Three figures make their way down a long cave towards a familiar cavern. Their weapons are stored away, the group feeling comfortable with the situation they’re walking into. Outside observers would probably call the act foolish, wandering into a dragon’s lair unarmed. The group knew the risks though.
Or, rather, the lack thereof. This particular group had grown comfortable with these ‘confrontations’ with Roxi. The ‘Scourge of the Valley’ as the surrounding towns liked to refer to her. The group of adventurers knew her a little more personally than any of them, though. They clearly trust her enough to walk into her home and lair unarmed.
It has been several months since the group’s first meeting with the dragon, almost half a year. At first, the visits had been requested by the townspeople, every couple of weeks. Recently though, the requests mixed with personal visits to Roxi’s lair.
They all had their own reasons for visiting. Sometimes they come alone, sometimes as a party. Despite her prickly and often hostile nature, Roxi always makes sure that no harm comes to any of them. Not that Roxi’s lair is devoid of tricks and traps. Although no physical danger came to any of them. With Roxi’s large magical repertoire, she had taken to tricking them more often than not.
Where the tricks were originally designed to discourage the adventurers from making the trip to the cave, as the trips continued to come, Roxi found herself growing the tiniest bit fond of their company. The tricks went from harmless to playful, and Roxi was having a hard time not enjoying their visits sometimes.
The three adventuring partners, partners being the operative word, eventually make it into the large cavern that makes up the main portion of Roxi’s lair. Large organized piles of treasure still sit around the walls of the cavern, some of the piles having grown larger in the time since they’d first entered the lair. The cavern looks mysteriously empty as the three look around, no sign of the giant dragon whom the lair belongs to. Knowing the amount of false walls and hidden passages that branch off from this main cavern, the three continue onward. They pointedly ignore the large piles of treasure, not wanting to set off any of the magical or physical snares guarding them.
The Tiefling woman of the group, the bard named Panacea, wanders towards the farthest wall of the cave, pressing against it gently. The illusory wall is surprisingly solid, feeling almost like real rock. The realistic sensation always has a tendency to throw her off, but she takes a deep breath to steady her thoughts. Panacea walks forward, reminding herself every step of the way just how fake the wall really is. The solid wall gives way slowly, her hand breaking through the wall like it’s a thin membrane. From the outside, Kriket and the Wizard currently named ‘August’ watch her walk through the fake wall.
A shiver goes through August as he watches, disturbed at the sight. “It’s like the wall is a large slime.” August whispers to Kriket. Kriket’s laugh is a deeper chuckle using a voice that’s exactly like August’s. In fact, it is August's voice.
“Sorry, August. You’re the only one here that really has a problem with that.” Kriket punches his arm genially.
“Hey, it’s a texture thing! It’s just… weird.” August argues.
Panacea continues past the wall and down a wider cave tunnel, a tunnel wide enough for a dragon. Panacea pulls her Lute off her back, strumming a short and magical tune. A small ball of light floats into the air next to her, lighting up the tunnel enough that she can see where she’s going. Eventually, Panacea makes it into another Cavernous area, this one much smaller than the previous one. Several piles of wool and fabrics line the floor on one side of the cave, Roxi’s makeshift bedding.
Panacea looks around in confusion, realizing that Roxi isn’t here. Normally when any of the three come, Roxi is either in the main cavern or in her bedchamber. Panacea carefully jogs her way back to the main cavern, walking straight out of the illusory wall without having to mentally push against it this time.
“She wasn’t there.” She informs the other two. August shifts the basket he’s carrying nervously, looking around the cave once more.
“Shoot. Do you think she’ll be back soon?” Kriket asks.
“I mean… it is midday. It might be awhile before she gets back?” August offers.
Before Panacea can reply though, there’s a rustle from a nearby pile of treasures. Before either of the other two adventurers react, Kriket is already kneeling with their bow in hand and aimed directly at the shifting pile. The air is tense as the group watches the pile shift as a figure crawls out of it. The tension in the room dissipates as the figure turns to look at the three adventurers. The smaller woman is Roxi, in her more human form. Kriket lets out a sigh as they drop their aim, putting the arrow back in the quiver and hanging their bow back over their shoulder.
Roxi grumbles gently, rubbing her eyes as she blinks at the group blearily. “What’s with all the racket,” She growls, looking at the three adventurers and yawning.
“Oh, you are here.” Panacea replies with a smile.
August and Kriket smile at Roxi, “Heya Rox,” They respond in unison.
Roxi can only blink in confusion at the display before shaking her head disappointedly. “Using his voice is one thing Kriket, but I find it deeply disturbing that you two can do that in unison.” Kriket just shrugs, tilting their head as if they were smirking. “What are you three doing in my lair this time? Is this another message from the mayor about ‘inappropriate public disturbances’.” Roxi uses her claws to emphasise the parentheses around her words.
Panacea crosses her arms, “Did you do something that would mean we might have to talk to you about that?” she asks.
Roxi cringes gently, looking away at one of the cave walls. She folds her arms and doesn’t look Panacea in the eye, “No comment. It probably wasn’t me, whatever it is.”
“Aww, Pana, don’t tease her like that.” August coos softly. Roxi snaps her head to him in a growl.
“Thorn, I can and will cause you bodily harm.” she threatens, flexing her claws.
“Actually, it’s August right now.” He chuckles.
“Honestly, thank god. Thorn was such an unfitting name,” August shrugs at her comment and she continues. “Anyways, August, whatever , my threat stands.”
“Duly noted.” He nods his head vigorously, hands up in surrender.
“To answer your previous question,” Panacea speaks up, grabbing Roxi’s attention. She steps over to August, picking up the basket he’d placed down on the ground. “We wanted to invite you to go for a picnic. Do you want to join us?”
Roxi looks between the three of them, surprised. The three of them had become comfortable in coming to visit her on their own time, but this is the first time that the three of them had invited her to anything together. She looks at the basket that Panacea is holding, her face scrunching up in thought.
The first thought that comes to mind is suspicion. Why would the three of them want to go on a picnic with her? In the months since their first meeting, all that she’s done to the three of them is mess with them endlessly.
“Is this a joke?” Roxi asks, studying the three of them.
Panacea shakes her head. “No joke.”
August chuckles, “Aren’t those more your thing?”
“Then why?” Roxi demands, looking between the three of them. Her tail flicks once nervously as she watches them.
Kriket looks at the other two nervously, “well…” they trail off. “I mean, we want to spend time with you?” Roxi stares at them hard, studying their face.
Eventually, she just scoffs. Panacea steps in front of Kriket, catching Roxi;s attention and causing Roxi to tilt her gaze up to look her in the face. “They’re not joking, Roxi. We just wanted to have lunch together. No strings attached.”
Roxi averts her eyes, a small blush on her cheeks. Instead of trying to look Panacea in the eye, she meets August’s eyes. He responds with a thumbs up and a goofy smile. Roxi scoffs, turning her searching eyes back to Panacea’s face. All she offers is a kind smile.
Tentatively, Roxi considers it, the smallest of hopes winning out over her skepticism. Despite all the tricks over the months leading up to this, she did want to go on a picnic with them.
“Fine. I’ll go.” She says, averting her eyes away from Panaceas slightly. What she can’t avoid is the pink tinge that fills her cheeks.
“Well, would you like to join us outside for the picnic? We were thinking about having it in the forest just outside your cave?” Panacea offers.
“Fine by me. I’ll follow you.” Roxi responds, her tail flicking excitedly behind her. Panacea takes note with a smirk, but she doesn’t comment. Instead, she hands the basket back to August, pulling her lute back out. As she leads the way out of the cavern and into the tunnel that leads back outside, she begins strumming once more. At first she just strums to summon a light to guide their way, but after the light appears she keeps gently stringing. Panacea opts not to sing, humming instead gently while she plays the lute softly.
Panacea looks over her shoulder at Roxi as she plays, giving the tinier Dragon woman a wink. Roxi blushes at the gesture, looking away and to her side. Instead of any solace from the adventurers though, her eyes meet Kriket’s, who just chuckles at her reaction. Roxi stumbles back, tripping on her own tail in her surprise.
She braces herself for the fall, but instead of hitting the floor, she feels soft arms catch her by the armpits. Roxi tilts her head directly up, dread filling in her stomach. August’s face is looking down at her, mirth filling his eyes. “Whoa, I gotcha. Careful there.” Roxi extricates herself from his grip, her cheeks feel like they’re burning. Which is an impressive feeling for a dragon to feel. She mumbles her thanks to August, brushing herself off and storming ahead of the group. She felt humiliated by the display, even second guessing her decision to go on the picnic.
Was this their master plan? To take her out of her element and embarrass her? Payback for all of the tricks she’d pulled on them. Roxi takes a couple deep breaths once she’s ahead of the group. She’ll have to be very vigilant for any more surprise attacks now.
The rest of the journey out of the cave passes in comfortable silence. Comfortable for the adventurers at least, Roxi feels slightly guarded the entire rest of the journey, but nothing else particularly embarrassing happens.
The small group of four finds themselves arriving in a small clearing not far from Roxi’s lair. August takes charge at that moment, pulling a blanket off the basket and setting up all of the food for the picnic. Panacea continues softly strumming her instrument, and as the group settles down onto the blanket, Kriket pulls out their own instrument, the Lyre they named Jonsa. They strum their own instrument, adding their own deeper hums to the bright sounds their instrument makes.
Roxi couldn’t help but smile lightly at the sight of Jonsa. The tiny Lyre is tentatively the entire reason they’re all together like this right now. Panacea watches the tiny dragon woman sway to the sound of her and Kriket’s music. Panacea looks over at August who has just finished setting up the food for the picnic, he doesn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt the moment.
August searches through the picnic basket for a carefully wrapped bottle of wine, a bottle bought for this occasion. Carefully, he tries to pull out a set of wine glasses, but the clinking of the glasses catches Roxi’s attention. Her eyes snap to August, looking him up and down with a judging glare. August shivers, holding back a blush at Roxi’s stare. Her eyes have always held an intimidating intensity to them, but not an unpleasant intensity. Slowly, her eyes drift from August and to the bottle lying beside him.
Roxi reaches out gently with her claws, her eyes transfixed on the bottle every second of the way. Her reaching is eager, but her touch is delicate as August lets her take the bottle without fuss.
They had all got it for her after all.
“The La Clara’s wine…?” Roxi’s voice is hushed as she asks the question. She doesn’t look up for an answer, the question was rhetorical.
Panacea’s voice speaks up nonetheless, “I was in the area recently performing and I thought you might like to try some again. Should be some good stuff.”
Roxi nods absentmindedly not looking up from the bottle, her mind struggling to process multiple feelings. Her grip tightens around the neck of the bottle as she stands up, casting her gaze downwards. The soft sounds of music stop as Panacea gets up beside the smaller dragon woman. Panacea doesn’t reach out to the woman to comfort her, as much as she wants to.
“Roxi…?” She asks tentatively.
“My name is Ny’raxi.” The Dragon woman growls, not looking up at Panacea as she does so. She keeps her eyes fixed downward, glancing at the bottle as it hangs in her grip. Gently, almost reverently, she hands it back to August.
Panacea frowns at the name correction, she hadn’t corrected any of them on her name in a long time. The Tiefling woman gives a measured nod as she looks Ny’raxi over, noting that her tail is completely still. Panacea pushes forward, “Ny’raxi then. Is everything okay?”
“This was a bad idea.” Ny’raxi mutters, turning around and looking back the way they came. “I’m going to go.”
“Roxi-” Panacea pauses as she sees the Dragon woman's tail straightening dangerously behind her. “Ny’raxi. I’m sorry about the wine, I didn’t think it would bring back bad memories. Can we talk about this? We don’t want you to be uncomfortable here.”
“No, there’s nothing to talk about.” Ny’raxi scoffs, her tail swishing agitatedly behind her. Ny'raxi looks behind her carefully at the three adventurers and the three adventurers look back at her, their faces etched with worry. Conflict flashes across her visage for not the first time, but she steels her gaze, opting instead to glare at the three before turning her eyes to the sky. Panacea sits back down as she turns away, gaze locked on the Dragon woman.
Ny’raxi jumps powerfully into the air, wings unfurling impossibly from her back and catching the current as she beats them powerfully enough to carry her into the sky where she performs a full transformation back into her normal form. The three adventurers watch her fly away, a somber silence settling over them as they think over what just happened.
Panacea gets up, brushing herself off. Kriket and August look over at her warily. They get up themselves, looking to her for guidance. “Uh, Pan’s, you’re not going to do what I think you are, are you?” August asks, eyes searching Panaceas.
Panacea scoffs, patting both his and Kriket’s head in turn. “Of course I am. Stay here, I’ll be back soon.”
Panacea shifts her instrument into her grip, playing a complex magical tune. Her body glows lightly and her steps carry her farther and faster. She glides nimbly through the forest, directly into the lair of her friend.
