Path of Dragons

Elijah missed his own bed.

And the tree house. The grove, too. Even Nerthus. When he’d first washed ashore on that island, he’d have never expected to think of it as home, and yet, from the moment he’d departed, he had begun to miss all the things that had grown so familiar. Certainly, he didn’t miss the monster attacks or the starvation that had plagued his first few weeks, but his grove had come a long way since then. It was easily as comfortable as his apartment back in Hawaii.

As he lay in the hotel’s thin-mattressed bed, he cast the whole of his Mind back to his Domain. Thanks to his Locus, he always knew what was going on back on the island, but he usually kept that information sequestered in its own facet of his Mind. But every now and again, he liked to turn his full attention to the goings on back home.

When he did, he was gratified to sense that it was much the same as always. His Domain had continued to grow, and it had even encompassed the tower. However, the rate of growth had begun to slow, and he suspected that it would peter out within a hundred yards of the island’s shores. Even that was an incredible amount of territory, though, and what’s more, he could sense the tower’s excess Ethera draining into the grove itself. That was just as Nerthus had predicted, and he expected that it would keep the tower from overflowing in a surge of Voxx.

“That’s a relief and a half,” he said to himself as he stared up at the ceiling, his hands behind his head. For a long time, he just enjoyed the safety and security of civilization while keeping his Mind focused on his Locus. It was oddly comforting, knowing everything that was happening back home.

If Elijah was honest, he’d half expected to have already been called home for one reason or another. But the people of Ironshore had remained on their side of the strait, seemingly content to live separately. A good thing, too, because as much as he craved the comforts of home, he still had a goal ahead of him. Finding his sister remained at the top of his list. Fortunately, Carmen’s name was still on the power rankings, and he took some solace in the implication that his sister, as well as Miguel, was still out there and safe.

After all, there was no way that Carmen would let anything happen to Alyssa. Not so long as she was alive, which she clearly was because she’d actually gained a couple of levels in the past few weeks. That was enough to put at least some of his anxiety to rest.

With that thought, Elijah pushed himself out of bed and looked around the room. The night before, he’d barely noticed his surroundings, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that the room was extremely clean, if a little sparse. As he’d noted before going to sleep, there was no bathroom attached to the room, so he quickly went down the hall to take advantage of the communal toilet. Fortunately, he was an early riser, and so, he didn’t have to wait his turn.

Once he was finished, he went back to his room and took another birdbath with the provided pitcher of water, then headed downstairs. As was the case with the last hotel where he’d stayed, the bottom floor functioned as a restaurant, but to his disdain, the surly innkeeper wasn’t cooking to order. Instead, a few minutes after he sat down, she stopped in to serve him some flatbread that had been topped with tomatoes and drizzled in olive oil.

“What is this?” he asked, trying his best not to sound disappointed. He wanted bacon and eggs, or at least something a little heartier than a bit of bread.

“Ladenia,” the woman answered. “Good. Eat.”

Without further explanation, she left him to his meal.

“At least there’s coffee,” he said, reaching out to grab the cup she’d left behind. When he took a sip of the hot beverage, he was taken back to the world before everything had changed. It had been so long since he’d enjoyed a real cup of coffee that he’d almost forgotten how much he loved the bitter brew. Even without sugar, it was amazing, and he almost forgot about the ladenia. But then his stomach started rumbling, and he gave it a shot.

“Oh, my god,” he muttered around his first bite. First of all, there was a lot more going on than simple bread and tomatoes. There were onions and herbs on the fluffy flatbread, too. And of course, the olive oil set it all off. It was divine, and Elijah quickly forgot about his previous objections as he tore through the entire meal in what felt like seconds. As he swallowed the last bite, he signaled the innkeeper and asked for seconds.

Strangely, his obvious enjoyment of the food cut through her surly demeanor, and she actually favored him with a smile. “I have something else for you. Wait.”

Before she left, she refilled his coffee cup and patted him on the head like he was a child. But given her advanced age, she was probably old enough to have been his grandmother, so he didn’t take offense. Especially if she kept bringing him delicious food and coffee – if she did that, he would take whatever she wanted to dish out.

Soon after, she returned and set a plate in front of him. He looked at the round, pancake-like dish in front of him and asked, “What is this?”

It certainly didn’t smell like a pancake, and it had nuts sprinkled on top. There was also honey drizzled across the whole thing.

“It’s called sfakianopita,” she said, beaming. She waved her hand, adding, “Eat. It’s good.”

By that point, Elijah trusted the older woman’s judgement, so he dug in. And predictably, it was amazing. It was soft and crispy and flaky, all at once. And the cheese and honey and nuts all played perfectly together.

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“I think you’re my new favorite person in the world,” he said, grinning at the woman as he continued to chew. Meanwhile, he was trying to think of a way to coax the woman back to his island. He was top ten on the power ladder, wasn’t he? That meant he was famous and powerful. Surely, he deserved a personal cook.

For her part, the woman just smiled knowingly. There was no trace of the curmudgeonly innkeeper he’d met the night before. Instead, she’d been replaced by a kindly, old grandmother. Elijah knew which one he preferred.

Regrettably, by the time he finished the small pancake-like pie, he was absolutely stuffed. Still, before he left on the day’s mission – he still hadn’t forgotten about the supposed maneater stalking the countryside – the innkeeper thrust a basket into his hands, telling him, “Egg muffins. For later.”

Elijah wasn’t going to turn her down, so he took the basket with gratitude and handed her a couple more cooper ethereum. Of course, she tried to refuse, but he insisted, closing her fist around the coins and saying, “That was the best breakfast I’ve had in years. Thank you.”

And he meant it, too. Of course, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d eaten anything but leftover fish stew, crab, or a few berries, so that probably wasn’t the compliment it seemed. Still, he was as satisfied with the meal as he’d ever been.

After that, Elijah grabbed his staff from where he’d leaned it against the table and set off. As he started through the city, he once again noticed the prevalence of older women sitting on balconies and presumably gossiping about everything they saw. He gave one group a wave and a smile, which set them off into excited whispers. His contented grin widened at that, and he kept on going until he reached the gate.

When he passed the guards, they reminded him to be back inside before nightfall. Otherwise, he would risk the ire of the maneater. Elijah assured them that he would do just that, then strode off toward the tree line in the distance. As he did, he saw an olive grove on the other side of town. That explained where all the olive oil had come from, at least.

Once Elijah reached the concealment of the trees, he took a few minutes to find a secluded glen where he settled down on a fallen log. There, he started emptying his pack. After all, he now knew that, because he hadn’t bonded his items, he wasn’t getting their full use. So, he quickly got down to the business of doing just that, pricking his fingers and thrusting his ethera into his magical equipment.

It was a bit embarrassing that he hadn’t figured it out on his own, but it only took a moment for him to realize that it was nothing to be ashamed of. After all, it would’ve taken quite an intuitive leap – or some odd coincidence – for him to figure the process out.

“I mean, who goes and smears blood on their fancy new sash, right?” he asked the forest. “Nobody. That’s who.”

In any case, he quickly did just that, then shoved some ethera into the sash. A moment later, when he tied it around his waist, he felt the difference. It wasn’t a huge difference, but the Haste effect was still more potent than it had been before. Next, he bonded the Claws of Gluttony before slipping the awkward thing onto his hands. While he wasn’t going to run around punching things in his human form, he fought unarmed in his other shapes. So, he expected that the effect would work just fine. And Elijah certainly wouldn’t refuse a straight nine percent increase to his damage, let alone the Anticoagulant effect.

Finally, he bound his bracer. When he did, he became immediately aware of the Rage effect. With a thought, he could activate it. However, he intuitively knew that once he did, the ability would go on cooldown for six hours. So, he needed to be careful about using it.

With all that done, he embraced Shape of the Predator, and once he’d assumed his draconid form, he looked down at his claws. The right set – the ones that corresponded with the Claws of Gluttony – had taken on a distinctly metallic sheen. That seemed to confirm that, if he wanted to take advantage of the weapon, he’d need to attack with that claw – not ideal, but still better than nothing.

He suspected it would be more effective in his lamellar ape form, largely because he was more dependent on his claws – or hands, really – in that shape. Still, he wasn’t going to refuse any extra source of damage.

Now that his items had been bound, and he was fighting at peak strength, Elijah decided to finally get started on the task at hand. So, he took on the Guise of the Unseen and set off through the woods. During his conversation with Atticus, he’d discovered that the last recorded maneater attacks had been in the olive groves, so that was the direction Elijah headed. As he did, he kept an entire facet of his Quartz Mind dedicated to parsing the data he received from One with Nature. The effective radius still wasn’t more than a dozen feet or so, but he’d found the extrasensory perception to be invaluable nonetheless.

Yet, even with that on his side, he found nothing until he reached the groves. There, he encountered plenty of twitchy and anxious workers. However, there was no sign of the maneater. So, Elijah kept going, slowly making his way through the olive groves until he reached the edge. That was where the hero Atlas had gone hunting the monster, so Elijah had always figured that was where he would end up.

Soon enough, he’d left the olive groves behind, though even miles from the city, he still hadn’t found any evidence of the monster. In fact, other than birds and a few tree-dwelling creatures, there were no animals at all. The day wore on, and as his search continued, he encountered more of the same.

Until, at last, he smelled blood. One whiff, and he knew that it had originated with a human as well. He expected that he’d finally found Atlas’ trail, and judging by the spatter of blood, it seemed that the hero was injured.

So, Elijah followed the smell, pausing every now and again to make certain that he wasn’t walking into a trap. However, he didn’t sense anything amiss, so he continued to track the injured hero until, finally, he caught sight of him.

And he was nothing like what Elijah had expected.

When he’d heard the name Atlas, he’d envisioned a huge, strapping man with bulging muscles capable of bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. However, the person huddled against a boulder and sitting in a pool of his own blood looked little bigger than a child. Even to Elijah, who was below-average size, the boy looked slim to the point of malnutrition. He wore round spectacles and had a mop of curly, black hair that made him look like a member of a boy band.

He was clutching a long, thin stick, and his eyes flicked around as if he was expecting to be attacked at any moment. That was probably smart, because his bloody clothing and multitude of wounds suggested that he’d already gotten the worst of some enemy. And judging by how twitchy he was, whatever had mauled him was still out there.

For a moment, Elijah considered waiting to see if the enemy – probably the maneater – would show itself, but the idea of using a dying teenager as bait just didn’t sit right with him. So, he let Shape of the Predator fall away, and he said, “Aren’t you a little young to be out here all by yourself?”

“No! You idiot! Run away! It’s going to –”

Before Elijah could even cast Healing Rain or approach the young man, something slammed into his back, sending him pitching forward into the loamy forest turf.

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