Chapter 213: A Good Shepherd
Arthur clapped Bee on the shoulder. "That boy is a terror already."
She nodded in agreement as Bradley stepped toward his fellow Nighty Knights. "He is. He's one of their best."
"Is that so?" Arthur mulled his next words over. "I'd like to spend an afternoon training with him. He's already quite solid on swordplay. I'm not sure how much I can teach him there. But there are some more general lessons I think he'd benefit from, especially while he's young. I expect there's not many warriors in the castle he can look up to, are there?"
Bee shook her head. "Not really. Aside from your men, most of our adult fighters would lose against him."
"All the more reason then." Arthur nodded. "He might need someone to learn from. Someone who actually can beat him in a fight. Without that… well, at this rate, he might outpace me soon, as well. I worry that he won't need to listen to anyone, then.."
"What do you mean? He has Void to learn from."
"Well, that is true," Arthur said, choosing his words carefully. "Void is a bit… distant… from regular human affairs.Sometimes, people learn best from their fathers. I can't claim to be a perfect teacher, but I have raised three sons." Arthur's chest swelled with pride. "And from what I've heard, Bradley might be missing a bit of a father figure."
Bee nodded, wondering where this was going.
"Well, I can't step fully into that role, truthfully. Despite how much I wish I could. I think maybe having a couple hours with him sometime next week isn't out of the realm of possibility. I'd be curious to see how it goes."
Bee nodded. "Well, I can't speak for him, honestly. You'll have to get his mother's approval, but I'll pass along your offer."
Arthur nodded. "Of course. If she's okay with it, I'd like to make some time to talk with the boy and maybe have a match of my own. I'd say you can recognize someone who will grow into their power rather well. And I'd like to get to know the kid better."
Bee just nodded, thinking. Had she really gotten to know any of the Nighty Knights? Sure, she's had good interactions with Felix and Tanu and many of the others, but to her, they were just children. Rather annoying children at first. Before Void had made her see them in a different light, she wasn't even really aware they had personalities of their own. She'd have to change that. Despite how much she and Arthur bonded over whining about paperwork, they would have much free time over the winter. Perhaps it was time again to take a more personal approach to the Church. While she had the chance.
---
I soared above the castle, streaking through the sky as the first rays of morning peeked over the horizon. I practiced my direction changes, darting to and fro as I approached the tall mountain in the distance.
It had been quite a while since I had last gone and visited Daedalus. Between cleaning up the snow and helping the Nighty Knights design challenges for the soldiers, things had been busy recently. We made sure to make them particularly difficult. After all, my followers in the castle were special to me.
But I finally had some time to myself. Even better, I finally had an idea of how to thank Daedalus for his help with the birthday presents. Besides the other half of the energy, I had to give him, of course. Plus, I felt a little bad about leaving him alone for so long.
Fortunately, I didn't think he'd mind the extra days too much. If he had been sitting there for tens of thousands of years, he must have been incredibly patient. Either that or his sense of time required some retuning. He did mention that time passed differently for a dragon. Something about immortality and patience.
It only took me a little bit to reach the top of the mountain. I zipped into the cave eagerly. The snow up here was perpetual and more solid than the stuff at the castle. Based on the mountaintop's whiteness, even during summer, perhaps it never melted.
Well, at least it was cleaner when it wasn't being trudged through and mucked about by humans. I couldn't really blame them, though. They had to get around somehow, and not everyone could fly. Something I pitied them greatly for.
I called out a greeting before I entered the cave. Daedalus gave a snort, which I interpreted as a welcome. The massive red dragon was evidently resting on his mountain of disorganized gold.
His toothy maw broke into a wide grin as he saw me. "Ah, Spot, my friend. I'm glad you're back so soon."
Examining the dragon's great wings, I saw they were straight and unbent, though there were still some faint tatters on one of them. I congratulated him on his recovery, and he flicked his tongue out nonchalantly. "Nah. 'Tis but a scratch. I've had worse. Did take a decent amount of energy to heal from, though. I only just woke up from the nap a couple of days ago, honestly. So it's good you came by now."
I expressed my relief at Daedalus's health and inquired if he was ready to receive the second half of his energy.
"No, not yet. I think perhaps in a week or so," Daedalus said, disappointedly sighing. "I would like to gain some more levels, but if I took it now, a lot of it would be wasted. The stuff would go towards healing the last of this wing. It'll fix up by itself soon enough."
I beeped in understanding,
"So, what have you been up to, little friend?"
We settled into a comfortable conversation about what I had been doing in the valley. Daedalus occasionally chuckled at the humans' antics or asked questions about the castle. Eventually, the conversation came around as to why I was originally here.
Digging into my dustbin, I brought my gift. I had intentionally only kept it in there for a short while to avoid whatever magical contamination I tended to impart on things. Daedalus was extremely powerful. I imagine it would have been unpleasant to eat something that had gained magic powers. Besides, I was worried about it changing the taste. That would have made Cassie upset.
The pies she had won her award for were fruit- and berry-based, but I wasn't exactly sure what dragons ate. Judging based on their teeth, they weren't like the sheep or humans, who enjoyed eating plants. I didn't see how the fibrous quality would work with the sizable jagged teeth, so I asked her to make a meat pie. Apparently, there were a lot more kinds of meat pies than I had expected, and it had taken a little bit to settle on a nice shepherd's pie.
Some freshly butchered mutton, potatoes, and many other unfamiliar ingredients had gone in. I was interested in cooking to the extent of providing for my humans, but it wasn't my calling at all. Kind of like Beatrice's alchemy. Still, it was impressive to watch. I had great fun observing all the spices combined in ways that left me entirely confused about their purposes. There were many times that I was confident that humans wouldn't be able to detect such minute differences in the composition of a dish. Still, I was assured that every step was necessary.
Daedalus reacted immediately as I removed my offering from my dustbin. A gale of wind was pulled from the mouth of the cave as he breathed in with his nose. "Hmm. That smells heavenly, my friend. Did you bring that for me?"
I couldn't help but chuckle inwardly at the avarice in the dragon's tone as he attempted to peer nonchalantly at the steaming pastry.
The pie was freshly baked this morning. In fact, that was the main reason I had left the castle so early. I thought that asking Cassie to make me a pie was a fairly standard request, but it had caused much hullabaloo in the castle as she immediately dropped what she was doing and went to fulfill it. It was a bit excessive, and I tried to explain that there was no rush, but she was insistent about making me one immediately. At least it meant the pie was fresh.
I held it aloft with my air manipulation. Slowly, I floated it over to him, but as his tongue started to dart out from his scaly maw, I decided I had teased him enough and let him know it was indeed his.
With the confirmation, Daedalus's eyes flashed. The dragon's neck stretched forward, bringing his great head toward the tiny pastry. Rather than snatch it up whole, he showed some admirable manners by licking up a single morsel. Daedalus closed his eyes in pleasure as he closed his mouth, savoring the taste.
I couldn't say I fully understood the sensation. I'd seen humans react similarly to tasty food, but I just didn't get the same pleasure from it. I had tried vacuuming it up a few times, but it felt the same as anything else. I supposed it might have been the same feeling I would get after cleaning a dusty room, but it didn't quite match the level of contentment I was observing.
This show went on for some time. Nearly sixteen minutes later, the ceramic dish was thoroughly licked clean. I couldn't even tell that it had ever held a pie, even with my advanced scanners. It was pretty impressive, really.
"That was excellent." Daedalus sighed contentedly. "Worth every last morsel. Thank you, friend."
I indicated that it was no big deal. It was the least I could do, considering everything he had done to make Beatrice's birthday so magnificent. He suggested he'd do it all again for another dish like that.
Eventually, I found that neither of us would concede the point, so I decided to change topics as I had already given my gift. I pulled out a deck of cards borrowed from the library. His eyes lit up. Not to the same level as when he'd smelled the pie, he seemed to recognize the item. "I haven't had a good game of cards in at least 10,000 years! I wonder, do you think they're the same as I remember?"
He motioned for me to lay them out on the floor. And so I did, spreading them out into a neat grid all face-up. In ascending order by suit and number, of course. The dragon scanned them. "No, they're very different. I don't remember there being four suits, but I suppose I can learn. So, do you know any games?"
***
Daedalus nudged the card forward with his claw, and I flinched as I was forced to drop one card from my hand back into the pile before us. It had been a low-probability move, but I had gotten unlucky. This game was far more interesting than the ones I had played with Beatrice. Solitaire was my favorite, but the unpredictability of the cards was interesting.
"I can feel Archibald slowly returning to consciousness." Daedalus said as he made his next move. I asked if he had any idea how long it would be before Archibald awoke, and the massive dragon's shoulders heaved up and down in a very dragon-like shrug. "Not really. His progression isn't linear. It could be a couple of weeks. It could be a year or more."
Daedalus didn't seem to really care how long it would take, just the fact that it was going to happen. And by his timescale, it seemed like it would happen any minute now.
"Did I ever tell you why Archibald got that way?"
I replayed the scene Beatrice described from her understanding of the events. It was vague but involved an army of humans fighting a demon. I took some artistic liberties with the carvings from the catacombs. Images of the hero statue underneath the earth and some catacombs being built to protect the site followed.
Daedalus watched the slideshow with a sad look on his face. "I suppose I haven't. I don't know the whole story, to be honest. Doubt anyone does nowadays. Well, what you have is mostly true at least, but there are a good deal more details that you're leaving out."
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