Tora laughed as she put Prince Corinth onto the table. She started a fire in the fireplace with magic and waved her hand toward it.
"Go ahead, dry yourself off."
Prince Corinth was sulking. He scuffed the wood and jumped down in front of the grate, turning so his wings could dry. He ruffled them and shook, water flying everywhere. It sizzled as tiny droplets hit the fire.
Tora was already in her traveling clothes.
"I guess you'll be going in my pack again," she said, picking it up from the floor.
"We're traveling in this? This deluge?" Corinth protested.
"Ah, it's barely a teeny shower," Tora said uncomfortingly. "Plus, if it get much harder, we can stop at Fally."
"Fally?" Corinth questioned as he turned and started to dry his front side.
"Falador, I mean." Tora cleared her throat. The pair was quiet for a moment, and all you could hear was the crackle of the fire, and the rain on the roof.
"So, why are we going to the Dragon Lands, again?" Tora asked.
"Well, naturally, we have to slay a dragon," Prince Corinth answered.
"Naturally. I do." Tora shook her head. "Alright, so why are we slaying a dragon?"
"To get the paper."
"What paper?"
"The paper that tells us what to do after that."
"Come on!" Tora exclaimed. "This sounds like you got your instructions from like, a fortune teller."
"Well, I did." He turned back to face her.
"Seriously."
"Seriously."
Tora sighed. "Okay, let's try the direct approach. Have me go talk to your council people."
"If there was a council, we wouldn't need a Queen, would we?"
"Alright, to your Mom and her court, then."
"I don't think that'd work so well. Very stubbo-"
BAM! The door blasted open and fairies flew into the house.
"You're both under arrest!" One shouted. "For violating Corinth's exilation!"
"Aw crud," Tora said. "Alright come on, pixie dust." She grabbed Corinth and stuffed him in her pocket, pushing her way past the fairies by the door. They shot spells at her, but her traveling clothes blocked most of the blows, even though they weren't really that good of armor.
Tora could barely see, the rain was so thick and the sky so dark. She sloshed through the muddy path toward the lights of the jail, then turned to the right, and kept running.
"Where are you-" Corinth demanded, popping his head out of her pocket. Tora smacked him on the head.
"OW!"
She stopped at a door and let herself in, slamming it shut behind her. She quickly made her way up some stairs.
"Dude, dude, wake up!" she called as she ran up.
A grizzled, tired-looking old guy with white hair appeared at the top of the stairs.
"I need you to teleport me to Yanille. Please," Tora pleaded. "Now," she added, looking back down the stairs toward the sound of pounding on the doorway.
"Yanille…Yanille," the old man said sleepily.
Then the world went dark.
BAM! The door crashed open.
"Sir, we have reason to believe you're…uh oh. This is the Wise-"
"Get out of my house!!!!!!!!!!"
(BAM hit for 140 hp)
One of the fairies crumbled and disappeared, clutching his stomach. "Tell my mom I'm sorry!" he called to his friend.
The other fairies booked it out of there, lickity-split.
The Wise Old Man rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. "It's way to late for visitors. I'm an old man. What do they want to do, give me a heart attack?"
He paused for a minute. Then burst out laughing.
"Now where is that dear old girl? Ah, I must have been dreaming again. My swan song." He smiled cheerily as he shut the door.
"Awful cold out. Awful cold. Dratted weather."
Tora blinked and looked around. "Phew," she said.
Corinth stuck his head out of her pocket again, looking kind of green. "Phew what? Are we in one piece?"
Tora smiled down at him. "Yes, and we're in Yanille. The Wise Old Man does it again. One of these days, though, I'm going to snatch that fancy hat of his."
Corinth shook his head. "Humans and their fancies, really. A hat?"
Tora nodded.
"It wasn't even your colour."
"Aw, shut up." Tora looked around. "Well, he landed us right near the Yanille gate. And, lucky us, it's bright and sunshiney here."
Prince Corinth fluttered up to Tora's shoulder. "Now how are we going to get to the dragonlands?"
"Silly, the dragonlands are near. This cut like, two weeks out of our trip."
"Now wouldn't that have been boring," Prince Corinth said.
Tora shouldered her pack. "Good thing I didn't forget this. Let's go."
Prince Corinth smiled.
"Are you sure about this whole Fortune Teller thing?" Tora asked as they walked out of Yanille, nodding at the gate guards and an odd man trickling sand…
"Yes, positive."
Tora shrugged. "I guess I've trusted fortune tellers in the past."
"And what happened?" Corinth asked.
"She helped me turn my cat purple," Tora said absently.
"Right…" Corinth looked the other way.
What kind of person did I pick out here?
"Alright, we're gonna make way to the Tree Gnome Village, and from there, to the Stronghold, and then we'll get to the Pass of Arandar-"
"Wait wait." Corinth stroked his chin.
Tora stopped walking. "Yeah, what?"
"Can't you just teleport to the Elf Lands- Lleyta?"
Tora's shoulders sagged. "Well yeah, I guess. We could stop at that huge castle and grab my teleport crystal." She nodded at a musician and tossed her a few gp.
Corinth smiled. "Now that's more like it. I absolutely detest teleportation, but travel is the worst."
Tora rolled her eyes. "You'd never be an Adventurer, for sure."
"Maybe, with a little training you could make me one," Corinth suggested.
"No way. I've already trained an Adventurer. And no way am I doing that again." She shuddered.
Corinth shrugged. "I didn't want to be one anyway. So there."
Tora looked at him. "Yeah, right."
"Really."
"Really."
A few hours later found the travelers at a band of ogre's island. They nodded to a few other Adventurers who were slaying the aforementioned ogres. But they just kept popping back up.
"Beware of the water dragon. She's a beast, dude," said one.
Tora nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, mate."
The guy went back to killing the ogre.
Corinth looked at Tora. "What was that about?"
"Just some advice," she responded.
"Okaaay…." Corinth disregarded the oddness of the human's behaviour. A fairy could not even begin to understand their idiocy, what with a fairy being so much further advanced and all.
"Alright, just a few more miles, and we'll be there," Tora said, after they passed a wall and a 'Beware of Ogres' sign.
Corinth settled himself on top of Tora's head. "Walk!"
Tora shook her head and Corinth toppled off, righting himself in midair. He scowled.
Tora laughed.
