I woke up for my middle watch with a head full of muddled thoughts and that uncomfortable and awkward feeling that comes from dreaming about people you’re about to spend the morning with. I pulled a canteen out of my pack and took a sip to remove the dryness from my throat.. My watch passed quietly, and I enjoyed a mercifully dreamless sleep after handing off the watch to Zevrack.
When I woke up with the rest of the camp I was feeling much better, and continuing to go over what I’d discussed with Ren in my dream. I’d have to get stronger, that much was a given, but even beyond that I’d need to do something that would make my name known. Something that would make me worth following.
I thought about it as I made a breakfast of bread, cheese, and a small bite of the chocolate bar Tristus had given me. Obviously the clearest path was to keep adventuring, and doing my best to find noteworthy jobs that people would talk about.
Once that was done, the party got back on the road toward Heracleum. We walked mostly in silence, still waking up. I had the same thought I’ve had every morning since arriving in Tu’reyne. I missed coffee. Caffeine in general really, but coffee in particular. I’d hoped that reaching my first human city might mean something akin to coffee was within reach, but no such luck. That being said, I was definitely waking up more easily than I had back on Earth. I had little to no stiffness or soreness, and overall needed a bit less sleep in general. I wasn’t sure if it was an elf thing or a health thing. I was certainly a lot healthier here than I had been on Earth. I ate more balanced meals, got quite a bit more exercise, and could also quantify my health with numbers which generally seemed to make me care more about it.
Zevrack popped up from the lair he’d created in the center of the mule cart. “I smell smoke.”
That prompted everyone to take a deep inhalation.
“I don’t smell anything,” said Tib.
Nica moved ahead and climbed a large tree, then jumped down, landing gracefully and silently, and came back to us. “Smoke rising ahead, along the road.”
Tib frowned. “There’s a town nearby, Olm.” He drew his sword and everyone else followed suit, preparing our weapons. After walking just a bit further the smell of smoke became clearer for everyone.
“This smoke is familiar,” said Zevrack, taking another deep breath of it.
I nodded. There was a tinge of familiarity to it.
Eventually the party broke through the treeline and was able to see the source of the smoke. It was the town. The entire place was a smoldering ruin.
We approached carefully, weapons out and the cart with Tristus in the middle. There were no signs of life, though not many of death either. I saw a large number of eviscerated livestock, but nothing human. When we reached the center of town, what had occurred became clear. Four massive footprints rested in the center of town. One through two buildings, and the other just embedded into the earth.
Zevrack’s eyes widened and took on a tinge of mania. “A dragon!” he said in a voice full of reverence.
“A dragon?” asked Tristus.
“Looks like it. We’ve got fire, massive footprints, eaten livestock,” I replied. There was a part of me that knew something like this would happen. Dragons were incredible creatures, and I’d felt awed by them when I’d first seen them arrive, and even proud that I’d contributed to it, but this. I looked across the ruined houses. This was something I should’ve kept in the foreground of my thinking. Still, I steeled myself. There wasn’t anything I could do about it now, but do my best to burn what had happened into my memory. My elf brain wouldn’t want to hold onto these thoughts on its own, I’d have to force it to. I needed to understand the consequences my actions had, and hold them close.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“You’ve encountered them before?” asked Millicent, looking at me.
“Uh, no. Just going based on what Zevrack has told me. His people have great respect for them.”
“Really? But they’ve only been in this world a short time.”
“Well, apparently it’s something they brought from their own world. Something embedded in who they are.”
“What do dragons actually look like?” asked Tristus.
I looked at him incredulously for a few moments, but quickly recovered. Dragons were a big part of storytelling on Earth, but humans here hadn’t really encountered the concept until now. “They’re massive winged creatures covered in scales. They can breathe fire, or sometimes other things and are, I believe, intelligent? Zevrack, what do you know about dragons?”
His head popped out from the nearest dragon footprint and he skittered back to the group. “Dragons are gods. They are wise and powerful. Worlds tremble at their roars, and nations scatter at the wingbeat.”
“What about their…personalities? Are they, for instance, known for being thankful? For rewarding those who’ve helped them?”
Zevrack shook his head. “All dragons are different. They are like caves. No two are exactly the same.”
Tib looked at me incredulously. “You would seek to help a creature that would do something like this?”
I shook my head, remembering he didn’t know my full name, or that I was responsible for bringing dragons into this world. “I’m just asking questions. Something this powerful isn’t necessarily a thing you can fight. We have to look at all the options. Not that I’m planning on doing anything about it myself.”
“I’m going to look to see if anyone is here,” said Nica.
“I’ll check the big houses,” offered Patience. With different motives, I expected, than Nica had.
We took some time to look through the remains of the village. I found no human (or dwarf, or elf, or gnome, or other sentient creature) corpses. After combing through the town we found no one, and nothing. Though Patience did have a new clinking sound in her pack that I hadn’t remembered hearing previously.
Zevack walked through the town as if in a haze. Smelling, touching, and in some rather odd cases, tasting everything that may have had to do with the dragon that had arrived. MIllicent joined him at some points, observing the pattern of the dragon’s fire, and trying to determine how large of a cone it created.
“It seems that no one was killed in this attack,” said Tib after we’d reconvened.
Nica nodded. “There are footprints heading out of the village and toward Heracleum. I assume that’s the way they went.”
Patience hopped onto the cart and got the mule moving. “Well, no reason to stick around then.”
Tib nodded and we all fell back into formation around the cart. I felt relieved. Sure, the dragon had destroyed people’s homes, and possibly their livelihoods, but he’d left them alive. While I was certain there were other villages dragons had encountered that hadn’t been so lucky, I could at least keep myself from worrying about it as much since I hadn’t actually seen or heard any evidence of it yet.
Zevrack was looking back longingly as we left, his tail quickly moving back and forth. He’d been inspired, much as he had when we’d encountered the dragons the first time. He started pulling papers out of his bag and making markings all across them. He also took out the wings I’d first seen before we’d left the dwarven homeland and started tinkering with them using his nail-tools. I recognized that several new accouterments had been added, but I couldn’t tell what any of them did.
I started working on a project of my own, at least the beginnings of one. I needed to make a name for myself, and an opportunity existed right here. A dragon had attacked a village. Now, I wasn’t so bold as to assume I could actually slay a dragon, but this dragon had spared the population of this village and that meant something. I let the gears in my head turn as I made myself look at it like an opportunity. I couldn’t kill a dragon, but talking to him, that might be possible. It could maybe even lead to something heroic enough to put me in people’s minds as someone worthy of following.
If I could just get a bit more information, I could start to take steps. It was a half-crazed idea. Still, this world was an opportunity for me. Why not take a crazy chance every once and a while. Besides, I’m almost certain Zevrack would join me in taking this particular chance. That made it marginally less crazy.