Acari

Chapter Seven

Ragnar came to retrieve Acari in the morning.

He'd put her on a chain and he'd put a specialized muzzle on her to prevent her from talking. The muzzle was heavy and uncomfortable and kept misplacing itself as they moved forward, but she wasn't allowed to stop walking because if she didn't the chains would tighten and choke her, and Ragnar had made that pretty clear.

They walked and walked, passing more and more of the same cases; dragons eating, fighting, and crowding around others. Occasionally, there would be the bodies of the deceased, most likely death to a stronger opponent, if Acari knew anything. They continued to travel through the troublesome streets until they were met with a mediocre hut, similar to the hut of Mayor Glitter's, but this hut was decorated in a vastly different style.

An assortment of dragon horns hung from the rooftop like ornaments while blood was strewn and splattered along the walls like paint, giving it a menacing aura. The house did have a fence like Glitter's did, but this time the fence was made out of barbed wire, a sharp and spiky wire that Acari was foolish to run her talon along. The door to this mayor's hut was labeled with a scroll nailed onto it, reading: ANYONE WITH THE INTENTION OF ANNOYING ME (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) WILL BE SWIFTLY DEALT WITH. (Does not apply to Ragnar ♥ ️.)

Ragnar led her up to the door, not bothering to knock, as he pushed inside. Inside, there were weapons of all sorts, knives, stones, some stick contraptions, and some bottles of suspicious liquids, all of them adding to the menacing glare the hut gave Acari.

But nothing compared to the menacing glare of the mayor who owned this hut. She was red with black horns that curled up and two horns on her forehead, both different in size. She had a black underbelly and translucent green hair that was very similar to Java's pink hair. Her eris was a light pink and she wore a green head scarf and a green cloak along her body. The second Acari saw her, she recognized her immediately as the dragon who stormed out of Glitter's hut yesterday. Suspicions started to battle each other in Acari's brain.

If that's the dragon that stormed out of Glitter's hut yesterday, and she is in HindFoot, does that mean she was plotting with Glitter to abduct me? And if this is true, maybe she called Ragnar and two others to come and take me? But why?

Glitter would never do such a thing to me. Right? Was she really trying to take her away this whole time? Was this all an act? A cruel one at that? But Acari could see the hope in her eyes. Was that all an act too? How could she know? Glitter was an expert at hiding her feelings. But it felt so genuine...

It couldn't be true; Ragnar and the others had no interest in keeping her alive until she started the blast that even she didn't know could even happen. Plus, when the red dragon had burst out the door, it had seemed like they had just been in an argument about something serious to the mayor. As well as when Ragnar and the other two arrived, they were riddling Mayor Glitter about something they'd been waiting a while for. Perhaps the Mayor was asking Glitter whether or not she was finished, and they had sprang the subject into an argument.

Or maybe it went deeper than I think and maybe I don't have all the pieces to the puzzle yet. Well-

"Mayor Batair," Ragnar said, driving a spear into Acari's thoughts.

"Deputy-Mayor Ragnar," Batair spoke with a lilt that reminded her so much of those sleepless nights with her mother—back when her mother used to tell stories and sing her to sleep—but also with some unknown authority behind it. She seemed to be analyzing a supposed taxidermy attempt of what Acari could only assume was a fennec fox on the wall before her (what kind of monster would get someone to taxidermy a fennec fox?! Yuck). "I assume you've brought something worthy of my time? No point in getting worked up over something futile again."