Chapter 7

Both Ray and Lou sigh as we start walking to the house, it is a fairly large house and it would be easy to pick us off with a bow from any one of the windows. The porch goes from the front to the back, the large oak door is old but beautiful with the sound of Rays knuckles coming off strong. When the door slowly swings open a large man with big sturdy shoulders gives a friendly "hello" to Ray and a nod to Lou but gives me a weary look.

Ray starts us off with a smile and says, "hello Mr. Albert how are you doing?"

This seems to make him more at ease and so he responds, "I'm doing well, what brings you so far out."

"We have received a complaint from a fellow neighbor saying they have been hearing noises from your barn. I am sorry for bothering you but would you mind if we take a look?"

He seems chill about it and nods, "I will grab my boots you can head out there."

When the door is closing I notice something wrong with this picture, he is already wearing his boots. As we walk over I whisper my findings to Lou and as response he nods.

The door is locked when we get there so we have to wait for the man to come with the keys, he hangs back at the door leaning against the frame while we search. It is a large barn but mostly open, one large area that would store wagons, a loft for straw and hay and a room for storing tools at the back. It is quiet and I can't hear any strange noises but we search anyway, we do not head up into the loft at all so I give it a good look over from down here. After searching down below for some time Ray calls Lou and I over to exit the barn, that is when my eye catches it, a glint of silver from the loft. The kind of glint that comes from an arrow, one aimed directly at Ray.

As I walk up next to the others I seize the opportunity to body check both Ray and Lou out of the way, and how am I rewarded for said gesture, why with an arrow in my right bicep. Two other arrows land in the dirt next to me and luckily Ray and Lou are unscathed, they have gone back to back weapons drawn in the center of the room.

The arrows that are fired at them hit a wall made of air making the attackers jump down only to be cut to ribbons by Lou's shortsword, anyone who stays up in the loft is blasted with balls of flame. Once they are done Ray puts out the fire while Lou cleans his blade. As I get to my feet I am checked sideways on top of one of the archers.

Two men with shiny black bows stand arrows drawn one pointed at Lou the other at Ray, they one speaks before they fire, "these bows shoot arrows that are unaffected by magic, any last words?" My mind is reading by what I'm seeing, not only do I have to accept that magic is real but also that I'm about to watch my friends be murdered, I react instinctively grabbing the fallen archers bow and the two arrows sticking out of the dirt and fire.

I have never shot two arrows at once but it's not like I have time to draw twice, luckily for me though they both hit their targets, not the men but the bows themselves, and with those discharged and out of enemy hands the men are restrained with a floating rope.

When Ray and Lou walk over I have only one thing to say, "ouch"

Lou gives me a smile and Ray says some fancy words that cause the arrow to fall out and the wound to heal. Lou helps me to my feet and hands me the rope, "come on." I pull the men along as we head back to the house, instead of knocking Lou turns the knob weapon drawn. The family is in the living room huddled in a corner for protection, "my name is Lou, this is Ray Alsace. Mr Albert you have some explaining to do."

He explains that the men came and told them to stay indoors and tell no one, they had heard a dreadful noise coming from the barn for days and could do nothing but wait. This is where Lou turns to our prisoners with a big grin, he is quite a good interrogator and within an hour we learn they bleed really well and that there is something hidden beneath the floorboards. Lou and I pile the bodies outside while Ray looks for an opening, twenty one men three women, two men I had personally killed.

We are tossing the last body when we hear Ray from inside yell, "get in here, now."

We find her behind a bale of hay halfway down a flight of stairs slack jawed, and when Lou and I walk down we join her, "Ray, Lou is that what I think it is?"

Lou replies without taking his eyes off it, "depends on what you think it is but most likely, yeah."

It is Ray who vocalizes what we see, "a dragon," sitting not twenty feet away shackled to the floor is a dragon, not a giant one but like an oversized horse like me in wolf form but with wings. It is on the brink of exhaustion as it cannot keep its eyes open for long before slowly blinking, long gruesome cuts spread across the creature and it is clear they were meant to bleed but not kill. I am the first to move and as I head over to it I take in the full picture, the dragon is chained to a cart with some sort of drainage system funneling all blood into a large basin at the back.

I start to pull at chains when Lou jumps down in concern, "don't free it, it could kill us all."

I know he meant no harm and was only worrying for our safety but seeing this creature like this is too much, all I can do is imagine me being chained and tortured because of my inner beast, "Lou. This creature has been through hell and it is because of humans, if it decides to kill me I'll accept it as revenge, if you want to leave it here like this you will have to stop me, if not give me a hand."

We manage to squeeze the dragon's limbs out from the chains and as we pull the last chain free we step back to survey it. Other than harvesting its blood nothing is wrong, I need to figure out why, "why were they harvesting the blood?"

Ray kneels down to heal the wounds and explains, "dragons blood contains such a high concentration of magic it can be used to cast spells. I have heard about weapons crafted for the purpose of absorbing the blood to increase the wielders magical ability to that of a gods. I did not expect there to be a demand for the stuff, these men must have been hired but by who and why here."

Lou rubs his temples for a minute, it is while he is doing so he says, "we need to get back, now. We have stayed long enough, I will get the farmer to lend us some horses." While she heals I open the big cellar doors and clear some debris.

As Lou pulls a pair of horses down the ramp I grab a harness, "guys, to be honest I have never put a harness on a horse." Now not only do I feel like an idiot I get two looks confirming it, and boy do I miss home right now. I copy Lou as he straps the first horse in and manage to get the second one firmly in place, not as quick but it is on properly.

The slope out of the cellar is steep and the horses are unable to pull such a heavy load up it, we need to get this thing up a steep slope and we don't have enough horses. Lou grabs the chains up front while I push on the back, Ray uses some kind of magic on it but still we gain no ground there is no way we can pull this out as is. That is what I think anyway, Ray has other plans, "Jack, why don't you use your gift to move it."

This takes me aback, "what? How do you know about that?"

My shock is clear I instantly have gone on defensive, that's when it hit me and Lou confirms it, "well we didn't actually know we had our suspicions and you have confirmed it. So Jack what is it that you can do that you are so afraid of?"

I cannot hide my secret, but do I need to tell them. "Listen Jack, Lou and I have fought many people with incredible skill but these guys are one of the best. The creature would have finished filling their cart by now so when it does not show up whomever is buying will go looking and I would rather have ten guards to back me up. What do you have to be afraid of, everyone has secrets but you don't need to burden them alone."

I take a step back, "I don't know if I can control it, the last time people died and I was powerless to stop myself. I can't do it we need to find another way."

Now Lou takes a crack at it, "listen Jack we cannot leave without the dragon, someone will come and if we don't leave we will all die. Ray is a master in knockout and capture magic we will be fine, we need you Jack."

Ray backs up his statement, "if you go out of control I will deal with you, you won't hurt anyone."

They make good points and since Ray can stop me this is probably my best chance to learn to control it. Taking a deep breath in I decide, "yes but only if you promise to end it if anything goes south." With a nod for a reply I begin.

I don't know how exactly but I pull the beast within to the outside, as I open my eyes to survey my situation I see Lou and Rays astonishment. To be honest if it wasn't so dangerous I'd think it was epic, but I know the truth about my power I know what it can do. I have no clue how long I can stay like this so I get right to work, I bite down hard on the chains used to restrain the dragon and walk up the ramp. It weighs as much as a car yet I'm able to pull it up with ease. When I get to the top I feel a flickering of blood lust and decide to become human now that I finished what needed to be done I pull myself back to being human.

The first thing I notice is how cold it is out here and then I realize I'm in my birthday suit, thankfully Lou tosses a cloak over me, "we are going to have to get you some clothes you won't lose when that happens." I grab some clothes from the farm house while Lou piles the dead bodies onto the cart, with that all done we start heading back.

Our pace is slow as we get stuck often and I need to pull us free when it happens, finally it is decided for me to take place of the horses so Lou and Ray can ride them and we can move quickly. The trip goes well and I manage to stay as a wolf without losing control, it is quite the effort though. By midnight the estate comes into view, that's when we notice the smoke, large black clouds floating freely from the estate. It's under attack, so ditching the cart we move at full gallop although I could still move faster.

They climb while I merely jump the fence, landing in the bushes we survey our enemy. The bodies of the guards lie in the front yard, there are a few men in black dead there too but not even close to equal, the men in black are skilled. There look to be thirty men in total surrounding the staff of the house whom are bound on there knees in one big group.