The Newt and Demon

As was tradition, breakfast the next morning was more of what they had for dinner. In this case, it wasn't a situation where they had leftovers. Sarisa and Rowan were just so satisfied with what they had made, they wanted it again. Since most Broken Tuskers didn't have a concept of different foods for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, they just made the same thing they had made the previous night.

Theo made absolutely no plans to complain about this. He ate his grilled cheese at the table, savoring every bite of the luxurious cheese and slurping up his soup like a slob. Even Trask was taking her time with the food, taking small bites and munching loudly. She sipped the soup by hoisting the entire bowl and putting her pinkies up, both of them, as she drank.

Theo scoffed as he witnessed a future event. He cleared his throat, dabbed his mouth, and sighed. "I sure hope nothing unexpected happens in approximately 40 seconds from now," he said, tapping his chin.

"Yeah, that would suck," Tresk said.

"That was an oddly specific statement," Rowan said, narrowing his eyes at Theo. "I just can't put my finger on what it might mean."

"You guys are absolute idiots," Sarisa said. "How can you forget about Theo's future sight?"

"Future hearing, too," Theo said, counting the time down on his fingers. When he was out of fingers, the clatter of a bell rang outside of the manor, and the alchemist smiled. "Guess who's come to visit?"

Theo was quick to access his interface and order the parties on the defensive piers to hold their fire unless the guests made an offensive action first. He took one last bite of his grilled cheese before stowing it and the soup in his inventory. He nodded to his companions. "I think I'll need everybody, just in case things go south."

After a few brief orders, Tresk ran off to patrol the skies on Alex, while Rowan and Sarisa sank into the shadows behind him. He drank a foresight potion and made his way to the area outside the walls. Somewhere along the way, Aarok joined up with him.

“I don't think they have boats that are meant to go into the open ocean, so I'm surprised they made it at all,” Theo said, "What kind of force are we looking at?"

"Two boats," Aarok said with a weak shrug. "A small one and a slightly larger one. About the size of the Cork.”

It was a pleasant surprise to see that the lizard folk of Saetalein Ya’ax hadn't started shooting already. More than likely, it meant they weren't as offended as they said, but they had a strange culture. And it was almost impossible to tell if they took deep offense to the theft or not. It was best to play it safe though.

Aarok and Theo made haste to the piers. They passed by groups of adventurers who had assembled for combat and ascended the southernmost tower of the two. As expected, Zan’kir was there.

"Why have you ordered me to hold fire?" Zan'kir said with a sour look. "I could sink them now with ease."

“Because they didn't bring an army?” Theo asked, more as a question than a statement. “We only stole a few absurdly expensive plants, not like we killed any of their people.”

"They may demand satisfaction," Zan'kir countered, "and if you wish to entertain such a thing, I can't help you."

"Just stay frosty," Theo said, patting the man on the shoulder. "We'll see how it goes."

The two boats approaching the harbor were those used by the lizard folk. They were vessels that ran very low in the water, reminding the alchemists of Viking longships. Of course, they were made from jungle woods and adorned with living plants here and there. The tropical palm fronds that hung over the edge graced the surface of the water, dragging narrow lines as they inched across the bay.

"That's Squeak," Theo said, gesturing to a lizard folk and lead ship. "He's from the Nojoh clan over there. Those are the smart ones."

"That works in our favor," right? Aarok asked, folding his arms as he peered down at the boats. "I don't see any fighters amongst them. There is a priest and a mage, but they're not here for war."

If they played their cards right, this could work out in their favor. Theo felt bad that they had stolen from the lizard folk, and perhaps this was a time to make it right. Of course, he could simply pay them, but Broken Tusk could offer many other services for them, including better boats. And since his shipwright had been pumping out merchant vessels just to pass the time, he could spare a couple of boats.

"They're approaching the harbor," Aarok grumbled.

"I can still shoot them," Zan'kir said.

"Look, they're turning to the side," Theo said with a sigh, just laying down at the ships a moment later. The boats did indeed turn to the side. "They're going to moor on the pier rather than entering the harbor, which I'll take as a sign of humility."

Although Aarok grumbled, he followed behind Theo as he descended the staircases of the defensive tower. They made their way to the pier and waited for the lizard folk to finish their mooring. A small lizard-person among them jumped up onto the pier and bowed deeply at the waist. It was Squeak, the same emissary they had dealt with when they first contacted the lizard people. These folks were extreme isolationists.

"We demand recompense," Squeak said, characteristically squeaking as he spoke.

"We're happy to work with your people," Theo said, returning the lizard person's bow. "But what action are you referring to?"

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The scales of the lizard person shifted, moving in a kaleidoscope of colors. It started at his snout and worked its way all the way to his fat tail. His body was covered in tribal feathers and freshly cut palm fronds, and a necklace of bone rested on his chest.

"Do not play the shy chameleon with me," Squeak said, shaking his head. "You have stolen sacred herbs, and we demand satisfaction."

From up on the tower, Zan'kir cackled.

"And what might that satisfaction be?" Theo asked.

"A fight to the death," Squeak said. "Between our strongest mage and the one who stole our herbs. We know her as Tresk."

From high above, a baleful screech issued. It was a mix of a roar and a honk, a gout of fire, a mile-long shot, covering the world below in a pale orange glow for a moment. Then the flapping of leathery wings issued as both Tresk and Alex dove. The goose-dragon spread her wings wide at the last moment, stopping her descent and landing on the ground with a resounding thud. The ground shook, of course.

"Which one of these lizard bastards am I stabbing to death?" Tresk said. Two gleaming daggers appeared in her hands as she teleported from Alex's back to the ground. She did a couple of stabbing motions in the air and frothed at the mouth.

"Did I say fight to the death?" Squeak asked with a nervous chuckle. "No, I meant a contest."

"No, I'm pretty sure you said, 'we're fine to the death,'" Tresk said.

"You must have heard someone else," Squeak said, ringing his hands together.

"I'll fight every lizard," Tresk said. Searching around, she pointed at Aarok. "I'll fight this guy, I don't care."

"I've known you since you hatched," Aarok said, glaring at her.

Tresk shrugged.

This might be extremely entertaining, depending on the competition Squeak wanted to hold. It could be something that spread further than this simple misunderstanding about herbs. Broken Tusk now housed a lot of refugees, and while there was a lot of work for them to do, the amount of activities they got up to was minimal. With no real connection to the mainland—not that there was a mainland to speak of—there was little in the way of entertainment. One could only poke a snapping turtle in the face so much before they got bored.

"I have a proposition," Theo said, spreading his arms wide as he smiled at the emissary. He was doing his best impersonation of Fenian. "Could you tell me the value of the herbs we took?"

"I could put a price on it," Squeak said with a shrug. "Probably close to 200 gold coins."

“Then, I have the perfect alternative to a fight to the death. How about we host a competition here? The grand prize being 200 gold coins.”

That was, of course, a lot of gold coins. Theo wasn't certain he had that much himself, so he would likely need to dig into the town's treasuries. However, if he sold a few things off, he was certain they could make it up. And if he didn't have it, he could always borrow it from Fenian. That guy was always good for a couple of gold.

"This is an interesting proposition," Squeak said, rubbing his chin. Mostly his eyes flitted with concern to Tresk, who was still holding her daggers and stabbing them into the air. "What kind of competition were you thinking about?"

Theo considered what kind of competition they should hold. If he opened it up only to combat, it would be one-sided. If somebody like Elrin participated, he would win it with ease. But if he created several categories with tiers, it might work better. Imagine a situation where one leg of the competition had more to do with brains, and winning that would advance you to a new bracket if you wanted. But the people who didn't want to fight, they didn't have to fight. He could iron the details out later.

"A fair test of skill in various categories," Theo said. "We won't just be seeing who's the best fighter, but we could have challenges based on intellect, spellcasting, crafting, and whatever else we can think of.”

Aarok rubbed his chin. "This sounds awfully expensive."

"And we've got money to burn," Theo said, turning to glare at him. "Unless you plan on taking a horde of cash with you when the world ends."

Aarok shrugged.

“I’m not sure my people are interested in…” Squeak trailed off, eyes going wide as he looked at Tresk.

“Stabby stabby,” Tresk muttered, still foaming at the mouth.

"My people are incredibly interested in participating," Squeak said, doing a complete 180. "How long do you think it will take to set up these games?"

"No longer than a week," Theo said, waving a dismissive hand. "The hardest part is going to be coming up with what we're going to test people on. But I'll put my best people on it."

"Then we shall return in a week," Squeak said, bowing his head. "I am happy to have reached a more amicable solution to our mutual problem."

"Yep," Theo said, waving as the lizard person returned to his boat.

The sails on the ships caught the wind and dragged the shallow-running boats through the bay. Tresk did very well holding back her laughter until the group was far enough away that they couldn't hear her. And then she cackled, falling on the ground and rolling around.

"I thought he was gonna poop himself," she said, slamming her fists on the hard stone. "Did you see his face?"

"I must admit, it was hilarious," Aarok said, cracking a smile and shaking his head. “But are we seriously commiting to these games?”

“Absolutely. I want an arena and everything,” Theo said. He turned from the group and walked away, intent on gathering everything he needed to make it happen. It wasn't a surprise when Aarok and Tresk followed closely behind.

The arena Theo had in mind was ridiculous and completely unnecessary, but they were at a point in the city’s development that ridiculous things were the only things that excited him anymore. So, why not make it as absurd as possible?

"I've got a few ideas for some games," Tresk said, raising her hand. "We can create games based on common skills used by adventurers, but as we've seen, there's much more that goes into life than just killing monsters. We should definitely have a cooking competition and an overall crafting competition."

"But at the same time, we shouldn't neglect a martial competition," Aarok retorted.

"How about leaning into your military background?" Theo said to Aarok. "We could do larger-scale battles between two teams, blunt weapons and strict rules of course."

"That's not a bad idea," Aarok said. "What about tracking competitions? Those don't have to take place in an arena. We could capture a monster and release it into the swamp. First person to find it wins.”

The ideas bubbled between the members of the group. They all pitched something that interested them, and the others helped refine it into something that would be useful. Of course, these were just the early phases of the ideas. They would kick them back to the town administrators to look over. But for now, the thing Theo wanted was some plans for the arena itself.

A quick check through the administration interface told him Ziz had expanded his gang of stoneworkers to a healthy team of far too many people. A quick message told him they had enough of a working force to pull teams from the housing project. The amount of refugees had slowed down, giving them some extra time.

Which meant Ziz and his boys would focus on producing stone for a while. Any building efforts would wait until the alchemist cleared the area for this arena.

“Knock knock,” Theo said, cracking the door to Alise’s office. He stuck his head in, grinning.

“Oh, gods. What do you want?”

“Two options. Mountains or ocean,” Theo said.