Dungeon Master 5

by Eric Vall

  “I must agree with Annalise,” Morrigan stated in her emotionless voice. Her eyes swept over Carmedy then met mine as I stood in front of them all. “I don’t particularly like getting dressed up as much as Carmedy does, but if it is what our Master wishes, then I will do as told.”

  “Oh, this is so exciting!” Carmedy cried as she held her paws tightly to her chest and her emerald eyes sparkled with excitement. “I saw a dress shop on our way here! They had so many pretty things in the windows. Can we go there and pick out our dresses, Master?”

  I looked deeply into her shining eyes and gave the cat a winning smile. I listened as her sweet voice gushed about different colors and skin tone pairings. It seemed as if the furthest thing from their minds was the fact that we’d be killing the man Annalise was previously arranged to marry in three days. I didn’t want to tear them away from the pleasant conversation and remind them of the real reason we were here. I wanted them to have this one thing to lift their spirits.

  We spoke quietly together for a few more minutes, and then Carmedy was the first to yawn loudly and stand from the bed. It signaled the rest of them to rise as Rana remained on the bed. I gave them each a quick kiss and a hug before they shuffled off to their own room. When I closed the door and turned back to the bed, the redhead was already stripping out of her heavy coat and slipping into the bed. The fox rested her head against the pillow, and I smiled softly as her eyelids struggled to stay open as she watched me come closer and peel off my armor.

  I slid in beside her, and she turned as she pressed herself against my bare, chiseled chest. I listened to the soft beat of the fox’s heart and the three others that came from the other side of the wall from my other minions. As I wrapped my arms around the redhead, she rested her head against my chest as her breathing evened. A few moments later, I knew she was in a deep sleep. The soft beating of their hearts lulled me to sleep as I stroked Rana’s soft curls.

  I never dreamed, not even when locked away in my dungeon, and I often wondered what it was like to dream. My minions often spoke about their dreams when we woke up and ate breakfast together. Their stories were fantastic, sometimes even weird and at other times frightening. They called those types of dreams nightmares, and I often thought about what it would be like to have one of those. What it would be like to be locked in your mind for hours and have imaginary creatures chase after you. Carmedy often dreamed of food, which didn’t surprise me in the least, Rana dreamed of gold, and both of their retellings of the dreams reminded me of the golden god we’d met in Tamarisch.

  Morrigan rarely told us about her dreams, but when she described them to us, they sounded prophetic, and I wondered if her dreams had real meaning to them. The elven woman had been gifted with many talents, and I wondered if she had been given the gift of foresight too but just hadn’t realized it for herself yet. Some things she’d told us in the past had really happened, and it surprised all of us. I hoped that her dreams would help us in the future. The mage often described her dreams as a swirling mass of black and every once in a while, she’d see snippets of scenes that would later come true, but it was mostly unimportant things, but there was still room for her to grow and discover new powers within her.

  We often asked Annalise what she’d dreamed the night before, and the answer was always the same. The swordswoman claimed that, like me, she never dreamed, but something in her face told me differently. I never pushed it, but I knew that one day I would have to ask for the truth from her, but that was for another day. I’d earned the trust of my minions slowly but surely, and if something bothered them, they’d come to me eventually for my help which I would give readily. I was their beloved Master, and I would do anything for them, tear down the stars and moon with my bare hands if they asked for it.

  I lay a tender kiss to Rana’s forehead before I closed my eyes. At this moment, my heart ached for Haruhi. I wished I could have taken her back with me and brought her here with her sisters where she belonged, but the sage had other things to attend to for the moment, and I couldn’t tear her away. I missed the shapely and soft touch of her body, and I pulled the redhead instinctively closer. I knew if I reached out to the feline at this moment, it’d only make the ache in my chest worse. I’d have to wait until we finished in Tintagal then we could move on to Canarta and the minion I’d left there.

  I woke the next morning to the sound of the fox-girl’s humming, and I opened a single eye. Rana dressed quietly so as not to disturb me, but her singing had brought me out of slumber gracefully, and a smile played about my lips as I watched her slip into her coat. Her paws worked at the buttons at the front as she slipped into her shoes and turned. I sat up in bed, and the blankets fell away from me. The redhead eyed my bare chest without shame, and I turned my legs and rested my feet against the cold wooden floor before I stood. Rana took in my whole body, and when I looked back at her, her cheeks were flaming red, and she shied away from me, but her tail wagged excitedly. The fox batted at her tail, her cheeks flushing an even deeper red as she clamped down on the tail, and it wriggled in her grasp.

  “Are you ashamed to look at me?” I teased her as I slipped into my undershirt then the dark brown pants that went on underneath my holy armor. “Is that why you turn your face away from me when I stand naked in front of you?”

  “N-no,” the fox-girl stammered as she looked me directly in the eye pointedly. “It’s just… you’re so handsome that it hurts my eyes sometimes.”

  I raised my eyebrows to her as I gave her a dashing smile. Once again, she avoided my eye as she settled her gaze on the floor. I laughed lightly as I crossed the room to her and wrapped my arms around her. The redhead tensed then relaxed in my embrace before she pressed gentle kisses to my cheeks, then jawline, and then finally on my lips. She melted into me, and I held her tighter as her heartbeat quickened... until the door suddenly slammed open. Rana jumped away from me, but I stood firm and turned to watch Carmedy skipped in.

  “Good morning, Rana!” the black cat called as she skipped over then grabbed me by the arm and laid a kiss to my cheek where Rana’s lips had just been. “Good morning, Master! Did you sleep well?”

  “Pretty well, I had the same dream last night that I’ve been having for a while,” the redhead told her.

  “The one about all the gold being gone, and you’re endlessly searching through piles of copper and silver?” Carmedy asked as she tilted her head in concern.

  “No, a different one.” Rana shook her head. “It started after we got to Tintagal. All of you turned to gold, and I couldn’t figure out how to change you back!” Rana laughed loudly, and I raised my eyebrows to her in amusement. “Then I started rummaging through your bundles to make a potion to turn you back, pussycat, and each one was solid gold!”

  “That’s kind of funny.” Carmedy giggled as she ruffled the fox’s fiery red hair and turned to me as her face became serious. “Morrigan had a weird dream.”

  “What was it about?” I inquired, but the feline shook her head and slipped her hand into mine.

  “I think you should come down for breakfast and let her tell you about it herself,” Carmedy said gravely as she tugged on my arm to follow her. I did so, and she continued to drag me behind her to the stairs and down into the dining room.

  When we arrived, I saw Annalise who looked as she did yesterday, wholly transformed by Carmedy’s alchemy as the swordswoman spoke animatedly to the bunny-girl. I could tell they were getting along famously, and Usagi smiled down at my first wife and nodded once.

  “Sure! We need an all-hands-on-deck during the party! We’d love to have you as part of the team, and I’ll drop off a uniform to your room later in the day,” Usagi told the disguised High Queen, and Annalise nodded emphatically. “You just have to be downstairs in the kitchen on Saturday by four-o’clock, okay? We won’t be in attendance at the wedding, but we’ll be at the ball later in the day.”

  We sat down beside them, and Usagi lifted her pad of paper and pencil. Carmedy
ordered a lot like she usually did and Usagi stared down at her in horror as she flipped three pages to write down the entirety of the order. I got one of their breakfast specials, which included two eggs, bacon, sausage, and two pancakes. My stomach began to rumble irritably, and I pressed a hand to it with a lighthearted chuckle as Usagi’s eyes widened, then she smiled broadly to me. Once we got our order in and the bunny-girl left us, we all turned to Morrigan who sat quietly across from me. Her dark eyes stayed on the table for a long moment as we waited for the elf to speak. Finally, she lifted her head and looked me directly in the eye.

  “I heard you had a dream,” I stated as I tented my fingers on the grain of the wooden table. Morrigan inclined her head to me in confirmation. “Can you tell us about it?”

  “I will tell you, but there is more to the dream than I thought. Carmedy will continue it after I’ve finished,” the elven woman uttered as she nodded to her feline sister, and Carmedy curtly nodded once. “This isn’t like all the other things I’ve seen in my dreams, this was an actual scene playing out before my eyes. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will within the near future.”

  Morrigan took a deep breath as she focused her thoughts. “I saw a girl. I do not her know, nor did I recognize her face. However, the sorcerer was there as well. Tuzakeur was threatening her in a palace high in the mountains of a land that is unknown to me. Tuzakeur called her Qianlong, but that is a word that I do not understand.”

  Morrigan looked expectantly at Carmedy, and the feline wriggled in her seat as our attention swiveled to her. The alchemist cleared her throat, scratched her head, and gave us a sheepish smile.

  “I once told you all that the islands of Canarta all have a dialect, they are similar but not entirely the same,” she began. “The word Qianlong is the combination of two Nekokian words. I know a lot of the Nekoka language because it’s the island closest to the one I was born on.”

  “So what does the word mean?” Rana questioned as she drummed her paws against the table, impatient for her breakfast to arrive.

  “The two words combined translate as blue dragon…” the feline told us then trailed off, and silence fell over us as we stared at her in shock.

  “Okay, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Annalise inquired in a hushed voice as she leaned over the table closer to Carmedy.

  The feline gave her a sheepish smile as she glanced over at Morrigan to continue describing the dream.

  “This girl, the one that Tuzakeur called the Qianlong, transformed before my eyes to a towering beast, but it was a beast I’ve never seen before,” Morrigan said calmly. “A different kind of draconic creature than the depictions of dragons that I’ve seen drawn or woven into tapestries.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked as I looked deeply into Morrigan’s dark eyes, but she looked steadily back.

  “I have seen depictions of the dragons found in the west and south. They are great hulking beasts with broad chests and scaled flesh in crimsons and yellows. Their arms and legs bulging with muscle and their heads angular and pointed with horns, but this dragon was much different from those,” Morrigan informed me as she peeked over at Carmedy, and I sensed a secret they shared between them. “The Qianlong was long and lithe almost like a ribbon whipping through the air as she attacked. She looked more like a snake than a dragon on her taloned legs. Her scales were light blue like the sky, but the armor scales under her belly were white as my hair. The Qianlong's face was long and pointed. It almost resembled that of a horse with long quills that move and shift down from its head to its neck. It was magnificent and terrifying.”

  “And what is the significance of this dream?” I asked as I moved my eyes to Carmedy. “Dragons are dead, they’ve been dead for thousands of years. We all know that.”

  “Well, that may not be entirely true,” Carmedy said guiltily as she lowered her gaze to the table, and I raised my eyebrows in interest. “It might just be Nekokian folklore but… it might be true, we never know.”

  “Get to the point already.” The fox-woman chuckled as she elbowed the cat.

  Carmedy raised her head with a smile. “Well, I have to start this out by saying creatures like Rana and I all stem from one creature. I come from a cat, of course, and Rana, a fox. The timeline of how humans and cats came together and created our species is unknown, but it’s the same for all other hybrids like us. The same is for… dragons.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Annalise asked as her face paled and the rest of us looked on in shock.

  “I already told you it’s just folklore, none of it has been confirmed,” Carmedy assured back as she looked to the High Queen. Annalise sat back in her chair and waited for the cat to continue.

  “The legend states that long ago before the islands were overrun by cat-people, the island was once a den of dragons,” Carmedy explained. “Canartian dragons to be more specific, exactly like the one that Morrigan described in her dream. A different dragon ruled each island, two of the main players in this story are the Akalong which ruled over the island of Kegawa.”

  “The main island,” I added, and Carmedy’s eyes lit up with delight at the fact that I remembered a small detail about the chain of islands that were her home.

  “Yeah!” the feline told us. “Kegawa is the largest and main island out of all three. The second most important dragon is the Aolong, which ruled over the island of Nekoka.”

  “The island that Haruhi is from.” I smiled.

  “The second largest of the islands,” the petite alchemist informed us as she nodded vehemently.

  “What about the dragon that ruled over Mauntenraion? The island that you’re from?” Rana asked as she leaned against the table and looked at the feline.

  “Oh no!” The alchemist shook her head. “Mauntenraion is too small to house a dragon permanently. It was believed that my island was used as more of a breeding ground for both dragon clans. Of course, the dragons hated each other, and fights broke out between the two islands, but as time went on and more cats and humans came onto the islands, the dragons slowly died off like all the others all over the world did. The last recorded dragon on the islands was part of the Aolong clan, and that dragon transformed itself into a human.”

  Carmedy’s tone was sad as she lowered her head and thought for a moment, then she brought her face back up with a serious expression. “It’s believed that the dragons still exist high in the mountains of Nekoka, but no one has ever seen them or been to the empty palace they inhabit. It’s speculated that the dragons bred with humans, and the blood-lines between beast and human are still strong, but it’s never been confirmed. However, if Morrigan’s dream is correct… there still could be at least one still out there.”

  “But why was Tuzakeur there?” I questioned as I moved my eyes back and forth between the cat and the elven woman.

  “Why else would the sorcerer be there, Master?” my white-haired lover asked as her eyes met mine. “The Qianlong holds the fifth sacred object, and the sorcerer is trying to take it from her. Instead of jewelry or necklace, the item is some sort of staff this time.”

  “If that is true, then the sacred item really is a weapon, and once we have all the pieces in our hands, we will use it against Tuzakeur and take back Rana’s family,” I told them in a firm voice, and my minions nodded decisively along with me.

  “Well, if all of that is true, then we all know what to do next,” Rana said excitedly as her tail whipped back and forth behind her. “We’re really going to Canarta!”

  “Yay!” Carmedy clapped happily as her cheeks flushed, and her black ears twitched. “We get to see Haruhi again!”

  “I think it is a little more serious than that,” Morrigan said gravely, and the feline pouted in response. The elf quickly backtracked at the sight of the saddened cat and reached out to her and patted the cat’s paw. “Regardless, I too am excited to be reunited with our friend.”

  “She’s not our friend!” the petite alchemist shouted. “She’s our n
ewly made sister! Woohoo!”

  We laughed together as Usagi brought out the steaming plates, three other servers following behind her with most of Carmedy’s order piled on top. Usagi and the three men lay out our food in front of us, and we all dug in as the conversation came to a stop. The feline dove almost face-first into her plates of food, and soon, her round cheeks were smeared with whipped cream and chocolate from some type of thin pancake she stuffed into her mouth. I reached out with my napkin and wiped the mess away with a smile. Carmedy leaned into my touch with a loud purr then dove back into her food when I finished. All of my minions were silent as they ate except for the exceptional snort from Rana as she laughed good-naturedly at the messy black cat and the food smeared over her mouth and cheeks.

  Soon, we all finished our meals and sat back in our chairs with full bellies. Carmedy stacked all of her plates on top of each other, and I widened my eyes at the twelve in total. I never knew where she put it all in her tiny body, but I knew that once lunch time came around, she’d be complaining about being starving once again just like this morning as we trudged down the stairs to the dining room. I moved my eyes over my women, and each of them looked contented as the black-haired cat rose from her seat and tugged at my arm impatiently.

  “What is it?” I chuckled as I stood, and she smiled up at me with her bright emerald eyes.

  “You couldn’t have forgotten, Master!” Carmedy cried as she tugged me towards the door. “We need to go shopping for our dresses for the ball! I want all of us to look extra pretty for you!”

  “That’s not the point of us going to the ball, pussycat,” the redhead joked as she stood and helped the stuffed Annalise out of her chair.

  “Just because we’re here to kill somebody doesn’t mean we can’t look gorgeous while doing it,” the petite cat giggled under her breath, and I felt taken aback for a moment from her words then laughed lightly. Carmedy had changed a lot since I met her, and hearing those words fall from her delicate, pretty mouth made me stand a little taller.