Dragon delivery service CH 82 Dust Over the Lake

first previous next

They landed in a clearing beside a lake, the same one where they had fished before. The water was calm, reflecting the sky like polished glass. The scent of wet stone mingled with the crisp air, adding a faint tang to their senses. The trees around them gave plenty of space to rest, while distant gull cries echoed softly across the water, enhancing the tranquil setting.

It was the perfect place to stop.

Emily hopped down first, stretching her legs. “So… we’re almost there?”

Damon slid off Sivares’s side, boots hitting the grass. He pulled a small, well-worn map from his pocket, filled with cryptic symbols and notes from previous adventures. He traced the route with his finger, pausing at a drawing of a winking dragon, an inside joke from when they dodged a sudden rainstorm together. "Yeah," he said with a smirk, "one more stretch and we'll hit Homblom." Sivares folded her wings, glancing toward the distant treeline.

“It’s a trade town,” Damon added. “News travels fast in places like that. Faster than armies, usually.”

Keys was perched on one of the bags, tail flicking with excitement.
“I can’t wait to see my family again,” she chirped. “I bet Ned’s gotten his nose into something he shouldn’t, like the time he tried to levitate the kitchen table for extra snacks and ended up flipping everything over instead. The twins are probably starting basic spellwork by now. I can just imagine them accidentally setting off tiny fireworks in the living room.”

Emily smiled at that, easing her pack off her shoulders. “You really think they’ll be okay?”

Keys puffed up proudly. “Of course they will. Chaos runs in the family.”

Sivares huffed softly, a sound that was part laugh and part snort of smoke.

The lake lapped gently at the shore. For now, there were no alarms, no politics, no fire or fear. There was only the quiet promise of home being close enough to touch.

They weren’t there yet.

But they were close.

A chill in the air made Emily shiver.

The trees around the clearing were changing. They were no longer the deep greens of summer, but now streaked with red, orange, and gold. In a strange way, it was beautiful, as if the world was slowly exhaling and letting go of something it had held too long. Emily couldn't help but see a reflection of her own journey in the autumn colors. Just as the trees were shedding their leaves, she felt she was shedding something to what she didn’t know. just that she might lose something she doesn’t know if she'll get back.

She sat on a rock with her notebook resting on her lap, watching as the others set up camp, ready to start taking more notes. The pages were filled with her opinions since she started traveling.

It had been nine days since Bass.

She’d already been away more than a week past her planned return.

By now, she should have been back. Studying for exams. Worrying about dates and deadlines and all the small, predictable things her life used to be made of.

Instead, she was somewhere deep in the woods.

With a dragon.
A boy.
And a mouse.

Emily looked down at the blank page, then up at the firelight flickering between the trees.

Her life had taken a very sharp turn.

And she wasn’t sure whether to be scared…

…or grateful.

Damon was down by the lake, kneeling at the water’s edge. He had a stick in one hand and a length of string in the other, carefully winding it around.

Emily wandered closer. “What are you doing?”

He looked up from his work. “Gonna catch some fish for dinner.”

Emily blinked. “You… catch fish?”

Damon nodded, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. “Yeah. How else are you supposed to get fish?”

She frowned, thinking. “You buy it?”

Damon stared at her for a moment.

Then he laughed.

Sivares, stretched out in a patch of sunlight, lifted her head to watch what the silly humans were doing now.

One of them was clearly a rural farm boy, someone used to getting what he needed from the land with his own hands. Fishing line, improvised rod, calm patience. Practical. Familiar.

The other was a city girl.

The kind who probably had not needed to move more than a quill for most of her life before being swept up in their shared chaos.

Sivares let out a quiet, amused huff of smoke and settled her chin back down.

Humans were endlessly strange.

And, against her better judgment…

…she found them entertaining.

As Sivares lay there, letting the sun soak into her scales, her thoughts drifted backward.

She remembered the cold.

Not the clean chill of mountain air, but the deep, biting kind that settled into bone and never quite left. She remembered shivering alone in her cave, covering herself in soot and ash to dull the shine of her scales. She was always hiding, making herself small in a world that hunted dragons who were seen.

She remembered fear so constant it felt like breathing.

For a moment, she imagined her past self standing there now, looking at the dragon she had become.

She could almost hear it.

You’re too visible.
You’re drawing attention.
They’ll come for you.

Dragon hunters.

Like the ones who had taken her mother.

Her chest tightened, just a little.

That version of herself would have panicked at the open sky, at the humans nearby, and at the simple act of lying in the sun where anyone could see her. She would have begged her future self to hide and to flee before it was too late. Sivares exhaled slowly, a thin ribbon of smoke curling into the air.

She wasn’t that dragon anymore.

The fear was still there, buried deep, but it no longer ruled her. She had allies now. Friends. A place in the open world she’d once been too afraid to touch.

She let the warmth sink deeper and stayed where she was.

Seen.

And still safe.

When Sivares glanced back, she spotted Damon practically dragging Emily toward the lake.

Emily looked… resigned. Like someone who had accepted their fate but not forgiven it.

“All you have to do is try,” Damon was saying cheerfully.

She nodded weakly, right up until Damon held up the bait.

A big, fat worm.

Pinched between his bare fingers.

Emily froze.

Her face went pale. “Is that… alive?”

“Yeah,” Damon said. “Fresh is better.”

Emily swayed. For a moment, Sivares was genuinely concerned she might faint on the spot.

“Nope,” Emily whispered. “No. I am not touching that.”

Sivares snorted, a puff of smoke escaping her nostrils.

Some instincts, she decided, were universal.

Keys, meanwhile, was up to something.

Sivares watched as the small mouse used magic to lift a bundle of strings, the cords floating neatly behind her like a tail of yarn.

“What are you doing?” Sivares asked, one eye following the strange procession.

Keys looked up at her. “Just… don’t move.”

Before Sivares could question that, Keys scampered up her neck and onto her back, the bundle of strings drifting along after her.

"Keys," Sivares began.

But the mouse was already climbing.

She made her way all the way up to the top of Sivares’s head, precisely the one place Sivares could not see.

Sivares froze.

She could feel Keys doing something up there. Small tugs. Gentle pressure. A little magical hum that tickled along her scales.

She tried very hard not to move.

Do not move, she told herself. Do not startle the mouse with magic and strings on your head.

Curiosity gnawed at her.

“What are you doing?” she asked again, voice carefully calm.

“Almost done,” Keys said cheerfully.

Sivares stared straight ahead at the lake, every instinct screaming to look, while the mystery continued right above her eyes.

Sivares turned her head just enough to look at Damon, eyes wide, a silent plea for someone to tell her what was happening.

To his credit, Damon caught the look.

He followed her gaze upward… and had to fight very hard not to laugh.

Sivares was screaming internally now. What is she doing? Why is she touching my horns? Why is there string involved?

Damon carefully set his fishing rod aside, propping it up with a few stones, then walked over.

"Keys," he said, trying and failing to keep his voice neutral, "you know Sivares is going to be mad, right?"

“No, she won’t,” Keys replied cheerfully. “She’s cool.”

That did not make Sivares feel better.

Why would I be mad? she wondered desperately. WHY WOULD I BE MAD?

Damon reached into his pack, pulled out his cooking pan, and held it up like a mirror.

Sivares leaned forward just enough to see.

Oh.

She was wearing a hammock.

A tiny one.

Strung neatly between her horns, swaying gently, with Keys lounging in it like royalty at the beach.

Sivares froze.

“…You little maniac,” she said flatly.

Keys beamed, paws folded behind her head. “Only you, Keys, would think to use a dragon as a bed.”

She bounced slightly, testing the sling.
“Best bed in the kingdom, if you ask me.”

Sivares closed her eyes and exhaled a long, resigned breath of smoke.

Somehow… this was her life now.

Sivares lay there, the hammock gently swaying in the soft breeze, Keys lounging in it like she owned the place.

“You know,” Sivares said lazily, “I’m plotting my revenge.”

Keys didn’t even look worried. “Yeah? What, you gonna use me as a bed?”

“Maybe,” Sivares replied. “If you somehow gain a million times your current weight.”

Keys snorted. “I’ll let you know when that happens.”

Sivares let out a long sigh of smoke. “Fine. But you’re scrubbing under my scales later as payment. I want all the grime out.”

Keys groaned dramatically. “Ugh, do you know how many tiny pebbles get stuck in there? That’s not fair.”

“You tied furniture to my horns,” Sivares said flatly. “Fair left a while ago.”

Keys flopped back in the hammock, resigned. “This is how it ends. Crushed by dragon hygiene.”

Despite herself, Sivares smiled and stayed exactly where she was.

first previous next Patreon