The moonless night lingered. The river rushed by the shore on the edge of a forest, its sound eerie against the darkness beneath the trees. On a small pier, men were loading chests onto a small boat. They all wore black, and on their arm were tattooed the sword and shield of the Unyielding Legion.
"I hate these night missions." The man crossing the board grumbled. "Can't see a thing."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Another one, seemingly the leader of the smugglers, replied. "Zip it, unless you want to quit for good. Orders are orders."
"Zier!" An arrow pierced the still night air. It struck the complaining man on the back. He gave a small yelp and fell to the ground, dead.
"Jenson?" The leader turned around to see the arrow in his henchman's back. "Battle status, EVERYBODY!" He hollered. The rest of the men drew their weapons and increased their loading speed.
"Biu!" Another arrow shot out of the darkness. "Oo!" It hit one of the men in the neck and scarlet blood spurted out. He collapsed over into the river.
A black figure charged out of the forest and headed straight for the last unloaded chest. The leading man blocked her stone sword with ease and flipped the attacker's mask off. Abbigail backed into a clearing and felt her cheek. A small gash was oozing blood under her left chin.
"I'm beginning to grow tired of all the trouble you've been causing us, girl." The man said as he wiped the blood from his sword.
"I'm just getting started." Abbigail retorted. She pounced and brought her stone sword down upon the Legionnaire.
"You are out of your league." The man taunted. He blocked the strike with ease.
"I've been told that before." Abbigail snapped back. She whirled around and slashed at the man's left leg.
"Should have listened." The man said, blocking her swing with a shield.
"It's not my strongest suit." Abbigail returned his words with a sharp stab.
"I can see that." The man said. He leaned to the side and flew a kick, hitting Abbigail square in the stomach. She stepped back into the clearing, winded slightly.
More men, dressed also in Legion attire, jumped out from the bushes. They quickly formed a circle around Abbigail. Their swords drawn and shield at hand, the kill circle began closing in on their prey.
At the top of the circle, stood the boss. "The Unyielding Legion works together." He waved for the men to slow down. "Yet you," he pointed his sword at Abbigail, "work alone."
A giant black canopy suddenly dropped out of the sky. Luna roared as she landed beside Abbigail with a "Thunk" that shook the earth. She spun around and knocked out half the surrounding men, the spikes on her tail tearing open their skulls.
With the element of surprise, Abbigail quickly and cleanly took out five of the ten remaining men, who were still gaping at Luna's arrival. One smuggler shot an arrow at the attacker, but Luna flapped her wings and the arrow flew off hazily into the trees. Abbigail fired with her bow and the man was knocked back when the arrow pierced his only good eye.
Three men, sensing things going south, leapt back into the trees. Luna raced after them, flapping her wings to go faster. She caught up at a small shed. She opened her mouth wide, sparks began to ignite in her mouth, the cornered men braced for the heat, and …
Nothing happened. Luna coughed, choking on her own "fire." The men slipped away down a stony path.
Luna finished her fit of coughing and saw her targets escaping. She bit off a flaming torch from the fencepost and brandished it like a sword. Barreling though the woods, the tip of her torch grazed against a barn and it sprung up in flames. "Oh, no, not another one!" Luna condemned herself in her head. Leaving the men to run off by themselves, Luna tossed down the torch and tried to quench the flame by flapping her wings. Contrary to her wishes, that only infuriated the flames. Soon, it spread to the roof and gnawed at the beams.
Abbigail finished off the last man and faced their leader. She saw that he had a giant black scar on his right chin and another on his right arm. She charged, but the man was quicker. He threw out a punch, knocking Abbigail in the chest and hitting her off in a summersault. Her sword missed its target and cracked open the lock on the chest. An eerie yellow-emerald light leaked out from the crack.
"Now I understand why you're so interested in this chest." Said the man, picking up the open chest.
"I don't care what's in the box!" Abbigail yelled as she landed on her feet. "I want information. Anything that can be used to destroy the Unyielding Legion!" She pounced again, but was easily blocked.
"I'm not in the mood to talk." The Legionnaire replied as he backed onto the boat.
"Tell me what I want or I'll have my dragon bite your head off!" Abbigail threatened. They both turned to look at Luna, who was frantically flapping her wings, but the fire just kept growing and growing. Hearing her name, she paused and shook her head at the pair. Evidently she had neither the strength nor the appetite for human heads.
"Well," Abbigail tried to cover the awkwardness as they turned to face each other again. "when she comes back she's going to bite your head off!"
The Legionnaire chuckled. The girl is a bigger idiot than the dragon. "I'll be the one gathering information." He cut the rope tying the ship to the dock. "Now we know you have a dragon-on the loose." With that mock, he threw the chest into Abbigail, knocking her back. The man launched the boat into the water, unfurled the sails, caught a downstream wind, and sped off into the distance.
"Kablam!" The barn collapsed into flaming wood piles. Luna gave up and joined Abbigail on the shore. Abbigail was shooting arrow after arrow at the boat, but they all landed harmlessly on the stern.
Luna coughed up a bit of sparks and lit Abbigail's arrow tip. She launched the final arrow at the disappearing boat. The Legionnaire caught the arrow with a shield and threw it into the river where it fizzed to smoke. He turned a bend in the river and slid out of range.
Abbigail and Luna returned to the dock, Abbigail wanted to pull down Luna by the ears until she learned to stay away from arsenal or grew up.
The chest lay open, and an emerald pearl lay inside. "What is this thing?" Abbigail wondered when she saw it. Luna, still slumping, bent over and sniffed it. "Don't you dare spark!" Abbigail warned. Luna pulled back to let Abbigail pick it up.
As Abbigail reached for it, the emerald, as if it's alive, floated into the air. Abbigail grabbed it and felt it pulling away. She put it in her pack and secured it with leather straps.
They found a clearing to have breakfast and rest. Abbigail took out some dried bread from her food pouch and a stack of pork chops for Luna. She tossed the meat one by one. Luna gulped down every piece with a swift flick of her neck.
"I appreciate the help, Luna," Abbigail said after she sat down to her bread, "but I really wish you wouldn't show yourself. She took a large bite.
Luna waved her wings like a swan and smoothly breathed.
"Subtle?" Abbigail almost choked. "How was that subtle?"
Luna waved her tail, mocking the swipe that took out half a dozen men.
"You burned down a barn!" Abbigail cried. Why does Luna always do that?
Luna curved her wings upwards to form a giant circle.
"OKAY, fine." Abbigail retorted through a mouthful of dough. "An empty barn." That wasn't her real concern. "You still showed yourself clearly. Soon everyone's gonna know there's a dragon in the wild."
"Hmph!" Luna let her hot breath on Abbigail.
"Do I have to put a leash on you?" Luna shook her head. "Alright, then stay in the sky, girl, and come down only when I call you." Abbigail patted Luna's neck, feeling the smooth scales beneath her fingers. The dragon she took off into the sky.
"People are gonna know…" mumbled Abbigail.
They walked down the river, following the Legionnaire's path. Soon, it was past noon and Abbigail called down Luna for lunch.
When Luna was taking on of her power naps, and Abbigail counting through her stock to find something more interesting than dried hard bread, a squawky voice rang out.
"Greetings!"
Abbigail bolted up and lost her balance. "Woah-oah!" she yelled. Had someone sneaked up on them? She looked hastily around, but found no one except a little blue bird perched on a nearby rock. As she looked, the bird spoke.
"I beg your pardon madam. Would you happen to be Abbigail?"
Abbigail tried to compose herself. "Yeah, that's me." She answered, brushing her messy hair out of her eyes. She examined the speaker. "Are you a messenger bird?" she asked carefully.
"'Messenger bird' is such a crude term, madam." The parrot-looking bird replied. "My name is Merlin. I am a highly certified communications emissary, not some…SQUAWK!"
Merlin hopped out of the way as Luna bit on him from behind.
"Luna!" Abbigail yelled. "Behave yourself!" The dragon looked gleefully down.
"What is that BEAST?" Merlin screamed.
"Her name is Luna." Abbigail said apologetically. "She won't eat you I promise. isn't that right?" Luna nodded vigorously.
Merlin hopped back onto the rock. "Yes, well." He started smoothing his body with his beak. "I do wish I had been properly warned of this before. Now you've gone and ruffled my feathers." He shook himself from head to tail, and straightened out the last tiny strands on his head with his wings. "However, I haven't got a moment to spare. Listen carefully as my time is valuable and thus I'm only saying this once."
Abbigail, half wondering whether he will self-destruct like most of the Legion's messages, sat down to listen.