Chapter 26

Hearing Charr call out, Lizz dropped her makeshift spear she had for fishing at made her way quickly back up to the camp. Looking around to see what had alarmed Charr she gasped immediately. A wyvern!! A mature aged wyvern could easily kill 3 hunters if they were caught unaware and ill equipped, and they were both.

“What should we do Charr?” Lizz asked panicking a little. She had only read about wyverns in the town library, and the stories she read did not end well 50% of the time.

“This mountain lizard, we need one more warrior, unless you wake prince and he help” Charr said, he was able to injure it, but even Charr knew he got lucky and the wyvern would try and make him pay for that.

Leaning over Rex, Lizz spoke into his ear, “Rex, if you are in there, we need your help.”

‘So if you take your fathers place, then you will be crowned…it seems they are in need of your help.’ Fafnir said looking up and cutting off his current topic.

“I am willing to help, if I can” Rex said jumping up from the sitting position, “Do you think my body is good to go? I have no idea being in here, the heat I felt before is pretty much gone, but the condition of my body I have no idea about.”

‘I sense you will be a little slower than usual, but the poison has almost been purged, one of the good things about being part dragon’ Fafnir said smiling and winking, ‘The wound is healed and your fever has almost completely broken.’

“I have never known how I can leave this place, it seems you always boot me…” Rex trailed off suddenly waking, “Bast*rd!” he swore under his breath with a smile. Getting to this feet it realised it was not going to be an easy fight, his whole body ached like someone had beat him all over with a club.

“Thank god!” Lizz cried, “Charr Rex is awake!! A wyvern has found us and it is not in a good mood.”

“Damn! I’ve always wanted to see what one of those looks like!” Rex sung out making his way over to Charr, he soon regretted his words when he saw the beast. A 4 foot tall lizard, with wings, but one seemed badly damaged. Looking at Charr and indicating with his head he asked, “Your work?”

“Yes prince, it chase me on mountain when look for fever flower. Had to hurt so I could run” Charr said, clearly pleased at his accomplishment.

Looking back at the wyvern, it was still circling the camp, as if taking in all details to plan an attack. it had gone ¾ of the way around when it smelled the air, hissed and then charged at Lizz. Squealing, she threw the only magic at it she could do quickly, which turned out to be a little lightning bolt. It did nothing to injure the beast as it hit, but had just enough force in the spell to put the wyvern off its target with one of its scales grazing Lizz and cutting her arm. “Ow!” she cried clutching her arm.

Charr and Rex both made their way towards to wyvern, Charr with his axe in hand and Rex brought on Fafnir’s claw because so far it was the only weapon he had ever used. Charr jumped and brought his axe down hard onto the front shoulder of the wyvern, but instead of hitting flesh it merely clanged against an armoured scale section, the beast quickly turned its head and clamped its jaws down hard onto his axe, trapping it. It was also bringing its tail around to broadside Charr when Rex lashed out with his morphed claw connecting with the tail in motion, to his horror, the claw cleanly severed the tail where he had landed the blow. Screeching in pain the wyvern let go of Charr’s axe and whipped around to see what had severed its tail. Hissing at Rex, the wyvern roared and leaped at him, going straight for Rex’s throat to kill him. Using the last of the strength he could muster he grabbed the jaws as it hit him and held on for dear life, he was running out of energy and fast.

‘I told you that you would not be at full strength, do not let this backwater lizard be your end’ Fafnir growled to Rex. He was doing everything he could to prevent it clamping its jaws onto any of him at the present time and Fafnir was not helping. He was just about to lose hope when the wyvern screeched and went limp dumping its whole upper body weight on Rex. He was just about out of breath when it was moved just enough for him to squeeze out.

“A little noticed next time you’re going to dump something like that on me, it bloody nearly suffocated me!” Rex sighed. He was hurt after that fight and was in need of rest, I am relying on Fafnir’s strength a little too much he concluded, will have to train in this realm as well as with him. Looking at the strength Charr had, he definitely thought he would be a good trainer for him. “Hey Charr, right now I need some rest, but I need to work on getting stronger, help me out?”

“You want Charr to show you how be strong?” Charr asked, a little perplexed. Even Lizz was looking a little confused at the request as well. They had seen the show of strength Rex had perform, throwing 2 spiders so easily not half a day ago, he could not even do that Charr thought and now Rex was asking for help to get strong?

“I think its about time we had a chat,” Rex said. He was getting tired at the confused looks and the worried looks his companions constantly gave him.

‘Remember, information is power’ Fafnir warned.

Sighing and rolling his eyes, Rex knew what he meant so decided that he would share a part of his story. “As you both know, I am a Magnus, and with being a Magnus, I can sometimes use the power of a dragon to aid me in combat. The reason why I seem like I zone out, is because he talks to me inside my head, it can get very distracting at times. But as you have both also seen, the strain of my body also becomes too much the more I use.”

“Hearing voices isn’t a good sign, even here Rex” Lizz chuckled raising an eyebrow. She believed him about the dragon part, they had seen it firsthand with Balrog. “So what other dragon skills can you use?”

“I don’t know, I’m working it out as I go.” Rex shrugged, that part was truth.

“Dragon share body with prince, no wonder so strong.” Charr laughed, “I help you get strong without dragon.”

“Thank you” Rex said.

“There is one more thing Rex” Lizz said softly, “I can’t fish for s**t and its dinner time.” That brought on bursts of laughter from all 3 companions. That outburst from Lizz was a perfectly timed comedic addition that helped ease the tension of the conversation.

‘She would make for a good life mate’ Fafnir said, again. Running his hands through his hair, Rex knew that Fafnir was right, again. The more he thought about it the more he wished it could happen. Must get home and sort that out first, and then mission 2 is Lizz he decided.

Still chuckling as he made his way down to the river, Rex used the same trick at the lake, dropping his hand into the water, causing a shockwave under the surface to stun some fish, wading out he collected enough for dinner and left the rest. That was Fafnir’s first rule, do not claim more than you need, greed poisons even the purest of hearts and Rex had already had enough poison in his system without adding to it. Walking back up to the camp, Rex dropped the fish next to Lizz with a smile and a wink. Seeing him come back so quickly with so much again she grunted at him and nodded her approval. Secretly Lizz was enamoured with Rex, he had shown nothing but loyalty, kindness and was now even starting to reveal secrets about himself, she thought from tomorrow she would share some of hers with him.

The usual dinner talks ensued between the companions about the wyvern fight and Charr told them about what had happened on the mountain side that led to it following them back. He also told of the Bohl stories of claiming a trophy from a kill like that and pulled out a large tooth and scale he had claimed after they had killed it. He was going to take it back to their hunters in the Ragnar mountains and claim the glory for his tribe for claiming such a prized kill and spoke about the women that would chase him. This made Rex and Charr laugh and Lizz just blushed a little. Soon after their meal, they decided it was time to turn in for the night, they were all extremely tired after the events of the day. Using the blankets Lizz had made, Rex and his companions rolled into their sleeping positions and drifted off quickly.

Rex found himself back with Fafnir to continue his teaching and somewhere else off to the south east of them, someone else had just entered the Kadota Desert. Turning her nose up at the sight of endless sand dunes, Nessa swished her water skin and predicted she had 4 days’ worth to find the trail that led to Madame Al’ik’s hut. The wound she had sustained in the fight with Rex was not healing at all and she had to constantly repack the wound. I have about a week until this wound kills me, she concluded. Better move fast she thought.