The dilapidated walls of the neglected shack gave testament to its old age, a faded sign suspended from its roof, reading "Olivia's Weaponaire".
My knock on the door was responded by a yell of inquiry from inside.
"It's me, Rybane"
"Come in then, you dork" the voice of my mother figure came out in a muffled yet pleased tone.
With my wife in tow, I stepped inside, surprised to find the interior of the shop in a clean and assorted state instead of the mess I was accustomed to.
In front of the door there was a wide aisle that led to rooms in the back, where Olivia had her smithy as well as living quarters. On either side of the aisle were neatly lined shelves stacked with weapons and armor, with more similar shelves behind them.
Ignoring the musty smell in the air, I walked down the aisle towards the forge.
As if on cue, Olivia popped out of one of the rooms, wearing what seemed like a tailored green dress uncharacteristic of her.
"Ryne! My baby!", she cupped my face in her hands.
"You sure do look more like a man with the beard" she further chimed in.
Stroking my beard in my hands, I said "You plan to talk here all day or will we get a place to sit?, in a teasing tone.
"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. Please do come in" she said apologetically as she walked over to the room on the smithy's right, after having spotted Farya behind me.
"No really, its alright", mumbled Farya, our year-old baby cradled in her arms.
Taking our seats at the lush sofas, I introduced my wife to Olivia, hiding the fact that she was in fact, a dragon.
The first question she asked was "How did you manage to even marry her in the first place. She's clearly way out of your league."
"Seriously? I'm seeing you after almost two years and 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 what you ask?", I replied, feigning a hurt look.
"I'm just mad that my charms won't work on you anymore" she gave an exaggerated sigh, displaying just the tiniest hint of sadness in her voice.
Farya raised a brow at this, only to be met with an innocent expression from my side.
Before the talks could progress any further, Olivia timidly held her hands out, "Ca-can I hold him?", gesturing to Farya in a slightly placating tone.
Realizing what she was saying after a moment of hesitation, my wife handed the baby gingerly to the older woman.
Gently rocking my son in her grip, she asked "What's his name?"
"Fardin" I replied, naming him after the elf elder that had looked after my girl for as long as she could remember.
"That's certainly a..unique name" Olivia mulled over, placing a soft kiss on my sleeping infant's cheek.
The sun had set by the time we walked out of the weaponaire, after Farya's teary goodbyes to Olivia to which I sighed "Women".
The two had bonded closely over my embarrassing habits and weird tendencies. Seriously, was I that fun to tease?
Uncle Jeremiah, like always, was still absent due to his duties as a soldier near the northern borders of Kyria.
Promising to come again, we started heading for the guild.
Farya said she had some unfinished business to sort over even though she had retired since her pregnancy. I was happy to escort her, curious to learn about this new side of my wife.
As soon as we entered the guards' field of vision, they stood straighter than before and gave us nervous glances.
Did some incident occur again?
They didn't even stop us for inspection as they let us in without hesitation, opening the door for us long before we stepped on the porch.
"Strange", I thought.
What was even more bizarre was that as soon as we entered the guild, the din of chatter came to a standstill.
Every face turned towards us, and the room erupted into a stream of murmurs.
"Is it her?"
"Do you think it really is her?"
"What's she doing with Ryne?"
The source of that last whisper was none other than my party's healer, Sasha.
As soon as our gazes locked, I gave her a wink, eliciting a blush from her as she tried to avoid my eyes.
Shrugging, I moved to the counter, asking if any quests located in Seydr, the western part of the elf continent, were available.
Completely ignoring my request, she motioned me to step aside as she set her sights upon my wife.
"Miss Vi-viola, how can I he-help you today?" she stammered.
Observing our interchange, Farya's face contorted to one of loathing as she grumbled in a low voice "You DARE ignore my husband?".
"N-no, I wouldn't-, I'm really sorry, I didn't realize he was your husband, Miss Viola, I'll be careful from now on".
"Viola? That name sounds familiar", I muttered.
"Woah, its Miss Viola, the Lapium ranked adventurer who retired", Duncan walked up to us.
"Lapium? The second highest rank? Wait a minute! Hey!" I looked accusingly at my consort.
All those times I had told her of the retired adventurer, all those times I had told her that I wanted to get as famous and powerful as the guild's strongest adventurer, it was her the whole time.
Farya broke out laughing at my predicament, turning my annoyance to anger.
Seeing my face heat up, she came up to me and kissed me on the cheek, evaporating my rage in a moment, turning it into embarrassment.
"Seriously, you could have told me. And you don't have any public decency" I proclaimed, my voice coming out more shrill than usual, my face visibly beet-red.
Then I wouldn't have gotten the chance to see you like this, now would I? she smiled devilishly.
Seeing our interchange, the whole building erupted into cries of shock, envy, and distaste.
"Hey, no fair Ryne", Duncan gave me a wink.
"You told me your wife was a retired adventurer, but I never would have thought it was Miss Viola", Hestia waved to Farya, apparently already acquainted.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my lady" Lana gave a deep bow.
"Oh, so you're already ma-married. Hello miss, nice to meet you" Sasha squeaked, a tinge of sadness in her voice.
"Is that your 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺?!" Jacob exclaimed, his voice barely trying to restrain his excitement.
The whole of my party had us surrounded like a school of piranhas homing in on its prey.
Deciding to let work wait a while, I ushered Farya and the rest of my team to a vacant table in the corner of the main room. I stayed behind after ordering food. And as soon as it arrived, I carried the tray back to the table where they had saved a seat for me.
"Is it true that you defeated a lesser drake in one blow?"
"What school of swordsmanship so you practice?"
"Oh, so you're the one that taught Ryne swordsmanship. Makes sense, I guess"
"Alright guys simmer down and stop pestering my wife", I interjected, shaking my head as I placed down the tray on the circular Woden table.
"What? Can't I even talk without your permission?" Duncan feigned a scowl.
"Ignore him, he's just mad that you get to keep madam Farya to yourself" Lana gave a lopsided grin.
"Anyways, what's the little fella's name" chimed in Jacob.
"Fardin" I said.
"That's an awfully hard name" Duncan mulled over his head.
Wh-Why don't we call him Fin for short. Like we call Rybane, Ryne" Sasha piped up, to everyone's surprise.
"Sounds nice", tweeted Farya.
We talked for a long while after that, reminiscing old times, talking about my wife's adventures, discussing about the rise of monsters in the Dyre nowadays, all the while sipping a delicious rabbit stew with chopped carrots.
It was a good thing that the guild remained open 24/7, because by the time everyone left, the clockpiece at the far wall tolled three in the night.
Walking upto the counter, my wife withdrew all
her savings that she had deposited in the guild lockers. I raised my eyebrows at this, to which she replied "Even if I had told you about the money, you still would have become an adventurer."
"Fair enough", I mused, giving her a smirk as I inquired about the availability of quests in the elf country.
"We do have one quest, but you will have to collect your reward from one of Alviria's Guilds" the receptionist proclaimed as she handed me the job request.
==================================
A clan of ogres has been stealing our livestock for quite some time. They have even started to take our children now. Please, exterminate the ogres as quickly as possible.
Humbly, Elder Vizari.
Requirements:
1. Exterminate the mountain Ogres of Shimaya.
2. Rescue any children you find.
Reward: 2 Gold Pieces
Difficulty: B
==================================
Taking the quest was just an excuse, an added bonus of kinds. I had originally planned to travel to Alviria, the elf country anyways, to reunite Farya with her father.
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Hovering amidst the clouds, I gazed down at the vast expanse of land below me, dotted with green treelines meeting at mountain ranges, majestic valleys and treacherous canyons. All in all, it was a land that looked almost untouched by artificial intervention, save for the occasional cluster of white in between indicating the presence of a city or town.
Descending at breakneck speeds, her ethereal form darted through the clouds towards the ever-magnifying tree tops down below.
Unfolding her wings seconds before impact, we glided to a sharp halt in a cornfield situated near the entrance of what seemed to be Shimaya Forest.
Overtaken by a feeling on extreme nausea, I retched uncontrollably for a few minutes over unlucky kernels of corn.
"Are you okay?", asked Farya, a tinge of concern mixed with regret in her voice.
"What is WRONG with you?", I lashed out, giving her a distasteful look that I regretted almost immediately afterwards.
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that", I stated in a placating tone as tears came unbidden to my wife's eyes.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"Farya?","Fari", I called out after her as she headed in the direction opposite of the forest, towards the village amongst the cornfields.
Clutching Fin tightly to my chest, I followed her through the yellow meadows, trampling corn stalks under the partly cloudy sky.
A faint shaft of black was visible in the distance as the acrid scent of smoke bombarded my nostrils.
Sensing danger, Fari started running towards the area of arson, keeping one hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword. Pursuing her, I quickened my pace to a jog, trying to go faster while keeping Fin from crying.
Arriving at the scene, I witnessed my wife standing poised, her sword drawn against an orange-skinned eight-foot tall abomination, twin tusks jutting out from its jaws on a noseless face with bulging eyeballs.
"RAAAGHR", the beast roared as it charged at the awaiting adventurer, its speed impressive despite its weight class.
Shimmering in and out of existence, my wife reappeared behind the ogre, sheathing her sword. Visible surprise showing on the monster's face as it turned back, only to have its head roll off its shoulders.
After intercepting and decapitating every invader, Fari turned towards the largest house of all, supposedly belonging to the elder. I tagged along like a good dog, just watching her fight in a mixture of awe, admiration and pride.
An old man outside the large hut beckoned us in as soon as he got sight of Farya.
Stepping inside the threshold, our eyes were overwhelmed by the resplendence of colours in the building. Lush embroidered carpets decorated the floor along with intricately carved wooden cushions covered with velvet.
Picturesque artifacts ornamented the walls, ranging from a jagged horn to an aurochs' skull. The doors we had come in from were flanked on either side by rugged elven guards, one holding a sword to the ground with his hands placed on top of it, the other equipped with a crossbow. The muscular, hardy sentries had a demeanor of cold indifference about them, indicating that they did not give a damn about putting a knife to my throat if their employer wished it.
"Come now, they aren't even that bad", interjected the old man, seated in front of us and motioning us to sit down as well.
Leaning against the surprisingly soft cushion, I stared back at the elder, handing him the job request we had been assigned.
"Ah, so you're the ones that I was told would be coming", the man evidently relaxed, his shoulders slumping and his face growing softer.
"First of all, I would like to thank you people for protecting our village from those damned beasts. Their attacks are getting worse day by day. They won't even spare our children now", he explained, his voice heavy with melancholy.
"I am Elder Vizari, the chieftain of the Shimayan elves and appointed knight of King Adgarde. I will be now explaining to you the details of your mission.
As he rambled on about the various routes to infiltrate the enemy stronghold, and the peculiarities of terrain, Fin abruptly started bawling. Taking the little fellow from my hands, Fari immediately left the cabin, the guards backing off of her overpowering aura.
I must have had a pained expression on my face, as the elder asserted "You've had a fight, haven't you?"
My face fell with shame, and I had no option to reply in the affirmative, stating it was my fault.
"I've seen many couples in my lifetime become estranged due to some small quarrel or misunderstanding. You better apologize to her now before its too late", the elder sympathized, ushering me out of his residence with a promise to divulge the rest of the details later.
Walking out the door, I laid my eyes on the elf village for the first time in earnest.
Haphazardly shaped huts, which looked to be built by nature itself were lined a few hundred metres apart from each other, the space covered with corn patches and animal pastures, or atleast what remained of them after the fire was put out.
"Now where did she go?" I thought as I wandered through the sizeable village, straining my eyes for a glimpse of my wife's lustrous black hair.
An ominous silence hung in the air, and I might have taken the village for a ghost town if I had not known that the villagers had shut themselves inside their homes in fear of the ogres.
I found her sitting beside a blockaded well, breastfeeding Fin.
"Hey", I said, trying to think up of ways to apologize.
Utterly ignoring me, she started singing Fin back to sleep.
"I'm afraid he will start crying if you keep on singing like that" I affirmed, trying to get any kind of reaction from her.
Her ears turned a pink shade, but otherwise she remained adamant on giving me the cold shoulder.
"Let's look for someplace to spend the night, you'll catch a cold out here on your own", I suggested, which caused her to don her robe back on and get up to leave.
Just as she started walking away, I grabbed her palm and clasped it tight in my own.
"I'm sorry!, I really am, I didn't mean to say that." I regretfully pleaded.
Burying my face in her hand, I continued "You know I didn't mean that. I don't know what came over me. I'm really sorry Fari.", I implored, my voice on the verge of breaking.
Time seemed to have stopped at that moment, the only sounds being the whistle of the wind, the lapping of water at a nearby stream, and my whimpering.
"So-wwy?", mouthed Fin, bringing the world back to its natural state, eliciting a dumbstruck gasp from me in between my sobs. Fin was 15 months old, but he had not started to speak yet. Instead of his first word being 'mama' or 'papa', it was 'sorry".
"Yeah, you're right Fin, Papa's really sorry. We ought to forgive him now, shouldn't we?"
Pulling her hand back from my grasp and placing it under my chin, she raised my head and looked me straight in the eyes with a teary expression on her face.
"Its okay, I'm sorry for being so overbearing", she consoled me as she pulled my head to her chest, one hand patting my head and the other holding Fardin.
"Th-Thanks", I sniffled.
"I love you too" she smiled.
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"Careful now, don't wake him. Sing a lullaby to him if he cries. That'll put him back to sleep", Farya instructed an elven woman that looked to be in her early thirties.
"Also, he will need to be fed when he wakes up, I'm counting on you", my wife conveyed in a placating tone.
"Fari, come on now. He'll be absolutely fine", I took her arm and pulled her away from Fin.
"You're one lucky fella", I muttered under my breath when I saw Fardin nestled against the elf's breast.
Hearing me, Farya smacked my head with a light backhanded blow as she retorted "Keep your eyes to yourself."
"Aww, someone's jealous", I laughed as I raced to the end of the village to avoid a Lapium adventurer's ferocious onslaught.
"You're impossible!", she exclaimed, having appeared right in front of me, standing beside Elder Vizari.
"Everything good now?", the Elder smiled.
"Ye-yeah, All Th-Thanks to you" I panted.
"Well then, I bid you luck on your expedition. It's not much, but I'll pray for your safety", the old man reassured.
"You ready?", I lilted.
"Yeah, let's go crush some Ogres." Farya proclaimed.
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After what seemed like hours of walking, we finally reached a glade, our very first milestone that indicated that we were on the right track. Seeing the sky tone down a couple of shades, we decided to camp near an enormous tree trunk which stretched upwards as far as the eye could see, up into the clouds above.
"That's strange. How can a tree like this exist? More importantly, why didn't we see it from above on our journey here if its so tall?" Farya mused, a hint of caution in her voice.
"Its humongous", I gaped in awe as I ran my fingers over the hard, dense word of the tree trunk.
"Y'know, this feels a lot like oak wo-", I was cut short as Fari Yanked me towards herself, just as an arrow embedded itself where my hand had been. Falling to my knees, I witnessed my wife transform herself to her primitive form, a mass of black ornamented with amethyst scales, baring her claws towards unseen attackers.
Materializing into thin air, six white-hooded figures surrounded the dragon, brandishing their weapons, all different except for one similarity, that is, they were all pitch black.
Reloading his night black crossbow, one of the bright figures started walking towards me with slow, deliberate steps.
Drawing my sword, I stepped into the first stance of the Thunderblade style. Keeping my legs wide open, and sword angled upwards, I saw Fari fighting with the other five assailants out of the corner of my eye.
WHOOSH! An arrow flew past me, missing me by a hairsbreadth.
I looked up to see my opponent's face, only to be met with a disturbing sight I wasn't sure I'd be able to forget. His face had no physical features, except for thin lips that parted in a toothless, mocking smile.
That's when I understood.
He was toying with me. The difference in strength between us was probably too great and he wanted to enjoy tearing me apart.
𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐚 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞
Swatting the sword wielder with my tail, I felt a sharp stab of pain as his cursed sword impaled the underside of my tail.
Giving out a predatory roar, I released a thunder spell, splitting open the skies to reveal thunderbolts aimed at my opponents. Two of my adversaries immediately bit the dust, quite literally. They disintegrated, leaving behind only their white hoods as proof of their existence.
The remaining three circled me like a pack of hyenas, ready to strike the moment I showed a bit of weakness.
I took a risky glance towards my husband, only to see him covered in non-lethal wounds all over his body. His opponent had the contented look of a man thoroughly enjoying a particularly delicious meal on his face.
Scrunching up my face in distaste, I unleashed myself upon the robed freaks.
Everytime I lashed out at them, they dodged and turned it into a counter attack. If I had to give them adventurer ranks, they'd be around high platinum or low lapium. Even after a few minutes of fighting at my full potential, I had taken down only one other.
Seeing Ryne's bruised body still trying to fight, I overexerted myself and let loose a torrent of thunderbolts until my mana almost depleted itself.
I swayed for a moment as the two cowled figures vaporized from existence.
Standing back on my four feet, I leaped towards the remaining archer who had the crossbow aimed at Ryne's head.
"No!", I thundered, sensing that I might not be able to make it in time.
Just as I was about to reach him, he turned around and unloaded the crossbow bolt, aiming it at my heart.
Too late to dodge, I transformed into my human form to make his target much smaller.
Time seemed to slow down as my unsheathed sword skewered his abdomen, while his arrow sunk into mine.
𝐑𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐞
"No, no, no, no, this can't be happening", I cried out in frustration as I held my wife's limp body in my hands.
"You'll be alright, you'll be fine. This is nothing right?" I consoled myself more than anybody as I carried my wife in my arms back the way we had come.
Blood sputtering from her mouth, she breathed "It's ok-okay dd-dear, Just Go".
"No way are you dying on me!", I shouted, my brain racked with pain, anger and frustration.
The adrenaline finally leaving my body, my legs gave in and I slumped against the back of the gigantic tree we had come across.
"Thi-this is it hh-uh?", Farya managed a weak smile on her bloody lips.
Tears flowing in abundance from my eyes, I wailed " No Fari, you can't leave me. Please, Please, Please. I'll be good, I won't ever get angry at you again. Please don't go".
Expression distorted with pain, she heaved, "It's go-gonna be oo-kay, stu-p-id".
"Li-live, live f-or m-me"
My voice racked with sobs, I cried like a little child as my wife's soul began to leave her body.
Thousands of little roots, branching off off the main roots of the tree began enveloping us, boring their tips into my body, impaling me in a hundred different places.
"Hah-hahaha-hahahahaha", I laughed maniacally at the sheer unfairness of it all.
Atleast I had a happy life this time.
"I'm sor-sorry Ryne, I love you".