“So before you continue, let me get this straight.”

the guild master asked Keegan inside the adventurer guild training room along with melody, Suri, Renata and many of the guild leaders.

“You witnessed an adult red dragon eat that entire dungeon beast right in front of you and you survived to tell us, This beast being the same dungeon beast that nearly killed you twice?”

“That's right sir.”

“So the beast cornered you, trapped you in a cave, was about to eat you, and then got eaten by a dragon that dropped out the sky.”

“That's about right sir.”

“I see. All right, continue your explanation about what happened when the dragon spoke to you.”

Everyone in the room held their breaths as the Sunkiss team leader continued his story about how they survived.

“Like you said sir, the dragon spoke to us. He wanted to know why we smelled so bad and went on to compare us to smelly goblins.”

Keegan said that in an embarrassed tone.

“Judging by your lovely blue colouring and that awful lingering smell, you all used a smell remover potion, correct?”

“That's right sir. Common procedure when trying to remain incognito in a beast domain”

Grud nodded his head.

“I see. You must be the first people I know of, heck in history, to ever survive a direct confrontation with a red dragon. You may even have found a way for future adventurers to avoid being eaten by one. Consider yourself lucky. What did you say?”

“About what?”

“What did you say to the dragon?”

“Oh, I told it we used a potion to hide our scents from beasts while we tracked the beast it just killed. And then it asked us if we took umbrage to the fact that it killed our prey.”

“I assume you said no?”

“Definitely.”

Grud sighed and leaned back but forgot that he wasn't sitting on his chair but on a desk and then he fell over before recovering his balance. No one laughed because they were all captivated by Keegan's story.

“Okay, continue.”

“The dragon seemed to contemplate something for a while, we thought we heard the dragon talking to itself whether to eat us or not but then it started heaving.”

“What do you mean heaving?”

“Grud, stop interrupting, let the kid talk.”

“Sorry continue.”

“Like a cat coughing up a furball.”

Everyone envisioned this massive dragon suddenly choking and hacking up beast hair. But Keegan seemed to understand their thoughts and corrected them.

“It's not what you’re thinking, it coughed up a large silver ball. It looked like a massive pearl. It must have come from the beast.”

Something clicked in Grud's mind. He recalled the issue of the aetherium sphere. It could only be that he thought himself. Harrisman's theory was right was correct, the dungeon beast that ate the aetherium sphere. Harrisman sat there nodding, he also came to the same conclusion but neither he or Harrison were going to divulge that information lest the forces that wanted that sphere back might hear of it and come looking for it.

“Well, I reckon that silver ball saved our lives.”

Keegan said as a by-thought.

“Why do you say that?”

“Before, that dragon wanted to eat us. But the moment it got its eyes on that silver ball it went all gaga and simply ignored us. After a while of humming to itself and staring at the silver ball, it suddenly became suspicious of our motives and asked if we intended claiming its treasure.”

“Let me guess, you said no.”

“Damn right we did sir. It then became so happy it totally ignored us and flew off with the ball.”

“I see. You wouldn’t perhaps know in which direction it flew off?”

“Let me see… if I had to say, most likely southeast.”

Grud nodded. In the mental map in his mind the dragon headed directly to the dwarf’s mountain. The same dwarves that ‘apparently’ had problems with a particular dragon, forcing them to come to Hafeld City.

Grud bid farewell to the Sunkiss team, telling them to get a bath and a good sleep, seeing it was already deep into the night already. Grud however didn’t sleep yet, he called Harrisman to talk with him in his office.

“I have to say that Sunkiss are the luckiest team I ever heard of. They survived two attacks from that beast that even the Red Back’s couldn’t defeat and then a red dragon on top of that.”

Said Harrisman when they were alone.

“I agree. Hopefully that luck continues for them.”

He poured Harrisman a drink and talked a bit about the sphere.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I think it’s time for me to come clean with our mayor. But before we do that, I need you to send a message for me.”

“Why do I think the mayor isn’t going to like what you’re going to write?”

He chuckled.

“You’re right. Because the family are going to find out we have a sphere lying around, while they sort out that dragon at the same time.”

“You get to do two things at once.”

“Definitely. By the way, I have another job for you. Do you have any contacts with the dwarfs, somewhere where you can get information not privy to most?”

“I do have a few contacts that owe me a favour or two. What would you like me to do?”

“I want you to find out the true reason our dwarf friends left their mountain to come here for their tournament.”

“You mean it wasn’t for our beer?”

They laughed at their own joke.

“Seriously. I have a suspicion there is more to it our red dragon incident that we should be aware of.”

The next day, Hafeld’s frumpy mayor got another unsolicited visit from the guild master he so despised. His half-baked smile radiated his unhappy demeanour.

“Guild master. I apologise that I cannot reciprocate your enthusiasm for surprise visits.”

“Please don’t trouble yourself mayor, the enthusiasm is all mine.”

The mayor fumed at the wordplay obviously levelled at him. Every time the guild master entered his office, he developed a deeper dislike for the man. It got to the point he even entertained thoughts of ridding the man with extreme prejudice. But the guild master’s next few words blew his thoughts out of the water.

“I’ll get to the point to my visit. We recently became aware that the beast that troubled our lands managed to eat an aetherium sphere. No doubts the reason we had so many problems was due to the growth the beast enjoyed, thanks to that sphere.”

The mayor choked on his own spittle, but the Grud ignored him and continued.

“The red dragon currently residing in the same mountain as the dwarfs that visited us recently, ate that beast and flew away with the sphere. We assume it headed back to its cave with the sphere.”

The mayor seemed to get his wits together and launched a typical political disinformation scheme.

“That’s very amusing, but what has that got to do with me?”

Grud smiled at how predictable the mayor was, trapped in his own sense of superiority.

“Good question indeed. But regardless, and as you may not be aware, as a guild master, I am dictated by law to inform His Majesty of any sightings of aetherium spheres, even suspected ones. Before coming here, I sent a letter informing His Majesty of the existence of the sphere and included the issue of the dungeon break most likely being the result of the sphere’s presence.”

Grud wasn’t sure but he swore the mayor started turning odd shades of blue. He didn’t give the mayor time to recover though and swept in for the coup de grace.

“I’m sure the royal family would be ‘stoked’ to hear a red dragon now holds an aetherium sphere and I expect they will spare no expense at finding out how one arrived in Hafeld’s surrounds. Imagine for a moment what they will do when they find the person that caused one of the most powerful tools a kingdom could hold, to fall into the possession of a dragon.”

“I, I, I… “

“I’m sure we’ll have a speedy reply from the royal palace soon. I thought that I should inform you as mayor and to tell you to expect a royal visit soon. On another issue, with everything that has happened of late, I am planning to be taking some well-deserved leave soon and will not be available for about three months. I hear that Lord Charles is still handing out noble titles on that expedition to start a port on the east coast, I’m sure he’ll be generous to you if you know of any people interested in going there. Oh dear, look at the time. I so enjoy our chats, but I better get going. Don’t worry about me, I’ll let myself out as usual.”

And Grud closed the door behind him. He hadn’t walked far down the corridor when he heard an explosion of expletives from the office that could peel paint off the walls. Not even the thick doors of the office could hide the mayor’s unhappiness. Even the mayor’s personal secretary that came scurrying down the corridor towards Grud could hear him.

When the personal secretary heard the mayor’s foul language from down the corridor, he immediately dreaded the fallout from whatever upset the man. Inevitably, yet another month’s pay would be docked as punishment for a perceived wrong. He hated placating the mayor because inevitably he would suffer as a result but from experience, he knew better than to leave the man to stew. As he hurried towards the mayors’ office a very satisfied looking guild master walked towards him. The secretary connected the dots and realised the cause of his employer’s outburst.

Surprisingly, the guild master indicated that he wished to speak to him and so he stopped, curious to know the man’s reason.

“You’re the mayor’s personal secretary, Bartland, correct?”

“Yes, guild master.”

“Please call me Grud. All my friends do.”

Barland felt shocked. Something out of his understanding was happening and he didn’t know how to reciprocate, but he quickly compensated.

“Very well… Grud. How can I help you?”

“I believe we may be looking for a new mayor soon. I would be more than happy to help if you needed a reference for the role.”

“I, I, I will remember that.”

“Excellent, I don’t like good people going to waste.”

And Grud walked on, even more pleased with himself. He didn’t need to see the secretary watching him with stunned awe. Grud wasn’t stupid, he knew Bartland was Harrisman’s informant about the aetherium sphere. If Bartland was savvy enough to pass that little bit of information on, he would make a fine mayor indeed. What better time to butter up the next mayor.

A week later, Sir Flintbane, leader of the mountain dwarfs read a priority letter from the Hafeld City adventurer guild master. While reading it, he enjoyed a stiff drink, the mountain dwarfs finest. Not the watered-down stuff that guild in Hafeld passed off as drink. But he stopped mid drink as he got to the part where the guild master demanded ten barrels of their finest per month.

Sir Flintbane, checked the back of the letter and investigated the envelope to see if he missed the money transfer that should have come with the letter. But something was missing. Concerned, he continued reading the letter.

Sir Flintbane you old fart. I warned you that if I found out what you were up to, I would make you pay for the trouble you caused me while you trashed my guild and our city. I don’t care what you decided to do with this letter after this because you better deliver that drink order every month on time or else certain dwarves are going to find out that you tried to gas a red dragon out from his cave so that you could loot its treasure. I’m sure you’ll discover all those family relations you never knew you had.

I recently also happened to hear a rumour that those reclusive northern forest elves in Helfen City were recently attacked by a particularly irate red dragon. I’m sure they would love to find out why a red dragon arrived out of nowhere and destroyed years of their harvest, and you know how long those elves hold a grudge, don’t you?

I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if we have an understanding.

Your friend,

Grud.

The dwarf first sat there fuming but slowly he thought about the letter and to be honest, he made more than a few gold plates out of that gold horde. Of course, he only took a small amount in comparison, he didn’t want to deal with a livid dragon with a personal grudge. Elves held a long grudge, but dragons were another realm of pain.

He laughed to himself. At least they knew where to get the good stuff. Yeah, he would give them the drink without holding them to account. But then, he could always find a reason to hold another big dwarf festival in Hafeld City. Despite Hafeld’s lacklustre drink, the dwarfs had great fun there, albeit at the mayor’s expense.

Grud sat in his office in the adventurer guild, swirling the drink in his cup, and appreciating the nosey undertones of top-quality alcohol that only dwarves could produce. Ten barrels arrived right on time and the guild would enjoy them for a long while to come. More barrels would arrive each month and they might even sell a few barrels to some folks in town and make a good profit from it too.

He put his feet on the table, leaned back on his chair and watched the goings on below from his office up on the mezzanine floor. He sighed in satisfaction, that was life with an adventurer guild.