Delay and Distract...

When the villagers realized that the parade was over and Aralt wasn't going to make another appearance, the crowd began to drift back to what they had been doing before the Herald had arrived.  "Guess it's time to get back to work," smiled Snoop, the editor and owner of the local newspaper the Bellwether, as he pulled out his quill and started writing down the events of the day for the evening edition of the paper.  

Not everyone else was smiling though.  Especially not the town council members who had glanced at each other when Aralt had disappeared behind his doors and now started back to the council chambers.  They definitely needed to talk.

Shortly all of them were sitting around the conference table thinking about what to say at the meeting.  Each of the councilors had their chief minion there in case an errand or message needed to be delivered awaiting in the chairs spaced against the wall of the chamber. Even if they were longingly gazing at the buffet table that Granny Flare and Cornelia had setup for everyone to snack on,  they understood the importance of the events of day.

Finally it was the Dowager who started the conversation.  "Well, that went well."

Those four words were all it took to get everyone talking at the same time.  "Who would have thought he would be so short and I don't just mean in stature," snapped one member.  "How can he think I will let him stay on the grounds of my castle," growled Queen Ffion.  "What are we going to do now?" both Awena and Dulbbe silently thought to themselves as they listened to the others talk.

Finally, when the room became quiet again, it was the Baron who spoke.  "Well, yes, I was expecting Aralt to be a little friendlier," shaking his head as he couldn't understand this as he was friendly with everyone he met.  "But the question is what will we do now?  It appears by his actions that he might not be as open to us as we had hoped," continued the Baron.

Each of the council members sat quietly, thinking about the Baron's question.  Indeed, what do we do now?  It was a quandary.  "There is one thing we probably should do," grumbled Nemmer as he watched the others staring at each other around the table.  "Maybe we need to hide Dree until we know more about this Herald business."

It took a minute, as the others were heavy in thought about the situation, before they realized what Nemmer had just muttered.  "Nemmer is right," smiled the Dowager.  "Dree should be hidden until we know enough about Aralt before they meet.  We don't want the two of them to get off on the wrong foot.  But I also don't think they should meet until we find out what the Herald's plans are first."

After a short discussion, the rest of the council agreed with the Dowager, but who to send?  For they needed to distract Dree and to keep him away until the council had their chance to find out Aralt's plan and that wouldn't be easy. 

"I could send Meen," volunteered Queen Ffion as Meen jumped from her chair when she heard her name.

"No disrespect to you or your minion, Queen Ffion," answered Awena, " But we need someone who might be able to distract Dree as to the arrival of the Herald but not spill the beans about him.  Meen would get so caught up playing and probably tell Dree everything since she is a twiddletop when it comes to keeping secrets."  The conversation continued for some time, going back and forth on who would be best to inform the Dragon, but it wasn't until Dulbbe, the Troll King, made his offer before they selected the messenger.

"Tell me again why you think I should be the one to distract the Dragon?  Am I supposed to let him eat me? For that won't take long and then you will be right back to the same problem," Drat said.

"Quit being so dramatic.  You have meet him before and he knows you work for me... and bes​ides, of all of the others here that can be sent on this errand - we both know you are the best choice," answered the Troll King as he looked directly into his minions eyes.

Realizing that his boss was both correct and actually giving him a compliment, Drat blushed slightly and bowed his head.  "As you command Sire," he replied as he departed on his errand.

"Well, it got me out of what looked like a long and boring meeting," thought Drat as he darted down the street to the caves under the Baron's mansion all the time working up a plan to keep the Dragon busy without letting him know he was being hidden away again for now.  "I wonder if I can get him into a game of Tic Tac Toe?  That could take a while if he doesn't know that secret.  But I will definitely need to let him know that it doesn't require body parts or eating."