That was a nice little break for me. There will be another Chapter tomorrow; it is almost done. I am aiming for four this week: Dawn.

Stone

Chapter 23 – Dragons

“Dragons,” Granger spat out when Stone and Rayla approached him after his storytelling session. “There are no dragons in the Green valley.”

“Anywhere else?” Stone prodded.

“Well, there are stories of dragons being seen in the southern lands. They only appear for a second or two. There must be more than one, because the reports say that they are colored Red, Blue, Silver, Gold or Green. Some say they are invisible, and they capture cattle from the fields, or burn barns and houses. People can’t explain how fire could appear from the sky except for invisible dragons. But the never come up here, if they even exist.”

“Thank you,” Stone said.

“Would you like dragon stories?” Granger said. “I don’t know any, but if you give me a few days I could make some up.”

“No thank you,” Rayla said. “The stories would only terrify small children … and others.” She glanced at Stone as she said the last.”

O’Breyne had taken the children home, and the couple followed, taking over childcare from the old wagoneer.

The next morning Stone and Jason walked into town. The walks each morning were a good bonding experience for the man and boy, who talked of many things he would not say in front of Rayla and his sister.

“Let’s try the new bakery,” Stone said, so they dropped in there. Jason was disappointed to see that they only had buns and bread, no cookies or pastries. One thing Stone was happy to see were meat pies, and he bought a sack that would do for supper.

To please Jason, Stone also went to the other bakery, which was starting to become a bit of a café. There were no tables free, and when people tried to stand and let the Captain have their spot, he waved them back. “We are just getting some pastries for breakfast, and will take them home to eat,” Stone said. Then he bought four pastries, and four tarts for dessert for lunch or supper.

They didn’t get far towards home before Jason begged to get his pastry to eat on the way. There was little talking as he worked through the treat.

Stone found Sgt. Pothman at the house. “I have arranged for a troop of men: 30 you said. When do we leave?”

“Where are the incoming soldiers Arthur spotted,” Stone asked Rayla, who got a blank look on her face as she communicated with the eagle.

“There are 22, not 20,” she said. “They stopped at one of the outlying farms overnight, and left recently. They are about 6 hours from town at the rate they are riding. The family on the farm waved to the men as they left, so apparently they met under good terms. Wait! Arthur says that the farmer is hitching up a wagon.”

Stone pondered the news for a moment, and then worked it out. “They must have boarded with the family overnight, probably staying in the barn. The family must have fed them, or loaned them cookware to make their dinners. The troop paid the farmer, and he has now decided to come to town for supplies, now that he has some cash. He may bring some goods to sell, too.”

He turned to the Sgt.: “Lets leave in an hour. We have no wagon, so we can ride three hours out as they make two hours towards us. We will be far enough from town in case there are problems, but I don’t think there will be.”

The sergeant left to organize his men, and Stone went in to have breakfast. Rayla had bought a half-dozen eggs from a farm wife the day prior, so they had eggs on rolls for breakfast. Jason suggested that it would be nice to have bacon with them, but when Rayla suggested that they go boar hunting, he decided the eggs alone were good.

Stone rode Doug out on the east road. Jason begged to come, but Rayla forbid it, and Stone didn’t argue. They wanted to make an impression on the visitors, and a six-year-old boy would not help. There was one non-soldier there as it was: the town cartographer begged to come as a chance to learn more about the Greenswarth.

They met the oncoming troop about where Stone had estimated they would, and the soldiers there lined up across the road, with most of the soldiers dismounting, and drawing weapons.

“Welcome to the Green Valley, Stone shouted out. Put away your weapons. We mean you no harm.”

There were still two men mounted, and one shouted back. The foot soldiers sheathed their swords and went back to their horses. Their two leaders trotted up close to Stone and his formidable troop, who had not pulled out swords.

“Are you from the town of Greenstone?” the captain of the visitors asked.

“Aye. What is your purpose in sending an armed force here?” Stone asked.

“We felt that 22 would not be overly threatening. We seek friendship, not battle. Traders from your town have told us that your town has a new and improved way of fighting. We would like to learn it. For defensive purposes only: the Duchy to our east has been hinting that they would like to attack.”

“Why is that?” Stone said. “Greed or something else.”

“Greed is a factor,” the captain said. “But Orono, our duchy, banned slavery 35 years ago, when the current Duke’s father took over. Now that his son has taken over, our enemies feel the time is ripe to threaten us.”

“So you have no slaves?”

“Very few. Most accepted their freedom, but a few did not wish to be free. But most of those have died off. I cannot promise there are no slaves in the duchy, but none among younger people. Children of slaves are immediately free.”

Stone was impressed that the duchy had many of the rules that his lands did. “We fight on horseback, with longer swords,” he said. “You can see our saddles and weapons. They devastate foot soldiers. If you want, we will make some saddles and stirrups for your men, and train them. We will charge 45 gold, 50 if you also want a new, longer sword.”

“I will have to speak to the duke about this,” the captain said. “The reason our numbers are so small is that we could not leave the duchy undefended. I would hope that you could train 100 men for us, 20 at a time. Those could train other troops, and our smiths and saddlers could equip them.”

“If you fear for your duchy now,” Stone said, “why not take these 30 of our men with you. Leave your 20 with us, and we will begin training them. If your lord approves our price, which is not negotiable, then those 20 can leave in three weeks, fully trained and with saddles and swords and another 20 can come. Note that my 30 men will be worth 100 of your trained soldiers, and 200 militia.”

“That sounds fair,” the captain said. “We welcome your support. When they arrive, we can send the second 20 to you, with the gold.”

“I also want to send this scholar with you,” Stone said. “His skill is in the drawing of maps. He is not a spy, and he will draw a map for your lord showing all the lands and roads in the Green Valley, in return for making a map of your lands for me.”

After the two troops switched position, with Stone ordering his men to obey the captain as they would him, Stone and the visitors headed back to Greenstone. As they did, Stone made calculations. The smiths only charge a half gold to make stirrups, and three gold for a good sword. The saddler asked for a gold for a saddle, so there would be over 40 gold profit from each trooper, and 800 for a group of 20. There would be no cost for training the men: with 30 men gone, the 20 coming in would be even fewer to feed. And finally 800 times 5 groups would mean 4000 gold for the town coffers: enough to end the town money worries. If the other duke would afford the price, that is.”

Back in town Stone left Pothman to organize the training, while he went to the saddler and smiths to get saddles and weapons ordered. Both groups were eager to get the business at those prices, and started to work immediately, promising five saddles in two days, and the other 15 in a week. The swords would take longer, but the visitors would be using wooden sticks for training anyway. It would only take a day of training with swords, to get used to the greater weight. Pothman had suggested that the first week of training would be mainly horsemanship, and said they could get five saddles out of the armory, meaning half the trainees could ride with stirrups, while the other half would use their old saddles, quickly learning the differences. In the second and third weeks they would learn more specialized ways to fight on horseback with stirrups.

Back at the house, Stone was surprised to see O’Breyne painting the house white. Rayla was busy as well; painting the door, window, and eaves red. The kids were in school or daycare.

“Do you like?” Rayla said. “The paint makers gave us a deal on the paint. They know that when people see how pretty our house looks, others will want to paint their own.”

“It is pretty already,” Stone said. “But now it will really stand out. I hope others won’t choose the same colors.”

“They won’t,” Rayla said. “I said the same to the paintmakers, and they promised to not sell any more red for two weeks. They also have blue, green, yellow, brown, and black. Hopefully people will all choose different colors for trim. Most will opt for white as the main color, because that is the cheapest color. Red is most expensive, but we got it at the same price as white, as part of our deal.”

“When will you finish?” Stone asked.

“I want this side done before the kids come home from school,” she said. “And if you get off that big beast and lend a hand, we might finish the whole place by dark. You do the eaves – I don’t like being up so high.”

The house was finished on one side when they heard Emily’s squeals as she saw the new look as Jason led her home. Also, towns people were stopping by, many of them immediately going to the paint factory after they left. Rayla spent more time talking to neighbors then painting after Stone started, but they still had the entire house completed an hour before the evening meal, which was meat pies, a welcome change from stew at the communal dinner.

That night Stone woke in a sweat. Rayla notice immediately: “What happened?”

“It was the nightmare again. The same, but different,” Stone said.

“But you are not wailing,” Rayla pointed out.

“I promised Emily I would never make that sound again. But I am wailing inside. We all died again. It was different this time. I didn’t kill the kids or you. At least not intentionally. But when I killed the dragon, the burst of fire baked us all. You, the kids, Doug. I don’t know if Arthur died this time. If he did I didn’t see him fall. But I rose up like a spirit, and the bodies of all I loved, and my own body, were laying there dead. It was just as horrible as before.”

“But different,” Rayla said. “I bet this is because we were talking about Dragons with Granger today.”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean I had the first nightmare without knowing anything about them.” He cuddled into Rayla for a few minutes until his heartbeat returned to normal. Then he got up and left the room for a minute. When he came back he cuddled into his wife again. “I had to see the kids,” he explained. “I gave them all a kiss. They are sleeping so peacefully. It calmed me down.”

That was not the last time the nightmare occurred. About once every week for the next two years it struck. Each time was a little different. The third occurrence, Rayla and the kids moved away when the dragon struck, and only Doug and Stone died. In the other times, Stone attacked in different ways, always dying. Eventually he realized that he was learning. It was like a video game he had played as a teenager. You kept getting killed, but eventually you learned how to defeat the dragon.

In Stone’s case, he learned once when he attacked the dragon from the rear, cutting into its tail. Fire spewed out, but Doug was able to dodge it, and they both lived, although badly burned. From that point on it was easier. Totally slicing the tail off in the right way made the fire escape away from them, and they were able to get away without burns. From then on, it was easy to kill the dragon safely.

One time he came back to the dead dragon, and saw the girl, now a withered out corpse that looked hundreds of years old. He came back quicker in later times, and was able to see her before she died. All she said was ‘thank you,’

Another time he waited at the dragon too long, and people from the village came out and surrounded him. They called him St. George and lavished gifts on him. A later time, they offered him their daughters, wanting him to impregnate him. When Rayla heard that story she asked: “And did you?”

“God no,” Stone said. “They were all young girls. I know you look 18, but these were younger, some way younger: closer to Jason’s age. I guess they were all menstruating, but girls that young: yuck.”

“St. George?” she said. “I think I have a new bedroom name for you. ‘Impale me St. George,” she giggled.

“Wait,” Stone said. “There is a religion in the old world that promises a martyr 70 virgins in heaven. I wonder if there were 70 of them? There were a lot of them.”

“That might be too much for even you,” Rayla teased. “It would take over a month to get through them, even if you took two a night.”

“You are the only one I want,” Stone said. “I think the next time I have that dream, I will run away before the people come.”