Draconic Sphere Ω

Chapter 6: It's Gonna Be Rats

"I can see I'm not needed here," said Wyck. He strode away, making loud knocks on the floor with his staff with each grandiose step.

"Good riddance," muttered Verano.

Brunhild coughed, opened her eyes, took a moment to come to, then hastily pulled herself up. "Sorry. Must have dozed off there."

"Oh, Brunhild, you're okay!" cried Dandelion, hugging Brunhild and crying in relief.

"What sort of cleric doesn't heal someone in need??" cried the elf lady plaintively.

"I'm fine, really! Not in need at all!" said Brunhild. To illustrate her point, she got up and made a show of stretching vigorously.

"You're okay now," said Verano. "This kind lady healed you. You were bleeding out."

"Oh," said Brunhild, a look of creeping horror on her face. "Um... thank you?"

"You're very welcome!" said the stranger. "I'm Lacrie by the way!"

"Brunhild..." said Brunhild.

"I'm Dandelion!" Dandelion squealed. "Thank you for helping my friend!"

"You're welcome!"

"Kaergat," said Kaergat. "Can we buy you lunch? To say thanks?"

"Well... I am hungry..." said Lacrie.

"Okay," said Kaergat, and nodded.

Dandelion clambered up a bar stool and grinned at Wintergreen. "What's cookin', Wintergreen?"

"Today we have blowtorched suckling black dragon with aberration eye gravy and potatoes," said Wintergreen cheerfully.

"Wow!" said Dandelion.

"Is that... normal in Aqua Profunda?" asked Brunhild, feeling very out of her depth.

"No way! I've never heard of people making gravy out of aberrations! I should come here more often!" gushed Dandelion. "I'll have one with extra eyeballs!"

Wintergreen shrugged apologetically and laughed. "The boss has kind of a... 'waste not, want not' approach to the monsters which guild members kill on their quests?"

"Just potatoes for me, please," said Lacrie, looking sick.

*

Verano had places to be, so in the end just Lacrie, Brunhild, Dandelion and Kaergat sat down together and waited for lunch to be served.

Dandelion got out a little bong and started loading it up. Seeing Lacrie's surprise, she said, "I wanna be hungry for this."

"So, um, where are you from?" Kaergat asked Lacrie after a while. He didn't seem comfortable trying to make conversation, but Brunhild seemed to be lost in some world of personal shame and Dandelion was already obscured by a cloud of thick, pungent smoke.

"The Havens," said Lacrie. "But my family moved to Aqua Profunda when I was small."

"Oh," said Kaergat. "And... um... what brought you to Feenschwanz?"

"I... wanted to be an adventurer?" said Lacrie.

"Um... are you asking me?" asked Kaergat.

"No! I mean, I wanted to be an adventurer! Yes!" cried Lacrie, suddenly very emphatic. She was so obviously lying that Kaergat didn't really know what to say.

"Lobdak," said Dandelion.

"I'm sorry?" said Lacrie.

"Lobdak. Or Kalbod. That's what our adventuring party should be called. A word made up of the first letters of our names."

"We're not an adventuring party," said Kaergat.

"'Course we're an adventuring party," said Dandelion. "It's so cliché that it's practically fate! A racially diverse group including a fighter, a thief, a cleric, and a wizard all meet in an inn!"

"You're a thief?" asked Lacrie, looking shocked.

"I'm not a war mage," said Kaergat. "I work in a mine. And I came to Aqua Profunda to study, not to go on some kind of strange quests."

"I'm telling you, it's fate," said Dandelion, smiling widely. "Just you wait, our first quest will be clearing giant rats out of someone's cellar. There'll probably be a healing potion in it for some reason! And gold coins in a barrel!" Dandelion sank into a fit of giggles.

"I'm telling you, we're not an adventuring party!" cried Kaergat, looking a little flustered.

"I'm sorry," came Wintergreen's voice. "Andromalius found this under some of the wreckage in your room."

The group looked around to Wintergreen. She was holding the warped, crumbled remains of what might have been once a sword. Only the pommel stone looked relatively undamaged – a sphere of red granite with a stylised "R" carved into it.

"That was a Redmayne sword!" gasped Kaergat, and looked to Brunhild, who had gone white. "You are from the Redmayne smithing clan!"

"My dad's gonna kill me!" said Brunhild. "I need to get a new one so he doesn't notice!"

"Of course, I'll pay," said Kaergat. "I'm the reason your sword got destroyed in the first place." Then something occurred to him. "Oh... Redmayne swords are supposed to be top of the range, right? How much would one cost?"

"One hundred and thirty gold pieces," said Brunhild, burying her face in her hands.

"Oh," said Kaergat, looking overwhelmed. "I... don't know... if I can... afford that..."

"Why don't you do a quest to make some money?" suggested Wintergreen cheerfully.

Dandelion burst into hysterics. "Rats!" she wheezed through fits of laughter. "I tell you! It's gonna be rats!"