A Dragon's Tale Ch. 34

"Plus you can carry the sword in a scabbard master, so you'll never be without a weapon." Taloni pointed out.

"Oh man, you're right." He was smiling ear-to-ear at this point. "I'll basically be walking around with a full size spear and no one will know."

"Plus there's the element of surprise." Rachel pointed out. "You could draw your sword and start a normal sword attack, then extend the leather to get an extra reach almost instantly."

"Day-um!" Ethan exclaimed. "This thing is awesome."

"And there's still two more..." Beth pointed out, clearly wanting to see them.

"Yeah, but he said don't open them until they've been enchanted to be self-repairing." Ethan pointed out.

"Let me see about one of the smaller ones." Alana said, walking over and putting one hand on each of the smaller boxes. After almost a minute, she opened her eyes and turned to the rest of them. "Okay, so I think that smallest one is a new head for Ethan's hammer. It's hard to tell without seeing it or touching it, but from what I can feel of enchantable material, that what it feels like."

"What about the other one?" Beth and Taloni asked at the same time, then looked at each other and grinned.

"I have no idea." The wood elf replied. "I can feel a small piece that's pure dragon scale, and a larger piece that's dragon scale. I think I can fully enchant the whole thing to be self-repairing if someone would be willing to donate--"

"I will!" Beth and Taloni both stuck a hand in the air and jumped a bit.

"I'm also happy to help." Rachel added with an amused smile.

Ethan chuckled, and then walked a few paces from everyone else to swing his new sword around a bit more. He felt like a kid on Christmas morning, and probably looked it too.

"Careful, you'll shoot your eye out." Selene called with a wink.

He snort-laughed.

* * *

Sarah had never ridden in a carriage before, or at least not a proper carriage like the one she was riding in now. It was a small one designed for only two people, and not terribly ornate. However, it was clearly of incredibly high quality. The seats were leather and the wood was subtly carved in intricate designs. She almost felt like a lady, and was sitting next to one.

"I can't believe my father let me come." She said, feeling slightly worried about leaving him alone at the inn, even in the middle of the day.

"Most men have a habit of letting noble ladies get their way." The auburn-haired woman said with a twinkle in her eye. She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, but Sarah guessed that she looked young for her age.

"Thank you." She said for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Please stop thanking me dear girl." The other woman replied kindly. "I'm an old fool indulging a whim; I might hate you tomorrow."

Sarah laughed.

Lady Ekthros didn't.

The girl faltered for a moment.

"Sarah, not everyone is your friend." The older woman said somberly. "There are people out there who will only pretend to be your friend to get something from you. You need to watch out for them."

"But you aren't like that." Sarah replied.

"If I was like that, I would tell you that I wasn't." She pointed out. "You need to be careful Sarah; sometimes the people who pretend to be your friends can do more damage that outright enemies. They can hurt your heart and soul, whereas outright enemies can only hurt your body."

"Okay, I'll watch out." She nodded, grateful that Lady Ekthros had warned her. She of course knew of the possibility, but hadn't really thought about it before.

"Remember that the Book of Light says that even Saidow himself sometimes pretends to be an angel of light." The auburn-haired woman said as she flicked the reins gently to keep the horse moving. "Why would men be any different?"

Sarah smiled at her, but it wasn't the most genuine smile she'd ever had.

What of Gabriella?

She remembered the dream in which the angel had made some promises. But that must've been a real angel because there was no chance that she was a servant of Saidow. None whatsoever. Plus, she had met Ethan, and he was a prophet of Illuminar.

Sarah sighed wistfully. "At least there's a prophet of Illuminar in the land again."

"Of course there is." Lady Ekthros said, but something about her tone seemed... off.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yes." Her reply seemed genuine.

"Is there something about the prophet of Illuminar?"

"I'm sure it's nothing dear." Lady Ekthros said in a voice that was intended to be comforting, but oddly came across as the exact opposite. That was mostly because she didn't sound like she believed it herself. It sounded like there was something that the other woman knew about Ethan that she didn't want to share, and it didn't seem good.

Hmm, curious.

* * *

"Okay, all done." Ethan heard Alana say.

He turned from appreciating his new sword towards his wood elven wife, walked up to her, and gave her a soul-searing kiss. "Have I ever told you that I love you?" He asked when the kiss broke.

She grinned. "Every time you look at me."

"Damn straight."

"So what's in the box?" Beth asked.

"Yes master, please open it." Taloni echoed.

He sighed loudly and in a mock-exaggerated way. "Okay fine, if I must."

He reached over and loosened the middle sized box, but hesitated before pulling it off. He turned to all his wives, but especially Beth and put on a totally deadpan expression. "You know, maybe we should wait for a bit, preserve the surprise."

"Dom-i-nus." She rolled her eyes. "Please?"

He shook his head in a mock-exaggerated way. "The things I do for love."

He opened the middle sized box to see... He cocked his head to one side.

Huh.

"What is it?" Beth asked.

"Um, a dagger? Maybe?" He reached in and pulled out the strangest looking dagger that he'd ever seen.

It weighed very little, but it had a lot of heft.

The main body of the dagger was a cylinder about 7 or 8 inches long and over an inch in diameter. It had a lot of presence and inertia in his hand, but almost no weight. He assumed it must be enchanted to be lighter. He guessed that without the enchantment it would probably weigh several poounds; maybe more. However, all that weight was in the dragon steel cylinder. He guessed it was probably filled with lead because of the large amount of mass; though again it had almost no weight.

Protruding from the cylinder at the back of the dagger was some tightly coiled leather cord. The cord was about a quarter inch thick and was tightly coiled around itself into a disc that extended for one cord's thickness wider than the dragon-steel cylinder itself, forming a sort of pommel. There were four levels like this stacked on top of each other, all made from the same length of leather cord that was clearly enchanted to be as stiff and strong as steel.

The front of the cylinder had more stiffened leather cord, though this cord had been arranged to resemble a circular guard, with the cord cleverly folded to form both the outer ring and seven supports for it. This cord was also enchanted to be as stiff as steel and was also one piece. The end of the cord stuck out about eight inches in front of the guard and was tipped with a tiny dragon steel head.

Seriously, the head was tiny.

It was about three inches long, but extremely narrow and thus very sharply pointed. It was shaped like an extremely elongated pyramid that was just slightly larger than the leather shaft.

He looked at it in confusion for several seconds. "I guess a dagger can be very useful. It looks like it would have a powerful thrust. Though the leather might be activatable just like the sword... Hmm."

"Try it." Beth urged.

"Hang on." Since he was dealing with a fully sharped head, he took several steps away from everyone and angled the dagger so the tip was pointed skyward. "Everyone ready?"

They all either nodded or assented.

He poured a drop of mana into the dagger to activate it. Instantly the coil of leather at the back shot straight to the rear and the one at the front shot straight forward. With the two cords extended, it was about six feet long, with about two feet in front of the dragon-steel cylinder and the remaining length behind it. The rear portion flared out just slightly at the very back. The flared portion looked like an arrow's fletching, and there was a crosspiece with the same shape, so there were four 'fletchings'. Overall, it looked like a six-foot arrow with a massive bulge in the middle.

"Is it a spear?" Taloni asked.

"I mean, yeah but..." Ethan slowly moved it around to feel how it moved and shook his head. "This would be rubbish to fight with. There's no weight in the head so it would be easy to parry, and it just feels wrong; the weight's all in the wrong place."

"It's a javelin." Kendra said.

He looked at her, having heard the term but not remembering what it meant exactly.

"A spear that's optimized for throwing, which that one clearly is." She explained. "Look at the pseudo-fletching at the back to keep it nose forward in flight. And the large weight in the middle is probably to give it more inertia so it can penetrate more deeply."

Beth and Taloni giggled.

Kendra shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"This looks like it would penetratevery deep." He said with a wink at his two teen wives, then activated the javelin again so it was a dagger and looked at the point. "Look at how slender that tip is; there would be so little resistance."

"It's similar to a Roman Pilum." Selene said, and everyone turned to look at her.

"I like weapons." She shrugged. "I saw this video one time that showed how these things would punch through wooden shields with the tiny point. Then the shaft is thinner than the point, so it slides through without resistance until it hits the guy holding the shield. Even if you don't hit him, you've got a bloody big javelin sticking out of your shield, making it useless."

"So, either I kill the guy or make his shield useless?" Ethan grinned. "Damn! This is the strangest looking weapon I've ever seen, but if you're right, it would be so effective."

"One moment." Serif said. He went through the door to the lower decks and returned a minute later with a rollable leather shield and an archery target. He set them up leaning against the main mast, activated the leather shield, and then then returned to the group.

"Thanks." Ethan said, then extended the dagger into a javelin, took careful aim, and then gave it a measured throw.

It punched right through the enchanted leather shield.

It barely seemed to slow down.

He walked over and saw that the javelin had buried itself deeply into the archery target. So deeply that it took a moment to get out.

"Holy shit!" He breathed.

"What about the shields that the wood elven king gave us?" Beth asked.

About a minute later, one of them was set up against the archery target and Ethan had thrown his new javelin at it. It made a large-ish dent, but didn't punch through and fell to the decking.

"It might not go through a very thick wooden shield then." Serif said.

Ethan picked up the javelin and hefted it again. "I could believe that. It's enchanted so it weighs less than half a pound, but I imagine it would weigh several pounds without that enchantment. Plus..." He activated the javelin again so it snapped back to being small. "...I could easily carry this around as a dagger because it's so small and lightweight. An odd looking dagger, but a dagger nonetheless."

"And I could enchant both the sword and the javelin-dagger so you can summon them." Alana added.

"Oh man, imagine a javelin that can punch through shields that I can throw again and again." He grinned.

"And in close combat, that dagger form would be invaluable for penetrating chainmail and thrusting through gaps in armor." Serif added.

"And then there's the new head for your hammer." Rachel pointed out. "The newdragon steel head.."

"I should be able to create a more powerful lightning strike with a dragon steel head." He mused. "The limited space in my current elven steel head really limits the amount of power I can pack into a bolt."

He could feel the grin on his face widening as he contemplated the possibilities that his new weapons would bring.

* * *

Kendra was leaning against the railing of the Argo next to where her own airship was docked. She was watching everyone gush over Ethan's new weapons and couldn't decide if she was feeling left out or included. She hadn't spoke up much, but everyone had listened when she did.

Plus, Serif?!

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She couldn't believe it, but she was feeling a bit nervous in the presence of such a legend. She couldn't believe that she'd met him, or that he was here on the Argo. She suddenly counted herself very lucky that he had never gotten involved when she had been hunting Ethan. She doubted very much that she'd still be breathing if he had.

"Copper for your thoughts." Rachel said as she approached the dragon huntress.

"I've never given a dragon weapons before." Kendra replied, which was technically true, though not really on her mind.

The redhead made a thoughtful sound and they stood there for a few minutes as Ethan practiced throwing his new javelin into the archery target.

"Copper for yourreal thoughts." Rachel finally said.

Kendra looked at the teen mage, trying to decide what to say. Finally, she decided on the truth. "Do you think that Ethan would be comfortable with me staying on the Argo for a few days?"

The redhead shrugged. "He fell asleep next to you on your airship, so I don't see why not. I think he'll be more interested in why you want to stay. Why do you?"

Kendra considered for a moment as she decided how to answer. She wanted to tell the truth, but really wasn't sure that was the best idea. Then again, she wasn't sure why it would be a bad idea either. She tapped her foot on the decking, realizing after a few moments that she never would've let such an obvious indication of her thoughts show a few months ago. Apparently, she'd come a long way -- or perhaps fallen a long way -- in terms of showing how she actually felt.

It was kind of nice.

"I um..." The dragon huntress hesitated. "Are you all for real? I mean, you all seem so nice and genuine, and I don't really... um, I don't have a lot of experience with that."

Rachel smiled. "I grew up in my father's court. Everything was hiding your emotions, smiling at enemies, and being aloof with the few people you liked. I don't need to do that here." She paused. "Okay, maybe a bit with Raklan; but not with Ethan or my fellow wives." She thought for a moment, then added. "And not with Anthiel or Selene either. There's a lot of good people on this ship. Frankly, I feel lucky to be here."

"Me too." Kendra said quietly.

The redhead glanced at her airship. "I can imagine; that airship looks like the perfect size for one person."

"And no more." The dragon huntress nodded.

She looked out at Ethan, who was listening to Serif --the Serif -- instruct him on the proper method of throwing a javelin.

"So I'm just guessing, but you didn't have many friends growing up, did you?" Rachel asked after several moments.

"Why, did Ethan say something?" She asked, worried Ethan might've revealed what he'd learned when they had bonded.

"No, I just recognize the signs." The redhead replied kindly. "You're not the only one to grow up that way."

Kendra nodded.

Oddly, she felt less alone now. The teen mage seemed to understand what she was going through; how lonely she was. She didn't know why, but just having someone else understand really made a difference. She felt... well she didn't exactly feel better, but shealmost did at the same time. It was like she was carrying a heavy load, and while Rachel understanding didn't make the load lighter, it made it easier to carry.

"Are you lonely now?" Kendra finally asked.

Rachel shook her head and smiled. "Not since I became friends with Alana, and especially since I married Ethan. I don't think I've felt lonely since then."

"Well, I don't want to marry him because, dragon; but I really did enjoy..." She trailed off, thinking about that evening meal that night she'd spent aboard the Argo, the talk afterwards, and especially sitting around the fireplace with everyone the following morning.

That had been wonderful.

Truly wonderful.

"You enjoyed..." Rachel gently prompted.

"Not feeling alone." Kendra gave her a small smile. "You really think he'd let me stay for a few days?"

"I can ask him for you if that'll help." The redhead offered.

"No, I should do it. I need a favor from him anyway."

"A favor?" Rachel looked intrigued.

"Yeah, I need to see if he's willing to kill me."

* * *

"I haven't seen this place in years." Sarah said as she rode into town on Lady Ekthros' carriage. "It all looks the same; almost nothing has changed." She smiled in amusement. "Except everything looks like it got a little smaller."

"Growing up will do that." Lady Ekthros replied, then stopped the carriage near a small group of men.

The men were hanging around the entrance to a pub, and were chatting good-naturedly. The pub was situated around the town square of Marsdale, which was the nearest town to the inn. It wasn't terribly large, but it was cozy and the people were nice, like most of the people in Ivernia.

"Well met good men." Lady Ekthros called to the fellows outside the pub. "Could you direct me to the nearest reputable tailor?"

"That would be Mesavil over yonder." One of the men pointed across the square. "He's getting up there in years, but he's good."

"Thank you good sir; you all have a round on me." The auburn haired woman replied, then flicked a silver coin at them.

"We will miss, and thank you kindly." The man said with a wide smile as he caught the coin, and they all tipped their hats politely at the women.

"That was a whole silver coin." Sarah said, hardly able to believe that the lady could afford to be that generous.

"It was." Lady Ekthros replied as she pulled the small carriage up to the tailor.

The lady stepped out of the carriage and Sarah followed her as she walked into the shop. The girl was rather glad that no one seemed to have recognized her yet. She hadn't gone into town in many years and had grown up a bit since the last time she was here. Plus no one from the town ever came to the inn. However, she hadn't changedthat much, so she thought someone might recognize her eventually.

"Hello?" Lady Ekthros called as she entered the tailor's shop with Sarah in tow.

"Just a minute." An elderly voice called from the back of the store. About a minute later, old man Mesavil shuffled out to the front. "What can I do for you lovely ladies?"

Sarah smiled at him; she'd always liked old Mesavil the few times they'd met. He was a kind, elderly gentleman and he always had a grandfatherly air about him.

"I'd like a wedding dress for my friend here." Lady Ekthros said. "The finest you can make; spare no expense."

Sarah gaped at her.

She moved her mouth soundlessly for a moment before she found her voice. "That's too much."

"Nonsense my dear." The woman replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I have a stipend and nothing to spend it on; indulge me just this once."

"But... but how will I ever repay you?"

Lady Ekthros got an amused expression on her face. "My dear girl, haven't you heard of a 'gift'? Traditionally, one doesn't repay a gift, or even offer to repay it. That would be rude, and you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?"

She shook her head.

"Then Mr. Mesavil, get started if you please." The auburn-haired woman instructed.

He drew a cloth measuring tape from a pocket. "Arms out miss."