Refuge De Montagne

The group trudged up a steep, stony path that was perhaps at one point meant to be stairs. Roul, a young man of sixteen, felt the strain in his legs and wondered about the older men who he followed. Piers, who owned a farm many of the townsfolk had worked at, was breathing heavy. Amis and Onfroi who had worked in the fishery were constantly complaining back and forth since breakfast about the distance traveled and sleeping on the ground. The oldest of the group, Guiscard, sometimes called ‘Gray Guiscard’ by the children and Roul himself for his advanced age, constantly needed short breaks and often found himself leaning upon his worn, oak-wood cane. Mayor Roland on the other hand desperately maintained his pace, stopping and catching his breath only to berate the others for slowing the group down.  

It wasn’t a pleasant journey, especially with the grim nature of their task, but Roul found some enjoyment in the view as they made their way up that mountain. He could see around for miles and miles, even from only part way up the mountain and with the pearly mist that swirled ever present around their heads that obscured their vision. The sun cast massive rays of light, made visible through the fog that the young man wanted to point out to his companions and marvel at but thought their current moods simply wouldn't allow them to enjoy and elected to stay silent.  

“We’re almost there!” cried Mayor Roland, pointing to a sign that hung over the path and read, ‘Refuge de Montagne.’ 

At the peak the group found a collection of small wooden huts, raises up on stilts and all surrounding a small, natural hot spring at the center of the mountain top. The mayor broke off from the group and hurried over to an old woman, maybe as old as Gray Guiscard. She sat by the spring and smoked a pipe with her eyes closed. 

“Greetings, kind dear,” said the mayor, “My companions and I are looking for a man who we heard took lodging at this spring. Could you help us?” 

The old woman opened her eyes and seemed to peer straight through the mayor with steely suspicion. She took the pipe from her mouth, spat on the ground and said, “You here to bother my customers?” 

“Oh, no, no, Ma’am,” he said as he wiped sweat from his brow. “We have urgent business with this man that cannot wait. Vauquelin? The monster hunter?” 

She continued to peer at him. Then she took a puff of her pipe and looked up and seemed to consider his words. “Big fellow? With a beat-up sword taller than him?”  

The mayor’s face lit up. “Yes! That’s him!” 

“Hut two,” she said and gestured to a hut on the other side of the spring. 

The mayor thanked her and walked back to the group. He wiped his brow again and said, “He’s here, remember what we talked about.” 

“Old lady had you sweating, Roland,” said Piers, grinning. 

“It was the spring,” said the mayor, insulted. 

“Sure, it was,” mocked Piers. Amis and Onfroi both snickered to each other.  

“Focus!” said the mayor through gritted teeth. 

The group circled around the spring and headed towards the hut that the old woman had pointed to. Roland rushed ahead as the rest lagged at a walking pace. He immediately climbed the steps and knocked on the door, not realizing it was more of a straw curtain that hung in the doorway. He stepped back, embarrassed, and called out, “Hello?”  

As Roul and the others drew near, they heard a rumbling and fumbling from inside and soon a man emerged from behind the curtain. He was quite large as described, muscular with long dark hair and at least seven feet tall, easily towering over the pudgy old mayor. He wore a loose-fitting robe and a half-lidded expression that told Roul he had just woken up. 

“Yeah?” he said in a rough voice as he stared down upon the mayor. 

 Roland laughed nervously and walked down the steps backwards, away from their assumed monster hunter. “Pardon our intrusion,” he said, “You are Vauquelin? Famed slayer of beasts?” 

“Yeah?” he repeated, windmilling his hand around as if to say, ‘Get on with it.’ 

The mayor was caught off guard by this lack of etiquette but seemed to adapt and said, “I’m Roland, Mayor of a town called Bastion. We would like to hire your services-” 

Vauquelin interrupted, said, “I’m on vacation,” and turned to head back inside his hut.  

Piers, Amis and Onfroi all began to shout and curse, either calling him rude in one way or another or implying something about his mother. Roland turned to them and shut them up in an angry whisper.  

“Please sir!” the mayor continued, “People have been killed!”  

Vauquelin stopped halfway through the flap on the door. Roul could see, for the briefest moment, a large battered zweihänder sword propped up against the wall. Vauquelin turned back, plopped himself down on the wooden deck of the hut and sat cross legged. “Give me the pitch,” he groaned and rested his chin on his fist. 

The mayor lit up and began. “I have been mayor of our town for many years, and together with the townspeople we have become quite the haven of economic strength. But about three months ago, we were beset by a terrible flying monster, a dragon no less! It-” 

“A dragon or a wyvern?” Vauquelin interrupted, seemingly unaffected by the drama the mayor was cooking up. 

The mayor stopped and thought. Gray Guiscard began to lean on his cane more and more, so Roul took him by the arm and led him over to a large rock by the edge of the spring and sat him down. 

“What’s the difference?” asked the mayor.  

“Dragons have their arms and wings as separate appendages and are much bigger and more dangerous,” said Vauquelin as if reading from a book.  

“Uh...” Roland wiped sweat from his brow and thought.  

“It had four legs and two wings,” said Roul. “I got a good look at it.”  

Vauquelin and the group turned and looked at Roul.  

“What color was it?” Vauquelin asked. 

“Red,” said Roul. 

“And it was as big as this mountain top and breathed fire and everything else!” shouted Amis.  

“We know it was a dragon, we were there!” added Onfroi.  

Vauquelin tilted his head and shrugged. “Sounds like a dragon, then.” 

“It burned down crops and killed my livestock! I can’t pay my workers now and we can't even feed the townsfolk!” Piers cried out.  

“And the fishery burned as well!” said Roland. He turned to Amis and Onfroi and beckoned them to speak.  

“Yeah,” said Amis, “it burned the boats and smashed the roof of the fishery and killed the owners and some of our friends.” 

“Yeah,” said Onfroi, “the only reason we got away is because Amis and I were loading up a cart to take out of town.” 

“The fish were our main export, and our economy has been halted entirely,” said the mayor.  

“And those two? Why’d you drag them here?” Vauquelin pointed to Gray Guiscard and Roul over by the edge of the spring.  

“My son,” said Gray Guiscard with a failing voice. “He was killed along with his wife. Crushed by a falling building knocked over by the monster. Their two young children have only me now.”  

“I’m sorry to hear that, old man,” said Vauquelin before turning his eyes to Roul. “And you?” 

“My older brother. Henri was his name. He stood on the roof of our house, loosing arrows at the beast until it burned down our house and him along with it.” Roul swallowed and wiped the dripping sweat from his face. “He was the only family I had in the world.”  

“I see,” said Vauquelin, a sorrowful tone in his voice.  

“So, you see,” exclaimed Roland, “We need your help! It's attacked three times already. We can pay whatever price you need; money is no object! We just need the beast gone so we can get back on track!”  

Vauquelin Sat up straight and crossed his arms and seemed to consider the mayor’s words. The men all froze in place in complete suspense.  

“You know that old myth about dragons hoarding treasure? Sleeping on big piles of gold and such?” asked Vauquelin to the group's confusion.  

The mayor furrowed his brow and answered, “Yes, I suppose.”  

“Well, it's true,” said Vauquelin. “Do you know why?” 

“No,” said the mayor while crossing his arms. 

“It's not like the dragons have use for coin, of course,” Vauquelin laughed. “It's shiny things they like. In a dragon den you'll find gold and jewels, yes. But also mirrors, tin cups, silverware, swords, dead knights still in their expensive armor, copper watering cans-” 

“Get to the point!” shouted Piers.  

“Dragon eggs,” continued the monster hunter, “are shiny. Like big glass balls the size of a bale of hay. A colleague of mine once theorized that dragons evolved to like shiny things because the ones that did took far greater care of their eggs than ones who didn’t. That’s probably why they sleep on those big piles, like a mama bird sitting on her eggs.”  

“We didn’t steal any dragon eggs!” howled Onfroi.  

“Ah!” cried Vauquelin.” But you did steal something!”  

The group went silent. Gray Guiscard and Roul looked at each other, confused. 

Vauquelin continued, “You see, it doesn't actually matter if you took an egg or not, if you took anything running off that massive pile, the dragon is going to treat that like you threatened its young. And it's going to rampage and make a big show to scare off any predators still lurking in its territory.” 

The mayor huffed and rubbed the back of his head. Piers, Amis and Onfroi all crossed their arms and looked away. 

“Is that true?” Roul asked the mayor to no answer.  

Vauquelin pointed at the four men closest to him. “These one’s knew,” then he pointed at Roul and Gray Guiscard. “These one’s did not.”  

“Roland!” called Gray Guiscard.  

The mayor turned to the old man and put his hands up in a defensive motion. “Look...” he said. 

Gray Guiscard stood suddenly on his shaky legs and cursed, “Damn you, Roland!” before turning and walking back around the spring.  

The mayor cried out “Guiscard!”  

“Look!” shouted Piers, “It doesn’t matter anymore! That thing attacked our village twice and a neighboring village too! We’re here now, will you help us or not?” 

Vauquelin turned his nose up at Piers and said, “No.”  

“To hell with you then!” Piers cursed some more before storming off after Guiscard.  

“What the hell are we supposed to do now, genius?” yelled Amis. 

“I bet you’re a cowardly fake who just knows he can't handle the dragon!” added Onfroi. 

“Get every person away from the dragon’s den and it should calm down eventually.” 

The pair called him a fool and a coward some more before storming off.  

Roland dropped to his knees and began to beg Vauquelin. “What’s your price? I’ll give you anything you want!” 

“I gave you my answer.” 

“You can have every drop of wealth I have and everything in the dragon’s lair!” 

“There is nothing on this earth you could give me." 

“I have to fix this! I’m supposed to take care of them! I can’t just move all those people away from their homes!” 

“You must. Move north. Red dragons hate the cold.” 

Roland stood and shouted impotently at Vauquelin before turning to walk away. Raul caught his eye as he walked past. The young man looked at his former mayor with a look that seemed to judge him.  

“It was just spilling out of that cave! So much gold we couldn’t have taken it out with a hundred carts! Then it destroyed the town and took it all back and we have nothing! I was trying to make everyone’s lives better! You and Henri included!” Roland shouted his voice hoarse then lowered his head and trudged off.  

Only Roul remained in front of Vauquelin’s hut. It seemed to the monster hunter that the young man had nothing to say so he stood up and turned to go back inside, saying, “I’m sorry about your brother.”  

“What if it doesn’t stop?” asked Roul. Vauquelin stopped and turned back. “What they did was wrong, but it doesn’t change the fact that this problem is bigger than that now. Every time it attacked it went farther until it attacked a town that didn’t do anything to it. What if it keeps going? This place isn't that far off, even Gray Guiscard could walk here.” 

Vauquelin turned his eyes down and thought. “Look, kid, just move on. You don’t owe those people anything.”  

“It’s my home. If I don’t try to help it, nobody will.” 

The two looked at each other before Roul turned and walked back around the hot spring. Vauquelin watched him go and took a deep sigh while heading back into the hut.