The shot whistled right past her head, impaling the thatch wall next to her. I took a few steps closer, kicking the hooded figure one last time before approaching her. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" I asked as everyone else stayed far away from us as we both approached each other.

"Son-"

"You have no right to call me that! I-"

"I didn't know..." And with that, my rage fell.

"H-huh?"

She suddenly broke down into sobs in front of me as she suddenly wrapped her hands around me, and buried her head into my chest. "I swear, I didn't know... t-they told you died in a dragon attack, that you tried rescuing t-the sacrifice... i-I didn't know-"

"That I was the sacrifice." I muttered as she sobbed into my arms, all the rage and anger seemed to wash out of me as I wrapped my hands around her back. "I-I almost killed you... I-I"

"Don't you dare! You... y-you could have died because of me... You could've... I'm so sorry... forgive me... p-please... forgive m-me..." She sobbed. "I was supposed to protect you... I-I-" I pulled her tighter against me as I felt my own tears fall.

"It wasn't your fault... i-it wasn't, I-I... t-that must have been horrible... to lose your son..."

"B-but i-it is..."

"No... it's theirs..." I say as I motion to the cloaked figures on the floor, one trying to crawl away.

"No... i-it's all of us... we've let this gone on for too long-"

"What are you talking about, Stream, if we don't follow through with the sacrifices then we'll all die!" One of the crowd cried out as I saw a few people trying to get to Berry.

"Step the fuck away from him right now!" I said as I aimed my crossbow while wiping some tears off my face.

The pair quickly put their hands up, one pair in the crowd met Berry's eyes before quickly looking away. I assumed his parents, but they knew what was going on unlike my mother. I still managed to breath out a sigh in relief, knowing my mother didn't abandon me after all, but what about dad?

The dragonmancer's groans of pain quickly took me out of my momentarily trance. I quickly picked up the smaller guy and quickly got on top of his as I put both my hands on his neck and pressed down.

"W-wait... p-please!" He gasped.

"Admit the truth, and maybe I'll consider letting you live."

He nodded frantically as I let him go. "Fine! We're treasure smugglers! We found some stuff from the Mountain dragons and kept to ourselves! We didn't have to share if there was no one to share it with, so we came up with the sacrifices!" He looked up at me with pleading eyes. "So now you let me live, right?" I looked at the rest of the crowd, taking in their silent shock.

My eyes widened as my mother suddenly rushed with a scream and started beating the man relentlessly with her fists. Her fist making contact with his face again and again, each time masking her fist and his face with more and more blood. She didn't say any words, all that escaped her lips was just a pure and guttural scream.

Everyone else had a look of shock and anger at the Dragonmancers as well, I could hear as they muttered names and members of their families they had also lost. It soon turned into an uproar, all roaring for the Dragonmancer's lives. Watching the frauds getting torn apart by the mob was tempting, but I had a better idea.

"Wait." I quickly grabbed her hand right before she could deliver another punch and finish him off. Her chest was heaving as she looked back at me with eyes filled with fury and tears. "Berry, think you can get the rope?"

The kid's eyes practically beamed as he went to get the rope from my steed.

The Dragonmancer's eyes turned wide.

"How many have been sacrificed for your damn treasure runs, no more... actually... maybe just two..." I said as I grabbed some of the rope and gagged them. "This will be the last sacrifice." I said with a smile.

They let out a muffled cry.

***

Me, Berry, my mother, and a few others I didn't recognize all watched as the Skywing followed the muffled cries of the tied up individuals. It picked the tree up as if it was a mere twig. The dragonmancer's cries increased, yet I couldn't help but smile as the dragon opened up its jaws and untied the rope, both of them screaming as they fell inside and then, gulp.

So many souls must have died because of them, it was fitting that they had fallen to the same fate they had put so many others in. No trial was needed, everyone agreed that they reaped what they sowed.

***

It didn't take long for half of the village to leave, probably too ashamed to stay but I didn't care as I just laid there, back in my old room. I let out a weak chuckle as I spotted some old drawings of the river and trees. "Mom..." I asked as she walked past.

"Y-yes son?" She asked, her eyes still wet from tears.

"Are you sure you want to stay?" I ask.

She put a hand over my own. "I already lost you once, I won't lose you ever again."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I wiped my own tears away before hugging her again. "Thank you... thank you so much for not abandoning me..." I sobbed into her as she patted my back.

***

I looked back down at the map of Talisman I had, the books I had recovered from Telikos at the side, and a page opened detailing blueprints of different weapons. "Rowan, you know sword combat, correct?" I asked the woman, her hair was matted and she hadn't washed in days due to being locked away as the next sacrifice.

She nodded. "I doubt we'll all end up like the dragonslayer."

I scoff. "I'm not asking you to make us dragonslayers, I've probably killed more dragons than that fool anyways." Damn him for causing the war of dragons, damn him for making us look more appetizing!

"We're going to need a town guard if we wanna make this a proper town, when we're ready, you'll be the captain in our guard. I'll see if I can get my friend, Ant, to help out as well. The gold the Dragonmancers have collected over our corpses can finally be put to something good, and it will more than compensate for his time."

"I doubt sword and bowman can do anything against a dragon."

"You're right, they're useless without thanatos, and thanatos is going to be a lot fucking harder now that Pebble is gone. SO the value has definitely gone up." I announced.

"Thanatos?"

"A venom formed inside basilisks that used to live in the desert, toxic enough to kill a dragon with just a few arrows."

"How are we supposed to get the money to buy that stuff? That won't be cheap and the Dragonmancer's gold won't last us forever."

"We can provide something else." I unrolled the scroll of paper and revealed a complete map of Pyrrhia I had transcripted from the original stolen one in the Dragonmancer's lair, I of course had translated the parchment. "The Dragonmancer could have lived as kings if they realized how valuable this shit would be if they just sold it." I say as I look at the teacher. "This I bet will also create an influx of people who will wish to learn here, after all, we will be one of the only villages with a way of actually protecting ourselves from true dragon attacks that remain. People will want to learn, especially the maps for future merchants. I want you to gather candidates you believe are fit for teaching, and then come back to me on your ideas of expanding the school in three days' time. Did you get all that?"

She nods and quickly hurries off.

"We'll of course also need to build up the town, fortify our shelters, create a defense that isn't just fodder and then expand our trade."

"You have this pretty thought out, don't you?" Stream asked with a proud smile on her face, a weak smile though she still felt guilt for all the others who hadn't returned like me. She deserved it, they all did... but then again they didn't know...

I shook my head as I turned away from my mother and went back to the town map. "So I was thinking we could create a small military force, just to enforce and maintain the law. There's no doubt that some cultists will probably still try to take over, so we need to fish them out before they can cause any more damage." I say as I wrap up my papers. "I think that'll be all for today, tomorrow we'll start construction on the towers and spiked buildings. Have a good night everyone, tomorrow, we'll also throw a proper funeral for those we lost."

I saw an amulet wrapped around Berry's neck by his father, he accepted with empty eyes before walking to me as he nodded at my maps.

I thought for a moment before speaking. "The age of Talisman ends today, it's now time for the age of Amulet to begin."

***

It was quiet as everyone lit candles in the day, candles surrounded the stone graves that now littered the ground, there were too many. "I should have made them suffer more." I growled weakly as I thought about the Dragonmancers. I watched as I heard people cry at some of the graves and while others just paid their respects by lighting the candles by the stone markers.

"You made sure it won't happen to anyone else, you should be proud of that." Stream comforted me as she put a hand to my shoulder.

"Mom... how did you... believe there lies all this time... how could you?" I asked her as I hugged her as we visited my father's grave.

"We thought it worked... we thought they kept us safe..."

"No, I'll make sure that nothing like this happens again."

"Um... you?" I heard a demanding yet confused voice, where I saw a girl a year younger than myself. She was tan and had dark curly hair, lots of freckles, brown eyes and moss green clothes. Her sword was already out and pointed towards me. "Are you River?" She demanded.

I drew my crossbow. "Who's asking-"

"Wren?" I heard from Rowan?

"Rowan?" I heard another voice from behind, seeing a guy just a year younger with dark hair and had a bit of muscle wearing green pants and a peachy tunic.

"Leaf? It's you! You're alive!" Rowan suddenly hugged him tightly as me and Wren watched. Standing beside him was a girl with big brown eyes with long dark hair flowing to the back, she looked about a couple years younger than myself. She wore some pink clothes and had some jewels attached to her necklace. "River, they're my siblings, it's okay!" Rowan quickly exclaimed as she frantically waved me to put my arm down.

I glared at Wren for a moment, her eyes more suspicious than my own, but I put the crossbow down. But I kept the bolt loaded, Toucan's vision did say Wren did have a dragon. However, he did lie about it, so who knows what was true and what wasn't? "You're Wren, huh? Palm told me about you."

"Palm? Oh, you're one of those teardrop ones."

I nodded.

"Where are the Dragonmancers, I-"

"I killed them."

She stared at me for a few seconds, but there was a faint smirk of amusement. "How?" She asked, she felt no remorse, she was just curious.

"Shot the first one in the head, decided to do one last sacrifice, but this time-" She finished for me.

"They were on the menu." She smiled. "So what's going on?" She asked as she saw the candles and markers.

"We're mourning... for everyone that we've lost during the Dragonmancers."

"Oh... that's nice, I guess." She said, sounding unsure. Her feet shifted awkwardly on the floor.

"You, you aren't really a people person, are you?" I ask.

She shook her head.

"People... can be monsters, just look at the markers." She stated as her voice got quiet while she looked at the large amount of stone graves. "Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"A monster?"

I took a few seconds to think, I've been through a lot, but the worst thing I did was kill the Dragonmancers and that was justice, not cruelty. But to survive in this world, we've all done things we aren't proud of. I wince as I think about killing Toucan, maybe if I talked to him more, then all of us would still be together. I thought about Scorpion, if I saved her how would life have differed, would it have been better? "I hope not." I say quietly.

She paused as she glared at me, her eyes only softening a bit. "At least you're honest." She scoffed quietly.

"Are you going to be staying?"

She shakes her head. "With these brainless idiots?"

I crack a smile while my mom protests.

"Hey-" she starts.

"You deserve it." I quickly state.

"I know." She deflates sadly.

"So, you were also a sacrifice?" I asked.

She let out a laugh. "Yeah, but I managed to wiggle myself free."

"I bit."

She chuckled before she and the other two started to walk away. "I'll see you around, River."

"You too Wren." I gave her a nod as I turned to leave.

I saw out of the corner of my eye as their parents tried to converse with them, only for Wren to put her hand out and keep her distance. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I didn't need to.

I took a deep breath and looked back at the old Dragonmancer's lair, as people tore it apart, wood by wood. "Come on, we got work to do." I say but my mother stays at my father's grave. I sigh. "It was a tragedy in the past, we must now make our fortune in the future." I say before walking away, but not before lighting a candle. "I wonder what you'd think of me now, dad..."