“You can’t keep that in here!” Gertrude exclaimed as Utarou plopped Rhinoplasty the baby dragon onto the floor of his tent.
It’d been a long trip from the Wyvern cave Utarou had found and Rhinoplasty had gotten tired, considering he’d just hatched and was hauled through the rocky cliffs of Dracons by the strange man Utarou, so he found an empty chest and curled up into it.
“Why not? I’m the Duke, my word is law!” Utarou laughed as he looked around for something he could use as a collar.
Gertrude had been hoping her son had returned but instead was greeted by the strange immortal man who’d apparently been named Duke of Dracons.
“It’ll eat someone! Oh my goodness, what about its mother!” Gertrude exclaimed as she hobbled around the tent in a panic.
“Relax, I have a plan.” Utarou grinned as he grabbed a belt from his wardrobe, quickly wrapping it around the sleeping dragons neck.
It was around the size of a dog, so the belt had a large segment of loose leather, which Utarou used a nearby knife to make a hole in, attaching a rope to the end of it and tying the creature to a nearby tree on a short leash, pulling the chest he was in slightly outside the tent.
“Hmmpth, I’ll feel more comfortable when Henrek comes back, when will he come back?” Gertrude asked sadly.
“Soon, apparently it’s only 3 days of travel each way, probably slower on the way back so… Any day now.”
“Hmm alright…” Gertrude mumbled as she looked down.
“Yes, once he returns, hopefully with every pregnant woman in Nihola, I’ll be able to execute the next phase of my plan!” Utarou laughed, cackling manically into the sky like some kind of delusional villain.
I said like some kind of delusional villain.
“I see… Oh and one more thing.”
“What is it old woman? Can’t you see I’m busy concocting the next stage in my master plan?”
“Well deary… Where are your pants?”
Utarou looked down, he was entirely nude.
“Ah, the Wyvern’s must’ve eaten them.”
“Oh dear, that’s no good… Perhaps you should cover up before you get so… excited.” Gertrude said wisely, pointing at Utarou’s y’know.
“Urgh, fine.” Utarou sighed.
…
“Now what’n the hell is this!?” May shouted as she was handed the head of a rock Wyvern.
“Never seen one? They live in caves and disguise themselves.” Henrek explained as the caravan made it’s way to Dryholm.
Henrek looked back to the large group of people, the entire village of Nihola was following May, their entire lives packed into wagons and taken across the narrow rocky path.
Henrek and Barney were the only two true warriors who could take on the Wyverns as they came, but the other menfolk of the village had enough provisional training in archery to help distract or damage the creatures that Henrek couldn’t deal with from the front or Barney couldn’t deal with from the back.
It had been a surprisingly smooth journey, besides catering to May’s pregnancy cravings.
“We gotta cook it, I can already tell it’ll be delicious.” May declared, licking her lips.
“We’re nearly there, can you hold on just a bit?” Hope asked softly, having taken on the role of keeping May from causing too much of a ruckus on the journey.
Though Henrek was already imagining how Utarou and her Big personalities might clash.
“Maybe Utarou won’t be weird about it?” Henrek thought, before quickly abandoning that hope.
“Utarou said he would try to clear out some nests while we were gone… I’m going to say he wasn’t successful.” Henrek sighed as another Wyvern dove towards the convoy, he quickly jumped into the sky and chopped the beast's head off.
May grabbed the second Wyvern skull as it fell besides her cart, sniffing it and comparing it with the rock Wyvern.
“Won’t that mean he’s dead?” May asked as she unceremoniously chucked the regular wyvern skull off the side of the cliff.
“He uh, doesn’t have a problem with death don’t worry.” Henrek sighed.
“Yeah this first meeting is going to be critical, if May gets a bad impression of Utarou then who knows what he’ll do…”
…
“I LOVE IT! You sayin’ you’re makin’ this thing a pet?! You’re the good kinda crazy I like you!” May laughed as she patted the Rhinoplasty, who had made itself quite familiar with May almost immediately.
“It’s so cute…” Hope muttered as she gingerly went to pat the creature.
“The name is terrible though! I’m calling you… Rhiney!” May decided unilaterally.
“Fine fine go ahead… But your legacy skill… It’s perfect… To think you people couldn’t eat monsters this whole time! No wonder you’re lacking nutrition!” Utarou exclaimed.
“You also can’t eat monsters normally, you just recover from it faster…” Henrek suggested as he stood just outside the tent with Utarou.
“True enough! But this is brilliant! We’ve already secured a healthy population boost, whatever you’ve done, good job!” Utarou declared, slapping Henrek on the back.
“Thanks… Though I think we’re going to be dealing with some problems soon.” Henrek suggested.
“How come?”
“That.” Henrek sighed as he pointed to Barney who was desperately trying to get his Wife’s attention.
His skills menu had been replaced with a new menu.
A Legacy skill menu congratulating him on his brand new baby boy.
“What about it?”
“Church rules, they need a vicar’s approval to pick a skill. Nihola scared off their vicar awhile ago. Dryholm hasn’t, we’re about due a visit in Dryholm according to mum.” Henrek explained.
“Hmpth, no matter. I have a plan.” Utarou said with a smug look.
“Oh no.”