Free Dragonblood by Anthony D. Franklin

DRAGON BLOOD
Anthony D. Franklin

     
    DRAGONBLOOD
PUBLISHING HISTORY

Text © 2010 by Anthony D. Franklin
Cover Art © 2010 by Pandora Project Publisher
     
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    TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    DRAGONBLOOD
     
     

     

     
DRAGON BLOOD
    Scales fell like rain from the sky. The wounded dragon desperately beat his wings in order to stay aloft. Droplets of thick black blood, as large as a man’s fist fell from the grievous wound. Invisible in the night, the great struggle for survival went unseen by the humans below.
    The great beast did not have a name. His naming day had not yet come. He was young for his kind. Only a few centuries had passed since the morning of his hatching. So soon , he thought to himself. Too soon to leave this world without making a mark for himself. “My wings still beat, my heart still beats!” he chanted to himself. A mantra to help him stay aloft. He heard thunder afar off and redoubled his efforts to make it home.
    Tallon strolled along, enjoying the solitude of the night. He was a gangly youth, clumsily growing into his height. Routinely teased by his schoolmates, nighttime was his escape from the cruelty of adolescent tormentors.
    He raised his head at the sound of rushing wind and was staggered as a large glob of some viscous substance struck him with terrible force. He fell to his knees and raised his hands to his face. There was a slight burning sensation, and he reflexively licked his lips. He looked at his hands and gasped at the sight of the thick black liquid. There was a sudden warming in his stomach and chest, followed by a feeling of light-headedness. He lurched to his feet and gagged, but did not vomit. He wiped his hands on his shirt and on his pants legs. He lifted his eyes skyward and searched in vain for some sign of what had attacked him. Finally he gave up and glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed the incident. No one. He was alone. Just as well, he thought. This would just be fodder for more teasing. He decided to keep the incident to himself. His head now clear, and his mind made up, he headed for home.
    The dragon felt something new through the pain of his exertion. It felt like the early stage of a fragile bonding. Somewhere, somehow, a human had ingested his blood! It was not unheard of for humans and dragons to bond through the blood rite. Usually the dragon chose their human, courted them, explained the intricacies of such a union and bonded with them during a ritualistic bleeding that the human then drank.
    Such a bonding gave dragonkind greater understanding of humans, while the humans gained certain draconic attributes. This bond however, was accidental, and the young dragon had no idea what effects would result. The human had not been courted or prepared for the changes that would surely come.
    The storm hit, pelting the weary giant with a cold, driving rain. Though the wind slowed his progress, the rain actually helped. With his jaws opened wide he flew into the storm, slaking his terrible thirst. When he finally caught sight of home, the scales had ceased falling from him and the bleeding had slowed to a trickle. Bone weary when he entered his cave, all thoughts of the human were banished as he fell into an immediate and deep sleep.
    Tallon marched homeward, seeming to gain strength with each step. He felt more alive somehow. The warmth that had started in his chest and stomach had spread throughout his entire body. When he was almost home, the rain came. He barely felt the drops as he crossed the field that led to his parents’