I woke up in bed with Master. It had been a few days since I had laid my eggs, and with the tower to ourselves, I didn’t mind so much not staying curled around them. They were in a makeshift nest of bedding tucked into the corner of the room, and I could see them from the bed. I hopped down from the bed, stretched out, curled my tail, and spread my wings. Just about all the soreness from actually laying a clutch of eggs was gone, I was essentially fully recovered. I padded over to check on them just in case, anyway. All five were accounted for, all five were still warm and… I don’t know how to describe it, but similar to the way I could “feel” magic, I could “feel” them. Maybe I was feeling the innate draconic magic in their developing bodies? Everything seemed to be good, or at least nothing triggered any kind of instinct.
My tail swayed happily as Master got up after me. He gave my head a pat before we headed out to start the day, get breakfast, that sort of thing. Professor Dweli was still visiting us, which was a little awkward, but I was pretty used to it by this point. Besides, if I really needed to talk urgently, I’d just fake needing to go outside to do my business. We had just finished our meal when there was a pounding knock at the tower door.
Master and I headed to the front room, with Dweli following behind since she didn’t have anything else to do. When we opened the door, we were surprised to find Lance waiting outside.
“Hey, Tola. Princess. How are you two doing?” He had a grin on his face, waiting just long enough to give us a chance to bar the door before walking in. He stopped and raised an eyebrow, the grin still present, as he saw the Professor in the doorway leading to the hall. “Oh, you have a… guest?”
“Ah, yeah, Lance, this is Professor Dweli, of the Mage’s Guild. Professor Dweli, this is Lance. He’s a mercenary, and a quite capable one, from my experience.” Master introduced the two and gestured to the seating in the room, moving over to sit down in a padded chair that sat next to a low “coffee table” style of table. “What brings you out here, Lance?”
“Ooh, Mage’s Guild, huh? What brings a fancy girl like you out to visit a nobody mage like Tola, eh?” Lance grinned even wider. I think he was hoping for juicy drama.
Dweli sat down in an available chair and smiled. “I’m visiting a fellow Guild mage in order to get the chance to study his pet dragon. Did you know Princess just had her eggs? They look wonderfully healthy, if you’re looking to buy one of the hatchlings.” I blushed a little at the discussion, another reminder of how far removed from humanity and personhood I’ve become.
“A ‘fellow Guild mage’? You mean you guys accepted Tola here? That’s great news!” This was accompanied by a boisterous slap on Master’s shoulder. “Here I was worried you’d be too… high and mighty, just because he’s self-taught. You guys have a bit of a… reputation, you know. Seems just about every guild gets one like that, they get their heads in the clouds and suddenly they’re too good for common folk like us.”
Master gave a polite cough. “Yes, I was offered membership, and it seemed like a good choice to accept. Access to learning, access to supplies, and access to jobs. Just a little worried about the cost of all this access coming due…” He glanced a little at Dweli, the house guest we couldn’t really turn away, at least without risking the good will of the Guild we just joined. It was a minor imposition, but it was still a reminder that we’d joined a group, and all groups have their politics. At least for now, we’d only dipped a toe in.
“Well, speaking of jobs, I’ve got one for you, if you’re in. Captain Aesis wants me to try to lean on you to take it, but you know how she is. I’ll stand up to her if you want me to.” Lance leaned back in his chair.
Dweli leaned forward, looking over at Master. “Captain… Aesis? You’ve got a captain requesting you by name? Aren’t you an interesting one?”
Master sighed softly. “Oh, it’s nothing like that. She’s the captain of the guard in Winselton, and I have a fairly substantial debt to the Crown, so she likes the feeling of having leverage over me. She doesn’t have to pay me out of her budget, so hiring me is basically free for her, as opposed to any other mage. Any ‘bounty’ I get just comes off my debt instead. And if I refuse, I start looking ‘uncooperative’, so I try to play nice when I can.”
“I can tell her you’re not available, or even not here if you like. I’m hoping you’ll come along, I know I’d feel better with you two there.” Lance sat back up, and it looked like he was starting to switch from “joking” to “serious”.
Dweli chimed in. “Us two? No, I couldn’t possibly… I mean, I’m not the adventuring sort. I don’t know any combat magic well enough to fight.”
“He means me and Princess, Professor. Don’t worry. Well, what’s the situation, Lance?” Master leaned in, elbows on his knees.
“Sorry, Professor, didn’t mean to be unclear. As for what’s going on… There’s a mining outpost set up on the north edge of Winselton’s lands. It’s so new it doesn’t have a name yet, just a bunch of miners trying to gather up some ore. Unfortunately, they’ve run into trouble. We don’t know what trouble yet, just that shipments stopped cold. It could be nothing, a surprise snowstorm in the mountains, or it could be that bandits or monsters wiped them all out.”
“So why are we the ones being sent? Why not send someone to investigate what’s happening, then report back with whoever’s needed to solve it?”
“Metal is the lifeblood of kingdoms, and with that kind of coin at stake, the Duke wants it resolved yesterday. The merchants are leaning on the Duke, the Duke is leaning on Captain Aesis, Captain Aesis wants to lean on us. You know how it is.”
“People are the same everywhere, it seems.” Master gave a sigh, then looked down at me, reaching down to scritch behind my horns. “What do you think, girl? Should we go for it? You just laid your eggs, after all.”
I stood up, having been sitting at Master’s side. My tail swayed a little, and I looked over at Dweli. This was probably a little more than I could express with the “tail code” we had set up before, so I went over to the door and pawed at it, giving a soft whimper and looking back at Master.
“I, ah, guess this is going to have to wait a bit, Princess needs to be let outside. Lance, if you haven’t eaten yet, there’s still a bit of breakfast in the kitchen you can help yourself to, if you like.” Master got up and came to me, opening the door and slipping outside with me.
Once we were safely outside and walked a little bit away from the tower, I spoke up. “I don’t know, I think we should go. I think Lance expects something, or else he wouldn’t have come. He’s got a worried tone to his voice.”
“Are you sure, though? It means leaving your eggs here. Lance said he’d cover for us.”
“He’s being nice, he wants us there. As for the eggs… Maybe Professor Dweli can watch over them for us? She could stay here and egg-sit or whatever?”
“I’m surprised, I thought you didn’t like her.” Master glanced back at the tower, thinking of our guest caused him to, I guess.
“It’s not that I don’t like her, I just… It’s frustrating that she’s here, but I have to admit that she knows her stuff. The eggs will be safe with her, she won’t do anything foolish. She probably knows more about how to care for them than I do, honestly. Besides, if she’s here, then I don’t have to worry about her showing up behind me and catching me talking.”
“True. But if Captain Aesis is there, you still won’t be free to talk. And there might be others in the group, we don’t know how big a party she’s looking to gather.”
“Yeah, but… They won’t be as familiar with how I’m ‘supposed’ to act. I’ve seen the way Dweli looks at me. She’s smart, and observant. I’m surprised she hasn’t figured me out already. The sooner I’m not around her, the better.”
“Maybe she has, and she’s just being polite.” Master reached down to rub at my head, the way you’d ruffle the hair or fur of someone who wasn’t covered in scales.
“Mrrrf, I hope not. Besides, I think we would’ve heard her explode at the thought of a research subject that can talk about what they’re feeling.”
“Or angrily throw out most of the notes she took of you because your intelligence taints her research.”
“Rerrh. You say that like it’s bad that I’m smart.” I stuck my tongue out a bit, looking up at Master. He poked my tongue, making me draw it back in my mouth.
“So it’s settled. We’ll ask Dweli to watch the eggs for us, and if she agrees, we’ll take the job. If she doesn’t, we stay here?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You wouldn’t want me to go while you stay here with Dweli to watch over you?” Master grinned teasingly.
“Rrff, you know I wouldn’t. If we were doing that, I’d say get Arlond. At least let me have someone I can talk to. Besides, if I don’t go with you and anything happens, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”
“You still haven’t forgiven yourself for letting that bandit shoot me on the trip to the Guild, have you?”
I winced a little. Partially at the memory, and because he was right. “Well… I mean…”
“Hey, it all turned out all right. And we’ll have Lance with us, and I don’t think Captain Aesis is going to let a civilian contractor under her care be harmed.”
“Lance will be with us.” I let out a huff, I didn’t trust the Captain to care much about us.
“It’ll be fine. We’ll be careful. You’ll do your best. You’re a good girl.” He rubbed under my chin, and I gave in and purred softly.
We came back inside, finding Dweli and Lance chatting in the front room. Master settled back into his seat, and I sat down next to him.
“Welcome back, you two. So, you coming?”
“That depends. Professor Dweli, would you mind staying here and watching over Princess’s eggs? I don’t like the idea of leaving them alone, just in case anyone tries something or something happens. And I don’t know anyone that would know more about how to take care of them than you.”
The Professor looked down at me, raising an eyebrow. “You think she’ll leave her eggs behind? Dragons can be pretty protective.”
“She seems to like you well enough, and you were there when she laid them. If she was going to consider you a threat, she’d have chased you off by now, I think. I’m sure it’ll be fine. If she refuses to come along, she can stay here and you can watch her as well as the eggs.” I did my best to not react to the idea of being stuck here alone with Dweli for a week or longer.
“I’m all right with it. I’ve got a while before the next trip back to the Guild, anyway. Maybe I’ll borrow a book from your library as payment.” She grinned, leaning back into her chair.
“Okay, it’s settled. When are we leaving, Lance?”
The mercenary shrugged. “I think she expects us in Winselton tomorrow, but we can always make her wait a day.”
“Let’s not antagonize her any more than necessary.”
“All right. We’ll head out tomorrow morning, then. I already have a ride arranged, I figured you’d probably join and if you didn’t, well, I still had to get back myself. You mind if I stay the night?” He was always so laid back, ready to just do his own thing. I was a little surprised he’d actually planned things out like this.
“Fine with me. I guess I’ve got preparations to make.”
The rest of the day was spent getting ready. Dweli had to be shown where everything was, even though she knew most of it. Master had to pack for the both of us. We had to readjust the straps of my harness now that I wasn’t carrying eggs. Lance just kind of hung around, seemingly amused by the amount of work and preparation that was made by people who didn’t just swing swords at things. I was beginning to wonder if he was somehow an animal turned human. Perhaps a dog. It wasn’t a serious idea, the thought was just amusing. Yeah, I could totally see him wagging a fluffy tail at the chance to have a serious sword fight.
The morning came, and with it, a wagon ride to Winselton. The three of us piled into the back, Lance and Master sitting across from each other and me laying at Master’s feet. I was a common sight for the delivery man driving the wagon, with how many times Master and I have made the trip by this point.
“So, you have any idea what we might find when we get there?” Master tried to keep the bumps of the road from jostling him out of his seat.
“Not really. Could be a lot of things. My gut says trouble, but it might have been a bandit attack that’s already taken what they wanted and cleared out. No sense sticking around when they can take their goods and get out. They’d need to sell what they stole, and they’d want to be out before any investigation came looking.”
“That’s… I’m not sure if that’s optimistic or pessimistic…” Master fell silent, one hand resting on my neck.
“Eh?” Lance just kind of stared blankly.
“Ah, um, it means I don’t know if you’re looking on the bright side of things, or if you’re looking at the worst.”
“Oh, probably best. If it’s a bandit raid, all we have to do is head back, report what we found, and collect our pay. It’s on them to hire enough guards to stick around on the replacement crew. Worst case…” Lance paused a moment. I think he was actually thinking of scenarios and trying to find the worst. “We have to deal with something like a goblin nest. If they were living in the mountains and the miners got surprised, they’ll be heavily entrenched. If they weren’t, then they were being led by something big and mean enough to force them over ground. Yeah, that’s probably the worst case.”
“What if we get there and everything’s fine, but they just forgot to send word back on schedule?” Master looked up at the sky as the wagon continued to bounce along the road.
“Mmh, not likely. These types know better than to not stick to schedule. Our fee would be coming out of their pay, probably. You know merchants, never pass up a chance to make someone else cover their costs.”
“True. They’re the same back home, too.” Master seemed to be lost in thought. He usually wouldn’t let something like that slip, even if it was innocent by itself.
“You’ll have to tell me about that home of yours some time. I’ll get a decent campfire story out of you yet!” Lance laughed, and Master only looked away, still thinking about something instead of actually looking at the passing scenery.
“Mmh. I don’t know, my life back then certainly wasn’t as… exciting as it is now. No danger, no magic, no swords… Towns are completely different. You’d probably go mad if you were there.”
“No swords? If there’s people, there’s danger. You’ll always need men like me around.” Lance leaned back with a stretch, grinning that confident smile of his.
“Heh. Just picturing you back home, working an office job, challenging Dave From Accounting to a duel over the last donut.”
“I don’t know half of those words, but hey, if that ‘donut’ thing was mine, this Dayvefrom Akownting guy doesn’t stand a chance.”
Master chuckled at the boast, which seemed to be what Lance was going for. He chuckled back, and I couldn’t help but swish my tail a little at the mental image.
I’m not sure if that snapped Master out of his funk, or if it just delayed whatever was pressing on his mind for later, but the rest of the trip passed quickly, with Lance recounting a story about a duel he fought against a rival mercenary some time ago.
We sat in Captain Aesis’s office, in the guard tower of Winselton. The Captain was going over the details, but as far as I could tell, it was everything Lance already told us. Which was that we had next to no information.
“Couldn’t get anyone else to come along? Or did you just not want to pay them?” Lance leaned back with that grin of his again.
Captain Aesis shot back with a glare that would’ve withered anyone else, but I suppose Lance has just gotten used to it through repeated exposure. “I could give them your share, if you think we can’t handle it.”
“Oh, we can handle it. And maybe there’ll be a nice combat bonus in it for me.”
“Not to… bring things down, but what exactly are we expecting to have to handle? Lance talked about a couple possibilities on the way over, but I’m interested to hear your expert opinion, Captain.” Master interjected, if only to try to keep Captain Aesis from being completely insufferably grumpy the whole trip.
“Hmph. Well, I admit, we don’t really know… All we know is that they’ve failed to send their shipment or any report stating why. We’re the first to respond to that failure, since someone has to go and check. If it’s truly more than we can handle, we can come back and let the military deal with it…”
“But that’s worst-case for the Captain, Mage Tola.” Lance finished off the trailed sentence. “She absolutely hates letting it look like the Guard can’t solve a problem short of full-out war.” That earned him another glare.
“…They’re meat-heads who would love to be able to take over our position and just slaughter anyone who broke laws. They are swords who fear rusting in their scabbards more than anything.”
“Not a pleasant-sounding bunch. Fine, a last resort, that I’m sure will be unneeded.” Master nodded and sat back in his chair a bit. It was a bit like our last time working with the Captain, the four of us grouped together to tackle a problem. Just this time, we wouldn’t be hunting would-be drug-running thieves trying to set up shop in the city. Probably.
“Nothing pleasant about any of this. Hope you weren’t expecting a cushioned ride, mage, but I say we head out immediately.”
“I wasn’t expecting comfort, I was expecting to work.” Master bristled slightly.
“Good. Let’s move out.” Captain Aesis stood up and headed for the door, barely waiting for us to follow suit. Maybe it was the banter with Lance, maybe it was something else, but she seemed even more irritated than usual.
We’d been hiking along the road for hours now. Mostly in silence, sometimes with Lance giving snarky digs at Captain Aesis, sometimes with the Captain turning any complaint into a brag how Master could never make it as a guard like her.
“Captain.” Master replied tersely instead of silently enduring it. “Ever since our first meeting, you have been condescending, rude, arrogant, and dismissive of me. I’ve followed all laws, I’ve dedicated myself to helping the people of Hammerfell and more, I’ve worked with you directly, I’ve become a recognized Mage’s Guild mage. How much more must I do in order to get you to treat me with the most basic of respect? What does it take?”
“…You… raise excellent points. My apologies, Mage Tola. In our first meeting, I took you for an arrogant con artist looking to grab everything you could and run. Even though you didn’t, I just… never got over that impression, I guess, and that is unfair to you.” Captain Aesis’s voice was a bit bitter, but I got the feeling that her tone of voice was directed more at herself than anything else.
“In our first encounter, my goal was to rescue Princess. The only way I knew how was the Right of Conquest, and you were trying to talk me out of it, which would have meant leaving her to be killed. I didn’t have the highest opinion of you either, but I’ve done my best to be polite regardless. That being said… I can understand how an initial opinion can persist longer than needed. I would appreciate it if you would give me at least some respect going forward, and will forgive you for the past.” I let my gaze drop downward as we walked. That was not a memory I liked revisiting, locked in what was probably a jail cell that was being used as a storage room, hearing the guards talk about what sort of prices my various parts would fetch from a butcher.
“I don’t know why you are so attached to that dragon, but… I appreciate that, Mage Tola.” The Captain was silent for some time after that, and Lance was smirking but keeping his mouth shut. “It’s getting late, we should camp and continue in the morning. We should be there by noon tomorrow.”
Between the Captain and Lance, a spot was found pretty quickly, a short ways off the path. Master had been wearing a backpack, but I was still carrying the bulk of things with my harness. Lance and Captain Aesis both had their own gear. Master had a little bit of trouble getting things set up, but it was something he’d done a couple of times now. I still tried to help as much as I could, but that wasn’t saying much.
We settled in to sleep, with me curled up against Master. I couldn’t help but worry about my eggs back home, so far away, but this was the first night where I couldn’t even see them. It was uneasy, but I finally managed to drift off, pressed up against Master with my head on his chest. As for dreams… All I could remember was a confusing jumble without meaning, and they faded quickly in the morning sun.
In the morning, I got up, stretched, curled my tail, and spread my wings. Stepping out of our tent, I found Master and the others already cooking breakfast. It’d be a little bit before food was ready, and I had a painfully dry mouth and throat. I figured I could get some water while the others were busy, but we didn’t seem to have any extra skins packed, so I tried one of the other tents. It had the Captain’s scent in it, and if anyone was going to be over prepared, it would be her. Sure enough, I was able to dig a spare skin out from one of the piles.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It took some doing, getting the stopper off without thumbs, but I managed it, using my teeth on the neck and a paw underneath to tip the contents down my throat. It tasted like it’d been in there for a while, but it got the job done, and once it was empty, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I slipped back out and found a plate of food set down for me by Master, while the others were eating, and happily started eating my share. I mostly ignored the conversation, getting a scritch behind the horns from Master, before dishes were collected and packed up.
Everyone was working on breaking down their tents, when a furious shout came from the Captain. She came out of her tent with the empty waterskin, shaking it angrily. “Which one of you did this?”
Master and Lance were already out of their tents, looking puzzled. Lance spoke up first. “Did what?”
“Which one of you drank this?” She shook it again for emphasis.
“I didn’t. I have my own water.” Lance crossed his arms.
“I didn’t either, I haven’t been inside your tent at all.” Master shrugged.
The Captain narrowed her eyes, looking between the two, as I slipped out of our tent, sitting beside Master. Why was she so upset?
“How…? Okay, I didn’t, so it has to be one of you two, but how could you lie about it? One more time. Who. Drank. This. Waterskin?” Wow, she was really upset.
The words were out of my mouth before I even realized what was happening. “I drank it.” Wait, what? Why did I…?
I wasn’t the only one surprised. Master and Lance were both shocked that I’d spoken in front of the Captain, who was just staring in shock at me.
“I thought it was just water?” Why couldn’t I stop talking? “I don’t know why I’m talking.” I was getting very nervous, between my speech betraying me and the stares I was getting.
“How…? I… What? The beast can TALK?” Captain Aesis seemed to have gotten over her initial shock enough to form questions.
“Yes, I can talk.” Argh! No! I don’t want to talk, I don’t want her to know that!
“Princess, what are you doing?” Master knelt down to put a hand on my shoulder. Lance just stood by silently.
The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “Of course you knew. And Lance? You don’t look surprised. Did you know already?”
“Well… Funny story about that…” Lance chuckled nervously.
“Why am I the last to know!?” Captain Aesis shouted furiously, throwing the empty skin to the ground.
“You aren’t the last to know. You are the…” Master knew, Elimaio knew shortly before his demise, Arlond saw through my human form, Master Korrigan of the Mage Guild knew, Lance knew… “fifth person still alive to know. There’s still plenty others who don’t.” Argh!
I was hunched back, trying to back up into my own body, head lowered. Captain Aesis bent over to stare at me harder. “And why did you not tell me before now?”
“Because when I was held captive, you made it pretty clear that if you’d known, you would have had me killed on the spot? I mean, at the time, I didn’t know you were planning to kill me anyway, but even ‘death later’ is still better than ‘death now’… And I don’t like you.”
“You… don’t like me?” She seemed genuinely confused by this.
“Yeah, you’re always rude to Master, and mean, and threatening. It’s not illegal to not like you, is it?” Since she wasn’t going to give me any room to back away, and I couldn’t stop talking, I drew myself up into a defiant stance.
Lance burst out laughing finally, doubling over, earning him a glare from the Captain.
“Captain Aesis.” Master stood up. “What was in that waterskin? And why is Princess being forced to talk?”
She looked back to Master, then to the skin on the floor, then sighed. “Truth potion. It’s made to be colorless, odorless, and tasteless. And it’s very expensive!”
“Truth–! You… Who carries something like that with them?” Master’s anger was starting to show through even more now.
“Someone who has to deal with the kind of work I do! Sometimes I don’t have the time to question a suspect normally! Sometimes I need answers!”
“Well, is it harmful? Do I have to worry about you poisoning Princess? Or any of us?”
“It’s not harmful, and it’s not like I’d have used it on someone without it being an emergency. Who do you think I am?”
“I think you are Captain Aesis, leader of the Guard in Winselton.” I wasn’t trying to be sassy, it was just that she asked the question and I couldn’t not answer it. It was like a pressure squeezing at my thoughts until the words came out. …But I liked that it could be taken as sass.
Master couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, and Lance doubled over laughing again.
“I fail to see the humor in this.” The Captain crossed her arms, glaring at the two, before glaring at me again.
“I can’t help it. Truth potion. I wouldn’t have touched it if I’d known. I don’t like this.”
“Speaking of which, didn’t you sense magic, Princess?” Master raised an eyebrow as he asked.
“I was really thirsty! I didn’t think there would be magic in the water! Who spikes their own water supply? …Captain Aesis does, apparently. Argh, I have to answer my own questions too?” My tail lashed in frustration. The pressure wasn’t as strong that time, I might have been able to keep quiet, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant. This time, the Captain smirked a little. I guess the absurdity of the situation was getting to her.
“Regardless, it’s standard equipment I always carry. It’s been years since I’ve had to use it on someone. It should wear off soon enough. We’ll just have to deal with… this, until then.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one who’s forced to say stuff.”
“Speaking of… You’ve been lying about being able to talk this whole time. Is there anything else you should be telling us?” The Captain was glaring at Master and me.
“I haven’t been lying, specifically, just… not correcting your assumption.” I squirmed in place. The pressure wasn’t fully letting up.
“Lying by omission is still lying. Anything else?”
“Rrrreh… I really, really don’t like you. And I’ll fight you if you try to take me away from Master or do anything.” If I was able to say something, anything, it let the pressure ease up, even if it wasn’t a full answer… But the thought that was bearing down… I shouldn’t say it. It wouldn’t do any good, it’d make things so much worse for everyone if I said it. She said “should be telling”, it’s not lying by omission if it’s not something I should be telling…
“For the record, I’ll fight too, if anyone tries to take Princess away or harm her.” Master was glaring at the Captain. “And I don’t want you asking any more questions of her. She’s not a suspect for you to question.”
“If I find out you’re doing anything to harm Princess, I’ll fight too. Even if it’s just refusing all jobs from now on, Captain, I’ll do everything I can.” Huh, I didn’t expect Lance to be on my side. I wagged my tail a little and blushed. It was a shame he wasn’t a dragon…
“I’m not… I have no plans to do anything to the beast, or to you, Mage Tola. It’s not… illegal to have some kind of talking dragon, but if it– if she does cause any harm, I will be holding you accountable as her owner. But what did she mean by ‘fifth person still alive’? You aren’t planning to do anything now that I know your secret, are you?”
Master thought for a moment, fingers tallying up one by one. “Ah. Elimaio found out she could talk during our fight. You would be the sixth person to find out, if you included him. I’m guessing she didn’t want to, but was forced to at least acknowledge his exclusion.” I nodded. Not being talked to directly made it a lot easier to keep quiet, so I was grateful for Master taking control of the conversation like this. No wonder I was in love with him… I’m just glad I was able to find a way to not blurt that out. Even then, the potion was forcing me to face the truth of that myself, and it was… not comfortable.
“Hmph. I never did like him, and he only got worse from what we gathered when investigating his death. He didn’t have a bounty until then, you know. We didn’t know what he was up to, or we’d have handled it ourselves. I don’t like the idea of civilians solving our problems for us, or being put into situations like that.”
“Well, I didn’t like it either, but what’s happened has happened, and if it hadn’t, I never would have met Princess or ended up learning magic.” Master scritched behind my horns and I blushed more, purring softly.
We went back to breaking down our camp, getting things packed into the bags on my harness. For me, that mostly meant staying still and letting things get added one by one.
“You looked pretty unpleasant before I stepped in. Was the potion trying to force you to say something else?”
I winced, the pressure slamming into my thoughts. “Y-yes…”
“And it’s not something you want to say, is it?”
“It’s… It’s not. It’s really not.” It was almost deafening, my heart was pounding in my ears, my thoughts were screaming at me, trying to demand I speak up.
“Then don’t say it. I’m curious, I admit, but I don’t want you to be forced into something you’re not ready for. Goodness knows, Terra’s done more than enough of that to both of us.” Master stood up and stretched, the tent fully folded and packed away. I could tell from his tone that he was in a pretty bad mood, and it felt like it was more than just the business with the truth potion… Something was weighing on his mind.
“‘Terra’s done more than enough of that’?” I trotted along at his side as we started moving down the path again, catching up with the others.
“Nothing, don’t worry about it. Especially not with the others to hear. I don’t think they’d take well to hearing much about Earth.” Master didn’t even look in my direction. And we were now with the others, so I didn’t want to press. Especially since he was being nice about my “secret”. That just made me want to tell him even more, but… how could I? Even if it was only him, I couldn’t do that to him.
The group walked in silence. Master was glum, Captain Aesis was grumpy, Lance was bored, and I was just grateful nobody was asking me questions. My thoughts wouldn’t leave me alone, though. I just kept picturing reactions. Would Master laugh if I told him? Would he get angry? Would he say he loved me back? That last one almost felt worse. And the least likely. How could he? We’re different species. I’m an animal. I lay eggs, sired by a snarling beast.
Maybe that’s part of what he meant. I was definitely forced into this form. And the eggs were forced on me. Master was forced to fight. We were forced to kill. Master was forced to learn magic. Seems like everything we do is forced, one way or the other. Even our choices, like joining the Mage’s Guild, were practically forced.
It was almost funny, in a dark way. Being turned into a dragon let me meet someone I could fall in love with. And being turned into a dragon was the reason I could never actually be loved back. If I could cry, I might just have started, but that was another thing taken away from me by Elimaio and this body.
I was startled out of my spiraling thoughts when Captain Aesis stopped. We’d just made it around a bend in the trail, which had gone up into the mountains and put a rock wall to our left. Coming around the corner, however, revealed the mining outpost. Or rather, the ruins of it. Bodies were strewn about, having been torn open and picked over by animals. We stood shocked at the sight before we approached. We couldn’t find signs of anyone.
“How long do you think it’s been…?” Master held back, his eyes refusing to look away, as Captain Aesis knelt down.
“Judging by the smell, it’s been over a week. None of the meat is any good to eat. …I didn’t mean it like that, it’s the truth potion, and instincts.”
“You think of human flesh as ‘meat for eating’?” Captain Aesis angrily muttered.
Even without the potion, I probably would have retorted. “No more than you humans think of me as ‘hide and flesh and bones for crafting and eating’. It’s not fun to have someone looking at you and you can tell they’re thinking of just how much you’d fetch from a butcher shop. Knowing they’re imagining you skinned and parceled and separated.” Maybe I was a little harsher than I should have been. “I don’t usually think ‘food’ when I think of humans, it’s just… meat is meat, to my nose.”
“…That’s right, you… would have understood what we were talking about, back then. Right in front of you. I’m… not used to the idea of a dragon who’s smart like that. I apologize again.” She went back to her inspection of the body, and I couldn’t help but step forward out of curiosity. I was a little surprised by the apology.
“It’s… okay. It was in the past. Can’t change what happened, and I believe you’ll think better of me now, so that’s what’s important. And I’ll try not to think badly of you.” I wanted to leave it at that, but the pressure pushed on my thoughts again. “...I still don’t like you yet. Sorry, truth potion.” Maybe this stuff wasn’t all bad…
“As long as you won’t let it cause a problem, I can live with that, for now. Can you figure out anything else?”
I winced a little at being asked a question, even if it wasn’t intentional. I took a closer look, raising a paw and holding it up to the body. The bones had been gnawed by animals, but there were deeper marks that looked like they’d been there first, and they were big. “Whatever attacked them, I think it was a lot bigger than me. These are claw marks, but they’re massive. I’m not seeing anything that looks like weapons, no arrows left behind. I don’t think it was bandits. Also, they’re scattered. I don’t think they were fighting, or if they were, they tried to run pretty quickly. Yeah, I think it might have been a fight, but after the first couple were killed, the others tried to flee and didn’t get far. …I could be wrong, but that’s all I got.”
Lance nodded, having been looking at another body. He had picked up a piece of wood used to reinforce mining tunnels, and used it to turn the body over, revealing a set of three jagged lines cutting through the unfortunate worker’s back. After the injury, he’d fallen facing upwards, so all the damage from animals eating had left that side mostly intact. “Claws.”
The Captain nodded in return, standing up and sighing. Master was doing his best to not be near the disturbed body and the stench it produced, or at least not be seen gagging. I guess I could understand that, it had to be pretty horrendous, but for some reason my stomach just… didn’t turn from this. Probably an instinct thing. I didn’t want to eat, but I wasn’t about to lose breakfast over it.
We spread out, calling out as we found more bodies. None of them seemed to have valuables taken, tools and weapons lay where they had fallen, and coins were still in pockets. We were definitely dealing with some kind of animal attack. And I really didn’t like the thought.
Captain Aesis came out of the smaller of the two buildings, looking grumpier than usual and shaking her head. “Well, all but one body is accounted for. Seems one managed to escape, though we don’t know if he made it anywhere. I was hoping for a note of some kind in the foreman’s office, but we’re not that lucky.”
Master had been staying at the edges of the area, and I thought maybe he was just trying to stay as far away from the bodies as he could. Maybe that was part of it, but he’d been investigating as well, as he held up a gigantic feather. “I think this might belong to our culprit.”
Lance grimaced, and Captain Aesis’s face turned even darker. “I was hoping I was wrong, but I guess that settles it. Gryphon. They’re usually not in this area, so I’d been hoping I was wrong after seeing the carnage, but…”
“Huh. I’ve… never actually seen one before. The Mage’s Guild didn’t have one, and… there aren’t any where I’m from.” Master stared at the feather in his hand, as if it would give him any clues.
“They’re not fun to fight. I’ve never had to, but I’ve seen them feed. Between their talons and their beak, I’d rather take my chances with Princess. They’re… larger than a horse. Sometimes a noble gets the idea that he’s going to have one captured and ride it around, but they don’t take well to a saddle. So they usually end up kept in a cage and fed goats, an impressive beast to look at, but near impossible to train.” Lance leaned against the wall of the larger building. Both seemed to have been set up fairly quickly, probably when the miners first arrived. I guessed if one was the office, the other was probably something like a barracks.
“Of course, they tend to say the same thing about dragons… Nearly impossible to train.” Captain Aesis gave me a pointed look. I simply stuck my tongue out at her.
“Well, in any case, how do you want to proceed? I figure at a minimum, we should work on giving these poor souls a proper burial.” Master looked towards the bodies. I think he just wanted them gone so he didn’t have to think about them. Then again, if magic and souls are real things, that could be a valid concern.
“It’ll be hard work. Unless… You don’t happen to have some kind of spell that could dig graves?” The Captain raised an eyebrow at Master.
“Well, it’s not exactly what I had in mind when I studied it, but I think I could do something. I wasn’t sure if we’d face some kind of cave-in or rock slide, so I took the time to prepare something for moving rock and dirt.”
After they picked out an area, Master used a stick to draw the outlines of graves. Chalk didn’t really work for dirt, however, so that meant the process of casting was slower and harder. One by one, Master magically lifted a chunk of earth and set it aside, having to rest between each one to recover his strength. While he was resting, the others would get the bodies into the hole, using shovels left behind to cover them back up again. It was grim work, and tiring for everyone, but we were able to get all the bodies buried before sundown.
Rather than camp, though, we just made use of the existing buildings. The barracks had a kitchen area inside, and it felt a little morbid, but it’s not like anyone else was going to be using them. There had been little conversation while working, but now that we were relaxing a little, the atmosphere lightened a little.
“Well, I’d say we solved the mystery. Do we head back in the morning, then?” Master had piled his plate extra high, before setting it aside and fixing a plate for me. My tail wagged expectantly as I watched.
“I don’t know… We haven’t determined if the gryphon is truly gone or not. I’d like to check out the area tomorrow.” The Captain sat at the small table with her meal. The room was split roughly in half, with beds on one side, and the other half had something like closets or lockers for each worker, a pair of tables with chairs, and the kitchen area. We were even able to find some of the preserved foodstuffs to use to cook the meal instead of what we brought with us, so we had a nice treat of dried fruit for dessert. Well, the others did, anyway.
“Of course you would.” Lance waited for his turn to fix a plate, leaning against the wall.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I figured you would jump at the chance to claim a bounty.” Captain Aesis scoffed at the mercenary.
“A bounty is fine, but tangling with a gryphon… I don’t mind letting a larger group handle this one, I’m not hurting for coin.”
“Really? Finally something you’re not bragging about?”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong, if it comes down to it, I’ll probably survive. I just hope the rest of you do as well. You don’t get to where I am without acknowledging that there are things you don’t want to fight.” If Lance was upset, he didn’t show it.
“I hate to say it, but I don’t have the best track record for combat. The last fight I was in, I was nearly killed right away. Luckily, the others took care of the bandits, and Lance was able to administer a healing potion that Princess was carrying.” Master set my plate on the table and arranged a chair in front of it, before sitting down himself.
“Master? Why’s my plate up there?” It was hard to fight the habit to keep quiet around others, but there wasn’t a point. And I know he didn’t forget, so he had a reason, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Eat at the table tonight, Princess. You’ve had a heck of a day, and I’m tired of you being treated like a common beast. Including by me.” I blushed deeply, and thought about arguing, but decided against it. The pressure on my thoughts was so faint it was barely there, and the experience left me with a pretty painful headache. So I complied, perching in the chair and sitting at the table, getting a raised eyebrow from Captain Aesis, but Lance was too busy getting food.
“Hm… Mage Tola, you had said you wouldn’t have studied magic if not for Elimaio. If you hadn’t been studying magic beforehand, don’t you have any training in fighting to fall back on?” The Captain asked between bites of her meal, probably trying her best to look as refined and civilized as she could. Her eyes barely left me as I did my best to eat daintily. Thankfully, Master had already cut my food into small pieces, so I didn’t have to try to tear anything with my teeth or claws. I could just eat piece by piece without making a mess.
“Ah, no, I wasn’t… trained in combat, before. There’s not really a lot of call for it back home, outside the military, and I… That’s not a career for me. There, or here.”
“Then what did you train in? You had to have apprenticed yourself somewhere, didn’t you?” Lance sat down, barely waiting to dig in heartily.
“Oh, ah… I… worked at a library. The others were all friends, though, so I was forever the odd man out.” Master poked idly at his food, seemingly lost in thought.
“Hah, that seems like you, all right! Lots of those ‘donuts’ there?”
“What’s a ‘donut’?” The Captain looked at Lance.
“I have no idea. But they’re worth fighting over, apparently. I’m sure our friend won his fair share of battles for them.”
“No, I didn’t– We don’t really fight, not with fists. It’s, well, we just don’t. It’s illegal, in most cases. If you actually do throw a punch, pretty much everyone will look down at you. Do it at work, and you’ll be fired immediately.”
“‘Donuts’, ‘fired’, punching is illegal… How far away are you from your homeland?” The Captain stared at Master, though I couldn’t tell if it was a suspicious look, or if she was trying to be sympathetic but it was filtered through her resting grump face.
“I’m… pretty far. I don’t even know how I got here, so I couldn’t really tell you.” Master sighed heavily, his food still mostly untouched.
“Ah, well, don’t worry about that, friend! Say, what was it like at the Mage’s Guild? We parted ways when we arrived, I want to hear about how you got them to join on the spot!” Lance was clearly trying to distract him from gloomier thoughts. It seemed to work, though, as Master smiled softly and started to talk.
He told the story of the animal keeper that stole my scale, of being interviewed by the different professors, how each one had tried to make it look like they were just having friendly conversation. He told about meeting Roffil. And he talked about Professor Dweli, who Lance met briefly just yesterday.
“That’s a tale all right. One thing that bothers me, though… You said the keeper had a ‘British’ accent…?” Lance raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you know? Someone from England? I meant to comment, but the warehouse manager back in Winselton had one too.”
“Ugh, don’t tell me you’re one of those crazy people that thinks England exists!” Captain Aesis rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
“Ah… what.” Master was caught completely off guard. I was too.
“Next you’re going to say you think you know where it is. Nobody’s ever been able to find it, it’s a myth!”
“A… myth. England. I mean… I don’t… know where it is, no, but… You’ve… heard of it?” Master looked at me briefly before looking back at them.
Lance gave Master a concerned look. “You know enough about England to know the name, but not that it’s a myth? Used to be, you’d get folk that claimed to have been there, or come from there, but whenever they tried to lead people back, there wasn’t anything there. Or they’d try to point out where it was on a map, but they’d point to a town we already know. And it wouldn’t be the same area. So either England is some strange secret kingdom that moves around, or people were making it up for attention. Seriously, how is this news to you?”
“I’ve, ah, only… heard the name mentioned. In books. They described the way of speaking, and that’s what I recognized. I didn’t know it was supposed to actually… be a place.” Master chewed his last piece of food, the others having finished some time ago while he was talking. Myself, I was glad the truth potion had worn off, or else it would have been a lot harder to keep quiet.
“Well, fair enough. Just goes to show you, books aren’t everything, even for a mage.” Lance and the Captain shared a chuckle at that.
After a bit of awkward silence, I nosed Master’s arm. “I think I should go outside.”
“Ah, sure, yeah.” He stood up and I jumped down from the chair, and we went to the door. He opened it and I stepped outside, but he didn’t follow me, so I gestured with my head. He got the idea and came with me, and we went to the edge of the tree line.
“What was that about? That talk of England? You’d think we were talking about Atlantis!” I looked back at the building.
“Yeah. I mean, you heard the accents, too. Right?” Master leaned against a tree, not watching me since I ostensibly was out here for privacy.
“Yeah! But… Huh. I don’t think we’re the first ones to cross over like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, apparently, people from England made it here some time ago. I wonder if it was through storms like we did, that left them stranded. Of course they aren’t going to find it again just traveling. They can retrace their steps to where the storm dropped them off, but that’s not how they get home.”
“…Huh. Yeah. And if the storms were to drop them off in different spots, they’d be leading people different directions.”
“Yeah. …I think we’ve got something to look into, next time we’re at a library.”
“Maybe. You heard that reaction, though. We’ll have to be careful how we ask.”
“True. But we could… Well, you could make it look like you’re doing research on the rumors, on the legends? You could say you have a theory, but refuse to give details?”
“Maybe.” He was still leaning against the tree, lost in thought and staring into the sky.
“…But, uh, I actually do have to go, so… Could you… step away a little?” I blushed deeply. I was usually out on my own when I took care of things, after all.
“Oh, right, sorry. I’ll just… be over there.” He moved away and picked a different tree, and I dug a hole to make use of. Once I was finished, I buried it again, and padded over to Master to let him know we could go back inside.
Back inside, Captain Aesis and Lance had already been preparing their beds, so Master and I picked one out. It was smaller than ours back home, so I just curled up on the floor instead. Sleep took a while, there was a lot for us to think about. If we could find information, would it be possible to cross back to Earth again? I found myself… dreading that idea. Master had been saying “back home” a lot the last couple days, but… For me, home was our Tower. Terra was home now, but did Master feel the same way? If he did want to return, could I convince him to stay? Should I even try? And how could I ever tell him my feelings, either way? I thought for sure I’d still be awake when the sun rose, but at some point, I was able to fall asleep.