Parental Controls

"Oooh addd smmmm kwishton?"

Reeve leaned forward to try to hear what Walter was saying. He was sitting directly in front of her on the saddle, but he was leaning so far forward that his face was pressed against the dragon's neck. He seemed to have a special relationship with the particular scale against which his cheek rested, to the point that it was making Reeve a little uncomfortable. The separate discomfort she was feeling during her first dragonback flight was a possible exacerbating factor. "What?" She called into the turbulent air rushing past them.

Walter did not relax his fingers where they gripped the front edge of the saddle, but he allowed himself to sit up fractionally. "You had some questions?" He said as loudly as he could over his shoulder.

"All more than some. But this flight clearly won't take long, so lemme stick to the biggest ones."

Walter nodded. "You're probably wondering how I got back to Moody so quickly to get down here—you know, after I fell on you. I did the trick you showed me! Putting the Resuscitation Stones under Moody's saddle. If we have a little miscommunication during flight, or landing, or when he apparently doesn't see me and steps on me, I just reappear in the saddle."

"That's great, and I'm surprised you got it to work—it's Resurrection Stones—but that wasn't even on my list of questions right now." Reeve pulled her UI and quickly checked to confirm that, yes, her respawn had just reset when she had uttered the trigger phrase. She pushed the UI away. "So, first thing is: you have a Colony of dragons?"

"Yyyeeesss," Walter said, the word rising and elongating.

"The way you said that sounded more like a question than an answer."

Walter rocked his head from side to side.

"You can control the Colony? The dragons?"

Walter rocked his head again and cleared his throat. "Results can vary."

"Moody, Toothy…"

"…Angry and Scowly."

"The mom and dad?"

Walter nodded.

Not really knowing how to gain more confidence, or any closure, from that line of questioning, Reeve decided to move on. "You were following crows, on dragonback, when you spotted us?"

Walter nodded.

"The crows you were following belong to someone who pretends to be Thomanji'yheri?"

"Pretended."

"Pretended. Past tense."

Walter nodded.

"This person is no longer pretending to be Thomanji'yheri because…"

"He's in a trunk."

Reeve started trying to ask two questions at once and then stopped to pick one. "He Thomanji'yheri or he the pretender?"

"Pretender."

"In a trunk?"

Walter nodded.

"And Thomanji'yheri is?"

"We don't know."

Next topic, Reeve thought. "You said Leaf is with the other dragons right now. Anyone else? Nyx?"

"Yes, Nyx is with us."

Reeve felt both relief and the sense of loss that occurred every time she thought of her maybe-no-longer Companion.

"Also in a trunk," Walter said. "Different trunk."

"You have Nyx in a trunk?! She's going to kill you!"

"Bunce too," Walter said just loud enough for Reeve to make out.

"Why!"

"Dragon saddles barely work for people. I couldn't figure out how to get them on…"

Reeve stared at the back of her father's head.

"…and I also don't know how to get Nyx and Bunce out of the trunk without other things coming out."

"Other things?"

Walter's voice was even quieter when he said, "It's the special trunk."

Reeve tried to decipher her father's statement through the lens of someone out of their element in a VRMMO RPG. "Is it the Trunk of Holding?"

"I believe that it is."

Reeve's stomach dropped. "They're in there with all those undead."

Walter did not respond.

"Where is the trunk?"

Walter brought a hand around his side and pointed at his lower back.

Reeve closed her eyes for a few seconds. She squeezed them tight and then opened them. "OK, when we land, I'll show you how to access items directly from inside containers that are in your Inventory." She stared at him a moment longer. "I didn't even know that level of nesting was possible, particularly for living entities."

"I'm an Innovator," Walter said hesitantly.

Next topic, Reeve thought. "You and Leaf have been together since the attack on Deilmarkt?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Yes. Except for when she was in the trunk."

Next topic, Reeve thought with a rising sense akin to panic.

"That's it for your party? I mean, OK, impressive. Four dragons, you, Leaf, the people trapped in trunks or recently released from trunks?"

"And Këyvf," Walter said.

"Who the fork is Këyvf?!"

"I think her job is to kill people who bother Tom. Give or take."

"Is that really a 'job description'? Shouldn't you know? Aren't you in HR IRL?"

"We did not discuss the particulars of her Job Description Statement."

"So why do you think that's her job? Did she try to kill you?"

"No, she seems partial to me."

"OK, then Këyvf is not a Level 4 AI," Reeve said.

"I don't think not-Tom is either," Walter said. "He got a little funny when I talked to him."

"OK. Anything else?" Reeve said.

"We should probably stop there for now."

"Probably a good idea." She rode in silence for a few minutes, processing the information and simultaneously grasping for a useful mantra to apply in the situation. Eventually, Reeve decided that the classic "There is no one better to be than myself" was a comfortable choice. Repeating the mantra in her head, she absentmindedly rapped her knuckles on the saddle between her and her father's right legs and said, "They make this—dragonback flight—look way too easy in movies."

"I know, right!" Walter shouted, half turning.

Startled from her meditation by the unexpected exuberance, Reeve looked down at the approaching crater. "You'll have Moody touch down?"

"I will do my best."

Moody did touch down a few minutes later next to Millie, Dawn, Eero, Kuura, Leaf, and an imposing, armored orc Reeve assumed must be Këyvf. Reeve managed to climb down off of Moody without incident, but the process was slow enough that it allowed her to reflect on the fact that her father was ahead of her for the moment in terms of being the more accomplished dragon rider, which prompted her to question once again her place in the party and whether she was progressing in-game in ways she felt good about.

"You're not going to believe what Leaf and Këyvf have been telling us," Millie said as Reeve approached, with Walter hurrying to catch up to her. Millie's eyes were locked on the giant dragon.

"Oh, I bet I would," Reeve said, "but only because I had time to ask..." Reeve trailed off as she looked from Millie to Leaf and found the latter to be lacking her lustrous hair. "Ohmagod. You're not Fallen again, are you?"

"Fire," Walter said as he joined their loose circle.

Leaf nodded.

"I'm sorry," Reeve said.

"You may want to save your greatest sympathy for Nyx," Leaf said.

Reeve frowned. "Because she's in a trunk, which is apparently all the rage?"

Leaf shook her head.

"Ohhhhkaaay. Do we need to prioritize that?" Reeve said.

"Yes," Leaf said. "But let us at least wait until we leave behind our winged mounts for a longer period."

"Speaking of, where are the others?" Reeve said.

Millie giggled. "Eating walruses somewhere north of here."

"That tracks," Reeve said. She looked at the orc. "Këyvf?"

Këyvf gave a sharp nod.

"Reavyr."

"I know you," Këyvf said confidently but not unkindly. "Reeve."

Reeve nodded. "You're with Thomanji'yheri's forces?"

"Commander of Guard."

Reeve nodded. "Good to meet you."

Këyvf grunted.

"What's the plan?"

Eero pointed along the rim to their left. "I intended to have us down into the crater by way of The Five Hundred Steps, but Leaf thought it possible for all of us to join you on your mounts." Eero looked past Reeve and Walter to Moody, who appeared to be having a staring contest with Kuura, neither looking aggressive but neither looking happy about the other's presence either. "I welcomed the suggestion, as The Steps are always treacherous under the best of conditions, being hewn from a cliff of ice."

Staff in the crook of one arm, Millie was still looking at Moody, her eyes wide. Shifting her gaze, Millie found Reeve appraising her. The caster squeezed her forearms to her chest, then mimed a rapid clapping motion right under her chin.

"First staff, now dragon rides," Reeve said. "It's like your birthday came early."

"I know," Millie mouthed.

Reeve smiled. "Yeah, it's pretty sweet."

"And your, uh, your big…" Walter pointed at Kuura.

"She cannot come with us. Must stay here whether we descend by stairs or sky," Eero said. "Neither would be safe for her."

Walter pursed his lips. Seeing Walter purse his lips, Reeve began shaking her head. Walter raised one small halfling index finger, and the rest of the party looked at him.

"No," Reeve and Leaf said in unison.

"Uh…what are we no'ing?" Millie said.

Leaf pointed at Walter. "He cannot attempt to place the bear—"

"—in his Inventory," Reeve finished.

"That's a thing?" Millie said.

"Stay tuned," Reeve said. "It's going to come back to bite us eventually. Maybe literally."

"I guess we'll just have to unpack that later," Walter said with a jolly swing of his fist, a wink, and a grin so broad it shaped the sound of his words.

"Ohmagod," Reeve said.

"They return," Eero said, looking north across the crater.

The group watched the three winged dots grow rapidly into three additional enormous dragons. As the beasts made their final approach, Reeve looked at her dad and said, "You seriously control not one but four flipping huge dragons?"

"Tenously," Leaf said.

"At best," Walter said, "but I am working on it."

"Then when we descend," Eero said, "have your Companions alight well west of Meteolumijärvi, lest we incite panic in village."

"I will do my best," Walter said in a way that inspired confidence in none of his companions, a lack of confidence quickly proven justified when he pointed toward Meteolumijärvi and said, "Is that Metro-mummy-larvae?"

Eero nodded.

"I guess we could use a nickname for that," Millie said quietly to Reeve.

Reeve frowned at her friend. "I'm becoming my father."

"And that is west?" Walter pointed.

"Mmmm," Millie said quietly to Reeve, "I don't think you've turned fully into him quite yet."

Eero grasped Walter's forearm and gently but firmly shifted it sixty degrees.

"Okey dokey," Walter said.

When almost to the crater's rim, the three dragons angled down suddenly, dropping quickly below the party's level before rising rapidly, their momentum stalling as they crested the lip. Three sets of legs thicker than Reeve's torso touched down just west of where the party stood. The beasts rocked forward onto all fours, and then the two largest dragons, which Reeve was confident were the parents, ambled toward Moody, placing the party in the center of a semicircle of wings, scales, claws, and teeth.

"This is the coolest thing ever!" Millie whispered. She took a step toward the parents and turned to face the party. "I mean, I know I'm supposed to be a jaded tween and everything, but can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that these are dragons we are about to ride? I mean…"

Millie bit her lip, clearly overcome with excitement, and Reeve had to stifle what would have been a very un-half-orcish giggle that would definitely have hurt Millie's feelings. The pure joy Millie often displayed in response to pretty mundane things was something Reeve loved about her friend. But Reeve had to admit this wasn't all that mundane. Dragons were extremely rare in this game world, and until her dad had appeared with his entourage earlier that morning, the closest Reeve had ever been to one was when they'd been forced off the ridge by the dragon that plucked Walter's pony from right next to them. That dragon, Reeve realized, was one of the two parent dragons now towering over them. Scowly or Angry, she thought, and grimaced.

"Do we just…" Millie said, fidgeting with her staff with both hands, "just pick a dragon?"

The dragons seemed to be watching the party closely.

"Can they understand us?" Reeve said quietly.

"I believe so," Leaf said. "Though Walter is the only whom we are confident can communicate with them, and he can do so without speaking."

Reeve nodded.

"No one had tried riding Scowly or Angry yet," Walter said to Millie. "So, I'd recommend coming with me on Moody or with Leaf and Këyvf on Toothy.

Millie's exuberant expression grew confused, and she looked at Reeve.

Reeve shook her head. "They're arguably better names than 'Jester, frost giant.'"

Millie frowned. "Debatable. But I don't care." A huge grin returned. "I still get to ride one!"

"Gyl," Leaf said. "Join Këyvf, Eero, and I. I wish to learn more of your past. Reeve and Walter can continue their reunion."

"Wonderful!" Walter said.

"We don't need a reunion," Reeve said, her words rushed and voice higher than usual. "We spent months together yesterday."

Leaf, Këyvf, Eero, and Millie had already turned and were walking toward Toothy, Millie saying something excitedly.