‘Among friends,’ she said. We’ll see how you feel about that when I’ve finished. Should he fabricate something less damning? No, that would only cause more trouble down the line. He had to be honest about everything. He could do this. Dirk took a deep breath, and resumed his story.
“Zira… asked me to accompany her upstairs. I didn’t think too much about it at the time – I thought she was just being polite, clueless bastard that I was – but in hindsight I shouldn’t have accepted; or at least not gone up alone. Zwarr found it amusing, at least…”
“Back in her study, we talked a bit more. I told her a little about our mission – you know: princess kidnapped, dragon’s lair – and Zira found it all very amusing. Stereotypical, or something to that effect. I mentioned the name of the dragon, Garam, and asked if she’d heard of him at all. Well, he was her damned father, apparently! She said it so nonchalantly, too, like it wasn’t even relevant!”
“Anyway, that… wasn’t what turned things sour. I don’t think it mattered to her what we might have had planned for her father; she had something else on her mind entirely. You see, Zira explained to me that every couple of decades or so, dragons get… needy. And once something catches their eye, they can’t really control themselves…”
He shut his eyes, shivering, but not from cold. This next bit was going to sound absolutely pathetic on his part, but there was no way he’d get out of this story without it…
“Seems she had her eye on me. She got a bit… closer than I was really comfortable with. Closer than I should have let her to begin with, and I… I… I lost my nerve. Ran out of the room like a coward and just left her there, without even thinking about how she might feel, or what she might do. Zwarr, of course, berated me for it. Demanded I march right back up and make amends. I absolutely would have, too, but… it was too late. The damage was already done.”
His hands clenched into fists from anger. More than anything he just wanted to go back and stab himself for his stupidity.
“Zira came down right after. No longer the friendly, hospitable girl that had agreed to put us up for the night; in her place was this great, black, fire-breathing, furious monstrosity. She charged at us – knocking a hole straight through the wall. Must have woken everyone else up, because I believe that’s when I heard you shouting.” He nodded at Valira, without opening his eyes or looking at her.
“There was a bit of a struggle, but Zwarr had a plan to defuse the situation. Seems he disguised himself as me in the confusion and was going to lure Zira away long enough to put her to sleep. Good idea. Probably would have solved everything if I hadn’t ruined it by stabbing her in the back. Zira flew off after that, but not before grabbing Sholgra and carrying her off to these mountains.”
Dirk sank in his seat, looking absolutely miserable as he finished recounting the events. He slowly opened his eyes, but kept his gaze fixed on the floor. The guilt had been eating him alive for days, but it felt much worse now that it was out in the air.
“Anyway, yes. That’s my side of the half-dragon story. It was my fault that everything went wrong, it was my fault that you all were attacked, and Sholgra is paying for my idiocy...”
