Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six — War Talk
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six — War Talk Mathilde the scary director dragged us to her office. All of us. The fact that there were only two chairs before her desk didn’t seem to bother her at all. She just sat in the big plush chair across a desk that had more square feet than my room back home. She made herself comfortable, crossed her fingers together under her chin in an arch, then looked towards Emeric. “You begin,” she said.Amaryllis, Awen and I stood off to one side while all the members of the grenoil exploration party stood off to the other. Emeric stepped up and gave the director a shallow bow, his hands rubbing over the pommels of his swords.“Do you mind if I give some... perhaps unnecessary details, ma’am, for ze sake of making sure zat we’re all on ze same page?”“I don’t,” the woman said.Emeric nodded his thanks. “On arriving here from our last exploration mission to Threewells, master Leonard left our party in order to more properly investigate ze destruction of ze Threewells dungeon.”I shifted on the spot.The director looked my way like a cat that spotted a laser pointer. “Do you have anything to say, or are you just fidgeting?”“Ah, no?” I tried. “I was, um, just curious about where Leonard was?”“Hmph,” the woman said. “Continue.”“Yes ma’am. So, as I said, we returned and... I zink we just missed Miss Bunch and her friend departing wiz Lord Bristlecone. Zere were a few missions left in ze books, but one caught my eye. I zink you might have read its report already...”“Go over it nonetheless,” Mathilde said.Emeric nodded. “A harpy airship on a return trip to Port Royal noticed a wrecked vessel in ze north of Deepmarsh, or perhaps across ze border into ze Nesting Kingdom. Ze exact location was difficult to pinpoint, but zey reported it anyway. Zen an urgent report came in from Goldenalden about a Sylph ship going missing.”“So we were tasked with exploring the wreck?” the Director said. “I think at your level in the guild you were to figure out how to undertake the mission yourself?”“Yes ma’am,” Emeric said. “We questioned ze captain of ze harpy merchant ship about ze location of ze wreck he had seen, zinking it might have been ze Sylph ship. And when he mentioned returning to Fort Sylphrot, I zought it wise to hire him as transport. Ze idea was to retrace ze path his ship took, and hope zat we would find ze wreck again.”“Clever.”“Zank you, ma’am.” Emeric said. I saw Arianne stand a little taller at the praise. Had it been her idea? “We did find ze ship, ma’am, ze Bronze Falcon was laying at ze base of a large outcropping from one of ze mountains. We marked its location on a map.”The director perked an eyebrow. “I would like to imagine you did more than that.”“Most of my team landed near ze ship. Valerie stayed aboard ze Merchant ship to return to Fort Sylphrot to hire another ship to pick us up in passing. We didn’t know how much time we would spend near ze wreck.”I saw Valerie crossing her arms. She didn’t look too happy about it.“On arriving at ze wreck we had to fight off some mountain meeses.”“At least ze meese meat was nice,” Donat muttered. “Fighting zem wasn’t.”Emeric coughed. “After clearing ze area and giving ze ship a quick examination to find survivors we set up a small camp. Most of ze bodies... ze meese got to zem. But we found some within ze ship itself. It seems like some of ze crew survived ze crash, but were killed soon after. We found... feathers, ma’am. Harpy feathers.”“Harpy are the most adept pilots in the sky, why would that be bizarre?” Amaryllis asked.“Ah, ze crew manifest suggested zat zey were all Sylph. And some of zem died wiz zeir zroats slit.” Emeric sighed. “Ze cargo manifest was also messing some zings. Ze ship had a cargo of documents and some luxury goods destined for ze Sylph embassy in Deepmarsh. Zose were missing. So were some of ze other, more expensive zings in the hold. Ze rest was all cloth and some barrels of alchemical mixtures.”The Director shifted back. “Anything else?”“Yes ma’am. Ze crew’s food, we inspected it, in case we could use ze ship’s pantry to supplement our own supplies if Valerie didn’t return promptly. But ze food, a decent portion of it, was poisoned. I’m unfamiliar with ze exact make-up, but Pierre has a skill zat helps with poisons.”“It was mostly powdered sleep root. Not a poison, exactly,” the ranger said. “But take a bit and you’ll be drowsy. Take a bit for a few days and you’ll be falling asleep in no time. Ze water, wine and flour were all sprinkled wiz ze stuff, so were some of ze ozer foods.”“What did the captain’s log say?” the director asked.“Nozing. It was missing along with some of ze maps and such. I zink zey took zings in a hurry.”Mathilde leaned back. “So a ship carrying important documents from the Kingdom of Sylphfree had its crew poisoned, and was then ransacked. Any signs of a battle?”“A few? Some of ze crew had weapons out. But most perished in ze crash, I zink.”“Hmph. Any signs of hooks or grapples? Maybe some signs that another ship was involved.”“No ma’am.”The director tapped her arched fingers over her mouth. “That doesn’t bode well.”Amaryllis swelled up. “It looks like someone is trying to frame the Nesting Kingdom.”“Trying to frame?” the director repeated. “That’s a strange conclusion to jump to.”“That’s because you’re missing some facts,” Amaryllis said.“In that case, do enlighten me, Miss Albatross.”Amaryllis nodded severely. “I shall. My... party and I have recently returned to Port Royal on business. While investigating something in the Scumways on behalf of a friend, we were ambushed by some low-leveled thugs. Of course we defeated them, and in doing so captured their leader. Awen here tortured some information out of him that I think is quite pertinent.”Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.“Awa, it, it wasn’t actually torture!” Awen defended herself, but no one listened, so I pulled her into a hug.“It turns out that the person who set up the ambush went by the name Rainnewt.”The director sat taller. “The same one who tried to have you kidnapped? Interesting, but I don’t see how this pertains to the situation with the Bronze Falcon.”“I was getting to that,” Amaryllis snapped. “After we finished with the thugs we continued onto the mansion from which the Morepoles operate. We found a grenoil there called Don Grenoiulle, who—after being questioned—admitted to having worked with a Sylph called Rainnewt to kidnap a Cervid diplomat on Rainnewt’s behalf. They also robbed some of the local nobility.”“Rainnewt was very much a human,” the director said.“Yes, I’m certain that the criminal mastermind called Rainnewt who seems keen on kidnapping Harpy nobility is entirely different from the other criminal mastermind called Rainnewt kidnapping cervid nobles,” Amaryllis deadpanned.The director ‘hmphed’ again, but this time it sounded faintly amused. “I suppose that a link wouldn't be hard to make. And you think this is related to the wreck of the Bronze Falcon?”“I’m not saying that for certain,” Amaryllis said. “But I will strongly suggest that you look into who, exactly, issued that mission to find the ship within the Exploration Guild. The way the timing seems laid out...”“It’s possible that it was Rainnewt who set up the mission,” the director finished. She pressed her hands onto her desk and stood up. “I see. Emeric, submit your report to the front desk. Then move your team out to help the city guard with their dragon problem.”“It’s okay!” I said. “Booksie is looking after Rhawrexdee, I’m sure she won’t let him destroy anything... too expensive. And Cholondee is really busy... uh.” I looked away from the director’s flat gaze. “Taking over the city’s underworld,” I muttered.“Wonderful,” she said in a way that implied that it was anything but.I felt my cheeks warming up a little, and Awen’s hand started rubbing my back in little circles.“Miss Albatross, did you have any plans to stay in Port Royal, or were you returning to Mattergrove, no doubt with the young woman that is certainly not the kidnapped heiress of the human kingdom.”Amaryllis raised her head. “I think it would be safer for everyone involved if that kind of information was compartmentalized for now. Though I will be writing to my clan to inform them of what is going on. As things are, I suspect that someone is trying to start a war.”The proclamation made the room go frigid for a moment. The grenoil looked at each other, and I felt myself itching to shift nervously again. Even the director looked unhappy. More so than usual.“The Exploration Guild will also be sending out official documentation pointing out that someone, or someones, have been interfering with international politics in such a way as to ignite some conflicts,” the director said. “War would be bad for everyone’s business.”“Thank you,” Amaryllis said. “On that note, I think we ought to be leaving.” The harpy gestured towards the back of the office.Mathilde looked my way some more, then glanced at Awen for a moment before sighing. “You’re dismissed. Emeric, you and your team as well. I suspect I’ll be quite busy for the next little while, so please try to not do something utterly ridiculous, such as fly into the city on dragon-back.”“Actually, it’s better if you let the dragon carry you. Flying on their backs is hard because of all the spines and... and I’m going now, bye!” I said before skipping out of the room and away from the director’s gaze.“Did you really fly into ze city on a dragon?” Arianne asked as soon as we were all in the corridor out of the director’s office.“No, like I said, we were carried by the dragon.”“And how did you get a dragon to carry you in its arms instead of in its stomach?” Emeric asked.“It was easy,” I said. “We gave it dating advice. And also we had a sleepover.”Donat was staring at us in something that I suspected was awe, but the others were wearing much more incredulous expressions. I don’t think they actually believed me.“Awa, it’s true,” Awen said. “Um, even if it doesn’t sound that way.”“It’s okay!” I said. “So, did you guys have a fun adventure?” I asked.“We did,” Emeric said while Donat shook his head behind him. “The mountains were a bit cold. It’s not that far north, but the altitude will make the air freeze. There’s even smoke when you breathe!”“Vapour, yeah,” I said. “It can be fun! I love the snow.”“You love everything, you dimwit,” Amaryllis said.“Everything deserves to be loved,” I countered with an irrefutable fact.Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “I think we skipped the introductions earlier. At least, proper introductions. Broccoli’s idea of a greeting is... well, unique.”I frowned. “I just say hi and ask people to be my friend, what’s wrong with that?”“All of it,” Amaryllis said. “I’m Amaryllis Albatross, of clan Albatross.”“Awa, I’m Awen Bristlecone, and I wasn’t kidnapped.”The grenoil were suddenly paying Awen a lot more attention. “Are you related to Abraham?” Valerie asked.“Aw, yes?” Awen said. “He’s my uncle.”Pierre, usually rather stoic, scoffed at that. “He’s a legend, is what he is. You take after him any? Arianne, what’s her class?”“Pierre, that’s rude,” the mage said. I still saw her eyes dulling for just a moment. She was being sneaky!I didn’t mind though, I was just happy that some old acquaintances were making nice with my new friends!
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Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven — A Poet, and Also a Dragon
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven — A Poet, and Also a Dragon “We should go visit Booksie together!” I declared. The grenoil exploration team looked confused for a moment, so I hastened to fill them in. “She’s a friend of ours, a really nice bun that needed a bit of help. She should be in the East side of Port Royal.”“Ah, yes,” Emeric said. “I suppose we could follow you zere. By ze way... I noticed ze ears earlier... zey weren’t zere when we saw you last, right?”I reached up and squeezed both ears at the base, the part that had a bunch of white fluff. “Nah, these are brand new. I got them when my first class evolved.”“Zat’s unusual,” Arianne said. “Not entirely unheard of, but unusual. I suppose you’re lucky zat ze evolution was towards somezing so innocent. Buns are generally well-liked.”“I guess so!” I said. I tugged my ears down, then let them go so that they sprang back up. “Anyway! Do you guys want to do lunch? We could go see Booksie, then find a nice place to eat and catch up.”“I have some letters to send,” Amaryllis said.“And we can give Amaryllis time to send her letters.”Emeric looked to his friends. Valerie was nodding quite seriously, Arianne shrugged while leaning against her staff and Pierre’s tummy growled. Donat was the only one that really didn’t seem certain. “You know what? Why not.”“Brilliant!” I cheered. “We should go check on Booksie first, and then maybe she can point us to a nice place for dinner.”“A bit of a walk won’t do any harm,” Emeric said.We took off, heading downhill towards the main streets of the city, then off towards the East end. I walked next to Emeric and listened with all four ears to him talking about their last adventure and how tricky it was to survive in the snow. I kinda knew all about that, but he was eager to talk, so I didn’t interrupt or anything.I did notice Amaryllis walking next to a quiet Pierre, keeping to herself, and a bit further back, Awen was making a piece of glass float above her hand next to Arianne who seemed to be giving her some advice.“Hey, Emeric,” I asked when there was a bit of a lull in the conversation. We were making good time. People had a habit of getting out of our path. I guess a group of armed and armoured people in adventuring gear made most pedestrians move, which was okay I guess. “Your team is pretty strong, right?”“Well, all of us are at least in our second tier, except for Donat. Arianne and I are just about to hit our second class evolution and neither of us are more zan twenty-five years old. We’re a bit ahead of ze curve.”“That’s cool! I was wondering, maybe after lunch you could teach us some things?”The grenoil looked at me quizzically. “What sorts of zings?” he asked.“Ah, well...” I tapped the tips of my fingers together. “We tend to get into some trouble sometimes, and while we’ve won every fight that counted, some of them were really close. And I guess I’m sort of our party’s leader? Kinda? We never voted on it or anything, but Awen and Amaryllis and Orange all tend to follow along with my ideas. And I don’t want them to get hurt because I wanted to try something dumb.”“You already sound like you’d make a good party leader,” Emeric said.I beamed up at him. “Thanks!”“As for training, we probably won’t stay in Port Royal past ze night and maybe into ze morning, but I can give you a few tips, I’m sure. Maybe a bit of sparring wiz Pierre? He’s quite good at fighting wizout injuring anyone. Don’t tell him, but Donat has been improving by leaps and bounds under Pierre’s tutelage.”“That would be really nice,” I said. “Maybe after lunch we can pick out an inn or something with a big yard and you could give us tips? Oh, we’ll pay, of course, it wouldn’t be nice otherwise.”“Maybe you can pay for Valerie’s portion of lunch and we’ll call it a fair deal,” he said. The glimmer of a smile in his eyes suggested that it was a bit of a trap, but I doubted Valerie could eat that much.“Deal!”We crossed the gate into the Eastern section without the guards doing anything more than glancing at all of our Exploration Guild pins. Awen didn’t have one, but maybe they thought it was under the lapel of her jacket. There weren’t that many guards by the gate, and the reason why became obvious a few blocks down where we ran into a cordon of guards blocking off the road leading down to Booksie’s shop.“Sorry folks, can’t go zat way,” one of the older guards said.“Ah, but my friends are over there,” I said.“Zere’s a dragon zere too,” the guard replied.“Yeah, he’s one of my friends.” The guard didn’t seem to believe me, but fortunately Emeric stepped in. “Ah, forgive me, sir, zis is Exploration Guild business. We need to scout ze area and ensure zat it is safe. Maybe you would like to go spy on ze dragon yourself?”“Oh, I see,” the guard said. “In zat case you’re free to go ahead.”“Thank you!” I said before hopping over the little wooden barrier they put up, then I pulled it aside for the rest of my friends who might not be so good at jumping.We moved along until, finally, we reached the street with Booksie’s shop. I looked around, taking in the quaint homes and little shops, and most importantly, the complete lack of dragons in the area. “I’m going to go check inside,” I told the others while pointing to the bookstore.“Do be careful,” Awen said.“No problem!” I gave her a thumbs-up and tried the front door. It was unlocked.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.The inside of Booksie’s shop looked a bit rough. Some of the displays had been broken, and there was a fine layer of dust over everything that had my nose scrunching up until I let loose with my Cleaning aura. That cleared up the dust around me, and also made the air smell a little fresher. I should have left it up the entire time. My ears perked as I heard a deep rumbly voice from the back of the shop. It was a bit rude, but I decided to walk past all the shelves and into the area at the back of the store. There was a little kitchenette there, with a rune-stove and a tiny table with one one chair next to it. A door led to the backyard where the voices were coming from.I poked my head out, then slapped a hand over my mouth to hold in an ‘aww.’ Rhawrexdee was sitting coiled up in as small a ball as he could, and even then he was pushing up against the fences all around him. His forearms were folded up before him and under his chin. Booksie was sitting there, a big book held up on her lap so that the dragon’s eye could read the text on it from between her ears. Ears that were bobbing from side to side as if they were happy. The little bit of a flush on her face spoke volumes.“Ah, yes, the word can mean that, but see, in that context it’s conjugated in the past tense. That means it’s an entirely different word,” Rhawrexdee was saying.“Oh, it’s a homonym, two words that are spelled the same?”“That’s right. That’s what had you confused, I think.”Booksie nodded hard, her ears smacked Rhawrexdee. “I see, I see. Did you want to continue? Please?” “Certainly.” The dragon cleared his throat. “My only love sprung from my greatest adversary, my teeth shone, and my heart was at the ready. And yet her gaze melted my reservations, oh, to be free of these expectations! To have a heart which beats steady, under the regard of a beauty that evokes such-”The dragon looked up, a single eye locked onto me.I froze like a rabbit meeting a wolf, then I remembered that these were my friends. “Ah, hi guys, sorry for interrupting.”Booksie jumped to her feet, patted down her pants, and slammed her book shut with a thump. “It was nothing,” she said.“Of course not,” I agreed. “So, you’re back,” Rhawrexdee said. “Is my sister with you?” His eyes narrowed.“Nope! She’s decided to take over the local mob, so now you shouldn’t have any more problems with them, Booksie! Ah, but we discovered this great big conspiracy that might lead to a big war, so we’re going to stick our noses into that and see what we can do,” I said.“Are the others with you?” Booksie asked. “Uh-huh. And I found some old friends too! They’re a grenoil party from the Exploration Guild. They’re nice.”“Well, let’s go meet with them, then,” Booksie said. Rhawrexdee sighed and got to his feet, his tail swiping through the fence behind him and the clothes line behind that, but he didn’t seem to care much. “I’ll leap over your little shop,” he said a moment before taking to the air.When the dust settled, I turned to Booksie with a big smile. “So, reading romances while sitting on your friend?” I asked.“Oh, shush you,” she said past her flush. “Rhawrexdee was just helping me with some of the translations. I agreed to teach him the other languages I know in exchange.”“Won’t that take a long time?” I asked.The bun smiled a small, knowing sort of smile. “Yes, yes I think it will.”I giggled as I followed her into the shop. “You’re going to start the store up again?”“I think so. As much as I... enjoy Rhawrexdee’s company, I am an independent woman. I’m not going to move into my... my maybe-boyfriend’s mom’s cave just like that. I’ll see about buying some of the lots out back so he has a place to land and sit around in, and then, ah, I suppose I’ll have to look for a loan to get everything started again.”“Do you think people will come if there’s a dragon around?” I hoped that the people around here weren’t so speciest as to boycott a shop just because the owner was friends with a few dragons.“It might actually help. It’ll at least make for a good deal of advertising,” she said. “What was that about a war?”“Oh, right. Amaryllis can give you the important details, but we think someone is trying to start a big war between all the big countries around here. It sounds really nasty, so we’ll see what we can do to stop that from happening.”“I wish you the best, truly.”I stepped out onto the street to find the Exploration Guild party staring up at Rhawrexdee as if he was going to eat them at any moment. Which reminded me...“Hey, Rhawrexdee, we’re going out for lunch, did you want to come?” “Lunch? Certainly. I’m quite hungry. And also a dragon.”I grinned. “Awesome! So, do any of you know of a good place to eat? The only place I know is the Rock Inn and Roll Inn. They do have a nice courtyard, so that might work.”“Sounds good enough,” Amaryllis said. “I need a place to write some things, any place with tables would do.”“Likewise.” Booksie said. “Let me just lock things up.”Emeric moved over to me while Booksie was off closing up the shop. “Ah, when you said zat you were friends wiz ze dragon, I, ah, didn’t zink you were being zat literal.”“Well, we’re not super-best friends or anything, not yet, but Rhawrexdee is a nice guy under all the arrogance and the desire to eat people and take their gold. I think there’s a good chance that him and Booksie will work out!”The older grenoil looked at me for a long moment. “You are one strange person, Broccoli Bunch.”“Thank you!”
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