In Part 3 (Ch. 18-25), our narrator became more comfortable with what she is, now that she knows it. She’s still not ready to fight to survive, but she’s ready to learn how, even if that means telling other people.
Hikari left to go talk with her mayor, and Jess made use of the Durable Clothes wand she bought to ride on my back while I fly today. “This is definitely different from when I fly,” she shouts over the wind.
«I like that I can see things,» I reply. The sun rose a short while ago; Blacksburg is plainly visible, though still shrouded in fog. I think there might be some innate light magic acting on my eyes, because I’m not blinded by the sun, and it doesn’t even leave dark spots when I look away. The Mymoir says that all the elements are part of the Dragon form. I bet there’s some sound magic helping me to hear Jess, too.
“Except the ground.”
«The tops of trees are visible!»
“Only when I don’t care about the sun’s reflection off the fog blinding me!”
The fog is bright, but it’s not that bright. There’s definitely some magic dimming it, then. «You don’t fly on foggy days?»
“Not often, no!”
«Maybe bring some sunglasses next time?»
A little before I finished flying, I noticed Hikari had returned to the field. Or, well, someone awfully similar to her by heat, anyway. Landing confirmed my guess. “Oh, good! You are still here!”
«Well, my bike is, too.»
Hikari nods. “You really do sound the same.”
I lower my back for Jess to dismount. «That’s why Dragons don’t talk much.»
“Because they do not want others to know they can transform?”
That specific reason isn’t in the Mymoir. «Maybe. They don’t want to be recognized, for sure.» With Jess now firmly on the ground, I return to being small.
Jess is… looking at me with an odd look. “Is that my feather?” she asks slowly. She must not have noticed earlier.
I look at the feather in my hands. “Uh… yes?”
“Why are you carrying it around with you?”
Yet again today, my face feels warm. “I, uh… it’s… part of me.” Jess waits patiently for the explanation. “Dragons, uh, have a thing—an object—that becomes part of them when they awaken. A personal treasure.” I resist the urge to use magic to make the air near my face colder.
“And you care about my feather that much?”
“N-no!” I take a breath. “It-s, um…”
“You care about your friends,” Hikari asserts.
I nod silently, and hide my face.
“That is nothing to be ashamed of,” Hikari continues. “Being friends like you two are—that is a treasure on which to hold tight. And it is great to see that you value it so much.”
Silence. And then—
“Can I have a scale?” Jess asks.
For a second I remember Jess’s bleeding arm from when I got the feather, but then I recall that even if I pull the wrong scale, I can just shift and the wound will heal. “Uh, sure. Next week, though. Changing size takes a lot of magic.”
Jess nods. “Transforming takes a lot from me, too.”
“Speaking of which,” Hikari interrupts, “you two are conditionally allowed to visit my village, Rich Creek, now. The conditions are that I must be with you at all times while you are there, and, of course, you cannot tell anyone about the town.”
I think I can manage that. Maybe. I guess this is more of a normal secret than being a Dragon. It’s not something I’ll have to deal with every moment of every day. I nod in agreement.
“You mentioned lots of monsters, right?” Jess asks. “Should I be transformed?”
“That was suggested. However, it was expressly requested that Emilie be in human form. Even though the town knows you mean us no harm, Dragons are far more unsettling than humans.” I nod again; that makes sense.
“Bird or bear?” Jess replies.
I don’t wait for Hikari to answer. “Bear! I haven’t seen it yet!”
Jess nods as Hikari laughs, and a few moments later I’m staring at a massive adult black bear. Or, well, massive compared to human-Jess. Her head’s around the middle of my chest, and while she would absolutely be able to trample me if she wanted, the illusion that Murphy made tells me she’s still kind of small compared to big-me. And it might be pushing it to ask her for a ride.
Not that that stops me. “I know you’re not as big as—”
“You want a ride?” I can’t help but giggle in response to Jess’s perception.
“Yes.”
“Alex said it was a bumpy one, so just let me know if you want off.” And now I know what a bear’s smile looks like.
Now, how to ride? Getting on is easy enough. Approaching Jess from the side, I hop up on a small rock to mount her like a bicycle (or horse). But that doesn’t feel very stable, so I lean forward and tuck my legs back so it’s more like laying on a large log. Her fur’s a little stiff with the cold, but maybe that’ll change after I lie here for a bit.
“Comfortable?” I both hear and feel Jess ask, her body rumbling under me as she makes the sound.
“Enough. I’ll ask you about your senses later.”
“Walking like this is weird. Not as weird as flying, but still weird.”
On the topic of things being weird, the forest around the town isn’t really a forest. It seems the illusions of trees aren’t just for overhead, because by heat this should be open space, but my eyes are telling me this is the most dense area of the forest by far. I mean, there are still some real trees here and there, but a lot of those are saplings, not the tall oaks my eyes are seeing.
Instead of the town wall I can heat-sense, there’s an illusion of a wall of trees planted way too close together, and the few gaps that exist are pitch black. I guess trees might be able to grow like that, but not anywhere I’ve seen. They also don’t perfectly line up with the wall.
“How do we get inside?” Jess asks Hikari, stopping well short of the apparent wall of trees.
Hikari continues forward, making a fist before putting her hand through the illusion and banging on the wall.
“Hikari, who are these people?” I hear a man’s voice shout from the other side. I can’t pick out enough detail—heat or sound—to tell who shouted it, or even what kind of monsters are standing on top of the wall. But I can tell there are four nearby, separated into pairs by a large gap that’s probably around a gate.
“We voted on this!”
“For a Dragon, not a human!”
“Is Ben up there?”
“Wrong shift!”
Hikari looks back to us. “He could have seen your eyes, but I guess that was too much to hope for.”
My eyebrows rise as I understand. In that case: “There are four of you up there, two on each side of a large gap!” I shout at the wall of illusory trees, angling my head up as though I could see one of the creatures on the far side.
The four move closer together, one pair even crossing the gap. The wall isn’t any thinner up there, so that’s a pretty thick gate. Do they use magic to move it?
After maybe a minute, the same voice calls down, “How did you know that?”
“The same way the Dragon found the place!”
The ones atop the wall are silent again, but then another, fainter man’s voice comes from the other side of the wall, and I notice that someone has come up near the probably-gate from ground level. The voice also seems gentler, in a way. “Is Hikari outside with two unknowns?”
“Yes,” replies the first voice.
“Let them in.”
The four monsters move back to their original positions, and the gate silently lifts as Hikari removes her hand. The illusion is unchanged, but the gate doesn’t have the same heat as the air. And—hmm. I further cool the air around the gate, just a little bit, and the boundaries of it become clearer. That’s useful. I probably shouldn’t try it near people, though.
Jess hasn’t moved, but honestly, I probably should get off at this point anyway. Her fur has warmed considerably, so it’s a lot more comfortable now, but if we’re going to be in town, I think my shoes are good enough. And since I can tell that the gate is above my head now, I dismount and walk through, Hikari following me closely. The other side of the illusion shows… pretty much exactly where I landed last week, but with a lot more monsters in the clearing. Like, dozens. I think that’s more than exist in all of Blacksburg.
Right in front of me is an upright fox in… something like a modified suit? His arms and shoulders are bare, with a strap holding up the “shirt” over each fluffy shoulder. It is winter, after all, I guess. That’s probably more comfortable than trying to wear a normal suit. The way he’s looking at me is rather similar to how Hikari watched when I shifted in front of her today: fascinated, but holding himself from opening his mouth.
And then Jess is right behind me and there’s a sound of an exasperated sigh from another girl who’s also behind me. “I thought they’d never open the gate, though I’m surprised they let a human in, even if Hiki was leading.” I whirl about to see a red-scaled lizarkin that’s about the same height as myself. Or, well, kind of red? It’s not the vivid color that red dragons are, but it’s not pink or anything, either. It’s just a sort of dull, faded red. Unlike Davidson, she’s wearing clothes: a thick coat with a sort of brown skirt coming out of the bottom. The coat looks like it was made specifically not to get caught on anything inside or outside of it, and she’s carrying a covered woven basket.
“You’re back awfully late, Natalie,” the upright fox states without moving his gaze.
She nods her head to the side. “Stupid fog. What makes this girl so special she gets inside?”
The fox man smiles. “She’s the one you all voted on this week.”
Natalie stops. Then she blinks. Then she turns her head to look me over, and blinks again.
I look at Hikari as she comments, “It might be less odd to people here to simply say what you are, though we still would not want to frighten people with your enormous form.”
I look away and take a few deep breaths. There’s no example for me to follow here. Old Dragons didn’t worry about this, and mean Dragons don’t tell anyone. I’m on my own. But—even if I can’t trust people here, it’s not like they can make things any worse than they already are, and I’d like to be able to be friendly with people again.
“… I’m the Dragon,” I manage to say.
Natalie walks around to my front, her left eye looking directly at me. “You? But I thought Dragons were monsters. Like, really scary beast ones, but still monsters. Not humans.”
“She is a Dragon,” Hikari asserts. “I watched her transform today.”
Natalie moves her gaze to Hikari. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?” Hikari maintains her serious face. “Hmph. Well, if that’s true, that’s a relief. Although, it’s also kind of scary, knowing that Dragons are people. How many Dragons are there?”
I probably shouldn’t tell her the full number. “There are three others in the US.” And another seventy-one worldwide. But some are friendly! Or at least Akiko is.
“Oh. Well… that’s a little better. But, uh, you can’t be older than me, can you?”
“I’m eleven.”
“And you terrified our whole village.”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“That’s even worse!”
Hikari forcefully steps between us. “Natalie! How would you feel if you went to visit Roanoke and found out after you arrived that people had been terrified by a gang of lizarkin for years? And everyone judged you for it?”
Natalie takes a step back. “Uh…”
“Think! When was the Dragon first spotted?”
Natalie turns her head, and I can see her close eye look upwards. “While I was gathering berries.”
“And why do you do it when you do it?”
I can see her inhale deeply. “Be…cause nothing is awake.” Hm. Except that one wolf. Maybe its hunting went poorly.
“So if you knew ahead of time about the hypothetical gang and had to visit a friend, when would you go?”
“Just before dawn.”
“Therefore…?”
Natalie is looking down and away like I probably would if Mom was glaring at me like Hikari is with her. I wonder what their relationship is? A few seconds pass before Natalie lifts her head, walking towards me. “Sorry,” she apologizes, kneeling to place her head near my chest.
Which is not a motion I recognize.
Hikari turns to me and smiles, gently moving my right hand to place it on top of Natalie’s head. “Claws make handshakes hard.”
I just discovered you today. I really like your setup. You have a good narrative voice, too. Do you do a lot of editing of the audio? (When I read aloud, there're always flubs.)