Game

With three of the five days of traveling completed, Roland couldn't help but feel hopeful. There had been no adversaries other than the terrain, and most of the time was spent in silence. Ash wasn't happy when he told her about the new plan, but she decided to travel with him until they reached the tree line, then she would resume looking for the one who killed her comrades.

However, with the sun rising on the fourth day, Roland couldn't help but feel as if something had changed with Ash. He noticed while they gathered up the camping equipment he'd brought along that she would glance over at him for a brief moment, before looking away and continuing her work. Sometimes, he'd even catch her sigh as if she were distraught about something. Then, as they were traveling, Ash would try to start up a conversation, asking about his past, about his friends, about himself. Of course, he answered most of her questions, leaving out the information that she could use against him if she were to betray him.

"Hey," Ash started as they started up another mountain for the nth time that day, "about these other... other..."

"Humans," Roland said, laughing internally at his companion's forgetfulness.

"Yea, humans," Ash repeated. "How'd you come to be a hoard?"

"We're not a hoard, Ash," he explained. "We're just a bunch of people who happen to share similar interests. When I was in university, I to—"

Ash turned to Roland, shocked at this new information. "You learned at a university?!"

"Yea," he replied, slightly confused. "I guess universities exist here?"

"Only the snootiest of magic-users get the chance to go," she explained. "How'd you pay for it? From what I've heard, it costs a treasure pile and a half to even apply!"

"It works a little differently where I'm from," Roland explained, waving off the question. "Anyways, I met them when I took a literature class on... I've actually forgotten. It's been awhile, I guess!" Roland chuckled at the faint memory. "Two of them came up to my country, Canada, to learn a thing or two, and Mitsuru and I just sort of hit it off with them. At that point, me and Mitsuru were actually dating, believe it or not."

"What were you studying? Magic?" she asked, putting a underneath her muzzle.

"No, no," Roland laughed. "Magic doesn't exist where I come from. I studied law for a bit, then got a major in physics."

Now it was Ash's turn to laugh. "Law?! Why would you study something so useless?!"

"Useless? How exactly is law useless?"

"Because," Ash flexed one of her arms to emphasize her point, "if you're strong enough, you can do anything you want! That's how the world works!" Roland looked away and smiled sadly. Her words, despite her cutely determined tone of voice, caused a well of melancholy to ripple inside Roland. "Hey, are you okay?" she said, sounding a little worried now. "Er... why'd you quit?"

"You said it yourself." he said coldly, "it was useless to me. Not to mention it was boring as all hell."

Ash didn't say anything else as the continued up the mountain. She kept interlocking her claws and twiddling with what Roland could only assume was the dragon equivalent of thumbs. He felt a bit bad about stopping the conversation on a sour note, but the topic was sour to begin with.

With his old memories of the city still fresh in his mind, Roland couldn't help appreciate the new scenery. The clean air in his lungs, the raw stone underneath his feet... it was a change of pace that under normal circumstances he would have enjoyed to the fullest, but with a seven foot tank walking next to him, he found it hard to enjoy nature. Ash was a constant reminder that he was not in his element anymore.

As they crested the lower section of the mountain, Ash spoke once more. "So..." she reached. "Physics?"

"Yea," he laughed, confusing Ash in the process. "I switched from moral law to physical law! I guess I really never quit to begin with, huh?"

"I... I don't understand," she admitted, scratching the back of her head. "What's a physic?"

Roland laughed harder at her question, causing the dragoness to get flustered and punch him lightly in the arm. "Sorry, sorry," he said. "Physics is the study of how the universe works, for example..." He borrowed a small stone from the ground and after showing it to Ash, he hurled it down the other side of the mountain. "Gravity is a part of physics."

"As neat as that is, look over there." Ash pointed down the mountain towards a grassy field, which quickly turned into a treeline not to far ahead. "There's the forest. Through that will lead us into gryphon territory..."

"You sound nervous," Roland commented. "You don't like gryphons?"

"Let's just say they're a little too rape-y for dragon standards."

Roland felt a chill of fear crawl up his spine. Instinctively, he looked at his phone to see if Vivian was online. To his misfortune, she wasn't. "God, I hope she's okay," he whispered to himself.

"Don't worry," Ash comforted, "if the female is strong enough, the aggressive males will keep their distance."

"I'm not worried about the aggressive ones," he explained as they reached the bottom of the mountain, "it's the quiet ones that are the biggest threat to her."

Ash looked at Roland, confused by his choice of threat. "The quiet ones?"

"Let's just say that Vivian is a little too trusting if you're nice to her," he explained. "Although, there is the off chance they'll assume she's a lesbian. Wouldn't be the first time..."

"Your logic confuses me, Roland."

The two reached the edge of the forest after a short, silent walk. When they stopped just before the treeline, Roland turned around and raised his hand towards his partner. "I won't force you to come any further," he said with a smile. "Thanks for taking me this far, Ash."

"It would harm my honor not to," she explained, taking his hand in her claw and shaking it.

"Alright then, I guess this is goodbye," Roland said, letting go of the claw. He turned and proceeded into the forest.

He silently awaited for Ash to say goodbye as he walked, but the way it was said made the judge hesitate a bit. "Goodbye..." he overheard the dragon sigh from behind. It was filled with despair and sorrow.

Stopping suddenly, Roland pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed in frustration. Why couldn't she just say what was wrong? He turned and saw Ash looking at the ground with her arms crossed, a forlorn look on her face. "Okay," Roland sighed, now annoyed, "what's wrong?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong?!" Ash suddenly snapped back, looking at the human with malice. "Nothing's wrong! Go! You're friend needs you! It's not like I want you to stay! Go!"

"Why are you mad?!" Roland replied, now angry himself. "If you want to come with me, that's fine! Just say so!"

"Why would I?! To me, your just— just a stranger! It's not like I want to come with you, or something..." she said resentfully, turning her head to the side.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Roland murmured to himself, shaking his head. "Okay, fine. I need you, Ash." The dragoness looked up suddenly with her cheeks red somehow and a shocked look. "How 'bout this," Roland started, clapping his hands together and looking Ash in the eyes. "Since this "game" I'm in vaguely resembles games on my planet, I have reason to believe that my friends and I will acquire a large amount of treasure or some other sort of currency. If you come with me, I'll give you my share of treasure at the end of the "game." Okay?"

Ash looked away again, still red from the embarrassment of Roland's previous words. After a few moments of thinking, she looked towards the human and walked up to him.

"Deal," she agreed as they shook again.

"Lovely," Roland said with a hint of frustration.

The judge turned and walked further into the forest, now with his permanent partner in pursuit. Although he was frustrated, he was relieved that he could continue to travel with her. Not only did he enjoy her company, but she was literally a dragon. "Next time," he started out of the blue, "could you just say you want to come with me? I hate beating around the bush." There was no response at first, making Roland think that Ash was mad at him still.

"I'm sorry," she said surprisingly timidly, causing Roland to look back at her. Her empty claw grasped the arm holding her spear, and she looked hurt. "You're..." she trailed off, he eyes glistening with tears. "You're the only one I— that I can trust anymore."

Roland sighed and swore in his head. He needed to change the topic.

"So..." he started, "did I tell you about the time I switched my friend's drink with hand sanitizer?"

"...what's hand sanitizer?"

"Oh you poor girl."

As Roland reflected upon the forth day's events, he couldn't help but feel like the fifth day was worse. He chocked it up to not being well rested since he volunteered to take the second watch, but he thought he began to see things darting through the forest's shadows. It started just before the sun came up, he saw a bush off in the distance moving in the opposite direction of the breeze, before returning to normal. Then it happened several times when Ash was helping him remove the tent. Roland found it rather odd that he never saw the creature, just the movement.

And now, again it was happening as they walked through the tranquil forest! "Have you been seeing shadows move through the forest? Like, at all?" Roland asked, cautious of the possibility of an ambush.

"Just animals, why?" she asked, lacing the last word with concern. "Are you seeing something I don't?"

"I doubt that sincerely," he responded, "since I'm the the blind one here. Aren't dragons an apex predator here? Don't you have really good vision?"

At the question, Ash's cheeks caught aflame and she looked away in embarrassment. "I— er... I was the... the runt of our hoard." She began to look sheepishly at Roland, who gave her a deadpan expression back. "And... maybe... the greenhorn as well..."

"You're lucky you're cute, or else I would call off this arrangement right now," Roland remarked, shaking his head slightly at what he had gotten himself into.

"You — " she stumbled with her words, looking even more embarrassed, " — you think I'm cute?"

"Well, you're not three stories tall..." Roland murmured under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"No." Ash stopped dead in her tracks, Roland quickly following her lead and looked at her stern expression as she stared off into the distance. "I saw something that time. Pony sized. Maybe... six of them," she relaid to Roland.

His eyes darted throughout the forest. Six?! He couldn't even see one clearly! Roland gulped and got close to Ash, so close that their arms were touching.

Where were they?!

A sudden laughing resounded from the forest, all male voices. "Hey, hey," one of the voices called out coolly, "no need to get so worked up!"

"Show yourselves, you coward birds!" roared Ash, brandishing her spear.

Roland looked up front, seeing a shadow in the distance. It wasn't a pony, nor gryphon. It was...

"This one's got fight 'n 'er!" another voice called. "'Ey, Boss! Let us have a go at 'er! Ain't ever put meself inta no dragon before, 'ey boys!?"

It's mask — the tragedy mask — held Roland's vision. He couldn't look away. It was like his body was covered in ice.

Many of the voices laughed in agreement. "Alright, alright," the apparent boss calmed his crew. "Now then, ape! We'll let you go if you give us your valuables and, of course, your dragon friend there!" After a few chuckles he added another part to the deal. "And if you want, you can get a round in if you'd like, that is if you help us!"

Roland could feel it's misery, it's self loathing. It wanted to help him. Help him prevent the same regret that it had felt all those years ago.

"Roland..." Ash whispered in shock, seeing her partner's empty eyes.

The masked, tar-like being raised its hand, and so to did Roland until his palm was skyward. With this, the wicked could be punished.

He felt them. He could feel their cores. Two on the right, two on the left, two guarding the road ahead.

Roland threw his hand dramatically towards the ground.

There was the sudden snapping of many branches and twigs, the confused shouts of pain from the assailants, and finally, the sickening sound of bodies hitting the floor hard.

After a moment of silence, Ash ran towards one of the sources of sound. There she found a gryphon highwayman, complete with cash, bandanna, and sword. Ash didn't need to be a doctor to know what had killed the bird: several of his bones had fractured through his skin, tainting his feathers, coat, and the grass beneath him red with blood. Not only that, but his neck was twisted at a very odd angle, a sure sign that his neck had been broken.

She didn't understand what had just happened, but she needed to make sure to use this to her advantage. Ash gathered all the supplies she could from the corpses, then came back to Roland — who was now on his side, coughing up a storm — and began packing the swords, food, and coins she had brought.

Just as she was finishing, Ash noticed Roland was unusually quiet for someone who had been having a coughing fit just seconds before. "B—" she heard him stutter. "...black?"

Roland couldn't believe his eyes.

He expected blood to be on his hand when he felt it get unusually wet, but instead tar trickled down his hand. No, it wasn't tar: too fluid. Ink? No, too viscous. He didn't know what it was, but there should have been nothing black in his body. He pushed himself up from the floor into a sitting position and looked to where the monster was standing.

Only to find it lurking directly in front of him.

"Oh my fucking god!!!" he screamed in panic. "Ash! ASH!" Roland scraped himself backwards towards his partner, who caught him and struggled to hold him still. "What the fuck is that thing, Ash!?" He pointed to the monster in horror.

Ash stood — bringing Roland to his feet with her — and looked around for the monster in the direction he was pointing. "What are you talking about? Nobody's here..."

"It's standing right there, Ash!" How could she not see it?! The pile of tar was staring right at them!

"Roland, calm down," she tried to comfort. "I know it may have been the first time you've killed someone, but—"

"They're dead?!" He looked back to the monster in front of them, who nodded in confirmation. "I— I...!"

The sudden weight of the situation forced it's way down onto Roland's shoulders, and in desperation he tried to recollect the events that had just transpired. First, he started to see shadows move in the distance, then came the ambush. Had they been trailing them since the day started?

No, Ash would have spotted them earlier. Not only that, but it was one shadow he saw, not six. What happened next? He saw the masked tar monster in front of him now. It talked to him: whispers of forgotten truths in a language he didn't understand. Then, it showed him that power, the one that had killed the gryphons. It wasn't telekinesis, it couldn't have been. When he was "feeling" them out, he could see their "cores".

It was gravity. He was moving their centre of gravity downwards. No... that couldn't be true! That's physically impossible!

But... this was a game. It didn't have to be.

Roland swallowed at the revelation. It was a useful ability, but it was also dangerous to use. If he were to mess around with gravity too much, he might pull something large down. Not only that, but he didn't know if it could affect his allies as well. He'd have to use it with caution until he had the time to test it out.

Roland pried himself from Ash's grasp. "I... I'm fine now."

"Really?" Ash questioned with reasonable doubt. "You just started screaming bloody murder that there's something standing here not even a second ago."

"Yes, I did," he admitted. "I think it has something to do with the game. Or — just maybe — my class."

"What did you do?" she questioned, suddenly aware of the situation herself. "And what's on your claw?"

"It's not—!" Roland looked back to the hand he had coughed into. The black substance was still there, mocking his knowledge of what was going on. Roland looked suddenly at the monster beside him. No, it wasn't a monster: it was intelligent. It had showed Roland a way to defend himself.

Holding out his hand, Roland compared the substance on his hand to the "flesh" of the being. They looked remarkably alike. The question was, why did he cough up the same substance? Why was the substance inside of him?

"Let's... just go," Roland huffed in exhaustion. Without waiting for a response, he continued down the same the pair was walking towards before they were interrupted.

"Hey, wait—!" But it was too late. Roland walked by a tree that one of the highwaymen had been perched on, and instinctively looked to the red splotch that stood out amongst the grass.

The reaction wasn't immediate, but soon enough Roland hurried to one of the nearby bushes. Ash rushed to his side when the sound of what they ate earlier that day hit the ground with a splat.