Chapter 3 of A Dragon's Awakening

I awoke, once again, with a startle to the smell of freshly cooked meat, and it makes me realize how I haven't eaten a damn thing since I first woke up in this forest. I strap my daggers to opposite sides of my boots; and I don my satchel with my medicine, five coppers, and soft leaves inside of it. I leave WolfSlayer behind for the next unlucky traveler without a weapon. I then proceed to embark on the quest of meat (I named this quest myself) in search of this delicious scent.

As the sun steadily rose in the sky, making the day hotter and hotter as it continued to rise. I could tell I was getting closer to the delectable scent that was wafting through the air. I climbed up one of the non-deadly tallish looking trees to get a sense of where I was. I could see smoke rising above trees on one of the next hills over. I bound forward in anticipation of their possibly being a person, but especially for a warm meal.

At the top of the nearest hill, I approach a discarded campfire.

"These coals are still warm, there has to people nearby."

The forest grows silent around me causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. I hear a long piercing howl behind me; it was another of one of those damned black wolves.

It charges me.

I unsheathe my daggers and dodge its lunge attack. I place my dagger in my left hand firmly into the back of the wolf's right shoulder blade. The wolf shrieks out in pain and thrashes wildly in an attempt to escape. I effortlessly place my other dagger into the back of its neck, severing its spinal cord. The wolf ceased its movement and slowly passed on from this world into its inevitable pit of hell. As blood still gushed from the corpse, I gathered the same things from this wolf as I did Blackey, and placed them with the others in my satchel.

"Where the f**k are these things coming from?"

I decide to continue down the hill. The slope is rocky and wet from the rain the night before, causing it to be slippery.

“I’m gonna try NOT to kill myself right now!”

At the bottom of the hill that tried to make me kill myself, I discover a river. I can see it teeming with strange looking fish. Some of the fish looked as if they had razor sharp teeth, that were stained with blood, lining the inside of their mouth that. I see a large beast with massive and elegantly majestic horns jump into the water and try to make it across. It was hopeless as what looked like hundreds of fish smarmed the beast, ripping it to pieces. All of the water around the site was stained with blood. Even the water down river was stained with blood as it started to flow down.

I also notice with bright blue flora, which looked kinda like the underwater version of the tooth plants, but with just a lot more tentacles. I watched as the tentacles latch onto one of those death fish. It pulled it into one of its many mouths faster my eye could track, swallowing it up with a snap of its jaws. The aquatic tooth plants littered the reddish muddy riverbed. Across the river, I can see a wooden building with a metal sign hanging off of the front of the building. It is in a strange language that I cannot read. I can see smoke curling up from its chimneystack along with that delicious scent of food. There is a wooden bridge far off to my left with small wooden railings bordering its sides. I begin to make my way towards it.

“I’m also gonna try

I cross the bridge, and make my way towards the wooden building. As I approach the building, on the stone path that I presume to lead out of this forest, the delicious scent continues to get stronger. I can hear sounds of laughter and merriment coming from inside.

      “Sounds like they’re havin fun in there!”

I carefully approach the door and ready myself for my first interaction with people in this strange place.

I open the door slowly.

(maybe End of chapter 3)

There are chairs and tables in some sort of circular pattern, almost all of them are filled. There are booth all along two conjoining walls. In the corner booth alone sits a mysterious figure shrouded in a black cloak.

"Who the f**k is that?" I whisper under of my breath as I continue to observe my surroundings, ‘why is he so creepy?”

Along the wall opposite wall is a *Ahem*  “unique” looking bar.

“why’s that half of the bar so short?”

“And why does the other half look so big compared to it?”

The front of the bar is completely surrounded by stools. About half of the stools are way too short for me to even think about sitting in. The other half of the seemed to be about the right height. All of the small stools are filled with small but incredibly muscular heavily barded men. The stools on the right side are empty. The people who could fit them are at the tables and booths.

"Welcome to my tavern human!" said a short muscular man behind the counter. He looks to be about the same size as the other short people on the fill half of the bar.

"What do you call yourself?"

"Orick," I said, "what about yourself little man."

"Little Man! Ya’d do good to treat Dwarves wit more respect!" he yells, anger for bigots seething from his mouth.

"Oh, my bad I thought you were just short," I nervously say back in an attempt to sooth his rage. Even though I’m not sure what a "dwarf" is.

"Aye and ya couldn't ‘ell from the beard?"

I notice his beard; it is a cascade of brown hair reaching his waist, with most of it being braided. It is almost double the length of all of the, what I presume to be dwarf, patrons at the bar.

"Hah, Now that I notice, it is quite impressive!" I say in awe at the sheer beauty of his beard!

The "dwarf" sighs heavily "Ill forgive ya if ya buy somethin."

"Well, then what can I buy?" I ask.

"We got Tehran meat and potato stew in the kettle now, it'll be ready soon"

"That doesn't sound too bad; I'll have some of that." I say confused about what a Tehran is.

"That'll be 15 coppers laddy." The "dwarf" demands.

"15 huh, sure but first, what’s a Tehran?"

The dwarf looks at me in amazement (probably at my how stupid I am).

      “Are ya serious laddy!” The “dwarf” exclaims, “I’s a small fuzzy thing wit bones poking out its back.”

“Oooooh, okay, that makes sense.”

Now I finally know what that F**king thing that got eaten by those tooth plants is called!

I lay the five copper pieces on the counter. I take a handful of those black wolves’ fangs and claws, and lay them on the smooth, wooden counter as well.

"Aye laddy what are ya doin layin those tooths on ma counter"

He picks up one of the teeth to examine it. After a few moments, he suddenly drops the tooth and has a look of shock, and disbelief on his face.

"where did ya get ‘hese laddy!" he screams at the top of his lungs. The whole building immediately turns their attention towards us, because of that damned dwarf flipping the f**k out.

"I...i..I just killed a few wolves on my way here and collected these from them!" I stutter back, unsure of what the problem is.

"An…and what did these "wolves" look like laddy?" He retorts, astonished at me being so calm.

"There coats were as black as night, and their eyes as red as rubies."

I notice the whole place is silent after I utter these few details. I look around confused still unsure what the problem is. It takes what feels like eternity before anyone speaks up.

"It looksss like ssssomeone had an encounter with sssome dire wolvesss." A formal slow talking but lispy voice says from the corner booth, "come sssit with me and we can dissscusss thossse teeth."

The cloaked being in the corner lets down his hood to reveal an entirely scaly, bright green head. I notice all of the patrons, even that "dwarf", immediately avert their gazes away from this unknown creature. I approach the lizardman (I didn’t know they were actually called this at the time) cautiously and take a seat on the right side of his wooden booth.

"My name isss Glis, I can tell you are very confusssded Orick, pleassse tell me what isss going on, and maybe I can help."

I tell him everything that happened to me in great detail from the moment I awoke that faithful day. I notice that his facial expressions don’t change that much when I tell them, or he just can’t show them with his rigid looking scales.

"That sssoundsss like quite the predicament you have found yourssself in, I could be able to help. I have a sssmall apothecary in the capital. My assssssissstant may be able to help you with recovering your memoriesss."

“’ere’s ya stew, on the house fer showin me there are still warriors worth ‘heir mettle in ‘his world," the dwarf says as he appears beside us.

"Thanks dwarf" I say as I crack a smile in anticipation for my first meal.

"I’s Urist laddy, learn it 'fore I bust yer skull" he says as he smirks while leaving to the safety of his counter. I notice that a large man up with leather straps covering his torso fills one of the stools on the bigger side of the bar.

      I take a look at the stew and an eye peeks up at me from a bowl of brown broth, along with some chinks of white meat, and brown vegetables.

“Glis, did that stew just wink at me!” I say as I shove the bowl away from me as I almost fall out of the booth.

      “No….maybe, jussst eat it, it isss quite good.” He says as he pushes the stew back towards me.

      I slowly edge closer to the bowl, still wary of the monster that lies inside. I took hold of the spoon that came along with the food and dip it into the bowl, slowly pulling up the broth along with the ever-winking eye. I swear it keeps winking at as I eat the spoonful.

      “What the f**k! How is this so good!?” It is an explosion of flavors. I can taste the generous helping of salt and pepper, along with the gamey taste. The vegetable were soft and some of the sweetest things I’ve ever tasted!

      I continue to eat that delicious stew as he explains the things I don’t know about this world to me. He (I later found this out by asking him) told me the name of this world, which he says is Alderia. He mentioned the human nation that we were in is called the kingdom of Estanya.

I finish off my Tehran stew and prepare to depart saying my goodbyes to Glis.

"Be careful out there Orick, you never know when your luck may end."        (Definitely a good foreshadowing spot here)

      “Ha! I don’t need luck!”

I thank Glis for his wise council and help in my endeavor. As I start to leave the tavern through its wooden door, I suddenly hear shouting from behind the smaller side of the counter.

(END of chapter 3)

Author's Note

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