Tigra

The Battle For Furlong Keep

It was a dark day at Furlong keep as Tora looked over maps of the island, trying to decide if it was best to fight from within the walls or in the open field. Both seemed like terrible ideas, and worst of all they had just received news from Fortress Dana.

“What do you mean ‘We cannot expect them to lend aid?’ Is that not their very purpose for existing?! What we have been paying our yearly tithes to expect!? For heaven’s sake there are darklings in their midst! Tell that crawly...

Chapter 190: Eat, Drink and be Merry

“Come on man. Which one is better, man?” Balethon tried, leaning in over their table as Tom put down the second mug of cider. The ring of dragonettes standing around waiting for the verdict had been ever growing. Which didn’t really suit Tom, such pressure.

“They are both VERY sweet,” the lone human admitted, not really sure which to pick. Neither of them were really up his alley.

“It’s cider, of course it is sweet,” Fengi butted in, clearly also waiting f...

Chapter 189: Reporting In

As the world faded away into nothing but a dark void, Tom felt the only mildly familiar sensation of magic flowing like a gentle stream. It wasn’t much of a draw, but it was certainly noticeable.

“Right, best make this quick then,” he tried thinking to himself, feeling the flow peak as he did.

“Who is this? Make what quick?” an ethereal sounding female voice replied. It did sound a bit like how he remembered Joelina sounding. Though she did not exactly sound cal...

Chapter 188: Charitable Concessions

“Right. Tarp,” Saph muttered to herself as it became evident where the rather massive section of canvas had been hiding. Galaxer had been using it as harness padding, which was mostly due to there really being nowhere else to put it. Even folded in on itself twice it still covered all of the venerable dragon’s back.  

“I still don’t get what you want that for? Don’t we have tarps? Actually, no, I know we have some. We used them for the logs and shit,” Ph...

Chapter 187: Up Armor

As Saph laid eyes on the rather eclectic collection all she could think was ‘So that’s what the magic lock was about.’

There was a set of goggles that looked a lot like what Edita often wore, some boxes with what Saph assumed to be tools, or magical items in them, and what were unmistakably bits of armor. Enchanted too by the looks of it. But it wasn’t plate armor. Saph didn’t think she had ever seen enchantments used on something lesser than plate. She had heard of i...

Chapter 186: Christmas Come early

Chapter 186: Christmas Come Early

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The work had carried on above and below, and the progress was stark. On the third day following the opening of the vault, a fair few of them had returned to the keep in anticipation of Arch and possibly Galaxer arriving with their various ordered goods. Tom definitely wasn’t gonna miss it, and neither was Jacky. The warehouse had been coming along wel...

Chapter 185: They Found a What!?

They had spent hours going over just what it was they had found. It was indeed just as they had suspected; a machine for turning dragonettes, or bits of dragons that would fit in the chambers, into grav oil, with the leftover waste being discarded as water and a sort of sludge.

Edita had explained what it was they were looking at as they toured the accursed machine. Torches and lanterns had been brought into the vault to illuminate it, along with a few shelves of various bo...

184 Doors Open Wide

The investigator’s words had come true, and oh how Tom wished she had spilled the beans earlier. As it stood, he was confident that even baked beans and cabbage could not match the devastation unleashed by Jacky that night.

Tom honestly thought she had shit the bed when he woke up at god knows what in the morning. But no. She had simply turned into a fart producing machine of near unparalleled efficiency. It had gotten so bad he had actually had to leave the room for a breath of fresh...

Chapter 183: Caught

“He is a persistent fucker,” Tom chuckled as they both watched the splashing move around the lake. “He is getting tired though.”

“Why do you think it’s a he? That’s clearly a woman. Too much fight in her,” Jacky countered, still helping brace Tom against the tree even though that really wasn’t needed.

“No comment,” Tom replied with a shit eating grin ...

Chapter 182: Lakeside

“Awww yeah, look at this. Maybe the dude wasn’t so bad after all!” Jacky went excitedly as she rubbed away on the big skull. Saph was helping out with the final cleaning. The ants had done a brilliant job, but even so, a final clean and a bit of polish was needed.

They were down in the workshop. The sun was nearly down, so it was only really Shiva, Tink, and Edita who were sti...

Chapter 181: Evolution and Design

Jacky had returned with Linkosta, and she was carrying a large fancy book that Tom hadn’t seen before, which boded well for his hopes of her knowing more about what it was he had seen. As it turned out the ferinix was the believed ancestor of the white dragons, which had sent him down a whole new line of questioning. Luckily Linkosta was more than happy to help.

Jacky had crawled in under the covers next to him, with Tom embracing her in a side hug, while Linkosta sat dow...

Chapter 180: Tactical Prowess

Chapter 180: Tactical Prowess

‘Oh gods, could we at least sit down?’ Saph thought to herself, despairing. They had been training all day, and even with being afforded a decent break before the last few drills where they would not know what Glira and her crew would try, they were still completely worn out by now. Yet Dakota was seemingly not. Nor was Tom, of course, but t...

Tiguan at Deriva

On a mild autumn day at Deriva Keep, someone was trying to make the most of the waning heat. Tiguan and the kids were out and about, playing hide and seek with only Lieutenant Yldtiz Hashaw to keep an eye on them all. Yesterday had been a hunting day, and Tiguan had, of course, been helping out as best he could. They had even managed to land a single panicked deer with the net. And wi...

Chapter 179: Practice Makes Perfect

It had been decided that today was to be the day for the keep to get in some actual practice fighting alongside a dragon and their royal guard allies. That meant Jarix, Glira, every royal guard present, and the keep’s guards and huntresses would be going through formations, tactics, and some general combat practice. The day would be rounded out by a mock battle with Glira and crew s...

Chapter 178: Busy Day Off

It had ended up being a busy day in the kitchen, but with three of them, at least they did not need to run around like panicking deer in order to get it all done. Wiperna and Raulf had showed up a bit before dinner as it was technically their job to cook said dinner today. To say they were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. They had just planned on some simple stew and bread baked for breakfast, so with a little credit given they were gonna be very popular tonight.

Wiperna...

Chapter 177: Hells Kitchen

“Are you sure it didn’t… you know? Stick?” Jacky asked in a worried tone as she and Tom made it back up to the bedroom. She was going with the hunting crew, so she needed her kit, and while Tom was sure she would want him to come along, sadly, that wasn’t really happening. There was work to do, even if he may just take some time out of his day to finish up his fishing rod project.

“Quite sure. Not a mark on me, you saw so yourself… I only felt like I was freez...

Chapter 176: Fishing for Friends

Tom had spent much of yesterday trying to figure out how to put a fishing rod together. He hadn’t wanted to spend too long on it. It had been complicated a little by the fact that Wiperna had really wanted him out of the workshop and had been doing a poor job of hiding it. When Essy had swung by a touch later she had been somewhat surprised to see him and seemingly completely forgot what it was she wanted to say.

So all in all it wasn’t hard to work out that they were definitely up ...

Chapter 175: What Did We Learn?

The door to the greeting hall had been left open after Jarix departed, Sapphire and Rachuck coming in for a hurried landing. The door started to drop down behind them as soon as they were through with the Clack clack clack of ratchets. There was no one there, save for Herron who  was working the winch with practiced efficiency, that was to say nonchalantly leaning on the brake lever, giving them both a chin nod.

“Welcome home, all good?” The young guard qu...

Chapter 174: Cards and Colds

After a very fun morning, Tom had gone in search of Edita to ask his questions for the day. He had found both the artificer and Tink playing with the children in the grand hall under the supervision of Anchor. Tom didn’t even need to ask what they were doing; he knew that game well. They were making card houses at the tables. Tom wasn’t going to ask where they had found that many sets of playing cards, but the set Kiran seemed to be using was definitely one of Tom’s.

...

Chapter 173: Return Leg

“Well shit,” Tom mumbled to himself as he lay there staring at the wooden ceiling, Jacky snoring at his side. “I guess the dreams are sticking around a bit longer then… huuuhr god dammit.”

It had been one hell of a dream, so vivid and lifelike, and he could remember it perfectly. Even so, he did grab his little notebook from the nightstand and start  jotting down some details just in case they came in useful. They would help him remember. It was like some epi...

Chapter 172: Waterlogged

Saph was cold, sore, wet, and generally miserable. They had been stupid, but Yldril had proven to be the biggest moron of them all. Why hadn’t they just camped and waited out the storm? She knew why of course; they wanted to get back home for a hot dinner and a dry bed, and with a 30-ton dragon who would be stopping them? As it turns out the answer was weather, because of course it was. Next time they would bring Zarko so they could find their way around without th...

Chapter 171: Horror Sub

Well, Tom certainly got their attention with the notion of some of the craziest humans to ever serve. He had the perfect mood for a horror story too. It was dark and stormy, the only light inside being that of torches and the warm hearths. He didn’t have the faintest idea if this was in any way, shape, or form a good idea, but he knew Unkai was already scared. So maybe tough love would work this time around, the soft and sweet approach had already failed by the sounds of it any...

Special Chapter: Grevi's Reminiscence

“20 years… 20 years I trained. I worked so hard. I excelled at everything. Best student Baron ever trained. And this is where they put me,” Grevi complained as she labored over the stupid saw. It was hard, grueling work and somehow even more repetitive than endurance training.

But orders were orders, so here she was outside the ruined keep that was slowly being restored to life beam by beam. One dragon trying to keep up with a 20-man work crew who had just gotten told...

Chapter 170: Not so Nice Anymore.

As the thunder boomed, clearly heading towards them, Saph had to admit she had no clue where they even were anymore, nor what time it was. Visibility was next to nothing, they were getting pounded by some of the worst rain they had seen all year, and she and Fengi were too busy huddling up atop the swaying dragon’s back to really be in a position to find much out.

It was getting damn cold, and the wind was picking up to a full-on storm. At least the skins and furs were sh...

Chapter 169: Quite Nice Really

Essy had led the three of them through the forest, looking for the elusive berry bush. It had only taken about 5 minutes of searching on the wing before they had found it. Covering ground was really a lot easier when on the wing, even if they had to duck and dive around the massive tree trunks. Saph had of course decided to try and have a little fun, flinging herself over branches and diving down between the smaller trees to run the slalom between them.

Fengi had followed, ...

Chapter 168: U-Haul

Tom was still rather worried he had made a big mistake as he watched Jacky fly off towards the grey horizon, chainsaw dangling from her chest. He felt a little odd actually. He had come running out to say goodbye and to give Jacky her pair of ear defenders and some safety glasses that sorta fit, at least a little bit. He had also reminded them to pack some tarps. Just in case it rained since it might help keep the wood mostly dry. Honestly, he felt like a worried mother or housew...

Chapter 167: Spending Plans

“I propose an idea,” Jacky proclaimed proudly once they had made it to their room after dinner.

Tom merely gulped a little as he tried to work out what she might have come up with after having had a day to work out what to do with all her newfound money. At dinner they had learned that Saph and Fengi had come down with a case of charity. Tom certainly couldn’t blame them. They had both come from not-so-nice backgrounds. Fengi had come from the struggli...

Chapter 166: Pay Day

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That evening, after the inquisitor's departure, the kitchen had put in just a bit of extra effort. Yldril and Jarix had both been treated to spit roasts with some actual spices being used for once. It wasn’t what Tom would call spicy, at least Saph didn’t think so. But with the knowledge that they could just order from the big cities, they could get away with using what they had at least.

Tom ...

Chapter 165: Divine Sanction

“So how long should we be waiting again? I hear some bird song,” Saph questioned indignantly as it became apparent she wasn’t winning this hand against Maiko. “You are too good at this to be trustworthy.”

“Oh no that one was just luck,” he reassured her, taking the cards and starting to shuffle anew. Not much had happened yet if they were totally honest. They were sitting in a forest with a campfire and some cards. It was a pretty spot, but it did feel sorta w...

Chapter 164: Cha-Ching!

Saph didn’t really know if work was progressing well or not. Plenty of people were doing shit that was for sure, so she guessed so. Yldril had been camped a ways away from the keep to rest after she had been unloaded, and Glira had been loaded up for her scouting run now that she wasn’t strictly needed to guard the black dragon anymore. Their oldest blue hadn’t seemed to mind that it would be well past dark by the time she got to Hylsdal, so once both she and Arch were loaded, the three...