Fly, you fools

The dragon was absolutely no more inclined to give Gawain the benefit of the doubt than she was Nimue, so it was a good thing that Gil had preemptively given her orders not to attack him or the horses. He looked at her warily, but once she was obviously not about to attack, he didn’t miss the opportunity to examine her body with great interest. Not just the interest of a dragon slayer examining an unusual specimen, either. Rose did good work.

The horses panicked before they even saw her, so Gil assumed she might have a distinctive scent. Then again, it wasn’t as if they weren’t justified. The moment she dismissed Gawain as a threat, she started sizing up the horses like they were bowls of ice cream.

“No, Echidna.” Gil said, his tone warning. “The horses are expensive, and they’ve carried us this far. You can’t eat them. We’ll need to get you some livestock or a deer or something when we have the chance.”

“I can’t eat them at all?” She demanded. “What’s the point of having them?”

Gil explained the concept of pack animals and transit to the bemused dragon. Having enough things that carrying them proved inconvenient was a novel idea to her, but she was still proving reasonably biddable. Gil honestly wasn’t sure why, but he was damn happy about it. He didn’t have a lot of tools to control an absolute beast like Echidna; his entire mechanism for command was to cultivate good vibes where he could, and lean on the Binding’s baseline pressure for her to like and defer to him.

It was possible that the maid tag or the monk’s mindset were rubbing off and making her slightly more subservient, but that kind of thing was so unreliable that if it was relevant it would be nothing but a happy accident. Silky, for example, likely had a few traits that carried over from Berelaine, mostly surface level ones, but she was without question still just a moth at heart.

Nimue snapped another sprig of mistletoe, and within a few hours they arrived at a cliff overlooking the sea. It seemed to be a high point, just close and high enough for Gil to barely see a hint of the landmass they were headed to.

“I suppose you were right, Sir Gil.” Gawain admitted. “If we can find a ship to carry us by the end of the day, we may arrive before the end of the week.”

“A ship?” Gil said. “Did you miss why I wanted a dragon in the first place? Echidna, could you carry us across this gap to that landmass?”

The massive serpent woman raised her torso high into the air, like a cobra raising its head. She flexed her wings, unfolding them to epic lengths that blotted out the sky and testing the air with a few flaps that created massive dust clouds.

“No.” She said simply, “The wind isn’t right. I’d have to swim for the last part even if it was.”

“Wait, what?” Gil said. “Can’t you fly?”

“I can.” She said defensively. “I can’t fly up, though. So I can’t fly forever. Also all of you together, with horses, would be very heavy.”

Gil sighed. Of course the elephant sized dragon was constrained, at least partially, by physics. Even with that absurd wingspan, she was presumably limited to gliding. No wonder she lived in mountains; jumping off cliffs was probably the only way she got air time outside of a hurricane.

“It was a clever idea, good sir.” Gawain said. “Perhaps she can still make her way across alone? I imagine that with a few good men to guard her flanks she will be quite something in the battle to come.”

“Yeah, no.” Gil said. “We aren’t setting her loose. She’s a danger to everyone without supervision. You’re right about one thing though; we aren’t going to find a ship that can carry her. Any chance you can shift the wind, fair Lady?”

Nimue looked at Gil, and shook her head slightly.

“To travel upon the faerie paths is not an uncommon need, so I frequently have such talismans to spare.” She said. “I might call forth rain, but as I lack Merlin’s foresight I must guess at the needs I shall encounter. The need to direct the winds was not among those.”

“Shit…” Gil said.

She’d probably said more than she intended to. So, she needed to prime a magic item and then use it later, when the time came. Thus far she’d been a bit coy about magic, though perhaps it was more that she didn’t care if he knew or not. It wasn’t worth explaining, but it also wasn’t something she really cared to hide.

“I might be able to carry you alone,” Echidna said, arching down to insert herself into the conversation. “I wouldn’t mind a little bit of… alone time. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

Gil smiled, trying to keep the strain off his face. Echidna was definitely a beautiful dragon snake woman, but the problem was that she was genuinely massive. Gil was, simply put, far too small. He wouldn’t be able to fill her with anything short of his leg, and even oral was probably off the table if he was on the receiving end. Her mouth was easily large enough to swallow his entire cock and balls without even filing it. She was probably going to be a bit disappointed until he could scale her down or himself up.

“It might be for the best, assuming that we can actually find our way to our destination.” Gil said. “Or at least meet up on the other side. Actually…”

Gil looked between Nimue, Gawain, and Rose.

“Do you think that you could carry me and Gawain together?” Gil asked. “I don’t get the impression many people will be stupid enough to try anything with the ladies. If they are, I suspect Rose will be able to handle them.”

In actual fact he thought that Rose was reasonably likely to try something if she was alone with Nimue. Even more so with the skillset of a sex cult recruiter embedded into her mind. It was absolutely something Rose had already been doing to some extent, but a bit of formal training seemed like it wouldn’t hurt and a T1 card was better put to use than clogging up his bag. Gawain would never suspect that was his angle though; from what he had seen, that just wasn’t on the list of things women did in this world, good or bad. If it worked, though, she’d be primed to accept a deal for her soul by the time they left.

“Leave two ladies unescorted in the wilderness?” Gawain spluttered. “Be reasonable!”

“My lady, don’t you and your sisters live alone in a magic lake, half a day’s travel from the nearest town?” Gil asked. “Do you foresee danger in this region?”

“No, Sir Gil, I think not.” She said. “In fact, I suspect we will find a fisherman or a local lord to ferry us and stable the horses without any difficulty. That manor house in the distance, perhaps.”

“Oh, speaking of which…” Gil said, turning and cracking the Nuzlocke ball against Bayard’s flank.

The largely docile horse vanished in a flash of red light, doing little to struggle against its capture. Gil hoped that some default would kick in since he hadn’t come through a portal this time, but was perfectly comfortable just keeping the T2 no name horse in storage until he got back to the skyblock. Gawain, of course, had no idea what he’d done and demanded answers. That took another few minutes all on its own, but did its job. It distracted the knight while the ladies slipped away up the coast.

••••••••••

And so the Knight With the Smiling Mask and Sir Gawain were taken up into the arms of the Dragon Echidna, who bore them by air and by sea. First to the Isle of Man, and then from the cliffs of that island to the shores of Ireland. There, they took to horse and went to the nearest lord.

There the lord, who was a knight of little glory, said, “Who are you men, to arrive upon my doorstep with one horse and a great serpent?”

And Gawain said “I am called Gawain, and I must go forthwith to the home of Sir Culwych, because Merlin said that is where a great evil is to be faced.”

And the knight said, “Sir Culwych is my king, to whom I owe homage. You will stay and eat upon my table and tell me more of this, and I will give your serpent a pig from among my lands.”

And the knight with the smiling mask said, “Nay, sir knight, you may save your pig, for every moment we speak to you is a moment we do not travel north to the manor of king Culwych.”

And the knight was shamed, for his hospitality had been rebuffed, and was filled with wroth towards the knight with the smiling mask. He lifted his hand to strike the knight with the smiling mask who had so shamed him.

And the dragon Echidna said, “I heard well the offer of a pig, and would have accepted if the need for haste was not great. Know that, should you choose to send men upon foot of horse upon my lord, I shall accept this too as hospitality with equal grace, and consume them with equal relish.”

And the knight in service to sir Culwych did give them two horses to bear them north, and a pig also, and rallied his men that he might join them in the defense of his lord.

They traveled north, and the knight with the smiling mask did doff his mask and hand it to the dragon Echidna, for she had greater need of its magic.

And he said to her, “Don this mask, for while you wear it your presence shall be blunted and the fear you inspire lessened to that of any large and imposing woman.”

And the serpent said to him “My lord, of what moment is the fear of these small folk?”

And the knight who had worn the smiling mask said, “their fear is of little moment, but that of their lords is of greater import. Fear is a blade best kept sheathed, for it fits poorly in its scabbard and is difficult to put away.”

And so Gawain and the knight who had worn the smiling mask and the dragon did arrive in the lands of Culwych, who did ride out to meet them and embrace Gawain as his brother. He offered them all his hospitality, and they graciously accepted it. He also accepted into his home the lady Rosevalda and Nimue, who arrived shortly thereafter.

The home of Culwych was opened to them, and he did introduce them to his wife, the lady Olwen. And upon meeting the lady Olwen, the knight who had worn the smiling mask knew the shape of things to come.

He took his wife, the lady Rosevalda, and said to her, “I see now the design of our foe. Look upon the Lady Olwen, for she is a woman of great beauty and unique grace. Her hair is yellower than the flower of the broom, her skin whiter than the foam of the wave, and her eyes brighter than a falcon. Such a lady would inflame the hearts of many with covetousness, and I imagine our foe is driven by naught but boundless greed.”

Rosevalda beheld Culwych’s Queen, whose every footstep left behind a trail of white clovers, and knew that he spake truth. The daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden was indeed a prize worthy of epic deeds.

••••••••••

Gil is in place! What does he do now?

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