All The Skills

As Brixaby flew, he cast an eye up to the sky. The four portal dragons were still holding open their side of the portals. Through it, dragons came and went. Many dropped off supplies harvested from doomed human dwellings at one section of the crater. That area was filling up fast.

Brixaby was impressed. The normal instinct was to go for shards, but if a dragon was unfortunate enough to be hatched with weak cards, looting was a fine second choice.

He knew Arthur well and had felt how tense he had been earlier when they had witnessed the farms being rated. But those had been located very close to the eruption point. Likely, they had already been swallowed by the enlarging cone.

Besides, it was much better for those people to live in a hive in his opinion.

Many farm animals were among the supplies. Brixaby focused on them. He had spent a lot of energy in the form of mana today and could use a snack.

Buzzing sharply down, he scooped up a chicken, breaking its neck before it had time to cluck in surprise. He ate it, feathers and all. Normally, he didn’t bother with uncooked food, but the hot blood was quite satisfying.

One of the humans organizing the supplies shouted at him and waved his fist. Brixaby ignored the man and buzzed back into the air.

Time to visit the hive tower and discover the mystery behind his cards.

Blood Moon hive was... oddly shaped with that air of artificiality that he found surrounded most human objects. His advanced blacksmithing told him this was natural, yet he could not imagine how a scourgling eruption could create such a thing.

Humans, being land-based animals, walked in at the bottom levels. Brixaby, with his superior wings, did not have a need.

It was obvious from the comings and goings of dragons returning from the eruption that the main entry point was on the seventh level. It had satisfyingly wide ledges. The moment Brixaby landed, he was greeted by an officious looking Uncommon green.

“Purple! I hope you have a good excuse for returning early—“ Her eyes went wide as she came close enough to sense his rank. Snapping her jaws shut, she seemed to gulp down her next words. “Oh! Excuse me, sir! I did not recognize you.”

Immediately, the ledge around him went quiet. The Commons and Uncommons made no bones about edging away.

Brixaby took a good look around and no one met his eyes.

He normally found respect satisfying to the extreme. But this disrespect was... not nearly as fun.

He let the silence extend on, as that was part of his persona here. It made the other dragons nervous, as they did not know if he was displeased with them or not. Hmm. This was even better than outright threatening them.

As he let the silence grow uncomfortable, he once again accessed his Call of The Heart and eagerly looked at his internal map.

And suddenly, he did not have to feign his displeasure. Now it showed only one card, which sat high up on the twenty-fifth level.

Arthur had said they were on the lower levels, did he not?

With an internal growl, Brixaby tore his attention away from the map and addressed the green. “No, you would not recognize me. I have recently been assigned to this hive. My rider and some hangers-on—“ He did not use the word ‘retinue’ because that was typically a Legendary concept, “require rooms close together. One with excellent ledges for sunning,” he added.

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He had not dared assign this task to Arthur because he had the distressing habit of thinking like a human and choosing smaller living locations. Proper dragons needed space.

“Oh... I don’t usually, uh, I mean, the riders usually decide...” The green swiveled her head back and forth, looking for help from the other dragons. This close, Brixaby saw moss growing between her scales. Perhaps her card power?

“Tell me where there is a block of empty rooms available,” Brixaby snapped.

“I... the south side rooms on the twentieth level are usually free!” she squeaked. “The humans don’t like them because they are hot, but they are good for sunning, sir.” Her yellow eyes were panicked, and she curled her tail in on itself with extreme discomfort.

Brixaby felt just a twinge of guilt, so he gave her a slight boon by nodding his head. “You have pleased me.”

With that, he buzzed into the air. Below, he saw the dragons immediately gather and gossip.

Brixaby buzzed straight upward to the twentieth level, which was about halfway up. Indeed, there were wide ledges on the south side. As he landed on one, the sun felt satisfyingly warm on his scales.

He poked his head into some rooms until he found four clustered together, which had thick layers of dust on the furniture. One room was completely empty. Perhaps that would be suitable for the younger dragons. They had the bad habit of gnawing on furniture.

Sitting down on the best of the ledges, Brixaby once again accessed his Call of The Heart.

His eye twitched.

The card now showed up as on the seventh floor.

It was indeed jumping around, and it seemed the closer Brixaby got to it, the further away it became.

With a burst of inspiration, he canceled the query and then immediately called up the map again. Once again, only one card showed up: this time at the very top, the forty-second floor.

Brixaby’s eyes narrowed. This was indeed his card. He felt it resonate with the other two in his set, The Call of The Heart and the Call of the Voice. But even under dragon power, it could not move that fast... and it did not have the feeling of a card existing within someone’s heart deck.

How could a card move under its own power? Was it an aspect of the card itself?

There was a buzzing of wings above. Brixaby looked up to see Candy Floss just above him.

Brightening at his attention, she chirped, “Mr. Rare! Mr. Rare!”

“Call me Brix—Bisby,” he said, catching himself just in time. He must remember to use his fake name.

“Alright, BrixBisby—“

“Just Bisby.”

“Okay Bisby,” she said easily. “I got five more shards.”

It was not nearly as good as discovering the next card in his set, but Brixaby perked up anyway. “Excellent. So far, you are my most valuable Common follower.” He held out his claw, and she dropped five shards into them. Only Commons, but it was a good start.

He was about to store them in his Personal Space but paused for a moment. “Perhaps,” he said painfully, feeling yet another twinge of guilt and blaming it on Arthur’s terrible influence. “Perhaps you need these yourself.”

“We turn our Blood Price in for food,” she said.

Was Blood Price what Arthur meant when he said ‘currency’?

“I was able to grab live chickens from what was evacuated,” Brixaby told her.

“Well, you’re a Rare. No one would stop you. Everyone would stop me because I’m Common and don’t have a rider.” Her head sagged. “When do you think I’m going to get a rider?”

“Mine is working that out right now. Why don’t you have a rider?” he asked. “You seem less useless than most Commons.”

“Thank you!” But then she seemed to deflate again. “Soon as we hatch, we’re put into different groups. No one wants a dragon from the bad groups. I’m a Purple, but I can’t fly as fast as normal Purples. My card is for lifting things. Are you hungry?” she asked suddenly. “I’m hungry.”

“Yes,” he said, and his stomach growled in agreement.

“How about a horse? The portal’s still open, and there was a horse ranch near the eruption. Lots and lots of horses were killed!” she said enthusiastically.

Horse meat sounded delicious, but he already sated his need for raw food.

“I shall get my rider, and he will cook the horse.” Brixaby paused, thinking. “Perhaps tell the other Purples to bring food, too. Then I shall show you how the higher ranks eat!”

Candy Floss happily agreed and buzzed away to do his bidding.

Brixaby watched her go for a moment. There were plenty of unsettling things about this hive, but he appreciated how everyone was happy to follow his orders.

Yes. He could rather get to like this hive.

Taking off into the air, he went on search for a well-cooked meal, and the person who would provide it for him.

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