Helpless

                  Jonas stopped cutting the ropes with his sword and stared at the hideous battle dragon growling at him. He hoped to assess the risks of attack. This battle dragon looked unhinged, twitching and flexing random muscles.

                  The dragon warrior growled louder, tapping his rudimentary sword on the ground.

                  Jonas thought of any way to reason with the creature to buy him more time and give Yerik a chance to wake up. Then he realized he had a sword in his hand.

                  “A pledge till the end, I guess.”

                  The dragon creature charged.

                  Jonas laid on the ground, and waited for the perfect moment, then rolled dodging the initial attack, swinging a solid counterattack to the dragon’s legs. The battle dragon went down, then leapt back up with another deadly swing of his weapon. Jonas parried the attack, then dodged several moves to regain a better stance. Joans was not as quick and efficient as Yerik or Hjalmar Geir, although he efficiently parried and dodged the creature’s attack. Then with several well place cuts and jabs the dragon creature collapsed from its wounds, as Jonas finished the job with a death blow.

                  He knew the noise would attract others. Subtlety was no longer their aid.

                  Jonas ran over to Yerik to finish cutting him free. He could hear movement in the distant corridors. The dull sword seemed to take forever to cut through the ropes.

                  “Yerik, Yerik, can you move? Now’s our chance,” Jonas whispered to Yerik. “C’mon, let’s move.” Jonas hoped waking Yerik would aid their escape. Despite the burning muscles in his arms, he had to cut through the ropes as soon as possible. The sounds grew closer and closer.

                  “Yerik, Yerik, can you hear me?” Jonas finally cut the ropes free.

                  Yerik responded with a few moans. Jonas knew he wasn’t dead but wasn’t sure if he would regain consciousness. Without waiting for further acknowledgement, Jonas untangled Yerik from his cords and pulled Yerik’s arm around his shoulder, and with all the energy he could muster, he hoisted him up on a bended knee, and then lifted him into a walking stance. Yerik’s dense body surprised Jonas. Yerik was not a large man, although his strength became obvious as Jonas did all he could to support him, and through sheer determination, placed one foot in front of the other. Jonas moved towards the tunnel of their planned escape.

                  Jonas dragged Yerik closer and closer to the tunnel when he heard dragons approaching from the corridor on his left. Then, looking around, he spotted a door closer by, and tried to get out of sight as soon as possible. As he hobbled along, carrying Yerik by the shoulder, he stepped closer and closer to the door. He reached out with one hand while still supporting Yerik with his other arm and tried to open the door. His hand stopped.

                  Jonas felt his body fill with a strange tingling sensation as his muscles went weak. He couldn’t support Yerik anymore and he tumbled to the ground with an unconscious moan. Jonas tried to fight the force but the more effort he made, the tighter the magical hold became.

                  Several of the dragon warriors grabbed Jonas by the arms, pulling him around, dragging him back to his shackled slab of rock. He could see them dragging Yerik alongside him. A large cluster of the dark-winged dragons of Myrr and a variety of battle dragons gathered around them.

                  “I can’t give up. I must fight.” Jonas pushed even harder to break free from the spell. He could only think about getting free and getting the youth home.

                  The dragon warriors threw Jonas forcefully against the rock slab, hitting his head.

                  The room slowly faded to darkness.