by Logan Jacobs
long as possible. He was a stubborn little creature, and though it took him ten
or more times, after a while he was able to stay off the ground for close to a
minute at a time. It wasn’t much, especially compared to his sister, but it was
definitely an improvement from the few seconds he’d been at before.
I had to hand it to him, he never gave up once, and I was always proud
of the effort he put into his training. All of the dragons took it seriously, even
Blar, who was the most well-known to goof off. He understood how
important this was, though, and I knew he wanted to do well and impress the
council.
“It looks like Blar has improved quite a lot,” Asta commented as she
came toward me with a basket of fresh greens in her arm.
I watched as the little blue dragon went around me again, this time a
bit faster. He never stopped to put his feet on the ground, and a grin broke
through my lips.
“He really has,” I agreed, then I raised my voice so the little dragon
could hear me. “Good job, Blar!”
The little blue reptile smiled at me in the air and closed his eyes in a
smug gesture, but then he almost crashed into Inger. He opened his eyes just
in time to see her, but he overcorrected and took a tumble to the ground.
“Perhaps there is still room for improvement,” Asta chuckled.
“Uh, Rath, Asta,” Kas called out suddenly, and the serious tone of her
voice cut through our laughs.
“What’s the matter?” I asked as Asta, the dragons, and I ran toward the
blonde, who sat by the fire pit with a book in her lap.
“I don’t feel very good,” she said, and her eyes closed as if she were
nauseous.
“What can we do?” I asked as my brows pulled together in concern.
“I… have to go,” the blonde sorceress mumbled, and she set the book
down, stood up, and headed toward the road.
“What?” I asked as I tried to stop her.
“It’s my father,” she explained. “He’s summoning me.”
Chapter 23
“What do you mean he’s summoning you?” I asked, and I stepped in
front of Kas just as she made it to the road.
“He’s calling me to him,” the blonde said.
“We’ll come with you,” I told her.
“Okay,” she agreed as her eyes flickered over my shoulder toward the
road. “But hurry, summoning spells always make me nauseous.”
“When will it stop?” I asked, and my brow furrowed with concern.
“When we get there?”
“It should stop in a minute or two,” Kas explained. “But it always
helps it stop sooner if I move toward him.”
“Okay,” I said, and I turned to see Asta right behind me with all the
dragons.
“We’re leaving?” the elf girl asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Come on, Blar, Inger, Uffe.”
“I’ll go set these down,” Asta said with a gesture at the basket of
veggies in her arms.
“No, let’s bring them,” I said. “Ramir will appreciate the produce you
picked out.”
“Hurry,” Kas urged us, and Asta and I rushed over to her side before
we all started down the road.
After a minute or two, Kas took a deep breath, then turned to smile at
me.
“Sorry about that,” the sorceress chuckled. “I didn’t mean to worry
you.”
I was new to magic, but I’d never seen anybody summoned before. It
was quite strange.
“Do summoning spells always make people sick?” I asked with a
frown.
“No.” Kas shook her head. “I think it’s because I’m part Valkyrie, the
first few minutes always make me nauseous.”
“Does your father know that?” I asked.
“He does,” Kas said with a nod. “Usually he just comes and finds me,
so this must be important.”
I nodded, and we kept walking across the town toward Ramir’s shop. I
didn’t like that Kas had to feel sick for him to summon her, but if she thought
it was important, then I knew it must be. Besides, Ramir loved his daughter,
so I doubted he would make her feel ill over something trivial, no matter how
short lived the effects.
It took about forty minutes to get to Ramir’s shop, and the sun was
already low on the horizon. It began to grow dark the closer we got to the
store, and soon enough the light of the day was gone, and we were left in the
dark of the night time.
Once we reached Ramir’s shop, Kas opened the door, and the bell
above it chimed as we all crowded into the store.
“Father,” Kas called out, and she looked around for a second.
The shop was dim, since there was only one lit lantern near the
register, and I didn’t see Ramir anywhere. My eyes narrowed as I thought
something might have happened to the old man, but then Kas called out
again.
“Father, where are you?” the blonde sorceress asked.
“Kaspyr!” Ramir’s voice sounded, and a second later he appeared at
the register with a stack of books in his arms and his face dusty from the
binding on the old volumes.
“Father,” Kas said, and she rushed toward the register. “You
summoned me, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, my dear,” Ramir apologized, and he placed a gentle, long
fingered hand on his daughter’s cheek. “I know it makes you sick. I do hope
it wasn’t too terrible, but I don’t know where Rath lives, so I wasn’t sure how
to find you.”
“I’m fine,” Kas assured him. “But what was so important?”
“Ah, yes,” Ramir said, and his voice grew a bit higher as he walked
around to the front of the register, so he was obviously unsettled by
something. “I heard about the battle.”
“The battle?” I repeated.
“Blar’s battle,” the old man said. “With the council.”
“How did you hear about that?” I asked in confusion. I’d met with the
council in private, and they had specifically instructed me to keep the mission
as quiet as possible, so I doubted they would have told anybody.
“I have my sources,” the old man said, and he smiled up at me over his
small, round glasses before his face pulled into a frown. “Do you think Blar
is ready?”
“We’re training,” I assured him.
“Yes, good, good,” he mumbled. “You’re, of course, welcome to use
any books available in my library.”
“I appreciate that,” I told him with a smile. “I’m sorry if you were
worried after you heard about the fight.”
“That’s alright, m’boy.” Ramir waved off my apology. “I just wanted
to check in on you, on all of you.”
The old man looked around at all of us, but then his eyes landed on
Uffe and Inger, and they went wide with surprise.
“Two new additions, I see,” he chuckled as he crouched down next to
the dragons.
“Inger and Uffe,” Kas informed him.
“You must be Uffe,” Ramir said to the little boy, and he reached to
stroke down his back before he turned to Inger. “And that would make you
Inger.”
The little girl rubbed her head against his finger as he lightly petted her
snout.
Blar walked over to him then and put his front paws on Ramir’s knee
in a desperate attempt to get some affection of his own.
“And of course, Blar,” Ramir laughed. “I could never forget you.”
Blar ate up the chin scratches Ramir gave out, then the old man stood
up and turned back toward me.
“I don’t know all the details,” he said. “But I presume they wish to test
Blar so they can eventually use the two of you to fight the Jotun.”
“That’s right,” I agreed.
“That will be good,” he said softly, then he looked up and winked at
me. “Especially with a growing family.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the dragons or something more, but before I could open my mouth to ask, he turned to Asta and looked at the basket in her
arms.
“Are these for dinner?” he asked.
“Yes, Father,” Kas chuckled. “Rath thought you might appreciate
them.”
“I’ll appreciate all of them,” Ramir said as he took the basket from
Asta. “You all go look through the library. I’ll get some things to start on
dinner and meet you back there.”
I wanted to protest and go back to what Ramir had said before about
our growing family, but he ushered us out of the room, and I thought it would
be rude to disobey. I’d never had to deal with parents before, but Ramir was
slowly showing me it didn’t matter whose parents were whose, they all
seemed to treat you the same, regardless of if you were their child or not. I
certainly didn’t want to disrespect him, so I just made a mental note to ask
him more about what he meant later.
Kas led Asta, the dragons, and me back to the library, and we started to
look through the huge walls filled with volumes. I’d expected the library to
be where Ramir had led me before with the large desk, but Kas took us past
that and through a doorway that led to a huge room lined wall to wall with
bookshelves. There were several chairs and a table in the right-hand corner, and there was a fireplace on the far wall, but aside from that the place was
just more and more books.
“This is incredible,” Asta breathed as she looked around the large
room.
“The shop doesn’t seem this large from the outside,” I said as I took in
the expansive size of the place.
“It’s not,” Kas chuckled. “Father enchanted it to be larger on the
inside.”
“How strange,” I murmured as I looked around. I found out about new
enchantments every day it seemed.
“Where should we start?” Asta asked.
“I can’t say for sure,” Kas sighed, then she thought for a second before
she pointed to the wall to our left. “Those are the oldest, so let’s begin there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed, and I looked down to make sure the
dragons weren’t getting into too much trouble, but I didn’t see them
anywhere. “Blar?”
“Where did they go?” Asta asked as she began to look around as well.
“They’re right here,” Ramir said, and he came through the door with
Blar at his feet. I didn’t see the other two dragons, but I wasn’t surprised
because I couldn’t see Ramir either above the waist. He held a large pot in his arms, and on top of it was stacked the basket we’d brought with fresh
vegetables, another basket with rice and meat, and plates, bowls, a pan, and
utensils. Everything looked like it would topple over at the slightest breath,
and I rushed forward to help.
“Father,” Kas chuckled. “You should have asked for assistance.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Ramir said, and I realized he was talking
to me. Then the little old man walked right by me and set everything down at
the fire before he stood up and turned around, with Inger on one shoulder and
Uffe on the other.
“I only wanted to help,” I assured him.
“I know that,” he said with a wave of his hand. “But I’m not
incapacitated just yet. It keeps me young to do things for myself.”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Kas said with an eye roll. “He used a spell to
make all those things incredibly light.”
“Doing spells is doing for myself,” Ramir chuckled, and he flashed me
a grin.
Uffe sat quietly on Ramir’s shoulder, but Inger rubbed her head against
his neck and cheek until he reached up to absentmindedly pet her.
The old man waved his hand then, and the fireplace lit up with a
whoosh. Then Blar walked over, turned around a few times, and laid down in front of it.
“Grab me a chair from over there, will you, Rath?” Ramir asked as he
started to lay out the ingredients in front of the fire.
“I thought you liked to do things for yourself?” I teased, but I walked
over and grabbed the chair.
“Is that any way to treat an old man?” Ramir huffed in mock offense,
and I laughed as I set the chair down for him.
After he was all set up, I walked over to where the girls were and
started to help them look through the volumes of books on the shelves. We
managed to find some old history books I’d never seen before, but they were
from a time before the dragons were banished, so we grabbed them and took
them over to the table to look through.
As we worked, I periodically checked on the dragons with Ramir.
Inger and Uffe had made themselves comfortable in the chair with him, and
they sat on either side of his lap and accepted pets whenever he wasn’t
actively cooking. Blar was coiled up by his feet, and every so often the old
man would reach down and give him a scratch, and sometimes a piece of
lettuce or meat.
They’d be spoiled in no time if I left them with Kas’ father for a day,
but they’d worked hard during training earlier, so I allowed it, at least for the time being, and went back to looking through the books.
The volume I had made several mentions of dragons, but there was
nothing incredibly telling about the species. There were a few artist’s
depictions, and some mentions of dragons helping the Aesir in battle, but
nothing that gave any real details, and I wondered if that was part of the spell
Preyna had cast. Had it wiped out dragons from the history books as well?
“Hey,” Kas said as she pointed to the page in front of her. “Look at
this.”
“What is it?” Asta asked as she leaned over to see.
On the page was a depiction of an Aesir male in full war garb with his
axe raised, only instead of running toward an enemy, he was riding on top of
a giant purple dragon. The artist’s depiction was detailed, and it looked as
though they’d almost taken the time to draw every single scale on the
magnificent serpent. The creature itself was massive, and it had a build
similar to the ones in Asta’s home world, with a large body and long tail and
neck. The man looked small on the back of the creature, and the caption
underneath read ‘The Frost Giants Invade.’
“He’s riding the dragon,” Kas whispered, and she looked at me with
excited violet eyes.
“I never thought to ride one,” Asta murmured as she stared at the
photo.
The thought hadn’t cros
sed my mind, either, but I wondered if that was
a possibility. Would Blar get large enough for me to ride him eventually?
Would he want me to ride him?
I looked back over to where the little dragon was curled up by Ramir’s
feet, and part of me couldn’t imagine him becoming so large, though I knew
he grew by the day.
“I wonder how long it takes for dragons to mature,” I mused. “I still
haven’t found anything that talks specifically about dragons as a species.”
“I’m not sure how long it takes for them to reach their full size,” Asta
said with a frown. “I never paid much attention, I guess.”
“I’m sure you didn’t keep track of individual dragons, either,” Kas told
her. “It’s alright, we’ll figure it out.”
“I was wondering if the spell Preyna cast took some of the dragons out
of the history books as well,” I remarked.
“That’s very possible,” Ramir called out from his place by the fire.
“She’s a powerful sorceress.”
“We’ve found some information, though,” Kas said. “We shouldn’t
give up quite yet.”
We all continued to work while Ramir cooked, but after a while all I
could focus on was the smell of whatever was in the pot on the fire. My
mouth started to water, and the words in front of me seemed to blur. It was
then I realized all we’d eaten for breakfast today was fruit, and we hadn’t had
anything else to eat since then.
“I think I found something,” Asta announced suddenly, and she turned
the book toward Kas and me.
“What is it?” I asked.
“This says dragons were able to shoot a powerful flame up to five
hundred feet out in front of them,” the elf girl said as she pointed to the
depiction on the page.
The page also said dragons could carry up to twenty full grown men in
battle armor, and that they were able to dodge most air attacks because they
were agile as well as fast.
Most of the details it laid out were about dragons in battle, but that was
more information than we’d had a few minutes before, so it was still a great
find in my opinion.
“Good job,” I told Asta with a smile.
“I know they can breathe fire,” Kas said, “but I didn’t realize it would
go that far.”
“I’ve never seen one breath fire like that,” Asta replied. “But I
wouldn’t doubt it, they are so big.”