The Hoard by Eli Vandegrift

the hoard

By: Eli Vandegrift

He holds a dark cloth to his nose, staunching the blood flow, as the caravan approaches the village. The rising altitude bites at his sinuses and another rush of blood dampens the cloth against his face.

Outside the wagon, a mountain rises. Its slopes stand out against the monotonous pale desert hills, blooms of green cascading down the ridges. The back of his neck is slick with sweat and he wipes it away with the bloodied cloth.

“Nahim, Kol. Use something clean,” his sister hisses. With one hand, Kol grabs a new cloth and with the other, he raises a pair of Nocs to his eyes. The base of the mountain’s peak focuses, and he searches for what he is both desperate to see and fears to know exists.

Near the top, he can make out a circular formation, surrounded by dense shrubbery and cacti-like trees. Dreiter Mountain’s very own dragon cave.

“It’s said that the Dreiter Mountain dragon’s hoard is one of the most soughtafter treasure mines on the continent,” Kol’s older sister said to him a few days before they started their journey. Well, ‘journey,’ is a strong word. More like a weekend trip to an overpriced farmer’s market. Dreiter had the largest monthly gathering of bakers, traders, fishermen, farmers, crafters, and blacksmiths for over 100 miles. Kol was finally old enough to make the trek for his family to purchase and trade wares for the month.

“What kind of treasure?” Kol asked.

His sister shook her head. “No one has gotten close enough and survived to say what’s actually in the cave. It’s thought to have over a million kah worth of gold or jewels.”

As Kol watches the cave through the Nocs, something glimmers inside. He jumps and puts the Nocs down just as the wagon shudders to a stop. Dozens of voices clamor together outside.

Kol and the others climb out and the noise erupts into a cacophony, a mix of traders and sellers yelling out prices, crying babies, laughter, and various animal bleats and complaints. His sister grins at him.

“Welcome to Dreiter.”

She’s getting tired of the smell of bread. While everyone in Dreiter and the surrounding villages come to their bakery for their planetrenowned bagels and rolls, May would have been content to never eat bread again. The past few weeks, she’d been looking for any excuse not to work the market, as she dreamed every night of venturing far away from Dreiter in search of something greater than bagels. For now, though, she sits on the counter at their booth, bored.

The rolls in front of her sell quickly but the bakers keep bringing them out, hot and fresh each hour. Her mother’s bakers include May herself, her brother, and May’s girlfriend, Shelly. As Shelly brings up yet another tray

of bagels, she winks and grabs May’s thigh briefly. May tries to grab her back but Shelly runs off to the kitchen again, laughing.

May shakes her head, turning to take another customer’s order. Her eyes widen and she smiles.

“Isa, my gods, how are you?”

Isa, a tall girl with braids down her back and a machete at her hip, stands at the counter. A boy, his hair in nearly identical braids, stands next to her, his nose tinted red. From what May remembered, this must be Isa’s brother.

“Better now that I can smell your mom’s baking, May,” Isa says. She leans forward and kisses May’s wrist, as is customary in Dreiter for women. “I’ll take a dozen of your finest wheat rolls.”

“Coming right up,” May pockets the money. “How’s the family?”

“Alright. Little sister’s sick with heat rash again so I have to hurry before the witches run out of their best healing ointments,” Isa takes the bag of bread and hooks it onto her belt next to the machete. May stares with slight envy, imagining it must be so much more relaxing being a harvesting family out in the fields.

They make more small talk before Isa walks off to get the medicine, leaving her younger brother at the booth. Meeting May’s eyes, he blushes and a drop of blood drips from his nose.

“You alright, love?”

He nods quickly.

May turns to deal with another customer, but the boy is still there almost a half hour later. Finally, she asks if he needs something.

“You’re beautiful,” he says.

She blinks. “Excuse me?”

“You’re so beautiful,” he repeats. “Please, would you consider marrying me?”

May can’t hold back a laugh this time. “Because I’m hot? You just come of age to be married off? Stop messing with me, kid, go find your sister.”

May jumps down from the counter as one of her sisters comes up to take her shift. She starts weaving her way through the crowd of the market, wondering if her favorite pub is open yet.

The boy follows her, slipping in and out of sight as they pass by other traders and merchants.

“At least tell me your name. I’m Kol.”

“May,” she says, “as in, may you kindly leave me alone?”

They continue through the crowd until May stops outside the pub: closed for another hour. She sighs, glancing at the boy. He’s still following her but his eyes every so often move in the direction of the mountain. May follows his gaze and smiles. This might give her a good excuse to finally have some fun in Dreiter.

It takes them the hotter part of the day to climb up the mountain, though the heat drops as they get closer to the peak. Sweat spills down May’s back but she hasn’t felt this alive in months. It didn’t take much convincing to have the kid agree, and if anyone asked, she could say she was just giving the tourist something to talk about back home.

They climb over another hill and find themselves at the front of the dragon’s cave.

Kol shudders and stops, hiding behind a bush. When nothing happens, he stands, legs shaking slightly. “Is that it?”

May nods, her own breath short in her chest. Inside the cave is the most sought-after hoard in all the continent, and she’s about to be the first person to see it. A cold breeze floods out of the cave, and on the ground in front of

her, frost coats the grass. May nearly gasps. She hasn’t seen ice in years.

“Why is it so cold?” Kol asks, shivering.

May doesn’t answer. She takes a deep breath and enters the cave, Kol following not far behind.

Bagels. Frozen bagels of every kind for as far as the eye could see. Stolen from the Dreiter market over what must have been dozens of years. May stumbles backward in shock, tripping over a chunk of ice. She lands on the ground, the cold seeping through her clothes and into her skin. She looks down and holds back a scream. The ice chunk is a dismembered hand. Several other ice chunks are also full of body parts, from other treasure-seekers who must have been frozen and broken apart.

Kol drops next to her and grabs her arm, his fingers digging into her wrist. They stare up at the dragon, eggshell-blue flanks rippling as she turns to face them. Her wings rise like spikes behind her neck, glimmering and deadly. Her eyes shine milky white.

The dragon’s nostrils flare and she steps toward them, eyes unfocused. She lowers her head and sweeps it from side to side, ripples of freezing air rushing toward them. May spares a glance at Kol and he’s still shaking but they’re thinking the same thing: if she’s blind, maybe they can get out of this alive.

However, in less than a minute, the dragon rears her head and her throat glows a silver hue, icicles forming along the scales leading up to her mouth. She breathes in, ready to blast them with ice.

Then, she pauses. She breathes in again, the sound of the air rushing into her lungs the loudest thunder. The dragon leans down until her blue snout is nearly touching May. Another scream builds in her throat, but she swallows it.

The dragon nudges her bag. May’s eyes widen. While Kol is busy humming prayers to himself, May takes off her bag and unravels the straps. Inside sit several fresh bagels from her family’s booth. Thick drool slips out of the dragon’s mouth and hits the ground, instantly freezing.

Hands shaking, May takes out the bagels and spills them in front of the dragon. In seconds, the dragon sweeps them up and carries them off to the corner of the cave, where she wraps herself around them like she’s protecting a nest of eggs.

May takes Kol’s hand and they run. Adrenaline pumping in her chest, May can’t help but smile. She finally found something exciting about bagels.