Chương 23: The Right Horse

We traveled slowly. Madam Moolisa was the little cow that could, but her age certainly showed by the end of it. First, we took her to Lina's and put her back in her segmented fenced-off area. She immediately found the shadiest patch of grass and laid down, snoring softly just moments after. I thought about stopping in to see Lina, but she would have questions, and already the townsfolk had gathered to stare at the wagon which held the dragon's remains. Hard to blame them, really.

"Hey genius," Pip asked, "how are you going to get this to the guild?" I hadn't thought about it. Shrugging, I replied, "I guess you lift one side, and I lift the other." Pip mimicked an exaggerated stance, using his hands to trail the length of himself.

"And how am I supposed to lift anything to your height?"

"Sorry," I murmured.

"Vaelith, a hand?" Vaelith and I slowly dragged the cart through Bramblewick. The demon-princess was not even breaking a sweat, but I, my STR pretty low, was struggling. The cart wheels groaned over every stone in the road, leaving muddy tracks behind us. The smell of dragon's blood, a reptilian scent, followed us, causing the townsfolk to hold their noses and the merchants selling food to curse us. Eventually, we slammed the cart down in front of the Adventurer's Guild.

Before we could even enter, the guildmaster, Merren, stepped outside.

"What's all the commotion—" His words caught in his throat as he saw the dead dragon. His glasses slipped from his face, hit his foot, and skittered off, sliding a small bit away.

"Here," Vaelith said.

"Let me get those for you." She picked them up and set them crookedly on his face.

"There ya' go. Perfect. Good as new." Merren sputtered a cough.

"Is… is… is that a—""A dragon?" Vaelith asked, smirking.

"Why, yes, it is. Killed by none other than Princess Vaelith Noctara, third in line for the fifth seat of the Court of Nine Embers… and her party, The Hungering Crown."

"It's the Hungry Crown," I corrected. Vaelith snapped her fingers.

"Damn, I like Hungering more. Shit… is it too late to change it?"

"I… I…" Merren was having quite the time trying to sort himself out. We stood in awkward silence until, eventually, the man cleared his throat.

"Apologies… I am merely stunned silent. It doesn't happen often, I can assure you. So, by the looks of it, this is the emerald dragon from the bounty?"

"I sure hope so," I replied.

"It was a pain in the ass to lug it all the way here." Merren smirked.

"Oh, I imagine that is true." He lifted a hand and snapped, and two burly-looking fellows came out of the guild. Both stopped dead when they saw the cart. One muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a prayer.

"These gentlemen will take care of it for you," Merren continued.

"We'll verify and prep the body. It's the least we could do." He glanced around at the crowd that had gathered, who whispered to one another and stared. Children tried to push between adults for a better look, while a few farmers stood with mouths open, tools still in hand.

"Perhaps we can continue this conversation in my office… away from the rabble." We followed Merren into his office. It was a quaint space, little bigger than a standard room back on Earth. It had a desk and two seats directly in the entrance, but on the other side, it had some sort of privacy panel with black parchment. On the parchment, there was a crude drawing of two dragons circling in flight. Only a tiny window let in the morning light, cutting across dust motes drifting in the air.

"Did you draw that?" I asked, pointing. Merren smiled softly, glancing at the black parchment.

"Ah yes, a hobby of mine. But you aren't here to discuss me, I'm sure."

"Here," Vaelith said, dropping a bloody sack on Merren's desk.

"For the goblin bounty." Blood leaked out, staining the otherwise stainless desk. Merren did not smile at that as he picked up the sack, wiped the blood, grimaced at the lingering stain, and set it on the floor. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I nudged Vaelith with an elbow, whispering, "What was that?" Vaelith shrugged… I had a feeling she did things like that on purpose.

"One thing at a time," Merren said.

"First, let's discuss the dragon. Do you wish to tell me what happened? Reports said that the dragon was spotted to the east, yet I was led to believe you all headed south. Or is it a trade secret?" I had no objection to the truth. I told Merren what had happened, yet Vaelith kept embellishing the story whenever she could. In the end, Merren got the gist of it.

"Ah," he said, "so the goblins were feeding the dragon in hopes of recruiting it. The Grubfang Tribe is craftier and more dangerous than the guild realized, it seems. Thank you for taking care of it… and now for the hard question. The goblin bounty mentioned victims." I frowned and shook my head.

"We saw nobody… and we did check."

"I was afraid of that," he replied.

"Seems they were the offerings for the dragon."

"I thought the same, but I have no proof." Merren held up a hand.

"No, we are indebted to you both all the same. On behalf of the population of Bramblewick, I thank you both. So let's get to the matter at hand… compensation."

"What a ripoff!" Vaelith complained.

"Greedy goblin scum is what Merren is, I tell you."

"We still need to sell the dragon parts, remember?" Vaelith grumbled to herself, but made no further complaints.

"Demon mad," Darwin snickered.

"That she is," I whispered. Vaelith kicked a random bucket, and the owner of said bucket yelled some choice curses at her.

"In more ways than one," I added. Our purse was rather light considering we had killed a dragon. G-rank parties, apparently, only got thirty percent of the bounty total, with the rest going to the Adventurers Guild. Part of the contract, Merren had said. A part that neither Vaelith nor I had read. Still… I was richer than I had been, yet I still needed to make Pip whole. The half-foot was staying at the inn for the time being. In total, we had twelve goblin ears at five copper a piece for sixty copper.

I hadn't remembered killing so many, but that's how many ears Vaelith found. Minus the guild's tax, that gave us a mere eighteen copper, split between Vaelith and me. The dragon was worth one hundred and fifty copper, and as a favor, Merren had only taken forty percent. That was ninety copper split between three for thirty copper a piece. Thirty-nine copper was my takeaway… seemed like a lot of work for not a lot of coin.

Yet, as I told Vaelith, we still had to sell the parts themselves, and for that, it was time to visit an old friend. As I opened Lina's shop, the woman was clearly waiting for me, hands on hips, glaring daggers. She had apparently heard about the demon-woman and party lugging a dragon into town and had also noticed Moolisa was back. She looked as if she were about to jump over the counter and attack me.

"Before you say anything, I have gifts," I said.

"Gifts?" she replied, her stern face softening, if only just. I knew that would win her over.

"Well, less gifts and business propositions," I continued.

"I really thought about what you said, and I think it would be good for us both. Now, as you've probably heard, we killed a dragon—" Lina opened her mouth to interject.

"—Now wait a second, it wasn't intentional, and it really wasn't me. It was Pip and Vaelith."

"Pip?" she asked.

"Who's Pip?"

"A half-foot trapper we met. I'm sure you'll meet him soon. But as I was saying, we killed the dragon and we have some parts to sell." At that, her face lit up.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" she replied.

"Come on, bring it in before it spoils." The guild had done us a solid and had separated the dragon parts for us. Layers of meat, eyes, claws, bone… you name it. Each bundle had been wrapped in cloth or tied with cord. Lina, apparently having learned quite a bit about monster parts, studied each. Some she frowned at. Others she beamed. She picked up claws, turned scales over in the light, pressed a finger into the wrapped meat, and muttered prices to herself under her breath.

Finally, she set everything aside, put her elbows on the table, and said, "Let's make a deal. I was thinking two hundred copper for the lot. Now I know it isn't much, but think of it as an investment—""Deal!" I said.

"Deal, deal!" Darwin chimed in.

"Hey wait," Vaelith said.

"What if she is ripping us off?"

"I trust her," I replied.

"And besides… Lina likely wants to make this a lucrative partnership between everyone. You wouldn't rip me off… right?" Lina shook her head. I put my hand forward.

"Then deal?" Lina shook, smiling.

"Deal."

"And now, one last thing. After you get this all sorted… I didn't forget what you asked. I have something to share with you." That night, I made Lina my Stingtail Nettle Tea with the last of the ingredients. I only had enough for the two of us. We sat outside, staring up at the stars. It was a beautiful night, and there was even a shooting star that flew by overhead.

The air had cooled, carrying the smell of grass, distant chimney smoke, and the faint sweetness of Lina's shop herbs drifting through the open door behind us. The tea steamed between us in simple cups, pale and fragrant beneath the moonlight. Lina stared at the tea for a long while before finally tasting it. Her eyes lit up brighter than the sky of stars. She set it down, looked at me, and said, "I knew I bet on the right horse."