Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 16

Fehrys was almost floored when Alia told him her proposal, but he went along with it, nonetheless. "Are you sure that Hrushmia and Czanther won't be upset at this?"

"Am I sure? No. But it shouldn't matter. Kraulth attacked you and you defended yourself, as was your right. Anything after that should be irrelevant," Alia reasoned.

"Even still, I don't think that taking his hide would be something they're in favor of!"

Alia stood up, covered in the blood of the great dragon and placed her hands on her hips. "Dragon hide will make remarkable armor, while the teeth and horns can be useful in many applications. While you can still use the shield spell, the armor will protect you much better than what you have if you're ever caught unawares. This hide might be worth more than his entire hoard! You should take the teeth that are left too."

Fehrys looked around the dome, still lit up by Alia's lights, and saw nothing but the bones of many meals. "Oh yeah, this is quite the pile of loot!"

"Fehrys, do you really think a greedy dragon like Kraulth would leave his treasure out in the open? Have a look through that hole your spell made."

With a pounding heart, Fehrys made his way over to the wall, then used a quick levitation spell to get up to the massive hole. It tunneled ten feet through the stone before opening into a large cave. There wasn't any light in there, but even so the little light spell that Alia had cast caused faint glitters on what looked to be a massive pile of gems and gold.

"The hide will be worth more than that?" he said wonderingly. "How do we even get in there?"

"First, have you ever even heard of another suit of armor made from dragon hide?" she asked, making him shake his head quickly. "It will be an item that is unique on this continent, maybe the world. Something suitable to hand down to your ancestors. And second, we'll make a bigger hole."

"And take the treasure? I assume Maltia can carry all that?" Fehrys jerked his thumb through the hole.

"Fehrys, we live and breathe magic. Are you really doubting me?"

He looked down at the half skinned dragon carcass, then remembered all the little miracles that she'd pulled off since he'd known her and realized that she had a good point. "Okay, I trust you. I don't want to look like a fool when you take all the treasure and saunter out of the cave."

"Smart man! Now let's finish this up."

Rek and Vic had quite the audience as they stood around the remains of the beast in Pallon's shrine. It had started to stink, and the burned innards in no way helped with that, but the carapace remained intact. There were eight others examining their kill, with Drem and Lornk getting close enough to examine the pincers while a now healthy Ewalt and Nilva looked on with interest. The other four were ready to graduate from the Bishops' training, and were looking a bit queasy. Vic remembered being that new, and this would be a definite wake up for them. Petis and Belrion were an all-male team, while Reylis was a warrior who had a female partner named Arilila with vivid yellow eyes.

She hoped they worked out because they could use the reinforcements.

"As you can see, there are tiny scrapes all over the carapace, but none of the weapons came close to penetrating." Rek pointed to a variety of little marks all over the body. "We'd fought it when it was much smaller, and it seemed to have an aversion to fire. That still seemed to hurt it in this larger form, but not as much as before. But Vic enchanted my swords to have the flames on the blade, and by jumping onto its back I was able to get the blade through the joints in the armor. It cooked it from the inside out, and then Vic blasted it with more flame on the outside. It took time, but we were finally able to subdue it. We're hoping this is the only one in the city, but you'll have to know how to kill it if another appears."