The irregular who made the area his wandering home was not here, apparently having gone to deal with the selkies tormenting a nearby village. He had left us a note however, and in it detailed much of the sightings as he had witnessed it.

The dragon sightings had begun to occur around the same time the demon’s armies and the collective alliance had clashed. The first one had been close enough to be unusual, but still far enough away that the dragon itself remained indistinct. Subsequent ones had come closer, a few recently had even consisted of multiple dragons. It would not be long before they arrived at the mainland.

We camped a small way out of the outpost to wait for Numen and Rince. The outpost had no inn, though a tavern was present within its limits. Occasionally the others would go there, to warm themselves with drink and a fire. I took frequent walks, the cold and salty sea spray a vastly different experience from all I’ve known.

I spent the rest of my time practicing, drilling the various lessons I’d learned from Alida but never had time to master. One day, as Frejr was aiding me in practice, a shout rang out from the outpost. “Dragon!” He called, bellowing loud enough to catch the whole outpost’s attention.

Frejr and I snapped our heads to the shore, dropping the sticks and rods we’d been using for practice as we dashed towards it.

Two dragons were in the distance, swerving away back into the air, their tails disappearing into the clouds once more. We watched the sky, waiting to see if they’d return, but reluctantly relaxed. The dragons had thus far not done anything but dart out from and into the clouds. It was unnerving.

That night I stood by the sea on rocky shores, practicing the skills Frejr didn’t know about me. Truth be told it was hardly a useful combat skill, much of my time was spent trying to figure out how to weaponize my weapons coming out at odd places. It was a challenge, as I had to make unorthodox movements to get them close enough to all the shift points. The knife glinted under the moonlight as I practiced, the blade sometimes slashing, sometimes piercing, like silver fireflies streaking in the night.

I exhaled, this particular cove didn’t seem all that used at night, hidden as it was. Some of the locals fished here in the day, sometimes a few people came here for a tryst, but apparently no one came here to fish in the night. I had no idea why, perhaps there was a better spot, in my time observing I’d not seen anything strange at all.

As I returned I found another group by our camp, they, Frejr and Qent all sat around the campfire, talking amongst themselves. “Who are these people?” I asked. They jumped, turning to face me, various weapons clearing their scabbards or readied to strike. I sidestepped, pushing the weapons away from pointing in my face, the others too far to constitute a threat. “Frejr?”

“That, is Kael.” Frejr said, sipping at a mug of something warm. The others stared for a moment, reluctantly sheathing their weapons. “Take a seat, and next time try not to scare people.”

I smirked beneath the helm, when I was in school I used to scare people all the time just by walking up to them. My friends used to shout at me, before breaking into laughter. Funny how these memories came to me. “Sorry.” I said, going around them to sit down. “Who are they?”

“Cale.” One man spoke up. It took me a while to realize he’d been talking about himself. “I’m the appointed leader of the group.” As he said that one of the group’s face clouded over, seems they didn’t particularly agree. “I was part of the Republic military.” He explained.

“I’m Saindall.” A female orc introduced herself. “Wrath’s military. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

So it went, introductions from TaeVok, Esa, and one from a nation I’d never heard of. “So why are you all travelling together?” I asked. “Doesn’t the military need every warm body?” My eyes narrowed a little, but with my faceplate on no one noticed.

“The Alliance decided they wanted a task force to deal with things like this that could seriously hurt our ability to combat the demons.” Cale explained. “So that we can be sure they’ll be solved and not left to chance.” He gave us a small nod, there was no arrogance to the gesture, he was simply reciting what he’d been told. “We’re handpicked to have representatives from five nations.”

“Pretty sure there are more than just five nations involved in the war effort though.” I said, cupping my chin with my right hand.

“There are.” Cale conceded.

“It’s a small roster.” One of the others said, Ram I believe his name was. “So from the guys each nation sent they only chose the best. Turns out that’s us.” He shrugged, self deprecative.

“We’re not authorised to deal with bandits or the monsters that commonly appear.” A woman continued, Palim? Yes, that was it. “We’ve been told to focus on the dragons and only the dragons along with anything else major that might impact the war effort.

“So the rest are just considered ‘minor’ issues?” I asked, thoughtful. The others nodded. “I see… Good to know. So does that mean that we will be returning to deal with the goblins?” I turned to Frejr, who shook her head. “Understood. Hopefully…”

Frejr interrupted. “You and Azarint will stay here to aid them.” She gestured to Qent. “We will go back where we came, to help deal with the goblins. Qent will fill you in on all we know about dragons. It’s mostly conjecture and old lore, but every story has a kernel of truth, if you can thresh it out. If we somehow miss Numen and Rince, direct them back to Sel, we will meet them in the city.”

Qent told me about the dragons then, the stories in the past had mostly been about appeasing dragons, sacrifices and tragic heroes until at some point the dragons stopped showing up. The only known method for fighting dragons came from an apocryphal account wherein the hero took it out of the sky with a hail of arrows against the dragon’s wings, before an army descended on it with picks. There was also a lot of dodging involved, and if you believed the accounts the man was a whirlwind, impossible to catch with any breaths that the dragon used. Legends were always large shoes to fill.

As the night grew on short spurts of conversation would capture the group as a few desperately attempted to alleviate the awkward silence. By the time midnight rolled around they had given up along with the rest of us, and bade us farewell to return to their camp.

Qent and Frejr left in the morning, with barely a goodbye said to me and Azarint. The other group made rotating watches at the shore, while the rest would be at their camp, either practicing, sleeping or cooking. From what I observed they were sharp and skilled, if specialized. At one point I asked to join in for a bit, when a lull occurred with only a single person fighting their own shadow. Taryn was their name, and though surprised, they seemed eager to start.

A few minutes of practice confirmed my suspicions. I ducked under his swing, trying to move closer, but he shifted back, bringing the sword back down. If we had been facing off on pure skill, he’d have me beaten, as it stood I rotated between several approaches, keeping him flatfooted as I exploited any weakness I could find.

He managed to trip me, hooking his foot behind my ankle as I stepped back. I fell, but as he lunged forward I slapped the blade aside and pulled on his wrist, dragging him down onto my pretend dagger. I grinned beneath my helm, and he laughed as he stood up. “Well played.” He said, stretching out a hand to pull me to my feet. “I think you’d beat the others easy. Haven’t had a fight that close in a while.” He grinned, and I grabbed his hand, pulling myself up.

“Speak for yourself.” A voice piped up from the side. I turned to see Saindall, Ram along with Palim standing to the side. I hadn’t even noticed them appear, focused as I was with Taryn, not exactly a glowing endorsement of my awareness. Saindall continued. “Give me a turn with him huh?”

“Hey now, that ain’t fair.” Ram said. “Can hardly expect him to take you on at his best after a workout like that.” He smirked. “Or was that the plan?”

She scowled at him, then smiled playfully. “Maybe.” She winked at me. “What do you say? Up for an unfair fight with me?” I cocked my head, then nodded. Screw it, it’s good practice.

At the end of the day I lay on the grass, sighing as I stretched my muscles. “Damn, well fought.” Ram said, rolling his shoulder while he rubbed at the part I’d struck. [I suppose now we know you can run a gauntlet.] Page remarked. Against Saindall it had been a mutual kill, strikes both ending at each other’s throats. Ram’s fight had been almost as close, but eventually I’d fallen to him, having only made glancing strikes. The method we’d fought had hardly been suited for actual combat, but it was a fair enough approximation for a quick spar.

Azarint walked up behind us, his longbow slung against his back. “Impressive.” He said. “Especially when you are an archer as well.” He nodded to Ram. “If I recall Cale and Palim are also archers as well correct?”

“Yeah, Cale’s a frighteningly skilled generalist, but he was pretty much trained from the moment he could hold a weapon.” Ram noted with a grimace. “Sometimes you have to wonder what kind of world needs something like that.”

Taryn frowned. “I agree that his skill is impressive, but I don’t think he’s as accomplished as Palim or even Saindall in the art of command.” He shook his head and sighed. “But I suppose that’s neither here nor there, as it stands we have been instructed to follow his lead.”

I pulled myself upright, rubbing at my wrists before I hooked my weapons back onto my belt. I never removed the Aen, as Gaven had named it, from my person, it was too dangerous, anyone who found it and fiddled with it ran the risk of killing themselves and others around them.

“That’s reassuring.” Azarint said. “Cohesion tends to be more beneficial, he doesn’t strike me as incompetent or callous in his judgement.”

Ram sighed, but made no further comment. Me and Azarint left them to their own devices, heading back to the camp. “We aren’t going to stop the dragons here are we?” I asked.

He made a painful grimace. “No, no we aren’t.” He looked me in the eye. “From what the Natural Society has managed to piece together, dragons are massive creatures that may only be dispatched by armies. Our weapons and understanding of magic have grown, but not nearly enough to obviate the number requirement against creatures of such strength. We’ll watch, then make certain that we can make a detailed report as we return.”

I made my way back, letting out a breath as I leant against a nearby rock. At least I know I don’t suck. I thought to myself, snorting. I raised my hand up, pulling off the glove. How different it looked now… I had no calluses expected of a swordsman, nor the scars, just musculature. Yet looking at it as it was I could only call it a sword hand.

Just as I thought this, a gust of wind suddenly pressed down on me. I nearly fell, the wind blowing me off balance and shifting me away from the rock. I immediately turned to the source, and saw a quartet of dragons descend. Oh bloody hell. I thought, stumbling over towards the outpost.