He stares at me with obvious contempt. He’s blaming me for something I’m mostly sure I didn’t do, and he seems reluctant to leave for some reason. He smells a little afraid, but it isn’t fear keeping him from leaving. I wouldn’t mind him just staring at me if he weren't such a liability to have around.
On that topic, it makes no sense to me that he’d attack something as big as me on his own, especially considering how weak he already was when he attacked me... Those spells did hurt, but it was one hell of a gamble, leaving him so vulnerable afterward.
Maybe he has a death wish and that’s why he attacked me. It would explain why he was antagonizing me. If that’s the case, well, then I have no idea how to handle this. It doesn’t seem right to kill someone for acting out due to sudden grief. If he was just some stupid adventurer wanting to kill me, I would be fine with killing him, but it’s not fun if he’s looking for an executioner.
Geez, I should have brought Raya or Lauren to solve this for me. Here I am, trying to be less focused on killing my problems, and then this happens… a problem wants me to kill it…
I just wanted some dang needles!
For now, I’ll let him know that he’s welcome to leave, and I won’t go after him. That should cheer him up a little. And it might make him leave, which would be two good things. Any time now, he can just leave.
He just stands there, as I feel him gathering magic for a spell while he glares up at me. He looks aggressive, but he isn’t all that threatening. It’s tempting to smack some sense into him, but before I can do that, the spell fizzles out and he falls to his knees, sobbing.
I don’t have any dragon powers to deal with this! Okay, you can be supportive, Kira. What would I do if Raya were upset? I’d offer her a flight. She likes flights. What do trigger-happy terramancers like? Dirt, I guess. I don’t know!
Why is this even my responsibility? The guy attacked me for no reason. I’m being generous enough by not killing him for attacking me, I’ve decided. Now it’s time to get moving.
Instead of standing around waiting for him to stop sobbing, I begin moving toward snake country. The smell of snake musk intensifies as I approach the hill. At least now I won’t need a guide anymore, so leaving him to his sobbing is no loss for me. The hill is marked by a trail of crushed vegetation as the forest opens up to a large area of arboreal devastation. It looks like the snakes have been doing some deforestation of their own. The entire area consists of hills covered in downed trees.
Which means I can fly from here! And it might be a good idea to do that because I’m hearing a lot of hissing. Not impressive hissing like what I do, but annoying hissing that makes me want to burn the place to the ground.
I’m not sure how to approach this situation, since I need to either attack fast enough to kill a snake before it can strike, or attack it from somewhere it can’t retaliate. And the hills here are littered with small holes. Well, small compared to me, Lunch would fit in there just fine.
Oh! I have an idea! I’m gonna go get Lunch and put him to work.
Turning around, I head back to the sobbing mage and, as luck would have it, for me anyway, he’s still there. He’s still crying a little, and I kinda want him to let out his emotions and deal with it, but I also want to get moving. So I give him a little nudge.
“Leave me alone…”
I’m not gonna leave him alone. Sitting around in a wolf-infested forest isn’t conducive to an improved quality of life, or life at all, for that matter. But he doesn’t seem all that interested in moving, so I open my mouth and close my jaws over him, with a considerable amount of dirt as well, carrying him with me.
He doesn’t fight it, which is good news for me, so back to the hill we go! As soon as we hit the clearing, I take flight and start scouting for a snake hole hill with only one resident. It’s experimentation time.
It takes a bit, but we do eventually find a hill with only one snake living in it, and judging by the size of the hole, it could be appropriately sized for the fangs I want. I hope this one is venomous and not a constrictor.
Landing in a safe spot atop the hill, it’s time to spit out Lunch and get to work. He lands on the ground and just lies there, moping some more.
“Lunch, use your magic to create a narrow vent down into the snake’s home.”
I wish he’d get to work, but he just lies there, glaring at the sky.
“Why? There’s no point in fighting... No matter how much we stand against evil, we’ll lose all that we love, as darkness consumes more of what we love…”
What a load of crap…
“Shut up and fight for those following in your footsteps. Help me with these snakes and you might give me a reason to spare another adventurer in the future by showing me that not all adventurers are hopeless threats. And you will save whoever this snake would have killed.”
He glares at me some more before getting up and chanting a spell. This time I don’t get impaled, which is a very welcome change. After his chanting and glaring, a small hole opens up between us. It’s pretty much what I wanted, although it’s a little smaller than I wanted. It should work fine, though.
Putting my mouth to the hole, I focus my magic to create smoke and fill the snake’s home with as much smoke as I can. While I’m doing that, I notice Lunch looking at me with a confused glare, but when he notices a snake fleeing from the hill, he shouts at me.
“There! The heriwana! [Snake!]”
Leaping into the air, I unfold my wings and soar toward my prey. It’s a large one with a beautiful pattern of crisscrossing green and brown on its back, with a white diamond shape on its head. It’s too busy fleeing the smoke to notice my approach. Landing on it with all my weight, I feel its bones crunch as I bite down on its neck, severing its head from the body in a swift motion. I had expected more of a fight, but I guess I did just introduce it to sudden smoke inhalation.
I shouldn’t have severed the head… Now I have to take two trips to get both the head and the body back to the hill… I should find out if it’s venomous first. If it isn’t, I can just leave the head behind. To make sure it doesn’t have any lingering possibility of biting me, I crush the skull, leaving the jaws mostly intact. Prying its mouth open, I see two very sharp-looking teeth with some fleshy covering and it is venomous! Excellent!
Dang it! That means two trips.
This thing really is big, even if it feels small compared to me. It looks like the neck of the snake has a diameter of about half a meter. (1.6 ft.)
Dragging the body back to Lunch, he seems to have a curious glare going. I doubt he has had anything to eat since we met, and that’s too long for whatever he is to go without eating, I’m sure. I’ll take care of the cleaning of the body. Using my sharp teeth to rip the belly scales, I work my way through its body, eating the organs as I go. Turns out snake is delicious as well, but I doubt Lunch is interested in eating this part of it.
By the time I reach the halfway point of the snake’s body, my offal munching turns into regular munching as I just start eating the snake’s meat as well. It’s crunchy and delicious, and I could be tempted to stay around to hunt a bunch more of these things.
By the time I run out of tail to eat, I realize that I may have let my gluttony win out a little. Looking back at Lunch, he glares at the section of meat I left behind from my initial self-control. I’m sure he wants some, that’s a hungry glare if I ever saw one. Using my heat breath, I cook some of the meat for him, and when he realizes what I’m doing, he pulls out a knife and carves off a few pieces to eat.
“How is the food, Lunch?”
He takes another bite as he glares at me, but it’s a conflicted glare, so I’ll take that as a victory!
“I feel my magic recovering…”
“Don’t try anything dirty.”
For just a moment, the barest hint of a smile crossed his lips. It fades just as quickly as it appeared though. I never doubted my ability to cheer him up for a moment. Raya is gonna be so proud of me solving problems in non-violent ways. Well, there was the snake-murder, but other than that, it was non-violent.
More importantly, I’m gonna cook up some more meat and try some myself. I’m not giving Lunch all my breakfast.
As soon as we finish up the meat, Lunch starts heading toward another hill and as he reaches it, he begins casting another spell outside a snake’s hole. Dirt begins to flow into the entrance, blocking it completely. When he finishes closing up the hole, he climbs further up on the hill and casts another spell, it feels similar to the one he used to create the smoking vent.
With a leaping start and unfolding wings, I soar toward him, landing nearby as he finishes preparing another vent for me to fill with smoke. But it seems he has other plans.
“Flames to burn them. There will be a cluster in this one.”
I’m not sure how he knows, but I’m fine with burning them. Putting my mouth to the ground again, I funnel my flames through a small gap in my lips. Focusing them into the hole as a jet of fire escapes through a small hole in the wall Lunch created. That’s clever, it means we didn’t make a bomb.
The delicious aroma of cooked snake wafts through the vent and I’m tempted to dig them out, but I shouldn’t be greedy. And I shouldn’t leave the head of the previous snake lying around where someone might steal it. Since I know where this place is now, I can return at any point to clear out a few more nests, so for now, I’ll return to Tuiran with this snake head and get started on Lauren’s treatment.
“You aren’t the beast that slew them, are you?…”
“I told you that already. And it’s pretty obvious that I’m too big to inflict such tiny wounds. If I attack a human with my claws, I will rip them apart.”
To prove my point, I rake a clawed hand across the ground, leaving large gashes in the dirt. He glares at them for a while, thoughts of this and that no doubt rushing through his mind. Or maybe he’s thinking of more ways to throw dirt at me.
“The memories of what happened are foggy, and I can’t seem to remember it all… We were attacked by a pack of wolves, our front line fell... It felt as if a couple of bears were hunting alongside the wolves, but that cannot be... There is no history of that ever happening…”
I guess I did offer to listen to him to make him feel better, but I kinda wanna get back to Tuiran.
“I lured one of the bears away and killed it, but by the time I returned, you were there… and I reacted. And now I’m lunch…”
“I already told you, you can just leave. I’m just calling you Lunch because I don’t know your name and you are annoying.”
And I wanted to eat him, but he doesn’t need to know that. With a questioning glare, he glares up at me, glaringly. I think his face might just be stuck like that. But I’m getting the impression that he doesn’t trust me at all. It’s a little rude after I’ve been so accommodating. Screw it, I’m getting my snake head and leaving. Moving down the hill we’re on, heading straight for the snake head, I hear twigs snap behind me and it seems Lunch is following me.
“Why are you following me?”
"It is doubtful that I would be able to make it out of the forest on my own…”
Well, he actually wants to live now, so that’s something. Good job, Lunch, adjust to that grief.
“You were going to kill me, weren’t you, Dragon?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I? You’re an adventurer, and your little guild has been attacking me since a few days after I hatched.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I don’t feel like telling him that I was born into this world like a month ago or so.
“So you’re breaking the cycle of hate?”
“No. I’m not that good of a person. I’m keeping a promise to a friend who is far more important to me than some adventurer who is incapable of not attacking something different from them. The words of someone you would kill in a heartbeat are what saved you from me, Lunch.”
We’re at my snake head, so I pick it up, careful not to jab myself on the fangs. As far as I know, venomous things don’t stop being venomous just because they’re dead. And jabbing yourself on a fang is a quick way to get envenomed.
“Are people no more than mere food to you? As an intelligent being, you should know that’s wrong. The Gods did not shape us to be food for the beasts, that’s why the Guild exists, to offer a way for us to fight back.”
If he starts with some moral high ground, I might have to find someone else to spare... Putting down the head again, I reply with words tinged by frustration.
“Not people, adventurers. I don’t eat merchants, farmers, craftsfolk, or any other such person who wouldn’t give me a reason to chew in self-defense. If you intend to go down a road of moral high ground, convince me that my dietary habits are worse than your wanton slaughter for trophies and bragging rights because someone paid you a pittance.”
Geez, I’m starting to prefer the sobbing. It occurs to me that I’ve been getting more and more annoyed, and I stopped speaking in Lauren’s language, which means this jerk knows Raya’s language... I don’t know what to do with that information, but it annoys me.
“What we, as Guild members, do is-”
“I don’t actually want to hear it, I misspoke. When you hear about Plainshold, or the ruins formerly known as Plainshold, reconsider whether you wish to continue this foolish crusade on anything you don’t understand. The adventurers there chose to continue the crusade.”
Grabbing the head again, I spread my wings and ignore whatever he’s saying. Taking to the skies with powerful beats of my wings, the dust of the snakes’ home kicks up, covering Lunch in a fine layer of the stuff. It’s a little funny to me that it’s likely that most of that dust is old poop. But I can’t really tell Raya that I spared him if I leave him to die in a hostile area like this…
Changing course, I fly back toward him, low to the ground. Readying my hands, I prepare to grab him as I fly by. It won’t be comfortable for him, but it will be better than being alone here.
Landing on my hind legs with a thump, he tries to shield himself with his arms as I grab him and take off again. His magic flares up for a moment, but when we leave the ground, it fizzles out. We’re heading south, since I figure that’s the best bet for somewhere safe for him. Judging by his screams, he’s not enjoying looking up at a severed snake head, so with an amount of care, I flip him around so he can watch the ground. It’s quite the… He’s screaming even more now.
The only place I know around here that seems like a place for adventurers is that weird fort, so that’s where we’re heading.
With my focus being on speed, we arrive by the impressive walls in short order, but I have no intention of giving these people much of an opportunity to attack me. Holding Lunch in one hand, I fly toward the top of the wall, latching on with my claws digging deep into the side of the fortification as I place Lunch on the ramparts.
The plan to drop off Lunch goes off as planned, but it does make me wonder how big this wall actually is. With my body growing this rapidly, it’s impossible to get a handle on how big things are. But if my shoulder height is almost four meters (13 ft), and my claws can reach my hips, that means I’m freakin’ huge, but also that this wall is, if I’m right, around forty meters tall (131 ft). That’s a freakin’ huge wall, what the heck did they build it to defend against?
Judging by the sounds of feet stomping closer, it’s gonna be against me if I don’t get out of here. Lunch is probably fine to stay here, so I push off the wall and twist my body in the air and with a beat of my wings, I take off. I’m sure he can explain what’s going on, because it’s time for me to fly back to Tuiran. I’ve been gone all night, and now we have another item necessary for the treatment of the Affront and saving Lauren.
The plan is simple enough. Inject my venom around the center of the affront and either kill it there, or, since it’s living, force it to migrate to her arm and remove the limb alongside the disease. And by using my magic to fuel her healing, she might be able to regrow the entire arm. Though if it hurts as much as my own healing, then she’s in for quite a headache.
It sounds easy enough, and Merciferus did say it could work, so I’ll stay hopeful.
More importantly, noon is here and that means I’ve spent too much of the day dealing with this whole situation.
It’s a little daunting, and I’m unsure of what to do after this. With Lauren up and ready again, Merciferus might give her some sort of champion goals. I don’t want to lose my friend…
Focus, Kira! Sorrows are for later, now is the time for heroics and fangs! It’s time to use my magic to fly faster and get to Tuiran before I get distracted by something.
With how big my wings are, I’m able to cover an impressive amount of distance in very little time, and it doesn’t take long before I’m in Tuiran. This time, I’m not landing in the square, instead, I’m gonna drop down by Joras’ shop, since we need help to perform the injections.
Hovering over his street, I position myself with my hind legs as close as I can before folding up my wings for a drop. As long as nobody points out the destruction of the street because of my weight, then I did that perfectly.
“Lauren, come to Joras’ shop! We need to get ready for surgery!”
Oh! Raya should be here too. I can’t really move from here, on account of my inability to turn around in these narrow streets. I’d have to take a big detour to end up at the same place. So that’s on you, random guard! Putting down the snake head and throwing the guard a quick request, he rushes off to find Raya. I’m not sure why she needs to be here, but she does. And it’ll be nice to have her around.
Merciferus, you should come support Lauren in this as well. It would be the nice thing to do, and I’m sure Lauren would appreciate it. She really likes you, you know.
At this point, I’m just finding it fun to tease Merciferus. I’m sure she could use the distraction in her busy day.
“Kira, stop antagonizing my Goddess!”
“I’m not antagonizing her, I invited her to join us for your procedure.”
I am antagonizing her a little, but Lauren doesn’t have to know that.
We do need some things for this, like a basin of water, some clean towels, and healing potions would be useful too, I think. We could use another healer, but I don’t think Sarah is up for being kidnapped again. She wasn’t all too pleased with it the first time. If Merciferus actually shows up, then I’m sure she could heal anything once the affront is gone, I’d even be up for lending her some magic to do it if she needs it.
Joras’ door finally opens and the man himself steps out and looks up and then down at the snake. He seems to understand what the snake is for as he takes out his knife and starts cutting into the flesh of my prey. It turns out that he’s quite a good butcher and a little while later, he’s got the first fang cut loose. He repeats his success on the second and brings them into his shop. The dang things are as long as his forearm.
“Hello to you too, Joras.”
His head pops back out as he leans backward out of the door with a cheeky smile.
“Hello Kira.”
And that’s it, he just heads back into the shop. He’s teasing me! That’s not allowed! I can’t tease him back without breaking a building. Dang it! Everything is too fragile. I deserve a treat and he did leave the rest of the snake’s head, so that’ll do. As I bite down, something pops and tastes sour, making my eyes water. I kinda like it… I might have to hunt more snakes if their faces have sour treats inside them.
I never did pay attention to what sort of magic situation those slithery animals have going on, so my next excursion to Snake Country will be a research expedition! With snacks.
I don’t really have anything to do while Joras prepares the fangs. They already have a hole going through them, so they just need to be cut down to size, I think. He might need some carpenter tools or something. Or maybe he has some weird alchemical things to dissolve parts of the fang with. I want to go in there so badly!
“Lauren, describe what Joras is doing, please. I’m so curious!”
Oh no… The feeling I feel from Lauren is mischievous… I may have screwed up here…
“Oh, Joras! What a curious thing you did! And that concoction, how can it do something like that? It’s truly marvelous!”
“Dang it, Lauren! Stop it and just describe what he’s doing properly!"
“Oh my! That was quite the reaction! How did you know to combine those two liquids to create such a spectacular event? That was truly astounding! I can’t believe what I’m seeing, it’s magnificent! And how do you create such a liquid? It seems to work wonders for the shaping process!”
“Lauren! Stop it! Please!”
“This is so interesting that I might abandon my calling as a healer to become an alchemist! To think such a world was sitting right under our noses! What marvelous things we could create! And this thing, what do you call this, Joras? A bulb flask? And you use this setup to hold it over a flame? Oh, I wonder what would happen if we were to use Dragonflame. What a shame we don’t have a Dragon capable of reaching the burner.”
Ooh! She’s getting to me, and there isn’t anything I can do about it! I want to see what they’re doing, but she’s shouting from a back room, and even if I look through the door or the windows, I can’t see anything back there.
“Lauren, I believe it would be for the best that you stop teasing her, amusing though it is. The stomping from her inability to act is likely to cause some destruction, and it isn’t exactly useful when we need to measure precise amounts of our ingredients.”
She just laughs! She laughs! The disrespect!
“Sure, Joras. I shall endeavor to contain myself. There are plenty of interesting things here to keep me occupied.”
She’s still doing it! And I hadn’t even noticed that I was stomping my feet out here. I guess I let it get to me too much. But it was Lauren’s fault! She kept teasing me with exciting things I can’t see, and it’s only natural that I’d want to watch the fancy alchemical stuff too!
Instead of standing around not doing anything, I lie down and still do not do anything. I can’t contribute right now, and it’s so boring. If only there were something to attack or light on fire, but there’s only tiny measurements and being patient...
At least Lauren is taking it seriously now, so she’s not teasing me anymore, but listening to them talk about alchemy could still count as teasing. I like chemistry, dang it! And alchemy is just magic chemistry.
“Joras, do you have enough of my venom?”
“I believe so, Kira. By using these fangs as needles, the required amount has been greatly reduced. It's quite a clever idea, I must admit.”
Dang it. I wanted to participate, but my earlier participation ruined my current opportunity. And Lauren is laughing at me again… A thousand and one licks for her for this insult to the Great Guardian Dragon of Tuiran! And where’s Raya? She should be here by now.
It doesn’t take much looking around before I spot her. She’s just sitting on a rooftop watching me with a wide grin. She’s amused by my suffering too! This is a conspiracy! I might have to find Jeannie to get some sympathy when I can’t rely on these vile creatures I’ve surrounded myself with. Giving her a lick and a change of subject, I ask about the guy whose name I forgot.
“Jarna is working with Knotten in the smithy. They’re trying to figure out how to split Dragonflame, so they can light more things on fire. It was a great idea to introduce the two. Well done, Kira.”
Who the heck is Knotten?! Do I even know people in this town? And I’ll just avoid pointing out that my suggestion to throw Jarna at the blacksmith was more in the vein of not being all that interested in dealing with him. If they asked, I could just light some more fires, it’s really not a problem for me. In fact, I’m quite good at lighting things on fire. It’s remarkable that the forest is still standing.
Instead of lingering on topics of potential arson, I ask Raya if she knows anything about the kiln's progress, which is arguably still an arson topic.
“Elder Turo and Neithro have been discussing it at length, and they’re gonna have more kilns built outside the walls. Neithro says he’ll send a few guards to help us keep them safe while we get walls built. Those two are becoming inseparable now that they have a common topic. They’re planning to have the kilns built into the ground so you’ll be able to walk over them to ignite the flames.”
That sounds quite clever. It might future-proof them as well for the next time I have to get frustrated by a growth spurt. If it ends up becoming a booming industry, Tuiran could end up becoming quite an industrial powerhouse. The only manufacturer of dragon-forged goods. I wonder if dragon-forged glass is a thing. Or dragon-forged grilled veggies.
“Raya, I just had the greatest idea ever. Food cooked in Dragonflame! If Dragonflame makes everything better, then cooking must be better too!”
“I doubt it. You would probably just burn the food before the flames have any meaningful effect. It can be used to forge metal, so I think it’s too hot for cooking.”
That’s a good point, but it’s not a good enough point to not experiment. We’ll have to try it at some point, maybe bribe a chef to try it for us, and we’ll be the judges of how well it works. Oh, that’s an idea, a food competition to create a fancy dish for me to taste!
While Raya and I are discussing critical plans for the future, Joras and Lauren seem to have finished up their initial prep work. With a bunch of teamwork, they bring a table out of Joras’ shop for Lauren to lie on during the procedure. They aren’t bringing out any basins of water or towels, though. We should definitely disinfect these fangs before stabbing Lauren with them. The thought of residual venom in them also worries me.
Nudging Joras, I ask about the risk of bacteria and infection, but he seems a little unsure of how to answer.
“There aren’t any plague mages around, so there’s no risk of disease.”
That doesn’t sound real... Bacteria are such an integral part of life that the idea of no diseases sounds... Well, it sounds crazier than waking up as a dragon in a foreign world. Lauren and Raya seem to agree with him, and I don’t like being the only one who believes in microbial life here.
Merciferus, tell Lauren that microbes exist. We gotta have some precautions here.
“By the Gods, how did I become the conduit between a Dragon and a God... Kira, Merciferus says that her power keeps us safe from such things. And to stop pestering her with every little thing. And I’m not saying the last part of her message, it would be more of a mistake than Merciferus realizes.”
That sounds interesting. It’s pretty obvious that I have to tease her about it.
“You dare claim to know better than the god you worship, Lauren? That’s pretty bold.”
“I do know better in this case. And neither of you are making me convey the message.”
Well, I’m gonna respect that, she’s setting a boundary, and I’m not gonna force it out of her. But I am so freakin’ curious! Geez…
“Fine! Fine, Merciferus! It’s your own fault, and you can’t take it back when you realize how much of a mistake you’ve made! Kira, Merciferus says to stop pestering her about every little thing because the strength of your magical power forces the prayer through to her, so she can’t ignore it. Dragons aren’t supposed to be able to pray to the Gods.”
I have no idea how to react to this. I’m feeling so conflicted right now. On one claw, I should respect Lauren and her wish to keep this a secret, but on the other, well, it’s pretty obvious what this means.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, Kira…”
There’s no way she knows.
“You’re thinking that you can annoy Merciferus all the time now, and she won’t be able to do anything to stop you.”
Okay, so she knows exactly what I’m thinking. That’s still some powerful leverage. I’m leaning towards not using this great new power I have been bestowed, considering Lauren didn’t want to give it to me. After today, I promise. Lauren is giving me a look of exasperation, suggesting that Merciferus realized her mistake.
Merciferus. It is I, Kira the Great and Magnificent Dragon of Tuiran. I speak to you today for the purpose of aiding Lauren, Champion of those things you’re the god of. I offer a deal: I’ll stop praying to you unless necessary, and in return, you have to personally help her survive this procedure.
Joras gives Raya a look as Lauren rubs her brow in frustration. But in my defense, Merciferus did tell her that my plan might work, and this is part of my plan now.