{Alek’s POV}

He set down the heavy basket, glad to rest his arms for a moment. Backpacks would be better than these crude baskets. But he was afraid to ask Arthur. Alek had secretly watched Arthur fighting the Behir. He practically felt Arthur’s radiating anger when he tore the creature in half, sending blood and guts everywhere. He had quietly legged it back to camp after. The satyr would be lying if he said he wasn’t avoiding Arthur on purpose. Truthfully, the red dragon scared him. Scared that if he said the wrong thing, failed a task given to him, that he would be killed. Snuffed out without a second glance like that behir.

But the logical part of him said that Arthur had done nothing wrong so far, and had been treating him fairly and with respect. The dragon had even put him in charge of his minions! He had asked to stay, so why was he suddenly getting cold feet? Alek sighed internally.

Alek was pulled from his brooding thoughts when the eight goblins caught up to him and set their goblin-sized baskets near his.

Alek turned to all of them and said, “Ok goblins, good haul today. This much fruit should last us a few good days. Bivran will command you now, I’m going on break.” The goblins chittered goodbye and left as a group. Alek stretched his arms and entered his tent. He flopped down onto his sleeping bag and let out an exhausted sigh.

Alone on his sleeping bag, his thoughts turned back to Arthur. When he was conversing with him, he sometimes felt as if he weren’t talking to a dragon. Arthur sort of gave off human vibes the more Alek had talked to him. Far from what the legends say about red dragons. It made him lower his guard, and his worries of being killed by him were diminished because he couldn’t see the civil dragon killing him for no reason. Alek felt stupid, worrying about seemingly nothing. But the doubt stubbornly remained no matter how he tried to throw it away.

Alek made up his mind. He would talk to Arthur and cast away his worries and doubts once and for all. Alek closed his eyes and fell into a fitful rest, thinking of what he would say.

{Davit’s POV}

This was perhaps the most interesting day of Davit’s life. Except for maybe the unicorn crisis. Saying the druids weren’t happy that day would be an understatement. Anyways, he watched Arthur testing out his new body, watched him getting used to shape change. The red had lied when he said he purposefully turned half-dragon. Arthur was sort of an open book to Davit, all the subtle body movements and embarrassment was caught rather effortlessly on his part. Was he just not used to shape change yet, and became half-dragon on accident? Or perhaps he didn’t want to become a human? No matter, the patient always gets their answers in the end.

He spoke to the weirdest dragon he’s ever met, saying, “If you’re done, how about you tell me your plan of action for taking down Caesar?” Arthur turned to him while he was flexing his fingers, saying in his deep and gravelly voice,

“Well, we go into his base and kill him, and then take all of his gold for ourselves. And release the slaves in the process.” A very simple plan, he’s never been challenged in battle. He’s done this same thing before, perhaps Arthur has taken out bandits in the past? And releasing the slaves and nothing else? That was rather noble for a red dragon.

He was piecing Arthur together by the moment. Davit replied, “Not so fast, dear Arthur. I know for a fact Caesar has a personal teleport scroll and as good as you are Arthur, he has many goons backing him up. By the time we rip through the cannon fodder, Caesar will be sipping tea in his private bunker on the other side of the world. We need to go in quiet-like and kill him before he can use it. And then we’re free to have some fun!” Arthur was quiet for a moment as he thought, and then he nodded agreeably, replying,

“If that’s true, then going in quietly would make the most sense. I appreciate the information, Davit.” Davit replied easily,

“Oh, you’re too kind. Shall we set off? Caesar is a few miles north of here. I suggest we shape change when we’re close and walk the rest of the way so they don’t see us.” Arthur nodded again, shape-changing back into his original form. He turned to his kobold and rumbled out,

“Come along Kaia. We have much work ahead of us.” The kobold replied with a quick, “Yes Sire- erm, I mean Arthur!” And hopped into his open hand.

Davit chuckled as he switched back to his original form as well. He had been planning on killing Caesar himself and taking his stuff. But this would be fun, and so so worth it. He went out of his lair, saying behind him, “Follow me! This is sure to be fun!”

{Kaia’s POV}

Kaia remained silent as the hooligan spoke to her god on the plan of attack, only replying when she was spoken to. As they flew through the sky, Kaia’s thoughts turned once more to when Arthur had asked her to ‘tone down the compliments.’ And to just call him Arthur! What was she doing wrong for him to ask her that? Was this a test of her loyalty, to see if she didn’t mean it when she complimented Arthur? Was her god just being modest in front of another dragon? Kaia would have to be careful with her words. Arthur’s feelings would come first, every time.

A small nugget of doubt and logic wormed its way into Kaia’s heart, whispering that Arthur was simply embarrassed. No, why would a god be embarrassed by praise? Arthur isn’t normal, it whispered again. Kaia shouldn’t be thinking about this, she was just a kobold! Kobolds were only supposed to follow their god’s will. She should focus on more important things, like this other dragon for example.

Kaia didn’t trust them, plain and simple. What if they planned to steal Arthur’s hoard, or betray him in some way? Kaia vowed to herself she would watch this Davit, and catch them in the act of doing something evil. Kaia usually revered dragons as gods, but this one was metallic, the polar opposite of dragons like Arthur.

Kaia was pulled from her thoughts when Davit shouted to Arthur, “Caesar has scouts this far out, so we should walk the rest of the way in our disguises!” Her god replied by simply nodding, following his lead. Kaia held on to his claws and enjoyed the rush of air as the two dragons swooped down to the ground. After they landed, she hopped to the ground and watched as both dragons instantaneously shifted into their humanoid guises. Davit said to the both of them, “The scouts I usually mess with are still pretty far from here, but I thought we should be safe. I wager we have a half-hour walk ahead of us at the very least.” Her god grumbled before replying,

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“Your caution is a good choice. Let’s continue on foot. Kaia, will you be fine to walk this long?” Both of the dragons turned to her, awaiting her response. Kaia replied evenly,

“I will be fine, Sire-Erm, Arthur. We kobolds have excellent endurance despite our small size.” She injected a little pride in her words as she said it. Davit smirked to himself about something and turned while lazily beckoning them. Arthur gave Kaia a reassuring nod before following Davit. Kaia sped up to stand beside her god before matching his pace.

Don’t worry, Arthur. I will make sure no harm comes to you.

{Arthur’s POV}

Along the peaceful walk through the grassland, Davit was filling Kaia and him with information on Caesar. To sum it up, Caesar is the guy to go to if you’re looking to either buy or sell slaves. His customers are mainly filled with noble humans. Caesar’s main base is a big underground dungeon, that sees dozens of new ‘products’ come and go every day. Even though slavery is outlawed, the human kingdom deems Caesar to not be a big enough threat to investigate and deal with, and that adventurers could handle it. The fact Caesar has not only survived but thrived proved he was at least competent. At this point, Arthur just wanted to get there and kill him. But if what Davit said was true, he would play carefully and do this correctly.

During the entire half-hour trek, Davit made jokes and occasionally asked Kaia and him questions, to which Arthur responded with one note sentences. He was never social besides D&D in his past life, and small talk always gave him a headache. Davit cracked another joke and Arthur unconsciously growled out, “Quiet.” With an almost hastily tacked on, “I would appreciate it Davit.” Davit replied,

“Of course.” Arthur could have sworn his smile was strained as he said it. He remembered information about copper dragons hating it when no one laughed at their jokes and other things along those lines. Well, Davit better deal with it. Kaia continued to be silent, simply watching Arthur as they plodded along.

The rest of the journey was made in silence, and the group finally spotted buildings in the distance after climbing up a small hill. Davit smiled and said, “Here it is. And I see a few guards out and about as well. So, as I’ve stated, the entrance is through the tavern cellar. I tell the password to the innkeeper, and we’re led in just like that. Find Caesar, kill him, then kill everyone else. Good?” He smiled cheekily at Arthur, who grumbled out,

“Only kill the guards, Davit.” Davit replied with a wave of his hand,

“Of course! Only kidding, hah.” Davit beckoned Kaia and him and walked down the hill. Arthur resisted sighing, and Kaia narrowed her eyes at Davit’s back before following.

The trio made it to the village, which seemed threadbare. The only notable building was the two-story tavern, which had a sign above the double doors boldly stating ‘LABOR INN’. The other buildings were square and bland. Walking into town, Arthur better spotted the occupants of the village. It seemed rather normal for the main location of a slave trafficking ring. Human men worked in what looked like private gardens next to their homes, planting, watering, etcetera. Stalls set up in the middle of the village sold all sorts of food and trinkets and supplies. A well was here, which had a small line of people with buckets waiting their turn. There were much more details, but the three of them had made it to the tavern by then.

Arthur and Kaia got more than one weird look as they walked through the village. Davit walked at an easygoing pace, and Kaia looked nervous. Arthur was unconcerned. He was confident they could take Caesar.

Davit walked into the tavern first, followed by Arthur and Kaia. The inside seemed generic, wooden everything with tables strewn around and a bar at the opposite end of the entrance. Stairs were leading upwards to the right. As they walked in, almost every head turned to look at them. This tavern was filled with armed dwarves and humans. There were around a dozen, all nursing drinks around every table. The hubbub died down as the three walked to the innkeeper behind the bar. Davit reached him, and the innkeeper said, “Whadya want son? Drink, Food?” Davit smiled and replied,

“I want a jar of bees and steel, please.” Almost all tension went out of the atmosphere as conversation picked up once more at Davit’s words. The innkeeper spread his arms and bowed his head while saying,

“Welcome, customers. Let’s get you out of this filthy place. Please follow me.” Davit took on a pompous attitude, saying,

“Yes, please take us out of here. I’m DYING to meet the leader. I’ve heard so much about him!” Arthur couldn’t believe it, was Davit going to blow their stealth just like that? But the innkeeper simply raised an eyebrow and repeated,

“Alright. Follow me please.” Davit flashed a double thumbs-up to Kaia and him and followed the innkeeper. Arthur resisted the urge to facepalm and followed, Kaia trailing after him.

They were led into the backroom, and downstairs into a cellar containing wine and barrels of ale. Two burly dwarves were sitting on stools in the middle of the room, playing cards on top of a box. The innkeeper approached them and pointed his thumb at the trio, saying,

“New customers. Take them in.” The dwarves nodded and stood up. The innkeeper left, and one of the dwarves moved the box and stools, and shouted to the ground,

“New batch o’ customers, Pike! Open up!” Arthur watched as a square of the wooden ground opened up, revealing a cloaked human man. The man climbed up the hatch ladder and gestured for them to go inside.

Davit went first, as always, followed by Arthur and then Kaia. The man followed shortly after they descended, and the hatch door was shut with an ominous boom. At the bottom was a torch-lit stone room, and one wooden door. In front of the door were two bowing female humans clad in simple tunics, and the second the cloaked man stepped foot on the floor, they simultaneously rose and said in unison, “Welcome beloved customers. We will be assisting you today. If you have questions, direct them to this man.” Alright, not creepy at all.

The cloaked man stepped forward so he was standing in front of the two women, and turned to the group.

“I’ll guide you through all the merchandise. Any questions?” Arthur wanted to see if they could get a meeting with Caesar, but before he could speak Davit beat him to it, eloquently saying,

“Before we see any merchandise, can we speak with Caesar himself? You see, I am a new bandit boss looking for allies, and I have a proposal for Caesar. These are my lackeys if you were wondering, accompanying me. I would love to speak with Caesar directly about my proposal.” The cloaked man frowned, replying,

“I’ve never heard of this until now. I’ll talk to Caesar and get his decision. The girls here might as well give you the tour in the meantime. I’ll find you if Caesar agrees.” The man did a lazy salute and whispered something to one of the women and patted her on the shoulder before leaving through the door.

After a moment, the woman smiled and gestured to the door, saying, “Please follow me to the holding area. If at any time you take interest in a product, please inform me and I will prepare them for transfer.” The two women bowed again and walked down the corridor shoulder to shoulder.

Davit smiled, whispering, “This is it. I can practically smell Caesar from here. Let’s go.” Well, at least someone was having fun. In truth, Arthur heavily despised slavery and was one of his biggest fears. Your free will being stripped from you and others being in absolute control of your life angered and scared him to no end. His anger had been rising the second he came down here, the slaves being called things like ‘products’ had irked him in a very bad way, and his instinctual anger at everything had happily riled up, which he had to constantly control.

Arthur followed Davit down the corridor, and Kaia seemed increasingly more nervous with each step. This was likely a tender place for her, as Kaia had mentioned she had been enslaved by humans early in life. He decided to reassure her, bending down slightly to put a hand on her shoulder. Kaia looked up to him, and he whispered, “No need to be nervous, Kaia. As I said when we met, you are under my protection. Nothing will harm you.” Kaia seemed to think for a moment before smiling, whispering back,

“Thank you Arthur. Let’s go kill this human already.”