Dragon Goddess’s chosen

The rest of the night was thankfully uneventful. It was hard to get back into the mood to eat more even after Vellia and Nicolas were able to get to fixing Rei and me up, but at the dragoness's insistence I managed to down some more of the elk. It wasn't much later that I had burned through my stamina again, the fight and then cooking more of the elk definitely contributing to it. I was just lucky Inspect gave me enough of a warning to seek privacy and have Kat bring me the dress from Rissaeth before I was forced back to half-dragon once my stamina ran out. It didn't even give me the option to extend rage further with mana. Getting to sleep after that was easy, my utter exhaustion and leaning against Rei’s soft feathers made sure of that. Thankfully too, Vellia had changed her mind in the morning and requested our help in the morning while the ship’s crew worked on repairs.

“... you're really that dragon from last night…?” A little tiefling girl prodded, bravely approaching me with a few others her age. I smiled a little as I paused in my efforts to collect usable planks from the debris of the building I tumbled into to carefully sweep some of it away with my tail and kneel down.

“Yep, one of them. I know I look pretty different from before.” I replied softly.

“You look like one of us now,” a tiefling boy chimed in. 

“I guess I do, kinda,” I chuckled. “Bit scalier, though, don't you think?”

“Can you take us flying? The other dragon said no…” the first girl asked.

‘What's with kids and asking me that? The first time I rode on Rei was kind of scary, probably even worse for someone without wings to catch themselves,' I thought as I scratched the back of my head and tried to figure out a response. It wasn't like Thomas asking before, I knew these kids even less and they were already brazenly asking to go flying.

“Getting popular here too, huh?” Kat laughed as she came up beside me. Surprisingly, they seemed to get more scared of her than they were of me.

“W-well, we heard she fought the monsters…” an Oni boy, towering over the others, said shyly.

‘Heard… So, they weren't there to see the fight… explains why they don't seem affected by last night… Good. At least some avoided being traumatized…’

“Were you the one that made those bright lights?” A different one asked.

 “Some of it.” I laughed and playfully made electricity crackle in my mouth. This got the group chattering excitedly in their language.

“Hey! Go play somewhere else before you step on something! It's not safe here!” The paladin’s voice chastised and the small group quickly scattered with Urbi helping herd them away. I glanced over to find the succubus in only the battle-skirt and grey leather-like layer of armor with the plates that were on top of it yesterday nowhere in sight. “I swear, that lot… always the curious ones… surprised they waited until now to come up to you.”

“They’re lucky they didn't see anything last night. They probably wouldn't be so curious after that,” Kat thought aloud.

“... how are the others that did…?” I asked the paladin. 

“Shaken. Grieving… We… found the four we were missing last night along the edges of town…” Vellia answered softly, scanning over the area before starting to help collect boards.

“... sorry for adding to that with the damage… the last thing you need to worry about is repairs.” I hesitantly resumed my efforts to help clean up, as did Kat next to me.

“Do not apologize. If it weren't for you, it would have been so much worse for us,” She let out a sigh as she reached for a board. “To think we'd be hunted by animals too and so effectively at that…”

“They seemed like they had some brains,” Kat pointed out.

“They were very clever… they somehow knew to target the ones who could raise the alarm and we're still looking for the path they took up from the sea.”

“So, they didn't come up the way we did, that explains why I didn't see anything on the gates or sand when I went down there with Max and Rei earlier…” I mused. The conversation fell to silence for a few minutes as we sorted the debris, until Kat spoke up again.

“... what did you mean by being hunted by animals too?” My girlfriend pressed. “Something to do with you picking now of all times to start a new town?”

“Kat.” I chastised.

“What? We told her about you being human before.” 

“And she didn't want to answer me when I asked about why they're here.”

“That was before you took care of one of our biggest problems and proved you weren't one too. You were interested before and I suppose telling you would not hurt.” Vellia said then her voice took on the slightest hint of a joking tone. “I do recall that the conversation about you being human got cut short.”

“You don't have to if you don't want to,” I insisted.

“It's fine, if it is what gets you two to finish what we were talking about last night.” She paused and seemed to gather herself, checking around us. All the other villagers seemed to be preoccupied with their own tasks. “The reason why we're here is because of a balor… one somehow made his way through the Hellgate.”

“... a balor…?”

“A greater demon… the first one to make it through the Gate since Lilith herself when she became a goddess centuries ago…”

“You're being hunted by a balor too?” Kat asked. Vellia glanced around more, definitely trying not to let her people hear, probably for the reason she gave me the day before.

“Not directly, last I heard he and his followers were rampaging across the continent. We left long before he was supposed to reach our home but it still felt like we were being hunted.”

“Rampaging… hope someone is able to stand up to him for you in case you ever wanted to return.” I mused as I stood up and straightened out the skirt part of my outfit with my free hand and tail.

“Hopefully someday… Heard he claimed to be Lilith's ‘chosen’, her true followers may challenge him,’ she sighed and I couldn't help but cast a look over at Kat in surprise. “It is insane, Lilith has never picked a champion, as if she would suddenly pi-” the paladin started to trail off as she looked between my girlfriend and myself. I felt a slight pressure prod at my mind at the same time. “... you two don't think it is insane… Do you? What do you know?”

“...” I hesitated, trying to put words together.

“You know something. Something related to my people.” Her voice was growing more serious. “Please do not force me to use Zone of Truth.”

“You don't have to.” I said quickly. “Look, it's… actually related to me being human before…”

“How?” My turn to look around for prying ears. “How does that relate? You acted like you knew nothing about us yesterday but you seem to believe a distant balor's claims of being a goddess's champion.”

“...” I looked at Kat for assistance but I knew what I had to do, and her quick nod confirmed it. I dropped my voice down to a hiss “I’m… I am a dragon because of a blessing… of sorts… from Rissaeth herself.”

“... you're claiming to be the champion of the Goddess of Dragons…?” I nodded slightly.

“And I'm Ivra’s.” Kat added. Vellia glanced up at the clear sky as if she expected some smiting to suddenly occur. When nothing happened, she visibly paled.

“Gods…” she quickly glanced around to the others, they were starting to slow down and pay attention to us, our tones possibly the cause. “No more of this. I believe you, but I need to speak to Zormir about this. Who else knows?”

“Our party.” I answered simply, “You're the only one outside of them.”

“And only because you were considering attacking us for some reason.” My girlfriend said, looking at the succubus with suspicion. 

“You could tell... I… I could not risk you possibly being sent by the balor…” she sighed and looked away from us, unclenching her hand that I did not notice she had as a fist until now.

“I get it, and I'm sure Alex agrees with me that we don't want to fight you.”

“You do not need to keep helping, you have done more than enough.”

“... I think I'll keep working. I created this mess, I'm going to help clean it,” I told her as I started walking back to the pile of good lumber Kat and I had been putting together. “We still have a few hours before the ship is ready anyways.”

“Not like we have anything better to do,” Kat agreed with a slight laugh.

—

That evening 

“You ok? You've been spacing out,” Kat asked softly right before I felt her kiss my cheek.

“Huh? Yeah I'm fine, just… thinking… about that conversation with Vellia earlier…”  I answered as I leaned against her slightly and tore my attention away from impatiently watching the lamplights of docks of Rookport steadily get closer. “Just trying to figure out how we are going to get the information to Adrian… and what I'm going to say to Hargreave…”

“You didn't have to offer to talk to him for them.”

“Yeah… but…” I sighed, glancing past Eris and Nicolas where she was helping him deal with loose feathers and towards the crew. “News of a demon village will get out, if I can get them protection before the rumor mill starts working… but that can wait till tomorrow, I'm still fucking tired…”

“You spent the whole way back asleep,” my girlfriend teasingly pointed out and kissed my cheek.

“Your point? I spent a quarter of a day in ‘rage’ and killed two kaiju-”

“Hey! I killed one!” Eris protested, finally listening and plucking a feather out of Nicolas’ wing.

“Ow!” He yelped immediately as that wing retracted back against him.

“Merde… sorry… thought that was another loose one… Saerrei makes this look so easy…” There was a slight laugh from the dragoness from where she was leaning on the railing in her human form.

“Helps when you pay attention to what you're doing,” She teased. “It isn't that difficult to find the loose ones.” I chuckled a bit as I stretched, then I playfully hugged Max next to me before nuzzling into his neck, ignoring the magic detection aura I just stuck my face into and the return of the feeling of my seasickness.

“How's that research going?” I asked softly. “Find anything yet? You've been quiet for a bit.”

“Mhmm… there's… a lot of choices…” he answered softly. “Careful, Distant, Empowered... and like five others… I'm trying to figure out what I want… it says I only get two…”

“That should be an easy choice,” Eris laughed. “Obviously Empowered is the best one.”

“You have no clue what it even does.” I pointed out, moving to rest my head on Max's.

“Don't need to, with a name like that, it's obviously the best,” she grinned. I rolled my eyes at her.

“... I'm… going to read through them before I make my choices…” Max said quietly. I smiled a little and gave him an affectionate squeeze.

“Probably a good idea… I wasn't even sure if metamagic was possible in this world.”

“Good thing you were a D&D nerd, huh?” Kat continued to tease quietly and I looked over to stick my tongue out at her. 

“You were one too, too bad you were mainly a rogue or bard.” I countered.

“I didn't take you for someone who played that too,” Nicolas said, looking at Kat as his wing relaxed again.

“Yep, one of my usual players. Liked to be difficult sometimes. One of the types to… flirt with NPCs… all the time…” I glanced back to see a smirk forming on her face.

“Go on… continue that thought,” she insisted.

“... I'm not even going to start to act like I understand what you're talking about, buuuut it sounds like she was flirting with you.” Eris laughed.

“I get that.” I grumbled a bit, my tail flicking in irritation with myself over how oblivious I was with her.

“We're almost at the city, maybe a few minutes at the most,” Rei warned. “Unless you want attention, you should put those wings away.”

“Um… I'm… not sure how, the last couple times they went away on their own…” the cleric sighed.

“Ask Inspect, it's how I change,” I instructed quietly.

“What? I just ask it to turn me back to human?” he whispered back.

“Yep, that's basically what worked for me.”

“Or Eris can try what I did for Alex on you.” My girlfriend playfully suggested and Max squirmed a bit in my arms at the mention of it.

“Kat…”

“What? Could work for him too.” She giggled. I rolled my eyes and looked back at the pair. Nicolas looked completely lost and Eris behind him was blushing furiously.

“Just send the command and it should do the rest, it's how it worked for me.” I told him, stretching before shakily getting to my feet as the boat rocked with the gentle waves. There was a flash of dim light that made me look at the cleric again to find him wingless and looking pleased with himself, despite the two giant rips in his shirt and armor down his back.

“Where are you going?” Kat asked.

“Nowhere, just getting ready to jump off as soon as I can, I'm tired of feeling sick…” 

“We still need to talk to the captain and finish up everything with the quest.” Eris pointed out.

“And you can do that, you're the one who got it for us… and I don't think he's too happy about my ‘negotiation’ of paying the demons with the fish for the help with getting this thing back out on the water. I'm not staying on here a minute longer than I have to.”

“Here's your chance.” Rei said, motioning to the quickly approaching docks. “You are taking me with you, right? I'm tired of this too…”

“Of course,” I smiled a bit at her and wandered over. “Gonna have to pick you up for that if you don't want to fly yourself…”

“Um -” she quickly glanced at the others, a blush forming, then back at the boards of the docks we were starting to pass, before letting out her answer as a grumble. “Fine. Do what you have to. Just get me off of this.” 

“If you say so~” I laughed before gently scooping her up in the most secure way I could come up with: bridal-style. She let out an adorable squeak reminiscent of what she's able to make in her true form as I stepped up on the rail.

“Careful, Alex…” Max requested in a worried whine.

“I will be, pup” I called back to him.

“You say that, but you would've ate shit if he didn't make you stop a moment.” Our girlfriend teased and a pang of guilt hit me over nearly risking Rei getting hurt.

“Why didn't you say anything?!”

“He beat me to it~”

“J-just go so you can put me down! You flew before!” The dragoness protested. 

“Sorry.” I apologized then with a moment of preparing my mind for this decision, pushed off with a few good flaps of my wings to get me airborne and used the slight forward speed of the boat to keep me going that way. The trip was short, but it felt just as good as the first time I flew under my own power and not muddled by a feeling of rage towards the prey I was chasing. Luckily the docks were basically empty and left me plenty of room to land without risking hitting anyone. Landing with two feet was a lot harder than four and resulted in me stumbling several steps and clutching Rei against me more. “Shit, shit, shit… almost proved her right.”

“A-almost… c-can you put me down… please…” the dragoness mumbled, squirming and blushing hard.

“O-oh yeah of course,” I quickly realized how tight I was holding her and immediately followed her request. She scrambled to cover herself completely with her cloak as soon as her feet were on the stone, shy about something.

“Hello?” A voice called out cautiously and I  glanced towards the source to find a human city guard wielding a torch approaching from the street. “Everything alright over there?”

“Goddammit,” I groaned with my tail flicking in irritation. “Yep! Everything is fine! Sorry for causing the noise, we just wanted off the ship that just came in.”

“Wait…” he got close enough that the torchlight reached us and our immediate surroundings were no longer just in greyscale for me. “You're the dragon, aren't you? Wings, purple scales…”

‘Yay… the perks of being famous…’ “Yep! I'm Alex Steele… so… if you just let us… we're just going to go meet our party.” I gently started pushing Rei towards the ship again to go wait for the others.

“Wait. Lord Hargreave has been looking for you for a couple days. He wants to speak to you.”

“... well you can tell him that I can talk to him in the morning,” I replied without stopping. “I'm tired and I'll be heading to the inn after this.”

“We were told to say it was important, something about your accommodations?” I paused and let out a sigh.

“Accommodations…?” Rei asked, looking back at me curiously. “Do you know what he's talking about?”

“It is still within the hours he told us to send you to his keep,” the guard continued.

‘... it's after dinner… the inns might not have as many vacancies… might as well hear him out, better not be just talking about it.’ I thought to myself with my weight being shifted back and forth from my tail moving on its own. “Fine. We can hear what he has to say.”

—

“Quite the lovely place if I do say so myself,” the lord spouted as he led the way with his accompaniment of a squad of personal guards. “Completely furnished, three bedrooms, an office, rooftop garden, wine cellar-”

“It sounds nice but this is too much…” I insisted but Kat elbowed me.

“Nonsense! I’m not going to let my city's dragon continue to stay at an inn,” my tail flicked a little at this in irritation but kept my mouth shut. I still needed to talk to him about the demons sometime. If I went along, I could maybe twist his arm into a friendly relation with them too. “If it helps, don't think of it as a gift, I just acquired this property, a nasty business with a haunting from the Return of Zytos. The previous owners did not want to move back in and I did make a promise to provide something like this. I will still own it but you may use the home as you see fit.”

“W-wait… haunting?” Max asked worriedly as the lord turned a corner and led all of us through a wrought iron gate and up the street of an affluent-looking neighborhood of brick townhouses.

“Yes, I am afraid so, I was told the husband's mother had latched onto a necklace he gave his wife and the two women did not get along when his mother was still alive. One can imagine how it went.”

“... it's… not haunted any more right?” I confirmed.

“Gods no, clerics of Zytos and Solas cleansed the property the other day. Perfectly safe and wraith-free. If there's future problems, I have faith that your cleric will be able to perform the same rites they did to remove any spirits.” I glanced back at Nicolas right in time to see his face pale a bit in the light of the streetlamps.

‘If he knew those rites to begin with. Let's just hope there's nothing lingering.’ 

“You said furnished, right?” Eris asked. “We don't exactly have any to fill the space this is sounding like it is and it would take a month and a half before I can get my family to send anything.”

“I did. The previous owners left all of the large items and only took the particularly valuable pieces. Ah, here it is. You can take a look for yourself what you were left with.” The lord stopped us in front of a four-storied, white brick townhouse with many windows facing the street and a flat rooftop where I spotted a few blackened plants peeking over the railing. Aside from the concerning state of the garden plants, it did look like a lovely house… but it felt so far outside our means that I felt somewhat guilty that we were going to get to live in such a place.

“I still think this is too much.” I repeated and the lord turned towards me with a grin.

“Hush. Like I said, I promised accommodations, and this is what I found when I knew you'd never accept rooms in my own home.” He suddenly produced a key from his coat pocket and presented it to me. “Go on, take a look at it!” He looked at his personal guards. “You lot can stay out here, I will only be here for a moment.”

“...” I hesitantly took the key, let out a sigh and strolled up to the wooden front doors, my claws clicking annoyingly across the cobblestone path as I did so. 

The lock opened with a solid click and I ducked into a short entryway with barren coat hooks and shoe rack on one side before making my way into the main room. It was sparsely decorated, a stone fireplace to my left, a spiral staircase leading up to the next floor on my right, oil lanterns, marks along the walls where paintings must have been hanging before and a similar mark on the floorboards for a rug. There were also open doors along the walls leading to a front room on the side I entered and a kitchen and dining room with a complete table and chair set on the opposite side.

‘Bedrooms have to be upstairs. Good. No ground floor windows that lead directly into one.’ I observed as I used Shocking Grasp to light the lanterns and heard the others file in behind me. Max and Kat right after me, then Eris and Nicolas, Hargreave behind them, and Rei, hesitating at the threshold of the building. She was completely proving her claustrophobia, especially when she finally pushed herself to dash through the tight entryway and into the much more open main room. Half of my party immediately spread out to explore as I stayed behind with the lord and Rei.

“What do you think so far?” Hargreave questioned with a smile.

“It's… pretty spacious… We’re still going to be adventurers, you know… I'm not sure if we can take care of a house this size if we're going to keep going out.”

“I have already considered that,” he chuckled. “One of my staff has shown an interest in… a change of scenery, but wants to remain under my employment.” I caught a suspicious look towards him from Rei. “If you allow her, she can take care of this household during the day.”

“... you know our income isn't consistent day to day… I'm not sure if we can pay for staff… I don't even know the rates you pay them.”

“Not an issue, I just said she'd remain under my employment, I will continue to pay her wages.”

“Who is it?”

“Caitlyn. Memory of her capture and imprisonment during the soiree had left its mark on her, so much so that she has been avoiding that wing of my home.” He answered, his tone almost sounding worried for her. My tail flicked a little in thought as I considered it.

“Give us a few days to settle in and think about it.” I sighed.

“Of course.”

“Hey, we're going to have to stock the pantry if we're going to stay here.” Kat called from the kitchen.

“It's… completely empty…” Max added, his head poking out that door.

“Oh, that is from the wraith fouling all the food and wine with her presence.” Hargreave informed them, walking over to them and starting to point out other features as if he was some sort of real estate agent trying to make a sale.

“... I don't like this.” Rei said as soon as he was in the kitchen.

“What? Cuz you don't like being inside?” Eris teased, inserting herself into the conversation as she exited the front room with Nicolas.

“More than that!” She hissed back then looked at me. “This home, offering a servant… this is all very generous…”

“I thought so too…” I agreed. 

“He absolutely wants to keep you close.” Eris shrugged. “I would do the same in his position, you're a friendly dragon, and I would absolutely do anything to keep you on my side. I would also try to keep tabs on you.”

“Sounds shady.” Nicolas said softly. 

“Even more reason to be careful!” Rei agreed.

“Eh, it can be but on the off chance he might actually be the one good-hearted noble…” Eris mused.

“You saying you aren't one?” I teased a bit, glancing at the kitchen door.

“Nope, cuz I think we should take advantage of this while we can.” She grinned and playfully grabbed her boyfriend's hand, leading him towards the stairs. “Come on, let's go claim a bedroom.”

“Hey! Kat, Max and I get the master! We need the room!” I called after them

“Fine! We're taking the one as far as we can from you!”

“Please be careful with this…” Rei insisted.

“... You could always move in too if you're so worried about us? He has no contract with you, so you're more free than I am,” I suggested and her face quickly reddened and she pulled her hood over to cover it.

“I-I u-um…” she started stammering as she fiddled with the edge of the cloak. “I w-will consider it… I-I'll keep my den though! It's safer to store things there instead of the city…” she looked around shyly at the mostly empty area. “... I may bring some pelts though…”

“Definitely could use the decoration.” I chuckled, “Want to explore the rest of the place with me?”

“... fine…” I smiled and gently grabbed her hand to lead her towards the stairs.