Kingdom Of The Weak

Or at least, Doom said it was an ultimate technique. That"s what he called it. Darian wasn"t so sure.

But whatever it was, it was definitely powerful.

The first thing Doom had Darian learn was the Dragon Silhouette. He said, "You need to be able to survive out here on your own! I"m not going to run around rescuing you all day!"

"Is it that hard to survive around here?" Darian asked, looking around Dragon Lake.

"You"re in the middle of six Dragon clans with hundreds of members between them, any of whom might feel like snapping you up as a snack. You tell me."

Darian quit the very thought of protesting. "What"s a Dragon Silhouette?"

"You know how Ha"res-dras sometimes appears bigger than he really is? He doesn"t actually get bigger. That"s his Silhouette. If you hit it, he probably won"t even feel it."

"So it"s like armor?"

"More like an aura, but yes, it protects him. If it somehow gets destroyed, he might just survive and escape, and then once he recovers his strength, he can just make a new one…"

"That"s awesome! So I need to make a Human Silhouette?"

"No, I told you already! Dragon Silhuoette! Draaaagon!" Doom dragged it out. "Claws, tail and everything! Like this!"

Doom disappeared and in his place, a towering hundred-foot long dragon appeared, dark green and scaly, wisps of fire coming from his mouth. [See?]

Darian suddenly had a very clear understanding of exactly how it was that Doom managed to get along so well with the dragons.

Forming that Silhuoette, however, was crazy hard. He needed Psionic Power, a good deal of Life Force (Song Chen might call it Martial Qi, Darian thought), some Body Strengthening methods much more difficult than Wulfgar"s, even some magic for the fire breath. In order to perform this one technique, he needed to learn all of them in a hurry.

Otherwise, he might just become someone"s lunch snack tomorrow.

So Doom taught him methods to train in all those things and then said, "Other than practicing those methods I taught you, there"s a few things you should do to hurry your training up. Eat these fruits twice a day, lie down at the bottom of the lake over there for the water pressure, breathe through this tube, and pray to G.o.d that no big fishes get hungry enough to take a bite out of you."

"What fruits are these?"

"Just try one. Put the whole thing in your mouth, chew and swallow quickly."

AUM!

"Whoa! My blood is on fire! My body is burning up!!" Darian yowled.

"Like I said; bottom of the lake." Doom handed him a gigantic tube. "For breathing."

Darian went right in. Even inside the lake, he still felt the scorching heat in his body. It wasn"t like spicy food where only his throat and tongue burned; his very blood seemed to be on fire.

He lay there at the bottom of the Lake for roughly five minutes before another problem cropped up. [I"m bored.]

Doom shrugged mentally in response. [So? Feel free to chat. There"s lots of Wilds around. Take your pick.]

He did. But the one he chatted with the most was Doom himself. He learnt a lot from Doom.

By the end of the first day, Darian successfully formed a Silhuoette… two inches big.

"Well…" Doom eyed the vaguely wormy form. "I guess it sort of looks like a dragon? You"ve got a long way to go, my boy."

Darian groaned.

***

They lived in tents made of dried skins. Why dried skins? It"s because Doom had a mind-blowing abundance of such materials. He"d collected skins and bones and even leftover meat from the remains of the prey dragons nearby hunted. Then he dried the skins for his clothing and tents and such, carved the bones to make spears and harpoons and fishhooks and whatnot. There was a tent Doom slept in, a new tent for Darian, two big tents that stored up lots of that skin and bones, two really big tents that stored up cured meat and dried fish (although that emptied out every time a dragon came by to join them for supper), and one last square tent that was filled with sticks and stones.

Another of the most useful techniques Darian learned early on was how to light a fire with magic.

Doom drew a triangular insignia and said, "Flame!"

Whoosh! The hearth made of stones and sticks lit up just like that.

"Remember to aim properly." Doom told him. "And never say "fire" or "burn" or anything! Always "flame"! That keeps it small, just one flame! Be specific!"

Then he taught him how to use water magic to purify water for drinking, wind magic for a breeze and to dry stuff faster, earth magic to sense vibrations from afar when something was coming.

***

That weekend, Darian went to visit his parents at Three Pines Peak. He wasn"t sure they were there at first, but Doom said they were, and he could ask the Wilds about it, so…

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad." Darian waved and left Ha"res-dras to snooze atop the mountain while he stayed with his parents in one of the less damaged structures at the black ruins town square.

Darian"s Mom was not happy when she heard how he was living these days. "At least learn to tan leather properly! And you need to eat a more balanced diet!"

"I eat plenty of fruit!" Darian protested.

"That"s not good enough. You need rice, or bread." Mom insisted. "Take some seeds. Plant grain and vegetables. Take care of yourself."

So Darian went back after that weekend with bags of grain and vegetables, and fulfilled his promise to Mom to plant them. That was how a garden sprouted up around their campsite. Also, he had to learn how to tan. Doom ended up helping him out with that until he could handle it on his own.

The following weekend, Mom had Koma teach Darian how to thatch. She simply was not comfortable with him living in a tent! Doom shook his head when he heard of that ridiculous bias, and said, "You may as well just live in a tree house."

That was exactly what happened next. Mom couldn"t very well complain about him living in a tree house when Aunt Xia did that at Three Pines Peak, right?

Still, she complained about his clothes. She ended up sending a few new sets back with him that second weekend, proper clothing made of linen and a wool blanket on top of that.

Darian didn"t protest. What was he to do, tell her that he spent most of his days naked underwater? On top of that, the time he needed clothes the most was when he was on a dragon"s back; those times, he needed really, really thick furs.

Unable to tell her too much (for her own sanity as well as his), Darian lugged more luggage back that second weekend.

Doom groaned when he saw all that. "What next? Do you need to learn forging too?"

"Maybe?" Darian scratched his head.

"Forget it! Dragon bones are harder than iron! I"ll just teach you how to carve and craft with bone. Just add in some runes and you"re good to go."

Rune-smithing, now?!

Yeah, Darian learned a LOT.