Chp.13: On the boat

There was a lot of slag talking about dragons. No matter what culture, nation, language and religion a people had, they always had endless tales, stories and songs about the terrible monsters of the sky that intimidated all living creatures. The newcomers had transposed them in many ways; some were evil and cruel, others were lazier and just wanted to be left alone, others were just tricksters and acted just for the sake of having fun. In some rare cases in the stories the dragon was transposed as not purely devoted to evil and willing to provide advice to the protagonists, obviously on condition of being paid with some special object. But still, no matter how the dragons were transposed, in every story there was a careful discretion of how extraordinary and terrible they were; there was talk of their ferocity, of their predatory nature, of the terrifying shadow that flew across the sky bringing death and destruction in their path. Every dragon ever appeared in the tales expressed power, pride, strength, intelligence; in a single word, it could be translated with magnificence.

Certainly in no tale had a dragon been transposed as a depressed and compliant lizard lounging on the deck of a boat gazing at the scene with glazed eyes as he recited his last will to a lizardman who took notes in somewhat broken handwriting and with a minotaur that was sitting next to him and offered him beer.

"… and to my dear sister Tikka, I leave my stash of wild boar bones, which I know she really likes to nibble on" Darbi was muttering absently. "Oh, and I'll leave some for Keita too, since she likes them too. And then..."

"Wait, you have to tell me the exact number. Otherwise this part of the will, however valid, will be a matter of dispute between your sisters" Gord pointed out.

"Um. You're right" Darbi agreed. "Then I would say... well, to do no one an injustice, let's make each one fifty percent. Then, to my dear brother Rhaegal I leave my collection of deer skulls for..."

"Hey, hey, wait!" Brenno suddenly intervened, spitting out a little beer. "You already left it to your sister Kotaru"

"Uh? Oh… he's right" Gord confirmed, checking what he had already written.

"Try to be more professional" Brenno scolded him, then he poured Darbi some more beer. "Why didn't you let me make your last will?"

"Because you can't write" Darbi reminded him as he drank his beer. Even though Brenno had offered him a whole mug, it was like a sip of water for a beast weighing more than eight tons.

"Tsk! And who needs to write? I have my own memory!" the minotaur said punching himself on the head. "I would have just drawn a couple of pictures and then I would have remembered everything! Trust me, this brain doesn't miss a detail!"

"Oh, really? What's my last name?" Gord asked in an irritated voice.

Brenno was silent. "Well, this brain doesn't miss a detail of the important stuff!"

Gord was about to retort, but a voice stopped him: "Are you still here!?"

The three turned slightly to see a half-elf walking towards them with an annoyed frown and arms folded. "Hello, Misune. How is the situation below deck?" Darbi asked her.

"Everything is fine, and above deck too. Could you rather stop behaving like this?" Misune said. "You are the leader of this expedition, Darbi! How do you think the soldiers will react when they see you intent on making a will?"

"Well, sorry if my life is basically over because of you!" Darbi exclaimed. "As soon as Haku learns you're here, he'll spend his time counting the days that separate him from my return to kill me"

Misune rubbed her temples. "First, it's not my fault. I asked you to take me with you, but you are thr one who agreed. I didn't force you" she said. "And second, stop talking nonsense! Haku is your brother, he won't kill you"

"That's what I say too. I think he'll just rip off his tail and use it as a scarf" Brenno said.

"I think he'll bite off his horns and then stick them on his nose" Gord said.

Misune glared at them, but she preferred to avoid arguing and returned her focus to the dragon. "Darbi, stop it. What do you think will happen? At most he'll yell at you a little. What's the worst case scenario?"

"Well..." Darbi rolled his eyes slightly and tried to imagine it.

In Darbi's mind, Haku gave him a murderous look and yelled: "You took her with you, putting her at risk and jeopardizing the security of the mission!? You are so dead!" and then he jumped on him, tearing him apart with his teeth.

"Oh come on! This thing could never happen!" Misune exclaimed a little indignantly.

"I hate to admit it, but she has a point" Gord said. "Haku isn't the type to be ruled by emotion. He's a man... well, a dragon of logic. He would act intelligently"

"Yes, you are right" Darbi admitted. "Let me try again..."

This time in Darbi's mind Haku was giving him a look of disgust and contempt. "I wish I had enough fury to jump down your throat and kill you" he said. "But since I'm not the type, I'll just use my intelligence!" and having said that he struck a piece of wood with his tail, activating a mechanism that caused a stone to fall from a mountain, hitting Darbi right in the face and letting him fall in a ravine full of hungry wyverns.

"What the... don't 'act intelligently' in that sense!" Misune exclaimed.

"Yeah! And where would he find the hungry wyverns? And why weren't those wyverns just flying away from the ravine?" Brenno asked.

"That's not the point, don't you think!?" Misune seemed to be at the breaking point. "Darbi, listen to me: Haku is your brother and even if he is angry with you he certainly won't build some kind of strange mechanism to send you into a ravine full of wyverns... and I'm still wondering how you ever imagined such a thing"

"Okay, okay, your objections are valid. I'll try again" Darbi said.

This time in his mind Haku was much calmer, though clearly angry. "Darbi, you put yourself, Misune and the whole mission in danger, but since everything went well anyway, I think we can just forget about it". Darbi smiled, but his smile faded as Haku's eyes went murderous and he pulled a knife from behind his back. "Just kidding. Sorry, but the only way to make up for your idiocy is with your LIFE!"

"Why would he use a knife if he already has claws? No, wait... aaargh, you're infecting me with your nosense!" Misune yelled almost pulling at her hair. "Why every time it ends with you dying?"

"I assume my 'happily ever after' is broken" Darbi replied.

"Yes, and quite a lot" Gord chuckled.

"But she's right, you should remove the knife part. It's not realistic" Brenno added, pouring some more beer.

Misune glared at both of them with fiery eyes. She couldn't take it anymore. "You two should help him! Aren't you his friends?"

"Of course we are, and we already helped him when we strongly advised him not to take you with us. Now that the damage is done, the only solution is to drink" Brenno replied raising his beer and gulping it down. The minotaur was starting to look slightly tipsy. "You, rather, could at least try to feel a little guilty. You knew Darbi wouldn't refuse, he never refuses. He's a kind guy. Why did you want to come?"

"Yeah. Seriously, why did you want to come?" Gord asked, turning serious. "What we are doing is a mission of the utmost importance. There will probably be fighting and killing. Where we are going isn't a place for a weak slave"

Misune clenched her fists at those words. She knew that was how ex-gladiators, and most soldiers in general, thought of her, but still she was furious. "I'm not a weak slave" she growled.

"Oh, stop it" Brenno grumbled, who was seriously starting to feel the effects of the beer. "You are weak, and that is a fact. And whether you like it or not, you are a slave. You simply now have a master who treats you well. But without Haku, you are nothing"

"You should accept yourself for what you are, don't flatter yourself that you're different" Gord said. "Apart from cleaning, sewing, cooking and washing, you're no use. The most you could do is warm a man's bed with your bo..."

"Guys, stop. Now" Darbi intervened in an authoritative voice, since he had clearly noticed that Misune was getting a strange look. "Gord, can you take Brenno away? He's nearly passed out and if he stays here I'm sure he's going to throw up all over the deck"

Indeed, the minotaur seemed to be in pretty bad shape. Unfortunately one of the disadvantages of drinking with a dragon was that people didn't realize how much they were actually drinking, since it took a disproportionate amount of beer to get a dragon drunk. Gord agreed that if Brenno wasn't taken to a safe place soon, he probably wouldn't just throw up but he could even fall off the boat. So he grabbed his friend and with an inhuman effort lifted him up and carried him below deck.

Darbi and Misune were left alone. The two were silent for a moment, then the half-elf said: "You didn't have to defend me, I'm used to it. I know I'm nothing but trash to them"

Misune knew that the only reason the soldiers didn't just throw her to the ground and strip her clothes off was because she had the protection of the dragons. But if she didn't have it, they would treat her like she wasn't even a person. In an unforgiving environment like an army, where life could be endangered at any moment, even for newcomers morals broke down. To be of any value in an army, then it was necessary to have strength, intelligence, or manufacturing skills to create weapons. Anyone who didn't possess such qualities would be looked down upon constantly, and if someone ever decided to harm them no one would care. Misune had none of those skills: she wasn't strong, she wasn't intelligent, and she couldn't make weapons. What's more, everyone knew that she had been a slave in the past. The society of the newcomers was profoundly classist: people believed they had a value based on the social class to which they belonged. Slaves, already normally, were considered the waste of society, nothing more than objects to be used to carry out the humblest jobs or to have fun, as in the case of the gladiators. And even among the slaves there was a hierarchy: a strong and intelligent slave could perform tasks of great importance, and therefore was considered better. A slave like Misune, on the other hand, was totally useless except to perform basic tasks and being used as an object to satisfy men. Although now they were no longer a part of the normal society, the gladiators still clung to that thought, and therefore regarded every slave, including Misune, as nothing more than rubbish, and didn't spare them looks of disgust when they tried to make their point count. From their point of view, those slaves were only gaining courage because they had Haku behind them ready to tear apart anyone who dared to touch them. Which actually wasn't that far from reality...

"Is that why you wanted to come? To prove that you aren't just a weak slave?" Darbi asked her.

"I don't give a damn what these idiots think" Misune replied. "I came because you needed healers, and only among ex-slaves are there competent ones, and none of them would have had the courage to come if someone hadn't set a good example. Thanks to the fact that I came forward, some they followed me and now you have enough healers to handle any emergency"

Darbi couldn't contradict her. No one had actually volunteered when he'd gone to recruit healers, although he assured them they would all be safe. Only after Misune had come forward had others decided to join. It was the main reason he hadn't turned down Misune's offer. "So you won't complain if I order you to stay on the ship like all the other healers?"

Misune frowned. She seemed to bite her tongue, then she admitted: "No. I want to fight"

"I thought so" Darbi murmured. "You said you don't care about the soldiers' opinion, and I believe you. You're not a person to be influenced by what other people think. So…it's about that other thing, isn't it?"

Misune clenched her fists nervously, then she shook her head violently as if trying to chase away her own thoughts. Her body was shaking slightly. "I saw how you reacted when Gord mentioned… the use you might put to your body" Darbi continued. "So… I assume you actually want to prove that you are no longer a weak slave. The only difference with my previous statement is that you don't want to prove it to them, but to yourself. Am I wrong?

Misune remained silent. Darbi took it as an assent. "Look, I don't know how trauma works for you newcomers, but I doubt putting your life at risk will do any good. I know that killing and fighting may seem like a way to prove that you're not what you used to be, but trust me when I tell you that it's just an illusion and that it's useless. And the one who tells you this is someone who killed his own father after he tried to kill him". He raised a claw and tapped the girl's forehead. "The only battle you have to really face is in here. What happens outside... it's just a distraction. I saw it many times, with Haku, with Rhaegal, with my sister... and with myself"

Misune looked down. "So what should I do?"

Darbi let out a snort. "If I knew, my family wouldn't have so much problems" he replied. "This is why I know Haku will kill me when I get back. I'm helping you do something I already know will be totally useless. I'm really an idiot"

Misune glared at him. "Don't even say that as a joke. You're not an idiot"

Darbi was silent for a moment, then he smiled slightly. "Thank you" he said as he returned to looking at the view. Misune sat next to him and together they watched the landscape that flowed before them like the water of the river.