“You want Tarun to do what?!” shouted Shon with a mouth full of half-chewed sausages.

“Exactly what I said,” replied Krall. “I want to train him to be a dragon hunter. I’m offering to let him come with us, learn everything I have to teach him, and then help me hunt and kill dragons.”

Shon swallowed hard to clear his mouth of the sausages. “We’re a team,” Shon said with an angry tone rising in his voice. “Why would Tarun leave his best friend to go running off with a bunch of strangers?”

“Alright then,” Krall said, “if you two are a package, then why don’t you come along too? You could learn a lot that might keep you alive, as long as you keep your head down when things get dangerous. Who knows? Your magic may even come in handy sometime.”

“Gee, thanks,” Shon said sarcastically as he crossed his arms. “But has it occurred to you that we have business of our own to take care of?”

“What business is that?” Krall asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Our business,” replied Shon, getting angrier. “You probably wouldn’t be interested in it since it doesn’t involve killing or getting killed by something.”

Krall sighed and turned back to Tarun. “And what do you think of all of this, Tarun?” Krall asked. “I know you don’t remember anything before meeting your friend here, but I trust your mind is still your own.”

Tarun saw that everyone had turned to look at him, and he didn’t know how to respond. When he thought about going with Krall and learning to be a dragon hunter, he felt the same optimistic strength he had felt earlier that morning. But when he thought about leaving Shon, he felt a great weight in his stomach, as if the sausages he had eaten were made of stone. “I… I don’t know,” he finally said.

Solimar looked back and forth at Tarun and Shon with a disapproving expression and turned to Krall. “Are you sure about this?” the elf asked.

“As sure as I was when I asked Piggy to join us,” Krall said to Solimar. “Or as sure as I was when I suggested you and I work together instead of kill each other, for that matter. This feels right to me, and I’ve learned to follow my instincts.”

Krall turned back to Tarun and asked, “Do you understand what that means, Tarun? To follow your instincts?”

“I’m not sure,” Tarun replied. “Your offer seems good, and I appreciate it.” Tarun paused and he saw a worried look on Shon’s face. “But leaving Shon right now would feel wrong, and I won’t do it,” he said, and saw relief wash over Shon’s face. “And as Shon said, we have business to take care of before starting any other ventures.”

Krall looked at Tarun and took a deep breath through his nose. After a moment he nodded and said, “Alright, I can respect that. You two seem determined to complete whatever errand you’re on, and I won’t get in your way.”

“Now,” said Krall as he stood up and wiped his hands on his pants, “if everyone is done with their breakfast, what do you say we get down to the business that brought us all here in the first place? I believe you’ve got a package for us, and we should get it from you and be on our way before that idiot from last night manages to sober up enough to actually get a posse together.”

“Oh, sure,” Shon said, surprised that Krall was willing to take Tarun’s decision without further argument. “Uh, it’s in your pack, Tarun. Mind getting it out?”

Tarun opened his pack and rummaged through its contents to find the package of Dragon’s Bane hidden safely in the bottom. As he started to pull it out, Krall asked, “Have you got a map in there?”

“Yes,” Tarun said.

“You’d better hand me that too,” Krall replied.

Before Shon could object, Tarun had handed the package of Dragon’s Bane and their map to Krall. Krall carefully opened a small corner of the wrapping around the Dragon’s Bane and inhaled a long sniff of the contents inside. “Yes, that all seems to be in order,” Krall said as he quickly closed up the corner of the package.

“You’re not even going to look at it?” Shon asked.

“Why should I?” Krall asked. “You’re not trying to cheat me, are you?”

“No, of course not!” Tarun said. He felt sick at the thought that Krall might suspect them of dishonesty.

Krall chuckled. “No, I didn’t think so,” he said. “Dragon’s Bane is a dangerous plant to have spread around, so I don’t intend to open this package until I’m ready to use it. Besides, I trust my nose more than my eyes anyway.”

“Now your uncle and I agreed on thirty pieces of silver,” Krall said. “Does that sound right to you, Shon?”

When Shon nodded, Krall reached into a pouch on his belt and produced a handful of coins, which he began to quietly count in some orcish language. After a moment he handed the coins to Shon and said, “Alright, here’s the thirty pieces you were promised, plus another five more for you to hear what I have to say next.”

Krall opened up Shon and Tarun’s map and begin to study it. “Hey!” Shon shouted. “Give that back!”

“Like I said,” Krall replied, “I just want you to hear what I have to say.” He produced a small piece of charcoal from a different pouch on his belt and made a mark on the map, much to Shon’s displeasure. He then handed the map back to Tarun and Shon and pointed at the black mark.

“Do whatever business you need to do,” Krall said, “but consider my offer still open until the end of the month. If you finish whatever errand you’re on, or if you change your minds, go to the town at this mark. It’s a small town, so don’t worry about finding us, we’ll spot you when you arrive as long as you get there before the month ends.”

“What’s at that town?” Tarun asked.

“One of our next clients,” Krall said. “There are three towns in that area that are all being periodically attacked by a particularly nasty dragon. From the descriptions we’ve heard, it sounds like she may be brooding. The three towns have pooled their resources to offer a reward to any dragon hunters who can get rid of her, and that town is where we’ll go to discuss our terms.”

“And what if they didn’t have enough money to pay you?” Shon asked, snatching the map out of Krall’s hand. “Would you just let the dragon continue to kill the people in those towns?”

“First of all, the dragon hasn’t killed anyone yet,” said Krall. “It’s mostly just been killing livestock and terrorizing the residents. Second of all, as you’ve already pointed out a few times, dragon hunting is an extremely dangerous endeavor. We don’t do it unless we think it will be worthwhile. So if you boys do join us, that’s the first dragon you’ll be helping us hunt.”

“Anything else you wanted us to hear before we’re done?” Shon asked.

“Just one last thing,” Krall said. “You boys be careful out there. Really. I don’t think either of you realizes yet what a cruel and dangerous place this world can be. It’s obvious you’ve both been sheltered so far, but even if you hadn’t, I’ve seen men more hardened than yourselves taken unawares.”

“Be smart, stick together, and use your instincts. You especially Tarun, because I can tell you’ve got ‘em. If something doesn’t smell right, it probably isn’t, so get yourselves out. I realize an orc face may not be very pretty for you to look at, Shon, but prettier faces than mine could do a lot worse to you than I could. Be careful. Be safe. I hope I’ll see you again before too long.”

“Thank you, Krall,” said Tarun. “Thank you for everything. I hope we’ll see each other again too.”

After that, Krall picked up the package of Dragon’s Bane and the dragon hunters packed up their wagon, while Tarun and Shon kicked dirt onto the fire to put it out. The green wagon pulled away, and by the time Tarun and Shon had finished rolling their sleeping bags and securing them to their packs, the wagon was already out of sight.

“Well,” said Shon, trying to rub Krall’s black mark off of his map, “now that we’ve finished that whole unpleasant encounter, what do you say we find another town where we can get some more supplies and get back to finding my parents?”