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Things were not going so well.

Twi and I had just left Ursh's shop for the second time in a week and we had been told the skystone we found might just in fact be a piece from a dragon. A still living dragon, no less. As if it wasn't bad enough the sky tore itself open to pop out this strange object, now we had to deal with the knowledge we might just be holding onto something from one of the most dangerous creatures to ever roam the world.

Dragons were above anything aside from the Meloirean peoples, and perhaps the most scary thing imagineable. I mean, what's more terrifying than a giant flying lizard that could breathe fire and was rumored to be just as smart as you? Not to mention the old myths of them knowing magick. When it rains, it pours, eh? The sheer fact one could still somehow be alive after all these years was enough to make me wish someone else had found this rock. Or scale, I suppose, if Ursh was to be believed.

'But', a tiny voice sprang up in the back of my mind, 'it could mean a tremendous amount of money. An ancient beast, thought long dead, now back from the grave. And you hold a piece of it.'

A compelling point. Regardless, I knew this wasn't something to take lightly. Dragon scale or not, the skystone still had no explanation of how it got here. Twi and I had spent the better part of four days researching in those blasted archives, and nothing brought us any closer to an answer. I was beginning to think perhaps Twi was right about the reason being magickal based. After all, dragons were reported to be able to use magick, as far fetched as that was. But, if it was magick, then...

"You gonna keep standing there or what?"

Twi's voice broke me out of my thoughts. Ahead of me, she stood with her arms folded across her chest, an impatient scowl adorning her.

Clearing my mind, I flashed her a grin. "Didn't realize you were so eager to go home."

"It's late," she said with a roll of her eyes. "And besides, I'd rather get out of this cold."

Hearing her mention it actually brought the chill back to me. I hadn't even thought about it until she said something, but the biting cold had only gotten worse since our time inside Ursh's. It was as if the weather was reflecting our sour moods.

After catching up to her, we huddled together as we made our way back home to the relative warmth of our bed. Similarly to when we first found the skystone, we didn't say much on the way home. As we walked, we were met with nothing and nobody, everyone seemingly too smart to venture forth in this sudden chill. Even the stupid hero types weren't dumb enough to go out in this weather. Mentally, I cursed Ursh yet again for forcing us out of such a nice sleep only to tell us he knew next to nothing important. While yes, knowing the stone was a dragon thing was nice, it definitely could have waited until the morning. Especially since it was only a theory, and he had no concrete proof he was right.

Stewing in my thoughts, I kept going back to the sky. The strange darkening, the swirling clouds, the bright light from nowhere. While I'd never admit it out loud, the whole thing actually scared me a bit. Things like that just don't happen without reason. There had to be an answer. There just had to be. I never considered myself much of a scholar, but after the last few days in the archives, I was beginning to understand what drives those kinds of people. This pursuit of an answer, it made me realize why someone would even bother taking up such an occupation. The chance to learn something new, to learn something previously thought unknowable.

Something did bother me about all this, and it wasn't just the fact we had found no answers. Despite everyone seemingly knowing about what happened the other day with the sky, no one really appeared too bothered by it. Nothing had changed in New Serrak at all. People were still going about their usual day to day without any differences. Maybe they were all just ignoring it in the hopes it all meant nothing. Maybe they just didn't want to think about it, for fear it might mean something.

Up ahead, I noticed we were getting close to home, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Sleep sounded very nice right about now. We got inside and almost immediately our clothes were gone and we were hunkered down in our warm bed. We had still yet to say anything about what Ursh had told us. A part of me didn't want to speak, knowing if I did I might just end up rambling on about old myths of how terrifying dragons were said to be. Another part knew we'd eventually need to talk about it, and wanted to be the first to start things off. Eventually, after some mental debating, I gave into the latter.

"So," I began, "dragons."

Her eyes met mine as she chose her words. For a brief second, in that moment before she spoke, I contemplated just turning over and ignoring this whole conversation. I almost slapped myself for even thinking like that, like some kinda of child.

When Twi responded, it was with a low groan. "Yea. Dragons."

Oh to hell with it, I thought.

I sat upright and went at it. "You don't think he's serious, do you?"

"Ursh?" she questioned after following me up.

"Yea. I mean, dragons? This is stupid."

"You have to admit, it does make the most sense out of anything."

"Well, yea," I agreed. "But, they went extinct ages ago. There's no way there's another one just hiding out somewhere."

She shrugged at that. "Like I told you a few days ago. Magick."

"I..." Cutting myself off, I huffed and stared a hole into the floor. If both Twi and Ursh were right...well I just hoped they weren't. Either explanation they presented had bad things written all over them. I knew I had repeated it over and over in my mind, but I decided to share it with Twi. Maybe saying it aloud would help somewhat.

She absorbed my words in silence, allowing me the chance to speak my peace. As I talked, her eyes widened and narrowed to my words, quietly judging my reactions to our current situation. When I was winding down, she reached over, taking my hand into her own, and the familiar feeling of her soft cool scales calmed me.

A deep breath later, and I fell silent once more.

"Look," she started, "I know this all seems insane. But, after what we witnessed, what we found? I kinda think 'insane' can be thrown aside. None of this is normal, I agree. It's hard to believe, and terrifying. Just the thought of a dragon showing up is enough to make me want to dig a deep hole and disappear into it." A cute litle chuckle came from her at that. "But, I think we should see this through. Whatever happens, happens."

Just hearing her say all this set me at ease. At least now I knew for absolute certain I wasn't the only one worried. She leaned into me and we embraced, wrapping our arms around one another tightly.

When we parted, I said, "We've been through some tough shit before, anyway."

She shook her head, but I could spy the slight smile playing at the corner of her lips. With this final little joke, we settled back down and slowly drifted off to sleep.

When next I woke, it was to the sunlight pouring through the cracks of the house. The sounds of foot traffic and the usual hubbub of the town got me out of bed. After a stretch, which earned me a few popping joints, I dressed for the day and noticed something was missing. Looking back at the bed, I saw a certain saurian wasn't laying in it, and a further inspection of the room revealed Twi must have left before I woke.

Thinking nothing on it, I continued to dress and was about to leave when a thought entered my mind. In all this time I'd been back home, I'd completely neglected to send off that pelt to Greensprings. When I turned, I saw it still hung up on the rack, well beyond the point of needing to be there anymore. Then and there I decided, this would be my first duty of the day. Maybe. If I actually felt like untying it from the rack. I mean, it was a tightly wound knot. Such a knot would take at least a good twenty seconds to undo.

Then again, if the pelt didn't reach that damned alchemist sometime soon, he might send someone to come collect it.

Taking the more cautious side, I decided it best to just get it over with now. Roughly twenty seconds after that decision, I was rolling up the pelt, ready to march it over to the courier's office. March is such a strong word for it. More like I casually dragged my feet there. It wasn't like it was too too far. It was just on the edge of the lower district, right near the Laughing Wolf tavern in fact. A decent morning's jog away; the perfect distance to work up an appetite. And so, with pelt in hand, coinpurse at my side, and the worries of yesterday behind me, I left home.

The moment I opened the door, I realized it was beyond early morning as I had assumed. The sun looked high enough to be nearly noon, and the large amount of people out on the main streets confirmed it. It wasn't like Twi to let me sleep in like this. I'd grown so used to her insistence on waking early, even more so these last few days doing our little archive visits. Were I a lesser man, I might have grown concerned over her whereabouts. But, I knew her well enough to know she likely had a good reason to leave without me. It usually meant she was meeting a potential client or something of the sort. A smile found its way to my face at the thought of taking another job. With more work comes more money, after all.

Making my way through town, I eventually found myself at the courier's office. Rather small for what some might think an important building. What some might not know was this wasn't the only office in New Serrak, merely the one for the lower district. Probably explains why it isn't so large or really noticeable much. It looked like any ordinary place, the only thing that marked it as the courier's was the sign in the window saying as much.

Pushing open the door, I was greeted to the lonely room within. Opposite the entrance was the door to the back, it was always the first thing one saw when they came here. Off to the side was the 'waiting area,' but mostly it was used to stick people the workers didn't feel like dealing with at the moment. I'd had to spend time there before. A single desk sat near the far wall, a lone kalrin boy manning it.

'Boy' might have been a bit much. He wasn't fairly young, he just had a youthful look to him. The brown fur covering his body was cut neat and short, and his clothes were a size too big for him. The large ears adorning his head flicked about quickly, paying heed to nearly every sound. It also didn't help matters he was rather short, even for a kalrin. Barely came up to my chest last time he stood up next to me. Anyone could easily mistake him for some fresh-faced kid, new on the job. Of course, that all went out the window whenever he opened his mouth.

"What do you want?" His voice was loud, scratchy, harsh. It was the voice of a man who'd spent too many years smoking.

"Got a package needs delivering to Greensprings," I sounded off, raising the pelt high enough for him to get a good look at it.

A hand came to rub at his furry chin as he echoed the town's name. "Hm, that'll cost ya around thirty."

Happily, or rather begrudgingly, I handed over the requested money and pelt, and as I did so, I had to remind myself to mention one certain detail about the delivery.

"This is to go to a merchant by the name of Reginald. An alchemist. Likes wearing red, I think."

He pulled out a small paper and pen and began to write, repeating my words. "Reginald. Alchemist, merchant. Likes red." His eyes shifted upwards to me and he coughed out, "Anything else?"

Well, there really wasn't much left but send it off, but I got a little nasty idea. Just something for the hell of it, I told myself.

"When it gets to him," I noted with an evil smile, "I want him to know this comes as a 'very special' gift from his favorite sellsword."

A toothy grin flashed my way as he finished writing. "Merchants, eh. Fuck 'em."

"I'll drink to that."

~~~

As I left the courier's office, I was greeted to the sight of gloomy gray clouds filling up the sky. 'Great', I thought, 'another storm.' While I did enjoy the fresh scent after a nice rainfall, I didn't particularly like dealing with the actual rain itself. Mostly that was due to too many jobs in the past forcing me to stand around in the middle of a downpour, which usually earned me a small cold for my efforts. Even still, I hoped this coming storm would pass by without overstaying its welcome.

With my business concluded, it was now time to partake in a well-earned meal, my feet swiftly taking me to the tavern nearby. As was always the case, the Laughing Wolf was nearly full to bursting with customers, loud as an orchestral band, and smelled like a circus tent. Like most days, the place was packed with adventurers and regulars alike, all looking to sate their appetites, drown their sorrows, have a talk with a friend or two, or any combination of the three. I carefulled wandered my way over to a small table near a wall, keeping a hand on my dagger's hilt the whole way through.

Right before I sat down, a roar erupted from one of the circles of those hero types, and it was clear from my vantage point that a handful of the group were infighting. Looked to be a pair of kalrins and a saurian all going at one another, while their human companions were just cheering on the violence. I couldn't make out anything any of the group was saying, on account of the chorus of other voices all around, but it was likely a dispute over somehing stupid. Probably money, if I had to wager a guess.

Regardless of any pointless fighting going on, I sat back in my chair and waited for one of tavern wenches to head over my way. When one finally did, it turned out to be the same young kalrin girl I saw my previous time there. I recognized her immediately by the pink nose and gray fur. Well, also by her thin frame. So fragile looking she was, I wondered just how such a girl was able to handle the hustle and bustle of the Laughing Wolf. But still, perhaps in spite of all that, she did seem to carry herself with some sense of inner strength. At least, I imagined she did. It made sense in my head, otherwise I doubted she'd be able to keep up the work, after all.

The furred girl showed off a soft smile and chimed out, "Hey, I remember you. You were meeting that weird guy in red few days back." Her voice had an almost sing-song quality to it, as if she was just holding back a ballad as she spoke.

"Hm? Oh, yea." I waved away the memory and made my order. "I'd like some venison and wine. Also, bring me a cup of whatever soup's good today."

"Right away, sir," she said with a slight fidgeting of her nose. Before she walked away, she seemed to remember something and said, "We have some cinnamon bread if you'd like. It's fresh from the baker's, so it's still warm." When I nodded in agreement, she let out a puff of satisfaction and marched away to place the order.

As I waited, I passed the time people watching. The major thing that drew my attention was that fight, but it seemed to have died down in the little time I talked with the kalrin wench. The pair of kalrins looked worse for wear and the saurian appeared to have a broken arm, but the entire group was back at their table, happily playing cards and discussing whatever it was those types talk about. Strangely enough, none of them were cheating, or at least I couldn't see if they were.

To my right was a trio of the town's guardsmen enjoying a small break from the day's work. One thing I always found odd was the guardsmen as a whole were all human. Not a single kalrin or saurian among them all. I didn't know if that was due to none of them wanting to be guards or if the town had something against it. Either way, the trio I witnessed were rallying around the table throwing dice around playing a game of Greed.

Off to the left were some tables pushed together for a large group, a family from the look of things, all of them yelling incoheretly as they ate. Over to their left was a table of young lovers, all making stupid faces at their significant others while they talked about most likely pointless things. Nearby that table was one with a mixed group of kalrins and humans, but they didn't look to be the hero kinds. Their garb was more plain clothed, likely just some regulars from town meeting up for friendly chats.

It was by this point the gray-furred kalrin wench returned with an armload of trays, placing one such tray before me. On it was my ordered meal along with that cinnamon bread she mentioned. Everything looked quite appetizing. I wasted no time and began to dig in, my stomach grumbling for what lay before me. Everything was as good as it always was; the meat seared to perfection, the soup earthy and bold, the wine sweet, and even the cinnamon bread proved to be a nice after-meal treat. By the time the young kalrin girl returned for my payment, my plates were damn near licked clean and my goblet empty of even a single drop. I was perfectly happy to pay in full, and was soon enough back out on the street.

I went back to walking around town, but didn't really stumble upon anything worth a damn. It was all a bit boring. I was beginning to wonder if Twi had finished up whatever she was doing, which I still hoped was a new job offer. Every new job was one step closer to us eventually getting out of New Serrak and saying a fond farewell to this whole sellsword life. It wasn't that I hated this line of work, honestly I rather enjoyed some of the jobs we'd done in the past, it was more the fact a decent chunk of clients had been the kind of smarmy asshole types like Boylan.

I walked on, my mind slowly dropping away thoughts of past jobs and clients. It wouldn't do well to get stuck on things like that, especially not when we had the skystone to worry about. Once we knew for absolute certain it wasn't some dragon thing, we'd sell it off and finally be out of this life. On the other hand, if Ursh was right...well we could still sell it and just forget about the whole ordeal. Two random sellswords weren't exactly the best people to deal with dragons, after all, plus I doubted there'd be much use in us holding onto it at that point. What could we possibly do with a dragon scale? We weren't scholars or alchemists, nor were we knights or the heroic kind in any regard. Our hands would be the least likely ones to do any good if a dragon showed its ugly face around.

'And besides', I thought to myself, 'if a dragon did show up, chances were it would be killed just as quickly as it popped up.' There was an abundance of those wannabe heroes everywhere, after all. They'd be chomping at the bits to get the chance to kill one of those mythic beasts.

While continuing to think on heroes and dragons, I stumbled my way through the streets and ended up next to the gambling house. It was a large place, towering one might say. The windows were high up near the top, and were so heavy with smoke the glass had become tinted an ugly yellowish color. Likewise, the scent of smokes of all kind wafted out from the building to create a near visible funk. Every now and again, a cheer could be heard from inside, either from people happy they're winning or just the crowd around those people rooting for them.

I still had a decent pocketfull of coins left. A little game or two sounded like a good way to waste some time before heading back home. A nagging voice in the back of my mind reminded me Twi'd be awfully upset if she learned I'd wasted money gambling. Then again, she couldn't get upset if she never found out. Plus, if I won, then there'd be even less reasons to get mad. Taking the risks into very heavy consideration, I walked inside almost immediately.

The stench hit me first. Smoke mixed with sweat, both combining together with cheap beer and even cheaper food made the place smell worse than the tavern. At least the tavern had the saving grace of large windows kept open for ventilation. The gambling house didn't have such luxury. Their windows remained closed at all times, for whatever reason. All around the floor were tables for certain games, all seemingly sectioned off into their own respective areas; the far left corner was dedicated to some card game I couldn't quite see, the far right was for Greed games and a second dice game I couldn't recall the proper name for, along the right and left walls were checkers and lot casting respectively, and in the front center of the place were some roulette wheels.

Ignoring the awful smell, I walked over to the wheels, stealing a beer off some half asleep patron as I went. It was nearly full. Only seemed right to not let it go to waste. It tasted like piss water. Anyway, the wheels were spinning fast, and the dealers were yelling out how much time remained until they'd toss the marbles. One of the nearest ones said bets would be closing in twenty seconds.

Pushing my way through the small crowd, I placed down a bet. "Ten on number 13!"

When the time for betting was closed, the dealer loudly exlaimed as such and was getting ready to toss the marble into the wheel. I didn't expect much in the way of a payout--this was all mostly just a way to kill time for me--but I would be lying if I said I wasn't getting a bit excited as the marble left his hand and began to roll through the wheel. Over and over, it made its way through the wheel, running counter to the wheel's own spin. Slowly but surely, the marble lost momentum and reached the slotted numbers, bumping and hopping between the slots until eventually landing right on 13.

Because I had only placed my bet on a single number, my reward was twenty times the coin I put down. Lady luck had smiled on me to give me a nice sum that day. And, feeling as if her smile would shine on me some more, I placed another bet, this one higher, at fifty coins, placed on number 8.

Once the time to deal had come, I was once again getting excited as I watched the marble spin and roll around the wheel. On and on it moved until its eventual descent, the marble's path sending it so tantalizing close to my chosen 8, only for it to bump off and land on the 5. The erupted boo shook me as I realized not a one of the patrons had placed a bet on said number, so not a one of us would be getting a damn thing that roll. But, I would not be deterred. Lady Luck had graced me once, surely she would do so again.

I placed yet another bet, and waited in earnest to watch the marble land on my choice.

I walked out of the gambling house some time later a bit drunker and with only half the money I went in with. That nagging voice in the back of my mind perked up again, but in my addled state I chose to push the thoughts down and stumbled on home. From the way I could tell, sundown was still a couple hours away, so I didn't spend too long in the gambling house. Hours, yes, but not like it was all day or anything. Not like I had anything better to be doing, anyway.

Besides, I sent off the rabbit pelt that alchemist wanted, so I deserved a little fun time.

Rounding my way off the beaten path and towards all the alleys and side streets that eventually led me home, I was met by a surprisingly little amount of people. Not even the local drunkards were littering their usual spots. Finding this odd but not odd enough to warrant any sort of deeper inspection, I shrugged and continued on my way. Still, without the normal sounds I'd grown used to over the years, the way home was a lot quieter than on average. Most days, you'd have to try to ignore the sounds of drunken fools begging for another coin or two for 'one last drink.' You'd hear the sounds of those who play the part of hero boast of their recent accomplishments, but on that day I heard no such bragging.

Maybe there was a festival or some such I'd forgotten about? Did everyone suddenly vanish off to a different ward? Was it possible there was some important event I'd not been privy to? Whatever the case, I found I actually disliked the quiet. Those loud annoyances had been so ingrained into my daily life, I'd grown accustomed to them, and their disappearance left me almost wishing for a return to form.

After a long, silent walk, I made it back home and was quickly through the door, falling down onto the bed and letting out a yawn.

"Had fun gambling?"

I shot right back up, greeted to the sight of my saurian lover sitting down at the little table, resting her chin in one of hand while lazily eyeing me. The slight downturn of her thin lips was all that was offered, but still I could tell she wasn't amused. How I hadn't noticed her there was beyond me. I tried to think of an excuse, anything to explain myself.

"...I would never."

'Brilliant move, dumbass.'

The ridge of her brow raised and her lips moved into a small smile. "Wow, you're an absolutely terrible liar when drunk. Don't bother trying again, by the way. You smell like that disgusting beer the gambling house uses."

"That proves nothing."

'Why did you open your mouth again?'

An exacerbated sigh left her before she explained. "They're the only place in town who sells that cheap swill."

I grunted in response.

"Y'know," she started, getting up and calmly walking over to me, "you're the one who talked about using our money to eventually leave New Serrak and start a new life." She closed in on me and wrapped a delicate hand around my arm, the claws digging into my skin. "What's the point of even talking like that if you're just gonna waste our money gambling?" Even though her voice remained calm, her tight grip on my arm was more than enough to know just how she felt.

"I just needed something to do." Another excuse. Maybe the alcohol was effecting me more than usual.

"Something to do," she repeated. And just as quickly as her anger came, it left. Her hand moved away from my arm, tiny markings where her claws sank in remaining, little beads of blood leaking out. She shook her head and took a step back, her gaze scanning me up and down as she did.

Changing the subject, I said, "Do you know why things were so quiet?"

"The duke came to town," she responded matter-of-factly, as if I was somehow supposed to know this already.

This was, in fact, news to me. "Wait, what? The duke? Why the hell'd he come here?"

Bringing a hand up, she waved me off, but still answered. "Something about finally changing out the town's defensive wooden walls for real stone ones." She tried to hide it, but I could hear the disbelief in her tone. This wasn't the first time the duke had made such a promise.

'Probably wouldn't be the last, either.'

"Hey, by the way, where were you all day?"

As if a switch was flipped, she became a bit more serious. "I went to see someone about a new job. They want us to find and destroy a griffin nest, along with any eggs. It would take us about a week's trip away from town."

The booze was beginning to clear from my head as the prospect of another job hit my ears. I almost sprang up on the spot.

"Any info on the client?"

She raised a brow at me, rolled her eyes, and continued. "From what they've told me, the griffin in the area had already been slain, but the local guild members neglected to deal with the nest, so our client worries some new beast might sniff out the nest and raise the chicks itself, thus repeating the problem."

She was intentionally being vague about the client. After the Boylan incident, I'd suspected she wasn't too serious about wanting to keep information from me. The fact she seemed genuine this time actually stung a bit. But, rather than let that bother me too much, I sucked it up and decided to get on with business.

"So, when do we leave?"

"Two days. Tomorrow, we're gonna get all the supplies we'll need for the trip."

~~

The next day, we went to the market in town. It was a long, wide street down in the lower district, and all along the street were these little tents and stalls, set up as makeshift shops. There were local farmers, hunters, small time alchemists, up-and-coming tailors, a blacksmith's apprentice, all manner of things, really. It was a cheap alternative than the bigger stores in the upper district. People there were mainly just selling what they could to get by.

Entirely too crowded at the best of times, the market was not a favorite spot of mine. The volume of people was never to my liking. Strangely, however, I never had this issue with the Laughing Wolf. Maybe it was because I could always manage to get an open table to myself, but at the market, you were walking around, bumping into people, possibly getting your pockets sifted through by some petty thief. I'd even had to personally handle some of those people before, but at the tavern, no one ever bothered me.

We'd left home fairly early, so by the time we got to the market, it wasn't as full as it usually was. Still too many people for my tastes, though. From there, we simply went around, buying the needed supplies for the journey; food, water, some oats and whatever for Vox, extra bolts for our crossbows just in case, so on and so forth. A rather boring trip, all things considered. Not like I expected much, but still boring.

As we were in the process of getting ready to head home, the sky suddenly grew darker. Those same glum grey clouds had persisted since the day prior, but never let loose a single drop. I looked up at the sky and stared at the dark puff balls as they lazily drifted closer and closer together, eventually meeting up and covering most of the sky in their dull color. Maybe today it'd finally rain and a true blue sky could shine forth once more.

If only we were so lucky.

No, instead those cotton balls in the air began to move, and the grey sky slowly shifted into one of black. My eyes went wide in shock as the clouds began an all too familiar twisting and turning among the now midnight sky. Faster and faster they circled one another, and with each completed rotation, my heart beat just a bit faster. All around me now, everyone was stood like me, shocked and confused by the same strange phenomena from the previous week. All sound in the market ceased as everyone found themselves drawn to watch the clouds' dancing. Unlike last time, there was a lack of harsh biting wind, which I assumed meant whatever was about to happen wasn't going to happen in town.

Suddenly, a near blinding white light beamed forth from the middle of the tumbling clouds, and among that white I could make out a bright blue spot. I glued my sight onto that blue and kept on its path as it shot out of the circle of clouds and streaked across the sky, flying so far away it crossed the horizon line, out of view. If my estimations were correct, then it appeared to be heading off to the northeast. As soon as the blue streak left sight, the black sky went back to the pale grey, and sounds began to return to the market.

The first thing I heard was a woman's panicked screams as she prayed to some god for salvation. This was shortly followed by more screams and noises of fear as a lot more of the people out in the market scrambled around. People began to just grab things and run, not even paying, causing the sellers to start grabbing people and demanding payment for their wares. A few fights broke out amongst the crowds as the looting carried on.

As the disorder in the market rose higher and higher, the local town guards came rushing in, trying their damnedest to calm everyone down. Those armor clad men had their work cut out of them, the way I saw it. Since we first arrived, there had been an influx of foot traffic, and now the street was about as filled as a typical day at the market. They barked their orders at the masses, and some even fell in line to obey. Not all did, however, and some of those people had to be...shall we say 'detained' by the wonderful men in iron.

Without a moment's hesitation, I grabbed Twi by the arm and pulled her through the horde. Together, we pushed through several packs of angry and fearful shoppers, knocking a few onto their asses in order to make it passed. A lot of them yelled, probably trying to get us to come back and apologize or demand a fight or some stupid shit like that, but we had no time for any of that nonsense. Onward we went, until eventually ending up near a side street, and not a moment too soon it seemed, as behind us came a roar as the guards descended onto the crowd.

I stared on as a burly saurian tackled a fully armored guard to the ground and began slamming his fists into the poor guy's helm, the scales on his knuckles splitting open and leaving blood on the face cover. He was joined by two other shopped, who only cheered on his violence. All around were similar such sights of guards and townspeople going at it like morons. The prison would be pretty full by the end of the day.

A low whistle escaped me and I gave a little chuckle. "Wouldn't wanna be in there right now."

I turned and saw Twi looking up at the sky, her eyes scanning around. For what, I couldn't imagine, but I didn't bother asking. I simply grabbed her arm and pulled her along, my sights set to home. There was no telling what came out of the sky this time, but it must have been connected to the skystone. If we could just get the stone and maybe bring it to wherever that blue thing ended up...

As we wound through the streets, the yells and screams from the market were fading away into the distance, only to be replaced by similar screams elsewhere. Every corner we turned we saw people of all kinds yelling, wondering what was going on, why the sky had gone black a second time, what it all meant, if they were safe, if the future would be well, all manner of questions that had no clear answers. The fact people only now seemed bothered, when a week prior everyone just kinda brushed off the same thing happening, actually annoyed me. Why only care now? What's different from before? It wasn't like any of them even knew what the golden streak was from the first time the sky opened, and so far that proved to have done no damage as far as they knew.

I pushed those irritations away and continued on towards home. Towards that small hiding spot in the wall. Towards the supposed dragon scale.

When we could see our home, Twi pulled herself out of my grip. A short breath left her and she said, "You wanna go find this new one."

I could feel a smile coming on. She could always read me so easily. I nodded in response. "Of course. I mean, if the first one's some kind of dragon thing, just imagine what the second one might be." In truth, I just wanted to know more about this whole situation. Maybe finding whatever came out of the sky this time would reveal something, anything.

The ridge above her eyes raised as her slitted pupils stared into my eyes. It took her a second or two before she just hummed out a suspecting noise. Probably figured my real intentions, but she didn't present any argument against me, so she likely had similar ideas herself.

As we were walking through the entryway inside, she said, "We still have that job to do, though. Can't go running off like that."

"Oh, come off it," I chided, "This is way more interesting than some pest control work. Plus, might be more lucrative, to boot."

I knew mentioning the possibility of profit would get to her, and I watched in silent glee as Twi began to think it over. Wordlessly, she debated in her mind over what the right move to make was, and whether the admittedly pisspoor coin from the job would even stack up in comparison. While she was busying herself with the internal arguments, I walked over to the hidey hole and produced the supposed scale, pocketing it along with an extra coinpurse. The way I saw things, she'd agree with me at the end of all this anyway, so there was no point wasting time waiting around. And as soon as I was done with that, Twi clicked her tongue and looked over to me.

"Fine," came her reply. She walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out two sets of our 'work clothes,' tossing me a change of attire. "But, if it's something serious this time," she stressed, "I don't want us getting involved." As she removed her shirt, she added, "Wouldn't do us any good getting ourselves killed."

"Something serious," I repeated. "Only thing more serious than a dragon scale would be an actual damn dragon. And I don't think that thing we saw was nearly big enough to be one of those." I paused then, my attention drawn to Twi as she undressed.

Those smooth dark green scales were always so alluring to me, especially the way they gave off a very slight gleam when the sunlight hit them just right. Her taut stomach, complete with a select few abs for show, along with the small budlge to her biceps and forearms were all a reminder of just how much we'd been through together. When we first started out, she lacked some muscle to her, but now...now she had the perfect form for my tastes. Her pants hit the floor, and my eyes roamed down the remainder of her body. Similar to the top, her legs had a small amount of meat on them, and the little dips and curves around her hips and thighs were always enough to drive me wild. All she ever needed to do was shake them around and I'd throw her to the bed. Her tail curled around the bottom of one of her legs, and I could feel my feet moving me closer.

Reaching out an hand with the intention to pull her to me, I felt the breath hold in my lungs, as if afraid any sound would ruin this. But, before I could touch her, she cleared her throat, breaking me out of the trance.

"Didn't you want to go find something?" My eyes shot back up to her face, only to see the mischeveous smirk sprawled along her muzzle.

A switch was flipped in my mind at the sight and I immediately grabbed her, pulling her close and tight, feeling her warmth against mine, her hot breath on my neck sending a shiver through me. "One hour wouldn't hurt," I growled.

The room was thick with the scent of sweat and sex as we were redressing ourselves. We didn't say anything as we were readying ourselves for this little excursion. Nothing really needed to be said. We got what we wanted out of our systems and were refreshed and rejuvenated for the what was to come.

At least, I assumed we were.

Ater tying off my crossbow sling under my shoulder, I was finished my preparations. I looked on as Twi was doing the last touches, double and triple checking our supplies, her thin lips wordlessly mouthing each item's name as she scratched it off her mental list. She let out an almost inaudible happy chirp as she completed her task, causing a chuckle to burst out of me.

She scowled in response, following it up with a simple but effective, "Piss off." However, the phony frown she wore couldn't hide the smile hiding in her eyes.

The bags we packed weren't all that heavy, I noticed as I lifted them over my free shoulder. Surprising, considering how much we had planned on bringing. We easily had enough to last us more than a week, so surely it should have weighed more than this, I told myself. A nice breeze shot through the room when Twi opened the door. With a shrug, I ignored the oddity and continued on my way outside, following right behind Twi.

We were barely onto the street when the sound of heavy boots alerted us. The footsteps were like thunder, there were so many of them. And they all sounded as if heading in one direction; ours. No sooner had this thought crossed my mind when around the corner appeared a small troop of men--mostly human, but the odd few saurians stood out-- all wearing the same stupid brown and black ensemble; neatly tucked in pressed shirts and starched slacks. Their eyes, sharp and focused, were all staring us down. I met them with an equal amount of daggers to my glare, and out of the corner of my eyes I caught Twi moving behind me.

As I dropped our things and the men grew closer, one of those stone faced idiots let out a shout. "By the authority of the Trader's Association, you are to come with us."

A deep, tired groan was my reply. Guild business is never a fun thing to get roped into.

In a hushed voice, I whispered to my counterpart, "Go. I'll deal with whatever the guild wants."

A deft scaly hand shot into my trouser pocket, swiftly procuring the scale and hiding it back in her own pockets and out of sight. She turned to leave, but paused for a moment, getting in close and nuzzling the side of her face into the crook of my neck before dashing down the opposite side of the street.

"Hey," cried out one of the marching men, "get back here. The Association demands an audience with you both." He, along with a small handful of others, rushed ahead to give chase, but I had no doubt in my mind they would only end up failing. They didn't even catch up to her before she rounded the corner and onto a different street, at which point she would vanish, crushing any and all hope of them ever getting their disgusting guild mitts on her. I almost swore I could faintly hear her sweet laughter as she disappeared out of sight.

When the remaining members of the hard eyed group reached me, I gave a faked yawn, saying, "I was just thinking there was nothing that could spoil my post-coital happiness. And then..." I took a moment to spread my arms out to gesture to all of them. "...here you are."

A small chuckle sounded out from the back, but whoever it was quickly corrected themselves with an overly pronounced cough. The others, however, did not look as amused, sadly. In fact, they seemed even more stone-faced in the wake of such a simple joke. Not even a single threat of a smirk on any of their faces, as far as I could tell. Either these boys had been trained something fierce, or guilds just attract humorless dicks.

One of the men stepped forward, his face shifting from the hardened scowl into a softer, almost bored expression. It was the kind of face that made it obvious it was a show, something he was doing to attempt to put someone at ease and maybe make them not resist as much when they're brought in for something. It was a face I'd seen before. Not his, in particular, I didn't know or even care to know this guild goon. No, instead it was a reminder of years back.

Regardless of memories, I smirked and told the man, "So, do you guys always go around together like this, or was this special just for lil ol' me and Twi?"

He didn't even bat an eye. "Graham," he spoke with a tone just as bored as his mask of an expression, "the Trader's Association's guildmaster wishes to speak with you promptly. Please, come with us."

"I assume this isn't a choice on my part?"

"You assume correct." The group behind him then wormed their way around us, slowly forming a wall around me. They then essentially pushed me along with them as they led the way back to their master, acting like the obedient dogs they were. All they were missing were the collars.

Being in the middle of a man-made castle, so to speak, made me realize just how strange the upcoming chat was most likely going to be. I couldn't recall what, if anything, I'd done to piss off the Trader group. Perhaps this was going to be about that time I sold an owlbear head without the 'proper credentials.' Honestly, all those guilds and their stupid rules. A man wasn't allowed to so much as spit without one of the guilds somehow wanting to know about it. What color was the spit? How big? Where did it land? Did the man have a cold or was he just spitting for fun?

Whatever the guildmaster wanted, it probably wasn't going to be a friendly talk, though.

The surly bunch were dragging me to the Trader's Association headquarters, if they used such a term to describe it. No, they had to be uppity over it and name it the 'Trader's Association Hall of Finest Wares.' More like 'Hall of Bullshit.' It was a large circular structure, reminiscient of old religious temples; tall marble columns, statuettes depicting iconic figures of the past, long flowing banners adorning the archways. And people wondered why I thought the guilds were all up their own asses. I mean, really? Basing your trading hall design off of temples? How much of a piece of shit do you have to be to even come up with that idea, let alone follow through?

The walk to the Hall wasn't a long one, but it sure was an excrutiating one. I had to walk around with a group of unfunny, uninteresting, untalkative, un-anything-fun assholes.

I tried to spark up a conversation with a burly looking blue scaled saurian with, "So, how's being a guild dog treating you?"

Rather than bite back, he brought a long clawed finger to the edge of his muzzle's thin lips, and he shushed me.

Shushed me! Like I was some petulant child. I could feel the anger rise up, a hand quickly grasping the hilt of my dagger. If he wanted silence, I'd show him the true meaning of the damned word. The moment I started to pull the blade free from its sheathe, however, every singe one of the bunch walling me in pulled out their own and aimed them all right at my neck. So close were those razors, I couldn't even swallow the lump in my throat without possibly nicking myself.

And still, they all showed faces devoid of emotion. Not even anger of their own at me attempting to do harm. Just completely blank expressions. This, in some magickal way, somehow worsened my mental image of the guilds. Couldn't even bother cracking just a little when one of their lives were being threatened.

Putting on a mask of my own, I smiled at my captors, painting a large and bright energy about me. "Come on boys, you don't wanna hurt me. Think of what your guildmaster will do to ya if I come back in pieces."

The one with the fake bored look from earlier was the one to answer me. "She only wanted you in for questioning. Never said anything about you needing to be in good condition."

"Hm." That certainly made me rethink my position. Slowly, my palm eased away from the dagger's hilt, my hand coming to a rest back at my side.

With a nod from the bored man, who I was now assuming to be some kind of leader for these jackasses, the guild croneys all sheathed their own blades, returning themselves to their prior placements as a wall. From there, we marched together all the way to the Trader's Hall. The exterior entryway consisted of a pair of too-tall-for-any-normal-person-sized doors, which I was promptly pushed through along with my wonderful escorts. Inside, things were much like the last time I'd seen it; the foyer had a long carpet adorning the floor, leading up to the door opposite the entrance. Along the sides of the room were several stands and kiosks of members of the guild peddling and trading whatever it was they desired. 'Course, for guild members, such things were silk, expensive perfume, alchemical potions the likes of which regular people could never afford, artwork of the highest caliber, so on and so forth.

I didn't have much time to examine the finer details and see what was different, as the entourage around me forced me along to the door where the carpet ended. Through the doors we went, and I was met with an actual hall, a long one with multiple doors and other similar halls shooting off at semiregular intervals. As we went down this hall, I noticed paintings and other artworks blazoned along the walls. Pretty pricey stuff, too, the kind of art that never got made twice, either because of the original creator's untimely death or...no, it always seemed to just be due to death.

Shooting away these pointless thoughts of arts, I puffed up my chest as we came to a stop, our destination apprently at hand. A simple wooden door, just like the others around the hall. My eyes fell on a small plague in just under the entryway, which read, 'Guildmaster Tanno.'

No knock was given by my posse, yet the door opened. Guildmaster Tanno herself was sat at a large wooden desk. Unlike some of the other guildmasters around town, Tanno was a kalrin, not a human. She was a lithe, wirey thing, her limbs so thin it made one wonder if she was malnourished. Her brilliant white coat was long and expertly cared for. Evidently, she took pride in her fur, and I couldn't deny the results had a mild stunning effect when I saw her. Her guild uniform was freshly cleaned and pressed, the creases still visible to the eye. This frail thing made herself look the part of someone vastly imortant, which I guess she was. She took one look at me, her black nose twitched, then her eyes narrowed to hard slits. Yea, this clearly wasn't a frienly chat.

And who should be waiting there, standing right next to the guildmaster herself, but that bastard Ursh.