Chapter 6: The Treasure

The streets were full of people of all sorts doing business. Traders hawked goods in the square. People passed by Flynly and the party while off to visit friends on the other side of the city. Thistle even noticed one bakery still operating, fire inside lit, making bread from stored grain. All this under the backdrop of undulating stomach flesh and omnipresent gurglings and glorps.

“So, how long do you all intend to say here?”, asked the bearded gnome, who rode on his barbarian friend still.

“Ah.”, began Flynly. His voice was a tad sullen. “Perhaps forever, that’s what I think.”

“What do you mean?”, said Arafiel.

“I don’t think they can beat that Mary woman if she shows up. All the best mages in Igrisos are spending their effort to keep our continent covered. If she needs that kind of power to keep out, then she’s powerful enough to get in eventually. Maybe some mage will have a random heart attack at the wrong time, maybe she just finds the right spell to crack the barrier. Point is, she’ll get through sooner or later.”

“They say she’s stopped prodding it as much.”, said Thistle.

“Aye, but that’s just cause she’s bored I think. Once she starts up again, I don’t think it’ll last long. We gotta just hope to hide out in here, start a new, great life.”

“Well, what about food?”, asked Laddleplug.

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t grow anything in here. You’ll run out of supplies eventually.”

“Oh, Veezla has that covered. Barns says she promises to eat a whole bunch of things every month. Should give us enough meat to survive, meat and crops and sorts.”

“What about the people she’s taking livestock and crops from?”, asked the gnome.

“Well, they can’t exactly stop her. She said she’ll leave enough for them to get by, digest half for her self and give the rest to us to work with. I’m not too worried about that.”

The party seemed befuddled by the long term plan here, but before they could ask another question, they finally reached the pub.

It was a modest building, with two sets double-doors to enter from at the front. It was short, just two floors. The top one was for guests most likely. However, it was long. About the width of three or maybe two-and-a-half of the normal structures around the place.

“Welp, here we are. I’ll introduce to Barns. He’s a real nice guy, doesn’t let the fame go to his head.”

Flynly opened the doors and the party of four followed him inside.

The crowd was tame as far as pubs go, but that made sense given it had to be around afternoon hours. A few dwarves were playing cards at one table, other humanoids shared a meal in the corner. Light from wall sconces lit the place, which was made mostly of wood. A few leathery rugs dappled the otherwise bare-plank floors to add a bit of atmosphere to the place.

At the bar counter were a few patrons, but the only one of interest seemed to be a man with short brown hair. He wore a green tunic with brown leather padding and matching trousers. A bow was on his back, with a quiver next to it and a short sword on his side by a few belt pouches. He was definitely the ranger type, but a glimmering golden twinkle caught Arafiel’s eye. He had a side satchel where some sort of treasure seemed to be, given how the light hit it.

“There he is.”, said Flynly. “Barns!”, he called out.

“Oi Flynly!”, the man turned to face the group. It was then Arafiel and the others took in his facial features and age. He was a human, fair skinned with blue eyes. He was also quite handsome, which Arafiel seemed to respond to with a subtle dilation of her eyes. Thistle simply pursed her lips to the side as he wasn’t her metaphorical cup of tea. In fact, she looked at Barns side, where the Dragon Orb just barely poked out of that satchel of his.

The party walked up with Flynly.

“Who’s your friends there Flynly?”, said Barns.

“Ah these are adventurers. They didn’t know about the arrangement we had with Veezla.”

“Ah, well pleased to meet’cha.”

Barns stuck out his hand. Everyone in the party shook it, Grome most enthusiastically of all. They were sure to introduce themselves and share names as well.

“Oh well, quite the bunch you got here, who’s the leader.”

“That’d be me.”, said Arafiel.

“Well how can I help you? Flynly, why don’t you go get yourself a drink while I chat with these folks.”

The half-elf nodded then walked off, leaving Barns to chat with the party.

Arafiel filtered her fingers through her hair. She shrugged her shoulders to get more comfy in her leather armor, as well as show off her stuff a bit to the man in front of her.

“We heard you’re something of a hero, and also that you have the Dragon Orb. We were wondering if you’d be willing to part with it.”

Barns tilted his head. He motioned for the party to take a seat. Arafiel sat on the stool to his left, Thistle to his right. Grome sat next to Arafiel with Laddleplug on his shoulders. Barns raised his hand and ordered each member of the party a drink.

“The Dragon Orb? And what do you want with that?”, he said. His voice dipped a bit in volume.

“Well, we want to use it to try and stop Mary Sueddon. She’s why you agreed to get your town eaten right?”

The drinks arrived in wooden mugs. Barns took a sip of his before answering.

“That’s right. That queen’s crazy. I always knew magic royals, especially self-proclaimed, lead to trouble. I was following the news of her a year back when she only controlled one city. She was what, 20 then? 19?”, he said.

“Yes well, we think we could beat her if you’d be so kind as to lend the Dragon Orb.”

Barn smirked. He reached into his bag and pulled the treasure out. At last, the party could see it up close. It was a perfect sphere of gold. Black etchings of dragons and draconic symbols were etched into the surface. Each figure glimmered in the bar light with red like fire, or white like ice, or other colors to represent the breaths of the myriad dragon types of Leoria.

An ancient treasure, coveted by mortals and dragons alike. He set it on the bar counter by Thistle. He slid two cork coasters on either side of the thing to keep it from rolling off.

“Lend it to you huh?”, spoke Barns. He looked into the drow’s red eyes and smirked.

“I wasn’t born yesterday.”, he said. “If you’re smart enough to track it down here and dumb enough to climb in a titaness’s mouth, then you’re the right level of intelligence to know and care that this thing’s worth a fortune. How can I trust you won’t just sell this on the surface, or use it for evil or something. I don’t know any of you at all, and you’re coming to me to ask for an artifact?”

Arafiel’s nose twitched. She spoke.

“Well, it’s a lot to ask but I can promise we won’t let it get in the wrong hands.” It was another half-truth. The party planned to sell it, but she’d at least sell it to a city-state and not some random villain.

Barns turned to give the drow his full attention. He shook his head side to side. “No no. I can’t take that risk. I’m willing to trade for it though.”

“A trade?”

He nodded.

“I want out of this city.”

“What?”, said Arafiel. Laddleplug was half-listening at this point, sketching on a scroll while Grome got a refill from the barkeep. Thistle was ogling the orb.

“But, didn’t you help Veezla to get the city safe? Don’t you want to live here?”

“Nah.”, he said. “I don’t wanna spend my whole life in just one city, especially if it’s in some titaness’s gut. I mean, this place is real humid. Safe or no, the air’s not the freshest. Besides, I learned I’m just the type person who needs adventure in my life. I thought I could retire early as a hero to Glainberg, but it’s just so boring. I need some open air, the woods.”

He scooted a bit closer to the drow and leaned in close.

“So tell you what, Arafiel. I don’t care if you were planning to sell this, so long as we do an even split. Here’s my trade. I’ll give you the orb for whatever plan you had, long as it was no less noble than selling it off. In exchange, you take me with you all out of here and on whatever future journeys, treasure hunting, or heists or whatever it is you four do. Sound good?”

Arafiel felt a somewhat rare emotion during her usual negotiations: surprise. She leaned back, eyes wide, then leaned back in.

“I think that can be arranged. I expect Jeley to pay a fortune for the orb, enough for any one of us to live how we please. I don’t think the others will mind upgrading to a party of 5.”

She smiled.

“You’re in, and we have a deal, let’s toast to it.”

She took up her mug, Barns took up his, and they tapped their drinks together. The two chugged.

Laddleplug looked up from his scroll at Arafiel’s elbow.

“Oh, we figure something out?”, he said.

“We did.”, said the drow.

“Yup”, said Barns. “Looks like I’ll be joining you fine folks. Just let me grab the orb here and-”

Barns turned to his side and fell right off the stool. He realized he couldn’t move his legs that much. He took a gander by his boots.

“Vines? What the?”

Without Barns in the way, Arafiel saw something.

“The orb, where’d it go?”

It was gone, as was Thistle. She looked down and noticed vines about her legs. Everyone sitting at the bar counter was ensnared at their ankles by the plants. Over by the entrance, she heard some familiar laughter.

Thistle had the orb in her hands. She rubbed her fingers across its surface.

“At last.”, she said. “At last, the power of the dragons is mine!”