Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 50 - Catching Up (Patreon)

“Mother will not like this.”

“I guessed as much,” Elijah admitted, running his hand through his hair.  “But I had to do something.”

“Did you?” asked Sara as they strode toward the center of the grove.  Elijah had just explained what he’d done regarding Callux, which had sparked a justifiable note of concern.  Elijah had had many of the same thoughts, mostly regarding the prospect of breaking orcs free of the system’s restraints. 

Callux was just one orc.  But that was how most catastrophes started, wasn’t it?  Just a little push, and all the dominoes would begin to fall.  The end result was a destroyed multi-verse.

All because Elijah meddled with things he didn’t really understand.

On the other side of the coin was a child he loved.  His son deserved freedom.  He deserved every advantage Elijah could give him, and he didn’t care if Kirlissa objected. 

Famous last thoughts, he admitted to himself.

“Maybe not, but the situation in Orveth Kaal –”

“Is entirely your doing,” she interrupted.

Elijah sighed.  “Fair.”

“Everyone we care about could leave at any point,” she added.  “I’m not saying they should.  Unfettered access to an ancestral world is an advantage we could never have expected.  Earth has already progressed more in these past few years than in the two decades before.  And it’s not going to stop anytime soon, either.”

“But?”

“But it’s not a necessity.  There is a moment when it becomes prudent to cut your losses and run.”

“Prudent,” Elijah echoed.

“It means –”

“I know what it means.  I’m just impressed by your vocabulary,” Elijah teased, grinning slightly.  “It’s almost like you’re a grown-up.”

She tried to kick him.

Awkwardly.

And entirely unsuccessfully.  That nearly sent her tumbling to the ground.  It probably would have if Okar hadn’t been there to provide a shoulder to lean on. 

“You really should work on your physical abilities,” Elijah continued. 

“I’m an Administrator.”

“I thought Birk trained you.  He’d be ashamed.”

Sara rolled her eyes.  “Don’t try to change the subject,” she said.  “This isn’t about me.  It’s about recognizing when an opportunity has become more trouble than it’s worth.  You never did know how to leave well enough alone.”

Elijah was about to continue the argument when he realized she was right.  For better or worse, Elijah’s answer to hardship was to simply push things further.  Rarely did he even consider retreat as an option.

Maybe one day he should.

“It doesn’t matter,” Elijah stated.

“Doesn’t it?”

“Not to the current conversation, which concerns my son.”

“Elijah…”

“He might not be blood, but by draconic law, that doesn’t matter, right?” Elijah said.  “I gave him a core.  He’s a dragon now.  That makes him my son.”

He didn’t mention the emotional bond he’d developed because it just wasn’t relevant to the discussion.  Even if it should have been, that wasn’t how dragons looked at things.  For all that Kirlissa and the rest of the Vyrins had treated Elijah well, he now knew that it was partially transactional. 

Or at least that was how it began.

Was it different now?  Did Kirlissa truly care about him as a person?  Certainly, Mano, Illska, and Saraalinisa did.  The matriarch of the clan was a different story altogether.  Even compared to her transcendent son, she was an ancient and all-powerful being.  To someone like Elijah?  Her motives were unknowable.

But he now knew how granting cores worked.  Her support made him a better investment.

Was that a cynical way of looking at it?  Probably.  The only caveat was that Elijah didn’t think her caring and it being beneficial for her were mutually exclusive.  Both things could – and to some extent, probably were – true at the same time.

“I don’t know if it works like that.  Some people…not me, but some people might look at him and see…”

“What?” Elijah challenged.

“I don’t know,” she lied. 

“Just say it.”

She shook her head.  “An abomination.”

Elijah’s fingers tightened into a fist.  “But not you.  You wouldn’t say that, right?”

“Of course not!  I love you, and I’ll love your son!”

Elijah relaxed, but only a little.  Of all the things he expected from his reunion with Sara, the current conversation wasn’t it.  For what it was worth, Elijah didn’t think Sara had an actual problem with Callux’s existence.  She wasn’t like that.  And she wasn’t necessarily wrong, either.  Elijah had experienced many of the same thoughts.  However, he felt that she could have addressed the issue a little more tactfully.

“Well, that got awkward pretty quickly,” said Okar.  “I’m gonna go find the kid.  He’s probably been slacking in his training.”

“Wait – you didn’t prepare Sara at all for this?”

As he walked away, Okar flashed a grin.  “Figured I’d leave that to you.”

Then, he disappeared into the woods.  Elijah felt him, just as he felt everything on the island.  But he got out of there in a hurry, leaving Elijah and Sara to hash things out alone.

“I don’t know what you see in him,” Elijah muttered.

“Sometimes, I don’t either,” she admitted.  “Look, Elijah. I’m eager to meet Callux, and I’ll treat him just like he’s family.”  She took a deep breath, and then, anticipating his response, added, “He is family.  I’ll love and support him.  But you’re not stupid enough to think this is going to go off without any problems.”

“I know.”

“Did you forget that there are plenty of people still around that remember the last time orcs were on Earth?”

“I didn’t.”

“What do you think they’ll feel when they see him?” she asked.

Elijah sighed. “Nothing good.  I had to bring him here, though.  This was the next step.”

“That the only reason?  Because you’re approaching it from a purely clinical standpoint?”

He shook his head.  “No.  It’s best for him.  I want him to experience this.  I want him to know somewhere that isn’t a prison for his entire species.  You can support that, right?”

“I will.  Now, let’s go meet him.”

Elijah had already been guiding them toward where he felt Callux.  Nerthus had just introduced him to the crabs, which meant that he was currently poking one with a piece of driftwood.  The creature was intelligent enough to recognize that it was in no danger, and what’s more, jousting with the island’s mascots had become something of a favorite pastime among the grove’s youths.

Elijah could see the appeal.

The crabs seemed to enjoy it too, so there was no harm.  It also served a much broader purpose in that it supported the formation of bonds between the crustaceans and the children that might one day become part of the Hartwood Sentries. 

Elijah and Sara arrived to that rocky shore just in time to see the crab snip the branch in two.  Callux responded by rushing in and beginning a wrestling match with the creature.  It nipped at him, but not hard enough to break even a normal child’s skin.  Callux probably barely felt it.

For his part, the young orc didn’t really go all-out, either.  He recognized it as a game and held the majority of his strength in reserve.  It was a good sign for his future integration with the other children. 

“He’s…big.”

“Yeah,” Elijah said, watching the roughhousing with a grin on his face.  “Orcs physically mature much faster than humans or dragons.  Believe it or not, he’s actually a lot slower than most orcs.  They usually reach adulthood in two or three years.  Four at most.”

“How old is he?”

“Five?  Six? Something like that.”

“How do you not know that?” asked Sara.

“Uh…not a lot of clocks in Orveth Kaal,” Elijah responded.

“There are literally hundreds of clocks in the ancestral world,” she pointed out. “I’ve seen the invoices.”

“Uh…”

“And I believe you have a phone, too.  That has a clock.”

“Right.”

“So, you should –”

“Anyway,” Elijah interrupted.  He didn’t want to hear another lecture about his loose relationship with timekeeping.  He knew it was a problem, but it was one he was disinterested in solving.  The bottom line was that he usually couldn’t spare the focus to mark the hours.  Or days.  Sometimes weeks.

That was his story, and he intended to stick to it.

“He’s both big and small for his age.  That’s what I’m trying to say.”

“Have you thought about how to deal with that?” she asked.  “He won’t be able to train with the other kids.”

“Oh.  I mean, I assumed…”

He knew that Callux didn’t have the demeanor to be included with older trainees, but now that he considered it, he also recognized that he couldn’t learn alongside the grove’s other children.  Academic classes were fine, but physical training was definitely out. 

“We’ll figure it out.  I’m sure Nara will have a plan.”

“Oh.  Right.”

“You really are a terrible Druid,” Sara remarked, nudging him with her shoulder.  “Every other Druid I’ve ever met or heard about stays in their grove and grows plants.  You just…outsource that.”

“You don’t want me hanging out here.  Trust me on that.  I’d just get in everyone’s way,” Elijah pointed out.

“True.”

“You weren’t supposed to agree so readily.”

She shrugged. “Just calling it like I see it.”

“Earth has been a bad influence on you.”

“Wait until you see my influence on it,” she countered.

Regardless of that ominous statement, their conversation was cut short by the conclusion of Callux’s play-fight with the crab.  It nipped him on the leg, and a little harder than normal.  Callux pulled back, and the crab scuttled away back into the surf.  The young orc made to follow, but Nerthus stepped in to stop him.

“Not yet.”

“Danger?”

“Danger.”

Callux nodded, then turned away.  That was when he caught sight of Elijah.  His face lit up and he rushed across the beach, tripping over a large stone but still somehow managing to keep moving.  When he reached Elijah, he immediately went on a rapid-fire recitation of everything he’d seen in the hour or so since Elijah had left him with Nerthus.

And he had seen a lot.

Elijah didn’t even think the kid took a breath.

He ended by a blow-by-blow recount of the fight between him and the crab.  The way he described it would’ve made most people think of an epic battle between good and evil, as opposed to simple roughhousing between an orc and a barely sentient beast.

“That’s great,” Elijah said, patting him on the shoulder.  “I bet that crab will remember you for the rest of its life.”

“Crab.”

Until that very moment, he’d described the crab as a “pincher.”   Crab was better, if less evocative.  All in all, it was a very reassuring few minutes in that it told Elijah that Callux could adjust to the new environment.  Everything else seemed like it might take care of itself.

Of course, there were a lot of people who’d make sure of that.

“I want you to meet someone else,” Elijah said.  “Like Nerthus, but different.  This is my sister, Sara.  Your aunt.”

“Ant?”

“Aunt.”

“Ant Sara.”

Elijah sighed.  “Sure.  Say it like that.  I’m sure she’ll love it.”

For her part, Sara seemed like she was barely holding in her mirth.  Finally, she looked up at Callux and asked, “How are you with heights?  Do you want to go on a flight?”

“Fly!”

That simple word was all the encouragement Sara needed.  She shifted into her dragon form, her body expanding into a large, golden, and winged reptile.  Elijah couldn’t help but notice that she had grown significantly longer, giving her form a sleek and sinuous shape.

Callux wasted no time before leaping onto her back, clearly familiar after all the flights Elijah had given him.  And in moments, Sara had leaped into the air and begun her ascent.

Elijah watched them with a smile on his face.

“This is going a lot better than I expected,” he remarked.  When Nerthus didn’t answer, he glanced in the spryggent’s direction, only to see that he’d frozen, and not by choice.

Something washed over Elijah.

A feeling both familiar and domineering.

“I was wondering how long it would be before you showed up,” Elijah said, turning to find one of Kirlissa’s projections standing next to him. 

“We have much to discuss, my son.”