Serenity waited a moment, then realized he’d asked the question in English. What were the odds a gecko would know English? He was about to repeat the question in Bridge just in case it was an invader when the gecko (which had turned somewhat greenish while he watched) suddenly started talking.
It sounded oddly human. There was no way that voice should be coming from such a small animal.
“A local language? Intelligent then! And, and, and! Wait, no. That’s not possible. DRAGONS! I HAVE DRAGONS IN MY CAVE! Oh my oh my oh my! This is wonderful!” The gecko seemed to be running circles on the dungeon core, until it slipped and landed back on the pedestal. It was definitely greener than it had been before.
Somehow, he reminded Serenity of the Geico mascot. Only more brown than green, distinctly less bipedal, smaller, and much, much louder and more energetic.
No, he really wasn’t much like the Geico mascot after all.
It was probably the accent and the fact that, however different it was, it was still a gecko.
Serenity traded a glance with Rissa. He was going to let the gecko calm down a little before he said anything.
If it even was a gecko. It looked a lot like one, but “four-inch-long brownish-green lizard” wasn’t exactly enough to be certain, and it was definitely talking. Even in something like an “enhancement cave”, it seemed unlikely an actual gecko would be talking after only a few weeks.
“DRAGONS! Oh do say something again! You did speak, I didn’t mishear you? How did you find my cave? Oh, I didn’t accidentally break your nesting spot, did I? That’d be bad. No no no, please tell me I didn’t?”
Serenity felt Curio climb up from its hiding spot between his wings. It had been completely happy to stay there while he was crawling through the muddy tunnel, but now that there was something small it could play with, it wanted to come out.
As long as it stayed on his shoulder, that would be fine. Serenity knew better than to expect Curio to stay put, unfortunately.
The gecko was still talking. As it did, it ran around the stalagmite-pedestal, holding its head above the top of the pedestal when it was on the far side. “Oh what’s that? A familiar! That’s a familiar?!? That’s a shadowcat! No, a shadowkitten. How do you get a shadowkitten familiar? You’d have to capture a - no no no. RAISE a shadowcat! Then you could get a shadowkitten familiar. But why wouldn’t you just bond a shadowcat? Wait wait wait I’m missing the obvious! You’re a dragon and you can talk but it’s the local language! Shadowcats must be native to this world! Of course! I have got to get one, I’ve never been in a shadowcat Cave!”
“Do you always say what you’re thinking out loud?” Serenity shifted uncomfortably. Being talked about like he wasn’t there was one thing, but being semi-ignored while being talked about and standing in front of the gecko doing it while coated in uncomfortably itchy mud was another. He was tired of it, and he was certain Rissa was at least as tired of it as he was.
The gecko stopped running almost immediately, on the other side of the pedestal. It slowly poked its head above the top of the pedestal, where it could see them. “They can hear me? Oh no no no I must have configured that wrong! I wanted to be able to talk but not always talk! And they’re DRAGONS! Uh…”
There was a pause. Serenity was pleased to know that the gecko could pause, but he wasn’t going to let the silence go to waste. “So, you are the dungeon master for this cave?”
As he spoke, a black streak leapt from his shoulder to the pedestal. Serenity tried to catch Curio, but only managed to brush its tail with his hand. As the kitten landed on the pedestal, the gecko fled down, across the floor, and up the far wall faster than Curio could follow. Serenity caught up with his familiar as it meowed and jumped ineffectually at the wall. “Curio! Bad kitty! No chasing people who talk!”
Serenity picked Curio up and it meowed, then licked his hand. He sighed. “Yeah, how are you to know better. I hope you’ll get smarter as you age so I can actually explain stuff like this to you.” He scritched under the kitten’s chin and Curio purred.
Serenity looked back at the gecko. “Sorry about that. Kitten. You okay?”
“I. I am. Fine.” The kitten seemed to have frightened the gecko, but at least he was no longer talking a mile a minute.
Serenity figured he’d try again. Third time’s the charm, right?
Not that that was actually true in magic, at least not most of the time, but still.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You’re the dungeon master, right?”
“Y-yes, I am. I am! This is my dungeon! And you’re DRAGONS! Wait, you’re not mad are you? How did you find the place anyway?” The gecko stopped, waiting.
Serenity let the silence drag a moment too long, expecting the gecko to plow on ahead the way he had before. “Ah, we followed a bat. They’re behaving strangely.”
“A bat.” The gecko sounded nonplused. It was silent for a moment, then it started speaking slower and softer than before. “I only have a few bats. Part of a colony. More went to the Third Cave. I’ve barely started here. It is harder than I expected.”
“What are you trying to accomplish here?” Serenity let Curio wiggle out of his hands and back onto his shoulder. It wasn’t like Curio couldn’t get away if it chose; there was no way to hold a sentient mass of smoke, after all, but it seemed to like sticking to the limits of a kitten. Serenity assumed that was why it seemed to have aged very little.
“Beasts. I’m going to raise and train beasts! Well, provide a place for it, at least. There will be a lot of other Traa to help me once I have the basics set up. I have to get enough beasts in here to make it worthwhile before anyone else will - hey! DRAGONS! Would you like to join me?” The gecko sounded just as cheerful and determined as when they first arrived. “We can help you progress better, and set out plans to help you reach more powerful options! Plus, the dungeon will help you get there faster!”
Serenity chuckled. “I don’t really think I need that much help. And I’m afraid I’m too strong for your dungeon, it was quite clear about that when I came in. More importantly though, I bet you’d want me to support your cause?”
“Of course! It’d be best if you went back with us - that’d be a success for the expedition all on its own - but even if you only help us catch beasts to train! We could do so much! There’s an insect line, an infiltrator variant I’ve been wanting to try; everyone concentrates on the poison or the defenses, along one of the gigantism paths, but I want to try a tiny route; also anything new! Oh! When we were traveling out here I’d swear I saw a new bird! A hunter of some sort, with a crest, just hanging out in the sky floating! I want one of those! And-”
“Slow down there.” Serenity didn’t miss the word “expedition”. It made his suspicion that this was an invader seem more likely, but they’d clearly picked a path other than direct conquest.
Combined with what he remembered of the future-that-wasn’t, Serenity knew that it was a successful option if no one did anything, probably as much because it seemed natural instead of being an attack as much as anything. He thought it might be less successful in this timeline, because people seemed to be moving along a bit quicker, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work.
Serenity grinned a bit more broadly than he usually let himself among humans. “You’re from another planet, aren’t you.”
“Yes? Of course?” The gecko sounded confused.
“And your people - the Traa, did you say? Raise beasts. I assume you train, work with, and command them in both ordinary work and in battle?” If they wanted more beasts there might be a way to arrange that. Which meant that there was a possibility for trade.
“Yes?”
This might just work. If he could manage this right, not only would the Traa not be a threat, he might be able to get them to work with his people to drive off some of the other invasions. Serenity nodded to himself. “I’m Serenity; this is Rissa, and the kitten is Curio. None of us are interested in becoming your beasts, but I have a proposal I think your superiors will want to hear. What’s your name, by the way?”
The gecko crawled back over to the pedestal, watching the kitten the entire time, clearly thinking about its answer. “Greenstick. What’s your proposal?”
“We’ll have to work out the details with your superiors, but the outline is simple - we trade. I’m not sure what you have to offer, but we have ordinary animals in quantity, and it sounds like that’s what you’re looking for.” Serenity could think of several places animals might come from; it all depended on what they were looking for and what was valuable and unique.
Simply establishing trade would be worthwhile in its own right, even if all it did was make the Traa not release beasts into the wild to drive others away. It would probably be worth far more than that in the end, though; the Traa should have access to all sorts of things that Earth simply didn’t have yet.
It wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible.
“Trade?” Greenstick sounded perplexed. “Why … oh! I know! You can bring me beasts! That would be a good trade!”
It might be harder than he’d thought.
----------------------------------------
Two hours later, Serenity was convinced that Greenstick acted like a hyperactive teenager because he was a hyperactive teenager. He’d been unceremoniously dropped off to develop his own Cave of Enhancement with only limited instructions; apparently, that was how the Traa developed their young dungeon masters.
Serenity wasn’t sure what to think about that. His initial reaction was that it was taking find your own Path a bit too far, since it was likely to have a lot of students die when a little protection might have saved them against bad luck, but it wasn’t really his place to say how far was too far.
At least they were better off than most Earthlings right now. Greenstick grew up with the Voice, which was - for most people - a benefit.
What he didn’t seem to know anything about was how to have a relationship outside his family based on anything other than strength. Trade simply didn’t compute. When Serenity tried the word in Bridge, Greenstick tried to correct him - he assumed that the word Serenity meant was tribute.
Hopefully the Traa elders would know more. Greenstick was willing to take him to them; apparently, being a DRAGON was worth that much.