Shining Wyrm & The Blood Immaculate [Original Fantasy/Dragon Fiction]

[Nighzmarquls]

6.4

Jewel's newly bound servant Adelyne had a problem.

Well to be fair the girl who was scarcely a winter older then Jewel herself had many numerous problems. Potentially more than could be counted.

Although Jewel made the attempt while mustering her patience.

First of all Adelyne had almost incorrigibly sticky fingers of a sort that no one but Jewel, Muriel and Eryka could reliably spot before things went missing.

If confronted about it the girl folded like wet river reeds and returned whatever had gone missing (when it wasn't food she didn't even need to take in the first place).

Which brought up the second issue, Adelyne would always eat to the point of injuring herself.

Jewel had watched her force down food even when she was bloated from overeating. If you put any food worth eating in front of her or even left it unattended near her it would go down the deceptively thin waif's gullet.

And if her portions were not watched she would make herself sick.

Thirdly she was slippery as an eel, if you tried to grab her Adelyne had a knack for getting loose and away whenever someone tried to hold her. Which meant even if you did spot and call her out for a theft immediately she could barely be constrained if she panicked and fled.

The only reason she wasn't an even worse menace was that the city waif had the endurance of a sickly lamb when it came to open field running and she had the footing on rough terrain of a blind ox after a bee sting.

The less said of her woodscraft the better.

Adelyne had already sprained an ankle trying to take flight across a field.

Which lead to a fourth and most dire problem not just for Adelyne but Jewel as well.

There was as far as Jewel had found not a single form of work the girl could be set too that was suited for more than children.

She couldn't read much of anything worth calling words.

She could not write either.

She was a disaster at cleaning.

A liability doing the wash of anything not durable enough for Jewel's own handling.

And utterly hopeless at spinning, weaving or any other needlework much more than a patch job.

Jewel mostly attended spinning circles to acclimate the women of Valasect to her and had no actual need for a bondwoman to do any such work but how could this girl have gotten to the age of womanhood and not know even how to spin thread?

The Wyrm was spinning better than Adelyne when she was seven!

And that was when Jewel was a clumsy oaf who tangled the thread in her scales and claws half the time! This supposed woman struggled with something as basic as carding!

Jewel didn't even know you could struggle with carding before she saw it!

"Adelyne... not so rough, you are throwing wool everywhere."

The young woman, who Jewel had almost certainly saved the life of and seemed to sincerely want to make up on the debt incurred with the wyrm hissed through her teeth and dropped the two combs she had been brutalizing the rough fleece with.

"What's the point in all of this?!"

The only thing that Jewel found admirable about Adelyne is that when she had noticed Jewel was not in the habit of eating or obliterating people for failures of manners she did not need to be pushed to speak her mind.

Unfortunately the fifth item of her difficult behavior in Jewel's tally was Adelyne without the threat of mortal peril always spoke her mind!

Adelyne was no longer allowed outside of the manor. She was also forbidden from interacting with any of the locals of Valasect without supervision when they visited.

Apparently her Jewel's silence was going on too long for the city waif.

"Hey! Jule! What's the point?!"

Some of the snarls of rough fleece were only just settling to the floor from Adelyne's attempt at work that Gwenna was nearly old enough to manage.

Jewel fixed her bondwoman with a look she hoped conveyed how disappointed she was.

But it did not have the intended effect.

Adelyne just snorted at her.

"Well? I can see you thinking and rolling it around in that scaly head of yours. Out with it!"

Jewel sighed heavily.Turning her attention away from the bobbing spindle.

She'd yearned to be able to do this so effortlessly it did not require attention and now she missed the excuse to not have to speak.

"You card to get any leftover sticks, grass, shit, dirt and burs out of the wool. Otherwise it makes the thread coarser, anything you weave with it scratchier and the fibers weaker."

And for some reason, this basic fact of life struck the woman like one of Urul the Written's deep revelations of sorcery. She was old enough to be well established in a profession already!

"Really?! Well fancy... is that why the clothes you can get on the cheap itch so much?"

Jewel huffed and turned back to watch her thread working even if it was unnecessary. She could feel the thread and the spools well enough to work in the dark.

"That or the fleas."

Another snort.

"Nah, weren't the fleas. I know how you deal with those."
Jewel blinked at that, curious to hear. Her interest was apparently enough to prompt her bondaged.

"You roll any clothes that bite ya in an ash pit, Grind it well good. Then boil em in an old fish fry pan with water. If the water burns your skin after it's gone cold then you know it got all the biters loose and you can rinse the nipping water out and wear it fine"

Huh, She'd have to talk to Tsulogothulan about this strange magic later. It might be useful if they ever had a curse of vermin later.

"Of course it's rough and nasty on the clothes too. The little biters are spiteful and they gnash holes as they come loose in vengeance on ya."

Huh, well that made sense.

"But that's not what I was meaning. No see, some rich clothes are fine and soft. Other kinds are rough and scratchy. Even when they taste the same and have the same colors as the rich ones."

Jewel hummed and then nodded, that did sound like wool that was not carded well or otherwise not been cleaned properly before spinning and weaving.

"I think so then, that does sound like poor cardding."

Adelyne picked up the two combs again with a lump of fleece stuck on one.

"Well if that's the difference between one Grosz and Three I'll card this woggle to silver!"

The Lanoline was already rinsed free last season from the shorn herds but there were never enough hands. Even with Jewel's own labor when she could spare it there was plenty of rough wool needing hands to work it.

She winced though as she watched the (semi) former thief try to jerk the two combs through the still rough fleece with all the care of a child trying to swipe birds off the field.

Catching it all in a snarled knot instead of managing to pass the teeth past one another such that burs and detritus could be free'd.

It was so pitiful to watch Jewel had to stop her own spinning to correct it.

"No, Adelyne, give it here I'll show you again."

If the woman was this hopelessly uneducated no wonder she turned to theft!

 

[Zaealix]

Hrrrm.
City kid out in the country having problems.
What a surprise.
It…
Makes me think about how Cities are…
Unnatural isn't quite the right word but perhaps more…
Cities have always, as I understood it, had problems around too much life in too small a space, and while those problems can be mitigated they must be dealt with continuously, and unfortunately it is all too easy for someone to try to optimize, and only succeed in ensuring those problems instead are not fought for a time, until having been given time to build their power these problems come roaring back in such force that they require years of work to defeat and perhaps decades to best entirely.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.5

Jewel no longer risked falling over as she walked.

Her legs and back finally had the strength to hold her true. She was not yet confident enough to run as she saw some children her size do.

She didn't like how precarious she felt on just two legs at that speed even if she mostly was able to avoid losing her balance.

Still the victory was there Jewel could walk and stand on her own and her arms now moved more or less then she wished them too.

She could grasp and lift things with her hands, although not as well as she remembered doing with her larger wyrm self at this age.
She was even managing a few of the simplest flight cants, although her lack of wings made her feel almost as badly muffled as her tiny throat.

It was there that Jewel still strived the hardest.

She could produce a wide range of sounds, Gurgle and cry, Yet speech and words yet eluded her.

Things simply did not flex or open the way she had learned to do it.

She could trill a bit and mostly hit all the right tones and pitches, but the control was absent to actually shape those much more.

The rumbling growls in her throat could not be cut off to make any sharp stops besides sloppy clicks.

"Icha!"

It didn't sound anything like Smithson's name but it was the closest sound she could make and many attempts had settled into her Squire recognizing it was her word for him.

"Hmm? Yes little Gem? Do you need something?"

When she had the clarity of hearing and knowing of her larger self Jewel disliked the way he pitched his voice like that.

But when they were alone together it made it a lot easier to follow the words. No matter how much it seemed demeaning otherwise, She appreciated it for the kindness it was.

There was so much noise to discern and focus on and lose even clearly spoken words in the muddle. Her tiny head felt like it was constantly being filled to overflowing some times for all the ways that sounds just seemed to catch in it like burs in sheep wool.

Her vision and hearing had ceased blurring up over the last year, changing along with her limbs lengthening and muscles strengthening. But instead of relief the clarity turned into an endless pouring of details and confusion bombarding her every sense.

Sounds.

Sights.

Scents.

Tastes.

Without her larger self all of them flowed over her and pulled at her attention in every single way.

Without the stability of her wyrm body and memory she drifted constantly. Following motes of dust in a sunbeam too the sound of trickling water off the manor houses' roof in snowmelt.

Amid all of that, words sounded muttered or mumbled even in what she knew were normal speaking tones. Against the catching hooks of everything around her without the infantilizing pitch shift in smithson's words his speech could be utterly lost.

"Gem? Focus girl... what did you want?"

And that was the other reason Jewel loved her dear squire.

He was strong, he caught her when she fell, he could see when she lost the pattern-

"Gem?"

Jewel shook herself out and nodded hard, then gently reached up to grasp a few of her squire's fingers in her tiny hand.

Her squire's attention and hand secure, she began walking, gently tugging him along.
Her legs were longer but still short, her head barely was much higher then Smithson's mid thigh. The simple babe smock she wore billowed out around and over her swinging tail.

She could just about get the cloth smock over her own head without assistance now, but her horns and the awkwardness of her shoulders still meant Smithson needed to assist her when she had to change.

Which had been embarrassing the first time but honestly Jewel was mostly used to it now.

Her squire walked with her, taking a few short steps for every four paces of Jewel's.

They moved through the looming vast hallways her larger self required for basic comfort.

As foggy as her mind still could be however Jewel knew the way in her own home.

Most of the time.

For his part Smithson did not try to fill the silence between them. He knew Jewel was frustrated with her awkward speech. She could tell he appreciated her using crude, improper words to draw attention and make requests but did not force her.

Occasionally he had tried to help her speak words correctly but if simply watching and trying to imitate him as he spoke would have solved her speech difficulties she would have been reciting ballads by now.

Probably.

She could not in fact actually remember them as well as when her greater self was close.

But she had been able to remember the song during the darkest night.

Not able to say the words but she sang the feeling of them.

And that had been a wonderful discovery.

Because it had given Jewel's smaller body something she desperately wanted.

She could once again and for the first time hold her wyrmflame inside herself!

The near full season it had taken for it to drain entirely out of her left Jewel pained and worried. Chilled in a way that only the absence of her flame could ever feel.

And she thought she remembered it right from the time Tsulogothulan explained it while watching the flame slowly dissipate and fade.

But the Weird was much harder to understand without her wyrmself.

Not as bad as the absolute silence of the stones, air and world at large when Jewel's smaller body was alone.

But the Wizard made even less sense than the mumbly resonant voices of the other adults.

Adults.

Jewel was an adult, and yet she was also a child.

She didn't even measure up to Smithson's belt with the tips of her horns!

She had to reach up to grasp his fingers!

And only a few would actually fit in her palm.

Jewel was so small and she was a child and it had been a long two and a half mostly bleary years for her to accept that.

She couldn't speak.

She was only just getting enough confidence in the strength of her shoulders and the suppleness of her motions to make the crudest flight cant.

Not enough to be understood clearly by anyone.

Not yet.

But her Squire was there with her.

Smithson made it all better.

Paul too, although he was much less confident around her.

He put on a brave and assured face when both of her bodies were together, but he deferred entirely to Smithson in absence of Jewel's larger body.

The one time he had tried holding her had been a very uncomfortable experience for both of them.

He was so utterly unsure of himself she feared he would drop her.

And where that would have been nothing when she was a Wyrm, Jewel the wyrm spawn child had already had a very painful experience with even slight falls.

The sheer pain of a mere tumble had left her in a mortifying combination of inconsolable sobbing and screeching like a stuck pig.

But Smithson was there with her, even when she was still too shaky to walk with assurance he would not let her fall.

And he like the proper squire and friend he was helped her.

He kept her fed, he made sure she stayed clean and was always patient.

Cleanliness was a challenge beyond all the awful new sticky things she had to worry about. It required something not quite the same as either the care for a babe or a dragon.

Her scales were far softer than her larger self's. But they were also by no means as tender as her sister Gwenna's skin.

Even when not fortified by her true self's wyrm flame.

They needed care to stay shining, to make sure the occasional peeling didn't hurt her or look unseemly.

That she didn't get stuck too stiff to move.

And Smithson was there with her to learn about these new challenges for her care and help with all of it.

There was truly no one that gave greater service or comfort for Jewel when she had to be separate and small like this then her Squire.

It made her feel warm and happy when he was close in a way almost as good as the safety of the flame coursing through her body.

And course it did!

Retained and held by Jewel now via a slight focus of attention. Not shaped as finely or specifically as how it had laid inside her after the longest night, but present all the same.

Those weaving threads of living fire had broken when at last their vital heat had run dry inside her, without the divine working as a scaffold she could not find how to recreate it.

But even without its heating structure Jewel could still hold the vital flame within.

Keep it stored inside pulsing over almost two full days if needed.

That had interested Tsulogothulan somehow?

Jewel was not sure, it made sense to her larger self but did not quite come clear in her smaller head.

Something true about it, but also different.

Jewel was happy just to hold the comfort of her larger self close and sustained longer than the brief hour that she had before the darkest night.

That it might one day lead to workings she could perform with it was of hardly any interest compared to the sheer relief she could feel in both her hearts to no longer have to suffer in the absence of wyrmflame.

Finally they reached Jewel's study. Where her larger self was not, because today she would be visiting with Mother and Father.

Paul was also not present, instead about in the village she thought? but that was no concern.

Smithson had been given the right to enter these chambers. And it's not like the footmen in Valasect were plentiful enough to waste time barring the way.

Her Squire opened the vast towering door for Jewel. Letting her gently pull him into her study with its fine high windows that tinted the spring light with murky disks of glass.

She walked over to a shelf that if she was her full self was just right for reaching over to pluck things from while laying against the fine stones of the floor.

Jewel released Smithson's fingers and then extended with a trembling and intense concentration to keep only the one digit extended. To point at what she could not see but smelled hints of and fuzzily remembered should be there. Offering the one word she could almost manage.

"Ghok!"

As with her attempts at saying her Squire's name it was barely more than an animal cry. But again Smithson was the best friend and servant she could hope for and had long since learned to hear past her failures.

He laughed in joy rather than derision (she trusted him too, but it was even harder to tell when she was so small what people actually meant).

Then reached beyond her sight and lifted the precious treasure of Thurzó's gift. The venerable leather bound book of The Travel log Pythra of Veracules brought such sudden joy to Jewel she could not stop herself from squealing in glee and clapping her hands.

"Eee!"

Her Squire being of course the best Squire nodded and moved over to sit at the desk in a chair that mostly served Paul when her husband used Jewel's study.

But today was going to serve as a place for her and Smithson to continue making their way through the Log.

They had not yet reached the point he actually spoke to The Seer of the Mountain Shialtza. But Jewel loved to hear the words written there.

She could mostly still read these days as her smaller self, although some of the letters were hard to follow.

However Smithson had grown much more confident in his letters and reading in the act of speaking what was written.

Jewel thought it good that she encouraged her squire to better himself in this.

She also loved the way he changed his voice when speaking the words of different people.

That was the second best part!

 

[Zaealix]

Hum.
Gem refers to herself as Jewel. An interesting fact. Although a part of me wonders how long it will remain an interesting tidbit…
I slightly suspect the learning to hold the wyrmflame means developing Wizardry talent but we will see…

 

[I_S]

Our littlest kobold is getting bigger.

Of course she's jewel not gem, she's the Dragon! I expect learning to see herself as an independent entity would be utterly heartbreaking for her, and probably won't happen until puberty unless jewel leaves the nest for a few months

 

[Aabcehmu]

I'm honestly still not sure it's exactly right to say that Gem and Jewel are entirely distinct entities? By my intuition at least, they fall into a sort of in-between space, more than just one person, but not rising to the level of two completely separate persons.

They might be forced to become separate if they're kept apart for a long time, especially during such an important developmental period for the smaller body, but I don't think that'll necessarily happen if they aren't separated, and even if they are separated and a division of identity does form between them during that time, I'd expect them meeting again would cause some pretty severe psychic reshuffling, and maybe end up with (parts of?) both identities in both bodies.

 

[MentalMe]

I'm not sure if I imagined it, but are there any chapters that explored Jewels parents coming to terms with treating her as their actual daughter?
Read the story a good while ago. Could anyone kindly point them out to me, if they exist?

 

[Nighzmarquls]

I'm not sure if I imagined it, but are there any chapters that explored Jewels parents coming to terms with treating her as their actual daughter?
Read the story a good while ago. Could anyone kindly point them out to me, if they exist?

Click to shrink...

The first book Chapter 1.8 gets into it a bit.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.6

It was exciting!

Jewel went out into the village every day as her larger self. Even as her smaller self she had seen it before when she was carried bundled up.

But today in the warm sun of Fallow Turn Jewel was walking alongside Smithson as he performed his duties rather than being carried or bundled up.

She could feel the stones and earth with her toes, and though she could not hear them speak to her the feeling of them was still a delight.

There was a difference to simply hearing wind and feeling grass without being absolutely certain of its moods and wiles.

She could still smell hints of the grass' cries as it was grazed by recently pastured sheep and cows.

But her smaller self was deafened and muffled in her senses. Even beyond the way that the world was silent to any but her wyrmself.

The sights in her eyes felt almost stingingly sharp in their freshness. The smells she had breathed thousands upon thousands of times were despite how muddled and indistinct like new in her tiny snout.

It was a sometimes confounding and overwhelming blend of familiar and newness.

A First time that she was utterly accustomed too.

Paul was also there. Her ears turned and listened to him and Smithson talk as they sometimes did.

Even as she walked ahead to look at a flower she had seen many times before and yet was fascinating in how different it felt in these eyes.

"She's still mostly dumb?"

Smithson sighed.

"She hears and she knows things. But only a handful of 'words' does she speak. If you watch her you can tell she's cross about it too."

Paul sighed and Jewel caught him nodding when she turned to watch them.

"And the wizards can't say why? There isn't a curse or some sorcery on her?"

Smithson shrugged, they were stopping often, barely really even strolling despite there being actual business both needed to attend too.

All because she kept getting distracted.

Jewel shook herself and rushed to get a bit ahead of them on their way towards Bethica's family. Prompting them to amble barely any faster since even a casual stroll easily could outpace her at a jog.

Word had arrived from Kaeketeh that a speaking bull had arrived and was already being driven 'on the hoof' towards Valasect. He would arrive in seven days if the weather and roads were fair.

Officially his care and charge would fall to Bethica's family and for reasons that were hard to hold in her tiny head that had caused complaints in the village.

Which was why Paul and Smithson were out to speak to the family in question.

Jewel had heard as her larger self that it was also an excuse to bring 'Gem' out where the villagers and other children could see and interact with her.

Part of the ongoing attempt to ease the fear of the families to not just the presence of a proper lady directly ruling over them after generations of distant guidance but a dragon as well.

Jewel could only foggily remember the years she had spent before this body hatched when alone. But clear were the memories of her striving to endear herself.

Yet it all seemed to be taking a very long time wasn't it?

They continued walking and Jewel mostly was able to avoid stopping or drifting to the side of the Village road to stare at the spring flowers.

Paul finally filled the silence that had settled between her husband and squire.

"The family has children about her age don't they?"

Smithson hummed.

"Two, a boy and a girl, plus a babe yet to be named and three old enough to harrow the fields and see to the animals."

Paul hummed in a near perfect mirror of her Squire.

"And they are familiar with Lady Jewel from her kinder guarding. And with the speaking cow?"

Smithson laughed in a strained manner that masked the old fear that Bethica had lashed into him with her wit and tongue on their first meeting.

"Ah, Ah my Lord Paul, remember her name is Bethica. And yes in fact she watches them herself when Jewel has not been available. The cow is very... articulate."

Paul huffed but he shared a note of contrition that made Jewel's ear's perk as she was dragging herself back onto the path by what felt like an incredibly disproportionate force of will.

"Yes, thank you Squire Smithson, Jewel insisted on introducing us. Bethica has a wit sharper than some of the ladies I've met in court."

Smithson laughed at that.

A wind picked up and Jewel took in a deep breath before something was drawn up into her snout that scratched and irritated horribly. Jewel scrunched her nose and snorted hard to clear the speck out.

Which drew concerned looks from her two 'minders'.

But when she didn't do anything else to worry them both men eased their tension.

Jewel missed her larger self's sense of smell. It felt like someone had stuffed her tiny snout with linen when she tried to tell how they were feeling with this tiny stubby nose.

Her ears were better than her nose but even so that was only one sense.

She was starting to appreciate how unaware men and women actually were since she first could get a clear snout full of things with this diminished little nose.

Her smaller face was only slightly shortened, a bit like someone had pressed in her larger self's face as one would clay.

But compared to even the longest nosed man or woman Jewel had ever seen her skull had cavernous volumes.

Which unlike her wyrmish self meant Jewel sometimes had snotty volumes of discharge to clear from it!

And dust!

So much dust could get caught so high up in her face it was astounding!

And of course it itched and tickled so fiercely she then had to sneeze.

Which was horrifying the first time it happened.

Jewel had learned to not breathe too deeply when there was dust, chafe or spices in the air.

And to snort out anything that caught shallower in her nose as soon as possible.

Paul sighed heavily behind her, perking her ears back again to listen.

"I hope they take well to her, Peasants can be cruel to the children above their station."

Jewel turned again over her shoulder to see Smithson bristled a bit at that.

Which Paul also noted with a huff and a clarification.

"Not all of them! but many are not so loyal and proud as you were Smithson."

Her squire's expression changed to concern and Jewel caught his eyes as he turned to look over to her before she again faced back to the road ahead of them.

It was best to keep her eyes on the rough dirt.

Sure on her feet she might now be but Jewel could still trip if she was not careful.

Two legs were really quite awful at keeping her face clean and unbruised!

And she did not have the aid of wyrmflame to hold herself aloft when she tripped.

Her tail swished a bit violently from side to side against the cloth of her infant's smock at the reminder of her clumsiness and lack of grace.

"Do we need to worry they will hurt her?"

Paul offered a laugh that had far too little humor.

"No, none would be so stupid as to injure a noble's child like that. But peasant children can be very clever in finding cruelties that don't leave marks."

Jewel's ears perked and tilted back again at that, her husband's tone was one she rarely heard. And usually only when referring to his birth mother the countess.

There was a pained hitch to his voice.

Smithson hummed again at that.

"Stable Master Gizo could be like that sometimes."

Jewel's steps halted in the dirt and she nearly tripped, but she quickly found her feet and continued to walk ahead of the two ambling men before they could worry over her.

Stablemaster Gizo could be cruel?!

Jewel had never heard such as even her Wyrm Self. Her memory might be foggy but it was clear to her he was a kind and good man.

She held her neck stiff to keep from turning around again. If she glanced back or stared too much they would stop talking.

In fact despite her attempts at subterfuge they let it sit like that for almost a hundred of her tiny paces!

The men might as well have been giants for how they towered over her even several steps back.

They walked with slow strides that were despite their pace each easily her own height.

The silence lingering.

Paul finally broke it.

"Was he your father?"

Smithson snorted and Jewel imagined maybe he shook his head by the sound of his voice?

"My mother's cousin. He took me on as a stable boy to learn the trade. He's a good man to give me the opportunity, but his tongue could be sharper than his strop."

Paul hummed and he sort of sounded like maybe he nodded, the slight shift of how sound moved with him.

"He only used a strop and words? Sounds like he was a bit soft on you."

Smithson dismissed it, his voice a bit middling high.

"Maybe? I like to think it was earned if he was, I stuck to the stalls and seeing to the horse like I was supposed to. Oaken and the Sprattler earned their scars for being foolish. And the lightest of those came from Gizo. A charger's kick can slay a grown man if it lands right. Nevermind a stableboy."

Jewel listened intently, she had never heard men or boys speaking of their discipline so openly before.

She heard and saw it of course, Even Alexander had needed some discipline when his bravery had gotten the better of him.

Jewel had never been struck by either of her parents except in training, but she also had avoided trouble.

But the way they talked about it?

Words that could hurt?

It reminded Jewel of the way strangers spoke around her when they didn't think she could hear.

It was Insulting and now that she considered it that way painful in how many still spoke of her like a mere beast.

And of course as soon as the thought of that pain entered her tiny head it was practically pouring out of her eyes.

Tears blurring her vision and she sniffled as quietly as she could.

Jewel strove to try and wipe her eyes and look up at the speckled clouds of spring showers in the sky until the clenching pain in her chest eased.

If Smithson or Paul saw her suddenly crying they might decide this visit was too much for her!

She needed to be strong and not worry them or let her feelings drown her like they so often did her tiny heart. Jewel quickly started stepping forward again to try and make up for the time where she stopped to center herself.

Luckily neither of her minders seemed to have noticed.

Paul finally broke the silence that had settled between them.

"This family should be a good first try, they are accustomed to a speaking c- to Bethica."

Smithson's voice rose up behind her but Jewel did not want the glint of her tears to show so she stayed focused ahead on the road. By his tone she suspected he was sharing a knowing look with her husband to acknowledge the save in avoiding insulting her friend.

"We should still keep an eye out for it. And check with Jewel when she returns from Rochford."

Paul's tone was a bit confused.

"Check with Jewel? What about?"

Smithson chuckled.

Jewel could not help herself and glanced over her shoulder briefly to see his grinning face. And quickly turned away when his eyes matched hers.

"Jewel has a way of knowing whatever is going on in the little gem's head and what has happened to her through the day. The Nursemaid in Rochford got a tongue lashing you wouldn't believe from the Lady Caroline over abandoning Gem in a room in favor of the Baron's daughter."

Paul audibly scuffed his leather boots in the dirt with a stumble of surprise.

"Truly?"

Smithson had laughter in his voice.

"It's obvious if you look, they share a very special bond."

Jewel had to force herself to walk again as both men had stopped to wait for her.

But she could not resist glancing back over her shoulder at Smithson several more times.

Her cheeks burned for some reason.

Even though there was nothing to be ashamed of.

 

[Zaealix]

I suspect Smithson knew Jewel was listening in and just tipped Paul off so he didn't say something he'd regret to Gem.

 

[MrHobbit]

I've enjoyed these books a lot! The setting is great. It feels lived in. Jewel doesn't feel like a human either, despite her best efforts. It's a neat contradiction and helps introduce the readers to the world. Despite Jewel being born here, she is very alien to it nonetheless. The politics are fun to read. The magic system is incredibly creative! The Weirds are always a joy to read. Wyrms are also a fun mystery. Why and how tyrant wyrms got to be so powerful is as much of a mystery as everything else about them is!

My only real complaints are about the editing and the formatting. I've noticed typos, improper paragraph formatting, ect but that will be smoothed out by editors before this is actually published. Though the frequency that you use bolding and italicizing is distracting. It breaks up my concentration while reading, rather than drawing my focus to a specific part. For example, 6.5 used it pretty well but it was overwhelming in 3.7. It's better in The Blood Immaculate than Shining Wyrm.

The wyrmspawn are probably my favorite mystery about the wyrms. It doesn't seem like Gem will develop an identity separate from Jewel without a major shift. But puberty and all of that teenager angst could be that major shift. I'm excited though to see the realization that Gem and Jewel share minds. Jewel told them that they did, but even Tsulogothulan is too human to get that Jewel was speaking literally. That should cause excitement in the academic community as much as it would over the political implications of that.

They mentioned that Gem can't speak, it might be that she doesn't have the vocal cords to speak. The wyrmspawn of Shialtza the Seer couldn't speak. She might be able to write though.

I'm curious how many generations out that lair spawn retain their telepathy. Griffons are descendants of lair spawn. It doesn't seem like they kept that, but it could have been bred out or lair spawn only have a link to the wyrm. Tsulogothulan implied that there had been offspring between wyrmspawn and humans before. I'm not sure how that happened, but if the telepathic union was constant it wouldn't be a mystery.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

Though the frequency that you use bolding and italicizing is distracting. It breaks up my concentration while reading, rather than drawing my focus to a specific part. For example, 6.5 used it pretty well but it was overwhelming in 3.7. It's better in The Blood Immaculate than Shining Wyrm.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for the specificity on where it is working better vs worse, I fully admit the italic/bolding was an intentional experiment to start. And one which I ultimately have decided failed. I learned a bunch about it but ultimately the way I wanted to control the reading of the text was too much and too overt for nearly all readers.

I'm going to still see if I can accomplish what I wanted there but I'm not 100% sure it can be done even with proper english grammar, punctuation, text, etc.

 

[Space Murica]

I wonder if a tyrant wyrm can telepathically communicate with another tyrant wyrm. It doesn't seem like there has ever been two in the same spot that human civilization is aware of, so who knows how they would interact.

 

[MrHobbit]

I think it depends on why tyrant wyrm and wyrmspawn can telepathically communicate. What is it that allows for the communication? It doesn't seem to have stayed active in their descendants. So is it something that is limited to the first generation? If Gem had children, would her children also be of one mind with Jewel? It seems unlikely that Ghaurganzor could or would have laid all the eggs of his legions single-handedly.

Gryphons and other lairspawn descendants show that there are limits to the soul unity. It might be because with wyrmspawn the wyrm's use of wyrmflame on the egg and baby ensures it does not develop a separate mind. But it obviously isn't the transfer of wyrmflame that transfers the memories. Gem went without wyrmflame for a season and there was no mention of that. It might be because the existence of the wyrm bridges the gap.

I think it is wise to listen to Bethica on this matter. She doesn't know anything about this, but she listened to Jewel's statements about Gem more than anyone else. She described Jewel and Gem as sharing the same soul, but split between two bodies. I think that is close to the truth. There is something linking their memories; Gem has memories from before she was spawned, though hazy. That is unlikely to be present between Jewel and another tyrant wyrm.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.7

She had made this trip many times as her larger self. She knew the road, she knew the rocks and stones and what she had once seen as short fences.

But the stones and earth were silent to her steps now.

The wind merely blew.

The sun was simply warm.

The assured welcoming of the fields was absent.

The Fence that was below her shoulders and hips in most steps now was over her head.

Jewel was alone and she was small.

Positively tiny.

Smithson and Paul were now ahead of her, shielding her as she hid.

Bethica felt larger than the Terror Boar itself from her diminutive vantage.

The crowding family that her larger self could afford to barely note was a teeming crowd of giants.

Even the children ostensibly the same age as her smaller self were a head or more taller then Jewel

And the words that her Husband and Squire had shared tumbled in her head, making her timid.

Cowardly.

Craven.

Her heart must be outsized for her tiny chest, it was thundering so hard and it filled her with such feelings as to utterly overwhelm her.

She had faced armies and yet the prospect of doing more than peeking around Smithson's legs froze her in place.

Paul was speaking but it was so hard to focus on what he said compared to fretfully peering at the looming children.

She had seen them for almost a year now and yet they looked and tasted strange and dangerous to her as she was.

Bethica finally raised her head up, having either had enough of the conversation going on past her, or perhaps gotten through enough of her grazing she could afford to speak.

That deep resonant voice sounded incredibly tired of the situation.

"You vir can gawk and gab over your fiddling ways in regards to my bull to be, But go do it away from me and my grazing. "

Smithson hesitated at that, but Bethica rolled what Jewel knew was her family eye onto him and grunted hard.

"Git on horse boy who would be a vir of station, I've seen to every child of this family and my own besides. Lady Jewel is as a sister to me and I'll see to the safety of her child as my own."

The last words were spoken with Bethica swinging her horned head around to fix each of the giant pair of children, who were struck just as still and stone faced as Smithson had been that first day.

And before Jewel could even properly move to try and follow her guardians and the adults of the family were gone, fleeing to obey Bethica as if she was in fact the lady of the land and not Jewel.

To be honest by her sheer size and muscles alone Jewel could appreciate not wanting to upset the cow.

As a wyrm she had not thought much of her in that way.

But looming over and above Jewel like this? The point of those horns? The solidity of her stance in the pasture?

Bethica was easily bigger and heavier than any man or woman, and absolutely towered over Jewel in this smaller frame.

Although she was not alone in being frozen in fear. The two children across the way were frozen in fear precisely as Jewel was.

She could see in their faces and their tense legs.

After everyone had stood there stuck frozen in mortifying terror and silence Bethica finally spoke. Voice a low groan of exasperation.

"Stars guide me, All of you calves come over close in front of me here and settle down."
When no one seemed quite inclined to move her tone gentled to a soft friendliness somehow even gentler and more encouraging than Jewel ever heard.

"Fear and fret not youths of vir and wyrm. Words of warning are only just that, behave well and true and you've not a thing to fear."

The children shuffled around in front of Bethica keeping quite clear of her flanks.

Then came around and settled to sit in the grass in front of the cow.

Like Jewel they wore simple infant smocks. Still too small for any other clothes.

Even with her shorter snout she could smell however they were brother and sister.

Although her eyes honestly could not have even begin to guess without the scent.

Both slight and small (if still taller than her).

Both with dark hair.

One perhaps a bit taller than the other.

"Smithson called you Gem wyrmchild, Come along and settle down here with Albert and Dorota."

Jewel could not make her legs move, her hands squeezed tight into the still unfamiliar curl of her fists. This was her friend, but she was also a huge and terribly frightening beast.

But thinking of her like that was an insult and only made Jewel more upset.

Before she could compose herself more everything overfilled her tiny frame and the shaking turned to shudders and the tightness in her throat broke in a cry. Tears bursted from her eyes for the second time that day!

She was so overwhelmed Jewel shrieked in surprise when a cold wet mass and a heavy huff of hot breath billowed over her face.

The voice was softer than she had ever heard before and rumbled deep and low in a way that trembled in her bones.

It shook in the half drained mass of Wyrm Flame that in her misery Jewel had lost hold of and let seep out of her skin.

What would have lasted a day and a half was not likely to sustain a few hours more of the warm comforting fire of her larger self.

It was only the fear of losing even that which gave her the will to focus on it.

But that left her tears to flow down her cheeks and her throat to keen and cry.

"She Cry."
Whichever of the pair of children said that Jewel could not see and her ears were such a rush of blood she could barely tell the direction.

"Shush shush shush..."

Jewel's face was scraped with a surprisingly dry feeling blob.

It scraped up her scales, over one cheek and only revealed itself to be Bethica's wide pink tongue because it passed her eye on its way to her brow.

"It's frightful to be on your own with strangers, yes? Away from your mother? Away from your herd. Alone in the open scary wideness?"

For some reason she had expected a cow tongue to feel more wet.

The silliness of it washed over her as strong as the fear and despair and suddenly her chest was shaking with hiccuping laughter.

She tried pushing against the massive head of her friend who was so close to her, but the muscles in that neck were stronger and vaster than her entire body.

Her efforts accomplished little. The cow simply nuzzled at her neck and blew hard from her nostrils, hot air tickling her throat and blowing back Jewel's hair.

"Gehicka!"

That got a light shove in the belly that made Jewel hiccup again and fall back into the grass.

The sound of a vast overwhelming cow gently sinking to the ground herself briefly shocked her straight backed but it was only her friend laying down in the warm spring sun on soft grass.

"Hmmm, that's close but let me see you try again. Look at me, See my face?"

Jewel was confused, but she had a suspicion this was going to be more attempts to get her to say things correctly.

Jewel had seen quite a lot of that this year.

They would say the words in front of her and then wait for her to do it right and she would fail.

But Bethica was her friend.

Jewel would make the effort.

"Gehicka"

She closed her eyes and for the trouble got another slap of a wet tongue from her nose to her forehead. The stickiness of some saliva stuck some of her hair straight up.

"No, Keep your eyes open little one, look close, watch my mouth."

Jewel glanced at the other children who were sitting and watching her with knowing smiles.

"Beh-thi-kah"

Jewel frowned, she tried to do as her friend asked, she looked at the mouth, they moved like everyone else did.

Her friend turned the stranger side of her face around to watch Jewel.

"Now you try."

That eye was fixed on Jewel, no it was fixed on Jewel's mouth.

Huffing in frustration that seemed to not perturb the cow at all Jewel repeated herself.

"Greh-heh-kheh!"

Bethica turned her familiar eye back around and leaned in even closer to Jewel.

Honestly she could no longer really see Bethica's eye around her own snout anymore. But just as gentle as she had been so far her friend spoke.

"Say Buh"

Jewel sighed and did her best.

"Guh"

She'd tried before, Jewel couldn't make the sound like her larger self did. Her throat refused to shape or sharpen the sounds properly.

It was mangled and twisted.

Tears were starting to well in her eyes, would her smaller self always be rendered dumb?

Grunting like a beast?

But instead of demanding a repeat Bethica drew back enough to fix Jewel with her family eye.

"Gem dear, can you move your lips and tongue? Like this?"

Bethica extended her tongue free to run over her own nose.

Then pursed her lips and let out a cry that was far more the speech of a woman then the call of her kind.

"MooO?"

Jewel perplexed and bewildered imitated, of course she could lick her nose.

And shaping her lips like that was simple.

But what did that have to do with speaking?

Speech came from the throat.

"GOoh?"
Bethica smiled, actually smiled and Jewel confused but also feeling a little strange had to smile back.

Lips spread wide in a grin, flat teeth closed framed by the cow's mouth.

"Meeh?"

Again Jewel repeated.

"Geeh?"

Bethica gave a little shake.

"Almost dear... But you need to voice in your throat while your lips are closed. Then open them while you voice"

Again Bethica spoke but without saying any word in particular.

"Meeh?"

Jewel furrowed her brow as she concentrated, trying to do everything she was told.

"meaAhieek!?"

The way the sound changed! It surprised Jewel so much she squealed, losing the magic of it in her excitement.

But her friend only smiled and spoke soft and gentle.

"Yes! Very good little Gem! But keep your teeth together. Again! Watch."
And again she made the sound, Now that Jewel was paying attention she heard and saw how the lips stayed closed and then peeled back even as the voice continued.

Jewel focused, it was not easy, it felt wrong from everything she had learned in all her years.

But if she could hold her wyrmflame inside herself she could do this.

"Mehmehmeh"

Her heart felt like it was going to burst.

It was not the same as how she spoke as a wyrm. But it was a sound she had failed to make in this tiny throat despite over a year of trying.

And it was because she had been trying with the wrong parts!

Before her friend could prompt her again Jewel forged onward.

Seeking to shape the sound now that she understood what she had been doing wrong.

"Mehickra!"

The laughter of the two children felt like a fist on her heart that only eased when Bethica told the two of them off for mocking her progress.

"Better dear, but now we need another part... Watch me."

Jewel wiped the tears from her eyes so she could see clearly as Bethica demonstrated.

"Paaaah"

 

[Cecylene]

Oh that's the reason Gem has so so much trouble speaking! Gem had a fundamentally different throat and mouth stricter than Jewel who speaks using only her throat muscles. Gem has been trying to talk without using her lips at all!

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.8

Jewel was trying to focus.

But although she now possessed two heads, two sets of ears, and in some ways attention enough for all of them, it was still difficult.

Her bodies were far enough apart that the strange knowing between them was not consistent. Rising and falling in swells of memory. Memory that she clearly was present for. Yet also kept experiencing separately and losing track of which was which.

It was incredibly awkward but the god botherer who looked after the temple and saw to the heavenly needs of Valasect was insistent.

Children (especially the very young) could bring the wrong sort of attention when treating with certain divinities and even here under the open sun warmed sky it was not a sure thing that one might not be present during the congregation.

So 'Gem' was kept well back along with the other curious village children while Jewel and the god botherer stood under the ceremonial tree which Valasect used for most of their congregations and divine rituals outside of winter.

However, one of the young boys (she had to audibly sniff him to confirm) sidled up closer to her and whispered.

"That's your ma?"

She was trying to focus but each of her selves had entirely different things they needed to do.
And by all technicalities he was not wrong.

Jewel huffed and nodded to the child who was none-the-less taller than her by a good head.

"My gran says she's a wyrm, monster and beast. But my ma and pa say she's good and she's nice whenever she's watching us over the hungry summer, she gives us good white bread! Later in the summer she takes us to the boar festival all the way in Rochford!"

He nodded hard at that.

"Your Ma's good!"

He was trying to be quiet, but his excitement over the simple round she shared when she was doing her kinder guarding overtook him. Not being much more in control of herself, a smile was soon splitting 'Gem's' face as well.

However there was the problem of how to respond.

Jewel was not sure what she was supposed to do, words were still incredibly difficult. Even if she could make a few of the proper word shaped sounds.

She was far too slow to get one right for a proper conversation.

So Jewel just nodded and made a gesture almost but not quite like the flight cant for acknowledgement.

She still needed to practice with these hands..

"Ah yeah, I spoke to Bethica a bit. She said you were good and smart but someone taught you how to speak wrong. That was a mean joke they did!"

Jewel could not even begin to explain, but she could agree. She had apparently learned to speak wrong. Unless you were a dragon!

So nodding and then another clumsy gesture and a heavy sigh, bits of tears were already welling up in her eyes.

"Ah! Don't cry! You know it was wrong now so you can just learn the right way ya? I see ya around the town sometimes with your pa-"

Jewel choked and squawked with a heavy shake, her face was suddenly far too hot, her ears perked high and burning with the rush of blood.

"The lord squire that's always with you isn't your pa?"

Jewel could not keep it in, she chokes into a giggling laugh that requires her to smother her mouth to avoid interrupting the very important ceremony her larger self is attending.

One of the adults who were there to keep the children away from where the invoked gods might take interest silenced all of them with a sharp look and a raised finger to their lips.

Which ended all conversation long enough for Jewel to actually get control of herself.

The peasant boy squatted down low and whispered quite a bit too loudly for speaking Jewel right next to her ear.

"If the lord-mf?"

Jewel couldn't handle the suggestion again, she reached out and gently pinched his lips closed with her hand.

She tried to quietly say the word 'lord'. But Could not get even half the sounds right.

However she shook her head rapidly as soon as she said it.

"The lor-mhey!"

This time the peasant leaned out of reach of her pinching fingers but she fixed him with one of the looks she had practiced as her larger self.

The one that Mother used to silence courtiers without saying a word.

It actually seemed to work on the peasant boy.

"Is... is he not a lord either?"

Jewel nodded and smiled.

She made a series of gestures that, if you were half blind might have looked like the sign for 'horse' and 'camp' and 'levies'.

Trying to make the easiest version of the old riddle game she played on the march to explain that Smithson was a stableboy.

Then Jewel realized this boy didn't know what any of that meant.

His confused expression made her sigh again.

Well she'd taught her and Father's version to Gryphon riders once.

She could do it again.

A quick wave with her little fingers and then Jewel pointed to one of the draft horses.

He looked over and furrowed his brow.

"What? What about the field?"

Jewel huffed and shook her head and tugged at his tunic. It was not quite the infant smock she wore but it was still clothing for a child that was at the start of growing, when he was taller it would probably be one of the shirts she saw the youths in the village wear.

"Hmm? What is it?"

He leaned down low and Jewel with as much grace as her only somewhat coordinated arms could manage grabbed him round the neck, pressed the side of her head to his cheek, then with both their eyes mostly lined up she used the practice having two different pairs of eyes gave her and pointed directly at the horse that was out to pasture between labors.

"Eh hey... wha... oh, you were pointing at the horse... but why?"

Jewel noticed that her actions with the peasant boy had drawn the attention of pretty much all of the other children. Which again made her face burn with rushing blood but she mastered herself and mostly forced down the tears that wanted to well up with sheer determination.

She let go of the peasant boy now that he had the right idea and pointed at the horse again.

Then made the gesture for a horse in flight cant as carefully as she could.

He and the other children stared in confusion, one of them giggled.

But then a girl that was only perhaps a few winters ahead of Jewel's smaller body gasped loud enough to draw the ire and shushing of the adults.

"She's talking with her hands!"

Which suddenly got everyone's attention focused on Jewel (or where her finger pointed) and not on the mostly boring and familiar events of a god invocation performed in the day.

Jewel paused for a moment, she had everyone's attention on her.

She had taught over a dozen Gryphon Riders her and Father's expanded flight cant and helped Alexander practice the more standard forms before he set off to the eyrie.

Her arms were too clumsy to manage things quickly enough for real conversation.

But she would need to go slower if she was teaching anyway.
Jewel's path forward suddenly was clear.

Her throat might be shaped wrong for how she knew how to speak.

But if anything her arms, hands and shoulders were shaped better for this.

And she needed to find a way to win over her subjects.

None of these children were afraid of Jewel when she was so small.

Most of them were older than her.

All of them were bigger than her.

To them 'Gem' was safe!

Jewel did not point when she made the gesture this time.

And they all 'whispered' their answer with shrill excitement.

"Horse!"

She didn't even try to stop her smile.

 

[Zaealix]

…I sure hope the griffon lords and knights won't take offense at Flight Can't spreading among Jewel's people.
…
Then again in a generation or two she might also have a number of them taking to bonding with griffons anyway which in theory should smooth any ruffled feathers…Maybe.

 

[Cecylene]

…I sure hope the griffon lords and knights won't take offense at Flight Can't spreading among Jewel's people.
…
Then again in a generation or two she might also have a number of them taking to bonding with griffons anyway which in theory should smooth any ruffled feathers…Maybe.

Click to shrink...

I mean, it's not like it's a secret against the other people in the air. Gryphon Lords when facing off against each other also know Flight Cant so it's not like its a secret language just one that most people don't have any reason or opportunity to learn.

And I honestly imagine most generals/Lords know Flight Cant or something similar if only because variations on using signs and signals, and most prominently the 1800's standardization of semaphore, has been a thing for centuries if not millenia.

 

[Rayne-of-Faerie]

6.7

She had made this trip many times as her larger self. She knew the road, she knew the rocks and stones and what she had once seen as short fences.

But the stones and earth were silent to her steps now.

The wind merely blew.

The sun was simply warm.

The assured welcoming of the fields was absent.

The Fence that was below her shoulders and hips in most steps now was over her head.

Jewel was alone and she was small.

Positively tiny.

Smithson and Paul were now ahead of her, shielding her as she hid.

Bethica felt larger than the Terror Boar itself from her diminutive vantage.

The crowding family that her larger self could afford to barely note was a teeming crowd of giants.

Even the children ostensibly the same age as her smaller self were a head or more taller then Jewel

And the words that her Husband and Squire had shared tumbled in her head, making her timid.

Cowardly.

Craven.

Her heart must be outsized for her tiny chest, it was thundering so hard and it filled her with such feelings as to utterly overwhelm her.

She had faced armies and yet the prospect of doing more than peeking around Smithson's legs froze her in place.

Paul was speaking but it was so hard to focus on what he said compared to fretfully peering at the looming children.

She had seen them for almost a year now and yet they looked and tasted strange and dangerous to her as she was.

Bethica finally raised her head up, having either had enough of the conversation going on past her, or perhaps gotten through enough of her grazing she could afford to speak.

That deep resonant voice sounded incredibly tired of the situation.

"You vir can gawk and gab over your fiddling ways in regards to my bull to be, But go do it away from me and my grazing. "

Smithson hesitated at that, but Bethica rolled what Jewel knew was her family eye onto him and grunted hard.

"Git on horse boy who would be a vir of station, I've seen to every child of this family and my own besides. Lady Jewel is as a sister to me and I'll see to the safety of her child as my own."

The last words were spoken with Bethica swinging her horned head around to fix each of the giant pair of children, who were struck just as still and stone faced as Smithson had been that first day.

And before Jewel could even properly move to try and follow her guardians and the adults of the family were gone, fleeing to obey Bethica as if she was in fact the lady of the land and not Jewel.

To be honest by her sheer size and muscles alone Jewel could appreciate not wanting to upset the cow.

As a wyrm she had not thought much of her in that way.

But looming over and above Jewel like this? The point of those horns? The solidity of her stance in the pasture?

Bethica was easily bigger and heavier than any man or woman, and absolutely towered over Jewel in this smaller frame.

Although she was not alone in being frozen in fear. The two children across the way were frozen in fear precisely as Jewel was.

She could see in their faces and their tense legs.

After everyone had stood there stuck frozen in mortifying terror and silence Bethica finally spoke. Voice a low groan of exasperation.

"Stars guide me, All of you calves come over close in front of me here and settle down."
When no one seemed quite inclined to move her tone gentled to a soft friendliness somehow even gentler and more encouraging than Jewel ever heard.

"Fear and fret not youths of vir and wyrm. Words of warning are only just that, behave well and true and you've not a thing to fear."

The children shuffled around in front of Bethica keeping quite clear of her flanks.

Then came around and settled to sit in the grass in front of the cow.

Like Jewel they wore simple infant smocks. Still too small for any other clothes.

Even with her shorter snout she could smell however they were brother and sister.

Although her eyes honestly could not have even begin to guess without the scent.

Both slight and small (if still taller than her).

Both with dark hair.

One perhaps a bit taller than the other.

"Smithson called you Gem wyrmchild, Come along and settle down here with Albert and Dorota."

Jewel could not make her legs move, her hands squeezed tight into the still unfamiliar curl of her fists. This was her friend, but she was also a huge and terribly frightening beast.

But thinking of her like that was an insult and only made Jewel more upset.

Before she could compose herself more everything overfilled her tiny frame and the shaking turned to shudders and the tightness in her throat broke in a cry. Tears bursted from her eyes for the second time that day!

She was so overwhelmed Jewel shrieked in surprise when a cold wet mass and a heavy huff of hot breath billowed over her face.

The voice was softer than she had ever heard before and rumbled deep and low in a way that trembled in her bones.

It shook in the half drained mass of Wyrm Flame that in her misery Jewel had lost hold of and let seep out of her skin.

What would have lasted a day and a half was not likely to sustain a few hours more of the warm comforting fire of her larger self.

It was only the fear of losing even that which gave her the will to focus on it.

But that left her tears to flow down her cheeks and her throat to keen and cry.

"She Cry."
Whichever of the pair of children said that Jewel could not see and her ears were such a rush of blood she could barely tell the direction.

"Shush shush shush..."

Jewel's face was scraped with a surprisingly dry feeling blob.

It scraped up her scales, over one cheek and only revealed itself to be Bethica's wide pink tongue because it passed her eye on its way to her brow.

"It's frightful to be on your own with strangers, yes? Away from your mother? Away from your herd. Alone in the open scary wideness?"

For some reason she had expected a cow tongue to feel more wet.

The silliness of it washed over her as strong as the fear and despair and suddenly her chest was shaking with hiccuping laughter.

She tried pushing against the massive head of her friend who was so close to her, but the muscles in that neck were stronger and vaster than her entire body.

Her efforts accomplished little. The cow simply nuzzled at her neck and blew hard from her nostrils, hot air tickling her throat and blowing back Jewel's hair.

"Gehicka!"

That got a light shove in the belly that made Jewel hiccup again and fall back into the grass.

The sound of a vast overwhelming cow gently sinking to the ground herself briefly shocked her straight backed but it was only her friend laying down in the warm spring sun on soft grass.

"Hmmm, that's close but let me see you try again. Look at me, See my face?"

Jewel was confused, but she had a suspicion this was going to be more attempts to get her to say things correctly.

Jewel had seen quite a lot of that this year.

They would say the words in front of her and then wait for her to do it right and she would fail.

But Bethica was her friend.

Jewel would make the effort.

"Gehicka"

She closed her eyes and for the trouble got another slap of a wet tongue from her nose to her forehead. The stickiness of some saliva stuck some of her hair straight up.

"No, Keep your eyes open little one, look close, watch my mouth."

Jewel glanced at the other children who were sitting and watching her with knowing smiles.

"Beh-thi-kah"

Jewel frowned, she tried to do as her friend asked, she looked at the mouth, they moved like everyone else did.

Her friend turned the stranger side of her face around to watch Jewel.

"Now you try."

That eye was fixed on Jewel, no it was fixed on Jewel's mouth.

Huffing in frustration that seemed to not perturb the cow at all Jewel repeated herself.

"Greh-heh-kheh!"

Bethica turned her familiar eye back around and leaned in even closer to Jewel.

Honestly she could no longer really see Bethica's eye around her own snout anymore. But just as gentle as she had been so far her friend spoke.

"Say Buh"

Jewel sighed and did her best.

"Guh"

She'd tried before, Jewel couldn't make the sound like her larger self did. Her throat refused to shape or sharpen the sounds properly.

It was mangled and twisted.

Tears were starting to well in her eyes, would her smaller self always be rendered dumb?

Grunting like a beast?

But instead of demanding a repeat Bethica drew back enough to fix Jewel with her family eye.

"Gem dear, can you move your lips and tongue? Like this?"

Bethica extended her tongue free to run over her own nose.

Then pursed her lips and let out a cry that was far more the speech of a woman then the call of her kind.

"MooO?"

Jewel perplexed and bewildered imitated, of course she could lick her nose.

And shaping her lips like that was simple.

But what did that have to do with speaking?

Speech came from the throat.

"GOoh?"
Bethica smiled, actually smiled and Jewel confused but also feeling a little strange had to smile back.

Lips spread wide in a grin, flat teeth closed framed by the cow's mouth.

"Meeh?"

Again Jewel repeated.

"Geeh?"

Bethica gave a little shake.

"Almost dear... But you need to voice in your throat while your lips are closed. Then open them while you voice"

Again Bethica spoke but without saying any word in particular.

"Meeh?"

Jewel furrowed her brow as she concentrated, trying to do everything she was told.

"meaAhieek!?"

The way the sound changed! It surprised Jewel so much she squealed, losing the magic of it in her excitement.

But her friend only smiled and spoke soft and gentle.

"Yes! Very good little Gem! But keep your teeth together. Again! Watch."
And again she made the sound, Now that Jewel was paying attention she heard and saw how the lips stayed closed and then peeled back even as the voice continued.

Jewel focused, it was not easy, it felt wrong from everything she had learned in all her years.

But if she could hold her wyrmflame inside herself she could do this.

"Mehmehmeh"

Her heart felt like it was going to burst.

It was not the same as how she spoke as a wyrm. But it was a sound she had failed to make in this tiny throat despite over a year of trying.

And it was because she had been trying with the wrong parts!

Before her friend could prompt her again Jewel forged onward.

Seeking to shape the sound now that she understood what she had been doing wrong.

"Mehickra!"

The laughter of the two children felt like a fist on her heart that only eased when Bethica told the two of them off for mocking her progress.

"Better dear, but now we need another part... Watch me."

Jewel wiped the tears from her eyes so she could see clearly as Bethica demonstrated.

"Paaaah"

Click to shrink...

Ridiculously simple reason, but so very important and detailed that I even tried saying her name without using my lips and such and turns out it sounds like I'm choking on the attempt. More than that though the sound that did come out even sounded like what she was saying! Not to mention all of the interactions are perfect for understanding why a child would be afraid and how they would feel that I can understand it without ever having had kids of my own and thats saying alot cause I'm the one who watches the kids in the family and half the time they can't explain why they're nervous around the animals at my house. Like my dog who likes to playfully chew or my living pretzel of a snake who just wants to hide in his log while they're in that room. Maybe another chapter will explain why they think spiders will eat them or that they have to carry around the kittens. Yes, I have alot of pets. I was a hermit before I started getting stuck with kids sue me.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.9

Jewel was glad she had made so much progress with her smaller self. The endeavor with the 'priest' and the local gods invested in Valasect were far less fruitful.

She could confirm that there was some presence in the divinity of the tree that had been drawn to them.

But it touched on the world in a way that was strange.

Although the priest and his attendants insisted it was the spirit of the tree Jewel was absolutely certain that the thing which had brushed through the wind, leaves and bark of that tree like a knife cleaving flesh was definitely not of it.

The tree's voice was distinct, both the one which welled up with the world in the soil and stone around it. As well as the soft scents which spilled from its leaves in the slow exhalation that came with the sun.

Even her smaller self could smell the voice of the real tree in that.

But while the presence of the god that bent and shifted the tree certainly seemed to listen to the will of the living wood after a fashion it was as much the tree that it was the supposed spirit of as the Veles could be said to be the man it wore.

That disquieting experience aside there had then been the third strike of a pattern with Jewel and what some of her books called star-born.

The Spirit of Valasect's tree had not been able to see her.

Likewise Jewel had been unable to hear it.

It was only her trust in the Priest and more importantly in Adorján that she believed the thing could speak at all.

So the Priest, attendant god botherer assistants and her Headman had to act as go-betweens for the presence of what Jewel understood to be the most congenial and safe of the local gods.

What had followed was a deeply awkward improvisation on the time honored ritual of Valasect and was ultimately not clear to Jewel that it had endeared her at all to the village.
According to those that could hear the thing rather than sense its vague intrusions and shifting of the tree above them Jewel would say it went well.

But the fact that both Jewel and the God of the Tree were both apparently near complete enigmas to one another left her with concerns regarding her interactions with others.

It also was making Tsulogothulan very curious in their capacity as describer of Jewel.

"Truly you didn't hear it at all?"

Jewel could only huff as she continued to scan through the written reports and verify them with the tallies that Adorján had provided.

When she was a youth she'd assumed at first that dues were held in trust by memory and honor.

That had turned out not to be the case when she first checked the written records that supplemented her father's memory of what had been given and by which household.

After that she had assumed that they did things with sensible written accounts.

But this too had turned out to be a bit naive.

No, vellum was far too expensive for her peasants to spend on such.

Instead they made use of notched sticks split in half.

Her friend finally spoke again.

"This and the development at your wedding is reason enough to call Fizzbunches and some of the circle for a visit to confer. I'm not the best when it comes to dealing with gods."

Jewel nodded absently as she ran a finger down her half of the accounting for a shepherd's due for last year. Like the others it did indeed match what she had written down for his household.

She set the half stick of wood with many careful cuts in the pile of those she had already verified.

Adorján's predecessors had mostly done the business of making and storing the tallies for Father. Saving the backs of mules ferrying extra wood in favor of simply reporting by messenger what had been taken for his due and kept locally.

For the first ten years of Jewel's life there had then been a portion of the animal, wool or food stuffs of Valasect sent north to trade in silver that would then come back to Rochford for the tithe owed to the Countess.

But since her Father, Kraok and Jewel herself had started fulfilling their obligations to the Countess that had mostly stopped.

There were still some of the dues that were sent north (and south) to maintain the Rochford Family's coin but substantially less was needed then when the entire barony's worth needed to be paid instead of their military service rendered.

Jewel remembered something.

"It also happens with the Silver Lady when they 'call forth the dawn'. She never acknowledges me and her light has never touched me. It always annoys the Abbot."
Her friend's audible blinking adds to the soft sounds of Jewel's scales running along wood that had been used to mark the Pfennig worth of wheat given the dragon at the last summer's harvest by one of the smaller families.

More quickly than before the Weird found their words.

"You never mentioned that before."

Jewel shrugged her wing shoulders to avoid losing her rhythm of reading with her fingers while also confirming with her eyes.

It took a bit of concentration, but compared to simply keeping her attention properly divided between both of her heads it was honestly not all that difficult.

"I didn't realize it was strange until-"

Oh fiends!

Tsulogothulan leaned closer, but Jewel could only glare at the parchment there before her.

"What's wrong Jewel?"

She huffed, she wanted to spit wyrmflame and dissolve the offending marks on carefully prepared sheep's skin.

But that would have been so much of a waste.

"I wrote down eight Pfennig instead of nine last year."

Which seemed to exasperate the Weird, especially when she asked for Tsulogothulan to draw the ink out of the vellum so she could correct her records.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.i

The Zodiac set down in the literature of the old Cantor Republic is a vital tool of interrogation for the nature of the divine.

While the lights of the heavens and their providence is near uncountable and fluid, prone to swell and shrink by the coming and going of divine interest in our mortal world the steady vigil of the constellations remain secure and act as foundation to which one can discern the position of the prime stars which have remained immutable for all time.

It is by these prime and stable lights that we coordinate our prayers to the stars and their individual personages found in the gods.

Of the seventeen constellations set in those texts of greatest concern to you who is entrusted by your congregation are these three.

The Lion

Whose smothering by the sun is greatest in the highest of the summer seasons and fullest revelation comes in darkest winter.

Those divinities which nestle near his dominion in the sky are either of the hungry darkness which saps life or the great rain givers and life bringers.

The Serpent

Whose prominence is most exposed in the first warming of spring, and is greatest obscured at the height of the autumn harvests.

The divines in these portions of the sky are chiefly associated with birth, sowing of crops and the bringing of rain.

And last and most dangerous of all

The Storm

Which is at its greatest dominance in the peak of summer seasons and in winter occluded by the wane light of the sun.

The divinities which share the heavens with the storm's constellation are at their full power in matters of war, harvest and the blood of slaughter.

I will not put to page the rituals or names of the bloody and warlike gods. For they are not worth the risk of their attention on your charges. They are matters for lords and kings and not the tenders of the common people as we.

Also I will not write of the gods which cohabitate the skies of the serpent, for though their domains might be benign their gifts can bring ruin.

My younger peers will say that they know and have mastered the practice of beseeching such from them but many a village has been smote into ruin by the kindness of a goddess of children or rain.

No, I advise of the seasonal skies ruled by The Storm and The Serpent that you do little to draw attention beyond what is strictly necessary.

Do not give offense (and on this I will list many useful ceremonies for these skies).

But do not draw attention or favor.

Know that if your auspices should denote that one has been drawn on you by the methods shown earlier that it is a matter in need of a higher authority of the temples and that you must seek allies swiftly.

But of the skies of the Lion, his prominence over winter brings with it a good blend of powerful but safe divinity.

Within his sky are the simple beast-like gods of devouring winter alongside many gentle awakeners of dawn. Even foreign, forgotten or yet to be named gods will often fall into those broad tribes when discovered.

And with sufficient caution to determine if the god in question is hungry all can be safely managed.

Of the known names of the divines here one of the oldest is Marduk. He is boisterous, loud and will declare to all who would listen that he is great and powerful. But even if such was once true he is now a modest divine whose concerns settle almost entirely on the waters of rivers and the tilling of soil. He is amiable to agreements if you appease his boasting and give simple offerings, It is worth noting he is not offended to also be so named as Enbilulu and may be quieter and more friendly if addressed as such.

In rituals calling on him there are a list of names you must not utter or have written down for they give grave offense but otherwise little danger from him.

A companion scroll has been made with this guide and should be copied with it for ease of storage away from places of ritual.

However for all his amenability Marduk also offers little for your trouble but the moving of water and sodden soil at the banks of rivers.

If a stream should grow weak in its flow he is one of the least dangerous gods to invoke to bring aid to your people but otherwise of little relevance.

-On the treating with Gods and Grain Watchers by Brother Ordelain, naturalist and Monk of the Hrothfield Monastery in middle Egelheimvin.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.ii

It should always be a fast rule that in the season of hay turn the stables and sheepfolds should not be cleaned out because the dampness that comes forth from the earth more abundantly then than in any other season adheres to the walls and partitions of the folds and stables and breeds corruption in the fold from its dreadful miasma and stench.

In winter the ice and cold dissipate such humors and miasmas and they are not as harmful as in hay turn. The reason is that the earth then opens its passages and spews forth the excesses of its bowels more abundantly. Therefore it is better and more advisable to leave the manure in the ewe's stable in Hay turn than to remove it, since the earth's humor, which breeds bad air and stench in the stable, does not have a great strength when it is covered with manure.

The fetid air causes many maladies and great grief to the animals in this season, so it is good to avoid that by leaving the manure, for the freshness of the manure is not so bad or dangerous as the corrupt dampness of the stable's earth because of the vapors that come from the earth, as has been seen.

In all other seasons, except that of hay turn, the stable can and should be kept clean and the manure removed each season two or more times. If done more, even better, for more the animals are kept clean and in order, the more they prosper.

The shepherd should avoid and prevent with all his power his animals becoming wet at any time, because rain is unfavorable and harmful to sheep and marks them weaken and fall off. Therefore he should watch carefully that they do not go out in the rain and that they are not wet except in the season of Hay Turn.

In Hay turn it is good for the eyes to have rain before they are shorn, because the wool is more clean, better to shear, and more marketable. Also the rain falling on the wool before shearing brings forth the ewes' good grease, which protects their body and is very beneficial to them.

However, as much as the rain is valuable and helpful to the ewes before shearing, it is even more harmful and damaging after they are shorn and at all other times.

In all weathers and all seasons the shepherd should lead forth his animals and ewes and bring them back for their comfort and profit and keep watch over them. All these rules should be observed by each shepherd, as well as others that are necessary and appropriate to this learning and those which will be presented separately hereafter.

-Old Jean of Brie, a Shepherd of the Free Men's Lands.

 

[Nighzmarquls]

6.iii

It is quite interesting to actually hear the voices of the attendants of Shialtza. Their voices are soft and rasping. More breath than timbre. They do not hum, but whistle and although beautiful to hear this makes their Kolkor very difficult to follow.

To be honest they make do with more gestures of the hand, raising of fingers for counts and nods or shakes of the head then words in dealings with my father.

Still it is a poor traveling merchant that would let a lack of language stop trade and good exchange!

With at least our side of the language understood by the attendants of Shialtza and assurance they do have the authority of the god wyrm to agree on price the work goes well and fast!

I can only assume that Shialtza informed his attendants after our departure more deeply of his exact interests because several items we had not mentioned yesterday drew surprisingly great prices.

Some were understandable minor wonders and mechanical spheres. Which although always a solid bet to fetch good prices in foreign lands away from the greatest sea still were purchased with a shocking bounty of pure gold talyn by the attendants!

Of other surprising interest were seeds of common crops we had expected to parcel out along our journey for room and board among farmers when richer clients were unavailable.

For this too the attendants paid well ten times over the usual price!

The generosity of our new host was inspiring some concern from father and he had after the third bag of simple wheat grain was offered a patriarch's ransom in gold insisted that he could not as an honest merchant accept such a bounty.

That had seemed to confuse the robed and veiled attendant we bartered with but after some nods and sibilant whistles between him and his fellows it was settled and they agreed to the far more reasonable price in Denari weighting.

Although Father had me use a scale to find the equivalent as very little of the silver tthat Shialtza had was in the form of a familiar coin.

It was a surprising bounty for a mostly untaken path to the far east.

The wealth in metal was by father's reckoning going to triple at the least when we exchanged it for good elf worked silk and foreign spices and then returned home with the spoils.

We probably would need to purchase more beasts for the caravan and any adventurous mercenaries with sufficient wanderlust to see to our safety on the road back to handle the weight alone.

I wonder if the god wyrm Shialtza has as much a love of silk as he does trinkets?

-Excerpt from the travel log Pythra of Veracules

 

[Zaealix]

…Was Brother Ordelain born in the dominion of the Lion? I sense bias in his opinions.
Yet, given his account of Marduk perhaps he might have a point…
As for the discovery…That suggests the Gods tiptoe around Jewel VERY carefully, I imagine because they don't want a face full of Wyrmfire. As for the Weirds and that being worth convening over…
I hope it's just Tsu going 'cripes I need a second opinion!'