~~~
Wyrmwood was a very unhappy prisoner. Ever since he’d heard the shouting of his captors he’d been suddenly and constantly thrown around in his cage. The constant tossing had him tangled up in knots. LITERALLY! When things had seemingly settled down outside, he was forced to focus on untangling himself.
The situation was only made worse with his own tail whining at him about it the whole time!
“How the heck did you both square knot and two half hitch yourself?!”
“No, you’re doing it wrong! It’s back and to the left!”
“What are you even?.. Gah! Just stop and let me untangle us from my end!”
And so he did. Despite how much he wanted to just bite his own tail off, he grumpily watched as Veronica awkwardly wiggled backwards through each loop of his coils until he was relatively straightened out again.
Not literally this time, he was still stuck in the metal carriage/cage.
Now that he was properly coiled though, he could finally try to see what was happening outside.
Hiss~
Wyrmwood’s tongue flicked out reflexively as he did his best to figure out the state of his captors.
“Hmm? Back with us finally?” The Princess asked, sounding the same as before the pass.
“Want free!” Wyrmwood hissed back through the small barred window. He had run out of patience and finally realized he wouldn’t get an opportunity to escape if he was always stuck in this seemingly doorless cage. The two holes at the top of the cage were also too small for him to do anything, only useful for dropping food and water to him.
If he could just get out for even a few seconds he could use his dragon’s breath and turn these annoyances into blobs of edible mushrooms!
“I’m sure you do!” Princess Fluffy chuckled. “We’re almost to our destination. It’s just past that village.” She pointed forward where he, of course, couldn’t see.
“Village?” Wyrmwood asked, annoyed.
He missed what the Princess said since Veronica answered instead.
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“A village is a small gathering of sapients all living in one place. Usually barely enough of them to keep themselves going.”
“How do you know that?” Wyrmwood asked in his mind.
“Mother,” she responded, “The Bog Mother used to be super powerful and famous! As I slept she shared many visions of the distant past.”
Wyrmwood nodded quickly, saying, “Mothers are strong.” Then made a confused expression why he’d said that.
“Our mother was known as one of the strongest in her prime!” Veronica proclaimed to him pridefully.
She shared a mental image of a beautiful woman made of clear blue water, pure and mana heavy. The woman was glaring at a great palace at the edge of the giant lake she stood on, or was she a part of the lake? Her legs smoothly transitioned into the water after all.
~~~
Despite the supposedly small numbers of sapients a village should have, Wyrmwood felt uncomfortable at the number of them he could hear around his cage. Loud voices and cheers could be relatively well heard outside and the stress of it was causing him to let out loud warning hisses every other breath.
When he looked out the window to check, he was relieved that his captors were at least keeping the crowd back. There really were a lot of the beastkin though.
“Does it really take this many of them in one place to survive?” He asked Veronica. Dragons were born self-sufficient, he alone was proof of that! It shocked Wyrmwood’s draconic sensibilities deeply that a race would need to band together like this just to have a chance.
Veronica’s antennae extended and wiggled around a bit, likely getting her own picture of the numbers out there, before replying. “I don’t know. Each sapient race is different, so it could be a beastkin necessity, or this place might just be getting close to becoming a town.” There was a moment of silence between them before she hesitantly continued. “I will agree that their numbers and autonomy are… rather daunting. One can only imagine that things would get more chaotic the more such free-willed creatures gather.”
“Are they… dangerous?”
“Always.” Veronica replied harshly. “It was the foolish actions of a massive gathering of such creatures that brought our indomitable mother so low. Never fully let your guard down.”
~~~
It was an intense few hours of nothing really happening as the Princess’s returning expedition made their way through the village and into the woods nearby when the carriage/cage finally slowed to a stop.
“Wizard Mimi! Adjust the cage so our ‘guest’ can get a look at their new home!” The princess shouted.
“Right away, my lady.” A calm male voice responded.
Wyrmwood flinched back in surprise as the barred window on the side of the cage seemed to glide almost effortlessly to the front of the cage.
“First wind that cuts and now this! How do they do that?!” Wyrmwood thought.
“Magic.” Was all the reply he got from Veronica as they gazed through the now forward facing bars at a massive structure of what Wyrmwood thought was purposefully cut stone.
“Welcome to Fort Scalebright!” A chipper voice boomed down from atop the front wall. The voice was young yet authoritative.
Wyrmwood squinted to see the figure clearly as whoever it was had the sun behind them. But with his sharp eyes he still managed to make out that it was some kind of… small lizard person?
“I, Bixxy of the gecko tribe, shall be the first to greet my newest friend!”
They really were small, likely a child. They had tiny yellow scales with black ones forming dots all over them as they confidently looked down at the procession.
Confidently, that is, until they were visibly pulled backwards with a yelp and another figure, this one still relatively small but probably adult sized for their species, appeared in the child’s place. This one sporting blue scales with a wobbly line of black scales starting from the top of their head, going back until it disappeared under their armor.
There were chuckles all around the carriage as this new figure spoke.
“Deepest apologies, Princess! Please, come in right away!”
~~~
