“Alright then, just hope they don’t see the purple burns or the part of the forest that was frozen and shattered.”
“Wish I could help more but as the enemy can see through illusions, I’m fairly underpowered, which is a shame, because Miriam always said I’d be pretty good at combat illusions.”
“Are there any more community witches coming around? Like, to ensure that the teams dealing with the forest fire don’t panic or something?”
“Yes, but unfortunately business around the center means they won’t get here for a while. We’ve done some research on forest fire statistics and believe they should still be fighting it by then, which unfortunately means that David’s home is going to go down in value as a few homes are destroyed and the landscape takes about a decade to recover.”
“Oh, that sucks. Why’d he have to go and burn down an entire town, doesn’t he worry about global warming?”
“My guess is that he doesn’t, at all. It’s not like he denies it’s happening but actually doesn’t know it’s a thing in this world. While many seem to fall in and out of this world through portals or otherwise, it does seem that the places on the other side have different atmospheric conditions.”
“Another reason to keep it secret, I guess.” I got up and examined what food we had left.
“How exactly do you come to that conclusion?” Angela asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? This world is heating up and the vast reason for that is the emissions required to support how many people it has. People are hesitant to get into space, god knows why, so if a couple of people could make the trek past the Earth elemental plane and set up a portal as that guy did, they’d have access to a place they could industrialize without fear, and stave off ecological disaster for a while longer. That ensures they don’t head into space for several years and it happens all over again.”
“For future reference, we try not to share political beliefs in the community,” Angela said, smirking.
“My political beliefs are irrelevant to the facts.” I folded my arms.
“Spoken like a true politician, but you can go on your space-faring tirade after you defeat the Middle Ages dragon hunter with modified tonfas.”
“Speaking of which, their weapons all have that glyph on them that gives them protection. Why don’t we have something like that?”
“We simply don’t have that magical technology. There’ve been many tomes written by those who’ve ventured past the Earth elemental plane, talking about magics we have no idea how to recreate. We do know that our alchemical supply is about half that of a true alchemist on the other side; we also know that we have a rather high amount of witches and other fey-styled magic. The problem is everyone who ventures out there needs to come back at some point, and they are always outsiders. No one’s going to share their weapons technology with someone who could bring an invading force.”
“And here I thought we had most of it figured out. I mean, we had the knowledge that alchemicals give off stuff in spectrograms.”
“That’s just about the bare minimum of alchemical knowledge, at least if the spectrogram is invented in your world. What I’m more interested in is why only our three kinds, four kinds of magic users, are so rare in the other worlds.”
“Perhaps this is just a softer world? It’s genetic but being a witch or a mage means you’re going to be going on dangerous adventures.”
“Adventuring is a fantasy staple, sure, but a world with magic doesn’t mean it’ll be an adventure city, although an adventurer’s guild would exist to map out various places.”
“Then war is the only other option. You reveal that you can see the future and they get you to predict war outcomes, but any negative outcome is ignored or shouted at, so if they’re in a no-win situation, they end up killed along with the general?”
“That would just lead to a situation like we have where the abilities are hidden,” Angela postulated.
At this point, Silvia came down the stairs in wolf form. “Oh, happy birthday, Silvia–” Angela said, taking out a small envelope from her jacket pocket.
Silvia transformed to her human form and slowly got up from the ground and stretched. “Not right now, we’ve got something to really focus on,” she said.
“If you don’t open it now, it won’t get the effect I want it to for at least a week!” Angela said.
“Do you often look at fragments detailing what reactions your friends and family will have to your gift-giving?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s the point of seeing the future if you can’t glean what could be the perfect gift?” she shrugged and smiled.
“I’ll have it a week from now then,” Silvia said as she grabbed some juice and a bowl and sat down next to the cereal.
Angela frowned and sighed, putting the envelope away.
“So, that’s eighteen years old, huh? Finally able to serve drinks at the bar, provided you finish a smart serve certification,” I said, holding her shoulder, and giving it a little shake.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already started to look into that,” Silvia said with a smile.
“Wouldn’t knowing how humans do it be completely useless?” Angela said, raising an eyebrow and leaning forwards.
“What?” I took my hand off Silvia and returned to what was left of my breakfast. “No, the mages and witches are still human and the werewolves only have twice the liver when they have both forms, meaning you have to be wary of that, along with only counting a standard drink for them as twice the size of normal. They can still get drunk, and I’ve seen Fumnaya do it to a few of them a few times.”
“Then she got me to take the online course!” Fumnaya said from the other room.
She’d been on the couch with David and Lorenz, reading her spell book diligently.
“She still hasn’t gotten a satisfactory score,” I said, folding my arms and sighing loudly.
“Now when determining something’s size for standard drink sizing, do you count how much volume is taken up by the alchemicals?” Angela asked.
“No, for a reason: it’s not about getting people drunk, it’s about keeping them safe. A little rounding of size and efficacy keeps them safe, rounding down puts them in danger.”
“Well, it’d annoy me, but I can’t fault your logic.”
“Where were we?” I asked, wanting to get back to the previous part of the conversation.
“The other realms would have hidden witch societies,” Silvia offered.
“Right, yes,” Angela found her spot. “They would start to hide their talents, and being able to see the future would greatly help with that.”
“Well.” Silvia came in, still munching on her breakfast. “Either they’re successful and they have a high population in secret, which would result in us thinking there weren’t many of them, or it’s harder in that time period to hide a large force like that and they keep getting figured out.”
“Right, I keep forgetting that a city to them is a medieval town to us,” Angela said.
“Expeditions to those areas… Are they frequent or…?” I asked, curious now.
“One person jobs; a crowd would attract too much attention. They are given enough food to get out of the Earth elemental plane and then they have to forage and forge their way ahead.”
“Seems a little…” I started.
“They train for a lifetime and get basic info on edible plants in the area; from there they use their magic to hunt and build a stockpile of jerky, as well as leather clothes. They go into one town, buy some textiles, and then looking like a normal person from that age, go into another town so they don’t have the lingering feeling of being a wild person,” Angela explained.
“Has anyone tried with modern clothes? To see how people react?”
“Typically, they are seen as royalty, since the material is so small and woven much tighter than most people could afford. They assume it costs a fortune, unlike your dragon who knows what mass production is.”
&
nbsp; “Hey, he’s his own dragon. I just gave him a place to hatch.”
“Is it not ‘rude’ to talk about someone when they are not present?” the dragon asked, climbing up onto the table.
Silvia reached a finger over and started to stroke his head and neck, which he seemed to ignore.
“There’s a difference between mentioning someone and talking behind their back,” I explained.
“What is your plan to kill the man who took my siblings?”
The dragon seemed rather angry, though not at me. “Gavin has a thing. He’s going to do that to the portal, and fight the guy. Everyone else has to take out at least one dragon rider; by the colour of the eggs, none of them are riding your siblings. I’m not sure how we’re going to deal with the dragons, but if we could get them to the elves we could shrink them down to your size and at the very least we wouldn’t have to kill them.”
“Death is an inevitability when it comes to any living thing, even dragons. What I want to ensure is his death…”
“The dragon hunter?” I asked.
He nodded as if it was clear why. To be honest, it should have been: the dragon wants the dragon hunter dead – no, duh.
“And mister, his own dragon, what are you going to do once this is over?” Angela said, clasping her hands and resting her chin on them.
“I do not understand,” he said, looking with his tiny dragon eyes at Angela.
“Well, you could head back through the Earth elemental plane and find a place in the other realms that’s suitable for you, or you could spend your infancy wrapped around Elizabeth’s neck; you could leave her and do it around Valkyrie’s neck, or Leonardo’s,” Angela said.
I wanted to scoff at the notion that he’d pick a Galvos over me, but she had a point. They were leaders, leaders who would often have a dragon join them as a sign of wisdom and strength.
“Don’t insult me, one can hardly conjure flames hotter than my fire is right now, and the other…” He looked to the pint-sized Valkyrie.
“Suffered a humiliation worse than death.” The dragon put a lot of emphasis on the word death, trying to raise its meaning, and by contrast the humiliation part.
“A similar fate as to your mother, or guardian, before they died,” Angela said.
“She fled of her own power – this human needed the other human’s help.”
“Well, that’s what makes humans so powerful. It isn’t the dragon hunter that took your mother down, it was him, his descendants or employees, and their use of their enslaved elves as a resource,” Silvia said.
The dragon turned to Silvia, seemingly more confused than when I was teaching the dragon economics.
“Explain,” he said, still ignoring the stroking.
“Alone I would have died to one of those cultists wearing an alchemical silver knife. The reason I’m here is E-lis charged in and tackled him away; the reason we survived the demon mage’s assaults on the community center as we all worked together to beat him and send his summoned demon back into the other realm. Human strength is through teamwork and technology.”
“Human technology pales in comparison to a grown dragon’s full might,” the little dragon said.
“You haven’t seen a tank, or a nuke,” Angela said.
“Explain…”
“Imagine the weight of a full-grown dragon, in metal armour, in a vehicle that can power its own movement,” Silvia said in between mouthfuls of her cereal.
“It’s got treads for moving over rough terrain, and a cannon mounted on its front.”
“I know what a cannon is. Mounting it on a vehicle would aid it greatly, but the vehicle would also be blasted back, would it not?” the dragon asked.
“Uh, so the blast back is called recoil, and modern tanks have ways to mitigate it, that and being heavy helps, but what’s more the shots they fire can explode on impact,” I explained.
“Hmmm, while I can see how the average dragon might succumb to that, a red dragon-like myself grown-up could control the fire magic that causes the explosions.”
“Uh, as far as I know, it’s not magic, just a chemical reaction,” I said, tilting my head.
“Alchemicals simply cause magic depending on how they are mixed, do they not?” the dragon asked.
“Chemical, no alchemical about it,” I said.
The dragon looked confused but didn’t want to question further.
“That’s just tanks, and they have a limited aiming angle, but say you took to the sky, they have surface-to-air missiles, which is like – how to explain this to a dragon – reverse cannons?” I gave it an attempt.
“I mean, I guess that works? They have a chemical much like the cannon, but instead of the cannon setting it off and getting launched, it has it and controls how it burns to lift itself and control its flight, and it has an exploding warhead,” Silvia explained.
“Why do you not have these… missiles?”
“We’re not the military, so typically what we deal with is Earth elementals that get uppity… rarely a demon pops up, and even more rare a regressed dragon will pop through with a clutch of eggs,” Angela said, looking at me.
“Military, I know this word, but I suppose it has changed? No longer well-formed ranks with swords, spears and horses?” the dragon asked.
“Sometimes they have swords, but very rarely, they are ceremonial now; the majority of them use rifles, some use tanks as mentioned previously and some use artillery,” I said.
“I think you’re forgetting how military strategy has branched out – there’re fully metal ships which can have massive cannons on them. Some that can carry the next part, which is the air force, where there are flying vehicles that can hunt down others and bomb areas to ease the burden on land troops.”
“Airships, yes, I’ve heard of those.”
I blinked. “Well, an airship is more like a sailboat compared to a motorboat when it comes to the comparison of it to a jet,” I said.
“You guys are almost done here?” David asked, walking into the area.
“Almost. The dragon got curious about the modern military.”
“Hopefully he doesn’t get to see it firsthand until we head to the war museum.”
“Are you crazy?” I stood up and put my dishes into the sink, not noticing the dishwasher near it. “Everyone’s going to look at me funny. What’s that girl doing explaining every little thing to her shoulder?”
“Just teach him to read and he’ll be able to read all the signs and figure it out for himself. Dragons are highly intelligent, and it’d give him a good overview of history.”
“I’m not sure I want to start with the world wars when it comes to history. Now the science and tech museum…” I put a finger to my chin as David came over and put the dishes into the dishwasher.
“Gear up, we gotta do this thing now or else things are going to get rough.”
“Or things are going to get ruff?” the dragon said, surprising everyone with the pun.
“D-did the dragon just… pun?” David said, terror on his face.
“Yes, I think he did,” I said.
21
Chapter 21
With the dishes put away, we all headed out and locked the door properly this time. There was no dragons overhead, which was a small relief to an otherwise pressing matter we couldn’t attend to.
The air was cool, and the field and forest were covered in dew from the cool night air. We marched through the forest. We needed to get through to the part that was closest to the manor, which meant more than a few spots we were going through were going to be actively on fire.
We could hear the sounds of fire engines roaring to life to get on the scene to contain the fire. They made a circle, a circle of mundane emergencies around a magical showdown.
Instead of risking another use of the light-bending power, we used a real telescope. The dragon riders seemed to be reacting negatively to the sirens, but the hunter, who seemed to have taken back his spot from before, started to sm
ile.
No doubt to him this was the sound of war chants, the people of this place bringing their best warriors. While firefighters had to be fit and were hot as heck, they weren’t exactly warriors, and even if they were training in martial arts, nothing could prepare them for the bull these guys were pulling.
As the group went around to the back of the portal, I walked towards the man. The dragon was left with Fumnaya, and Genki handed me a belt. I was rather sad that I’d be breaking another of his toys, but it couldn’t be helped.
The dragon hunter and his dragon riders all turned to watch me, slowly coming forwards.
I had the alchemical gun at my hip, and the sniper on my back, but those were just there for when I needed them. The woman riding the purple dragon whipped it and the dragon started to gallop forwards.
“HALT!” the dragon hunter said, holding up one hand to stop the charge.
Despite how much it seemed she wanted another go at ending me, the dragon followed him more than her.
“I assume you’ve come along as a show of good faith and will tell me where my dragon is?” His voice was deeper than before as if he had to go an octave lower when negotiating.
“Well, you know what they say about assumptions,” I said, as smugly as I could muster while looking at three dragons and the one who made them afraid.
The man’s face twisted in his confusion. “Mayhap you can elaborate on what THEY say.”
“When you assume,” I placed the belt on my waist, and pulled out the items that went with it, “you make an ass out of U and Me…”
I really have to work on my trash talk – explaining idioms isn’t that intimidating. “Henshin!” I called out as the suit materialized around me.
The familiar yellow and black bee-themed suit formed around me, and I pulled out the bee-stinger sword.
Probably should have gone with the gun. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I raced in, using the enhanced speed and maneuverability to my advantage. The three dragons formed a defensive line around the dragon hunter. The riders took out their weapons or at least the ones that still had them and pointed them towards me.
The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3) Page 17