Chapter One hundred eighty-three (Patreon)

Kaz slept well that night, curled up on the soft ground with Kyla pressed against his back and Li snuggled against his belly. The three humans each watched for a while, though nothing else approached them. It was the rising heat that woke Kaz, and he opened his eyes only to flinch away from the glaring white that seemed to surround him. He had thought his sight was recovering, but now all detail was lost in brilliance.

Beside him, Kyla curled up, her hands covering her eyes, whimpering. “What is that?” 

Something was dropped over them, blocking the worst of it, though the stifling darkness wasn’t much of an improvement. The thing smelled of Raff, and when Kaz felt it, he recognized the fabric that the man slept on.

“Hold on,” Raff said, sounding amused and not at all concerned. “Your eyes have to get used to the sun. It always takes a bit, but I know kobolds and dragons can handle it. Don’t take too long, though, or your rat will eat all the porridge.”

Porridge? That was new. Other than tea and Raff’s disgusting hardtack, the humans had mostly eaten what Kaz found or one of the tribes served them. Kaz found himself somewhat dubious about the edibility of this new human food, but he was hungry, and he would need to eat their food sooner or later.

The cloth covering them shifted as Kyla poked her nose out, sniffing the air. A moment later, she was out, leaving Kaz and Li alone beneath the cloth. Li squirmed, and Kaz realized that her wings were caught in the fabric. He plucked it up and away, and she shook out her wings gratefully.

<I’m hungry,> the dragon thought, sending an image of herself eating a ki crystal almost as large as she was.

Kaz hesitated. He wanted to save the crystals, but she needed them, and he was almost certain that ‘porridge’ contained no ki. Sitting up, he held a fold of the material so it continued to shade his eyes, and opened the pack that he had laid next to them before falling asleep. As his fingers dipped into the pouch hidden inside the larger bag, he had a thought and turned toward Raff.

“Are these spatial storage pouches common among humans?” he asked, handing Li a chip of yellow crystal. “If they see I have one, will someone try to steal it from me?”

Raff snorted. “Somebody somewhere will try to steal the fur off your back, Blue. At least, they would if you had any left. But no, the storage pouches aren’t so rare that anyone would attack you just for that. It takes a while for them to run out of power and cough up what’s inside, too, and most thieves don’t have that much time. Plus, not everyone can use one, so as long as you only take little things out of it in public, no one will even realize that’s what it is.”

Kaz nodded, then took out the pouch, tying it to what was left of his belt. He would need to make a new one soon, but for now the wide, thick leather was faring better than the softer straps of his pack.

Li had already swallowed the crystal, and Kaz watched the soft golden ki merge with her cycle, wishing he could do the same. He had tried swallowing a tiny chip of red crystal once, but it just passed through his body without yielding up its power. He had felt it as an uncomfortable spot of heat deep inside him the entire time, however, and he had no particular urge to try with the other colors.

Giving a small burp, the dragon emerged from beneath their covering, heading for the fire burning nearby. Kaz drew in a deep breath, finally identifying the strange, smoky scent that hung over the camp. The humans were burning wood.

The very idea was bizarre to Kaz, though he was well aware that wood burned. Until he saw the Tree, he hadn’t even realized that wood could be produced inside the mountain, and it had taken him a while even then to figure out that that was what the Tree was made of. To him, wood was even rarer than cloth, but as he thought back to the previous night, he realized that they were surrounded by it. All of the small trees must be made of it, and the humans had simply walked around and picked it up.

The blanket was pulled away from his unresisting grasp, and something settled around his head, metal digging uncomfortably into his skin. Everything felt so strange without the constant protective layer of fur, and even though he had lost the length of it before, there had always been a thin layer of fuzz remaining.

“There ya go,” Raff said in satisfaction. “I found my darklenses on the ground after you fought that crazy female. They were a bit banged up, but I’ve gotten pretty good at fixin’ things, since I usually can’t afford to replace ‘em.”

Kaz lifted his hands, feeling the pieces of round smoked glass that had protected his sensitive eyes when he had had a head injury. “Thank you,” he said, trying to focus on Raff’s face, which was hovering a foot or so past the end of his snout. It was still hazy, with dark pits for eyes, but it was recognizably a face, which was a definite improvement.

Raff scratched at the rusty shadow of his beard, probably giving his lopsided grin, and started to stand up. Kaz caught his arm, rising to his paws as well. “I have something for you,” he told the large man. He had debated about this, since he knew the human was only with Lianhua and the others because they were paying him. It was obvious that he, like many of the humans in the old howls, was driven by a desire for gold, and it was possible that what Kaz was about to do would cause his greed to outweigh his honor, but Kaz thought he had a fair measure of the male, and he believed that Raff truly considered him a friend, even if not a close one.

Opening his pouch, Kaz pictured a bar of metal, and one slid out into his hand. Kaz quickly pressed it into Raff’s open palm, saying, “I’m sorry it’s not in the little circles you like, but I can try using ki to melt it and make some. Gold is one of the softer metals, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get it hot enough to shape.”

Raff stared down at the ingot, his mouth a dark circle of shock within his beard. “Well, I’m not gonna argue if you want to give it to me, Blue, but why? And where did this come from?” He pushed the bar into his storage bag, giving it a little pat as if to make sure the ingot was safely inside, even though the contents couldn’t actually be felt after they were put away.

Kaz shrugged, ears turning sideways in embarrassment. “I had a bit of time in the mosui city while Lianhua was reading Zhangwo’s books. I just picked up a few things.”

Raff let out a deep chuckle, leaning down to whisper, “You’re not the only one, Blue. But I didn’t find anything like that.”

Lianhua’s voice cut across their conversation. “Kaz! Come and get something to eat before it’s all gone. I thought Chi Yincang made enough for a dozen people, but between Li, Kyla, and Mei, the pot is almost empty.”

Kaz reached down and picked up the discarded cloth from the ground, handing it to Raff, who began feeding it into his bag. Mana gleamed softly as he did so, the extended period of time needed to push the whole bundle in allowing Kaz to watch the process. Raff definitely had a good number of red sparks mingled into the mana he used, and the bag didn’t open until one of those sparks actually touched it.

Lianhua cleared her throat, pulling Kaz’s attention back to her. Ki and even mana were so much clearer than his normal vision at the moment that it was easy to lose himself in them, and he struggled to see Lianhua’s pale blur near the dying fire. She was white on white, with a hint of purple here and there, and unlike Raff’s deep coloring, Kaz couldn’t make out what expression she might have on her face.

Recognizing his discomfort, Li offered him her own sight, and the world snapped into focus, albeit from the wrong angle, since the dragon was sitting on the ground to Lianhua’s right, instead of standing directly opposite her. An empty bowl on the ground and a sensation of fullness spoke to Li’s enjoyment of the meal, and the cool touch of the long, slender plants that grew so thick on the ground was already lulling her back to sleepy contentment.

Carefully balancing his own vision and that of the dragon, Kaz managed to cross over to the fire without tripping or burning his paws. Lianhua smiled at him as she handed him a bowl of some thick, white food.

“Rice porridge with honey,” Lianhua said. “It takes a while to make, but Chi Yincang is surprisingly good at cooking. Whenever I try, I burn the food.”

“You’re too impatient,” Chi Yincang murmured as he leaned over to stir the pot. Kaz blinked, never having heard the dark male offer either voluntary conversation or anything that could be considered even mild criticism of Lianhua before.

Lianhua grinned, looking far more relaxed than Kaz had seen her before. She tilted her face up toward Chi Yincang, and the sunlight gilded her pale features with gold. “I know, I know. But it just doesn’t make sense. Higher heat should make things cook more quickly!”

Chi Yincang emitted something that might actually have been a very, very quiet laugh before his expression once again returned to neutrality. “We should leave as soon as possible now that the kobold is awake.”

Lianhua nodded reluctantly. “I know. We need to be at least halfway to the inn before night falls again.” She turned her head. “Raff, is it the same one you took us to before? The Old Crow?”

Raff nodded, scooping out his own bowl of porridge before settling down between Lianhua and Kaz. Kyla was lying sprawled on the ground opposite them, her bulging belly turned toward the blue sky, and her eyes closed. Mei rested not far away, her eyes still wary but her head resting on her front paws. The green goop on her wounds looked fresh, and made her fur stick up in spiky clumps almost like Kyla’s pink tufts.

“You remember Helmund, the innkeeper. We were in the Adamant Reach together before he lost his hand. He makes sure members of our guild always have a safe place to sleep, and in return, we only stay there when we’re in Wheldrake. At least, we do as long as our employers don’t throw a fit about it,” he said dryly.

Lianhua grimaced. “I’m sorry about that. It was a bit run down, but seemed fine to me. I don’t know why Gaoda insisted we stay at that other place.”

Raff gave her a look that said she knew perfectly well why Gaoda had done that, but didn’t say anything, instead tucking his eating utensil into the mound of food in his bowl. He shook his head. “I’ve had plenty of porridge in my time, but it was always made with oats or wheat. This rice is nice an’ soft.”

Smiling, Lianhua admitted, “It’s often given to children and invalids for that reason, though we put different spices and flavorings in it. It’s one of my favorites, even though it’s very simple.”

Kaz took a deep sniff of the contents of his bowl, finding that it smelled sweet. Now that it had stopped steaming, he ventured a bite, and immediately understood why Lianhua liked it. It was too soft for him, bland beneath the sweetness, but it was still oddly satisfying, and his stomach was quite pleased with it. Puppies would probably love it, and if he’d grown up eating it, it would probably be comforting to eat it in times of stress.

Before he knew it, he, too, had finished his food, and Chi Yincang gathered the bowls, returning them to his pouch. Kaz wondered just how many dishes the male had in there, since as far as Kaz knew, he had never washed a single one, in spite of giving them to Lianhua and Gaoda at nearly every meal.

The few items they had used were quickly returned to the storage pouches from which they had been taken, and soon enough everyone was ready to go. Kyla remained close to Kaz as they started to walk, but that was the only indication that she was nervous at all. Indeed, she and Raff kept up quite a conversation, and Kaz learned a great deal simply by listening to them.

The long, thin plants on which they walked were called grass, but some that were taller, or had broader leaves had other names entirely. Flowers were everywhere, and each of them also had their own names, and Raff knew a great deal about how different ones could be used, and which were poisonous, at least to humans. It seemed he often gathered for himself when he traveled, in order to save his precious gold, so though what he could tell them was simple, it was extensive. Kaz even saw Lianhua writing down some of what the tall male told them as they walked.

There were a thousand new words to learn, many of them for plants, but Kyla also wanted to know about the human’s clothes and belongings, and so Kaz finally found out that Raff’s foot coverings were called boots, which were different from Lianhua’s ‘slippers’ and the general word for all of these things, which was ‘shoes’.

Li was particularly fascinated by the insects, chasing after a fat black and yellow striped one Raff called a bumblebee until Lianhua mentioned that the bug could sting. After that, she was a little more cautious, but soon enough, one of the bugs did indeed attempt to pierce Li’s scales with the point at the end of its abdomen. That attempt failed, and soon Li was flying around, snatching all kinds of insects from the air before spitting them out again.

“Why doesn’t she eat them?” Kyla asked, watching a butterfly flap away dizzily after one of these encounters.

Kaz chuckled. He was more comfortable now that he knew the names for things, though why that mattered, he wasn’t sure. Still, the way his paws sank into the damp dirt and the grass pulled at his ankles wasn’t as worrisome as it had been before Raff and Lianhua explained what they were.

“She says they taste bad,” he told the pup quietly. “But I think she actually just doesn’t want to kill them. She’s not hungry right now, and they’re pretty.”

In fact, the near-constant monologue of Li’s mutterings in his mind let him know exactly what she was thinking, but he had decided he didn’t want her to know he could hear her. It was very amusing to hear the difference between the tough exterior Li liked to show, and the mumbles of, <Oh! That one is blue! It looks like Kaz, so I like this one the very best. Now, what is this soft thing? It’s so fluffy!>

Li heard him, of course, and puffed out a particularly thick cloud of vapor around the next bug she found, which was a long green one with an elongated abdomen, a triangular head, and two barbed front limbs that it held folded to its chest. Those limbs emerged from the mist almost as soon as it formed, latching onto the dragon’s nose as Li reared back, wings flapping wildly. Kaz knew she was more startled than injured, but the insect’s bite was surprisingly strong.

Raff laughed as Li flew back to Kaz so he could gently tug the bug from the dragon’s snout. “That’s a mantis. They eat meat, an’ I’ve seen some the size of a small dog. Those had cores, o’ course, but I wouldn’t want to face one without my armor. They just won’t give up until you’ve chopped ‘em to pieces.”

Indeed, the one Kaz held was trying to latch onto him instead, and he had to shake it onto a bush as they passed. Bushes were like trees, but somehow different, apparently simply because they were shorter. It was very confusing to Kaz, who was used to identifying plants by the shape of their stalk or the color of their fronds, not just how large they were, but Raff and Lianhua were insistent that this was correct, so he would accept it until he learned differently.

They had been walking for quite some time by now, and the sun was high overhead, instead of resting on the too-distant horizon. All of the mountain-dwellers found this vast expanse of space unnerving, and Lianhua seemed to realize this, eventually asking Raff if they could walk under the trees rather than on the clearer remains of the ‘road’. She claimed to be concerned about the sun burning her skin, as if she had reached into a fire or picked up something hot, but Kaz was almost entirely certain this was something she just made up to convince Raff to let them walk where the bushes and trees broke up the sky.

The sound of running water reached Kaz’s ears, and they swiveled toward it. Water in the mountain usually dripped or trickled, but he had heard this sound a few times before. There was a good amount of rapidly moving water somewhere ahead, and all of them perked up as they heard it, especially Li and Kyla. They had been drinking from bladders or leather bags, and the water tasted stale. Kyla had had fresh, cold mountain water for most of her life, never being reduced to lapping up a few drops of fluid seeping from a crack in the wall, and Li simply didn’t care for the taste.

Raff grinned. “There it is. The great Eastern Tributary. Lots of runoff from the snow in the mountains this time of year, so it’ll be cold, but we can at least wash our faces and get a drink.”

Lianhua looked excited, and her speed increased, causing the males to hurry as well. Chi Yincang had actually remained visible all day, and whenever Kaz looked at him with his own eyes, he could tell that the male was busy cultivating as they walked. Kaz in turn had made sure not to get too close, and Kyla had moved so she could stay close to Kaz, preventing the human from draining her, if he could.

The bushes ahead were growing thinner, and the light reflecting on their leaves was brighter. Kaz had learned by now that this meant there was an area without trees coming up, and he closed his eyes behind the darklenses as he stepped out into the sun. Li’s healthy eyes, however, had adjusted well enough to remain open by now, and what Kaz saw astonished him.