Every Kid Wants A Pet

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Armory of the Forgotten Hero! Now before we get too far a quick announcement: I'm gonna be busy this weekend. It's nothing serious, just going to a celebration of anime. That does, however, mean I won't have as much time to work on the chapters for my other two active stories. So if anyone's wondering about a delay on posting this week, that's why. Thankfully, I should still get all the postings on my Pat reon done this week before things get hectic, so swing by, check it out and see about becoming a patron! Now then, no guest review questions this week so let's celebrate some anime and get to the story!

Daytime: Rurorona Village

Darius's eyes opened shortly before the first rays of sunlight began to hit his home. 'I really am used to early mornings these days,' he mused while shifting slightly, an action he quickly found to be a bit tricky thanks to the two women holding on to either side of him. "Oh, is it time to start the day," Izumi opened her eyes and looked up at him from his left side.

"Just go back to sleep, Izumi," Rifana stifled a yawn without opening her eyes, instead opting to snuggle even closer to her boyfriend, "I'm sure no one will mind if we get started a little later than usual today." It was understandable she'd be thinking this way right now. The recent hunting trip wound up not only with the discovery and recruitment of the Sword Hero, but also proving the battle readiness of their newer companions and ended with the death of the four otherworlders who'd been hunting them. It might not have been the biggest event they'd ever been a part of, but more than a couple people thought it was worth a small celebration, hence last night's lovemaking session between the three of them.

Amazingly, Rifana had been the one to suggest it, putting aside her usual uneasiness with Izumi. Certainly they'd done similar deeds before but typically when Figneria was around to help calm the weasel girl and remind her that Izumi wasn't trying to hog her boyfriend all to herself. "I don't know," Darius mused, "it might be our turn to serve breakfast today. Does anyone remember if that's on our job list this morning?"

"I asked Sir Shield Hero about that yesterday," Izumi answered, "I believe he's planning on having the Sword Hero try his hand at it today."

"Good news for us then," Rifana sighed in contentment, "we can sleep in a little longer."

"Not by much," the Armory Hero pointed out, "I need to do my rounds of the village perimeter soon. Natsui might not give me any grief about being late but Éclair, Melty and Naofumi definitely will."

"If you want, I can take over this morning's rounds so that you and Lady Rifana can have a little more time together," the horned girl suggested.

"That's sweet of you," Darius put his hand behind her head and pulled her closer, "but it wouldn't be fair of me to push my jobs onto you, Rifana or Figneria. You all have your own work to take care of and I'm not going to intentionally add to that."

"And as much as I want to keep Darius to myself as long as possible," Rifana sat up slightly to look at Izumi, "it just wouldn't feel right to make you work while we laze about. I might not like it, but we got a schedule that's worked out so far. We'll find time to be together again this evening."

"It means a lot to hear you say that," Izumi shifted position to bow her head, "I can see why Darius fell in love with you. You're very kind Lady…..would it be overstepping for me to just call you Rifana?"

"We both spent last night getting nailed by my boyfriend," she snorted, "we're way past being formal with each other. If you want to call me lady, go ahead, but I won't stop you if it's easier to drop the honorifics."

"Then I shall call you Waifu Rifana," Izumi smiled brightly, "at least until the day I can refer to you as my fellow wife."

"That might get weird but what the heck, I guess we can give it a try," Rifana sweat-dropped, "anyway, how are we on time?"

"Unfortunately, it sounds like the day is starting," Darius noted as the noises of people stirring outside could be heard. The cardinal hero slid out of bed then, missing his girlfriend and self-proclaimed fiancé's warmth already as he summoned his hero attire, minus some of the armor. He gave the both of them a quick but passionate kiss before heading for the door to the outside, grabbing a quick snack on the way. Breakfast would be served eventually but it always took time to cook for so many people.

So, while he waited, the Armory Hero headed towards the village perimeter, picking up Naria and Tetsu, a male Yama Clan member with small white horns on the sides of his head and blue hair in a ponytail, on the way. Naturally he did his best to ensure the village was guarded at all times of the day and night, but he still didn't envy those who pulled late night and very early morning patrol. Naturally the soldiers and villagers they relieved were more than happy to head back to their homes for food and rest as the current guard took over. Thankfully, there were no unusual reports for them to be worried about this morning, at least so far.

'Two months left,' he thought soberly, 'to think we've already made it through one month. Guess it's no surprise considering all the running around we've had to do.' And it wasn't over yet. They still needed to find the Bow Hero, Itsuki Kawasumi, and get him trained up before the phoenix awoke. Problem was, they currently had no leads on his whereabouts and since his and Naofumi's parties needed a rest about the only thing they could do right now was wait and hope the Queen's shadows and other informants were able to track him down.

"Hey Boss!" The sound of Johann dropping in from above broke the Armory Hero from his thoughts as his mount landed in front of him in his dragon form. Interestingly, he had a passenger: a young demi-human girl with dog ears and a tail. She further distinguished herself with her white-long-sleeved shirt and blue vest that possessed surprisingly long coattails. "The weather's great today, perfect for flying!"

"Morning Johann," Darius greeted, "I'm glad to hear the weather's alright, but I hope you didn't forget to check for any problems on the ground while you were up there."

"It's okay, we circled three times," the dog girl assured, "one for looking at the sky and the next for looking at the ground."

"And the third one was for fun!" Johann cheered, getting an additional cheer of agreement from his current rider.

"Given your good mood I guess you didn't see anything unusual, Wyndia," the cardinal hero asked the girl.

"Nope," she assured, "clear for miles. But if you want, we'd be happy to circle again."

"If you do circle again, you'll have to be quick about it," Darius informed, "breakfast is about to be served. Unlike most other people here I don't have to explain to you what happens when a dragon gets hungry."

"No sir," Wyndia saluted happily.

"Then how about this," he suggested, "make sure Johann gets to training on time today and you can circle one more time once it's over, deal?"

"You mean it?!" She cheered with stars in her eyes, "come on Johann, let's get you fed and trained!"

"Hey you can feed me," the dragon boy commented as they took off, "but no one bosses a dragon emperor around." Wyndia simply laughed as they flew the short distance to Naofumi's home to get breakfast.

"Sir Armory Hero," Tetsu spoke up, "are you really okay with that girl riding your sacred mount?"

"Believe it or not, Wyndia there knows a surprising amount about dragons," Darius explained, "figured out all of Johann's favorite scratching spots in seconds and even gave me a couple pieces of advice for when he gets rowdy. I haven't had to use the chains on him ever since we brought her here. She also keeps him occupied when Filo's playing with Melty, so we don't have any tug-of-wars over the little princess."

"How did a young girl like her come to know so much about dragons," the Yama Clan member asked, "did her parents raise ground dragons?"

"I haven't pried too much," the Armory Hero admitted, "like most of the kids here she's an orphan but she did mention to me that she grew up with a dragon. Can't say I'm fond of the circumstances that brought her here, but I can't deny how helpful she's been."

"We should make a note of this," Naria spoke up, "we have few mounts in the mountains, so it never occurred to us to train in the art of raising them. Forgive our oversight, Sir Armory Hero."

"I don't know what you're apologizing for," Darius waved off her concerns while encouraging her to stop bowing, "you've got a myriad of skills already, more than enough for what I've asked you all to do so far. If you want to learn something new, do it because you want to or because it'll be useful for all kinds of situations, not just ones involving me."

"But our lives are dedicated to you, Sir Armory Hero," Tetsu insisted, "all we do is for you."

"Which I very sincerely appreciate," the cardinal hero acknowledged, "but you don't have to be dedicated to me twenty-four-seven. At the end of the day, we're all just trying to live our lives and I know you and the rest of the chosen candidates have lives outside of all this. And if you don't, now's as good a time as any to start living them."

"We'll….take this advice to heart, Sir Armory Hero," Naria bowed again.

"Good to hear," Darius nodded, "now then, let's finish up our rounds for the morning. One of the other groups should be up here soon enough with breakfast for all the patrols. As for me, I…what the fuck is that doing out there?" What he was referring to was a giant, green caterpillar monster known as a caterpilland advancing towards them at a leisurely but surprisingly quick crawl.

It was hard to miss, given it was longer than a horse and as big around as a baby hippo. What caught the Armory Hero's attention, however, was the presence of a saddle on the monster's back. "Tetsu, there haven't been any more purchases of caterpilland eggs while we were gone, has there?"

"No sir," he shook his head, "you and Sir Shield Hero made it abundantly clear that we currently don't possess the capabilities to take care of a large assortment of monsters."

"Well," Darius summoned a replica cardinal shield and slowly circled the monster, noting immediately that it was tame and had no fear of people, "for whatever reason we have a wandering caterpilland with a saddle here and based on the stats I'm reading it's not an egg hatched by Naofumi. The ones we've got in the stables are large for their level. I take it no one's been hanging around the village riding on one of these things, have they?"

"No, caterpilland's are good animals for farming but their slow speed makes them impractical for travel of any kind," Naria answered, "the most likely explanation is one of the children have been sneaking out to take care of it." Indeed, farming was the whole reason Naofumi had purchased the monsters before their trip to Zeltoble. They'd made digging up the ground far easier than it had been thanks to their ability to pull plows and carts.

"Most likely, but that still leaves a long list of suspects," the cardinal hero pulled out a list of who all was on lookout duty and what their shifts were, "I've been rotating in the kids who can fight alongside the ones with the best senses for spotting things. We've got a lot of repeat names here and that means any one of them could've been sneaking off during their shift to check on this thing or convincing the other kids to let them go out of the village unescorted."

"How do you propose we find the perpetrator," Tetsu asked, "questioning the children one after another will take some time."

"I can think of two quick ways, but they're exceptionally mean," Darius responded before dismissing his shield, finding no traps of any kind on the creature, "hopefully it won't come to that. For now, I'll sneak this one into the stable with the others while the kids are having breakfast and then let Naofumi know about it. If we play it smart our perpetrator won't be able to hide for long. In the meantime, you two and the others just worry about patrol."

"As you wish," the two Yama Clan members bowed before proceeding on their way. As for the Armory Hero, he led the caterpilland into the stable, which was really more of a large tent with some fencing on the inside and bedding for the other monsters. Thankfully there was enough extra room for the smaller caterpilland to squeeze in next to the other two. After that, Darius proceeded on to Naofumi's house where they were starting to wrap up breakfast.

Funnily enough, he found someone else serving the food today. "Hey Ren," he greeted while the Sword Hero ladled some food into his bowel, "finally got stuck with serving duty, I see."

"Naofumi told me he needed help then Éclair announced I was serving," the cardinal hero shrugged, "I couldn't really refuse at that point."

"You'll get used to it," Darius assured, "you probably noticed we change up who's doing what from time to time, helps keep things from getting too monotonous. Warning you now, don't be offended if someone says your food isn't as good as Naofumi's, that guys in a league of his own when it comes to cooking."

"I noticed," Ren deadpanned, "it's really unbelievable the number of skilled people you managed to find for this place."

"It wasn't easy," the Armory Hero glanced at the gathered villagers who were finishing up their meals and starting to depart, "several of them were recommended by the queen but a couple of them did try to kill us at one point. It was also a heck of a fight to get the kids here and teaching them has had its own challenges."

"There's a lot I need to get caught up on," the Sword Hero mused, "by the way, did you need anything else?"

"I just need to talk to Naofumi," Darius informed, "he in the house?"

"He said he had a bit of paperwork to finish and some newly arrived items to look through," Ren recalled, "if you don't have anything pressing to do, he should be out in a bit."

"Nothing that can't wait a minute, I just got a new arrival we need to deal with," he shrugged before heading towards a table. By that point everyone was heading out, leaving Darius to finish his meal basically alone until Rifana and Izumi came along to keep him company. They'd also been going through some items that had been delivered to their house recently. Naofumi and Raphtalia finally exited their residence after another few minutes.

"There you both are," Rifana called, "you got a minute?"

"What is it?" Naofumi asked. Darius took that moment to stand up before beginning his explanation.

"We got an extra addition to our monsters," he began, "someone's been raising a-."

"MASTER!" Filo's shrill voice drowned out any attempt at conversation as the Filolial came running at them. Strangely, she was moving in a zigzag pattern, as if she was trying to shake something, or rather someone, off of her. When she got close enough, Filo transformed back into her human form and rushed to Naofumi's side, "Master!"

"What's wrong Filo," the shield hero asked with a protective hand on her while holding up his weapon. Everyone else also had a hand on their weapons as the dust cleared to reveal a woman with long blond hair and caramel colored skin. She wore a purple headband with some gold jewelry on it, giving her the appearance of a gypsy. The woman had on a yellow, revealing top that left her midriff exposed and her shoulders would've been exposed too if not for the white lab coat she was wearing. She also possessed dark pants and a yellow waistband.

"This lady showed up and suddenly grabbed onto me," Filo recounted with a sniff.

"I think I recall Naofumi giving you permission to kick people if they tried to do stuff like that to you," Rifana pointed out.

"I'm more concerned with who this stranger is," Izumi commented.

"Before I answer that," the woman stood up and dusted herself off, "I am talking to the Shield and Armory Heroes, right?"

"Depends," Darius held up the replica of Sadeena's harpoon he summoned, "are you someone we're going to have to skewer?"

"I suppose I didn't make the best first impression," she withdrew a letter bearing the queen's seal and held it out. Naofumi carefully accepted it before opening the parcel and reading its contents.

"Ratotille Anthreya," he recited aloud, "it says here you're an alchemist who was exiled from Faubley for causing trouble. But the queen seems to think you'll help my lands prosper."

"My friends call me Rat," she informed before sighing, "and I'd like to correct one thing. I was exiled because of idiots who couldn't understand my research."

"A sentiment uttered by countless mad scientists," Darius deadpanned, "well before we declare ourselves friends, Miss Anthreya, why don't you tell us what your research specializes in?"

"Monsters," Rat answered, "my job is to change them and make them stronger. But my enemies started spreading lies about how I was a demon and destroyed my lab, killing my research subjects, it was awful!" Her expression changed from sorrow to a smile then as she bent down to look at Filo. "But maybe it was all for the best. Thanks to all that, I encountered a mutant Filolial that can understand human speech!"

She pulled out a syringe with a needle then. Naturally Filo immediately transformed and ran off at the sight of it, this time yelling for Melty to save her. "It's clear we're going to have to lay some ground rules if you're going to work here," Naofumi deadpanned, "but first, tell me why you chose to come here of all places?"

"Naturally I want to research monsters," the alchemist responded, "that Filolial Queen is a good start, but I can work with normal filolials too. You know how useful monsters like filolials are and a useful monster is what I intend to create."

"Filolials are domesticated monsters, just like land and flying dragons," Izumi pointed out, "are you certain it would not benefit you more to learn monster taming?"

"I intend to create a whole new breed of domesticated monsters," Rat corrected, "I can't do that by just being a monster tamer. If you'd allow me to show you some of my skills, I guarantee you won't regret it. You can start by showing me the monsters in that stable up there, I'm curious what sort of creatures a hero has raised." She pointed to the tent where the domesticated monsters of the village were kept.

Naofumi put a hand to his chin in thought as he looked at the letter. It was definitely official, they'd made sure everyone knew what the queen's seal looked like. Rat never would've made it past the gate if the guards had noticed an abnormality with the letter. And he could ask the queen himself if he still had doubts.

"What should we do, Naofumi?" Raphtalia asked.

"We'll give her a chance for now," he answered.

"Alright but I see one talking dog with a mane of red hair and she's out of here," Darius warned. Naturally both he and Naofumi had to suppress a shudder at that particular reference as they led the alchemist to their stables. Unsurprisingly, several of the children followed along out of curiosity when they saw the newcomer. Once they arrived, Rat got to work immediately and put a hand on the nearest monster to read its stats.

"I've never such a large caterpilland at this level," she hummed.

"Growth correction," Naofumi explained, "it's an ability cardinal heroes possess that enhances the development of those they raise. But what's with this third caterpilland?"

"That's actually what I came to talk to you about earlier," Darius spoke up, "that one was wandering around the village entrance when I was on patrol. I'm pretty sure one of the kids-."

"No! You can't be in here," Wyndia exclaimed before rushing in and trying to push the unknown third caterpilland out of the pen, "there's no third one here, only two!"

"Pretty sure our eyes aren't going bad yet," the Armory Hero put his hands on his hips, "I take it you're the one who's been raising this monster in secret?"

"I, uh, have no idea what you're talking about!" The dog girl insisted.

"Wyndia," Raphtalia approached, "you already have…what's this?" She noticed something underneath the middle caterpilland and knelt down to get a better view. "Naofumi, look at this." It was a collection of monster eggs which had been hidden beneath the insectoid creature. The gathered children let out a cry of alarm before gathering around the eggs.

"We'll take good care of them, please don't throw them away!" They pleaded while clutching the eggs protectively.

"Oh boy," Darius rubbed his head, "I hoped I wouldn't be having this conversation until I had a kid of my own."

"Look," Naofumi raised his hands in a placating manner, "I believe you'd all try your best, but we can't possibly support that many with the village like it is right now." Before any of them could protest further, however, Rat interrupted.

"I can," she assured confidently, "I have plenty of experience raising large groups of monsters even with the level of resources this village has." The Shield Hero glanced at his fellow cardinal hero.

"The alternative is days to weeks of upset children," he shrugged, "pick your poison."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to have more expertise raising monsters," he admitted before turning to Rat, "but you'll need to work within the parameters we give you. First off, I don't like being lied too, so you'll have to have a slave crest."

"A small price to pay," Rat smiled, "I'll do anything for the sake of my research."

"And it goes without saying," Darius added, "give us the excuse at any point that ethics holds back scientific progress and you're out. Nine times out of ten nothing good ever comes from that line of thought."

"Don't worry," the alchemist assured, "as a master of my craft I can work within narrowed parameters if need be. Does this mean I'm employed, count?"

"Show us what you can do," Naofumi nodded before shaking her hand.

"Um, Shield Hero," Wyndia spoke up, "we received a crate from Siltvelt today."

"Siltvelt?" Everyone questioned before the Armory Hero turned to Izumi, "do you know anything about this?"

"I'm afraid not," the Yama Clan girl shook her head, "I can only assume they sent it shortly after your first visit, given the timeframe."

"Why would Siltvelt send a crate after my visit," Darius mused as said crate was brought out and opened. Within was a collection of magic texts and potion bottles along with scrolls likely containing recipes and other important bits of information pertaining to potions craft. And no doubt a number of proposals for the Shield Hero. But what was most eye-catching was the big black egg covered in straw to aid in its transport.

"Oh, a dragon egg," Rat smiled.

"A dragon egg!" Wyndia cheered, "They sent us a dragon!"

"Now it makes sense," the Armory Hero crossed his arms, "they probably wondered why you were going around on a flightless bird while I had a dragon after seeing Johann fly."

"Filo's not going to like it no matter the reason it was sent here," the shield hero pointed out.

"Yeah, but Johann will argue that you already hatched another filolial to help with pulling the carts when we're not around," Rifana pointed out.

"It's alright," Wyndia assured, "Johann and I will take good care of it."

"You should know," Rat spoke up, "powerful dragons will breed with creatures from any species, causing problems that can potentially destroy an ecosystem."

"That's not true!" the dog girl insisted, "dragons are strong and awesome!"

"I'm talking about ecosystems, not how awesome dragons are!" the alchemist corrected, "and I can make something even more powerful than a dragon."

"Not if I raised the dragon," Wyndia countered, "it would be even stronger than a regular dragon!"

"Between the two of you I guess we can try raising it," Naofumi turned to his friend then, "Darius, you should probably get Johann to help too." The Armory Hero nodded in understanding.

"That's right, your dragon can help immensely," Rat purred, "I already have the perfect job for him."

Later: Rurorona Village

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Filo was laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach, "what are you doing?! Did you get in trouble again?!"

"Shut up," Johann would've crossed his arms if he wasn't holding onto the cloak tied to him, "I'm raising a fellow dragon!" He tried to sound as serious as possible, but it was hard to take someone seriously when they had a dark blue cape carrying a large egg strapped to their back. Still, it managed to get Filo's attention as she moved closer and sniffed the egg.

"Master," she groaned, "we already have one dragon, why do we need two?"

"Why do we need two filolials," Johann barked, "I got enough to deal with just having you around."

"Filo's fellow filolial is a fellow cart puller," the blond girl insisted with her arms crossed, "what would another dragon do?"

"He'll be able to hold everyone on his back," Wyndia pointed out, "this dragon and Johann will be able to carry the entire village one day! Bet you can't do that!"

"Filo can get big too!" She insisted, "Filo will get big enough the whole village can ride on her back!"

"If you don't mind growing extra cowlicks," Naofumi reminded, causing her to grasp her head in terror at the reminder. Seems she still didn't like that particular idea. "Anyway, consider this an order, Filo. You are not allowed to bring harm to that egg or sabotage Johann and Wyndia's care of it in any way, understood?"

"But master," Filo groaned before being cut off.

"No buts," he narrowed his eyes, "we can all benefit from a strong monster and the more we have the better. Don't worry, this dragon isn't going to replace you."

"Shouldn't sword guy be taking care of it at least," the Filolial Girl asked, "he doesn't have a monster to ride on."

"Absolutely not!" Wyndia growled, "I won't let the Sword Hero lay a single hand on this egg!" Naturally this sudden aggression surprised everyone.

"It wouldn't work anyway," Darius sighed, "the price for Ren's greed series is that anything he holds starts to degrade in value. I had something similar, but it only applied to weapons, and I mitigated it by using very high-quality weapons, protection magic, replicas, etc. Thankfully it's not happening now and I'm only feeling the effects of the Sloth series and the reductions we suffered."

"Johann and Wyndia can probably take care of it without much issue, provided we keep an eye on things," Naofumi shrugged, "most of us already have plenty to do and Johann's stats as a dragon emperor should help the egg develop quickly."

"We're still going to need to figure out what to do when it hatches," Rifana pointed out, "but this should be alright for now." Everyone generally agreed with that, mostly because they couldn't think of many other ideas on how to deal with the situation for the time being. Besides, they had other surprises in store for the next couple of days.

A Couple Days Later: Rurorona Village

"Now this is an innovative way to do housing," Darius observed alongside his and Naofumi's parties. They were currently looking at a giant tree the size of a small house, which was appropriate because it basically was a house.

"I call it a camping plant," Rat declared proudly, getting off the ladder she'd been on, "I got the idea after hearing about possible shortages in some of our construction materials. Of course I can't take all the credit. It was thanks to the Count's own mutation and growth correction abilities that I was able to produce my first viable subjects."

"Does it have all the features we hoped it would," Naofumi asked.

"And then some," the alchemist smiled while holding out her hand, "the way they grow leaves a gigantic hollow space on the inside that's watertight but still breathable. It'll protect from wind and rain and absorbs sunlight during the day which it then uses to sprout illuminating flowers during the night on both the outside and inside. It even grows in a way that leaves the occasional window."

"Revolutionary," the shield hero approved.

"I should mention some work is still required," Rat pointed out, "you'll need to install your own doors for the entrances and if you want to cover the windows. Naturally we're not at the point where we can grow our own furniture yet."

"Ninety-five percent of the work is building the house itself," Darius commented, "compared to that installing some doors and shutters is hardly an issue. What about various types of housing, like shorter, wider buildings or ones with multiple rooms?"

"Still a work in progress," she admitted, "but I'm crossing the seeds with several species to see what they do. If all goes well, you might even be able to grow a whole mansion with these one day."

"Would we really need something like that," Raphtalia mused.

"Is something wrong, Raphtalia?" Naofumi asked, noticing her mood.

"I'm sorry," she smiled reassuringly before looking back at the village and it's more standard housing, "it just feels that we're getting farther and farther away from the village I know."

"It's fine if you want to keep building the regular housing," the cardinal hero assured.

"No, that's alright," Raphtalia shook her head, "if this'll help make things easier for everyone then that's what's most important." Before anyone else could say anything, a cracking sound broke the silence.

"Oh, it's happening!" Wyndia cheered as she looked at the egg on Johann's back, "let's get it inside, quick!" No one needed any encouragement and before long they'd rushed into the giant tree that was now serving as Rat's laboratory. Naturally it had bookcases with alchemic recipes along with a couple of tables full of vials and flasks containing numerous concoctions that most people could only guess at. They set the large black egg down on the main table which sat in the center of the room and waited.

The cracks got bigger and bigger as the dragon egg shook, the little life inside doing everything possible to break out. Then, it caved in as a little reptilian cry was heard. Wyndia and Johann's faces lit up as a red baby dragon stuck its head out, getting its first look at the world. Unfortunately, this little dragon's birth was also the first step towards a world of pain.

This whole village is gonna turn into a monster ranch at this rate, but who knows, maybe that'll prove lucrative. Before we get there, though, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! And of course, check out my Pat reon and become a patron for news, samples, and commissions! Oh, before I forget, stop in next time as our heroes are reminded the hard way why some dragons are feared. 'Til then!