Heroes Without A Plan
Chapter Eight: Magical Beast

The next day, Eliot, who had worked for Ikea for a year, taught the residents an easier way to rebuild their tents. And before they knew it, it was time to say goodbye.

Mike looked at the map the camp leader had given them to make sure they were going in the right direction. It was a place marked with a circle, ‘Goblin HQ’, which was in the mountains, and he had told them to go there if they wanted to beat the goblins.

“AHH!” Eliot yelled as he was almost hit by one of Alyssa’s arrows. She ran to him to make sure he wasn’t hurt as soon as it happened.

“You were supposed to stop it!” She smacked him on the shoulder for his thoughtlessness.

“I got nervous!”

With a sigh, Alyssa picked up the arrow. Before they could continue, Mike, who was supposed to be gathering firewood, ran up to them. Without a word of explanation, he made them follow him.

The two struggled to keep up with Mike’s intense pace through the long stretch of forest. He stopped in front of a certain tree, giving Alyssa and Eliot a chance to catch their breath. Everyone stared at the strange sight for a minute before Eliot spoke.

“Is that an... egg?”

“Yeah, it’s huge!”

“I found it while walking!” Mike remarked, “I wonder what’s inside.”

The heroes had found an egg the size of a barrel, white with a hint of blue and a rather scaly texture.

“What do we do?” Eliot asked.

“Hmmm, we don’t know what’s inside. Maybe we should leave it, what if its mother comes back?”

They decided to leave it at that and went back to their camp for the night. While Mike started to prepare dinner, Eliot and Alyssa continued to practice fighting.

Though they hadn’t planned to stay, the three ended up staying a few days after Eliot failed to stop an arrow in time and it pierced his leg. It was not a fatal wound, but it was their decision not to leave until he was back on his feet.

After the incident, Alyssa had constantly put him down. Even though she felt a small amount of guilt for the hurt she’d caused him, she was more focused on making sure Eliot didn’t do it again.

The group agreed to continue their fateful quest a few days later. As they walked through the dense forest toward the goblin base, they came upon a now-broken egg.

“WOW! It hatched!” Eliot squealed with excitement as he jumped up to it. He continued even though his leg was bandaged and bruised.

“Careful! You’re still healing!” Alyssa scolded him. They gasped at the creature inside the egg as they approached it.

“Is that a... DRAGON!!!” Eliot squealed once more.

Inside the egg lay a sleeping dragon. Like its egg, it was white in color, with blue accents on it’s tips. Having never seen anything like it, the heroes were in awe of the mythical beast. Though a baby, the critter was large.

The baby began to slowly open his gorgeous frosted blue eyes as the three of them considered what to do. As it did so, Mike instructed them to ‘back off’. They nodded and all backed away from the tiny animal. As they did, it let out a small yawn and stretched its wings.

Emerging from the egg, the baby dragon toddled toward them, whimpering again. Eliot jumped at the sight of the baby, his eyes wide with fear.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a newborn. I doubt it knows how to kill!”

“It’s kind of cute!” Mike was in awe of the cute creature as it approached.

The dragon fell as it approached, landing on its belly, and the warrior stepped up to it, enraptured by the hazardous creature.

“Are you sure you should get that close?” Eliot asked him, concern laced his voice.

“Look at it! It’s so sweet and cuddly!” Mike said, crouching down as soon as he got close to the dragon,

Mike tentatively held out his hand, and to both his and the other’s surprise, the little dragon laid its head on his hand. They remained there for a minute before Mike pulled away. As he waddled closer to Mike, the little dragon rested his head on Mike’s shoulder. The couple squealed with delight at the sight of Mike and the dragon. Cuteness abounded.

But it wasn’t for long. Alyssa was Eliot’s crutch for the rest of the walk.

“Can we have him?” She asked them.

“Do you really feel comfortable traveling with a baby dragon?” Eliot wasn’t a fan of keeping the deadly beast around, no matter how cute it might be.

“Uhh, yeah?”

Deciding against adopting the baby from his home, the trio walked away. But the little dragon began to waddle forward and tried to follow them, much to their shock and delight.

“This is bad! Does that mean he’s attached? We can’t keep dragons!” Eliot began to complain. Leaving no room for further argument, Alyssa then launched into a rant about how cool it would be to fight alongside a dragon.

And so they resumed their journey into the mountains, but now with a new companion.

“What should we call it?” Alyssa asked, turning to Mike.

“Hmm,” Mike looked up and thought, “Jelly Bean?”

“What! No,” Alyssa quickly dismissed the thought.

“But why!”

“I don’t want another stupid name!”

“It’s not stupid!” An argument ensued, and they turned to Eliot for his opinion. In the end, the wizard suggested that “Pire” settle the dispute.

And in the end, they went on their way, glad to have met Pire.