Chapter 11

Dusty and the others made pretty good time over the last day and a half to the huge mountainous expanse in the desert. Dusty would never have expected this if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. It didn't make sense, but he was still learning things.

There was one point when Kat called them close and said they were being followed. Dusty leaned over his horse, using just one stirrup to support his weight, reached into an inside pocket, and then hung like that as he buried something close to a rock.

He then had everyone ride closer together for a few miles and then asked everyone to hold hands while on their horses.

Kat wasn't prepared to have them all disappear and appear at a large home. Everyone spent the next two hours at Dusty and Suzan's home as Suzan and Kat cleaned up and Dusty checked on the children. Dusty and Suzan then spent an hour playing with and enjoying their children.

Kat again saw their life and wondered about a family of her own. She loved children and Suzan and Dusty's were precious. She easily could see breaking her vow to not have children for Dusty's sake if they weren't an item.

Satisfied after a short visit and a hot bath Dusty and Suzan kissed the children and returned them back to their guardian, a pretty brown haired woman Kat heard them call Anita, and then they remounted their horses and joined hands again and then they were back in the desert.

Kat was envious again of that new spell.

She knew Dusty had used it to cause them all to travel a great distance and she really wanted to know how he did it, but to learn she would have to sleep with him and she liked Suzan to much to destroy her marriage just for a few spells Dusty might know.

Keeping it to her self they started into the mountain range headed for the Dragon's nest.

Taylin was following those four because she was sure they were after her Dragon and she wouldn't give up that horde after spending seasons looking for it. Dragon's could hide it anywhere and she really wanted get her and her teams a share of that.

There was no way they could carry it all back and she would be there to locate it and cart away what she could carry. Stapen, Davic, and Payven were put out of commission by those four. Davic and Payven would recover, but with busted shoulders they were no good to her.

Stapen was still out after that brown haired witch did something to him. Nothing she did could wake him up. She had to give up and let him sleep off what ever she did.

She easily followed their trail up to a point. For some reason it just disappeared. There were the horses trail and then "poof" it was gone.

Taylin rode around for an hour making sure she didn't make a mistake and she was sure that she didn't. As far as she could see they vanished into thin air!

Cursing them for tricking her she realized that either Dusty or the other woman had used magic to do what they did, even though she had never heard of a spell that would let them do this, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to find them using her skills.

Riding back for the town she cursed and called them all every name in the book that she could.

As the four of them made their way around the base of the range, Kat was looking for something. There wasn't really a trail up to the mountain where they needed to go because Dragon's didn't walk up to their own doors and they discouraged visitors. But they needed a safe way up.

Now climbing the side of the mountain range they would stop and take breaks from time to time but it wasn't easy. They left the horses tied below with some water and some food because they wouldn't be able to take them up the side with them.

At one point, Suzan saw some pretty flowers and stopped to pick one and put it in her hair. It had scarlet petals that were trimmed in a deeper scarlet. There were black spots on them and in the center were light yellow stalks that offset it.

"This flower sure is pretty, on the way back I think I may pick a few to plant in my garden close to home," said Suzan to no one in particular.

"If you do you may find you have a Dragon problem soon," said Kat with a smile.

"Why do you say that?" asked Suzan climbing.

"That's Dragon fern. Or Dragon catnip is a better name for it. They will grow like wildfire if you plant it in the ground near fertile soil and you'll have a devil of a time getting it out. In the mean time Dragon's will offer to stop by and help pick them for you," said Kat with a mischievous smile.

As she finished, she saw all the color drain from Suzan face as she savagely yanked it out of her hair and threw it on the ground. She then stomped it and moved on.

Kat looked at her curiously and then she saw Dusty smiling.

"Suzan had a bad experience with that once. Someone used it to poison her and she's not quite over that experience just yet," said Dusty with a smile.

"What? That's impossible. If a human was to eat Dragon fern they would eventually die. No human can withstand it and there is no antidote for it either," said Kat watching him carefully.

If Dusty had a cure she would want to hear it.

"You're right, there is not a cure for it, but there is a way to make it more bearable for the infected person until it passes out of their system," said Dusty smiling.

"Well what is it?" asked Kat after waiting for Dusty to go on, and he didn't.

"Lets just say after using magic to enhance both of our stamina, our wedding night resulted in both of us staying in bed for just over twenty four hours while trying to see how much bodily fluid the mattress was actually capable of absorbing from the two of us," said Dusty as he moved on past Kat.

Kat stared at him as he did, and once again she wanted to know what it was like to experience him.

Shaking her head, she moved on with her mission. No use worrying about what could have been. She spent most of her early life doing that and it took a few centuries until she was able to get beyond that point. No use in starting up again.

After about an hour of hard climbing they eventually found the opening to the cave. It was very well hidden and wouldn't be seen easily from either the air or the ground. The opening was hidden behind various shrubberies that grew on the mountain side.

It was dark of course and very deep. They slowly made their way and they occasionally stepped on various bones. Dusty brought out the torches he managed to secure when they went home and wished he hadn't.

The floor was littered with the bones of various animals and humans. Some of them were scorched and others were picked clean of all meat. There were also quite a few bones that had been cracked open and the marrow sucked out, human and animal.

It was very nerve wracking to see something like this all around them. If it had only been animals it would have been easier to look at, but knowing that they were walking on the skulls of what looked to be men, women, and quite a few children also didn't make this any easier.

Kat looked solemn as she did. While she was upset to also see this, the past actions of the Dragon didn't weigh in now as the Dragon was trying to save humans instead of preying on them. She swallowed the bile she was feeling as she pushed on.

The Cave had many rooms to it and they all had various forms of litter in them like the first room. But they were also all "jam packed" with treasure as well. There was everything from weapons and armor to gold and silver. There were jewel encrusted books, cups, bowls, and other items.

As they explored, Dusty found different types of weapons, a set of matching twin swords in a battered and weathered scabbard, a few spears, and a few naked bastard swords. They were all of a dark color and seemed to have been made that way. He felt the blades and they had a nice swirling pattern etched in them. They looked to be of good quality.

While he noticed them, Seth had also dug around and found a large great axe that was made of similar material. The axe was heavier than his but was also wider than his axe. The edge seemed just too perfect for him to leave alone

The two of them looked over at each other and smiled. They had no need of money in their positions, but a good weapon of superior quality was hard to come by.

While Dusty didn't use swords Amber and Logan did. He would give them to the kids as a present to use when they got older. Right now they were too young at five to handle the weapons. He gathered them up and took them with him. Seth took his old axe and put it against the wall and secured this one in its place on his back.

Traveling all the rooms, in a room off to the side of one of the treasure rooms was the egg chamber.

Dusty wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. The egg looked like a normal egg in that it was roughly egg shaped, but it was longer and more oblong than he would have expected. It was also a mottled grey color instead of white.

Stepping forward, he felt a presence in his mind. It gave him the impression of innocence and curiosity. It felt clumsy and surprised.

Standing and staring now he was snapped out of his actions when Kat's voice rang out "Don't touch that egg!"

Now focusing, he saw Seth with his hand extended almost touching it.

"No one can touch the egg but Dusty. If anyone else does it will confuse the hatchling. Only Dusty can because he has to be the one who presents it to the Dragon council. He has to be the one whose scent is on it. We don't want to give the impression it was being passed around like a curiosity," said Kat sternly.

Feeling like he was in a trance, Dusty stepped forward and touched the egg.

Suddenly his mind was invaded by strange images. They were at best only muted colors, but they also had questions that weren't actually asked with words. It was like he was feeling what was to be asked. It also conveyed a sense of child like innocence to him.

Dusty was snapped out of his feeling by a low rumble.

"So this is where you worms crawled off too. I had you in sight for a bit, but the small trees hid where you went and I had to land and search around where I last saw you," said a voice.

Twisting Dusty looked back at the entrance to the room and saw in the room just beyond, a small dragon. Where a normal dragon would have been easily three to four stories in height, this dragon was just barely over a story and a half at best. It was a little over three times as wide as a horse, but had a long serpentine neck that was as big around as a barrel at the base and it swiveled around and watched them all.

It was a dark green color and had glowing golden eyes that swirled and watched them as they watched it.

"What is a Drake doing here?" hissed Kat.

"What's a Drake? Wait, isn't that a Dragon?" asked Dusty.

"No a Drake is like a miniature Dragon. A full sized Dragon would be like four or five times his size. This is more like the tiny version of the real thing," said Kat.

"You call this tiny?" asked Dusty in shock.

Kat just smiled in amusement.

"Yes you're the one that Black sent to find her precious egg. I've been hunting you for a while now. Thank you for finding her egg for me so I can now complete my mission for my master and kill it like I did its mother and be on my way. Oh, and thank you for leaving your horses below. They made the tastiest of snacks, not that any of you will need them any longer," the Drake said to them.

Dusty suddenly tasted fear, and it had a coppery feeling in his mouth, but it wasn't coming from anyone that he could see. Suddenly he realized that it was the egg that was scared.

Suddenly Dusty felt a sense of protection rise up in him and he blocked the way to the egg.

"What is it you want here?" asked Dusty.

"Why to kill you of course. You're not that bright are you?" asked the Drake.

"What benefit is it for you to kill us? We have nothing you want and if you waited you could have claimed the treasure after we left. Why face us like this?" asked Kat.

The Drake made what could have passed for laughter from its mouth.

"You little fools, you think everyone in the Dragon's conclave wants peace with you vermin? You're our prey, our food, not our equals! Who ever heard of talking with their food and making peace with it? You crawl around on the ground and eat dirt! Do you talk to your cattle and make peace with them before you eat them?" asked the Drake.

"No but they don't have the capacity for speech, reasoning, and culture either. We do not prey on those things that do," said Dusty softly.

"How do you know that you don't? Have you ever tried to communicate with a cow and ask what it thought about being slaughtered?" asked the Drake.

"It doesn't matter what you say you're not destroying this egg," said Dusty as a sense of protection filled him again.

The Drake looked at them for a split second and slightly opened it mouth.

Suddenly Kat screamed "DRAGON FIRE" and Dusty then noticed the flames licking around in its mouth. He hadn't been paying attention and almost missed it.

As an after thought Dusty threw up a shield that covered the entrance to the small cave that they were in and flames harmlessly washed over it.

Dusty, for the first time, felt strain as he did this. Normally spells didn't make him feel tired when he used them, but this time he felt a little tired as he kept up the shield in the face of the Drakes blast.

"Nice one worms. But that won't hold up long against my attacks," said the Drake as he launched another sustained attack on the magic shield.

"He's right. His attack is starting to drain me. How is that possible?" asked Dusty looking at Kat.

"Dragon's are magic incarnate by nature and I'm surprised what you did even worked. Human magic normally doesn't affect Dragon's at all because Dragon magic tends to negate it," said Kat with surprise.

"Well I won't be able to stop it for much longer if we don't figure something out quick," said Dusty.

"Can you slant the magic enough so that we can get out of here? We're all one big target if we all stay in here and we can't help you if we do. If we're outside we can spread out and maybe take it down," said Kat.