Yet another month passed. I'd been asleep when Father's birthday happened and was going to go give him a present, until I realized he might not want anything from me. The current me, at least.
That's why I aged the package a little (AKA Kiki did it) and then tossed it through a little portal so that it landed under Father's bed. It was just out of the light, and after reaching through and pulling his slipper under, I made it so that he would be sure to search for it and find both at the same time later.
After that, it was time to find Sherfire. She'd been teaching me lately, the ways to be a Dragon. Since Takuya and Kaya were still being stubborn, telling me that I would have to wait a month or so more before they were feeling up to the task of pulling me out, I was stuck just doing what I could.
I still couldn't use magic, which was a bummer. I was just lucky I could use my storage, pulling things out and working on them from time to time. Once you got used to having claws, you could use a pencil just fine. I went about documenting things on some paper, forgetting to use my hands sometimes as I put the pencil in my mouth and just lay down, drawing lazily. My pictures came out as scribbles and I knew I was wasting the paper that I'd made, but it was a new thing for me to just tiredly lounge about at certain parts of the day, and the only way I felt productive was if my mouth or hands were moving.
Speaking of paper!
That ink that the Dwarves had, the one that could be used to write secret messages! I manufactured it after much trial and error (around the time I was learning how to breathe fire, it sparked when I didn't want it to and blew up my whole operation) I finally got it! I had the materials all along, the same ink that I'd used for Father's pens being the answer.
The first thing I did was write a letter to Milo, since I hadn't seen him in a while. I wrote it in Japanese hiragana, because when he died he was only seven or so years old and didn't get to learn many kanji. He wouldn't know anything really complex, so I wrote the whole thing simply and addressed him as Milo in Bytristian at the end. He was turning six this month, and I might as well send him a present as well. Yay!!! I wrote, You made it passed your death age! Okay, on second thought that didn't sound too nice, but whatever works. He died when he was about five and a half, I think? This is the longest he's been alive.
Or did he die when he was seven? I'm confused.
Oh...The king's birthday was last month in Septi, with Magaris since they shared the day. And I think Lars, Välene, and Andrew's birthdays were somewhere in these last three months...eh, I'll send them something later.
I put the birthday present in an envelope, went for a Dragon nearby and asked what one had to do around here to send a letter.
Since no one does that stuff, apparently, you would have to go to a fairly populated place on your own and give it in to an establishment with connections to other places.
It was a good thing I was learning to fly...emphasis on learning.
I've never been thrown off a cliff so many times in my life, and that's saying something with the mother I have...excuse me, had.
"You want me to take you there?" Sherfire blinked, uncomprehending. "Why don't you fly yourself?"
"Well..." I shrugged, my small shoulders moving up and down with the arches of my wings. "It's not like I know where the place is, and I kind of have a bad feeling when it comes to dealing with others without magic. Also, I still can't fly, remember?" That being the main point.
"True," Sherfire nodded to herself. "But we're going to take a while to get there. We're going to train that flying thing a lot more, so that when you need to fly back you can at least not ride on my back for some of it." She took a few steps back from me as I held the envelope by the teeth, still finding it better than using my hands even though it was puncturing. Her Dragon form appeared without much fanfare, just suddenly in front of me as if it was pulled from storage. "Let me tell Lucia real quick, then we'll leave."
She went off, sweeping her tail from side to side as she peeked everywhere. She was having a telepathic conversation with some people right now, disappearing for a while as I paced in one spot. My tail was carving into the ground; it had been doing so for the last few weeks I'd been in this form. It was awfully inconvenient that I had it like this, because the tail was so sharp that no matter what it touched something got ruined. Some people can put knives to their skin so lightly that it doesn't cut, but even if you just lightly touched the edge of my tail, or even the flat and dull-looking part of it, it left you jumping back in pain from the mere touch of it. It was all sharp, all bad.
So yes, the marks of me being here were quite stark against the floors.
When Sherfire came back, she pulled me up in her front claw and took off from the caves. I had put the letter in my storage so that it wouldn't fly off, and we plummeted at top speeds that no longer made me queasy from the times my own wings unable to keep me aloft. After swooping out of it and greeting some of the people sparring below for fun, we flew south high in the sky, drifting a few hundred feet below the clouds as the sun beat down on Sherfire's back, making the scales be too blinding to look at as the light bathed us. I was lost beneath her mass, hidden in shade. It was quite nice, just resting limply there and feeling the tremendous whoosh of wind on my face. I opened my mouth and felt the wind swirl around my teeth, my snakelike tongue flapping back in the gusts. It felt like I was being swept away in a tornado sometimes, until I had to spit up some bug or the world's smallest Dragon species that had accidentally flown into my mouth.
Somehow, I got more Dragons the size of birds than bugs.
So in the end I had to give up my wind-and-mouth adventures.
We eventually arrived at the same teleportation circle that I had gone to with Katerine, activating it and ending up in a different place than last time. When we came through on the other end, we were in a small village in Hunoa, the land of the Fae. This wasn't the passage anymore, I could tell, because I could no longer smell that faint whiff of sea that was present no matter where in the passage you were. This place wasn't as crowded or bustling as the capital, but gave off more of a homely feel. The people were familiarly talking with each other, bargaining and haggling with sales while making small talk, greeting everyone they knew; which was literally everyone.
Sherfire transformed back into a human again, me under her arm with my tail cautiously held in her other hand, as we walked towards a building. It was one red barn looking thing with shutters on the windows, faded gold wings signaling express mail over a barred window. I guess this modest town had more than a few crooks if they boarded it up like that. Or, bandits. Haven't seen many of those around here, and for some reason I couldn't imagine fairy bandits.
She knocked on the wood beside it, getting the attention of whoever was inside.
"Can I help you?" A person came while rolling up the shutters all the way.
"I'd like to send an envelope to Bytriste," Sherfire said, probably looking like this was a robbery while holding my sharp tail of a weapon in her hand, and me with my two little fangs protruding from the back sides in the other. "What region?" She looked down at me, asking.
"Koraco, the house of the Duke Coccinelle," I said while looking deeply into the eyes of the woman, about forty, who was looking at me with wide eyes. She looked human to me, a bit older. I could tell that it was an unusual sight for a baby Dragon to be here, because all eyes were on me even though Sherfire and I were both Dragons.
"Koraco, a noble house."
"It'll take about one month, and there's a fee of two yeuzes," she said while looking into my eyes. She couldn't look away.
"You got money?" Sherfire casually looked back down at me. "I hadn't considered that part."
"Here," I held out my claw and two coins appeared on it, big silver ones. They fell underneath the bars over the counter, plopping in front of the lady. I was continuously looking into her eyes, probably creeping her the heck out with my big purple eyes. With the streaks across them looking like jagged lightning strikes, it must'n've been very good looking.
I broke eye contact first, looking at the ground as I handed over the letter and Sherfire slipped it under for me.
We were given a receipt that would tell us when it reached the hands of the one it was addressed to, or how close it was if it did not reach his/her hands during the allotted time period.
"Say," the lady inquired before we walked away, stretching a hand farther across the desk as she looked at me, brows creased in lost confusion. "Haven't I met you before, somewhere?"
"Me?" Sherfire asked, looking back while my tail waved around in her hand. She had a firm clutch on it, so I felt it quite snug, making me wiggle it around for comforting purposes.
"No," the woman pointed at me with a shaky finger, "that one."
"That one?" Sherfire looked own at me, seeing that many people around us were staring and silently standing there.
"If she doesn't even know my gender, she doesn't know me. Also, I have not been in common society in this form, so that's impossible." I was starting to be a little creeped out, so I said, "Can we go?"
"Yes," Sherfire replied to me, nodding to no one in particular as she started back the way we came, looking worried.
"That's it!" The lady exclaimed, snapping her fingers in realization. "You're from that night!" She opened a side compartment and scrambled out the door, sliding in front of us like the spry middle aged woman she was. "In Leonera!"
I hadn't been moving, but if I had been I would've tripped over and face planted from shock. Sherfire sensed the sudden spike in my emotions of shock, confusion, and disorder.
I turned my head back around to look at her and said, "Excuse me?"
She didn't hear me of course.
So Sherfire repeated for me, equally disbelieving, "Excuse me?"
"With the boy, Drew, just outside the capital!" She was desperate for me to understand, to listen. "The one with the white hair..."
Don't say it. Do not say it.
I looked up at Sherfire, who was staring at this lady like she was raving mad and foaming at the teeth.
"Knight!" She realized, taking a quick breath in. "But..." She finally seemed to look at the rest of me, seeing the blue scales, the sharp tail, the small form that was not sexy or humanlike at all. "You're different?"
She tilted her head and looked at me, some people from the sides were coming up and taking her by the elbows, trying to calm her down.
"You're mistaken," Sherfire shook her head, adding into the explanations the other villagers were trying to come up with to take the lady away. She was more riled up than usual, startled by something. Must be a part of her "trauma..." They kept on saying as they tried to calm her down and lead her somewhere else. "This is not someone named 'Knight.'"
"But-" The lady was showing increasing signs of worry, looking at my eyes. With everyone around her thinking she was melting down, imagining things, I had to intervene...for both our sakes.
"Sherfire," I looked up to her. "Convey my words."
Her eyes slid down to me, and suddenly she was saying words contradictory from what she'd said moments ago to the villagers.
"It's true that I do know someone named Knight, but I am not she," Sherfire said while looking at the lady. "I do not know you, nor do I know anyone named 'Drew.' I believe you are mistaken on that part, but you may sense a piece of her in me...because, like you, I've been helped by her too."
The villagers were confused, but the lady was simply staring at me as she listened to my words through Sherfire, understanding. I was just trying to make her think that Knight's mana trail was left on me or something, and that's what she felt the similarity as. I have no clue how she knew I was Knight when the chances of us ever meeting again are extremely low, given the fact that Knight is based in Bytriste and I'm just some out-of-the-way baby Dragon, probably only born recently.
Unless...this has something to do with her lack of a soul guardian.
"Who's Knight?" Sherfire asked after the lady was appeased, taken away. We were standing there while a villager walked away from us, having just apologized for the lady who was referred to as "Miss Amari," and Sherfire was looking down at me.
"My vigilante friend. It's really uncommon for people to not know about Knight these days, she's infamous."
"Infamous? Not famous?"
"Excommunicated from the Church, dresses in all black."
"We need to talk about your friends."
"That's what my father said. Look where I am now," I gestured with my claws at the ground as we walked, heading to the portal. We passed by a restaurant with outdoors tables, where people were lounging outside. It was fairly hot at this time of day even though it was becoming winter even quicker everyday. I didn't know how all these people were out here, especially that lady over there in the hat and the winter coat, with that hiking bag. Judging by the white of her neck, she always had her hair down to shield it from the sun. In this heat, you better put it up or risk getting a tan of your hair. Believe me, I'd know. I still remember how hot it was when I evened out my tan the first time I came to Larjulias, after sitting in that river for a day.
"Yeah, you're here, with me, likely having run away from home. What ever caused that?" Sherfire rolled her eyes at me as we walked past the lady. "How was your mother, last you saw her?"
Oh. That's a little...
"It's complicated."
"Everything about you is complicated," Sherfire sighed as we passed the restaurant, stepping on to the teleportation circle. "Are all six year old humans this complicated?"
"For sure, you need to get out more. By the way, I'm already arranging plans for us to attend a school in Bytriste next year if you want," I said as the teleportation circle lit up. We turned around and faced the town nonchalantly, eyes wandering as we were enveloped in the light.
"So you did hear that?!" Sherfire's face enflamed as the white light flashed.
"Obviously. You want to go?"
"Obviously!" She dropped my tail and held me up like the lion king, grinning from ear to ear. "Firea, you're the best!" Then, her eyes flickered, and she looked under my arm, "Oh? Ana? I thought that was you! Get over here!"
What?
"What?" I turned and looked over my shoulder, purple eyes zeroing in on the lady with the hat. She was standing up there, wide blue eyes looking at me.
Why does fate hate me?
The teleportation thing flashed right then, and suddenly we were back in the passage with the salty air, many pouriks away.
"I'll do that flying thing now," I said to Sherfire, struggling to be let down. I didn't want to be here when Mother came through...excuse me, Anastasia de Libellule.
"Can you fly? We haven't been making that much progress when it comes to that," she said while still smiling over the school thing, being very misleading. You'd think she was happy I couldn't fly.
"I'll figure it out..."
I turned away, then took off. Not take off from the ground, but start running on all fours. I'd become very adept at that to get around faster, so I looked like a giant lizard as I slithered into the underbrush, my tail carving into the ground and leaving a trail. I picked it up so that no one would be able to find me so obviously, and went as fast as possible.
Are you sure you aren't up to the task of pulling me out now?!
Face your fears.
I'm not afraid of my own mother!
You're afraid of her reaction, what she'll say.
Please, I scoffed frantically as I looked around, turning left to mix up my trail and paddle across a stream. There were nips at me feet which made me think there were piranhas, until I looked down and just saw some skeleton rotting away who's ribcage decided to scrape against my feet. Paying it no heed since I'd seen this many times over the weeks, I continued on and came out on the other side. I shook myself off, avoided a diving bird that had very sharp claws, and continued running. I'm waiting for them to request that I'm disowned from the king.
There was a flash of light in the distance, and suddenly I could feel Mother's presence in the area.
I looked behind me and saw that I had run maybe half a mile?
Not far enough.
I started sprinting so fast that I tripped many times, getting a face full of you-know-what. I didn't even bother to stop and wash it off in the next stream that I found, just kept running. I galloped over a bridge that looked vaguely like the one that had been destroyed by that rogue a long time ago, the giant gray bear monster that Lawrence had ridden. It was still collapsed...
So I wasn't that far from civilization the whole time, was I? If I just found that teleportation circle two miles away...
I heightened my hearing, listening in for the location of Sherfire.
"Was that Firea?"
"Yes. She didn't tell you? I thought you guys had telepathy tools she made or something."
"No..."
"Did she run away like I thought?! Ugh, I shouldn't have let her go!"
"No...she didn't. She just left for a bit."
I heard the rustling of leaves as they walked off the circle, heading north.
"She can't fly, so she's around here somewhere. Do you want to chase after her?"
My first instinct was to cut my presence off, until I remembered I couldn't do that without magic. The closest thing was to blend into the surroundings and silence your thoughts, but it wasn't as effective at this newbie level of mine.
"No! No. I mean, it's fine. I'll find her later..."
"Is something wrong, Ana?"
"..."
"Come on, let's go. Lucia, Lawrence, and Katerine are expecting you. Helzi's really looking forward to seeing you so he can tell you off about letting your brat run around, carving up the ground everywhere she goes. See those marks over there? That's where she went, you can obviously tell because her tail is so damn sharp it leaves a mark everywhere! That's why I was holding it separately from her body in town. One of us was bound to get hurt, as per usual...she's already succeeded in damaging her scales, and has surpassed Lawrence when it comes to leaving her mark on the world..."
I stayed perfectly still where I was, waiting.
They took off with a slight rustle of leaves, flying. Sherfire's words turned telepathic, but they faded away as she went farther north.
Only then did I sigh and relax. I sat back on the ground, looking up at the foliage. Just seeing the shadows cast by the suns as they shifted over, the leaves covering my snout as I sneezed. Allergies, even as an animal...the shame has never been more evident.
So where will we go now?
Kaya, I don't like the tone in our voice.
It's true, though, Firea, Takuya spoke up from where he sat at the kitchen table of the Itsuki house, forever polishing his guns. You can't get to Kera because you are too small, so you'll have to get back to the tribe to be watched over, but Anastasia is there.
True, but I don't have to go back in the mountain. There are still those leaves that I can sleep on outside, like with Kitri a long time ago. Also, there are no big predators around there because no one wanders close to a Dragon's nest.
What about food?
Please, we're all sure that someone will abduct us and scold us for being outside. And Sherfire's room, where we sleep, is at the top of the mountain. Unless we go to the baths or come down for food, there's no way to encounter her. Her room is only on, like, the second floor.
You go for food two times a day and bathe five because of how much mud you dive through in your failed flying attempts. That's plenty of chances.
Takuya...
Alright, sheesh.
I headed towards the north, running at first to test out my stamina. My Status had sadly been reset when I became a baby Dragon, so now they looked a little like this:
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Name: Firea-Madeline de Libellule (Former: Itsuki Kaya) Age: 6 years (Former: 14) Race: Dragon (Sub: Demon, Deviant)
Partner(s): Sherfire (Former-Masumi Takuya, +2 others)
-Sherfire Sub-Association: Firea-Madeline de Libellule's caretaker
(-Masumi Takuya Sub-Association: Firea-Madeline de Libelulle's "Joy" and friend, current main soul guardian)
(-Itsuki Kaya Sub-Association: Firea-Madeline de Libellule's split soul and current secondary soul guardian)
Main Job: Growing and Training (Former: Learning) Current Job: Child, Granddaughter
Status: Half-Sister of Hera de Libellule and Adri de Libellule, Deviant, Granddaughter of Tear Fang and Lucia Aardvark, Niece of Lawrence Fang and Katerine Fang
(-Former: Daughter of _____ and _____, Student of Ukinoke Middle School, Friend of Masumi Takuya, +2 others, Japanese Commoner)
Title(s): Arion's Familiar, Goddess, Savior, Seafarer, Survivor, Shapeshifter, Paivla's Champion
Lvl: 7
HP: 580 MP: 622 STR: 14 VIT: 80 DEX: 94 AGI: 67 INT: 334 LUC: 51
Attributes: Fire, Lightning
Sub Magics: None
Skills: Poison Resistance, Shock Absorption, Clarity, Foretell, Detect, Sense Ominous, Prediction, Mana Absorption, Copy, Double, Heat Resistance, Click, Overplay, Max Limit, Break Through, Hard Hit, Density Lower, Keen Hearing, Calm, Far Sight, Dimension Jump, World Jump, +210 others
Blessing of: God of Demons, Fae Prince, Goddess of Nature, God of Light, Fairy Queen, God of Darkness, +1 others
Curse: Deviant's Plague (Only effective on Tasega), God of Death, Goddess of the Future
Long Term Condition: Multiple mental traumas, condition increased. Tipping on psycho. To cure: Time and trust.
Short Term Condition: Frustration, stress.
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I have a whole bunch of tsukkomis...for one thing, lots of things have changed. My partner, my job, my status, my magic...it's all taken a major blow.
Everything relating me to Earl Earl de Libellule and Anastasia de Libellule is gone.
It was a blow, sure, but I didn't mull over it for long.
It took me about two days to get back to the mountain, where I was dog tired and very hungry. Let it be known, uncooked and half-cooked prey does not taste good. I can only work up a small spark from my throat, so no. Let's not go hunting again until I can breathe proper fire.
When I got back, however, I fell asleep on the spot. It was midday when I returned, muddy and covered in leaves, and without even considering getting a bath I just collapsed on the spot.
A kind soul came over to me, one with bright red hair and her usual clothes, a bounding green haired girl behind her.
"Why, Lucia, you're so vibrant today...care for a bath?" I mumbled, falling asleep.
"Anytime, my daughter."