Aaron sat on the bench again. He was sore but the bruises were starting to heal. As long as he remained on the bench, as long as he didn’t try to mimic the soldier’s actions, they would leave him alone. Derrick had never given him guard duty, and so he remained at the practice yard, watching and trying to learn.

Truth be told, he was just about ready to give up on this dream and walk home. He held the sword in his hand, looking at the sparkle of the dragon’s eyes. It was better than watching the disgusted glances the the soldiers were giving him lately. They had stopped tormenting him as often, though Edward never seems to get tired of calling him ‘one arm.’

He had two arms, and the one that didn’t word would still be able to hold a shield as long as he could buckle it into place. He could be a good soldier, if anyone would give him half a chance or maybe he was kidding himself. Maybe he wouldn’t amount to anything and he should just go home and help his mother with the candles. This had been a foolish dream.

He pushed his hair out of his face and looked over the practice yard. He had learned many of the names of the men now, though he avoided speaking to any of them. Donald and Edward were out on the field now. They were pretty closely matched, which is why they sparred together frequently.

“Still here, huh?” Derrick was looking at him with a frown.

Aaron opened his mouth to tell Derrick that he still wasn’t going to give up, even though that had been what he was considering. The sword in his hand began to vibrate and then it became very hot. Aaron dropped it in the dust.

Derrick picked it up by the sheath. “Where did you get this?” He looked at Aaron with a little respect, and at he blade with awe.

“Hailey gave it to me,” he said. Then he explained to Derrick how they had gone into the castle to retrieve the sword and how he and picked the coolest looking one.

“You went into the castle, knowing that if she let go, you could be trapped in there forever?” Derrick sounded shocked.

Aaron didn’t have time to respond.

A terrifying scream cut the air before he could finish his story. Birds took to flight and suddenly the sky was filled with them. What was happening? And what had made that scream?

“We might need me to have this,” Derrick said, keeping the sword. He took his own sword and sheath of his belt. “Keep this until the battle is over.”

Hailey managed to find all of the things on Barinon’s list. She was glad that Henny was still warm. It was strange to have a chicken as one of the ingredients that would boost the spell, but what did she know?

She stepped through the doorway and Henny began to flap her wings, slapping Hailey in the face with scratchy feathers. She squeaked, trying to break free of Hailey’s grasp. Finally, Hailey let go and the chicken flapped to the ground. Then she pooped on the floor of the mage’s library. Hailey shook her head. “I almost forgot that chickens do that.”

“That is most of what they do,” Barinon said, taking the ingredients from Hailey’s arms and placing them in a circle around the floor.

“You are going to try to kill her, aren’t you?” Hailey said, feeling sadness wash over her.

Barinon sighed. “It’s either the chicken or one of the people that are nearby. I would rather sacrifice your squawking little friend. The death spell is not going to take an already dead thing and transfer properly. It must be something living.”

Hailey nodded. “I understand.” She walked over to the chicken to stroke her feathers, but Henny scrambled away from her. She was going to have to get over this. Henny was just a chicken.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I know the chicken has been a friend to you.” He squeezed her shoulder.

Hailey blinked back tears. She didn’t know whether she was more upset about the chicken dying or about the fact that the chicken didn’t remember her. “It’s ok.” Henny was walking around now, pecking at the floor and pausing to squawk occasionally. She suddenly went very still. There was a loud bang and a crash from outside.

Aaron stood, watching the sky. Whatever had made that sound, it sounded like it had come from the sky. The soldiers were rushing around, pulling on armor, finding their swords and Derrick was in the middle of them, shouting orders. “Meet in front of the manor,” he told the men. He followed. He didn’t have armor yet. They hadn’t even given him a uniform, but he would stand with these men, or at least he would try.

Then he saw it, a massive gray thing with wings like a bat flew through the sky. He clutched the sword that had turned hot in his hand. It was still warm, but it wasn’t as hot as it had been right before the scream. Just the size of the creature alone had him having second thoughts, and then it breathed fire on the city. He couldn’t see where it had hit, but smoke billowed up.

He moved to the front of the manor, waiting for the other men to get there. Then the dragon circled around and came closer. He watched it fly almost to the manor and then pause and breathe fire again. They were doomed. How could he possibly survive this?

The fire spread. A house nearby burst into flames. Aaron had no idea a fire could be that large. The flames were almost twice as tall as the house was. Someone came running out of the house. He thought it might be a woman from the screams, but she was covered in flames and it was hard to tell. She began to run down the street, a flaming, terrifying thing and then she collapsed into a heap.

“Soldier,” someone was yelling at him. “We have to go!”

He hadn’t realized that the men had come together until now. He shook his head, trying to clear it. How were they going to be able to do anything against a dragon? And then they were marching forward, into the city, passed burned out buildings. People were in the streets. A man was shouting at his neighbors, trying to stop the fire from spreading. He thought of his parents and hoped they were ok. A little girl stood confused and alone. Unlike the adults around her, who were running and crying, she just stood watching and alone. The soldiers marched past a smoking wreckage of a house. The whole city was in chaos and they were marching right for the dragon. He wondered how they were going to manage to take down such a beast, but they had to try.

The soldiers were running then and he followed shaking his head to clear it. He watched the sky, trying to gauge where the dragon was. It would have to land eventually, and then hopefully they would be able to do something against it. In front of the soldiers he was running with, a group of archers ran with quivers on their backs. The dragon swooped overhead, threatening to land. The archers aimed and fired.

Aaron and his fellow soldiers had run across half the city before the dragon landed. The arrows only seemed to distract and enrage the beast, bouncing off of its scaly hide. He ground his teeth. The people of this city were suffering and so far they had been completely useless.

The beast crouched now, in front of the castle. It seemed even bigger now that it was on the ground. Its giant head swiveled to look at them and they stood. Now that he was closer, he could see that the dragon wasn’t gray, it was silver, a beautiful, dangerous thing with spikes behind its head. It stood on four legs, with its wings folded up behind it.

How were they going to manage against such a thing? He hoped that swords would be more effective than the arrows had been. Men showed up with pitchforks, axes, anything they could wield against the dragon. It wouldn’t be just the soldiers fighting then, it would be anyone who wanted to fight. They screamed and charged the dragon, but a swipe of a front leg and five soldiers lay in a crumpled heap.

A farmer ran forward with his pitchfork and tried to ram it into the soldier’s hide, while another man swung at the head. The pitchfork came away bent and half broken, the farmer was knocked aside. They swarmed then moving as one large group, attacking and swinging. Aaron saw Derrick moving in with the dragon sword and Aaron moved in with his own. The sword shuddered in Aaron’s hands as he struck the dragon, but the sharp steel did not penetrate. It bounced. The vibration made his hand go numb and he dropped it.

The dragon sword, however pierce the dragon’s side. Blood oozed and the dragon screamed and turned, throwing them all back and lashing out with its tail. He hit the ground hard, but he picked back up his sword and followed.

“What was that?” Hailey asked.

“We check on the princess, and then we go check,” Barinon said. He grabbed her hand and they raced out of the mage’s library. He paused at the doorway for one more glance at the princess.

Hailey tugged on his arm. They needed to go, needed to know what was going on. Smoke billowed from several places that had been lit on fire. Others had been crushed. He could see men below chasing after the dragon and others who would not rise again. Bodies littered the ground and men were screaming and dying. Taivalon was under attack.

It didn’t fly straight for the castle as it had before, it had shown its displeasure for having one of its scales taken. The dragon was ignoring the men who were swinging swords at its flanks. Arrows did no damage at all. The dragon took in a breath. Barinon could see orange on its silvery throat as it breathed fire at the spell. Nothing happened. Fire arced in several directions but it didn’t penetrate. Then, surprisingly, it tromped into the spell, shoving and mashing carts of foodstuffs aside.

“The spell will stop it,” Hailey said, her eyes wide.

But the dragon continued forward, unrelenting. The spell slowed it, but for a creature of magic, like the dragon was, he was relieved it did anything.

“This is my fault,” Hailey said. “If I hadn’t stolen one of its scales, then it wouldn’t be here, it wouldn’t be trying to attack us.” She was blinking away tears, trying to put on a brave face.

“You only did what I told you to do,” he said. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me, but now is not the time to worry about it. Now is the time to fix it. We have to focus on one problem at a time. We have to wake the princess before it gets to us.”