Lydia was on her belly, laying under a pine tree, silently watching the small band of coarse chain and leather covered men ride through her valley. Her pale blue eyes tracked their movement, but even better, her hearing followed the rattle and clang of steel and her nose could easily follow the stench of sweat, oil and horse. They talked in hushed tones as if to be stealthy. They may as well have blown a fanfare of trumpets. The whole forest knew they were here, and young Lydia thought she knew why.
She crawled out of hiding and padded behind the group, always staying in the treeline. The best armored seemed to be the youngest of the group. He sat tall in his saddle with dirty blonde hair. His helm laid in his lap and he laughed at an older man's quip.
"Some young lord or new knight..." she thought. "Shame he would die." Lydia was sure they were going up the mountain to face Taika the witch. Why else would heavily armored men travel this forest. "So handsome to die so young." She thought just before one of the horses reared and neighed nervously, making her stop and drop to the ground.
"Whoa, girl." One of the baggage men calmed his horse and they all scanned the trees for a threat.
"Eh, it's a wolf." The young knight moved to the middle of the group and pointed to Lydia, who thought she was near invisible in the darkness under the pines. "Shall we kill it?" The handsome knight started to dismount.
"No, Gavin" The older knight chided. "We haven't the time and it would just outrun you."
Both men turned their horses back towards the hill, but Gavin looked back.
"Why hasn't it fled?" The handsome warrior asked.
"Maybe it likes watching you." The old knight said with some irritation. "Send an arrow after it if it bothers you so much."
Lydia did flee now. Letting them see her was bad enough, but she wouldn't be a target. She sprang up and bounded deeper into the forest until she could no longer hear them. Then she turned towards the peak until she found the back cave entrance, a fissure in the rock really, room for a slim woman or child to slip beneath the cover of stone. Her shape shifted and if there was anyone to look at her, she would have been a blur. She stood human now, pale skinned, raven haired, and lean. A young woman at the peak of her ripening, her hips flared her skirt and her top was too tight for the round firm orbs that wanted to cascade over the seems, but these things mattered not to Lydia. She spent most of her time outdoors as wolf or raven, tricks taught her by Taika.
She walked confidently through the ever darkening passage that took her upwards to the main cave that the old witch and her called home. Taika was her Mistress, her tutor in the ways of magic. The witch was very powerful and very old... "and very mad", Lydia was sure in her head. Taika was cruel and demanding. She taught with pain from her hands and venom from her lips. Lydia had learned her lessons quickly and was now a witch in her own right, but Taika would not release her.
"Where have you been, girl?" The old crone barked near the fire.
"There are men coming up the mountain, Mistress." Lydia supplied, walking to her.
"I know that, fool." Taika spat. "You had to go see them I s'pose." The witch came closer. "You looked at them and felt something here." Roughly the old woman grabbed at Lydia's groin and laughed as the girl pushed herself away shocked.
"Mistress..."
"Men are worthless" She said slowly with utter hatred, as if remembering a long time ago. "They will use you and then toss you out." Then Taika smiled grimly "Then they whimper like pigs when the power is in YOUR hands." Taika came out of her reverie "Stay away from them, girl."
Before dusk the knights and their men had reached the large entrance of the cave. The steep terrain forced them to leave the horses lower down the mountain. With six of them, Gavin felt confident that they could subdue, or kill, one old witch.
"TAIKA, WITCH OF THE FROSTED HILLS!" The older knight, Barimore, bellowed out towards the cave entrance and drew his gleaming longsword holding it before him in both hands. The men behind him held broad swords or maces. Only Gavin held a shield in his off hand and his broad sword was still at his side.
"BY ORDER OF THE KING," He continued "You will be tried for your crimes against his people. Surrender yourself."
There was a long silence. The sun had completely disappeared behind the neighboring hillside. Dusk was turning into twilight. A shadow manifested at the dark cave entrance.
"Your king has no power here." The words echoed around them. "He has no power over me." She spat the last word.
"If you do not surrender, we can not allow you to live." The bearded knight proclaimed.
"No, it is I that will not allow you to live." She spoke almost quietly but her voice rang from the rocks.
The men shifted their feet. They would not step back, but fear was in them now, she was a witch after all. Silence came now from the cave.
"Take Her, Men!"
Gavin drew his sword and the other men rushed forward as a great beast emerged into the dying light. In the darkness its size and shape was hard to gauge, but it had a roar that filled the night. One clawed hand swept a man nearly off the hillside, and jaws long as a strongman's arms snapped a squire's head off. The elder Knight swung his mighty sword at the dark beast, only to receive a reverberating clang. Fire belched out from the beast and its now visible head swung towards Gavin's mentor. The brush caught fire at their feet and Gavin could see the beast in the flames light as he rushed to defend the older warrior with his shield.
Her scales were black as volcanic soot. Steam rose from the broad back. There were no wings, but a body the size of a smith's house. Spikes came off its skull and down its neck. Legs thick as beech trees came to claws longer than daggers and shone like polished ebony.
It was an earthbound dragon but a dragon none the less.
Gavin got to the Knight and threw up his shield, but Barimore's armor was smoldering.
"We must attack, man" Barimore commanded. "There is no retreat."
Indeed, in the short battle, positions had shifted and the beast blocked the path down. Only three of them remained upright. Gavin looked to the dead and two wounded and as if reading his thoughts, the dragon coated the prone men in flame. Their screams were short, but they filled his ears.
"Each on a side then." Gavin offered. "I will take the front with my shield."
They approached slowly, the other two flanking wide. Dragon's breath was terrible but it was not forever. Dragons needed to recharge. The last of the soldiers was taunting with two swords, trying to pull the beast this way so Barimore could lunge with that great sword. The dragon looked at Gavin but swung at the leather clad warrior with its barbed tail. Gavin drove in to strike an eye but had to roll as claws raked the air where his chest had been. Barimore drove in now trying to angle the blade to slide under the scales. His target was the neck, but the dragon heard him or sensed him and spun a quarter turn sending its horned head towards the old Knight. Barimore was knocked to the ground with a crash.
Gavin and the soldier sprang forward to help their fallen comrade. The dragon swung that barbed tail blindly like a morning star, while it advanced on the older knight. Gavin dodged under the deadly tail, but Barimore was being squashed by the beasts large foot.. The young knight charged in desperation.
