“Are you sure this is the right spot?” Lyreen asked.

“It’s where the farmers told us the basilisk is nesting,” Voekeer replied.

Anna summoned a dozen eyes and sent them into the scrubland.

“I’m beginning to think that most of the world is the ass end of nowhere,” Anna said.

“Sure seems that way, doesn’t it?” Elaine replied.

“People like living near each other. That’s all,” Barika said.

“So why don’t they just build a city out here?” Anna asked.

“There’s nothing but scraggly weeds and rocks out here,” Voekeer replied.

There’s all kinds of stuff out here. But nothing people would have any interest in I guess.

She searched the barren landscape with her eyes trying to find the basilisk.

“How can something so big hide so well?” she asked.

“It could be miles from here. Those men spotted it out here, but they didn’t follow it,” Voekeer replied.

“Why bother it to begin with? We’re three days from that farm and two weeks from the last town. There’s no one out here to hurt,” Anna asked.

“It’s been hunting cattle, and when the men try to stop it, it eats them,” Voekeer replied.

She started to walk farther into the brush. The eyes didn’t exactly have a range, but it used more power the farther away from her they were.

I don’t want to burn another dress.

Her friends followed her.

“Can’t we use that tracking spell of yours?” Elaine asked.

“I have to have some tracks to track first,” Lyreen replied.

Anna was looking through more than one of the eyes at a time. It was still a little hard to follow all the new fields of vision, but it had become bearable now.

At least I don’t get dizzy anymore.

They walked for a few hours, searching the area, before she spotted something.

“I think I found it,” Anna said.

She summoned a tentacle and poked the rock. It moved. She poked it again, and it jumped up. It was a massive beast with a long serpent-like body and ten legs. He glared at the tentacle, and suddenly all the brush around the wiggling appendage turned to stone.

Her friends all ducked down. They were a ways away, but it looked like they didn’t want to take any chances. She didn’t care. The worst thing that could happen to her is she’d end up wearing a stone dress for a few seconds before ending up naked.

That does happen a lot.

Not that she cared. She really only wore clothes because she had to.

I do like my belt though. Pouches are so handy.

She wiggled the tentacle at the basilisk a few times. It snapped down on it like a lizard catching a worm.

Got you.

The tentacle stretched out, reaching down the monster’s throat, sprouting rear facing barbs as it went. The basilisk started to flail around in a panic, causing horrific injury to its insides in the process. She pushed the tentacle all the way to its stomach, and there it grew a spiked head, puncturing it and most of the surrounding organs.

It’s dead no matter what now, so I’m going to try something.

Another tentacle appeared and wrapped around the back half of the oversized lizard.

“Watch this, everyone!” Anna said.

The rest of the party stood up and looked at the basilisk. Before they could ask what she was doing, both tentacles pulled away from each other. A wet tearing sound could be heard as the tentacle slid back out of the monster’s throat. It was covered in the basilisk’s innards. Blood gushed out of the beast’s mouth, and when it pulled free, it looked like a fountain for just a moment.

She started to giggle and bounce up and down excitedly. The tentacles started wiggling in excitement as well. One was covered in glistening meat, and the other held the flopping carcass of the mighty beast aloft like a child playing with a rag doll. She turned to her friends and pointed at the wiggling appendages.

“Did you see that!? It went Sploosh!” she exclaimed, still vibrating.

The others were utterly shocked. It took them a few minutes to stop staring at the macabre spectacle.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Lyreen asked.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked. She was thoroughly confused by Lyreen’s question.

“That is not okay,” Lyreen replied.

“What do you mean? We were supposed to kill it, and I did!” Anna said.

“That was too much!” Lyreen replied, pointing at the dead basilisk as it flopped back and forth.

“But it’s dead,” Anna said.

“Oh, for fucks sake,” Lyreen replied. She walked away rubbing her temples.

“What did I do wrong?” Anna asked.

“Anna, child, despite the fact it was a dangerous monster, it was still a living thing, and tearing it apart like that was cruel,” Barika replied.

“I didn’t know,” Anna said.

“Remember when we used to catch small animals to eat?” Barika asked. Anna nodded. “Did we ever do anything like that to them?” Barika asked.

“No, we just bopped them on the head,” Anna replied.

“And when you went hunting with Thokri, how did you kill those beasts?” Barika asked.

“We killed them with one shot. Thokri told me that it’s cruel to make them suffer… Oh,” Anna replied.

Barika brushed the hair from Anna’s face.

“I made a mistake, didn’t I?” Anna asked.

“You did, child, but if you don’t do it again, it will be alright,” Barika replied.

Anna nodded. She felt bad about the basilisk now. She set it down and sent the tentacles away. Voekeer frowned.

“If you learned from Barika and Thokri not to torment beasts, then where did you get the idea it was fun?” he asked.

“Elaine,” Anna replied. Everyone turned to look at the necromancer.

“Me? What did I do?” Elaine asked.

“Well, when you were burning those goblins alive and making the zombies eat the others, you were smiling and laughing the whole time,” Anna replied.

“Shit!” Elaine said. She rubbed her neck for a moment. “Listen, necromancy isn’t a very nice kind of magic, and the people who practice it aren’t very nice either,” she added.

“But you’re nice,” Anna replied. Elaine smiled.

“I’m glad you think so. But I’m not a normal necromancer, and the only reason I was smiling and laughing was because that was the first time I ever cast my spells without having to worry about holding back,” Elaine said.

“Really?” Anna asked.

“Yep. It’s not like I can cast huge fire spells or raise an army of the dead on a regular basis,” Elaine replied.

“Oh,” Anna said. Elaine gave her a flat look.

“You should have asked me before you assumed I liked burning things alive or having my creations eat them,” she said.

“Sorry,” Anna replied. Elaine sighed and then put her arm over Anna’s shoulder.

“I’m not mad for that, but I told you before to ask me if you have any questions, alright?” Elaine said. Anna nodded.

“Come on. Let’s get to harvesting that beast,” Thokri said.

They walked over to the limp lizard and started to pry scales from its corpse. A few hours later, they walked back to the wagon. She had a bag full of scales along with the thing’s eyes and poison glands. She tossed the bag into the back of the wagon and then went to help Thokri hook the horses back up.

“We should be able to get to the wyverns in two weeks if the weather holds,” Thokri said.

“And then the griffins,” Anna replied.

“Aye, and if we get lucky, we might run into one on the way, so we don’t have to go all the way to the mountains,” he said. Anna nodded.

Griffins are all over this region according to the contract. They just don’t land very often.

Once they finished hooking up the horses, she climbed onto the driver’s seat with Thokri and Rose. She flicked the reins, and the wagon was off. They were heading back to the farmers that had told them where the basilisk was to get them to sign the contract.

It took three days to get back to the farmers. They were so far out that there were no inns to stay in, and because of the wild animals, she had to keep watch all night.

The farmers signed the contract without question. They showed them the bag of scales and the eyes. Anna had kept its fangs as well, but they weren’t part of the haul. She just liked them.

Maybe I’ll make a necklace out of them.

They were heading back towards where she had slain the basilisk. It was on the way to the wyvern nesting ground.

Like the basilisk, the wyverns nested far from people, but they could fly for more than a thousand miles and would swoop down and carry off livestock and people anywhere in their range.

At least they stay away from cities.

This contract was from the kingdom and didn’t need to be signed by anyone. All they needed to do was bring back proof of a kill, and they’d get paid.

It was fall now, and the leaves of the few trees they passed were changing colors. It was one of the most beautiful things she’d seen. She remembered her first fall. She’d been so busy helping the crossroads town rebuild, she’d barely paid attention to it. Now she had all the time in the world to admire the scenery. The temperature had dropped as well, and the others were wearing cloaks to ward off the cold.

Not quite cold enough for the thicker clothing yet though.

She had a cloak but never bothered to get thicker or longer dresses. She knew she’d get strange looks walking around in the wintertime in a thin skimpy dress but didn’t care.

Everyone looks at me anyway, so why bother trying to fit in?

“What’s on the other side of the scrublands?” Anna asked.

“The empire is to the west and swamps to the south,” Thokri replied.

“How long would it take to get to the empire?” Anna asked.

“Months,” Thokri replied.

“What about the swamps?” Anna asked.

“Even more months,” Thokri replied.

“Have you ever been to the swamps?” Anna asked.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“What are they like?” Anna asked.

“Swampy,” Thokri replied. She gave him a look. He grinned at her. “Weird looking trees growing out of stinking water filled with bugs, snakes, and lizards. Everything wants to bite or eat you, and the lizardfolk that live there hate everyone,” Thokri said.

“Sounds fun,” Anna replied.

“Aye,” Thokri said.

“Do beastfolk women that are part bird lay eggs or have babies?” Anna asked. Thokri took a deep puff from his pipe.

“No idea, lass. You’ll have to ask one,” he replied.

“I bet they have babies because they have boobs,” Anna said.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“Wyverns lay eggs, right?” Anna asked.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“I wonder what they taste like. I bet it’s good, and imagine how big of an omelet you could make with one! You would need a whole pig’s worth of bacon to go with it,” Anna said.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“Are you listening to me?” Anna asked.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

She took a piece of candy from her pouch and popped it in her mouth.

I’m being annoying again. I’ll stop talking now.

She watched the barren landscape, spotting strange creatures that scurried around in the brush or large birds that floated more than flew above them.

A few days passed, and they neared the site of the alleged wyvern nest. She heard a terrible cry coming from above them. The horses panicked some, but she was able to get them under control quickly. A dark shadow passed over head.

Now that’s one big lizard.

The creature was at least thirty feet from nose to tail with a wingspan of at least sixty feet. She pulled out a piece of warshot. She was wearing her bag just in case this happened. She threw the warshot at the wyvern with a casual underhanded throw. The chunk of lead flew out from her hand at incredible speed, causing the air to crack as it passed.

In the blink of an eye, it hit the wyvern in the base of the throat. The beast’s thick hide did nothing to slow it. An instant later, the top of its skull exploded, and the monster plummeted to the ground. It landed with a bone shattering crunch.

“Got it,” Anna said. Thokri gawked at it for a moment.

“Aye,” he said.

Why is he surprised at this point?

She drove the wagon over to the dead beast, and they got out to start harvesting it.

Thokri walked over to the wyvern’s head and stared down at the hole.

“Did you use a spell?” he asked.

“I can’t cast spells. You know that,” Anna replied.

“Why is it bigger on the way out?” he asked. Anna just shrugged in response.

“So, we’re going to take its hide along with some of the bones, teeth and a few organs. Can anyone think of anything else we’ll need?” Elaine asked.

“No, that’s about it, lass,” Thokri replied.

They got to work skinning. It took hours, even with the help of her tentacles, to get it’s hide off. She heard another screech. She looked around while pulling out another chunk of warshot.

Wait for it… Wait for it… Wait for it… NOW!

She threw the warshot with all of her might. Instead of a simple crack, the warshot’s passing created a boom this time along with a gust of wind. It streaked through the sky, hitting the wyvern with such force that the beast’s head exploded. The body was knocked away and fell nearby. Gore rained from the sky, thankfully away from the party.

“I think you over did it,” Voekeer said.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“It didn’t feel a thing,” Anna said. Barika started to laugh.

“No, child. I don’t expect it did,” she said. Everyone started to laugh.

“No one would ever believe this back home,” Voekeer said.

“Aye. I just watched her do it, and I still don’t believe it,” Thokri replied.

“Honestly, I just think of her like one of the elven heroes from the age of the gods, and it all makes sense,” Lyreen said. Voekeer nodded.

“Now that I think about it, she does seem like one of them,” he replied.

“See?” Lyreen said.

“Tell me about them?” Anna asked.

“Well, my favorite one from the legends is Zaathra, the wise. She was elf kind’s greatest mage and a sage as well. She was so powerful that she took starlight and condensed it into a gem. She used that gem to open portals up to other worlds and would bring treasures back from them to give to her people,” Lyreen replied.

“What kind of treasures, and there are other worlds? Is she still alive? Is that gem still around? I wanna see it!” Anna squealed in excitement.

“Calm down. I’m sure she’s dead by this point. That was eons ago. Even though the first elves were immortals, they could still be killed. As far as the gem, some dragon probably has it,” Lyreen replied.

“Oh,” Anna said.

“I’ll tell you some of the old stories while we work, alright,” Lyreen said.

“Okay,” Anna replied.

They worked on the wyverns late into the night, setting up camp near the corpses because the others were so exhausted, they didn’t want to move. Anna shoved what was left of the great beasts into a huge hole she dug with her tentacles and covered it with dirt.

Too bad wyvern meat tastes so bad. Otherwise, we’d have been able to make enough jerky to last for months.

She’d eaten a piece of it after Thokri told her to and spit it out immediately. The dwarf had laughed hysterically for half an hour afterwards because of the face she made.

I’ll get him back.

She walked back to camp. Her friends had stripped off their bloody clothes and left them in a pile for her to clean with her ring.

They sat around a large fire made from the dried brush that littered the landscape. It cracked constantly, sending sparks flying into the sky. The others were washing themselves off with damp rags or cleaning their equipment off. She undressed and took her ring out to start cleaning her things.

It is my ring after all.

She ran her hand over her belt and watched as the dried blood, grime, and other things just lifted away and then evaporated into nothing.

“I’d love to learn that spell,” Lyreen said.

“So would I,” Elaine replied.

“Maybe we’ll find a spell book with it in the capital,” Anna said.

“Everything there is so expensive, it might be better to wait till we get back to Oldforge,” Elaine replied. Anna gave the necromancer a flat look. Elaine looked back in confusion at first. “Oh, that’s right. I keep forgetting how rich we are,” she said.

“Tell me about it, child. I’ve been scraping copper together for a room for the night or a meal for my whole life, and now, I have enough to live like a queen for the rest of my life if I want to,” Barika replied.

“I’m thinking about buying a workshop when we get back to Oldforge so I can research undeath,” Elaine said.

“I’m going to head back to the mountain to drop off most of my cut. It will be good to see my wives again,” Thokri said.

I want to go and see the dwarves! Should I ask, or is this a thing he wants to do alone? I don’t know! Is it okay to ask about that, or is it rude? I don’t want to be rude.

“I’ve never been to a dwarven mountain before. Mind if I tag along?” Voekeer asked.

“Aye, I don’t mind if the lot of you come with,” Thokri replied.

YES! Thank you, Voekeer!

“I’ve never been to a dwarven mountain myself. I’ll definitely be joining you,” Barika said.

“Same here, and I want to meet your family,” Elaine said. Rose gave a thumbs up.

Guess we’re all going because Lyreen would never leave Voekeer.

Thokri stood up. “I’m going to go take a leak,” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. Rose’s eyes went wide. She was sitting next to him and was now eye level with his crotch, and unfortunately, or by the look on her face fortunately, he was stark naked waiting for his clothes to be cleaned.

“Need some help?” Anna asked.

“Aye, need more than two hands to hold this dragon,” he replied.

She snorted. They usually asked each other if they needed help when one or the other would head off to relieve themselves.

He trotted off to find a bush or large rock to piss on, leaving a stunned looking Rose behind.

“I thought that same thing the first time I saw it,” Elaine said.

“I’m still trying to figure out how such a short guy has such a big cock,” Lyreen said.

“It’s like that most of the time,” Elaine said.

“Really?” Lyreen asked.

“That and skinny guys don’t know why,” Elaine replied.

“That’s weird,” Lyreen said.

“Just one of those things,” Elaine replied.

Thokri let out a bloodcurdling scream. Everyone jumped to their feet and started to scramble for weapons, except for Anna that is. She fell over laughing. The others paused and looked at her.

“What did you do, child?” Barika asked.

“He said it was too big to hold with two hands, so I held it for him,” Anna replied, trying to catch her breath.

“Held it for him?” Barika asked. Then it dawned on her what had happened, and she let out a belly laugh of her own.

The others started to laugh one by one, and soon all of them were in hysterics.

They searched for the nest the next day.

I wonder why people want the eggs so much?

Thokri told her that because it was a male and female, that there might be viable eggs.

“So, if there are baby ones, we kill them. If there are eggs, we take them, right?” Anna asked.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“Because when the egg first hatches, the baby will imprint on the first thing it sees, so if they are already hatched, they will just fight us, right?” Anna asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Voekeer replied.

“Why would people want a giant lizard that could eat them?” Anna asked.

“Who knows, but they pay a lot for them, so who cares,” Lyreen replied.

People are weird.

“There it is!” Elaine said, pointing at huge mound of sticks, bones, fur and feathers.

The party made their way over, and Anna climbed up to look.

“Three eggs!” Anna said.

“Yes!” Voekeer said.

“We are going to get so much selling these!” Elaine said, climbing up next to Anna.

She looked around next at the bones and feathers the eggs were stuffed in.

What’s that?

She summoned a tentacle and pulled a huge skull that looked like a deformed bird. Elaine stared at it.

“Hey Thokri, is that what I think it is?” she asked. The dwarf climbed up next to them and grinned.

“If you were thinking that’s a griffin skull, you’d be right,” he replied.

“Today just keeps getting better,” Elaine said.

“That it does, lass. That it does,” Thokri replied.

They brought the wagon to the nest and carefully removed the eggs, along with all of the feathers and the griffin’s bones. Once they finished, they packaged the eggs in an empty crate that was stuffed with cloth. The feathers went in a huge sack, and the bones went along with all of the other animal parts they had collected on their journey.

“Looks like we don’t need to go up north now. We’ll just go see that man about the feathers and then head to the capital to sell these eggs and anything else we can offload,” Voekeer said.

“Does that mean we can be back in Oldforge before winter?” Anna asked.

“No, best place to stay will be the capital like we planned. The weather gets awful. Remember the blizzard?” Lyreen replied.

“Oh, alright,” Anna said.

She got the wagon moving, and they got back on the road. Voekeer was sitting next to her on the driver’s seat. He was looking at the map with Thokri, and the two men were debating on what the best route to the estate was.

Either way, we have to go down this road for two weeks before turning east towards the capital. I hope there are more inns. I want an ale and some stew. I’m tired of jerky, even the good kind. My flower doesn’t seem to care though. It gobbles up any meat I put in its petals, even the nasty stuff the guild gave us. Oh, I wonder if it would have liked the wyvern. I should have checked. I could have got enough plant food for a few years if I dried it. Oh well, too late now. I don’t want to go back and dig it up.

Voekeer nudged her. “You still with us?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah. What’s going on?” Anna asked.

“We’re going to take the main roads until we reach the five rivers crossing. Then we’ll head southeast to the estate,” Voekeer replied.

“Okay,” Anna said.

“What were you thinking about just now?” Voekeer asked.

“If my flower would eat wyvern,” Anna replied. Voekeer looked to the side as if thinking about it deeply for a moment.

“I don’t see why not,” he replied.

“You don’t want to go back and dig it up, do you lass?” Thokri asked.

“No, I’ll just catch something if we run out of that gross jerky,” Anna replied.

“I feel bad for the plant,” Voekeer said.

“Aye, that stuff taste like shit and is tough as an old boot,” Thokri replied.

“I don’t think it can taste food, and it doesn’t chew, so I don’t think it cares,” Anna said. Voekeer and Thokri looked at her for a moment before sighing in unison.

“What?” Anna asked.

“Nothing, lass,” Thokri replied.

“Okay,” she said.

She looked down the long dusty road they were travelling down and grinned.

I knew adventuring was going to be fun!