A loud noise awoke Prillitas.
Cursing, as he often did, Prillitas rose and grabbed his bow. His wife stirred and looked at him, but didn't move as he put on his quiver. He left the dark room and went out.
Outside the house, a young boy was struggling in the darkness
"Don't shoot, gr'uncle!
-Meitas? It's been days since you disappeared!
-Well, just let me get rid of... ah, that's it! Look, isnt' it nice, gr'uncle?
-It's dark out there, I have no idea what it is you're holding. Just come in, I'll light a lamp."
Prillitas and his sister's grandson sat by the table.
Meitas still wore the bat-like wings on his back, and held something in his clasped hands.
"Do you have something I could put this into, gr'uncle?
-What is it?
-Oh, something I got from the Gemorans, smiled the boy. A big jar would be fine. It's bigger than it seems.
-What do you mean, bigger than it seems? I can't even see it, you're holding the thing.
-Well, it'll be bigger when I leave it, obviously."
Prillitas shook his head. The boy was always so sure that he said the truth, even when it was impossible, that the world somehow believed him and made his words true.
"Here, there's this amphora. It's empty, your uncle Dontas drank it all yesterday after reportedly trapping a bear and losing it to a demon.
-'Twas not a demon. Open it, will you?"
Prillitas watched the boy as he neared the amphora, threw something red and dark into it, and quickly sealed the amphora.
"Here. Now let's put it back on the wall. Help me, gr'uncle."
Prillitas did as his great nephew demanded, obeying the boy without thinking. No other youngster would have dared even ask him something, but Meinas ordered him around as if Prillitas and everyone else was to obey his every whim.
"Eh? How can it be so heavy?
-That's cause it's got the heart of a dragon inside, gr'uncle. I told you, it's bigger than you knew. And heavy too. Mmmph. That's it. We did it.
-What are you talking about. What is that heart of a dragon? Will you please explain?
-Of course, but I'm a bit thirsty. Would you mind..."
Even Meinas couldn't get Prillitas to do his will everytime, though. There were limits to what the old archer would tolerate. Even from this trickster child.
"Listen. I've been to the Gemorans, you know. As I flew over them, they were quite impressed. They shot a few arrows at me, and, well, I had to land. Look."
Meinas took off his bat-wings as if they were some cloth, and, indeed, that's what they used to be.
"Look. They pierced my wings here. And here too."
Prillitas looked at the holes in the fabric. A door cringed, and his wife entered the room, silent.
"Hi, aunty! So, you see, I had to land. I found a nice cottage with a tall blonde girl, and I told her I was a messenger from the Gemoran leader. She was a Gemoran too, and at first I had a hard time convincing her, but eventually she brought me to their leader...
-What's that thing in the amphora?
-Hey, uncle Prillitas! How can I explain if I don't begin at the beginning? Aunty, will you tell him a tale must be told in order?"
BAM!
Prillitas knocked his fist on the table.
"To the point, boy.
-Errr... Sure. So, you see, that's the heart of the dragon with the head of an ox that the king of the Gemorans, or the queen of the Gemorans, or both the queen and the king of the Gemorans, because they are both the same and one but with two heads and they say they are different down there but I'm too young to understand, well that they or he or she or all of that rides, which is here in the big jar", blurted Meinas quickly.
Prillitas and his wife stared.
"You want me to repeat, gr'uncle?
-Nooo... I will talk and you will answer the questions. Briefly.
-Brief-what? Ok, I didn't say nothing, uncle Prillitas! Ask away.
-You went to the Gemorans.
-Yes, I went there and...
-BRIEFLY! Just say yes or no, right?
-Errr... I guess... Yes. So, yes, I went there. I mean, just yes. No more. Yes, yes."
The boy shrank a little in his seat.
"You were brought to their leader by that blonde girl?
-Yes.
-And you took the dragon heart?
-Yes, you can put it that way.
-How did you do that?
-If you want me to say yes or no, you must play by the rules, uncle Prillitas. I can't answer that", grinned the boy.
Prillitas sighed and looked at his wife.
"Do I shoot him, or strangle him?"
The wife shook her shoulders and did a sombre gesture with her hands.
"You're not fun, gr'uncle. That's your problem you know. I'll tell you. Briefly.
So, the girl thought the man-head of her king loved her, but the woman-head didn't.
-She believed that?
-Well, she wanted to, so eventually, yes. It's not hard to believe what you want.
-And what do the love affairs of a Gemoran girl have to do with a dragon's heart?
-Well, it's a bit... I guess that glare means 'briefly' again? She... met the leader, and the leaderheads were not exactly pleased with her. So, I intervened, and the heads started talking to each other loudly. So I went to the dragon and talked to her. Name's Bronn, by the way. Nice beast when she doesn't want to burn you. She...
-Calm down a second. You talked to the dragon. What does it have to do with the girl?
-Well, I had to have the leaders out of the way to talk to Bronn. So I sent them the girl so they would go with her and leave the dragon alone so I could talk to her myself.
-All right. Keep going. What about the dragon?
-You sure you don't want to know what they... Rrright. Well. Bronn. Her head was not that of the dragon initially. The head was quite nice. That's the head who's called Bronn. They say their leader sewed it to the body because the former dragon's head..."
The boy stopped.
"Oh. Brief you said. Sure.
Well, so I told Bronn there was a male dragon living the other side of the lake, and if she wanted to mate with him, she should give me her heart so I brought it to him. So she gave it to me, and I brang it to you."
After a while, Prillitas said, in a sweet but cold voice:
"There's no other dragon out there, child.
-Well, you know, sometimes, they call you...
-I've chosen. I think I'll strangle you."
Prillitas's wife nodded in agreement.
Meitas rose, darted to the door, and ran away.