by Hans Bezdek
Cassandra and Dhot cast glances at me, but I didn’t respond. I wasn’t thrilled about being the only green dragon left, and a half one at that, but I had never known any other ones. While I’d never get to know the history and culture of my people, it wasn’t like anyone I knew personally had died. That might sound cold, but it was the way I had to look at it.
“But the blues survived,” said Cassandra.
“That they did,” nodded the dwarf. “While we dwarves were no lovers of any sorts of dragons, we could see injustice being done when we saw it. The kings of the land came together, along with many of their finest builders and warriors for protection, and built the town of Ostad in the northwest. Them blue dragons were invited to come start new lives there, and were promised the town forever. The land was far enough north that it dissuaded many poachers, and the warriors we left to guard the town helped with the rest.”
“So dwarves used to live among them,” I said.
“Used to. After a century or two, the demand for blue dragon scales fell off completely. The protection was no longer needed, and the dwarves left to be with their people again.”
“King Julfr and some of the guards seemed to think a conflict is coming with the blue dragons,” said Cassandra, thinking through all that Braun just told us. “If Ostad doesn’t want dwarves coming into their town, isn’t that their right? Since it is law here that they can govern themselves?”
Braun rubbed the back of his arm nervously and looked away.
“Ya bring up one of me concerns,” he said. “It don’t seem right to try and attack the blue dragons just fer doing what they want.”
“But this is dealing with money,” said Dhot. “The blue dragons took the caravan with goods and didn’t pay for it.”
“And they should,” nodded Braun. “But is a few thousand quat really worth killing over?”
“We’re about to find out,” came a gravelly voice.
A group of trolls burst out of the snow, completely surrounding us. I looked around, counting five of them. They were all various tones of white and gray, and had either white hair or were bald. They all had a hand axe at the ready, but otherwise didn’t rush at us.
“What do you want?” I asked, no idea which one to address.
“Simple, really,” said one of them to my left. “You’ve encroached on our land. We’re happy to let you pass, but you’ll have to pay a toll.”
“What is it with trolls and tolls?” I asked. “I’ve never understood your obsession. Is it because the words are so similar?”
“I’m not so sure you want to be having a laugh at us, given the circumstances,” said one behind me. “We’ve got ya outnumbered, and have the drop on ya.”
“Five against four is hardly outnumbered,” I said.
“Well, five is more than four,” said Cassandra. “It is technically outnumbered.”
“Who’s side are you on?!” I asked.
Cassandra sighed. “Yours…”
“W-What’s the toll?” asked Braun.
“All the money you’ve got,” smiled one of the trolls off to the right. “And we just heard you say thousands of quat, so we know you must be packing some serious dough.”
“Your green friend looks pretty scrumptious, too,” said the troll closest to Dhot.
“Uh… excuse me?” asked Dhot.
“We haven’t had goblin in a while,” said one of them. “Give us your money and the goblin, and we’ll let you pass.”
“You want to eat a goblin?” I asked. Who in their right mind would choose to eat a goblin? That sounded not only disgusting, but really not filling.
“You heard us,” said the one to my left. “Give us the goods now, or you’ll die.”
Cassandra looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I nodded.
“I think we choose the death option,” I said, the elf drawing the Shattered Sword.
Cocking my right arm back, I ran at the troll nearest to me while pulling out my Shield with my left. The troll bared his teeth as he ran to meet me, his hand axe dragging in the snow by his side.
He swung it as we got closer, bringing it up diagonally. I shoved the Time Shield in front of me, blocking the hit and pushing the axe back the way it came. This caused the troll to take a step to my right side. I activated the rockets in my goblin glove as I punched at him, connecting on his jaw.
One of his tusks broke on my follow through, spinning off and getting lost in the snow. The troll staggered back a few steps, but caught himself.
“You broke my tusk!” he said, bringing a hand up to feel at where the tusk once was.
“Uh… sorry?” I said. Did he not realize that they were threatening to kill us?
I heard the clang of metal on metal, and looked over to my left. Cassandra was taking on two of the trolls at once, parrying with the non-glowing Shattered Sword. She was more than holding her own, though, and had both of the trolls backpedaling.
I turned back to the troll I was fighting with right as he brought his own fist up to my face.
I stumbled back, holding my face with my glove as a burst of pain spread of the middle of my face.
“Hey, I wasn’t paying attention!” I shouted, pulling my hand back. There was a good amount of blood on it from my nose.
“Sorry?” smirked the troll.
My eyes narrowed at him as I brought my Shield up and pulled my hand back again. Magic flowed through me into the Time Shield as I slowly circled around the troll, who now pulled out a second hand axe.
“We gave you all a chance,” said the troll.
“You wanted to eat our friend!”
“So if we just asked for the money, you would’ve given it to us?” he asked, hand axes by his side.
“Well… no,” I conceded, continuing the flow of magic. “It’s just the eating our friend part seemed more worth dying over.”
“That’s what I thought!” growled the troll, charging at me.
I held my ground this time, raising my Shield before me and dropping my hand. Waiting until the troll was in the process of swinging both of his axes, I activated the magic I was harnessing in the Shield. The legendary item sparked with electricity as the axes came down. The troll’s eyes widened right before his weapons connected with the Shield, but it was too late to stop them.
The axes hit the electric Shield, shooting arcs of lightning all around the troll. He shook as the axes froze where they were on the Shield. The troll made a high pitched screaming noise as the electricity continued to bounce around, until finally the magic ran out. The creature stood still for a second, before toppling over to the snow, the scent of fried troll drifting all around me.
The first person I saw after this was Braun. The dwarf was a dozen feet away, cowering, and staring at the troll I just killed.
“You going to do something, or just watch?” I called out.
Braun threw up.
“That was something!” came Dhot’s voice. “Maha!”
I turned to see a slightly bloodied Dhot watching us. Behind him on the ground were two trolls, not moving. It looked like he had taken care of more than his share.
“Yea!” shouted Cassandra.
Dhot and I looked over to see as the elf’s blade cut through the neck of one of the troll’s, removing his head from his body.
“Nice hit!” shouted Dhot.
“Thanks,” she shouted back, sheathing her Sword. I looked around for the other troll she was fighting, and found a bloody body off to the side. “Those two weren’t too bad with their axes. Took much longer than I thought it would.”
“G-Good job everyone,” stuttered Braun, walking over to us with a nervous smile.
“Why didn’t you help us?!” I barked at the dwarf.
“I-I’m a p-pacifist!”
“A pacifist dwarf? Maha!” laughed Dhot. “Who’s ever heard of such a thing?”
“You can use dark magic,” insisted Cassandra. “You nearly killed us with it when we first met.”
&
nbsp; “N-Nay,” said Braun, shaking his head. “T-That was me dark side. I-I can’t do that.”
“Have you tried?” I asked.
“N-No,” he said. “I don’t want to.”
“So you’d rather watch us all die?”
“But ye didn’t,” said the dwarf, walking towards me as light filled his hands. He laid a hand on my arm, and I watched as the light disappeared. I suddenly felt amazing. I was filled with energy, like I had just slept for a week straight. I could even breathe through my nose with no problem again!
“Thanks,” I mumbled, reaching up and feeling my face for any blood.
“This is how I help,” said Braun, walking over and healing Dhot and Cassandra as well. “It may not be much, but it’s something.”
“Maybe try healing us in battle?” offered Cassandra. “That would probably make Reimar slightly less grouchy.”
“I’m not grouchy,” I said, grouchily.
“I’ll do that next time,” Braun smiled.
We checked the trolls bodies for anything useful. One of them had a flask on them, which upon further inspection was the same kind that had been keeping us warm. We let Dhot hold on to it, since he was the most likely to run out first. Aside for that, we found a couple hundred quat, and then continued on our way.
It began to flurry as we walked. We moved a bit slower this time, careful to keep our eyes peeled for any mounds in the snow that looks strange. While Braun had done a great job of healing us up, we didn’t want to have anymore surprises.
A few hours later, our group slowed as Dhot stopped.
“There’s something up ahead,” said Dhot, turning one of the eyes on his Goggles. “Some sort of structures.”
I placed a hand over my eyes and tried to look, but I couldn’t see anything. It was too far away.
“T-They stone?” asked Braun nervously. “Buildings placed far apart, are they?”
“Yes,” nodded Dhot. “Is it a troll town or something?”
“Nay… n-not trolls,” said Braun, gulping. “Blue dragons. That’s Ostad.”
Chapter 9
The four of us moved up to a large rock a few dozen yards away from the entrance to Ostad.
Aspects of the town reminded me of a smaller Feldarkr, except the buildings weren’t decorated in gems and gold. The homes and businesses were painted in various shades of blue, and were all spaced out. The streets were much wider than Feldarkr, or any other city I had seen. I assumed this was to let the blues move around easily, even in their dragon forms.
We couldn’t see any movement from where we were standing, even though the sun was still out. I didn’t expect that place to be a bustling hub of activity, but I expected more than a ghost town.
“Where is everyone?” asked Dhot.
“Dunno,” said Braun. “Maybe in their homes? They’ve been acting mighty strange for quite some time now.”
“Is it just dwarves that they have problems with?” asked Cassandra. “Maybe they won’t be bothered by the rest of us.”
“The blue dragons rarely deal with outsiders besides dwarves,” shrugged Braun. “Either way, best if I stay here and wait fer ya.”
“You seriously think we’re just going to let you stay back?” I asked.
“Ye know they don’t like us dwarves! Who’s to say they don’t let ya all in and welcome you with a warm drink and a hug?”
“Doesn’t seem likely,” mumbled Cassandra, looking out at the desolate town.
“You’re coming with us,” I said firmly. “We can’t risk leaving you, only to come back and find you’ve gone dark. That’ll open up a whole lot more problems.”
“But they’ll just attack us the second they see me!”
“Keep your hood up,” I shrugged.
“Me whole body looks like a dwarf!”
“I don’t know…” said Dhot, hand on his chin as he looked the dwarf over. “You could probably pass as a chubby goblin.”
Braun gave the goblin a confused look, but smiled in case Dhot was giving him a compliment he didn’t understand.
“It also could just be the dwarves of Feldarkr that they have an issue with,” I added. “We’ll say you’re from another town.”
Braun didn’t look overly convinced, but put his hood up anyway. There was no way we were going to just let him stay out here alone, and we couldn’t risk leaving someone else behind in case things went badly.
Our group moved out from behind the rock and walked up to the front gate. There were surprisingly no guards as we walked up, and not a single soul on the streets. I could’ve sworn I saw the slightest movement in the windows on the nearby houses, but when I looked, they remained still and dark.
The four of us walked down the large main street, taking in the town. After passing by a number of houses, there was no longer any doubt. There were definitely people watching us from their windows now. Several stores hard large windows, showing their wares and also the few customers inside who stared at us with concern. I realized the people must have seen us coming from a ways off, and were hiding in the hopes that we would pass through without bothering them.
“So… what’s our plan here?” whispered Cassandra.
We all pulled up to a stop, looking around at each other in silence. A plan… how did we not figure something out before we walked into the middle of a hostile dragon town?
“Should we try to sneak into some of these homes, ask people what they know?” asked Dhot.
“I think that’ll just scare them,” said Cassandra. “It’ll also get us thrown out of town pretty fast.”
“We could try going into some stores and asking,” I shrugged. “They would probably be more open to visitors.”
“Why would shop owners know about the Mace?” asked Dhot.
“Why would normal people in their homes know?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” nodded the goblin.
“Sounds like we can’t agree on anything,” whispered Braun. “Oh well! Time to head out then?”
“That’s not happening,” said Cassandra, pulling back on the dwarf’s robe as he tried to turn around.
“Why don’t we try asking for the leader here?” asked Dhot.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“That’s a good idea,” whispered Cassandra. “We could do like what we did back in Feldarkr and ask to speak with their council or king. We could ask them about the Mace directly.”
“Look, I’ll admit that it worked last time, but there’s no way we’ll get lucky and it work again,” I said. “You’re putting too much faith into an outlier.”
“How about a vote?” asked Cassandra. “All in favor of asking their king?”
Cassandra and Dhot raised their hand.
“And those not in favor.”
I raised my hand, smiling at the elf. Looks like they wouldn’t be able to win these votes anymore now that we had Braun with us.
“Those in favor win,” she smiled back.
“What?” I asked. “How? It was two to two!”
“No it wasn’t,” said Dhot. “Braun didn’t vote.”
“You didn’t vote?” I turned on the dwarf.
“I abstained,” shrugged Braun.
“You can’t abstain! You have to pick a side!”
“Why?”
“That’s just the way it works! I demand a revote!”
“Stop right there!” shouted a woman’s voice.
I looked down the road to see a group of nine or ten humans walking towards us. They were all wearing large, dark furs. As they got closer, I noticed they all had strange patterns of blue paint over their faces, which made their blue eyes pop. All of them had their weapons out, including some swords, axes, and spears.
“B-Blue d-dragons,” Braun whimpered.
The group spread out as they reached us, forming a half circle around us and blocking us from moving any deeper into Ostad. A woman with wild black hair took a few steps closer than the others, quietly eyeing each of
us in turn.
“Should we say something?” I whispered to the others.
“This is a perilous time,” said the woman, eyes locking on me. I nervously brought my hood up a little as she talked. “While we are a peaceful people, we can not allow any travelers to pass through at this time. I must ask you all to turn around and either go back the way you came, or continue on around the outside of our walls.”
“We mean you no harm,” spoke up Cassandra. “We’ve heard that something strange has happened to the people of Ostad recently. We have come here to talk with the leader of the blue dragons.”
The woman shifted to look at Cassandra. “We remember the elves as a peaceful group, but unfortunately I can not grant your request. Our leader does not wish to speak with you. This is your final warning: Turn around and leave our town.”
“But could you just-” I tried.
The blue dragons leveled their weapons and took a step towards us.
“Guess we’ll just have to fight our way through,” muttered Dhot, reaching in his bag and pulling out a few small boxes. Cassandra drew out the Shattered Sword and I readied the Time Shield as Dhot threw his bombs out towards the blue dragons.
The woman who had been talking hit the boxes away with her curved long sword before Dhot could blow them up, and several of her men ran backwards. Those that remained stared at the blue glowing Shattered Sword with concern, but still held their weapons at the ready.
“They’re fleeing!” cheered Dhot.
“Not quite,” said Cassandra.
The four men that ran back stopped and spread out. Each of them bent over and began to grow, their skin forming into blue scales as their clothing absorbed into them. Dark blue wings sprout from their backs as their claws formed. The four bent their heads towards the sky and let out frightening roars as they completed their transformation into their true blue dragon forms.
“That’s… that’s not good,” said Dhot, taking a step back.
