Rhian rode far back from the rest of the Party as they entered into Sunflower Fields, and the party let them. The whole group had needed a moment to process the emotions thrust upon them by the story of Gaith and Laia, and had stayed mostly silent since Gaiths' proclamation of hunger.

"How's this one sound?" Ceridwen said up ahead of Rhian. "One of two, so it's either the Helianthus or the Mirasol. And the Helianthus is closer."

Rhian looked up at a three-story inn, well put together and clearly well loved. The lower floor was red brick, and it was crowned by two stories of rich wood, taking on a hue like metal fresh from the forge in the dying sunlight.

"Whatever gets food in my stomach faster," Gaith said while patting his belly. "I'm famished from carrying the entertainments needs of this group around by myself."

This prompted a round of groans from the Party and they all dismounted, Jonas collecting Perfection and Muffin before walking all their mounts to the nearby stables. Ceri asked if he wanted food while he worked out in the stables, and he grunted in response. Rhian hadn't yet decoded all the meanings of Jonas' grunts, but this one sounded like an affirmative. Even, but with a slightly higher pitch than normal.

Ceridwen halted at the door and allowed Laia to walk in first. "An old habit from years of adventuring together," Ceridwen said to Rhian, who had looked at her askance upon first seeing the behavior. "Laia is the first in because she's the most likely to remain on her feet in the event of an attack. Also her strength means it's easier for her to create space on the other side of the door for us. Most of the time it's just another room, but you make a mistake one time and then you never make it again." She said this while gesturing to a scar she bore across the bridge of her nose.

The interior of the building was much the same as many of the other Inns' they had come across while they were travelling. It reminded Rhian a little of home, though the town crop was potatoes and not sunflowers. The people here wore thick, ill-tailored clothes meant for working out in the fields, but they dyed them in bright oranges and yellows. A byproduct of living and working with so many flowers, Rhian guessed. Rhian would have rolled their eyes at that if the joy in the villagers faces wasn't so plainly evident. They were happy here, and Rhian respected that.

Laia stepped aside from the door and let the rest of the party in, Ceridwen first. Ceridwen parceled out responsibilities while people passed by. "Okay, Gaith you're going to get us some rooms to stay in, Laia if you could get us all some food and take some out to Jonas then bring the luggage back in. I'm going to start getting information about this dragon and Rhian is going to learn how to extract intelligence from the locals."

Rhian groaned inwardly, doing their best to keep their face neutral. Ceridwen looked at them and narrowed her eyes anyway.

"You know that you sort of shrug when you do that, right?" Ceridwen said, looking at Rhian. "And this is important. If you want this to become your life you have to know how to get jobs."

"I brought this one to us, didn't I?" Rhian whined. They cringed immediately at themselves after saying it, hearing the petulance in their own voice.

"What you brought us was a lead, but you know that's only half of finding a new job," Ceridwen said. Rhian knew that Ceri had seen them regret saying what they said, and had decided to let it skate on by without further comment or chastisement. "This job isn't going to be like the others, if your lead is good. No governing body has put out a bounty or quest for the dragon. If the information is good, then we've got a jump on getting it done before other people even know it's there. How do I know that?"

Rhian looked at Ceridwen for a second, brows drawing together in annoyance. They hated the quizzes that Ceridwen gave them.

"A Dragon is a big get for any party," Rhian said, looking around to avoid staring angrily at Ceridwen. "Lots of parties would be milling around here already looking for a payday if the Kingdom had put out a bounty on it. We didn't see anyone riding in, and the roads were clear. The common room should be filled with strangers but it looks like it's only locals."

Ceridwen stared at Rhian pointedly for much longer than was comfortable. This was a tactic that Ceridwen used anytime she wanted to make a point, and Rhian fought the instinct to fill the conversational void but eventually groaned and gave in. "Sorry, I know you're trying to teach me. Quizzes are just annoying. I either know something or I don't, and you could either ask me normally or tell me outright."

"You're right, I am trying to teach you. And this helps me understand if you know a thing and if the reason you know a thing is right. Right now you're my responsibility, and this job is dangerous. If you were to leave our party and get in trouble later because you could provide the right answer but not for the right reason, that'd be on me." Ceridwen put her hand onto Rhians shoulder. "Your time with us might be limited for now, but that doesn't mean that we're going to stop caring."

Rhian thought back to the promise that Ceridwen had made to their father, and the promise that Rhian had made to Ceridwen and then let it drop. Ceri was doing her best to keep to her word.

"Sorry," Rhian said more genuinely. "You're right."

Ceridwen nodded, seeming satisfied. "You ready for the fun part?" She asked, grinning.

"I'm not sure what it's going to be, but it's got to be better than a quiz."

Ceridwen took a look around the common room of the inn. It was about half full, mostly locals looking to have a pint or just going out to be social. There was a well-worn air of hustle and bustle, the locals mostly wearing smiles in the room and folk sharing a drink or laughing. Rhian noticed that they trended towards older people with fewer youths in the crowd than normal for a town this size. A consequence of the recent regime change.

Ceridwen stood on top of a chair and held a small baggie overhead, which she shook for attention before lifting her voice over the hubbub of the crowd. "Hello citizens, sorry to bother you. We've recently heard about your dragon and would like to get some information on it. You can accept your price by coin or by card." Ceridwen said, seemingly pulling a deck of cards from nowhere. She stepped down and walked to a corner table, gesturing to Rhian to follow.

"What does 'coin or card' mean?" Rhian asked, sitting down next to Ceridwen.

"It's double or nothing." Ceridwen said, pulling the cards out and shuffling them with a flourish. "They get paid the amount specified, or it can be used in a double-or-nothing card game and they can walk away with more." Ceridwen said with a sly smile. "They usually don't."

"Got'ye some second-hand, if you want it," an old man sat down at the table, across from Ceridwen. "I'll play for it," he said, gesturing to the cards. "t'ain't nothing quite like talking over a game." He had a lively eyes, shrewd and quick. "Young Ascetic, call Jadeth over here and I'll get us some drinks."

Rhian brightened at being recognized for what they were and waved the proprietor over.

"What's your game, elder?" Ceridwen said, shuffling her cards with an expert hand.

"Four card, no draw," the Elder said with while watching Ceridwen. "And no dealing off the bottom now."

"Don't think you could figure out if I was cheating even if you wanted to," Ceridwen shot back, clearly annoyed at the jab.

"No harm, miss." He said, putting up his hands in mock defense. "I don't mean anything by it. You get some cheats and skinflints coming through here pretty regular, so us cardsharps got t'keep an eye out for them," he said winking to her.

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She dealt four cards to each of them, face down. They picked up their cards at the same time.

"Dealer first here?" Ceridwen said. "We're out of town skinflints but we wouldn't want you to think that we were cheating you just because you did things differently here," he nodded as she spoke and she laid down her first card face down.

"One Sword."

The man looked at her, attempting to find something in her face that would give him an edge in the game. Rhian looked and all she saw were stone-dead eyes that gave away less than a rock wall. In fact, she looked like Jonas hearing literally any news of any kind. The old man looked back down at his cards.

"One Sword, One Cup," He said as he put a card facedown over hers.

"Two Swords, One Cup"

"Three Swords, One Cup."

"Liar!" Ceridwen said loudly as soon as his hands cleared the card.

"Damn, ya'got me!" He exclaimed. "Not'a good look for a self-professed skinflint," he grumped as the drinks and food was plopped down in front of them.

"How about this?" Ceridwen said, tossing a coin to the innkeeper, who caught it expertly. "Talk now. You're getting more out of this deal than you should be, so it better be good," She said as she gestured to the drink she had just bought him.

His mood softened considerably looking down into a foamy pint he didn't have to pay for. "T'was where the winnings were going either way, so now I really do owe you," he said right before he started a long drink from the mug, smiling in a self-satisfied way while wiping away a foam moustache that had collected on his actual moustache.

"Word came down from t'mountains first about t'dragon," he said sitting back in his chair. "Ten it came down from t'forest and t'plains, followin' t'river. Don't know much about t'after that but that's the last we heard of it. T'ain't made it's way back up yet, we'd'a heard of it."

"Good secondhand, your debt is cleared," Ceridwen said. The man lifted his free pint in thanks and pushed back from the table.

Ceridwen fixed Rhian with a look. "Never, ever let them push you around," She said gravely once the man had walked out of earshot. "You're young and small, so they're going to look at you as an easy target. This goes double for other adventuring parties and band leaders at cut negotiation time. You've got to be harder than Laia's ridiculous plate mail in every interaction. But don't be a sore winner either, or they won't want to work with you again. Fight for what you need and help others with any extra you get."

"That honestly sounds exhausting," Rhian stated as they looked down at their bowl of food. "Why isn't it that way with this group? They all trust you to manage the finances."

"Well it's because we're just such pleasant people!" Laia said brightly as she sat down, having completed her chores. "I mean except maybe Jonas, but Ceri here rounds his hard edges out pretty nicely."

Ceridwen choked a little on her food and looked at Laia with wide eyes, swallowing quickly so she wouldn't gag as she started laughing.

Laia looked confused for a second before realization dawned over her and Rhian at the same time. "OH THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" She mock-yelled at Ceridwen, slapping at her. "I mean socially you dirty minded girl."

Ceri had to fan herself for a second to catch her breath before turning, eyes moist with tears of laughter. "It's because we've finally gotten past all that," she said semi-breathlessly. "It took us a long time and no small amount of fights for us to get to this point. Interpersonal relationships are work, and you have to work at them. Just because you're coming into this group at this point in time doesn't mean that we were always like this."

Rhian sat and thought about this as more people came and sat down, playing cards more often than taking the pay and losing more often than winning. By the end of the night, they had amassed quite a bit of intelligence about the Dragon and had a clear sense of where they were going to go next.

Jonas hadn't come in from putting the mounts away, as was his custom. He had built a fire outside and was tending it when the rest of the party came out to talk and strategize.

"Okay, so from what we can guess the Dragon made its way down Heislan mountain here," Ceridwen said as she drew a rudimentary map in the dirt. "And then followed Vitar river down, but it went slowly for whatever reason. Locals could hear it moving around and splashing through the river several times over the course of a couple days. It finally stopped in around a local lake, and seems to have made its home there. No one has wanted to get close because . . . . Well it's a dragon and they're not ready for that kind of heat." Jonas gave a low chuckle at the bad joke.

"From what reading I've done it shouldn't have taken a couple days for a dragon to cover this distance." Gaith said, looking up to the actual Heislan mountain. "That's no more than a half-day's ride away, and dragons can fly. If they even exist."

"Yes, that is odd. We're not operating on a whole lot of secondhand here. No one has clapped eyes on the dragon since it started roaring and coming down the mountain. There's also been essentially no livestock lost and no property damage, except for a fish farm on the lake itself."

"Well, I remember reading back at the convent that dragons tend to have sleep cycles before they grow. Maybe this one just woke up and hasn't shaken the sleep off itself yet?"

Ceridwen was just about to respond when a roar split the darkened sky. Laia and Jonas were up on their feet, scanning the sky and their local surroundings. Ceridwen and Gaith had wand and gun in hand, respectively and were cautiously taking up a formation around Jonas and Laia. Jonas glanced down at Rhian, who was casting around while still seated, and dragged them up onto their feet while moving them behind him.

Nothing came out of the darkness to eat them. Rhian, and the group as a whole, breathed a sigh of relief.

Ceridwen looked around at each of them. "Lets . . . Get to bed if we can. We'll need to get a jump on this thing as soon as possible."

The next day started much like any other. Or at least it would have if Rhian hadn't been shaken awake.

"Time to get on the road. You've got five minutes." Jonas' signature rumble communicated. Rhian sat upright, ran their hands through their short-cropped hair, and got to work dressing and packing as Jonas noiselessly disappeared out the door on surprisingly light feet.

It was still dark outside when Rhian got downstairs, everyone mounted and waiting. "We're heading out to do some reconnaissance." Ceridwen said as Jonas handed Muffin's reins to Rhian. "We want to know what we're dealing with and what our options are."

Rhian mounted Muffin and they were all on their way out of town before anyone but the Bakers were up. Jonas parceled out cured sausage, cheese, and bread to everyone as well as some tea that was still hot. It wasn't the normal breakfast they enjoyed, but it was good enough to keep people awake and moving until the sun rose.

Rhian was barely aware of their surroundings until the sun slowly rose over the mountain. They watched as a wave of orange swept over the fields of yellow sunflowers, transforming it from cultivated crop into a sunrise sea. Rhian imagined that they could see the heads of the flowers turning toward the morning sunshine, waving languidly in the breeze, and stopped for a moment to take in the beauty. Everyone pulled rein at the same time, sitting and basking in the view.

"You'd have missed this if you'd have stayed a Blacksmith's apprentice," Gaith said in the silence. "I think you made the right choice. Just hang on to that memory when we see the Dragon for the first time." He laughed a bit at his own statement, and shook his head before beginning to ride again.

Jonas and Rhian stayed the longest, looking. "What do you think about this?" Rhian asked him, breaking away from the view for a moment to look at him.

He continued to look on at the view, just long enough to make Rhian think that he hadn't heard. "The greatest beauty is in nature," he said still looking out at the view. "In nature all things are conflict. These sunflowers compete for nutrients and sunlight. Prey competes to be the fastest and have the most abundant food. Predators compete to have the best hunting grounds. But out of that competition comes something beautiful." He gestured to the sunflowers "This isn't nature. It's a perversion wrought by people on the order The Green and The Blood imposed upon all living things. But as people we must learn to find beauty in things that we think of as perverse, and do our best to understand them."

Rhian was stunned slightly by the words but more so by who spoke them. They didn't think they'd ever heard Jonas speak more than about ten words to anyone. Jonas looked at them for a moment, face completely unreadable. "T-thank you," Rhian managed to stammer out. Jonas nodded his head and turned Donna back onto the road, where she looked ready to run ahead to catch back up to the others. He looked back over for just a moment, a rare smile breaking out over his face.

"Race you."

Rhian looked at him as though he were a new person, and spurred Muffin into a gallop by way of answer. The horse sprang forward, powerful legs kicking up dust behind them as it went from a stand to a sprint in almost no time. Jonas seemed to hang back for a second before whistling a high sharp tone and letting Donna run.

Rhian and Muffin had a decent lead on them, Rhian crouched low over the pommel of the saddle, head near Muffin's own and out of the wind. They were plowing ahead, kicking up as much dust as a whole column of wagons when Donna flew past them like they were standing still.

She ran like a golden bolt of lightning, Jonas letting out a brief "WHOOP!" as he passed by them.

Donna and Jonas reached the others and bolted even further past them before he lost control of her and she went careening into the sunflower fields, the sunflowers so tall that the only marker of their location a trail of trampled sunflowers behind them.

"Donna. DONNA!" He could be heard, yelling at her as the others watched and laughed.

The party travelled on, chatting and singing and poking fun at each other as they went. The day passed as many of their travel days did, with some fun and some jokes, but mostly with silence. Sunflower fields passed into grasslands, that slowly became forest as they grew closer to the Heislan Mountains.

Night was beginning to fall when Ceridwen called for the party to halt and dismount.

"We're getting close to the last known location of the Dragon." Ceridwen said grimly. "Everyone off their mounts and on foot, this is going to be informational only for now, then we'll get whatever supplies we need from the town and come back to take care of this thing."

Jonas was already down off Donna and giving her strict instructions to watch over the rest of the mounts. Gaith was off The Contraption and finding somewhere to hide it among the underbrush. They were all ready to leave when an ear-splittingly loud roar shook the trees, spooking the mounts. Muffin would have bolted if Perfection and Donna weren't there to calm her down. Rhian almost bolted themselves upon hearing what they thought was the loudest sound they had ever heard.

The rest of the group had managed to get weapons into hand and were standing in formation, looking outward. The party had arranged themselves around Rhian instinctively, and Rhian was both thankful and angry at the implication.

Ceridwen put her hand up and then pushed it down, indicating that everyone should get low. She gestured toward the sound, moving slowly and silently through the forest. Laia, the shiniest and clankiest of them, took up the rear.

The party came to the edge of the forest, peering out from the trees into a clearing currently lit by torchlight. The tableau they looked out upon was a strange one. A man, tall and standing in a way only manufactured by a lifetime of privilege, stood staring intensely at a woman. She was between him and the lake, blade in her hand.

In the lake sat a dragon. An honest-to-elements dragon.

It was huge in the same way a house is huge. Dusty brown-grey scales coated it's neck and down onto its belly, with a color closer to a washed-out black on its back. Black-grey wings stretched out behind it, crackling lightly as they moved. The only part of the dragon that shined were its jewel-tone blue eyes, watching over the proceedings impassively. Rhian, knowing that it hadn't seen them still froze the moment that they locked eyes on the creature. Primal fear filled them and they felt like a deer that had just seen Jonas and Donna crashing through the trees. A quick prod from Gaith got Rhian moving again.

As they grew closer to their objective the party began to hear voices speaking to each other, tones raised and ready for violence.

"Ye'll step nee further, you wretched excuse for a man!"