“Marduk of Ahkula, meet Lappe of Zaros!” Aoibhinn Cheered as he presented one of his men to the Saurian.

It had been two days since he had woken up and had spent most of it eating and recovering from the fight with the cockatrice, the ruler of Zaros was all to happy to accommodate any desire he had, from carnal to outright benevolence in the face of his divine status which the faerie had easily sussed out after a short conversation with him.

Lappe was one step in the plan of the Faerie to compensate him for what he helped achieve by bringing the monster to its knees, though Marduk was already sick of all the things the ruler was trying to throw at him. He just wanted to get what supplies he needed and continue his journey, the destination not mattering much at this point.

He couldn’t fault the butterfly winged man for offering Lappe’s services though, he was down a crucial element of his being and having a companion to travel with solved some of the issues that could arise.

In any case the man was a fairly average athletic build wearing a bronze domed cuirass, a pauldron over his right shoulder, a pair of vambraces and gauntlets, tassets over his hips, cuisses poleyns and full greaves. Around his neck was a scarf of a faded rusty red colour, between the gaps in his armour was a grey tunic, trousers and knee high leather boots.

Though Marduk didn’t see any mail or padded fabric which he thought was a given when you wore so much armour.

Lappe looked to be in his mid twenties, he had fair skin, stone grey hair, brown eyes and the stubble of a beard gracing his chin and upper lip. He also had a short sword hanging from his belt on the left side with a heavy looking wholly metal spear in his arm.

Holding out his free hand to shake Marduks the man greeted him. “I’m glad to make the acquaintance of the man who freed us from the monster's stone prisons, I was one of the first to get hit trying to fight the beast.”

Returning the gesture, the Saurian shook the man's hand noticing how strong his grip was despite being human, he’d heard from Blair that humans were generally considered one of the weakest of the people of the land. So it was surprising to meet someone who was clearly strong enough that he didn’t think he could carelessly fight like an animal.

Though Blair had been the only person he’d fought since leaving the tribe that he felt genuine fear while fighting, well aside from the Cockatrice, but a monster like that was a given and wasn’t a person.

Marduk was however not sure how he felt about another travel companion so soon after Minerva’s death, he’d already turned the Witch down when she’d offered it and back in Sabine Blair had made an offer, but he didn’t really want to deal with heartache if they died because of his failings again. So he was leaning toward declining Lappe, joining him as nice as it would be for someone with two arms to be travelling with him.

“I’m not all that special and it was all Medea’s plan. I wouldn't have known what to do without her.” He replied to the man.

Lappe laughed heartily. “If that’s how you see it then I won’t say otherwise, but we all know you’re god touched so praise’ll come your way no matter how much you don’t want it.”

The Saurian sighed.

“Folk need heroes and when do they come along so easily? You’d be hard pressed to find a man or woman in our town that doesn’t want a statue of you built.” The grey haired man said with a warm expression.

Turning his eyes to Aoibhinn, Marduk noticed the faerie was nodding along in agreement.

“I’d like to do my part and repay my debt to you if that’s fine?” Making the offer properly Marduk felt obligated to accept it, especially when a phantom pang tortured the stump of his left arm.

“Alright, I’d be happy to have you watching my flank.” Reluctantly he offered his hand to the man and they shook again.

“Wonderful~! Wonderful~!” Aoibhinn laughed jovially, bouncing up and down like a child in excitement. “Now that we’ve settled that I will dismiss myself- there are many duties I need to get back to!”

With that the flamboyant Fae left and Marduk found himself dragged into talking with a crowd that had formed outside the palace hoping to thank him personally for his help in freeing peoples friends and family from the petrification. Which he wasn’t actually responsible for, an alchemist in the palace used the blood of the monster to make a cure, but they considered his actions what released them so he was being turned into a walking ball of their praise and thanks.

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Before the end of his third day awake in the city Marduk fell sick of dealing with the people of Zaros’ praise and love for him, it was empty and made him feel uncomfortable with their words of admiration leading to him simply collecting his things and leaving in the evening.

Aoibhinn had graciously told him of a way to sneak out of the town unseen when the butterfly winged ruler caught the lizard man red handed in his escape.

The Fae seemed all but too happy to see him off not bothering to mention the fact that he failed to bring Lappe with him which was when he felt an odd sense of wariness toward the man, it was an emotion he'd been devoid of until now causing him to assess if it was even what he was feeling.

His wary ire of the Fae was proven correct when he came across Lappe standing at the exit of the path he'd been shown, the grey haired man was in all the same gear as he'd been in for the past few days with the new additions of a travel pack.

With a lantern attached to his hip illuminating the stone walls by the sewer entrance it was hard to miss the bronze knight in anycase.

“Lord Aoibhinn said you would be along shortly, I'm glad I did not have to wait for long- shall we be off?” He asked, ignoring the question as to why Marduk wished to leave so soon.

He hoped the man could understand his plight of being in everyone's purview.

“Do you know the way to Lakar?” The Saurian responded and the man nodded his head.

“I've never been there myself but I've studied the maps well enough to reach the border at least, from there we just need to encounter an Ash Guard- assuming you plan to meet with the Aes Sidhe?”

‘is that my plan?’

‘No its not… I should try looking for a way to find Alex if she ended up here as well… or I could head for.. for King Garum and see if he knows anything about me like Ochre did?’

Sighing internally he already felt stressed at the idea of dealing with another dragon.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘At least I'll know where I stand with the Dragon’

“Somewhat, I'm looking to meet King Garum before then- how much time would that add to our trip?”

Marduk felt weird about the other man's response when he simply answered the question and didn't have anything to say about what their journey was for.

“Roughly two days of travel to leave the rest of Lyre and then head to Garums rest, after that it is only a thirteen day trip to Lakar.” Nodding to himself the man corrected his times. “to account for delays and otherwise I would say it will take us about a month to arrive in Lakar.”

“Then we best get started so we can set up camp at least three hours from town.” The Saurian said before beginning to walk with Lappe walking just ahead of him with a hand on the butt of his spear as his rest over his shoulder.

The pair travelled wordlessly along the dirt roads leading southwest out of the forest of Lyre failing to encounter anymore of the great wolves which Marduk supposed was because Zaros, as he had learned, hunted the beasts regularly using the strong hides for armour and clothing that was sold to many of the other towns and villages around the Lyre. He was greatful either way as he didn’t want to deal with them again now that he had to get used to not having his other arm to counter balance his movements.

As the sun shrunk on the horizon and they found themselves in darkness as it no longer penetrated the canopies of the woods the men decided to set camp and quickly put one together setting a four hour watch schedule between them and soon enough Marduk fell into sleep as he was the first to rest.

His sleep was fraught with images of his final day alive, not quite reliving it but being forced to watch it from afar as things came crashing down around himself and his partner. Forced to wonder what might have been, what could have become of them and most foolishly- what it was his better half had planned for their arrival back home.

This stressed parts of his mind dangerously as the night went on until he was finally freed of it for his first watch, nearly lashing out at the other man in the shadow of the fire they had crackling away in the background. Barely managing to stop himself he wordlessly rose and took a position to watch the camp and warred with his mind over the events still flashing through it.

‘Why do I feel so heavy all of a sudden? It's like someone tied a bunch of weights around my waist and I’m dragging them around’ He questioned with a sigh as his golden eyes stared at the whipping of the living flames while he stoked them.

‘It’s not just my mind, but my heart, like I still haven’t recovered from Minerva’s death…’ He realised he referred to the woman's death as though it were merely an event that happened and not that of someone he otherwise liked the company of dying in his arms.

‘What the hell is wrong with me? She… she wanted to travel and make more family after being abandoned by her others… damn it all’ Shaking his head the thoughts dispersed for a short time allowing him some silence.

While the silence claimed him he listened to those beautiful ambient sounds of the forest that calmed his being wishing for the moment to last an eternity as the idea he’d started to lose that outer shell of lizard wiring that stopped him from being himself for so long.

But just as the flames were fickle in their sense of direction his mind came crashing back into place not long after he’d begun to enjoy himself as the thoughts tortured him into the early hours of the morning.

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Waking to the rising sun Marduk realised he’d fallen asleep at some point, while he was glad that they hadn’t been attacked, it was still a failure on his part and he felt disappointed in himself for it.

Wasting little time he woke the other man and they ate before packing up the camp and continuing their journey two hours after waking.

Ss they walked Lappe ask the Saurian questions about where he had come from so far on his journey-

“I started in Duranki crater and headed toward a town in Barca Crags that renamed itself to Logos before I left, then arrived in Sabine in time for their Umbra festival before coming to Zaros.” He answered though his mind was elsewhere watching the shadows of the woods for anything that might try to make a move against them.

Just because they hadn’t been attacked while leaving the stone walled city didn’t mean they couldn’t still be attacked on their way out of the forest.

“The Sabines? You must’ve met their god-touched warrior then?” Lappe questioned with a raised brow.

“I- yes, I sparred with them briefly and narrowly won.” The Saurians' response elicited a sputter from the human man.

“Y-you what?! You fought The Golden Briar and won?” Stopping where he stood the grey haired man gaped.

“Barely” Marduk added as he was reminded of how he felt at the time, the thrill he’d felt in the moment and the desire it had sparked in him.

For whatever reason he’d failed to feel anything like it when he was fighting the Cockatrice, in a way it disappointed him that he hadn’t felt it again. But he wasn’t sure why, he’s never been the sort to enjoy that sort of stuff.

He was also somewhat interested in Blair’s nickname, but then again the woman was supposed in her sixteen hundreds as insane an idea as it was to think. He wasn’t sure he wanted to understand what it was like to live that long, but even the hundred and fifty he was slated for seemed like an eternity.

‘Would she have joined me if I asked her to? She seemed very knowledgeable and it would have been nice- What the hell am I thinking?’ His thoughts halted as he cut the line of thinking off as he noticed it trying to make the woman he would consider his friend into an option for seeding.

The idea of it disgusted him so he dismissed it and asked Lappe a question to keep him away from it.

“How long have you wielded your spear?” The change in topic took the other man by surprise but he answered quickly.

“Oh- Almost fifteen years, I first picked one up when I was seven.” His eyes flickered to the Saurians' volcanic glass sword. “How long have you had your sword?”

“Hm..” Humming in thought Marduk realised it hadn’t been that long.

He was nine? Nine and a half in human years now? So twenty eightish? It had been a while since he thought about it.

“Since I was nine.” He decided to give his Saurian age, unsure how the man would take him saying he owned it for six years.

“Mhm” Lappe nodded and the conversation faded.

By the end of the day they were at the border of the Lyre and were given the gorgeous view of rolling hills and grassy plains ahead for some miles, they would set up camp at the edge so as to use the woods for shelter one last time before they pursued the site of the Dragon Garum.