The trip took barely a day until we found the Hydra's lair from the air, landing a few miles away so as to not spook it.
They had apparently been used to transporting other dragons atop Uldru as the crew expertly attached Dosor to the scaffolding and kept her placated with food.
Mom's crew managed to unpack and set up camp within an hour, everyone moving like the well trained troop they were with Thurn barking out orders and coordinating the small town that lived on Uldru.
The weight of experience became all the clearer in the stark contrast between the two crews as they started to bust out drinks and food while we just managed to set up our tent.
Eva began cooking, declining my offer of help and whipping up a small campfire with a pot suspended above.
Stew was on the menu apparently.
Mom stopped by just as Eva was finishing the stew, dropping onto the muddy gras next to the fireplace.
“How was the ride?” asked Mom, stoking the fire.
I put in the last piton and walked over to Dosor, who had curled halfway around the fire.
“Great, I didn't expect Dosor to keep this quiet the entire ride,” I said.
Mom laughed, looking to Uldru, the sleeping mountain in the distance as if reminiscing about something. “Yeah, he's got a calming presence. You should have seen him around you when you were a baby. He didn't let anyone near you that he didn't trust and you indulged him plenty.”
“How did he indulge him?” asked Rachel, walking over to join me.
“Oh, he kept crying when Dosor left,” explained Mom, “always wanting one of us three to stay with him until Prometheus stayed at Dragon's Heart full-time as a smith. He used to play with Uldru every chance he got.”
Rachel laughed, a clear tittering laughter that had me fuzzy as I wrapped my arms around her. It quickly warped into her gremlin giggle as she shook with laughter.
“He didn't hole up in a workshop the whole day like he does now?” asked Rachel, leaning into my embrace.
Mom laughed loudly before I could object, quickly following it up “No, no. He used to spend every day playing in the fields with Ethan.”
“Good times,” added Ethan, joining us at the campfire. “I remember trying to hunt with blunt arrows and kitchen knives.”
“Oh, I remember the time you brought me a rabbit who had three sticks- arrows sticking out of its chest,” reminisced Mom, shaking her head good-naturedly.
I sighed, already dreading the stories being brought up.
I had never been a difficult child, at least I thought so, but there were plenty of stories from before I met Rachel that I could live without her knowing.
Eva grabbed the bowls she set aside earlier, laddling stew into them and handing them out. “Food's ready.”
Mom accepted a bowl and undid her helmet, setting it aside.
She had a huge grin on her face as she glanced at me and then Rachel. “Well, I will always remember the time I found him with Kizmat.”
Ethan laughed brightly as he accepted a bowl, remembering the story. “Wasn't that the time-”
“Yeah, yeah, we all know the story,” I interjected, accepting the bowl from Eva.
Rachel stole my bowl, complaining “I don't! I wanna hear the full story.”
“Over my dead body.” I gracefully accepted another bowl from Eva.
“But it has such a nice ending.” Mom's smile was rivalling Dosor in size, going from ear to ear as she kept teasing, “you were so embarrassed even back then.”
Ethan leaned over to Rachel, whispering conspiratorially “I'll tell you later.”
I grumbled just to assert my aversion to the story being told at all but started eating all the same.
Mom had finished her bowl already somehow, leaning back and resting on her arms.
Her smile didn't falter but her gaze turned piercing as she asked “Do you have a plan to deal with the Hydra?”
“Kind of,” I stayed honest, figuring that any mistakes would be better dealt with now rather than during the fight. “We have fire spells and acids that we can use to close its wounds so it can’t regenerate. Eva will coat her arrows, using the broadheads to gouge out chunks of flesh as it moves. Ethan, Dosor and I will keep its attention and focus on defence, maybe cut off a head or two. Rachel can fling acids or small bombs at it, using any opportunity she can see.”
Mom's smile turned into a small quirk of her lips as she nodded, answering “That's solid. Just remember that any plan bursts at first contact with the enemy, Human or Monster.”
“We are great at improvising,” Ethan defended us, finishing his bowl. “Caleb and I are great with fire spells, Rachel has enough acids and explosives to blow it to pieces, Eva is the best shot I've ever seen, and Dosor is a dragon.”
”You got me beat,” said Mom.
Uldru lumbered over, laying down behind Mom and purring contentedly.
Mom patted his snout, her tiny hand barely the size of a scale. “How about some magic lessons?”
We spent the rest of the night getting tutored by Mom, adding several spells to our repertoire.
Ethan left a bit into the lesson and got tutored by his dad, catching up later.
One was particularly interesting, a variant of the Candlelight spell that worked as an armed Firebolt. It conjured a ball of fire that shed a small amount of light and could be launched at a moments notice, combining utility and a quick burst of damage when entering combat.
The rest were simple evocation spells like bolts of different elements and a Ray of fire that even I, with my bolstered reserves, could only keep up for a few seconds.
Mom could keep it up for hours at my strength, or ramp it up to where it straight up disintegrated the earthen targets she summoned.
----------------------------------------
We geared up first thing in the morning, meeting up with Mom and making our way into the swamp, searching for the lair.
Uldru reluctantly stayed behind, curling around the entire camp to protect it.
The Hydra was ridiculously easy to find, the beast having no idea or need for stealth. Multiple trails wide enough to have small streams running through them all ended in a small hollowed out hill that barely kept standing by the virtue of three ragged stone pillars rising up.
“Eva, take point on top of the hill and keep watch for the Hydra, everyone else, get ready,” I barked out the orders, getting ready myself.
Mom walked over to the hill and leaned against the dirt, content as a spectator.
Eva quickly climbed up the hill as the rest of us grabbed our gear off of Dosor’s and got into formation.
I nodded to Dosor.
She roared out a challenge, daring the Hydra to defend its claim of the territory in face of the adversity. An open challenge to any who hear it.
We might attract the wrong kind of attention with the challenge but anything that freely roamed here in a hydras territory was no threat to us.
The roared challenge echoed through the swampy landscape as Eva scanned the murky expanse for any signs of the Hydra.
The rest of us, weapons in hand, formed a protective circle around Dosor, allowing her to fight and protect us if she had to. She was tall enough as to where we could dodge below her strikes and attack simultaneously.
Ethans nervous energy was palpable. His longsword, glinting in the muted sunlight, danced through the air as he practiced his swings, bouncing from one foot to the other. He cast a spell on himself to accelerate himself, the lazy swings turning to deadly strikes.
Rachel had her sling at the ready, already loaded with a vial of acid, as she prepared her medicine and prayers. Her hand ghosted over the holy symbol at her belt from time to time, betraying her anxiousness.
I armed three Candlelights with the spells Mom recently taught me, keeping one above each of us three to assist with anything I could. Enchantments had been checked yesterday before going to sleep and this morning again but I was anxious that I had missed something.
I caught Mom’s gaze.
She stood there, seemingly relaxed, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of concern. A second of inattention on her part could spell our doom if she wasn’t fast enough to catch one of our mistakes. She kept a dagger in her hand, idly tossing it up and catching it repeatedly.
The atmosphere thickened with an almost tangible hostility, reviving the entire atmosphere with the buzz of wildlife that had died down momentarily with the roar.
Every croak of a frog or crack of a twig could have been the Hydras approach, keeping us on the edge as we waited out in the open.
Eva’s voice cut through the suspense, startling us out of our vigilance. “I see movement toward the east, heading this way! Brace yourselves!”
Our formation tightened in response, Dosor rising to meet our challenger.
A yell, followed by the whizz of a projectile and a pained roar ripped our attention towards Eva.
She was quickly jumping down the hill, the Hydra having snuck up on her. She held her right arm.
The three serpentine heads rose above the hillside, the snake body following closely behind as two of the heads tried to catch Eva, ignoring the sticks and stones in its path with a ferocity only a wild animal could show. Its scales, a mosaic of swampy hues that worked as camouflage shimmered with an oily sheen.
Each of the heads moved independently. The two chasing Eva coordinated to try and catch her off guard or circle her to no avail.
The last one was just recovering from a dagger that impaled it through the jugular, reeling in pain.
It was Mom’s dagger. She must have saved Eva.
“Eva, down here!” I shouted out, shuffling our formation so we could provide her some cover and safety.
She made her way further down as we advanced, rushing past us with the Hydra on her tail, inches away from her. She grabbed the potion Rachel held out and downed it instantly.
Dosor met the Hydras charge, barreling into its chest and ramming the claws into one of the necks.
An arrow quickly joined her claws, sticking out of the hydras neck and drawing blood.
Ethan and I stepped forward, slashing at its feet and watching the wounds close seconds later.
Potion bottles flew over our heads, spreading oils and acids over the hydra's scales, the oily sheen protecting it from the worst of the acid.
Two of my armed Candlelights got used up when all three of the hydra's heads surged towards Ethan. I had to deflect two of the heads with the Candlelights, prompting a comment from Mom.
“You'll have to put more mana into your spells if you want to actually hurt it,” shouts Mom, slowly circling the fight.
I braced against the hydra's head, its needle like teeth threatening to pierce into my arm around my buckler.
“Ramping up,” I simply said, hoping that that is enough of an explanation for her.
Mom simply barked back “You won't outlast a hydra in a battle of attrition if you don't even have enough firepower to nick its regeneration. Conserving mana is fine but useless when you're dead!”
I shoved the head away and started weaving a thin disintegrating ray, pouring half of my mana into the framework and aiming to decapitate it.
The head reeled back in preparation of another strike.
“I need a second!”
An arrow hit the hydra head's eye, causing it to shriek in pain as the arrows coating caused the eye to melt in its socket.
Dosor bit into its chest, tearing out a chunk of flesh that started to heal before my eyes.
The second of respite was enough for me to finish my incantation, an instant blade of fire cutting halfway through the neck and cauterising the wound, stopping at the spine.
The Hydra shrieked and roared in pain, trampling around. It flailed around and created some distance between us and it.
“Nice thinking,” said Mom, “A clean cut would have been better for you but the extra weight of the dead head will prove a challenge to it as well.”
The two remaining heads tore off the stump, spraying blood everywhere as they threw it at us.
“Now it can regenerate,” reminded us Mom, “you have to finish this quickly.”
I grit my teeth and advanced, joining Ethan who was already trying to cut through its scales.
Dosor slipped past it and tore into its back, raking her claws across its scales and tearing grooves into the flesh.
She bit into the regenerating stump that was beginning to split into two necks and let her frost breath stream through the gaps in her teeth, freezing the wound.
It roared, whipping its tail around and throwing Ethan and I back with a crack of its tail. Dosor got thrown away as well, managing to not rip off the frozen part.
I coughed out blood and stood back up, readying for the inevitable charge.
It tried to rush Mom, ripping and tearing at the air to kill the one yelling instructions.
It was smarter than I had thought, but still dumb.
Mom sidestepped the heads easily, grabbing the enchanted dagger she always had on her belt and stopping one head in its tracks.
The other head circled around, trying to slip past her defences and bite into her shoulder.
She backhanded the second head away, growling. “This isn't a fight you should pick.”
I knew that the hydra didn't understand Mom but it shied away anyway, slithering back towards us.
Rachel took the second of distraction and flung an acid flask at the stump.
It hit, spreading acid over the stump and preventing a full regeneration.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She rushed over to Ethan, who was coughing up blood from the poison buildup and the hit of the tail, and cast a prayer.
The wounds closed and he grabbed a second wind potion off of Rachel's belt, downing it as he rejoined the fight.
Dosor pinned the hydra's tail to the ground, raising her head and inhaling deeply.
Her chest inflated like a balloon, gathering magic that I could feel clearly from metres away.
The hydra noticed Dosor's plan and tried to turn around to disrupt her but got two swords in its necks for its troubles.
With a deafening roar, Dosor unleashed her breath weapon, icy shards and mist penetrated deeply into the hydra's tail and froze the entire section.
It tore through our swords, desperate to stop Dosor and bit into her shoulders and back.
Dosor cried out in pain and started thrashing wildly, finding purchase and digging deeper into the flesh.
We kept a distance as the two beasts clashed.
Mom yelled out a warning “Watch out for friendly fire. Measured shots and stabs only.”
“Dosor, disengage!” I barked out the order as the hydra locked onto her shoulder and bit hard.
I prepared to cast another quick flat disintegrating ray to cut off another head, pouring half of my total mana into it again to at least disable it.
Dosor whipped around and ripped the hydra's fangs out of her shoulder, but managed to create some distance.
I checked on Rachel, seeing her already moving to Dosor. “Rachel, keep Dosor stable and deal with the poison. It's your expertise so it's your call.”
I let my spell fly, cutting through half of one head but not actually disabling it.
One of Eva's arrows flew right into the cut, revealing itself to be one of Rachel's bomb arrows as the entire neck blew open.
The Hydra backed away with its last remaining head, backing away from one of us and correcting to get the most distance from all of us.
It started retreating until a thick wall of solid fire blocked its path, Mom sparing us the chase.
It recoiled from the fire, a primal fear of its weakness taking hold as it reared back.
“Wait!” Rachel yelled.
Dosor sprinted past me, jumping the Hydra and pinning it back to the ground, ripping her way up to its head.
It stopped struggling as Dosor bit into its throat, ripping the head off.
Dosor spit the head back out and opened her wings, roaring an end to her earlier challenge, letting the entire swamp know that she had won.
The hydra should be able to regenerate the head unless we burn the stump so I ran over, starting to weave a spell until I stood in front.
It wasn't healing.
Dosor must have frozen the wound shut.
Rachel walked over to Dosor, chiding her for jumping away while she was healing and treating the dragon like a misbehaving child while closing her wounds.
I chuckled at the side but walked over to the hydra, confirming its death.
It was truly dead.
I started cleaning my gear, waiting on Rachel to finish her rounds.
Rachel quickly finished up with Dosor and started swarming me. “You shouldn't be moving this much. Come to me when you get hurt next time, any wound diminishes your fighting.”
“I can't rush to you for any small wound,” I objected, sheathing my sword.
She glared at me, grabbing two potions from her belt. “I would show you how bad your little wound actually is but I don't think undressing you in the middle of the swamp would be a bad idea.”
I rolled my eyes at her over cautiousness as she was the one constantly blowing stuff up.
“This is nothing,” I said, “it's just a bruise.”
She did not look amused, stabbing a finger into a small gap in my armour.
A pain raced through my chest and into my arm as she factually stated “you cracked at least two ribs, have poison running through your system, and probably a giant bruise beneath that armour.”
“Fine, I'll rush to you when I notice it affecting my fighting.”
“That'll be too late. Drink the red, then the green,” said Rachel, handing me the two potions. “I don't care whether you think it's just a minor scrape, you come when I call.”
“Does that only apply to combat?” asked Ethan, cleaning his blade.
I drank the potions. “You listen to me for most of the stuff, but Rachel is our healer.”
“Yes, it does,” answered Rachel. “Better?”
I nodded, checking Eva for any obvious wounds.
She had mostly kept her distance for the entire fight so she was thankfully unhurt.
Mom waved her hand at the Hydra, incinerating the body in a storm of flames within seconds.
“Well done,” she said, “good cooperation but your communication could use some work. Study more formations properly incorporating Dosor. You need to have a plan more sophisticated than “Roar out a challenge and fight” before you engage the enemy.”
Ethan fiddled with the hilt of his sword. “Does that mean-”
“You passed.”
Relief washed over me as Rachel hugged my arm.
“I am proud to be able to send you guys on your first proper mission,” said Mom, walking over to me.
She patted my head as she continued “Well done.”
Eva walked over but kept on watch, her head swivelling from side to side. She had a sort of happy glow around her.
“I guess we'll have to make our way to Khazur then,” guessed Ethan.
Rachel grabbed one last potion and handed it to Eva, ordering her “Drink it.”
Eva obliged without a second of hesitation, downing the potion.
“Should we depart now or wait and recuperate under Uldru's guard?” asked Eva, handing the empty bottle back.
“You're staying the day,” cut in Mom, turning to leave. “Morale is important so we have to celebrate your victory. I brought more beer than usual to celebrate.”
“That's great!” called out Ethan, slinging an arm around my shoulder. “My morale would take a nosedive if we didn't celebrate.”
I rolled my eyes but followed after Mom. “Let's go then. What about guard duty?”
“I won't be drinking anything and there's enough nondrinkers in my crew, not to mention Uldru,” said Mom as she looked back over her shoulder.
Alright, this was going to be interesting.
----------------------------------------
We quickly returned to the campsite and changed into comfortable clothes instead of armour, joining Mom's crew who had already broken out the barrels.
Rachel wore a long tunic that almost classified as a dress, with a heart neckline and long sleeves. Her pants were stained with ash but her dress was clean.
Ethan and I both opted for a basic shirt and linen pants, sticking to our casual clothes.
“Is this the nicest stuff you two have?” asked Rachel, pouting. “We'll have to deal with royalty and have to look presentable. Or am I simply not worth the effort?”
“That’s a trick question,” warned Ethan, slipping past her and looking for Eva, presumably.
Rachel tried to kick his leg as he passed, but missed entirely. “It’s not a trick. Do you have anything nicer?”
“Only my armour.”
“That won’t do.” She sighed but slung an arm around mine, continuing “I guess we’ll have to get you something appropriate when meeting the uncle or princess.”
I began leading her to the festivities, taking care to not step into any puddles of mud or water as to not dirty her pretty dress. I asked “So now one of my duties as a Dragonknight is to go shopping with my crew?”
“Of course it isn’t.” She patted my shoulder and looked up at me with a smile, giving me a moment to breathe before she thrashed my hopes “It’s your duty as my boyfriend.”
I groaned but couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. This girl was going to get me into trouble.
“Is it too late to back out?” I asked, grinning down at her.
She clutched my arm close to her chest, preventing me from letting go as she answered “Yes, yes it is.”
We got close enough for the first people of Mom’s crew to recognise us, raising their mugs and shouting out encouragement or praise. The occasional whistle pierced through the yells.
The cooks had set up an open air kitchen where they were roasting huge roasts of some sort, people dancing around the fires and having a jolly time.
Large tables were fashioned out of the trees and rocks, providing unsteady but existing support for their drinks and food. Most people sat on the ground or on the tables but a few people used magic to make themselves more comfortable chairs.
We barely got past three people before to mugs of ale were shoved into our hands. “Here you go, to celebrate your victory!” came the shout but the person was already gone before we could say thanks or anything of the sorts.
Ethan joined us quickly after, a bowl of stew with a roasted poultry leg sticking out of it in his hand. “Finally caught up? Let’s mingle.”
He led us to a large table near Uldrus head where the members closest to Mom sat, with her resting leaned against Uldrus head.
Mom’s helmet was off, letting me see her peaceful expression. She was looking over her crew having fun and enjoying the supplies she brought while she was stuck with guard duty, a proud smile on her face that she tried to hide with the mug of ale she was nursing.
Thurn waved us over, Mom idly conjuring three more earthen stools for us to sit at without moving from her place.
One of the stools shifted into a bench for me and Rachel as she refused to let go of my arm and sat down with me.
“So, you two finally got together,” teased Durgan, sipping her tea.
Ethan sat down next to his dad, chatting with him.
Rachel fidgeted in her seat but never let go of my arm as she replied “Yes, I finally asked him out and he said yes.”
“Young love…”
Thurn laughed and shoved a bowl of nuts and dried fruit towards us. “The waiting time for food is crazy, the snacks are for everyone.”
I took a handful just to be polite, offering Rachel some which she accepted.
“How did it go?” asked Ethan's dad, Michael. “The hydra, I mean.”
Ethan's grin threatened to crack open his face as he stepped onto the table, regaling the crew with our glorious battle.
The hydra suddenly had five heads when we started, having grown two more until we managed to stunt its regeneration with a liberal application of acids and fire spells. Dosor was wrestling the hydra, deflecting blows left and right and allowing us to keep alive. Each one of us was displayed as the best of the best, fighting an ancient hydra that Mom would have struggled with.
She didn't comment on his story but I saw her trying to not laugh out loud.
Food was served during the story, stews and roasts getting put on the table for everyone to share.
“Of course, Nadia wasn't idle and when the hydra tried to escape,” he stopped, looking around at everyone and catching their attention by pointing his knife towards them, “but she was like an unbreakable wall, deflecting the blows of the remaining heads with the teeniest knife you've ever seen. It was-”
Durgan interrupted him, shooting down his story in an instant, “Enough.”
“Uhh, alright,” he stumbled for a moment before climbing off of the table and sitting down. “We defeated the hydra shortly after.”
“Sorry,” said Durgan, lowering her voice before continuing “but the knife, it's…”
“It's the last reminder of an old friend, an artefact in its own right that the Allfather wanted destroyed,” explained Mom, her gaze softening.
Rachel scowled in confusion. “Why would he want it destroyed?”
Mom stood up and walked over, not wanting to yell out the next part.
“It's a dagger my late husband crafted for Al'kaar, the first Soul of Avarice,” she continued, drawing the dagger in question. “He modified the design and made it blatantly heretical, sacrificing dozens just to power it.”
“Why did you keep it?” I asked, never having heard this story before.
She ran her thumb along the blade, reminiscing about older times.
“Because in his last moments, when I was nothing but rage,” she stopped, steadying her breath in an attempt to calm her emotions before continuing, “he opened his heart to me and showed me this- this person I thought I had lost. He was trying to do his best.”
Even Durgan, who had heard almost every story imaginable, appeared captivated by Mom's heartfelt tale.
“It was too late. I couldn't help him anymore and had to kill him,” she ended her story by safely stowing the dagger again.
She perked up again “But today is for celebration, for the pride of my life has completed his first mission.”
I grinned at the praise, a rare treat from Mom. “Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without your training.”
“Sorry, but why did Prometheus craft a dagger for Al'kaar?” asked Rachel.
Mom exhaled sharply before answering “He was my prized student. Now, please drop it.”
A chant started out from the campfire, quickly getting every single member to join in.
It was a shanty about the explorers of the sea, pirates and merchants that fought off creatures of the deep and ventured through the storms.
The busty- a detail that was mentioned constantly- captain defeated a sea serpent by shooting an entire barrel of whiskey down its throat and lighting it ablaze midair with her flintlock.
It was weirdly enchanting, prompting everyone to join in.
Rachel poked my side as I was singing along, whispering “do you mind if our crew does a little private celebration?”
I shook my head. “I'll get some drinks, can you get some snacks and climb onto Uldru’s back? Ask Ethan to grab Eva and some glasses.”
She nodded and went on her way, walking towards the kitchen.
I went over to an outlying table, grabbing a bottle of dwarven whiskey, and inspecting it. “Wow, this is some great stuff. Is this from Khazur?”
I didn't wait for an answer and just left, circling around Uldru and climbing up the scaffolding.
Mom called out to me as I passed her, not even turning her head, “I advised them to go to the saddle, it's more comfortable.”
“Thanks.”
I quickly made my way up to the saddle and found the other three already waiting.
“Yo!” Ethan called out, “we did it.”
I sat down next to Rachel and wrapped an arm around her waist, chuckling “That we did. It feels great, doesn't it?”
“The first step on our journey,” sighed Rachel, claiming my lap for herself.
Eva looked kind of uncomfortable, the most emotion she had shown since I had known her, and she took a few moments to figure out what she wanted to say.
She fidgeted before finally asking “What are your goals?”
What prompted this?
Ethan answered almost instantly “To venture beyond Tera and uncover the mysteries of the world!”
That was ambitious but I had known about it before.
Rachel squeezed my hands as she answered “Heal… Necromancy.”
Wow!
I looked at her in surprise. I didn't know that she had goals this ambitious.
She must have seen my expression as she quickly clarified “Shut up. I don't think I can solve either the social or ecological influences of Necromancy, but the personal damage to the soul and deterioration of the mind should be treatable.”
Ethan stared at her for a while. “Wow.”
“Hey, only the best and brightest for our crew,” I joked, rubbing her waist affectionately. She said so after all.
Everyone stared at me.
I didn't say anything wrong, did I?
Eva grabbed a nut from the bowl, asking “What about you, Caleb?”
“Oh yeah,” I fumbled, somehow having forgotten to answer her very simple question.
Simple, but not easy.
I thought for a moment before coming to an obvious answer. “I want to become a strong Dragonknight and protect Tera.”
“That's all?” asked Eva.
She didn't seem confused, but disappointed, her expression being weirdly discernable for me.
“I mean, yeah.”
Rachel nudged my arm, declaring “He's going to be the best Dragonknight in existence.”
I heard some laughter from below but I doubted that it was related, just curious timing.
I wouldn't mind that but it didn’t feel like my dream…
Adventuring was Ethan's passion and alchemy was Rachel's, but being a Dragonknight wasn't exactly what I'd call a passion.
It's an honour, a job worth doing that I was proud to have inherited.
“I want to revolutionise Enchanting.”
It sounded strange, aberrant almost, like it wasn't something I would regularly say. It was too ambitious but it was what I wanted to do.
The silence of the others was only furthering my nervousness.
I revised my statement as they kept quiet. “I mean, like, make some new enchantments that are- work way better than the current ones and lay, or help in laying, a new foundation.”
Rachel grinned up at me, hooking a hand into the collar of my shirt to pull me down. “You're cute when you're flustered.”
“Shut up.”
Ethan rolled his eyes but grabbed the glasses and poured a shot for all of us, asking Eva “What about you?”
“I-” She stopped and looked around, probably searching for something to avoid answering.
She didn't find anything, sighing before admitting “I don't have one.”
“How can you not have one?” asked Rachel, accepting a glass of whiskey from Ethan.
Eva stared down at the bottle of whiskey as if she could find the answers she needed suspended in the liquid.
She let herself flop backwards, staring up at the stars as she answered “I just never had. I did what Father told me, just like I joined you guys because he said I should.”
“Wait, wait,” Ethan shook his head, trying to make sense of what she just said, “You went through all of the training just because your Father told you to? That's...”
“Dumb?” offered Rachel, not seeing any reason to mince her words.
“Kinda.”
Eva weakly slapped toward Ethan, uselessly hitting the saddle. “So now I am dumb?”
“What?” Ethan froze halfway toward me, quickly handing me the glass before shuffling over. “No, of course not. You're smart.”
“Then why is this so difficult?” she asked, raising her hands to cover her eyes.
She sounded like she was seconds away from crying.
Ethan set a glass next to her as he thought over what to say, left speechless by the situation.
“That's a goal in its own right,” said Ethan, scooting closer to her. “Figuring out your goal is just as difficult as achieving one, especially when you have nowhere to start. You are great at archery and cooking, and you are a wizard when it comes to paperwork. You'll find your goal and we'll help you.”
She grabbed her glass, smiling at Ethan. “Thanks. You're too kind.”
“Let's make it an oath.” Ethan raised his glass with a huge grin on his face, ever the shining light. “To venture into lands unknown!”
“To revolutionise enchanting,” added I, mimicking him with more restraint but the same glow. He always had a way to lighten my mood.
“To cure Necromancy,” said Rachel, planting a kiss on my cheek. “the damage it causes.”
Eva raised her glass without sitting up, choking back tears. “To figure out what I want.”
We downed our drinks and forged the Oath, slamming the empty glasses onto the saddle.
“Augh, that burns,” exclaimed Ethan, making a funny face as he shook to try and get rid of the taste.
I cut a grimace but didn't say anything. It wasn't that bad.
Rachel just shrugged. “I drank potions to test them that tasted way worse, some acids even.”
Eva didn't say anything.
“Why did you test acids by drinking them?” I asked, keeping my arm around her to prevent her from escaping.
“Someone has to.”
She poured herself a second shot and drank it with no hesitation. “It's actually pretty good.”
“Slow down there, gremlin,” I warned her, patting her cheek. “You've already had plenty of beer and the whiskey kicks even harder.”
She glared at me but reached for her mug of beer as she whined “I had no more than you or Ethan.”
“That doesn't make it better,” I argued, putting a hand on top of her mug. “You're a lot-”
“Shorter?” She glared up at me in a challenge.
I avoided her gaze. “No, I was going to say lighter. Stay safe please.”
“How safer could I be with you and Nadia around me?” she asked, turning around to wrap her arms around my neck. “I can allow myself to get a bit drunk.”
The night got a bit hazy from there on out and I didn’t remember much from it.