We arrived in front of a large two-story building in town. It wasn't the tallest, but it was the most prestigious looking so I think I would've eventually found it without asking for directions so I felt justified. Justified about my lack of asking, but not about my multiple human NPC kills. Those would haunt me and leave me questioning my every action from here on out. I refocused on the task at hand once again. I'd just have to try dealing with these guys in a less 'killy' way.

"Boss?" said that man who had led me to the town hall.

A few seconds passed and a rugged, strong man exited the building.

"What do you want?" He asked with a snarl. "Who is this?" He looked like he could pick me up and turn my body into a pretzel. A little fear ran through me, but I had to get to the bottom of this.

"Bear, get the boss. He needs to deal with a situation." He pointed at the building and the large man re-entered the building reluctantly.

"His name is Bear?" I asked. I did not get a response but I guess he did resemble a bear a little bit. He didn't seem to be smarter than the average bear though.

Bear exited the building once again followed by a small man that could use cotton swabs as dumbbells and they might give him trouble. He was standing close to Bear so it probably made the difference in builds more stark.

"What?" Asked the weasel-like man.

"This guy killed two of your men. He tried to play it off but I found him standing over the bodies with a weapon in his hand." I still didn't know the first man's name but I could tell he was a little sad when he spoke of their deaths. Join the club, buddy.

"Where is the weapon now?" Asked the small man.

"I don't know. It disappeared. He may have thrown it away when I wasn't looking to try and cover his tracks."

The little guy was enraged. "We can't let these people have access to weaponry! If they get sick of their current predicament, weapons may give them bad ideas of how to bring about change."

"Who did he kill?" Asked the tiny mayor.

"Larry and Gary," the man answered solemnly. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Please tell me that your name isn't Perry," I whispered over to him. I had hardly gotten the words out before he gave me an elbow in my stomach. The armor helped a little, but I still felt it.

"Shut up, you," he said matching the force of his blow. "And my name isn't Perry," he whispered back to me.

The small man was getting impatient. "Jerrald! Did you pick up the weapons from the men who fell?"

I laughed again after hearing his name and interjected. "No sir, Jerry here doesn't have them. I took the liberty of grabbing the weapons, but I have to say that them dying was a complete accident."

"Where are the weapons, fool?" The fake mayor started walking toward me and was very upset at this point.

"Easy, Mr. T, I have them in a dimensional space that only I can access. Have you ever heard the saying 'you catch more flies with honey'?" I was still trying to think of the best way to definitely not kill these guys.

"My name is Mayor Kline and have you ever heard the saying 'cut open his dimensional space and take his stuff'?" He asked now only about ten feet from me.

"That's rude. Also, I thought you had to be wearing the town's mayoral ring here to officially be the Mayor. I don't see a ring on your finger," I said as I pointed at his hands sassily.

"What do you know about the ring or our customs?" He asked.

"Someone trustworthy explained the ring being bound to the town's Mayor until death and it legally making that person the town's leader. Bummer that the dragon took it after you stabbed the old Mayor in the back." I tried to make my speech as dramatic as possible like I was a fancy trial lawyer.

"How could you possibly know all this?" He asked surprised at what I knew of his situation.

"Well, I'll admit that the bit about the dragon taking the ring was an assumption based on the fact that he had the ring in his inventory." I raised an eyebrow as I continued to put on a show.

"How do you know that the dragon has the ring in his inventory?" Kline asked raising an eyebrow in return. I guess he was trying to call my bluff. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't bluffing.

I pulled the ring from my inventory and it popped into my hand between my thumb and pointer finger with a flourish. "Had. He had the ring in his inventory until I took it off of his dead body." At my words and at seeing the ring they took a few steps away from me. "That's right, I defeated the dragon!" I tried to add flourishes that would make me seem scarier, but I wasn't sure how effective it was.

"How do we know you aren't just a common thief who stole the ring from a sleeping dragon?" He smiled at his words as if he had won. "Boys, kill him!"

Jerrald and Bear came at me. I didn't want to use a blade so I decided to try using my bare fists first. Jerrald was closest and he took a solid right hook to the chin. Bear was strong but slow. I hit him with a full-powered left jab right in his breadbasket. The first fell to the ground and didn't attempt to get up and the second was doubled over in pain trying to catch his breath.

Kline's eyes went wide. "You really did kill him the dragon, didn't you. Have the town, it's yours." He ran faster than I thought possible North and out of sight. I don't think I'll be seeing him again.

"You two better follow him North out of town. Bear, is there anyone else here that will put up a fight now that he is gone?" Bear walked over to help Jerrold up and answered me still wincing from the pain in his stomach.

"No, there were only the four of us left. Kline used paid thugs that came from the boats up North to take control, then he told everyone that the dragon would kill them if anyone messed with him." He seemed like maybe he was actually more of a teddy bear with how cooperative he was being. I thought about how the only thing he knew was being bossed around and I felt a little bad for him.

"I'm sorry I hit you. I was only defending myself and I didn't mean to kill the other two," I said trying to sound kind as I really did feel bad about it.

"I forgive you," he responded with a nod. "Looks like you killed three people though."

"What?" I turned and looked at the lifeless body in Bear's arms. I ran over and placed a hand on him. This was my nightmare. A loot window popped up and I quickly thought 'loot all' again to get rid of it. A tear rolled down my cheek as I fell to my knees. "Jerry, noooooo!"

Bear patted me on the back firmly. "There, there."

After I collected myself I looked at Bear and gave the 'man nod' that men do when they can't express emotion in the moment. "You know you don't seem like a bad guy."

"I don't think I am. My size and passive nature tend to land me in the wrong crowds. I don't actually like to hurt people," he explained.

"Would you like to be one of the good guys for a change of pace?" I asked the mountain of a man in front of me.

"Yes!" He said excitedly and shot his arm out for a handshake. I shook his hand and he pulled me into a bear hug. I patted his back once. I think he really needed this.

"Let's save this town, buddy." I flinched when I said buddy since that was what started my killstreak. He didn't seem to notice.

We started walking back to get Jen and found Pips waiting at the edge of town. He hopped up on my shoulder and hugged my face. "Hey, Pips. How are you doing?"

He ran around in circles and then plopped back down on my shoulder. I think that meant he was happy.

"You have a squirrel friend?" Asked Bear watching the exchange.

"Correction. We have a squirrel friend." His face lit up with my declaration.

"Pips, this is Bear. He is a new friend," I said to the cutest squirrel in the world.

Pips hopped over to Bear and ran around in a similar circle. Then, he sat on Bear's shoulder and gave him a face hug. I could've sworn I saw a tear forming in Bear's eye. I don't think he has ever had a real friend. People just used him for his size his whole life.

"Looks like he likes you," I said motioning over to Pips. Bear didn't say anything but had the biggest smile across his face briefly.

We arrived at the cabin and Jen and Lulu met us at the door.

"Well?" Lulu asked hopefully.

"We are back in control of the town," I said with a smile. She pulled me into a big hug. After a couple of seconds, Jen joined in on the hug. After a few more seconds, Bear wrapped his big arms around all of us. We ended the hug and were all smiling at the experience.

"We need to tell the rest of the town that the dragon is dead and we have control of the town again," said Jen snapping us all back to reality.

"You're absolutely right," said Lulu.

I realized that I hadn't introduced the giant man beside me. "This is Bear. He wanted to join our team. He wanted to be a good guy." They glanced over approvingly.

As we headed out to get back to Bettyford, Jen pulled me to the side and whispered, "Do you see the irony in having a man join the team who goes by Bear? I'm the only one in our party who isn't either an animal or named for an animal."

"That is a good point," I said in agreement with her assessment.

"Bear, what is your real name?" I asked him.

"You can call me by my real name if you'd like. It's Barry."