Dream Factory

Episode Seven: Sweltering Summer Sins

By TheCrimsonDM

Princess Twinkle stood there facing her adoring, loving, and sometimes rather annoying apprentice. "Listen, Pascale, I said I'm fighting the dragon coming to town by myself."

Pascale's lavender scales helped her dark purple eyes stand out as she stared up at Princess Twinkle with what could be best described as puppy dog eyes. "But, but, Princess. It's a dragon, it's going to be scary, and dangerous. You need me."

Princess Twinkle shook her head. "You can't even fly. No, I am quite fine by myself. After all I'll be immune to most of its affects."

"But, princess. why won't you let me fight."

"Because you’re not strong enough."

"But why?"

"Because you can’t fly."

"But why?"

"Because I said so, and that's it!" Twinkle had finally stomped her foot down on the subject. she was not arguing this point any further and that was final. Pascale lowered her head in defeat. It hurt her to be so rough with Pascale, but sometimes the little kobold just had no idea how dangerous the world really was. Or if she did, she didn't care. Either way, it was Twinkle's job to keep her safe from herself.

Of course she was still fighting a dragon today. This was going to be such a drag.

***

Another peaceful spring day in the hamlet of Pleasant Falls. A place where happy kobolds lived out their happy lives. The violent and terrible ways of kobold kind and their dragon empire all but a far away memory in the back of their minds. One that our plucky would be hero Gray was determined to fix back to kobold standards eventually. She just had to punch someone hard enough and the problem would be fixed right?

Of course her current concern was a fair deal different. Gray was still training to join the ranks of the Royal Dragon Guard, an illustrious and powerful organization of kobold warriors and one that was so challenging to join she had failed the test six times now. She wasn't going to fail the test again though, that much was for certain. In order to do this, she had to increase her training regime to absolute perfection.

Today she'd grabbed a sparring partner, one who wouldn't break Gray's wings in a fit of rage though. Just outside in the backyard of Gray's three story house. Well, okay it was technically her brother in law and sister's house. A Victorian styled home with dark gray, brown, and white colors making it look rather striking and noble in such a small no name backwater settlement like this. In the backyard there was a ring designed for sparing, the idea, whoever gets pushed out of the ring first loses. Of course her opponent today wasn't willing to get into a full sparring match. So they had changed the rules slightly.

While Gray stood in the ring, holding her two handed war hammer she stared at her best friend, Blue. Blue stood outside of the ring, unlike Gray, Blue was just a plain old earthborn kobold, no magic, no wings, just a normal crafty brain and surprisingly good with guns. Blue wasn't even dressed for the occasion she was wearing a simple green dress with a red flannel jacket tied around her waist, and the pistol in her hand was pointed at the ground and shaking.

Gray groaned. "Do you know what to do?"

Blue jerked her head up and down. "Sh-sh-shoot you?"

"Yes. Shoot me, and I'll dodge the bullet."

Blue shook her head. "N-no, I d-don't wanna. You'll d-die."

"Oh my dragons, Blue, it's just a gun. I'm not going to die."

"Guns kill people."

"Not anymore than swords, spears, or in the case of a pissed off Princess Twinkle, a spork. Now shoot me."

"NO!"

"Shoot me!"

"Why should I shoot you? You’re my best friend." Blue was shaking in her boots.

"Because I said so." Gray lifted her hammer in both hands and growled. "Shoot, me!"

Blue lifted her arm. She aimed it square at Gray. The excitement was too much, Gray's heart was racing. She couldn't wait. Blue lowered her pistol. Just as Gray thought that Blue was going to chicken out, again, she fired a bullet. The explosive noise was loud and rang out over the courtyard. Gray watched as the bullet swam through the air, her senses heightened and she barely had time to react, swinging her hammer low and watching as the bullet was heading straight for her knee. The hammer hit the bullet and knocked it off course. The bullet whizzed past her and into the dirt behind.

Blue fell to her knees. "Oh dragon, oh no. I hit you. I shot you. I'm so sorry!"

Gray lowered her hammer and dusted herself off. "No you didn't. I deflected the bullet at the last-"

"Waah!" Blue cried as she threw her gun aside. And covered her eyes with her hands. "I killed my best friend!"

Oh by the Princess's yellow ass, this was too much. Gray let her hammer fall, and marched right over to Blue with every intent to correct her behavior immediately. She was a kobold for dragon's sake, not some filthy weak human. Being a cry baby was just annoying and Gray was going to put a stop to it this instant.

Once Gray reached her friend she knelt down, grabbed Blue and then sucked her into a tight strong embrace. "There, there, you did good for today."

Blue sniffled and buried her head into Gray's shoulder. "I hate guns! Why did you make me do this?"

Gray stroked the back of Blue's head. "If you hate them so much, why do you own more guns than the entire hamlet put together?"

"Because guns kill people."

"No, they don't. People kill people. Guns are no more dangerous than magic, and lots of kobolds have that."

"Because I can use guns to kill people."

That was... a surprisingly honest answer from the cry baby. "You want to kill people?"

Blue nodded. "I, kinda? I mean, if I have too." She sniffled and hiccupped.

Gray looked around and had a funny feeling that perhaps someone could be spying on them. She was too cool to be seen, ugh, hugging her best friend. Gray stood up, still holding Blue and once they were both up she let go. "You don't have to shoot me again. I think I'll ask someone else to help shoot me next time."

Blue sniffled and rubbed an arm at her eyes trying to clear the tears away. "Why did you think this was a good idea to begin with?"

"Because I said so." Gray walked over to the gun, picked it up, and holding it like one might pick up a dead rat, she handed it back to Blue. "There, take your weapon and stop being a wuss... at least, don't be wuss in front of the others. I don't want them thinking your any weaker than you are. Our group structure needs you to be a bit higher up than that."

Blue took the gun and slid it back into the holster on her ankle. "Um, but... do we really have a group structure?"

"Yes," Gray stated. "Are you that dense? Pascale's at the top, your number two, I'm clearly third and that bitch Jade is last place."

"Jade is not a um, B word."

Gray rolled her eyes. 'Yes she is. You just get to see a different side of her. I don't know why she likes you, she's just awful."

Blue shook her head. "I think she's great. But, um, that's just my opinion I guess."

Gray groaned. "You’re right, she is great. But you’re supposed to defend her when I say stuff like that. Not just give up on the fight. Where's the kobold in you?"

"I dunno... I'm sorry."

Gray shook her head. "You'd make a better human honestly."

Blue's entire body went rigid. "W-what?"

"I said you'd make a better human. All soft and weak and-"

Before she could finish the gun was pulled out once more so quickly that Gray actually missed it. The gun was pressed into Gray's shoulder and Blue's eyes were filled with the kind of death glare that said if Gray valued being able to use her arm she should do exactly what Blue said. Blue spoke in slow, dangerous tone. "I, am, not, a, filthy, human."

Gray swallowed. "H-huma?. I didn’t say human. I said... what rhymes with human?"

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Blue suggested. "Cushion."

"Yeah, that. You’re a soft Cushion. Not a human, where'd you get that idea from, haha." Gray swallowed once more. "Please don't shoot me."

Blue lowered her pistol and holstered it once more. The death glare gone almost as soon as it had appeared. She offered a weak smile and then nodded toward he house. "It's um, getting a bit hot out here. Should we g-go in and drink some lemonade?"

Gray nodded and led Blue back inside. She was going to have to remember that Blue had a trigger, and it wasn't just on her gun. Seriously scary stuff. If the two of them got into a real scuffle, Gray was pretty sure she might actually lose a wing, for good. She needed a new sparring partner, and soon.

The pair entered the sliding glass door going into the kitchen where another earthborn kobold, this one wearing a fancy black suit with brown scales and a pair of striking green eyes was pouring himself a cup of lemonade. He glanced over at them and nodded. "Gray, Blue, how are you girls doing on this fine, hot summer's day?"

Blue took a seat at the dining table and replied. "Oh, Doctor Timequill, it's beautiful outside. Um, a bit w-warm though."

Gray went to the pitcher of lemonade and began pouring herself and Blue a glass. "Yeah, Doc, it's stupid hot out there. I hate it."

Once she had the glasses of lemonade she brought them with her over to the table before taking a seat and handing one to Blue. Once they both had their drinks Gray was able to take a sip of hers, it was sweet, a bit sour, and really hit the spot with being ice cold. If it was legal to marry a drink, she might purpose to the lemonade then and there.

Timequill nodded. "The seer's seem to have gotten the forecast wrong for this one. While Dee is out delivering the newspaper though I took to making some lemonade to help fight off the heat. Hopefully the princess will fix this soon."

Gray rolled her eyes. "Just because she's an immortal goddess doesn't mean she can change the weather my dude."

Timequill laughed heartily as he took his glass and left the kitchen deeper into the house. "It's not the weather she's going to change. It's the dragon causing this."

Once he was gone Gray looked at Blue. "He’s so full of crap. I hate him."

"He seems nice... he made us lemonade."

"Yeah, and he's full of garbage and married my sister, what else is there to say on the subject?"

She looked down at her glass. "I'm sure he's just trying to be nice. Maybe he really is nice and um, you aren't giving him a f-fair chance?"

Gray glared at Blue making her flinch. After a moment Gray looked away and sighed heavily. "Whatever, I'm just here until I join the ranks of the Dragon Guard anyway."

"About that, um, c-can I ask you a serious question?"

Gray gave her a quick glance before looking away again. "Yeah, sure, what’chu want?"

"Is it true, d-do you have to kill your opponent at the end of the um, t-trial?"

Gray felt her heart being squeezed tight enough to make lemonade out of it. This was not a question she wanted to answer, or think about, it was just... a thing that kobolds did right? Sometimes Kobolds killed others, especially if they were in the Dragon Guard. Still she didn't want to answer the question. "Tell you what, the day you actually shoot me, I'll answer that question for you."

Blue took a quiet sip of her lemonade instead of responding to that. Probably for the best as Gray didn’t really want to push the subject. Instead she focused on the glass of lemonade. something small and black was moving on the table nearby her glass. For a moment she watched it only to quickly realize it was a spider. Some small black furry thing with eight legs and big blue eyes staring up at her glass of lemonade almost like it was a magnificent god that had appeared before it offering a cool aura and delightful flavor.

Blue saw the spider and almost spat as she shrieked. "SPIDER!"

The poor critter jumped and scurried behind the glass of lemonade to try and hide.

Blue pointed a finger as she scooted away. "Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" she pulled out her gun and aimed it at the glass of lemonade.

Gray shushed her. "Oh shuddup, it's just a little friend. You sure are gun crazy today."

"I'm stressed out. You stressed me out. That 'thing' stresses me out! Kill it!"

Gray set down her palm next to the spider and blew on it from behind prompting it to climb up onto her hand. "I'm not going to kill it you dork. It deserves to live like the rest of us, and cool people don't kill spiders."

Gray walked over to the glass door, opened it and then set the spider down outside and watched it scurry away into the hot unforgiving grass. She closed the door and went back to her seat. Blue had put her gun away once more. Blue took another sip of her lemonade. "So... have you ever k-killed a spider?"

Gray looked down at her glass. "Not... really."

"What about a fly?"

"By accident once."

"Um... any rats?"

Gray took a drink of her lemonade. "You don't have to kill things to remove them from being a problem you know. Just catching a mouse and taking it to the woods is usually more than enough. That or, I guess you could get a cat. Then it's not you killing it, and it fulfills the circle of life."

Blue nodded. "I, guess that's true."

Gray wasn't quite comfortable with this conversation. "Hey, if anyone asks though, maybe don't tell them about that."

Blue nodded. "I won't. It'll be our secret. P-promise."

For a moment Gray caught herself staring into those bright green eyes. Maybe the color didn't suit her brother in law much, but on Blue the color was amazing. Sometimes she could just stare at those eyes and get lost in them, especially in times like these where they looked at her with such a soft and gentle look. One that made Gray feel like, perhaps she could stay like this forever. Like maybe everything was okay and that she didn’t have to try so hard to follow in her late parents footsteps and to join the Dragon Guard just like they did. Maybe Pleasant Falls wasn’t such a bad place to live after all, right?

"Gray?" Blue asked with such a quiet, timid whisper that Gray almost missed it.

"Sup?"

"You're staring at me again.... I um, I mean it's okay. I d-don't mind."

Gray looked away sharply and cleared her throat. "Hey, it's getting pretty hot in here right."

She walked over to the glass door and opened it once more. A wave of blistering heat came in with it and she had to blink through it for a moment. The grass in the back yard was looking less green and more black. Staring up into the sky she noticed that the sun was a whole hell of a lot brighter and closer than it usually was. Something was flying around it, some yellow and pink thing. She watched as beams of pink energy were shooting from the flying thing into the giant scorching sun.

Blue was beside her in an instant.

Gray spoke, but her throat was feeling dry from the sweltering heat. "That pink think is flying toward the sun."

Blue replied. "That's no sun."

"What do you mean that's no sun, it's too big to be anything else?"

Blue pointed off to the side a bit. "That's the sun."

Gray shut the glass door carefully forcing the heat to stay put outside for a moment. "I have a very bad feeling about this."

Blue grabbed Gray by the arm. "Um, d-didn't the Doctor say that um, the princess was fighting a dragon or something?"

"Yeah, that's uh, yeah..." Damn him and his predictions. Honestly if Gray didn't know any better she'd swear he was a seer himself. A seer of all the bad crap that happened all of the time. "At least it can't get any worse with the princess out there."

A ball of orange molten something or another hit the ground in the backyard. For a moment it was just a burning pile of ooze, but soon the flames wore off and the ooze began to move. A pair of black coal like eyes looked around and it's center pulled back and formed a crude mouth like shape.

Gray grabbed the curtains to the door and closed them before the thing looked over at them. "I think we should very carefully, very quietly, go over to the Doc's office."

"But, why?"

"Because I said so."

Blue didn't question her further after that. The two of them did exactly that. Quiet, and careful they walked out of the kitchen and down the dark hallway leading to the Doctor's office. She knocked on the door gently not wanting to actually disturb him. It was still his house and he was always doing paperwork of some sort or another. When she got no response she thought back to the slime thing outside and her heart skipped a beat. if anything happened to him, her sister would be devastated.

Gray tried the handle and found it unlocked. She opened the door and peeked inside. It was just a standard office with desk, bookshelves, filing cabinets. A window with closed blinds. Yet the Doctor wasn't in here at all. Where did her stupid brother in law get too?

She was about to leave when she noticed there was a note on the floor. Looking at it she felt herself get a little angry with him. It read simply, 'if you’re reading this, Gray, I went out to check on your sister. I'll be home once this mess is done.'

How did he know she was going to look in his office first, and to leave a note on the floor where she'd see it? The guy was so infuriating sometimes. Still it was nice to know he was safe, she could stop worrying about him then. He was a strong kobold, or at least she assumed he was. After all, if he wasn't, how could he ever date and marry her sister?

Closing the door behind her, Gray looked back at Blue. "Well, he's safe so we should probably go chill in my room or something."

Blue was sweating. "I hope, chill, means getting cooled down."

Gray was sweating too. Wiping a hand across her face it came back sticky and wet with sweat. After this affair was over they were both going to need a good soak. Not together of course, that would be weird. Best friend's didn’t take private baths together. Gray was totally not imagining taking a bath with Blue, not even a little.

Gray took Blue by the hand and walked her up to the stairs. They went up to the second floor and then straight to Gray's room. Once inside she made sure to close the blinds, but took a small peek out of them before hand. Outside she saw at least five of those orange slime things in the yard, and more outside further out. The giant burning ball of flame was closer now, and she could see that inside it was the vague shape of a dragon. They really were being punished by the gods today. The yellow and pink streak was still firing energy at it, the miniature sun wasn't growing any smaller, and each time a beam of energy hit it, pieces of the flaming sun would fall to the sky turning into these orange slime things.

After closing the blinds, Gray took a seat on her bed and leaned back. "Awwww, I hate this. Can’t she just deal with it already?"

"I'm sure the Princess is doing her best."

Gray groaned. "This still suuuuuucks. It's soooo hot!"

Blue nodded. She took a seat on the floor and closed the door behind them. The light outside was bright enough that she didn't have to turn on the overhead light, but she was smart enough to figure out how they might fix this. Gray walked over to her closet, opened it up and although a few boxes of random junk fell onto the carpeted floor, she did find what she wanted. A box fan.

She plugged that sucker into a nearby outlet and turned it on the max. She aimed the fan at Blue before taking a seat next to Blue and let the refreshing air wash over them. It wasn't cold by any means, but it was better than nothing. To be fair they had an air conditioner in the house ,but for some reason Timequill kept the thing locked and turned off almost all the time. She hated that, but it was so rarely hot here it didn't matter.

Blue leaned over and laid her head on Gray's shoulder. "So, hot."

Gray groaned. As nice as Blue's touch was, she was sweaty, and just added heat. Gray shrugged her off. "Get off me, you’re too hot."

Blue managed to sit back up. "Okay."

Blue looked over and saw something that made her eyes gleam. Gray followed her gaze and then groaned once more. There was a neatly stacked pile of books in her closet. One that was hidden behind the box fan until now. "You have books?"

Gray shrugged. "Doesn’t everyone?"

"B-but their hidden... do you horde books?"

"Sure, that's uh, that's what I do." Gray somewhat lied.

"What are the books about?"

Gray was not ready for this conversation. "Uh, nothing. Their about nothing."

"So, their empty?" Blue looked at her with the most confused look.

"Sure."

Blue smiled. "Oh, okay."

What Gray didn’t' expect was for Blue to jump up and scamper on all fours toward the closet door as fast as she could. Gray reached out for Blue's leg but missed by mere inches. Blue reached out and nearly touched the books. Gray grabbed Blue by the tail and yanked hard pulling her away from the closet and dragging her down onto the floor. Blue kicked back a few times. Boots lashing out but narrowly missing Gray.

"Stop snooping in my crap!"

Blue yelled. "NO! I wanna see the books!"

"No, you don't!"

"Yes, yes I do!"

Gray was far stronger than Blue, so pulling her away from the door was no challenge. What Gray wasn't, was precognitive. So when Blue stopped fighting back, she figured she won. Only for Blue to grab the box fan, and throw it as hard as she could at Gray. The box fan hit Gray hard and shoved her into the door. The box fan was unplugged and Blue finished running to the closet, grabbed a book and then scampered toward the bed where she crawled underneath it sucking her tail in after her.

Gray stood there in surprise for a moment. The last thing she expected was to be hit by a fan... the fan... the fan that they needed to cool down! Gray quickly plugged it back in and the darned thing didn't spin again. She had to hit the side of it a few times to start it. Once she did she sat down in front of it and gave up on Blue.

A few minutes passed by and she started to get worried from the silence under the bed. Gray finally spoke. "Hey, you uh, you okay under there?"

Blue replied. "These stories are weird."

Oh by the holy dragon's flaming farts, she was reading them. "Please don't read those."

"Did you write these?"

Gray laid down on the carpet. "Maybe, what's it to you?"

"You've got pretty hand writing."

"I hate you so much right now."

"What are these about? I don't understand them. Like, the people in them just turn into musical notes, or in one everyone's naked but their genitals are replaced by guns? Or in another one it's about me being assertive and making out with you? I um, I never did that by the way."

Oh by the gods she had to grab the one book that involved that particular dream. "Their dreams okay. I collect dreams."

Blue poked her head out from under the bed. "Your horde, is made out of dreams? That's... weird."

"You’re weird."

"I collect Xogz and milkcaps. I think everyone collects them. Those or Monster Catcher cards. This though, this is a weird thing to collect."

Gray stared up at her ceiling fan, which was turned off because she'd broken it some time ago and just didn’t bother having Timequill fix it. "Well, I like dreams okay? I collect my own, and those of others. Like sometimes I'll ask people about their dreams, and write them down later. It's not that weird... right?"

Blue nodded. "I guess not. At least you don't collect Princess Memorabilia."

"I'm not a creep."

Blue was holding the book in her hands. "One of these is weird, like extra weird. Something about children in a concrete room, and um well it’s kinda scary actually. Is this a nightmare?"

Gray nodded. "Yeah, I've had that one a few times actually. I never had that nightmare until I moved here. So, yeah, it's weird. The weirdest part is it's always the same. Same children, same concrete room, same medallions they all have. The gold ones with the symbol of a kobold on one side and a dragon on the other. I've gotten used to it by now."

Blue handed the book back to her. "These were really interesting... thank you for sharing with me."

Gray glanced at her. "You won't tell anyone about these will you?"

Blue shook her head. "No, they’re your secret. I won't tell anyone. I just um, like to know more about you... if that's okay."

"You kind of just stole that book despite me not wanting you to. But, whatever, damage is done. Just don't tell anyone and we're cool."

Blue crawled out from under the bed and then took a seat next to Gray. "Do you think you could tell me more about these?"

Gray let out a defeated sigh. "I guess, I mean, if you’re interested in that junk and all... I'd like to share."

Blue grinned down at her. She opened her mouth to speak but the light suddenly darkened and there was a horrible explosion outside. It instantly cooled down and for a moment things were quiet. It was finally nice. Until something huge crashed through her window over their heads, and slammed into her door opposite of the window with enough force to smash it open.

For a moment the two of them just stared in shock and horror at the giant figure that was tangled up in her blinds. A pair of yellow hands with soft pink on the palms grabbed at the tangled mess around its head and tore the blinds off. A giant yellow kobold head emerged gasping for breath. A pink gem was proudly grown into its forehead and a pair of bright wings flared out behind it. Princess Twinkle was laying in a sweaty heap on Gray's floor.

Gray stared outside and noticed the miniature sun was gone now. It seemed so much darker and cooler outside now. The skeletal remains of a dragon were scattered about her backyard. Gray looked back at Princess Twinkle who crawled on her hands and knees toward them. She stopped only inches away from them, turned her head toward the fan and began panting.

Princess Twinkle gasped. "So, freaking, hot. No more, dragons. Ever again."

Gray swallowed. "Um, your highness. Is everything okay?"

Princess twinkle nodded. "Yes, it's fine. Also, you won't speak a word of this to anyone."

Gray replied. "Um, okay, but... why not?"

Princess Twinkle gasped for air and was slowly getting her breathing under control. "I'm the princess and because I said so."