Living with dragons

[Hiver]

Walking through the hallway was mildly surreal. My arm ached below the cut which was just bizarre. I knew perfectly well what phantom limb pains was, but experiencing it was just very strange.

This place was a prison/school for mages. Kept away from the masses of normal people for safety.

Somehow this kind of worked and the mages had not rebelled. Honestly, I didn't know why. Maybe propaganda, maybe magic here really was that dangerous. But you would think the people able to shoot fire at people wouldn't put up with being locked away.

There weren't really any guards either. At least not inside.

Sheila thought they were going to induct us in their order as apprentices in a couple of days as we clearly knew magic but wasn't 'trained'. Maybe we should be happy they brought us here instead of attacking us as 'rogue mages' or something.

We'd just have to leave before then.

A couple of days and I'd be able to Walk. In all honesty, I didn't feel like trying to sneak out of here. This place was meant to contain mages, no way they didn't have ways to detect invisibility spells.

…Of course, if we could get outside turning back and flying away was always an option. Didn't need all my legs to fly.

But we likely still had a couple of days.

I stumbled slightly, putting my hand against the wall for support as one of the mages walked past, I feigned feeling weaker than I really was. Not by much, mind you, but still.

"You should go rest."

I put my back against the wall and shook my head at him. I had seen him before, short brown hair and the same robes as everyone else here. Well, the mages anyway.

"Been in bed for days. Need to move for a bit,"

He frowned a bit but nodded, "Don't over exert yourself, your initiation is soon enough. You should rest up."

I nodded and he moved on. I let my head rest back against the cool stone wall as I closed my eye.

Screw this. We're going back home, getting healed and then I'm taking my Consorts on a vacation somewhere and everyone else can just fuck off. Maybe even risk Earth and get a month or two on a luxury hotel. I'm sure Mr Castle wouldn't mind trading the money for some magical stuff, he seemed to like that.

Maybe Kaladesh if we wanted a more magical city. That or Ravnica. Just take a couple of months of no stress before starting again.

Training. I needed it so badly.

My train of thought was broken by another voice, "He's not wrong, you know. I seen injuries like those before, you should go sit down. Give yourself time for your body to adjust."

I looked up to see someone else. Darker skin and hair, older, looking like he was in his forties. He was wearing a mix of metal and leather armour comfily.

"Been resting for days. I'm as healed as I'm going to get. I'm Atreus."

"Duncan," he said and put his hand on my shoulder, "Come on, let's get you sitting somewhere. Before you fall over."

Fuck, I hated feeling like this. I bet Alexis don't have these problems!

I nodded, "…Okay."

Duncan moved to open the door next to me and lead me into the library and over to a desk and chair, letting me sit down.

"Thanks," I said and then blinked at him, "…You're not wearing the armour of the rest."

"I'm a Greywarden, I'm not with the Templars," he said and sat down across from me."

"What's a Greywarden?"

Now it was his turn to be surprised, "You haven't heard of us?"

"Can't say I have," I said and then shrugged in explanation, "We're not from around here."

"I'd say," He agreed, "The Greywarden resist and fight the Darkspawn. I'm here to recruit for the Greywardens."

The fuck was a Darkspawn? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Still, I didn't want to ask anything more so I just nodded,

"Ah."

"So, what happened to you? I heard they picked you up after an attack," He asked and leaned back in his chair.

"We were attacked alright," I sighed and rubbed my shoulder, "Can't tell you what mauled me though. Never saw it."

"Was in monstrous?"

"No clue. But sure wasn't a normal guy. It bit my arm off, I think," I told him truthfully, "Honestly, none of us really saw anything."

He slowly nodded and got up, "I'm going to go talk to the ones that found you. We may have a forward party of Darkspawn on our hands. Get some rest."

I nodded as he left before I looked around. Tired.

But… library.

Maybe just one book.



AN// Unbetaed.

 

[Hiver]

"Okay, let's go," I said and shrugged the satchel on, "Before these people tries to induct us into their entire circle of mages thing."

Sheila quickly nodded, "I haven't been able to find out exactly what it consist of, but something keep the mages here from just leaving," before she frowned, "Are you sure you can do this?"

I nodded, "I think I have recovered about as far as I'm going to. I'm not tired and my magic is back to normal."

Ren looked concerned, "Don't push it," as she finished getting undressed and packing her clothes away, "Don't try to get us home in in one Walk if it's far, rather stop in the middle."

"Ren, I don't know how far away we are or even in what direction," I admitted and rubbed the bridge of my nose, feeling really annoyed at the bandage around my head when it got in the way, "I'm not even sure if there is an explored world we can 'middle land' on."

Sheila shook her head, "Ren's right. Whatever is on the other world, we can handle it. Don't kill yourself trying to get us home quickly."

"…Yes, ma'am."

If I can do it in one Walk, I'll do so unless there is a safe landing in between. Ending up in a fight right now wouldn't be… viable.

Both of them took my hand and I closed my eye to focus, channeling my magic. In all honestly, this world was interesting. Those books were filled with fascinating magic, I even found one on personal enchantments.

This place was a prime candidate for a Branch, but it would need to be careful. Very, very careful. More a bunch of spies than traders with the way these people treated mages. Well… that or overwhelming force.

They had some very interesting magic.

The door to our room shuddered from a loud impact. They noticed the magic build-up. Time to leave.

Reality shattered around me and was replaced with whirling uncreation. Where the fuck am I?

Wow, that's…

Direction and distance don't really exist in the not here, but I was in the opposite distance from everything.

At least two Walks from even any explored friendly world!

How the hell did I manage to get out here!?

Yeah, Ren was right, if I tried to get home from here it wouldn't work.

Heading towards home, I moved as far as I dare before I touched a infinitely large little dot of not light.

Reality crashed down around me and I stumbled, almost falling over. Stupid unstable mortal form! Stupid arm didn't help as I tried to steady myself by catching a tree, instead banging my shoulder against it.

Chirp.

Chirp.

Blinking, I looked around. Thick, hot, steaming jungle. Okay, that's not that bad. I should be able to turn back here and get rid of that fucking growing headache! I had been in mortal form too long.

Hot and steaming is going to suck, but nothing had attacked us so far so it's good enough. Not going to Walk now anyway.

Unshouldering my satchel, I dug out Ren's soulstone and triggered it before I did the same with Sheilas. As they reformed, I backed away and dropped my satchel and turned back into my real form.

I almost fell over, but I quickly adjusted, shifting my weight to compensate for the lack of a frontleg.

That's… frustrating. Can't wait until I get that fixed. It was even worse than the lack of dept perception. I wouldn't dare trying to fly like that. But the sudden lack of a headache made it well worth it.

Letting out a relived sigh, I sunk down onto the forest ground.

"Wow, hot," Sheila commented as she looked around, "I think that for the first time I'm actually tempted by that so called armor of yours," she said to Ren.

Ren didn't look happy about the environment, but she nodded and didn't bother getting dressed, instead she just walked a bit away and turned back to her real form. Her headache had likely been as bad as mine.

Sheila moved to get dressed with a frown, "Next time I'm packing some of those clothes from Earth I bought with Alexis. Like those shorts."

Yes please!

Ren dropped down to lay next to me, putting her head across the back of my neck and I shifted to lean slightly against her in turn.

As Sheila finished getting dressed, she looked at us for a moment, "Are all dragons resistant to cold or is it just Blues? Zrazta don't seem too bothered by it."

Ren shook her head, "Most dragons are a lot better at handling it than mortals."

"No way I'll be a Blue dragon then," Sheila decided, "I like not to be miserable as soon as it get to being summer. The ritual work anyway, right?"

I nodded, "Should, the blood of the donor decides the kind of dragon. But I will doublecheck with Kalecgos."

Sheila nodded, "Good. Okay, let's get a camp up and running, we'll be here for a week and I want it done before sunset. If the sun here does set," before she patted Ren's snout, "You, stop lazing around and help out," she said with a smile, "You can do that when we have some shelter and firewood.

Ren grumbled good natured but nodded in agreement.

Sheila then looked at me and poked my nose, "You, stay right where you are and recover. Do some scrying as soon as you regained enough mana, we should find out everything we can even if we do plan on staying low until we can leave."

"Yes, love."



AN/ Unbetaed.

 

[Hiver]

As it turned out, it wasn't a jungle we had landed in.

It was a tropical island with jungle in the middle while surrounded by azure blue ocean teeming with fish. Uninhabited and from what I seen from scrying, no animals larger than a deer.

Which was much nicer and a much needed break compared to the normal worlds we end up in.

"We never find Planes this nice," I commented, my eye closed and my head resting against my satchel.

Once we found out it was an island, we moved to the edge of the forest and the beach. Sunbathing might not really be my kind of thing, but after everything… spending a week relaxing before Walking again felt nice.

"Almost feel suspicious," Sheila said from next to me, "Like you said, Planes are never this nice."

Opening my eye, I looked at her, "Love, you're being pessimistic," while enjoying the sight. It took her about two hours before she just had enough and ditched her robes, "Not everywhere is filled with death and destruction. Just from chance we're bound to find a paradise sooner or later."

"Mmm, true," she admitted and rolled onto her back, "We just got lucky for once."

"Would happen sometime," Rengosa agreed and rolled over as well on the other side of Sheila, "Could be a bit colder though."

I nodded in agreement, "Some snow, maybe some ice?"

Sheila just groaned, "…Another reason I'm very much not picking blue."

I just chuckled at her and scratched my nose. Or rather, didn't, I tried using my left arm. Fucking damn it.

Using my right instead, I looked towards the forest and barely had time to process that something was moving before a band of screaming armed men charged at us.

Yelling a warning, I started to gather my magic, scrambling to get up. I didn't get the chance before I had a flintlock pistol aimed at my eye.

"My, my, what do we have here?" a man in a pair of white pants and a white tunic with a red belt said, a cutlass resting on his shoulder, "A couple of beautiful women and a cripple."

What.

"What do we do with them, boss?" another to the left wearing similar clothes but with brown pants and wearing a black eyepatch on his bald head.

The guy in charge leered at Ren and Sheila, "I can think of a few things."

Snarl.

The flintlock aimed at me was joined by a sword against my chest from the boss before he shook his head, "Don't," he ordered before he shook his head, "We take them to the Captain. Get dressed, no funny business."

Eyepatch. Cutlasses. Captain. Island.

Were we being captured by fucking pirates!? What in the actual…

I shared a look with Ren. We had our soulstones, we could risk transforming back, I doubted these arseholes had anything that could handle us like that.

But it was an unnecessary risk. I was hardly at a hundred percent and if they were taking us captive, there would be a time when their swords weren't at our throats. No use wasting the soulstones if we could get away with not.

Shaking my head slightly, I moved to get dressed.

As soon as we were dressed, they tied our arms behind our backs. Or rather, their arms behind their backs, my hand was tied to my waist instead.

Ropes.

Not even enchanted. I could literally rip these without transforming.

That's fine. Damn it, why didn't we leave a summon to stand guard!?

…Only because we were on an empty fucking island, that's why! But no, fucking pirates out of fucking nowhere!?

That's it. That's fucking it. All these fuckers are motherfucking dying screaming and then we're going back home and get me healed.

Then we're doing a training montage. Chandra could burn the entire fucking island to ashes. Lilliana could raise everyone burned to death into ghosts with a flick of her wrist. Every single one of the others including the bitch that attacked us were just as badass.

They even had a headstart on me. I was good at what I did, but…

I was so tired of getting my tail bitten of as soon as something even remotely dangerous happened.

Giving me a push to get me going again, they lead us through the jungle for a half an hour trek across the island through the jungle to a different beach, a three-mast ship floating in the water, a camp set up on the beach.

"Get the Captain," boss pirate ordered one of the others as we entered the camp before he kicked the back of my knee.

I went down onto my knees on the sand. I'll eat him first. Ren and Sheila were pushed down next to me as well.

A glance revealed what I suspected. If I was pissed, it was nothing compared to them. Ren was about to rip somebodies face of, quite literally.

Easy, love. Wait for the right moment.

"Boltar, you are one lucky son of a bitch," A voice said as someone moved through the crowd, the pirates growing quiet, "Last guy that messed with his wives didn't live long enough to regret it."

First thing I saw was leather boots reaching to her knees, followed by a short flowing skirt and a belt holding a dragon hilted rapier. Then there was a white blouse and a silver and amber medallion necklace.

Long red hair in a braid down over her left shoulder.

Alexis.

What.




AN// Unbetaed.

 

[Hiver]

I wasn't entirely sure what to say. I was completely lost for words as I just kind of looked up at her.

What.

She turned to the guy that captured us, "Untie them. Give them back their things."

"Captain, they…"

"Boltar, the only reason you and the rest are still alive is because they are feeling polite. Untie them and give them their things back. Then you apologize to them for the treatment. These people are on my level and also my friends."

He kind of tensed up a bit and then quickly nodded before turning to the rest, "You heard the Captain! Let them go!"

Our bonds were quickly cut and I got up, glancing back at Ren and Sheila before I moved up to Alexis. She looked a bit different. A lot different.

"…I'm confused," I admitted, "I'm honestly not even sure where to start."

She smiled a bit, "I can see why. Come, let's go to my tent and we'll talk," she said and motioned for us to follow her, "Here, this way."

Follwing her across camp, I saw more than humans. There were a handful of dwarves and even a couple of what had to be elves around.

…Was that a naga? Mermaid? No, some sort of naga with fins was half coiled up by the fire, stirring a large pot.

Holding the cloth door open to a large tent she let us inside before following us inside. As soon as we were out of sight, she pulled Sheila into a hug, "God, I missed you guys!"

Ren was the closest, so she was next and then it was my turn. I did my best to hug her back, "Alexis, it's only been like five months."

She shook her head, "Not for me. This was one of the first Planes I went to after going to Ravnica and leaving a message for Master Goldmane. For me it's been over five years."

Sheila looked at her in surprise, "What?"

Alexis sighed, "…Got involved in a treasure hunt and one of the traps were a stasis field. It would have locked me in time, but I hit it with a dispel before it could finish. I fucked it up some how and ended up almost six years into the past."

"…Wow."

"Yeah," she admitted, "I didn't dare to leave this Plane in case I ran into you or Master Goldmane or some of the other 'Walkers before we met in the real timeline. Didn't want to risk it. If I messed up, it might have caused the Legion to win."

I just stared at her for a second, "You been here for five years?"

Alexis nodded, "Yep. But I'll tell you more later, now what the fuck happened to you!?"

I cringed and then sighed, "Ran into another Planeswalker. Stronger than me and she kicked our tails. We were lucky to even get out. She was… I think crazy cover it pretty well."

Ren moved up to Alexis, "Think you can help? Your healing is stronger than what we have."

Alexis looked between us before she shook her head, "I'm not that good at healing. But I know someone that's better than me. Give me a minute?" she asked and closed her eyes, channelling her white mana.

It took her maybe thirty seconds before a blonde angel appeared in a flash of light. She frowned, "Master Atregos! What happened!?"

I sighed, "Angry… wolf thing I think."

The summon shook her head and moved up to run a glowing hand over me before she frowned, "I… Mistress Castle, I can't restore his arm, too much is missing. But I can restore his sight."

"Mistress, huh?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows at her.

"Do you want to get healed or not?"

"…I'll be good."

As Alexis gave her angel a nod, the summon moved close and put her hands on my head, "Close your eyes."

I did like she told me to and things got really bright for a second before the light faded away and I opened my eyes.

The angel were gone but I had both my eyes again.

…Ow.

Rubbing my eyes until I stopped seeing double, I shook my head, "Wow. Okay… thank you!"

Alexis frowned, "Sorry she couldn't do the arm. Master Goldmane should be able to."

"So should Alexstrasza," I reassured her, "It's fine. It's a lot larger than a missing eye."

Out of the two, in all honest the eye was the more annoying one. Depth perception is something you don't appreciate enough until you lose it.

On that note, we needed some sort of healing spell or summon that can handle these things without needing to head back to Home to get fixed up.

Just one more thing to the list.

I gave her an as big a hug as I could, "Thank you. I owe you so much."

She grinned and hugged back, "Don't worry about it."

"You could leave now though," Sheila said, "You are back matched up with the timeline now."

Alexis sighed and let go before she shook her head, "Can't. I have some things I have to do."

Something was going on.

"…Does it have something to do with you being the Captain of a pirate ship?" I asked her.

"That's something we really should have something to drink for," Alexis laughed, "I'll call for some food and drink. Then I'll tell you all about it."





AN// Unbetaed.

 

[Hiver]

Say what you want about these pirates, but they did cook some pretty damn good… let's call it chicken.

Sheila sipped her wine, looking down in her tin cup for a second before she sat it down on the table and looked across it at Alexis, "Well?"

Alexis sighed and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms, "…Not sure where to start. Okay, let's do a bit of a overview of this Plane. Technology here is pre steam power, full on age of sail but with magic. About one in a five hundred or so have potential to use magic, none of it overly powerful and mostly elemental based. Fireballs, weather effects, rock golems. That kind of stuff."

I nodded, "I see. So how did you get your own pirate ship?"

"I'm getting to that," she said and shook her head, "This world is similar to Earth in that there are two major continents. One more inhabited than the other, similar to how Europe and America was during the age of sail. What's different is that the populated continent here, Aridia is under control of the Kingdom of Aridia. The continent we are closer to is larger, but not as well inhabited. They are a confederation of smaller nations. Not unlike like the United States, but more independent internally. Both have known about each other for some seven hundred years, but it's only some fifty years ago that sailing technology advanced enough to make trade practical."

Sheila sipped her wine again, "And with trade becoming practical, so does piracy."

Alexis nodded, "That too, but more specifically war. The Kingdom is looking rather hungrily at Tarilia, one of the other nations… and also the rest. Not only for space and resources, but also for slaves."

"So, what's stopping them?"

"Distance and fleets. They can only do a practical invasion if they are able to first take out the combined fleet of the Confederacy. They have the largest fleet, but combined the Confederacy have them beat, both in numbers and quality," Alexis explained and speared a grilled mushroom on her knife, "Unfortunately, that may change quickly."

Ren frowned, "Why? Couldn't these Confederacy match their speed of construction?"

"They could, but word has gotten out about a lost artefact. One that would let the wielded control weather and currents," she sighed, "If they got their hands on that, they could crush any fleet meeting them. They would rule the oceans."

I slowly nodded, "Ah. How many do you want?"

She smiled a bit, "Not sure even you could just whip something like that up. But I'm more interested in keeping it away from them than handing it over to the Confederacy. Quite frankly, it would be too dangerous for anyone here to have."

"If their magic is normally limited to fireballs, I could see that," I agreed, "It would be like handing them nuclear weapons."

Alexis nodded, "Pretty much."

"So not actually pirate ship and pirates?"

That got a grin from her, "Oh, definitely both pirate ship and pirates," before she looked thoughtful, "Well, technically Privateer. I carry what you would call a letter of marque from the nation of Tarilia. When I first escaped the trap, I was captured by the former captain of the ship and it's former crew. I was almost unconscious at the time. When they attacked another ship, I managed to break free and killed him. Turns out, the one he was attacking was a member of the Tarilian Imperial family. He gave me the ship as a reward and I got a new crew. Things were just heating up and that's when they hired me."

Ren shook her head, "Wow, now that's some story."

Alexis nodded, "Yeah, no kidding. It's been a couple of busy years."

"So, what's your plan now?"

She sipped her wine, "Need to get back on the quest. We have a couple of weak leads, but it's worth a try," before she frowned, "…If you weren't hurt, I might have asked for a favour with that. Scrying and artefacts, kind of your thing."

I owed Alexis more than I could possibly say, fixing my eye was just the latest in a long line. Sure, I saved her a time or two, but that hardly compared to helping to save my world.

I looked over at Sheila. She looked back at me before she sighed and nodded.

"We'll help," I said and leaned back in my seat before I smiled, "I may be fairly armless at the moment, but I have some ideas about that. Besides, don't need to be all that all hands on deck to be able to scry and do research."

"…Did you just…" Alexis started before she pinched the bridge of her nose, "of course you did."

She then shook her head, "I can't ask that of you. And I can't wait a month for you to get back."

"You're not asking. We're offering," I told her, "We can handle it."

Alexis groaned and looked at Sheila, "…Seriously, you married this?"

Sheila just kind of sighed.

I grinned at her, "I have other good qualities to make up for it."

She shook her head with a sigh before she frowned at me, "Are you sure you want to do this? It may take months! And there is no guarantee we will succeed."

"Owe you that and more," I told her, "As for my arm… I have some ideas until I can get it healed. You have a pirate ship, do you have… seven of your archaic American pounds of silver onboard?"

"I think we can dig that much up."



AN// Unbetaed.

 

[Hiver]

I held up the silver arm, feeling the metal and enchantments I had woven into it. Silver was a very magically conductive metal. Almost as much as adamantium, but adamantium didn't need as much enchanting to make it viable in armour and weapons, so it wasn't as good.

But for this it would work well.

"Are you sure this will work?" Ren asked. "You've never tried this before."

I shook my head. "Oh, it'll work. It's the same as the armour."

She frowned at me. "Huh?"

I grinned and put the arm back down on the bench. "You ever notice that when you are wearing your armour, it doesn't actually seem to weigh anything? Nor does it take any force to move?"

"Yeah?"

"That's because you don't move it. It moves when you move, reading your mind on how you want to move and doing that," I explained before pointing at the arm. "Same enchantment. In theory, it should work just as well as my real arm. Might even have gotten basic feedback like pressure working."

I think I got it right, anyway.

Ren slowly nodded. "Oh. That was easy."

"Most of the work was actually done developing the armour," I agreed before I looked at the arm. "That doesn't mean that this isn't going to suck hard, though."

"Why?"

"Because I have no good way of attaching it that don't involve the silver covering part of the bone and remaining muscle," I said with a frown. "Even if I take a pain potion first, that's going to hurt like a motherfucker."

"Then don't do it. It can wait."

I shook my head. "Not going on a quest with one arm and I'm not leaving Alexis hanging when she needs our help. Not with all she's done for us."

Ren didn't look too happy but she nodded.

Shrugging my shirt of, I first summoned Paladin. "Paladin, if you would?"

The blood knight nodded and quickly moved to cover my stump, first with alcohol and then a cure disease potion before doing the same with the end of the arm.

A healing potion followed by her healing spells on me and it should be fine.

"Hold it steady," I ordered her and aligned everything up right before downing the pain potion.

Oh this is going to suck so hard.

Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth and felt the enchantments in the arm before triggering them.

Tendrils of silver shot out of it and into what remained of my arm, wrapping around the bone and pulling tight.

Even through the pain potion, it felt like being stabbed.

"Son of a motherfucking bitch…" I stumbled back, cursing in every language I knew as the silver half melted, crawling a couple of inches upwards before shifting, going thin and pliant against the skin.

Still cursing, I downed the last remaining healing potion as Paladin hit me with her strongest healing spell.

The stabbing pain slowly faded to a faint throbbing before that too faded to nothing.

"…Fuck," I groaned and sank down to sit with my back against the wall. "Ren, if I ever do something that stupid again, sit on me until I change my mind!"

Ren shook her head and sank down next to me, putting her head against my shoulder. "Like you would listen."

"This time, I would. Just remind me of this. Shit."

Looking down at my left hand, I lifted it and rolled my wrist. It moved smoothly, the fingers moving naturally.

I may be an idiot at times, but damn if I'm not good.

"At least it worked," I said and moved my arm around, trying the movement. Seemed good, but it looked a bit much… T-1000.

How about we…

The silver rippled from the top down, forming dragon-like scales and the tips of the fingers shifted to remind me of the claws in my real form.

There we go, much better.

"Nice." Rengosa said and reached over to run her hand along it. "But… this doesn't carry over to your real form, does it?"

"…No," I sighed. "If I want one there, I have to do it again with my real form too. With something like 28 times as much silver. I'm not sure Alexis can get her crew to part with quite that much."

Ren looked thoughtful. "Speaking of which, we have to find spots we can turn back if it takes months to do this. I can't handle months like this."

"Neither can I." I said and nuzzled her. "We'll figure it out. But for now… let's let everyone know it worked."




AN// Posted early and big thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Also, next part is last part for now. Then it's back to ponyland.

 

[Hiver]

"How does it feel?" Alexis asked as she walked up next to me at the bow of the ship.

I glanced at her and then flexed my new arm, "Not much. I mean, it have a sense of touch or I would just crush everything I touch, but that's all I managed."

She cringed and put her hands on the railing next to me, "That sounds bad. How strong it is?"

I shrugged, "No idea. Stronger than steel with all the enchantments on it and I crushed a small rock when I tried it earlier."

"That sounds useful."

I shook my head, "Eh, too many drawbacks to be honest. I'll have it replaced by a real arm as soon as I get back and get it healed. If I go through a soulstone, it doesn't come with me. Which mean I would need to attach it again. Which is… uncomfortable. I also need a second one for my real form. You wouldn't happen to have about thirty times more silver I can borrow?"

Alexis shook her head, "Sorry. Does steel work?"

"Not really," I admitted, "Steel is magic resistant to a certain degree, enough not to make it practical. I mean, I could do it, but it wouldn't be very good."

"We'll find you the silver," she said and leaned against the railing, "Bronze?"

"…Bronze would work, Copper would be better?" I admitted, "Not as good, but better than steel."

"You could get one of the smaller cannons, one of the chase ones. It's bronze and should have enough."

I smirked at her, "Awesome, thanks. Not to mention, I'm a lot more useful in my real form if I'm not missing a leg. Especially as I don't have my armours or weapons."

"Speaking of which, not sure we would be able to get you what you need for the armor. But you're free to go through our armoury an see if there is something you like."

"Oh, I plan to. And then get to work on some other stuff," I said and with a frown as I looked at my new hand, "I realized that I have… become complacent. I'm not getting better and what I have been learning, I haven't been using. I had my armour, I had my weapons… and then what? Why weren't I wearing enchanted rings? Necklaces? Goggles letting me see magic?"

I shook my head and turned my back against the railing, crossing my arms, "I'm not a good spellcaster. But why don't I make magic guns or wands that shoot big fireballs or bolts of lightning? Even if the Manalaser don't scale down enough, I could do that! I know how to do that on the top of my head, why don't I!?"

Alexis watched me for a moment before she nodded, "We do have some jewellery. Some of might even fit you."

"So do I, mostly for sale," I said before I frowned, "…Or rather, we did before I lost my bag. Fuck. I think Sheila has some still. And why don't they have more enchanted stuff!? I'm an idiot."

Alexis frowned and nodded, "Yep," she said before she smiled a bit when I looked at her in surprise, "But that's expected. You're a man after all, dragon or not. I don't think you're stupid, you just got a bit… stuck in your way. Too focused on the big projects."

"…I suppose I am," I admitted, "But if I could just get it done, it would make transports so much easier."

"Do you even know it can be done? Moving a ship through the Blind Realities?"

"…No," I sighed, "But there have to be a way."

"Just forget about it for now. You'll figure it out eventually."

Rubbing my face, I then nodded, "You're right. You're right, Alexis."

Damn it, she was right. So very right.

I needed to cover the base first, not go for massive projects that might take years even if possible at all.

Sighing, I shook my head before looking at her, "So, where do we start?"

"We stopped at the island to pick up some supplies, our next destination is Port Marigia. We need to resupply on gunpowder and see if we can pick some more metal for you. I have a contact there that might have some clues on where to start looking," Alexis explained and looked over to where the last boat of crew and equipment returned towards the ship, "As soon as the boat is stowed, we'll be raising anchor. We'll talk later, I have some business to attend to."

"Aye, aye, Captain Castle."

That got a grin from her, "How long have you waited for that one?."

"Oh, just since I saw you," I admitted before I leaned against the railing and started to hum a themesong to myself.

"Oh god… muppets!? Really!? You couldn't at least have gone with the movie with the hot guys in it!?" She groaned before she just shook her head and headed towards the aft.

Sheila moved past her to join me, "I found us a place to sleep. It's a pirate ship, not that much room away from other people, but I found a corner close to the captains quarters. We should be left alone there."

"Awesome," I said and slipped my arm around her waist, "Where did Ren go?"

"She's below deck, going through our gear," she said and leaned against my side, "See what we lost, what we still have left. You carried most of it, so most is missing."

Another mistake. We should have split it evenly between our packs.

I just nodded, "Yeah."

"How's the arm?"

"Working well," I answered and held it up for her to see, "keeping an eye on it for a while though and see how it goes. It should work until we get back home at least."

Behind us the boat was hauled onboard and Boltar started to yell orders, the crew bursting into action to get the sails going.

Looking out over the water, I rested my head against the top of Sheilas, "I have been rethinking things," I told her quietly, "We… we have to be smarter about things. Better prepared. What happened with Sakila, the water world, the desert… it can't happen away. Not sure what I can do about crazy Planeswalkers yet, but the rest… there are enchantments that would help. Temperature control, water breathing… we're going to sit down and go through everything we can think of. Then we find ways to counter it."

Sheila frowned slightly and turned to look up at me, "…Atregos, nobody can plan for everything."

"No. No we can't. But we can try. I'm not a strong spellcaster, I can't just cast spells to solve the problem on the fly like some. I don't have enough useful summons, nor ones that's strong enough. I have to prepare beforehand for as much as I can."

She nodded, "We can try. We might need it for this."

I rested my forehead against hers, "Yes. I think we might."




AN// And that's the end of this story for now, next story in the series will be high adventure on the high seas! But next time we'll return to the lands of the pony and see what Page can stupidly volunteer for next.

 

[Hiver]

Next part of the series can be found here Favors Owed