Jason POV
After everything that had happened earlier today, it was nice to just be flying calmly, even better with some company. I though carrying Leah would involve her asking rapid fire questions even though I wouldn't be able to answer her, but the only sound that could be heard was that of my wings beating and of wind rushing by.
As I closed in on Astera, I could smell the canteen, smoke and steam rising into the air. This high up, I could already see everyone gathering within the trade yard clearing out and moving booths so I would have space to land. Many who had left before getting a good look at me were pushing to the front of the crowd, looking up into the sky at me even though I couldn't be looking anything more than a bird from this distance.
"Smell that?" Leah asked me as she caught a whiff of whatever the chef was whipping up. I looked back at her and nodded. "I don't know about you but whatever that is, is making my mouth water." I responded with a deep rumbling hum in agreement as I got closer, and the smell grew stronger. I began to slow down and descend lower near the ground before flying just above Astera's main gate and into the TradeYard, the large crowd backing up even more as my wings picked up dust and sent any loose goods flying, before finally making contact with the ground and landing with a thud, shaking the whole yard and making many people stumble.
I lowered one wing all the way down to the ground and felt Leah slide down it and onto solid ground before folding it back up again and turning to face the massive crowd. Naturally, everyone looked at me wearily, well, everyone but the commander and the trio I had saved from Nergigante. I could hear whispers from all around, many were along the lines of "So that's what it looks like" or "I wonder what they'll call it" Every single researcher present was looking at me like a kid on Christmas, fighting the urge to drop all composure and swarm me to gather whatever samples they could and study me from head to toe.
Leah moved to be in front of me before turning around to face me and raised her arms out and said "Welcome to Astera! I'm sure your gonna love it while your here." That got the crowd to break their silence, and everyone began to give their own welcome, with cheers of agreement with Leah, or some even coming up to me and patting me on the foot cause that's all they could reach. This carried out for a few moments before the commander moved to stand in front of me and before the entire crowd. Rasing one hand, the entire crowd went silent, their cheers slowly turned to whispers, then silence.
Once he was satisfied with getting everyone's attention, he began to speak. "I speak for not just myself, but everyone here when I say we are grateful for your help with the Monster upon Zorah's back." He then looked out towards the crowd and raised his voice for all to hear. "We have identified the monster that attacked both our hunters and Zorah as Nergigante, an Elder dragon. Why it was with Zorah, we do not know. As for our friend here, we know it's an Elder Dragon, but the guild has not gotten back to me with a name just yet, but hopefully soon.
Although the capture of Zorah was unsuccessful, each and every one of you did fine work. For now, I think we could all use a good meal, wouldn't you all agree?" He was met with raucous cheers as everyone went towards the Canteen, Leah at the front of the crowd while I went towards the bottom of the stairs and waited since I couldn't fit onto them or fly near the near the canteen. To my surprise however, instead of feasting in the Canteen, everyone began to come back down the stairs with plates full of food and moved through the trade yard. Leah came to sit next to me, along with the hunter and most likely every single researcher within Astera who all were more concerned about taking down every noticeable detail about me rather than eating.
everyone began to feast and talk excitedly to one another as lively music began to play. After about 5 minutes, I noticed the meowscular chef and about 50 other palicos carrying a literal mountain of food down the stairway and setting it down at my feet. I shit you not, I started drooling at the smell, and I could hear Leah and the chef laugh at this. I immediately began to devour anything that was on the enormous platter, and when I say this shit was good, I mean Gordon Ramsay would have a food wars type foodgasm to this shit. "Jesus Christ, do they put cocaine in here?" I thought as I kept eating.
I stopped for a moment as I noticed a group of hunters, along with Aiden, carrying a large barrel of what I could only assume is some sort of Alcohol before stopping in front of me. "If you like the food here, Wait'll you have some of this." Aiden said as he and the hunters set down the massive barrel. When I say massive barrel, I mean large enough to fit in my paw. Where they kept this thing, I have no Idea. I grabbed the barrel in my paw, and with my other, I poked the top with my claw and the smell that hit me was sweet. Almost like a fruit punch but with a stupid amount of Alcohol.
"Smells good, wonder how it tastes." I thought to myself as I drank the entire barrel in one go. "Holy shit! It's better than the food!!" I set the barrel back down and pointed at it, then to Aiden. "You want another one?" he asked amused. I immediately began to nod as he and the other hunters laughed before leaving to get another barrel. It went on like this all night, and I didn't think it was possible, but I drank so much that even as a multi-ton dragon, I had become excessively drunk. By the time everyone stopped, and I had eaten more than six massive platters of food and about 10 of those barrels, each one stacked next to me as I lay down flat on my side, multiple drunk hunters, including a wasted Leah, all started to lay against me, or on top of me, and began to pass out with me not far behind.
The next day
"God my head hurts." I thought as I slowly opened my eyes, my vision still slightly blurry. I began to get up, not noticing the ten people all on top of me before they all soon found themselves flat on their asses groaning as they were rudely woken up. "Sorry!" I thought as I picked them up and set them on their feet, a lot of them still dizzy and hardly able to stand. Leah, however, was still sound asleep on my head. Looking around, I noticed the large number of empty barrels next to me, along with most of Asteras inhabitants still knocked out while some began to drowsily wake up. I felt someone tap on my foot, and I looked down to find the hunter who grunted and pointed towards Leah.
I lowered my head and felt him jump up, before seeing something fall down Infront of my eyes and land with a thud and groan. "Did he just kick her off?" I looked down to the ground and say Leah sprawled out on her back with an angry expression and glare that could kill aimed towards the Hunter who was Laughing. "Man, this guy really sounds like a Viking with that laugh." I thought as he kept laughing, kind of sounding like Stoic's Laugh from how to train your dragon." I need to get that man to speak to see if he sounds like Gerard Butler, that would be sick." I thought as I raised my head and Leah slowly began to stand. "Good morning." she said to me while she gave the hunter a smack on the back of his head. we then sat and watched as Astera slowly but surely began to wake up and get moving again. The forge became lit, and the sounds of hammering began to be heard along with the sounds of voices as the TradeYard became a bustling hub once again.
"I see you three had fun last night." the Commander's voice sounded behind us. We looked towards him, and he continued to speak. "While I'm sure you would all like to sit for a while, we can't afford that unfortunately." He looked towards the Hunter and Leah. "I want you two to head out onto an expedition into the great Ravine, follow Zorah's trail and see what you can find." He then looked towards me. "I hope you don't mind, but I would like to have you stay here for a while so that our researchers can get a good look at you. They won't perform any thing that involves cutting or prying, I promise." I thought for a moment before deciding it wasn't a problem and nodded at him. "Excellent, now, let's get moving, I expect to hear back from you two soon, as for you, just go towards the researchers and they'll do the rest."
Leah and the hunter then left towards the Ravine while I went towards the researchers who all stopped what they were doing as they noticed. my approach. The Chief Ecologist came towards me, his small stature making him tiny to me. "Ah Excellent, I see you willing to have look at you. Could you perhaps lower your head down a bit?" He asked in his grandfatherly voice. I nodded and lowered me to the ground so that he could look me in the eye. "Thank you, now let us get started, shall we?" He smiled and waved for the other researchers to come start jotting down what they could.
I felt many of them start to climb on to my back and examine each and every spike down to my tail, feeling my wings and scales Aswell. "One of the researchers began to speak to the Chief ecologist. "Sir, if I recall, from what I've heard from many of the hunters who had gone to capture Zorah, our friend here had used some strange sort of element to drive off Nergigante, described as a Lazer." The chief Ecologist's face lit up as he remembered that information. "Ah yes, thank you for reminding me." He then looked towards me and began to speak. "My friend, if it's not too much trouble, could we get you to accompany us to the Ancient Forest to do some more tests?"
"I don't see why not." I thought as I nodded, and the group of researchers hopped of my back allowing me to get up and we left towards the ancient forest. As we walked, I couldn't help but think about what the Hunter and Handler were up too. Surely by now they had just arrived at the Ravine. "I want to go see the Highlands soon, they place looked really beautiful in the game, I could only imagine what it's like in real life." Soon enough, the group of researchers and I had arrived at the main clearing of the Forest, the Aptonoth all scrambling away at the sight of me.
Normally I would have gone after them, but after last night's feast, it feels like I won't be hungry for at least a week. I looked towards the Ecologist, and he began to speak. "If you could please perform the Lazer we've heard so much about, that would be wonderful." I nodded and Looked towards the sky and began to charge the energy I stored up from Nergigante. I blue glow began emitting from my chest, mouth and eyes as I felt the power well up, and the next instant, I let all the energy out, leaving a massive beam of energy to shot out into the sky, the power from it kicking up dust from around me and a gale of wind began to blow around me.
I let the beam go for a few moments before cutting the energy off and the beam dissipated quickly, leaving the air humming with almost electric energy. I looked back towards the researchers, and they were looking at me in shock, some of them already quickly writing what they could into their journals. "Extraordinary, Absolutely Wonderful!" The Chief Ecologist cried out in excitement. "I wonder what type of energy that was, it surely wasn't some sort of fire or some sort of electricity. Could you perhaps do another, but lower the power slightly so we won't be blown away by more of that wind?" I nodded again. "Ok, just gotta gather more energy."
I dug my claws into the ground, reaching for that pulse from the energy, and once I felt it, I pulled on it and felt it begin to flow through me. The researchers all had mixed reactions. "What's happening?!" was the most common one. One of the researchers then called out above all the others. "Look, the plants are dyeing!" That surprised me. I cut off the energy and looked up to see he was right. All the plants within a large area around me had become shriveled and dry, like they had been set under the sun and not watered from years, any grass one the ground had been drained of life and become a sickly, dead yellow.
The researchers all began to examine the plants, which all disintegrated to the touch, turning to dust that dissipated into the air. Then the Chief Ecologist seemed to have an epiphany. "Of course, he doesn't use any sort of energy he produces himself; he quite literally drains the life away from things, taking their bioenergy to fuel himself. How amazing, well, not for whatever is drained obviously, but still, amazing!" The group of researchers all agreed with mixed reactions of awe, and some became more wary of me than before.
"So that's what I was doing to Nergigante, draining his life force like Malzeno. I need to be careful whenever I gather energy, I don't want to alter the ecosystem irreparably." The chief ecologist then tapped my foot. "That's enough for today, thank you for your willingness to let us study you." With that, they all left for Astera as I stayed, looking around at the desolate little area I had made. I could only imagine how much energy must be within the Elders recess to have formed the crystals that are there.
If I ever need to absorb energy, I should try and go there and stock up. I need to find it first, and that would be a long flight. I should probably wait for Zorah to be dealt with first, I could even help them next time, maybe even see if I could drain energy from the titanic dragon himself. If it was anything like the energy from Nergigante, it would be insanely powerful, even at his old age. For now, though, I would like to go and see the Coral highlands beauty for myself.
I shot into the air, kicking up large amounts of dust, the wind from my wings turning whatever dead plants left, into to dust that filled the air for a short time before dissipating. I climbed towards the clouds, the winds picking up the higher I got. I looked towards the horizon, the world curving and leaving you to wonder what else could be out there beside what the guild knew about, what monsters remain yet to be discovered in this world, what strange and powerful Elder Dragons lurk in the deepest and highest corners of the world. I don't know how long I will live, or how long Safi'jiiva live for that matter, but I know that once everything is over, I want to see the rest of this world, no matter how long it would take.
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I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.