by Dante King
“I still can’t really believe that one such as you actually exists,” Milena said to me as we shook hands in turn. The sergeant’s hands, in contrast to Lieutenant Kaleen’s, were callused in the palm and along the fingers, no doubt from the hours spent practicing with that warhammer on her belt.
“One such as me?” I asked. “I presume you mean a dragonmancer with a clam hammer in his pants?”
Milena flashed me a smile. It was only a fleeting smile, but it managed to convey that, as far as the one-eyed wonder worm went, she was far from inexperienced.
“Speaking of that,” she said, returning to something close to her professional soldiering manner, “I’m sorry that we had to inspect you in such a blatant way, but it was crucial to make sure of your… credentials, as it were.”
“Never heard my junk referred to as credentials before,” I said truthfully.
“Yes, well, it was probably a good thing that the inspection took place in front of so many witnesses,” Lieutenant Kaleen interjected.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because now there can be no doubt that you are exactly what the old woman, the seer, prophesied,” Lieutenant Kaleen said.
“Your male-ness can’t be thrown into doubt,” Milena said. “Not with so many witnesses having seen the Lieutenant and I conduct our examination on both you and your dragon.”
“A species of dragon, what is more, that was reputed to be extinct,” Lieutenant Kaleen said.
“As you may have noticed,” Sergeant Milena said, hitting me with another of those loaded smiles of hers, “we dragonmancers have very little shame when it comes to exposing our bodies while relaxing and training within the Crystal Spire.”
Over her shoulder, I saw one of the dragonmancers—a woman with peacock-blue skin and petite breasts that were tipped with dark blue nipples—stretch like a cat on her sunlounger.
“Yeah,” I said, returning my gaze to the sergeant and lieutenant, “now that you mention it, I did notice that you ladies are pretty relaxed when it comes to showing off your assets.”
Lieutenant Kaleen nodded. “It comes from years and years of not having had any male dragonmancers in this area of the Spires,” she said. “I hope that this arrangement will not bother you. I’m unsure as to how modest Earthlings such as yourself are.”
Is she kidding me? I find out that there is an alternate world in which people train as warriors and fly dragons, where the women are crazy hot and deadly to boot and, to top it off, I’m the only dude in this world that can be a part of this elite group of dragon-riding badasses. And she wants to know whether or not I’m okay with being surrounded by half-naked chicks on the reg?
“Um, no,” I said. “No, that won’t be a problem on my end.”
“Good,” said Lieutenant Kaleen.
“The girls aren’t going to feel uncomfortable, what with having a guy around now, are they?” I asked.
Sergeant Milena snorted, but hastily turned the laugh into a cough when she caught sight of Lieutenant Kaleen’s face.
“No,” the lieutenant said. “The other dragonmancers will not care one whit as to having you around, I imagine. On the contrary, I think that you will find yourself to be the flavor of the month for quite some time to come, Mr…?”
“Gilmore. Michael Gilmore,” I said.
“Gilmore…” Lieutenant Kaleen said, rolling my name around her tongue like port.
“This place?” I asked, gesturing around at the rooftop oasis. “Is this for the sole use of the dragonmancers?”
“Correct,” Sergeant Milena said.
“And the other troops that I saw drilling in the courtyards below when I flew in,” I said, “they don’t have access to this level?”
“No,” Sergeant Milena said. “This area is reserved exclusively for dragonmancers. It is where only they train and relax. It will be where you spend much of your down time.”
I nodded. That sounded a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I had to resist the urge to shake my head in disbelief. Was it only a few hours ago that Elenari and I were holed up in an alleyway next to an eviscerated phone thief, listening to the sound of sirens as they converged on our location? It felt like a lifetime ago somehow.
I puffed out my cheeks and clapped my hands together in the universal sign of someone who was wondering what the hell to do next. Clearly, this translated across worlds because Lieutenant Kaleen looked around and then yelled, “Saya! Saya, get over here!”
Saya, the muscular blonde that had so reminded me of Pamela Anderson when she was in her prime, arrived about five heartbeats later. She was still topless. Neither she nor the superior officers seemed at all abashed about it.
“Saya,” Sergeant Milena said, “I’m going to leave our newest recruit, Michael Gilmore, in your capable hands.”
These words resonated with me. I was sure that Saya could do all sorts of things with those hands of hers, and my mind started sidling off down a path of delightful possibilities.
“Just as you say, Sergeant Milena,” Saya said obediently. “Will he be bunking with Elenari and me?”
My eyebrows raised of their own volition at these words. I had assumed that I’d be in separate accommodations, but it sounded very much like I was going to be rooming with two absolute stunners.
Another tough break, I thought drily, trying not to grin like an idiot.
“That’s right,” Sergeant Milena said. “Show him where he can store his belongings. Make him feel welcome.”
I noticed that Saya had simmered down somewhat, compared to how she had strutted up to me when Elenari and I had first arrived.
Although she looked like she could tear a phonebook in half, the super fit blonde gave me a shy smile and said gruffly, “Make him feel welcome. I can do that… Return your dragon to its crystal, Michael, and follow me.”
Chapter Eight
Saya led me back through the garden, past the training dragonmancers still smashing their blocks of stone, and toward a small building that reminded me of a miniature temple crossed with a bomb shelter or machine gun bunker. It was square and cut from more of the ubiquitous black and gold-veined white marble. It gleamed in the light of the sun heading determinedly westward.
“What’s in there?” I asked as we headed toward the little ornate building.
“That’s a transport hub,” Saya said shortly.
“Uh, transport to where?”
Saya made a little noise in her throat. “I keep forgetting that you know literally nothing about our world,” she said.
“Sorry about that,” I said, “but if you spare me a little patience I promise, should you ever find yourself on my home turf, that I’ll explain to you the difference between iOS and Android and show you just how to navigate places like Central City without having your head kicked in and your gold fillings stolen.”
Saya looked over her shoulder at me. For a moment, I thought she might fire up, but then she grinned. “I’ll explain the transport hub in a second,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“And in return, you’ll have to tell me stories about where you’re from. I’ve never really heard anything about Earth before.”
“Deal,” I said.
There was a rough slithering sound behind me, an alien noise that was a mix between a snake slithering and cinder block being dragged along a sidewalk. It tweaked and tickled at the primal parts of me, pressed the button within my humanity marked “DANGER - PREDATOR.”
I turned and saw a long, dark gray dragon following behind Saya and me. I recalled seeing the creature lying on one of the roof parapets back where all the dragonmancers had been sunbathing. I had taken it for a decorative statue because it had been lying so still.
The form that the stone-like dragon had currently adopted was about the length of a large saltwater crocodile. Its body was low-slung, and it had short, powerful-looking legs. The scraping sound was the noise that its thick tail made as the dragon ha
uled itself along. Its hide was more textured and rougher than any dragon I had seen so far. The cement-gray wings were attached to its body by muscular joints, and its head was a blunt wedge with a pair of dark eyes that smoldered like coals out of deep-set sockets.
“Uh, we’ve got a tail,” I said.
Saya turned and regarded the following dragon fondly. “Yeah, I guess you should get your stony ass back in your crystal too, Scopula,” she said.
“And Scopula is your dragon?” I asked.
“Yep, she sure is,” Saya said. “She’s a Gargoyle breed. They’re pretty rare. Tough as all hell, but not the speediest, isn’t that right, girl?”
Scopula let loose a low rumble of ascent from deep in her chest. It was the sort of sound a sleeping volcano might make.
Saya held out her hand, palm up, and closed her eyes. I noticed that she wore a silver bracelet around her wrist from which hung an uncut and unrefined nugget of plain gray stone. The little chunk of rock glowed for an instant, and the Gargoyle Dragon, Scopula, vanished.
I shook my head and let out a short laugh. “Shit,” I said, “I wonder how long it’s going to take to get used to that?”
Saya grinned and motioned me on. “Come on, Michael Gilmore,” she said. “There’s far more that we need to sort you out with today. Being a tourist can wait.”
The six-foot, topless dragonmancer led the way into the transport hub.
As she walked ahead of me, I took in the breathtaking spectacle of her ass as she prowled through the heavy stone doors of the building. It was, thanks to the minuscule bikini bottoms that she wore, all too easy for me to imagine what that ass would look like in the nude. They were that style of bikini bottoms which cut across the wearer’s buttcheeks in a way that ignited the libidos of hot-blooded men and lesbians the universe over.
Hot damn, but I wouldn’t mind spending some one-on-one time with Saya. She was a hard woman obviously—as tough as a fifty-cent steak— but I could tell that she had a tender side too—a part of her that I imagined not many people got to see.
Saya led me into an almost identical version of the transportation hub which Elenari had taken me to earlier. It was a single, clean white room with an enormous egg-shaped crystal in the center. This seven-feet-tall crystal was carved with neat runes.
Saya turned to the woman behind the counter who had been regarding the two of us with polite attention. “Michael, this is Leuce.”
“Oh, I already know Leuce,” I said, recognizing the woman who had been at the bottom of the Spire earlier. “Elenari introduced me to her.”
“We are afraid that we don’t recognize you. You must have met with one of our sisters.”
“Her name is Leuce, too?”
“All our sisters are named Leuce,” she said. “We all work within the transport hubs of the spires.”
“Oh, right,” I said, nodding like I understood. “So, how’s it going, Leuce?”
Leuce cocked her head to one side and smiled at me in a slightly disconcerting way. Then she said, in a voice like honey, “How is what going, Michael?”
I wasn’t sure what to say to this.
“That was… just an expression,” I said. I looked at Saya.
Saya grinned. “Leuce is a wind nymph, Michael,” she said. “They’re a very literal people. They also cannot lie, which makes them the perfect guardians to look after our transport hubs. They remember everyone who passes through and can’t be bribed. Isn’t that right, Leuce.”
“Completely veracious, Saya,” Leuce said.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you anyway, Leuce,” I said.
“Thus far, meeting you has also been a pleasurable encounter,” Leuce said. She turned her attention back to Saya. “What can we do for you, Saya?”
“Well, you can pass me my shirt for one thing,” Saya said. “And my pants.”
There were a series of pigeonholes behind Leuce’s desk, and many of them were filled with items of clothing or trinkets. The wind nymph turned gracefully, pulled a white linen shirt and gray-colored pants from one of the cubby holes, and passed them to Saya.
“Each dragonmancer is allocated a cubby,” Saya explained. “Feel free to leave any valuables or anything you can’t be bothered to carry around with you here when you come to the top of the Crystal Spire.”
“I’ve got pockets,” I said, shrugging. Living a transient lifestyle, I had never been comfortable with leaving my belongings where others could get a hold of them.
“Hm, but who says you’ll always be wearing clothing with pockets?” Saya asked me, a suggestive smile quirking up the corners of her mouth. “Or any clothing at all.”
I had no answer to this, though I very much enjoyed that smile of hers.
Saya pulled the shirt over her head, affording me a view of her taut stomach muscles and firm tits as she did so. The shirt was one of those sweet billowy numbers with the laces at the collar. The type of shirt that you can imagine all those poets wore during the Renaissance; when they were swanning around Italy, chasing pussy and getting hammered. It seemed a shame to cover up those top-class breasts of hers, but I could still make out the press of her nipples against the fabric.
She took her gray-colored pants and wriggled into them. It was a wonder that her ass managed to fit inside them, but then this world seemed to be a place where the miraculous happened every other moment.
“How come you’re covering up now?” I asked, trying to sound as if this was a totally legitimate question.
Saya shot me a knowing look and gave my shoulder a little nudge. “We’re going down into the lower courtyards,” she said. “That’s where the dragonmancer barracks are, but it’s also, as you’ve seen, where the regular troopers train and drill. They live pretty strict lives down there, and we dragonmancers are held in higher regard than any of the conventional soldiers of the Mystocean Empire. The last thing the commanding officers need is to have dragonmancers walking about with their assets on show. It could incite a riot.”
I grinned as Saya put her hands on the crystal’s surface and mimed for me to do the same.
“After having seen all the, uh, assets up here, I reckon riots would be the least of your problems,” I said.
Saya snorted in amusement. Then she said over her shoulder, “Send us down to the barracks level, Leuce.”
“Right away,” said Leuce.
For the briefest of moments, it felt like someone had squeezed all the air out of my lungs and I was convinced that my eyeballs had somehow been left far, far behind me. Then, eyelids fluttering a little, I sucked in a deep lungful of air, coughed, and gasped.
For a moment, I thought that nothing had happened and that we were still in the transport hub. Then, my scrambled brain cells shuffled into something that vaguely resembled order.
This transportation hub had scuff marks of boots across the floor, as if many people tramped in and out of here on a daily basis. There was another wind nymph stationed behind an identical desk as the one upstairs. She was dressed in the same uniform as Leuce had been and had the same red hair—although this slender sprite’s locks were styled into a bowl-cut that would have been enough to merit an ass-kicking when I was in school, but were now the only style that most of the people in neighborhoods like Culver City and Los Feliz wore.
Saya pulled me out of the transport hub and through a series of corridors. These passages were enormously broad, with high ceilings and doorways that you could have driven a tank down.
“What’s the deal with these hallways, Saya, why’re they so huge?” I asked.
Then, I cottoned on to the obvious. Before Saya could respond, I snapped my fingers and said, “Dragons. Duh.”
“That’s right,” Saya said. “There have been times, in the long distant past, when the Mystocean Empire had enemies and rivals prowling like wolves all around its borders. Enemies who had mancers of their own, though not dragonmancers.”
“There are other kinds of mancers?” I asked.
S
aya waved a hand as if to say ‘duh’ and said, “Bears, eagles, stags, lions, sea serpents, and sea goats. There are many kinds of mancers in the world.”
I opened my mouth to voice my amazement at this revelation, but Saya waved a hand at me again. I took this one to mean that I should button my lip.
“On one occasion, the Crystal Spire itself was breached after enemy troops managed to force their way into the fortress. With the old design, with hallways that accommodate only humanoids, the dragonmancers couldn’t make use of their steeds. And our enemies, well, they had other beasts at their disposals, ones with forms that weren’t quite as large as those of dragons. It’s recalled that blood ran through the corridors in rivers and the bodies of our defending troops were piled in the doorways like bricks, their spilled entrails the mortar.”
“Sounds like a shitty time to have been a cleaner,” I said.
Saya nodded gravely. “Indeed, but we came out on top in the end, and one of the first things that the Empress at the time did was to redesign the keep so that dragons could travel the hallways.”
“Yeah, I imagine that’d be a pretty good deterrent,” I said fervently. “I bet nothing weakens the bladder quite like sneaking around a castle you shouldn’t be in, wondering whether the next corner you creep around is going to reveal a dragon.”
Saya laughed and punched me playfully on the arm. “We have never been attacked in any major way since the renovations were completed and the word went out to the civilizations outside the Empire. In fact, it was around the same time that the last male dragonmancer died out.”
We continued through the keep. Due to the sheer scale of the architecture of this dragon-friendly military building, I felt like I was one of those little guys from Gulliver’s Travels, or Jack after he went up that goddamn beanstalk.