The Outfoxed Dragon

Dana looked at Xyarra with surprise when she made her statement of having a “heart to heart”. She knew that she was going to have to watch herself because this amounted to a declaration of war in her mind.

She decided to just motion to Xyarra with her hand with a “Go ahead” motion.

Xyarra smiled smugly and said, “I really don’t need your approval to take what is already mine.”

Dana got angry, “You mean Rowen, don’t you?!”

She got angrier when Xyarra smirked with her reply.

“Yes, I do. Your silly mortal rituals of marriage and the limiting traditions around them don’t apply to dragons.”

“Well, Rowen is part of those “Traditions” that you talk about. He already made a commitment to me. Something I know, not feel but know that he WILL keep.”

Xyarra languidly shrugged, saying “I know, this is why you need to know you’re far too late in this relationship. I’ve been bonded to Rowen from the moment he awoke here on Twalling Cade. Our bond is much deeper than any mere physical relationship can be.”

“You’ve been eavesdropping on our conversations, haven’t you?!” Dana’s voice rising up a couple of octaves.

Xyarra smiled smugly and said, “Look at you, getting all emotional, elf. Isn’t that why your people don’t venture out until you're in your fifties to get your emotions under control?”

“What my people do is hardly relevant here! I may be an elf but I’m also myself first and foremost.”

“Right, sure. So, until recently, you didn’t want to have anything to do with Rowen. Now here you are ready to tear my hair out over him. Isn’t’ that a bit…” she raised her left eyebrow to emphasize what she said next, “hypocritical?”

“I had my reasons, and they’re none of your damn business!”

“Right, arranged marriage by fate no less. Like the Fates care about your being married. Such an immature attitude from a supposedly enlightened race.”

“Leave my race and heritage out of it! We are individuals and this is my relationship with Rowen that we’re talking about!”

Xyarra languidly twirled a fork with her index finger and said, “My? Not ours? What happened to your sister and her relationship with the both of you?”

Kit, who had been silent for this discussion up to now stood up straightly, her tail puffed out and ears up straight said, “Why don’t the both of you just grow up?!” she slapped the table with her hand and said, “Have either of you considered what us fighting each other might do to Rowen?!”

Both Danara and Xyarra looked at Kit with their mouths hanging open with shock.

Rowen was outside by the stand of rocks that had also became his workstation as he looked at the first five rifles that he created that day.

He could hear, but not understand, raised voices coming from his cabin. He remembered what his uncle told him once, “Women are more dangerous than guns, especially if you have two or more in a room at a time. Never insert yourself into an argument between women my dear boy if you value your manhood.”

He decided to respect his uncle’s advice and focused on his task for the day.

He did take a moment to take stock of his life over the last couple of months. He looked around and saw his squadron of troopers moving around, patrolling the plateau, or taking defensive positions around the perimeter.

The rifle he had been creating was a replica of the Winchester 1886 which fired a 45/70 Government round. The same as his double-barreled rifle that he made when dream guided by Xyarra.

It had surprised him to find out that Xyarra had spent some time on Earth from the early 1600’s until 1890. During that time, she was fascinated by human firearms because they were the only things that could conceivably be a threat to dragons. He was doubly shocked when she told him that after she left Earth in 1890 the way became shut between Earth and Twalling Cade.

So, he wondered, “Well, how did the Guardians bring me here then?” He had thought that maybe it had to do with god like powers vs. dragon powers. Then he thought, “Well it wasn’t my body brought but just my soul. So, probably that’s why they were able to pull me across.”

He was curious but he also knew that he wasn’t going to get any answers anytime soon. He felt that Xyarra knew more than she was letting on, however, she always had an enigmatic way of speaking that could be infuriating if he let it.

He examined the rifles he created more thoroughly but his mind was really spinning around on his other thoughts.

Libido, “You know, we really should take advantage of Xyarra’s affections. She’s built like a…”

Consciousness, “We won’t be doing any such. We made a promise to Dana, and WE WILL KEEP IT!”

Libido, “Well then, are we going to bang the elf tonight?”

Analytical, “We really need to be thinking of our next step. We’ve been here long enough. We do have a mission to accomplish you know?”

Consciousness, ignoring the last statement from libido, “Right, we need to be moving on in the next couple of days. Sitting here spinning our wheels is only going to let situations like whatever’s going on in the cabin now to fester and get worse.”

Rowen looked down at the last rifle he made and picked it up and looked at the runes. He noticed a slight blemish on one of the rune loops that depicted accuracy.

“How ironic, the accuracy rune is inaccurate.”

He then concentrated and released the cohesion of mana on that particular rifle and it dissolved back into raw mana to be absorbed back into the air.

He said to himself, “Well, I have enough rifles anyway. Since I’ve enchanted the rifles to be self-repairing, I don’t think I’m going to need spares.”

He looked out over the troopers that were doing their individual activities and he said to himself, “Well now I know I can protect my ladies. All three of them.”

He reached into his ring and pulled out another project that he had been working on. A pair of bracers that would fit on his forearms. They had various runes on them that amounted to “hung spells” ready for a moment’s use. All he would have to do is look at them and bring power to them.

Since Xyarra explained to him that the rules of three could be taken advantage of by looping spells into three consecutive circles to strengthen and amplify the spells and enchantments, he had been able to come up with much better and more powerful uses of the runes. The runic spells on the bracers were constructed as disks that could be unsnapped or re-snapped onto the bracer. This way he could hang different kinds of spells for different circumstances.

He hadn’t shared this project with Xyarra yet because he wanted to surprise her with his ingenuity. He did test it already and it seems to work well.

The one spell circle that he was reluctant to test out was an explosive spell. He felt like, if he gives it maximum power that it could be as much as a Kiloton of TNT in explosive power. He wasn’t sure where he could test that out. So, rather than tempt fate and hurting or killing someone he cared about he decided to run this one by Xyarra when he was ready to share the whole project with her.

Xyarra stepped out of the cabin with a very angry look on her face.

Rowen hadn’t ever seen her angry before. He had become of the opinion that Xyarra was the most unflappable being in the universe.

Analytical, “Now’s not the time to show her your project.”

Libido, “I’m not here, I’m not here!”

Consciousness, “Yeah, I think you’re right.” And he put his bracers back into his ring.

That night during dinner, Rowen waited to the opportune moment then announced, “I think that we should be moving on here soon. We’ve been here long enough. I’ve learned a great deal from you Xyarra and I think that I can hold my own for a while. Of course, I hope that I can still pick your brains about spells and such in the future.”

Xyarra smiled, “Of course, my dear Row. Yes, I think that you’re ready too.”

He then turned to the other two, “Are you two ready to be moving on? Don’t you have your own mission to accomplish?”

Dana, “Yes, we do, but we weren’t able to find any gold or silver to help refill Tier’s coffers.”

Rowen looked thoughtful then asked, “How valuable is gold and silver. What kinds of currency are there?”

“The basic coin of exchange is a copper Shek. It’s a rectangular copper coin that weighs one talon or by your measure, a quarter ounce. One talon of silver is worth 100 Shek. One talon of gold is about five thousand Shek.”

“And platinum?” Rowen asked.

“About 20 thousand Shek.”

Rowen was thinking things over then asked, “How much can one Shek buy?”

“The average person can live off of a few Shek per month. It’ll be a meager life but still.” Kit said and shrugged.

Rowen looked like he was calculating something in his head then he turned to Xyarra and asked, “Do you think it will cause too much inflation if I were to create say a ton of gold coins?”

Xyarra pursed her lips, nodded, and said, “No, as long as you don’t do it too often.”

Dana and Kit looked at each other puzzled then turned back to Rowen and asked, “Inflation?”

“If you introduce too much of a valuable object to an economy, such as gold or silver, you will reduce the value of the gold and silver in the long run. Thus, inflating prices. So, I plan on giving you a ton of gold. That’s 128 thousand talons of gold.”

Dana looked to be calculating this in her head and she smiled and said, “That will solve our budgetary problems for the next ten to twenty years.”

“Good, so then we can take some time to introduce more stable ways to fill the coffers after that. Maybe your king can be persuaded to open trade up or other some such avenues of wealth building.”

Dana and Kit looked at each other then back at Rowen and Dana said, “We do not currently have a king. The Kingdom of Tier has been led by the 12 duchies for the last 50 years since King Tier XXIII died heirless.”

Dana went on, “My aunt, the Kingdom’s seer has said that the new king will be coming soon, and she’ll be able to proclaim who it is.”

Rowen looked doubtful and said, “So, one person can decide who the next king will be?”

“Our aunt, Lady Quintessa is known for her honesty and integrity. None of the 12 duchies doubt her or wouldn’t believe her proclamation of who’s to be the next king.”

“What race was King Tier?”

Kit said, “He was a dwarf. He lived about 900 years but was unable to leave an heir behind. The one possible heir he had was murdered within hours of the King’s death.”

“Hmm, big surprise that the court has such intrigue.”

Dana nodded and said, “Yes, but it was mutually agreed that the heir was a bit of an incompetent. He was actually a product of the marriage between King Tier and his first cousin, Queen Lorelei.”

“Ah, so inbreeding strikes again.” Rowen said sarcastically.

Xyarra, “The Tier family were known for inbreeding actually. They really didn’t want to share power or wealth. After a thousand years of that they inbreeded themselves out of existence.”

Rowen nodded and asked, “So, with twelve duchies, who decides votes that are tied?”

Dana said, “Well, that hasn’t happened yet. It seems, that if someone had a law or article that needed voting on, they wouldn’t introduce it until they were certain that they had enough votes to carry it.”

“Since the King’s family is no more, who composes the 12 duchies? In my world, to be either a duke or duchess, one would have to be directly related to the king or queen.”

“The 12 duchies are composed of royalty of the 12 primary races that compose the kingdom of Tier. Dwarves are ruled by the Duchy of Dwargon, Elves by Eilon, Foxia by Foxia, etc.”

“So, both of you are crown princesses to two of the duchies are you not?”

“Yes, we are.” Dana said.

“And you’re quite certain that your aunt is honest?”

Dana got an indignant look on her face and said, “Yes, I am more than quite certain.”

Rowen held up his hands and said, “I’m not making any accusations. It just seems to me, if anyone else had suggested that two crown princesses of the families of power were to go on a dangerous expedition then it could be a power play of some kind.”

Dana looked thoughtful then said, “You’re right, if anyone else had suggested that then it would be suspicious.”

Xyarra then chimed in, “I think I see where you’re going with this Rowen. Perhaps it’s possible that your aunt may have foresaw a power play about to happen and she sent you away to get you, how is that term again, oh yes, out of the line of fire.”

Rowen jumped at that and asked, “Dana, Kit, when was the last time you were in touch with your kingdom?”

Dana said, “I sent an astral message last week, advising that we were heading back but will be delayed some time more.”

Rowen looked at Xyarra but asked Dana, “Did you give your location when you sent the message?”

Dana turned pale and just nodded.

Xyarra said, “We need to leave tomorrow!”

Rowen stood up and said, “No, we need to leave as soon as possible.”