“Hello!” There was a younger woman at the counter, and she waved.
I waved back. “Hope the no shirt, no shoes, no service thing isn’t a problem for my friend over there.”
The girl took a good long look at David, who turned and gave her a winning smile and some finger guns. “I suppose I can make an exception,” she said, giving him a smile.
“You two a thing?” she asked.
I felt like David was about to say yes, or do something else at my expense. “Yeah, no, not likely to happen.”
David sighed. “Just need to find the fire that can melt the icy heart, I suppose.”
“Oh wow, a poet too… that’s so cool!”
I grabbed a few bags of chips and started to put them down on the counter. “We’re doing a run for a party going on – he’s paying.”
“Abs like that and he’s got enough to pay for all these snacks – what could make you not want him, or do I want to know?”
I ignored the girl’s question. Maybe I should have considered it, but right now it was fine.
“Well, if she came up with anything I’m sure I’d strive to fix it if it’s actually a problem,” David said, as he brought some of the drinks and more of the chips and candy to the counter.
“Would you like some bags with that?” the clerk asked.
From another pocket of David’s trunks came some reusable bags. “Uh…” He looked at the various puffy bags of chips, and the heavy tubs of candy. “Yeah, no, we’re going to have to use some,” he said, sighing.
His eye also caught the dog treats. “Really, E-lis?” he asked, looking my way.
“What? You’re mad that you’re not going to be the good boy?” I said, gesturing to the clerk.
“Uh-huh…” he said.
The clerk went through the rather diverse selection of junk food we’d got, and put most of it into some bags. From there we exited the building.
“So, actually there is a reason behind this,” I said, building up the courage to actually talk about the dragon egg in my room.
“Oh?” David said, sounding relieved, possibly from not having to eat dog treats.
“A week or so ago, I was on portal duty with Anderson, Dan, Minerva…”
“What is Cassy doing? She’s normally with them,” David said.
“Off-topic, so, this dragon barrels through the portal, and is dispatched before I can even do anything, and well…” I said, gritting my teeth.
“What? If it fits through the portal, there isn’t enough of it to really make something – unless Anderson knocked it unconscious, and it was a little wyrmling…”
“The dragon had some eggs on it,” I admitted.
“What? Dragons don’t lay eggs until they’re nearly too big to fit in the portal and oftentimes wait till after. How’d it fit if it’d laid some eggs?” David was puzzled by this.
“I dunno, but Anderson said that I should take one, and, well…”
“Oh god, you brought it here? What if it breathes fire or something? The house is made of wood!”
“Magic wood, and you know, I’ll shout if he’s heading towards the library…”
David paused, stopping mid-walk. “The library might be a good place to check, to see if there are any books on dragons and how we might be able to care for one when – or if – it hatches.”
“W-what do you mean, if?” I asked, nearly shouting.
“I’ve worked with chicken eggs. Some eggs just don’t hatch…”
“Why’d you work with chicken eggs?”
“First community was in a more rural area,” David shrugged.
“Ohh, okay. Well, fine, I won’t count my dragon till it hatches,” I said.
“What colour of egg was it?” David asked.
“Does it matter?”
“I think scale colour and egg colour are linked, not entirely sure though…”
“So what if scale colour is linked to egg colour?”
“Scale colour often determines what they breathe, if I remember rightly. Remember when you mentioned that lightning didn’t work on the dragon from the demon mage? It’s because that kind of dragon breathed and was subsequently immune to lightning, and electric damage.”
“So this is straight-up D and D?”
“You really don’t like that N, do you?”
“I like saying things without adding or subtracting unnecessary things. Don’t you dare mention my nickname,” I said, pointing a finger at him the best I could with the weight holding the entire arm down.
“Many people I’ve talked to think that D ‘n’ D might be the cause for how dragons act nowadays – there’re many texts that mention that the dragons found through portals acted differently a long time ago.”
“Well, let’s hope the modern fascination with them causes them to be tamable,” I said, shrugging.
We arrived back at the manor, finding that the short trip didn’t really leave much time for people to head out of the pool. We set down our stash at the corner of the pool area on a large plastic table.
Silvia, who was bone dry, clearly having not gone into the pool, walked up and sat down at the table.
“Didn’t go swimming, Silvia?” I asked.
She looked at me and blushed. “Uh, no, not yet, I was, uh… helping Gavin with his sunscreen.”
Gavin’s eyes bulged and he walked over to sit down at the table with us. I looked around for some napkins or tissues that we could use to wipe down any hands before we headed into the pool.
“Do you know where I can find some napkins?” I said, looking around.
“I can help you find them!” Silvia said, bursting up from her chair.
“Uh, okay then,” I said and followed her inside the area.
Lorenz and Fumnaya were in the pool, joining in on the volleyball game. Miriam was lounging around on the chairs, looking like she was getting a suntan. There was a group of people at the barbecue. I didn’t recognize them, which must have meant they were from a different portal community center.
“Oh, my gosh, is that little Silvia?!” One such person walked up.
She was wearing a blue bikini and had long blonde hair dyed red at the end. “Oh, my gosh, look how much you’ve grown!”
“Uh, hi Brittney, this is my friend E-lis, she’s a new member of our community center.”
The girl looked up at me, and paused for a second, seemingly confused as to what I was. She sniffled hard for a moment, sounding congested, most likely from the massive amount of pollen in the air.
“Huh, you kinda smell like a fox,” she said, tilting her head.
“Well, that answers my question. Should I assume the mages are inside or are they interspersed with the werewolves?”
The girl blinked.
“S-she, and Fumnaya, the uh, dark-skinned girl over there are new. We found that they were… helpful in their own unique ways.”
“Own unique ways, huh?” The girl’s calm smile shifted to something a bit more sinister.
“Magical talent unknown to the community centers, you know,” I said, waving a hand.
“Oh? Really? A group of magical people hiding from another group of magical people? That sounds crazy!” the girl said.
“Either that or a mutation,” I said, thinking back to all the times Fumnaya’s eyes glowed when she touched magical tools.
“Anyway, we gotta go get some napkins for our little pile of food. Tell us when the steaks are cooked!” Silvia said, waving at the girl and pushing me inside.
“I did not like the way she smiled after we said that,” I admitted.
“It should be fine so long as a Galvos doesn’t catch wind,” Silvia said, sounding shrill and panicked.
“Leonar–”
“Other than him. He’s not going to report something like that,” Silvia said, patting my back reassuringly.
“So do they all use their last names as the power rune or is that just ours?” I asked.
“Some aren’t sorcerers, but I beli
eve it’s more of a tradition than a necessity. You’d have to ask one, though. I don’t know much about them, and never really wanted to,” Silvia said.
She kept pushing me over to a little kitchen area. The architecture was different, so I assumed it’d been a recent addition to the house. Instead of wood flooring, it was a modern-looking polished stone floor, with a lovely, marbled texture. There was a modern stove with a fume hood, stainless steel fridge with ice maker and water thing. There were plenty of cabinets, the ceiling continued the stone look, and I’d bet that outside there’d be a stone-like chimney to complete the look of the place.
There was also a small table, most likely meant for the occasional snack or small get-together. There were napkins on said table and Silvia picked them up.
“Anything we can use to ensure they don’t blow away?” I asked, looking around.
“You could ask my blowhard of a brother, he seems to like using air magic over anything else,” a voice came from behind us.
Judging by the chain of events and general circumstances of this visit, I assumed the female voice was of a Galvos. I turned.
The person in front of me was wearing a formal business suit, much like Leonardo’s armour turned into when he was going outside or otherwise didn’t need a suit of armour to assert dominance.
“Umm, hello?” I said, feeling a little uncomfortable with her tone and presence.
Her hair was dark and came down in a curve, just barely missing her right eye. “I heard something along the lines of, so long as no Galvos hears,” she said, looking down at Silvia.
She held composure well, and her eyes had a tendency to bore into you the longer she gazed in your direction.
“We’re taking some napkins,” I said, pointing to the napkins we took.
The woman didn’t seem to buy it, but I got the feeling she couldn’t really pry deeper with the limitations of the English language.
“You, I haven’t seen your face before. What’s your name?” she asked, putting a hand to her hip.
“E-lis,” I said plainly.
The woman’s composure had a single second lapse. “And that’s short for…?” she asked.
“Electronic lizard?” Silvia said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Well… Electronic, don’t shock anyone in the pool,” she said, attempting to be funny back.
She walked up the stairs that she’d just come down to greet us.
“Well, I’m sure we could go find a rock somewhere,” I said, grabbing Silvia’s hand and walking out the door.
“That was a bit too close,” I said, once we were finally outside.
“She seems a lot like Miriam,” Silvia said.
“I think we’ll have to get Genki to look after her.”
Silvia squeak-honked, and covered her mouth. “You… alright… G-genki’s here? H-how did that happen?”
“I said we should get him to look after her, not that he was here… caught you–”
Silvia stammered and then sighed in defeat. “How did you figure it out?”
“You brought Amelia along. She practically jumped at the chance to head to my room…”
“Oh yeah, where is your room?” Silvia asked.
“I’ve got Genki keeping an eye on it, so I wouldn’t suggest trying to come inside, although not quite sure what he’d try to do to you.”
“Hopefully nothing bad,” Silvia whimpered.
We walked out towards the table. David already had two bags open and was chowing down on both, while Gavin seemed to be enjoying some candy. And Lorenz, sopping wet, was trying his best to grab some chips.
Fumnaya was still part of the volleyball game.
“So, we have a Miss Galvos in the house,” I said, sitting down and placing the napkins under a tub of candy.
“Oh, Valkyrie probably. She tends to go with her group every time they have a break since, and I quote here, her group is so well organized,” David said.
“She seems to have her stick up higher than Leonardo does, and seems keen on figuring out what we were talking about when… what was her name?”
“Brittney,” Silvia said.
“Brittney asked about why we were new.”
“I’m guessing she’ll head to her witch to try to figure out what’s going on with you,” Lorenz offered.
“Oh balls, a witch could probably cut through all the bullshit I could possibly muster.”
“We could see if Miriam can run counter to her,” Silvia offered.
“You know what, I’m going to let my actions speak for themselves. I’ve beaten a demon back twice, and managed to befriend a kitsune and stop him from causing a ruckus.” I folded my arms and tried to look proud.
“I’m not too sure the Galvonians really care about how competent you are – they only really seem to care that their magical purity is being upheld,” Lorenz explained.
“Well, uh…” I sighed. “Let’s just try to have a good time and if worst comes to worst, we Genki the shit out of the entire system,” I said.
David gave the usual smug smile, but this time I was in on it, and it felt great.
“Alright then, time for some pool time action!” he shouted, and dove into the shallow end, rising up to bat the ball over to the other side of the pool.
5
Chapter 5
Later that evening, after we had some barbeque staples, and most of our chip and candy stash, I grabbed David and wandered into the building, looking for the library.
“Careful what you say, there’s someone with excellent hearing in here…”
“Why, yes, there is,” came the same Galvos voice that had confronted us earlier.
“Ohhh, hey there,” David said, rubbing the back of his head.
Brittney came out from behind the woman, and my heart skipped a beat, “Little woofer here was just telling me about what happened today when you and she met. I’m quite surprised that someone managed to use a grimoire without being part of our community. We’ve kept it so tight over the years.”
“Oh, you have beef with Fumnaya? Hand her a grimoire and see for yourself,” David said, shrugging.
“Hmmm, you referred to the two of you when we spoke, not just this… Fum-naya?”
“Better watch yourself on that name’s pronunciation,” I said.
“What are you two up to now?” she said.
In the flickering lights of the still gas lamp-lit room, the woman’s face almost took on a sinister quality, Her habit of tilting her head down, coupled with the fact that the lights were overhead, didn’t help. Long shadows covered her eyes, but a glow of malevolence was still there.
“Checking out the library,” David said.
“And what does a woofer and… I’m sorry, I don’t think I asked what your class was?”
“Excuse me?!” David shouted, trying to obscure the question. “Did you seriously just ask why a werewolf would want to go to the library?”
David crossed his arms and tried to look intimidating. I heard a thump at the window and found Silvia peering in, not too stealthily, soon joined by Amelia on the other side, who also seemed to be invested in this little conversation.
David, unfortunately, didn’t have the mastery of intimidation that the woman had, as she leaned in towards him. “Yes, I did.”
David was unsure of what to say to that – there really wasn’t a good comeback. Silvia and Amelia looked at each other. I doubted they could hear the conversation. Silvia might be able to understand David’s body language well enough to understand what was going on.
It was looking at Amelia’s face that I got an interesting idea. “Since we’ve been gone from the community so long, the magic has shifted, along the path of smiths, and it seems like I’d be what would be called an artificer. Which is why I’d like to check out the library – any smithing techniques would be helpful to know for future projects as right now a lot of them are feeling a lot like…” I looked to David, “toys.”
David’s eyes widened, an
d he tried to stifle his smile so Valkyrie wouldn’t know that he’d caught on to a plan in motion.
“A what now?” The woman seemed indignant.
She’d seemed like the kind of person to not be into that sort of stuff, but having been in the magical community you’d think a lot of people would have at least a basic knowledge of some of the things in there, such as artificers. Anderson had a magical sword – who made that?
“An artificer, someone who makes magical objects,” I said.
“That’s true. She and the other guy work really well together, but he’s not here right now, and all that stuff was left at the community center because, you know… vacation,” David said, rolling his hand in the air as he spoke.
I wasn’t entirely sure if we should let the Genki be a factor in their creation, but if it got me out of this scenario, I’m sure he’d be fine with it.
“Perhaps you could create–”
“Vacation! Jeez, are you even paying attention?” David said, grabbing my arm.
“You just said you were heading to the library to learn about ways to make more, so surely you’d want to share what you find,” she said, with a strong stern tone, and a step forward.
Her energy managed to bring us back to the conversation, despite the easy exit.
“If we find something. E-lis doesn’t know if what she’ll find will be useful, and you know, it’s probably all out of order anyway, so about half the time we’d want to spend doing stuff would be finding out where it’s placed the hard way.”
“And I’ll probably try to organize some of it, out of habit,” I said.
“Well, how about you take some help? Brittney here’s as close to a retriever as you can get,” the woman said, as though Brittney was a tool.
I sighed, standing on the first step of the grand staircase that made up the middle of the entranceway from the back. David waved his hand and Brittney leaned forwards, only to be stopped by the woman’s hand.
“No transforming. Remember the smell,” the woman said, as she turned and left.
“Yikes,” I said once she’d closed the door. “And you…”
I looked down at Brittney. “I thought you were friends with Silvia, what’s your problem?”
The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3) Page 4