(Path of the Dragon Mage: Book 2) Okay It Is The Size Of The Rune (Patreon)

A/N: Now that the $1 has caught up I'll be changing the title from here on out from Book 2 to the whole title, which will be 'Nomad'. Yay.

And yes, Ritwik, I added that part thanks to your comment. :)

The giant rune dimmed and died an hour later. Corvus was certain there was something significant about the timing, but he could not guess what it was.

He was all for traveling down the long chain of runes right then. Unfortunately, the horses could not continue much further. Roan and CloudStrike, especially, were flagging. Corvus and Gwen both had some exhaustion resistance that transferred to their bonded partners.

Reluctantly, they decided to camp for the rest of the night and start again at first light. Corvus insisted that they sleep well away from the rune in case it activated again. No one argued.

Charm, however, was dissatisfied.

I can fly ahead, she insisted. I will scout the area and see how long the chain extends.

“What if you run into trouble?" he asked. “There will likely be a feral waiting at the end of that chain.”

In answer, she parted her jaws. Then I will give them a taste of my moon breath.

A wisp of silver escaped her teeth, though she had enough fine control to not damage Corvus. Her moon breath acted somewhat like a force, and somewhat like a corrosive light. It was powerful, having reached the intermediate level. Even more so when there was a blue moon during the day and she was able to combine it with her solar breath.

"I don't want you facing danger alone," Corvus said simply.

Charm shook her head back and forth, growling under her breath. Corvus could not truly talk her out of anything she did not want to do, but she hated displeasing him… And he hated telling her no.

Fine, she said petulantly, and vented her frustration by breathing out an entire moon breath on a hapless bush nearby. The bush was blown back, leaves blown off the branches. What remained withered and died.

If I was strong enough and big enough you would be able to ride me. Then you would not have to ride that horse up into the sky.

“Soon,” he promised. “You're almost at level five. You always get a growth spurt right after you level —"

Nearly five-hundred points for me, or thousand if you do it for me, she said, still fierce. Then, when you hit the next level, I can stop siphoning your experience and you can keep it for yourself.

"You aren't siphoning. I'm giving it to you freely. Charm why are you upset?"

She growled again and paced back and forth, agitated.

"Everything alright over there?" Roan called from over where he was brushing down CloudStrike.

Corvus waved his concern away and turned back to his dragon. He waited for her to explain herself.

It's always wait, wait, wait. I am tired of waiting to grow larger. I am tired of hiding under the illusion of a horse. I am a dragon. I deserve to be seen.

She raised up on her hind legs and flapped her wings. I want to be strong enough to carry you into battle.

He had been aware of his own frustrations with not moving forward but hadn't realized how much it had affected his dragon.

Charm continued. Once we can fly together, we can search out where demons nest and fight them and gain more experience and grow stronger. I can stop holding you back.

"You have never held me back.” An old guilt he rarely allowed himself to acknowledge crept in. If anything, it's been me. You should be at a palace being waited on hand and foot — the companion of a king—"

She whirled on him. I don't want to be waited on hand and foot. And I've seen your memories of the palace. You hated it there, and I would too.

He couldn't argue with that.

Corvus, she said, and for once her mental voice held a note of uncertainty. Whatever we face, it will be together, won't it?

“Of course we will," he said instantly. "Why?”

I don't know… I have a feeling. A bad feeling.

Her head was turned towards the large rune. He followed her gaze but could see nothing out of the ordinary.

Other than a rune that should not exist, that was. 

“Do you think we should turn back?"

Her attention snapped back to him in an instant. No!

Despite his unease, he chuckled. "Okay. Then we won't. And whatever we face at the end of this chain, it will be together. After that, we'll get you level five and then… Who knows.” He smiled and leaned in, conspiratorially, “Don't tell Gwen, but I don't like riding NightShade in the air, either.”

Prey animals, she grumbled, though Corvus knew that she liked the company of NightShade and CloudStrike just fine.

She settled , curling up nose to tail. Pulling up a square of canvas he used as a blanket while camping, he curled up beside her. Her wing dropped to envelop him, and he found himself quite warm. With his ear pressed against her body, he could hear her a double rhythm of a heartbeat.

He fell asleep to the beating of Charm’s two hearts.

* * *

The next day, they followed the long path of large runes.

The third rune that they came to was just as large as the ones before it, and the bones were newer. 

A couple of the bodies were desiccated by age, but not reduced to bones. They were also uniform in appearance.

It seemed the dragon who had built this had come upon an entire herd of wild donkeys.

Roan shook his head, looking disgusted at the waste. "Why haven't the locals seen these before?"

"Because we’re out in the backcountry areas," Gwen said. "News doesn't travel fast around these parts."

"We haven't seen a new road all day," Corvus added. "The dragon positioned the runes where no one would see them."

"Except when they light up like great blue bonfires at midnight," Roan muttered.

Corvus shrugged. "Commoners go to sleep when the sun sets. No one would be up to see any of it."

"But what's the point of this rune?" Gwen asked, looking around with her hands on her waist. 

"This is a lot of death and misery and waste… For what?"

"Nothing good," Roan said.

Charm, who was giving her wings a rest and walking next to the others broke into the conversation. Perhaps so crunchy ratkin are funneled directly to his or her den whenever they are hungry.

“If they were hungry, they could have eaten the animals and such. Not made runes out of their bones,” Roan grumbled.

Charm shrugged with her wings and then said, I scout ahead. She launched into the sky.

She returned a short time later. The next rune is straight on your path ahead. You are not going to like it.

"Why?" Corvus demanded.

 Because it was built using a human town.

The rune was much like the ones before it, again, the bodies were newer. But this time, most were covered in tatters of clothing.

Corvus, Gwen, and Roan were silent as they walked past body after body. Most had been out in the elements for too long to see any features or expression… But it could not cover the fact that some of the bodies were very small.

"Where did they come from?" Roan demanded.

Corvus had no answer, though he suspected that there was a small village on someone’s map which was no longer there.

Some of the bodies wore the equivalent of guard uniforms. Local designations of brown, green, and midnight blue. Not the kingdom colors. He made a note to look up the pattern in maps when he got back to the clan. He might identify the town.

None of the guards were kingdom officials. This was too far out in the backcountry for the palace to worry about. Nearly on the other side of the kingdom then the border war.

These people had no help from the ones who were there to protect them.

It was doubtful that the king would send any men their way, even if he had ever known this town existed. As far as Corvus knew, his grandfather had never stepped foot outside the palace grounds. And neither had the king he had inherited from, or the queen before him.

"We have to tell the officials back at Meadow City," Roan said, dully. “They won't like the fact that the news came from horse folk. They might even try to blame us for it."

“Someone needs to be told," Corvus said. He had lived with most of the horse folks distrust of "towners" for years, and he didn't share in that pessimism.

He stood and looked around, doing a swift count of the skulls before he stopped. There were more than he cared to see. 

Whatever the dragon was up to, he was determined that they would no longer receive the benefit of this rune.

He marched to the barrier circle and kicked bones, one after another, scattering them further out; a shattered rib cage, then a skull, and looked like an arm bone.

"Corvus!" Gwen stared at him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?"

"We don’t have shovels. They won't get a burial. The least I can do is stop their bodies from powering this rune."

Gwen and Roan exchanged a look. Then, with a sigh, Roan went to retrieve his hammer from CloudStrike. He started knocking bones out of position, too.

Charm got in on the process, flapping her wings hard to create a strong wind to knock even more out of place.

Gwen nudged some this way and that, and NightShade came to help.

By the time they left the rune an hour later, it was all but ruined. The barrier circle was broken, the glyphs inside too distorted to hold any magic.

Corvus should have felt a measure of satisfaction, but he didn’t. He could communicate with the feral dragons, somewhat. He planned to have a very long discussion with this one.

Again, they camped for the night, and again they did so well out of reach of the rune. Corvus was emotionally and physically exhausted from the day and fell asleep next to Charm soon after the sun was set.

* * *

A prickling of magic woke him.

Sitting up, he peered out from under Charm’s wing. The night was black and dark – close to midnight again by his guess. And though the giant rune lay ruined, so much power leaked from the bones that they glowed in his rune sight.

That should be impossible. They had broken the barrier circle in a couple dozen places and distorted the glyphs inside. The rune simply could not activate.

Too bad no one had told the rune that.

Sensing his worry, Charm came awake. What is it?

“The rune’s activating again. I don’t know how.” He stood and looked towards the south. One by one, the previous runes they had passed by lit up – visible as fierce blue glows against the sky.

Then, the bones near their rune blazed to light all at once. This was no contained blaze against the night. Energy crackled and lashed out, sparks as big as a horse’s head thrown out like a spitting cookfire.

“What’s going on?” Gwen yelled, standing from her bed.

Roan woke too and cursed, standing. Their horses pawed the ground nervously.

Corvus shook his head. “We’re too close. We need to back away!”

They were half the length of a typical camp from the rune and thought that should have been far enough. But he didn’t like the look of those sparks.

“You think?” Roan bent to snatch his blanket and toss it over CloudStrike’s back.

Suddenly, a blue ribbon of pure energy snapped out, whipping into the sky before coiling from side to side. It was a random burst and impossible to avoid. Corvus threw a hand out as if he could stop it—but it struck anyway. His vision flashed blue and he felt the earth drop out under him.

Ding!

You have entered a local portal.

Reentry in 3…

… 2

… 1