Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

"She'll get hungry before long. Either she'll melt her way through the ice, or she'll dig herself a tunnel through the ground."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Turac sighed, "I think I might swallow her if she's given outsiders a tunnel through the ice straight to my treasure."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Please don't. You don't know where she's been."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"If she becomes responsible for the loss of my treasure, I know where's she going," Turac replied.

"If you didn't want that risk, you shouldn't have frozen the lake with her in it," Siege pointed out, "Just get her some fruit, she'll be too drunk trying to play with Raine to-"

"Do you recall when she destroyed mom's curio hutch?"

"Fair."

 

[Fangs9090]

Nidia raised an eyebrow. "Wait, fruit?"

Roy nodded. "Shuffle's metabolism is incredibly fast, to the point that fruits ferment as she digests them. As such, she's not allowed to eat too many fruits or drink too much juice at a time. Otherwise, she gets drunk. And that's trouble no one wants to deal with."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"That's not how metabolism works!", Sinach objected, "Fruit ferments as sugars break down over time!"

"Well fruit in her stomach turns to alcohol, and drunk shuffle is a disaster," Siege shrugged. "She's funny to look at, though."

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy glanced down as he nodded, trying to hide a smile. "I'll admit, it is an amusing sight at first, watching her try to get around."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"She is not nearly as difficult when drunk as our mother is, however," Turac shook his head with a rueful grin, "I don't know how she can move so fast, and Poli can't even tell what happened most of the time."

"Tell me about it," Siege grumbled, looking down.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy shook his head. "Let's not revisit that event..."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"That event?", Siege looked incredulous, "They got drunk twice a month! Or were you too busy with your tutor to know what was going on?"

"Oh, dear," Turac nudged Nidia out of hammer range and took a few steps back himself. "You don't want to get between them when they fight.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy looked over. "Oh, was it that often? Hm, yes, I suppose becoming intelligent did take up my time. But you've had plenty of free time, haven't you?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"No, actually, I didn't!", Siege snapped, "Because guess who had to help Nyah clean up all the bottles!" Among other reasons Siege never got to do the things she wanted to after their parents went on date night.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Well, excuse me for being preoccupied ahead of time."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Excuse me for being around to do chores!" The group had stopped moving now, as the twins' faces were inches apart for their shouting match.

"Okay, that's enough," Turac reached over to bonk the twins' foreheads against each other, "Cool it, or I'll cool you both."

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy stepped stepped back and rubbed his forehead before he just turned to keep on walking.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Asshole," Siege grumbled as she rubbed her head, "If you just put a bruise-"

"Siege," Turac glared at Siege with glowing green eyes, "If you don't calm down for five minutes, I'm going to freeze you and you hang out in my treasure stomach until you calm down." That shut Siege up and she kept walking. Turac looked around the group to illustrate that that went for everyone trying to make trouble where there didn't need to be any, and kept walking.

 

[Fangs9090]

Nidia raised her hands in a "not me" gesture, and Emilia glanced away, as they all kept on walking in silence.


After a few more hours of walking, the capital came into sight. It was a walled city, and the most visible part was the castle towering above it all.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"So that's the capital," Siege raised an eyebrow, "Sturdy walls."

"Noisy," Jalin muttered, "I can hear it from here." It wasn't as bad as Sunset Port, but it was still pretty loud at this hour.

 

[Fangs9090]

Katsuo looked at Jalin. "Do you need to stop to remove your stones?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"No, I will bear it," Jalin sighed, "With luck, we will not be in this city for very long, anyway."

"Should I provide some gold?", Turac asked the twins.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy looked over at Turac. "Will you clean it before handing it to us?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Of course," Turac raised an eyebrow, "Believe it or not, I am not a savage." Like any dragon, Turac took gold seriously.

 

[Fangs9090]

“Good. Let’s save it for when we need it though.”

Emilia looked over as she dismissed Arva. “I hope getting rooms doesn’t cost more in a capital city.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"We're gonna need income," Jalin agreed. "I would rather not rely on charity." As they approached the gates, the city guard watched them. Although humans, halflings, dwarves, and beastkin alike formed the guard, they all wore the same uniform, simple armor that was cheap to mass-produce, painted and stamped to the city's flag's colors and the kingdom's crest embossed on their shields. As with many large, walled cities, there was a line to get in, as cargo was checked and passers by were inspected to ensure that anyone presently wanted for crimes would not make it past the gate, in or out of the city.

"We might have a problem," Siege said.

 

[Fangs9090]

Katsuo nodded. “They are checking faces...”

Roy glanced around. “That complicates things...”