A soft comforting glow expelled the darkness of my dreams. The red glow of a fire in the distance beckoned me forward in the cold winter night. Beside the fire sat a lone figure, his shadow elongated by the dancing flames. I approached the flames carefully, my feet crunching in the snow as the crisp air chilled my spine. The figure sat calmly, observing my approach with tired eyes.
The figure was human, dressed in ragged leather armor with deep markes cut from long ago battles. Inside the iron helmet the figure wore sat the head of an old man, his skin creased with the curse of age. A scabbard-less sword hung by his side, held only by the belt the man wore around his waist. The fire brightened and crackled as the man added more fuel to the fire and beckoned me closer.
“You’ve finally come.” The man had sat back down onto a small stump near the fire, putting his ungloved hands out to warm them, “After everything you’ve seen, why choose us? Why would you come to our home and uproot our lives?” The man’s voice never waivered. I wanted to ask him what he meant but the words caught in my throat. I couldn’t talk, the wind forced its way into my lungs with each attempt until they felt like they were going to freeze.
The man continued his one way conversation, “You are intelligent are you not? Your kind have always brought destruction and death to these lands and yet you still continue to call yourself just.” The firelight was beginning to dim again and the old man reached down to his side to find his wood supply exhausted. He heaved a sigh before turning back in my direction and drawing his sword, “You’ve already killed my family, I will force you to let me join them!”
His eyes moved to look above my head and I spun in confusion. Behind me stood a massive red and black dragon towering at least 15 feet high while standing on all fours. Its mouth opened exposing rows of razor-sharp serrated teeth. In the back of its throats a dim red glow rapidly brightened and before I could jump out of the way, a wall flame burst forth from behind its tongue. The fire engulfed me as my vision once again faded to black.
I sat up with a start, pain emanating throughout my body as I tried to discern my location. Upon examining my arms and legs I found they were still covered in blood and black tar. Bandages had been wrapped tightly around the areas that hurt the most when I moved but the splitting pain coming from my forehead was much more acute. Looking to my left I saw Shiza sprawled out on the ground next to me holding her forehead with both of her hands. Slowly my hearing returned to me.
“Oww oww oww oww! That hurt you jerk!” Shiza sat up, a small stream of blood running down her forehead as she chastized me on headbutting her, “All I was trying to do was save your life and how do you repay me!? By nearly knocking me unconscious with that thick skull of yours!”
Realizing my mistake I apologized profusely. While Shiza was still upset, she resumed treating my wounds. Remembering how low my health had gotten I decided to take a look at my stats. My health bar was now sitting at a slightly less than comfortable 24/60 and giving the amount of bandages I was covered in, it’d likely taken a lot of healing spells to save my life. To my right, Orion was passed out on the mossy ground, he must have gotten knocked around pretty hard as well. Surprisingly, the small blue drake had situated itself next to Shiza, its wing still bent out of shape but its other wounds all closed up.
“You’re lucky that drakes are fairly intelligent creatures.” Shiza said while forcibly straightening my arm, causing pain to ripple in waves throughout my body, “This little guy basically dragged me over here right before you would’ve died. If not for him I wouldn’t have woken up in time to stop you from bleeding out.”
It peered up at Shiza as she spoke, its eyes resting on me when she finished, “Argu!” Its one wing flapped as it made the noise.
My mind finally catching up to me, I reached into my storage bag and took out some of the healing moss I’d kept. Gently I coaxed the drake forward and wrapped the moss around the wing. I heard a pop as the wing snapped back into position and slowly began to take its regular shape. The creature looked at its wing then back to me in surprise, “It’s the least I could do seeing as you saved my life.” I said smiling.
Shiza spoke up and ordered me to lay back down, “If you move around too much you’re going to start bleeding again and I don’t want to waste anymore bandages so lay down and hold still.” I dutifully followed the Musteve's orders, fearing the repercussions if I failed to do so.
Orion had begun to stir next to me his gaze shifting from myself to the alpha tardog impaled a few feet away. His head fell back onto the moss as he breathed a sigh of relief, “I can't believe we killed one in the dark! How’re you doing there Alyx.”
“I'm doing fine, glad everyone’s alive and breathing, that’s what counts.” I replied chuckling.
Orion turned his head to look at me again and his eyes opened in shock, “Is that a drake!? It is! Those things are incredibly rare!” I looked at the small creature laying next to a bewildered Shiza, “I’ve only ever seen one other drake when a smuggler passed through Fenroot a few years back. The poor thing was on the brink of death and the guy wanted blood for it. Needless to say, no one in the village could even come close to affording his price and the smuggler moved on after a few days.”
Stolen novel; please report.
The small creature gave another “Argu” directed at Shiza and she looked down at it. The drake nuzzled between my torso and her leg before settling in and closing its eyes, its breath warm against my fur. I looked at Shiza, who at this point, was completely enamored with the blue drake’s behavior.
My head was pushed back to the ground by Shiza again who vehemently insisted I stop moving once again, “So needless to say, if we go back into town with this thing we’re going to cause a lot of trouble for ourselves?” I asked apprehensively.
Orion moved himself closer and nodded vigorously, “More than a lot of trouble. The smuggler was asking for 2000 gold coins, much more than enough to justify killing a few beastmen. The way I see it we have a few options on the table. Firstly, we could leave it out here where it will probably die. Alternatively, we could take it to the city and sell it to someone ourselves. We’d make a small fortune and would probably be able to buy our way into the nobility. Lastly, we could try to raise it as it looks like it's just a baby at the moment.”
The options were all interesting to say the least. Leaving the creature here would be the safest option. The last thing I wanted was to be hunted down because we owned something so valuable. The second option was out of the question. I remembered the faces of the slaves we passed on our way into Valenta and anyone who had the money to buy a drake would inevitably treat it poorly. The third option however…
Flashbacks from my dream came rushing back to me; the cold, the snow, and the man with the sword. I remembered the serrated teeth and the heat as the fire washed over me. I looked at the small form cosily napping next to my body, could something this small turn into something so deadly? The dream had seemed so real, it had felt so real! I didn’t know how to respond, taking the creature in was a massive risk that my logical mind was telling me not to take.
I looked over at Orion, remembering the wet and bleeding form laying in the sand on the bank of a river. I had taken a risk before and it’d been the best thing I could have done. It had led to knowledge about the area, a small fortune in gold, and at more than one point, had saved my life. It had also blossomed into a friendship that would see me figuring out my purpose in this world. I watched as the small blue body pressed up against me rose and fell with each inhale and exhale, its breath coming out warm enough to penetrate the fur on my stomach.
Setting my resolve, I made a decision. We could always abandon the drake later if it became too dangerous to keep around. My fist clenched as I sat up, prompting the drake to wake and turn its head towards me, “Let’s keep it for now. If we can keep it out of sight noone should bother us about it. That also means we’re going to need to live outside of the city.” I turned to Orion, “Let’s head back south and try to help clear out the forest around Fenroot.”
Shock spread over Orion’s face as he realized what I was suggesting. A party of silver ranked warriors had been dispatched to the area to investigate and clear monsters. Their main goal had been to locate the Tar pit but from what their reports had indicated, the concentration of monsters in the area had made it nearly impossible. Currently they’d been bogged down by the sheer number of monster’s they were facing, “If a party of silvers are struggling in that area, then how are we supposed to survive?”
A plan was already forming in my head. If we wanted to level up then we would need to defeat monsters for experience. My mind flashed back to the first tardog I’d killed, its movements weakened by the pond it had crawled out of. If we were able to catch those monsters as soon as they spawned it would be much easier to dispatch them quickly. We somehow needed to get strong enough to reach the tar pit though and the best option was killing monsters.
“We can stay on the outskirts of the territory being pacified by the silver party and pick off anything that makes it through. We can talk to Tether about setting up a quell quest for our group so that we can get paid for everything we kill.”
Orion’s hand tightened as he considered the options. “Ok, let’s do it. At least this way I get to avenge the people killed in Fenroot.” He said as he walked over and heaved the deceased alpha off of his spear.
I turned to Shiza and asked her if she was with us. She looked down at the small blue body that had crawled into her lap and returned my gaze, “I’m coming with you, although I demand 33 percent of the pay for my healing services.”
Orion and I both nodded, a smile spreading across my face. It was time to start getting stronger, I looked at my newly acquired stats from my level up. I had two friends willing to take that plunge with me as we figured out our places in this world.
My body began to ache as we started walking back towards the city of Veleta to complete Shiza’s quest. The sun was just peeking its head above the horizon, illuminating the world I’d been transported to with new opportunities. Shiza called out to the little drake, which she’d affectionately named Argu, to join her on her shoulder, which he did immediately. The four of us would most definitely face many tribulations in the future, but for now I would just enjoy the warm spring breeze blowing through my red stained fur.
I would worry about the troubles ahead some other time, today I would relish in the victory that was surviving another day amongst friends.
Argu
Drake (Level 1)
69/100 Experience
20/20 Health ----
20/20 Stamina ------
10/10 Mana --
10/10 Spirit ---
‘0’ Stat Points Available
Racial Abilities - Flight and Unavailable
Skills: (Fire Magic G) (Elemental Shift) (Fire Magic Cost Reduction)
Spells: Sear, Illuminate