Chapter 8: Wyvern

The three elves were constantly around and Aveline thought it was funny. They wanted to know how I found the elf stones and where the others were. Rumors were coming in about a dragon in the far west. It was a small party of dwarves that brought the real story. I had managed to get two very large dragon kites like the one I had used in Delf but twice as large.

I was sipping cider outside with Aveline while telling her how to control the kite. The dwarves were at another table beside us while they tried to talk the ranger commander into sending all the rangers to fight the wyvern that was sieging their mountain home to the far west and south.

It was beyond the elven forest of Green Heart and the elves would not send their armies to help. I finally looked at the commander, “Want us to go look it over?”

The dwarves went quiet as he looked at me and then Aveline and smiled, “Are you bored?”

Aveline snorted and I grinned, “Since it is spring I would not mind a long trip.”

He chuckled, “Okay but do not do anything dumb.”

Aveline stood as she laughed, “Like pushing poor trolls into frozen rivers? Or killing giants that are reducing the number of orcs?”

Other rangers sitting around us laughed as I stood, “Well the troll could have walked out.”

She laughed again as she headed into the tavern and up to our room, “Not while breathing water.”

I grinned as I followed her, “You are jealous because you did not push him first.”

I had an idea on how to travel quickly and we packed light before carrying the two long bundles and our packs to the Keep and up into the tall tower. We put the two kites together and I shouldered my bow after binding the arrows in my quiver. I secured the pack to the upper center brace and looked at Aveline after fitting the body harness.

I stood holding the lower cross brace of the kite and angled it over the side of the tower. The wind caught it and I lifted slowly and moved my feet back and onto the rear brace. I lifted higher as Aveline watched and then grinned as she lifted her kite and moved to the edge. A minute and she was slowly rising beside me and I turned to move away and go higher.

It was strange because unlike the last time I could see the shimmer in the air where the warmer air pushed up. I finally turned and began soaring and headed south out of the pass and began to go higher. It was still early as Aveline followed and we turned to go west along the mountains.

A couple of hours later I descended and landed on a high ridge so we could stretch and take a break. In the two hours we had come more than a day on foot. We landed before it got dark and killed a couple of rabbits for dinner. I smiled as I laid back that night, the thrill of soaring like a bird in my head when I fell asleep.

A week later I saw the ruins of Glimmer and turned to head for it. I landed on one of the high walls and settled the kite to the wall before Aveline landed. I explored the ruins with her and told her about the stairs below in the troll cave. We camped in the ruins that night and left in the morning.

It was a couple of days before we reached the elven highlands and I was worried we might have to land and walk across. I did not have to worry, there was a wind that we rode all the way across in one long day. After we were across we had to turn south towards the mid plains. We had to land twice on the way across and barely managed to take off each time.

Once we reached the Quiet mountains we continued west. Two weeks and we saw Finagore, the dwarven city was beneath the mountain. I looked around before slowly going lower and around to land on a lower ridge. I moved away from the kite as Aveline followed me down. We walked to the crest and looked over and I used a distance glass.

I handed it to Aveline, “Look at the plains out in front of the gates.”

She hissed when she saw the huge wyvern eating what looked like a horse. I looked around, “We will leave the kites here and go on foot.”

We collapsed the kites and hid them before shouldering our packs and starting down. The few large animals that we saw, like deer were extremely skittish and frightened easily. We stayed in thicker trees and brush as we went around the plains and started up a ridge onto Finagore. It was almost dark when we stepped off the narrow cliff ledge and slipped onto a balcony.

A dozen dwarf warriors spun when I led Aveline through the open door. I grinned, “The wyvern is still feeding.”

One dwarf growled as it stomped towards us, “Who be you!”

I smiled as I waited for him, “Blade and my partner is Aveline. We are from the rangers.”

He stopped and glared up at me, “Did you bring more?”

I shook my head, “We came to see if there was anything we could do.”

He snorted and spun, “Useless then.”

I laughed as I strode after him, “We have a few ideas dwarf. Now is there any chance of a hot meal and a bath?”

They grumbled but led us out and down to a huge hall where hundreds of dwarves were eating. After that we had a nice long soak before meeting the tall dwarf king. Each clan had their own king and this one was both grumpy and rude. We were up early and left the way we had come in.

The wyvern was on one of the ridges digging at an opening. We managed to sneak up to within fifty paces and watched it carefully. I finally touched Aveline and we silently slipped back and away. Once we were a distance from the huge beast I stopped and looked back, “An arrow would never penetrate. Even if it did it would never go in far enough the kill.”

She nodded, “It would be to big to trap.”

I grinned, “We could blind it with arrows.”

She snorted, “It would still take weeks to die and wyverns tend to regenerate.”