Kingdom Of The Weak

Again the roar sounded out as an unmistakable shape descended from the clouds. Shadows took shape in solid glistening brown form, as down from the skies came the creature everybody had hoped would never cross their paths…

"D-dragon…!" Aren"s voice, and hands shook.

The sinuous form emerged, scales like stone and wings stretching farther than an entire Sky Barge"s length. Fire leaked out from its mouth as it breathed, staring down at the hapless people below with wide, cart-sized eyes.

"Battle stations!" Aren shouted. "Man the ballistae! Quadruple crews, maximum reload speeds!"

But then, from afar came a psionic shout. Remian"s voice echoed in everyone"s mind. [Black alert!]

Black alert was the highest level of alert and the one intending the highest level of safety. Don"t cause a ruckus, shoot, don"t fight, don"t even make a sound! The whole concept was, in short, "Run And Hide!".

The signal from the guard post went out, a few drumbeats in rapid succession; Ba, bdum, DUM!

Seeing the dragon coming down on top of them, n.o.body argued. Everyone abandoned the big guns and ran for cover.

Then, there was a nervous, tip-toeing silence.

"Maybe it"ll pa.s.s…" Aren whispered to his tensed-up wife.

As if hearing that as a signal, the dragon fell upon them with nerve-wracking speed, dropping past the Red Fang that had just arrived at KarGoth. It landed in the Pit, and then stretched its head over the side, so that…

Wait. What?

Someone hopped off the dragon.

"Hey, guys! I"m back!" Darian announced cheerily. "Guys? h.e.l.lo?"

The only sound in KarGoth for the next few seconds was a loud clang as Zana dropped the saucepan she was about to cook breakfast with.

***

Remian tried his best to announce that everything was okay, and that Ha"res-dras was not about to eat everybody (probably), but they didn"t seem entirely convinced. It wasn"t until Phoebe went around a.s.suring everybody that Ha"res-dras was a friendly that people began to calm down.

Nevertheless, Phoebe suddenly found a lot of work to do at KarGoth that morning. There was a slew of sudden medical emergencies, including two heart attacks, three crushed feet, two concussions caused by running into something hard like a pillar, and one case of spilling boiling water onto one"s own tummy while attempting to make tea.

Thankfully, n.o.body died.

Remian almost joined her list of emergency patients. Despite having traveled by airship, the journey to the south had still taken its toll on him. By the time they set down in KarGoth, he was already pale and on the verge of throwing up. It was all he could do to greet Aren before he had to ask for a bucket and emptied out his stomach incessantly.

"This won"t do. You need to rest!" Zana leapt into her role as hostess and had Aren bring almost all of them to the Adventurers Guild branch in KarGoth.

Why almost all? Well… it"s because one of the adventurers who had gone with Remian and Mindy was Talia, Aren and Zana"s daughter. Naturally, she simply went home with her parents.

Also, Sandra and the quiet boy Gammie had replaced two of the adventurers who had gone to Dragon Lake from Three Pines. Maybe they were bored of guarding a warehouse/treehouse?

They didn"t sound like it, though. They were enthusiastically telling people about how absolutely huge those trees atop Three Pines Peak were.

"You know, those just normal sized if you go to Dragon Lake." Mindy nudged them after the fifth retelling. "All the trees around the lake are about that big. They"re all dragon-sized. Worse, I think the trees farther south from there are even bigger."

That shut them up… for about twenty seconds.

"Where… are my parents…?" Remian asked Aren while Zana was bustling around tidying up the already tidy room at the new Adventurers Guild Branch in Kara.

"They"re still in the Sky Barges. Your mom"s Barge is helping out at the Farm, your dad"s is fishing with the Encles."

Remian breathed. "They need to… know…"

"Trust me, by now, everyone in Shadowflash fief knows that Darian came back with a dragon pet."

"Not a pet." Remian corrected, shaking his head half-feverishly. "A comrade."

Upon hearing that, for some reason, Sandra flat out burst into tears.

***

She just couldn"t take it any more.

"Gammie! We"re going to the Farm!" Sandra announced.

"Why?" Gammie asked, distressed.

"We"re going to find our own Comrades!" Sandra said. "You can find someplace to sleep later!"

Gammie gave the nearby rooms prepared for them a wordless, longing glance as Sandra dragged him right out of KarGoth and onto the next Tug from KarGoth headed for the airport.

It turned out this Tug also brought an entire Sky Barge along on this trip. This was one of the school Sky Barges, the one that Remian"s dad had been fishing on just this morning. When Darian arrived, he almost leapt out of the Barge and dashed right into the mines, telling his students to just "go do something!".

"Something" turned out to be a cargo delivery to the north, an almost full load of fire copper bars, jade and fish. That, plus one crate of some super-secret cargo everyone was very hush-hush about.

The minute they docked at the airport, though, Lisa Vin barged onto the Barge. She barked, "Where is he?"

"Who? Teacher stayed back at KarGoth." Alani, the head girl of the Sky Barge Encles School informed her.

"Darian! Where"s my son!?"

"He"s there too. So is Remian. Everyone"s there. They said to send word." Alani explained.

"They"re all there?!" Lisa spun. "Izak!"

"Yes, ma"am!" Izak, the head boy of the Sky Barge Farm School stood to attention.

"Prepare the airship! We"re going to KarGoth immediately!"

"Yes, ma"am!" Izak grinned.

"And no dating mining girls until you"ve settled everyone"s homework!"

"Ma"am, Talia is not a mining girl."

"Just GO!"

"Mom?" Eriane poked her head in, then. "Where"s Darian?"

"He"s at KarGoth, dear. Get your stuff. We"re going to see him, right now." Lisa told her.

So she said, but it was a five hour trip to and from KarGoth by Sky Barge, even with a full crew rushing the Tug.

Sandra and Gammie stood on the airport dock watching them go, and then Sandra turned her attention back to the farm. "Let"s go get our wolfcats!"

"But… lunch…" Gammie protested weakly.

"Fine!" Sandra rolled her eyes. It was a bit past one, and already late for a lunch break anyway.

They bundled themselves over to the Adventurers Guild Hall at the Farm/Airport for lunch. Over there, Sandra met some of their Harvest Sun friends.

"Hey, Sandra! You"re back!" Ruth waved her over. "What brings you back here?"

"Wolfcats!" Sandra said, while at the same time, Gammie said, "Lunch."

"Well, we have plenty of both! What"ll it be, today?" Ruth asked.

"I need a strong one! Someone willing to travel far! Who"s the liveliest wolfcats around here?" Sandra got down to business immediately.

Meanwhile, Gammie quietly picked up a Tier 3 lunch set and asked, "Aunt Xia?"

"Out back." Ruth advised him. "She"s been worried abou you. You should let her know you"re back."

She wasn"t his aunt, not really, but she might as well have been, she took care of him the way Koma and Ruth took Sandra under their wing. Sandra considered herself and Gammie lucky among the Encles children to have the hunters mentor them that way.

Ruth hung up her ap.r.o.n and sat Sandra down for lunch before letting her run off again. "So tell me, what"s the big deal with wolfcats?"

"Comrades!" Sandra told her.

By the time she was done with lunch, Ruth and Xia were wanting their own Comrade wolfcats too.