The Curse of the Dragon (R for language)
Characters – Eric
Prompt – Deathfic #12 Fate
Word Count – 717
Summary – Eric makes one teeny-weeny mistake and things end up very, very different!
A/N
– Set after the episode “Tardos Keep”. And I’ve messed with the
potential timeline of the episodes slightly and the characters. Not
only that, but this stops at a cliffhanger deliberately :)
A/N II - This is another idea I'd like to come back to at some point.
= = =
The Curse of the Dragon
‘Hank! Hank, wake up!’
The Ranger gave a low groan. He was tired, he didn’t want to wake up. He had absolutely no interest in being awake, not even if the world was ending. His body was telling him he’d only had a couple of hours sleep, and after such a long, hectic, difficult day, he needed as much rest as he could get.
They had been welcomed back to Tardos Keep with open arms, and they had celebrated long into the night. Though the city was virtually deserted, the few there were left still knew how to have a good time. He was going to have a headache well into next week.
‘Wake up!’ The voice was just a hushed whisper, but full of urgency. ‘C’mon!’
‘Go a-way…’ Hank slurred.
But his protests were ignored. Instead, someone grabbed his shoulder and shook him.
‘Wake up!! For fuck’s sake Hank WAKE UP!’ he hissed.
He knew that voice. That damned Cavalier!
‘Go away Eric!’
‘Hank it’s important!’ There was an edge of desperation in his tone that Hank didn’t like, and he didn’t like it more than he liked to stay asleep. He half opened his eyes, letting a thin chink of light though.
The
Cavalier was crouched down beside him, and the look on his face jerked
Hank completely awake in an instant. The boy looked terrified, and not
the usual pretend-terrified-so-I-can-get-out-of-wo
‘What the heck’s going on?’ demanded Hank. He instinctively looked to the others, who were lying, still sleeping in the same room.
‘I’ve…’ Eric didn’t seem to be able to talk any more and there was a few moments of frosty silence as Hank glared at the Cavalier. The glare seemed to work.
‘Look, Hank, you’ve gotta help me. Please. I didn’t know what was going on.’
‘Calm down! What’s happened?’
‘I couldn’t sleep,’ Eric began, after a deep breath. ‘I went to have a look around, that was all and…’
‘And…’
‘There was this girl hanging around too. Blonde, pretty… you know.’
Hank put his head in his hands. A girl? He’d been woken up of advice about a girl! That was just typical Eric!
‘Just be yourself and…’
‘No,’ interrupted the Cavalier shortly. ‘Don’t be stupid! I don’t need that kind of help! It’s much worse than that! Much… much worse.’
Hank scowled at the other boy, knowing that he was making a fuss about nothing, yet again. How often had they been though exactly the same thing?
‘Well…?’ he demanded. ‘Amaze me!’
Eric seemed to miss the sarcasm completely and leaned forward to talk in earnest.
‘I needed some food, and I went to have a look around. I wasn’t prying or anything like that. Someone else was around and I figured she was someone from the Keep too. I mean, why shouldn’t she be. There was no reason why she shouldn’t be. And we chatted. It wasn’t anything much. But she was interested in what happened with Venger. She asked about it. She asked about the Dragonbane and I told her. There didn’t seem any reason to. She was here, in Tardos, and I just talked to her. I didn’t know what was gonna happen, Hank. You’ve gotta believe me! I didn’t know what was going to happen!’
Hank frowned. He didn’t really understand what Eric was so worked up about. Anyone who was still in this city was bound to know about the Dragonbane. What was his problem?
‘Eric, either tell me what you did or let me go back to sleep!’
The Cavalier took another deep breath, and held out his right hand. On it was a raw, red mark, like a burn, in the shape of a curvy “X”. His voice was low and shaking as he spoke.
‘I told her where it was. She took some and I tried to stop her. I followed. I followed her out to the plains, where she was. I didn’t know she was there. I tried to take the Dragonbane back, but…’ Eric stopped talking with a jolt. Far away there was a long, low rumble.
Fear swelled through Hank.
‘Eric, what have you done?’
‘I’ve killed Tiamat,’ he replied.