Dragon Tamer's Situation

We left Heafdes in a carriage of seven people, including myself. The driver, Azariah, Kiaran, Aubrey, Frerare, Cesre, and myself. Azariah is sitting in front along with the driver while the rest of us are both sitting inside the carriage. She decided to sit up there soon after we left, and I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm kind of wishing that I could switch places with her. Even if I have the sun to worry about

"So could you really fly at the age of four?"

"Yes, the dragons of the Antisor teach their young shortly after their birth. I guess I was kind of a late bloomer to them…"

Question, after question, after question. I'm not self absorbed enough to enjoy talking about myself for hours on end, but I wish I was. Frerare and Cesre were nervous from my presence at first, but after that weared off they started asking me everything they could possibly ask about me. I was spoiled by Azariah and her friends, this is how it usually goes between people who don't know me.

"Did you ever nearly die in the Antisor Mountains?" Cesre asks.

"Yes, many times. It was less and less as I was growing up, but the place is still really dangerous."

"Say, you are human, right? Like, completely human?" Freware asks.

"Both my parents were human, and I've not grown to a level where I can switch races, so yes, I most definitely am human."

"But you were raised by dragons, right?" Freware asks again.

"This is starting to get personal, but my mother was a human who lived with dragons, and my father only visited occasionally, so I spent my entire childhood growing up around dragons much more than humans."

"Really? How often do you get to see your parents, then?" Freware asks, my annoyance grows even further.

"I see my father regularly in Heafdes. As for my mother, she rarely leaves the Antisor Mountains, and I haven't visited her in a while. I'd like to visit soon. I'm sure my sister would also be glad to see me."

"Sister? You never mentioned having a sister." This time Aubrey is the one to cut in.

"Yes, I have a half sister that lives with my mother in the Antisor Mountains. You probably wouldn't want to meet her though. She's a dragonkin and she can be a bit… prejudiced against humans who don't meet her standards…"

"Huh? Your sister's a dragonkin!? But I thought you were human?" Kiaran asks me.

"I said she was my half sister. We share a mother but my father is human while her's is a dragon. Can we please stop talking about my family please?"

Everybody seems to have finally taken the hint and have stopped talking to me. I was honestly really happy when Azariah, Kiaran, and Aubrey all didn't recognize me. I hope that this doesn't cause Aubrey and Kiaran to start glorifying me like everybody else. Oh well, even if they do, Azariah will still probably treat me like an actual person.

><><><><

We travel for a few more hours, and nothing eventful happens. Eventually, our carriage needs to stop for a little break and we all get out to stretch our legs. If at all possible, I'd prefer to stay out of the sun, but I also need to walk around at least a little bit, so I exit the carriage with my umbrella.

We all separate a bit as we stretch. Our driver makes sure that everything's alright with the carriage while we walk around. We had stopped on a path in an open field with forest out on the horizon. Judging from the placement of the sun, it's probably nearing noon. Normal people have lunch around this time, but I stay up much later than most people so I'm not hungry yet.

"Hey Inell, I need to speak with you." As I'm trying to figure out the time of day, Aubrey walks up from behind me.

"Aubrey? What is it?"

"It's about Azariah." He speaks quietly so that the others can't hear us. Cesre is sitting in the shade of the carriage, Kiaran and Frerare are both talking with each other, and Azariah is sitting in the passenger seat of the carriage reading. No one would be able to hear us if we kept our voices down, but I can't figure out why Aubrey would want to keep this discussion secret.

"What about Azariah?"

"Can you go and ask her what she talked about to Lucidna and what that book is about?" Aubrey's question only confuses me even more.

"Why? Shouldn't you be the one to ask her?"

"I don't know how to interact with Azariah. I've heard from Kiaran that she respects you a lot, so I think she's more likely to answer a question from you than from me."

"Azariah does have a great deal of respect towards me, yes…" Which I personally think is insane, but I leave this part out "But you're her friend, aren't you? Surely she'd answer a question from a friend?"

"I don't know. She's so inexpressive I can never tell what she's thinking. She spoke with Lucidna privately too, and she hasn't spoken anything at all about that book she's reading." Aubrey says while passing a glance towards Azariah.

"Couldn't you just… you know, read the book? It has big bold letters on the cover."

"I can't read." Aubrey says, totally deadpanned. Oh… well this suddenly makes a bit more sense. It doesn't make total sense yet, but it makes more sense, at least.

"So the fact that Azariah seems to be keeping stuff from you is worrying you, and the fact you barely know anything about her is just amplifying that worry?"

"Yes."

"I very seriously doubt that Azariah's doing anything that would be dangerous to any of us. Dangerous to herself? Maybe, but doing anything to hurt anyone else is really outside of her personality."

"What do you mean "dangerous to herself?" Aubrey asks, his face contorting into a look of concern.

"Well, Azariah can be really obsessive towards the things she likes, which at worst can be really destructive." I remember just how happy she seemed as soon as she managed to fly even though she nearly died. "That obsessiveness plays a large part in how she acts. She's really timid but if she really gets going on something she enjoys she's not going to stop just because she's hurting herself. That's my view of her, at least."

Looking at Aubrey, he seems absolutely terrified. "Please ask her what she's up to."

"You know, you keep asking me for favors. Just when am I going to get anything in return?"

"Name your price." Aubrey says, completely seriously.

"H-hey I was just joking. I understand why you're worried but if it's affecting you this much then I'll go and ask her, OK?"

"Thank you."

I walk over to Azariah to ask her what she's reading. She seems to be too focused on her book to notice me at all. I look at the cover of her book and it reads "A Guide to Dreams and Magic, by Lucidna von Stein"

"Hey Azariah?" This causes her to look up from her book.

"Yes, Inell?"

"I was just wondering, what was it you were talking with Lucidna about before we left? Why did she give you that book?"

Azariah looks away as she starts to think.

"I had a strange dream the other night. Lucidna told me it might be some sort of entity trying to make a connection with me. She basically just told me what to do if that's what it is."

"Azariah, that can be incredibly dangerous… You aren't going to just form a connection to an entity you know nothing about, right?"

"Don't worry, Lucidna told me why I shouldn't, so I won't. Besides, this book she gave me is supposed to help me judge whether or not I should form a connection. I also haven't had another dream like it yet, so it might just have been a normal dream."

I sigh. "Well that's a relief. Be careful, OK? If you need any help with that, just talk to me. Although I doubt I'd be as much help as someone who wrote a book with that title…"

"OK, I will." Azariah says before she gets right back to reading. I guess this conversation is over then? Anyway, I head back over to Aubrey and tell him about what I talked about with Azariah."

"I see… is that dangerous?"

"It can be. She said that it could not even be the case, and even if it was it could be literally anything. Lucidna also made sure that she'd be careful, so I really doubt that there's anything to worry about."

"OK… I'll trust you on this. But this doesn't explain why she left for the passenger seat… Does she need to be alone to read, or is she doing something else?"

"Alright, now you're really reading too much into it."

"Are you sure?"

I remember what she said to me after she nearly died when I dropped her, and just how flustered she was when she realized what she said. I also saw her passing glances towards Freware and Cesre before she left for the passenger seat. I'm pretty sure I know why she did it. I seriously doubt that Azariah would look me in the eyes if I told Aubrey , so I'd rather not.

"Trust me, you're reading way too much into it."

"Hey Aubrey! When's lunch?! I'm starving!" Our conversation is interrupted. Good, I don't want to describe to Aubrey some of Azariah's more private character traits.

"I'll see about it, Freware. I'm getting kind of hungry myself. Inell? What about you?"

"Oh no, I'm not hungry. It's really unusual for me to be up this early."

"It's noon."

"I didn't stutter. Anyway, you guys can all have lunch without me. Azariah and I will eat later."

"Why are you speaking for Azariah?"

"Azariah also stays up really late, doesn't she? She's probably not hungry either. We'll eat later."

"But our driver won't allow us to eat in the carriage. If we stop a second time, we're going to get left behind by the rest of the carriages."

"Azariah and I can fly. We'll fly back, I'll be able to figure my way around this area."

"Is Azariah going to be happy about that?"

"You really know nothing about Azariah, do you? I very seriously doubt that Azariah would turn down an excuse to fly."

><><><><

Our driver, Aubrey, Kiaran, Freware, and Cesre all ate on our little break there. Azariah and I were dropped off a little later, and we ate together. Azariah didn't have any trouble flying back to the carriage, other than the fact that she didn't know the area or the path that our carriage was taking. Had she known those two things, she wouldn't have needed my help at all getting back.

Everything after that goes normally. After a while Azariah comes back into the carriage to try and sleep. Since the sun started setting I had decided to steal Azariah's passenger seat because I wouldn't be needing my umbrella. I do enjoy open carriages more than closed ones. I do have to worry about the sun because of my albinism but the sun's setting so I think I can get away with it.

Eventually the sun finally sets, revealing the stars. Night, my favorite part of the entire day, and the time I prefer to spend all my waking hours in. The moon is a few days away from being full. I wonder how the adventurers traveling with us that have a connection with Beira are thinking about that…

I continue to look at the stars. Apparently Azariah also quite enjoys doing this and I certainly can't blame her. It's still kind of twilight so most of them aren't visible yet, but watching for them as they become visible is also really fun. I'd like to continue watching the stars and making out constellations, but something's wrong. Something is triggering my instincts.

Growing up in an environment like mine, where death lurks around every corner, you learn really quickly to trust your gut. Now my gut is telling me that something's off, but what could it possibly be? I try to sense around our carriage. Search for any minor reverberations in the air that might even be slightly off.

"What's wrong?" Our driver looks up at me, in a serious tone. He appears to have realized I've noticed something and is reacting accordingly.

"I don't know. Something's wrong though. Be careful."

"I understand." Our driver grabs the reins tighter and begins focusing on the environment around him.

I try to pay more attention, and I finally notice something. Slight reverberations in the ground. Something is under us. Moving. Following us. I know where it is, I can sense it, but what do I do? Do I tell the driver to stop the carriage and do I attack the ground with a massive airblade? Or do I try to call out to it? I'm the one that makes the decision here.

I don't believe that I can hesitate. Anything that can travel underground with this degree of swiftness and swiftness will quickly overwhelm everyone here other than me. I try and make a sensible decision.

"Driver, something is under us. I'm going to fire a few warning shots at the ground. Be ready if it doesn't like that."

"I understand."

With the confirmation from the driver, I gather up a strong gust of wind, and fire it straight into the ground. I was aiming around the thing, and even if I was aiming for it, that attack wasn't enough to wound it at all if it's at that depth, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a strong attack. It sent ground flying up several meters into the air, and that explosion could likely be heard from several kilometers.

The lizard carrying our carriage freaks out when I do this, causing the carriage to shake violently. The driver does his best to calm his stead down and there's a huge commotion within the carriage as well, but I pay no attention to it. All of my focus is under the ground. Whatever's down there moves a bit away from our carriage but it continues to follow us.

Eventually the carriage stops and everybody comes running out.

"Inell! What happened?!" I don't even register who it was who said that. The only reason I even registered what was said is because it began to break my concentration.

"Shut up." I say, in a tone devoid of any emotion. It's absolutely dead serious. Everyone stops talking as I focus. Whatever's down there is resurfacing. "Listen to me. Don't attack unless it attacks first. If you do, I'll be the one who takes you down first." Everybody remains silent.

A section of ground around our carriage crumbles as the creature resurfaces it. The creature is quite large, big enough to swallow our entire carriage probably. It only pokes its head above the ground and does not expose any other part of its body. Even like that though, I can tell exactly what it is. An earth wyrm.

"Mr. Illeanes." It talks to me in Dragonic.

"What do you want? Why are you following us?" I respond in Dragonic. I highly doubt anyone other than me in this group knows the language, so everybody else is probably really confused.

"Lady Rita sent me to convey a message to you."

"Mother sent you? You are quite large for a wyrm, you're likely 300 at least… What did she send you for? Something about the monster congregation?"

"It might be related, although we're not sure yet."

"Stop speaking in riddles. What's the situation?"

"Some people have been putting mind control curses on many dragons, drakes, and wyrms across the northern parts of the Antisor mountains and the southern Emednes mountains."

"Mind control curses? Who's behind this and to what end? Does it have anything to do with the monster congregation?"

"We're not sure who's behind it, but Vincent Boreas is currently suspect number one. As for a motive, we have no clue. We're looking into if it's having anything to do with the monster congregation as we speak."

"Vincent Boreas?" Hearing that name mentioned, a few in our group noticeably seized up. Most notably, Azariah and Aubrey show no reaction at all, while Kiaran looks absolutely terrified.

"You said this is happening in the northern parts of the Antisor, right? My mother, sister and her father live further south, but I couldn't imagine them just sitting back and doing nothing. What are they up to?"

"Lady Rita currently has all her land on lockdown. She's been sending messengers like crazy, and is waiting back waiting for more information to act. As for Eriza, your sister… she's gone to the affected areas and has started beating all the mind controlled dragons into commission, as well as capturing some of the people behind it and delivering them back to Lady Rita."

"Solving a problem by punching it does sound very like her. What about Lord Ireon? Has the situation gotten to a point where he'd be involved?"

"It hasn't. He's still at Mount Veria with Lord Genesis. I don't believe he's even aware of what's happening, although that isn't information a lowly wyrm like me would know. Eriza has tried to break in several times to tell him, which went about as well as you'd expect."

"Eriza thinks it's bad enough to get her father involved? Is the situation really that bad or is it just her hot headedness again?"

"I think it's just Eriza's hotheadedness. The situation seems to be mostly under control now that we're cooperating with the dragons from the Ulfur Forest and the Emednes."

"Alright, one last question. Are any dragons, or dragon-like beings currently helping with the monster congregation?"

"According to all the sky drakes and earth wyrms we've sent out there, no. That isn't guaranteed though, you're aware just how expansive the caves around that area can be."

"So even if they did, it wouldn't be much, right?"

"Yes."

"Alright, has Mother sent a messenger to father yet? Or are you meant to be filling that role?"

"Lady Rita's sent a baby amphithere his direction. It should get there in two to three days. I'd go myself, but I obviously wouldn't be allowed in Heafdes."

"I understand. Is that all you need to say to me?"

"Yes."

"Then head back to the Antisor, and tell mother I'll be visiting her right after I've dealt with this monster congregation."

"Will do, sir Illeanes."

"Just Inell. I've done nothing to earn that honorific."

"If you say so."

This is the last the wyrm talks to me before burrowing its head back into the ground and dives again. It slithers down into the earth for a few dozen seconds before it waves its tail and dives down completely. It uses magic to cover the hole behind it.

I look back at the others, and they're completely frozen. They likely have no idea of what to even say. The only words they would've recognized from that entire conversation were "Vincent Boreas" and "Antisor" so I could see why they'd be afraid.

"Let's camp here for the night. I'll tell you everything, then we'll have dinner, alright?"

So I begin to tell them everything that happened in my conversation with the earth wyrm. About the situation in the Antisor, how Vincent might be involved, that this might have something to do with the monster congregation but it shouldn't mean that it's any more dangerous than before, I tell them everything.

"So… you're sure it's safe for us to continue on this mission?" Aubrey is the first one to break the awkward silence that follows.

"Well, nothing for certain right now, but around 95% yes. As long as we stick together we should be fine. I'll be more than enough to take care of any wyverns or wyrms that show up, and I'll be sure to notify you guys if anything having to do with Vincent comes up so we can run away."

"Is this Vincent Boreas person really that dangerous?" Everyone looks at Aubrey in shock. Except for Azariah, she also seems to be confused.

"Aubrey… are you really serious?" Freware asks him.

"Stop looking at me like that and just tell me. Seriously, isn't Kiaran the one who's supposed to be getting into situations like this?"

"Aubrey…" I begin "Vincent Boreas runs a massive crime syndicate, and the head of an underground death cult. Even having one of his underlings in the area is a sign that people as weak as you guys really shouldn't be getting involved."

"Yeah! Remember Memento?! The assassin I nearly died to a few weeks ago. She worked for Vincent, so I can guarantee that he and anyone connected to him is really bad news." Everyone looks at Kiaran in worry except for Azariah and Aubrey. I'm sure even I have a look of concern plastered on my face.

"Kiaran? You had a run in with one of Vincent's men?" I ask, the worry clear in my voice.

"Yeah, although I couldn't fight at all at the time, so I really doubt I left any sort of impression. I definitely would have died like, five times over if Ruse wasn't there though. If anything, she probably thinks I'm dead, she did leave me while I was bleeding out after all."

Azariah and Aubrey don't react at all to this. I suppose it makes sense that he would have told them about what happened, but it doesn't dampen any of my shock at hearing him say all this like it's just a normal day for him.

"Are you OK?" I say.

"I can talk about this all you want, but shouldn't we really be discussing the monster congregation?" Is his response.

"Kiaran's totally inappropriate response aside, how does this change our plans? Are we going to be proceeding like normal, what about you? What are you going to do?" Aubrey asks.

"This shouldn't change any of our current plans, no. Although if I do get another message from mother saying that Vincent is involved with the monster congregation I'd have to advise you guys to head back and let me handle it. As for me, I plan to visit my mother and sister immediately after the subjugation is done instead of back to Heafdes with all of you like I originally intended."

"That's fair, we'll go along with that." Aubrey says.

We don't talk about much else as dinner is prepared. As dinner starts, we all wind up forming our own groups. Our driver eats alone, Freeware and Cesre eat with each other, Aubrey and Kiaran eat with each other, and I wind up with Azariah. We're all eating the parts of a wild deer that some of the other adventurers gave us since it was too much for them all to eat. I watch Azariah bite into a piece of her meat and eats slowly. Like she's confused and she's trying to figure out whether or not she likes it.

"Is this your first time eating venison, Azariah?" I ask.

"Yes. It isn't like any other meat I've tasted. I know just from that bite I prefer steak, but other than that I'm not really sure where to rank it in terms of taste…"

"Say, Azariah, what is it you usually eat?"

"I usually only eat twice a day. Lunch at Kari's cult and dinner at the Figment Library. I just eat whatever they're happening to serve for the day. For some reason deer never seemed to have come up on the menu."

"Well, this trip should extend your palette quite a bit. There's quite a bunch of different monster meat that can taste really good. Although that may be my childhood talking.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Azariah and I continue eating. We're nearly done before she finally talks again.

"Hey Inell?"

"Yeah, Azariah?"

"Why don't you ever talk about your family?"

I pause, I'm not really sure how to answer this.

"They never really come up in conversation. I love them, but they're not really the kind of people you'd go bragging about. What about you? What about your family? I don't believe you've ever mentioned them?"

Azariah goes dead silent. For a second I'm really scared that I struck a chord I really shouldn't have.

"I think… it'll be better for me if I just forget them. It's not like I'll ever be able to see them again anyway."

"Hey, that isn't-"

"Before… before I came here, I had no friends. I had no siblings either. Just my parents. They're not dead but for me they might as well be… I'd rather not talk about it…"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. So I was just wondering if you were on the best terms with your family? Aren't you worried about what's happening in the Antisor mountains?"

"I am on good terms with all of them. My relationship with my sister's father is a bit complicated but other than that I hold them all dearly. I'm not worried for them because I know that my mother and sister aren't the type to get hurt in a situation like this."

"Hey Inell, you said that your sister was a dragonkin, right?"

"Yes, and my mother's known as the Mistress of Dragons, what of it?"

"Inell… after the monster congregation is dealt with… can you take me there to meet your mother and sister?"

I'm honestly shocked. Just what is Azariah trying to do here? Would she even get along with any of them? What about the situation happening right now? That also complicates things.

"Why?"

"Up until now I've lived a really sheltered life… I think that I'd like to meet new people and experience other cultures. So I'd really like to see your family and just where you grew up. You lived probably the most "different" life out of all of us."

"Azariah, just where are you from, exactly?"

Azariah pauses. Just why she's pausing when I ask her a simple question like this is beyond me.

"The Alibas domain. I only came up to Heafdes fairly recently."

"The Alibas domain? That's really close to where I live, actually. Are you sure you never got anywhere close to where I grew up?"

"Like I said, I lived a really sheltered life. My parents never let me out of their sight once until I was about 12. There's no way they would have let me anywhere near the Antisor mountains."

Oh… hearing that, I'm actually starting to feel really bad for Azariah. I'm sure she had it much easier than me in terms of just trying to survive but other than that I think we're more similar than I originally thought. Just hearing that makes a bunch of Azariah's mannerisms and personality traits make so much more sense.

"Well, I'll think about taking you with me, alright? My decision right now is "no" but depending on the information that comes my way, I'll think about changing my mind, alright?"

"Alright."

"Hey! You two! We have the tents up! Come to bed!" Freware yells at us from over at the carriage.

Looking over there, it appears the others finished eating and had enough time to set up tents while we were having that conversation. I'm getting really tired at this point but Azariah took a nap earlier so she's probably still wide awake.

"Hey Azariah? You OK With being watch?"

"Of course."

"Alright. OK! I'm coming! Azariah volunteered for watch duty!"