Crimzon & Clover Read online

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  "Lift her up," Captain Harner barked. "Raise up her head!"

  A heavy fist grabbed a handful of her strawberry hair and pointed Clover's face directly at the rugged Captain. Their eyes locked, and Clover's hope for bluffing dissipated like a puff of pipe smoke in a gale. The Captain's eyes were nearly empty. Only a glint of hatred and a sparkle of greed shone in those icy orbs. Clover was about to die, and she knew it. The feeling was confirmed when the Captain's sword point deftly found her throat.

  "I'll ask you only once," the Captain hissed with narrow, angry brows. "Tell me the location of the dragon's lair, or swallow my steel!"

  Clover gulped. She felt a trickle of blood drip down her neck. It was a warm sensation that chilled her with terror. Her eyes darted from angry face to leering, angry face. In those gazes she found nothing but an eagerness to see her blood. She was about to blurt out a lie when two things stopped her. One was the Captain's blade point pushing firmly into her neck; the other was a shift in the shadows beyond the Captain.

  "She doesn't know, Captain," a voice spat excitedly. "Kill her! Or better yet, let me have her!"

  "Aye, Captain, those boots we found in her camp would look good on my wife," said another.

  Like a snake sliding through tall grass a thin, raspy voice cut through the grunts of approval for Clover's execution. "There's a way to find out for sure," said the mage.

  "I see you still have your wits about you, magic man," the Captain said coolly. "Tell us if she knows or if she'll die here by my blade."

  The mage began chanting rhythmically, waving his arms around. This went on for a few minutes. Then he paused as still as stone, made a choking grunt, and fell over. Everyone present, even the Captain and Clover, stared at the mage's lifeless body as if they expected him to jump back up any minute. The mage’s sphere of glowing blue light began to slowly fizzle out, causing a sense of panic to sweep over the hardened men. Clover felt the grips on her wrists tighten considerably.

  "What is it, Captain?" A shaky voice called out.

  "Yeah, what killed the spell caster?" Asked another.

  "Shhh!" The captain hissed. "Find a torch before we run completely out of light."

  The Captain turned and pointed toward something with his sword, allowing Clover to breathe again. Clover squeezed her eyes shut and fearfully began a silent prayer to the Green Mother. It was a typical stroke of luck that her eyes closed when they did, for a brilliant, white-hot shower of blazing dragon's breath came down over the unsuspecting Captain, cooking his vitals to char in less than a heartbeat. The intense heat and brightness of it told Clover to keep her eyes closed. She could smell her own hair burning and wasn't sure if she would be burned as well, but a reassuring voice in her head told her not to worry, to stay still and be ready to escape the cavern.

  Crimzon came back to help her, after all. When the bright heat finally disappeared, Clover felt one hand let go of her. She spun, twisted, and brought her knee up into her other captor's groin. Then she swung an overhand right into the warrior's helmet. She felt her hand bones shatter from the impact, but she also felt the man's gripping hand fall away.

  The eyes of most of the mercenaries were flash blinded by the dragon's breath. To them the cavern was nothing but bright, splotchy blackness. Since Clover kept her eyes closed, her sight was not as bad. With a little concentration, she was able to make out her surroundings in the dark.

  As Crimzon's bone-chilling battle roar echoed through the cavern, Clover looked around and saw the way she had to go to get out. She bolted up the shaft she had come down. An instant later, shouts, screams, and more blinding blasts of fire filled the chamber behind her.

  All of the young dragon's pent-up rage and his hatred for the men who killed his family came out as he unleashed his fury upon the men. With the mage dead, he didn't have to fear a magical attack, so he let his battle lust take over his senses. With his breath he blasted man after man, and with the crushing force of his long tail, whipped another against the wall. With a swipe of his claw he raked a trio of deep furrows across a man, then snapped his toothy maw shut on another. A sword bit into his scales and opened his flesh, but he gouged the swordsman with one of the spikes on his head and mashed his bones against the cavern wall.

  Clover chanced to look back to see how Crimzon was faring. By the sounds of it all, the men didn’t have a chance. By the look of it, Crimzon already wounded or killed most of them. A few men were fleeing up the tunnel toward Clover. She took this as a sign to move faster, and move she did. It was only about three hundred more paces through open tunnel to get out of the cavern into the valley, but to Clover's frustration, the way was blocked by two more men; men who hadn't yet seen the dragon, and were watching Clover approach through confused and excited eyes.

  The men before her heard the dragon as well as the clash of steel on scale and stone. Instinctively they wanted to run, but to disobey the captain was death, so they held their ground. When they saw Clover wasn't one of them, they quickly moved to block her way.

  Clover reached for her sword but found only the lump of the dragon's tear in her belt pouch. She didn't know why, but she fumbled for it as she charged on. When her fingers finally wrapped around it, the rush of power that filled her nearly dropped her in her tracks. Of its own accord, her broken hand shot forth and a jagged string-thin bolt of sizzling yellow shot from her fingertip into the chest of one of the men blocking her way. The man convulsed and fell trembling to the side, and before this even registered in Clover's mind, the other man was in even worse condition. She didn't even have to slow her pace. She hurdled their bodies in stride and kept running toward the moonlight. When she burst out into the valley bottom, she found another group of men, mostly archers, waiting there. They were as startled as she was. She would have been riddled with arrows had her luck not held true. One of the archers had snuck along a few skins of brandy and the men were half drunk and un-alert when Clover charged through their camp.

  When their comrades came out of the cavern, they went scrambling clumsily for their bows. Several of the men emerging from the cave were torn and bleeding. One was smoldering and missing an arm. Red embers flared on the end of his stumped elbow as he stumbled headlong from the cavern and sprawled onto the ground.

  "The Captain's dead!" A terrified voice called out.

  "The dragon's coming behind us!" Another yelled. "Archers, be ready!"

  Had it been the Captain's voice, they would all have continued scrambling for their bows. Instead they stood there, slack-jawed and shocked as Crimzon came loping out of the cavern. A screeching blast of fire finished off the armless man as well as the man trying to help him. From another direction, a crackling strand of yellow erupted from Clover's finger tip and electrified another man where he stood.

  A few of the mercenaries managed to get to their weapons and fire arrows back at Crimzon and Clover. But after Crimzon snatched up a man with his toothy maw and violently shook him in half, the others turned and fled, leaving everything behind save for themselves.

  Only a single man of the Captain's party remained. He was still down in the cavern. He had hidden in the rocks when the dragon showed up. He found the tiny, crystal-blue dragon's tear Crimzon cried so many months ago. Mistaking it for a jewel, he pocketed it. The rush of power he felt was nowhere near as powerful or intense as Clover's had been, but the man felt it just the same and knew his destiny lay elsewhere. He stole the coin purses off several of his fallen comrades, then quietly slinked away into the tunnel from where Crimzon emerged to surprise them.

  In the valley, after all the surviving men fled, Crimzon lifted his head proudly and let out a trumpeting roar of dominance that curdled even Clover's blood. When he was done, the dragon bowed before Clover and lowered his wing to allow her to mount his back.

  "Comes Clovers, let's hunts them down!" Crimzon hissed vengefully.

  "Do you think it's necessary?" Clover asked, feeling the throb of pai
n in her hand starting to lessen.

  "They will tellss taless and brings back otherss if we do not!" Crimzon rationalized.

  "Yes," Clover reluctantly agreed, "but this place can't be your … our home forever. There's a whole world beyond these mountains."

  "Yessss, Clover," Crimzon growled. "but climb upon me ands we wills chase them as they go. Theys deserves no easy escapess."

  Clover climbed on and had just gotten situated when Crimzon jumped into the air in a single leaping stride. On powerful surging wing strokes the young red dragon, and a very lucky woman, chased away the bad men. After that was done, they decided to explore beyond the mountains.

  Crimzon and Clover would have many more adventures. Some you might hear about in a tavern or in a bard’s tale like this one. After all, the world is but a playground for a girl with a dragon.

  The End (for now)

  Don’t miss: Crimzon & Clover II – The Tricky Wizard

  It is available everywhere eBooks are sold.

  To find out about other stories and novels by M. R. Mathias please visit: