The below chapter supports Roar’Z’s story.
Zirien and his twin brothers knew their jobs well. They’ve skinned three dragons over their long years together. Their first kill was a white dragon. It attacked them while they were up north climbing Mt Bergren during a winter snowstorm. The twins were helping Zirien determine whether a recent roomer of an intelligent, mysterious silver liquid metal was true. The stupid white dragon killed Streed’s fur-ball of a cat in that battle. It took Streed months to recover from that loss.
A few years later, a hungry small blue dragon died early. A businessman, a large animal trader out of the city of White Rocks, commissioned Streed to find a dozen camels. He had an eager buyer beyond the Vandal Sea willing to pay big money. The three brothers were driving the freshly captured herd of camels across the GOR Desert, and the blue bitch thought she found an easy dinner. Fortunately for us, it became dinner instead.
The most recent dragon attack was a cowardly black dragon. It attacked us along the Blue Highway after we went to sleep for the night. Good thing Streed set up a few protection spells, or we’d have been turned into black dragon poop. We chased him through three bogs before he was finally subdued and killed.
After the white dragon’s attack, we learned that Iandel, the Ranger sucked at skinning animals only after he shredded several critical pieces of leather. When we returned to the port city of White Rocks, Streed commissioned a swordsmith to beef up our skinning tools. The swordsmith modified the fleshing tool by making the handle big enough to use two-handed and the “D” shaped blade robust and larger. We also had the swordsmith modify two skinning knives. The first was the “belly-buster,” a rugged 2-handed, saw-like edged blade. It made the initial piercing and long incision down the dragon’s chest through the belly and tail. It also quickly cuts thick cartilage between bones. The other bladed tool, the “blubber-cutter,” was tiny and never needed to be sharpened.
Zirien reached shoulder-deep into his small blue-stained leather traveling bag. First on the list when we get home is to clean up the storage area that this bag is connected to, Zirien thought. After a frustrating search, Zirien held high the belly-buster. “Time to gut the fish,” Zirien announced.
While Zirien rooted through the storage room, Streed played with his miniature pet polar bear, Humphries.
Iandel evaluated the emerald beast’s massive body. It was 40 hands to the shoulder and another 30 hands to its great head. Iandel walked off its length to over 25 paces. He studied scale clustering to determine the best route for the belly incision. Excitedly Iandel yelled to his brothers, “It’s the biggest dragon we’ve killed so far.” Sarcastically adding, “Good Job, GIRLs.”
Zirien, armed with the belly-buster, walked to the dragon. “I’ll skin this one, Iandel,” he said with snark in his voice. “Maybe we’ll be able to use some of this one’s leather….”
With a sigh of relief and a little shame, “Ok little guy, that also means you get to loosen the innards,” Iandel replied, then walked the length of the dead dragon’s body, pointing. “Cut along this path. It should be easy….”
Still playing with the fluffy white Humphries. “You think you can manage following a little line?” Streed asked Zirien.
Zirien ignored his two brother’s teasing and shot them a non-amused look. I’ve slept naked inside huge polar bears during a mountaintop winter storm. So, releasing chum and tendons is going to be easy. “Get to work, you two.”
Streed’s job never changed. He was by far the most talented with a skinning knife. His job was to harvest the smallest dragon scales. The ones found near articulating joints. The pliable rugged thin leathery scales make the best elven dragon scale leather armor. They are highly valued for their superior protective qualities.
Brunswick laid pretty much on his left side, with his left leg mostly under him. His flesh was still smoking from my lightning. With a steady hand, Zirien reached out and felt that the whelp’s body was still hot. He ignored Iandel’s instructions and felt for the ribcage. Zirien followed the rib line, where the left and right intersected. He leaned in with all his strength with the belly-buster. First, he made a small notch between two thick dark green chest plates. After a few minutes of strenuous prodding, the groove grew into a small hole.
Sweat gleamed on Zirien’s brow. Finally, he felt the belly-buster punch through the dragon’s deep, thick, dense connective tissue that grew between scales. He continued to drill deeper into the substantial hide layer. With an audible pop, the belly-buster punctured the white connective layer and plunged into the chest cavity. Thick warm blood sprayed out of the incision onto Zirien’s face and chest.
Zirien flipped the belly-buster around and inserted the sizeable, hooked end into the fresh hole in the dragon’s chest. He sawed the long incision from the breast down around the belly scales and kept the incision as close to the centerline as possible. Zirien finished the incision when he reached Brunswick’s massive testicles. Now that the belly was open, the stench infused the atmosphere, and its fat and organs slowly protruded from the beast. He grabbed and pulled the loose chum and entrails. Zirien’s body’s barf reflex failed him. He threw up in his mouth a little. So much nastier than a polar bear, he thought.
Iandel nudged Streed and pointed. “We saw that… Breakfast isn’t as good the second time you taste it,” Iandel yelled. The two brothers laughed uncontrollably.
Streed pointed to the piles of dragon blubber. Humphries needed no further guidance. The polar bear sprinted, pounced on the largest fat mound, and drug away his dinner.
Not acknowledging the joke, Zirien switched to the razor-sharp blubber blade that cut deeply into Brunswick’s lower abdomen and pulled out more fatty chum and entrails. Zirien started to get furious and blindly continued to hollow out Brunswick. He reached deeply into the beast and hauled out a thick, soft long meaty shaft.
“Looks like you found Puff, the one-eyed dragon,” Iandel said between fits of laughter.
“Looks more like a Tummy banana,” Streed interjected as he fell to the ground laughing.
“I’d tell another penis joke, but I don’t want to come off as cocky,” Iandel said, who was now on the ground laughing uncontrollably.
“Time to loosen the innards and harvest the dragon’s valuable components from the inside,” Zirien said. It’s disgusting but much quicker from the inside.
“You need a lift, little guy,” Iandel asked with a chuckle. Knowing full well that Zirien would never accept that kind of help. He walked away to continue his work, not expecting an answer.
Zirien Hyperventilated. Agility entered the beast’s warm, slimy body. He used the blubber blade to carefully slice fat and more rigid connective tissue. He slowly pushed and pulled into the dragon and its lung cavity. Zirien prudently cut a deeper path, ensuring not to damage the stomach or essential organs or cut a major artery. Zirien inched his way toward the beast’s still-beating heart. It was slowly pumping thick warm blood through the “dead?” dragon’s body. How is its heart still beating?
“Worst job ever,” Streed said out loud to nobody in particular. He had a full sweat rolling off his brow as he struggled to surgically remove the thinly scaled-covered Puff, the one-eyed dragon.
“The Elvin king will pay the weight of an elephant for that skin,” Iandel reminded Streed. “I heard emerald dragon scale helps to protect the wearer from acid and poisons.”
“Quit distracting me and get back to work,” Streed muttered.
Zirien continued his work deeper inside the dragon’s dark noxious carcass. He grabbed connective tissues, cautiously cut, and pulled himself deeper. He found what he thought was the dragon’s breathing tube and pulled himself deeper. The light of day suddenly appeared. Iandel must have already removed the head and neck. He’s a strong bastard, Zirien thought. He squeezed upward and stuck his head out of the opening to catch a few quick breaths of fresh air. Time for another dick joke, Zirien thought. “Streed, if you keep shaking it like that, it’s gonna spit at you….”
Streed dropped the giant penis and walked away, shouting obscenities at his brothers.
Zirien ignored Streed’s comments of brotherly love and went back to work. He slid back down into the dragon’s carcass and followed the breathing tube to where it connected to the dragon’s stomach. Zirien used his small skinning knife, severed the thick cartilage-like, flesh pipe organ, and attempted to sever all the surrounding connective flesh that held the guts in place.
Zirien breathlessly exploded out of the dragon’s stomach incision. He drug a small portion of the stomach out with him. “Girls…” he yelled to his brothers. “Give me a hand over here. I need help pulling the stomachs out of this reeking beast.”
While Zirien was inside the dragon, Iandel made quick work of severing the dragon’s head and neck. He was in the process of removing the top of Brunswick’s skull with a hammer and chisel. They would need to smear the brain’s onto the dragon parts to start the curing process. Next, he needed to mark the best scales to make medium and small shields.
“Sounds like fun,” Iandel said. He stood up, stowed his skinning knife into his boot, and walked toward the slime-coated half-elf. He flexed his 16-inch right bicep and gave it a kiss with a huge grin. “Streed, bring your skinny little arms over here,” he yelled at his still-pouting twin brother.
Streed slowly stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead and the coagulated blood from his hands as he slowly made his way toward his brothers. “Oh my god, I’m sore…,” Streed said. He stretched out his pounced-on body and aching joints. Streed yelled, “Ok, I’m coming.”
The three brothers wiped at the small piece of the protruding warm and sticky stomach. Once they had a firm grip on the less slimy stomach, in unison, they pulled. Iandel raised his right foot and placed it on the dragon’s body next to the protruding organ. With Iandel’s legendary strength and the additional leverage, the trio felt the stretching, snapping, and finally releasing of the connective tissue deep within the dragon’s body. With great effort, repositioning, teamwork, and struggling, the two big bulky stomachs slowly oozed out of the gaping hole and flopped onto the ground.
Iandel pulled out his boot knife and began to cut between the two stomachs. Bile and fish skeletons spilled to the ground when he severed the first stomach from the second. With additional caution, he worked to separate the second, smaller stomach from the large intestines.
Zirien and Streed man-handle the first larger stomach. They twisted and squeezed the giant sack till it spilled a partially digested deer and fish onto the ground. Iandel also twisted the smaller second stomach. It expelled a thick pudding-like mush out onto the forest floor. The three focused their efforts on scraping and cleaning the mucosa-covered stomach folds. Once clean, Zirien and Iandel smeared a thick coat of dragon brains into the stomachs’ exposed surfaces. Streed focused on the stomachs and cast a quick spell. The three brothers watched the flesh not cure.
The perplexed Streed inspected his work, “Strange, it’s like they just absorbed the magic. They are usable. I’m gonna need to discuss this with McGuire before I cast any more spells.”
“Ok, you’re the expert,” Zirien said. He again hyperventilated in preparation to re-enter the dragon’s abdominal cavity. He threw the two flesh bags over his shoulder and burrowed back into the belly of the beast. Maybe I should have mentioned the beating heart to Streed, he thought. Zirien preyed that the dragon’s heart was still beating as he slithered deep into the darkness. When he reached his goal, he felt the heart’s warm flesh still beating rhythmically. Zirien maneuvered each flesh bag, opening near the vein that streamed bright red fluid from the dragon’s lungs back into the larger half of its heart.
Zirien severed the thick vein. This puny half-elf will now drink your essence, rash dragon. Zirien thought. He then aimed the thick vein, directed the hot viscous fluid directly into his mouth, and drank deeply. His body instantly healed of all wounds and burst with energy. His mind cleared of all uncertainties and became much more alert. Oh, By the Gods… I’ll not sleep for over a week… Never overdue a great thing… Zirien directed the blood flow into the two dragon’s stomach flesh bags and filled them to capacity.
Zirien, with help from his two brothers, maneuvered the flesh sacks from the partially hollowed-out dragon’s abdomen to the ground. Iandel and Streed took turns. They deeply drank the dragon’s blood from the flesh bags. This time they were energized and fully healed, and they also knew they needed the energy to last at least 4 or 5 days to find Brunswick’s lair and the long trip back.
The three brothers threw ropes over tall tree limbs and hoisted the dragon-blood-filled flesh bags off the ground. Iandel’s pace quickened; he continued to strip shield size scales from the dragon’s carcass, then slice off the thick leather layer. Streed also working at an astonishing rate, he continued the arduous attention-to-detail task of skinning the thin, pristine scales. Both applied the dragon brain grey matter to start the tanning process. Zirien went back to his tasks inside the dragon carcass.
Habit provoked, Zirien again hyperventilated but knew it wasn’t necessary after drinking the fresh dragon’s blood. He re-entered the partially hollowed cavity of the dragon and guided himself to the still-beating heart? Perplexed, he reached out with his ungloved hand and felt the warm, quivering heart. He silently questioned the reality of the situation. He’s been dead less than an hour. Should it still be warm…? Beating?… We may NOT be eating like the Gods tonight for dinner. Thump-Thump… “Can this be true? The heart remains alive… Thump- Thump… What magic was this?
Zirien moved his ungloved hand over the surface of the still-beating heart to locate the last of the attached veins, arteries, and ligaments. During the digital exploration, Zirien felt a walnut-sized knot wedged between the cluster of blood vessels located at the top of the heart that fed blood into and out of the heart. Zirien pulled out the razor-sharp blubber blade and made the final cuts leaving the heart untouched. Thump- Thump…
Zirien secured the heart and held it like an easily broken delicate egg, Thump-Thump… He exited the dragon’s carcass, walked to the suspended smaller dragon stomach bag, and placed the heart into the blood-filled cavity. Thump-Thump… Zirien also put a large leg bone inside the stomach, hoping to prevent the heart from being squashed or damaged.
Now that the delicate work was completed, Streed cast a spell to increase their work speed. The three brothers worked feverishly at more than the regular double rate over the next two hours. They stripped precious meat, removed and cleaned the small and large intestines, surgically removed tendons and ligaments, and the last scale armor plates from the dragon’s carcass.
Streed’s final mission was a personal one. He climbed into the massive dragon’s skull and hollowed out the dragon’s horns marrow. He then extracted the dragon’s 20 claws and placed 19 into his backpack. “Hey, Iandel,” Streed threw the last claw to his brother, “Chewing dragon claw bits is great for the libido,” he yelled.
Lastly, Iandel thoroughly cleaned the dragon’s head and focused on the brain cavity. “This is going to make a great bathtub,” he said to his brothers.
Zirien looked into the hole and replied, “it’s big enough to comfortably hold the three of us and maybe another.”
