Chapter Ninety-Six — The Rusty Raven
Chapter Ninety-Six — The Rusty Raven The sandals Yoland had given me went clip-a-clop with every step, and the dress I’d borrowed for the morning was light as a feather. It made it feel really weird as I bounced ahead of my friends. Amaryllis had left her jacket behind to repair a few scuffs on it, and Awen’s trench coat needed a little love too, so we were all lightly dressed as we toured the town.“Where to next?” I asked as I spun around Amaryllis.“World save me, you’re getting more excited, not less,” Amaryllis said. “You’re like a hummingbird harpy who drank too much sugar-water.”“Ohh, there are hummingbird harpies? That sounds cute!”“Awa,” Awen said as I spun around her. “B-Broccoli is in a good mood. That’s alright, right Amaryllis?” she asked.“It could be worse,” Amaryllis said. She whapped me on the head with a wing when I tried to circle around her again. “Be serious for a moment. We have a blacksmith to find.”I pouted, but Amaryllis was probably right. I had let the overwhelming excitement in the air get to me. There were so many people laughing and chatting and being happy around me that I couldn’t help but want to bounce around all day. “Over there,” Amaryllis said as she pointed to a shop by the main square. A sign hung off the front with ‘The Rusty Raven’ written across it next to a rusty bird-shaped bit of steel. The shop itself looked clean, despite the rustiness of its sign.We stepped in only to find a bit of a line leading up to the front counter. There were a bunch of big men, mostly humans, but there were a couple of Ostri people and even a single plate-covered cervid. “Wow, this place is popular,” I said as I slipped to the back of the line.The man behind the counter was a black-feathered harpy with a big dirty apron who was wagging his talons in the face of some gruff looking man. “That, little one, is because of the tournament.”I stared at the person just before me, and then smiled. It was one of the Ostri people, a tall figure covered in dark-brown wraps who seemed bent in on himself. “Hello,” I said. “What’s that about a tournament?”“Ah, so you’re not here for that? Too bad, I have never fought a Cinnamon Bun before,” he said. It didn’t sound threatening, more like he was genuinely sad. “The tournament is what attracts so many of my siblings of the sands to this place. To test one’s might, earn gold, and meet strange peoples. It is in many ways an attraction tailor-made for us. But you seem to be on a different path.”“I guess so,” I said. His voice was strange, smooth and soft, like cloth rubbing over cloth. “We’re just here because my spade broke.”“A broken tool doesn’t serve well,” he agreed. “How did you break it?”“A wyvern bit it.”The Ostri man paused. “Ah.”I nodded, then brought out the spade and the bit of the handle still stuck to it. “It saved me in the end. It was either the spade getting bit or me.”“That must have been an extraordinary fight,” he said.“Yeah!” I said. I pulled Awen close to my side. “Awen got the kill. She smacked the wyvern with her hammer until it exploded.”“Awa, it, it was nothing?” Awen said.Grinning, I looked way up to meet the Ostri man’s goggles. “I’m Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch!” I said as I extended a hand. “These are my friends, Awen and Amaryllis.”He uncoiled a little from his hunched posture, took my hand in one of his and bowed over it. “I am Ladle Secondson, the Sandwalker.”“Oh, that’s a cool name,” I said.Ladle nodded. “Thank you, little one. It is the constellation under which I was born.”“Is that how Ostri names work?” I asked.“It is. First the constellation of your birth, then the order of it. Finally, your class. We do not prescribe much attention to the family of our birth, that way lies nepotism and weakness.”Amaryllis huffed. “The Ostri put no weight in things like family. Or governments. Or laws.”Ladle nodded. “This is true. We believe that the strong must lead, and that they must protect the weak. The weak, in turn, must grow stronger. That is all that matters.”“Wait,” I said. “So you don’t have any government at all?”He shook his head. “We rely on ourselves. It is far less terrifying than giving so much power to someone who you neither know, nor trust.”I tapped my chin as I thought about that. It made a sort of sense. Anarchy wasn’t usually an acceptable form of rulership as far I was aware, but maybe it worked for the Ostri people. I would need to visit them and see how their world worked to truly judge. The line moved ahead a few spots and I let my attention wander over all the weapons racked on the walls around us. There weren’t that many. In fact, there were more tools and candlesticks and door handles and other knick-knacks than actual weapons. “Ah, it is my turn,” Ladle said. “Goodbye, little ones.”I waved Ladle goodbye as he slid over to the counter, pulled out a pair of knives from his sides and started to talk with the harpy blacksmith. A few minutes later he was walking out of the shop with a nod for the three of us.“How can I help ya?” the shopkeep asked.I smiled and placed my spade on the counter. “Ah, my spade broke,” I said. The harpy picked up the head, spun it around a few times, then scratched at the side of his nose with a talon. “Few dings and dents. And a decent hole here. Still mostly good. Handle is... well, that’s obvious, ain’t it? Right, three sil, five minutes.”“That fast?” I asked.“Yeah,” he said.Amaryllis huffed. “That means he can do it for cheaper.”This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.“Hey now,” the shopkeep said. “Don’t go trying to swindle me.”“Ah, I don’t mind the price,” I said. “But, um. Is there anything you can do to make it tougher? And maybe give it more, uh, combat uses.”“Combat... what’re ya on about?” I scratched the nape of my neck. “It’s not a spade for gardening. It’s a spade for fighting.”The blacksmith tilted his head to the side, the same sort of gesture Amaryllis did before calling me an idiot. “A combat spade? That’s different.”I shrugged. “We could pay more if you could make it better,” I said. “But, uh, it needs to still work with my Makeshift Weapon’s Proficiency.”The smith cawed. “That does complicate things. Give me a few minutes then.”We watched the harpy waddle off to the back of his shop where an open forge rested next to a bunch of tools. “You are awful at bargaining,” Amaryllis said.“I don’t really need the money that badly,” I countered. She huffed and walked off to stare at some of the things hanging off the walls. Awen sidled up closer to me. “Awa. Do you, um, think I could buy some tools?” she asked. “Tools?” I wondered. I wanted to smack myself a moment later. She was an engineer of sorts. Of course she wanted... needed tools. “Right, tools. I have a couple of gold we could use to buy some things.”“Awa, but isn’t that gold for your airship?” Awen asked.“Well, yeah, but if I ever hire you as mechanic, then you’ll need tools anyway, right?” I asked.“I, I suppose,” Awen said. “Thank you.”We moved around the shop, Awen picking out a few odds and ends, mostly tools that were smaller and that would fit into her bags. We ended up piling a few pliers, some tweezers, some compact hammers and a few other gadgets that I didn’t quite know the use of on the counter.The smith returned with my spade over one shoulder. “Here ya go. What’s this look like to you?”I gasped as I picked up my spade. The shaft was a little longer now, with a curvier handle at the end and an extra foot of pole to it. The head was reshaped just a little. One side now seemed much sharper and the other was serrated like a saw. There was also a metal band at the back to reinforce it a little.A reinforced warspade of uncommon quality, new.“Wow! You’re so fast,” I said.“Caw, just have a few decently levelled skills. Saves a lot of time,” he said. “Now, let’s settle.”Amaryllis was quick to stomp over, and what started as a bit of friendly haggling soon turned into a flurry of squawks and pomfing feathers as they argued over what they each considered a fair price.Awen and I stood off to the side, staring wide-eyed as the price dipped and climbed. I think that Amaryllis won in the end, because she looked very smug as she handed over half a dozen silver coins to a disgruntled shopkeep.“Don’t forget to tip,” I said.The looks switched.I ended up being dragged out onto the streets by a very unhappy Amaryllis while Awen held back some giggles. We were heading back towards Yoland’s shop, me poking at Amaryllis while she called me all sorts of variations of ‘idiot.’ Awen tailed after us, quiet, but she didn’t look unhappy in her silence, not with her little smile and the way she followed us with her gaze. I was hoping that we’d get to have a bit more fun, see the sights some more, then maybe go to the dungeon the next morning. A huge shadow raced across the square. Amaryllis’ complaining stopped, the entire town went deathly quiet. A sound, like sails snapping in the wind, echoed across the square, once, then twice.I heard gasps and saw heads turning up to the skies. A roar shook the air, windows rattled in their frames, people screeched in terror, horses neighed and I felt the sound pressing me down into the ground which shook in sympathy.A dragon has asserted its dominance. Your bravery is questioned.We were just next to the large square, bell tower rising above us, when the dragon landed.The tower crumpled, the bell spinning off to the side where it crashed into the ground with a resounding ‘dong!’ that made my ears ring. Feet with talons longer than I was tall dug into the stonework with all the ease of someone gripping an empty can of soda. Wings as wide as a bus flapped once, sending heavy gusts of air beating across the square. I shielded my eyes for just a moment before my attention was dragged back up to the creature standing tall and proud atop the ruins of the belltower like someone standing on a podium after getting an award. The morning sun bathed matte blue scales over a beige sternum. A head with a jaw large enough to chomp a cart in half rose and grinned down at the panicking crowds below. I had thought the wyvern in the last dungeon beautiful and intimidating, but the creature above me trumped all that a thousandfold.“Insight,” I muttered.A cocky juvenile blue dragon Thunder Hammer, level ???.The dragon chuckled, an unmistakable sound. “Kneel humans! For I, Rhawrexdee, have decided to become your overlord!” “We need to run,” Amaryllis said. “We need to run far and fast.”Awen, grabbed onto my side, her hands digging into me. She was trembling.“I am here to demand food! And tribute! And gold!” Rhawrexdee declared. “Become my servants and I will only feed upon the weakest of your number.”I carefully pried Awen’s hands off of my arm, then guided her over to Amaryllis’ side. “Amaryllis, take care of Awen please,” I said.“What? No! You moron!” Amaryllis said.But it was too late. If this dragon thought he could bully a whole town’s worth of happy people, he had another thing coming.
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Chapter Ninety-Seven — Enter the Dragon
Chapter Ninety-Seven — Enter the Dragon “And so, every day, upon the sun’s rise, you will gather what puny amount of gold you have collected and shall deposit it upon the ground where I may collect it at my leisure,” the blue dragon said.His voice was a deep, guttural rumble, like a rock inside a drying machine. I cleared my throat. “Hello, mister dragon,” I said.“And if you have any virgin princesses, they are now forfeit to me so that I may build myself a harem of such beings that will care for and polish my many scales,” Rhawrexdee continued. He was looking up, nose raised and chest puffed out.Did he not hear me? “Hey!” I screamed.The dragon paused, then he lowered his huge head down, neck stretching out behind, until his face hovered a dozen feet away from me. “Did you interrupt me?” he asked.“Ah... sorry about that,” I said. “Didn’t mean to be impolite.”“Oh, well, in that case it’s all well and good.”“Really? Neat!” I said.“Of course it isn’t!” he roared. “Who are you to interrupt the mighty Rhawrexdee? He who smote the clouds themselves? The thunder hammer! The scourge of the northern desert!” Lightning cracked ominously in the background.“Oh, that was kinda cool.” I shook my head and pretended that I didn’t see Amaryllis shaking her head off to the side, or the way Awen was trembling like a leaf. “I’m Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch,” I said.Rhawrexdee turned his head to the side a little so that he could stare at me with one eye the size of my entire head. “I demanded virgin princesses. You do not smell like a princess... you smell like a...” The dragon sniffed the air once, then recoiled. “Riftwalker.”I crossed my arms. “Yeah, so what?”His eyes narrowed. “What do you want, little riftwalker?” he asked. I didn’t expect the dragon to actually be accommodating. “Uh. Well, I guess an apology? You scared all these people, and you broke their tower, which I’m pretty sure they worked hard to build.”“You think I would apologize?!” Rhawrexdee roared. “To little humans?”“Well, yeah,” I said. “You broke their stuff. I mean, did they ever do anything to you?” Maybe the folks around here had been rude. It wouldn’t excuse the destruction, but it explained part of it.“They failed to create a throne of gold upon which I could perch,” the dragon said. “That is sin enough, is it not? Even now, look, none of them are here grovelling at my feet. They hide and watch us speak like cowards. As if I would eat more than a few of them.”“You wanted to eat the townspeople?” I asked.“I’m a little peckish,” Rhawrexdee said.My mouth worked. “No! You can’t eat people!” “Oh, I assure you I can,” the dragon said.“I mean, physically, I’m sure you could, you’re a dragon so... duh, but it’s morally wrong,” I said.Rhawrexdee huffed, his breath washing over me and sending my hair flying back even as it filled the air with a scent of ozone. “Do you look down upon the wolf for eating a lamb?” he asked.“If the lamb can talk, then yeah,” I said.The dragon blinked. “Well I’m not a wolf and if I want to eat people you can’t stop me. I might even eat you, riftwalker or no.”“I won’t let just anyone eat me,” I warned. This entire conversation was going downhill, and fast. “You’re probably all bones anyway,” the dragon muttered. “How about, instead of eating people, we become friends?” I asked, both because being friends with a dragon would be totally awesome, and because I really wanted to activate my Friendmaking skill.RhawrexdeeDesired Quality: Someone who would help him find a girlfriendDream: To go on dates with a cute princessWhat. “Why would I want to be friends with the likes of you?” Rhawrexdee extended his head way back, the tower’s masonry creaking in protest to the motion. “You have already disrupted my monologue and have wasted my precious time. Perhaps I will eat you after all.” He grinned down at me, electrical sparks flashing between very sharp teeth.Then a bolt of lightning so bright it warred with the sun to illuminate the street crashed into the side of Rhawrexdee’s head with the force of a battering ram.The dragon’s head twitched to the side.“Broccoli, run!” Amaryllis screamed.“You dare!” Rharexdee screamed.My breath caught. I could only imagine the dragon snapping around and hurting my friend. The moment Rharexdee turned to face Amaryllis he paused. His nostrils twitched. I started to have a sinking feeling in the pit of my tummy. “A princess? A virgin princess?” Rhawrexdee said. His eyes narrowed onto Amaryllis. “A Thundere virgin princess... with wings.” His huge dragon-y head turned to face me. “Who is that woman?” he demanded to know.I clenched my hands into fists, then pointed right at him. “You can’t go on a date with Amaryllis, not unless she wants to,” I said.“Who are you to decide who I date? You’re not my mother!” Rhawrexdee said. He shook his head a moment later and seemed to refocus. “Answer my questions little riftwalker.”I crossed my arms. “Only if you promise to leave the town alone.”“I will promise no such thing!” he said.Amaryllis looked like someone caught between a dragon and a hard place. “Why aren’t you running, you daft moron?” she hissed. “I risked my tail feathers to distract that brute!” I had to remind myself that she could probably not understand the dragon’s language (which begged the question, why the monologue?) so she was still blissfully ignorant. “What did she say?” the dragon asked. “Did she compliment my fearsome, horny figure?” This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.I pressed my fingers against my temples and started to massage a blossoming headache away. I thought that negotiation with a dragon would be hard, but not this complicated. “Mister Rhawrexdee, I think we started off on the wrong foot. Can we start over?” The dragon stared at me for a moment, then glanced over to Amaryllis. “She’s your friend?” he asked.“My best friend,” I confirmed. “Her and Awen over there.”“Ah, the other one, yes. She has a near-princess-y smell to her, but it’s not quite there. Maybe after a coup or two.”“Right,” I said. “So... uh, can we come to some sort of agreement here?”“I am a dragon, I don’t need to negotiate.”“Well I’m a Cinnamon Bun, and I say that you need to or else... or else I’ll tell your mom that you were rude.”Rhawrexdee snapped his head back as if I’d slapped him. “You wouldn’t dare!” he growled.“Watch me, big guy. You can’t just fly into town and start bullying, and eating, people just like that. Not while I’m around.”The dragon growled, then he huffed again and shifted to the side a little. “We seem to be at an impasse then. I will conquer this town in order to grow my wealth so that I can impress any princesses I run across.”I shook my head. “Any girl that’s more impressed by your gold than by your personality just isn’t worth it,” I said.“Hrm. My mother said the same thing. How strange.”I looked around, spotted a chair behind one of the little kiosks and went to pick it up. A moment or two later I was folding my skirts under me as I sat down across from Rhawrexdee. “Okay. So, let’s see what we can make of this situation,” I said. Rhawrexdee watched me, especially when Amaryllis and Awen slowly, carefully, came to stand just behind me.“What’s going on?” Amaryllis asked. “We’re going to negotiate with the nice dragon,” I said. “So far, he has the fact that he’s a dragon on his side of the table. And we have the fact that I’m a riftwalker, that I could tell his mom that he’s rude, and that you’re a princess.”Amaryllis placed a hand on my shoulder. Then her grip tightened. “Broccoli,” she said as she leaned in. “You’re not using me as a bargaining chip with a dragon, right?”“I’d never do that!” I said.“How do you want to do this, little riftwalker?” Rhawrexdee demanded. I coughed to clear my throat. I couldn’t hear myself speak whatever language the dragon spoke-it all sounded like English to me-but I could tell it was growly by how hard it was on my vocal cords. “Right, let’s both tell each other what we want, and then we can work from there.”“I want all the town’s gold, and I want that princess,” Rhawrexdee said. He stomped a massive foot down, tearing another chunk of the tower off. “And I want tribute and my weight in cattle.”I nodded along. “Okay, okay, that’s a start. We want you to not take Amaryllis because doing that is wrong. Also, you can’t have the town’s gold. Or their cattle.”Rhawrexdee bellowed in rage. “Then I will take what I want!” he said.I shook my head. “Now now, mister Rhawrexdee, that would be very, very rude. We can negotiate. Like, um... I think I can get the townspeople to not make a fuss about the tower. We can call it an accident, I’m sure they’ll understand. And as for Amaryllis, um, give me a moment.”I turned to Amaryllis who started to glare at me. “Hey, Amaryllis, how do you feel about dating a dragon?”“No,” she said.“He is kind of handsome,” I needled. “Look at his chin.”“No,” she repeated, this time with wings crossed and a whole lot more emphasis.I shrugged. That was a no then. “What about helping the dragon with, uh, dating advice.”“Dating... advice?” Amaryllis repeated. “Yeah. We could all help!” “Awa, that, that sounds nicer than getting, um, eaten,” Awen said.I nodded, then tried puppy dog eyes on Amaryllis.She zapped me in the middle of the forehead. “Fine. We can help the dragon.”“She is very feisty, I like this,” Rhawrexdee said.I nodded to him. “She really is.” I wiggled on my seat to make myself comfortable, then prepared for the next part of my pitch. “Okay, so we’ve come up with a solution to all... most of your problems,” I said“I am listening.”“Amaryllis doesn’t want to date you,” I said. The dragon rocked back, eyes filling with hurt, and then anger. “But! But, she is willing to help you. And so am I... and Awen too.”“Help me how?” he demanded to know.“Simple! Amaryllis knows a bunch about nobility. Awen too. And I’m great with making friends! So, in exchange for not destroying the town, we’ll teach you how to date girls.” I pointed to Awen. “She’s even a wyrmgineer. I bet that would help in making you a nice suit for when you go on dates.”Rhawrexdee considered this. “I see. I don’t get the princesses now. But I learn how to get more princesses later.”“And you get to spend time with us!” I said. “We could become the best of friends, I’m sure!” He huffed. “Very well. Let us begin this training then.”“Ah, no. Not right now. We actually have a bunch of things that we need to do first,” I said. “We came here because we wanted to get a class for Amaryllis in the local dungeon. It was just good luck that we were around when you landed.”“How long will you make me wait?”I tapped my chin. “How about... uh, two days?” I asked. “We can meet just outside of town. It’ll give us time to do what we need to, and to prepare a, uh, training regimen.”I stared up at the dragon, my most friendliest smile on.I really hoped that my plan would work.
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