34

The fire roared as it engulfed all the wood Aegon could find in the short time he had. It was built like a pyre, thick smoke coming off of it in twirling grey ribbons. He sat facing the fire with his back to the cliff, the bright orange light illuminating most of the forest in front of him. When they arrived, JaHahn's ten would all be in perfect view.

He sat patiently, scanning the edge of the light as to not be taken unawares, ever so often gazing into the burning pattern of oranges and reds in the enormous dancing flame. The heat from each flare felt cool on his face, as he sat much nearer than any mortal man would dare. Sparks of the burning wood popped as they shot quickly past him, and the ashes of the charred wood fell like a light snow when the wind picked up.

The smell of burning sap and leaves smelled sweet as he sat smiling on a log he found. Aegon remarked as he noticed himself, "I'm quite comfortable for someone awaiting an ambush," but he was the only one there.

For a moment, he felt caught in a daze, staring into the flames. Then he heard them, not too far out from the light, and he pulled his dirk from its sheath. He reached into his sack for another fruit, and bit it. He wanted to look unbothered to JaHahn's new men.

The first Brindled Man stepped into the light with a long, powerful stride. The rest of his frame reached into the light and revealed the imposing frame of his foe. He wasn't as tall as Ootrahk, but his chest, arms, and legs were broader. And younger. Shadows flickered behind the ridges of his muscular physique, each muscle grotesque and bulging beneath his skin and fur, sharply cut into shapes that fit his body like armor. He had a jet-black streak of hair on the top of his head shaved into an arrow head, and the tufts of fur around the rest of his body and face were brindled onyx and copper. He wore paint on his face and chest, the signal of his command, and he carried two thick short staffs, one in each hand, as thick as Aegon's wrists wrapped with a leather band for grip. No steel.

As he stepped closer, he looked around the clearing for signs of others. They were expecting Ootrihk's clan, but they would not find them here. He looked at Aegon with bewilderment, a quiet rage building behind his eyes. His one eyebrow furrowed and quivering. His mouth bent in anger and frustration. He looked desperate.

"JaHahn, I presume," Aegon said seated from his log.

"You're supposed to be dead, little one." He said, turning to the rest of his party for their chuckles as they stepped in the light ten across. Most of them looked as young or younger than their leader. Greener too.

"From when? The time you sent Niistrihk against me and ran, or the time the slavers sent an exploding boat? It seems I'm not so easy to kill." The rest of his warriors stood as stone sentinels unable to understand the Valyrian conversation, waiting for their next command.

"Easy enough now that you're on your own and surrounded without the element of surprise. It was cute what you did in the woods that night, but tonight is not that night. This will not end in your favor. You have two options, come quietly and we will not harm you, much, or resist and we will break every non-vital bone in your body until you can no longer use either legs or arms to shit with, not to mention fight or walk or even crawl. My men are strong enough to carry you back alive, regardless of the condition." He stepped forward another two steps, his knuckles whitening around his short staffs. His lackeys followed closely behind.

"To save your men's lives, honor me with a fair fight. You against me. Champion against champion. If you win, I will come in whatever condition I'm in. If I win, you and your clan will leave here now, tell your masters you found nothing but the dead washed ashore." He stood up finally, and rolled his head on his neck to stretch it. He appeared relaxed. Fearless. JaHahn; not as much.

Flustered, JaHahn yelled out, "Fuck you pink man. I will have a taste of your blood, but not now, not like this. You either come now, or we will ALL break you."

"So, you fear me then. Yes?"

"I fear no one." His voice softened a bit. Enough to for Aegon to hear he was right.

Aegon smirked, then tried his hardest to remember what he had been taught just twenty minutes before. "Yohr ahk tis lahk nahn iss uhn .. puhteenah un ahk kahn noo. Iss ahk tu nahk iss nu? Ihk nah iss ahk iss troon nahn nahk?" Nahknani taught him to say, 'Your leader is too afraid to fight and die for you. Will you die for this coward? Would you die like the last ones he sent?' The men around all heard and responded with confused faces. He continued, "Woon ahk ti nahn yoon cahssas ahn ahssahns, yoon ahk ahn spahh." 'Lay down your weapons and your life will be spared.'

No one looked more confused than JaHahn. I could have fucked up the annunciation, but I said enough of it right for them to know. They all stood, confused, but motionless. None dropped their weapons.

"You have all made your choice." Aegon said in Valyrian.

JaHahn stepped forward again, then back at the sounds he heard next. His face was caught in the shock from his brindled questions and the bewilderment of the surprise attack. Nahknani, the twins, Chekka, and Shevrohn descended upon his men from the darkness, steel in their hands, ending five of the motionless mens' lives before anyone knew what was happening. NeeNee fired an arrow through a sixth eye, as Shevrohn and Chekka slashed through one more each. The twins tackled the remaining two and stabbed them repeatedly. Aegon heard the slashing of flesh over and over again as JaHahn realized he was the only one left of his party meant to overwhelm his foe. Again, he was outmatched and outwitted by the smaller, weaker man before him.

His brow bent in a blind rage. His eyes burned with the sting of humiliation and defeat, and he lashed out at Aegon, swinging his short staffs in rapid succession as he took two leaps and was on him.

Aegon dodged to his left and swung the dirk as the larger, wilder attacker stumbled by him in a black blur of fury. It cut threw the meat underneath his ribs and the slice opened with a spray and a splatter. He dropped to a knee and turned, growling, his face twisted. He grunted something in his language, roaring curses most like. Then lunged back at Aegon with a quickness he didn't expect.

His foe launched himself like a pouncing lion, abandoning his staffs and leaping, his hands like paws, claws sharpened, directly into Aegon. He bounced back to avoid JaHahn, but he couldn't clear enough distance, and the Brindled Man bounded on top of him, clawing at his shoulders through the jahkyar cloak. Aegon coiled his legs as JaHahn reached his neck down, opening his massive muscular jaws. He snapped them close as Aegon kicked both legs to his midsection with all of the force he could muster. His feet landed just before JaHahn's teeth closed, and pushed the Brindled beast back enough to avoid a bite that would kill him.

He turned his head and tucked his chin as the jaws closed on the bunched skin around his closed eye. Any closer, and the fangs would have removed it, or ruined it forever. They only cut deep enough to leave a slash from just above his brow to below his lower lid. Blood filled his left eye as he tried to blink it out. The kick enough to give him space to swing the dirk again. He wouldn't kill him, only wound him, but he cut clear across his face with a forehand slash, and immediately swiped back across it with a back hand.

The blade nicked bone on the first slash, tore through a nostril on the second, and the three wounds, the one to his side and the two to his face, seemed to take enough of a toll for the warrior to collapse in pain, anguish, or gut-wrenching defeat. He rolled to his knees, covering his bleeding face, grunting like an injured buck, trying to crawl to the cliff.

Aegon pointed to Chekka who was closest to JaHahn's path, "Cut him off. Don't let him jump. He's not getting off that easy." Chekka slid over, the sword poised in both hands.

Chekka said, "Just give me a reason, I'll push this blade through the base of your skull."

Defeated, JaHahn collapsed from up on all fours to flat on his face and rolled onto his back. He spit a mouthful of blood out and looked around as if for a way out. He searched. Aegon's companions all gathered around him, closing in on him like a pack of wolves. No face was friendly. No allies alive. He could only submit or fight back. He relaxed his weight and laid back on the soft grass in the orange light of the fire. Shevrohn climbed over him and struck him hard with one of the fallen's long staffs. They couldn't kill him. Not until he talked.

Shevrohn and Chekka picked up his limp unconscious body and propped him up against the trunk of a nearby tree. They stretched his arms back, behind the tree, and wrapped a thick green vine around both wrists. It was flexible, still alive even, and wouldn't rip or break under extreme duress, only bend or twist. He could struggle and try all he liked, but he would never break free, especially after they tightened the wrists together, behind the tree, so tightly Aegon heard his arms break. They had placed his arms with the elbows to the tree. When they bent his arms together, they were bending back at the elbow against the trunk. The sound almost made him wretch.

They tied his legs similarly, Aegon thought he heard a hip pop. After the arms, JaHahn woke up with a loud whelp, and by now he was cursing and spitting at every movement the brothers made. He kept repeating the same line of his tongue, "Oo iss mahn shihknah?"

"The fuck is he saying?" Aegon asked Shevrohn while they were in between wrapping the vines around each ankle and tightening them together.

"He's saying, 'Where is my wife?' He's referring to Nahknani, I presume."

"I know. I'm aware of the arrangement." Aegon replied.

When he was fully bound and propped, the brothers broke each finger at every knuckle, to avoid him slashing at the vine with his claws. Apparently, it was just something you did when capturing and holding a Brindled Man captive. Luckily, the slavers missed that with Ootrahk's clan.

"He's ready for questioning, ser." Chekka said as if reporting to a superior officer.

Ser, huh? Aegon thought. Funny I have risen so high in this world so quickly. He laughed in his head as he formulated his response. "If I am to be your Drahkness Kahn, ser is the wrong word. Since we say this in jest anyway, you will be the Ser. You will address me as 'Your Grace." Aegon didn't know the Valyrian translation for, "Your grace" so he taught it to Chekka in the common tongue. Chekka smiled at the part where he'd be a ser. "To be called, ser, you need to be a knight. Now that I am a king, I can officially knight you and from now on everyone will call you, ser. Shevrohn, give me your sword."

"If you two are finished playing games, we have a prisoner to question." Shevrohn replied while also handing over the sword.

"If you have any interest, Shevrohn, I will knight you as well. Besides, I was taught that questioning should begin after hours of waiting. Nothing is more painful than the wait." Aegon took the sword and held it vertically in front of him. "Chekka, kneel before me."

"If you talk to me like that, you can knight me," Shevrohn said.

"Don't spoil the moment, brother. Gawk in your own mind." Chekka said, kneeling in front of Aegon.

"Chekka of Ootrahk's clan, brother of Shevrohn,"

"Son of Trohmbo, the Trunk of a Tree," Chekka added, his face sincerely proud in their jest.

"Son of Trohmbo, the Trunk of a Tree, In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave," he said in the common tongue of westeros, a game he and Lem played in their youth. "In the name of the Father, I charge you to be just. In the name of the Mother, I charge you to defend the young and innocent. In the name of the Maid, I charge you to protect all women. Fuck, I forget the rest, but Chekka, do you swear this before the eyes of Gods and men?"

"What gods? What men?" he said. Shevrohn laughed.

Shevroh directed his brother, "Idiot, you just have to agree with him."

"Fine, yes. I swear."

Aegon tapped him on the left shoulder with his sword, "Now rise, Ser Chekka of Sothroyos. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

He stood and received his cheers from the invisible crowd around him in his imagination, bowing and waving. Shevrohn scolded, "Stop it, idiot, you look a fool."

"No brother, I look a pink knight. Too bad you're no true king, pink one." He patted Aegon on his back with a heavy paw, jolting the pink man forward and forcing the air from his lungs in a cough.

I am the rightful one.

Aegon knighted Shevrohn who surprisingly showed more sincerity in the ceremony than Chekka did. When he rose, he hugged Aegon, who hugged back, and when the two released, he stepped back to bow. "Thank you, your grace," he said, holding back a smirk.

"I've always wanted to be a knight," Aegon said as the three sat down close enough to JaHahn to monitor him, but far enough away that he couldn't hear most of what they were saying. He was tied to a tree in the far edge of the light of the fire. They sat around it on the opposite side of the glow.

The twins and Nahknani had broke away as they were tying JaHahn up to set up the tents back up. By the time they were all sitting near the fire, the twins were already back in the tent, and Nahknani just joined them, sitting in between Aegon's legs on the ground while he was on a short log slightly above her. The two brothers sat on their own makeshift seats, as the four sat mostly silent around the fire for a few minutes, the men still satisfied from their knighting game.

Nahknani finally spoke up, "You boys looked to be having fun. What the fuck were you all doing?"

"Have you ever heard of Westeros?" Chekka asked.

"No. Well, not until I met him."

"Ootrahk taught us when we were small about the knights in Westeros. Warriors in iron skin, tasked with defending women and the weak against beasts and villians. Your dragon king has knighted us and made us sers. From now on, I am Ser Chekka of Sothoryos." He smiled, looked up and away and held his right fist to the left side of his chest. Then he fell back in a burst of laughter.

"Okay," she said, rolling her word like a question, sounding confused and probably bending her eyebrow the way she did. Aegon couldn't see it, but he knew her.

"You were never taught of Westeros? Wouldn't you have been the same age as us when we left?"

"I don't even remember you all leaving. I was so young." She said.

Shevrohn jumped in, "It was five and ten years passed. We were all too young for what happened."

The woods cracked, breaking their conversation. They all looked into the darkness for clues, but the light from the flames only made the darkness that much darker around them. It was distant, but clear. And as they continued to listen, it kept getting closer and closer.

"Maybe we should think about putting this fire out," Chekka said. The fire would surely attract attention, Aegon knew, but they couldn't risk not having eyes on JaHahn. Broken and bloodied or not, if Aegon was in his shoes, he knew he'd eventually try an escape, and JaHahn looked as strong as any of the men he'd seen here. One can't be that big and muscular without having some strength. They had to keep watch.

The noise continued to get closer, "We can't put it out, we need eyes on JaHahn. Get your weapons ready, sers, we may need those knightly skills of yours."

"As you say, your Grace," Chekka said, standing and readying his blade.

"What the fuck is, 'Your Grace,'?" Nahknani said to Aegon. It sounded nice to hear her accent in the common tongue.

"I'll tell you later," he said, focused on the noise that continued to approach whishing and cracking through the dark brush beyond the orange glow.

They were all standing, readied with their weapons in hand. Aegon looked around, now the only one with short steel. He looked ridiculous holding the dirk out next to the larger Brindled Men with their longswords and Nahknani, who happened to have a long staff from one of JaHahn's dead guards. He didn't care though. Not only did he have history with it, but he had grown comfortable in the close combat situations and was starting to revel in the brutality of it.

The noise continued to gain ground consistently without any thought of hesitation or stealth. He thought it must be an animal of some kind. No human, brindled or otherwise, would be stupid enough to approach a lit fire as brazen and loudly. Well, maybe a slaver, but most likely not.

Also, it didn't sound as large as the gray back from earlier. Though tough to judge, Aegon guessed it would be half the size, if not smaller. So it wouldn't be a jahkyar, which only hunted by stealth. Or a riverlizard which was as big if not bigger than the gray back. So, would it be some kind of prey animal, a deer like thing territorial during mating season? Aegon wasn't too concerned. The noise was almost to the light. Then, he saw them.

Two eyes flickered in the glare of the fire just out of reach of the orange glow. Could it be?

The next moment, two longer front legs, shaggy and grey, bounded into the light. A doofus face followed shortly, bobbing up and down on a long shaggy spotted neck, its tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth as it ran. Nahknani jumped up immediately and ran to the animal only two of the four recognized.

"What in the knightly fuck is this?" Shevrohn asked as Nahknani ran over, dropped to her knees, and allowed the animal to jump up on its stubby back legs and lick her face with its front paws draped over her shoulders.

"Your sleeping with me tonight, boy. C'mon. Here, eat this." Nahknani said to Lem, feeding him a chunk of salted meat.

Aegon responded to Shevrohn, "The one she likes more than me."