A Demon and a Dragon

by Virlyce

  Vur nodded. “Everyone with arms has forearms.”

  “Four! Four arms! The number!” Tafel pointed at Vur’s left hand. “One!” She pointed at his right hand. “Two!” She pointed at the arm slightly underneath his right arm, growing out of his armpit. “Three!” She pointed at the arm underneath his left arm. “Four! Why do you have four arms!?” She whirled around and glared at Grimmy.

  “Don’t look at me,” Grimmy said and shrugged. “Actually, even if you did blame me, you can’t really do anything to me. So, for your own sake, it’s better not to pin the blame on me.”

  Tafel clenched her hands. “You….” She unclenched her hands and sighed. “You’re right. But I can tattle on you to Leila.” Her horns glowed silver, and she opened a portal to the wilderness. “Lei—”

  A shrieking woman appeared on the other side of the portal, her eyes shriveled and sunken within her head. Her cheeks were gaunt, and black teeth were dangling from rotten gums in her mouth.

  “La!?” Tafel closed the portal as the woman charged at her, shutting it just in time. She pointed at the empty air and whirled around to face Lindyss. “Auntie! What was that!?”

  “A banshee. I put her there as a defensive measure against portals,” Grimmy said, answering in the cursed elf’s place. “I was going to warn you about it, but I decided not to. For now, the wilderness is completely off limits.”

  Lindyss nodded at Tafel’s unbelieving face. “He even moved all the elves to the desert.”

  Grimmy cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m not lying when I said it wasn’t my fault.”

  Tafel sighed and reached for Vur’s hand but hesitated at which of the two on his right side to take. “Vur,” she said and lowered her arm, “why do you have one more than three arms?”

  “I wished for them,” Vur said.

  Tafel tilted her head. “Why?”

  “Mervin was dying and needed me to make a wish to turn him back into a beansprout so he could live.”

  “Okay, but why four arms?” Tafel asked, kneading the blanket in front of her. “You could’ve wished for anything, right? Why not wish for a sandwich, or a star, or even a potato?”

  Vur blinked. “You don’t like them?”

  Grimmy chuckled. “I’m sure they’d be very useful in certain situations.”

  Lindyss kicked the black dragon’s toe.

  “It’s not that I don’t like them…, it’s….” Tafel sighed again. “Vur. I love you. I was so scared when you fainted and wouldn’t wake up, and I’m really glad you’re alright. It’s nice to see you haven’t changed too. I was preparing myself for the worst, but if the only thing that happened is you grew an extra pair of arms, I can live with that.”

  “If you don’t like them, then I can put them back inside,” Vur said and raised his upper arms. His lower arms shrank back and disappeared into his armpits. “Stella told me you’d like it more if I wished for them to be retractable too. And she was right. She’s really smart.”

  Tafel stared at Vur, who looked completely normal now, before lifting the blanket off of him. When she saw that he only had two legs, she exhaled and nodded. “But, seriously, of all the things to wish for, why four arms?”

  “I didn’t wish for four arms,” Vur said and rolled his eyes. “I wished for an extra pair of retractable arms underneath my original ones. Genies are tricky, remember? You have to be specific.”

  Tafel’s eye twitched. “Okay, why did you wish for that?”

  “Well,” Vur said, “Mervin told me to hurry and wish for the first thing on my mind. And behind Mervin, Chompy’s extra arms were showing and I thought they looked pretty cool.”

  Tafel nodded. “So you did the only reasonable thing that anyone in your situation would do and wished for an extra pair of arms.”

  Vur smiled and hugged Tafel. A second pair of arms hugged her lower back. “I knew you’d understand.”

  Tafel sighed and hugged her husband in return. “As long as you’re okay.”

  25

  Mary chewed on her lower lip as she stumbled down the hall. Without her sword, the world was a more terrifying place filled with dangers that couldn’t be cut to death. She could punch them to death, but it wasn’t the same. And since her gauntlets and greaves had been taken as well, she wasn’t sure she could do that anymore. It was a good thing she never cared about the aesthetics of the palace because the palace had been completely destroyed. She heard she had done it when Zyocuh ordered her to kill Tafel, but she didn’t remember any of it. Was Tafel mad at her? Mary bit down even harder, drawing beads of blood out of her lip. She rounded a corner into another hall. The phoenixes had told her Tafel was staying there. She hadn’t been allowed to go earlier since Vur was still asleep, but since he woke up, the dragons stopped keeping an eye on her. They wouldn’t give her back her uncle though. Mary trudged down the tattered carpet and stopped in front of probably the only intact room in the palace. Four different-colored rocks were outside the door, and a fairy was asleep on top of the red one. Mary tilted her head at the odd placement before placing her hand on the doorknob.

  “Ah!”

  Mary flinched and withdrew her hand. Her head whirled around, looking for the source of the sound.

  “Down here.”

  Mary lowered her head. She made eye contact with two coal-like eyes. The red rock waved at her, and Mary’s eyes bulged. “Y-yes? Hello, um, rock.”

  “You shouldn’t go in there right now,” Sheryl said. “Tafel made us leave Vur’s body, so that can only mean one thing.”

  Mary tilted her head. “What?”

  “You know,” Sheryl said, gesturing out to the sides with her arm. “That.”

  Mary blinked twice and shook her head. “I don’t.”

  Sheryl scratched her rocky face. “They’re, um, making babies.”

  Mary’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” She nodded. “I want to say hi to the stork. I’ve never met it before.” Without waiting for Sheryl’s reply, she pushed open the door and walked inside.

  The four elementals exchanged glances with each other. A moment later, Mary came back outside and closed the door behind herself. She inched next to Sheryl and sat down with her feet flat against the floor, her knees touching her chest armor. Her fingers twined together, her hands wrapped around her shins. There was no expression on her face.

  Sheryl cleared her throat. “Um. What happened?”

  “There was no stork.”

  ***

  Grimmy yawned and swished his tail in front of Bonnie’s face. She tried to grab it, but it was too fast, and she tumbled over onto her side. “Too slow,” Grimmy said and yawned again. “How boring.” He was on top of the castle walls while Eldest, Youngest, and Bonnie were inside the courtyard beneath him.

  “Stop teasing them,” Sera said from her spot near the palace. She was whittling away at a piece of wood with her claws. “They’re not cats.”

  Grimmy shrugged. “You heard that, kids? Your aunt says no fun allowed.” He withdrew his tail and turned around, drooping his head over the wall. He scanned the ground. “Oh, that’s a pretty nice staff. Who made it?”

  “That one’s mine,” Eldest, Youngest, and Bonnie said at the same time. They glared at each other before diving towards the staff.

  “I made it!”

  “No, this one’s mine!”

  “I picked out the burnt wood, remember? This is mine. Stop trying to steal my credit!”

  Grimmy chuckled and folded his front legs. Then he curled his neck and placed his chin on top of his claws, getting comfortable as his tail wrapped around towards his head. Lindyss looked down at him from atop his snout. “Hey,” she said. “Shouldn’t we tell them about the summoning spells?”

  “Oh,” Grimmy said. “Right, I forgot.” He lifted one wing and waved it up and down. “Hey, Sera.”

  “Yes?”

  “There’s three creatures being summoned that’re about as strong as us and they probably want to destroy this continent,” Grimmy said.
“You might want to take care of that.”

  Sera stopped whittling her staff. “What?” she asked, raising her head to meet Grimmy’s gaze. “Where?”

  “Those three little empires surrounding this one,” Grimmy said. “You didn’t notice? The sky even turned red from all the mana. Why don’t you get your mom to handle it? She’s pretty strong, no?”

  Sera clicked her tongue. “She went to visit my dad. I don’t know when she’ll be back.” A sigh escaped from the sky-blue dragon’s mouth, freezing the ground underneath her. “If she finds out her home was destroyed while she was gone, she’ll get angry at me.” She turned her head and prodded her sleeping mate with her tail.

  Vernon’s eyes fluttered open. “Huh? Is it time to go home?”

  “No,” Sera said. “It’s time to go hunting.” She turned towards Grimmy. “Will two of us be fine?”

  Grimmy shrugged. “You’ll probably get hurt pretty bad. The person who created them has a huge grudge against dragons. No doubt, those creatures are specialized to hunt dragons down. Magic won’t work on them.”

  Vernon scratched his head. “All I’m hearing is, ‘It’s time to abandon this continent.’ Is that what you heard, dear?”

  Sera smacked her mate’s snout with her wing in reply. “Grimmy, why don’t you come with us?”

  “Eh.” Grimmy grunted and averted his gaze. “Who’ll watch over these brats? And I should stay behind just in case something happens to Vur.” His eyes lit up, and Lindyss got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Tell you what, I’ll lend you this little elf.”

  “I’m not yours to lend!” Lindyss said. Despite her protests, Grimmy plucked her off his head and placed her on top of Sera’s.

  Grimmy grinned at Sera’s questioning expression. “Back at Leila’s home, she summoned a bunch of undead dragons and traumatized my mother-in-law through sheer force. She’s actually very strong, you know? I helped make her myself.”

  Sera took a second glance at Lindyss. “Is that so. Well, I appreciate the assistance.”

  “I never said I was going to….” Lindyss sighed at Grimmy’s narrowing eyes. “Ugh, fine. Whatever. I’ll help.”

  ***

  Vur groaned and stretched his arms out to the side, all four of them. He cracked his neck and sat up, the blanket covering him sliding down to reveal his chest. He yawned and wiped his eyes with his top two hands and used one of his free hands to grab a glass of water on the bedside table.

  “I think it’s going to take me a very long time to get used to this,” Tafel said and stared at her husband, her cheek resting on a pillow. Vur used his last hand to stroke Tafel’s hair, pushing strands of it off her face and behind her ear. “Yep. A long, long time.” She sighed and extended her bent legs, arching her back while stretching. “You know Mary walked in on us, right?”

  Vur shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

  “If you say so,” Tafel said and rolled over onto her back. She gathered up the blanket and pulled it up, covering her chin while making herself comfortable. “Say, what do you want to do next? We came to the palace because I promised to attend Mary’s banquet, but we got caught up in something ridiculous. At least it’s over. Do you want to go back to that dungeon we were exploring earlier?”

  Vur scratched his nose. “Not really. It was boring there.”

  “That’s because you’re too strong,” Tafel said and pouted. “Any dungeon crawl is going to be boring for you.”

  Vur nodded. “Then let’s stop dungeon crawling.”

  “We can’t!” Tafel turned her head to meet Vur’s eyes. “Dungeon crawling is the best part of an adventurer’s life!”

  Vur tilted his head. “The best part of an adventurer’s life is boring? Why are we adventurers?”

  A wrinkle appeared on Tafel’s forehead. “Let me rephrase that,” she said. “Getting loot from dungeon crawling is the best part of an adventurer’s life. We get new equipment, learn new skills, gain new techniques, and visit places that haven’t been visited before when we dungeon crawl. It’s not boring.”

  Vur blinked. “If you want new equipment, I can make the dwarves forge some for you. They’re very good at that,” he said and nodded. “I’m the dwarf king, remember?” His brow furrowed. “I think? I let Auntie rule the dwarves, but I don’t think she took my title away, so I’m still king.” He nodded again. “What kind of equipment do you want?”

  “We can’t do that,” Tafel said and shook her head. “It’s the same concept as you not being allowed to give me Grimmy’s stuff. It’s cheating. We have to find our equipment on our own.”

  Vur pointed off to the side at Tafel’s armor which was made of leviathan scales. “Didn’t the fishmen make that for us?”

  Tafel coughed. “That’s different.”

  “How?”

  “It just is, alright?”

  Vur shook his head. “Because it’s made of fish? If I gave the dwarves a bunch of fish and they made equipment out of it, is that okay?”

  “It’s not because it’s made out of a fish!” Tafel sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “Vur. There’s joy in slowly becoming stronger. You have to start out as a weakling, then slowly progress through the gear treadmill. A newbie adventurer starts off with a wooden sword. Then he gets some leather armor. Maybe he’ll kill a goblin and get an iron dagger. Slowly, ever so slowly, that dagger becomes a sword, then the armor improves, then the sword is made of a better metal that can be enchanted. It’s a fun process to see yourself become stronger. You can’t skip to endgame equipment by talking to dwarves or borrowing stuff from dragons.”

  Vur furrowed his brow. “Why not? Wouldn’t it be more fun to have the best things right away? Then you can do whatever you want.”

  “Then you become too reliant on your equipment,” Tafel said. “You have to use equipment that matches your personal skill. Only those skilled enough are allowed to wield weapons made by dwarves. And only those who are good enough to not get hit can wear dwarven-made armor.”

  Vur lay back down and pulled the blanket up. “That doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t clumsier people want better armor?”

  “Well, if the armor’s too heavy, then it’d be hard for them to move around,” Tafel said after a short pause. “They don’t have the necessary proficiency with wearing that kind of armor to use it effectively.”

  “Then the dwarves can add an enchantment to make the armor lighter and easier to use,” Vur said.

  “That’s cheating.” Tafel pouted. Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Okay, I know how to explain it now.”

  “Go on.”

  “So, adventurers start off in easier dungeons to get stronger because they’d die if they tried harder dungeons right away, right?”

  “Okay.”

  Tafel rolled over onto her side and rested her arm on Vur’s chest, which was covered by the blanket. “And easy dungeons are easy because the creatures inside of them are weaker and less intelligent than those inside harder dungeons.”

  “Right.”

  “So, if a new adventurer wears armor way above his league, then he’ll be able to clear the easy dungeons without breaking a sweat. He won’t be forced into dangerous situations, and the experience he’ll receive will be way less. When he gets to a hard dungeon that’s on par with his armor’s league, he’s going to die from lack of experience. Partaking in combat where your life is at risk and partaking in sparring are two totally different things. Someone who’s been through many life-or-death situations is going to be way stronger than someone who’s only sparred even if their equipment is the same.”

  Vur blinked. “But I think you’re strong enough to use dwarven-made equipment?”

  Tafel shook her head. “I’m not.”

  “You’re not?”

  “No, and it’ll be a long while before I am.”

  Vur rubbed his chin again. “Is this just another way of saying you want to go back to the dungeon?”

  Tafel’s face flushed. “I mean, it’d be nice if we
finished what we started, right? If the chimera queen was just a mini-boss, imagine what the boss of that dungeon would be like.”

  Vur inched closer to Tafel, wrapping one arm over her shoulder. “Isn’t me being there the same thing as having overpowered equipment? There’s no life-or-death situation if I’m there. Wouldn’t you get less experience?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Really,” Vur said, his voice flat.

  “It really is! There’s a difference between having armor that can block an attack that rightfully should’ve killed you and having someone watching over you to make sure you don’t die.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Vur! I’m telling the truth! It really is different.” Tafel pouted.

  Vur smiled and crept closer, placing his lips on hers. He drew back and stroked her head, his fingers playing with her hair. “If you want to finish the dungeon, then let’s go finish the dungeon.”

  Tafel gave Vur a slight nod, her face bright red. “Okay,” she said in a small voice. “Let’s do that.”

  The moment Tafel and Vur stepped outside after getting dressed, a flinching motion nearly caused Tafel to jump. She looked down and made eye contact with Mary, who was looking up at her with quivering eyes. “T-Tafel,” Mary said. “H-hi.”

  Tafel furrowed her brow. “Why are you stuttering?”

  Mary lowered her head and stared at her toes, wrapping her fingers tighter around her shins. “You’re…, um, are you mad at me?”

  “For walking in on us?” Tafel shook her head. “Of course not. I was just a little surprised. But, please, knock next time.”

  “I tried to warn her,” Sheryl said, “but she said she wanted to see the stork.”

  Tafel stared at Mary, and the empress shrank back with her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “Not mad about that,” Mary muttered. “I mean, are you mad about”—her voice turned even smaller—“earlier? When I attacked you. I’m sorry. I didn’t know I did it.”