Trouble at the lake

"No," she shook her head, "Head, are you so concerned about your apprentice?"

"I am partly to blame for his illness," Liam said guiltily and pressed his lips together, and walked to the shore of the lake.

It was getting quite dark and chilly. Liam stumbled through the thick grass. His thoughts were confused all the time. On the one hand, he could not get the plant himself, and on the other, he could not fully trust a stranger. Standing beside him and Zhu-Er, Liam put the basket on the ground and started to make a fire.

"I need dried twigs, Zhu-Er," the hint was enough for Liam to make the happy dragon rush over to carry out the request. There was a crackling sound, and a moment later the young man was carrying a huge dry branch.

Liam and his new friend began to break the branches. Finally, they sat down around the fire and watched in silence as tongues of fire consumed everything they touched.

"Where do you come from?" Liam asked the man.

"I live in another world, not on earth," he answered evasively.

"Can you describe your world? How stable is its core? How long has it been created?" Liam forced himself to stop so as not to look too curious, but the questions came out of his mouth one by one.

"My world is quite old, it's about a few thousand years old," he began to say dreamily to Ronu, "it's green, fertile soil, lots of lakes and rivers. I live in just such a beautiful place. To the east of my house runs the largest river in the region, the Zula, and to the west is a forest with a lake inside it, I call it..." The man suddenly choked and coughed.

Liam held out a bottle of water and patted him on the back. The man took a few sips and wiped his eyes.

"What else is there in your world? What kind of animals?" Liam continued to wonder.

"I took in several families of dragons long ago, and they've been my main neighbors ever since. Gradually they've moved south from my home, and I think by now they've colonized more than half the planet."

"What about humans? Do other humans coexist normally with dragons?" Liam wondered.

"There are none, I live there alone," the man said calmly, looking at the fire.

Alone? But isn't that a voluntary exile? And how many years has he been living like this? Has he done something terrible to hide so far away from people? Liam's head was boiling.

"What about your family? Did they just let you go so easily?"

"My family?" The man asked as if it were something very strange.

"Well, yes, your parents, brothers, or sisters?"

Perhaps Liam was annoying after all because the man shrugged and remained silent. The Head, too, was silent, reflecting on the fact that he was still far from understanding his new acquaintance.

But curiosity was not so easily driven back into the cage of the soul, and Liam found a way to get the man to talk.

"I see you don't feel much like talking about yourself," he began sympathetically, "let's do this, you ask one question about my apprentice, and I answer, and then I ask about you. Since you have already answered many of my questions, you can ask several questions at once."

"Good."

"Then ask," Liam knew that he might still lie if the question was very strange.

"How old is your student, what kind of person is he, is he trustworthy?"

"Um, well, he's about a hundred and ten years old, I can't be more precise. He is an enterprising man, able to get along with others, good at running things, reliable, and strong. He is brave and humble, he does not hang his problems on others, and he has practically no ambition, at the same time he possesses a very strong scarlet energy of a protector. Yes, he's trustworthy; I'd put my life on the line for him..."

Liam fell silent in embarrassment from an overabundance of feelings.

"Did I praise Cal too much?" he thought.

"A good man..." was all the man answered.

"Then my question is, why do you want to know what kind of man my apprentice is?" Liam wanted to catch the man red-handed.

"I wanted to know who Dai-Kun chose..." he said sadly.

Liam thought carefully about the thoughts and questions he was rushing to utter. So as not to waste his question, he slowed down and said nothing.

"Another question, how does your apprentice feel about his dragon?" the topic of conversation interested Zhu-Er, he too sat down by the fire and listened to the men.

"He had brought the egg on his second day at the Academy and they had bonded instantly. Dai-Kun seemed to be able to communicate with him through his thoughts even then, he was so chatty, interfering with everything in a row. But when he hatched, he behaved well, slept a lot, and concentrated on growing. When we were visiting a friend of mine we bonded the apprentice and the dragon through blood, and since then Legion has lived in his own space, and his master hasn't had much time to communicate with him."

"Legion?"

Liam didn't consider this a full-fledged question and answered as a bonus.

"Even before he hatched, Dai-Kun had said that it would be his name from now on."

"So that's how..." the man's voice trembled.

He stood gustily, put his hands behind his back, and stepped away from the fire. Liam didn't hold back or bother him with questions, just waited. The fire burned through and the coals could be used to roast vegetables, but Liam looked back at the basket and realized that Zhu-Er had eaten everything out of curiosity.

The taste of the food fascinated him, and he couldn't help himself. Even now he plucked grass and flowers and generally everything around him that he saw and tasted. Liam shook his head and took the bundle of weeds away from his mouth.

"You'll get a stomachache," he said quietly to the boy, "I warned you."

He rounded his eyes and began to hiccup. While Liam gave him a drink and taught him to hold his breath, the moon began to appear in the sky.

Ronu returned to the fire and rubbed his hands together. He seemed to be in complete control of himself.

"When the moonflower blooms, I will take it out with the root, so it will shine longer. Zhu-Er will have to take it and dive into the lake with it."

Liam looked anxiously at the man.

"Would he be able to withstand such a dive? Why not me... or you?"

"No, only a dragon can dive into the lake of Rebirth. Besides, a new dragon, or maybe even two, would come ashore and we'd have to accept their precious tears."

Liam realized this was a dead end. He hadn't thought at all about the fact that the rebirth process of dragons couldn't be stopped, and if there were people in the valley, dragons would come out to them.

But this was the first time that two had come at once. Liam didn't know how things would turn out. Whether there would be one illusion for them or two different ones. He remembered the night he'd gotten Zhu-Er...

"Well," he said, "how does Zhu-Er recognize the right plant?"

"Oh, it's quite simple," the man smiled and approached the young man, "you must swim deep until you see a glow, I won't tell you exactly what color, it depends on the stage of maturity. Take the flower that shines the brightest and swim out, understand?"

He patted his shoulder encouragingly.

He looked back at Liam, who nodded at him with a smile.

After the instructions, the man extinguished the embers, trampling them, leaving not even the slightest glimmer of light, for a time nearing.

The valley was plunged into darkness, but the next moment the moon appeared from behind the thick clouds, and the center of the valley was illuminated by the unfolding moonflower. Ronu ran swiftly to it and, carefully digging out the ground, extracted the shining plant with its roots.

Immediately an agitated Zhu-Er appeared beside him, he gently took the flower with his hand and Liam wished him luck, feeling his heart clench.

The young man rushed to the shore and entered the water, soon they lost sight of it, and even the soft glow did not break through the thickness of the water.

Meanwhile, two more moonflowers grew in the valley.

"Looks like there's no stopping the process," Liam's mind raced, and he turned to face the lake.

Liam had never thought of creating a dragon army, but now he risked at least becoming "daddy" to another dragon willing to return to the world of the living. Ronu moved fifty paces away from him.

"We must get out of each other's way, get ready!" he shouted. "I sense they coming."

Both of them stared into the dark maelstrom just ahead of them, and still, the sight of the animals caught them off guard. Suddenly the water curved, and two terrifying monsters walked through it: they weren't dragons.

Liam cried out with a gasp and backed away. Straight ahead of him wriggled and hissed something horrible, indescribable, the size of a huge haystack.

He looked to the side and saw that Ronu had the same problem. The snake-like creature was circling him, trying to strangle the man.

"What should we do?" Unknowingly, Liam shouted to him.

"Only fight, then we'll deal with the cause. These things don't belong here!" Ronu drew his sword from his space and began to strike.

Liam followed his example and drew his weapon as well, but then changed his mind about fighting up close and replaced his sword with a crossbow. Stepping back, he shot back at the attacking creature, and very soon the hissing nightmare subsided.

Ronu, too, got over his difficulty. They looked at each other and shuddered: the water stirred again. The lake spits out six nasty creatures at once, one scarier than the others.

Liam teamed up with Ronu, and together they fought back. Though the man gave the impression of a farmer, he fought the monsters skillfully and even tried to cover Liam.

A couple of times he fended off attacks on the Head, finding himself faster than he was. Their muscles were already aching and their legs were buckling as they climbed the mountain of dead monsters to confront the avalanche of nailing creatures.

The lake was bubbling unabated, Liam saw that their strength was not enough and used the crystal to summon Nood and Rashid to the side. The disciples arrived just moments later.

The oddity of the situation was that the valley was not closed as it usually is on such occasions. The disciples entered the area freely and immediately joined the battle.

Hordes of living monsters were climbing over the bodies of the dead, and Liam was becoming increasingly aware that after another hour of such an attack and they would have to call in an army, and then the thought occurred to him to contact the marshal.

A few minutes later Pittsu appeared in shining armor. Somehow he had managed to make himself presentable despite the deep night. With his help, they managed to turn the tide of the battle.

Standing with their backs to each other they looked around for opponents. Suddenly the water stirred again, and they turned once more in that direction. The exhausted youth crawled ashore.

"Zhu-Er!" Liam cried out, and rolled heavily onto the bank, stumbling and confused over the bodies of the vanquished beasts.

Zhu-Er struggled to look up, staring in astonishment at the scene on the beach. Liam finally got to him, and pulled him ashore, away from the water. The others stepped closer, holding their weapons at the ready.

"Is that... Zhu-Er?" asked the marshal, "what the hell happened here, anyway?"

"Yes, he's under the influence of an artifact," Liam answered, "and the rest later."

"Zhu-Er, are you all right?" Leaned to him the master.

"..."

The young man unclenched his hand and held out his palm. On it, there was a scattering of berries.

"Is this it?" Liam asked Ronu.

He walked over, looked at it, and shook his head. "God!" Liam knelt exhaustedly, supporting the young man.

"Take it off him," he commanded Ron, switching to his familiarity.

The man held out his hand, and the locket was in his palm, while Zhu-Er floated above the lake and became himself.

Just as he was ready to return to his space, a giant monster jumped out of the lake and dragged the dragon under the water.

"Zhu-Er!!!" shouted Liam and rushed after him, but several pairs of hands stopped him, holding him tightly and pulling him out of the water onto the shore, "Let go!"