Chapter 3

Into the Dragonlands

Part 1

Finally reaching Iroha and stepping off the long, spinal bridge, Knight had officially made it to his first town in this new world. However, it wasn’t what you’d normally think of when you heard the words ‘starting town’. Then again, a prison isn’t what you’d normally think of as a ‘starting area’.

The soot-covered smooth stone path diverted into three. They all seemed to cut into what seemed to be a curved escarpment, separating the town from the rest of the land.

The path straight ahead housed refined wooden buildings on each side. What caught the eye the most was the two grand stairs on each side of the path. The black stairs climbed the rust-tinged escarpment, allowing one to enter the black mansion that stood on top.

The right path was dotted with a few stone huts. Each leading to wooden planks overhanging off the sharp cliff, about twenty metres above the crimson sea. This caused Knight to wonder about the strange coastline. It was as if part of the land was ripped off, causing the irregular coastline.

“What’s up with the coastline?” he asked, looking to Iroha at his right.

“Huh?” Iroha cocking her head but didn’t move her gaze from the black mansion, “I gueeeess you could say war damage?”

“…Right,” Knight said, unsatisfied with the answer, “So, I was thinking the girl and me could do with a wash. Know any places?”

“Hmm, sure, senpai,” Iroha giggled as Knight went red, “althooough, I have to make a stop somewhere first.” She said, finally turning her gaze from the dark mansion and starting down the left path.

However, before Knight could follow, he felt a tug on his only arm. Feeling the girl wrap her hands around his arm and stuff her face in his hoodie, he turned to her and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The girl slowly pointed her frail arm in the direction of the left path.

The left side of the town was filled with all sorts of shabby buildings, seemingly built with odd-sized planks and scrap metal. It was the complete opposite of the refined craftsmanship of the buildings along the middle path.

There was no reason for the mess of buildings to reopen her wounds. The cause of that laid on the coastline.

“Woah,” Knight exclaimed in awe.

A large winged-beast stood on what looked like a landing area. Its scaly hide was as dark as night and covered everywhere but the blood-tinged feathers covering its beak-like face. A glimpse of its great fangs could be seen as it ripped apart a chunk of meat tossed by a scaly humanoid.

Just as Knight was beginning to focus, another beast came crashing onto the stone platform on the edge of the coast, throwing its rider off before a handful of scaly humanoids with chains attempted to detain it.

“Hey, are you coming or not?” an annoyed Iroha shouted, finally realising she hadn’t been followed.

“Oh…sorry,” Knight said, watching the vexed beast struggle to be detained.

Noticing his awe Iroha smiled, tugging on his hoodie, “Aw, Wyvern carriers. You can see them more later, just come with me first.”

Finally realising they had stuff to do, Knight spoke to the girl, “Come on, only some cool looking beasts that seem to be under…” he trailed off as the wyvern’s arrow-shaped tail sent its detainers flying, “control…”

Despite this, the girl only tightened her grip on him and told him, “It…isn't that.”

“Huh?” Knight let out, turning back to the barely tamed beasts, “oh…”

Apart from the scaly humanoids wearing nothing but rags, there was a handful of what appeared to be humans, chained to the calm wyvern’s ankles. The moss-green humanoid appeared to be feeding the wyvern to allow for easy removal of the chains locked around its ankles.

Before the vexed beast ended up killing its detainers, a figure draped in a dull cloak appeared. With a wave of the figure’s hand, the restless beast collapsed, allowing the humanoid figures to cuff its ankles with bulky metal with a train of small furry beasts. Well, small in comparison to the wyvern.

The cloaked figure then walked over to the calm wyvern, waving a hand at its scaly handler, who after getting what appeared to be the beast’s rider, led the chained humans towards the cloaked figure.

With another wave of the figure’s arm, the sleeping beast awoke. This time the wyvern was calm, allowing its rider to climb back on the leather saddle.

Knight and the two girls felt gusts of wind as the wyvern flapped its red wings. The wyvern rose and rose until everyone attached to its leg was in the air, before flying towards the deep ocean.

“I’m so sorry,” Knight apologised, stroking the child’s greasy hair, “I’m so sorry for saying that there were only some cool beasts.”

The girl didn’t release his arm, instead, she clung to it tighter.

“Come on, I’m sorry. I kinda have one arm you know. Can’t use it if you grasp it like that.”

“…okay, m-master,” the girl sniffled, only loosening her grip.

“Senpai, that’s not how you should treat distressed girls, okay?” Iroha interjected.

“Wha?” Knight let out, “What did I do?”

“Come on, you can hold my hand if you want.” Iroha said to the girl, ignoring Knight, “he isn’t good at this sort of thing.”

However, despite Iroha’s generous offer, the innocent-looking girl shook her head.

“M-master is good!” she cried, earnestly protecting her saviour, “…he saved me from the prison!”

“I didn’t mean that,” Iroha replied with a soft smile.

“W-Well… When we finally left the prison, he stopped my tears and even brought me joy! Master IS good at these things!” the girl proudly protected the person who answered her need to be saved.

“…Mmm, I did hear…” Iroha muttered, her words escaping the others’ ears, “Well if everything’s fine then let’s go, senpai."

Knight couldn’t suppress the grin that appeared on his face as he followed Iroha, stroking the girl’s hair and said, “Thanks for that.”

“…” the girl snuggled into his hoodie, hiding her red face from view.

* * *

After zig-zagging through the wooden maze with many complaints from Knight (“why did we come to this shit hole and not the brothels—I mean inns?), Iroha finally came to a stop.

She began to knock on the front of a particularly shady shack, even when compared to the others the left side of town was filled with.

“Who is it?” a high-pitched voice questioned from within the windowless wooden box.

“One of your many, many clients...” Iroha mockingly replied.

A sudden large bang. Blew the pale roof open, followed by a mess of clanging, clattering, shattering and smashing; a lot of breaking.

This repeated whilst the high-pitched voice continually shouted, “One second, “and, “I don’t believe it, until a rather tall black box popped out of the roofless shack.

“One second, let me just- argh!” the voice cut off with a scream and more clattering, “never mind, I’ll just go through the front.”

A few seconds later a couple planks rotated inwards before-

“I’ve missed you soooo much! It’s been over a year!” A small animal pelted into Iroha, knocking her to the floor as he hugged her.

“Yes, yes, it’s good you see you to, Malemi,” Iroha laughed whilst pushing the animal off.

“Did you go on your journey then?” The vanilla-furred animal- Malemi – inquired.

“Yes, I did…hehe”

“What’s so funny? Don’t tell me you went and got rich.” Malemi said, rubbing his round paws together.

“Nooo, just…could you maybe go on all fours?”

“Huh? Don’t think I’d do something so absurd!” Malemi protested, “unless, you have some riches? Some Starseeds? Maybe some, Dracons?”

“Hmpf, always money with you,” Iroha pouted.

Before the two could continue their joyous reunion, Knight interjected, “Why is there a talking cat-rabbit, whatever it is, wearing a top hat? A top hat that’s even bigger than him. If it’s a him…"

“Huh?” Malemi cranked his neck with his paws, before a set of deadly claws popped out of them, “Did you insult my hat, punk?”

Unable to stop his laughter, Knight popped a question, “And…what if I…did?”

“You think it's funny, do you? I will freaking kill you!” Malemi squealed, his pink tail standing on edge.

“Yeah, I do-”

Suddenly, Malemi jumped at Knight. Luckily Knight got his hands up in time, catching Malemi who was meowing as he scratched at his hoodie

Knight couldn’t contain his laughter as tiny Malemi squealed in his grasp. However, despite the overwhelming difference in strength and size, Malemi wouldn’t let himself be mocked, slamming his tail into Knight’s groin.

“Got ya bitch” he screeched, “don’t take us Ka'vaan lightly!”

“Fuuuuuuck!” Knight howled in pain, “Iroha, get your pal off me!”

Iroha, who had stitched over in laughter at the squabble, said, “He is off you, idiot.”

With the pain-blocking out most of her words, Malemi poured a warm, white fluid over Knight’s head.

“You little shit…” Knight told Malemi with the pain now gone.

“What? Want to go for a round two?” Malemi asked with a devilish smile.

“…” Knight paused, staring at Malemi’s rock-hard tail, “What is that made of?”

“Pure muscle,” the cat-like monster replied.

“I-Iroha…” the little girl stared at Iroha, pleading for her to move them on. She’d protect Knight, but there’s still a long way till she can defend him from a complete stranger.

“Fine,” Iroha replied, forcing her laughter away, “Stop it Malemi, we came for a reason.”

“Ohhh, I see how it is,” the little guy replied with a hint of sadness, “you’re only seeing me cos you want something…”

“Yeah, it’s how it’s always been.” She replied, not even acknowledging his bad attempt at puppy eyes.

“Fine, though I’d like to talk about something myself” Malemi gave in, glancing towards Knight before entering his shack.

Iroha followed suit, gesturing the others to follow.

“What? No one’s gonna help me up?” Knight muttered.

“Here, m-master.” The little girl offered a hand.

Though despite his complaints he smiled before lifting himself up, “Thanks for offering.”

The cute child showed a slight smile before clinging to Knight’s arm who entered the shabby shack.

* * *

“You can come now,” Malemi told the trio, having finally clearing some space for them to stand.

Walking to the little guy's make-shift counter, Iroha got down to business, “So, I’d like some of those tablets.”

“…that’s vague,” Malemi replied as he began emptying crates, “you mean these?”

Iroha caught the tossed box, labelled with a mix of backward letters and symbols.

“Err, ‘If you’re struggling to digest or filter mana, here are your tablets’” she read, “Yeah, these are the ones. Right on the money, as usual, Malemi.”

“Hehehe, thanks.” He blushed.

“Hey, how’s Meimi?” Iroha idly asked whilst examining the black tablets.

“Uhh, fine. Why you asking?

“No particular reason, just saw your face-fur turn red…” she stated nonchalantly.

“Ah, I…uh…” Malemi stumbled over his words.

Ignoring Malemi’s blunders, Iroha called to Knight, “Catch, senpai.”

The box flew through the air, veering off course. But that didn’t matter to Knight as he leaped to his left, throwing an arm up to catch it…or not. The box instead flew past where Knight’s left arm should be, crashing right into the child’s head…

…Or not, as the little girl swiftly caught it before passing them to Knight, “H-here you go…”

“Uh, thanks,” he said as he took the box with his only arm, “gonna take a while to get used to no left arm. What are these for? I heard you mention digesting mana. If that’s what I think it is then I want in.”

“Ah, don’t be silly, you're having struggle filtering out the mana, aren’t you?” Iroha winked at Knight.

“Uh…sureeee,” He hesitatively went with her.

Iroha then replied not out loud, but in Knight’s very mind. “I can’t speak about you out loud, it’d be bad if people found out you were from Japan, a country in another world.”

“Oh, right…Well, why do I need these.” Knight replied out loud.

“Huh?” Malemi let out.

“Don’t be silly. So, you can breathe properly…you know this,” Iroha laughed off Malemi’s concerns before entering Knight’s mind, “Stoooopppppppp. Don’t talk. I’ll explain. He knows I can speak telepathically you know? I don’t want him knowing anything.”

Knight nodded his head in response, glancing in distaste at his enemy – Malemi.

“This boy…” Malemi spoke, stroking his furry chin, “he isn’t a demon, is he? These tablets are made for demons? The only reason a…human? The only reason a human would have them would be-”

“Woah there, don’t go jumping to conclusions. He is a demon. I uh, found him on my journey…” Iroha lied, brushing off any questions.

However, Malemi’s questions kept coming, “Really? Where? When?

“Okay, okay, okay. It’s complicated, okay? We have urgent business so I can’t spend time telling you.”

“…You never have time.”

“…. Look, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll tell you when we next meet.” Iroha pleaded for the little man to leave her alone.

“Oh? And when will that be? In 6 months? In RedFall?”

“Right, I’ll talk to you when you’ve calmed down. I’ll be telling Meimi how mean you’ve been to someone you haven’t seen in over a year.” Iroha stated before walking it and gesturing Knight and the girl to follow.

“Oh, taking the moral high-ground, are you? The Ka’vaan don’t turn our backs on people. We sort it out, there and then.”

Iroha ignored the little man and instead explained the situation to Knight who followed behind.

“So, think back to when you were suffocating in the forest. Think you’d just magically get your breath back? Well, I guess did.”

“Is it really okay to leave him like that? I think he wanted to have a nice chat with you, not just business.” Knight replied ignoring the question, “Oh, I don’t like the fella so I’m thankful but-”

“Just answer my question alright.” Iroha cut Knight’s concerns in half, she was clearly in a foul mood.

“Okay…I’m guessing you were that white light then?” He asked, figuring t was best not to ask why she didn’t help him when he was knocked out.

“Yeah, so I basically activated a make-shift filter in your body so the mana doesn’t fill your lungs. It was either that or make you digest them into curses but that wouldn’t work for you.”

“Activated? Curses? I don’t think humans have filters in-” Knight wondered what they all meant before being cut-off again by Iroha.

“That’s beside the point.”

“…”

“So, these tablets basically keep that filter turned on, without me. Cos right now, I’m still using my cursed mana to keep it working.”

‘Curses? You're telling me I got involved on the bad side of things to begin with?” Knight thought to himself, forgetting his headspace was shared by Iroha.

“I’m just going to ignore that,” Iroha said out loud, before stopping outside another shabby building.

A stone step led to a wooden door that was barely hanging off its hinges. A sign above showed a picture of a small horned fairy a top of what appeared to be Malemi’s shoulder.

“You can get a wash in here, we’ll get some clothes after,” Iroha said as she opened to mouldy door.