Tribulations of a Dragon

Cranky walks off to search for his mace. If I take anything away from this fight about that guy, it would be that I grossly underestimated how strong he is because, geez! He didn't even break a sweat fighting those jerks.

Not a single one of the enemy's attacks got through or past his barrier. He just toyed with them from start to finish, somehow having time to spare to protect me as well.

“Cora muto orinaw pi nui? [What will happen to me?]” As I'm contemplating how strong Cranky is, my attention is brought back to the healer, and I can confidently say that I don’t like her. I’m just gonna kill her and be done with it. With her friends dead, I would imagine she's itching for some payback.

Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for her, my bite is stopped by a stupid barrier...

“I understand how you feel, Kira, while executing those who have wronged you is enjoyable, it isn't the right time. Do remember that she can be an asset for the time being, and you can execute her once she has outlived her usefulness.”

Stupid reasonable Cranky… Fine, I’ll behave… All of a sudden, my frustration fades as Raya speaks up. “I can’t reach your head, Kira. And I want to give you a hug, so lean down, please.”

Hugs please the mighty Dragon, so I do as she asks, and as soon as I’m within range, Raya latches onto my face and hugs me with all her might. Which isn't a lot, but it can move the world, at least my world. This feels nice.

Pulling me out of my Raya-induced comfort, Cranky brings up an excellent point. "I would imagine your people would appreciate the assistance of a cleric, so perhaps we ought to look for where they gather their wounded.”

I don’t know where they are gathering, so screw it, we’re flying. I order Cranky to pick up the healer and jump on so we can take flight, and he does so without hesitation. Screw property damage right now, I'm gonna climb a building and take off. Now isn't the time to worry about that.

I'm having to turn my head to see as my sight is somewhat affected by the Raya-sized Raya on my face, but we're fine. For a moment, I wonder where to go, but I would probably gather people somewhere easy to reach and familiar, like the square, so that's where we go. It turns out my assumption was correct.

Just as we’re about to land, Cranky throws the healer and gets ready to dismount. “Er lorm behan nei as un ytreff… [You could treat me as a person…]”

“What makes you think you deserve to be treated as a person, cleric? Which of your actions today led you to believe kindness is even on the table when we discuss your fate?” Geez, harsh…

"E rahin pi sora ytreff... [I tried to heal people...]"

"Fool. You were coerced into healing them. It was not done of your free will, so you do not get the goodwill from those actions."

Cranky just made her cry again, so I give him a nudge. She’s already defeated, there’s no need to be an ass about it. Still, though, I'm somewhat conflicted about her living at all, so I wanna know what Raya thinks about this whole thing.

She seems to think for a moment before talking. “I think if she helps us, she should be allowed to leave.”

Yeah, I need to listen to Raya, I’ve been delving a bit too far into cruelty lately, and I need to take a step back. Besides, she did help a bit before I grabbed her again.

Not long after landing, a large, muscled, and bruised man saunters over to me. The first time I met this guy, I attacked him with a tail whip, sending him flying into a building. He took the hit with his shield and somehow survived, although his shield didn’t.

As it turns out, I didn’t need to attack him at all. Once my tail connected with his shield, the other two threw themselves to the ground and Joras appeared, telling me they weren’t fighting us.

And with me having other things to think about, I left that mess for Joras to deal with. According to Joras, they can be trusted to behave, and when I brought up my skepticism, he pointed out that I've been in their position.

“Hello, I happy you safe. We safe friends.” He’s not good at Raya’s language, but he tries.

Big guy's talking seems to have stirred the healer. She wakes up and props herself up on her arms to look around. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s shocked to see the big guy, but I'm not great at reading human expressions.

“Mesi usi er lebendi? [How are you alive?]”

“Siressein. [Surrendered.]”

Whatever the big guy said must have been funny, because the healer is laughing in a rather uncontrolled manner. Nudging Cranky, I gently request a translation. “She asked how he had survived, and being the eloquent man that he appears to be, he informed her of his surrender.”

The laughter is quick to attract attention as people turn to see what's going on; even Joras seems to glance our way. Now he’s walking our way. It doesn’t take him long before he’s standing over the healer, inspecting her bony leg.

“Impressive. This injury should be well within her capability to heal, but the spell doesn’t seem to have worked, at least not properly. We should learn more about what happened here, though I have my suspicions.”

I don’t know why he’s looking at me, I didn’t do anything other than defend my friends. Taking his focus away from me again, he brings out his dagger and a leather strap.

With the dagger, he starts scraping the healer’s shredded flesh. And some transparent substance is attached to it… Eww! That looks like snot! Why would she let me bite her if she’s covered in snot?!

Rudely enough, he isn’t bothered by my outrage at all! He just continues scraping snot off her and tying strips of flesh together with the leather. I have no idea how she doesn’t mind it, but she’s just staring at him work.

With my attention focused on his medical work, he suddenly startles me as he asks Raya to fetch water and she jumps off my face before running off. As Joras continues working, the leg is looking increasingly leg-like. He is doing good work.

“Kira, have you considered that you may be toxic?” I mean… rude… I know I can be an acquired taste at times, but calling me toxic feels like a bit much. I try to be approachable and friendly, but these people attacked us! Defending ourselves shouldn’t really be considered toxic.

“I have no idea what you’re grumbling about, but I mean venomous. This sludge appears to be your saliva. I know it reacts with magic, but it also seems to interfere with the structure of magic somehow. If I had to guess, I'd say this is why she couldn't heal her leg. Healing is complex to cast, so it's not difficult to interfere with, but this is fascinating. We'll need more tests, because I can't say what effects it would have on simpler magic. I won't be finding out right now."

All I'm hearing is some gibberish that sounds suspiciously like a conspiracy to make me stop licking people. That’s not happening.

Instead of continuing his toxin talk, he gets back to helping the healer. As he works diligently to clean the healer’s leg, I hear a bunch of footsteps approaching. A crowd appears from behind a corner, and it becomes apparent that Raya has recruited some people to carry water for her. That’s smart.

The group of people set down a bunch of pots with sloshing water, and Joras helps the healer stand up. Turns out he wants her to just dunk her leg into a pot now that they have that option. I’m surprised at how good a nurse he is. Which I guess I shouldn't be, he has taken care of Lily for years.

Watching everyone work to help people, I find myself lost. I have no idea how to help in this situation. Everyone is so fragile, and if I try to help with first aid, I might accidentally crush someone. So I’m left just standing here, watching people in pain.

Being realistic, I should be happy that people are so busy with triage because then the victims of this attack might survive. But watching so many people laid out on the square like this, all I feel is anger... Focus, Kira. Getting angry again isn’t helpful right now.

I don’t like this one bit… With Joras being busy and Raya running around helping folks, I’m left with Cranky, and he’s just standing around looking menacing.

I bet he knows something about what I can do after the fighting to not feel useless, so I nudge him and request some options.

Instead of answering me, he glances my way and then he just ignores me in favor of talking to Joras… Rude... Well, I’ll find something to do on my own then. It's very crowded around here anyway. Some air will do me good.

In a stroke of luck, there’s enough room to take off, so off I go! What I can do is check to make sure no more bad folks are hiding around the walls, ready to pounce on unsuspecting townsfolk.

Admittedly, I'm pretty much just looking for distractions right now. This whole thing has been too much for me, and I'm not sure what I can really do.

One thing I want to do is find whoever is responsible for these adventurers showing up and making damn sure it doesn't happen again. But I'm not sure I have the strength to really do that.

Even for the people who did attack, I had to rely on Cranky's help. And the group I was supposed to take out myself didn't even fight back. I have no gauge of how strong or weak I am...

That’s not even accounting for where these people land on the power scale… Geez, so many things to consider…

My attention snaps back to reality and I've been flying around here for a while now. I haven't seen anything that stands out, so I'd say it's safe.

My emotions still feel raw and I'm not sure I can control myself if one of the remaining adventurers does something I don't like... I need to keep doing something else, and Wreyn is as good an excuse as any. I'm sure he can teach me something about this whole human situation.

Trying to focus, my mind keeps returning to hunting. I want to hunt something, but the beasts around here don't deserve what I want to do to what I catch. Getting some distance between the adventurers and me definitely seems like the smart thing to do. And the opportunity to learn makes it even smarter to do.

I'm done flying in circles like some vulture, so I set a course for Oakhold. I still can't get my mind off the adventurers and hunting.

This feeling of powerlessness is awful, and I want it to go away, but I don't know how. I hate this feeling, I hate that I couldn't save everyone, and I hate that I feel lost.

Looking back, the only reason I knew anything was wrong was because of that weird shadow man. I still have no idea why he keeps giving me directions, I'm grateful, but I don't like not knowing.

On top of that, Cranky hadn't brought his mace for our hunt, because I was supposed to hunt the stealthy beast, so we had to take a detour to fetch it... How many could we have saved if not for that...

I can't blame him, though. He helped even though he didn't have to. And that's really nice of him.

Oh no... I don't know where I am... I think I've flown too far. Looking around, all I see is grass, a few patches of trees, and some roads crisscrossing the landscape, none of which helps me.

The clouds have darkened and I can't see anything I recognize... Dang it! I'm lost again...

I thought I was over my 'getting lost' phase...

Perhaps I can ask someone for directions, I did see some caravans traveling on the road. No, that won't work, it never works...

Stop it, Kira, you're bumming yourself out. Instead of wallowing in previous mistakes, I'm gonna come up with a plan!

First plan: Fly higher and see if that helps spot anything. And it works! I see a familiar mountain! It looks like my mountain! Before rushing off, though, I'm gonna look around for landmarks so I know where I am if I end up here again.

Dang it... There's another really tall mountain behind me and they look very similar, I can't tell which is mine... Stupid geological features...

I doubt my chances of figuring out which is mine will improve before the weather clears, so instead, I'll focus on something I can do, which is check on how I'm doing internally. Focusing my will, I feel for my magic, to my surprise, I'm doing quite well.

I guess that makes sense, I didn't fight all that much, and when I did, it was mostly physical attacks. Saving my magic might have been a good call if I'm just gonna head off and get lost... I'll take that as a win. Stupid jerk adventurers...

A bright light pulls me out of my thoughts as a thunderstrike hits nearby, the loud crack rattles my skull. This weather is definitely telling me to land and stay away from open spaces. I'm just gonna follow that imaginary advice and fly towards the ground.

The combination of bright light and sudden darkness is screwing with my vision, and I don't like it. I don't want to be out here anymore, I just want to go home and have fun with my friends...

Come on, Kira, we can handle this. We’re not lost, we are just having a minor directional issue… We’ll get through this. There’s no need to cry, even if it’s difficult not to.

Okay, calm thoughts, positive thoughts. I can do this. Screw it. Second plan: I’m finding someone to ask for directions. I'll leave as soon as I see any sign of trouble. I'm pretty sure I saw some folks traveling on the roads, so I should be able to track a group down.

Going into a downward glide, not quite a dive, I soar toward the nearest road and follow it for some distance. It takes a while, but I manage to pick up the scent of sweat. I was under the impression that rain would ruin scents, but everything smells far more intense.

And how the heck hasn’t it rained until now? I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime since I hatched. The weather is very weird here. Nevertheless, I focus up and follow the scent. The scent path consistently follows the road, so I'm sure I'll find someone.

Before too long, the smell of smoke joins the sweat, so that's either really good because someone has built a fire. Or really bad because someone got hit by lightning. The smells take me to a grove of trees.

Flying over the grove, it becomes quite clear how they’ve managed to light a fire in the rain; they’ve done it under a roof. Someone built some sort of wooden half-roof shelter with only one opening right in the middle of the trees. That’s clever. I can imagine the trees providing excellent protection from the wind. Trees are great like that.

I’m not gonna play coy this time, so I just land and crawl under the shelter, there’s enough room for most of me without pushing away any of these people. I sorta expected humans, because they seem so abundant, but these four people didn't smell right.

“Tona qorl… [Don’t move…]“ The group consists of two well-dressed dwarves and a couple of scalefolk sitting on stools around a cooking fire. I’m getting the impression that I’m not too intrusive because none of them are paying me any mind.

I picked a good group. They are the only group I found, granted, but still, they seem like an accepting bunch, and it feels nice to not be alone.

“Cora du faro to jeb to? Nuia ti un faroei Themar! [What the fuck do we do? That is a fucking Dragon!]”

“E tona ilan! Er vesaei pi unma kron li urok siruei kavns! Er morv du qorsaif usai sawa! [I don’t know! You wanted to save coin by not hiring guards! You said the roads were safe!]”

They seem content to just talk among themselves, although they smell a bit afraid. The weather turning like that is a bit scary, so I get it. Leaving them to their chatter, I notice they’re a bit too caught up in whatever they’re talking about and their food is getting burned.

Being the helpful dragon that I am, I nudge the nearest person, who happens to be a dwarf with an impressive beard, and he rushes into action to save their meal.

I don’t recognize whatever stew they’re cooking, but it smells really good. Maybe I should ask Raya for ideas about new meals to try whenever I find my way back home… Dang it… bummed myself out again…

Dipping my head out of the shelter, the weather seems to have stopped getting worse, but it's pretty bad. I would not like to be caught outside in this mess, and it looks like it will stay bad for a while before it gets better.

And just as I finish that thought, lightning strikes somewhere off in the distance. I’m kinda glad I didn’t try to fly home in this weather. I'm not sure I can survive getting hit by lightning.

Yeah, I’m just gonna stay with these people for now. I’m not gonna be reckless this time by doubling down on my mistake… What I am gonna do is give this tasty-smelling stew a try, that’ll cheer me up.

One of the dwarves is holding his bowl just right for me to dip my tongue into it, so that’s what I do! And I was right, it’s glorious… They’ve used some great spices to make it rich in flavor. I kinda want some more, but I don’t have a bowl. And I can’t use a bowl…

“E rinu udu sokas du hatis… [I think it likes the stew...]”

For some reason, the little guy whose stew I tasted is now holding out his bowl for me. Being the understanding dragon that I am, I open my mouth and he pours it right in. It’s delicious! I can’t stop purring at this deliciousness.

For once, a new encounter doesn’t end with blades pointed at me! I still feel a nagging feeling that these people will hurt me, so I should hurt them first, but I don't want to go through life acting in violence... That sounds like it would get lonely very fast.

I'm gonna settle on hoping for the best here. With my thoughts on how I'll act in the future, something creeps into my mind and it feels familiar, but afraid and sorrowful. For just a moment, I think it’s some sort of stew-based attack, but that’s just silly, the guy was eating it before I tasted it.

Instead of continuing down that goofy train of thought, I focus on the sensation, and it feels very familiar, like something important that I’ve lost ages ago. Prodding the sensation doesn’t seem to do anything, so I might just have to wait until it gets clearer.

I don’t really like having mysterious proddable sensations like that, but I can’t do much about it now. I’ll try exploring it some more when I’m somewhere safe. As hospitable as these people are, this isn’t safety.

With all this weather-watching and stew tasting, I forgot to ask for directions! I’m gonna remedy that immediately, so with a quick question, I eloquently ask if they know where Oakhold is.

“You speak?!” Huh, turns out one of the scalefolk speaks Raya’s language. And yes, of course I speak, and I’m very good at it too. Using my amazing linguistic skills, I request some more stew and those directions to Oakhold.

In response, the scalefolk lady punches the stew dwarf and, based on the context of him giving me more stew, tells him to give me some more delicious stew. Yush! More for me!

“Pardon my impertinence, great Dragon, but what brings you to this camp?” A good question, and I do feel like I need to just talk to someone, so I launch into explaining how adventurers attacked Tuiran. As well as how I fought them off, but we lost a bunch of people in the fight.

“We are not adventurers! We are but humble traders and craftsfolk. We trade goods, and we can’t fight!” That’s nice, but it also feels a little sudden to make a forceful declaration like that. Nevertheless, I continue talking about how some jerk ordered the attack, and I want payback to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We will spread word of the goblin city Tuiran falling under the protective wing of a great Dragon. This will no doubt make all but the most foolhardy reconsider taking on such a job in the future.”

Well, that’s considerate of her, I appreciate that. As I’m about to launch into another story about how I bravely defended myself against adventurers in Oakhold, I hear some rustling in the bushes nearby. It smells human, but as far as I can tell, they didn’t have business with us because they just left instead of approaching.

I bring it up with my hosts here, and they exchange some words before asking if I’m sure it was human. I am sure, I know what humans smell like, after all, even more so now that I know what dwarves smell like too.

It doesn’t seem to be good news, as they are starting to grumble among one another. It seems like a heated grumbling session, and they smell more afraid now.

“Had they been fellow traders, an approach from the road would be the way for them, as well as a signal to alert us. We believe our nightly visitors may have had malicious intent."

Well, good thing I’m here then. If they attack, I can deal with them. As my thoughts go to what I might do to some attacking bandits, that weird sensation returns and I get the impression that it wants me to at least not kill them. That isn’t an unreasonable request, even Cranky didn’t want them dead.

Although I refuse to risk myself or Tuiran again if we end up getting attacked.

My thoughts of battle and bandits get interrupted when it occurs to me that I have no idea what time it is, but I’m kinda tired, so I’m just gonna go for a snooze. It’s been a big day. I don’t smell much metal on these people, so I doubt they’ll be attacking me.

————————

I wake up to the group talking among themselves, so I ask what’s going on, and the scalefolk lady translates for me. I have no way to verify what she says, but I’m not gonna just doubt her for no reason.

“Kaldren, the dwarf serving as your steward last evening, spoke of the benefits of such a mighty Dragon as yourself residing with us. Protection from the worst that sentience has to offer is most welcome. No bandit, thief, or scoundrel in their right mind would dare approach our camp.”

Yeah, you’d have to be pretty out of it to attack a big and mighty dragon like me. Stupid adventurers… He deserves a lick for believing in me.

“Faro nui! Nuia ti heni! [Fuck me! That is vile!]”

“He appreciates your gesture of… appreciation?…” She seems unsure, but yes, I appreciate him believing in me. And that these folks haven't attacked me. I'm a fan of not getting attacked by strangers.

Enough of that, onto other matters. I still need directions to Oakhold. The bad weather seems to have cleared through the night, so I should be able to find it myself, but I’d appreciate the help.

The scalefolk lady gives me directions, but they’re for ground travel. Instead, I ask for landmarks, and she mentions stuff like traveling west until I find a giant tree growing alone, and then north until I find a lake shaped like the letter wria. I have no idea what that letter looks like…

Ever helpful, she draws it in the dirt with one of her claws. I still can’t read their weird language, so I don't know what it means, but now I should be able to recognize the lake. If her drawing is correct, the lake looks like bow, why didn't she just say it looked like a bow...

Never mind that, once I find the lake, I should be able to see Oakhold. I’m confident I can find my way there now, but she isn’t done talking, it seems.

“These adventurers you fought, were they three groups of three? And did any survive?” Guess I didn’t go into detail about that, and since I can’t think of a reason not to, I tell her that we captured a healer from one group and another group surrendered, so four people from the attack are alive.

As soon as I finish talking, she talks to Kaldren, and he reacts to it. I'm not sure what that reaction is, but it is a reaction.

“Did you hear mention of one named Lauren?” Can’t say that I did. The ones I’ve heard of are Merciferus and Kello.

That really got a reaction from Kaldren, and he starts firing off a bunch of words to the scalefolk. I’m getting the impression that he knew Kello, but I can't tell what the dwarf thinks of the dead man.

“Lauren would be a cleric working with Kello and Reinfold, an archer. She has black hair, yellow eyes, and light-brown skin.” That sounds suspiciously like the healer, and I’m pretty sure Cranky calls her Cleric. So I mention that I might know who they’re talking about, which the Scalefolk lady relays in short order, and Kaldren seems quite relieved to hear it.

I know I should be considerate of my hosts here, but I’m itching to get home, so I’m just gonna leave. Weird folks, those guys. They seemed afraid of the weather even as I left. They'll manage, I'm sure. I’m just gonna follow the directions I got and head home.

All in all, I feel pretty good after my night in the company of strangers, we definitely hit it off. I'm curious how accurate these directions are, so I'm gonna follow them to get home. I can't wait to tell Raya about how welcoming the traders were.

Some time after taking off, I do indeed find a large tree growing alone, it fits the scalefolk lady's description, so I assume I'm on the correct path. Now I need to head north and find that Wria Lake. Sounds easy enough.

At least I'm safe if I don't manage to find it because I can see my mountain for sure now.

I want to go even faster, so I push more magic into my wings, I'm gonna be home in no time! It's a little difficult to maintain control of my speed, but I've spent longer away from home than I intended, and I really wanna see my friends again.

There it is! Wria Lake! I'm almost there, I can even see Oakhold from here. It's to the west, so I'll be home in no time at all. I can’t wait to see Raya, Joras, and Jeannie again! All the others too.

Maybe I’ll even see Melty again, I could use some of his optimism to keep me in a good mood. I don't want to be pessimistic, but I suspect something will affect my mood when I get home.

Rushing forward, I keep pushing magic into my wings and it won't be long until I reach Tuiran. I haven't even been gone a day, but I miss my home so much. We're gonna have another camp-out and this time, I'll leave some meat for the others on purpose!