The sailors summoned their captain who also doubled as a nature mage. The boots of Captain Mawsig clacked against the dingy boards of the storage hold. His critical eyes glared down his hooked nose. Four other crewmates gathered behind him and flitted their worried gazes along the crates.
"I sense a rat!" Captain Mawsig declared, punctuated by a stomp of his right boot. From the center of his foot, the grains of wood took on a greenish glow. This eerie light spread throughout the plank floor, creeping up boxes and barrels.
Fia gasped when the light penetrated the interior of the crate which served as her hiding spot. She lifted her front, left paw to avoid the light followed by her right, rear foot. Helpless to avoid the life-sensing spell, the dragonette gave a tiny hop to gain a split second away from it. The nature mage's spell quickly overtook the entirety of her box, so Fia could not even cling to the sides or the underside of the lid. Restraining her impulse to squeak out of fright, Fia warned, Viliant, shadow form!
Already did that. During their escape from the coliseum, Viliant had misdirected the Dragon Slayer by tricking a life detection spell. The confined space of the ship provided little opportunity for such trickery. Although Viliant could hide, they could do little about Fia—already caught.
"I've got it," Captain Mawsig announced in the closest thing to a human's growl. "A really big rat with wings."
A quiet whisper came from the youngest sailor behind the captain. "The murky murid king has wings?"
The captain ignored the inane question from his crew. Captain Mawsig's steps brought him closer to the dragon's crate, emptied of rations.
Fia cowered on her belly where her fire swirled, bracing herself for the moment that he lifted the lid. Hi, she thought to peep out before she spat a fireball. The dragonets might get to receive a permanent position on board, like Tacuma had done with her father's ship. However, Captain Mawsig held no affinity for the dragonets like Captain Ulatu had for his daughter. If he shot vines at her, then Fia would return his hostility with fire. After she had taken down an elite metal mage of Syene who had possessed an elemental advantage over her, Fia had no doubt that she could beat a random nature mage with the advantage in her favor.
Before Captain Mawsig could lower his hands to open the crate, the horns of Viliant poked up from behind it. The shredding shadows which enshrined his head made his six horns appear connected like a crown.
In unison, the other sailors behind the captain keened, "The murky murid king!"
The dark gaps in between the fractured light from Captain Mawsig's spell fell under Viliant's command. The shadows came to life in the form of a hundred individual mice. Viliant's imaginenative mirage of murky murids chased the screaming sailors to the ladder. The shadows rippled like coarse fur as they ran, phasing through the captain's boots.
Captain Mawsig twirled with the feathery coattails of his jacket swinging around him. "Argh! Get back here!" he yelled after his cowardly crew. "There ain't no murky murids. This is the evil-doing of dragons!"
The presence of the shadow dragonet in the cargo hold posed the real threat. Viliant launched over the crate and lunged straight for Captain Mawsig's chest.
The captain dropped onto all fours. One of his hands clutched at his chest which throbbed along with the feeble glow of his healing spell. A chill penetrated down to his bones, intensifying with each additional shadow rat which passed through him.
The ephemeral dragonet came through the other side of the human's back. Viliant kept running with the final wave of his imaginary murky murids. At the bottom of the ladder, he stopped short. "Come on, Fia!" he shouted.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The accumulation of fire in Fia's core burst out from underneath her scales. The crate exploded around her. This sent its fiery remnants in every direction, including at Captain Mawsig. The sharp, heated splinters pierced a dozen spots across his face, shoulders, and legs. The captain's arms, crossed over his chest, shielded a majority from striking his torso. Before Captain Mawsig had a chance to recover, Fia pummeled the hot air beneath her wings. The dragonette jumped over top of his shoulders, kicking the captain flat against the ground. She hardly noticed how she ran over him, caring only about racing up the ladder with Viliant.
Though the fake murky murids had chased the sailors away from the hatch, the broad daylight across the deck had stripped away their cover. So too, Viliant's crown of shadows melted away. The black dragonet stood in plain sight with the smaller, pink one at his heels.
The frazzled men blinked at the stowaway dragonets. Though slow to act in the absence of Captain Mawsig's command, a deep-chested sailor soon took up the charge. "They ate our food. Let's get 'em!" the man roared, drawing his cutlass into the air.
Fia spun on her hind claws and kicked into a run. A sharp breath filled her chest when she realized that Viliant neglected to follow her. "Our jig is up. We gotta go!" she wailed at him.
The black dragonet bared his fangs and lowered himself into a battle-ready crouch. His claws deflected the swipe of the first sword swung at him. A swift bite at that man's ankles was all Viliant needed to yank him off his feet. Viliant pounced on top of the burly sailor. Before he could further attack the man, three others surrounded Viliant to force him off together.
Fia let out a shrill whistle. "Viliant!" Regardless if the dragonets could kill the entire crew on board, the conflict would not yield them anything. Neither Fia nor Viliant knew how to steer the ship or fill the sails. There's nothing else we have to gain here, Fia reasoned with him.
Reluctantly, Viliant clambered off the helpless sailor. The black dragonet backed away from the additional men who threatened him with the reach of their blades. In between them all, the boards smashed upward. A thick, thorned tendril swung down for Viliant. It cracked across the deck with the impact of a fallen tree. From the gap in the deck, two bloodied hands grasped at the thorns like handholds. Captain Mawsig was still alive and swinging below deck.
"Let's go, Viliant," Fia begged. They had nothing left to gain aboard the ship. Any extended conflict would constitute a loss for the dragonets. They had no reason to waste their mana reserves more than they already had, and it made no sense to risk an injury.
At last, Viliant retreated from the fight. The black dragonet darted to catch up to Fia who had already balanced herself on the guardrail. Time to fly, she chided. Jump as high and far as you can. I'll catch you.
With his larger size, Viliant doubted that Fia could operate as a glider for him anymore. Despite his doubts, he charged full speed ahead and leaped over the ship's rails. The dragonets were destined to crash against the waves either way, so Viliant gave Fia the chance to catch him.
The pink dragonette flung herself over the edge shortly after Viliant. Fia half-folded her wings to swoop alongside the pressed-down spines of his back. Her clawed paws grasped his shoulders and hips. When Fia snapped her wings out, his weight caused both her wings to flap upward. "Ah!" she yelped and coiled herself around Vilinat's body. Holding onto each other tightly, the dragonets plunged into the ocean.
Fia tumbled with her eyes open, staring through the bubbles that blew from her snout. Her legs kicked along with a thrash of her tail. The dragonette remembered how to swim and propelled herself upward after Viliant.
Once they surfaced with a gasp, Fia realized that it did not matter how far away she had flown from the ship. The vessel's momentum through the water already put safe distance between the human ship and the stowaway dragonets.
Viliant's torn wings skimmed the surface as he floated alongside Fia. Well… he thought, at a loss. Now what?
Fia's body bobbed over a wave as she pondered that question. Her nostrils twitched as she sniffed the air. "The breeze smells like home! Let's swim from here!" As far as the water that she could see, the dragonets had this as their only option. Fia began to doggy paddle and whip her tail to follow after the southbound ship. Its bow pointed them in the direction that they must keep going to reach Carlinoa Island.