golden accents. “I have no use for jewelry.”
“Like I do?” I mumbled, but took the pendant from him anyway. It was warm in my hand, as if it contained its own heat source. I rolled it between my fingers, captivated by the way it caught the starlight for a few minutes before I realized the dragon-kin had walked away from me.
“Hey,” I said, trying to catch his attention. He paused for a moment as I caught up. I latched the pendant’s chain around my neck.
“What exactly did you get in there?” I referred to the object from the pool that I knew quite well was in his belt-purse, but he went back to ignoring me and headed into the trees toward the village. I followed him closely this time, trying unsuccessfully to get him talking again at odd intervals. His silence was most annoying, and made his motives more suspicious. I settled for frowning to myself in hopes that he would finally confess. He did not seem like a terrible individual, but his social skills needed some work. Whatever he had come here for, he had not planned to share it with me.
It seemed a long time before the light from the village lamps was visible through the trees, and by that point I was thoroughly exhausted. The heaviness of my waterlogged clothing did not help matters. Eagerly, I rushed toward the light. I smiled. It was time for a good nap and some-
“Come out here, immortal scum!” A man’s voice that I did not recognize reached my ears. It was probably one of the strangers that talked to Old Will, I reasoned, because I knew everyone else who lived here. He had managed to gather an entire mob of villagers, fully equipped with torches and sharp pitchforks. I mentally groaned. How cliché of them.
Even I was quiet now, my head buzzing with worry. Though I knew that Levent was not as homicidal as his initial impression implied, the villagers were just narrow-minded enough to never see that. They had put up with me because I was basically harmless, but a fire-wielding dragon-kin swordsman was not going to pass as such.
During my silence, the mob glared blindly into the forest. I swallowed a chuckle. They had not actually seen us yet and had probably been yelling like that for the last three hours at any little noise. They were afraid to enter the forest – especially while it was dark. I would have to use their cowardice to my advantage. Facing an angry mob was not what I wanted to do at this hour.