When the night settled, we finally reached our destination. The beautiful island that we were on earlier was still burning with fights going on, that we could see from our spot. We weren’t that far from it, but just far enough to be out of the outrage for now.

The dragon lead us to a cave hidden underneath a mountain. The entrance was a bit small for him, but the inside was spacious enough for him to stand with no problem. Randal and I weren’t even close to lacking space in there.

As the light of the night was dimming out, I used a little magic to light up. They didn’t seem bothered by the lack of light in the first place, but I was. The length of the cave wasn’t that deep, so after only a few minutes of walking we reach its end.

At the end was another Dragon relaxing. This one was a little smaller than the one with me, but still towered over two-thirds of us.

I already identified the one encounter earlier as a male. This one I assume was a female, meaning his mate. The egg, she was wrapped around, solidified my assumption.

Approaching his mate, my companion checked her, making sure that nothing happened during his absence. She started licking his wounds, from the look of it, she was more worried about his injuries.

Searching in Randal's saddle, I grab some medicinal herbs and potions and tend to his wound before my own.

Disinfecting any wound he got with water and a potion, I applied an ointment on top to make sure everything healed properly.

My injuries were many but small. Searching in the pouch containing my burning sand, I grabbed what was left and put it on some of my wounds. Concentrating some magic, to cauterize them. Bracing myself, with the adrenaline of the fight gone, it hurt, but I suffered worse.

When I was mostly patched up, I searched the saddle and ate a few fruits. Giving Randal his favourite apple. Approaching the two lovers, I offered them some fruit too. The girl didn’t seem very fond of me, but her mate trusted me enough to appreciate the snack. After a few scratches, the female eased enough to eat my offering. She still kept me away from her egg.

Leaving the two alone, I extinguished my light, snuggled against Randal, who was already sleeping, and did my best to do the same.

When I awoke, they were all sleeping except the dragon. Carefully stumbling in the darkness, I made my way to the entrance. Outside, the sun was already high in the sky, I could still smell blood, and some birds were still killing each other.

To think that all the madness from yesterday was caused by that ear-piercing screech was insane. What could have made that sound, and how did it turn every monster into a bloodthirsty beast? The number of questions I wanted to ask Lavanda kept growing.

There was no way she would have known this was going to happen. If she did, she would have warned me. I also doubted she would send Randal with me if she expected me to die. And before everything else, I trusted her.

From the look of it, the sky was clear enough to allow us to go back home, without too much problem.

Going back inside, I found them all awake and minding their own affairs. Giving a few scratches to the Dragons, I made sure Randal was ready for the flight.

“Come on, Randal, it's time to go home,” I told him.

On our way out, the dragon delicately grabs my scarf and kept me from leaving.

“What is it, buddy, we can’t stay here, someone is waiting for us.” Releasing me, he spits a small fireball to the wall of the cave, illuminating it. Near it was a pile of dead monsters that I couldn’t recognize. They were too many to count and too fresh to be more than a few hours old. If these were monsters that got hit by last night's insanity, this place was not safe anymore.

Making a sign to his mate to follow him, she got up and grab her egg between her teeth.

“You want to come with us?” He gave me a small lick. Lavanda would probably be fine as long as they didn't bother her, and I did owe him my life. “Fine, but please don’t cause any problems.”

Riding Randal, we flew at a leisurely pace. The Dragon handled any stray monster that attacked us. The fact that there were still fights long after the screech was absurd. Fortunately, most of them were long dead before we took off.

When we reached home, the sun was getting down again, we may have taken longer than expected. The Dragon was reaching its limit with how little sleep he got last night, if he had any. Multiple times, I helped him take things down and fought with Randal. The only pauses taken were when they got hungry and feasted on remains from last night.

The range of that damn screech was bigger than I thought. Fortunately, close to home, the local wildlife was back to normal with no sign of being affected.

Finding a worried Lavanda on top of the tower. I told the two dragons to find a spot and relax. Randal and I landed next to her, happy to finally be back.

As soon as I reached the ground, I was stuck in her hug.

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“For the god's sake what happened, never scare me again like that,” she told me. “It goes for you too, you meat head.” She said while scratching the lizard's soft spot.

“So what happened, and what’s the deal with these two? I expected you to see one, not to bring them back.” she said with a puzzled look at the two dragons as they dropped near the island lake and tended to their needs.

“It's a long story,” I answer.

“Don’t worry about that, you have all the time in the world to tell me what happened. After all, in your state, I’m not letting you leave my sight again for at least two weeks.” Even with most of my wounds already being patched up or close to, I was a mess. My armour holding on was nothing else than a miracle. With most of it being in an irrecoverable state, I was feeling naked for the first time in a while.

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When I told Lavanda about the screech, she didn’t believe it, or at least didn’t want to. In a bit of a hurry, she wrote a letter and send Randal on an errand to an unknown place, telling me he wouldn’t be back for a while. She even used some of her best medicine on him, making sure he was ready for the trip.

She also forbida me from going there until she investigated the area of the screech herself. The potential danger was too high in her opinion, and I wasn't able to say otherwise.

The following days were calm. Lavanda’s had no problem letting the dragons stay as long as she didn’t need to build them a tower as she did with Randal. It apparently took her almost 20 years to build, and she had no intention of doing it again.

The dragons got accustomed to their new home pretty quickly, and didn’t need that much in the first place. Even the female, who was initially apprehensive about the place, was now comfortable. She even claimed my old hammock and put her egg in it, always staying nearby, just in case.

Calling them dragons all the time was getting on Lavanda's nerves, so she told me to give them names. Never having named anything in my life, it took me some time to find decent ones. After too much thought, I settle for Lendwrek and Mendry.

For their sake, I sped up the growth of a few trees and build them a makeshift tent using ivies and pelt. It was mainly to protect them from the rain on rainy days, but it soon became where we found them most of the time. Not that I minded, it was good training and took only a few days to make.

On Lavanda's recommendation, I practised my magic ability most of the time. Spending multiple hours a day in the greenhouse, I trained my skill in accelerating the growth of plants. If I ever needed to improvise, a small flower could, with practice, become my most dangerous weapon, an ace up the sleeve.

With Randal being away, we used Lendwrek to fly wherever we needed to go. He enjoyed all the pets we were giving him and didn’t mind working for his food.

Acting as a constant guard, Mendry never wanted to leave the island, or rather her egg. I wondered how long it was going to be until it hatched.

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“Hey, Emery, I got something I want to teach you.” It has been a week now since Randal left, and I was getting bored faster than I could train.

With the interdiction of going too far away from home, there wasn’t much I could do, except practise all the things she already taught me. So when Lavanda told me she wanted me to learn a new magic technique, I was overjoyed.

After making some space in the living room, she started to draw complex symbols on the floor with a gooey blue substance. She told me to memorize as much as I could from her example, which was easier said than done. With each new form that was drawn, the design was getting more and more unique. Even in video games, I never saw this kind of ritual circle.

After a few minutes, the final result was captivating. With a 2-meter diameter, it took a third of the living room. The smell emanating from the drawing material had a sweet taste to it, and I could sense a faint mana presence.

Stepping out of the circle, she began circulating her mana in it, and the substance started glowing a bright blue.

The light coming from the circle took form and faded away as piles of books, potions, and other items appeared instead. When the light was entirely gone, Lavanda took a book from the new inventory and offered it to me.

The book was thick. Easily containing more than a thousand pages, it was the biggest book I ever saw.

“All there is to know about Summoning Magic,” I said as I read the title.

“Storage summoning is on page 580, very useful to keep your important stuff safe.” She said while looking at the box in her storage. “Summoning magic is hard to learn if you don’t memorize the basics. Keep the book, train every day, and you remember it forever.” With a snap of her finger, her storage magic disappeared completely. Leaving no trace of anything behind, even the blue gooey was gone.

“You’re sure I can have it? It looks rare,” I asked her. Even if there were a ton of other expensive books in her collection, she already let me read them. I always put back the book I took from her library, but this one was not an ordinary volume from her collection. So I did not expect her to let me keep this one.

“Absolutely, I’m sure you’re going to like it, I also added a few personal notes to help with some subjects. And feel free to take whatever you need in the storage room.” The smile she gave me was warm.

“Thank you!” I said, hugging her.

“Be sure to take care of it,” she shouted as I rushed outside, sat in my new hammock, and skimmed through the book.

From storage summoning to summoning creatures from other dimensions, this book had it all. There even was a special kind of summoning on page 69, unfortunately not for me.

Since she never mentioned summoning magic at all, I thought that it simply didn’t exist. Not that I planned to become a full fledge summoner, relying entirely on her summons to do the dirty work. It was just the appeal of it that interested me, with all the possibilities that it opened.

With summoning, I won’t have to depend on other people's help to survive. I hadn’t told Lavanda yet, but at some point, I wanted to leave and explore the world. With her exiled status, she probably couldn't come with me, but I owed her too much to just abandon her like that.

If I could at least find a way to communicate with her at a long distance, that would be perfect. Travelling, even with Lendwrek, could take hours, let alone days if I wanted to see new places. Randal was faster than Lendwrek, but he bellonged to Lavanda, not me. Without him, I don’t think she could endure being exiled. Travelling with Lendwrek could be great, but he got a family. Keeping him for myself was not an option.

I spent close to 15 years in relative loneliness, and I hated it. With how long she had been here, even with Randal, I didn't want to imagine how lonely she must have been feeling.

Credit to the big boy, he was way more lovable than I could have imagined. Hopefully, he comes back soon.