Since I had spent a considerable amount of time playing up that I was going to clan Riverstrand, I might as well head to Riverstrand… At least that’s what I thought was going to happen… turns out the Starwood Strand was ridiculously difficult to navigate, being a giant forest and all.
I took out the map I had bitterly balled up and stuffed into my pocket days ago, and tried to smooth it out on the dirt below.
The thinning treeline and encroaching vast amount of cracked nothing of a wasteland and staggered crags meant that I was near the border of Arcanist and..
What the heck was he called? Earthshatter?
I clearly needed to make more of an effort to remember all the deities if I was to keep pretending to be an expert dragonologist.
Good lord, it’s worse than those popular hatchling puppet dramas… there’s always six heroines and you have to remember all the names and what they look like or deal with an upset hatchling if you don’t. That little puppet show is their entire world at that development level.
“Only this time, there’s twelve of them.” I muttered bitterly to myself as I tried to move forward and orient the map I was holding at the same time. Who would have thought my duties as an eggkeeper would actually be useful? “Wait…
Are there twel...?”
My words got caught in my throat as I tripped over a rock and tumbled down a slope that was far less gentle than I’d like.
Thankfully or not, a large pile of bones broke my momentum at the bottom.
Finding myself upside down against the bones, I righted myself as carefully as I could. If my bones were broken, I’d be done for, probably joining this large pile next to me. Somberly, gingerly, I tested my own weight on each leg. Thankfully, everything just seemed a little bruised.
Cursing at how distracted I had been on such trivial matters, I set to the task of trying to get my wings where they were supposed to be under the heavy rucksack as they were now pinned underneath the unbalanced, bulky pack.
Finding it difficult to keep my balance, I fell to my knees, and quickly realized that it wasn’t my bag that was giving me issues. The ground was moving!
An earthquake! ...And a looming shadow that blotted out the sunlight on the ground and only grew bigger.
joy squeaked a tiny voice in my head.
I looked up with trepidation, hoping that it would just be a newly formed cliff I would be facing, but no. It was the pile of bones I had woken up. Of course.
The Skeletal wyrm, quite angry at the rude awakening, gave a loud roar in my direction and stretched its wings out to their full length. As if a creature such as I that could be easily swallowed in one gulp needed to be any more intimidated. It may be dead, but it’s breath sure smelled like it ate things. Dead things. Like my soon-to-be-tailfeathers.
Looking around desperately for a quick escape route, my only real hope was that the groundquake would just give me a nice hole to hide in.
“KRAKAFUR!” Came a bellowing cry from the path above. Large boulders flew overhead and before I could blink or process what was happening, bones of the wyvern scattered at my feet, most of it crushed underneath the weight of rocks larger than the wyrm had been.
I looked up to see a dragon. A dragon! Like the ones I had met in Starvale and could have easily gone toe to toe with such a wyrm! The dragon leaped into the air and surfed the slope down with far more grace and seemed to be getting smaller as it got closer only to… come up to my belt when it came to a stop. “Hiya.” it said with no real enthusiasm. “My name is Raz, what’s yours?”
The fae sounded almost bored. Shaking off the shock of our size difference, I vaguely remembered that this very short creature just defeated a large pile of bones that nearly ate me. “Wow!” I exclaimed, trying to sound more excited than nervous. “I am Doctor Joshua, Prime Dragonologist! Thank you so much for saving me. That was quite amazing.”
“Yes, yes. It was no effort.” The fae said in the same monotone manner. “We need to get going. I lost my provision bag and I need to get back to my colony. You’re just lucky we were on an elemental ley line.” The fae walked a few paces to retrieve the map that lay nearby. Studying it for a few seconds it turned to me and said “We are not far. At least not far for you.” then did that universal gesture of holding it’s palms up towards me and opening and closing it’s talons.
Feeling rather awkward at the juvenile gesture, I just stammered, “Ummm… Look, my pack is really heavy and I’m not feeling too hot. You sure you can’t just walk?”
The fae crossed its arms and
moved it’s head up so it was now at eye level. The fae itself had not moved at all. Somehow this was slightly more intimidating than the giant skeletal wyrm had been. I felt myself swallow.
“You want to stay here?” it challenged and nodded toward the bones at my feet which were slowly moving towards the boulder pile. “So, I should just leave you here then?”
The wyrm was reconstructing itself and I had no desire to tangle with it again. Picking up the fae, I hauled it up onto my shoulders and held it’s legs down for support as if it were a fledgeling. He was surprisingly light.
“Excellent.” Raz stated and pointed in a direction for me to go.
_________
Finding solace in the shade, I walked along the bottom of a narrow canyon.
Raz had already rifled through my pack after a few minutes and started eating some of the contents. I tried to ignore it since my sore limbs took a little more of my attention at that point. He had saved my life after all.
“That was really close.” he stated. “I thought I was going to starve to death.”
“How long have you been out here?” I asked, trying to make small talk and doing my best to ignore the unenthusiastic, monotone manner of the dragon.
“I’ve been out here for a whole hour and a half. The longest anyone in my colony has been gone. Talk about cutting it close.”
“Close for what, a sunburn?” I said dryly.
“My kind has to eat every 30 minutes or we starve. Like a hummingbird. You at least have those where you’re from dont’cha? What kind of dragonologist are you, anyways?”
I couldn’t tell if Raz was being argumentative or genuinely curious.
“Oh, we’re here!” He exclaimed before I could reply. Jumping off of my shoulder and running towards a junction in the canyon, Raz stopped dead in his tracks and dropped the map, looking off in a direction I could not see. I didn’t need to know the nuances of fae body language to see his whole body deflate.
Trying to hurry as best I could, I caught up to the fae to see what was clearly once an oasis. The pond and trees buried in the rock that broke off the cliff.
“My colony…” He trailed off without a hint of sadness. I was starting to get irritated with the constant unemotional robot next to me. He turned to me swiftly and stated, “Can you take me to Vanilla Falls?”
ARE YOU SERIOUS?! My mind screamed. But I dare not say it aloud.
“It happens a lot, actually.” said Raz matter-of-factly. The dragon was clearly getting better at reading my own expressions, not that a gaping beak was difficult to read. “A place gets popular, gets too many nests, then just…. Boom. Whole wall comes down.”
Having a lightbulb moment, I turned to Raz and asked excitedly, “Can you pick the rocks up?”
“Of course not.” Raz said flatly.
“Why not? You can pick up the rocks just like you did with the wyrm and rescue any dragon that might….”
“Because we’re not on a ley line you stupid Raptorik. There’s opposite magic here.” The fae faceclawed as if not seeing these invisible lines made me dumber than the rocks that littered the canyon floor. ”Honestly, I don’t expect you to understand how magic works but it does not work here.”
“WHY WOULD YOU BUILD A HOME WHERE YOU CAN’T USE MAGIC?” I screeched.
“Water. Every creature needs water. Especially us.” Raz picked up the map and took a few more steps towards me, his head bowed in thought and the air filling with uncomfortable silence. This dragon just lost all of its kin, it’s entire clan. Just like… Just like my clan long ago.
Trying not to get too caught up in self pity, I wordlessly picked up my new companion, put him on my shoulder, and walked away from the ruins.
!” The coatl repeated. I stared at it for a few minutes, unsure if just growling was how dragons greeted each other. Or me for that matter.
” It replied and ducked under the table to rummage around in some boxes.
" Squeaked the coatl in between it's hums.
