"Hurry! We have to catch up to My‑re before she leaves Rithakhar!” Bal’Taz yelled. He looked back. The five Rirorni guards had difficulty shuffling the chained Varick.
“Unshackle him!”
“You want the pit-fighter free?” asked one of the guards with concern.
“No, just remove his leg restraints. Keep his hands cuffed.”
As his men proceeded, Bal’Taz looked down the long corridor, hoping to glimpse the Alastarian woman.
“Why are we even trying to catch up to this My‑re?” asked another, removing the chains.
“Because ‘this My‑re’ will pay a fortune for him. Considering she was just paid a king’s treasure, why go through the effort of training this beast with hard profit years away when you can make an easy profit today,” Bal’Taz explained.
“Ah.” His group all nodded in understanding, removing the restraints.
“Come on!” The group made their way into the palace’s courtyard when Bal’Taz stopped. Another group of Rirorni unloaded something he never expected to see: an adult mere dragon. It was the size of a horse, four-legged, and reptilian in appearance, but had no wings or scales. The dragon yawned, blinked rapidly in the sunlight, and sniffed the air around it. A rope used to tether the creature went taut in the hands of a nearby Rirorni. Snorting, the mere dragon flipped his head, and the rope yanked from the Rirorni’s hands. The entire group froze where they stood. The creature then smelled a couple of nearby Rirorni without incident.
The Rirorni breathed a collective sigh.
“I overheard the woman with the Shagornan Elf call it by name, Koma.”
Bal’Taz asked the group, “What’s this woman’s name?”
“I don’t recall. What business is yours?”
“Because of reasons. Was it My‑re?”
“Yeah, something like that. No, that’s the name. It seems tame and doesn’t need to be broken in,” the Rirorni said.
“It better be for the gold the Great Khan paid for it,” a larger Rirorni with the rank of horse captain said, approaching, folding his arms. “He wants to ride it this afternoon for a hunt. However, I’m not sure how much sport it’ll provide. Tales say that once a scent is acquired, it’s never lost. Now, who wants the honor of test riding it first?”
No one looked enthused.
“And you call yourselves Sons of the Horse? Right, I’ll offer one gold.”
There was silence.
“No one? How about two gold?” the Horse Captain snorted.
Varick took a step forward. Chains rattled. Bal’Taz’s guards restrained him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Bal’Taz commented.
“Oi!” the Rirorni horse captain called out. “You with the prisoner!”
Bal’Taz followed the leader's gaze from the mere dragon to Varick. “I’m not letting him ride that thing.”
The Rirorni horse captain approached. “The Great Khan needs this thing tested, and none of my men are stallion enough to do it. I’ll offer you three gold to borrow him for one ride.”
Bal’Taz looked to Varick and then to the palace guards in the area. High walls surrounded the square. Nothing short of a real dragon could leap that. He scanned the grounds for possible avenues of escape and saw the open doors to the outer courtyard. “Alright, three gold, but I require the entrance sealed and the courtyard completely closed. I don’t fancy any chance of him fleeing.”
“Done.” After the coins changed hands, the palace guards began to bar any point of entry into or out of the grounds.
Varick stretched out his hands toward Bal’Taz and motioned to the shackles.
Scoffing, Bal’Taz said, “I’m not removing those.” He then pointed his finger into Varick’s massive chest. “And no funny business.”
Snorting, Varick slowly approached the mere dragon. After a short distance, Koma noticed him and issued a deep rumble in its throat. Varick stopped. It moved forward, smelling his long brown hair several times. The mere dragon’s nose then shifted to each of his armpits. Its snout pushed hard into his chest, and he turned slightly to maintain his balance. Sniffing his bare feet, its nose moved up his legs, stopped at his groin, sniffed around to his derrière, and then back to the front. The mere dragon then lowered to the ground.
After a moment, Varick glanced at the surrounding Rirorni and mounted the mere dragon, hugging his legs behind its front limb joints, using a gripping of hair and the rope that once tethered the creature for balance and control. Koma rose effortlessly, even with his massive weight, and proceeded after a tap with his heel. They made a slow trip around the courtyard. They went a little faster on the second lap. As with a horse, he practiced steering, stopping, and starting.
The Rirorni in the area began nodding in approval and amazement.
Bal’Taz watched Varick pat the beast and get low to its ear. He talked to it. However, something didn’t sit right. As Bal-Taz approached, Varick continued to say something. Getting closer, he started making out the words.
“Koma, find My‑re. Find My‑re. Find her.”
“Get him off!” Bal’Taz screeched. The other Rirorni were alerted.
Koma leaped away with Varick, and they began running the length of the square.
“Those brutes aren’t going anywhere,” the Rirorni horse captain said and motioned. The palace guards inverted their long spears to the blunt end and began to close around Varick and the mere dragon.
Noticing the encroaching Rirorni, Koma picked up speed and charged a group.
“He’s going to ram through the walls!” Bal’Taz shouted. “He’s going to escape!”
“A hundred gold says he’s not. Those walls are fifteen feet thick. It’s not going through that,” the Rirorni captain said.
Koma unleashed an unearthly, piercing shriek that sliced through the air, cutting their conversation off. The Rirorni cringed and retreated away, covering their ears.
Koma charged the wall, head first.
“That stupid creature is going to nut itself,” Bal’Taz said, clearing the ringing in his ears with his fingers.
Koma leaped into the air.
“The walls are too high,” scoffed the Rirorni horse captain. “It’ll never make it.”
Koma’s thick claws dug into them. It remained vertical. Varick clung to its back.
“What in the nine hells?”
The mere dragon sank its heavy claws into the wall’s material. Koma climbed claw over claw. It scrambled over the barrier’s top with Varick and out of view.
“Undgari’s ravens. I’ll be executed for this,” the Rirorni horse captain stammered.
Bal’Taz snorted, “Before that happens, I’d like that one hundred gold you mentioned.”