The ten goblins had smiled evilly to see a lone woman standing between themselves and the food in the farmers’ buildings. His mother had drawn her sword and seemed to dance around for a few minutes in a smooth, graceful pattern that was elegant and deadly at the same time. In those minutes of the dance, all of the goblins’ heads had seemed to hit the ground without his mother being touched, even though she had danced among them. The most horrific part of that experience had been helping his mother to drag the bodies and heads to a pit at the back of the steadings.
Coming back to the present, Ceras walked with the others as they entered a small open field in the middle of the hamlet, with lush green grass and a tall oak tree. Several sheep were grazing the field without a care in the world.
On the green was a small store that was shut for the night but seemed to sell everything a community would need, with a blacksmith’s shop alongside it. Ceras could see the blacksmith and a few apprentices still working away by the forge. The inn was a large building opposite the shop across the green, with a large painted sign featuring a red boar on a blue background.
“Remember, Ceras, we’re not poor adventurers anymore and we can definitely afford to sleep in a decent bed tonight - and not the stable you normally seem to pick,” said Symania as they were making their way toward the inn.
“What's wrong with the stable?” asked Ceras. “It’s only for one night.”
“Well, a bit of privacy won’t go amiss and it’s nice to be comfortable. We certainly can afford it,” said Symania, more forcefully.
“Fine, then.”
Wooden steps led up to the inn’s large front door that was just off the central green of the hamlet. As Ceras opened the door, he heard a lute playing at the far end of the smoky inn. The ground floor of the inn seemed to be mostly a large open room with doors to a kitchen off to the side, through which serving women kept appearing carrying plates full of food. A large bar made of several planks on top of barrels was on the left side of the room close to the kitchen. Smaller barrels and ceramic pots with stoppers in the tops were on shelves behind the bar. An older woman was serving the younger ladies working as waitresses, who were distributing the drinks and meals amongst the wooden tables that were scattered around the room as the inn’s patrons enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere.
Ceras noticed that there were two groups of people in the inn: the locals with the plain work clothes having an evening meal in the company of friends, and the adventurers like themselves, passing through the hamlet. The adventurers were in subdued, smaller groups sitting by themselves. Not all of them were young; some of them looked as if they had been fighting for years with the rough, weathered faces of experienced warriors.
The entrance of the five young adventurers did not cause much of a stir in the inn, as only a few of the other adventurers looked up and noticed the two pretty girls in the party, but soon went back to their food and drink.
The woman at the bar wore a dark blue dress with a white apron. She noticed them enter and indicated for them to come over to the bar.
“Why don’t you sit down while I make the arrangements for the night?” Ceras asked the rest of the team.
“Remember to do what Symania wants and get her a room for the night,” said Qyndad.
Ceras stared at him flatly and said, “You don’t need to remind me.” He then turned and walked to the bar, passing several of the tables filled with local farmers.
The food smelled great after a long day of walking and only eating dried trail rations. When he approached the bar the older lady serving gave him a warm smile.
“Adventurer on your way to or from Riverward?” she asked.
“From.”
“Do you want a room for the night, or to sleep in the common room?”
“Our company will need two rooms for the night and five meals for the evening. We'll also be having breakfast tomorrow,” replied Ceras after considering.
“We can also provide you with lunches for tomorrow for a little bit extra. The food will be freshly made in the morning.”
“That sounds great. How much is that altogether?”
“Thirty copper altogether, and if you buy more drinks tonight I’ll need to charge you the extra before you go to your rooms. Sit down with your friends and I’ll send a server over to you now. Most of you adventurers are hungry by the end of the day,” said the woman. Ceras found the copper coins in the purse at his side and handed them over.
Ceras wound his way over to the four sitting at the table chatting with their packs beside them, and sat down in the empty chair next to Rinaldo.
“Yes, I did get two rooms for us for the night, and we even have breakfast and a packed meal for tomorrow,” said Ceras as he looked at Qyndad with a slight smile. Qyndad was looking confused about being addressed as if Ceras was reporting to him.
“Thank you, you’re most kind,” said Symania gratefully as she patted the confused dragon’s arm in comfort.
When the food came a few minutes later, served by a girl just a bit younger than the adventurers, she said, “The meat is pork in gravy served with barley and carrots. I’ll go and get your drinks.”
Everybody except Qyndad pulled out their eating knives and started to cut up small sections of the meat and scoop it up with the bread provided. Qyndad just stared cautiously at his plate for a while, and then slowly picked up a piece of meat with his fingers and placed it in his mouth, chewing it warily.
“Why have they burned the meat?” he asked, confused.
“You should be used to burned meat,” said Rinaldo with a laugh. He got a cold stare from Symania and a curious look from Shunneth.
“It’s called cooking,” said Symania quietly so only the table could hear.
“But why do it? Do you not like the taste of pork?” asked the astounded dragon boy. “It’s really great all together as a whole animal, all in one bite...”
“Just eat your food and I’ll explain later,” said Symania, still in a hushed tone.
A few minutes of eating passed in silence before the next disturbance, as Qyndad had decided to try a boiled carrot – which he abruptly spat out with a look of disgust on his face.
“What the hell...”
“Just be quiet and don’t call attention to yourself,” said Rinaldo in a whisper, as a few people from the surrounding tables turned to see what was happening.
“But...”
“Shh!”
The rest of the meal went without further incident except for Qyndad looking disappointed and saying to Symania that he was hungry.
As darkness came over the inn, the lamps on the wall were uncovered revealing magical light balls that glowed with a yellow flame. A fire had been lit in a large stone fireplace on one of the walls of the inn, and was now blazing away giving warmth and light to the room. The bard at the end of the room, who always seemed to have a tankard in his hand, started to sing old folk tunes from the local area that Rinaldo and Ceras were familiar with.
Most of the locals had left for the night as they would be working early in the morning in the fields or around the hamlet, leaving the various parties of adventurers talking, drinking and singing.
The door to the outside suddenly opened, allowing a cold wind to enter the room along with a thickset-looking man who carried a small pack and weapons at his side. He quickly looked around the room with a furtive glance, but once he saw Ceras’ party he averted his eyes quickly with a satisfied look and moved toward the bar.
Across from Ceras, a man suddenly placed his hand on the table beside Symania and leant toward her, breath smelling of liquor. He must have been drinking from the earthenware pots, thought Ceras.
“Healer, why don’t you come over to our table and drink with some real men?” he asked, breathing fumes all over Symania through his scraggly, matted beard.
Symania moved back so she did not have to inhale the bad breath of the large man, but Qyndad looked at him with fire in his eyes and covered the man’s hand wi
th his own.
The man immediately began to scream in agony as he tried to free his hand from Qyndad’s grasp. A smell of burning flesh seemed to enter the room.
“You there! Stop bothering the other patrons,” shouted the older woman behind the counter, a club in her hand as she looked at the bearded man, whose friends had all stood up.
Qyndad let go of the man's hand, giving Ceras a view of a hand that was now red and black with burns. Symania seemed to mutter a quick healing spell and instantly the flesh return to normal, and the man stopped groaning. With a look of anger, he went and sat down with his party who were now all looking at the five adventurers, but they soon went back to their drinks, muttering darkly to each other.
Ceras noticed that the thickset man who had just entered the inn before the incident was looking at the adventurers with a slight smile.
“It might be best if we go to our room,” said Symania in an even tone of voice.
Ceras was surprised as the others nodded, and Rinaldo muttered, “Some of us need to learn to not overreact in public.”
“But...” Qyndad protested.
“I’ll talk to you later about this.”
Ceras asked one of the serving girls to show them to their rooms. She smiled at him as she guided him to the stairs behind a door, leading them up to the second floor of the inn. As Ceras’ large body moved up the narrow stairwell the wood creaked, seeming to moan under his weight.
The two rooms they were shown to were close together at the end of a corridor, which was a relief as it seemed better to be close to the girls after tonight’s incident.
Ceras saw three beds in the wooden-floored room, with the thatch ceiling sloping down toward a closed window with wooden shutters. There was a night pot under a small wash basin, a jug of water and some rags for drying. The beds had warm-looking blankets with sheet-covered mattresses.
“This will do nicely,” commented Ceras to the other two boys.
While Ceras and Rinaldo were getting ready to sleep, Qyndad was just sitting quietly on his bed with a disturbed look on his face.
“Shouldn't I be out in the hallway making sure nobody disturbs Symania?” he asked, sounding concerned.
Ceras got up and headed toward the door. “I’ll set an immobilization ward that will stop anybody from entering the corridor, so don’t worry.”
In the corridor Ceras quickly set the ward, but by the time he returned only Rinaldo was with him in the room as he closed the shutters to the window.
“The poor lad was hungry,” said Rinaldo as he lay down. “I told him to make sure he didn't eat any of the animals belonging to the farms or villages.”
“This trip is getting more interesting all the time. I wonder what other surprises it will bring,” said Ceras.
--
Qyndad had easily snuck out of the hamlet; he’d just leaped over the wall in a single bound and silently landed on the other side of the stockade. Running into the field to find somewhere to change to his true form, so as not to disturb the humans, he thought about how confusing the day had been. He had many questions in his mind, like why they did not kill the man for approaching Symania in such a manner, and why they were trying to feed him vegetables.
The first question he would ask one of the other adventurers tomorrow, while the second he would be able to do something about now. As he ran, a swirling mist appeared around him with a bright light at the center. When the mist was as large as the inn he had just vacated, a black and dark red dragon from within it shot up into the air.
It’s so good to stretch your wings! thought Qyndad as a powerful flap took him high into the cloudless night sky - perfect weather for hunting. Now a thousand feet above the ground, he started to glide, looking for something to eat with his magically-enhanced vision. He definitely fancied a few large pigs, and not burned or covered in a strange sauce.
Banking to the left he saw a herd of swine bedding down for the night in a hollow between the trees of a forest. Diving with his wings held back, he silently shot toward the pigs. At the last moment he stretched out his large wing, timing it perfectly so that his massive black talons grasped three of the sleeping pigs, tearing them away from the ground as he powered into the air again.
After finishing one of the pigs with one large bite, Qyndad wonder why the humans ate like they did. Surely this was a tastier way of eating. None of that weird sauce and vegetables. He wondered if he could get Symania to join him at some point for a proper meal. Maybe in the future, he thought, smiling to himself as he finished off another squealing pig.
Chapter 4 Waylaid
Ceras awoke slowly to the dawn light streaming through the crack in the shutters. As he slowly regained consciousness he could hear the movement of people on the squeaky wooden floor of the inn, which told him people in the inn were starting their day. Looking around the room that he was sharing with Rinaldo and Qyndad, he saw that the dragon was curled up on top of the blankets as if he was some type of cat. He was snoring loudly while Rinaldo was just getting up himself.
By the time the two boys were dressed and Ceras had cast a cleaning spell on the two of them, the dragon was still asleep on the bed. Rinaldo went over to the bed and reached a hand out to Qyndad’s shoulder to wake him. Before he could touch him, one of Qyndad’s hands shot out and grasped Rinaldo’s waist in a firm grip that turned his face pale, his teeth gritted with pain.
“What do you want at this un-goddess hour of the day?” muttered the dragon, now back in the form of a young man.
“You need to let my waist go,” hissed Rinaldo through his teeth, and his waist was released. “We need to have a long talk today about manners and normal behavior expected in the human world.”
“But still, why are we getting up so early?” whined Qyndad, still lying down.
“We’ve got a long journey today, and if you hadn't stayed up all night eating you’d be happier about waking up. Up you get, as we need to leave soon.”
“Fine. Give me a few more minutes,” muttered Qyndad.
By the time the two men were ready to leave the room Qyndad was still in the same position and had gone back to snoring.
“I’ll go and get Symania to wake you up,” said Rinaldo as he started to leave the room.
This got the dragon to open up his eyes, which now had a slightly panicked look as he rose quickly from the bed and stumbled toward the door, still fully-clothed. Ceras watched him pass and could smell the scent of blood on him. Sighing, he cast the cleaning spell on the dragon.
The women were already downstairs, eating a breakfast from large bowls that seemed to contain some type of barley porridge. The creamy smell filled the air of the inn’s lower room, making Ceras’ mouth water as it reminded him of mornings at home with a large pot of porridge on the fire that had been cooking for a few hours.
By the time the team was ready to leave the inn, Ceras noticed several of the men that had been in the group with last night’s troublemaker were sitting idly around the room. The thickset man was next to the group, talking to them and glancing at the five young adventurers.
--
The sun had burned the early morning dew off the surrounding field and the farm laborers were out tending to the crops as the group set off. The two girls were walking in front, chatting in the early morning sun as if they had been friends for a long time, while Ceras walked between them and Qyndad and Rinaldo, who were having the talk about appropriate behavior in human society. Ceras had placed a shield that would block any sound reaching the girls in front so the conversation could be a bit more frank, for the dragon's sake. Every now and then he could pick up snippets of the dragon and the barbarian’s conversation.
“...No, it’s not OK to just kill somebody for breathing on Symania.”
“But...”
“...and no eating humans, under any circumstances!”
The conversation went on for most of the morning as the team of five enjoyed the walk in the sun, through the rolling hills an
d forested landscape intermingling with grass clearings.
When they stopped for the midday meal that the inn had provided, sitting under a large shady tree just beside the track they were following, Ceras noticed a group of large men approaching their picnic spot. As they got closer, he recognized the man that had been so rude to Symania last night. Ceras sighed and indicated for the rest to get ready for some trouble.
As they got closer, as a precaution, Ceras placed a glowing magical barrier around the team of adventurers.
“We don’t want any trouble, so just move on!” shouted Rinaldo at the eight men approaching the picnic spot of the adventurers, who were now bracing themselves for an attack.
Qyndad was standing protectively by Symania with a fierce look, while Ceras was gripping his staff ready to cast a spell if needed. Most of the men looked to be from one of the warrior classes, with armor and weapons that appeared well-used. Rather than being young adventurers, these men all seemed to be veterans of many battles. Ceras guessed that none of them were at the journey level but above, as they had followed the adventuring life for more than the prescribed five years judging by their age.
The first sign of the trouble that was about to commence was the eight warriors pulling the shields from their backs and moving into a wedge formation.
As all of the five young adventurers moved into fighting stance, Shunneth said in a low voice, “It might be better if we just ran away from this fight, as they all look to be of a higher level. I don’t know about you lot, but I’m just at the bottom of my standard level and these guys look old enough to be master!”
“Well, I for one am not running from this riff-raff!” shouted Qyndad as he ran toward the armed men.
“Sorry, I haven't taught him about tactical withdrawals yet,” said Rinaldo, running forward in support.
Ceras sent a fast fireball from the edge of his staff toward the foremost man, whose body seemed to blur slightly as he ducked to the side, allowing the fireball to go over his shoulder. By this time Qyndad had run into the man’s shield, and the two went down with Qyndad on top of him, hitting out with his bare fists. Rinaldo was closely behind him, swinging his sword out to stop another of the men from stabbing Qyndad in the back. When the swords hit each other the clash of metal rang out through the forest. Both men seemed to blur and appear in different positions, as if there had been no movement in between each attack.
King of the Realm Page 4
