Felix didn’t look back as he entered the town. He pulled his hood up and kept his head down. Fella tried to convince him to go back, but he refused. He was almost worried she would jump off his shoulder and go anyways.
Fella didn’t. She backed into the shadow of his hood and curled against his neck. Felix was glad he had her. He would almost never say it, but he needed her. Especially after yesterday.
Just thinking of the dragon made him want to find someplace to hide. It had only been made worse by his nightmare last night. He hadn't even told Fella what had happened in it.
Felix grabbed a coin or two from people he passed. Just enough for food. He stopped beside a vendor for the last of the meat-on-a-stick he was roasting, buying two. He passed fewer people on the streets now that it was getting dark. He felt the street narrow and the building press in on him from either side.
He couldn’t stand being here. He didn’t understand how people lived like this. He found it hard to see the sky, and he felt as if every person he passed was here to hurt Fella.
He quickly looked around and climbed up the nearest building. On the roof, he could feel the wind of the night. The stars were more visible, and he could almost hear the night creatures.
He closed his eyes to calm down for a moment. Fella made a purr-like sound, rumbling against his neck. He let himself soak up the feeling of Fella against him and stood finally. He looked around for a good place to rest for the night. The clock tower might work, but being inside such a narrow space… Felix decided against it.
After looking around, he concluded to sleep in a tree just outside of town. He dropped back into the streets and ran to the opposite side of town from where he had come. He found a decently sized tree with lots of thick limbs and climbed up till he figured he was high enough. His fur blended with the red leaves of the tree, so hopefully, nobody would see him.
Fella curled up under Felix’s chin. She found it warmer than his chest, and the night had a chilly wind to it. Felix pulled his cloak tight around his shoulders, though his fur was decently warm.
His fur was dry now, but it was puffed out, and Felix hated it. At least it blocked the wind. Felix relaxed against the branch and closed his eyes. He listened to Fella’s breath, letting sleep take him.
Felix awoke with a jolt, breathing hard and his eyes wide with terror. His tail was fluffed out twice its size, and his ears flat against his skull. Fella dug her claws into Felix’s cloak to keep from falling off of him.
She chirped her concern, looking into his terrified gaze. She made a series of chirps that Felix had heard from her before. Based on the context, she was asking what was wrong.
“I-It’s nothing. Just another stupid nightmare.” Felix said, quickly running his hand over his eyes and wiping it on his pants. Fella clearly didn’t believe him, and Felix clearly didn’t want to talk about it.
“Come on, let’s find somewhere to get a drink of water,” Felix said, climbing down. He noticed the morning was a little foggy. Might make it easier for him to hide Fella.
Fella chirped at him, jumping down onto another branch and spreading her winds to slow her descent. She still wobbled, and the landing was a bit rough. “All I got out of that was “I want” and “Fly,” Felix commented, getting up and swinging down to the next branch.
Fella jumped down to another branch, Felix following. He held out a hand to Fella on the final branch. She shook her head and chirped a single word. “Fly.” Felix understood what she wanted to do, and dropped down. He held out his hands and stood under Fella.
She jumped from the branch, wings spread. She wobbled a bit still but made a roar in satisfaction as she glided down. She angled her wings up as a breeze hit her, and she rose a small bit! Felix grinned as she landed clumsily in his hands.
“That was the best I’ve ever seen from you!” He exclaimed, his joy at her success evident. She chirped and hummed her happiness. Felix started towards town, trying again to learn more dragon speak. He still wasn’t very good, but he was getting better. He learned a few basic words and tried saying them himself. By the time they got to the town, he could actually kind of say them.
Felix pulled up his hood, Fella resting in the shadows. He kept his head down as they passed strangers, taking a few coins from each. He didn’t really need any of it at the moment, but it was an old habit.
He felt someone reaching into his cloak pocket and pulling out a few coins. He turned and grabbed the arm of the thief. It was a little Dragonborn girl. Felix saw fear enter her eyes as she realized he knew what she had done. Felix dodged into a nearby alley, taking the girl with him. He crouched down in front of her.
He was going to tell her to be careful who she stole from, and leave it at that but… She was young enough to be new on the streets, and her eyes… Felix saw the same fear reflected in her eyes that he had felt when he had first been caught.
“I’m not going to tell anyone. You're not exactly a good thief though. You could use some practice.” Felix told her with a slight smile. She looked down and nodded. “Why don’t you practice on me?” Felix suggested. She looked up at him in surprise.
“I’ll go about my business, and you can keep trying to steal from me. If I catch you, I’ll just poke you. If you can get some without me catching you, don’t say anything and walk away as if you’ve done nothing. You can keep the coins too.” Felix told her.
The little girl smiled and nodded, her eyes filling with gratitude and hope. Felix smiled back at her and winked, then stood and left the alley. He didn’t look to see if she was following. That would mess up the game.
He looked around for a well and found one after a little while. He waited for the area to clear out a little before going over to the well. The people looked at him with disgust. He was obviously a street kid.
He had to pull the bucket up by hand because it didn’t have a crank like the one in the capital had. His arm hurt a little from the effort, but he would get used to it.
Felix drank the water straight from the bucket and Fella took a few small gulps while his head was close enough to shield her. He dumped the water down the well and left, mentally noting its location. He felt a hand reaching into his cloak pocket, and he reached back and lightly poked it.
The little girl disappeared into the crowd again after Felix’s silent signal she had been caught. He looked around for something to eat and found a vendor selling eggs. He knew it was a bit of a stereotype for foxes to eat chicken eggs, but it tasted good! He bought two to hold him over and then an apple.
He climbed up onto one of the roofs and pulled a loose shingle off. He flipped it up so it kinda made a bowl and cracked the eggs into it. He held it by its sides so none of the eggs slid out.
“Mind cooking it for us?” He asked Fella. She jumped to the edge of the shingle and breathed flames onto it. She kept the stream going for a few seconds but had to pause every so often. When the eggs were cooked, Felix pulled pieces of them off and ate them, passing small bits to Fella.
After that was done, he wandered about the town for something to do. He felt the girl a couple of times, but she was getting better. After an hour of nothing, he checked his coin count. He was three short. Felix smiled.
He circled back to where he had passed a library and entered. He wasn’t a big reader, but he had nothing else to do. When you spend all day doing nothing, it’s really your only option unless you're rich or want to swim or had friends. None of those applied to Felix.
Olympia crossed his mind for a moment. Was she alright? He probably shouldn’t have snapped at her the way he had before, but the dragon incident on top of his nightmare had left him shaken.
Felix would have run his hands along the books as he passed, but he didn’t want to accidentally shred one with his claws. He read the names of the sections as he passed. He paused at a sign that read Dragons and Such. “Think we should check it out?” Felix asked quietly. Fella hummed, “yes.” One of the few words he knew.
There were a couple of sub-categories labeled on the shelves, but none of them really caught his eye. After several more steps, he paused. He ran his hand over the label then looked at the books on the shelf. Order of the Dragon Riders.
Felix pulled one of them out that was titled, Dragon Rider’s Code. The book was decently sized and old. Felix ran his hand along the gold title indented into the old leather cracked in the corners. The Dragon Rider’s symbol was engraved beneath the title.
Felix sat down and leaned against the shelf, opening the book to the first page. There was the table of contents which was lengthy, and then an introduction. Felix read it, planning to only go this far.
The Order of the Dragon riders was a group that had existed many years ago. They were people of every kind who had bonded with a dragon and joined the group to maintain the peace between the kingdoms. They took the side of whichever cause was the most just, and it was said they were the most pure hearted among any people, and their dragons just the same.
Their numbers had dwindled, and the last of them were killed off by poachers for their dragons and others for various reasons. The last had died 58 years ago. Their base still stood to the Northeast, a magical barrier kept raiders away to this day. Nobody knew how to get in.
“Fella, look at this,” Felix said, pointing to a part of the introduction. It was one of the last parts. He read it out loud. “Even those not sworn to the code, if they be bonded with a dragon, are honorary members of the Order. Once sworn into the code, they are officially a Dragon Rider.”
Felix and Fella were quiet as they let it sink in. “So… does that mean we’re technically members of the Order?” Felix asked out loud. Fella jumped down to the book to look at it again then nodded hesitantly.
Felix thought silently. They were the first members in 58 years. A thought came to his mind. An impossible, childish, outlandish thought. He shook his head after a moment. It was too crazy.
Fella climbed back onto Felix’s shoulder, and Felix stood to look at the other books. One of them caught his eye. The Journal of Master Kindreth Calarel the Valedictory. The name was long, elegant, and took a minute to figure out how to pronounce. This was an Elf’s journal. But… why was it in the Order of the Dragon Riders section? Felix opened the journal and read the first part.
My father gave me this journal. I am officially 15 as of today. I’m young in comparison to all of the others in my village. I plan to travel to other villages once I’m old enough, but for now, I’m trapped.
Mother tells me I’m lucky to live in the Enchanted Forest among my kind. The people outside the forest live in constant poverty and fear of death and starvation. Surely it can’t be that bad. My sister says she read that they cut down trees to build their homes instead of using magic to shape the trees. I can’t even fathom the idea.
Even if all of that is true, I want to see it for myself. I’m jealous of the birds. I wish I could fly like them. They aren’t trapped in their own village. I think I’m going to explore the forest a bit. See if I can find anything interesting.
The next entry was dated for the day after.
I don’t know where to begin. I found a dragon in the woods trying to fight off a manticore. I rushed over and erected a vine wall between the two. The manticore fled, but the dragon collapsed, her wings torn and bleeding from many cuts. Her scales had been ripped off.
I sat and tried to comfort her as she died. She told me she had a cave with three eggs within that must be protected. I promised her I would care for them, and she seemed satisfied as she died. I collected the scales that the manticore had torn from her and used my magic to burn her body as is dragon custom.
The scales were too many for me to hold, so I hid what I could not hold and set out for the dragon's cave. I found it exactly where she had told me it would be, and her eggs within it. They were no larger than chicken eggs, but they were covered in scales.
I used magic to create a fire beneath them to keep them warm and stashed the scales in the cave. After several trips, I had all of them in the cave and then I slept there with the eggs. I would stay true to my word and protect them.
I awoke this morning and now it is today. I’m not sure if I should bring the dragon eggs back to the village, or find a member of the Order to care for them.
He went on to describe all the things he could do with the mother's scales because he didn’t want to waste them. The next day, the eggs hatched. There was a nature dragon, a water dragon, and an earth dragon. He bonded with the three of them, and he sewed the mother's scales together with magic to create a cloak. The three sat on his shoulders as he returned home.
Felix closed the book and looked up at Fella. “So he probably became a Dragon Rider after,” Felix said. Fella chirped in agreement and said something Felix didn’t understand the majority of.
“We should probably start working on finding a place to stay.” He said with a sigh as he stood. He hesitated. He should put the book back. It was ancient, and people would probably notice if he took it. Then again… He could learn a lot about raising Fella.
Felix tucked the book under his arm, and left the library. He normally only stole clothes when he needed new ones and coins to pay for stuff. This was different. He quickly got out of town, sighing with relief as he was free from the suffocating pressure of the buildings surrounding him.
Felix walked around the perimeter of the town. He didn’t find any old ruined buildings or hidden caves, unfortunately. It was dark by the time he reached his tree. He climbed up into it, ideas of how he could turn it into a home dancing through his mind as he drifted off to sleep.
Felix groaned, woken up by… something. He wasn’t sure what exactly. He heard screams. Fella leapt to her feet and pawed at his face anxiously. Felix rubbed his eyes and sat up as Fella climbed onto his shoulder. Flames rose up from one of the farmhouses back towards where he had come. He could see dark shapes moving along the fields towards town. It took Felix a moment to realize what was happening.
The invaders were here.
Felix climbed higher into the tree to get a better view. They already had the capital. Why were they here? More houses were burning now, and he could see people running through the streets with their families trying to escape. Some groups had already passed his tree, unaware of his presence. He was in the farthest part of town from where they were, so it made sense.
He jumped down and considered what to do. He should run and get far away from them, but there were people here. Olympia was in the woods somewhere too. He sighed. He couldn’t go back, but maybe he could offer a slight help to the people.
Felix stashed the stolen journal under a rock nearby where it would hopefully be safe. He quickly moved back to the tree.
“Same as always, Fella. Light it up.” Felix told her. He held out his hand for her then brought her close to the tree. After several moments, her flames began to claim the tree. A pillar of purple, blue, and green flames stabbed into the sky. Hopefully, the townspeople would see it and know how to get out.
It would be the right thing to help them. To make sure everyone was safe. Felix wasn’t that type of person though. He couldn’t trap himself between the buildings for the sake of others. The most he could do was make sure this place was a safe escape.
He waited by the tree, calling out to townspeople when they nearly missed their escape. People began to realize that Fella’s flames meant escape, and flocked towards it. Felix fought the invaders that tried to block the escape
The tree couldn’t last forever, and its flames began to die. Felix placed Fella at the base of the tree to try and keep it alive as he helped the lessening number of people escape. He heard a crack and looked over as the tree began to lean.
Felix ran forward to grab Fella then ran away, shouting at others to stay clear of the tree. Wood splintered and the tree fell with a great crash, sparks flying into the air. It blocked the street people had been escaping from, the flames flickering only inches from the buildings.
Felix stared for a moment. The wood was mostly broken. He could probably push it way, but… He swallowed his fear at Fella’s chirping and rushed forward.
Felix hesitated a moment, but Fella jumped from his shoulder and began pushing the wood away, it didn’t do much. Felix tensed and pushed the burning black wood away from the corner of the house. He didn’t feel the pain of the blazing wood because of adrenaline.
A spark caught his arm as he kicked another piece away. He cried out and patted the flames till they went out. He winced and kept trying to move the smoldering wood. He gained several burns, but he managed to clear a path with the help of a few brave souls from the gathering crowd.
They rushed through the opening as Felix stumbled back, and fell to his knees. Fella looked down at his burnt hands then up at him with sad eyes. “I-It will heal.” He stuttered quietly. He looked up as invaders began to try and block the exit from within the city.
Felix grabbed his dagger, but immediately dropped it and winced. There was a bit of blood on the hilt. He took a deep breath and grabbed the blade, ignoring the pain from his blistered hands.
Fella climbed onto his shoulder, and Felix shakily stood. He moved towards the invaders, his pain forgotten as he began to fight. He fought as many as he could alongside the soldiers of the village and the townspeople, trying to push them back despite the overwhelming number.
Another group came to the street. Three people. Felix began to focus his attacks on where the thick of the villagers were fighting so they could cut a path for them. Fella shot a burst of flame at the soldiers. Several backed away, startled. Felix and the rest pressed forward through the small gap. They were close to creating a path for the group.
Fella let put another burst of flame, and there was a gap between the invaders. Felix and whoever else could rushed forward to widen the gap enough for the group.
They rushed through to the people waiting outside the city. Felix backed away from the fight, letting the soldiers and townspeople work on overtaking the invaders. He moved into the shadows a distance away from the crowd.
He sank down to his knees and dropped his dagger, his hands shaking as blood ran down his palm. It only made the burns hurt worse. “Felix, are you alright?” He heard someone say. He looked up from his hands to see the shadowed form of Olympia. He slipped his scorched hands out of her sight.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied. He couldn’t manage a smile. Olympia sighed and kneeled in front of him. She grabbed his hands and pulled them into view. “Please don’t lie to me.” She whispered as Felix winced.
His hands were cracked and charred with blood running down his palms. Some of his fur had been burnt black, but these burns were definitely worse than scorched fur.
“I’m sorry, this is all my fault,” Olympia said. “How is it your fault?” Felix asked softly as he pulled his hands away. She might not have noticed the blood in the dark, but she probably had some on her hands now. He silently hoped she didn’t, and she wouldn’t find out.
“If you hadn't met me, none of this would be happening.” She stated. She hadn't noticed the blood. “If I hadn’t met you, I would probably be a corpse back in the capital.” He replied. She wouldn’t know as long as she didn’t look at his hands again or touch his dagger. He knew he had gotten blood on the grip.
“So where to next, friend?” She asked. Felix hesitated. He hadn't had a friend since… well, a long time. Not aside from Fella anyways. He was kind of glad to have one again. “We need to rest for now.” He said. “I also need to find a river to wash my burns.” He said, forgetting to hide them because she didn’t know they were bleeding.
“There’s a river in the forest.” She suggested. Felix grabbed his dagger and stood so they could go to it, but he cried out and dropped it, pulling his hands back as more blood dripped down his palms and matted his fur. The grip of the blade was slick with it as well.
“Felix, how about I carry it for now.” She said. Felix hesitated. He didn’t want her to know about the blood…
Olympia grabbed it anyways. She sure was gonna know now. The grip was covered in his blood. She looked down at the blood, then back at him. “Are you bleeding?” She asked. Felix didn’t meet her gaze and didn’t say anything. She gently took his hand and ran her fingers along his palm. Even though she was gentle, he still winced and pulled away a little. His blood stuck a little to her fingers.
She grabbed her cloak and patted his palm. He pulled his hand away. It hurt too much. “I’m sorry.” She said. “It isn’t your fault,” Felix replied. He considered telling her that both his hands were like this, but he didn’t want her to know.
Fella sighed and crawled down his cloak. She nudged his other hand, not minding that she got some of his blood on her. “Ow, Fella!” He exclaimed, pulling his hand away. She crawled back onto his shoulder, shaking a few droplets of blood off her head, then looking at Olympia.
“Felix, let me see both of your hands please.” She said. Felix lifted his hands a bit but hesitated. He didn’t want her to know. “You know it’s not nice to lie to someone.” She said. She sounded like… Felix sighed and held out his hands for her to see. Fella let out a burst of flame to illuminate them in the darkness.
Olympia could now see the cracks in his palms and the blisters that covered his burnt hands. Blood oozed from the cracks and blisters. It probably wouldn’t fully heal.
Olympia held both his hand, and Felix winced. He pulled away. She grabbed his hands again and began whispering something Felix didn’t understand. “Olympia, please.” He said quietly, trying to hide the pain in his voice. He pulled on her grip a little. She let go. “Sorry.” She said.
Felix hid his burnt hands under his cloak, wincing a little. Even though she wasn’t touching them, they still hurt. When the slightest thing rubbed against them, pain exploded in his hands.
“Do you want to head to the river?” She asked. “Yeah. Lead the way.” He said. He followed her into the woods497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsyIjXsnSHH
