After the battle and the tests, squires and soldiers as well as nobles organized a mini crusade, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The vow of poverty was obvious: they had to bleed themselves dry and work as slaves to pay for the journey. The outward journey was the most expensive. The price included the letters to be sent to Rome and their return with the stamp and the safe-conducts, documents to cross all the borders, taxes and tithes and toll fees. Then came the strict equipment composed of a calabash, pouch and bumblebee, and the patenôtre, the ancient rosary. A knife no longer than the forearm was allowed with a 2-mass stick to keep the wolves at bay.

I still had quite a lot of gold from the first dragon killed and I financed the pilgrimage of my travelling companions, about ten in all. The treasure melted quickly and we left on foot and legs. I took the tents with me, a luxury unheard of at the time, all to the satisfaction of the nobles who accompanied me. They too were happy to have a formidable ally against the bandits and wolves, and above all the guarantee of a full stomach. I counted on them not to get massacred at the first checkpoint. And what I feared the most were the other dragons and the cursed necromantic wizard.

Arma decided to accompany us to the port to explain us how it worked and how to validate the stamps at the abbeys. The information was circulating slowly and we were faster than the news. Which, obviously, was a problem... a Christian pilgrim dragon... dragon hunter...

We traveled on legs and I flew only to hunt and bring back food for our troop. We were 20 at the beginning then after our arrival at the port, they told us to unscramble.

Arma said goodbye and I was sad but I had to do it. I will not get a second chance.

The boats of the time never ventured out on the open sea and it was mostly coastal navigation and at the same time dangerous with the reefs. But I helped the captain by telling him if there were reefs or not and I regularly landed on land. I could have made the round trip several times with them on my back but cheating was not allowed. It was an ordeal, not a tourist trip. Well, a little for me...

We arrived in the south of France, then the Burgunde region near the Duchy of Aquitaine, then we arrived in the Kingdom of Italy and each time I had to go into hiding, then the pilgrims arrived with the safe conduct and I almost crawled in, the guards armed to the teeth checked that everything was in order and the nobles who accompanied us were the great ruling families of the time. Then we walked along the Duchy of Rome, then the Duchy of Naples, then the Duchy of Benevento and finally the Duchy of Calabria. Then we crossed the inland sea towards the Drongariate of Aegaeus but a dragon appeared on the Zagorceniante coast between Serbia and Greece. The capital of this territory was Dragovits or later, centuries after the terrible Dracula wreaked havoc, its name descending from Drago to Dragovits.

I was hiding under the ship and the monster passed above us and turned around, uninterested but they felt something powerful, through the darkness emanating from my presence.

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This monster was mounted by a knight / sorcerer masked by a horrible figure.

The dragon was ash black and protected by a helmet and spikes that looked like a lightning rod. Chains hung here and there, probably to disperse the electricity.

The dragon was bigger than me and its weak points were well protected even its eyes were protected. Mythrilled ribs hung on the exposed parts of its flesh. And teeth made to grind were his teeth and two retractable teeth to inject venom or suck blood.

BRrr, it gives me the creeps.

Just my nose protruded like a snorkel, and I swam clinging to the hull to move the boat forward.

Phew, it's gone.

We arrived very slowly at the Roman Empire from the East to the Kingdom of Judas.

They were almost at war with the nascent empire of Assyria. Jerusalem was counting its days.

We arrived and Arma followed us in secret to see if we weren't cheating and did the steps correctly.

Jerusalem, the center of the world at that time, the kingdom of everything and of God, the center of the world's exchanges between the West and the East. The road to the mythical India and after the Middle Kingdom with the terrible Ming Emperor. It was said that the Ming Emperor, unknown to the Europeans, had developed terrible weapons and got rid of all the dragons and made slaves of those who surrendered. He had also attained immortality and was the center of the cultivation of beings to become almost immortal. semi-divine beings.

Assyria was the kingdom of the djinns, and they too had defeated the dragons, and some of them remained in deep caverns with escaped treasures. It was the land of harems and a thousand and one nights, the land of wonders. There were also caves of the sands of time with magic hourglasses that could turn back time. And even further away was the kingdom of Mu with strange caves and visitors from the stars.

All these rumors came to us and the famous kingdom of Egypt, from the empire of Assyria with the lighthouse of Alexandria that gathered all the knowledge of today and antiquity.

We stamped our seals at the palace and scattered, leaving me alone in the square of Jerusalem. I trembled with fear and did not move. Then suddenly armed guards came towards me and nets were thrown at me. A guard said to me, "You are resisting and your companions are dead.

I found myself chained to a wall in the shade with millstones at the end of very strong chains.

I am a pilgrim," I said.

Shut up monster! Here you are nothing. A pilgrim more or less nobody cares. If you want to regain your freedom someone will have to pay your ransom. Here we have to finance a war to save Jerusalem and everything is fine, the guard tells me. Who is responsible?

Shut up, a beast doesn't talk!,

I am not a beast!. I am a dragon!

Guard: All the more reason! We have killed all the dragons and if you continue, you will be the last one! We have orders to capture you. Order of King Judas! Now keep quiet or it will be worse. And a piece of advice, be a beast, because if you are too smart, your treatment will be worse. The more you revolt, the stronger the punishment will be. To the point of mutilating you or selling you in pieces to the butcher.

Your ten friends are already in the dungeons for bringing a monster into town under the cover of a pilgrim and instead of being executed they are lucky, they will be sold as slaves like you. You will go to the slave merchant instead of the cattle merchant. The cattle are branded but the slaves have a collar! The king was magnanimous since you surrendered without making a fuss, you will stay together and you will be spared the salt mine.

Arma followed the scene and was helpless. The kingdom of the Franks was not influential in the affairs of the kingdom of Judas. Only the pope could make a complaint. But if he could avoid a financial contribution by selling the Dragon, the complaints were filed vertically, i.e. garbage.