Celeste was reciting a spell in her mind. The reins in her hands were hanging slack as she was trying to improve her knowledge of a spell. She nearly dropped the reins entirely when Deandra nudged her.

“Mom, dad is talking to you.”

Looking chagrined, Mira turned to where Miguel and Liam were walking next to the wagon train only to find the two of them laughing at her.

“You looked like you were in another world. You okay?” asked Miguel

“Sorry, was working on a spell. What’s up?”

“We were trying to recall the name of the places we’ve been. The first one was Fort Spinel, then we went to Torre del Viento, but what was the one after that?”

“I’m telling you it was Arauco,” stated Liam

“Honey, will you please set this fool straight and tell him it was Peumo,” Miguel nearly begged.

“You two find the weirdest things to argue over. Aren’t you suppose to be on guard for threats to the caravan?”

“See!” cut in Liam.

“You were right,” laughed Miguel.

Confused, Celeste looked the two, “What am I missing?”

“We were actually arguing about whether you would be honest and tell him he was wrong or if you would try to save his feelings. Whenever he’s wrong you always change the subject rather than telling him he’s wrong,” explained Liam.

“Is that so wrong?”

“Woah, I never said anything about it being wrong,” quickly added Liam.

“No but you did say that she treats me like a child”

“Yes. And I stand by that. But that doesn’t make it wrong. I’d love to have someone treat me like a child. But it looks like I’ll be single forever.”

Celeste just shook her head and started actually paying attention to how their llamas were doing.

“How long until we get to the next stop?”

Deandra asked. Celeste turned to answer her and realized her daughter was walking next to the guys. “How’d you get down there?”

“Jumped”

“From a moving wagon?”

“It’s not moving very fast.”

“We’re covering over fifty miles every day, what’s that put us at? Like 7 miles an hour or so? So it’s about twice as fast as the normal walking speed back home,” added Liam.

“Now our legs are shorter but we’re in better shape,” said Miguel

“To answer your question, daughter,” cut in Celeste, still unhappy with Deandra jumping from the moving wagon, “we should be at Ashenhold in a couple hours.”

“Assuming we aren’t attacked again,” Miguel added with a smirk.

“Which is why I would prefer if our daughter stayed in the wagon.”

“Fine,” Miguel said as he grabbed Deandra and tossed her about ten feet through the air to land in the wagon. Her scream of surprise drew disapproving looks from the other dwarves in the caravan who had repeatedly instructed them to be quiet so as not to draw monsters.

Feeling chastised, Celeste went back to focusing on driving her wagon and thinking about the spell she’d been trying to master. The next thing she knew, the point wagon tossed up a ball of light to signal everyone to stop. As she looked around Celeste realized they were coming up to the gates of Ashenhold and they were huge! Two gates each easily 100 feet wide and tall. And the tunnel widened as they got closer.

“Isn’t it odd that the tunnel is wider here. Wouldn’t they want it more narrow to limit the number of attackers that could reach the gates at one time?” Celeste asked.

“You would think, but who knows. I’m sure they have a reason,” answered Miguel.

It took nearly an hour for the caravan to make it into the city in the mountain. As they passed through it reminded them of Kan Ladur. The wagon train went straight through the city without stopping until they came to another huge set of gates. Thankfully, these were open and there was no line to go through in the direction they were going. As they followed the other wagons through these gates they came out of the mountain and into the sunlight.

“Fresh air!” cried Deandra with her arms up in celebration.

Celeste laughed at her daughter being all dramatic but she agreed. Since coming to Traum, they had spent entirely too much time underground.

The area where they exited the mountain looked like a city as well. As if the mountain was too full and just spilled people out into the surrounding areas. Celeste knew that was actually the opposite of what had actually happened, though. Ashenhold was initially built outside but fled into the mountain after it had been burnt to the ground by a nation to the north.

Soon they reached a part of town very obviously military in nature. In the distance she could see the wall that she’d heard others talk about. After pulling their wagon in where directed, Celeste climbed down and started helping Miguel tend to their llamas. Their had their routine down by this point. Deandra was handing their backpacks to Liam before jumping from the wagon. She and Liam would go get them a room while Celeste and Miguel tended to first the llamas and then to Miguel’s ‘magical mobile distillery’ that was the whole reason they needed the wagon in the first place. It didn’t take long for them all to meet back up at the wagon and set off to find food and drink.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

As they walked through the doors of a restaurant named Kayla’s Cabaret they saw a band on one side with a few folks in front of them. On the far side of the room there was a table set up near the back door. Sitting at the table was a grey dwarf, some sort of lizard or dragon person, and the head of some sort of lizard beast was poking in from outside. There was a crowd sitting near by cheering at the story that was being recited by the grey dwarf.

“Is that…” started Celeste

“Yeah, that’s Dakota,” answered Liam.

“Oh my. Identify says the lizard guy next to him is Wendell!” exclaimed Celeste.

“No shit?” asked Miguel. “Can wait to hear that story.”

As they walked closer they could hear Dakota, “And that’s when the ooze, all three hundred feet cubic of this monster, just splashed down covering everyone!”

Walking into the group of listeners Liam loudly said, “Sounds like bullshit to me. I bet that ooze wasn’t three feet across!”

Dakota jumped up, “Liam!!! You made it!! Oh brother I’m so glad to see you!”

What followed was a lot of hugging and shouting. The crowd, realizing the stories were over, drifted back to the other side of the room to listen to the band.

“Y’all have to meet my companion. Sage back up so we can come outside.” Dakota lead them all out back and introduced them.

Liam patted the drake before looking back at Dakota, “I told you the gods would give you something awesome you could ride.”

“You said they were going to give a St Bernard! Don’t try that with me,” snapped Dakota.

“She’s beautiful,” said Deandra as she stared up at the drake. Hearing this Sage leaned down and licked the child while all the adults laughed.

Miguel looked over at Wendell, “So what’s your story? Get cursed by something? Magical STD?”

“Jerk. No, my race was changed by the dragon that helped me. I’m now a Dragonkin.”

“It’s kinda cool,” cut in Dakota. “Each day he wakes up with more scales.”

“Are you going to get a snout?” asked Liam. “How about a tail?”

“I don’t know. I was told that the change affects everyone differently.”

Celeste abruptly stepped forward and wrapped Dakota and Wendell in a hug, with tears in her eyes, “I’m just so glad that y’all are okay. We were so scared. For days we thought you were dead.”

Liam went to point out that it was less than a day but at a look from Miguel he stepped back.

The next couple hours were spent telling stories, eating, and drinking. Deandra and Sage both drifted away, not interested in the conversation, and played in the area behind the restaurant.

Eventually the group wound down and started talking about what came next.

“Over the last few weeks we’ve learned how all our training helped us fight as individuals but not as a group. Now that we’re all back together we’ll want to work on that,” said Miguel.

“Oh, and we need to take you shopping. There are things here we didn’t see in Kan Ladur. Since it’s more militarily minded, they have some gear that you all might want to look at,” explained Wendell.

“And spells,” added Dakota. “They sell spell scrolls that almost anyone can use to magically learn a spell. One of the first things I did was buy a few more spells that I regretted not having before.”

“Like what?” asked Miguel

“I grabbed [Message], [Clean], [Grease], [Magic Missile], [Magical Retainer] and [Slow Fall]. And I grabbed a canteen that is enchanted to refill itself with water. Only takes like ten minutes to go from empty to full.”

“That sounds pretty cool. What does [Magical Retainer] do?” asked Liam

“It’s like a butler or assistant. A ghost appears and does whatever I tell it. It has to be simple things like carry this or move that or clean the dishes. Yesterday I had it dig for me so I could make a trap.”

“I like the idea of going shopping,” said Liam.

Miguel looked over to his wife, “Love, would it be okay to buy some spells for Deandra?”

Celeste thought about before slowly nodding, “Some. I still want her to learn magic properly but a few spells may intrigue her enough to actually be willing to study. Let’s start her with spells similar to what Dakota bought. Not the butler one, though. She’s going to clean up after herself.”

“Can she learn magic without a class?” asked Liam.

“Yeah. There are limits of course. And she could learn more if she actually learned it on her own instead of learning from a spell scroll. But any spells that she learns she can also level with practice.”

“There’s a clothing shop we should visit as well,” said Wendell. “We both got some new clothes as well as some enchanted boots.”

“Enchanted how?”

“Mine are enchanted with to be water proof and to let me walk on the water,” answered Wendell. “Dakota got a pair that is muffled so he can sneak easier.”

“Actually, mine have two enchantments as well. Muffled but more importantly they’re enchanted to always be comfortable.”

Miguel let out a whistle, “That sounds amazing. Let’s grab Deandra and Sage and do some shopping.”

⚴

“So have y’all be participating in the war with the country to the north?” asked Wendell as they were eating dinner that evening.

“Sorta. We’ve been helping defend the outposts that we’ve past through,” answered Liam

“What I want to know is what the hell is the name of the country to the north? I’ve never heard anyone say it,” remarked Dakota.

“And you won’t. Dwarves love to be petty. Because the ruler, who’s name we’ve not heard yet either, offended the dwarves a few centuries ago, they refuse to acknowledge the name of his country. It’s actually against the rules for anyone in the military to even say the name.”

“Wow, that is petty. I’m starting to see why we’re all dwarves because that sounds like some shit we would do,” Dakota said, laughing.

“Yeah, I think it’s hilarious. Such a simple thing and they’re denying the ruler legitimacy. You know it has to piss him off. Since you’ve been here, have you helped out in the defense any?”

“Not against the guy to the north. We did go see the wall, though. It’s crazy huge. Bigger than the Great Wall of China, but not as long. We’ve been helping by clearing out any monsters in the area to the south. It keeps the military from having to do it and it’s been pretty fun. First day out we fought some wolves. They weren’t too difficult, all things considered.”

“All things considered? Something go wrong?”

“Eh, we’re trying to teach Sage to fight with us but she still likes to run off at times. That was one of those times. She was suppose to be watching one side but took off after a wolf and left us unprotected. We’ve spoken about it and made some adjustments. Things have gone better since. Two days ago we fought a herd of boar. Turns out the pack was led by a lightening boar, which is exactly what it sounds like. The three of us agreed on a plan and followed it. The lightening caught us off guard but Sage took the hit, protecting Wendell and I which allowed Wendel time to get his voodoo going, which held it still long enough for me to reach it and kill it.”

“Voodoo?” asked Liam

“That’s what he calls all my mind magic,” replied Wendell.

“That sounds pretty cool,” said Miguel. “So now that we’re back together what are we going to do? Y’all ready to head south to meet up with the rest of the family?”

“Not yet,” answered Wendell. “There’s one more beast we want to take down before we leave. But the we weren’t confident just the three of us could handle it. Now that there’s seven, I think we can do it if we’re careful.”

“Oh, what is it?” asked Celeste.

Dakota smirked, “You wouldn’t believe us if we told you. We’ll take you to see it in the morning.”