It was Pentwec’s first time in this life going on a long journey, and Waver and Valor had never actually left the duchy they were born in. In a rare moment of self-restraint, Ori understood that even she couldn’t get away with disappearing for weeks at a time, and reluctantly stayed behind. Waver would have gladly left Pentwec with her, if her talents weren’t so uniquely suited for this incident.
How did the rumor even spread among humans, Waver wondered? The idea of a written dragon language shouldn’t have any purchase in the human world, since it required the existence of dragon language to begin with. Perhaps some assumed there was some other, nobler class of dragons, somehow different from the animals they knew.
That would make sense. Then, they could consider it a rumor about dragons that don’t exist. There isn’t another premise they’d have to accept before that.
This time Ori, herself, was the client. She had correctly identified not only that Waver would be interested, but that it would be dangerous if anyone else investigated the rumor first. It would be dangerous, Waver thought, if he investigated it first, too. Waver thought he was himself a fairly dangerous person.
The woods and hills that had given Silfmont its name mostly lay west of the city. As they trekked south, Valor, Waver, and Pentwec passed through just a little bit of deep woods, before emerging into open fields. Pentwec clung to the inside of Waver’s traveling cloak, sheltering her and keeping him slightly warmer as they braved the spring winds atop Valor’s back.
Waver had only ever felt winds this strong, sharp, and cold while high in the air. The gusts blew waves across the long grass, which bent so deeply in the wind’s grip that it kissed the earth. Valor, too, gritted their teeth and trudged ahead, trying not to be blown off the road. To Waver, it would have felt like flying, if not for Valor’s folded wings. As one did while flying, he leaned in close to Valor’s neck, and felt the faint warmth of their pulse through their scales.
“We need to hire a guide!” Waver shouted over the wind. “I don’t know if this is normal or not!”
“Find a ditch!” Pentwec suggested shrilly, from somewhere on Waver’s back. Waver looked up at the sky, and saw that clouds had quickly overtaken them and painted the entire sky grey. Not willing to question the young dragon’s guidance for even a moment, Waver scanned the horizon and saw a spot of grass that was slightly darker than the grass around it. He urged Valor on, leaning further ahead until his mouth was right next to Valor’s ear hole. He gave them directions with dragon tongue, feeling like none of them had time to wait for human tongue’s cumbersome sound constructions.
Valor dove into the depression in the grass with wild abandon, and to Waver’s surprise, the ground gave way under their feet.
The three of them fell a short distance, accompanied by a shower of grass roots and dirt clumps. Valor landed on all four feet, although their loud yelp suggested that they hadn’t landed entirely well. Waver would have been thrown back by the impact, if he hadn’t been clutching Valor’s neck so tightly - as it was, he just received a rather painful shock in his unmentionables. Pentwec, unfortunately, was flung off to the side, having attempted to cling to Waver’s cloak as it flapped about. Luckily, she was light enough that it barely phased her when she collided with the wall of the pit. A few more dirt clumps fell on her, though, and she looked thoroughly miffed.
Waver panted, slowly catching his breath, and then sat up to look around. The light from outside barely filtered in even though the pit wasn’t especially deep, so it took his eyes a moment to adjust.
They had stumbled into a sort of cavern. One side of the pit, the side opposite the road, opened with a shallow downward slope into a vast space, big enough for even Valor to fit. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling of this space was covered in soft white webbing. Far in the back, Waver caught the glimmer of eyes and nothing else. The evidence only led to one conclusion. Waver shivered.
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Suddenly, he felt something tugging at his cloak. It was only Pentwec, though, who was trying to get his attention with her jaws.
“It’s okay,” she said, quietly. “I can’t say why, but it’s okay.”
“...you’ve earned extra rations today,” Waver said, flatly, and Valor groaned. Waver turned his attention to them. “Hey, are you alright?”
Something hard collided with Waver’s shoulder, and he flinched. He looked down in the dirt, and saw the glint of a small ball of ice.
<...it doesn’t seem like we’re going anywhere right now anyway,> Waver said.
Valor and Pentwec did as instructed. Before long, the sky darkened even more, and the entrance to the spider’s nest became as deadly as a battlefield, full of hailstones that were occasionally the size of arrowheads. Thunder pealed overhead, and it was the loudest sound any of them had ever heard. Except, perhaps, their host.
Waver and Valor looked at each other. Occasionally, one or the other of them guessed something well enough that it converted a shred of Pentwec’s knowledge unintentionally. The baize supposedly did not share their wisdom, but their own Pen had learned to give orders based on her supposedly inaccessible knowledge banks, and occasionally took advantage of loopholes like this one, too.
Pentwec tittered nervously.
I can almost believe that, Waver thought.
Above them, the sound of the wind grew louder and louder. No longer content to blow, it whistled, and then roared, and then it even thundered. Something was out there in the wind, screaming in fury and anguish, but never quite reaching them. It didn’t quite pass overhead, but it passed some threshold and then seemed to get farther and farther away. The hail intensified even more after that.
Valor observed.
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When the hail stopped, the three of them climbed back towards the entrance of the spider’s nest and pulled each other up out of it, one by one. Waver could almost feel the spider relax behind him. He thought it must be terrifying not only to weather such an intense storm, but to entertain intruders at the same time. On a whim, he called back at their host.
“Thanks for letting us shelter down there. Sorry we didn’t have time to get permission.”
Waver looked around. The sky was still grey, but the wind was much calmer than before, and the damage was clearly visible. Huge swathes of grass had been completely scoured clean on the path of whatever had raged nearby.
“A wild animal that just survived... whatever that was... alongside us. I think it earned a little bit of courtesy.”