The Joker and The Rose.

= Ramon =

After the new crew members and the liberated slaves had been given a good meal and a warm bed it was time to check on the soldiers that had been put in the brig. They had also been given food and mattresses had been put in the cells so that more could sleep in the same cell. All in all there had been 14 survivors from a crew of nearly 50.

There were 6 cells in the brig. I walked down the hallway, checking each cell. Some had been injured by Artemis and some had surrendered when they realized that more than two third of the crew was either dead or dying.

Stopping at one cell i noticed a magenta colored unicorn mare sitting in the corner, a piece of bloodied cloth over her eyes.

Suddenly she woke, screaming obscenities obviously directed at Artemis, as if he had been in the room. I could see how a wave of pain hit her as she brought her hoofs to her eyes, she tried to remove the cloth but one of the soldires stopped her and explained to her about the situation, about the silvery stallion and her eyes.

The look on her face when the soldier told her about the captain, it made me feel like my heart had fallen down to my feet and shot up into my throat at the same time. A combined expression of utter hopelessness, defeat, humility and guilt filled her face as she slumped back into the corner, slight sobs could be heard coming from her. It was then i noticed on her flank, a dark purple cloud filled with lavender colored stars shooting down lightning bolts. It was a beautiful mark.

I noticed how the pony that had told her didn't really look like soldier material. Covered in different shades of grey, the old pony looked more like somebody who should have retired years ago.

After checking the prisoners i decided to inspect the new crew members. Artemis had already put those with experience with airships and zeppelins on making the ship ready for departure. We were currently anchored to a cliff side, ready to go when the captain instructed.

Most of the newly recruited were ponies, be it pegasi, unicorns or earth. But several of the slaves had been griffins or diamond dogs. The one thing i did not recognize was the blackened bug things. They looked like regular ponies in body and shape but they had strange holes in their legs, strange wings and blue eyes without pupils. There were only 4 of them, but three looked identical and the fourth was slightly larger.

"They are changelings." Tony explained.

"Changelings?" I asked.

We were sitting down in the mess hall, playing cards.

"Yeah, they come from the changeling wastelands, between Gem Fido and the dragon badlands. They possess some kind of magic ability that lets them morph into any quadrupedal creature, granted they are not too big. You wont see a changeling disguise as a fully grown dragon," Tony continued.

"Uh-huh." i simply replied.

"Check." I heard Catalina say. We were sitting at a round table playing poker.

"Raise." Tony said, throwing in 20 bits.

We had found several sacks of gems and bits when we had searched through the ship. It was probably the gems and stuff the ponies found in the den back where they also found Artemis.

"Maybe we should tell Artemis about all the stuff?" I heard tony say.

"Fo sho, but first i'm gonna win this hand." I called.

"Oh-hoy, getting a bit cocky are we? call." Tony looked at Catalina.

Catalina looked at both of us, "Fold," She sighed and put her cards down, i checked.

"Another one bites the dust." Tony hooted and raised by another 40.

- 20 minutes later -

Walking out of the mess hall 400 bits richer i directly made my way to the great cabin to tell Artemis that everything was ready. As i was walking across the main deck towards the double doors leading to the great cabin, i noticed a large shadow shooting across the deck. I looked up and to my dread saw a fully grown golden dragon circling above the ship.

"Speaking of the devil!" I quickly sprinted across the deck and was about to bust through the double doors when they suddenly flung open, sending me flying backwards.

"Come on Ramon! This is not the time to be napping, there is a dragon about to attack the ship!" Artemis exclaimed as he walked out on the deck, his strange sword in one hand and a bottle in the other.

I sat up and looked at Artemis, he was standing in the middle of the deck observing the dragon circling above.

I heard footsteps behind me, i turned around and saw Tony and Catalina run out on the main deck, followed by several other crew members.

"Tony, Catalina, quick! Go to the armory and get those harpoon launchers we saw earlier!" I shouted. I saw them turn right around and run in again.

Artemis turned to me, "You know how to take it down?" He asked.

I stood up, "Yes, most Diamond dogs and Griffins are natural dragon hunters. If we can get those harpoons up here we can take it down." I looked up at the dragon, it was still circling the ship.

Artemis nodded, "Good, i have an idea." he said.

Suddenly the dragon roared, it was a paralyzing sound. I looked up, the dragon started diving towards the ship.

I heard the sound of fabric being torn, i looked at Artemis and saw that he had torn a piece of his shirt, he stuffed the piece of cloth into the bottle he was holding and lit it with what looked like a golden tinderbox.

The dragon landed on the main deck and looked at Artemis, it immediately shot its head forward, mouth wide and open ready to swallow Artemis whole.

I watched as Artemis hurled the flaming bottle straight down the throat of the dragon, it broke and exploded, fire swirling down into the bowels of the dragon.

Artemis quickly jumped to the side, barely dodging the dragon.

The dragon continued onwards, its insides on fire. It was twitching and jerking, a pillar of smoke rose from its mouth and nostrils. It skidded across the deck and quickly fell off the edge and started pummeling towards the ground.

I looked back at Artemis, he was lying on the floor laughing. He quickly jumped to his feet and walked over to the edge of the ship that the dragon had fallen off. I followed him and looked down but i couldn't see any sign of a dragon.

"I guess he didn't like rum." Artemis said.

"Did we kill it?" I asked him.

"No..." Artemis turned around.

The dragon appeared again on the other side of the ship, it shot up towards the sky at an amazing speed.

"... we just made it angry." Artemis finished, grinning.

"Yo Ramon, catch!" i heard a voice call out.

I turned to the voice and saw Tony toss a harpoon launcher to me. I caught the launcher and readied it. I turned to Artemis.

"Alright people, when that dragon makes another pass i want you to use those harpoons to pin it down on the ship. When its down i will jab it in the neck with my sword." Artemis explained.

"That seems awful risky," i heard Catalina say.

"No guts, no glory" Artemis responded.

The dragon roared again, it quickly dived and landed on the deck again, this time it kept its jaw shut.

We quickly spread out, surrounding the dragon. We fired the harpoons at its legs, wings and neck, effectively pinning it down on the floor. Artemis quickly hoisted himself up on the neck of the beast and thrust his sword between the scales, straight into the beasts head.

The dragon stopped struggling and slumped to the floor, light jerks and twitches shot through its limbs.

Artemis stood up on the dragons neck, raised his blood drenched sword to the sky and screamed at the top of his lungs,

"DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOON!!!!"

Before he swung it in a wide arch and sliced the dragons head clean off.

The dragons head unceremoniously landed on the floor, blood spurting out of its neck like a fountain.

Artemis jumped off the dragons neck and landed on the floor. He took out another bottle from one of his inside pockets, pulled the cork out with his teeth, making a *pop* sound and spat the cork out on the dragons head. He turned to me.

"And that my friend, is how you kill a dragon." He said before downing the bottle.

Artemis belched loudly as he finished the bottle and tossed it overboard, "that was much better than the rum," he said.

I could hear the crew cheering at their victory over the winged beast.

Artemis turned to me. "Say, can you cook a dragon?" he asked.

"It is not advisable, the blood of a dragon is highly addictive for magical users, just a few drops will get you hooked. The withdrawal effects are extremely unpleasant and could even be lethal if you consumed enough dragon blood." I explained.

"Oh, i guess i should wash this off then." Artemis looked down at his blood drenched clothes.

"That would probably be good." I said.

= Artemis =

I had gathered Ramon, Catalina, Tony, Onyx and one of the Nigels in the great cabin, i had introduced them to each other and decided that they would be my team of advisors. I was drying my hair with a towel after taking a bath to get the dragon blood off me.

The group was discussing about what we should do next. They had a map stretched out over the large table in the middle of the room. I was sitting in the swivel chair by my desk, now cleaned off from all the books and such.

After the dragon had been defeated the diamond dogs and griffins had starting to scavenge the body. Dragon scales, skin and bones were apparently one of the hardest materials known and could be used to make armor and weapons. I had taken the liberty to hang the severed dragons head on the wall above me, good thing the roof was tall enough or else i would smack into the thing every time i got out of the chair.

"All i'm saying is that dragons rarely go far from their territories to hunt, that was a fully grown dragon. I am sure that it has a cave around here somewhere." Ramon said.

"And how do you know that?" Tony asked, not liking the idea about going looking for more dragons.

"When a dragon grows mature it leaves the mother and goes to find its own home. It finds a suitable cave or something similar and makes its nest there. Dragons are crazy about gems and generally anything shiny, if we find the nest then it is highly likely that it will be filled with wealth." Ramon explained.

Onyx joined the argument, "We could really need the money for supplying the ship, unless you haven't noticed this ship has no form of weaponry. Those harpoon guns had been the only stuff in the armory, save swords and spears," Onyx turned to me, "We need to supply this ship with cannons and ammunition if we are ever going to become pirates, which i thing is a kind of vague goal." she continued.

"I still don't like it, what if we run into another dragon?" Tony asked.

"We kill it, just like we did with that one." Ramon pointed at the dragon head hanging above me.

"I still don't understand how you pulled that off Artemis, what is that sword made off? Dragons cannot be so easily decapitated by one swing." Onyx asked me.

"Nigel, what do you think?" Catalina asked.

"Pay no attention to this Nigel, Nigel is elsewhere." He simply stated.

I finished drying my hair and tossed the towel onto a hook by the wall. I took up my lighter and my ivory pipe, i took some tobacco i had found in the same cabin as the liquor and put it in the chamber, pressed it down with my thumb and lit it. I took a long deep puff and blew out a smoke ring, followed by slight coughing coming from me.

"Mentlegen... lets go find us a dragons nest." i said, smiling.