Kin sensitive: Elder dragon detected nearby

The notification flashed a moment, remaining illuminated in my field of view. I felt a deep primal fear in my gut and opened my mouth, stammering for several moments before the word came out. "Dragon."

Octavia turned back to me. "What?"

"There's an elder dragon nearby. I can feel its presence."

A flash. Half a second later, a resounding peal of thunder.

"I can sense dragons," I said. "And I think the dragon brought the storm with it."

"Can you talk to it?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"Is it friendly toward you?"

"I don't know," I said. "I just know there's an elder dragon nearby."

I heard a crack that I first mistook for the sound of thunder, but which I realized was the snap of something else. Octavia and I huddled in the lower tunnel, and watched as fragments of her tattered web fell from above, carried by a strong breeze. Moments later, a rush of sand rained down from the upper tunnel. Octavia both and I took several steps back without saying anything.

The sound of wind filled the chasm, and I had to raise my voice to be heard "Your web barrier is breached."

"The wind is too strong," she said, as debris continued to rain down from the entrance tunnel.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know," she said. "Let's wait for the storm to die down."

More sand and dust swept through the central chasm, and enough of it filtered down to the lower tunnel that I had to back up, retreating deeper into the tunnel to avoid breathing it in. I had already seen a hyena die from suffocation; I wasn't about to fall victim to the same fate.

I heard another crack, and I eyed the lingering [kin sensitive] notification in my field of view. "I'm not sure if this storm is going to just die down," I said. "And I'm not sure this is a storm wind. That crack sounded like the snap of wings."

"If the dragon brought the wind, then we wait for the dragon to leave," she said.

"We're not going to consider parley?" I asked, raising my voice as the sound of the wind intensified. "It might be friendly, like you and me."

The sharp whine of wind whipped through the upper tunnel, carrying with it the sound of grains of sand striking against rock. The tak tak tak of striking sand was one of the few things audible over the sound of the wind.

Octavia retreated further into the Pebbleway tunnel. "It doesn't seem friendly to me," she said. "There are lots of ways to say 'I come in peace.' Tearing down someone's front door generally isn't one of them."

Octavia was right: the dragon, whatever its intentions, had brought destruction and danger with it. Even if its destruction of Octavia's webs hadn't been intentional, it certainly didn't bode well: a creature that was unintentionally deadly was still a threat. In fact, a creature that didn't understand the full ramifications of its own strength could be even deadlier.

But the age implied by the 'elder dragon' title suggested to me that wasn't the case. This dragon had been alive long enough to know exactly what it was doing, and just how mortal a baby dragon like me might be. Another shrieking gust filled the upper tunnel.

"If I can sense it, then it can probably sense me," I said. "And if I know it's an elder dragon, then there's a good chance it knows I'm a baby dragon."

"So," said Octavia. "Are you suggesting that it might be a parent of yours? Is that why it came to this spot?"

"Maybe I'm assuming, but this doesn't seem like the behavior of a dragon that's come to try and care for a newly-hatched baby."

"Agreed," she said. Another loud crack, followed several seconds later by more dust falling from the tunnel above. In the tunnel above, I could hear the sound of sand blasting against rock. The whine of the wind intensified into a monstrous howl. Octavia flinched as the barrage of sand continued, the impact of sand and small rocks echoing against the walls of the tunnel.

I looked at Octavia, who seemed to be quivering in place. I looked to her, hoping for a plan, and she looked back at me.

"What do you think the dragon wants?" she asked.

"If we're still assuming it knows I'm here," I said, "and we're assuming its intentions aren't friendly, then maybe it's here to defeat me. I can't imagine it wanting to ignore me. Either I'm worth befriending, or I'm a potential rival, and this is an easy time to deal with me."

"Are those the only options?"

"No," I said. "Maybe…maybe it's more like a force of nature, no different from the storm that travels with it. Maybe a baby dragon is beneath its notice. That's not likely, but—"

Another crack above, followed by another crack, and another. The sound grew rhythmic, like the beating of wings. I felt my body vibrating in time with the wingbeats, as if it was enough to shake the ground itself. The wind howled through the upper tunnel with renewed intensity, and the patter of sand against rock became incessant, with torrents of dust pouring in from above.

"This could get worse before it gets better," I said. "Do we want to wait it out here?"

"What?" she cried.

I could barely hear her, and began shouting to make myself heard, even though we were only inches apart. "Going up isn't an option," I said. "Not until things calm down, at least. Do we want to wait here, in this tunnel? If we want to get to one of the lower tunnels, we should move before things get worse."

"I agree," she said. With great reluctance, she started moving toward the central chasm, where a steady and slow rain of dust was cascading downward.

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"It can't hurt us," I said. At least, I hoped it couldn't. The sand that filled the air wasn't carried directly by the outdoor tempest; it had bounced its way through the upper tunnel before making its way to the central chasm. The hard tack tack tack of sand blasting against rock was closer to the entrance.

"Where?" I asked. "Which tunnel?"

Octavia called back. "The Shimmering Vault."

I followed her and entered the central chasm and began climbing lower. Within seconds, we were both blanketed by dust, and I had to close my eyes as shook my head, shaking the sand off me. I felt it enter my nose, and I closed my mouth, trying to avoid breathing it in. With the sand constantly blanketing my face, the low-light conditions of the chasm had effectively become no-light conditions, and I clung to the wall, trying to feel my way down by muscle memory.

I made my way to the part of the tunnel that I thought overhung the Shimmering Vault tunnel, but I couldn't see. I climbed lower and lower, hoping that my rear legs would find the entrance, but the entrance eluded me. I tried to open my eyes, squinting against the dust, but saw nothing but haze as it stung my eyes.

I climbed lower, at this point not even sure if I was getting closer to the Vault, or further from it. I felt something grab my rear legs, and realized I had hit web, stretched across the length of the chasm, just like the one that had caught me the first time I had fallen into the cave. Did that mean I had gone too far? There were multiple layers of web, some above the Vault and some below. I kept climbing, giving up on finding the Vault tunnel, and just resolving to pull myself into whatever tunnel I could find.

I called out, and heard nothing in reply. The din of the tempest filled my ears. If Octavia had heard me, I couldn't hear any reply. I kept climbing, this time changing to lateral movement, desperate to find any place to hang onto, until I reached a point where I couldn't find a foothold for my rear legs. I had gone so far I'd reached the smooth part of the tunnel, where the walls were too weathered for me to climb. I frantically climbed upward, but lost my grip and felt myself falling for a brief moment until the web caught me.

A moment later, I felt myself being lifted, and my body went rigid as Octavia hefted me into one of the lower tunnels, carrying me deeper and further into the tunnel until we were far enough from the central chasm that I could hear her voice over the din of the tempest. Now that we were away from the dust storm, I was finally able to open my eyes and see her staring back at me in the illumination of a tiny shard of glowstone that poked through the rock.

"You got lost," she said. "We're nowhere near the Shimmering Vault."

"I know," I said. "I couldn't find it. I was just trying to find any tunnel I could. Where are we?"

"This is the tunnel that leads to the Shimmergrove," she said.

"Maybe we should stay here," I said. "If worse comes to worst, the Shimmergrove can be our exit strategy."

"I had a similar thought," she said. "But it seems safe enough down here. Let's wait it out."

Octavia and I huddled in the lower tunnel as the tempest continued to rage above. After several minutes, Octavia asked, "How long do you think it will last?"

"How would I know?"

"It's a dragon. You're a dragon."

"I'm a wingless baby dragon. It's an elder dragon." I laughed ruefully. "Elder dragon. How old do you think that is? Centuries? Millennia? An hour might not be a very long time for a creature of that age. A day might not be a long time, either."

"So?"

"So, I'm wondering if we might be waiting a very long time for this to let up," I said. "But if it keeps beating its wings, that has to take energy. Where do you suppose a dragon could get all that energy?"

"Magic?"

I blinked. "Oh. I hadn't considered that possibility. I was thinking about calories, and how much livestock it would take to feed a dragon, but…maybe it has a magical energy source of some kind. Maybe it can draw power from…I don't know, the elements. Or…" I pointed to the glowstone. "Something like this. A concentrated energy source. In fact, maybe this glowstone is what it came for."

"You think dragons eat glowstone?" Octavia said.

"We know that glowstone contains a lot of energy, right?" I said. "If it can emit light — that's radiant energy — for years or even decades, then that's a lot of stored potential energy. I have no idea if a dragon would eat this, but it makes more sense than it coming here to hunt hyenas and turtles."

"I thought our working theory was that it came here because of you," she said.

"Maybe. I don't know."

Half an hour passed. The tempest seemed to lower in intensity, with the pitter-patter of dust hitting the floor of the central chasm growing less frequent, but neither I nor Octavia made any move to return to the central chasm.

I turned to Octavia. "Are we still assuming the elder dragon is hostile?"

"Yes," she said. "Why? Do you have reason to suspect otherwise? Some special dragon-sense?"

"It just seems to be sitting out there, waiting for something," I said. "Maybe it's waiting for me to approach it."

"So it can slay you and devour you?"

"Or to adopt me as its mentee, or just to have a conversation," I said.

"Are you willing to gamble your life on that?"

"No," I said.

After what must have been an hour, I noticed something changing in my field of view. The [kin sensitive] notification, which had been lingering and constantly illuminated for the duration of the tempest, flickered off.

"I think it might be leaving," I said.

"Doesn't sound like it."

"It's no longer nearby," I said. "We could both see and hear the storm even when it was outside my detection radius. If it's leaving, it'll be awhile before it's far enough away for the storm to dissipate."

"I think we should stay down here and wait it out," she said.

"That was my thinking as well," I said. "Unless you want to—

Kin sensitive: Elder dragon detected nearby

The notification blinked back on. "Hold on," I said. "I think it's coming back."

A moment later, the notification blinked off again, then back on.

Kin sensitive: Elder dragon detected nearby

"It keeps going and coming," said. "Maybe it's circling the area, looking for something." Then, a realization struck me. "It's looking for me."

"How do you know that?" she said.

"It's hovering right around the edge of my detection radius," I said. "And if its detection radius is the same as mine, then by moving around and seeing when I'm detected, it can triangulate my position. I—"

I was interrupted by a thunderous roar. This was nothing like the roar of the wind — it was a primal, guttural groan that shook the walls of the cave and sent chills through my body. I felt my heart begin to pound. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Then, I heard a crash, something like the sound of steel smashing stone as the ground shook all around us.

"It knows where I am," I said.

"And it's trying to get in," she said.

I heard the sound of rock cracking above. Octavia and I both made eye contact for the briefest of moments before we began hurrying down the tunnel, toward the Shimmergrove. She quickly removed the web "doors" that separated her lair's tunnel from the Shimmergrove, taking the briefest of moments to raise them back up behind us. As she did so, I heard the crash of rock crashing against rock above us, and the ground below us shook. We fled downward, along the spiraling path to the Shimmergrove floor. For the briefest of moments, I was reminded that this was the place I had encountered the assassin bug that had nearly taken my life, but the possibility of an insect attack seemed like the least consequential thing in the world right now.

We continued down the spiraling Shimmergrove path, away from the tunnels of Octavia's lair — or what remained of it — not exchanging any words as we pressed onward. After several minutes of fleeing, the [Kin sensitive] notification in my field of view blinked off.

"I think we may have escaped it," I said. "It's no longer close enough to detect me."

"And?" she said.

"If I'm at the very edge of its detection radius, it could still close the gap. If it's in the skies, it might re-enter detection radius when it lands."

"Then let's go," she said.

"Go where?" I asked.

"Anywhere but here." We raced down the spiraling path to the Shimmergrove.