- Interlude -

Borealis typed rapidly onto a hovering screen. He had given himself seven days in Aldermere to collect data on the red drake’s progress.

“Fascinating. It is developing quickly. And so are the children.” He said to himself.

Borealis hovered over the small shed the children had been keeping the red drake penned in. It would soon out grow it.

“A true scientist thrives on data. I knew something interesting would happen with that soul!” He said and plucked lightly on the strings of fate around him.

They stretched away from the children and the monster towards a fixed point on the southern horizon. Two of the strings that started in town drew together and then shifted towards his location.

“Dyler what are we going to do?” Kiritus asked. “They posted a quest at the general store. Charley is in trouble.”

“They don’t know anything. Charley is going to be fine. They think it’s some large horned rabbits. We have been careful, nobody has seen Charley.”

The two children had turned off the road and down the alley to the shed while they were talking. They were both armed with light leather chest pieces and bracers on their arms.

“They are becoming adventurers, could this be Drew’s influence?” Borealis noted. “And now the Drake is waking up.”

Charley banged her shoulder against the door of the shed, rattling the frame. She could hear her friend and master coming and that meant food and the end of her boredom.

“Now we will see how much she has grown.” Borealis squealed excitedly.

“Whao! Whao! Girl! Wait!” Dyler shouted as he ran over to open the shed.

“Charley wait!” Kiritus cried.

Charley burst out as the boy opened the door. She pounced on Kiritus, knocking her to the ground. The drake growled happily deep in her throat. Smoke trickled out as her heart fire stirred in anticipation. The young half elf laughed and scratched the Drake behind her jaw and atop her brow.

“Down! Down Girl!” Dyler commanded, but the Drake did not hear or did not listen.

Still will not accept commands from the boy. Only her bonded familiar.

“Subject is still ignoring the male.” Borealis noted. “He has likely not yet developed an affinity for the animal.”

“Enough Charley!” Kiritus laughed and pushed the Drake off. “You are getting so big! I need to grow taller or you will squish me with your hugs!”

“You are covered in mud.” Dyler grouched.

“Biscuits! It’s in my hair too!” She swore sweetly.

Kiritus took out a rag and tried to scrape off the mud while the boy laughed.

Charley roughed up the boy with her wide shout. She sniffed around in all of his pockets, looking for a snack.

“Hey! Hey! Down!” Dyler said. He produced a Mishroom biscuit and held it over his head. The drake sat expectantly, but rolled her eyes at the boy after a second.

“Good girl!” Dyler said and tossed the treat so the monster could snap it up out of the air with her large power jaws. “Alright, let’s get going. We have to cover a lot of ground today.”

Dyler brought out a braided leather leash and tied it around the drake’s neck. It waited impatiently for the boy to tie the knot.

“Don’t tie it too tight this time.” Kiritus said.

“You tie it too loose. She slipped out last time.” Dyler said.

The kids slunk off to the East gate. They took back alleys and crossed through small personal gardens.

Outside of this side of town, the road led off to the farmland and rarely saw any monster attacks. At this time of day the gate was un-guarded. A guard patrol would pass by this way twice an hour.

The children let themselves out through the gate like the had a dozen times already. They closed it behind themselves. They moved quickly, keeping close to the wall as they navigated clockwise to the south.

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They struck out into the forest before they reached the southern gate. Borealis trailed behind them, floating through the dense canopy of branches invisibly.

The trio stopped after a minute so Dyler could untie the leash from around Charley’s neck. He stashed it in his small bag at his belt and checked his rapier and small wooden banded buckler.

“I don’t think anyone saw us.” Kiritus said and strung up her bow.

“Alright, girl. Find us some monsters to hunt.” Dyler said.

“Don’t forget that we have that flier to pick those Kerry Roots.” Kiritus said.

The two children padded along quickly to keep up with the Drake.

“We should kill some horned rabbits, then they will take down that flier.” Dyler said.

“We should get the others before we go after large horned rabbits.” Kiritus replied.

“Yeah yeah.” Dyler said, as the Drake caught the scent of something deeper in the woods. “Hey! She’s found something!”

Borealis checked their fates by plucking their threads.

“They will face no serious danger today.” He noted in his logs. “But there are no safe ways to grow stronger in this world.”

Borealis would have immediately traveled south a week ago but the character of their strings of fate were strange. He noticed when he first arrived that they were thicker than usual for such weak creatures. And their texture intrigued the wisp. He followed them into the woods with their friends a few times to collect data on them.

“They have been strongly influenced by some outside force. Just like the red Drake.” Borealis said. “Fascinating.”

Borealis watched them as they tracked a couple small spidermelons through the forest. The kids were cautious and protected each other’s blind spots.

They move like elven soldiers, the boy even wields a rapier.

“With the Drake leading them, they can avoid stumbling into any ambushes.” The wisp said.

Charley froze and bared her teeth.

Dyler whispered to Kiritus wordlessly and made a sharp hand gesture.

“What’s the point of that?” Kiritus asked quietly.

“It’s a stealthy signal. Charley found something just ahead.” Dyler whispered back.

“I know! I saw her freeze up just like you did. Idiot.” She whispered.

“Just get ready.” He said and crept forwards to get a look at what Charley had found.

Two mid level spidermelons.

The wisp floated even farther forward, confident his invisibility would hide him as he floated above the fight.

After a moment of planning the two children got into position.

Kiritus stood up from behind some bushes she had used for cover. She had a clear view of the spidermelons. The two monsters were sprawled out in the sun near the middle of a small clearing.

This is a good spot to hunt Spidermelons. Plenty of sunlight, and flowers and herbs for the spidermelons to eat. They come in pairs so one can stand watch, but these two have both gotten distracted.

Kiritus took aim and Sniped the furthest monster. Her skill increased the chance of a critical hit and had a 30 second cooldown.

The two monsters turned towards the archer and that’s when the Drake rushed them from behind. Charley roared and pounced on the injured monster.

Dyler charged in with his rapier and buckler to engage the second spidermelon before it could turn on the Drake.

The fight was over in a minute. Kiritus took a shot or two before her Snipe skill came off cooldown. Dyler kept his opponent occupied. He dodged and parried the whip like vines. He lunged in and scored a few hits before Kiritus’s second Snipe killed the monster.

Charley needed no help tearing apart the lower level monster on her own. The monster wrapped a vine around her hind leg, but it was not strong enough to pull her off balance. With a grin, Charley chomped down on its armored body and drew out sweet juicy blood.

The drake seems to have skill beyond her rank. I was right to grab her soul before it could wander off.

“Alright! We won!” Dyler cheered as the second monster fell.

The boy turned to check for Kiritus but he could not spot her. Then her hand popped up from the bushes and made a series of random gestures.

“What is that?” Dyler asked and Kiritus laughed.

She walked out of the bushes laughing and wiping tears from her eyes.

“Your face.” She laughed. “Did you get my signals? Last. Monster. Down. We. Safe.”

“Ha ha ha. Real funny.” The boy said blushing. “Just you watch the stealth signals will come in handy some day.”

“Ha! Handy! Get it? I bet they will.” She laughed some more at the unintentional pun.

“That was not on purpose!” Dyler said, stifling a chuckle.

The boy turned his back on the girl and started butchering the monster with his gathering knife.

“Charley are you okay girl?” Kiritus purred over the Drake to check her few small lacerations. “Oh Dyler she’s hurt!”

Dyler looked up from the carcass for a moment but chuckled. “The girl is fine. Aren’t you!” He said and chucked her a raw chunk of meat the spidermellon meat.

Charley caught the scrap easily and seared it in the back of her throat before chewing it happily.

“Aww that’s a good girl.” Kiritus purred again and scratched the Drake behind the ears.

“Hey, keep a look out!” Dyler said. “You baby her too much anyways.”

Kiritus scoffed, but readied an arrow and scanned the forest around them for threats.

“I do not baby her!” Kiritus said.

Charley also took a lap around the small clearing they had found the two monsters in.

“You really do. Sometimes I think you forget she’s a Drake, a red Drake! Not a horned rabbit or something small.” He said.

“I know she’s a Drake!” Kiritus said. “I’m the one that’s been buying all those mishrooms for her. Horned rabbits don’t eat like that.”

The boy focused on butchering what remained of the second monster.

“I’m just glad she’s on our side. Look at the damage she did to this monster.” He said.

When she didn’t find any scent of danger Charley trotted back to Kiritus’s side and laid down with her scaled hip against the girl’s leg.

“Someday she will be big enough for me to ride.” Kiritus said proudly.

“Ha! Someday she will be as big as a house! She will be big enough for all of us to ride her.” Dyler said. “Maybe we could build a platform…”

He’s got the right idea, red drakes make excellent pack animals once they are tamed.

“You are not going to put a platform on her! She’s our friend!”

The drake perked up at Kiritus shouting and looked between the two children

“A cart then.” He said off handily as he cleaned his knife. “Alright let’s go. I’m all done here.”