Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Six - Begone, Troublemakers

We exited the dungeon to find someone waiting for us. Several someones, really, but a large number of those someones were waiting further back and looking both nervous and rather irate. The main someone, standing closest with their arms crossed, was a big human man with muscled arms bulging out of the confines of a short-sleeved shirt. He had the look of someone that it wouldn't be smart to get into a punch-out with.

"Let me handle this one," I told my friends and I slipped ahead and to the front of our little group.

"Are you the... leader of this bunch?" he asked as he eyed me, then scanned over my friends.

"I am," I said with a nod.

His gaze turned into a frown. "What about that man back there?" he asked, gesturing towards Calamity.

"I'm mighty flattered," Calamity drawled. "But the captain's the captain. I just kill things when she tells me to."

I blinked. Had I ever told Calamity to do that? It didn't sound like me at all. Then again... I suppose I did take charge sometimes before a fight, and that might have counted a little. But it was only when we were fighting dungeon monsters and pirates and bandits! And it was never to kill just like that!

Calamity was making me sound a whole lot more threatening than I was, basically.

"Sorry, sir. But yes, I'm the captain. My name is Bunch, Broccoli Bunch," I said. If I repeated my name like that, it made me sound cool and sophisticated. Like James Bond. But without sleeping with spies and shooting people.

"Right," the big guy said. "We want you lot out of here. You're not welcome in our town."

"We... aren't?" I asked. "Oh, uh, well." I held back a wince. I didn't want to be kicked out of this village. I was sure that if I had half a day I could turn the locals into friends. But, well, a small pragmatic part of me piped up and reminded me that we were on our way out anyway.

"You brought a dragon to our town," he said.

"He didn't destroy anything while we were gone, did he?"

The big guy's eyes narrowed. "His snoring set the goats to fainting across the entire region, and he keeps exhaling fire onto the field he's sleeping on."

"Was anything growing there?" I asked.

"No, but fire's fire. It's dangerous. And so is a world-damned dragon! He ate two of Jim's prized pigs and an entire cow!"

I gulped. "We paid for those?" I tried.

"You intimidated the farmer into selling them for cheap," he said.

I spun and looked towards Amaryllis. She puffed a little. "What? I didn't lie. I merely said that if we couldn't get that livestock, then they'd have to deal with a hungry dragon while we were off. And that's a good sight harder to deal with than a dragon that's sleeping on account of a full stomach."

"Rhawr is a little grumpy when he's hungry," Booksie said.

"Amaryllis, we don't... we don't steal," I said. "Unless there are extenuating circumstances!"

"It wasn't theft. I paid a fair market price," Amaryllis said. "No one was swindled. They're just angry because they could have gotten more elsewhere."

I held back from waving my arms around in desperation. If they could have gotten a better price, then hadn't we swindled them? Wasn't that exactly how it worked? "I'm very, very sorry, mister," I said to the big man. "We just came to challenge the dungeon and... ah, we're done now. Again, I'm super-duper sorry. We'll be out of your hair right away? Here, for your troubles!" I fished in one of the pouches in my bandoleer and pulled out a handful of coins. They were mostly copper, but there were some silver and I even had a small gold coin in there. It was probably close to what we'd paid for the livestock already.

The man grunted. "I'll escort you back to your ship," he said, his voice not far from a growl.

That... wasn't ideal, but it was better than having to deal with a dozen or so pitchfork-wielding villagers.

I was actually pretty confident in my friend's strength, but, well, if these villagers had easy access to an easy dungeon, there were good odds that at least a few of them had the Sue Chef class.

Fighting wouldn't be smart, or nice, and probably not fun. Besides, all they wanted was for my friends and I to leave.

Most of the villagers actually left us alone as we got close enough to the Beaver to see Rhawrexdee's sleeping form. It was strange, when I imagined a dragon sleeping, I always imagined a huge beast, curled around a heap of gold.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Rhawrexdee was more like... a very large kitty cat right now. He was sleeping on his back, tummy exposed to the air, and one of his legs was twitching as he no doubt had a dream about something.

Booksie giggled, then skipped over to the dragon's head. Before she was even close enough to touch, I saw Rhawrexdee's nostrils flaring and he sniffed the air a bit. Then he blinked awake, bleary eyes scanning around until he saw his fiance. "Booksie?" he rumbled.

"Hi!" she said cheerily. "Guess who now has a second class?"

Rhawrexdee blinked with his nictitating eyelid,then blinked more with his normal ones. "Oh? Already? I'm impressed! To have conquered a dungeon so quickly... did you enjoy yourself?"

Booksie nodded. "It was a little scary, at times, but my friends helped. I didn't get a scratch, don't worry!"

"Next time, I will take you to a dungeon fit for a dragon," he said. "And you will be safe, because I am a dragon."

Booksie laughed and moved up to Rhawr, giving him a big hug. I could tell (because of my hugging expertise) that she was really putting her all into that hug squeezing for all she was worth. It barely pressed in Rhawr's scales, but I'm sure he felt it.

"Are we done here, then?" Rhawrexdee asked, his voice a rumble that shook the earth. Then the earth shook even more as he spun his bulk around and crashed onto all fours. I... was starting to see why that farmer was upset that Rhawrexdee had landed on his field. All over the field, there were deep dragon footprints crushed into the soft soil.

"We are," Booksie confirmed. "And it's only... hmm, midday? Broccoli, will we be able to head out?"

"I think so, yeah," I said. "Can't see why we can't leave now."

It might even be for the best, before news got to Mattergrove's capital and they sent someone out to inspect. With the antagonism of the locals... it wouldn't have surprised me if they'd sent out a messenger already.

We left Booksie to her hugging for a while. Getting the Beaver ready to fly again wasn't instantaneous, even if we didn't unpack everything when we landed. The Scallywags tossed down a rope ladder, and we climbed aboard and started making our pre-flight checks.

For the most part, the Beaver was in tip-top shape. The short flight from Port Royal to here hardly taxed him at all. Once I made sure everything's ready to go, I sat by the figurehead at the front, giving Orange some much needed attention. The poor kitty hadn't had a good scritching in a while.

It's impressive how much bigger Orange was now. I think she's well past the kitten stage and into the juvenile stage of spirit-kittydom. Soon, she was going to grow much bigger, especially if she kept eating as much as she did.

"Are you ready to come aboard?" I asked Booksie as she came closer.

"I am!" she called back, and I watched her climb up the rope ladder with a smidge of difficulty. "I really can't wait to get more points in stamina and flexibility," she muttered once she was onboard.

"Oh?" I asked.

"It wouldn't hurt, right? I see the way higher-levelled people move, and it always makes me envious," Booksie said. "Bah, it'll come. Are we going soon?"

"Yup! I think we'll be following Rhawrexdee for this next part, won't we?"

Booksie nodded. "He said he knows a good hunting spot for gryphons."

"Is hunting gryphons okay?" I asked. "What if they're endangered?"

Surprisingly, it was Awen who came up and butted into the conversation. "Ah, I think it should be okay? There are lots of flocks of them along the Seven Peaks. They're a bit of a nuisance, actually. They're hard to hunt from the ground, and a threat in the air. There are stories of them swooping down and attacking people near the base of the mountains, and flocks will sometimes attack lone ariships."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that makes me feel slightly less guilty."

"It won't be a wasteful hunt," Booksie said. "Rhawrexdee will be eating what we kill, and if there's any extra, we can always bring it to Port Royal. I'm sure Cholondee and Rhawr's mom wouldn't mind a gift."

I had never considered giving someone a corpse as a gift before!

***