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Cries of agony surrounded him. The ground underneath his feet was stained with the blood and the bodies of his brothers. He looked around the courtyard of Dragonstone castle only to see death all around him. He saw Cyrvanyx lying dead on the ground alongside all the other dragons.

But the most terrifying sight of them all was his wife and his son. They were bound to a wooden post as two men held knifes at their throats. Behind them stood Lord Edwyn, smiling at him as he gave the order to execute them.

His family cried out his name, begged him to save them. But he could not move. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn´t move a muscle. He screamed his heart out as he saw them dying in front of him while he could do nothing but watch. Their screams echoed in his mind. Their cries for help was all he could hear. And just as a man came forth to kill him as well...

...He woke up.

Henry awoke soaked in sweat and gasping for air. He jumped up into a sitting position, panting, as all he could think about was that nightmare. It returned night after night, tormenting him.

As he opened his eyes he could see almost nothing in the darkness of the cave, only shadowy outlines of everything. With the cave being located at the bottom of a mountain inside a canyon that was to be expected.

He lifted his arm to reach for his forehead. It was wet, just like the rest of his face and also his hair, not to mention the rest of his body. When he felt his hair he was not surprised that it was in awful condition. It was disheveled and greasy.

He rubbed his chin to feel his beard that had been growing for the past few days. It was still not much, but it became noticeably longer. He had played with the thought of growing a beard in the past, but not like that. He wanted it to be nice and groomed, like his hair and not look like a wild deer after being attacked by a wolf. Although his looks were the least of his concerns at the moment.

A bath was something he really wanted. But he could not, not in his armor and not with any lake or other water sources around. Of course he could use the water he took from the castle before he left to at least wash his face and hair. But drinking was still of higher priority than feeling clean.

To calm himself down after the nightmare he took a deep breath while his eyes were closed and held it in for a few seconds before letting it out. He slowly rose from the fur cloak, feeling his sore muscles as he stood on his legs and stretched himself a bit. He thought the aching could not get any worse. And yet that was exactly what had happened.

He looked around the cave for a bit and his eyes fell on the bag that was strapped on the saddle. Since he was hungry he decided that he should use some of his supplies. But after the first step he took his mind suddenly focused on something else than food. Next to the bag of supplies was stalagmite with a torn off rope lying on the ground next to it.

His horse was gone.

"Oh fucking hell..." He murmured and stepped outside the cave where the light was better. The stone felt cold on his bare feet, but in a pleasant way. Although little pointy stones bothered him as he took a couple of steps forward. Once he stood outside he took a look around the canyon. The horse was nowhere to be seen, just as he expected. "great." He said to himself. "just... fucking great."

He already had trouble traveling before, but at least it worked. But with his horse gone there were too many things for him to carry them all on his own. His food, his drink, his other supplies and his weapons were all carried by the horse. He could carry the weapons on his own, but that was it.

He let out a frustrated sigh as he looked at the sky. At least the clouds have cleared out and the storm was long gone. His horse probably got loose when the storm began and ran off. He should have tied that rope more securely than that would not have happened. When he turned around to get back into the cave he saw something he did not see the day before.

Close to the cave entrance stood two old looking wooden barrels. Just how did he not notice them before?

Henry approached them as he had the same questions jumping up in his mind as when he saw the wooden wall in the cave. That cave definitely belonged to someone human. Maybe it was a group of brigands who had their camp there or something similar. whatever it was, it did not really matter. Henry was just a little too curios, like he always has been. He was too easily distracted, which was something he hated about himself.

When he stood in front of the barrels and looked inside he was pleasantly surprised to find water in there, a lot of it. That barrel must have gathered a lot of rainwater during the night and probably, judging by how old it looked, also gathered rain from many rainy days before.

He smiled as he found a way to clean at least some parts of his body. He reached into the barrel with both cupped hands to collect some of the fresh rainwater. Once he had collected some water he leaned forward and cleaned his face, finally getting rid of all the dirt. Then he leaned a bit further and washed his hair as best as he could. He could feel little leaves or pieces of branches falling out of his wild mane and into the barrel.

With his hair all wet he smoothed it with his hands, bringing it back into shape. Once he was done his hair was hanging loosely down the side of his head like before. That was when he remembered the small ribbon he always had with him at his belt, in case he had to bind his hair. He quickly opened his belt and took the ribbon. He fastened his belt again before he used the little ribbon to tie the hair on top and on the sides of his head together into a ponytail while the hair at the back of his head remained loose.

He washed his hands afterwards and also pulled up his sleeves to wash parts of his arms. Once done he rolled his sleeves back down and turned back towards the cave entrance. He already felt a lot better after he washed himself at least a bit.

Henry got back into the cave and walked straight towards the saddlebag. He loosened the leather strap and opened it to get some water to drink as well as an apple to eat. He took a sip out of the water bottle that was once filled with wine and then a bite off the apple. While he chewed his food he got into his leather boots, looking around the cave as he fastened the leather straps on his boots.

He glared at the wooden wall which the dragon used to hide his "sleeping chamber" as he called it. It was probably nothing but a pile of fur to sleep on and that was it. That was hardly a chamber, but with the dragon´s p ego probably being bigger than the very cave he stood in it was not that big of a surprise. He knew that dragons were very prideful beings. But this one was straight up arrogant, or maybe he was just playing with him.

At least he seemed arrogant, since he was too proud of himself that he did not even thank him for saving his life. But maybe it was too early to judge on that since he had merely shared a few words with him. Maybe that dragon had a reason to act the way he acts. He asked himself the same question with Cyrvanyx, and in the end he was right. So maybe he could be right with this green dragon as well.

He set down the bottle and took another bite from the apple. He was starting to wonder if the dragon was still asleep, because it was really quiet expect for his own chewing. While he was still eating the apple he walked towards the dragon´s "sleeping chamber" to see if he really slept as deep and long as Cyrvanyx. Maybe all dragons did?

When he reached the wooden wall he first took a little peak around the corner. And yes, he was right, the dragon was still sleeping. He stepped around the corner with silent steps while eating the apple as quiet as he could. Henry walked in front of him where he had the best view over him and took a closer look.

Just like Cyrvanyx, this green dragon looked very peaceful in his sleep. The blood on his scales was gone. Probably licked himself clean. the wounds though were still clearly visible. they were not bleeding anymore, but the dragon was foolish to think that they will stay that way for long. These wounds would definitely leave some nasty scars behind, that was for sure.

Overall the dragon had some similarities with Cyrvanyx in his appearance, apart from the fact that he was green and not black. He had the same frills on the back of his neck and his cheeks, only in green. But all dragons had those as far as he knew. He had the same ears and the same webbing at the end of his tail. What really caught his eyes about him though were the red speckles on his wings and also on all four legs. Or should his front legs be counted as arms? That was something that still confused him.

Henry took another bite off his apple and turned his gaze away. He wanted to look around his so called sleeping chamber. Surely he would not mind that, would he?

The room, if it could be called that, was surprisingly empty though. No trophies or anything, no trinkets or treasures. Just nothing. That was odd. He knew that dragons often kept trophies or collected things of value. Not like they would have any use for money. But he guessed that it was probably some kind of show of thing to gain reputation.

He looked around a little more. Maybe it was hidden in some secret narrow corner where...

What was he thinking? A dragon could not hide anything inside a narrow corner. They could not even fit into said corner. So was there really just nothing? He was a bit disappointed. He expected to find old memories out of the dragon´s childhood. Or would that be hatchlinghood? How did they call it?

While he was busy thinking his eyes suddenly met something interesting. As he took a step towards it and focused his gaze he saw what it was. A single golden coin. Curios, he reached forwards and picked it up. He could not read the words on it because of the light. But on the back of it was what looked like the head of an eagle and on the front side the head of a man.

It was not from Albia that was for sure, but where did it came from then?

He looked at the ground where coin was before and as he looked just a little closer he could see another coin. When he got on his knees and reached for it though he realized that he was reaching into the wall. He frowned his brow and felt around the coin for a bit. there was a lot of free room there, almost like there was a narrow passageway.

Just when he was about to get back up he suddenly got a hold of something made of wood. He immediately pulled out what seemed like a long stick with cloth bound around the top. So basically it was a simple torch.

He looked at the coins in one hand and at the torch in the other and became more and more curios what may be hiding behind that wall. He remembered the spot and walked back to his bag to get some flintstones he found in the woods. He also put a bit of the oil he used for his weapons and armor on the cloth just to make sure that it would burn.

He went back to the spot where he found the coins and made sure that the dragon was still sleeping before he got on the ground. He felt around the free space there once more and started crawling forward trough that passageway that was barely big enough for him to fit inside.

Before he even realized it he was out of the passageway. He felt around himself and as there were no more walls around him he attempted to stand up, and it worked. He smiled to himself, eager to find out what was hiding in that cave.

He knelt down, putting the torch in front of him tried to start a fire with the two flintstones. "Come on... come on..." He murmured to himself as the first sparks sprang up. Finally the sparks managed to ignite the oil and the cloth which suddenly filled the cave with light. "Yes!"He sighed in satisfaction and got up again, turning around to face whatever was in that cave.

What he saw almost made him drop the torch. His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped as he could not believe what he was seeing.

In front of him was a gigantic pile valuables. There was gold, silver and jewels. There were chests filled with coins, silver plates and various other things of high value. I the corner there were also pieces of armor that were decorated with gold and silver. And in the middle of that pile of treasure was a rusty sword that had been thrusted into the pile of gold.

It looked like a bloody royal treasury! He never so much value stocked in one place. The place was about as big as the cave the dragon lived in and it was almost completely filled with gold and other things of high value. How did people manage to get all that in there?

Henry took a couple of steps forward and picked up one of the coins on the ground It was identical to the ones he found before. On the front was a man who appeared to be a king with words written above his head that he couldn´t read. It was another language that he knew from somewhere.

Kaiser Heinrich IV Erbe des Reiches

Then he recognized that language as Redorien, the kingdom north of Albia. The kingdom of Redoria was ruled by a royal bloodline with that name, but as far as he knew Heinrich the fourth must have died about two hundred years ago. So that treasure must be at least two hundred years old. That was simply Unbelievable.

Looking around some more made him spot one thing that was not a treasure. A simple wooden desk sat not far away from him in a dark corner of the cave with a chair in front of it. He could barely see it, but appeared that someone was sitting on it. That person was obviously dead. He walked towards the desk and took a closer look at the person sitting in the chair.

It was a skeleton, as was to be expected. He could not tell if it was a man or a woman, but he was pretty sure that it was once a man. The skeleton was completely covered in black clothing, or at least in what was left of it. But the most interesting thing was the book it was holding in its grasp. Henry carefully reached forward to take the book from him. He did not really want to interrupt that man´s peace, whoever he may be.

He thought the book could have answers for him. To his surprise the book was written in the common tongue instead of Redorien. He held the torch above his head to shine some light on the book cover as he gently put it on the table. He blew some dust away so he could better read it. "My life... by Sigmund the black eagle."

Henry gasped a little as he read the authors name. The black eagle was a famous thief and brigand who had songs written about him and his many raids. It is said that they never killed any commoner, only the nobleman did they kill. All his men and he himself were dressed in black and a black eagle was their sigil, hence the name. No one really ever knew what happened to him. There are many stories of which many are just made up.

He carefully opened the first page of the book, holding his torch high above his head. "RAAARRHH!"

The sudden sound of a dragon´s roar made him shut the book immediately. That came from the dragon who was sleeping only moments ago. And it sounded like he was in pain.

Henry shoved his curiosity aside and ran towards the exit to get to the dragon. But only after taking the book with him. He reached the passageway, shoving the torch through first he began to crawl trough as fast as he could. Once he reached the other side he picked up the torch, ready to beat whoever was attacking him with that torch if he had to.

But there was no one other than the dragon who was writhing in agony on top of his self-made bed for whatever reason. He looked over the groaning dragon with wide eyes. "What happened?" Henry almost shouted the question at him.

The dragon stopped groaning immediately, or at least tried. He hid his face underneath one of his wings as if he was trying to hide his pain. Slowly, he rose from the ground, obviously still in pain. When he stood on all fours in front of Henry he lowered his wing again, hissing in pain a she did so. "Nothing, human." He said with the usual pride in his voice. "I was just stretching my glorious wings, that´s it."

"Stretching yourself?" Henry chuckled. He could not take the dragon seriously, talking with such pride about his wings after what he had just seen. "It sounded like someone was trying to kill you. I was about to-" He stopped mid sentence as he found the source of that was likely causing the pain. His wing joint, just were his wing met his shoulder, was bleeding. There appeared to be a nasty wound there.

"What is it human?" The dragon tilted his head as he wondered why he suddenly went silent. "Did you see some- wait... where did you get that book-"

"Didn´t you say that you dragons heal a lot faster than men and that my help was not required?"

"Yes I did, because that´s how it is. I am far superior to you, human. I do not need help from the likes of you, I never will- Arrgh!" He groaned in pain as he moved his right wing, the wing where the wound was.

"Ah yes. You don´t need my help, of course." Henry said in a sarcastic way. "And well... what about yesterday? You needed help from me then. Don´t forget that I saved your life, dragon."

"I wouldn´t call it that." He snorted and frowned his brow.

Henry sighed, looking into his golden eyes. "And what would you call it then?"

The dragon did not give him an answer and instead just stared at him with that stern glare of his. Henry never thought that he could have so much trouble talking to a dragon. He just could not believe how blinded he was by his own pride. He was used to Cyrvanyx´ personality and his polite nature, this one was a lot different.

"Did you even realize that you are bleeding, dragon?" Henry pointed at his wing with the still burning torch.

"I..." He looked back at his wing with a slightly confused look on his face. As he saw the wound and the blood he mouthed some words, probably curse words. "Of course I knew. It´s not a big-" He hissed in pain as he moved his wing again. "... not a big deal."

"You are wrong." Henry laid the torch down and the book as well, taking a few steps towards the dragon. "This wound doesn´t look very good. If you would just allow me to-"

"Don´t you dare touch me!"The dragon snarled at him .

"I´m serious, dragon!" The sudden change in Henry´s voice startled the dragon a bit. "I´ve seen that kind of wound before. If you do not treat it in any way it will get worse and worse!"

"Are you threatening me?" He said, a bit baffled that Henry just yelled at him.

"No, I'm not." Henry said and softened his voice, sounding surprisingly calm after he had just sounded like he was furious seconds ago. "I am trying to help you." he took one step forward. "The last dragon I saw with that kind of wound also didn´t want any help. And then later, he was no longer able to fly."

The dragon´s eyes widened a bit after he said that. Flying must have been important to him, as it was for any other dragon. "I could help you, if you´ll let me."

He gave him a while to think of an answer. In his mind the dragon was probably thinking of an answer that would stain his pride the least. "Fine." The dragon grumbled. "Do what you have to do."

Henry nodded and did not waste any time and immediately went to get whatever he needed. He opened up the saddlebag and took out the medical supplies. Those were actually meant for him, but the dragon needed them more than him at the moment. Out the bag he took bandages and a bit of salve made out of some kind of flowers or something. He did not know what it was made, but he knew that it helped to clean out wounds and stop bleeding to an extent.

With the things he needed he went back to the dragon who had started licking his wound. "No! stop that!" Henry shouted out. "That will just make it worse!"

The dragon stopped and glared at Henry. "And how would you know that?"

"You´ve already licked your other wounds with your tongue. Your tongue is no longer clean, so stop it and let me do it."

The dragon rolled his eyes. "Fine then. Show me your skills, knight."

Henry ignored his sarcastic comment, which was something he was getting very good at, and went towards him to begin. "If you could just lay down I would have easier access to your wing."

"I´m not sure if I like the sound of that..."

Henry simply sighed and shook his head. "Would you kindly lay down, oh great and resplendent dragon?"

"Mhh... I´m not sure if I like the sarcasm in your voice." The dragon gave him a smug smile as he lowered himself onto his belly. "But it´s a start."

Henry shook his head again, but he also smiled. He was actually starting to find the dragon´s behavior as amusing. When the dragon was waiting for Henry, he began. He took some of the salve on the palm of his hand and reached towards the wound. He was not sure if he was doing it correctly, since he was a knight and not a physician. But he could at least try.

"This could hurt a bit now, so be ready."

"Don´t worry, I´m always- RAAahrr!"

As Henry touched the wound the dragon roared out in agony and almost made Henry fall backwards as he beat his wings once, which resulted in even more pain. "I thought you were ready?"

"Not for... that kind of... searing pain. What is that stuff?"

"It´s salve and it helps. You just have to endure the pain."

"No. I´m not letting you near me with that... salve."

"Do you want to fly again in the future?"

They looked each other in the eyes as the tension between them grew. Until the dragon finally gave in. "Fine then..."

Henry nodded and reached for the wound again with the salve. Once he touched it the dragon groaned, but did not roar or squirm away. He carefully put the salve all over the wounded flesh, making sure that he did not accidently do more damage than there already was. All the while the dragon struggled to keep himself under control. He shut his eyes and bit on his tongue to concentrate on anything but the pain in his wing.

Once the salve was all over the wound he picked up the bandages. But when he was about to start bandaging him he started to realize that he could not. The wing membranes were in the way. There was no way he could bandage that without having to bandage the entire part of the wing that was connected to his back, which would not be good for his wing.

He started thinking what else he could do, but he got nothing. There was nothing else he could do. Dragons could get infections too, even if the chance was a lot lower than with humans, it was still possible. He would just have to leave the wound open like that and hope that the salve will do its work.

"So... I guess that´s it."

The dragon twisted his neck to look back at him. "You sound uncertain about this."

"I did what I could and now you just have to hope that it will work. You´ll just have to clean it every day when after you get dirty in any way. And don´t move your wing too much for the next couple of weeks."

"Weeks?"

"Yes, weeks. I know it will feel like a long time without being able to fly, but you will have to endure it." Henry leaned forwards to pick up the book again. He just left the torch where it was, since it has already ran out.

"...Thank you..." Henry could make out the dragon murmuring, but he could barely hear it.

"What did you say?"

The dragon snorted and said it again, a bit louder. "Thank you."

That time Henry could hear him, but he decided to have some fun. He held his hand behind his ear and leaned towards the dragon. "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"I said thank you!" The dragon roared at him, making Henry´s ear hurt from the loud sound.

But Henry just put up a welcome smile, rubbing his ear. "You're welcome."

With that said he took the bandages as well and went back to the saddlebag and left the dragon there, once again slightly baffled and unable to find a response that suited his pride. He would have to start worry how he was going to carry that with him all on his own. He put all the things in the saddlebag, including the book he found.

After everything was back in his bag he started putting his armor back on. Meanwhile he saw the dragon curiously moving towards him from behind the wall.

"I take that you are moving out soon?" He asked him and looked at the rope on the ground. "I think I could recall there being a horse with you."

"There was. must´ve ran away during the storm."

"So who is going to carry all those things for you?"

"Well..." Henry was just done fastening the leather strap on his right shoulder plate when he got an idea. "How about you?"

The dragon curled his neck into an S shape and looked down on him. "What did you just say?"

"I´m serious." Henry continued to put on his armor. "You wanted to leave this place anyway, and so did I. Since you can´t fly you could accompany me to the castle of my uncle. There you could get better medicine and warm and comfortable place to stay overnight."

"I won´t be your servant!"

"I never said you have to be. The dragons of the order carried their knights into battle and still they are both seen as equals. I am a knight of the dragon. You must have at least some respect for the order, because you let me stay here after you knew I was one."

The dragons still angrily glared at him, but seemed a little calmer than before. "And I promise you, dragon. If you follow me you will be treated with great respect where we go. Most people there have never seen a dragon before, because you so rarely show yourself in the inland these days." Henry fastened the last leather strap of his arm armor, just as he finished talking. "So, dragon. Think again about your answer."

The dragon´s gaze was piercing his very soul with those golden eyes. And yet Henry did not avoid it, and instead looked right into it, awaiting an answer. slowly but surely the dragon´s gaze became less angry.

"... I must say." the dragon started and began to smile, even if it was barely visible. "You are really convincing, knight of the dragon order." He lowered himself so that he was on Henry´s eye level. "I accept. But I don´t plan to stay with you and the other humans in that castle you mentioned."

"Once we are there you are free to go whenever you want. I will not force you to stay there."

"It´s not like you could even if you wanted." He smirked and rose from the ground, stretching his chest out and curling his neck into an S shape once more to tower above Henry. "I am a dragon and I bow to no one."

"Fair enough." Henry said with a smirk.

He still could not take him seriously.

*Authors note*

Henry has made a very interesting discovery! In search for the dragon´s horde he found a treasure of unimaginable value that belonged to an long since dead famous bandit. If you liked this chapter make sure to let me know and leave ypur thoughts in the comments!