NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Stormbringer
Renly tended to Ryu's wounds but the people accompanying him looked at him strangely, "what is it?", he asked as he cast cure wounds.
The knights with him looked at each other, until one of them spoke, "well… we knew you had magic but what you did there… becoming a bear? It was… unexpected. That power sounds more like what the old gods bestowed, with their skinchangers"
"What did I say when I revealed my powers?"
"That you were blessed by the seven", one of them said without thinking about it for more than a second.
"No, what I said was that I was blessed by the gods both old and new, the seven and the old gods", he explained, "you have seen plenty of the seven's gifts, now you saw what the old gods have so graciously given me"
The two nodded at each other. They had forgotten about the part of the old gods' involvement. They were both followers of the seven, so they were unsure of what to think about this power supposedly given by the old gods. It felt almost blasphemous to acknowledge but they had seen that power first hand and it did sound like something that the old gods would be able to do, if they existed.
Renly motioned for them to continue. They walked past several more of these drakes, though far enough away to not attract their attention. They made sure to stay far away, which meant taking a few detours but it was safer than engaging against them in combat, seeing as steel weapons only bounced off of their scales. What was strange about that was that normal dragons -as far as he knew- could be hurt by spears, so the drakes' scales were way harder… Maybe they were just thicker? They didn't have to be as lean after all, since they couldn't fly anyways, due to lack of wings, so maybe that caused them to evolve to have thicker or harder scales… What was even stranger was that he had never heard of these creatures in this world thus far… Were they maybe some secret experiments by the valyrian dragon lords? They were known blood sorcerers, maybe they experimented with unhatched dragon eggs?
Soon, they spotted another dragon like creature, a huge, serpentine dragon without arms or legs but with wings, an Amphithere, according to his previous life. It was lying on a thermal vent, spewing out smog, a thin coating of ash covered its scales.
It was in their way and they couldn't go around it, as their destination, one of the dragon lords' towers, was right behind the vent and going to the next tower would add multiple days onto their travel time.
"Okay, I will shoot it with lightning, you fill it with arrows. If we are lucky, we will kill it before it ever notices us", Renly began speaking an incantation and arched his hand, shooting a lightning bolt, as his soldiers shot arrows, one after the other. Good thing, the arrows actually sank into its flesh, bad thing, it didn't die, it roared to life and looked around. It saw the group of them standing there and sprang forth. From its maw, it shot out a green bile, which hit Renly's chest armor, beginning to dissolve it, "Shit, it spits acid! Keep firing!"
Renly shot magic missiles at the amphithere, as his soldiers shot arrows. It rushed closer and his men stopped shooting arrows, switching to their swords, slashing at the beast as it was wrapping its tail around Renly's body, squeezing the life out of him. As his arms were restrained, he couldn't cast any more spells. The big serpentine dragon opened its maw, shooting acid at his chest, burning through his shirt and into his flesh. It hurt, it hurt bad, like a thousand needles stabbing into his skin. Finally, one of his soldiers stabbed the thing in the neck, killing it. It's body fell limp and released Renly. He cast cure wounds but the wounds would leave scars upon his chest. Mending was just a cantrip, so it couldn't restore his armor or shirt to full protection, "We have to get the things and get out of here, another of these things and we are dead"
"Yes, milord"
They walked into the black stone tower. The lower floors were destroyed, with skeletons in cages, most likely, their slaves. These skeletons were broken, the drakes and or amphitheres had clearly feasted upon their corpses. A few stories up, they found corpses too, though these wore fine, silken garbs and were more like mummies, as opposed to skeletons, they wore nice jewelry of silver, gold and even valyrian steel. Ryu and the two soldiers they had taken with them looted the corpses for their valuables but Renly kept on searching. Finally, he found what he was looking for, a massive vault made of iron, rusted over the hundreds of years and now, open to him. Inside, he found many books written in high valyrian, swords, daggers, maces and jewelry of valyrian steel and even coins made of the famed metal.
They were all in boxes of an unknown material, too light to be stone, too heavy to be valyrian steel. He called for his companions to come.
With the help of his bear form, they were able to carry seven boxes, four, strapped onto the bear form's back and one for each of the humans. They filled the crates to the brim and carried them back to their ship. With the extra weight, it took them 4 hours -thanks to some wandering drakes- to get back to the ship and another month to sail the crates back to Volantis, two crates at a time. When he was back on his bigger ship, with all the crates secured, they departed from Volantis and, on the open sea, Renly gathered his crew, "You have sailed with me for so long, spending your time away from your families just to fulfill my dream. Your courage and loyalty shall be rewarded. In this crate is jewelry of valyrian steel, you may take any one item of your choosing"
The crewmates went around, taking necklaces, rings, arm braces, leg braces and much more. When everyone had one item, he carried the crate back below deck. Down there, he picked out a valyrian steel shortsword to use for his own pleasure, it would be the baratheon's first heirloom blade.
"I dub thee… Stormbringer, for our blood is of the stormlands", he told himself, "Now, let's go back home…"