There is only one thing that makes Drenar scared in the entire universe. And it's usually preceded by Julia saying ‘I have an idea'.
Eight out of the top ten most disastrous moments in his life had happened right after she uttered those words. This occurs again to him when he gets on a video call with her and Evan on Saturday, and she appears slightly exhausted and excited. “Uh, did you sleep, Julia?” he asks anxiously, and Evan looks equally disturbed. Julia simply grins and wipes an errant hair out of her face.
“Sleep? Nah! There was science to do! Also I have questions for Evan as a matter of perspective, we were a little rushed last night. So, who wants to hear what I found out?”
“Uh, I guess? What did you check out?” Drenar waits with bated breath. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly.
“I was able to take the feather that fell out of your scalp and run some basic tests. It's incredibly light. The density is surprisingly low, even with the scale portion. And even better, it's fire-resistant!”
“You lit it. On fire. Tell me the destructive test wasn't the first thing you tried!” Drenar scolds her.
“Oh no, I tried other things first. I was able to get some filings using a metal file….it took some work, but it's not indestructible. It just takes a ton of effort. I also did a hardness check and a bunch of other things. It’s strange why my mom has a miniature laboratory in this house, and stuff to check physical properties–nerd habits die hard.
"Anyway, I checked the hardness of the scale portion with a press and…the hardness is almost up to a low carbon steel, HRC 20-30 range. It was hard to convert it because that scale is useful for harder materials, otherwise, results get muddled–"
“So, literal bio-organic steel?” Drenar says to cut to the chase. She nods.
“Oh get this, it gets wild. Amaranth never noted a few things. I ran a loop of a nine-volt battery and it did conduct the electricity like I thought. But oh man, this is gonna get whacky,” she says with a wild smile. “An electric current increases the hardness of the scales. I couldn’t even damage it, the hardness bit I used snapped, because I was trying to use so much force!”
Drenar is mildly stunned. “You’re telling me that my scales can harden to near-indestructible levels by running a current across them?! Oh, this is–I don’t have words for what kind of incredible scientific discovery this is. And you did this with just a nine-volt?” She’s grinning like she won a martial arts championship, and is practically bouncing. It’s amazing and even he can’t stop smiling. “But uh, wouldn’t this hurt me? I don’t feel like lugging a car battery around every time someone wants to, you know, hurt me.”
“Maridians generate their bioelectric currents in short bursts. They’re just wired different, if you’ll forgive the pun! This is a reactive defense, assuming you figure out how to generate yours!”
“We have nine-volt batteries–” Evan starts to suggest with a smirk, but he smacks his shoulder. “What, it has to be done! In the name of science!”
“I’m not sticking a damn nine-volt battery on my tongue in the name of science, you hooligans!” he says sternly. “Okay, so this is incredible. What else did Amaranth's book say?”
“Your scales are highly resistant to acids. A little more susceptible to caustics. I diluted a little hydrochloric acid and tested it. Nothing. Nada. almost no reaction. The steel industry would kill to have a corrosion-resistant alloy like this!” she cackles. “I haven’t been able to test everything because some stuff is, you know, toxic. Making a death cloud in my house without a proper lab is a super bad idea.”
“At least you know it’s a bad idea,” Drenar sighs as he runs his fingers through his hair gently. “Okay, what about the feather itself?”
“Fire resistant. I tested a burner and dialed the temperature up until I saw a coloration change, then stopped. I guess it makes sense, you don’t want to catch on fire if another dragon is shooting a flame breath at you,” she adds before wrinkling her nose. “Guess who’s my fire shield until I Awaken?”
“Thrilled. Really,” he sighs while grabbing the coffee cup off his desk and taking a sip. “Is your mom aware of what you’re doing?”
“Ah, no, I’ve been doing this on the quiet, you could say. I really should um…get some sleep sometime soon, because I think I just felt my brain about to crash,” she sighs and plays with her hair for the fourth time. She is utterly exhausted, he thinks silently.
“Julia, get some rest, please–”
“I will, but you two need to bring me up to speed. Do we have wizard police, or not?” Evan leans into the field of the camera.
“It’s a whole government. They call it the Conclave of the Arcane. It’s been around for a few thousand years, Rick has told me the barest details, only because so many people are Awakening. He says it’s bad. And normal people might notice at some point, and that’s going to cause real fundamental problems soon. There are like fifty million mages and Kin on the planet, maybe more. It’s hard to get a proper census for this kind of thing. Not so many dragons, but enough that you see them."
“Yes, because secret mage societies like to stay, you know, secret,” Julia says with a grumble. “What else does Rick know?” Evan throws up his hands in frustration.
“He’s managing me on a need-to-know basis! Whatever is going on with us, is symptomatic with something bigger going on. I asked him about the drakensouls last night over a secure call, and he just gave me this weird-ass look, like I’m not even supposed to mention it. He said that the dragons almost collectively wiped themselves out several hundred years ago. Some kind of magical experiment gone horribly wrong. Getting info out of him is super frustrating. Like, shouldn’t mages know all things dragon?! No, of course not!” Drenar glances at Evan with caution.
“Okay, but who are the wizard police, and how do we contact them?”
“That part he explained a bit. They're called SAF, or the Sorcerous Armed Forces, and they typically handle enforcement of mage law. Most of the time, people keep under the radar and don’t make waves. They have a sub-group to help assist newbies like us, but they’ve been overwhelmed. And no one knows why.”
“I’m starting to think we need to find Amaranth, big-time,” Drenar states calmly. “Julia, it sounds like I’ll be the toughest for Jonaleth to take out when I awaken, your abilities sound pretty stellar so far…plasma manipulation, energy projectiles, and plasma tethers that…kinda sound like weird science?”
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to replicate the efforts. Sadly because I’m exhausted, it hasn’t worked. This is sporadic at best, we’re not fully dragon yet,” she explained. “This transition sucks.”
“It sounds like we need to continue to lay low. We also need to figure out who the Talons are and who else Jonaleth is working with. If we gotta square off against that thug, I want to know what odds we’re up against. At least we have some warning.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“The Talons are some old mage organization. Bunch of insurrectionists and terrorists,” Evan explains. “They’ve been a nuisance in the mage world for hundreds of years, but they’ve been small-time, or so Rick was telling me. Now even he’s getting a little scared. I’ll drill him for more info, and see if we can pool resources with other people.” Drenar rubs at the scales just beneath his sleeve, they’ve spread again because they’re itching. Bio-organic armor plating sounds like a novelty he’s going to use to every advantage he can get.
“Good. I’ll see you guys tonight, just try to keep a low profile.” She clicks off the call and it feels like a hundred years have passed. He exhales in a meditative way, trying to will the anxiety away.
This is just snowballing out of control. “Mom had to know something. Damn it. That is pissing me off something fierce. It's as of she couldn’t trust that we’d be able to keep it a secret, if she’d told us back then.”
“Drenar, Maridian silvers are supposed to be near-unkillable…so how did a car wreck kill her?” Evan asks in a question he’s been dreading. He taps his wristwatch slowly, trying to get a single good theory.
“Dragon or not, she was human when she was in the car. Just not as tough in our human form?” he suggests.
Evan doesn’t look like he buys that theory. And he grimly thinks it’s not a very good one to start with, either. “Drenar, I think something really bad happened, and people are lying to us about it.”
He doesn’t respond. He doesn’t have to for Evan to know that the doubt is lingering in his head, too.
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The rest of the weekend is far less productive than Drenar planned. Between trying to maintain the ‘everything is normal’ facade and entertaining others with tabletop gaming in the evening, Julia had barely more time than to hand him the bestiary book. “Just be careful with this. We don’t know who else might know it for what it is, and get ideas about what we’re up to,” she whispered before she headed out later, as everyone was gathering to depart.
They’d had even less time to combine knowledge. Drenar had hit every search engine, looking for hints and clues. Nothing even remotely came close.
Sunday was spent getting up to speed. Julia had earmarked the dragon species, and added in little scraps of sticky notes. She refused to graffiti the now-priceless tome, and told him to do the same, and save any pictures to his local SD card on his phone. this info going online would be bad news, and likely only complicate their lives further.
And he still had no additional dreams from his mystery visitor. He didn’t know what Alex was just yet, but he had to be something. A wayward soul? What did that even mean, exactly? I’m going to drive myself crazy thinking about this. Focus, Drenar, focus. Solve the problems you do have the pieces to solve for.
The first problem was understanding what dragons were, because almost none of it was lining up with his fantasy knowledge. There were occasional coincidences of truth, but dragons in this world were quite unique in their powers, environments, and secondary abilities. The bestiary was the focus for most of the day, with Evan following along and taking notes.
It surprised him how many unique identifiable species there were, and how separate subspecies could mate and lead to hatchlings with traits from both parent species. He kept coming back to the silver-scaled dragon images, and the next section over, the Azure skimmer. This specimen had extendable fins on their arms and legs for increased maneuvering underwater, and preferred coastal spots. True to the name, they had scales the color of sapphires–and when he thought about it, there were traits from his dreamscape that matched.
The book detailed their coastal cities and underwater retreats, held in place by manipulation of air spheres–magically charged air that required no pressure vessel to maintain. They still had to breathe through their lungs, though they could hold their breath for more than twenty minutes. They also had an incredible elemental plasma ability that could be used to charge arcane devices, and consoles–or fry an unlucky victim with deadly levels of energy.
Everything synched up so far with his interaction with Alex. Their sentience, speech capacity both proved accurate--dragons also had advanced social and technological development, and had mastered mathematics and science well before humans had. They were capable of alchemical reactions in their bodies to power truly incredible abilities like breathing fire, sub-zero pressurized blasts, and–
Drenar pauses at the section for Auran Goldbacks. They are a cousin of sorts to the Maridian silver dragon. Their gold-textured scales are the result of ingestion of trace minerals. They are almost as mercurially quick as silvers and have a truly unique ability to direct an electrically charged plasma, similar to the Azure. Most people would see it and think of a bolt of lightning, but with a few extra nuances. They could also manipulate simple electronics, or arcane consoles–whatever that was.
So, which one is Julia? There are only two dragon species that could fry the microwave in that way. He read back through the two sections–one odd note is that almost all pure Azures have amber eyes, nearly a hundred percent of them. Aurans could have almost any eye color. There’s a fitting irony. Dark hair, dark clothes–gets to be a dragon with a brilliance to match her personality. He almost laughs aloud at this thought. She has to be an Auran. It tracks.
Man, there's no way she would not tell me if she knew. She'd be boasting about it to me and showing off the first dragon who could kickbox. The double-jointed leg might prove challenging, but the illustrations and my dreams showed they could easily be bipedal, and had a counterbalance with their tail and wings. I certainly wouldn't want to get kicked in the face by a dragon with talons the length of small daggers. Oof. To say nothing of getting hit by plasma that could turn me into a crisp with that level of current.
Ten minutes later, he scribbles a dragon doing a roundhouse kick on a helmeted knight. “You’re scribbling, and we could be in danger? Priorities, half-bro.”
“That statement was utter weak sauce. ‘Half-bro?’” Drenar states with amusement. Evan doesn’t even look apologetic. “I still have seniority.”
“Seniority poorly spent,” Evan sighs. They continue to read.
Another species is called the Alterian Nightwing, with onyx scales with mottled green and blue patterning. Their eyesight extends into the infrared spectrum and it grants them superior night vision. They have peculiarly shaped wings that allow whisper-quiet gliding. Almost like an owl. They also have a paralytic compound in their saliva that allows them to temporarily paralyze prey. Simple contact is enough to immobilize even a rhino. According to Amaranth, their scales granted them innate spell resistance–likely due to living in areas prone to mana storms. Whatever that was, it sounded quite dangerous.
The last dragon he reads about clearly has no one higher than them on the food chain. The Siberian Hellkite is a true apex predator, and she differs from the Nightwing by having black and midnight blue scales, ruby red eyes, and black and blue feather highlights, along with the sharpest claws and highest bite pressure of any species, along with a non-descriptive dark energy ability. They are the true masters of their terrain in the arctic regions, and can spew Mana-infused black and blue fire that burns hot enough to reduce a human to ash in seconds. They are well suited to cutting through the ice and permafrost to devour several critters that made the tundra their home. Amaranth noted that their dragon tribe, unlike many others, seemed to shy away from large communal dwellings and were more family-sized clans.
The concept of clans and their social structure is grossly unanswered by this tome. It raises many more questions than answers. He has no idea where to find any of the listed reference books–unsurprisingly, none of the titles could be Google searched. A casual glance online later into draconic biology left Drenar tapping his fingers impatiently. All he ended up finding was a plethora of fantasy novels and content related to tabletop gaming. And adult content of a very particular flavor. Fortunately, Evan had already vacated the room for bedtime, they still had school tomorrow, which now seems utterly inconsequential.
Duh. Of course, they don't advertise their existence. Because magical creatures in the modern world sound like a geopolitical disaster waiting to happen.
Uh…why am I still looking at this? He still hasn't closed out the suggestive content and stares for a few seconds longer than he figured he would. Wait. Am I into this?
Several more seconds go by. I cannot be into this. Even after wiping the data again and forcibly removing himself from the computer, he could certainly tell himself one thing, when his body is clearly telling him another thing. I can’t be into this, right?
I need a cold shower. With ice. Made of liquid oxygen.
The icy cold shower did nothing to remove the lingering memory. Or his mood.