Grand Prix - Part 1

With a diplomatic smile, I nod, and we comply, but Jarn remains standing behind me even though there's a chair set out for her.

Oritiki and Kaatohe continue on and walk to the audience seats. They pass the row of the High Council and sit in the next row up. Kaatohe sits behind a cat-headed chimera that seems very similar to her, but with many strands of white hair and patches of white fur all over her face. She also has actual dark blonde hair on her head in a feathered style.

"Let's start the introductions. I'm Hihiriwa Tarakonaa, Marshall of the Skies," the gray dragon says.

"I'm Wahinui Karaka Ngerua, Marshall of the Lands," says Kaatohe's possible relative.

The other eight Councilors introduce themselves, and I notice that some of them don't have three names. Perhaps they aren't all nobles?

Then our turn comes, and the girls introduce themselves as my wives while Lina says that she's my slave. Once Aoi speaks, the Council displays a variety of reactions, from friendly to skeptical. Hihiriwa clearly looks interested. Perhaps Aoi is the reason he's so friendly towards us.

"Miss... uh, I'm assuming you're a female, is that correct?" Hihiriwa asks Aoi. Reo doesn't have a difference between Miss and Mister, but Hihiriwa is using the Andraste version of the word out of respect for us.

"Yes. I'm a woman," Aoi says with a nod, and Lina translates.

He smiles gently, showing his long fangs and says, "We knew how smart dragons were, but this is the first time we've seen one that actually talks and is... friendly to humanoids. Mr. Ryder, how 'similar' would you say that her intelligence is to ours?"

Chimeric language has a small peculiarity: it's gendered for all objects like Portuguese, but personal pronouns are genderless because Chimeras have a sub-race of Metamorphic Chimeras, who can change sex at will. Hihiriwa is using a genderless pronoun for Aoi, signifying that he sees her as a person instead of a monster or an animal.

"She's very young for a dragon, but her body has reached maturity, so I'd say that she's as smart as a barely mature youngster," I respond, and Aoi returns the toothy smile. "Oh, yes. Consider her as one of my wives, too."

Hihiriwa grins while the rest of the council erupts into murmurs. A few of them even question if I'm a heretic. They keep their voices to a whisper, but they're underestimating how good Alissa's hearing is.

Wahinui quickly puts an end to the talks about heresy. Apparently, she respects our privacy more than the rest of the Council does.

She turns to us and says, "Our concern about Miss Aoi is about how dangerous she might be to the populace, but I think that you've answered any doubts we might have about her, correct?" She asks in a slightly annoyed tone and eyes the nosy Councilors, who all nod sheepishly.

"What about the Living Armor? The two dolls are magical beings, too," an androgynous Councilor asks.

"Consider them like summons that act as our bodyguards. I'm a summoner who employs them for security," I calmly reply.

The Councilor grumbles, but doesn't come up with anything else to ask us.

"Then let's move the conversation onto another topic," Hihiriwa says, then becomes serious again. "As you might've noticed, we lost contact with the rest of our nation, including the Celestial Ruler who was appointed to our region. To replace our rulers, we created this High Council, which is composed of the higher ranking aristocracy of our town."

I think they do have some form of nobility, but the council also includes non-nobles, so he has to use "aristocracy" instead of "nobility."

"With this comes the question: have you heard of any other Chimeric town or aristocrat that has survived?"

"Aside from the Sky Lands, the frontier of your nation, no, we haven't," I say and shake my head gently.

"As far as I remember, the Sky Lands don't have a Celestial Ruler among them," Yunia says.

"Not even our Supreme Rulers survived?" A Councilman asks.

"No," I respond solemnly.

The theater becomes quiet as the High Councilors look at each other grimly, but lack the energy to say anything. Oritiki rubs her horn awkwardly and softly sighs.

"Then we technically rule over this 'Sky Lands.' That is, unless they're ruled by a branch of the royal house," a noble Councilwoman says, showing some disdain upon mentioning the Sky Lands.

The Council turns to us, waiting for an answer.

"I've heard that they've established a new kingdom, but they don't claim to be a direct descendant of the Hauhuri nation," Yunia says.

The Council reacts with shock and anger.

"Traitors!"

"Apostates!"

"We must subjugate them!"

Oritiki frowns, and her cold voice smothers their anger as she growls, "I won't fight fellow Chimeras for such petty reasons."

"And we lack any sort of real military," Wahinui sternly says.

Kaatohe bitterly looks down at her own hands/paws, extending and retracting her claws repeatedly.

Hihiriwa smiles gently and says, "Forgive us for this outburst, Ryders, but some of us are still too attached to the glory and pride of the past."

"It is no matter, we aren't citizens of the Sky Lands," I respond and smile diplomatically.

The rest of the Council regains their composure, and Hihiriwa continues, "Now, for the next topic, instead of subjugation, it's obvious that our first action should be to contact the Sky Lands. So, Ryders, please tell us how you managed to get here."

I smile diplomatically again, but it's also a little stiff due to the big fucking lie I'm about to tell them.

"Well, we went through quite the journey to get here, but if you want to come back through the same way we came, let me tell you that it'll be difficult... In essence, we are lost. Aside from merely going down, we have no idea how to go back."

Oritiki bursts into laughter while the rest of the Council quietly groans. Wahinui and Kaatohe remain silent, sternly staring at us.

Wahinui tugs on her whiskers as she says, "I'm not sure if you're aware, but going down won't necessarily lead you back to land. You're more likely to find a Dark Void or a Realm's Edge if you go directly downwards."

I nod and smile as I reply, "Yes, we're aware. The Broken Skies is a completely warped space at the edge of the realm."

"And how do you plan to go back, then?" A Councilwoman asks.

"We don't have any plans to do that. We'll go where the winds take us," Hana answers with a fearsome smile.

Half of the Council chuckles at her words. She said something very similar to a Chimeric idiom: "Let the current take me where it wills."

"So, you're saying that you'll be staying here for a while?" Wahinui asks. Her yellow cat eyes are subtly narrowed in mistrust.

The Council recovers their composure, and their expressions become serious again.

"No. We'll probably only stay here for a day or two, then we'll continue on our journey towards Ozymandias," I respond.

"Do you have any idea how to get past the Gaping Maw?" A Councilman asks.

"No, but we'll find a way to sneak around it if necessary," I answer.

The Council lets out a few low chuckles.

"And how would you accomplish such a thing?" He asks again.

Oritiki and Kaatohe lean forward, suddenly interested.

I smile a little mischievously and say, "That's a secret. We're adventurers, we can't reveal our secrets so freely."

Oritiki's face softens in surprise, while Kaatohe's mouth twitches in anger, revealing a sharp white fang.

"Would you mind if we sent an expedition alongside you?" Hihiriwa suddenly asks, and the entire Council turns to glare at him.

"What are you planning?" Wahinui asks him, her lips slowly rising into a sneer, revealing an equally white and sharp set of fangs as her younger relative.

The rather aloof dragon-headed Chimera takes a much more stiff and imposing posture, stretching his long, leathery neck upwards, making his head tower over everyone else. He pulls his lips up into a grin, showing them all his rather beautiful set of teeth. His voice gains a low rumble that makes it hard not to pay attention to him as he says, "Ozymandias had extensive farming islands. I want to recover one while they distract the Gaping Maw."

The Council seems surprised at his suggestion, but none of them find a reason to dismiss his idea.

The girls have mixed feelings about this plan. They certainly don't feel very happy about being "bait," but Hihiriwa has been the most favorable Councilor to us, so he's starting to win them over. Also, I'm sure that Ciel is the most distrustful of them since they're all... well, dead. As convincing as they might look, they aren't made of flesh and bone; the occasional wisp of mana escaping their bodies has a very similar taste to my own custom [Materialization] spell.

As we all consider his words, Hihiriwa continues, "You're the ones that reactivated Waenraw Station Fifteen, correct?" His beautiful red and blue dragon eyes stare intently at me with excitement.

Uh... the Looping Winds Station didn't have any name that we recognized.

"I didn't pay much attention to the name of the station, but I think you're right," I answer.

He gently nods. "We'll escort you past the Vengeful Spirits and help you make your way to the Gaping Maw. Once you do your thing, we'll work on recovering a farming island." Then he turns back to look at Oritiki. "What's your opinion, Honored One? Will you lend us your assistance?"

The black cow closes her mouth with her hand and rubs her chin in thought. "Sounds acceptable. We'll aid you, but only half of the Celestial Horns will leave. The rest will stay to defend the town," she answers and exhales through her nose loudly.

Hihiriwa lowers his head. "That should be more than enough," he says, then straightens his posture again and turns to us. "We'll need two days to prepare, is that acceptable?" He asks us, but the glance he gives to Wahinui tells me that he's asking her, too.

"Sounds fine by me. We wanted some days to rest, anyway," I reply.

"Now, about your stay. How much coin do you have?" A Councilman asks.

"A lot of silver and a few gold coins," I lie. We're much richer than that.

The Councilman frowns and the others look a little worried. He looks around and they have a short discussion, then he turns back to us and smiles diplomatically as he says, "Can you not spend your gold coins here? We've had to reduce the amount of metal in our coins to keep our economy stable, so your wealth is a little... excessive right now."

"We'll... keep that in mind," I answer, noncommittally.

Apparently that was the wrong answer as they turn impassive while Wahinui looks displeased.

Yunia sends me a subtle glance, and I realize my mistake.

"We're not looking to disrupt the order of your town, so we'll limit ourselves to buy only the essentials," I calmly add.

Hihiriwa smiles, so I think that fixed it.

"About Waenraw Station Fifteen, have you set the proper anchors for a way back to the station from Ozymandias?" A Councilman asks.

"We... haven't. It's 'traversable,' but not very stable," I answer and smile apologetically.

The Councilman sighs, then Oritiki says, "We'll have better results going back the way they came, then." And the Council nods.

The theater grows quiet, so Hihiriwa claps his hands and says, "Then I believe that is all that we had to discuss." He looks around as the Council murmurs between themselves for a moment, then they nod in agreement. "Very well. We'll meet again tomorrow at two in the afternoon to discuss our expedition." He adds, and we nod.

Oritiki stands up and says, "If you, Ryders, don't mind, I'll take responsibility for your stay and show you the town. How does that sound?"

I look to the girls, and they nod positively. Oritiki seems to be the most trustworthy of them all, so I think this will be fine.

"We'd be honored to," I say and lower my head respectfully.

With heavy stomps of her lizard legs and a mesmerizing jiggle of her huge cow tits, Oritiki makes her way down towards us with a smile on her long face.

"Follow me, then," she says and continues towards the exit.

We give a bow to the High Council, then follow her. The raccoon man and the sexy wolf woman give us a smile, and I wink to the wolf, then they follow behind us.

As we walk past the 'Sistine Chapel'-like hall, Lina looks up, absorbed by the paintings.

"Which are better, paintings or carvings?" I ask her.

"Carvings have depth, but lack color. Paintings are the inverse. The only 'better' medium would be to have both."

"Carvings?" Oritiki asks in Andraste with a heavy accent. Reo pronounces vowels with an open mouth, while the r's and s's of Andraste are much more closed and difficult to pronounce.

"Dwarves are master carvers, but they aren't good painters," I translate to her.

"Dwarves? She's a dwarf? Oh, I thought she was just a child slave," Oritiki remarks.

"Well, I'm still fourteen," Lina says shyly.

"Hm. You certainly don't look like it."

"Most dwarves don't age past a certain point, and it's always around ten to fifteen years old that our aging stops," Lina says.

"That's enviable."

Lina glares at the cow tits jiggling at eye level beside her, then fondles her own flat chest. "Debatable."

Oritiki notices that and laughs out loud. "You do know that these sacks of fat are only a bother? They even hurt my back if I don't use a sash often enough."

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," Ciel says, and they smile at each other.

Oritiki fondles her fun bags and lets them drop heavily. "If I didn't like men, I'd have become one a long time ago. At least letting my cock dangle around doesn't cause back pain," she says.

"I'm pretty sure that your thighs would get irritated from all the slapping," I say with a smirk.

"That's why you should always keep it at a half-chub," she replies, and we chuckle.

"Are you a Metamorphic Chimera?" Alissa asks.

She nods and answers, "I am. It's why I have these horns; I was born with them and didn't need an Alteration Mage to give them to me. It's been a while since I last changed into a man, though. I've even forgotten what it's like to piss while standing."

We chuckle, but the girls' are more reserved. They don't know what true freedom feels like.

--

We exit the building and stop near the grass.

Oritiki turns to us and says, "I still have some duties to finish for today, so I'll join you again at dusk. These two will act as your guides, but you're free to do as you wish."

"I'm Ririmu," the raccoon man says and gently bows.

"I'm Hukarere," the white wolf says and offers her hand for a handshake. I take it and give her a gentle squeeze. Her hand is human and rather rough. Not everyone can afford to use skincare products like we do.

"So, would you like to go somewhere?" Ririmu asks.

My eyes linger for a moment on Hukarere's enticing body, then I turn to the girls.

"We're late for lunch," Roxanne says, and Aoi nods emphatically.

"We'd like a restaurant with hearty food and a lot of meat," I say.

"I know just the place," Ririmu says and nods. Even though he's a man, I'm pretty happy to have him as a guide since his face is so cute. He reminds me of the gnomes because they both make me feel like hugging them.

"Then I'll take my leave. Until dusk," Oritiki says, and we all nod respectfully.

--

As we walk through the town, we start to hear town criers spreading the news of our arrival. It's basically an abridged version of our meeting: we've stumbled upon this town by accident, there's no simple way back, the rest of the Hauhuri nation is likely no more, and only the Sky Lands remain.

Although some seem saddened by the news, most of the murmurs are about their hope of finding a way to the Sky Lands. They've (seemingly) spent a generation already isolated from the rest of the realm, so they held little hope that Hauhuri survived the Calamity.

With the news spreading, the curiosity of the Chimeras is satisfied, so only a few of them come to bother us.

"Don't you fear never being able to go back?" Hukarere asks.

"No. We're prepared to spend a long time exploring around here. Also, the way back is difficult, but not impossible," I answer.

"I can't fathom not having a home to return to at the end of the day," Hukarere says and rubs one of her ears in thought.

"Home is where we're together, wherever it may be," Ciel says with a warm smile.

"Well, I always knew that explorers were different from us common folk," Ririmu says with a shrug.

"We'll return home one day, we're sure of that. We didn't come this far just on pure luck, regardless of how 'lost' we are," I say with a wry smile.

"Didn't you say that other expeditions failed? And you're confident that you'll survive?" Ririmu asks.

"Those expeditions tried to open the way to reclaim territory. Their goals are different from ours," Yunia says.

"Hah. They're all sissies and wouldn't dare to do half the things we've done to get here," Hana says with a fearsome smile.

"Oh?" Hukarere's pointy ears perk up and turn towards Hana.

We smile wryly and let our boisterous dragonkin tell an embellished tale about our trip through the Broken Skies.

"Haven't you met a Dark Void in the wild?" Ririmu asks.

"Thankfully, no," Lina answers.

"If you're going to Ozymandias, then you'll pass through Void's End, and it's... well, it's an area full of Dark Voids."

Hukarere shudders, and her snout scrunches in aversion. "I've patrolled Void's End in the Long Floater a few times. It's such a creepy place," she says.

"I hope you placed the anchors correctly. You shouldn't be careless near a Dark Void," Ririmu says.

The girls look at Lina and I, and we smile wryly.

"We did the best we could," I say, and our guides chuckle nervously.

--

Ririmu pushes away a horse-headed man and yells, "These are guests of the Honored One, don't bother them without going through them first!"

The man stiffens in fear, then neighs in annoyance and walks away.

"I sympathize with their desire to ask us questions, but we don't have time to answer them all," Yunia says.

"You're the most interesting thing to happen here in... well... ever since the Calamity, actually, so I'm sure that a fair number of them only want to satisfy their own curiosity," Hukarere comments.

"Well, guarding the Golden Docks is so boring that I'm quite happy to be doing something else," Ririmu comments, and we smile gently.

"After patrolling Void's End, I wanted to do something calmer, so I'm not tired of it yet, but a change like this isn't unwelcome," Hukarere says.

"Oh? We've only seen one ship in the entire docks. It doesn't look like there's a lot of traffic," Roxanne says.

"Yeah. There weren't that many aristocrats in town before the Calamity, so most of the upper levels are occupied by upstarts, and they don't have the funds to buy ships," Hukarere responds and scoffs lightly.

It's a bit odd how she's using "upstart" in a kind of derogatory way.

"The Forum of the Town Hall is supposed to be filled with aristocrats to discuss our laws, but even with the entire Common Council, you'd barely fill half of the Forum," Ririmu says.

"But it doesn't seem like the town is suffering for it," Yunia comments as she looks around.

The town is quite active and clean. Even though they're all some type of spirit, I don't see anything that looks abandoned or overgrown, which means that they're performing regular maintenance. Even the lower levels are relatively well-built for an area that would normally be considered the slums in other cultures.

"People are quite satisfied with the High Council," Hukarere says, and her tail wags subtly.

--

We finally reach a medium-class restaurant, the kind where you know the names of the chef and the owner, and they remember your favorite plate whenever you come in.

The guards cast [Clean] on their feet before entering, then they pull out their personal towels to sit on.

The building is made of cement and stucco and colored with a neutral, faded brown color, giving the restaurant quite a comfy atmosphere. There are a few paintings hanging on the walls, but the rest of the decor isn't anything special.

"Join us for a meal. It'll be our treat," Alissa gently suggests to them, and they accept with a smile.

The food is mostly chicken and other birds. The most expensive plate is a magical being called Taktaena. It means something like "uses color to hide," which reminds me of the Chamebirbs. I decide to not eat that plate.

The Chimeric lands lack space for large farms, so their diet is mostly hunted game, small farm animals used to add variety to the meals, the occasional veggie and fruit, roots, and leaves, lots of leaves. Not a single part of the plants go to waste, so there's even a tree with soft bark that's cooked until it melts.

I decide to order this tree soup, some fibrous bread to dip with, and spicy Dragolite skewers. The soup sounds exotic, but it isn't, the taste is quite mild and faintly sweet with the flavor of pineapple.

As we eat, I feel wisps of mana escaping from my belly, then the girls notice it happening to them, too, but it doesn't happen to the guides. The guides are eating normally, seemingly not noticing the odd mana leaving our bodies.

I open my "Status" and see two new entries under "Status Effects": "Moderate Mana Recovery | Souce: Digested Food | Time Left: 30 min," and "Moderate Nutrition Recovery | Source: Digested Food | Time Left: 1 hour."

This isn't real food, this is conjured food. I relay this information to the girls, and they whisper it to Ciel and Yunia to keep them from making a scene.

I was getting used to thinking that all these people are "dead," but now this? The more I think about this town, the creepier it gets. I mean, it's a literal ghost town, and now, we're basically eating "ghost food."

I wonder why the dungeon sent us here, specifically. This isn't exactly what I expected to find in an elven dungeon.

--

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