Bright light was cast in their faces, lighting their features distinctly as they spoke. Tabitha was apparently first, "My teacher taught me the wonders of the Divine Lord, and instilled on me respect for it and everything it stands for. Without him, I would not be here, and I'm big enough to admit that."

Soft murmurs and a few claps came as notes were taken furiously. They had invited the local press, who had showed up. Level 70 tower reachers were rare enough to command attention when they did anything, let alone asking to give a press briefing.

Spike stepped forward as Tabitha withdrew. "My teacher, well, you know her." He waved back at Tabitha. "She taught me just as she was taught, reminding me of what makes my class tick, and my place in the team. Her training helped push past a few limits, getting the party past parts we would have been stuck on. I know people are giving us a lot of credit for being dragons, which we are, but we would have been stopped cold without the guidance of those who went before us, and maybe travel with us, in this case."

Sandra went next, stepping up. “My teacher… well, I found him looking for students, and took a risk on a class nobody knew about.” She could see him from the back, smiling a big smile as he tried to gesture to get a bit more attention. “The summoner is an unusual class, where you need to broker deals with different elemental spirits, and then they lend you their power, and you lend them yours to help fight for you. Your relationship with the spirits are as important as your relationships with your teammates, even if only one can be used at once.” The summoner master gestured up even more, like asking Sandra to pump him up. “My teacher gave me the basics and the advanced tools to succeed with a completely new class, both advising me on obtaining new spirits and using the ones that I already had. I couldn’t have even begun to master this class without his direction.”

The press were furiously taking notes, and the teacher from the back pumped his fist at the positive attention. No doubt that would mean more students and more summoners, and while he wasn’t able to get up to the crowd he was obviously pleased.

"I want to tell you a story." Smolder had stepped up, facing the press, almost daring them to try to speak over her. "About a lady. She had a group of friends, you know how that goes. Her party. They went into the tower, and they laughed at her. They told her they'd never even reach 10…" She drew a ragged breath, her tongue clicking on her teeth. "Not because she was dumb, or weak, or a coward, but because she had the nerve to be born with a cotton tail and big ears." She extended two fingers upwards, not for peace, but as a crude imitation of a rabbit's ears.

"Despite that, they tried their best… And they died, but we're not here to talk about the dead… She, in her pain, everyone already casting her out, saw me. I was clueless and desperate, but she took me under her wing, treated me like one of her children." A haunted smile spread on her face. "That's what I am… My teacher showed me how to be a culinarian, and how to be the best at it. She didn't walk up as high as I did, but she did, she walks right there, right next to me. Without her, I wouldn't be there. Pella made me what I am, not being a dragon, as cool as that is. And if you're hungry, look her up, she'll fill you up and teach you something. She's the best teacher I ever had, sorry Twilight." Not that Twilight was there. "She is a demi, and she reached 70, through me."

While the reporters went more fervently at their notes, the rest of the crowd began to have murmurs. The unusual nature of this statement was not lost on them, but before anything could happen, the last member of their party stepped up.

“I didn’t know how to swing a sword!” Garble basically roared, forcing it out over his internal cries to claim all the glory himself. “I mean I knew how, sword goes in monster, but I didn’t know how. I just flailed around, smashing more than slicing. And I met him, he did poetry while he was fighting! Right in the middle! It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. He told me to stand tall as who I am, he admired that in me. He did poetry. He kicked ass!” Garble huffed, out of breath in his outburst, his voice lowering. “He agreed to teach me how. I trained with him, in poetry during combat, in building the power during it, in what equipment to look for, in how to survive.” Garble slammed his hands on the podium. “He was a demi too! I spent all my time learning with him, and he had to hide how awesome he was the whole time. And now that the humans realized how awesome I am, none of them know how awesome he is.” He raised his hands. “So I’m calling him out! Him versus me, in the big arena. The one in the center of the town. I’ll show everyone how great you are or I’ll kick your ass trying!”

"I'm not sure…" Spike's complaint was quickly drowned out with raised questions.

"Being dragons," one reporter asked that seemed to have some amount of deferral from the others, a standing member of the community. "You had to have known you were a step above the rest."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Smolder raised a hand quickly to field that. "We did, that's why we marched into the tower in the first place. We were sure… we had a chance." She smirked, thinking of her older self. "I was such an idiot. Pella reminded me of that a few times, kept me on the right path."

Another raised a quill. "Don't you think you could have done even better had you accredited tutors?"

That got a scowl from Tabitha. "Who are you calling a hack?"

"I didn't say--"

"--I was already on my way up the tower." She jerked a thumb upward. "And we're past 60, hit 70, and we aren't stopping until 100. So when you ask 'could you have done better', bullock on that! You're implying we have a better to be."

Spike hopped up onto a stool for some height. "Tabitha has a great point. When we reach 100, which we will, there can't be arguments of 'could have been better'. We're going to reach it, and you'll know who to thank."

Garble hiked a thumb. "And if there's any justice, you'll beg him for a lesson! He might not say yes, he's picky, but there should be a line of people asking!"

“Who is the name of this fantastic teacher, then?” One of the reporters didn’t even look up from her notes. “Where can we find this demi?”

Garble smirked. “He’s…” Garble stopped mid sentence, and realized that he never actually learned his name. He used titles, but… he continued. “You can find him in…” He clamped his mouth shut again. He couldn’t tell the humans about the underground arena either. That’d be awful, especially if this thing they were doing, which was going to work… didn’t work. “Naturally you’ll find him in the arena fighting me!”

“What if he doesn’t show? Can you get the message to him?”

Garble almost glowered into the distance. “He’ll know.”

Smolder leaned towards the others. "I'm not sure bro ever asked for it."

"Can it!" He pointed at Smolder. "You'll learn his face, in the meanwhile, you know hers. Pella right?"

"Pella," agreed Smolder with a big grin. "Best chef in the city, deserves a big place to cook, but what does she get? A rolling oven. Whatever, you can argue about that, but you can't argue results. She gave me what I need to win." She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the reporters. "And she's going to the top with me. Anyone want to be next? They may want to stop discounting the demis."

Another person piped up. “So, she is going to be joining your party?”

“It’s a metaphor!” Smolder said, and this was followed with more writing. "Seriously, she is the reason someone, anyone, is reaching for 100 right now." She waved a hand aside. "Consider that."

Spike patted her shoulder as Smolder returned in agreement. "Hey, uh, Tabitha. I never really told you, but thanks. Having you as a teacher really brought my game to the next level."

They shared a look, no further words, but the meaning seemed clear between them.

The newsies all had what they wanted, and the announcement had been made. Would it fix everything overnight? Of course not, that is not how things tended to work outside of faerie tales.

It did mean young adventurers at least considered the words of demis who came before them, which was a step, a chink in the armor of the long standing racism. That monster would not be defeated by them, not that evening, but at least they knew they had given it a good punch and hadn't ignored its fell presence.

Garble slapped his hands together, fist to palm. "I have to kind of tell him I called him out, and maybe ask his name while I'm at it."

Tabitha inclined her head faintly, moving for the exit. "How do you train with a teacher for, what, months, and never get their name?"

"He's mysterious, alright! He's got this… peaceful way of beating things up, and I got lost learning how to bring my own pain." He looked to Smolder for support. "You get where I'm going, right?"

"Sure do, Gar Gar. He sounds like a cool guy." She fired a thumbs up. "Who you're going to introduce us to."

"Wait, what?"

Spike perked up. "Yeah, I'd love to meet both of the creatures that brought you two this far. I mean, they sound important enough to both of you they're practically family, I should meet them. That goes for Pella too. She sounds cute!"

Smolder laughed at that. "Do not let her hear you call her that. She may be a rabbit, but she is a trained momma and she will box you across the head if you talk down to her."

Garble rubbed the back of his head. “Look, you guys already met him. He’s that uh… the cat tribe that showed up like when we were first here? All impressed at my pride? That guy.”

“I’m… uh…” Spike frowned. “I don’t know if I remember him. We met an awful lot of people.”

“What?! Out of all the people who met us he was totally notable!” He threw his hands up in front of him. “And he was at the party at sixty.”

“I mean sure he was there,” Smolder said, smirking. “But that doesn’t mean we met him. We’ll have to meet him again, lead the way.”

“Look, I already told you he isn’t talking to me right now, I can’t get into the arena, and so like, even getting him the message is… well I mean he’ll know, but I’m definitely gonna bring it to him.”

Sandra clapped her hands, doing a little spin as she walked. "Don't worry about it. Every paper is going to be yammering about us, and that challenge you made. He'll want to talk to you. Whether it's about good things or not, couldn't say, but there's no way he'll just ignore it."

Spike chuckled softly, thinking on it. "Yeah… I bet he'll want to share a… few words with you at least. That was kinda big, calling him out like that, in front of the entire city."

"Good!" Garble threw up his hands. "About time he got in the lime light, where it counts. Let's go." And he led the way with sullen grumbling.