"I'm telling you, all three keeps were overrun by darklings. They even slaughtered an entire dragon's crew. But one of the keeps must have gotten some warning or something. Gods know, it must have been terrifying. But instead of letting themselves be turned, they managed to blow up the whole keep, right in the darklings' teeth!"

"How do you blow up a whole keep? Did they have a whole wing of dragons or something?"

"I don't know, I'm just telling you what I heard. Maybe they had a few barrels of flash powder in the basement or something."

"No one is suicidal enough to sleep above that much flash powder."

"Look, the dragonette at the bar also said they had something new. A hideous wingless monster that blew apart anything in its way with blasts of fire. He told me that he had seen it with his own eyes."

"After you bought the next round for him?"

Aytin sipped his ale as he watched Bush try to backtrack.

The dragonette was only a few years older than Aytin was, but he had apparently spent at least a few of those years trolling capital bars listening to gossip. Now he was trying to impress the locals at this out of the way settlement.

Except the residents of Lazon's Rest were turning out to be a little less credulous than the young trader had expected.

They were at an out of the way settlement. It wasn't even a true keep. There wasn't room for the trading party to all sleep inside of the central building's rough stone walls. Most of them - Faelon included - were relegated to sleeping in tents.

There was a wooden stockade to keep the animals out, at least. And a couple of guards to watch the skies.

It had been like that for their last stop, too, although the one before that had been a proper keep with a great hall large enough for their entire party. The Luffin holdings were on the outward leg of Reed and Faelon's route, so things were getting progressively more and more rural as they skirted the southeastern frontier on their way north.

But according to the plan, this settlement marked their halfway point. In the morning they would start turning to the west, beginning their journey back to civilization. Just a few weeks after that, they'd arrive in the capital.

For a dragonette who had never been further than a day's flight away from where he was born, the experience had been enlightening.

And exhausting.

As a member of the "crew" Aytin had lost count of the number of boxes, crates, casks, bundles, and bags of trade goods he was required to load and unload at every stop. 'I wonder if I should ask Reed about getting paid, again. Or at least giving my family a discount.'

It was a beautiful early autumn evening, and even if the Lazon's Rest was small, the dragonettes at Lazon's Rest had been extremely welcoming. They had built a bonfire in the stockade and the local huntresses had brought down a tirox, one of the massive oxen-like herbivores that called these islands home.

In return for the warm welcome and as a celebration of reaching their halfway point, Reed had broached a keg of ale. It hadn't exactly traveled well, but the drink might as well have been honeyed cider to dragonettes this far out on the frontier.

Some movement caught Aytin's eye. Faelon was settling back down to finish his enormous Tirox hanch. Something about the story had sparked the normally recalcitrant dragon's interest enough to listen in.

"Hey Tin!"

Aytin nearly jumped. He had been busy studying the red dragon and hadn't heard Voxin slide up to him. He turned to face the guard captain and did his best to act nonchalant. "Yeah?"

"So you've been with us for a while now, right?"

"It's only been three weeks!" the young dragonette protested.

"Practically forever!" There were snickers from around the table.

To be fair, it had felt like a lot longer as the boredom set in. There just wasn't much to do while flying on dragon back except stretch his wings, stare at the clouds, and practice knot tying. Xantha was certainly making sure he did plenty of the latter.

But Aytin had gotten to know the rest of the crew fairly well. They were certainly happy to have a captive audience for all the stories that their fellows had heard a dozen times before. It was about all there was for entertainment when traveling on dragon back.

"Anyway," Voxin continued, "I was just wondering what's up with your horn?"

Aytin reached up and touched the tip of his left horn on reflex. No two dragonettes there had exactly the same horn. Some were thicker, some were thinner. Some swept right back and others curled up.

His own right horn was normal enough; thick at the base, with a slight backwards curl. But Aytin's left left bent outwards for the last few talon-lengths. It wasn't enough to catch on things as he passed by, but it was certainly distinctive.

"Well, see, it's my magic. I can wiggle my horns around."

"What, really? Can we see?" Bush asked. His storytelling had tapered off and the young trader had been drawn to the new conversation along with his erstwhile audience.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Of course not. Because that would be stupid." Aytin enjoyed the laughs at Bush's expense as he took another swig of the ale to wet his throat. "It's actually been this way since I hatched. I got it from my father."

"Lord Luffin's horns don't look anything like that."

"That's because you didn't know the last lord of the keep," Reed interjected. "Bloodhorn was a tough one."

"Bloodhorn?" someone in the group asked.

"On account of the twist in his horn always ending up dripping with the blood of his enemies," the trader explained. "I didn't believe it when I first heard he was killed."

"It was a darkling raid," Aytin said, breaking in. Despite Reed being so much older and more experienced, he knew that he had to be the one to tell the story of his father's final stand against the forces of corruption and evil.

"They surprised the keep, attacking through an unbarred gate. The crossbar had broken a few days before and no one expected a week or so to replace it would make any difference. Things had been quiet that year, after all, and the guards were supposed to keep an eye on it.

"But dad, he was on his way to check on my older brother. Stonar had been sick. Apparently he was a bit of a runt back then." Aytin allowed himself a small, private smile at the thought of his brother, the proverbial stone wall, ever being small.

"Anyway, Stonar wasn't sleeping well, and on the way to the creche my dad caught the darklings sneaking in. His battle cry woke the entire keep, and then he started to tear into them."

He tried to take another gulp of ale but found his tankard empty. Wordlessly, Voxin handed him her own. The young dragonette took a long pull before continuing.

"After the battle, they found his body surrounded by eight dead darklings. They were torn apart. Wings snapped. Bellies slashed open. Limbs broken. And all he started with was a single knife. A knife they found snapped off in one of the darklings' eyes."

Aytin had heard the story a dozen times, but he'd never told it himself. It was harder than he thought and he took a few deep breaths before pushing on.

"His body was just down the hall from the room where my older brother and a dozen other kids were sleeping. But he held them back. Held them until the guard rallied and swarmed the survivors. Less than half of them managed to flee back into the night."

The entire tavern was silent. Every conversation had ceased as the locals and crew members alike stopped to listen.

It was Vonix who broke the silence. "So your sister Lin...?" she asked, her question trailing off at the end.

"Mother remarried. I'm the fourth of eight. Two sisters and a brother older than me. Three sisters and another brother, younger. And from the way my mother was talking, there could be more by the time I get back home."

Aytin was now the center of a circle of dragonettes. Even Faelon seemed interested once more, watching from just outside. His unblinking gaze bored into Aytin, and he took another swig of ale to cover the discomfort.

"Well?" Bush demanded.

"Well what?"

"What happened after that?"

"There isn't much else to tell," Aytin said, ruffling his wings in a shrug. "There hasn't been a darkling raid on Luffin Keep since. Although," he continued, expression brightening a little, "if you want to hear more, I could tell you all about his last assignment as a lancer-"

"A lancer!? You're pulling my tail."

"It's true," Reed confirmed from where she was continuing to watch the story play out.

"Anyway, there were reports of this rogue green dragon harassing convoys headed to a frontier outpost, and his wing was assigned to patrol the region. But there was this keep that wasn't far from that area, and..."

Many more stories and many mugs of ale passed before the group broke up for the night. Aytin was well past tipsy when he finally laid out his bedroll. Despite the ale buzzing through his head and solid ground beneath his chest, he found it hard to sleep.

The night was unseasonably warm, perfect weather for sleeping outdoors. No one had bothered unpacking the tents. Snores were already sounding from nearby.

But he had lived in a keep his entire life. It felt wrong not to have four walls and a roof over his head.

He opened his eyes and craned his neck to look at the stars. His eyes were drawn to one in particular. It was fuzzier than the dots of light surrounding it, and pulsed with an irregular rhythm. A god's gate.

If any of them were watching, he imagined it would be Lotek, the god of travel and trade. Aytin's ale and fatigue clouded mind couldn't quite form a coherent prayer, but he did manage to send a wordless request for the god to bless his journey up towards that distant light.

As he stared, the stars around the gate seemed to flicker as well. It was almost as if something had passed in front of them. He shook his head and the stars returned to their normal unwavering shine. 'I need to stop drinking so much that I can't see straight.'

He was still awake when he heard footsteps and soft words coming from the direction of the tavern. It was Reed and Xantha, discussing something in low tones.

It was odd, Xana hadn't been around for much of the party. She had said something about needing some time away from the rest of the crew. After weeks living under each other's wings, Aytin could appreciate that. And the rest of the crew didn't seem to find it odd, either.

"-telling you, I can feel a big one," Xantha was saying.

It would have been hard not to eavesdrop with the pair passing so close. Aytin didn't even try not to. Weather prediction magic wasn't unknown, but never met anyone who had the rather rare ability before Xantha. Hearing about how it worked firsthand wasn't an opportunity he wanted to pass up.

"I believe you," Reed replied. "It's the right time of year for a front to blow in after all."

"Which is why we need to push east and get around it."

Reed stopped less than a wingspan away, and turned to face Xantha. "In all my years flying, I've never been able to just fly around one of these autumn storms."

"They don't stretch across the world. There's an edge, and we're lucky enough to be just a few hours flight away from it." When her boss didn't answer, Xantha pressed on. "You didn't believe me about the squall just out from Luffin Keep, either, but we changed course anyway. And a good thing we did, too."

"You didn't catch that wind shift out of Lopon, though. That cost us a full day fighting it, and Faelon needed most of the next to recover." Reed sighed, heavily. "Xantha, you were highly recommended as a navigator when I brought you onto the crew. And some warning is better than none at all. But I can't afford unnecessary delays, and your magic isn't perfect."

"Look," Aytin heard Xantha say. "The worst case is we detour to the east for nothing and it costs us an extra half day's flight. That wouldn't be great, but if we can skirt around the storm then we'll make all that up and more from not having to fight the wind and rain. And I'll bet half my share that I'm right this time."

There were a few heartbeats of silence and then, "I'll think on it."

"Thank you, boss. I'll see you in the morning."

Reed grumbled something in reply as she crunched off to find her sleeping mat, with Xantha right behind. And with the sound of steps fading in his ears, Aytin finally drifted off to sleep.