“Woah, woah, woah…” Flakken waved his hands, his face twisting with disbelief. “You can talk?”

“I can now, yes,” Valo answered simply.

“How?” Holly leaned in, sliding her elbows onto the slightly sticky tavern table.

Valo paused. He wasn’t sure where to begin, exactly—and the four warriors staring at him with a mixture of wonder and disbelief in their eyes didn’t help. They sat at one of the tables in the tavern attached to Grettle’s inn, before the tavern fully opened for the day. The warriors were still hazy from the effects of Grettle’s herbed stew, but the revelation that Valo could speak had quickly snapped them out of it.

“Uh… Grettle gave me something,” Valo explained. “A dragon-pearl. It granted me the ability to level up one of my…” Seeing that his explanation was only making them more confused, Valo gave up on it, settling on a far more reductive one. “Grettle… gave me something that allows me to speak.”

“Grettle?” Holly asked, furrowing her brow. “Who the bloody hells is Grettle?”

“I the bloody hells am Grettle,” the old woman said, marching up to their table with a tray of beige, lumpy goop. She slid a bowl over to each of them—to Flakken, Archie, Garth, Holly…

And Valo.

The young dragon glanced down at it, then up at Grettle. He didn’t want to say anything, but the off-brown sludge in front of him wasn’t exactly appetizing.

The warriors, too, seemed much less eager to dive into another one of her meals, seeing as the last one had, they concluded, been laced with something. Sensing everyone’s hesitancy, Grettle spoke up.

“Relax,” she said. “This one won’t put you to sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Flakken said, giving her a flat look. “What will it do? Make us puke our guts out?”

“If you puke your guts out on my floor,” Grettle said with a glare, “you’re cleaning it up.” She huffed. “I suppose I should apologize.” She paused. “If I regretted lacing your stew with drowser root—but I don’t.” She shrugged and glanced at Valo. “I had to ensure you four weren’t doing him harm… Besides, you all probably had the best sleep of your lives, didn’t you?”

The warriors grumbled their reluctant agreement.

“Eat up. There’s nothing bad in that oatmeal,” Grettle said, shuffling off. “You’re welcome…”

Once Grettle left, though, breakfast was the last thing on the warriors’ minds. Their eyes all snapped back to Valo.

“So… you can talk now…” Holly said, leaning back, a blank expression on her face as she processed that fact.

Valo nodded. “Quite well.”

Garth huffed. “Better than Archie, at least.”

The portly man frowned. “Oi, what you mean better than me—”

“I think you just proved his point.” Flakken snorted.

“This is all besides the point,” Valo said, growing a bit frustrated at the warriors’ fixation on him being able to speak. He understood their fixation, of course, but there were more important matters at hand. “I’ve decided what I want to do.”

“And what is that?” Garth said, narrowing his eyes at the hatchling.

“I want to find out what happened to my kin,” Valo said confidently.

Flakken guffawed. “You and half the realm.”

“Yeah,” Archie muttered. “What after that? Eternal youth?”

“I don’t care about eternal youth,” Valo said blankly, not truly understanding Archie’s sarcasm. “I only want to discover where the other dragons have gone.”

Archie opened his mouth to speak, but gave up on correcting Valo.

Valo, of course, wanted more than just knowing where they’d gone. He wanted to learn what it meant to be a dragon. He wanted to learn what all the strange words floating in front of him were, and where they came from. He wanted to learn all the secrets to which he was not privy.

He wanted, deeply, to learn how to fly.

But, for now, he’d settle for just finding his kin.

Stolen story; please report.

“You say that like it’s easy,” Flakken muttered. “Like you’re just going to happen on them.”

“I know it won’t,” Valo said stubbornly. “But…” He glanced down. “But I don’t know what else to do. If you woke up and you were the only human left alive… wouldn’t you try to find other people?”

Flakken snorted. “Me, alone in the world, finally at peace? Sounds like paradise to me—”

“That’s a lie, Flakken, and you know it,” Garth said sharply. “We all know it.” He shrugged. “In fact, we understand your position more than most.” He whipped his head around and looked at Archie, who shrank slightly under Garth’s eye. “Archie—you came to the guild a scared orphan, looking for a bed and a family. And you found it.” He shifted his gaze onto Flakken. “Flakken—you were a thief, rotting in the king’s dungeons, abandoned to your fate by those you called friends. You weren’t just looking for a bit of gold in your pocket. You were looking for friends who’d stick by you, no matter what. And you found them.”

Flakken nodded solemnly, his gaze dropping down to the bowl of oatmeal. Evidently, he’d forgotten his origins, after all these years with the guild, and Garth had brought all those memories flooding back.

Finally, Garth turned to Holly. “And Holly… You…” He eyed the young girl as she stared at him with wide, worried eyes. She gave a stiff shake of the head—barely visible, as though she was trying to hide it from Archie and Flakken. They didn’t notice—but Valo did.

“And Holly,” Garth said, shifting uncomfortably, “you needed a home—and you found one with us.” The weathered warrior swept his gaze over the party. “We were all searching for something, once. Something thought to be impossible—by those around us, and by ourselves.” He paused. “And yet, we found it.” His gaze settled on Valo. “The dragon’s goal might be… ambitious. But I believe he’ll find what he seeks—just like we did.”

There was a chorus of nods from the warriors.

Garth let his speech settle in, allowing the ambient noises of the young morning to creep back in—the gentle twitter of birds, the distant trickle of a nearby stream, Grettle’s hum as she readied herself for the day ahead.

But when he spoke again, he disturbed the peaceful silence with what he said.

“But I, for one, won’t be coming with you on this journey,” Garth said to Valo.

“What?” Flakken frowned. “After that big speech you’re just… going home?”

Garth nodded and sighed. “I’m an old man, Flakken. This was supposed to be my last mission—retrieving a dragon’s egg would’ve paid enough to let me retire in a villa in the Silver District, somewhere near the water.” He shook his head. “This all made me realize I’m too old for the road.”

“Too old?” Archie guffawed. “You’re a spring chicken, Garth!”

Garth forced a smile, but it quickly left his lips.

“Wait,” Flakken said. “No egg means no gold. How will you retire, Garth?”

“I’ll petition the guild,” Garth answered. “With my years of service and the work I’ve done… I’ll still be able to retire.” He smirked. “Just maybe not in the Silver District.” He turned back to Valo. “But if you all want to help our young friend here along, that’s your choice.”

“Where are we even going?” Flakken asked, looking at Valo. “Where do we even start?”

“South,” Valo answered confidently. Grettle had suggested talking to the dwarves, and that seemed like the best option in front of Valo. “We need to talk to the dwarv—”

“I’m out,” Flakken said suddenly. He sighed. “I stole something from a high-up dwarf once—a lord or something. Dwarves are pretty protective over their precious things—and I tried to steal something fairly precious.” He held up a fist. “A gem the size of my fist, amber as a roaring flame.” He shook his head, smiling as he recalled the loot. “Took me years to shake the dwarves’ attention—and, in truth, I don’t think they ever got over it. As soon as I wander into their lands, I don’t think it’ll take long for them to come after me.” He shrugged. “Dragons might be gone, but old grudges have a way of sticking around…”

“I’m out too,” Archie blurted.

Holly quirked a brow. “Why? Did you steal something too?”

Flakken snorted. “A pie, maybe.”

Archie gave him a flat look. “No, I did not steal anything.” His face softened. “I just… It’s…” He pursed his lips. “It’s the food.”

“The… food?” Holly looked at him in disbelief.

“Dwarven food is terrible, Holly,” Archie explained. “Have you ever tried it? It’s spicy as the hells themselves. I couldn’t feel my mouth for weeks after just a few bites of a dwarven curry.” He shuddered. “And that’s saying nothing about my bowel movements—”

Holly put a hand up. “We don’t need you to say anything about those, thank-you-very-much.” She sighed and shook her head. “So… none of you are going to accompany him? No one is willing to escort a-a-a dragon across the realm?” Her voice was strained with disbelief. “Three years ago, you would’ve killed for this chance!”

“Three years ago it would’ve been a lot less trouble,” Flakken said, with a shrug. “No gold, terrible food, the risk of getting shanked by a dwarf or killed by a mage…” He sighed. “Not worth it, in my book.” He stood up. “So I wish you good luck, little guy—but this is where we part ways.”

As Flakken shuffled off, heading back to their room to gather his things, Archie, too, got up. He glanced at Valo, opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but ultimately just scurried off after Flakken without saying a word. Finally, Garth groaned as he got onto his feet.

“Godspeed, Valo,” Garth said firmly. “Godspeed.” He shuffled off toward their room to pack his belongings alongside Flakken and Archie.

That left just Holly and Valo sitting in the empty tavern. The young dragon craned his head up to her, eyeing her. His heart pounded in his chest—faster and faster as he scanned her features. Would she, too, decide to part from him? He’d expected one or two of the warriors to part with him… but all of them?

Could he do this completely alone?

Thankfully, it seemed he wouldn’t have to.

Holly sighed. “Are you sure about this?”

Valo nodded enthusiastically.

“Then we better come up with a plan,” she said, shifting on the bench. “Because we can’t just wander around aimlessly…”

“We?” Valo looked up at her with hope glimmering in his eyes.

After a brief pause, Holly nodded, a smile teasing the edges of her lips. “We.”