Mrs. Falls a lot's Arc

Chapter 4 of 8

The dark squirrel came back for them. He stepped out of the trees, cape stiff, cigarette burning low. He blocked the trail and smiled his cold smile. Mrs. Falls a lot had no time for this. She lowered her head and charged. Her boot caught him square in the chest. He went flying, cape flapping, and vanished into the brush. Nuts stared at the empty spot. His cigar hung loose. "Thank you," he said, quiet. She'd never heard him say it before. She drank to that. The brush where the dark squirrel landed went still. The path ahead cleared, and Nuts pointed with his beer. A tower rose out of the rock. It climbed and climbed until the top disappeared in cloud. Ledges spiraled up its sides. Ramps. Ladders. Broken bridges swinging in the wind. "What you're looking for is up there," Nuts said. "I ain't climbing that," she said. "I fall enough as it is!" "You want permadrunk? Then deal with it." So they climbed. Ledge after ledge. Ladder after ladder. She fell twice on the ramps, and both times her arms curled tight around the bottles. Nuts hopped ahead, sure-footed. Hours passed. Her legs shook. They stopped on a wide ledge and sat, both breathing hard. Nuts slipped away without a word. When he came back he carried something on his back and set it in front of her. A wooden keg, strapped in leather, with two metal nozzles below. "Built it in spring," he said. "For emergencies. This counts." She stared. "That thing fly?" "Try it and see." She buckled the straps over her shoulders. She kept a beer in each hand. She twisted the valve. The nozzles roared. She shot straight up the tower's throat, past ledges and swinging bridges, wind tearing at her hair. Nuts scrambled up the ladders below, cursing. She crashed onto the top and rolled. The keg hissed and died. She sat up. Cloud drifted off, and the summit spread flat before her, scorched black. Something huge moved on the far rock. A dragon rose to its full height. Red scales. Yellow eyes that burned. Smoke leaked from its jaws. It looked her over slow, then it sniffed the air. It smelled her, and the tower around her, before it did anything else. "You smell of rancid beer sweat from a mile away," the dragon said. His voice was flat and clipped. "But you climbed my tower. Say why." Mrs. Falls a lot got to her feet. She raised both beers. "Came for permadrunk," she said. "It's up here somewhere." Nuts hauled himself over the edge, gasping. He saw the dragon and froze. "Oh, no," he whispered. The dragon opened his mouth. Fire glowed deep in his throat. "Wrong answer," he said. Mrs. Falls a lot drank the last of one beer and dropped the empty. "Then burn me," she said. "I ain't come this far to walk down." “I admire your courage and will” said the dragon. “Let’s settle this a different way, meet me at my arena in the lands below, how you get there is on you”. The dragon then flies away. “Now we gotta go all the way back down!” She curses wildly. “Before you lose your mind there’s one more thing I forgot to mention” said Nuts with a smirk. “I’m a flying squirrel, hop on”.