Chapter 600: The Harvest
Everyone and their brother was curious about the fight that had just occurred, and quite a lot of people were going to have a really bad day. Fenrir and Kangrim hadn’t exactly been keeping things contained when they wrestled on the ground, and quite a few fields had been utterly wrecked, to say nothing of the final farm where dragon’s blood was dripping onto the fields. In small amounts, it was a potent catalyst, but the dose made the poison. There was a good chance the fields would be unusable for a long time.
Nina came rushing over and threw up a huge illusion over us and the remains of the dragon, cutting away the farmers from the view. The base was a solid dome of bright red covering the entire place, then various rotating symbols went all along the edge. Skull and crossbones, ‘ick’ faces, black cats, broken mirrors, red flags, raised rattlesnakes and more were all moving and animated on the surface of the dome, a dozen different symbols from cultures around the world saying STAY AWAY. She had another neat trick - we could see from the inside out, but I doubted people could see from the outside in.
Iona and Fenrir gently disentangled themselves from the dragon, as Auri hovered over them protectively. Nina marched up to them, and I drifted a little closer so we could all talk.
“We cannot let this get out.” The kitsune said. I nodded in agreement. Fenrir and Iona were still both coming down off the battle-high, plus the dragon's heart was one heck of a stimulant. Auri landed on Iona’s wobbling helmet and tilted her head.
“Brrpt?” Artemis stepped in as Auri asked her question.
“The story is, we slew a wyvern.” Nina stressed, somehow managing to speak only the truth while crafting a thousand lies. “Fenrir’s territorial after all. We’ve all seen it. Just another scuffle, another monster slain.”
“You know what happens when we say their name.” Artemis agreed. “I propose the same thing that we did in Remus, and possibly for the same reason. Total ban, total secrecy. Not a word gets out about this, not a mention of them to light a flame in their mind’s eye.”
Huh. I suddenly wondered if Night had managed to kill a dragon in Remus at some point. It wasn’t something to brag about or even mention, but it would explain why the ban was so harsh when mentioning it once or twice didn’t cause any problems… and if we’d managed to kill a dragon back then, there was no way Night didn’t have a dozen kills under his gem-studded belt already. Plus, that was when Night only had two classes.
Iona slowly came out of her daze.