“Welcome to Belford,” one of the men said as we entered the village. I was a little bigger than the other two villages that we had come through. It was almost the size of a normal town. I wondered if we would soon be in some castle town. Taylor and Aliona followed close behind, admiring the surroundings.

“It’s a nice sized village. Am I correct that it is on the trade roads?” I asked. The other man looked back and nodded.

“Yeah, and about a few days north is Teslar Castle. King Luthor rules these lands. He is a fair king, but as of late, things have been difficult. With the talk of war, the king has been uneased. I just hope it doesn’t come to that. The last thing we need is war. Most of us are farmers and traders. We are not experienced in battle.

“That is a shame. But what about these dragon people. Wouldn’t you say that you are already at war with them?” Taylor asked. The first man sighed and nodded without turning around. I could understand why a king would be uneased with the possibility of a war.

We stopped in front of a large house in the center of the village. Both men turned around and looked at us. The first man smiled and said, “this is our mayor’s house. He is inside. I am sure he would be glad to know that someone will be helping us take care of this problem.”

Without another word, he opened the door and motioned for us to enter the house.

The inside of the house was like your average house. It had all the normal furniture. If it weren’t for the house’s size, you wouldn’t think it was where the mayor took care of business compared to the others.

As we waited, we were greeted by a small man. He seemed like your ordinary civilian. He wasted no time running over and hugging each of us.

            “Welcome to Belford. It is always refreshing to see new faces,” the man said as he sat at his dining table. He then motioned for us to sit. The four of us sat down and looked at the man. “Now, what brings you to our little village?”

            “We are on a journey to find a man and a girl. We need to prevent the man from doing something that could potentially harm many people. We were hoping to find some clue as to their whereabouts were.” I said. I could see the man was thinking about what I said. Then he nodded

            “I am sure that you could find someone who may know where these people are. After all, people talk around here. Sometimes too much.” The mayor said. I hoped that he was right because I was tired of feeling like a chicken running around with its head cut off.

            “The people who we met just outside of the village said that you were having a pest problem. Something about dragon people terrorizing you. I wanted to offer my service to you. Perhaps helping you with your dragon problem,” I said. The mayor grinned from ear to ear.

“Oh, thank you. I was wondering if I would ever find someone willing to do what it takes to get the thing back to normal,”

“We will get it taken care of. And perhaps, while we are on it, we might learn about where this man is.”I said. The man nodded, “now, please enjoy my beautiful village.

            As we walked back out into the village, Aliona said that she would go hunting in the woods. I guess she was feeling uncomfortable around this many people. Taylor and I decided to look around the shops, hoping to find some work so that we could earn a meal or at least some new camping gear.

            As we went around the village, some of the people offered to help us. Taylor and I spent the bigger part of the day finding odd little jobs. By the time night was creeping up on us, Taylor and I had found a couple of shops and such willing to help us. It was nice. People weren’t like this back home.

            We decided that we weren’t going to find a place to stay within the village after what had happened the last time. Instead, we headed out towards the woods where Aliona was. She had already caught dinner. While they dealt with dinner, I set up a tent. After eating, we all settled in and drifted off to sleep.