~ 15 ~

There Comes a Time in Life Where Your Ass Gets Hella Whooped

Fuck that.

Afar, the dragon towered on two legs, erecting in place. Something flooded through my body at anything happening to the princess. I blasted forward, both in a lunge and a mighty flap of my wings, tearing over the trees through the air.

I watched the side of his face as I grew near, a blurring of green below, a current of warm winds passing through me. I saw him grin the second I was too late and, with a fist raised to the air—he slammed it into the back of my head.

"Down... little dragon." The voice zoomed upward as I plummeted downward. Trees, rocks, unlucky animals—the spread of land, crushed, beneath me. I flattened against the ground, the air knocked from me. "Good to see that you're more... motivated since our last encounter. But I can see now why you choose not to fight."

His claw gripped the back of my head, flattening my spines, as I adjusted to having air knocked out of me. Nothing can prepare you for that first punch. How you feel when your internal wiring has been mixed around. I gasped for breath as he raised my face to his lowered one.

"But that begs the question—why the action? I invaded your land, acquired your home, spat on you while you left... and you seemed content to cower." His snarl deepened into viciousness, and I wheezed for breath. "I don't kill that which is too easy. There's no game in it. No sport whatsoever. And more than that: there's no fun, no entertainment in it."

I coughed without air. "Never... knew there was much fun in watching a hamburger."

"Ah. So that is you, is it? A useless dragon somewhat decent with his words? Tch, tch, tch." Its golden talon tapped on my nose. "That's a human skill. We dragons only speak for a reason higher than theirs. Words buy you power from another—you are always at another's whim."

His talon pulled away as his head tilted, the sharpness of his mouth, opening, revealing the hell inside. He exhaled, a horrible fume filling my struggling lungs. I choked and coughed, unable to breathe, tormented in his created punishment.

"Now go ahead and speak." He blew more horrible breaths with every word. "Use your words to convince me to stop. Go on now. I'll promise to listen."

"Go... fuck yourself."

"Ah-ha! You've grasped the lesson quickly." His face pulled away, and the wind on my snout presented fresh oxygen. "To have begged would have been to die right there. To have joked would have caused me to hurt you until you could speak no more. But to spite me? It's the last honourable thing that a dragon can do."

He smiled. "My name is As'gar Fuhar, the Golden Dragon of the North." His head cocked the other way. "I eat only that which has been burnt with life. I don't kill cattle until they struggle with all their might against me. I don't squish humans until they've come to neglect everything else in trying to kill or spite me."

His claw curled into a fist, and with As'gar grinning, he blew me with a punch that flipped me backward in the air. Everything whirred as my senses were lost. I saw a whip of the sky before crashing on my back. Everything rumbled, pains and sensations distant. I lay on my back, hearing nothing.

It felt like I'd been submerged underneath water, and all I could see was the sky, its blueness, the emptiness across that colour. In a second, the underside of a claw loomed above—smacking and crushing my chest. I croaked and lurched, but the force denied my movement.

I laid there as the dragon settled above me.

"What caused you to come alive, Emerald Dragon? What was the reasoning that infused your existence with purpose? I live to see others come alive—seconds before I rob it from them." It twisted its foot on my chest, and though I gripped his ankle with both claws, his force doubled, and I couldn't even lessen the weight. "What has finally made you into a dragon?"

There were only two words for me to say.

"Fuck... you..."

As'gar chuckled. "Fool. You've given yourself away. Now would have been the time to use your words." Something whipped upward and next to his head, a curled tail, with something tucked at its center. "But, then again, if I had any reason to believe that she was worthless—I would have already swallowed her."

My eyes widened as the tail lowered closer to me, and in the great bundle of tail, like one ensnared by a massive snake, I saw the human, puny and helpless, struggling against the impossible. Her blade had been struck into the tail, impaled to the hilt into the scales. She carved into his scales—but it was less than a papercut.

"So... different from you, isn't she? Not caring about the impossible." The princess noticed me for a second, reaching out an arm, shouting—before retracting back to the heavens. "I would have gobbled her from the grass, feeling her struggles against my throat, the diminishing of her spirit as she slowed within my stomach."

My claws planted harder against his ankle, pushing with all my might, tearing my muscles. Smoke fumed from my snout, groans rumbled from my throat. I focused on this one thing alone, uncaring that it was pointless. I had to do it. I had to do something.

I couldn't lay there and take it if she was in danger.

"But something about her powers you to life! Gives you a cause and a reason to struggle against the impossible." I pushed his foot off from my chest, and he retreated a step, laughing like a senile old man. "Well... come along then! Show me how much stronger this woman makes you! Let me taste your resolve."

He took a stance.

"Before I rob you of it."