7. Maybe I'm a Dragon

I stared at him for a second, then laughed. “Good one, kid.”

“I am! I have a dragon core! Or… part of one, anyways,” he insisted, frowning at me.

“There are no dragon cores left. They’ve all been used up long ago. If there were any left, they sure as hell wouldn’t be in some sketchy cult’s child soldier, no offense, kid.”

“Maybe they missed one,” he replied, pouting.

“They didn’t. I know.”

He scowled at me. “What do you know? Not like you were there.”

I barked out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s right. What do I know.”

Another blast of lead rattled off the trees. A bullet whooshed past my side, close enough to bite. I dropped out of the trees, bent my knees to absorb the blow, and dismissed the magic. It took a few steps to get used to human legs again, but then I caught up to the kid. Long legs come with advantages, after all.

“Up ahead, a hard left. There’s a gulley we might be able to lose them in,” I murmured.

The kid nodded.

“Ten steps. Five. Cut!”

We snapped to the left. A dagger-cut of a gulley bit into the forest, a tranquil stream rushing down its narrow heart.

And a dozen of Elgany’s soldiers, all staring at us.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

The kid glanced at me, startled.

“Who are you? What are you doing in the Wilds? Where are your permits?” one of the soldiers snapped, the one with more bars on his chest. He marched at us, lifting his gun as he came.

“Oh, fuck. Run!” I grabbed the kid’s hand and sprinted again. He squeezed back, and we raced away.

Peering over my shoulder, I squinted at the onrushing soldiers. “How’d they get here so quick?”

“Maybe they were already here?” the kid suggested.

“And they didn’t stop us from taking Quetz?” I replied.

“Maybe they just got here.”

“What, teleported in? No one’s going to waste a core on that kind of spell nowadays,” I muttered.

The boy shrugged. “Maybe they wanted Quetz’s core, too.”

I frowned. “But why? We’re at peace…” Shit. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. What if this was all a conspiracy? A bunch of ragged hunters from shitty little Dagna take out Quetz.

I could hear the news already, complete with the annoying buzz of Tanya’s visi-spell screen. ‘Oh no, citizens, Quetz is dead! But luckily we have his core, and by our shitty gods, we’re going to take it out on Dagna! They won’t get away with this act of war!’

It was annoyingly possible. Elgany already hates us. They still blame us for the Combustion and the Great War, as if we didn’t lose in the end. This might be just the excuse they need to crush what’s left of Dagna and pull us into their empire.

I bit my lip and put a hand over the warm lump in my chest pocket, the very core they were after. “Shit. Oh, shit. This is bad.”

The boy glanced at me.

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. Keep running.”

Alright. I have to keep this core out of the cultists’ hands and out of Elgany’s hands. Easy. Easy-peasy.

I sighed. Sure. Easy-peasy.

How the hell am I going to sell this thing?

Gunfire broke out behind us again. I ducked, but this time, the bullets weren’t aimed at us. The soldiers fired at the cultists, who aimed a volley back at them.

“Alright, while they’re fighting! C’mon, I know a hiding spot.” I gestured the kid on and ducked through thick branches, winding my way away from the fight.

“Why didn’t we go there first?” he muttered.

“What, and lead everyone to my hiding spot? Sure, great idea, kid. I’m kinda attached to this hiding spot, you know.”

He raised an eyebrow at me.

I nodded. “Back in the day, me and a friend spent a week here. It sucked then, but… looking back on those days, I think those were some of the better ones. You know? We just holed up for a while and took a break. Hid out from the world.”

He tipped his head at me. “Huh?”

“You’ll understand when you’re older. Duck here, and then it’s a drop, so be ready.”

I stepped between two branches and slid down a steep incline ten or so feet to a dip in the woods. Another few feet ahead of me, the floor gave way into a steep cliff that dropped another fifty feet, easily. The boy leaped after me with a snort, confident. At the sight of the cliff, his eyes widened. Midair, he flailed, arms and legs flying, reaching for a grip somewhere, anywhere.

I reached out and caught him around the shoulders, stopping him short. “I warned you.”

“Sh—shut up!” He twisted, fighting free of my grip. I let go, and he plopped to the ground and shook himself off.

Blood soaked into my shirt and stained my coat where I’d grabbed him. I pulled a face. “Ugh, gross.”

He scowled at me. I rolled my eyes back, then paused. Staring back at the forest behind us, I frowned. Hope Grim gets out okay. No way I could go back for him now.

I raised a hand to my chest. Then again, he doesn’t have Quetz’s core, so there won’t be a cult and an army after him. Probably. Never can be sure, with Grim.

“This way.” I led the way down a narrow pass. Trees squeezed close to our left and the cliff fell away to our right. I walked easily, confident in the memory of the route. Twenty steps down, I sat on the edge, leaned my legs down the side of the cliff and kicked inward. One heel bounced off stone. The other passed into empty air.

“Right here. You’re gonna want to sit down like this, then… grab on…” I turned around, leaning on my stomach, and grabbed the edge. “Alright, then drop.” I hung out over the cliff, bucked my body back, then swung in and landed in a shallow cave.

Four frightened faces stared back at me.

“Like this?” The kid copied my motions and landed next to me, splattering blood all around him.

The faces grew paler.

I laughed nervously and raised a hand in greeting. “Er, hello, everyone. We, uh, we come in peace?”