Me, thinking I have 2 chapters until the best bit

Also me: *remembers I moved those chapters forward by one

:)

I'm the only one who isn't soaking wet as we spend the night in the cave. Doc's asleep or passed out. Cub and Scar fall asleep on each other's shoulders. It's just me and Ren awake next to each other.

'So.' I begin.

'So.'

'We fought a dragon then.' 

'Yeah... Dude...' A laugh 'That was terrifying.'

'Yeah.' silence. 'This campaign has been mad.'

'But the best experience of my life.'

'Really?'

'Yeah... We've got to travel to new lands, we found friends for life. Just... The kind of stuff we don't do every day, y'know?'

'True. I'm glad Scar stole our wagon.'

'And Grian.' I fight the memories as Ren mentions him... He didn't deserve to die. He didn't deserve this. None of us deserved to be hunted down by True and her sadistic friends.

'We're close to finding this Oli guy though.' Ren cheers us up again with, pulling out the map 'Getting back the egg. It'll all be worth it when we get back the egg. Pearl will give us immunity and protection and we'll never deal with True again.'

'Yeah... We'll find him tomorrow. And then return victorious.'

'Victorious.' Echoes Ren, half asleep. I close my eyes, falling quickly asleep.

It's still dark when I wake up, first confused and slightly annoyed but then suspicious at a repeating muffled sound. Definitely some person. True's lot? They found us?! I scramble up at the thought, looking around the cave...

Cub's not there.

I cross towards the sound, grabbing the sword Cub nicked on the way. Raising it, I turn the corner and see-

'Wait- wait- it's just- it's just me!' 

I let it fall to my side at the sight of Cub, wide eyed and staring up at me. His eyes are red, he looks exhausted. I realise to slowly he'd made the noise. 

He'd been crying.

'Cub? What are you doing here? Crying?'

'You... heard?'

'Good hearing. What's going on?' I sit next to him. 

'Scar. I had... another nightmare. A bad one. A very... very bad one.'

'What... happened?'

He doesn't reply.

'If you're happy sharing.' I add quickly. He sighs.

'Getting hurt. True threatening... True getting the egg. A dragon killing...'

'Killing Scar?'

A nod. 

'It's stupid.' He mutters

'It's not. You've been through hells on this quest. And you didn't even choose to be part of it.'

'I did. I chose to come and protect Scar. And failed to protect Scar.'

'You didn't fail. We got him back.'

'He's scared. I still hear his screams. Every time I try to sleep it's just...'

'Cub, it's ok.'

'It's not. He's not ok. And he feels like he has to pretend to be.'

'If you want to stay with me here that's fine. And next time I see True... oh she's going to pay. And you and Scar get to kill her.'

'Thanks.'

'Do whatever you want. We'll get back the egg tomorrow, and then everything will be better.'

'You promise?'

'I promise.'

It's an hour or so into walking the next day that we hear the music. Someone singing along to a lute. We fall silent.

'And... Great egg of mine... it is the time...  We will be rewarded...' He croons.

It's the right person.

We've found the egg.

Cub's got his sword from the dragon cave, creeping ahead of us, towards the camp Oli made.    He's first into it and-

'GET AWAY FROM EGBERT!' I hear Oli squeal as I run into view, the others close behind, surrounding the mysterious guy we've been hunting down for weeks.

He's just a normal guy.

His colourful clothes are the strangest part about him, but aside from that he's just a human with blonde hair and a scared expression. I don't even know if he's armed. But this is our guy, the egg is there.

'Please! I'm just a poor bard sent on a quest to deliver this egg to King Pix!'

'This egg is property of Queen Pearl of Dryadalis!'

'Well it's now property of Oli Orion, the great bard Orion Sound! And soon it'll be property of King Pixlriffs and placed where it belongs in a museum!'

'We've lost far too much getting it back for you to just claim it as your own, Oli.'

'Seriously dude.' Agrees Ren. 'We've lost everything.'

'Well... I didn't make you lose it!'

I grab his discarded lute.

'Believe me, Oli Orion the great Orion Sound, I am very well practiced hitting people with musical instruments at this point!' I try to act intimidating, but it doesn't work. Doc, still recovering from nearly drowning, does better.

'Listen up, human.' He growls. 'My friends and me have faced dragons, and torture, and death and if you think you can beat all of us in combat, you're dangerously wrong. Now, give us the egg and we let you live.'

'I was told specifically not to give the egg to anyone!' But he's scared, backing away, not looking at Doc.

'Please, just give us the egg and you can go back to normal life, dude.'

'There are people that will kill you if they knew you had it.'

Everyone's insisting except Scar, just staying back, staring down Oli. I can't read his expression.

'We have dragon gold! If you want to give something to Pixl give that.' I show everything I grabbed from the cave 'It's worth just as much.'

'Just- I need time. Give me time to decide.'

'We don't HAVE time!' Snaps Cub. 'True's coming, and she'll be coming now. And if she sees you with the egg she will kill every single one of us. At least if you give it to us, we'll take the blame.'

'PLEASE! Leave me alone! Let me decide. I want to do what's best for Egbert...'

'Egbert wants to go back to his mama Pearl!'

'Egbert likes my music! I was specifically told to bring the egg to Pix. Not to exchange it for anything! Fate of the entire world stuff!'

'We're not those people!'

'How do you know who the letter writer meant?!' Oli yells back. Cub falls silent.

'Because we've met bad people. A lot of them. They hurt us and follow us and killed one of our friends. We're not them. We know what the bad people are like' 

'Still- just- stop, stop talking. Me and Egbert need to discuss and decide exactly what the plan is and figure out if we trust you enough to give you the egg!'

'Please, man!'

'Just be quiet!'

Oli falls next to the egg, immediately deep in what can't be anything except a conversation with it. 15 minutes later he's still at it. 

'1 minute and we're taking it by force.' I growl. Oli's speaking pace triples. 

'I'll fight you!' He decides, drawing a knife. 'Egbert doesn't want to go!'

I hit him with his lute.

A squeal, but he's unhurt, hitting the ground, hugging the egg close.

'Please! Don't take Egbert! we've been through so much... oh Bertie... oh Bertie I won't let them take you!' Doc drags him to his feet, still screaming. I grab the egg. 'NO! NO DON'T TAKE HIM FROM ME! PLEASE!'

'LET HIM GO!'

Scar. 

Doc does. Oli falls back, cowering. I'm not giving him the egg, no matter how scared he acts.

'P...please...'

'Martyn, give him our treasure.' 

'Take it. It's over here.' I decide instead, keeping the egg tight in my grip. The egg we lost so much to get. I'm not losing it to this pathetic bard. Oli grabs the coins, backing away again.

'Go. Give those to King Pixlriffs with your deepest apologies. And we'll face True and her group instead of you.'

'Can- can I say goodbye?'

'From there, yes.' 

'O-ok. Goodbye, fair Egbert. My great friend. My child. My egg...'

'That's enough. Get your stuff and go.'

He does, gathering his few possessions and sprinting out of sight.

I wanted Martyn to get a Nat 20 for hitting Oli with the lute but the dice said no