Tale of a Dragonborn - Chapter 2: King
#3 of Tale of a Dragonborn
Raptor woke up in an unfamiliar room. "Where the hell am I?" He slowly brought himself off of the bed and stood up. He looked around and remembered that he got a room at The Lucky Dro. "Right. The Lucky Dro. What the hell is a Dro anyways."
Raptor gathered his thoughts from the night before. Melissa... Over priced ale... Robbery... Noble with opium... Meeting Melissa... Meeting Melissa! He looked out the window and saw that is was about mid-day. "Ah shit!" Raptor gathered his stuff and then left. He ran out into the hallway, ran down a set of stairs and out into the yard. Melissa was no where in sight. "Damn it. I'm too late."
"Turn around." Raptor turned to see Melissa standing behind him.
"Did I keep you waiting?" Raptor asked.
"No." Melissa said. "As a matter of fact, I'm late too. I was worried about keeping you waiting."
Raptor couldn't help but notice Melissa's red hair. Mercenaries dyed their hair red to show themselves as mercenaries. If you had red hair, you would show that you are selling your fighting skills. "Melissa. Are you a mercenary?"
Melissa smiled. "I used to be. Now I'm not."
"Great life story." Raptor laughed "I thought that was going somewhere."
Melissa laughed back. "If we walk and talk, I can tell you all about it."
Raptor nodded and they both began walking. "Well... It all started when I was nine." Melissa said. "I showed promise in becoming a good sword fighter. My dad showed me all of the things he knew. After my training was done, I was nineteen then, I became a mercenary. I worked for five years, a lot of jobs I really don't want to talk about, then I quit and here I am."
Raptor thought for a second and then asked, "So you're twenty-four?"
"Yes." Melissa said. "Why would you even ask? It's such simple math."
"Sure." Raptor put his hands together. "I like math. And I like to share that. If you stick around me, you'll soon find that I'll be blurting out a lot of numbers and sometimes random strings of equations."
"Interesting." Melissa said. "Math is a good subject, but many people are too lazy to deal with it."
A group of guards walked up to Raptor and Melissa. There were four of them. Two were wearing iron boots, gloves and helmets but cloth pants and shirt. The shirt had the Altraz emblem on it, a fox with two swords crossed behind it. Underneath the shirt and pants was chain mail. You could tell they were privates from what they were wearing. The third guard was wearing full iron armor with a tower shield that had the emblem on it. He also carried a spear. This one was a royal guard. Odd that they would have a royal guard out here. The last one was Captain Withers from before. He wore full iron armor, only with out the helmet. He had long brown hair and a nose that pointed downwards.
"You there, Halfling." Captain Withers pointed at Raptor. "You have something of high value. The king has requested to see you."
"Like I care." Raptor crossed his arms and scowled at Captain Withers. "The King can lick my scalie ball sack."
The royal guard rose his spear and moved forward, but Captain Withers stopped him with his arm before he moved an inch. "You will see the king." Captain Withers said as he lowered his arm. "He doesn't care whether it is alive or dead, but alive is prefered."
Raptor looked over at Melissa who nodded at him. He then turned his head back at the captain. "Take me away!" Raptor threw his arms out in front of him. "I've done bad things!"
Captain Withers took a pair of shackles from his belt and slapped them onto Raptors wrists. "I never liked acts of any kind." He then tugged hard on the chain and led Raptor through a crowd of curious bystanders.
Raptor was led through a few streets, up a long set of stairs, under a large arch way, along a path that led through a huge garden and in front of a castle. "When the king wants to see halflings, it's never a good thing."
Raptor chuckled. "Ya. I bet it isn't. But it seems that whenever anyone sees a dragonborn around here it's never a good thing."
"Can it Halfling!" The captain yanked on Raptors shackles and pulled him up a set of stairs in front of the castle.
"Ow! You son of a bitch!" Raptor followed the captain into the castle. He was led past a few more royal guards and then into the throne room. Sitting there on one of two thrones was the King of Altraz. The queen wasn't there because she had died in a raid a few years back.
The king stood up from his throne and walked until he was arms length from Raptor. He had short spiked back grey hair with a gold crown on top. He wore a blue robe with gold trim and blue shoed. His handswere bare, which was odd for a king. Usually they are wearing gloves. "Captain Withers. You may go now." The captain nodded and then left the room leaving one royal guard. "You have something of value that I want."
Raptor looked around the room. "It doesn't seem anything is missing from here." He then looked back at the king. "Listen, I have stolen a lot of things in my time. Why don't you save some time and tell me what it is I have."
The king turned around and put his head down. "You stole something from my son last night. Some money, a ring and a certain something in a certain money bag." He turned back around. "My son has a bit of a problem with the pipe. I can sort of thank you for taking it from him, but I think I should have it."
Raptor reached into his pocket. He was about pull out the money bag with the opium in it when he noticed something behind the king's throne. There were two hoses with a pointed metal end sticking out. Raptor recognized it right away. "Your son has a pipe problem?" Raptor motioned his head at the throne. "Is that why you keep a hooka behind your throne?"
The king turned around and saw the hooka pipes sticking out. "Damn."
"Ha!" Raptor took his hand out of his pocket. "Kingy has an opium addiction. That's why you called me here. You don't care about the money or the ring. You want the evidence. What would people think if they learned their king was an opium addict."
On the contrary, I do care about that ring." The king turned back to Raptor. "Your name,what is it?"
"Raptor." Raptor never lied about his name. Even though he was a thief, he still had a bit of an honor system.
"Raptor. I have an offer for you." The king put his hands together. "Give me the opium and the ring and I'll let you go with the money."
Raptor began laughing. "Oh man! That is such a weak offer. There is so much more profit in this than fifty gold pieces. Give me ten thousand gold pieces and the opium is yours."
The king stomped his foot on the ground making a loud thud. "You're not in the position to be making bribes! Guards!" Captain Withers and three royal guards entered the room. "Take him away! Shake him down! Get the opium, ring and all of his money! Then take him to the dungeon."
"Yes sire!" The captain walked up behind Raptor and hit him on the back of his head with his armored hand. Raptor fell to the floor. His vision became blurry and dark. "The dungeon. No one has survived down there for more than a week." Raptors vision went pitch black and then he went unconsious."