It’s been a busy few days, mostly just scrambling to find something dragon related. I’d sent everyone throughout Oblissa looking for rumours, into the taverns, the docks, so forth. May found a lead, one down south a ways making trouble. Great. Need to ask her exactly where she got it. I set off over there with some fresh barrels, a few scavenged supplies, and no contracts at all. Whatever.

Three days travel to get there and set camp up, then this morning we’d been going to head into town, rouse up some interest in getting the scaly beast ousted. Turned out those ponce ‘Dragon Hunters’ had beaten us to it. Not that it matters, we’ll be getting paid plenty when we get the batch back to Oblissa. So, feeling wistful and with plenty of time to spare I took a little jaunt down to look at the spot where the Dragon was meant to be roosting. Everyone had been bothering me, complaining, low morale all around for some reason, so I went to get some air. I headed for a glance towards the nest of this new beast.

So, this lake, north end, a little collection of cliffs. Supposedly the beast had all but melted a hole into the cliffside, made a nice home for itself. Weird behavior for dragons, is what I should have realized, but no. Nice and easy dragon, what a find, so easy, what a dumbass. I parked the wagon off the side of a nearby road and walked the mile or so to a different outlook, an especially sharp point over the water the nice innkeeper had suggested if I wanted to sight-see.

Well. This particular overhang view Myria’s handcrafted lake was plenty nice. A few sparse flowers, healthy tall grass, a strong southern breeze with decent warmth. Real calming. I cast my eyes along the edge of the lake, enjoying the sight of water without the stink of salt, brine and alcohol, until I found the rather oversized wound in the rock, down in a curve of the cliff face. Melted rock had solidified in strands and streams, frozen half-way into the lake. Easily thirty feet across, it was, and deep as hell. Impressive enough, and, I finally considered upon already stepping into the trap, something a Dragon would never bother with. Dragons much prefer cramped spaces. Something about their size makes you misunderestimate their agility, and next thing you know it’s folding in on itself and reversing direction in a tunnel barely wider than its ribcage. That and their fire in small spaces makes narrow, craggy caves a Dragon’s ideal home. Part of what makes them such a pain in the arse to sneak up on. That massive, almost wasteful gash into the rock wasn’t the size or shape a Dragon would enjoy even if they found it, much less craft it that way.Stood there gawking like an absolute gormless prick, fretting that I’d wasted my time on fake rumours.

Then a star shaped hole, it sort of… squelched into existence in front of me. There really is no better word, like a slug slipping out from a hole out of nothing, spreading and multiplying until a black, speckled star-fish was just floating there, off the cliff in front of me, a full five feet across. Fucking unnerving.

I took off my hat, eyes fixed on that spot and just waited for a moment. It wasn’t moving much. Its edges quivered a little. After a moment I gesticulated vainly, had to restart the words a couple times.

“Good morning?”

“Agreed. My brother is behind you. Goodbye. Forgive us.”

Ahah, yeah. Quite a normal voice it had, for a floating starfish. Sort of unidentifiable. I glanced behind, found nothing.

“Ah, of course. Forgiven!” I said with a chuckle. “I’ll be going now.”

“Understandable, considering your state. We hold no enmity to you, but you have been meddled with. While this turmoil unfolds we would have no misunderstandings. It will cause pain, but you will have no memory. Are you ready?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, so I’ll go.”

“I am aware of who you are. Nevertheless, it is this or you and your company die, including this ‘Raufa’.”

My breath caught a little bit, and I stopped panicking and started thinking. I took one step to the side and saw the speckling on the starfish change somewhat. Sort of like… Like looking through a window into the night sky. There’s only one type of thing that could be that weird. An Enkili. Well either way, I didn’t intend to take a threat like that on the chin. I replaced my hat, took a firm tone and spoke.

“What did you say about Raufa?”

The thing paused its strange miniscule movements, which after a moment seemed to reverse. Though after a few seconds I could hardly tell the difference at all. It was all the same squiddy-wriggle nonsense.

“Nothing, yet. Listen, your mind has been altered. We suggest a mending. My sibling…” It said a word there, but I don’t remember what it was. “... will undo the machinations of the Thinker. Her webs bind tighter even than your Lich might suppose. By this resolution, all things shall remain equal.”

“A mending? What? You don’t get to just threaten me and mine and get away with it. I don’t care what you are, you space sphincter, I’m a world class business entrepreneur, I own the Dragon Piss Merchants. I don’t take threats kindly!”

”We will not let you leave, until our conversation is through. I come to offer aid, without the burden of recompense. I am O’n O’tka, of the Enkili. You have been tricked by the Alexandria.”

”Yeah, I-” I took a second to remember the name, connect it meaningfully to the weird hole-thing. O’n O’tka. The Time Enkili. That fucking thing - I was looking through it, at a time in the future, or past, or something. It matched its descriptions, which had always seemed shitty and unclear until I’d actually seen the thing.

“Now look, this all seems extremely important - I mean, I have a fucking Enkili here infront of me, just chatting away, but I really don’t know what you’re saying! I don’t want your help. Miss Alexandria didn’t do anything bad to me, she was very pleasant. I quite liked her, actually.”

”We appreciate your understanding, but you must stay and listen. It is a pleasure to meet you, Oskar Sleeman Miles.”

I sighed, glanced behind again, just to be sure, and stepped backwards. This was going nowhere quickly, and I wanted to be gone from it.

“Yeah, except I have listened, you’re not listening to me, but whatever. Just do whatever you do, and just let me leave.”

“Good morning. Please remain calm.”

A deep, undulating quiver rippled out through its space-arms, the constellations in its form shifting. Then it un-grew itself, back into nowhere. I took my hat off, just to have something to hold to my chest. I nodded to the empty space, feeling a little woozy.

“Yeah, good. Great talk. Thanks for not hurting me." I rubbed at my forehead. "This is too much.”

I turned around. Something was waiting.

A second later my head turned and I awoke with a sore, parched throat and an unbelievable migraine, stretched out face-down on the grass. I coughed, tried to moisten my mouth and rose. Felt like I’d swallowed glass. Something in the sky dashed out of sight. I’d have tried looking harder, but I could hardly manage a single glance upward at the sky which, not incidentally, had shifted several hours into the afternoon in the space of an instant. More time malarky, of course.

Then, to top of the upsetting weirdness of that day I noticed, just sort of sitting there, idly, in the forefront of my mind was: There is a dragon nearby, a few miles south, sorry for the inconvenience, have a good day. It kept repeating at me, as if I hadn’t heard it the first time.. There is a dragon nearby, a few miles south, sorry for the inconvenience, have a good day. Unpleasant.

This whole thing, I thought as I crawled up towards the wagon, was like those horror stories of Thinkers disappearing folks for a few days, plopping them out with no memory and a changed disposition. And just like that I came upon my memories of the trip to the Truestone fort in Oblissa, and found a very different experience than previously thought, a surprising series of events which spun out before me as I kept one eye closed against the pain, navigating as best I could.

Ass on the wooden seat, head in my hands, this new version flickered through my head. That Alexandria bitch hadn’t spoken a word to either of us, had barely even looked at me. We’d both stood there, talking to some phantom of her creation, at least until she plucked out Stefan's name from my mind, which prompted her to rush over and grab me by the neck, trying to strangle me! That absurd scene she'd forced my addled brain into thinking was some romantic coming on was a complete lie! Rude!

Frankly I’d rather not go over it too much. It's rather embarrassing. Driving the cart was a mess, what with the unbelievable pain. Aches all over, though nothing compared to the agony in my skull, except perhaps for the raw, salted flesh that now seemed to compose my throat.

My arrival, shortly after the serving of the evening meal was quite the shock. People actually crowded around, helped me down, appeared concerned, bothered to ask if I was alright. A little alarming in and of itself. I must have looked quite ill indeed. They guided me to my bunk, but I waved them off, ordered them to pack up and start heading south, definitely south. Instead I clambered into Stefan's wagon, shutting the door behind me.

I stood there, in the dank gloom, glad for the silence for a moment, one arm holding me up against a desk, the other over my eyes. Even the four or five candles hurt.

"Yes, Oskar?" Stefan asked from his end, standing and reading as usual. "Can I help you? What was that hassle outside about?"

"You… shut up." I limped to one end of the wagon,, dug into a closet where I knew he kept some sort of cloth, took out a bundle and threw it on the ground. "We're gonna have words, you and I. But... first." I lowered myself to the ground, threw a length of fabric over my eyes. "First I…"

I might have finished that thought. I don't really remember.

I was upright when I awoke. Stefan sat, legs crossed beside me. He’d taken some equipment down with him, was crushing up some fine black dust in a mortar. His mask was off, skull pointed somewhat vaguely at his task. At his swaying posture, I realized the wagon was rolling along, his skeletal torso perfectly adjusting to maintain balance. Show-off wanker.

“Feel better?” he asked without looking up, without opening his jaw.

“Are we there yet?” I asked, eyes struggling to focus. The exhaustion draped heavily over my skull like a blanket of stones, but I refused it, preferring awful, minimally productive time to wasteful sleep. Stefan, as a Lich, never slept, which is one of the many benefits I hoped to use upon my rebirth as a fellow boney bastard.

“Are we south? Yes, we’re south, but there is always more south to be.” His skeletal digits raised the pestle to his eye-holes, poked at the fine dust and watched it fall back into the bowl. “What happened, Oskar?”

“Enkili.” I shuffled up a bit better to relief my aching back, leaned forward onto my knees. “Time one, I think O’n… Whatever, and-”

“O’n O’tka.”

“Yeah, great, thank you for your correction Stefan, now we can finally continue. Getting the name right mattered so much.”

He straightened and glanced at you, tossed his hood back to reveal his bare skull, which tilted ever so slightly.

“Grouchy. Understandable. Go on.”

“O’n O’tka.” I spat the words out. “Came and chatted. I think. Frankly I’m not… Not sure what happened. Nothing it said connected, except it threatened us, Raufa especially, and talked about… Alexandria. That bitch thinker.”

“Ah. ‘bitch Thinker’ is it?” His glance slipped away in thought, before turning back to his task. “O’n O’tka views time objectively. It likely tried synchronizing itself for the span of the conversation but… ended up facing the wrong way or something. Go on.”

“You’re such an insufferable pompous know-it-all prick.” I pressed hard on the sides of my nose, pushing into the corners of my eyes, just wishing any one of the fifteen dozen pains and annoyances around me would stop, just for a moment. “What are you doing?”

“Crushing charcoal into powder.” From a pouch at his side he retrieved a stick of pitch black charcoal, dropped it into the bowl and resumed the grinding. “For the next batch. It must be extremely fine, dry and large in quantity, for its purification properties to work on the dragon urine. Busy work, Oskar. Go on.”

“You’re busy work.”

“Your wit shines through even in your worst moments. Please, go on.”

“It talked, then said goodbye, then I turned around and I…” The pain in my head flared. “Fuck. I don’t know. I saw something, I think. Then I woke up, it was a lot later, my head hurt, my throat hurt, and I knew there’s a Dragon to the south-” Sorry for the inconvenience, have a nice day. “And… And I know now that you let that Thinker trick me! She messed with my head, and you knew she would. That’s what you were talking about, when I came back. You were laughing at me!”

“I’m a Lich, Oskar,” Stefan said. “I don’t laugh.”

“You do. It’s in your tone of voice,” I said. “Like right now. Dick.”

“Well I’m glad someone managed to fix your memory,” he said, the smug cock. “Seriously, I mean it,” he said, clearly not meaning it. “I’d have done it myself if I could have,” he lied, lying.

“Sure,” I said. “I’m not forgetting this.”

“Now that you can remember it at all, I’m sure you will.”

For a moment I seriously considered kicking the bowl out of his hands. Fuck, I wanted to. But I had no idea if that really was charcoal, or some other expensive ingredient. It might affect my quarterly earnings. He’d get away with it, for now.

He forced a sigh out through whatever magical hole he uses to speak, then reached up and grabbed a flask from the counter, swirled it, and handed it to me.

“What’s this?”

“It sounds like whatever happened to you was quite significant. You’ve met a few key players in this solar sport of ours, and it’s partly because of me. I offer you this in recompense. It’ll kill the pain.”

“But not me, I hope.”

“In large enough doses, of course. But so will water, alcohol, sex, all the usual necessities of life.”

“Not money,” I said, draining it. Tasted like liquid sand. I gasped after the last swallow, cringed at the taste and set the flask aside. “Money… Shit.” I burped. “Money can’t kill you ever.”

“Unless someone kills you for it.”

“Only if you’re stupid.” My head fell back as a strange wave flood over you. Not quite relieving of pain but, pushing aside. “Let’s never be stupid.”

“Of course.” Stefan stood, stowing his equipment away and wiping off his robes. “Shall I tell them to stop, so that we can reconvene? I think it’s getting late.”

“Yeah, sure.” I leaned forward, rubbing at my eyes. Within the next few breaths my lungs felt bright and strong, the lead blanket over my brain lifted, and with just a small shiver I suddenly felt ecstatically awake, better than I had in weeks. I frowned down at the flask. “What did you give me? We should be selling this!”

“A mixture of Druid-blessed herbs. I suppose it does feel like everything we tout Dragon Piss as doing, but it would never sell. It actually works.”

I nodded at the conclusion as I stood. He had a point. Then I considered who’d just uttered those words.

“Was that a joke?”

“Not to you, I realize. But that’s half the fun.” He replaced his hood, slipped on thick, padded gloves and secured his faceless mask. Three knocks against the front wal of the wagon, to alert the driver. “You know, Oskar, when I chose you for this grand endeavor, I want you to know it was not because of your expertise, your character or any sort of expectation of increased success with you on my side.”

“Ahuh.” I found and re fitted my hat onto my head. I braced for the final stop, the rattling at last at an end.

“I chose you because I felt that, with you around, things would at least be interesting. And you’ve been succeeding wonderfully.” He gripped the handle, pausing to look at me. “That’s all I want, really, in getting rid of this competition. No more rules, no more restrictions, no more supervision, no more absurd distractions like survival or fighting. Things can finally become… Interesting.”

“Wanna know what I think?” I said, rubbing away the last remnants of sleep from your eyes.

“No.”

“I think you’re a psychopath with a Sun-complex, too sad and mad to figure out that there’s already fun to be had. So, you know, you’re right about one thing.” I spread out your arms and set off my award winning grin. “That is why I’m here. You'll be over your dreams of Solar domination in no time.”

“I’d kill you and anyone you love before any such thing ever occurs,” Stefan said in that ever mild tone of his.

“You like me too much,” I said. “You just admitted it. C’mere, partner. Time for a hug.”

Stefan opened the door and stepped out. Being in a room with him might make my hair stand on end worse than stepping into a Dragon’s Den ever had, but really he’s just a big softie. He’ll come around.

I followed him out, and my crew was already gathering around on the foliage-filled roadside. A loose spattering of trees, leaves luminescent in the fading sun blocked any real attempt of grasping our location, but feeling fresh and invigorated by that strange concoction you remained on the first step of the wagon, gazed down on my loyal, caring subjects and nodded.

“I’m proud of everyone here, it’s been a scary day I’m sure. Frankly I don’t much remember what I told you when I came back, but it was all true.”

“Stefan’s a boney lying fuck-stick?” Henrique asked.

“Yes indeed,” I said, and reached down to slap the top of his hood. “But never fear, we’re reconciled, and I’m feeling much better. Nothing pleasant going on here anymore! Now where are we? Pritchard? Fetch a map.”

“I have one here,” May said, holding it up and approaching. “We’ve been trying to figure out where the hell we’re meant to be heading, since you didn’t feel like telling us, Oskar.”

“That’s Bosskar to you, miss,” I said. “Where are we?”

She spread out the map before us , rested it loosely on one hand and pointed. “Here, ish.”

I glanced at the spot indicated, a little food-grove south of the nearby Fort Cairan, my eyes south-east, to a featureless spot in the foothills, a handful of miles away. My finger pointed without asking permission.

“Dragon is there. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

If it hadn’t been for the splattering of confused faces, likely at the concept of my offering a genuine apology, I might not even have realized what I’d said.

“I- What? It’s a heartfelt apology. Don’t look at me like that. Accept it for what it is, you ungrateful sods, or you’re never getting another one.”

“So, are we going there now?” Madeline asked. In her hands rested a brass instrument, polished to a shine while she was black to the elbow, and still working. “If we’re gonna camp, Mister Oskar, it better be soon. And I’m not a sod, thank you very much.”

“Of course you aren’t, Madeline, you’re a saint.” I hopped down, clapped May and Stefan about the shoulders and walked into the group. “You’re all my wonderful, hard working crew and I’m proud to have each and every one of you with me. I’ve never felt so lucky.”

“What the fuck?” May asked.

“I gave him a stimulant,” Stefan said. “Mood swings.”

“Oh, good,” Pritchard muttered, turning to Madeline. “I was getting worried.”

“Pshaw. Mood swings. I’m fine. Madeline, May, Henrique, get camp set up. Pritchard, get buggered. Raufa, I want all your Dragon Milking equipment triple checked. I don’t want anything breaking mid extraction. Stefan, set me up with a batch of this stuff, it’s great. Let’s all get rested and ready, because we’ll be there by midday tomorrow and, if all goes well, by evening we’ll have barrels of product already purified!”

Their usual lukewarm response couldn’t dampen my spirits as they set off at a solid regular walk to their various assignments, save for Stefan and Pritchard.

“I’m not giving you more,” the Skeleton-Sod said. “Remember how we were talking about lethal amounts? You’re already half way there.”

“I only meant for Raufa, of course, while we’re extracting. This sort of clear-mindedness’ll be great as she, you know, does what is required.”

“I’m sure.” he said, already half way into his door. He shut and closed the latch behind him. Pritchard stepped into the space.

“Oskar, really, I’m getting quite-” His shoulders hunched, squeezed, reset themselves and then hunched again in quick succession. “I don’t like being told to sod off! I’m getting quite sick of your mistreatment of me lately. I deserve more respect than this!”

“Hey Pritchard,” I said, stepping close. “How do you feel about Miss Alexandria?”

The man’s dour demeanor snapped in an instant. “Well she was quite pleasant of course. Don’t you remember? Lovely conversationalist.”

“Well I think she’s a nasty, snob-nosed bag of horse shit in need of a noose and a dramatic tree.”

His eyes drifted away from me down to his fingernails. Horrific to see it, realizing how vulnerable I’d been, how vulnerable she’d left I even at the hands of my own employees. So easily left mentally inept, with just a quick subject change. Dread, that’s what I felt. A puppet on strings, and with no way I could ever see them. I’d never felt so small.

But I was out, and Pritchard wasn’t, and that’s pretty funny..

“Heh-Hah!” I chuckled, and addressed everyone. “I get it now. You’re all forgiven! Pritchard?” He glanced upwards. “Go polish my shoes. Miss Alexandria wanted you to.”

“Oh- I mean- I guess- Of course, if she wanted me to.” And off he waddled.

“Ahhh…” A nice breath of fresh air filled my lungs, as everything started to seem right with the world. The camp slowly settled itself around me, but awake as I was I decided to go off and write this entry. Reliving the initial events unsettled me- something about whatever happened made it all seem real even just thinking about it - but I’ve been writing all night, in between giggling at Pritchard, and the sun’s finally coming up, and I feel like I could run a mile.

We’re off to drain a Dragon!