Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Most of the following week not spent with Max or Kat or both of them was spent inside the blacksmith shop Dr. Moreau suggested. Turned out that Halsin was one of the dwarves we met at the bar our first night at the city and I think I earned more of his approval just by being willing to work in his forge and his strict requirements. I didn't have the heart to admit I was mostly doing it to hide from catcalling beastfolk and earn money to replace the clothes that Nicolas was unable to repair with Mending. 

Even with medicine, the heat was still present, certainly no where near as bad as the first night but still there. It seemed to also affect Max whenever he spent a long enough time near me making him braver and adorably protective of me.

Eventually, the slowness of the week started to get to both Eris and myself and the party decided on accepting a C-Rank quest to check out a shipwreck within a day's walk on the coast north of the city. The goal was to check it out and make sure there were no animals or monsters that would make it difficult to recover whatever it was shipping.

“You sure you should be like that? We're not that far from town…” Max asked, shyly handing me one of the blouses we got that could fit me in my current half dragon form.

“We're pretty far out, almost on the other side of the bay, there's no way they'll be able to see me from the walls. It'll be fine” I replied, carefully pulling it on to try not to tear it with my wing talons. “Anyways… I was starting to feel kind of cramped and I'm going to take this chance to at least try to get used to being like this for longer…”

“I thought you liked her being in her amazon form~” Kat teased, leaning on the tree I was hiding behind from the other two of our party while I got changed.

“Don't call it that!” I grumbled as I watched Max's face turn red and look away shyly. It was impossible for him to deny that he liked this form. 

“What else would I call 400 pounds of muscle and scales~?”

“A fifth of that is tail…” I sighed before going to retrieve the medicine and the updated instruction note Dr.Moreau gave me earlier that morning. I double checked the dose for my current size and begrudgingly put the appropriate amount of the weird, bitter mint-peppery tasting liquid on my tongue to keep my heat from flaring up. “Blegh…”

“That bad?” our boyfriend asked shyly as he traded me my armor for the bottle of medicine.

“Yep… going to hate the taste of mint after all of this…”

“Hurry up! It's going to be night before we find the boat at this point!” Eris yelled from the other side of our cover.

“She's almost done” Kat called back and walked over to me, taking over adjusting the armor on my stomach from me. 

“Thanks” I said softly and further thanked her with a quick kiss before switching to fixing my shoulder guard.

“No problem~” I noticed Max squirming a bit as he watched but he waited until we finished before speaking up.

“... what about me…?” He mumbled, looking up at me expectantly. I smiled and bent down to thank him for his help the same way. 

“You too, pup~” I laughed as I pulled back from kissing him and his face lit up when he got what he wanted. Before Eris could complain more, I grabbed my poleaxe and pack and led the way back to the other two.

“-ask you to go to things like that often…?” Nicolas asked Eris as they waited on a fallen log.

“Not really, usually it's one of my brothers that get sent to these but both of them and Father are too far away this time” the fighter responded then hopped up when she saw us. “About time~ thought you guys were going to go at it again~”

“I-I'm not that bad about the heat!” I grumbled. “What are you two talking about anyways?”

“I have a party to go to at Lord Hargreave's manor at the end of the week to 'Keep up appearances' for my family…” She sighed, starting to walk down the path we're on “Especially since a cousin from a rival branch of my extended family is going to be there. If one of them shows to something one of us just have to as well.”

“Wait… Hargreave…” I mused as the rest of us followed along behind her.

“Lord of Rookport, Alex.” Kat explained, playfully jabbing my side “Don't you ever pay attention?”

“I didn't even know the name of our mayor before we died.”

“Of course you didn't,” she laughed. I stuck my tongue out at her before looking back at Eris.

“You plan on going?”

“Don't want to, it'll be boring and just another night of trying to scare away suitors but I have to” she answered and I rolled my eyes at her.

“Guess what I've been dealing with all week?” I scoffed. 

“Nobles are so boring about it! All formal and everything, at least commoners and adventurers are upfront about what they want”

“A little too upfront” Max huffed softly.

“Don't you get any guests?” Kat asked with a slight mischievous tone. “Just take Nicolas as your plus one~”

“What?!” the demi-angel yelped and glanced back at my girlfriend. The noble girl looked over at him thoughtfully then shrugged. 

“Definitely would make it less boring.” She mused.

“You're actually considering it?!” 

“Why not? You've slept together already,” I teased, happily matching my girlfriend's energy and the cleric and fighter both wheeled around to face me, their faces bright red.

“Don't say it like that!” they protested in unison. 

“W-we only slept in the same bed!” Eris continued as I walked past them with Max and Kat, the former poorly trying to stifle a laugh. 

Our chatting continued like this for awhile and eventually the forested path gave way to a beach. Oceanside we could clearly see across the bay to Rookport's busy harbor and on the other there was some greenery that backed up to a tall cliff face that put the city’s walls to shame. Max was practically shaking with excitement when we stepped onto the soft sand, even more happy to see the ocean from this side than from a dock.

“We can come back when we don't have a quest~” I called after my boyfriend as he wandered ahead of the group to the water's edge.

“That would be fun~ We can try to find a bikini for you~” Kat giggled and playfully nudged me.

“There's no way those are invented yet…”

“You'd be surprised~” she continued in her sing-song way. 

“Bikini?” Eris chimed in, making me glance back to look back at her and Nicolas still trailing behind us.

“Two piece swim outfit~”

“Looks like underwear? That's a weird name for it. I have one of those somewhere in my bag.” The cleric paused mid-stride, looking at her as his face slowly flushed again. “I couldn't wear it back home; too ‘scandalous’ according to mother….”

“I-I'm not too sure about wearing one” I sighed as I shyly went to join Max by the water as we kept walking. Taking full advantage of being barefoot, I waded out to ankle-deep and let my tail drag through the cold ocean.

“Why not?” Kat called after me. “You'd look great~”

“I think you would too…” Max shyly agreed as he moved as close as he could without getting in the water too.

“Of course you would” I stuck my tongue out at him. Before I could continue talking, I heard splashing water like something was skimming the surface followed by something small suddenly grabbing the end of my tail. A yelp escaped me as I leapt back onto dry sand, my wings fluttering a bit on their own. I whipped back around and drew my weapon, ready to fight whatever just touched me but nothing was there.

“Still on you” my girlfriend pointed out nonchalantly and I looked towards her to see that she was the only one of the three that way that didn't have her weapon ready. I sighed and hesitantly brought my tail tip in front of me. Sure enough, hanging on for its dear little life was a small, deep blue, humanoid axolotl wearing clothes made of waxy-looking leaves. 

“Hi, tall one!” she squeaked with a goofy grin in broken common “You have shinies on you”

“Hi…. and those are my scales…” I hesitantly replied and immediately used Inspect on the small creature.

Coastal Xolotl

 

Rank E Small draconid humanoid

Stats:

????

______

 

Abilities: 

Water breathing (Ocean)

Water breathing (Brackish)

????

????

Mildly Poisonous (ingestion)

 

“What is that??” Nicolas yelled over. “A murloc?”

“No... I'm not sure how to pronounce it” I responded as Kat walked up to me, my magic detection lighting up around her head.

“Whatever she is, she's harmless” My girlfriend giggled and gently pried the axolotl off of me. “What's your name?”

“Xoco!” the small creature replied, pronouncing it Sho-co and the Inspect popup updated with her name immediately. She still had the goofy grin despite facing a half dragon that she barely reached the thigh of when she was put back on the ground.

“We've never ran into someone like you, what do you call yourself…?” I asked and kneeled down to get as close to eye level as possible. She cocked her head for a moment before speaking up.

“Xoco" she happily repeated. I sighed and glanced up at Kat, who just shrugged.

“She meant what do you call people like you?” Max offered as he hesitantly walked over.

“Oh! Family!” The axolotl smiled more. My tail flicked a bit in slight irritation.

“This isn't going to be helpful… um is your family nearby?” I asked. She nodded and pointed northward.

“Yep, that way, by water with rest of tribe” 

“... I don't see anything” Nicolas observed as I stood back up and stretched. The Xolotl happily just watched in a bit of awe.

“Might not be on the curve of the bay… the beach looks like it bends around the cliff at the end” I sighed then looked at Xoco. “or is it in the water?” she thought for a second then shook her head. ‘Why did you pause to think about answering that??’

“I can take there. For a shiny” she pointed at my tail.

“... you want a scale?” 

“You have lots!” I let out a sigh then brought my tail back in front of me, combing over the sides and top for any scales that looked ready to shed.

“W-Wait, are you really going to give her one?” Max asked as he moved in front of me and stopped me.

“It's just a scale, pup” I laughed softly and picked one out right next to where the Minotaur's axe hit. A different color in the bare patch there caught my attention ‘Huh… some white ones are starting to come in…’

“But y-you're a dragon, what if they have some special use? I'm sure there's an alchemy recipe somewhere that needs them…”

“I hope not, I've been just tossing them”

“You don't keep shinies?” Xoco asked, already reaching for the scale in my hand. 

“You've… just been throwing away dragon scales?” Eris chimed in. 

“Do you want to carry all the ones I shed? I'm sure that'll add up quick.” I laughed, then bent down and finally offered my scale to the Xolotl. She quickly snatched it up and brought it in front of her face to admire it, giggling happily.

“She's easy to please…” Kat mused as all of us watched Xoco start to waddle off down the beach without us. She eventually stopped staring at the scale and looked back at us.

“Why waiting, tall ones? Tribe this way”

“Why does she remind me of a dodo…” I mumbled under my breath as I started to follow her.

 

---

 

‘They're… all like her…’ I thought to myself as I found myself surrounded by a couple dozen Xolotl fawning over the “shinies” covering a significant portion of my body at the edge of their primitive village. The majority of them around me were various shades of blues and greens and were all about thigh- to hip-high to me. There were more, smaller ones out in the water that seemed like they wanted to come over but didn’t seem like they were able to go onto land. ‘None of them seem afraid, at all…”

“You doing ok, Miss dragoness?” Eris called over teasingly. The other three had taken to talking to the only pair of Xolotl that weren't mesmerized by the shininess of my scales. 

“I'm fine.” I sighed, glaring at her a bit as I tried to keep my tail flicking under control so that I don't hit one of the Xolotl. My attention was brought back to my ‘fans’ when I felt something get pressed into one of my hands. I glanced back to see that one had placed a fishbone necklace with black feathers in my hand and was looking at me expectantly.

“Trade?” he asked adorably.

“It's ok, I don't…” I paused when I noticed that he was freshly missing an arm and a chunk of his tail. “Wait what happened to you? Hey Nicolas, come over here! One of them is hurt!” The Xolotl in question looked down at his stump like he just noticed it.

“Oh, a sharptooth! It comes back” 

“...a sharptooth?”

“You know, long, grey, have sharp teeth” another piped up. A quick glance over her revealed that the back half of her tail and one of her legs were a different shade of blue from the rest of her.

“There's a lot of things in the ocean that can be described like that…” I sighed once again and looked back at the first. “What do you mean it comes back? The sharptooth?” he shook his head and raised the stump again.

“This!”

 

Xolotl entry updated

Regeneration ability revealed 

 

‘Thank you, Inspect, helpful as always’ I dismissed the popup as Nicolas finally waded his way through the small humanoids.

“You said one was…. oh my god” the cleric started to ask but visibly paled when he focused on the one I called him over for. “I… I don't know what I can do to help that… um… where is it?”

“If I were to guess? Probably inside a shark or something" I shrugged.

“So gross…” he shuddered a bit before hesitantly putting his hand on the Xolotl's arm and mumbling his spell. A golden light radiated out and enveloped the wound. Like a flock of moths, the eyes of all the nearby axolotl lit up and they focused on the one being healed. I took the opportunity to wriggle an old scale free from my forearm and put it in the free hand of the one that gave me the bracelet then I carefully stepped out of the crowd.

“Thanks Nicolas!” I called back as I started making my way over to the others. ‘They'll be distracted for a bit but he has nothing to give them so they should scatter when he's done… right?’

“Hey!”

“Sorry, I've been distracting them for half an hour, time to trade off” I laughed, continuing over to the other three of our party. Max perked up when he glanced over towards me but then cocked his head when a familiar voice made me pause and look towards a nearby bamboo-thatch village structure.

“Xoco, we told you to be careful about bringing ‘tall ones’! They can be dangerous!” it hissed in Draconic.

“Tallest gave shiny, she nice” Xoco's voice responded in broken Draconic. My tail flicked a bit as I listened, my curiosity demanding that I checked it out. I let out another sigh as I gave in and walked over slowly. 

“Just because they give you shinies, it doesn't mean they're nice!” 

“Why not?” Xoco asked as I reached a point I could peek over the small building to find her getting chastised by a red-scaled kobold. The small lizard girl's eyes widened and I swore it looked like the scales on her face turned a lighter shade of red.

“Gr-great dragoness! F-funny to see you here…” 

“Oh… it's one of you…” I grumbled without thinking. She looked kind of hurt for a moment.

“You d-didn't recognize me…? You… put me in charge of the others…?”

“Alex, what are you doing?” Max interrupted before I could respond. “Wait, is that…?”

“Yep…” I replied then went to kneel in front of the now-shaking kobold. “Ok, A couple things. First, what do you mean I put you in charge, um…” I paused, trying to remember if I was ever given her name.

“Vahri…”

“Sorry, Vahri. Second, what are you doing here?”

I glanced at the spear in her hands “You didn't take over the village or something did you?”

“What?! N-no! We… we're trying to be like you… protect it!” she squeaked, dropping her weapon.

“And about me putting you in charge?”

“Isn't that why y-you freed me first…?”

“Wish I knew what you were saying…” my boyfriend huffed softly before I could respond to her.

“Sorry pup…” I apologized and gently wrapped a wing around him. “Just, trying to figure out why she's here… apparently I put her in charge of the others….”

“Where are the others…?”

“That's… a good point…” I glanced back at the kobold and she shyly looked away.

“One of the Xolotl got caught in a snare…again… they're getting him down.” she hesitantly explained, motioning towards the beach on the opposite side of the village. 

“Wait, you know what they are??” 

“You don't, dragoness? They're like us… just from water dragons instead…”  

“The chief and shaman weren't any he- what's going on here?” Kat's voice suddenly announced, making the kobold jump and Max and I tense up.

“Dammit, Kat, how are you so quiet on sand??” I grumbled softly and glanced back at her.

“Y-you always sneak up on us…” Max mumbled in agreement. “Where did Eris go?” 

“Rescuing Nicolas. What are you guys up to?”

“Catching up with our friend” I sighed and motioned to Vahri, who gave a nervous wave.

“T-they both smell like you… are they…?” she murmured.

“My mates, yes. Treat them the same as you do me… ” 

“Oh, you think you can help us?” my girlfriend asked as she kneeled in front of her.

“N-not good at c-common…” the kobold squeaked.

“Why scared? Tall ones nice?” Xoco finally spoke up again and Vahri glared at her.

“What want to know?”

“We're looking for a boat,” Kat continued.

“Boat… big? small?”

“Big.”

“Oh that easy. Lots that way” Xoco said, pointing back the way we came. Kat gave an exasperated sigh.

“Your chief kept saying the same thing…”

“The one we're looking for crashed” I added, hoping the different language helped. The kobold’s eyes lit up with recognition. 

“That's an hour away on the other side of a cove to the north… there's weird noises inside. The Xolotl say it's a “sharptooth” but none of the things they call that come onto land…”

“You don't know what it is?”

“They call a lot of things weird stuff that we're trying to figure out… if they offer you a “squishy” say no, that's a jellyfish… unless you eat them too…”

“Oh the wood cave!” Xoco exclaimed when it clicked for her.

“See?”

“Wood cave?” Kat asked. 

“It's what the Xolotl call the wreck,” I explained. “An hour to the north…” 

“It's going to be dark by the time we get to it then” my girlfriend shrugged. “Might have to stay in it overnight…”

“There's something in it, you want to check ahead to see what we're up against…?”

“When we get closer… less of a headache…”

“You're going to wood cave?” Xoco asked. 

“Yep, sorry we can't stay in your village for long…” I responded.

“Look out for big shiny bird, it pretty” I glanced at Vahri and she shrugged.

“They've been talking about that for a couple days too. We can't tell if it's something dangerous or not. They really don't know how to be afraid of things.”

“Of course...”

“She doesn't know what it is either…?” Max asked softly and I shook my head. 

“The amphibians are a mystery to all of us…” I sighed as I stood back up.

“I-if I may, great dragoness, if you're heading that way, can you help the rest of my clan with getting the Xolotl out of our snare…? They're in the small forest ahead…”  Vahri requested shyly.

“Um… I'll see what we can do… we just need to get our other two first before we head out .”

“T-thank you…”