© J.B. Norman — Published by Emona Literary Services™
The three young Wolf Knights crouch behind a large rock outside the bandits’ little ramshackle fort, pondering their best next move to defeat the bandits in the name of justice and righteousness.
“Right,” Anneliese tells the other two knights. “I’ll go left. Helgi, you go right. Lisette, you circle around and hit them from behind.”
Helgi nods thoughtfully. “Sure. We could do that,” he notes. “Or we could just up straight up the middle.”
“There’s fifteen of them and three of us, Helgi,” Anneliese says.
Helgi shrugs. “Yeah. But we have a Dragon.”
“But,” Anneliese protests. “Strategy! Tactics! P-planning! The handbook! The handbook!”
Of all the junior knights in her class of Wolf Knights, Anneliese has easily proven herself the most committed to the Order’s knightly combined handbook of chivalrous conduct and military science.
Obsessively so, in fact.
“Isn’t the first rule in the handbook something about smiting the wicked?” Lisette asks. “You can’t get much smite-ier than a Dragon!”
“B-but there’s no strategy in the handbook about just turning into a Dragon and just stomping the bad guys!” Anneliese protest.
“Yeah,” Lisette agrees. “We’ll be pioneers!”
Anneliese groans. “We’re going to get kicked out of the Order,” she whimpers.
“So, we’re going with the Dragon plan?” Helgi asks.
“Yeah!” Lisette exclaims, her bushy tail wagging eagerly.
“No, thank you,” Anneliese whimpers.
Helgi puts a reassuring hand on Anneliese’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this,” he promises her.
“O-okay,” Anneliese mutters.
She sighs and runs her hands over her face.
“We’re going to get kicked out of the Oder.”
There’s a flash of light as Helgi shifts into his Dragon form.
“He is so cool,” Lisette mutters, swooning in a rather unknightly manner.
Anneliese rolls her eyes.
Dragon-Helgi goes stomping towards the front gate of the bandits’ fort and promptly storms right through it.
As the dust clears, Lisette shifts into her fox form and goes excitedly bounding after him.
After a moment of hesitation, Anneliese draws her sword and goes charging after her companions, her obligation to stand beside her companions in battle overweighing the fact that said companions are flagrantly ignoring the handbook.
“They have a Dragon!” one of the bandits exclaims fearfully.
“And a fox!” a second calls.
“Well, that’s not so bad,” the first offers.
“I’m allergic to dogs,” the second mutters.
“And, um, a girl,” the first notes.
“That’s not so bad,” the second muses.
“She’s got a sword!”
“That is bad.”
“She just took out Morton!”
“That’s also bad!”
“She’s coming after me!”
“Oh. That’s very bad!”
Moving deftly, Anneliese bowls over the first bandit, then sweeps the legs out from under the second.
“Stay down,” she tells them. “Or you’ll have to deal with the Dragon.”
Still in her fox form, Lisette pauses to growl at the two subdued bandits before bounding on.
Thanks in large part to the efforts of Helgi’s Dragon form, the fight with the bandits quickly arrives at its inevitable conclusion.
Most of the bandits are stomped into submission, while the others are sent running by blasts of fire from Dragon-Helgi’s maw.
Helgi shifts back to his human form and approaches his two companions.
“My throat hurts,” he groans.
More Realmgard Short Scenes here.
If you’ve enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me through Ko-fi or Patreon, or through Paypal by scanning the QR code below:
Follow Realmgard and other publications of Emona Literary Services™ below:
Subscribe to the Emona Literary Services™ Substack newsletter here.
