” I jerk my head over my shoulder with a frown.
They share another look and then he pulls a black baton from his side. “Come with us. Don’t resist, make this easy for yourself, kid, they can help you. You must be missing your medication about now, hmm?”
“Medication…kid? Did. You. Just. Call. Me. Kid?” I roar.
“Sir!”
I don’t have time for this. Striding towards them, I punch one square in his face. He falls to the ground, his eyes closed and face pale, blood running from his nose. Jerking, I hiss as electricity races through me. I look down and raise my eyebrow at the black object sticking in my chest. A wire connects it to the other officer.
“That was stupid,” I tell him, and then using the wire I drag him to me. He yelps and tries to get away, but I smash his face down on his car and let him drop to the tarmac.
Frowning now, I gaze around, knowing I can’t leave them here. So I hoist one over each shoulder, head to their boot, and open it. I put them inside and lock it. There, that’s better.
“Car 418, check in, how did the capture of the patient go?” comes through their little radio in the car.
Picking it up, I press lots of buttons. “This is car 418, we have been knocked unconscious.” There, that was nice of me.
A crackle sounds, then barked, panicked talking from multiple people. “418 is down, I repeat, officers down!”
Whistling, I head back to my car and slide in before I set off again.
I drive for over two hours. I have to stop twice more to pinpoint the dragon’s location, and each time it seems to be weaker until, when I halt a third time, I can’t feel it. Sighing, I head to where I last felt it and pull over, having to shift on the side of the road to fly over the trees and up to the top of the hill. Circling in the clouds, I notice an unmoving dark form on the side of the hill. It’s too big to be a human or a bear, so it must be the dragon. Shifting as I land, I walk towards it on human legs, but the smell reaches me first, making me growl.
Death.
Then blood.
There was a fight, and it’s clear now that the dragon lost.
Jumping down the ledge it is on, I glower at the scene before me. One of its wings is bent and hanging over the rocks. It is covered in blood and talon marks. The face is curled inwards, even in death, and its skin is black like burnt coal. Bloody gashes are carved across its body. Its tail is broken off, the end missing. That, more than anything, tells me this was another dragon’s doing.
This dragon fought with another then fled to die? It doesn’t make sense. Crouching down closer, I try to search for anything I have missed. The talon marks are long and wide, so it was a full-fledged dragon, a powerful one too. Widening my senses, I search for any threats, but I don’t even find the trace of another animal nearby.
So, did this happen in Klasfor and then he broke through to escape into these lands? He was probably afraid the dragon would come and finish him off, but it looks like his wounds did before the other one could.
It makes this easier. This was a lost challenge, that is all, even though it is strange to find the body here.
I have no choice though, I have to perform last rites. Unlike the fairy tales based on dragons and shifters, we don’t shift back to human flesh when we die, instead the human body stays trapped inside. We die as we fight, either in dragon or human form. But we can’t be buried as dragons, and to ensure we pass over to Valhem where our gold and wildest desires await, we must have last rites executed. To not do so is a grave insult, reserved only for outcasts and the disowned.
I don’t have the proper tools here, not the blessed knife and bowl, but I will have to improvise. To walk away without performing them would not sit well with me, even if this dragon is unknown to me. I was once their king, and that drive to protect them does not simply fade, it is ingrained into me.
Pulling out the knife I stole from the angry fallen, I slice along my palm and walk around as much of the body as I can, letting droplets of my blood drop onto the body.
“Incremento dislesi, I, Askaliarian of Klasfor, King of the Great Dragons, release your spirit. Relsa spirto, continue your journey, rider of the skies.” After I speak the ritual words, I step back, watching the blood start to sizzle as it melts through the thick outer shell of the dragon. Where it does, I spot the pinkened skin of the human inside start to emerge. It takes a few minutes for the dragon to melt away, and with it, the dragon’s spirit is released, which is now at rest and allowed to move on.
All it leaves behind is the human body. A lot of dragons believe that because we are born in dragon form and spend a lot of our early years stuck in that shape, it is our true form and the human side is our shift. I think we are born of both, which is why we bury the human body or burn it.
Crouching, I turn the corpse slowly to see the face, and when I do, I sigh. I knew him. His short, shaggy dark hair is familiar, as is the royal slope of his nose. He was a mere boy when I left. He used to follow me around the palace, trying to fly, always wanting to shadow me. I often showed him attention. It is sad he is dead. He was strong and proud, everything a dragon should be. That pride is probably what cost him his life. Picking up his body, I hold him delicately as I jump back to the top of the hill. I lie him down and trace my finger over his face. “Sleep now, my friend, your ride is through. I will meet you in the next life.”
Changing my hands back, I dig through the ground with my talons until I have a grave. It’s a good spot, high in the clouds where he liked to fly, and it won’t be disturbed. It is also where he fought his last fight. A noble dragon, laid to rest.
Shifting my hands back to human so I do not disturb or harm his body, I lay him in the grave and cover him in soil, patting it down until it is secure before sitting back on my haunches. I stare sadly down at the grave. It is a reminder of how long I have been gone. He was grown, a true dragon. I wonder what else has changed.
I shouldn’t think about it, that is not my home now, I left for a reason.
For her, before I even knew she existed, and now she needs me. They do not. I whisper goodbye before shifting and launching back into the sky. It is time to head to Rejek and the sleeping council.
They will come with me, I will give them no choice.
They will fear me, because with the way I am feeling now...they dare not refuse me.