Six months ago, Dipak was arrested for a horrific crime. He should have been executed, but he's not feeling terribly grateful for the crown's mercy when he's taken to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and left to rot with only the clothes on his back and whatever he could easily carry. Homeless, friendless, and aimless, he ventures into the Forbidden Forest on the quest for a dragon, because any person who can single-handedly fell a nigh-legendary blue dragon will be granted whatever they wish by decree of the king. Instead of a dragon, however, Dipak finds the single most annoying man he's ever met in his life, a man who is relentlessly cheerful and carefree, who seems determined to make Dipak his friend—a man entirely too at ease in a forest that has killed thousands of people. word count: 49,027