A Disaster of Fugitives - an MCYT D&D AU fanfiction

30: Ren

'Come on.' Scar demands to Cub as we reach the castle. Everyone's watching us. No. Not us. The dragon egg in my hands.

'What's this? Wait... you're the guy we chased and-' The guard at the entrance stops. 'You have the egg.'

'We have the egg. And...' Scar glances at Cub. 'And the person who stole it.'

'It... wasn't you?'

'It wasn't them.' Cub admits. 'It was me. It was all me.'

'Not all you, Cub. We can explain when we're inside... if you let us.'

'Come in. Someone get some proper handcuffs for the prisoner.' 

'We... had to make do with what we had.'

'It doesn't matter. Come in.'

The doors open and we enter. We wait for a couple minutes awkward in the entrance room before we're allowed into the main room where Queen Pearl has just arrived. Gem and Impulse aren't far behind.

'What happened? Skizz? You- wait- you have the egg?!'

'We have the egg.' I hold it out. 

'Gem?'

The druid steps over at the command, taking the egg from me. 

'It's the real egg,' she confirms. The idea of it being fake hadn't even crossed my mind.

'So. Why did you steal the egg Mr...'

'Cub. Just Cub.'

'Why did you steal it, Cub?'

'Because... I was told to.'

'By who? Are they still around?' I shake my head.

'Scar killed them. They won't come back.'

'Gem, take this to the high security vault. Skizz... lead the other two out. We'd like to talk privately with Cub here.' We follow the Dwarf guard Skizz towards the exit until Scar stops.

'Keep going, buddy.'

'Will... will he be ok?' He asks, looking at the ground.

'That is for his actions to decide. But it'll take a lot to deem execution as punishment.' A glance up, and a frown.

'You... weren't going to execute us?' 

'Of course not!' The dwarf Impulse laughs. 'We're not monsters.'

'No, just manual labour, imprisonment... but not execution!'

'So... I could've been chilling in a prison cell this entire time instead of trekking all the way to the Great Empire?!' A meow from Jellie. 'I know, Jellie! It's ridiculous!'

'It doesn't matter. Leave this room so we can decide just punishment for the thief himself.' We do. Scar watches Cub until the door behind us is closed and we're left to wait for judgement.

A few days pass. Cub's sentence is given publicly with the news that the egg's back - a few years in the castle dungeon, though he can leave on good behaviour after 1. Me and Scar are given protection and shiny metals for our service to Dryadalis. And, instead of going our separate ways, we stick together, gradually working through our disagreement over Cub. He accepts my anger, I accept his sympathy. Cub was still punished. And he was forced to take the egg by True. But he's still alive. Safe. And too easy to meet with.

'Can we see him?' Scar asks as we walk down the street.

'Who?'

'Cub. I can convince the guards to let us in... we did bring him here.'

'Do they allow prison guests?'

'We can convince them to let us in...' I'm left without a choice as he heads off, following as he runs to the dungeon entrance. I ignore the dragonborn on guard duty, reminded of Doc, entering the building. 

'Hey... we're here to see the egg-prisoner. Cub.' Scar explains to the elf on duty inside. 'We're the ones that brought him here.'

'Down there.' They explain. I frown. Something about their brown-blonde hair and purplish eyes are familiar. 'You can go right in.' 

'Really?!' 

'Yeah. If you try to free him the dragon will kill all three of you.'

'Dragon?'

'Where do you think the egg came from?! A chicken? Some sort of poultryman?!'

'Thank you... what's your name?'

'Xelqua. Go and see your friend.'

We head through the door and down into the dungeon. I try to stick close to Scar, unease growing at the dark stone around... eventually it levels out, and only takes a few cells to find Cub.

'I bought some food.' Is all Scar says, throwing a roll of bread in. A small smile back as he take it, eating despite the chains around his wrists. None of us speak. We just sit there together, at the end of our quest...

'...The end.' 

We all applaud as False finishes, even Doc who's been salty since Hels killed off his character. It doesn't take a ton of cajoling to get her to stand and take a small bow. We all know how great a DM she's been, though the twist betrayal came from Cub himself (Scar's expression was priceless).

'We need to do another, dudes.' Nods all around our D&D table. 'And we need to bring in more hermits... Wels, you need a main character in the campaign next time. Your Hels was impeccable.'

'Xornyyyyyy!' Wels imitates again to laughter and a few more replicas from the party. Jellie (our honourary 7th party member) jumps onto the table, meowing for treats she's had too many of already. Martyn continues feeding her anyway. 

'Best thing about being out the campaign? You get to spend time with Jellie.' He strokes her.

'Absolutely.' Grian agrees next to him. Over half the sessions became Grian fussing over Jellie while we continued roleplaying (which neither he or the cutest cat in the world minded)

'I don't even like cats!' Doc grumbles.

'Come on... it's ok. She's not too bad.'

'She's annoying and she's always everywhere! I don't know how you can enjoy being out the campaign, Martyn...'

'It helped the twist.' Martyn shrugs, standing as we start to pack everything up. 

'I no longer trust Cub.' Scar repeats for the 50th time or so. 'He's a sneaky man! How long were you even planning that for?!'

'Whole campaign.' He explains casually, gathering the mini characters we used. 'It was worth it though.'

'Really, really worth it... anyway, I should head back to New Life. This has been fun though.'

'Bye Martyn!' I call back 'DM you when the next campaign starts! Maybe Scar will know what dice to use then...' 

'I know what dice to use!' Jellie meows in what Scar takes as being agreement. 'Thank you, Jellie!' 

'See you then!' Martyn disappears, leaving us with a lot of memories and a lot more to pack up.

Yes it was all a game (that was a lot less angsty than the book itself)

Them: 'Scar's taken prisoner! Nooo!'

Me: *gives Scar unending trauma*