Dinosaurs! (Forger of Worlds Book 3)

by Simon Archer

  “Finally,” he replied and adjusted his monocle. “I have been waiting here for over seven minutes.” He showed me a solid gold pocket watch that was encrusted with jewels. “Seven. Minutes.”

  “Sorry,” I said with a shrug. “I came as soon as I got the ping.”

  “I’m going to charge you double time for making me stand around,” Jorge replied and then fixed me with a stern glare.

  “Well, since I’m the boss of you, I’m going to pass on that since I’m pretty sure the contract says I can make you stand around all day if I want.” I dared him to contradict me, and when he just grumbled and snorted, I smirked. “So, where're the goods?”

  “In the corner.” He gestured lazily toward the far side of the hut. “I’ve already sent the rest of the Sunstone to Veronica. There wasn’t a lot left, though.” He paused a beat. “So… if you don’t need anything, I do have a round of golf to make.” He tapped his watch. “I have a twelve-thirty tee time.”

  “You can go,” I said, already headed toward the corner, and as I saw my sword, I completely forgot about the pixie entirely. Had he left? Had he stayed? Had he sung opera and danced a jig? Who the fuck knew?

  All I knew was that the Sword of the Destroyer King gleamed. The rust and pitting were gone, and the metal was as sleek as ever. It held a sort of off-red hue to it and seemed to radiate with power. The blade looked so sharp that I was sure it could cut through just about anything, and the polished metal pommel gleamed like a tiny star. My hands ached to touch it, and as I reached out to touch it, a surge of surety and confidence surged through me.

  And following that?

  Power.

  Sheer, indescribable, unending power.

  That’s when I saw the message flashing across my vision so fervently, I wasn’t sure how I had missed it before.

  You have completed a Hidden Quest: The Destroyer King’s Mantle Part Four, but are you worthy to carry the power of the Destroyer King? Only time will tell.

  I acknowledged the prompt and gave the sword a test swing. It was better balanced than ever before, and I heard it whistle through the air, even though it hadn’t been a hard swing. It felt light yet strong. Heavy yet agile.

  I wanted to play with it more, to take it out on a test run, but that’s when I saw the Hand of the Destroyer King. The gauntlet had changed even more radically than the sword. Like the Sword of the Destroyer King, the pitting and rust were gone, and it gleamed in the light of the hut, but it had physically changed in structure.

  Before, it had been a basic wrist guard with a couple of straps to hold it onto my forearm. Now, though? Now, it was a sleeve of metal wraps that cascaded upward to culminate in a pauldron. Or, well, the spot where a pauldron would go, since what I’d initially thought was a spike actually looked more like a peg to help secure a pauldron.

  The whole thing looked like one of those ancient gladiator sleeves, and as I picked it up, and put it on, I got another quest message.

  You have completed a Hidden Quest: The Destroyer King’s Mantle Part Five, but are you worthy to carry the power of the Destroyer King? Only time will tell.

  Congratulations. Your worthiness in the eyes of the Destroyer King has increased. Your proficiency with Destroyer King items has increased.

  As I read the text, I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my lips, especially when I realized I now had a new buff.

  Mantle of the Destroyer King: Initiate - When wielding Destroyer King Items, the Attack and Defense of all Destroyer King items will increase by ten percent, Critical Strike will increase by one percent, Durability will increase by ten percent, weight will decrease by ten percent.

  It didn’t take much to confirm what the buff did. All the relevant stats on both the Hand of the Destroyer King and the Sword of the Destroyer King were now blue instead of white, and when I examined them closer, I found that the blue number represented my base stat plus the buff.

  “Sweet,” I said as I looked over the stats and realized that the base stats of both had doubled now that they had been repaired.

  “Are you pleased, Garrett?” Thera said, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn’t even known she was there, and as I turned to look at her, she had a bemused smile on her face.

  “I am very pleased, Thera.” I gestured at her with my sword. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  “I have some idea.” She smirked. “I made them shinier, and hopefully, deadlier.” Her face got serious then. “I hope it will be enough for what we must do.”

  “I think it will be.” I smiled at her. “And even if it’s not, I have you and the rest of the Blue Palm Tribe to back me up. How can I lose?”

  “When you put it that way, I almost feel like I’m not marching my people toward certain doom.” She blew out a long breath. “That said, I still feel like it is the right thing to do.” She looked at the sky. “It is what I would want others to do were I in the Orange’s position.”

  “And that’s why you’re a great leader,” I said as I moved toward her and hugged her. Her arms wrapped around me, and for one nice moment, we just held each other. It was strange. I knew we needed to get going, that her being here meant that the preparations were completed, and it was time to take the battle to Titania and the Oranges.

  And yet, I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want this to end.

  Mostly though, I didn’t want this to be the last time we shared a moment like this between us.

  “Don’t die,” I whispered as I leaned down to kiss her.

  “I shall do my best,” her lips brushed against mine. “You do not die, either.”

  “It’s a deal.” Our lips met then. This kiss was different, desperate somehow like it might be the last time we ever got to do it, and something about that made me sad.

  But more than that?

  More than that, it made me furious.

  Furious that Titania was making us go fight her, that we had to take on an entire tribe to get to her.

  And most of all?

  Most of all, I was furious that the Queen of the Summer Court was putting Thera specifically into danger.

  For that, she would have to pay.

  And pay.

  And pay.

  39

  Queenie

  I was very glad that I did not have to fly on the giant birds with master and the strange bird people of this planet. I would have if they’d asked me, of course, but I much preferred my own wings.

  This way, I could zip about, flit to and fro, and that was something I enjoyed almost as much as sweets. There was something freeing about the experience of flight that made me smile, and I made sure to take advantage of it as much as possible.

  Not to say that I felt the need for freedom or anything. I enjoyed master and serving him more than I enjoyed even flying. It was more that my body often felt strange in a way I couldn’t describe, like being bound to the earth somehow diminished my innate “me-ness.”

  Being in the air was like being a giant bird creature searching for tasty things to scoop up from the ground and gobble whole.

  I wondered what that must be like, to be a bird, and for a split second, I almost wanted to ride one of the birds. Only they smelled of sweat and mildew, were covered with itchy feathers, and had strange eyes that I didn’t enjoy. Eyes that were totally consumed with stabbing you in the chest with their beaks and ripping out your juicy bits.

  Also, I didn’t like birds. Messy, dirty things.

  Not that these bird people were like that, though I did often find them preening their feathers. Then again, that wasn’t much different from how the catwomen often licked the back of their hands to “clean” themselves. Honestly, I’m not sure why they thought that covering themselves with their own saliva made them cleaner, but then again, they weren’t royalty.

  I was, and that meant I couldn’t just lick myself clean. No, it would just not be fitting.

  We had been flying for quite a while, and I could see that master was gettin
g tired and not just because he’d actually eaten a couple of tahn fruits during this journey to keep him strong and help replenish his Aura.

  Master didn’t know it, but secretly, I’d been feeding the many giant birds from my own Aura for a while now. I would spend about half of my limit to top them up from time to time and then let it regenerate. Still, I could tell he needed to rest. His brow was beaded with sweat, and he was growing a bit pale.

  His hands clenched and unclenched on the big bird he called Red. If this kept up, I worried he might just fall from the bird and die. Of course, that wouldn’t happen. I would catch him if he fell. It was why I was flying beside him, and yet another reason why I’d refused my own mount.

  I tried to busy myself by looking at the scenery. We had long since left the forests behind and were now soaring above what seemed like plains. It seemed to me that there might once have been more trees here too, but a great many of them had been cut down, though I wasn’t sure why exactly.

  Master coughed then, and when I glanced his way, I saw his Aura had fallen so low that the little bar above his head was flashing red. That was bad. I’d seen it often enough during battles. It meant he was below ten percent, and I could tell his regeneration was not keeping up with his usage.

  He should rest. He needed to rest. But how could I tell him that? After all, it wasn’t my place to tell master to do anything. But… but it was my place to take care of him. And he needed someone to take care of him now.

  “Master,” I said as I moved toward him, and that’s when I realized he was shaking, whether from effort or weariness, I was unsure. He was sweating more, too, and he looked paler.

  “Yes, Queenie?” he gasped as he turned toward me, and I saw the dark bags under his eyes. “Have you seen something?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, and for a moment, I wondered if he would enter my mind. Only he did not do so. He merely looked at me and waited patiently. “I think we should rest.”

  “If you’re tired, I can send you to the Pocket for a bit?” he asked, clearly missing my meaning. In fact, his words somewhat upset me. There was no circumstance in which I’d rather be in the Pocket than with him. Though, to be fair, I would rather have been covered in honey and flung to hungry ants than gone into the Pocket willingly. Being there was… not existing.

  I didn’t exactly hate it, but it was not fun. Not fun at all.

  “No, master, I do not wish to return to the Pocket.” I paused. “I wish for you to rest.” I moved a bit closer to him and switched to mental communication. Though I wasn’t sure if Thera could have heard us otherwise, I didn’t wish to have this conversation in front of her. After all, I did not want her to think that master was weak when he was the strongest being I had ever known.

  “You want me to rest?” He laughed. “I’m fine, Queenie.” His grip tightened on Red’s reigns. “Just a few more hours, most likely.”

  “I do not wish to argue with you, master… it’s just...” I swallowed. I did not like this. I did not like it at all. “Your Aura is very low, and you are using it very quickly. I’ve tried to use my Aura to allow you to regenerate, but the situation is becoming untenable.” I frowned. “I have no more Aura to give.” I looked up at him with pleading eyes. “What will a few minutes rest mean at the end of things, anyway?”

  “You make a fair point, Queenie,” master replied. “I guess I’ve been pushing pretty hard.” He took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly. “I thought maybe if I could just control my breathing a bit…” He sighed. “Can you let Thera know I’m going to be setting us down in that clearing over there?” He pointed to a burned patch of earth a bit to the north.

  “It would give me no greater pleasure, master,” I said as a wave of relief hit me like a sack full of truffles. Then, before he could change his mind, I flew off to inform the others.

  That was when I realized something. All of the Blue Palm Clan seemed like they wanted to rest too. They had just been too stubborn to suggest it. Even Thera had seemed a bit too pleased by the idea.

  It was curious. After all, if they all needed to rest, they should have said something, but then again, the bird people were strange, and I was willing to bet it was because they wanted to appear strong before master.

  They needn’t have bothered, though. Master was as kind as he was brave. He would not judge them poorly for needing to rest, especially given how long and tough the journey had been. After all, they had to clasp the giant birds with their legs the whole time, and the very brief time I’d sat on one had made my hamstrings ache.

  They had been at it for hours.

  Which just proved my point. The bird people were silly. Not a bad silly exactly, but silly all the same. Though I was fond of them, especially Jorna.

  So, when we landed, and she asked me to help prepare the meal, I was more than happy to lend her my services, and not just because I got to taste things along the way. That was just a benefit.

  And because I was a queen, I didn’t even let it go to my head.

  40

  “Queenie, stop beating people with your spoon!” I said as the Ant Queen whacked yet another of the Blue Palm Clan on the back of the head with her large wooden spoon.

  “But, Master…” she pleaded as she looked up at me mid-whack. “They keep slurping the soup.” She whacked her own palm with the butt of the spoon. “And the soup is not to be slurped.” She looked at Jorna for support.

  “Her punishment is far better than the one I would employ,” the old woman cackled ominously.

  “That is true, Garrett,” Thera added next to me. “The spoon is far, far better.”

  “But you shouldn’t hit people,” I said with a huff.

  “I, for one, think we should be able to enjoy our soup however we like,” Denno said with his mouth full of soup, causing it to dribble down his face.

  “Unacceptable!” Queenie cried before whacking him with her fork, which to her credit, wasn’t her spoon.

  “I give up,” I said as Thera hugged me.

  “It’s for the best,” she said as I returned my attention to my own meal.

  It was definitely something I hadn’t expected. It had started as a mixture of various dried ingredients that Jorna had put into bowls. Then she had ladled boiling water onto the dish and sprinkled a few herbs on top. The result was a hearty soup that reminded me of the black squid ink ramen I’d once got in Toronto, only without the little hotdogs cut into octopi.

  The best part was that the rest had done us all good. I’d have been lying if I said that the strain of constantly infusing Aura into the Quetzals to keep up their strength hadn’t been wearing on me, and despite my high Intelligence and the use of tahn fruit, I probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

  Maybe I could have gone further with the use of another tahn fruit, but I was probably also going to have to see my doctor because my little friend had been at attention for the vast majority of the day, and honestly, it was starting to ache. As much as I wanted to push on, everyone else looked tired.

  From what Thera had told me when we’d landed, we were still a good four hours from the Orange camp, and then the volcano was another six hours after that. Plus, dark would be falling soon, and the last thing I wanted to do was have to land in the middle of the night and have to make camp then.

  “What are your thoughts about staying here for the night?” I asked Thera. “I don’t sense anything with my Auric Sense, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t predators here.”

  “This is not the best place to camp, but it is not the worst,” Thera hedged. “This is Rex territory, which is why I posted sentries around and had them spread the jars.” She gestured at the clay pots spread in a circle around the camp. “It is a mixture of herbs that was designed by Nikotan to mask our scent.”

  “Rex territory?” I gasped as I desperately hoped that it didn’t mean what I thought it meant. “As in giant two-legged predators with tiny arms and giant teeth that can reach speeds of over twenty
-five miles per hour and have the strongest bite of any known predator ever?” I gestured at the clearing. “Here?”

  “Yes.” Thera nodded. “Though I would not be too worried. Rexes are pretty territorial and tend to hang out in mated pairs. Their territory is quite large, and unlike smaller carnivores, of which we won’t find because this is Rex territory, they are not nocturnal.”

  “Interesting,” I mused as I thought that over. While the idea of setting up camp in an area with a pair of colossal predators that stood over forty feet tall and weighed over nine tons wasn’t exactly appealing, I also liked the idea that it was likely their presence would keep others away. And with our scents masked, hopefully, we wouldn’t get eaten by anything. “You know what, if you think it will be okay, I’m going to allow it.”

  “I think it will be okay to rest for a few hours and then leave, yes.” She looked at the sky. “We should definitely be ready to leave by first light, though. That is why I will have the Quetzals packed and ready to go before we bed down for the night.” Her expression turned serious then. “We do not want to have to fight a Rex. If we do, it is likely many will die, especially if both show up.”

  “I agree with all of that, especially the not fighting a Rex thing,” I said seriously as I mentally relayed everything to Queenie. I then instructed her to summon a bunch of scouts and make damn sure we knew the moment a Rex was anywhere near us.

  “Would you like me to try to find the pair, master?” Queenie asked. “If they are as big as you say, it may not be difficult to find them. Then I would know if they are on the move.”

  “Actually, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Why don’t you see if you can locate them? Then keep an eye on them.” I nodded, though she couldn’t see it. “Thanks for volunteering. Oh, and if you find anything hot and bright, or even slightly warm out there, let me know. After all, if I was Titania, and I was watching me, this is when I’d attack.”

  “Of course, master. I will look for the fairy queen, as well. It is my greatest desire to keep you safe. I will report back shortly.” With that, she broke communication, and an instant later, I saw her fly up into the sky with Scout under one arm.