Almost immediately after entering the city, a man wearing soft white robes rapidly approached them. "The guards said--" He aborted his thought, seeing the direly wounded Sandra. "This way." He gestured back where he had come from with one hand, the other raising towards her as strange words spilled from his mouth, bidding her to glow and slowing the loss of her life. "We will help."

They were led through the city’s streets to a nearby building. It was sorta like a doctors office, except instead of normal doctor’s equipment there were wands and staves and potions. The person at the desk was wearing a coat that had many vials and flasks hooked onto it, and shot up when she noticed the injured girl brought in. She rang a bell and a third person, wearing a flowing robe, came out with a cart to put Sandra onto, and all three of the healers ushered her off into the back room, with the clerk shouting back, “Ring the bell if someone else comes in very injured.”

And then the three dragons were alone, sitting in the entryway of a small healers building.

Smolder glanced in the direction Sandra had vanished off to. "So, hey, not to be a jerk or nothing, but we're finally alone."

Garble shrugged expansively. "You wanted to, oh yeah, when are we getting home?"

"After we finish being awesome," retorted Smolder with a smirk. "Besides, we'll keep an eye out for that, but I don't plan to sit around being a sad sack until then. Tell me you didn't have fun crushing all those rabbit ooze things."

Spike gave an emphatic thumbs up. "About that. As fun as it was teaming up on the tree thing, we should get, you know, better tactics, and I have an idea!"

"Yeah?" Garble hiked a brow at Spike. "What kind of idea do you have?"

"Gar Gar, I can hear you sneering from here." She rolled her eyes mightily. "Hit us with it, Spike, but if it's awful, I ain't stopping' him from laughing, fair warning."

Spike held up his hands. "Alright, alright, hear me out. Sandra's an 'Elemancer', she said that. She said we were summons, but we're not. The guards said so, and we already knew that, let's be honest."

Garble crossed his arms. "Well, technically, she did summon us, the jerk."

Smolder threw up a hand. "But we are not summons. I'm with you so far, so what's your idea?"

Spike put his hands out. “Okay, okay, so bear with me… we need to… pick up classes like Sandra.”

Garble looked at him dumbfounded.

“Because, like, we’re not summons, so I bet we can totally learn magic, or wield cool weapons, or--”

“This isn’t some afternoon day jaunt!” Garble roared, standing up. “We aren’t just going along with someone’s plan. She is forcing us to fight for her.”

“Weren’t you enjoying it, Gar Gar?” Smolder said, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure, as a one time thing. Now we’re done, now I wanna go back home! Don’t you have like, ponies to get back to?”

“Well… yeah,” Spike said.

“And you!” He points to his sister. “You’ve got all sorts of friends back in that pony school you like to go to, right?” He didn’t wait for the answer. “What are we gonna do to get back?”

Spike and Smolder both fell silent, thinking. Smolder piped up. “Well, Sandra ‘summoned’ us,” she said, using claw quotes. “So she probably has the answer as to how to send us back.”

“She isn’t gonna send us back, Smolder,” Garble said. “She has three dragons as her servants. Why would she give that up?” He turned tail and started stomping. “No, if someone is gonna figure out how to send us back it has to be us figuring it out.” He stomped outside. “So, I dunno if you two wanna play adventurer with a girl who is busy using us like slaves, but I’m gonna figure out how not to.”

He crouched down and shot up, flapping his wings powerfully, intending to get away for awhile, figure out what to do. He flapped his wings, clearing a few stories, as the sun began to set. He surveyed the city from his twenty or so feet up. It was a good looking city, with that monstrous tower looming over the city. But, he had no idea where to go, but anything was better than here, and he set off in that direction, intending to leave.

Almost immediately, his wing seized up, and he started falling… falling… well only a little bit. He wasn’t very high, but the ground was still hard and he crashed into it.

“Gar Gar!” Smolder shouted, running toward him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Spike rolled a hand as he approached more casually. "For better or worse, we're a team. We can't separate. I wonder if there's a way to, you know, leave a team. Bet it has something to do with that thing she wears." He pointed where the brooch usually dangled off the elemancer. "Another thing we have to figure out."

Even as Smolder helped him to his feet, Garble snorted. "Well she's not 'part of the team' right now, duh. We're already not next to her." He waved in the direction of Sandra. "See? We could just walk away, together if we have to. Bam, no more Sandra."

Smolder extended a finger. "Well, for one, it might kick back in whenever she wakes up. For two, that's kind of a jerky thing to do. I mean, she did summon us, but she really needs a little help. And three, she knows how things work around here, so I say we keep her around for our needs."

"Wait, but we're here for her," he reminded with a frown.

"Or so she thinks." Smolder waggled her brows with a smirk. "Let her think that. She needs us way more than we need her, and she can't make us do anything we don't want to do."

“So we need to win her over!” Spike said, hopping up a little. “We need to become her friend, and make her realize we’re not just summons! Then we can get all of this sorted out.”

Garble snorted. “Fine, but I don’t have to like it.”

Smolder chuckled. “You were liking fighting those slimes just fine…” She nudged his side. “So why not enjoy the fun parts while we’re at it?”

Garble chuckled. “Alright, alright, fine.”

The three of them started walking back to the clinic. “Anyway!” Spike piped up with enthusiasm. “The first step to showing her we’re not just summons is to show her we’re people!”

“Oh no don’t tell me…” Garble started.

“And that means picking classes!” Spike decisively punched his fist into his palm.

Smolder turned in place slowly before reaching out and grabbing a random human wandering by, grabbing the man by the shoulder. "Hey, dude, if you wanted to get a 'class', where would you do that?"

"Huh?" His eyes darted from one dragon to the next. "Huh… Never saw demihumans that looked so much like dragons, uh. I'd go to the guild, of course." He pointed the way to a two story building that rose above many of the others that had but one level. "They handle adventurers."

“Great!” Spike started marching ahead, with the other two dragons in tow.

“You’ve got the money for registration and the first set of gear, right?” the human shouted as they sped away.

Spike and Smolder looked over their shoulders at Garble, who frowned. “But my stuff! I’m the one that killed all those slimes, what did you do? Fail to kill a tree?”

Smolder held up a hand towards her larger brother. "If you don't want us holding you down, you cover this so we can stop sucking so hard. Everyone wins."

Spike blinked at that, surprised to hear Smolder accepting the put down. "Uh, yeah?"

Gable snorted as he stomped towards the guild. "Whatever. This is where they summoned us, isn't it?" He waved at the building that the trouble had begun in. "And now here we are, this better be worth it."

Spike practically skipped to the registrar. “Three new adventurers here to register, please!”

The clerk looked down, peering at them through his glasses. “Weren’t you three already here this morning?”

“Ah uh… well yes…”

“Yes… you were with that other human, weren’t you? Where is she?”

“Ah, uh... “ Spike smiled a big nervous smile. “W-why do you ask?”

“Because she shouldn’t be going out to adventure with nonregistered adventurers!” The clerk slammed a paper on the table. “That’s dangerous. What if you got lost? What if you were hurt? All the safeguards that the brooch could afford you were gone!”

Spike sighed in relief. Okay, so normal rule stuff, and not summon stuff. “We’re so sorry, but we were saving up the money to actually get registered, you know? And now we have it! So let’s sign up!”

The clerk adjusted his glasses. “Good, proper registration is important for both your safety and our security.” He produced three papers. “Fill these out and return them to me and we’ll send you to your rooms to pick your class and get the equipment fitted.”

Garble snatched up one of the three, flipping it around to look over with a raised brow. "Name, race, class. Race only has two options? I woulda thought it would be a blank space like the other ones."

The secretary clapped his hands. "Oh, how silly of me," he laughed as if chiding herself on expecting a child to understand something advanced. "There are only two races we track. Humans--" He gestured to himself and then a few other passing humans. "And demi-humans." He pointed to Garble, Spike, and Smolder. "You're not human, so you're a demi human. Easy as that."

Spike quickly jotted down his name and checked the demihuman box. “Done aand done.” He peered at the sheet again. “And what does… how do I know which class to pick? Can I write down anything?”

“What? No, no.” The clerk fetched a piece of solid paper, mounted on a wooden plate. “Here’s a list of the classes that you have access to as a beginner from the guild. No rank requirements or having to convince their personal guild that you’re worthy for these classes.”

Spike looked down at the list of about half a dozen names, and Garble and Smolder both edged in to get a glimpse too. But what faced them was a list of strange terms that were… hard to understand.

“What’s a…” Smolder read the strange title, “Boltslinger?”

"Ranged specialist, physical," spoke the clerk as if reciting the obvious. "They specialize in things like crossbows and quick repositioning to take down their targets." He raised a brow then. "Should I just give the rundown of the entire catalog? I feel that would be faster than going one by one waiting for questions at this point." He rested his head on his hands, watching them bemusedly. "You had a human with you, didn't you ask her?"

Spike raised a hand high, waving it a little. "I want to cast spells! Which ones do those?"

He brought her hands together, head lifting as he looked at Spike as if he were an eager little boy hoping to one day be an astronaut. "How darling. There are a great many professions that lead to spellcasting. To start, we have elemenacy and vitamancy. You can think of them as offense and defense. If you get good with them, other classes become available to blend them, or even bring martial talents to bear, but you shouldn't get ahead of yourself."

Garble shrugged. "Too many words, not enough getting to the point. I want to smash things and stop my sis from getting hurt." He hiked a thumb. "She acts tough, but--"

"I am tough," she retorted with an acidic tone, rolling her eyes.

"--she still needs me." Garble nodded at the human. "What have you got for that?"