On the way home, Lauren lets Raya know about the secret to becoming a dragon, leading to the rascally little goblin throwing fire bolts all over the place. We’re a flying fireworks show... At least we managed to convince her to shoot them into the sky.
“So about that gate, Kira...”
I’m confident I won’t have to tell her because that’s the kind of stuff that Raya loves to share, so I’m not gonna. Instead I ask about this deal she has made. With a few taps on my head and a chuckle, she complies.
“Going forward, Neithro will be your liaison as he has an existing relationship with Raya as well as a way to communicate over longer distances. And by the word of the Goddess, I swear that if you don’t lash out against Wreyn soon, I will. What a frustrating person to deal with. I am sympathetic to his grief and his ordeals, but we must all carry our burdens. And the way he stands so close when he finds something interesting, I could just punch that inconsiderate son of a minotaur! And worst of all, he doesn’t think it matters because he’s so accustomed to people tolerating it due to his status!”
Geez, she does not like people getting into her personal space... I don’t have the impression that she minds it all that much when I get into her personal space.
Everything is pointing toward needing to find Skelly’s faction to learn more about this whole situation, and for that, I think returning Skelly’s possessions would make a good gift of peace. We just need to figure out where their home is.
I don’t have much in the way of a plan going forward, but the sudden weight of Lauren lying down on my head suggests that the plan for now should definitely be to head home to rest.
“Kira, Lauren passed out. She’s exhausted from using your magic. It happened to me too when I started to use it all the time.”
I did not know that was a thing. Come to think of it, I passed out too when I learned to use my flame breath. Was that because of using my magic instead of burning away oxygen? I’m not sure, but I haven’t passed out because of my flames since, so now I’m leaning toward the magic thing.
I trust Raya to keep the unconscious Lauren safe, but it’s still worthwhile to take it slow and soar our way home. Ideally, we don’t drop her from however high up we are. The flight is already turbulent enough with my tail blade broken. Given the metallic bone it seems to be made of, I have no idea whether my magic can even heal that, and if it can, it will definitely be an uncomfortable experience.
That’s something I’ll leave for tomorrow evening, so I won’t fuss about it now.
Watching the terrain from up here is quite something. The magic of all the living things on the ground stands out in contrast to each other. The wind sweeping through the sturdy trees, splattered with tiny blotches of all sorts of colors from critters running around.
It’s remarkable how visible every little critter is when I can see their magic, but I’m not familiar enough with their signatures to know what each of the blotches is. It’s like trying to identify an animal behind a wall by deciphering the splattered paint someone threw on there. I’m not up for that task just yet.
Instead of focusing on that, it feels like a good time to see if I can get some sort of middle ground sight, allowing me to both see the world in detail as well as the magic that overlaps it.
With my attention directed toward the magic circulating to my eyes, I stem the flow to see how it affects my vision. It doesn’t do all that much to begin with, but as I continue, I see the magic of the world becoming significantly more muted as the details of the physical become much clearer. However, the switch isn’t anywhere near as gradual as I want.
From what I can tell, this material world doesn’t want to be seen at the same time as the magical, and it’s making me wonder if there’s a spirit sight as well. As far as I know, I have only met one spirit, and I didn’t get to eat it, but it’s possible they’re everywhere and my vision is too magical in nature to see them.
“You went too far, Kira.”
Looking around makes two things clear: The first is that Raya is correct, we flew too far, and the second is that it’s almost noon. We’ve passed Tuiran, and we should turn around to get Lauren home. I wanna nudge Raya about why she didn’t tell me earlier, but that’s a little hard when she’s sitting on me. I guess since we’re already flying over the forest, we might as well get the bow from the lake before heading back. It’s not much of a detour at all. So that’s the plan! We are heading for the lake!
The woods are mostly the same as always, except there’s a bird! I see a bird! Some sort of hawk-looking bird with beautiful brown feathers and black spots here and there, and I want to pet it.
“Raya, look, a bird!”
I feel a pull on my magic and I know what she’s about to do, so with a flex of my wing, I change our course and tell her not to kill it. It’s the first dang bird I’ve seen, and it shouldn’t be killed for that.
“Those are common, Kira, and they taste good.”
Good arguments aside, I’m not gonna let her blast it with a fire bolt. If they’re finally returning to the area, I don’t want to discourage that. I tell Raya as much and bring up a few points about ecosystems and such, how everything has a place and there’s a balance to things.
“So what about the dire wolves?”
They don’t count. It’s possible that I might have to take responsibility for the lack of predators in the area and either leave them alone or take their place. Leaving them alone sounds risky, though. And taking their place sounds delicious, so that’s a pretty easy conundrum.
For no reason at all, Raya bonks me on the head, leaving me a little confused as to what she wants.
“Thinking about my question doesn’t answer it.”
“Right... I don’t like wolves because they’ve hunted me and they hunt you and the people of Tuiran. I want them out of my territory and I want bears out, too. But I can’t leave the herbivores to grow out of control either, because then the plants will suffer. And then everything will become a mess. It might already be a mess and I just don’t know about it. Like with the birds disappearing.”
“The birds didn’t disappear, they flew away from you. When you fly away for the day, so do the birds, but when you fly west, they fly north and south. And then they come back later. I can show you, there are a few nests by the lake, and they know me.”
I’m not sure what she means by the birds knowing her, but I’m quite curious to find out. I’m also curious to find out how they know I’m coming, since I should have been able to sneak up on at least a few.
“How do they know I’m coming, Raya? I don’t feel like I make that much noise.”
“I’m not sure. Maybe you’re too loud for them, maybe it’s your magic, or maybe it's because you smelled bad.”
“I smell?! I didn’t know... What do I smell like?”
“You used to smell sour and a bit like a corpse, but now you just smell like an old fire.”
Okay, well, that’s alarming. That does change the plans a little. Since we’re heading for the lake, Raya is gonna show me these birds, then I’m gonna have a proper bath, I do not want to risk smelling like a corpse again. And when we go home, we can bring the bow.
Setting down by the lake with a gentle drop, I lower my head to the ground, allowing Raya to pull Lauren down from me, helping the limp woman onto the beach. I think they’re starting to become real friends, and not just tolerate each other because they’re my friends.
“Show me the birds, Raya!”
She pulls out a handful of seeds from one of her pouches and starts whistling. Not long after, I hear birds singing back to her as she spreads the seeds around on rocks near us. Emerging from the brown leaves of the trees are a bunch of tiny birds, and it soon becomes obvious why I haven’t seen any. They have freakin’ camouflage! They can blend in with the trees like some sort of invisible birds!
A few of them fly toward Raya, ignoring my presence as the promise of delicious seeds guides them, and I get that. With the first couple of birds landing on her, more become emboldened and join her, and soon the area is covered in the little things, but none of them seem to be hunters. As far as I can tell, all the birds here have short, thick beaks, which I guess makes sense since Raya is using seeds to lure them.
One landed on me! Right on my nose! It’s so cute! I don’t think it will allow me to pet it, though. And I’m not sure I could without squishing it. A few have landed on Lauren as well, but she’s not awake to enjoy the glorious moment.
“Lauren, if you wake up, don’t startle the birds.”
She lets out a groan and shifts a little, startling the birds. I just told her not to! I can’t do anything about that, and my nose bird is still on me, so it’s all good. The little fella seems to be enjoying his perch as he watches the others fight for seeds.
All of a sudden, Raya snaps her fingers and most of the birds scatter. As I raise my head a bit, I ask what that was for since it doesn’t make much sense to me to send them flying away.
“I’m out of seeds, and they need to get back to safety. They know the sound means that the food is gone.”
Huh, it sounds like she has them trained. She goes on to explain that as she comes out here to gather flowers, they usually alert her to incoming predators, like those dang wolves, and that helps her escape in time.
I’m curious how she got cornered the first time I met her if she has birds watching out for her. She seems to think a few of those hawks were around, so these little guys couldn’t make their positions known. I guess I shouldn’t have stopped her from lighting up that hawk I saw.
Nudging Raya sends my little snout passenger flying, and as I watch it go, I ask Raya if she could find the bow Lauren dropped and watch her while I take a bath to get rid of this supposed smell I have. Without anything to focus on at the moment, the sensation of my claws digging into the beach as sand and rocks fill the gaps between my toes draws my attention, and it feels lovely. Everything is so smooth and nice.
Looking back at Raya, it’s clear that she has taken to following my requests in whatever way she sees fit. She’s dragging Lauren to the chunk of glass left behind from my encounter with the adventurers. I’m a little curious what she’s up to as she pulls Lauren onto the chunk, and calling out to ask her startles the tiny bird on my nose, causing him to take flight. Dang it, I liked the little fella.
“It’s warm, so she won’t get cold.”
That’s considerate of her, and that seems like something very useful to know. We might have to look into bringing that chunk of glass back to town to see what the artisans can do with it. I think people would love small orbs of heated glass to fidget with. I certainly would love one of those.
I’m getting distracted again. Back to this bath I was going for. One of the benefits of a really long neck is that I don’t have to turn around to look back at Raya, so I can just continue straight ahead and wander into the lake.
The water enveloping me feels quite lovely, and it gives me a moment to think about where to go from here. I think finding Skelly’s friends is the right choice, and then apologizing for exploding the poor, weird skeleton. I’m not sure how receptive they’ll be, but Skelly left a good impression, and their patron did want a vial of my venom, so that might be a good trade. I just need to figure out where they are.
The only ones I can think to ask now are Merciferus and the Shadow Man, but I haven’t seen the Shadow Man in quite some time. And Merciferus can’t just give us the information we want, so that doesn’t leave us with much in the way of options.
At least I can just lie here and blow bubbles with my nose for now. The water doesn’t taste bad either, so this is a good opportunity for a drink.
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Time passes by as I lie here, enjoying the soft waves colliding with my body as I listen to the soft plinking of something impacting my scales. There it is again... Raising my head and looking around, I spot Raya with the bow and a stick nocked, she’s pointing it toward the sky for some reason.
She jumps before firing, and another plink confirms that these plinks have been her all along! Her face is full of a mischievous smile as she grabs another stick. Standing up, I start rushing to her location, my size pushing the water out of the way with ease. Just before reaching her on the beach, she turns to flee, but that’s not gonna work, Raya!
“You should watch Lauren, Kira!”
Ah, she’s using deception! I don’t want to fall for an easy trick like that, but glancing back, I see the waves I’ve created washing over Lauren, causing her to sputter and curse.
“KIRA! What the fuck did you do?!”
So I’m gonna guess that she’s awake. She’s standing up as the water recedes, glaring at me and looking somewhat more drenched than she was a moment ago.
“Raya did it.”
Her glare shifts onto the rascally goblin and I can’t believe that worked. Well, I’m not gonna question it if it means Raya gets the stern talking-to instead of me. Although I’m sure Raya has some way to get out of it.
“I lured some birds to Kira.”
“Without me? I wanted to see the colors, Raya.”
They were brown with a slight shimmer and cute little beaks for eating nuts and seeds. I tell her as much, but the way she thanks me for it makes me suspect it wasn’t what she wanted to know... They have been keeping a lot of secrets lately, or maybe it’s the same secret that keeps coming up...
Moving to Lauren, I pick her up in my hand and limp over to Raya. Putting down Lauren, I grab Raya and lie her down next to Lauren, and they’re being remarkably docile for this procedure, but that’s to my benefit. With the two of them next to each other, I pin them with my claw and demand what this secret is that nobody wants to tell me. It’s getting annoying!
Somehow, Raya wiggles out of my grasp by being tiny and moves to stand over Lauren.
“Yeah, stop keeping so many secrets, Lauren. It’s rude.”
I wanna agree with Raya, but she’s in on it, dang it!
“Fine. Merciferus made your eyes shimmer in different colors based on your state of mind and emotions. Right now, the outer ring of your iris is blue, while the inner ring is green, which we have noted as playful and happy. With blue being the dominant trait of your current state of mind, with a desire or curiosity for something to be the green lesser trait. Now, Raya. What colors were her eyes when the birds came?”
Freakin’ mood eyes are back?! I thought I got rid of them with nobody mentioning them. Dang it!
“Gold rings around white, she seemed to be very calm as she focused on the birds.”
Dear Merciferus, you bitch!
As soon as I finish my prayer, Lauren lets out a sigh and looks at me with her infamous exasperated stare.
“Kira, Merciferus wants me to laugh at you and to tell you to offer her tribute if you want her to consider undoing it.”
I’m not doing that. I refuse to reward such behavior!
Dang it. She’s one of the people I have to ask about where Skelly’s friends might be. I think I’ll leave that responsibility to Lauren.
We do need a plan of some sort, and I can’t pin Lauren to the beach all day. Letting go of her as I offer her a talon to hold, I pull her up, and she dusts off as much sand as she can. She’s not all that successful considering the wave of lake that hit her before she got sandy. I can help with that, though.
Focusing my heat to a nice warmth, I blow air toward her from a safe distance as she shields her face, but her clothes are drying and before long, she tells me to stop as it’s getting too hot. Doing as she tells me leaves her room to dust off most of the remaining sand.
Another plink hits my scales, and as I look toward Raya, she stands there with a smile.
“Can I keep this?”
It feels like a terrible idea to agree, but she also looks adorable with that oversized bow. I’m not sure what she intends to do with it, considering she can just lob fire bolts at things if they’re too far away for melee combat.
Well, all I can do with it is sell it, in which case it might be used against me in the future, so I’ll just agree to let her have it. Glancing at Lauren earns me an eye roll, which earns her a lick of doom!
She glares up at me with a smile as she wipes away the aftermath of my vicious counterattack. Seems she wants to wash it away, judging by the trudging toward the lake she’s doing.
Another plink hits my scales as Raya strikes my shoulder.
“I think we should go home soon, I’m hungry.”
Raya has a good point, unlike those makeshift arrows. It has been a while since we’ve eaten, and judging by the sun’s position, we’ve been hanging out around here for quite some time as we’re closing in on evening.
Before we leave, I’m gonna get another drink. Walking into the water again, Lauren calls out for me as I dip my nose below the surface.
“Going for another drink of sand, Kira?”
Well, she’s asking for payback. With my mouth full of water, she runs away as I chase after her, but she’s much slower running through water than I am, so catching her is easy. First, the wave from my movement batters her, almost knocking her over, but I’ve caught up to her now and, holding my head over her, I open my mouth, letting all the water out as it drenches her again.
“I will admit that this was my own doing, you silly beast.”
Yeah, it was. With payback paid out, I let her climb up on my head and take her back to the glass blob where Raya sits.
With my head down, Raya joins Lauren on top of me as the two start tying something to my horns. I can’t see what they're doing, but I trust that it isn’t harmful. I do want to bring this heated glass back, though.
“Lauren, we need to talk when we get back home.”
I’m not sure what Raya needs to talk about with Lauren, but I’m curious, so I just ask about it.
“I’m sorry, Kira. I’m not ready to share that yet.”
Well, that’s okay. I won’t push for it, then. It feels less like a secret and more like turmoil not quite ready to be shared. And she seems to feel bad about not sharing it, so I think the best thing to do is just not push for it. She’s allowed to keep things to herself.
“Brown for compassion, and gray for worry, I think.”
Dang mood eyes!
Screw that, I’m gonna focus on this chunk of glass. To begin with, I need to know how big it is, so grabbing a side, I lift it up with a claw, proving that it’s wide, but kinda thin. It should be possible to bring back. So climbing on top of it, I hook my claws underneath it and get a good grip, following that is the wing-spreading and taking off. Well, taking off comes after funneling more magic into my wings, as it turns out. Dang thing is heavy, but not quite as heavy as the steelback.
Flying is still wobbly, and it turns out that carrying a large, heavy piece of somewhat flat glass is not helping. Judging by the maniacal laughter from Raya and the screaming from Lauren, my flight is a little more wobbly than usual. There’s a risk that a few trees have had a little taken off the top as we’ve bumped into them, prompting me to fly a little higher.
The trip isn’t long, but I’m learning quite a lot about flight, such as how a big slab of glass can function as a rudder. Who knew? I sure didn’t, but I do now.
Just soaring and moving the rudder slab lets me do some neat dives and maneuvers, which Lauren loves. Our lovely flight comes to an end as we reach Tuiran, and the detour I took didn’t make it that much longer. But there’s plenty of time for more of that tomorrow.
The trenches people have been digging seem to be coming along nicely, although I’m not sure how they’re supposed to look. Nevertheless, we’re almost at the square, and that means I have to figure out how to set this slab down without cracking it.
Hovering over a nice open spot, I get doubtful questions like ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ and 'What do you even need this for?’ But I have no time for such doubt as I need to focus on doing my job here!
Slowly hovering lower proves somewhat difficult as the weight of this thing is considerable. We’re almost there, and I’m sure we’re close to the ground, but I don’t want to land on top of it, so I’ll have to drop it the last bit and hope for the best.
Letting go results in quite a loud noise as it smacks into the stones that make up the town square. With the heavy weight gone, flying becomes magnitudes easier and we gracefully land nearby, ready to ignore any damage I’ve caused. Hopefully, the gathered crowd is ready to ignore it as well.
And it appears they are! The first person to touch the slab climbs on top and spreads her body out, as she lets out a comfortable sigh, sparking interest in the others, and soon my slab of glass is covered in goblins. A job well done!
We’ll have to see if anyone around here knows knapping, so we can get useful chunks off this chunk, otherwise, we can just use it as a heating attraction. I don’t even know how long it will stay warm, but that’s for other people to figure out.
Raya’s stomach growls, reminding us of why we came back, and she’s quick to stare at me with apologetic eyes.
“Kira, we can bring some food back here if you want, but the only tavern you can reach is closed today. We might be able to find a butcher or something, but they’re focusing on building reserves.”
“That’s okay. You guys have something to talk about, so don’t mind me.”
She deserves a nudge for worrying about me. Lauren deserves a nudge too for looking out for me. As parting words for now, I bring up Skelly and ask that Lauren contact Merciferus about the skeleton’s faction, earning me a raised eyebrow, but no eye roll this time.
Leaving the two to their chat, I head for... I don’t know where to go. I don’t know how to find the Shadow Man, Lauren is on top of the Merciferus thing, and I don’t want to talk to Wreyn. That doesn’t leave many options for how to proceed with this whole thing.
I could go hunt some adventurers, but the fun ones I’ve met have left an annoyingly good impression on me, making me a little more reluctant to hunt them, adding to that is the fact that Lauren may know some of them. I don’t want to deliberately be hunting her old friends, that feels a bit cruel.
Dang it, that leaves treating my tail... Okay, heading for my den it is. The looming clouds are making me worry about the potential for flooding, but at least I have flames to dry out my den. Assuming that’s gonna work.
As I move through the entrance to my den, thoughts of how I’m so comfortable with the narrow corridor spring to mind, as I enter the even more comfortable enclosed space of my room. It’s so much better than a stupid human town. Tuiran is much better too, at least I can spread my wings over most buildings if they feel stiff. Good job on the construction, goblins. Aside from the lack of dragon accessibility.
With my hoard under me, it’s time to coil up and see how bad this healing business is gonna be. Focusing my magic and pushing it to my tail in a slow but restorative manner makes it clear that I don’t have to heal anything in one fell swoop. I can just let the magic trickle into the wound to restore it and worst of all... I ALREADY KNEW! Dang it, Kira! No points for you today!
I’ve done this before and I could have been healing my wounds slowly all this time, and I just didn’t. Well, I am going to do it now, and I’m gonna try to experiment with it as well. Focusing on the trickle of magic, my mind focuses on it as I increase it in a gentle manner so that I don’t get a burst of pain.
For now, it isn’t more than an itchy feeling, but that’s fine, so I increase the flow until it starts hurting a little. Dialing it to an uncomfortable itch seems to be the sweet spot, and looking at my tail, the effect is obvious. Some sort of liquid is flowing out of the damaged area and solidifies into new tail blade material. The whole thing is kinda creepy, and it’s gonna take a bunch of time, but it has changed it from painful to annoying, so that’s a win.
I’m curious to see how much it speeds up when it starts heading for the painful territory, so increasing the flow a little, the liquid starts flowing faster, and when I reach a dull, throbbing pain, it seems to flow at a reasonable rate. I can tolerate this, but it’s still gonna take quite a while. By my guess, it could be four full days of dull throbbing pain, but it’s working.
“Kira, are you available? Lauren and Raya sent word that you were without an evening meal, and I wish to remedy that.”
A rare sight! Lily has arrived with three goblins in tow, each carrying some sort of pot, and a gust of wind wafts the scent my way, encouraging my drooling tendencies. Naturally, she’s welcome to enter my den with treats. I’m never gonna be against that.
The group of goblins seems to be walking on unsteady feet as they approach, and it occurs to me that the floor in here is quite uneven from my own walking. I don’t think clay is the best flooring for a dragon’s den, but they’re managing it. As they reach me, they take turns placing a pot down before stepping back, bidding Lily goodnight as they leave. I love how helpful people are here.
“My intent for these was to soilbreak them for the winter in order for Joras and I to have meals ready as we please without much effort. But what better change of plans than sharing a new experience with someone!”
I don’t know what soilbreaking them means, but my interest lies in the dishes presented to me. Dang it, I want to know what that word means... Asking her about it, she giggles before explaining.
“My apologies. The word is a bastardized one from my homeland. You do not have rocks covering the ground as we do, so I have changed it to soil. To rockbreak a dish is to create a hole in the rocks we walk on, breaking them up to bury a pot, providing a way to keep it preserved.”
Sounds like a rudimentary cellar, but I would imagine it’s pretty hard to dig out enough rock to actually make a cellar. Before I know it, she’s pointing to a dish and explaining what it is and how it’s made, but she uses magic to cook and enchants to empower spices, like some sort of magical chef. I’m not familiar with most of what she says, but she’s very enthusiastic and I know what a stew is.
She kneels on the other side of the pots and pulls out two bowls, filling both with the stew from the first pot. Holding it out for me, she opens her mouth and says ‘aahhh,’ leaving no doubt as to what she wants me to do. Opening my mouth a little, she puts down one bowl and pushes on my snout to get me to open wider before pouring the other in. The explosion of flavor is fantastic, and I have been missing out.
“I take it you enjoy the flavor.”
Rolling my tongue around in the small puddle of stew in my mouth, I let the flavor settle before swallowing what I can. It’s so good.
“I do not believe I have heard you purr with quite such ferocity before, Kira. I shall take it as the best compliment I have received.”
Picking up her own bowl, she sips from it directly, commenting on how this is how her people usually eat this dish, although they typically have some spiced bread as well.
As she holds her bowl with one hand, she grabs the other with her free hand and fills it again, and I know the procedure now, so opening my mouth, she pours in the next bowl. I could get used to this. Between sips, she lets out a soft chuckle as she stares at the floor.
“Never in my three centuries did I expect to experience hand-feeding a Dragon. This will be quite the thing to brag about, should I ever meet any of my own. They would be positively boiling with envy!”
It feels weird to hear something like that, since I let people feed me all the time. But if the novelty of it means more treats, then I’m all for it. Her mentioning three centuries does bring up a potential path forward. So I bring up Skelly and the mention of a patron, but it doesn’t even cause her to flinch as she opens the second pot.
“This is a soft dish and it does not keep as well as the other two. It is made from Drowned Hairs of Marsai. The seeds from the plant grow underwater and carry quite a lot of nutrition. Add to it the milk of lowlands twinhorn cows and a third of that in added water, along with a child’s hand of salt. It needs to cook for a quarter of a sun cycle. Have a taste.”
She holds out a spoonful of the stuff. It’s some sort of sticky white meal, and as I approach with my mouth, she whips the spoon to throw the dollop of stuff into my mouth, and it’s sweet and delicious! I taste rice! It’s freakin’ rice pudding! My mom used to make this... I need to find some cinnamon and sugar to go with it.
“Is it bad, Kira? I did not think it would make you cry. My deepest apologies.”
"It's good. I just miss my parents, and this reminds me of them."
She deserves a nudge.
"I will have to commit to my memory that you become affectionate when eating Marsai's Treat. Though we cannot have the mighty Dragon of Tuiran weep. As such, perhaps it is my duty to cheer you up. The messenger sent by Raya informed me of your desire to seek out a certain faction beyond life. And I know someone who is familiar with every such faction residing in this world."