We traveled south along the coast then passed through vast wetlands full of lakes and lagoons. We approached the village and their chief was already outside waiting for us. 

“I’ve heard you folks are going around helping the villages.” The chief said.

“Yea that’s us, what do you need?” I asked. 

“It’s water dragon breeding season and we need help culling their numbers.” The chief replied. 

“What? Water dragons?” I said confusingly.

“Don’t worry, they aren’t as dangerous as normal dragons. Unless you get in the water with them, then it’s worse.” The chief told us. 

“Oh alright, we’ll get right on it then.” I said.

The chief appointed us a guide to take us to the breeding grounds and make sure we were safe on the way. He’s also supposed to keep track of how many we kill so we don’t make them go extinct. 

When we arrived at the breeding grounds, we had Voyd use her life detect spell to locate the dragons underwater. She was also able to locate multiple nests but our guide told us not to destroy those. 

I pulled out my gun and started blasting in the general direction Voyd told me to shoot. After a while, Killer got a little restless. 

“Me want fight too master!” He yelled

“It’s too dangerous, don’t go in the water.” I told him. 

“Pleaseeeee.” Killer said. 

“Y’know what, take the gun and just shoot where Voyd tells you to.” I said.

“Yay!” 

Killer took my gun and started firing. While he was shooting, he was giggling like a little kid in a candy shop. Eventually, our guide told us we had killed enough and asked us to stop. 

“Me want shoot more!” Killer screamed. 

“No Killer, give me the gun back.” I said.

“Mfpm! Fine!” 

Killer handed me the gun back then immediately jumped in the water.

“Killer! Get back here!” I tried to yell at him but it was already too late. He was fully underwater.

“Oh no! This is bad.” Our guide said.

“Can we save him?” I asked.

“No, it’s far too dangerous to go in after him.” The guide replied.

“I hope he dies this time.” Ro said.

“Voyd! Find out where he’s at and I’ll shoot anything that gets close.” I said.

“He’s already on the back of one of them.” Voyd said.

“Huh?” 

A massive blueish-green sea monster with the head of a dragon and giant horns came bursting out of the water. Killer was on its back gripping its horns to stay on. The water dragon opened its mouth and tiny sparks of lightning started shooting out. 

“Killer! Get down from there!” I screamed.

“Ok master!” 

Killer grabbed his flail and swung it over his shoulder, bonking it on the head. In the same fluid motion, he leaped off the dragon’s head and Voyd used her wind magic to guide him through the air and soften the landing while the dragon fell back into the water. 

“H-how did you survive?” Our guide asked. 

Killer shrugged his shoulders. 

“Are the water dragons really that dangerous?” I asked. 

“Yes, they have lightning breath that zaps everything in the water with them.” The guide said.

“It tickled!” Killer yelled.

“Do all dragons breathe lightning?” I asked. 

“The ones up north breathe fire.” Voyd said.

“Yes, and I believe I’ve heard the ones down south breathe ice.” The guide replied. 

“Ah, ok.” I said. 

We went back to the village and met up with the chief. Our guide told him everything, even the part about Killer. The chief was surprised but impressed. He thanked us and then we spent the rest of the day with the locals. I saw a bunch of them fishing at a lake nearby so I went to join them for a relaxing afternoon of fishing.

The locals were extremely friendly and handed me a rod and some bait. Everyone was catching tons of fish and it wasn’t long before I got my first bite. I reeled it out of the water and I was going to remove the hook, I saw the fish had multiple rows of razor sharp teeth. It was like a piranha but the size of a catfish. 

“What kinda fish is this?” I asked the locals.

“It’s a Scrippa.” 

“Why are its teeth like this?” I asked.

“They’re vicious predators that have to quickly tear apart anything that gets in the water with them. They also have limited access to food and they often eat each other. But the good thing is they breed like insects with hundreds of eggs per parent, so there’s always plenty of them for us to catch.” 

“How come there weren’t any in the water dragon lakes?” I asked.

“They have different habitats, the Scrippas live in shallow lagoons and the water dragons stay in the deeper lakes.” 

“Ah, I see.” 

I spent the rest of the afternoon catching scrippas with my new lizard friends. I wanted to stay longer and just fish all week long, but the next morning we had to leave for the next village.