“And so the rabbit drew her sword from the carcass-hulk of the
mechanical crane with cogs and springs and wheels jumping out of the hole. As ichor
dripped from the edge, her curiosity got the better of her. She opened her
mouth, her wet tongue extending forward. Managing to catch a few drops of the
orange liquid, she quickly swallowed. It didn't taste like blood at all.

“Oranges…" she whispered under her breath.

The mythical blood of immortals tasted like
oranges. She licked her sword, gathering as much of the ichor as she could. It
started to make sense. Her blood was of iron. His blood was of fruits. Yet she
was of flesh and he was of metal. She took a seat by the death-site of the
crane, amidst all the beauty in the garden of wonders and she thought. She
thought of life and what it meant to be alive. Was the crane alive? It was made
of gears and contraptions, clockwork spinning and turning. But it thought. He
thought. He thought and spoke such elegant poetry and his voice cracked with joy
and sorrow and pain. And it pleaded for mercy before she struck him down.

What made her more alive than him? She was made
of meat and bone, but she did not flinch when she took his life. She did not
think anything of his poems. Nor did she feel anything out of the ordinary
during her fight.

She pushed he hand into the metal cavity,
scooping out as much of the ichor as she could. She drank it in hurried,
thirsty gulps, the liquid oozing down her mouth and neck, sticking her fur
together. She wiped her hand on her boot, leaving a stain with numerous small
gears and springs mired onto the rough leather.

Was it vampiric of her to gobble so much of the
nectar? Vampires weren't alive, were they?"

Xurd took a deep
breath and slammed the book shut.

“The end."

“You can't stop now!"
Amar yelled out from across the camp site. “It was just getting good."

“No, Amar. No. It
wasn't." Xurd huffed, throwing the book to the side and covering himself up to
sleep. “Good night."

Amar squinted his
eyes.

“What didn't you like
about it this time?"

“It's overwritten
and, at the same time, it's underwritten. The fighting choreography is bad and
the attempts at philosophizing are weak as all hell."

“Pfft!" the dragon
waved him off, stretching onto his bed. “What do you know about philosophizing
and fighting choreography? I've seen you fight. You aren't that good at it. You
just kind of…" the dragon flicked his wrist of few times, trying to find the right
words. “…meander about."

“What do you know
about fighting? You've never been in a fight your entire life?"

The dragon's
expression cracked into a self-satisfied smug smile. He got up from his bed and
slithered around the campfire.

“Oh, Xurdon. You
think a gentleman, such as I, have never been in a sporting duel? Or I have
never had to protect a lady's honor against a pack of ruffians?" he cackled
joyously. “My friend, do you really think I'm not familiar with the martial
arts?"

“Yes." The minotaur
answered without giving it a second thought. “You've never fought in your
entire life. Nor will you ever fight."

“I fought you last
week, didn't I?"

Xurd let out a loud
huff.

“And I won."

“On a technicality."

“Is that what you
call it?" Amar let out a hearty laugh. “Oh, my dear boy, I had you pinned to
the ground, unable to break free."

“You cheated and I
could have sliced your neck at any point in that fight."

“Oh, I'm sure you
could have. Trained in those mystical eastern fighting styles, I'm sure you can
cleave meat from bone with one strike. Or pull out the heart of your enemy,
quickly enough as they could watch it beat for a few seconds. Maybe you are
quick enough to run on a still lake on which you would battle ten other foes."

Xurdon grumbled
underneath his breath and Amar took that as a sign to continue. And he loved
continuing when he was on a roll.

“You know, the only
reason you got the best of me in the very, very end, is because of the tree."
Amar rubbed his stomach, a sad expression painted on his face. “The hit really
did a number on me, you know. You almost busted my inferna sack. I can barely
breathe fire now."

“You couldn't breathe
fire before." Xurd said, standing up.

“I can spit fire."

“You spit something.
Which is fire-adjacent. Fire is hot. Burning. Your thing is can barely cook an
egg."

“Talk your big talk.
But I was the one to pin you down. And now you are the one forced to read me
stories while I get better." Amar chuckled.

A knife flew past the
dragon, impaling the tree a few meters behind him.

“I have five more on
me. And those are just the main ones." Xurd spoke in a cold voice. “You've
never fought a fight. I saw it the way you moved around last time. If you've
been in sparing matches, they were very tame. If you've defended someone's
honor, it was all in your look and size. In a real fight, I could have sliced
your gut open and spilled your entrails out."

Amar's face turned
dark.

“Xurdon. You are
horrible." He said and he headed back to his bed. “Honestly. I can't, simply
for the life of me, imagine why Atilus sent us here together."

“Oh, Crom! Were you
not paying attention again?"

“Yes, I was paying
attention! It was a figure of speech!"

“I'm severely
doubting it." Xurd said as he got ready for bed once more.

“I'm not a moron."

“Sometimes I can't
really tell the difference with you."

“Oh, piss off."

Xurd's ears perked.

“I'm sorry, I didn't
quite catch that."

“I said piss off!"
Amar yelled out. “You are a brute and a savage! The sooner we hunt down this forest
beast, the better, the sooner we get down this mountain, the better! I can't
stay another minute longer than I need to here!"

“Fine by me." Xurdon
said and turned around in his bed.

“Oh, go to He—ooopf!"

The sudden pain threw
Amar completely off guard. He felt his stomach squish against his spine as he
laid on the ground, squirming and gasping for air. His eyes, bulging out from
the shock, scanned the area in front of him. There wasn't anything there. Well,
not nothing. There was…something. Something translucent, just barely rippling
the air around it. Amar opened his mouth, trying to yell out for help, but
there came a second hit to his stomach, this time more precise and strong
enough the throw the dragon back.

Amar rolled a few
times, landing on his back. Unable to do much he quickly inhaled, trying to make
up for lost air. But sadly his newly expanded belly turned out to be the
perfect target with the creature jumping on him with full force.

The thing wasn't very
heavy, but it didn't have to be. Crushed underneath the beast's weight, the
dragon let out a continues yelp as his air flew out of him in one quick bolt.
His eyes popping and crossing, his jaw stretched beyond what he could imagine,
everything slowly started turning dark. But he knew that thing was simply
playing with him. He could feel it's talons gently pressed against his gut,
unwilling to strike.

But as luck would
have it, his yelp was more than enough to finally get Xurd moving.

“What the fuck are
you doing there?" the minotaur asked, turning around.

Squinting his eyes,
he only saw the dragon making funny faces. And a crater where his gut used to
be.

“What the fuuuck…?"
Xurdon whispered to himself.

Suddenly the thing
jumped off of Amar, giving him a moment of reprise.

“Xurd…" Amar panted,
barely able to speak. “…the beast…"

The creature landed
once more on top of Amar, sending him into another fit. His body, turning into
mush and deflating, Amar couldn't take much more of this. The ordeal came to a
painful end when the beast used the dragon as a jumping off point firing
himself forward.

By that time Xurd had
more or less figured what was going on. He quickly assumed a fighting stance,
scanning the ground around him. He followed the rustling of the leaves under
the dim campfire light, waiting for it to get close enough and…

Xurdon's punch had
landed. He felt it land. It was like hitting a brick wall. In the shape of a
lizard head. But the thing didn't budge. In fact, it even threw itself towards
Xurd, who by sheer luck managed to step aside the moment he felt something was
off. The minotaur waved his arms hitting and instantly grabbing what seemed
like a tail. He pulled onto it, but the creature convulsed back and forth,
managing to get underneath Xurd's legs, throwing him off balance. But the bull
didn't let go of the tail. He threw one arm, managing to land onto a supposed
shoulder. In the spur of the moment, he slid his hand over the shoulder,
grabbing a neck and squeezing it tight to no avail. The thing took its chance,
spinning around as much as it could and finally managing to land an uppercut on
the minotaur.

Like being struck
with a battering ram, Xurd let go and fell back, trying to catch his step. The beast
threw itself onto Xurd and both of them fell to the ground, wrestling each
other.

By that time Amar had
managed to gather his senses. He got up, rubbing his sore belly and threw a
confused and dizzy gaze at the scene in front of him. It took him a few seconds
and it all came back to him, rushing in like a tidal-wave.

“Hold on, Xurdon!" he
let out a triumphant yell. “I shall help you!"

Amar charged onto the
rolling bodies, jumping into the fray. And getting impaled thought the stomach
on Xurd's stray leg, once again leaving him incapacitated while his entire body
folded onto itself. It took only a second, right before the dragon was thrown
off during the scuffle, but the second was more than enough for him to lose any
semblance of air he had restored.

As the dragon laid on
the ground, curled up and gasping for air, the pair continued to wrestle until
they rolled over the campfire. The fire itself was barely active, only slightly
scorching Xurd's fur, but the beast on the other hand reacted quite viciously.
Letting out a scream, it pushed itself away from Xurd, sending him flying
towards a tree.

Although they
struggled for some time, the creature seemed to lose all interest in his former
opponent and went back towards the dragon. A barrage of kicks assaulted Amar's
tender belly, each one more devastating than the last, each one leaving Amar
with less and less space to crawl to as he got kicked right into a rock. The pummeling
continued, leaving the dragon gasping for air, eyes crossed and bulging and
mouth agape.

But it didn't take
long for Xurdon to react. Grabbing a still burning piece of wood from the
fireplace, he stabbed the creature in, what he believed to be, it's back. There
was another bloodcurdling scream. This time, in an instant, Xurd flew across
the entire campsite, a pine tree breaking his flight. With no time to waste, he
jumped on his feet, trying to follow the rustling of the leaves, but the steps
were too quick. In a blink of an eye, the minotaur was lifted by the neck and
pinned to the tree. With both hands he grabbed the beast's arm, which, to his
surprise, had been only one extended towards his neck and with the girth of a
branch. He squeezed and struggled but he couldn't break free. Acting quickly,
he grabbed one of his knives and slashed the beast through the arm, instantly
dulling the blade. But this did not stop him. He continued taking out knives,
slashing and stabbing and hand, chest face and then each knife dulled and broke.
    

By the time Amar got
a hold of himself, minotaur had run out of knives and was struggling just to
stay alive.

“Alright…second try."
Amar whispered to himself, trying to calm himself down. “Do not fear, Xurdon! I
shall save you!"

The dragon threw
himself towards the invisible foe. By the way the minotaur was positioned, he
could more or less determine where he wanted to strike.

He opened his mouth
and…

Snap.

By all accounts, it
should have worked. At least, that is what the dragon believed.

He was stood there,
jaws clasped around a head that didn't seem to react.

Until it did.

Without letting go of
Xurd, the beast managed to spin and land a kick straight into the dragon's
belly once again. There was something different this time. It didn't hold back.

The kick impaled Amar
and he was lifted above the ground like a hunting trophy.

A single point in
time, stretching to all ends of infinity. That's the only way the dragon could describe
it. He could swear that he felt the thing's leg bruise the inside of his back
ribs with that kick. The shock was paralyzing, his entire body going numb. And
a billionth of a second later came the pain. It spread, a plague onto his
nervous system, with every nerve ending of his being burning.

He had gotten winded
a few times that night. But this was far beyond any of those. He had thought
that he had experience his air supply leaving his body. This was different. He
now knew what it felt like being at absolute zero. He could swear that his
lungs were about to collapse.

He jaw had spasmed closing
tighter around the thing's head, which in turn broke most of his teeth. At that
point he couldn't really do much about it. He was a goner. Everything was going
black. And then something gurgled from deep inside of him and he spat out what
was left of his inferna.

Inferna is what
supposedly gives a dragon his fire breath. But nowadays there weren't many dragons
around. Amar was dragon the same way a tomato was fruit. Technically – yes. But
there is a lot of context missing for mass acceptance. He couldn't really
breathe fire, but he could produce inferna. Which could possibly slightly warm
your hands on a cold winter's evening.

His inferna shouldn't
be enough to light a fire and yet here it was, throwing a strange, invisible
forest beast, with skin of stone and muscles of iron, into a shrieking fit. The
beast threw itself around, scratching and punching Amar as much as it could,
but to avail. The dragon was out and he jaw was locked tight against the
critter.

The inferna slid onto
its head, down to his body, revealing a kind of bipedal reptilian shape, with
an arched back and a very slim figure. But the more the substance covered, the
more the creature shrank in size and the quitter it's shrieks became until
finally it was about forearm in length.

Xurd got up and
gently kicked the little critter, who know seemed completely visible. A dark greenish-yellow
color, it lay out cold. Xurd took the small creature and wrapped it tightly in
a few blankets. He looked at the dragon. He shook him a bit. There was no
response. Laying his head onto his chest, he heard a heartbeat. And then a
sudden and violent intake of air. And then Amar fell back again.

“He'll be fine." Xurd
murmured under his nose.

He sat by the fireplace and proceeded to light the fire anew.