{Arthur}

He lead the dazed group of forty or so through the village, pondering on his next move. What was the most efficient way of getting these people to Mirfield? If they walked, it would take at least four hours or so. There had to be a carriage or cart around here somewhere.

Meanwhile, Davit approached the group from behind, finished with the last of the ambushing guards. A few cries of alarm and fear came out from the group, but Kaia quickly shushed and reassured them quietly. In a smooth tone, Davit said, “Arthur, why don’t you change to your real form as well? I feel out of place being the only dragon here.”

Some in the group turned from the copper to stare wide-eyed at Arthur. He heard the blue Dragonborn choke out, “A red d-dragon-” He ignored them and shrugged while looking at Davit, replying,

“This place is too crowded. I’ll change when we get out of here. We need a carriage to take these people to Mirfield, have you spotted any?” Davit cocked his head in bemusement.

“Mirfield? That forest town? Why would we take them there and not Graycott?”

“Well, because…” He realized he didn’t have a specific reason or logic as to why. His anger flared and he continued, “Because I want to take them there. And I promised someone I would do so.” Davit gave the dragon equivalent of a shrug and pointed with one claw to the left of them.

“I saw a cheap cart over there. May as well use it.” He nodded and made to go to the left in the village. The group seemed hesitant to follow now, whispering insistently among themselves, but Davit stepped towards them, making the group hurry after Arthur. He glanced at the anxious group of ex-slaves. Arthur didn’t want these people to think of this as another kidnapping. Someone poked his right arm, and he looked over to see a smiling Kaia.

“It’s alright Arthur, in time they’ll see you as their savior! If I have learned anything, it’s that your different!” Kaia spoke loudly enough that the group behind them could hear. He sighed and gave Kaia a small smile, making her beam at him. She was too nice. Was it because Kaia thought of him as a god, or was it because she genuinely thought of him as a friend? He decided to not think about it too much.

The group made their way quickly through the ghost village. They finally spotted the carriage Davit spoke of, although a big cart would have been a better description. The cart was under a makeshift sort of garage, stocked with vegetables and other miscellaneous food items. It was more like two clay walls supporting a ceiling with the cart underneath. Two horses were hitched to a pole near the cart, grazing in a patch of grass.

Arthur pointed to the horses and spoke to Kaia, “Take the horses. I’ll push the cart out.” Kaia replied with a quick, “Alright!” and went to do as he said. He didn’t want to order the group of the ex-slaves around, they already seemed to be thinking of this as something other than a rescue.

He cast enlarge on himself and wheeled the cart out of the makeshift garage with both hands. A minute later the horses were hitched onto the cart and ready to go.

Arthur hopped up into the cart and dumped all of its contents onto the village’s dirt road. They needed all the room they could get out of this, he estimated this cart could hold fifteen people at the maximum, and that was pushing it. He could put the most injured on here and the rest could walk. The trip would still take a long time, but it couldn’t be helped. He hopped out of the cart and declared to everyone, “Alright, the most injured will be riding in the cart. Everyone else must walk. We leave as soon as the cart is full!” Kaia was the first to say confirmations, followed by the group of forty as limping and bloodied people clambered up into the cart with support from the others. Arthur took a step back from all this and swept over the group of different races, finally gazing at Davit. The copper seemed bored, idly glancing at his claws and picking them clean of dirt. Davit almost immediately spotted Arthur watching him, giving him a toothy grin and continuing to pick his claws clean. Arthur frowned at him and turned back to the cart.

A minute later the cart was packed with sitting people with Kaia at the front steering the horses. “Alright, let’s get moving,” Arthur shouted out. “I want to be at Mirfield as soon as possible.” And get out of this form, he thought. A feeling of envy nipped at him whenever he looked at Davit, which quickly turned into anger for feeling envious towards the copper dragon. He cleared his head and led the group down the abandoned dirt road.

They walked in silence, finally getting out of that village. Arthur took a couple of steps to the left in the grass, willing himself to turn back to his original form. The command was met quickly and Arthur was a red dragon once more. His strength surged throughout his body, and he sighed in satisfaction, looking down to observe the group with crystal clear vision. His change seemed to awe more than anything as most of the humans and elves and dwarves stared up at him with mouths slightly agape, more than one phrase of “By the gods!” being muttered. Kaia looked happy looking at Arthur, and the blue Dragonborn in particular had grim features as he studied Arthur’s form. The Dragonborn shied away when Arthur’s gaze flicked to him, looking away. Hmm, hopefully they won’t be a problem.

Davit walked up to him with a friendly smile. “Ah good,” He said in a smooth tone, “Now I don’t feel as lonely. Let’s continue, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s continue. Calm the horses Kaia and get them moving.” Kaia looked confused for a second before looking at the two agitated horses. He thought the only reason they weren’t running from him was he hadn’t eaten them yet and the fact they were tied to a cart. He walked forward a couple of paces to give the horses space, and Davit followed. A couple of minutes later they were moving again.

Davit led the way as the group traveled. Nothing of interest happened during the following hour, Kaia talking with Arthur and the group of ex-slaves whispering among themselves. Eventually, a male dwarf sped up to be in front of the group and shouted out, “Hullo, lord dragon?” Arthur turned his head to look at them.

“What is it?”

“Well, ahem, we’ve been walkin fer an hour, and a lot of us are gettin tired. Could we.. rest for a few minutes?” He added almost hastily, “A-and we understand if ya don’t want-”

“No,” Arthur interrupted, “You only need to ask. Stop the cart Kaia, we will take a rest.” Kaia nodded and stopped the cart, and everyone gratefully relaxed. Kaia stretched, and Davit approached Arthur.

“Humanoids eh? Can’t go a day without resting. They also can't go an hour without asking if they can ride our backs.” Davit smiled playfully, obviously joking. Arthur ignored his comment and sat down. He’d been wondering something, and now seemed a good time to ask.

“Davit, why haven’t you left already? And when do you plan on departing?”

“Want me to go that badly? You wound me, Arthur.” He frowned at Davit, who flashed a smile and continued, “But seriously, what’s the fun in leaving when I’ve been here this long? And I suppose once we reach my lair is when I will regretfully depart. Though I’m sure you can make it the rest of the way on your own, right?” Davit grinned and he left Arthur to go back to his leading position, sitting down.

Arthur stewed in his own thoughts and twenty minutes passed before he decided to call it and continue. Another uneventful hour passed as they traveled through the massive open plains, the only difficulty mainly being going around hills or trees.

They made it to Davit’s lair easily enough, crossing the shallow river where Arthur called another break. Davit sighed and turned to fully face him. “I suppose this is where we depart. This has been a rather eventful and exciting day, thank you Arthur. You know where to find me if you require my charming services!” Arthur nodded to him.

“You’ve been a big help. I will return if I require anything else. Until then, goodbye Davit.” The copper dragon grinned and turned to head to the giant hill that was his lair. Arthur turned back to see the group drinking from the river and relaxing once more. He approached and took a few gulps of water as well, thirty feet from the cart. He sat and waited, checking on Kaia in the meantime. After another twenty minutes they were off once more. After another hour of travel Graycott was finally in sight. ‘It was late afternoon by now’ he thought as they approached the town. If they kept this pace they would reach Mirfield in an hour and a half or so.

He noted the many excited cries and exclamations as the people saw what he guessed would be their first sign of civilization in a long time. Sigh, taking everyone to Mirfield was becoming pretty illogical. But he told Donald he would. Argh, whatever. He would leave everyone in Graycott and fly to his lair. He needed to sell that chest of jewelry from the bandits and drop off his gold.

Arthur lead the way to Graycott, hearing panicked shouting as they drew closer. He stopped a hundred feet from the town and sat down, turning to observe the anxious group before saying, “Kaia, lead the way into town. I’ve changed my mind on going to Mirfield, you all will be safe here instead.” Kaia nodded and snapped the reins she was holding, moving the cart full of people towards the town. The rest followed her, some saying their thanks as they passed by Arthur. He cocked his head slightly when the blue Dragonborn lagged behind the others, turning to face him.

The Dragonborn surprised him by dipping their head respectfully, saying in draconic, “You are indeed different, and I would go so far as to believe Bahamut himself guides you. I thank you and wish you luck on your journey, red dragon.” Without another word, the Dragonborn left for the others.

Hmm, Bahamut huh? Arthur personally viewed most gods of dnd nothing more than tools to gain powers. His knowledge of the gods was rusty at best, but he at least knew Bahamut was the dragon god of good. He didn’t enjoy the idea of a god guiding him. He didn’t need power or fame or any of the like. A god would honestly only bring trouble for him.

Shaking out of his internal musings, he spotted Kaia coming back towards him on foot, exiting the town and reaching Arthur. She said sheepishly, “I left the cart and horses for them if that’s okay. I figured we had enough already.” She nervously laughed.

“That’s fine, it would have been a burden. Well done today, Kaia. Shall we head back?” The kobold nodded and hopped up into his outstretched hand. He spread his wings and took off into the sky. Arthur spotted the elf town master watching him just outside the border of Graycott, waving nervously after him.

{Kaia}

Her god landed in the midst of the camp, and Kaia hopped to the ground. She looked around and noted that everything looked better than when they had left, more things set up and in place. All of the bugbears and goblins were sitting around a pit fire, eating. All of the minions had stood up to greet Arthur, but he gestured for them to sit back down. The satyr was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they were out or resting?

Her god went through his lair entrance, and she followed right behind him.

Inside the lair, Kaia immediately noticed how dusty the air was. She sneezed and watched as her dusty-looking denmates partially surrounded Arthur, saying respectful greetings and watching in amazement as he shape changed into a golem, dumping two dozen gold bags onto his hoard before switching back. Her denmates were surrounding Kaia now and asking eager questions on the quest and the magic, which she answered happily. The kobolds sang praises on the incredible magic but stopped when Arthur rumbled out,

“Let’s see the progress on the second floor. I’m sure you’ve all worked hard. And I will have to figure out how to get rid of this dust.” Kaia grew nervous as the kobolds lead their god to the worksite. There were many stacks of dirt and rock at the end of the cavern and surrounding the now-massive underground entrance that could fit Arthur with little difficulty. The entrance was essentially the only thing finished. The other kobolds had probably stopped because they had no way to support the ceiling and various other reasons.

Arthur studied the underground entrance for a moment. “Good progress. I will get more materials so we can continue. For now, everyone is done for the rest of the day. If you want something to do, empty all of those bags for my hoard. I must sell some things and get those materials for now.” The kobolds thanked him once more and they all got to work quickly dumping the gold bags. Kaia helped them and watched her god pick up the jewelry chest and leave.

Her denmates crowded around her the second he left, pestering her with questions. Kaia smiled and told them all that had happened, happily recounting every detail.