My eyes widened in surprise, but I grinned and gave the baby dragon a light hug. “You’re welcome. Please just call me Finn. Uh, your name is a mouthful, so can we shorten it to something?”

  Harper blinked and looked at the hatchling. She opened her mouth as if to ask what was going on, but I quickly held up my hand. Thyssa’Vessera looked thoughtful, or felt thoughtful in my mind, for a moment. ‘I don’t like Thyssa. Vessera is a little better. Sort of. Maybe Vessa? Yes, I really like Vessa! Call me Vessa!’ the hatchling decided excitedly before hopping up and down in my lap.

  I laughed at her enthusiasm. “Vessa it is! Well, Vessa, I’m happy to finally be able to refer to you as more than a baby dragon! You speak pretty well for one so young,” I chuckled.

  “Is she talking to you in your mind?” asked Harper slowly.

  Vessa turned to her and chirped happily.

  “Oh. And your name is Vessa?” Harper asked.

  Vessa chirped happily and hopped up on the table lightly, walking over to Harper.

  “I like it. Vessa’s a pretty name,” Harper said, giving Vessa’s head a rub.

  “She says thank you. For both the rubs and your compliment,” I said. This is going to be somewhat awkward, I thought.

  ‘I can’t talk to her, Finn. And until I can talk out loud, this is what I can do. And I’m not young,’ she thought petulantly. ‘My egg was laid over two hundred years ago! I’ve been awake for a long time.’ Vessa replied indignantly.

  That changed my view of the little dragon significantly. “Right. So, we have a couple of problems. I have this quest, dealing with this riddle, and I’m supposed to take you to a frozen night in lace or something. Are you okay with that? I really know nothing about where that might be or how to get there. Also, Harper and I have to do something before that.”

  A purring noise came from Vessa’s chest as Harper gave her a good scratch. ‘Something about having to avenge your friend?’ she replied before getting distracted by Harper’s focusing her attentions on the hatchling’s back. ‘Oh, right there. Yes. Right between the wings. Ahh,’ her thought trailed off.

  She sounded so young in my head, except for her vocabulary. But I remembered her frolicking in the forest earlier in the day, so I wondered what her mental age was. My only comparison was my little brother, Sean. When he was little, like 4 or 5, he did his best to talk like me, but only to a certain extent. He was so much more excited about stuff and preferred simpler words at times. That did change, but mostly when he started reading everything he could get his hands on.

  With her in my head, and not knowing what she could see there, it wasn’t difficult to surmise her focus. “What do you say, Vessa? Are you willing to join us on this quest and help us figure out the riddle?” I asked.

  She sniffed Harper’s glass of wine and pulled back from it in disgust. ‘Ugh! How can you drink that?’ she asked in my mind. ‘Of course I’ll go with you! You saved me and fed me and took care of me. I don’t want to be alone again.’

  She rushed across the table and onto my chest with a sad meep. I hugged her to me, not liking the fear and the desperate need to be safe in her thoughts. There was no way I was going to leave her behind. Not only did I need her to get the riddle solved, but I felt extremely protective of the little dragon. I couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning anyone again.

  Again? Where did that come from? I thought, confused. But before I could explore that deeper, our friendly neighborhood waitress appeared.

  “Oh, she’s just so adorable! Does she need any more milk or meat? And do you two need more wine?” she asked, picking up the three empty wine bottles.

  Harper looked at her glass and nodded. “Thanks, Anya. Two more bottles should do it. Do you want any more to eat, Vessa?”

  Vessa twisted in my arms and hopped, looking at the waitress. ‘Yes, more meat and milk! Please!’ the hatchling thought with several excited vocal chirps.

  “And I’ll take that as a yes,” Anya said with a laugh. “I’ll be right back with your wine and a lovely snack for your lovely dragonkin!”

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  ‘I like her. She’s nice,’ Vessa said in my head. I laughed and nodded in agreement.

  As the waitress walked away, the Voice finally weighed in on the quest. ‘Finn the Mage has — against all odds, and his lack of any mental or physical ability — completed the quest Track The Beast! Congratulations are in order, as you’ve surprised even me! I didn’t think you had it in you. Because of your actions, there has been a slight increase in Functionality and quest rewards are now available! A new Quest is available to you. As a bonus, Finn the Mage, I will provide an explanation of the quest in poetic verse: With the beast in tow, you must find the frozen night shrouded in lace. Alas, information is lacking and must be found, or else you will fail in disgrace!’

  “Really, Voice? More doggerel?” I grumbled. “Thanks, I guess.”

  “I heard the first part in my head about the quest being complete. Did all of us hear it?” Harper said.

  “I don’t know. Did you hear the Voice insulting me?” I countered.

  “No, but I wish I had. The way you tell it sounds hilarious!”

  Later, I carried the baby dragon, her belly bulging, up the stairs in my arms. She was getting heavier, but I could still carry her with ease. I was going to have to teach her to hunt or something, as she was already eating enough for two 10-year-olds. I despaired at the thought of having to deal with any further increases in appetite.

  Harper followed up behind me with a half-finished bottle of wine and another unopened bottle. Since we had the same adjoining rooms as last time, it was not difficult to find our way. Which was a damn sight better than it could have been. The two of us, being drunk, would have gotten lost otherwise.

  “Let’s finish off this wine, cause we need to plan,” Harper said unsteadily.

  I nodded. “Vessa’s out. I think as long as we’re not too loud, she should stay that way,” I agreed. I carefully laid the sleeping dragon on my bed, where she curled up without waking. She made some light meeping noises, and I smiled.

  Harper and I sat down in the chairs situated on the opposite side of the room. Harper handed me my glass, and I took a large sip from it. “I don’t know why the quest completed when it did, Finn. But now we need to figure out how to do the second part and deal with the Steel Falcons once and for all,” Harper stated.

  “I almost wonder if it had to do with what Vessa answered,” I mused.

  “Yeah, what did she say to you before rushing to you like that?”

  “She basically said that since I had been there for her and saved her, she wanted to stay with me. It sounded as if she had been alone for a very long time. Her egg was laid over two centuries ago, and she was aware and alone for a good part of that time. I don’t know why she didn’t hatch until recently,” I replied.

  “Wait, what do you mean? She’s like a centuries-old baby? Oh God, she must have been so sad. That’s bogus.”

  “What the hell is bogus?”

  Harper smiled. “My Valley Girl is coming out again, sorry. It means bad or horrible. Not good at all,” she replied. She frowned over at the sleeping hatchling. “Poor thing, having to be alone all that time and then find her mom like that,” she said.

  I could only imagine how sad she had been. And then to be found and almost killed, followed by a whirlwind tour of the caverns and meeting all those kobolds? I don’t know how she handled it. I would just have to keep an eye on her.

  “What’s your feeling about going after Juan’s body?” I asked, pulling myself back to the focus of our discussion.

  “Not without backup. Even with you getting stronger, I think we are going to need help to retrieve him. We’ll need to head back to the Allied Army. Maybe the Council will allow us the units to get in and out without casualties. If nothing else, the Council did respect Juan.”

  “I don’t want to deal with them anymore if we can avoid it. A bunch of assholes, if you ask me.” I replied angrily. “We both know Chairman Snit or Stin wants to lock me up and lose the key.”

  Harper grunted and emptied her glass. “We can’t do it by ourselves, Finn. And they might be our only avenue to honor Juan’s life.”

  “Fine. To honor Juan’s life.”

  I knew she was right. But after my last encounter with the Council, I had little faith that it wouldn’t go just as badly. Or even worse for me. I was a lot more comfortable with my abilities and had become too comfortable killing people when necessary. Neither of which would help me at all. And she said that we would need their help to get down into the chasm.

  Harper sighed and opened the other bottle of wine. “This is just one of the things we need to do. Because then we need to track down every Steel Falcon,” she admonished.

  I nodded. It was possible the units from the Allied Army would help track down the remnants of the Steel Falcon Company afterwards, too.

  I handed my glass to her for a refill and smiled when she handed it back. “There’s still the matter of the quest. We need information. This time, I don’t have a blinking dot on my map showing us where to go,” I said, swirling the wine in my glass.

  Harper tapped her glass with a fingernail, her eyes distant. “Hmmm, that’s a problem. I suggest we start with Eric the Wizard in Alsiger before going over the mountains,” she replied.

  “Alright. We’ll return to Alsiger. That’ll give us a chance to let them know about the Shrindaba thing in the sewers. And about Juan.”

  Harper raised her glass, with a small amount of wine sloshing out. “To Juan,” she announced.

  “To Juan,” I agreed. My voice broke a little, yet I covered it up by draining my glass. The loss felt fresher since the demon was not around. Like losing my dad all over again. “He was a good man, taking so many of us under his wing. May we all make him proud.”

  Not long after, Harper left, and I crawled into bed. A sleepy Vessa re-situated herself, curling up against me. The next day was going to be one of hard travel. Maybe we could buy some horses. I had a moment of sadness, missing my last horse, GB, before drifting off.