Kingdom Of The Weak

"How so?" Zana asked.

"That"s a dragon, you know?!" Aren half-coughed. He dragged the word out for emphasis. "Draaagon! Just imagine! Next time a Beast Wave comes by, all that fellow needs to do is blow at them! VWOOM!" Aren gestured vaguely.

If his crew saw him talking like that, their jaws would hit the floor. Stern taskmaster Aren speaking cutesy was something only his daughter would think was normal.

"That"s nice, dad, but it"s not our dragon." Talia pointed out. "Darian has to go back for training and all."

"Besides, are the Beast Waves still coming? I thought the Tide was the end of it? Or are they all going to be Tides, now?" Zana asked.

"I… I"m not sure." Aren confessed.

"I think they"re from different sources." Talia cleared her throat. "The Tides happen when we reach 10,000 killed Wilds. The Kings of the Wilds and Doom handle that. The Waves are caused by a whole different group of people."

"Anyway. What you"re saying is, the dragon is leaving, right?" Aren considered. "That"s good. We haven"t been able to get any work done in the new tunnels all morning. n.o.body dares to dig up Flaming Bronze with a dragon snoozing in those tunnels."

Right. Darian"s dragon had pretty much crawled straight into the new tunnels from the pit and decided to take a nap in the middle of the richest part of the lode.

Ha"res-dras was a upper Tier 4 dragon juvenile, not quite an adult yet, actually smaller than Spike, but several times bigger than Carrie. Strange. He seemed so much bigger earlier…? Maybe having his wings out, his length made him seem especially huge… but when he withdrew his wings and curled up in the tunnels, he didn"t take up all that much s.p.a.ce. Or maybe it was all some sort of psychological effect?

Or maybe he"d somehow shrunk his body.

Still. n.o.body was going to mine anything anywhere near that dragon. Having had so many rough experiences with the Wilds out here, n.o.body was going to risk literally waking a sleeping dragon.

"That dragon is mainly here to make sure he goes back to Dragon Lake later." Talia told her dad. "It"s not here to protect us or anything."

"But he lets Darian sit on his back, you know?" Aren scratched his head. "It was weeks before Dan managed to get his wolfcat comrade to give him a ride. There"s a lot of trust involved."

Talia rolled her eyes. "More likely there was a lot of roast meat, grilled fish, ear-scratching and tummy-rubbing involved."

"That, too."

Aren went on grumbling throughout the afternoon, complaining about the dragon in the tunnels causing a major work obstruction, but despite all his muttering, people couldn"t help but notice the big smile on his face.

"Maybe it"s because his daughter is home?"

"Maybe it"s because we have a holiday?"

"No, I think it"s because we have a dragon on our side. Suddenly, Beast Tides don"t seem quite as scary as they were last night."

"Is it really on our side, though?"

"It lets Darian sit on its back, and it hasn"t eaten any of us yet. I"d say that"s a good sign."

Perhaps having a dragon sleeping in your workplace was not really a good thing in general, but between one cause and the other, the general mood around KarGoth had very perceptibly lifted compared to how it was over the past few days.

***

Remian meanwhile, was awoken from a restless slumber by his dad"s voice. "That big?"

It was coming from outside. These living quarters they"d given him had several bedrooms and a central dining/living hall, with square windows cut into them high overhead. This helped with ventilation, but didn"t exactly help to keep out sound.

Darian"s voice answered. "Yeah! But Ha"res-dras ate the whole thing already, so I can"t show it to you. Oh wait! There are bones, I think? But there are so many big fish-bones around Dragon Lake, it hardly seems like much."

"Well, my biggest catch was THIS big, and everyone seemed to think that it was awesome already."

"It is, coming from here. But everything is just bigger at Dragon Lake, even the rocks and trees."

Remian sat up, rubbing his eyes. What time was it? He felt incredibly hungry, even though he still felt queasy and dizzy at the same time.

Soft knocking sounded on the door. It opened, and Phoebe poked her head in.

Remian felt like someone had opened a curtain and let sunlight into the room. Everything had turned brighter for some reason.

"Hey. You"re up! That"s good." Phoebe pushed her way in, carrying a tray. Remian smelled oatmeal. "I brought lunch. Can you eat?"

Remian kept his gaze on the food, trying not to get distracted by her looks. "I… guess so?"

Even looking at the tray, not at her face, he could see her move. How did she look like she was dancing just by walking straight? Was she always this slim? Why was his face feeling warmer and warmer…?

No, this was not the time to think about Mandy, or certain special nights in private places. Not the time at all!

But blast it, every guy in the world and his uncle had to admit, Phoebe was extremely attractive. Remian would have to be blind or outright lying to say or even think otherwise. Even sickly and on the verge of throwing up, Remian had to keep his mind from wandering, dangerous thoughts.

For that, one simple truth was enough to focus his thoughts. "This girl and I have no future together".

There it was. The one reason he was completely able to ignore everyone"s teasing and hinting. Phoebe was only here to help Lydia out until the slaves were freed. After that, she was going back to Ashdale, and pursuing her medical and magical studies, very likely never to return to the Frontier again. By this time next month she would probably be gone and none of them would ever see her again.

What? A long-distance relationship, with a girl in Ashdale? Tried that before. Did not work out well. Not going to try it again.

"Thanks." Remian kept his tone polite and sniffed at the oatmeal. "I smell honey."

"Mindy put it in." Phoebe told him. She sat down, and checked his pulse. "She cares a lot about you, you know?"

"Mm? Yeah, she"s practically my little sister." Remian was a bit surprised to hear this coming from Phoebe, of all people. "She might very well be my sister-in-law, if… well…"

"I"m not sure a brother-in-law is the way she sees you." Phoebe observed.

Remian shifted, spooning oatmeal into his mouth. "Why bring this up? You know my condition better than most."

"I don"t want to see her hurt."

Remian frowned. "You won"t be around that long. In fact, I probably won"t be around that long either."

"That"s likely going to hurt her even more." Phoebe checked his temperature, observed his eyes, his throat.

"What do you want me to do? Distance myself from her? I can"t just abandon her. I"m already sending her to travel the world, I just need to see her through the first time."

"That is good. But aren"t you worried about her out there on her own?"

"She"ll have her crew." Remian mused. "And very likely a few of the wolfcats."

"Wolfcats!" Phoebe rolled her eyes. "You should go with her. From what I hear, you haven"t seen all that much of the world yourself."

"Are you trying to keep me away from her, or keep me with her?" Remian protested.

"Neither. Both." Phoebe shrugged. "I"m just making conversation. Don"t take anything I say seriously. After all, like you said… I won"t be around that long. You won"t either, if you keep running around like this. You"ve really overexerted yourself this time. You should take it easy for a week, maybe two."

"Should I take that seriously, or are you just making conversation?"

"Take this one seriously, please. You need a week of rest, minimum. Doctor"s orders." Phoebe said.

"I need to talk to George, and Song Chen, and…"

"Have them come and meet you here, in these apartments." Phoebe got up to leave.

Oddly, seeing her shoulders in front of him, Remian had an instant of an urge to hug those shoulders. Why? Whatever for? He didn"t understand it himself.

Suppressing the weird urge, he cleared his throat. "Thank you, doctor."

"Take care, now, and eat slowly." Phoebe said shortly. "I"ll be in the new hospital wing two floors down if you need anything."

With that, she left, leaving Remian wondering why he had the strangest feeling that she"d been offended at him for some reason.