Chapter 28

With Lelei and Aisha (sorta) translating for Arpeggio and Maki as my faithful assistant, I went about teaching the three mages (and even Maki), a few things.

First, and apparently the hardest to overcome, was the 'how the heck' monster parts could do that. Lelei had already figured that out with me, but the other two took over an hour to admit it worked. Thankfully, I'd lucked out with the wyvern scales. They were a creature that really shouldn't have been able to fly, yet did. And I only needed to explain a little bit of 'weight to wing surface area' before the other two picked it up.

If something seems impossible, yet still works, it's magic.

Next, was the 'cost'. Magic was powerful, but it wasn't 'free'. For this one, the three of them actually taught me some things. But I'll get to that in a moment. The most simple example, would be 'telekinesis'. The three of them could actually, literally, move things around with their minds. Yes, it was a magic effect, but something closer to me and my foxes, than a 'use words' or 'project a magic circle', kind of thing. It still tired them out, though, and I used that as my 'example' of why magic wasn't free. The power had to come from somewhere.

Cato then showed me, using the bones we'd collected from the wyvern, how it gathered mana passively. Those weird bones I mentioned? With the honeycomb structure? Mana-collectors. He lamented that I didn't save more of the flesh, but the one's who'd been there said it tasted terrible, smelled worse, and wasn't worth it, even though he claimed there were tiny structures in the flesh that also helped it gather mana, 'eter' as this world called it.

Speaking of wyvern bits. While I was running the 'class' and didn't need Maki, she was getting Aisha's measurements, and working on some rough work for a new outfit for our Amazon distraction.

Anyhow. Once some simple foundations had been put in place, it was time for lunch. Of course, Aisha wanted to show off. (She was always showing off something. Her body, battle prowess, or how easily she was picking up the local language). So she went to find lunch.

By the time she'd returned, both Cato and Arpeggio had figured out how to 'wire' their mana into a wyvern scale and make it do something. Thankfully, they took my advice and didn't try more than one at a time. If they had, well, it might have been like that movie 'house of flying daggers'.

This gave me a little time to put a bit of Aisha's new wyvern hide armour together. Just a little idle work, since we were planning on eating, and I didn't want to start the forge, or kiln, or anything like that.

"I'm back!" Aisha declared, tapping on the door first before opening it, "This city has 'take out' food down. Had to pay a deposit on the pots, but that's okay."

"Okay students, put the projects down and wash your hands." I said, putting my own project down, "Oh, smells interesting."

"I have some news too." She said as she put the clay pots down on the only desk after we'd cleared it of stuff. "Rory left the city."

"Wonder why." Maki said a little sarcastically.

After Lelei translated for Arpeggio, she got a wide eyed reply, another retort from Lelei, then Arpeggio fainted.

While I rescued everything Arpeggio dropped, Cato went wide eyed as well, but stroked his beard and gave me an appraising look. "You seriously picked a fight with an apostle?"

"And the apostle backed down." Aisha grinned, "We, Kodori especially, don't like how the Gods work here."

"More like, 'don't work', here." Maki clarified, "Since it's lunch time, why not tell them a little?"

I looked down at my 'single serving' glazed pot of... Sheppard's pie? "Sure. But one of you two gets to tell her when she wakes up."

So, I told them. It was a short version, since going into the history and all that was something Lelei already knew, and could repeat whenever she pleased. No, this was just an overview of 'how the Gods worked' in Orario. How each of them had their own 'domains', how their attitudes reflected that, and how that reflected on their 'Children'. How they were simply 'people' with very specific abilities, that could gain success, or failure, on their own merit just as much as from the efforts of their 'Children'.

And I gave them four examples as well. First was Ganesha, the God of the people, who's Familia was just as much a dungeon exploring one, as a city supporting one. Hephaestus, Goddess of the forge, who's single example of the limits of 'mortal' craft, lit a fire in all her Familia to surpass Her. Loki, who's Familia did as they pleased, yet still accomplished so much despite their Goddess's lack of focus and harmless mischief. Then, Takemikazuchi, the quiet warrior, who took in orphans, the leftovers of the fallen in the endless war against the monsters of the world.

And while they all had different 'views' and 'methods', they almost universally expected one thing from us, the 'Children'. Go out and do good deeds in our name. Of course, 'good' was subjective, and some of the Gods thought 'good' was kicking puppies. Thankfully, most of those Gods had been sent back to Tenkai before I'd ever come to Orario.

"So..." Cato started, "This power they grant you. How strong does it make you, exactly?"

"Depends on the person." I said, "Some people in Orario never get past level one, yet still do incredible things."

"Like this one kid we know. Well... he might actually be older than me, but whatever." Maki chuckled, "Stonebelter. He's a little special." She tapped her forehead, "And could already do great work with sculpture. But when he received Falna, he could basically talk to the stones he worked with."

"But, he is incapable of combat." I said, "He will likely never progress as an adventurer, but will still create wonders, his already special gift becoming more focused with the addition of Goibniu's Falna."

"A world full of apostles..." Cato did a little more beard stroking, "Okay you! Nap time is over!" He then gave Arpeggio a nudge with his soft leather boot, then said something as she sat up suddenly.

She had a horrified look on her face, then looked like she was about to cry. But Aisha came to the rescue and said something else, handing her a somewhat cool clay dish. Aisha then said something to Cato, and I could tell it wasn't very nice.

Since I was stuck there looking clueless, Cato (with a little amusement in his eyes) spoke Japanese for me, "Lelei... the tall woman is being mean to me!"

"Good. Do not starve my sister." Followed by a grumpy look at Cato, and a headpat for Arpeggio as she ate. "What do we need to continue the lesson?"

I looked at what we'd accomplished, then the forge (with no anvil sadly) and pottery kiln. "Well, we've preserved the basic structure of the wyvern materials with the forge and kiln. The hide and bones need other treatments, but are still useable if not what I'd consider 'armour grade'. And if I give any lessons with the magic stone, I'll need an actual alchemy setup." I trailed off.

"Other shops exist in the city, though the cost differs by complexity, as well as potential exposure to prying eyes." Lelei explained, "And while we could find the tools you need and bring them here..." She motioned with a hand as if to say 'we might run out of space'.

"It's a shame we couldn't bring your shop with you everywhere you went." Maki laughed.

"It is. But if Welf can do it, so can I." I gave one of my tails a pat, "Okay, at the very least, I'll need an anvil and hammer. I've already got my chisel... Arpeggio has her lab, though it's standing room only..."

"She could fix that. But it would take effort." Lelei squinted at Arpeggio, who didn't need to understand Japanese to know she was once again being told off.

"Chisel?" Cato asked.

"Aha. Let's start there, while my lovely assistant finds an anvil for me?" I gave Aisha my very best puppy eyes.

I only managed to make Aisha laugh at me, "Yeah yeah, stop trying to be cute." She booped my nose, "Going to run out of money at this rate."

"Don't need anything fancy. And even a ruined anvil will do." I said.

"Yeah yeah. Maki? Come with, stretch your legs."

"Oh! Bucket of white sand if you can!" I called after them as the door started to close.

"White sand?" Lelei did a perfect five degree head tilt.

"I'll start with the 'magical tool'." I said, taking my simple iron chisel out of my pouch, "Very important when you want to impart your will on something you can't actually touch..."

Yes, not everyone could just put there hand on red hot, or hotter, metal and imprint magic instructions on it. So, I showed them the next 'foundation' of magical enchanting I'd learned. The 'magical conduit'. Carving simple, meaningful, runes and sigils into something, while focusing your mana into the materials. To a small extent, they'd done this with the scales, but of course, most of the work was already there by the material's nature. But if you wanted to add to that, well, you needed to do some extra work.

When Aisha returned with a broken anvil (it had a flat surface, but the 'horn' had broken off), and a bucket of sand, I got to work on showing the three mages a few more things. Now, I couldn't do something as complex as the Occulus, as much as I wanted to. But I could do other things. Like make simple glass spheres that reacted to mana, and glowed various colours. It was basically a toy, but the three of them could replicate my demonstration after only a couple of attempts.

And nothing exploded. Always a plus.

But even that simple idea sparked something in the three of them, and they were already thinking of ways to use the 'glow glass' for other things. I let the three of them work on that for a half hour while I got more of Aisha's new pants put together, but stopped them when I saw they were about to use all of the sand.

But that was basically how we passed the day until dinner time, when Aisha put her foot down and enforced a mini-vacation on us.

"So this... construct. You infuse it with your own eter, enchant it with a little of your mind, and... why is it so fluffy?" Cato was trying to puzzle out one of my mini-foxes as I set them down to guard the shop.

The mini-fox in question was doing its pre-programmed happy tail flailing even though Cato wasn't very good at headpats. "Unlike the three of you, I'm not human. Nothing against you, but it's given me access to other abilities."

"You use your own versions of those already." Maki said, "Like how you move water around." She motioned to Lelei, "We Kitsune have 'Senjitsu'. Where we use our inner energy to manipulate something that is already there. Instead of using magic, to create something temporarily," she touched her sword, then made a 'killer icicle' out of thin air, "or change its state by manipulating the energy within." And the icicle melted into a little splash of water, before she released the effect, and made it all go away into magic particles.

"Interesting. Your magic, and science, have obviously attained the fundamentals of different energy states of matter... but also several states and origin points of eter..." Cato mumbled, "Lelei. I want to visit this world of theirs!" He declared.

Lelei then turned to me, and gave me a look halfway between 'please save me' and 'please save him'. "You might get a chance." I said, "But only after we secure the money and find a way to fix things. Speaking of... I think with Arpeggio's lab, we can do a little test or two... If we can find a few things on the way, we might do a little better than 'grant money' after this."

"What would you need?" Lelei asked.

"Do you know what a lemon is?"

Most of the evening, after an enforced dinner, was spent in Arpeggio's lab. We didn't get very much done, since it was I who had to learn the world's plants and other such things, before I dared to use magic stone for any potion crafting. But that was what the lemon was for. It was something close to 'chemistry 101' for them, while I used a 'known' element (citric acid) to start on learning what plants had what in them for my own purpose.

After that, we returned to the Inn (getting a happy but somewhat unsettling 'welcome back Master' from the big Pooka) and I got on the 'Occulus with Ryuu and Hagane.

"Thank you for making sure she eats properly." Ryuu 'fu fu'ed.

"It was mostly so I didn't go hungry." Aisha laughed, "And look! Wearing real clothes again!"

Yes, we'd gotten that wyvern hide worked into something for her, and yes, it was still in the 'traditional' Amazon style. Though, I insisted she at least cover her entire front, and to my surprise, she didn't even fuss about it.

"If you can call it that." Ryuu nodded, "How are your efforts over there?"

"We met with Lelei's teacher, Sage Cato. He's more experienced, less worldly, and helping us earn that money. Another day, maybe, and I think we'll leave town here to do a little surveying. Magnetism is the next lesson, and with Lelei's sister, I think we can do something really special. Maybe even something to bring to Orario."

"And these wyvern scales are really cool." Maki added, playing with a couple of the scales Lelei had made into 'orbiters', "Boss, you just have to get a few of those wyverns. I can imagine all kinds of things to do with these..."

"Unlike the ones we have, the ones here are easily tamable. Live a long while, and come in three different types!" I felt myself grinning like an idiot, "Shakti would love them!" And yes, wyvern were just the name of the 'flying drake'. The land drakes were for 'really heavy' infantry, but there were also aquatic versions, but Cato only mentioned them.

"Gently sister, one problem at a time. But it is good you are having fun."

"And what about you?" I asked, getting that grin off my face.

"I've met... many people. Suguwara is a sharp individual, and has been quite helpful. Already, I've warmed some of the nobles to the idea of finding what we need, quickly."

"I have also made some progress." Hagane said from the background, before his head appeared next to Ryuu's in the Occulus, "I met more of those maids. Even a Medusa. While I cannot outright confirm it, they are all supposedly accomplished fighters and spies."

"They are." Lelei said, her nose buried in a notebook as she scribbled in it.

"And the mystery is solved." Hagane nodded, "Due to being 'too sharp' to be around the 'soft nobles', I've been making friends with them, and they in turn have been dribbling bits of information to me about various nobles. It is mostly mental lint, but so far as I've heard none of them have any... aberrant tastes."

"The Emperor, and later Zorzal, put them on the front lines during the fighting with the JSDF. One did it to reduce the problem, the other to steal their assets." Lelei remarked.

"Hear that Ryuu? No punching heads off." I laughed.

"I only considered it for a moment."

"She did."

"But speaking of that... Rory?" Ryuu asked.

"The Fox called her out, and she backed down." Aisha said, putting her hand on my head and ruffling my hair, "Rory then spent a day sulking, drinking, and left in a huff. She's left the city and we don't know where she's gone."

"When she gets into this sort of mood, she hunts down bandits or the like and kills them." Lelei said, "It's about the only useful thing she does most of the time."

We held back the laughter, but only just. "Keep me posted." I said to Ryuu and Hagane, "I'll let you know if anything really interesting happens."

"Understood. Sleep well."

The Occlus went dark, and I wrapped mine up and put it away, "Well then." I rubbed my hands together, "Lelei? Any questions about today's lessons?"

"Many. Many times many. But I will save them for tomorrow." She said.

"What are you writing then?" Maki asked.

"My questions for tomorrow."

While we had four beds in the room, Aisha and I still used one for ourselves. While no, we didn't do anything naughty, (unless me getting her back for nibbling my ear counted), it helped me... I dunno... keep balance. Aisha certainly didn't need me to look after her, but I felt like I had to. So, me curled up behind her was the silent compromise.

This of course alerted her when I my little guardian fox in the workshop 'woke up' to something changing in its environment.

"fox?" Aisha mumbled as I snapped to alertness, waking her up as well.

"someone is about to have an accident I think." I mumbled into her ear, hugging her tight to anchor my body, while I let my mind wander a little more into the Fox at the workshop door.

The lock on the door rattled slightly, then a little more, the lever on the door wobbling quietly, before the lock rattled a little more. Had it not been quiet, the noise would have been unnoticeable. The fox, a small thing made of mana and shadow waited patiently, alert, but motionless.

The lock, complicated by this world's standards, but hardly a challenge to whomever was attacking it, finally clicked, and the lever was pushed down just enough to let the door move freely on its hinges. Something dripped to the floor on the side where the hinges were, and after a moment more, the door swung inward silently.

A single foot, or rather, half a paw, started to step part way into the workshop, a hand, arm, then part of a torso, then a head peeking around the door, holding it to use it as potential cover, slowly slipped into the workshop.

A Kobold? A little over a metre tall, fuzzy body, reverse kneed as if it were a 'standing' canine... It's face, similar to a dog, complete with little black nose and droopy ears, did a quick peek in the room, then got its entire body inside the workshop.

After a moment, its reflective eyes not seeing the fox made of almost nothing, it started to turn, to poke its head outside the door.

Then something that sounded MANY times it size, the little fox mimicked the Wyvern that had almost bitten Kodori and Maki, "GRRCHOMP!"

Whatever the Kobold was about to say or do, was interrupted by a small fox with a bear trap for a mouth, taking a bite out of his simple cloth pants. With a panicked squeak that nearly got his leg caught in the door, he left behind a mouth full of pant leg, and a bit of fur as he ran for his life away from what ever he didn't see.

The fox heard more feet as well, at least one more, maybe two, running away with the kobold. Once all was quiet again, the little projection nudged the door closed with its forehead, then went back to nap under the desk, its tail flailing happily as it rested its chin on the patch of cloth and fur it had ripped from the intruder.

At some point during that, Aisha had rolled over, and when I opened my eyes next, she gave the tip of my nose a kiss then hugged my head to her chest. No words, no excess motion. Good job, go back to sleep, deal with it in the morning.

I made no comment of the intruder the next morning. We ate breakfast (toast, jam, some kind of bacon that tasted more like beef with the same texture as bacon, and scrambled egg) and went to the workshop.

When we arrived, I casually picked up a couple of thin metal picks, then opened the door. Sitting proudly, my little fox flailed its tail around while I bent, gave it a headpat, and collected the fabric and fur.

"An intruder?" Lelei commented, "You didn't wake us?"

"Didn't need to." I shrugged, "I think it was a kobold. They were very quiet, and he probably had a friend or two. Who's a good fox?" I asked, picking up my little guardian next and putting it on the worktable.

"How strong can you make one of them?" Lelei asked, "Could it overpower more than one person?"

I looked at Lelei, and behind me the fox grew, and grew... until it was as tall as the ceiling. "Yes." It still had a silly smile though, so it was about as non-threatening as a three metre tall fox could be. But after giving it one last pat, I made it vanish.

"Lelei!" I heard Arpeggio call from outside, before she said something else. Though, I picked up on the word 'it'.

Cato was with them as well, and he also said something. Then in Japanese, "Problem? Someone try and break in?"

"Yes. But they left behind more than they took." Lelei stepped away from the door and everyone got inside, "Unless you wish to deal with this, shall we start?"

Everyone looked at me, and I looked at the lockpicks in my hand, "Nah. But in true adventurer style, I'm going to use what the enemy left behind. Today, we start with 'magnets' and tomorrow, I think we might take a field trip."

Unsurprising, they knew of magnets, though, they knew them by the old term 'load stones'. They also knew of compasses, but they were rare and very expensive. Finding a pure enough 'load stone' that could be broken into a good 'needle' for a compass was difficult. And while they didn't know why, trying to forge it into a proper needle ruined the magnetic properties.

So that's where I started my lesson.

"Think of it like this." I said, wrapping some freshly made copper wire (melted down with foxfire, the forge, and rolled out on the anvil) around the iron lock pick. "You have a bunch of people wandering around in a room. No order, no pattern." I waited for Lelei to translate for Arpeggio, "Some metals, like iron, have this kind of 'pattern' in them."

I looked to Maki, then handed her the two ends of the wire. She unhooked the sword from her belt and laid it down on the workbench.

"However, when you run a little electricity around it, like we're about to do." I mumbled to Maki, "Not too much." She touched the ends of the wire to her sword sheath carefully, and there was a quiet 'zzzzzzt' noise. "All those random 'people' line up like a JSDF marching line."

Maki cut the effect, and I picked up the wire clad lock pick and unwrapped it. Then, I touched it to Cato's belt buckle, where it stuck. "Those random particles in the metal are now organized, and become magnetic."

The three of them (as well as Aisha) did a little clap of appreciation.

"Does this work on all metal?" Arpeggio (translated by Lelei) asked.

I shook my head, "No. Pure copper, silver, gold, tin and lead are not. They lack the particles inside that make it possible." I didn't want to start using terms like 'ferrous' or more advanced terms like 'domains', because those came from my grade 10 science book in my previous life.

"I feel something around this now." Cato said, holding the lock pick up to his face, "But I'm not sure what it is..."

"Anyone have some paper?" Maki asked.

Arpeggio handed some over, and Maki put the lock pick under it on the work table. I picked up one of the dismantled short swords, snapped the tip of the blade off, then 'crushed' it between my palms. This activated my curse, and turned it to powder instead of cutting the palms of my gauntlets. I then sprinkled the dust over the paper.

"A magnet has two sides. One side will always point north, the other south. But if you look at the pattern of the iron dust..."

In the back of my mind, I found it incredibly ironic I was teaching three actual wizards grade school science that I learned from a show 'Mr. Wizard' back in the 80's. The lesson didn't go too long though. I'd done this with a very specific goal in mind, and I was waiting for one of those three wizards to clue in.

And it was right in the middle of an Aisha enforced lunch, that she did.

"Aha!" Arpeggio made the universally known 'pointing finger into the air', nearly sending her clay bowl of stew into the air as well. Maki rescued it, returned it to a slightly embarrassed Arpeggio, and the Geomancer started speaking rapidly.

By now, I was also picking up on stray words, though Aisha was further along for sure. But I could tell that my time teaching children had paid off, and I'd 'led' her into an answer that she figured out herself.

"She thinks she can use a magnet to find metals. But there are many iron mines." Lelei said, poking her sister's nose to stop the rapid fire words, "Shh."

Arpeggio pouted, but said a few other things, "Iron is always in demand, but you are looking for gold. Gold is not magnetic as you said." Cato put a hand under his beard, made sure it hadn't gathered any stew, and went about petting it back into order.

"We are looking for 'value'. With the grant money, we can buy material that's already out of the ground. But if we find a place to mine metal, say, on some noble's land who has no idea what that mountainside has in it..." Maki, our Familia accountant, smiled, "And, if I remember, iron comes with other stuff too?" And geography minor.

"Yes, all metals come from deep underground. But to do so, they needed to once be very hot. Metals of similar weight will rise out of the ground together." I nodded, "But yes, now that you have a way to make a powerful magnet, you can have it point to other powerful magnets."

"But to do that, it would also have to be magnetic, correct?" Cato asked.

Aisha laughed, "We have three and a half mages in the room." She gave Maki's nearest ear a scroofle, "I'm sure one of you can use enough lightning, right?"

"And, there's a mountainside right there." Maki leaned a little into the scroofle, realized she was doing it, then flailed at Aisha's hand to get it away.

"And while you guys do that, I have another project." I grinned.

While the three of them poked and prodded ideas between themselves, Maki Aisha and I went into the markets. Part of it, was to return the glazed clay serving dishes from where ever it was that Aisha had gotten them. This got us the deposit, and while not much, it helped us get a little travel food for what was next.

I also, with the help of the little Japanese to whatever-the-local-language-was-called, got a few large sturdy bags and a good fishing net. Our little field trip would be taking us back into the mountain we'd flown over, and well, a flock of wyvern might mean eggs.

Also on the list of things to get, was a wagon. I figured it was time to start on the way back, and we had cargo and people to transport.

When the three of us returned, with me pulling the wagon, the air around the rented workshop smelled of ozone, and I could feel a subtle tug pulling me towards the shop. Maki and Aisha were a little more effected, and I knew exactly what they'd done...

"HEY KNOCK IT OFF!" I yelled through the door, since I didn't want to get any closer.

The tingling in the air stopped, the three of us outside the door stopped feeling that gentle tug towards the workshop, and the door opened.

And, looking a little embarrassed, were the three of them. Each of them had missing buttons, holes in their pockets, and hair that was sticking up everywhere. Like the three of them had put their hands on a Tesla coil. The next thing I noticed, was that the the worktable I'd put the iron rings on was shattered, and barrel hoops were partially melted.

"And what have you learned?" I asked, giving them all my best 'you've been caught' look, well practised by now with seven children.

Lelei raised a hand, just like a student would, "An increase in electricity through the copper wire can amplify the effect of the magnetic field."

Cato added, "But when you stop, the magnet is no longer as powerful."

And the partial translation that I understood from Arpeggio, "something lose our deposit."

"I was thinking more of 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should at maximum power. When you lost all your buttons and metal objects, why did you continue?"

Again the raised hand, "The damage was done, none of us were harmed, so we continued."

I gave the three of them a Karate Chop of Justice (Hestia version), and sighed. Meanwhile, Aisha and Maki were laughing behind me.

"Very smart, but not so wise?" Maki said.

"Well, if their pants don't fall down, we got everything ready." Aisha added, "Lets load up stuff, and get going."

"something something my something!" Arpeggio said after Lelei translated.

"She wants to get her alchemy set. It fits into a small crate, since it is used as a standard for the school." Lelei said.

"I'll go. Meet at the gate?" Aisha offered.

"Sure." I nodded, "You didn't wreck the other barrel, did... well okay, we can fix that." I sighed.

Packed into the wagon, with me pulling it by the long handles (that could be used like I was doing now, or as 'guides' for the horse who usually pulled a wagon) we were out of the city a short while later. I told them my side of the plan, that being to hunt for wyvern eggs, and got a positive response. Only the -really- crazy people went for wild eggs like this now-a-days, but since they had stables of them in the Empire, someone, long ago, must have.

The rest of them, while they rode in the wagon, were tossing simple phrases back and forth to help us learn the language. At some point, Cato marvelled at how fast we were picking it up, but Aisha explained a more about falna and how it just made a person better than a mortal. Some differences were slight, subtle, or went without notice entirely, like a good night's sleep being far better for you than most medicine. Or needing to try really hard to catch a common cold.

By the time we got to the 'landing zone' of our previous trip, I was at roughly the same level of the local language as I was with Japanse before I'd arrived in Orario. I could ask for simple directions, tell you my name, and say 'excuse me'. Oh, and say 'there there' when giving out a headpat.

"What ya thinking Fox? Think you can make this fly too?"

"With the three of us, pulling you along while airborne wouldn't be too difficult." Lelei offered.

"Okay. Saves having one of us stay here." I nodded, "And, if there's trouble, I can just float in place while it's dealt with."

"Oh? Lelei mentioned what you did to get here." Cato focused on me, "But I'd love a demonstration!"

"Maki? Aisha? Hop in. Move the cargo to the middle, close the back..."

Instead of a 'flying wing' I simply made a balloon. It was a nice day, the wind was reasonably mild, and the ground had been warming up nicely with the sun. So, after a little faffing about to balance the wagon, I got us up into the air.

Cato and Arpeggio were both quite pleased with the demonstration, and the two of them had both taken out notebooks. I suppose that aside from magic and wyverns, people flying wasn't really a thing here.

Once I had the wagon more or less at the same altitude as our 'jump off' point from a couple days ago, Lelei and Arpeggio started to pull us towards it.

"Seems like we scared them all off." Maki mused.

"A shame." Aisha laughed, "Can't match your score if there aren't any monsters about."

"Well, something cleaned off the ledge... Those three carcasses we left behind are gone, and I don't think it was a plague of little lizards." I said, "That was a lot of meat, and bone."

"Oh don't worry." Cato said as he orbited close to us, "There are all kinds of scavengers in these mountains. And wyvern are not opposed to eating their dead."

"Fair enough." I nodded, "Tell them to slow down a little, going to land right there." I pointed.

Cato nodded then zipped off to each of the two girls, and I slowly started to release the warm air from my fox eared balloon.

"While you are occupied with this. We will fly down the other side, and look for something closer to the ground. While nature does not care where it puts the metal in the ground, there is little point in finding it if no one is willing to mine it." Lelei said, "Be careful, and signal us when you are done."

We three from Orario nodded, "Don't hurt yourselves." I cautioned, "Seriously."

"Of course." Lelei nodded.

Lelei then turned and said something to the other two. At her word, Cato and Arpeggio stopped fiddling with their new bit of equipment. It was basically a very powerful magnetic rod, on a string. Yup. Super primitive compass.

However, being on a string, and not a flat surface, meant it could do things like point down, towards an iron deposit that was suddenly magnetized with a jolt of lightning.

We watched the three of them hop onto their wizard staffs, then fly off towards the JSDF side of the mountainside. "So." I looked to Aisha, "Did you keep that wyvern skull for a reason?"

"I killed it, I wear it." She grinned, "Make me a helmet?"

"Sure. Let's go find some caves or something. If our leftovers were really eaten by other wyverns, they're probably sleeping it off. We don't really need more loot, so kill or avoid however you see fit." I said.

"Shame Delly isn't here." Maki sighed, "She'd love these things."

While the three of us went on a little adventure, I had some time to think. There were so many things I could make with the wyvern scales. As armour, I could maybe make middle class armour with them. They weren't very tough by Orario standards, but I didn't have the things I needed to really treat them here. So that was only a guess. The Land Dragon scales we had left at Alnus were tougher, but we'd only managed to get a few handfuls of good scales. Of course, if I had my tools from Orario, I could have melted those scales down for the metallic inclusions in the scales themselves, but that just gave me an excuse to find a land dragon no one would miss and convince it to strip for me.

Honestly though? The thought of using materials that 'naturally' help with flying... Maybe an airship wasn't just a dream after all?

"Hey." Maki mumbled next to me, "What makes you think they're in there?"

"It's the biggest, darkest, smelliest cave we've found so far." Aisha shrugged. "So, they're either in there, or someone put a sewer in there somehow."

"Before we start." I said, my ears picking up on the subtle 'grrsnore' noises from deep in the cave. "If you find eggs, do not shake them, or roll them over. If they're anything like snakes, the critter inside attaches to the bottom of the egg, and if they detach, they'll die."

"Didn't know you were into snakes." Maki raised an eyebrow.

"I'm more into fur, for sure, but not all of my old friends were." I shrugged, "I don't want to kill all of them in here. Need wyverns to make more wyverns after all."

"Look at you being all ecology aware." Aisha chuckled, "I'll only punch the ones who try and bite." She promised, "Just like Telskyura."

"I'll stick with lightning." Maki nodded.

"Lets hope they don't use their own shit to keep their eggs insulated..." I sighed.

NOTES!

Yup, yet another project for some nebulous time in the future. It might be a year, or two, or ten, but Kodori is all for that airmail service. :)

The next chapter might be delayed. I'll post my X-ray on my Ko-fi. But the short story is 'fell off my scooter on the way home from work'. Makes writing a little harder, but, I'll have more time to write since I can't work until I heal.

Party on, and stay safe. :)

Daeore on Ko-fi

Daeore on Inkitt