Aspiring Adventurer - Paiko in the Paperverse: Wanderlust - To the Drakan of Caledonia

#56 - Ruler

Your character meets a local ruler. Show how your character reacts-- respectfully, disrespectfully, immediately trying to usurp the ruler’s throne, or something else.

Any adventures Paiko has in other realms shall be titled with "Wanderlust" at the beginning. Featuring Lan (coconut48), Scothy and Scylior (ethiera) - thank you for lending me your amazing characters (and some real cool drakan lore)! ^v^

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Paiko struggled to keep up with the long-legged lupine. “Where. . . are we going?” he huffed, wishing he could set down the wooden chest and continue the journey on all fours. 

“Up to the tavern.” Belania “Lan” Apnos, world-wandering wolf, pointed up the incline to a building nestled in the shelter of the seaside cliffs. “Come on, it isn’t that much farther!”

The drakon put on a burst of speed to catch up with the wolf, treasures and trinkets clinking in the chest as he ran. “Meeting someone important?”

He wasn’t a fan of meeting people, especially strangers in a foreign realm. But Lan was calling the shots. He couldn’t complain.

Lan put her head to one side. “Wasn’t particularly planning on it, but that’s why we have that.” She gestured at the chest Paiko had in his hands. “As a peace offering, just in case.”

“... Am I just the chest-carrier? Is that why you picked me to come?”

The tall wolf smirked and patted Paiko’s head, ruffling the feathers on his hat. “Think what you like. I’m not going to hinder your imagination with my response.”

“Hmph. . . then I like to think I am a good adventurer. And you picked me because I am useful and experienced.”

“Sure, sure. You look at it that way, Paiko.”

The tavern was just ahead of them now. At the bottom of the weathered cliffs, the sound of crashing waves and hissing water drifted up to their ears, a salty spray gracing the atmosphere with a little wild wetness. Paiko felt a tightening around his soul, some mixture of nostalgia and paranoia triggered by the familiar sights, smells, and sounds.

If it hadn’t been for all the plantlife that carpeted most of the visible surface area, Paiko would’ve thought he was back in his old world. Throw in the threat of attack from some huge cat-like predators, and that would enhance the resemblance.

“Hey, don’t be lagging now!” Lan shouted, a good forty feet ahead of him and jogging in place while she beckoned. “I’d like to get a cheap meal before happy hour is over!”

He dragged his attention away from the captivating landscape. “Coming!” 

-

The tavern was warmly lit, crowded with souls and smells and sounds. Immediately Paiko felt the urge to dive under a table and observe from its covered shelter, but he remembered the reason Lan brought him along (or, the reason he told himself she brought him along). 

While Lan strode through the room with a confident, purposeful walk, Paiko carried the treasure chest with a guarded air of importance.

Someone bumped into him from behind, knocking his hat askew so that it flopped over his eyes. Unable to see and unable to fix it without dropping the chest, he stumbled around blindly for a moment until he walked into something solid.

Or someone solid. 

The hat was lifted off his head, then set back on the right way. He stared up at stormy blue-green eyes. His gaze drifted upwards to the man’s white hair, taking in the two horns that swept back on either side of his head. 

Those were very dragon-y characteristics.

“Hevny seen ye ‘ere afore, wee laddie. Ye lost?”

Paiko opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, looking somewhat like a fish out of water, until he finally stammered, “E-excuse me?”

Some of the man’s buddies laughed and hooted, conversing in an accented language spoken too quickly for him to understand. Paiko’s brain spun just trying to keep up with the sound, but he gave up moments later. 

He backed up and tried to duck under a table, and in doing so, accidentally trod on something with his boot. A pained yelp followed by a growl made him freeze in fear, not daring to turn around.

Lan’s long legs appeared in front of him. “Paiko, I turn around for five seconds and you’ve already gotten yourself into trouble?”

The dragon-ish man addressed Lan, unexpectedly switching to understandable English speech. “Oh, is he yours?”

“The fluffy purple half-drakon, not the. . .” Lan peered under the table, eyes wide. “Not the shark wolf critter.”

A shark-wolf was behind him? Oh. . . oh dear. . .

“The sharkwolf? That would be Scylior. He’s my aide-de-camp. Logs minutes for meetings. He doesn’t bite. . . unless you’re a viking.”

Paiko felt certain enough that he wasn’t a viking, so he turned around to face the sharkwolf. “Sorry. For stepping on you.”

Scylior huffed with an expression of begrudging forgiveness. Between his paws was a paper with scribbles on it. Paiko couldn’t decipher the words, being illiterate, though he wondered how the sharkwolf was able to write in the first place. . .?

Lan pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, extending a hand to shake. “Not a viking. The name’s Belania Apnos. Lan for short. Wandering lupine traveler of the worlds. Paiko here is my adventure assistant.”

The dragon-man's lips curved into a smile, and he shook her hand. “Scothliath MacAtlantach. Scothy to friends. Muir Drakan, Thane of the Northern Isles.”

Lan’s tail swished back and forth, picking up speed; Paiko could see it clearly from his spot under the counter. “Thane?” Lan repeated. “So you are royalty of some sort? For the. . . Muir Drakan?”

“Well, not quite. I’m the first Muir Drakan to become thane of anything. I’m no king, but I do use my position to help gain recognition and rights for the drakan as fae instead of beasts.”

“Wow, well, I wish you luck on that. Quite a few worlds I’ve been to have had some similar issue, to varying degrees. . .”

Paiko thought about Scothy’s words. He could say with reasonable certainty that people did not see him as a beast right now, as a half-drakon. Looking human-ish. 

Would people ever see his true drakon side as an intelligent, reasonable being? Or was that side of him a beast, and would always be a beast?

Maybe he could ask some questions, too. Hopefully Lan wasn’t planning to head out in the very near future.

“... would appreciate your support, if you’re up to discussing it in more detail,” Scothy was saying to Lan.

Lan’s foot nudged him out of his thoughts, pointing at the chest. He fumbled with the clasp, then cracked it open and scooted it into view. Lan picked it up. 

“I don’t mind chatting longer over a meal; if you can spare me some gold to pay for food, the rest is intended as a gift to you.”

Everyone around the table scooted closer with oohs and aahhs. Even Scylior raised his eyebrows, then bent over his paper, jotting down notes.

“We’ll make an occasion out of it, then.” Scothy then shouted to the barkeep, “Lachie! Wan roond o’ clapshot an’ drinks ‘ere!”

“Ye got it, Scothy!”

Paiko tuned in to the lively sounds of the pub in full swing, feeling for once not overwhelmed or intimidated by the denizens of other realms, but - dare he say -at home at this seaside cliff?

If this is what meeting people on adventures was like, he might grow to like it.

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