Fated (Chapter Twenty-Two)
Saturday, August 15th, 2015 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kingdom of Illian, Minecraftia. September 26, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Nessy’s eyes slowly slid open, and she the first thing she noticed was that she was inside a tent. She wondered dimly how she had gotten here- she couldn’t remember going to bed the previous night- when she heard Nia sigh softly.
She sat up and looked over at her friend, who was fiddling with her goggles. She looked up when she noticed Nessy and grinned at her. “You’re awake! I’m glad you’re okay.”
“What…” Nessy shook her head, still partially asleep.
“Why didn’t you tell us that you were a dragon?”
At those words, the memories of the previous day came rushing back. Nessy groaned and pulled the blanket over her, hiding from Nia.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Nia’s voice was soft. “I just…want to know why you didn’t tell us. Being a dragon is pretty cool and-“
“Half-dragon.” Nessy muttered. “I’m a half-dragon. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“A half-dragon?” Nia asked, pulling the blanket off of Nessy.
Nessy crossed her arms, refusing to meet Nia’s eyes. “Yeah. A half-dragon.” She paused. “Go ahead. Say it. I shouldn’t exist. I’m a freak of nature. You want me gone.”
Nia reached forward to put a hand on Nessy’s shoulder. “No. You’re my friend and a valuable member of the team. There’s far, far worse out there than half-dragons. It’s actually pretty cool.”
“I’m so weak, though…” Nessy whispered. “Compared to other dragons, at least. Once Mira’s about a year or two old she’ll probably surpass me, especially considering how powerful of a dragon she is.”
“Mira’s powerful?”
“She’s the child of a creator. She will be.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” Nia shifted closer to Nessy and hugged her. “You’re not a freak of nature or a monster or anything. You’re important and we care about you, no matter what you are. Okay?”
“Okay.” Nessy whispered, hugging Nia in return. She hadn’t dared to hope for this kind of reaction from her friends- she had expected to be hated, shunned, or kicked out.
A half-dragon was a very rare thing, as the few dragons that can take human form generally don’t interact with the mortal races due to their seclusion in the Dragonlands. As it was, offspring from these pairings were weaker than regular dragons but tended to attract all the dangers that were normally associated with dragons: lokolangs, dragon hunters, etc. Many dragons hated these creatures for their connection to the mortal races that had driven them to live only in the Dragonlands and their weaknesses, while humans hated them for being different and stronger than them, marking them as a threat.
Nessy had lived alone for most of her life to avoid such discrimination and hate, and now it was revealed to her friends. They seemed to be taking it well, but she had no idea how well newer people or the other groups would take it. She shuddered. She had never planned to reveal herself to dozens of people.
For a half-dragon, discovery was often a death sentence.
Eventually Nia released her. “Let’s get outside, okay? Shred’s been wanting to get moving all morning. We need to get back to the river and follow it for awhile or…something. I honestly don’t know if Shred knows what she’s doing, but she won’t let me look at the map.”
Nessy nodded, getting to her feet. They had a long walk ahead of them, at this rate.
~~~
Samuel folded up the map when they finally reached the river. “We’re here, finally. Let’s get to chopping down some trees- we’ll need logs.”
“Okay.” Tarsen immediately pulled an axe from his horse’s saddlebag and set to work chopping down a tree.
“Why are we here?” Valkan snarled, drawing Samuel’s attention. “We’re supposed to be heading south, towards Variat. Why have we been going east?”
Samuel looked at him like he had gone insane. “We’re going to make some boats here and take the river south as far as we can. Then we’ll walk over the hills to the lake in the middle of Illian, then take the river south to Variat- Tirisk is right along the river in the very north. I thought that much was obvious.”
Valkan sputtered indignantly as Samuel turned to Tranpar and Trymdas. “Tranpar, I don’t want you in the way. Either stay on the horse or play by the river but don’t get in the way. Trymdas, if you can help without hurting yourself then please do so. If you can’t, then I advise that you don’t.”
Tranpar muttered under his breath as he dismounted and walked towards the river, sitting beside it and picking up a rock to study. Trymdas nodded silently and moved to help Tarsen start cutting up the tree he had chopped down.
Samuel turned back to Valkan. “I advise that you help or you won’t get a place on one of the boats.”
Valkan muttered darkly but went to help them, clearly displeased at essentially being called stupid by Samuel and then ordered about.
“Did you know what his plan was?” Valkan asked Tarsen quietly.
“Nope. I just knew that he knew what he was doing.” Tarsen responded cheerfully. “Do we need another tree, Samuel?”
“Yes.”
“Okay!” Tarsen moved over to another tree and went back to work.
Valkan grumbled something rude and somewhat violent under his breath, making his brother flinch. Trymdas didn’t respond or comment, though.
He never did.
-~-
“That never even occurred to me.” Bdoubleo admitted. “Building a boat, I mean.”
Paul looked at him like he was nuts. “It didn’t?”
“No. And I don’t think it occurred to either of the other groups.”
“The Valdrar group wouldn’t need a boat.” Paul reasoned. “But the Ahnrak group does.”
“That must not have occurred to any of them.” Seth muttered. “But why?”
“I would expect better from Shred, at least.” Paul said, crossing his arms. “Wouldn’t she think of that?”
“Skullblades don’t travel by boat much.” Blame informed him, looking up from the orb. “We tend to prefer to walk if possible. More chance to run into danger and fight it off, I suppose. More fun that way.”
“Do you share that want to walk everywhere?” Paul asked him, curious.
“Hell no. I hate walking.”
Vechs laughed. “Especially when I’m with you?”
Blame glared at him. “Walking any length of distance with you is a nightmare. We have to stop every five minutes.”
Vechs looked hurt. “Ten. Maybe fifteen.”
Blame rolled his eyes. “Fine. Six.”
“Seven, at least!”
“Six.”
Vechs made an indignant sound and crossed his arms. Paul patted his shoulder. “Six.”
“You guys are jerks.” Vechs pouted.
“So are you.” Blame pointed out. “Remember your maps?”
Vechs groaned. “Don’t remind me.” His eyes flicked over to the blanket that still obscured the orb on the other side of the room.
He really did not need to be reminded of that.
~~~
Niel sighed as he climbed onto Teramelle’s back. He hated feeling helpless but the fact of the matter was that he couldn’t walk as far as the others, and when he did walk he was really just slowing them down. They insisted that he wasn’t a burden but he knew that he was, which was upsetting to say the least.
A desire to be useful.
He was so lost in these thoughts that he almost didn’t hear Mira squeaking excitedly and stopping to look upriver. The group paused and looked at what she was looking at.
Two wooden rafts were floating downriver a decent pace- the first raft holding five people, and the second with a horse and equipment. Upon closer inspection, the figures looked very familiar.
“Samuel!” Shred frowned slightly as she saw him, clearly very confused. “Aren’t you supposed to be heading south?”
“The river is faster.” Samuel called back. “Hang on. Tarsen, get this thing to shore.”
“Aye aye, captain!” Tarsen saluted sarcastically and pulled on something, moving a rudder in the back of the raft and steering it towards the riverbank.
Once stopped, Samuel jumped off of the raft. “What are you doing?” He demanded.
“What am I doing? What are you doing?”
“Taking the river is faster.” Samuel repeated. “I thought that’s what you would be doing: making some rafts and taking the river downstream. It’s practically a direct route to Ahnrak: you just leave the river a little bit before you reach the ocean and head east for an hour or so and you’re there.”
“…You can take rivers places to get there faster?”
Not the best navigator.
Samuel groaned. “Yes, Shred, you can. Really, I expected better of you. It’s common sense that using a river is faster, at least with your route. With ours it’s a little bit of a tossup but considering that three of five of us are not the best at walking quickly for long periods of time, it’s easier this way.”
“Well…I…um…we’re good at walking!”
“Are you?” Samuel raised an eyebrow. “All of you?”
“Well…”
Samuel shook his head. “Continue down the river and you’ll eventually find a village. You can probably buy a couple of rafts there and take them downriver. You can see the route on your map.”
Nia stepped up to Shred and held out her hand. “Map, please.”
“What?”
“You’ve messed up twice now. Map.”
“You didn’t suggest the river thing either!”
“I couldn’t see the rivers on our route because you had the map!”
“Shred. Give her the map.” Samuel crossed his arms.
Shred sighed and handed it over to Nia. “Fine…”
“You built those?” Adrian asked, looking at the rafts.
“Yes! I made the rudder!” Tranpar bounced a little. “Isn’t it great?”
“Fantastic. So you guys won’t stay to help us make boats?”
“No. We’re exhausted and need to get moving. You can buy your own rafts when you get there.” Samuel said, clearly still disappointed in them.
“Let’s get moving!” Tarsen called.
“Right. Let’s.” Samuel shook his head at them one more time before getting back on the raft and continuing downstream.
Nia opened up the map and looked it over. “There should be a town on the river just a day and half’s walk or so away, I think. Assuming we’re where I think we are.” She rolled the map up. “Let’s go, then.”
Niel smiled as they got moving again, knowing that he wouldn’t have to walk or hold them back anymore. It was a good feeling to not be a burden.
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Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 10:14 pm (UTC)also YAY NIEL *hug*
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Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 10:35 pm (UTC)I like this chapter
And nessy awh.
And things
And stuffs.
And I should stop before I ramble
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Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 10:39 pm (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 11:42 pm (UTC)That moment when Tarsen was less of a screwup in Samuel's eyes than Shred was, brings a tear to my eye <3
Also, I'm naming Tarsen's boat "And hoes"
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Date: Sunday, August 16th, 2015 01:09 am (UTC)Great chapter! WHOO HALF-DRAGONS!!!!!!!
-Sierra
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Date: Sunday, August 16th, 2015 06:40 am (UTC)And can we PLEASE get some info about Trymdas? I'm going crazy. And yay, two chapters in two days!
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker