The Misadventures of Ka-Ron the Knight (17 page)

The
Raxziel
shook with a violent attack. Something, unknown to either Ka-Ron or Jatel, had struck the ship's starboard side. The energy was so terrific, in fact, that both of them slid off the bed, landing on the port side of their cabin in a rather painful bump.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

"Tork!"

Captain Hathaway's men scurried up and down the deck, doing their best to remain calm and to keep their ship from sinking. At the same time, Hathaway was regretting the fact that he wasn't a land-loving farmer.

"Captain, it's&Tork."

"I have eyes, dammit!"

Hathaway grabbed hold of the ship's wheel. His quartermaster was dead.

"Set the slavers loose!" he ordered, turning the wheel to the left. "If they can keep us afloat, they are freed."

A sailor on deck opened the caged hatch where the remainder of the
Skree's
crew were put. Like roaches in the night, they scurried on deck. Confused and surprised, they joined their captors in their duties, realizing they were all in paramount danger.

Hathaway dipped his boots into a pool of blood, stopping at the base of his ship's wheel. The unfortunate quartermaster's head lay between his feet. He was the first victim of Tork's amusement.

Tork was a living legend in these waters. Waters that all sailors knew were dangerous, but, all did their best to play the odds. Also, these were the only waters one could sail through if they ever wanted to venture towards The Fire Mountains.

"Curse my mother for ever showing me the oceans!" Hathaway grunted, battling both ship and sea. "Move to evade!"

Tork was a sea dragon. Sea dragons were rare.

This particular dragon was exceedingly dangerous, due to the fact that it possessed the mind of a child. In a rather particularly disastrous battle, seasons ago, Tork subjected himself to a nasty head injury. Since then, the beast had been completely harmless. Harmless that is, on everyone but sailors. Tork, it seemed, got rather amused at sinking ships. The sea dragon liked the way sailors splashed about in the water.

Tork was not trying to attack the
Raxziel.
He only wished to see Hathaway and his men swim.

"Sails at full wind speed, Captain!" a sailor yelled from one of the recently repaired masts.

Hathaway glanced upward, giving the wind a general salute.

From the corner of his eye, Hathaway noticed a wall of sea green scales coming his way. His hands remained tight upon the wheel. His duty was clear. However, someone forgot to order his fear in the same noble actions - his fingers turned a cowardly white as all the blood left both his hands.

"Sweet Gods protect us," the captain whispered.

"PRETTY PRETTY SAILS!"

A sea dragon is unlike your average dragon. They were still part mammal, part reptile, and part bird, but they were also fish. They do not breathe fire, nor do they attack with it. Instead, they spray water. And as any sailor could tell you, water is a dangerous weapon.

Unlike its cousins, the sea dragon had no wings. It was strictly a sea-bearing creature. Instead of wings it had huge fins and dorsals, which navigated it as easily through the depths as wings did its counterparts in the air. Instead of whiskers, it had tentacle-like feelers. These feelers were used to enhance their eyesight and, curiously enough, their sense of taste.

Tork was busy licking and sucking on a few of his whiskers as he watched the
Raxziel
evade.

Hathaway's ship looked both too slow and quite small.

Tork clapped his hands, half the size of his huge legs, which allowed him to stand high in the water. His constant sucking at his whiskers made him talk loudly.

"SPALSH FOR ME IN THE WATER!" Tork ordered. "SPLASH. SPLASH. SPLASH."

The wind was nowhere to be found.

Hathaway, looking up at the sea dragon, let go of the wheel.

He knew that he was doomed.

Tork hit the main deck of the ship, instantly snapping all her masts. The steel-woven sails collapsed with a chime. Sailors rained down upon the decks, breaking arms and legs. Some were fortunate enough to land in the water.

Tork was enjoying himself.

With a swipe of his coral-infested tail, the sea dragon opened a hole in the
Raxziel's
hull big enough to slide a castle through.

"Gods damn that dragon!" Hathaway yelled.

The men started to leave the ship. All were doing their best not to become Tork's next victim.

"LET'S PLAY!" the sea dragon giggled.

The wave of ice cold water poured into Ka-Ron and Jatel's cabin, waking them from their injuries. Both tried to avoid the oncoming water, realizing that it had become quite impossible for them to move efficiently, given that they were still attached and could not break apart.

"What's happening?" Jatel asked, wiping his hair away from his face.

"We're sinking," Ka-Ron barked.

The squire tried with all his newly-given might to pry himself from the fruits of Ka-Ron's hips, but to no avail. The water level was close to their waists, and if they were to survive, a quick solution had to be found.

"What&" Ka-Ron blurted, changing her course of thought as fast as she had uttered the word. "How are we going to walk?"

"Wrap your arms around me, and hold tight," Jatel ordered.

Ka-Ron complied.

Jatel found himself in quite a pickle. One, he could drown in his cabin. Or, he could suffocate in the ample universe of Ka-Ron's chest. In her fear, the knight failed to realize that her grip did not allow for air to reach Jatel's lungs.

Jatel, doing his best despite being both blind and oxygen-poor, rose to his feet.

The squire tried to speak, only producing some huffing mumbles between Ka-Ron's breasts.

Ka-Ron, on the other hand, rolled her eyes, enjoying the whole affair.

"Oh, Jatel, I love it when you bury your face in me."

The water continued to rise.

"There's something you don't see every day." a sailor stated, pointing past his captain.

If there were anything powerful enough to cause Captain Hathaway to refrain from climbing down the side of a sinking ship, it would be the site of a naked man and woman walking up-deck, still involved in the arts of love. Hathaway's mouth popped open in bewilderment.

"Keep loading supplies," Hathaway ordered his men.

The crew, including the unfortunate slavers, were getting into the ship's long boats and heading out to sea. Tork had done about all the damage he could, and was now only lightly toying with the lifeboats. The dragon attacked the first boat to leave, stopping when he heard the terrified screams of the sailors he killed.

"SAILORS CRY. VERY BAD." The sea dragon let out a loud burp. He was hungry. Sea dragons always burped when they were hungry.

Jatel and Ka-Ron headed toward Hathaway.

"Ah, you guys&" Hathaway stopped. He couldn't find the words.

"Oh, Captain Hathaway," Ka-Ron stated, as if this were normal.

Jatel continued to stumble. The squire fought Ka-Ron's flesh, doing his best to grab a little air. Every now and then, he peeked out, and allowed himself that time to breathe.

"No time to talk," Hathaway explained. The captain looked out to sea and watched his men row away.

His attention was brought back to Ka-Ron, who was enjoying the love-making Jatel was doing to her in his movements to walk.

"Listen, mate&" Hathaway said, tapping Jatel on the shoulder. "I love my woman too, but are you not going a bit far in the showing?"

The water started to flood the ship's galley, causing a huge explosion aft of the vessel. A fire soon erupted, adding yet another sense of danger to an otherwise crappy day.

"Then again&life's short. Carry on."

Hathaway jumped off the side of his ship, splashing in the cold waters below. He found one of his long boats, and was pulled aboard by members of his crew.

Jatel and Ka-Ron were now alone.

Tork, it seemed, became quite bored. He rolled over, allowing the yellow blubber of his stomach to show towards the suns. In warming his belly, he would be able to venture into the deep without any fear of freezing. As he warmed his underbelly, he hummed long-forgotten songs, not really paying that much attention towards the
Raxziel
, which was slowly dying, making her final plunge in the waters surrounding him.

"STUPID SAILORS!" the dragon huffed.

Tork was lost in the simple delights of sun warming, when he was awakened by the most curious sounds. He was sure that it could not have been the sailors he had played with. They were long gone in their little-little-boats. He rubbed his belly, opened the flaps of his ears, and listened keenly.

The sounds were coming from the throat of a woman. Of that Tork was sure.

The sea dragon rolled over, dipping beneath the sea. Only the tip of his snout and his brow remained above the water.

"MORE TO PLAY WITH!" the dragon mused.

Upon investigating, Tork discovered a curious sight.

A man and a woman, floating upon a door, making love. Tork smiled, almost allowing a giggle to escape from his mouth. What a delight! He had never witnessed human love, and was prepared to eavesdrop. Still, there was that child-like quality the dragon carried with him that innocently pulled at his conscience, telling him in plain terms that he should close his eyes and turn his head. This was private stuff, not to be toyed with.

But it was also good fun. Any self-respecting dragon never turned down fun.

The humans appeared to be too involved in what they were doing to notice the huge shadow Tork projected. Nor did they seem to care about the water turning colder. The sea dragon had tried to get their attention by waving his tiny arms in the air, and letting out a humble grunt, clearing his throat.

Nothing.

Tork patted his fingers on his chest, watching.

"What to do?" Tork whispered. "What to do?"

Tork moved in closer.

"EXCUSE ME&"

Ka-Ron, upon seeing Tork's face, started to scream. It was a comical thing to watch the two of them. The sea dragon got the impression that they were "stuck" together. What an interesting situation, if not quite embarrassing.

Jatel was the first to speak.

"What are you doing here?" the squire asked, his voice trembling.

"OH, JUST FLOATING BY," Tork stated, as he cleared his throat. His gaze kept averting itself as he realized that the humans were naked. "ARE YOU NOT COLD?"

"We are," Ka-Ron huffed, cupping her breasts. "Can you not help us?"

Tork shook his head.

"CANNOT!" he paused, looking around. "THOSE ARE THE RULES."

"Rules?" Jatel questioned.

"RULES OF DRAGONHOOD," Tork explained, floating once again upon his back. "RULE 16: MAN IS QUITE CAPEABLE OF HELPING HIMSELF. DO NOT INTERFERE!"

"But you sunk our ship." Ka-Ron challenged.

"THAT'S RULE 3: A DRAGON MUST DESTROY!"

Both Jatel and Ka-Ron gave each other a disbelieving look.

"UNION RULES," Tork stated. "YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Quite." Jatel shook his head.

There was an awkward silence between the three for quite sometime. Tork never took his eyes off the woman, for she was quite striking in her appearance. The sea dragon was not into human women, but he admired her lines. Still, there was "something" about her.

"DO YOU PERFORM THE MAGICAL ARTS, BY CHANCE?"

"No," Ka-Ron said. "I am a knight-errant."

"A WOMAN?" Tork giggled. Silently, he looked at Jatel for an explanation.

"I am her squire."

"I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF A WOMAN KNIGHT." The sea dragon scratched at one of his whiskers. "I DETECT A MAGICAL AURA ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU."

Ka-Ron started to cry.

This above all caused Tork to feel both surprised and hurt. He did not mean to cause the sweet woman harm. Frantically, the sea dragon tapped his hands in the water.

"PLEASE STOP," Tork pleaded. "PLEASE STOP."

Jatel placed his arms around Ka-Ron. The knight collapsed, burying her face in his chest. She cried even more.

"WHAT AILS HER?"

"She has been through a lot." Jatel tried to explain, his own eyes starting to tear.

"WHAT IS WRONG?"

"She was the victim of a terrible curse."

"SO BAD FOR HER." Tork shook his head.

The seas were starting to act up. There was a storm brewing in the clouds, and Jatel could sense, even by his brief acquaintance with the water, that their door would not be buoyant enough to sustain them through it. He had managed to retain most of his master's armor and sword, but these would be like anchors once the water started to rise.

"Is there any way you can help?"

"SORRY," Tork said, his lower lip pouting outward.

Ka-Ron began to cry louder.

Tork's hands moved up to his long neck, nervously playing with his scales.

"PLEASE, ASK HER TO STOP."

"I cannot," Jatel explained. "The pain has finally hit her, and it is all coming out. If only we could retire someplace where my master could have some privacy."

Tork's eyes blinked open. Suddenly, he had a revelation.

"PRIVACY?" the dragon repeated. "I CAN PROVIDE THAT MUCH!"

To both Ka-Ron and Jatel's horror, Tork grabbed hold of the door they had both been floating on, and brought it up close to his face.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ka-Ron demanded.

"I AM PROVIDING YOU PRIVACY." Tork innocently blinked his eyes.

With that, the sea dragon opened his huge mouth, dropping both Ka-Ron and Jatel into the deep darkness of his throat.

"Noooooooo!" both Jatel and Ka-Ron screamed as they disappeared.

Tork burped. It was a satisfying swallow.

Ka-Ron opened her eyes to find Jatel passed out and drooling on her breasts. She fought her grogginess, trying her best to remember the events that had just recently happened. Had she and Jatel been swallowed by a dragon? Were they dead? In any case, she was alive and breathing. This was something she had not expected.

The knight blinked her eyes, trying to maintain their focus.