Me and my group approach the castle. I have been given permission to come and go from the last time I've been here. I still request and audience to meet with the king. Brick stayed behind, he wouldn't have helped our case and it gives him time to get reacquainted with his tribe. He is also watching over the dwarves. I doubt they'll attempt to run seeing as I just attacked a crowd of people to free a single elementalist. They're probably still struck with fear.

Waiting for an audience with the king, I start to get nervous. If he decides to attack me because of my attack on a citizen, I don't have one of my strongest fighters. The group consists of me, Sock, Pokodo, two gnolls and a demon tribe. The demon tribe member is probably the only demon race who gets along with Brick. Seeing as he was adventuring with him for so long, Brick must have saved his life multiple times. We are called forwards and enter the audience room.

The king is still sitting there with the bored look until he sees who entered. He sits up in his throne and looks far more attentive now. I can hold his attention now that he thinks I'm a demigod. I kneel and wait for him to address me.

“So, what might I owe this visit to? Come to request more troops to help in the war against the pirates again?”

“No your majesty, I've just come to tell you myself before it gets back to you through other means what I've done.”

His eyebrows perk up, then he asks.

“Oh? What might that be?”

“While buying slaves at the auction. I was forced to kill a person to acquire some needed elementalists for my mission to slay the pirates.”

He gave me a look, like. “Is that all?” Then he spoke again. With a laugh in his throat.

“You kill one person and expect me to retaliate? You've easily saved a thousand lives already in town. You could kill two dozen people, every day for three months before I would act against you... Just don't do that and we're fine.”

“Thank you your majesty. I just didn't want their to be any miscommunication between us. Accounts could get mixed up from exactly what I've done to that person… Fear tends to distort facts.”

He looked excited again. Then spoke up.

“What do you mean?”

“Well your majesty… I killed him with a single attack while I was a dragon. I would just like to clarify that, so if you here anything different than that it wouldn't be distorted from what I actually did.”

The king stands up out of his chair, then yells.

“Wait a moment! You can turn into a dragon?!”

“...Yes your majesty… I was trying to keep it a secret from the enemies but it might get out that I am indeed a dragon.”

He sits back down… Thinking for a moment. Then speaks.

“Can you show me...”

I turn into a dragon, even as a tiny dragon I am still impressive. It makes me being a demigod more believable. I speak again in my dragon form.

“The man I killed was trying to stop my goal the god of life put before me. I can't allow anyone to get between me and saving almost extinct races.”

The king looks at me surprised again. This is the first time anyone in the kings throne room have ever seen a dragon, no doubt. I hope none of them get jumpy. The king speaks again.

“I've heard… That dragons can take the form of humans. To think you would take the form of a child though.”

“It is far easier to fool enemies as a child, it also helps conceal my true power… I hate bringing out my dragon form unless absolutely necessary since armies might seek me out to kill me… Of course this doesn't mean I wont honor our agreement to help the army after I'm through with the pirates your majesty.”

...He sits there for another moment… Absorbing all the new information given too him. He speaks again.

“I understand. Thank you for the information. I would of course not believed anyone who said you were a dragon except with proof. Now that I have proof I hope you'll become an asset in the upcoming war.”

As we're about to leave he speaks again.

“I'll send a few of my men to get some gold for you. I haven't paid you for your work on the sewer lines. Everyone loves the new system in place and all the quarters are far happier with how it is now.”

We wait in the waiting room for his men. They bring a sack of gold with too many coins to count without dumping out the bag! I'm going to guess around one hundred gold coins easily… It seems slightly cheap, considering the fact that I saved so many lives and money from the changes I've made to the city. It is fine though, the king is just a copper pincher. It is a good habit for someone in power to have.

Breathing a sigh of relief, my group leaves the castle. Heading back to my house, thanking our luck the occurrences that just happened were taken care of without anything repercussions. Making it back in my house I see the elementalist and dwarves scrubbing it down. The elementalists making water to clean the floors with. The dwarves on their hands and knees cleaning the floor… Where is Brick at?

The dwarves and elementalists see me. I see fear in their expressions. Why didn't Brick explain what just happened… Seriously where is Brick!? I call out of the few in front of me, I address the elementalists first than the dwarves in their language.

“Elementalists, where did Brick go? The giant elementalist I left to guard you.”

One of them, most likely the leader of the captured squad spoke up.

“He left to buy us food. We haven't eaten in days.”

“Ahh okay… So why are you cleaning? He must have told you I'm not strict.”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“You just freed us from being killed in front of our comrades. We feel indebted to you.”

I address the dwarves next.

“Do any of you speak common?”

None of them answered me. Ok, so they didn't understand the conversations that Brick had and have been cleaning out of fear I might kill them if they didn't.

“You dwarves are free now. I only ask that you serve as my armies blacksmiths for a single year to pay off your debts. You're more than welcome to stay with us after the year is over though.”

The mother of the dwarves whimpers out a few words.

“You… Killed that man so easily… How do we know you won't kill and eat us?”

“Well, I killed that man because he tried to buy that elementalist there just to kill her. It didn't seem fair to me so I killed him instead. If you were strong enough to do that wouldn't you do the same thing?”

“...I guess so… You were talking about an army though… I don't see an army… We… We also don't know how to be blacksmiths.”

“Ah we'll head there after we eat. I'll teach you all blacksmithing once we get to our fortress. If none of you have any talent for it, I can have you mine to repay your debts. ”

A few minutes go by. I introduce myself to both groups and talk with them. Hearing their names, I almost immediately forget them… I'm bad with names and dwarves have weird names… The elementalists are all named after nature. Twig, Branch, Pebble, names like that. The main female who spoke up was named Leaf… That is going to get confusing… I ask a question.

“How important are your names to you? I have a friend named Leaf as well, it might get confusing later if you both have the same name...”

“Names are very important to us. I can't change my name but you can call me whatever you like.”

“Do you mind if I call you Green then?”

“Not at all, you just saved the lives of a dozen elementalists, you can call me Shitface for all I care.”

...She is far more foul mouthed and talkative than Brick. I almost laughed when she said that. I managed to get out.

“We'll stick with Green for now.”

Brick enters again. He's carrying a few pre-packaged meals. It would have taken to long to cook anything, so he bought meals for everyone with the rest of the money. I have under a gold left. The five silver I didn't spend at the auction was used and he only spent twenty copper to buy the food. I ended up with more money than I started with on this trip. After we eat we all head to the basement.

Sock heading through the portal first. When he does I hear the dwarves start to cry, then one speaks up.

“He is going to kill us! That rune their must instantly kill you!”

I laugh at the situation. Then speak to Brick.

“Can you head through and come back? These dwarves think that rune is going to kill them.”

Brick head's through. A few minutes later he reappears. I didn't expect the portals to be instant, to travel two weeks worth of distances and a matter of minutes is beyond impressive though. I speak up to comfort the dwarves.

“This is a teleport rune. Not a rune that is going to kill you. Please just trust me. If you don't believe me, one of you can go through and come back to prove it to the rest it wont kill them.”

The mother goes through next. A few minutes later she reappears… Now with that out of the way, we all continue to go through. Waiting around thirty seconds in between for the portal to recharge from the mana in the surrounding area. That might be the time it takes to transfer the person as well.

I'm not exactly sure how they work. There aren't any experts on teleport runes, since they are an extinct enchant. I just have to be thankful for my luck at acquiring them. I leave a single elementalist at the house. She'll act as both a maid and a guard for the house. I'll send a few troops to help guard the house as well.

Hilda gave birth recently. Her entire pregnancy was barely four months. She gave birth to six children. All goblins but… They aren't normal goblins… They're as cute as Gobber is handsome… Normal goblins are as ugly as you can get… Even when Gobber was a goblin he was no different from normal goblins… I wonder if my presence around him made the babies different than normal…

With Gobber becoming a new parent, I'll leave him to father the children. I don't need every single one of my generals for the first few missions against the pirates anyways. I approach him, he's holding all six babies, he is crying happily at the same time. He has a big dumb smile on his face like old Gobber would have. They're all sleeping, I whisper to him.

“Those boys are going to grow up to be strong troops aren't they?”

“What do you mean? All six are girls.”

“……………………………………. Are you sure?…………………………………….”

“Yea, why wouldn't I be?”

“Well… It's just that, I've never heard of or read about a female goblin… For you to have six children, all females… I… I don't know how to even answer that. That is as weird as Hilda giving birth to six griffinlings.”

Gobber laughed loudly at what I said. Waking up his babies. I retreat away just in time to hear Hilda yell at him to not get caught.

As I ran for my life. I knew that soon our troops would be in the ocean. There isn't anything stopping us now and we need to do a few more things once we're seaworthy. I need to capture an enemy ship. Then make another ocean base on Greed's island. Getting his hidden gold will be a huge benefit to our armies. Also heading to the ninja's island to try to gain them as an ally might be a good idea also.