Torin the dragon rider (TOME 12 of the TIAMAT'S WARS SERIE)

The barbershop

I listened to everything the adventurers said and then Beth showed me the list of quests.

"You start at rank F and you can if you want to take risks do quests of higher rank. But from rank D on, if you give up or fail, you have penalties and that can be expensive!

Children can only do missions of rank F.

That means without monsters or dangerous animals."

We went to the counter and asked what we could do as a beginner adventurer.

"Ah, kids... Well, there's mushroom picking and harvesting special herbs but also cleaning, working on the farm or helping a shopkeeper tidy up or work when his strength is not enough or if a third hand is needed for an artist."

Me: "But that's great! And we can earn money?"

"Sure," the receptionist said

We were excited at the time but it was not possible...Then we were shown to our rooms and I was happy to be with Dad.

I fell asleep in my chair and he carried me like a princess to my bed, one drawer below his and he put me back under his bed, kind of like the bunk beds and pulled the canopy drapes.

This way we could keep our body heat and after a few minutes it was soft and warm. A small round board with a ring was removed from the floor so that the heat from the fireplace and the room below could rise and also warm our sleeping places.

We could then also better hear the whispers and interesting rumors that were going on in the kingdom.

Dad was half asleep but listening. It was discreet and since no one ever slept in these rooms, late adventurers were not suspicious, and the beer helped to loosen tongues.

There was talk of a white dragon called the Abyss or Valtrox that flew over the villages a little too closely.

No quest to kill the animal had been launched. It would have been suicide but also a waste of unnecessary losses since the beast had not injured or killed anyone and no shepherd or farmer had lost any livestock.

On the contrary, when it passed, wolves and monsters fled the area. But the dragon inspired fear and danger. It was said that the beast was looking for the ghost of his companion Exodus...but this remained to be proven.

There were some dragons. They were not numerous and remained a fragile species that without the help of humans would be doomed to extinction.

In the myths, these animals came from the stars and other myths say that they are the survivors of the shadow of the megafauna that is now extinct.

Perhaps there are survivors in the other world, the underworld. With the megafauna gone, the dragons are mostly gone.

By hunger.

And those left were those with a slower metabolism, capable of long periods of starvation.

This affected their organism by being smaller, less strong and especially less intelligent.

Exodus would have been the last intelligent dragon of the ancient world...And with his disappearance, their culture, knowledge, history and writing disappeared forever.

We were talking like this but my subconscious was listening and I began to dream of dragons.

White ones spitting frost, yellow ones throwing poisonous thorns, red ones spitting fire, dragons also of rock and earth, without wings but digging huge underground galleries and spitting magma, the blue ones flying high in the sky and spitting rain and the metallic ones of bronze, copper, and gold spitting sunlight or lightning.

Then the black ones swimming in the shadows. One of them was crying...it looked like she was singing. It was a dragoness.

She was praying...Thor?

The next day, Dad woke me up and we went with our friends to visit the Britannia Museum.

But first, breakfast!

I was very hungry and we quickly ate our eggs and our bacon slices and we crunched an onion to protect our teeth...

It gave a terrible breath and the taste remained for hours but it was that or the tooth puller!

Mom said that if we weren't careful with the honey, our teeth could catch their death and fall out in a very, very bad way! When we passed in the street, we saw the barber getting excited about a little nobleman.

From the street we could see everything. He was a barber, a farrier and a dentist. He also sewed up ugly wounds when one could not afford the services of a surgeon or a clerk.

Faith is expensive and offerings are not cheap.

Sign: AT WILMET, ROTTED TEETH NEEDS TO BE HELD! The whole surrounding a large wooden tooth painted in white.

On top of it was a point and a pair of pliers. It was the turn of a small baronet. He had come with his butler and had paid for the comfort option.

He was made to drink strong alcohol to knock him out, but he spit it out, through pain and a burning tongue.

Probably too used to sweets and other candies.

Then a violinist started to play to muffle the screams.

Wilmet tied him to the chair provided, putting his knee on the chest of the kid who must have been about 8 years old.

"You brat! Will you shut up? Are you a nobleman or an asshole? What will his majesty say if he sees one of his nobles bearing the name of asshole?"

The child was terrified by the sight of all kinds of pliers, some of which were rusty.

Wilmet: "Sorry. To heal a tooth means to pull out...!

Child: "A priest! A priest! A cleric! I will pay..."

Wilmet: "This is not an injury or a disease but a sin. The sin of gluttony!

And the gods of virtues are uncompromising. You reap what you sow. You've been eating honey and now you have holes in your teeth!"

Child: "Arrgg.. Noooo Noonn not the claw, not the claw!"

The child shook and twisted, knocking the tray over.

The barber couldn't slap a nobleman, so he got angry at his assistant and slapped her.

"It's your fault that everything fell down."

Assistant: "But..."

Wilmet: "Shut up!"

And he grabbed the baronet's face by surprise and with two fingers he forced the cheeks open showing a red iron and with the other hand he grabbed the parrot pliers and twisted out the offending molar.

The boy's stomach hurt as much as his mouth.

He was in shock and the pain was stabbing.

He was bleeding badly.

"You sick bastard! I'm going to tell my dad! "

Wilmet and my uncle is a noble higher than your father, a baron and not a baronet!

"Ah, I saw a second damaged tooth... We can cauterize it with a red iron if you want it to stop bleeding.

The child didn't wait for the rest and ran off with a bloody mouth to his house, the butler settling the barber's bill.

Then he turned his head to me: "Did you like the show?

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say, whether to stay or to run away, but I chose to run away. I didn't like the idea of having a tooth pulled. But not at all!

He shouted:

"So eat your onions if you don't want to see me!" while I ran to join dad to see the museum.