Author Note: I'm updating this story because Queen Ghidorah said she'd want to see this updated. After this I'm going back to writing the 9th chapter of Godzilla's bride. This is the first chapter that is not a school essay. I said this in the last chapter and I say it again: Even though I no longer need to have a proverb as the title, I want you Readers to suggest a proverb for the next chapter's title! This chapter's title was suggested by BHS.
Disclaimer: I do not own draconians or the DragonLance-books.
Claimer: I own Grimize the Baaz, Tissal Riversong and Bolt the Bozak commander.


Grimize the blue-eyed Baaz, chapter 9: Be careful what you wish for (Varo mitä toivot)

"Aah! Tissal, stop pulling my finger! I know where the commander's tent is!"

After Tissal had told the good news to Grimize, she had grabbed his left index finger and started pulling him towards the camp, saying that the commander wanted to see him right now.

"Well, Grimize, I think you're not walking fast enough, and I'm not even holding on to your injured finger."

"That doesn't mean it can't hurt," Grimize complained as he stumbled after Tissal once again. Grimize yanked his finger free from Tissal's grip, rushed at Tissal, tied his left arm around her waist and picked up her (and all her pouches). Then he kept walking towards the commander's tent, carrying Tissal under his arm.

When Grimize stepped into commander Bolt's tent, he saluted the commander and said: "Tissal told me you wanted to see me, sir."

The commander didn't raise his eyes from his work: "Yes, wait for a moment, I have a few more lines to read…"

After a couple of seconds Bolt put aside the paper he had been reading. He took a sip of water from the cup on his table and raised his eyes to Grimize. As he saw Grimize, he spat out the water and started laughing. Grimize was confused: "What?"

"I don't know what he's laughing at, but you might want to put me down. My breakfast is desperately trying to come out and say hello to your toes." said Tissal who was still under his arm.

Grimize nearly dropped Tissal when his attention snapped back to her. He put her down. Tissal was pale. She leaned against Grimize, holding a hand on her mouth to stop her breakfast from coming up. Grimize said: "You were so quiet that I forgot you were there. Why didn't you say anything?"

Tissal carefully lifted her and from her mouth and said: "I would have said something, if I hadn't been busy trying to keep my breakfast inside."

Commander Bolt was still laughing a bit: "Seeing that Kender's face when she hung under your arm was the best thing to laugh at this week. Ehehee, erm, where was I? Kr-rhm, oh, yes, sit down Grimize."

Grimize sat down in the chair in front of Bolt's desk. He wriggled around in the chair to get comfortable and thought: "Hmmm, I like this chair. I wonder if the commander would sell it to me?"

But he said nothing and waited for the commander to speak. Bolt stifled another laughter as he glanced at the pale Tissal sitting on his bed. He took a deep breathe and sighed before speaking: "So, Grimize, tell me what you can do when that finger of yours is packaged like a mummy?"

"Sir, what is a mummy?"

Commander Bolt gave a frustrated sigh: "That is unimportant. Just tell me what you can do with that finger. Can you lift and carry things? Can you push, pull and hold things? Umh, what else could I get you to do… Oh yes, I know you can read and write, but can you write with that finger? I have some documents that need to be copied…"

He stopped talking because there was a sudden noise outside his tent. First there was a thud, then a couple more thuds, a loud crashing sound and finally an unusually girly scream from a Draconian. Grimize and Bolt exchanged a shocked look. Tissal simply looked interested, which was only normal for a Kender. She quickly went outside. Bolt and Grimize followed her. What they found outside stopped them.

Three Draconians and a smashed wooden crate were lying on the ground, the crate and its contents were scattered all over the scene and the three unfortunate Draconians. Two of them, a Sivak and Baaz (who had apparently been carrying the crate), were getting up, but the third one, a Bozak, was still on the ground, holding his snout shut with his hands. A couple more Draconians were rushing to the scene to help. Tissal approached the Bozak on the ground and started removing the debris on him. The Bozak turned his head and said to Tissal: "Hey Kender, just don't go touching that plank on my butt, ok?"

"Oh, why?"

"Because it's literally nailed to my butt, that's why" he hissed angrily.

"Oh," Tissal said, adopting a very un-Kenderish cunning look, "so you were the one who screamed like a human girl."

The Bozak didn't say anything. He looked slightly embarrassed and his face turned a couple shades darker, indicating that he was blushing beneath his scales. Tissal giggled in a Kenderish way and patted the Bozak on the shoulder: "Aw, don't worry, I was just teasing you."

Commander Bolt shook his head and asked: "Did anyone see what happened here?"

One of the Draconians who had come to help raised his hand: "I did, sir."

"Good, report to me after you three get this guy some medical attention," Bolt said and turned to Grimize.

"Grimize, do you think you can get another crate to put all this, this," he gestured at the messy scene around himself, "this stuff in. At least the usable stuff has to be gathered; everything broken and unusable can be gathered in another crate and disposed. Sweeping all this stuff to a pile and then sorting it to two different crates might be the easiest way to clean up this mess. Assuming that you can sweep."

Grimize glanced at his neatly packed finger: "I think so, sir, I just have to be careful of how I hold the broom."

"Excellent, now you and Tissal go get a couple of crates and a broom and clean up this mess."

"Yes sir," Grimize saluted and left and Tissal followed him.

Behind them the injured Bozak roared in pain as the plank with its nails was removed. The unfortunate Bozak was taken to the sick bay on stretchers.

Tissal chattered happily to Grimize as they fetched first one crate, then another and finally two brooms (Tissal insisted on having a broom for herself, too). They started sweeping up the debris and it was hard to say which one was clumsier, Grimize with his injured finger or Tissal with a broom nearly twice her own height. Tissal tried to compensate the size difference between her and the broom by standing on one of the crates but it didn't work. She only ended up spreading around everything she and Grimize had already managed to sweep up. After this happened a couple of times, Grimize got frustrated and shouted: "Stop making a mess, I can clean this up better myself! You go and get something better to do. Get a pet or something!"

"But Grimize," Tissal said as she jumped down from the crate and dropped the broom, "I already have a pet. Why should I get another?"

"You…" Grimize stopped and turned to face Tissal, "have a pet? What pet is it?"

A Sivak that was walking by stopped and said: "She has you, obviously."

Tissal shook her head: "No, as interesting as it would be, I don't think Grimize would like it. I have a dust-bunny."

Grimize and the Sivak just stared at her. Finally the Sivak spoke: "A dust-bunny? I have to see this one to believe it."

"If you say so," Tissal rummaged through one of her pouches and pulled something out, saying "here it is."

She held out a ball of dust that had been shaped into the form of a bunny with pieces of string. The dust-bunny had a blue silky lace tied around its neck. Grimize and the Sivak took a closer look at the sudden Kender-tale come-true. The Sivak huffed: "Now I have seen everything except a woolly mammoth, a copper dragon and a man wearing a lady's dress. You need a real pet, Kender. Though I'll pity any creature that ends up being a Kender's pet."

"I call her Shirley. I know she's not a real pet, but she's there when I need to pet something soft and fluffy."

Grimize rolled his eyes: "Well, since I'm neither of those, would you leave me alone and let me finish cleaning up?"

The Sivak seemed to get an idea: "Hey, did you know there's a circus visiting the village? They have animals and a fortune teller and everything. You might find lots of interesting things in there. I've heard that there's a group of Kender travelling with the circus, too."

Tissal's face lit up: "Yes, I think I'll go and have a look at it. Plus I have to stop by at my home and do the dishes, I bet those plates and mugs in the basin are molten by now… The house probably smells awful, which is other wisely interesting, but uncomfortable. And maybe I get a new pet from the circus, maybe a circus cat or a circus horse… Bye now Grimize. I'll be back in the evening."

Tissal ran off and Grimize stared after her. He turned to the Sivak and asked: "How did you come up with that stuff?"

The Sivak shrugged: "I didn't need to come up with anything, there really is a circus. Let's just hope she doesn't bring a horse with her if and when she returns."

Grimize grunted and continued sweeping the debris.

In the village Tissal was running towards her home. She turned around a corner and ran into a male Kender. They hit their heads together and fell backwards, spilling the contents of their pouches. Tissal was the first one to get up. She helped the male Kender up and started gathering her things, babbling like a Kender does: "Hi, I'm sorry for running into you like that. Did you get hurt? No? That's good. Oh, I'm fine too, thank you for asking. I already picked up everything I dropped; can I help you with your things? Oh what a pretty feather you have there, it's so soft. Yes nice to meet you too, you have a nice name. I am Tissal Riversong, yeah it's a bit funny name, it has a long history, why don't you come to my house and we have some tea when I tell it to you. You came with the circus? Good, you can show me around because I'm going to visit there after I drop by at my house. Oh, my house is along the street behind that corner, but I now live in that Draconian camp on that hill over there. Dragon orbs? Oh you have to tell me that story. Have you ever seen a Draconian orb? No? I have a singing one at home, I'll show it to you, come."

Tissal and her new friend spent two nice hours talking before Tissal washed the dishes. Then they spent several more hours at the circus. Tissal remembered to pet all the animals in the hope that they'd become friends. Soon Tissal's new friend wandered off and Tissal continued exploring the circus alone. She picked locks and found all kinds of things, like ropes, chains, shoes, money, cookies, lion hair, books, toys and even a jar of honey had somehow fallen into her pouch.

As it began to get dark Tissal headed back to the Draconian camp. Half way up the hill she heard a strange rattling sound and noticed that a chain was hanging out of her pouch. Noticing that the chain didn't touch the ground, she turned around and found the other end of the chain, attached to a circus animal's nose ring. Tissal smiled: "Oh hello. Did you put this chain in my pouch because you wanted to come with me? I'm not sure what Grimize and the other boys in the camp will say about that, but I'll ask."

Grimize was facing the commanders tent when Tissal approached him. He had just finished sweeping up the last bits of debris and was ready to start sorting them. He was going to put away the broom when he heard Tissal's voice behind himself: "Grimize, look what followed me home from the circus! Can I keep it?"

Grimize turned around and found himself face to face with a full-grown bear. He had about a second to notice that his blood rushed from his head to his legs before he hit the ground and fainted. Tissal asked in a loud voice: "Grimize, are you all right!"

Bolt came out of his tent to see what all the noise was about. He looked a bit shocked when he noticed the bear, but honestly, who wouldn't be shocked to find a bear in front of their door? The shock soon became anger, and as one can expect, Bolt started yelling at Tissal: "What in the Abyss do you think you're doing? Take that bear back to where you found it!"

Tissal hugged the bear's leg protectively: "But I didn't find it. It followed me from the circus that's in the village."

"I don't care! Take it back!"

"But it's getting dark! The bear could trip and get hurt. Can I keep it over the night?"

Bolt was dumbfounded: "Huh?"

"Please? I promise I'll take it back to the circus tomorrow."

Bolt blinked his eyes: "What? Ah, fine then, but you will take it back first thing tomorrow."

Then he returned to his tent, his tail twitching angrily. Tissal hugged the bear happily and took the honey jar out of her pouch. She dipped her fingers in the honey and let the bear lick the honey off of her fingers. Grimize was slowly beginning to wake up. Tissal put some honey on her cheek and the bear started licking her cheek. Grimize woke up finally. He sat up and stared at the scene in front of him: "Tissal, what are you doing?"

Tissal smiled at him: "Oh, you woke up. I'm giving honey to my new friend and getting kisses in return. Do you want to try?"

Grimize frowned at her: "No, I think I don't want to have a bear licking my face."

Tissal laughed: "Oh come on, it is fun. Here, try it."

She took a sudden step towards Grimize and put some honey on his cheek. The bear rushed at Grimize, knocked him over and started licking the honey. Grimize made a few attempts to wriggle away from the bear, without success. He roared: "Tissal! I said I DON'T want that bear to lick my face! Make it stop! It's disgusting!"

Tissal giggled and put the honey jar back to her pouch. She smiled innocently and said: "I can't make it stop, but don't worry, it stops licking when there's no more honey on your face."

Soon the bear stop licking Grimize's face and let him go. He sat up and touched his cheek, which was covered in bear drool. Tissal gave him a handkerchief. Grimize took it and wiped his face. He looked at the pile of debris that he was still supposed to sort and felt tired. He said to Tissal in a quiet voice: "Tissal, I'm really tired. So let's just sort that damn pile of crap and go to sleep."

Tissal gave a quiet nod and petted Grimize's head comfortingly. The sorted the pile in silence. Working together they soon got ready. They left the crates where they were and headed for the tent where Grimize's bed was. The bear followed them.

They found the right tent and went in. The tent was quite big; there were the beds of about 30 Draconians. Grimize's bed was in the mid section of the tent. He nearly walked past it, but Tissal tugged his wing and he stopped. He looked at the bed, trying to form a thought, trying to remember what he was supposed to do next: "What is that? I know what it is… but what's the word for it? It's something… a bed, yes that's it. It looks like my bed. On the other hand, all of these beds look alike. Well, I guess I should just get some sleep…"

Grimize half fell, half crawled on the bed and took a deep breath.

"At least it has my smell, so it should be my bed…" he thought. Tissal sat on the edge of his bed and leaned against his side. She stroked the back of his hand in a soothing manner. The bear fell asleep next to the bed.

"I'll wait here until you fall asleep," Tissal whispered. Grimize just grunted quietly, too tired to answer. He fell asleep soon, but so did Tissal.

The next Draconian who would walk in the tent, would see a very strange sight: a Kender, a Draconian and a bear sleeping peacefully together.


Author Note: Well, there you go Queenie. Everyone: REVIEW! Suggest new proverbs for chapter titles.