Tribulations of a Dragon

I’m still not sure how I feel about Lauren, but she did help me take care of that bastard, so, reluctantly, point to Lauren…

One thing is for sure, killing him made me feel a lot better, but it's not enough. I still need to deal with those attempted kidnappers in Oakhold. If they think they can take what's mine, then I'll take everything they have.

Leaving that unresolved is an insult to my pride, and I can't allow that to stand. If they want to hurt my people, I’ll just have to make sure they can’t. And I need to think of a way to make it common knowledge that targeting what belongs to me means I'll strike back with unbridled fury. The obvious thought is to do just that, strike down anyone who might be a threat, but that seems a little reckless.

"Lauren, do you have any ideas about how I can stop people from attacking Tuiran?"

“Fuck, that’s weird… Not only are you in my mind, but you’re so easy to understand."

“Well, screw you, Lauren! I’ve always been easy to understand!”

She just lets out a huff and a chuckle in response, I'm gonna take that as acknowledgment of my easy-to-understand ways. I'm sure Raya and Joras would agree with me in an instant. Before I get lost in thought again, I refocus my attention on my flying. We soar through the calm sky, not having to deal with anything, and I can tell Lauren is moving around a little.

"How are you keeping the Corruption from spreading? Some people can train to resist it, but it takes decades. It should have killed you already, but you aren't showing any signs of the malady at all. It should be consuming your magic to feed itself and rot your flesh, but I don't see anything like that in you."

"I don't know. All I know is that it resists my magic when I try to affect it, and I really like the taste of what Frosty became."

It is fascinating, that's for sure, but as far as super-lethal magic goes, it seems unimpressive to me.

"That just adds to the whole mystery. Eating the Corruption should have corrupted you more, but when I healed you, I felt it. And you're right, it isn't growing."

Well, I can't do anything about that, but that sounds like an untapped dinner source. Which sounds both tasty and, if I play my cards right, profitable.

"So what I'm hearing is that I can eat these corrupted things, and it's possible to get people to pay me to do so."

"You should learn more about your resistance to the Corruption before you risk adding to what is already in your body. I meant it when I said we can't afford to have another Originator Dragon. It took the intervention of the Gods to stop the last one. Although it was mature, you're not."

She's calling me immature! That's so rude... I'm considering telling her off, but I don't feel like it. Instead, I'm just gonna focus on flying.

It feels really nice to have a moment like this with no fighting, just the winds billowing around us. It’s a calming sensation that feels like it was lost, but now it’s back, and I'm feeling more like myself than I have for quite some time. A sudden weight on my head reminds me that Lauren is here. From what I’m feeling, she decided to lean forward on me. That’s okay, she’s had a tough day.

“Kira, why are you like this?”

“What the hell, Lauren? That’s such a rude question!”

Now she’s outright laughing at me… I have no idea what’s going on in that head of hers. Which I guess is because I never gave her a chance. I wouldn't say that's entirely my fault, but I can't deny that I've been harsher than I needed to. In a solemn voice, she speaks before I do.

“I want to know what will happen to me once you're done with me.”

I don’t know what she expects of me, and I don’t really have a plan for her or Big Guy’s group. They haven’t been causing trouble, so I’ve been postponing it, not wanting to deal with it. As far as I can tell, Big Guy is settling in well with my people, so maybe that gives him some leeway.

“I don't know. What do you want to happen?”

She doesn’t respond, but I feel something wet dripping on me. I know one thing I should do for her. Something of a mistake I've made...

“I want to apologize, Lauren. I’ve treated you worse than I should have, and that’s not fair. And I shouldn’t have just carried you off today, especially not like that. I'm sorry.”

She doesn’t respond this time either, or move really. I guess she fell asleep. I’m gonna let her rest. I think I might have a plan to cheer her up a bit. Continuing to soar, we just breeze through the air as I aim for the western mountains, I’m sure she’ll appreciate seeing something pretty.

Evening passes into night as we approach the rocky mountains, it won’t be long until we’re over the ocean. Watching the beautiful night sky from a sandy beach is sure to cheer her up. In fact, I can tell she's stirring from her sleep, shouldn’t be long until-

“WHAT THE FUCK! Oh. Flying… Where are you taking me, Dragon?”

With clues like flailing, screaming, and shouting, I suspect she might be awake. And we’re back to calling me dragon, I guess. We were doing so well. No matter, I’m not going to focus on that when there are more exciting things to focus on!

“Morning, Lauren.” It’s so nice that I can talk to her and just understand her with whatever this mind link is. I should ask how she did it sometime, I wouldn’t mind being able to communicate with other people like this.

“It’s night… I don’t know how well you can see at night, but it should be obvious that the sun isn’t up. I know it's bright, but that's the moon you're seeing.”

She just starts out spicy, and it makes me want to tease her even more. It is pretty obvious that it's night because the moon and stars keep everything well lit. But I’m not gonna point that out, tonight I’m gonna behave. Off in the distance, I can see our target. We’re closing in on the island with the sandy beach. I’m sure she’ll appreciate our little outing.

“Did you sleep well?”

“… I did… You’re warm, and… comfortable.”

Is that a compliment?! We’re breaking down barriers here! I’m looking forward to seeing her reaction to the beautiful beach! I’m sure she’ll appreciate the change of scenery, she’s been holed up in Tuiran ever since the assault.

We’ll be at the island soon, and I hope there are still some of those chili peppers left, those will be fun to have her taste. Turning my head a bit, I nudge her, but she doesn’t seem to have much to say. At least I know she's still there because I can feel her fingers tapping on my scales.

The last stretch of our trip to the island is spent in silence. I can’t think of anything to say to her, but I think it might be good for her to just have some time to figure things out.

“We’re here, Lauren.” Getting ready to land, I slow my approach and go into a hover slightly above the sandy beach and drop. The beach looks just as lovely as last time, and as I let Lauren down, she takes some time to look around.

While she meanders around, I’m gonna find some food! Nudging my way through the shrubbery, I find all sorts of goodies. Most of which I don’t recognize, but maybe Lauren will. With great care and magically enhanced claws, I cut the stem from some fruits and carry them in one hand. Turns out when you’re used to using four limbs to walk and you then go to three, you can get a bit clumsy.

I may have bumped into a few trees. Most of them could handle it, so I’m fine! Looking through my little handful of fruits, I notice that they do look familiar to some fruits I know. Giving a large green fruit a taste, I’m immediately overcome with regret. It had a stone inside, which is now lodged between my teeth! Dang it!

Okay, enough gathering, I’m gonna need some help getting this thing out. Hobbling back out of the trees, I see Lauren standing by the ocean, she hasn’t really moved much. Giving her a little throat rumble, she turns to me and stares. I present the fruits, but she just stares some more.

Oh right! I can just tell her what I’m doing! Good job forgetting that, Kira.

“I found these in case you’re hungry. We’ve been out and about for some time, so I thought you might be.”

Points to Kira! She’s coming over and reaching out a hand!

“These, these, and these are poisonous.”

Well, one of them is chili peppers, another is the green one I ate, it didn’t taste poisonous, so it's probably fine. And the third one I don’t know. A shame that she seems to know about the peppers, it would've been very fun to have her eat some. Although with her thinking they're poisonous, I wonder if the other stuff actually is, or it's a case of her not having tried them properly. I know for sure that chili peppers give that 'I’ll kill you' vibe until you do it right.

She does grab a few things, though, so that’s good. Sharing a meal is just what we need. I settle down in the sand, and she sits nearby, staring at her fruit. She’s very quiet, and I don’t know what to do with that.

“Poisonous fruit for your thoughts.”

“What?”

Okay, she's not familiar with that particular idiom. “You’re very quiet, and I was wondering what you were thinking about. It's 'penny for your thoughts,' but I'm not giving out money.”

“Oh… I'm just thinking about this whole thing, you, my life, and what to do with it all... Everything is such a mess and I have no idea where to go from here..."

Well, that sounds like a very heavy subject. I’m not really sure how to handle all of that, but I’m here if she needs me. Admittedly, part of me still wants to hurt her for being part of what happened during the assault, but the people of Tuiran seem to have accepted her. And she has helped them a lot, so that should count for something.

Whether Neithro is right about it being because of coercion or not, I’m not so sure. She's doing a good job of convincing me that she's a decent person.

“If you want to leave Tuiran, you can.”

For some reason, that earned me a face full of thrown food…

“Fuck you! Fuck everything that you are, you unnatural monster! Something is deeply wrong with you! The way you change from hellspawned horror to gentle giant is not normal! And fuck you for doing it!”

Geez… “Sorry…”

“You don’t get to fucking apologize to me! You took my family away! We weren't kin, but they were all I had! Now I have no one left! It was just the three of us, and now I’m alone.”

“I didn’t choose for you to attack my home! That’s not on me! You can hate me all you want, but I didn’t make that decision for any of you, Lauren!”

“I want to! I want to hate you so badly! I want to hate you for what you did to my friends. I want to hate you for being so happy when I hurt so much. Why the fuck can’t you just be the monster I saw that day? The animal that ripped Kello apart to hurt both of us! The fiend I saw looking at me when I lost hope! The beast that tore through Lord Fuckwit’s manor to exact vengeance! That’s a fucking Dragon!”

…

“But you? You’re so fucking gentle with every being in that town of yours. I’ve seen how you bump them to talk, I’ve felt it! You touch others just enough to make yourself noticed, but never more than that. That’s not a fucking Dragon! You’re so careful to not destroy anything, and you don’t just kill whatever stands in your way. That’s not a fucking Dragon!”

I do have a bit of a kill streak…

“I’ve seen how you control the sway of your tail so it doesn’t hit anyone or break anything, and I know that it affects your balance. You had to learn that on your own, there is no way anyone trained you! Why?! Why the fuck couldn’t you be that gentle with us?! Why in the hells did you have to kill the only people I had?… And why don’t I hate you for it?”

I didn’t realize how alone she was. She’s been holding on to so much pain…

“I want to hate you so badly, and I fucking hate that I don’t. I don’t want to understand why you did what you did, but I do. I completely understand that you had to defend yourself, that we brought wickedness to your home, and I hate myself for allowing it. Why can’t you just be the evil monster I want you to be?... Everything would be so much simpler if you were just a mindless beast to be slain…”

As she falls to her knees, I approach and coil myself around her. I had wanted her to hurt for having been part of hurting Tuiran, but not this much… not anymore.

“Why didn’t they listen to me when it mattered the most?… Fucking Aron, a stranger, listened to me. Kello and Reinfold could have survived if I could have just reached them…”

“Someone I hated very much told me that I didn’t have to be alone, and I wouldn’t be lost if I built a place to belong. For me, that’s Tuiran, it can be for you too. I think Jeannie would like that a lot, she could always use a first aid kit.”

“I don’t know… I need some time…”

We just spend some time listening to the waves quietly. She’s playing with the sand, and I’m considering whether it’s worth eating the fruit she tossed at me. It’s covered in sand, but I’ve eaten worse things.

“Those are mine.”

“Nuh-uh, you threw them away, finder’s keepers.“

“This is what I mean. It doesn’t make sense. Half a day ago, I saw you eat a man limb from limb, and now you’re eating sandy merins, and it’s downright adorable…”

“Fine, you can have some, I can’t really keep them all if you’re just gonna bring out the compliments…”

She grabs a few and goes to kneel in the ocean. Waves wash over her as she washes the little purple fruits. She’s very careful about it, making sure every bit of sand is washed away, pocketing each merin after washing. And then she just drinks some seawater! That doesn’t seem safe.

“Are you sure you should be drinking that, Lauren? Isn’t it too salty?”

“Why would it be salty?”

Because it’s the ocean and oceans are salty. Well, I’m gonna find out for myself. Getting up, I join her in the water and dip my head into the ocean. Taking a big gulp, I'm flooded by an awful taste! That's not good to drink at all, how can she drink this?! It's coarse and sandy! And now she's just laughing at me, I won't tolerate such disrespect, it's very rude to laugh at me!

“Laughing is rude, Lauren!”

“Not when you watch someone suck in a giant lump of sand. I bet that didn’t taste as good as you had hoped.”

It did not taste good, no… Sand is a lot easier to ignore when paired with tasty fruit. I still wanna give this ocean water a shot and now I need to wash my mouth anyway, so that works out. I trudge further into the water and after a thorough rinse of my mouth, I’m surprised to find that the water does taste very good, almost sweet with only a bit of salt.

“Joras told me about your eyes…”

Did he now? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to tell people, but he seems to be quite willing to share that information…

“He also told me that they haven’t changed from red since we attacked… and what that means. I’m sorry for the hand I’ve had in hurting you.”

“It’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“He said he’s afraid you’ll lose your kindness because of us. That our actions might have turned a kind being down the path of evil.”

“I SAID! I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!”

With my fury rising, I act before I realize what I’m doing. My eyes meet hers as I have her pinned to the ground and press her into the sand. I need to get my rage under control… The ocean's waves wash over her as she stares up at me. She’s afraid of me again.

Lifting my claw to release her, I apologize for being so forceful, but we aren’t at a point where I want to talk about such things with her. I don’t trust her that much.

As she gets up, she chants her healing chant, and the magic feels different, purer, and raw. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I haven’t felt it before. Looking her over, I guess I might have hurt her in my moment of impulsiveness.

“No, I should’ve let it go. It’s good to remember that pissing off a Dragon can result in broken ribs and a hell-cursed headache... A mild punishment, all things considered.”

I feel like going home, but I want to bring something for Raya. Getting out of the ocean, I nudge Lauren, and she follows me to the trees.

“Could you gather some things for Raya? I’m not very good at it.”

Giving me a look up and down, she complies with my request and pulls out a knife and a bag as she starts gathering all sorts of things I didn’t even realize were edible. She even pulls up some flowers and cuts off the roots to add them to the bag. Maybe I should bring both of them on a trip somewhere to gather things.

“Try this.”

She’s brushing the dirt off the knotty root of some white flower, and then she throws it to me. I catch it and crush it between my teeth, which turns out to be a bad decision! YUCK! What the heck is that?! That’s far too intense for any reasonable person to eat! And now she’s just laughing at me. She did it on purpose…

“It’s gurom root, I love cooking with it, but you shouldn’t eat an entire head of it raw. Watch, you can pick it apart like this and get these smaller cloves.”

Okay, but she made me eat it! I didn’t even know it existed until she dug it up!

“Do you want help removing that stone?”

Oh, right, from the poisonous green thing. Yeah, I want help… Opening my mouth wide, she takes a step back, smelling afraid again. But she’s quick to recover and brings her knife up under the stone, wiggling it loose. It’s all very uncomfortable.

With that, I suggest actually going back home to Tuiran, and she’s quick to agree. Lowering my head, she gets on and we’re ready to go. Taking flight into the morning sky feels nice. It’s cooler than I expected, but Lauren doesn’t seem to mind.

“Lauren… If you want to leave, I can take you anywhere within a day’s flight of Tuiran. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

She lies down on me and drapes her arms over my face. “I’ll think about it.”

That seems to be all she wants to say for now, and that’s fine. I don’t want to push her when she has so much to deal with, especially because I’ve been such a significant part of it.

Increasing our angle and pushing magic into my wings, I take us higher and higher. If she’s gonna be sour, she’s gonna have to be sour with a fantastic view. It takes some effort, but she hasn’t complained about the temperature yet, so I’m gonna assume she’s fine.

I take us further south, and if I get this right, the sun will hide behind the eastern mountain and it’s going to be beautiful. We don’t have much time before the sun rises properly, so we’ve got a bit of a time crunch.

Flying hard, I feel Lauren holding on tight, I’m confident she won’t be at risk of falling. Darkness descends as we make it into the mountain’s shadow, and I slow us down so we can hover and watch the sunrise.

She seems a little confused about what we’re doing, so she’s in for a surprise! I’m not gonna spoil it though.

“Watch the mountain, it’ll happen soon.” And it is soon, because the sun is slowly appearing right now.

“I’ve never just watched a sunrise, but it's very beautiful…”

Gotta take time to enjoy the little things once in a while. The sun cresting over the mountain, turning from an aura of light into a blinding star, is something everyone should experience. I hope she can find other things to enjoy too. She’s got plenty of life left, after all, even if right now is pretty bad.

With the show over, I turn toward Tuiran, it won’t be long until we’re there. We flew pretty hard to get in the mountain’s shadow in time, so we’ve made it most of the way back. Which reminds me…

“Aren’t you cold, Lauren?”

She just lies down on me again and taps my scales with gentle fingers. “No. I’ve been kind of cold ever since my group traveled north, but now that I think about it, I haven't felt that chill since yesterday.”

Well, that’s peculiar. Sounds like she’s growing in all sorts of ways with raw magic, mind linking, and now not being cold. I wonder if she can teach any of that to Raya, I’m sure she’d like it a lot.

We’re almost at Tuiran, and I’m looking forward to just relaxing in my den when we get there and having some time for myself without worry. I dug that den to have a place of my own, dang it! Watching Tuiran as we approach, I almost expect something to appear and that I would have to deal with, but to my luck, no such thing happens. I still have two important tasks to deal with, Wreyn’s hunt and Oakhold’s criminals.

“Kira, do you still want me dead? I know Captain Neithro stopped you, so I want to know where you stand on the matter now.”

“I do, but I also don’t. I want to see you suffer, but I also want to make your pain go away... It’s kinda frustrating and I don’t understand it, but I want both good and bad at the same time…”

This stupid sensation keeps trying to influence me, and every time I do what it wants, it gets closer and makes me feel relaxed. I’m not sure what it is, but I want to chase it. It’s definitely mine, and I’ll take what’s mine. On top of that, something is definitely wrong. Whatever is going on, I need to figure out what it is and fix it...

“Watch out, Kira!” Oh shit! With powerful beats of my wings, I correct course and dodge the house that came out of nowhere! It’s lucky I’m such a good flier; otherwise, that could’ve gone quite wrong. Well, since we’re in town, I’m gonna take us to the square so I can check on my hoard. I’m sure nobody has touched it, but I still wanna check on it.

Landing by my den, because there’s no other room in the square, I let Lauren down and it’s food stall day! FOOD STALL DAY! YUSH! I want all the things!

“What is this?”

“Only the best day ever! Food Stall Day! They make all sorts of treats, and I get to eat so many things!”

She still seems unsure of this event, but I know exactly what I need to do, which is to visit the stalls! I’ll need to find an entrance to the canopy maze that I fit in, though. Walking around to an entrance just like I wanted, it appears they’ve accounted for my size because there’s a pathway that just happens to fit me! And not even like ‘I barely fit,’ but people can walk around me without risking getting squished!

Every time I stick my head close to a stall, someone boops me and gives me treats! This is why Food Stall Day is the best day ever! Looking back, Lauren follows me but seems to keep to herself.

“Try some! Everything they make is delicious!”

“How can I? They grieve because of me…”

“And they celebrate because of me, so I say try some.”

With a timid smile, she does as I say. From what I can tell, my people don’t seem to mind her at all, I’m sure she has started creating a place for herself here. Even if she doesn’t realize it, my people do, and they’re what matters.

“You should enjoy yourself, Lauren. Let these people take care of you, and if you see Raya, make sure she gets those spices and stuff!”

“I will, thank you.”

We’ve reached the other end of the stalls, and I can tell that something is off... Unfolding my wings, I take flight, leaving Lauren behind to enjoy the food. Frustrating as it is, I have more important things to do than eat. I need to talk to Wreyn now. Flying as fast as I can, I head toward Oakhold. The wind actually feels biting, but this time, I have more of a plan for how to stop.

The ground flashes beneath me and Oakhold comes closer fast, so I start flying upwards and focus on balance. Time to make gravity work for me. As I force myself to fly straighter and straighter up, it's difficult, but I can tell that it is working to slow me down. An added benefit of going up is the lack of trees in the sky, so I won't be suffering any blunt force trauma today!

Feeling that my altitude is safe, I extend my wings to slow my ascent even further. And it works! An additional benefit of going up is that if I lose control, I'll have time to recover and reorient myself before I hit the ground! I’m a clever cookie.

One thing to note is that it hurts a decent bit. The air is really ripping into my wings, but I’m confident they won't tear. I can tell for sure that I’ll need to be careful not to overdo it, if I screw up and fall to the ground from this height, I'm pretty sure I won't have any more worries.

Tugging in my wings, I hit my peak altitude and start falling, rapidly gaining speed, but a dive I can handle. Having gained some speed, I spread my wings and go into a soar, gliding comfortably towards the ground. Won’t be long until I can find Wreyn.

I’m getting really good at this flying business. Changing between glides and dives, I make short work of the last distance to the ground and land in Wreyn’s yard. The first thing I do is knock on his door, which Emily opens, and this time she remembers her spell.

“Where is Wreyn?"

“Sorry, Miss Dragon, Granpap isn’t home.”

Dang it! That’s okay, I’ll just have to find him. Taking flight again, I soar over the town and call his name, he’ll figure out how to let me know he’s heard me. He's a goofy old man, but he’s smart. That's why I'm here in the first place. I'm sure he can help.

Only a moment later, a fire bolt flies by me. I'm sure that's Wreyn letting me know where he is, and it's easy enough to track the trajectory. Pivoting in the air, I rush toward the origin of the bolt and I see him. He's standing in an open area, which means I have room to land. As soon as my feet touch down, I sense his talking spell taking effect.

It's fortunate that I found him so fast, because I need to know...

"What do you know about mind control, Wreyn?”

"Hooh... When did you become capable of articulating so well? The growling is still present, but each of your words is clear. Soon enough, I won't need my spell to understand you. How did you manage to acquire speech already? Is it something that other young Dragons can be taught?"

I didn't realize my speech had changed, but now that he mentions it, it seems obvious. Feeling the magic in my throat, I can definitely tell that I have some sort of vocal cords now, which is a huge upgrade coming from trying to sound out words through growls. Focus, Kira! You're here for a reason!

"Focus, old man! I need to know about mind control! How can I detect it? And how do I stop it?"