Roger's Mira

Markus couldn't believe that just this afternoon he thought he had had everything in his grasp. He had brought home a mate that would allow him to challenge his father for leadership of the tribe and had planned to kill the witch Isabella to further show his strength. It would also get rid of a magical being, something he always feared, although he would never have admitted that. Now he was looking at defeat. Isabella had been saved by her mate and a flea-bitten pack of mutts and there was the looming threat of a war with the elves. His plans for Mirka now had Markus scared and confused as he stood staring at a great white dragon. He looked at his father and said, "I challenged Roger, not this dragon."

"This is the dragon Roger, who is also a friend of Isabella; she saved his life and now he in indebted to her, just as Apenimon is. If you want his mate; you will have to fight him for her." Rafa said as he handed his bow to Yanisin and put his arrow back into its quiver

"Father, you can't expect me to fight a dragon. Rafa has tricked me into a death fight; his tribe knows no honor."

"I will fight in Roger's place." Rafa said with a note of resolution in his voice,

"No one expects you to fight him; that would not be a fair fight. We just wanted you to know whom you had challenged and if you cause any trouble after the rite, I think even Isabella will let Roger eat you, even though she doesn't ever want to see anyone die." Rafa explained as he handed his quiver of arrows over to Yanisin. "With your blessing, I would like to start the rite, Chief Yanisin."

"As you wish."

The whole tribe of centaurs moved to form a circle around the fighters and Roger pulled back to lay with his feet on either side of the group by the stake, his tail curled around him like a cat. "Rafa is Roger's stand-in during the Rite-by-Combat for the woman Mirka. This is a fight to first blood." Yanisin said with up raised hands so that everyone gathered could hear him.

Rafa and Markus touched blades and stepped apart signaling the onset of the duel. With in seconds several blows had been exchanged, leaving both fighters untouched and proving to the most inexperienced observer that the two were evenly matched. For every strike Markus Essayed, Rafa had a counter, but when Rafa turned his efforts to the offense the balance of skill shifted. Thought still a fair match in skill, an occasional block would find Markus open to a following strike or Rafa would leave Markus making a hasty withdrawal that left him off-balance. It was after one of theses hasty withdrawals that left Markus losing his footing and swinging wildly that Rafa stepped in to strike and instead caught the tip of Markus' wildly flailing blade in his arm. Rafa looked in shock at this slim trail of blood, it would heal in a moment, but it was still first blood. Rafa turned to apologize to Roger; however Markus drew a dagger and stepped forward to drive it into Rafa's back. The whole tribe gasped as Markus suddenly fell to the ground in agony, clawing at his head.

"This is another of Isabella's talents." Rafa explained. Yanisin could hear the slightest tone of humor in Rafa's voice.

Mirka took her terrified eyes off of the dragon standing over her to look over at Isabella and, seeing that her eyes were trained on Markus, was worried that she was truly trying to kill him. She watched as Rafa leaned towards Yanisin. And after a whispered conversation, Yanisin raised his hands to speak to the tribe. Rafa called to Isabella to stop what she was doing to Markus and allow him to stand. After a few moments, Markus shakily rose to his feet.

"Because Markus tried to kill Rafa after winning the match, he is disqualified from claiming Mirka. We acknowledge that Mirka is Roger's mate. There will be no actions taken against Isabella as she was protecting her mate and did not actually interfere with the match."

Then Yanisin walked over to Isabella. "I would like to see this healing power of yours; there is a woman in labor who needs help and we have lost our medicine man."

"No, Isabella is too weak from the journey, healing Apenimon, the cold and now from defending me." Rafa said as he but his bow back on his shoulder and put on his quiver, a shudder ran over his body, looking over at his mate.

Isabella was leaning on to Nesa, pulling herself up to stand. Rafa gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "Isabella says that she wants to help the woman. It is not her fault that Isabella is cold and beaten."

Rafa saw that Yanisin was looking at him curiously, "Isabella can talk to me though a mental connection. It was a gift from the elves as I am her mate." He stated. "Although that time she yelled at me. She doesn't like it when I say she can't do some healing." He said with a chuckle and a smile.

"Nesa and I will go with her, we are the ones who taught her how to control her gift and know a lot about healing. The wolves will stay here unless they are needed." Lewis said uncertainly to Yanisin.

"As you wish," Yanisin signaled for one of the centaurs to guide the three healers. Two of the wolves whined as they watched Isabella go but stayed where they, trusted the elves to protect her. Mirka also watched them go, she wished she was going with them as she wanted to put some distance between her and Roger. "My son will be punished for taking your mates. I am sorry to the both of you. Do you think that they will still attack us?"

Rafa was watching Isabella enter the teepee though the door that was in the east side of the teepee. The flap was just a lighter gray against the darkness; worried she was over extending herself and possibly harming the baby. "As long as she and the baby come out of it fine, they should leave you alone. I make no promises about Markus, though."

"I understand. I have no idea where your sister is, though; he only brought these two women with him. I am sure he thought he would take her from hiding after he was mated to Mirka and Isabella was dead so the women's word against his would be meaningless."

A horn signaled the arrival of more guests; they entered the camp with Juan Carlos in the lead, Caunidhrenon to his right and Zander, the leader of the werewolves, in his human form to Juan Carlos's left. It took a few minutes for Rafa to realize that there were several more centaurs filing in.

"Hello, again, Yanisin. I see Rafa hasn't killed Markus, so I am assuming that Isabella is safe somewhere; and since Roger has not eaten Markus, I am also assuming that Mirka is alright, although she looks like she is in shock." Juan Carlos stated.

"Isabella is helping a woman in labor." Yanisin replied. "I see you have some of my former tribe members with you." Yanisin gave a welcoming bow to the arriving royals.

"Yes, they were on their way to find a new home when we came across them." King Caunidhrenon spoke in a friendly tone. "When they found out that we had received a message and were now on a war march against you, Elan, their leader, told us that he would try to end this peacefully. He has told us of your recent troubles, perhaps we can help. Some times a neutral party with out a vested interest can help reach peace. Would you mind if we acted as mediators for you?"

Yanisin pondered this for a moment before replying, "You and Juan Carlos may stay, but I would prefer the wolves leave."

The werewolf leader spoke, "My name is Zander and my wolves and I will leave only when Isabella does. Could we have this Markus come to us? I want some of my wolves to get his scent so we can find where he put Maria."

"I am not going anywhere near those filthy mutts!" Markus exclaimed and then spat on the ground.

"Markus, you have no place to speak here. You have brought destruction on this tribe. Look around you, even your followers have, started to turn on you." Yanisin pointed out.

Markus looked around and saw that his followers had indeed pulled way from him; many were now holding swords and bows at the ready but they were all pointed at him. "Fine! Have it your way, but if they attack me you will be at fault for killing your own son," Markus replied petulantly.

"If you are killed it is by your own foolishness! I am ashamed to call you my son! From this point on you can live your life to bring pride back to our family." Yanisin's reply was harsh. "Now stand still."

Markus stood still as three of the wolves guarding Mirka moved forward and began sniffing at him. He kicked out at one of them as it sniffed at his back legs, but the wolf had been expecting it and quickly rolled away before he could get hurt. The wolves stepped back and growled at him.

"Kicking at them was foolish." Zander hissed, "We came here in peace. We don't want to fight but we will not abide by someone acting so foolish." Turning to the wolves he asked, "Do you three have enough of his scent to find her?"

One wolf cocked his head and with one ear moving, he shook his head. Zander turned again to Markus to say, "I suggest you stand still this time or I will allow them to attack you." Two of the wolves began sniffing again but the one that shook his head stayed still, moving his ears and sniffing the wind. Suddenly, he let out a howl, startling some of the Folk tribe as he bounded though them to get to the far side of the circle of teepees. Rafa squinted into the darkness and could just make out his father supporting a weak Apenimon. As his father stepped in to the light they could see Maria holding on to her father's shoulders to keep her balance as she rode him in to the village. The other two wolves dashed to Sebastián and Apenimon, taking up guarding positions as they lead Sebastián though the village.

Sebastián bowed to the four kings and then spoke. "I am sorry for the intrusion, but when I arrived home Anna was distraught and told me everything she knew. Apenimon was trying to console her; he is devastated by this betrayal and wanted to help. He said he might know where Markus would hide my daughter and led me to a teepee deep in the woods. We found her there, bound and blindfolded in a chest, but there was a dead woman on the bed who seemed to have been beaten to death."

"Follow Sebastian's trail back to this teepee and see if her body looks like the others." Zander commanded his wolves. He looked at Yanisin, "We have been finding the bodies of raped and beaten women at the edges of our town for the last few months. The humans think that it is the work of a human serial killer but the wolves have smelled centaur on these women and have been looking for the one responsible. I was going to ask Juan Carlos about it after the birth of Isabella's child. That is the real reason we were all coming to their village, to see the baby and celebrate."

"Markus, what do you have to say about this?" Yanisin asked, but to everyone's surprise Markus was gone. "I am ashamed of him; he has no honor if he cannot face an accusation, I am sorry. The next time you see him you have every right to kill him. Elan, will you be coming back to the tribe?"

"If Markus has left, then yes; but only if we can bring about peace between the two halves of our tribe." The young centaur said as he stepped forward to stand beside Zander. "Why do you ask?"

"I need to find a new heir. I have proven how unfit I am to be chief and will need to step down. I think you may be the best one to do it. If you would stand in defense of a tribe that you have left, you could lead that tribe to great heights."

"I will have to think on that," The heavily tattooed Elan mused, "As I said, I will only come back if we can fix the damage Markus has done."

Rafa suddenly interrupted them. "Isabella is coming out; the mother and her child will be fine but need rest." He said as he started to walk towards the teepee Isabella had disappeared into earlier. Isabella was indeed coming out of the teepee, bent over to get though the low opening. Just as she stood up, a hand appeared on top of her head pulling her back.

Every on was shocked to see Markus set around the side of the teepee as he growled, "I will free you all from this witch's spell then you will see how great I am." As he said these words, he brought down the knife in his other hand. At the last moment Isabella grabbed his hand, throwing her weight to the side, she turned forcing Markus to drive the knife into his own chest.

Rafa and the others watched in horror as Markus fell seemingly in slow motion. Rafa couldn't make himself move as he watched Markus's dead body fell sideways, trapping Isabella beneath it. When Rafa reached her side, she was not moving. Elan and another of the Folk centaurs pulled Markus's dead body aside to allow Rafa to lift Isabella out from underneath. He could see that she had hit her head on one of the teepee anchors. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that if she was just knocked out, her injury might not be bad; but as he lifted her he saw something that chilled him to the core: blood was running down Isabella's legs. "Nesa! Lewis!" he cried "Isabella is bleeding!"

Lewis rushed towards them asking over his shoulder, "Is there a teepee we may use?"

"Mine is to the left; you may use it." Yanisin called.

With the sound of thundering hooves, Apolo suddenly appeared in the firelight carrying Nat on his back, her medicine bag slung over her shoulder. "I thought we might be needed here more than with the war band." Apolo apologized to Juan Carlos.

"You were right; Isabella needs to be healed. We will talk about it later." Rafa said tersely.

Nat quickly slipped into the teepee leaving Rafa and Apolo behind. As Rafa Ducked to follow her, Apolo stopped him. "You need to stay out here. I know how you are; you cannot get in their way. We have to trust that they will do the best for both Isabella and the baby." Rafa grunted his acknowledgment as he began pacing back and forth before the opening. The wolves came and joined him, restlessly circling the tent. Even though there was peace now in the village, they would not let their guard down until Isabella was either back in her own village or dead.

Mirka hesitantly walked over to the teepee and shyly asked Rafa "I would like to help in any way I can; I have started to think of Isabella as my sister. May I go in to see what I can do to aid her?" She didn't want to let Rafa know what she really wanted to do was to get a way from Roger. She thought that she was afraid of Roger when he was the unknown centaur, now knowing that they planed to mate her to a dragon terrified her. She would see Isabella healed, and then she could sneak away knowing she was no longer in Isabella's debt.

"Yes, but don't get in their way."

The view that met Mirka as she stepped into the teepee was a grim one indeed. Isabella's clothes and been cut away and she had been put on a table so Lewis and Nat could examine her. There were deep bruises all over her body and a minor cut on her head, but the worst was seeing the blood on her thighs. Nat examined Isabella's cervix before starting.

"She is not fully dilated, the foal is in the wrong position we can't deliver this way."

"We could if she had enough energy." Lewis said. "If we had enough volunteers we could take a little life energy from each and give it to Isabella. Then I could tap into her powers and reposition the baby."

"You can use mine." Even Mirka was startled by her voice. "She healed me it is the least I can do."

"I will start with Mirka. Nesa, Nat, go find others who are willing to volunteer; I don't know how much we will need. Mirka, come stand by me; I need to put my hand on your arm."

Taking a deep breath, Mirka stepped over and rolled up her sleeve. Lewis began whispering an incantation and placed his hand on Mirka's arm. A bright blue light suddenly filled the teepee like water bursting thought a broken dam. Lewis opened his eyes and looked at Nesa. "I don't think we will need any one else; see how far Mirka's life force goes." Nesa stepped to the door of the teepee and looked out to see that find the whole village was lit up as bright as day.

"Roger, would you fly up and see how far this light goes?" She asked, "We need to know how strong Mirka's life force is and whether it is enough to save Isabella." Roger flew away, returning a few moments later and changed into his human form.

"It goes for about a mile in every direction; what does it mean?"

"It means that Mirka is not human. We will talk later." Nesa went back into the teepee. "Roger said that it goes for about a mile in every direction."

"That is good; it means that we can use a lot of it then."

Over the next hour Nat and Nesa watched as Lewis acted as a conduit between Isabella and Mirka. Nat was checking on the baby's position every fifteen minutes and was surprised at how quickly the baby repositioned himself. Once he was there, it took only a half an hour more before his cry was heard though out the village.

Lewis finally released Mirka's arm. As the light disappeared, Mirka thought she heard a quiet voice say, "Thank you."

She swayed and Nesa put her arm around Mirka's waist to prevent her from falling. Mirka knew that she was no longer in Isabella's debt, but she was now too tired to leave and a profound sadness filled her.

When Isabella groaned and began to move slowly, Lewis gently touched her arm saying "Be still, you have become weak. Just rest, Nat has your baby."

"He is a healthy boy." Nat confirmed as she laid the baby gently on Isabella's chest.

"I am going to take Mirka out and let Rafa in." Nesa said, guiding Mirka outside. "Rafa, you may go ..." Rafa didn't wait for her to finish her sentence before he jumped for the door of the teepee.

Looking down at Isabella, Rafa carefully pulled his son close. Isabella was clearly exhausted but her smile was beautiful. He kissed her, reassuring himself that she was indeed fine. He remained there at her side until he felt Lewis at his shoulder. When he turned he saw that Lewis had pulled out a pallet of furs for Rafa to use. Rafa handed his son to Lewis and gently picked Isabella up to carry her to the furs. Once he had her settled, he turned back to his son. Cradling his child against his chest, he then lay down and pulled Isabella close. He kissed both of them on the forehead and peacefully drifted off to sleep.

When the baby's cry was heard, Roger had changed back into a dragon and wrapped himself protectively around the tent. Now, he looked down at Nesa as she led Mirka out of the teepee. She gently pushed Mirka down next to his front foot where, an exhausted Mirka curled up and immediately slipped into a deep sleep, Roger's large foot keeping her warm.

"They will all be fine. No matter what Mirka is, she is a good friend to have." Nesa said to Roger.

When Lewis came out of the teepee a few moments later, he put his arm around Nesa's waist. "We are heading over to our king's tent to sleep. Sleep well, Roger."

Roger gently nuzzled Mirka's head with his snout before resting his head next to hers and falling asleep.

********

Mirka was walking down a long beach, the sand soft and warm on her bare feet. A whisper of noise announced the arrival of a man next to her. She immediately slipped her hand into his.

"I have missed our walks." His voice washed over her ears, smooth and sweet like chocolate.

"I have not had much time to dream lately." Mirka said as she blushed.

"I hope that has changed." He leaned over and kissed her on the check.

They walked for a while before they sat down on a blanket and watched the waves come and go. They talked about Mirka's journey so far; his hand making small circles on her lower back. When the sun set and a fire sprang up untended, Mirka gathered her courage. She had been craving his kisses, but was afraid of his rejection. She slowly leaned over and kissed him. He pulled her close and returned the kiss, his hands sliding up to cup her shoulders. Mirka's hands slid under his shirt, feeling the warm, solid muscles of his back; she pulled on his shirt, indicating her desire to remove it. He pulled away briefly to pull his shirt off over his head before quickly capturing her lips again.