He was flying.
Dozing, catching the wind without active thought, he slept as he travelled.
Below him were clouds, stretching away into forever, the deep grey of an ongoing storm.
He was in the layer between clouds and nowhere, the nothing place, where he rarely flew, and only when alone.
There was nothing behind him, and nothing ahead, he simply flew without thought. A part of him was aware of the bags strapped to his sides, and he made a small mental note to avoid travelling through the storm, but otherwise, he floated, only the occasional wingbeat keeping him aloft.
-
Coming in to land several days later, he still felt dreamy and half asleep. This was a scrub-stop, and he wiggled with happiness as they took the bags away and bought out the brushes and polish.
The polish was somewhat new, and he didn't know how he felt about it yet. It made him stink of metal and industry, but it also made his scales gleam like morning clouds, and he quite enjoyed the effect.
He would keep it for now, he could always say no later if it caused him issues.
He ate his two goats without any real thought, then stood very still as two attendants scrubbed at the scales around his mouth, keeping his teeth to himself.
They really did keep getting smaller every year. He huffed at one of them, and they giggled in a way he knew indicated happiness, waving their brush as if to ward him off.
Breathing in, he took in the scents around him. There was nobody he knew or had travelled with here. Maybe, if he looked further out...
He took in a deep breath, and rose to his full height, surveying the city, sorting through what his nose told him.
Then he sank back, letting the scattered scrubbers resume their work, enjoying the feel of the bristles between his scales.
There was nobody here he knew. One or two he had exchanged packages with in the past, but he didn't make a special effort to remember those anymore, they seemed to change every year.
The giggler had moved on, scrubbing his front claws now, using their whole body to move the brush. He hadn't thought his claws were that dirty, but it was nice to be looked after.
He looked around, seeing who else was about. There were five scrubbers in total, and two more standing on the sidelines watching. Bigger ones. Adults?
He needed to get the hang of human ages one of these days. He had thought for a long time that they were like dragons and would keep growing as they aged, but he suspected he was wrong about that. It was probably for the best, too. Already he was far too big for their city, they would bang their heads on all the doorways!
By that metric, all the ones scrubbing him seemed young, and he could feel it in their magic too. It was all fresh and still moving of its own accord, if he watched, he could see their appearances shifting a little in his presence. Whoops! That was his fault.
He reined it in before all their coverings fell off or something, he didn't want a repeat of that incident again.
He had better control than that, but best to be careful.
The giggler by his claws scrambled onto his foot, and started on the top of his leg, a look of… Determination? On their face, her face, he decided. She was a brave one!
He nuzzled her gently with his nose, taking in their scent so he'd remember if they ever met again in the future, moving his head back in embarrassment when it almost caused her to fall.
He hadn't had a passenger with him in months, and he missed the company. They hadn't given him one since the weirdness and the storm.
He wasn't sure what their reasoning was, but he missed it. Maybe it was to do with the way the harness had broken down, but that had never happened before the storm, and he was always so careful!
He considered the girl, who had decided she was done with his paw, and was now scrubbing her way up his front leg. It was extremely inefficient, but quite endearing. Maybe she would like to go on a trip? See a new place?
How would he ask that, hmm.
He squinted down at them and concentrated as hard as he could. This had worked in the Treecity… It might work here!
He tilted his head at her, trying different voices, but she didn't react to his scrutiny, a void to his senses. She had magics around her, but they had all been done by others, none of them were her own. There was a possibility that she was too rigid in her thinking already to do anything with her own magic.
That made him a little sad.
He sighed to himself, settling himself down a little and observing the crowd, casting out his senses in a way he still wasn't entirely used to doing.
The children were all voids, and the adults too. He could touch their magic, and some had more aptitude for it than others. But no matter how he reached, Girl wasn't amongst them.
He missed her.
He cast out over the crowd, touching each watcher with his mind, and when they all proved dead to his senses, he went further.
A minute later he found one who seemed able to Listen, as he understood it, but they didn't respond to his nudges. They could hear, but they didn't. He couldn't understand it, but he didn't want to push too hard. Humans were so very fragile.
Was it possible they had been told not to speak to him? That would be... That would be the worst. He wasn't even going to entertain that thought.
He pulled back his mind and watched the children again. They weren't very good at this, to be honest, but they were doing their best.
He had vague memories of being that age? Possibly? Younger and clumsier, playing with children his own size, playing running games through the city, but it was hard to cast his mind back that far, and it had stopped after…
He shook himself out, scattering scrubbers to the wind. This was taking too long. He was half-polished and half-scrubbed, but this was getting boring, and they would never finish before he was scheduled to leave.
He made eye contact with one of the minders at the edge of the circle, and a few moments later they were settling the bags onto his sides, tightening the straps with clever hands.
He looked around hopefully for a passenger, but the minders were already directing him to leave, showing him on the board where to go. Big surprise, it was where he always went when leaving here.
But, he held back. He had never done this route without a passenger. Not once, in all the years he had been flying. He always had a passenger. Always!
Maybe they'd forgotten? He wasn't sure how to ask, but if he didn't leave, hopefully they'd get the message?
He shuffled his feet a little, looking for the little one from earlier, or for another young person in travelling gear, momentarily distracted.
There was none, but he could still see the little one if he craned his neck. They had bundled her up with the other scrubbers, herded them out of the circle and… Left them to their own devices, hmm.
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He never paid attention to what happened to his passengers when he dropped them off, but there was always somebody there to pick them up. He also remembered the ones he had played with as a child, if he thought about it very carefully. They each had their own minder, sometimes even two. Big humans, who would watch carefully as they played, and then take them back to their caves at the end of the day.
He stood for a moment, watching silently as the people around his feet fussed and griped at his not leaving.
He considered reaching out to the one in the crowd who should have been able to Hear, but they had moved away, heading back to wherever humans went.
Somebody hammered against his chest, and he glanced down for a moment, thinking, before resuming his watching, shuffling a little to adjust the bags.
They still had no minders, nobody to pick them up. The group had walked a couple of streets away before splitting up, but giggler and another he was going to call brushes had settled down against a wall.
He wasn't so much watching with his eyes anymore, as he was with his nose. They were both still outside. If he was careful, he could step over the little building where they kept the map, over the… homes and into the channel between them. He could probably even do it without crushing anything, if he was careful…
He huffed out of his nose, annoyed at having to find his own passengers, and gave another glance down at the person in front of him. Was this some sort of test? They had stopped banging on his chest, but were now talking at him as if he understood whatever it was they wanted. Probably for him to leave, if he intuited it correctly.
He could make it up, he wasn't behind by much.
He huffed out again, listening. They still hadn't moved, huddled against the wall.
He looked around, thinking as hard as he had ever thought before. Humans had minders until they were old enough to be minders. That was a truth.
Humans also had coverings, to keep them safe from the weather, they were susceptible to cold. His passengers always had a travelling outfit and furs and blankets.
That was also a truth.
He squinted at the angry person between his front legs, and at the others in the crowd. Ok, they had multiple layers, to protect them from the weather.
He squinted at the crowd, forcing his brain to work. They all had multiple layers. These were truths.
The children who had been scrubbing him had neither multiple layers, nor did they have minders.
This was... Also a truth, a disturbing one and one he didn't understand. Maybe the layers had to be made for you by a minder, and their minder had been... Prey? He was intimately familiar with death, he had been hunting since he was old enough to fly.
Humans were fragile, this was...
Stretching out his wings, he made up his mind.
He would fly up and circle around a bit, see if there was anyone else who could Hear, if not, he would come back.
He both disliked this new lack of passengers, and he was itching to use his new skill. He had never been able to communicate with anyone before, and the thought that he might be able to do so now was intoxicating. That he could advocate for himself! It had been months since Tree, and he had found nobody.
With powerful wingbeats he threw himself into the air, taking a little satisfaction in the way the shouter squawked at his sudden exit, tumbling across the grass.
He circled the city four times, in big lazy arcs, casting his nose over the land.
There really was nobody he knew here, not a single stored scent. Not that he bothered to remember every passenger or attendant he had ever had, but he had been in this job for so long, he had expected at least one.
There was a lot of squawking as he landed back in the field, trying to be careful not to injure anyone who might be underfoot. Landing was always a bit of a pain here at the best of times, the circle very hemmed in by buildings.
It looked like they had been preparing to sort out all the packages he'd left them, setting up tables on the grass and moving things into piles.
He set his focus back to where he'd left the children, and nodded to himself. They still hadn't moved, huddled against the wall where he'd left them.
He considered the dilemma. His nose was pretty good, could he… Hmm.
They must have minders, right? There were more big people than little ones, they could just pass them between themselves if a big one died. They must have social groups, flocks, herds, families? Perhaps, if he twisted it in correctly, then he could find them.
Best to test it first, though. He had never tried this on people before.
He looked around until he found a duo on the edge of the circle. A minder, holding tightly to the hand of a little one, that looked correct. He didn't have either of their scents, but they were right there, he could work this out.
He honed in on the little one with his nose. It was harder from this distance, and without looking at them in case they spooked and fled but-
Ohh, they'd bought him another goat. Not what he wanted, but good initiative. He held it down with one wing absent-mindedly, he'd eat it later.
He focused, taking in what made them 'them', and then he… He Twisted his mind in a way he had never done before, trying to listen, to hone in on the scent, to track his prey back to its den. Better to hunt smart. Nothing was a match for a dragon, so if you tracked your prey back home, then you didn't eat just once, you could eat for…
He huffed the odd thoughts away, tilting his head to one side, tracing it back.
The little one lived on the other side of the city. They had two minders, one of which was standing beside them, and they also had several siblings or friends. The numbers and impressions became fuzzier the further out he went, quickly devolving into tenuous links, but it was enough.
Ok, he had that down.
He focused back on the girl. In a way, it was easier, because her scent was fresh in his nose, and she had been very close. He had touched her magic, and that helped too.
He twisted again, following the tracks more easily this time. A predator, hunting from above, only descending when truly necessary.
Her tracks meandered about, but never seemed to stop at any one place for long. There were many different stops. She nested in underground spaces, in doorways and under tables, but she had no permanent abode that he could find. No minders, no siblings, only the other child next to her.
There was one who should have been a minder, if he traced it back so very, very far, but they were so far away that they barely even registered. Too far to hunt.
Huh.
He considered how far that was, roughly, listening and triangulating… About halfway through his route, around six months of flying.
That was doable.
He stared around the park, looking at all the little packages and parcels and people.
Now, where did they keep the passenger supply bag?
-
He stepped over the first building very carefully, waiting a moment for all the people in the street to get out of the way before he put his foot down. This place used to be bigger, what had happened…
Ah, he had been smaller, that was ok too.
He took another careful step, holding his tail very still. He had taken out trees that way before by accident, the houses seemed much more fragile than trees.
He took a third and fourth step, good thing this street was wide!
He hadn't considered how he was going to take off from here, but he would work it out later.
He moved carefully down the street, knocking over a lot of things but not any buildings, until he got to the two children.
They were seated in a doorway, staring up at him with big eyes, watching as he approached, but not fleeing. Their dog bared its teeth at him, refusing to back off as he came closer.
Now how did he communicate this? For the thousandth time, he wished he could speak the human language, or was it languages? But he had nothing. The girl in Tree hadn't been able to help him, and he hadn't found anyone else he could ask, yet.
He crouched down, and the buildings on either side of the road creaked a little as he pressed his bulk against them.
She was looking at him, with her brave eyes, but her friend, a First Neither, he decided for the sake of fairness, he didn't pick that one very often, wasn't so brave. They huddled up against the wall, eyes like a trapped deer.
Dragon eyed them up. He would like to give them a place to flee, but he was taking up most of the room in the street right now.
He considered for a moment, looking around. Ah, that was it.
He stood and reached over a building next to him. There was a… Supply place there, with fruit and meats and a surface giving away leather goods.
He very, very, very carefully picked up a satchel in his teeth. One of the table legs snapped and broke, but the damage was minimal, they could pick it all back up when he left. Really, it was their own fault for building it so flimsily.
He deposited the satchel on a roof for a moment, eyeing his surroundings. This house was built entirely around a tree. That was interesting.
What else did humans need? The city had gone very quiet around him, and all the people shouting had stopped, it was kinda nice.
Ah, he'd forgotten to keep the goat!
Ah well, they were always a bit stringy anyway.
He eyed up one of the houses, he could see they were providing blankets, but they were all kept stubbornly indoors.
Probably for the best, it was going to rain later.
He knocked gently on the door with a claw, and winced at the sound of splintering wood, drawing it back in embarrassment. Somebody inside squawked, or maybe more than one somebody, and a moment later a pile of blankets were thrown into the street.
Whoops. Better to stick to the outside, he reckoned, but it was nice of them to help.
It was also so nice of them to lay all the stuff out like this, so that people could take whatever they needed. Humans were so smart sometimes.
He snuffled around, looking for food, until he found a table covered in bread-goods.
That wasn't what he called it of course, but he had come up with his own feelings for things over the years. That was good stuff, humans needed that to be healthy. He deposited the bread next to the satchel, only eating one bar of it, out of curiosity. Rather dry.
Hmm, what else...
-
He stared at the pile of goods he had gathered, hmm. Probably easier to bring Brave to the stuff, than to take it to her.
He checked back. Her friend had left pretty much the moment he gave them an exit, skittering under his body and away into the city, but she was still there, gazing up at him, one hand on the back of the dog. It had given up baring its teeth, and was now staring at him with a sort of resigned disappointment.
He gave it a look back, and it reluctantly stepped away. Brave glanced down at it as it did, and then back up at him.
He reached out a paw, and for a moment she didn't move, staring up at him, and then with a sort of shrug, she clambered up.
A couple of minutes of packing and negotiating later, and they were off.
He was careful not to damage the city too much as he left. He was gonna have to hustle to get back on schedule.