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Kennel Club Book Club - The Megathread for all furry comic book, graphic novel and literature lunacy.
- Thread starter Roxanne Wolf
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- Oct 6, 2016
Do Scales and Honor so hopefully dragonfags can talk about literally anything other than those shitty childrens books.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
Never have. Might be a good idea to gauge interest in the stories - if nothing else, just getting your thoughts about a story down on metaphorical paper is just plain relaxing.
Speaking of NoP, I want to get the last few bonus stories out of the way, then move onto something related. My enthusiasm for these bonus chapters is not high, but I don't want to leave a self-imposed project unfinished.
I think this might've been the results of a vote. I don't know why people voted for this one. I guess they wanted to see how superstitious Old West humans would react to a Federation alien and vice-versa? Well... sure, I guess, but I'm not super into cowboy stuff, so I don't think I'm the target audience here. It's not a bad story. If you like ground combat, then good news, there's plenty of it here.
Nilrie the takkan (the big hippo species. Zarn was one) crash-lands on Earth in 1851, and is immediately found by our co-protagonist, Blake Donovan, the sheriff of this here town, pardner. You know what's coming next - Feddiebabble. This is part of why I'm not sure why this story was voted for, because we've had more than enough Feddiebabble for a lifetime. Nilrie's translator has decoded Blake's speech, but Blake has no translator and can't understand Nilrie - I'm delighted to announce that First Contact is actually somewhat of a struggle in this story. Imagine that. Just don't question how his holopad was able to decode human language while switched off and auto-translate for him, because having the characters interact with gestures alone is too much for SP's tiny brain to handle. The Feddiebabble is the standard shit, which peters out for a while when the takkan sees the humans eat grains and assumes they're just weird herbivores... but there's also some Humiebabble, because the humans of the town aren't especially comfortable about Nilrie, and some consider him to be some sort of horrible sky demon. Which he sort of is. Like, he's a bipedal hippo monster who hates binocular vision. Can't blame them. One guy wants to kidnap Nilrie and sell him for a profit, because of course.
Nilrie bonds with Blake's horse a little bit - he's obviously more comfortable with her eye placement - and proceeds to be a giant dickhead as he Feddiebabbles about eyes and primitivism. Chronologically foreshadowing the treatment the yotul got, you see. But then he sees Blake and his wife eat meat, and the Feddiebabble comes back, and I am so bored of this, so I'm going to skip ahead. Nilrie somewhat comes round, but now he's in danger, because the bandit who wants to kidnap him and the preacher who wants to crucify him are both teaming up to get rid of him! Blake pretends to agree with them, leads them away from the town... and gets the hell out of there after crippling the bandit's horse. It's just a prank, bro. Blake and Nilrie make a break for it, getting into a horseback gun duel with the other bandits, the alien shitting himself the whole time. Blake's a crack shot, and fends them off... at the cost of his own horse. He puts her out of her misery, and you already know how Nilrie reacts to that, as well as his reaction to Blake hunting a rabbit. Take a drink, because his crying is snotty. But now the two are out in the wilderness alone! How will they possibly get out of this pickle!
Blake's got a plan to take care of the bandits - it involves killing them, which is very efficient. Of course, since it means predators dying, Nilrie is on board. He also explains why he was flying near Earth to begin with, and what his cargo was, although I won't get into it here. Does the plan go off without a hitch? Is Nilrie saved from death? How does it all end? Go find out!
I don't really like cowboy stuff, I don't like phonetic accents, and I'm sick and tired of Feddiebabble. But in a vacuum, it's a fun little Western story. However, I have to be real, I really don't like the ending at all. It's... just... it's not my thing. It's kind of cruel if you ask me.
Nilrie the takkan (the big hippo species. Zarn was one) crash-lands on Earth in 1851, and is immediately found by our co-protagonist, Blake Donovan, the sheriff of this here town, pardner. You know what's coming next - Feddiebabble. This is part of why I'm not sure why this story was voted for, because we've had more than enough Feddiebabble for a lifetime. Nilrie's translator has decoded Blake's speech, but Blake has no translator and can't understand Nilrie - I'm delighted to announce that First Contact is actually somewhat of a struggle in this story. Imagine that. Just don't question how his holopad was able to decode human language while switched off and auto-translate for him, because having the characters interact with gestures alone is too much for SP's tiny brain to handle. The Feddiebabble is the standard shit, which peters out for a while when the takkan sees the humans eat grains and assumes they're just weird herbivores... but there's also some Humiebabble, because the humans of the town aren't especially comfortable about Nilrie, and some consider him to be some sort of horrible sky demon. Which he sort of is. Like, he's a bipedal hippo monster who hates binocular vision. Can't blame them. One guy wants to kidnap Nilrie and sell him for a profit, because of course.
Nilrie bonds with Blake's horse a little bit - he's obviously more comfortable with her eye placement - and proceeds to be a giant dickhead as he Feddiebabbles about eyes and primitivism. Chronologically foreshadowing the treatment the yotul got, you see. But then he sees Blake and his wife eat meat, and the Feddiebabble comes back, and I am so bored of this, so I'm going to skip ahead. Nilrie somewhat comes round, but now he's in danger, because the bandit who wants to kidnap him and the preacher who wants to crucify him are both teaming up to get rid of him! Blake pretends to agree with them, leads them away from the town... and gets the hell out of there after crippling the bandit's horse. It's just a prank, bro. Blake and Nilrie make a break for it, getting into a horseback gun duel with the other bandits, the alien shitting himself the whole time. Blake's a crack shot, and fends them off... at the cost of his own horse. He puts her out of her misery, and you already know how Nilrie reacts to that, as well as his reaction to Blake hunting a rabbit. Take a drink, because his crying is snotty. But now the two are out in the wilderness alone! How will they possibly get out of this pickle!
Blake's got a plan to take care of the bandits - it involves killing them, which is very efficient. Of course, since it means predators dying, Nilrie is on board. He also explains why he was flying near Earth to begin with, and what his cargo was, although I won't get into it here. Does the plan go off without a hitch? Is Nilrie saved from death? How does it all end? Go find out!
I don't really like cowboy stuff, I don't like phonetic accents, and I'm sick and tired of Feddiebabble. But in a vacuum, it's a fun little Western story. However, I have to be real, I really don't like the ending at all. It's... just... it's not my thing. It's kind of cruel if you ask me.
Bleh. Not keen on this one. It doesn't really linger on the stuff I want it to, and I hate the ending. Also, SP trying to do Bri'ish slang is just painful (to be fair, he only tries a few times). Why is it only Bri'ish people that yank writers try to do foreign slang for? Just don't try, seriously, you will never get it right. I will point this out whenever this happens because I'm bitter.
Cala is a krakotl, and a child soldier. She's in prison - she was on one of the krakotl ships that was shot down, and survived the crash. Too small and slow to escape the humans, her fellow fedniggers abandoned her to die. The story gets off to an awkward start, because with the story's premise, I was expecting it show some actual military activity before the inevitable imprisonment, but I guess SP thought it'd be too dark to write a full account of Cala's wartime experience? It's a waste, if you ask me. He'd rather just pair her off with a traumatised human instead. Andy is her britbong guard, and while he's leery of her to begin with, finding out she's only eight years old changes his tune pretty quickly. At her age, why, he was 'kicking a football around the pitch'! Even though an actual British person would just say 'playing football' or 'kicking a ball around', but still, you gotta prove you've done your research into Bri'ish English, right? He plays solitaire with her (it's called patience over here so he's ballsed it up again but whatever) and tries to explain how ecology actually works. Because she's a child with a malleable brain, he's able to get through to her a lot more quickly than he would with an adult. We learn a bit about Cala's abusive parents, and her time as a junior exterminator, much to his horror. Andy takes on the role of teacher, although you'll see why this actually makes sense and isn't just another inexplicably multitalented human, and you can see EXACTLY where this is going.
On Cala's ninth hatchday, exactly two months after she was captured, Andy gives her some presents! He's been beaten up by other humans for being nice to the krakotl, but in his words, good lord, she's a bloody victim! Which is okay, it works, although we're more inclined to say 'bloody hell' than 'good lord', if he was so determined to use bloody in a sentence. But yeah, no surprises that Andy wants to adopt Cala. And after a meeting with Zhao (a generally shittily written character with no defined personality), he does. To their credit, he does have to go through a rigorous system to make it official, but eventually she's his daughter. She lives in his human flat (good job on getting that right), and visits a human zoo. Andy is a zookeeper, which is why he knew so much about animals. However, a particularly egregious Bri'ish slang fail here: “Look at all the different colors of these blokes’ feathers!" is wrong, because you'd generally only use 'blokes' in an indirect way. Like... 'look at that bloke over there' or 'he's a good bloke'. When directly referring to a group of funny little guys, you'd say 'lads' or 'guys'. There are exceptions, but that's the most natural way to go about it. The zoo chapter is when the writing starts to falter a bit, with Andy describing humans as an invasive species and stuff. It's getting a little too misanthropic. Cala also goes to human school (which is very much an American elementary school, another Bri'ish fail), and makes human friends, and... timeskip! Now she's a teenager. She's cleansed her own meat allergy and looooves fish and chips because of course she does, she's Bri'ish. Want more attempts at Bri'ish slang? She's got you covered... even as she and every other character say 'math' and not 'maths'. She's also a little rebel who loves stick-it-to-the-man metal, because Bri'ish. Andy is a smothering helicopter father, but who can blame him. The ending really bothers me though. I won't go into detail, but Cala makes a really terrible decision, but it's presented as a good one by SP, much to the disgust of his readers, which of course caused more friction. Andy protests, but his protests have the air of 'look at this old fuddy-duddy' rather than 'wow he is so right'. If you paid attention to NoP2, you might already know what it is.
I actually liked this story more than I remembered, but it's not perfect by any means. I think it kind of loses steam a little bit with the endless ecology waffle, stodgy attempts at Bri'ish culture, Cala's 9 year old human friend being RIDICULOUSLY wise beyond his years (he grasps the abstract horror that is being a child soldier before he's even hit puberty. Come on, man.) and so on. And the ending fucking sucks. It's nothing more than setup for her cameo in NoP2. But it's pretty good overall. I don't feel like any part of it was rushed - it was a nice slow burn. Just... consult a Bri'ish person before trying to write Britain. Please.
Cala is a krakotl, and a child soldier. She's in prison - she was on one of the krakotl ships that was shot down, and survived the crash. Too small and slow to escape the humans, her fellow fedniggers abandoned her to die. The story gets off to an awkward start, because with the story's premise, I was expecting it show some actual military activity before the inevitable imprisonment, but I guess SP thought it'd be too dark to write a full account of Cala's wartime experience? It's a waste, if you ask me. He'd rather just pair her off with a traumatised human instead. Andy is her britbong guard, and while he's leery of her to begin with, finding out she's only eight years old changes his tune pretty quickly. At her age, why, he was 'kicking a football around the pitch'! Even though an actual British person would just say 'playing football' or 'kicking a ball around', but still, you gotta prove you've done your research into Bri'ish English, right? He plays solitaire with her (it's called patience over here so he's ballsed it up again but whatever) and tries to explain how ecology actually works. Because she's a child with a malleable brain, he's able to get through to her a lot more quickly than he would with an adult. We learn a bit about Cala's abusive parents, and her time as a junior exterminator, much to his horror. Andy takes on the role of teacher, although you'll see why this actually makes sense and isn't just another inexplicably multitalented human, and you can see EXACTLY where this is going.
On Cala's ninth hatchday, exactly two months after she was captured, Andy gives her some presents! He's been beaten up by other humans for being nice to the krakotl, but in his words, good lord, she's a bloody victim! Which is okay, it works, although we're more inclined to say 'bloody hell' than 'good lord', if he was so determined to use bloody in a sentence. But yeah, no surprises that Andy wants to adopt Cala. And after a meeting with Zhao (a generally shittily written character with no defined personality), he does. To their credit, he does have to go through a rigorous system to make it official, but eventually she's his daughter. She lives in his human flat (good job on getting that right), and visits a human zoo. Andy is a zookeeper, which is why he knew so much about animals. However, a particularly egregious Bri'ish slang fail here: “Look at all the different colors of these blokes’ feathers!" is wrong, because you'd generally only use 'blokes' in an indirect way. Like... 'look at that bloke over there' or 'he's a good bloke'. When directly referring to a group of funny little guys, you'd say 'lads' or 'guys'. There are exceptions, but that's the most natural way to go about it. The zoo chapter is when the writing starts to falter a bit, with Andy describing humans as an invasive species and stuff. It's getting a little too misanthropic. Cala also goes to human school (which is very much an American elementary school, another Bri'ish fail), and makes human friends, and... timeskip! Now she's a teenager. She's cleansed her own meat allergy and looooves fish and chips because of course she does, she's Bri'ish. Want more attempts at Bri'ish slang? She's got you covered... even as she and every other character say 'math' and not 'maths'. She's also a little rebel who loves stick-it-to-the-man metal, because Bri'ish. Andy is a smothering helicopter father, but who can blame him. The ending really bothers me though. I won't go into detail, but Cala makes a really terrible decision, but it's presented as a good one by SP, much to the disgust of his readers, which of course caused more friction. Andy protests, but his protests have the air of 'look at this old fuddy-duddy' rather than 'wow he is so right'. If you paid attention to NoP2, you might already know what it is.
I actually liked this story more than I remembered, but it's not perfect by any means. I think it kind of loses steam a little bit with the endless ecology waffle, stodgy attempts at Bri'ish culture, Cala's 9 year old human friend being RIDICULOUSLY wise beyond his years (he grasps the abstract horror that is being a child soldier before he's even hit puberty. Come on, man.) and so on. And the ending fucking sucks. It's nothing more than setup for her cameo in NoP2. But it's pretty good overall. I don't feel like any part of it was rushed - it was a nice slow burn. Just... consult a Bri'ish person before trying to write Britain. Please.
This was originally an incoherent rant about how much I hated Krevbabble, but after forcing myself to read the story all the way through... it's actually pretty good, so I'm starting over and giving it a proper review.
Flevi is a Gawker-tier krev journalist, and she's been matched with Indrek on the krev-human exchange program. Now, I still hate Krevbabble. It's the same dehumanising shit as the Federation, just on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whether demanding that terrifying, murderous humans should be burned, or adorable, helpless humans should be coddled, it's the same crap we've had to read so many times. However, what got me into this story is that Indrek is having none of it. He's incredibly aggressive, outspoken, and makes absolutely no bones about how much he can't stand Flevi or any other simpering krev. Flevi wrote attack articles about humans before Avor knew that they were cute primates, and he will not let her forget it. To prove some sort of point, Indrek says he wants to adopt an abused, aggressive obor. Something about feeling a kindred spirit with them, since they'd be put down without any chance to live - which is what the krev wanted to do with the pre-unmasking humans. Now, this is a terrible idea. It's like adopting a shitbull without having any idea of what you're getting into. But apparently Indrek is the obor whisperer, because he looks at a murderous, battle-scarred fighting obor that tries to rip his face off and thinks 'that one'. And, somehow, he's able to soothe the monkey's agitated soul. I think there's a sort of spiritual understanding between the pair, as Indrek loses his shit and yells at the krev staff, which seems to make the obor see him as a kindred spirit, but... I dunno, man. It's still not a good idea.
Flevi and Indrek argue some more. They argue throughout the entire story, although it's one-sided from Indrek all the time until this point. But eventually even Indrek's cuteness can't overcome Flevi's aggravation, and she starts yelling at him as well. The weight of his spiritual burden overcomes Indrek, and he starts to cry - drink up, because we got snot - and realises it's okay to be angry, but maybe he shouldn't lash out at everyone around him. But he's still not taking anyone's shit, and continues pushing back against the simpering. Good for him. What a lad. They take a little train ride to an office, and he's able to tell his story. Unfortunately, this means we don't see his long-term existence with his berserk obor. I'm sure they'll be fine, but it would've been amusing if the thing ended up biting his fingers off.
Yeah, I ended up liking this one. I think Flevi and Indrek are cool characters, and while I don't agree with all their decisions, well... humans make retarded decisions sometimes. It's only human.
Flevi is a Gawker-tier krev journalist, and she's been matched with Indrek on the krev-human exchange program. Now, I still hate Krevbabble. It's the same dehumanising shit as the Federation, just on the opposite end of the spectrum. Whether demanding that terrifying, murderous humans should be burned, or adorable, helpless humans should be coddled, it's the same crap we've had to read so many times. However, what got me into this story is that Indrek is having none of it. He's incredibly aggressive, outspoken, and makes absolutely no bones about how much he can't stand Flevi or any other simpering krev. Flevi wrote attack articles about humans before Avor knew that they were cute primates, and he will not let her forget it. To prove some sort of point, Indrek says he wants to adopt an abused, aggressive obor. Something about feeling a kindred spirit with them, since they'd be put down without any chance to live - which is what the krev wanted to do with the pre-unmasking humans. Now, this is a terrible idea. It's like adopting a shitbull without having any idea of what you're getting into. But apparently Indrek is the obor whisperer, because he looks at a murderous, battle-scarred fighting obor that tries to rip his face off and thinks 'that one'. And, somehow, he's able to soothe the monkey's agitated soul. I think there's a sort of spiritual understanding between the pair, as Indrek loses his shit and yells at the krev staff, which seems to make the obor see him as a kindred spirit, but... I dunno, man. It's still not a good idea.
Flevi and Indrek argue some more. They argue throughout the entire story, although it's one-sided from Indrek all the time until this point. But eventually even Indrek's cuteness can't overcome Flevi's aggravation, and she starts yelling at him as well. The weight of his spiritual burden overcomes Indrek, and he starts to cry - drink up, because we got snot - and realises it's okay to be angry, but maybe he shouldn't lash out at everyone around him. But he's still not taking anyone's shit, and continues pushing back against the simpering. Good for him. What a lad. They take a little train ride to an office, and he's able to tell his story. Unfortunately, this means we don't see his long-term existence with his berserk obor. I'm sure they'll be fine, but it would've been amusing if the thing ended up biting his fingers off.
Yeah, I ended up liking this one. I think Flevi and Indrek are cool characters, and while I don't agree with all their decisions, well... humans make retarded decisions sometimes. It's only human.
I am SO mad at this one. I thought it was going to be a deep, salacious dive into Veln's reign as planterary governor. The scandals. The outmanoeuvring. His disgraceful trouncing in the elections. But no. It's about Laisa, Tarva's yes man. And it has nothing to do with her time as governor, either - just her first interaction with a human resulting in her getting hit by a fucking car, getting dragged to a refugee camp, being healed, and realising humans... MAYBE NOT SO BAD! It's formatted like a school assignment, which is cute, but... nah, I'm good, thanks.
I'm an arxur enjoyer, but I did not enjoy these arxur. I actually found this to be a bit of a slog. It's somehow really dense, but doesn't actually tell you much at all. This is our first look at Wriss, but we don't learn as much about it as I was hoping. We get a whole squad of arxur to enjoy, but only one of them really resonated with me. We get another psycho lunatic, and he was pretty enjoyable, I'll admit. But the 'twist' is just so... not a twist. You can see it coming a mile off, to the point I question if SP remembers what genre he's writing in. Anyway, we get to see Siffy one last time, as he's still the leader of the Collective in this year. He's got Kaisal as his successor (how does Kaisal succeed him? SP says we don't want to know. The implication being that Kaisal killed him?), and he's got the narrator Raza as a little pet project. Putting her in a squad with some other arxur to disrupt some Betterment-aligned rebels. Spoiler: the rebels get absolutely trounced off-screen, depriving us of infantry combat. Fuck you.
Raza is the leader. There's also Zefriss, who's a Collective loyalist who still clearly believes in Betterment to a degree, and FUCKING Hysran. Hysran was the most popular character SP has written in a long time, with legions of adorers in the comments, but I can't stand her. She cannot take ANYTHING seriously and just makes really shitty, contrived puns all the time, in all situations. Most of the puns aren't even clever, they're just statements. She's utterly unbearable, I do not understand how anybody could like her. No, Zefriss is the squad member I actually like. He's an old-school arxur who's loyal to the cause, but makes it clear that he's still on board with aspects of Betterment. I liked his contributions far more than Hysran's Marvel-tier quips. However, the squad isn't finished yet, because they've been given another member... Hossat, a nevok psychopath who just really likes shooting people. Since Raza wants to be a diplomat, and a lot of alien diplomats can be sneaky, manipulative fucks, Siffy thinks if she can handle this nevok, she can handle any foreign agent. Also, Felra mention! Only a mention, though. Did you want to actually see Felra? Of course you did. Well, SP didn't want to revisit Siffy and Felra, so fuck you for wanting to see fan favourite characters.
It goes without saying that the arxur are less than impressed by the presence of Hossat. They just... posture a lot, huff and puff, and Hossat is like 'lmao xd' and ignores them. He prefers working alone, anyway. All their intimidation tactics fail, and it's slightly embarrassing to read. Hysran plays the diplomat herself, by being annoying and not leaving a guy who wants to be left alone alone. I guess in hindsight it makes sense, because they're going to be a team, but I've met people whose response to you wanting to be alone is to talk to you even more, and so I feel nothing but infuriation about this. Zefriss is being obtuse as ever, and the four are sent on their way.
Despite the squad's endless bitching, Hossat ends up being an asset, as his agility and goal-oriented mindset make him extremely useful in the mountainous terrain, surrounded by endless enemy patrols. He comes up with subtle, deft plans that make the arxur look like concrete-minded retards. Hysran keeps yapping about how the nevok should be friendlier, even though he's a fucking psychopath. Raza keeps malding because she's bad at leading. Zefriss keeps seething because he's racist. Hossat wishes he could just go and do all this by himself, but hey ho. They end up seeing a procession of tanks passing by, which is the only aspect of the rebellion's military which gets any mention. I understand that this isn't really a war story, and that it's more about character development for two of the three arxur, but it's still really weird to me that SP glossed over the alien tanks and battle tactics of these guys. I know people complained about the war setting for both NoP stories, but if there was ever a time to milsperg, this was it. But he chose not to. Wasted opportunity.
The goof gang have to pass through a rural village to get to their target. Raza talks about what a shithole it is, and proceeds to light it on fire as a distraction. Zefriss, being based, says he'd be fine living in a sleepy little village in the peace and quiet, but for some reason this makes him an idiot in the eyes of his colleagues. Raza's elitist bullshit pisses me off, but whatever. Hossat, while all this was happening, had hotwired a car and used it to lure all the arxur out of the village, effortlessly freeing up their way like it was nothing. Zefriss appreciates this, and starts warming to the nevok, as he's starting to doubt Raza's ability to lead. When they come to a military blockade, it's Zefriss who says they should listen to Hossat's plan, as Raza's idea is fucking retarded. Turns out the prey's idea is really good. Raza is assmad about it, and starts jumping to conclusions that Siffy wants to replace her with him. Zefriss tells her to stop trying to upstage Hossat due to her elitist bullshit, which gets her to shut up and actually THINK for once. They try to disguise themselves as Dominion-oriented villagers escaping their burning village, but it works a little too well, and they end up in a massive firefight, with support from Hossat. They win.
With their stolen lorry, the four reach a new camp, and Raza (who's finally gotten over her inferiority bullshit) is able to think relatively clearly and comes up with an actual good idea - pretend to be Dominion soldiers, who'd captured living rations in the form of Hossat. It works like a charm - after the nevok is tortured for a while, they're free to go to meet their target... some mercenary sniper. If you can't work out the deal with this sniper by reading the story, you're a moron.
It's a good story, and I like Hossat and Zefriss, but Raza was painful and Hysran was irritating. There's a general lack of detail in everything and if SP wanted to hide the fact the sniper was a human merc, he dropped the fucking ball. Sparing the sniper was also a HORRIBLE idea that had little benefit and tons of risk. However there's some good action, Hossat's methods are always fun to witness, and I guess I do like the last page... it has an excellent, unexpected cameo.
Raza is the leader. There's also Zefriss, who's a Collective loyalist who still clearly believes in Betterment to a degree, and FUCKING Hysran. Hysran was the most popular character SP has written in a long time, with legions of adorers in the comments, but I can't stand her. She cannot take ANYTHING seriously and just makes really shitty, contrived puns all the time, in all situations. Most of the puns aren't even clever, they're just statements. She's utterly unbearable, I do not understand how anybody could like her. No, Zefriss is the squad member I actually like. He's an old-school arxur who's loyal to the cause, but makes it clear that he's still on board with aspects of Betterment. I liked his contributions far more than Hysran's Marvel-tier quips. However, the squad isn't finished yet, because they've been given another member... Hossat, a nevok psychopath who just really likes shooting people. Since Raza wants to be a diplomat, and a lot of alien diplomats can be sneaky, manipulative fucks, Siffy thinks if she can handle this nevok, she can handle any foreign agent. Also, Felra mention! Only a mention, though. Did you want to actually see Felra? Of course you did. Well, SP didn't want to revisit Siffy and Felra, so fuck you for wanting to see fan favourite characters.
It goes without saying that the arxur are less than impressed by the presence of Hossat. They just... posture a lot, huff and puff, and Hossat is like 'lmao xd' and ignores them. He prefers working alone, anyway. All their intimidation tactics fail, and it's slightly embarrassing to read. Hysran plays the diplomat herself, by being annoying and not leaving a guy who wants to be left alone alone. I guess in hindsight it makes sense, because they're going to be a team, but I've met people whose response to you wanting to be alone is to talk to you even more, and so I feel nothing but infuriation about this. Zefriss is being obtuse as ever, and the four are sent on their way.
Despite the squad's endless bitching, Hossat ends up being an asset, as his agility and goal-oriented mindset make him extremely useful in the mountainous terrain, surrounded by endless enemy patrols. He comes up with subtle, deft plans that make the arxur look like concrete-minded retards. Hysran keeps yapping about how the nevok should be friendlier, even though he's a fucking psychopath. Raza keeps malding because she's bad at leading. Zefriss keeps seething because he's racist. Hossat wishes he could just go and do all this by himself, but hey ho. They end up seeing a procession of tanks passing by, which is the only aspect of the rebellion's military which gets any mention. I understand that this isn't really a war story, and that it's more about character development for two of the three arxur, but it's still really weird to me that SP glossed over the alien tanks and battle tactics of these guys. I know people complained about the war setting for both NoP stories, but if there was ever a time to milsperg, this was it. But he chose not to. Wasted opportunity.
The goof gang have to pass through a rural village to get to their target. Raza talks about what a shithole it is, and proceeds to light it on fire as a distraction. Zefriss, being based, says he'd be fine living in a sleepy little village in the peace and quiet, but for some reason this makes him an idiot in the eyes of his colleagues. Raza's elitist bullshit pisses me off, but whatever. Hossat, while all this was happening, had hotwired a car and used it to lure all the arxur out of the village, effortlessly freeing up their way like it was nothing. Zefriss appreciates this, and starts warming to the nevok, as he's starting to doubt Raza's ability to lead. When they come to a military blockade, it's Zefriss who says they should listen to Hossat's plan, as Raza's idea is fucking retarded. Turns out the prey's idea is really good. Raza is assmad about it, and starts jumping to conclusions that Siffy wants to replace her with him. Zefriss tells her to stop trying to upstage Hossat due to her elitist bullshit, which gets her to shut up and actually THINK for once. They try to disguise themselves as Dominion-oriented villagers escaping their burning village, but it works a little too well, and they end up in a massive firefight, with support from Hossat. They win.
With their stolen lorry, the four reach a new camp, and Raza (who's finally gotten over her inferiority bullshit) is able to think relatively clearly and comes up with an actual good idea - pretend to be Dominion soldiers, who'd captured living rations in the form of Hossat. It works like a charm - after the nevok is tortured for a while, they're free to go to meet their target... some mercenary sniper. If you can't work out the deal with this sniper by reading the story, you're a moron.
It's a good story, and I like Hossat and Zefriss, but Raza was painful and Hysran was irritating. There's a general lack of detail in everything and if SP wanted to hide the fact the sniper was a human merc, he dropped the fucking ball. Sparing the sniper was also a HORRIBLE idea that had little benefit and tons of risk. However there's some good action, Hossat's methods are always fun to witness, and I guess I do like the last page... it has an excellent, unexpected cameo.
The best new story and it's still got major problems, although they mostly exist at the beginning. Sovlin is an old man who needs a walker at this point. He's worn out, tired, and just wants to enjoy what life he has left, as (considering his condition here) he's either a vegetable or dead in 2160. And how is he enjoying life? Why, with his friends playing his memory transcripts to him to torture him, of course! SP is using this as an opportuntiy to give us Sovlin's POV of his time torturing Marcel, but these are memories he does NOT want to revisit, and is clearly extremely horrified and disgusted by. But his friends still insist on playing them to him until he has a fucking mental breakdown. It's genuinely terrible, I have no idea why SP decided to write it this way. What Sovlin did was horrible, but he's paid his pound of flesh at this point. It's little more than torturing an old war veteran by playing gunshot and explosion noises over your computer speakers. But it gives Sovlin an idea that if he wants to come to terms with these memories that are still haunting him, he needs to make his peace with a number of people from his past. And so he does. Sovlin tracks down a number of old lore characters from the first half of NoP, and not the ones you might expect. We get a mix of their memories regarding Sovlin, and then their interactions with him in 2151. And they're all... just... really good. Like, classic NoP1 levels of good. I adored them all. And the ending? I loved that too. Sovlin truly overcomes his miserable past, realises something profound, and does something you never thought he'd ever do. And then he's never heard from again. Also, Tyler cameo. Worth it just for that. If you can get past the bizarre mental torture scenes at the start, it's a great tale. I kept it vague on purpose.
I am not reading this. I saw the premise, I saw the first line, and I noped out. I fucking hate Taylor, I am not reading about him playing DnD with his faggot boyfriend without dying from cringe. I can't do it. I can't. Someone else read it and tell me if it's good or not.
What I did want to talk about was NoP fanfiction. There's a LOT of it on Plebbit, and it's... surprisingly good. I've been reading a number of these fanfics lately and they've mostly impressed me. One in particular I want to spotlight is An Alien Nature by Sea_of_Imagination. It's a retelling of NoP, except with hard sci-fi and better designs for the aliens. It goes into deep, gritty detail of a realistic first contact between humans and venlil, and presents a frankly more interesting version of the universe. Give it a go!
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2020
Thanks for finishing these off, I've enjoyed reading your posts covering them.
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2020
Scales and Honor is a series of medieval fantasy books created by Justin Lee, a member of the furry community since at least 2007 and known on Sofurry and FurAffinity as Anduskmiir and TheUNSCforces, and edited by Aryn Storm. As the back of the cover says, the story follows a prideful, egotistical, and narcissistic red dragon on a quest to retrieve a stolen piece of treasure from a king who falsely accused him of heinous crimes, and a broken knight from a family of dragon hunters originally sent to capture him being dragged along for the ride. What follows is a journey where the pair who should be enemies are brought together by honor and become friends in their misadventure.
Marketing itself as a story for people who are "tired of fantasy stories having dragons playing nothing but fancy horses ferrying around the 'real' adventurers," it began in 2017 and the final chapter of Book 6 was posted in 2023. The rewrite for Book 3 was published back in December of 2024 with more presumably on the way. Like TNoP, this is a long ass series with around 259 chapters (or 227 chapters if you only count the old version of Book 3), although TNoP's sequel has since exceeded those numbers. Unlike TNoP where the 184 chapters are bunched up into one book, Scales and Honor is more spread out across six books, with the last one being a two-parter. The chapters can be pretty damn long too with word counts occasionally going somewhere in the ten thousands, and they all add up to above 2 million words in total for the series.
Be warned that although the first book is free from this, there are quite a few straight and gay sex scenes from the second book onwards, so I'll put NSFW warnings in the spoiler for when that happens. There's also a draft version of the first three books on FurAffinity that I'll be taking a look at from time to time. Keep in mind that the accounts are NSFW as well if you happen to be logged in. Unless otherwise specified, I'll be covering the latest versions of the chapters from the officially published releases.
There's 20 chapters to get through, and a bonus story at the end, so let's do this. Any criticism or feedback to how I'm doing this is appreciated.
We begin our story from the perspective of one of the side characters, a white black-striped gryphon named Skywing, who is in the above picture. It's the cold dead of night as he patrols the skies around the Forest of Despair, rumored to be a place where nobody can pass through without the mysterious ruler's permission. He didn't think he would go anywhere near it, but since the king of Lumara asked for protection, he couldn't disobey him. Although a gryphon doesn't have the advantages of being a dragon like scales for armor and fire breathing, he says he's more than capable of defending himself. His flight mates, a determined female named Cetaz and a nervous and watchful male named Petat, were on either side of him, keeping an eye out for any danger.
After smirking at the golden gryphon symbol on his leather armor that represents Lumara, Skywing leads his flock through one of the openings of twisted branches and lands among a group of ten mortal knights, consisting of humans, elves, and dwarves. Their gear includes full plate armor, shields and brown tabards also with the golden gryphon symbol, swords in leather scabbords, and crossbows embellished with runes and metal vents. A common feature they all share is a "dull resonating hum" that irritates Skywing since the bipeds said they can't hear the noise that "plagued" him. After looking around the area for signs of movement and telling his flight mates to do the same, he walks over to the human leading the expedition, the most valuable man in all of Lumara: King Cornelius.
Skywing bows and informs him that the seer didn't send any ambushers to attack them. Cornelius thanks him for his service and loyalty, and states the darkness seems to be growing tighter with time. They're only there to meet the Emerald Lady and get out. Of course, nobody knows what she looks like. The only info that remains consistent is that she ruled the forest for centuries and has apparently helped the royal crown before by whispering knowledge of either power or the future, something that makes Skywing nervous since there's hardly anybody who can live that long. We learn that one of the terms she set for the meeting is that the king must come to the forest at night and bring no more than two guards.
We're then shown a brief flashback of Skywing and Cornelius earlier in the day, with the gryphon reacting about as well as you'd expect to the idea of only two guards in a dangerous place with a dangerous name. He encourages him to not visit her, but while the king concurs that the idea is unusual, he reminds him "who stands to gain the most from this audience." Skywing practically begs him to bring more guards, but Cornelius interrupts that he obviously will. In his words, he's old, not stupid.
Back in the present, the group slowly continues towards their destination. After some internal complaining about walking at a snail's pace, he calms Petat and some of the knights down by stating that they're just here for a simple conversation. As long as it remains peaceful, it should be fine. It doesn't stay that way for too long since a deep, loud voice in bold text suddenly emits from seemingly every direction of the forest. This naturally startles everybody as the Emerald Lady, which the book tries to hide until the latter half of the chapter for some reason even though it's obvious, amusedly reminds the king in bold text that she only allowed two guards to escort him. The guards are so on edge that a rustling bush is enough for them to shoot red magic pulses with their crossbows at it, making the king tell them to calm the hell down before they burn the whole forest to the ground.
She repeats her question to the king and adds in that he requested the meeting in the first place, calling the extra guards insulting. Cornelius tries to defend himself by basically saying bringing that little manpower in the middle of a dark forest on top of a lot of people wanting him and his kingdom dead out of vengenace, if not by regular thugs or deadly creatures, is unreasonable. The Emerald Lady scoffs at the thought of anything happening in her forest and tells everybody they need a lesson on the consequences of disrespecting their betters.
A fight breaks out, although it's made apparent that the guards don't have a chance in hell of getting out of there, let alone win. Vines that seem to keep coming wrap around most of the guards surrounding the king, dragging them deeper into the forest, and a pit suddenly opens up beneath Petat and two of the other guards before quickly closing and trapping the "insolent trespassers". Knowing this is a lost cause by now, Skywing grabs the king in his talons and tries to fly away from the forest to safety. The life of "the great and wise king of Lumara" is more important than himself and the other knights. He sees Cetaz trying to follow them, but to no avail since the vines grab and drag her away as well. Skywing gets grabbed as well and just as they're about to hit the ground and get dragged away, Cornelius yells out their surrender.
The Emerald Lady chuckles at the "expected result" and releases them from the vines. Nobody else is present except Skywing and Cornelius, with Skywing wanting to kill the cunt whenever he gets the chance. The gryphon and king are told to bow before her to cement their defeat and preserve their lives. Skywing thinks surely that the king would refuse, that he would stand tall, but he's utterly baffled when Cornelius obeys her. Dude, didn't you just see what happened to your friends just because the king defied the agreement terms? Skywing reluctantly does the same when the king asks him to, pressing his beak against the earth that stole so many of his companions, and the Emerald Lady reveals herself, ordering the gryphon to keep his eyes down lest she considers it an act of defiance.
Even from his position, Skywing can tell that the figure is a dragon that's at least three times larger than him, covered in emerald green scales. For reference to the size, Skywing is listed as six feet tall on the latest size chart, so she's around eighteen feet tall.
Pleased to see reason enter their "primative minds," the Emerald Lady asks why Cornelius requested the meeting as Skywing considers snapping at her tail sliding across his beak, but his body refuses to respond out of fear. The king responds that he seeks the red dragon she spoke of in her prophecy as, despite their efforts and extensive searches, the kingdom is unable to find them anywhere. He fears that without her assistance, the nation will be put in grave danger from this "threat" without being able to retaliate. The dragoness knows what he's referring to and takes a moment to taunt Skywing, moving her claws closer to him and saying she could make him lick them if she wanted to. After the gryphon wisely doesn't take the bait, she tells the king that he will need a red orb of dragon kind.
Cornelius asks her to elaborate and she obliges, stating that it will help him locate the dragon, although it's not an automatic win button against the threat. Despite being a "lesser being," he needs to use his wits and wisdom that she knows he has since he wouldn't be king otherwise. The orb will soon be found by a wizard named Vargus, located in western Lumarian lands past the dragon neck mountains, in a temple close to his house near Gladenhill. Cornelius is eager to send his knights to retrieve it right away, but the Emerald Lady quickly shuts that down, telling him to wait two weeks before doing so. On top of that, she requests that he designates Arcturus Lund, a dragon-hunter, as the head of the squad unless the king wants to risk failure, although she stays vague on why him in particular outside of that.
She then tells the king and Skywing to get out of the forest before she decides to keep amusing herself. When Skywing asks about the other guards, she declares that they belong to her now as punishment for breaking the "two guards only" terms. If the prisoners refuse such a prospect, then she'll just turn them into stone statues as a deterrent for everybody else. With no other choice, Cornelius climbs on Skywing's back and they fly off. The gryphon swears to himself that one day he'll get back at her to avenge his fellow soldiers, and to rescue them from the forest if any of them survived.
Overall a decent opening. We're not given much details about what's going on yet, but it's enough to set the stage. A king wanting to snuff out a dragon purely based off some prophecy and an ancient dragoness with unknown motives, two big players for what's to come.
Despite some oddities I noticed and the death flags being a little too obvious to me, it's not a bad start. The tragic beginning serves its role perfectly well and shows promise for future interactions with our second protagonist coming up.
We cut to two years later where we see a different red dragon flying through the skies northwest of Lumara. Veledar, our red dragon protagonist, is happily taking in the smells, the winds, all that jazz, as he descends onto the ground to drink at a nearby river. He thinks to himself how nice it would be to have humans recite him being a legend when his stomach grumbles for some food. Annoyed and wanting a quick meal, he sniffs around and recognizes the scent of deer, his favorite prey, and finds himself a single doe. He plans to give the doe an honorable death and, after a brief chase, eats the creature and burns whatever is left of the deer to honor it. Veledar bitches about being dirty and, after taking a dip into the river to clean himself off, relaxes under the sun for some time.
The red dragon is about to take off again when he hears a faint cry from behind a bush, smaller than a little cat. While he remembers being scolded by his mother for peeking on some elves and about privacy in general, he brushes it aside and investigates the crying. And by investigate, I mean he just rips the bush from the ground after a couple attempts to move it. It turns out to be a small crying fairy, who isn't too thrilled about her bush being taken away and complains about it while calling him a scale-head and a brute. After some internal complaints of his own about how a "lesser creature" addressed him without respect, more scolding from the upset fairy, and her mentioning some nasty humans, she demands that he gives her shrub back, which he obliges.
Restraining the urge to growl at her, Veledar recalls her mother's advice about how there's a more worthy reward to be gained instead of coin or gems and presses her about the humans she brought up. She hesitates at first and wonders why he's caring about her instead of burning a village or kidnapping maidens, which further irritates him, but he politely persuades her that he's willing to help for the right price. The fairy doesn't have any money for the egotistical dragon, but elaborates that the humans trampled her grove and stole all of her flowers, including her favorite orange one. After a brief misunderstanding over the word illuminate and her promising not to use spells on him, she introduces herself as Trixie and asks for his name.
Veledar refuses to give his real name to a lesser creature, especially one who isn't that special yet, so he does what dragons do and uses his title instead: Crimson Sky. For simplicity, I'm going to keep calling him Veledar here. There's also a bit of an odd sentence where he apparently thinks "she proved herself somewhat reliable" even though they just met for a few minutes. Trixie tells the dragon to follow her into the grove, which he does and sees the poor state it's in. The mere sight of it is enough to make her cry again, which makes Veledar pity her even though it doesn't impact him the same way, and she says that the humans didn't bother giving a reason as to why they did it.
He bites back a dickish remark since it would obviously upset her further and finds boot prints leaving the clearing. With pride, Veledar declares to a grateful Trixie that she will get her flowers back and make sure they don't come back to the grove, soon following the trail and the scent of humans. The dragon considers his plan for confronting them, already confident in his victory: threaten them or roar at them, knock them around for a bit, and take back the flowers. It doesn't take long for him to catch up and he sees a man and a woman, the cowardly Morca and her confidant wife Jenn. Jenn is bitching at Morca for being paranoid, reminding him that the flowers they stole is meant to brew healing teas for some sick children.
The dragon decides to prove the man's paranoia correct and launches a surprise attack on the pair, knocking them to the ground with his body and tail. He arrogantly introduces himself saying that they "have the luck to stand in the presence of a bigger and much better-looking predator" which intimidates the husband, but the wife just bluntly asks what the hell he wants from them, claiming they don't have anything of worth. Veledar calls bullshit and tells them that he's here for the flowers, causing Morca to practically piss himself at how they're so beyond dead. Jenn isn't deterred and tells the red dragon about the ill children, saying he isn't going to get in her way. An amused Veledar basically tells her that she's foolish to get on his bad side and asks for proof of her claims, but when he repeats the question, she responds by attempting to threaten him with her sword.
It fails to intimidate as Veledar issues a threat of his own, either leave the flowers and fuck off or face his wrath. Since Morca is too much of a pussy to help his wife, Jenn is forced to surrender the flowers, calling the dragon a heartless bastard for the apparent pain he's caused and tells him that retribution will find him, which Veledar laughs off since it's coming from a thief. He roars to make them flee and summons a magic disk...thing to place the flowers onto, and walks back to the grove. Trixie gets all teary-eyed and huggy as he reattaches the flowers to the cut stems, restoring them. She complements the big guy, which fills his already big ego, and offers him a favor as a reward. The grove is more than just a garden, it's also a portal of sorts that allows a user to be transported to her sister's grove, and she's willing to let him use it as her thanks.
Disappointed by the outcome, Veledar thinks it's better than nothing and tells her he'll contact her if he wants to use it. He also informs her about the location of his lair on top of a mountain if she needs his help again. After some more praise from her to please the dragon, he flies off to his cave. It has the typical hoard you expect from a dragon, gold coins and gems as well as other shit. He relaxes on some furs and contemplates about how to expand his fortune without resorting to the stereotypical "deceit and destruction" like some other dragons; his mother raised him to be better than that and respect the lesser creatures. The two humans didn't deserve to die over some flowers after all.
He dicks around with a goblet and tosses it towards a tower of books before deciding to read his favorite one that features stories about dragons across the world. However, he can't find it anywhere, not in the pile of books nor in the gold piles. It was in its proper place that morning before he went out on his hunt. Then he picks up on something he initially missed: the scent of humans, and it all makes sense. Someone snuck in and stole the book. This absolutely infuriates Veledar, who decides to do a lot more than scare the culprit as he picks up another scent of a gryphon, which leads east towards a village he doesn't remember the name of. The dragon tries to calm himself down, his mother's wisdom about tempering his rage filling his mind, but all he can see is red as he furiously decides to fly towards the town.
Tracking the scent to a wooden house on the outskirts, he bursts through the door like an angry Kool-Aid Man, crashing onto a table and breaking it. There, he starts yelling to the thieves, but stops when he actually sees the occupants, a father named Vern and his young daughter terrified out of their minds. This causes him to hesitate for a moment, but decides to double down since humans are known to be liars and to not look weak, accusing the family of the theft. Of course, the father has no clue what he's talking about and says he's just a carpenter. Veledar asks about his wife and the human answers that she works for the king, then he gets down on his knees to kiss the dragon's toes and begs him to spare his daughters life.
Veledar isn't in the mood for the groveling and, after assuring the human that he won't kill his child, inquires about his wife's location. The father says that she'll arrive at sundown, but the dragon doesn't fully buy it and asks where she is right now, mentioning that the item is very important to him. The daughter speaks up and asks if the item in question is a book, saying that it had pictures of dragons in it, which draws the dragon's attention. He approaches the child, which causes Vern to worry about his intentions and try to attack him, although he's quickly pacified by the dragon tripping the father with his tail, leaving him only making empty threats. Veledar propose a deal to the child, allowing her to touch one of his scales if she tells him where her mother took his book. She doesn't know what her mom did with the book, but she'll answer where she is if he promises not to hurt her.
After promising her that he won't harm her mom, the dragon waits for the child to touch his snout, but that's cut short by Vern yelling to her not to trust the beast and a voice from outside amongst twelve others asking what the hell happened to the house. Vern warns them about the dragon, forcing Veledar to flee just as the child touches him. The voices outside turn out to be armored guards with spears and crossbows, who are completely caught off-guard and unprepared for a big beast like him. Veledar just charges right past them, their bolts harmlessly hitting his scales, and flies away from the village.
He internally smacks himself upside the head for recklessly charging in like that, since he could have just made the humans comfortable with him and give them gifts like his sister would have done if she were in his shoes. After flying through rain clouds to cool himself down, he returns to his lair just as the sun sets and decides to relax by looking at the stars for the rest of the night, deciding to right the wrongs of today tomorrow.
A more of a lighthearted chapter, but one that basically kicks off the plot all the same. Right away, there's a clear contrast between Veledar and Dread Flame. Veledar is a bit of a prick and has the same "I am above you" attitude as dragons typically do, but he has some gold in his heart while Dread Flame is despicable.
An angsty chapter, although understandably so for Arcturus, and it's thankfully not annoying each time he mentions his family here. Already, we can see some fuckery being pulled with Veledar and, considering the prophecy the king mentioned in the prologue, it's hard not to see this as malicious on the king's end instead of him just blindly believing the exaggerations. The citizens reporting it at least has an excuse due to how they were raised on the idea of dragons being evil for a long time.
I'm starting to approach the word limit, so I'll end it here for now. Tune in next time for the next couple chapters of Scales and Honor: The Dragon's Paladin.
Marketing itself as a story for people who are "tired of fantasy stories having dragons playing nothing but fancy horses ferrying around the 'real' adventurers," it began in 2017 and the final chapter of Book 6 was posted in 2023. The rewrite for Book 3 was published back in December of 2024 with more presumably on the way. Like TNoP, this is a long ass series with around 259 chapters (or 227 chapters if you only count the old version of Book 3), although TNoP's sequel has since exceeded those numbers. Unlike TNoP where the 184 chapters are bunched up into one book, Scales and Honor is more spread out across six books, with the last one being a two-parter. The chapters can be pretty damn long too with word counts occasionally going somewhere in the ten thousands, and they all add up to above 2 million words in total for the series.
Be warned that although the first book is free from this, there are quite a few straight and gay sex scenes from the second book onwards, so I'll put NSFW warnings in the spoiler for when that happens. There's also a draft version of the first three books on FurAffinity that I'll be taking a look at from time to time. Keep in mind that the accounts are NSFW as well if you happen to be logged in. Unless otherwise specified, I'll be covering the latest versions of the chapters from the officially published releases.
There's 20 chapters to get through, and a bonus story at the end, so let's do this. Any criticism or feedback to how I'm doing this is appreciated.
After smirking at the golden gryphon symbol on his leather armor that represents Lumara, Skywing leads his flock through one of the openings of twisted branches and lands among a group of ten mortal knights, consisting of humans, elves, and dwarves. Their gear includes full plate armor, shields and brown tabards also with the golden gryphon symbol, swords in leather scabbords, and crossbows embellished with runes and metal vents. A common feature they all share is a "dull resonating hum" that irritates Skywing since the bipeds said they can't hear the noise that "plagued" him. After looking around the area for signs of movement and telling his flight mates to do the same, he walks over to the human leading the expedition, the most valuable man in all of Lumara: King Cornelius.
Skywing bows and informs him that the seer didn't send any ambushers to attack them. Cornelius thanks him for his service and loyalty, and states the darkness seems to be growing tighter with time. They're only there to meet the Emerald Lady and get out. Of course, nobody knows what she looks like. The only info that remains consistent is that she ruled the forest for centuries and has apparently helped the royal crown before by whispering knowledge of either power or the future, something that makes Skywing nervous since there's hardly anybody who can live that long. We learn that one of the terms she set for the meeting is that the king must come to the forest at night and bring no more than two guards.
We're then shown a brief flashback of Skywing and Cornelius earlier in the day, with the gryphon reacting about as well as you'd expect to the idea of only two guards in a dangerous place with a dangerous name. He encourages him to not visit her, but while the king concurs that the idea is unusual, he reminds him "who stands to gain the most from this audience." Skywing practically begs him to bring more guards, but Cornelius interrupts that he obviously will. In his words, he's old, not stupid.
Back in the present, the group slowly continues towards their destination. After some internal complaining about walking at a snail's pace, he calms Petat and some of the knights down by stating that they're just here for a simple conversation. As long as it remains peaceful, it should be fine. It doesn't stay that way for too long since a deep, loud voice in bold text suddenly emits from seemingly every direction of the forest. This naturally startles everybody as the Emerald Lady, which the book tries to hide until the latter half of the chapter for some reason even though it's obvious, amusedly reminds the king in bold text that she only allowed two guards to escort him. The guards are so on edge that a rustling bush is enough for them to shoot red magic pulses with their crossbows at it, making the king tell them to calm the hell down before they burn the whole forest to the ground.
She repeats her question to the king and adds in that he requested the meeting in the first place, calling the extra guards insulting. Cornelius tries to defend himself by basically saying bringing that little manpower in the middle of a dark forest on top of a lot of people wanting him and his kingdom dead out of vengenace, if not by regular thugs or deadly creatures, is unreasonable. The Emerald Lady scoffs at the thought of anything happening in her forest and tells everybody they need a lesson on the consequences of disrespecting their betters.
A fight breaks out, although it's made apparent that the guards don't have a chance in hell of getting out of there, let alone win. Vines that seem to keep coming wrap around most of the guards surrounding the king, dragging them deeper into the forest, and a pit suddenly opens up beneath Petat and two of the other guards before quickly closing and trapping the "insolent trespassers". Knowing this is a lost cause by now, Skywing grabs the king in his talons and tries to fly away from the forest to safety. The life of "the great and wise king of Lumara" is more important than himself and the other knights. He sees Cetaz trying to follow them, but to no avail since the vines grab and drag her away as well. Skywing gets grabbed as well and just as they're about to hit the ground and get dragged away, Cornelius yells out their surrender.
The Emerald Lady chuckles at the "expected result" and releases them from the vines. Nobody else is present except Skywing and Cornelius, with Skywing wanting to kill the cunt whenever he gets the chance. The gryphon and king are told to bow before her to cement their defeat and preserve their lives. Skywing thinks surely that the king would refuse, that he would stand tall, but he's utterly baffled when Cornelius obeys her. Dude, didn't you just see what happened to your friends just because the king defied the agreement terms? Skywing reluctantly does the same when the king asks him to, pressing his beak against the earth that stole so many of his companions, and the Emerald Lady reveals herself, ordering the gryphon to keep his eyes down lest she considers it an act of defiance.
Even from his position, Skywing can tell that the figure is a dragon that's at least three times larger than him, covered in emerald green scales. For reference to the size, Skywing is listed as six feet tall on the latest size chart, so she's around eighteen feet tall.
Cornelius asks her to elaborate and she obliges, stating that it will help him locate the dragon, although it's not an automatic win button against the threat. Despite being a "lesser being," he needs to use his wits and wisdom that she knows he has since he wouldn't be king otherwise. The orb will soon be found by a wizard named Vargus, located in western Lumarian lands past the dragon neck mountains, in a temple close to his house near Gladenhill. Cornelius is eager to send his knights to retrieve it right away, but the Emerald Lady quickly shuts that down, telling him to wait two weeks before doing so. On top of that, she requests that he designates Arcturus Lund, a dragon-hunter, as the head of the squad unless the king wants to risk failure, although she stays vague on why him in particular outside of that.
She then tells the king and Skywing to get out of the forest before she decides to keep amusing herself. When Skywing asks about the other guards, she declares that they belong to her now as punishment for breaking the "two guards only" terms. If the prisoners refuse such a prospect, then she'll just turn them into stone statues as a deterrent for everybody else. With no other choice, Cornelius climbs on Skywing's back and they fly off. The gryphon swears to himself that one day he'll get back at her to avenge his fellow soldiers, and to rescue them from the forest if any of them survived.
Here is where it originally started on FurAffinity before the prologue was retroactively added later on. We jump ahead two weeks later and get some expositon about Lumara: it's a large nation known for very cold winters and rainy summers that can soak the countryside for months. Despite this, several races live there and even though the majority of them were human, they weren't discriminated for it. The kingdom has garnered a reputation to other nations for being violent and constantly expanding their borders. This is thanks to Lumara discovering ruins that contained the knowledge to create mana crystals, something that was once used by a dragon empire to rule over mortals for eons, leading to the kingdom prospering and evolving at an unprecedented rate. They built flying ships, floating castles as high as the clouds, and weapons that could blast beams of concentrated magic energy. With all of this, they "spread this newfound prosperity" to the rest of the continent of Sethera.
Vargus has returned home for the night from one of the dragon empire ruins, red orb in hand, finding himself "blissfully unaware" of a group of Lumara's knights enroute to snatch it from him. We then cut to the RLA (Royal Lumara Airship) Destiny, a seasoned and worn airship powered by mana crystals with a large balloon in place of a mast, and get some details on it's design, weaponry, and crew and whatnot. A group of ten experienced knights consisting of "men and women of different heights" are being inspected by their leader and our human protagonist, a twenty-three year old Paladin named Arcturus Lund, having risen through the ranks quickly to become one.
After correcting Harrison about his energy crossbow being on the wrong shoulder, Arcturus alleviates the worries of his men, who are concerned about going up against a wizard. He says that although the wizard might be full of experience, they will emerge victorious with men full of honor and skill by his side, and tells them to not give the spell slinger a chance to cast anything. We're then told about Arcturus' energy crossbow, that he received it during his promotion and he marks down on it all the lives he's taken with the weapon, and his weathered longsword that he received when he first joined at fifteen, which he refuses to replace despite the blacksmith trying to say otherwise. He thinks back to his wife and son, Selina and Geoffery, and prays that he'll safely return to them. This night wasn't going to be an exception. Mark down your death flags, folks, because I sure did.
He flips his visor down as the ship descends upon the wizard's disheveled castle, which wasn't mentioned to them, although Arcturus thinks it fitting for an old wizard and jokes about what kind of knights they would be to strike down an elderly man. The group scans the outside area and don't find any weaponry, but wizards are always crafty and sneaky. The paladin thinks to himself that at least he isn't dealing with a dragon; that's a challenge that he's not sure his knights will be able to deal with despite their training. He tells his knights that the Destiny will support them with its beam cannons and, combined with their energy crossbows, their target won't be able to get away short of riding on the back of a dragon, the mere thought of which causes the group to break out into laughter.
As they get closer, Arcturus spots small cracks in the walls that are signs of arcane crafting, pondering if the wizard knew of their arrival and whether they were in for a nasty surprise when they enter. The planks touch down and the knights exit the airship, with Arcturus basically radioing them by a rune on the side of his helmet to retrieve them when he sends out a flare. They waste no time moving in and see more evidence of magic fuckery, walls with odd angles, growths of stone, and a wooden house attached to one of the large towers. The arcane-tampered door is big as shit, around thirty feet tall and wide, and heavy enough that it takes half of the group to even crack it open. They enter weapons drawn, and it's evident from the long-ass hallway that it's a lot bigger on the inside than what it looked like from the outside. It's filled with odd thingamajigs that seem random, along with magically lit torches that causes Arcturus to again ponder whether the wizard was expecting someone.
He tells his men to spread out, noting the wizard's self paintings whose eyes seem to follow him as he moved. A half-orc woman knight named Thraka, one of his most trusted followers, busts down one of the doors and fires multiple shots inside, although nobody's there, making someone joke about how theirprincess wizard is in another castle. The rest of the hallway remains rather uneventful and they soon come to an intersection of doors with mismatching colored handles. Arcturus orders his men to form pairs for each door, and he enters the bronze one after a female newbie named Erin checks for traps. He finds the red orb on a pedestal and turns around to ask the others what they found, but finds a stone wall with no sign of the door he just went through instead. He's all alone.
Raising his crossbow, he scans the area for movement or another way out, but he finds none. Soon, he hears a faint roar from seemingly far away, spooking the paladin enough for him to squeeze the trigger and let off three shots at the wall. After a few moments of trying to find the source of the roar, he looks at the red orb and is itched in the back of his mind to grab it. It was his task to retrieve the orb for the king, after all. He takes one step, then another, then another. Despite his reluctance, he grabs the orb and prepares for a trap to spring out, but nothing happens. He comments about how easy it was, but is instantly proven wrong by Vargus saying not to judge a book by its cover. Arcturus' first instinct was to grab his crossbow, but he's unable to move his arms at all.
Vargus says he doesn't know how the hell the intruder managed to bypass his defenses. Uh, bitch, what defenses? They literally just walked in and you weren't even expecting them. Regardless, the old man wants the paladin to return the orb to the pedestal. Arcturus snarks that he forgot to say please, but feels compelled to move towards him, and Vargus replies that it wouldn't make a difference either way. As the paladin tries to get control of his body back, he asks what the red orb is even worth to a man who can build a castle with magic, and Vargus condescendingly responds that a brute wouldn't understand his intentions. Arcturus says "try me" and tries to use the distraction to grab his crossbow, but it doesn't work as the wizard sees this and flings the weapon away with "a twitch of his wrist."
The wizard complements the trickery, useless as it was, and that Arcturus would do well to listen to a wizard. He asks the name of the "enforcer of our Dictator's will," which Arcturus proudly gives along with his paladin rank. Vargus is amused but overall unimpressed at the title since, while still a prestigious one earned by skill, they're far less powerful compared to the past where they can wield magic that can rival his own. He says that they used to stand for something, but now Arcturus is just "a flea straddling the fur of a beast beyond his understanding." Arcturus snarks again that he's sorry to disappoint and he'll pass it along to the king once Vargus is captured. The wizard reminds him that the paladin won't have that opportunity since he's the one whose body and mind will soon be under his control.
Vargus doesn't get that chance, however, as Thraka and the rest of the knights manage to locate them and bust down the door. The wizard puts up an energy shield just as they began shooting their crossbows, causing the shots to ricochet into the walls. They pelt the wizard with shot after shot, but Vargus eventually fires back with a wave of magic that renders the crossbows useless. Erin manages to pull her knife out and throw it into his shoulder, causing him to lose control over Arcturus, who manages to duck just in time to avoid the rays of fire Vargus casts in retaliation. Harrison is hit by the fire, but Arcturus takes advantage of the distraction and shoots him in the back with a blue stunning bolt with his crossbow, which wasn't touched by the wizard's magic, rendering him unconscious.
The knights check on Arcturus, but the orb in his hand seems to be calling to him, and Thraka has to shake him out of his trance. He shows off the orb and tell them that it couldn't stay in Vargus' hands since he's "rebel filth" and an ear bender at that, but Harrison explains that they only fought the wizard's summons off-screen. Arcturus orders the spell slinger to be taken prisoner on the airship for interrogation later. How are they going to make sure Vargus can't escape by simply using magic? The knights just "shackle his hands, cover his mouth, throw him in a cell" and call it a day. That's apparently it for someone who can fling shit with the flick of his wrist. No mention of the restraints being magic-proof.
Yes, I'm aware of what happens later, but nobody knows that right now. Vargus is just a normal wizard to these guys.
After getting on the airship and briefly pondering about why the orb is so important to Vargus as the Destiny begins to return to the capital, he retreats to his quarters, where he discards his armor and weapons before falling asleep in his bed. Cue him having a dream as he's suddenly outside in a thunderstorm and hears a powerful roar. He sees a giant platinum dragon descending from the clouds and landing next to him, which he notes as a female based on his studies. The dragoness lets out another powerful roar which wakes Arcturus up with a start. He doesn't ponder on it for long as Harrison knocks on the door and tells him that the prisoner wishes to speak to the paladin. Wait, didn't Arcturus order his men to cover Vargus' mouth to prevent any spells? How would he even make a request without it?
Arcturus somehow doesn't pick up on that and reprimand Harrison as he tells him on the way there that Vargus suddenly began talking in either a different language or gibberish before asking for him, which the soldiers responded by just tightening his binds. When the paladin and prisoner are face-to-face, Arcturus tells him that causing a ruckus is just going to make his captivity more difficult, but Vargus gets to the point by saying he knows about Arcturus' dream about the platinum dragon. The wizard says it's from touching the orb like he did, but Arcturus doesn't believe him and demands to know how he knows about it. After some thinking, the spell slinger tells him to send the other soldiers away so they can discuss it further. Harrison is hesitant about his superior being alone with a wizard, but Arcturus isn't deterred and orders them out, telling them to stay close and intervene if anything happens.
Now with just the two of them, Vargus almost immediately laughs at Arcturus believing a wizard like him. Arcturus says he can't do anything because he's tied up, but Vargus condescendingly reminds the "whelp" that some types of magic can be cast without gestures or words. This strikes a nerve in the paladin as he threatens the prisoner and says that a selfish man like him knows nothing about duty and honor, which Vargus obviously brushes off. He informs the paladin that what he felt was the orb's residual energy playing tricks on him and Arcturus asks where the rest of the magic has gone. Vargus almost immediately talks down to him again and hypothesizes that he has already harnessed the orb's power and that the paladin will only have a broken orb to show the king when he gets to the city. Assuming he even gets that far, that is, since Vargus states he's only still locked up in chains because he allowed himself to be.
Arcturus threatens to kill him if he tries casting anything and recalls how he fell to his stunning bolt, but Vargus arrogantly claims that the only reason the castle mission went as it did for the soldiers was because he allowed it so he can share his words. Considering the beginning narration, yeah, bullshit. Although the paladin is more focused on how the wizard's voice keeps getting deeper with each passing word, he doesn't think about it for long since the wizard's appearance suddenly begins changing. His teeth is sharper, his eye color change, his pupils into reptile-like slits. Once more, Arcturus finds himself unable to move despite his efforts.
The noise and visibility of the area literally melt away like rain as Vargus frees himself from his binds, and states that the soldiers didn't face him when they captured his "pitiful vessel." His appearance continues to slowly shift, his hand turning into talons, as he begins to peer into Arcturus' mind. We see visions of Selina cooking dinner while being clearly worried about her husband, which the spell slinger takes note of and says he chose to do the mission despite her protests. While doubtful whether or not he abandoned her for his duties, he swears to make it back to her as Vargus taunts him over knowing her and Geoffery's names. After some more bragging about how he has the paladin in his magical grasp, he sees another vision of him in a field and finds out that his captive is a Lund, a family of dragon-slayers.
Arcturus struggles again and, this time, he manages to break free from the spell and sees what's really happening: him in the cell raising his sword in one hand and holding a cackling Vargus with the other while Harrison and the other guard managing to restrain him just after the spell broke. According to Harrison, what really happened was that Arcturus just entered the cell with his sword drawn, no face-to-face talk or him ordering his men out at all. Arcturus is pissed, but all he does is simply gag Vargus' mouth, say that he'll meet justice at the capital, and leave. Uh, that's it? Dude, he's demonstrably not a "defenseless man" like you put it a couple paragraphs ago. Even if you somehow aren't the most knowledgable on magic, shouldn't you put more effort into the restraints or at the very least knock his ass out? Surely your men would understand.
Hours pass by, still no mention of any reprimands, and we get a little background info on mages. They aren't common inside Lumara, excluding the High Wizard, and you have to go west to Rothdell to see them, as the population is ruled by a council of three wizards with territory divided between them similar to Lumara with their lords. Arcturus once again is comforted at the thought of coming home to his wife and son and flashes the death flags in neon lights as we see Lumara's capital city, Entis. City lamps, wooden and stone houses, banners of every color for nobles, guilds, announcements, what have you. Two large fortresses and the castle floating in the air with the help of large mana crystals, which have been there since before the elves showed up long ago. When he entered the castle as a child, his father would point out the claw marks on the outer walls and say how his ancestor killed the attacking dragon in his final moments.
Just as Arcturus finishes putting on his armor to greet his wife, however, he's suddenly interrupted by massive explosions within the ship. With no time to lose, he gets his weapons and "walked along the hall." A little more urgency would be nice, especially since he hears screams of his men and sees the corpse of one of his knights, an elf named Croecear. A mortally wounded Harrison calls for the paladin as smoke begins to fill the hallway, and informs him that the wizard transformed into a big beast. After swearing to honor the soldiers, ''now'' he runs deeper into the ship as he sees more damage to the airship and blood and corpses along the way, some of which are barely recognizable. Arcturus swears to kill Vargus since he's too dangerous, the king's orders be damned. He arrives in the engine room, with a hole in the ceiling and more dead knights aplenty just after the beast, a dragon, impales Thraka on his talons.
The dragon grins at the paladin, blood dripping from his maw, and smugly taunts him by saying he would have kept the knights alive for a little longer just so Arcturus could watch them get killed. He takes immense pleasure from the deaths of the paladin's "feeble kin" and "lesser minds" as the airship is clearly on its last legs from the damages. Arcturus begins to boast about how he's still standing, but the dragon interrupts him when he basically still thinks that the dragon is Vargus after drinking a polymorph potion, telling Arcturus not to compare him to a pitful excuse for a creature. After asking who he really is, the paladin gets a bit intimidated when the dragon approaches him, deciding to "entertain" him for being amusing, and states that his name (or rather, his title) is actually Dread Flame.
With a battle now imminent, Arcturus activates his crossbow, something that surprises the dragon since he arrogantly thinks it's suicide. Nonetheless, Dread Flame unleashes his fire breath on the paladin, which he dives out of the way from and counters with three bolts into the dragon's neck. The dragon tries to repeat the attack, but finds out that the bolts hit their target and disabled his fire glands. His Plan B is to simply tear the paladin apart with his claws and pounces towards Arcturus, but Arcturus quickly notices an exposed spot from his men's previous attempt to kill him and fires into it while trying to rolling out of the way. It also hits it's mark, making the dragon roar in pain, but Arcturus wasn't as quick to dodge this time as one of Dread Flame's claws still manages to slice him, causing him to lose his grip on the crossbow, which breaks. The dragon is impressed with the accurate shots as he leaps to attack again. Whipping out his shield, the human manages to block the giant claws, but the force behind the swing still manages to throw him back several feet.
Dread Flame brags that he's holding back and that the paladin's armor wouldn't save him otherwise, which Arcturus says is the last mistake he'll make as he pulls out his sword. They exchange some more blows, Arcturus blocking and dodging the dragon's claws and sharp teeth, until he sees an opening and stabs into an unarmored spot in Dread Flame's body. This causes the beast to back off, this time genuinely shocked at the paladin's strength and complementing him for it, but still swears to kill the human, arrogantly boasting about how the species are inferior and how they are meant to "kneel before their betters." Arcturus counters his words by saying the dragon is retreating from said human and "if you make a god bleed, people will stop believing in him, and you, dear dragon, bleed all over the floor of my ship."
Of course, this doesn't phase Dread Flame at all as he grabs the damaged engine and states one key difference: a dragon can fly while a human can't. With a flap of his wings, he rips the engine off and flies through the hole in the ceiling, which finally kills the Destiny and it begins plunging towards the ground. Arcturus scrambles to grab a chain on the wall to keep from being flung back and tries to find a way out, and soon remembers the escape boats that came on every airship. Although the closest one requires him to swing across a big gap from the chain he was holding onto, he doesn't have any safer alternatives and leaps towards it with all he's got, which succeeds. After a bit of struggling for a hold and "yet another" mention of his family, the paladin pushes the activation lever and the lifeboat shoots itself away from the sinking airship, just in time for the Destiny to crash into Entis' streets and cause some destruction.
Almost immediately, Dread Flame is hot on Arcturus' tail and the human moves the lifeboat to avoid another one of the dragon's flame attacks from his now-recovered fire glands. The dragon swears to "wound [him] deeper than [he's] wounded me" as he gains on him. Turning the airboat around, the paladin grabs a spear that happened to be in the boat and prepares to attack, speeding the airboat up as fast as it can go. Just as the two opponents are about to collide, Dread Flame dodges in an attempt to avoid the spear, but Arcturus changes the airship's direction to ensure that he stabs the dragon into his chest through the speedy momentum. Arcturus is flung into the agonized dragon from said momentum, but recovers enough to pull out his dagger to stab at him until he found another unarmored spot, which he promptly takes advantage of.
Dread Flame falls towards the ground as he struggles to claw and tear Arcturus off of him, but the armor saves him as they crash into a chimney and then the street, which separates the pair. Both of them are considerably wounded, but aren't out of the action just yet, evidenced by the dragon attempting one last pounce and the paladin dodging it. Dread Flame tries to boast again, but Arcturus passes a speech check and calls his bluff which causes the red beast to admit that he's injured. Knowing that he doesn't have a chance at winning, Dread Flame decides on a different course of action: since the Lunds killed so many dragons, it's only fair to return the favor to them. Arcturus soon realizes what he's saying and tries to convince him that his family did nothing wrong to the dragon personally unlike the paladin. However, this fails since Dread Flame is determined to hurt him in a way his claws and teeth can't.
There's nothing Arcturus can do to stop him as the dragon takes to the skies to unleash his fury on Selina and Geoffery. Despite the paladin's own injuries, the sheer adrenaline is enough to keep him going as he rushes to his family, praying for their safety. Parts of his armor falls apart from the strain as he hears screams around him, bells that signal an attack on the city, and soon rounds the corner to see his house on fire. Dread Flame is closeby, having collapsed from his existing injuries, plus another spear in his chest from a dead guard. Arcturus tries to run to save his wife and son, but the dragon grabs his leg when he trips to stop him, wanting to saviour the paladin watching his family die, grinning all the while.
Not having any of that, the paladin uses his sword to stab him through the eye and into his brain to finally kill him. It still takes a little bit to free himself from Dread Flame's tight grip, and he rushes into the burning house with no time to spare. He searches room after room, memories engulfed in flames and smoke filling his lungs, and suddenly hears Geoffery cry out for his daddy, who is wounded from the debris and smoke. Selina, however, wasn't lucky enough as he sees her burned body trapped under a fallen beam. Arcturus quickly flees from the burning home, carrying his son to safety in the panicking streets, and screams for a cleric. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Geoffery's injuries are also fatal as he tells his father that he saw the same silver dragon from the paladin's dream. Afterwards, Geoffery's body goes limp and no amount of resuscitation can save him. All Arcturus can do is scream, sob, and grieve for his wife and son.
Vargus has returned home for the night from one of the dragon empire ruins, red orb in hand, finding himself "blissfully unaware" of a group of Lumara's knights enroute to snatch it from him. We then cut to the RLA (Royal Lumara Airship) Destiny, a seasoned and worn airship powered by mana crystals with a large balloon in place of a mast, and get some details on it's design, weaponry, and crew and whatnot. A group of ten experienced knights consisting of "men and women of different heights" are being inspected by their leader and our human protagonist, a twenty-three year old Paladin named Arcturus Lund, having risen through the ranks quickly to become one.
He flips his visor down as the ship descends upon the wizard's disheveled castle, which wasn't mentioned to them, although Arcturus thinks it fitting for an old wizard and jokes about what kind of knights they would be to strike down an elderly man. The group scans the outside area and don't find any weaponry, but wizards are always crafty and sneaky. The paladin thinks to himself that at least he isn't dealing with a dragon; that's a challenge that he's not sure his knights will be able to deal with despite their training. He tells his knights that the Destiny will support them with its beam cannons and, combined with their energy crossbows, their target won't be able to get away short of riding on the back of a dragon, the mere thought of which causes the group to break out into laughter.
As they get closer, Arcturus spots small cracks in the walls that are signs of arcane crafting, pondering if the wizard knew of their arrival and whether they were in for a nasty surprise when they enter. The planks touch down and the knights exit the airship, with Arcturus basically radioing them by a rune on the side of his helmet to retrieve them when he sends out a flare. They waste no time moving in and see more evidence of magic fuckery, walls with odd angles, growths of stone, and a wooden house attached to one of the large towers. The arcane-tampered door is big as shit, around thirty feet tall and wide, and heavy enough that it takes half of the group to even crack it open. They enter weapons drawn, and it's evident from the long-ass hallway that it's a lot bigger on the inside than what it looked like from the outside. It's filled with odd thingamajigs that seem random, along with magically lit torches that causes Arcturus to again ponder whether the wizard was expecting someone.
He tells his men to spread out, noting the wizard's self paintings whose eyes seem to follow him as he moved. A half-orc woman knight named Thraka, one of his most trusted followers, busts down one of the doors and fires multiple shots inside, although nobody's there, making someone joke about how their
Raising his crossbow, he scans the area for movement or another way out, but he finds none. Soon, he hears a faint roar from seemingly far away, spooking the paladin enough for him to squeeze the trigger and let off three shots at the wall. After a few moments of trying to find the source of the roar, he looks at the red orb and is itched in the back of his mind to grab it. It was his task to retrieve the orb for the king, after all. He takes one step, then another, then another. Despite his reluctance, he grabs the orb and prepares for a trap to spring out, but nothing happens. He comments about how easy it was, but is instantly proven wrong by Vargus saying not to judge a book by its cover. Arcturus' first instinct was to grab his crossbow, but he's unable to move his arms at all.
Vargus says he doesn't know how the hell the intruder managed to bypass his defenses. Uh, bitch, what defenses? They literally just walked in and you weren't even expecting them. Regardless, the old man wants the paladin to return the orb to the pedestal. Arcturus snarks that he forgot to say please, but feels compelled to move towards him, and Vargus replies that it wouldn't make a difference either way. As the paladin tries to get control of his body back, he asks what the red orb is even worth to a man who can build a castle with magic, and Vargus condescendingly responds that a brute wouldn't understand his intentions. Arcturus says "try me" and tries to use the distraction to grab his crossbow, but it doesn't work as the wizard sees this and flings the weapon away with "a twitch of his wrist."
The wizard complements the trickery, useless as it was, and that Arcturus would do well to listen to a wizard. He asks the name of the "enforcer of our Dictator's will," which Arcturus proudly gives along with his paladin rank. Vargus is amused but overall unimpressed at the title since, while still a prestigious one earned by skill, they're far less powerful compared to the past where they can wield magic that can rival his own. He says that they used to stand for something, but now Arcturus is just "a flea straddling the fur of a beast beyond his understanding." Arcturus snarks again that he's sorry to disappoint and he'll pass it along to the king once Vargus is captured. The wizard reminds him that the paladin won't have that opportunity since he's the one whose body and mind will soon be under his control.
Vargus doesn't get that chance, however, as Thraka and the rest of the knights manage to locate them and bust down the door. The wizard puts up an energy shield just as they began shooting their crossbows, causing the shots to ricochet into the walls. They pelt the wizard with shot after shot, but Vargus eventually fires back with a wave of magic that renders the crossbows useless. Erin manages to pull her knife out and throw it into his shoulder, causing him to lose control over Arcturus, who manages to duck just in time to avoid the rays of fire Vargus casts in retaliation. Harrison is hit by the fire, but Arcturus takes advantage of the distraction and shoots him in the back with a blue stunning bolt with his crossbow, which wasn't touched by the wizard's magic, rendering him unconscious.
The knights check on Arcturus, but the orb in his hand seems to be calling to him, and Thraka has to shake him out of his trance. He shows off the orb and tell them that it couldn't stay in Vargus' hands since he's "rebel filth" and an ear bender at that, but Harrison explains that they only fought the wizard's summons off-screen. Arcturus orders the spell slinger to be taken prisoner on the airship for interrogation later. How are they going to make sure Vargus can't escape by simply using magic? The knights just "shackle his hands, cover his mouth, throw him in a cell" and call it a day. That's apparently it for someone who can fling shit with the flick of his wrist. No mention of the restraints being magic-proof.
After getting on the airship and briefly pondering about why the orb is so important to Vargus as the Destiny begins to return to the capital, he retreats to his quarters, where he discards his armor and weapons before falling asleep in his bed. Cue him having a dream as he's suddenly outside in a thunderstorm and hears a powerful roar. He sees a giant platinum dragon descending from the clouds and landing next to him, which he notes as a female based on his studies. The dragoness lets out another powerful roar which wakes Arcturus up with a start. He doesn't ponder on it for long as Harrison knocks on the door and tells him that the prisoner wishes to speak to the paladin. Wait, didn't Arcturus order his men to cover Vargus' mouth to prevent any spells? How would he even make a request without it?
Arcturus somehow doesn't pick up on that and reprimand Harrison as he tells him on the way there that Vargus suddenly began talking in either a different language or gibberish before asking for him, which the soldiers responded by just tightening his binds. When the paladin and prisoner are face-to-face, Arcturus tells him that causing a ruckus is just going to make his captivity more difficult, but Vargus gets to the point by saying he knows about Arcturus' dream about the platinum dragon. The wizard says it's from touching the orb like he did, but Arcturus doesn't believe him and demands to know how he knows about it. After some thinking, the spell slinger tells him to send the other soldiers away so they can discuss it further. Harrison is hesitant about his superior being alone with a wizard, but Arcturus isn't deterred and orders them out, telling them to stay close and intervene if anything happens.
Now with just the two of them, Vargus almost immediately laughs at Arcturus believing a wizard like him. Arcturus says he can't do anything because he's tied up, but Vargus condescendingly reminds the "whelp" that some types of magic can be cast without gestures or words. This strikes a nerve in the paladin as he threatens the prisoner and says that a selfish man like him knows nothing about duty and honor, which Vargus obviously brushes off. He informs the paladin that what he felt was the orb's residual energy playing tricks on him and Arcturus asks where the rest of the magic has gone. Vargus almost immediately talks down to him again and hypothesizes that he has already harnessed the orb's power and that the paladin will only have a broken orb to show the king when he gets to the city. Assuming he even gets that far, that is, since Vargus states he's only still locked up in chains because he allowed himself to be.
Arcturus threatens to kill him if he tries casting anything and recalls how he fell to his stunning bolt, but Vargus arrogantly claims that the only reason the castle mission went as it did for the soldiers was because he allowed it so he can share his words. Considering the beginning narration, yeah, bullshit. Although the paladin is more focused on how the wizard's voice keeps getting deeper with each passing word, he doesn't think about it for long since the wizard's appearance suddenly begins changing. His teeth is sharper, his eye color change, his pupils into reptile-like slits. Once more, Arcturus finds himself unable to move despite his efforts.
The noise and visibility of the area literally melt away like rain as Vargus frees himself from his binds, and states that the soldiers didn't face him when they captured his "pitiful vessel." His appearance continues to slowly shift, his hand turning into talons, as he begins to peer into Arcturus' mind. We see visions of Selina cooking dinner while being clearly worried about her husband, which the spell slinger takes note of and says he chose to do the mission despite her protests. While doubtful whether or not he abandoned her for his duties, he swears to make it back to her as Vargus taunts him over knowing her and Geoffery's names. After some more bragging about how he has the paladin in his magical grasp, he sees another vision of him in a field and finds out that his captive is a Lund, a family of dragon-slayers.
Arcturus struggles again and, this time, he manages to break free from the spell and sees what's really happening: him in the cell raising his sword in one hand and holding a cackling Vargus with the other while Harrison and the other guard managing to restrain him just after the spell broke. According to Harrison, what really happened was that Arcturus just entered the cell with his sword drawn, no face-to-face talk or him ordering his men out at all. Arcturus is pissed, but all he does is simply gag Vargus' mouth, say that he'll meet justice at the capital, and leave. Uh, that's it? Dude, he's demonstrably not a "defenseless man" like you put it a couple paragraphs ago. Even if you somehow aren't the most knowledgable on magic, shouldn't you put more effort into the restraints or at the very least knock his ass out? Surely your men would understand.
Hours pass by, still no mention of any reprimands, and we get a little background info on mages. They aren't common inside Lumara, excluding the High Wizard, and you have to go west to Rothdell to see them, as the population is ruled by a council of three wizards with territory divided between them similar to Lumara with their lords. Arcturus once again is comforted at the thought of coming home to his wife and son and flashes the death flags in neon lights as we see Lumara's capital city, Entis. City lamps, wooden and stone houses, banners of every color for nobles, guilds, announcements, what have you. Two large fortresses and the castle floating in the air with the help of large mana crystals, which have been there since before the elves showed up long ago. When he entered the castle as a child, his father would point out the claw marks on the outer walls and say how his ancestor killed the attacking dragon in his final moments.
Just as Arcturus finishes putting on his armor to greet his wife, however, he's suddenly interrupted by massive explosions within the ship. With no time to lose, he gets his weapons and "walked along the hall." A little more urgency would be nice, especially since he hears screams of his men and sees the corpse of one of his knights, an elf named Croecear. A mortally wounded Harrison calls for the paladin as smoke begins to fill the hallway, and informs him that the wizard transformed into a big beast. After swearing to honor the soldiers, ''now'' he runs deeper into the ship as he sees more damage to the airship and blood and corpses along the way, some of which are barely recognizable. Arcturus swears to kill Vargus since he's too dangerous, the king's orders be damned. He arrives in the engine room, with a hole in the ceiling and more dead knights aplenty just after the beast, a dragon, impales Thraka on his talons.
The dragon grins at the paladin, blood dripping from his maw, and smugly taunts him by saying he would have kept the knights alive for a little longer just so Arcturus could watch them get killed. He takes immense pleasure from the deaths of the paladin's "feeble kin" and "lesser minds" as the airship is clearly on its last legs from the damages. Arcturus begins to boast about how he's still standing, but the dragon interrupts him when he basically still thinks that the dragon is Vargus after drinking a polymorph potion, telling Arcturus not to compare him to a pitful excuse for a creature. After asking who he really is, the paladin gets a bit intimidated when the dragon approaches him, deciding to "entertain" him for being amusing, and states that his name (or rather, his title) is actually Dread Flame.
With a battle now imminent, Arcturus activates his crossbow, something that surprises the dragon since he arrogantly thinks it's suicide. Nonetheless, Dread Flame unleashes his fire breath on the paladin, which he dives out of the way from and counters with three bolts into the dragon's neck. The dragon tries to repeat the attack, but finds out that the bolts hit their target and disabled his fire glands. His Plan B is to simply tear the paladin apart with his claws and pounces towards Arcturus, but Arcturus quickly notices an exposed spot from his men's previous attempt to kill him and fires into it while trying to rolling out of the way. It also hits it's mark, making the dragon roar in pain, but Arcturus wasn't as quick to dodge this time as one of Dread Flame's claws still manages to slice him, causing him to lose his grip on the crossbow, which breaks. The dragon is impressed with the accurate shots as he leaps to attack again. Whipping out his shield, the human manages to block the giant claws, but the force behind the swing still manages to throw him back several feet.
Dread Flame brags that he's holding back and that the paladin's armor wouldn't save him otherwise, which Arcturus says is the last mistake he'll make as he pulls out his sword. They exchange some more blows, Arcturus blocking and dodging the dragon's claws and sharp teeth, until he sees an opening and stabs into an unarmored spot in Dread Flame's body. This causes the beast to back off, this time genuinely shocked at the paladin's strength and complementing him for it, but still swears to kill the human, arrogantly boasting about how the species are inferior and how they are meant to "kneel before their betters." Arcturus counters his words by saying the dragon is retreating from said human and "if you make a god bleed, people will stop believing in him, and you, dear dragon, bleed all over the floor of my ship."
Of course, this doesn't phase Dread Flame at all as he grabs the damaged engine and states one key difference: a dragon can fly while a human can't. With a flap of his wings, he rips the engine off and flies through the hole in the ceiling, which finally kills the Destiny and it begins plunging towards the ground. Arcturus scrambles to grab a chain on the wall to keep from being flung back and tries to find a way out, and soon remembers the escape boats that came on every airship. Although the closest one requires him to swing across a big gap from the chain he was holding onto, he doesn't have any safer alternatives and leaps towards it with all he's got, which succeeds. After a bit of struggling for a hold and "yet another" mention of his family, the paladin pushes the activation lever and the lifeboat shoots itself away from the sinking airship, just in time for the Destiny to crash into Entis' streets and cause some destruction.
Almost immediately, Dread Flame is hot on Arcturus' tail and the human moves the lifeboat to avoid another one of the dragon's flame attacks from his now-recovered fire glands. The dragon swears to "wound [him] deeper than [he's] wounded me" as he gains on him. Turning the airboat around, the paladin grabs a spear that happened to be in the boat and prepares to attack, speeding the airboat up as fast as it can go. Just as the two opponents are about to collide, Dread Flame dodges in an attempt to avoid the spear, but Arcturus changes the airship's direction to ensure that he stabs the dragon into his chest through the speedy momentum. Arcturus is flung into the agonized dragon from said momentum, but recovers enough to pull out his dagger to stab at him until he found another unarmored spot, which he promptly takes advantage of.
Dread Flame falls towards the ground as he struggles to claw and tear Arcturus off of him, but the armor saves him as they crash into a chimney and then the street, which separates the pair. Both of them are considerably wounded, but aren't out of the action just yet, evidenced by the dragon attempting one last pounce and the paladin dodging it. Dread Flame tries to boast again, but Arcturus passes a speech check and calls his bluff which causes the red beast to admit that he's injured. Knowing that he doesn't have a chance at winning, Dread Flame decides on a different course of action: since the Lunds killed so many dragons, it's only fair to return the favor to them. Arcturus soon realizes what he's saying and tries to convince him that his family did nothing wrong to the dragon personally unlike the paladin. However, this fails since Dread Flame is determined to hurt him in a way his claws and teeth can't.
There's nothing Arcturus can do to stop him as the dragon takes to the skies to unleash his fury on Selina and Geoffery. Despite the paladin's own injuries, the sheer adrenaline is enough to keep him going as he rushes to his family, praying for their safety. Parts of his armor falls apart from the strain as he hears screams around him, bells that signal an attack on the city, and soon rounds the corner to see his house on fire. Dread Flame is closeby, having collapsed from his existing injuries, plus another spear in his chest from a dead guard. Arcturus tries to run to save his wife and son, but the dragon grabs his leg when he trips to stop him, wanting to saviour the paladin watching his family die, grinning all the while.
Not having any of that, the paladin uses his sword to stab him through the eye and into his brain to finally kill him. It still takes a little bit to free himself from Dread Flame's tight grip, and he rushes into the burning house with no time to spare. He searches room after room, memories engulfed in flames and smoke filling his lungs, and suddenly hears Geoffery cry out for his daddy, who is wounded from the debris and smoke. Selina, however, wasn't lucky enough as he sees her burned body trapped under a fallen beam. Arcturus quickly flees from the burning home, carrying his son to safety in the panicking streets, and screams for a cleric. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Geoffery's injuries are also fatal as he tells his father that he saw the same silver dragon from the paladin's dream. Afterwards, Geoffery's body goes limp and no amount of resuscitation can save him. All Arcturus can do is scream, sob, and grieve for his wife and son.
The red dragon is about to take off again when he hears a faint cry from behind a bush, smaller than a little cat. While he remembers being scolded by his mother for peeking on some elves and about privacy in general, he brushes it aside and investigates the crying. And by investigate, I mean he just rips the bush from the ground after a couple attempts to move it. It turns out to be a small crying fairy, who isn't too thrilled about her bush being taken away and complains about it while calling him a scale-head and a brute. After some internal complaints of his own about how a "lesser creature" addressed him without respect, more scolding from the upset fairy, and her mentioning some nasty humans, she demands that he gives her shrub back, which he obliges.
Restraining the urge to growl at her, Veledar recalls her mother's advice about how there's a more worthy reward to be gained instead of coin or gems and presses her about the humans she brought up. She hesitates at first and wonders why he's caring about her instead of burning a village or kidnapping maidens, which further irritates him, but he politely persuades her that he's willing to help for the right price. The fairy doesn't have any money for the egotistical dragon, but elaborates that the humans trampled her grove and stole all of her flowers, including her favorite orange one. After a brief misunderstanding over the word illuminate and her promising not to use spells on him, she introduces herself as Trixie and asks for his name.
Veledar refuses to give his real name to a lesser creature, especially one who isn't that special yet, so he does what dragons do and uses his title instead: Crimson Sky. For simplicity, I'm going to keep calling him Veledar here. There's also a bit of an odd sentence where he apparently thinks "she proved herself somewhat reliable" even though they just met for a few minutes. Trixie tells the dragon to follow her into the grove, which he does and sees the poor state it's in. The mere sight of it is enough to make her cry again, which makes Veledar pity her even though it doesn't impact him the same way, and she says that the humans didn't bother giving a reason as to why they did it.
He bites back a dickish remark since it would obviously upset her further and finds boot prints leaving the clearing. With pride, Veledar declares to a grateful Trixie that she will get her flowers back and make sure they don't come back to the grove, soon following the trail and the scent of humans. The dragon considers his plan for confronting them, already confident in his victory: threaten them or roar at them, knock them around for a bit, and take back the flowers. It doesn't take long for him to catch up and he sees a man and a woman, the cowardly Morca and her confidant wife Jenn. Jenn is bitching at Morca for being paranoid, reminding him that the flowers they stole is meant to brew healing teas for some sick children.
The dragon decides to prove the man's paranoia correct and launches a surprise attack on the pair, knocking them to the ground with his body and tail. He arrogantly introduces himself saying that they "have the luck to stand in the presence of a bigger and much better-looking predator" which intimidates the husband, but the wife just bluntly asks what the hell he wants from them, claiming they don't have anything of worth. Veledar calls bullshit and tells them that he's here for the flowers, causing Morca to practically piss himself at how they're so beyond dead. Jenn isn't deterred and tells the red dragon about the ill children, saying he isn't going to get in her way. An amused Veledar basically tells her that she's foolish to get on his bad side and asks for proof of her claims, but when he repeats the question, she responds by attempting to threaten him with her sword.
It fails to intimidate as Veledar issues a threat of his own, either leave the flowers and fuck off or face his wrath. Since Morca is too much of a pussy to help his wife, Jenn is forced to surrender the flowers, calling the dragon a heartless bastard for the apparent pain he's caused and tells him that retribution will find him, which Veledar laughs off since it's coming from a thief. He roars to make them flee and summons a magic disk...thing to place the flowers onto, and walks back to the grove. Trixie gets all teary-eyed and huggy as he reattaches the flowers to the cut stems, restoring them. She complements the big guy, which fills his already big ego, and offers him a favor as a reward. The grove is more than just a garden, it's also a portal of sorts that allows a user to be transported to her sister's grove, and she's willing to let him use it as her thanks.
Disappointed by the outcome, Veledar thinks it's better than nothing and tells her he'll contact her if he wants to use it. He also informs her about the location of his lair on top of a mountain if she needs his help again. After some more praise from her to please the dragon, he flies off to his cave. It has the typical hoard you expect from a dragon, gold coins and gems as well as other shit. He relaxes on some furs and contemplates about how to expand his fortune without resorting to the stereotypical "deceit and destruction" like some other dragons; his mother raised him to be better than that and respect the lesser creatures. The two humans didn't deserve to die over some flowers after all.
He dicks around with a goblet and tosses it towards a tower of books before deciding to read his favorite one that features stories about dragons across the world. However, he can't find it anywhere, not in the pile of books nor in the gold piles. It was in its proper place that morning before he went out on his hunt. Then he picks up on something he initially missed: the scent of humans, and it all makes sense. Someone snuck in and stole the book. This absolutely infuriates Veledar, who decides to do a lot more than scare the culprit as he picks up another scent of a gryphon, which leads east towards a village he doesn't remember the name of. The dragon tries to calm himself down, his mother's wisdom about tempering his rage filling his mind, but all he can see is red as he furiously decides to fly towards the town.
Tracking the scent to a wooden house on the outskirts, he bursts through the door like an angry Kool-Aid Man, crashing onto a table and breaking it. There, he starts yelling to the thieves, but stops when he actually sees the occupants, a father named Vern and his young daughter terrified out of their minds. This causes him to hesitate for a moment, but decides to double down since humans are known to be liars and to not look weak, accusing the family of the theft. Of course, the father has no clue what he's talking about and says he's just a carpenter. Veledar asks about his wife and the human answers that she works for the king, then he gets down on his knees to kiss the dragon's toes and begs him to spare his daughters life.
Veledar isn't in the mood for the groveling and, after assuring the human that he won't kill his child, inquires about his wife's location. The father says that she'll arrive at sundown, but the dragon doesn't fully buy it and asks where she is right now, mentioning that the item is very important to him. The daughter speaks up and asks if the item in question is a book, saying that it had pictures of dragons in it, which draws the dragon's attention. He approaches the child, which causes Vern to worry about his intentions and try to attack him, although he's quickly pacified by the dragon tripping the father with his tail, leaving him only making empty threats. Veledar propose a deal to the child, allowing her to touch one of his scales if she tells him where her mother took his book. She doesn't know what her mom did with the book, but she'll answer where she is if he promises not to hurt her.
After promising her that he won't harm her mom, the dragon waits for the child to touch his snout, but that's cut short by Vern yelling to her not to trust the beast and a voice from outside amongst twelve others asking what the hell happened to the house. Vern warns them about the dragon, forcing Veledar to flee just as the child touches him. The voices outside turn out to be armored guards with spears and crossbows, who are completely caught off-guard and unprepared for a big beast like him. Veledar just charges right past them, their bolts harmlessly hitting his scales, and flies away from the village.
He internally smacks himself upside the head for recklessly charging in like that, since he could have just made the humans comfortable with him and give them gifts like his sister would have done if she were in his shoes. After flying through rain clouds to cool himself down, he returns to his lair just as the sun sets and decides to relax by looking at the stars for the rest of the night, deciding to right the wrongs of today tomorrow.
We begin with a pounding on the door of Arcturus' new home, which is pretty empty save for a small table for food, a bookcase, and two painted pictures of his wife and son. The man who's knocking, Gus, basically says it's 9 in the morning and yells at him to get his lazy ass out of bed. Arcturus slowly wakes up and gets dressed, and we see from his pained eyes and grizzled appearance that he's still depressed as hell over his family, with constant nightmares to boot. We also learn that after the Dread Flame incident, he's been given a new position as captain of the guards since it's supposed to be easier for him, not that it wound up helping much.
Gus says that while there's nothing to report other than a petty theft from Petunia, he's mainly here since the king wants the guards to retrieve the captain. Arcturus snidely remarks whether the king thinks he can't get to him, and Gus replies that he knows that's not what the king meant. After we get a description of Gus being fat, Arcturus tries to ask for details, but Gus says he doesn't know about the summons other than that it's urgent, thinking it must be a big for for Dread Flame's slayer.
Arcturus tells him not to mention his name and, as they make their way to the castle, he looks around the streets to distract himself from his "dark thoughts." It's bustling with people of different races talking, merchants and customers haggling, and so on. A horse-drawn carriage belonging to house Raverst goes past the pair, which Arcturus notes as odd since they usually avoid public roads. The captain also passes by some of the other guards, who salute him, and he recalls the guards being more efficient than it has been over the past two years thanks to better equipment and training under his command. He's pulled out of his thoughts by someone calling him over, a man in his late twenties by the name of Garroth.
They chat for a little bit with Garroth mentioning some tombs and lost mines along with a mention of ghasts, undead creatures that can paralyze you with only a touch. He asks Arcturus to stay and converse, but the captain declines since the king is requesting him, which Garroth takes in good stride. When Gus asks who the hell Garroth is, Arcturus answers that he and his band are basically adventurers or mercenaries living between towns, doing quests, adventures, and collecting bounties. The captain spars with him every time they return to Entis and recalls their last spar that had Garroth stumbling back into a Siigonis woman, a lizard race, and getting his ass beat for it.
The two keep walking in silence and pass by another building, a blacksmith or workshop run by a very skilled gnome named Matilda who loves her craft in creating weapons, armor, etc. Arcturus then sees Dread Flame's stuffed head on a spike in the middle of the street for the public to see, which Arcturus thinks is a constant reminder of his failure instead of a "symbol of hope and a brave man's victory against unfathomable odds" like the king and the others keep trying to convince him of. We then reach the airship docks and aviary that's pretty busy with work, and Gus mentions the Destiny B as the fastest airship as three gryphons and their riders led by a human woman named Elizabeth land in front of the pair.
After some teasing to one of the gryphons named Swift Wing, Elizabeth informs the captain that a new airship called the Indomitous has arrived, which is pretty damn big and strong and has a lot of soldiers on it. One of the guards proposes that it might be because Rothdell finally has the guts to push Lumara back, but Elizabeth laughs off due to the airships and their "stalwart" gryphons strength. The patrol flies off to continue their rounds and Arcturus and Gus continues their trip to the castle. Gus asks if Arcturus considered joining the air patrol to have a partner at his side and, after having a laugh at Gus fumbling his words about the gryphon being "under" the captain, Arcturus replies that riding a gryphon in the air doesn't appeal to him since he's used to having his feet on the ground instead of empty air.
He promises to put in a good word for Gus for a place on the air patrol, albeit while advising him to lose some weight so he doesn't crush his poor gryphon, which makes him tear up in excitement. Despite Arcturus warning him in advance that gryphons tend to be picky and needy, Gus doesn't really care as long he has a partner to bond and share his happiness with, and he admits that he's jealous of how the captain's men respects Arcturus.
More stores, inns, bars, and brothels are passed until they finally reach the gates of the castle, with its walls engraved with runes every few feet and six watchful guards standing at attention on top, and recalls how the city summoned its bravest heroes who protected the walls with their lives in the capital's darkest hour. Arcturus only went inside the castle four times, when he was a child, when he was knighted, when he was promoted to paladin, and when he killed Dread Flame. He remembered being prideful each time he entered, although it went away after his wife and son were murdered. A couple guards struggle to open a smaller door in the gate, which always had been a problem, and wind up humorously falling flat on their faces when it finally gets unstuck.
One of the king's spiritual advisors that Arcturus talked to plenty of times in the past, an old man named Father Devlin with clothes also filled with runes, comes out to greet the captain and says the king barely noticed the captain's tardiness with how busy he is. Devlin tells Arcturus to come inside, but tells Gus to stay outside since he isn't authorized for whatever the king summoned the captain for. Being the old man he is, he struggles to remember Gus' name despite having him retrieve Arcturus in the first place and wrongly says it's Peter. When Gus corrects Devlin when he asks to refresh his memory, he calls it a terrible name, that it's "no wonder [he] forgot it," and then immediately forgets it after Gus walks away. Dick.
Devlin informs Arcturus that the king wants to talk to him about a certain little town on the north-west border, and leads him inside to meet Cornelius. The inside has about what you'd expect from royalty, decorated with colorful rugs, art from different years and kings, antique equipment, and is also much cooler thanks to a spell after the king bitched about the heat. Devlin says that he'll have the cook make Arcturus a plate after he notices his stomach rumbling and they were soon in the king's audience chamber which is filled with guests, with King Cornelius in the middle of knighting ceremony for a woman. He tells her to recite the paladin's oath, which entails thusly:
"As a paladin, I am sworn to valor. My heart will know only virtue, my blade will defend the helpless, my might will uphold the weak, my word will speak only truth, and my wrath will undo the wicked."
They celebrate the newly promoted paladin, causing Arcturus to have another depression memory of Selina at his own ceremony, and he was soon alone with the king as the guests left the room. Cornelius tries to happily talk to him about how he killed Dread Flame and how each knighting ceremony is a chance to have another hero like him, but all he gets is a single lifeless reply and silence. Since his words wasn't helping the brooding captain, the king gets to the point: a dragon was spotted around a village and wrecked a house, although we notice that the details he gives are either exaggerations or fabrications like him kidnapping a young girl and burning the guards to ashes. Arcturus already knows where this is going and asks why not find another dragon-hunter, and when Cornelius replies that he is but one man, snaps that he's had enough of dragons.
He then apologizes for raising his voice and the king silently accepts it, saying with pity that he's aware of the loss that Arcturus endured when Dread Flame took his family. However, Arcturus is still the best man for the job due to the Lund family being the best at hunting down dragons. Cornelius continues by saying that no family should endure living in fear in a village missing their guards, that nobody in that village deserves to die from a second-rate hunter should he fail to kill the beast, and dragons are not merciful and are gruesome when provoked, which Arcturus knows first-hand.
Now having been convinced to take the task on, Arcturus asks for details about the dragon, and becomes further determined when the king says the dragon is a fire-breathing whelp that might be from Dread Flame's clutch. Cornelius tells him to assemble a team with essentially a blank check and that he will assign the Indomitus to him since it has enough firepower to kill a dozen dragons. The king immediately agrees to Arcturus' request of shieldguards or a group of adventurers with dragon-slaying knowledge, fire resistant armor and ropes, energy crossbows, and traps. It seems to be going well until the king reveals one tiny little requirement for Arcturus: the beast is to be brought back to the capital alive.
Arcturus almost flips his shit since it was hard enough to just kill Dread Flame, but Cornelius shuts him up with a raised hand and clarifies why: he wants to alleviate his citizen's fears that dragons are stronger than their army. When Arcturus points out that Dread Flame's death already accomplished that, the king agrees that it did, but morale has been wavering lately. By dragging the beast to the capital, holding trial for the "hundreds of crimes it and its vile kin committed against our people," and publicly humiliating it by "looking into its teary eyes as it squirms for freedom, and deny it, over and over again, until every flicker of light leaves its body."
Arcturus agrees to this and is given a scroll with information before leaving to get his gear. It contains the testimonies of the guards, a rough description of the dragon, and that the village in question is called Deet, which he remembers convincing the town leaders a while ago to join Lumara instead of standing in their way in the Rothdell conflict. He soon enters Matilda's blacksmith or workshop to retrieve his armor, where he declines the gnome's offer for tea, and is pulled by her to the finished armor in question with a strength "much greater than her size led to believe." The armor is a silver full plate set in pristine condition, although seemingly very similar to Arcturus' old set. Matilda is insulted at the mere suggestion and tells him to actually examine the damn thing.
So he does and we see them go over a couple of the details. It's very light but harder than steel thanks to the metal being infused with mithril, is self-fitting with straps that automatically fit to his proportions with a press of a button, and is resistant to fire. When Arcturus is surprised at how high quality it is compared to what he paid, Matilda doesn't really care about the price and says that it's a special order or a gift from a friend. He tells her about the mission he's going on, with her saying that the public humiliation part is "twisted," and speculates about the dragon's sex with females being harder to catch since they tend to be worse at fighting, although Arcturus disagrees that there's a big gap.
Matilda instructs him about how to put the armor on and sends him out the door, where he then returns home for his belongings. There, he picks up his equipment, sword, crossbow, red potions that are presumably healing ones, and angsts about his family some more and why oh why he keeps the items that remind him of his tragic loss, promising to hunt the dragon down and make sure he pays for his crimes. The dragon-slayer then leaves the house, wondering if it'll be the last time he'll see his home, and makes his way to the docks again by the time the sun began to set. We get another angsty mention of his family and a detail about the Indomitus having twelve energy cannons, and the soldiers onboard being mostly human.
He is the last to board the airship and notes how everybody is worried since going up against a dragon is unpredictable no matter how prepared they are, although he calls himself lucky since he trained and studied the beasts long enough to not be afraid when facing one, especially when he would "put another dent in Dread Flame's legacy." A bald dwarf captain named Fredrick Ruthgar introduces himself and mentions that the Indomitus has over a dozen victories fighting Rothdell with him in charge. Arcturus is shown to his quarters to rest up and the Indomitus begins to make its way to Deet.
Gus says that while there's nothing to report other than a petty theft from Petunia, he's mainly here since the king wants the guards to retrieve the captain. Arcturus snidely remarks whether the king thinks he can't get to him, and Gus replies that he knows that's not what the king meant. After we get a description of Gus being fat, Arcturus tries to ask for details, but Gus says he doesn't know about the summons other than that it's urgent, thinking it must be a big for for Dread Flame's slayer.
Arcturus tells him not to mention his name and, as they make their way to the castle, he looks around the streets to distract himself from his "dark thoughts." It's bustling with people of different races talking, merchants and customers haggling, and so on. A horse-drawn carriage belonging to house Raverst goes past the pair, which Arcturus notes as odd since they usually avoid public roads. The captain also passes by some of the other guards, who salute him, and he recalls the guards being more efficient than it has been over the past two years thanks to better equipment and training under his command. He's pulled out of his thoughts by someone calling him over, a man in his late twenties by the name of Garroth.
They chat for a little bit with Garroth mentioning some tombs and lost mines along with a mention of ghasts, undead creatures that can paralyze you with only a touch. He asks Arcturus to stay and converse, but the captain declines since the king is requesting him, which Garroth takes in good stride. When Gus asks who the hell Garroth is, Arcturus answers that he and his band are basically adventurers or mercenaries living between towns, doing quests, adventures, and collecting bounties. The captain spars with him every time they return to Entis and recalls their last spar that had Garroth stumbling back into a Siigonis woman, a lizard race, and getting his ass beat for it.
The two keep walking in silence and pass by another building, a blacksmith or workshop run by a very skilled gnome named Matilda who loves her craft in creating weapons, armor, etc. Arcturus then sees Dread Flame's stuffed head on a spike in the middle of the street for the public to see, which Arcturus thinks is a constant reminder of his failure instead of a "symbol of hope and a brave man's victory against unfathomable odds" like the king and the others keep trying to convince him of. We then reach the airship docks and aviary that's pretty busy with work, and Gus mentions the Destiny B as the fastest airship as three gryphons and their riders led by a human woman named Elizabeth land in front of the pair.
After some teasing to one of the gryphons named Swift Wing, Elizabeth informs the captain that a new airship called the Indomitous has arrived, which is pretty damn big and strong and has a lot of soldiers on it. One of the guards proposes that it might be because Rothdell finally has the guts to push Lumara back, but Elizabeth laughs off due to the airships and their "stalwart" gryphons strength. The patrol flies off to continue their rounds and Arcturus and Gus continues their trip to the castle. Gus asks if Arcturus considered joining the air patrol to have a partner at his side and, after having a laugh at Gus fumbling his words about the gryphon being "under" the captain, Arcturus replies that riding a gryphon in the air doesn't appeal to him since he's used to having his feet on the ground instead of empty air.
He promises to put in a good word for Gus for a place on the air patrol, albeit while advising him to lose some weight so he doesn't crush his poor gryphon, which makes him tear up in excitement. Despite Arcturus warning him in advance that gryphons tend to be picky and needy, Gus doesn't really care as long he has a partner to bond and share his happiness with, and he admits that he's jealous of how the captain's men respects Arcturus.
More stores, inns, bars, and brothels are passed until they finally reach the gates of the castle, with its walls engraved with runes every few feet and six watchful guards standing at attention on top, and recalls how the city summoned its bravest heroes who protected the walls with their lives in the capital's darkest hour. Arcturus only went inside the castle four times, when he was a child, when he was knighted, when he was promoted to paladin, and when he killed Dread Flame. He remembered being prideful each time he entered, although it went away after his wife and son were murdered. A couple guards struggle to open a smaller door in the gate, which always had been a problem, and wind up humorously falling flat on their faces when it finally gets unstuck.
One of the king's spiritual advisors that Arcturus talked to plenty of times in the past, an old man named Father Devlin with clothes also filled with runes, comes out to greet the captain and says the king barely noticed the captain's tardiness with how busy he is. Devlin tells Arcturus to come inside, but tells Gus to stay outside since he isn't authorized for whatever the king summoned the captain for. Being the old man he is, he struggles to remember Gus' name despite having him retrieve Arcturus in the first place and wrongly says it's Peter. When Gus corrects Devlin when he asks to refresh his memory, he calls it a terrible name, that it's "no wonder [he] forgot it," and then immediately forgets it after Gus walks away. Dick.
Devlin informs Arcturus that the king wants to talk to him about a certain little town on the north-west border, and leads him inside to meet Cornelius. The inside has about what you'd expect from royalty, decorated with colorful rugs, art from different years and kings, antique equipment, and is also much cooler thanks to a spell after the king bitched about the heat. Devlin says that he'll have the cook make Arcturus a plate after he notices his stomach rumbling and they were soon in the king's audience chamber which is filled with guests, with King Cornelius in the middle of knighting ceremony for a woman. He tells her to recite the paladin's oath, which entails thusly:
"As a paladin, I am sworn to valor. My heart will know only virtue, my blade will defend the helpless, my might will uphold the weak, my word will speak only truth, and my wrath will undo the wicked."
They celebrate the newly promoted paladin, causing Arcturus to have another depression memory of Selina at his own ceremony, and he was soon alone with the king as the guests left the room. Cornelius tries to happily talk to him about how he killed Dread Flame and how each knighting ceremony is a chance to have another hero like him, but all he gets is a single lifeless reply and silence. Since his words wasn't helping the brooding captain, the king gets to the point: a dragon was spotted around a village and wrecked a house, although we notice that the details he gives are either exaggerations or fabrications like him kidnapping a young girl and burning the guards to ashes. Arcturus already knows where this is going and asks why not find another dragon-hunter, and when Cornelius replies that he is but one man, snaps that he's had enough of dragons.
He then apologizes for raising his voice and the king silently accepts it, saying with pity that he's aware of the loss that Arcturus endured when Dread Flame took his family. However, Arcturus is still the best man for the job due to the Lund family being the best at hunting down dragons. Cornelius continues by saying that no family should endure living in fear in a village missing their guards, that nobody in that village deserves to die from a second-rate hunter should he fail to kill the beast, and dragons are not merciful and are gruesome when provoked, which Arcturus knows first-hand.
Now having been convinced to take the task on, Arcturus asks for details about the dragon, and becomes further determined when the king says the dragon is a fire-breathing whelp that might be from Dread Flame's clutch. Cornelius tells him to assemble a team with essentially a blank check and that he will assign the Indomitus to him since it has enough firepower to kill a dozen dragons. The king immediately agrees to Arcturus' request of shieldguards or a group of adventurers with dragon-slaying knowledge, fire resistant armor and ropes, energy crossbows, and traps. It seems to be going well until the king reveals one tiny little requirement for Arcturus: the beast is to be brought back to the capital alive.
Arcturus almost flips his shit since it was hard enough to just kill Dread Flame, but Cornelius shuts him up with a raised hand and clarifies why: he wants to alleviate his citizen's fears that dragons are stronger than their army. When Arcturus points out that Dread Flame's death already accomplished that, the king agrees that it did, but morale has been wavering lately. By dragging the beast to the capital, holding trial for the "hundreds of crimes it and its vile kin committed against our people," and publicly humiliating it by "looking into its teary eyes as it squirms for freedom, and deny it, over and over again, until every flicker of light leaves its body."
Arcturus agrees to this and is given a scroll with information before leaving to get his gear. It contains the testimonies of the guards, a rough description of the dragon, and that the village in question is called Deet, which he remembers convincing the town leaders a while ago to join Lumara instead of standing in their way in the Rothdell conflict. He soon enters Matilda's blacksmith or workshop to retrieve his armor, where he declines the gnome's offer for tea, and is pulled by her to the finished armor in question with a strength "much greater than her size led to believe." The armor is a silver full plate set in pristine condition, although seemingly very similar to Arcturus' old set. Matilda is insulted at the mere suggestion and tells him to actually examine the damn thing.
So he does and we see them go over a couple of the details. It's very light but harder than steel thanks to the metal being infused with mithril, is self-fitting with straps that automatically fit to his proportions with a press of a button, and is resistant to fire. When Arcturus is surprised at how high quality it is compared to what he paid, Matilda doesn't really care about the price and says that it's a special order or a gift from a friend. He tells her about the mission he's going on, with her saying that the public humiliation part is "twisted," and speculates about the dragon's sex with females being harder to catch since they tend to be worse at fighting, although Arcturus disagrees that there's a big gap.
Matilda instructs him about how to put the armor on and sends him out the door, where he then returns home for his belongings. There, he picks up his equipment, sword, crossbow, red potions that are presumably healing ones, and angsts about his family some more and why oh why he keeps the items that remind him of his tragic loss, promising to hunt the dragon down and make sure he pays for his crimes. The dragon-slayer then leaves the house, wondering if it'll be the last time he'll see his home, and makes his way to the docks again by the time the sun began to set. We get another angsty mention of his family and a detail about the Indomitus having twelve energy cannons, and the soldiers onboard being mostly human.
He is the last to board the airship and notes how everybody is worried since going up against a dragon is unpredictable no matter how prepared they are, although he calls himself lucky since he trained and studied the beasts long enough to not be afraid when facing one, especially when he would "put another dent in Dread Flame's legacy." A bald dwarf captain named Fredrick Ruthgar introduces himself and mentions that the Indomitus has over a dozen victories fighting Rothdell with him in charge. Arcturus is shown to his quarters to rest up and the Indomitus begins to make its way to Deet.
I'm starting to approach the word limit, so I'll end it here for now. Tune in next time for the next couple chapters of Scales and Honor: The Dragon's Paladin.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2022
So, what are all of the bigger "shared universes" in furry fiction? Aside from the classic Chakona Space - which I think is still ongoing - we've got tranny supervillains with The Korps, there's the macro furry UTO series, the old Paradise setting for various types of TF works that might be dead, and I think ShadowLugia249's old Latex Lore setting might count as one.
Anyone got any others?
Anyone got any others?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2020
Welcome back to Scales and Honor: The Dragon's Paladin. Last we left off, Lumara has caught wind of Veledar in their borders and the king has sent a depressed Arcturus to capture him. Now we pick up a couple days later.
A bit more comedic moments, some more of Veledar's assholery shows here, and we get introduced to Lyndis. I don't really have too much to say otherwise.
Our protagonists finally meet face-to-face and it isn't exactly cordial. Veledar's aptitude for mercy is reinforced here despite the fact that he was ambushed and it proves to be the potential spark for a friendlier relationship with Arcturus, assuming you ignore the cover answering that question.
A chapter that's on the shorter side, but a pivotal one nonetheless. Despite a dragon killing his family and the memory still hurting him even years later, Arcturus still decides to risk everything for Veledar despite his previous loyalty to the king and the testimonies, bullshit as they were, based on his own view on the circumstances.
I was originally going to include Chapter 7 here, but since it took longer than I'd like to get this out, I decided to save it for the next batch of chapters. See you then.
It took a couple days for Veledar to swallow his pride, but he's finally returning to Deet to hopefully get some answers on his book. While he could have simply killed all of the guards and destroyed the village yesterday, he "knew better than to give in to such basic impulses," although he still has fight back the urge to smash the buildings for one woman's theft. Charming. Before he left his lair, he practiced in front of a mirror for a pose that wouldn't make the townsfolk fear him, but considering that his mere appearance is intimidating, that proved more difficult that he thought. He fantasizes about the humans praising him for being polite and help bring the thief to justice, although he's aware that reality can be very different.
As soon as the dragon lands in the middle of the village, the townsfolk immediately begin shitting their pants in fear. Despite knowing the panic he caused, Veledar is just irritated at the reception since he landed so properly and doesn't really help his case when he roars to try shutting them up, as the ones that don't decide to hide yell at the dragon to get the fuck out of their town. He tries to explain himself, but his horn gets snagged on one of the banners and struggles to get the stubborn thing off. Saying 'screw this,' he scrapes it off using his claws and stomps the remains "into the pile of crap it deserved to be." This pisses off a farmer since the banner was his mothers, and Veledar tries to defend himself by saying it "attacked him first".
The display does slightly calm the crowd down a bit, and a couple of villagers amusingly get a little side-tracked about petty shit when the dragon asks about the theft before he gets them back on topic. An old woman reminds him that he destroyed a house and made Vern's daughter cry, but also claims that he attacked the both of them. Veledar denies the attacking part, but responds to the homewrecking by basically saying "not my fault, your houses should be made bigger." When the lady asks who's going to pay for the effort, he strokes his own ego by declaring that he will as long as they rename the village in his name and build a statue in his likeness in the center of town so the citizens can admire the "fine looks of Crimson Sky, slayer of poverty, beloved of the people!"
The villagers react thusly.
Not only do they laugh their asses off, Veledar's strategy of making himself non-threatening works a little too well as they begin mocking him and his title for running away from the guards. He's quick to shut them up by intimidating the guard who started the mockery, who begs for his life and begins sucking up to him right away. With Veledar back in control, he once again asks about the woman who stole his book. Nobody provides a good answer for him until the guard captain along with a few reinforcements arrive on the scene. The captain answers that the woman's name is Jizrah, who had been gone before Veledar arrived, but refuses to give more details about her location since he believes the dragon has bad intentions.
Since trying to be polite isn't getting him anywhere, the dragon resorts to using threats and fear to try to persude people. He admits that he's overstepping, but thinks there's no other way to "get past their inferior intellect." After smashing a water trough with his tail, a man named Gerald speaks up claiming that Jizrah went south towards the capital, which is around a two-week trip between there and Deet by horseback. Satisfied with the answer, he takes to the skies to make his way there, grateful for his self-control considering he would have "surely unleashed his wrath upon the village" a few days ago. We then learn how little he's aware about Entis, having never really entered human lands, since he doesn't think it's bigger than Deet and doubts the existance of floating castles when someone from the crowd mentioned them.
Veledar finds the dirt path and follows it for a few minutes to the capital, but is soon interrupted when he spots a figure emerging from the trees. She is being pursued by two dozen armed humanoids who are shooting arrows at her, and soon surround her. The woman, a brown-haired half-elf, proves herself capable in the ensuing fight, flipping around with kicks to jaws and crossing swords with her rapier. After a couple of the thugs get a shot in and punch her to the ground, she recovers and reveals herself to be a mage by creating four illusions of herself to confuse her opponents.
While the thugs have trouble finding the real Lyndis, Veledar has no problems tracking the real one since the illusions can only jump around their opponents since they'll vanish if they try to attack. Meanwhile, the real Lyndis keeps stabbing the thugs until one of them manages to punch her to the ground, causing the copies to vanish due to a lack of concentration. After slapping her for talking shit, they have her effectively pinned down as the men get the idea to rape her before dragging her to the boss.
They don't even start the process as Veledar finally decides to intervene, being fine with letting her die as long as she apparently deserved it, but disgusted at the idea of raping someone. He lands behind the would-be rapist, scaring the thugs shitless, and Lyndis takes advantage of the distraction to pull out a hidden dagger and stab the man in the head. The rest of the thugs try to stupidly charge at him, but one fire breath burning six of them alive changes their minds and they retreat back into the trees. She sorta thanks the dragon, saying she killed more of the thugs than him, and introduces herself as Lyndis Kuxion and Veledar does the same using Crimson Sky. Lyndis explains she's an adventurer and pissed the group's boss off by taking his share of a treature on a job and smeared his reputation.
The half-elf offers to help find Veledar's book thief for a price but does a complete 180 when she learns the thief went to Entis, basically telling him that it's suicide to go there and to give up on finding the book. Evidently, Veledar doesn't even know that the nation is called Lumara and her detailing before leaving about how it's a very bad idea to go to the capital like millions of trained humans like Arcturus Lund, flying machines, and gryphons that can hunt anyone down, causes him to hesitate. He thinks about what his mother would say in his situation and that the Lund dragon-slayer sounds familiar, probably from a story he read as a kid. Since he keeps doubting himself, he decides to return to his lair so he can decide on what to do next.
As soon as the dragon lands in the middle of the village, the townsfolk immediately begin shitting their pants in fear. Despite knowing the panic he caused, Veledar is just irritated at the reception since he landed so properly and doesn't really help his case when he roars to try shutting them up, as the ones that don't decide to hide yell at the dragon to get the fuck out of their town. He tries to explain himself, but his horn gets snagged on one of the banners and struggles to get the stubborn thing off. Saying 'screw this,' he scrapes it off using his claws and stomps the remains "into the pile of crap it deserved to be." This pisses off a farmer since the banner was his mothers, and Veledar tries to defend himself by saying it "attacked him first".
The display does slightly calm the crowd down a bit, and a couple of villagers amusingly get a little side-tracked about petty shit when the dragon asks about the theft before he gets them back on topic. An old woman reminds him that he destroyed a house and made Vern's daughter cry, but also claims that he attacked the both of them. Veledar denies the attacking part, but responds to the homewrecking by basically saying "not my fault, your houses should be made bigger." When the lady asks who's going to pay for the effort, he strokes his own ego by declaring that he will as long as they rename the village in his name and build a statue in his likeness in the center of town so the citizens can admire the "fine looks of Crimson Sky, slayer of poverty, beloved of the people!"
The villagers react thusly.
Not only do they laugh their asses off, Veledar's strategy of making himself non-threatening works a little too well as they begin mocking him and his title for running away from the guards. He's quick to shut them up by intimidating the guard who started the mockery, who begs for his life and begins sucking up to him right away. With Veledar back in control, he once again asks about the woman who stole his book. Nobody provides a good answer for him until the guard captain along with a few reinforcements arrive on the scene. The captain answers that the woman's name is Jizrah, who had been gone before Veledar arrived, but refuses to give more details about her location since he believes the dragon has bad intentions.
Since trying to be polite isn't getting him anywhere, the dragon resorts to using threats and fear to try to persude people. He admits that he's overstepping, but thinks there's no other way to "get past their inferior intellect." After smashing a water trough with his tail, a man named Gerald speaks up claiming that Jizrah went south towards the capital, which is around a two-week trip between there and Deet by horseback. Satisfied with the answer, he takes to the skies to make his way there, grateful for his self-control considering he would have "surely unleashed his wrath upon the village" a few days ago. We then learn how little he's aware about Entis, having never really entered human lands, since he doesn't think it's bigger than Deet and doubts the existance of floating castles when someone from the crowd mentioned them.
Veledar finds the dirt path and follows it for a few minutes to the capital, but is soon interrupted when he spots a figure emerging from the trees. She is being pursued by two dozen armed humanoids who are shooting arrows at her, and soon surround her. The woman, a brown-haired half-elf, proves herself capable in the ensuing fight, flipping around with kicks to jaws and crossing swords with her rapier. After a couple of the thugs get a shot in and punch her to the ground, she recovers and reveals herself to be a mage by creating four illusions of herself to confuse her opponents.
While the thugs have trouble finding the real Lyndis, Veledar has no problems tracking the real one since the illusions can only jump around their opponents since they'll vanish if they try to attack. Meanwhile, the real Lyndis keeps stabbing the thugs until one of them manages to punch her to the ground, causing the copies to vanish due to a lack of concentration. After slapping her for talking shit, they have her effectively pinned down as the men get the idea to rape her before dragging her to the boss.
They don't even start the process as Veledar finally decides to intervene, being fine with letting her die as long as she apparently deserved it, but disgusted at the idea of raping someone. He lands behind the would-be rapist, scaring the thugs shitless, and Lyndis takes advantage of the distraction to pull out a hidden dagger and stab the man in the head. The rest of the thugs try to stupidly charge at him, but one fire breath burning six of them alive changes their minds and they retreat back into the trees. She sorta thanks the dragon, saying she killed more of the thugs than him, and introduces herself as Lyndis Kuxion and Veledar does the same using Crimson Sky. Lyndis explains she's an adventurer and pissed the group's boss off by taking his share of a treature on a job and smeared his reputation.
The half-elf offers to help find Veledar's book thief for a price but does a complete 180 when she learns the thief went to Entis, basically telling him that it's suicide to go there and to give up on finding the book. Evidently, Veledar doesn't even know that the nation is called Lumara and her detailing before leaving about how it's a very bad idea to go to the capital like millions of trained humans like Arcturus Lund, flying machines, and gryphons that can hunt anyone down, causes him to hesitate. He thinks about what his mother would say in his situation and that the Lund dragon-slayer sounds familiar, probably from a story he read as a kid. Since he keeps doubting himself, he decides to return to his lair so he can decide on what to do next.
It's been almost 60 hours since the Indomitous left Entis and Arcturus managed to train his men enough so they have a decent shot at capturing the dragon, and we get some details about their equipment. After some more angst about Dread Flame and his family, the town of Deet is finally in view and everybody moves to get their gear and armor. When Selina appears in his mind again when he's putting on his own armor, he recites the paladin's oath like he always did for her when he left.
The ship finally touches down in Deet and Arcturus orders the soldiers to gather information and question the witnesses. Captain Sirius introduces himself to the paladin after a slight miscommunication over his name, and Arcturus notices how the captain seems to be exaggerating the damages done. The paladin then questions the witnesses in another room, like the farmer crying about the evil dragon shredding his banner, and Vern and his daughter Abigail. Abigail recalls what happened at her house and that the dragon wanted to find a book that her mother stole, and tries to beg the paladin not to kill Veledar despite her father's objections about how dragons are filthy liars.
Arcturus believes the girl for a second, but the memory of Dread Flame makes him change his mind and tell her she's wrong before having a guard kick them out. Of course, there's the other elephant in the room regarding a certain incident in the bonus story. I cheated a bit by searching up a character's name and while the reason why it's never brought up is eventually explained in the fourth book, let's be real, the bonus story just wasn't a thing at the time going by the dates on Furaffinity. We'll see whether issues crop up when we get to it.
Getting back on track, while the paladin is interrogating another guard, Lyndis suddenly barges in and tells Arcturus he's being fed bullshit about Veledar. She tells him about how the dragon saved her life and, despite Arcturus knowing adventurers to exaggerate, he can't pick up on any lies and begins to doubt the reports. After she passive-aggressively says her goodbyes, Sirius comes back and reveals a crimson scale that the dragon unknowingly left behind when he busted into the house, which will allow the gryphons to track the beast. Arcturus thanks the captain and wastes no time rounding up his men and getting the Indomitus airborne again.
Some time passes until a gryphon leads the airship right to Veledar's lair, and the men use their airboats to descend to the cave's entrance. The paladin orders them to set up traps and has the sharpshooters stay outside with launchers in case the beast tries to flee, with the rest following him into the lair. Arcturus shuts down someone's suggestion that the dragon might be friendly and, after noting how unusual it is for the cave to be lit with torches, comes across the sleeping Veledar cuddling with a stuffed dragon. Or so they thought he was sleeping, but Veledar just lazily acknowledges them and tries to initiate conversation while he's stretching like a cat. The dragon doesn't even finish his sentence before Arcturus immediately orders his men to shoot his throat.
Veledar obviously wasn't expecting this and fails to dodge every single bolt, leaving his fire breath disabled. The dragon slams a few of the advancing men against the wall with his tail, but is forced to hide behind some of his treasure when the soldiers begin baraging him with more bolts and Arcturus throwing a flashbang at him. Despite having him cornered, the paladin doesn't whip out the fire-proof nets yet as Veledar suddenly bursts out from the piles of gold and tries to fly out of the cave. The soldiers try pelting him with more bolts and a bola, but Arcturus figures out too late that it's an illusion just as the real Veledar pounces out and attacks. Several men hit the walls and ground from the dragon's flailing as he's peppered with more painful bolts.
The dragon yells to the soldiers attacking him and it seems like he has the upper-hand despite the ambush, knocking away the nets, bolas, and flashbangs, eventually leaving only Arcturus and his handful of soldiers left. Veledar tries to tell them to flee before he forces them to, but they refuse and pepper him with more bolts. This finally incapacitates the dragon and knocks him down, although he still manages to send a few dumbasses flying with his tail when they approached while he was still falling over.
Veledar basically calls the humans pussies for their tactics and channels his inner Leon by calling Arcturus a woman, although Arcturus sarcastically asks how it could be fair for humans to fight a giant, heavy, winged, and scaley armored beast. The paladin mocks him some more and even laughs in his face as Veledar finds it harder to stay conscious, but he does think back to Abigail and Lyndis vouching for the dragon. Once again, it doesn't last for long as Dread Flame comes roaring back in his mind when he looks at Veledar. He tells the captured dragon to remember the day he fell at the feet of Arcturus Lund, ordering his men to shackle the beast for transport to the capital.
When Veldar tries to point out that all he did was damage a house and destroy a banner, Arcturus basically accuses him of doing worse crimes and tells him that he's going to be made an example of in the capital, just as the dragon finally falls unconscious. Him and his men begin moving the beast out of the cave and start the body recovery process, but much to his surprise, Veledar didn't kill a single soldier during their attack and just knocked them unconscious. More doubt begins creeping into the paladin's mind, but nevertheless, he orders the dragon's treasures to be confiscated and returned to those he "stole" them from, and the dragon is hauled onto the airship for the trial in Entis.
The ship finally touches down in Deet and Arcturus orders the soldiers to gather information and question the witnesses. Captain Sirius introduces himself to the paladin after a slight miscommunication over his name, and Arcturus notices how the captain seems to be exaggerating the damages done. The paladin then questions the witnesses in another room, like the farmer crying about the evil dragon shredding his banner, and Vern and his daughter Abigail. Abigail recalls what happened at her house and that the dragon wanted to find a book that her mother stole, and tries to beg the paladin not to kill Veledar despite her father's objections about how dragons are filthy liars.
Arcturus believes the girl for a second, but the memory of Dread Flame makes him change his mind and tell her she's wrong before having a guard kick them out. Of course, there's the other elephant in the room regarding a certain incident in the bonus story. I cheated a bit by searching up a character's name and while the reason why it's never brought up is eventually explained in the fourth book, let's be real, the bonus story just wasn't a thing at the time going by the dates on Furaffinity. We'll see whether issues crop up when we get to it.
Getting back on track, while the paladin is interrogating another guard, Lyndis suddenly barges in and tells Arcturus he's being fed bullshit about Veledar. She tells him about how the dragon saved her life and, despite Arcturus knowing adventurers to exaggerate, he can't pick up on any lies and begins to doubt the reports. After she passive-aggressively says her goodbyes, Sirius comes back and reveals a crimson scale that the dragon unknowingly left behind when he busted into the house, which will allow the gryphons to track the beast. Arcturus thanks the captain and wastes no time rounding up his men and getting the Indomitus airborne again.
Some time passes until a gryphon leads the airship right to Veledar's lair, and the men use their airboats to descend to the cave's entrance. The paladin orders them to set up traps and has the sharpshooters stay outside with launchers in case the beast tries to flee, with the rest following him into the lair. Arcturus shuts down someone's suggestion that the dragon might be friendly and, after noting how unusual it is for the cave to be lit with torches, comes across the sleeping Veledar cuddling with a stuffed dragon. Or so they thought he was sleeping, but Veledar just lazily acknowledges them and tries to initiate conversation while he's stretching like a cat. The dragon doesn't even finish his sentence before Arcturus immediately orders his men to shoot his throat.
Veledar obviously wasn't expecting this and fails to dodge every single bolt, leaving his fire breath disabled. The dragon slams a few of the advancing men against the wall with his tail, but is forced to hide behind some of his treasure when the soldiers begin baraging him with more bolts and Arcturus throwing a flashbang at him. Despite having him cornered, the paladin doesn't whip out the fire-proof nets yet as Veledar suddenly bursts out from the piles of gold and tries to fly out of the cave. The soldiers try pelting him with more bolts and a bola, but Arcturus figures out too late that it's an illusion just as the real Veledar pounces out and attacks. Several men hit the walls and ground from the dragon's flailing as he's peppered with more painful bolts.
The dragon yells to the soldiers attacking him and it seems like he has the upper-hand despite the ambush, knocking away the nets, bolas, and flashbangs, eventually leaving only Arcturus and his handful of soldiers left. Veledar tries to tell them to flee before he forces them to, but they refuse and pepper him with more bolts. This finally incapacitates the dragon and knocks him down, although he still manages to send a few dumbasses flying with his tail when they approached while he was still falling over.
Veledar basically calls the humans pussies for their tactics and channels his inner Leon by calling Arcturus a woman, although Arcturus sarcastically asks how it could be fair for humans to fight a giant, heavy, winged, and scaley armored beast. The paladin mocks him some more and even laughs in his face as Veledar finds it harder to stay conscious, but he does think back to Abigail and Lyndis vouching for the dragon. Once again, it doesn't last for long as Dread Flame comes roaring back in his mind when he looks at Veledar. He tells the captured dragon to remember the day he fell at the feet of Arcturus Lund, ordering his men to shackle the beast for transport to the capital.
When Veldar tries to point out that all he did was damage a house and destroy a banner, Arcturus basically accuses him of doing worse crimes and tells him that he's going to be made an example of in the capital, just as the dragon finally falls unconscious. Him and his men begin moving the beast out of the cave and start the body recovery process, but much to his surprise, Veledar didn't kill a single soldier during their attack and just knocked them unconscious. More doubt begins creeping into the paladin's mind, but nevertheless, he orders the dragon's treasures to be confiscated and returned to those he "stole" them from, and the dragon is hauled onto the airship for the trial in Entis.
We begin the next perspective switch not from Veledar's cell, but in his dream or memories. The much younger dragon is outside in a forest trying to catch a doe, but his attempt to sneak up on it is foiled when it hears a tree branch snap, causing it to run away. He soon realizes that it wasn't him who stepped on a branch, but rather his silver dragon sister Adalina, who soon tackles him for a little roughhousing. They talk for a bit about how it's totally her fault for scaring the doe, how their mother doesn't like him wandering off on his own, and how Veledar is going to be the king of a massive horde filled with treasure and human slaves. Siblings being siblings, basically.
The mood shifts a little when she asks when her brother will be back from hunting since their momma's out of the cave for a bit, leaving the cave lonely and cold. Veledar promises to spend the day with her after he catches the doe, and after some teasing from Adalina, he soon tracks down the deer again and manages to successfully kill his prey. His glory is short-lived, however, when he sees the doe's two offspring that witnessed their mother's death, making the dragon feel bad about it and promises to honor the animal's death. Just as he decides to lie to Adalina and spin the sad events into one of bravery and skill, a voice cuts in to finally wake him.
Now in the present, Veledar finds himself restrained in a wooden room within the Indomitus. He tries to use his fire breath when he realizes his mouth isn't gagged, but this group of soldiers aren't the ones from the prologue since they tied a belt tightly around his neck to prevent him from doing so. Thrash and struggle all he wants, he's stuck there, something one of the soldiers taunts him about. The human informs the dragon that the paladin wants to speak to Veledar, and the soldier leaves after some back-and-forth between him and Veledar. He figures that the humans don't want him dead yet since they could have just killed him in his lair and thinks for a second that the flower thieves were involved, before dismissing it since they would have fought like hell if their village really was in danger.
A couple minutes pass before Arcturus enters the room, without his helmet and weapons, something Veledar points out is pretty stupid. After the paladin orders the accompanying guard to leave them alone, the dragon immediately tries to taunt and piss him off about how guilty he must be feeling, but Arcturus is unmoved and basically says he's about to start an interrogation. When Veledar asks why he isn't dead yet, saying how the knights in their stories are racist against dragons, Arcturus tells him that it's for the crimes he committed against the kingdom. The dragon maintains his innocence and reminds the human that the paladin and his soldiers found him sleeping in his cave with a stuffed toy.
This has some effect on Arcturus, but he still isn't deterred as he reads out the list of crimes. Of course, it's filled with lies like murder, child kidnapping, robbing merchants, the whole nine yards, which obviously infuriates Veledar. The dragon attempts to appeal to Arcturus' morality, citing how his mother told stories about just men sworn to valor who carry the sun's light on their armor. Again, this makes the paladin hesitate a little bit more, but he says that words on paper holds more power than word of mouth. After Veledar struggles some more, Arcturus tries to call bullshit on his innocence claim since the sheer amount charges can't all be fabrications, but when Veledar verbally snipes at his paladin title, he angrily lets it slip that he's encountered another dragon before.
After a little bit of back-and-forth and Arcturus admitting to meeting another red dragon, he asks why Veledar pissed on his title, his ego evidently bruised. The dragon basically repeats what Vargus said in Chapter 1, that paladins used to battle against evil with their great magical abilities and Arcturus is a mockery of it with how many dragons he and his family killed. Thoroughly pissed, Arcturus defends himself by saying Dread Flame was a monster that took effort to bring down, but Veledar doesn't believe him and tells him to say something actually true. Calming himself down, Arcturus shifts topics and asks why Veledar spared the soldiers in the cave, to which the dragon answers that it's because he isn't a monster. After all, just because a red dragon broke the paladin, it doesn't make him guilty as well.
Arcturus informs the dragon that they're still several days away from the capital and that he'll be tied up the entire time since he can't take risks. It seems that the persuasion attempts went nowhere at first, but it only takes a couple more sentences before Veledar notices the paladin's confliction about his innocence. After admitting that a biased trial based on lies isn't justice, Arcturus basically tells Veledar to look him dead in the eyes and deny the allegations, which he does; saying that only the part about the damaged house is true.
Much to Veledar's surprise, Arcturus says he believes him and asks what happened from the dragon's perspective. After telling him to write down his Crimson Sky title, Veledar tells his story with some adjustments to his embarrassing moment with the banner and his rescue of Lyndis. Arcturus elaborates a bit about Crimson Sky by saying the beast took something very precious and irreplaceable to him, to which Veledar ignorantly responds by saying he deserves what happened. Noting that his response hurt more than intended, the dragon again asks what's going to happen to him. Arcturus promises to make sure the king hears him out, much to Veledar's disappointment, and bids him farewell.
We get some more back and forth between him and the jailer from earlier before we change to Arcturus' POV. Some time has passed and the paladin has just received a sudden change to his orders, courtesy of one of the king's wizards. Instead of bringing the dragon to the capital to face "justice," he's now tasked with killing Veledar then and there in his cell. Considering that he's already doubting the dragon's guilt, this only amplified his thoughts at how wrong the orders are. Despite his guts telling him to put a sock in it and Dread Flame once again roaring in his mind, Arcturus ultimately decides that his paladin oath is more important and it doesn't refer to only humans, which he believes is what Selina would have said if she was still alive. There's only one thing he can do now: pack his things and defy his king to save the innocent dragon's life.
The mood shifts a little when she asks when her brother will be back from hunting since their momma's out of the cave for a bit, leaving the cave lonely and cold. Veledar promises to spend the day with her after he catches the doe, and after some teasing from Adalina, he soon tracks down the deer again and manages to successfully kill his prey. His glory is short-lived, however, when he sees the doe's two offspring that witnessed their mother's death, making the dragon feel bad about it and promises to honor the animal's death. Just as he decides to lie to Adalina and spin the sad events into one of bravery and skill, a voice cuts in to finally wake him.
Now in the present, Veledar finds himself restrained in a wooden room within the Indomitus. He tries to use his fire breath when he realizes his mouth isn't gagged, but this group of soldiers aren't the ones from the prologue since they tied a belt tightly around his neck to prevent him from doing so. Thrash and struggle all he wants, he's stuck there, something one of the soldiers taunts him about. The human informs the dragon that the paladin wants to speak to Veledar, and the soldier leaves after some back-and-forth between him and Veledar. He figures that the humans don't want him dead yet since they could have just killed him in his lair and thinks for a second that the flower thieves were involved, before dismissing it since they would have fought like hell if their village really was in danger.
A couple minutes pass before Arcturus enters the room, without his helmet and weapons, something Veledar points out is pretty stupid. After the paladin orders the accompanying guard to leave them alone, the dragon immediately tries to taunt and piss him off about how guilty he must be feeling, but Arcturus is unmoved and basically says he's about to start an interrogation. When Veledar asks why he isn't dead yet, saying how the knights in their stories are racist against dragons, Arcturus tells him that it's for the crimes he committed against the kingdom. The dragon maintains his innocence and reminds the human that the paladin and his soldiers found him sleeping in his cave with a stuffed toy.
This has some effect on Arcturus, but he still isn't deterred as he reads out the list of crimes. Of course, it's filled with lies like murder, child kidnapping, robbing merchants, the whole nine yards, which obviously infuriates Veledar. The dragon attempts to appeal to Arcturus' morality, citing how his mother told stories about just men sworn to valor who carry the sun's light on their armor. Again, this makes the paladin hesitate a little bit more, but he says that words on paper holds more power than word of mouth. After Veledar struggles some more, Arcturus tries to call bullshit on his innocence claim since the sheer amount charges can't all be fabrications, but when Veledar verbally snipes at his paladin title, he angrily lets it slip that he's encountered another dragon before.
After a little bit of back-and-forth and Arcturus admitting to meeting another red dragon, he asks why Veledar pissed on his title, his ego evidently bruised. The dragon basically repeats what Vargus said in Chapter 1, that paladins used to battle against evil with their great magical abilities and Arcturus is a mockery of it with how many dragons he and his family killed. Thoroughly pissed, Arcturus defends himself by saying Dread Flame was a monster that took effort to bring down, but Veledar doesn't believe him and tells him to say something actually true. Calming himself down, Arcturus shifts topics and asks why Veledar spared the soldiers in the cave, to which the dragon answers that it's because he isn't a monster. After all, just because a red dragon broke the paladin, it doesn't make him guilty as well.
Arcturus informs the dragon that they're still several days away from the capital and that he'll be tied up the entire time since he can't take risks. It seems that the persuasion attempts went nowhere at first, but it only takes a couple more sentences before Veledar notices the paladin's confliction about his innocence. After admitting that a biased trial based on lies isn't justice, Arcturus basically tells Veledar to look him dead in the eyes and deny the allegations, which he does; saying that only the part about the damaged house is true.
Much to Veledar's surprise, Arcturus says he believes him and asks what happened from the dragon's perspective. After telling him to write down his Crimson Sky title, Veledar tells his story with some adjustments to his embarrassing moment with the banner and his rescue of Lyndis. Arcturus elaborates a bit about Crimson Sky by saying the beast took something very precious and irreplaceable to him, to which Veledar ignorantly responds by saying he deserves what happened. Noting that his response hurt more than intended, the dragon again asks what's going to happen to him. Arcturus promises to make sure the king hears him out, much to Veledar's disappointment, and bids him farewell.
We get some more back and forth between him and the jailer from earlier before we change to Arcturus' POV. Some time has passed and the paladin has just received a sudden change to his orders, courtesy of one of the king's wizards. Instead of bringing the dragon to the capital to face "justice," he's now tasked with killing Veledar then and there in his cell. Considering that he's already doubting the dragon's guilt, this only amplified his thoughts at how wrong the orders are. Despite his guts telling him to put a sock in it and Dread Flame once again roaring in his mind, Arcturus ultimately decides that his paladin oath is more important and it doesn't refer to only humans, which he believes is what Selina would have said if she was still alive. There's only one thing he can do now: pack his things and defy his king to save the innocent dragon's life.
I was originally going to include Chapter 7 here, but since it took longer than I'd like to get this out, I decided to save it for the next batch of chapters. See you then.
RefurbishedApparatus
if ya want to write faster play Typing Of The Dead
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2023
@Activelo Your reviews will fill the gap NoP's reviews left on me for the time being (It turns out that NoP2 kinda sucked and that left a bad taste on ricearoni's mouth, so there's that), also this story doesn't seem half bad. Normally furries write mary sue characters but so far Veledar and Arcturus are not written like complete shit... which makes me wonder where is the part where the story starts to feel like a slog to go through.
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Is that why he stopped posting reviews of the chapters here? Pitty I enjoyed reading them, was hoping for him to get to 140 before quitting at least.
Len Kagamine
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2024
I don't know if it's been posted, but I feel like Sparklecare Hospital deserves a mention (I'm surprised the creator hasn't gotten more attention on this website.) It's an edgy furry comic with sparklefurries that has gotten progressively more insane and fell into the woke rabbit hole.
Originally it was kind of a cute parody of the old days of edgy furry OCs, and slowly became a pit of degeneracy. More gendershit and other tumblrisms got shoveled in. Eventually the creator, who goes by the name "Kittycorn" (I'm pretty sure its a nonbinary identified female, not an mtf troon, but not completely sure) changed her focus from the actual comic to her self-indulgent AU where every main character was in a polygamous relationship together and each one of them had kids with each of the others, basically creating this huge second generation of characters. A lot of people were annoyed with how it felt like the creator was putting more effort into this AU than her actual comic, and the fandom became full of fans bitching about it. Kitty would chimp out at the very idea of criticism of her comic.
Not long ago, she was exposed by her bitter ex as having an incest fetish and making metric shit tons of cub porn featuring half-sibling and parent-child relationships. The comic collapsed. Honestly doubt it'll continue now, I think the plot got leaked anyway in the fallout. It's kind of hilarious to see people urging how important it is to talk about this issue with tact and care while simultaneously using Kitty's retarded "squeak" pronouns.
I'll post more sometime soon when I can, I just felt like I should mention it; Kittycorn seems like cow potential and the comic itself is an example of an interesting idea executed horribly. Seems like something you guys might find interesting.
Originally it was kind of a cute parody of the old days of edgy furry OCs, and slowly became a pit of degeneracy. More gendershit and other tumblrisms got shoveled in. Eventually the creator, who goes by the name "Kittycorn" (I'm pretty sure its a nonbinary identified female, not an mtf troon, but not completely sure) changed her focus from the actual comic to her self-indulgent AU where every main character was in a polygamous relationship together and each one of them had kids with each of the others, basically creating this huge second generation of characters. A lot of people were annoyed with how it felt like the creator was putting more effort into this AU than her actual comic, and the fandom became full of fans bitching about it. Kitty would chimp out at the very idea of criticism of her comic.
Not long ago, she was exposed by her bitter ex as having an incest fetish and making metric shit tons of cub porn featuring half-sibling and parent-child relationships. The comic collapsed. Honestly doubt it'll continue now, I think the plot got leaked anyway in the fallout. It's kind of hilarious to see people urging how important it is to talk about this issue with tact and care while simultaneously using Kitty's retarded "squeak" pronouns.
I'll post more sometime soon when I can, I just felt like I should mention it; Kittycorn seems like cow potential and the comic itself is an example of an interesting idea executed horribly. Seems like something you guys might find interesting.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2019
IIRC she was mentioned on the bad webcomics thread around the time that her incest fetish got leaked.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
I'd just like everyone to know I was planning to make an april fools update but then my roommate's dog chewed up my Ethernet cable twice in one week so that's kinda fucked
But I am planning on returning to updates soonish, not gonna make any promises (especially not on April fool's day) but I feel like I owe people an explanation as to why I stopped.
NoP 2 fucking suuuuucked holy shit I had such high hopes but SP clearly ran out of ideas and wanted to rush out an ending way before anything actually happened, and frankly the whole experience burned me out on NoP entirely.
Why the Marcel cameo??? Are we just not gonna address that for the rest of the story??? Oh ok! Guess we'll never know what happened to Slanek then?!?!?
What point did the Bissem serve? The penguin lady asks to join and they just fuck her over for no reason and she spends the rest of the book on the sidelines watching shit happen somewhere else.
What point did Elias serve??? He just shows up, gives a speech, then is like "fuck that I'm adam now lmao I'm outta here"
The entire story is just taylor being a turbofaggot and angsting about earth and his gay lover while every loose plot thread is snipped and the twist was retarded, especially because the entire conflict is resolved OFF PAGE BETWEEN CHAPTERS
The only good character was Loxsel and nothing can change my mind.
But I am planning on returning to updates soonish, not gonna make any promises (especially not on April fool's day) but I feel like I owe people an explanation as to why I stopped.
NoP 2 fucking suuuuucked holy shit I had such high hopes but SP clearly ran out of ideas and wanted to rush out an ending way before anything actually happened, and frankly the whole experience burned me out on NoP entirely.
Why the Marcel cameo??? Are we just not gonna address that for the rest of the story??? Oh ok! Guess we'll never know what happened to Slanek then?!?!?
What point did the Bissem serve? The penguin lady asks to join and they just fuck her over for no reason and she spends the rest of the book on the sidelines watching shit happen somewhere else.
What point did Elias serve??? He just shows up, gives a speech, then is like "fuck that I'm adam now lmao I'm outta here"
The entire story is just taylor being a turbofaggot and angsting about earth and his gay lover while every loose plot thread is snipped and the twist was retarded, especially because the entire conflict is resolved OFF PAGE BETWEEN CHAPTERS
The only good character was Loxsel and nothing can change my mind.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
The Marcel and Slanek thing was going somewhere, but because SP is a bitch, he was going to do it in bad faith to antagonise people who wouldn't stop asking about Slanek, but changed his mind and dropped it entirely. It was going to be Marcel shooting himself to own the chuds. I consider A Stranger In My Home to be Slanek's canon ending.
The bissem seemed to be born from SP's love of intrigue plots. But then he got so entangled in the various story threads that he left them half-baked. Notice how Nulia and Haliska just disappear without a trace after they screw the funi penguin scientist over? That's just one symptom of it.
Elias was probably the most enjoyable part of the story to me, but when you look at his plot in isolation, he didn't actually do all that much. Didn't care for the ending either. He didn't really have a story arc, he was just a vehicle for SP to write his vivid musings on how horrifying being resurrected as a robot would be.
Taylor fucking SUCKS I fucking HATE him. He was the absolute worst narrator in the entire franchise. And aside from the admittedly quite spooky robot-Taylor POV we got, the entire ending was total dogshit.
Loxsel is indeed based. At least he was fun.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
Don't even get me started on whatever the fuck he did with Quana, talk about a wasted character. She just gets really mad, nobody cares, then she blows herself up. What was that about?
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2022
Loxsel deserved better true.
My honest opinion is SP15 should have taken at least 3 months break between the end of NOP1 and starting NOP2. Wanting to keep going so fast made failure inevitable. At least it died quickly and he pulled out before going down a lolcow route.
My honest opinion is SP15 should have taken at least 3 months break between the end of NOP1 and starting NOP2. Wanting to keep going so fast made failure inevitable. At least it died quickly and he pulled out before going down a lolcow route.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
Quana was (afaik) supposed to be a comment on how not everyone can push through a combat-induced mental spiral and instead end up crashing out in the worst way possible, but it was badly written and so abrupt it failed to make an impact at all.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
Loxsel was the protagonist of a better story. We could've had the story of a half-mad sivkit facing down adversity, stuck between the humans he doesn't trust and the remnants who betrayed him as he tries to take back the sivkit motherland but space paladin has no balls.
Cave Fisher
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2021
I'm surprised this and the comic itself didn't get more coverage in the Bad Webcomics thread, I spent like two days straight laughing at the fandom imploding in pretty much that exact same timeframe.
Speaking of it continuing, the creator turned out to have a google drive leaked of an over 100 page comic of one the AU characters fucking his underage sister, so there's probably zero coming back from that. Hell, the main comic probably would have been stalled forever in favor of the AU, anyway.
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2020
Another round of chapters is among us. Last we left off, Arcturus tracked down and successfully captured Veledar. However, in the middle of transporting him to the capital, one conversation between them and a sudden change in orders causes the paladin to have a change of heart and decide to free the innocent dragon from an guaranteed death sentence, consequences be damned.
The stage is set with the story and bonding beginning proper. Despite being ignorant like a bag of rocks regarding Lumara and being a bit of an ass to Trixie, Veledar still shows some intelligence with how he knows Arcturus' initial plan is going to fail.
We learn a little bit more about Veledar and he in turn knows more about Arcturus' backstory. Not really a bad chapter since it still has some needed conversations and moments for their friendship, but I'm a bit 'eh' on the fairy realm outside of the illusions and fight at the end. Feels like more could have been done with it other than just walking on the trail for 90% of the trip.
Lyndis has joined the party! She's right, they're gonna need the help. Despite Lumara's infamy for being murderous towards dragons, everyone in the village seems surprisingly chill with Veledar and his antics. I know the moment isn't taken seriously, but I'd personally be pissed if someone I only met a few days ago decides to barge in breaking shit, order everything on the menu on the spot without asking me, and fully expect me to pay for everything. I know Arcturus is good for it, but seems like something that deserves another slap on the wrist at least.
A bit exposition on Lumara, even if it seems like Arcturus lost the argument a little too easily, and the foreshadowing story behind the shooting stars. Overall still a decent chapter, but the bulette fight scene seems to just be filler to pad out the chapter's word count.
Tune in next time for the next three chapters.
Edit: Completely forgot to write down the stuff about the bulettes being filler and my thoughts for the last chapter, so went ahead and put it in.
After the sun sets and dinner time rolls in, Arcturus relieves Veledar's cell guard from his post to enact a simple plan: allow the dragon to escape and take the heat. It's clear he didn't really put much thought into what comes afterwards, since he doesn't think his men and the king would believe whatever excuse he tries to cook up, but whatever punishment he receives is better than an innocent life being "put down like a sick dog."
When he enters the room, Veledar asks if either his "charming looks or irresistible humor" brought the human back, if the paladin has another round of questions or if reason finally entered his head. After we get a bit about the dragon needing to relieve himself, Arcturus begins to hesitate a bit, with Veledar picking up that the human wants to free him. After the paladin makes the dragon promise not to harm anyone on the ship, with Veledar commenting that he's not stupid enough to attack a warship, he loosens the strap around the dragon's neck.
Veledar responds to this by licking Arcturus, much to his disgust, and lectures him on how glorious his appearance is as the human continues to work on the binds. When this is done, Arcturus says that that they're even now. Veledar, however, doesn't take that well and slams him against the wall with his tail before pinning him down with a paw. The dragon angrily reminds the paladin that he and his men attacked Veledar while he was sleeping, stole his treasure, and kidnapped him, which doesn't make them even in his eyes. Just as Arcturus mentally begins to curse him for being a backstabbing bastard like Dread Flame, however, Veledar admits that the human did still free him and orders the paladin to show the way out before he "really loses his temper."
With not much in the way of choices, Arcturus tells Veledar to follow him to the hanger where he can fly away, which should be easy unless the guards notice something's up. Thankfully for them, everyone else is on their lunch break, so it's a straight shot there. On the way, Veledar asks what convinced Arcturus to free him or how he was "masterfully manipulated" into doing so, to which the human vaguely responds that the dragon said things he didn't expect and that he's deciding to place his trust in him. Arcturus decides not to argue with Veledar smugly saying that he was "manipulated" and tells the dragon to fly somewhere far away where he can't be located once he opens a hatch, and that the human will sort out the false allegations.
Again, Veledar is not satisfied with just fucking off after what happened and arrogantly declares that he's going to make the king give his treasure back over a so-called "pleasant chat." Arcturus basically calls him a dumbass with how many soldiers, airships, and gryphons the kingdom has at its disposal and again tries to tell him to simply leave. Veledar picks up on what the human said and asks if he met with the king before. The paladin makes the mistake of confirming that he did, since that would mean he knows the castle's layout. Veledar says as such with a grin before suddenly grabbing him. Arcturus tries to struggle free as Veledar opens the hatch to the outside, but to no avail.
One of the guards opens the door to the hanger, sees what's happening, and immediately turns around to alert the other men that the dragon's escaped. With no time left to spare, despite Arcturus demanding to be released, Veledar dives out with the human in his paws. The paladin is obviously scared shitless at being miles high in the sky and can only hold on to the dragon for dear life as the airship fades into the distance. Veledar taunts him, narcissistically saying he's captured a "valuable resource" and getting to hear him sing. Arcturus yells that they're deep in shit now, that Lumara will hunt them down to the ends of the earth, and the dragon messed everything up.
After another round of Arcturus demanding to be put down and Veledar snarking that it would be a long drop, the human asks where he's being taken, but Veledar vaguely responds that it will be somewhere safe. As they make their way there, Arcturus takes the time to examine Veledar's scales and wings, admitting that his scent is a lot more pleasing than dogs, and that the flight would have been relaxing had it not been for the risk of falling.
Veledar finally lands after flying for some distance and Arcturus immediately whips out his sword ready to fight, his crossbow broken. He accuses the dragon of kidnapping him so he can eat him, pulls out a yellow stone to illuminate the area, and declares that he won't go down easily. Veledar reminds Arcturus that he could have dropped him at any point during the flight if he really wanted him dead, which defuses the situation enough for the human to put his sword away, albeit still understandably tense. Veledar tells him he owes the dragon and to help recover what he lost, to which Arcturus asks why the hell should he after the kidnapping.
Clearly not taking the objections seriously, Veledar answers that it's for saving the paladin's life. When Arcturus doesn't get how he did, the dragon adds on that the king would have seen right through Arcturus since he's a bad liar, leading to who knows what kind of punishment for freeing Lumara's most hated species. Arcturus concedes the point rather quickly, much to Veledar's surprise from a "pompous paladin," and thanks the dragon. Considering their next course of action, Arcturus informs him that Lumara is likely going for the obvious plan of sending gryphons to track the two down and capture them.
Thankfully for the pair, Veledar already met a certain someone in the forest that owes him a favor from 5 chapters ago. Turns out he landed at Trixie's grove and she emerges from the trees to join in on a bit of teasing at Arcturus' expense for his screaming, Trixie correctly assumes that the dragon is here to collect the favor, which is Veledar asking to use the grove's portal to escape Lumara's pursuers. She grants them permission to use it, but warns them that fairy magic can mess with non-fairies. Arcturus asks her to elaborate, not knowing much about said magic himself, but all she says is they need to have a clear head during the gate-hopping process, lest they be pulled to god-knows-where.
Veledar asks a dumb question and, after telling her to shut her mouth when she calls him full of hot air, says he can handle himself. After a bit of dialogue involving Veledar referring to Arcturus as "his human," Trixie tells them to make physical contact with each other so they can actually use the portal, which they reluctantly do after a bit of arguing about being so close they can kiss. She then elaborates more about what they have to do after they appear in the fairy realm: follow the path no matter what happens. She circles around them casting her spell and, before the human and dragon know it, they're in a different forest entirely with blue and purple trees.
They take a minute to look around, noting that there isn't any sounds, smells, animals, or people other than themselves and the trees reacting to their presence, and soon spot a worn path that Trixie mentioned. Veledar and Arcturus banter for a bit, but there's not much else they can do other than follow the path, and so they do just that. Hours seem to pass, the trail never seems to turn at all, and they mention hearing a faint roar of another dragon. Exhaustion soon catches up to the both of them and they practically fall asleep on the spot, and even more hours pass before Arcturus wakes up with Veledar draping his wings over him. The paladin eats some food he has in his pack and notes that he felt way hungrier than he thought, like he hadn't eaten in several days.
He yells at Veledar to get his ass up who, after some more banter, notes that time seems to be moving differently while in the fairy realm. After the dragon refuses some of Arcturus' food despite being hungry himself since he wants to GTFO as soon as possible, they continue on the trail. Some more odd plant-life are observed, like branches with eyeballs and flowers that purr like cats, but the path gradually got less "verdant" as they eventually stopped for another rest. Veledar bitches about not being able to fly since he's sticking with Arcturus and we learn that hatchlings can't fly until they're older and their wings are strong enough.
Veledar teases Arcturus some more about his screaming when they were flying away from the airship and the human threatens the dragon to not get any ideas or he'll chop off one of his claws. Veledar calls his bluff and, after another humorous moment of him licking Arcturus and grossing him out, asks again why the human freed him. Arcturus answers that he believed in the dragon's innocence and Veledar presses him on who is the person the paladin put his trust in earlier. Upon learning that his family were killed by another red dragon, Veledar mentions that they're more valuable than any art piece or coin and that it "takes a monster" to kill them like that.
The paladin strokes his snout, which the dragon really likes, as Veledar says that the Arcturus is the first human to not be an asshole to him, even with the ambush at the cave. Arcturus responds by promising to clear Veledar's name and return all of his belongings, plus some old books at the dragon's request. The meaningful conversation doesn't last, though, as a female silver wrymling suddenly runs out into the clearing. Despite her appearing to be playful, Veledar is immediately terrified as she runs back into the trees since she should be much older than that, although he quickly figures out that it's just an illusion.
As they get back moving on the trail, Veledar informs Arcturus that she is his younger sister and the mood lightens a little when he whines at him to use his full title of Crimson Sky instead of shortening it to just Crimson since it feels "bare and insignificant." He tells the human that he has a mother as well, but when Arcturus asks for their names, Veledar refuses since their real names have to be earned and he tells him their titles instead; the Radiant Gem of the East for his sister and the Indomitable Aegis for his mother. Veledar reminisces about how her mother had the best stories unlike human stories with dragons as the villains, and Arcturus concedes the point after failing to come up with a human story with a good dragon.
Their conversation is cut short when they see a thunderstorm ahead of them separate from the bright and colorful path they walked previously like a wall. Again, since their hands are tied, they press on into the downpour of rain. After some more distance, Veledar decides to shield Arcturus from the heavy rainfall with one of his wings and the human sees through the dragon's obvious lie about only doing it to stop the annoying sound. The chapter ends with Arcturus wondering if a story about a good dragon like Veledar would be out there in a few years, and hopes that the both of them would live to hear the tales being spread.
When he enters the room, Veledar asks if either his "charming looks or irresistible humor" brought the human back, if the paladin has another round of questions or if reason finally entered his head. After we get a bit about the dragon needing to relieve himself, Arcturus begins to hesitate a bit, with Veledar picking up that the human wants to free him. After the paladin makes the dragon promise not to harm anyone on the ship, with Veledar commenting that he's not stupid enough to attack a warship, he loosens the strap around the dragon's neck.
Veledar responds to this by licking Arcturus, much to his disgust, and lectures him on how glorious his appearance is as the human continues to work on the binds. When this is done, Arcturus says that that they're even now. Veledar, however, doesn't take that well and slams him against the wall with his tail before pinning him down with a paw. The dragon angrily reminds the paladin that he and his men attacked Veledar while he was sleeping, stole his treasure, and kidnapped him, which doesn't make them even in his eyes. Just as Arcturus mentally begins to curse him for being a backstabbing bastard like Dread Flame, however, Veledar admits that the human did still free him and orders the paladin to show the way out before he "really loses his temper."
With not much in the way of choices, Arcturus tells Veledar to follow him to the hanger where he can fly away, which should be easy unless the guards notice something's up. Thankfully for them, everyone else is on their lunch break, so it's a straight shot there. On the way, Veledar asks what convinced Arcturus to free him or how he was "masterfully manipulated" into doing so, to which the human vaguely responds that the dragon said things he didn't expect and that he's deciding to place his trust in him. Arcturus decides not to argue with Veledar smugly saying that he was "manipulated" and tells the dragon to fly somewhere far away where he can't be located once he opens a hatch, and that the human will sort out the false allegations.
Again, Veledar is not satisfied with just fucking off after what happened and arrogantly declares that he's going to make the king give his treasure back over a so-called "pleasant chat." Arcturus basically calls him a dumbass with how many soldiers, airships, and gryphons the kingdom has at its disposal and again tries to tell him to simply leave. Veledar picks up on what the human said and asks if he met with the king before. The paladin makes the mistake of confirming that he did, since that would mean he knows the castle's layout. Veledar says as such with a grin before suddenly grabbing him. Arcturus tries to struggle free as Veledar opens the hatch to the outside, but to no avail.
One of the guards opens the door to the hanger, sees what's happening, and immediately turns around to alert the other men that the dragon's escaped. With no time left to spare, despite Arcturus demanding to be released, Veledar dives out with the human in his paws. The paladin is obviously scared shitless at being miles high in the sky and can only hold on to the dragon for dear life as the airship fades into the distance. Veledar taunts him, narcissistically saying he's captured a "valuable resource" and getting to hear him sing. Arcturus yells that they're deep in shit now, that Lumara will hunt them down to the ends of the earth, and the dragon messed everything up.
After another round of Arcturus demanding to be put down and Veledar snarking that it would be a long drop, the human asks where he's being taken, but Veledar vaguely responds that it will be somewhere safe. As they make their way there, Arcturus takes the time to examine Veledar's scales and wings, admitting that his scent is a lot more pleasing than dogs, and that the flight would have been relaxing had it not been for the risk of falling.
Veledar finally lands after flying for some distance and Arcturus immediately whips out his sword ready to fight, his crossbow broken. He accuses the dragon of kidnapping him so he can eat him, pulls out a yellow stone to illuminate the area, and declares that he won't go down easily. Veledar reminds Arcturus that he could have dropped him at any point during the flight if he really wanted him dead, which defuses the situation enough for the human to put his sword away, albeit still understandably tense. Veledar tells him he owes the dragon and to help recover what he lost, to which Arcturus asks why the hell should he after the kidnapping.
Clearly not taking the objections seriously, Veledar answers that it's for saving the paladin's life. When Arcturus doesn't get how he did, the dragon adds on that the king would have seen right through Arcturus since he's a bad liar, leading to who knows what kind of punishment for freeing Lumara's most hated species. Arcturus concedes the point rather quickly, much to Veledar's surprise from a "pompous paladin," and thanks the dragon. Considering their next course of action, Arcturus informs him that Lumara is likely going for the obvious plan of sending gryphons to track the two down and capture them.
Thankfully for the pair, Veledar already met a certain someone in the forest that owes him a favor from 5 chapters ago. Turns out he landed at Trixie's grove and she emerges from the trees to join in on a bit of teasing at Arcturus' expense for his screaming, Trixie correctly assumes that the dragon is here to collect the favor, which is Veledar asking to use the grove's portal to escape Lumara's pursuers. She grants them permission to use it, but warns them that fairy magic can mess with non-fairies. Arcturus asks her to elaborate, not knowing much about said magic himself, but all she says is they need to have a clear head during the gate-hopping process, lest they be pulled to god-knows-where.
Veledar asks a dumb question and, after telling her to shut her mouth when she calls him full of hot air, says he can handle himself. After a bit of dialogue involving Veledar referring to Arcturus as "his human," Trixie tells them to make physical contact with each other so they can actually use the portal, which they reluctantly do after a bit of arguing about being so close they can kiss. She then elaborates more about what they have to do after they appear in the fairy realm: follow the path no matter what happens. She circles around them casting her spell and, before the human and dragon know it, they're in a different forest entirely with blue and purple trees.
They take a minute to look around, noting that there isn't any sounds, smells, animals, or people other than themselves and the trees reacting to their presence, and soon spot a worn path that Trixie mentioned. Veledar and Arcturus banter for a bit, but there's not much else they can do other than follow the path, and so they do just that. Hours seem to pass, the trail never seems to turn at all, and they mention hearing a faint roar of another dragon. Exhaustion soon catches up to the both of them and they practically fall asleep on the spot, and even more hours pass before Arcturus wakes up with Veledar draping his wings over him. The paladin eats some food he has in his pack and notes that he felt way hungrier than he thought, like he hadn't eaten in several days.
He yells at Veledar to get his ass up who, after some more banter, notes that time seems to be moving differently while in the fairy realm. After the dragon refuses some of Arcturus' food despite being hungry himself since he wants to GTFO as soon as possible, they continue on the trail. Some more odd plant-life are observed, like branches with eyeballs and flowers that purr like cats, but the path gradually got less "verdant" as they eventually stopped for another rest. Veledar bitches about not being able to fly since he's sticking with Arcturus and we learn that hatchlings can't fly until they're older and their wings are strong enough.
Veledar teases Arcturus some more about his screaming when they were flying away from the airship and the human threatens the dragon to not get any ideas or he'll chop off one of his claws. Veledar calls his bluff and, after another humorous moment of him licking Arcturus and grossing him out, asks again why the human freed him. Arcturus answers that he believed in the dragon's innocence and Veledar presses him on who is the person the paladin put his trust in earlier. Upon learning that his family were killed by another red dragon, Veledar mentions that they're more valuable than any art piece or coin and that it "takes a monster" to kill them like that.
The paladin strokes his snout, which the dragon really likes, as Veledar says that the Arcturus is the first human to not be an asshole to him, even with the ambush at the cave. Arcturus responds by promising to clear Veledar's name and return all of his belongings, plus some old books at the dragon's request. The meaningful conversation doesn't last, though, as a female silver wrymling suddenly runs out into the clearing. Despite her appearing to be playful, Veledar is immediately terrified as she runs back into the trees since she should be much older than that, although he quickly figures out that it's just an illusion.
As they get back moving on the trail, Veledar informs Arcturus that she is his younger sister and the mood lightens a little when he whines at him to use his full title of Crimson Sky instead of shortening it to just Crimson since it feels "bare and insignificant." He tells the human that he has a mother as well, but when Arcturus asks for their names, Veledar refuses since their real names have to be earned and he tells him their titles instead; the Radiant Gem of the East for his sister and the Indomitable Aegis for his mother. Veledar reminisces about how her mother had the best stories unlike human stories with dragons as the villains, and Arcturus concedes the point after failing to come up with a human story with a good dragon.
Their conversation is cut short when they see a thunderstorm ahead of them separate from the bright and colorful path they walked previously like a wall. Again, since their hands are tied, they press on into the downpour of rain. After some more distance, Veledar decides to shield Arcturus from the heavy rainfall with one of his wings and the human sees through the dragon's obvious lie about only doing it to stop the annoying sound. The chapter ends with Arcturus wondering if a story about a good dragon like Veledar would be out there in a few years, and hopes that the both of them would live to hear the tales being spread.
The storm is still raging and the pair appear to be no closer to their destination by the time they decide to take another rest at a bare creepy tree that's somehow covering them from the rain. Without a sun or moon in the fairy realm, they don't know how long they've been in it for other than it being a while. Arcturus and Veledar chat for a bit with the latter grooming himself and we get the first signs of flirting when the dragon blushes at Arcturus compliment of him looking "much better than a horse." The paladin also inquires about getting a blacksmith to make some armor for Veledar's wings since one good swipe with a claw is enough to stop him from flying, although the dragon dismisses it since he won't get hit. Chapter 5 calls bullshit on that.
Veledar also tells the human when asked about it that he's lived for "five hundred and twenty seasons" now, which translates to him being a young adult with around 130 human years. Arcturus says that he's 25 years old, causing Veledar to note how human life spans are "a drop of water in a bucket" in comparison to dragons, asking how the hell humans can accomplish anything when the elves and even gryphons have longer lives. The paladin responds that humans simply do the most with the time they're given and gain knowledge since they're forced to do it faster than other races, and also says that the dragon should hear some stories of elves in Lumara; "sometimes, they can be cold, heartless bastards."
Arcturus asks about whether Veledar had any actual interactions with humans beforehand, and he responds that outside of the ones he met during Chapter 2, not really; only through stories from wood elves in the forest he lives next door to. Even then, his mother mostly kept them away from her children since fire and wood doesn't exactly mix well, and they in turn gave her leeway when she was raising her children. When the paladin asks about whether Veledar had any other siblings, he reluctantly reveals that he also had an older brother and it's indicated that he kicked the bucket when they were hatchlings.
No sooner does Veledar says he and Adalina left their mother's nest 25 years ago than the older brother with silver scales suddenly appear in front of them, mortally injured with plenty of gashes. With an upset "not again," Veledar immediately rushes over to him, ignoring Arcturus' yells, but the brother falls dead before he even reaches him. Tears fall from his snout as he mentions the depression he felt after the brother's death years ago and his failure to protect him. Arcturus gets Veledar's attention and asks how the brother perished, but Veledar refuses to tell him right at that moment. When Veledar opens his eyes again, however, the brother vanished without a trace; another illusion of the fairy realm.
This naturally infuriates Veledar, although he tosses in petty shit like the mud on his feet, the cold air, the clouds, and the rain during his grieving outburst. Arcturus is quick to calm him down and Veledar thrusts his snout into the human's arms for comfort. They get some more rest afterwards and their plans to get going as soon as possible is complicated when Arcturus suddenly goes into the forest right before Veledar woke up. Despite knowing that going off the trail is a bad idea, Veledar can't stomach abandoning Arcturus after he comforted him, and the dragon soon follows the human's boot prints. It doesn't take long before he comes across Arcturus sobbing over the burnt corpses of his wife and son.
The human is taking it much harder than the dragon did despite knowing that the fairy realm is using their memories to create illusions, telling Veledar to leave him since his family needs him. Veledar feels the forest tightening around them and tempting the pair to stay, so when he fails to convince the sobbing human was really looking at roots, he has to forcefully drag the paladin away. Arcturus tries his best to break free from Veledar's hold, but he fails to do so and Veledar successfully pulls him back to the trail and the tree they were resting at earlier. For some reason, Veledar says to the human that he lied about not being able to see the corpses. Technically, you did with saying the corpses are roots, but it really wasn't? Visible to other people or not, it was still an illusion.
Arcturus is ugly crying now if he wasn't already since he has "drool coming out of his mouth," and Veledar eases him into a hug as the human reveals what happened in Chapter 1 with Dread Flame. The paladin says he failed everyone and Veledar is the only person he managed to save. Veledar comforts him, mentions that he's ignoring that the human is only referring to him as Crimson instead of Crimson Sky, and tells him that they're going to get some more rest. The dragon has him cuddle into his chest so he doesn't wander off again, which causes Veledar to compare him to his stuffed animal he used to hug every night in his lair.
After they wake up the next morning (how do you know that when there's no way to measure time in the fairy realm?) and banter about the cuddling and Arcturus' beard, the mood gets slightly more serious when it's clear that Arcturus doesn't remember what happened with his own illusions and Veledar has to tell him what happened. When they check their surroundings, however, they find out that they were not at the same place they fell asleep at. They were now in the middle of a field of bright green grass and the lifeless tree they were next to was now full of life with leaves of different colors. Arcturus' pouches and pack were also mysteriously filled to the brim with berries and small fruits, and Veledar eats them despite the human's concerns about where they came from.
It's implied in his internal thoughts that druids might have shared them while they were asleep based on what he remembered as a hatchling. So druids can enter the fairy realm? It's not really clear. Regardless, they eat half of the berries and it's mentioned that one of the berries called Night's Essence can sustain a human for a whole day. After some comedy about Veledar's burping and a fart joke, they get back on the trail once more, although the dragon senses that they're getting close to the end. Some more brief banter happens and they soon emerge into another green field, this one with a ten-foot symbol of a tree with many branches made with small stones.
Neither of them have any clue what to do next, so they spend an hour poking and scratching at the rocks with no results. Arcturus decides to draw the symbol onto one of his parchments to see if it helps him come up with a solution, "instead of thrashing his tail, baring his teeth, and snarling like a beast." Veledar whines about how it's a part of a dragon's thinking process, but they're interrupted by a group of eight-foot-tall humanoid shadows with blank faces and large claws emerging from the ground. Since they're clearly not friendly, the human and dragon fight the creatures, although the pair quickly learn that it's not as simple as hitting them until they stop moving. One of the shadows dissipates when Veledar bites it, and slicing through another one just results in it bursting into two copies instead.
The pair soon find themselves surrounded with shadows and the creatures are getting a couple good hits in on Veledar, leading the dragon to pull the human close and using his fire breath to melt a large chunk of them. He sees Arcturus fighting his own group of shadows and launches himself at them to assist, but he sees the melted shadows reforming like nothing happened. Veledar quickly draws a circle on the ground to cast a protection spell that forms a shield of light around him and Arcturus, but it's not going to hold for long with the shadows constantly striking it. Arcturus informs the dragon about there being a symbol on the shadows' back, same as the stones, saying that the shadows must be part of the puzzle or a test of endurance.
He tells Veledar to ignore the shadows and only focus on leaving like Trixie instructed them to. Since there isn't really any other sensible option, Veledar agrees to the plan after threatening to haunt the human with bad jokes in the afterlife if they die. He imagines himself flying in the skies with other dragons and feels the magic shield falling, but he intentionally ignores it, and imagines up a large door engraved with dragon carvings. He fails to notice Arcturus saying his real name and the human draws his sword when he hears a faint roar in the distance. When the paladin asks if he's ready, however, it's immediately followed up by him yelling at the dragon to wake his ass up.
Veledar opens his eyes and realizes that he fell asleep again, but their plan had worked. The clearing looked like the one from Trixie's grove but without the mountain and the sun is high in the sky, meaning it was likely around noon. He asks Arcturus where they ended up, but the paladin responds that they need to see beyond the clearing first to know for sure. Not ten seconds later, Veledar gets a funny idea again and suddenly grabs Arcturus as he flies into the sky. He takes a bit of joy in seeing the paladin terrified out of his mind, but he still reminds Arcturus that they need to look around. After a bit of looking around, Arcturus is shocked when he realizes that Trixie sent them far south near Drenedar.
When the dragon asks where to go next since he's never been to these lands before and he's hungry, Arcturus is feeling the same and says that there's a village called Trost not far east from their current position. Veledar asks the obvious question of whether the villagers would mind a dragon showing up, Arcturus says not to worry since they've likely seen stranger things before. The human protests about being carried the whole way there, but Veledar laughs it off since he's still enjoying messing with him, and the chapter ends with them flying towards Trost.
Veledar also tells the human when asked about it that he's lived for "five hundred and twenty seasons" now, which translates to him being a young adult with around 130 human years. Arcturus says that he's 25 years old, causing Veledar to note how human life spans are "a drop of water in a bucket" in comparison to dragons, asking how the hell humans can accomplish anything when the elves and even gryphons have longer lives. The paladin responds that humans simply do the most with the time they're given and gain knowledge since they're forced to do it faster than other races, and also says that the dragon should hear some stories of elves in Lumara; "sometimes, they can be cold, heartless bastards."
Arcturus asks about whether Veledar had any actual interactions with humans beforehand, and he responds that outside of the ones he met during Chapter 2, not really; only through stories from wood elves in the forest he lives next door to. Even then, his mother mostly kept them away from her children since fire and wood doesn't exactly mix well, and they in turn gave her leeway when she was raising her children. When the paladin asks about whether Veledar had any other siblings, he reluctantly reveals that he also had an older brother and it's indicated that he kicked the bucket when they were hatchlings.
No sooner does Veledar says he and Adalina left their mother's nest 25 years ago than the older brother with silver scales suddenly appear in front of them, mortally injured with plenty of gashes. With an upset "not again," Veledar immediately rushes over to him, ignoring Arcturus' yells, but the brother falls dead before he even reaches him. Tears fall from his snout as he mentions the depression he felt after the brother's death years ago and his failure to protect him. Arcturus gets Veledar's attention and asks how the brother perished, but Veledar refuses to tell him right at that moment. When Veledar opens his eyes again, however, the brother vanished without a trace; another illusion of the fairy realm.
This naturally infuriates Veledar, although he tosses in petty shit like the mud on his feet, the cold air, the clouds, and the rain during his grieving outburst. Arcturus is quick to calm him down and Veledar thrusts his snout into the human's arms for comfort. They get some more rest afterwards and their plans to get going as soon as possible is complicated when Arcturus suddenly goes into the forest right before Veledar woke up. Despite knowing that going off the trail is a bad idea, Veledar can't stomach abandoning Arcturus after he comforted him, and the dragon soon follows the human's boot prints. It doesn't take long before he comes across Arcturus sobbing over the burnt corpses of his wife and son.
The human is taking it much harder than the dragon did despite knowing that the fairy realm is using their memories to create illusions, telling Veledar to leave him since his family needs him. Veledar feels the forest tightening around them and tempting the pair to stay, so when he fails to convince the sobbing human was really looking at roots, he has to forcefully drag the paladin away. Arcturus tries his best to break free from Veledar's hold, but he fails to do so and Veledar successfully pulls him back to the trail and the tree they were resting at earlier. For some reason, Veledar says to the human that he lied about not being able to see the corpses. Technically, you did with saying the corpses are roots, but it really wasn't? Visible to other people or not, it was still an illusion.
Arcturus is ugly crying now if he wasn't already since he has "drool coming out of his mouth," and Veledar eases him into a hug as the human reveals what happened in Chapter 1 with Dread Flame. The paladin says he failed everyone and Veledar is the only person he managed to save. Veledar comforts him, mentions that he's ignoring that the human is only referring to him as Crimson instead of Crimson Sky, and tells him that they're going to get some more rest. The dragon has him cuddle into his chest so he doesn't wander off again, which causes Veledar to compare him to his stuffed animal he used to hug every night in his lair.
After they wake up the next morning (how do you know that when there's no way to measure time in the fairy realm?) and banter about the cuddling and Arcturus' beard, the mood gets slightly more serious when it's clear that Arcturus doesn't remember what happened with his own illusions and Veledar has to tell him what happened. When they check their surroundings, however, they find out that they were not at the same place they fell asleep at. They were now in the middle of a field of bright green grass and the lifeless tree they were next to was now full of life with leaves of different colors. Arcturus' pouches and pack were also mysteriously filled to the brim with berries and small fruits, and Veledar eats them despite the human's concerns about where they came from.
It's implied in his internal thoughts that druids might have shared them while they were asleep based on what he remembered as a hatchling. So druids can enter the fairy realm? It's not really clear. Regardless, they eat half of the berries and it's mentioned that one of the berries called Night's Essence can sustain a human for a whole day. After some comedy about Veledar's burping and a fart joke, they get back on the trail once more, although the dragon senses that they're getting close to the end. Some more brief banter happens and they soon emerge into another green field, this one with a ten-foot symbol of a tree with many branches made with small stones.
Neither of them have any clue what to do next, so they spend an hour poking and scratching at the rocks with no results. Arcturus decides to draw the symbol onto one of his parchments to see if it helps him come up with a solution, "instead of thrashing his tail, baring his teeth, and snarling like a beast." Veledar whines about how it's a part of a dragon's thinking process, but they're interrupted by a group of eight-foot-tall humanoid shadows with blank faces and large claws emerging from the ground. Since they're clearly not friendly, the human and dragon fight the creatures, although the pair quickly learn that it's not as simple as hitting them until they stop moving. One of the shadows dissipates when Veledar bites it, and slicing through another one just results in it bursting into two copies instead.
The pair soon find themselves surrounded with shadows and the creatures are getting a couple good hits in on Veledar, leading the dragon to pull the human close and using his fire breath to melt a large chunk of them. He sees Arcturus fighting his own group of shadows and launches himself at them to assist, but he sees the melted shadows reforming like nothing happened. Veledar quickly draws a circle on the ground to cast a protection spell that forms a shield of light around him and Arcturus, but it's not going to hold for long with the shadows constantly striking it. Arcturus informs the dragon about there being a symbol on the shadows' back, same as the stones, saying that the shadows must be part of the puzzle or a test of endurance.
He tells Veledar to ignore the shadows and only focus on leaving like Trixie instructed them to. Since there isn't really any other sensible option, Veledar agrees to the plan after threatening to haunt the human with bad jokes in the afterlife if they die. He imagines himself flying in the skies with other dragons and feels the magic shield falling, but he intentionally ignores it, and imagines up a large door engraved with dragon carvings. He fails to notice Arcturus saying his real name and the human draws his sword when he hears a faint roar in the distance. When the paladin asks if he's ready, however, it's immediately followed up by him yelling at the dragon to wake his ass up.
Veledar opens his eyes and realizes that he fell asleep again, but their plan had worked. The clearing looked like the one from Trixie's grove but without the mountain and the sun is high in the sky, meaning it was likely around noon. He asks Arcturus where they ended up, but the paladin responds that they need to see beyond the clearing first to know for sure. Not ten seconds later, Veledar gets a funny idea again and suddenly grabs Arcturus as he flies into the sky. He takes a bit of joy in seeing the paladin terrified out of his mind, but he still reminds Arcturus that they need to look around. After a bit of looking around, Arcturus is shocked when he realizes that Trixie sent them far south near Drenedar.
When the dragon asks where to go next since he's never been to these lands before and he's hungry, Arcturus is feeling the same and says that there's a village called Trost not far east from their current position. Veledar asks the obvious question of whether the villagers would mind a dragon showing up, Arcturus says not to worry since they've likely seen stranger things before. The human protests about being carried the whole way there, but Veledar laughs it off since he's still enjoying messing with him, and the chapter ends with them flying towards Trost.
Veledar displays some slight tact for a change and sets Arcturus down on the ground when they get to Trost, who promptly throws up on the spot. After bitching about the flight, he notes that the village didn't seem to change much since he last saw it, with around thirty cottages. When Veledar repeats his question on why the human thinks Trost will be more accepting of a dragon, Arcturus is about to answer that Trost has the most gryphons compared to the other Lumara villages when he's interrupted by three gryphons guards suddenly landing around them, Mek, DuskTalon, and Miraka. Veledar puts up his guard and makes sure he's close to the paladin as one of the gryphons says he's never seen a dragon around here before.
The human lies his ass off to the guard that's strutting around them, Mek, saying that the dragon is a guard, a mode of transportation, and that they're conducting official business in the king's name that he conveniently can't divulge information about. The guard immediately calls bullshit because of the dragon bit to which Veledar tries to insult them for it, but Arcturus interrupts by introducing himself as a Lund, dragon slayer, and paladin, saying that if the gryphons hadn't heard his name before, they've "probably hatched from rocks."
Not really the best words to use there when trying to convince people, IMO. Luckily for the human and dragon, Mek has heard of the paladin before, but basically asks why he should care. Arcturus responds with a half-truth this time, saying that he's got orders to bring Veledar to the king, but also says it's because he's got some big plans with the "big scale bum." The dragon takes offense to that and the guards don't take it too kindly when he tries to threaten Arcturus, which the human has to defuse the situation by saying it's a bad joke and insinuating that it's because Veledar has special needs
After Mek stares at the paladin from up close to see if he flinches or starts sweating, the gryphon seems to be satisfied at his answers, saying that whatever species they are doesn't matter as long as they behave in Trost. Veledar arrogantly promises that he'll do so and says the town might replace gryphons with dragons when they'll love him, something Mek scoffs at before he and his squad flies off to continue their patrol. With that out of the way, Arcturus and Veledar make their way to the town, but the dragon asks why they're walking when they can simply fly. The human reminds him that he insulted Mek in front of his squad, implying the gryphon might hold a grudge because of it, and tells him to keep walking.
When Veledar whines about it and says he can just pick up the human at any time when the paladin objects again, Arcturus responds by explaining that it's not that he's afraid of heights or flying as long as he's riding on the dragon's back. It's just the "being carried" and "diving and ascending" parts that made him scream earlier. Veledar laughs before realzing the paladin's serious about riding on his back, to which he then gets insulted at the idea of being ridden like an animal. Still, he says he'll think about swallowing his pride for it if only he doesn't have to watch the human puke on each landing.
They banter some more about their exit plan from the fairy realm working and we get a bit where Arcturus playfully pushes Veledar and the dragon responds by pushing the human face-first into the grass to make it "even." The human obviously isn't too thrilled about it but seems to forgive him pretty quickly since they're apparently starting to become friends. Veledar agrees by saying that the human is growing on him and the conversation gets more serious when he claims that dragons don't really have friends from other species. When Arcturus questions it and tries to bring up Trixie as an example, the dragon reveals that he was friends with a female dragon some time ago, but their bond crumbled when she decided to explode a continent east of Sethera. "It is the way of the dragon, to live a life of solitude."
Arcturus expresses his sympathies and they silently enter Trost proper. True to the human's word, the town has a lot of gryphon-related things. Their reception is nowhere near as hostile or fearful like Chapters 2 and 4 since the villagers are more curious than anything else, although the paladin had to shoo away some of the more curious gryphons. Veledar doesn't seem to care about drawing as little attention as possible since he wants to boast about himself to anyone who will listen. While Arcturus complains about it, he concedes the point when the dragon says in a bit of an egotistical way that he's making the villagers more comfortable with "his benevolence."
Veledar asks why the rest of the humans can't be like the ones in Trost as Arcturus leads him to a big inn called The Gallant Gryphon that's twice the size of the other buildings. Some more back-and-forth happens before Arcturus tells him to get inside before somebody hears him, but Veledar doesn't give a shit and barges right in breaking a table, declaring that the paladin will pay for the damages. Very luckily for the pair, nobody inside really minds too much and the group that Veledar joined are laughing alongside him. Arcturus pays the innkeeper for the damages, tries to get two rooms but only gets one since it's busy, and ends up having to pay some more when Veledar orders everything on the menu without talking to him first.
When Arcturus joins the dragon, he's telling a group of impressed gryphons about the fairy realm, albeit while adjusting a few details thanks to his ego; like claiming only Veledar coming up with the exit plan. The human plays along, even saying that the amount of shadow creatures was actually higher than what Veledar claims, and everybody eats and drinks their fill. Veledar winds up drinking himself drunk and Arcturus has to help him to their room. Since there's only one bed, Arcturus reluctantly has to share it with the dragon, not helped by Veledar's teasing about people "getting some ideas between the two of them."
We then cut to a dream sequence with Arcturus riding on Veledar's back flying through the skies, much to his joy. It's short-lived, however, as Veledar suddenly disappears and Arcturus winds up falling into his father's study. His father, who is said in the bonus story to be Markis, and the various whispers around him are incredibly displeased at the paladin for not killing Veledar, who has turned hostile and attacks him. He initially dodges the dragon's bite, but finds himself pinned underneath a claw instead. When Veledar opens his mouth and unleashes his fire breath, though, it's just warm instead of burning the human's skin off, and he lifts his paw off the human.
Arcturus immediately bolts out of the room, ignoring his father's calls, and a certain silver dragon suddenly wraps themself around him. His struggles prove ineffective as the floor swallows them both and he finds himself unable to speak. Before he can despair in sadness for long, the silver dragon is replaced with the much more friendly Veledar and replaces that despair with relief, which finally causes the paladin to wake up. Coming to, he finds himself being held close by Veledar like one of his stuffed animals, and the dragon's clearly having a dream of his own. While Arcturus is a little ticked off at the cuddling at first, he calms down since Veledar's warmth did help him sleep.
Getting out of bed and resisting the urge to climb back in to escape the cold air, he washes up in the inn's tub and goes downstairs for a meal. He talks to a century-old elf waitress who's curious about him and the dragon, and Lyndis suddenly shows up next to him. She wonders why the hell he disobeyed his orders and asks where Veledar is, saying that the last anyones heard of them is when the pair flied away from the airship. Arcturus' first instinct when she teases him about "taking a fancy" in Veledar is to tell her to mind her own damn business, but changes his mind when he realizes the distance between Deet and Trost is pretty far for someone like her and asks how long it's been since they last met.
He's absolutely shocked when she answers that it's been almost a month to get to Trost (with some side tracking) since their meeting, It only felt like less than a week has passed from his POV. Arcturus tells her what happened since Chapter 7 and says that he and Veledar are heading to Entis to get the dragon's book back. Upon hearing this, unlike in Chapter 4, Lyndis immediately wants in on it.
The paladin points out that they barely know each other, but Lyndis tells him that they're going to need help getting inside the city since they're not exactly subtle, evidenced by the broken table. Knowing she has a point, he agrees to her joining the party after she lists off some of her skills: illusion magic, stealth, and adventuring. Since Veledar isn't going to carry them, she goes out to grab some horses. When he tells the dragon about a new member, Veledar gets annoyed at the "ridiculous, stupid, and careless" decision the human made without telling him. He says that he's the leader and not Arcturus, arrogantly adding in that he's the "proud owner of Lumara's finest paladin."
When Arcturus presses him about the leader bit instead of being partners, Veledar says that it's because he's a dragon and it's 'his' quest. He changes his tune about the decision when the paladin says Lyndis' name, since he knows about her magic, and Veledar makes his way downstairs to eat. The chapter ends with Arcturus getting his armor and equipment, noting his more hopeful appearance in the mirror compared to before, and leaving the bedroom basically saying that he'll have fond nostalgic memories here.
The human lies his ass off to the guard that's strutting around them, Mek, saying that the dragon is a guard, a mode of transportation, and that they're conducting official business in the king's name that he conveniently can't divulge information about. The guard immediately calls bullshit because of the dragon bit to which Veledar tries to insult them for it, but Arcturus interrupts by introducing himself as a Lund, dragon slayer, and paladin, saying that if the gryphons hadn't heard his name before, they've "probably hatched from rocks."
Not really the best words to use there when trying to convince people, IMO. Luckily for the human and dragon, Mek has heard of the paladin before, but basically asks why he should care. Arcturus responds with a half-truth this time, saying that he's got orders to bring Veledar to the king, but also says it's because he's got some big plans with the "big scale bum." The dragon takes offense to that and the guards don't take it too kindly when he tries to threaten Arcturus, which the human has to defuse the situation by saying it's a bad joke and insinuating that it's because Veledar has special needs
After Mek stares at the paladin from up close to see if he flinches or starts sweating, the gryphon seems to be satisfied at his answers, saying that whatever species they are doesn't matter as long as they behave in Trost. Veledar arrogantly promises that he'll do so and says the town might replace gryphons with dragons when they'll love him, something Mek scoffs at before he and his squad flies off to continue their patrol. With that out of the way, Arcturus and Veledar make their way to the town, but the dragon asks why they're walking when they can simply fly. The human reminds him that he insulted Mek in front of his squad, implying the gryphon might hold a grudge because of it, and tells him to keep walking.
When Veledar whines about it and says he can just pick up the human at any time when the paladin objects again, Arcturus responds by explaining that it's not that he's afraid of heights or flying as long as he's riding on the dragon's back. It's just the "being carried" and "diving and ascending" parts that made him scream earlier. Veledar laughs before realzing the paladin's serious about riding on his back, to which he then gets insulted at the idea of being ridden like an animal. Still, he says he'll think about swallowing his pride for it if only he doesn't have to watch the human puke on each landing.
They banter some more about their exit plan from the fairy realm working and we get a bit where Arcturus playfully pushes Veledar and the dragon responds by pushing the human face-first into the grass to make it "even." The human obviously isn't too thrilled about it but seems to forgive him pretty quickly since they're apparently starting to become friends. Veledar agrees by saying that the human is growing on him and the conversation gets more serious when he claims that dragons don't really have friends from other species. When Arcturus questions it and tries to bring up Trixie as an example, the dragon reveals that he was friends with a female dragon some time ago, but their bond crumbled when she decided to explode a continent east of Sethera. "It is the way of the dragon, to live a life of solitude."
Arcturus expresses his sympathies and they silently enter Trost proper. True to the human's word, the town has a lot of gryphon-related things. Their reception is nowhere near as hostile or fearful like Chapters 2 and 4 since the villagers are more curious than anything else, although the paladin had to shoo away some of the more curious gryphons. Veledar doesn't seem to care about drawing as little attention as possible since he wants to boast about himself to anyone who will listen. While Arcturus complains about it, he concedes the point when the dragon says in a bit of an egotistical way that he's making the villagers more comfortable with "his benevolence."
Veledar asks why the rest of the humans can't be like the ones in Trost as Arcturus leads him to a big inn called The Gallant Gryphon that's twice the size of the other buildings. Some more back-and-forth happens before Arcturus tells him to get inside before somebody hears him, but Veledar doesn't give a shit and barges right in breaking a table, declaring that the paladin will pay for the damages. Very luckily for the pair, nobody inside really minds too much and the group that Veledar joined are laughing alongside him. Arcturus pays the innkeeper for the damages, tries to get two rooms but only gets one since it's busy, and ends up having to pay some more when Veledar orders everything on the menu without talking to him first.
When Arcturus joins the dragon, he's telling a group of impressed gryphons about the fairy realm, albeit while adjusting a few details thanks to his ego; like claiming only Veledar coming up with the exit plan. The human plays along, even saying that the amount of shadow creatures was actually higher than what Veledar claims, and everybody eats and drinks their fill. Veledar winds up drinking himself drunk and Arcturus has to help him to their room. Since there's only one bed, Arcturus reluctantly has to share it with the dragon, not helped by Veledar's teasing about people "getting some ideas between the two of them."
We then cut to a dream sequence with Arcturus riding on Veledar's back flying through the skies, much to his joy. It's short-lived, however, as Veledar suddenly disappears and Arcturus winds up falling into his father's study. His father, who is said in the bonus story to be Markis, and the various whispers around him are incredibly displeased at the paladin for not killing Veledar, who has turned hostile and attacks him. He initially dodges the dragon's bite, but finds himself pinned underneath a claw instead. When Veledar opens his mouth and unleashes his fire breath, though, it's just warm instead of burning the human's skin off, and he lifts his paw off the human.
Arcturus immediately bolts out of the room, ignoring his father's calls, and a certain silver dragon suddenly wraps themself around him. His struggles prove ineffective as the floor swallows them both and he finds himself unable to speak. Before he can despair in sadness for long, the silver dragon is replaced with the much more friendly Veledar and replaces that despair with relief, which finally causes the paladin to wake up. Coming to, he finds himself being held close by Veledar like one of his stuffed animals, and the dragon's clearly having a dream of his own. While Arcturus is a little ticked off at the cuddling at first, he calms down since Veledar's warmth did help him sleep.
Getting out of bed and resisting the urge to climb back in to escape the cold air, he washes up in the inn's tub and goes downstairs for a meal. He talks to a century-old elf waitress who's curious about him and the dragon, and Lyndis suddenly shows up next to him. She wonders why the hell he disobeyed his orders and asks where Veledar is, saying that the last anyones heard of them is when the pair flied away from the airship. Arcturus' first instinct when she teases him about "taking a fancy" in Veledar is to tell her to mind her own damn business, but changes his mind when he realizes the distance between Deet and Trost is pretty far for someone like her and asks how long it's been since they last met.
He's absolutely shocked when she answers that it's been almost a month to get to Trost (with some side tracking) since their meeting, It only felt like less than a week has passed from his POV. Arcturus tells her what happened since Chapter 7 and says that he and Veledar are heading to Entis to get the dragon's book back. Upon hearing this, unlike in Chapter 4, Lyndis immediately wants in on it.
When Arcturus presses him about the leader bit instead of being partners, Veledar says that it's because he's a dragon and it's 'his' quest. He changes his tune about the decision when the paladin says Lyndis' name, since he knows about her magic, and Veledar makes his way downstairs to eat. The chapter ends with Arcturus getting his armor and equipment, noting his more hopeful appearance in the mirror compared to before, and leaving the bedroom basically saying that he'll have fond nostalgic memories here.
We start with even more of Veledar's whining, first on how the two horses that Lyndis got smell like shit and why they can't just get some gryphons instead. The half-elf teases him and basically tells him to grow a pair, and the dragon gets ready to smack her off her horse with his tail before Arcturus interrupts by teasingly telling him to behave around a lady. Veledar repeats his question on why horses are better, internally saying how a two-legs wisdom is inferior, and Lyndis answers that it's better to avoid drawing attention to themselves by staying grounded. While he's initially satisfied with a compromise of Lyndis' camouflage spell so he can fly relatively undetected, he immediately starts bitching again about her not casting the spell on the two of them as well.
The human and half-elf have to spell it out to him before he swallows his pride that while it can be somewhat manageable with one lone invisible dragon, it'll be next to impossible to get out of a bind with two people on his back, what with gryphon riders and the hundreds of lookouts with mages that can easily detect spells. After she casts her spell on Veledar, he flies off and the rest of the party proceed onwards towards Entis. During the traveling that's said to take days, with Lyndis using her illusion spells to hide the party whenever they stop to rest and eat, we learn that there's another town between them and the capital called Drakenburg and how Veledar's mother used to visit it frequently when he was young. He really hated the place since she started doing so after his brother died.
After they stop for the night again, Veledar and Arcturus banter for a bit until the dragon notices Lyndis being quiet and asks why she was travelling south in the first place. She denies it's because of the thugs from before when he brings it up, saying she was heading home until she came across him and Arcturus and her sense of adventure kicked in. The human and dragon can't lay low for shit, saying that Trost is unlike Entis with how there's "too many prying eyes, hidden agendas, and ears just desperate for any information worth selling," and she'll become a legendary hero and the best illusionist if she helps them succeed. She turns more venomous when she adds that it's worth getting any sort of revenge on Lumara.
Arcturus takes offense at that last part and asks why she thinks the kingdom is so shitty, and she a bit condescendingly brings up the whole 'killing an innocent dragon' part as only one example. The paladin responds that he's only helping Veledar get his book back and Veledar notices that he seems to be genuinely confused on top of being angry. Lyndis tells him not to waver in helping the dragon since if he trusts the paladin, she doesn't see why she shouldn't. This prompts Veledar to directly ask why she hates Lumara so much to have a tone like that. She angrily explains that it's because they're violent conquerors that destroy everything until they force their enemies to surrender and their so-called 'prosperity' is slavery and death to her people.
The paladin tells her to shut the fuck up with her lies saying that he helped set up academies and barracks as well as bring food and supplies to help people with their new lives, although he hesitates a bit when he insists that he's made lives better. Lyndis immediately shuts that down by asking if he's ever visited the conquered villages more than once and, when the 'oh shit' look on his face is obvious, offering to show him the ones close to Rothdell and Drenedar to see if they "shine as bright as they say." Arcturus can only stammer before he walks away from her and Lyndis, knowing she got through to him, sarcastically tells Veledar to not let the paladin stab him in the back as she goes to get some shut-eye.
Veledar sees Arcturus sitting on a hill a short distance away from camp and decides to sit alongside him. The human's obviously conflicted and doubting himself over their argument, saying that he went against his oath to purge evil, that he doesn't deserve to be a paladin if what she says is true, and his wife and son would be so ashamed of him. The dragon tells him to not beat himself up over it and reminds him that they wouldn't be here if he didn't disobey the king back on the airship. It would have been easier to live in ignorance and lie to yourself, but the paladin put his faith in the dragon. Upon asking what he's going to do if Lumara really is as bad as she says, Arcturus declares that he sees no other way than to rebel against the king.
We get a bit where Veledar wordlessly demands being pet and, after some internal struggling and some encouragement, reveals his real name to Arcturus since he's getting closer to him. After telling him to not blab it out openly, and the paladin saying he's a good friend and promising to cherish the name, they get back to camp to cuddle up for some sleep. Everybody wakes up the next morning and do their routines: Veledar doing some flying exercises and getting his meal, Lyndis meditating and preparing some spells, and Arcturus practicing with his sword in a small glade some distance away from their camp. The human explains what he's doing to the dragon and, knowing that he's curious, decides to try to teach some techniques to him despite their physical differences.
It seems to be going well with only one minor mistake, but Veledar soon feels the ground rumbling and sees a fin in the grass. Springing into action, he grabs an unaware Arcturus and rolls out of the way just as a bulette, basically a land shark, jumps out from the ground. The dragon explains what it is to the human, but remembers too late that they travel in packs just as two more of them jump out as well. While Veledar dodges one of them and counter-attacks, Arcturus wasn't so quick as the second bulette tackles and pins him to the ground. The dragon distracts it with a roar and pries it off of the paladin, slicing and biting it while it fruitlessly tries to struggle. The paladin manages to stab through the head of the second bulette, although his sword gets stuck in it.
Veledar's own bulette bites his neck, but that's only minorly effective since he rips its jaws open and tosses the beast away. It tries to attack again, but the dragon is quicker and finishes it off with his fire breath. After a brief tangent about the beast's insides tasting good, he remembers Arcturus, although Lyndis arrived off-screen and killed the third one which pinned the human under its weight. When he's freed, Lyndis lightly scolds them for almost getting killed in bulette territory and they get moving towards Entis again. By the way, that entire fight scene? I used the Quality Check plugin on Calibre to search through all of the Scales and Honor books and posts on Sofurry; the bulettes are only mentioned a grand total of once two chapters later and literally never again. Nothing really substantial really happened outside of them showing the protagonists can cover each other's back (which was already shown two chapters ago) and IMO, you can remove it and almost nothing would meaningfully change.
Anyways, some more banter happens where Veledar names the horses Smelly and Stinky (no, I'm not going to keep calling them that here), we get some more of the dragon's internal thoughts about his mother, and more days pass.
While stopping for the night, Veledar is stargazing at what's dubbed by dragons as Bahamut's tears when Arcturus walks up curious about what he's doing. It's basically the picture on top of this post. He says he considers the stars souls of dragons and that he loves looking into them, especially when Bahamut's tears go across the sky. Arcturus asks why he calls the shooting stars that, and Veledar tells a story. There was once a dragon named Bahamut, one of the first dragons who traveled all of the realms to bring life, who taught her children that it's important and to cherish it. However, she left "this plane of existence" when the children said 'fuck that' and enslaved or destroyed the other races. He says that during that time, she changed from a giver of life to a creature of "justice, good, and protection." The tears represent her burden and sorrows at having to kill her misguided children and the state of dragons in the present day.
Arcturus says he's never heard about it before and, realizing something, asks what her scales look like. When the dragon answers that it was silver, the human recalls his son mentioning a silver dragon in his last few breaths (and leaves out that he saw her in his dream as well for some reason) despite neither of them knowing about her existance. Veledar agrees that it's unusual since she never appeared to anybody, let alone a human. How interesting.
With that out of the way, he declares that he's going to Drakenburg and he's "not asking for permission." Arcturus says it would have been polite to ask first even if they wouldn't have said no, but asks for a reason. Veledar internally recalls that the last time he's seen his mother was when she went to the town to fulfill a promise that might have been caused by his brother's death, and reveals to the paladin that she lives near there and made a deal with the town. The human doubts it since nobody's reported or seen a dragon near there for years, but Veledar points out that she likely just remained undetected since she's good with magic.
The paladin agrees to go with him to Drakenburg and says he's envying him for his reunion with his mother. I had thoughts before, but here was the point where I marked down the death flag for her. The chapter ends with him telling the human to get some sleep, admitting to himself that Arcturus and Lyndis are better company than he thought, and thinking about convincing them to visit when everything's over and imagining the stories they'll tell.
The human and half-elf have to spell it out to him before he swallows his pride that while it can be somewhat manageable with one lone invisible dragon, it'll be next to impossible to get out of a bind with two people on his back, what with gryphon riders and the hundreds of lookouts with mages that can easily detect spells. After she casts her spell on Veledar, he flies off and the rest of the party proceed onwards towards Entis. During the traveling that's said to take days, with Lyndis using her illusion spells to hide the party whenever they stop to rest and eat, we learn that there's another town between them and the capital called Drakenburg and how Veledar's mother used to visit it frequently when he was young. He really hated the place since she started doing so after his brother died.
After they stop for the night again, Veledar and Arcturus banter for a bit until the dragon notices Lyndis being quiet and asks why she was travelling south in the first place. She denies it's because of the thugs from before when he brings it up, saying she was heading home until she came across him and Arcturus and her sense of adventure kicked in. The human and dragon can't lay low for shit, saying that Trost is unlike Entis with how there's "too many prying eyes, hidden agendas, and ears just desperate for any information worth selling," and she'll become a legendary hero and the best illusionist if she helps them succeed. She turns more venomous when she adds that it's worth getting any sort of revenge on Lumara.
Arcturus takes offense at that last part and asks why she thinks the kingdom is so shitty, and she a bit condescendingly brings up the whole 'killing an innocent dragon' part as only one example. The paladin responds that he's only helping Veledar get his book back and Veledar notices that he seems to be genuinely confused on top of being angry. Lyndis tells him not to waver in helping the dragon since if he trusts the paladin, she doesn't see why she shouldn't. This prompts Veledar to directly ask why she hates Lumara so much to have a tone like that. She angrily explains that it's because they're violent conquerors that destroy everything until they force their enemies to surrender and their so-called 'prosperity' is slavery and death to her people.
The paladin tells her to shut the fuck up with her lies saying that he helped set up academies and barracks as well as bring food and supplies to help people with their new lives, although he hesitates a bit when he insists that he's made lives better. Lyndis immediately shuts that down by asking if he's ever visited the conquered villages more than once and, when the 'oh shit' look on his face is obvious, offering to show him the ones close to Rothdell and Drenedar to see if they "shine as bright as they say." Arcturus can only stammer before he walks away from her and Lyndis, knowing she got through to him, sarcastically tells Veledar to not let the paladin stab him in the back as she goes to get some shut-eye.
Veledar sees Arcturus sitting on a hill a short distance away from camp and decides to sit alongside him. The human's obviously conflicted and doubting himself over their argument, saying that he went against his oath to purge evil, that he doesn't deserve to be a paladin if what she says is true, and his wife and son would be so ashamed of him. The dragon tells him to not beat himself up over it and reminds him that they wouldn't be here if he didn't disobey the king back on the airship. It would have been easier to live in ignorance and lie to yourself, but the paladin put his faith in the dragon. Upon asking what he's going to do if Lumara really is as bad as she says, Arcturus declares that he sees no other way than to rebel against the king.
We get a bit where Veledar wordlessly demands being pet and, after some internal struggling and some encouragement, reveals his real name to Arcturus since he's getting closer to him. After telling him to not blab it out openly, and the paladin saying he's a good friend and promising to cherish the name, they get back to camp to cuddle up for some sleep. Everybody wakes up the next morning and do their routines: Veledar doing some flying exercises and getting his meal, Lyndis meditating and preparing some spells, and Arcturus practicing with his sword in a small glade some distance away from their camp. The human explains what he's doing to the dragon and, knowing that he's curious, decides to try to teach some techniques to him despite their physical differences.
It seems to be going well with only one minor mistake, but Veledar soon feels the ground rumbling and sees a fin in the grass. Springing into action, he grabs an unaware Arcturus and rolls out of the way just as a bulette, basically a land shark, jumps out from the ground. The dragon explains what it is to the human, but remembers too late that they travel in packs just as two more of them jump out as well. While Veledar dodges one of them and counter-attacks, Arcturus wasn't so quick as the second bulette tackles and pins him to the ground. The dragon distracts it with a roar and pries it off of the paladin, slicing and biting it while it fruitlessly tries to struggle. The paladin manages to stab through the head of the second bulette, although his sword gets stuck in it.
Veledar's own bulette bites his neck, but that's only minorly effective since he rips its jaws open and tosses the beast away. It tries to attack again, but the dragon is quicker and finishes it off with his fire breath. After a brief tangent about the beast's insides tasting good, he remembers Arcturus, although Lyndis arrived off-screen and killed the third one which pinned the human under its weight. When he's freed, Lyndis lightly scolds them for almost getting killed in bulette territory and they get moving towards Entis again. By the way, that entire fight scene? I used the Quality Check plugin on Calibre to search through all of the Scales and Honor books and posts on Sofurry; the bulettes are only mentioned a grand total of once two chapters later and literally never again. Nothing really substantial really happened outside of them showing the protagonists can cover each other's back (which was already shown two chapters ago) and IMO, you can remove it and almost nothing would meaningfully change.
While stopping for the night, Veledar is stargazing at what's dubbed by dragons as Bahamut's tears when Arcturus walks up curious about what he's doing. It's basically the picture on top of this post. He says he considers the stars souls of dragons and that he loves looking into them, especially when Bahamut's tears go across the sky. Arcturus asks why he calls the shooting stars that, and Veledar tells a story. There was once a dragon named Bahamut, one of the first dragons who traveled all of the realms to bring life, who taught her children that it's important and to cherish it. However, she left "this plane of existence" when the children said 'fuck that' and enslaved or destroyed the other races. He says that during that time, she changed from a giver of life to a creature of "justice, good, and protection." The tears represent her burden and sorrows at having to kill her misguided children and the state of dragons in the present day.
Arcturus says he's never heard about it before and, realizing something, asks what her scales look like. When the dragon answers that it was silver, the human recalls his son mentioning a silver dragon in his last few breaths (and leaves out that he saw her in his dream as well for some reason) despite neither of them knowing about her existance. Veledar agrees that it's unusual since she never appeared to anybody, let alone a human. How interesting.
The paladin agrees to go with him to Drakenburg and says he's envying him for his reunion with his mother. I had thoughts before, but here was the point where I marked down the death flag for her. The chapter ends with him telling the human to get some sleep, admitting to himself that Arcturus and Lyndis are better company than he thought, and thinking about convincing them to visit when everything's over and imagining the stories they'll tell.
Tune in next time for the next three chapters.
Edit: Completely forgot to write down the stuff about the bulettes being filler and my thoughts for the last chapter, so went ahead and put it in.
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- Joined
- Dec 31, 2019
that's a cool panel I wonder what webcomic this is from—
Oh.
Oh.
https://goneferal.thecomicseries.com/comics/1/#content-start
The art is pleasant to look at. Character designs are something striking. Looks professionally made, which might be the strangest thing about it. Bizarre is an understatement. We're all familiar with the genre of saturday-morning-cartoon-but-ULTRA-VIOLENT-AND-WEIRD, aren't we? Same thing going on here. Here's the rundown.
An unnamed American city's gone to shit.
Some people turn into monsters while others turn into silver-age-of-animation-esque funny cartoon animal people.
There are two ongoing plotlines at this time, with presumably more on the way? Let's assume that.
Plot A: Mom's a furry now and the family is fucked up.
Plot B: A single father tries making it back home to his daughter in one piece.
Stuff happens. Now, do I like it? I think I like it? I think I like it somewhat. It's weird in a way I want to see to the end. But is it good? Ehh? Ehh.
I don't have much more to say. Not gonna bother with a complete plot synopsis nor a literary analysis. Read it if you want to. The comic is quite short and can be read in full in less than half an hour. Although more ambitious than most other off-the-wall webcomics, and almost interesting at times, it is ultimately too weird for it's own good in my opinion. Don't know who this is aimed at other than, you know, furries. I can appreciate the effort put into it. But just can't help feeling the effort is wasted given everything here is a just a vehicle for the author's not-at-all-subtle predispositions.
Will mom ever stop being a furry and return to normal? Will single-dad and his furbaby survive? Will the author continue the story at all, and if so, what new fetishes will he introduce next?
