A Humidity Dragon Original story, The Castle Vrulcul.

 C.2023 by Humidity Dragon. Some art is made by a.i. art app,        and some is made by the author of this blog.

This story was written in the beginnings of October.

            

Like stories about dragons? This blog has got lots of other fantasy themed stories including comic books being drawn!  A lot of them about dragons, like this dragon here! One of them is the story of Traxt. Traxt is his name, and he's got a brand new gig.
                                                               

The castle Vrulcul. Book one of four.                           

Their boat cracked with sound as it was pushed off the shallow salt by the two of them.with the bag cumbersome against her back Frildet jumped in landing painfully, if she could feel anything but the rush of finally casting off. It  bobbed in the darkness, Vruldet's jeans soaked as she walked to the small vessel with big expectations. Frildet helped the other woman into the boat with a playfully angry pull and Vruldet landed with her hair in her mouth and a middle finger in the face of the one who "helped" her. Both of them laughed while grabbing a hand carved oar. It was another hot night, hot enough to pull bullets from their foreheads. The sky was surging with humidity, and the water was warm with the heat of the gone day. It was cloudy and the lights from the shore were still visible and orange even as they could feel their boat pick up a line from the current.  The work from rowing made them thick with sweat. The waves were sturdy, the rhythm of the ocean was tandem with the rowing. Frildet held up a bottle of water and chugged it. There was a wind, and Frildet burped, breaking the silence. "Notice that?" Vruldet took a break from rowing without realizing. "Yeah." 

"That's the channel that's gonna take us from this whole thing!" Vruldet took a moment to feel the wet breeze. "Yeah," she said again between rowing, "But how long?" Fridt crushed the bottle and put it in another bag. "Can't estimate." She did answer honestly. "Never ventured to a dragon's castle before, and no one else ever did either. You can't find it on an online map or gps." Vruldet accepted the truth from the newest person she could trust. This other woman always had a way of not candy coating things without being proud of being blunt. Vruldet knew that the best thing they could do was keep rowing at a responsible pace and be glad their plan was cast off.

Betwixt the sea and the glow of the cell phone on the boat floor, there was the smear of orange. It was society getting farther and farther away. The boat moaned with the bobs of the waves. Frilde's phone

soon became the only light source in the humid mist.  The clouds from far away were a creamy tangerine cast against the deepening black. The numbers on the phone changed and went by as fast as their heartbeats. With every push of the oars their dreams were getting closer as the dock had been sunk down out of their vision.  She didn't need to say it, Frildet could tell. Vruldet exhaled. There was a rhythm to her rowing, just as there was a rhythm to her breathing. There was a rhythm to the agonizing humid wind spurts in their faces, an there was a heartbeat to the waves of the ocean. Being out in a sea they saw on unreadable graphs and professional numbers that were dotted on the maps they didn't understand, they only went by what they could. The sound.

 "Were beating time!" Fruldet said not a single break in her voice. "We'll be there in a day I'm guessing. If the current'll be nice!" She laughed. Vruldet curled on the boats bottom getting one more look at the phone. They had been out for hours, and still had plenty of darkness to sail through. Fruldet could keep up where Vruldt left off. The boat was bumping and so were their belongings in it, Vruldet slept by quiet comphort of the sound of the waves and the chunky exhales of Frildet.      

 All of it, gone.  The two had their nails dug into the drifting ply too grimm to even find the strength to whimper or be angry. Side by side, they accepted their new role to Bob in the black waters, beyond any signal from a phone tower, or jurisdiction of any helicopter. The two out there were all they had to show for their from now on.               As the ocean churned the one woman holding on to the drift plank bleated with regret, and welting sorrow. The rain was sideways and erased most of her cries that became more and more half hearted at her realistaion. Everything had been carried in any direction.She gutterally gave a groan of sad frustration, and then let her neck go stiff. Her back was rigid, and her fingers locked into the only piece of the boat they had left.  They bobbed holding swollen fingers onto the wood in silence while being threaded through by the cutting slashes of rain. With rain falling anywhere but linear Frildet never turned to the shivering woman next to her but said, "Don't make noise. You'll lose your strength when we get to the shore.".                 

The two were floating far away from the rain and the wind. All thunder became muffed and the strobes of lightning less frequent. The sky was still black and thick with summer clouds. They were in the water so long, they could barley notice the feeling of rising then falling with every weakening wave. Vruldet's stomach was butterflying and plunging. She was begining to let her mind wonder into the encompassing matter of fact: Frildet was going mad. She did not move, she didn't talk. When they heard the storm  starting to travel farther the direction that they came from, she told Vruldet to kick her legs. The ocean would lead them to the shore, should they try to fight the chance to get of track by an opposing current.

But, Frildet didn't kick to fight the careening waves, little as they had gotten. She didn't even move her legs to stay afloat. She did nothing. The rings around her eyes would have made her face look hollow, if not for the un-natural air she was retaining in her cheeks. It was almost as if she was rebelling against fact! Holding her breath to spite the lazy current that Vruldet was begining to doubt they were still in. Vruldet would steal a few mournful glances and held back chokes each time. Frildet was blowing up her face like a balloon for what reason? Anger wouldn't change the fact that they were as good as the softening drift wood they were peeling apart each day.           The purple structure was covered in miniature wires and screws. It was a discombobulating bouyant cage in the deep black water, and it moved too cork like to be so thick in some of its bottom areas. Frildet's withering arm caught onto one of the connecting metal branches and the two's eyes flickered with silent celebration! They couldn't shout more than two words to call a sentence. They just didn't have the energy for it. But what Vruldet could do was try to unhook the large shining swimmer covered in a sheet of popping scales. Being in the sea so long was begining to break down their skin and Vruldet could tell it being caught on the hooks of this purple device.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Guardtheth was a hulking dragon, covered in armor, denty in some areas. His hands devoured his container of liquid. Billtheth on the other set of scales was a real sloop of a dragon. Unlike the two others whoose tails would barley touch the ground, and could easily pass as another appendage. He used his tail to hold the drink to his snout while he stretched. Guardtheth's jagged and spined tail was much too thick to be used to hold things, infact,if anything it was only used for balancing himself. Hrogtheth, the one who was always cloaked in his robes was the median of the two. He was no boulder of a dragon, but neither was he as flexible. Covered in traditional robes though, he was the more mysterious of the others.  But when he wasn't talking, he was snout deep in one of the books he carried on his back, in his own sack of belongings. Hrogtheth, one book in hand and bottle in the other took a sip, and then placed it back in his back-sack. His pupils could be traced as they read the book's pages. Vruldet was breathing silently, but still laboriousley and again caught her eyes involuntarily making a jump to the other woman beside her, sitting tied legged in the grass, her eyes were off to the meadow and for once, her face was just a face.

Nothing behind it, no calaculating, no planning, not thinking about their next destination, her eyes jumping to take in the surroundings, there wasn't anything to the unmoving mouth, the relaxed eyes, or the un-twitching nose. Vruldet could feel her insides become hot and her stomach began to trot. Had the madness of greif taken the woman who already finished the drink? Frildet's hands were to the grass. Vruldet could make out every welt. It was a sickening and sinking shame falling to the bottom of her guts to see. Frildet's bright sparkling cheeks were one of the ways Vruldt could read her.

Vruldet should have been helped up, but made sure she matched time with silent Frildet, who seemed to finally break out of her mental flat-line. Billteth swallowed one last gulp of the beverage and placed the re-usable containment system in one of his hidden holsters. The jovial drake burped up a single before turning to Guardtheth, with only one arm slinking the sword from his back. Vruldet couldn't help but cringe at the barley amount of effort he had put into unsheathing it. That broad sword was as wide as her or Frildet.

 It has a deep bridge to its blade, and tendrils of iron. The dragon Guardtheth held it between the ground and clouds, before making his decision. He walked and the other two drake followed. Vruldet moved her feet not without turning to Frildet who silently bent her locked legs. The two were smartly shoulder to shoulder, hair trailing beside each other's backs.                                           They never said it, but having these two around really changed up the whole dragon dynamic. They hoped it was for the best! Billtheth stayed behind Hrogtheth who had his leather book about. He would walk with his snout either to the ground or to the air. His nostrils would dilate and he would sniff the bark of a tree, or write whenever he saw a flower or other sort of vegetation. It didn't take a ten year fluid mechanic degree to figure it out. He was documenting their finds and journey.                                                                           Billtheth would circle above them and fly for a glide or two then come back down. Vruldet realised it was hard for him to stay still. Walking was discipline for a sloop of a dragon like himself. He would take a few minutes of steps, then take a flight on a few movements of his wings then dip back down into the grass.                                                                                                          Vruldet's stomach gurgled with anger. Her cupids bow was pressed together in a pout. She could feel her heart rate slowly rise. She walked with clenched fists. 

Both of the girls woke up to a thinning sunlight, and weather mild enough to cause a small shiver of goosebumps. Despite being by the water, there was no humidity, there were only the sounds of woodland birds. It was a backdrop too beutiful to be seen from the bleak views from any of the skyscrapers, and it was too expensive a view for anyone who didn't sleep at the top of those crampt luxury time-shares, yet here they were finally able to enjoy the same thing they'de thought that was  unobtainable for their time. And they hated it. 

Under the purpling sky slowly rippling into blue,  Frildet smacked her face in a very thinly intelleigent attempt to stop a mosquito from drinking the juice out of her face. The other woman, standing under the long leaves of kelly was studying the trees for a snack, but under the shade of the forrest there nothing but more cold. Her friend's body was a sheet of knots, red splotches, and insect bites that sucked her skin to "scales."  Frildet was gritting her teeth scratching her back on a tree.

"I still say we shoulda' tried to see if they had more fish. They were hidin' it." Vruld's hair soaked from the dew above her head, as opposed to Frildet who was caked in small morsels of chipping dirt and blood. "We can't afford to chance what we've been handed." She answered, her waste-lenght hair swaying from her movement on the Gator backed bark "We gotta play this with brains. Remember, those guys toasted our fish for us last night, they didn't have to do that."

She reminded her impatient friend who was wringing her sparkling dew soaked hair. "We're gettin' a free tour to this kingdom, and bi-oh-lah, we meet that dragon king and we're set for until we've got snow in our hair." Now, rising from the bark of the tree Fril said, "Just wait. We'll get there!" She clutched her stomach as a low noise congregated with it's pangs. These two were starving. A woosh of dizziness was momentarily stabilized by Frildet using the tree to put her weight on. Vruldet rubbed her chipping nail polished fingers over her forehead to calm the boldening ache. It was getting harder to ignore their body's discontent. They needed food, not chunks of fish and slices of fruits with a semi solid mass  of water for flesh. The sounds of the woods we're picking up. And so was the breeze. The dew smothered forest was finally moving to a warmer temperature even if it was only feelable by a few whiskers of light able to shine through the  tree's leaves.  There was nothing worse than wet shoes. Vruldet's flats were soaked to the velvet as was Frildet's boots rotted from clumps of grass and soil. On no food, sleeping in hungry bugs, and the rising pain of not knowing this environment, it took them both alot to stiffen the facial twitches. And it took Vruldet's vocal chords th strain of pulling a loaded train just to not scream any words that got her fired from her last several jobs. They both took longer to process the fact that everything was gone. 

The fire, the plates, the dragons. They were gone. But after a few irking forced breezes, they saw less than a few feet off the Kelly, there was the dragon who went out of his way to make their fish able to be eaten. It was Billtheth. "There you two are!" He rolled his eyes in relief and exhaled. Before any of them could ask  him why he was so caught up with worry, the wyvern's words flattened anything they were about to say. "I got 'em!"  calling over his beating shoulder. The thunk of metal clinging together announced Guardtheth, carrying tools in his clenched hands. He gobbled the two in sight only, tracing them before being fine with what they looked like. They could see he had a lot to say, but kept every word between his snout. 

The smell of growing vegetation and rock slowly being melted into clay by salt-water turned into a warm comphorter of hot foods, in both savor and sweetness. There was a hoard of everything, each in an organzied trove. There were jewls, bowls, books, rags, smaller chippings of rocks, and scrolls litered in each designation. It was like a super-store that had been left to rot in bankrupcy, yet everything was still edible.

Everything, everything was as freshly made as the second it had been brought back to this weird storage. After biting by on small squares of salmon, roasted nuts, a few edible wooden twigs, and minows these two women couldn't believe the luck of their stomachs. The encroached like two quadre-legged beasts with fangs, as if to sneak up on the sterile and discarded everything. It was a mass several feet deep, if they were stupid enough to step into it all with their shoes on.

Instead, they crouched and sprung! Their arms flailing into the hill of food and trinkets, but digging for the warmth of something to eat. Spit flowing from the corners of their lips and gore all over their hands, they did the most human thing they've ever done. They ate faster than they ever ate. When they realised they were able to speak again they toasted each other with one of the tacky glasses nestled in the pile.  The pocket stuffing became savage. Their chewing was rageful, their fingers sore from grabbing clumps with force.

This laying superstore that had everything under everything. Vruldet found tape and mended their bag, Frildet found a sparkling fork with gold and lilac designs to scarf the creme cheese bun she was drooling about.   

The marble on the ground vibrated from the angry growl in the throat of this dragon, not wasting time to use any of his fouir legs to chase the girls, Vruldt still hanging on to the warm wrapped pie. "This 'place' is my castle!" He said, so close to the women they could feel his singe on the back of their hair. "It was my own place to scatter my own armies! It was where the dragons I ordered dedicated every scale and wing to my rule, to my side, to my----" He stopped when the two friends collided into each other after trying to go different directions since he could've bit them both if he wanted to. 

With their eyes spinning, and heads aching, they smelled the smoke of the angry guarding dragon, and held onto each other the second they did! "This castle was once the pinnacle of port," This dragon said with a seeth of confidence. "Or at least," he took a breath, one of humility. "It had been.....hundreds of years ago." The dragon exhaled, and suddenly the castle rooms didn't seem so big. The walls didn't seem so much to swallow everything above the tile, and suddenly every sound in the room wasn't so sysmic. Vruldet noticed this first, since she was the first to open her eyes.

There in the place of the dragon, unclothed and splayed at the wing was another dragon. Still dull in color, but dressed in squares that where chipping away. A brassed head design at his scales, and two eyes that were milky instead of glowing. He walked on two, instead of quadruple legs, and his breath was still hot, but not visible. He extended his claws with the rings around them to a cringing two humans, and they could see his teeth in the reflection of gems. "This was the Castle of Vrulcul." They realised, this dragon was introducing himself. Despite his eyes being covered in cream he could see the shake of them.

"It's not everyday this castle gets intruders," he explained. "It's not even been a few centuries. That's not something this old king ever thought he'd see, so long as there'd be wind in the air."  The two realised they were caught, in the fly trap and also in the grip of each other. They awkwardly un viced themselves from each other and rose to try to explain why they "weren't" about to scarf down a covet of exotic cakes and stuff their pockets with ribbons and spools. Vruldt, had a fat tounge that soaked up the saliva in her mouth when she tried to farm the spit to form words, so as usual, it was up to Fril she with the a small spot of ink on her tounge to write out smoothly and precisley the reason why they both were of no qualms to becoming theives.

"You're scent dosen't reach my nose," The king observed. "And you both smell awfully warm to the outisde to be dragons." A sharp pang of panic. Fril, stepped forward as the king could now smell even better both their oils. "We're not introders, Mr. Vrucul." She insisted, "We....we where only guarding your hoard! We're here because we wanted to answer your ad!"  The king dressed in scattered rags paused. "My ad?" Both women felt their stomachs implode. "Yeah, we saw it on our phone....." This was when the dragon grew slowly and the heavy coats on his shoulders sway as he was looking down. "Which ad?"

With a trembling arm, Frildet held up her phone with a smile and sweat on her lip. "This one! The one that says you needed some guards, for your castle!"  The two friends couldn't decide whether or not it was time to sigh when he lowered his wings again. "Oh yes, that one! Oh!" He laughed retracting the wings. "My castle's falling apart, it's hard to keep track with the things I've posted espechially without my royal secretary." his robes danced and smoke came from his nostrils. So hearty was his chuckling that his nostrils opened up, even. Both Fril and Vrudlet wondered if he could see  their lips being bitten. A long deep withdrawl came from the throat of the king, as he collected his breaths from his belly laught. 

"Well," His spine straightened in the sounds of dripping water in the background of the stone. "It's not enough to say we've got a real and worthy a start, but as of now, I've got two of my best guards, right here!" So quick was his obvious newfound spring that his wings exteneded. "What clan names do your fathers carry?" The two looked at each other before realising what the rusted crown wearing guy meant. "We're from far," Vruldt found her courage. "But neither of us belong to any clan,  we have our own names. I'm Vruldet, and that means....Green Grass!" Silently impressed with her friend's improvisational tall-tale, Fril grabbed her dress and curtseyed. "And I'm Frildet, that means flowers that grow sparsley on a country side." 

The Dragon king stood there for a moment. Maybe he was taking a silent second to say  both names non verbally, maybe he was trying to think where those kinds of names could come from, or maybe he smealt the fat b.s. they just spun into yarn. "Vruldet and Frildet....." He repeated both of their names slowly. Clearly he never had to say any of those made up sounds before. ".....My newest warriors!" They jumped shuddering only a fraction of a millisecond, as he was now Pointing his claw to the mossy ceiling. "Alright men, you are free to explore the castle and eat to the brim. I expect to see you both here before the first band of sunlight tommorow. Do I make myself transparent?" He let out one more steamy breath through his nostrils. 

The two said in unison to the hoarse voiced dragon infront of them, "Yes Sir, Mr. King Vrulcul Sir." And when they're said that, everything they're ever hoped for finally painted all of itself before their eyes. A strange crack of shine was visible behind the film of the elder King's eyes and then a little twitch at the crook of his wing, a subtle smile but one thousands of stories came and went on the face of the dragon who let out small gurgles as most dragons do.  It had been too long since he heard anyone call him that." First morrow." He reminded them with his coats dragging on the ground where the grass grew under the wet ceiling. "Yes Sir," "Yes King Vrulcul." 

This time their answers where awkward, but together no less. They both watched with eyes like cautious bowling balls as he walked to the nearest corner and turned.  Vruldet was bound in a tight tangle unsettled  And how could any of her muscles unspring with four hours of sleep? She hadnt  never checked out of her hyper thoughts or fears even with her mascara caking as her brain shut down halfways. the sky began to dampen with the melon colored splosh of the morning. There was only the amplified wind blowing from the cool stones of the walls and ground. It wasn't real sleeping conditions these two's kind evolved to tolerate. Vruldet convulsed and instinctively reached her hand in the dark.  Her insides twisted into balloon animal butterflies, she heard the breathy raspiness of Frilder who had her back to the large opening in the wall.

It wasn't audible, but there was a sigh of gratitude that left the lungs of Frildet. They both believed they were too old to admit it, but they were grateful for each-other's silent bond to stay by each other in this draft hungry castle, that more resembled a cavern being swallowed by scattered rock. By the coarse-ness of Fril's voice, Vruldt knew that she'd never went to bed. Fril, while Vruldt was tense on the ground never reaching the dream sequence of rapid eye motion, had kept herself enetertained with sparse moments of internet searching.

Her phone was already drooping at a half charge. Moderation wasn't something Fril would understand, yet there was something about being so far away from what they ran from that would be the yard-stick to instill the concept. She knew she had to make what electricity she had last. They had to be high from the cliffs of the sea. Neither of them could hear the ocean anymore. Vruldt was able to spring from the ground and walk towards the chisled wall where the salty draft was pooling inside.

"How long 'til you think the sun'll be out?" Fril swallowed to stifle a yawn. "Not long." She answered, her vocal chords vibrating together felt like two sheets of sand-paper. "You think," "He might be." Fril cut off Vruldet. And of coarse they both knew that Fril was right. The old king probably barley slept himself. Two new guards to his castle, the first ones of hundreds of years. They saw the fires in his eye leap at the sound of being called King. He had to be awake. Where? Anyone's guess was valid, but was he was up.

At least now, they could both distinguish the dark of the concrete and the sky slowly opening its eyes. The grey night here was giving birth to a wound colored sun-rise. The sea, was acting as some sort of foamy guaze to cleanse the oozing. There were the calls of gulls in the background of hurrying waves. "Must be 'raini' today." Fril concluded, sniffing the air. Water here acted differently. The sea looked dark, more tar than water. Waves were lazy and looked like they were spread with a butterknife rather than curling barrels. 

Windows in Vrulcul's castle were round triangles, and each one had a modest platform with a raised porch, followed by stone balconies. They wouldn't move from the area they slept, but they did venture down the decaying corners. The sun was doing it's best to make a showing appereance. Like a preformer, arriving slowly leaving citizens to want more. Frildet put her phone deep into her dress pocket and let her legs take her to feel the morning.

After fighting in one area for several hours it was instinctual to take a few steps forward to the brimming sun's breath. But, there was a consequence for carrying motion without thinking. 

After taking the abuse of the salted air for centuries, the foundation had become insultingly sensitive to any sort of weighted pressure. With a sly crack and the sound of gravel breaking free, Frildet faster than her human senses could break down what it how it happened felt a hot stab run through her throat, the pain presented to sound waves as a scream. In an agonizingly robotic response running only on the needles in her stomach and throbbing in her chest Vruldet reached out after the forward stumbling Frild. They were Falling from the pile of rocks tasting the thick and salty air, gulping on it, not able to shout their terrors.                                                           

The grounds stacked rocks had become spiteful and hungry opening and sharpening to take the women and dice them on the shore. The fall was hundreds of feet and they met with a rubbery sounded landing. "Vruldt? Frildet!" Billtheth!  They came to a stop, but it wasn't really a stop....they were sturdy but it wasn't really sturdy. They were being held, cradled even by the wyvern, Billtheth.  The hot wind slathering their faces was replaced by the repetitive waves of Billtheth's wing. With only one was he able to carry them down the shore where there were only hard volcanic looking soil and rocks in stacks. "I don't like to admit when Guardtheth's right but, he may have been on to something when we all said goodbye to each other."    Slowly he with his free wing gained height in the warming sky. "He said we shouldn't let you guys go without us." 

"We just wanted to see the light of the morning," Frilder told a half truth. "It's our first one here. Why not look at it?" "Not doubtin'" Billtheth reassured. "Just try not to fall mountain height to the ocean, ol' Guard would never stop talkin' bout it."   With a few more deep wing beatings, the wyvern had the two on the solid shore with their bones free from any fatal breaking. "Thank you." For once there weren't any sly circlingsnaround the blatant. Billtheth saved their lives. "Thank you Billtheth." He shook his head peevishly, "Ah stuff your snouts." He denied himself any compliments. "Ya can help me out by getting Guard off my tail. He ain't been able to let down his wings since you guys have found your own shelter. Come visit us at the tavern down in the city. Ya two can do that, huh?" "Sure we can do that!" Frildet answered first followed by the knod of a compressed Vruldet. "But when?" Vruldt asked nipping the heel of Frildt's aquiese. "We're still getting the place right, so it'll have to be tonight I'm sure. That's the best time for a drink right?"  "You guys have only been touched down in the city a day!" Frildet couldn't lid her astoundnent. "Findin' a place ain'tt hard. Never been long as ya have what the owner wants." Of course they had it like that. It figures, Frildet thought. They were all dragons. "Ease the guy's mind," Billtheth asked them in a tone less brash than they heard since he tended his sick colleage.  "Come eat and talk."        "

We'll be there," Vruldet deciding for the both of them. It wasn't like they didn't owe him that half decency. "I never turn down food." She laughed and her plump lips became heart shaped again. The dragon sported a soft look of gratitude and lowered his shoulders. "Good." He agreed. "I'm going to go back to the new place and help the others. Do me a favor and not axe yourselves until the afternoon, hm?" They responded sarcastically to his joke with smiles and watched him spread his wings again for the sky now fully smothered in sunlight.     With just a few deep and bouyant motions he was a slow tens of feet in the sky and fading into the seas horizon. And now was the time for both Friends to look at each other and say a loud. "Vrulcul.".                                                         

 Into the castle and up the winding stones they climbed. The tube of stairs only was lit by small strings of light from the rectangular slats opening feet above the step way. It was far past first light. It's probably not the best thing to do to make a dragon angry by being tardy. It's also not the best thing to do to disobey the one thing some one giving free food and rent less shelter asked one not to do. It wasn't much of produce to say any of that to each other though. They both were sick with disappointment in themselves.   Up the winding cylinder were the thick air waxed. In the grave if the climb, there they couldn't be much farther from the break where the foundation cracked into the other large room where the hoard remain scattered and half eaten by the two still starved.......at the crest of those stairs was a wind scalding. Nothing but orange had splattered over both their visions and they almost fell back should not the reflexes of adrenaline have taken over every beat of their sopping heavy hearts!   As good as they could by the grant of physics they sheetened themselves to the castles walls. The heat was hit enough to make them gag, but more seeing than any temperature a thermometer could measure even by geology standards was the chuckle of the castles' master.

 Vrulcul came round the non sharp walls and his teeth each one revealing itself in his delight. "Punctual men!" He said with his stairs being decorated by his robes. He leaned backwards and with one drop of his diaphragm another fabric of fire cast down the steps and faded into char. With one jump he glided and began his spray, laughing at the two scramble and jump nimble from one step to several and land as graceful as panicking women could. 

The king was enjoying his practice. His wings were barley moving compared to the two using every peice of coordination possible. There were no bricks there were no chandeliers hanging by broken wires there were no foggy paintings, there was only the blur of motion, and the smearing of fire when the king got close enough to the back of them. It was it, this was the place they had no other to run to. They were blocked by a wall of beige clay, no window, no hall, no corridor......only the thickening heat of the dragon making one more inhale, he rocked with laughter. Frildet took in the blazing grin of the dragon, his wings like a blanket, veins and tatter in all, his clothes no better, a light at his eyes and mouth and he smoked. How it stained her eyes with tears. 

He let his throat and eyes go so brilliant, his pupils became engulfed before showing up in his eyes foam and Vruldet held on to her head while the dragon Vrulcul blew a direct fire spread straight at them. To see a dragon laughing, his head moving side to side as he gave the best fire blast he gave in hundreds of years, wasn't something they ever saw. And they still didn't! Vrulcul coughed from the exertion, and dizzily floated down to the cold floor. "Good exercise." He sighed assuming his kingly stance once more and lowering both his bent wings. 

He took a deep drag and was not a shrug enjoying the iron like tinge to the air. "Ah, blood." His eyes returned milked but not without his emberring pupils. "One cannot be a guard of anything without even a drop."  He hawked and snapped his spine back again his teeth leaping from his snout. "But," he warned playfully,"There is more to having guard security than being able to show bleeding. You have both earned a bounty, a bounty worth your weight. At ease men." He sighed with gushes of black smoke finally dissipating into the thirty foot celining. "At ease." The dragon turned on his heel and clicked his feet together like a sprite as he was amused with the game he played.       

 CHAPTER FIVE.                                                    

 The hot air was spread like cream cheese over the wet room. The rock was glowing volcanic in some heights but dingy black in others. Vruldet's fingers were locked onto her arms as she rocked in a self soothing posture. Frildet on the other side of the room angrily held back bile. "He ain't right " she knew. "This might have been a mistake." With the urge to pace the room she carried that to Vruldet who'se hair was stuck to her face in a coat of sweat. Frildet commanded with the calm matter of fact , "We ain't stayin'. We're taking this stuff and headin' to another castle." She held out her hand. "Let's go." Vruldet had to be helped up. Frildet was the only other human being she would ever allow herself to be helped by with contact. "But where----" Once again, the opposite woman cut off her sentence. "The others." She instructed stiffly. "When we meet Billtheth for a drink we promised him, we'll just ask to move in with them."                                        

 The flames gave to black smoke   She took a drag on the foamy beverage and extended her  sleeved arm to the two of them. They fought through an awkward attempt to get to the wooden goblet first, but Frildet made the first drink. It was sweet, it was comphoring, it was easy to crave. A warm and butterfly like feeling was begining to grow in her stomach, and she found herself unable to stifle the clipping giggles that harmonied the female dragon's.      She held her cheeks in her hands as she took back the goblet with her slender clawed fingers, freshly polished. "It's dragon custom to share a drink, but because it's your first real party, Id say you each should have your own experience."She turned and motioned for more cups while more dragons, some hulking with armor and breathing hard with char sat down in every chair or booth.  There was a clamor  in every direction, and the smells of fires and foods rising to the chandeliers. Vruldet took a draft of the creamy foam and felt the tips of her toes barley touch the wooden floor. Her eyes winged, and she was caught by the large hand dangling with chain mail. Guardtheth smiled as he steadied the drunken human. " Guardth----" Vruldet caught herself in a hiccup and couldn't control her laughing.

 "So you two could come to eat," Billtheth said, not wearing any armor just his usual dragon traditional clothing. Billtheth and Wragtheth sat down besides the two girls and waited in chatter for their own starting beverages. Meanwhile Guardtheth gently whispered in the ear of the guzzling dragon maiden, " Thank you for making sure they got here with their skin unscaved." 

He leaned in closer, " But a word of advice, humans should never start drinking without something in their stomachs first." He held out his hand for a shake, and she returned hers. Guardtheth's armor clinked as they both spoke. "I'm Guardtheth, of the Metal makers." She looked the adventurer up and down unimpressed. "Nice to meet you. I am Mygrena of Where the Leaves are dark green." They were both speaking dragon, as not to distract from the two humans sinking with inebriation. They, Hrogtheth and Billtheth were all tied together in a conversation of messy giggles, Hrogtheth looking at them both in amusement and Billtheth who was stealing small glances at the female dragon chugging the sweet liquid in front of Guard. And Billtheth was so bad at. "You two finished off your promise, but ya had some trouble gettin' here." It wasn't a question. "Humans." He muttered fidgeting and looking back in the direction of the waitress usual path. "When the heck we getting our food?" Vruldet leaned on Hrogtheth. "Maybe you should ask!" " Or quit looking back at those two."

 Frildet felt a delighted grin crack across her cheeks full and shiny with alcohol. Billtheth waved his hands in a crazed code to get her to stop talking, but all it did was coax her to make more merry, by making sport of him! "You like her!" She sang. " the important thing is that she lead you two here. But what can I say....." He felt his heart quicken and his eyes become shellacked. "Purple always was my favorite color." Hrogtheth shook his head slowly and rolled his glowing eyes. "So say something to her." Suggested Vruldet. "Quickly." Suggested the other dragon. "Before who ever serves us refuses." Frildet laughed and even that sounded obnoxiously slurred. "You look wasted!" Both humans held onto each other and screamed with sloppy laughing.      They were so melted in each other that they had no time to see Hrogthsth and Billtheth begining to explain their requests to the waitress dragon in front of the table. When Vruldet opened her eyes first she leaped to the front and pointed to the now very embarrassed Billtheth. "Don't mind him, he's in love." She mockingly batted her already cartoonishly long eyelashes. "Yeah, he ain't drunk." Echoed Frildet in a wavinglynteasing tone.

      The confused female wore a smile and knodded. She was decorated for a night of partying herself. A shiny robe of see through fabric made up her sleeves, she wore ribbons and lace about her outfit, and her wings were cautiously tucked away to show off the puffs of her shoulders. Hrogtheth spoke over the two asking her to bring a large animal smoked for himself, a bed of sea weed bed of aquatic shelled animals for Billtheth, and nothing but a large bowl of soup for the two humans to share. The dragon woman again knodded in agreement. The soup would sober them two right serious.

 At least it was an old dragon remedy to rinse the drunk right out of their species, anyway.                                          

 Hrogtheth did his best to drown the high pitched snorts and chunky laughter from them by saying a loud, "Thank you," this time not in the language of dragons to give the two a hint. It didn't work, but one of them stopped laughing. Vruldet's eyes became convex with realization, "Hey Hrog, you gotta tell them to send this back, we ain't got no money!"    Eagerly placing the wooden but very intrecutly carved and traditional bowls of thin strong smelling vegetable soup towards the women, he explained calmly that they didn't need any payment to frequent any dragon establishment. "You shouldn't worry about that." He said firmly. "Remember, you two came here to leave your old life styles behind. It'd be the best thing to do to never mention money by the old standards." Billtheth could finally take a shot of his drink, and he did. He exhaled and followed Hrog. "Old standards." He repeated. 

"Coins, dollars, cards, none of it belongs here. Dragons refuse that type of payment. Infact, those who do try that kinda stuff are either laughed out of the bar or depending who's servin' ya, you'll be ran out." He held his finger to his snout and they both got the gesture. "Money isn't for the modern." 

When in the land of the dragons, you've got to do what dragons do. They don't use money, the two knew they couldn't talk about it. Why? That was something the two women weren't able to try trace about. Their heads where as silty as their vegetable soup. It had a bold and savory taste with crunchy vegetables they knew didn't grow back home. On the side they had an ice cold neutral tasting drink with a fizz to it. Did dragons drink soda? They wondered what their drink, brown and fizzy was made out of. It didnt  taste of any kind of cola. The chandeliers natural fires became warningly bright, the clamor of the armor of the other adventurers was crunchingly loud, the conversations of every smiling customer were all right over the table they shared. Everything was becoming real and sudden, and it was thawing away at their drunkenness.                                                                                                                                  

Vruldet buried her hands in her hair as she was cast into the slow storm of a throbbing headache. The room circled itself in an agonizing tease. They were at high altitude again, they could tell by the blocking of their ears. Frildet woke to a mouth of stringy saliva and a thick coat of dry sweat causing her hair to crunch when she would try to run her hands through it. Always the first one to get up, Frildet's body aches came first and were made worse by her trying to get to her feet. She fell forward, catching herself with one knee to the hard stone. Vruldet felt a half emptiness in her stomach and quickly had it all crash back to her. This was why she swore away from drinking, and Frilder angrily remembered to herself that this was why she rarely drank.  They were both bathing in narsea and gratitude to see each other, verge of gagging and all.    They didn't say it. They just couldn't. Instead they wore grimaces at the light of the window and shivered at the cold of the new morning.                                                                 

Vruldet got to her feet now, but not without swallowing.     
Their visions were blurry, and their eyes were coated in the yellow result of sleeping too long.                                               

The Castle Vrulcul: Part two of four. Does Vrulcul have a daughter? As the season thins into a harsh winter, Frildet and Vruldet discover dragons don't do things so differently from humans back home. They have a holiday they celebrate during the colder months and it's one of their most important. A time to commemorate friends, family and the accomplishments of the new year. And as the holidays catch up to the citythe adventuring bug catches up to Billtheth, Hrogtheth and Guardtheth. The three decide to scale the mountain where food grows out of the ground, a delicacy tasted by few other dragons! And as there would have it, Vrulcul say what ever you want about him, believes in giving his new guards the holiday off. Between falling I'll to a dragon disease and learning the truth as to why Vrulcul's castle is in such crumble, the two women just might finally get to understanding why the king is the way he is! Sequel coming 2024!       New book! Working for a dragon king is the best job Vruldet and Frildet have ever had (and it doesn't even pay real money!) But when the king is after a salty rock to flavor his soup he sends the two to dive the thick dark waters only to be napped by pirates! And not just any.....he is a ruthless swash, his crew and his bird: a flamingo considered a mystic being worshiped by reptiles.