The Dragon Lords Part 2-Eggs aren't cheap
Alex opened his eyes to the bright sunshine illuminating his room. The storm had broken and the sky was cloudless. He emerged from his bed and stretched his arms out as he yawned. Noticing that he was still in yesterday's clothes, he grabbed a shirt and trousers and proceeded down the hallway towards the bathroom. Despite it being light outside, Alex was the only person in the house awake. He crept past his sister's bedroom, though with Daniel's snoring he doubted a dragon's roar would have woken them up. He walked into the bathroom and silently closed the door. Most farms only had a large bucket for washing themselves, not the O'Neil's. They had a ceramic basin with silver taps on a small wooden unit, with a medium oval shaped mirror hanging above it, and a large ceramic bath with a silver rim and gold trimmings. The sink was too high for Alex to reach it easily but he had a small wooden stool to stand on. He looked at himself in the mirror, turned the hot water tap on and began to undress. When the basin was filled up enough he grabbed a nearby sponge and began to wash his petite naked form. When he was finished he dressed his lower body and began to wash his face. After the grime was removed he dried his face off and continued to look at his reflection in the mirror. His small body had the markings of muscle build-up on his chest and arms. Admiring his small body he began to flex his minuscule muscles. He was so preoccupied by his muscles that he didn't realize Daniel standing in the doorway.
"Looking for something?" Daniel joked, startling Alex. He wobbled backwards and crashed onto the floor.
"Oww..." Alex moaned. "How long have you been standing there?" He asked still lying on the floor. Daniel, dressed only in brown trouser, tutting, came over to him and helped him up.
"Long enough." He helped him get dressed and led him downstairs. "Your sister and I need to have a word with you." When they walked into the kitchen there was Katherine, still in her pink nightgown and an apron strung across the front of her body with her hair tied behind her head, cooking food over the stove. As she turned to dish up breakfast Alex gulped. She was wearing the face she used when he was in-trouble.
"What have I done?" Alex asked, anticipating what was coming. Daniel answered by dropping the cowbells on the table. Alex looked at the bells, back at Daniel, then back the bells. He repeated the process five times before say, "I didn't do it."
"These were found in your hiding spot." Daniel responded.
"I don't know how they got there." Alex retorted quickly looking for a way out. Katherine walked over to the table and deposited their breakfast on the table.
"Alex, we're not going to shout at you. We just want to know why?" Unable to look away from her face, Alex eventually gave and told them what he had been doing over the past few days. After breakfast, and a stern telling off, he was taken outside and given his chores for the day. Helping the farmhands with collecting the milk and mucking out the stables. This was his general routine for the next few months as the sessions changed from autumn to winter and finally spring. When the snow stopped falling, it was a sign of the coming of the traders. They visited Bo-shal twice every year, after the cold season was over and just after the harvest. They always bought what food and other resources the villagers had in excess, normally for a reasonable price, as well as offering some of their own wares. This was the case for their visit this year. It was the first visit of the year and Alex's favourite of the two. The traders came on the eve of the anniversary of his birth, meaning he was allowed to go into town with Daniel and some of the other farm hands and buy something from the traders for his birthday, normally it would be a bag of sweets, but this year was different.
Katherine helped Alex put on his massive fur coat, while Daniel stood by the door with a large sheep skinned vest over his worn, brown tunic. "Sis, do I really need to wear all this?" Alex whined.
"Last time you nearly caught your death of cold!" Katherine retorted, fastening a scarf around his neck.
"Truth be told, it was just a bad cold." Daniel corrected.
"For someone of his age it's just as serious."
"Whatever, all I'm worried about is the time you spend worrying about him. I'm starting to feel jealous." Daniel pouted. Before he could break her, she kicked them out the door shouting orders to Daniel, who just smiled and waved. They proceeded through the thick snow towards the barn though Alex had to stretch to get his petite feet into Daniel's boot prints. It wasn't long before they reached the barn where some of the other farmhands had a cart readied with all the supplies that they intended to sell to the traders. When they reached the cart Daniel lifted Alex and put him into the driver's seat of the cart. "It's going to be a long trek to reach the town, so I think you should stay on here. When we get closer to the town, you can walk it the rest of the way." Daniel explained to him. With a sad look on his face, Alex nodded in acknowledge, and with that they began their decent to the village. The farm was built on a large hill some distance from the village meaning that they could only see the small wooden houses spread around the snow covered valley. The trail that led from the farm to the village was long and covered in snow and ice. It took them twice as long to descend the trail because of the horses and cart slipping and sliding but, with the farmhands guiding them, they soon reached a part of the path where they could all find some grip. It was at this point that Alex was allowed down. Within minutes they were on the outskirts of the village where the traders had set up their tents. The tents were an assortment of colours and sizes. As the farmhands began to unload the goods they'd brought with them, Daniel took Alex to the side. "I'm trusting you not to get yourself into too much trouble while we go and sort this out." He gave him a small bag of coins. "Go and buy yourself some sweets and remember, there'll be friends everywhere so if the traders try anything, just holler and someone will be there in moments." Daniel told him as he turned to help unload the cart. After a few steps he stopped and shouted to Alex, "Almost forgot, Bradley sent you a few silvers for your birthday." He threw him another bag. "Spend them wisely." With the bags tied to his belt he trotted off into the crowd. He always enjoyed walking around the tents, browsing their wares and sniffing the smell of the different exotic foods. He was almost about to move into the next alley of tents when he noticed the tent of Bo-shal's resident merchant, David Jones. He pushed through the crowd until he stood in front of David's stall. He was a large man with a big muscles and a large, protruding belly. He was a bald man with a thick brown goatee. His face was stern and rough, the face of a man still haunted by his past, yet when he saw Alex his eyes shone with a happiness that spread across his entire body.
"Master Alexander, it's good to see you again." He spoke with a gentle smile.
"Hello David, how's business?" Alex answered, trying to sound like he understood what he was saying.
"It has been slow. The winter always affects my profits as it's difficult for my supplies to reach me, but I was lucky this year." He picked up a small wooden box from under the stall and placed it on the counter. "Just got a new shipment of Dwarven Gumdrops." He removed a small multi-coloured sphere from the box and deposited it into his mouth. "Truly they have mastered the art of enchantment." Dwarven Gumdrops were Alex's favourite. No matter how long you left them, they would never go off. The different assortment of colours was down to the enchantment the dwarves had put on them. They changed colour in your mouth and tasted different depending on your mood. The better your mood, the better the taste.
"How much for a bag?" Alex asked.
David scratched his goatee, trying to come up with a fair price. "Well, I'd normally sell them for a silver piece, but for you I'll make an exception. For one silver you can have two bags." He smiled. "That should last you a fair few months." Alex rummaged into his money bags and lifted out three silver pieces. When he put them on the table, David opened his mouth in amazement.
"I'll take six bags then." David picked up the silver pieces and weighted them in his hands.
"Where did you get these?" He asked, a sly grin on his face, implying that he stole them.
"Bradley sent me them."
A sad expression appeared on David's face. "Still fighting in the war?"
"Yeah." Alex replied, the same sad look upon his face. Bradley was Katherine's twin and had enrolled in the Royal Army to fight a guerrilla war against the Black Disciples. Alex had only seen pictures of him; they'd never actually met in person.
"Well, I guess they'll last you about a year then." He said as he placed six medium sized cloth bags on the table. "Though I don't think Daniel is going to be too happy with you spending everything on sweets."
"Oh, I've got more some more left." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver piece and fifty coppers worth. "I can still afford something else."
"Well then, I won't keep you any longer." He smiled as he helped Alex with the bags. They were too big for him to tie to his belt so David produced a small sack that was big enough to hold all the bags but small enough that Alex could carry it. After waving goodbye, Alex merged back into the crowd. For the rest of the day he looked around the other stalls, browsing the different items for sale. Most of the traders shooed him away after he just stood there staring at their goods. It soon became dark and Alex decided to find Daniel and head off back to the farm. He began to make his way to the outskirts of the tents and eventually managed to push his way through the crowd. He emerged into a vast white clearing that stretched all the way down the mountain and bordered with the forest of Alan-or. This was the trail that all visitors to Bo-shal must tread, meaning Alex was on the wrong side of the village. He took a moment to admire the scenery, the great sloping track, the snow caped trees and the clear grey sky. From the ground it was beautiful, yet he longed to gaze upon it from the sky, to see the world through the eyes of the majestic beasts of the sky.
"Soon I will be a Rider, then all my dreams will come true." Alex spoke to himself.
He turned and began to head back towards the centre of the village. It was then that he noticed a particularly strange tent. It was white with large vertical purple strips breaking up the white background. It had a large entrance with a small cover over it, held up by two poles joined to the bottom of the tent. There was something ominous about the tent, yet Alex felt drawn to it. He lifted the cloth that covered the entrance and proceeded inside. The tent was a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. The inside of the tent was illuminated by a small Dwarven artificial lantern, a crystal that shone like a real flame, hanging from the centre of the tent. The tent interior was brown with a golden tint from the reflections of numerous gold necklaces and other expensive jewellery. They all looked incredibly expensive so he decided to leave before he broke anything. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, one of the necklaces began to shine brighter than the others. He went over to it to investigate. The necklace in question was shaped like a dragon, embroidered with many small jewels, yet when he ran his thumb along its surface; it was quite rough, rougher than any necklace he'd ever seen before.
"That is a very rare necklace you have there." A voice called from behind him. Alex quickly spun around, knocking over some of the necklaces. He bowed his head to the man and began to apologize and pick up the necklaces, though his petite form only made the mess he'd made worse. When he didn't hear the man, whom he presumed to be the trader, complain he turned round slowly to face him. The man before him sat at the table near the back of the tent, a massive cloak covering his body. From under the hood he could see a strand of purple hair. *Must be from some distant land or something.* Alex thought. The trader stood, walked over to the mess and, with a flurry of arms, had fixed it in a matter of moments.
"Please be careful. This stuff is quite expensive." The trader remarked, voice void of emotion. He led Alex towards the table and sat him down before he did anything else. "Now what do you want?" He asked abruptly.
Alex was a little startled by the abruptness of the question. He explained the feeling he'd felt when he approached the tent.
"And the first thing you went towards was the dragon scale necklace." Alex nodded. The trader placed his hand on his chin and began to rub the stubble that had begun to grow there. "Let me guess, you like, no wait, adore dragons?" He asked. When Alex nodded a massive grin appeared on the traders, less than visible, face. "Then do I have something for you." He reached under the table and brought out a medium sized chest and a large square covered in a red velvet cloth. He rested his left hand on the velvet saying, "I think this would interest you the most." He pulled off the velvet cloth revealing a large white tome, embroidered with gold lace along its massive spine and cover. On the cover was a strange runic language that Alex didn't recognize, but the text below it, as well as the picture, was easy enough to recognize. The picture was of a gold dragon's eye with black scales around it making up a portion on a dragon's head. The text read, "All you need to know about Dragons". Alex stared at the book, hands hovering the book, hesitating to touch it. "Go on, have a read." The merchant reassured him. When moments Alex had flung the heavy book open, found a random page and began to read. It detailed many different facts about the average dragon, what they eat everything that you would want to know about dragons. "This book was written by Master Ty-Mry, the dragon breeder, himself. It tells you everything you'd want to know about dragons. Their history, a brief description on what they were like during the Human-Dragon war, all their abilities and even how they breed." Alex looked up at the trader with a worried look on his face. "There's and index at the front so you can miss it out if you want. But the best part of this book is the last chapter." He flicked through the pages until he reached the final chapter. He pointed at the top of the page for Alex to read. When he read it he nearly fainted. The chapter was entitle, "How to speak dragon tongue". "Knew you would like this part."
"How much?" Alex asked, giddy.
The trader scratched his stubble again. "Well, seeing as this is a common enough book in the big cities, I'll give it to you for one silver and fifty pieces."
"I thought you said it was common in the big cities?" Alex asked dismayed.
"Yeah, I did. Doesn't mean it isn't expensive. This is cheaper than what they'd sell it in the cities." Grumbling, Alex took out what was left of his money and handed it over. "Thank you for your business." The trader grinned. He wrapped the velvet over the book again and handed it to Alex, who just managed to hold onto it. Alex tucked the massive tome under his coat and tied to his torso, which the tome nearly equalled in size making it difficult to walk.
He turned to leave when he remembered about the chest. "What's in the chest?" He asked. The trader looked at the chest with contempt.
"This is the bane of my existence." He opened up the chest and revealed a large oval object. It was a dark blue stone with orange-red veins spanning across it like the weeds. The texture looked so smooth that Alex doubted he could hold it without it slipping out of his hands. Yet, when the trader passed it to him to hold, he found its surface to be very rough.
He wondered what it was. "What is it?"
"It is a replica dragon's egg." the trader said as he took the egg off Alex.
"Replica?"
"That's what the dwarves call it. You can the resemblance though between this and the real thing. This stone is a testimony to the exquisite detail that the dwarves are famous for. I was lucky enough to compare this with a proper dragon's egg. The only person who could tell the difference was the dragon who laid the egg itself. Truly, a wonder of Dwarven craftsmanship. I had hoped to take it to the Imperial city and sell it for a fortune. Sadly, I couldn't get a buyer. I've been traveling around with this thing for three years now and still no-one has been interested in buying it."
"How much have you been selling it for?" Alex asked interested, hoping for a low price.
"I've tried to sell it for around a hundred gold pieces. Heck, even fifty silvers! Now I'd just be glad for one single silver piece."
Alex lowered his head, sad heartened. *If it was a few coppers he could scrounge some up from somewhere but a silver.* He was about to leave when bag containing the Dwarven Gumdrops knocked into his leg. Then it hit him. Sometimes Daniel would buy something by giving the trader something of equal value. "You ever heard of the policy of Equivalent Exchange?" He asked the trader.
"Yes, every trader has. It's at the core of the trader's creed." The trader answered.
Alex lifted out a bag of Gumdrops. "I'll trade you this bag of Dwarven Gumdrops for that stone."
The trader weighted up the bag, examined the contents and eventually popped one into his mouth. "Not bad." He slurred with the gumdrop still in his month. "Alright, you've got a deal." He put the stone back into its box, sealed it and helped Alex put it into his sack with the rest of the gumdrops. Alex smiled and waved as he walked out of the tent and back into the snowy outside. After he fixed the sack over his back, he walked back towards where Daniel had left him.
Andrew King
The trader walked out the back of the tent to two figures; one bond on the ground squirming, the other looming above him in a cloak similar to trader's.
"You are one sly Kerron." The cloaked stranger started. "You were meant to just give him the egg and the book."
"Well, after all the trouble we went through to "acquire" them, we deserve something for our troubles." Kerron opened up the bag in his hands and removed another gumdrop. He offered the bag to the other stranger who accepted with a clawed hand. "Man, we need to get your talons trimmed Khranarion. They might hurt someone." Kerron added.
Khranarion just snorted. "Last I checked, that was the idea." They both laughed until a muffled scream interrupted them. They looked down at the bound man who stared back at them, petrified. "What should we do with him?" Khranarion asked.
"Leave him. His fate is none of our concern." Kerron replied, coldly.
"He may not be our responsibility but whether he lives or dies is up to us." Khranarion replied. "And his death could bode ill for us." He ripped a length of cloth off the tent and draped it over the bound figure's form. "That should keep him warm enough until someone can find him."
"Well guess that's your good deed done for the day." Kerron started to walk towards the treeline of Alan-or. "Come on. We deserve a drink, and I know this nice little pub in Siylene."
Alex lay under his bed covers, the giant tome resting on him. He had been home for around six hours and had spent most of that reading. While some of the bigger more complicated words eluded him, he managed to grasp most of what the books was teaching him. He spent most of his time reading about new born dragons, mainly because he could understand the very simple language that it spoke in, as if it was written with him in mind. He read about how when a dragon first hatches the first being it sees it treats as its mother, like most other animals, and forms a mental link with them. It also stated that, having laid the egg, the original mother might have died so it is up to the being it formed the mental link with to look after him. He'd fallen asleep while reading a section on names of dragons and thus failed to see that just opposite him his bookcase, which contained more trinkets and colourful stones than books, had started to shake. On the middle shelf was the replica egg. It just lay on the shelf, the envy of all the other precious stones, shaking back and forth, edging closer to the edge. Eventually it fell to the floor, waking Alex. Looking around, his room was pitch black. *This is really past my bedtime.* He thought, sliding out from the covers off his bed and crawled over the floor to the egg. *How did you end up down here?* He examined the egg and found a massive crack on its surface. *Just my luck. Have it for a few hours and it's already damaged.* He was about to put it back on its shelf when a small squeaking sound reached his ear. He looked around the room, thinking it a mouse, trying to find the source. Then he heard the squeaking again, this time it was louder and sounded closer to him. He searched franticly for the mouse, stone still in hand. He lowered it to the ground and began to search under his bed for the source. The squeaking was more frantic now, as if the mouse was scared. Suddenly the squeaking stopped as Alex was half-way underneath his bed. It was replaced by a cracking sound. This time the sound was coming from directly behind Alex. Pulling himself out from under his bed he turned to see the stone cracking all over its shell. Alex was about to grasp it to try and keep it together when part of the stone flew across the room. The fragment hit the wooden wall with an almighty thump before disintegrating into a million pieces. Alex shot his eyes back towards the stone and found a small scaled leg protruding through the gap. With one part of the stone gone the rest just fell apart revealing the creature which lay within. It looked like a lizard, scaled blue from its head to the tip of its tail, both of which were long and muscled. It had massive legs for something of its size and spikes that ran along its spine. The top of its body, at the base of the spikes and at the elbow and knee joints were coloured orangey-red. Its total size was no bigger than Alex's torso. Though it wasn't the size of this magnificent creature that mesmerized him, it was the massive folded flaps that hung by its side. They were small sapphire blue frames with orangey-red leather skin between them, turning bluer nearer the small, bony frames. Alex couldn't believe his eyes. Right before him, sprawling across the floor, was a baby dragon! So many questions spun around his head, but the biggest one had to be, "How did this happen to me?" He spun around, still on the floor, and flicked through his tome back to the part on young dragonlings. He scanned over everything trying to find the part about what they eat, their sleeping habits, everything he thought he'd need to know to look after it. Then he remembered how a newly born dragon would form a mental link with the first creature it saw. He turn around slowly to face the dragon. There it stood, head cocked to the side, staring at him with its deep blue eyes, humming. As it stared at him he felt something burrow into his mind, causing him some discomfort. When it finally stopped a wave of new emotions flooded into his head. Alex realized that these thoughts were not his own but where coming from someone else. Then it hit him.
"Uh oh."
"Do you think Alex is okay?" Katherine asked Daniel, a pair of knitting needles in her hands.
"What do you mean?" Daniel answered, a longsword and whetstone in his hands.
"Well he rushed through his dinner and tried to sneak up the stairs with his sack."
"Now that you mention it, he did act suspicious when we found him. He was walking funny and that sack of his looked like it had more than six bags of those Dwarven Gumdrops he likes so much."
"I'm going to go and see what he's hiding." Katherine said, placing her knitting needles on the nearby table.
"I'd leave him be. You know what boys of his age are..." He was interrupted by a loud bang that came from upstairs.
"What was that?" Katherine asked.
"I'm not sure," Daniel answered, sword in hand. "But I don't like it."
They crept up the stairs towards Alex's room, where they heard a strange squeaking noise accompanied by Alex's pleas to stop. Katherine knocked on his door and the ruckus inside stopped.
"Alex, is everything okay in there?"
"Everything's fine." Alex panted. "No need to open the door."
Not convinced, Daniel tried the door. It was locked. "Alex, open this door!" Daniel ordered.
"Little busy at the moment." He replied, chasing something around his room. There was a crash as something big fell over. Daniel tried the door again while Katherine kept calling out to Alex, with no reply.
"Right, I've had enough of this." Daniel began to ram into the door with his shoulder. Bit by bit the hinges began the give until the door fell inwards. They both rushed into the room, which was a mess. The wooden floor was scratched and torn, the bookcase was missing a few shelves, many of which were on the floor, and the contents of those shelves were either scattered around the floor or in pieces. Alex sat in the corner of the room, small cuts on his face. He lay with a bundle inside his shirt, wriggling and trying to get out. Before anyone could ask what had happened, a long blue head burst out the top of Alex's shirt and started to look around the room. Upon seeing Daniel and the sword in his hands, it tried to scurry out of Alex's grip, him trying to calm it down.
"Don't worry; he's not going to hurt you." Alex soothed, stroking the creatures head. He looked at Daniel and motioned for him to put the sword away.
After it was sheathed, Daniel asked the question that was on both Katherine and his minds, "What on earth is that thing?"
"It's not a thing!" Alex growled. He looked into its blue eyes. "It's a dragon." He turned his head to face them, the dragon mimicking his actions. "Can I keep her?"
