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They both headed for the town near the sea, their journey went smoothly, without any problems, during the day they followed the main roads and at night they went to sleep deep in the forest under the cover of trees, where Jade could change into her true form, because such a long transformation had exhausted her, On their fifth and last night under the trees, Will, for the first time in his life had a really strange dream, a Vision.

In this Vision Will was taller, he could see stone walls, and because he didn't saw any sun, he assumed that he was underground, but surprisingly, Will could see clearly enough, And of top of that a dragon very much like Jade lay beside him, Will couldn't see anything else because the vision ended abruptly, he woke with a scream, which woke her up too.

"W-what's going on?" Jade asked, still a little sleepy.

Will with magic crated a light in his hand and saw her head, she started to looking around, he finally spoke and say:

"Oh, I woke you up Jade, nothing, nothing happened, I just had a nightmare, that's it"

He looked at her.

She calmed down, looked at him and say:

"Hope you feel better now, let's go back to sleep, in the morning you said we are close to that town" After saying that she lowered her head, closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

"Yes, we're close, let's go to sleep" whispered to himself Will, with light still in his hand, just to be sure, before going to sleep, he checked all his things, and when he checked his last thing, the necklace, his worst thoughts were confirmed, his necklace was chipped and cracked, the same necklace that Will was supposed to protect, the same necklace that was never supposed to have even the slightest scratch.

Damn, the necklace must have broken during one of my missions, maybe father will know how to fix it… Will thought and stared at the locket for a while longer before finally hiding it under his clothes, then he extinguished the magic light and fell asleep.

The next day…

They woke up and after a few hours of walking, they both reached their destination, a small, quiet town located near the sea.

The town was no different from most towns the young mage had seen on his quests, in the center of the town there was a larger building, probably belonging to some rich nobleman, with lots of buildings on around, a few stone bridges, long dirt roads, but for them the most important part of the town was the ship port.

They walked into the town and walked in silence, Jade was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the town, and the loud noise, but after some time she got used to it.

After some time, when they went further. There were fewer and fewer people on the road, Jade was still walking near Will, and she looked at almost the same buildings over and over.

Will hasn't said a word to her since they entered the town, she whispered to him:

“What are we looking for?"

He without stopping, said to her:

“We're looking for a tavern or something"

Jade didn't know what a tavern meant, and she didn't want to distract Will anymore, so she decided not to say anything else and just keep walking.

They walked for a while but this time they heard music from a distance, they decided to come closer and after a while they came to its source, a simple wooden building, with a sign over the door, a dragon's tail was painted on the sign, and the name of the tavern was written under it: Dragon's Tail.

What a coincidence… Jade thought.

They entered the loud tavern, the tavern looked ordinary inside, it had a few wooden tables, chairs, a liquor counter opposite the door, the bar was served by a bartender who was probably also the owner, behind the counter there were stairs leading to the second floor, probably to the owner's home.

Will went and started talking to the bartender because for obvious reasons Jade couldn't talk.

Jade stood in place, and with curiously watched all the people and the whole tavern, she had never been in a place like this before, so she was amazed at every aspect of it.

Will decided to go up to the bartender to ask him about his brother:

"Hi friend, you service a lot of people daily, and I was hoping did you know about a man named John who was training to be a knight?"

“I run a tavern after all, I see a lot of people daily, and maybe I know, maybe I don't about that John you are asking for" He replied, continuing to clean his glass, without even looking at Will.

Will opened his pouch put his hand inside took a few coins and put them on the counter and pushed them towards the man. The plan worked, because the bartender's attitude changed immediately.

The man in one swipe took the coins put them behind the counter and said with a smile on his face “I know one man named John that was a captain of the king army"

Was? So something happened to him? Will thought, a shiver ran down his spine.

He nervously asked the bartender:

“Was? What's happened to him? Do you know where he is now?"

The smile drop off his face, he got serious and said:

“Calm down… I know where he was, far in the north, in the kingdom, you need to cross the sea, but I don't know where he is now, but probably still in the kingdom"

“Thanks, for the help" said Will and with a sigh went back to Jade.

Will shook his head telling Jade that he didn't find any useful information, Jade looked around the inn, in the very corner of the inn at the table sat a lone man at the table who was watching them all the time, Jade walked towards the man, Will followed her.

When they got enough close, they began to smell a strong alcohol scent, Jade froze and hesitated for a moment but Will went closer, the smell didn't push him, when he was on his missions he smelled a lot of worse smells, and there was another more important thing, Will wanted to know where is his brother, he would do anything to obtain a tiny bit of useful information.

“Hello young man and beautiful miss" Said the man and smiled.

“Hello, my name is Will and this is Julie" Will pointed towards himself and the girl.

“James" the man said and held out his hand.

Will hesitated for a while but shook his hand, he and Jade sat up at the table.

“Does your girlfriend have no tongue in her mouth?" James asked him, and looked over at Julie.

“She is mute" Will calmly explained to him.

James started making strange gestures with his hands, trying to communicate with Julie.

“She is not deaf, she can still hear you, she only cannot speak" Said Will, annoyed.

“Oh … my bad" Said James and smiled.

Will rolled his eyes. “So, James, did you know anything about John? I know that he still is or was a knight in the king's army“

The man tapped his head a few times. “My memory is really foggy right now, but if you buy me an Ale or two, It will maybe be better"

Will just grunted something, went to the bar and bought one Ale, Julie sat at the table and with curiously and little disgust watched James the whole time.

After the bartender had poured the Ale, Will brought it to their table and handed it to James, his eyes sparkled, on his face appeared a wide smile, and he started drinking the Ale.

After a few sips, he began to speak:

“So, I know where ... John the king is, His kingdom is ... far in the north, If I remember correctly ... There's a merchant ship is visiting soon to his kingdom, but you need to hurry ... The ship will leave in a few hours, the crew is only staying here to replenish supplies."

“Thank you for that much information" Said Will and gave him a forced smile.

James didn't react, because all of his attention was focused on drinking.

Will turned his head and said:

“Julie, I will give you my pouch with coin, you will buy food for us, and I will go and search for port, do you agree to that plan?"

She nodded, and he gave her his pouch with money.

Jade was amazed by this idea and the humans creativity, the dragon to satisfy its hunger must go and hunt, a human can simply go to the building called a tavern and simply buy food with these shiny metals.

He gave her a smile and said:

“I will be back in a few minutes"

He left the tavern and went in search of the port. After walking for nearly an hour, he finally found it.

In the distance he could see that in the port was only one ship.

So that was the ship that James was talking about.

The ship was large, it had it tree huge sails. And didn't have a single cannon.

So after all these years finally see his family, his brother, father, and then thanks to their help, he will be able to help Jade with finding her family.

Will entered the harbor, there were a lot of wooden crates in different sizes around, he swiftly moved around them, and when he got close enough to the water, he saw two men carrying crates onto the ship. He walked some more and saw a man who have been resting because he was sitting on the one of the wooden crates.

Will approached the man and asked him:

"Hello, re you from the crew of this ship?"

The man looked at him and replied:

“Yes, I am, what do you want?"

"Do you know where this ship is going?"

"Of course I know, we are sailing to the kingdom, the king John's kingdom, the biggest of them all" The sailor said annoyed.

Will pointed at the ship "Can I and my friend sail with your crew?"

“Don't ask me, ask our captain, she is probably in the cargo deck inspecting it" Said the sailor and with his head gestures towards the ship.

“Thanks a lot," Will said to the sailor, then left the harbor and started walking towards the tavern.

When he was very close to the tavern, instead of hearing the music, he heard screams, he without thinking much rushed to the tavern.

He opened the door and looked around only to see that all the people were gathered in the table where both of them and James sat earlier, Will went to that table, pushed his way through the group of people and reached the table, in the table at the same position as before sat James and Jade and a pile of empty plates and glasses.

When Julie finished the current plate the group shouted in cheer and started chanting “One more! One more!"

Will looked at the crowd and then at Jade, when she wanted to grab another plate he placed his hand on her shoulder and shouted:

“Julie?! HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND?!"

Julie turned her head and saw him, she looked in his eyes, and then she looked at the floor, handed him the pouch, he grab it, opened it and his worst nightmare came true, the pouch was nearly empty, from an almost full pouch, only a few coins remained, the dragoness spent almost all of his savings, now they will never be able to pay the captain for their trip on the ship, now they must find another way…

“Your wife ate a lot, just like a … Dragon" James said and smiled.

Will and Julie left the tavern, much to the disappointment of the crowd, Julie still had her head down.

Will calmed a little and said:

“Look Jade, I am not mad at you, you ate that much because you had to, but you spent almost all of my savings, so now we must find another way to get into the kingdom"

She still had her head dropped, will saw a few tears falling on the ground, he placed his hand at her shoulder, she after a while whispered to him:

“I am sorry, I…"

He interrupted her. “Forget about it, it's not your fault, you were hungry, actually I already have a plan and maybe the captain of this ship will agree to it"

“Really, you have a plan?" She looked at him, Will saw a spark of hope in her eyes, her beautiful green eyes.

“Don't worry, everything will be alright" he smiled.

She wiped her tears. “What we are going to do now?" she asked and again lowered her head.

He put off his hand off her shoulder and turned. “We will swim with that ship" He pointed towards the direction of the ship.

Will knew the path, so with his guidance, they both went towards the port.

When they were halfway to their destination, Jade heard a strange noise, she looked to the right, she turned and went to the source of the noise.

Will saw her went in the other direction and said:

“Julie Where are you going? We have to go to the port"

She froze, turned herself to him. “Sorry, I just heard a strange noise and I wanted to check it"

He raised his eyebrow “That's it?"

“Yes … but maybe someone needs help"

Will thought for a while, the ship is going to leave soon, but they still have time left, maybe this person, really need help, then after they help, maybe they will get some money as a reward.

“Okay, so where did you hear that sound?"

Jade hearing that smiled and went between two buildings, intro a small dark alley, Will fallowed her, they went to the alley, right behind the corner they saw an open wooden door and an old man that fallen up, he must have slipped or tripped after getting out of his home.

Jade rushed to him, helped him get up, Will from a few inches away asked him:

“Are you alright?"

The old man nodded, but then, Will felt someone grabbing him by the neck and put a knife to his neck. He froze, Jade tried to help him, but he with his hand signaled her that she shouldn't intervene, after that signal the theft spoke:

“I saw you and the girl at the tavern, she bought a lot of, give me all your money, or I will kill you" The man pressed a knife to wills neck, cutting his neck a little a few droplets of blood started to slide down his neck, Jade saw this and got tears in her eyes, Will feel a little pain, he wondered how deep the knife had gone, Will already had a plan in his head but for it to work the theft must move his hand closer to his pouch, he might be a powerful mage, but he still is a human, and humans are fragile.

The old man looked around trying to call for help, but, there was only one exit that was blocked by the theft, Jade scared, looked at Will's pouch, the theft saw where she was looking and with his free hand grabs the pouch, but then Will grabbed his hand and in an instant froze it, the man screamed in pain, and completely looses his grip Will took this chance, and created strong wind gust with his hands that send the man flying, the man stopped against the wall, and his hand on his chest and with a lot of mumbling, he quickly left the alley.

Jade rushed to Will, she looked at him, and with her shaking hand she pointed towards his neck. He inspected himself, he only got this small cut he wiped out blood from his neck, and without any emotion said: “it's only a small scratch"

She stands in font of him, with tears in her eyes. “Because of me a lot of bad things happened to you, better will be if I left you" She started looking at the ground.

He went up, placed his hand on her shoulder. “No it isn't because of you, bad things happened, if you want them or not, when I was on missions I risked my life all the time, first a couple of years was hard but after a lot of missions and practice, now I am prepared for almost everything, and you still remember that thing, I promised you a few days ago?"

“Y-yes I remember"

She was still looking at the ground.

“So, you are with me, If you want this or not, I didn't give up or leave your side until I help you find your family" He smiled.

She looked at him. “... Thank you, Will" and smiled.

They both heard the old man cough a few times, Jade went up to him and helped him stand up. Will went to check the theft, but he was nowhere to be seen. Jade went with the old man to his house. Will, quickly joined them, the old's man house was small and cozy, all the furniture was basically art, and even a simple chair had a lot of details and curves, so either this old man has a lot of money or he's a carpenter. Will, saw three rooms, a dining room with a lot of wooden furniture a kitchen with a lot of storage space and of course a bedroom with a wooden double bed. All the rooms were lightly lit by the sun that came in through the windows. There were no doors between the rooms and all the furniture was made from wood.

They seated him in a wooden chair by the table, and after a while, the old man finally spoke:

“Thirsty … I am thirsty "

Julie rushed to the kitchen and after a while, she returned with water.

The old man drank the water but shook his head and said:

“More, tea … I want tea"

Will looked at him and said:

“We will make you tea, where do you have it?"

Jade went into his mind and searched thought his memories, after a while she found where the teabags and other things in the kitchen are.

The old man slowly pointed his finger towards the kitchen and said:

“In the cabinet near the window"

Jade went to the kitchen to make them some tea.

The old man looked over Wills's neck and said:

“I am sorry"

Will looked at the furniture for a while and when he stopped, he said:

“For what, this? Don't be sir, I got like this all the time, I am used to such things"

He put his right hand to the wound, and after a few moments he took his hand off his neck, after the cut and the scar there was no trace left, only dried blood reminds.

The old man shook his head and asked:

“What did you do? Your wound is gone"

Will smiled and said:

“I am a mage" He created two fireballs with his hands, and after a while he extinguished them.

“You choose a really hard path, and you are so young, I decided to work more peacefully, and I become a carpenter, all the furniture you see here, I made it all myself, a few years back I had my own store, but people started leaving the village, they were moving out to the kingdom, fewer people were buying my furniture, so I must close my shop"

“Sorry for asking but you live here alone? When I was entering your house, I saw a double bed"

The old man rubbed his head “I lived with someone, but sadly, she passed away…"

“You don't have a family, kids?"

The old man pointed towards the cabinet with glass doors, inside the cabinet was a lot of drawings of people, when Will stopped watching it and again looked at him, the old man said:

“They all passed away from old age or diseases… my wife was a nurse, when my shop closed, she was providing for the food and house, but she passed a few years ago, she got really sick, and we cannot afford a medication, I tried to cure her with homemade medicine, but it didn't work, when I finally earn enough money to buy her real medicine, It was too late, she passed away"

Will got tears in his eyes.

“I am so sorry to hear that, I lost a best friend too … It was my fault, I was young, unexperienced, because of me he is gone"

The old man shook his head and said:

“Stop blaming yourself, It will consume you, destroy you, let it go, you have someone to live for" The old man gestured his head towards the kitchen.

“Thank you, I will try, and oh … you mean Julie, well we're only helping each other"

The old man smiled and said:

“Well if you say, I hope everything will go alright"

“Thank you, oh I almost forgot" Will opened his pouch and grab ten coins went to the old man, and give it to him, the old man open his eyes wide shook his head a few times, and said:

“I can't take that, you helped me in the first place, I should pay you"

The old man tries to grab Wills's hand and forcefully give him back the coins, but Will takes a few steps back and said:

“Take them, we arrived at your house uninvited and one of us is now in your kitchen, we might as well be thieves"

The old man laughed and said:

“I don't have anything valuable, take whatever you want…“ Sigh “Thank you I am going to keep the coins but because you forced me to"

Jade returned to them with tree cups of tea only to see standing Will she put the cups on the table looked over at the old man and at him and asked:

“What happened? Why are you standing?"

He gave her a dumb smile and replied:

“I wanted to stretch up a little bit"

She narrowed his eyes and looked at him, but let it go and sits at the table. Will brought for himself a chair from the kitchen and sits with them, all of them chat for a while and finished their tea, after that, they both went straight to the port. Jade was amazed by the ship, she knew about some humans inventions, but never saw any of it that close before, because she was a dragon, yes she could shapeshift into a human, but she was scared of being discovered, but when she was with Will, all of that's fear just disappeared, Will with every passing day reminded her more and more of her mate, he was brave, he always took care of people around him and only then about himself, Maybe when Jade didn't have a mate and Will was a dragon, or She was a human… then maybe everything would be different.

After a while they both carefully climbed the long footbridge and boarded the ship, a couple of people were attaching wooden crates with ropes, but they did not pay any attention to them.

They were about to go below but then a woman in an elegant robes and hat came up the stairs and blocked their way.

"What do you want here? You are not from my crew" the captain said to them.

"We would like to go with you to the kingdom" Said to her Will.

"How do you know where we're going? ... whatever, I don't need new people in my crew, but if you want to sail with us, it's going to cost you a lot" Amelia explained to them.

Will opened his pouch and saw his last few coins there, he bravely said to the captain:

"Yes, we know, and that's why I offer an offer. I'll pay with what I have left, and we'll work the rest off" He grabbed all of his coins and showed them to the captain.

But she looked at them at the few coins, giggled, and said:

"I Already told you I don't need more people in the crew. Both of you get out of here! or I'll throw you overboard!"

The woman started to walk away but Will blocked her path and still tried to convince her to agree to their deal.

The woman got annoyed and with a loud shout called two of her crew members, after a few moments they arrived and grabbed them, and with force, they started to push them from the ship, Jade resisted and stood in place, the sailor holding her was visibly surprised by her strength, but Will didn't have enough strength and the other man slowly began to push him off the deck towards the water.

With every inch closer to the water, He wanted to use his magic and set himself free from the sailor's grip, but he didn't do it, he didn't want to reveal himself.

Will was a few inches away from the edge. "Wait! My brother is a king!"

“Yeah, of course, and my sister is a queen" The captain replied mockingly to him and started laughing.

Will was dangerously close to the edge he was resisting with all of his strength to resist, but the man was holding him tight when he lost the ground under his feet and started waving his legs in the air, he snapped and with the only sentence that showed in his mind shouted:

"Wait! Let us sail with you! King John is my b-brother!"

"John? John the king?! Really? You should have said that right away! Let them go, boys, they're coming with us!" Said the captain and smiled. Her crew member let Jade go, and the other one put Will back on the ship and let him go.

He was amazed that this plan worked, of course, the king, and his brother are both named John this coincidence saved them their trip.

Jade, and Will who was still shaking walked over to the captain, who gladly shook their hands. “So what's your names?"

After the hands shake Will stopped shaking and said "I'm Will and this is Julie"

"I am Amelia, the captain of this crew, and owner of this small ship… She cannot talk?"

"Yes … she's mute, after a bad accident" Jade nods with her head, Will put her head down, and Jade also lowered her head.

"Oy, that's bad, but it's good that she has such a good husband"

"Yes, it's good that she has such a good husband" Will smiled Will was sure that Jade would react differently, but she smiled too.

Captain Amelia showed them around the ship and said they would reach their destination in about 3 days.

And told them that her crew members moved some crates inside the cargo deck and made something like a cabin with one large bed for them.

The ship sail out of the port when the sun set down, Will asked the captain what they are supposed to do, but she told him that today, they should go to rest. So they both went to their cabin and went to sleep…

But what they didn't know was that since they left the guild grounds, they were being closely watched by people in cloaks…

END OF CHAPTER 3