Chapter 20 - Mistakes Cost You

A quick look shouldn't be too much trouble from this far away, Ash thought. “Sure, just a quick look, he’s busy right n- Guh!”

The startled dragonboy let out his second embarassing cry of the morning as he found his partner right in front of his face.

Unbeknownst to Ash, Rasp had moved to the wagon’s tailgate while the youth was distracted by Rews. The dragon hadn’t even set down its crystal as it snuck over, its treasure held tight amidst sharp teeth.

His partner was already curiously peering over at the talkative kid.

Seeing the dragon, Rews excitedly dashed forward pet Rasp’s snout with a delighted shout, “Hi mister draGAHHHH!” HISS!!!

Only for Ash to immediately smash the boys arm away.

And just in the nick of time too. Rasp had reacted to Rews' extended arm with sharp claws, lashing out at the enthusiastic brat’s outstretched hand before skittering further back into the wagon.

By the emperor, that was too close! “Wahhhhh!”

The naïve child burst into fat tears while holding his rapidly bruising arm. Ash hadn’t been gentle with his chop, only his quick thinking saving the kid from getting sliced up.

One of his escorts, a grizzled veteran, jogged over to check on the wailing kid. Ash shrugged as he explained himself. "He tried to touch the dragon. I-"

The soldier just waved it off, "Don't worry, we saw the whole thing. You probably saved his arm. Good job. As for him..."

Ash shared the boy's information and the man turned to the blubbering kid, "Give me your hand, let's go find your dad."

Sniffling, the kid was led away.

Ash looked into the swaying wagon and saw his partner all coiled up in the back. Pulling himself over the tailgate, Ash sat down next to the scaly pile and began idly scratching the base of the dragon’s horns. “It’s not your fault Rasp.”

It really wasn’t. No dragon would tolerate a stranger reaching out for their hoard. But Ash had to consider a big question though. Just how was Rasp going to handle being surrounded by strangers in Ollu?

...grind grind grind... The thrum of Rasp’s resumed gnawing pulled Ash away from this looming concern. “We’ll just worry about it when its time, eh, Rasp?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The gnawing stopped for a moment as the dragon bumped him with his snout.

The troubled dragon-boy leaned against the dragon, “Guess so. Hopefully nothing bad happens.”

Except for a brief visit from the Captain about the event, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, and as evening descended, the convoy stopped in a roadside clearing to set up camp.

Gathering sticks for a fire, Rews had gotten over his tears and was excitedly talking about the dragon to anyone who'd listen, “It was looking right at me!”

Next to their own campfire, Ash sat on a log watching Rasp chow down on large chunks of fresh venison. Guess I didn't have to worry afterall.

Turned out that eight hunters had been hired in Sky City just to handle feeding the dragon throughout the journey, and they'd already proven their worth. So that was a relief. He'd only known about two of their wagons being chock-full of dried meat.

A decent distance away, his escorts sat around their own fires.

Ash sighed. Rasp hadn't left the wagon all day and now it was over. A pretty boring first day. Hopefully he's not so lazy tomorrow... Or maybe we should get up earlier?

“Hello the camp”, came a friendly hoarse greeting that caused everyone nearby to look over as a broad-shouldered man escorted by one of the sentries strode out of the darkness. Behind him Ash spotted Rews gripping onto the man's pants. Rasp ignored them to keep eating.

Is that his dad?

Ash was surprised when the person he assumed to be the caravan master looked his way and slightly bowed his head. “I’m Nichol Dessur and I’ve brought my youngest son to apologize for the inconvenience he caused you this morning.”

Stepping out from behind his dad's leg, Rews piped up, “I’m sorry for trying to touch your dragon. I didn’t know it was bad.”

Not just bad, dangerous! Ash waved it off, “I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

There was a silent pause until the caravan master saw that Ash didn’t have anything else to add and spoke politely. “Well, we’ll be off then, everyone have a good night."

Everyone around the fires bid farewell as the Dessurs walked away.

Nichol lightly squeezed Rews’ shoulder as they headed back to their wagon. “Son, did you notice anything while we were there”?

“Huh, yeah, the dragon was really long!”

Nichol frowned, “Didn’t you notice how the boy and his dragon were sitting at a separate fire from the others?”

The boy nodded excitedly, “Oh yeah, I saw that.”

“Do you understand what that means?”

Rews thought hard, but couldn’t come up with anything in the end. Nichol shook his head a tiny bit over his son’s poor observational skills.

“It means there is an actual reason to keep at a distance from the dragon. This also means the boy had good reason to knock you away. Which also means you made a mistake. And what’s our family motto again?”

“Mistakes cost you.”

Nichol nodded approvingly, “Good, I hope to see you learn from this.”

They had just reached their own camp where Nichol’s oldest son Leddi was watching over their fire, when Rews tugged on his dad’s shirt. “Can I go see the dragon tomorrow?”

Nichol nearly stumbled into the campfire at the innocent question. Breaking out in a cold sweat, the man prayed that his son’s ‘in one ear and out the other’ disease would be cured someday soon.

Noticing his dad's unease, Nichol’s other son spoke up, “How about I go along with Rews tomorrow. I'll keep him out of trouble.”

"Hey, I'm not going to get in trouble!"

Wiping his forehead with a dirty handkerchief, Nichol reluctantly agreed as the siblings then started squabbling. His oldest son should be able to keep Rews reined in, but Nichols would’ve been far happier if his youngest had simply avoided the possible danger...