Yvette stepped out from their small home before taking a deep breath of the fresh, albeit damp, air. The ground was slightly damp, though not quite muddy. She wondered if that was magic that flowed through the ground or if was a quality of the dirt itself. Either way, she appreciated it. In fact, the dirt underneath their small home had remained dry even throughout the storm, so it seemed to be incredibly effective.
The zmaj were already moving around their city. The larger zmaj, ones who had once been human and now called themselves the chiogn, left large but shallow footprints when they moved, hauling heavy loads through the streets. The smaller zmaj, the ones who had once been lizards or other animals and called themselves the tenogn, scrambled with ease along the tall homes, moving quickly to repair any damage done by the fierce winds and powerful rains that had fallen across the city.
Despite the distinction, however, they were all obviously zmaj. All of them were bipedal (though the tenogn seemed happy to move on two legs or all four limbs as needed), with beautiful, thick scales of different colors. The light mist hanging in the air caused many of the scales to glisten and somehow appear even prettier, sparkling as if they were made of jewels.
There was a light cough from behind her, tearing her from her thoughts. She turned around to see a large zmaj towering over her. She felt her heart begin to beat faster and her breath hasten, dread flowing through her as she began to panic and wonder what she had done now. It took her a moment to realize she recognized those thick, green scales. Osiron.
“We’re checking for any damage done from the storm,” he said, his voice calm and careful. His face was a blank mask. She wondered if he was calm, or desperately trying to hide any emotions he felt. She couldn’t help feeling a small ounce of pity wash over her when she looked over him, knowing the pain she’d caused him only recently.
“It held up wonderfully, we didn’t see anything. The smoke flap kept closed against the rain, not a single drop of water got inside,” Yvette said quickly.
“Good. Please be careful when going through the city. We wouldn’t want our guests to hurt themselves.”
Yvette gave another nod, watching the zmaj turn and walk away, his movements a bit jerky. Nothing like the powerful grace that so many of the zmaj seemed to have. After a few moments she felt herself begin to relax, shaking her head.
“You okay?” Gervas asked, stepping out from behind the flap of their home. She couldn’t help but notice that, once more, he was wearing his chainmail hauberk and his sword was strapped at his side. His bracers were on his arms as well. She suspected if his shield and spear hadn’t been lost in their fight against the massive turtle, they would have been with him as well.
She glanced around, looking over the zmaj moving around the city. She didn’t blame him for being cautious and well armed. Instinctively she brushed her finger across her own side, feeling the familiar weight of her sheathed dagger. Every so often she would see a zmaj looking at her. Some of the looks were curious, some were sad. But a disturbingly high number of them were angry, even hateful.
Not that she could blame them. Yvette and Gervas were the ones who had discovered the unknown truth of this island and the zmaj.
The fact that Hsgrogn, the great dragon turtle that had created this island and turned them into the zmaj had left. That the creature they believed to be their great king was merely a guardian left behind to protect them. It had changed nearly everything they knew about their world. Now there was nothing to stop them from leaving their home and going out into the world, but there was nothing to protect them from the world itself.
Yvette couldn’t begin to imagine how they felt and, unsurprisingly, the zmaj hadn’t been very keen on sharing it with them. But she could already make a few guesses when she walked through the city.
The looks of hate were easy to explain. After all, they were the ones who had defeated this corrupt guardian and now held one of the scales of the zmaj’s great king as a trophy from the fight. It was their tampering that had upset the people here, that had changed the very world they had grown so used to. If not for them, the zmaj would have been able to live peacefully, locked away from the rest of the world and comfortable in the knowledge that their king was still there, watching over them.
That they hadn’t been abandoned. Yvette couldn’t imagine what would cause the dragon turtle to leave like it had. Hsgrogn had been not just the protector, but the creator of these people. It had chosen them and altered their forms to it’s desires. Then, to just abandon them? To leave them to the world? How could something be so cruel? The very idea made her almost want to cry.
She found herself drawn towards the center of the city. Despite the great storm that had raged, the signature of the village remained strong.
A great flame that seemed to shift across random colors wildly, as if it was alive. No winds could dull it, no water could snuff it out. It had been created by the great king itself, an eternal gift towards it’s chosen. Flames that would change any that walked through it into zmaj.
She had seen the way zmaj would often stare at it longingly. It was the only true symbol that remained for them of their great king. She’d heard that some believed it was a sign that the dragon turtle hadn’t abandoned them at all and that it would return when they needed it. Others seemed to believe that it was just an artifact from their one time ruler. Still, the power it held could not be denied. Even if she wasn’t a zmaj, she could still feel the magic that flowed through the flames.
She stopped when she realized those gathered around the flames weren’t just staring, they were readying themselves. At least a dozen of them were standing around a slightly smaller zmaj. An adolescent. She’d seen this ritual before, though she couldn’t help but watch it again.
“Yvette?” Gervas asked.
The larger zmaj were talking to the smaller in dragon tongue, their loud hisses echoing through the courtyard. Other zmaj had stopped their work, watching the group. Then, slowly, the smaller, blue scaled zmaj walked into the flames.
The flames didn’t burn them though. Instead they were enveloped, their scales shimmering within the magical energy. She could feel the magic within pulsing, sliding along and empowering the creature. Foot by foot the zmaj walked through until, finally, they came out the other side.
Their form had changed. While before they had been a light blue, now their scales were a mix of green and red. They were taller than before, with their muscles more defined. There was also a strange sense about them. One of power, strength, that hadn’t resided before. They had walked through the flames, taken on the blessing of Hsgrogn. They were finally an adult. The others who had come with them walked around the flame and wrapped their arms around the new zmaj, the ritual complete. Even if their great king wasn’t here in body, she couldn’t help but agree that the flames were proof that they hadn’t been truly abandoned.
“Yvette!” Gervas snapped directly into her ear.
Yvette yelped and turned around, turning so quickly she almost hit Gervas with her shoulder. “What? Sorry. I was distracted. What did you say?”
“You’ve been distracted a lot lately,” Gervas said firmly before reaching out and placing a hand on her forehead. “I asked if you were okay.”
“Yes. Right. Sorry. I’m just thinking,” she said sheepishly, her heart pounding even harder when he touched her. How could she not have her mind in a thousand places right now?
“Thinking is becoming dangerous for you. You’re liable to end up walking into the flames at this rate.”
Her cheeks burned even redder and she shook her head. “Never. You know the only thing I want to turn into is--”
“Ah, there you two are,” a voice called out, shattering her thoughts. She turned around and instantly cringed. Durandet. A tall, powerful zmaj, her scales were an assortment of many different colors. The Chosen of Hsgrogn and the closest thing the island now had to a ruler. Yvette couldn’t help but wonder how much power that title now held. How long until the people of the island decided that the flames could no longer decide for them who their ruler would be? The large woman walked towards them, a small group of tenogn scampering around her feet as they always seemed to be, ready to tend to any orders or needs of the chosen. “I hope the sudden storm hasn’t found you two ill?” she asked. Despite the friendly words, the tone she used told an entirely different story. The look she was giving them made it clear how happy she would have been to find the two of them had been struck by lightning in the storm and were now gone.
Fortunately, Yvette knew better than to comment on their host’s less than pleased body language. “Oh, of course,” she said quickly. “We slept quite soundly through most of it. Has there been any changes we need to know about?”
“I would hardly be coming to see you if there hadn’t been, boy,” Durandet said, her voice cold and almost vicious, any semblance of civility quickly vanishing.
Yvette cringed and had to stop herself from instinctively moving closer to Gervas. The elder zmaj seemed to hate her most of all after all that had happened. Not that she could truly blame her. Finding out that their king, the one who had made their very home, was now gone couldn’t have been easy. On top of that, Yvette had already drawn the woman’s ire due to an imagined slight on Osiron, due to a misunderstanding. Yvette really wished she could say this was the only person here who had expressed such hostility towards her or who refused to treat her as a woman, but sadly the number who were okay with her being herself were distressingly low. She could almost find some dark humor in the fact that THAT was the part of this island that felt so familiar to her.
She felt a small surge of warmth when Gervas moved directly to her side, staring up at the large, scaled woman. “I wasn’t the one who asked, Yvette did,” he said calmly.
Durandet paused for a moment, the annoyance giving way to confusion for a moment. Her eyes then narrowed. “I was speaking to him.”
“Also, I’m a man, not a boy. But if you want to speak with me, that’s fine. But you shouldn’t talk over Yvette like that. It’s quite rude, especially for someone who’s supposed to be a leader. If you’re going to act like a child, perhaps you should have someone else speak to us,” Gervas said without hesitation, his voice calm, but firm.
The woman’s eyes narrowed and Yvette could see the way her claws clenched. For a moment she though the woman might take a swing at him. “What are you even saying? I was speaking directly to your little mage and--”
“Then you should call HER by something a bit more accurate. If you’re too blind to know a girl when you see one, then I’m only going to get confused when you speak like that,” he said, keeping his voice calm and collected, though Yvette noticed his hand moved to rest on the hilt of his sword.
Durandet let out a low growl and there were some light hisses from a few of the tenogn at her feet. Gervas didn’t back down, staring up at the woman defiantly. Yvette couldn’t help but feel more warmth towards the man. Even she likely would have backed down to such an imposing figure, at least until they were no longer on this island. The fact he was still willing to stand up for her, despite the odds, made her heart pound even harder for him.
“I have no time for your games and you have already wasted enough of my time,” Durandet said, her claws unclenching. “I have come to inform you that we have come to a decision. Despite my objections, the guardians have overruled me in this. We have decided to send an envoy to the outside world beyond our mountains.”
“You’re going back to land?” Yvette asked, cringing when the woman’s fierce eyes fell back on her.
“Not quite so far,” the woman said curtly. “We will be contacting the merfolk. They have always been far more trustworthy than your kind. And they do not play such silly games,” she said with a growl. “Their respect for the Great King has led them to always have good relations with us. You have been invited to attend the meeting. However, I would advise you to not attend, boy. As they will have no more patience with your trickery than I.”
“I’m not being tricky,” Gervis said instantly. “But you really should choose one of us to talk to at a time, not switch between us like that. Especially if you’re going to just keep glaring at Yvette like that. It’s very confusing when you keep talking to me but stare at her.”
Yvette only barely contained the snort of laughter at the sight of confusion and annoyance that flared across the chosen’s face, before the zmaj turned around and stormed off. She watched the woman leave, before glancing back to Gervas. “That’s new.”
“What is?” he asked, glancing back to her, his face a mask of confused innocence. She didn’t believe it for a second.
“You know what is,” she said with a light laugh. “It’s a fun approach, I like it. But she really might try and claw you if you keep doing that.”
“I find it unlikely. After all, we’re guests,” Gervas said with a shrug. “Besides, it’s oh so very confusing when she does that. How am I supposed to know who she means when she talks like that? After all, there’s only one man in our group,” he said with that cocky, knowing smile of his she had grown to adore.
She did feel a little mild annoyance that it made her heart flutter so, but grateful that it was being used for her. “What do you think about this offer?”
“I don’t know. It’s probably the best one we’re going to get for a while, though,” Gervas muttered, shaking his head. “If the option is stay here or deal with the merfolk, I know which I’d choose. If nothing else, our coin will mean more to them. Getting passage back to land would be easy enough.” He started walking back down the road. “Come on. Let’s go get something to eat before everyone else comes.”
Yvette nodded, following closely behind him. She felt a small flutter of excitement. They could finally get away from here. Get on with the next part of their journey. Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to continue back on land, she knew it wasn’t quite that simple. After all, while they had managed to get the scale of a dragon turtle, the next reagent was yet another that would need to be found at sea.
Tears of a siren. Still, she knew they would handle that ordeal when they had a chance. For now, they had to take everything one step at a time.
Patreon
