Chapter 7:
A normal horse cart can never come close to the speed of a golem but a free ride is a free ride.
A golem requires a lot of energy to run and it wouldn't hurt Autumn to save the energy of his golem.
On his travels, He had been talking to the family who offered him the ride. Upon conversing he found that they are heading towards the central town and were planning on settling there.
They used to live on the outskirts of the kingdom and since their village was far away from any modern civilization the man had come to that decision. He already has a friend who has prepared accommodations and a job for him. All he had to do was go there and start living.
"Have you ever been to the central Mr. Amon?" The man driving the cart asked.
His name was Musket. He was a man in his late thirties traveling with his wife Hilda and teen daughter Agnes.
Hilda and Agnes were sitting inside the carriage of the cart while Autumn shared the area next to Musket on the coachmen's seats.
"I have never left my hometown before joining the monster hunters academy," Autumn answered according to the background story provided to him by Thororg'gon.
"You should visit it some time I am sure you'll like it." ... "You know central has many good places and it is also a universal trade route. You can find everything that you need there since everything that exists in this world at least passes its boundaries once."
"I will take your word for it."
"There is also great alcohol in that city." He said while tapping the small barrel behind him. "With that many breweries, I can put your gift into the right use." He said while referring to the Sweet bell nectar that Autumn presented him at the beginning of their journey.
"If you ever do then don't forget to taste it once with salted fried fish. I promise you won't be disappointed."
"Oh!" He exclaimed at his proposal, "I will do that. Avoiding the advice of someone with your taste will be foolish of me."
"Please if you say that then I will be embarrassed."
"Don't be you have a very good sense of taste." Ever since breakfast after tasting Autumn's stew, Musket could not help but praise him. Not even him but also his wife and daughter were praising Autumn for being a great cook.
They also managed to take some of Autumn's advice on cooking which they can practice on further dates.
"Mr. Amon you must have visited many places right."
"I can't say that but I have read many books."
"Weren't you listening dear," Hilda scolded Musket, "Mr. Amon here was taken to monster hunter academy at a young age."
"Is that so? It must have been hard on you right?" Both Musket and Hilda looked at Autumn with pitied eyes.
'Did I really say that?' Autumn asked himself but he can't recall it.
"We still have a few hours ahead of us how about a story to pass the time?" Musket suggested.
"Yeah, story!" The young girl cheered and jumped out to sit near her mother.
The girl was shy before but now she was more open and showed her child side more often.
"Calm down girl." ... "Let me begin first."
"No, I don't want to hear papa's story, they are boring," Agnes said while sticking out her tongue.
"What?"
"Papa's story is boring." She pulled one of her lower eyelids to exaggerate her tongue out.
Both the father and Daughter glared at each other while Hilda laughed at them.
"I want to hear a story from Mr. Amon." Agnes excitedly glared at Autumn.
"Oh my!" Hilda emphasized her surprise and placed her hand to cover her open mouth.
Autumn and Musket cluelessly stared at her while Hilda smiled internally.
"I want to hear a story from Mr. Amon." She kept on insisting and started to lash out on the floor.
"I am sorry Mr. Amon. She is not usually this stubborn." Musket apologized.
"Please, it's not your fault. Kids are stubborn sometimes, I understand that." He turned to Agnes with a smile and said, "Agnes I will tell you a story but promise me you will not cause any problem to your parents."
"Yes." She happily smiles and sat on her knees.
"Okay, a story. What should I tell?" He wondered, "I can't seem to be able to remember any stories, why don't you tell me what do you like?" He asked her.
Agnes smiled and shouted, "Fairies."
"Fairies Huh?" Autumn thought for a while but rejected the story that came to his mind. "I don't think that one is appropriate for children you should choose something else."
She began to pout and lash out. "No, I want to hear a fairy story, I want to hear a fairy story."
He hopelessly turns to Hilda and requests
"Can you tell her that I can't tell her that story because." He then brought his mouth closer to Hilda's ear and whispered, "The one I know is a little lewd."
"I understand," she whispered back, "Please Emily choose something else he can't tell you that one."
Hilda explained and Agnes stops causing her tantrum.
'Mother's are the best when it comes to controlling children.' He praises Hilda in his heart.
"How about a story that involves dragons? You love dragons right?"
Agnes vigorously nodded.
"Then let's begin,
It all started when a little girl, let's call her Angie, found a dragon in the woods.
She was supposed to be gathering firewood for her family but when she saw something large object falling in the sky she got curious and started following it.
Angie soon arrived at the crash site where she saw a large dragon with wings and scales and claws and fangs and horns and tail.
The dragon lied on the ground.
It was breathing slowly and blood was flowing from her back. Little Angie saw that there was a large arrow stuck to its body.
Someone was hunting this dragon."
Agnes was emersed in the story as her eyes gleamed with curiosity asking what happened next.
"She climbed the dragon's back and pulled the arrow but she failed. Her hands slipped and she fell on her butt.
"Aaaww." She cried but there were none who heard her.
She patted the dust off her butts and looked around with a flustered face.
She looked at the dragon and pitied it.
The dragon opened her eyes when it noticed Angie and Little Angie saw her reflection on its eyes.
The dragon looked at her for a while and then opened her mouth.
After a gurgling sound, the dragon spat out an egg. The dragon watched Angie as if she was telling the little girl to take it.
Angie took the egg and stared at the dragon.
The dragon screamed and flapped her wings as if telling her to run away but she stood still.
The dragon roared this time and she started running as fast as she can. The dragon kept on roaring and Angie kept on running.
She reached her home and directly headed to the barn. She hid the egg inside of hay and cleaned herself before going to her house.
Her mother scolded her because she didn't bring any firewood back but her father protected her.
The next day she went inside the barn to check the egg. She took a breath of relief when she found that the egg was fine.
Every day before and after her chores she would check on the egg making sure never to miss it.
A few days later many people came to her village from the forest and they brought with themselves a corpse of a dragon.
Angie saw it and recognized it in an instant.
It was the same dragon.
The village was celebrating but she remained at her home mourning over the death of the dragon. Her parents didn't say anything to her.
The men who hunted the dragon left the village with the dragon's corpse.
They had been chasing the dragon for months and on their recent encounter they lost many of their men."
"Those men are bad men, I will never like people like them." Agnes pouted and folded her arms.
"You can't say that," Autumn explained, "People are afraid of dragons and dragons can easily kill peoples. Those hunters were only trying to protect their families and children."
"I still don't like those peoples. They should be more like a little girl." Anges argued.
"Everyone should be," Autumn said while looking at a distance. "Let's continue shall we?"
Agnes Nodded.
"Each day Angie would check on the egg and one day she saw a crack on the few. Angie got overprotective and increased her frequent visits.
The egg hatched a few days later.
She held the newborn dragon on her hands and wiped the fluids that it was covered with.
"You look just like your mother." She said while lifting it.
She fed it daily and played with it daily. She hid it inside the barn when she would work on her chores and after completing her chores she would return to the baby dragon.
A thing Angie didn't know about the dragon was that dragons grow very fast and they eat a lot of food.
Angie was having trouble keeping her dragon well-fed but she had to do it or else the dragons might attack the barn animals.
One day she found many of the people gathered near her house they brought pitchforks and hoes as weapons and were complaining near their door.
"Mother, father what happened?" She inquired.
"They are accusing us of stealing their livestock." Her father answered.
"We found a fresh trail of blood leading to your barn." One of the villagers protested.
"I told you someone is trying to frame us. We already have lots of livestock why will we steal yours."
"That is exactly why we are here."
Angie rushed to the barn and opened its doors there indeed was a trail of blood but the dragon was nowhere to be found.
She ran out of the door and went to the forest.
She called for the dragon many times but there wasn't any answer. She searched and searched until she reached the exact location where she first saw the bleeding dragon.
The current dragon sat there as if it was waiting for her.
"We should go people are searching for you," She said while pulling the dragon but the dragon refused.
"What are you doing we have to go?"
The dragon picked up the girl by her clothes and placed her down gently.
"You are leaving me aren't you?" Angie's eyes started to tear.
The dragon purred and rubbed her head on Angie's neck. She began to cry and she hugged the dragon.
The dragon licked her tears and lifted her unto its back.
She held the dragon closely and the dragon flew.
They flew passed her village and went towards the mountains.
The dragon landed at the summit of the mountain from where Angie saw the whole country. She could see many places from there and her village looked very small compared to the other cities.
They stayed there for a few hours before Angie kissed the dragon one last time and said.
"I will miss you."
The dragon dropped her back at the entrance of the forest and flew away.
The End."
...
"That was a very sad story." Agnes wiped the droplets of a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Very sad indeed." Musket eyes were flooding with tears. (ToT)
"I can't do anything about it, this is how it was written," Autumn said while staring at the clouds.
"You are a naughty man, aren't you? Making my daughter cry." Hilda playfully teased him.
"Please don't tease me. I had the same effect when I first read it."
"Then we should punish the author shouldn't we," Hilda suggested.
"I don't think that will be possible considering she lives far on the other side of the continent."
"Mr. Amon?" Agnes Asked while sniffling.
"Yes."
"What happened to the girl and the dragon, did they ever meet again?"
"I want to know that too." Musket added who managed to stop his tears and clean his snots.
"I don't know if I ever meet her I will ask her myself."
"Are you saying that this story is true?" Musket hopefully asked.
"No, I am not saying it's true but there are a few parts of the story which are true, like the hunting of dragon near a village where many hunters died and a few months after that the village livestock mysteriously started to disappear." .... "Two things from the story happened in real life which might be a coincidence but it also makes the possibility of this story being true."
"If you ever find out about Angie and her dragon then please visit our home in central. I will make sure to tell as many people about you as I can so that when you arrive you won't have to ask around a lot to find us."
"Don't worry I will."
"Promise," Agnes asked with bright eyes and a wide smile.
"I promise."
They discussed the story for the rest of their travels until they could see the Littlewood village. The village was eerily silent and there was smoke coming out of the village.
"Is there any festival going on today?" Autumn asked.
"These shouldn't be one." Musket replied showing his confusion.
"Please slow down your cart." Autumn cautiously advised.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know but it looks to me like that the village is under attack," Autumn said while placing his hand on his sword.
"Hilda take Agnes and hide. We will inspect what is going on there." Musket pulled on the reins halting the carts.
"That would be foolish Mr. Musket. Turn your cart and head back as fast as you can. I will meet you after few hours."
"I won't let you head out alone." Musket protested.
"Please listen to me, I am experienced with a sword and no one is depending on me." He said while looking at the Hilda and Anges, "I suggest that you leave immediately."
"We can't have that Mr. Amon." Hilda announced, "In this short period we have known you, we connected with you, we can't have you risk your life for us." ... " Either we all leave together or else none of us will."
"It is as my wife says." Musket Added.
They glared at each other for a while and then Autumn released a defeated sigh and scratched his head.
"Okay, but we are leaving at the first sight of danger."
…