Everything about this plan could easily go horribly wrong. Sitting on the deck with a clear view of the gangplank Nick calmly ate his dinner. He didn’t taste anything as he watched the crew depart in groups. Eager to spend some time ashore for a hot meal for once no one paid much attention to the thin alchemist. As the moon rose the sounds around the port became quieter. All around the people were going to sleep on way or the other. Night guards and Nick were the only ones awake as midnight approached. The two guards manning the gangplank paid Nick no attention when he slid off his crate to head into the ship.

He saw no one else as he made his way to the artillery. It was time to fight one insane experiment with another; what would happen if you fired a solid gold ball out of a cannon?

It took over an hour to change every single ball from iron to solid gold. Between the fact that gold was heavier than iron plus had a lower melting point Nick was hoping for canon malfunction. Either the ball would be too heavy to leave the canon rending the weapon useless. Or it could explode. Trying not to think too hard about what would happen if the canons exploded Nick looked around for the next piece of his plan. He felt energized. Usually performing any sort of magic or alchemy the user would feel drained after only three or four casts. Rolling the stone in his palm he wondered if it was thanks to the dragon’s blood that he wasn’t passed out on the floor.

Smiling he spotted wooden barrels chained to the walls. Pocketing his stone back in its spot next to his heart he went to see what was inside. Prying the lid off the closest one Nick was met with sawdust. Undeterred he plunged his arm into the pine shavings to pull out a cloth wrapped imperfect ball.

Nick equal parts intrigued and terrified, he’d never held a fireball before. It was large enough to require two hands to properly hold it Nick held out the innocent looking object. Just under the cloth wrapper was a hollowed out coconut filled with Dragon Spit. As the name suggested the fluid was the exact same as a real dragon uses to produce its famous flame. Oh, how he wished he could have studied what triggered this benign liquid to turn into liquid fire. Carefully he slipped the dangerous object into his satchel if he needed to make a getaway. Nick replaced the lid on the barrel as if thing happened at all. Confident that everyone was either in a natural or drunken state of sleep at this hour Nick walked out of the artillery as if he belonged there all along.

The guards gave him a hard look when he went to disembark. Neither of them made to stop him though. Both guards went back to talking allowing him to approach Griff without any curious eyes. Hoping the potion had mostly worn off Nick approached Griff. The wound from the old council member had stopped bleeding but there was stilled dried blood caked onto Griff's scales. A reminder that if they didn't escape tonight this would only be the start of the horrors Griff would have to face. Taking the opportunity to get a better look at the setup Nick found the heavy solid metal lock the side of his head. It was far too difficult to pick for even a master lock pick, let alone Nick. Not really seeing an alternative Nick tried to run what he was going to say through his head several times to try and make the plan sound just a little less crazy than it actually was.

"Griff! Nick called out normally. He was still leery someone might overhear them even at this hour. When the dragon didn't move Nick called out louder touching Griff's snout. When shouting and more forceful shaking proved to be unsuccessful Nick interlocked his hands together. He lifted both arms way over his head to swing on onto the softest portion just inside Griff's snout.

The flesh gave a twitch that escalated to a loud powerful sneeze that knocked Nick to the ground.

"Oh good, you're awake." Nick tried to sound casual and not at all like he was knocked over by a sneeze. Griff looked around in a bit of a panic causing the chains surrounding him to groan and clink.

"Hang on Griff, don't worry I have a plan to get you out of there." Nick tried to pet his friend's snout in an attempt to calm him down. Still half asleep Griff stopped struggling to give his friend his full attention. "Now bear with me, this might sound a little crazy."

Pulling out the Dragon Spit bomb Nick waited for Griff to react. Griff gave a small noise out of curiosity. He was actually surprised by the fact that in his reading Griff hadn't seen a Dragon Spit bomb before. Then again the bombs were designed to look innocent enough. He was hoping that he wasn't going to have to explain exactly what the bomb did.

"So my idea is..." Nick trailed off feigning a cough. "Is to set the platform on fire using this Dragon Spit bomb." As Nick gauged the dragon's eyes for any sign of emotion he witnessed the half-lidded sleepy look of wide-eyed terror. Griff shook his head as far as he could either direction in a clear 'no' gesture.

"Hear me out. Set we'll use the bomb to set the whole platform on fire and then when the wood is charred and weak you can break free." Nick tried to smile which looked more like a grimace. Griff just shook his head more violently. Logically speaking Griff would be fine but no one truly liked the aspect of being chained down being surrounded by fire. Nick tried to think of an argument but none came.

"You're right." Nick placed the bomb back into his bag. "This is dumb. I don't know what I was thinking." Nick slumped against the platform forcefully enough to knock the wind out of his lungs slightly. Looking up the sky he could see stars peeking out behind the cloud cover. There was a faint squeak right before the platform Nick was leaning on began to move away. Pain erupted from Nick’s spine as he hit the ground with a thud.

“What the?” Nick cried out looking around to see what had just happened. So apparently no one bothered to put blocks under the wheel of the platform. Griff’s thrashing caused just enough momentum to send Griff barreling down the sheet headed straight for the sea. Nick could only watch as the wheels began to jump on every imperfection in the road. When one of the wheels caught a particularly large pothole Griff went tumbling sending splintered wood and chain links every direction. When Griff finally came to a stop Nick came back to his senses.

The sky was lightening signaling dawn which could only mean if people haven’t woke up already the horrendous clatter just now surely would have. Nick ignored the throbbing of his lower spine to rush towards Griff’s side. The dragon was shaking off the remaining chains with a mighty shake like a wet dog. Already Nick could hear people moving around to see what the commotion was about.

"That's right buddy, shake it off." Nick inspected Griff to get the debris off of him. "You think you can fly?" Griff turned to give a clear nod. Deftly climbing on the scaly back Nick got a better view of just how many people they had awoken. Soldiers were leading the charge as sailors were racing to get the battleship. Griff turned to run down the nearby dock to get some momentum for taking off. Still sluggish from the sleeping potion Griff wasn't going to outrun the soldiers at this rate. Nick patted himself down for some way to slow down their pursuers when he remembered the Dragon Spit bomb.

In an almost instinctual action, Nick held onto Griff scaly neck to pull out the weapon with one hand. He tucked the heavy orb under his chin to steady it, he picked a spot just behind them and lobbed it as hard as he could. The coconut casing broke apart sending yellow oily liquid in every direction. A second later the liquid ignited into a hot flame that stopped the soldiers dead in their tracks. A few of the wiser ones had sense enough to turn around as the fire spread.

A few wing beats later Griff was airborne with half the city watching their escape. In the distance, a cannon went off but nothing seemed to come of it. Hoping no one was injured he looked away from the sea side town. Not wanting to come this far just to be knocked off by a particularly strong gust he leaned closer to Griff. Heading South Nick was torn between feeling happy they escaped and worried that they were only delaying the inevitable.

Hours slid by, and they were nowhere near land. Griff had used the wind to keep them aloft, but it was fading along with the sunlight. Choosing to land in the water on his own instead crash landing he flew closer to the water trying to slow down. In the west, the sun was quickly disappearing allowing the stars to come out.

As Griff watched, the stars started to reflect onto the still sea below. When Griff's claws began to touch the sea, Nick scrambled higher up not accidentally to fall in the water. When he submerged his underbelly under the water it was at that moment Griff remembered as a human he could not swim. His new dragon body seemed to know what it was doing though. Without realizing it, he had tucked his appendages to his side as his tail swished side to side like a fish's. All while he was taking in this new development Nick had stood up to lean against on the horns on Griff's head.

"So if that constellation is there. Then that means that the constellation we want is there." Nick muttered aloud. Looking up all Griff would see is flickering dots in an endless expansion of darkness. He'd read all about the various lore about each constellation, but without a line to connect them, everything seemed so random. When Nick found his heading, he gingerly walked into Griff's line of sight.

"Alright, we want to follow that star." Nick stretched his arm out as far as it could go pointing to a stretch of the sky just to the left of the direction they were facing. "Hopefully we can reach shore before it passes by Earth." Correcting his path Griff began to swim towards the direction Nick was pointing in.

There was a long silence that stretched between them broken up by the sound of Griff cutting through the water. Atop his head Griff could felt Nick getting comfortable.

“Hey Griff?” The dragon gave a noise he was listening. “Still interested in hearing about the Hall of Records?” He already knew the answer but watching a two story dragon get excited. “Alright where were we? Hmmm. Gilgamesh, the assembly, oh right. Athena placed forward the idea of a great assembly of knowledge in one place to properly catalogue each of humanity’s achievements. So even if the humans don’t outright thank or acknowledge the God or Goddess that God would still know it was thanks to them that human succeeded.”

“Delighted by idea of being of humans expanding on their worship through stories and songs the Gods began to dote on their followers more than ever. With each new legend the interference from the divine kept causing more problems in the human world.”

“The head of each Pantheon began to notice demi-gods and blessed humans alike were starting to encroach on each other’s lands. A second assembly was called to order. Every God and Goddess, no matter how strong, was called to join. If the Gods wanted to have a world to proceed over they needed less their influence on the humans. There was a great uproar as the rest of the Gods still wanted to be enshrined in songs and stories. Through the cries of war from the many war gods it was the Goddess Eirene who stepped forward.”

“’My fellow Deities I beg for you to lay down your arms.” She called out.

“We already know what you are going to suggest Peace Goddess.” Great Gish interrupted. “I speak for all when I say; we refuse to draw out of the competition.”

“That is not what I want to suggest at all. This competition also benefits me after all. No, what I am suggesting is adding one rule so that less human blood is spilled. Without the humans we would not have anyone writing our songs and stories.”

Through the arguing whispers Athena urged Eirene to continue with her idea. “My rule is a simple one: No more direct interference with the human world. This includes demi-gods and weapon that can’t be made in the human realm.”

The uproar was so terrible the human realm shook. Prepared for this reaction she said her final parting word, “Unless you’re afraid your worshipers are not as devout as you think they are.”

No Divine Being spoke. Too worried about appearing weak the new rule was added unopposed. Not to be out done by the others the God retreated back to the Divine Realm relying on a lighter touch to guide their humans. It was by no means perfect but the world of humans became just a little bit more peaceful as a result. With the Gods no longer walking among humans it was harder for them to keep track of who and more literature than each other.

That’s when the Hall of Records was created.”

At first he thought Nick had merely paused for dramatic affect. It took a minute for Griff to realize Nick had fallen asleep. More than likely the alchemist fell asleep curled up against one of spikes utterly exhausted. Now alone Griff swam trying to fight off exhaustion himself.