When the riders arrived, they stopped a few horse lengths away. Now that they were here he was able to get a better count. It was eleven men on horseback. There was one a pace ahead of the others, in the middle with five on either side, that they seemed to be looking to for command. They were wearing leather armor and had spears, swords, shields, and a couple had large hammers. Their horses looked strong and seemed well trained and the mounts also had leather armoring. Jaq looked to the one in the middle.
The man in the middle nodded at him, as if making a decision to talk to him rather than try and plow past. He was just one man, not even on horseback. The man must have weighed the possibility of others lying in wait. This was good for Jaq, as any caution on their side made it less likely he would have to do them great harm. Eleven men on horseback would destroy a normal man, but he knew they were no match for him. He did not enjoy the idea of it, as some might, but he knew what he could do and knew he would if needed brandish his power to protect the dragon inside, as well as protect the temple itself.
“We are here for the dragon. Step aside, sir,” the apparent leader of the group of Blackspears said.
Jaq smiled, in what he thought was a disarming way. “I can’t let or your men go any further.” He wanted to say more, but in these types of situations, less was normally better than more. If he volunteered the wrong information on accident, they might perceive a weakness. They might try either way, he thought and shrugged.
“Are you a Keeper?” the leader asked. Jaq appreciated the directness of the man. He apparently did not want to just rely on guesses, which was wise.
“I am, sir. Knowing that I am a Keeper should let you know what lengths I am willing to go to in the protection of this Temple. Now, please, be on your way.” Admitting it, while not a verification for the man, surely would tip the chances of them going on their way in Jaq’s favor, he thought. After all, he could just be claiming to be a keeper to intimidate them.
He seemed not to want to chance it. “Let’s go,” the man said. Nine of his men started turning their horses around. The tenth looked angry and stared at Jaq with malicious intent. “C’mon, Arin. We need more men before we come back.” He looked at Jaq, “And we are coming back.”
Arin seemed to have other ideas. “It’s just one man. Keeper or not, we are here now.” He raised his spear and kicked his horse into motion heading straight for Jaq. Jaq grew to his larger size as soon as the horse started forward and had reached his fully enlarged size before the man made it to him. He reached down, knocking the man’s spear aside, continuing the motion and grabbing his leg. He lifted the man by his leg holding him upside down with his outstretched arm.
Jaq looked at the leader, whose face turned from anger to amusement. “You think he has an idea why you were leaving to come back with more men, now?” Jaw said, looking down at Arin’s face, which was quickly turning red about half a man’s height above the ground.
The other nine men were turned back around facing Jaq and were ready to charge. The leader raised his hand to stay them. “He surely does. Will you let him go?” Jaq nodded and lightly tossed the man several yards ahead so that he landed in front of the leader.
He landed with an “oof.”
The leader looked around for the horse that Arin was riding, but it had kept trotting on after having its rider stripped by a giant man. As the man stood, the leader pointed to another rider, motioning for Arin to mount behind that other rider. The rider helped him up and they quietly trotted away, seemingly all embarrassed by Arin’s mishap and inability to follow orders.
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Jaq waited there for a while to let them go out of hearing and then climbed to the lookout to watch for a while longer to make sure they were truly leaving and not doubling back. After about an hour he climbed down and went back inside. As soon as he opened the door, he heard Thalen rasping out, “Keeper!” He rushed to the dragon’s side.
“What’s wrong? Did I miss a wound or improperly treat them?” He could see the dragon was in pain and fighting hard to focus through the pain.
“No, you did amazingly grand for a keeper who had never even seen a dragon.” Thalen coughed. “It appears their weapons were coated with anti-magic poison. They were more prepared than I could have imagined. I should have listened.” He sighed.
“What can I do to help? I have not read about treating anti-magic poison.” Jaq was concerned and it showed.
“There is nothing you can do. In the past, maybe, but not anymore. Magic is locked away. There is no treatment. That being said, because I did not listen when I should have, you must listen and do as I say, and quickly.” Thalen, while still looking haggard and strained, showed a certain focus and seriousness that told Jaq this was of utmost importance.
“Whatever you ask of me, I shall do.” Jaq looked him in the eyes.
“I need you to get a vial from the infusion kits, and a needle to withdraw some of my blood. I am using the last of my magic to guard a small portion of my blood, but I cannot do it much longer.” This was bewildering to Jaq, who knew the dragon blood for infusion was running out for new keepers and he had wanted so badly to have more, but this was not how he had hoped to get it. To his credit, he ran as soon as the dragon asked and acquired the equipment as quickly as he could.
“There, in my left foot,” Thalen said. As Jaq approached it with his kit, he noticed it was the only part still vibrant on the dragon. The rest of the dragon’s body was heavily grayed, but this one foot still help blue and coloring. As he stuck the needle in and started withdrawing blood, Thalen continued. “This blood must go to the girl. She is important and you must make sure of this.”
“I’ll make sure.” Jaq said, as he watched the foot turn gray. He heard a groan and a sigh escape Thalen as he put the freshly removed dragon’s blood from the syringe into the vial. “What girl?” He asked as he turned back to face Thalen.
It was too late for an answer. Thalen was fully ashen in appearance and no longer breathing. Jaq bowed his head in dismay.
He stood there for a long time, occasionally glancing back up at the deceased dragon. The first dragon he had ever met and he could not save him. It weighed heavily on him, and the single vial of blood did not seem like it made up for anything. He had no idea who this girl was it was supposed to be for. He was angry at this girl who this blood was for, but he did not know why. She, whoever she was did not ask for a dragon to die, but the anger was still there. After a while he suppressed it and thought about the whole incident, going over every detail. He sat down next to Thalen.
“Magic is locked away...” he said aloud. He had read stories about magic existing but he had never really thought about it being real. This made him laugh a little. If dragons were real and he believed that why would he not have believed that magic was real. It seemed silly to him. He then thought about Thalen keeping part of his blood pure by focusing the clean magic in his foot. This, in his mind, meant that dragons not only were magical, but needed magic to survive. He wondered how dragons could live with the magic being trapped away and made the assumption that dragons, at least the one here next to him, must have a certain amount of magic they keep in themselves, in their blood. That meant the infusion process for keepers was humans putting magic into themselves, which made sense since they were able to do amazing things as keepers. He had never thought about it being the magic in the blood, just that it was dragon’s blood and that had been enough for him.
“Magic is locked away...” he said again. “That means it can be unlocked.”
He looked over at Thalen, nodded, and set off to get a shovel and dig a giant hole.