Dragon Tamer: 25. Contact With The Enemy (Patreon)

So… I ended up ditching Jane and Sienna behind for egg-watching duty.

I freely admit: It was a little fucked up.

But Arcee was adamant that we needed to get a move on. She wanted her new form ASAP and as her bonded tamer, her chances were a lot better if I went along with her.

Tiberius, of course, came along too.

And someone had to watch the nest. Creepy Todd was still lurking around, and I wasn't going to risk someone from the village stumbling on extremely rare and valuable eggs.

For their part, either it was an honor to be asked to watch dragon eggs, or Jane and Sienna were super nice because neither one of them put up a stink. Or maybe they were just good people. I hadn't been around enough of those to tell.

I was going to have to find a way to repay their friendship. Somehow.

Anyway, Arcee was impatient to get started. She changed into her House dragon form, settled on my shoulder, and squeaked impatiently in my ear. With a final wave to Jane and Sienna, I took off down a path in the forest.

As I said before, this was more of a glen of trees than the actual forest. Soon, it opened up into the rolling hills that surrounded the village.

There wasn't anything like a conversation in quartz space, but Arcee had communicated to me that she knew of a likely place to find other dragons. I let her lead the way.

Still in her House dragon form, she pecked me on the cheek with her beaky muzzle whenever she wanted me to turn right or left.

Thanks to my heightened dexterity, I was a lot steadier than I used to be. Don't get me wrong. My leg still sucked, and my gait was slow and uneven, but it was like my muscles could suddenly compensate for the uneven ground. I didn't stumble once which was some kind of record.

Under Arcee's guidance, we traveled almost directly away from the graveyard. There was a line of trees ahead – a different part of the forest than I had experienced before. Though… I squinted. The trees were further away than I thought, and what was that weird gap between the upcoming hill and the tree line?

As we traveled, the close-cropped grass grew higher and wilder. The path thinned and became narrow with two separate wagon wheel tracks on either side. Looked like this road wasn't used all that often. Soon, the path led to a steep incline.

When I crested the hill, my legs were sore. I looked around.

Ahead stood a deep, river-cut gorge. It was a sheer drop off, rocky and steep on both sides. I think there was a goat path or something that led down to the winding snakelike river down below, but there was no way I could manage that — even with my increased dex.

I turned and located the river that ran upstream from the village. I couldn't see the water, but the edges were marked by the thickly green grass and trees on either side. It cut to the south and when I followed it to the edge of the gorge, I saw the hint of a waterfall. Shrubs lined the edges on either side.

Pretty. In my world, this would be a tourist trap.

"I thought we were looking for dragons for you to fight," I said. Then, my gaze traveled back to the winding snake river below and… "Oh."

What I thought were shrubs moved under their own power. They weren’t shrubs. Those had to be one of the greenies that Arcee had hunted yesterday. This was her hunting ground. Between the clean, sparkling water and the weird green alpaca-like animals for food, wild dragons would be attracted to this place.

And Arcee would be here to challenge all comers.

Arcee squeaked at me, still in her House dragon form, and flitted to the shade of a nearby tree. She sat at the base, one forepaw resting on a root, and squeaked again, impatiently.

"Guess she wants us to go undercover," I said. That was no skin off my nose. I was happy to sit down in the shade.

Tiberius was, too. He made a halfhearted pounce at her House dragon form.

With a pop, Arcee transformed into her Phoenix fire form and lifted her teeth away from her orange and black muzzle.

Tiberius quickly scuttled away back to find refuge next to me.

I settled down, rolling up the pant leg of my jeans to massage the muscles in my bad leg. The twisted ligaments made it weaker than the other one, and it got sore easily.

"So, what's the plan? We just wait here and see who shows up?"

In answer, Arcee popped back into her tiny House dragon form and flitted up into the high branches to keep watch.

I exchanged a glance with Tiberius, and I swear the dragon shrugged at me.

Arcee wasn't a team player, but she knew what she was doing. I decided to let her.

***

What followed was a lazy afternoon.

There wasn't much else to do but wait. I didn't even have a deck of cards to pass the time.

Strange, I couldn't remember the last time I had spent hours doing absolutely nothing. I didn't have a phone to look at, a TV to watch, or even a book to read. Just my dragons, and my thoughts.

I couldn't say that the shine had worn off of my new world — but today everything felt less like a fantasy and more real. There were real stakes here, and I was playing a dangerous game with Todd.

Maybe I should just take those eggs, throw them in a cart, and get out of town. Once we were far enough away, I could release Arcee back to the wild and continue journeying. Be the best that I could be… Etc.

Only, I didn't think that Todd, or the guys that he contracted with to get that Void dragon, would let me go that easily. Wherever I went, I would always be looking over my shoulder.

That didn't sit right with me.

No, I was doing the right thing. We just had to hope that Arcee would be able to get a kick-ass new fighter form between now and tomorrow. Maybe the dragon equivalent of a melee class.

Speaking of that, wild dragons were proving to be thin on the ground.

I didn't know if it was because we were close to the village, or people like Todd had cleared out the wild ones… Or both. But, for a few hours, the only other dragons we saw were high up in the sky. I didn't realize that they weren't clouds until Tiberius growled up at them. Then, I realized that the misty shapes weren't clouds, but dragons slowly beating great wings across the sky.

"Wow," I muttered. "You don't see that every day. Or, maybe you do, but not where I come from. I wonder if there are storm dragons…”

The flock of cloud dragons moved on and Tiberius eventually started hunting around in the underbrush. He came back within twenty minutes with a struggling mouse lizard thing. It was shaped a little like a chameleon, with its weird shield-shaped head and curly tail, but had soft downy fur all over it and big whiskers… And black eyes that looked up at me pleadingly.

A moment later, Tiberius clamped down and the mouse lizard was engulfed in fire.

Tiberius dropped the charred body at my feet and sat down, looking pleased with himself.

"No, I'm good. You keep it," I told him, trying not to show disgust.

Tiberius yarped happily, and, leaving the dead creature, trotted off. I got the impression that he'd already had snacked on a few others before this.

Gingerly, I picked up the crispy thing — which, my system hopefully identified as a furred chameleon — and waved it at the upper branches. "Yo, Arcee. Are you hungry?"

Arcee was perched in the upper branches where she would get the best view of the gorge. She stared straight ahead and didn’t look down at me.

"Arcee!" I called again, waving the furred chameleon temptingly. She remained silent and still.

Too still.

Uh-oh.

I looked down and at first saw nothing amiss. Sure, the greenies were moving about and bunching up...

They looked a lot like I'd seen herds of wildebeest and zebra go restless when they sensed a lion within range. One of my foster families was big on nature documentaries.

Did they catch our scent? No way. We were too far away.

I squinted. What was that crawling along the ground? It looked... purple. And misty.

"Oh shit, the Bone Dragon's down there!" I yelped.

Arcee let out a threatening eagle-like screech and leaped from the top branch. While in the air, she popped into her Winter Dragon form and arrowed down at the herd.

"Arcee! No!"

I went to the edge, but there was nothing I could do. I was helpless to watch as Arcee skimmed over the surface of the river -- ice riming the shallow edges under her wings -- and let out a crackling war cry.

Then, from all around in a narrow gorge, dozens of furred chameleons suicide jumped from the walls to attack her.

Except... it wasn't exactly suicide, because they were already dead. I couldn't see many fine details from far up, but most trailed wisps of purple smoke.

Damn it. The Bone Dragon must have come here after Arcee chased it from the graveyard. It built up its undead minions. Possibly for revenge.

"Arcee!" I shrieked as the bone dragon seemed to explode from the cover of the bushes in all its bony glory. It tackled Arcee mid-air and both dragons went down, fighting and clawing.

Except this time the undead minions were helping to bite and scratch, and the purple haze was confined in a narrow valley. Not in an open graveyard where it could easily dissipate.

I was panicked, yelling Arcee's name over and over like that would do something. What could I do? Throw a rock at the Bone Dragon? Even if I could hit it, my aim sucked. I was just as likely to hit Arcee and she didn't need the distraction.

Tiberius had come out of the bushes and looked down at the fracas. He let out a high yapping bark.

"I don't know what to do!" I told him. "I can't go down there. I can't use the quartz to bond with her. It takes a few seconds, and the Bone Dragon will rip her apart. Shit!"

Tiberius yapped again and reared up on his hind legs to claw at my pants pocket.

"What?" I put my hand over my pocket and felt the lump of quartz.

Then I pulled it out and looked at him. "You want to quartz bond?"

He yapped for a third time.

I didn't know what Tiberius thought he could do, or if we could maintain the connection when he was all the way down there... but I had to try.

I sat down, not wanting to be stuck standing on the edge of a cliff while my mind was merged with my dragon. Then I focused on the quartz and mentally reached out for Tiberius.

It was as easy as slipping into a warm bath.

I felt the sense of joyous welcome though it was tinged with anxiety for Arcee. Tiberius didn't understand all the overtones -- what had brought Arcee and me here for the dragon hunt in the first place. But he recognized that she was in trouble and together, he and I could help.

I blinked open my eyes, finding myself much lower to the ground than I was a moment before. Then I turned on my perfect four feet and rushed to the pathway down the hill.

What had seemed to be pathetic little tracery of a path to my human sensibilities was as wide as a sidewalk to Tiberius. We galloped down at full speed and jumped down whole levels at a time during switchbacks.

Faster than what I thought was possible, we landed at the bottom of the gorge among lush grass. There were a thousand different smells -- all of which Tiberius translated for my human mind. He focused on the scent. I focused on the sight and together we saw Arcee.

She had popped into Pheonix dragon form and managed to fry the Bone Dragon's minions into a crisp. The Bone Dragon had moved back to allow his minions to distract Arcee. Its jaws were parted and there was an ominous dark light forming between its jaws.

It's about to use a special attack! I realized with a jolt.

We have to stop him! I thought/said to Tiberius.

Or maybe he said it to me. It was hard to tell.

All I knew was that new strength borne by determination flooded into my legs. Heat bloomed under my feet, and my giant ears caught the snap of vegetation bursting into flame in a trail behind me.

The world suddenly slowed down as I shifted into my special charge attack. I aimed straight for the Bone Dragon.

Ramming speed!

I lowered my head, keeping my neck straight and parallel to the rest of my body, and hit. Hard.

I knew that the bones themselves were just an illusion, but I was still surprised when I hit the Bone Dragons stomach. It was like smacking full bore into a pillow.

The bone dragon reeled back with an ‘oomph’. It had been on the verge of letting out its dark energy attack. The dark blast from its mouth went wild, sailing over Arcee and carving a line into the gorge wall. Rocks fell and splashed into the river.

I fell back, right onto my rump, slightly dazed from the hit.

The Bone Dragon was knocked back several paces, heaving in a gasp of air.

Then it turned purple angry eyes on me. I swear I saw a burst of recognition.

In the next moment, it raised its bony hand to bring it down in a claw swipe.

… Only for the arm to be knocked aside by a burst of ice.

Arcee had popped into her Winter Dragon form and, after unleashing her blast, charged again, battling the Bone Dragon one-on-one.

No! I wanted to yell.

Damn it, Arcee! There wasn’t a point in fighting this dragon other than her ego.

But the team was committed now. Tiberius, who shared my brain space, was less concerned about that and more about the undead furred chameleon minions. Some were half rotted with death, thanks to the haze of gas. They were clustered around as if trying to gang up again.

I was annoyed but couldn't let them overwhelm us with numbers.

I rushed forward, jumping on one to squish underneath my paws. With a snap, I grabbed a second nearby minion in my teeth, only to grab another in my teeth.

And the taste was terrible. Half rotten and gross, and it lingered even after fire rolled up from Tiberius’s stomach to char it to a crisp.

I shook my head and threw the remains aside.

But couldn't let it deter me and charged after the minions who didn’t have the sense to scatter in fright. They were even easier to kill than the undead bunnies.

There the pitch of the roar of the two battling dragons changed, and I turned in time to see something very strange happen.

It was as if someone had outlined Arcee’s form with a technicolor rainbow marker. Lights flashed all around her.

My breath caught in my throat. Had the Bone Dragon thrown another special attack at her?

But the Bone Dragon was backing away from the mimic, wings mantling and bones clacking together. The expression on its face looked startled.

Arcee's neck lengthened, and ice fell away as her bottom half expanded, fingers reshaping from sickles to straight, pencil-like points. Her skin seemed to tighten, turning deathly white. Then it snapped into utter translucence with only her bones showing through., and then come translucent become translucent for a second before her own skeleton showed through.

Within two breaths, she had become a replica of the Bone Dragon that she was fighting.

She had reached her next form.

Arcee opened up her bony jaws and roared aloud, black energy pouring from her breath.

The other Bone Dragon roared too. There was a querulous note at the end, and it was visibly disturbed at seeing its own reflection.

I was told that a mimic wasn't as strong as a fighting dragon of the same species. It can only mimic several of the powers while a normal dragon of the same species had the full suite. Its strength came from flickering from one form to another… But the Bone Dragon didn't know that.

It turned and fled again with a swiftness that told me it would not be coming back anytime soon.

The fight was over. Arcee’s new form was a Bone Dragon, which had to be some sort of dark or undead type. Not a fighter at all.

I was so screwed.