Fall of the Dragon Capital (1)

The inside of the palace smelled of intoxicating incense, as one would expect in the house of a deity. Liam followed Ronu and his tray trembled finely with the excitement of this servant.

"What will I tell him? Will there even be an opportunity to address Zhu-Er? Will he be able to recognize me?"

Liam's thoughts swirled chaotically, and a cold, metallic fear spilled over his heart.

The first thing he saw was the tail. It lay languidly on the stone slabs. Then the massive hind paws, the rounded back, the sides, Liam came closer and closer and finally saw the muzzle, which lay lazily on its front paws, so much so that its red tongue dropped out. Through the slits in the mask, Liam had trouble seeing the whole dragon, so his eyes darted back and forth.

Suddenly, there was a shriek from the guard, and Liam was startled and nearly dropped his tray.

Liam hissed: "What did he say?"

"He said not to stare. Quick, put the food next to Zhu-Er and talk to him if you can while I take the guards to myself."

Ronu was the first to set down his tray and, after bowing out the proper number of times, went to the guards to entertain them with tales. Liam came as close as he could and set his tray down. He looked at the sleeping dragon and called his name softly.

"Zhu-Er, wake up..."

"..."

"Zhu-Er, it's me..."

"..."

Seeing that he was losing precious minutes, Liam decided on a desperate move, he picked up his tray from the ground and dropped it on the stone floor. The thud and vibrations should have awakened the dragon, but instead, not a muscle trembled in his body.

Liam watched intently for a reaction, while Ronu struggled to distract the terrified guards with the loud sound. Liam got up the nerve and pulled out his whip. If he now summoned Zhu-Er, it would not look odd. Raising the whip upward, he called out to him:

"Zhu-Er!"

To his surprise, the dragon did not react at all to his gesture. Liam stared in amazement and couldn't believe his eyes, and suddenly he noticed something strange. Abruptly turning his back on the dragon, he ran down the steps and signaled his friends to leave. Ronu explained to the guards that the kitchen had prepared a new treat, and they needed to hurry to bring it before it got cold. With that, they left the palace and went down a specially equipped pipe.

"What happened?" Ronu asked Liam.

"We must leave the capital immediately," shouted Liam.

"But why?" Clarified the marshal.

"Just trust me," said Liam, and they went out of the pipe one by one. The entertainment was very good.

They went to the kitchen and quickly drew cages on the ground and created a golden net, Ronu cast a net over the three men and carried them to the forest beyond the river where no one would see them. He himself then gathered the net, hid it under his clothes, and left the palace, taking every precaution. By the time the guards discovered that the servants were gone, it was too late.

A stately man in a gold mask climbed on top of Zhu-Er, scolding his charges for their negligence. The guards stood dejectedly in line and listened obediently to his scolding. After the scolding, there was a brief search and the other four servants were found in the bushes near the palace. They remembered nothing, so they could not help the investigation in any way.

In the meantime, Ronu had stocked up on provisions, medicine, and clothing and left town too, going in search of his friends. Roughly understanding where he had left them, the man was able to find them by making several laps through the woods. The men were wary of the masked man, but when Ronu finally took it off, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took off their fake faces as well.

Ronu brought their usual clothes and gave them to everyone, as well as the general's backpack, which earned him scant praise. Settling on the ground, and eating whatever breakfast God had sent, Liam chewed his bread thoughtfully.

Pittsu, unable to endure this theatrical pause, poked Liam in the shoulder to bring him out of his prostration.

"How long will you be silent?"

"What kind of whip dance are you doing?"

Tishow asked, finishing his lemonade from the bottle.

"I tried to summon him after he didn't respond to my voice twice."

"It didn't seem to work," Ronu interjected, "but why?"

"He's not real."

These words, spoken in a calm, quiet voice, sounded like thunder from a clear sky. Everyone froze in silence, frozen and out of breath. The news was so deafening that they needed to pause for a while to digest what they had heard.

"I saw a patch on his side, and a rather inept one at that. No one even bothered to do it right," Liam said, tears glistening in his eyes. Flustered, he lowered his head and a few tears fell into his clenched hands.

"Hey, Liam, don't be like that," Pittsu, sitting next to him, patted him on the back, "we don't know for sure what that means."

"You're shocked, that's understandable, but let's think logically," the marshal added, "there are two possibilities. One, Zhu-Er died a long time ago, and they made a puppet out of him. Two, someone faked his skin..."

"You can't fake it," Ronu protested his idea, "but dragons can shed their skin several times in their long lives, molt, in other words."

"That's more likely true," Liam said thoughtfully, "but you know what I think, there's a person or group of people behind all this who benefit in every way from maintaining the illusion that a dragon lives in the great palace. Then the poor people will continue to be forced to pay for the luxuries of the capital."

Liam was finally able to raise his voice for the disadvantaged people of this world.

"I don't think Zhu-Er would dance to anyone's tune," Tishow suggested, "but he would rather die or suffer than submit to the will of another man."

"You mean he could have been held by force somewhere?"

"If they couldn't kill him and he'd been molting regularly for two hundred years, I suppose that would suit everybody."

After these words everyone was silent again. It had seemed an ideal plan to Ronu up to that point, but under the changed circumstances, a new strategy had to be devised.

The marshal spoke: "So all the palace guards and servants know the truth, don't they?"

Liam thought aloud:

"I think all the capital knows the truth, but they lie about the dragon so convincingly that the whole world believes them!"

The general suggested: "What if we lift the silt from the sea floor?"

"How, exactly?"

"We challenge the capital."

Everyone stared at the general in confusion.

"What do you mean, challenge the capital?"

Liam scratched his nose, as if that might help him realize the genius of the plan, but still, he looked at Tishow incredulously.

"The capital has two powers: her guards and her dragon. The whole world thinks so, but we know the dragon is not real. Consequently, if another dragon appears in the sky above the city, the only thing to counter it is the real Zhu-Er or die."

"Ronu, what do you say?" Liam turned to the man who knew the most about this civilization.

"I'm not sure, let's say these people were somehow able to capture your dragon. Wouldn't they be able to do the same thing to another dragon? Isn't that a risk?"

"You won't know unless you try," Pittsu said philosophically, taking a blade of grass out of his mouth.

"Let's go deeper into the country and scout out the mood of the masses, shall we?" Ronu suggested, and Liam encouraged him.

The others were unhappy with the plan, but there was no point in doing anything in the heat of the moment. The world was still an unpredictable place.

"We'll need the money, wait here," Ronu dashed out of the forest, leaving his friends behind.

"I'm all for using Azinoth to get the capital to admit that Zhu-Er is a counterfeit," Tishow repeated.

"You think like a military man," Pittsu replied.

"Hmm, that's funny coming from you, invincible Marshal Pittsu," the general remarked ironically.

"Everybody has his own way," the marshal went philosophically.

While they waited for Ronu, it was getting chilly. They packed up and moved closer to the forest's exit, where the sun was warming the ground through the sparse tree crowns. The forest smelled pleasant, and now and then, some curious wildlife ran by.

Relaxed, men sat leaning against trees and thought about their own things. A branch crunched somewhere nearby, and then another one next to it. Marshall was the first to leap to his feet and strain his hearing. Tishow joined him. They signaled Liam to be quiet and spoke in whispers.

"Coming from the northwest, about two hundred," Pittsu said faintly.

"Armed. It's an attack on the capital. We have to get away," the general replied.

"Let's join the rear," Liam interjected.

The general nodded in agreement. They quickly backed away and watched furtively as the large force filled the space between the trees. They were walking in a disorganized manner, and without understanding their speech, it was hard to know what was going on and their purpose.

"I was just coming to warn you," a disguised Ronu appeared out of nowhere, "here, take your clothes."

While the men quickly changed their dress into simple peasant clothing, Ronu told them what he had learned from the traders.

"It was unusually crowded on the way here; it turned out that the annual trade festival had begun. These people are very fond of celebrating something. Many merchants came to the capital, and the poorer merchants gathered outside the gates. But I've noticed a peculiarity," Ronu helped Liam put on his jacket at the same time as he spoke, "these merchants don't advertise, and those who do advertise take their time asking for customers."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Liam asked.

"They are not traders," the marshal answered.

"The rebels are surrounding the capital," Tishow added.

Liam grew cold at these words.