Strena Youngest Bounty Hunter Arc Final Part

Dreams and The Dragon

“Just one more job to go until I'm a fully-fledged bounty hunter!” declared Strena.

“Yes, it is.” Zaryb said before he took a sip of his beer. “And, as you are six, that would make you the youngest bounty hunter with a licence bar none!”

“I know, I think after all this we should celebrate!” she laughed.

“Speaking of your age, you do seem to speak like someone who is twice your age.”

“Well when you're drunk the others do school me about many things like maths and language. Then there's the dictionary that you gave me.” she explained. “Although, I do have to ask you, why do you drink so much?”

He looked away for a moment.

“Well sometimes you just want to forget the world's even a thing.” he said.

“Why's that?”

“You'll find out when you're old enough.” he said. “Now I think that its time to pick that last job.”

“Alright.” she sang as she looked at the board.

She skimmed the board. She then took the job that her gut told her to go for. She then returned to the table.

“Here.” she said.

Rescue Princess Diona

From The Mad Dragon

He read it and groaned out of annoyance as he read the description.

“I know that it's another royal, but daddy never socialised with the kingdoms of that regimen. This would make the chances of being recognised slim. Plus I know that we're not a bunch of handsome princes or noble knights, but we'll do.” she said.

He laughed.

“Well, I'm going to have to correct you in one thing, according to the description, we won't be facing a dragon but it's cousin the wyvren.” he said.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“While dragons have four legs, the wyvren ha two and one is more primal than the other. So just think of it as the dragon's drunk cousin that everyone keeps mistaking for him.” he said.

She nodded.

“Then I better get packing then.” she said as she quickly finished her breakfast.

She then raced to her bedroom and then packed. They then found themselves at the door. She showed him her bag. He smiled with a slight smirk.

“I trained you well.”

“Yes, you did.”

He looked at her with a scolding look.

“Thank you, Master Zaryb.”

He then smirked as they set off. They set off on a three month journey which ended in a market town. She then spotted a cat shouting at a dog.

“Why should I come down! Keep away form me to psychopath!” he snapped.

“But let me love you!”

She looked back at Zaryb feeling a little freaked and she started was feeling cold but she was sweating.

“Wh-”

“I see that you've never met a taking animal before.” he said. His eyes narrowed as she looked at her.

“What?”

She then heard laughing behind her.

“You 'earrd wha' I 'ad?” asked a drunk.

“Wha'?”

“Las' year that King 'n' Queen were killed by tha' guy Zaryb!”

“Ha! Serves 'em right!”

“You know wha' I 'eard?”

“No, wha'?”

“Tha' 'e butchered their daugh'er! Did 'er up so much tha' none could recognise 'er corpse!”

“Tha's no' wha' I 'eard.” said another. “I 'eard tha' none could find 'er body.”

She looked back and spotted them. She felt her heartbeat increase.

“Wew wha' I 'eard wa' tha' she shtill livesh an' she's his pe'!” said another that was even more drunk.

She leaned into Zaryb to make sure that she was not recognised. He looked at her and then looked at the group. He then looked at her and laughed.

“I'm not going to kill them.”

She looked at him surprised.

“Y-you're not?”

“Ay! Don' they look like them?”

He shook his head.

“No, they're far too drunk to remember anything, not to mention, they've probably taken for too much to an extent that even the most foolish of conversations would seem as the most intelligent than they actually are by far.” he explained.

She smiled but she had noticed that it was a weak one. She even felt weaker too.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” she asked trying not to look weak.

He knelt in front of her. He then placed the back of his hand to her fore head. He then gave her a hard look.

“No you're not, and don't pretend that you are. After all your fever is scorching.” he told her. “Cone on, we're going to the inn until I know that you're better.”

She nodded. He held her hand as they went to the closest inn. He booked themselves in and the moment she lay on her bed she realised just how ill she was. She was caked with cold sweat like icing on a cake. She was so weak that she immediately fell asleep.

She found herself walking down her corridor again and then she walked to her parents bedroom again and she killed that man again. She then walked down to her kingdom covered in blood again. She then turned to the desert and she saw an old tomb she walked over to it and then she walked over to it. She down the stairs, almost as if the way had already been programmed into her. She found herself in a large chamber where she greeted circle made of dried blood and then as she looked up, to her horror she saw two people that looked like her father. She woke up screaming. She then felt two hands on her shoulder.

“Father?” she said as she looked to her right, only to see that she was looking at Zaryb. He looked at her sternly and forced her to lie down.

“It's only a dream, it can't hurt you. Now, get back to sleep.” he said.

She nodded as he started humming a tune. She found the tune familiar, yet she could not quite place as to where she had heard it before. She listened intently to the melancholic tune and was about to fall asleep when it came to her, that was the tune that her father had hummed to her every night!

“How do you know that tune?” she asked horrified.

“Oh, my parents used to hum it to me and my eldest brother when we couldn't sleep. Now I think that you aught to get some sleep.” he said and then retuned to the tune.

I wonder if his parents knew mine..She thought as she drifted off to sleep.

She saw herself in different place. She was in a void of darkness and the first thing that she saw was Zaryb. As she looked at him he was all hunched over and she saw that his hand were flowing with blood and she could see, to her shock that he was crying. No, he was weeping. She then stepped forward and then she saw the shadow behind him. It was large and in the shape of a humanoid would that was the size of her pyramid castle then she saw his tail that was the shape of a fox.

She then heard the sound of running water as she took step after step towards him. She looked down and she saw that she was in a shallow body of blood that she could not see the end of. She then spotted that she could see faces in the blood. One looked familiar to her and as she leaned in closer she, to her horror saw that it was her father!

She woke up again screaming. She then looked next to her and saw that Zaryb was fast asleep. The image of him crying flashed in her head. She wondered if both of her dreams had any significance or if they had any meaning behind them. She just could not get either of them out of her head.

She looked at him and as she sat up she slid up to him and was about to reach out to him, but she retracted her hand.

Why is he doing this? Why did he kill them? And why did he know that tune? Why does he drink so much? She wondered but as she sat back down she noticed that she was feeling very well. Better than she had for the entirety of the journey.

When the next day dawned she told him that she was better he still told her to continue to stay there. Even-though she liked the rest she knew that the more that they rested the more likely that they would be beaten by another bounty hunter.

“I am aware.” he said as if he was reading her thoughts. “However you need to re-cooperate. But you could think of a stratagem of how to beat the wyvren.”

“Well, I was thinking of having you fight it while I get the princess out of there, and join you after I have put her into a safe place. After all you are the better fighter.” she said. He touched his chin and nodded.

“That's a good plan.”

They were at the cave the next day. They both walked in and as they walked in they spotted that the wyvren was lying and sleeping on a body of gold, silver and other coins made of many precious stones with other treasures form all over. She looked up and spotted a girl with a golden dress and curly locks with deep blue eyes.

“That's her.” she whispered.

She then looked around and spotted a golden chain attached to the gold cage that she was in. She then looked up at Zaryb. She could see that the moment that she looked at him in the eye that there was something different about him. There was that look in his eyes, the look that she had seen when he killed her parents. She suddenly got an uneasy feeling in her gut.

“Are you sure you're ready for this kid?” he asked.

Trying to look brave she nodded.

“Let's get this over and done with.” she said.

He pulled out a blade as she moved over to where the chain was. She looked at the handle that was held to the floor by another chain what had a lock. It seemed that someone did not want for her to be dropped, not even the dragon, something told her. She walked over to it and pulled out a small hair slide. She crouched to get to the lock. She started to pick it what she heard a roar from behind. Knowing that, that must have meant the wyvren was awake, but she knew better than to look. Dealing with that was Zaryb's job not hers.

She was almost done when she felt the fire next to her. She dived out of the way as the fire came close to her side. She looked back questioning him, but he just raised his eyebrow and shrugged. Then she saw the challenge in his eyes, almost as if he was challenging her on what she would do next. She then looked aside to see the wyvren looking at her with glowing green eyes. She knew that, by the look in Zaryb's eyes, that he was not going to do anything to help her.

Giving a spiteful look she picked up some coins in front of her and threw it at him and dived out of the way as the flow of fire came out of his mouth, melting the gold and silver. She smirked as it did as the molten metal did not change it's course and the wyvren roared at the mixture of gold and silver blinded him.

He breathed out fire erratically and as he did she returned to picking the lock. She then took hold of the chain and put it around her neck as she lowered the golden cage. She then looked up and an idea entered her mind. She smirked.

“Oi you up there!Start to swing!” she shouted.

That was when the wyvren snapped it's attention to the girl. She then gulped but she kept lowering the cage but as the wyvren came closer and closer to her she took the chain around her neck. She then kept the cage lowering, however, to her dismay the cage was not moving. Which meant that she would have to move it herself. She then looked back and spotted that the wyvren was close to her. She then used the chain as a whip and aimed it at his jaw and when it hit she heard a grim cracking sound.

She then climbed up the chain, knowing that it was low enough for her. She climbed and climbed until she was at the top. She did not look down for a moment and she started to kick the part of the chain next to her. She spotted that, when she did look down the cage was not swinging as wide as she knew that it should. She then put her foot against the chain and pushed against it, but she did not remove her foot from the chain. Even-though it was slightly tedious it paid off as the cage hit the wyvren and hit him so hard that he flew and hit the back of his head against the wall of the cave. This caused a loud roar and then a spike fell from the roof of the cave and stabbed the wyvren in the heart.

Knowing that he was not going to get up again she slid down the chain and picked the lock of the cage. She looked back at the coins and Zaryb picked up as many coins as he could carry. He then stuffed as much as he could in her bag without it getting too heavy. They then left the cave and went on a long journey and returned the quiet Princess Diona.

On their way back Zaryb looked at her

“Tell me do you still want the pendent of Artemis?” he asked.

She smiled and nodded. He smile too and held her hand and when they arrived back in the town, he then went to the jewellers and bought it using the coins that he had gathered from the cave. He soon put it around her neck and smiled.

“I never thought that purple was your colour, but it suites you better than I thought!” he said as she held her hand. “Come young bounty hunter! Let us all celebrate!”

She smiled as they returned to the tavern.