Wandering to Belong Read online

The Bringer of Judgement

  A small feeling of unease crept over Cathal as he lay, trying to sleep away the evening. Something different was in his domain, something new. He lifted himself to his feet and stretched his spine out from the back of his neck right down to the tip of his tail. A few scales pulled as they caught momentarily on their neighbours.

  Heading towards the intruder, he paced down the nearest broad flight of steps. He sniffed the air a little but couldn't make out any scent yet. Whoever it was, they were near the far entrance and didn't smell too strong. Not like the goblins and other foul creatures that sometimes strayed into his lair.

  Once he reached the bottom of the first massive flight of steps he could sense the intruder even more. It was one lone person, moving towards him and at a fast pace, on the same level as the main hall. A grin spread across his face as he remembered what they were about to stumble across. Hopefully they'd be moving too fast to stop.

  He slunk down until he was in the room opposite. When he realised that the intruder was a female, he hesitated. No woman had ever been a dragon slayer before. Only men came to try and hunt him, but it explained why the feeling had been different.

  His eyes roved over her until he saw her bow. Regardless of her gender she was a hunter, and it left him with only one choice: to kill or be killed. He stepped forward and spurted out as much fire as he could manage in one breath. Satisfied it had done its job, he watched as she burnt, until she dove off.

  As she plunged beyond sight into the lake, he felt her life force fading. A few more minutes and she would be dead. He lowered his head; it saddened him that so many of the humans met their end this way. There had never been any wish for dragons to go to war with men, but he wouldn't let them kill him just to soothe their egos.

  Just as he turned to leave he caught the smell of goblins and noticed a group of them also near the entrance to his domain. After moving his bulk out of sight of the main hall he closed his eyes and focused his power to listen to them.

  “Why'd we 'ave to be the ones goin' after her? We won't get to eat'er, the boss will when we've got'er back.”

  “The boss'll let us eat some o' those others though. And I ain't gonna challenge him. Did you see Mugrat? The boss chopped 'im in'alf.”

  “Don't tell me yer alright with gettin' in range o' that bow. She's skewered yer arm already. And there's that dragon. I don't wanna meet 'im.”

  Cathal frowned. The woman he'd just toasted must have been running from the goblins and defending herself. With a speed that seemed surprising for his bulk he slunk off to go down to the lake, staying where the goblins wouldn't see him. He knew now that he should have trusted his gut and waited for a little longer before burning her.

  He sniffed warily at the entrance to the lake's cave, but the goblins were still not at the opening. After crawling forward he slid into the watery depths, putting all his effort into pin-pointing her aura. The woman's body was already lying at the bottom, on top of the remains of the floor. If anyone else had found her it would already be too late, but he could still sense her spirit clinging to the body.

  With one front claw he picked up her body and then he pushed up for the surface again. Within seconds he had her out on the lake edge and had silently emerged from the water as well. Knowing he had no time to get either of them to safety, he closed his eyes and concentrated all his effort on healing, first her lungs from the water damage, and then the burns that covered her body.

  As soon as every hurt was repaired she started to grow stronger again. He picked her unconscious body up and left the exposed area. It had been a long time since he had used his power to save someone's life and it reminded him of how much he preferred it to killing.

  Now that he'd healed her he didn't really know what to do with her. There was no way he wanted to take her up to his lair, especially given that he'd just almost killed her. He couldn't be confident that she wouldn't react by trying to kill him, but he couldn't just leave her anywhere with goblins looking for her. She might wake up as their prisoner, or not wake up at all.

  After wandering his halls for several minutes he decided to place her in a small room out of the way in some of the more intact parts of the fortress. He could prowl nearby until she was awake and ensure no goblins found her, thereby fixing his mistake and making up for it, at least a little. As soon as she had regained her feet he could retreat to his watching place to stay out of all their affairs.