[DL-K]  Shafted

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[A subterranean lair, somewhere in the wilderness^�]

K'drik hardly recognized the image reflected in the tarnished, battered hand 
mirror.  The bearded, wild-haired face little resembled his memory of how he 
ought to look.  K'drik's memory told him that even as a young adult, his 
boyish face made him resemble an overgrown youth, a fact that had sometimes 
embarrassed him.  Now it was a shock to expect that too-young face and see a 
man's face instead.  Strange, and wondrous.

Setting the mirror down, he finished dressing and left the bedchamber.  He 
had yet to find an exit from the caverns, but he had hopes that at least 
some of the brigands would be preoccupied by their new charges.  Security 
*had* seemed a bit looser since the hatching, but not enough to allow K'drik 
to make a bid for freedom.  No matter how preoccupied everyone seemed, 
someone always noticed when K'drik tried to explore a bit too much.

Well, time to test the boundaries again.  It was late afternoon, and the 
members of Jacinth's brood were all topside, resting after a day of flight 
training and foraging.  K'drik didn't get to help with *that* training; he 
supposed Ar'lan must be training them himself.  Ar'lan and Phard would be 
off hunting around now, if K'drik had sussed out their routine as well as he 
believed he had, so now was the time to explore, and perhaps - oh, let it be 
so! - to finally escape.

Lighting a candle, he wandered from the bedchamber through a couple of short 
tunnels, including one that forced him to crawl on his belly, and emerged 
into a largish cave that served as both barracks and mess hall for Ar'lan's 
raiders.  Well, some of them, at least; K'drik figured them to be about 
sixteen men all told, and there were only eight pallets here.  He surmised 
the rest must sleep elsewhere, though he had never discovered where.  
Picking his way carefully among the piles of various belongings, he 
scrabbled up a short slope to the next series of underground passages.

He hardly paused to admire a breathtaking flowstone waterfall, a sublime 
cascade of glittering stone.  K'drik was too focused on thoughts of escape 
to properly appreciate its beauty.  Its presence on his right meant it was 
time to reach up and heft himself up onto a ledge at his left, then wriggle 
through a none-too-comfortable bend in the passage in order to emerge into 
the vast sandy cavern where Jacinth lay.

<I'm here, my dear one,> he thought gently to her.  <I've come to pay you a 
visit.>

He laid a hand on her flank, but she didn't even open her eyes.  One of her 
front talons was cradled tenderly around a spotted egg, the only one of her 
small clutch that had not hatched.  K'drik suspected the tiny form inside 
was long since dead, though Jacinth kept faithful vigil over it, warming the 
sand gently, sometimes rocking it gingerly from side to side.  He had never 
seen her so withdrawn, so subdued.

Seeing her with the stillborn egg made K'drik abandon any thoughts of urging 
her to teleport away with him while Phard was out of range... she still had 
hopes for this little one, even though the other four had long since hatched 
and joined.  Instead, he carefully set his candle aside and unstoppered a 
bottle of oil and began to polish Jacinth's scales.  It was the only way he 
could think to comfort her.

He had oiled perhaps half of Jacinth's skin when the interruption came.  
"You know you're not allowed to touch the lizard," a voice in the darkness 
sneered.

K'drik put the oil bottle and cloth away with exaggerated patience before 
turning to regard the other man.  "I thought you'd be topside with your new 
soulmate, Jaret," he said with an icy smile.  "Or has she wised up and 
abandoned you for one of the others?"

Jaret Hart stepped forward into the candlelight, black eyes glittering 
dangerously.  "You know perfectly well dragons don't unjoin once they've 
joined," he retorted.

"I do," K'drik agreed mildly, walking toward the other man.  "I just wasn't 
sure whether you knew."

"You'll never find your way out," Jaret sneered.

"Not if I spend all day talking with you," K'drik agreed, pushing past 
Jaret, headed towards the only other exit from the vaulted chamber.

Jaret caught his arm, smiling unkindly.  "Tell me, since you know so much... 
what's it like, being the captain's bit-"

K'drik whirled on him.  He never remembered throwing the punch, just a 
sudden awareness of wetness lingering on his bruised knuckles as he drew his 
fist back.

Jaret stumbled backwards, clutching his face.  "My dose!" he cried 
indistinctly.  "You bwoke my dose again!"

"You didn't learn the first time, when Ar'lan did it," K'drik said with 
forced nonchalance.  "So I had to do it myself, just to show you that I can. 
  And will again, if I have to, the next time you forget to mind your tongue 
around your betters..."

Jaret spluttered a protest, but K'drik ignored him.

"...and to answer your question," K'drik continued with mock seriousness.  
"I'd show you *exactly* what it's like, but I'll not sully myself with the 
likes of *you*.  Besides, you'll find out soon enough, the first time she 
goes into heat.  Wonder which of your fellows will win you, then?"

Jaret stared at him aghast, but K'drik laughed and walked away.  He had 
almost reached the chamber's exit when he heard Jaret speak again.

"Tage one more sdep and I'll wase an alarm," he mumbled sullenly.  "I'll hab 
my dwagon tell de odders you'we twying to escape."

K'drik stopped, then slowly paced back to where Jaret stood, hunched over in 
pain.  "I've got a better idea," he said with deceptive mildness.

Suddenly he stepped behind and grabbed Jaret by the head, one arm wrapped 
across the other man's neck, ignoring the shriek of pain this elicited.  
"Tell your 'dwagon' that if she tells the others that *anything* is wrong - 
even that I've hurt you, just now - I'll snap your neck.  I'm betting that 
she's fond enough of you - who knows why? - that she'll do anything to save 
your worthless life."  When there was no response save a gasp of fear, 
K'drik shook him.  "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Jaret sobbed.

"Good."  K'drik held the other for a moment, thinking.  "Now, you're going 
to lead me out of these wretched caverns..." he shuffled toward the exit, 
yanking Jaret along with him.

"Aw'lan will *gill* me if I hep you egscape!" Jaret protested weakly.

"*I* will kill you if you don't," K'drik replied.

Together they shuffled through the labyrinth of cave tunnels painstakingly 
slowly.  When they reached a portion too narrow to squeeze through while 
keeping Jaret in a headlock, K'drik stopped and removed the other's shirt, 
wrapping the fabric around Jaret's neck and clutching the ends of the 
makeshift noose in one hand, pushing the other through the tunnel before 
him.

"I don't want to die," Jaret pleaded.

"Then we have a goal in common, because I don't want to kill you," K'drik 
said quietly, "but I *will*, if you give me a reason.  Keep moving."

A while later Jaret spoke again.  "She won't go," he said, and K'drik knew 
he was referring to Jacinth.  "Even if you get out, she won't go wif you... 
and Aw'lan will gill her to punish you."

"Maybe he will," K'drik gritted.   "But I'm betting he wants to keep using 
her to hatch more dragons.  He needs her in order to brood."

"But wif you gone, he can't contwol her," Jaret reasoned.  "He'll gill her 
and wait for one of de new dwagons to get old enough to mate."

With a cold chill K'drik realized it was probably true.  "Well, then, I'll 
just have to persuade her to come with me, then, won't I?" he said with a 
laugh that was entirely forced.  "First things first, though.  Get me 
outside.  Is it much further?"

"Awound the next bend," Jaret sighed.  They two of them rounded the corner 
into a cul-de-sac that appeared to be the bottom of a vertical shaft.  
K'drik was very startled to see a half-grown dragon hatchling waiting for 
them, a russet-colored female with flecks of blue and gold.

The dragonet hissed and shot fire at K'drik, causing him to instinctively 
cover his head with both arms for protection.  Belatedly he realized that 
the youngster was too small to *truly* flame him and that he had been bathed 
in a shower of sparks instead, too small to do serious harm, but it was too 
late.  Jaret had plunged forward the moment K'drik let go of the makeshift 
noose.  Hugging the dragon tightly, the two of them launched into air, 
hovering briefly in the cramped confines of the shaft before shimmering out 
of sight.

K'drik cursed himself for a fool.  He *knew* the hatchlings were big enough 
to 'port, if only barely...  it was the only practical way into or out of 
the hatching cavern, for anything larger than a human.  Falling to his 
knees, he threw his head back and screamed in rage and frustration...  and, 
while looking up, saw a glimmer of daylight.

He had no idea how far he would have to climb to reach that opening...  he 
might even fall and die in the attempt.  He still had to try.  Anything was 
better than relentless days and nights of darkness, waiting for Ar'lan to 
return and vent his pleasure... or lack thereof.

<Be ready, Jacinth,> he pleaded as he began the long climb.  <If I make it 
to the top, I'll need you.  Please.>  He received no response, but he 
continued regardless.  Light, and freedom, were up there somewhere.


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Respectfully submitted,


  Dave Lankford
      K'drik & Jacinth
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