General Graten’s face contorted into various expressions. “What do you want me to do now?”
“It will be just like against the monsters. I’ll levitate you and fly you around. You use the magic sword to cut through the dragon.”
General Graten rolled his eyes. “Oh, right. Because that worked so well the last time.”
“Dragons aren’t as fast as monsters. You should have an easier time hitting them when you swing the sword.”
“Those monsters only had their teeth and claws. A dragon breathes fire. I’ll be roasted before I have a chance to even get close enough to cut it with my sword.”
“I’ll do my best to dodge the fires when I’m controlling your flight,” Vivian said.
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” said General Graten. “Why don’t you just turn the dragon into a rabbit like Talon did.”
“First of all, because Catherine won’t teach me that spell yet,” said Vivian. “And secondly because I need the dragon’s claw to make the speed potion for you.”
General Graten briefly put his hand up to his chin, before saying, “Of course after that first reason, you don’t even need a second reason, do you? I mean, if you can’t do it, you can’t do it.”
“Fine, I can’t do it.”
“Why hasn’t Catherine taught you the spell?”
“I don’t know, she’s very controlling about what she teaches me.”
“Okay, fine. Do we have any dragon proof armor in this castle?”
“Dragon proof armor?”
“Yeah, normal armor is no good against dragons’ fire. The armor is made of metal, so it just heats up when the dragon breathes fire on it. You don’t want to be inside of that armor, believe me. I’ve personally seen soldiers get roasted alive inside their armor when fighting dragons.”
“You’ve seen it?”
“I’ve led quite the soldier’s life, let me tell you. Do you have dragon proof armor?”
“Um, I don’t think so. What does dragon proof armor look like?”
“It looks like normal armor, only it’s got some magical charms on it to make it repel the dragons’ fire.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What kind of magical castle is this? Okay, well can you at least shield me with your magic?”
“I can’t create the spell. I’ll be using all my energy to levitate you, and fly you around. I can’t create a protection spell at the same time.”
General Graten sighed. “I’m not afraid of death,” he said. “When it’s my time to go, I’ll go without complaining. But I’ve never been a believer in suicide either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that this speed potion isn’t going to be of any use to me if I’m dead. And flying at a dragon, without any protection, is a sure way to get me killed. The dragon will roast me alive before I get close enough to kill it. And then I’ll be of no use to you or anyone else. Better to just call it off. Is there any way you can stop the dragon? To un-summon it?”
“Catherine summoned it. She won’t listen to me. I don’t know how to stop the spell.”
“Very well,” said General Graten. “If there’s no stopping it, then maybe it is my time to die after all. I’ll do it.”
“Wait,” said Vivian. “I’ll do it.”
“No, it’s okay,” said Graten. “I’d never send a woman to die in my place.”
“Why didn’t I think of it before,” said Vivian, mostly to herself. “If I’m levitating myself, it’s easier than if I’m projecting the levitation onto someone else. Then I can do the protection spell and levitate at the same time. And with your sword, I could cut through the dragon just as easily as you could.”
“Not quite as easily as I could,” said General Graten. “You don’t have my skill with the sword.”
“I have training,” said Vivian. “All the princes and princesses of Castle Tauna have training. I took your sword to fight the monsters yesterday when you were knocked out. I can do this.”
“You’re sure?”
“General, you’re wasting time. I already said I agree,” said Vivian.
General Graten recognized his words from the day before. “Fine,” he said. “But I want to make it clear I’m only loaning you this sword. This is not a gift. I got it off of Midor fair and square. And once you get that dragon’s claw, I want the sword back so I can use the speed potion.”
With that, General Graten handed over his sword.
“So noted, General,” said Vivian. “I accept it as a loan only.” She practiced swinging it through the air.
“Hey, be careful with that,” said Graten. “It will literally cut through anything it touches. You’ll cut your own nose off if you’re not careful.”
“I’ll be careful,” said Vivian.
“Well, what’s the plan then? What do you need me to do.”
“Be ready. If the dragon eats me, you’ll have to take over.”
****************************************************************************
When the dragon arrived hours later, Vivian was ready.
The dragon arrived already in a foul temper. “Who has summoned me?” he demanded.
Catherine, somewhat to Vivian’s surprise, was up on the tower to answer the dragon. (Vivian thought that Catherine would be absent as she usually was whenever there was any sort of danger.) “I summoned you, great dragon,” said Catherine. “We are in need of one of your claws.”
“One of my what? You want one of my claws?”
“It’s for a magic potion,” Catherine said. “The recipe absolutely calls for dragon claws. There can’t be any substitutions.”
“You summoned me for that? I flew all this way so you could ask me for my claw?”
“You didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to,” said Catherine sniffily.
“What manner of magician are you? You know the code. You summoned me with the spell, of course I had to come.”
“Well then, may we have the claw?”
“Of course not. I’ll burn this whole castle to the ground for your impertinence,” said the dragon.
“So you will not give us one of your claws? Very well then, may we buy it from you? We can pay in gold.”
“For a dragon to sell its claw is the most dishonorable thing imaginable. Besides, I will not bargain with you for your gold. I will burn your castle and take all your gold.”
“Look, I know this is awkward for both of us,” said Catherine. “But we need your claw for our magic potion. There’s just no way around it. We need your claw or the magic potion won’t work. Now you could give us your claw, or we could buy your claw off of you, or we could take it from you. The choice is yours really, but if we have to take it from you…”
But the dragon did not let Catherine finish. “Take it from me! How can you take it from me! I will destroy you all!”
“Look,” said Catherine impatiently, “You know as well as I do that this is not the first time dragons and humans have fought. And you know as well as I do that the outcome is not preordained. Sometimes the dragons win, sometimes the humans win, but…”
“The dragons always win!” bellowed the dragon.
“That’s what they teach you in your dragon enclaves, I suppose,” said Catherine. “Well, in that case, I guess you’re about to find out the hard way. Or not. You never know how these battles go. Maybe you will beat us,” Catherine shrugged, then called out down from the castle. “He’s all yours Vivian.”
Vivian was ready. She had been listening to the conversation, and had a pretty good idea of which direction it was heading, so she had already begun chanting the protection spell, and the levitation spell, before Catherine even called out to her. She was levitating just slightly off the ground, surrounded by a shield of yellow energy, and when Catherine gave her the go-ahead, she immediately shot up into the sky.
The dragon (who had been flying just next to the tower the whole time) was surprised to see a figure shoot up beneath his feet. Before he had time to react, Vivian swung her sword, and cut off one of the dragon’s claws by his left back foot.
The dragon claws are like most animal claws, in that they are made up of dead cells without any nerve endings in them. The sword cut the claw off effortlessly, and so the dragon felt no pain as his claws were clipped. But once the dragon realized what had just happened, he was furious. He inhaled a big breath of air, so that he could exhale a big long burst of flame. Vivian kept chanting, and the magic shield protected her.
“Begone, dragon,” said Vivian. “I have what I want now. Leave and trouble us no more.”
Vivian didn’t really expect this to work, but really, what else could she say at this point? There was clearly no reasoning with the dragon. He tried to burn her again with another burst of flame, but the magic shield still protected her. The dragon then tried to grab her with its remaining claws. Vivian tried to fly out of the way, but the dragon was too quick for her. Vivian found herself seized by the dragon's left hind leg.
The magic shield prevented the dragon’s claws from actually piercing Vivian’s skin. And the magic shield also prevented the dragon from squeezing her to death. But Vivian was still stuck in the dragon’s grip. Fortunately, however, her sword arm was free, and she hacked at the dragon’s leg. The sword cut deep into the dragon’s flesh, and he howled in pain and released her immediately.
“Leave now, dragon. This sword can wound you grievously if I use it against you again,” said Vivian.
“I’ll burn your whole forest down,” said the dragon.
It was at this point that Catherine finally flew up to Vivian’s side. “It’s no use, Vivian,” she said. “Dragon’s can be very stubborn creatures. They never admit defeat. Once you’re locked in combat with them, the only way out is to kill them, or have them kill you. I know your magic shield is protecting you, but if you don’t want him to burn down our forest, you’re going to have to kill him with your sword.”
“But I don’t…” Vivian began.
“It’s easy enough. The dragon’s neck is their weak point. Small enough to lop off with a single stroke if you do it right. And that sword will cut through anything, so it will cut through their scaly armor.”
“But I don’t want to kill anything.”
“Dear, we’re past that now. You’ve already had your moments of rage with the monsters. Don’t you remember?”
“But that wasn’t me. That was the magic that took over.”
“There will come a point,” said Catherine. “When you can no longer externalize what you do onto the magic. When you have to admit that the magic has become part of you.”
“But…”
“But I can see we’re not quite there yet,” said Catherine, and she turned back to the dragon.
The dragon had been watching their conversation the whole time, not quite sure what to make of it.
The dragon then began to inhale air, and flame at its nostrils. But at the same time, Catherine chanted a spell and pointed at the dragon, and it turned instantly into a mouse. With no wings, the mouse started to drop to the ground, but Catherine caught it in her hand.
“I know this seems cruel,” said Catherine to Vivian. “But this is the most merciful thing we could have done at this point. It was either this, or kill him.” Catherine then chanted her spells, and the mouse slowly floated down to the ground.
“Return me to my natural form!” the mouse squeaked angrily. The dragon’s booming voice had been turned into a high pitched mouse voice. “I demand you return me to my natural form.”
Catherine shook her head. “Ach! These dragons never stop, do they? Does he think we’re going to return him to his natural form so he can burn the castle down? He’s just as bad as those other two--Starrof and Klangor.” Catherine turned back to Vivian. “You see, though, what a benefit magic can be? I know Midor doesn’t want you to use the magic, but this castle has always relied on magic. Without magic, that dragon could have burned this whole area of the forest down. Or at the very least, killed several men fighting him. And yet, with magic, problem solved. And before today, it would have been Starrof and Klangor, if Talon hadn’t transformed them into rabbits with magic. Midor never had any objection against Magic in general, he knows that we always need magic. He just doesn’t want you to use it.”
“He’s not bad,” said Vivian. “He’s just protective of me.”
“Protective of you?”
“He’s like the mother who knows that soldiers are necessary, but doesn’t want her own son to fight in the war. He knows we need magic, but he doesn’t want it to corrupt me.”
“And what do you think about that mother?”
“Well, she’s wrong of course, but… But we can all understand the feeling.”
“Do we? Or do we despise her? Because we all know that we had to make sacrifices in our lives.”
“I don’t know.”
“You know in ancient times, the queens of this castle were also the most powerful magicians. You and I will bring back those days. I will train you up to be the most powerful witch in the forest, and then you will reign in this castle as a magical queen after I’m gone.”
Vivian hesitated.
“It’s the way this castle was meant to be run,” said Catherine. “It’s true that for centuries the king and queen had no magical powers, but that only meant that they had to bring in a sorcerer from the sorcerer’s guild. And you’ve seen how much trouble that can cause. You should never let anyone do your magic for you. The person who does the magic is the person who is really in control of the castle.”
Vivian looked down, but then she looked up again and made eye contact straight with Catherine. “Yes,” she said. “Train me up. Teach me all you know.”
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