The next morning, me and Sid got up, she again wore the dirt-colored dress. There would be another celebration before we were given the dragon's blessing. We were going to wait until nightfall for the blessing to give the other heroes time to get back from the bandit hunt. So until then, we had fun with the festival. Just like the last festival we went to, bards were singing in the streets, jugglers performing, and knights were showing off their skills in practice matches for the public to watch. I partook in some of the matches, but mostly just enjoyed the festival. In the distance, I could see some drunk men trying to mess with Sid, but the moment they tried to grab her, she beat them up. Even though she is in a dress some things never change.

  Then some heroes returned, holding bags stained red that were probably full of heads as proof of the kill. At first, they looked triumphant, bragging about how many bandits they killed, but once they learned that I killed the leader, they started looking at me like an enemy, but they stopped glaring once the people welcomed them back with praises, then they started telling stories about them hunting the bandits, the people, especially the bards hoping to make a song out of it listened closely to their stories, this cycle repeated until nightfall.

  Then the time came for the blessings. Normally, the king would give a speech right now, but instead I saw the guy I played chess against get on stage, he said, “I am Prince Loam, and I have been given the honor of speaking today. Now the heroes will partake in the noble blood of the dragon, and we have the honor to watch. We also wish the heroes luck in slaying the dark dragon.

  He continued speaking. But I was shocked, Loam was the prince. I then calmed down and listened to the rest of his speech.

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  Then the dragon gave a long speech, basically, he said, his name was Terra, he thanked us for our hard work, and prayed the goddess of light would help us in our travels.

  Looking around, there were only about six of us left. Then once the dragon finished his speech, cobalts came and gave us glasses full of his blood. We drank it again, and I thought again that I would prefer to eat it as blood pudding, but this was part of the ceremony, so I drank it.

  I was again given (blessing of the earth dragon high) while Merlin was given (blessing of the earth dragon medium), and everybody else was (blessing of the earth dragon low). Some people questioned him about this, and he said, “Liam killed the bandit leader and saved people without me even asking; he showed the qualities of a hero’ and Merlin killed the most bandits; the rest of you barely did anything.” This seemed to upset them, but nobody said anything. Then the ceremony was over.

  While walking back, one of the heroes walked up to me, hands behind his back, and I was reminded of how a hero had tried to kill me before, so I yelled, “Stop,” but he kept walking toward me. I yelled it again, but he just kept walking toward me while talking, so I blew a wind spell at him, blowing him away, and then in his hand, I saw a knife. He was trying to kill me.

  I quickly went back to my room and locked the door. I kept asking myself questions like Why did he try to kill me? Was it because he was jealous of my blessing? Is he worried that I will kill the dark dragon first?

  I continued like this until I heard a knock on the door. I asked who it was, and I heard Sid say, “It’s me, who else?” I then let her in and told her about what just happened. She was sympathetic, but said, “That is how it is for the strong. The weak are jealous.”

  Then we went to bed, but I was rattled and couldn't get a good night's sleep.