Slay the dragon? Even though it's so pretty?!

Good news! After more than two weeks of recovery and helping with the rebuild efforts, we were finally on the road to Newbailey!

Bad news, it was a four day walk. Four straight days! No inns! No little towns or villages! And the worst part is, it’s not even because it’s a long distance! The terrain just sucks! It’s all hilly and bumpy! Do you know how hard it is to walk up and down hills from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed? It’s torture!

Well, the misery of walking wasn’t the only thing on my mind anyway. I was also thinking pretty hard about all that cryptic crap the masked lady had been saying the day before. A great terror from the west? Shady dealings that the locals couldn’t handle? What exactly had I gotten myself into? Was all this really necessary to help my fellow fire mages? And where the hell are they all? I know we’re kinda rare, but seriously, I can’t even remember the last time I saw another one before the masked lady.

Honestly, none of this makes any damn sense. I wish I could go back to doing contract work and blowing stuff up.

While I was moping and feeling sorry for myself, a horrible screech roared out from somewhere in the distance. It definitely wasn’t a human screech, but it sounded weirdly muffled. Like the beastie couldn’t open its mouth properly. One look at Misty and Immanuel told me they didn’t know what it was either.

“That sounded like it was coming from the same road we’re taking. Stay vigilant, both of you,” said Immanuel.

“On it, boss!” I had no idea what vigilant meant but I was pretty sure he was telling me to go find it, so I ran up to the top of the hill and looked out over the plains in front of us.

“Dammit, Bakuchan, that’s not what I- oh.” Immanuel had followed me up the hill, but when he saw the same thing I saw, he froze on the spot. It was a creature that’s rare, yes, very rare indeed. In my whole life I had only ever seen less than a dozen. And I’d only killed three or four.

“Is that…” Misty trailed off, but she didn’t need to say it. We all know just from looking at it.

“Yeah…” I looked on in awe. Then, I jumped up with excitement. “It’s a dragon!”

I ran down the hill so fast I almost fell flat on my face, keeping my arms out at my sides to balance myself. I had to get a closer look! I mean how often do you get to see a giant flying lizard? And one that breathes fire! Oh, its brilliant white scales! Its crocodile-like snout! Its beady black eyes! Even from a distance, it was such a gorgeous sight!

Unfortunately, my meeting with the majestic creature had interlopers.

The reason the screech had sounded so muffled? Well, this thing wasn’t a free beasty. Its mouth had been muzzled, and on its back was a giant leather cover. All along the sides of the cover were rings holding a bunch of ropes, and at the end of those ropes were a bunch of guys trying to rein the beasty in. It was probably supposed to be tied down to the big cart on the ground beneath it, but it had clearly shaken itself free, and now these guys were trying to drag it back down. No surprise, really. Dragons were valuable as hell. Whether they were gonna slaughter it for its meat and hide, or show it off at some circus, they could make a tonne of money from the thing.

But, well, you try controlling a flying lizard with wings wider than a wagon.

“Bakuchan!” said Misty, huffing as she got to the bottom of the hill. “Don’t just run off like that!”

“Ah-sorry, Mist. Just wanted to get a closer look.”

“Geez, you’re so reckless,” she sighed. Then she seemed to notice the procession of wagons. “What are they trying to do with such a dangerous creature?”

“Judging by the logo on those wagons, they’re taking it to someone who knows how to properly slaughter it,” replied Immanuel, who had somehow caught up without me noticing. “That’s the logo of the Bellman trading company. Merchants who mainly deal in animal products.”

“Properly slaughter it?” said Misty confusedly.

“You see, my dear Misty,” I replied, wagging my finger knowingly, “dragons are mighty hard to kill in a way that won’t ruin the reason for hunting them in the first place. If you slay it normally, you have to damage the scales, and dragon scales are worth a buttload of gold. But, if you try to poison it, you’ll spoil the meat, which is also valuable. So they’re often slaughtered by specialists who can kill them without damaging the merchandise. Of course, those specialists won't tell the rest of us what they do, or they'll put themselves out of business.”

It was a pretty common practice, on the rare occasion someone actually managed to capture a dragon. Dragon hide is so valuable that damaging even one small area to kill it could mean huge losses. So merchants would use the time and money to transport it to a specialist and still end up in the black.

Poor beasty. Being dragged across the island just to be killed. No wonder it was fighting back.

Without thinking much about it, I put my hands behind my head and waltzed on up to the fat guy stood off to the side not doing any of the work. Not only was he lazy and rotund, he was dressed very well. He had to be the rich guy running the whole op.

“Looks like you guys are having trouble. Can’t control your prize?”

“Hmm? A little girl, out here alone?” He replied, before looking back and seeing Immanuel and Misty following a little behind me. “Ah. Adventurers. My apologies, but it seems these useless whelps in my employ have made the road rather dangerous to traverse.”

“Yeah, don’t care. The dragon, what happened?” I couldn’t imagine a trading company would ever cheap out on transporting something as valuable as a live dragon.

“Ah-well, you see, the dragon was chained down to the roof of the large wagon,” he said, pointing at the wagon directly under the dragon, “but because of its immense strength, merely tying the chains to the roof itself would have resulted in it shattering. So I had additional chains held by those slaves you see wrestling with it now. But of course, as useless as they are, they did not restrain it properly, and now look where we are.”

Ah. It was one of those sorts of companies.

Yeah, even if this all ended well, there would probably be at least one slave getting lashed over it. Obviously it was totally unreasonable to expect them to hold down a damned dragon for a multi day journey, but these rich types who had never done a days work in their lives would never understand that.

Even their wagons were pulled by slaves. I didn’t bother to actually count, but I could guess that the procession had about 40 people and three quarters were probably slaves. So much for not cheaping out. Pay your damn workers, you cheapskates.

While I stood there silently judging the scumbag, a loud roar sounded out around us. Much louder and clearer than before. It was followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground beneath the dragon.

“Ah. Guess it broke that muzzle you guys forced on it.” I wondered whether to just intervene then and there, but I had a feeling the fatass would try to make us pay for damages or something. I just hoped that they had the good sense to remove its flame organs before transporting it.

“AHHH-!”

Well, watching that slave get barbecued answered that question pretty quickly.

“Immanuel,” I said, turning to the man who had just arrived next to me. “My staff.”

I hadn’t wanted to carry something heavy 24/7, and Immanuel had wanted something to assist him in walking because he’s old and decrepit, so we solved both problems at once by having him use my staff as a walking stick. But now, I was gonna need it back.

“Do you think you can make that shot?” he asked, passing me the staff. “It’s moving around a lot. And we are quite far.”

“Trust me, Immanuel,” I replied, collecting mana and channeling it to the end of my staff. “I know what I’m doing.” I took aim carefully, reciting my chant in my head to help me focus. 

“Inferno.”

The air around my staff grew hot as white light blitzed from its tip. That beautiful light of pure energy sailed through the air and struck the dragons neck, blowing its head and body in opposite directions, and raining blood on everything beneath it. I had kept the power of the spell low to avoid collateral damage, but the head landed on the frontmost wagon. More than likely the one that fatso had been riding in.

“What have you done?!” Yelled the man in question, shaking my shoulders. “Do you know how much of my money you just wasted?!”

“Dude, you just watched one of your guys get roasted until he was golden brown and you’re still worried about your damn profits,” I said, brushing his hands off my shoulders.

“He was a slave! They’re replaceable! Dirt cheap if you know where to find them!”

I brandished my staff right in his face, the end still glowing slightly red from the heat of the spell. I had intended to let the guy go without causing drama, but now he’d pissed me off.

“Alright, little piggy, want me to show you just how effective money is at protecting you from being flambéed like a damn steak?”

Sweat dripped from every pore on his fat face, and he raised his arms in fear. Part of me really, truly wanted to set his hair on fire and watch him run around in a panic. But I thought better of it, and lowered my staff.

“Misty. Immanuel. We’re leaving,” I said, walking straight past the cowering pig. Immanuel flashed me a conflicted look, while Misty looked downright scared. I suppose I let my emotions get the better of me that time.

As we passed the red-stained white corpse of the dragon, I found myself sighing sadly.

What a waste of such a beautiful creature.