You do not need to ask me.You do not need to ask me. If you never feel that time tonight, I understand. I do not want to make any such demand of you. Understand?" "I... I think so. Please, sir, do not let me interrupt your story." As I approached Hakkana I sometimes saw Megassi circling between peaks in the mountains. The road I walked led through those mountains and, according to one scrawled sign I passed, across a pass that had claimed the lives of over a dozen men. The sign, too, warned of Dragons in those mountains, but I rationed that I had survived capture and rape and even the love of a satyr. A Dragon could do no worse. I camped in the hills the day before, and come morning began my ascent for the pass. I hoped that the Dragons would find me before then. And find me they did. Two swooped down from the high places in the mountains, flying over me in great, sweeping passes. Red-scaled and massive, their wings beat the air as they flew past and the wind they kicked up blew into my eyes and stung with fierce pain. I had learned magic to alleviate that pain and so use it, giving myself a chance to stand and examine my examiners. [Who are you ?] the first one demanded, his voice shouting in my head like a great storm. "I call myself Darynn, as my father named me! Thomorr, Lord of the Satyrs of Daber Wood has sent me to meet with Desa Megass of Hakkana." [You have a great many friends,] the one spoke again. [You may pass unharmed and without tribute unto the gates of our city. But if you have lied, your suffering will amuse us for days.] Speaking honestly, I had hoped for a ride. |