The blue light faded from the interior of the tent as the ritual completed its work. At the center of the square sat a young man, brown of hair and light of skin, though tanned and strengthened by his years of labor in the farming community he inhabited. However, he was not the purpose of the ritual.
Outside of the square sat a marginally older woman of similar complexion, hands raised as she had been chanting the words of the ritual towards the square that held not only the young man but also the necessary materials, carefully polished and maintained by their owner, which had been used for dozens of such rituals. A sheet of leather, a fine plank of lumber, a stone carving and a pile of coins didn’t make for the most elaborate of offerings to the spirits, which thankfully staved off thieves on the road. But they were entirely necessary, as far as anyone could tell. And as necessary as the woman was as well, she was not the purpose of the ritual, either.
Across from the woman, also just outside of the square, sat the actual purpose of the ritual. Its body was foreign to the natural order of things, being small and scaly, yet possessing leathery wings that seemed imbued with the power of flight. The body was something like a tall lizard, with longer legs than most, the body held more upright, perhaps to allow for the wings to do their work. Behind the body was a tail, a full half of the total length of the creature, and of the same red-orange color as everything else, save for its piercing blue eyes. Lifting its long neck, the creature’s reptilian head moved about, observing its surroundings, from the tent to the square and finally, to its Source.
“And... we’re done!” the young woman known as Miranda of the Glade exclaimed as she looked around her target to see the tiny Trait behind him.
The man, Joshua, opened his eyes and looked before him, not seeing the tiny thing that was still behind. “Where is it?” He was still a little out of things; the Ritual claimed not the materials used, but rather a piece of the Source. And his mind would need time to repair after losing that piece, even with all of the Hero Tribe’s cautions in their version of the Ritual.
“Behind you!” the Trait exclaimed, pouncing Joshua happily like a puppy greeting its owner.
“Woah, hey!” Miranda replied to the action, moving to steady Joshua even before the man could react. “We still have others to get through! Don’t mess up the ritual space!”
“Yeah, I-” Joshua said to her, then took stock of the tiny Trait now clinging to his back. He couldn’t see the whole thing, but he could see a piece of the bat-like wings adorning its back. “You can fly, huh? Nice!” Despite the distraction, he did manage to safely exit the square without scuffing it too much. Miranda could fix whatever damage he did; she’s the one who set it up in the first place.
Miranda sighed, then moved to join Joshua near the tent’s entrance. “You’ll have to let everyone know to give me a few minutes. Anyway, do you know what your Trait is? He doesn’t seem to match any animal I know about.”
To help out, said Trait moved over Joshua’s shoulder and into his waiting hands. He wasn’t very big; perhaps half the size of a house cat. Perfect for holding, but that flight wasn’t going to carry anyone except himself. Joshua looked down to examine the creature more fully. “Traits can be legendary creatures?” he asked.
“Sure,” Miranda answered. “It’s not common by any stretch, but it can happen. But what is he?”
“I’m Courage!” the creature responded helpfully, at least in his mind. The name just came to him, alongside something else that he had a mind to try out soon.
“Courage, huh? That’s definitely useful.” To Joshua, she continued, “We’ll be happy to have you, if you still want to come.”
“I made up my mind a while ago,” Joshua replied with a smile. “More to answer your question, though, haven’t you heard our legends of dragons? I know we’re not right by the camp, but...”
“Oh, dragons!” Miranda’s eyes brightened as the understanding dawned on her. “Sorry, the descriptions usually make them sound even bigger than an ox. So do you breathe fire, then?”
Courage shook his head. “No, that’s not it. I’ll show you, if you leave the tent?”
“Later, then. Out you go, Joshua and Courage. You still get some time to spend with your family before we leave.”
“Later, my lady!” Joshua said with a polite nod of his head before pulling aside the tent flap to leave. Miranda certainly didn’t act the princess she was born as, though she was quite serious when it came to her duties. Her duties right now being the Ritual that created Traits, for use in the defense and rescue of the Four Tribes from whatever might accost them. Joshua had planned to enlist in the Hero Corps for years; while you didn’t have to enlist in order to earn the right to undergo the Ritual, it certainly helped matters. Being a middle child from a family of ten, he wasn’t likely to inherit much of the farm, nor was he the most capable in that matter. But challenging the hardest hikes and climbs that the nearby terrain had to offer, now that was something he could do. And if he could do that much, he could ride to the rescue of others, he reasoned. It was certainly more useful than just challenging himself.
“A dragon, huh?” the first guard outside of the tent said. This guard was another Trait, similarly scaled, though much, much larger. In fact, this was the previously-mentioned ox, a full twelve feet tall and thousands of pounds. Though gentle of nature, Persistence was still quite intimidating, even to people who knew him.
“Yes!” Courage responded. “Oo, hey, you’ll do!” He leapt out of Joshua’s arms onto the ground before the green ox. “Tackle me!”
The ox, instead, took a step back. “Eager you may be, but I’m not in the habit of injuring people just because they ask for it. Dennis!”
The second tent guard, Persistence’s Source, moved closer. He was stockier than Joshua thanks to his time training as Miranda’s personal guard, though it looked like he might have been one of Joshua’s friends if he’d been a little younger and lived here instead of whichever other village he came from. “The dragon wants you to tackle him? How about I do it instead?”
“That’ll work! Come at me!”
Dennis cocked his head and grinned. “Alright, you asked for it!” Confident in his strength especially against the little lizard, Dennis charged forward, then stumbled, his feet completely missing their purchase at the final point before trampling their target. “Wait, what?” He crawled back over to the dragon and brought a fist down above it in a hammer strike, only for the fist to strike something invisible mere inches shy of its target. A second fist came down and stopped at the same distance. Courage wore a sly expression as he looked up at the flattened surfaces of the bottoms of Dennis’s hands.
“Gonna keep going, or is that enough for you?”
Dennis’s face remained contorted in frustration for a few seconds longer before he sighed and sat back on his ankles. “So that’s what you do? Immovable shields?”
“No, it’s anchored to me. And I can put one around Joshua, too.”
The nearly-forgotten ox tossed his head. “I guess that makes you pretty similar to the two of us. Invincibility is far from unique, but your particular method of it might be more useful than we can see immediately. Before we get any further distracted, is Miranda ready for another entry?”
Joshua blinked. “Oh! Yes, it’s probably been long enough. Sorry about that.”
Dennis snorted. “You’re hardly the first recruit to get sidetracked. Go on; chat with your friends and family.”
At long last, I’m getting started on the full story of Courage! Unlike with What’s a Dragon?, however, I haven’t actually written the full thing ahead of time. Rather, this will be a bit of an experiment with putting out the first draft on Substack. (Many of my short stories are also first drafts, but I plan for this to be more like a novel in length.)
The fact that it’s not written yet is also why it’s every other week with updating What’s a Dragon?. I have a good idea for how the setting works (partly thanks to all of the short stories I’ve written with it so far) and the main arc of the story, but little things along the way will be as-it-comes. That’s more or less how I write everything, however, so it shouldn’t be a major issue. The main item is just trying to have something written every two weeks.
Another experiment for this story is that I’m trying to be more descriptive, which is becoming a pattern for what I say in the comments. Someone suggested trying for a bit more of a prose style when I don’t have dialogue or action going on, so that was the opening here. The overall perspective will be similar to that of my short stories: third-person limited, following a particular character. It’s my default writing style (similar to that of most stories I read, honestly) and while I like the first-person perspective that is required of What’s a Dragon?, it’s still not how I tell stories to myself.