Hunter Or Huntress

Jacky had returned with Linkosta, and she was carrying a large fancy book that Tom hadn’t seen before, which boded well for his hopes of her knowing more about what it was he had seen. As it turned out the ferinix was the believed ancestor of the white dragons, which had sent him down a whole new line of questioning. Luckily Linkosta was more than happy to help.

Jacky had crawled in under the covers next to him, with Tom embracing her in a side hug, while Linkosta sat down next to the bed on a wooden chair. She had ended up putting the book on the bed as it really was rather heavy.

Tom did feel a little bad watching her lean in over the book across the bed, but he really did not feel like going anywhere just yet. Besides she didn’t seem to mind. ‘Dragonette spines are flexy, right? She’ll be fine,’ he thought to himself, having a little chuckle as he thought back to some of the more odd positions he had sometimes found Jacky in when she decided naptime was in order.

It had been quite easy to find the creatures from his dream slash vision since Lord Tikka had been so kind as to shout out the name of the monster that had killed his wife. Tom was still coming to terms with the fact Joelina had made the guy relive that… just like she had forced him. She barely even flinched at it. And Inquisitor Harvik had seemed overjoyed. It even sounded like this wasn’t the first time he had done this. ‘There is not flinching in the face of it and then there is enjoying it,’ Tom thought to himself as Linkosta explained. He was only half listening, thoughts still lingering on the dream. With some luck perhaps the inquisitor was long dead. It must have happened decades ago. Joelina was not a young woman anymore after all.

He could of course not tell Linkosta or Jacky the full details. He was keeping that all a secret. Safe in his little notebook. Well safe as he could at least. There was no hiding that he’d had one hell of a night, and he had seen some shit to go with it. The aftereffects of the dream were strange. He had felt so sad. Like he could feel the Lord's loss as if it were his own, an empty feeling like there was just nothing there. It had faded slowly, so he took heart in Joelina's promises that the effects did usually pass in time. Even if those promises had often proven empty in his case before.

“But its horns didn't look like that,” Tom objected as Linkosta showed him a diagram of one of the beasts. Compared to a dragonette figure it was massive, and it was six legged and covered in fur and ice. No tail oddly enough. He supposed it was to help with the cold. The creature acted much as the white dragons in absorbing the heat from around itself to keep their centers warm. How the skin could “live” while being in subzero temperatures he didn’t really understand. His best guess being they were 70% antifreeze rather than water. But it was no dragon that much was obvious, as it was smaller even than Jarix. Even if that was hardly saying much.

“Horns can change between individuals. Simply look at me and Jacky. Notice the slight spiral curve to hers. Almost wavy from the right angle. Mine are nearly straight,” Linkosta replied, running a finger back along her horn. They were indeed very near straight, with only a slight soft curve to them.

“Does that… mean anything?” Tom questioned, glancing between them. They were indeed quite different. Come to think of it, all the Bizmatis had rather straight backward-swept horns. And some dragonette’s horns curled around to point forwards, be it just the tips or the whole horn like Esmeralda.

“No, not really. But it will often run in the family. I had a classmate in the capital who had split ends. Never seen that before. Her father had it too.”

“Wait, so she had like, four tips?”

“Yeah… it looked quite weird. The others called her antlers.”

“Hehehe, that’s pretty good,” Jacky chuckled, while Linkosta looked a little less amused. “Antlers… hehe.”

“What else is in there?”

“Magics mostly. One day I should teach you to read the runes, glyphs, and sigils.”

“Why?” Jacky questioned, moving about a bit under the sheets, one leg getting laid across Tom.

“Tom is clearly a man of knowledge, why wouldn’t he want to know?”

“Cause he can’t use it and we have a lot of work to do?”

“Now now,” Tom interrupted. ”We do right now. Maybe on a rainy day. Or a cold one. Is there anything else in there? Something I might understand?”

“Of course,” Linkosta responded with a nod, starting to flip pages. “There is the ancestry of all the true dragons here in the back. The ferinix is rumored to be the long ancestor of the white dragons. They share many traits. That is why it is in here at all.”

“It had long fur and six legs, no tail, and no wings,” Tom questioned a little skeptically, not quite able to see how those two could possibly be directly related. That was quite the deviance in his mind at least.

“Of course, all the progenitors vary considerably from the true dragons as this book calls them. The ferinix can be found on some very far north islands. But mainly they reside on the ice sheets down on the northern ocean. The ice wastes as some call them. But supposedly they are very resistant to corruption, which lets them prey on the dark beings that tend to congregate far up north. This makes them quite valuable for controlling the populations.”

“Oh… I guess that is a quite nice feature.”

“And the white dragons inherited it. All dragons are quite resistant to corruption, but whites especially so.”

“Hence why the church loves them?” Tom recounted.

“Exactly. It is also why hunting the ferinix is very illegal. Too valuable.”

“Makes sense… But you said the ancestries of all dragons. What else is in there?”

“Right, yes,” Linkosta replied, starting to page through the book before turning it around to show. “Here look. These are known as demon hunters, though the actual name is zahicar. I didn’t actually know that. They are quite rare, but there are many kinds that are often unique to a given island. Blue crested, black crested, mountain zahicar. This book only mentions some examples, but look, it hunts in the water.”

Tom looked curiously at the strange drawing, a rather long hornless thing with short legs that all seemingly sported webbed feet, at least according to the diagram. “What color are those?”

“They are the ancestors to the blue dragons. They hunt using electricity. The zahicar are quite a dark blue though, only natural considering what they eat. Rumor has it they get more and more vicious the older they get. They might hunt demons, but they will hunt you too.”

“Riiight… So can they breathe lightning?”

Linkosta took the book back and started reading, finger running down the page. Tom waited patiently as she flipped to the next page and carried on reading before finally looking up. “No.”

“Oh… seems like a bit of a jump.”

“The ferinix does not possess a breath weapon either. The true dragons were made by the gods you see.”

“Riiiight,” Tom responded, slowly nodding. In his mind, it was perhaps a bit more likely the dragonettes hadn’t quite worked out the evolutionary line yet. It had taken humans a very long time after all. It was nothing to be ashamed of.

“Now this one is luckily not found on this island, but if you travel you might have to look out for it,” Linkosta went, paging a little more before turning the book to show. “The nauliker. Relatively small, six legs, no wings. Fast in both sprint and endurance, but its bite contains a similar poison to a true green dragon. Only this one is a bit better at making you ready to eat… Assuming you are a nauliker that is.”

“It’s… a venomous dog?” Tom questioned, looking at the helpful diagram. It certainly looked like it.

“I don’t really remember what a dog is, but-”

“Cute little fluffy thing, but it can bite and run like really far… Unless it’s that one breed uhm… what was it called,” Jacky interrupted, Tom waiting to see what she would say, honestly curious. “Couch potato, that’s the one.”

Tom did his best not to snicker, Linkosta tilting her head.

“What a strange name for an animal.”

“You called an electric otter a demon hunter, call it even,” Tom responded, still pulling a slight smile.

“I suppose…” Linkosta relented as she went back to her book, seemingly none the wiser. “But yes, be wary of this one. It will attack anything it thinks is food, and they hunt in packs. Their aim is almost always to get one member of the pack into position so it may land a bite on the prey. After that they simply follow and wait.”

“That is one nasty sounding mother fucker.”

“That is certainly a word for it. I’ve heard of places that have those kill on sight so that they don’t decide you are prey rather than danger.”

“Makes sense,” Tom concurred. The discussions back home on how wolves were to be handled echoed in the back of his mind, along with the remaining shards of longing for a wife that was never his. He hugged Jacky a little tighter as Linkosta took the book back to change pages again.

“This one is fascinating. I had not actually heard much of these before. They are scarce and elusive. Oh and they only live in desserts. The glassmole.”

“The what now?” Tom questioned, tilting his head.

Linkosta cleared her throat and began to read an excerpt, seemingly finding that the easiest way to explain. “The glassmole, also known as the sand drake, water hoarder, and sand dweller. They use their fire breath and extreme temperature resistance to melt desert sand into crude glass. They build burrows in the sand and make bowls to collect water during rain. Some have even been known to put a lid on the bowls to store the water for later.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Yes. They use the water they have collected to lure in possible prey. If you do ever end up wandering a desert, do be wary of any sudden pools of water you find.”

“Can do,” Tom replied with a nod, trying to think how something like that might come about. ‘It’s a living 3d printer… that’s amazing.’

“Then there is the black dragon’s ancestor… or assumed ancestor I suppose I should say. The uhm… the mountain worm or ordahir.”

“Not the most glamorous name,” Tom admitted, not quite sure what to make of that one. Jacky let out a surprised snicker, so it probably wasn’t good. “Oh poor Tigaun.”

“Yeaaah,” Linkosta sighed reluctantly before hefting the book and beginning to read aloud once more. “The mountain worm spends its days burrowing through solid rock using its corrosive acid. It is a slow and laborious process for a slow and laborious creature. It is believed that much of the day goes with sleeping while the acid does its job, while at night the worm comes out to feed upon mosses, lichen, and other vegetation. One of only a handful of draconic creatures noted to be almost entirely herbivores in nature. Despite the name, the worms do indeed possess legs, though they are but short, stubby appendages, well suited for their life underground. The average size of a specimen is not believed to exceed 3 feet in length, making them one of the smallest members of the draconic family.”

“Oof, someone got the short end of the stick,” Jacky joked, this all seemingly not news to her.

“I mean the blues live in the water, isn’t that almost as bad?” Tom tried while making a mental note not to bring these possible ancestors up while Tiguan was around.

“Yeah, but come one, dumb little worm that only comes out at night? And eats moss. Waow. They taste like shit too.”

“You’ve tasted one?” Tom questioned, turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, we got plenty of them in the mountains running along the spine of the island. Remember the ones we saw when flying to Deriva way back?”

“Oooh yeaaah.”

“Probably shouldn’t eat that… But they prefer moss. I suppose they would eat any vegetation they could get their hands on. Oh according to this they are not above scavenging either. And apparently they live in colonies. Look at this one,” Lin went, once more turning the book to show a sketch of a mountainside which had been perforated with little holes, one or two of which had one of the little buggers looking out, likely as artistic liberty.

‘Damn they are ugly.’ Tom mused to himself looking at the rather unflattering depiction.

“Heh, just like they claim we used to do,” Jacky snickered, looking at the funny picture.

“That is an established fact backed up by observations of more… feral dragonettes that have been observed over the years,” Lin countered. It sounded like this was maybe not the first time they had this discussion at the keep.

“Oh please. Us? Living in caves? At least pick a tree and build a nest or something like a normal person.”

“That would not be very suited for winter, now would it?”

“Eeeh.. fair point,” Jacky had to concede, even though it looked like she was thinking hard on a rebuttal.

“I still don’t get how all of these turn into dragons like Jarix and Tiguan. There is quite the jump between all of these, not similar at all,” Tom questioned, wanting to steer the conversation back to these progenitors.

“The gods made them of course,” Linkosta reiterated. “These creatures were only the inspiration. Building blocks if you may. Good ideas which could be molded and shaped into what we today know as the five true dragons. It isn’t that hard to understand.”

“I… No I suppose not,” Tom yielded, not wanting to get into an argument right now.

“In combination with this,” Linkosta went, flipping to where Tom was pretty sure the appendices began. “The silver dragon. The original.”

“Oh there we go,” Tom went, looking at the very familiar-looking creature. “Four legs, wings at the back of the ribcage, long neck, long sturdy tail…Wait, are these things still around?” he questioned, suddenly confused. He felt he would have heard of those.

“The are believed extinct millennia ago. The book even makes mention that this diagram is a copy from older works as no specimens were believed to be in existence when this was written…”

“How old was that book again?”

“I don’t know to be honest. It’s likely a later volume of the same book.”

“Why did they go extinct actually? I remember Apuma talking about those being where we came from.”

“Wait, hang on a minute. Where you came from?” Tom questioned, looking to Linkosta.

“Oh yes, right. I am sorry. I keep forgetting we never got quite so far with your uhm… basic education and history?”

“Yeah, I didn’t need the 2+2 classes, but uhm… what the fuck?” Tom replied, pointing at the diagram. It might be a copied diagram, but there was a dragonette in the corner for scale, and this silver dragon was no smaller than the true dragons. “That’s a lot bigger than you.”

“Yes… we aren’t quite sure.”

“I mean, you were quite sure about the others?”

“Well yes, the church confirmed them as being the progenitors. They asked Itova and he confirmed it. He was the one who made them after all,” Linkosta replied, Tom continuing to stare at her, hoping she would carry on, which she seemed a little reluctant to do.

“Buuut…”

“But when we asked as to our own ancestors… he wouldn’t tell us.”

“Right.”

“Damn gods can be a finicky bunch, am I right?” Jacky replied with a sigh. “Can’t just be upfront about it.”

“It is their choice to make. Even if I think the church has tried many times to get an answer to that question.”

“Actually about that. Asking the gods. Uhm how?”

“The high priests. The gods may choose to speak through their priests if they so desire.”

Tom had a slight flashback to some of earth's “speakers of god” and tried not to let his considerable skepticism show. Besides, one could see the gods with a good telescope around here, so maybe it was actually true… which was a terrifying prospect.

“Don’t forget about just, you know, random visions and the like,” Jacky added in.

“It is very rare that those are actually the gods talking through you… Rare enough there is some debate on if it’s even possible. Visions may be a gift from the gods, but not the gods per say.”

“Whatever you say. I’ll just say a little prayer I get to have a vision about puppies one day.”

“That’s a thought right there. Have you ever tried to domesticate any of these? The nauliker seem smart enough,” Tom tried, curious if perhaps the dragonettes had tried their hand at something more impressive than Balethon’s braindead lizard.

“Oh yes. I remember hearing stories of a tame glass mole once. It could do tricks and even walk on two legs. And the book even states Nauliker are quite commonly tamed thanks to their pack animal nature. They are used mostly to guard places, though they remain dangerous even after being tamed.”

“I suppose a puppy with teething problems is… well problematic if its teeth are full of poison,” Tom mused in reply. He had perhaps been hoping for a possible keep dog. But alas, possibly not the wisest option with children running around.

“I still think we should sacrifice a shadow drake to the gods and ask for a golden retriever,” Jacky grumbled, retreating further down under the blanket. “It looked so cuddly.”

“Do you have pictures? I don’t think I have seen a gold fetcher before,” Linkosta questioned hopefully, eyes big and bright. She was clearly enjoying herself this morning.

“Sure, dog videos it is then. Maybe you can tell me if you have something similar.”

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“I swear by the gods, above AND BELOW! If it rains before you get those fucking sticks in the ground I will eat the lumber!” Yldril growled out, her fury hanging in the air as silence reigned for a bit. The wall had slid in again on the hole she was digging. It was her own damn fault for standing so close to where she was digging. Saph wasn’t gonna bring it up though. Yldril was plenty pissed already. Sadly Raulf had no such reservations.

“Well, you could try to get your fat arse clear of the hole! It’s not fair on the hole; it’s not made for a girl like you!” the old farmer called out jovially while leaning professionally on his shovel.

Yldril froze in place and turned to glare at the farmer. She took a good three seconds trying to come up with a response, failed, and instead picked up a fistful of dirt and went to throw.

Raulf’s eyes widened for just a bit before Yldril’s foreleg stopped mid-motion. The dragon’s face grew strained as she struggled against her magical bindings.

“Now now, you’re wasting your breath,” the guy hummed, relaxing on the shovel once more once he realized he was quite safe.

“Yldril… just leave it,” Fengi tried, in a calming tone. “The quicker it’s done with the quicker we can get you washed off… Then no more digging.”

Yldril strained for a moment longer before she let her leg fall to the floor, her shoulders sagging and wings drooping in defeat. “What a surprise, Fengi has forgotten what we have to do next…”

“Quit your yapping. There’s plenty more digging to do… and you all know it. Get to it.”

Dejectedly the dragon got back to work, slowly and clearly trying her hardest to pretend that Raulf didn’t exist. Fengi didn’t look much happier, mouthing something to herself.

“There yah go. Good dragon. Now dig that hole so we can get this done before it rains again like you said,” Raulf heckled with a chuckle at the end. “You are quite wise on that one.”

“If this ever wears off I will wear you like a fucking necklace you petulant oaf.”

“I am sure I’ll look smashing. Now dig, would yah? Jarix is working faster than you are.”

Saph rather involuntarily glanced towards where the blue dragon was hauling away on the pulley mechanism to drive the big saw. Glira had already delivered her first load of logs for the day, and they were getting sawed into square beams in record time as Glira went for a second load right away.

The first couple of posts were already in the ground, though what was to become the floor would need some work. It was nice and flat, Yldril had made sure of that, and Tom had even checked with that odd water bubble stick he had. The floor was just dirt though, soft if slightly clayish soil. They had considered a plank floor, but that did not tend to mesh well with dragons and heavy items being moved around. What they really wanted was thick tiles or stones, but there was no way they were getting that done in time.

Tom had grumbled something about concrete, but when pushed he’d gone “Nope, we ain’t making that on time either.” So instead they were going to use better dirt. Clay to be specific. They had a spot down by the lake where they could dig some okay clay up. It was pretty crap by pottery standards, but it would do fine for this. Once dry at least.

Of course, digging said clay up was going to be Yldril's problem. Which was likely what she was so pissed about, or at least part of the reason.

The day had progressed smoothly for the most part, following Yldril's little outburst. There were a few more, and even Jarix complained at the hard work when the sun started to get low in the sky. With the temperature dropping and most of the vertical beams in place, they called it for the day as Yldril finished the last hole. Glira had managed a total of three loads, using a jury-rigged harness to carry 6 logs at a time. The harness should also fit Yldril with some modification, so that was a relief. Raulf was very proud of it, he and his wife having put it together during the rain.

Tomorrow Yldril was supposedly cleared to fly though, at least if Quinlin’s medical checkup agreed she was ready. Then she would have to spend the day hauling logs rather than digging. Saph thought she would prefer that, at least now that it was by wing rather than by foot.

As they had been wrapping up Jacky had come gliding down, looking a lot better than earlier that morning. She did a quick circle above the worksite before coming down to land amongst them. Saph was gathering up tools to put away before intending to go with Yldril and Fengi to the lake for a wash. Her feet especially could do with some water even if it was cold as fuck this time of year.

“Nice to see someone is making progress,” she called out as she came jogging to a halt. “Saph, you got a minute?”

“Sure, what have you got in mind?”

“I wanna go check the skull. Tom is still at it with Lin. Now they are in the library looking for more books.”

“More stuff on dragons, or has she started teaching him about magic all of the sudden?”

“They got out Haldex’s Tales and Tribulations.”

“I thought Tom heard some of those back when he was taking lessons with the kids, didn’t he?” Fengi questioned, receiving a shrug in reply from Jacky.

“Oh dear,” was all Saph could say to that. Sure, it had plenty of fantastical stories, most likely recited by a drunken buffoon in a bar somewhere and then rewritten by a person who had never set foot outside city limits and considered going to the outhouse an expedition. “But why though?”

“It has a bunch of tales from far-off places. The frigid north, islands covered in desserts, putrid swamps, mountain ranges. Remember those islands close to the ocean full of massive bugs?”

“Yeah… I still don’t buy that shit and you know it. Bugs live in the Southlands. We all know that. Well, the big ones at least.”

“Maybe they are just you know… analyzing the text for what might be real… Linkosta says that a lot,” Fengi added, seemingly trying to play the optimist, even if it was putting a toll on her.

“Sure sure… Either way, it’s working. Tom’s going full nerd. I wanna keep it that way… aaand show off my cool skull.”

Sapphire was perfectly sure this in no way had anything to do with Linkosta succeeding where Jacky had failed. And certainly not any sort of jealousy on Jacky’s part that Lin was getting all of his attention. It wasn’t the first time the two of them were nerding out over something Jacky couldn’t really partake in after all. Saph had handed over the dirty tools to a not-so-appreciative Raulf. “Well we’re heading to the lake too. You good to go, Fengi?”

“Just waiting on you? Why?”

“Jacky’s coming with. Let’s get the muck washed off. Maybe Yldril could lend a hand with that skull. The ants are nasty little fuckers.”

“You want me to dig out the cleaned skull of Tarak… And I presume carry it back here where it will be mounted as a trophy…” the black dragon replied in a low indignant grumble.

“Don’t go all soft and squeamish on me now,” Jacky chuckled, leaning on her hips. “I thought you only just hired the guy. Besides there ain’t no way I’m not showing off after a kill like that.”

“I did… I suppose he should have learned to do as you say here…”

The dragon's mood had been rather foul all day, and this was certainly not improving matters. But dragon scales were antproof. Dragonette skin wasn’t. At least Saph was fairly sure Yldril would be ant-proof. Then again, the thought of getting some of the buggers up under the scaly plates on her chest sent a shiver down her spine. One she involuntarily tried to shake off.

“Why have you got the shivers… I am the one you want to dig out a friend of mine. A friend you denied the chance to go to heaven… remember that?” the dragon sneered, the venom back in her voice with full force.

“Like a piece of shit like him deserves to go. See you down there, come on Saph,” Jacky retorted before taking off running, soon beating skywards, leaving the fuming dragon staring after Jackalope.

“You don’t actually give a shit, do you?” Saph questioned once Jacky was well underway.

“No…” she admitted, tone lightening just a touch. “He was a shithead.”

Fengi let out a long pained sigh, rubbing her temples with both hands. “Of course you don’t.”

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