It didn't take more than a couple of days in the desert before Sarah could concentrate her energy into her sword. However ten seconds was exhausting. After which Letholdus told her to concentrate her energy into the sword while swinging it. She found this to be much more difficult because no longer was it manipulating a system of flow in one direction outside of her body and into and around another object. But now it was an ever moving changing object. On top of that moving the energy outside of her boy was very draining. She found it difficult to do this for more than a minute without resting for several hours to regain her energy. Letholdus told her that normally mages build up their energy like this for years. But she wouldn't need to do that she would just need enough for a few seconds in almost any situation. Every time she went to swing her sword before she could even move her sword the movement and rearrangement of the muscle fibers in her arms would interrupt the flow and cause it to stop flowing outside her sword. It was the third day before they ran into the first brox. Zevesda slayed it as usual. This time she cut out more of its meat then usual, apparently there were much fewer brox in the northernmost part of the desert. Sarah asked why this was. They all laughed "Isn't it obvious. Look to your right. See those mountains up there? That's the nesting ground of all of the major dragons in the world. They may be distant now but in a few weeks we'll be right at the base of them." Karaan said. Sarah froze "Wait we're walking right next to the dragons nesting ground?" Karaan replied "Yeah. But don't worry it's actually safer than the last rout that we were on, though we will see a lot of dragons here. It's not uncommon to see a dragon or two every day after we're a week in." Sarah looked as if she were going to cry remembering that huge dragon that took down a brox from the last time that they crossed the desert. Karaan patted her on the back and they carried on. The next day they approached a strange tree. It was a dragons bane tree, a fully mature one. It had several huge fruits on it, each were at least two feet long. This scared Sarah because she knew that dragons love these fruit. But Karaan calmed her nerves by reinsuring her that the fruit weren't even near being ripe and that dragons only like the ripened fruit. It was only two more days before they saw a dragon flying overhead. It was like a bird in the sky it was in the clouds. It flew over in a fairly straight line and vanished in the distance after a few minutes. This terrified Sarah however. She found her legs weak at the thought of this massive creature. As they continued on Karaan and Zevesda picked on Sarah a little, teasing her for her fear of dragons. Sarah didn't make very much progress in the days since they started in the desert. But they still had plenty of time. It was a lot dryer in this part of the desert than the other part. Letholdus told that it was because the other part was closer to the ocean and the air was more humid. This part of the desert was much drier because it was so much further form the ocean. As they traveled Letholdus continued to examine the letter that Agatha had left for Karaan. He found a few new seals but the deeper he dug the less he understood. It completely baffled him. What baffled him the most though is how the spell was still active without even a seal. Sure the seal could be written on the paper inside, but what would be the purpose of that it would have to take up all of the paper inside front and back and it would all have to be folded a certain way so that some seals touched in a certain way and others didn't. There would be no room to leave a message. Plus if it was bumped in the wrong way then it could move the paper and mess everything up. So how was this even possible? He had heard of seals before that are permanent that never lose their power but they are engraved into the item, surely Agatha could use one of these but this wasn't engraved in the paper it was just there. Even if she had somehow cast a spell over a long distance she was dead now its link to her would be severed so this spell shouldn't exist. It completely stomped him until he finally gave up on it. It was only a few more days until they saw another dragon. Again Sarah was completely terrified, but the same as the last it passed over not even noticing the cart or any of them. They kept walking until they came across another brox. Zevesda did her thing. But this time Karaan and Letholdus helped her to carve it. While dragons like hunting their own prey, younger ones, hungry ones, or especially territorial ones will attack anyone who attacks a brox. It's not uncommon for hunting party's in the north to never be seen again with reports of a dragon attacking the carriage. But no one wanted to mention this to Sarah they just gathered up the meat and hide and went on. They took as much meat as they could carry because all the dragons keep the brox population down in the north and they aren't nearly as common as they are in the south. As they walked the mountains got closer and closer occasionally there was a dragon. But after another week dragons were appearing every other day Sarah was scared half to death of this. But after another week she had stated to get use to the dragons and had improved considerably with her sword skills. Their journey was halfway over, they continued on through the desert. Sarah finally got over her fear of the dragons and was working hard on her sword skills. They were now walking against the mountains. They were cautious when killing one of the box because of all the dragon presence. Dragons bane trees were much more common they passed one every couple of days and usually looked for brox that were near the trees. This scared Sarah more than usual she asked why they would ever want to do that. Letholdus explained "The dragons aren't stupid creatures, they are animals, but not stupid ones. They have enough knowledge at least to know that if they get into a fight even with a brox near one of these trees then there is a good chance of harming the tree. Dragons will never fight near a tree unless they sense that it is in danger. They are actually very delicate with one of these trees. Some researchers have recorded the ways that they eat the fruit of the tree. They do so very delicately, some will leave the top of the fruit intact, others won't but one thing that's always constant is that unlike humans, dragons will leave the stem of the fruit attached to the tree. Even if it means that they can't eat the whole fruit they will do everything in their power to keep the trees safe. Some believe that the dragons bane trees are a source of strength of magic power to the dragons. That makes sense, dragon bane extract is famous for its ability to increase a person's strength and magic power, however when consumed by humans it often has negative side effects. It's not known how the actual fruit affects us because anyone stupid enough to try to take a fruit is often killed by a dragon." Sarah didn't know what to say but it sounded strange why would a dragon need a fruit to make it stronger? Letholdus said "Well when a dragon is in captivity it is often much weaker than a dragon in the wild. Don't get me wrong they are still dragons and still very powerful, but they are very weak compared to wild dragons. We know that all wild dragons don't eat dragons bane, and we believe that the main reason for this is gold. Dragons produce dragons gold but the problem is they don't produce enough to cover the coast of the gold that they eat. And on top of that no noble in his right mind would want a full strength dragon in his care, it's too risky. But we also know that stronger dragons with larger territories often eat dragons bane. So there's a debate over whether dragons bane is the reason for their strength or if the strength just allows them to eat more dragons bane, and then there are many who believe that it's a little of both." Sarah accepted his explanation and moved on with practice. It was a couple of days later that they saw something absolutely amazing. In the distance was a dragon that had taken down a brox. It was eating its prey when another dragon swooped down from the sky in an attempt to hit it, much like the one that they watched take down the brox. But the other dragon wasn't having none of that. With its front two feet it grabbed the other dragon and swung it around and into the ground. This was at a distance the dragons were barely noticeable but they could still see them, and they could hear them very well. Letholdus took off, followed by Zevesda and Karaan to watch the fight. Sarah wasn't happy about that, she decided to stay as far away as she could and stayed with the carriage. The attacking dragon got up asif nothing had happened it was like the dense sand in the desert was a cushion for this massive beast. With a loud yelp it let out its breath. The other dragon walked toward it completely ignoring this fire that melted the sand. It reached up grabbing the other dragons face and slamming it into the ground. Then let out its fire on the other dragon. Letholdus could cry from the excitement of this fight, he pulled out a pen and paper recording everything and fast and accurately as he could. This was surely a rare sight. And while fights have been observed before between dragons they are extremely rare, they are believed to most often occur at the dragons nests. Just when it appeared that the fight was over the other dragon grabbed the foot of the first dragon and swung it to the side off of its face. Its foot appeared to bend in an unusual way. The attacking dragon leaned up and bit the neck of the first dragon and swung as hard and fast as it could to the right. The first dragon was now on the ground in a disadvantageous state. Neither Karaan, Zevesda, nor Letholdus could believe their eyes. But the fight wasn't over yet. The first dragon swiped its tail knocking the attacker off guard. The power of this hit could clearly be heard even from the distance that everyone was at. But it didn't appear to do any damage at all to the attacking dragon, other than knocking it off guard. But this allowed the first dragon to escape from its grasp. It stood up and both dragons clashed their heads together. Their massive horns made contact. This clash was so strong that it left a shockwave through the air. This continued on clash, clash, Clash, Clash, CLASH, harder and harder, faster and faster each time. By the end of it the sheer thump of the clash was almost enough to hurt Zevesdas ears. These were obviously creatures not to be trifled with. The clash concluded when the left horn of the attacking dragon broke off. It snapped in half and that dragon began to back off. But the first dragon didn't wasn't going to let it get away. It charged into the chest of the attacking dragon who grabbed the first dragons face and slammed it into the ground. But this didn't stop it, it's right foot appeared limp now but with its left it grabbed the back leg of the attacking dragon and used this to knock it off balance. With the leg and its head combined it successfully pushed its attacker onto its back then bit into its chest and ripped out a huge chunk of meat. It started to shove its head into the wound that it created, probably going in for the kill. But just then another dragon swooped in and succeeded where the first one had failed. With the full weight of its body it plowed the first dragon into the ground with a roar from the first dragon to accompany it the sound was too much for Zevesda with her sensitive ears to stand. Even Karaan and Letholdus had to hold their hands to their ears for this. This dragon appeared smaller than the other two, probably a younger one that waited for an opportunity to present itself. Even with all of the observations of dragon fights thus far this had never before been recorded. But the fight still wasn't over. The first dragon pushed this smaller one off of it, but as soon as it stood up the smaller one head-butted it in the side shoving its horns into its side. The first dragon let out another loud yelp and shoved its tail into the face of the smaller dragon. It caused some apparent minor damage to the smaller dragon and appeared to hurt its eye. Knocking the smaller dragon off guard it head-butted it shoving it into the ground. Then with its claws tore across the side and the wing of the smaller dragon. The smaller dragon used its tail to knock the first dragon off guard and got back up. The first dragon didn't hesitate to head-butt the smaller dragon once again knocking it to the ground. It scratched it again. The second dragon at this point had gotten back on its feet however it was obviously too weak to fight. It flew off in the fray. The first dragon scratched the smaller dragon several more times. Then bit its neck. It swung its head to the side quickly and powerfully several times. The smaller dragon grabbed its face and shoved it into the ground. Unfortunately for it this attempt to get free failed and it aided the first dragon in breaking its neck. Or at least this is what everyone assumed because the smaller dragon stopped moving and the first dragon released it. The first dragon limped off and flew away. Everyone walked back to the cart to see Sarah frozen in fear. They decided that for Sarah's sake they would stay the night there. The next morning they had a discussion "It will be about half a day's walk but just think of all the money that we could make. Dragon parts are more valuable than gold." Letholdus said. Karaan and Zevesda agreed without hesitation. Sarah however said "What if that one is still alive, just sleeping or something?" Letholdus said "We all saw the larger one break its neck nothing could survive from that, and besides even if it did it would almost definitely wake up before we got to it." They continued to talk like that among themselves going back and forth for some time until Sarah finally agreed to go with them. But she agreed only on the condition that they wait another day. It would put a small strain on their food supply but they all thought that it was worth it. They waited until the next morning ate a good breakfast then set out for the dragon's corps. As they walked Sarah asked "Aren't dragons cannibalistic? What if another one comes to eat this one?" Letholdus replied "They aren't actually cannibals. They will eat dragons of other types but not the same type. That is unless they are desperate. Well that is major dragons at least. There's never been a recorded case of a minor dragon ever eating a major dragon, obviously. And water dragons are so rare and vicious that that there aren't any recorded cases of them attacking any other dragon. And honestly even if it did and it won it would probably drag the other dragon so deep into the water that we couldn't tell if it ate it or not." Sarah said "Oh, well I suppose that's some relief I guess." Sarah got more and more nervous as they got closer and closer to the dead dragon. It took several hours to finally reach it. Sarah dragging behind the whole way. They finally reached it and it was absolutely enormous. Larger than a two story hotel. Sarah finally caught up and she found herself amazed by the sheer size and power of this beast. But for the first time she wasn't scared. She was just amazed. For that instant when she gazed upon this monster close enough to touch it, she wasn't afraid of it. She wasn't anything, except amazed. She reached out to grab a single scale. She pulled as hard as she could but it wouldn't come off. Zevesda walked up to her saying "We don't have the tools for that. Even the strongest man in the world could never pull out these scales without the proper tools. It would take days just to cut it out, even with my dragon claw blades." Sarah asked "Dragon claw?" Zevesda laughed "Oh yeah, I never told you did I? I'm usually quite the bragger. Yeah these knives coast me about 20 gold pieces ($200,000USD). They are made from a single dragon's claw. The third hardest material in the world. Only beaten by dragon's teeth and horns. Though after this I think I'll be able to afford the upgrade. Dragon's parts are so strong that it takes special tools just to collect them. We'll probably tell the villagers in the next town about this dragon and they will pay us a hefty fee for the information. But before that we will gather as much as we can without tools to sell, that way we can maximize out profit." Sarah asked "So could I get my sword made from dragon's teeth as well?" Zevesda answered "Yes but it wouldn't just be expensive, it would take a lot of time. My knives are small and it would still take up to two years to make them. A sword like that, and especially with such a complex seal. It would take an expert craftsman ten years at the very least working nonstop to make that weapon, it would coast you two platinum pieces, at least, and you would have to pay one up front. I'm sure Karaan would lend you the money if you really wanted it, but do you want to be that indebted to him?" Sarah didn't respond but she thought to herself "No not really, well maybe. Do I?" it would mean that I would have to be with him for probably the rest of my life. Do I really want to stay with him for that long?" Zevesda laughed "Of course you would have stay and watch the craftsman to make sure that he didn't run off with your money. For that much money I wouldn't trust anyone." She started climbing up the dragons back saying "Look around the ground for some parts that have been broken off. Even small fragments are valuable." Sarah looked around and she found dragon scales all over the ground. They were quite thin and very light weight. She thought for sure she could break one with ease. That is until her curiosity caught up with her and she tried. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't break it. She continued to pick them up. She found a few that were in small fragments. She didn't have a clue how you could sell these but she picked them up anyways. She looked for hours but couldn't find anything other than scales. She met up with Karaan when they went to put what they had found in the carriage and she asked "There's nothing here but scales. Can we really sell these?" Karaan replied "Yeah. These things will go for a gold piece each." Sarah was amazed by this. A gold piece each, she had picked up at least 50 since she started. Karaan said "Yeah we're all rich now. After we drop these off we will split them four ways and you can go free." Sarah didn't know what to say. She turned around quietly with Karaan and started looking for more Karaan chuckled at the look on her face. They continued to gather parts of the dragon for the rest of the day. They set up camp there and continued to collect parts on into the next day. They ended up with the cart filled half up with dragon's parts. Sarah noticed some strange black leather in the cart, it was obviously from the dragon but she asked where it was from and how they got it. Zevesda replied "That's the skin from the wings. It makes excellent magic resistant light armor and robes. That's probably the only part that can be cut with my knives." She replied "Well that's cool." They kept walking. Karaan and Letholdus talking about the dragons parts they had collected. Letholdus asked Karaan "What are you going to do with your fortune?" Karaan replied "I honestly don't know. I guess I'll start up a shop or something. It's safer and business is more stable. I would be able to retire but I don't think I'd want to honestly. What about you?" Letholdus replied "I'm not sure. I want to keep studying dragons but that much money makes a huge difference. I guess I'll figure it out later." Zevesda interrupted saying "Well I'll keep doing what I'm doing. I'll upgrade my stuff and keep going. With a life like mine you can't just stop. She looked at Sarah and asked "What about you?" Sarah didn't know what to say she replied "I'm not sure either. I never really thought about freedom none the less fortune. I think I'd probably retire somewhere nice maybe." They walked on and as Sarah thought she asked "So how are we going to sell all of this? I mean if it's so valuable we'll have to sell it to a king won't we?" Karaan chuckled saying "No, well we were beyond lucky. The town that we're going to actually specializes in dragon equip. They have more money than their capital. It's a pretty small town and most of the townsfolk live fairly modestly, but almost everyone in the town has enough money to buy a dragon if they wanted to. No one can live there unless they are extremely skilled in working with dragon parts but it's perfect for selling these." Letholdus commented "Yeah, that's why I was going there. Well and there's believed to be a dragon's nest fairly close to the town. I hired a scout to find it for me, I was going to stake it out and do some observations." Sarah asked "Isn't that dangerous?" He replied "If you get to close and don't act right, yes. But I can camp out on a nearby mountain and observe it and it won't care as long as I'm cautious and careful not to disturb it." She shrugged it off and went back to practicing. In the following weeks she improved to the point that she could swing the sword in one direction without losing her flow. Letholdus commented on it saying "Have you already forgotten what I taught you?" somewhat surprised by this question she asked "What do you mean?" He reached out his hand asking for the sword. She handed it to him. He activated the seal and swung it. He swing it several times in every direction without breaking the seal. Sarah said "Yeah you're better than me, so what?" He replied "You are to the point now that you should be able to do this. But you are making one swing then another it's not one continuous movement like I taught you." She said "Oh, I'll try that." He smiled and handed the sword back. She tried but still couldn't do it. He said "Keep it up you'll get it soon enough." Within another week she was starting to get the hang of it. They still had another week left to go. Letholdus said "It would be great if you could start practicing but you can't do that with those kinds of seals. We'll see if we can find you a different sword in the next town before we part ways. That way you can keep practicing." Sarah smiled but asked "Why can't I just keep using this?" Letholdus replied "You need something to hit and anything you hit with that will break, you don't want to go around breaking everything do you?" Sarah said "We'll I guess." Letholdus chuckled "Besides that would be bad for your sword." Sarah said "Yeah I guess I didn't think about that." When they killed a brox they would only take a few basic parts, they didn't really need the money they were going to be rich anyway. After another week of traveling they finally reached the next town. First thing first they went to see the town leader. The town leader was the one responsible for arranging expeditions to gather dragon parts. Karaan walked in to speak to the town leader. He was in a two story building in the first room there was a staircase and next to it a desk, the desk was that of his assistant she was a young woman. Karaan told her why he was there and she replied saying "Please have a seat and I'll get you in to see him when he can afford the time." Karaan sat in one of the numerous chairs in the room. Everyone was with him, Letholdus and Zevesda said "We'll go reserve a room at a local inn, you two deal with the business. Don't let us down." Karaan smirked in confidence. As they waited several people walked in and out, every walking up the stairs just talking to the assistant, many of them took notes and delivered notes, other just talked a little and walked off. They waited for some time before the assistant got up and walked up the stairs. After about ten more minutes she came back down and said "He will see you now. Karaan and Sarah got up and followed her to his office. They walked up the stairs and through a short hallway, it had only three doors, one was a restroom, one was untitled, and the other third door at the very end of the hallway was his office. In the middle of the hallway on the left side hang a large portrait of a dragon fighting a knight. It was very well made. They walked through the door and it looked like an average office, it was very clean and organized, though there were large stacks of paper everywhere. He sat in a chair in front of the town heads desk. Sarah sat in another chair at the back of the room to the right of the door. The town leader was an old man, he had grey hair and his face covered in wrinkles, though he was obviously still very fit for his age. He said "So I hear that you come with news of a dragon corps." Karaan replied "We do." The man said "Now I expect that you will want paid for your information. What is your offer?" Karaan replied "6 platinum pieces." The man laughed "That's such a ridiculous price, I'll give you half of one." Karaan said "Surely a whole dragon corps, even rotted is worth more than that." The man changed his offer "Fine one and a half platinum pieces." Karaan said "Surely you can go higher than that." The man replied, I have reports saying that you come from the east, surely you, being a common merchant would have followed the normal path. So I can deduce that it would be fairly easy to find this corps without paying you anything at all by simply following the normal path. I'm being considerate by offering you one and a half platinum pieces. Surely a deal like that is something that most merchants such as yourself only dream of, yes?" Karaan replied "I came to this town because a companion of mine is a researcher who specializes in dragons, while observing a rare fight between no less than three dragons we ran off course. In order to observe the fight fully of course. The desert is very vast and I doubt a normal man could spot the dragon from the trail, assuming that he even followed the same trail that we did. Surely the supplies and time spent wandering the desert would not even be worth the reward from a single dragon. While at the same time dragons are still quite rare and valuable creatures, I doubt that you would let such a small amount influence your decision." The man chuckled saying are a good one merchant." He shook out his hand saying "You may call me Bramwall." Karaan reached out and shook his hand saying "You may call me Karaan." Bramwall chuckled and said "Well Karaan it appears that you have come at a bad time, you see we have recently hired a very capable knight to take down a dragon that has been a menace to our city for some time now, this dragon may be young but it is still quite valuable. And surely we will reap its rewards, in short while we would like it, we do not need your dragon. It's simple supply and demand. Dragons just seem to be high in supply as of now." Karaan smirked "But what next? Surely there aren't so many capable knights such as this, and surely you cannot send him to kill every dragon, and young dragons are so rare on top of that. What happens when you run out of parts when supply is once again low? If I'm not mistaken you are almost always on the search for dragon parts to fill quotas, paying ridiculous prices in some instances. Wouldn't buying an extra dragon now for even an elevated coast save you much more in the future?" The man thought for a minute and said "I'm sorry but I'm not negotiating for the future I'm negotiating for the present. And at present dragons just aren't in demand." Karaan replied "We'll my friend is a dragon researcher and he has a few colleagues that I'm sure would love to prick and poke at the dragon. Maybe they will sell you their leftovers. Though dragon researchers are pretty picky about that. They'll probably pay more anyway I just thought that it would be simpler this way but not that I think about it more money would be preferable." Bramwall said "Yeah. I'm sure that they would be willing to pay more than me anyway." Karaan reached out to shake his hand, likewise he reached out to shake Karaans they both said good day and Karaan turned around to walk off. As he walked out the door Bramwall spoke up saying "How much did you say you wanted again?" Karaan replied "Nine platinum pieces." Bramwall laughed "No really?" Karaan smiled "Six" Bramwall thought for a minute then said "I'll offer two." Karaan said "Now the longer we wait the worst the condition will be, plush you risk scavengers. A bunch of researchers will just take what they can get but I'm sure you're in it for a profit. I can get at least five out of the researchers." Bramewll thought for a minute "No. They will be expecting scavengers too I doubt they will pay you more than three. Besides it's rare for them to have that much anyway, these must be some wealthy researchers." Karaan chuckled "They're part of a conglomerate." The man replied "We'll I'll out bid them with three and a half." Karaan only wanted three and a half but now he felt confident. "Make it four and you have a deal." The man said "You do realize that I would normally buy a fresh dragon for five right?" Karaan replied "That's because the people selling it to you don't care for it, they just want the money. But it's actually worth six. And I have another buyer. I'll take four but that's the lowest that I'll go." Bramwall thought for a minute and replied "Ok four it is, but for that price I'll expect you to provide proof that you found a dragon." Karaan replied "Sure, we obviously scavenged what we could before we left, not even close to what you could though. It should be sufficient proof however. It's out in my cart just outside the door." They shook hands once more and Karaan showed him to the cart. Just as he had said there was more than enough in the cart to prove the dragon. He inspected the dragons parts and said "I really wish you hadn't gotten to this wing, but oh well. I noticed that you only have the skin from one wing why is that?" Karaan replied "It was turned over on the other." Bramwall replied "Well at least that is some good news." Karaan said confidently "Well here's some more. About half of our parts, including this horn are from another dragon. Unfortunately that one got away." The man replied "Yes that is unfortunate I assume I could have paid the same price for both. But on the other hand. I would assume that it would be a hassle to walk shop to shop to sell these parts for a good price, I'll offer you a platinum piece here for all of it". Karaan thought for a minute, he couldn't get much more than that for all of it and he wouldn't have to run shop to shop, besides he already had more money than he could think to do with. He replied "Sure a platinum piece here." They shook hands and Bramwall sent his assistant and a note with Karaan to the town bank. As they walked in a young man sat behind the counter, he said "Hey Susan. To what do I owe this visit?" The assistant replied "Well seems like the mayor just bought us another dragon." He replied "From these two? They don't look like they could take on shaw, let alone a dragon." Sarah was obviously offended by this. Karaan spoke up "I don't think I would be talking that way to a skilled bounty hunter. But none of us killed a dragon, we aren't that stupid. We watched a fight between three dragons, one of them turned up dead and we're just reaping the rewards." The young man laughed "Yeah that sounds more like it. But which of you is the bounty hunter? No offense but neither of you look up to it." Karaan replied "It's my companion here, but I assure you she's taken her fair share of heads." He chuckled "Well whatever, if you have a receipt then I'll cash it for you." The assistant handed him the receipt. He examined it and said "Oh wow, you actually got him to pay full price on your word. You must make a heck of a merchant." Karaan chuckled "Well a cart full of dragon parts doesn't hurt either." The man replied "Yeah I see here he gave you another platinum but its unspecified what for, I would assume that's it." Karaan replied "Yeah that's it." The man reached below the counter and grabbed some papers and began filling them out. He told Karaan "Please have a seat, this will take a few minutes." Karaan and Sarah, along with the assistant sat on the seats against the walls. After a minute or two the man asked "Would you like a deposit or a withdrawal. Karaan replied "Deposit please, however I am in a party of four and we agreed to split the amount evenly so I would like you to make the deposit into three accounts. A fourth of it into my existing account, and a fourth into my companions account here. However my companion owes me some money so I will collect it now, the amount is in two gold, twenty silver, and thirty six copper pieces. That will be moved into my account. Finally I would like a third account with the remaining amount and two notes, each note for half the amount in that account." The man took notes while Karaan talked and after he finished said "Please bring your notes here and show me. Karaan and Sarah both walked up and showed him their notes. He kept them and they sat back down as he continued to process the accounts. After a minute Sarah turned to Karaan and said in a light voice "Two gold? I thought that I owed you more than that." Karaan replied "Well I was planning for it to be bigger surprise but circumstances dictating. I have actually been giving you a full silver piece a day but I've been taking half of it off of what you owe me and giving you the other half to do with as you please." She didn't know what to say so she hugged him saying "I knew you were a good guy but this..." She let go and they sat and talked more he asked "So what are you going to do now?" She replied "We'll I'm sure you'll need a guard until you settle down so I guess I'll just figure it out as we go. Though I think I may have to ask for a raise." Karaan laughed with her and after another minute the man spoke up "All set." They walked up and grabbed their new notes. The assistant spoke up "See ya' Bobby." The banker replied "See ya'" Then she spoke to Karaan saying "We'll drop off the parts at the court. Bramwall is responsible for finding requested dragon parts, it's part of his job. We have a store in the court when parts are bought by him and when a requested part comes in then the requester is notified, otherwise they are kept and organized until they are needed." Karaan replied "Well that seems like a pretty good system." They followed her to the town court. It was huge, much larger than any other court they had seen. Even large then the ones in the royal cities. Sarah spoke up. "Is it this big because you keep dragon parts in it?" The assistant replied "Yeah, but it's actually much larger than it looks, it goes on inside of the mountain. It has to be so large because when we first start gathering dragon parts there are so many of them that they couldn't be stored in any normal building. Well we could but it would be a mess. Because of their value it's extremely important that we keep them organized as well as possible. Otherwise someone could easily walk out with a few scales and no one would ever be the wiser. And to organize different parts of a dragon effectively takes a lot of space, but even then this is built to hold parts from three dragons. Supposedly a little over a hundred years ago two dragon slayers had an argument after killing a dragon. They argued about who dealt the finishing blow. In order to settle this argument they set out to find and kill a dragon each. They would conclude that the one with the largest most ferocious dragon would be the victor. The first one to kill a dragon had quite a large one, the second one saw this and got upset that he was yet to even find a dragon of his own. He searched until he finally found one, unfortunately it was an adult. He knew that he couldn't take it but he tried anyway. He ended up killing the dragon but at the coast of his own life. He was declared the victor and given a hero's burial. The other slayer being his best friend decided to raise his child as if it were his own. The child had a mother and they had plenty enough money but he helped to raise it. Teaching it to fight and even to kill dragons. He bought a young minor dragon and when the boy was only fourteen he had slain it. The boy grew up to be the best dragon slayer ever to walk this world. His name was Gareth. He eventually had a daughter then a son, after he had killed his third dragon he decided to retire. His son is living up to his father's name quite well. He is called Exavian and we have hired him to take out his second dragon in this very town. There's a rumor going around that he is first in line to take Agatha's place as one of the five. I'm sure that if he can slay this dragon he will be a shoe in for that place. Anyway I got a little off track. Supposedly it was originally built to hold two but when the two slayers slayed three at about the same time it was built up to hold even more, in quite a hurry." Sarah replied "That's a cool story. And is he really that strong? I mean one of the five really?" She replied "Well it is just a rumor." Sarah continued "We'll I find it hard to believe that the five are all powerful enough to take on dragons." The assistant and Karaan both broke out laughing Sarah looked confused and somewhat insulted. Karaan spoke up "No they aren't that powerful. Dragon slayers are trained their entire lives specifically to kill dragons and they use equipment specifically meant to aid them in slaying dragons. In a one on one fight one of the five could easily overwhelm any dragon slayer. However any dragon could easily overwhelm one of the five. They are two completely different classes you can't really compare them. The rumor that he is next in line to join the five is because he is so skilled at using magic. Most dragon slayers are, but not to his level. The dragon slayers rely on mostly physical assault and physical abilities. The five rely on magical power and abilities. Don't get me wrong anyone would show up to see a fight between one of the five and a dragon slayer that would be a heck of a fight. But one of the five would win hands down. Dragons are immensely powerful creatures but if you can determine where they will strike they are easy to dodge. The five however strike from every angle at once, even with dragon scale armor a person's body isn't as strong as a dragons and they would be killed in no time. At the same time it doesn't matter how much magic you pumble a dragon with it will be perfectly fine. There are different classes of warriors, most dragon slayers are in the night class, more specifically they are magic knights and while that does give them an advantage over normal knights when facing mages, a mage is still a disadvantageous opponent for the knight." Sarah asked "well what is a mage weak against. Karaan replied "An archer class, a skilled archer can shoot their opponent from a distance while avoiding attacks like magic. Even one of the five can't hit a long range target from every angle. At the same time though arrows and other projectiles are easy for a knight to block." Sarah asked "Ok I'm starting to understand, so you really can't compare them to each other like that." Karaan said "Exactly." Sarah asked "Well are there any archers that are at that skill level?" Karaan replied "Yeah they're called master archers and they are just as rare. Unlike dragon slayers and the five master archers don't have a clear system for being recognized as a master, for knighted there are a few titles. Dragon slayers are obvious, they are declared such when they slay a dragon, there are also master knights; they are determined by proving their skill level against several other masters. Then the five for mages, and master archers don't have a clear rank. But there is also another class. The deft class, I suppose you could put me and Zevesda in that class. It's a class of warriors who are light on their feet and are good at improvisation. They usually use small easily carried and concealed weapons like daggers and knives. I don't know the ranking system for them really, but the master rank is called master assassin. They are different from the other classes in that they are usually nimble but weak. They are weak against every other class in a direct confrontation, but they specialize in taking out their opponent before they even realize that they are there. In a one on one fight against anyone of the same level they are pretty useless. But pit them against an unexperienced opponent in any class and they will have a major advantage, but their biggest advantage is off the battle field. They can draw their weapon and end a fight before a mage has the chance to cast the simplest of spells." Sarah somewhat surprised asked "So wait you're an assassin?" Karaan chuckled saying "Oh yeah. I'm a killer for higher." Sarah backed off a little and the assistant spoke up "It's not the same thing, an assassin is a type of deft, but all defts aren't assassins. Most merchants are trained in the deft class because it helps to get out of sticky situations. And master assassin is just a title it doesn't exactly mean that you are an assassin, though most of the time they are, it's just a rank." Sarah said "Oh well that makes sense... I think." They walked into the court, the entrance alone was large enough for a large cart and several horses to walk through. Probably because of its use as a store house. They walked up to the front and there was a middle aged man behind the counter. He had quite large muscles and a thick beard with dark brown hair, but a bald head. He had a deep voice he spoke up as they approached the counter "So what do you have for me now Susan?" She said "Bramwall bought us a cart full of dragon parts, we'll also be getting an expedition soon to get the rest, but in the meantime we need to drop these off and get them organized." He chuckled "Well where the heck did yall get those dragon parts?" Karaan replied "We saw a fight between three dragons, one was unfortunate in the fight, another was very fortunate, leaving us unfortunate." The man laughed as he took out several small stacks of paper work. He said "I would love to hear that story!" Karaan chuckled and told him the story as he went to the back of the cart and began sorting through the parts, filling out paper work as he did. After they were finished the man said "This is quite a bit you have here, would you mind if I kept your cart over night to help organize everything. You can pick it up first thing in the morning." Karaan said "Sure, if you hurt it or the hoarse though I'll charge you." The man replied "Ofcorse, I would expect no less."
YOU ARE READING
A Tale of Fortunes Cross
FantasíaThis is the story of Karaan a young magic-less merchant, in a world filled with magic and magical creatures. It was party inspired by "Spice and Wolf" But is by no means a "fan-fic". Karaans adventures takes him throughout a wonderful, enormous cont...
