Onyx travels throughout the roads by feet, to get to explore and, as she was told, to understand the 'uniqueness' of her situation. She sighs, given she would've reached the mine by now if she had simply went up in the sky, flying to it, especially since things had been pretty calm for her, given the other travelers, if they didn't just scurried off at her sight, preferred to stay away from the undead dragoness. At least, it gave her the time to think of what occurred to her since the last previous days. And given she still had a couple of hours of walking before she reaches her destination, she reminds herself of what she had to do.
Flashback, three days earlier:
Onyx was training up herself, targeting trees, to a fault of having proper sparring partners. She tears the trunk of a tree, before she slams it, causing it to fall with a loud succession of cracking sounds. Then she peers behind her, feeling a familiar presence, the man in cloak. 'How's my lovely piece of jewelry doing?'. She growls. 'How often do i need to tell you to call me by my name!?'. 'No idea, cutie.~'. The man grins and add, 'How's the dragoness?'. 'Heavy.'. 'If it's from yo..'. 'No. Not that. It's that forced inactivity that weights me down. I feel like i'm gonna root anytime!'. 'Heh. I know the feel.'. 'When would i-..!?'. 'I have a mission for you. Should be easy..'. 'How easy is easy?'. 'Actually, i don't know for sure.. Something's wrong..'., he sighs, 'Ahem.. Your mission is to investigate the mine of Ferrhills. It has been raided by Regef Cinderstar, a noble human, with a troop of 40 soldiers from what i gathered.'. 'Why me, then. People would just run away an-..!'.The man stops her away with a movement of his hand. 'The noble's an idiot. When he was young, he was a promising strategist-to-be. But then, his father had an accident and the boy's education had gotten.. Lax. Afterwise, he's been known to to get a liking in the pleasure of flesh. Not a matter i'd dwell in, so don't ask. But give' that his father had died before he got to know it, and that her mother had left them, he got his hands onto the family's fortune. As time went on, he got more greedy and daring, eventually recruiting mercenaries to force people to act the way he wants. To a poor avail, given his fortune eventually melted away, forcing him to flee. Last i know, he barely had anything to sustain himself. He couldn't even pay up for a weapon, let alone a small army of mercenaries!'. 'What about it.'. 'As you can tell, someone is probably pulling the strings from behind. But i couldn't tell who, nor why. That's when you come in. Being unknown to the population, and being a dragon, i believe it'd make you able to it. Just.. Consider it as a test, okay? Just.. Don't overdo it if it gets too dangerous..'. 'Hrmf.'. 'Just a few things.. I disallow you from flying to Ferrhills. Also, if you can be helped, don't harm anyone.'. 'Why.'. 'The goal is to free the mine, and eventually giving you a good reputation. You could even get some good armor out of it!'. The dragoness grumbles, then says, 'Fine. Count me in..'. 'Perfect! Now, let's handle the preparations, shall we?'.
The dragoness snaps off of her mind as she hears yelling from further on the road. A caravan, composed of a merchant, a young lass and four mercenaries, protecting a chariot, lead by two horses, are circled and surrounded by a group of bandits. And while most of them are merely swordsmen in leather armor, two of them are actually mounting horses, and their seemingly leader, from what she can see, is the only one covered in heavy armor.
The leader of the bandits speaks, 'You know that the mine is under the rule of our chief. Since then, all that pass by must pay the passage. If you don't pay up, we might.. Need to be more persuasive. Ain't that right, boys!?'. Some of the bandits laughs. The merchant replies, 'But we need that money..!'. 'Oh yeah? Then why are you heading to Ferrhills, then? Surely you could spare some means.~'. The merchant tsks and one of the mercenaries grunts. The leader grins, 'Uncooperative? Fine by me. EVERYONE ATTACKS!'.
The dragoness leap off her position, rushing at the bandits, yelling, out of anger, 'DON'T YOU DARE!'. She swings one of her paw at their leader, throwing him away, before trying to slow herself by sliding on the dirt road, bumping and sending sprawling three more bandits away, using her momentum to swing her tail at a fourth bandit, breaking up his sword, and wounding him at the arm.
Thanks to the ruckus the dragoness made, the horses tries to flee. The one attached to the chariot makes their way away from the dragoness, forcing the bandits to step aside. One of the mounted bandit get tossed away, his mount fleeing toward the nearby forest, while the other one flee the opposite way of the chariot. The bandits takes steps away from the new enemy while the mercenaries back up toward the chariot.
The dragoness positions herself between the mercenaries and the bandits, then roars up, making the bandits scurry off. Then, she turns on herself to check up on the mercenaries. They points their weapon at her, cautiously walking backward. One of them speaks up, scared, 'B-back away.. F-foul beast..!'. The dragoness sighs, 'That's how you thank your savior?'.
The mercenaries blinks, then looks at each others, before lowering their weapons. 'You're.. Not going to harm us?'. The dragoness shakes her head. 'Are you going to Ferrhills?'. 'Yes. Would you... Join us until we are at town?'. 'Sure.'. 'Just.. Don't try to scare the horses again.'. The dragoness grumbles, 'I'll try..'.
The chariot, thankfully, didn't went far, given the merchant and the young lass managed to keep the horses *somewhat in check*, given they probably had their fear of their life. After some rough explanations and after calming down the horses *again*, they manage to reach the town by sunset.
After a few words of thanking and some good hints, the merchant gives the dragoness a large leather satchel, helping her to wear it. Then they leave a bit of money in it, and as the caravan goes to a nearby inn, the dragoness tries to make her way to the 'Wrought-Iron Tavern'. She had to meet someone by there, which would supposedly help her, but given she couldn't just enter, nor damaging the building away, she had to wait outside.
Most of the sounds came from the tavern itself, and given she wasn't quite blocking the pathway to it, she would mostly.. Be unnoticed. Or rather, wouldn't make too much of a ruckus, surprisingly. Until she hears a voice from a male human. 'He said she should be here now.. Meet a tall being with an onyx pendant.. You would not be able to miss her, he said...'. You hear a sigh, then the man speaks again, 'I really hope she'd be able to.. Wuaaaaaaah!'. You spot the man, as he falls down onto the ground, deperately trying to back up, seemingly from you.
The man is 30-something years, 5'6", wearing a dark green cotton tunic, attached by a leather belt, leather pants and boots, and have somewhat short and not quite kept black hair. Having heard what he said, the dragoness cautiously approachs the shivering man, making sure he'd see the pendant. He stutters, 'W-wait.. Y-you're the one s-supposed to h-help us..!?'. 'Yeah. So what!?'. 'S-sorry. J-just that i'm.. S-scared of you.. Y-you're a skeleton!'. She growls, 'I'm a dragoness. Not a pile of bone!'. The man meeps, 'S-sorry! E-err.. O-onyx is it?'. 'Yes.'. 'M-meet me up outside the town.. W-we'll speak of what need to do for tomorrow..'. 'Why not for today?'. 'B-because it's going to be night time and that you should rest a bit..'. The dragoness grumbles but agrees.
After meeting up where she would have more place to move, they speak up and organise what they'd do, eventually parting ways for the time being, as the dragoness places herself somewhere to rest until the sun would rise, wondering if it's a good idea to trust such a wimpy man.. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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