Chp.23: Convincing the adventurers

"Uuugh..."

Sarah slowly opened her eyes. She was dazed, but being an adventurer she had rather fast recovery times; after all, in a fight there was no time to recover from a blow to the head, you just had to get up. Memories of what had happened came quickly back to her, and she immediately realized that something was binding her hands and feet. She looked down at her limbs and saw that they had been firmly tied down by a strange rope... no, was it a liana?

"Welcome up. You're the last one" a voice greeted her. Sarah looked to her right and saw a dragon; for a moment she thought it was one of those they had already faced, but then she noticed that some details of the body were different, so it must have been a fourth individual. How many dragons were there in that place?

"Hey, Sarah" Carlos' voice called her back. She turned to her left and saw that her companions were also tied up and seated next to her. And each of them had a dragon beside him.

Five dragons? Now there were far too many. "What happened?" she asked, unable to understand anything about the situation.

"After we discovered their deception, they knocked us out. Apparently they had foreseen that twist and got behind us…although I still don't understand how" Efren replied. "Then they tied us up and waited for us to wake up. I advise you not to try to free yourself: these dragons are watching us constantly. If one of us tries to cast a spell, they'll be dismissed. You can see how they reduced Martha and Carlos"

Sarah looked at her companions and noticed that Carlos and Martha did indeed have obvious fist marks on their mouths. This infuriated her. "What have you done to my friends, monsters?" she growled at the dragon standing beside her.

"She tried to free herself using a spell, so we stopped her before she could finish it" the dragon explained. "As for him... he asked a question about how to distinguish male dragons from females... but in a much more inappropriate way than I told you about it"

Despite the situation, Sarah still glared at her friend. "Seriously, Carlos?"

"I just wanted to understand!" the man tried to justify himself. "I just wanted to know if I should refer to them as 'him' or 'her'! I mean, how can I know? They're all the same!"

"We told you how to know! Male dragons have very conspicuous horns, female dragons don't! And there are only three males in our family and one is currently missing, so you'll recognize them for sure!" the dragon standing next to him, who looked really annoyed, grumbled. "Now shut up, or the next punch I'll throw at you will knock out all your teeth!"

"Okay, I understand we're all on edge, so let's hurry up and talk now that you're all awake" another voice said. Sarah looked up and saw more dragons gathering in front of them. Ten... twelve... sixteen dragons!? How was this possible? Dragons didn't live in herds that big! Or at least that was what she knew from the stories...

One of them stepped forward and spoke first: "My name is Kotaru. Nice to meet you" she said. Seeing that none of the adventurers answered her, she sighed. "Listen, I know you're probably scared and maybe even angry about the deception earlier. But we don't want to hurt you. We put on that play precisely because we were hoping to get your help without forcing you to do anything. We didn't have any enmity with you and we have no reason to kill you unless you give us one. We just want help"

Nobody said anything for a while. Kotaru stood still and looked embarrassed; she had probably expected an answer. But in the end it was Carlos the one who spoke: "Excuse me for asking, but are you a boy or a girl?"

If they could, Efren, Lisah, Sarah and Martha would have slapped each other in the face. There was no way anyone could be that stupid! The 'bong' that was heard shortly afterwards confirmed that the dragon that had previously spoken had just been knocked out Carlos. "I warned you" she growled, and none of the four adventurers could blame her.

"Tikka, calm down" Kotaru stopped her. "We don't want to resort to violence. Seriously, we just want your help! Aren't you even willing to listen to us?"

"Why should we do?" Sarah snapped. "First, you've already shown us that you are deceivers. Second, you're holding us captive, and that's not exactly speaking as equals. Third...". Her face turned red. "... you killed our master!"

"Your teacher? What?" Kotaru looked a bit confused.

"I think I know" said one of the other dragons, whom the adventurers recognized as Sisna. "Your master's name was Nogg, wasn't he?"

Sarah's eyes flared up. "It's master Nogg for you, dragon! Don't you dare speak his name, you ate him!"

Sisna nodded. She'd assumed that to be the case after she'd examined the bone the adventurer had used to compare her teeth to the marks left. Noting that Kotaru was still confused, she explained: "Remember we told you that while we were apart we met an old man who gave us a lot of information and then we ate him? Well, his name was Nogg. I didn't know he had students"

"Seriously, don't you have any empathy?" Lisah exclaimed. "You're talking about when you killed a man! Show at least a modicum of respect!"

Sisna let out a snort. "Listen, since we're done with deceptions, I'll tell you how things really are. I and all of us don't give a damn about the man. He's been helpful to us and we're grateful for that, and I found his company very pleasant and instructive, but otherwise he had no value. From our point of view, it was no different from any prey. Besides, we couldn't let him go. I was sorry to kill him because I liked him, but I feel no remorse for it. And anyway, that's what he wanted too: to die at the hands of a beast. He told me himself"

Sisna knew that if she made up a sob story the adventurers wouldn't believe her, so she decided to simply tell the truth. He had only omitted some details: for example Nogg wanted to die at the hands of a beast, yes, but hunting, while instead they had attack him from behind while he was distracted. But basically, there was no reason to specify that.

The five adventurers looked furious. In fact, that death was exactly what their master was looking for, but they hated that anyone talked about it in such a careless way. "We don't care that that was our master's wish! What you did is unforgivable anyway!" Martha exclaimed.

"Didn't you hear her? We had no choice!" exclaimed one of the male dragons who had previously taken part in the play, the one who had pretended to rescue his sister. "Even if we had loved your master, we would have killed and eaten him in the same way. We were trying to survive and we couldn't risk that Nogg revealing our existence. This is an unforgiving world and often there is no choice, there are only the living and the dead. And sorry, but I'd rather have my family left alive than a complete stranger"

"Okay, that's enough. Rhaegal, Sisna, stop now" Kotaru said seeing how tempers were heating up. "Listen, I know that the pain of losing your master must be great. I understand it because we too have lost someone. Now we know that he is still alive, but for a few hours we believed him dead, and those were the worst hours of my life. I don't think I've ever shed so many tears, and believe me, we've all been through events that to call traumatic would be an understatement. So, I know how you feel. But hating us won't bring your master back to life, and right now it's yourselves that you have to worry, not about your teacher"

Sarah felt anger rise inside her: the dragon was practically telling her to forget about the fact that she and her siblings had killed their master! How shameless could she be!? She was about to yell some insults at her, but Efren anticipated her: "You are right. Let's talk calmly then"

Everyone else looked at him stupid. "Efren, are you serious?" Carlos exclaimed, his voice thick as the previous punch had broken two of his front teeth.

Efren nodded. "Yes. Trust me, it's the best choice". Sarah was about to argue, but then she noticed her friend's look: it was the typical look he sported when he was warning her to keep quiet. That was enough to calm her: she knew that he, being older, sometimes noticed details that she didn't see.

And indeed it was so. Efren understood what the dragon was really saying to them: under that mask of kindness was hiding a predator of the worst kind. Kotaru had said that right now they should be worrying about themselves, not their master; which meant that if they continued to complain there would be unpleasant consequences. Efren knew that the dragons could take one of their own and kill that person in front of the others: having five hostages, they could afford to lose one to show them what they were capable of.

At the moment, the adventurers still had the edge. Efren knew the dragons needed them, or they wouldn't let them live; therefore they could still negotiate for their freedom. But if they continued to be indisposed, the dragons wouldn't hesitate to show their more brutal side and torture them. Efren could see this clearly: being a hunter, he recognized that dragon bodies were extremely tense, which meant they were ready to leap at them and tear them apart. He had to be extremely careful. "You said you want a hand. What is it about?"

Kotaru seemed satisfied with that change in attitude. "One of us is currently captured. One of our brothers. We want to free him, but we need information. So we would like you to reveal everything you know about the realm where you live. Oh, and you should also answer some questions regarding magic"

Silence fell for a moment, then even Efren, while understanding their precarious situation, couldn't help but comment: "Wait... so you want that we help you to free another dragon, by giving you information you could use to violate the security of one of our cities, endangering hundreds or even thousands of people, and on top of that you would also like to know something about our magic?"

Kotaru seemed to reflect. "Well, they don't have to endanger people... maybe we can find..."

"Ah! You're mad if you think we're going to tell you something!" Sarah interrupted. "We'd rather die than..."

"OH, NOW I HAVE ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT!" Rhaegal roared as he rushed at the five adventurers and grabbed Lisah by the back of the neck. Her companions let out a yell and tried to chant a spell to help her, but the dragons beside them plugged their mouths with their tails.

Kotaru looked concerned: "Rhaegal, what do you want to do?"

"Being kind didn't work. So, I use Haku's method!" Rhaegal exclaimed, and then he closed his claws, shattering Lisah's head, which exploded in a cascade of blood and chunks of flesh.

Carlos, Efren, Martha and Sarah let out a scream, which was obviously drowned out by the dragons' tails. Tears welled up on their faces, especially Martha's, who started wriggling like crazy after seeing her sister die. Efren felt himself sinking: exactly what he feared had happened, their captors had grown impatient and had decided to kill one of them to show the others the consequences of their stubborness. Sarah felt even worse: if she could have cut her tongue out. She knew it was her fault that her friend had just died…

But suddenly Lisah's body shook and her head reappeared in its place, and judging by her expression, she didn't seem to understand why her companions were reacting the way they did. Carlos, Efren, Sarah and Martha didn't immediately understand, but then heaved a sigh of relief to see that their friend was alive.

"Did you use the invisibility rune to create the illusion of her crushed skull?" Kotaru asked looking at Rhaegal.

The male dragon nodded. "Now they know what we can do to them if they don't obey" he said, then he slammed Lisah down and put a paw on her head: "Here's what will happen now. You will help us save our brother by doing whatever we tell you without question, and in return we will let you go alive. If any of you try to slip even once, I'll crush her head. A sibling for a sibling, that's the deal. Do you understand?"

The five adventurers nodded, including Lisah even though she was pinned under his paw. After seeing what the dragons could do if they got angry, all of them had lost their rebellious spirit: no one wanted to see their friends die. It was best to obey for now and wait for the right moment to flee or fight.

Rhaegal looked satisfied. "Very good. Now they'll tell us what we want to know" he said, and then nodded to Kotaru: "Sorry, sister, but we had to hurry. Haku's method is quicker"

"I just think that every situation calls for a different method. Either way, congratulations Rhaegal" Kotaru said. While he would have preferred to settle things more peacefully, they actually needed information quickly, and couldn't waste time arguing. "Okay. Now let's ask the questions. Maldor, bring here the prototype"