Chapter 32: I will pick after him!

Lars POV:

Flying on Alexander's back to Mirstone was the best thing which had ever happened to me. Since I was not willing to let Basil kill my Alex-pooh, and I refused to give Alex-pooh a heart attack, Rowan just had to cave.

Mike was looking green, and Jean was clutching at his hand. Nate was petting Alex-pooh's scales now and then, and I was sure he found them as pleasant as I did.

But Basil and Rowan just looked at me like they wanted to make me stare at a wall. 

That didn't mean I worried about them, no. I worried about Mr. Medon's stern gaze, and about the fact that guild master Bern could end up dead before his time.

His eye twitched with such velocity, that I worried about his heart. 

"First I sent you all to kill a boar, and you came back with the boar," Jean snorted, but I just nodded. Most adults liked starting a rant with the obvious. I knew from experience, that if one argued, one ended up getting a smackdown.

"Then I sent you to kill a dragon, and you turn it into a pet?" If things continued this way, Bern would surely pop a blood vessel. Man, how would it look on my worker profile, if my guild master ended up dead because of me?

"Alexander is nice and tame," I started, a hand on Alex-pooh's snout. It didn't escape me that his snout was getting warmer and warmer. My only hope was that he wasn't about to burn my hand. Honestly, he behaved like a lazy cat during most of the time.

Still, I did find him in a clearing littered with bones, so it would pay to be careful.

"He is a dragon!" Adults and stating the obvious. Would I ever end up like that one day? I hoped not.

"Yes, and he is very nice! Alex-pooh, sit!"

Alexander blinked a couple of times, then parked his behind on the ground. One could mistake him for a dog, if it weren't for the size, and the smoke coming out of his nose.

"This proves nothing..." guild master Bern started to protest, but I had done my best with Alex-pooh. We took our time getting back on purpose. He knew more tricks.

"Alex-pooh, say hi!"

Of this one, I was really proud.

"Haaar!" And Alex-pooh really worked hard on his pronunciation. It sounded almost so, as if a very angry vengeful spirit tried to growl. Which was an improvement from the ear-splitting roars he produced at the start of his training.

"What in the world?" Oh, the guild master was no longer angry! The moment was ripe for my victory!

"Alex-pooh, give a paw!"

Alex rose his paw, offered it to Bern.

"Medon... is the dragon actually..." His eye stopped twitching! The final push would ensure that I will get allowed to keep a pet!

"Alex-pooh, sing!"

Alex could really chirp. He started to do so, and I was pretty sure that the sound was melodic. Bern put a hand over Alex-pooh's paw, which was still offered. Then he shook the paw.

"A druid?" He asked, which took me out of the loop. "I thought that those were long extinct."

Which everyone in Lergo thought as well. Still, I just moved my fingers to the melody which Alex-pooh produced. He was a good boy, and I was more than ready to buy him an entire ox for dinner. 

"It would explain a lot. I have never seen Lars getting so much as hissed at by Lily," Lily was the guild's cat mascot. She was about as mean as she was old. The only person allowed near her was Mr. Medon. And that only because he fed her raw chicken hearts. 

There were a couple of days during which she tolerated me. Even rubbed herself against my legs that one time when I was reading on a bench.

Good cat.

"You know what, fine," Bern took his hand away from Alex-pooh, then ran it through his hair. "Fine, keep the dragon. You will feed it, bathe it, take care of it if it gets sick. If it eats someone, you will end up in jail. If it dies, you will have to bury him yourselves."

That was more than I have ever expected. I am not proud of it, but I gave such a squeal, that not even a small toddler could produce, when given a chocolate for the first time.

"Lars?" Mr. Medon took a couple of steps towards me. Alex-pooh lowered his massive snout, snuffed at him, then rested his head over my head. Not that he put his weight on me, but he liked to feel my hair under his chin. "Good job, my boy!"

I bowed my head, then smiled. 

"But honestly, you all should also do some quests to the end. Otherwise, we will need to kick you out of the guild," which was not something I wanted to hear, but the truth nevertheless.

"The next one for sure!" I felt like a lair. Judging from the uncomfortable coughs behind me, my party members didn't have much of a faith in my words either.

"This quest is something you can all do. The last chance, do you get it?" Guild master Bern's brows were furrowed, and his frown was telling. Still, I nodded. 

If we got kicked from the guild, then we still had Alex-pooh. A life as a mercenary was not something I wished for myself, but whatever pays the bills, as pretty much anyone in Lergo would tell you.

"We are ready!" I even believed it. Surely, we won't get sent against something innocence again?

"There is a famine at the northern border. Near where Boran once used to be," ah, shit. Boran was not a country which one wanted to visit these days. Queen Sybil had tried to keep a good image during the war. Order no war crimes. 

Yet, the one time when she got angry, I think it was after King Stephen's death, or better said, after she sacrificed him to Loki, if Basil was to be believed, she did the worst war crime of all.

A genocide, merciless and effective. Boran was now a land full of volcanos, fire and poisonous gasses. The people at the northern border tried to scrape a living, too stubborn to move.

I looked at Jean, who nodded. Yes, we will help these people. This was a quest we could do!