***Tirnanog, The Plains***
***Magnus***
“Listen, Loops, you are sharing your quarters with not one, but two beautiful drakes in their prime. A week with plenty of opportunities and you are telling me they aren’t even looking at you? I don’t believe it. There’s is no way nothing is going to happen if you just stay persistent,” I argued.
Which is when I had an idea. “Maybe you can get them on board with a threesome? Are they worried about being left out if one accepts you?”
‘Threesome?’
The young drake ogled me with big, round eyes while it listened to my teachings.
“Yes, mating, you know? With both at the same time?” I clarified. “Don’t tell me you don’t have orgies in that colony of yours.”
‘No. Mates are two.’ Loops shook his head vehemently. ‘Only strongest males get more than one mate!’
I blew out my cheeks, getting somewhat frustrated with counselling the drake on his woman troubles. Not that I was the best guy to ask. I had made it to thirty until Astra hooked up with me. And it had to be said she took the initiative. Not to mention, it was kind of her last opportunity to escape an unwanted match.
Maybe I should do some serious introspection before I dared to help others with relationships.
But I would be damned if I couldn’t help Loops with two haughty females!
“And who says you aren’t strong enough for two mates?” I asked. “You are my mount, so you should have one for every day of the week!”
Loops needed to man up – or drake up.
‘Am not.’ Loops looked at the ground and managed to seem downcast. He was a perfect, oversized pile of misery and he had no shame to communicate his feelings to me.
“Arrgh! You are giving me heartburn!” I tore at my filaments. This guy had self-confidence issues! Why did he have to load his bull onto me? “But as long as Elegance doesn’t reciprocate your advances, there’s no harm in trying to hook up with Cadence, right? There’s no rule against impressing more than one female?”
Loops tilted his head like he always did when he tried to wrap his mind around a human concept or way of thinking which was alien to him. Finally, he nodded.
I looked up and praised whatever force was watching over drakes. It had taken us far too long to get to this point. Loops was fixated on hooking up with Elegance who only ever gave him the cold shoulder. If the woman didn’t want him, then he had no moral responsibility towards her.
I returned my attention to the drake. “Good, listen. Be a gentleman, which means being polite and nice to both Cadence and Elegance. Just as we said. Impressive flights and bringing them good food. Both of them.”
Loops eyes drifted away from me.
“Hey, pay attention, boy!” I raised a finger and waved it until Loops returned his attention to me. “And once the girls realize they don’t have your sole appreciation, it’s their turn to become proactive. Just remember, when you finally get your chance, don’t ask for permission to get some action. Ask for forgiveness afterwards.”
Most importantly, he had to make sure to knock them up the first time. As timid as Loops was, he wouldn’t get many chances.
Loop’s eyes flicked back and forth while he had his head lying on the floor of his stall like a tired cat. It looked like my plan of inciting envy between the females was too complicated for the creature.
Though, I didn’t buy his act for one second. The drakes were much smarter than the Aerie were giving them credit. Admittedly, if Loops was an example to go by, then drakes had a serious attention-span issue.
“Loops, are you listening?”
Loops nodded.
“Then why are you looking so guilty?”
‘Magnus said: secret plan.’
Someone cleared her throat behind me.
I sighed and followed Loop’s guilty expression towards where Astra was standing at the door to his stall.
She tilted her head and purred, “So… he shouldn’t ask for permission, but rather for forgiveness? Please explain.”
I turned back to Loops. “You should have told me! Traitor!”
The drake rolled its eyes. Actually rolled its eyes at me!
“And why is your response so human?” I pointed a finger at him. “Who taught you to roll your eyes!?”
Was he somehow looking up the fitting gesture inside my brain and using it?
Astra cleared her throat again and Loops turned inside his stall. Then he rolled his body up until all I could see of the huge creature was a mountain of coiled, scaly drakeflesh.
He had shown me the cold shoulder and pretended to sleep. The audacity!
The drake quite obviously didn’t want to be involved in whatever was to come.
“Loops?” I stood up and poked the drake. “Are you ignoring me now? You know I don’t like it when you ignore me.”
Great! When he got like that it took him hours to become responsive again. Loopsfast was the runt of the litter, but he was still too big for me to dare more than poke him.
Astra cleared her throat again. “Maybe you should stop confusing the poor boy. And stop trying to teach him immoral lessons or I am going to tell Elegance.”
“I am not confusing him!” I shot back. “I am certain he is just play-acting the stupid role. He understands every word we say and adapts human gestures as much as it is possible. Maybe a parrot could do such a thing, but not apply it correctly.”
Then I had an idea and turned, pointing at Astra. “You!”
“Me?” My wife managed to look stricken. “Please, don’t bring me into this delusion of yours. The drakes are smart, but they aren’t anywhere close to a human’s level. They have no culture or technology, and no written language. If they weren’t telepathic, they would have no language at all.”
“Forget about that old argument. I know Aerie's policy is to deny anything on this topic, for whatever reason. You are the solution to our problem!” I went to Astra and linked arms with her. “You can ask Elegance what she wants from a mate. And then Loops can deliver! You are his salvation.”
Astra groaned, but for some reason decided to humour me. “Loopsfast, you have to firm up. Don’t listen to this idiot of mine. The nice guy never gets the girl. Choose one and jump onto her back when she isn’t looking your way. You will be in for a wild ride, but such are the woes of drake-love.”
I almost did a double take. “Astra! You can’t be seriously trying to suggest he tries to rape Elegance.”
Astra looked at me with a deadpan expression. “They aren’t humans. That’s how drakes do it. Loops is just a big wuss compared to the rest of his species.”
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“There’s no way he has a chance!” There was no helping it. I had to point out the problem. “If Loops is a fighter jet, then Elegance is a bomber! She will kill him!”
“Which is why,” Astra replied patiently, “I said he would have to prepare himself for a wild ride. Oh, Loops, and fly fast if you don’t manage to satisfy her.”
“That’s it!” I firmed up my resolve. “Loops, we are going directly to plan ‘D’ – for desperation! Which means, date-rape drugs! We just have to find the right plants. They won’t suspect anything, especially since you have been bringing them tasty things all the time.”
Astra slapped me lightly over the back of the head. “That’s going too far! Let the drakes sort out their own problems. They also aren't messing with us.”
She turned me around and slowly guided me out of the drake’s stall. “Why don’t we do a little bit of landscape watching? I am sure Loops needs to have his sleep if he decides to tangle with one of the girls.”
“Are you sure about drake mating?” I asked. “You could have told me earlier!”
“Completely sure,” Astra replied confidently. “I asked Elegance about it when I saw her ignoring poor Loop.”
“And what about Thalia?” I asked. “Doesn’t she need your care?”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you always find a reason to run off when it’s time to take care of a sick person,” Astra chided me.
“I just can’t deal with the puke!” I admitted while we walked out to the parapet.
Astra laughed. “You know, Thalia is glad of getting sick as soon as she rides on an animal.”
I scoffed. “I can’t imagine why.”
“She says nobody is going to rape a girl who spray-paints them with her breakfast as soon as they come close,” Astra reminded me of Thalia’s little adventure.
“Now we are getting into the dour territory,” I complained. “Can we try to switch topics?”
We fell into silence as we watched the snowy hills pass us by. The herd wasn’t moving quickly, but persistently. Saherna could sleep and eat while walking. This allowed them to cover huge distances even if they weren’t moving especially fast. Their normal walking speed was between twenty and thirty kilometres per hour. If the caravaners drove their animals, they could speed up to fifty, but only for a few hours. And the animals would require a lot of rest afterwards, which the increased speed couldn't make up for.
So, slow and steady was the name of the game.
Mount Aerie was now a vast mountain range behind us, while the plains belonging to clan Hochberg lay ahead.
The storms had increased over three days and forced us to spend most of our time inside. Meanwhile, the herd had reached the Sanguine River and followed it to the plains.
Only this morning the storms had died down which allowed us to have a look at the melting landscape.
“It’s annoying,” I commented while I watched the gently rolling hills which dominated the area between the mountains and the plains.
“What?” Astra raised a questioning eyebrow.
“The weather,” I clarified. “It’s beginning to feel confining. Hopefully, these short periods of acceptable weather will end soon.”
“You will wish them back soon enough,” a voice spoke from our left.
I turned and found Elijah approaching us. Once he was close enough, he bowed in greeting. “The melting ice and snow will turn the plains into a huge bog for a week or two before the water drains off into the Serpent’s Lake. The saherna will have to swim through some parts, bringing the fortress down low enough for unpleasant predators to jump on. If we are particularly unlucky, the conditions will be right for some of the things from the Mycelium Forest to make the journey over the eastern mountain range. We once lost an entire saherna because it was infected with mould. It’s the time when we will have to stay the most vigilant.”
“Thank you for the explanation,” I replied honestly. I darkly remembered Astra giving me a quick intro to the horrors which lived on the eastern coast.
Elijah hadn’t made a good first impression, but I was willing to give him a second chance. His people had been the prime example of the perfect hosts since we had embarked on this journey. And it looked like he came to apologize. “I see you have recovered from our little bout.”
“I apologize for involving you in our internal struggles,” the huge man replied half-heartedly and shrugged. “In my defence, I can only say this: Everyone told me I deserved the beating you delivered. Though, I would love to repeat the exercise – without the lightning.”
He scratched the back of his head with a hand as big as a sledgehammer. “I don’t know many people who can challenge my Precognition without overwhelming me.”
Astra waved her hand in a welcoming gesture. “You can join our training if you want. We are doing morning exercises at sunrise in the courtyard. Bring your partner too.”
Elijah looked uncertain but nodded. “I’ll do that.”
Our socializing was abruptly interrupted by an animal’s call. It sounded like a loud bleating.
We looked over the parapet but saw nothing before the bleating came again and a herd of huge creatures trampled over the crest of a nearby hill. They looked like elk at the first glance, but their bodies and tails had more in common with a fox. Meanwhile, their extremely elongated heads had nothing in common with any creature I knew from Earth.
One of my sub-identities quickly provided the correct number.
The fleeing herd consisted of fifty-two animals which flowed down the hill and through between the saherna’s feet like a school of fish. Each of the elks was as big as a truck with some being even bigger. They still were nothing compared to the saherna.
They were followed by a large pack of gutters. For the first time, I noted with excitement, I had recognized an animal from a previous encounter. The stupid dogs had given me tough times back at the Old Camp until Mark taught me how to hunt properly.
The deadly fluffballs yowled and followed the herd with foam at their mouths.
“Do we have to be worried about the gutters?” I asked, remembering their claws which would be the perfect tools to climb a saherna’s bark-like skin.
“No,” Elijah answered. “They won’t try their luck with the saherna if there is other prey. Though, they must be desperate and hungry if they are hunting a herd of lightelks. If they are very lucky, they will catch a sick animal. But it’s more likely for them to get killed when the herd decides to fight.”
As if on cue, one of the larger lightelks turned and charged the pack of gutters. It lowered its antlers which began to glow and spark. The clear sign of electricity had me activate my Second Sight and I watched in awe as the arching plasma between the creature’s antlers coalesced into a ball of lightning.
The elk bleated like a ram-horn and launched the ball of concentrated plasma with a flick of its antlers. The light shot away and impacted right in the middle of the pack.
One of the gutters vanished in a blinding flash while others got singed and stunned. All I could see remaining of the primary target was a blackened spot on the ground and some fluff in the air. The elk had vaporized the gutter!
Then the huge lightelk trampled right through the pack while sweeping its antlers, claiming more kills. It was as if a car had run over a group of people, causing carnage supreme.
Only a handful of gutters were desperate enough to jump onto the lightelk. Their claws dug into the animal’s flanks and they began to climb, causing huge, bleeding wounds.
But the lightelk was having none of it.
The animal threw itself onto its side and rolled, crushing the pesky nuisances which dared to attack it. When it came back up, it was in a prime position to fire up its main weapon again, but by this point, the pack of gutters was already fleeing.
Another fluffball evaporated when the plasma ball caught up to it. Then the pack disappeared behind the crest of the hill, leaving behind over a dozen of their number.
“The predators are starved after the winter,” Elijah commented drily. “They will come back and eat their own once the herd has passed. If they are lucky, the bull will bleed out and they will have a feast, but I doubt it. The wounds look superficial.”
But I didn’t listen. My mind was too distracted by what I had seen.
The phenomenon of a lightning ball wandering through someone’s bedroom had been disproven as a hoax long ago – though there were still people who claimed to have witnessed such encounters.
Which wasn’t to say similar phenomena didn’t exist. Scientists could replicate short-lived plasma balls inside the laboratory. There were even real documented lightning balls – though the conditions to form them naturally were only right high up in Earth’s atmosphere. Too high for any human to encounter them without satellite observation.
Yet, this creature had just used electricity and magnetism to shoot plasma at an enemy.
Thankfully, my sub-identities had paid close attention. If I could replicate-
A mad giggle caused me to look over to Astra who was cradling a tiny pinprick of light between her hands. She threw her hands out in a pushing motion, and the tiny plasma ball flew away from us. It dispersed quickly and winked out after it left Astra’s control, but it was more than enough as a proof of concept.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“I just copied what the elk did?” Astra pointed over the parapet. The saherna had left the scene of the battle behind, but it was still visible. “Why haven’t we thought of this before? It’s way more complicated to pull off, but it takes much less power than a normal lightning strike.”
The lightelk was working out its frustrations on the gutters who were too injured to flee. Despite presumably being a herbivore, the elk had concerning murderous tendencies. One by one, it stomped each body into the ground as it made sure none of its attackers would see the light of another day.
I took Astra by the arm and turned her in the direction of our quarters. “We have to find out how this is possible.”
Just before we marched off, I remembered Elijah had been watching us and turned to address him, “Oh, sorry, but we just found a new application of our mutation. Tomorrow?”
“No problem,” Elijah waved us goodbye with a forced smile on his face. After experiencing the standard lightning strike first-hand, he was probably already imagining what it would be like to endure a smaller version of the elk’s lightning ball.
I then frogmarched Astra to our quarters while quickly trying to explain the impossible-seeming physics behind this phenomenon. Not to mention, it would be quite the ace in our set of skills and had to stay hidden.
Elijah having seen Astra improvising a small lightning ball wasn’t ideal, but nothing could be done about it.
For a moment I played with the thought of eliminating Elijah, but discarded it quickly. He had proven himself to be a tough nut to crack. Too tough to take on silently without preparation. And by the time I managed to come up with something feasible, he would have already shared the knowledge.
No. It was better to sweep the knowledge beneath the rug and hope it wouldn’t spread beyond Elijah’s circle.
And who knew? Maybe throwing balls of lightning wouldn’t turn out to be a viable skill anyway.