Beers and Beards-Chapter 79Book 4, : I Need a Drink

The meeting slowly devolved into Annabeth asking Erik more and more questions that had little to do with the subject at hand, and more to do with what he was doing tonight, while Lady Vanderhoof desperately pleaded her innocence to Yi, and Alba and I did our best holding up the wall impressions.

Not that I'd been idle, nope. I'd been building up my courage. I was admittedly out of depth here, and I desperately wanted to be someplace else, but if there was even a chance I could be helpful to the Coalition, I had to take it. I’d used my Godsdamn [Deific Intervention] on this noise, so I wasn’t going to waste it!

A way to explain their presence without making it about me slowly took shape in my head.

When in doubt, blame Barck!

I put up my hand, and said off-handedly, “I’m not sure why I’m at this meeting, but if you ask me, it was the Gods that brought you here. You’re the answer to our prayers.”

Every eye in the tent swiveled over to me, and I tamped down a strong desire to duck under the table.

Yi looked interested at the thought, but Annabeth and Darkanen instantly bristled, their haughty demeanors transforming into wary anger.

“And why would you say that?” Annabeth demanded.

I continued, doing my best to keep my voice steady and my words on the edge of truth. “Well, none of us are strong enough to summon you. But I know that the beastfolk have been praying for salvation from the Gods for months now. Your arrival at that moment was enough to turn the tide.”

I petered off as I realized that Annabeth and Darkanen were staring at me with a mix of rage and horror.

“That’s… what I think, anyway… maybe they want you to help the beastfolk?” I mumbled.

Then I slumped back into my seat, my nerves screaming. I’d done my part, Alba! DO something!

“Yi, if the Gods teleported us…” Darkanen began.

“That’s enough! I’ve met Gods. They’re just people like anyone else!” Yi snapped.

“People who shattered our race!” Annabeth shot back. “You haven’t lived for millenia of listening to the elders talk about it, Yi! You don’t listen to anybody!”

“You just need to cultivate –” Yi said stiffly.

“Maybe in your world! But here the Gods aren’t a goal, they’re a death sentence! The be all and end all! Like we told you before, if anyone finds out the Gods are mixed up in this, they’re all going to run, no matter how hard you hit them!” Annabeth replied hotly.

Alba twitched at the red dragon’s words, and her gaze sharpened. But again, she didn’t say anything, her attention still a million kilometers off.

Annabeth turned back to Erik. “You’re sure that Grandia doesn’t have any teleportation defenses, honey? Something to send invaders away?”

Erik shook his head. “No. We have an arcane shield, and a significant number of enchanted artillery, but nothing like that. It would be incredibly inefficient manawise, especially if said invaders can just run back.”

Darkanen folded his arms over his chest. “I’ve had a bad feeling about all this since the start, Yi. Why don’t we just go conquer some dungeons instead? Especially now that they’re full of new races ready to be ‘managed’? We’ll get combat experience from the dungeon monsters, and we could actually eat what we kill without any added guilt.”

Darkanen, Yi, and Annabeth set about arguing. In the meantime, Lady Vanderhoof continued staring at me, and I shuffled uncomfortably under the weight of her gaze. Then her eyes widened; she’d come to some sort of realization. Erik noticed it too. He shifted slightly to get her attention, and shook his head vehemently to tell her to keep it to herself.

After shooting a look between us, Lady Vanderhoof leaned back in her chair, considering.

Damn. I shuffled uncomfortably in my chair. Could I get to Starshine and activate [Dungeonwalk] before the dragons ate me? I braced myself to start running as soon as she opened her mouth. But thank someone, because she held her tongue.

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Not Barck, because after this fiasco I was never praying to that frizz bearded drunken churlish voyeur ever again.

A minute passed. Then five. The dragons seemed to have forgotten we were here as their argument escalated. Darkanen just wanted to kill us all and go to the dungeons. Annabeth didn’t care so long as there was food, but as the ‘elder sister in charge of the outer disciples’ she wanted some guarantees. Yi’s face grew more and more stoney as the arguing continued.

After an excruciating twenty minutes or so, there was a commotion at the front of the tent, and a ‘short’ green dragon-man stuck his head through the flap. “Master Yi, erm…. You might, uh, you might want to come see this.” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Yi frowned, then stood and exited the tent. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”

Another minute went by as we sat in uncomfortable silence. Annabeth and Darkanen were both still fuming, though silently. Erik was doing his best statue expression, Lady Vanderhoof was biting her lip, and Alba was still just staring at the tent wall.

“Does anyone else feel that?” I asked, frowning. “Like a faint vibration?”

Erik was the first to nod. “Yes, that’s people marching. A lot of them.”

Then Yi’s voice erupted outside. “What are you all doing!? NO!!”

Another voice, elderly and wheezing, but equally loud. “Shut it, Yi! We’re done! How dare you keep the Gods’ involvement in all this a secret from us!”

Annabeth seemed to recognize the voice, her eyes widening. She ran outside, followed by Darkanen. All we wee mortals looked at each other in confusion, then hesitantly filed out of the tent with Erik in the lead.

Outside was pandemonium. Thousands of beastfolk were coming down the nearby knoll towards the tent. It had to be the entire army. They weren’t in the creepy melded lockstep anymore, though they were still clustered beneath their tribal banners. Also unlike when they’d first set out, they were laughing, joking, and in what looked like high spirits, though I could spot a few injured. In the back, the fallen were carried on makeshift stretchers.

But was most surprising, were the dragons mixed in amongst them, roughly one per tribe. Some were in dragon-man form, but most were still in their dragon forms as they chatted with the beastfolk. Every time a tribe passed by the tent, the dragon in it would shout some imprecations or farewells towards Annabeth. None addressed Yi.

“What’s happening?” Erik asked with a whisper. Yi was in a heated conversation with a large golden dragon with a long silver beard at the front of the parade, their angry voices muted by an Ability of some sort.

Alba walked up beside us, smug as could be. “I’ve been transmitting everything to the other [Shamans], and they talked to the dragons. Apparently, Yi hasn’t been too honest with them. Each of the tribes worked on one dragon, promising food, mead, and pampering in return for them joining the tribe. Based on what we heard from Annabeth and Darkanen, it seemed that bribery would work well. They agreed.”

“You WHAT!?” Lady Vanderhoof screeched, holding her hands over her mouth in horror. “No, nononononono!”

“Isn’t that just slavery with extra steps?” Erik asked, watching with fascination as a dragon shifted down to dragon-man form and took a proffered bottle of mead from a white-robed shaman.

“Mmm, more like getting an extra-lazy second chieftain. And on our terms.” Alba snorted. “And if they get bored and leave? Well, by then we’ll have collected our strength once more, and won’t be easy prey for monsters.” She shot Lady Vanderhoof a glare.

“Nonononono, this is a disaster,” Lady Vanderhoof groaned. “What will I tell the king? What will I tell the Alliance!? What will I tell my accountant!?!”

Yi and the golden dragon finished their conversation, the golden dragon walking off with a tribe beneath the banner of a golden eagle. For the first time since I’d seen the debonair white dragon, he looked frazzled.

“They’re all leaving, Yi.” Annabeth said, matter of factly. “And I don’t think you’ll be able to get them to come back. Between the teleportation, rumours of Gods, and the lack of food and rest, they’re done.”

Yi stared at her for a short moment, then simply said without any inflection, “Fuck.”

“It was him!” Lady Vanderhoof suddenly shouted, pointing at me. “He’s Peter Roughtuff, the Chosen of Barck! HE was almost certainly the one who brought you here! He’s gotten favours from the Gods before, everyone knows about it!”

Three dragon gazes landed on me, and everyone else took a step away,

“That was foolish, Lady Vanderhoof!” Erik grunted.

Lady Vanderhoof laughed, tears in her eyes. “You think I care anymore, Erik!? This entire debacle has absolutely ruined me!”

“You!” Yi growled, walking towards me. Blue energy of some kind – not Mana – began to gather on his clawed fingertips, forming an ethereal blade. It might be time to abandon Starshine and activate [Dungeonwalk] solo!

And then, inexplicably, Yi paused. The dragon looked around him as the other dragons all abandoned the field, refusing to even acknowledge his existence as they passed. He stood there in a knot of stoney silence, still as the grave.

Finally, he croaked, “Are you the one with the Soju? The one that the odd fellow talked about?”

Soju!? What? I opened my incredibly dry mouth. “Yes?”

Yi’s energy sword sputtered out and his shoulders slumped; it looked like a mountain collapsing. “Show me.”

“Erm… now?”

“Yes. I need a drink.”