Chapter 1437 (Patreon)

Trouble with Lia’s new companion started almost immediately. While the critter didn’t attack Luna or me outright, its sharp, somewhat aggressive hisses and snarls made it quite clear that it was with Lia, and nobody else. That, in turn, meant Lia had a small issue. Namely, that she didn’t have the confidence to walk the shadows with the critter attached, especially as neither of us knew what to expect when subjecting the mostly feral creature to that odd realm. While we could traverse them without issue, I wasn’t willing to bet that the critter could, too. Or that its mental state and fragile attachment to Lia would survive the process, as that place was completely outside of the creature’s frame of reference. My mind conjured up images that would have fit a Lovecraft novel, about people who saw things they weren’t supposed to and had their minds snap. Only that it wasn’t a person whose mind snapped, but a comparably small dragon, with sharp teeth and even sharper claws. 

“So, how are you going to handle this?” I asked after Lia had mumbled around for a minute or three. “Do you want me to try stunning your new friend so we can carry it through the shadows while unconscious, or do you want to try taking them as they are, and damn the consequences?” 

A part of me, carefully concealed from my daughter, was quite curious what would happen if the creature traversed the shadows. Maybe this was something I should experiment with at some point. I knew that humans could traverse them easily, or even remain trapped inside without severe side effects, but what about these creatures? Creatures who had yet to develop reason, or any mental frame of reference that wasn’t purely instinctual? Would the instinct give the creature something? Would it somehow be influenced by the shadows, or would something entirely different happen? My mind was busily conjuring up images of shadow beasts, similar to some of the monsters we had encountered in the past, but another part was shying away from the idea, as I could easily remember the creepy, paranoid sensation with the shadows of Mundus. What if any creature, or maybe any beast, trapped within the shadows, or that died within the shadows, turned into some sort of monster, eagerly spying and observing those who walked their realm, hoping that another fell and joined their number? The image felt far too plausible to ignore, and I quickly decided that any experimentation in that regard could wait. Maybe for a century or five. 

While I had been lost in thought, Lia had told me that she didn’t want to magically stun her new companion, as it might harm the growing bond between them. A stance I fully agreed with; any offensive magic cast on the creature right now, or even any magic at all, would likely shatter the fragile trust between them. Maybe it would accept help if it were injured, but even that was questionable. 

“That doesn’t answer how you are getting it home,” I pushed her on that, my earlier idea to carry the creature through the shadows already discarded, due to those rather disconcerting ideas that flickered through my mind.

“I’ll walk,” she decided, her shoulders set with determination. “I just need to top off my power, if you would be so kind. I’ll hunt for little Bruce, or he can hunt for himself.” 

“Bruce?” I asked, realising that the expression on her face, her entire stance, radiated conviction, to the point that it would be easier to carry Jademoon Tower here than it would be to change her decision. So, the only real question was, why would she call the small dragon Bruce? 

“Well, he’s almost something like a bat, right?” she asked, making me blink in disbelief. The creature had some similarities with a bat, yet. Mostly in that it was a winged, non-feathered living being, though that was pretty much where the similarities ended, at least as far as I could tell. Claws, sure; both bats and the small dragon had claws, but the size and usage of those were massively different. It would be akin to claiming that a human was something like a whale, because both had similar bones in their hand.

“Right, Bruce.” I shook my head, unwilling to engage with that particular bit of insanity. If she wanted to call her new friend Bruce, then Bruce he would be. Maybe I would make him a small kilt at some point, just to mess with Lia a little. 

“How do you know that he’s, well, that he’s male?” I asked, trying to find a better topic as I cut into my hand, letting blood pool for Lia to drink. Annoyingly, Bruce looked rather interested when he saw the blood. If not for Lia placing her lips against my hand and drinking, I was fairly certain that Bruce would have jumped on me, either because he thought the wound meant I was weakened, or because he wanted to drink my blood. If it was the second, Lia might just have picked the perfect companion.

“He just looks like it,” Lia told me after she finished her drink. I couldn’t help but close my eyes for a moment, letting out a long, controlled breath, wondering what Lia had for breakfast to be this… random? Or maybe insane would be a better word. Did she stumble across a clown of some kind and drain them dry? Was that why she was acting like this?

Instead of trying to understand Lia’s odd state of mind, I exchanged another look with Luna.

“Do you think you can check if the dragon is male? I mean, if it’s a female, and we call it Bruce anyway, only for the dragon to gain reason at some point, it would be…” I shrugged, though most of my request had nothing to do with Bruce’s sex. Instead, I was hoping that the check-up would reveal if something odd was going on with the creature; maybe I could even push Luna to check if Lia was alright, as she was acting rather weird right now. Not completely out of character; she could be a little impulsive at times, but weird nonetheless. 

“If Bruce stopped snarling at me, I’d probably be able to check, yes. Unless these dragons are one of those fun species that change their sexual characteristics as they age, that would make assigning a fixed sex a little complicated,” Luna replied, her voice completely deadpan, and the look on her face made me realise that she was incredibly amused by the entire situation. Not that I couldn’t empathise; if this were to happen to somebody else, I would laugh at it, right alongside her. But this was happening to me, and it was happening to my daughter, so my acceptance and amusement were a little strained. 

Luna tried to step forward when I let another pool of Blood gather in my hand, hoping to use Bruce’s fixation on my blood to our advantage. However, before Luna could get close, Bruce started snarling again, some small spikes on his back rising in an obvious defensive posture.

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” Lia assured us before digging in and drinking a second portion of blood, just to make sure she wouldn’t run out of power. 

“I’ve got an idea.” I realised that I could make sure Lia would be safe during her trek. Well, I could make sure I’d be able to keep an eye on her, fairly literally, even, and that would let me keep her safe. 

“You keep this on you; it should last for two days. If you take longer, supply it with a bit of Darkness Magic,” I told Lia, creating a simple scrying construct in the form of a medallion, complete with a band to go around her neck. Given that the construct didn’t need to move, it didn’t need a complex body; there were no moving parts or anything. Just a pair of eyes, set in a medallion shaped like a raven’s head, to be worn around her neck. Simple, fairly sturdy, and I’d be able to keep an eye on things and come to the rescue if necessary. 

“Okay,” Lia accepted after a moment of consideration, likely realising that I would insist that she take it.

With it hanging around her neck, and after a quick check to make sure it worked as intended, she wanted to set off. 

“Let us walk with you for a bit. Like last year, just walking, maybe talk for a bit, too,” Luna suggested, and I nodded in acceptance. Compared to the previous year, we hadn’t talked all that much; that was true. Since I built the Nexus Tower, we were doing our own things more often than not, instead of all walking along the same path. 

And so, for old times' sake, we set off, walking away from the rock filled with small dragons, and towards Jademoon Tower. At least until Luna and I got bored and sick of walking.