Dragons of Asgard 5 Chapter 2

Three more guards from in front of the building rushed toward us, but my women were on them in an instant.

I heard Eira and Kas let out battle cries as they ran toward the men with their weapons raised. Asta made no sound, but her axe whizzed by my head to land square in the chest of one of the guards.

I raised my blade high as my opponent and I continued to run toward each other, and once he was close enough, I swung hard.

The arsehole was quick and danced away from my blow, but Blar was still on my back, and the dragon let out a massive blue flame that engulfed the man entirely.

“Ahhhh!” the guard screamed as his clothes and body started to burn. He dropped his sword and waved his arms wildly, and then he finally dropped to the ground and started to roll around in an attempt to put himself out.

I saw my opportunity, so while he was on the ground, I walked over and thrust my blade right through his still burning back. The man gurgled, but he gave one final spasm and went still as the flames continued to devour him.

Then I glanced up to see Eira and Asta had already taken out their opponents as well. Kas was still working on hers, but as I watched, she thrust her sword straight through the man’s stomach until it came out the other side.

The guard’s eyes bulged out as Kas pulled her weapon out of his body. Blood pooled around his mouth and ran down to his shirt when he coughed, but after a few seconds of him standing on wobbly feet and clutching his stomach, he fell forward onto his knees and then his face.

“Well, that wasn’t too--” Kas started to say, but just then the door to the building opened, and five more elves looked out and saw us.

“Get them!” one of the men yelled.

At first, I thought they were more guards, but on second look, they were much older than the other men we’d just fought, and they were dressed a lot better.

While the guards we just took on had on basic tunics and poorly crafted weapons, the men in the doorway wore ornately decorated clothing, and the weapons they pulled from their hips were encrusted with jewels.

It always made me mad to see how rich the dragon traders were. They’d probably hired the arseholes we’d just killed to watch the place, which was why the poor dead bastards had no fighting skills to speak of.

But something told me these other men wouldn’t be quite so easy. Even the way they pulled their weapons and rushed down the steps toward us made me think they were much worthier opponents than their little buddies we’d just killed. They may be dressed well, but their visible age told me they’d been in the dragon trade a long time. A very long time, even, since elves aged even slower than Aesir.

But their reign of terror ended right now.

There were five men rushing toward us, and I set my sights on the biggest guy.

My blade was still covered in the guard’s blood as I lifted it over my head and met my new opponent head on. Our swords clashed together with the terrible ringing sound of metal hitting metal, and the impact was so severe it reverberated down into my arms.

This guy clearly had some strength, but he seemed like he possessed some wit behind it, too, because as soon as our swords hit, he pulled away and swung low to try and throw me off my game.

“Not today,” I said through gritted teeth, and I whipped my sword through the air to meet his.

Brain and brawn was a deadly combination, and the look in my opponent’s eyes told me I wouldn’t be the first he killed if he succeeded.

Once again, my arms shook from the impact of our blades, but I let out a low growl and readjusted my stance just in time for him to hit me again. The sonofabitch was coming at me with everything he had, and he was quick, too. I was doing my best to keep up, but his sword was flying one way, then the other.

Before I could say it, Blar let out a massive blue flame in the guy’s direction, but the arsehole was too quick, and he jumped to the side just in time to dodge Blar’s fire.

He wasn’t quite quick enough to dodge my sword, though, and I took that opportunity to swing wide while he was still off balance.

I caught the bastard right in the side, and I felt every bone in my arm vibrate from the force. His armor was tough and didn’t break from the impact, but I’d knocked the wind out of him, and he let out a hard gasp and instinctively clutched his belly as he lurched forward.

This was my chance, so I quickly stepped to the side and pulled my sword up over my head. Then, in one smooth motion, I brought it down hard between the man’s head and shoulders.

The sonofabitch’s head came clean off with a spray of crimson blood, and I spun around to my women to see they’d nearly handled the rest of the men.

Eira was the only one left with an opponent, but she’d already won, from the looks of it.

The redhead was down on one knee and crouched over the body of some poor bloke who’d just lost his right eye and his brain function all at once.

Eira yanked her dagger from the man’s eye socket, laughed when she saw the eyeball still attached to it, and wiped the gore off on the dead elf’s chest.

“Gross.” Kas wrinkled her nose.

“I know.” Eira smiled and put her dagger away. “I love it when that happens.”

“You say that like it’s happened before.” Asta’s bright yellow eyes went wide with horror.

Eira said nothing, but she raised an eyebrow at the elf girl and put her hand on her cocked out hip.

“Oh, right.” Asta nodded. “Warband leader.”

Asta hadn’t been in many battles compared to Eira and I, and she sometimes forgot how well versed we were on the battlefield. We’d seen a lot in our time, and fighting was more muscle memory and instinct than skill. At this point, I wasn’t sure there was a single way to get killed that I hadn’t seen before. I’d even seen Hagar, the arsehole I used to fight with, shove his thumbs into his opponent’s eye sockets to kill them.

“Is that all of them?” Kas asked as she looked at the dead bodies scattered around us.

“Definitely all of them who came out of the building,” Eira confirmed.

“We don’t want to be here too long,” I said. “The King knows where this place is, so we don’t want to be here if he happens to show up.”

“Right.” Kas nodded. “We should try and get to as many traders as we can today before word gets back to the King that his dealers are getting killed.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But, first, we need to check the building.”

“Of course,” Asta said with a nod.

“Let’s go,” Eira added, and she marched straight up to the white stone building and pushed the door open. “Anyone else in here?”

“That’s one way to draw them out if there are,” Kas chuckled.

“Eira doesn’t do anything with hesitation,” Asta said. “It’s one of the many things I admire about her.”

“That’s so sweet of you to say,” Kas told the elf girl. “You should tell her that you admire her.”

“I would, but I also find her somewhat frightening,” Asta admitted as she blushed and averted her eyes.

“Don’t we all?” I laughed.

Eira was incredible, she was smart, beautiful, and a brave warrior. She was also intimidating as hell, but now she was all mine, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

“Anyone here?” I asked as I rushed up to the door to stand behind Eira.

“It doesn’t look like it,” she said.

“I figured as much.” I nodded, sheathed my sword, and stepped through the door.

At first, I didn’t see anything, but I could feel something. In front of me appeared to be an ordinary large, open building with a table on one side and a small kitchen on the other. There was a bed in the far corner of the room, and a fireplace opposite of it on the wall. It appeared to be an average home, but something was wrong.

“It’s just… a house,” Eira said, and her red eyebrows pulled together.

“No.” I shook my head. “I can feel something here. There are dragons, I know it.”

“You’re right,” Kas whispered as she walked slowly and traced her hand along the white stone wall. “I mean, I can’t say about the dragons because I don’t feel them like you do, but I feel… something.”

“Yes, I do as well.” Asta nodded. “There is definitely magic here.”

“Let me try something,” Kas said, and she closed her eyes and turned toward the wall.

Then everything went quiet as she placed both her palms against the stone and let out a deep breath.

Suddenly, red sparkles of magic radiated out from her hands, and the magic pulsated outward like ripples from a rock dropped in water until they covered the entire room.

The sparkles covered everything for a few seconds, so all I could see was red. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared and left something new in their wake.

A large, light-blue male dragon was in the corner where the bed once was, and a massive red female sat where the fireplace did just a moment before. Both were chained to the ground with massive links of steel.

In the place of the table and kitchen were several cages with babies of differing sizes that revealed their ages. The oldest was just slightly bigger than Blar and couldn’t have been more than six months, and the youngest appeared to be only days old based on how tiny it was.

As soon as I saw them, the feelings of all the dragons washed over me, and I was engulfed by fear and anxiety.

I took a deep breath to steady myself, and I then closed my eyes and focused on the emotions coming to me. I couldn’t change them magically, but I could send out some calming energy for them.

After a few seconds, the tumultuous emotions in the room died down a little bit, and I opened my eyes.

“Kas, what did you do?” Eira asked, and she turned to flash the sorceress a wide grin.

“I lifted the illusion spell,” Kas explained. “This is what’s truly here, not the illusion those arseholes created.”

“It was smart of them to make one in the first place.” Eira pursed her lips. “I don’t like smart criminals.”

“Neither do I,” I sighed and shook my head. “I guess they’ve been in the dragon trading business long enough that they’ve learned a thing or two.”

“Even this building is clearly designed to blend in with the trees,” Kas pointed out. “They thought this through.”

“Which is why we’ve got to move quickly,” I said. “These dealers are getting too smart for their own good.”

They obviously had the male and female for breeding purposes, so I guess they figured they’d skip the middle part of them having to wait for the dragon to lay eggs, or for them to hatch. To keep dragons was dangerous, but those chains were no doubt enchanted, and since the dealers had a steady supply here, they didn’t need to try and sneak into the valley. It might be risky to keep dragons in their lair, but it was riskier for them to try and steal babies from wild nests.

These arseholes really were too smart for their own good, and I was glad they were dead in the dirt outside.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, and then I walked over to the large blue dragon in the corner and bowed my head.

“I’m Rath,” I said. “If you lower your neck, I’ll remove that chain for you.”

“And I can help you,” Kas told the red female across from us.

The blue male watched warily as Kas approached the red dragon. Then the female lowered her head so Kas could remove her chain, and the male dragon’s gratitude and happiness at seeing his mate freed washed over me.

It seemed the traders had also been smart enough to choose an actual mated pair of dragons to steal, rather than two random ones to try and force to mate. Dragons were incredibly intelligent and loving creatures, and I’d heard they often mated for life, so the dealers exploited these two dragon’s feelings for each other and forced them to have baby after baby that they would ultimately have to give away.

It was despicable, and even worse, one look at the light blue dragon showed that his wings were badly burned in several spots. There were other scars on his shoulders and face, too. These traders had done a number on him, and probably on his mate as well.

It was sad to see such a beautiful, powerful beast be reduced to a shell of what he could be.

I glanced back to see Eira and Asta working on calming down the squealing baby dragons. I could sense their energy, and they were obviously shaken by what had just happened.

“We’re here to help you,” Asta told the baby dragons as she w crouched next to the cages.

Inger, Uffe, and Svass also all crowded around the cages to help the babies feel safer, while Blar stood next to me.

I didn’t have the same control over adult dragons as I did over babies, but I still had a connection with them, and I could sense these dragons trusted us. The fact that we had Blar, Svass, Inger, and Uffe with us never hurt, but some of the dragons were so deeply traumatized that they took a minute to warm up to us.

“I won’t hurt you,” I murmured as I held my hand out.

The great blue dragon looked me up and down once, raised an eyebrow at Blar, and then nodded his head before he lowered his face to the floor so I could reach the chain around his neck.

I adjusted the metal so the lock was visible, and then Kas made her way over and used her magic to undo it.

Once the two larger dragons were freed, Kas opened the cages for the babies, and the little ones flocked to their mother, who let out a little roar of delight and rubbed her head against them so hard she nearly knocked them out of the sky.

Blar opened a portal to the Valley of Dragons, and the mother and father each bowed to me before they stepped through.

“We should look around before we go,” I said once the dragons were gone.

“On it!” Kas said as she rushed over to a small desk that had been hidden by the dragon cages. “I saw this earlier. There’s got to be something here.”

“They had the cages stacked up in front of it,” Eira added as we followed Kas. “So there’s probably something there they didn’t want anyone to find.”

“Or maybe they’re just really messy.” Asta smiled.

“I guess that’s possible,” Eira laughed.

Kas started to dig through the desk while Eira, Asta, and I looked around nearby. I found a small sack of jewels and some coins, but nothing else.

“Have you found anything?” Eira asked as she walked up behind Kas.

“No.” The strawberry blonde shook her head and set down a small stack of papers. “There’s nothing of use to us here.”

“No plans about the Elf King or what he’s doing?” Asta asked.

“Or the secret society?” Eira pushed.

“Nothing,” Kas sighed.

“Maybe there’s something hidden with magic.” Eira shrugged.

“If there was something hidden, Kas would have found it already,” I said with a small smile.

“Yes, I already tried that,” Kas assured Eira.

“We shouldn’t expect every low end dragon trader to have knowledge of this Vinrar society or what the Elf King is doing,” I reminded the girls.

“Right.” Eira nodded. “A lot of them are just average arseholes trying to make some coin.”

“Just average arseholes,” I agreed with a laugh.

“Okay, well we should move on to the next, then,” Eira said, and she looked around quickly. “I don’t trust any place the Elf King knows about.”

“I agree,” I told her. “Kas, pick another place for us to go and meet us outside.”

“Okay,” the strawberry blonde said, and she shoved her hand in her satchel in search of the map.

I led Asta and Eira outside, and we quickly went through the pockets of the guards and dragon traders we’d killed while the dragons sat down near the door of the building and stretched out in the sun.

We found several more coin bags and some valuable rings. We also made sure to take the jewel encrusted blades, and we put everything in Kas’s magical endless satchel once she came outside.

“Where are we headed this time?” Eira asked the strawberry blonde.

“You’ll never guess,” Kas said with a wry smirk.

“Then why wouldn’t you just tell us?” Asta asked.

“What?” Kas chuckled.

“If we would never guess, then why would you not simply tell us?” the elf girl repeated, and her white eyebrows pulled together with confusion and hurt.

“It’s here,” Eira laughed. “We’re going to another place in Alfheim.”

“That’s right.” Kas nodded and smiled at Asta. “I was only teasing you all.”

“Oh, I see.” Asta pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side, which only proved she didn’t actually get the joke.

The elf girl didn’t always understand the way we talked to each other, and unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explain it to her right then. We needed to get going, and I was as unsurprised as Eira was that the next place we were headed was somewhere in Alfheim.

Eight of the places on that list were probably in Asta’s home world. The realm was huge, and there was plenty of room for arseholes to set up shop, especially with the Elf King as their ruler. The corrupt bastard would do whatever he could to let the dragon traders roam free, but he also wasn’t afraid to put on a show for the rest of the citizens.

He’d sentenced dragon traders to death before, which was no doubt a ploy to distract everyone from thinking he could be part of the dragon trade. It looked like it was working, too, because I didn’t think any of the average elves in Alfheim knew their leader was corrupt.

We’d been to the bastard's castle several times, though, and I didn’t understand why anyone would trust him as their king, regardless of if they thought he was corrupt. He looked downright creepy with his straight black hair, oily skin, and long, unruly nails.

Granted, I didn’t think Odin was a perfect king after knowing he banished the dragons for revolting from their torture, but he was certainly better than the Elf King. Odin had been trying to protect his citizens when he banished the dragons, and even if I didn’t agree with it, I understood his reasoning.

But I didn’t understand a single thing the Elf King had done. The bastard was corrupt from the beginning, which was probably a result of his parents before him. The royals in Alfheim had probably been involved with the dragon trade for years.

And the elves weren’t the only guilty parties. I’d seen how the dwarves kept dragons small with a spell so they could keep them as pets for generations, and the humans of Midgard sometimes kept them as pets as well. Even the Jotunheim were part of the dragon trade. It seemed all the realms were guilty of some form of dragon torture, and it was often passed down through the family.

I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath as I mentally prepared myself for our next stop.

“Are we ready?” I asked.

“Ready,” Kas said, and Blar hopped up onto my shoulder and closed his eyes.

Another portal appeared, and once it grew large enough, we all stepped through and were suddenly in a different part of Alfheim altogether.

I recognized the realm from the bright blue sky and the lovely floral scent, but I’d never seen this area before. We were halfway up some sort of mountain and standing on a ledge that overlooked Dragon Valley. It was far away, but I could clearly tell there were dragons below us.

“What the fuck?” Eira breathed, and she turned to look at me with confused green eyes. “Where are we?”

“Fly, my pretty, fly!” a voice called out, and I yanked my sword from its sheath as I spun around.

A tall, scrawny man wearing an oversized tunic ran toward us with a baby dragon in his hand.

“Stop right there!” I yelled, but just then the man threw the baby into the air, and the dragon took off toward the valley below.

“Um, what’s this?” Eira asked, and she raised a red eyebrow at the man before us.

“She’s the one, I can feel it,” he murmured, and his crazed eyes watched as the baby flew away.

The man had a big, curly black beard, unruly eyebrows, and bright red hair that hung down to his shoulders, except for the top, which was bald as can be. His nose looked like it’d been broken more than once, and his teeth, the ones he had left at least, were a terrible shade of yellow and black.

“She’s coming back, you know,” he told us with a half toothless smile.

“Uhhhh, Rath,” Kas said, and her violet eyes caught mine. “What am I looking at?”

“I… don’t know.” My eyebrows pulled together as I tried to figure out what was going on.

There was a small hut on the opposite side of the clearing from us that looked like it was about to fall apart. It was made from tree branches and mud and leaves, and the roof was already half caved in.

Then, to our right, was a larger wooden structure. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could sense there were still dragons here, and after a moment, I realized it was a crate for the dragons. This man had obviously built it himself, and while it was better done than his home, it looked like it could collapse at any moment.

There were three more dragons inside, but as I honed in on their emotions, none of them seemed overly scared. There was some frustration and irritation, but no true fear.

“Rath?” Kas pushed. “There are dragons in that wooden box… thing over there.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Three of them.”

“That’s riiiiiight,” the man sang, and he turned to flash us another unnerving smile. “His Majesty wants ‘em trained, so that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re trainin’ em so they’ll come back with the right message.”

“The right message?” I asked.

What the fuck was going on? Who was this guy, and why did he seem so… unhinged?

We watched him in shock for a moment, and even the way he moved around was strange. He’d be doing something for a few seconds, then suddenly, he’d lift his head up and rush over to another little homemade structure to start yet another task. The dirty looking man seemed to move a hundred miles an hour as he rushed back and forth holding up this, or poking that. I had no idea what he was doing, but it seemed to give him some sort of purpose.

“That’s right, the right message,” the man agreed as he rushed over to a small bundle of sticks on the ground, and then he mumbled, almost to himself. “I know I put it over here, gotta keep them happy, if they’re happy they fly, and they come back, and they…”

“Um, Rath,” Kas whispered. “I think he’s trying to train the dragons to carry messages like birds used to do.”

“Wasn’t that centuries ago?” I asked. “Asgard hasn’t had carrier birds in a long time.”

“He seems to think Alfheim does,” Eira chuckled, and she cocked her hip to the side, crossed her arms, and watched as the man rushed around. It seemed the redhead was finding some sick amusement in his incredibly odd behavior.

“He seems to believe this is the way the Elf King wants them trained,” Asta said in a low voice.

I appreciated Asta whispering, but the man didn’t seem to notice either way. He was in his own little world.

“What should we do?” Kas asked.

“What about the dragons?” Asta added. “We need to let them out.”

“We do,” I agreed, and I gripped my sword even tighter in my hand before I walked over to the cage and found the small, wooden latch.

“What are you doing?” the man gasped, and his dark eyes went round as saucers. “You can’t, you--”

I unlocked the door and opened it wide.

“Nooooo!” the man screamed, and he rushed forward and landed on his knees in front of me as the dragons flew out and down into the valley. “You bastard, you stole them! I was going to be the next Elf King!”

“Next Elf King?” I muttered. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You ruined it!” the man screeched, and he pulled a knife out of his tunic pocket and lunged at me.

I barely readjusted my blade so it was pointed at the man, but he didn’t seem to notice it was there and ran right into it.

Instead of pulling away once the tip of my blade hit his stomach, his dark brown eyes locked on mine, and he took another step toward me so my blade impaled him completely.

“Oh my,” Kas gasped.

“What is he doing?” Asta whispered.

“I’ve seen a lot, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Eira chuckled.

“I’m glad you find it funny,” Kas huffed. “This man is disturbed.”

“Yes, it certainly seems like it,” Eira agreed.

While the girls talked, I just stood in shock as the man’s eyes continued to stare into mine until the light faded from them, and then he fell forward so his body hit the hilt of my blade.

I quickly shoved him away from me, and a shudder ran down my spine as my brain replayed what just happened.

“That was so creepy,” Asta said. “Rath, are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” I assured her. “And the dragons are free, so that’s all that matters.”

“I can’t help but wonder how the Elf King knew about this man in the first place,” Kas mused.

“Oh, yes, that does seem odd,” Asta said as she pursed her lips. “This is not a very large building. Did he sell dragons to the Elf King?”

“I doubt it.” Eira shook her head. “He probably didn’t sell dragons to anyone. He wasn’t even training them to listen to him, he was trying to train them like birds.”

“How did he get them here?” Asta wondered.

“They didn’t seem scared,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Eira asked as a confused wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

“The dragons didn’t feel scared to me,” I said. “They were irritated, but not scared. I don’t think he actually hurt them.”

“That’s so strange,” Kas said, and she chewed on her lip in thought. “And he basically killed himself. I kind of feel… bad?”

“Don’t,” Eira scoffed. “He still had dragons in a cage. Just because he had the Óðr doesn’t mean he wasn’t still a criminal just like all the other dragon traders we meet.”

“He was certainly still planning to sell them to the Elf King,” Asta reminded her.

“And he definitely had the madness,” I agreed with Eira’s use of the old language word.

“You’re right.” Kas looked around. “Should we check his cottage?”

“I suppose so,” I said, but none of the girls moved. “I’ll do it.”

“Oh, thank you, husband.” Eira grinned.

“I suppose it’s my duty to take on the dirty jobs you don’t want to do,” I teased.

“That’s right,” she laughed.

I walked over to the small, collapsing hut and poked my head through the makeshift door. Part of me was concerned it would collapse onto my head right then, but it held up.

The place was tiny, with barely enough room for me to step through, so I glanced around to see if there was anything worthwhile. Finally, I noticed a small wooden box hidden beneath some leaves.

“Shite,” I chuckled and stepped into the hut.

The mud beneath me squished under my knees as I crouched down and reached for the little box. It was clearly homemade, just like the rest of the man’s belongings, but I was able to pry it open with little effort.

Inside was a small scroll, a couple of old brass rings, and one large ruby.

“Hm,” I mused to myself, and I shoved the ruby into my pocket and unfolded the scroll.

It was written in old elvish, so I took it with me and stepped back out of the hut to see the girls picking through the pockets of the dead man.

“Find anything?” I asked.

“Not exactly.” Kas shook her head. “Did you?”

“I found a scroll,” I told them. “But it’s written in old elvish.”

“Oh, let me see,” Asta said with a smile as she reached for the paper. “I may be able to help.”

“I was hoping you could,” I admitted as I handed over the paper.

The elf girl unrolled the scroll, and her eyebrows pinched together as she studied the words. From what I saw, the text wasn’t long, but she pursed her lips and kept muttering under her breath, so I thought it might be somewhat complicated.

“Well, what does it say?” Eira asked eagerly as she looked over Asta’s shoulder.

“It doesn’t say anything.” Asta shook her head.

“What are you talking about?” Kas asked with a gesture to the page. “There’s something written, isn’t there?”

“Well, yes, but it doesn’t say anything,” the elf woman repeated. “At least, nothing that makes sense. It’s all just… names.”

“Names?” I asked.

“Yes.” She nodded. “They’re old elven names, and beside them, it either says ‘fly’ or ‘no.’ I don’t understand.”

“I’m not even sure he understood,” Kas chuckled. “These are just the scribblings of a deranged man.”

“I agree.” I smiled and shook my head. “I was hoping it might be something helpful, but I should have known it was nothing with how that man was acting.”

“It’s always best to check,” Kas reminded me.

“You’re right,” I told her. “But we shouldn’t spend too much time here, let’s get going to the next place.”

“Right,” Kas said, and she pulled the map out of her satchel. “I’ve already got it picked out, it’s in Midgard.”

“Alright,” I agreed, and I was about to call on Blar to make us a portal, but then I realized I didn’t see the little dragons anywhere. “Where are the dragons?”

“I-- I don’t know.” Kas shook her head and looked around. “They were just here with us a moment ago.”

“They must have slipped away while we were talking,” Asta said.

“That’s not like them,” Eira said. “Where would they go?”

“We should--” Kas started to say, but then a homemade crate fell with a loud thud and drew our attention.

“What in the world,” I mumbled as I walked over to the crate and looked inside.

“What is it?” Eira asked as she followed me.

“Of course.” I shook my head as I crouched down and saw the dragons all piled into the crate. “They found fruit.”

The four of them had fat little bellies, and they were all crammed on top of one another. Svass’ belly was twice its normal size, and she was half asleep as she laid against Inger, who was still munching on some strange bright orange fruit with a small twisted yellow vine coming off it.

Uffe was the least fat of the four of them, but his belly was definitely full, and his eyes locked on mine as he carefully took another bite of the fruit in his paws, chewed slowly, and swallowed loudly.

Blar’s belly was filled to nearly bursting, and he was at the bottom of the crate sleeping while the rest of the dragons were piled on top of him.

“Fruit?” Kas laughed. “Of course they did.”

“Oh, that is elven Wildtree fruit,” Asta said as she walked over to us. “It’s a delicacy among my people.”

“A delicacy?” Eira asked. “How odd.”

“Oh, I assure you, it’s very delicious,” Asta said.

“I’m sure it is,” Eira said. “I just mean it’s odd that this man would have all this fruit. How did he get it up here?”

“Good question,” I said as I rubbed my chin in thought.

“Do you think he was using it to lure the dragons to him?” Kas asked. “You said they didn’t seem scared, maybe he was feeding them.”

“That’s certainly possible,” I agreed. “I don’t think he harmed them, but he was definitely keeping them against their will here.”

“He probably lured them into the cages with the fruit and closed them in.” Eira shook her head. “The ones he had here were babies, weren’t they?”

“They were,” I said. “I’m sure their mothers are happy to see them again.”

“This whole place is just strange,” Eira sighed. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, let’s,” I said, and I reached into the crate and poked Blar’s little reptilian face. “Hey, come on, we’ve got work to do.”

The blue dragon opened an eye, huffed, and began to climb out of the crate. The rest of the dragons were tousled around as Blar moved beneath them, but after a moment, they all made their way out of the homemade wooden box.

“They act like they’re always starved,” Kas chuckled as the dragons tried to regain their composure.

“Maybe they are,” Asta said with a small shrug. “They do grow quite a lot.”

“And I bet it takes a lot of energy to fly or use fire,” Eira added. “I’d imagine they are legitimately hungry a lot. Though, I doubt they needed to fill their bellies as much as they did.”

“Yes, I think they went a bit overboard,” Kas giggled.

Blar huffed and took his place on my back. Then Kas held out the list for him to look at, and a moment later, there was a portal for us to step through.

We came out the other side in some sort of bustling marketplace. Luckily, it was so busy nobody seemed to notice our strange arrival, but I made sure to send Blar a sharp look that told him he was off his game.

The blue dragon huffed in return and set his head on my shoulder.

There were plenty of booths around, and merchants were shouting about their wares to the huge crowd of passersby that made their way through. We’d been to Midgard recently, so it looked about the same as it did just a few days ago.

Kas and I had come to this place several months ago, before we met Asta even, and the next time we arrived, it was entirely different. The humans of Midgard had such short lifespans that time seemed to move differently here than it did in Asgard. They still lived in rudimentary houses, but they were at least made of stone and wood now, rather than the huts Kas and I had first seen.

“Alright,” I said. “We’re in Midgard, but we’ve got to find wherever this place is.”

“Do you think it’s a shop like the one we saw here just a few days ago?” Asta asked.

“I was assuming as much.” I nodded. “It makes sense for these elves to use a shop as a front for their real business.”

“Hm.” Kas pursed her lips as she looked at the map. “It says we’re not far. It should be just down the road.”

“Lead the way,” I said.

The dragons hopped down from our shoulders to walk beside us, since to everyone else they appeared as dogs. Dogs still weren’t incredibly common in Midgard, but it was even less common to see them riding on someone’s shoulders, and we didn’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.

The little dragons were a bit slower than usual, but they scurried along beside us as we walked.

Kas pushed into the crowd and made her way down the street toward some large, built in shops. There were families rushing to and fro, and young children ran around in groups as they shouted and tagged each other in some game. Some shops had seats out front where people sat and ate food that smelled more delicious than I would have expected, and I smiled as I watched the humans bustle around.

I was on the lookout for anyone with a dragon, but I didn’t see or feel the presence of any as we walked. Last time we were here, we saw a child with a dragon in a cage. His mother had just bought it for him as a pet, and Blar snuck over to free it.

It was sad the humans would keep dragons as pets, but they didn’t have a way to travel to different realms, so they couldn’t know the dragons were ancient creatures who grew to be twice the size of their homes. The elves who were selling the dragons were exploiting the ignorance of the humans and allowing them to take dragons they knew wouldn’t survive.

I didn’t believe the humans were intentionally trying to torture the dragons, and I doubted they knew they were stolen from their mothers, but the dragons wouldn’t last long under their care. Humans could barely care for themselves, let alone a massive creature who would outlive them by a hundred years or more.

No, this wasn’t the humans’ fault. The elves were the ones who brought the dragon trade here to try and hide what they were doing. Midgard was a place that wasn’t often traveled to, so it made sense the elves would come here to try and be discreet. In Midgard, they could do whatever they wanted, and the humans were so susceptible to magic that even if one of them saw something, the elves would probably be able to cast a spell and make the puny humans forget. Or they’d just kill them. It wasn’t like the humans would be able to say who did it, and they didn’t have an official government I knew of to pass any sort of judgement or punishment.

Midgard was the ultimate place for criminals to go and know they wouldn’t be followed.

Until us, that was.

“It looks like it’s right up here,” Kas said as she pointed to a large, red stone building with gold accents and a teal sign that read “Giffords Fine Jewelry and Custom Pieces.”

“A jewelry store?” Asta asked, and her white eyebrows pinched together as she took in the building. “That’s much different from the pet store we were at last time.”

“Yes.” Kas nodded. “I would think it would be more difficult to hide dragons here.”

“At least at a pet store, they could disguise them as lizards or snakes or something,” Eira added. “These arseholes must not be the brightest traders around.”

“Their shop is very nice, though,” Asta said as she admired the building.

“Asta!” Kas laughed.

“What?” The elf girl cocked her head to the side. “It is very nice looking.”

“She’s right,” Eira chuckled. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d probably shop here.”

“Well then.” I grinned. “Let’s go shopping.”

Eira’s green eyes locked on mine, and she smiled back at me and gestured forward.

With my women behind me, and my dragons beside me, I made my way up the little stone walkway to the entrance of the red building. A bell chimed as I pushed the door open, and for a moment, I wondered if Kas was correct.

The shop was beautiful, with large wooden and glass cases that displayed the most ornate jewelry I’d ever seen. It was worthy of Freya or Odin, it was so beautiful, and I slowly walked around and acted as though I was seriously considering one of the pieces.

Nobody was in the front part of the shop, but I’d been through this before, and I knew if I just waited a few minutes, someone was bound to come out to try and make a sale.

“It’s all so beautiful,” Eira breathed as we looked at a case filled with rubies set in necklaces, rings, and bracelets.

“Don’t trust it,” Kas whispered. “It’s all fake.”

“Yes.” Asta nodded. “I can sense some magic here.”

“I don’t think they’re actual gems at all,” Kas added. “They’re probably just rocks disguised as jewelry to keep up appearances.”

“And to make some quick coin off the humans dumb enough to buy this stuff.” Eira shook her head.

“That, too,” Kas agreed.

I wasn’t surprised to hear there was some illusion magic at play. Elves were naturally gifted with nature magic, and for many that allowed them to disguise natural objects as other things. Like many of the sorcerers and sorceresses in Asgard, they were also able to build up their craft so they could use magic in various ways like Kas or Preyna could.

That didn’t bode well for us, but we had a master sorceress on our team to see through whatever magic they tried to pull over on us.

“Ahh, customers,” a male voice said, and I looked up to see a tall, thin man walk through a deep red curtain.

His long blond hair fell forward as he walked over to us on the opposite side of the counter, and he leaned over to point at the necklace we were pretending to look at.

“This is one of my favorites,” he said. “It’s very expensive, though.”

“Oh, is it?” I asked as the man’s light green eyes locked on mine. “How much?”

“Fifty gold pieces,” he said, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “Non-negotiable.”

“I see.” I nodded and pretended to look at the necklace again.

Even though he didn’t have pointed ears, I knew he was an elf. Kas was right, this entire place was an illusion, and he clearly thought we were just lowly humans he could trick into buying his overpriced rocks.

“Of course, if that’s too much for you, we do have--” he started to say, but the sound of a terrified screech filled the air, and his eyes locked on mine again.

I’d know that sound anywhere. It was a baby dragon crying out for its mother. We were definitely in the right place.

I yanked my sword free from its sheath and pointed it at the man’s head.

“Take us to the dragons,” I growled.