Pryce unclipped himself with somewhat practiced ease as he dropped onto the deck of the Horizon. He was getting used to flying, though it still made his thighs ache a little – he noted with some amusement that dragons were not terribly ergonomic.
Celeste landed shortly afterwards on the opposite side of the ship, maneuvering a little awkwardly as she landed in the relatively cramped space.
“There’s nothing much for you to do here, is it really that interesting to stare at the ship for hours?” Pryce asked.
“Yes,” Celeste said, peering at the rigging of the ship. “You still have not explained what these long things are all for.”
“Those are used to adjust the sail. It takes many humans to do that properly, so I can’t use it,” Pryce explained. “I’ll be down in the cargo hold for a long time, you two can come back tomorrow if you want.”
“No,” Fathom huffed resolutely. “What if another dragon like Trespasser lands on the ship?”
“If that happened then I would still be safe, just like I was back then,” Pryce pointed out. “It’s not like you could fight them very well here, and a fight would probably cause more damage than if you just let them wander around.”
“We shouldn’t just let them do whatever they want,” Fathom grumbled, obstinate as always.
“And what if you fell overboard while fighting? Aren’t you worried about the predators in the sea?”
“It is rare for a dragon to disappear while swimming in the sea…” Fathom said, shifting his wing dismissively as he avoided the question.
"Ships that close to land are rarely attacked by leviathans," Pryce said, glancing at the ocean. "Have either of you ever been this far away from land before?"
"No," Celeste said.
"Yes," Fathom said before sheepishly admitting, "...while flying."
“So let's avoid fighting this far out from land. If they want to fight for some reason then there's nothing you can do, but you should at least talk to them first."
“He is right,” Celeste muttered reluctantly. Had she been hoping for a fight?
Fathom closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes, looking like one who knew they'd lost an argument but still refused to back down.
“I know you’re worried,” Pryce said, using a gentler tone. “But no one can hurt me as long as I’m inside the ship. I'll be okay even if you leave and come back tomorrow.”
Fathom sighed. “Fine, but I’m not leaving until the sun sets.” He sprawled out to take a nap, and looked quite immovable.
For a moment Celeste seemed to consider following her father’s example, but ultimately returned to inspecting the ropes and pulleys. If Pryce had to guess, she was probably trying to figure out how they worked on her own.
He shrugged and went to work.
----------------------------------------
> [JOURNAL ENTRY]
>
> Day 94,
>
> I feel like Fathom's gotten a little more protective since the Trespasser incident. If the roles were reversed I'd probably also be worried about my ankle-high friend, so it's not as if I don't get where he's coming from. Still, it would be annoying if he tried to stop me from doing anything moderately dangerous.
>
> I’ll be sleeping on the Horizon tonight so I can continue working first thing tomorrow. Working was difficult but not impossible with the ship steadily bobbing up and down with the waves, so I should be done sometime later tomorrow.
>
> Note: Synthesized 56.89 grams of penicillin today.
> Total quantity of Penicillin-G produced: 242.58 grams.
----------------------------------------
[Day 95]
“Tell me more things about human technology,” Fortitude said, speaking slowly in English for practice. “Pryce has showed you more of it than anyone else.”
“Pryce has shown,” Fathom corrected. “What do you want to know about?”
“I do not know things I do not know,” Fortitude snorted in exasperation. “Their iron, glass, and clay cups are very beautiful, but do you know about other things I have not seen?”
“Yes,” Fathom nodded. “There is – wait, when did you see a clay cup? Was that what happened two days ago?” he asked, putting the pieces together.
“Yes,” Fortitude said, her head bobbing enthusiastically. “He let me see his clay cup after I told him how I made things.”
Fathom narrowed his eyes. “Why did you tell me if you made him promise not to tell any other dragons?”
“Oh, I just wanted to see if he would follow his promises, even if I said it was ok to tell you,” Fortitude said casually before peering at him interestedly. “Did he tell you nothing at all?”
Fathom tossed his head in a negative, remembering how the human rather annoyingly – if understandably – refused to renege on the promise.
“I don’t remember you asking him about this,” Celeste said. “When did this happen?”
“You left to drink water when we flew home, remember?”
Celeste paused, then nodded in understanding as she recalled her short absence. "So that is why you looked annoyed."
“I did not think he would tell you nothing,” Fortitude admitted as she glanced at Devotion, who had a mildly surprised look on her face that belied her knowledge of the scheme – in fact, taking her personality into account, Fathom was certain that she had been the one to suggest it in the first place.
“And was this all your idea?” Fathom asked Fortitude, expecting a negative.
“Of course," she replied easily.
Fathom blinked.
“What? I wanted to sense what type of…mind he has,” Fortitude said with a casual shrug of her wings.
“I don’t see why you needed to do that,” Fathom scoffed, holding his head austerely. “I have already told you that you can trust him.”
“I trust things I see,” Fortitude said good-naturedly. “You understand, yes?”
“We are stupid if we believe you without…without evidence,” Devotion said more bluntly.
“'We would be stupid if we believed you without evidence',” Celeste corrected. “I don't see the harm in their actions,” she added to her father.
“I suppose,” Fathom grumbled, and looked out to the sea. “Pryce should be done soon. Do you want to come with me?” he asked Celeste.
“Isn’t it a little early?” she replied, glancing at the sun and seeing that it was a little past noon.
“If we’re early then you can look at the ship while we wait,” Fathom pointed out.
«Wait,» Fortitude interjected just as Celeste turned to leave. «Do you think Pryce would let me go with you tomorrow?»
«You want to come with us?» Devotion asked, reverting back to Draconic in her surprise. «But who will protect our territory? And your art?»
Fathom found that he couldn't quite resist himself. «'A dragon who takes your territory will either be stronger or weaker than you. If they are weaker, you can just take it back.'»" He quoted smugly. "That was what you said, was it not?"
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Devotion whipped her head around to glare at Fathom. "I am not speaking with you, impudent brat!" she hissed before snapping back to her partner, who remained completely unbothered by her outburst.
«Someone would have to be very stupid to steal those,» Fortitude shrugged, then added, "Even if they did, I can always make better ones – at least once I learn from the humans.»
«Learn from them?» Devotion echoed. «Are you thinking of going to the human land?» she asked, her eyes widened with incredulity.
«Why not? They will not be coming here to make art, so if I want to learn then I will need to go to them,» Fortitude said reasonably.
“What if-” Celeste tried to interject, but was interrupted by Devotion.
«When were you going to tell me that you were thinking about this?» Devotion demanded.
«I just did,» her partner pointed out.
«You know what I meant,» Devotion groused. «We know almost nothing about these humans, and we would be putting ourselves at their mercy. Is that really worth the risk?»
«Of course it is!» Fortitude said, her eyes wide with excitement. «We can be the first dragons to walk upon another island!»
«That-» Devotion said, then paused as she considered this. «-is still not worth the risk,» she said, though the idea clearly had some sway with her.
«What if you just move things onto the ship?» Celeste asked.
«What?» the two elder dragons asked, turning away from their squabble.
«Why not just move your art onto the ship?»
«…oh,» Fortitude said. “Good idea; I should have thought of that."
«I suppose it is better than leaving it all here,» Devotion grumbled uncharitably.
«Do you know if Pryce will let us go back with him?» Fortitude asked, an interested glint in her eyes.
“No, you will have to ask him to be sure,” Fathom said uncertainly. He wasn’t sure if Pryce would have liked him to encourage them or not, so he felt it was best not to get their hopes up. “Anyway, it is about time for us to go check up on Pryce,” he said to Celeste, and they flew off towards the Horizon together.
He had hoped to be the first dragon to visit the Mainland, but he wondered as he soared over the ocean; if the ship could only carry one dragon, who would Pryce choose?
----------------------------------------
> [JOURNAL ENTRY]
>
> Day 95,
>
> Today was a work day, so nothing out of the ordinary happened.
>
> Note: Synthesized 40.24 grams of penicillin today.
>
> Total quantity of Penicillin-G produced: 282.82 grams.
“...and that is what they want to ask you,” Fathom said as Pryce copied the results of the day's work into his journal.
The dragons had been early in picking him up – so early, that Celeste grew bored of inspecting the ship and had taken a nap along with her father. The two of them had only woken a few minutes ago to summarize the discussion they had with the two older dragons.
Pryce closed his journal, uncertain of how best to respond. “Well, I’m glad they’re enthusiastic about this, but I think we’ll need to wait until the Daybreak arrives to talk about it.” He would have loved to bring them along, but there were just too many problems to deal with. “We were building several ships like the Horizon, so they’ll almost definitely send one of those. In that case we could fit four dragons pretty comfortably, but we'd be in trouble if we met a storm – you'd be knocked into the ocean unless we could somehow tie you down, and that's not to mention food! You'd need enough to last at least ten days – fifteen to be safe.”
“Tied down?" Celeste asked, and she had to have the concept explained to her by Fathom, who didn't seem very enthused by the idea.
"Can't I just hold onto the ship?" Celeste asked, demonstrating by way of digging onto the tarmac with her serrated talons.
"Storms can last for days," Pryce said, shaking his head. "You can't hold on for that long, can you?"
"I could try…" she grumbled mulishly.
"We only need to be tied down if there's a storm, right?" Fathom asked, his eyes narrowed.
"Of course, and we could make it so that you could free yourself any time you wanted."
Fathom rumbled as he thought over the idea. "We'll talk about it later. The food won't be a big problem – I won't need to eat for another seven days if I ate as much as I could. I might be able to last ten if I don't move much. Can't humans do that?" He asked curiously.
"No, we can't," Pryce said drily. "...okay that’s technically a lie. Some humans have survived for longer than twenty days by only drinking water, but it’s not healthy and definitely not comfortable."
“That’s a lot longer than a dragon can survive without food for,” Fathom said, sounding mildly surprised. “...at least I think it’s longer. I have never heard of a dragon starving to death.” He cocked his head. “Oh, right, humans sometimes don’t have enough food.”
“Yeah, that’s something that happened a lot in the past, but not anymore,” Pryce said, waving a hand dismissively. “Why didn’t you tell me you could do this earlier?”
“I didn't know it was unusual,” Fathom said prosaically, “and eating so much makes me sleepy.”
"We also can’t fly afterwards,” Celeste provided. “At least not without emptying our stomach first."
“Makes sense.”
"Is there anything else that might be a problem?" Fathom asked, tilting his head. "You have mentioned that dragons might get sick on the Mainland."
“I would very much prefer it if only one of you came back with us, as a test,” Pryce admitted. “We might have a problem if they insist on coming along, since I have no way of stopping them. Maybe we should tell them that it's unlikely to happen.” There were benefits to having several draconic representatives instead of one, but he wasn't sure if those outweighed the drawbacks.
“Fortitude won't be happy about that,” Fathom rumbled, sounding somewhere between amused and anxious. The dragon remained silent for a moment, looking unsure of himself.
"Is…something wrong?" Pryce asked worriedly.
Fathom seemed to mull over his words for a few more moments before hesitantly asking, “If only one dragon could go with you, who would you choose?”
“You, of course,” Pryce said, a little confused. “Why do you ask?”
Fathom blinked, and shifted a little. “I thought that you might think Fortitude would be a better choice; she is much older than me, and she knows how to make many things that humans will be interested in.” His head lowered a little, and he added, “Not like me, I don’t know how to make anything special.”
“First of all, I’m pretty sure Devotion would kill me if I did that,” Pryce said, only half-joking, “and second of all, you were the dragon who saved my life and the one who learned English first. People would want to meet you more than Fortitude – it would be a little awkward to tell people that this is actually the third or fourth dragon I met, after all.”
“That…makes sense,” Fathom said after a moment’s thought. "Also, your second thing was three or four things."
Pryce paused. “Guess I got carried away listing reasons. The main point is that I trust you the most, so bringing you is an obvious choice.”
Fathom was silent for a second, then he nodded before holding his head a little higher than before.
“What about me?” Celeste asked, startling Pryce.
“...second choice?” Pryce said, feeling as though any other answer would be incorrect. She was probably the one most likely to listen to him save for Fathom, so it wasn't a complete lie.
“Good,” she said, nodding contentedly.
“Let’s fly back and get some rest, we’re leaving tomorrow around noon. Also, please don’t tell the others about this. I don’t want them to start asking me for their rankings.”
----------------------------------------
“So, Fathom said you wanted to come to the Mainland?” Pryce asked Fortitude as he unclipped himself from Fathom’s neck.
“Yes,” Fortitude nodded, “do you think-”
She was cut off by a distant roar, one that pulled all their heads to the same direction.
“Who’s that?” Pryce asked warily. Judging by the lack of urgent response from the others, this probably wasn't an attack.
“I know this dragon,” Fathom said, good eyes narrowed. "That wasn’t a challenging roar; he has come to visit,” he clarified.
“His name is Wheihrn, he is a neighbor,” Fortitude said. “You need to hide, go into my cave, and do not touch anything,” she added as Pryce rushed in.
“You should take those off,” Pryce heard Celeste say, and Fathom quickly went to hide the chains that he wore. By the time he'd returned, Wheihrn – a solid red male – was only a few beats away, and he positioned himself to casually shield his previously injured wing from view.
«Greetings,» the red dragon said, peering in surprise at Fathom. «Huroumh-ǂ, I am surprised to see you here.»
«Greetings, Wheihrn-ǂ,» Fathom said, nodding cordially, «It has been some time.»
«Ah, yes,» Wheihrn said as he returned the gesture, but not without eyeing what he could see of Fathom's wings – no doubt attempting to appraise his threat level. «It is a shame that a prodigious fighter such as yourself suffered such an injury. Still, I would have liked to have a rematch – at least, under normal circumstances."
«I-» Fathom said, and caught himself just in time. As infuriating as it was, he'd have to let Wheihrn believe he was still injured, lest the male become suspicious. «I would have liked that as well,» he said begrudgingly.
«Are you saying something unusual has happened? Are you not here to trade again?” Fortitude asked, most likely attempting to distract Wheihrn.
«I am afraid not,» the red male said, appearing genuinely regretful. «No, I have come bearing some very interesting news.»
«Oh?” Devotion asked. «And what do you want for this information?»
«Nothing but goodwill, seeing as how everyone will be talking about it soon, » the red male said, shrugging dismissively. «Have you heard about the news regarding Qnaoro?»
«Qnaoro?” Celeste asked. «I have spoken to him once before. He seems to pass by every few years, and last I heard he was still a wanderer. Why do you ask? Has he done something notable?»
«In a sense,» Wheihrn said, tilting his head side to side before excitedly announcing. «The news is that he has found a strange creature from another land, one who calls herself a human.»