The Half Dragon of Yaerna: The Gathering Arc Box Set: Books 1-3

by Hans Bezdek

  “And he succeeded?” I asked.

  “Technically. He died in this swamp, effectively expanding our border by about twenty miles.”

  “I mean, I guess that’s not too bad,” I said. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “The day after he died, the elves retreated back to the previous border,” said Cassandra. “Truska was given their land back immediately.”

  “Oh… Well, you win some you lose some,” I said. What a sad legacy to leave. Hopefully I would just die in obscurity. That way, people wouldn’t feel uncomfortable learning about all my failures centuries from now. It was just better that way. “What did you think about th-”

  “Quiet,” she said, raising a hand and crouching low.

  “What is it?” I asked, scanning all around us. While I spent most of my life in human form, it was annoying knowing that I could just transform and have enhanced senses. Human hearing was so weak compared to elves, and even their ears couldn’t hear as well as a dragon’s.

  “Greeners,” she whispered, pulling two daggers out of her belt. “A group of them is moving over there, ahead of us.”

  I looked up ahead to see for myself. Sure enough, a group of Greeners appeared.

  Greeners were a derogative nickname given for a group of goblins, orcs, and kobolds that went out in search for food, money, or treasure. They were essentially bandits, thieves, opportunists… whatever you liked to call them. They were usually up to no good however you spun it. Greeners typically had anywhere from half a dozen to about thirty members, and did what they had to in order to survive.

  While most races stuck to their respective countries, some would intermingle in various towns across Yaerna. Greeners, though, never stayed in just one spot for long. While nearly all of the hailed from Gorland, they had no respect for borders. Humans in the western Republic of Hur rarely encountered them, same as the dwarves in Brumark to the north. Truska and Aelric weren’t so lucky, though.

  Unfortunately for us, this group of Greeners appeared to be on the bigger side.

  “I count close to twenty five of them,” I said.

  “So?” she asked, slowly moving up towards them.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

  “What?” she asked. “I’m going to go kill them.”

  “No, no, no,” I said, shaking my head. “They are on some sort of track right now, heading straight in one direction. Isn’t it possible for us to go around them, and just leave them be?”

  “I mean, we could,” she shrugged, a look of confusion on her face.

  “Let’s do that then, shall we?”

  Cassandra looked back at the Greeners, contemplating her next move. She sighed and placed her daggers back in her belt.

  “That’s the second time today I’ve not gotten to fight,” she grumbled, peeling out further to the right and away from the foul creatures.

  We continued on for another hour past the group in silence. We were both on the lookout for more Greeners. Her, so that she could try and jump them. Me, so that I could stop her from doing so.

  Cassandra stopped walking, causing me to stop and turn back around.

  “You see more of em?” I whispered, looking all around us.

  “I’m… I’m…” she stuttered.

  I looked around to see if a Greener mage or something else was attacking her. What was going on?

  “I’m stuck again!?” she growled, glaring down at her feet. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  I covered my mouth, trying hard not to let her see me laugh. “I-I’ll go find another vine.”

  She was not having a good day.

  Chapter 3

  It was getting darker and darker as we traveled, and I was starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it to town before we ran out of light. I had camped in worse places before, but I would take an inn’s most uncomfortable bed over a swamp’s floor any day of the week.

  “Are we there yet?” I asked.

  “Does it look like we’re there?” she asked, gesturing to a river we had been following for a couple of hours.

  We continued on for about a minute, before I asked again, “Are we there yet?”

  “I hate you.”

  I fought back a smile as we walked.

  “By the way, why did you want us to avoid the Greeners back there?” she asked, before I could ask her a third time if we were there yet.

  “You’re joking, right?” I asked. “There were over twenty of them, and only two of us. You wanted to fight them?”

  “Of course,” she said nonchalantly.

  “Look, I get if you’re trying to impress me. Maybe you think looking all tough makes you more likable, since you have a somewhat abrasive personality,” I offered.

  “Hey! That’s-”

  “But that doesn’t mean you should go attacking hostile groups when they far outnumber you. It’ll just end up getting us killed.”

  She stopped walking and stared me down.

  “What? You know I’m right.”

  Cassandra pointed off at some trees in the distance.

  “Go over to a tree and cut out a bullseye.”

  “Cassandra. There’s no reason to embarrass yourself,” I smiled.

  “Okay, go cut out three bullseyes,” she said, eye twitching. It was too easy to get under her skin.

  “If you say so,” I shrugged, walking over to a tree about thirty feet back.

  “No, go further,” she said.

  I walked to a smaller tree, about fifty feet back from her. I turned around and gestured at the tree. She nodded, so I went to work on the tree with my dagger. A few seconds later, and we had three makeshift bullseyes freshly cut.

  “Happy?” I smiled back.

  The smirk quickly disappeared as I saw Cassandra already crouched down, daggers in her hands. Before I could jump out of the way, she flicked her right wrist three times in quick succession, grabbing the daggers in her left hand as fast as she released the one in her right. I watched as three blurs of silver shot just inches by me, cutting into the tree.

  “You could give me some warning next time!” I shouted.

  “Bring me my daggers back,” she called out.

  I was about to make a smart reply, but when I glanced back at the tree I saw all three daggers perfectly placed in the middle of each of the bullseyes.

  “Not bad,” I mumbled, yanking each of them of. They were stuck in pretty far, too.

  “I bet you wish you were half as good as that,” she said, arms crossed before her as I approached with the daggers.

  “What, you think throwing some metal makes you a big deal? Anyone can do that,” I said.

  “Prove it,” she said, pointing back at the tree.

  I turned and looked at it, realizing the targets were much smaller from fifty feet back. I looked back and forth between the daggers in my hand and the trees. I could probably hit parts of the tree… just not the bullseyes.

  “I’m not really one for throwing daggers,” I said, reaching them back out to her.

  “Ha, I knew it!” she smiled, taking the daggers from me. “Don’t worry, Reimar. I’ll keep you safe in case a big bad monster attacks us.”

  I held my hand up, palm out at the tree. Harnessing my energy into my palm, I unleashed it in the form of wind. A violent gust of air shot out from my hand in the form of a cone, tearing the tree with the bullseyes along with all of those around it from the ground. They flew back, crashing down into a pile a few dozen yards behind where they once stood.

  I turned back to Cassandra, who’s mouth hung open, her eyes wide.

  “I think I’ll be able to handle myself, thanks,” I said, turning and following the river again.

  “W-Wait,” she called after me, running to catch up once she got her whits about her again. “You’re a magic user?”

  “I prefer mage, but yes,” I nodded. While being a half green dragon has some minor drawbacks, such as everyone wanting t
o murder me, it did have some plus sides. While humans could also be magic casters, they grew exhausted much faster than I did. The dragon blood in my veins also gave me a little extra boost of power to my spells, making them a little hard to tone down. Admittedly, I just wanted to knock out that one tree. Cassandra didn’t need to know that, though.

  “Why didn’t you just use a spell to break out of the vine earlier?” she asked, looking at me with newfound respect. I wasn’t sure I liked it. The last thing I needed was her running around Trenton, telling everyone about a green eyed man casting spells. That would eventually make its way back to Dmetri, and the chase would be on again.

  “The vine traps are magically imbued to absorb magic,” I explained. “They actually grow as magic is used on them. It would’ve taken me twice as long to cut through, and who wants that?”

  We continued on for a short while longer in silence. I caught a few glances from Cassandra as we walked. She usually would just ignore me, or say something insulting. I preferred those two options over fear. Well, at least in a walking partner.

  “You’re not going to be all weird now, right?” I asked, catching her on one of her glances over.

  “Huh? What do you mean?” she laughed nervously.

  “Yeah… I mean that. I know casters have a bad reputation, but I’m not out to hurt anyone. You don’t have to be worried about me.”

  “I’m not worried,” she smiled as we began walking up a hill. “I still think I could whoop you in a fight.”

  “Good,” I chuckled. “Because I have an important question to ask you.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Are we there yet?”

  Her eye twitched briefly. Good, back to normal.

  “Actually,” she sighed. “We are.”

  “Really?” I asked, picking up my pace a bit to get to the top of the hill.

  Sure enough, I could see the peaks of some large buildings. The two of us hurried down, excited to finally reach our destination. I was looking forward to not spending anymore time in the swamp.

  As we drew near, we could hear the loud bustle of people, signaling that we had finally made it back to civilization. Even though it was growing late, there wasn’t really a time in Trenton where the town slowed down. It was the town furthest east in Truska, making it a popular stopping point for those leaving or entering Gorland. This meant a lot of visitors, a lot of money, and a lot of movement.

  We crossed over into town from the southern bridge, which arched over the river we had been following for some time. There was a bridge out to the east, as well, while there were just dirt roads going north and west.

  I pulled my hood up a little further now that we were around other people. No telling who was watching.

  “Listen,” I said. “I’d prefer if you didn’t tell anyone about me. Especially the magic part.”

  “Mages aren’t banned from Trenton, are they?” she asked.

  “They aren’t,” I said. “Still, it’s better for me if people don’t know.”

  “Fair enough,” she nodded. “I don’t know anyone here, anyway. No one to tell.”

  “Great, thanks,” I smiled as we entered into the outskirts of the town. It had been a few years since I was in Trenton, but the town’s structure didn’t look to have changed very much. If memory served me right, I knew of a place that we could spend the night on the cheap. “I know we’re going to be parting ways now, but did you want to stay at the same inn?”

  “Uh, we kind of just met,” she blushed.

  “N-No!” I stuttered, feeling my own face turn red. “I-I meant, did you want to stay in the same building? That way, if anything goes down, we can fight them off together.”

  “Oh,” she laughed. “Good. I didn’t know how to let you down without breaking your heart.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said, taking us to a nearby inn called The Boar’s Foot.

  The building was just a couple of stories tall and looked like it could all fall down any minute. The wooden door creaked horrible as I opened it up, gesturing for Cassandra to enter first.

  “This is your inn of choice?” she said, eyeing it uneasily.

  “Nothing but the best,” I smiled. She looked at me like I had gone crazy. “It’s dirt cheap, okay? Trust me, it’s better than sleeping back out in the Swamp of Aiden.”

  “We’ll see about that,” she mumbled, walking by me.

  “There’s just no pleasing you,” I muttered, walking in after her.

  A goblin I didn’t recognize sat at the front desk, reading a rustled up newspaper. I walked up to him with a smile.

  “Good evening,” I said.

  “Two hundred quat for a room,” said the goblin, holding out his hand but still looking down at his paper.

  “T-Two hundred? Are you insane?” I asked, immediately losing my cool. “I stayed here just a few years ago for ten, and it looks worse than before!”

  “Do you not understand how inflation works?” asked the goblin, glancing up at me. He looked past me to Cassandra. “Maybe your hooker could explain it to you.”

  “Hooker?!” she screamed, her daggers immediately in her hands.

  The goblin casually pulled out a long barreled metal and wooden device, pointing it over to Cassandra. I had seen a few of these on goblins before, and I think they called them guns. The things shot far and could really hurt, but it took them forever to load another shot.

  “You two bringing trouble?” asked the goblin.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” I said, gently holding her back. “We don’t bring trouble, just coin. Also, she’s not a hooker. We actually will need two rooms.”

  “Two rooms? Five hundred total, then.”

  “Five hundred? But it was two hundred for one room!” I said. “Deals are supposed to get better the more you buy, not worse!”

  “Your hooker is threatening me,” shrugged the goblin, pulling out two keys with his other hand while keeping the weapon pointed at us. “Look, most of the town is booked up for the night. You can risk finding a room for cheaper, or you can take the two right now for five hundred quat.”

  “Let’s just go somewhere else,” growled Cassandra, her eye twitching worse than I had ever seen it.

  “If you have to come back, the price will be a thousand,” warned the goblin.

  I looked the goblin over, trying to get a bead on whether he was bluffing about the other inns being packed. It was towards the end of the year, which always increased travel. It probably wasn’t worth the risk.

  “Fine,” I grumbled, throwing the money on the table. The inn keeper smiled as he slowly handed me my key. I snatched it and stormed away to my room, calling back over my shoulder to Cassandra. “Wake me if you end up killing the goblin and need help hiding the body.”

  Chapter 4

  After an uncomfortable night’s sleep, I walked downstairs to see if Cassandra had gone through with it and killed the goblin that ripped me off and called her a prostitute. A different goblin was now behind the desk, but I didn’t see any blood or evidence of a struggle. The goblins probably just traded out shifts. I didn’t know whether to be disappointed or not.

  “Have you seen an elven woman come down yet?” I asked the new goblin. He shook his head, not bothering to look up at me.

  I looked around the office, contemplating if I should just leave. Cassandra had gotten me to town, and it was probably time for us to go our separate ways. Even though we had only spent a day together, and not a particularly friendly day at that, I still felt I should say goodbye.

  I walked over to the bounty board near the door. This was always a quick way to make some cash. Most of the pictures were of orcs, and for low sums of quat. That wouldn’t be worth it. I always had the worst time telling orcs apart, and most would just go back to Gorland after a bounty was out on them. It was almost always some low level crimes, too, like aggravated assault or battery. I was about to give up looking at the board when my eyes fell on a familiar face.
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  Mine.

  I glanced carefully back over my shoulder to see if the goblin had noticed me or was paying any attention. Luckily, whatever was in the book he was reading was more important than a paying customer. I carefully took the flier off the board to take a closer look. It was a bad picture, back when I used to grow out a spotty beard. I had more hair on my neck than my face.

  Reimar Pinespell

  Human. Roughly 6 feet tall. Green eyes, black hair.

  Travels alone. Arrogant. Thinks he’s funny.

  Highly dangerous.

  Wanted for theft, slander, trespassing, assault, arson, attempted murder.

  If found, immediately contact Dmetri Goodwin in Durnskeep or another Tumbler.

  50,000 Q.

  50,000 quats? I don’t think I’ve ever been so honored before. That was a serious bounty. Unfortunately, that meant more people kept an eye out for me.

  “Thinks he’s funny?” I mumbled. “More like knows he is.”

  “What’s that?”

  I jumped and crumpled the paper up in my hand. Cassandra was standing next to me, eyebrow raised in curiosity.

  “Oh, uh, just looking for bounties that could recoup my money back from this place ripping me off,” I said, shoving the paper into my back pocket. The less she knew about this the better.

  “Let me pay you back for my room,” she offered, reaching into a pouch hung from her belt. “There was no need to pay for me.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, waving her off. “Consider it a goodbye present.”

  “Oh… okay,” she said, eyes looking down at the ground. “About that… I was thinking about it, and-”

  “If you payed for just one night, you two can take your conversation outside,” shouted the goblin.

  “Maybe we’re discussing staying a second night,” I bluffed.

  “No you ain’t,” the goblin shouted back. “Get out now, before I call The Guild to come move you.”

  “Fine, fine,” I mumbled, kicking open the door as hard I could. Miraculously, it didn’t look any worse for the wear. I glanced over to Cassandra, who followed me out. “If you’re staying in this town another night, I advise you go someplace else.”