Chapter 2

here is another chapter of my adventures with Tim. I want to thank rouge for his fine proofreading work. I hope to get some more chapters out this week but we shall see what class has to say about that.

without further ado, Chapter 2

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We had finished dinner. I placed the tray into the auto washer to be cleaned and reused. I smiled a bit as I noticed the dra…, Tim staring intently at the light.

“Not-a-drake, why is it that you are the only other living thing I have seen? In my mother’s memories, most of the lesser races like to live in large herds.” Tim asked as he jumped back onto my shoulder.

“There are almost seven million souls on this vessel, but most are in biostasis,” I replied as we left the mess area.

“That’s impossible,” Tim objected.

“So the dragon, which was not even born yesterday, thinks he knows so much,” I laughed.

“There is no way. There would be a lot more free mana in the air if there were that many people around,” he stated.

“I would typically say to most people that there is no such thing as magic, though I can’t do that anymore as I now I have to look over a fire breathing dragon whose mother can teleport. I don’t see the relationship between people and free mana, though there are a lot of people on this colony ship,” I replied and as I watched the pouting dragon who decided to clear all doubts.

“People radiate mana and just wait until I grow up a bit,” Tim declared, from my shoulder, “then I can show you real magic.”

“Sure…” I replied as I pulled up a map on my tablet. I quickly scanned the area’s layout and started to make my way towards one of the stasis chambers. Time to show the boy a bit of truth.

“This isn’t the way back to your lair,” Tim stated.

“I am going to show you something you might find interesting,” I mysteriously replied as I took a left and walked down another corridor.  

—

“Is this where we are going?” Tim asked for the hundredth time as we passed another door.

“You will know when we get there, stop asking, or I will rip out the dragon equivalent of our larynx.” I snapped, causing Tim to jump.

“What is a larynx?” Tim asked as he cocked his angular head to the side.

“In humans, at least, it a chunk of cartilage that enables speech,” I replied suppressing thoughts of ending the oversized newt.

“Why did you name something inside you? That seems kind of silly as the only time you would ever see it is when you are dead and being consumed by rats.” Tim replied, repositioning himself on my shoulder. I should ask him if he knew what a heart is and re-think his remark.

We turned a final corner and arrived at a large door. Biostasis chamber 428 emblazoned on it in gold letters. I moved to the panel placed on the door and placed my palm on the access pad.

“Dr. Drake Voidsbane. Clearance Granted for secondary access to biostasis 428,” Gaia droned as two loud ‘thunks’ reverberated through the quiet corridors. A loud hiss followed soon after as the biostasis chambers.

“Are you sure you aren’t a drake?  Voidsbane is a large, greater drake house,” Tim commented as the door opened.

“No,” I sighed as I parroted for the nth time what my parents told me “my great, great, great, great grandparents were something called LARPers. I have no idea what LARPers are but the story goes that they changed it for some event or something like that”

“Are you sure your ancestors didn’t go drake wrangling?” Tim asked.

“What in the deep void are you implying?” I yelled at the lizard.

“Your ancestor mated with a drake and the half-wyrm took the clan name,” Tim bluntly replied.

“I know that, you dimwit. Why would you even suggest that!” I shouted as the chamber doors finished opening.

“Wow, what is all that?” Tim exclaimed, diverting the discussion.

“That is a biostasis pod rack,” I sighed as I walked into the large compartment, flanked on both sides by large arrays of pipes and wires connected to large steel pods. I walked to one of the stasis control panels and placed my hand on the screen activating it.

“What are you doing?” Tim asked, watching me like a hawk from my shoulder.

“This is what I want to show you,” I replied as I transferred lift controls to my tablet. I walked over to the lift and stepped onto the large rectangular platform. I called a familiar name onto the list, and the lift took off. I could feel Tim’s claws tighten as we started to rise. Images of newly pierced holes in my shoulders made me quickly think of a way get Tim to chill.

“Calm down, you can fly remember,” I said as I took us higher. Well, I did not see him fly yet, but there is no point in worrying him now.

“Oh yeah…” I heard him mumble as his grip lessened, much to my poor shoulder’s relief. as we ascended I could feel his head snap back and forth as he looked at each of the pod.

“I thought humans popped out of your females,” Tim said after a few minutes.

“That’s your first thought?” I laughed as we finally reached the top of the pod rack, “While it is an option to have a child grown in a maturation tank, most children are born from women. These people, however, are in stasis.”

“What is status?” Tim asked as he took a closer look at the tank jutting just a foot away from us.

“Stasis, not status,” I started to explain, “is an extreme slow down of all metabolic processes to the point of simulated death. The patient is immersed in a stasis fluid to prevent necrosis from occurring in this state. This allows us to keep people alive for a very long time and allows us to travel to other stars and build colonies without having to make this a generational ship,” I explained as I had a certain pod extend out of its alcove.

“What is special about this human?” Tim asked as the pod slid onto the platform.

“Well this pod contains my cousin,” I replied as I wiped the condensation off the pod’s window, revealing the pale face of a young woman.

“Ah, another member of your clan, I could see why they would be important,” Tim answered as he studied my cousin.

I stared at her face for a few more minutes wishing that she was also awake, she always had something interesting to say, and her smile would brighten everyone’s day. But I knew she would be needed when we would get closer to our destination, where her skills would be best utilized. I patted her pod twice before I begrudgingly returned it back to its alcove. I looked and noticed the dragon who seem enrapture with the biostasis pods. I smiled a bit as I poked the little reptile, “So, still certain that there are only a few humans on this ship?”

“I am a dragon,” he stated as he readjusted himself to a more regal pose on my shoulder. “And dragons are never wrong.”

“I see,” I muttered as I lowered the lift. We slowly walked back to the medical bay passing through the nearly deserted ship passages. Not a word passed between the two of us and before we knew it we had arrived.  

“So, where is your hoard?” Tim asked, looking around the room.

“Hoard?”

“Yes, your hoard,” Tim asked while giving me a weird look. “You don’t just sleep on the floor do you?”

“I sleep on a bed, in my quarters.” I hesitantly replied, “I don’t know what a pile of crap has to do with sleeping though…”

“Well then, take me to your bed,” Tim demanded imperially.

“Not just yet,” I managed to squeak out, just barely holding back my laughter at his poor choice of words. “I need to get a bioscan of you so I can fabricate a neural implant”

“What is that?” he asked.

“It is a small… artifact… that allows you to interact with the ship’s AI, Gaia.” I replied, grabbing him before he could escape.

“Put me down! you son of a goblin!” Tim screeched as I placed him into a neonatal scanner, quickly shutting the hood before he had a chance to escape.

“It won’t hurt a bit, just calm down,” I said as I activated the machine. “Most of the examinations are painless nowadays, nothing to fear young Tim.”

A loud hum quickly drowned out the little dragon profanities as the scanner cycled through the scan. It only took a minute before the humming died down and my ears were once again assaulted with poorly constructed insults.

I tapped on the display and started swearing as the scanner’s only managed to get a partial picture around Tim’s mouth. That space addled lizard, why can’t it just cooperate for a little bit.

“Listen up. If you want to eat, you need to stand still, shut up, and open your mouth!” I yelled at the angry little dragon.

Tim finally calmed down, glaring daggers as the machine activated once again. I waited for the machine to cycle once again as it created a 3-dimensional image.

“See, it wasn’t that bad,” I said as I opened the scanner, barely dodging scaled ball of outrage that jumped out.

“Do you want me to shove you in a small tube and have some metal thing make your scales itch all over?” Tim snapped as he glared at me from the floor.

“Your scales itched?” I asked wondering what could cause such a reaction. That would explain why he was so restless. And his crankiness.

“It felt like I was thrown into a hoard beetles nest,” he replied.

“What are hoard beetles?” I hesitantly asked.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

 

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as always we are mostly human let us know if we missed anything.

Chapter 1

Hello to everyone that decided to read this little writing exercise, this story is very different compared to botched. i am writing this to help improve descriptions. i want to thank rouge for helping me with proofreading. so let me know what you think.

 

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“Why did I think it was a good idea to take a double shift?” I sighed, sitting in my empty medical bay. “I mean there are only a thousand people up, why do you need a full time medical personnel.” I leaned back in my chair and stared at the bleached white ceiling, waiting for the ships clock to tick 17:00.

“This sucks,” I mumbled while spinning around in my chair, “I have been out of stasis for only three months and I have done everything I need to for the next seven.”

“Well, I guess I will do the weekly inventory and diagnostic for the second time this week to pass the time,” I decided. I got up from my well used chair and entered the main treatment bay.

“Ok, diagnostic scanner,” I said to myself as I started the device’s system diagnostics. I stood there as I watched the results scroll over the page before the screen lit green and declared itself in perfect condition, “Check.” I moved and tested each of the biosupport beds, powering them on and making sure each of them linked to my biomonitor implant.

“Why in the hell can’t they fix bed seven permanently,” I cursed as the diagnostic returned the results. “This blasted thing is back to saying that I am reptilian, and I’m pretty damn sure I’m not.”

I finished checking the rest of the beds after filling out the work order for bed seven. I had just started to inventory the consumable compounds and supplies when the familiar voice of the ship’s AI rang throughout the intercom system.

“Ship wide announcement, the current time is 1700, main shift has ended.”

“Thank god” I cheered; quickly tossing the checklist in my small office and grabbing my tablet. I left the medical bay and headed towards the closest mess hall. I walked through the steel corridors of the massive ship hoping to run into another crew member working in this section of the ship. My hopes were dashed when I entered the empty eating area. I walked up and activated the food synthesizers and waited to see what was on the menu for today. It only took a few minutes before a plate of warm mashed potatoes and some square meat chunks covered in gravy popped out of the large device.

“Meat cube surprise… again, I know this is one of the less inhabited zones but can’t you allocate some better food here once in awhile.” I grumbled as I took the tray from the synthesizer and headed towards one of the tables. I plopped myself down at one of the tables and ate my meal. I pulled out my tablet in between bites and put in a request for a book from the ship’s database.

A familiar ping rang throughout the mess hall, indicating that download was complete. I tapped a few things on the device and pulled up the new book.

“What the… The Drakes Guide to Caring for a Wyrmling, why does this book even exist and who in the dark void is Tanis?” I shouted as examined the book’s title on my tablet.

“This must be Frank’s doing,” I grumbled, as I placed my pad down “He must still be pissed about constantly repairing bed seven; I know my name is Drake but this is going too far, for his sake this book better be interesting.”

I read the oddly detailed book on ‘reptilian rearing’ as I tried to distract myself from the bland mystery meat I was eating. I eventually choked down my meal as I got to the chapter about caretaker selection criteria. I turned off the tablet and put it back into my pocket. I placed the tray in the auto washer and headed to back to the med bay. I wanted to abuse one of the few places that had a hard light holographic system installed to watch some more movies off the database. I finished the day after watching another superhero movie and turned in for the night.

 

—–

“Doctor Drake please report to the medical bay.” The annoying voice of the ship’s AI woke me. I rubbed my eyes as I quickly glanced at the clock showing 0400. I quickly threw on some clothes and ran across the hall entering the medical bay, a little glad for the excitement.

“So what seems to be the problem?” I asked as I ran through the door. I stopped and quickly looked for the emergency but froze as I realized that the room was empty.  Confused, I did a double take, looking for anything out of place when I stumbled upon a strange black egg sitting on bio-bed number 7 with a note attached to it.

Dear lesser drake,

I, Fractlix, a primal dragon; first progeny of the draconic god, call upon the lesser drake to guard my progeny, as my lair is threatened. I call upon the protection clause of the Draconic Convent to have you guard him as is the duty of our lesser kin. Keep him safe and you will be rewarded as covenant demands.

Fly safely,

Fractlix

“What the hell!” I swore examining the egg; half expecting this to be some childish prank. I cautiously picked up the egg and took it to the diagnostic scanner to see what kind of abomination I have here, though I was pretty sure this was Frank’s fault. He was always fabricating creatures in the biosynthesizer and dropping them off here to mess with me. I placed the egg in the bio scanner and swore as I cut myself on one of the egg’s scale-like protrusions. I tapped in a few commands into the computer and stood back as the device sprang to life. A few minutes passed before the scanner returned to its deactivated state and displayed the results.

“What do you mean scan failure,” I swore at the stupid machine, tapping for it to try again. After another failed attempt, I picked a gene analyzer out of the biocart and powered it up.

“If you want something done right, do it yourself,” I mumbled as I placed a gene analyzer on top the egg. I waited while the machine cycled but I barely stopped myself from smashing the darn thing as three short beeps signaled a scan failure.

“Whatever this abomination is, I will deal with it tomorrow” I grumbled; grabbing the egg out of the scanner. I walked over to one of my specially modified bio-isolation hoods and placed the blasted thing in one of the wells.

“Gaia, activate bio-hood 3 for possible class II biohazard.” I stated after I closed the hood’s shield.

“Command acknowledged Dr. Drake,  sealing isolation bio-hood three for a possible class II biohazard. You will be alerted if conditions in the hood change.” Gaia mechanically repeated; a loud hiss pierced the mainly quiet bay as clamps sealed the hood.

I left the med bay after washing my hands and returned to my room still annoyed over Frank’s little prank. I shucked off my clothes and returned to the blissful embrace of sleep.

———————————————————————————–

I woke up the next morning to my blasted alarm and grabbed a towel as I headed into my personal bathroom.

“I am so glad that I count as senior staff,” I said as entered my personal bathroom. It only took a few seconds for me to shuck off my cloths and I entered the shower. I stood under the nozzle and just stayed there as I enjoyed the kind  warmth of the water. After a few minutes, I begrudgingly turned off the stream and started to dry off.

“Gaia, are there any patients on my schedule today or is it still clear?” I asked the ship’s AI as I got dressed, preparing myself for another wonderfully interestingly boring day.

“Dr. Drake, you have no scheduled appointments today but you do have one scheduled appointment tomorrow at 1600 hours with, bio-technician Astrid Steller. The appointment is a 72 hour post bio-contaminant exposure checkup,” Gaia droned just as I finished throwing on my shirt.

“It has been about a few days since her last accident, hasn’t it,” I muttered as I brushed my teeth.

I reentered my bedroom and grabbed my tablet, I slipped on my shoes right before i headed to breakfast. I tried to fully wake up as I walked through the familiar metallic halls. Just as every morning I grabbed a plate from the synthesizer; a scrambled egg like stuff and some mystery meat links and plopped myself down one of the tables.

“It might be worth the hour walk to eat at the central mess, the food must be better than this mystery food like stuff…” I sighed as I ate, reading the ‘dragon’ rearing guide.

“Dr. Drake, please report to the medical bay, activity detected in bio-hood two,” Gaia informed me through my tablet.

I jumped out of my seat leaving the rest of my uneaten food on the table and headed towards the medical bay wondering what horror Frank managed to cook up this time.

After a few short minutes I entered the medical bay and walked directly towards the bio-hood. “Gaia, is there any biological data available?” I asked as I checked the hood’s seals.

“No biological data available,” the AI responded.

I grabbed my black bio-isolation suit, its slick material shining slightly under the lights of the room. I quickly donned the protective clothing, remembering a previous abomination which exuded a skin-penetrating diuretic; it really pissed me off.

After fastening the last seal, I sealed off the area around the bio-hood’s rim and waited to see if I could finally pin all the crap on him to get him kicked off his shift early. After a few minutes of watching the black egg wiggle around, a chunk broke off revealing several cobalt, reptilian scales hidden beneath.

“Gaia, show all biological data.”

“Please wait…” Gaia replied. A few seconds passed before the AI responded, “Please call for maintenance, biological sensors probably malfunctioning: no data available.”

“Well that’s not helpful,” I muttered as the creature started to emerge. I began to activate the decontamination system when a loud squeak pierced the silence, jarring me to a stop, my eyes glued to the emerging creature.

I was captivated by the strange creature as a pair of tiny wings poked out of the breaking shell. I ran through all the different families of the Reptilia order to figure what I was dealing with, but was interrupted when an angular snout poked out of the shell and started to look around,  its eyes sweeping the room with a strange intelligence. I could feel sweat run down my back when its large reptilian eyes locked onto mine,  appraising me.

I jumped back a bit when a series of growls rumbles spewed out of the little reptile.

“Well look at that, maybe this isn’t from Frank…” I mumbled as I watched the little thing stare at me expectantly. I walked over to the computer station and tried to find the closest species to this little creature. I was just pulling up the database when a loud thump interrupted my train of thought. My eyes darted to the hood.

“Aww look at the little guy, he’s trying to get through transsteel.” I chuckled watching his feeble attempts to claw his way out. “I’m sorry little buddy but my wealth of experience is against you, I had that hood upgraded with the strongest material I could requisition to contain Frank’s pranks.”

The little guy stopped and started to stare at me.

“What will you do now,” I asked the new born as the computer combed through the possible matches. After about a minute the computer binged. I looked and read through the text twice not able to believe my eyes.

“What do you mean, the closest parent of this creature based on morphology is a dragon?!” I yelled at the obviously malfunctioning computer. I sighed as I sat down on one a stool. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Well it is better to put you out of your misery…” I sighed again as I looked at the little guy. “Computer activate,” I started to say as it bumped the glass, “come on, you think you can open it?”

“Opening bio-hood two” Gaia droned as two loud thunks popped the seals, “No, not you, you stupid computer!” I yelled as I ran to try and re-secure the hood but before I could even get close, the supposed dragon slipped out, and before I could blink it launched itself towards my face.

“Oh god!” I shouted as the under evolved chicken with way to many teeth smacked into my face. The oversized lizard’s claws dug into my face as fangs tried to pierce my thick skull and my head bounced off the floor.  

It was all a blur of fangs and claws until a loud roar ripped through the normally quiet medical bay. I started to pass out as more and more blood poured from my wounds, the pain dragging me towards unconsciousness, but it all stopped as something warm eased the pain.

I blinked a few times to wipe the blood from my eyes, trying to find the thrice blast ball of claws and hate. “Where did the claw marks go?” I asked myself while I examined the partially damaged suit.  “No more pain at all, but some blood in the eyes… contact hallucinogenic?

I finished examining the suit and moved to stand up when I noticed a seven foot tall version of the scaled ball standing regally, its cobalt scales glittering under the cool overhead lights, the smaller dragon standing behind it .

“What the hell is that?!” I swore as the thing seemed to examine me. I just sat on gripped by fear as the creature moved its large angular head, and its fangs, closer and closer to me. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for my demise.

“Rut are do” the creature rumbled.

“What?” I squeaked still waiting for the thing to eat me.

“What are you doing, you are a drake. Not weak snack.” The creature replied; I could feel the creature’s hot breath against my skin.

Taking a deep breath I took a look at the large reptile like thing, “I’m not a drake, my name is Drake,” I sighed, parroting the response for what seemed like the thousandth time ?

“No, you’re a drake; the magic would not have worked oth… son of a slime! That whelp lied!” The creature roared. “I will kill that son of a wyvern.”

“It’s not your fault.” The creature sighed after a moment, its tail rubbing its large snout.

“The short of the matter is this, I need someone to take care of my little one as my I have many enemies around my own lair. The spell that I purchased from another, soon to be skinned, dragon was supposed to send my little one to a lesser drake but apparently the spell thought you were close enough. Would you be willing to watch over my little one?” It asked with the most pitiful looking face that a thing like that could manage.

I just sat there staring at the large rep… Dragon. I am impressed Frank, I don’t know what crap you had it produce but it is powerful and guided.

“Don’t worry, I will reward you for your efforts and I won’t recruit you clawless.” The larger dragon added, still somehow looking pitiful but mostly terrifying.

“Sure…” I muttered placating the frightening dragon, “I mean, either this a a really bad trip or there really is a large dragon sitting in front of me meaning there is no other way that I will get out of this alive,” I muttered to myself, figuring that the answer would come in a second.

“Perfect, you’ll be a great father, whether you like it or not!” The dragon beamed, “Now I need you to stand still while I give you the tools necessary to rear my little boy.”

“Wha-,” Was all I managed to get out before a single glowing claw pierced my stomach. Pain.

“A scaled shoulder, more strength, maybe…” was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

————————————————————————————————————————-

“Wake up, not-a-drake!” someone yelled, shocking me awake.

“What happened?” I moaned as pain shot through my aching body.

“Mom… fixed you,” a young sounding voice replied; as I tried to get a bearing on what happened.

“What does that mean,” I replied not comprehending what it was saying as I somehow managed to sit up, despite my aching head and muscles.

“You aren’t so… squishy and… pray like anymore,” it replied from somewhere behind me.

Ignoring the comment I fought against the massive headache as I stood up from the bio-bed and stumbled towards the apothecary. I rummaged through the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of liquid, labeled (rs)-2-(4-(2-mythylpropyl) phenyl) propanoic acid. I grabbed one of the injectors and loaded it with the drug. I quickly pressed it onto my bared arm and after a quick prick, sweet relief started to flow through my veins.

It only took a few minutes before the pain faded enough that I could think again.

“So, not-a-drake, when is food gonna be ready, I’m hungry,” the voice asked. I swung around and the only other living thing was the small dragon, a rather sinister grin plastering its face.

“You can talk now?” I asked dumbfounded.

“I could always talk, you just didn’t know… draconic… is I think what you would call it.” The dragon replied, “So like I said when’s dinner?”

I just woke up, headache was still there but receding, and there was blood on the floor… either there has been a weird party in my med bay or I have really been speared by a giant lizard. Wow, that sounded like I was off my rocker.

“Gaia, what is the current time?” I asked the AI. First, deal with the talking and hungry  scaled beast.

“The current shipboard time is 1834.” The AI chimed in response.

“Well you’re in luck it seems that I can still get something to eat, but we need to see if we can get two servings. Worst comes to worst I will need to use the tissue synthesizer to get you something to eat.” I said; I turned around and locked the apothecary and before I realised it, the little dragon landed on my shoulder.

“Well let’s go, I am a growing dragon and I have to eat to keep healthy or something like that.” The dragon stated as he settled on my shoulder. “Onward to nom noms!”

“Weren’t you… hatched less than half a day ago?” I asked the over intelligent lizard.

“True dragons aren’t like you lesser creatures, where you have to learn from scratch. I inherited a lot of knowledge from my mom,” the lizard huffed proudly.

“Well excuse me,” I muttered as I briefly reconsidered ending the pompous lizard.

“Lets go, not-a-drake, I am starving,” the lizard urged.

“Fine but there are a few ground rules that need to be laid down so you don’t get spaced.” I said, staring the oversized gecko. If I had to deal with it, better start now.

“What would that be, o mighty protector? I mean, how could a weak species, like yours, launch me, A DRAGON, into outer space?” the dragon smugly replied.

“Considering we are on an interstellar colony ship, crossing the dark space between the stars, it would be literally as easy as opening a door. But that is beside the point, you over evolved chicken. There are resource rules that have to be maintained so our stocks don’t deplete, and we survive the trip,” I started to explain, “which means that I have to get clearance for you to eat. While I can fudge the numbers somewhat, I need to do more work to get you fed.”

“What is an interceller colony ship?” the dragon asked, missing everything after by my guess.

“Ok three rules, first listen to what I say as there is typically a good reason for it. Second if you eat you work, while there are several ways I can trick the system into increasing food allocations most of them involve people thinking that I gave birth. And while not exactly uncommon now it will raise questions when people ask to see you.”

“Did you say give birth? While I might have hatched yesterday, I am pretty sure that you are not female,” the dragon interrupted.

“Aww, look at the lesser species thinking in terms of gender locked biology. We figured out how to deal with that little social concern centuries ago, but it will involve a C-section.” I patronized, a smug smile plastering my face.

“Third rule is to keep close to me as other people might mistake you as a loose bio-experiment. If they do, they will either return you to the creature lab or the bio recycler, which would be… unpleasant to say the least,” I finished explaining, my face still containing the smile.

Leaving the dragon to ponder my words, I shooed the lizard off my shoulder as I removed  the remains of the bio suit and hung it. I then  grabbed my tablet, and right before I left it jump back onto my shoulder and we left the medbay.

We walked down the hall as the dragon took in his new environment of steel and plastic.

“Wow there is so much metal here ! No even in mom’s memories there is so much metal,” the dragon faded as we continued towards the mess area.

“What is this place?” The dragon asked as we entered the mess hall. “This is one of the many tertiary mess hall scattered throughout the ship. I often come here, the closest secondary mess is more than an hour’s walk away,” I replied as I headed towards the dispenser. After pressing a few buttons to get a larger ration, the tray popped out loaded with more food than normal.

“Wow,” I heard the dragon mouth from my shoulder, “so you don’t even need any money to get the food. It just gives it to you?”

“No, the ship’s AI keeps track of all thawed personal, so when it detected that I was trying to get food it took it out of my ration allotment. Limited resources here, remember ?” I replied as I grabbed the tray and took it to the nearby table.

“Oh,” The dragon replied as he jumped from my shoulder and glided towards the table in the corner. He perched himself on the chair and watched me as I grabbed an extra plate and a clean set of utensils. I sat down eyeing the dragon as I grabbed a few pieces of synth meat off my tray and placed on an extra plate.

“Here, it smells like synth chicken.” I said as I placed the plate in front of the dragon.

“Synth chicken?” The dragon dubiously asked as he inspected the mystery meat patties, “Does it taste like normal chicken?”

“Everything tastes like chicken if you ignore the flavor enough,” I chuckled as I shoved a chunk of the mystery meat in my mouth. It was in fact chicken this time. I tried not to laugh as I watched the little dragon poke and prod the meat patties as he tried to decide on whether or not to eat it. After I had consumed over half of my meal he flicked his tongue and faster than I could see half of the meat had disappeared into the tiny maw.

“Well that is different.” I said, stumped, dropping my fork.

“What? Have you never see a dragon eat before?” He asked after swallowing the meat.

“Considering you are the first dragon I have ever met and it is your first meal… no I haven’t,” I sarcastically replied.

“Don’t stare at me while I eat,” he flatly stated before the rest of the meat also vanished into his mouth.

“By the way,” I said after an uncomfortably long silence, “what should I call you?”

“Well while you were passed out like a shivering goblin my mother named me Ras’kavashrith,” he said, while spouting a bit of fire. “And the burst of flame in the middle is important,” he said; his chest puffed out a little bit.

“Well that might be a problem,” I replied. He eyed me curiously for an instant before I gave in. “I can’t shoot flames, and it would be bad if we trigger the ship’s fire suppression system.” I flatly explained.

“I guess you can’t help not being able to shoot flames. It would be a pain in the tail to teach you fire magic, but not out of question in the future…” the dragon started to mumble,  seeming to space out for a second, “Well, then you can call the closest approx meaning of my name in your unevolved language… Tim?”

“Tim it is.” I replied barely managing to hold back a smile.

 

 

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Chapter 62

I know this took forever to come out but it was a combination of factors that led to this delay. i will try to post more often but i am swamped IRL. on a side note i am working on another project not the other two to help me in more descriptive pieces. you guys might notice the slight change in style.

as always i want to thank rouge for his Proof reading skills.

So without futher ado, chapter 62- Child’s play

————————-Azazel’s POV——————————

“Let’s go play at the lake Tas’Theragoma,” I said as I put my rock friend back into my pocket.

            “Azazel, just call me shard, and you know that you need another person to go with you to the lake and it can’t be Ryan.” Shard said in the same tone that Aunt Lilith uses when she reminds me of the rules.

            “You’re a person, so you can take me,” I said patting my pocket.

            “No Azazel, I’m sure your daddy would get mad if I take you to the lake as it would be very hard for me to watch you as I don’t have eyes. How about we play a game that both your daddy and uncle Therin like to play?” shard said, making me wonder what kind of game.

            “What sort of game?” I asked.  

            “It’s called Chess,” Shard replied, “so let’s get a few of my crystal friends from the pile and I can set up the board and we can play.”

            “Yes, I like new games! But I don’t know how to chest…” I said worried that we wouldn’t be able to play.

            “Don’t worry, I can teach you. I have taught many other Crystallins.” Shard replied still in my pocket.

            “Ok,” I headed over to the large pile of crystals, which I made, and picked the rocks that shard told me to.

            “Now how about we go over to your hoard so you can sit down and I can make the pieces.” Shard said. I pulled my shiny rock friend from my pocket and walked over to my fluffy hoard and set shard down in front of his crystal friends. I then jumped into my soft blanket hoard and wiggled my way until I poofed out of the pile.

            “Wow” I said as I watched shard’s crystal friends start to fall apart. Forming little pieces that look horses and towers, and funny hats there was even two that were shaped like daddy, which look very important.

            “Ok Azazel, let’s play chess.”

—————————————————Fafnir POV——————————————

            “Thank God, Tanis is gone.” I sighed; right after she vanished.

            “I have never seen mom so scary,” Aesthyra said as she rubbed her tail, “ I almost prefer aunt Tenabrexa, while she’s crazy she’s not as scary as mom.”

            “I feel bad for you as I not even related to her, you must have it ten times worse.” I shuttered as I tried to forget the screams.

“We have two weeks to set up the wards to prevent her from coming back to our lair,” Aesthyra stated with a determined look in her eye, “we must be able to fend her off, my tail can’t take another one of her… reeducations”

            “Agreed,” I said wondering if we can somehow get Alexandarax to help us dragon proof our lair.  

“We will start first thing tomorrow morning; I promised Azazel that I would take her to the lake today.” I suggested; heading towards the main cavern.

            “Why can’t you have Ryan take her, we really need to get started as I don’t want to be caught rolling in my hoard,” Aesthyra said; following me.  “Didn’t you clear all the trees in front of the lair for this very reason? I mean why else would you go through the hassle of all that tree removal you have been doing.” Aesthyra suggested as she followed me.

            “Are we talking about the same Ryan?” I asked, thinking back to earlier this morning.

            “Your brother is getting better.” Aesthyra sheepishly replied, “I mean he can now do some magic and he should be more than capable of watching Azazel.”

            “The same Ryan, who screams almost every night when he hears some new sound from the forest?” I asked.

            “Come on give the guy a chance, we really need to get these wards up,” Aesthyra urged.  

“No, not yet, when Ryan has killed something bigger than a fly, I might consider it, but right now he is too much of a wimp for me to trust him with that.” I replied as we finally entered the main cavern.

            “Fine, I will start working while you take Azazel, just be quick!” Aesthyra snapped. She then turned around huffed as she walked back down the tunnel.

Deciding not to chase an angry dragon, I walked over to Azazel’s cavern.

            “Azazel, what are you doing?” I asked, looking over the rather nice looking crystal chess set, that I don’t ever remember owning.

            “I am playing with Shard! She taught me how to play chess.” She replied as she moved what looked like a knight.

            “Who is Shard?” I asked wondering who she was talking about.

            “My rock friend,” she replied, before pausing, “I’m sorry crystal friend.”

            “Well, it nice you found a friend, why don’t you introduce me to her?” I asked, playing along with Azazel’s little game.

            “Ok!” she replied as she jumped out of her blanket hoard. She gently grabbed the large blue crystal which was sitting across from her, “Daddy, this is Nar’ferathoma but you can call her Shard. She said that she is not allowed to talk to you because the Shardlord would get mad, and she doesn’t want the Shardlord to be mad at her.”     

            “Well, nice to meet you, Mrs. Shard, thank you for keeping Azazel company while I was busy meeting with Tanixathera. Where you two playing chess?” I asked playing along.

“Yes, Shard taught me how to play.” she replied with a large smile.

“Oh, who is winning?” I asked.

“Well Shard won the first two games,” she replied as she placed Shard back where it was sitting, “but I won two games after the first two and I am about to win this game.” She replied as she moved what look like a king. “Check.”

            “Well, I am glad that you were having fun, why don’t you tell your friend that you have to go now.” I replied smiling at how cute she’s being.

            “We can play later, after the lake. Don’t move any of the pieces while I am gone.” Azazel said to the rock and ran to put on her makeshift swimsuit.

            “I really need to find her a friend,” I grumbled while eying the chess board.

 

---

 

as always me and rouge are mostly human let me know if i missed anything, and tell me what you think.

Chapter 61

here is the promised release of chapter 61 i know it was released first on royal road several months ago but i have finally posted it, i am at 800 words on the next chapter and i hope to finish it in the next day or so barring that my classes don’t get in the way.

 

—————————————-Azazel POV————————-

            “It’s almost time to wake daddy up,” I excitedly whispered as I watched the beam of sunlight creep across the cavern floor. “Only a little bit more and I can wake up daddy and have a good breakfast.”

            Just as the light hit the line I rushed into daddy’s room, “Daddy it’s time to get up!” I shouted; hugging daddy’s nose.

            “Azazel, just two more hours.” Daddy mumbled in his sleepy voice as he does every morning.

            “No daddy, you told me that I have to get you up no matter what because you need to finish making Aesthyra’s home and I’m hungry so it’s time to get up.” I replied, trying to lift up Daddy’s nose.

            I kept trying to push up when Daddy sighed, “Ok I’ll get up, go wake up Ryan and tell him it’s his turn to cook.”

            “Yay!,” I replied. I jumped off Daddy’s hoard and ran to Uncle Ryan’s room. I stopped just before I entered and tiptoed right up next to Uncle Ryan. Sneaking up I leaned over and just like every morning I yelled in uncle Ryan’s ear, “Uncle Ryan it’s time to get up! And Daddy said it your turn to make breakfast.”

            “Jesus!” Ryan swore as he bolted awake, “Why do you do that every morning?”

            “Because if I don’t you won’t get up and will miss breakfast making him grumpy all day.” I replied trying not to laugh at Uncle Ryan’s silly face.

            I left after Uncle Ryan gave me the scary face that he always uses when he wants me to go away. I walked back to my room played with the blocks from daddy’s home until Ryan finishes breakfast. I had just finished assaulting the castle I made when daddy called me for breakfast. I jumped up and headed to the kitchen. I quickly ate the omelet that Ryan made and headed back to my room to play.

            After a while I was bored and went to see if daddy was ready to take me to the lake. I walked over to the big hallway that connect daddy’s lair to Aesthyra’s lair. I was just about to enter when I heard Uncle Ryan shout a stream of bad words. I tiptoed over to Ryan’s room and peeked around the corner and saw Uncle Ryan putting out a fire.

            “Why is it whenever I try to make a new spell it’s always fire.” Ryan complained as he finished putting out another fire. I stood hidden by the mouth of the cavern as I watched Ryan sit down and cross his legs. I tried not to giggle as I watched Uncle Ryan make funny faces. I was just about to leave to find Daddy again when Ryan started to laugh.

            “I’ve done it, I’ve finally done it, now all will fear the great Ryan sorcerer extraordinaire, Mrs, Peterson will tremble before my might and wish she never made that math test.” Ryan laughed in a funny way. I looked back around and there were three little fires flying around Ryan’s head.

            “Wow, Uncle Ryan, how did you do that?” I asked running to play with the lights; I took two steps when a loud boom shook the room and made me fall on my butt. I could feel my eyes start to be all wet as I tried not to cry.

            “What happened?” Daddy said as he ran into the room. Daddy picked me up with his tail and let me hug him.

            “My… spell… ex…” Uncle Ryan mumbled.

            “Let me guess what happened,” Daddy said, “you were practicing and started to role play an evil sorcerer, you cast a spell and Azazel saw you and wanted to play. You lost your concentration and the spell exploded, sound about right?”

            “Yes,” Ryan sighed, “though, I will never admit that I was roleplaying.”

            “Azazel,” Daddy said as he moved me away from his nose, “did you interrupt Ryan when he was doing magic, even though you aren’t supposed to?”

            “Yes…” I sniffed, “I’m sorry.”

            Daddy looked at me for a few second before he sighed, “Azazel, you should leave Ryan alone when he is practicing magic. didn’t I tell you that we’ll go and play after lunch and that you should play with your block till then?”

            “Yes, but I wanted to go now,” I huffed.

            “We’re almost finished so we can go to the lake after lunch.” Daddy said as he let me hug his nose for a little bit longer.

            After we left Ryan’s room we went to have a sand-witch but I still don’t get why you want to put the yummy meat on bread.

“Fafnir… Fafnir.” Uncle Ryan whispered as he quietly entered the kitchen where we were eating our sandwitch.

            “Why are you whispering?” Daddy asked as he put his sand-witch down.

            “The crazy dragon-mom turned the bathroom into a sauna and it’s taking a nap in there.” Ryan said, while I tried to take some of the meat off daddy’s sand-witch.  

            “Come on, you’re a big bad sorcerer now, why are you afraid of Tanixathera…”  Daddy said but then he made that funny face he makes when he is thinking, “Scratch that, I could see why you would be afraid of her.”

            “What is wrong with you, you are seriously more concerned about my fear of a crazy god-dragon-mother-thing than the massive boiling inferno in the bathroom.” Ryan groaned.

            “When you put it that way I should probably go check on that” Daddy replied  and stood up, “Azazel, knowing tanix it might be a while, why don’t you play a bit in your room and when I am finished  we will head to the lake.”

            “But Daddy!” I said wanting to go to the lake now so I have more time to swim.

            “Azazel I’ll be back before you know it.” Daddy said and left to go see Aesthyra’s mommy.

            I walked back to my room, mad that we didn’t get to go to the lake right now, and that I had to wait forever before he would be back. I heard a loud crash right before I go to my room. I rushed inside to see if my castle was ok and in the center of the room was the roof crystal thing broke all over the floor.

            “Crystal thing, why did you fall and break?” I asked as I started to clean my room before daddy came in and says we can’t go to the lake until I clean my room. I went and get the broom thing that Ryan likes a lot and started to gather the shiny crystals. As I was cleaning I saw an extra shiny one buried that was slightly glowing. I picked up my new glowing treasure and found two other of the glowly extra shiny crystals and put them in my pocket next to its sisters.

I jumped as I heard someone say, “Azazel, could you put me and my sister rocks down?”

“Who’s there,” I said as I jumped into my blanket hoard.

“Don’t be afraid, I just want you to put me back with all the other crystals” the voice said,

I quickly dig out the three extra shiny glowy crystals and examined them for a few seconds, “How are you talking, Daddy says that rocks can’t talk.” I said as I watched the rocks.

“And your Daddy’s right, rocks can’t talk, but I am a crystal and not a rock so it’s fine if I can talk.” The rock said, “Now can you put me with my sister rocks so we can move back to the ceiling tonight?”

“But why would you want to be on the ceiling?” I asked wondering why it likes it up there.

“It is hard for me and my sister crystals to protect you if I am in your pocket so that is why I like the ceiling.” The crystal replied.

“Well then I can hold you and we can play, that way it will be easier to see me as I am closer.” I replied, “Maybe we can even go to the lake.”

“We can play for a bit but then you have to promise to put me back with all the other crystals on the floor.” The crystal said.

“Fine, but you have to be my friend and play other times too. Uncle Therin says it’s important to have friends,” I replied.

“Ok we can play other times just as long as you put me with the other crystals.” The crystal replied, “by the way my name is Nar’theradumo”

            “Ok, Narthefoma, I’m Azazel“ I replied, smiling that I just made a new friend.

Updates

I am sorry for my long time away as I was dealing not only with school but with the holidays. Now that the holidays are over I hope to resume writing. While I did not get any botched chapter finished I am almost done with one. 
Second I have been practicing writing in different forms and have started a side project that I might throw up in the next week or so if all goes well.

Third I am not taking as many classes this samester so I hope to have more time  to do other things.

All in all I hope to have something out in the next week and I will post the redone first chapter and chapter 61 soon 
Tl;dr – school is hard, back from holidays, and possible new story, will post chapter for botched soon

Chapter 60

another chapter ready, this one served by candle light as i just got power back last night after the hurricane. so this chapter was sponsored in part by bees, BEES!!!!. also this chapter was brought to you by fall break. i will see if i have time to get another out this week.

as always i want to thank rouge and mejinzs for their proofreading support.

without further ado Chapter 60 – Ryan Tales

————————–Fafnir POV—————————–

            “Ryan, what happened with the elf?” I asked, sitting next to him, worried about his moping around for the last half an hour.

            “Hell. Glorious hell” Ryan sighed as he picked himself up off the lair floor.

            “Glorious hell?” I asked a bit confused.

            “Yes, glorious hell: like that time I got the sugar mixed up with mom’s meds.” He chuckled, “Except with more death and less… other stuff.”

            “What did he do?” I growled, worried about my brother.

            “Well” he said, grabbing a cup of wine that Therin kept in the larder, “ it started off with us traveling to a revine, me and the bear set up camp next just a stone throw from the gaping maw. I never would have guessed that a bear could set up a lean-to that quickly.” Ryan chuckled his face plastered with a large smile.

            “Wait, so let me get this straight, you -and the bear- set up camp… what was the elf doing.” I interrupted.

            “He was killing off a group of flesh eating dryads.” Ryan replied before he began again.

            “Anyways, after me and the bear setup camp, the elf said that it was time to begin training.” I watched Ryan shutter, “He picked me up and threw me off the cliff yelling, ‘be free my young not-dragon dragon.’”

            “What?”

            “Yup, he threw me off a cliff and yelled at me. But that’s not all, the best part is that I don’t remember hitting the bottom. I just woke up back at the camp.” Ryan chuckled.

            “OK, this might be a case of the pot calling the kettle black but that is ridiculous. How does throwing you off a cliff help you learn magic?” I inquired.

            “I asked the same question. You want to know the answer?” Ryan chuckled.

            “Yes…?” I hesitantly replied.

            “Magic.”

            “We spent the night at the ravine as I recovered from dying for the first time. The bear cooked a delicious stew while the elf was hunting the man eating dryad’s tree.” He recounted. “I ate the stew while the bear helped clean the sap off the elf. The next day was mostly spent throwing me down the ravine and hitting me with lighting.”

            “So why didn’t you want me to skin him alive?” I asked, my anger starting to boil at the abuse to my brother.

            “Because I don’t think any of it actually happened, I mean even though magic exists do you really think an elf would be able to resurrect me almost 50 times?” Ryan replied.

            “I… don’t know…” I replied, his comment like a bucket of cold water.

            “So like I was saying, we spent half the next day with me dying until something finally broke and I was able to redirect the lightning bolt with magic.” His smile almost giddy. It was more than creepy. “Soon I will have my revenge on Mrs. Peterson.”

            “Ok… well so what else happened?” I asked deciding that this might not have been the best idea.         

            “Well, after I cast my first spell, he said we were going to expand my spell repertoire or something like that. So he started to show me various spells by chucking them at me.” He calmly replied. “He cast all sorts of spells and I managed to figure out how he was doing it and in no time at all I was dishing out more than I was taking.”

            “So you are a good sorcerer?” I asked stupefied.

            “Yes. Check it out” he said. I could feel as he gathered the mana in himself, and, before I knew it, he had a large fireball above his hand.

            “I guess you are safe …” I started to say as my mind wandered.

            “So, after I started to magically kick the behind of that old elf, the bear interrupted and served us dinner. Later that night the bear woke me and stared into my eyes.” Ryan said. “After what seemed like an hour the bear sighed, ‘Well I can’t put this off much longer, it is only a matter of time before you get roped into the elf’s curse as well. When your brother comes back you need to leave, or terrible things will happen. ‘Like what?’ I asked. The entire exchange freaked me out. The bear explained that the elf was cursed by none other than Steve, the god of normalcy, to constantly meet variants of every species.  If you are not careful you will be dragged with him on his travels until either you die or a god takes you away.’”

            “Bro, though sometimes you act like you look, I am glad you are technically counted as a god, or else I would have been stuck with that insane elf for centuries.” Ryan said after downing another glass of wine.

“So let me get this straight, the elf is cursed to meet only variant creatures by the god of normalcy, who is named Steve, and you could only leave if a god helps you.” I asked, trying to figure out how a simple lesson turned into a web of crazy.”

“Yah, I mean how normal is it for a god to visit and take your friends away.” Ryan replied,turning red from all the alcohol.

“You know what, Ryan, we will talk about this later, also I am telling mom that you were drinking under age.” I started to chuckle as I lead him to his room

 

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as always me rouge and mejinzs are mostly human so tell us if we missed anything. and let me know what you think of the chapter.

chapter 59

despite a hurricane i managed to get a chapter posted it just cost me a fri and a drink… i want to thank rouge and  mejinzs for the proofreading support.

 

Ps. if anyone want to try and update my synopsis that would be awesome.

 

without further ado chapter 59 – drop off

 

 

————-??? POV————-

            “Shardlord, we have received unexpected news from an Aggregate of guardians.” A shardling said, interrupting my meditation.

            “Mis’drasyn, what could be so important that you had to barge in here and interrupt me?” I pointedly asked, knowing the shardling’s temperament.

            “They have located Tanixathera’s wyrmling, she was named Aesthyra, but there was another unknown wyrmling there as well.” The Mis’drasyn blurted out.

            “Wait, another wyrmling?” I exclaimed my mind racing at the implications of the unknown progenitor.

            “Yes, he has taken the name Fafnir and is about the same age as Aesthyra.” Mis’drasyn enthustaly replied.

            “Could there be eggs hidden from the fall?” I mumbled, my shards shimmering with excitement. “Mis’drasyn, I need you send a message to the other Shardlords. Tell them that we need to meet.”

            “Yes, Shardlord!” Mis’drasyn replied, then ran out the door.

            “We can’t take a chance with this,” I thought to myself as I left my chamber, “I need to expedite the moving process, we can’t let any harm to come to these two.”

———————————————–POV Fafnir—————————————————————

            “Come on Ryan, man up! So what if you are being accused of… geophilia, that sounds like the right word, by an oldman?” I chuckled. “You need to learn some magic or else you’ll get magic cancer.”

            “But you don’t have to live in the woods with some old crazy elf! Sure, becoming Merlin will be real fun but why can’t I learn from somebody normal? I mean, is anybody normal in this universe?” Ryan huffed, packing food into a sack that looked like a feedbag.

            “Calm down, I’ll pick you up in a few days.” I said trying to placate my brother. “Let’s get you to that old guy so you don’t die.”

            I watched as Ryan finished packing some dried meats. Ryan winced as my claws wrapped around him. I spread my wings and launched us into the azure sky. It only took a few minutes of flying before we arrived. I carefully landed in the improvised clearing, avoiding the cursed tree branches that like to try and rip my wings apart.

“If I ever get back home, I am going to make Mrs. Peterson’s life a living hell. I never would have been dragged to a dimension filled with psychos if it wasn’t for that accursed math test. ” Ryan grumbled as he picked himself up from the ground.

“Mrs. Peterson… the math teacher?” I asked, “She wasn’t that bad, just a little strict.”

            “It’s her fault that I’m even here, so of course I am going to get revenge when I get home.” Ryan swore. I just backed away letting Ryan blow off some steam.

            “Ryan, if it’s anyone’s fault it would be Alexandarax’s because he accidently snagged you with us.” I reminded him.

            “I can’t go against a giant dragon-god-thing, but I can beat my math teacher.” He replied.          

            It only took a few minutes before the old elf walked into the clearing accompanied by the same brown bear and what looked like a baby wyvern.

“Well look the Ryan and the dragon showed up” the old elf stated gleefully.

            “Is that a wyvern?” I asked wondering why he had one with him.

            “Yes, His name is lord Snaps, and this is Nibbles, my two brave companions.” The elf declared.

            “Stupid long ear, crazy” the wyvern grumbled, “still hungry.”

            “Did the wyvern just talk?” I asked.

            “Despite my best efforts Wyverns can’t talk.” The old elf replied.

            “Stupid long ear no understand.” The wyvern replied, “I mostest smart nestmate.”

            I stared at the wyvern for a few seconds as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. “Oh, you’re the smartest of your clutch.”

            It stared at me with blank expression for a few seconds, “You knows what saying?”

            “Somehow…” I replied wondering what it was thinking.

            “I join you rage?” the wyvern asked with a pitiful face.

            “I guess…” I replied wondering what a rage was.

            “Me be good rage-mate” the wyvern said jumping up and down.

            “Who are you talking to?” Ryan asked.

            “I am talking to the wyvern.” I nonchalantly replied.

            “I knew I wasn’t crazy, I knew lord snaps could talk!” The elf shouted.   

            “Ok, bye Ryan, see you in a few days.” I said and jumped into the sky followed by a small wyvern, “I’m not dealing with that level of crazy.” I chuckled.

            It only took me a few minutes to return home, with my new pet wyvern.

            “Daddy, did you bring me a pet?” Azazel asked as she ran into the main cavern.

            “No this is… what is your name.” I asked

            “I Niperax” the wyvern responded.

            “This is Niperax he will be protecting you. I guess.” I replied not knowing what exactly a rage mate was.

            “Your wyrmling?” Niperax asked studying Azazel.

            “Yes she is my… wyrmling.” I replied.

            “I keep nest, wyrmling safe.” Niperax stated as well as I could tell.

            “Fafnir, why did you bring a wyvern here, you know that they are stupid.” Aesthyra said as she left joined us.

            “I no stupid.” Niperax retorted.

            “Fafnir, did the wyvern just speak?” Aesthyra asked

            “Yes it did.” I replied.

            “Well, I stand corrected…”

            “This mate?” Niperax asked.

            “No!” Aesthyra and I simultaneously responded.

            “Come on, let’s play Niperax.” Azazel said as she dragged the wyvern into our cavern.

            “Scared!” Niperax yelled as he left our view.

            A few days passed as we continued to work on the lair, when it was time to pick Ryan up. I flew to the clearing and found Ryan passed out next to the crazy elf.

            “The dragon returns. I have great news; your adopted brother is officially a sorcerer.” The crazy elf announces as I land.

            “That’s good news” I replied, relieved that Ryan was out of danger for the moment.

            “I only had to resurrect him 48 times.” He replied, “The fastest of all my students that survived.”

            “What do you mean by ‘resurrect’?” I asked, wondering what he did.

            “I brought him back from the dead, what do you think I mean!” He replied.

            “Oh, thank God you’re back. Don’t ever leave me with this psychotic elf ever again.” Ryan pleaded as he picked himself off the ground.

            “What happened?” I growled at the elf.

            “I awakened his draconic bloodline.” He states as if it was obvious.

            “He doesn’t have any draconic blood.” I replied.

            “Well, apparently he does or he wouldn’t have awoken as a sorcerer. I have seen people sleep with stranger things, right Ryan?” The elf retorted.

            “Can I tell you what happened at home? I want to go far away, quickly.” Ryan pleaded as he eyed the elf.

            “Sure, I will deal with the elf later.” I replied as I picked Ryan up and returned home.

 

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as always mejinzs, rouge, and i are mostly human, let us know if we missed anything.

 

pss. next week is ryan’s recounting of what happened.

Chapter 58

here is another exciting episode of dra… what wrong job… here is another great chapter fresh off the… keyboard… i give up on making some sort of grand statement. i want to thank rouge and mejinzs for their work.

 

P.S. for anyone who was blind sided by last chapter, remember Therin’s family is minor nobility for their poisons… no normal society would promote poisoners… you also don’t piss off the guests of nobel’s house or large dragons.

 

without futher ado Chapter 58 – Forests

———————————–Fafnir POV——————————

            “Ryan, you can stop screaming now, we’re home.” I said as I gently placed Ryan on the stone floor as I landed.

            “Daddy, what’s that?” Azazel asked; jumping from my back she ran and pointed at a large red crystal formation that was jutting from the room.

            “I might not be a geologist but I know that it takes longer than a day to grow crystals…” I muttered as I moved beneath the strange rock formation.

            “It’s seems to be some crystal” I replied. I examined the cluster closely and I deftly use my tail to break off a small piece. I turned it over a few time recognizing the familiar scent of magic.

            “Can I have it?” Azazel asked staring at the rock in my claws.

            “Sure, it’s just a silly rock.” I replied as I passed over the crystal. She then ran into our shared cavern.

Ignoring the random appearance of the crystals, I walked into the kitchen and, hanging on the roof, was another one of the crystal blooms, except this one was a dark blue where the other was red.

“I’ll ask Aesthyra when she returns if she knows anything about it.” I mumbled ignoring the weird crystals. I deftly open the larder door with my tail and instead of the normally empty larder this one was full with all sorts of meats and other food.

“The crystals? I can write them off as dragon magi, But I can’t ignore that someone came in and filled the pantry.” I replied.

“Azazel, come here!” I called wondering if the thing that filled the pantry was still around. It only took a few seconds before Azazel poked her head in wondering why I called. I told her to stay put as I searched the cave for any intruders. While I didn’t find anyone but there was a crystal formation now in every room except the bathroom. Just as I was finishing I heard the dull thump of Aesthyra landing.

            “Aesthyra, do you know what these large crystal things are?” I asked while entering the main chamber.

            “I don’t know, whenever they popped up at home mom would just break them complaining that they looked ugly.” Aesthyra replied as she examined the crystal formation.

            “Did you ever notice them fill up the larder?” I asked wondering if they were connected.

            “We didn’t have one, mom likes fresh kills better.” Aesthyra replied, “but I wouldn’t worry about it, we’ll just ask mom when she comes back in two weeks. “

            I sighed while looking at the suspicious crystals and left them alone as Aesthyra and I went back to carving the tunnel between our two lairs.

            “Hey bro, can you take me to the mage dude on top of the mountain?” Ryan asked right after we finished another section of tunnel.

            “You know where he is?” I asked.

            “My guess is that there aren’t too many people living on top of the mountain…” Ryan replied looking at me with his eyebrow raised.

            “I guess,” I replied as I noticed all the half melted stone sticking to my scales, “but I need to wash off this rubble first.”

            “Sure, I will be waiting in the kitchen.” Ryan replied.

I left Ryan and headed to the bathing cavern. I entered the large cavern and was surprised to find that there was no new crystal formation in this room. Ignoring it, I quickly jumped into the small pool spraying the cool water across the floor. “I really have to figure out a way to heat this large pool” I mumbled as the cold water hit my snout.  I tried to scrub off all the liquefied stone off my scales with my claws but I quickly gave up on that and used my breath.  I rinsed off the last few motes of dust and left the cavern.

I dropped by Aesthyra’s cavern and got her to look after Azazel while I took Ryan. I met up with my brother and carried him in my claws towards the roof of my home.

“So… where is the mage guy we are looking for?” I asked my brother; flying over a sea of green sitting on the top of the mountain.

“Well crap…” Ryan shouted; holding on to my claws.

“Come on Ryan, where is the mage; I mean how many people live up here?” I teased as we glided over the forest.

“Ok! I get it.” Ryan snapped, “Let’s just head home before you drop me.” I turned towards home when the sound of a light thump reached my ears. Scanning the horizon I noticed a break in sea of green.

“Hold on, I have to answer an age old question.” I said as I twisted my serpentine body and wormed through the sky as I descended towards the break in the canopy.

I watched another tree disappear below the canopy widening the hole. Loud cracks disturbing the peaceful forest, I snap my wings open as I plunged below the canopy. I narrowly dodged an ice spear that whizzed past my snout. My eyes snapped towards a wizened old elf, his white hair stood in stark contrast to the large brown bear cowering behind him. I could feel the elf gather magic; I leaped to side maneuvering Ryan’s limp body between me and the insane elf.

“Stop!” I shouted. The elf froze in mid-sentence; the cowering bear dashed off from behind the elf and valiantly repositioned itself deeper into the forest.

“What?” the old elf asked; mana arced between us as I put Ryan down.

“Stop, I come in peace.” I said, holding up a claw.

“You can talk?” the old elf blinked, freezing in place.

“Of course I can what did you expect?” I snapped.

“I knew they were faking it” I caught him muttering; he stared me for a few seconds, “Every other scaly piece of crap I’ve met always wanted to eat me and my little Nibbles.”

            “Who’s Nibbles?” I asked eyeing the potentially crazy elf.

            “Oh, he’s the bear that… took position behind me but it seems he… strategically repositioned himself deeper in the woods.” The elf replied.

“Ok then, I was told you could help my brother with his magic problem.” I said, dragging Ryan’s limp body into view.

“That is either the weirdest mutation I have ever seen or he was adopted.” The elf remarked.

“It’s complicated.” I replied not wanting to get into that whole story again, “Ryan was just treated for hypermanaosis,”

“Well, it’s not often that people get romantically involved with a rock monster, but I don’t judge.” the elf replied, “It happens from time to time. So worry not I can make a mage out of just about anyone.”

            “You think he did what with a what now?” I asked wondering what he is talking about.

            “We all have our kinks. So don’t worry young dragon, I’ll tell you when you’re older. ” the elf replied; he stood over Ryan checking him over.

            “Good news, I can help your flirty friend here, but if he is having digestion issues there is nothing I can do.” The elf stated standing back up.

            “So what needs to be done?” I asked.

            “Well, I’ll need a few things,” he replies, “I need you to get him empty mana crystals, a magic staff, and a place to sleep.”

            “Where should I meet you?” I asked noting what I needed to get.

            “Right here’s fine; my house was sorta taken over by dryads, so I was looking for some place new anyways.” The elf nonchalantly replied.

            “Sound good… my name is Fafnir by the way, I hope you can take care of Ryan.” I said; relieved that Ryan was going to be ok.  

            “The hell’s a Ryan?”

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as normal; mejinzs, rouge and i are mostly human so let us know if we missed anything and tell me what you think in the comments.

chapter 57

i some how managed to get a chapter done dispite all my homework. this is another long chapter sitting just under 2k words and i am proud of myself. i want to thank mejinzs and rouge who have cralwed out of the woodwork and come back to proofread my stuff, i will be posting the proofread chapters in the next day or two.

without further ado, chapter 57- table manners.

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           “Where’s Fafnir?” I wondered as I stretched atop my silver hoard. “He’s supposed to get me up so I can finish my lair.”

            I yawned as I left the cavern, and headed towards the kitchen.

            “I’m up!” I said as I stumbled into the kitchen. Then it hit me, “Where is everyone?”

            I quickly searched the lair, “Even the human is gone, and that creature almost never leaves his non-hoard hoard.” I mumbled. I took a deep breath and prepared to cast a tracking spell that mom taught me. I reached for the energy, and released the spell. Immediately I felt a light tug on my right horn as if leading me towards the east.

            I stopped for a moment reconsidering whether or not I should follow him, when a loud gurgling answered the question for me. I quickly dashed out of the lair’s mouth and headed towards Fafnir. It only took a few minutes of flying before I caught Fafnir’s familiar scent below me.

            Looking at the leafy obstruction I took a deep breath and destroyed it; turning it all to liquid mana. Screams pierced the otherwise calm atmosphere as elves tried to avoid the falling debris. Tucking in my wings, I plummeted towards the ground only to snap them open at the last second landing with a deep thud, before a large wooden elf lair. With a thought I shrank myself just enough to fit through the mouth. I ignored the nonsensical words of the elves and headed towards Fafnir, on the other side of all the random walls

            “Fafnir, what happened to working on my lair?” I asked as I reached the table.

“Ryan passed out this morning and I quickly took him to be treated by the elves.  “There was an attack by some, rather quickly mutilated, elves. Azazel took care of the would be murder though, sorry Therin you aren’t important enough to be assassinated – That’s when Therin roped me into celebrating Azazel’s first kill and, well, here we are,” he nonchalantly replied.

“Where’s the human now, then?” I huffed still miffed at being left behind.

            “Well darn it, we forgot Ryan,” Fafnir exclaimed staring daggers at Therin.

            “He was coming?” Therin asked, looking at Fafnir, “You know he would have been flayed alive if he was challenged.”

            “What do you mean by challenged?” Fafnir snapped.

            “This is a combat arena, anyone can challenge anyone else to a duel to the death if they want, and he would have to accept or be branded a coward and allowed to be hunted down on the streets.” Thein replied.

            “What the hell kind of custom is that!” Fafnir exclaimed, “The more you explain this ‘first blood’ celebration the less I like it.”

            “No one would challenge a child as it would seem cowardly, and there are preparations needed to fight a wyvern, which you are not, and people know better than to challenge me as I have killed many in the arena.” Therin replied, smiling.

            “So, then why didn’t you come get me for dinner,” I said, interrupting their argument.

            “Fafnir forgot.” The elf said.

            “Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” Fafnir replied.

            “What’s a bus?” I asked.

            “Never mind, we have been working hard and I though you should continue to sleep.” Fafnir said, but I knew better.

            “Well then, I will be joining you for dinner as you forgot to leave food out for me.” I said as I shrank myself and jumped onto the only remaining chair.

            I curled up upon the well cushioned seat cover as one of the elves walked up to the table and opened a glass jug and poured a little bit of a delicious smelling drink into one of those silly cup things.

            “It’s good,” Therin said.

The serving elf poured some more of the sweet smelling liquid, into the silly cup. Then the elf started making some strange noises.

“What is wrong with the elf is it not feeling well?” I asked.

“Why?” Fafnir asked giving me the same look mom does when I do something silly.

“Well that elf has not only wet itself, but is making a lot of weird noises, and only sick animals do that sort of thing.” I replied.

“Here, put this on.” Fafnir said taking off the brooch attached to his horn and placed it on mine. “Now say, speak.”

            “Speak,” all of a sudden those random elf noises that had been bothering me since I entered made sense.

            “And what will you have sir?” the serving elf asked as he looked at me.

            “I have no clue, and I’m female.” I replied looking at Fafnir.

            “How about I just order for you?” Fafnir asked, saving me from trying to figure out what to order.

            “Sure, I just know I want some of the stuff in Therin’s silly cup.” I replied; Therin started to choke as he stared at me.

            “Why would you want wine?” Therin asked; cleaning the drink from his mouth.

            “It smells as sweet as mana so it must me delicious.” I replied, wondering what the strange liquid looks like.

            “What do you mean it smells like mana?” Therin asked; instantly sitting up straight, I could smell the mana flow out of the elf as he cast a spell.  He frowned as he looked at his glass and then waved a servant elf over.

            “Everything to your satisfaction, lord Therin?” The servant elf asked.

            “Drink this.” Therin command as he shoved the glass at the server.

            “Lord Therin, I would never presume…” the server started to say .

            “Drink,” Therin repeated in the same tone of voice mom uses on me when I’m not lesioning. I could smell the fear on the servant elf as he slowly some of the stuff from the silly glass thing. When the last drop had vanished the servant elf fell to the floor his black skin turning a very bright pink.

            “Looks like I win again.” Therin said with a smile.

            “What happened to the elf person” Azazel asked as she jumped from the chair and started to poke the fallen elf.

            “It’s a game that me and the owner play. Don’t worry, the server is ok. The poison will just turns his skin a hilarious shade of pink. He just needs to sleep it off.”

            “Azazel, stop poking the elf,” Fafnir said in a low growl, “do we have to worry about being in the crossfire of this ‘GAME’?”

            “No,” Therin quickly replied, “this is a bet strictly between myself and the owner; you have nothing to fear. “

            “Therin, you do realize the attitude I have towards poisons since the wedding, right?” Fafnir said in a low voice.

            “Fafnir, they prepare and cook everything in front of us and I will check each dish for poison.” Therin replied, trying quell Fafnir’s anger.

            “Can I eat the elf?” I asked wondering if it tasted better than dwarf.

            “What is wrong with you?” Fafnir asked horrified.

            “What do you mean?” I asked a bit confused.

            “You don’t eat people.” Fafnir yelled at me with disgust.

            “Me and mom eat humans and dwarves all the time at home” I refuted, “ and I want to know if elf tastes better than dwarf.”

            “Let’s just eat what we ordered and then get out of here.” Therin quickly interjected just in time as the chef was just arriving.” I looked over and saw a fat elf pushing a wooden box with a black metal top towards us. I sat quietly watching the cook elf as he brought out two large slabs of red meat and tossed them on the black slab. My stomach grumbled as the tantalizing scent of roasting meat filled the air around us. He pulled out a bowl and poured from a pot that was sitting on the blackboard and poured a dark red liquid with chunks of meat that smelled divine and placed the steaming food in front of Azazel. He picked up the two cooked pieces of meat and placed them on the plate things; setting them in front of both me and Fafnir.

            “Where’s your food?” Fafnir asked.

            “They are probably still butchering it, would be my guess.” He replied as he sipped his new bottle of wine.

            “What are you eating?” Fafnir tentatively asked eyeing the elf.

            “It is a classic dark elf dish, freshly killed cave crawler.” He replied, “It is a predator that is found in caves and abandoned mines. The belly meat melts in your mouth, the only problem is that cave crawlers release a deadly toxin after death, making the meat inedible after two hours, but until that point it is divine.”

            “You know what… I don’t care anymore I’m just going to eat my food and then I am going to grab Ryan and head home. I’m can’t deal with this crap anymore.” Fafnir said.

            We ate in silence for a few minutes as we enjoyed our food. During our meal I watched an elf stumble towards our table, I caught a strong whiff of that alcohol stuff my mom warned me about when interacting with the races.

            “I shallange you to a, to a fight… to the d-death… dragon.” The stumbling man slurred as he pointed between me and fafnir.

            “Which one?” Therin asked as he put his glass down.

            “The only one there!” he replied pointing once again to between us.

            “There are two of them.” Therin replied.

            “I don’ts care if-if there’s ten of ‘em, ‘em… dragons…. I’m going to go kill the overgrown lizard.” He hiccuped, as he steadied himself against the table.

            “Daddy, are you going to turn him into the blue stuff?” Azazel asked poking her head out to get a better look at the stumbling elf.

            I thought for a second,reflecting on what mom would do, and, remembering mom’s words, I finished the bite I was on of  my meal,  and bit the elf’s head off. The sweet taste of mana flowed into my mouth as my teeth broke through the skull. I swallowed, enjoying the after taste of my mid meal snack and noticed all the elf noise had stopped.

            “The man issued a challenge and it is the challenged party’s right to pick the time and place.” Therin said in a loud voice. Silence reigned for a few more seconds before the chattering began again.

            “That’s it, Azazel finish your food, we’re leaving.” Fafnir said as he tossed the rest of his meat into his waiting maw. He picked Azazel up with his tail and left the restaurant.

            “A perfect distraction so that he would not burn the town down.” Therin chuckled as he looked at me, “Shouldn’t you be following him?”

            I tossed what was left of my dinner into my mouth and, with my tail, stole the bottle of the sweet smelling drink that Therin was drinking as I walked out of the elf lair.

 

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as always me mejinzs and rouge are mostly human so let us know if we missed anything and tell me what you think.

 

the real question is how did Therin arrange all this…

chapter 56

i have gotten the time to finally post chapter 56 despite taking the mcats and the workload of organic chemestry. this is a non pred chapter, and if you guy can tell me what you think of my other story. i will try to push forward and get the next chapter within the next week but we shall see what school has in store.  side note this is also a bigger chapter compaired to others.

without further ado Chapter 56 – Eating Out

 

———————————fafnir POV——————————

 

“Azazel it’s time to get up.” I said as I tried to find the little demoness in her makeshift blanket hoard.

            “I don’t wanna” I heard a muffled reply

            “We are getting special food today.” I said knowing my daughter. It did not take long before Azazel’s head popped out of the fluffy hoard.

            “We are having some of the blue stuff?’ she said as she crawled out of the pile.

            “Not right now, but uncle Therin is going to take us to get special food.” I replied

            “But I want the blue stuff.” She frowned

            “Azazel, remember what happened the last time you had too much of the blue stuff?” I asked

            “I don’t care if I am all glowy for a little while I like the blue stuff.” She huffed; plopping back into the fluffy hoard.

            “Azazel this is a special dinner because uncle Therin is proud that you dealt with the scary man,” I said as I used my tail to pick her up, “now let’s get you cleaned up and ready.”

            We headed to the bathroom and after about ten minutes we managed to fill the tub. I watch as Azazel tests the water with one foot before she shucks off her clothes and jumped in; spilling water all over the floor.  I stealthy grab the jar of, what the Therin calls cleaning oil, with my tail and dump it Azazel’s head.

            “Daddy why did you dump this stuff on my head?” she asked; attempting to get the stuff out of her hair.

            “That was soap and you will need it to get the blood out of your hair.” I replied, “now scratch you head to make bubbles the bubbles will get the stuff out, and if you can’t I will.”

            She stared at my claws for a few second right before she starts to wash her hair. After a half an hour struggle I declared Azazel clean. I dried her off with a bit of magic that I picked up from Aesthyra and helped her as much as I could to get back into her dress.

            “I really need to go and retrieve Lilith; she was good with these kind of things.” I sighed. We left the waterlogged bathroom to dry and headed towards Therin office. We walked into the rather humorous sight of Therin passed out sleeping on his desk.

            “Is uncle Therin sleeping?” Azazel whispered; trying to get a better look.

            “yes, a perfect opportunity for some fun, cover your ears Azazel.” I whispered back with a large grin. I took in a deep breath and let out a loud roar. Therin jumped out screaming like a girl; the acrid scent of urine filled the air.

            “Why, in the dark god’s name would you do that you idiotic overgrown lizard?!” he screamed. It took me over ten minutes to stop laughing enough to answer the angry elf.

            “I have never caught you napping, and after the enthusiasm you showed for the party I never would have imagined that I would find you passed out on your desk.” I said; catching my breath, “the look on your face was priceless.”

            “Uncle Therin’s face was funny.” Azazel said with a smile.

            “You two need a hobby” Therin sighed; he stood up and left the room saying, “I’m going to change, I will be back and then we can celebrate.”

            We waited for a good twenty minutes before Therin returned wearing a blood red shirt and a loose pair of pants in that same crimson color.

            “Come on let’s celebrate Azazel’s first true kill.” He said with a smile.

            “I still don’t get why y’all make a big deal about first kill.” I said as we walked out of the house.

            “it is a big thing in dark elf tradition that when someone kills their first non-beast they are seen as a true elf and now I can rub it in my families face that their assassin was beaten by a small child.” He replied with a small smile.

            “So let me get this straight” I growled; stopping in the middle of the street, “you are using an assassination attempt on my daughter as a way to kill off some of your family?”

            “Lighten up Fafnir, when you put it that way it sounds like I used her as bait.” He stuttered; his face turning a light blue, “think of it this way, now you can help me prune the family tree and send a message that attacking Azazel will mean death.”

            “I have destroyed people for less, why would you even consider using Azazel?” I growled

            “I did not plan this at all.” Therin stammered, “But I can let you deal with the culprit.”

            “Daddy you said that we can get some special food.” Azazel wined from my back.

            “Fine we’ll get food first then I can go on a rampage” I nonchalantly said; then it hit me, “why would I even think that.”

            We walked under the shaded streets as Therin led us to a more lively section of the city. I watched elves laughing and having fun; though I wasn’t surprised when I found more than a few dismember elves lying in the alleys.

            “Here we are, the bloody elf, one of the best places to celebrate.” Therin said; pointing at a building at the end of the street.

            “The bloody elf; sounds like a curse, are you sure it is appropriate for children.” I asked as I examined the crimson building with a sign of a red colored elf that looked like he was screaming.

            “sure there are plenty of the little brats here, it is one of the best places for the rite.” He replied with a wide grin.

            We entered through the large double door and we were immediately assaulted by smoke and people screaming.

            “what is this place?” I growled; lifting my wings to cover azazel’s eyes.

            “this is a dark elf restaurant; great food, a fighting pit for elves to test their mettle, and some of the best wine found this side of the elven forest and they cook your food in front of you so you don’t have to worry about poisons. The smoke is probably from a mage going a little too wild.” He grinned.

            “Lord Therin, would you like your normal place?” asked a shirtless male elf.

            “Not today, I am here to celebrate my niece’s first kill, could you please seat us near the arena?”  Therin asked before I could object.

            “Certainly sir, just give us a minute to a place ready.” The man replied as walked towards the back.

            “What kind of place is this?” I pointedly ask the elf.

            “Lighten up, Fafnir. We are celebrating Azazel’s first kill, what’s a little bit of violence,” Therin replied, “and you have a chance to warm up for the blood bath.”

            “what’s a blood bath?” Azazel asked as she poked her head out from behind my wings.

            “Nothing sweetie, just sit down while I talk to uncle Therin.” I replied shooting daggers at the elf.

            “Fine, I’ll see if we can have them seat us at my normal spot along the wall.” Therin grumbled; singling one of the staff.

            “Yes, lord Therin.” A different half clothed elf asked.

            “My dragon friend reminded me of the danger of him being near fights, and I was wondering if we could be seated at my normal table as I don’t want this place destroyed.” Therin said.

            “”really” I sighed as the server dashed towards the back. It was a few minutes before the original half-clothed server returned.

            “You-your table is re-ready.” The elf stuttered eyeing me. he lead us towards weaving past wall segments to a lone table in the back of the restaurant.

            “He-here you a-are” he stuttered gesturing towards the table. “dd-do you want me to b-bring the usual lord Therin?”

            “yes, I would enjoy a morel wine,” he replied with a smile enjoying the server’s terror way to much.

            “n-nightshade, myceliry ok?” the server asked edging away from me. I could smell the fear on him, stupid nose

            “That’s fine” Therin replied; sitting down on one of the chairs.

            “you lord dragon?” the server asked; edging away from me.

            “What kind of juices do you have?” I asked as I grabbed Azazel from my back and placed her on one of the chairs

            He lists of a rather long list of fruits that sound like jibberish. I sighed before randomly picking a fruit called comous (if you want you can change it to french for pineapple) and shrink just enough to curl up on the plush covered chair.

            “Daddy, why are those people not wearing any clothes, you told me that people aren’t allowed to not wear clothes.” Azazel asked looking around the restaurant.

            “It to prevent assassinations” Therin quickly interjected, “their state of undress is designed to make it impossible to hide weapons on them and the pants are tight enough that any attempt to conceal weapons would fail.”

            “What is an assass-in-ation” Azazel asked

            “It when someone fights someone else really important.” I replied bending the truth a bit staring daggers at Therin once again.

            “Oh,” she said; plopping down with a confused look, “does that mean that if I fight daddy, I assass-a-nating?”

            “No dear, we are family so don’t worry about it. Therin what is good here?” I replied changing the subject more than a little annoyed at the elf.

            “for non-drow I would recommend the terrorlisk,” he nonchalantly replied

            “what is that?” I asked apprehensively

            “do you want to know?” he replied looking at me

            “fine, what about Azazel?” I replied with a huff

            “She should get the blood stew; it is animal blood, nothing sapient.” He replied.

            “What is with this place?” I asked

            “We’re dark elves” he replied, don’t worry about it. Now the real question is do you want to have a bout in the arena, it is a good chance to blow off steam, I know I will” Therin said.

            “Why did I let you drag me and my daughter into this?” I sighed realizing these elves were insane.

 

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this is not PRed so there are a few mistakes present,

also how do you have a restaurant in a culture where you can be killed at any point and it’s fine as long as no one finds out?