They tied the remains of the dragon, taking longer than King Godwin would have liked. The sheer bulk of the beast seemed to resist attempts to contain it, so that Jorin, ever the nimblest, had to clamber over the creature with a rope over his shoulders to tie it. He leapt down lightly, even in his armor. Eventually though, they got it lashed together. The king went down to them and took hold of the rope.

Well? he said to the others. Do you think Im going to haul this into the Slate by myself?

There was a time when he might have, when hed been as strong as Ursus, aye, or Rodry. Now though, he knew himself well enough to know when he needed help. The men there got the message and took the rope. King Godwin felt the moment when his son started to lend his strength to the effort, pushing at the dragons corpse from the far side, groaning with the effort.

Slowly, it started to move, leaving tracks in the dirt as they shifted its bulk. Only Grey didnt add his efforts to the rope, and frankly they would have barely counted for much anyway. Step by step, the group of them got the dragon closer to the river.

Finally, they made it to the edge, getting it poised at the point where the ground fell away toward the river that was both the kingdoms border and its defense. It sat there, so perfectly poised that a breath could have taken it over, briefly looking to King Godwin as if it were perched ready to fly out toward the southerners lands.

He set a boot against its flank and, with a cry of effort, kicked it over the edge.

Its done, he said as it hit the water with a splash.

It didnt disappear, though. Instead, it bobbed there, the sheer ferocity of the steel-gray waters enough to carry it away downstream, the dragons body bumping off rocks and twisting in the current. It was a current against which no man could swim, and against which even the dragons weight was a tiny thing. It was pulled down in the direction of the waiting sea, those dark waters rushing to join up with the greater body of them.

Let us just hope that it hasnt laid its clutch, Grey murmured.

King Godwin stood there, too tired to question the man, watching the creatures corpse until it was out of sight. He told himself that it was because he wanted to be sure it didnt wash back into his kingdom, didnt come back to cause trouble again. He told himself that he was just catching his breath, because he was hardly a young man anymore.

It wasnt the truth, though. The truth was that he was worried. Hed ruled his kingdom a long time, and hed never seen the likes of this before. For it to occur now, something was happening.