The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 36

             Lucy, Melora, and I are walking the street to the Adventurer’s Guild drawing more looks and stares than before. I am a little confused before I remember what I did last night and just shake my head at the power of gossip and how fast it spreads. Whether these people got the correct information or possible propaganda against us is yet to be seen in their expressions as they look on. We chat with each other though, ignoring the looks and go about our day as we finally reach the guild.

            We step inside and the whole place goes silent and heads snap into our direction. I raise an eyebrow at the people, and they finally get a grip on themselves and go back to doing what they were doing. Lucy giggles as she leads the way confidently and in a rather good mood. I suspect that it has something to do with our love making last night but I will try to stay humble and cop it up to something else. Reaching the reception desk, we see no sign of Sherry and are about to wait in line for another receptionist when we hear a voice calling out to us.

            “Ladon, Lucy.” We turn and see Jon at the bottom of the stairs. He motions us towards him, and we follow him up to his office. When inside we take seats on the couches with Lucy beside me and Melora siting between her ears. Jon and Sherry, who was already in Jon’s office, sit on a couch in front of us. We all sit in silence for a few moments before Jon breaks it and asks, “So are you here for the bandit job?” I nod and say, “Yes as well as any jobs that are along the way. We aren’t hurting for money, but I would like to not have to worry about how much we have. Also, we need to have Melora registered.” Sherry thinks for a few moments and gives me a stack of papers that have jobs noted on them.

            I take them I and have a look at the first one which is the bandit job and had risen in the amount of reward offered.

Highwaymen need to be eradicated

A group of bandits have been causing havoc on a major trade route to the north of the city. This has been causing difficulties in trade and driving prices up for the citizens of Melcox and the cities and towns south of Melcox.

Number of bandits estimates to be around 100 or more. Possible connections to other bandit groups in the area.

Possibly have military training.

Reward: 2 mandium

            I finish reading the job and give it to Lucy and Melora for them to read. I then look over the other papers that Sherry gave me. They are mostly monster exterminations along the way to taking out the bandits. The monsters are either wanted for the parts to make things for the craftsmen in city and others are harassing and causing a dangerous environment for the villages that they have targeted. There are around ten jobs, and the rewards range from around five gold to fifteen silver. Along with the two mandium once we finish the other jobs, we will receive a pretty good payday.

            The three of us finish reading the papers and confirm that we will take the jobs. Jon and Sherry sigh in relief which makes me a little confused. “What’s with the relief in your faces? Didn’t I already say last night that we were going to take the bandit job.” Jon smiles grimly and says, “Yes, well, that was before Lord Oliver blindsided you with the trial by combat in front of everyone and we didn’t know if you were still willing to help the city or not.” I think to myself for a moment and then say, “Well that and this are two different things. Though I was not keen on fighting and killing last night. I am glad that now there are three less enemies of mine left in this world.”

            They nod at my logic and understanding of the situation. Sherry then says with a little tension in her voice and asks, “What about revealing that you are a dragon and a new race? Why would you do that now? You know that the nobles and merchants will hound you from now on or in the worst case try to rid a possible threat to their schemes.” At this Lucy and Melora pay special attention to my answer along with Jon who has the same concerned look as Sherry. I just shrug at their concerns and say, “I was never going to keep my race a secret forever. I only wanted to keep it hidden until I was sure that I was strong enough to push back any malice pointed at me or Lucy.” I turn to look at Lucy and grab her hand making her smile at me. I look up at Melora who has a pout which causes me to chuckle when I continue. “As well as protecting my friends with the mere mention of my name. That is why I displayed a tenth of my power last night.”

            “That was a tenth of you power!” Jon exclaims with his mouth open in astonishment. I just grin and say, “What? You didn’t really think I would show all of what I can do to the potential enemies lying in wait in the crowd did you?” Sherry and Jon look at each other and then back at me making Lucy chuckle and Melora nodding in agreement with my words while crossing her arms. “I may not be politically savvy or really care for the nobles, but if I had used everything at my disposal, Melcox and its inhabitants would not have survived. I did take on a whole goblin horde led by a drake wyvern with unknown magic and come out on top remember.” I look at Lucy and add, “Well with some much needed help from a cute Rabbit Mink.” Lucy looks away embarrassed by my comment to which I just chuckle. The two across from us finally come to terms with my decision at that and just accepted my actions for outing myself. We chat a bit about the details of the jobs we accepted and then Sherry says something that I did not consider before revealing my race.

            “You know Ladon, the lord will have to tell the King of the country about a new race appearing in his territory.” I look at Sherry for a few moments thinking about the implications that could entail and sigh. “Though I do not want to deal with more nobility or even royals for that matter. I suppose it would be better to just get it over with sooner rather than later.” Jon laughs and says, “The king will most likely go with whatever advice that Lord Oliver gives him about dealing with you, but the ones you will have to deal with most likely are the prince heir and the first princess.” I furrow my brows and ask, “What do you mean by that?” Sherry just chuckles and says, “You’ll find out when they come looking for you.” I start to sweat a little at their vengeful faces and decide to just change the subject.

            “So, about Melora’s registration.” They both grin at my attempt to just gloss over the ominous information about the royals and say, “Well the assessments aren’t being held until tomorrow, but if you want, we can go ahead and test her today so that you all can head out before winter fully sets in.” Jons says. I look at Melora who nods, and we stand up to head out for the testing grounds of the guild.

            The assessment took until noon. Lucy and I were surprised by how strong Melora truly was and I start to doubt that mere goblins had somehow captured her. She has little power in melee combat as she is more attuned to mana. Melora controlled plants and roots calling it the nature element which is the combination of earth, light, and water elements. She even had Sherry who is a powerful mage on her toes the entire time before Melora made a clumsy mistake and misjudged the distance between them with a spell that sent massive thorns from a giant rose she grew. This gave Sherry an opening leaving her the winner but winded from Melora’s onslaught.

            Melora’s overall rank is ‘C’ and was given her tags along with filling out a form of joining mine and Lucy’s team, Draco Oculus. When we told her the meaning of the name, she was a little confused as to why the name since we had not talked to her about our eyes yet. Once done at the guild we spent the rest of the day stocking up on supplies and studying about the monsters that were on the jobs. I tried to find any maps about the area around the bandits and only got copies of poorly drawn maps from former jobs taken of the area.

            I sighed at the poorly produced maps and thought to myself, “I would really like to know where exactly I am on Earth. I can guess I am most likely in North America, but I have no idea. Maybe the ruins expedition in a few months will shed some light on my whereabouts.”  Sitting in the living room lost in thought while studying the maps Melora asks, “So are we traveling by land or are you going to fly?” I look up from the maps and look over at Melora who is leaning on Lucy as she reads about the monsters on our other jobs. I clear my throat and say, “Well, I was thinking of just traveling by foot and then when we are finished with everything just fly back. It will take us a few weeks to finish all the jobs and by then winter will have fully set in.” Lucy turns a page in the book and says without looking up, “Are we going to catch a ride on any carriages?” My face sours at the mention of carriages and Melora giggles looking at my face making Lucy look up at me. She tilts her head in confusion at my displeasure. “Why the sour face, love.” I grumble and say, “I hate carriages. They are too slow and hurt my ass.”

            Both Melora and Lucy blinked a couple times and then laugh at my complaint. I look back at the maps while they continue to poke fun at me. Once they finished their roast at my expense Melora asked, “If not carriages then what about horses or other beasts of burden?” I think for moment and say, “It kinda defeats the purpose of flying back, no?” Melora tilts her head and says, “Couldn’t you just carry them back?” “If we do that then I can just transform and walk on land while carrying you two. Plus, it would save us some money from having to buy any beasts.” Lucy smiles and nods thinking to herself that she would get to pet my fur. Once the decision was made, we continued to study for the jobs and then went to bed not long after because we were getting up early to head out. At night Lucy and I made love again and soon went to sleep.

            The next morning all of us got up, ate breakfast, and went to the Drunken Elephant to tell Cliff and Helen we would be gone for a while and then set off to the northern gate. Once through the gate I transformed into my dragon form shocking all the travelers and guards earning some giggles from Lucy as she jumped onto my back and Melora floating up to sit between my horns. Guards started to shout at me to come back as we started off on another job for the guild and a new adventure for the team Draco Oculus. I just looked at the guards and roared at them and spitting fire into the air making them back off. Then we set off towards the distant Spike Back Mountains completing the jobs we picked out along the way.

            A couple weeks go by before we finally reach the foot of the mountains. On the way the three of us worked on incorporating Melora’s fighting style into our group combat style with the jobs along the way.  We figured out that I would be the vanguard for the group with my tough scales and medium range spear and shield. Lucy uses her flexibility with her range and assassination skills to bounce around to cover me and Melora who is primarily range with her more advanced spells compared to mine and Lucy’s.

            We stop at the foot of the mountains and set up a base camp to scout from and search for the infamous bandits that have set here to terrorize passing caravans. I set up a stone structure with my handy earth magic beside a mountain stream created by the runoff of melting snow from the peaks. Lucy sets out furs inside the stone house for us and a separate one for Melora. Once done setting up a base camp we start to go over our plans of rooting out the bandits and getting rid of them. Whether dead or alive will be their choice and circumstances in which we find them in.