Transitionary Chaos

The Chief needed a moment to consider this.

“Mind controlling… butterflies?”

“Yeah, real monsters. Probably made by the Dragon.”

He sighed for a moment as this explanation finally sunk in.

“Why did it attack you…? Surely it would be simpler to get one or two humans discretely and send them straight to it? If I remember right, the mere presence of humans would hasten its revival?”

“Ah…? Well you see… actually that's a good point, why DID it do that? We had already agreed not to send folks to the cave to reduce suspicion, so it’s not like we could have stopped folks from entering.”

“Well be that as it may, I’m not gonna play it safe at this point, I’m sending some officers there to ensure nobody gets in while being controlled.”

“Good idea, make sure they wear helmets, and keep said helmets on tight! That should at least make it hard for the butterflies to get into position to do whatever it is that allows those freaks to control minds.”

“Will do… To change the subject quickly, does your father have any info for me? I let him out of his cell when I learned who he was, but he insisted on meeting up with you first. In a sense I suppose that ended up working out.”

“Uhh, well…”

From his side of the line, the Chief could hear the distant but unmistakable sounds of discussion. As this occurred, he quickly informed a few officers of this new assignment via writing, there were not many available due to the inevitable scrambling post Dragon discovery, but nonetheless the orders were given and the officers walked out.

Man… in a strange sorta way, it kinda feels less hectic than normal festival preparation? I mean we’re all scrambling like headless chickens, but at least the Dragon is one big thing to worry about. As opposed to the hundreds if not thousands of niggles interlining the festival.

After a few moments of thought. Which still felt especially long despite the aforementioned tasks, he finally heard a somewhat unclear spoken yet clearly unmistakable voice.

“Well… whatchu want?”

“What d’ya mean ‘whatchu want’?! Didn’t I make that clear after you were let loose?”

“You might’ve.”

“Ok… so… do you know ANYTHING important ‘bout the Dragon?”

“I mightn’t.”

“...”

The Chief stared into space for a few brief moments before sighing a getting back to his topic of concern.

“You seem upset sir, is there something I could do to help you or perhaps some way I caused you trouble.”

In an attempt to ingratiate himself more to the Alcoholic Clown, the Chief even switched to a more proper way of speaking. Hoping it would at least calm the man down.

“You did…? Yeah. Yeah you did… Well you lot… your lot… they uhh, they locked me up in the first place! They had me in bars… and… and chains, and if you hadn’t let me out, my son mighta been hurt! Worse than he is already, much worse than he is now I’m saying.”

The Chief took a moment to parse the actual meaning of the Clowns words.

Did he forget what I asked of him, and started covering himself by pretending to be mad at something else?

“I apologize sir, I shall talk to the officers who arrested you as soon as the current problem is dealt with. I honestly couldn’t be sure of who you were until your son’s friend confirmed it, please understand there was very little I could do with how short handed we currently are.”

He had only a basic idea of WHY the Clown was arrested (at the very least he knew it was nothing especially heinous, so there were no idealistic internal quibbles). But the Chief could tell for certain that, considering the circumstances, there was little point in arguing with a potentially valuable asset.

“That's uhhh. That's good! Real good! So… so uhhm, you got any new questions… or do you wanna know that… do you wanna know the answer to your first? If you remember it.”

He forgot, plain and simple. Guess I can’t blame him, but this is gonna be an annoying conversation.

“Well… I suppose I want to know more about the Dragon? Anything that could help us deal with it?”

“Huh? Well thats… I mean that's definitely… The trouble is… I mean, I mean don’t you think we woulda used ‘em if we had ‘em already?”

“Well that First Knight had a sword that could slay the Dragon, so he coulda had another made.”

“Oh well that one! That one we can’t, I don’t think CAN with today’s methods. Make one I mean. I mean those smithies, the best smithies are all gone… all gone and dead, completely dead. This isn’t”

“How could you be sure of that huh? Maybe they’re just gone cause we figured out a better way of forging. Something that replaced the outdated whoevers.”

Uh oh… was that too far? Considering his former job was mocked as outdated before being closed.

“You don’t get anything… you're a real… I mean you're clueless!”

Whinny old buzzard. If anything, shouldn't he resent the old order though? Since they fired him in the first place.

“The Knight… ah yes the Knight! He was special -TRULY SPECIAL- I dunno if anyone but him coulda made it… or used it… or… or did other stuff too. It was made by him… and, and with him, and most importantly out of him!”

“He’s in stasis because of that fairy thing yeah? Maybe we can borrow some of his essence to make another? Even if nobody can use it per se, maybe it can still be used to kill the Dragon?”

“Hrmph… you must think we’re stupid. You must think that, that we don’t know anything, because we did think of that you know! We all thought that, and dreamed about it!”

“Frankly sir, I think you're annoying and scared. For good reason sure, but not in a remotely helpful manner. I can at least, to some extent, see where you stand.”

“Then you think, you think you could honor what I want? What I asked for earlier?”

He forgot what I asked for and now expects me to remember his request? I should be a real smart alec and forget… nahhh, what’d they say again, treat others how you wanna be treated? No, too sappy and unspecific… whatever, I get my own point.

“I can’t say I’m 100% sure, but I can guess. We can discuss the details later.”

“You're gonna get me killed!? You're just setting up - I mean that's just begging for death flags!”

“Yes yes… just answer my question ok sir? If we wanna do ANYTHING to even slow the Dragon down, I’m gonna need you to help. Can you do that?”

“I don’t know. I can’t know… but I’ll do what I can.”

“Very well, that's the most I can ask for.”

After a few token platitudes of farewell, the Chief sighed and looked up.

I can guess why he was like that… If he really doesn’t resent the old order, I guess he would dislike those that replaced it? It was organizations like mine that wiped the old order off the map to begin with. He sure is disappointing though…

The Chief had, like many of us, been raised on tales of knights and grandeur in worlds wholly unlike what he knew. Once he had been elected to Chief Officer of the town, and been told that some of these stories were not wholly untrue, he found a certain childlike wonder fill him for the first time in years. In fact the Chief was excited to meet representatives of the old order for the first time… but as cliche as it may sound, he could not help but be disappointed by the reality of the situation. The old order was long past its prime by that point, with its leaders dying, hoping to sell its secrets for a quick buck, or simply too apathetic to be at all wondrous.

Now he felt a similar disappointment, a small, barely perceptible part of him hoped the Clown would be more like those legends, that the person who left the old order was somehow forced to leave despite embodying the old order’s ideals. A cliche idea in itself, with a similarly cliche (and now even derivative) outcome, disappointment.

I’ll call that Quack and whatever his name was, after that I guess I gotta get back to work.

The Chief sighed a bit, preparing for the inevitable onslaught of chaos once he called.

For pete's sake… at least butterflies probably don’t take forever to pick up.