The Golden Scales

6: Exile

"Ouch!" Antonius complained loudly as Neven put a polutice in his cheek.

It was red and injuried, and it hurt even with the weakest breeze... and guess who was in a cart stopped in the middle of a field andhad an emergency cure being applied to him. According to his friends, a burn scar like that would mark his whole life. It was the sort of risk he took trying to protect Nichneven as the dragon decided to breath fire on top of her. Literally.

"Look, if you keep moving, I can't put the polutice on you." Neven threatened him. "And if I can't put the polutice on you, that cheek will look like a roasted piglet the rest of your life. Do you want to have a roasted piglet in your cheek?"

"Not really" he answered, ashamed. He wasn't a professional fighter, and was not used to being injuried like that. And by the love of all the Gods, it did hurt to have an injury like that. The others had some bruises, a dislodged bone and things like that. Most wounds were able to be healed using some of the potions they had, even though those generally worked better for internal effects, like broken bones or injuried organs. Potions accelerated normal healing to almost absurd speeds. There were harder things to treat that were more permanent, like burn marks.

"Okay, then stay still and stop moving that head as if you were a child whom I'm trying to get a grain off that face." Oh, that one hurt him. Antonius made a huge effort to try and keep his head still so Neven could work with ease.

"I have to say, I'm glad to leave that city behind." Ulfhärt laughed while roasting a rabbit in the fire they prepaired. "I mean, Hope maybe is not such a bad place to live... as long as you have money, like Lady Elora."

Kri-ling muttered something sounding like 'nasty woman'.

"Hope is a disgusting city." Nihilus replied, apparently happy having left Hope and everything to do with it. "I'm done with those sewers, they stank... and I can't say much good from the smell above. The city in general was sh-"

"But not everything was bad." Neven laughed. "If it weren't for it, we wouldn't have met. And we wouldn't have had this adventure."

"And we wouldn't have fought a dragon." Antonius complained, weakly.

"And they wouldn't have kicked us off it." Kri-ling added.

Because, well, they had been kicked off the city.

The group ate the roasted rabbit, accompanying it with ale and some mushrooms they found and that both Ulfhärt and Neven assured were edible and none would die of poison (which made everyone else feel a bit more safe), as they explained anecdotes of the last fight. It was a situation of life and death against an ancient and terribly powerful creature, but they survived. And, thus, they had to celebrate.

"And what's the plan now?" Neven asked.

"I guess what we can do now is go towards Geverhärt, the most central city of Helgund." Ulfhärt answered. "It might be our best chance to find work. There's an important Hunters' Guild in there, as well as banking, blacksmiths, good inns... you can do almost everything in there. And, I was told, you can buy anything. Most traders say that, if you want to buy or sell in Helgind, you must go to Geverhärt.

"That's good. Big cities are always interesting." Antonius said, biting a rabbit leg. "Is it too far?"

"Maybe a week or two on horseback. But there's some villages we can stop in to get provisions. And to also look to get some work."

"Sounds like a plan made by someone smart." Kilau laughed. "Wandering and finding a job. Hey, I'm the kinda gal to quickly get jobs. Both legal and the other kind."

No one asked what other kind of jobs and, it seemed, they didn't let her finish the joke. Which was very good, in her head, thus making the others a bunch of donkeys to not appreciate the kind of good humour she always loved. Their loss.