Chapter 4: How Cute
The newest dragon had a pale blue hue. She landed with far more delicacy than Dracokonovich had earlier. As soon as she touched down, she moved over to the nameless dragon’s corpse with delicate steps. “How sad.”
“Eliza the Permafrost,” Dracokonovich announced while bowing his head slightly.
“And?” Eliza’s voice sounded as cold as her title. “This elf gained the ability to summon a dragon, but the dragon chose to defend her from you?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“I see.” She took a few steps closer to Daphne and lowered herself for a better look. Although looking at Daphne, she kept speaking to Dracokonovich. “Did she summon it before you threatened to end her?”
“Well, no…”
“Hmm…” After what felt to Daphne like an hour, Eliza raised her head and turned to gaze at Kat’s party, eyes moving from person to person. They settled on the aloof Lupy the longest before Eliza turned to face Dracokonovich again. “Is there any need to kill her if she divests herself of the attunement?”
“We… we cannot abide the desensitization to challenges against our supreme rule.”
Eliza gave Dracokonovich’s answer some thought. “Hmm… If the circumstances were different I would probably agree with you.”
“What circumstances, Eliza the Permafrost?”
“Just look at her.” Both dragons turned to look at Daphne again. “Isn’t she just so cute?”
“What?” Dracokonovich didn’t seem to share Eliza’s tastes.
“What do you think, dwarf?” Eliza turned to face west down the road.
Daphne and the other girls turned to look in the same direction and made out Thaw hiding in the shadows. Without Eliza’s prompt, it’s doubtful anyone would have noticed she was there.
In response to getting called out, Thaw hopped up like she was jumping into a watering hole, disappearing into her own shadow as she descended.
“Shadow Walk, is it?” Eliza mumbled. She plunged her right hand into her own shadow. When she pulled it out a moment later, Thaw was dangling from Eliza’s grip by her ankle. “Sorry, but I’ve seen this ability before. I had the young man explain it to me in detail. Oh, that was some time ago now that I think about it.”
“Lucky me…” Thaw remarked, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Dwarf, I believe I asked you a question.” Eliza righted Thaw with both hands and aimed her to look at Daphne, taking care not to injure the dwarf’s body. “Isn’t that elf cute? If even a dwarf admits it, that blockhead Dracokonovich will have to accept it too.”
Thaw looked back and forth between Daphne and Dracokonovich. “I won’t deny it,” she answered, “but it’s not like dwarves and elves are at each other’s throats anymore, ya know…”
“Really? When did that change?” Eliza seemed legitimately surprised.
“Maybe 200 years ago?”
“Goodness! I suppose this won’t be enough to convince Dracokonovich then.” Eliza put Thaw down, who proceeded to escape into her shadow again. “What do you cuties think?” She turned to face Kat’s party.
“Daphne is cute!” Kat insisted without delay.
“I agree.”
“Me too.”
Vulp and Bandit were also quick on the uptake.
“She’s cuter than Katherine,” Shiba declared, and it would have to do.
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“She’s not as cute as my minotaur.” In response to Lupy’s claim, the other girls brought their palms to their faces.
“Not as cute… as your minotaur…?” Eliza parroted back.
“She has bad taste!” Shiba shouted in Daphne’s defense.
“No I don’t!” Lupy objected.
“KYAHAHAHA!” For the first time, Eliza laughed, and she laughed deeply. “Girl, can you show me this minotaur?”
The other girls decided not to try and stop Lupy at this point. It was doubtful Eliza would abide by their wishes.
“Okay.” Lupy closed her eyes and held her hands out in front of her. A few moments later, a minotaur spawned right before her. “Here.”
“How repulsive,” said Dracokonovich.
“Girl, I won’t ask you to explain how you attuned to that minotaur, just as I have not asked this elf here to do the same. Still, the fact that you are trying to insist this minotaur is more cute than this little elf is in its own way incredibly cute. Oh, I haven’t felt this way in a long time.”
Eliza turned away from the group to face north. “Dracokonovich, allow the elf and the other girls to continue on their journey. So long as the elf doesn’t summon a dragon again, she is not to be touched, in the name of Eliza the Permafrost.” She flapped her wings and rose up into the sky.
“I never knew she had a weakness for younglings…” Dracokonovich muttered to himself. “Perhaps my nameless brother was able to communicate with the spirits due to his attachment to the elf? That would explain…”
“Hey.” Shiba pointed at the body of the nameless dragon. “Can I have that?”
“That?” Dracokonovich glanced at the dragon corpse. “How repulsive.” He too flapped his wings and flew off.
“He didn’t say no,” Shiba noted as she walked over to the corpse.
“He is cute!” Lupy was still insisting, even as she dismissed her minotaur.
Daphne collapsed into a heap of barely-conscious elf, as though she’d run out of energy for the next week or two.
Kat jogged after Shiba. “What are you going to do? Don’t tell me…”
Shiba went to work on a magic circle with the dragon’s corpse at its center.
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With Shiba’s preparatory work complete, it was time to start the ritual.
“You’re sure about this?” asked Bandit.
“Yeah. According to Harold, failure usually just means whatever you get doesn’t come alive, and if I make a bloody mess here it’s not a big deal…”
Daphne finally climbed to her feet and walked over to the join the others. “Just what are you doing?”
“Necromancy,” Shiba answered coldly.
“Necromancy! What’s that?”
Before anyone could explain, a wagon came along the road which passed right near this area. It was the first group to pass since the event with the dragons. At a glance, the driver was probably a merchant, with the passenger being a guard. The wagon came to a stop nearby, and the guard hopped off the wagon to come investigate. “Just what is going on here…?” the guard asked, already sheet-white from spotting the large corpse.
Lupy was quickest to answer. “Two dragons fought and one died.”
“What!?”
Vulp stepped forward. “I’m Vulp Davidson. We really did encounter a dragon, who instructed us to clean up the battlefield.”
“Valorous Vulp!?” The guard recognized the name, if not her appearance. “You have to deal with… that?”
“Yes. After we follow the dragon’s instructions, we’ll report to the Lord of the Twin Cities.”
“Oh okay… This is really beyond me. Good luck, girls!” The Guard got the heck out of there, returning to the wagon and urging the merchant on. They were bound for the west so word wouldn’t get back to the Twin Cities for a while.
The girls watched the wagon until it crested the next hill.
“Okay, I’m starting,” said Shiba.
“Uh, is it really okay with Daphne here?” Kat asked her.
“Harold said it’s okay to show people so long as you aren’t, uh, disturbing the public order. I think?”
“I don’t care about the public order,” said Daphne. “But what are you doing!?”
“Just watch.” Shiba pushed her hands down to the edge of the magic circle, finally activating it. The other girls all backed off.
“It’s so bright!” the elf called to Shiba.
“It’s the biggest circle I’ve tried! I don’t know if it will work!”
Bandit sighed. “Harold would be having a heart attack right now…”
“Maybe we should have asked Grummanonth if this was okay?” Kat didn’t suggest asking DM because Daphne was nearby.
“Um, I’m pretty sure this is not okay,” said Daphne.
“Dracokovochich didn’t stop Shiba,” noted Lupy.
“What happens if she fails?” The elf was the only one who didn’t know.
“The body explodes,” Lupy answered frankly.
“Uhh…” Daphne turned and ran a few dozen paces further away.
“Here I go!” Shiba began the final steps of inserting the pseudo-soul into the dragon’s corpse. The glow extended from the magic circle to the body now, too. The girls could hear a hum that was far louder than Harold’s ritual when he first resurrected a dead rat in front of them. “Um… uh oh!”
Vulp grabbed Kat, pulling her close, then crouched down while positioning the shield to protect the two of them. A moment later, the area exploded in dragon flesh.
Shiba was blown backwards several paces. Bandit and Lupy stumbled to the ground. Vulp held fast, guarding Kat as best she could.
Daphne was far enough away to avoid the energy of the blast, but small pieces of meat and droplets of blood still rained down her. She did her best to dodge left and right until the rain ceased. “Woah!”
Vulp released Kat and dropped her shield, sprinting to Shiba who had taken the brunt of the blast. “Shiba!” She slid onto her knees and hunched over to check on the spread-eagled girl.
“Hahahaha.” Shiba had a smile on her face, covered as it was with blood. “Success.”
“What?” Vulp must have misheard, because it was obvious to anyone the body had exploded. She turned to look at the epicenter and noticed the dragon’s skeleton was still intact. In fact, she could see it twitching.