Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Tough call? Look me in the eye and tell me that you would turn down the opportunity to ride dragons.
pingas plight
-Most cunning scientific fuck-up in all of Mobius
I would. Who knows what they'd think of us? How do I know they ain't just gonna vore me?Tough call? Look me in the eye and tell me that you would turn down the opportunity to ride dragons.
- Location
- Australia
Well, given that dragon riding leathers exist, it's a safe bet that dragon riding is already a thing in this world.
And if you've got this guy on your side, it's an equally safe bet that dragons aren't about to nom down on you.
- Location
- united states
I think I'd avoid it until I could be sure they weren't slut dragons. You can never be too careful.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
You take a look at the cover of XXXenophile Collection #1 and you tell me you wouldn't be interested in
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
I comprehensively fail to see how the dragons being slutty is a downside.
Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
I comprehensively fail to see how the dragons being slutty is a downside.
Because you might be stuck in Rick and Morty.
Part Eight: Snek Helps!
- Location
- Australia
Snek is a Good Boy
Part Eight: Snek Helps!
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal].
Noelle ran her hands through her hair … which, now that she came to think of it, felt like it had been shampooed and conditioned into the most gorgeous softness and fluffiness, far different from the results of the crappy low-end products Krouse had been able to acquire for her up until now (and it wasn't as though she'd had access to a shower she could actually fit into for some time).
"Before I make this decision, can I ask a few questions?" She had a lot of questions for him, but not all of them related to where she should go.
"You may." The Master of the Castle gave her a nod that was in equal parts approving and reassuring. "I would prefer that you make this decision with all the information available to you."
"Uh, okay." All the questions crowded the forefront of her mind, and she picked one out of the crush. "Do we all have to do the same thing? I mean, what if some of us want to stay on Bet, some want to stay here, and some what to go back to Aleph?"
"Then you will go where you choose," he said, confirming her assumption. "Snek may check in on you from time to time, but unless you seek aid from him, I will initiate no further contact with you."
"Right, um …" She tried to think of another pertinent question. Snek bumped his head up alongside her thigh, and she absent-mindedly skritched him behind where his ear would be. "This might sound weird, but since I woke up, I've felt better than I have in literally months. Is this just because you gave me my legs back, or what's the deal with that?"
"Ah, yes." He gestured and a totally lifelike—if only eighteen inches tall—image of the Simurgh appeared between them. "This creature had impressed upon you and your comrades a series of compulsions driving you toward actions that would result in unpleasant repercussions within your world. I removed those compulsions as a matter of course. And yes, I will do the same with your comrades, should they choose to be healed with my magics."
Despite knowing that it wasn't real, Noelle recoiled half a step. "I-I was … we were all … Simurgh bombs?" Closing her eyes, she ran her hands through her hair again. "And you can just take that away again?"
Snek rubbed his head against her leg again. "Masster iss very wisse."
She gave the gigantic snake another scratch. He seemed to enjoy it. "So I'm gathering." Looking up at the Master of the Castle again, she voiced another question. "One of my friends, Jess, is in a wheelchair. If you fixed my legs, you can fix that, right?"
"He won't need to. I can handle that bit." A girl of about twelve or thirteen, with brass-bound goggles similar to those Noelle had acquired pushed up onto her forehead, along with leather apron and gloves over what looked like perfectly ordinary t-shirt and jeans, strolled out of another part of the workshop. "Hi, I'm Riley. I'm the one who shampooed your hair last night. Boy, did you need it." Coming over to where Noelle stood with Snek, she casually booped the enormous reptile's snout with her fist, then offered her hand to shake.
"Hi." Noelle shook the girl's hand, not entirely sure what was going on. "Noelle. Are you, uh, from around here?"
"Hah, no." Riley gestured toward the Master, who was watching them with interest. "The boss there fixed me up after Snek rescued me from a situation that was about on par with yours. I chose to stick around and help out afterward, because who'd go back to that dumpster fire when all this was a choice, right?"
"Mmm." Noelle found Riley's comments resonating with her thoughts, but she did her best to keep her options open. "Um, another question. Does dragon riding really happen? Because if that one up there is an adult dragon, I'm thinking it might be a little small to be ridden." Looking up, she gestured at the red-and-gold winged reptilian form on display. While larger than the tiny dragons that had flown past her window, it was still only about twenty feet long.
"A cogent question." The Master's tone was approving. "Riley, would you and Snek like to show Noelle the dragons, and explain the situation? I will be here, in the event of any more questions that require answering."
"Sure!" Riley eagerly scrambled up on Snek's back, where Noelle had been sitting before. "C'mon, get on."
"Okay, then …" It seemed that riding a giant snake was the least weird new experience she was going to have today. Climbing on to Snek's back, she settled herself into place behind Riley. "So, are we going through one of those portals? That was trippy."
"Not insside Masster'ss worksshop," Snek said as he turned and wriggled to the door. That weird multibranched tongue turned the handle, and they slithered out into the corridor. "Masster doess not like wriggle-hole in worksshop. Bad thingss happen."
"Um, okay?" Noelle said uncertainly. "What bad things?"
"Oh, the boss does a lot of interdimensional stuff," Riley said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Snek's portals have a chance of interfering with that. That's why we use the door—whee!"
The exclamation at the end came because Snek had somehow closed the door with his tail, then opened one of those portals. There was a moment of extreme acceleration, then Noelle found herself blinking around at a sunlit vista.
"… whoa," she whispered.
She was still on the mountain; that much was abundantly clear. To one side was the panorama she'd witnessed before from her window, or something remarkably similar to it. But underfoot, it looked as though someone had sliced into the side of the mountain with an unimaginably huge blade, leaving a perfectly flat cut. Then they'd repeated the action, but downward from above, creating a plateau measuring several acres in area, next to a sheer cliff that stretched upward toward the summit far above. More unsettlingly, the cut surfaces had apparently been polished, so she could clearly see the strata that had been left behind.
But that wasn't all of it. It wasn't even close to being all of what had Noelle's heart rate accelerating.
Toward the far end of the flat area, next to neatly carved holes that led into the cliff-face itself, were several dragons. Far larger than the taxidermized specimen in the Master's workshop, with gloriously patterned scales that glittered and gleamed in the sunlight, they appeared for all the world to have been sunning themselves on the rocky surface. Now, they were shifting and turning as heads raised to survey Riley and Noelle.
Dragons. Real dragons. Gorgeous dragons.
"Um …" she began. Are we supposed to run, or stand still, or tell them to 'sit' …?
"Don't worry, they're friendly," Riley assured her. "The nasty ones are the drakes." She paused, glancing up at Noelle. "You don't know? Oh, okay. There's three types of dragon. These ones here are true dragons. They're smart and friendly, and they were bred to take riders. Then there's the hearth-dragons, the cute little ones. They're playful and fun to have around, and they keep the rats down. Not too smart, but they can be trained. And then there's the drakes, like the ones in the workshop. They don't like people, except as food. The boss keeps those ones down in the southern continent, kind of like Bet's Australia and New Zealand added together."
"Ssnek like drakess," Snek added. "Fun to hunt."
Noelle could hear the eye-roll in Riley's voice. "Everything's fun for you to hunt, Snek, because you hunt everything."
"Iss not true," objected Snek. "Ssnek not hunt good people."
"Okay, yeah, you've got a point." Riley slid off Snek's back. "So, Noelle, want to meet them? I can introduce you, if you like. They like meeting new people, especially from different places."
"I … uh …" Before Noelle could talk herself out of it, she was on her feet alongside Riley. After all, how many people got to meet a real live dragon?
As they walked closer, the few dragons who had not been aware of them were nudged, and all of them began to get up. Catlike, they stretched and yawned; scaly spines curved and wings unfurled to quite startling lengths as toothy jaws opened wide. She could see their muscles moving, the power inherent in their great bodies almost palpable even at a distance.
Still, something was bothering her. "What do you mean, 'bred' to take riders?" She wasn't sure if she was comfortable with the idea of taking advantage of an intelligent slave. In fact, she knew she wasn't.
The question didn't faze Riley. "These guys, all dragons, are native to a world where they were bred by the local population for riding, for entertainment, for fighting. But there was a war. When the boss found them a few thousand years ago, they'd killed each other off. Their surviving dragons had starved to death. But he found a few eggs here and there, buried and hidden under ice, and salvaged them. He hatched them out and took away all the slave impulses, but left the true dragons so they could take riders if they wanted. Most true dragons have their own communities in the mountains, but a few hang out near humans, because they think we're cute."
||Well, you are cute.|| The mental 'voice', deep and resonant, came as a severe surprise to Noelle, and she looked around. Two of the dragons had come their way, and were now basically looming over them. Somehow, she got the impression it was the foremost one, splendid in green and gold, who had 'spoken'.
||Who's your friend, Riley?|| asked the other one, patterned in red and silver. ||We haven't seen her around here before.||
"This is Noelle, guys." Riley grinned up at them. "She's new here. Still deciding if she wants to stay."
"Ssnek found not-monsster Noelle, brought to Masster to fix," Snek announced proudly.
The attention of the dragons, gazing at her from eyes almost as bejewelled as their bright-coloured scales, sharpened somewhat. ||'Not-monster Noelle'?|| asked the green and gold dragon. ||I would wager there is a story behind that name.||
"There sure is, but I'm totally forgetting my manners." Riley pointed at the green and gold dragon. "Noelle, meet Cirrus. And this is his mate Finesse. Those are the names we get to use anyway. They just use mental impressions between themselves."
"Uh, hi." Noelle essayed a tiny wave. "I just want to say, you both look amazing. You all look amazing. And I'm really pleased to meet you."
Cirrus turned to Finesse. ||Did you hear that, dearest? She said I look amazing.|| Flexing one wing, he preened.
Finesse rolled her eyes, which on a dragon was quite an expressive gesture. ||She said we all look amazing, you conceited lizard.|| She turned her attention back to Noelle, sweeping her head down low until they were almost eye to eye. ||But I could not help noticing that you are wearing riding leathers. Are you perhaps seeking a riding partner?||
||What? No! I saw her first!|| protested Cirrus.
"Whoa, guys, guys," Riley said, waving her hands to get their attention. "She's new here, and she's never ridden a dragon before. Don't scare her off, okay?"
||I am the gentlest flyer of this Dragonmark,|| Finesse stated loftily. ||Ask anyone.||
"Well, this is true," agreed Riley, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. She ignored Finesse poking her tongue out at Cirrus, and turned to Noelle. "So, what do you say? Let Finesse take you up until you're used to it, and then take a spin with Cirrus?" Leaning in close, she whispered behind her hand, "He'll sulk for days otherwise, and he's a total pain if he gets that way."
||You know I can still hear you,|| Cirrus stated. ||And I do not sulk.||
Noelle blinked. She'd seen many strange sights in her life to date, especially since getting powers, but a pouting dragon would have to be near the top of the list.
"I, uh, that sounds cool," she said. Meanwhile, her inner self was running around in circles, madly throwing confetti in the air. I'm gonna ride a dragon! I'm gonna ride a dragon! "Do I need to do anything to prepare?"
||No, dear one,|| Finesse said warmly, crouching even lower until her long neck was invitingly next to Noelle. ||If you can climb up just in front of my shoulders, you should find a comfortable spot. My scales will provide ample handholds.||
As if in a dream, Noelle did as she was directed. The boots had a gripping sole that gave her a good purchase on the side of the dragon's neck, and before she knew it, she was seated astride. Almost immediately, she grasped what Riley had meant about them being bred for riding; there was subtle but noticeable contouring that afforded her a comfortable seat and room to clamp her legs into place.
There was no bridle, nor reins to hang on to, but she suspected such things would be superfluous at best and offensive at worst. A bump in the spine covered in rough scales offered her a handgrip of sorts, and she grasped it.
||Are you ready?|| Finesse turned her head so that Noelle could see the immense eye regarding her in return. ||I will fly gently. Call out if you are in distress.||
"I-I'm ready," she managed. "Let's do this." Some small part of her cynically observed that even if she was terrified (she wasn't, not really, just nervous) she'd still go through with it, because if riding a damn dragon wasn't on the top of every gamer's bucket list, it should be.
||Here … we … go …!|| Rather than take off vertically—which Noelle suspected they were perfectly capable of doing—Finesse trotted toward the drop-off, wings spreading dramatically outward. They had looked tremendously wide before, but now that she was more or less between them, Noelle had the impression of sitting atop a circus tent. Dragons, she noted absently, had a much wider wingspan than a 747.
And then they were over the edge, but not falling exactly. Finesse, perhaps showing why she preferred the name, had brought her wings down at precisely the right moment, so they transitioned from ground movement to air movement with hardly a jolt. Noelle saw the ground falling away below her—far below her—and redoubled her grip, but all that came out of her throat was a squeak of excitement.
The great wings beat again, and then again, and they were flying. Soaring. As they circled in the sunlight, Noelle looked over at the mountain they had just left, with the castle built into the side and the large area carved away for the dragons. Riley was just a speck in the distance, and Snek a tiny wavy line.
A flapping noise distracted her, and she looked around just as a flock of the tiny iridescent dragons she'd seen earlier flew closer, matching speed with the much larger creature. "Oh, wow," she said. "What are those ones called, again?"
||You mean the hearth-dragons?|| Finesse's mental voice was warm and pleasant. ||They love to fly with us, and we with them.||
Noelle watched the smaller dragons performing loops and barrel rolls, and showing off for each other and for Finesse. "I can see why." One came swooping in and landed on Finesse's neck, right in front of her, and let out a sound partway between a chirp and a squawk. There were no words involved, but Noelle got the message and ran her nails up under its jaw. It burbled happily and rubbed its snout against her arm.
||So, do you enjoy flying, Noelle?|| asked Finesse.
Noelle looked down at the ground far below, which no longer held terrors for her. Beneath her, the dragon flew on steadily, while the accompanying hearth-dragons chirped to each other and to the one she was petting.
"Oh, yeah," she said, euphoria filling every syllable. "Definitely."
I could do this for the rest of my life.
She was still walking on air as she travelled back with Riley to the Master's workshop. Snek went through the ritual of knocking three times on the door; as expected, the Master called out, "Enter!"
Snek opened the door and slithered inside, and Noelle climbed off. Her legs were a little shaky from squeezing with her thigh muscles for so long, especially since those same muscles were brand new, but she had no trouble standing.
The Master of the Castle looked her over. "Have you made up your mind what you want to do, Noelle Meinhardt of Earth Aleph?"
"I have, yes," she agreed. "But I'm going to need to talk to each of them so I can let them know what the options are. Also, there's one other problem."
"Your former comrade," the Master agreed. He raised one eyebrow. "Some might say that he brought his troubles upon himself."
"Yeah, true." Noelle frowned. "But he wouldn't have been in this whole mess without me. I kinda feel like I owe him to get him out of it if I can. Also, he probably wouldn't have done what he did without the Simurgh, and to let him take that fall just isn't fair."
"Hmm." The Master's lips twitched. "Do not necessarily attribute to outside influence behaviour which can be explained as pure obstinance or personal malice."
Noelle sighed. "Yeah, I know. But can we save him from wherever Accord sent him anyway? I mean, if he's even alive?" A chill ran through her as she realised that she'd never even spared a thought to the possibility that the diminutive crime lord may well have had him executed out of hand, as he'd wanted to do with Mars.
"He is indeed still in the land of the living. The Chinese Union-Imperial have inducted him into their Yàngbǎn. Unfortunately, he is not thriving there. Because he knows no conversational Chinese, they are shunning him and refusing to teach him the very language that would allow him to socialise with them." The Master gestured once more, giving her a picture of Cody, wearing a strange uniform, moving in concert with others. A faint shout came to her ears, and they all moved again; raising their hands, they shot fire out of the palms. "On the other side of the coin, he can do no harm where he is, either to you or your friends. What is your choice?"
"I want to talk to him, when it wouldn't draw attention," she said. "He might actually want to stay, and I don't want to get him into trouble. When does he get some downtime?"
"He does not," the Master informed her. "He will train for six hours and attend mandatory lectures for another twelve. There will be forty-five minutes for eating purposes, and five hours for sleep. His next sleep period begins in just over two hours. If you wish to ensure he does not suffer punitive action for speaking to you, that is your chance."
"Wow," Riley said, shaking her head in disgust. "That sounds horrible, and I know what I'm talking about."
Noelle considered asking to speak to Cody immediately. From the description of his situation, he was in the shittiest of shitty situations. Screw it, she told herself. Rescue first, talk later. "Can we just get him out of there, and then I'll talk to him?"
"That is entirely possible." The Master of the Castle turned to Snek, and indicated the image of Cody. "Bring that young man to me, please."
"Ssnek will do that, Masster." Turning, the snake slithered from the room. He closed the door behind him with a flick of the tail, but Noelle was concentrating on the image.
In the next instant, any doubts she may have had about it being a real-time picture were dispelled, as utter confusion overtook the class. Students were barrelled this way and that as Snek emerged from his trademark portal and lunged at Cody, jaws agape to show off his impressive dentition. Just as Snek's mouth closed on Cody's midsection, several of the larger fangs folded back into Snek's jaw; then he kept going, and dived into another portal.
Noelle didn't speak any Chinese at all, but she was fairly sure that she'd just learned the closest equivalent to 'where the fuck did that giant snake come from' that she'd ever hear. People dressed in different uniforms—instructors, she guessed—were still staring at Snek's path of confusion when she heard the three knocks on the laboratory door.
"Come in, Snek," called the Master, dispelling the image. "And bring our involuntary guest with you, if you don't mind."
The door opened, and Snek wriggled in, looking very pleased with himself. Trapped in the immense jaws, looking like a terminally confused mouse, Cody stared in all directions. "What the hell?" he demanded. "What's going on here? Where am I? Who—wait, Noelle? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Everyone, this is Cody. Cody, important introductions. This is the Master of the Castle, that's Riley, and you've already met Snek. Snek is a very good boy." She briefly considered allowing Cody to remain where he was for a while longer—he'd caused them all sorts of problems, back in the day—then decided that would be beneath her. "Snek, could you please put him down?"
"Yess, not-monsster Noelle," Snek said, and deposited Cody on the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Wass fun resscue. Many people sshouting."
Noelle had already suspected Snek of possessing a sense of humour; for her, that confirmed it. He loved causing chaos.
Putting that knowledge aside, she stepped forward. "Okay, Cody, so this is the deal …"
End of Part Eight
Part Eight: Snek Helps!
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal].
Noelle ran her hands through her hair … which, now that she came to think of it, felt like it had been shampooed and conditioned into the most gorgeous softness and fluffiness, far different from the results of the crappy low-end products Krouse had been able to acquire for her up until now (and it wasn't as though she'd had access to a shower she could actually fit into for some time).
"Before I make this decision, can I ask a few questions?" She had a lot of questions for him, but not all of them related to where she should go.
"You may." The Master of the Castle gave her a nod that was in equal parts approving and reassuring. "I would prefer that you make this decision with all the information available to you."
"Uh, okay." All the questions crowded the forefront of her mind, and she picked one out of the crush. "Do we all have to do the same thing? I mean, what if some of us want to stay on Bet, some want to stay here, and some what to go back to Aleph?"
"Then you will go where you choose," he said, confirming her assumption. "Snek may check in on you from time to time, but unless you seek aid from him, I will initiate no further contact with you."
"Right, um …" She tried to think of another pertinent question. Snek bumped his head up alongside her thigh, and she absent-mindedly skritched him behind where his ear would be. "This might sound weird, but since I woke up, I've felt better than I have in literally months. Is this just because you gave me my legs back, or what's the deal with that?"
"Ah, yes." He gestured and a totally lifelike—if only eighteen inches tall—image of the Simurgh appeared between them. "This creature had impressed upon you and your comrades a series of compulsions driving you toward actions that would result in unpleasant repercussions within your world. I removed those compulsions as a matter of course. And yes, I will do the same with your comrades, should they choose to be healed with my magics."
Despite knowing that it wasn't real, Noelle recoiled half a step. "I-I was … we were all … Simurgh bombs?" Closing her eyes, she ran her hands through her hair again. "And you can just take that away again?"
Snek rubbed his head against her leg again. "Masster iss very wisse."
She gave the gigantic snake another scratch. He seemed to enjoy it. "So I'm gathering." Looking up at the Master of the Castle again, she voiced another question. "One of my friends, Jess, is in a wheelchair. If you fixed my legs, you can fix that, right?"
"He won't need to. I can handle that bit." A girl of about twelve or thirteen, with brass-bound goggles similar to those Noelle had acquired pushed up onto her forehead, along with leather apron and gloves over what looked like perfectly ordinary t-shirt and jeans, strolled out of another part of the workshop. "Hi, I'm Riley. I'm the one who shampooed your hair last night. Boy, did you need it." Coming over to where Noelle stood with Snek, she casually booped the enormous reptile's snout with her fist, then offered her hand to shake.
"Hi." Noelle shook the girl's hand, not entirely sure what was going on. "Noelle. Are you, uh, from around here?"
"Hah, no." Riley gestured toward the Master, who was watching them with interest. "The boss there fixed me up after Snek rescued me from a situation that was about on par with yours. I chose to stick around and help out afterward, because who'd go back to that dumpster fire when all this was a choice, right?"
"Mmm." Noelle found Riley's comments resonating with her thoughts, but she did her best to keep her options open. "Um, another question. Does dragon riding really happen? Because if that one up there is an adult dragon, I'm thinking it might be a little small to be ridden." Looking up, she gestured at the red-and-gold winged reptilian form on display. While larger than the tiny dragons that had flown past her window, it was still only about twenty feet long.
"A cogent question." The Master's tone was approving. "Riley, would you and Snek like to show Noelle the dragons, and explain the situation? I will be here, in the event of any more questions that require answering."
"Sure!" Riley eagerly scrambled up on Snek's back, where Noelle had been sitting before. "C'mon, get on."
"Okay, then …" It seemed that riding a giant snake was the least weird new experience she was going to have today. Climbing on to Snek's back, she settled herself into place behind Riley. "So, are we going through one of those portals? That was trippy."
"Not insside Masster'ss worksshop," Snek said as he turned and wriggled to the door. That weird multibranched tongue turned the handle, and they slithered out into the corridor. "Masster doess not like wriggle-hole in worksshop. Bad thingss happen."
"Um, okay?" Noelle said uncertainly. "What bad things?"
"Oh, the boss does a lot of interdimensional stuff," Riley said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Snek's portals have a chance of interfering with that. That's why we use the door—whee!"
The exclamation at the end came because Snek had somehow closed the door with his tail, then opened one of those portals. There was a moment of extreme acceleration, then Noelle found herself blinking around at a sunlit vista.
"… whoa," she whispered.
She was still on the mountain; that much was abundantly clear. To one side was the panorama she'd witnessed before from her window, or something remarkably similar to it. But underfoot, it looked as though someone had sliced into the side of the mountain with an unimaginably huge blade, leaving a perfectly flat cut. Then they'd repeated the action, but downward from above, creating a plateau measuring several acres in area, next to a sheer cliff that stretched upward toward the summit far above. More unsettlingly, the cut surfaces had apparently been polished, so she could clearly see the strata that had been left behind.
But that wasn't all of it. It wasn't even close to being all of what had Noelle's heart rate accelerating.
Toward the far end of the flat area, next to neatly carved holes that led into the cliff-face itself, were several dragons. Far larger than the taxidermized specimen in the Master's workshop, with gloriously patterned scales that glittered and gleamed in the sunlight, they appeared for all the world to have been sunning themselves on the rocky surface. Now, they were shifting and turning as heads raised to survey Riley and Noelle.
Dragons. Real dragons. Gorgeous dragons.
"Um …" she began. Are we supposed to run, or stand still, or tell them to 'sit' …?
"Don't worry, they're friendly," Riley assured her. "The nasty ones are the drakes." She paused, glancing up at Noelle. "You don't know? Oh, okay. There's three types of dragon. These ones here are true dragons. They're smart and friendly, and they were bred to take riders. Then there's the hearth-dragons, the cute little ones. They're playful and fun to have around, and they keep the rats down. Not too smart, but they can be trained. And then there's the drakes, like the ones in the workshop. They don't like people, except as food. The boss keeps those ones down in the southern continent, kind of like Bet's Australia and New Zealand added together."
"Ssnek like drakess," Snek added. "Fun to hunt."
Noelle could hear the eye-roll in Riley's voice. "Everything's fun for you to hunt, Snek, because you hunt everything."
"Iss not true," objected Snek. "Ssnek not hunt good people."
"Okay, yeah, you've got a point." Riley slid off Snek's back. "So, Noelle, want to meet them? I can introduce you, if you like. They like meeting new people, especially from different places."
"I … uh …" Before Noelle could talk herself out of it, she was on her feet alongside Riley. After all, how many people got to meet a real live dragon?
As they walked closer, the few dragons who had not been aware of them were nudged, and all of them began to get up. Catlike, they stretched and yawned; scaly spines curved and wings unfurled to quite startling lengths as toothy jaws opened wide. She could see their muscles moving, the power inherent in their great bodies almost palpable even at a distance.
Still, something was bothering her. "What do you mean, 'bred' to take riders?" She wasn't sure if she was comfortable with the idea of taking advantage of an intelligent slave. In fact, she knew she wasn't.
The question didn't faze Riley. "These guys, all dragons, are native to a world where they were bred by the local population for riding, for entertainment, for fighting. But there was a war. When the boss found them a few thousand years ago, they'd killed each other off. Their surviving dragons had starved to death. But he found a few eggs here and there, buried and hidden under ice, and salvaged them. He hatched them out and took away all the slave impulses, but left the true dragons so they could take riders if they wanted. Most true dragons have their own communities in the mountains, but a few hang out near humans, because they think we're cute."
||Well, you are cute.|| The mental 'voice', deep and resonant, came as a severe surprise to Noelle, and she looked around. Two of the dragons had come their way, and were now basically looming over them. Somehow, she got the impression it was the foremost one, splendid in green and gold, who had 'spoken'.
||Who's your friend, Riley?|| asked the other one, patterned in red and silver. ||We haven't seen her around here before.||
"This is Noelle, guys." Riley grinned up at them. "She's new here. Still deciding if she wants to stay."
"Ssnek found not-monsster Noelle, brought to Masster to fix," Snek announced proudly.
The attention of the dragons, gazing at her from eyes almost as bejewelled as their bright-coloured scales, sharpened somewhat. ||'Not-monster Noelle'?|| asked the green and gold dragon. ||I would wager there is a story behind that name.||
"There sure is, but I'm totally forgetting my manners." Riley pointed at the green and gold dragon. "Noelle, meet Cirrus. And this is his mate Finesse. Those are the names we get to use anyway. They just use mental impressions between themselves."
"Uh, hi." Noelle essayed a tiny wave. "I just want to say, you both look amazing. You all look amazing. And I'm really pleased to meet you."
Cirrus turned to Finesse. ||Did you hear that, dearest? She said I look amazing.|| Flexing one wing, he preened.
Finesse rolled her eyes, which on a dragon was quite an expressive gesture. ||She said we all look amazing, you conceited lizard.|| She turned her attention back to Noelle, sweeping her head down low until they were almost eye to eye. ||But I could not help noticing that you are wearing riding leathers. Are you perhaps seeking a riding partner?||
||What? No! I saw her first!|| protested Cirrus.
"Whoa, guys, guys," Riley said, waving her hands to get their attention. "She's new here, and she's never ridden a dragon before. Don't scare her off, okay?"
||I am the gentlest flyer of this Dragonmark,|| Finesse stated loftily. ||Ask anyone.||
"Well, this is true," agreed Riley, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. She ignored Finesse poking her tongue out at Cirrus, and turned to Noelle. "So, what do you say? Let Finesse take you up until you're used to it, and then take a spin with Cirrus?" Leaning in close, she whispered behind her hand, "He'll sulk for days otherwise, and he's a total pain if he gets that way."
||You know I can still hear you,|| Cirrus stated. ||And I do not sulk.||
Noelle blinked. She'd seen many strange sights in her life to date, especially since getting powers, but a pouting dragon would have to be near the top of the list.
"I, uh, that sounds cool," she said. Meanwhile, her inner self was running around in circles, madly throwing confetti in the air. I'm gonna ride a dragon! I'm gonna ride a dragon! "Do I need to do anything to prepare?"
||No, dear one,|| Finesse said warmly, crouching even lower until her long neck was invitingly next to Noelle. ||If you can climb up just in front of my shoulders, you should find a comfortable spot. My scales will provide ample handholds.||
As if in a dream, Noelle did as she was directed. The boots had a gripping sole that gave her a good purchase on the side of the dragon's neck, and before she knew it, she was seated astride. Almost immediately, she grasped what Riley had meant about them being bred for riding; there was subtle but noticeable contouring that afforded her a comfortable seat and room to clamp her legs into place.
There was no bridle, nor reins to hang on to, but she suspected such things would be superfluous at best and offensive at worst. A bump in the spine covered in rough scales offered her a handgrip of sorts, and she grasped it.
||Are you ready?|| Finesse turned her head so that Noelle could see the immense eye regarding her in return. ||I will fly gently. Call out if you are in distress.||
"I-I'm ready," she managed. "Let's do this." Some small part of her cynically observed that even if she was terrified (she wasn't, not really, just nervous) she'd still go through with it, because if riding a damn dragon wasn't on the top of every gamer's bucket list, it should be.
||Here … we … go …!|| Rather than take off vertically—which Noelle suspected they were perfectly capable of doing—Finesse trotted toward the drop-off, wings spreading dramatically outward. They had looked tremendously wide before, but now that she was more or less between them, Noelle had the impression of sitting atop a circus tent. Dragons, she noted absently, had a much wider wingspan than a 747.
And then they were over the edge, but not falling exactly. Finesse, perhaps showing why she preferred the name, had brought her wings down at precisely the right moment, so they transitioned from ground movement to air movement with hardly a jolt. Noelle saw the ground falling away below her—far below her—and redoubled her grip, but all that came out of her throat was a squeak of excitement.
The great wings beat again, and then again, and they were flying. Soaring. As they circled in the sunlight, Noelle looked over at the mountain they had just left, with the castle built into the side and the large area carved away for the dragons. Riley was just a speck in the distance, and Snek a tiny wavy line.
A flapping noise distracted her, and she looked around just as a flock of the tiny iridescent dragons she'd seen earlier flew closer, matching speed with the much larger creature. "Oh, wow," she said. "What are those ones called, again?"
||You mean the hearth-dragons?|| Finesse's mental voice was warm and pleasant. ||They love to fly with us, and we with them.||
Noelle watched the smaller dragons performing loops and barrel rolls, and showing off for each other and for Finesse. "I can see why." One came swooping in and landed on Finesse's neck, right in front of her, and let out a sound partway between a chirp and a squawk. There were no words involved, but Noelle got the message and ran her nails up under its jaw. It burbled happily and rubbed its snout against her arm.
||So, do you enjoy flying, Noelle?|| asked Finesse.
Noelle looked down at the ground far below, which no longer held terrors for her. Beneath her, the dragon flew on steadily, while the accompanying hearth-dragons chirped to each other and to the one she was petting.
"Oh, yeah," she said, euphoria filling every syllable. "Definitely."
I could do this for the rest of my life.
<><>
She was still walking on air as she travelled back with Riley to the Master's workshop. Snek went through the ritual of knocking three times on the door; as expected, the Master called out, "Enter!"
Snek opened the door and slithered inside, and Noelle climbed off. Her legs were a little shaky from squeezing with her thigh muscles for so long, especially since those same muscles were brand new, but she had no trouble standing.
The Master of the Castle looked her over. "Have you made up your mind what you want to do, Noelle Meinhardt of Earth Aleph?"
"I have, yes," she agreed. "But I'm going to need to talk to each of them so I can let them know what the options are. Also, there's one other problem."
"Your former comrade," the Master agreed. He raised one eyebrow. "Some might say that he brought his troubles upon himself."
"Yeah, true." Noelle frowned. "But he wouldn't have been in this whole mess without me. I kinda feel like I owe him to get him out of it if I can. Also, he probably wouldn't have done what he did without the Simurgh, and to let him take that fall just isn't fair."
"Hmm." The Master's lips twitched. "Do not necessarily attribute to outside influence behaviour which can be explained as pure obstinance or personal malice."
Noelle sighed. "Yeah, I know. But can we save him from wherever Accord sent him anyway? I mean, if he's even alive?" A chill ran through her as she realised that she'd never even spared a thought to the possibility that the diminutive crime lord may well have had him executed out of hand, as he'd wanted to do with Mars.
"He is indeed still in the land of the living. The Chinese Union-Imperial have inducted him into their Yàngbǎn. Unfortunately, he is not thriving there. Because he knows no conversational Chinese, they are shunning him and refusing to teach him the very language that would allow him to socialise with them." The Master gestured once more, giving her a picture of Cody, wearing a strange uniform, moving in concert with others. A faint shout came to her ears, and they all moved again; raising their hands, they shot fire out of the palms. "On the other side of the coin, he can do no harm where he is, either to you or your friends. What is your choice?"
"I want to talk to him, when it wouldn't draw attention," she said. "He might actually want to stay, and I don't want to get him into trouble. When does he get some downtime?"
"He does not," the Master informed her. "He will train for six hours and attend mandatory lectures for another twelve. There will be forty-five minutes for eating purposes, and five hours for sleep. His next sleep period begins in just over two hours. If you wish to ensure he does not suffer punitive action for speaking to you, that is your chance."
"Wow," Riley said, shaking her head in disgust. "That sounds horrible, and I know what I'm talking about."
Noelle considered asking to speak to Cody immediately. From the description of his situation, he was in the shittiest of shitty situations. Screw it, she told herself. Rescue first, talk later. "Can we just get him out of there, and then I'll talk to him?"
"That is entirely possible." The Master of the Castle turned to Snek, and indicated the image of Cody. "Bring that young man to me, please."
"Ssnek will do that, Masster." Turning, the snake slithered from the room. He closed the door behind him with a flick of the tail, but Noelle was concentrating on the image.
In the next instant, any doubts she may have had about it being a real-time picture were dispelled, as utter confusion overtook the class. Students were barrelled this way and that as Snek emerged from his trademark portal and lunged at Cody, jaws agape to show off his impressive dentition. Just as Snek's mouth closed on Cody's midsection, several of the larger fangs folded back into Snek's jaw; then he kept going, and dived into another portal.
Noelle didn't speak any Chinese at all, but she was fairly sure that she'd just learned the closest equivalent to 'where the fuck did that giant snake come from' that she'd ever hear. People dressed in different uniforms—instructors, she guessed—were still staring at Snek's path of confusion when she heard the three knocks on the laboratory door.
"Come in, Snek," called the Master, dispelling the image. "And bring our involuntary guest with you, if you don't mind."
The door opened, and Snek wriggled in, looking very pleased with himself. Trapped in the immense jaws, looking like a terminally confused mouse, Cody stared in all directions. "What the hell?" he demanded. "What's going on here? Where am I? Who—wait, Noelle? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Everyone, this is Cody. Cody, important introductions. This is the Master of the Castle, that's Riley, and you've already met Snek. Snek is a very good boy." She briefly considered allowing Cody to remain where he was for a while longer—he'd caused them all sorts of problems, back in the day—then decided that would be beneath her. "Snek, could you please put him down?"
"Yess, not-monsster Noelle," Snek said, and deposited Cody on the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Wass fun resscue. Many people sshouting."
Noelle had already suspected Snek of possessing a sense of humour; for her, that confirmed it. He loved causing chaos.
Putting that knowledge aside, she stepped forward. "Okay, Cody, so this is the deal …"
End of Part Eight
KillerFish
Grumpy Owl, Bird Lawyer
Do I really need to pull out the "Why not both?" meme?
And hah! Noelle did the title drop!
Ashkari
(Verified Ink-slinger)
- Location
- United States
The real question is, when does Sveta get to meet them?
JamesB
You needed worthy opponents.
- Location
- Kansas
For a minute, I was wondering if the dragons were from Pern (Anne McCaffrey's dragon-world). It, however, seems obvious they are from elsewhere. The hearth-dragons reminded me of her fire-lizards, but the large dragons for riding are much larger than the ones on that world.
Ashkari
(Verified Ink-slinger)
- Location
- United States
Might be based on them, but afaik more specifically they're a re-used idea from Security!, where Michael Allen came up with them while doing an online RP Chat with Sveta to help her cope with her situation.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
When aren't they?
- Location
- Australia
At no time did Noelle disagree with you.
Even when she was looking up at a dragon.
Question: What is the Wizard getting from all this disruption to his work? Shards to dissect? Emotional fulfilment? Speaking with other humans again? Having Snek exercise more?
He is being extremely patient with all these whippersnappers, truth be told.
Even getting a few Shards doesn't justify it, since he could easily steal Cauldron's vials.
He is being extremely patient with all these whippersnappers, truth be told.
Even getting a few Shards doesn't justify it, since he could easily steal Cauldron's vials.
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
What are you talking about? He gets free training for his simulacrums!
Kaernetron
Feuergeist
- Location
- Weit, Weit dort Oben
Also, every hour Snek is playing with his friends on Earth Bet is an hour Snek can't somehow mess up Master's experiments back home.
- Location
- Australia
Sure, he could pilfer vials, but he's more interested in the effect of the shards once they've interfaced with a human psyche. Also, each one takes a different approach to pry loose, so he's getting practice with that as well. Finally, he does find it refreshing to talk to someone who doesn't view him almost as a god.
Also, they're basically part of Snek's new hobby, and he feels proud of Snek for making new friends.
He won't go to Bet because he's busy here, but he can make time to help Snek out with any little problems he needs assistance with.
Also this, yes.
Raved Thrad
Your Friendly Neighborhood Curmudgeon
- Location
- The Other Side of the Screen
- Location
- Australia
Well, he's about to lose the Simurgh bomb aspect of his personality. As for the rest of it?So I guess the important question is, is Cody a good boy?
Time to learn fast.
Part Nine: Together Again
- Location
- Australia
Snek is a Good Boy
Part Nine: Together Again
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal].
Noelle
"Okay," said Cody. "So … I have a question."
He was looking at Noelle instead of the Master of the Castle, who was giving them space to talk, so she nodded. "Sure, what is it?"
"Now, don't freak. Hear me out." He spread his hands, palm up. "You said Krouse and the rest are in PRT custody, right?"
"Right." She said it guardedly. "What's your point?"
"My point is …" he paused, apparently trying to think of how to phrase it, "… why don't we just … well … leave them there?"
She blinked solidly, going back over what he'd said, trying to wring another meaning from his words. "You have to be kidding. Why would I ever agree to that?"
"Listen. Listen, listen, listen." He was in full wheedling mode. She recalled a time when it had worked on her. Too much had happened since then for it to have any sort of effect now. "Ever since Krouse joined our group, things have gone to shit. Name one good thing that's happened to us."
She stared him down. "Now you're pushing it. The Simurgh, that wasn't Krouse. We were Simurgh bombs from then on, so all the arguing …" Recalling the words of the Master of the Castle, she amended her words. "… okay, most of the arguing was down to that."
"Krouse gave you that shitty formula." He grinned as he said it, evidently sure he'd scored a winning point.
"The Simurgh made him find it," Noelle countered. "She made sure we'd drink the ones we did. She wanted me to be a monster. Everything after the Simurgh, us becoming the Travellers, was basically down to her." She pointed at Cody. "But you were the one who nearly got Mars killed by Accord."
From the expression on his face, he knew he was on the back foot now. "That was the Simurgh, too," he protested. "You said it yourself. And anyway, the guys have all committed crimes. The PRT will put them in jail, they'll break out and go their own way. Meanwhile, you and me …"
She shook her head. "No. Krouse has stuck by me through thick and thin. Yeah, I know it was the Simurgh's influence that probably caused you to mess up all those times, but I was with Krouse before we ever came to Bet."
"So why am I even here?" asked Cody. "I thought we had something."
"We did, once," she agreed. "But not anymore. I asked for you to be rescued because you were once my teammate, and I'm hoping we can still be at least friends. But the others get a choice as well."
"Well spoken, Miss Meinhardt," said the Master of the Castle approvingly. "Snek, if you can retrieve the other members of her group, please?"
"Yess, Masster," the massive snake agreed at once. "Ssnek will do that." Turning, it wriggled out through the door, which closed behind it.
"Is it just me," murmured Cody, "or does that thing get creepier every time you hear it talk?"
Noelle stared at him, absolutely certain that the Master of the Castle had just heard his words. "No!" she protested. "And you're a horrible person for even thinking that! Snek is a perfect gentleman!"
Cody made an abortive gesture, then blinked. "Crap," he muttered. "What happened to—?"
"Your temporal rewind powers?" The Master of the Castle's smile was wintry. "They are currently in abeyance. And I will thank you to be more polite in general. This castle possesses an abundance of both dragons and dungeons." Though his tone was light, there was steel beneath it.
Cody gulped.
Regional Director Emily Piggot
PRT ENE
Emily relaxed in her chair, looking over the morning reports. Nothing drastic had happened overnight, which she decided to chalk up to a minor miracle. The day before had been impressively chaotic, or chaotically impressive, whichever way she wanted to describe it.
Not only was Coil in captivity, but he was also Thomas Calvert, which explained so many things that had been going wrong since he'd slimed his way back into the PRT from being a mere civilian advisor. Also, the Travellers were under lock and key (all except for the semi-mythical monster that had reputedly been accompanying them) and finally Tattletale was spilling the beans about Coil, just as fast as she could manage it.
This situation was not without its complications. She'd had to call in extra manpower from everywhere to cover for every person with whom Calvert had had even a tangential part in placing within the building. And that didn't include those who had been cleared by his stooges, all of whom were now also under intensive investigation. Tattletale had (somewhat unexpectedly) been of assistance here, willingly pointing out the ones she claimed to be his moles. Emily wasn't so gullible as to take these assertions at face value, or to immediately clear the ones Tattletale said were fine, but she was happy to use said assertions as a data point for or against.
As part of this, she'd automatically assumed the PRT building's computer system was compromised—if she knew Calvert, it was the first thing he would've done—so she had IT guys with suitable clearance going through it with the electronic equivalent of a fine-toothed comb, snagging out the bits and pieces that should not be there. So far, they weren't even half done, and they'd already found enough evidence of tampering to make her consider raising their salaries. She also wanted to tear her hair out, but she could do that later.
What to do with Tattletale after the dust had settled was another matter. The girl clearly did not want to go anywhere near juvenile detention, and Emily could see why. With the smart mouth on her, it was a fifty-fifty crapshoot as to whether she'd be running the place or losing all her teeth inside the first month.
Pulling a Shadow Stalker and inducting her into the Wards was a second option, one which Emily was starting to reluctantly lean toward. She clearly had zero loyalty toward her ex-boss (considering the means of her recruitment, Emily was hardly surprised) and was working hard at projecting an image of a helpful, cooperative, potentially law-abiding, useful teenage parahuman. Not all of which Emily actually trusted, but it was a good start.
Armsmaster had of course ferreted out the girl's real identity and spoken to her regarding her family; the response he got back about informing them about any of this had been a solid nope. Which, given that Tattletale was over sixteen and currently of sound body and mind, meant that Emily didn't have to if she didn't want to. And she really didn't. People who could cause their daughter to trigger from emotional stress did not fit her view of suitable parents in any shape or form, ever.
She still had to make her final decision, and of course the girl would have to pick a costume far different from that skin-tight purple monstrosity, but—
A triple knock resounded through her office; not from her main office door, but the one leading to her ensuite. Which she knew for a fact was empty, since she'd used the facilities not twenty minutes beforehand. There was no connecting door anywhere else, and even the air ducts were only three inches square and trapped with electrified monowire, so the chance of someone sneaking in there from somewhere else in the building was vanishingly small.
Her hand slid down into the foot-well of her desk, where her service pistol resided in a holster clamped to the solid wood. Carefully, she eased the firearm from its place, the weight of the cold metal comforting to her hand. Her other hand took hold of the duress button under the edge of the desk, ready to jam it to its stop if this went bad.
The knock came again, but it wasn't a sharp rapping; more of a boomp-boomp-boomp, as if someone were thumping their knee against the door. "Hello?" she called out warily. "Is there someone in there?"
"Ssnek iss Ssnek. May Ssnek come in?"
She froze. The voice was eminently recognisable from the recordings she'd listened to, time and again. If it didn't belong to the giant snake that had been occasionally seen around Brockton Bay (and, she reminded herself, had been instrumental in Coil's downfall) then it was the best imitation of it she'd heard yet. Which still didn't rule out an amazingly ill-advised prank, merely reduced the chances of it.
Best to hedge her bets. "If this is Assault, I swear I will have you scrubbing every latrine in the building with your toothbrush." After you show me how you pulled this off.
The voice came back. "Ssnek iss not Asssault. Ssnek iss Ssnek. May Ssnek come in?"
She pulled the duress button—more of a sliding toggle—back to the first click. This alerted the security station to the fact that something was going on, and gave them video and audio to her office, but let them know she was handling the situation at the moment. Almost as an afterthought, she thumbed back the hammer on her pistol. "Come ahead."
The door handle clicked, then the door swung inward. And out through the doorway slithered the giant fucking snake, or at least a dozen feet of it. Emily had no fucking idea where the rest of it was; there literally was no room in the ensuite for fifty feet of horror-movie reptile.
Also, it wore a regular-sized fedora in the middle of its broad head. What that was about, Emily couldn't even begin to imagine.
It actually smiled at her, or at least that was how she interpreted the expression. "Hello, blue ssuit lady. Ssnek iss pleassed to meet you."
Not the way she'd ever expected to be greeted by something that big and with that many teeth, but it was infinitely preferable to being immediately attacked. Carefully, she lowered the hammer on the pistol and pointed it at the floor; she'd seen how ineffectual lasers and bullets were against the thing, so the gesture was more diplomatic than meaningful. She remained ready to pull the duress button back to the full emergency level, though.
"It's … interesting to meet you as well," she replied. "Why are you here?"
"Ssnek hass resscued not-monsster Noelle and Masster has fixxed. Not-monsster Noelle hass assked for funny hat man and hiss other friendss for Masster to fixx. Ssnek iss here to tell blue ssuit lady that Ssnek will be taking them."
That took a few seconds for Emily to parse out. Finally, she recalled that Trickster habitually wore a top hat. And if 'not-monster Noelle' was the missing, mysterious member of the Travellers …
"The Travellers," she said. "You're saying you want to take the Travellers."
"That iss the name not-monsster Noelle ssaid, yess." Snek managed to look even more pleased with himself? Itself? "Ssnek will be taking them. Masster hass ssaid sso."
Part of her mind was saying, what are you doing? Don't argue with the giant snake! but she resolutely ignored that part. "They've committed crimes," she said firmly. "They've done bad things. I can't just let them go."
"Not-monsster Noelle ssaid they are Ssimurgh-bombss," Snek informed her. From the tone of its voice, it didn't know what the phrase meant, but knew it was important. "Sso wass not-monsster Noelle. Masster fixxed her. Masster can fixx other Travellerss too. If blue ssuit lady wantss, Travellerss will not come back."
Shit. Fuck. Okay, then. That's something I definitely needed to know yesterday. "So, what you're telling me is that the Travellers are Simurgh bombs, that your Master can fix that, and that he can arrange matters so they never return to this city even after he fixes them?"
"Travellerss will not come back to thiss world if blue ssuit lady does not want," Ssnek corrected her blithely. "Not-monsster Noelle wantss to sstay on Masster'ss world. Otherss may sstay there too."
This was sounding better and better all the time. "And if I said you couldn't take them?"
Somehow, the giant shoulder-less reptile managed to shrug. "Ssnek will take them anyway. Ssnek jusst likess to assk first. Masster ssayss politenesss iss important."
Well, that definitely laid everything out in black and white. "I suppose I can't stop you then. I'll notify the guards to not get in your way." A thought struck her. "One more thing. Is Tattletale a Simurgh bomb as well?"
Snek paused. "Ssnek doess not know. Pleasse excusse Ssnek for a minute?"
Emily had long since decided to go with the flow. Placing the pistol on the desk, she waved her hand magnanimously. "Go right ahead."
"Thank you, blue ssuit lady." A portal appeared in front of Snek and the gigantic reptile poured itself? Himself? down it. All fifty feet of missing length whipped out of the cramped ensuite and into the portal before it snapped shut.
She took a deep breath and spoke to the air. "You've seen and heard all that, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am." It was Hendricks, in the security station. "You've been having a conversation with a giant snake called Snek, which is giving us notice that it intends to take the Travellers off our hands." She had to admire his ability to state the utterly ridiculous in a matter of fact tone like that.
"Correct." Which meant she wasn't going insane, or at least not in ways that were immediately obvious. "Note that I'm inclined not to fight this situation, mainly because I'm pretty sure we can't."
"Affirmative, ma'am. For what it's worth, I agree with you. Also, Simurgh bombs."
That was an excellent point. She opened her mouth to make another observation, but then the snake slithered out of her ensuite again; this time, as the door was open, it didn't need to knock. "Hello, blue ssuit lady. Ssnek iss back. Masster sayss that purple girl iss not Ssimurgh bomb. Iss jusst naturally annoying. Masster alsso sayss that purple girl will make good Ward."
Emily bit back a snort of amusement. Just naturally annoying, indeed. Well, he's definitely got her number. "Thank you," she said, trying not to crack a smile. "I'll take that recommendation under advisement."
"Blue ssuit lady iss welcome," Snek said politely. "Ssnek will be taking Travellerss to Masster now."
This time, instead of vanishing into a portal, it wriggled backward into the ensuite. The door closed behind it.
Slowly, Emily got up from her desk. She approached the door and opened it, then looked within. The porcelain fixtures, including the cramped shower cubicle, were as pristine as ever. Of the gargantuan reptile that had slithered out of it—twice—there was no sign.
Shaking her head, she closed the door and headed back to her desk. She'd just gotten there and lowered herself into her seat when the hidden speakers in her desk came to life again. "Hendricks here, ma'am. The guards in Holding have just reported that the Travellers are missing from their cells. Should I fill them in?"
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Damn, that thing works fast. "Not until you've had them pull all the security tapes, to see if you can spot how it pulled it off. After all, the next eldritch menace that comes through here might not be so polite as to give us advance warning."
Hendricks' voice may have held a smile. "Right you are, ma'am."
"Oh, and Hendricks?"
"Ma'am?"
"Could you send someone up to reset my duress button?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Leaning back in her chair, Emily Piggot shook her head. It was never dull in Brockton Bay.
Noelle
The dining hall was huge and well-lit, with a long cloth-covered wooden table running most of the length of it. Large windows let in the afternoon sunlight, and richly woven tapestries added colour to the walls. When they'd sat down to the meal, the same hearth-dragon that she'd met earlier—or at least, she thought it was the same one—had swooped in through the window and perched on the arm of the chair to her left.
Servants had trooped through, depositing platter after platter of enticingly smelling food in front of them, before leaving them in peace to eat. The crockery and eating utensils appeared remarkably modern, compared to what she had read about in books on medieval customs. Most surprisingly, the tiny dragon—and its friends, who had also shown up, looking hopeful—didn't immediately start stealing food, but waited for it to be offered instead. For creatures with scales and wings instead of fur, they had an amazing line in puppy-dog eyes.
Krouse, sitting on Noelle's right, took a bite from a large drumstick—if that had come from a chicken, she wasn't sure she wanted to meet the original bird—and waved it around. The iridescent red-scaled hearth-dragon beside him watched it hopefully.
"So, what's the catch?" he asked. "We're all out of PRT holding. We're not Simurgh bombs anymore. Okay, we had to give up our powers, but I'm pretty sure most of us agree they were more trouble than they were worth."
Noelle offered 'her' dragon a chunk of meat, which it accepted politely from her fingers. "Well, duh," she said. Looking around, she could see Oliver and Marissa and Jess—the latter of whom had arrived in the dining hall escorted by the kid called Riley, walking on her own two legs—nodding in agreement. But Luke looked dubious, and Cody was outright scowling. "Come on, guys. All they did was get us out of one hole and straight into another."
"I know we can't go back to Bet," Luke said, "but we could've been heroes on Aleph."
"Fuck being a hero," Cody grumbled. "What right did they have to say we couldn't go back? Accord sold me into slavery, guys!"
"And Snek got you out," Noelle said. "The only way you're ever going back there is if Snek or his Master say so. Good luck with changing their minds. Especially since Director Piggot said she didn't want any of us ever going back." She was reasonably certain it hadn't been Piggot's decision, but the regional Director of the Brockton Bay PRT had a reputation of being enough of a hardass to agree with it.
"So what do we do now?" Krouse asked her. "You've been here the longest. Do you think we should go back to Aleph? We've been away for a year and a half. They probably think we're dead."
"Well, you can do what you want," she told him. "I'm staying right here. It's a whole world, set up for the kind of adventuring we used to pretend we were doing when we were playing Ransack. With enough convenient magic to prevent it from being horrifically medieval."
"Then I'm staying too," he said immediately. "You think it'll take us long to, I guess, train into a class? Or however it works here?"
"What? No!" Cody jammed the tines of his fork into the hard wood of the table, through the cloth. "Krouse, you were gonna go back to Aleph! Just go, why don't you? Nobody wants you here!"
"I want him here." Noelle spoke firmly, looking Cody in the eye. "You can go, or not, if you want. We don't have powers anymore. There's no reason for us to stick together as a group. But if Krouse wants to be here with me, to see if there's still something between us after all the shit we've been through, I'm willing to give it a try."
"Aarrrgh!" Cody jumped to his feet and stormed out. The door banged shut behind him. Two hearth-dragons jumped onto the table and started eating the food that he'd put on his plate, dividing it neatly between them.
Jess let out a heavy sigh. "Well, that happened."
"Yeah, it did." Oliver shrugged. "I'll try to find him and talk to him once he's cooled down a bit."
"Probably not a bad idea." Marissa looked across at Noelle. "So, two questions. Is there ballet here on this world? And I've been meaning to ask: what's that outfit you're wearing? Because it's absolutely kick-ass."
Noelle shrugged. "I don't know if ballet's a thing here, but I'm willing to bet that Snek's Master can make it happen. Maybe you can teach it."
"Ooh." Marissa looked pensive. "That … wow, I have no idea what to think about that."
"And what about your leather armour?" Jess leaned forward. "Where did you get it from? Because I absolutely want a set."
"That shouldn't be too hard." Noelle could feel the grin trying to take over. "I got it from a magical wardrobe in my room. As for what it is … dragon riding leathers."
That got everyone's attention.
"What?" asked Krouse. "Did you say dragon riding?"
"As in riding dragons?" Jess added.
"Real dragons?" Marissa said. One of the hearth-dragons squawked at her, and she fed it a piece of meat. "Sorry, sorry. You're very pretty. But actual, rideable dragons?"
Even Luke leaned into the conversation. "You've got my attention."
Noelle nodded, her grin widening. "Yup. Guys … I've absolutely ridden a dragon. I've done it. It's amazing."
Oliver seemed to be trying to catch his breath. "Can we … can we do that too?"
"Ahem." The Master of the Castle was abruptly sitting in an ornate chair at the head of the table. Noelle wasn't sure if he—or it—had been there all along, but her brain seemed to think so. "Yes. You may indeed ride dragons. Does this mean that you wish to stay?"
"Do we!" Luke turned to Marissa, Jess and Oliver. "You in, too?"
Jess nodded her head definitively. "You had me at 'we can ride dragons'. Mars?"
Marissa gave her a high-five, while Oliver merely nodded. "Well, duh."
The Master of the Castle nodded. "Very well. Your absent comrade has chosen, through sheer spite, to travel on his own for now. I wish him well in his endeavours, and you in yours. If you need assistance, call Snek's name and he will attend your needs. In the meantime, enjoy your meal."
As abruptly and soundlessly as he had appeared, he vanished once more, chair and all.
Jess and Marissa stared at where he'd been, then turned to Noelle. "Okay, give with the deets," Marissa demanded. "Riding dragons. What's it like?"
Noelle fed her hearth-dragon another chunk of meat. "Okay, the first thing you've got to understand is that they're big. I mean, huge. The next thing? They're huge dorks."
End of Part Nine
Part Nine: Together Again
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal].
Noelle
"Okay," said Cody. "So … I have a question."
He was looking at Noelle instead of the Master of the Castle, who was giving them space to talk, so she nodded. "Sure, what is it?"
"Now, don't freak. Hear me out." He spread his hands, palm up. "You said Krouse and the rest are in PRT custody, right?"
"Right." She said it guardedly. "What's your point?"
"My point is …" he paused, apparently trying to think of how to phrase it, "… why don't we just … well … leave them there?"
She blinked solidly, going back over what he'd said, trying to wring another meaning from his words. "You have to be kidding. Why would I ever agree to that?"
"Listen. Listen, listen, listen." He was in full wheedling mode. She recalled a time when it had worked on her. Too much had happened since then for it to have any sort of effect now. "Ever since Krouse joined our group, things have gone to shit. Name one good thing that's happened to us."
She stared him down. "Now you're pushing it. The Simurgh, that wasn't Krouse. We were Simurgh bombs from then on, so all the arguing …" Recalling the words of the Master of the Castle, she amended her words. "… okay, most of the arguing was down to that."
"Krouse gave you that shitty formula." He grinned as he said it, evidently sure he'd scored a winning point.
"The Simurgh made him find it," Noelle countered. "She made sure we'd drink the ones we did. She wanted me to be a monster. Everything after the Simurgh, us becoming the Travellers, was basically down to her." She pointed at Cody. "But you were the one who nearly got Mars killed by Accord."
From the expression on his face, he knew he was on the back foot now. "That was the Simurgh, too," he protested. "You said it yourself. And anyway, the guys have all committed crimes. The PRT will put them in jail, they'll break out and go their own way. Meanwhile, you and me …"
She shook her head. "No. Krouse has stuck by me through thick and thin. Yeah, I know it was the Simurgh's influence that probably caused you to mess up all those times, but I was with Krouse before we ever came to Bet."
"So why am I even here?" asked Cody. "I thought we had something."
"We did, once," she agreed. "But not anymore. I asked for you to be rescued because you were once my teammate, and I'm hoping we can still be at least friends. But the others get a choice as well."
"Well spoken, Miss Meinhardt," said the Master of the Castle approvingly. "Snek, if you can retrieve the other members of her group, please?"
"Yess, Masster," the massive snake agreed at once. "Ssnek will do that." Turning, it wriggled out through the door, which closed behind it.
"Is it just me," murmured Cody, "or does that thing get creepier every time you hear it talk?"
Noelle stared at him, absolutely certain that the Master of the Castle had just heard his words. "No!" she protested. "And you're a horrible person for even thinking that! Snek is a perfect gentleman!"
Cody made an abortive gesture, then blinked. "Crap," he muttered. "What happened to—?"
"Your temporal rewind powers?" The Master of the Castle's smile was wintry. "They are currently in abeyance. And I will thank you to be more polite in general. This castle possesses an abundance of both dragons and dungeons." Though his tone was light, there was steel beneath it.
Cody gulped.
<><>
Regional Director Emily Piggot
PRT ENE
Emily relaxed in her chair, looking over the morning reports. Nothing drastic had happened overnight, which she decided to chalk up to a minor miracle. The day before had been impressively chaotic, or chaotically impressive, whichever way she wanted to describe it.
Not only was Coil in captivity, but he was also Thomas Calvert, which explained so many things that had been going wrong since he'd slimed his way back into the PRT from being a mere civilian advisor. Also, the Travellers were under lock and key (all except for the semi-mythical monster that had reputedly been accompanying them) and finally Tattletale was spilling the beans about Coil, just as fast as she could manage it.
This situation was not without its complications. She'd had to call in extra manpower from everywhere to cover for every person with whom Calvert had had even a tangential part in placing within the building. And that didn't include those who had been cleared by his stooges, all of whom were now also under intensive investigation. Tattletale had (somewhat unexpectedly) been of assistance here, willingly pointing out the ones she claimed to be his moles. Emily wasn't so gullible as to take these assertions at face value, or to immediately clear the ones Tattletale said were fine, but she was happy to use said assertions as a data point for or against.
As part of this, she'd automatically assumed the PRT building's computer system was compromised—if she knew Calvert, it was the first thing he would've done—so she had IT guys with suitable clearance going through it with the electronic equivalent of a fine-toothed comb, snagging out the bits and pieces that should not be there. So far, they weren't even half done, and they'd already found enough evidence of tampering to make her consider raising their salaries. She also wanted to tear her hair out, but she could do that later.
What to do with Tattletale after the dust had settled was another matter. The girl clearly did not want to go anywhere near juvenile detention, and Emily could see why. With the smart mouth on her, it was a fifty-fifty crapshoot as to whether she'd be running the place or losing all her teeth inside the first month.
Pulling a Shadow Stalker and inducting her into the Wards was a second option, one which Emily was starting to reluctantly lean toward. She clearly had zero loyalty toward her ex-boss (considering the means of her recruitment, Emily was hardly surprised) and was working hard at projecting an image of a helpful, cooperative, potentially law-abiding, useful teenage parahuman. Not all of which Emily actually trusted, but it was a good start.
Armsmaster had of course ferreted out the girl's real identity and spoken to her regarding her family; the response he got back about informing them about any of this had been a solid nope. Which, given that Tattletale was over sixteen and currently of sound body and mind, meant that Emily didn't have to if she didn't want to. And she really didn't. People who could cause their daughter to trigger from emotional stress did not fit her view of suitable parents in any shape or form, ever.
She still had to make her final decision, and of course the girl would have to pick a costume far different from that skin-tight purple monstrosity, but—
A triple knock resounded through her office; not from her main office door, but the one leading to her ensuite. Which she knew for a fact was empty, since she'd used the facilities not twenty minutes beforehand. There was no connecting door anywhere else, and even the air ducts were only three inches square and trapped with electrified monowire, so the chance of someone sneaking in there from somewhere else in the building was vanishingly small.
Her hand slid down into the foot-well of her desk, where her service pistol resided in a holster clamped to the solid wood. Carefully, she eased the firearm from its place, the weight of the cold metal comforting to her hand. Her other hand took hold of the duress button under the edge of the desk, ready to jam it to its stop if this went bad.
The knock came again, but it wasn't a sharp rapping; more of a boomp-boomp-boomp, as if someone were thumping their knee against the door. "Hello?" she called out warily. "Is there someone in there?"
"Ssnek iss Ssnek. May Ssnek come in?"
She froze. The voice was eminently recognisable from the recordings she'd listened to, time and again. If it didn't belong to the giant snake that had been occasionally seen around Brockton Bay (and, she reminded herself, had been instrumental in Coil's downfall) then it was the best imitation of it she'd heard yet. Which still didn't rule out an amazingly ill-advised prank, merely reduced the chances of it.
Best to hedge her bets. "If this is Assault, I swear I will have you scrubbing every latrine in the building with your toothbrush." After you show me how you pulled this off.
The voice came back. "Ssnek iss not Asssault. Ssnek iss Ssnek. May Ssnek come in?"
She pulled the duress button—more of a sliding toggle—back to the first click. This alerted the security station to the fact that something was going on, and gave them video and audio to her office, but let them know she was handling the situation at the moment. Almost as an afterthought, she thumbed back the hammer on her pistol. "Come ahead."
The door handle clicked, then the door swung inward. And out through the doorway slithered the giant fucking snake, or at least a dozen feet of it. Emily had no fucking idea where the rest of it was; there literally was no room in the ensuite for fifty feet of horror-movie reptile.
Also, it wore a regular-sized fedora in the middle of its broad head. What that was about, Emily couldn't even begin to imagine.
It actually smiled at her, or at least that was how she interpreted the expression. "Hello, blue ssuit lady. Ssnek iss pleassed to meet you."
Not the way she'd ever expected to be greeted by something that big and with that many teeth, but it was infinitely preferable to being immediately attacked. Carefully, she lowered the hammer on the pistol and pointed it at the floor; she'd seen how ineffectual lasers and bullets were against the thing, so the gesture was more diplomatic than meaningful. She remained ready to pull the duress button back to the full emergency level, though.
"It's … interesting to meet you as well," she replied. "Why are you here?"
"Ssnek hass resscued not-monsster Noelle and Masster has fixxed. Not-monsster Noelle hass assked for funny hat man and hiss other friendss for Masster to fixx. Ssnek iss here to tell blue ssuit lady that Ssnek will be taking them."
That took a few seconds for Emily to parse out. Finally, she recalled that Trickster habitually wore a top hat. And if 'not-monster Noelle' was the missing, mysterious member of the Travellers …
"The Travellers," she said. "You're saying you want to take the Travellers."
"That iss the name not-monsster Noelle ssaid, yess." Snek managed to look even more pleased with himself? Itself? "Ssnek will be taking them. Masster hass ssaid sso."
Part of her mind was saying, what are you doing? Don't argue with the giant snake! but she resolutely ignored that part. "They've committed crimes," she said firmly. "They've done bad things. I can't just let them go."
"Not-monsster Noelle ssaid they are Ssimurgh-bombss," Snek informed her. From the tone of its voice, it didn't know what the phrase meant, but knew it was important. "Sso wass not-monsster Noelle. Masster fixxed her. Masster can fixx other Travellerss too. If blue ssuit lady wantss, Travellerss will not come back."
Shit. Fuck. Okay, then. That's something I definitely needed to know yesterday. "So, what you're telling me is that the Travellers are Simurgh bombs, that your Master can fix that, and that he can arrange matters so they never return to this city even after he fixes them?"
"Travellerss will not come back to thiss world if blue ssuit lady does not want," Ssnek corrected her blithely. "Not-monsster Noelle wantss to sstay on Masster'ss world. Otherss may sstay there too."
This was sounding better and better all the time. "And if I said you couldn't take them?"
Somehow, the giant shoulder-less reptile managed to shrug. "Ssnek will take them anyway. Ssnek jusst likess to assk first. Masster ssayss politenesss iss important."
Well, that definitely laid everything out in black and white. "I suppose I can't stop you then. I'll notify the guards to not get in your way." A thought struck her. "One more thing. Is Tattletale a Simurgh bomb as well?"
Snek paused. "Ssnek doess not know. Pleasse excusse Ssnek for a minute?"
Emily had long since decided to go with the flow. Placing the pistol on the desk, she waved her hand magnanimously. "Go right ahead."
"Thank you, blue ssuit lady." A portal appeared in front of Snek and the gigantic reptile poured itself? Himself? down it. All fifty feet of missing length whipped out of the cramped ensuite and into the portal before it snapped shut.
She took a deep breath and spoke to the air. "You've seen and heard all that, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am." It was Hendricks, in the security station. "You've been having a conversation with a giant snake called Snek, which is giving us notice that it intends to take the Travellers off our hands." She had to admire his ability to state the utterly ridiculous in a matter of fact tone like that.
"Correct." Which meant she wasn't going insane, or at least not in ways that were immediately obvious. "Note that I'm inclined not to fight this situation, mainly because I'm pretty sure we can't."
"Affirmative, ma'am. For what it's worth, I agree with you. Also, Simurgh bombs."
That was an excellent point. She opened her mouth to make another observation, but then the snake slithered out of her ensuite again; this time, as the door was open, it didn't need to knock. "Hello, blue ssuit lady. Ssnek iss back. Masster sayss that purple girl iss not Ssimurgh bomb. Iss jusst naturally annoying. Masster alsso sayss that purple girl will make good Ward."
Emily bit back a snort of amusement. Just naturally annoying, indeed. Well, he's definitely got her number. "Thank you," she said, trying not to crack a smile. "I'll take that recommendation under advisement."
"Blue ssuit lady iss welcome," Snek said politely. "Ssnek will be taking Travellerss to Masster now."
This time, instead of vanishing into a portal, it wriggled backward into the ensuite. The door closed behind it.
Slowly, Emily got up from her desk. She approached the door and opened it, then looked within. The porcelain fixtures, including the cramped shower cubicle, were as pristine as ever. Of the gargantuan reptile that had slithered out of it—twice—there was no sign.
Shaking her head, she closed the door and headed back to her desk. She'd just gotten there and lowered herself into her seat when the hidden speakers in her desk came to life again. "Hendricks here, ma'am. The guards in Holding have just reported that the Travellers are missing from their cells. Should I fill them in?"
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Damn, that thing works fast. "Not until you've had them pull all the security tapes, to see if you can spot how it pulled it off. After all, the next eldritch menace that comes through here might not be so polite as to give us advance warning."
Hendricks' voice may have held a smile. "Right you are, ma'am."
"Oh, and Hendricks?"
"Ma'am?"
"Could you send someone up to reset my duress button?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Leaning back in her chair, Emily Piggot shook her head. It was never dull in Brockton Bay.
<><>
Noelle
The dining hall was huge and well-lit, with a long cloth-covered wooden table running most of the length of it. Large windows let in the afternoon sunlight, and richly woven tapestries added colour to the walls. When they'd sat down to the meal, the same hearth-dragon that she'd met earlier—or at least, she thought it was the same one—had swooped in through the window and perched on the arm of the chair to her left.
Servants had trooped through, depositing platter after platter of enticingly smelling food in front of them, before leaving them in peace to eat. The crockery and eating utensils appeared remarkably modern, compared to what she had read about in books on medieval customs. Most surprisingly, the tiny dragon—and its friends, who had also shown up, looking hopeful—didn't immediately start stealing food, but waited for it to be offered instead. For creatures with scales and wings instead of fur, they had an amazing line in puppy-dog eyes.
Krouse, sitting on Noelle's right, took a bite from a large drumstick—if that had come from a chicken, she wasn't sure she wanted to meet the original bird—and waved it around. The iridescent red-scaled hearth-dragon beside him watched it hopefully.
"So, what's the catch?" he asked. "We're all out of PRT holding. We're not Simurgh bombs anymore. Okay, we had to give up our powers, but I'm pretty sure most of us agree they were more trouble than they were worth."
Noelle offered 'her' dragon a chunk of meat, which it accepted politely from her fingers. "Well, duh," she said. Looking around, she could see Oliver and Marissa and Jess—the latter of whom had arrived in the dining hall escorted by the kid called Riley, walking on her own two legs—nodding in agreement. But Luke looked dubious, and Cody was outright scowling. "Come on, guys. All they did was get us out of one hole and straight into another."
"I know we can't go back to Bet," Luke said, "but we could've been heroes on Aleph."
"Fuck being a hero," Cody grumbled. "What right did they have to say we couldn't go back? Accord sold me into slavery, guys!"
"And Snek got you out," Noelle said. "The only way you're ever going back there is if Snek or his Master say so. Good luck with changing their minds. Especially since Director Piggot said she didn't want any of us ever going back." She was reasonably certain it hadn't been Piggot's decision, but the regional Director of the Brockton Bay PRT had a reputation of being enough of a hardass to agree with it.
"So what do we do now?" Krouse asked her. "You've been here the longest. Do you think we should go back to Aleph? We've been away for a year and a half. They probably think we're dead."
"Well, you can do what you want," she told him. "I'm staying right here. It's a whole world, set up for the kind of adventuring we used to pretend we were doing when we were playing Ransack. With enough convenient magic to prevent it from being horrifically medieval."
"Then I'm staying too," he said immediately. "You think it'll take us long to, I guess, train into a class? Or however it works here?"
"What? No!" Cody jammed the tines of his fork into the hard wood of the table, through the cloth. "Krouse, you were gonna go back to Aleph! Just go, why don't you? Nobody wants you here!"
"I want him here." Noelle spoke firmly, looking Cody in the eye. "You can go, or not, if you want. We don't have powers anymore. There's no reason for us to stick together as a group. But if Krouse wants to be here with me, to see if there's still something between us after all the shit we've been through, I'm willing to give it a try."
"Aarrrgh!" Cody jumped to his feet and stormed out. The door banged shut behind him. Two hearth-dragons jumped onto the table and started eating the food that he'd put on his plate, dividing it neatly between them.
Jess let out a heavy sigh. "Well, that happened."
"Yeah, it did." Oliver shrugged. "I'll try to find him and talk to him once he's cooled down a bit."
"Probably not a bad idea." Marissa looked across at Noelle. "So, two questions. Is there ballet here on this world? And I've been meaning to ask: what's that outfit you're wearing? Because it's absolutely kick-ass."
Noelle shrugged. "I don't know if ballet's a thing here, but I'm willing to bet that Snek's Master can make it happen. Maybe you can teach it."
"Ooh." Marissa looked pensive. "That … wow, I have no idea what to think about that."
"And what about your leather armour?" Jess leaned forward. "Where did you get it from? Because I absolutely want a set."
"That shouldn't be too hard." Noelle could feel the grin trying to take over. "I got it from a magical wardrobe in my room. As for what it is … dragon riding leathers."
That got everyone's attention.
"What?" asked Krouse. "Did you say dragon riding?"
"As in riding dragons?" Jess added.
"Real dragons?" Marissa said. One of the hearth-dragons squawked at her, and she fed it a piece of meat. "Sorry, sorry. You're very pretty. But actual, rideable dragons?"
Even Luke leaned into the conversation. "You've got my attention."
Noelle nodded, her grin widening. "Yup. Guys … I've absolutely ridden a dragon. I've done it. It's amazing."
Oliver seemed to be trying to catch his breath. "Can we … can we do that too?"
"Ahem." The Master of the Castle was abruptly sitting in an ornate chair at the head of the table. Noelle wasn't sure if he—or it—had been there all along, but her brain seemed to think so. "Yes. You may indeed ride dragons. Does this mean that you wish to stay?"
"Do we!" Luke turned to Marissa, Jess and Oliver. "You in, too?"
Jess nodded her head definitively. "You had me at 'we can ride dragons'. Mars?"
Marissa gave her a high-five, while Oliver merely nodded. "Well, duh."
The Master of the Castle nodded. "Very well. Your absent comrade has chosen, through sheer spite, to travel on his own for now. I wish him well in his endeavours, and you in yours. If you need assistance, call Snek's name and he will attend your needs. In the meantime, enjoy your meal."
As abruptly and soundlessly as he had appeared, he vanished once more, chair and all.
Jess and Marissa stared at where he'd been, then turned to Noelle. "Okay, give with the deets," Marissa demanded. "Riding dragons. What's it like?"
Noelle fed her hearth-dragon another chunk of meat. "Okay, the first thing you've got to understand is that they're big. I mean, huge. The next thing? They're huge dorks."
End of Part Nine