Chapter 20: Dragons
“How could you have possibly learned all that!?”
“I visually confirmed it.”
“It’s impressive enough that you obtained such specific intelligence on their numbers, but how did you so precisely characterize the condition of their stowed weapons and quantity of food in storage?”
“I visually confirmed it.”
“You… visually confirmed it? You walked right into their structures and checked for yourself?”
“Yes.”
“And the orcs let you do it? Hell, the War Chief himself would battle you before he let that happen.”
“Most of them did.”
The head warrior brought his hands to his forehead and then rubbed his temples.
“I’ll return to the Fighter’s Guild.”
“Yes. I feel like I need to hire someone else just to confirm what the heck happened, but for now, I’ll take your report at face value…”
--
With the recent losses of Mudagog and Corgak, not to mention the departure of Gulm, the orcs were experiencing a vacuum of leadership. Unsure of who to turn to, they thought back to that woman, whoever she was, who effortlessly beheaded their greatest warrior and then walked around like the orcs were well beneath her. Admiration turned into awe, and awe turned to worship. They began referring to Deathbow as their War Goddess and erected a crude statue in her image.
--
Back in her throne room, the Heavenly Queen awaited further news of how the post-battle cleanup efforts were progressing.
“My Queen, we’re detecting strange magic from beyond the Dragon Mountains.”
“Is it the dragons finally doing something?”
“We don’t know. Most likely, no. We’ve never sensed anything like this before.”
“Could it be related to whatever caused the dragons to depart, at least?”
“Very possibly, My Queen. With small numbers of enemies still traversing the mountains northward, it would be too dangerous for us to try scouting south to investigate.”
“That reminds me. What have we learned about that man?”
The magic advisor turned and gestured for a minister to speak.
“Nothing yet. We should know something soon, my Queen.”
The Queen didn’t make one of her usual marriage jokes all day, surprising everyone.
--
“Garfield how do you feel?”
“Tired, but that’s probably because I’ve been sleeping most of the day. What have you two been up to?”
“I’ve been here keeping an eye on you while you sleep.”
“Thanks Hannah. I think. What about you Solana?”
“Oh, I’ve just been wandering around. I—I told Hannah to call for me if either of you needed anything!”
“Good. So long as you weren’t doing anything suspicious.”
“Of course not!”
“Hannah.”
“She completed some request on behalf of the Fighter’s Guild.”
“You traitor!” Solana yelled at her friend at the betrayal.
“So? How did it go?” Garfield would make up his mind how to respond after hearing Solana’s explanation.
“Well! The mission was actually a request from the elves, although I kept my identity a secret using the armor you gave me and disguising my voice. They asked me to scout the orcs and report back.”
“I see… How did the scouting go?”
“I gathered all the information they wanted, and then some!”
“Oh, were the elves pleased?”
“Yes, although they were also surprised, I think because they weren’t expecting such detailed information…”
“How did you get it? You don’t have invisibility yet, right?” Garfield was pretty sure Solana would learn vampire creation before ever learning invisibility, judging from Hannah’s experience. He didn’t see a need for her to hurry to learn vampire creation, either.
“I just kinda walked in.”
“Are the orcs so disorganized they aren’t guarding their key structures?”
“…No.”
Garfield closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Did they see you?”
“…Yes.”
“Did they attack you?”
“…Some of them did.”
“Did you kill any of them?”
“Only the one who called himself the War Chief. And it was only out of respect since he’s a warrior!”
“Solana… I’m not in a great position to say this but, I wish you wouldn’t subjugate entire nations of people without my knowledge.”
“I didn’t subjugate them! I only killed the one orc and gathered intelligence! The rest are fine!”
“Did you see that hooded orc who looked to me like a magic user?”
“Hm? No, nothing like that.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“We’ll need to check in on them later, I guess. I’m too tired to worry about this now. Oh, can the two of you bring me some soup or something and feed the bears? I don’t want the servants catching whatever I have.”
--
The next morning, Garfield felt mostly better. He was pretty sure he wasn’t contagious, at least. He came downstairs to eat breakfast, but was interrupted mid-meal by a maid.
“Master, a group from the palace is here to see you.”
“A group? Do you know who or what this is about?”
“I’m sorry, Master. I couldn’t make much sense of it.”
“I guess I’ll go and meet them.” Garfield walked out the front door of his mansion with Hannah and Solana following. Outside, he saw a couple of guards from the palace alongside a woman with unusual blue hair and a man with fiery red hair. Their outfits were clearly foreign although Garfield couldn’t place them from his knowledge of this world.
“Are you the Godmaker?”
--
An hour earlier, in front of the royal palace, three dragons descended from the sky and landed short of the palace gates. The only reason why the guards didn’t completely lose it was because of all the crazy things that had happened to Bretten over the past several weeks.
A white dragon, covered in long fur (or perhaps hair?) was guarded by two smaller dragons, one red and the other blue. The blue dragon spoke.
“Where will we find the Godmaker?” Icy fog escaped her maw.
The senior guard worked up the courage to respond. “The name Godmaker is not familiar to us!”
“Hm.” The blue dragon looked back at her companions then continued. “Isn’t there a being in this city who brings unusual entities to life?”
“Unusual entities? It sounds like you’re talking about the Duke.”
“A Duke, huh? Very well. Who is this Duke and where can we find him?”
“Uh, he lives in an estate north of the palace. We can guide you but it will be difficult with your bodies being… so much bigger than ours.”
“You judge our—“
“Zarla.”
The blue dragon turned her head back to the white dragon and nodded. “Very well, humans. I will take a form more convenient for your city.” She shrank down into the form of a human woman, except her long hair was a bright blue and her eyes glowed ever so slightly.
“Govis, join her.”
“Dayrvuphilth, are you sure?” the red dragon asked his white brethren.
“Yes. I’ll stay here and continue the dialogue.”
“Very well.” The red dragon shrank into the form of a human man with bright red hair.
--
“Just to clarify, what is a Godmaker?” asked Garfield.
“Just as it sounds: One who makes gods,” she said.
“Two people come to mind right now. Which one I tell you about depends on who you are and why you’re here.”
“Human!” The blue-haired woman took a breath before calming down and providing more information. “I’m Zarla, and he is Govis. We’re dragons from the mountain range to the south. We come in peace. Our purpose is to investigate the source of divinity produced in this city on multiple occasions.”
“Specifically, the creation and immediate destruction of many god-like entities,” Govis added.
Before Garfield could respond, Hannah and Solana both teleported next to the red-haired man named Govis, sniffing him. They floated up to match height with him, then moved their faces close to each side of his neck while continuing to observe his aroma. When they both suddenly bared their fangs, Garfield took action.
“?Twin Pull?! What the hell are you both doing!?” Garfield’s spell pulled Hannah and Solana towards him. He caught them with one arm each and held them like sacks of potatoes. Hannah was the first to return to her senses.
“…I’m sorry. He smelled so good, I lost control for a moment.” Hannah put her fangs away.
“W-What are they!?” Govis shouted.
“Solana, are you okay now?”
“Yes,” Solana confirmed to Garfield as she too concealed her fangs.
“No biting. Understood?”
“Yes!” both responded. Garfield released them. They immediately teleported next to Govis again and clung to him, although they didn’t bare their fangs this time.
“Govis, they’re clearly vampires,” his ally stated plainly.
“Vampires!?” Just as he said that, the three disappeared, leaving Garfield, Zarla, and a couple of nervous guards behind.
“Where did they go!?” Zarla looked around fruitlessly.
Garfield glanced down at his minimap. “They’re in the house. So long as they aren’t biting, he should be fine. Shall we bring this conversation indoors?”
“V-Very well.”
--
“I’m one of the two individuals who came to mind when you asked who might be creating divine entities.”
“And the other?”
“Garfield!” Pandora came walking into the room and decided to sit on Garfield’s lap. “What an unusual guest.”
“Yes, this visit by two dragons was a surprise.”
“Two? Oh, are your little ones playing with the other one?” Pandora glanced in the general direction of Garfield’s bedroom.
“So it would seem.”
Zarla cut in. “He’s safe, right?”
“Almost certainly.”
“Almost!?” While Zarla stood back up, Garfield shifted his position so he could better see around Pandora.
“Pandora here is the other one I was thinking of. We once summoned a variety of creatures and had them fight, although most of the divinity likely came from me…”
Zarla slowly sat back down. “Goddess, it is an honor to meet you. It is no surprise you possess such capabilities, but Duke, why are you able to summon divine creatures?”
“That’s not something I talk about with just anyone. How about you tell us exactly why you’re here?”
“Very well.”
Based on Zarla’s explanation, the dragons unilaterally retreated into the heart of their territory in the eastern Dragon Mountains when they detected large amounts of divinity being released into the world. Primarily, they wanted to avoid getting caught up in anything related to that divinity. They had a second reason for abandoning the western portions of the Dragon Mountains, though.
“We noticed the divinity was flowing south to the region controlled by Thoron.”
“Thoron?” Garfield hadn’t heard that name before, at least, not in this world.
“Any time a divine creature was dismissed or destroyed, the excess divinity was absorbed by Thoron, or so our elders determined.”
“I’m guessing giving energy of a divine nature to this Thoron is bad?” While Garfield asked the obvious question, Pandora remained quiet, although her facial expression implied she was familiar with this Thoron.
“Duke, that is correct. Thoron is the source of the various beasts and evil races that spawn south of the Dragon Mountains. I believe you call that region the Badlands.”
“But Thoron didn’t need divinity in order to create monsters in the past, right? What does this divinity change?”
“We don’t know. We expect that his power will grow in new and significant ways. That’s why we abandoned our usual mission of guarding the boundary between the north and the south. The continent is no longer safe to us.”
“Well at a minimum, I’ll avoid summoning anything of a divine nature while we deal with this problem. That shouldn’t be an issue for you either, right Pandora?” She nodded in response to Garfield’s prompt.
“And… just who is this Thoron?”
“I don’t know much about him myself,” Zarla admitted. “I only know that he’s an evil entity which has existed in the south for much longer than the 100 years I’ve been alive.”
“100? Why am I surrounded by so many beautiful woman and girls who are much older than me and don’t age at any perceivable rate…”
“B-Beautiful?”
“Garfield, I’ve already told you the solution to that problem. You need only take the next step.”
“It’s more fun to whine.”
“Anyway, I’ll tell you more about Thoron later.” Pandora turned towards Zarla. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Will you resume patrolling the mountains once the threat of Thoron is dealt with?”
“Yes, I expect my kin will do just that.”
“In that case, there’s just one more problem.” Pandora and Garfield both turned to look in the direction of his bedroom.
--
“Zarla, where is Govis?”
“I’m sorry, Dayrvuphilth. He’s been… detained.”
“Detained? Explain.”
“The person we were looking for is indeed a Duke in this city. While we were discussing the situation down south, two vampires became very enamored of Govis.”
“Vampires? I didn’t know they still existed. What happened to Govis?”
“The Duke assured me the vampires won’t bite Govis or harm him, but they apparently won’t let him go today either.”
The white dragon Dayrvuphilth suddenly broke into a booming laughter that echoed across entire portions of the city. “That sounds just like them! Oh, it’s been an age since I heard anything so ridiculous. Go keep him company until he can return to us.”
“…If that is your wish. Should we return straight home afterwards?”
“Yes, if you delivered the message successfully. My chat with the authorities in this city is complete. I will return. Before you return to that estate, get as much information as you can out of these gentleman regarding that Duke.” Dayrvuphilth turned towards the Prime Minister who had been observing from nearby. “May we meet under better circumstances, Benjamin White.”
The prime minister nodded to the white dragon. “Safe travels, Lord Day.” The white dragon ascended.
--
Zarla had several detailed discussions with the prime minister and other palace staff. By the time these conversations were complete, it was already well after dark. Another guard guided her back to the Garfield Estate. A maid escorted her straight to Garfield’s bedroom, which surprised her a bit but she didn’t have any reason to complain.
When she opened the door, the first thing she saw was Garfield lying on the bed, face down, pillow over the back of his head. As her eyes scanned to the side, she noticed Govis lying on his back, on the other side of the same bed, staring up at the ceiling with an expression that screamed ‘why me’. The two vampire girls clung to either side of him, and two bear cubs slept curled up on his chest.
