Silence.
“No response, B’ynn al’Tor . . . half-breed?” Klassh snickered.
SURPRISE. SHAME.
“Yes, I know everything about you, Tor. Half-breed. Outcast.”
Klassh fabricated a story. He still could not fully penetrate the elf’s emotional barrier, but the dragon knew enough about elven society to improvise.
“In the great hall I smelled the human in you. Cross-breeds are not welcome in proper elven society, are they? So they kicked you out and you became a common thief. The black mark on the proud House of Tor.”
The elf trekked cautiously through the forest. The dragon could see from above that the area of the forest the elf had entered was actually a narrow band of trees. The forest was sliced through by a deep, wide ravine, like a half-healed scar in the yellow-red autumn skin of the earth. The trees ran nearly to the edge of the ravine. The elf would not be aware of its blunder until it was too late.
It would only take a few minutes for the elf to reach the gorge.
“I tire of the chase, outcast, so what is it to be?” Klassh demanded. “Do I burn down the forest, or do you give yourself up? Come now, what do you, a half-breed, have to live for?”
ANGER.
… wife… child …
“A wife and child. Now that is something to live for … and perhaps die for,” Klassh said. “If you cause me to burn down my forest, I will not only destroy you, but also your family. I will track them down, thief. I will kill them slowly. I will savor your child’s taste in my body. Then the mother. Her I will swallow whole and let die in the raging fires in my stomach.”
OUTRAGE!
“You must realize by now, thief, how tenacious I am,” Klassh continued. “It does not matter how long it takes, I will find your family and kill them. Perhaps I will instruct some of my brethren to seek especially those of the House of Tor. Perhaps I can wipe that noble house that has survived for millennia from the face of Krynn, purge it utterly from the world. Gone. Forgotten. All because of you, the half-breed that dared to challenge the might of Klassh.”
GUILT.
“You can save them, B’ynn al’Tor. Just give yourself to me now and your death will suffice.”
… lies! thought the elf.
“I do not lie. I am a dragon of my word. Just come forth, and I will spare your family and the House of Tor. Just you need die to satisfy me. Just you.”
No!
The power of the elf’s reply astounded the dragon, but Klassh let it pass. In a moment, the elf would leave the protection of the trees and find the ravine blocking its path. Klassh looked forward to the overwhelming despair that would flood from his quarry at that time.
The dragon was to be disappointed.
Bursting from the trees, the elf saw the canyon. Instead of stopping, it ran more strongly than before.
The thief was going to attempt to jump it!
HOPE!
Sensing something amiss, the enraged dragon decided to end the game. He went into a powerful dive that would take him right into the gorge at the point where the elf was about to jump. If flame could not touch the thief, then tooth and claw would do.
The elf jumped over the edge.
Klassh swept over the edge of the chasm, saw the thief grab a rope and swing out and away from him. Klassh hurtled past, completely missing the elf. The dragon crashed into the thick brush and trees that lined the sides of the ravine. Desperately trying to free himself, the dragon heard a crashing sound. He was suddenly being pummeled from all sides. Rocks and dirt fell past his head. Klassh realized that he had been tricked. Then he felt a blow on the side of his head and all was dark.
*****
Klassh awoke, unable to move. He was having trouble breathing. His eyes focused on the elf, now sitting on a boulder just a few feet from the dragon. The elf held the glowing sword across its knees. Klassh tried to move, discovered that he was nearly buried under tons of dirt, rocks and stones. The weight of the debris was slowly crushing the life from him. He tried to muster up a blast of flame, but it caught in his throat.