Max let them walk this time, figuring they’d made up enough ground that they’d arrive at the gnome town late in the afternoon. He caught up to Blake, who was walking with Dalia in the middle of the pack. “Nice work back there. It’ll be handy to have more offensive magic.”
“Thanks, boss. I learned a lot from the guild between the battles. And the grey dwarves just threw themselves at us like they were suicidal. All of my combat spells are level five or higher already. That Fire Strike spell is level ten.”
“Yeah, about that.” Max looked sideways at the little caster. “I may not have mentioned this last night, but my troll heritage makes my blood susceptible to fire.”
“What?” Blake looked up at him.
“He’s basically a walking, talking, napalm grenade.” Smitty helpfully offered. “If you cut him and light him on fire… boom!”
“Oh, shit. That would have been a good bit of intel to have, boss.” Blake scolded.
“Yeah, I was distracted. So, the fire spell is awesome, just be a little careful if I’m all up close and stabby with the bad guys, right?”
“Roger that, boss. And… if it helps, I have a water spell, too. In case, you know, you catch fire. Maybe I can’t hose you down before you explode.”
Both Dylan and Smitty snorted at that. Dylan covered his mouth and coughed to disguise the word “Phrasing!”, making Smitty chuckle.
Blake shook his head. “Damn, I missed you idiots.”
Max asked, “What was that hand motion you did before you hit the spider’s legs?”
“Oh, that.” Blake looked at his feet for a moment. “That’s the way the guild taught me to cast spells. Some require hand motions, some a keyword or incantation. It’s a real pain in the ass.” He paused, then looked up. “I’ve figured out that once I’ve leveled the spell up a bit, when it’s solidified in my mind, I can skip all that. Like my Fire Strike spell. I used to have to say ‘Heat of the sun, burn my foes, Fire Strike!’ which was too slow, and frankly corny. Now I just think it, and it happens.”
“Aye, the guild be very formal in its instruction. Ye really don’t need any o’ that to cast yer spells, as ye’ve discovered. At most, a trigger word is required, like with Max’s explodey spell. The whole show just be how them snooty guild mages impress those without magic, and justify their fees fer teachin’ ye.”
As they walked, Red made an appearance on Max’s shoulder. Remembering that he’d wanted to make introductions, he called to Nessa. He gave her the same short speech he’d given Redmane, then Red revealed herself. In typically Nessa-like manner, the panthera simply nodded her head at Red, said, “Nice to meet you, Red.” and resumed walking as if meeting a leprechaun was an everyday thing.
Their second encounter came an hour later, when they followed the wagon tracks into a massive cavern with a waterfall on one end and a pond near the center. Standing at the edge of the pond with its head down so that it could drink, was a giant lizard. Its skin was so black it shone with a sort of multicolor sheen in the light from Dalia’s globe, which floated ahead of the group. About twenty feet long from nose to tail, it had short but powerful looking legs. Max cast Examine on it, then whistled when its stats came up. “Huge health pool at level twenty.”
“The thing is the size of a bus.” Dylan added, admiration in his voice.
Pteradon
Level 20
Health: 6,000/6,000
“Almost big enough for Dylan to ride.” Blake added. The entire group turned toward him, staring. “What? What did I say?”
Max turned to Dalia. “You’re a druid. Can we tame this thing and make it so Dylan can ride it?”
“It be possible to tame wild creatures, aye.” Dalia looked at the lizard, doubt on her face. “It ain’t my specialty, though. If it be aggressive, that makes it more likely to resist. Also, me spell only makes it more open to accepting a bond. I can’t force it.”
“How does one bond something like that?” Dylan asked, glancing back at the lizard.
“Well, in this case, I’d cast me spell, then you would have to approach it. Give it some food, sweet talk it…”
“Gaze into its eyes…” Blake grinned at the ogre.
“Aye, that’ll help too.” Dalia agreed, not realizing he’d been joking.
“Is there anything we can do to help with the bond?”
“Pteradon’s be no laughing matter.” Dalia warned. “This be the first one I’ve seen meself, but our miners and scouts run into them from time to time. Usually they be much bigger and older. They consider us food, and have no sense of self preservation like that spider. They’ll fight to the death, and them jaws can crunch a fully armored dwarf into paste.”
“So… this is just a baby one?” Smitty asked, taking in the size of the thing and shaking his head.
“Not a baby, no. More like… a youngster. Like Teeglin.”
“You can name it Princess!” Smitty clapped the ogre on the back.
“Anyway…” Dalia glowered at the orc. “It might help me spell be more effective if it be weakened, stunned, or even unconscious. That way its natural resistance will be lower.”
Blake nodded. “We’ve had games like this. Burn it down till its health is low, then tame it. We can totally do this!”
“Burn it down?” Dylan gasped. “Don’t you hurt my baby!” he turned toward the lizard, taking several steps forward. “I’ll handle this. Dalia, stay behind me. When I stun it, you cast your spell. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll do some damage and try again.” He stared meaningfully at Blake. “As little damage as possible. Don’t go burning it or slicing off parts!”
“This is so cool!” Smitty rubbed his hands together. “Dylan is totally getting his own Godzilla mount!”
Ignoring him, Dylan jogged forward, the others a dozen paces or so behind him. The noise of the party alerted the lizard, and it turned to face them, opening its mouth wide enough to swallow all but Dylan whole, and roared. Max and the others hesitated, the sound having some kind of debuff. But Dylan shook it off and charged forward. As soon as he was within range, Max cast Confuse on the beast, and it hit just a couple seconds before Dylan shot forward and slammed his shield into its nose.
Dalia cast her spell as Dylan stood there, shield at the ready. He’d switched his off-hand weapon from his axe to a hammer, hoping to bonk the monster on the head and knock it out instead of cutting into it.
The combo of the stun, Max’s spell, and Dalia’s seemed to work. The lizards legs went weak, and it fell onto its belly. Its eyes were unfocused, and it wasn’t lunging at the ogre right in front of its nose.
“Here, man! Feed it!” Smitty tossed the entire supply of rock spider meat he’d just harvested to his friend. Dylan gathered it up and set it directly in front of the lizard’s mouth. He took a step back as he saw its eyes begin to focus, and began talking to it as he looked it in the eye.
“Gooood Princess. I brought you some meat. There you go, help yourself. I’m sorry about the sore nose, but I needed to get your attention. I’m Dylan, and we’re gonna be best buddies. That’s it, sniff the tasty rock spider. It’s all yours, munch it right down. Much tastier than grisly ogre meat…”
Max clamped a hand over Smitty’s mouth, as he could see the orc fighting to restrain himself. He didn’t want a stray taunting comment to break the spell.”
The lizard sniffed at the meat, then looked at Dylan. A moment later its tongue shot out faster than Max could follow, and the meat disappeared. It sniffed again, this time at Dylan. The entire party froze. If that tongue shot out again, the lizard’s jaws could crunch their tank before any of them could do a thing.
“Nice Princess. That meat was tasty, right? You’re welcome. How bout you and I be friends?” He stared into the lizards eyes, just three steps from its maw.
Smitty struggled in Max’s grip, overcome by the urge to say something. He gave Max a pleading look, doing his best puppydog eyes.
Max tightened up and shook his head at the or
c. He almost missed it when the tongue shot out again, straight at Dylan. But instead of grabbing him, it just lightly brushed his chest. Surprised, Dylan stopped speaking for a moment, and the lizard began to pull its head back.
“No, no… don’t go, Princess. You just surprised me is all.” Dylan slowly reached out his empty right hand, still speaking softly as if talking to a frightened horse. The lizard’s head went back to resting on the floor, and it stared at the ogre.
All of a sudden Dylan went silent. His body went rigid, one hand just inches from the lizard’s snout. The lizard’s eyes unfocused again, and its tongue slipped out slightly to one side. The party held its breath as the two of them remained still for half a minute.
The lizard blinked, and Dylan exhaled. Its tongue shot out again, this time touching Dylan’s hand, then it pushed its nose forward to nudge him in the chest. Not knowing its own strength, it knocked the ogre on his butt.
Max and the others stepped forward, and the moment Max removed his hand, Smitty cut loose. “Dude! I didn’t mean you should actually name her Princess!”
“Princess is a he, and shut up! I could feel I needed to name him to bond him, and your stupid idea was the first thing that popped into my head.” Dylan spoke quietly, stroking the lizard’s head. Sensing his new master’s hostility, it shot Smitty a threatening look, causing the orc to stop walking.
“Hey, uh… no offense, Princess. Good doggy! Lizard. Whatever.” Smitty held both hands up while Dylan patted the lizard’s head reassuringly.
“It’d be a good idea to feed it again soon, and every few hours for the next lil while, just to reinforce the bond.” Dalia advised. She handed over some of the rock spider meat she’d harvested. “Give him a bit now, then more later.”
“Open up, Princess.” The ogre tank cooed at his giant carnivorous pet. The lizard obligingly opened its maw, and Dylan dropped some meat on its tongue. After swallowing the morsel, it made a rumbling sound deep in its chest and nudged Dylan again. More gently this time.
As Dylan cuddled with Princess, Blake’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “Damn, I love this world. I mean… nothing like this could ever happen back home. Dylan and Dalia just tamed a four ton lizard.”
“And named him Princess.” Smitty snickered.
Dalia chuckled. “Ye think that’s funny now, wait till he’s twice as big.” This got everyone, including Dylan, laughing.
“Ha!” Blake snorted. “Imagine our boy here riding through a town, shouting, ‘Princess, no! Don’t eat the nice people!’ while the townspeople flee in terror.”
“If they’re mean to Princess, I’ll totally let him eat them.” Dylan huffed, causing more laughter.
“Alright, let’s move on. I want to get to the settlement ASAP. Dylan, do you think Princess will let you ride?” The moment he said the words, he knew it was a mistake. Smitty nearly fell over laughing.
Dylan ignored the orc, and rubbed the lizard’s head. “What do you say, Princess? Are you ready to be my trusty mount?” When the lizard didn’t reply in any way, Dylan took it as assent. He walked back along the massive neck to where one of its forelegs was curled up. Stepping carefully, he climbed up onto its back, throwing a leg over as he sat down just in front of its front shoulders.
“Okay, Princess, go!” He kicked gently with his heals, just as he would with a horse. The lizard literally leapt forward, soaring thirty feet before touching the ground. Dylan rolled backward off its back, hitting the ground hard and cussing. Princess immediately turned around, rushing back to poke Dylan with its nose, emitting a sort of high keening like a dog’s whine. This time even the stoic Nessa joined in the laughter. Red’s giggling and pretending to roll on the ground only made the rest of them laugh harder.
“It’s okay, buddy.” Dylan patted the lizard’s nose. “We’ll work on that. Maybe figure out some kind of saddle for you.”
Dylan remounted, and convinced the lizard to move at a walk, which was a fast-walk or jogging pace for the rest of the party. Smitty led the way, looking back over his shoulder occasionally as if worried that Princess might eat him.
With the increased pace, they reached the former gnome settlement in just a few more hours. More of the merchant’s guards greeted them at the gate, extremely wary of Princess. When Max identified himself, they bowed their heads, opened the gates wide, and sent a runner into the city. A short time later, the dark elf leader of the merchant group and one of Max’s merchant councilors, a dwarf named Enoch, met them in the first market square they reached.
They too looked nervously at Princess, until Dylan dismounted and led him over to one side of the square.
“Welcome to Greystone City, Majesty!” The elf greeted him warmly, bowing his head. “That’s… quite an interesting pet your friend has.”
“Yeah, his name is Princess.” Max grinned.
“The pet, or your friend?” the elf asked, confused. Behind Max, Smitty guffawed.
“The lizard. It’s a long story. How are things going here?”
“Splendid! The city is larger than we expected, and we have high hopes. We’ve set up our guild headquarters within the inner keep, as agreed…” The merchant paused as if expecting Max to argue. Max simply nodded for him to continue. “We’ve had our scouts map the entire area inside the walls, and Counselor Enoch here has been touring the city. We were just about to identify which properties he wishes to claim on your behalf.”
“Excellent. I hope at least one of the buildings is a warehouse?” Max nodded toward Princess. “I don’t think he’s going to fit in a standard stable.”
“Indeed.” Enoch chuckled. “I think you’ll be pleased, Majesty. In the goblin city, I’m afraid most o’ the buildings be unusable, built to a smaller than normal scale. So I simply claimed a quadrant equal to one fifth o’ the total area. We’ll likely be needin’ to demolish and rebuild over time.”
Max looked around at the buildings along the square. “That doesn’t seem to be the case here.”
“Aye, Majesty. We were discussin’ that ourselves. Records from that time be rare, and we dunno whether some other race originally built this place, or the gnomes just built to accommodate visitors. It were a trading settlement, after all.”
“That’s fortunate for all of us.” Max smiled at the elf. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to spend some time with Enoch and review his choices before we finalize them. Can we meet in the morning and let you know?”
“Of course, Majesty. In the meantime, the palace is bare, but we’ve fully furnished and stocked a nearby inn, if you’d like to rest there this evening?”
“That would be wonderful, thank you.” Max appreciated the gesture. “Shall we say, eight bells?”
“As you wish, Majesty.” The elf bowed again and took his leave.
Enoch grinned at Max. “This be quite a deal ye made, Max. Wait till ye see what I found!”
“Lead the way, Enoch. I find this all very exciting. It’s like a treasure hunt and Christmas morning all wrapped into one!”
Not understanding the reference, the dwarf merely nodded and led them deeper into the city, with Dylan and Princess bringing up the rear.
Chapter 20
The group followed Enoch through the empty city, which was laid out in a roughly circular shape, if the one drawing the circle was drunk, their hands unsteady. It sat in the center of the cavern, which seemed like a bad idea to Max. It would be hard to defend the wall from attacks for the full three hundred and sixty degrees. It would have been better to construct it up against one of the cavern walls, like Stormhaven and Deepcrag were.
The main gates, through which they had entered, were on the south side of the city. Enoch led them east from the main street, which led straight across several intersections and through two market squares to the inner keep, set against the northern wall. As they walked, Enoch described the city.
“I’ve walked most o’ the area over the last two days. The best I can figure, the city be about a half mile acros
s from wall to wall, with a few variances here and there.” Max did some quick math in his head. If the city was a circle, and had a half mile diameter, or a quarter mile radius, that was about thirteen hundred and twenty feet. Square that and multiply by pi… He shook his head. He was out of practice. Stopping and holding up a finger, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This should be easy math for him. He was constantly calculating more complicated things like mortar or artillery target projections, and this grade school geometry should have come natural to him.
After a long moment of calculation, he came up with it. The total area inside the wall would be roughly one hundred and twenty five acres. It occurred to him that they might not even have acres on this world. Though, if they used miles… “Enoch, by my calculation, the city is about one hundred twenty five acres, yes?”
“Correct, Max!” Enoch sounded impressed. “You did that calculation just now? It took me a full minute with pen and ink.”
“Part of my training.” was all Max said. “So our portion would be about twenty five acres. And based on how much space the inner keep is taking up, I’m guessing that’s something close to a third of the balance of the city?”
“Slightly more than a third, yes. Though the area I’ve mapped out be just under twenty five acres.”
Max nodded. “Maybe we can round it out by claiming a random strategic spot all by itself. Have that be our secret bat cave, or something.”
“Bat cave, Max?”
“Uh, hideout. Safe house? Maybe a place where we can set up a shop or something, and use it to observe what’s happening outside our section of the city?”
“Ah, I see. Not a bad idea. We could actually claim two or three spots like that in different quarters. I’ll sell it to the merchants as me young king bein’ eccentric, pickin’ buildings that looked attractive to him.”
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