Wicked Delights

It’s strange how some things can seem so beautiful and gentle in one light, and yet so ugly and cruel in another. A forest might seem pleasant and inviting in the daytime with sunlight cascading through the breaches of the canopy to form amber shafts of heaven. Perhaps the trees would shake ever so slightly in the wind, rattling their arbor amusement at Mother Nature’s kind breath. In the night however that same forest might appear unsettling, what with the crescent moon peaking through the branches that now leered over those who would travel their lands in the hours of the unwaking.

It was in this darker much less kind forest the child found itself, cold wind cutting through the thin milky-white linen of the sheet it wore as night clothes. The child seemed to be two, perhaps three years of age. Too young to recognize the true peril of its situation but old enough to be scared. It crawled a little way in one direction, only to quickly turn and crawl back the way it came. It paused then, head turning as confusion and fear curdled into terror and tears on its face. The stark contrast of its shimmery white clothing against the velvet blackness of the forest made it appear almost as a shooting star that had lost its way, for the child was certainly, horribly, lost.

Just as the child lowered its head and let out its first sob, something shifted in the edges of its vision. Something deeper within the forest. The fear on the child's face lifted for a moment as obvious hope began to rise in its eyes. Perhaps its mother or its father had come searching for it. Perhaps this night would end not with sorrow and despair, but with reunion and love. Perhaps-

A clawed talon with scales so dark they seemed to be forged from ink crushed a branch and all of the child’s hopes beneath it and its massive weight. The air rumbled with a low vibration that the child was unable to understand, but to others would have been easily recognized as the growl of an apex predator. Another claw emerged from the surrounding darkness and revealed a muscled forelimb more than twice the size of the child itself. The creature, for the child, did not know the word “Dragon”, pulled itself from the night as with such fluidity one might wonder if it had even existed before this moment. It seemed less a creature and more a spirit of the moment. An aspect of the forest. Shadow and death’s child.

The Dragon’s head pulled back in preparation to strike, ivory jaws bared and glinting with the light of the moon as they surged forwards to cut short the life of-

“Stay your jaws, foul creature, lest I cut a fang from your maw and impale your acid-pumping heart upon it!” A flash of silver raced toward the Dragon even as it struck at the child. The silver streak and the black wave crashed together with a clatter of metal against stone and when the child dared to look up they saw a man outfitted with plate armor that seemed to shine with all the light of day even in this woeful night. He wore no helm and his sky-blue hair spilled off of one side of his brow. He was tall, broad, and wore a smile so warm that it banished the chill from the child's body in an instant. So awed by this man was the child that it was only moments later that it realized that the man had caught the open jaws of the Dragon with two outstretched arms raised above his head. The Dragon shook with an effort that the man barely seemed to notice.

“Dear child, fear not. This creature shall not harm you in my presence. You have my word as a knight. You have the word of Sir Solis Of The Realm Of Etheria!” With the final word, the man began to push back against the jaws of the straining creature, slowly forcing it back and away from the child. When the man, Sir Solis, had gone ten steps from the child he wrenched his plated arms to the side, tossing the Dragon to the earth and stepping towards it as he drew a blade of burning steel. “Rise demon and die with what honor your kind can possess!” The Dragon, knowingly or not, followed Sir Solis’ command and rose to its feet, blaring a call of pure contempt towards the shining knight. The two charged towards each other and traded blow for blow with speeds so quick the battle seemed almost rehearsed. Sir Solis was strong and quick and brave, yet the Dragon was his physical equal and his moral antithesis. With a powerful swipe of its claw, it sent Sir Solis’ blade spinning into the dark forest. The knight stood weaponless and seemingly defenseless before the beast. Sensing victory, the black Dragon struck at the man with the certainty of a creature that believed itself invincible.

This is why it seemed so surprised when Sir Solis punched an armored hand through its chest and ripped its black heart free from its body. With a roar the the audience leaped to their feet and shouted their praise for the man's daring and bravery “Back to hell with you creature, and tell all the other villains I’ve sent there that-”

“Oh, what’s the point? They can’t hear me over their cheering anyways” Sir Solis, or in truth, Navi Nasae thought to himself. This always happened during their show. People came to see a monster killed, they didn’t care about his amazing dialogue. “Their loss.” He thought as he turned back to face the people that now stood shouting and clapping before their stage. It was a nice crowd, though how much they had enjoyed the show Navi would only know once their donations had been counted. He slid his prop sword back into its sheath, pushed the wet mass of rags that he’d painted to look like a heart into a pocket, and stepped forwards towards the crowd to give a bow. After a moment he swept his arm to his left and gestured to the dead Dragon, who promptly sat up and came to stand beside him and take a bow itself. Then Navi bent down to pick up the child, who was just a well-manipulated puppet, and the three all bowed together

“Thank you, my friends, thank you! I am Navi Nasae, master of drama and intrigue, and your Sir Solis for tonight!”

“And I am Jerris Sket, master of danger and narrative, and your…Monstrous Dragon for tonight!”

Navi shot Jerris a quick look at the dragon’s hesitation to name his role. Navi knew that Jerris didn’t appreciate portraying Dragons in such an unflattering light, but the story of Sir Solis and the Monstrous Dragon was their best-performing show. It wasn’t Navi’s fault that the play had been written twenty years before the treaties between Ymorra and Draqine. Usually, Navi would have been alright with performing another show, but he and Jerris needed the money and they needed it now. “The Tributum doesn’t like people who make them wait for their money, and people they don’t like tend to not live very long.” After basking in the crowd’s applause for a few moments more Navi raised his voice again and gestured to a young boy making his way through the audience with a small sack. "We thank you for your kind donations, and please remember we are the Wicked Delights Company of Players. We travel the country with our only purpose to entertain all who come to our humble temple of dreams!" Navi and Jerris bowed a final time before making their way down from the stage and into their dressing room. Some may have also called it an alleyway, but artists such as them were able to look past appearances.

Navi shed the hammered sheets of scrap metal that they’d used to fashion the plate armor with practiced ease and was soon sitting upon a stack of boxes watching Jerris scrub the black paint from his naturally lavender scales. It was a slow process that would take Jerris perhaps hours thanks to the grooves and niches within the Dragon’s scales. “I still don’t understand why you insist on painting and washing yourself every night. Lots of Dragons paint their scales for fun and just leave them that way for days or even weeks. You know we perform this show often, so why?”

Jerris didn't even bother to turn to him when he replied, still obviously focused on wiping the paint from between a few claws. “Navi you’re not as good of an actor as me of course, but you’re still a thespian are you not? When I put on the paint, I become the “Monstrous Dragon” in the story. I embody him flesh and soul. You wear your “armor”, I paint my scales.”

“My armor takes me five minutes to put on”

“Then perhaps next time you can be the monster and I’ll be the knight.”

Navi knew Jerris was only half-joking. The dragon has floated such “subversive” ideas past him before. He’d even wanted to add a musical number to their most somber act, “Daggers At Night”. Navi had told Jerris that neither of them could sing, but Jerris had still written the damn song and now seemed determined to croon it at Navi as often as he could.

Before Navi could reply to Jerris though, a young boy darted into the alleyway so quickly that Navi had to reach out a hand to stop him from running full speed into an unaware Jerris. “Goodness Quin calm down. I’ve told you before that no one is going to rob you in the two minutes it takes you to collect donations and bring them here. You don’t need to sprint our money to us. Speaking of, how did we do?” The boy had run so fast that he had to simply stand in front of Navi heaving air for a few moments before he could speak. “For…Forty bronze dinar, fifteen silver dinar, and three whole gold dinar” Navi’s dagger-thin smile cut across his face as he shot a look back toward Jerris. “That might be the best we’ve ever done old pal, maybe that paint isn’t a ridiculous waste of time.” Jerris grinned back with the same love of money that danced in Navi’s gaze. “And perhaps your line delivery is slightly more acceptable than a drunkards bar song.”

Navi reached out a hand to Quinn to take the coins. “And good job to you too Quinn. I’ll pay you double tonight.” The young boy paled and seemed to find something much more interesting to stare at on the ground between his feet. “W-Well Navi Th-The thing is uh….So….”

-------

“You have to be joking….sir” Navi bit off and spit out the last word like it was a moldy piece of bread. He stood in the stone courtyard before their stage with Jerris by his side. An actual knight of the realm, Sir Pellen Cavelle, stood there as well and glowered down at him

“I do not joke Sir. you performed your….display on the King’s property and as such as subject to the King’s laws. A performance permit costs one golden dinar, and membership to the royal guild of thespians, which is required to perform any show within the King’s lands, cost you each a Golden dinar as well. Then taxes on what you have earned from this show come out to five silver dinars and ten bronze dinars. Finally, you must also pay the employer’s fee seeing as you have that boy working for you, which is another ten silver dinar.”

Navi gripped the remaining thirty bronze dinar so tightly his fist shook with the strain. “Are you certain that is everything? I wouldn’t want to cut the King out of his earned share of our work. After all, he’s done ever so much for us.” Navi’s words dripped with sarcasm and venom and the knight was not so stupid as to not hear it.

“Watch your mouth or you’ll pay with more than your coin soon enough. I’m more than capable of handling you-” The knight turned his gaze upwards to look at the still half-painted Jerris “And my partner Gethis is more than capable of handling you.” The grey-scaled Dragon that stood beside the knight snorted in agreement. It was much larger than Jerris, and Navi had never seen Jerris win a fight that hadn’t been choreographed. “So I suggest that you two take the money you do have and put it towards an actual occupation. Goody day.” The knight and the Dragon that accompanied him turned to leave.

“....Victim or vandal?” Navi whispered to Jerris

The Dragon sighed and turned to face Navi. “Oh, you know I make a more convincing Vandal.”

“Even with your scales still splotchy with black paint?”

“Even then.” Then Jerris leaped at Navi with claws flashing and jaws snapping, a vicious yowl ripping free from his throat. Navi fell back in terror and saw out of the corner of his eye that the knight and the other Dragon has whipped around to see the source of the sudden shriek.

“Help me Sir Cavelle! He’s gone mad!” Navi rolled to the side as Jerris’ jaws slammed shut where he’d been only a moment before.

“You lost me my coin you fool! I’ll kill for this!” Shouted Jerris, stomping after Navi and chasing him back toward the alley they had used as their changing room. Navi could feel and hear the knight and the other dragon chasing after him and Jerris as they entered the alley. Navi dodged to the side and tumbled through the plates that had made up his armor and saw Jerris slam into the boxes he’d been sitting on a few minutes ago. The crates exploded in a shower of splinter but Jerris was back on his claws in one moment and after Navi the next. Navi bounced up and took off sprinting once again, weaving in and out of tight alleyway turns. “Should just be around this- There!” Navi slid into an alcove that was formed by two buildings that didn’t quite fit together. Jerris thundered past him, catching his eye and shooting him a wink. A moment later and the grey-scaled dragon thundered down the alley as well. Finally, nearly thirty seconds later, Navi heard the clatter of metal armor as Sir Cavelle finally sprinted through the alley. The man was wearing nearly heavy plate armor and it only made sense that he couldn’t quite keep up with a man sprinting for his life and two dragons with strides longer than he was tall. Navi almost felt bad as he raised the hammered sheet of metal he’d grabbed earlier in the alley, but then he thought about all the money Sir Cavelle had taken from him and he got over his guilt. As the man neared the alcove, Navi swung the sheet of metal out at eye level, catching the knight square in his face. His upper body stopped quickly, but his legs didn’t get the memo till a moment later and swung upwards, sending the man onto his back and into unconsciousness. Navi looked down at the knight and hoped that the man’s nose had always bent that way.

“Sorry Sir Cavelle, but you can’t mess with a man’s coin.” Navi squatted beside the prone figure and cut the coin purse from his waist. If he had had the time he would have stripped the man of his armor and weapons as well. They’d fetch quite a good with the Tributum after all, but Navi didn’t have the time. He could still hear and feel the two dragons racing through the alleys nearby, the ground shaking with their immense weights.”Now for the actual difficult part.” Navi was fairly sure he’d heard the knight speak enough to pull this off, but things were never certain for an Actor. Navi pulled the unconscious knight into the alcove and did his best to look small. He lifted a hand to his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs, but not with his voice. To any who might’ve been around to hear it would have sounded that the Knight Cavelle was shouting to the sky, not the young man Navi Nasae.

“Gethis! They’ve tricked us! Meet me back at the courtyard now!” Navi heard a roar and then the beating of wings taking flight answer his call. He shot a final look to Sir Cavelle, tilted the knight's head so that he wouldn’t choke on his own blood, and raced off to his and Jerris’ agreed meeting place.

As his feet pounded against the cobblestone beneath him Navi could hear the coins jingling and jangling in the pouch that was now tied to his waist. “Not an honest day’s work, but then whoever said Actor’s were honest?”