Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 41 - Innocence (Patreon)

The child looked at him like he was some sort of curious and somewhat dangerous bug.  Which meant that Elijah stood there, his hand outstretched, while Callux cringed away. 

It made him feel like an idiot.

But if he’d thought about it for even a moment, Elijah might’ve seen the reaction in a more positive light.  After all, a normal orc child would have taken one look at that hand and immediately bitten it.  That Callux had not was a testament to his unique nature.

Or maybe orc children possessed more of a self-preservation instinct than he’d given them credit for.  There was only one way to know, and he didn’t really feel like hunting down one of those roving packs of feral children.  Not only would it be annoying, but there was every chance that he’d end up having to hurt a bunch of kids after they jumped him. 

Elijah was a lot of things, but he drew the line at beating children.

“Practically a saint,” he muttered to himself as he waited for Callux to get over his fear.  Ok’tarik was far less patient, and he grabbed the child by the scruff of his neck and tossed him at Elijah.

He screamed, and this time, it wasn’t a joyous sound.  It broke Elijah’s heart to hear such a blood-curdling reaction directed at him.  But in retrospect, he understood it.  Callux could probably feel some measure of Elijah’s power, and he knew just where he stood in relation to said strength.

Elijah might’ve screamed in that situation as well.

Either way, he caught the flailing child, then took a page out of Ok’tarik’s book.  Like grabbing an unruly puppy, he dug his fingers into the soft flesh at the nape of Callux’s neck.  The little orc tried to escape, but his efforts were useless. 

“Listen,” he said.  “I’m a friend.  You feel that, don’t you?”

“He does not understand.”

Elijah narrowed his eyes at Ok’tarik and deadpanned. “Thank you.  Such a helpful contribution.”

The warchief crossed his arms and nodded, acting as if he didn’t understand sarcasm.  He did.  Elijah knew he did.  But the act continued nonetheless.

Finally, Elijah did something he should have done from the very beginning.  In the time-honored tradition of grandparents everywhere, he reached into his Arcane Loop and retrieved a pastry.  It was one of the last from the batch he’d had commissioned the last time he was on Earth, and it was a perfect example of its kind.  Buttery and flaky crust.  Grove fruit and cream cheese filling. 

An ideal of all pastries.

And he handed it to Callux, who hesitated for only a second before the aroma hit his nose.  That was all it took for him to snatch it out of Elijah’s hand and begin to devour it. 

There was barely a second between that beginning and the end, where only a few crumbs remained to drift down to the deck of the ship. 

“Such a waste.”

“You spoil him.”

“Says the guy who spent the last couple of hours tossing him into the air,” Elijah pointed out.

“Training.”

“For what?”

“How do you think orcs develop a love of the sky?” he asked.

Elijah made to respond, but he didn’t have a valid counterpoint.  The orcs of Orveth Kaal were fearless when it came to heights, and many had developed quite an affinity to air-attuned ethera.  Most of those ended up using gliders during combat.  But even the normal orcs possessed little fear of falling.

That was not a characteristic of orcs as a species, though.  Instead, it was a learned trait necessitated by the reality of their environment.  Orcs wouldn’t have lasted long in Orveth Kaal if they were afraid of heights.

So, it stood to reason that they were trained to resist an aversion to falling.

Thus, Ok’tarik’s statement made perfect sense, even if Elijah knew it wasn’t the whole story. 

“Whatever. I needed to get him to trust me,” Elijah said.  “That was the easiest way.”

He couldn’t escape the fact that he’d treated Callux like an unfamiliar dog, though.  Instead of confronting that discomfort, Elijah chose to think of it like an old man giving his grandchild a piece of candy.  It really wasn’t that far off.  Elijah was pretty old, even if he didn’t feel like it.  And a pastry wasn’t that far off from a Werther’s Original.  Better, in fact. 

Plus, Callux was sort of like family, at least in a metaphysical sense. 

Either way, he didn’t want to wrestle with the moral implications that came with gaining childrens’ trust via sweets.  The pastry did its job, though.  Callux clearly didn’t trust him, but he just as obviously wanted more pastries. 

“Where will you take him?” Ok’tarik asked at last.

“My grove, assuming he can go through the portal,” Elijah answered.  “There, he can get all the support he needs.”

“You will abandon him?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then you will abandon Orveth Kaal?”

“No…”

In truth, Elijah hadn’t thought about the implications that came with his determination to be there for Callux.  For one, he had no idea how to raise a child, human or orc.  For another, he had responsibilities in the ancestral world.  Fungee’s offshoot colonies still needed to be developed, one every five or six months.  And his people wouldn’t survive a war with the dragons without him.

“New plan,” Elijah said.  “He comes to the Vengeance.  I’ll bring some people from Earth to help him develop over the next couple of years.  In the meantime, I’ll take him with me whenever I can.”

The more he thought about it, the better of a plan that seemed.  After all, he could show Callux all the wonders he would’ve missed if he’d stayed in Agmar with all the feral children.  And he could introduce him to Fungee.

None of that would’ve been possible with a human child. But an orc-dragon-nature hybrid?  He shouldn’t have any issue with the dense atmosphere.  And besides, Elijah felt confident that he could control Fungee well enough to enable Callux to bond with him. 

Elijah explained that to Ok’tarik, though the warchief didn’t seem all that convinced that it was the right tactic to take.  Part of that clearly came from the fact that he didn’t want to part from his son, but it was also because he was just as clueless as Elijah when it came to raising a child. 

That frustrated him, because Callux was obviously very different from normal orcs.  It might’ve scared him, too.  That was more difficult to read.

Finally, Elijah made a compromise.  “I’ll bring him back here from time to time,” he offered, even if he didn’t think orcish influence would be good for the child.  The children who grew up in such an environment didn’t turn out all that well, after all.  But Callux had a right to know his father.

And Elijah had to admit that Ok’tarik’s influence could be a net benefit.  The warchief wasn’t completely alike with his people.  He had plenty of admirable qualities, too.  And in another world, he might’ve grown into a good father.

But the fact was that Callux couldn’t stay in Orveth Kaal.  Not indefinitely.  Not only would that be a disservice to him, but it would go against the entire reason Elijah had meddled with the birth in the first place.  After all, the whole point was to establish a hope that the orcs might one day escape.

Callux would hopefully be the beginning of his people’s freedom from the system’s imprisonment.  As much as Elijah believed releasing them into the wider multi-verse might be a mistake, he also took issue with their enslavement to the system’s purpose.  That it came because one of the founders simply disliked orcs made it even worse.

Regardless of his reasons, Elijah soon came to an agreement with Ok’tarik.  There were no specifics discussed, just a promise that Callux wouldn’t grow up not knowing his father.  After that, there was a touching moment where Ok’tarik said goodbye to his son.  He bore the emotional weight stoically, but Elijah could see its effect.

The warchief had no idea where to put those feelings, though.  So, he hid them as best he could.

Then, Elijah shifted into the Shape of Withering, took the suddenly terrified orc in his claws, and used Ride the Wind.  With that, he was on his way.

He wanted to use Shape of the World Serpent, but he wasn’t entirely certain that Callux was capable of holding on.  Or if he’d even want to.  Therefore, Shape of Withering won out.

It wasn’t as fast, but it had the added benefit of stealth.  Even Callux’s presence couldn’t foul that, probably because he was so comparatively weak.

At some point, the child’s screams turned from terror to delight.  However, even that soon faded as the day caught up to him and he fell unconscious.  That first day saw much of the same until Elijah finally landed on a mostly-abandoned landmass.  It wasn’t large.  Maybe a dozen miles across, but it was littered with ancient trees and threaded with streams that ended up turning into a massive waterfall that took up most of one side of the sky island.

Callux woke up when they landed.

Or rather, when Elijah dropped him.

Gently, but it was still enough to wake the orcish child up.  A bit of panic washed over his face as he saw the unfamiliar territory.  But the second he saw the closest stream, his eyes widened and an orcish smile spread across his face.

He rushed to the bank.

Elijah grabbed him before he made it, largely because he knew what lurked within that stream. 

The fish weren’t dangerous so long as one stayed on land, but the second they dipped a toe in the water, they would attack. 

“You have to be careful,” Elijah said, holding the child back.  “Watch.”

He stepped forward.  Callux, not understanding, made to follow, but Elijah held up one hand, calling for a halt.  The child finally seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, and he stopped, dropping to his haunches to watch. 

Elijah turned back to the water and summoned Thorn to hand.  Callux gasped, but he didn’t move.  Not until Elijah used the spear to disturb the water.  Suddenly, a giant fish resembling an alligator gar leaped free of the water.  It was at least the size of a tiger shark, though much slimmer.  Whatever the case, its elongated jaws were filled with sharp teeth bristling with dense ethera.

Elijah ducked to the side, then rammed the spear into the underside of the fish’s jaws.  The blade was just long enough to pierce its brain. 

Still, the creature had more than a little fight in it, though without much of a mind, it lashed out without thought or direction.  Elijah made quick work of it, then dragged the thing onto land. 

Even taking only a few moments, the rest of the fish had already taken a few bites out of the now-dead fish’s tail. 

Elijah could sympathize.  He’d eaten those fish multiple times, and they were absolutely delicious.  He dragged the dead animal to a safe distance, and when Callux immediately started trying to eat it, he put a stop to it.

“No.  We cook it first.”

“C-coo-ook?”

Elijah blinked.

He wasn’t sure about orcish development, but he was fairly certain that Callux shouldn’t have progressed to the talking stage.  Still, he corralled his shock and immediately started to explain everything about what he intended.  He left no stone unturned as he ranged from why he wanted to cook the fish to how he was going to prepare it.

And for his part, Callux devoured the lesson.  He repeated words here and there, even if he didn’t really understand what they meant.  That was the whole point of the explanation – not to impart perfect comprehension, but to link certain words with certain actions.

Eventually, he’d move on to true understanding.

The process didn’t take long, as over the years, Elijah had fileted countless fish.  Even taking his time to explain everything didn’t slow him down too much, and before long, he had a pair of massive filets sizzling on his skillet.  It came with a watered-down version of the cooking skill, so the cooking process wouldn’t lose too much ethera.  Or more importantly, taste.

He also used salt from Hafnarfjörður, which helped quite a bit.

Finally, when those massive slabs of fish were completely cooked, he handed one to Callux.  The orcish child didn’t hesitate to bite in.

And he was immediately burned.

He wailed in pain. 

“You have to wait for it to cool down,” Elijah said, casting Wellspring.  The influx of vitality settled onto the orc like a thick blanket, healing the minor burns. 

Callux didn’t hesitate to bite again, repeating the process.  Elijah healed him again.

By the third, he recognized the situation for what it was, and he looked to Elijah with wide and accusing eyes.  “C-oo-ook?”

“Do this,” Elijah advised before pursing his lips and blowing on the steaming meat.

Callux’s eyes narrowed. Then, with his face scrunched with intense focus, he tried to mimic Elijah’s action.  When he did, he just sprayed spittle all over the meat. 

Elijah forced himself not to laugh.  Then, he corrected Callux’s technique.  It worked, after a fashion, but blowing on the fish still didn’t really do much good.  Time made all the difference in the world, though.

And soon enough, Callux took the first bite that didn’t burn him. 

Once again, his eyes widened, this time in absolute shock. 

“Guess you like it,” Elijah said, taking his own bite.  The orcish child didn’t respond.  Instead, he tore into the fish filet like a starving animal.  Elijah couldn’t help but smile.  Callux certainly had no manners.  Nor was the sight particularly pleasant.  However, there was something undeniably heartwarming about the innocent exuberance with which he ate. 

For him, there was only the food.  He didn’t care about all the other problems in the world.  Just filling his belly.

Elijah wished he could emulate that, at least in some small part.

After Callux finished his filet, which was the size of a porterhouse steak, his eyes began to droop.  Then, he curled up on the ground and went to sleep.

Elijah watched him, then.  There was something to be said for the peaceful sleep of a child.  After a few moments, he reached into his Arcane Loop and retrieved his bearskin blanket.  It had been with him for the better part of a century, and though he had long since lost the cloak that had been made from that same pelt, the blanket was still useful enough.

It was also nostalgic.  It reminded him of simpler times, when all he had to worry about was a corruption-fueled plague destroying Norcastle.

He sighed.

The world was much bigger now, and his problems had grown to match.  But right then, he was content to watch Callux sleep.