Despite wanting to go to his treasure cave and catch the thief, Dray was standing at the bottom of Dragon’s Keep just after sunrise, waiting for Wil to meet him. He was facing the village, so he was surprised when he heard movement behind him. Turning around, he saw Wil approaching him.
Where did he come from?
“Good morning, Dray,” Wil said.
“Good morning, Wil,” Dray replied.
“Ready to get to work?” Wil asked, a mischievous look in his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Great. Let’s head to the stables. I need to pick up the horse and cart, and then we can come back here and get the stones.”
“Sounds good. May I ask a question?”
“Sure.”
“Where did you come from?”
When Wil spoke, the confusion was obvious by the look on his face. “What do you mean?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Dray tried to figure out how to explain. “Do you not live in the village?”
“Ah, I get it. I used to live in the village, now my brother and I live in our cottage. It sits on and in Dragon’s Keep. Come on, we have work to do.”
Dray tried to understand as Wil walked past him, but it made very little sense to him. As far as he knew, there wasn’t a cottage that fit Wil’s description. Deciding to leave it for now, Dray turned and followed Wil to the village.
Four hours later, Dray was sweaty and thirsty, but he also felt a sense of accomplishment. Not only had he been able to help Wil load heavy rocks, together they’d managed to finish the outside walls. While Wil had laid the rocks, Dray had gone to collect more, and soon they were working together like a well-oiled machine.
“Time for a break, Dray,” Wil declared, wiping the sweat from his own brow.
“Sounds good, man,” Dray replied.
He followed Wil, and when they reached the river a few minutes away, he was surprised when Wil dove straight into it, clothes and all. It was definitely deep enough, but he’d expected Wil to at least get undressed. Although he could see the logic, not only would they be kept cooler for longer, the scent of sweat would also be removed from their clothes.
“If you want to cool off, I’ll wait for you, and then we can grab something to eat at the tavern,” Wil said from next to him.
Shaking his head at himself for not noticing the man leave the river and come to stand behind him, Dray went and jumped in.
“Shit! It’s freezing!” Dray exclaimed when he surfaced, only to see Wil laughing his head off on the bank.
“Oh come on, it’s not that cold,” Wil yelled over.
Muttering, Dray quickly made his way over to the edge. “No wonder you didn’t stay in there long.”
Still chuckling, Wil fell into step next to him, and the two made their way to the tavern. After finding a table and getting their food, they fell into silence as they ate. Once their plates were half empty, Dray asked the question that had been bugging him.
“Can I ask, why are you making the mansion for those three lords?”
Wil swallowed his mouthful and sighed. “It’s a long story really. The basic version is that, unfortunately for me, they were my guardians until I turned eighteen. I worked with the mason and found I enjoyed it, so I decided it was what I’d do. They offered to help me out and be my first customers, allowing me to create a mansion for them. It would show everyone my skills and give them a grand mansion to live in.”
Dray frowned in confusion. “That sounds…nice. But they’re never nice.”
“Tell me about it! Well, they weren’t being nice, not at all. The first mansion was to be made of straw, and it was almost complete when the wind tore it to pieces. The second mansion was to be made of wood. Before it was completed, it burned down to the ground. The stone mansion is the third and hopefully the last mansion.”
“Wow, but surely they can’t blame you for the houses being destroyed.”
Wil took another bite of food before responding. “Since the first and second mansions were never completed before they were destroyed, my contract is still in effect. I can’t move on to do other projects because I’ve been tied to this one. But to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll continue making houses. This whole process has put me off.”
“How long have you been building them?”
“Nine years.”
Dray’s jaw dropped at the announcement. Nine years was a long time. The lords were obviously taking advantage of Wil, and anger stirred within him.
“That’s crazy! Do you want me to go and have a talk with them?” His dragon was completely on board with threatening the idiots and protecting his new friend.
Wil laughed. “Nah, it’s okay. My brother already threatened them, last night in fact. It was brilliant to see.”
Dray ate and listened as Wil filled him in on what happened last night. He was sorry he missed seeing them turn tail and run out the door. That would have been very amusing indeed. In no time at all, lunch was over, and they made their way back to the site, ready to get back to work.
Dray flew to his treasure cave as night fell. He’d shifted to relieve all of the aches and pains from the manual labor he’d done, but surprisingly, he was looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Not only had he made a new friend, he was also getting out of his cave, which made Del happy and in turn made Dray happy since it meant Del wasn’t harassing him to socialize or pelting him with his own treasure.
As soon as he landed in the cave, he shifted into human form and made his way over to the crack in the wall. His footsteps slowed as he got closer, until he stopped four feet away from the crack. The rock was still in place, but it was what was in front of the rock that made him stop.
Nothing was disturbed, with everything in its rightful place—except for the rubies that formed a smiling face on the floor in front of the rock.
It seems that my thief has a sense of humor.
Whoever his thief was, they’d managed to get in despite the rock in place and had left him a message. Shaking his head, Dray started to laugh, amusement filling him. Instead of growling, his dragon was curious, and Dray could sense his frustration over not being able to fit in the crack in order to try to catch the thief. The lack of scent was as confusing as ever, but Dray was determined to get to the bottom of it.