"Vongarth!"Ash exclaimed, moving his left foot forward and then stopping again.
"King vongarth now my good man",the fat man corrected.
Ash blinked thrice, briskly and in a row.
"Well, I would never have believed it, even though a butterfly told me", he said.
"Well, curse that butterfly, I'm King now, Ash!", King vongarth said.
Rhett looked at the fat king sitting on the throne and then looked at Ash's face. Honestly, he was shocked. Ash hadn't told him that he knew the king of the dragon hunters.
Dhamsel was also shocked, he turned to her fat father and said, blinking:
"Dad, you know him?".
The fat man stood up, carrying the ends of his long robe with him.
"Of course I do".
Dhamsel was genuinely shocked and she exchanged glances with Rhett who replied the act with a shrug.
King vongarth extended his left hand to Ash who was still too shocked to move. King vongarth waved the hand a bit, signalling for him that he wanted him, real badly, to take his hand.
Ash hesitating a bit, finally walked forward and shook the fat hand of the burly figure. The hand was encased in soft gloves, black ones to be precise which gave Ash's hand a cozy feeling.
"Well, u thought you were dead", Ash blurted.
"Dead?", king vongarth smiled. "I could never be dead, I guess I'm too tough for that".
Ash finally let out a smile, one that made his face look dumb.
King vongarth quickly disbanded the shake and with a tender, yet swift move, he gave Ash a hug.
"Man!, I'm I glad to see you".
King vongarth, precisely the first of his name and the first king of shaiiyeru, the dragon hunters village, was fat, very fat it seemed a wonder that he could fit through the door. His hands were always sweaty and he tried to hide it, or at least compress or subdue it, by wearing gloves, one he claims was sewn by a blacksmith.
Now, he was clothed in a doublet, unsurprisingly violet in colour, the edges detailedly trimmed it looked like it was sewn by a goddess. He carried an elegant smile, always, a fat one by the way as it made his cheeks flap down like hamburgers. When smiling too much, he seemed to 'magically' have dimples, ones that looked cute.
On his feet was a big boot, black in colour, styled in a boyish way, one that made Ash burst out into laughter.
"You still have your nature of wearing silly boots eh?", Ash asked teasingly , a laugh almost escaping from his mouth again.
King vongarth smiled. "I guess I can't stop it, it's now become a part of my royal life".
Ash smiled at that and now faced Rhett who opened his eyes so widely, it seemed it would explode.
"So….., tell me, how!", Rhett said, his hands spread wide open sideways.
Ash smiled. "Let's say this king right here was a traitor, a good traitor by the way, he-".
King vongarth interrupted. "Ok, ok, you want to tell him the tale?Tell him alright, I'm patient, go on?".
Ash smiled and did a small bow and then he continued:
"He was once a dragon slayer but then, he secretly started slaying dragons without us knowing and forging their spirit gem with other dragons, creating more beasts", he paused.
And then continued again. "But instead of him leaving the beast or telling me, his good old pal, to help in killing it, he slayed them alone and tried to harness our then king's power. So we staged a battle, because we were so angry with him and then I fought him at the battle stadium, defeating him and then when we tried to make him a prisoner, he escaped into the wild and hell!, I thought he was dead, and then…", he pointed at king vongarth now with his two hands.
"Surprisingly, I meet him here, now king of shaiiyeru, now king of the dragon hunters!".
King vongarth cracked into a laugh. "Isn't that inspiring, I mean, from traitor to king, you must be proud".
Ash smiled. "Well, I'm shocked!".
Rhett shrugged. "The dragon slayers sure have a lot of history, ones that I, as their king, don't know about".
King vongarth raised his hands upwards and took a step forward now.
"What!, this boy here", he was pointing at Rhett. "Is your king!".
"Of course", Ash replied.
"Honestly, I'm shocked, say another downgrade as this!".
Ash smiled. "It's not a downgrade, the young King possesses extraordinary strength and power, he's good to go!".
King vongarth walked near Rhett and extended his hands to him to shake.
Rhett took it ,but with caution, the warmth of the gloves not making him feel cozy at all, instead, it made him feel the opposite, it felt spiky!.
Pulling from the handshake, king vongarth faced Dhamsel.
"Now, daughter, tell me how you met these people?".
"In the forest", Dhamsel said. "They needed help so I extended it to them. Their kingdom is in shambles and they have come here to seek refuge"
King vongarth remained silent and seemed to cogitate on the word he just heard from his daughter.
"When have you suddenly become this nice?", he asked in his a 'frog that had just drank expired beer voice'.
"It's not niceness father, they might be of help to us".
King vongarth scoffed. "In the meantime, Ash can but what about the others, and the kid, they even brought a king with them". He turned to look at Haicor who looked embarrassed ang sort of angry for being referred to as a 'kid'.
Dhamsel was speechless to this and then, king vongarth, not wanting to sound like he did not welcome his visitors, said:
"Well, well, if they can survive, I guess they should stay".
That sentence made Rhett, Ash and Haicor to exchange puzzled glances.
"Survive what?", Ash asked.
King vongarth face twisted into a shock, amazed expression.
"Oh, she didn't tell you", he said. We're expecting the ember dragon".
"When?, Ash asked, now sweating.
"About tomorrow", came the reply.
That was it!.
Rhett's brain exploded.