Young Swordmaster's Journey

Three Days Later

Alec groaned as he rolled his shoulder, the edge of a series of wrapped bandages poking out of the neckline of his shirt as it shifted and moved with the movement of his arm.

At his side, Olivia let out a small grumble and flexed the fingers of her left arm, which currently sat in a sling and was held loosely against her stomach by that same material.

Over the curve of Alec's good shoulder rested a rough-fiber sack that looked about full to burst, and had a diameter about as wide as his torso was tall. An aggravated noise leaving his lips as the wind blew down the path towards Zenik and nearly sent him bowling over, much to the consternation of his teammate.

"Alec, just let me hold the sack." Olivia growled, narrowing her eyes as Alec just rolled his eyes and waved a dismissive hand in her direction.

"Your arm is way more injured than my shoulder. Just conserve enough mana to heal it."

"We're only a couple hours out of Zenik. And I already have enough mana left over to heal my injury."

"Need I remind you that you are the one that suggested we don't use all of our mana to heal such 'minor injuries'. You can't be the one to suggest something and then complain to me about it." Alec retorted as his one-handed grip on the sack tightened and he continued walking, a small twinkle in his eyes despite the actual words leaving his mouth.

"I'll complain about whatever I please." Olivia scoffed, only to wince and rub her slung forearm as a small lance of pain went through it. "But I stand by that decision. With how exhausted we both are, there's no way that it would, in any way, be safe for us to travel with all of our mana depleted, or close to, just to heal non-serious injuries like these ones."

"I still think that healing your arm to give you basic, painless, mobility back at the very least would be a good idea." Alec responded with a small huff as he adjusted the sack over his shoulder.

It had been his one real argument against Olivia's plan after she had explained her reasoning to him. His own injuries hurt, sure, but they were minor in the grand scheme of things and wouldn't stop him from doing majority of the movements required for his bladework and fighting in general. Olivia's injuries, however, while also minor in the grand scheme of things, had left her arm aching to the point that he had seen it fitting to put a sling on her arm just so that she could rest it and avoid tensing or stressing any muscles in it, and thus causing her even more pain.

Aggravatingly, she had refused to heal that particular injury so long as there wasn't an active threat around, seeing it as a 'waste of mana' and something entirely unnecessary with her skill in one-armed fighting and Alec's own skill with the blade.

Personally, he thought that there was a bit more to the story than she was telling him, probably something else to do with that messed up and complicated family of hers. However, Alec neither cared enough, nor was brave enough, to bring up that particular can of worms, and thus let it lie to argue the point itself and not its origin.

"I'm perfectly capable of fighting with a single arm and if something comes along that requires both, I will spend the mana then to deal with it. Not now when we're so close to Zenik."

Gods above, Alec was going to have a small aneurism one of these days, he was certain of it. And to think that this was just meant to be a simple, time-consuming quest to go and collect a bunch of the Fermina herbs that the Guild Branch needed to keep a stock of its complimentary tea –for business guests and higher ranking adventurers– and make some low-level painkillers for those that happen to find themselves within the guilds infirmary.

Yet, through some kind of higher-plane interference, the two of them had found themselves stumbling upon, apparently, the only large-scale Hermina patch in the entirety of the Twin-Continents that had found itself home to an injured Bazillo. A type of creature that looked halfway between a crocodile and an iguana, standing on four legs at about chest height for most humans and able to not only swim, but break out into a full-on gallop as well.

Needless to say, that between its inherent ferocity, its ability and willingness to chase them down, and its absurdly thick tail that was more than happy to follow up on any opportunities that its jaws missed, the two of them had struggled quite a bit before being able to force the creature to retreat with a few well-placed cuts along its stomach and legs.

They had, rather regretfully, been forced to heal themselves up and collect all of their herbs in their current states, but that had been more annoying than difficult or dangerous, and thus they had merely complained a handful of times…each.

"Alright fine, if that's what you wish to do then go ahead, we'll be in the city soon anyway and can finally get our pay for this quest." Alec said, visibly cheering up a little at the thought of getting his pay.

"That's true," Olivia nodded, cheering up herself and even straightening her back a little from where she had been subtly slouched forward over her arm. "And hopefully when we get back, your scaled friend is going to be gone too."

Alec shivered, and groaned a little as his shoulder throbbed with pain, at the idea of the small dragon still being in his room when he got back. If it was….he really didn't know what he was going to do, especially since removing it peacefully wasn't a valid option since it just came back.

He'd likely have to swap dorm rooms in all honesty, as weird as that thought felt to him. He'd been at the academy for months now and that small dorm room had legitimately started to feel like 'his' even if it wasn't really, he didn't want to just give it up.

However it would be stupid to allow that kind of sentimentality to continue putting him in the path of a dragon, no matter how young it was, so if it was…well, he'd just have to suck it up and deal with it.

XXXxxxXXX

It was official, Alec was going to cry.

He was going to fall to his knees, dry-heave until his ribs cracked, and cry like a newly born infant until dehydration caught up to him and forced him to pass out for who-knows-how-many hours.

Because of all the things that he had expected when he had opened the door to his dormitory, the reality had been such an unexpected cruelty that he couldn't think of any other reaction that could possibly be warranted.

He and Olivia had both approached the simple, unassuming wooden door of his dorm room in a stoic, tension-filled silence. Their gazes moving away from the door only long enough for them to lock eyes with each other and silently nod.

With as smooth, and silent, a motion as Alec could possibly pull off, he had reached into his bag to grab the key to his dorm and slid it into the lock. The muted sound of metal pressing against metal and the simple 'click' of the lock had felt practically deafening in the minds of both of the teens.

Was there a possibility that all of this carefulness and hesitation was just them being paranoid and making them look extremely silly to an outsider? Yes, absolutely. However, the both of them would be damned if they had been caught off-guard by the dragon being there when they had expected it not to be and thus took the safer option of assuming that it was there.

And with the quiet sound of the door hinge as Alec gently pushed his door open, he saw that the dragon very much was still in his room, curled up on his bed as if it owned it.

And it had opened a singular slitted eye and stared at him.

Which brought Alec right back to the current moment in time, where its singular eye facing him –golden and frightening– stared at him, half-opened and dazed in a way that the teen could only attribute to sleepiness. He wanted to cry.

"Alec? Alec is it still there?" Olivia whispered from behind him, hidden from the dragon's sight by the mostly closed door and Alec's own body.

Which, naturally, meant that the dragon was hidden from her sight, and thus the terrifying reality of the situation had yet to hit her as it had him.

Alec looked at the dragon. The dragon looked at Alec. Alec felt something small and child-like crack and wail deep in his heart, it was probably what little part of him still thought that dragons were cool.

Slowly, never looking away from the door for even a second, Alec stepped back and shut the door, locking it for good measure with his small, half-centimeter thick key.

A toothpick of a thing in the grand scheme of things. Yet still one more thing that the dragon would have to break on its way to kill him if it so chose to do so. Speaking of which…

"It's awake."

"Pardon?" Olivia stared just as blankly back at Alec as he did at her, all emotions drained from her face like a bucket with its bottom blown off.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"The dragon is awake. It looked at me."

"I see."

XXXxxxXXX

Dragon-Scale Academy, Headmaster's Office

Xyn raised an eyebrow as the two sets of footsteps, vaguely familiar to him by now after all the time that he had spent with them, finally reached his door. His mind only having half a second to ponder what his two students could possibly want when the door was swung open so fast that the man genuinely considered it a miracle that it didn't slam into the wall and cause a ruckus.

"Ah! Alec! Olivia! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Xyn smiled at the both of them, his hands clasped over his lap as he leant back in his nice, cushioned chair.

He had been doing some paperwork to legitimize and place a definitive time and place on the visit from Victor, but that could be put off for the moment because whatever had these two students coming into his office like this was bound to be interesting, if nothing else. Besides, there was an irony in one putting off paperwork for an Agent of Kronethia to be completed another time, he's sure that Victor wouldn't mind if he had to wait an extra few hours to receive his official wax seal.

The two slips of identical paper, filled out in their own individual handwriting, that were slammed down on his desk were a surprise in their own right, especially since he recognized the form that the both of them had filled out.

"Dorm. Change." Olivia spoke bluntly, the one more desensitized to his position and the prestige that it would ordinarily carry between the two of them.

Though he wouldn't expect anything less from a member of the Kio adventuring bloodline. They were a unique bunch in more than one way, he had to admit, with plenty of prestige and power of their own to dazzle the masses with and throw around as they pleased.

"Yes, Olivia. I recognize what that form is." He spoke slowly, as if speaking to a particularly slow child, carefully controlling his expression to try and provoke the best reaction from her that he possibly could.

"Sign, please." Alec tacked on immediately following his teasing of the pearlescent haired girl, getting a raised eyebrow from the headmaster.

Olivia pushing past his position was something that he could expect, honestly it would be stranger if she didn't, but for Alec to do so as well? Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting.

"You two do understand that I am the headmaster of the academy, right? I'm not the quartermaster nor do I dabble in any of his responsibilities. You two should be going to his office instead."

Of course, as headmaster he could sign off on these forms and have them legitimized, but where was the fun in that?

Also he'd rather not have to deal with a member of his own faculty yelling at him for skirting their own rules yet again, the last time with Frenella had been bad enough.

"The dragon is still in my room." Alec said, stone-faced and flat-voiced, as if reading out the terms of a contract.

That, of course, had alarm bells going off in his head. They had gone through great lengths to get that dragon out of Alec's dorm-room last time without anyone discovering what had been going on, and apparently it had seen all of their efforts and decided that, yes, the Gods did actually hate them.

How the dragon got back on campus and back into Alec's dorm was another matter entirely, one that was a bit less pressing than the actual knowledge that it was, indeed, back.

"Ah. Yes. I can see now why you'd want to move out of your dorm as fast as humanly possible." Xyn nodded slowly, grabbing Alec's form slowly and methodically, spinning it around, and signing his name with a practiced flourish.

That was one –of many– issues solved, now it was time to deal with the second.

"And would this be why you wish to move as well? I was unaware that the two of you were sharing a dorm."

He had meant for his comment to be a teasing one. A comment to chip at the building tension in the room and keep things at a manageable level, and one to fish for information as well.

Dragon-Scale Academy was filled with people of all ages, just as a regular Academy or University would be, and that meant quite a lot of adults lived on campus. Adults that, naturally, had mature urges, lives, and relationships. It was hardly unusual for multiple people to live together for a variety of reasons, and even less so for two people of opposing sexes to do the same.

The issue would not have been in that they were staying in the same room together, but rather that somehow that kind of top-tier, juicy gossip had somehow slipped past not only him but every professor in the academy. He had, of course, heard a couple rumours floating around between the students when they thought he was unable to hear them and their quieted voices, but he had heard those sorts of rumours so many times that he could no longer afford to take stock in them.

If he did, he was afraid he would lose all his spare time chasing down shadows and laughing fairies in the form of relationships that were never there, and situations manipulated for social clout.

"The dragon is awake and stared at Dius." Olivia neatly side-stepped the verbal trap that he had set and, promptly, slammed a comically oversized hammer into his face with all the force of a meteor.

Silently, brokenly, the headmaster reached out and grabbed her form as well. The man grabbing his quill and signing his name with a speed and fluidity that could only come from years of practice.

Without a word, the two teens grabbed their forms from his desk and promptly left his office in a display that, ordinarily, would have been more than disrespectful. Yet, in this case, Xyn couldn't find it in himself to be anything less than completely understanding.

Had he been in their place, he didn't imagine that he would be anywhere near as composed as they were.

'Of course, that composure is probably stemming from a held-back mental breakdown. But as they say, 'fake it till you make it'.'

The joke, as confined to his own mind as it was, may have been a crude and dark one, but what else was a man to do? He would very soon have to deal with, yet again, the removal of a young dragon from the premises and, quite frankly, he needed something to lift his spirits even if only momentarily.

XXXxxxXXX

The Next Morning, Dragon-Scale Academy

If one were to ask Alec Dius how he was feeling that morning, as he awoke in his bed –stiff and inflexible as it was–, he would have answered with a resounding, and somehow truthful, 'better than I have in a while'.

Most would look at the state and quality of his bed, the lack of additional occupants in it, and the room around him, and naturally assume that he was lying right through his teeth with the smoothest, most expressionless face possible.

Most would not have been aware of the green-scaled menace that had plagued Alec's previous dorm, oh how he missed it so, and quite simply refused to leave it despite the blue-haired teens' previous claim to the space.

But that night he had finally, finally, been able to get a full night's sleep in a real, proper, bed without the dragon being in the same room as him and hadn't just woken up to find it in his room or on his chest again.

A weight, both figurative and somewhat literal, felt like it had been lifted from him as he realized that maybe, just possibly, he was finally free of the dragon. That he would be able to make this space his own, as he had once done with his previous dorm, without fear of it being taken from him by the uncaring, unrelenting claws of one of the most dangerous species this side of the Vianthian Peninsula.

Yet now that he had been granted that freedom, now that he could feel the stress that the dragon's presence had been forcing on him beginning the slow, hesitant process of unwinding from his psyche, he couldn't help but notice things that, quite frankly, hadn't mattered much in the moment.

Why had the dragon chosen his room of all places to claim as its own? Why had it slept in the same room as him so peacefully and, constantly, moved to rest itself on his chest while he slept?

Based on everything that he had heard about dragons, it should have tried to kill him just for being near it while it was sleeping. Dragons were territorial by nature, and while that didn't always mean that they would attack things that lived in or near its territory, it did mean that trying to enter their main abodes, and stay there to boot, was usually an exercise in throwing ones life away.

This small green menace had not only seemed perfectly fine to share the room with him, now that he actually stopped and went over all their 'interactions' together, but had actually seemed to enjoy the proximity. Apart from that one time that it had smacked him hard enough to cause some minor internal damage, it hadn't even tried nor threatened to harm him. Despite apparently being awake multiple times over the course of the nights he had slept in his room and having had more than one perfect opportunity to end him then and there, it had never gone for such an easy kill-shot.

'Actually, now that I think about it. It tricked me to sneak into my room a few nights ago, didn't it? Even went through the effort of knocking on my door to make me open it and everything.'

While Alec could certainly believe that a dragon, even a young one, was intelligent enough to conceive and act on such a plan, he found it hard to imagine a dragon actually resorting to such a plan. They were the symbol of pure power, impregnable defence and unyielding determination, not exactly fox-like entities that went around tricking people out of house and home.

There was something here that he was missing, something that made all of these oddities surrounding him, the dragon, and its behaviour, make sense. For the life of him, though, he couldn't put it together in the slightest. In fact, in trying to do so, he was fairly certain that he'd lost sight of a couple of the pieces.

Alec just didn't know enough about dragons to fill in the gaping gaps that he had in his knowledge, and he found himself getting just the slightest bit annoyed by it.

However he didn't have much time to get much angrier over that, because with a sound that had him jolting upright in his bed, followed by a rather loud 'thud' that seemed to make the entire room rattle, Olivia wrenched the door to his room open and slammed it shut again. Her body pressed against the aged wood –their new dorms really were a lot older than their previous ones– and her hair tumbled messily down her face. Her wide eyes latching onto his form and shining with a worrying mixture of alarm and relief.

Slowly, inevitably, a ball of iron began to sink in his stomach, which only got heavier as Olivia caught her breath and finally opened her mouth.

"It's outside."

Knock Knock!