over their heads and their eyes wide with fear. A large orc moaned on the floor his left arm, still clenching a long blade, chopped off, while his right arm tried to staunch the flow of blood from the wound. Finally a strange child of the dragons sat on one of the straw cots his lips curled into a snarl, a dagger in his hand, but blood flowed freely from a deep stab wound in his upper leg.
Jon motioned to the orc against the wall and one of the goblins rushed over and began to attempt to stop the flow of blood with a heavy cloth jerkin bandage although it did little to help.
“Needs a tourniquet,” said Germanius to Sorus. “You know how to tie one?”
Sorus nodded his head and went over to help the goblin with the orc while Jon walked over the dragon creature as it took in a deep breath. Jon shook his head, the left side of sandy blonde hair flew freely while the right side was matted down with blood. “Don’t do it!” but his shout was not quick enough as a blast of greenish gas billowed out of its mouth towards the gray knight who dodged quickly to the right and only took a small part of the blast. Jon took a single stride forward and hit the creature in the head with the butt end of his sword, which sounded a loud crack. The dragon child immediately slumped over while Jon shook his head and put his hand to his eyes. “Burns like fire,” he said.
“Don’t rub it,” said Germanius. “Sorus get that jug of water there and rinse out his eye with it, I’ll keep watch on the prisoners.
Sorus, half-finished as he helped the little goblin tie the tourniquet around the stump on the now unconscious orc, quickly turned over the job to the orc’s ally. He then leapt up and followed Germanius’s commands and held the jug over Jon’s eye.
The gray knight squirmed away and tried to scratch at it as Sorus noted some blisters on his cheek. “Stop that Jon, let me get water in there,” he said, unstoppered the jug, and held it up.
“Smell that,” said Germanius and Sorus realized that he might be ready to pour beer or alcohol into the wound and brought the jug to his nose to make certain of its contents. He didn’t smell anything but decided to take a sip just in case and found it contained nothing more than water. He then held it over Jon’s eyes and quickly poured out a bit too much as it slopped over the lip in a rush. Jon pulled away and shook his head for a moment and then turned back to Sorus his eye closed and already swollen.
“Better give it another wash just in case,” he said and held open his eye with his forefinger and thumb as he knelt down and tilted his head back for another splash.
Sorus was a little more careful with the jug this time and managed to get a healthy dollop of the water on target. After a few more careful applications the young gray knight seemed to be somewhat soothed.
“Damn thing,” said Jon and took the jug from Sorus and poured it over his head. “I should have seen it coming.”
“You did see it coming,” said Sorus as he turned back to the prisoners and noted with satisfaction that they still sat huddled against the wall with no hint of aggression on their faces. “You missed most of it. I’d hate to see what would have happened if you got the full blast.”
“I’d not be as pretty anymore,” said Jon as he fingered his eye and Sorus could see redness even in the dim light of the cave.
“Tie them goblins up,” said Jon. “The orc is done for, he’s lost too much blood,” he continued and walked over to the unconscious creature whose arm was not effectively treated and the blood flow had slowed to a thick trickle. He grabbed the creature by the chin and turned his head first one way and then the other. “He’s finished. Shouldn’t have gone for his sword or he’d be alive today.”
“What about him,” asked Sorus and looked up from his job with a nod to the child of the dragon who still lay unconscious on the floor.
“I hit him pretty good,” said Jon, his huge stone sword now sheathed. “I don’t think he’ll be waking up for a bit but I didn’t bash his skull like I did that fellow down the hill. I meant to just knock him flat but I was a bit keyed up and hit him too hard.”
Germanius came over with a bucket of what looked to be dish water. “Put on that amulet,” he said and then threw the contents of the bucket on the child of the dragon with a splash. A moment later the creature sputtered to consciousness as it spit water from its mouth and tried to rise, although it immediately gave a cry of agony as the deep wound in its leg made itself felt. “Show him the carving,” said Germanius as he eyed the creature with a steady gaze.
Jon pulled out the wood statue the grizzled veteran gave him earlier in trade for his own more poorly carved specimen. The creature’s eyes widened for a moment and it looked towards a wall of the cave that was, to all apparent vision, nothing out of the ordinary. Sorus was by now finished with the goblins and immediately went over to the area to search it closely.
The wall of the cave didn’t look unusual in any way, sort of a dull gray with sparkly things in it, and Sorus couldn’t make out anything different in this section from any other area. “I don’t see anything,” he said over his shoulder.
“Take a branch from the fire,” said Germanius, “and bang around a bit,” he added with a nod of his head. “I’ll bet my left arm there’s something there, something to do with the dragon, or the staff, or both.”
Sorus came over, took a brand from the fire, and walked back over to the section of the cave where the creature looked a moment ago. The child of the dragon, for his part, looked anywhere but that area as it snarled at Jon. At one point it went to inhale deeply again but the Gray Knight punched him hard in the stomach, and it rolled over on its side and held its belly after that although the movement forced more blood from its leg.
“He’ll bleed to death if we don’t get that wound covered,” said Germanius to Jon as Sorus searched the back region of the cave.
“Go ahead,” said Jon. “I want to keep my eye on him in case he tries breathing that toxic goo on me again.”
Germanius nodded his head and began to pull some of the clothes off the dead goblins and rip them into strips. Within a few minutes he had enough to tie them around the upper thigh of the creature several times over and staunch the flow of blood. The beast didn’t squirm too much and managed to keep a snarl on its face the entire time.
“I found something,” said Sorus as he came back from the search just as Germanius finished with the wound. “There’s a notch in the wall or something, I tried to pull it and push it but nothing happened. Maybe I’m imagining it,” he finished with a shrug of his shoulders. “I didn’t see anything else suspicious looking. It might just be a natural indentation. I can’t tell a thing in this firelight. It’s hours until morning and I don’t like the idea of waiting here,” he finished with a look at the bodies on the floor and puddles of blood that slowly shrank as the straw sucked up the excess. The boy felt nauseous for a long moment and thought about going outside the cave to get some fresh air but then decided against it as Jon sat hunched over the strange dragon creature and whispered something to it as it continued to glare at nothing and remained silent.
“It’s something,” said Germanius as he came back. “Looks to me like a little piece fits in there. Search gas breath there is my bet,” he finished while he stared at the creature.
“It’s not talking any,” said Jon, “and I doubt the show it the statue trick will work again. “Sorus, you know what that notch looks like in the wall, see if you can find anything on the dragon child that looks like it might fit while I’ll go through his things. If he breathes in deeply give him a club to the stomach,” he finished with a nod to the young boy.
“My eyes ain’t what they used to be,” said Germanius. “Especially in the dark.”
“You looked like you could see just fine when you killed that one that was coming up behind me,” said Sorus as he reached down and pulled at the heavy wool shirt the creature wore. The shirt was empty but it’s pants pockets contained a number of strange items including a little silver stick like object with two curved projectiles coming off the end. “I think I found something,” said Sorus, holding it up to the light, and the creature suddenly hissed at him although the venom of the action was somehow less, the light in the creature’s eyes seemed to be dim. “It’s lost a lot of blood,” said the young brewer and looked at the blood soaked bandages that covered the wound. “I think you might have got him in a vital spot, Germanius,” he concluded.
“You were the one that stabbed him, Sorus,” said the old knight and patted him on the back.
“I was?” asked Sorus as he suddenly straightened up and looked at the older knight with his lips pursed. He scratched his head for a moment and then shook it back and forth. “I don’t remember that… well
… we rushed in and then Jon killed that one up front and I stabbed the other one and then… well… it happened so fast. It was like it happened slow then but now, I can’t seem to remember it. Did I really do it?”
