All The Skills

By the time Arthur was dismissed by Valentina, he felt numb by the host of revelations. It was as if he had been bludgeoned over the head several times, and his blunt damage enhancement had not kicked in.

He’d been directed to slide off the gigantic dragon’s side to land on the firm cloud below. There, he found Brixaby who looked about as shell shocked as Arthur himself.

“What happened?” he asked as Brixaby landed on his shoulder.

“Eggs,” Brixaby said shortly. “Elissa wished to talk to me about making eggs.”

He was almost afraid to ask, but he had to know. “You mean, making eggs with her, or…?”

The look Brixaby gave him was scathing. “Elissa is revered as a Legendary, but she is ancient.”

He flipped his top two wings closely against his back before he continued, stiffly, “It is the male’s privilege to create eggs with females in his retinue, but Elissa stresses one must do so only with care and feelings of the female in mind, and… I do not wish to talk about it further. It it a long time away.”

Smiling to himself, Arthur strode to the edge of the cloud. As he did, a piece of the fluffy yet firm cloud broke off with him standing upon it like an iceberg breaking away from the rest of the glacier. It was unsettling, but he kept his balance, and the bit of cloud started to float down toward the hive.

“This is much like flying,” Brixaby mused. “But I like using my wings better.”

Brixaby made a show of looking Arthur up and down. “Oh? Do you intend to grow wings?”

The cloud gently sank towards the very top of the hive where it came to a rather sharp point. A wide, unfamiliar balcony became visible several levels down. The cloud headed, unerringly, towards it. Arriving at the balcony, it dissipated into vapor as Arthur stepped down — moving quickly because he and Brixaby were no longer protected by the storm. Brixaby grumbled and flicked water off his wings which ran icy chills down the back of Arthur’s neck.

There was a huge arched door opening ahead. Arthur walked through then stopped short.

He had expected to step into a hallway, which would then take him further into the hive. Instead, he and Brixaby entered a gigantic room. It was filled with stone and sheer marble, with a skeleton of a bed frame on one side, and the giant gaping mouth of an empty fireplace on the other. Completely free of furnishings, and more than a little dusty, Arthur’s footsteps echoed as he cautiously stepped in.

He frowned and headed to the closest side door, only to see it led to a giant bathing room. The empty stone tub was longer than two of his body lengths put together. Along the wall stood a sink with a tap for cold and hot running water, on demand. An additional closet beyond indicated an indoor toilet.

Again, all of it was bare of any furnishings or personal touches.

“Wrong door,” Arthur muttered, backing up into the main bedroom again.

As he did, he saw a large wooden door at the other end of the bedroom open. Carley walked in. She wore a simple uniform with a badge with a howling wolf pin on one shoulder. Her arms were filled with firewood

“Oh, you’re here,” she said and crossed the room to dump the firewood into the fireplace. “It’s going to be a pain to keep this room warm with that open to the sky,” she said, waving a free hand to the open archway. “You’d better get somebody with some kind of temperature control card in here to set up runes or anchors or something, or else firewood’s going to get expensive really quick.”

“Uh…”

“And I hope you don’t expect me to keep this whole place clean, too. There is dirt encrusted everywhere. I think it’s been abandoned for decades.”

Arthur wasn’t stupid. He immediately picked up on what Carley was saying, but he was still in disbelief. “Wait, are you saying this… This is mine?”

Turning, Carley gave him a disbelieving look. “Don’t tell me I’ve been cleaning someone else’s room for the last hour.”

Well, Valentina did send him here. And now that he looked closer, he saw a pack of his things from Buck Moon had been set on the other side of the gigantic bed frame. Though it was missing a mattress and any other bedding. Turning, he took in the gigantic space.

“I guess it’s mine,” he said in wonder. “It looks like it’s been a while since anybody has lived in here.”

“Well, it’s not like Wolf Moon hive has many Legendaries to fill out their suites.”

Legendary suites.

Arthur didn’t know why, but it hit him all over again. He was a Legendary rank dragonrider. He was no longer Arthur the bartender, Arthur the orphan, or Arthur the boy from Border Village number 49. He could now stand shoulder to shoulder with the highest-ranking nobles.

He knew this on a surface level, but he didn’t truly feel any different.

Brixaby launched from his shoulder and flew up to explore the thick rafters that crossed the high, bowl-shaped ceiling. Now Arthur was looking around with a new eye, he noted that this room was large enough to admit a good sized dragon. Not a truly giant beast like Elissa, or Whitaker’s Crag, but it would be large enough to hold Brixaby for a good amount of time.

Assuming Brix ever grew that large.

“I shall make my nest up here,” Brixaby announced from somewhere among the rafters. “That way I may view my entire territory at once.”

Carley craned her neck up. “Is he trying to act like a creepy bat?”

“How dare you!” Brixaby roared, “I will pluck your cards from your heart and eat them for breakfast! I—Mmm.” He paused. “Arthur, give this obnoxious child a card so that I may then take it from her.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Arthur said, mildly. Then he turned to Carley. “Don’t worry about getting this whole place cleaned up at once. For now, focus on the main living area, and I’ll pitch in to help with the rest.”

Carley rolled her eyes. “If you don’t mind my saying, sir,” she said with slight emphasis, “instead of getting on your hands and knees to scrub like a commoner. You could act at your station and hire other people. Only, I still get to be in charge of the new workers,” she added.

That wasn’t a bad idea. However, Carley was young, and he did not think an adult would appreciate her bossing them around.

But the kids from Freyja’s orphanage were always looking for work. And Arthur would pay well. “Let me see what I can do,” he said, then held up a hand. “Brixaby, come with me. Let’s explore the rest of the place.”

He realized belatedly that he was treating him more like a parrot than a dragon, but Brixaby landed on the side of his hand and allowed himself to be transferred to Arthur's shoulder, anyway.

Several more doors led off the bedroom. Arthur chose one at random and found himself in what he supposed was a library. The inset floor to ceiling shelves were dusty and completely bare. One side of the room was taken up entirely by glass — also dusty and hard to see through. A small, cold, fireplace sat on the other side.

“Boring,” Brixaby announced. “I like the other room much more.”

Arthur closed the door to give himself and his dragon some privacy.

“Forget that. Brixaby, Valentina told me some things, too. We have to work hard for the next few days and get strong. We’ll have an important meeting with the king soon.”

Brixaby perked up. “So he can announce my greatness all over the land?”

Arthur winced. “I don’t know. He might not like the fact that I have a pair of Legendary cards.”

“Why not? They make you stronger.”

“That’s the problem. He might think they are strong enough for me to challenge him. Though,” he rubbed at the side of his face in thought. “He has a mythic dragon, so it’s hard to believe anything can challenge him.”

And he also might be going madand it won’t matter what we do, Arthur did not say. He didn’t know if he should burden Brixaby with that knowledge yet. He was only a day old.

Brixaby didn’t seem concerned. “I like the idea of getting stronger.”

“So do I.” Arthur sucked in a breath. “So, let’s see what this new spell can do.”

Mentally, he checked the timer on the Counterfeit Siphon card and found that he had just over ten and a half hours left on the portal spell.

“How do I activate this…” He wondered aloud. He had never done a spell like this before. There was no mention of a cool down or of a mana cost. It seemed pretty basic.

In the next moment, he found it was as simple as concentrating.

Something inside him twisted, and it seemed to affect the rest of the world, too. It was as if everything around him — the air, the empty shelving, even the glass windows — had turned into a type of fabric. All he had to do was sink his fingers in between the threads of reality and tear it open.

“What are you doing?” Brixaby asked. “You are doing something. I can feel it.”

“Concentrate on the portal spell, then help me.”

Arthur reached out to the fabric that was the world, poised to tear it open into a portal.

But what would be on the other side?

Logically, he knew he should start small. Test things out. Maybe a portal to the room next door to where he could vaguely hear Carley puttering around. Or to his previous room at Buck moon hive.

His heart knew where he really wanted to go.

He thought of his real home, back at the border village. The little two-room cottage where he had grown up alongside his father.

Brixaby buzzed forward and sank his claws into the fabric of the air next to Arthur’s hand. Together, they pulled, and as they did, the strings of reality unraveled into a small slit. Arthur concentrated fiercely on the image – the feeling—of the little boyhood cottage. He needed it to be on the other side of the world’s fabric.

Brixaby let him direct the spell. He only added his strength, and his mana.

Arthur needed all the help he could get. The fabric of the world did not want to come apart. But after using all their strength and concentrating fiercely on the spell, the tear between them widened to a foot tall from top to bottom.

Arthur’s mana plunged just from this. He gasped, and suddenly, he was looking into the small wooden cabin. It was as if he had created a window from here to there. The scent of old wood and cooked stew drifted in. It smelled like home.

The portal was too small for him to enter.

But it was the perfect size for Brixaby.

“Hold my side,” the dragon said and let go, giving Arthur only a moment to catch his half of the tear before the fabric closed, like a curtain covering an open window.

“Brixaby, don’t —”

Ignoring him, Brixaby buzzed through.

“What is this place?” Brixaby called, from the other side. “It is quite small, and I smell no cards at all.”

“Is there anyone there? Dad, can you hear me?” Arthur called. Sweat bloomed across his forehead. His arms trembled with the strain of holding the portal open.

Just because he could do this spell didn’t mean that he was practiced at it. Meanwhile, his supply of mana steadily ticked down.

“This is pointless, let’s try again, only let’s find somewhere better,” Brixaby said.

His father was probably out among the villagers. There might even be a dragon soil shipment to work into a new field. He had never been the type to hang around the house.

If Arthur had planned this ahead of time, he would have prepared a note.

Meanwhile his strength, and his supply of mana, were waning.

“Come back,” he gasped.

With the speed of a diving hummingbird, Brixaby shot back through the portal.

As soon as he was through, Arthur released his hold. The fabric snapped closed and reknit as if it had never been torn, leaving Arthur wheezing from exertion.

“Those green dragons didn’t make it look hard,” Brixaby said.

He buzzed back and forth where the portal had been a moment before as if testing the air.

Arthur shook his head and wiped sweat from his face with the back of his sleeve. “They probably arranged their entire heart deck to support that one card. Added mana and stamina boosters. Or maybe…” He trailed off and shook his head. “Our card is a Counterfeit Siphon. We probably only get the basics of their power. And because it’s a spell, I don’t have a way to level it up.”

Brixaby returned to his shoulder. “What I’m hearing is I should steal one of their portal cards and absorb the true power for myself.”

Arthur opened his mouth. Then he hesitated. “Let’s call that Plan B.”

“You’re no fun — Wait,” the little dragon actually did a double take, looking at him. “Is that a yes?”

“It's a ‘Let’s keep that in mind’,” he said, slowly. “A portal power will be really useful. If we come across one in a card shop, or if there are…” He couldn’t make himself say it, “other opportunities where no one gets hurt, then we should take it.”

He didn’t like the way Brixaby rubbed his claws together.

“Meanwhile, let’s try opening a portal again in a few hours.”

“To the same place? Why? We can open it to a place rich with cards. Then I could gorge myself.”

“Because my dad lives in that cottage,” Arthur said, quietly, but firmly. “And I have questions to ask him about my mother’s card.”

“Pah,” Brixaby snorted.

A knock came at the door, and Carley’s voice called out, muffled, from the other side. “You have a visitor.”

It made sense. Important people would surely like to speak to the new Legendary rider, but Arthur wasn’t in the mood to play politics. “Are they important?”

“Just some Rare rider. Should I send her away?”

Her?

“No,” Arthur opened the door and looked past Carley.

Cressida stood in the middle of the bare bedroom, her vividly pink dragon, Joyberry by her side. Cressida was garbed in a gray training uniform, her bright red hair pinned up into a bun. She looked both lovely and professional. Joy had grown since Arthur had last seen her. The top of her head now reached Cressida’s waist.

Seeing him, Cressida’s eyes widened. “So, it’s true. You really linked the Legendary dragon?”

“Arthur!” Joy cried, springing over to him. “I have a quest for you!”

Brixaby launched from Arthur’s shoulder to buzz around the little pink. Joy stopped and craned up her head to watch, her eyes wide in wonder.

Arthur didn’t get the notification himself, but he felt something change within Brixaby.

“Now I have a quest, too,” Brixaby said, smugly.

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