Chp.19: The adventurers' decision

While the others had already retired to their rooms, Efren had remained in the tavern. In fact, like every inn, the one where they were currently staying also had a refreshment area on the ground floor and the rooms on the first and second floors. Even though it was now late at night, the tavern was still quite full, though not as during the evening, so Efren went almost unnoticed as he looked at the empty plates in front of him. He had already finished eating for some time, but he didn't feel like getting up.

Suddenly he heard heavy footsteps beside him, and then Rhaegal entered his field of vision. "What did your sister tell you?" he asked him.

"That we'll wait a little longer. Well, she actually said other things too, but that's the gist of it" Rhaegal replied, then he set a bottle down on the table. "Here. I brought you this"

Efren looked at him in amazement. "Wine?"

"I have noticed that your kind drink it on many occasions. When they are happy, when they are upset… or when they are depressed" Rhaegal said, sitting down at the table as well. "I thought it might help you"

"Drinking isn't the answer" Efren grumbled.

"No, but by drinking you can forget the question" Rhaegal replied.

Efren laughed slightly at those words. "Where did you hear that?" he asked, since it was unlikely that the dragon had made it up since he had never experienced the effects of alcohol.

Rhaegal shrugged. "By a drunkard, while we were still in the city of Thelsin. It must have been… three months ago, I think. Someone had tried to take the bottle away from him and said your own words to him, and he had replied with this phrase. Since this are the thoughts of an expert on the subject, they must be right"

Efren grinned even more imagining the scene. Indeed it was a very realistic story considering the type of people who went to the taverns. He took the bottle and opened it, then he sniffed the wine inside. It had a very sweet aroma, quite different from the normal alcohol that was served in the tavern. Even the bottle, now that he had a good look at it, was quite refined. "It must have cost you a lot"

"Not really. I was convinced that I would have to spend a little more, but the girl at the counter gave me a great price" Rhaegal said, glancing at a woman in her twenties who was pouring drinks for two other dudes. "She said that since I was so nice, she wanted to give it to me with a discount"

Efren let out a slight sigh. Even though they were far away, he could see that the girl in question wasn't taking her eyes off Rhaegal, and the blush on her cheeks made it quite clear why. "I think she wanted to give you something more than the wine" he said a little irritated. Since he couldn't get too far from the dragon for safety reasons he hadn't enjoyed female company for a year now, at least not long enough to do anything with them, and it annoyed him a little that Rhaegal was so successful without don't even try.

Rhaegal looked at the girl, who immediately looked away in embarrassment. "Bah. Seriously, why don't you humans just say when you want to mate? It would be easier than all of these… what do you call them? Signals? In the worst case, the other person would say no"

"Or she'd punch you in the face" Efren commented. "Humans don't act that way. It's called education"

"Well, I find that silly. What's wrong with saying that you think that person is a suitable partner to have children with? It's not an insult, on the contrary. It would be a cause for joy for every creature in this world" Rhaegal replied, then he looked at the bottle. "Anyway, are you going to drink it or not?"

Efren stirred the wine lightly. "I'm not sure... drinking doesn't seem like a good solution"

"Okay, I'll help you overcome your indecision using a question I've often heard in taverns" Rhaegal said, then he approached slightly and looked him straight in the eyes: "Has it really been a bad day?"

Efren burst out laughing. He had expected something deeper and instead Rhaegal had come up with a ridiculous question. But after all, he couldn't expect much more from something the dragon had heard in the taverns. And after all, in a way, that question was what he needed. "Yes, it was" he finally replied, bringing the bottle to his lips and taking a big sip.

Rhaegal seemed satisfied with that reaction. "At least I didn't spend ten gold coins for nothing" he said.

Efren was somewhat surprised. While ten gold coins weren't a great price, he knew that the dragons rarely waste their money, or any other resource. He certainly had never seen them spend it on alcohol. And technically, Rhaegal had also been prepared to spend more if that girl hadn't given him a discount because she was infatuated with him. "Why did you buy me this bottle?"

Rhaegal shrugged. "Tonight you seemed particularly... downcast. I wanted to give you a hand, and I didn't want to do it using the cheap alcohol they normally serve at the tables here. After all, I'm rich, I can afford to spend a few coins for that bottle"

Efren smiled and took another sip. During the course of that year he had gotten to know Rhaegal, since the two of them had spent a lot of time together (or rather, the dragon was constantly sticking to him like a mussel, both because he wanted to keep an eye on him, and because he was afraid to do some gaffe and therefore he needed him to cover for him in the case), and he knew that in his own way he was a good fellow. Sure, he remained a dragon who had no qualms about using and killing anyone in his way… but otherwise he wasn't much different from many humans. He genuinely cared about his sisters, and certainly also about his brother imprisoned in the arena; Efren remembered very well how upset he was that day when he had seen him fight with lions. He would go to any lengths to help him or any other family member, just as any human brother would. And like any normal human he too had his interests, and indeed he seemed fascinated by the world around him, so quite normal for someone born and raised in the middle of nowhere and in the circumstances that he had described to him. And sometimes, even if just sometimes, he could show a little empathy, even if only towards people who had been close to him for a long time, like him, Carlos and Sarah. Efren believed that dragons rarely opened their hearts to other people, but when they did, they showed signs of their personality that didn't make them very different from humans or any other race.

Rhaegal let him drink in peace for a while, then he said: "Well, I guess this is the part where I act as the friend who offers up my shoulder to cry on and you, between the sobs from the alcohol, reveal to me all that you keep in. So what's the matter?"

"I'm not drunk yet, Rhaegal" Efren told him. "But thank you for your interest"

"Okay. So… do you want to talk to me now while you're still sober, or would you rather I wait for the alcohol to kick in and ask you the question again?" Rhaegal asked.

Efren sighed. He knew that wasn't a joke: Rhaegal really had no idea what to do. "I suppose you won't settle for an 'I don't want to talk about it', so I'll tell you now while I can still speak using all the letters correctly. Do you know why I became an adventurer?"

"You told me how you met your master and how he trained you, but you never told me what you did before" Rhaegal replied.

"Well, I'll tell you now. Ever since I was a child, I've wanted to help people. Even though I often got into trouble myself. Once, to help a little girl out of a mud puddle, I ended up in it too. When my mother saw me coming home covered in mud she gave me so many slaps that I will never forget, and my father… well, he didn't want to suffer the same fate as me, so he kept silent and watched the scene. In my house, my mother was the one in charge" Efren smiled slightly as he spoke. "I did a lot of stupid things growing up… but still my desire to help others never changed. And my idols were the soldiers of the kingdom. They were the ones who fought the bad guys and protected the people. I could never have become a good soldier. I have no talent for fighting, I am good at hunting. So I became an adventurer, so that my hunting skills could be put to the service of the kingdom and help as many people as possible. I never regretted that choice. I found a teacher, some friends, a sort of second family, and every time I saw the smiles of people after we had exterminated a pack of wolves that threatened their livestock or a monster that threatened their homes, that for me was an adequate reward. I liked it"

Efren took another long drink. "But still, my idols have always remained the soldiers. The soldiers and those who led them. Of course, as an adult I knew they weren't saints; after all, peace is not built with fine words and heroic deeds. Wars are won by those who are willing to do everything to win them, even the most brutal things. But I never thought they'd do… that". His voice deepened and his grip on the bottle tightened, cracking the glass slightly. "What that lizardman told us… there's no excuse for that. It's not to keep the peace, it's just cruelty. An entire people is suffering to satisfy the ambitions of a group of extremist priests and a circle of greedy nobles and merchants. And nobody does anything to stop it. And the soldiers, the same ones I admired, are complicit in this wickedness"

Rhaegal had listened to it all very carefully. "But it's not their fault. They're just following orders..."

"Come on, I've known you long enough to know you don't believe in this bullshit" Efren said. "If you stand by while people suffer, then you are an accomplice, it doesn't matter if you are obeying orders"

Rhaegal nodded. "Yes, that's true. I was only saying that because I have no idea how to console you" he admitted. "But I don't think you should feel bad about it. You have nothing to do with what's happening. You aren't to blame"

"I wasn't to blame them before. Now I am" Efren said. "I am aware of what is happening, yet I am sitting here getting drunk instead of acting. I am also an accomplice now"

Rhaegal scratched his head. He didn't know how to respond to that statement, because technically from his point of view it was right. "Look, I'll be blunt. At the moment you're not an accomplice, since you couldn't do anything even if you wanted to since you have to stay here with me. So at best I'm the accomplice... with the difference that I don't care" he finally said. "But soon, our cooperation will end and we will part ways. It will be then that you can decide whether or not to be an accomplice. Now you can do nothing, and I would stop you if you tried to, since for me there is nothing more important to save my brother, and in terms of strength you are no match for me... but in a few days you and I will no longer be partners, and then you can do whatever you want. So, stop blaming yourself, at least until we will have finished saving my brother"

Efren was silent for a moment, looking at him strangely. Then he burst out laughing. "Seriously, man, you suck at consoling people… but thanks anyway" he said, then handed him the bottle. "Do you want some?"

"Technically, for the laws of your species, I can't drink it" Rhaegal replied, reminding us that the laws of the Jurao Kingdom forbade people under ten years old from drinking alcohol.

But Efren shook his head. "Fuck the law. I feel uncomfortable being the only one drinking. Take a sip"

Rhaegal had indeed noticed that humans normally enjoyed drinking in company. Maybe it was some kind of herd instinct. He picked up the bottle and downed nearly a third of it in one gulp. "Wow, man! Take it easy! It's wine, not water!" Efren exclaimed, expecting to see Rhaegal fall to the ground within the next ten seconds.

But the dragon didn't flinch. He handed him the bottle again and said: "I can't get drunk. This isn't my real body, remember? It doesn't even have a functioning liver. And even if I use my real body, my metabolism is much more efficient than that of you humans. It would take a whole river made of wine just to get me tipsy"

Efren grunted at those words. "Lucky bastard" he grumbled as he picked up the bottle and drained it completely, then pulled out a bag of coins. "I want another one. What was the total price?"

"Forget it. I pay for today. I know this is also part of the drinking rituals of your kind" Rhaegal replied, then he raised his voice and called the girl at the counter: "Hey! Two more bottles, please! Don't worry, I have the money to pay!"

The girl squeaked like a mouse and hurried to get two more bottles of that fine wine and bring them to their table. Rhaegal and Efren opened them, and then, as was customary in 'drinking rituals', they lifted the bottles and banged them lightly against each other, then they both took a big gulp.

They went on like this for quite a while, and soon the bottles consumed became four, then six, then eight. Efren passed out a couple of times, but always woke up within ten minutes ready for another round. Rhaegal, for his part, did his best to slow him down as much as possible, lest he end up in an alcohol coma. They didn't know exactly how much time they spent drinking, but it sure was a long time since by the time Efren finally called it quits the sky had gone from completely black and studded with stars to just plain dark blue. After that, the two sat at the table while Efren gulped down whole mugs of iced water to recover from his hangover. When he finally seemed to feel better, the sunlight was filtering through the windows.

"Are you still here?"

The two barely turned their eyes to see Corgorin, Carlos, Serengal and Sarah just down the stairs, staring at them with somewhat reproachful eyes. "We had a chat" he replied.

"Yes, I can imagine what chat" Carlos grumbled as he sat down at the table and looked at the empty bottles. "You could have invited me. I feel excluded"

"We thought you were happy to be with Corgorin. Or did your girlfriend leave you dry tonight?" Efren laughed, earning a shouldered from his friend.

The whole group sat down at the table and started eating breakfast. No one speaks for a while, mostly to give Efren a chance to fully recover. Then suddenly Sarah said: "Carlos, Efren, I have to tell you something"

The two men immediately looked at her, and even the three dragons showed a minimum of curiosity. "What is it about?" Carlos asked.

Sarah took a deep breath, then she said: "Once this story is over, we will separate. I will go to the Baudonia City Alliance. I want to help the people of lizardmen"

The two humans didn't seem at all surprised. The three dragons, on the other hand, were very confused. "Why this decision?" Serengal asked.

"Because..." Sarah closed her eyes, as if what she was about to say was costing her a lot. "... you were right. If I just complain, and do nothing... then I'm no better than you. And I don't want to. I want to show you that humans are not the same as you dragons. We don't close our hearts to the suffering of others. So I'm going to help the lizardmen... although I still don't know how. Because I want to believe that human beings don't abandon the others"

Serengal wasn't sure whether to take the words as a bold statement or a veiled insult, but before she could ask for clarification Efren said: "I've thought about that too. Well, mostly I was delirious as the alcohol was making my head cloudy... but I also want to help". He looked at Rhaegal with determined eyes. "I don't want to be an accomplice. I won't stand by and do nothing. This is my decision"

"So, two adventurers against an entire army? Incredibly crazy and irresponsible. I like it" Carlos said, clapping his hands. "You'll need someone to keep your spirits up. Count on me"

"Really? Didn't you want to go back to your old life?" Corgorin asked.

Carlos shook his head. "Nah. I've thought about it and I've discovered that I really don't want to. Let's face it, we've done everything and more this year. It would be hard to just go back to hunting. And then, alone... it would be boring. I want to keep having adventures, and since my friends have found one… why should I hold back?"

The three adventurers seemed convinced of their words. The three dragons looked at each other, undecided on what to say, then Rhaegal finally said: "Well, at this point... we can only wish you luck. Come on, let's finish this save, so then you can go on your adventure"