Unexpected Pushback

“Cut it out will ya?!”

“I am being serious, and this is not some pedestrian serious, this is serious of the deadly variety.”

“Hrmph.”

The Delinquent whispered into the Bookworms ear. He had to choose a very particular volume level, one loud enough to be heard by the bookworm over the sound of activity outside, yet quiet enough to be left unheard by the Chief Officer.

“Starting a fight’s a bad way to convince him.”

“I realize, but all the same-!”

The two had expected some level of argument, and had spoken ahead of time on ways in which to shirk blame and show innocence. They had prepared for multiple possible accusations and had counterarguments for each one.

“Look kid, I got things to do. Things of the worthwhile and REAL variety.”

The issue was, they had not accounted for complete distrust and apathy. Not a single officer even humored their words.

“Well- I mean- SURELY it would not be so difficult to send someone to check with us?! At least to ease our own worries?!”

“Oh yeah, send some poor newbie through the woods, into some as yet undiscovered cave, to find a… what did you say?”

“A seal, the seal, currently placed on THE Dragon.”

“Oh yeeeaaah, and after that, you plan to do… what exactly?”

The Bookworm gritted his teeth, the window to the street was open, and he had to resist the urge to yell to avoid making a scene.

“I dunno?! You're in charge of ‘protecting the peace’, or something like that right?! So you guys figure it out!”

“Well that’s… gah!”

The Chief shook his head a bit in annoyance, while the Delinquent motioned to his friend to lend an ear.

“At this point… should we even bother? I mean if anything this ensures no one can blame us for not trying, and it gives us a head start at the very least.”

The Bookworm himself was considering this option, deeply so.

It would be very easy, absurdly so.

Perhaps too easy, immorally so.

But he thought better of it after a moment's consideration. As he looked out the office window and saw the people walking by, each individual busy and cheerful due to the upcoming festivities. If the Dragon were released, and these people were not told ahead of time… how many would perish? Most likely had no idea the dragon so much as existed, much less that it was at risk of escaping.

“If we don’t say anything who KNOWS what will happen, this isn’t about avoiding trouble, this is about warning people before it's too late.”

“If you say so…”

After they finished whispering, the Bookworm resumed his argument with the Chief.

“Look, believe me or not, you must admit that the POSSIBILITY of danger exists. If you're so worried about one of your young officers being kidnapped or something, you can leave one of us here as a sort of hostage. If the officer doesn’t return, or returns with news of a prank, do whatever you want.”

“Hrmph, well…”

The Chief looked up for a moment before announcing his verdict. This was a busy time of year, with numerous parties dedicated to the macabre and nightmarish resulting in actual nightmares for the force. From minor arguments over the definition of obscene to major damages caused by overambitious decorations. In other words there was not an officer to spare. Despite this, the Chief could not help but see the determination and serious glint in the Bookworms eyes. At the very least, the Bookworm did not THINK he was lying. If this was the result of temporary madness, misunderstanding, or some mean spirited prank remained to be seen.

“I’m feeling generous, get the Quack.”

The Chief gestured to one of his Assistants, who after a moment's shock turned and walked out the room.

“The… Quack?”

“After the Order went defunct a few years back, a few of their duties and resources were… relocated. To public departments like mine. In particular, cataloguing draconic info and monitoring ‘potential dragon cult related activities’. Lets just say the Quack is the BEST at what she does… and not much else.”

The Delinquent froze as the Chief and Bookworm spoke, he knew whom they spoke of.

“Welp! I best be going! See ya buddy, and thank you for your help sir!”

“Why does it feel like you're throwing me to the wolves?”

“Ah well… that's your imagination!”

“You sure it isn’t my survival instinct?”

“Oh please! Now isn’t the time for jokes man! Don’t you remember there’s a Dragon we gotta deal with?”

The Bookworm stood up and grabbed the Delinquents arm before he could flee. A few of the other officers in the room barely suppressed their grins.

“You hatched this plan right? So you should be the one to take responsibility for it.”

“Didn’t you say you would go alone? As my friend?”

“That was before you tried throwing me under the bus. I think we agreed to go at this as a team.”

“No sense in us both dying you know?!”

The Bookworm was a bit taken aback that the term ‘dying’ was thrown out so casually, but he kept up the offensive nonetheless.

“You know, you know more draconic knowledge than I.”

The Chief quickly jumped into their argument.

“Following ‘you know’ with another ‘you know’ is poor grammar.”

“He’s right! You're supposed to be a Bookworm right? You should stick around here and review with the Chief!”

“Don’t change the subject, and don’t butt into this you.”

The Chief shrugged to the Bookworms retort, and continued watching the spectacle. He saw it as a reprieve and bright spot of entertainment during his busy schedule. The other officers must have had similar feelings, as they were now barely suppressing chuckles.

“Well you know, I think this argument has gotten a bit heated. That was rather rude of me to say, and I am sorry chief.”

The Delinquent was immediately thrown for a loop, unprepared for the sudden apology.

“Since that IS the case, I think I need some fresh air! After all I clearly am not in good sorts.

It took the Delinquent a moment to figure out the Bookworms endgame, but it was a moment too long.

“So, you're gonna have to stay here! Hold down the fort while I’m gone!”

“No way!?”

“Hey now, we can’t just leave. The chief went to ALL the trouble of fetching this lady for us, clearly at least ONE of us must stay here. Since I must go for a short while, you must!”

“Want fresh air?! I can just open a window!”

“Oh no, that would inconvenience EVERYONE here, which would be so very inconsiderate!”

“Throwing me under the bus is pretty ‘inconsidererate’ to!”

“You’re both grammatically challenged huh?”

““SHUT IT!””

“It’s ‘shut up’...”

The other officers could no longer help themselves, and after a moment began laughing uncontrollably.

“Oy oy oy, all of you brats got things to do, no? Get back to work.”

Despite saying this, the Chief was grinning wildly himself, but regardless. The other officers left the room laughing, just as they began to filter out of the room, two new individuals made their way in. One was the Assistant who had left the room earlier, the other you can likely guess.

“Hey Chief~ I SWEAR the bomb isn’t dangerous!”

The Bookworm froze in abject confusion, the Delinquent put their head in their hands in abject despair, and the Chief didn’t feel much of anything, but felt he deserved an abject apology from the Bookworm immediately. Though thought better of it due to the current situation.

“Hmmm…”

The Quack looked to the Delinquent and Bookworm, after a moment realization dawned on them.

“Your… that Alcoholic’s kid yes? The former member of the order?”

“Yeah… well he was a member of the order, I-”

“I thought so!”

“...”

“Yes well-”

“How you doing, Bored Brain?”

“What does that nickname even mean?”

“Well you're kinda boring, and you aren’t particularly smart!”

The Delinquent shot her a dirty look before continuing.

“Been a while huh?”

“And who are you supposed to be?”

The Delinquent was confused by the sudden non sequester, seemingly at odds with the Quacks previous statement. Though in a moment they realized the Quack was speaking to the Bookworm.

“Uhh, I am a friend of his, I’m also involved in this.”

“Oh wow! Quite the mystery! Was it a terrorist attack?”

The Bookworm was taken aback by the immediate jump to terrorism, while the Chief merely sighed and began speaking.

“Hey Quack, you know anything about the Dragon?”

“Oh my Chief, do you want me to START?”

“No, you're gonna work with these two, if they do anything suspicious, deal with ‘em your way.”

“Sounds fun but… what am I doing with them? Was it a terrorist-”

“Why is that always your first assumption? They claim the seal on the Dragons seal is breaking if not already busted. I want you to figure it out!”

“Oh… oh gosh… wow that uhhh, chief are they telling the truth?”

The chief was a bit taken aback. The Quack rarely, if ever, showed much shock or surprise.

“They seem to think so.”

“Jeeeeez, that sure is BAD! Here’s hoping the town doesn’t get obliterated!”

Despite the statements heavy subject matter, the Chief felt himself sighing in relief seeing the Quack return to their normal behavior.

“You think it could do so that easily?”

“No idea!”

It was only a nonsense nonchalant non-answer, but the Chief grasped the Quacks meaning. The Quack, who knew seemingly every detail of the most inane topics known to man, who was hired for the specific purpose of taking the old orders responsibilities after they went defunct, had NO idea of what the Dragon was truly capable of.

“Are there really… no accounts? Nothing you could go off of?”

“A couple, but they only ever described what happened, never HOW. And besides that well… all the witnesses are dead, you know? It’s been a few hundred years.”

The Chief turned to the Delinquent and rephrased his question.

“Surely your father said SOMETHING, a story from an ancestor or the like?”

“Uhhh, sorry sir. It’s not like he was there either. Any stories he did have were embellished from centuries of metaphorical telephone.”

“Good- Sigh… look Quack, just have a discussion with them and figure this out, understand?”

“Yessir!”

“What are you doing?”

“Setting up here!”

“Why?!”

“Well you want to hear my opinion as soon as possible right?”

The Chief sighed in annoyance and resignation.

“How long will this take?”

“Eh.”

“Don’t ‘Eh’ me, how long will it take?!”

“Long enough.”

“Don’t avoid the question darn you!”

“Oh? Avoiding outright swearing? Are you scared to traumatise the children?”

“That- I- Gah!”

The Bookworm was almost amused seeing the normally brusk Chief so absolutely out of his wits, but they were also rather relieved to not be on the other side of such an exchange with such a person. Unfortunately, just as he thought this, as though it were karmic punishment, the Quack began speaking to them.

“So… what do you two have?”

“Have?”

“What do you got?”

“Is that a different question?”

“What did you get?”

“All you did was change the tenses in a few places.”

“When at cave. What made think seal broke?”

“Ohhh…”

The Bookworm gulped and began explaining. Feeling a trepidation somehow more extreme than what they experienced at the Dragon’s cave.

“My my my my my! You both sure did act reckless!”

“Sorry…”

“Ah ha ha ha! Talk about quickly giving up!”

“Umm, we did see that crack! And heard that… sound.”

“And did the crack seem to grow at all?”

“No…”

“Before you reached the gate, when you found the pyramids, did you see any particular writings?”

“It was illegible.”

“Did you see anything on the gate?”

“Oh, ah… hmmm. What do you mean?”

“Did you see any particular symbol, or heraldry?”

“Well I saw the symbol of the old order at the very top… but on the gates door I… believe… I saw… this…”

The Bookworm took a blank submission form off the Chief’s desk, flipped it over, and drew a basic representation of the symbol he saw on the door. Upon looking at the symbol for a few moments, the Quack smiled and nodded. Though the Bookworm could not help but feel a strange sense of… grim acceptance behind her eyes.

“You definitely went! When I was hired they showed me a schematic of the gate for reference.”

“But not a way to get there?”

“That information was ‘lost to time’ and all that jazz! I figured they were lying and simply didn’t trust me not to go. But I guess they really had no idea themselves!”

“Hmm…”

The Bookworm looked to the Delinquent, who was still trying to avoid the Quack. Of course said Delinquent didn’t notice immediately, but upon realization that the room was awaiting his input, finally spoke.

“A lot of records were destroyed fighting the old dragon cults.”

“Crazy nutjobs.”

The Chief was quite happy they were long gone even before his tenure, though he had dealt with some thrillseekers adopting the heraldry in some attempt at token rebellion.

“But… uhhh… if I remember RIGHT, their boss was never found.”

“Seriously?”

“Presumed dead, no idea how they figured that lol.”

“Did you just SAY lol?”

“Gotta problem pig?”

“I do shortie!”

“Eh?!”

“HMM?!”

The Delinquent and Chief butted heads while butting heads.

“Be that as it may… What can you tell us, Quack?”

“Hmm…? Oh the Dragon is absolutely getting out soon.”

“““?!”””

“It may be escaping right now, in fact!”

The Delinquent Slammed his hands on the desk.

“How can you be so sure?!”

“Why are you so indifferent?!”

“Well~”

“That’s not an answer!”

“Yeah!”

“It’s not quite so simple~”

“Don’t be daft!”

“How can we tell your right Quack?!”

“Hmmm…”

By this point, both the Chief and Delinquent were quite agitated. One would be forgiven for confusion from their seeming collusion, given how at each other's throats they had been earlier. Meanwhile the Quack was not quite sure what to say, feeling rather annoyed at the 2v1 despite being responsible for it.

“What do we do then?”

Fortunately for all involved, the Bookworm was curious and calm. Asking a question that cut to the heart of the matter, which silenced the Delinquent and Chief, while giving the Quack a moment to consider and speak.

“Not really sure, I’m not strategition…”

“I believe you mean strategist?”

“Bingo! Anyway the point of the matter is… the gate gets exponentially easier to break the more damage it accrues, though at first it may as well be unbreakable. So if you saw one crack, and heard the Dragon from behind the gate… then enough damage has been done, so that the Dragon will only make larger and larger cracks at a faster and faster rate. You two finding it probably sped up the process though.”

“Huh… What?!”

“Well the seal has two properties, to hold it physically… and mentally. By hearing you both, it likely woke up a bit more, at least for a short while. After all, it probably hates humans for daring to seal it up. Bear in mind this very Dragon burned down a village for giving it fatty meat, so as it is now it’s probably fuming! And likely found itself an unholy reignition of purpose upon hearing its enemies once more. If that did happen, then its briefly regained consciousness likely gave it a window to, for lack of a better term, tear things up radical style, and speed up the process of breaking out.”

“Oh… oh no…”

“Yup! Guess you might have gotten us all killed!”

The Bookworm slumped a bit in total defeat, while the Delinquent stared for a moment at his friend before glaring at the Quack.

“Whatever is the matter, Bored Brain?”

“Ya know my buddy here was being real nice to you despite your… everything. The least you can do is be delicate.”

“Well it’s true~”

“Not necessarily.”

“You really are living up to your nickname, WOW!”

The Delinquent ignored the Quack’s barbs and continued. While the Bookworm looked to his friend in a vague sense of hope.

“Answer this, was the Dragon not already escaping when we found it?”

“Yep!”

“How long would it have taken?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“Guess, moron.”

The Quack paused, a brief moment of clarity passing over her face before speaking.

“... A couple weeks? Maybe more, maybe less?”

“And now that me and the Bookworm woke it up a bit more?”

“A couple days? Maybe more, maybe less?”

“Then what we did was for the best, to some extent.”

The Chief looked on for a moment before realizing.

“Ahhh, I get it! Even if we got less time, at least as things are now we can prepare… if only a little bit.”

The Bookworm themselves finally understood and let out a sigh of relief.

“Still, the Dragon is coming whether we like it or not. So things are definitely not GOOD, just… better than they could be.”

The Chief looked out the window. They saw only a bit of time had passed since the Bookworm and Delinquent had entered his office, yet he felt an age itself was weighing down upon him. An age steeped in time and darkness, far more so than he was comfortable with.

“Right… hmph… then what are we supposed to do when it DOES break loose?”

“Ah well… I mean the order was occasionally talking about that!”

“News to ME. Shouldn’t that have been thought out ahead of time?”

“Well yes, technically it was something they were meant to discuss in detail as soon as the Dragon was sealed but… they kinda just put it off? I mean they had other stuff to deal with, as the horde wars took up their attention for a while. Then the Draconic cults showed up to try and free the thing, so the order started focusing on them… and finally the last people who had firsthand experience with the Dragon died. The Dragon stopped being an active threat and became some vague terror, more akin to nightmare than monster. So I suppose it was only natural that discussion became a… lower priority. Something to be discussed, sure, but never really worth stressing over.”

“You didn’t answer my question?”

“Huh…? OH! Sorry I misunderstood! Yeah uhhh… they kinda just had to rush the sealing you know? The plan they built was really reliant on a ton of short lifespan factors. I think the Last Wizard was on his death bed?”

The Quack interjected quickly.

“It really was too bad~ From what I hear the Last Wizard was pretty average for their kind… but still managed to do all that! It’s too bad wizards were replaced with warlocks and spell slashers.”

The Delinquent shrugged a bit.

“What can you do? Their time passed once mana started stabilizing. Well that and the lich war-”

“Nobody here is in grade school, kid. No need to explain it.”

“Ah right, fair enough! But that still leaves the question… what are ya gonna do Chief?”

The Chief paused for a moment and considered the… mess of a situation he was now in, at best it would be a massive pain, at worst it could be a large scale, country spanning tragedy.

“Just what is the Dragon capable of, anyways? I’ve heard the stories obviously but I need the closest thing to objective truth related to them.”

“Ah, well I don’t think we know much better Chief. Most of the stories you heard as a kid are just offshoots of reports from the old order, sure. But even said reports are offshoots of events we barely understand. That report I mentioned, with the village being destroyed over fatty meat? That was based on a single report from a peasant, who claimed to be the sole survivor of the massacre. When the old order went to the location he described they DID find a crater, corpses, and general cataclysm all around, but there was no evidence for whether the peasants specific story was true or not, only that a village was destroyed by the Dragon.”

“I don’t need certain truth, I just need a close enough approximation.”

“Hmmm… don’t blame me if it ends up being false~ It could most certainly fly, breathe fire, and speak human languages. It was often said to have indestructible skin, madness inducing roars, and the power to smell gold. I somewhat doubt those three but who knows, at the very least people believed them to be true, even if they weren’t.”

“Anything else? I could have sworn I heard of more as a child?”

“Well unfortunately there isn’t much as fanciful as the legends we hear as kids… ah but there are three more which are, shall we say, unlikely at best.”

“Those being?”

“The power to create vicious monsters on a whim, the power to shed its own skin to heal from grievous wounds… and the power to… well…”

“Why the hesitation?”

The Delinquent looked up with a ridiculous expression, while the Chief and Bookworm both looked confused.

“Don’t tell me it’s…?”

“Yeah… yeah… the power to… eat people… and then… pass them as statues.”

The Chief looked a bit nonplussed as she explained this particular ability.

“Well… at the very least THAT one probably won’t come up anytime soon, real or not.”

The Delinquent couldn’t help but speak after a few moments of awkward silence.

“So… where does that story come from anyway? I heard it in the old order as well.”

“Ah! Well that's the interesting thing! There are absolutely NO records of this ever happening, yet… the old order had this particular tale practically INGRAINED into their traditions, nobody else does, only them, so there's a chance… I guess?”

“Well here’s the rub… we gotta evacuate as soon as possible, while still keeping the townsfolk ignorant of WHY they’re being evacuated. We also can’t let slip where you two FOUND the Dragon. I’m guessing more people showing up would only speed up its escape Quack?”

“Yup! It’d probably eat ‘em then and there!”

“So we gotta be careful… and we can’t even check its progress. For all we know it could just bide its time and psyche us out. Even posting guards could be risky, since any folks who notice the guards would naturally get curious.”

“Wow chief~ You sure are in a pinch! That’s real sad!”

“You think you're getting out of this? You're going to be pouring over any records you can find. If not to stop the Dragon to at least alleviate the damage it can do. Delinquent I’m gonna need you to get your father, since he knows a fair bit about the order. Bookworm…”

“Huh? You want me to help?”

“We need to keep this as under wraps as possible, the more people who know the more risk we have of someone snooping and waking the mangy thing up quicker… or risk that draconic cult getting involved, if the boss of said cult is still alive like the Delinquent here implied.”

“Well I don’t necessarily know whether the Cult Leader is still alive, I just know their body was never found… also Dragons have scales you know? They're not Mangey.”

“Not the TIME! Anyway… Bookworm I want you to look over those maps you decoded, the ones you used to find the Dragon in the first place. If I’m right then there's a chance a certain someone else is also found with those maps.”

“Who…?”

The Chief looked out the window and smiled a little, almost apologetically. As he prepared to say something he knew was either a long shot or a joke.

“The Knight. The founder of the old order who first went out to slay the Dragon.”

The Bookworm stared incredulously for a few moments before speaking.

“But he- wasn’t he killed?!”

It was the Delinquent who responded.

“Not necessarily, he was grievously wounded, but a few accounts say that the Fairy, who was a friend of his, put him into a deep sleep in some secret location to protect him from the Dragon, and later on the Draconic cult.”

“Then why would the maps have info on that location if it were secret?!”

“Well the Fairy did (supposedly) occasionally (rarely) appear before (for a moment) leaders of the old order in moments of great importance (on a whim).”

“There are too many qualifiers there!”

“Well it could be worse? I’m planning to interrogate my father for any info he has, THAT won’t be fun.”

“At least you know it has a chance of working! And know where to start! AND-”

The Chief cleared his throat to signal silence, which the Bookworm (being the teacher’s pet he was) dutifully obeyed.

“We all have complaints, but now isn’t the time for them. Bookworm, it is said the Knight has a sword capable of harming the Dragon, so he may well be our best bet at this juncture. Even if it’s not likely to succeed.”

The Chief found himself holding back a small chuckle. He thought the whole thing was a bit ridiculous as well. They had heard the story back when the old order was mid-collapse, as a part of the duties and information his unit succeeded during the order’s dissolution process.

“Well whatever the case… you lot got work to do! I’ll handle the evacuation, so GO GO GO!”

Growing impatient, the Chief pointed to the door and slammed his hands down. After a moment the Quack, Bookworm, and Delinquent left to fulfill their prospective tasks.

“What are all of you looking at?”

The Chief looked to their underlings, all of whom seemed confused and unsure.

“Well sir… it’s a lot to process you know? I mean THE Dragon. I heard a tale about it once or twice, but that's it you know?”

Another officer chimed in, this once was noticeably more lackadaisical than the rest.

“Not to be rude but… what's stopping us from just shooting the thing? With missiles or the like? I mean surely modern weapons could kill it better than swords ever could?”

The Chief paused at the thought, and then shrugged.

“Back then folks were really scared of the thing, whether we should be scared of it now is hard to say but… I’m not taking chances, besides this is a nice excuse to not deal with the festival for a few day’s.”

A few officers began chuckling at this, some out of nervous energy, while others simply couldn’t bring themselves to fear something they had never seen. Though all felt a strange sense of… perhaps it could be called anticipation?

Who hadn’t heard tales of dragons and knights as children? Even if the current situation was, shall we say ‘tense’.

Perhaps we never quite grow out of our admiration of legends?