FSE

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Chapter 11

It is getting late; I'm going to head to bed." Eric announced before turning to me. "Malakye, have fun tonight... oh, and don't worry about coming to work tomorrow." I was about to ask why, worried that I messed up badly on my first day, but Eric raised his feathered hand to silence me before I could even get a word out, his face was hard and his eyes showed how serious he was.

"We are only young once Malakye. Take the day to spend time with your lady friend and for once enjoy what life has to offer." He winked and everyone at the table let out a giggle or a chuckle. Jason patted me on the shoulder and gave me a wink. "We leave the day after tomorrow. We will meet you here at the Tavern tomorrow night."

"O...okay." I stammered, my heart slowing down, the dull throb of pain from its hard work out a few moments ago still in my chest. One by one the others rose to their feet and with a curt goodbye made their way to the stairs, leaving me by myself at the table. Cody paused at the top of the stairs and gave me a pained look before forcing a smile and waving at me. Why would he be upset? I was only going away for the night. We'd meet up again tomorrow. Or did Cody know something I didn't? My thoughts were interrupted by a hand coming to rest on my shoulder. I spun round to see it was Rose.

"Hi!" I said, unable to keep a smile spreading across my muzzle. She smiled back at me softly and sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"Apparently I'm off duty now." She told me. "Seems your friend Eric spoke to Francis, and he let me off early." I looked down to the tavern entrance and watched as Eric walked out followed by the others.

"Why does that not surprise me?" I said, mostly thinking to myself. "He's given me tomorrow off. Apparently he wants me to...sample what life has to offer." I quirked my eyebrow in a ponderous manner and Rose simply giggled.

"We had better not waste time then should we? Time is short, and there's so very much to sample." She replied in a playful tone and grabbed my paw in hers pulling me to my feet and guiding me towards the exit of the tavern.

We walked paw in paw through the street and the moon and stars were hidden behind the clouds. Only the torches that lined the main paths, which burnt brightly in contrast against the all-encompassing darkness of the night, casted enough light for us to safely navigate our way.

However, before we got to her house, our path was blocked by three Dragons. Two large black scaled Zangarian Dragons stood at either side of a slightly smaller Dragon, who was about my size, and had dark blue Scales. He wore a fancy shirt and trousers that told any who looked at him that he had money. The other two Dragons that stood either side him however were huge! They even put Aceh to shame. Both of them were wearing nothing but loin cloths.

"Now what do we have here?" The Blue scaled dragon asked with a mocking tone. "You cheating on me Rose? With this poor excuse of a male no less?"

"Go away Vireon!" Rose begged, and it was laced with fear as she clutched at my arm and stood behind me as he moved closer. I growled quietly not taking my eyes off of any of them. Whoever this Vireon was, he wasn't going to lay a finger on Rose, that much I swore to myself silently.

"I can't have my girl cheating on me!" He growled possessively. Moving a couple of steps closer his goons moving off to the sides attempting to surround us to trap us in. "It makes me look weak!"

"I'm not your girl! I left you months ago!" Rose shouted, "Just...leave me alone!" Rose's bravado though was diffused into a pathetic whimper as the trio approached nearer, closing in the ranks. I didn't move, didn't blink; my eyes flicking between all three of them.

"You! Runt!" Vireon growled at me. I looked at him but didn't say a word, my hand moving slowly to my knife that was hidden by the darkness, strapped at my thigh. "Run along now and you won't get hurt." I didn't move a muscle. I glared at the blue dragon. "So...we have a tough guy in our midst. Well kid, don't say I didn't warn ya!"

No sooner had Vireon stopped speaking had I heard a scuffle and saw blur of movement either side of me. I pushed Rose back causing her to stumble and land on her ass a few feet away before ducking beneath a muscled arm that intended to grab me. I lashed out, now in a crouching position, and roared. I drove my fist into the knee of my would-be-attacker and heard him let out a sharp yelp of pain. The big oaf stumbled and I suspected I had broken his knee joint... I barely managed to roll away in time to stop his tremendous bulk from landing on top of me.

The other black dragon paused a moment as he looked in shock at his partner howling in pain clutching his knee on the ground in front of him. He cast his gaze back at me just in time to see me running at him. Just before I reached him I spread my wings wide and jumped, flapping my wings as hard as I could, the additional force from my wings giving me enough height to drive both my feet into the larger dragons face as I began my decent. We both crashed to the ground but I rolled somewhat gracefully to my feet. The titan of a Dragon had not been so lucky, and his head struck the ground hard as he fell... he lay motionless, knocked out from the collision.

Vireon took that moment to charge me. He was much faster than his companions and landed a powerful punch to my snout before I even noticed him, the force of the blow causing me to stumble backwards several steps. Vireon wasn't done however. He used the moment of me stumbling backwards to throw another punch and it struck me with full force. The punch was powerful but Vireon was over confident, much like the wolves I used to fight, and I would use that over confidence to my advantage. Using the force of his blow to spin I grabbed his elbow firmly with on hand, digging my claws into his scales and drew my knife with my other hand. I thrust the knife into Vireon's arm and he roared in pain, instinctively pulling away. I let go of his elbow as he did this and he fell backwards onto his butt. He gripped at the wound with his good arm and looked at me in a mixture of fear and anger.

"Now you get the fuck away from here or I'll do a lot worse!" I growled fiercely. "And if you ever come near Rose again...I'll kill you!" Vireon didn't say anything. He stood up and glared at me, snorting his disgust before running off, leaving his companions behind. Once I was sure he was gone and that the other two Dragons weren't going to attack I turned to check on Rose who looked fearful, her face streaked with tears. She ran at me and wrapped her arms round me and cried into my chest.

"I'm so glad you're all right!" She sniffled. "I was so scared! I was sure Vireon was going to kill you!"

"Shh, it's all right see?" I said trying to comfort her wrapping my arms around her. "He won't be bothering you again."

"No!" She cried. "Vireon will be back and next time, and he won't just have two goons! He's one of the richest and most powerful men in the village... He even controls the black market here! When he comes back He'll kill you, and probably me as well!" She cried.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"I was in a relationship with him once, it only lasted a couple of weeks before I broke it off but he has never stopped hounding me since then. He is a cruel possessive bastard. Before I would entertain the males in the tavern like the other girls but when Vireon found out who they were they would be beaten, robbed and sometimes killed. I stopped sleeping with other males so that no one else got hurt! He pesters me constantly about coming back to him but I can't go back to that life. If I hadn't escaped when I had who knows what he would have..."

"Shh, shh, shh. It's all right. I'm here now. Come on let's get you inside." I said comfortingly. She nodded and sniffed trying to force back the tears before pulling away from me and leading me to her home just a few doors away.

After locking the wooden door to her home I guided Rose to the bed. Her home was a simple hut that had little in it; other than a few pieces of furniture and a cooking pit in the centre of the room. The bed had a small wall built around it to give it some more privacy. Compared to my hut back in the village this was a step up but after seeing some of the places in this village while it was certainly comfortable it was far from being the best. I sat down next to her and placed an arm over her shoulders while she clung to my torso, crying a little bit but a lot calmer than she had been before.

"I'm sorry." She said sniffing as she attempted to wipe away her tears. "I had expected this to go a lot differently. If you want to leave I'll understand."

"Don't be stupid!" I scolded her. "I'm not going anywhere! What kind of guy would I be to leave you alone like this? Besides, I want to be here."

"Thank you Malakye. You're so sweet." She pecked me on the cheek and we just sat there in silence enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies as we hugged.

"Rose?" I asked to which she hummed, showing me she was listening. "Earlier when you told me about Vireon, you said you stopped sleeping with guys because of him. So why did you sleep with me?"