(Path of The Dragon Mage: Book 2) 2. She's Not a Horse (Patreon)

"So... who's coming?" Clarence asked, lifting the small hammer and needle. "Should I stop?"

"No," Corvus said quickly. A charged half-completed rune was dangerous and unpredictable enough. The last thing he wanted was one inscribed on his skin.

"It's fine. It's just my horse."

"Your... horse." Clarence gave him a look that said he knew a story when he heard one.

"She's quite the horse," Roan was always at his most cheery when things were going wrong. "Just wait until you see her."

"Please continue," Corvus said and took a shuddering breath as the icy mana felt like it was slicing to his bone. "As fast as you can."

"You're the client." Clarence bent over his work.

The needle bit in again and although it was a small pain compared to the ink mana trying to burn its way into his blood, Corvus flinched.

"Unless you want these lines going sideways, stay still."

Corvus took a calming breath and forced himself to relax. It was vital that every line be precise and even. That was the reason he had not tried to tattoo himself and instead gone to a professional.

He turned his head to look, but his vision was partially obscured by his shoulder. "How does it look?" he asked Roan.

His friend frowned. "The colors shifted back from red to green. What does that mean?"

"I have no idea."

"How far out is your... horse?"

He cast his mind out, feeling down the connection between himself and Charm. "Ten minutes, if I'm lucky."

"If we're lucky, you mean."

"I know you kids ain't talking about no horse." Ever the professional, Clarence hadn't taken his eyes from his work. "Should I have my mother call in some strong bodies to guard the place?"

"No, it's--" Corvus bit off a curse between clenched teeth as the color shifted again, back to the brilliant blue of an activated rune. The pain was like ice scraping at his nerves.

Roan jumped in to cover for him, spinning some tale about Charm being the most overprotective horse in the Clan. That wasn't too far from the truth.

Corvus shut his eyes and tried to project feelings of calm down the link, but calm was in short supply.

The ice picks dug in. He winced again with an involuntary grunt. Better than embarrassing himself by screaming aloud.

Charm's thoughts bubbled against his own, colored with vengeance. He's hurting you. He's going to die.

The pain sharpened a fraction more and he found he couldn't talk to her in case he accidentally transmit it directly through their close connection.

To distract himself, he focused on his profile sheet.

Name: Corvus  

Gender: Male  

Path: Dragon Mage Step 2 out of ???

Sub-Class: Witch Doctor  

Level: 14 

Current XP -3024/1100

3576 XP until next level  

Physicality: Fire Resistance 1  

  Exhaustion Resistance 3 Sleep penalty reduced by 3%

  Poison Resistance 1 (Due to tooth trophy necklace)

Special Attributes:  

Royal Blood

+5% bonus to all skills related to diplomacy, subterfuge, and leadership. +10% to any runecraft skill. -5 starting bonus to any physical combat skill.

Sub-Attribute: Second Wind

Ambidextrous

+3 to natural dexterity. +3% bonus to any complex skill requiring the use of both hands. -3 start to any single hand combat skill.

Night Vision

Active only in low light settings, and will aid speed and basic skills requiring dexterity.

Attributes:  

 Strength: 11

(17 total)

+2 Tooth Trophy Necklace

+4 Hellhound Bone

Speed: 10

+2 Falcon Bone

(15 total at night - 12 at day)

+ 3 Night Vision low light buff - Night only

Stamina: 10

(14 total)

+1 Tooth Trophy Necklace

+ 3 Hellhound Bone Ring

Dexterity: 10

(15 total)

+3 Ambidextrous

 +2 Falcon Bone

Charisma: 14

(19 total)

+5 Royal Blood

 Intelligence: 17  

 Wisdom: 15

There was more, an entire skill's list, but the pain spiked and his concentration shattered.

Larissa had once told him she fully expected him to be level twenty the next time he returned to Duckwater Village. He might have been close by now, but he had poured half his shared experience into Charm to help level her up. It had slowed his progress by equal measures.

His duties as the clan's healer had also kept him from regularly going out to find demon mobs. Shirking his duties was out of the question. Besides, healing people with runes did rank up his skills... but unless it was part of a quest it didn't do much for experience.

He was inching his way closer to level fifteen and every fifth level was a milestone. Charm was almost at level 5, herself. They had agreed after that, he would stop sharing so much experience and she would be old enough to gain some of her own.

Roan's voice broke through his musings.

"He's almost done." He paused as he checked himself, "You are almost done, right?"

"Only amateurs have to go back and clean up their lines," Clarence confirmed.

Corvus let their conversation wash over him. He was feeling light-headed. A swift check at his mana well showed him why.

It was swiftly ticking down. The tattooed reservoir hadn't been activated yet, so what was pulling in his mana?

It had to be the infused ink. It was sapping mana from his reserve and pushing it back out in uncontrolled colorizations.

Perhaps using it had been a mistake.

"Hey kid, you're looking a little pale," Clarence said. "Don't faint on us, now."

A bright burst of mana pain shot through his arm, all the way down to his fingertips. This time it was accompanied by an echoing pain in his head. His mana loss increased.

Corvus shouted and gripped his head with his free hand.

Clarence didn't miss a beat. He grabbed Corvus's shoulder and held him steady, beating the needle steadily in for the next few lines.

His eyes were shut but he could now see the mana ink. It wasn't just flashing out -- it was flashing into his own body, picked up by his perceptions; a dizzying array of colors from blue to green, brilliant red, sickly yellow, orange, and then back to green again.

I'm coming! I'm coming!

"No," he slurred. "Go back to the camp."

Ding!

Special Ability: Second Wind has activated.

Mana pool will now draw from stamina.

Now that his mana well was drained dry, a sense of nausea rose up in him along with the pain. He tried not to gag.

In the corner of his awareness, the stamina ticked down as well.

"And... done." Clarence leaned back. The moment he did, Corvus bent double in the chair and retched.

Clarence, who was an old hand at dealing with tattoo newbies, hooked a bucket with his angle and pushed it in front of Corvus.

Nothing came out, but it was a near thing.

"You're done?" Roan asked. "Is it all good now?"

Corvus's stamina was still ticking down.

"Not... yet," Corvus wheezed. The ink was leaking mana out of his body. Hopefully activating the new rune would either rechannel it or seal it all together. He pressed his free hand over his bleeding skin and concentrated.

The rapidly shifting colors flashed blue, and for a second he thought it worked.

Then his stamina freefalled to bottom out at zero.

Ding!

Stamina well has been exhausted. Health will be converted into needed mana.

His nausea redoubled, this time with a rapid onset fever. Chills wracked his body as his life force was drained to contribute mana.

Stupid of him. He didn't know if this new drain was from the infused ink or the new mana reservoir, but either way, he was watching his health dip into the red.

Roan was shouting... something. It was clear things were going badly very quickly. Corvus wheezed, watching in horror as his health dipped into the red.

And just when he thought things couldn't get worse...

I'm here!

There was a crack-bang of splitting wood from the front of the store and a fierce roar before a silver horse charged into the room.

Or, at least the moonlight-based illusion Charm pulled over herself was horse-sized and horse-shaped... if no one looked closely. The dead giveaway was the metallic sheen to her mane and tail and the unnaturally glowing gold eyes.

Clarence cursed, standing up so fast he knocked over the stool he'd been sitting on. Roan stepped in front of the man, his arm out.

The "horse" turned and gave a very reptilian hiss.

"Charm," Corvus rasped. "Don't."

Blackness edged at the corner of his vision. He was seconds from passing out. He might not be able to talk her out of doing something foolish from a distance, but face-to-face was different.

Charm's need to hurt whoever had hurt him was like a wall. Corvus met it with the strength of the love and mutual respect they shared.

"Stand down..." Corvus whispered. "This man hasn't hurt you."

"Is that a demon?" Clarence asked.

"No, keep your voice down and stay very, very still. He's trying to convince her not to kill you."

Charm tossed her head dismissively at Roan. Abruptly, the resistance to Corvus's order vanished.

Fine, she huffed like a child who'd just been told she couldn't have a sweet after dinner. She stepped forward on hooves that did not click and pressed her face close to Corvus.

She breathed out a ghost of moonlight. Suddenly, his health started to reverse its plunge, going from deep in the red to yellow and then to green.

She had done much the same thing for him when she'd been in the egg. Back then, it had nearly killed her. Now, she was much stronger and boosted by Corvus's Witch Doctor subclass.

Ten points of her health were one-hundred to him.

His health well was refilled to full... then started to shrink again as Second Wind instantly converted it back to mana to feed into the rune.

Charm breathed more into him. His health see-sawed back and forth between the drain and her renewal. Finally, something snapped into place and his health raised to full and stayed there.

Ding!

You have activated a new rune:

Personal Mana Reservoir

Your existing mana has been doubled. Additional mana ink infusion has mutated into a secondary reserve worth 250 points... Second Wind will now pull from this reserve before pulling from stamina.

He looked down at the rune tattoo. The pain had faded some minutes ago, but he had been preoccupied with his health dropping and hadn't noticed. It now glowed a vibrant... purple?

You should have never practiced this on yourself, Charm scolded. I would have carried you a live rabbit to experiment on. Then I could have eaten it after.

"Rabbits don't have mana reservoir."

"Is he talking to the horse?" Clarence asked.

"A very dangerous horse," Roan reminded him.

Clarence took the hint and shut up.

However, Charm had noticed his presence again. Her head whipped around and she growled a very unnatural sound coming from a horse.

"Charm..." Corvus warned, standing. His legs were a little wobbly, but his stamina was starting to tick up again as well. He would be fine in a few minutes.

I heard you. I won't kill him. She lifted lips with pointed teeth. Tonight.

"He was only doing his job, and as much as I appreciate the save, you broke down his door. You owe him an apology."

Her head whipped back to him. What!

"You heard me."

She growled again, but he stared her down.

With a long, drawn-out sigh she reached her elegant head unnaturally back and seemed to rip off a piece of her own fur.

The illusion fell. And abruptly Charm the horse was holding a dragon scale in her mouth. It was a pearlescent white color with threads of silver and gold running through it. She normally dropped these on her own through the process of growing. Ripping them from her body was about as painful as Corvus yanking a piece of hair from his head.

It was as beautiful as the finest jewel.

With a toss of her head, Charm flung it at Clarence. Her accuracy was uncanny, thanks to sharing some of Corvus's throwing accuracy.

Clarence reached out and snatched it out of the air. He stared at the scale and ran a thumb wonderingly over the surface. Then he looked at Charm. His face drained of blood.

"She is..."

"A horse," Roan said, firmly.

"This is a dragon's scale."

"Press it to any charmed item and you'll charge it back up without a witch to do it for you," Corvus said. They had found out the fun way that Charm's special brand of mana bypassed any ownership stamp on a linked rune. "It's a gift for the door she splintered." He paused. "And the damage to your floor."

Clarence looked back and forth between them all. Then, tucking the priceless scale back into his belt pouch, he bowed low to the "horse" in his house.

"Thank you, madam."

I changed my mind, Charm decided. He may live.

* * *

A few minutes later Corvus, Roan, and Charm were walking back down the alleyway. Corvus's stamina was still refilling -- he wouldn't be winning any races, but he could carry himself back on his own two feet.

This was good because Charm had flatly declined to let him ride her. She was still annoyed by the scare.

"These trips into the city are so much fun," Roan said, throwing Charm a look. "Tell me you didn't fly here."

Of course I didn't, Charm snapped. She could make herself heard by a few people, if they were close to Corvus, though she only did when she was making a point. I only flew to gates and ran the rest of the way under this stupid horse illusion.

Corvus knew his dragon better than anyone. "How much did you knock over along the way?"

Only the things in my way.

Corvus sighed.

"I wish you hadn't left Neville... but thanks."

The baby is dying, but so were you, Charm said callously. And you were the only one who has a chance at saving it. Even if you weren’t my companion, it would have been an easy decision. She paused. You can't use your Second Wind again for a full day. The child doesn't have that time left. Will this work?

"I don't know", he said and despite the fact his legs burned with fatigue he increased his pace. "But let's find out."

A/N: In case you’re wondering, Charm knocked over a cabbage cart.

Next chapter will be Tuesday!