Chapter Twenty Six: The Loner

The dragon smelled flowers. It also smelled something shiny. Something hot and shiny. The dragon used its long neck to peek over the walls of the castle and into the suburbs. People ran and screamed as the massive head appeared above them. The snake-like eyes were hunting all.

The dragon could smell the shiny better here. It turned to look at the source of the smell. Curious. A sword.

The dragon knew what a sword was. Bad for eating. The dragon leaned down closely and picked up the sword in it’s jaw, sideways, like a dog with a stick, then it lifted up into the sky and flew away.

“Well mate, I don’t know what to tell you.” The blacksmith said to Tanner, who was pale and frozen with fear. The blacksmith tapped him on the back, grabbed a golden shield, Golden pot and a Golden helmet and as many vases as he dared carry, then he went inside his shop and closed the curtains and loudly locked the doors.

Tanner was broken from his trance by Nathaniel, who offered refuge inside his house.

“Tanner, bring the gold inside my house, we need to get it out of the city as soon as we can,” he said.

Everyone loaded the pile of treasure into the back of the carriage and then they covered it with large wool blankets. It looked like a very odd pile of things. It was very suspicious.

They brought the carriage to Nathaniel’s house and he brought them to the back alleyway.

“Wait here.” Nathaniel said that party. He went to the front door alone and went inside. The two skeletons were sleeping on the couch while a female singer performed a love song on the scrying orb. Nate approached a window and opened it wide, it led into the back alley. They loaded the gold into his house by haphazardly tossing it through the back window. Nathaniel put blankets and pillows on the floor to catch it all. But the sounds of metal smacking on stone echoed through the basement. The skeleton kings woke up and saw gold flying through the window.

“What spell is this?” Brutus asked.

“Nathaniel, why is there gold shit flying through the window?” Rodon asked.

“Long story, come help me catch some stuff.” Nathaniel asked.

“Pass.” Brutus said and the two skeletons went back to watching the orb.

“I like this song,” Rodon said, about the singing girl.

Soon the party had emptied the carriage and they all went inside Nathaniel’s house to lay low.

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Soon, after introductions had been made between the new people and the skeleton room-mates. Everyone settled around the main dining table, some were sitting, and some were standing. Tanner pulled out his map of Arkadia and laid it on the table.

“Our cave is three days ride away. We need to be wary of bandits on the road, and now, a dragon. My father told me that they can smell gold. I don’t know how much of that is true. Whatever move we make, we do it fast.” Tanner said with a firm tone.

“We can rotate horses on the carriage, and ride through the night which would cut the travel time in half.” Nala said.

“We’ll buy supplies, we need another carriage for storage and transport. We can easily buy what we need. Stock up on long-life essentials, salted pork, barrels of ale, pickled fruits. Let’s buy some chocolate, coffee, sugar, salt and anything else we can carry. We’re rich, gang.”

“Uh,” Nathaniel started to speak and Tanner noticed him.

“Nate, I suppose I should ask. Do you want to join our gang?” Tanner asked the young Necromancer.

“No.” Nathaniel replied. “I’ll be here if you need me, but my life is here.” He smiled and opened his hand to shake Tanner’s. They shook hands and Tanner grinned. Tanner and the others left. The skeletons had gathered around the golden pile and were dressing themselves in the armour and playing like children, throwing weapons and vases at each other.

Nathaniel looked at the gold and then sat on the couch and watched the singer finish her stage performance. Then the scrying orb went black. Nathaniel thought about Tanner’s offer.

Tanner opened the front door and the men started loading the gold into the carriage, carefully stacking it by size this time. It took a long time, but they made everything fit. They covered the gold with supplies like crates of pickles and barrels of wine, then they covered it with cloth. The second carriage and new horses had been acquired, alongside the rest of the camp’s supplies.

Tanner gave Nathaniel ten golden swords and left through the front door. Nathaniel had also been given permission to keep the golden floor tiles he’d picked up from the mandala.

Some time passed and Nate woke up in the middle of the night. He sat in his kitchen, and looked around. His life was back to normal.

He went to his dresser and donned a black cloak. He walked into the inn and saw the streets were filled with knights running back and forth. Some were swearing, most of them looked scared. Nathaniel arrived at the tavern where people threw ales at him, but strangely, the inn was empty except for a few stragglers. The dragon had scared them all home.

The bartender cleaned a cup with a cloth and shouted over to Nate.

“Oh hey, you’re back, I hear there’s a dragon about. Good time for a beer.” The Bartender said.

Nathaniel sat at the bar as the man poured him a stein of ale.

“Good time for a beer.” Nathaniel said.