Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  Anton didn’t miss a beat. “Young man, how in the Ten Empires did you manage to capture a Guardian?”

  SIREN

  “She isn’t a Guardian,” I said. “And I didn’t capture her. Yeah, she belongs to me, but I also belong to her. We three are a team.”

  “She looks exactly like one, but I must take a knight’s word,” Anton commented. “I must say, there is no shortage of strange folk in your land, but you take the fish filet.”

  We were in danger from multiple directions, but Anton looked at me with mirth and I had to know why.

  “Is fish filet a good thing? Or something you eat?”

  “Both! It’s a saying where I come from that means you are unique. Only the rarest person filets their fish before firing it.” He laughed like it was the greatest joke in the world.

  I shook my head in confusion but also motioned for my girls to move out.

  “We’re heading down the creek bed. Tex, keep us shielded as best you can. Jo, keep Banger on lookout.”

  The little black cat hopped up close to us as we stood there at the tree, but Raven took his own hop to prevent him from getting too close.

  “Whoa! Banger hold up.” I turned to Anton. “He’s not going to eat my cat, is he?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps he enjoys eating pussy, eh young master knight?” Anton winked with a good bit of cheek. Apparently that phrase was the same everywhere.

  “Ew, you guys are gross,” Jo said as she picked Banger off the ground.

  “Hey, I didn’t—” I tried to say.

  “Come on, Raven, we shall lead since we are old and slow.” He patted the thigh of his heavy long pants, and dust bloomed like an explosion from the strike. The man was filthy on the outside, but his smell was way worse. When he walked by me, I nearly gagged on his stench.

  The looks on my friends’ faces suggested I wasn’t the only one who got a nose full.

  When Anton was clear, I pulled Tex and Jo as close together as I could, then sucked in a huge breath of their mixed perfumes. Tex smelled like a fall hay ride, while Jo reminded me of a field of flowers.

  “Wow,” I said after I felt a little better. “Just try to stay out of his way until we can push him in a pond.”

  The girls laughed as we stood together for a few extra moments. “Be careful,” I added.

  Jo finally put Banger back down.

  “Go on, boy. Keep us safe.” Jo patted him a few times until he ran around the trunk of the tree.

  “Let’s get going,” I said in a steady voice.

  We easily caught up to Anton and Raven. The old man’s odor followed him like a car exhaust, so I picked a path along the creek that was next to him, not behind.

  He walked as fast as he could, but his progress was tortuously slow for the rest of us, so I used the time to chat.

  “Do you know where this creek goes?” I quietly asked Anton. “We’re trying to get to the Wellspring Encampment.”

  “The Wellspring, huh? Why there?” Anton huffed like he’d run a hundred miles already, rather than walk for ten minutes.

  I debated on whether to tell him the truth. Since I didn’t even know what it was, I had no way to know if telling him was a good thing, or bad. In the end, the real choice was whether I trusted the old dude.

  “We were told that’s where we could return this staff.” I pointed to the staff Tex used as a walking stick.

  “Did someone lose it?” he asked with sincerity.

  “Sort of.” I scratched my head as I tried to think of how to say something without outright lying to him. He could have loyalties to Lord Bart because he said he once worked for the crown. “There was a battle. We survived. Now we want to follow the game rules and return this where it came from.”

  The general’s giant green eyes seemed to spin round and round in their sockets, as if that was how he thought about things.

  “I see.” His tone was very non-committal. “I don’t know exactly where the Wellspring Encampment is, but I can easily guide you to the Wellspring itself.”

  “It should be close enough,” I said without really knowing how true that might be.

  Anton pointed ahead. “This way.”

  Minutes later, we heard gunfire far behind us.

  “Witches?” I asked the group.

  “They haven’t been talking as much on the open channel,” Jo replied. “They spoke of Ivona’s body, but I don’t think they’ve found our trail, yet. I can’t be sure.”

  “All we can do is push on,” I said with all the confidence I could muster.

  We continued down the small creek for a couple of hours. We had to stop numerous times for Anton and Raven to rest or piss on trees. They both seemed to have bladders the size of nickels, or else they just enjoyed marking things.

  The sun was almost directly above us when we finally saw something that got Anton excited.

  “My friends, I doubted myself for a time back there. I assumed this creek would run downhill until it found one of the Four Streams, but I really had no idea.” His laugh was filled with deep bass until he started to cough.

  “Sorry,” he continued. “My chest harbors an ill-favored gremlin.”

  “You were saying, sir?” Tex asked with the politeness of a southern belle.

  There was a picturesque little stream ahead of us. The small valley we’d been walking had become flat and smooth as it came up to the intersecting waterway. The large trees and low-cut grass suggested it was a park or golf course before the dragon came along.

  Anton leaned over and held his knees like he’d just run a race. “We have found one of the Four Streams, as I hoped. This one flows throughout these new lands and feeds it with its essence.”

  I listened to his wheezing for almost a minute before I realized he was done talking.

  “Come on,” I suggested as I started walking again.

  “OK,” he said in a tired fashion.

  “Why is the water red?” I asked when I was sure he was on the move.

  “Humans don’t have this, do you?” Anton replied. “Rivers can be many colors where I hail from. It usually signals the type of magic in the soil beneath, but not always. Sometimes, it only means there is much pollution in the region.”

  “You have pollution in your magical home?” I was surprised.

  “Wars, son. One factory for swords can consume a forest and choke even a modest river. My lands had hundreds of such buildings back in the day. It is, I admit, one of the many downsides to war.”

  “Well this one looks perfect,” I replied.

  Anton and Raven lagged behind us as we headed toward the water. Some of the trees along the bank struck me as odd because of their red leaves. Fall was still a month away, so they couldn’t be turning. Instead, it seemed as if they’d sucked up the red water.

  I hoped that didn’t mean the stream was polluted. I was keen to make good on my promise to get him cleaned up, even if I was just joking about pushing him in. I doubted I could shove him, anyway, because he was a seven-foot, 400-pound, stinky, man-like beast.

  When we came out of the thickest part of the wooded flatlands, I got a good look at both directions along the channel.

  The stream itself was about forty-feet wide with a blood-red gravel bar running all along the far bank. More red-leaved trees lined the far shore, pretty much like our side of the forest. It didn’t seem that deep, and small rapids suggested rocks just under the surface.

  “It’s amazing,” Tex said with wonder.

  To our left, the stream flowed out of another section of the forest. It curved, so I couldn’t see more than a couple of hundred yards in that direction.

  On the right…

  “You don’t want to touch it, though,” Anton said like it was self-evident.

  “Why not?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes. The river was doing something I’d never seen back home in Ohio. Or read about. Or dreamed about.

  “This river is pure red. That is death magic. Bad juju, to say it in a way
you Leftovers might understand.”

  “We aren’t Leftovers,” I replied without much enthusiasm for his ongoing mistake about us.

  “But I’ll take your word for it because of that.” I pointed to get Jo and Tex looking at the impossible river.

  The water in front of us flowed without making any sense. It came from our left, but had enough of a weird slant I couldn’t say for certain if the surface was flat. However, to the right, the stream flowed briskly up a short hillside like a waterslide going in reverse.

  ***

  Anton seemed unsurprised to find a river that ran uphill. He spoke as he leaned against his giant axe, not far from the water’s edge.

  “I never stopped to admire such a scene,” he said while brushing his hand over some wild red roses. “We would bridge these streams. Dam them. Ford across them in seconds with battle cavalry. But I never sat and watched the water flow by. Perhaps this is where I will stay.”

  He caught my attention. “No, we need you to take us to the encampment. I thought we had an agreement?” I whipped out my phone to find the map. I wanted to know how close we were before I could quantify how bad we needed him.

  “Aye, and find it you will.” He pointed to the left, which was upstream but a little downhill. “Walk that way and you shall reach the headwaters. All four of the rivers in this area meet there.”

  “This map blows.” I used my fingers to scroll around the map but as best I could tell the red stream wasn’t displayed anywhere. The blue dot representing our party had moved because we’d traveled a fair distance since we started, but the red pin was still at the top of the screen taunting us like a cardinal perched on a high branch.

  “I guess the map makers haven’t gotten these magical changes into their computers, yet,” Jo said with a laugh.

  There was one change: right next to the blue dot I finally noticed the red line of the river. However, the segment stopped and ended near the dot, as if it only drew in features I saw with my own eyes.

  It made sense from a game design perspective. I wasn’t supposed to know the whole game map by heart, or I could find chokepoints and set traps in busy corridors that were sure to see the passage of other Dragon Royale players. On the flip side, if I had such information, I could avoid such places and stay alive.

  My best guess was I was the only player with magic, or a phone displaying game information. Asking for even more seemed a bit greedy, except it wasn’t. Not when life itself was on the line.

  That settled it for me. We needed the general if for nothing else than how to get from our current location to the Wellspring without dying.

  “The map is interactive, Jo. It does show this river, but not any further than what I can see.” I turned to Anton and his blood-crusted forehead. “We really need your help to get us through this forest. Can you do that much for us?”

  The tired general sighed like I’d asked him to write an essay about math equations. Well, that was my nightmare.

  “I guess I have a little life left in me, after all, and I wouldn’t mind seeing home once more. Your mysterious quest seems noble, but if we get there and you try to trick me, you may yet find a little fight left in me, too.”

  “No one is going to trick you,” I said with some impatience. “My beef is with the dragon and other players, not some random guy we picked up off the side of the highway.”

  Anton seemed offended. “Some guy? I’m General Anton Reshevski, recipient of the Order of Merit, with six diamond clusters, for my service to the crown. I—”

  “I’m sorry,” I said with a deep bow. “I’m concerned for my friends. We can’t stand here next to this river and argue.”

  Tex walked up to me and put her arm over my shoulders. “What my lover means is you seem to know your way around the forest. If you get us to the end safely, perhaps we could help you find something of value as a reward.”

  Anton smiled from cheek to cheek, despite his wounded nose and head. Up until that point I assumed his teeth were a lot like ours, but they were stained almost yellow and were a lot sharper at the tips. Black junk caked up in the cracks between them, like they hadn’t invented the toothbrush in his kingdom.

  “Well, I must say, I’m never going to be too old for a favor or two from the likes of a fine specimen like you, even if your face is a bit on the ugly side.”

  Tex’s smile faltered, but she held it in place like she’d turned to stone. Using our link, however, she was pissed. “What is it about men here? Lord Jaggoff said my tits were flat, and this old coot thinks my face is raunch.”

  My smile was plastered on as well, because I was tempted to reply with unkind words, out loud. I had to remind myself, and her, that we could use his help.

  “Tex, you are a hot babe. He has different tastes from wherever in Middle Earth he’s from. Bart was an asshole trying to get a rise out of you. Don’t take it all personally. Take a deep breath, like me.” To show her what I meant, I sucked in a deep breath and then exhaled in front of Anton.

  “Is that a yes?” the general said to my redheaded cowgirl.

  “My friends are not for sale,” I said to him in a casual tone.

  “No, not a sale,” he laughed, “for I have nothing of value to give, anymore. They stripped it all.” His laughter died down. “I only wanted a taste.”

  I started to reply, but he held up his hand, so he could speak. “No matter. I’ll help you. What better things do I have to do besides escort two fine ladies and their noble knight?”

  “Thank you,” Tex replied with surprising courtesy.

  “Fate put me in your path. I shall not disappoint it before my passing.”

  “No one has to die,” I replied as I looked at my phone again.

  A fish or something splashed in the shallow water a few yards from our position. I attempted to get a look at it by stepping closer, but only saw a swirl of red mud under the surface.

  I turned back to my phone. My best guess was that we’d covered about half the distance to the Wellspring, but the red stream ran east to west, and we needed to go north. The river could flow for many miles out of our way, so it seemed prudent to try to cross it and stay on the most direct path.

  It was pretty hot at midday, so I had my eye on Jo’s pack and the water within. Tex carried it over her shoulders, because Jo didn’t have room for it along with her broom and shotgun.

  “So, I was thinking,” I said before a naked woman took my mind off all thoughts of maps, water, and quests.

  ***

  A woman stood in the middle of the stream singing a happy song. Her long hair was the same color as the water, and it fell over her shoulders and wrapped under her breasts as if to caress them. Her skin was reddish-pink, with dark burgundy stripes all over, like a zebra had painted her. At first glance, the elfish ears and narrow eyes suggested she was, in fact, an elf, but I’d never heard of an elf standing naked in a river before.

  Her voice was the most beautiful thing about her. The words weren’t in a language I recognized, but the melody was so enticing and sexy that each note seemed to unfurl my dick like a pennant going up the flagpole.

  “Matt?” Jo said from somewhere far away.

  “Isn’t she fabulous?” The general spoke like he was also somewhere else. I vaguely noted how his wolf misbehaved terribly by nipping at his pants. It almost ruined my enjoyment of the peep show, so I stared intently at the watery vixen.

  “Matt!” another voice shouted, Tex I think.

  There was commotion all around me.

  I didn’t care about any of that bullshit, but I did happen to notice a pretty face in the water, much closer than the singing woman. Unlike her friend, she stayed mostly under the surface, so I only saw her dreamy blue eyes, button nose, and perfectly-shaped mouth. Her white and blue-green hair floated around her head like an oil slick. “You must not listen to her, Matt. Ignore the song, and she will leave you alone.”

  I blinked and tried to focus on the new girl. Her locks of hair floate
d around her curious blue face and pointy ears. Despite being underwater, it was apparent she was nude as well. I felt the urge to dive in and see that body up close, just as sure as I wanted to walk out into the water to investigate the red-haired woman.

  The blue woman cried out. “Cover his ears!”

  My eyes darted back to the woman filled with song, and I realized my magic wasn’t drawn to her. Instead, it wanted the naked blue form that had just spoken to me.

  Hands covered my ears from behind me.

  When I tried to the sweet blue face again, I only saw a few ripples where she’d been. As if in answer to my longing, my wrist started to burn. Jo and Tex’s tattoos practically danced on my wrist as the magic swirled.

  It helped me fight the red siren’s song, once I recognized my sorcery was active. I saw her belting out notes from the middle and now understood it only affected me and the general. That’s why Raven continued to chomp on Anton’s ass. He kept him from going into the water.

  “Someone better tell me what kind of horsefuckery is going on right now!” I blurted out.

  The red-haired woman abruptly stopped singing and studied me. The girls had me firmly restrained at the water’s edge and Raven wasn’t letting go of his master. That seemed to piss off the woman, because her face went from peaceful to angry in two seconds flat.

  “You should have let one of them come to me,” the naked woman declared. “Now I shall take them both.”

  “What’s she talking about?” I asked. My head was clear again, but the last minute was hazy. Everyone was in a state of excitement, and Raven had a long strip of Anton’s pants hanging from his teeth.

  The water parted a bit near the shore. The blue woman stuck her head a little bit further out of the water this time. “Your restraint drives her crazy. You two are only the second and third males to refuse her.”

  “Who are you?” I asked her.

  The woman in the middle didn’t let her respond. A wave shot out in all directions, as if a big rock got tossed in the stream.

  “Move back from the water!” the light-haired woman shouted.