[ IP ] Dragon Valley

In the bar that evening, five refugees were recounting the rumors they had heard about what had happened up in their mountainous homeland to allow them to return. According to every report, the dragons were out of the cities. The refugees could return to their mountaintop cities and ancestral homesteads in the valleys once again without having to worry that a dragon would burn down their crops or terrorize their towns. It was a long trip for each of them, but they were all hopeful of rebuilding the lives that their ancestors had left in such a hurry. 
 
 “ I heard hundreds of dragons had taken over the capital when the Four arrived, ” Atticus, the most literary of the five refugees, said. He was the only single man traveling back to the homeland of this group of refugees. His wife had just recently passed from an unknown illness, and her dying wish was that he would bring her ashes to the homeland and start a life over again there. 
 
 “ Four? I heard there was an army, ” Bill, the most skeptical, countered. 
 
 “ What? No, the reports clearly stated there were four of them, ” Atticus said. 
 
 Bill then asked, “ Who were these Four then? None of the reports have ever mentioned names. Their existence is just a legend to make us all believe this was a miracle. It wasn ’ t. It was just a bunch of people who decided they were fed up living in this blasted country. ” 
 
 “ Well, the noblemen were saying a knight and three of his most loyal soldiers took back the country for us all, ” Charlie said based on what he had heard in the capital city. He was a craftsman, just like all his ancestors back in the homeland. He had actually been providing relatively well for the family, so this was a risky move to return to the homeland. He and his wife had decided that was what their ancestors would have wanted for them though. 
 
 “ Really? I heard there was a Brother on the team, ” Dale, the timidest of the group, added. He was a man engrossed in the lore of the old homeland because his family had been religious clerics. His grandfather had brought all the books that he had been reading to prepare for his time in the clergy before the Migration changed everything. Now it was time for him to return to the homeland to restart that family tradition. 
 
 Bill scoffed, “ A Brother? Now you ’ re being silly. None of the Brothers survived the Migration. ” 
 
 “ I heard there were a handful of them around. They have been in hiding, waiting for the day when they could reclaim the land for us. Now that they have, we can finally go home, ” Charlie said. 
 
 “ A Brother! Four people! This is all just propaganda. It was a large group of people that went and took the land back for us. It can ’ t possibly be anything else, ” Bill said. Life had been rough for his family. They were tenant farmers on a small plot of land that only ever provided enough to keep his small family from starving. When their landlord's son had recently raised the rent, Bill and his wife picked up all that they had and left on the next caravan of refugees towards their homeland. 
 
 At this point, the fifth refugee, a grizzled man, smiled before he commented, “ Oh Bill, Charlie and Dale are right. It was none other than a Brother that was there fighting against those infernal beasts. That being said, the ‘ Brother ’ was actually a ‘ Sister ’, and she was not originally planned to be on the trip. ” 
 
 All the men were laughing hysterically at this crazy old man. There was no way this could possibly be the case. A Sister. That was just absolutely silly. Bill asked, “ This ‘ Sister ’ and her team took out all the dragons?'' 
 
 The grizzled refugee nodded. “ She probably killed the vast majority of them. You have to understand that the other three were so poorly trained they did not know which end of the spear was sharp at first. ” 
 
 “ You ’ re lying. There ’ s no way that happened, ” Atticus said. “ They were an intensely trained group of four men that had been working together for years. That ’ s what all the reports said. ” 
 
 “ Well, it did take a few years for them to reclaim the land. Their team was a Sister, a nobleman, and two guards, ” the grizzled man stated. 
 
 “ How could you possibly know this? ” Atticus then asked. 
 
 “ I guess I ’ ve been reading different reports from you, ” the grizzled man responded before he took his ale up to bed. It was not as though he would tell the five refugees that he was the Sister ’ s grandfather. He was returning to their homeland with a young aide to reclaim the land that was theirs for the future generations of Brothers and Sisters.
