Fanaxia: Bystanders

"Remind me why we're walking," said Ferd, tall and blond and broad-shouldered in his neat clothing and polished armor.

"Because we can't afford horses," said Shiggae, who was taller than Ferd but thin, and wore daggers at his belt. His clothes were rumpled and sloppy, and the armor he wore over them was stained in a dozen places. A rangy, equally-rumpled hound walked at his side.

"Remind me why we can't afford horses?" said Ferd

"Guys," said Shiggae, "That wasn't my fault!"

The sorceress Dephna, tall and slim and beautiful, immaculately dressed despite the near-constant rain, sighed. "Really? It wasn't your fault that you and your dog snuck downstairs in the middle of the night, ate everything in the storeroom, and nearly burned the inn down while trying to cook?"

"Scouty and I were hungry," Shiggae protested. "What were we supposed to do?"

The hound huffed under its breath, sounding almost as if it were speaking words of agreement.

"Did you consider waiting until morning?" asked Valme, taking off her glasses and wiping them dry again. The rain immediately splattered them again, and she scowled momentarily up at the sky. Her hair was red and cut in a bob, spreading out just above the high collar of her robe.

Thunder rumbled, and Valme abruptly stopped walking.

Two steps ahead, Dephna turned back. "Valme?"

Valme was still looking up at the sky. "Did you see that?"

Ferd stopped and turned to look at her, then looked up at the sky. "What did you see?"

Valme gestured vaguely. "It looked like... the glowing outline of a dragon, up in the air."

Ferd's eyes widened. "A mystery! We should investigate."

"Aww, do we have to?" Shiggae's response was expected, and the hound at his side was also shaking its head.

"The ghostly image of a dragon in the sky?" asked Ferd. "We need to check this out."

Then, suddenly, the dragon was there: huge, malevolent, with gleaming white scales. They watched as a series of golden arrows slammed into its side, and it twisted in the air, snarling.

The hound made a sound like, "Rut-ro," and Shiggae nodded in agreement. "All right, we investigated, and that's a real dragon and it's big and angry and if it notices us we're all going to die."

Valme blinked behind her glasses. "I hate to say this, but for once I have to agree with Shiggae. A dragon who survives to that age is a cunning, cautious beast. If it's fighting something here, we should be... somewhere else."

She looked around to see what the others thought, and found that Shiggae and Scouty were already gone; she could see them, barely, dodging through the trees in a direct line away from the dragon. Dephna was nodding, and met Valme's eyes. "I'm too pretty to let myself get eaten by a dragon."

Ferd turned to them. "We should still investigate," he said stubbornly, but then he shook his head and added: "...but maybe after the dragon has gone."