Kayge stared in horror as the dragon lifted its face, extending its neck so that the bulge could slide from its throat into its gullet. His mind continued to deny what his eyes were witnessing, even though his heart knew it for the truth. He threw a hand out toward the creature as it continued to undulate its neck, forcing Emers’ body downward. “Nooo!” He struggeled to get to his feet, but his body wouldn’t obey. Helpless, he watched the dragon make one last effort to swallow. The swelling in its throat finally dropped, and the creature opened its mouth to belch. “No! No, no!” He managed to turn onto his side but his muscles remained rubbery and weak. Useless. Rolling onto his face against the cold packed earth, Kayge fought not to cry as his body refused to obey. “Get up, damn you! Get up!” A hawking sound caught his attention. It was a sound he’d heard many times before, but not from a winged beast. Opening his eyes, he watched the thing hunch over until its chin rested on the ground. Its stomach heaved, and the thought that it might be trying to regurgitate Emers flashed through his mind. Struggling, Kayge somehow managed to turn onto his side. The dragon made several more hard coughing noises, when its jaws spread open as far as they could. A mass of something poured onto the dirt. Something grayish that shimmered in the sunlight. Something hard that fell in lumps. He eyed the vomit, searching for sign of Emers’ body. For something that resembled an arm or a leg. The mass had none of it. Glancing back at the thing, he saw the creature staring at him with one eye, and he’d swear he saw a smile peel back a portion of the dragon’s mouth. “You fiend! You abomination!” He knew if the dragon could laugh, it would have. It seemed to be taunting him with its cruelty. Delighting in his misery. “This is not over!” Kayge swore to it. “I will kill you! I will slit your throat and bathe in your blood!” The animal took a few steps back, then turned and leaped into the sky. Knowing that all he could do was watch it fly away, Kayge kept his eyes on the thing. As it banked and came back around, an eerie voice came from overhead. A voice he thought he recognized, except this one was high-pitched and raspy. Follow me! Kayge gulped. He’d never heard of a dragon that could speak. Roar, yes. Bellow and howl as they normally do, of course. But never speak a language. Follow! It swooped over him, almost sweeping the tips of its leathery wings across his skin. It gave him one more steely glare with its crimson eyes, then straightened and took off. Taking a direct path… Kayge doublechecked its flight path. If it continued in that direction, it was heading toward… Toward Noranye. As incredible as it seemed, Kayge would swear the dragon wanted him to follow it back to Noranye. He gritted his teeth. “Aye, I will follow you back to that cursed town! I will follow you anywhere you want me to go, if only to avenge my beloved Emers. To make you pay!” he yelled at the departing creature. Kayge groaned loudly. His arms were twisted in an unnatural position beneath his body, and little stilettoes of pain were slicing up and down his muscles to let him know they were about to fall asleep on him. After much effort, he dragged himself into a semi-sitting position as his mind fumbled about blindly, trying to grasp every sliver of reality. A sudden gust of wind wrapped him in a grip of ice. His knee-jerk reaction was to draw his limbs against his body to try and preserve heat. It was then he realized he was completely naked and covered in some kind of slimy substance. “What…” He blinked. His mind still felt groggy, as if he’d spent the night drinking and had fallen asleep in the arms of Bacchus. The inside of his mouth felt incredibly filthy, his tongue like a lump of clay. He ran a hand over his face to try and rub some sensation back into it. A slow thread of shock wove through him when he saw the smear of blood on his palm. Another swipe over his mouth, and more blood came away at his touch. Blood mixed with that clear, gel-like… Phlegm, his brain informed him. It’s dragon phlegm.