Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A dragon

Fifty years had passed since we played siege to Klaus's compound, and since then, our small town had grown into a bustling city with hundreds of vampires calling it home. So far, we had only heard from Elijah in the occasional letter, though he assured us he was well. I was still worried that Klaus would eventually turn on him. I walked through the bustling streets as I did every day, a routine I stuck to, showing my face, talking to the merchants selling their wares. I stopped at one stand in particular, a merchant by the name of Leonardo, who was selling wine, wine from one of my wineries. "It's good to see you, Lord Asmund, you look well". The merchant said, "I am Leonardo, how are you, your family?" I responded. "I am good and the family is too, thanks Lord Asmund" I nodded before continuing my walk, speaking to merchants and their customers.

Soon enough I reached the stable where my horse was being kept, an Andalusian in a very rare pure white colour, a war horse, strong, sturdy, perfect for me. It was a gift from Finn for one of my many birthdays. He started breeding horses when we came back to Greece, and as such, each of us had been gifted one at some point. Leading it out I rode past the city walls and further heading towards a small village east of the city. One of the high-ups in the city had asked me to go and deliver a letter to a jeweller who lived there. Now, normally I would have refused such a request, but I had nothing to do today, and it could not hurt to get on the good side of other nobility.

As I got close to the, I heard screams and saw smoke on the horizon. Deciding it was worth investigating, I sped up, pushing my horse to the limit to get there. As I got closer, I heard screams about a monster flying through there, breathing fire across the village. Just as I was about to get off my horse, I heard an almighty roar cascading through the air. Looking up, I saw a giant monster with wings casting a giant shadow across the land. A dragon, the one monster from Legacies I hoped not to encounter, but compared to that one, this was massive. It looked to be over a hundred and fifty metres in length from head to tail, with scales that were the size of dinner tables and coloured in a brilliant gold. As it came back around, its mouth opened, and from it spilt a river of white hot flame that flowed across the village. In an instant, I raised a barrier to protect myself and my horse, the flames rushed over us and even with the barrier, the heat was unbearable. My enhanced hearing picked up the screams of the villagers as they burned to ash from even the other side of the village. With another thunderous roar, the dragon flew away, taking several heads of cattle in its fiery maw. I jumped off my horse and started heading further into the village. Buildings had turned to ash in an instant, stone houses had melted like candle wax, and generally, the destruction was immense. Suddenly, I heard a quiet voice from among the carnage. Spying over, I looked around, and a young woman sat almost crushed under a stone pillar. With my vampiric strength I pulled it off of her before dragging her out from underneath it, she was in a bad state her body liitered with burns, cuts and broken bones. "help" she barely muttered out, with a single swipe of my claw I opened my wrist then brought it to her mouth, "drink, if you want to survive" I told her softly. She did as I watched her body heal, bones knitting themselves back together, cuts disappearing like they were never there in the first place. "How"? She muttered in confusion. "Do you knowhow to get to Corinth" I asked her, she nodded and I continued "take my horse to the stables there ask to speak to Finn tell him Asmund sent you, tell him what happened here" I finished. "what will you do" she asked me worry in her voice. "I am going hunting", my answer seemed to confuse her before she realised I meant the dragon, but she did not try to dissuade me, obviously the look on my face told her I could not be persuaded not to. After she agreed, she set off in the way I came from to my home city of Corinth.

Heading the way the dragon went, I found more carnage villages on fire, chunks of smoking cattle, their remains lying on the ground, no doubt fallen from the beast's maw. I followed its trail for an hour or two until I reached the bottom of a mountain. I could see a cave almost halfway up, smoke billowing out of its entrance. Walking up the mountainside, I realised that this was the right place, the smell of fresh-cooked flesh filled the air. Rocks were melted, the remains dripping down the mountainside. I reached the entrance, the smell of sulfur filling my nose.

Entering the cave with my sword drawn, bone crunched underneath my feet, and blood running thick across the stone. Continuing further, the smell of burned flesh and sulfur reached an all-new high, causing my eyes to water and burning my throat like acid. The heat also increased to the point that even my enhanced skin started to redden and blister. The cave opened suddenly, and I saw the giant dragon curled up, sleeping. I snuck closer, bade raised, getting closer I prepared to stab the beast, thrusting with most of my strength, I was surprised when the blade just glanced off the scale, only a small groove carved into the scale. Immediately as the blade hit the dragon, it woke, spinning with surprising speed and batting me aside with its tail, pain shot through my body as I hit the cave wall with a crack. The beast opened its maw, aiming straight at me before releasing a torrent of white hot flame. Unfortunately for it, I managed to raise a magical shield at it again, blocking the burst of flame. Realising the fire was not working, it dived at me, attempting to clamp its jaws around me, teeth the size of swords came close to tearing me apart, but I held its jaws open. My strength was great enough to hold it, but not for long, so I dived sideways before delivering a punch to the side of its head, rocking its head to one side. I drew my claws before slashing across its body, cutting deep into the scales but doing little real damage. Again, it roared, spinning to try and knock me down, but I dodged slashing again at the same scale, digging deeper but not getting all the way through. I kept at it for a while, dodging then slashing repeatedly at the same point before finally drawing an ounce of blood; it flowed over my fingers, near scalding but bearable.

The beast roared again in fury, its titanic body turning again, this time using its foreclaws to slash me. Not expecting it, I only narrowly avoided being bisected, but the claw did meet my body, carving a giant gash from my shoulder to hip. Roaring in pure fury, I dived back at the beast, tearing at the injury on its side, which had widened with each strike, eventually reaching almost a metre in length. It roared at me again letting out another torrent of flame that turned the stone surrounding us into magma. I struck again hitting its head with every ounce of strength I had, my knuckles cracked and broke under my strength before my regeneration started working overtime. The dragon faced me again and bit down toward me, attempting to swallow me whole, diving back. I just barely avoided becoming its lunch. Although part of me did fall victim to the beast, my hand came off in its giant maw blood squirting out from above my elbow. I screamed in rage and pain and turned to get my ****. I dived at it again, aiming with my one remaining hand delivering punches to its skull, before I kicked with both legs into its head, knocking it to the ground. Before I could deliver another attack, though, the beast shot into the air, soaring out of the cave, blood flowing out in a trail.

Looking around the cave, I saw a hoard of treasure in one corner, and in another, massive amounts of meat, human, animal and others I could not recognise. Picking up my blade, I sprinted to the cave entrance. Night had descended, and I could not let it escape. Shooting myself into the air after it, I followed, pushing my flight to its fullest until the figure of the beast entered my view. With a roar of fury, I battered into its side, knocking it through the air, turning it. Another roar of fury filled the air as the beast spun, attempting to deliver more flame in my direction. The night air lit up for miles around as the dragon madly spat flame all around. Its tail caught me again, knocking me dozens of feet through the air towards the ground below. The beast took the opportunity to attempt escape again. I would not allow that; I rammed back into it again and again, battering myself against its massive scales. Looking all over it, I saw the wound at its side, smirking, and an idea came to me, I dived at it with my one remaining clawed hand outstretched before I started to spin rapidly, shooting myself forward, I hit the wound on its body. Travelling straight through, my body bathed in the beast's scalding blood and viscera as I tore through it shredding meat, bone and organs. For half a second, I was completely embedded in its body before I popped out the other side, its scales giving way and allowing me to shoot into the night air. I breathed in pulling great gulps of fresh air into my lungs before turning to face my foe. Its body had already started falling into the forest below, crashing into the trees below, tearing itself a clear path. I shot downward toward the beast, its body lay dying on the ground, barely still alive. Looking at the giant wound on its side, I felt an urge to drink unlike anything I had ever felt before. I tried to resist, but could not, latching my mouth onto it. I felt the scalding blood flowing into my mouth, and I drank. Greedily, I gulped down mouthful after mouthful of the beast's blood while my hands came up and started to syphon its magic. I drank and drank even past my usual limit until the dragon itself ran dry, every ounce of blood no longer inside it. I had no idea how I had drunk so much, but it was exhilarating. I looked down at the blood on the ground and could not help myself, using my blood manipulation, on I raised it all and directed it into my mouth without thinking about it, drinking all that too.

Finally, after no more blood remained, it hit me that I had drunk so much, not to mention syphoning all the magic from within the beast. I felt so full as though at any moment I might burst, but that did not matter, I needed to clean up and then go home. Walking around the forest for a few minutes I came to a small stream and stepped into it, washing off the blood and internals of the dragon. Looking down at my arm, I noticed my flesh starting to heal slowly, blood still poured from the wound, but within twenty-four hours, I would have healed completely, a new arm in place of the one I lost. Suddenly, I felt all the magic and blood in me burning me up, and I passed out, falling face-first into the mud.

I woke up in the same place hours later. I still felt hot, and my skin felt hotter than it had been before. Although I no longer felt as though I would burst from the blood and magic flowing through my veins. I felt powerful, though, as if my strength had increased, and my magic was as if I had doubled in strength; my control over fire especially seemed immensely stronger. Is this what happens if you consume dragon blood and siphon its magic? If so, then it was definitely worth it.

Standing, I started walking back to the beast. I had to hide all traces of this fight. Seeing the dead dragon lying in the dirt, I raised my hand, lifting its entire frame a few feet off the ground before starting back towards the cave. Once we got inside the cave, I dropped the beast down, casting a few spells to keep its remains perfectly preserved before leaving. I sealed the cave with a giant stone before casting illusions over it in the hope that they would keep all prying eyes away from my prize. A dragon and its hoard, after all, could end up being very useful.

I started the long journey back home, looking around the forest on my way there. The forest had been torn apart with a faint gash in the earth from the dragon's landing. The smell of sulfur filled the air for miles around, while you could almost taste the ash in the air. The battle had definitely been a destructive one, perhaps even my hardest fought one.

I arrived back home early the next morning, going through the door into the main room I was greeted by the familiar faces of my sister, two brothers and a few of the vampires that came with us to Greece. "Had a good night, brother", Kol laughed out while gesturing to my still missing hand "Not too bad, brother, how was yours?" I responded sarcastically. His smile just widened at my tone before Finn interrupted our verbal spar, "This young woman tells quite the tale", he said, gesturing to a seat in the corner of the room where said young woman sat sleeping. "She says you encountered a dragon and went to fight it", he continued, a look of contemplation on his face. "Yes that is true, I even killed, it though it did not go down easily, even took a piece of me for the trouble" I said, I'd raised my arm to show the missing part., "Yes, I saw, Rebekah wanted to go look for you as soon as we heard, but Kol talked her out of it", he said, his look changing to one of slight amusement. "You're an idiot, you could have gotten seriously injured or worse", came the voice of Rebekah, speaking up for the first time since I got back", but I am glad you are mostly okay", she continued with a smile on her face. That is when it hit me, "Where is my horse? Is it okay?" I asked them. "It's fine brother, tired though, sleeping off the journey in the stables the girl took good care of it" Finn responded again before standing up "I suggest you thank her when she wakes, also think about what to do with her, she knows about us after all" he continued before leaving the room. "What should we do with her brother"? Came Rebekah's voice yet again. "Perhaps we could keep her around, train her, and turn her when we think she is ready for it," I answered, to which Rebekah nodded. With that settled, myself, Katherine and Rebekah headed to bed. Despite passing out earlier, I was extremely tired, so I was glad to get some rest.