The orc pounced on the back of the dinosaur ripping into it's thick leathery skin as if it were an orange peel. The ferocity of his ripping was admirable to say the least. Between the axe, the missing chunk of flesh and the wall that fell upon the dinosaur that was over very quickly. Thankfully, my friend was able to avoid that.

  "You're very acrobatic for a meat vendor."

  The orc paused to take me in. "You're strong for a fae. I don't know why this was following you but thanks for what you did."

  ---

  "So none of your ice magic runes were destroyed in that? You can still keep selling me the good stuff?"

  In all of the hustle and bustle of what had just happened prior to me taking down a dinosaur, I had to take stock of what was really important. That was definitely my friend with the delicious meat pies that was just a two minute walk from the boat. I wasn't having any of that. Whatever had happened due to shoddy human workmanship had killed the poor dinosaur.

  "Is there anything we can do about that?"

  I wasn't going to volunteer to help out. I'd already done my part in getting it dead.

  "Unfortunately, that's not the kind of meat that I use. Otherwise I would be very interested in saying that that is a ridiculous amount. We could be eating dinosaur steaks for at least a week. I don't have enough storage."

  The dust was a bit ridiculous. There was one way to mess up a day and that was getting coated in it. It was like instead of making their buildings with bricks, they had chosen sand and dust. I wasn't about that life.

  "Your cart is safe."

  "I am going to have to close up. How can I thank you?"

  "There's a specific flavor your tribe is known for, isn't there? If I recall it's got a salty tang?"

  He brightened up. "Gorg. Call me Gorg. Anyone willing to try orcish tribal flavoring deserves to know who is going to kill their taste buds."

  "Ollie. I am prepared for a swift death. Make it hurt."

  His smile was infectious and I almost forgot that I had gotten separated from Martin. Had I gotten a sample of his blood to divine his location? No. That would have made sense.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The dinosaur even in its death throes was full of warm blood.

  "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take care of some of this."

  I had my red cap arranged like a sash around me. It was time to pack in some magic before the human constabulary arrived. I pulled the cap down and found the cleanest pool of blood I could.

  ---

  There's a point at with you are drawing blood where you cannot take any more into your cap. When a dinosaur bleeds, it's got a fair bit more than a human. This beast having been already packed with Shadow Magic gave me extra above and beyond what I normally would go. I could see the blood coagulating by the time the fire brigade arrived.

  Whether it was because of the feeling of having evaded near crushing or the elation of Martin arriving, I was filled with the human ideal of civic duty.

  "Why do I want to help the bucket brigade?" I asked him as he arrived to take a spot next to me.

  "Did you cause this?"

  I paused to think. Had I caused this, or had whoever inspected the buildings caused this? Or perhaps it was the person who had ordered someone to build what was effectively a lumber yard inside of a building that had caught ablaze.

  "When you really think about it, can one person really cause anything like this, or is this a systemic failure of the your capital overall?"

  "Ah. You know what you've got a valid point there."

  "I do?"

  "Grab a bucket."

  It was the least I could do. I lost myself in the motion of handing a full pail of water to the next person in line for the next half hour until it got under control. It felt good to help out but I didn't want to be the only one. Plus when the mages arrived they were able to fix it very quickly. We made out exit when they arrived. There was no need for an extended sensing session.

  ---

  "You're hurt!" Valerie gasped.

  "I'm not," I said.

  Martin collapsed behind me. Of course he had bitten off more than he should have chewed.

  That bastard had gone and got himself hurt. He had even hidden it from me. This had to be some sort of internal damage or some sort of him realizing that he just survived something incredible. Otherwise why would he just buckle like that?

  I went to his side. Valerie for all her faults and eccentricities immediately went to go get Stewart. Between the two of them and me we would get this guy back up. If nothing else, I would love to smack him for taking such terrible care of himself. Didn't he know that I need him to not break down like that.

  He should have known that.

  He really was hurt.

  "You're going to hide that you got out of breath, that's fine but losing blood or whatever happened to you? That's unconscionable. I could have died because of you," I said.

  "Sorry," he whispered.

  His hands wrapped around mine. "If you die, I'll kill you."

  "Granted."

  Stuart arrived. I could feel him and Valerie work their magic. I held in his hand for as long as they could before I passed out myself. The day had been this last thing? This last Injustice. This was too much for me. I was longing for a nice relaxing time where I didn't have to do anything again.

  It sure would be nice to do that.

  I stared at the adorable human next to me who was probably just out of because he'd overdone it. Why did he have to or would do it? I didn't know. I was going to get the answer out of him once he was brought back but I could already tell that he was going to be fine. I could see that the day had been as difficult for him as it was for me.

  If he was going to get pampered then I was going to take the rest of the day off. There was nothing better than waiting for this man to get better so I could beat him to within an inch of his life.