Rasnake(2)

—and causing them both to trip, fall, and go tumbling ass over kettle down the hill on one side of the old path. Tallant only just barely kept them from ending up in the creek. "Ass."

"Dick."

Tallant shifted on the ground and shoved lightly at Milton. "I'm not convinced—"

He forgot what he was going to say as a look of horror and fear filled Milton's face.

"Up," Milton said hoarsely, even as he scrambled to his feet and yanked Tallant with him.

It was only then that Tallant heard it, and in the very next breath he smelled it. Like copper and hot meat.

Dragon.

Tallant didn't know for certain, but he was pretty damn sure they were inside the wards. Dragons shouldn't be here; the wards made it impossible for them to get inside the kingdom.

It was on the other side of the creek, growling, grunting, six dark eyes swirling at them in ominous contemplation. To judge by its size—somewhere between massive and oh shit—and it's dark coloring, it was a mature male. Well, at least it wasn't a female. They were bigger and much, much meaner.

But to judge by the scratches along its hide, something only another dragon could manage, it had mated recently. Very recently. Always a brutal, life-risking endeavor for the males, they were never in good moods when they managed to escape being killed by the female.

Then there was no more time for thinking, as the dragon stormed across the creek, clearly intent on venting it's ire on them before making whatever was left into an afternoon snack.

Its breath was hot as Tallant just barely avoided its jaws, and he fled for dear life across the creek, trying to force his brain to work, cobbling together a stun spell and throwing it at the damned thing—

Only for the dragon to break the spell so quickly it hardly seemed the damned thing had worked at all. Shit shit shit. Scrambling up the bank, he struggled to his feet and looked around for Milton. After a moment, Tallant found him struggling up the bank several feet away.

"Hold it still, damn it, whatever it fucking takes," Milton gasped out, obviously having managed to take in water as he struggled through the creek. "I just need a few second to get in there and bury a sword through one of its eyes."

Nodding, Tallant watched as the dragon swung back around and considered them. He obviously was weighing the merits of the back and forth creek game. That was the biggest problem with dragons: they were too damned smart.

Bracing himself, Tallant drew all his magical energy together, tattoos hot on his skin. Then he drew still more power through the battle-bond, weaving it all together into a stun spell that would hopefully hold longer than a second.

As ready as he'd ever be, seeing the dragon was about to spring, he threw the spell at it with all his might.

Even as he did so, Milton was charging, prepared to get eaten by dragon if Tallant screwed up—trusting that Tallant would not—and as the spell landed, and the dragon was stunned, Milton threw himself at the dragon, climbed up its thick, sharp hide, and drove daggers into two of its six swirling eyes.

The pain drove the dragon to break the spell, and it tossed its head, sending Milton flying into the creek, momentarily lost beneath the knee-deep water.

Tallant swore and charged down the bank, shaping his magic into a spell of blinding light, throwing it to briefly shock and slow the dragon, stooping and pulling up a choking, sputtering Milton. They ran, fleeing further down the creek, running as fast as they could in the ankle-deep portions of it. Tallant swore as he hit a spot that proved deeper, and went down with a cry, pain radiating from his ankle—

As he regained his footing, they heard the ominous sounds of a pissed off dragon far too close. Desperate, scared to death, Tallant turned around and threw all of the remaining magic he could spare without passing out in the dragon's direction, willing the stun spell to better hold this time, watching in fear as Milton charged the dragon one last time—

And drove his sword into one of its eyes, barely managing it before he was once again thrown—this time into a copse of thorn bushes.

The dragon screamed, thrashed around wildly, but Tallant knew wild death throes when he saw them. He waited, not daring to move, barely daring to breathe, as the dragon thrashed about and finally collapsed, twitching for several more agonizing minutes before at last going still.

Tallant climbed shakily to his feet, making a wide birth around the body and then hobbling up the embankment into the copse of trees and bushes. "Milton?"

A pained grunt, followed by a groan, answered his call, and then Milton half-stumbled, half-limped into view. "So that was fun."

"Shut up," Tallant said with a sigh. "Are you all right?"

"I've been better, but thankfully I'm merely battered and bruised. I think I've done worse to myself in bar rights. Though I could have done without the impromptu swim."

"Better the water than the ground, as hard as he threw you," Tallant replied, relief sweeping through him as he sat down hard on the ground, scowling at the gigantic corpse between them and the creek now. The sun was setting, and while that had been nice before, now that they were soaked to the bone it was just one more unpleasant aspect to the whole disaster. "I don't get it," he said. "I was sure we were within the wards. What in the world is a full grown dragon doing here? Worse, one who was recently mated. I hope the female isn't around here somewhere."