Draka

I spent the rest of the afternoon practising. It made me hungry again, and it was exhausting, both physically and mentally. Together with the pain I still felt in most of my bruised body I was not in a good mood, but I learned some basic rules.

First, as long as a shadow was dark enough I could move through it. Exactly where that line was wasn’t obvious to me yet, but it didn’t need to be pitch black.

Second, I could move between shadows. That should perhaps have been obvious since the shadow of the tree was actually thousands and thousands of shadows from individual leaves and branches, but it was still a nice surprise. As long as two shadows flowed together and were each dark enough I could just keep going.

Third, at a certain level of brightness it was like hitting a wall. If a shadow was barely dark enough I could move through it with effort, but as the shadow got weaker it became harder and harder until I couldn’t move any farther.

Fourth, and this was important, as long as I was shadowed I could only use the ‘shadowsight’, as I was calling it, that I’d gotten with my advancement. And with that shadowsight I couldn’t see anything that was too bright. It was effectively the opposite of how I’d always known vision to work: the darker things were, the easier they were to see. The shadows of the forest became a patchwork of clearly visible areas mixed with dim, blurred or completely invisible ones. I also couldn't see past where the light fell. It was like the landscape was full of pillars of smokey glass, blocking my sight. My hearing got distorted too, and I couldn't smell anything at all, which was a lot more annoying than I would have imagined a few weeks before.

So, using this in a dangerous situation would take some brain power. It took a few seconds to melt, and another few seconds to become solid. I needed to make sure that I could move from where I was to where I needed to be. Torches or other sources of light that could move around could become a huge problem. I couldn’t test it, but I assumed that not only could they stop me dead in my tracks, but I wouldn’t be able to see anything around them while I moved.

Basically, I would need to be careful. This didn’t make me invincible, any more than my scales did. If someone stabbed me from the wrong direction my scales would do jack shit. If someone lit a torch while I was moving in a shadow, especially if I was in a small space, what would happen? Probably nothing good.

Be smart, girl, I told myself. Be careful.

Having carefully checked that no one was at the lake yet, I set myself up to rest and wait. I did what I usually did and found a suitable tree – the denser, gum-like ones were my favourites – near the campsite, where I could see the path from the road, then settled in and waited.

It never ceased to amaze me how good I was at waiting. A month ago I would have been bouncing around, bored out of my mind after only an hour, but now I could relax and enjoy the sensations of the forest. If I wanted to think, I did. If I didn’t want to, I didn’t. I almost never had any intrusive thoughts. The dragon grumbled sometimes, but that was different. I’d never heard an actual voice in my head before I came here. I wished I could know for sure if it was because I had a different brain or because I had changed from my experiences here. Was there a disconnect between the mind, or soul, and the body? Did the body always have a will of its own, and was the id, ego, super-ego thing more true than I’d ever thought?

Ugh. That was tiring, and I needed to watch the road. I stopped thinking.

The sun was long gone and the crescent moon was high when I saw three riders coming down the path. The moonlight was bright enough that I could recognize them with my excellent night vision. The first was Herald, easy to spot thanks to her height. The second, and the only one wearing visible armour, was my least favourite person so far, Lalia. Where Herald was relaxed and had her hair loose, Lalia had hers in a long braid, like she’d had for the attack on the bandit camp. No points for guessing if she was still feeling hostile.

The third, riding Melon, was Guy.

That was a far more pleasant surprise than it perhaps should have been. But it wasn’t just the fact that he was a very pretty fella that made me want to meet him again. He was the first person I had met here, and he had accepted me. Sure, I had to save him from certain death first, but that together with not eating him had been enough for him to not treat me as a dangerous animal. Even Valmik had taken much longer to come around.

I wanted to… I didn’t even know. Thank him? Talk to him? It felt important.

I could hear them talking to each other, but they were too far away to make out any words. The forest was dense enough that only a few patches of moonlight were scattered on the stems of the trees and the ground between them, and with my regular darkvision I could easily see a path to them through the shadows. I considered breaking out my new tricks, but I was pretty tired and didn’t see any point in it. Instead I waited until they’d passed and then crept down from my tree and made my way towards the road, making sure that there was no one following them or waiting for a signal or something dumb like that. Satisfied that I couldn’t see anyone, even with my shadowsight, or smell them, I spread my wings and took off.

I was going to make an entrance.

I rose high towards the mountains, then turned and dove to build speed. As I approached the lake again I could see the pinprick lights of the humans’ lanterns, and I went into a nearly silent glide, sure that I would be almost invisible against the night sky. As I passed above them I beat once, just for the sound, and I heard one of the horses wandering the campground whinny behind me. Flying out over the lake, I circled around in a long turn, trying to pass in front of the moon. I came back to set down not more than a dozen metres in front of them, wings stretched out wide to brake. I flapped once to come to a stop, and dust and debris whirled towards and around them. It was a good landing!

I shook my wings once and folded them partially, then looked at my audience. Herald was grinning like an idiot, though there was something sad around her eyes. Lalia was cursing up a storm, her sword ready and pointed at me in a two-handed grip. Guy was staring at me with a look of almost childish wonder, eyes wide and a small smile raising the corners of his open mouth.

Entrance well and truly made.

“You wanted to see me,” I said grandly. “Here I am. Hi, Herald. How’s the family?” I turned to the other two. “Guy. Bitch.” I smiled at Lalia, which Herald had informed me only meant that I showed most of my teeth. She scowled back.

“Hello, Draka. The others are not back, yet,” Herald said. She looked tired and worried. “I am glad you came. I was not sure that you would. And please do not be so unkind to Lalia. She is a good woman. Truly.”

“I’ll believe that when I’ve seen it,” I grumbled.

“I am sure that you will,” Herald said. “Did you read my note?”

I checked my scales. The note was gone. Oh, well.

“I found it…” I said slowly. “But I couldn’t read it.”

Herald blinked slowly. “You cannot read?”

“Hey, I can read and write just fine, yeah? Just not in any language you know.”

“Forget about reading!” Guy exclaimed, and I could hear traces of an accent. “You talk!” He turned to Lalia and put his hand on her shoulder. “I told you all that she talked to me!”

“I did!” I confirmed cheerfully. “Hadn’t learned the local lingo yet, though. Maybe your psycho girlfriend would have been nicer if I had?”

“Draka…” Herald said, her tone pleading.

“Yeah, fine.” Lalia still had her sword pointed at me and I was getting fed up. “Get her to put her little knife away and we can all play nice, yeah?”

“Lalia,” Guy said softly, then stepped in between us, carefully pushing her sword to the side. “I told you that she’s harmless. She saved me. Herald has told you the same thing. The commander wants us to talk to her. I know what your uncle and your grandparents told you about creatures in the forest, but please, can’t you give her a chance? Can’t you?”

“You wouldn’t call her harmless if you’d seen her yesterday,” Lalia replied hotly. “You haven’t seen what she can do!”

“I saw her tear a lake lizard to shreds, if that counts,” he answered with a little chuckle. “But who has she hurt, my love? Only those who deserved it. Can you claim anything else?”

“No, but–”

“Then please, Lalia. My dearest star, my beating heart. For my sake, and for Herald’s, can you put down your sword?”

She looked from me to Guy and back. The way she looked at him was uncertain and almost disgustingly sweet. Her sword wavered, and then she stepped back from Guy with a deep frown and sheathed it with a fluid motion.

“Fine!” she hissed and looked at me. “But one false move–”

I cut her off. “Won’t happen, don’t wanna, not gonna,” I said. “Thanks. Now, can we all talk?”

“Thank you,” Guy said softly to Lalia, squeezing both of her arms gently before turning to me. “I tried to introduce myself last time we met, but, like you said, we didn’t understand each other. I am Garal, of Barlea. You already know Herald, of course. And this protective beauty is…” He turned and gestured to Lalia.

“Lalia, of Karakan,” the woman finished unhappily.

“Now that we have introduced ourselves,” Guy – or Garal, rather – said as he turned back to me. “Can I have the pleasure of knowing the name of the one who saved my life?”

“I’m Draka,” I said. “Of nowhere, I guess. Or maybe Earth. Nice to meet you again.”

“Then, Draka, allow me to thank you. I was a stranger to you, defenceless and dying. You brought me healing, and food and drink, and tended me when there was nothing I could offer you. I am alive today because of your kindness. You have my deep and abiding gratitude.”

He put both hands over his heart and bowed almost double.

“Ah,” I said, looking away in embarrassment. “I couldn’t, you know… I’m glad you’re okay. You’re welcome.”

He really was very pretty.

“You never told me that you were the one that saved Garal,” Herald accused, interrupting the moment.

“Hmm?” I answered eloquently.

“I only found out from him today, and even then only because he was part of the debriefing! They had questions. About you,” she said, looking like she regretted her outburst.

“Yeah, I thought they might,” I said. “Come on, Herald, what do they know? Better to just tell me. I won’t be mad or anything.”

“If I may?” Garal said, looking from Herald to me and back. Herald looked at me.

“Sure,” I sighed. “Herald, tell me if something he says isn’t right, yeah?”

“Let me start from the beginning. Miss Herald came to Lalia and myself a few nights ago. She told us that she could show us where to find a band of bandits that have preyed on the people of this forest for some time. Now, we’ve known Herald and her family for a long time and know them to be trustworthy, so we believed her. But when we asked how she’d found these bandits she told us that she had an informant, but she couldn’t tell who. That they would be in danger if it came out.”

“I was not lying,” Herald cut in defensively.

“No one said that you did,” Garal reassured her. “In any case, Herald described the location and pointed it out roughly on a map. It fit well as a staging point for known bandit attacks in that area. We decided to take her case to our commander, Rallon of Tavvanar, who took Lalia’s squad and his own to find and hopefully destroy this bandit lair. I was left behind to train my new squad, so you all know what happened next better than I.”

“Yeah, those bastards got what they deserved,” I said. I knew that a lot of people had died, but damn if it didn’t feel good to know that the bandits had been wiped out.

“They did! And I’m told that you fouled a charge by the leader and his riders, quite possibly saving the lives of Herald and maybe even the fullness of my soul here–”

Lalia scoffed behind him, though I saw her blushing, and he went on with a somewhat desperate smile. “–so thank you, again, for that. Of course, a lot of people, both Wolves and bandit prisoners, saw you. And Herald clearly declared you as her informant and her friend, although only Lalia heard that, so only a few of us know that part. Lalia told me, of course, when they returned to Karakan. And several of her squad recognized you from, well, here. You’re hard to mistake.”

“Then it kind of flowed from there,” Herald took over. “Commander Rallon does not miss much and Lalia told him everything immediately, of course. Which,” she raised her voice as Lalia began to protest, “I do not blame you at all. Of course you did. I know that you would never keep anything important from him. Anyway, they all wanted to know how I know you. And I told them that if they want to know they can ask you, and you will answer or you will not. But then of course the commander wanted to talk to you, and they just kept asking, and I… I let it slip, I suppose. That I could arrange a meeting with you. So we left the coin and the note on the way back to the city. Then today when we were ready to go here suddenly Garal was going instead of the commander.”

“Like I was going to let him…” Lalia grumbled, staring daggers at me.

“Alright,” I said. “So I get why Herald is here. I like her, and she’s the one who can get in touch with me. And I get why Guy – sorry, Garal – is here. We’ve met, I hope that I’ll like you, and I’m arrogant enough to think that you might want to meet me. Which you did. What I don’t get is why she’s here.” I lifted one hand and pointed a claw at Lalia.

“Ah. Well,” Garal said, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “She’s here to represent the commander.”