We walked the forest with our bodies tucked into shadow. The tall conifers cut off the moonlight and left it dark.
Elfera went ahead, crystal horn aglow, hooves clopping in a quick, steady rhythm. The soft, natural light didn’t draw eyes from far away, and the brightness was just enough to show the path.
“Stay on the grass. No footprints.”
At my words, Varen stepped off the dirt track and up onto the sward. He tipped his head and asked,
“How do you know things like that? Have you run before?”
Minimizing traces during a night march is the kind of basic anyone who’s done conscript night drills would know. I couldn’t be bothered to explain and waved it off.
Serif periodically shot into the sky. From high above it surveyed the whole forest for risk factors. If it spotted humans along our route, it dove straight down.
A reliable scout with one problem.
“Chirp! Chyeeeak!!”
“Shh. Serif, you have the loudest voice here.”
We were killing even the sound of our footsteps to avoid detection, and the sparrow’s thunderous chatter echoed like a shout.
I pressed my index finger to my lips and begged for mercy, but there was no changing a voice born big.
“They’re setting traps to the west. We should go north.”
Varen translated Serif’s report without fail.
I pulled a map and compass from my pack. These too were gifts from the Spirit—enchanted items.
“We’re here.”
It was a full map of the Alberian Kingdom. Over a patch thick with little trees, a red dot hovered. The magic marked our current position like a navigation pin.
If we took the shortest route, we could reach the Eterna Nest in a week, just as the Spirit had said.
The problem was, Dragon Hunters had set a line along that corridor. Safer to detour even if it took time.
“It’ll add a few days, but we’re going north.”
I checked bearing with the compass and stood. Kallen came up behind me with a worried face.
“Ceryl, it’s bitter cold up north. The terrain’s rough, and there aren’t many good places to hide.”
If Serif was good at finding a way, Kallen knew the land. It helped to have a local.
“We can’t swing east or south. That could take more than a month.”
“But...”
“Let’s try it first. Cold is better than hunters.”
I ruffled the admirable orange head once and took point. Kallen pouted and whispered to Elfera,
“I don’t think Ceryl understands how scary nature is.”
As if I didn’t know. I swallowed the retort.
We walked through the woods all night and hid when the sun rose. Caves were safest.
Elfera whickered.
Finding a hide was the shadow lizard’s job.
Rami rode the shadows and checked the caves one by one in the vicinity, then came back with a perfect hide with no human sign.
On reaching a cave, the first order of business was cooking. I reached deep into the pack and rummaged until my hand found what I wanted.
The Spirit’s pantry, however, was short on ingredients for human meals. A dented pot, potatoes, and hard bread—everything.
“I’ll go gather something edible.”
“Be careful.”
Kallen and Elfera stepped back outside. As an herb farmer’s daughter, Kallen was good at pulling supplies from the wild.
I filled the dented pot with the Spirit’s canteen. It was river water, straight out of the stream—ice-cold.
There was no making a proper meal like this. We couldn’t light a fire inside the cave, either.
But I had a portable burner. A very powerful one.
“Varen, boil this.”
“How much?”
“Till it’s at a rolling boil.”
Varen pressed both palms to the pot. White light bled through, and bubbles began to climb through the cold water.
Elfera whickered again.
At the bold sound I glanced down: Rami was peeling potatoes with her tail held stiff. Long and slender, it was sharp enough to stand in for a kitchen knife.
“My little one. Are you helping your dad?”
A bright trill.
“There you go—your tail’s like a blade. As fierce as any predator.”
Another pleased trill.
High on praise, the lizard swept her tail in a flourish. Potato skins rattled off in an instant.
Good, good, good. I clapped and grinned. From across the way came a derisive snort.
“Hmph. You call that a tail.”
Varen, not to be outdone, produced his own golden, plump tail.
He didn’t actually do anything with it. He just let it sway, showing off its elegant line.
“Ceryl, I brought a lot of Kalium mushrooms.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
Kallen came back with a basket heaped with mushrooms.
Kalium mushrooms were excellent cooking material—packed with juices like meat and satisfying to chew.
I made a stew loaded with mushrooms and potatoes and warmed the bread over the steam. For an outdoor meal, it was excellent.
Elfera and Rami went out and fed themselves and came back. Kallen shoveled down stew in a hurry.
“Wow, Ceryl. This is so good! How are you good at cooking too?”
“I’m not. I threw it all in and boiled it.”
“You’re amazing. I can’t cook at all. I guess I’m not getting married.”
This isn’t some pre-modern arranged-marriage world. She still had bread crumbs all over her mouth—still a kid.
I was about to toss in a line, but something else was scratching my nerves harder than Kallen’s future.
“Are you really not going to eat?”
“I don’t want human food.”
A dragon being picky about side dishes.
Varen sat with his back to the cave wall, arms folded, watching from afar while Kallen and I ate.
A dragon could go long without eating and not be in danger. I knew that, but I wasn’t about to sit and watch him starve in front of me.
“We can’t exactly go fishing right now. Don’t be difficult. Eat this for now.”
“No.”
With a palate that picky, how did he survive the underground prison?
Catching the chill in the air, Kallen ladled herself another bowl of stew. She tilted her head back on purpose and downed it in one shot, then scraped the pot clean of the rest.
“Ahh, I’m full. I could sleep a bit now.”
She patted her belly and headed for the back of the cave. She pulled two worn blankets from the pack.
One she spread on the stone floor; the other she rolled up as a pillow. An undemanding girl, she fell asleep the moment her head touched the makeshift bed despite the discomfort.
I gave the dishes a rough clean and stood. Then I moved to the entrance.
From there I could see both the back of the cave and the outside at a glance.
“You sleep too. We have to move at night.”
“And you?”
“I’ll take the watch.”
I was so tired a tap could have knocked me over. My feet were swollen from the all-night march; my lower back felt like it might snap.
Serif was flying overwatch, and both Elfera and Rami were quick to any sign of life. Most of all, there was a dragon who could smell human scent from a hundred kilometers away.
But you never know when some mage might creep up with all trace erased. I couldn’t let my guard down.
“Ceryl, I’ll keep watch. You rest.”
Varen started to come closer, but I jerked my chin toward the back of the cave.
“You go lie down. During a growth spurt you eat well and sleep well. Like her.”
Kallen, who ate well and slept well, was already snoring.
“Krrr—khk! Hrrm... krrrrkh.”
It sounded like sleep apnea. She must have been dead tired.
“A dragon does fine without sleep. So—”
“Just listen. Go to sleep.”
Varen kept insisting he’d take the watch, but I didn’t yield the spot. We went back and forth a few times; in the end he went to the back and lay down.
Only then did I let my exhausted eyes close for a moment. I pressed around my eye sockets, massaged them, and opened up again.
It helped. The cobwebs cleared. It’s a home remedy I’ve used since the exam-cram days.
Even lying down, Varen kept turning over. Sleep wouldn’t come.
But I couldn’t put him on watch. Yes, he could go without eating or sleeping.
I still had to save his strength—no, his mana—any way I could.
***
The hump came fast. It had been only three days since we left the Spirit’s Domain.
“Hah... ha...”
“You okay? Can you walk?”
I caught Varen’s arm as he staggered. The skin under my palm burned.
Sweat poured off him like rain. His already pale skin looked whiter under the moon.
“Hot...”
He forced out the single word and lurched again. I braced with my whole body to keep him up. A weight that could have been a ton pressed on my shoulder.
“No helping it. Rami, find us a place to rest.”
A sharp trill.
The growing pains hit Varen every night. It eased when the sun rose; when the moon came up, the high fever dropped him.
An incompletely awakened dragon suffered pain every time he used strength. Even holding Humanization took considerable mana.
For a novice dragon who didn’t yet know how to handle power, it was hard.
In the end, two hours after setting out, we had to find another cave. I settled Varen comfortably, soaked a cloth in cold water, and laid it on his forehead.
“What should we do. The Dragon looks very sick.”
“Don’t worry. Growing pains. You hurt when you get taller.”
“Goodness—he’s going to get taller here?”
Kallen set her jaw like a nutcracker and looked down at Varen in worry. In a few days she’d gone from charging at her target for revenge to feeling attached to him.
“I’ll look for Erhaim leaves nearby.”
“What’s that?”
“An herb with antipyretic effect. I {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} don’t know if it works on monsters, but it’s better than nothing.”
The herb farmer’s daughter put to work what she’d learned over shoulders. I told her again and again not to go far—it was dangerous.
As soon as Kallen headed into the dark woods, Elfera followed. It was a relief she had a best friend.
Elfera might be gentle, but aside from the dragon she was the strongest monster in these woods. You couldn’t ask for a better bodyguard.
