The Dragon’s Throne 1

They had been young and completely incapable of understanding the desire to live a simpler life after technology had almost wiped out the human race.  Now that he was older, he understood the call many of the villagers had felt toward Aldeia, and he didn’t blame them for wanting to protect themselves from falling into the trap of relying so heavily on technology.  It never seemed to work out well for the human race.

Daniel crossed the bridge, legs heavy like lead, his breathing shallow and his head light with the effort.  He was fading fast, and if he didn’t find somewhere to bed down soon, he was going to be in trouble. 

The final hill before the forest surrounding Aldeia stood before him, beyond the trees that lined the eastern side of the river, daunting though he knew that its slope was not nearly as steep as it appeared now.  He was standing beneath one of those trees, holding on to stay upright and trying to catch his breath when he heard the flap of leathery wings in the sky behind him.

 He shrunk against the tree, peering through the forest canopy and watching as several dragons passed over the river and went on to Aldeia.  He waited, watching them as they flew east, counting them and finding that there were almost twenty dragons in the air. 

He was sure that they were looking for him. 

He looked at the huge open area between him and the next forest and took a ragged breath.  He couldn’t risk going across that open space now, with dragons so close.  He would have to wait them out, or take his chances and hope that they didn’t circle back overhead again. 

Sliding down the tree until he was sitting propped against it, he decided to wait them out.  If they had seen the blood he’d left behind after the fight, they surely knew that he was on foot.  They wouldn’t go much further than the village beyond Aldeia, then they would circle back. 

He leaned back and looked at the moon, which was still above him but closer to the western horizon than the center of the night.  He had a few hours before daybreak.  He could rest for an hour, then keep watch before he made his way across the grassy hill.

His eyes closed before he had finished the thought, and just like that, he was asleep in the forest, hiding from his own kind and desperate to get away.  He was so close to freedom, and he wasn’t about to give it up by getting caught here.

He awoke hours later, groaning at the pain that was still there even though he’d slept soundly for quite some time.  The moon had almost set, and he was sure that the search party had come and gone while he slept since he had dozed for at least an hour, maybe two.

He shook off the sleep and stood slowly.  Holding onto the tree, he waited for the wave of dizziness to pass, then he took his first steps out into the open meadow, headed straight toward the hill, then going up it one arduous step at a time.  By the time he got halfway up, he was forced to crawl, his body too weak and too ravaged to conquer the steep grade upright.

When he reached the top, he tried to stand up, but found that he couldn’t.  He continued on, ignoring the path on his right that wound around and eventually led to the village.  He was running out of time, and he knew that it was only a few dozen yards to the edge of the village if he went straight through the forest instead of following the path. 

His knees ached and his hands fumbled in the dark, trying to find the easiest path in the dense foliage of the small animal trail that he found between the trees, which was only wide enough to accommodate a small deer.  Daniel was starting to rethink his plan, but he knew that it was the right thing to do.  He was fading so fast, and there was no way he could afford the time and the effort it would take for him to loop around the forest and waste almost half a mile of travel when there was a shortcut right there.

Still the terrain was rough and Daniel was out of breath.  He stopped, giving his body a moment to rest, then taking each stride one hand at a time again.  He wasn’t going to die out here in these woods when he was so close to the outskirts of the village.  He didn’t know what he would find when he made it to the village, but he hoped that whoever he encountered would be willing and able to help him.  Otherwise, he was a dead man.

He was still on his knees, too exhausted to go much further when he reached the edge of the forest and saw the cabin no more than one hundred feet away.  He would have cried out in relief if he’d had the energy to make a sound, but he was too weak to do much more than crawl forward on his hands and knees, ignoring the cold that seeped through his hands and the knees of his black suit.

With eyes that were heavy he pushed himself to move one hand in front of the other, and one knee at a time.  His eyes closed more than once and he fought to open them, knowing that falling asleep on the frozen ground with his injuries was a death sentence.  Each time his eyes closed, his progress stopped and he blinked to find his face inches from the ground, his body on the brink of just letting go.  With grim determination, he forced himself to rise up, ignoring the excruciating pain that followed the monumental effort.  He couldn’t give up now, he was so close.