Chp.45: A dragon amongs the slaves

After they left Haku and Rhaegal alone, their sisters returned to the hill where they had previously partied, away from everyone else. Darbi, on the other hand, had preferred to leave, since something inside him told him that soon those two would want to talk to him in private. After all, that was a boys' chat, wasn't it? It would have been a crime to not include the funniest member of the family. And he was also a little offended at Sisna for dragging him away, since he was really curious to know what those two would say to each other.

After walking away, however, he realized that he didn't quite know what to do. He'd originally thought of going to the gladiators and looking for Brenno and Gord to play some games, but he soon scrapped the idea. He knew he would have to explain a lot about his disguise as a red lizardman, and he didn't want to. He also knew that many gladiators would get nervous to see a dragon approaching, and he didn't want to spoil their fun.

So, he decided instead to go to the slaves, who had camped nearby. Even if he would have frightened them too, he knew that they were already fearful normally, since even though they were free they were still afraid that one of the gladiators would come for them, so he doubted he would have made them even more nervous; indeed, perhaps they would have been a little grateful to have him nearby given the way Haku had defended them. In any case, at least in their company he could have avoided embarrassing discussions and perhaps he could have made himself useful.

When he arrived, he had to admit that the slaves were very organized indeed. They had lit fires and were cooking food in a much more refined way than the gladiators. Some of them were building small shelters using wood and leaves, since even if the dragons had erected some shelters and made them available to them, they didn't want to risk sharing them with the gladiators. In the end, some slaves were near a fire stranger than the others, whose wood and stones were arranged to form symbols, and instead of using it for cooking they were kneeling with joined hands and one of them was throwing what looked like flowers.

Darbi was immediately intrigued by what behavior. He approached making a little noise, so that they were aware of his presence. The slaves looked a little frightened by his arrival, but not too nervous. However, none of them came to speak to him and instead someone whispered something to Misune, and she stepped forward. Evidently, they had decided that she would be their intermediary with the dragons. "Hi, um… uh… I haven't learned how to recognize everyone yet" she admitted with a slight blush.

Darbi giggled. "It's me, Misune" he replied, and the girl recognized him from the voice: "Oh! Sorry, Darbi!"

"It's okay. I just wanted to see how you were settled" Darbi said looking up. "I must admit that you are really good. You could create your own village"

"Don't exaggerate. We're not that efficient" Misune replied, though it was clear she enjoyed the compliment.

The other slaves, seeing that everything seemed okay, returned to their former occupations, though probably many of them kept their eye on the dragon. Darbi ignored them and pointed to the fire where the flowers were burning: "What is that?"

"Oh... it's an offer" Misune replied. "Since we don't have an altar and a brazier, we used that bonfire. We noticed that there were lotus flowers around here, and the goddess Heloisa loves their scent. So to thank her for her support we decided to offer them to her as a gift along with songs and prayers. It's not much, but I'm sure the goddess will still be happy if she sees the sincerity in our hearts"

Darbi didn't understand much, but he concluded that the gist of the speech was that burning the lotus flowers was a way to make the goddess in whom the slaves believed happy. He wasn't sure what they were thanking her for, since it didn't seem to him that that goddess had done anything to help them for years, but if they were happy he might as well let them. As long as they weren't wasting precious resources, they could do as they pleased for what he cared.

Misune looked at him with some surprise. "Why does this confuses you that much? Don't dragons worship gods?"

"Uh..." Darbi didn't expect her to be able to read his emotions so easily. Evidently all the time she spent with Haku had made her better able to understand dragons' body language than the normal newcomers. "We dragons have a slightly different relationship with the gods. Yeah, well… we don't make offerings or anything like that". The truth was that they completely ignored them and hoped that they would ignore them too given how dangerous they were, but he preferred to not tell her that.

Misune smiled. "Well, you should try. It's good to feel more connected to our divine rulers" she said, then she shivered slightly.

Darbi noticed that movement. "Are you ok?"

"Sure! Just... can we go a little closer to the fire? It's getting cold" Misune replied shivering again.

Darbi snorted. Yeah, he'd imagined it would be like this. The slaves were very ingenious, but they lacked a fundamental characteristic: physical strength. Without it they couldn't move large stones or logs to build solid shelters, or dig solid foundations. But above all, they couldn't hunt and kill animals and make clothes out of their skins. Dragons didn't suffer from the cold, as their scales kept the heat stable, but the same couldn't be said for newcomers. And the slaves all wore extremely poor and light clothes; many of them were even barefoot. They didn't have much hair, except on their heads, and it was clear from their slight build that they didn't have any subcutaneous fat at all. And even if the water of the river they were close to had retained the heat of the sun a little, they were still close to a desert and consequently it was very cold during the night. Unfortunately, there was nothing in nature that could warm them without having to exert great strength to get it; the only tool at their disposal was fire, but the heat of the fire couldn't expand beyond a few meters.

At that point Darbi had an idea. "Hey, all of you! Come, I have a gift!" he exclaimed loudly, drawing attention to himself. The slaves were a little hesitant at first, but as they saw him pull some clothes out of his dimensional bag, their eyes seemed to glow brighter than the bonfires. Completely forgetting about fear, they ran up to him and grabbed the clothes directly from his paws, holding them in their hands as if they were priceless jewels. Obviously many of the dresses were too big or too small, but for them who had been wearing the same thing for years they were still perfect.

"Wow... where did you take them?" Misune asked smiling as she watched the other slaves quickly don their robes.

"Uh… I stole them. Yes, I took them from ogres and fairies when they were distracted" Darbi replied. He was sure that confessing to her that they actually came from the corpses of slain fairies and ogres wasn't a good idea.

"Well, thank you. That was kind of you" Misune said, smiling so much it felt like her lips were bursting.

Darbi smiled back, happy to see her so happy. "Not at all" he replied. Then something unexpected happened: a young slave girl who was wearing a leather jacket that was clearly too big for her (it probably belonged to an ogre, since it reached her ankles) approached and with some reluctance handed him something. "Thank you... sir" she whispered.

Darbi picked up the object and realized that it was a strange circle made of grass and flower stalks, to which several lotus flowers were attached. "Uh... nice. Is this a collar?"

"It's a flower crown" Misune explained. "Wearing a crown made of lotus flowers is said to grant the protection of the goddess"

Darbi understood that for them this must be a gift of great value, even if from his point of view it was just silly. After all, how could flowers protect? It would have been better to build a crown of wood or some solid material, so as to at least protect the head from shocks. But despite that, he still put it on his head, even though it was so small it could barely wrap around one of his horns. "How do I look?"

"Well… that's not bad" Misune replied, even though she was actually holding back a laugh. Seeing such an imposing creature wearing a crown of flowers was a sight that defied the imagination. "We'll be done cooking soon. Want to join us?"

"I've already eaten" Darbi replied. Unlike them, in fact, the dragons didn't need to wait for the meat to cook, and in fact they had been eating for a long time.

"Well, you can just sit next to us. It's the least we can do after you give us these clothes" Misune said again.

Darbi decided it was worth a try, so he walked over to one of the bonfires and lay down next to it. Since his body was huge, he positioned himself slightly further away than the slaves, otherwise he would have taken up too much space to seat them all. Even though the slaves seemed intimidated by his presence, they still continued to smile at him. It was incredible how simply donating clothes, completely useless objects for him, had made them completely change their attitude. Some of them cut up the roast boar they had cooked and distributed it to the others; they had no plates or cutlery, so they would eat with their hands. Darbi noticed that many of them began to salivate from their mouths just by smelling the meat, and when they put it in his hand they held it tight even though it was hot. When they then began to eat, they initially seemed on the verge of tears, then began tearing pieces harder and harder as if afraid someone would take them away. A slave girl near Darbi was eating so fast that her cheeks were already puffy, yet she kept putting stuff in her mouth. "Hey, slow down!" Darbi said trying to take her hands away from her face. "You'll end up throwing up if you keep this up..."

"Shut up!" the slave cried dodging away and clutching the piece of meat to her chest as if it were her son. Only after a few moments did she seem to realize what she had just said and who she was talking to, and she turned pale as a corpse. "Uh... I... I'm sorry, sir..."

"I-It doesn't matter!" Darbi said quickly, noting that even the other slaves seemed worried about his reaction. "Just... don't eat so fast, alright? Or you risk choking"

The slave girl seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and went back to eating, even if she slowed down as he told her. "Sorry" Misune said apologizing for her. "It's just that... we haven't eaten such good food in a long time. Some of us may lose our sense of proportion"

Darbi recalled that the meals served to the gladiators were somewhat insubstantial, though still acceptable. Evidently the slaves ate even worse. Judging by their reaction, they hadn't had a hot meal in years. And judging by how thin they were, they weren't even getting enough food to sustain their metabolism. That would probably be the first night in a long time that they'd go to sleep with really full bellies.

Since there was some silence, Misune decided to change the subject: "Why don't you tell us a story about dragons, Darbi?"

Darbi looked at her strangely. "A story about dragons?" he asked doubtful. From his point of view, it wasn't exactly a good topic to talk about at dinner... indeed, to talk about in general. All the stories that came to his mind contained mutilation and death.

"Well, yeah. A story about you and your siblings, or something like that. Something funny" Misune said.

Darbi thought about it, then he gave a little laugh. "Well... I've got some funny stories" he said. "This happened when me and the others had a little more than two months to live. You see, at the time Haku used to put our things in a dimensional bag and bury it to prevent some beast from finding them. So I went there one day and I dug up the bag, and put it in a cave. When Haku realized this, he freaked out, and he couldn't even understand that I was the thief because I had hidden all my traces. But I had left some marks to lead him to the cave. He and Rhaegal went looking for the bag and then entered the cave..."

Misune and the other slaves seemed interested. "And?"

Darbi laughed again. "And inside there was a family of badgers. They jumped on them and grabbed their horns before they could react. I was hiding outside, and after a few moments I saw Haku and Rhaegal come out flailing in an attempt to get rid of the badgers, and they even headbutted themselves by mistake"

The slaves were silent for a second, then everyone burst out laughing. The scene described was so ridiculous that it was impossible not to feel hilarity. "I can't believe it, some badgers attacked two dragons?" Misune asked between laughs.

"Badgers aren't afraid of anything. Even after Haku and Rhaegal managed to shake them off they continued to attack them even though it was evident that their bites were doing nothing to them" Darbi explained. "Haku and Rhaegal were so furious that they seemed to want to make a scarf with the fur of those badgers. Even today they have not understood that it was me who stole the bag, they think it was the badgers"

"Yeah, we thought that until you yelled the truth at everyone"

Darbi whirled around and saw Rhaegal and Haku nearby, who were staring at him with a look somewhere between resigned and disappointed. "Uh... I'm not sure what you could hear..."

"We've heard everything" Haku answered.

"Even too much in my opinion" Rhaegal said, then he turned to his brother beside him. "We adopted him, didn't we?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure our mother found his egg lying around and took it home to make an omelet, but then it rolled in the nest and she forgot about it" Haku replied. "What's on your head, by the way?"

"It's a crown of flowers" Darbi replied. "Isn't she pretty?"

"It's not even your size. Take it off, you're ridiculous. Have some dignity" Rhaegal answered.

"Well, he may be ridiculous, but at least he's having fun!" Misune suddenly intervened. "And he's also entertaining the others! It wouldn't hurt to laugh a little, you know?"

Haku glared at the slave, but incredibly she held his gaze. Apparently, the recent experience had given her a lot of self-confidence. "Nevermind. In any case, please come with us, Darbi. We need your advice"

Darbi was a little surprised that his brothers wanted advice from him, but he didn't ask for it again. "Okay. Sorry guys, I have to go" he said greeting the slaves, then he walked away with Rhaegal and Haku.