This work of fiction is part of a series; if you did not already read the preceding chapters, please do that before starting this one.
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I was just getting dressed when the stable boy came to check on us and saw the body.
"You have a visitor last night?" he asked.
"Yeah, anybody gonna miss him?" I inquired.
"He usually keeps to himself," the boy said. "One of the older street girls might notice him being gone but I can't say that I think she'll miss him."
"Where should I move the body?" I asked.
"You folks heading out?"
"Yeah. Might be back tonight. I'm not sure."
"I'll call for the guard. Anything on him?"
I dug under the seat of the wagon, found a shitty blade we hadn't sold yet, and handed it to the boy.
"Show it to the guard and then you can sell it," I told him.
He nodded and hurried off.
Mirra climbed out from under the wagon, gave me a lusty hug and kiss, and then hurried to get dressed. The imp was already getting his little hammock bed rolled up.
"Good job, Fireball," I told him.
He looked at me, pressed his lips together, and then opened them a little as he exhaled.
The sound that came out kind of sounded like "fish".
"You want fish?" I asked.
He nodded his head up and down.
"We'll have to see," I told him. "Emmit said we'll be busy today so we may have to wait a day or two. He said we'd be going home soon. He lives by two streams so you should be able to fish all you want."
The little imp clapped his hands excitedly and jumped up and down. As I heard the stable boy returning, I grabbed him up and shoved him inside of my shirt. Fireball didn't like it much - but I'd warned him that we wouldn't get to sleep under a roof or have good food if the townspeople saw him. He was becoming more and more aware of others being around and he was doing better at helping us make sure that he wasn't spotted.
He was squirming a little and I leaned my face forward and licked his head. He looked up at me and pressed himself to my bare chest and held still. I threw a jacket over my shirt - to help hide the fact that there was something hidden inside - and went to check on the proceedings. By the time I got there, the guard and the stable boy had the body dragged outside and were chatting with the stable master. Emmit returned from the inn with our breakfast and stopped to join the conversation for a moment - before heading towards us.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"There would be less questions if we just hid the body in the wagon and dumped him outside of town - but the gate guards might inspect us and we'd raise even more questions. It's best to just get the guard happy and move on."
Emmit held up an egg and smiled at me. I patted my shirt. He tucked the egg away for later. I wasn't about to hand the thing to Fireball while he was hiding inside of my clothes. First off, I'd have eggshells in my underwear and second of all - a flamethrower firing way too close to my skin.
We headed west - out of town. Once there were no other travelers near, Fireball emerged. Emmit tossed me the egg and I gave it to the imp. I warned him to sit on the back of the wagon to peel it - throwing the shells onto the path. When it came time for him to swallow it down, I ordered him to aim his fiery discharge away from people, animals, and Emmit's trade-goods.
We traveled about a half-hour and then the road forked. We went left, crossed the river over a fine stone bridge, and followed a stream that fed back to the river we'd just passed over.
A few minutes more and we came to a path to the left that led to a low-water crossing. We forded the stream - which was no trouble for our mounts or our wagon - and followed the path. The path was visible but obviously not followed often. It curved back towards the east again - passing through the foothills of the mountain range that lay before us. Two hours later, we came to a huge cavern.
"We'll leave the wagon and the mounts here," Emmit advised.
The trader instructed us to gather a few items from the wagon and then we began heading into the darkness. When he saw Fireball hovering along he turned to the imp.
"We're going to be trapping a drake, Fireball," he said. "I'm not sure how your presence might affect things. Could I convince you to stay with the wagon?"
Fireball looked at me and then Emmit.
"Feeesshh," he hissed.
"He's wanting to go fishing again," I explained.
"Perfect!" Emmit gasped. "Get his pole and set him up by that stream."
Emmit pointed to a small waterway that was just to the south. The water coursed in, tumbled over some rocks, and then disappeared into a small cave.
"Stay away from the cave," Emmit cautioned the imp.
Fireball nodded and jumped around excitedly while I got his fishing pole out.
We dug up a few grubs and I scooped out a little depression in the dirt to put them in to keep them at hand (or claw) for my little fishing-buddy. By the time I headed back to join the others, Fireball was ignoring me and staring intensely at his line - waiting for a bite.
Emmit led the way towards the back of the caverns - where we could see the entrances to several caves. He chose one - seemingly at random. I knew from experience, however, that Emmit did almost nothing without a great deal of planning.
Though the cave was big, the darkness quickly swallowed us - and Lolla had to make her little mage-light once more so that we could see where we were walking.
We traveled for several minutes before we came to a place where an oval shape had been carved into the floor of the cave. It was about the size of a person.
Quietly, Emmit began to explain what was going to happen.
He told us that we needed drake's blood for our runes. His preference was to obtain the blood without actually killing a drake. The plan was to bait a drake into coming here - where I would be hiding in the hole - with a covering over me. When the drake was close enough, I was to grab its leg - or whatever - and stun the thing. Emmit warned me that it would probably take two or three pulses to actually get the beast stunned. It would try to escape as soon as I revealed myself. I would need to hang on - or give chase - to deliver the stun-pulses and get the animal to freeze.
Once the drake was stunned, Emmit would pierce its hide with a needle and bleed off a few jars of blood. Depending on the size of the drake, we might need to trap more than one. He didn't want to take too much blood from any of the creatures and risk causing their deaths.
Emmit ordered me to backtrack a few paces and to roll myself around on the ground - to cover myself with dust and soil (and probably bat droppings) to try to eliminate any smells that would warn the drake that I was hiding in wait.
The girls helped Emmit get one of the bats out of the runed jar. We'd had the bats with us since a day or two after we'd met Herra and Mirra had been healed. It seemed like ages ago.
While the bat was still drowsy, they used a length of cord to tie its legs to a fist-sized stone that lay nearby (probably from the last time Emmit was here).
Once my scent was masked, I crawled into the hole. Lolla pulled the energy pendant from my shirt and made sure it was full. After I tucked it away, she and Mirra laid a blanket over me that the two of them had rubbed around in the dirt. The dirty dark blanket masked my body from view.
The three of them retreated back towards the wagon - so as not to interfere with the trap.
As the bat finally woke up, it realized it was hungry and not near its original home. It began to try to fly off but then found itself encumbered by the rock. It scrambled and thrashed and screeched and complained. Soon, I heard a large creature coming to investigate and I tensed.
When the drake arrived, I discovered that it was twice the size of a wolf - half again bigger than me. It was actually standing over my hiding place. I was super glad that it hadn't stepped on me! I thrusted my hands out. One grabbed the beast's right-front leg. The other, I pressed against his chest. I sent a stun pulse into him and he jumped. He'd just bitten down on the bat when the stun hit him and his mind was trying to figure out why consuming the creature had caused his body distress. I sent a second pulse into his chest. He swallowed down part of the bat and stumbled. I sent a third stun into his body and he sank to his knees. He groaned and struggled to rise. I sent a fourth stun at him, and he collapsed on top of me.
I'm not too claustrophobic - but it's a bit alarming to be trapped in a hole under a creature that's nearly twice your size. I tried to shove the thing off of me, but my arms weren't strong enough. There wasn't enough room in the shallow depression for me to use my legs - so I stopped moving, calmed my breathing, and waited.
It felt like forever, but I finally heard the others scrambling to move the drake's body. As soon as they got it to roll a little, I could help - and then I was finally free.
Emmit got to work quickly. He was happy about the size of the drake. He assured us that we'd be able to get all of the blood we needed from this one. He even sent Lolla back to the wagon to retrieve two more little jars.
It was so dark after she left that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Lolla came hurrying back and arrived just in time for Emmit to switch the flow of blood to the next jar.
We got all five jars filled before the creature began to stir. We got our things cleaned up. Emmit had me tie another bat to the stone - as a "thank you" gift to our blood donor.
We picked up our things and hurried back through the cave.
As we got back to where we could see again, I heard the bat begin to complain. Then I heard the drake stir, and then the bat noises suddenly stopped. I looked over at Emmit - who shrugged and smiled.
While the others loaded our things back into the wagon, I went to check on the fire-imp. I heard footsteps behind me and then Mirra's fingers twined through mine. Her giggle was like music in my ears.
As we drew closer to the stream, I slowed to a stop.
"Does he look ...?"
"Bigger?" she finished. "Yeah."
Fireball pulled another fish from the stream and spun in a circle, celebrating. When he spotted us, he held it up.
"Duh-wik... Feesh!" he exclaimed.
"Shit!" I gasped.
The imp's little belly was bulging. I had no idea how many fish he'd eaten - because he ate tails and all - so there were no traces to count - but I was sure he was bigger than he'd been when we'd left. His pronunciation of his favorite food was better - and this was the first time he'd said my name. I was sure that's what he had said.
The crimson little demon-thing raced over and wrapped his arms around my knees. I reached down and picked him up. He was easily as big as the adults that I had helped him send off into the afterlife.
"Good job, buddy," I told him. "How many fish have you caught while we've been gone?"
He held up his hand, looked at his fingers (as if counting) and then shrugged. His smile was toothy and joyful.
The fish in his hand balked at being held. He looked at it a moment and then offered it to me.
"Let's go show Emmit, okay?" I asked him. "I think we're getting ready to leave."
He pointed back at his pole - lying by the stream. I handed the imp over to Mirra who took him with a giggle - but then she gasped as he hugged her neck and the slimy fish touched her skin. Fireball gave a little snort and a puff of smoke escaped his lips. Mirra snarled at him, but he licked her forehead and she couldn't help but hug him to her chest and ignore the cold wet fish against the back of her neck.
I grabbed up the little scamp's fishing pole and we headed back to join the others.
"Is he ... bigger?" Lolla asked.
"Pretty sure," Mirra told her, nodding.
Fireball showed off his trophy to the other two. Since we had no easy way to store it, we told him to go ahead and eat it. Mirra barely got him out of her arms and onto the grass before he began to tear into the thing.
It was nearly dark by the time we got back to the inn (and the stable). That was fortuitous because Fireball was big enough now that he was harder to hide. I tried to convince him to lie in the storage compartment under the wagon seat, but he felt trapped. His eyes were fearful, and he shuddered. I emptied one of my saddlebags and convinced him to hide in there instead. He could peek out from under the flap and still see what was going on.
