Sineater

The ride to Bollilundr was uneventful.

There was a part of me that wasn’t looking forward to coming back. It’d been only a few weeks since I’d been here with Starna and Alessa. During our last visit we’d been drugged and we’d lost Alessa to bounty hunters. It wasn’t one of my prouder moments, but it was the only town on this side of the mountains with a road going to Iron Forge, plus we’d have to switch mounts. The road wasn’t wide enough for our wagon, so we’d have to get drakes to ride.

Iron Forge primarily shipped all of its goods out through the Hepool River to the north. The river ran past Hepool and would have provided a direct route to our destination, except it wasn’t really that great to travel upriver. It was possible, but the land route was faster, especially for a group as small as ours. Honestly, the fastest route would have been to fly, but Vin couldn’t be around flight magic and there weren’t a lot of things big enough to fly with him that were docile enough to be allowed around a city.

Since the Dwarves had been asking for months for assistance, Alessa hadn’t wanted them to have to wait any longer than necessary. Plus, I think there was a part of Vin that was really excited about riding reptiles as large as horses.

“Thanks Arul Bifur!” I waved at our Driver once we got off the wagon. He still had deliveries to make, so we weren’t going to take any more of his time than we had to. As soon as he was down the street, I turned to my traveling companions. “Now what?”

It was late in the afternoon, so the smart thing to do would be to stay here for the night, but I could see the hesitation on Starna’s face. Our last visit here seemed to have left her with just as much discomfort for the town as it did for me. There was also the small problem of the mountain trail only being wide enough for a drake. If we left, we’d have to keep going until we reached the city.

“How well will you be able to keep up a light with Vin around?” I turned to our mage.

Starna glanced at our Camadt companion. “As long as you stay between us and he doesn’t try to put it out, we should be fine. My magic creates a light source, so the illumination itself isn’t magical even though the light source will be.”

“Alright, then why don’t we see if they have any drakes that we can rent right now, then we can head out?” I shifted the weight of the bag on my back. I had the bare minimum inside, so it wasn’t heavy, just a change of clothes, a blanket, and some dwarf coins. I also had the smallest pack of the three of us. Vin simply wore larger clothes due to his frame, so the same items for him would be bulkier. I also had a feeling that he hadn’t packed the bare minimum either. My brother had a habit of collecting trophies wherever we went, so he no doubt had something he was going to store them in. I knew Starna had a few magical items simply by the way she refused to let Vin anywhere near her pack. We wouldn’t have to carry our bags by ourselves for long, once we got our mounts, we could attach them to the harnesses.

“I was looking forward to a real bed tonight…” Vin tried to make a distraught look. On a kitten, it would have been endearing. On a two-hundred-fifty-pound adult killing machine, it was laughable. “You know how selective I am about where I sleep.”

“You mean, can you fit?” Starna snickered.

“Actually, I’ve seen him sleep on the rail of the ship. So it’s more like ‘will he fall off?’.” I bumped into my brother. “And didn’t you sleep almost the whole way here?”

“I have to be rested.” His slitted-eyes glared at the smirking Elf. “You never know when you’ll be forced to stay up all night on the back of a big lizard…”

“You’ll be fine.” I patted him. “Besides, I’m sure there’s a lot more for you to do at the forge than there is here.”

“Well, there was one place I wanted to visit while we were here.” The grin on my brother’s face told me that he had a plan that would get us in trouble if allowed to be enacted. “I’ve heard about a tavern that is very hospitable…”

“Nope!” I moved around my brother to stop him from going in the direction of the Drunk Crow. The owner had been the one to drug us the last time we were here. While I had no doubt that Vin would be able to leave a lasting impression on the locals about betrayal, the Elves had already killed the human who betrayed us to keep him from letting anyone know that the princess had been running away instead of being kidnapped. In my opinion, that was more than enough trauma for whoever was running the place. “That is not a place we’re adding to our list of destinations.”

“Come on Seck…” Vin grinned. “You know I’ll be back before you can get us rides.”

“And with half the town guard behind you.” Starna touched my arm to move me away from him. “But if he wants to go, let him.”

I turned to question her, but she continued before I had a chance to speak.

“Didn’t they have a Pygmy Drake?” The tanned Elf smirked. “Or was that a donkey?”

“If anyone is riding on a pygmy, it’s you!” Vin tried to move around me, but I cut him off.

“She’s our mage.” I reminded my brother. “And you…” I turned to Starna. “Don’t antagonize him.”

“I was just saying…” Starna shrugged. “If he’s not there to pick out his mount, then he’ll have to take whatever we choose for him.”

I shook my head and walked away from the two of them. While she was right, I would have preferred my brother to have come with us instead of causing trouble because he was trying to be responsible, not because he was afraid that we’d stick him with something that was more stubborn than he was and probably bit more too.

I left the pair arguing as I walked towards the stables. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long before they caught up to me.