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"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.