As the world started moving again, I searched the eyes of my companions for recognition of the event. Nobody met my gaze except for Denabla who winked and smiled.
"What is this? Who is this woman?" The chief exclaimed almost standing, well he leaned his flabby body up off the back rest of his chair for a few seconds.
"I just told you!" I exclaimed before Hawk laid a hand on my shoulder.
"We met her on the road, and she wanted to come back to the village and congratulate you on finally getting the helmet back." He said before indicating the beret on his head.
"That is a foolish looking hat, you expect us to believe it is the helmet of legend? You are a disgrace!" The newly appointed elder proclaimed.
All kidding aside that was a jerk move! You don't just publicly shame and criticize someone's personal appearance in front of a large group, not cool!
The atmosphere was getting tense, and I tried my hand at diffusing the situation.
I punched the young elder on the arm and said, "You know I was just messing with you! We were almost there when we found this poor young woman stranded and left to die, we figured we would bring her back here for her safety. She said that she lived here when she was younger, we came up with the ruse on the way." I better have rolled a 20 on that one.
The elders all looked uncertain, but with so many years between seeing her as a young woman and now, there was no way to tell if she was the same person, or just a similar looking person. "We are trying to celebrate here! No one has time for your silly childish games lizardman! Now get out of the way and let us begin the feast!" He swiped at me like I was a grenade and a small cheer went up from the gathered villagers.
"Not so fast! Shouldn't we send up a prayer to the great Dragon God Zekros asking for a long and successful reign? Afterall it is through his grace that we all live in relative peace here in this forest, otherwise we might be ruled over by some nasty tyrant!" I held back a laugh and communicated to Andrea around my neck.
"You going to actually be of any use to me as a familiar or not?" I thought.
"What do you want?" She basically huffed.
"You have any problem killing a bunch of old jerks? I have a plan, but I need your help."
"Sure, you want me to fly up to the sky and send down a lightning bolt to one of them. While you are on the other side acting as a ground? How do you plan on getting them to hold hands and stand on an insulator?" She snickered.
I have to deal with Drew hacking my phone and now she hacks my entire brain. "That about sums it up."
"Xanthos!" Hawk yelled.
"Sorry about that, conferring with my God. Let us all pray! First," I reached into my bag and grabbed one of the largest denominations of gold coins for each of the elders. They were massive and probably worth a fortune. "you will need to all cross your legs in your chairs and keep your feet off the ground. Second you will need to hold one of these between you each one of you holding onto it letting it link you together in solidarity! You can keep the coin as a keepsake afterward of course." That got them moving! All around their legs lifted and hands joined with gold between them. Andrea had used the distraction to climb into the air pretty far, and now she was slowly circling.
I removed both my shoes and my nasty socks, then I dropped a couple coins under each of my feet and stood on them, then I reached out and grabbed the coin of the last elder in the line. "The new elder should stand on the far end." I indicated the opposite end to me, and he let go of the coin in his father's hand and went to the other side.
I tilted my head back and shouted to the heavens, loud enough for the cheap seats to hear. "We stand united here under the watchful eye of Zekros the all mighty dragon! You protect and shield us from the worst that life has to offer and grant us freedom in your domain. Please allow these unworthy servants to ask you to bless this man. May he lead his people with strength and intelligence, may we all help him to serve your will and our needs. We ask that you grant us this blessing, and if we are not found worthy under your all-knowing gaze strike us down now!"
Just then a tiny bolt of lightning came down and struck the coin in the young elder's hand. The current passed through each of the elders, and over my scales and to ground. A good bit of current passed right through the young man and to the ground through his feet. Each of their hearts stopped as the current passed right through them and to the gold below my feet. The current was low, only about an amp, but it was enough to snuff out all the elders in one planned attack.
The crowd was silent, and the young elder was shocked, I mean literally he was shaking, but not dead. He stumbled to his father and sunk to his knees holding his father's hand. He then turned on me with fury in his face. "You killed him! You killed my father!" He screamed as he stormed across the small distance.
I am screwed now, better act pious. Might not work, but I might become a martyr.
I held my hands up defensively, "It was the will of Zekros, not mine that struck them down! Far be it for a lowly servant like me to step in the way of godly justice!" I was still shouting for the crowd’s benefit. A lot of the crowd were bobbing their head in solidarity after witnessing the apparent divine justice. Meanwhile Andrea landed back on my neck, and then nibbled me as she shrilled. I guess he wasn't convinced as he grabbed my shirt in one hand and reared back with his fist.
The first came forward in a blur then there was a thud as hit something solid.
I opened my eyes and found an old wrinkled liver spotted husk of a hand in front of my face holding back a massive fist. There was a look of shock in the young elder's eyes as he slowly moved his eyes from his fist over to the ancient woman that was holding it back. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Adelpha's melodious voice rang out with a Mutombo finger wag.
His eyes filled with terror as he scrambled to wrench his fist away. He fell to the ground and crawfished away shuffling his feet, and never looking away from the old woman.
She simply walked forward into the center of the clearing of people, then there was a blinding blue light and Adelpha's full and beautiful form stood in front of us.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
"These were wicked men, all undeserving of the blessing of leadership. They each one had blood on their hands." She slowly floated up into the air in a show of power as her many voices boomed out. "I asked Xanthos to give me justice for the murder of my most precious subject and he has delivered." She then swooped down and kissed me hard, not a romantic gesture, more like a hate filled kiss after a nasty breakup fight. Then she slipped something in my hand before she returned to her previous position. "Hawk will spread the truth of their misdeeds and the accomplishments of Kaidu." She then slowly descended walking up to the young elder without actually touching the ground. "As for you, I expect you to be a better leader than your father." He just gulped and nodded. "Don't allow the people in charge to rule with impunity, hold them accountable for their actions and you will grow."
I looked down to see a small notebook, and a scroll in my hand before looking back up at her.
"Don't make me come back, next time I will not show mercy." There was a pop and a puff of smoke that carried both Adelpha and Denabla away.
"What do we do now?" A man at the back shouted.
I walked forward to the front of the crowd. "First we should name your new leader! Something befitting of a new monarch." The crowd muttered in agreement.
"John", "Billy", "Joe", "Dwayne", "Kalsifer", came the shouts as people came up with some very odd names off the top of their heads.
"You know what I like Kalsifer, Kalsifer it is first of his name!" I proclaimed and the crowd cheered.
The newly named Kalsifer suddenly let off a dim glow and grew slightly in size. His rage turned to resolve, and he stood up eying me with a steely glare.
He kneeled in front of me, and proclaimed "you honor me lord Xanthos, I will strive to earn such a magnificent name." He then turned to the people and said, "Today we have witnessed an act of mercy. The elders died a sudden and painless death compared to the death they would have suffered when we found out their actions against the Gods." He turned to Hawk and kneeled. "I have been foolish and cruel toward you and hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me." He stayed kneeled until Hawk laid a hand on his shoulder and told him everything was fine. "We will grow and prosper together! No more slaving away for the elders to reap all of the benefits." The crowd cheered loudly, then he calmed them with a gesture. "Enough with these formalities let us eat, drink and celebrate a new day!"
What was that? I haven't seen that kind of backtracking since the last election! This guy just forgives me for killing his father and all his friends? This is a messed-up game! First dragon farts and now this.
"Hawk you got a minute?" I asked pulling him to the side.
"Sure, what do you need?" He asked.
"I just want to know what happened there. One second I swear I just made my first mortal enemy then the next he is bowing at my feet!"
Hawk just stared back with a blank expression, and then a bulb went off in his head. "You mean after the naming ceremony?"
"Sure, after the whole 'naming' thing, he was a completely different. I am pretty sure he is bigger now as well."
"Yeah, that happens sometimes when you give someone a name." Hawk offered infuriating me even more.
I took a deep breath and attempted to speak calmly. "Why is it that after I named him, he started glowing, growing, and sucking up?"
"I didn't realize you were unfamiliar with naming, basically you have to get a group of people like this to agree to the name and then you grant it. If the new name is better than the old one it can affect the person deeply, and if they had no name at all it can completely change them. You effectively just changed his entire outlook on life." Hawk smirked at me.
"Around here all you have to do is name someone to change their outlook? I should have just named the entire elder council would have saved my conscience a little bit." I felt a sharp pain in my chest, that was either regret or heartburn.
"Wouldn't work, their names were too well known and established, plus it would take an insane amount of energy. You feel alright?"
"Never better now that I don't have to kill spoiled rich boy over there. Why do you ask?"
"Just thought you might be a little tired after the naming. Most people take a break after a naming, or they split it between several people to lighten the load. The elder council would join together to perform the naming.” Hawk was poking at me like a pediatrician when I told him my hurt was an 11.
“Stop that! I am fine, I will be better once I check out these new items and get out of here.”
“You think it is really a good decision to remove all semblance of leadership from a group of people, install new untested leadership and then leave without even ensuring that the new leadership is better than the last?” Hawk said without taking a breath.
“Look if my experience has told me anything then it is absolutely the best thing we can do. It is an absolute terrible idea for them, but for us, it will work out swimmingly.” I chuckled to myself and started walking away back toward Zekros’ cave.
“Seriously, that is all you have to say?” Hawk hadn’t moved yet.
I simply ignored him and continued to walk forward and away from the gathered villagers. I unrolled the scroll and a blinding light flashed as it became fully open, then my vision swam with the afterimage of complicated patterns and stars. I felt like I just got my 6G certification without a welding hood, and I had a bit of a headache.
Congratulations! You have acquired Portal Magic! This ability allows you to open portals through time and space! Use it wisely!
You have learned the spell “Simpleton’s retrieval” this will allow you to make a tiny tear in the space and time continuum and pass non living objects from one location in this plane of existence to another. Currently this spell is at level 10, and will allow you to open a 1” by 1” hole in space.
"You have reached the max for “Simpleton’s retrieval” and will not be able to gain any further levels for this spell.
“You are just going to walk away? What if a hostile force were to attempt a takeover before the new regime establishes a proper form a governance? How about steadfast rules, leadership succession, power balances, are you listening?” Hawk had obviously jogged to catch up and was now berating me relentlessly while I stumbled around like a linebacker after his tenth concussion.
“Did you not see the blinding light? I have a splitting headache and would like a few minutes to recuperate!” I retaliated.
“I didn’t see any light, just you unrolling that scroll you had and then it crumbling to dust and blowing away. You killed the elders these people are your responsibility!” Hawk had started poking me in the chest.
“You didn’t see the blinding light? I am still seeing the patterns that were on that scroll.” This world is strange.
“Stop trying to change the subject what is your long-term plan for the village?”
“You can’t save the world Hawk they are better off with Kalsifer than with that group of lazy tyrants. We need to step back and let them settle things out themselves, after all we have done enough.”
He just shook his head and we walked on in silence. Neither of us had a real plan, but even though he had good intentions I don’t think Hawk wanted to stick around more than I did.