A/N Thank you Astral_Silver for the power stone, I'll take good care of it :3
The annual fair had finally rolled around. Despite having a sense of detachment from the things happening in the valley, I always made a point to take Thorn since she had loved the fair as a child while also picking out small things for Cathleen, Katsumi and a few others. Despite everything, I found myself missing them sometimes.
Rather than focus on that though I focused on corralling children as Thorn had dragged the Bone cousins along with her, or rather Fone Bone did since he was going to follow Thorn regardless. Eventually I got tired of listening to Phoney and Smiley bicker so I went and looked around leaving them standing by the honey stand where the shiftless blonde was flirting with Thorn, much to the chagrin of Fone bone. I could care less though, I had taught Thorn how to defend herself against a larger opponent so she should be fine. I stayed within earshot just in case though.
Eventually Lucius came looking for his workers and dragged Smiley and Phoney back to the tavern. I grinned despite myself since I knew Lucius was gonna work them all day long. As I walked around the fairgrounds I spotted Rose running laps and decided to join her since I had nothing better to do.
"Good morning Rose." I said catching up with her and she returned the greeting in a good mood. "You gonna cheer for me today?" she asked and I nodded "I'd be dumb not too. I've seen what you do to rats, those poor cows don't stand a chance." We laughed at that since we quite enjoyed the fight we had a few months ago against the rats, though we could have done without the danger to Thorn.
A few strange things did occur though. Several people had glanced at Rose while whispering something along the lines of 'mystery cow' . It reeked of Phoney Bone so after cheering Rose up I went looking and sure enough I found him. 'Place yer bets here!' the sign read and I cut the line not caring about the grumbles. "Heyya Carter! Here to place your bet on the mystery cow?!" Phoney exclaimed, though he did look a bit more nervous seeing me there.
I shook my head. "No, just wondering what all this 'mystery cow' nonsense is." I said as he went into a long useless explanation about this mystery cow of his. I listened for a bit before leaving, I had better things to do than listen to the little twerp, I believe I saw a honey stand somewhere that Cathleen would love. . .
LATER THAT NIGHT-------------
Deep in the middle of the night I snapped awake from the sounds of voices. I got up and slowly crept over to the door where Thorn and the Bones were sleeping. Inside I could hear Thorn talking to Fone bone, and she sounded shaken.
I listened as she talked about a dream that she had had, it sounded like there was fire, and people were shouting. As well as a massive bright light in a cave full of dragons. 'Dragons? But she didn't believe in dragons until the red one showed up?' Something was wrong, why did Thorn have dreams about dragons and not believe in them? I listened a bit more and it turns out that the map that Fone Bone had found out in the desert had been drawn by Thorn!
I mulled over this as they finally went back to sleep. Where could Thorn have been that she would be surrounded by dragons? It couldn't be the Dragon stairs since they're out in the open, unless one of those caves that dotted the mountains went deep underground somewhere. This would explain why Thorns parents were in the mountains in the first place, it made no sense for the royal family to just run off into the desert, unless they were escaping from something, or someone.
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The next day Rose was in a better mood, though it seems that Lucius had managed to knock some sense into the guys that bet on the mystery cow since a few of them had cornered Phoney demanding to see the cow. He tried to bluff his way out of it but eventually he took them to where the cow was. "What are you gonna bet on Carter?" Jonathan asked me as I finished my breakfast "Rose of course. I always bet on her." I told him and he smiled though he said he was going to bet on the mystery cow since everyone else was too.
At the fairgrounds though it seems that Phoney had one scary cow as all the guys he took to see it were pale as a ghost and swearing up and down the cow almost tore a barn door down. Seeing how more and more people were betting on the mystery cow, I decided to place my bet now and even the odds a little. Seems that Lucius had the same idea as he walked over to Phoney's betting booth.
"Here to place your bet?" Phoney asked with a smirk that I would enjoy wiping off later, "Yep!" I said forcing some happiness into my voice, I enjoyed watching Phoney squirm since he could tell it was fake. I took something out of my pocket that just about made his eyes pop out his head "I bet this here gold bar. And I bet it to Rose to WIN!" I said and before he could recover Lucius stepped up with the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. "An here's my marker for the BARREL HAVEN TAVERN!" he said "And I'm betting it ALL on Granma Ben TO WIN!!" Phoney looked like he was about to pass out but Lucius didn't let him rest "I understand that the payout is 100 to 1, an for yer sakes ol BUDDY." he grinned as we walked away "I hope you got the fund to COVER that BET!"
Me and Lucius cackled as we walked over to the starting line, "I bet he's already ran to figure out how to get outta this one." I said catching my breath. It had been a LONG time since I'd laughed this hard at something. "That little runt probably has Smiley in a costume or something." he said and we both paused . . . That did sound like something Phoney would do.
"Nah, Rose's got this in the bag, she'll win." I said as we joined Thorn. "Have you seen Fone Bone?" she asked and I shook my head as the announcer started the race "I thought he was with you?" Thorn shook her head "We had a little argument and split up, I've been looking for him but I can't find him anywhere." I sighed already feeling a headache coming on as the cows raced away, with Rose and a cow with a red cape taking the lead.