The Dragon's Aid

        Theldorin lied down in his cool pond and glared at the reflection of the sun off the water.  He craned his large neck around and saw that the sun was just barely over the tree lines.  He grumbled as he lied down on the bottom of the water to await the setting of the sun.
        Theldorin was a bronze colored dragon.  His kind, dragons, were often considered brutish and evil, which in some cases were true.  The bronzes were one of the few kinds of dragons that were known for their great diversity from unthinkingly evil to the ultimate harbingers of good.
                He was brought back to reality by a tingling sensation in his tail.  He looked around and saw that the tip of his tail was out of the water, where the tingling started.  He lifted his head out of the water to see a zombie chewing on the end of his tail.  It was muttering, "Eat dead, eat dead dead thing."
                He thought about ignoring it for a moment when there was a loud explosion nearby.  Debris flew through the air and he ducked beneath the water to avoid them. The zombie took no notice as little bits of wood bounced off its skeletal rib cage or dug into its rotting flesh.
              Theldorin had had enough.  He wrenched his tail out of the ghastly creature's grasp and spun around to face it.  It began to follow his tail in a circle when he crushed the thing beneath a claw.  It shuddered for a moment and then lie still.
            He looked over towards the explosion.  The nearby trees were blazing and a small collection of humans was under attack by two groups one of zombies and the other of skeletons led by something in black robes.
            He gave a loud roar which shook the forest.  He lowered his body close to the ground and charged.  The thing in robes turned around and sent a bolt of something black at him.  He ducked, but it homed onto him and hit him square in the face.  He felt what the spell was, it was a drowsiness spell, but he easily shook off the weak spell, but he made it look like it had worked.  He slowed to a stop and fell to the ground.
              The thing gave a laugh and conjured a large hoop he recognized.  It was a Collar of Obedience.  That same item now held his mother captive to an ogre, which he was still unable to find.  He swore that this would only be the beginning of vengeance for her.
              He breathed in and released it in a mighty lightning bolt.  The shock wave hit the ring of skeletons and half of the flimsy undead fell to pieces.  The creature in black robes was unaffected and threw the ring at Thelodrin.
              He nearly snorted at the thought that this thing thought it could catch him.  He cast a spell to send it back at the creature when he felt something hit his neck.
             
          Meanwhile the humans desperately were trying to fight of the zombies that were attacking them.  "Defend her highness!"  The commander called out.  "Priests get that spell done soon for Lorelth's sake!"  The commander turned back to see his second-in-command take the flat of a skeleton's blade to the head and he fell hard to the ground.
                "Sir, we're losing ground and now they've brought a dragon too!"  A scout said as a roar filled the forest.
            "Sweet mother of all, fall back.  Maybe we can make it to the capital."  The party began to fall back.  Suddenly a silver dragon came crashing through the trees and landed hard as a large ogre fell on top of it.
              "Sir," the scout said, "the dragon seems to be fighting them."  And indeed it did because the dragon had used its long neck to reach around and bite the ogre in the leg.
            "Thank the gods!"  He shouted as a zombie came towards him.  "Fight on men, the dragon may not be an ally, but he's still fighting our enemies, lay on!"  He swung his axe and sent the head of the zombie flying.  The thing wasn't overly slowed by this fact so he slashed off its arms and left it.

              Theldorin heard the human's words and was kind of busy so he could not give any reply.  He had been able to ward off the collar, but an ogre had grabbed him and it was not going to be an easy fight.
              The ogre had its large arms wrapped around his middle while his own jaws sunk into the ogre's leg.  At this point blank range it would be easy to hit the ogre with his breath weapon, if only he could breathe.  He gave a strong bite and he felt the hold loosen.  He reared his head back slightly and breathed lightning into the ogre's leg.  It howled in pain as the lightning charred the skin.  It quickly turned and ran.  Theldorin didn't think it was coming back anytime soon.
            He turned his attention back to the humans.  Too late he turned because the necromancer hit him square in the face with a lightning bolt.  He howled in anger as the flash blinded him, but his heritage made the bolt inflict no other damage.  As the world slowly came into focus again he saw the necromancer advancing towards the wagon.

            "How many of these hell spawns can you summon vile one?"  The captain roared at the necromancer as another zombie appeared from the bushes.
            The necromancer finally lowered the hood covering its face.  The captain stopped in horror.  The face was rotting away as the gray flesh was peeling away from the empty sockets that had once been the thing's eyes.  This was a lich.
              It smiled at the captain with teeth that were nearly completely deteriorated.  "As your men fall I can command them to rise again.  You cannot defeat me.  Bow down and hope your death will come quickly!"
            The captain glowered at the lich.  "I will never bow down to you!"  The captain swung at the lich, but his sword only rang as it hit the hard bones under the robes.  The blow had no effect.
          The lich waved a finger mockingly at the captain.  "Naughty, naughty.  Now it's my turn."  But before the lich could act, a beam of light erupted from the caravan and struck the lich full in the chest.  It howled in pain and backed away.
            "Leave us lich.  Your power is useless."  A woman appeared from the wagon.  The spell had apparently set the wooden carriage on fire, but she did not seem bothered by this fact.  Her eyes flashed with rage, which was heightened by the reflection of the flames.  Even her long robes were shining, undisturbed by the inferno at her feet.
              The lich gave a sound that sounded a lot like a hiss.  As he reached into his belt there was another hiss, but this one did not come from the lich.

              The hiss was from Thelodrin.  The lich turned around to find his vision full of the dragon's head.  "Remember me?"  He asked the lich with a smirk.
            Even though the lich had no blood it's face seemed to turn even paler.  "You cannot defeat me!"  He screamed in anger at the crowd around him.  He looked around and cringed.  The priestess's presence was weakening his soldiers and the soldiers were easily defeating the weakened skeletons.
            "Wanna bet?"  Thelodrin had had enough of this guy.  He had ruined his nap and now Thelodrin might even be endangering these humans too, inadvertently of course.  He reached forward to grab the lich, but found that touching the creature shot pain up his arm.  The pain shot right up into his brain and he found it hard to think straight.
            "Why do you defend these pathetic creatures?"  The lich said, smiling a toothless smile at Thelodrin.  "They have done nothing for-"  the lich was not able to finish that thought.  The priestess was done waiting.  She brought her mace down heavily upon the lich's head.  There was the sickening sound of cracking bone.  The lich shuddered, but remained standing.
              The lich whirled around and slammed its fist into her.  She was sent flying back into the flames she had started.  There was a sound of cracking wood as she slammed into the wagon.  "You are all pathetic!  I am undead.  You cannot kill me."
            Thelodrin knew not to grab the creature again.  How could he help these humans?  He had his reasons for helping them, he never mentioned that part to anyone.  Then a thought came to him.  He breathed lightning into the lich's face.
        Even though it was a direct hit, the lich was seemingly unimpressed, but when he looked for that pesky dragon, it was gone!  There was no way something that big could move that fast.  There was a hissing sound from above him, he looked up and felt the closest thing a lich could feel to fear, his body froze.
          Thelodrin was above him and he had uprooted a large tree.  "Catch," he said as he dropped the heavy tree from one hundred feet in the air.  The lich still could not move and was crushed under the tree.  His skeletal hand was all that could be seen under the weight and it did not even flinch.
          As Thelodrin looked over at the burning wagon that the priestess was rising from, he was reminded of his own past.  She seemed familiar.
            His own experiences with humans had always been under strange circumstances.  The first time he met a human was when he was just a wyrmling, over 500 years ago.  He found a young girl fetching water from a pool near to the waterfall behind which he lived at the time.  He poked his head through the waterfall to get a better look at her and fell into the pool.  She gave a quick shriek as she saw something come out of the apparently solid rock wall.
        He surfaced and looked up at the girl from the bottom, where he could breathe easily.  All of his kind could breathe underwater as well as the air.  She picked up her dropped bucket and filled it again, but could not stop staring at him.  He slowly surfaced as she reached out a hand to touch him.  He surfaced and she drew her hand back slightly.  He waded at the top wondering what the heck she was when she quickly reached out and patted his head.  It felt nice on his soft scales and he just waded in the shallows as he felt his body relax.  She giggled and began to scratch under his chin when there was a flash.
          He looked up at her and she was changing.  Her wonderful scratching appendages were melding together and she was growing larger.  He didn't know what to do, did he do that? 
          She gave another shriek as she fell forward onto four legs.  Her strangely colored skin melded into her new form as a tail sprouted and her face began to grow out.  He dove back beneath the surface and stared in horror at the 'thing' morphing in front of him.
            Within about ten seconds she was no longer a strange peach creature, but something he recognized.  She was a horse.  He resurfaced slowly and looked at her.  "I'm sorry," he said.  "Did I do that?"  The horse looked down at him and bolted back into the forest in response.  "All I want is a friend."  He called after her.  "Really, I won't eat you!"  It was too late, she was gone.
              As soon as his mother got back from hunting he asked her about what had just happened.  She laughed and told him.  "Son that was a human.  They're very susceptible to our negative energies.  They are friendly, but do not let them touch you or else they will be affected like that female was."
              "Why not?"  He had asked her.  "Isn't she happier on four legs than two?"
            "Ah, you are young, but let me put it this way.  Would you like a verbal or a physical demonstration of the unhappiness of shape change."
              "What?  Whatever you say mom just don't talk me to death, alright?"  His mother walked over to him and tapped him on the head.  He felt himself changing, but before he realized that was what it was it was done.  He looked down to see the floor much farther away than before and he had hooves!  "Hey, why'd you do that?"  Except only a whinny escaped his lips as he talked.
              "See, not so nice, is it?"  She nudged him with her nose.  "You become a nobody to your previous species and almost always the one you become.  I cannot understand you either."  She tapped him again and his body felt right again.
              "So just remember humans cannot understand us, so they will not know why not to touch us, but do not let them.  Do you understand?"
              "Yes mother."  He said in a flat tone as if uninterested, but he remembered her advice to this day.
         
            "Hello Thelodrin," the priestess said, "remember me?"  He stared in wonder, it couldn't be!  He had turned that girl into a horse five hundred years ago!  This could not be the same woman.
              "How do you know my name human?"  He asked, not amused by this girl that reminded him of his past.
            "I know many things, but that is not what is important.  I know you because we were destined to meet again."  She smiled at him as she set her mace on the ground next to her.
            "Princess, are you alright?"  The captain said rushing over to her and bowing.  Thelodrin always thought that a rather odd action and thought about tipping the human over, but he resisted.
        "Yes I am fine.  This dragon will not harm us.  He and I must speak for a moment; please leave us."  She waved her hand as if brushing away a fly, but the captain recognized it as a dismissing wave.
        The captain eyed the dragon with a look of deep suspicion, but did move away.  He went to look to the wounded as his foolish princess got herself eaten.
          "If you expect me to apologize you are sadly mistaken."  He said matter-of-factly.  "I will not apologize for something that I did to someone who looked uncannily like you."
          "You do not believe that I am the same person?"  She looked at the ground in thought for a moment.  "I guess I have no way to prove it except for this."  She reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out something that fit in her closed fist.  She opened it and showed the contents to Thelodrin.
          It was horse hair.  It was a chestnut color, the same as the woman's had been.  "How can this be?"  He said staring wide eyed at the hair.
            "You dragons believe that you are the only long lived race.  That is far from the truth."  She leaned close and whispered, "they don't know it, but I am an elf."
            Thelodrin shook his head.  "The elves were slaughtered by the demons of the Mythril Wars.  They no longer live."  As he stared he believed he now understood why she wanted to see him.
          "That is true, but not all the elves were killed.  The curse you inadvertently placed upon me became a blessing.  You are the reason I am still alive today."  She looked up into his eyes and her eyes were watering with pooling tears.
          "I am?"  He said slowly.  The poor woman he had thought had been tortured until she died, was now alive because of that freak accident.  "Um, you're welcome.  I guess."  He wasn't sure how to talk to her.
          "Rest easy hero," she told him.  She began to walk towards him, but he backed away.  "Do not worry, my goddess protects me."  She took another step forward, but this time he did not pull back.  She reached out and scratched under his chin.
        Even though he knew this was not dignified it still felt wonderful.  He gave a soft murr as suddenly the negative energy flowed into her.  He gave a start and pulled away.
        There was a shining light around the princess now that was being assaulted by the dark energy.  As calmly as one brushes away cob webs, she brushed away the dark energy.  It dispersed into the night.
            "I release you from the curse of your race."  She said her eyes shining with her tears and the power of her goddess.  "You are free hero.  Even though many may not recognize it, you are a hero to me."  She jumped forward and wrapped his head in a hug.
          He sighed.  It felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.  He smiled at this human whom he had cursed and saved and who now had returned the favor.  He still did not feel that his debt was paid.  He lifted his head off the ground and she held on.  He twisted his head around and placed her on his back in front of his wings.  She let go and smiled up at him.  He quickly turned away not letting the elf see his eyes beginning to cloud with tears of relief and happiness.
          The captain turned in time to see the princess on the shoulders of the dragon.  As he shouted for her to get down, the dragon gave a large beat with its wings and lifted off.  The captain ran after cursing harshly at the dragon.
          Either Thelodrin couldn't hear him over the sound of the winds or just ignored him, he would never know.  The dragon and priestess together flew off into the distance.