I couldn't sleep that night. I couldn't get the pounding thought out of my head that we overlooked something important and, in just a minute, I would figure out what, but for now I was trapped in a dark cave with nothing but my own thoughts and a lightly snoring dragon to fill the silence. I couldn't help the wandering of my mind as I looked over my shoulder to the sleeping dragon and the way she curled into a ball, wrapped in her tail and waited for the sun to come. 

The flashes of light from the mouth of the cave had stopped and so had the ambient sounds of hail and rain. It was enough to make me think I might get some sleep, but there was a moral choice I struggling with. The raid. It was still coming. The fact that we didn't come back was an answer to them and the one they were looking for. I sighed and sat up with the clattering of metal and clinking of my sword. 

I found myself at the mouth of the cave and staring out over the grassy plains where castle sat so peacefully in the distance that it was obvious the army was headed somewhere. The castle was always quiet the night before a raid and it was a safe bet to say the raiding party would be here before the sun was up. So I sat. I waited and watched the torches march down into the valley and up the opposite hill. I watched them quietly sneak up to the cave before I stood and I stood between them and their bounty. 

There must’ve been hundreds of them. Knights, all armored, but I had an edge… an edge in the shape of a dragon. 

“We were wrong,” I said simply, “There’s no dragon here.”
“He’s lying!” one of the footmen shouted, “I can hear the beast sleeping!”
“I repeat,” I said with grit teeth as I raised my shield, sword still down, “There is no dragon here.” 

One of the commanding officers of the party pushed to the front of the pack and stood in front of me. 

“I doubt you want the king to hear about this,” he threatened, but I gave no quarter due to threats.
“You have a strong sword arm,” I started as I put my hand on the hilt of my blade, “And I would hate to slice it off, but if you draw on me, I swear to you, I will cut your body into so many pieces that not even the rats will want anything to do with you.”
“Look around. You’re outnumbered,” he stated.
“They still have ten steps to take,” I noted and gestured to the party, “Do you know what I can do in ten steps?”
“Archers!” the commander yelled, but a much more deafening lack of noise alerted me. 

An anchoring noise that had vanished alerting me to a change in stakes… and a shift in power. 

“I’m sorry!” I shouted, “I didn’t know what you were. I didn’t mean to endanger an innocence.”
“What are you talking about?” the commander asked.
“He’s talking,” a voice boomed from behind me, “About me.” 

Surgically precise fingers, each tipped with a dull claw, swept from the sky and wrapped around the commander in an iron vice. I could only imagine the pressure she was putting on him. I remember how she grabbed me and that was when she was being nice. Flaming arrows lit up the sky, but Lolliyant simply swung her wings in front of her and the steel tips bounced off without leaving so much as a mark. 

“Cut down the beast!” one of the knights yelled as they started their charge. 

I planted my feet and ripped my sword free from its sheath as I readied myself to be torn to shreds by the charging army that watched me so confidently stand by the “monster.” I put my shield up, shut my eyes, and prayed, but what saved me was no miracle. No, what saved me was Lolliyant. She had dropped to a kneel and separated me from the army with her shin and thigh as she dropped to reach the knights on her right. This also left me in an awkward position as I was uncomfortably close to Lolliyant, more specifically, Lolliyant’s crotch. I was suddenly and painfully aware that Lolliyant wore no clothes. I diverted my attention to the gap between her calf and thigh to watch her fight. 

An open palm push knocked back all the footmen and a light squeeze took the fight out of the commander, but she was attacking so carefully that I was convinced she was a better human than I. She put the commander down in front of the front line as she carelessly blocked another wave of arrows with her gigantic wings. She flicked the wing back and sent a hurricane of air that knocked the whole party over or off balance. I couldn’t help but notice the change in heat from my position and confident smile forming on her face. She was enjoying this, maybe too much. 

A familiar creak caught my attention and drew me from my current train of thought. Lolliyant could block the other arrows fine, but that sounded like a ballista loading and I doubted anything less than enchanted steel could stop that blow. Luckily, I had some. I moved faster than I could think and dove between Lolliyant’s thigh and calf, almost getting wedged between the two fleshy giants, and rolled to a stop with shield raised. I saw the device at the back of the party and my window of opportunity closing. I charged through the ranks before they could recover from Lolliyant’s wings and threw myself in front of the ballista. My shield let off a shine as the large, wooden spike collided with the magic metal. My forearm was forced back into my chest and I was lifted off my feet by the overwhelming force. 

I thought I was dead for a while. I was weightless, I didn’t feel the pain I should’ve felt, hell, I couldn’t feel at all for a while, but I regained my senses when I was slammed into a soft wall of scales and flesh. I crumpled into a ball as the pain hit suddenly and powerfully next to Lolliyant on the cold dirt. 

“No…” she muttered as she picked me off the ground, much more gingerly than with the commander.
“Give no quarter, men!” the commander barked, “Reload the ballista!”
“No, stop!” Lolliyant injected, “He’s hurt!” 

Those knights had lost their way. I didn’t blame them. They were about to kill the monster and come home heroes… even if it meant killing one of their own in the process. Would I have acted any differently? Just as I had lost all hope, Lolliyant got a fire in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before. She pulled up one hand and hammered her fist against the ballista while also turning a poor knight’s leg into a bloody pulp. The wooden structure was smashed to pieces and the knight was writhing in agony. I was about to compliment her on her hit, but when I looked up, I saw Lolliyant close to tears with her hand clamped over her mouth. 

“I-I’m sorry!” she insisted and tried to help him, but pulled back as she realized she was too big to help with a matter so surgical.
“Get the beast away from me!” the knight screamed as footmen came in to pull him out of battle.
“Damn!” the commander yelled, “Retreat! We’ll be back! With more firepower than you could imagine!” he warned as the raid party made their temporary retreat. 

Lolliyant set me down and pulled her knees up to her chest. 

“I promised myself I wouldn’t do that again,” she explained as she held her bloody hand away from her body as if she could dissociate the deeds done with it.
“Lolliyant, you didn’t kill him,” I stated, but she was too deep in her own thoughts. 

She stood up and walked passed me, farther into the cave. I simply sat against the wall, holding my ribs in my dented armor and knocking my head against the rocky wall of the cave when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Oxle sat next to me. 

“I knew you had it,” he said as Kiri joined us.
“I almost died,” I stated.
“Yeah, I saw that part,” Oxle joked as Kiri simply stared at me with disapproval.
“You’re lucky I’m a good healer,” Kiri stated and put the glowing tip of her staff against my chest.
“Well, you two lovebirds have fun,” Oxle added, dryly, before getting up and starting to walk after Lolliyant, “I’m gonna check on the big gal.” 

As Oxle disappeared into the cave Kiri sighed and hung her head. 

“You can’t keep doing things like this,” she said, a somber tone in her voice.
“What? Almost dying? Well, I don’t usually plan for it,” I joked, but a solid punch in my stomach made me realize Kiri wasn’t joking.
“No, you twit!” she scolded, “You can’t keep jumping in front of danger! One of these days I won’t be able to get to you in time!”
I was stunned for a second, but quickly caught my words again, “Kiri, you’re the best healer in the world.”
“But I can’t fix dead!” she interrupted. 

I guess it took a hard slap in the face to make me realize that I was betting with my life like it was a coin I didn’t care about losing. When I defended the dragon, Lolliyant, I put, not only my life, but the life of Kiri and Oxle in more danger than we had ever been in before. The whole castle had a target on us… and I planned on protecting them until my last breath.