| Message | The Rampant Dragon
Lionel had heard for years of the dragons who would savage the country, making the lords tax the peasantry for repair of the faciities. He always passed this off as nothing, after all if he could still get a bite to eat, and a good bed he was fine for the night. His simple wants stemmed from him merely being extremely poor.
He was a musician, he always carried a finely carved wooden flute with him, placed carefully in a case filled with goose feather cushioning. Being a musician meant being always on the move, often a town would tire of his song after three days, then it was off to the next, hoping he had not already visited it. Everyone enjoyed his music to some extent, not a savant but certainly not a amateur Lionel could play classic tunes, ones that were always requested. Secretly he versed and composed his own music, hiding it away for fear of criticism.
His adventure started in a little town of Durg, a far east town where they sometimes had the occasional exotic bird, fabric, even exploding lights, but not many people believed such heresay. Children sat around, faces staring enviously at his instruments as he would play. Adults would watch him from tables, judging him from a range, listening or sometimes ignoring him and talking to fellow adults.
Setting his flute down in the case, and closing it, he went over to a open table sat down, pulled out one silver coin and ordered for a meal and a cup of wine. The barmaid came back carrying a perhaps skimpy bowl of vegetables and a few pieces of meat in a thick questionable liquid, along with half a loaf of bread. He dug in, despite the grotesque appearance it tasted fairly decent, and he gulped it down voraciously. He couldn’t help but hear the people in the table next to him, three men in a circle, arguing in loud whispers.
"I don’t get it, why didn’t he give us our reward?" whispered a silky voice.
"We did have proof, I mean after all look at this" added a deeper voice, with a sound of an hollow object hitting the table.
"I think there aren’t any dragons ravaging the kingdom, I mean how far did we have to go just to find that one?" questioned a third younger voice.
"We had to go through all those damn caves, and when we got there the dragon shied away from us, I just expected them to be a bit larger" grumbled the deep voice.
"I still want my reward" complained the silky voice.
"You got some teeth, a memento, and you were rewarded with a lesson, never trust the king" growled the deep voice.
"Bastard, sending us knights off on ridiculous quests while he sits on his throne and has a fit about dragons that don’t even attack us" mumbled the younger one.
"Lets go, I’m sure we could reach the city just west, if we ride by night, I think its Calagon" said the deep voice, seconded by the sound of wooden chairs scraping against the floor.
Lionel looked over at their table, his mouth still full of stew and bread. There on the table was three bowls, and in between them was a tooth, Lionel grabbed it and compared it to his hand, it was about half the size of his hand, and he was a full grown man. Interested, he pocketed it, finished his meal and walked over to play another song.
Lionel went to the market the next day, looking for prospective items to barter. Being a traveler he had amassed trinkets and exotic items which he could sell for twice the price he paid, it helped with his survival. The market was small, with shacks erected and straw padding for roofs.
The vendors with the worst wares would often wander into the street and yell their fantastic products, only to let the customer down when the actual wares were seen. Lionel knew to skip these, and walked along the more silent area, where quality was raised. He spied an outfitter, selling dried fruit, smoked meat, and hard bread along with bags, flint and knives.
"How much for that?" said Lionel, pointing towards the heaviest, largest sack in the shack.
"15 gold pieces, don’t bother haggling its retail or none", replied the vendor, simply sitting there.
"Would you accept bartering?" asked Lionel, he pulled out the tooth he had taken from the table the day before. "I’m pretty sure this is a dragon tooth, it’d be a rare treat for any traveling magician"
"Hmm, certainly seems it, how about you take that sack and 3,000 crowns for it?" asked the vendor, enviously staring at the tooth.
"I guess", and Lionel threw the vendor the tooth as the vendor eagerly pushed the traveling sack and a heavy pouch of gold coins towards him.
With his new supplies he went along a path towards the city of Calagon. It was half a day on horseback, or two days if you walked. Being a traveler gave Lionel a bit of savviness in the area of walking on paths, he always walked near the edge of it, careful to not be seen and robbed. If he saw a large crowd in the middle of the road,he would stalk off to the side to sneak around.
In the middle of the road sat a single man, he was sitting so Lionel judged him to be fairly safe, and walked over for a chat, walking along the road there was not much conversation, due to lack of companions.
"Hello there, What’s a strapping fellow like you doing walking along this road?" asked the stranger, a seemingly weak old man wearing a shawl, and holding a cane. He talked with a cockney accent, it sounded forced but Lionel supposed it was just his old age.
"Well, I’m walking to Calagon, what’s your name father?" replied Lionel.
"Ah, I’m Terry, are you one of those knights who killed a dragon? Every traveller is supposed to give them a gift" said the man, bending his head and sizing up Lionel.
"And if I am?" Lionel knew that false impressions and mistakenly given gifts was good luck for him.
Five men with cocked bows trooped out of the woods behind the old man. Then smiling the old man raised from his hunched posture and stood up, raising himself to a good six feet.
"Well then, Sir, you have just gave me four free hours with which to search for your two companions", said the old man, no longer accenting his speech, he removed his shawl to reveal a average face, with blue crystal eyes. He pulled out a thin sword from his seemingly useless cane and whisked it artfully an inch from Lionel’s neck.
"Now the question is, where are your two friends?"
"I’m not really a knight, I I, I’m a bard see, my flute? I saw them the three yesterday, they were going to Calagon", mumbled Lionel, staring at the blade, then to the man.
"I figured my informant was a bit late, but I can’t take chances", said the man, whistling to his archers to follow him as he walked towards Calagon.
"Aren’t you going to rob me?" yelled Lionel, rather stupidly, his assumption. Then he felt a large object hit the back of his head.
Lionel woke up, blindfolded and gagged, he decided it would be best to flail about, and did so. Someone grabbed his neck, pulled off his blindfold and gag. He saw it was the same man who had tricked him, wearing a fine vest and well-tailored pants.
"Well that was a very unsuccessful day, terrible for business", said Terry.
"Your name isn’t Terry, is it?", questioned Lionel, "Most thieves like to use aliases"
"First of all, your statement is wrong in two places, I’m not a thief, and my name is Terry, I’m not one to lie", answered Terry.
"I’m going to predict your two next questions and tell you, You are currently in the Fael caves, me and my group of men stay here, operate from this place, and you are currently here because you know we are hunting those three men.
"I will let you go, my informants have told me you really did have no involvement with them, but you are never to speak of what we are doing, even after it is done the reprecussions can hurt me", said Terry, still staring at Lionel with cold blue eyes.
"Your men, what are you exactly if you aren’t thieves?"
"We are killers, in some lands called assassins, yet we have a set of rules that applies," explained Terry, fiddling with a stilleto, "We aren’t raiders, killing for gain, yet we provide a service, those who wish for death and have the gold are allowed"
"We keep our humanity by serving men, everyone is his brother’s tool, we simply enable those with intent to fufill it" continued Terry.
"Are there any times you don’t kill someone, perhaps kings or noblemen?" asked Lionel, his curiousity insatiable.
"Everyone has their price, we won’t kill a king for one crown, but all men can be killed"
"I just want to point out to you, thieves steal for their own greed, be it in a group or singularly, we work, not steal for our food, we serve others, not only ourselves" said Terry, flipping the stilleto holding it by the blade, and throwing it quickly as it hit an inch from Lionel’s face. "We could have killed you, stole that heavy sack I assume is full of money, and ran off, yet we didn’t, we have honour"
Crashing noises emitted, people yelling and screaming, it sounded like liquid had just been poured, more screaming ensued. Terry just sat there, whistling and pulled a new stilleto out of his shoe. More screaming and banging got closer and closer towards Lionel’s spot until it seemed like they were right outside the fire-light.
"That noise? Oh, its just the local militia come to rid the cave of "demons", don’t worry, it’ll be all over in a second" said Terry, yawning and very casually lying on his back.
A man crashed in, he was dressed in a leather vest and wielding a scythe, he held the scythe over his head and looked rather confused. He saw Terry on the floor as an easier target than Lionel, and ran towards him. Terry just sat there and continued to yawn, then he flicked the dagger into the man’s face. The dagger flew through the air rather slowly, spinning almost in place for a second until it hit the man’s eyeball.
The effect the dagger had was minimal if any, the man continued to charge at Terry, who rolled over just in time for the man not to trample him, the man hit the wall and was silent. Suprisingly once he had everything else was silent, no more battle sounds outside, just simply Terry there, stretching and yawning as if nothing had happened.
Lionel sat there, dumbfounded, but found his mouth eventually, "Nice aim, straight in the eyeball"
"Nah, not really, I was aiming for his forehead, but I’m always a little to the left, its this thing I have, the bastards who I call my men, purposelly led him here, trying to pull a prank on me", then he stood up and yelled, "Isn’t that right friends?"
Turning around quickly he drew another stilleto from his sleeve and threw it quickly at the shadows. The shadows jumped to the right, and Lionel heard a little clothing tear.
Two chuckling men walked out of the shadows right behind Terry, one was small, and lean, the other was extremely fat, both of them were carrying heavy sacks. They both sat down and began to unwrap the sacks showing red raw meat, they then slapped it over the fire and made a tasty aroma of burning fat. They looked at the dead man, shrugged, and looked back at the meat.
"Ah, these two men are two of the best three assassins in my guild. The third is currently hiding behind you Lionel, its no use trying to see them, much too smart for you", said Terry, introducing by holding his hand palm up, and motioning to both men who bowed. "Jari, and Terence", Terry pointed at the small man first, then the fat one.
"Well it’s time to say good bye, if I tell any more secrets we’d have to kill you", said Terry, waving his hand at Lionel, giving him a dubious large grin. Lionel turned around long enough to see a semi-dark shadow hit him across the neck.
Lionel awoke in a bed, with the fairly familiar smell of dirt and horse droppings. Sitting up abruptly he checked his body, his bags, and then stood up and stretched. |
