May 2010

"Chris," Victor began, panting from the effort of their trek uphill. "Are you sure dragons live up here?" They'd been at it for hours and there had been no sign of them. Granted, there were never signs of them anywhere else either, but still. He'd hoped for something to show they were on the right track.

"Yes," Chris answered confidently, followed by a not so confident, "Mostly sure."

Victor shot him a withering look. Leave it to his best friend to bluff his way into convincing Victor to abandon everything at the drop of a hat and climb miles up this mountain on a theory. "I can't believe you. You promised me more scales than I could carry!" he whined. Imagine the potions he could brew with those...

He really did have to imagine, seeing as there were no known uses for dragon scales. Oh what glorious discoveries awaited him. He'd be famous! The first to unravel their secrets...

Chris awkwardly laughed, glancing over his shoulder. "Did I?" he asked, and Victor's answering glare made him chuckle weakly. "Well at the very least I can guarantee you unicorn hair. You can make an excellent staff with that as your core. Or maybe a nice wand?" he tried.

"I already have a wand with a unicorn core," he reminded him none too kindly. Victor even went as far as pulling his wand out from his jacket's inner pocket and gesturing lightly in Chris's direction. A few small spheres of light zipped out from the tip and went to zap his friend lightly on the neck, causing him to gasp and squirm away. "I wanted to make one with dragon heartstring!"

"Ow!" Chris cried, though he'd been more startled than hurt. "What was that for?"

Victor stowed his wand away once more. "For dragging me on a wild goose chase. There were never any dragon's up here, were there?" he pressed. "No mysterious traveler joined you in the tavern last night, did they? And you just fabricated the whole story about them showing you a dragon's egg they supposedly found up here."

"In my defense," Chris said, tossing another look over his shoulder, this time a subtle smirk in place. "You fell for the most cliché scenario there is. Is that really my fault?"

"Fulgur," Victor hissed, and threw several bolts of lightning dancing in Chris's direction, scorching the ground they touched down on. His friend hopped in place to prevent his boots from being singed. "So cruel, Chris!"

"Says the man trying to barbecue me!" he protested. Chris stopped and turned fully around, facing a pouting Victor who had his arms crossed over his chest. Chris took that as a good sign, and that maybe Victor wouldn't be tossing any more spells his way for the moment. "I'm sorry, okay? I really needed some silverweed and it only grows up here. You never want to come with me when I ask."

"Why couldn't you just go alone?" Victor asked. "Why do you need me?"

Chris sighed. "Because it's too dangerous for me to go by myself. You know that. I don't know enough defensive magic." His specialty was charms, which while useful in everyday life, were not the most helpful should you find yourself cornered by an angry beast. (Although in a pinch he had once levitated himself until the acromantula had given up and scuttled off to find another snack.)

Victor was starting to resign himself to the fact he would not be making any magical discoveries any time soon. "...Do dragons even exist?" he finally asked, sounding wholly disappointed.

Chris shrugged. "I don't think so. No one alive has ever seen one. They're just in stories, you know?"

Victor did know. He had every book on dragons available, which wasn't as many as you might expect. They were old – some falling apart to the point he was afraid to touch them. When pouring over them he gently used magic to turn the pages, worried any physical contact might cause them to crumble. He had everything memorized, every iota of knowledge wizards before him had notated on the animals. Their diets, their breeds, their temperaments, even possible nesting locations! He should have known better than to listen to Chris about this mountaintop, it was all wrong. To begin with, in this part of Russia they would most likely find zmey, a fiery dragon type that would burn the forests to ashes with a single furious burst of flame. No, he was an idiot for coming up here. The dragons would have been down at the base in caves...

He was an idiot for coming up here because dragons were simply legends. He'd just held out such hope that the old accounts were based on truth.

"Victor?" Chris asked, drawing him out of his thoughts. "On a scale from one to ten, how mad are you right now?"

He thought it over for a minute before he sighed and started walking again, brushing past his best friend to continue on the trail. "Mad? Probably a three. Disappointed? A solid eleven."

He'd been fascinated by the idea of dragons for as long as he could remember. They had to be real. If mermaids and unicorns and sphinx's were real, why not dragons? So one hadn't been sighted in several hundred years, that didn't mean anything. Maybe there wasn't any physical evidence. So what? Banshees left no trace behind, no body to examine, yet we all know they are out there haunting houses.

"Did you need anything other than silverweed?" he asked, drawing a notebook out from his other inner pocket. "Now that you mention it, there are a few things I've been meaning to collect myself." He looked over the list of potion ingredients he'd been jotting down all week: bouncing bulbs, puffapods, venomous tentacula leaves...

"Ah, yes, actually," Chris said, falling into step beside Victor. "Yuri's been needing mandrake roots, and I really wouldn't say no to some unicorn hair if we see one..."


They spent the night on the mountaintop, Chris charming toadstools into large, spongey beds and green moss into blankets while Victor set up a few protective barriers around their campsite. Last time Chris had ventured too far into the forest on his own, he'd been rudely awakened by a herd of curious centaurs. He wasn't eager to have their bows aimed at him again any time soon. This was why he needed Victor.

His best friend was the most gifted sorcerer their town had seen in ages. His wand work was second to none, his mind an encyclopedia of spells, and his potions were sought after by wizards from as far as Thailand. The only areas he fell short in at school had been care of magical creatures and divination.

Divination Chris could see, as he wasn't all too fond of fortune telling himself. For one thing, it took the spontaneity out of life. Second, everyone who had the gift of sight seemed depressed, as if the future only held promises of hopelessness and despair. If that's all there was to see, he'd rather not know.

Failing magical creature studies three years in a row surprised Chris, seeing as how obsessed with dragon lore Victor was. But maybe that was the problem, his friend was too engrossed in one species to absorb knowledge of anything else.

When dawn arrived the two made their way back down the mountain. Victor was sorely tempted to transport himself home instantly and leave Chris, now that he wasn't on the lookout for dragons, but he stayed for the walk. Though he wouldn't admit it now, he had needed this journey. He'd been spending far too many hours a day brewing potions in the stuffy back room of his apothecary. Business was steadily growing, and while he should be delighted that he was receiving requests from customers from around the world, he found the whole thing quite tedious and boring. Potion making, while lucrative, was not his passion. This was only ever supposed to have been temporary, a means for an income while he focused on his true dream of finding a living, breathing dragon. These days he was far too busy brewing to go on any adventures.

At the base of the mountain the two went their separate ways, Chris towards Yuri's home to deliver the mandrakes and Victor towards his shop, above which was his small living quarters. He entered the shop and made a beeline for the storage room, dropping off the ingredients he'd collected before trudging upstairs for a nap in a real bed.

He awoke some hours later, absolutely starving. He did a mental check of all the food he had in the kitchen, not recalling anything particularly appealing and finding himself once again locking up shop and venturing on a small mission. While he was perfectly capable of conjuring up a meal, magicked food never quite tasted like the real thing. Something was always missing, and he got such little satisfaction out of it that it was worth the walk into the town center.

Victor ate at his favorite tavern, joining a few familiar faces rather than sitting off by himself. Chris had been telling him to be more social lately. Despite being the most well known sorcerer in town, Victor had very few people he called friends. (He preferred it that way, honestly.)

Hunger satisfied and his socialization set for the week, he began to get his things together to head home. Just as he was about to stand a paper bird flew in through one of the open windows. A few patrons looked up to see who it was for, and when it landed in front of Victor and unfolded into a scroll, they turned away, uninterested.

Victor picked up the parchment and looked it over. Victor, it began. I hope there's no hard feelings about yesterday. I know I shouldn't have lied to you, but I really thought you needed to get out of the house for a bit. You haven't been yourself lately. Victor assumed that was referring to his lack of adventure lately, but... He was getting older. He didn't have time to be playing around hunting for mythological creatures with a full time job now.

Speaking of getting out of the house... Would it be too much to ask for you to pop over to Japan and pick me up a bezoar stone? I'd really appreciate it.

Victor laughed quietly to himself. Asking him to go international immediately after that impromptu journey yesterday? Chris must have been surprised with a commission of some type today to have the nerve to pull that. Still, Victor would do it, and Chris knew that. Victor could never tell his best friend no.

Victor really needed to teach Chris teleportation spells soon.

Well, without Chris tagging along this would be much faster than their mountain trip. "Ianuae," he said softly, snapping his fingers as he envisioned the bustling center square of Hasetsu. He blinked, and when his eyes regained their focus, he was no longer in the tavern but in the middle of a crowded market.

He was then promptly knocked to the ground.

Victor blinked, world spinning for a moment before he got himself together. There was a weight on him, and he looked down to see a dark haired young man sprawled across his front, cheeks pink as he stuttered out an apology. "Oh," Victor started. "That's – are you-"

"I'm so sorry!" the stranger repeated, pushing off both Victor and the ground to settle back on his heels. "I didn't mean – It's like you appeared out of nowhere!"

Victor chuckled. "That's pretty accurate, actually." He brushed off the front of his clothes before getting to his feet, holding a hand out to help the other man up as well. "It's my fault. I should have known better than to appear in the heart of a busy square." Victor had magicked his way here a hundred times and had never had the unfortunate odds to cut anyone off. He supposed his luck was due to run out. "Are you alright?" he asked again.

"Ah, yes. Thank you." He shifted foot to foot, quickly scanning the ground around them. The stranger suddenly dropped back down to his knees, using his hands to feel around in the dirt, accomplishing nothing but creating a tiny dust storm.

Victor realized he was looking to make sure neither of them dropped anything. Oddly frantic, but maybe he'd dropped some money. He felt his pockets as well, and was comforted by the weight of his wand in his traveling cloaks pocket, the jingle of his coins in his coin purse. "Sorry for the collision," he said, feeling a bit awkward talking to the top of the man's head, who was still shuffling around the dirt and debris. "Have a nice day..."

The younger man looked up quickly. "You too!" he said, and with one last survey of the ground got to his feet, apparently satisfied he'd lost nothing.

Victor spared a weak smile and turned to head across the market square to the stall he frequented on his trips to Hasetsu. The woman running the stand always had bezoar stones and other obscure ingredients he and Chris required from time to time. Once he found her he spent almost an hour picking through her baskets and cauldrons, delighted to find octopus powder this time of year, and enough moondew leaves for several batches of draught of living death. He's had several requests for the potion but hadn't had time to teleport to Scotland to pick them fresh himself.

The kind woman bagged up his purchases, and Victor handed over one silver coin too many with a small wink. "Master Nikiforov," she sighed with a fond smile. "You always do this."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he insisted, considering asking her not to call him 'master' but knowing it was futile. He wasn't technically a Potions Master, having never actually bothered to apply for the license, but no matter how many times he explained this she continued to address him as such. As did most of his customers. It was an understandable mistake, seeing as he was one of the best brewers in the area. But that was exactly why he hadn't ever bothered. Why pay for the fancy piece of paper proclaiming him a Potions Master when he was doing just fine as he was? Word of mouth already had found him more patrons than he could serve, he didn't need accreditation by an organization he could outperform.

And anyway, part of him felt that if he did break down and become a fully licensed master, that was like admitting defeat. That would be accepting that running his apothecary in his sleepy little home town was really the culmination of his schooling and career. That his adventure days were finally over.

The woman's eyes widened. "Oh! I just remembered!" she gasped, clasping onto his wrist for a moment to insist he stay put, then letting go to dig under table. "My son just came for a visit, the one who moved to the United States." Victor could hear her rustling about beneath the tablecloth. "He had a terrible infestation of doxies," she said. The woman reappeared with a worn leather pouch in her hands. "Those pesky little fairy-rats, they wrought havoc on his draperies. If only there was some sort of pesticide for the things."

"You can always use the Knockback Jinx," Victor offered with a smile.

"Oh, I don't know about jinx's and hex's and all that, but I'm sure that's what he did." She motioned for Victor's hands, pushing the pouch into them. "But he did manage to catch a few."

Victor heard a clinking noise from within the pouch, and curious, opened it enough to shake out the contents. Out fell three small vials into his palm. His eyes widened. "This isn't...?"

"Doxy venom," she beamed. "He managed to extract a bit for me, he knows how rare doxies are in Asia." Native to North America, they were virtually nonexistent in Japan. You heard about the rare case of travelers accidentally bringing them along in luggage, but it was always swiftly taken care of to protect domestic wildlife. "When I saw it I knew you'd love it."

"You spoil me," Victor grinned. "How much for it?"

"Don't be silly," she laughed, waving him off. "It's a gift."

"What-" he choked. "Hiroko, I insist," he frowned, reaching for his coin purse again.

The woman laughed again and started to shoo him away. "After all the years of you 'accidentally' overpaying for herbs, I insist. Now be gone with you."

Victor smiled helplessly and thanked her as he dropped the vials back into the pouch and stored it in his cloak's interior pocket. He'd never bought doxy venom before, and hadn't the slightest idea what he was to do with it. He was quite eager to get home and research its uses. After one last wave to Hiroko, he whispered, "Ianuae." In a moment he was home in his apartment over his shop.

Thankfully, he was not bodily knocked to the ground upon arrival.

He pulled off his cloak and fished out his purchases, setting them on the small desk in his room and draping the cloak over the chair in front of it. Victor shuffled a few things around on the table to find a blank piece of parchment and picked it up. "Epistula." It flew out of his hands and folded itself into a bird, chirping happily as it beat its wings to hover before him. "Tell Chris I have the bezoar stones for him." The paper bird chirped in acknowledgment, and Victor could see his messy handwriting slowly appear over the bird's body. It started to fly for the window, pausing as Victor called after it, "Make sure to add something about how this was a great inconvenience for me." The dark script grew to cover a full wing as the bird looped around the room once more before flying out into the night sky.

Victor sighed and shook his head with a smile. Honestly he was glad he'd gone to Hasetsu. A friend from his school days had stumbled upon the little town years ago while searching for mermaids, and had gone on and on about it so much that Victor eventually had to see what the fuss what about. He'd found it utterly charming from his first visit, and Hiroko's stall was always stocked with unusual and exotic ingredients. His eyes landed on the leather pouch on his desk. Sweet Hiroko... he'd slip a gold coin in with his payment next time.

He straightened up his desk a little and pushed in the chair, one of its legs catching on his cloak. "Ah," he frowned, lifting the chair up and using a foot to try and move the fabric out from under the leg. He shook the chair a little to get it free.

Plink.

"Hm?" Victor hummed, sure he'd heard something fall. He looked around at the wood floor, not seeing anything at first. He squatted down to get a better look, moving the folds of his cloak this way and that until his eyes caught on something shining. It was small and light, almost oval in shape, and a beautiful shimmering blue. Victor held it close to his eyes to get a good look in the poor light. Had some of his ingredients spilled out? It appeared to be some sort of scale, though of what he couldn't say. Certainly wasn't something he purchased, and it didn't look like anything from his stores below.

"What are you?" he wondered aloud. How did this get here? He didn't go anywhere or do anything unusual today...

Wait! The man he'd bumped into!

"That must be it," Victor said. "We collided and whatever this is got on or in my cloak. But what is it?" Curiosity peaked, Victor pulled the chair back out and picked up his encyclopedia of potion ingredients and started to flip through. It was nothing he remembered seeing before, but surely he'd find out soon enough.


An hour later Victor had gone though three books on ingredients, and nothing in the scales indexes held any clues. He drummed his fingers on his desk in frustration. Was a strangers odd debris really worth this much investigation? It was probably nothing. Just a scale from a large iguana, he thought. Or an exotic komodo dragon a fanciful wizard charmed to be sapphire.

Victor's brain screeched to a halt.

"It couldn't be," he mumbled. "It's impossible. How could it be? Just lying here on my floor..."

But still, if there was any chance...

Victor darted up from the chair and ran across the room to the stairs that lead down to his shop. He sprinted through the back storeroom and out into the store, whizzing around the counter top and over to the bookshelves along the far wall. The second shelf was lined with books on dragon lore, and he scooped them all into his arms. "Ianuae!" he cried, thinking to teleport back up this time. He stumbled on the landing in his bedroom, turned, and dropped all the books onto his bed. He followed after them, grabbing one after another and looking up any breed thought to have been blue.

Victor charmed lightning into crystals for light when it became too dark to read. Sent another bird to Chris asking him to come over right away, though he wasn't surprised when there was no response, it was the middle of the night.

Several frantic hours later, Victor was breathlessly staring down at a hand drawn image of a sui riu. The water dragon was a beautiful thing, with a long lean body and a tail that almost matched it's length. It's glistening scales were all different shades of blue, and their shape matched that of the mystery item in Victor's hand. "It can't be," Victor panted. "It can't be." He wanted it to be true, more than anything. He had longed for evidence of dragons his entire life. But faced with what might be a true scale from the beast...even he was too shocked to believe it.


Victor had Chris over first thing in the morning to look at it. "What do you think?" he asked anxiously.

"Well..." Chris hesitated, frowning as he peered at the scale. "It's definitely unusual. And it looks like the sui riu drawing. But..." He looked up at his friend. "Come on, Victor. It can't be. Right?"

"That's what I keep saying," Victor agreed, "But then I can't find anything else that makes any more sense."

"Maybe it's...maybe it's not even from a living thing. Maybe it's a..." Victor looked at the floundering Christophe with great expectation. He didn't deliver. "I don't know! But it's not a dragon scale, Victor."

The wizard bit his lip and took the glimmering object from Chris. For the first time he had more to hold onto than his dreams. "I have to look into this," he said with determination.

Chris looked at the piles of books strewn about the room. "Haven't you?"

"I need to find that man I bumped into," he said, eyes burning. "I'll track him down and insist he explain himself. If there's a perfectly logical explanation for this, well, that's it then."

"And if there isn't?"

"Then dragons are among us!" he cheered. Chris sighed and shook his head.


Victor halfheartedly worked on a few potions after Chris left. Despite his eagerness to get to Hasetsu, he knew he couldn't fully disregard his orders and work, however much he wanted to. He brewed a large batch of drought of living death with the ingredients from Hiroko, three common healing potions for the storefront, and a small cauldron of liquid luck. Victor bottled two vials of luck for himself, then sent the rest off via owl to his customer.

He tucked the vials into a small pouch, along with a few gold coins, a spare wand, and parchment for letters. The mysterious scale was added last, wrapped in cloth to protect it from being scratched. Victor wasn't quite sure what he'd need for this expedition to track down the man he'd encountered yesterday, but he was eager to start. With his wands he was confident he could magic up anything he required.

He closed his eyes. "Ianuae." When he opened them he was back in Hasetsu's town square, right in the heart again, slightly hoping he'd be knocked off balance by a dark haired stranger again.

Unfortunately he remained firmly upright. Okay, he thought. You must be around here somewhere. He sincerely hoped the man wasn't passing through yesterday and already gone, or was accustomed to popping in and out on occasion like Victor himself.

It was only now that Victor realized he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for. They'd only spoken for a minute at most... What did he look like again? Victor frowned as he started for the perimeter of the square, intent on circling it a few times to begin his search. The man was on the shorter side, that Victor was sure of. Dark hair, though if it was brown or black he wasn't entirely certain. He'd had a black traveling cloak, though so did almost everyone here.

I'll know him when I see him, Victor assured himself. And so he circled the busy market numerous times, weaving through crowds and peering at everyone he passed. He ducked into every shop and tavern, expanded his search to the nearby cross streets and alleys. Victor even resorted to asking a few locals, though his vague description was no help in narrowing the search down.

As it neared dusk, he worried his efforts would be in vain. How could he find one stranger among hundreds? There wasn't even a guarantee that he was still in Hasetsu!

Frustrated and more than a little put out, Victor considered calling it quits and returning home. At least Chris couldn't say 'I told you so' as they hadn't proved it wasn't a dragon scale. A small consolation. With a sigh he reached into his robes for his wand, hand brushing the pouch tucked in there too. He blinked, having completely forgotten about it in his haste to get started.

"Of course!" he whispered happily, pulling it out and untying the strings. "The potion!" He tipped out one vial of liquid luck and popped off the stopper. "If he's still in Hasetsu, this will help me find him!" He threw his head back and drank the whole thing in one gulp, smacking his lips in satisfaction when he'd finished. After stoppering the vial and putting it away, he waited for the effects to sink in. A stroke of genius would hit him any minute now, a brilliant plot to lure the man out from the shadows, or perhaps a town would come to mind that he should teleport to.

He waited a minute. And then another. His hopeful smile began to wane. He didn't feel particularly enlightened. In fact, he didn't feel anything at all. I must have brewed it wrong, he thought forlornly. He suspected his customer would request a replacement. And here he'd used all the squill bulbs he'd bought from Hiroko on this batch already.

"Hiroko!" he grinned. How convenient to realize this now, he was only a few minutes walk from her stand. Yes, he nodded as he started for her stall, he would get more bulbs and another bunch of common rue as well, and he would try again tomorrow.

When he was within view of her, the woman beamed and waived. "Master Nikiforov!" she called happily. "What brings you back so soon?"

"Hi Hiroko," he smiled. "I need another dozen or so squill bulbs. I'm afraid my last potion didn't turn out quite right."

"That's unusual for you," the woman said as she started to pick out the best of her inventory for him. Victor nodded in agreement. He hadn't scrapped a brew in at least five years. "Such a pity you had to come all this way just for these."

"It's alright, I was here anyway. I bumped into someone yesterday and was hoping to see them again."

"Oh?" Hiroko asked, perking up and smile turning amused. "Wouldn't have been a beautiful young woman that caught your eye, would it?"

"Actually it was a man," Victor said without thinking, then flushed at Hiroko's delighted giggle. "Oh, no, that's not what I meant!" he insisted, waiving his arms in distress. She looked thoroughly unconvinced. "I just need to speak with them. You see, they dropped something and..." He couldn't say he wanted to return it exactly. "I'd just like to make sure it ends up in the right hands."

Hiroko nodded. "And what does this beautiful stranger look like?"

Victor resisted the urge to roll his eyes, cheeks still pink. "I didn't say he was beautiful. Although, now that you mention it, I suppose he was. But that's not the point." He huffed out a frustrated breath. "He's about this tall," he motioned, "dark hair, I think maybe black, and he looked young. Probably around twenty or so? Maybe a little older. Nothing remarkable about his clothes unfortunately, just a black cloak. Well, actually," Victor tried to recall their tumble in the dust. "Now that I think about it, there may have been an Ilvermorny patch on the front."

Hiroko looked unreasonably thrilled with this news. "Master Nikiforov, I might actually know who you're looking for," she grinned.

Victor was stunned. "Truly?" he asked weakly.

"Only one way to find out," she said, and she reached for the broach on her robe, rubies glittering in the fading sunlight. "Yuuri, dear," she said into it, and the rubies began to glow. "Are you there?"

After a moment a voice responded, a light and pleasant, "Yes, mom, what do you need?"

"Master Nikiforov is here, that handsome Potions Master from Russia I was telling you about. We were just talking about you."

Victor could hear mortification in the silence that followed, ultimately interrupted by a squeal of, "Mom!"

"Could you pop over for a minute, I think he's looking for you."

The disembodied voice sounded highly skeptical. "Looking for me?" he asked. "What for?" It was much more likely that his mother was holding the man hostage.

"Just pop in, dear, only for a moment. The nice young man has something to ask you."

There was obvious hesitation. "If you've bullied another man into asking me out on a-"

"No, no, not all!" Hiroko chirped happily, cutting him off. "Two minutes, dear," she promised.

Victor heard a disgruntled sort of sigh, and a few moments later there was a whirl of water like a mini hurricane, and just as soon as it appeared it splashed down onto the dirt, evaporating instantly. In its place stood a young man dressed in a dark traveling cloak, the hood up and hiding most of his features, but Victor could see the shine of bright brown eyes in the shadows. The new arrival was at Hiroko's side, her table of wares the only barrier between himself and Victor. After a pause, a light voice chanced a shy, "Hi."

Victor instantly recognized it. They may have only exchanged a few words, but he was sure that was the voice from yesterday. "Hi," he echoed back. "I think we ran into each other yesterday."

"I don't think so..." Victor could just make out that stranger chewing hesitantly on his lip. "I don't socialize much in this town." Or any town, was the clear unspoken thought.

"Yuuri's a little shy at first," Hiroko said, putting her arm around her son. "But don't let that fool you. He was sorted into Thunderbird House for a reason. You're quite the thrill seeker, aren't you, dear?"

Even from beneath the hood, his pink cheeks were visible. "Mom!" he hissed. "Please. Stop."

Victor was too eager to question this man to be worried about what Ilvermorny dorm he belonged to. "Yesterday I teleported into Hasetsu's main square, and you bowled right into me. That was you, wasn't it?"

Yuuri gasped and yanked his hood down to better see Victor. Victor wondered if he was perpetually blushing. "Oh! That! Again, I'm so sorry! Is that why you're here?" Hadn't he apologized enough yesterday?

"Yes. No. You see-" Victor tripped over his tongue, going silent as he fumbled for his pouch. He wondered if he should pull Yuuri aside for this, if this was a dragon scale he wouldn't want to be flashing it out in the open. But even Victor was regretfully expecting a perfectly logical explanation for all this, so secrecy wasn't a top priority. "You dropped something, and I was hoping you could explain what it is. I've never seen anything like it."

Yuuri's expression was curious as Victor pulled out the cloth, but after Victor unwrapped the scale and held it out, his face lost most of it's color. Even the ever cheery Hiroko was frowning, glancing warily between the two of them. "Give that back!" he squeaked, grabbing for it over the table of herbs and powders.

Victor pulled his hand back quickly enough to avoid him. "What is it?" Victor asked, heart rate picking up at the sight of such a reaction. So it was something valuable, precious. This was no ordinary scale.

"It's mine," the young man all but growled. "How did you get that?" There was another whirl of water and suddenly they were face to face.

Victor held his hand high over his head, noting he was a good deal taller than Yuuri. "You dropped it." He recalled Yuuri shuffling around in the dirt frantically, looking for something, or perhaps ensuring he hadn't dropped anything.

"I did not," he glared. When his reach fell short of Victor's outstretched arm, he flicked his wrist and a spiral of water burst from his palm. That water encircled Victor's arm, and when it reached the fist he'd made around the scale, the liquid began pushing between his fingers, attempting to loosen his grip. "Release it, you thief."

Victor teleported just a foot away, watching the water fall to the ground and splash out of existence. He reached for his wand in case he would need more intricate defensive spells, realizing he'd been foolish not to expect this sort of reaction. In his excitement he'd anticipated answers, not a confrontation.

The young man looked ready to charm another spout of water when Hiroko scolded, "Yuuri, you're making a scene."

The two men glanced around to see that they had indeed caught the attention of several shoppers nearby. Yuuri balled his fists angrily at his side. After a deep breath he spoke again, this time very clearly and slowly. "That scale belongs to me. How did you get it?"

Victor warily stepped back closer to him in order to keep their conversation quiet and private. "Like I said, we bumped into each other yesterday. You must have dropped it, or it fell out of your pocket, because when I got home it was caught in my cloak." Victor held it up between his thumb and forefinger. "It's beautiful," he added. "I spent all night trying to figure out what creature it was from."

Yuuri glanced at his mother before returning Victor's gaze. "And did you come to a conclusion then?"

"It matched nothing in my textbooks," Victor said. "My potions books didn't have any ingredient like it either. However, my lore books..." Yuuri was looking increasingly uncomfortable. "According to them, this matches the scale of the sui riu."

"Don't tell me you still believe in dragons at your age?" Yuuri asked weakly, trying to laugh but utterly failing.

"I do," Victor nodded. He held the scale out on his palm for Yuuri, but the younger man didn't make a move to grab it. "And that's what I think this is. Unless you can convince me otherwise." The two just stared at each other for a few moments. Victor's heart was fluttering, hardly able to believe what was happening. Yuuri had no logical explanation for this?

The young man looked helplessly at his mother again, who smiled encouragingly despite the nervousness in her own eyes. He took a deep breath, then said to Victor, "You're right. It is from a sui riu." Victor barely had time to cheer before Yuuri pleaded, "But please give it back. If word got out that dragons were here-"

"That they were here?" Victor asked incredulously. "Try anywhere." The fact that they were real...

"You can't tell anyone!" Yuuri insisted.

Now that was a problem, because Victor wanted to tell the world. "Why not?!" he cried. "This is what I've dreamed of my entire life! Imagine being able to study a dragon up close! There are so many things I want to know-"

"Shh!" Yuuri hissed. "Keep your voice down."

"There's so much I want to ask you!"

Yuuri looked as if he were seriously regretting ever having this conversation. "There's not much I can tell you," he said firmly yet quietly. He finally plucked the scale from Victor's palm and looked it over quickly. "Yes, this at one point was on a dragon. But that's about it."

Victor's enthusiasm didn't wane, but he did frown a little in surprise. "That's all you know about it?"

Yuuri shot him a look. "And how much do you know about dragons?"

"Actually, quite a lot!" Victor announced happily. "I've read every book on them. I've spent my whole life looking for proof of dragons." His eyes lit up. "Hey, what if we pool our knowledge? Maybe we could find the dragon this came from together! Clearly there's one around here. Have you already narrowed the location down?"

"Ah – I don't think that's a good idea."

Victor deflated. "Why not?"

"Because I have no interest in finding dragons. All you're going to do is poke and prod it and make it miserable. I think they should be left alone. You may have spent your life searching for them, but I've spent my life ensuring no one ever finds them again."

"So you do know where they are?" Victor pressed.

"I didn't say that," Yuuri frowned. "I'm just saying I think you should leave them alone."

But Victor wouldn't hear it. He'd come too far to turn back now. "Yuuri... I mean them no harm. Honest. I just need to see. To know. I'm not leaving until you admit you know where they are and agree to show me."

"Fine. You don't have to leave," Yuuri said, standing up straight and tall. "I will." In a splash he was swallowed up in his mini hurricane and was gone.

Victor was left with only Hiroko, who was packing up her table of supplies. "Hiroko..." He was at a loss for words.

Hiroko levitated her table a few inches off the ground and prepared to set it to follow her on the short walk home. "I'm sorry, Master Nikiforov, but my son can be pretty protective. Give him a day or two to think it over. Maybe he'll change his mind."

He smiled weakly. "I don't suppose you want to let me in on where our scaly friends live?" Hiroko chuckled and continued tidying up the last of her wares. "Alright," he sighed, defeated for now. "I'll let him cool off and try again later." He considered teleporting back home, but decided he'd rather stay locally. "Can you recommend a place for me to stay for a while?"

Hiroko beamed. "As a matter of fact, I can."