Dragons. What is there to say about dragons?

They are gargantuan monstrosities. They are cunning and ruthless tyrants. They are powerful, and their ability to fly means few bound to the earth are capable of challenging them. They hoard wealth of all kinds.

They are common features in stories, often as the villain. However, a few do take the role of mentor or savior.

Yet I would say that the most important feature of dragonkind that is often forgotten amidst the spectacle is the fact that they are literal forces of nature. The colour of the scales represents the disaster they herald. Such things simply fail to be described in popular stories.

- Notes on Dragonkind, authored by Voxis Verygood.

We needed to travel east. That was the thought that crashed through my mind amidst the awe of the spectacle that I was witnessing, and was indeed far from over. Jevi and I had fought over the road we would travel, and swore to honour the outcome of that duel. What that now meant was that we needed to cross the eastern bridge leading away from Burden Bridge, else there would be consequences.

There were a few problems with that. There were attackers in the town, and while I could identify where they had been by the burning fires in the distance, I didn’t know anything about how many there were, how they were operating, or even what they were. Now that a dragon was here, the likelihood of the attackers being human had dropped dramatically.

Then there was the fact that the dragon was between us and the bridge. A freaking dragon.

Not an illusion like what I saw back in Veliki.

A physical, genuine, gargantuan dragon.

If it suited the beast, it could destroy the bridge, and make my and our journey much more difficult. It could do it at any time. I somehow doubted there were any grand adventurers nearby with the power necessary to slay such a monster, and so it was something that we would have to fight our way around and not through, no matter how much Weldon wanted to justice the dragon.

The only saving grace was the fact that we were already on the eastern side of town, and had been moving in that direction for some time. Therefore we didn’t need to travel as far as we might have. Soon we would encounter the river flowing from the north east, and would know if it was safe to traverse the bridge or not. This was counterbalanced by the fact that Jevi had become extremely unwell for some godsforsaken reason, and Weldon was the only one of us strong enough to carry her, leaving me as the only one capable of fighting.

I couldn’t even use the blade of mine that possessed a longer reach!

One truth hanging over all of this was that if we did not get moving, then we would be damned. We didn’t have all that far to travel, there were undoubtedly enemies in the way seeing how we were effectively going into enemy territory, and people, while they had already been screams in the distance, started screaming more than they used to.

“Weldon.” I snapped. The boy jolted, his eyes darting from where the silver flames had been to me. “I need to trust you. It goes against my very being, but I need to trust you.”

“I am trustworthy.” Weldon declared reflexively, then cocked his head. After listening to someone who was not there, he added, “To all who do not tread a darker path.” He nodded. “But I must say that was very hurtful.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time around people who could not keep their word despite their best intentions.” I was still keeping an eye out, and replied flippantly. Mom and dad living in the shadow of the Shepards coming to mind. “We must leave this town tonight. We both can fight, but only you have the strength to carry another. Therefore you must be the one to transport Jevi until she can either stand for herself, or she no longer needs your assistance for another reason. Do you understand that?”

I kept a wary eye on the road leading away from us as we spoke, looking in both directions. The dust in the air had reached waist height and didn’t show any signs of stopping. Some parts of me wanted to puzzle over what colour of dragon had entered the town to produce such a regional effect, and so quickly too, but I quelled those parts before they could make a fuss.

“I…” Weldon was still conflicted. He wasn’t just being told what to do by me.

“Lavina, you’d best not be making arguments against protecting the Chosen of Kinli.” I growled, surprising myself with my aggression.

Weldon’s fist landed in his open palm. Quite a feat considering he was carrying Jevi. “So that’s why people were trying to kill her!”

He flinched before I could reprimand him. “Now is not the time, Chosen boy!” Lavina likely said something along those lines as well. At least it meant she was siding with me on that one.

“I understand. I understand.” Weldon insisted, and adjusted how he was carrying our companion. “I shall be her transport until she can safely be put down.”

I didn’t like the wording. In my mind, if sacrificing Jevi meant my continued survival, I’d hesitate, but I’d do it. The same was true for Weldon. Casien had wanted to help me and in turn I had pushed him into Hell. Now there was a barrier in the way of such sacrifice. Strangely, I didn’t feel that bad about losing that potential escape.

“And I shall be the sword.” I agreed, mindful of the fact that I was brandishing a dagger. “Let us move.”

It didn’t take ten minutes for us to encounter conflict.

Most of Burden Bridge was cast in darkness. The fire that had taken down the towers and other buildings hadn’t spread by any great means, and were spread out to begin with. The towering fires cast light up, but not around. As for the streets, they were sparsely lit by torches which fleeing people had mostly stolen, meaning much of the town, if not the majority, was cast in darkness. Though for me that darkness was well lit and cast in shades of orange.

This let us identify when people were approaching well in advance, though that only worked for large groups and let isolated people approach us mostly unawares. A human wearing armour with no insignias approached us that way, though I heard his approach at the last second and was able to stop an attack on Weldon.

That attacker was disarmed and knocked unconscious in a manner of seconds, and I left Weldon to leave him to his final end. He was human, and didn’t wear anything I could use to identify him, not even decorated armour. His was leather, but I put him out of my mind.

Just as I ignored the deer that ran past an alley in the periphery of my vision when I heard the blood splatter.

Twice, we doubled back to avoid large groups of people waving around torches and weapons. The first were humans as best I could figure, though they weren’t wearing guard uniform much like the man who attacked us, so we didn’t make contact with them. They were heading in a different direction to us anyway. The second were not human at all.

I hadn’t learned much draconic in Veliki, not having any dragonborn or dragon kin to interact with, nor any fanatics that made a point of only speaking the language. Yet I had listened to it enough to allow me to recognise when it was being spoken. Despite this, the speakers were not any of the races I expected to see.

They were shorter than me, with the tallest likely coming up to my shoulder, not that I went over to check. Each of them walked with a natural hunch, had reddish brown fur, snouts with fangs visible even when closed, and moved with a grace that was somehow both more and less clumsy than an average man in armour. Yet their armour was barely worth being called as such. It would’ve been more accurate to call any given one’s armour a harness, with strips of metal connecting various parts together along with a healthy amount of leather.

Thankfully, their harnesses kept them decent. I wouldn’t have wanted to fight such creatures in such numbers anyway, but the prospect of doing so while their bodies were on display… I shuddered at the thought.

Their evident inhumanity aside, they were clearly intelligent. While the human band had been ragtag and scarcely organised, this group of creatures moved with an inherent order. Never spreading far from the core of the group, looting valuables that could be carried as they came across them, and from what I could tell there was little banter or arguing over what to do.

What cautioned me against them the most, however, was the beast that they tugged along behind them. It was massive compared to the creatures leading it, and could best be described as a whale with tortoise legs and was about half the size of a single floored building. The monster was sniffing around a lot, but its minders were always quick to lash it back in the direction they were going.

This whole time the dragon Sathteel had made a few movements, even taking to the air once more. Gouts of silver lit up the horizon in places I could not see multiple times before one came from above, thankfully far to the west and away from us. The silver fire burned strong, but quickly turned to a more normal reddish shade. The town was quickly becoming less inhabitable. The dragon’s dust had not yet reached our mouths yet, though I had little expectation it would stop rising anytime soon. That was actually what made me realise what the creatures were.

Kobolds did not have any direct relation to dragonkind, but worshipped them all the same. If ever there were a race of fanatics, Kobolds were them. It was difficult recalling details from a lesson I genuinely did not care about in the School of Paper from five years before, so I wasn’t able to recall any more information than that. Which was frustrating because I distinctly remembered racial habits, tactics, and weaknesses being a significant portion of that class. All I recalled was their description, and only because I witnessed them with my own eyes.

I still did not recognise the monster.

Still, we passed them safely, only to encounter another conflict.

The fight we chanced upon was not one we necessarily needed to take part in, though I recognised one of the participants. It was Attler, the boy who could not kill, fighting a group of four kobolds. As we approached, I noticed one more running off into the distance, quickly becoming obscured by the rising dust.

Attler was not armoured, was wielding a spear that he was deftly using to keep his attackers at bay, and was sporting two red spots on his torso. Both were spreading from under the shirt. He also appeared to be protecting a building, going by the placement of the fighters. Opposing him were three armed and armoured kobolds, as well as another that was just armoured all in a semicircle. Though calling the kobolds ‘armed’ was perhaps a stretch, seeing how their blades didn’t have any finesse to them. The jagged and rusty pieces of metal instead possessed a different kind of menace.

They had clearly been standing off like this for a while. The Kobolds were cautious, and even had a few wounds themselves, though nothing on the level of Attler. They danced at the fringes where his spear could reach, clearly waiting for Attler’s blood loss to affect him before approaching for the killing blow.

I didn’t need to save him. Four against one wasn’t something I could necessarily win, and I wasn’t certain how my swordfighting would measure against a standard kobold, yet I paused all the same.

“Amber, why have we stopped?” Weldon questioned when my hesitation stretched from one second to five.

“Fuck.” I swore, making Weldon gasp, positively scandalised. I rounded on him and shoved my dagger close to his face. “I blame you and all your positive intentions for this. Hide here. I will return.”

“I don’t understand.” Weldon protested.

“I’m about to do a good deed.” I spat, disgusted at the very notion. “In the middle of a crisis, even. Do not make me repeat myself.” Then I turned and stalked towards Attler’s fight, careful to not stomp too loudly, though the screams and sound of swords in the distance obscured my footsteps well enough. Weldon hid himself and Jevi, hopefully.

He’d better have.

The direction I approached from allowed me to reach the leftmost kobold without drawing attention to myself. In fact, I was able to smash the pommel of my dagger against the back of his or her head to knock them unconscious and start moving towards the next one before anyone noticed me.

“Emer?” Attler panted.

His surprise at my ambush was fine, justified even. It was a spectacular knockout strike that was done so perfectly that I almost managed to perform another like it on a second kobold. Unfortunately, his awe at my work alerted said kobold to my presence, and I had to turn a pommel strike into a hasty deflection when their sword was moved in my direction.

“Shut up!” I pointed at Attler with my off hand as the three kobolds started talking in their draconic tongue. “You may not be able to kill, but there are other methods to winning a mortal battle.”

In the next moment I countered another strike from the kobold that just slashed at me, twisting their weapon out of their hands and drawing a line of blood up their arm as I danced around them, avoiding another strike from another kobold as I went.

I knocked the unarmed kobold out before catching another strike from their companion. After locking blades for a second, I heard a grunt and conceded the clash to the snarling kobold. The originally unarmed kobold swiped at me moments later, managing to catch its claws on my cloak and making the fabric tear some.

I scowled and prioritised him. He was not a pugilist that relied on strength, preferring a lighter and faster style of combat much like myself, meaning I had to put in effort different to how I normally fought to put this one down. Still, the second time he kicked at me I was able to twist aside and introduce my dagger to his ankle. The point came out the other side, though I quickly pulled back my weapon. I did not know if dismembering limbs was included in my curse, so I did not remove the foot entirely, but walking on it would be difficult for that kobold going forward.

A smile spread across my face as it howled in pain and failed to maintain its footing. In that moment, its last remaining companion lunged at me with a roar. I wasn’t able to react in time, though I did not need to. The shaft of a spear thrust past my shoulder and the tip of the weapon embedded itself in the kobold’s sword arm. It was unable to hold on and the makeshift steel clattered to the ground.

It snapped in pain and anger as the spear was pulled back and turned around, then it snapped no more as the butt of the spear came down over its head. As a quick afterthought, I knocked out the kobold at my feet as well. It looked as though it was getting ideas about its sharp fangs and my own ankles.

“It’s a shame you cannot kill.” I said, turning to face Attler. “Surviving while outnumbered is not simple, and that stab was well aimed.”

“I just did my best.” Attler put on a strange expression at my praise, though it quickly passed as he struggled to breathe deeply. He placed a hand over his larger wound as he stumbled and muffled a pained groan.

“Follow me.” I told him. “One of them ran for reinforcements, and you won’t survive another fight like that. I have a friend that can help you, and I have a use for you.” If you carry Jevi, Weldon can be freed to fight. And he’s the only one around who I know can kill.

“I have to stay here.” Attler protested, turning away toward the house he had been protecting. “These people gave me food and shelter after my discharge. I’m not much, but I can at least be grateful.”

I glanced towards the house, seeing no sign of it being inhabited. By focusing on my listening glyph, I wasn’t able to hear anything from inside.

“They left you behind, Attler.” I told him. “Follow me and you may be appreciated.” And with that I turned back to where I had left Weldon and began walking. I didn’t have any more time to spend trying to convince Attler to follow me. The dragon had landed again during that fight, and I wasn’t comfortable with how close it was.

“Weldon!” I barked as I approached his position.

“Over here!” He shouted from around a corner.

I glanced behind before moving that way and found Attler stumbling in my direction. He was looking less steady on his feet now that any pressing danger had passed, though that wouldn’t be a problem if things worked out as I hoped them to. I turned the corner and froze, my mind halting at the sight before me.

Weldon wasn’t alone.

Worse.

Avien was there.

Fucking how? He was supposed to be travelling to Juvel still! It didn’t make any sense for him to be here. He couldn’t be here unless he’d made some kind of deal for express passage across the country, and it wouldn’t be the kind that was paid with simple coin.

I couldn’t tell what was worse. That Avien had, likely through luck of the draw, caught up with me here and now during such a crisis, or that he was kneeling over the unconscious body of Jevi, scratching his perfect fucking jaw in thought as though he could puzzle out what was wrong with her!

Not only that, there was another figure aside from Avien and Weldon in the group. A female figure that stood a few steps apart, appeared to be the eldest among us, yet clearly showed deference to Avien.

How my blood boiled at the sight.

“Emer?”

Attler was my saving grace. His voice brought me out of whatever stupor this surprise had induced, and returned to me my rational mind. The biggest problem here right now was not the fact that Attler was wounded, nor was it the fact that a dragon was laying claim to this town. No, the problem here was that I didn’t have my hood up.

“follow. don’t ask questions.” I told Attler, speaking as I had when Avien last spoke to ‘Emer’. The key to a disguise was consistency, or something or other, but it was difficult to pitch my voice enough to be heard under these conditions. Without checking to see if Attler heard me I walked up to the group, mindful to pull up the one thing that would protect me from my nemesis before he glanced my way. My dagger was returned to its scabbard before I announced my arrival. “weldon.”

“Yes, uh?” He halted right on the cusp of saying my real name. “What’s wrong?”

I pointed at Attler, then looked at him meaningfully.

“Oh! You want me to heal him! Do you know this man?”

I felt Attler’s eyes pass over me searchingly before he responded. “Emer saved me, but I was already wounded.”

Seconds passed as the gears in Weldon’s head turned. It wasn’t even him that figured it out, he cocked his head as Lavina whispered in his ear before jumping to his feet and rushing over to heal our newest... companion? It felt too soon to say such a thing.

As he did that I approached where fucking Avien was kneeling next to the princess of this country. He glanced up as I approached and although I was positioning my hood to make eye contact impossible, I still felt him smile.

“Emer! I wasn’t expecting to run into you here, but I guess fate had other ideas.”

I didn’t let my expression change. Though my mind was roiling with every word. It wasn’t that the words he was saying were so fucking bland, but that I felt tension on my strings. Something wanted me to throw off my hood, say ‘It’s me!’, and wrap this fucking guy in a hug.

I will not let that happen.

With nary a tremor, I took Jevi’s hand and grasped it. I looked over her face in a kind of shy manner, heeding what Jevi had told Avien about ‘me’ when last ‘we’ spoke and recalling how she had treated me.

“Your companion explained to me what happened to Rubes, and I thought I could perhaps diagnose her malady.” Avien sighed, seemingly genuine about the depths of his regret. “Unfortunately, I was not able to determine the cause. The only affliction I could think of with such an effect could not apply, unless your friend is secretly from another plane of existence.”

I know what’s wrong. I thought bitterly, not letting it show on my face. She’s the crown princess, effectively Chosen by her people to be the next monarch. And those people just declared civil war. Her soul is at war with itself. I was aware that Avien had no way to possibly know that, and that I was only hypothesising. But... You think you have the solution to everything, don’t you? I’ll bet this is just tearing you up inside.

“The fluctuations of a dragon arriving can sometimes cause those sensitive to the whims of All to react strangely.” Avien continued, heedless of my silent rant. “Though in that case, the effects are random, determined by hundreds of different factors.” BORING! “I’ve administered a dose of copper nectar for the time being. Already, her breathing has improved. Though only time will allow any recovery.”

I stared at Jevi’s face, now a touch more relaxed than last I saw her. … I’ll give you that one.

“You could at least say thank you.” Avien’s female companion butted in with a nasally voice and a standoffish tone. She sounded younger than I first thought.

I wanted to react. To take my dagger to her neck and demand what exactly I should be thankful for. But I restrained myself, aware that taking such action would out me for who I was.

“It’s alright, Zap,” Avien quickly said, and I had to stop myself from snorting. “Emer is a little shy, and I’m certain she’s worried about her friend.”

“thanks.” I uttered right as Avien finished talking, so as to make it difficult to tell if I had even said anything at all. The pleased but not quite smug feeling I could feel rolling off of him told me Avien had seen through that particular ruse. It made me want to groan, too. At least the dust was obscuring me now that I was crouched.

He pushed himself off the ground and made it to his feet, standing tall, though all I really saw of him was the hand he placed on the pommel of his promised sword. I could see that his clothes were made as armour that appeared to be simple clothes, though the glints of steel I could see were unmistakable. Avien was likely the most armoured of all of us, and Weldon was wearing solid breastplate.

“This reunion has been a surprise, though not an unwelcome one. Unfortunately, my companion and I must continue by ourselves.” Avien said, pitching his voice so all of us could hear.

“Where are you going?” Attler asked, already sounding better. “There’s enemies all around, and the army and guard have pretty much vanished.”

“We’re going to fight a dragon.” Avien declared, likely striking a pose.

This time I couldn’t stop myself from reacting. I pressed my palm against my face and groaned.

\V/