A Tale of Fortunes Cross

Ch. 16: The Baby

Karaan and Sarah started back to the inn that Letholdus and Zevesda mentioned earlier. On their way past the pub Karaan decided to stop for a drink. Sarah wanted to go on back to the room. She turned and asked Karaan "It is ok if I head back?" He chuckled as he replied "You're free now remember? Don't ask me if you can go back tell me you're going back. If I need you I'll ask you to stay." She giggled, she still couldn't believe it, she was finally free, and on top of that she was rich. She went on to the inn. Karaan walked into the pub and saw Letholdus setting at the counter. He walked up and sat next to him. Letholdus asked how it went. Karaan responded "Five platinum to split between us, I never imagined I'd ever say those words." He chuckled Letholdus said "I never imagined that I'd hear them." Karaan ordered a drink from the tall bartender. As he took a drink Letholdus said "You know I hear that a skilled dragon slayer is in town." Karaan laid his glass down "Yeah, he's here to kill a nuisance." Letholdus chuckled and lowered his voice to a near whisper "So are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Karaan took another large drink and laughed "I didn't know you were the type!" Letholdus replied "It's all for science... and if I make a small profit on the side where's the harm in that?" Karaan laughed and they both drank up. After a while of talking and drinking the pub owner told them that the pub would be closing soon. They walked back together. As they walked down the dark and empty street Karaan asked Letholdus "So what about your informant?" He replied "He's already left town, no need to worry about him." Karaan asked "Do you know how long?" Letholdus said "He's been in town for about two days now, they should be about done with the extract any day now. So any time really." Karaan said "Ok, we'll have to be prepared for when the time is right, it will probably be some time after mid-day." Letholdus said "I agree, we'll have to get Sarah, and Zevesda to be ready as well." Karaan said "I'll pick my cart up first thing tomorrow morning just in case." They talked the rest of the way back to the room about their plans. When they got back Sarah was already asleep and Zevesda was polishing her knives. She asked where her money was and Karaan gave both of them their receipts. Zevesda said "I found a nice pair of knives in a shop, made from dragon tooth no less." Karaan replied "That's great!" Zevesda asked "Will you help me buy them?" Karaan replied "Sure but we may have to cut it short." Zevesda asked "Why's that?" Karaan replied "Wake Sarah up, me and Letholdus have something we would like to discuss with you." Zevesda woke Sarah up. Sarah somewhat grumpy asked "What's the bid idea?" Letholdus asked "How would you like to get rich?" Sarah looked at him confused Zevesda said "We already are rich?" Karaan chuckled and said "No much richer." They both stared back intently. Letholdus said "As both of you already know I sent a scout ahead to find the dragons nest so that I could study it. He left the town but not before giving me directions and a map to the nest." Karaan continued "There is an experienced dragon slayer in town to slay that very dragon, he is one of the best and he's preparing as we speak." Letholdus picked back up "As you both know dragons carry huge amounts of treasure in their nests. Treasures fit for a king, not to mention the large amounts of dragons gold that can be found on those mountains." Karaan "Dragons gold is well worth ten times its weight in gold. All we have to do is wait until the battle begins, then everyone in the town except for us will be on our way to the nest." Letholdus "Since we know where the nest is we'll have a head start of several days at least." Karaan "We can fill the cart with as much gold and dragons gold as we can possibly carry." "Letholdus "We'll split it up evenly the rest of our lives will be worry free." Sarah asked "Isn't that illegal? I mean, that gold belongs to the dragon slayer doesn't it?" Karaan replied "Yes it is, but he'll be paid rather handsomely for slaying the dragon, plus he could never take that much gold, it's expected that at least half of it will be scavenged before he ever finds it anyway." Sarah said "But that's still wrong and we'd be stealing from someone who slew a dragon, I don't care how strong Zevesda and Letholdus are they aren't that powerful I know." Zevesda noticing her worry spoke up. "So how much are we talking here a few platinum pieces each right?" Karaan replied "No, easily over a hundred platinum pieces to split among us." Sarah's jaw dropped. She asked "What about the dragon what if he doesn't slay it? What if it kills him?" Letholdus replied "It will take a while to get to its nest, if it kills him then it will return to its nest before we get there, we can just turn around at that point and walk away. And we may still find some dragons gold on the way." Sarah didn't have any more complaints she merely said "I'll have to thank about it." Zevesda said "We'll I'm all in!" Letholdus and Karaan both agreed that it would be best to be well rested in the next few days so they all decided to discuss the plans the next day. They all got up bright and early the next day. Karaan went with Zevesda to help her buy her knives. Letholdus and Sarah walked with them and they all talked along the way. Zevesda asked "So what are the plans?" Karaan said "Well we'll go pick up my cart first then buy your knives and just keep an ear out." Letholdus said "To get the biggest head start I think we should go when the fight starts, we should know by the roar that the dragon lets out." Sarah asked "How will we get there without anyone knowing about it?" Karaan replied "We just wait around until there isn't anyone around. Then we head out in the mountains, there are rough paths that go through them. Some natural, others made by people searching for dragons gold. We'll follow the closest one to the dragons nest then we'll make our own path to the nest. Once the fight starts everyone will gather around to watch it. It's a once in a lifetime chance to watch a dragon slayer kill a dragon. But this treasure is too." Sarah asked "So we just wait around?" Letholdus said "That's the plan, and when the fight starts the dragon will let out a loud territorial roar and everyone will flock to it. They'll stay at a safe distance, but they'll be a good distance from the town and far away from us." Sarah asked "How long will it take to get there?" Letholdus replied "It should take about a day and a half with the cart. The cart will slow us down a good deal that's why it's important to leave as soon as we can." Sarah asked "What about supplies?" Karaan replied "We'll buy some today but we'll probably have to rough it for a while, we obviously can't stop by in this town again, we'll have to go around. We will have to depend on Zevesda and Letholdus to hunt and gather food. Nothing I haven't don't before, but we'll probably have to ration a little." Zevesda spoke up "But it's be well worth it, we'll all be rich beyond our wildest dreams." Karaan spoke up "Only kings ever even dream of having that much money!" Letholdus said "We could build our own castle or buy a town. I could even buy my own dragon!" Zevesda said "Well keep it away from me when you do." Sarah shouted "Yeah same here!" They kept talking like that until they reached the court. They walked in and the man was fast asleep his head laid on the counter. Karaan walked up to him and lightly tapped on his shoulder. He woke up and jumped "Who's there? What do you want?" Karaan chuckled "I'm here to pick up my carriage." The man chuckled "You sure had a lot. Well worth that platinum piece, anyway yeah I'll go fetch it now." He walked to the back whipping his eyes. After a minute or two he came back with the horse and carriage following. He handed it back over to Karaan saying "Think's this miss was a big help!" He took out three copper pieces and handed Karaan saying "Get'r somthin tasty from me." He chuckled and bit. Karaan said "Will do!" and stuffed the copper pieces into his bag." The man patted the hoarse on its head saying "It's rare you find one this good, whats'er name?" Karaan replied with a grin "Epona." The man laughed "That's a heck of a name you're horse has there! Haha, I hope it can live up to its name. And I hope you don't expect it to." Karaan chuckled "Nah, just a little good luck charm." The man laughed "Well that has to be the luckiest name I ever heard." He shook Karaans hand and laughed as he walked out. After they got out Sarah asked "What was that all about?" Zevesda spoke up "Yeah I'm curious to." Letholdus laughed and Karaan said "It was the name of a giant horse that supposedly lived in the norther horn before it was colonized. It was said to be twenty feet tall and untamable. The stories are obviously exaggerated but it was called the protector of the horses. It's a nickname that trainers give to horses that are said to be untrainable." Sarah responded "Well why would you name it that?" Zevesda broke out in laughter "I've never seen a human who likes elves this much!" after she cooled down a bit she explained "To humans it would be an insult to name a horse untrainable. But to elves it would be a blessed name given to mighty horses. In the human tongue it would mean defiant; but in the elvae tongue it would mean strong protector, because it was a powerful horse that protected the others in its herd." Karaan laughed "Honestly I didn't name it, that was its name when I bought it. It was supposedly supposed to be untrainable but it took a quick liking to me. I let it keep the name as a good luck charm because I knew the origin. But I didn't put much thought into it because I was just a kid then." Zevesda hugged him "That's still a great name, you just made my day!" Letholdus spoke up "More than the money?" It hit Zevesda that she was rich and about to be richer and she hugged Karaan even more. They laughed and talked on all the way to the weapons shop. They walked in and they had everything one could imagine, in the corner they had three barrels and a desk with some very good metal weapons, they were all priced very low. Normally Karaan would buy these up to sell later for a huge profit but he had enough money he was just here to buy some knives for Zevesda. She ran to the knives on the wall, they were as white as pearls and just as shiny. They were magnificently sharp. They had an improved version of her wind seal and they just overall looked wonderful. They had a price written on the wall next to them. They were 40 gold pieces each. Sarah was dumbfounded by the price. Letholdus was at the other end of the store staring at the dragon bone staffs. One in particular was a bright red staff with a slight curve near the bottom. It had a huge piece of beautiful ember at the top. He almost cried at the sight of it. Karaan saw him gawking over it and asked "I've never seen that color in a staff before." He saw the price next to it and raised his voice to ask the shop keep "How much is this staff?" The shop keep replied "Two Platinum pieces." Letholdus said "This is made from a dragons horn core. The outside of the dragon horn is carved off and it leaves just the core, that's worth it alone. But the ember on top is a rare piece, it's pure ember so it's not as rare as living ember but a piece this big is still rare, and no one has ever discovered a piece of living ember this big. The ember itself is worth half a platinum piece, this staff is actually underpriced." The shop keep spoke up "Haha, I heard that! I told the boy not to make it but he just had to. You don't make something like that without a preorder and a good down pay. I told him it wouldn't sell, any mage good enough to use it doesn't need it. It's only good as a decoration piece." Letholdus replied "It's a very nice decoration piece though. This would normally be priced at 6 platinum pieces. But I might be able to make use of it. I'll offer half a platinum piece." The man laughed "And I'm almost tempted to take that offer; but it's worth more to me than that as a decoration piece. You have to admit having that will drag people into my shop." Letholdus replied "How about a platinum piece?" The man replied "I have it priced at two, that's a third of the price it should be, honestly that's what I bought it for and that's what I'll take for it. If I have to take a loss on it then I'd rather just keep it for decoration, though if I can make that money back then I'd be more than happy to let go of it." Letholdus replied "Well I think I can use it but I don't know about that much." Karaan asked "Why is this staff so much harder to use than other staffs? I thought they were all the same just better quality." Letholdus explained "No Staffs are kind of like a bucket of water. You have to fill them up with magic before you can use them, but they help you to concentrate that magic and release powerful spells all at once, like dumping the bucket out. Staff quality depends on how much control it gives you over the magic and how much magic it carries. A staff that holds a lot of magic like this may be unusable to normal mages because it takes too much magic to fill up then its good for one good use but then in a situation where you need to use it more than once it can be completely useless if you don't have a large magic pool or good control. That's not saying that you can't use it more than once at a time without expanding a lot of magic. But it takes a lot of energy and puts a major strain on you to control it all. But that's not all. Staffs don't just hold magic like a bucket holds water. It will for a short while but if you don't focus to keep the magic in it then it will leak out, so you can't just fill it up and use it later, you have to keep it full. A staff's materials also decide how much control you have of it, generally the more magic it will hold the easier it is to control it coming out of it, but not in all cases, for example the staff I have now won't hold nearly as much magic, but will offer about the same control as this one. In my line of work a staff like this can come in very handy though. But for most mages a staff like mine would be worth much more. That's because you need to make up for the lack of control in the staff. And for a staff like this one you need a vast amount of control. I have very good control but low magic, so it's perfect for me but only because of my line of work. For a normal mage that needs to cast a lot of spells in a short time this would be a horror on both fronts. Basically for them to be able to use a staff like this they would have to be near the level of one of the five, but as you already know they don't need staffs, they have the control and just the immense amount of magic so they can cast a lot of very complex and very powerful spells in no time at all." Karaan replied "Oh so that's what he meant when he said that any mage who could use it doesn't need it." Letholdus said "Honestly I don't need it, I could do a lot more with that money than I could with this staff. But honestly I want it just to brag about so much that I'm tempted to buy it." The shop keep spoke up "Well do it! I'll tell ya what I'll knock ten gold pieces off those two knives your friend's looking at!" Karaan said "You have a deal if that's ten each." The man thought for a minute and said "Sure, you'd probably talk me down to that anyway, so have at ya!" Letholdus spoke up "Hold on, I didn't agree to that." Karaan chuckled saying "If you don't like it I'll take it. I know how to get rid of it if you don't want it. I might be able to make a small profit off of it, but if not I can at least minimize the cost." Letholdus said "Well do what you want." They ended up making a deal for 260 gold pieces for the knives and the staff. Before they finished the deal though Zevesda asked him what she could get for her old knives. The man let out a sigh "Oh' crap. Not more junk..." She pulled them out and set them on the counter saying "They aren't junk, they've been really good to me, it's just time to upgrade." The man looked at them and apologized saying "Sorry, most people come in here asking that trying to get money for their metals, I don't deal in metal, just dragon made." He examined the quality and said "Listen I won't beat around the bush or haggle with ya. Honestly I hate to haggle I just do because that's what most people expect. I'll sell these things for 15 gold each, they aren't new and while they're in excellent shape people come in here to buy custom and new wares. These are used so I can't sell them for as much if I ever want to get rid of them. I can tell that you are recent to money so you might not see a difference, but the wealthy people who buy my wares would never buy a used item for the same price as a new one, even if it were only used once. I mean no insult but honestly it will be harder to sell them at all because they are used. If I mark them down then I may be able to sell them to someone less wealthy. But even then I can't sell for as much so I can't buy for as much. I can offer you ten gold pieces and Ill barely make a profit form that." She looked at Karaan, he said "Yeah, rich people are usually pretty picky. And honestly a third isn't a very large profit for a merchant. It's a very reasonable price, it would be an insult to try to negotiate that so I'm out on this one." Zevesda said "Well if he says it's a good deal then it's a good deal." They accepted that deal and Karaan sent Zevesda to withdraw the money from the bank saying "You're the fastest so run there and back and I'll pay you back later." As she left Karaan asked about the regular weapons in the corner. The shop keep said "Oh those pieces of junk? Takem all if you want, on the house!" Karaan looked somewhat skeptical the man said "Look people come in here and leave their junk behind all the time, even if some of it is really good quality it's all junk to me. People come in here for one reason, dragon made weapons. They sometimes ask me for a discount for their old crap and sure I'll give'em a few copper pieces off but that's it. Their hard as crap to get rid of, I would just through them out, but every so often I have a merchant come in and buy them all up and it makes their day and gets me a little bit, but the space they take up is worth more to me than the value of all of them put together. I just keep them for those merchants, and the occasional customer that likes one. So take whatever you like, you're a customer I'll give them to ya." Karaan thanked him and walked to the other weapons in the corner. Some of them were very high quality with very complex seals carved into them. As he looked the shop keep spoke up "Those things are good for one thing. We can copy new seals off of them and add them to out weapons instead of paying some mage to do it for us." Karaan chuckled and picked out two swords about the same size and weight as Sarah's sword and with seals on them as well. He also picked out a pair of daggers much like the ones he already owned. They waited, it wasn't very long before Zevesda returned and they paid him and handed over her old knives. The shop keep gave them new sheaths for the knives that Zevesda bought and a new holder for Letholdus' new wand; but that was common for such high priced items, it was considered a courtesy. Letholdus also bought a new holder for his other staff; he paid a full gold piece for it. After leaving Letholdus set up his holders so that he could carry both of his staves on his back in an X shape. These holders were very high quality; they were unique in that they used seals that drained magic from the host to keep the staves locked in place. This way the user can quickly remove them with ease; this seal was set up to use very little magic, so it wouldn't be a drain on even the most inexperienced mages. They walked to the alchemist and picked up supplies to make medicine for a month just in case. All of the ingredients fit inside of a coin bag. Letholdus asked the alchemist "Have you heard about a dragon slayer in town? We're here to watch him in action but one of us have really heard anything about him." He replied "Yeah he's going to try to lure it out tomorrow. At least from what I understand." Letholdus thanked him and they left. Karaan said "Well I guess we have until tomorrow. Anyone up for a good meal?" Everyone simultaneously let out a loud "I!" They went to a good restaurant in the town and ate a good meal. The next day they walked to the mountain trails and looked around a small shop on that end of the town. About mid-day there was a loud roar, followed by another, and another. Even though it was out of sight the roar still rattles the shop walls. The group all ran outside followed by the shop keep who locked his shop. They took the hoarse and started toward the dragon the shop keep ran that was as well There wasn't many people left in the town by that time because most had already closed up to go watch the fight. When the shop keep got far enough ahead of them they turned around and began for the mountain path. It was very rocky and there were a lot of turns. Before long they were surrounded on all sides by mountains. They looked like huge hills they were covered in trees and weeds, only the tops of them were bare, but from their angle the foliage blocked the sight. But this was pretty convenient, it made them feel safer because it provided cover from the dragons above. They walked for the rest of the day. Sarah said "I thought mountains were supposed to be huge barren rocks?" Letholdus replied "That's only near the top where plants can't grow, most of the mountains are covered in a forest unlike anywhere else on earth. The southern mountains don't have a lot of trees because it's so dry but these do. These mountains actually block all of the water from the desert so they are very lush. In the south it's the opposite. Though if you go far enough in I'm sure that you won't find much vegetation. But no one has ever gone very deep in these mountains, the dragons get extremely vicious on in. We're just going to the edge of dragon territory." They walked on for the rest of the day, birds and small animals were everywhere, but they were also very weary. Zevesda said "Larger animals like shaw don't live here because they are eaten up in no time. This place is famous for immature dragons. But that's when you go further in." The trees here were much softer than the other trees in the north, but they were also much sorter. There weren't a lot of fruit bearing trees in the mountain forests. They walked for a day and a half and found the nest of the dragon. As they walked Sarah would use the swords that Karaan picked up to practice using the seals. Letholdus Zevesda and Sarah all worked together to make a path up the mountains. Sarah would use her sword to chop down trees when needed and Letholdus would use his magic to clear the path of weeds and other obstacles. Zevesda would scout ahead determining what path they should take. It took a little more than half a day to reach the nest. They reached it about night fall. They used what light was left to cook some food and make several torches. They planned to stay up for the rest of the night to gather gold and when the cart was full they would head out taking turns sleeping and guiding until they were all caught up. They ate some food to fill them up and get their energy up for the rest of the night. They took their torches and began exploring the cave. As they walked in they noticed that the cave walls were for the most part very smooth and round. For this reason they decided to bring the cart with them. Letholdus explained "Dragons usually dig their own caves and use their fire to smooth the walls. As we've already witnessed, dragons fire is hot enough to melt the very ground itself. They use this to melt the walls of their caves smoothing them out and reinforcing them. It actually somehow makes collapsing much less likely. No one really knows why they dig their own caves, some believe that they are picky about where they are because natural caves are more likely to collapse." As they explored there were several small branches off of the main cave. Karaan asked "We've been walking for a little while so where's all the gold?" Letholdus answered "Dragons usually keep their gold in a special pocket in the back of the cave." Everyone was surprised by how dark it was. It took fifteen minutes before they finally reached a huge cavern in the back of the cave. It had several smaller caves branching off of it. Letholdus said "This must be the actual nest. Supposedly this is where the dragon sleeps. Do you feel how warm the floor is? Somehow dragons have a way of keeping the floor constantly warm. Some scholars believe that they intentionally build their nests over top of volcanic vents deep under the mountains. This keeps their caves warm no matter how cold it is outside. Anyway let's split up and look for some gold. All of the gold should be in the same place so as soon as you see any yell out and let everyone else know. Everyone agreed to split up. Sarah was shaking from nervousness because she was in a dragons nest but it was too late to turn back now, she didn't fully comprehend the situation but she knew what she had to do so she started looking for gold. After several minutes of searching and just chatting back and forth Zevesda heard a clink when she stepped down. She leaned down and picked up what appeared to be a gold coin. She staired at it for a few seconds and stuck it in her bag then shouted out "Hey guys I might have something here!" She walked forward to discover a huge room glittering with the color of gold. As she walked a little further she could see a mountain of gold before her eyes, she could hardly believe it. She shouted out "I found it, I found it!" Everyone but Sarah started to rush toward her. As Letholdus ran into the branch that Zevesda was in Karaan turned around to see a Sarah frozen in place. He shouted to her "Hey Sarah its over here! She found it, c'mon." Something obviously wasn't right. She began to nervously walk backward, very slowly. Karaan began walking toward her asking "Hey are you ok?" She fell backward on her but and screamed in a crying voice as she flipped herself around on all fours and started running toward the exit. Karaan shouted "What's going on?" Letholdus and Zevesda all ran into the room to see what was going on, they ran in just in time to hear Sarah shout "DRAGON!" Everyone froze up instantly. Karaan took a few steps back. They stood completely still for what seemed like an eternity. Sarah had crawled away but she was now too afraid to move, she was frozen and crying. After several minutes Letholdus asked quietly "Are you sure you saw a dragon? You weren't just seeing a shadow or something were you?" The three moons in this world lit up the night sky, it was a constant blue, it was brighter some nights more than others but there was always at least one full moon. A dark cave like this without even moon light could easily cause delusions in those that weren't prepared. Sarah shook her head no. He began forward to the place she was standing before. Zevesda reached out and grabbed his shoulder. He turned around and gave her a strange look saying without words "I want to check it out, trust me." She let go and he slowly crept forward being careful to make as little noise as possible with his footsteps. After he got a few feet Zevesda began walking behind him. They crept slowly until he reached where she was before. Zevesda stopped several feet behind. He leaned down and slowly crept even more forward. Karaan and Sarah both watched nervously. After a minute or two Letholdus signaled Zevesda to come close, she did. They had both disappeared behind a wall. After a few more minutes Zevesda walked back out laughing. Karaan instantly calmed down saying "So it was just her imagination." Letholdus came to the edge of the wall and standing there with his dragon staff said "No there really is a dragon back here." Sarah started crying again. Karaan chuckled thinking they were joking "Let me guess it's an old skeleton?" Letholdus walked out with Zevesda and said "No it's perfectly alive and well, in fact you could say that it was more alive than its mother." He lightly tapped his staff on the ground and a small dragon ran out following him. It was pitch black and had nubs where it horns should be. Its wings were very tiny for its body and while it was fat, it stood only two feet tall. It had a large round head that was about as long as it was wide. Its head alone was a foot long, but unlike a normal dragon it had a very broad snout. In fact its snout was almost indistinguishable from the rest of its head, except for a point that gave it an almost raindrop shape. From the tip of its nose to its hind legs it was about four feet long and its tail stretched another two. It ran around Letholdus's feet once then to Zevesda and around hers once then stopped between her legs. She leaned down and started to pet it like any normal pet. Karaan was surprised at what he saw. In fact he couldn't even comprehend it. The most sought after item, the most valuable thing in the world was standing right in front of him. It was a baby dragon, and it was being friendly, it was playing with Zevesda. Tears came to his eyes as he thought of the profit that he could make from this alone. This had to be the luckiest day of his life. Letholdus said "Take out some of the food from earlier and give it." He did. He reached into a pouch on his side where he was carrying food from earlier and took out a large chunk. He lowered it to the ground as if asking it to come and take it. It jumped and ran halfway to him. Then it stopped and nervously very slowly backed up a few steps. He waived it a little and spoke in a soft voice, come here. It caught a whiff of the meat and made another jump running excitedly toward him. It stopped and sniffed the mead a little before quickly grabbing it and swallowing it whole. It ran around in a circle around him several times and began sniffing at the bag that held his food. He took out what was left and gave it to the dragon. Karaan ran to the cart and got into the back. It tried to follow him but it couldn't. Its claws left large scratches in the back of his cart. He wasn't even mad he got more food and gave it right away. As it ate Letholdus and Zevesda walked back up. Letholdus said "Pet it." He did. He was amazed, its scales felt... soft... They weren't smooth either like an older dragon they were somewhat fuzzy (like a peach) it was strange. He said "What is this?" Letholdus said "Well it's a common belief that dragons have the same scales their entire life. They just add more as they grow. I've always wandered where that belief came from myself but now I can see. Its body right now is very small so it has these small scales, as it ages in its first few years its first scales grow larger, once they reach their peak size it probably starts to grow new ones as it grows larger. This is absolutely amazing!" Karaans eyes just continues to sparkle. Zevesda helped lift the dragon into the cart. It was a little nervous at first, but it soon started sniffing around for more food. Sarah was still in the corner crying much harder now. Letholdus walked up and tried to comfort her. "Hey look it's just a baby. Its scales are soft and it can't even breathe fire yet. According to my records it will be a hundred years before it could ever even think about hurting you. As it is now you wouldn't even need dragon scales to kill it, a normal sharp log would do." This helped her calm down a little. He continued "You've faced much tougher I'm sure. I mean look at Karaan, he's weak. If he isn't afraid of it then you don't need to be either." She wiped her tears away and said "Thanks. Just give me a few minutes ok." He replied calmly "Sure take as long as you need. But you need to know, we're taking it with us." Surprised she screamed "What?!" Karaan chuckled; Letholdus continued "I don't think any of us three could let this opportunity pass us up. But you're free now, you are free to do as you please. We'll give you you're share of this gold and you can go your own way right now if you want." He calmly got up and left it with that. He walked back to the cart with Karaan and Zevesda. They talked for a minute about what to do with the dragon. They decided that they would just tie it up somehow and through it into the back of the cart as they left. They went into the back and took the cart with them. The dragon was a little upset at first as it found it hard to keep its footing in the moving cart but before long it just laid down. Everyone but Sarah was now in the large gold chamber and began collecting gold. They took the most valuable pieces first. The jewelry and goblets with jewels encrusted. There were a few golden weapons for show and even some staffs. These could be sold at a slightly higher price than normal gold coins and would be easy to get rid of. Next they began collecting gold coins and throwing everything into the cart. Karaan picked out the most valuable coins that he knew of and showed Letholdus and Zevesda so that they could look for them in particular. They knew their coins well but there were coins here that were more than three hundred years out of date. Karaan knew some of these as it was one of Albafs hobby to collect old coins. As they gathered all the gold that they could load into the cart without weighing it down and breaking its wheels. The dragon jumped out and would run around playing with all three. It seemed to have taken a special liking of Karaan. After they gathered all the gold that they could they headed out. Sarah was finally to the point now that she could stand and walk, though she avoided the dragon. They tried to catch the dragon for nearly an hour but to no avail. It thought that it was playing a game and ran away every time. Then it was quick to return. They decided to leave and see if it would follow. Amazingly it did. As the approached the entrance of the cave it started to lag behind more and more until it was a fair distance away. They stopped to discuss what to do, it didn't seem to want to leave. But as they talked it slowly crept out. They were all surprised especially Letholdus. Who dug out his notebook and began taking notes right away. Zevesda agreed to go ahead and search for food. They would need plenty now, especially with such a big baby. Sarah walked ahead clearing out any obstacles in their way. She made sure to stay away from the dragon. By the time they reached the bottom of the mountain they agreed to take another path to avoid the village. It would be bad if they were caught with all that gold, or especially a baby dragon, right after that dragon was killed. Zevesda returned with some small rodent like animals that were common in the mountains. She then ran ahead to scout out he path they would take. They planned to come out in the desert. That would be easier on Karaans tires and have the least chance of getting caught. They guided the cart for the first day then decided that they were far enough from the nest and other trails to rest. They set up camp and Zevesda had brought more meat. They had planned to take turns but it was obvious that that wouldn't work. Sarah was still too afraid of the dragon and there wasn't much room in the cart, on top of that everyone was just so exhausted that it wasn't reasonable to ask anyone to stay up. The Dragon wanted to play but after it realized that everyone else was sleeping it finally curled up to Zevesda who instinctively wrapped her arm around it. She woke up in the morning to some raunchy dragon breath. She pushed it off and got up quite quickly. It ran back up to her and she petted it, apologizing to it. It was obvious that it couldn't understand her but she felt better saying it. Since she was the first to get up Zevesda began cooking breakfast. Everyone else slept until she woke them up. They ate and fed the dragon its portion it ate twice as much as any of them. They repeated the same process for the rest of this day. Zevesda scouted ahead and Sarah cleared the path. Letholdus helped to clear the path and Karaan guided the carriage. By the end of the day they had found a stream and followed it into the desert. There was a desert oasis between two mountains. They decided to camp there that night. The stream lead into a small pond that was surrounded by strange trees. Including an apple tree. They picked apples and tried a recipe that they learned in the northern horn. In the pond there swam some swoon, very rare and extravagant fish kept as pets and sometimes eaten by the rich. These fish are known for their appetite for gold. They have golden scales made of actual gold. They only live in places where gold is common. These were very large. They caught one and cooked it feeding it to the dragon who happily ate it whole. It wasn't a huge fish, barely over a foot long and only a few inches wide, yet it seemed to fill up the dragon. Perhaps it was because of the gold. They sat watching the fish glitter in the pond for the rest of the night. The moonlight reflected off of the scales of the fish making the water itself take on a golden tent. The fish appeared as solid gold swimming through this small sea of liquid gold. They all got tired watching the water and decided to go to sleep. The dragon once again slept with Zevesda. They awoke the next morning, this time Letholdus was the one cooking breakfast. After breakfast they started out once more. Since they were in the desert again there weren't many obstacles that needed to be taken care of. So they all walked together. As they walked Sarah finally built up the courage to approach the baby dragon. She walked up to it and leaned down offering it food. As she leaned down is stated to growl at her. She backed off a little but nervously persisted. It let out a roar. Or it tried at least. It was a very high pitched ROAR. It sounded like a baby animal letting out a squeaky roar. It did it once and then backed up a little and let out another. It stopped and after a few seconds leaped snapping at Sarah's hand. She fell backward and it ran off to Karaan. He chuckled saying "I guess it doesn't like you." She sighed and got back up. It didn't seem so scary now, it couldn't even roar properly. But she didn't like that it didn't like her. As they continued to walk Letholdus walked up to it and examined it closely. He petted it a little and it seemed to like him. He found a large scale growing on the back of its neck, it was ordinary and there were several others just like it. He played with it a little to see how much it would bug the dragon. At first he just touched it, then wiggled it, then lifted it up. None of the scales were connected only over lapping. It didn't seem to like having the scale lifted, but at the same time didn't seem to mind a lot either. After a while he jerked the scale out. It was much easier than he thought. Its skin was still weak. It squealed when he did that and ran to Karaan to hide behind him. Karaan asked "Why did you do that?" Letholdus said "I want to try something." Karaan sighed and said "We'll don't hurt it too much." Letholdus replied "No that's all I'm going to do." He went to the hoarse and got into the pouch that had some of his tools in it. He pulled out some tools and went to the back of the carriage. The dragon stayed close to Karaan for the rest of the day, he would occasionally reach down to pet it. Letholdus spent the rest of the day working on something behind the carriage. As the day ended and they sat down to eat they discussed what path they should take and where they should go. Karaan said "We'll need to go to a royal city if we wish to sell a dragon. I would prefer trying to sell it to the king of Dissent." Letholdus interrupted him saying "Actually I would like to keep it and study it as much as possible." Karaan replied "I thought we had agreed to sell it." Letholdus said "Well I never really agreed to that and besides we're going to be rich either way." Karaan replied "Dragons eat gold don't they? We don't have a clue how much it would eat." Letholdus replied "Well we don't really know if baby dragons eat gold or not. And even if they do then it should produce dragons gold, we'll practically be making our money back." Karaan exclaimed "And how do you suppose we'll feed it? Dragons eat a lot don't they?" Letholdus replied "There are still things to figure out, but this is an excellent study opportunity. We can gain knowledge that we've never been able to before. Besides the conditions that pet dragons are kept in is abhorrent, I can't allow such a beautiful creature in my possession to be put through that kind of torment for who knows how many hundreds of years. I refuse to!" Karaan finally said "Ok fine, we'll take a vote." Looking over he noticed the dragon, it was laying on its belly but it was staring adamantly at him." They took the vote. Karaan and Sarah both agreed that it should be sold. Letholdus voted to keep it and study it. Zevesda exclaimed "I would like the money as much as the next person but I was raised an elf, and no matter how much I don't like that I can't watch a baby like this needlessly suffer, I say we keep it." Karaan asked "And what will the two of you do once it outgrows us and turns violent and territorial, or if it never outgrows us and when we are all dead it is left alone to die? We have no idea how long dragons live, and we shouldn't assume anything." Letholdus replied "If that's the case then we will figure something to do with it. And the first time that it seeks to harm any of us you can all leave it, I will too if I find it dangerous." Karaan replied "I still don't like it, there's too much we don't know." Letholdus replied "That's why we're doing this." Sarah asked "Why are you involving us anyway. It's not our problem so we shouldn't have to deal with it." Letholdus replied "That's right, and you shouldn't feel any obligation to help, but I will need help and I would appreciate it if you both helped out." They thought for a minute.