The Tale of Alexandria and Murtagh
Chapter 4
When I awoke in the morning my dragon was curled up on my chest. I gazed at my beautiful violet dragon for a while, until it opened a sleepy eye at me and bombarded me with hungry thoughts. I got up and placed the dragon on my shoulder. It wrapped its spiny tail around my throat and held on to my ear with one of its little paws for balance. I walked out of the bedroom and into the other room in the cabin. I expected to see Murtagh and his dragon still asleep on the pull-out bed, but to my surprise he was making breakfast his dragon on his shoulder just like mine. I walked in to the kitchen part of the room and said, “Good morning Murtagh.”
“Morning,” he grunted at me.
“Right,” I thought, “Murtagh’s not a morning person. I’ll wait till breakfast to talk to him about hunting today.” By that time my dragon was bombarding me with hungry thoughts, so I went over to my pack and gave it the last of the dried meat I had packed for my journey. When I was done feeding my dragon I saw that Murtagh had finished cooking, had sat down and was eating. While we were eating I told Murtagh, “I’m still going to go hunting today. You’re welcome to join me if you’d like.”
“Of course I‘m coming with you. I’m not about to stay cooped up in this cabin all day with the dragons.” He informed me. After we finished eating we took the last of the dried meat from our packs and put the meat and the dragons in the stable adjacent to the cabin. Murtagh’s gray stallion Tornac was also housed there, so we impressed upon our dragons that they were not to hurt the horse. Then we retrieved our weapons and headed out in to the spine. Murtagh was a wonderful hunter, though he only outclassed me by a little. He had perfect timing and aim, killing each beast quickly, and in ways that made it nearly painless for the animal. By the time we had to head back to the cabin we had enough meat to feed the dragons ourselves and still take some home to my father. We would have meat for a few weeks when I returned home.
That evening Murtagh and I were exhausted from our long day’s hunt and we didn’t speak much before we went to bed, so I learned nothing of Murtagh’s past, nor his purpose for coming to the spine. It didn’t really worry me that I didn’t know these things. I had a feeling I would find them out in time. Murtagh didn’t seem like the kind of person who would tell his life story to just anybody.
“Morning,” he grunted at me.
“Right,” I thought, “Murtagh’s not a morning person. I’ll wait till breakfast to talk to him about hunting today.” By that time my dragon was bombarding me with hungry thoughts, so I went over to my pack and gave it the last of the dried meat I had packed for my journey. When I was done feeding my dragon I saw that Murtagh had finished cooking, had sat down and was eating. While we were eating I told Murtagh, “I’m still going to go hunting today. You’re welcome to join me if you’d like.”
“Of course I‘m coming with you. I’m not about to stay cooped up in this cabin all day with the dragons.” He informed me. After we finished eating we took the last of the dried meat from our packs and put the meat and the dragons in the stable adjacent to the cabin. Murtagh’s gray stallion Tornac was also housed there, so we impressed upon our dragons that they were not to hurt the horse. Then we retrieved our weapons and headed out in to the spine. Murtagh was a wonderful hunter, though he only outclassed me by a little. He had perfect timing and aim, killing each beast quickly, and in ways that made it nearly painless for the animal. By the time we had to head back to the cabin we had enough meat to feed the dragons ourselves and still take some home to my father. We would have meat for a few weeks when I returned home.
That evening Murtagh and I were exhausted from our long day’s hunt and we didn’t speak much before we went to bed, so I learned nothing of Murtagh’s past, nor his purpose for coming to the spine. It didn’t really worry me that I didn’t know these things. I had a feeling I would find them out in time. Murtagh didn’t seem like the kind of person who would tell his life story to just anybody.