The first thing that happens after my vindictive little jab is that Wreyn becomes quite furious. A few weird words and a couple of hand gestures from the old man cause a bunch of purple chains to sprout from the wall next to Shaft and rip her from her seat. In the blink of an eye, she’s shackled to the wall, unable to move.
It’s a bit more of a reaction than I had expected, I must admit, but I appreciate that Wreyn trusts me without question like that.
Watching Shaft struggle against the restraints as she shouts profanity at me and accuses me of lying is making me feel a little bad. I don’t know if she’s part of the cult and she just never got turned into one of those things like the Healer, but it seems to me that it depends on what happened on their side during the assault.
Of course I let Wreyn in on that part, too, but he doesn’t seem convinced as she continues fighting the chains and shouting at me. She’s completely unwilling to consider anything Wreyn says, which is kinda scary, since she seemed open to helping with the vile steel while we were in Plainshold…
It’s completely understandable that she hates me, but I don’t think she realizes that it goes both ways. If I were hungry and she was the only other person around, I’m not sure I could keep myself from being the only person around.
I do find myself curious about whether she even knows why I attacked the adventurers. If the cultists have already fooled her, then it would be possible that she was left in the dark about my motivations as well as what led up to the whole thing.
Talking it over with Raya, she opts to ask Shaft directly instead of trying to guess. Unfortunately, most of what I hear from Shaft can be summarized as profanity, accusations, and demanding that I be killed before Oakhold or some other town burns.
“Kira, can we go home? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Raya’s mood has taken quite a turn, and I haven’t seen her looking this sad since I lost myself.
“Of course, Raya. I’ve got a great idea for what we can do tonight.”
Wreyn is busy demanding answers about the cultists, but I let him know that this situation feels weird to me before pulling my head out of the window. Raya jumps on, and we take our leave. I appreciate that Wreyn doesn’t try to stop us, but I do hear him shouting about opportunities lost and that he isn’t commanding me to do anything.
“Wanna find Neithro and bring him with us, Raya?”
I can feel her trace shapes on one of my scales with a fingernail as she thinks about my question. It takes a moment before she replies, but then she gives me a soft ‘yes.’
Instead of flying away, we head into town to find the cranky captain.
The last thing we hear is Wreyn shouting about how bad and stupid the guild is and, to his credit in my book, he blames them for any destruction I’ve caused. Poor guy seems to have held on to a lot of emotions related to the adventurers, and now Shaft is taking that mess head-on.
Walking through the town is what I would call a mixed bag. There’s excitement as people try to get as close to me as possible, grumbling about how big I am and what I might do. But the screams of terror and fleeing going on at the same time as the other stuff are really what mixes up the proverbial bag.
It isn’t long before the ruckus attracts guards, but when they see me, they seem to stand down as they begin reassuring people that everything is okay. To emphasize the point, one of them walks right up to me and pats my throat.
Folks around are noticeably calming down, and the ones trying to touch me grow even bolder as I feel a bunch of hands caressing my tail.
We seem to have been caught in a gridlock, and I can’t move any further without people being at risk of being squished.
“Raya, are you fine with just waiting here until we have a chance to move again?”
In response, she jumps down and runs through the street. Her lack of verbal response makes me worry, and as I start moving in the direction she ran, the guards are quick to start clearing a path. I need to find her.
Progress through the street is slow and tedious, making it clear that coming here was a mistake and now I’ve lost track of Raya in all this human town stench. I’m sorely tempted to climb a building and search from the sky, but I doubt it could hold my weight anymore.
Pushing on, we reach a junction and I have no idea where to go from here. The buildings of Oakhold are much taller than Tuiran’s and they’re making the streets feel so narrow and crowded. My den feels less oppressive than this, and I bump into the walls of my entrance…
Leaning my head down next to the leading guard’s head, I ask him to bring me to the gates or somewhere big enough for me to fly away. I still need to find Raya, but I also want to get out of here soon.
The guards continue to lead me through the streets, with folks moving aside to stand by the walls surrounding us as our little makeshift procession progresses. I’m confident that Raya is safe on her own now, but I still worry.
Calling out to her scares the nearby people, but they’ll be fine. I don’t get a response, so I call out again as tension builds inside me. I don’t like this one bit. Nudging the leading guard again, I ask him to send a few guards to find my Raya and bring her to me so we can leave. He’s quick to signal a few others standing nearby and give a quick description of who they’re looking for and where we’re heading.
Just as I’m about to call out again, the lead guard waves to me, catching my attention.
He seems to be unsure of how to convey what he wants, so he starts miming himself shouting with his hands to his mouth in a cup shape, after that, he bends over holding his ears and looking like he’s in pain. I guess my voice might be a bit too loud for people.
I get what he means, though, so I point to him and indicate for him to start shouting for Raya instead. Turning around, he starts leading the way again as he shouts for Raya in my place at a much lower volume.
We’re making slow progress as a kid comes up to the leading guard and talks to him.
“They found her, she’s with Neithro. Go norden.”
Nudging the lead guard, I repeat the last bit the kid said, and he pulls out a compass. Holding it out for me to see, he points to each direction on the compass and then the equivalent direction from where we stand. So we have to go north.
Lead guard continues barking orders as he still shouts for Raya, although he’s doing it with less vigor. I think he wants to reassure me that they’re still helping me. That’s considerate of him.
It doesn’t take long before we reach the north gate and I spot Raya next to Cranky. It takes so much effort to not rush ahead and nudge her, but I’d have to trample a few folks to do it, and that seems like a bad thing. My excitement does seem to make a few people nervous, resulting in the people clearing the street much faster than what we’ve experienced so far.
“Raya! No more running away from me, I was so worried!”
She runs to meet me, and as soon as she’s in range, I nuzzle her to the ground. I can’t stop myself from rubbing my face against her.
“Kira, calm down! I needed to find Neithro, but I’m here now. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”
Yeah, well, she did worry me, so now she gets nuzzles. Having her firmly pinned to the ground with my head, I look up and see Neithro approaching with a smile on his face, looking remarkably un-cranky.
Speaking in their language, I ask Neithro if he wants to come to Tuiran with us. My use of their language is a little more broken than I had first thought it would be, but he gets it. I need more lessons and practice.
In a mix of words and hand gestures, he throws a question my way.
“If I agree to join you, will you let Raya up?”
He seems to be making the gestures clear to help convey the meaning of his spoken words, which I appreciate. Lifting my head, Raya scurries out from under me and grabs hold of my nostril to climb up my face.
Turning my head sideways, I tell Cranky to grab hold of my horn, and when he does, I lift him up and turn my head the other way so he can climb into position as I start leaving town. Relief hits me as we leave the town behind, taking off into the skies.
Night has fallen, but it’s not quite midnight yet, so we still have time to do stuff, like a late dinner with lots of food.
I know exactly how to prepare for a dinner party before I arrive!
“Lauren! Lauren! Lauren! First-aid kit! Lauren!”
It takes a bit, and I don’t know whether it’s because of range or Lauren being obstinate, both are possible, but I finally get back a response to my query. It’s a feeling I can best describe as ‘shut the faro up.’
“Lauren, I need you to ask Joras to prepare a feast near my den. I’m feeling a little down, and I want to enjoy the company of my friends. So you’ll be joining too!”
Yeah, that makes her a little anxious, but I was expecting that. She’s strong, though, so I’m sure she’ll get to work right away.
As we’re flying, I feel a tingle of magic and Cranky brings up the meeting and asks why it ended before he arrived, as it was supposed to end late into the night. I let him know that I didn’t want to stick around listening to Shaft insulting me when we supposedly have a common goal of stopping these cultists, leaving the bit about Raya feeling uncomfortable out of it, since that’s for her to share if she wants to.
“Ah, so it sounds like the first pillar has fallen…”
It’s almost a whisper, but Cranky says something odd… I want to know more about these pillars and why one of them has fallen. It sounds ominous and like something I should know about.
“You weren’t meant to hear that. But now that you have, I may as well tell you. Wreyn had this idea of pillars holding up your support. The first pillar was attachment. If you felt comfortable, he thought you would become attached to Oakhold and help defend it. The second pillar is trust. If you trust Wreyn, he can count on your help and you can count on his. The third pillar is benefit. If you benefit from the arrangement, you would be incentivized to maintain it. There are a few more, but I’m sure you understand the idea.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Well, he’s right that Oakhold has started making me uncomfortable. It’s not like I’m about to burn the place down, but I think I’d be more inclined to work with Skelly’s friends than risk engaging with more adventurers by continuing all this interaction with human towns. The cup of good experiences in human towns isn’t exactly overflowing.
It might be time to explore the South and see where some of the trade Tuiran experienced comes from.
“Kira, should Oakhold need your help, are you still willing to lend it?”
His question sparks a moment of hesitation, but I let him know that I am. I don’t like the place anymore, but Wreyn has been very willing to help, and he has done a lot for me. Especially by helping me grow my power by growing my hoard when the adventurers were preparing to attack. I’m glad I got to them first, and nobody in Tuiran even experienced another attack.
“Yeah, I am. I don’t feel attached to it, but I’m not gonna abandon you, Emily, or Wreyn.”
Speaking of helping Oakhold, I might have to suggest Tuiran start exporting building materials. We have quite a lot of clay in the area, so it’s a simple matter of figuring out how the heck proper bricks are made.
“Raya, do you think Tuiran could build a bunch of kilns? We could start using the clay around town to make and sell bricks.”
“I collect flowers, Kira. I have never needed to pay attention to that part of the town. I couldn’t afford the fancy things they made until I met you.”
“Didn’t those flowers sell for a lot? I thought it was a lot.”
“Yeah, selling my flowers earns me a lot, but if I spend it all in the warmer times, I’ll either die when the cold sets in, or owe someone else a lot of coin. And we never know how long the snow lasts. I can’t collect much in the snow, and people hold onto their coin, so there’s not much work to be done. So I have to make the coin I earn in the summertime last until the next summer.”
Yeah, that’s over now. If Tuiran needs food in the winter, I’ll get it for them, and if they need firewood, I’ll find it for them! I do apologize to Raya for being inconsiderate, though it hadn’t occurred to me that she had it that tough. In response to my apology, she bonks me on the head again…
“Why are you apologizing, you overgrown lizard? I just told you, I’m better off having met you, so stop being dumb.”
All I get from Cranky is laughter. It turns out there’s no support to be had from that guy, but I can tell that he’s leaning forward as he pulls Raya close. At least he supports my friends, so that earns him my seal of approval.
“If Tuiran can begin a production of building materials, Kira, it would go a long way to improving the current housing crisis in Oakhold. Wreyn has already begun encouraging the import of metals for Tuiran’s blacksmiths. The cooperation between our towns could yield impressive profits for both.”
It seems Cranky does support me, who knew? He goes on to talk about how to build a good kiln and the difference between several types and their benefits, and I’m barely catching a word of it. I’m very not interested in pottery or masonry, but I like the money it might bring in in the future.
“Cranky, I don’t think it will be a problem for Tuiran to offer C-A-A.”
“I’m not familiar with that phrase.”
“Crisis Aversion Assistance. Help with food and shelter in the event of something big and sudden happening, other places step up to help reach a basic living standard.”
“I’m not blaming you, Kira, but it does amuse me that you are offering help after being the ‘big and sudden’ event. I think it sounds like an excellent idea, and I would be honored to accept the help on behalf of Oakhold.”
Raya is quick to agree that it’s a good idea, and Cranky launches into another tirade about things that would be helpful. I’ll just throw him at Turo and call it a day, I’m sure they’ll figure it out.
More importantly, we’re above Tuiran now and I can see a fire in the square. For a moment I’m caught up in fear as I tense up, thoughts of an attack springing to mind, but as I push that aside, the memory of asking Lauren to prepare a feast becomes clear in my mind.
Soaring down, I see a bunch of people, and it seems that once again, far more people than I had in mind have joined in. I quite like that my people are so willing to just have a good time any time I feel like it. It tickles my pride for some reason.
They’ve made an area clearly marked for my landing, and I love that. Landing exactly where I’m supposed to, I join everyone by the fire as I let Raya and Cranky down. Mostly Cranky, because Raya is fine to just jump.
Looking around, I see a bunch of somewhat familiar faces and some very familiar faces. It turns out Tiffy found her own solution to her shocking problem by bringing the sword around with her. She currently has it jabbed into the ground as she’s leaning against it, and I guess that works.
I think it might be better for her with a small lightning rod to jab into the ground, so it’s not as heavy.
Off to the side, there’s an area marked up and surrounded by standing torches. That’s a playing field, and every side of it has a crowd cheering the teams on. It looks like they’ve continued those Dragon Games of theirs, and I’m curious to see how it’s going.
Nudging Raya, I ask if she wants to watch it with me, but she lets me know that she wants to spend a little time with Neithro, so that’s fair. Leaving them to their shenanigans, I wander over to the Dragon Games area and watch for a bit. Geez, they’re really going at it…
Personal safety isn’t a concern at all as they’re ramming into each other with full force. Geez, that’s rough. There’s a guy carrying a wooden mug-like thing and he’s running through the playing field, jumping and dodging everyone else, and- Geez! Someone slams into him with so much force that his leg turns the wrong way… I might have to introduce safety regulations…
Someone shouts out for Lauren, and that explains their disregard for safety. She walks onto the field and pulls the guy’s leg into place and heals it. As soon as she lets go of him, he jumps up and charges the person who slammed him. And now it’s a brawl…
“Lauren, are you sure you should be encouraging this?”
It seems she hadn’t heard me approach because of how loud the crowd was, but now that she’s aware of me being here, she walks on over to me.
“I’m not encouraging this, I’m just taking advantage of it. You know I like to heal people, and this lets me do just that. I hadn’t anticipated the brutality of it, though.”
Yeah, I would hope so, geez.
“Lauren, have you spoken to Merciferus yet? You know you’re her champion and you can’t just ignore her, even if she is frustrating to deal with.”
“My faith is none of your business, Kira. Leave it alone.”
It’s clear that she’s upset with me for pushing it, but I don’t think it’s good to ignore something that important. I feel like I should give her time to deal with it, but I also don’t know how much time she has left, if the venom idea doesn’t pan out. I really don’t want her to have any regrets with her god.
Deciding to maybe be a bad friend, I take matters into my own hands. I just want to do something after that dumpster fire of a meeting with Wreyn.
Merciferus, your champion is sick and needs your help. Get your pretty butt over here and I’ll give you a snack. If you don’t help her, I might as well eat her. At least then one of us cares enough to make a change in her life.
Yeah, I didn’t expect a response. It seems to be quite unpredictable whether these god things help or not, and I doubt I have enough credit saved up to ask for any sort of favor…
“Kira… Please get off me… You’re crushing me…”
Oh, I hadn’t noticed that I was squishing Lauren with my face. Well, she deserves cuddles. Being this close to her does make that weird cultist smell very apparent… And that gives me a bad idea... If I can smell the affront like that, then I’m pretty sure it’s part of her body. And that means I might have to invent dragon surgery.
I now know what Joras and I are doing tomorrow, that’s for sure. We’re gonna find a way for me to increase the potency of my venom, and then we’re gonna create a very concentrated version of it and use it in a very limited way.
“Lauren, I have a question unrelated to anything, but you can heal yourself with only one arm, right?”
“What the fuck kind of question is that?”
“Please answer it.”
“Yes, I can heal myself with only one arm.”
“Can you restore body parts?”
“What?!”
She seems a little outraged. She does think about it for a moment and tells me about how she used to rely on Merciferus to guide her spells, since she was magically weak. She got over that weakness when I gave her my magic, though, and now she just siphons off a little of my magic whenever she has to heal someone else.
She also mentions that healing me seems to be more magically costly than healing anyone else, and I call that discrimination! I deserve cheap heals, too!
What really sounds interesting is that she doesn't know how much damage she can heal anymore. So we will have to explore that tomorrow as well.
I can’t just spend the makeshift festival worrying, though, so I let Lauren return to her job as the Dragon Games healer. And looking at the field, she’s been sorely missed as seven goblins have pretty bad injuries. Geez, those guys are nuts.
As Lauren rushes to aid them, I turn and leave the field behind. I’m gonna go grab some food from the bonfire because it smells delicious and I haven’t had much to eat today.
It seems the blacksmiths have been busy as the bonfire is surrounded by giant pikes with entire carcasses impaled on them. There’s a crew of goblins rotating the pikes, cooking the meat on all sides, and judging by the delicious smell wafting all over the place, they've used a generous amount of spices.
I want to just grab one of them and chow down, but with this many people around, I don’t feel like I can be that greedy. It does make me wonder how the heck they managed to pull all of this together in such a short amount of time. This entire thing feels preplanned.
There’s even an area for dancing and music. They’ve got music! It’s mostly drums, but it’s music, and they’re doing a good job of making it sound good.
The most remarkable part of the dancing area is watching Cranky and Raya dance together. Raya’s head is resting on Cranky’s shoulder, which is achieved by him creating a barrier for her to stand on.
So Tiffy and Jeannie are together, Cranky and Raya are doing their thing, Lauren is busy healing, and I’m just standing around feeling awkward... Having to be so careful when I’m walking is getting on my nerves today. Everyone is so small compared to me, and if I’m not careful, I could literally kill someone... I’ll just sit by this fire and let people move around me instead…
“Share a thought with the wind, Kira.”
I have no idea what Joras just told me to do… And now he’s chuckling at me as he sits down next to me.
“Sorry. You look like your thoughts are getting the better of you, and to share a thought with the wind is to lighten that burden with no particular regard for who might hear. It can help clear up the clutter of one’s mind.”
Maybe I should try it. I bring up how the meeting with Wreyn went, which was not great. Then we go on to talk about how all we’re working with to cure Lauren are maybes, leaving me very worried about her. And Merciferus is supposedly of Health and Vitality, but she’s nowhere to be seen, so she isn’t helping Lauren.
And then there’s the part where I displaced so many people from Plainshold. I regret doing that to them, and I should have waited until the adventurers had left the town, but now so many people are left without homes, and the weather is getting colder.
Adding to that, I have no idea what it means that I still have this Corruption inside me. It still isn’t growing, but it also isn’t shrinking. And if the Dead King is born of the Corruption and he’s apparently responsible for the Affront, which means the two have to be connected. I don’t know enough about either one, and I have no idea what it means that they both seem to have ties to the Dead Jerk.
On top of that, I have no idea who the Shadow Man is, but he keeps showing up and I appreciate the help, but fuck! Just say something! And now I’ll be expected to find these damn cultists and I don’t want to! I just want some fucking peace! But that’s out of the question because the adventurers are still out there. I didn’t kill nearly enough, and if they join the cultists, we’ll have an even worse problem on our hands.
And somehow everything comes back to me, and I hate it! I’m not special, and I don’t want to be!
“Well, when you summarize it like that, I agree that it is too much.”
Real helpful, Joras…
“I can’t offer you the answers you want, Kira, but you aren’t alone. Lean on your friends more and you’ll get the help you need. Think of the actions you regret and then consider what your friends might have suggested you do instead. With that in mind, would you repeat the same actions, or would you choose a different path if you could turn back time?”
That just makes me feel worse…
“What’s done is done, Kira. Use it to learn and consider what your friends would suggest in the future, or just ask them. Consider the variety present in your friends. Lily is an ancient elf from the Dark Below, you gave her back her life. I’m sure she would share a few bits of wisdom. Raya is a spirited young survivor, she has fought for everything she has, and she took a, frankly, suicidal chance at befriending a wild animal.”
I’m more than an animal…
“Jeannie is a caring soul seeking to help anyone she can. She was locked within herself before you arrived, only traveling between her home and my shop to care for Lily. You may have frightened her at first, but you also showed her that fright can be overcome, she has grown so much since then. And then there’s Tiffy. Tiffy lived alone in that hut for over a decade, not speaking to anyone other than passing animals. In her own words, she was just existing with the thought of living having been abandoned long ago. You saved her from death and allowed her to join us here, reigniting the embers of life within her.”
“Joras… I didn’t save her, I took away the snake’s meal because it scared me. I was being petty, I didn’t do it to save her. I didn’t even know it was her…”
“If every good deed had to be pure, we would live in a truly cruel world. I doubt she would care all that much even if you told her. She’s happy now, and that sword she carries lets her share touch and intimacy. I hear that was your idea.”
“It was part of an idea, but we couldn’t test it properly.”
“Looks to me like she did some testing of her own, why else would she carry it around? Besides, as she tells it, she has lived and laughed more since arriving here than she had in the last decade. And judging by how close she is with Jeannie, she has also loved more. And have you noticed that Lauren doesn’t use much foul language anymore? She’s happy here, you know, because of you. You’ve brought so much life to this place that people are focusing much more on their own growth rather than being stuck trying to survive.”
With a firm nudge, I make my opinion on this matter clear.
“Stop being so reasonable, Joras, you’re ruining my moping by making me happy for my friends and everyone here in Tuiran. And stop being sneaky by changing your lecture from what they offer to what I’ve helped them with!”