Here be Dragons!
Chapter 4
It is now 7 days later
Kate had talked him into spending the night in a city called Llorkh. It was nowhere near the size of her city, however, of the two towns prior to this one it was large enough to actually be called a city.
There were actually three inns to choose from as well as a few stables for the horses to choose from. Additionally they could actually buy fresh vegetables and fruit and put them into Rick's bags that were all presently in her backpack since she had the space.
Llorkh, they'd both learned, was a mining town. The mountain range to the east was filled with mines and they both had no idea just how many tunnels made by miners were in that mountain range. They were all chasing gold and silver.
They listened in while eating breakfast and were hearing rumblings that the mines were playing out and those people were wondering where to go now.
They left the inn with the intent of moving on and went to collect their horses. Once they arrived Dog went nuts and blinked around all over the place until finally he stayed in one place to get petted.
Kate was laughing as Dog even bounced around her, finally stopping to allow her to pet him. "You're a good dog." Kate scratched his ears which she had learned was something he loved.
"I presume we're going through this mountain pass?" Kate questioned him since she'd learned there really wasn't really much of any place left to go unless they went out into nowhere and risked getting lost. At least in her eyes.
"We are but only just barely. Then we're going to rough it for a while. No roads and no towns that I know anything about. So if there's something you want, now is the time," Rick advised her.
"Camping." Kate had stopped at not finding another city. Her sleeping bag was more comfortable than the bed in the inn had been. In fact she had gotten it out and put it on the bed to sleep in.
"I can't think of anything. Your fresh keeping bags are full and we have about 2 weeks for each of us of those travel rations." Kate had tasted one or two along the way so far and she was not impressed. This city girl was not yet a country girl.
"Then let's get our horses ready and get started." Rick went over to his horse and lifted each foot to inspect them. Looked at his teeth, petted him and kissed him, telling Pepper he was a good boy.
Kate now knew how to saddle her own horse and even reached into her backpack to pull out an apple to feed her with while she did just that.
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They'd already crossed a river using a bridge just to get to this little city. It only took about 3 hours to reach the mountains.
They rode slower after leaving the city to give the horses a break. Rick was looking forward and was a little confused. "Let's walk." Rick suddenly got off his horse.
"Walk?" Kate didn't understand. They'd only just started. Still she got down off her horse and started to lead her. "Why?"
"I don't know just yet. There's something off." Rick tried to work out just what was bothering him.
That had Kate doing the same except she didn't see anything. All she saw was a small row of trees just before the mountains.
They were only a few yards away from the trees when Kate saw Rick stop so she did as well. She looked at him then at what was in front of them. "What's wrong?" Kate got that she was a city girl and Rick was really comfortable out here and that he got along well with wildlife and nature overall.
"See the dead trees?" Rick was willing to teach her while he worked this out, though he was already getting a really bad feeling about this space. What he didn't get was why here? It was kind of close to the city and miners would travel this road, so why here?
Kate saw a number of dead trees. On both sides of the road actually. She even saw a bridge going over something just prior to the mountains.
"Dead trees. Do they look burnt like there was a fire? What's the bridge made of and does it look burnt?" Rick questioned her as his fear got more palpable.
Kate looked again. Burnt meant black and none of the trees looked in any way black. "No, not burnt. Disease, maybe?"
Rick hummed a little since she had a point, but something didn't fit with her idea. "Possibly. Dog!" Rick motioned forward and Kate watched him blink away.
Kate looked at the forest again. Rick had considered her idea but didn't seem sold on it. As she watched she saw Dog blinking all over the place until she didn't see him any longer.
"What's he doing?" Kate queried as they both just stood there while holding onto their horses.
"Scouting, he'll be back in a moment," Rick said.
"Oh!" She had thought Dog was just a companion. Now she knew something else about him. Then Kate saw him blinking his way back to them. Once he arrived he growled a low menacing growl.
"Yeah, a trap. Just what I feared," Rick said softly, just loud enough for Kate to hear.
"Trap!" Kate clapped a hand over her mouth since she feared she'd spoken too loudly. "What kind of trap?" she asked more softly.
"Let's find out. The best way to beat a trap is to know it's a trap." Rick moved forward and as he walked he put his bow in his free hand. Seeing that, Kate freed her staff.
"Let the horses go. Don't try and hold onto her. Dog and I can track them down after the fact." If he was right they were going to be frightened out of their minds and start running. Likely straight into the city behind them.
Rick paused for a moment and looked left and right. What they both saw was a deep gorge. However, what they didn't see was any water at the bottom. It seemed to go the length of the mountain.
"I'm thinking earthquake really long, long ago. Then over the years it just started to fall down making it wider and wider."
"Trap?" Kate barely whispered.
"Let's find out." Rick began walking across the bridge. Kate wasn't afraid. Combat was something she was familiar with. It was just that it was all city combat, so she was right next to him.
They were in the middle of the bridge when Dog growled and blinked away to somewhere else.
"Get ready." Rick let go of the reins he was holding to keep Pepper in place and filled that hand with two arrows.
Kate let go of Pippi, readied her staff, and assumed a stance.
A grunt followed by a howl had both of them looking and they both saw a very agile creature flip over the side of the bridge and land just where the bridge met land. The only thing he didn't have was a weapon, not that he needed one.
As expected that horses didn't like this surprise and complained loudly and turned and ran for it, though they didn't go far. They were well trained war horses after all. Just far enough to not be seen.
"The Troll is yours." Rick knew something else was coming. He could sense it and took a step backwards.
Kate meanwhile was long since ready. She used the strength in her legs, leapt at the Troll, and hit him upside his head with her staff. Unfortunately all that really did was make him angry.
He was big. Around 9 feet tall and about 500 to 600 pounds or more, Kate was guessing. She was just thinking about countering his height and weight with her own when Rick called out, "Get ready for Dragon breath!"
That had Kate doing something stupid. It was just he had said the magic word and that word was DRAGON! She turned her head to look and that gave the Troll an opening; he took it. A swing of his big hand hit her hard and sent her flying until she slammed into the really short but stout railing that kept her from going over the side and down to the bottom that was filled with rocks.
Rick dropped one arrow, nocked the other and let it fly. This big Green Dragon had come swooping around a part of the mountain and headed right for all of them.
Rick knew green meant a gas. All Dragon breaths were dangerous and yes, the gas would affect the Troll. But the Troll would easily recover in just a few short minutes. Only fire did any permanent damage to a Troll.
Rick fired his one arrow and immediately pulled out a magical arrow next. His first arrow wasn't magical and unless he hit a sensitive part of this Green Dragon it would just bounce off and do nothing.
Rick waited and waited and saw it open its mouth to launch its breath weapon at all of them. Then he fired straight into its mouth and got ready to jump out of the way. Thanks to his bow every arrow was treated as an arrow of slaying that had the capability of killing any creature, not matter how big in one shot. However, a Dragon, any Dragon, would likely just shrug the affect off.
"JUMP!" Rick yelled and jumped. Only in his case he didn't jump for a different section of the bridge like Kate was likely going to do since she and Dog had a Troll to contend with.
No, Rick jumped over the bridge and spent the second it took to shift into his Gold Dragon form. He flew under the bridge and took off after the Green Dragon. He'd killed evil Dragons before and this one was going to die like the others.
Kate wasn't damaged due to the breath of the Green Dragon, unlike her Troll friend here which was helpful since he had hurt her. As she stood up she saw a large Green Dragon flying off a little above her. Then she saw a Gold Dragon come out from under the bridge, following the Green Dragon.
Kate had no time to question what was going on. Green meant evil and Gold meant good. Kate went with her initial idea in fighting a big troll and that was to be bigger than he was. A moment later Kate was now 12 feet tall and weighed closer to 1,300 hundred pounds. As part of the magic involved so did her staff which was now the size of a tree. This also meant that each of her hits would do more damage.
Kate flipped her head around just as she heard it complain about pain. She was just in time to see Dog blink in, bite the Troll on the back of his ankle which was a vulnerable spot and promptly blink back out.
"Good dog!" Kate took a small step thanks to her new height and used the end of her staff to jab it into its stomach then a stroke down onto his head. This had him down on the ground.
His attempt at getting up gave her an opening so she took it and used her staff to hit him in the head again. But he succeeded in getting up.
Rick was flapping like crazy to try and gain altitude and gain some height as well as gain some speed. The Green Dragon he could tell was actually bigger than he was and likely older than any Evil Dragon he'd yet encountered.
It continued along the gorge and had actually taken a look behind it and found Rick right behind it. It was only then that it started to flap harder and faster. Rick had started from a dead stop so he was initially losing ground. But Rick was determined and was pumping his wings for all he was worth.
Kate watched Dog blink back in and bite him in the very same spot followed by blinking back out again. It hurt and the Troll complained but it wasn't debilitating in any way.
Though it did give Kate an opening to go first now that they were both standing. Another hard poke to his stomach was followed by two fast blows to each side of his face. She even used one of her stunning fist attacks to see if she could stun him and get him to stand there in shock.
It didn't and he used both hands with big dangerous claws to take two swipes at her. Kate flipped to dodge and avoid the first one and landed on the bridge. But the bridge was never meant to hold her weight so one of her legs went right through the bridge until only her body stopped her from going all the way through and down to the bottom.
The Troll now had a free opening at Kate and took two unblocked blows to her head which hurt a fair amount. Now she was trapped and trying to get her leg free gave it yet another swing at her head which connected and hurt.
It was also pissing her off. The damage wasn't really all that bad; she could fix it after this fight was over, it was just that it stung a lot.
Then Kate heard the Troll howl a little in pain. She could only guess that Dog had blinked in and bit him in the very same place as the last two times. Hopefully he was doing some real damage. It was just that the stupid Troll could quickly and easily regenerate from damage that wasn't fire based.
Which gave her an idea. It only took a second which was long enough for the Troll to swing once and hit her in the head yet again. Only now she was a big Gold Dragon who had a leg stuck in a bridge.
Kate grinned, inhaled, and let it out. A Gold Dragon was capable to breathe two different breath weapons. One was a gas that seriously weakened anyone caught in it. The other was fire and Kate let him have a blast of her fiery breath.
That had it roaring from the real damage it couldn't get back and from the pain. It also had it staggering backwards.
However, it also left Kate trapped in this stupid bridge. She could shift when she wanted. So a second later she was a really big human female. She decided to cancel out her huge size and went back to normal, using her free leg to push hard. She jumped up into the air and landed on a good section of the bridge.
Then Dog blinked in, bit hard, and blinked back out again.
All the shifting and changing sizes meant Kate lost the handle on her staff that she left on the bridge. So she ran toward the Troll, launched herself at it, and kicked him right in the chest that sent him flying backwards.
Kate now had him on the ground. She jumped on him and pummeled him in the head with her fists over and over again until he stopped moving even a little.
Rick was maybe gaining a little on the Green Dragon as they were both pumping really hard. They were soon going up and over the top of the small mountain range and down the far side as fast as both of them could manage.
All this hard flying was tiring but he wasn't willing to give up. It would die and that was the end of it so he kept flapping as hard and fast as he could.
Finally he started to grin as the Green Dragon started to slow way down and wasn't flapping nearly as hard as it used to be. However then just as he was about ready to think about breathing on this beast it landed and disappeared into the side of the mountain.
It had him slamming on the brakes as hard as he could. Still he ended up slamming into the side of the opening and crashing to the ground.
He was at the entrance to a cave. Rick spent a second to change back, yanked a potion from his bandolier, and drank it quickly. He felt the magic heal the damage that slamming into the side of the mountain had caused.
"Home turf, I'm betting." Rick got his bow ready, pulled out two magical arrows, and got ready to go inside. Home turf might be what it was thinking, but he didn't care.
Kate watched as Dog blinked into place and barked at her. "Good dog! Now we need to permanently kill this damn thing." Kate considered how to do just that. The answer was obvious. "Blink away, Dog," Kate commanded and shifted back to being a Gold Dragon yet again.
Kate lifted herself up high, breathed in deeply, and let it all out straight down onto the Troll.
A few minutes later she did it again, then kicked the burnt out hulk over the edge and down into the gorge, followed by shifting back. "Now where did Rick go?"
Rick made his way inside slowly and allowed his ability to see in the dark kick in. He also knew that a Dragon could see in the dark farther than he could as a human. He had an answer for that.
Rick put his two arrows away and reaching into his backpack, pulled out two tiny gems. With one tucked away for now he spoke the command word and threw it. The second it hit something it lit up in brilliant light. It showed him a large empty cavern just beyond a huge hole in the ground.
Rick pulled his two arrows back out, inched his way forward, and looked for any side openings. Dragons, even one as big as this one, were more than capable of crouching way down, getting really low to go though a nice wide but shallow crack.
Finally secure that his Green Dragon had gone down he peeked over the side. Dropping a loose rock told him that the bottom was deep but it also ended in water.
Rick knew Green Dragons didn't breathe water so now he had a new idea. Putting his bow and arrows away he searched for a potion and drank about half of it before putting it back.
Then he jumped and landed feet first into the water which he quickly found out, even with Endure Elements, was a little cool. However since he was now breathing water he stayed in the water and looked up.
The light from above showed him a little. Down here was similar to what was up above. Since the Dragon wasn't in the water that left him with two locations. He had a 50/50 chance of being right.
Rick pulled out his bow again, grabbed two magic arrows and nocked them into place, and slowly kicked to the surface. Just before he broke the surface he looked one way and didn't see anything. Looking the other showed the Dragon right up next to the edge, waiting for him.
Rick kicked hard and broke the surface. With his bow turned at a 90 degree angle he fired both arrows just as the Dragon inhaled. Rick fell back into the water and pushed to go deeper.
The Dragon's breath weapon was a gas. Very corrosive gas to be sure, but still a gas. Being a gas it couldn't penetrate the water and just blew across the surface.
Like any Dragon he had to wait to recover to do that again. Rick knew that the Green Dragon couldn't swim well. So he reached for two more magic arrows and kicked hard for the surface.
Once he broke the surface he fired another two arrows, fell back into the water, and pushed for more depth and waited.
Eventually with two more arrows in hand, he slowly rose to the surface until he kicked hard enough to break the surface; he was all set to fire yet again. Only he saw the Dragon lying next to the pool, not moving.
Rick allowed himself to fall back into the pool. He didn't fire and pushed to gain some depth again and waited.
After a while he swam for that side and with bow ready he allowed himself to slowly rise right up against the edge.
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"Where the hell is he, Dog?" Kate knew he didn't have an answer but she was starting to go past being worried. She was on the verge of being scared. The Green Dragon had looked pretty big. She had been back up from the bottom of the gorge for a few minutes now.
Then she heard Dog bark and turned to look and saw him blinking all over the place. That had her looking and she saw a Gold Dragon headed right for her.
Kate placed a hand over her heart and smiled in relief. She kept watching as he flew right for her. Suddenly she was thinking he was going to land on the bridge. But the bridge was damaged and wouldn't hold up under his weight so she waved her arms at him. Still he came in for a landing. Then just as a large clawed toe touched the bridge he shifted to human.
He didn't even look worse for wear. Dog was blinking all around him and barking madly. Kate threw herself at him and kissed him. She'd been scared for him. No sooner than she kissed him she let go of him "YOU'RE WET!" He was soaking wet to be precise.
"I went for a little swim," Rick simply stated.
"Green Dragon?" Kate questioned him.
"Dead. It retreated to its lair and tried for an ambush. It didn't work. My black hole now holds a number of Green Dragon scales as well as some teeth and talons. Just in case." One never knew what you could do with those things.
"Miss me?" Rick smiled wide. She had, after all, kissed him.
"NO! …You had Dog scared to death!" Kate snapped.
"Well at least someone missed me." Rick knelt down so Dog could give him kisses and Rick petted, hugged, and scratched his ears.
"I managed to find his Dragon Hoard. I took everything and put it into my black hole as well." Rick informed her and stood up.
"I'm betting these two conspired to ambush people they thought might be worth it. The Troll sends out a signal that brings the Green Dragon. His breath won't damage the bridge much. It will damage the Troll but he'll recover. Then they split what they find.
"I'm guessing they didn't think the miners weren't worth anything so they got a free pass. You know if the Dragon has a hoard the Troll might too. Though his is likely way at the bottom." Rick pointed down at the bridge.
"Yeah I know. I found it." Kate grinned. "Along with a fair number of human bones." Kate was betting he ate them.
"You hurt?" Rick asked her though she still looked as lovely as ever.
"He got lucky and got in a few hits but nothing I couldn't fix." Kate was annoyed that her 50% chance of missing each time hadn't worked. It had better work out a lot better next time or she was really going to be pissed. "You?" He looked as handsome as ever.
"He tried but failed each time." Rick was never going to admit that he had slammed into the side of the mountain. It was far too embarrassing.
"Feel up to continuing to climb up into our mountain?" Rick asked her. "We can eat jerky for lunch then set up camp for dinner somewhere on the mountain."
"Yes, please. I've had it with this location." Kate was ready. "Right after we find our horses." They had, after all, run away. Kate looked around again and still didn't see them.
"Dog?" Rick had a trick for Kate to learn. They both watched Dog bark and blink away.
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Green Dragon Hoard
1. Two opals
2. Lantern
3. Candle
4. Stone
5. Pigments
6. Three gold lamps inlaid with silver runes and adorned with jade camels (value 2,500 gold pieces each)
7. Two ebony combs carved to resemble the heads of illithids, wrapped in gold wire and having a pair of rubies for the eyes (value 1,000 gold pieces each)
8. Small camel hide sack containing 200 platinum pieces, 2,560 gold pieces, 8,000 silver pieces
9. Sixteen skulls (6 dwarf, 4 elf, 4 human, and 2 gnome) each with a pair of rare platinum coins embedded skillfully in their temples. The coins are ancient and representative of the cultures from which the skulls originated (value 250 gold pieces per skull trophy).
10. One bone chest that was carved from the hollowed-out thigh bone of an unknown gargantuan animal (value 200 gold pieces); it contains gems worth 150 gold pieces, 2,380 gold pieces, 5,680 silver pieces, 15,620 gold pieces.
Troll Hoard
1. 15,890 gold pieces
2. 16 large chunks of unrefined gold
3. 18 large chunks of unrefined silver
4. 29 small chunks of unrefined gold
5. 49 small chunks of unrefined silver
6. One dagger
7. One staff
8. One wand