“Come on Aisha~, just try it, I promise it’s good!”
Aisha glared at Lizali then back at the plate set in front of her, “You see, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just… I really don’t trust you…”
Lizali pressed further, raising her voice slightly, “I know the food here is vastly different from the outside world, but that’s only because it is a recreation of lost recipes that the outside world doesn’t know about. We found them in books that survived from the old era. Out of all of the recipes we recovered, this ‘pizza’ one is by far my favorite.”
Feeling mounting pressure, Aisha asserted her stance, “Liz, I am NOT eating that with that yellow demon fruit on it.”
“YES, you are! It is objectively the correct way to eat it!”
“NO I AM NOT! THAT FRUIT IS EVIL INCARNATE”
“Why do you hate it so much?!”
Aisha, frustrated, exclaimed, “I don’t have to justify myself to you! So quit asking!”
Lizali relented slightly, proposing, “Alright, fine! Then in exchange for me ceasing to pester you about it, let me touch your tail and ears!”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU!” Aisha raged.
The two of them were now standing, staring daggers at each other, waiting for the other to say something so they could counter. Interrupting their standoff, Aislin came running down the street shouting to them, “Hey! Can you two help me out?!”
The two of them shouted furiously, “WHAT DO YOU WANT!?”
Aislin slowed her approach, and threatened, “Oh? It seems like the children have forgotten their manners when speaking to their elders…? Perhaps I should re-educate them?”
Lizali and Aisha instantly straightened up. Liz nudged Aisha, prompting her to blurt out, “W-what’s going on Aislin?”
Aisha sneered at Lizali. Aislin ignored it and explained, “You see, I was watching Novos when out of the blue, it seemed he decided he wanted to go exploring.”
Aisha’s eyes widened, “Aislin, you didn’t…”
“Hey! Not like it was on purpose!” Aislin interjected, defending herself.
“You lost a dragon in the middle of a town!”
Lizali, feeling a bit lost, asked, “Why is it such a big deal? Novos is rather small, so it's not like he would be able to do major damage, right?”
Aisha grabbed Lizali by the shoulders as she panicked, “You don’t understand! That ‘small’ dragon can change its size at will! He likes to stay smaller so he can sit on Zycor's shoulders, for whatever reason, but his actual size is pretty big now!”
Lizali imagined Novos growing bigger suddenly on top of a building and crushing it along with the people inside. Her face went white. Panicked, Lizali said in a calm tone, “We have to find that dragon…”
“Alright then, have fun finding him, you two!” Aisha sarcastically exclaimed, walking away.
“Woah, where are you going? Are you not gonna help me?”
Aisha shrugged, “Listen, this is your blunder Aislin. I don’t really feel like running all over town looking for Novos.”
Aislin stressed, “Why does she have to choose now to be stubborn and stuck up?! I swear, I hate rich kids!”
Lizali thought for a moment, then had a malicious smile creep upon her face. She sighed antagonistically, “Oh well~, I suppose that is to be expected. I guess what Baz said about Aisha was right after all~.”
Aisha instantly froze in her tracks, turning her head back slightly. Aislin, whispering, inquired, “What did he say this time?”
Lizali, with the same hushed volume, responded, “Hell if I know, I am just making something up on the spot.”
Aislin covered her mouth, trying to contain her laughter. Seeing that, Aisha assumed what Baz had said was either really bad or embarrassing. She marched over to Lizali and Aislin, grabbing the former’s shirt, and demanded, “Tell me what that green mass of useless flesh said!”
Lizali shrugged, smirking, “Who knows? I might be inclined to tell you IF you are able to catch Novos before I do~.”
Aisha released Lizali and asked, “And what happens if you catch him first then?”
Lizali fixed her shirt as best she could in an attempt to appear composed, responding, “Oh, nothing major~. I just want what I have been asking for, the chance to touch your tail and ears.”
Aisha turned to walk away again, stating, “Absolutely not.”
Liz shrugged again, “Then I guess Baz was right.”
Aisha fumed at the thought of whatever Baz might have said. Seeing her stopping yet again, now furious, Lizali knew she had won. She slung her backpack onto her back while she goaded further, “It’s ok, I will go catch Novos on my own.”
Aisha grabbed her shoulder to stop Lizali, a terrifying look in her eye. Aisha seethed, “No way. I will be getting that damned dragon long before you.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Lizali excitedly clapped her hands together and enthusiastically proclaimed, “Awesome! Then let’s get started!”
Lizali pulled one of the cords on her backpack, opening up the bottom portion of it. The faint sound of gears and the glow of runes could be seen and heard coming from the backpack. A large gust of wind magic spewed forth from it, launching her into the sky. By the time Aisha managed to open her eyes again, Lizali was already on the rooftops, hopping between them with her backpack.
Refusing to lose at this point, Aisha removed her suppression ring and tossed it to Aislin, shouting, “Hold this for me!”
Aisha began running after Lizali, transforming gradually, and getting faster and faster. Fully transformed, she leaped onto the rooftops and began to run on all fours. She quickly caught up and passed Lizali, who was smirking. Aisha scoffed and barreled ahead, far too angry to consider any approach other than brute forcing it.
Lizali slowed down, and began to think. Where would a dragon run off to in the town? While she pondered about where Novos could have gone, she had an epiphany. Most of the time she would see Novos, he would be around Zycor’s neck, napping. So, it would stand to reason that he might be looking for a place to nap with sufficient heat. Lizali immediately began looking around the city when she spotted one of the more brass and copper covered roofs, belonging to one of the local forges. She giggled, assuming she had the win in the bag.
Aisha ran across the rooftops, one after the other, finally hopping down to catch her breath. Panting, she thought to herself, “D-damn it! Where… where could that damn… damn dragon be! Ah, my feet and hands are killing me as well! Those rooftops are so freakin’ hot!”
After thinking about the heat of the rooftops, Aisha soon came to the same conclusion as Lizali had. And because she did, Aisha realized there was zero chance Lizali didn’t figure it out as well. Panicked, she quickly hopped back onto the rooftops and looked around. Sure enough, she spotted Lizali hopping towards a brass and copper roof that had steam pouring out from a chimney made of the same. Aisha snapped, “I AM NOT LOSING!”
Lizali landed on the forge’s rooftop and, as she had thought, saw Novos taking a nap. When she approached him, Novos opened his eyes slightly. Lizali stopped to think about what to do in order to prevent him from running away. She remembered how the party would always talk to Novos and he seemed to understand them. Taking this into account, she made an assumption that Novos could understand her. Lizali took a deep breath and calmly began, “Hey there Novos, are you having a good nap?”
Novos opened his eyes fully and lifted his head to look at Lizali. She gave her best effort to keep her excitement of winning under wraps as she continued, “Well, I just so happen to have a way better spot I know of~. If you come with me, I could let you hang out there. You just have to come over here!”
Lizali and Novos had a silent stand off for a few seconds while the latter pondered the proposal. Novos eventually stood up and began making his way over to Lizali, seemingly having decided to accept her offer. Right before he made it to her, Aisha cried out, “LIZALI, KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE LIZARD!”
This startled both Lizali and Novos, the latter retreating slightly. “Oh come on Aisha, I was THIS close!”
Novos’ head darted towards Lizali and stared at her. Lizali, remembering Novos could understand her, bluntly mumbled, “Oh crap…”
Novos, with attitude, turned, spread his wings, and began his escape. Aisha crashed into the roof, just missing Novos and nearly knocking Lizali off.
“Hey! Watch where you are going! You nearly knocked me off! Not to mention you are causing property damage!”
Moving some of the rubble off of her, Aisha stood up and scoffed, “First off, with that backpack of yours, you and I both know you would have been fine. Secondly, I don’t want to hear the walking artillery corps lecture me on ‘property damage.’”
While the two of them argued, Novos watched on a few rooftops away. When Lizali and Aisha noticed him watching, Novos made a smug expression. “Is he mocking us?” Lizali asked.
“Oh, absolutely. He is Zycor’s partner…” Aisha grumbled in response.
Novos turned to fly away, but made sure to smack his rear with his tail before he did. Aisha and Lizali, in unison, exploded, “I AM SO GOING TO CATCH YOU!”
The two of them proceeded to chase Novos around the city for hours on end, being outsmarted and toyed with the entire time. They finally managed to corner him in an alley, both Aisha and Lizali ready to pounce on him. As they did, Novos’ body sparked with electricity, and he zapped their legs, causing them to lose their footing and slam into the alley’s wall. Having jumped above them, Novos landed on their backs and walked to the exit of the alley. He looked back at the two fools who had tried to catch him, then looked ahead and danced off, happy with himself.
Aisha and Lizali sat on the ground catching their breath, both fuming. “I say we make a truce and get something to drink.” Lizali suggested.
Aisha nodded, “Sure, anything for a break…”
Lizali helped Aisha up and brought her to a smaller store that sells custom fruit drinks. The two of them spent a few minutes deciding on what to buy, finding a place to sit afterwards.
Sipping on her assorted fruit blend drink, Aisha beamed, “Wow! What is this, and why is it SO good?!”
Lizali, setting down her citrus blend drink, giggled, “It’s called a ‘smoothie.’ There are similar drinks elsewhere in the world, but this specific technique was found along with the ‘pizza’ recipe and others. They really are awesome.”
Aisha set her drink down and sighed exhaustedly, “Sheesh~... I cannot believe we were bamboozled by a five year old.”
“Novos is five?!”
“Oh right, I sometimes forget you haven’t been around that long. I swear, sometimes it feels like you have always been a part of the party, and other times it feels like you just joined. Anyways, Zycor got Novos when he was around fifteen, and seeing as how the former is now twenty, that would make Novos five.”
Lizali made a serious expression, interlacing her hands and resting her forehead on them. “Aisha… are you really telling me that both you and I got outsmarted and lost to a child?”
Aisha leaned back in her chair and sighed once more, “It would seem s-.”
Stopping mid sentence, Aisha stared across the street, still leaning back in her chair. On the roof of the opposing building lay Novos, watching the two of them, his tail swaying back and forth.
Refusing to rip her eyes off of that ‘stupid dragon,’ Aisha calmly stated, “I’m gonna kill him…”
“Aisha, you can’t kill him, think about how upset Zycor would be!”
“I wasn’t referring to the dragon…”
“Ah, yes. I want to tell you that it’s wrong… but after today, gotta say I agree.”
Aisha suddenly sat up straight and, in a whisper, declared, “Wait, Liz! I just had an idea!”
She immediately got up and went to the owner of the smoothie shop and asked if they had something sweet. After a few minutes of discussing and forking over more than what she probably should have, Aisha came out of the shop with a circular piece of soft bread with a hole in the middle.
She raised it towards Novos and urged, “Come over here, Novos~. If you do, I will give you this bread circle with sugar on it~.”
“It’s called a ‘donut.’” Lizali corrected.
Aisha slowly moved her head to face Lizali and, through gritted teeth, chastised, “Not now ‘miss know-it-all.’”
Novos, curious, hopped off the rooftop and made his way cautiously over to Aisha. He accepted the gift from her and began consuming it. Aisha slowly reached for Novos to pick him up when he suddenly dodged, jumping over her, using her back as a springboard, and landing on Lizali’s lap. He patted her lap a few times and then laid down to nap.
Aisha stood up, fuming. She turned around and saw where Novos had ended up, followed by noticing the smug look on Lizali’s face.
“Don’t you dare…”
“Hehe, I win…”
“NO WAY THIS COUNTS!”