I began browsing through the many stalls and booths around the market. Must have looked quite funny to not just Rheka and Tavrin but also the many passersby spectators. This winged lizardry creature is looking through the shops for things to buy! Not like I was actually going to. I had no money. Or things to trade for that matter.

“Affordable spice blends! From ol’ Gizkoa to Dar Magor, only here can you taste the greatest of all Shashmir spices!” This one's spiel had caught my attention. His shop reminded me a lot of an ice cream parlor. Colorful portions of food neatly organized in baskets atop a long table covered in white cloths. But instead of ice cream the baskets contained spices, or rather that's what I assumed them to be. I'd never quite seen any spice in these quantities.

"Young lady!" The spice vendor called out to Rheka. His voice was filled with cheer.

"How about a taste of Shashmiria? Some Red Sumac? Or Ruby Basil, maybe? Perhaps some Dracofarn for your friend here?"

Wait. Dracofarn? That's a spice? Well, damn me, that stuff grows everywhere back at home. What about the rest, though...

"That’s just... powdered rust." I blurted out on accident.

"Pardon me?"

"Nothing!" Rheka said in my stead, struggling to keep in her chuckling.

"How do we know these are real? Some of them just look like sand." I said.

"Sand? Hahaha. Oh no no, my friend. These are the finest spice blends from the sunscorched lands of Shashmiria! On my honor as an old merchant, I give you my word on their authenticity." He said stroking his spikey mustache.

"Can we try?"

"For a price, of course. Coin or goods."

"We have neither."

"Then I am heartbroken to say I have nothing to offer."

I nodded and moved on to the next stall. That just seemed like a massive opportunity for fraud. I didn't mean to be vindictively mistrusting, but I wasn't a naive idiot either. Who knows what shit someone could mix into those bloody sands of his. Spice blends my ass.

As we trodded along I saw a group of men in heavy-looking armor as they dragged some people in chains along between them. The passerby crowd cheered at the men in armor as if they’d just caught the bosses of some underground crime syndicate. Although that’s far from what these folks looked like. They didn’t look overly dirty or poor, well poorer than any of the other commoners here anyway, so I didn’t assume them to be slaves or something of the sort. If that was even a thing here.

“Rathan scum!”

“Enkef damn you!”

“Just die already!” and

“Dirty rats!” were some of the many colorful insults the crowd shouted at the people in chains. As they hurled stones, turds and various other items at them.

They were gone as quickly as they’d appeared, prompting us to continue our browsing. I had not even an inkling of an idea what that was about anyway, but it just screamed ethnic oppression. Not that I remembered having read about any “Rathan” before, but for some reason the name seemed to ring a bell somewhere. Even if it was a faint one. Sometimes I really hated this brain of mine. Oh well. I suppose some things never change, even across worlds.

“Hey! Are you gonna pay for that?” We didn’t get much further as right after that last ordeal; I witnessed a stall vendor crying out as he grabbed a girl by the arm. His face had turned the same color as the fruits and vegetables he was selling. Saying he wasn’t amused would have been a sheer understatement.

“Take your greasy hands off me! Let. Me. Go!” The girl retaliated, yanking and pulling her arm. In her hand she held a fruit that looked like an apple. Wait, no. That is an apple!

Ahh, youth. I wonder if she’s stealing out of necessity or sheer boredom. Probably the former, judging by her appearance.

The clothes she wore looked expensive yet worn from use. A bit dirty too. Her hair had been cut short and dyed black in a rather crude way, as patches of grey almost silvery hair could still be spotted here and there. And she had those wing things in her hair too, same as Rheka and her mother. What is it with those things? From what I could tell they were purely aesthetic and served no purpose other than showing how damn excited someone was about something. Not like you could fly with those at that size. I was one to talk of course since I couldn’t bloody fly with mine either. At this point you could say I was somewhat of an expert on being useless. But I digress. What stood out most to me were her eyes: light yellowish green, and bright as hell. They shone like two small suns looking up to the stall vendor with anger and defiance in them. Just slightly taller than Rheka, I guessed her age was probably around nine or ten.

“That’s it. I'm taking you to the guards. They can’t be that far yet.”

“No! Let go of me, peasant! Do you have any idea who I am?!”

“Someone without hands very soon.”

Ahh, the classic thief punishment. No repeat offenders after that one, that’s for sure.

“Let. Go!” She shouted and yanked one more time as the heads of all the passersby turned to her. No one seemed to step in, however. Everyone just sort of glanced over and walked along. A familiar sight. Almost comically so. I could imagine this would have played out the exact same way in my old world. Where are the police, anyway?

“Should we help?” Tavrin whispered as he tapped my head. I happily ignored him.

The girl continued looking through the crowd in desperation. I knew she was desperate because of the moment her eyes turned to me. Me of all people.

Knight in shining armor, huh? No way kid. Nuh-uh.

I remembered. Vividly. The last time I went off-script like that I died. Quite literally. There was not a single thing in this god-damn forsaken world that would get me to even just consider stepping in. No shot. I averted my eyes in silence and without emotion.

“No can do. You knew what you were up to. I don’t make the rules. Just live by ‘em.”

“I’m Zilra Silthalia! Sil-Tha-Lia. Meaning Silthalos family! I’m your king’s daughter, you imbecile! And I demand that you! Let. Me. Go!”

That. That on the other hand, sounded interesting. It sounded a damn lot like business.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You?” The vendor chuckled. “Yeah, and I am Enkefalos the all-knowing himself. And I know that you’re lying. Let’s go.”

Damn it. What do I do, what do I do? There was so much to gain here! Well, if the brat was telling the truth, anyway. The king’s daughter? A princess? There was definitely a king, I knew that much. So that part checked out. And he probably had kids, but all in all it seemed almost too good to be true. A lucrative opportunity indeed! Wasn’t Urs a friend of the king or was I misremembering things? If not, then maybe his employer. Getting a favor in with his boss would certainly pay off for me as well in the long run. Yet I really did not want to get myself or rather us involved with this debacle. Especially not with the old man absent. What was taking him so long anyway? The platform really didn't take that long to get here, did it now? Oh wait. Where would he know to get off? We just happened to stay on until its final stop without any thoughts behind it. Oh man. What to do? Seriously now, I’m running out of time.

Ahhhhhh. Screw it.

“Shhh. Rheka. Come.” I bumped into Rheka to snap her out of her observation frenzy. Unlike Tavrin, this girl was not paying attention to what was happening.

She crouched in close. “Come where?”

“Just play along.”

“O-okay!”

I walked up to the stall with Rheka and Tavrin in tow, right as the vendor was about to leave for good. His face lit up with surprise as we approached him.

“Halt. Uhh, wait! You can’t take her with you! Because... because she is the princess.” I knelt and the other two followed suit. I wasn’t sure if that was the proper thing to do in this situation, but I had to make it somewhat convincing, even more so given my shaky start.

“Her Royal Highness is here on behalf of the duke’s invitation.” I lifted my head as I continued. Obviously, I was pulling this out of my ass. I knew that this kingdom of a country was split into an innumerable number of duchies, counties, baronies and what not. Although I had no idea who owned which. Don’t blame me, okay? It was one giant pile of a mess so I couldn’t really be bothered to learn any of it by heart. But he didn’t know that I didn’t know. And I was betting all my money on that.

“Duke Rhodius did? That so? Hmmm... And you all are?”

“Members of his Grace’s family. Before you stands... Lady Rhodia in the flesh.” I said, poking Rheka with my tail to cue her in. She let out a loud and forced “Yes!” in response.

Bravo, Rheka. Bravo. I clapped in my mind.

“I myself serve as the lady’s humble... service... dragon. We are supposed to return her highness to her quarters from which she has escaped unpermitted.” I blinked at the princess in rapid succession.

“I see. A dragon you say? Hmmm.” The vendor’s gaze alternated between us and the girl.

A loud sigh could be heard. “Give me that.” he said, snatching the apple-like fruit. “This isn’t worth my time. You kids should really play nobles and fairytales somewhere else. Now shoo.”

We totally nailed it. Maybe. I guess.

Rheka took the girl by the hand as we backed off. She yanked it away once we had gained some distance between us and the vendor’s stall. “I didn’t need your help. Great. Now I stink of commoner.”

You what.

“You could at least say thank you.” Tavrin said. Much to my surprise the kid had some balls after all. He’d spoken up before I could give her a piece of my own mind.

“Thank you? Ha! For what? I was fine on my own.”

“Fine?” I finally interjected. “You were practically begging me to come save you. Don’t think I didn’t see you look around like a damsel in distress.”

“Damsel? Hmpf.” She turned away with her arms crossed. With one eye glancing she spoke up again. “And you? Is it true? You’re a... dragon?”

The hell?

“Damn right I am! One who's going to take your shoes as compensation in a moment. Cause sure as shit I’m not getting rewarded for this nonsense.”

“So, you’re a liar. Dragons are huge and fierce! I know that! You’re... puny.”

Puny?! I am so through with this brat.

Suddenly the girl fell. Shoved to the ground right after she’d finished her sentence. Before her stood a triumphant Rheka, hands to her hips. “Argius isn’t puny!” She said with a look that could kill by itself. I didn’t even have time to properly react, and Rheka’d already done my bidding. Amazing!

“H-huh? What?” Her face turned pale as she looked back and forth between Rheka and me. She recoiled slightly as Rheka raised her fist.

Damn! Rheka's a bloody bully!

"Y-you can't do this! I could make you peasants disappear for that!" I saw tears build up in the girl's eyes. She stared at Rheka as if she was some sort of demon.

Disappear? You're still going on about this?

"You look more like a peasant than we do. With hair like that and all." Tavrin added as he walked over to me.

She threw him a glare and he happily returned it. "Noble people don't yell their rank and title at everyone."

"How dare y-!"

"You're just a baby. You scream out for help and then shout in our face when we rescue you."

The girl didn't reply to that. She turned away with her arms crossed, mumbling something under her breath. After that Tavrin simply walked past her. Rheka and I followed suit. No words were exchanged. It was all very quiet. And tense. Like one would expect from walking around town together!

If I may say so myself, I ended up doing a great job of being an imposing figure without even trying.

I had no idea where we were going, as for now it seemed as though Tavrin was in charge. As for why... well, because I'm sick of leading. That's the reason, alright?

Speaking of sickening... we were being followed. By none other than the peasant princess. It seemed like I wasn’t the only one who noticed though, as Tavrin suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Stop following us.” he said. Tavrin spoke firmly but didn’t look at her. I could tell he was fed up with the whole situation. Understandable. I disliked brats like her as well. Well, I wasn’t too fond of children in general to be honest. He wasn’t excluded from that. Yet I could feel myself slowly warming up to that side of the kid. I had thought he was just a pushover but clearly there was more to him than that. Curious.

“You need to help me find my way home! I’m... I’m lost! A bit...”

“I don’t see how that’s our problem.” I thought.

...Out loud. Oops.

“We don’t need to do anything. We already helped you out plenty.” Tavrin added.

Rheka’s eyes darted between the three of us. She looked a bit confused about something. I’m not quite sure if she understood what was going on to be honest, but I doubted she had much sympathy for her either, given her show of force earlier.

“But I-… you must... you!” She stuttered as tears began to stream down her face.

Aww. Congratulations Mr. Tavrin. “Now you’ve done it. You made a little girl cry.” Ah shit. I spoke out. Again. I can’t keep my mouth shut, can I?

“M-me? Y-you were mean to her first! I’m just speaking my mind!”

“Right. So... what now?”

“Nothing!” Tavrin shouted. “I say we-”

“Let’s help her.” Rheka stepped in front of us. But didn’t you just-?

You know what? Sure. I still want my reward after all.

“Well then. As you wish Lady Rhodia! Your wish is our command.” I announced with all my heart.

Rheka turned to the brat-princess once more. Still sobbing and crying on the ground, the girl paused for a moment. “Apologize first!” Rheka pointed right in her face.

“Apologi-… b-but for what?”

“For being rude! And loud! And for saying Argi is small!” My heart melted on the spot. How old was this kid again? Damn.

The girl hesitated. After a suspenseful minute she spoke up. “I’m... I’m sorry. For... for being loud. And m-mean.”

“And?” Rheka interjected.

She threw me a glance. “And... and for saying that you’re small.”

“That’s right! Argi is big! The biggestest!” Rheka proclaimed, visibly filled with pride as she stood there in her signature stance. Hair wings straight up, face looking right ahead, her fists to the waist and legs apart at shoulders length. A stance to be feared by many for sure. And then, she reached out her hand to the girl.

“Rheka.”

“Zil... Zilra.” The girl said, taking Rheka’s hand. She gave a singular firm nod in response.

And with that we were off. It didn’t take us much longer to finally reunite with the old man. He looked more than surprised when he saw us. I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind. How did we manage to gather yet another member for our little kindergarten group? Seriously. I could literally feel my brain beginning to regress. Save me, old man! Quick! Share with me some of your mature wisdom!

“There! That’s them! That’s the dragon!

Ah, shit. Here we go again.