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.