Fire and Ice
Chapter IV - Dark Secret Revealed
© Cederwyn Whitefurr
June 2003.
All Rights Reserved.

Jessica rolled over and nuzzled the throat of Sir Kathis, who moaned and caressed her slender jaw line, gazing into her eyes. He shuddered as her sharp claw tips scratched his thickly haired chest, the sensation sending his already jangled nerves to singing once again.

"Milady - I.about last night." He stammered, suddenly getting his wits and bearings.

Jessica rose lithely from the bed, her cloven hooves clicking softly against the hard packed dirt, her naked, furred body showing bleeding scratches down her back as she stood, her hoof-paw's clasped before her, as she stared out through the bedroom window, her back to him, ears folded flat against the back of her neck. She seemed oblivious to the fact that she was as naked as the day she had been born, clothed only in her matted and bloodied pelt. For some time she remained quiet, then spoke, her voice barely a whisper.

"Sir Kathis," She began, then paused and hung her head and sighed, before clearing her throat with a delicate cough. "Last night, you were like some wild, untamed beast. You took me as your own, ravaged me in every way possible a man can take a woman, treated me no better than some common street-wench."

Sir Kathis blinked and an uncontrollable shudder ran through him, his heart turning to stone in his chest, his blood to ice water. He rolled out of bed and wrapped himself in the sticky sheet, then came over and laid his strong, calloused hand on her shoulder, feeling the young Whitetail tremble at his touch.

"I - I never meant." He stammered.

"You...frightened me." Jessica admitted.

Sickened by what he must have done, yet bearing no recollection of it, he tried to find words to soothe the shivering, naked Doe who stood with her back to him.

"I..." He croaked weakly.

Without warning, Jessica twisted about and wrapped her hoof-paws about his neck and pulled him tight, her incredible warmth flooding over him as she nuzzled his throat and thickly maned chest. 

"Do it again..."

He gasped and stumbled back from her, eyes wide in surprise and confusion. Tripping over his discarded leggings and tunic, he fell with a heavy crash down onto her bed. Jessica was on him in an instant, kneeling over him and pressing her surprisingly strong grip onto his shoulders. To Sir Kathis, it felt as if a mountain was pinning him down, yet the actual weight of the Doe 's hot, sweaty body against his was barely noticeable. Her eyes sparkled with an intense longing that sent shivers through his body, even as she pressed her hips down against him - and yet again, as if with a will of its own, his body responded to the Doe's wishes.

*

Hours later, they lay sprawled together, Sir Kathis' snores rumbling like a sleeping Dragon, and Jessica tenderly unfolded his arm for around her and slipped out of the bed. Flicking a quick glance back at him, she moved like a wisp across the bedroom and out into the main room. With a startled yelp her hoof come down on the smooth hilt of his sword and it twisted beneath her, the loud crack of fracturing bones in her ankle ricocheting off the walls.

Whimpering, Jessica hobbled over and sat down on a chair and gingerly probed her ankle, feeling the damage deep within it. Her gaze was drawn back to the sword that lay half-unsheathed on the floor, the brilliant blue glow of its icy flames transfixing her gaze. Unable to help herself, she carefully made her way towards it, drawn as a moth is drawn to a candle flame.

Kneeling, she grasped the heavy sword in her paw - then her world came crashing down around her ears. Pain! Such incredible agony seared like liquid fire up through her hoof-paw and tore its way along nerve, muscle and bone, as if her very arm had been plunged into a vat of magma. As she drew breath to scream, her lungs turned to ash in her chest and her entire body was consumed by the unimaginable anguish that flooded her very being, almost feeling as if it would surely rend her very soul apart. At last she did scream, a high-pitched, long, and despairing wail - before her body crumpled to the ground and lay still..

*

Sir Kathis gurgled and rolled over, then sat up as his hands met the damp straw stuffed mattress, and a cold jolt of fear ran through him, as he leapt to his feet and hurriedly pulled on his leggings and tunic, then ran through out into the main room. Here, he gasped in horror, seeing the twisted, still form of Jessica lying sprawled on the floor, a thin rivulet of blood oozing from her muzzle and forming a growing, sticky pool about her head and neck.

"Lady Jessica - no!" Sir Kathis screamed in horror, as he dropped to his knees and picked up her limp form, clutching it against his chest. Jessica lay like a bag of bones covered in fur, her every muscle limp and unresponsive, her neck flopping backwards as if it were surely broken.

"Come on, please.don't do this to me...not now." Sir Kathis wept, as he cradled her head against his chest. "Milady, please - come back to me.."

He began to weep - something he had not done in over forty-five years, since he was only a young child, and as his tears slid down his cheeks, long buried memories came back to haunt his tormented mind..

*

He had been a mere strip of a boy, barely six winters old, when he had witnessed a pair of Dragon's descend down on his village and proceed to raze it to the ground. They had been rampaging, unstoppable engines of destruction, smashing apart the stone and thatch huts, squashing humans beneath their iron-like hind talons, or worse.snatching them up in their claws and devouring their screaming victims alive.

As a young child, he had stood rooted to the spot, as the two commanding reptiles wreaked a bloody swatch of violence through his village, the screams of the dying searing his ears, as the tears ran down his cheeks unimpeded. His mother and father, who worked as the village blacksmith's, stood before their son, wielding shimmering swords, as the two Dragon's whirled towards the impudent mortals, then stopped and looked at each other. Together, they each chose one of his parents, and as the terrified young boy watched, snatched them up and devoured them. It was a memory that had been burned into the boy's mind ever since, and it was this one act that had set him on his life's quest, to hunt down and destroy Dragons.

One of the Dragon's looked down hungrily at the boy, who would not even have been a snack for the slavering beast that towered above him, but the other, slightly smaller one, roared and sank it's jaws into the larger one's neck, just as it leapt towards the boy. Within seconds, the two Dragon's were involved in a violent, bloody battle, clawing, raking and biting at each other, their long canines gleaming as again and again they lashed out at each other. Helplessly, the boy watched on, transfixed by the battle of these two incredible beasts, but at last the larger one screamed and took wing, obviously beaten in the frantic battle. Bloodied, weak and exhausted, the smaller Dragon lay itself down and its great panting breath washed over the boy with the smell of death and blood. Resolute, the boy reached down
and picked up his fathers fallen sword, and clutching it between his hands, moved towards the exhausted reptile, his face not one of justified vengeance and hate, but one of pity and compassion.

Before him, the Dragon only rolled its large, liquid mercury like eyes up at the boy, and as he raised the sword and held it in his straining hands between the Dragon's eyes, it merely groaned weakly and as he watched, two large tears squeezed their way from the corner of the Dragon's eyes, turning to fine crystal as they slid down the reptile's cheeks and plopping to the ground. It was this one moment, that made the boy pause, and he felt his rage sluice from him, and he dropped the sword and wrapped his arms over the Dragon's snout and hugged as tightly as he could. Surprise come over the great Dragon's expression, and it rolled its silvery eyes up and locked gazes with the boy.and something flashed between them - bridging the gulf between mere mortal and the genius intellect of the Dragon.

It was something neither understood, but both felt deeply moved by. Slowly, the boy released the Dragon, who rose weakly and shook itself, the silvery scales glimmering, before it looked down at the boy and executed an intricate curtsey, bending its left foreleg out straight, the right coming to a kneeling position, as it stretched out its neck and lay its chin against the ground, the wings unfurling and sweeping back to brush against the ground.

Blinking, the boy bowed stiffly in reply, then stepped back as the Dragon reached out and took its crystallised tears in its claws, then squeezed them shut, before it closed its eyes. A bright, almost pure white light encircled the Dragon's clenched claws, then it turned them over and the light vanished, before the Dragon crouched and held out its claws to the boy, who looked on in awe as the two tears had been fused into perfect fist sized diamonds. Nodding, the Dragon held them out, and the boy hesitantly took them one at a time, then looked up in confusion at the Dragon, who only smiled sadly, then unfurled its leathery wings and slowly began to beat them - raising a stinging cloud of grit, dust and debris. Hurriedly, the boy moved away and with a roar of wind, the Dragon leapt into the darkening sky and was soon swallowed up by the swirling storm clouds far above..

*

His salty tears spattered down onto Jessica's bloodied muzzle, then in desperation, he pulled her limp, boneless neck up and pressed his lips to hers, breathing deeply into her lungs. Again and again he did this, and finally, with a choking gasp, Jessica stirred, then convulsed and began gagging. Sir Kathis lowered her to the ground and rolled her onto her side, watching as the stricken Doe bucked and retched, finally vomiting up blood and bile from deep within herself, before she gurgled and lapsed into unconsciousness.

Relief washed from him in waves, as he crouched and picked her limp form up in his strong arms, then carried her into the bedroom and lay her down on her bed, propping the mangy wolf skin pillow under her head and neck, before he left and returned with a bowl of water and a cloth.

Gingerly, he dabbed at the blood that spattered her muzzle and he stroked her cheek tenderly, before carefully taking her hoof-paw in his and squeezing, as he continued to wash away the blood.

*

For three days and nights, Jessica lay in a near cataleptic state, her breath barely felt and her heartbeat so low, that Sir Kathis surely felt she had passed on to the next world. It was late on the third night, the cottage blazing with bursts of light as the heavens outside roiled and clashed, the thunder booming like Titan's engaged in some mighty war, the torrential rain pounding down from the seething, boiling heavens.

Sir Kathis dozed quietly beside Jessica, then without warning, her catalepsy broke and she began screaming and convulsing wildly, clawing at the air and shrieking incoherently. Sir Kathis leapt from his chair beside her bed, then pulled the shrieking Whitetail against him and held her tightly, stroking her ears.

"Milady.shhh.you're alright." He whispered, trying to soothe her.

"What.who." Jessica squealed, then blinked and shuddered, going limp.

"What, what happened to me?"

"I was hoping," Sir Kathis spoke soothingly. "That you could tell me."

Jessica gasped and shuddered, flicking her hoof-paw's across her eyes, then whimpering as her injured hoof-paw's blazed with pain. Sir Kathis gently took her wrists in his hands and pulled away the bandaged hoof-paws, laying them gingerly back on the Doe's stomach.

"I found you unconscious outside, in the main room. It seemed that you'd stumbled over my sword, and." Sir Kathis began, then his words trailed off as his eyes widened slowly. "My sword.."

Jessica's eyes widened as memory flooded back in on her, and she hurriedly gave a low, whimpering cry that brought Sir Kathis' attention back to her.

"Rest here my.love." Sir Kathis spoke as he gently stroked her ears. "I need to go check something."

"No!" Jessica wailed, as she clung to him. "Please, I'm scared."

Torn between his duty of care to the injured Whitetail and his niggling doubts, he paused and stood trembling, then without another word, moved purposefully away from her and out into the main room, the door swinging closed behind him.

*

Lying on her bed, Jessica stared at the closed wooden door, her expression turning dark and predatory, as her eyes turned to a brilliant incandescent silvery glow, a low, menacing growl escaping her throat before she squeezed her hoof-paws tightly together and fought down the anger that blazed white hot within her, but only just managing to regain her composure..

*

Sir Kathis reeled, clutching the unsheathed sword as he stared at the cerulean blaze of the icy flames that wreathed his sword.

"No." He moaned in horror. "No, it's impossible.I know what she is.."

As if in response, the sword burned colder in his grasp, its angry flames flickering and waving, almost as if it had a mind of its own.

"No damn you," Sir Kathis screamed. "I know who she is, she is the one who has brought me such pleasure, such kindness and above all.taught me what it is like to love someone! I will not believe!"

He whirled about, as he heard Jessica's soft, pitiful sob, and she moved to the fireplace, resting her paw's against the warm mantle, before she sniffled and took a pitch soaked torch from the woodpile and lit it in the fireplace. Sir Kathis watched her in bewilderment, as she led him outside. Held high above her head, the torch hissing and sputtering in the rain, and she turned her muzzle towards the sky and at a single word from her, the rain turned to drizzle, the churning, boiling clouds breaking apart, to reveal the full moon, its silvery face blazing down, bathing the ground and
cottage in its cool embrace.

"You say you love me - you called me your beloved," Jessica wept, her tears sliding down her cheeks.

Sir Kathis stared, then knelt in the mud before her, placing his sword at her hooves, and noticing as Jessica flinched and took a step backwards, away from it.

"Milady, my heart, my soul, and my sword are yours - command me as you will, and as the God's themselves are my witness, I pledge my life to you, and my hand in marriage, if you would have it."

"I." Jessica whimpered, then turned away, hanging her head. "Milord..as much as I would.it would be living a lie. I am living a lie.and I must confess my terrible secret to you. Take the torch I bear, and I will reveal that which I have hidden from you."

Confused and uncertain, Sir Kathis did so, and then watched as Jessica moved herself between the torch and the wall, standing side-on to him and the sputtering torch he held.

"Raise the torch and cast my shadow on the wall - " Jessica whimpered, as she dropped her gaze to the cold, frosty ground.

Sir Kathis did so, slowly raising the torch, then his eyes widened as Jessica's shadow rose with it, revealing not the form of the whitetail doe he had come to love and take as his mate - but something from his darkest nightmares....

Her shadow wavered and flickered, then solidified as the dark silhouette of a dragon - its distinct head, powerful jaw-line, long - sharp canines and back-swept horns at the back of the head.

"No - " Sir Kathis gasped, as his eyes widened in horror and the torch fell from his nerveless grasp. "No - I know who you are...I know what you are!"

"No my love - " Jessica wept, bowing her head. "My shadow cannot lie, even if I can.and have. I am not what you have taken in your arms, I am not the one you have pledged your very life too. I lied to you my beloved, and for that, I offer no excuse, none I could offer would suffice."

"How - how could you...." He gurgled, his face paling.

Jessica had no answers for her mate...she only prayed for a quick, painless death. It was the least she deserved for her selfish betrayal. She whimpered, then moved away from him, and knelt down onto the mud and her body began to glow and writhe, as she screamed and dug her hoof-paws into the dirt, her body stretching and running like wax, before the glow that enfolded her forced Sir Kathis to look away and cover his eyes with his hands.

When he could see again, the Doe he had known and loved was gone, replaced with the crouched form of a majestic silver dragon, her deep glacier blue eyes gazing sadly at him, as she stretched and unfurled her wings, then folded them over her back.

"You...I know who you are - " Sir Kathis gasped, his eyes widening.

"Yes, I see the hate reflected in your eyes, it was I and my mate.that destroyed your village, your people.your family." Whispered the dragon, her head bowed in grief.

"Give me one damn reason why I shouldn't run my sword through that black heart of yours!" Sir Kathis snarled in sudden fury.

"I offer no excuse.for my crimes. My only reason, was one driven purely by my hate of you and your kind.for it was one of your kind, who stole something from me and my mate, something that could never be compensated for.not now, and not ever."

Sir Kathis paused, reeling as the dragon's words slowly burned away the hate within him.

"One of your kind - a Knight, stole from me and my mate, our only offspring. For decades, had we bred, yet never had my beloved's seen taken within my body...and I feared I was barren. Then, once, and only once, his seed did take, and grow within me - and I lay a single egg. We were overjoyed, and guarded our sole egg with every known enchantment and mundane ward we could.."

With a pitiful sob, the Dragon squeezed its eyes closed and shook with pain that Sir Kathis was incapable of imagining.

"We were over-confidant, and it was in this, that lay our downfall. Somehow, a lone knight found our one chink in our armour, and with the theft of our offspring, turned my mate and I too evil and destruction. We only sought he who had stolen our offspring from us, but we hunted that vile thief high and low, yet never found him. Our despair and rage grew and new no bounds, and we turned our hate towards all mankind, seeking to punish them for that which they had brought down on us. If only now, I knew what a terrible, terrible price I would be forced to pay for my hate of your people.."

It's eyes opened again, and it stared deep into the stunned expression of Sir Kathis.

"Yes - my brave, valorous knight - it was by your hand, that murdered my mate, twenty winters past. I knew then and there, that you had come to seek your vengeance for our crimes, and my mate paid his due with his life. Once, you spared my life, and now - I ask, no, I beg, for you to find it in your heart, to forgive me."

Sir Kathis shook with feelings of rage and despair, both equally tearing at his heart and mind, fighting to dominate and conquer his emotions, for good or for ill.

"I ask you this, brave Sir Knight. Do you so crave my head? Do you wish to bathe yourself in my blood? I offer you no resistance - I will not fight you. Take your sword, drive it into my scaled breast, and end my pain. I do not deserve pity, or mercy - for my crimes, I should join my beloved in the darkest depths of the hells. I only ask of you this, did you truly mean it, when you said you loved me?"

"I..I loved the Doe, not some cold hearted murderer! Yes - I did mean what I said, but that was to the kind, gentle and loving Whitetail.not.you." He snarled, his body shaking.

"Look at me, brave Knight. Look long and hard into my eyes, for she and I, are one and the same. I am the Whitetail you took into your arms, and loved.the one you pledged your heart, soul and sword too." Whispered the Dragon quietly, staring intently into his eyes. "Or do you so wish of my head? If you do, then please, I beg of you, make my suffering end now. Cleave my head from my neck, with one stroke. I will not fight you.my love."

Laying herself prone before him, the Dragon stretched her head and neck out along the mud at his feet, and then closed it's eyes. Sir Kathis raised his sword, his tears streaking down his cheeks, as he took a two handed grip and moved towards her, then stood astride her slender scaled neck, his sword held ready, its icy flames dancing and flickering hungrily, fully expecting to slake it's thirst in the Dragons blood. As Sir Kathis stood astride her neck, his arms began to shake, then his whole body. With a snarl of anger, he drove his sword down.and there was a loud, braying shriek of reptilian terror and agony.

To Be Continued.