"It's good, I promise."
Sheila turned her head and looked at me, clearly not believing a word before she turned her head back to look at the dead deer laying on the stone floor before her, "unow."
"Sheila, deer are good," I said from next to her, "It's fresh too, I took it myself less than an hour ago. Nice and warm still."
"U no eling," she said and looked at me again, "is issiult enou iou u aging it orse."
I cringed slightly, "...Sorry. Wasn't trying to make it worse. It's just..."
She sighed and shifted, giving my head a small nuzzle, "I now. il no elp."
"Maybe I can help instead," Jaina said as she padded inside, "Atregos has been a dragon too long to really remember how it is at the start. My experience is a bit more fresh," she said before she looked at me, "Besides, Alexstrasza sent for you."
I hesitated. On one claw, Sheila needed me. On the other, Alexstrasza wanted to speak to me and at the moment I just seemed to be getting in the way."
I looked at Sheila who nodded to me,
"o. i wi e fine."
Giving her a small nuzzle, I got up and looked at Jaina.
She shifted her wings in amusement, "Don't worry, I'll get her eating," she said and then looked towards the new dragon, "He's right you know. It might not be easy to adapt to, but deer really is tasty once you get past the entire 'eating them raw and whole' thing." she said as she moved past me and settled down next to Sheila.
After one last glance back at them, I then moved on towards the side of the tower, looking for an exit.
Alexstrasza liked to spend time at the top of the tower where the Wyrmrest Accord usually met. Both because it was one of the few places that let her take her real form when she wanted too, but because she also enjoyed being under the open sky, especially on a day as clear and sunny as today.
Reaching the landing opening, I took three quick steps and then spread my wings as I threw myself out into the cool and clear air outside the tower, quickly catching the wind and started to slowly circle upwards around the tower.
The massive monolithic stone tower rose out of the surrounding pine forest like a small mountain, surrounded on the ground by shimmering blue forcefield bubbles with green plants in them. The herbalist projects that were breeding and working on getting the yield up on Azerothian plantlife, working to see how they worked on this Plane before preparing them for release out into nature.
While introducing out of Plane life to this Plane may seem... ill advised, it really wasn't. The plants in question may outcompete some local flora or it may not, but they were all significantly more beneficial. All of the ones we brought were magically powerful or had other useful properties such as healing ones.
Of course, we'd still have to be careful to avoid a rabbit scenario.
Mmmm. Rabbits. Tasty. Too bad they were so tiny and fast or I'd eat them like popcorn. Mmm… popcorn.
...I may need to go hunting for myself later. I'm hungry.
Beating my wings, I reached the top of the tower and went in for a landing. There were three dragons there already.
A red and a green dragon were to the side of the tower in their real form, discussing something. The third one was Alexstrasza. She was in her mortal form and standing by the other edge of the tower, looking out over the forest below.
I crossed over to her and sat down behind her to the side and just waited.
A moment later she glanced back to me, "Atregos."
"Alexstrasza," I answered and moved up next to her, looking out over the forest, "It's going to snow."
"Looks like," she agreed and rested her hand on top of my head, scratching gently, "How is your Consort adapting?"
"Well," I said and shifted my wings with a small sigh, "But it is difficult. We're helping all we can, but…"
"And the… complication?" she asked with a small frown, "I examined her myself and there is no trace of Fel, but…"
I shook my head, "It seems to be just cosmetic so far. I worry for her, but it seems to be fine. Kalecgos… he's just asleep, right?"
She nodded and sighed softly, "He is," she agreed, "I examined him as well to be sure, he is just exhausted. That ritual… it's too much. I'm going to talk to him when he wakes up, that ritual, it is too tiring. It could kill a wyrm to do it, even him."
I just nodded. Not like she wasn't right.
"I read through the spell books you brought back," she then said, changing the subject, "They were interesting, if only covering some very basic spells."
"It's what was available," I admitted, "Most spell books on Ravnica seem to be restricted to the members of the different Guilds. You only gain access if you join one of them. I think there are other Planes where we may have better luck. While there may be fewer spells, they may be easier to access."
Alexstrasza nodded, "I believe you may be right, at least until the Consortium is able to gain a foothold on Ravnica."
"Perhaps," I agreed, "but Ravnica makes it difficult because of the structure of the Guilds. But if it worked, it would definitely be worth it."
"And you are practicing?"
I growled softly but nodded, "I have gotten better," I admitted, "At least with small simple spells. I still have the same problem I always had with the big ones, the spell matrix just collapses for me unless I take my time, even if I do it perfectly. I'm digging more into magical spell theory, hopefully that'll help."
The faster I get good at it, the faster I can go back to actually useful things.
