I Will Be the Greatest Knight

Knights were supposed to have been trained to function on lack of sleep, and yet…

At first, it was a bit jarring to settle down with the others when there was a dragon insistent on sleeping close to the Commander, but a bit deeper in the forest.

Irene could tell that others were hesitating as well by the way they cast glances in her direction. It caused her to wonder if the dragon could sense people's emotions and if it would bother her to feel like a spectacle to the knights.

Rather than continuing to cautiously glance towards Sylaron, Irene opted to roll over onto her side at least until she fell asleep. It wasn't the most optimal way to sleep on the hard ground, but it was better than feeling like she was going to make the dragon feel bad that no one seemed to trust her, despite having only done good things for the travelers so far.

Irene fell asleep after the fire had mostly burnt out and she welcomed being able to rest on her back again as her consciousness left her and the sweet embrace of sleep met her. It was later than she would have liked to sleep and she knew she would feel it in the morning.

All was well until there was a thump in the night, and everyone present woke up with a start, their hands moving to their weapons instinctively in case the disturbance was an attack. The dragon was on her feet but her body was low as her head whipped around. Suddenly, the magical beast took to the sky which let off a massive gust of wind over the camp, covering them all in forest debris.

The Commander, who had suffered the most from her sudden flight shook dust from his hair and pulled a few sticks off of himself.

"This was something I had forgotten about," he muttered. "If there are monsters at night, she will take care of them."

"At what cost?" Siverly grumbled as he tossed his blankets to get off the mess and rolled over before pulling the thin blankets over his head and attempting to get comfortable once more.

However, only ten minutes later, the dragon landed once more with a loud thump and they all heard Siverly groan in annoyance.

"Does it smell like smoke?" Irene wondered groggily.

"How else do you imagine a dragon takes care of its prey?" Felix asked from beside her. His final word was punctuated with a big yawn. "Now let's get back to sleep."

As much as they all tried to do just that, there was one more time in the early morning that Sylaron took off again.

While it was earlier than they would have liked to wake up, the sun was just emerging from the horizon, so they all decided to begin their morning preparation so that they could move to the next place. Siverly, as expected, was the slowest in getting to his feet.

For some reason, mages always seemed like they needed a lot more sleep than knights, and every person present was used to it, so they quietly ignored Siverly's grumblings until they were all fed and had their supplies back in saddlebags.

The day of travel wasn't much different than the one before. They rested twice so that their horses could get water and graze while the travelers restored their own energy and found fresh water to fill their waterskins. It seemed that all the monsters were intent on staying away with the new apex predator around, so travel was monotonous and unbelievably easy otherwise.

A couple of times Sylaron disappeared and returned to them with a familiar smoky smell, or she would simply be covered in monster blood which was a sight they were used to, though not exactly on a dragon.

That night, they settled down in much of the same way, but it was Sir Sven and Siverly who took over hunting because they wanted to trap some birds in the area. By the time they were finished with their hunt, every person had a small game hen to themselves, and their bellies were full as they settled in for the night.

Irene had given in to the fact that she likely would be sleep deprived during that trip as long as the dragon was around, but it wasn't as if they were facing many monsters. They didn't need to be quite as focused as they normally were.

However, there was someone else who was less than pleased at the interruptions to his sleep.

The first disturbance that night led to Siverly loudly scoffing.

"Unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "How am I meant to rest and restore my mana in these conditions!?"

He tossed his body around a few times like a child throwing a tantrum.

Finally awake enough to realize he was having an outburst, the mage merely took his sleeping things and moved deeper into the forest on the opposite side of the camp, furthest from the Commander because it seemed that the dragon liked to sleep closest to him whenever she returned.

He also found a luminescent stone in one of his many hidden pockets and threw it on the ground. In a burst of mana, he was shrouded by a faint pinkish color before it disappeared. By then, he was settled on the grass with blankets around him.

"A barrier?" Irene whispered softly. "He won't suffocate under there, will he?"

"Mana stones only have limited mana," Felix responded. "Or something like that… If he suffocates, we won't have to hear him complain each time the dragon takes off."

Sir Trenton couldn't help chuckling lightly at that before he coughed as if he wasn't laughing and settled down himself.

The next day, they all prepared breakfast together and cleaned up the camp. When it was time to settle down and eat, Irene dared knocking her boot against the side of the barrier Siverly was underneath. Surprisingly, her boot went through it easily. Not long after, the barrier dropped altogether and Irene was met with the sight of a tired mage.

"Did you sleep as well as you wanted to?" she asked Siverly.

He stared up at her cautiously.

"Did you?" he mocked.

"I won't complain," she retorted with a smirk. "Most knights wouldn't."

"Most mages would," he responded as he stood up to roll up his blankets.

"Get something to eat, Siverly," the Commander suggested from where he was cleaning up his own blankets. "We will reach the shores of Nickron sometimes this afternoon or evening."

Siverly easily accepted food when it was given to him and ate it down quickly before finally contributing to the camp and helping to make sure the fire was out and everyone's items were cleaned up—although they were realizing it didn't matter that much when Sylaron was clearly going through the forest and lighting things on fire beyond their control.

With that, they hit the trail once more, but that day they were soon out of the forests and into plains that sloped downward towards both Nickron and Polona depending on which direction they were headed.

On one of the breaks, they were on a grassy hill and Irene took the opportunity to uncork her waterskin and drink down a bit of the cool water. When she stopped drinking, the others had joined her on either side and did much of the same.

In a moment of stagnancy, her eyes went over the expansive valley ahead of them.

"Despite all of the stories, Polona doesn't look that frightening, does it?" she inquired.

The question was directed to Felix, but it was the one with experience in Polona who answered.

"What you see isn't how it looks from the inside," the Commander explained. "It has a massive barrier around it that blocks both the noises from it and gives it a bit softer of an appearance."

"It's an illusion?" Irene asked in disbelief.

"Not quite an illusion, more like camouflage," Siverly explained. "Illusion implies it's changing your mind rather than changing itself."

Irene could only nod slowly at that. His logic was sound, but it was still beyond her understanding.

Before more could be said, the Commander led them forward and everyone had no choice but to follow or get left behind.

Luckily, the rest of the trip into the evening was easy. They could see Nickron from the second they went over the hill and it never left their sights. The surroundings were inconsequential considering the area was made of soft grass and not much more.

Only when they made it to the shores of the massive lake did things start to get interesting.

They all dismounted their horses and decided to make a camp.

"I am the only one who will be allowed to summon the mages," Siverly explained. "I will take a boat and make myself scarce."

"Who's stopping us from climbing onto one of the boats and coming with you?" Trenton challenged.

"If you step into one of the boats without a bit of mana within you, you will fall right through," Siverly explained. "You're welcome to try it if you'd like." The mage offered a small smirk at this.

"Don't bother with him," the Commander insisted. "All I want is a word with the mages about the monsters attacking Idona, not a battle."

"I can't promise anything," Siverly insisted as he scratched his horse's cheek.

Shortly after, the mage walked to one of the boats and had to balance himself to get inside of one and not have it capsize in the cool waters of the crater lake. With a nod and nothing more, he was off to the island that stood off a great distance with its walls concealing what hid at the heart.

"Hoping he doesn't take too long," Commander Henry uttered. "I would like to get back to Idona as quickly as possible."

From that point forward, it was entirely out of their control.