B4 Ch48: Egg-Cellent Rewards (Patreon)

When Arthur arrived back at the pavilion, he immediately recognized it. Not because it had been weeks, possibly months since he had last seen this room, but because the underground floor of the pavilion had massively changed.

It was deeper with the ceiling now at least two stories high. The kitchen had been expanded to include grilling stations and long countertops, while the area that had been filled with multiple bunk beds had now been reduced to five. Most drastically, the stairway that had led down from the trap door was now widened to a ludicrous degree and featured huge, shallow steps that he'd imagined someone would place at the foot of a palace. That was matched by an equally giant door at the top—one big enough for a dragon Sams’ size.

When the trap door had been the size to let in a person, it had taken him using all of his Strength attributes and Marion’s help to help to open it. Now it would need a pulley system to slide the cover over.

Fresh from the challenge, he knew how to rig one up.

Arthur took all the changes in a flash. The next moment, he heard a booming voice, "Arthur! You made it!"

In the next moment, he was enveloped by black wings and the not unpleasant scent of dragon. Brixaby did not hug him exactly, but he leaned his head, hard, on Arthur's shoulder.

"Of course I did," Arthur replied, leaning against his dragon. "Did I make you wait for long?"

In the next moment, Brixaby seemed to have recovered himself. He dropped his wings, backing away "We just arrived." He looked Arthur up and down. "You are in one piece. Excellent. As you can see, I have brought my retinue back alive and victorious."

Arthur glanced around, swiftly counting heads. Everybody else was busy gazing around at the changed pavilion with wonder.

"How long have we been gone?" Soledad wondered. Her forehead and nose were sunburned. "They couldn't have done this in just a few days."

"A few days--?" Arthur started to say, but then he spotted Cressida.

She, too, was sporting a sunburn, and it made the freckles on her face stand out. Her red was awry, escaping from its usual tight rider's bun in a halo, and she looked absolutely beautiful.

He stepped forward and caught her in a hug. "I missed you.”

She squeezed him. "You're all right?"

He nodded, but inside, his mind flashed to all the people he had gotten to know—and who he had been—over the last few weeks in the bunker.

It was too easy to tell himself that those people had never been real... and on the off chance they had been, that they'd been dead for centuries. Maybe thousands of years. But they had been his reality, and he suspected it would be a while before he fully felt re-centered back into this world.

"I'll be all right," he said, squeezing her tight again.

"You should check on Brixaby," she murmured, too quietly for the proud dragon to hear.

Releasing her, he took a closer look at his dragon and startled. He hadn't caught it when he'd been enveloped in Brixaby's wings, but now he easily spotted raw patches along his belly and the underside of his wings.

"Brixaby, what happened to you?"

"I fought a lava-based mega scourgeling," Brixaby said proudly, though for some reason, he threw an annoyed glance at Soledad.

The burns are minor," Marion put in. "I’ve covered them with salve. He’ll be uncomfortable for about a week, but it hasn’t stopped him from flying."

Arthur went to check for that himself. He bent to examine the welts closer, and noted the burn salve. Though he would have rather seen a bandage, they were not yet done with these challenges, and any visible bandage would be a target for any enemy to hit.

"You might lose a few scales," Arthur allowed. When dragon scales became too damaged, they dropped off and grew back. The important thing was, the hide underneath the scales still looked undamaged. "You’ll look a little patchworked for a while. It looks like your stomach got the worst of it – that’s a good thing, as your wings don’t have scales to protect them."

Brixaby puffed up proudly. "It was worth it. Come, you may now ooh and ah over my magnificent reward—"

Joy pointedly coughed.

To Arthur's utter shock, Brixaby caught himself and said quickly, "And of course, my retinue helped as well."

Arthur's eyebrows rose. What exactly had happened in the challenge? In the next second, his attention was diverted as Brixaby pulled out two Rare cards from his Personal Space. They were impressive and scary in equal amounts.

Illusion

Trap/Mind

Rare

The wielder of this card will be able to target an enemy and trap them in an illusion where they are about to gain the object of their desires. While in this state, the target will be immune to all additional magical attacks by the wielder but will be susceptible to suggestions. The target’s ability to resist or even break free is dependent on the rank of the card within their own heart and any resistance skills. The use of mana is required for the creation and running of the mind trap. The trap has no time limit, only a limit of mana.

Card of Covetousness

Trap

Rare

The wielder of this card will be granted the remarkable ability to add additional cards of Rare rank and below into their heart deck. However, for every extra card, the wielder will lose a vital or important memory and all context of that memory. The memory lost is random and permanent. The wielder will not regain the memory upon removal of this card. Once this card is added to the heart deck, there is no limit on the amount of additional cards which may be added afterward.

“These are some dark cards,” Arthur murmured. “I hope you don’t expect me to use the Card of Covetousness.”

Brixaby gave him a look like he was being ridiculous. “And risk you forgetting me?”

Arthur smiled, but it died a moment later. “Brix… I don’t even think you should eat these cards. You could gain power from them, but the risk of keeping one of their bad effects…”

Cressida, who’d been listening, piped up. “The illusion card might not be so bad, but that other trap card…” She leaned in and tapped a nail over the description. “Did you see that it didn’t say something like, ‘for every additional card once the heart deck is full…’? That means, if someone were to add that card as their first or second, they’d lose a vital memory for every additional card. I think the trap is for the poor idiot who adds it to their deck. Who would do that?” she added, in disgust.

“Someone who didn’t care what card they had, as long as they had one,” Arthur murmured. Such as someone who lived near the deadlands and needed to be protected from rot. But that was the very best situation he could think of. “Put those cards back in your Personal Space, Brix. And… be careful with them.”

Despite the fact they were powerful, he was a little surprised. That was all the rewards they received? After all, he'd briefly had the chance to gain a Legendary card. 

Speaking of...

"Well," he said, grinning at Soledad and Marion. He needed to find a way to take the sting out of the inevitable backlash when Brixaby heard he had not killed the general for the Legendary card, and he knew just how to do it. " Let me show you what I got from my challenge."

Then he pulled out two dragon eggs, letting out a mental sigh of relief as the weight left his personal space. 

Soledad let out a shocked shriek of joy, clapping her hand over her mouth. "Is that—?"

Marion didn't say anything, but his eyes grew very wide. 

"Dragon eggs?" Brixaby cocked his head to the side. "Did you go to a hive?"

"No," Arthur said. "I'm not quite sure how they appeared, really. I went to a place like the city-state here. There were no dragons."

Joy thrust her head forward, practically knocking Brixaby away to sniff over the eggs. "Are they supposed to be white like that? Well, they're not white, not really," she corrected. "They're just... kind of without color. It's really weird."

Marion squatted down and adjusted his glasses, looking closely. "I've seen dragon eggs before, back in Buck Moon Hive. But I've never seen anything like this. You’re correct: They’re not white, they’re sort of devoid of color, or the texture that dragon eggs have." He looked up at the other dragon riders. "Is this normal?"

Both Cressida and Horatio shook their heads. "It looks white to me, and usually a white one means you're dealing with a dragon with a mind card,” Horatio said. "Which wouldn't be great because you two don't have those types of cards."

Arthur winced, thinking of that Illusion/Mind card. 

"I think they're a little like how the shards appear here: Unranked." Arthur said. "Or, unattributed, for lack of a better word. The trick will be to see if we can get the hatchlings to link with you two." He paused, realizing that he was assuming a lot. "You guys do want the eggs, right?"

"Yes," Soledad said immediately. Then she bit her lip. "But I don't... like the idea of linking with a mind dragon."

Joy jerked in surprise. "Oh! Quick! Who has one of those weird blank shards? Give one to me!"

Brixaby was the first to move, quickly summoning a shard from his personal space.

"Did you receive another quest?" he asked, eagerly.

"Yeah, but it doesn't tell me anything useful. I'm supposed to help you two figure out how to hatch some dragons," she said, very carefully taking the shard, which looked incredibly tiny and delicate pinched between her non-venomous claws. 

"Joy, dear, you can't hatch these out," Cressida said, and there was a distinct note of worry in her voice. Female dragons could get wildly possessive over eggs.

"No, no," Joy said impatiently. "These aren't my eggs. Of course I can't hatch them. I just have a strong feeling these weird shards and these weird eggs are connected. Sorry, eggs," she added, "but you're a little weird."

Still holding the shard carefully pinched between two claws, she very carefully pressed it to the shell of the closer of the two shells.

Instantly, the shard disappeared, and the egg took on the palest of a pink hue.

There was a general gasp and sounds of amazement from the group. 

"I knew it." Joy sat back on her haunches, looking smug.

“How did you know?” Horatio asked.

"Easy! They're cardless, so how could they have any specific magic to them? And the magic creates color. So, obviously, the solution is to give them card powers. And what makes cards? Shards! You two should do the rest," she added to Soledad and Marion. “Give them as many shards as they can hold.”

Immediately, Soledad started emptying her pockets of all the shards she had picked up in both of her challenges.

Marion, however, frowned down at the second egg. And Arthur realized that he had never answered the question whether he wanted to be a dragon rider or not.

He stepped over to his friend. "The egg is yours if you want it," Arthur said, "but if you don't, I can put it back into my Personal Space, and it will be fine there." He paused for a moment, and asked the real question. "Do you want to be a dragon rider?"

"I want to be a healer," Marion said, "or at least... I know I'm smart enough to be one, and I thought it would give me purpose." 

That wasn't an answer to his question, so Arthur waited.

Sure enough, Marion continued, "You know that I mostly came to Buck Moon Hive to protect my sister, but... yes, I admit I had dreams of possibly riding a dragon. What little boy wouldn't? I just didn't expect…” He trailed off. “I still do want to be a healer."

"Well," Arthur said, "why not both?" and then he pulled out the trio of healing cards from his jacket pocket. 

During the transition from the challenge back to the pavilion, the cards had moved from the strange leg pants pocket to his normal jacket. Apparently, they were a secondary reward from the dark heart as he hadn’t lost them.

Marion stared, dumb-founded. "Where did you get these?"

“I got them during the challenge, of course.” 

"Wow," Horatio said. "What did you get for me?"

Arthur answered flatly. "New retinue hatchlings for your dragon to boss around."

"Thank you," Sams said. 

Marion was still staring at the cards. "You're really giving these to me? These are a trio. Do you know how much they're worth?" He shook his head and answered his own question. "No, of course, you know their worth, and you can't use them yourself.”

“I would like you on my retinue, both of you," he said, including Soledad in the conversation, who nodded as if to say, of course. "But, whether you pick the egg or not, these cards are yours. They’re three of a kind, so they only take up one space in your heart."

Marion took them with slightly unsteady hands, fanned them out to look at them again. Then he smiled, and put them in his heart.

He shivered for a moment, and closed his eyes, and when he opened them, Arthur thought he saw a flash of silver magic behind his eyes. He had never seen that before with anybody who had added a card. Then again, he'd never seen someone just add three of a kind at once.

"I guess I'm committed," Marion said lightly. Then he knelt and started pulling shards out of his own pockets.

But that still left the problem of Soledad. She was still pulling shards out of her pockets. How many did she have?

"Soledad, we need to talk about getting you some cards."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Cressida muttered.

Soledad smiled brightly. "Go teach your mother to suck eggs," she said fondly.

“Excuse me?” Arthur asked.

But at that moment, Soledad projected two cards from her heart. Lava Whip and For The Love of Lava.

Arthur realized with a start that she did have Rare power emanating from her. He just hadn’t bothered to look.

"Those were my winnings from the combat with the mega-scourgeling," Brixaby grumbled. “Soledad insisted on claiming them, as she did not have any other cards, and they would not properly fit anybody's deck.”

“Yeah.” Horatio had a dopey smile on his face that Arthur did not understand at all. “That girl knows what she wants.”

Brixaby continued, growing louder with indignation. “And when I suggested that I eat them, I was outvoted."

He sounded quite put out.

Arthur was just amazed that Brixaby allowed a vote in the first place. It might have been because he was burned and not quite feeling himself. Then again, Soledad did have a forceful personality when she wanted.

Speaking of, she had finally finished emptying out her pockets, carrying bags, satchel, and what looked like a waterskin she’d dumped out and replaced with shards.  She had quite the pile, whereas Marion only had a couple of handfuls.

"Wait," Arthur said, then steeled himself. This was not going to be popular. "Everybody, bring out your shards, and we will split them evenly between Soledad and Marion."

The reaction was instant.

"What?” Horatio said, aghast.

“What do you mean split them,” Soledad demanded. “I saved like a thousand turtles to get these cards, and killed some scourgelings with a knife!”

“That was a sword,” Brixaby said. She ignored him.

Arthur made a cut-off gesture. “These will need to be Rare-ranked dragons to link with you, which will take a lot of shards to rank them up high enough.”

“Yeah!” Soledad gestured to her huge pile of shards. “Which is why I need to use every one.”

"Soledad, don't be greedy," Cressida said. She started emptying out her shards out of a glittery little bag she kept on her at all times that looked a lot like her card anchor bag. "With all of us contributing, you'll end up with more shards. Obviously."

That calmed her down a little.

Horatio quickly said, "Soledad can have my shards, I mean both of you can," he added when Arthur and Sams gave him a look.

Brixaby, however, made no move to add to the pile.

"Brixaby," Arthur said patiently, "the more shards we put into the eggs, the stronger the dragons will be. And they're going to be part of your retinue."

Brixaby could be incredibly greedy and short-sighted, but he was not a fool. The strength of his retinue reflected back on him. He turned and growled at the eggs. "Do not disappoint me. I will be very displeased if you come out weak."

Then he started unloading shards from his own Personal Space. He had... a lot of shards. Arthur didn't, and he felt a little bad for telling everybody else to give away their shards when he didn't have much to contribute.

But there was no more grumbling. Even Soledad looked pleased when it was clear that, even splitting her shards with Marion, came out way ahead with the addition of everybody else's.

They split the pile in half, and one by one, Soledad and Marion started pressing the shards to their respective eggs.

It was a long process, and Arthur and the others started comparing stories about their challenges as the two would-be riders worked. As they did, the shells lost that blank nothingness and grew more defined.

Soledad's, which was the one with the pale pink hue, grew redder and redder, and then started developing spots along the shell, dark and deep as Brixaby's hide. It gained features like crags and fissures. Very earthy, though anyone who touched the egg would see that this was an illusion.

"Oh, it's polka-dotted," Joy said.

Meanwhile, Marion's grew bright as a newly struck silver coin. There were no additional features. It was a single monochrome color, but glowed as if drawing from a deep well of power.

Good, Arthur thought. He'd always had a secret fondness for silvers, starting with the first dragon he’d ever met, Doshi. Though he would never tell Brixaby.

Though the shells absorbed the shards almost instantly once they were pressed to them, with the size of the piles they had to work through, it took some time.

Joy sat by, advising them as if she were an expert. "Why don't you go ahead and talk to your dragon? Tell them that you can't wait to meet them, and that you're going to be their rider and take care of them forever and ever. It's scary when you first break out of the shell, and I think they'd like to see a face matching a voice that they recognize."

Soledad was enthusiastic about the idea. She started chatting about how she was very happy to meet the dragon whenever he or she came out. That by bonding to her, it would grow big and strong and that they would fight many scourgelings.

Marion was much more reserved, almost unenthusiastic. Arthur briefly worried. Though he did sit with the egg and pat it as he fed it shards, murmuring very quietly so no one could hear him.

Arthur didn't quite get around to telling everybody about the general and the Master of Cards. He knew what everyone’s reaction would be.

They had not been there. They would not understand. 

But he also sensed that Brixaby was holding something back from his retelling of the combat challenge too. If he had to guess, it had something to do with the volcano where he had found the two dark cards. This was reinforced by the way that Joy kept shooting him quick looks. 

Finally, Marion and Soledad pressed the last of the shards to their eggs. 

"What happens now? When's it going to hatch?" Soledad asked. 

Everybody looked to Joy who fluttered her wings anxiously. 

"I don't know. Eggs hatch when they want to hatch. I didn't lay these. Maybe you should ask it to hatch?"

To Arthur's surprise, Marion was the first to act. He placed his hand on the top of his silver egg which now gleamed so much it was another light source and said, "Do you want to hatch now?"

Then he jerked in surprise, his eyes going wide as he looked at something that no one else could see. 

Soledad hurried to follow his example but had a similar reaction. Then she frowned. 

"What is it?" Arthur asked. 

" I received a notice from the dark heart, I believe," Marion said darkly. "It says that the egg cannot hatch while the territory is in dispute."

"The territory is in dispute?" Horatio asked. "What does that mean?"

But Arthur suddenly knew, and Brixaby did too. They both sprinted for the stairway leading to the door— but of course, Brixaby was faster and flew up the stairwell instead.

The moment he was out of the trap door and outside, he roared. 

"Intruders!"