With his eyes fixed on the small glass screen, Gaius watched the video of Aldnath, who was descending from the skies and onto an unnamed city. The Dragon of Time had eight pairs of talons that were spaced equally out, with red dots on its grey skin that glowed at a regular beat. The camera panned out and did a sweep of the stunned audience, before returning back to Aldnath, who hadn’t moved a single muscle at all.

The camera bobbed forward slowly, along with a whole bunch of people, but before the cameraman could take more than a few steps, the dragon turned to look at the camera directly.

The playback ended there.

Nothing untoward probably happened, as far as Gaius could tell, or else Aldnath would not be a target of worship in Cybral. Inwardly praising the sheer guts of the cameraman, who dared to close in on the great god, the boy ejected the memory card currently in the camera and slid in a new one.

It was astounding to see just how similar Cybral’s technology was to Earth’s. This wasn’t the first time he had thought about that, and no matter how he cut it, Gaius had a feeling that there had been an otherworlder in Cybral before him, who had somehow brought a modern Earth culture with him.

Either that, or the people of Cybral had worked it out themselves. Gaius wasn’t sure which was the better explanation. Firing up yet another video, the boy reached out for some grapes, only to crease his brow when he realised that the plate beside him was empty.

He was about to get up, before he realised that La-Ti, who was sitting on the ground and staring at a picture earlier, was currently eyeing his empty plate, more than ready to bring it away like he always did. For a moment, Gaius wondered if he had taken in an apprentice, or if he had hired a little butler to spoil himself rotten.

Gaius sighed. Damnit, who turned La-Ti into a butler? I wanted an apprentice!

A montage of how the kid had brought tea and other edibles whenever Gaius made a signal along flashed through his mind at that moment, and Gaius’ face twisted up.

It was me who encouraged him indirectly! Whenever visitors came, I had him serve some refreshments…he must have gotten the idea that I wanted a servant, when it was just convenient for me to get his help when customers came! Gaius rubbed his right temple, before getting up with the plate in his hand. Ignoring the burning gaze his apprentice was sending him, Gaius made his way to a fridge that had been brought all the way into the pavilion for his sole use, and opened it.

After fishing out another bunch of thankfully seedless grapes, he returned to his original spot and continued to fiddle with the camera. He was about to fire up another video when his little apprentice waddled over with sad eyes.

“Something wrong?” Gaius asked.

The little kid trembled, but he didn’t make a peep. Instead, he reached out for the plate of grapes to take one of them. His master sighed, and then pulled a chair over to him.

“Upsy-daisy.” Gaius brought La-Ti up onto the chair. “You know, you shouldn’t be this ready to serve people. You’re a craftsman too. You should have some confidence in yourself.”

La-Ti looked at the grape in his hand and offered it to Gaius. “Do you want?”

“I’m not getting through to you, am I? You’re my apprentice, little dolt. Not my servant, nor my butler. I took you in to teach you things, not to get someone to bring grapes or drinks or run errands for me,” said Gaius. “I suppose I might have given you the wrong impression whenever I got you to help in serving a customer, though.”

“Isn’t that what an apprentice does?”

“No, not really.” Gaius rubbed his nose. “I mean, I guess an apprentice does help his or her master whenever help is needed, but this case, it’s not a ‘need’. It’s just convenience. Got it?”

The little kid scrunched up his face, working through his words, and then nodded. Laughing at that sight, Gaius took a few grapes and stuffed them into his hands, before turning back to the camera. Playing the next video, he nibbled at a grape as Aldnath curled up on a set of marble ground in a manner that reminded him of a snake.

“That’s the Dragon of Time, Aldnath,” Gaius spoke out loud, for the benefit of the child who was craning his short neck over. “Hard to draw, if you ask me. It requires quite some effort to give those scales the shine of life and movement, and although Aldnath in this video isn’t moving, you somewhat get the sense that he is in constant motion.”

“Make the shine move?”

“Make it move?” Gaius asked.

“Erm. Uh. Make the shine different for every scale?”

It was Gaius’ turn to scrunch his face as he worked through the logic of his apprentice’s words, and then he nodded slowly. “Let’s give it a try, then.”

Putting aside the video camera, Gaius walked over to the nearly-completed statue. Other than the head, which was still as incomplete as ever, the body was almost done. For once, however, Gaius didn’t need a carving knife to finish that part.

“What do you think?” Gaius asked.

La-Ti pointed at the scales and began to explain his idea. It didn’t take long for him to finish his words, by which time Gaius had gotten the tools for making wood shine ready. It was a tad different from polishing; polishing wood got rid of the coarseness and the graininess that was omnipresent in almost every wood carving. No, what La-Ti meant was creating a shine that was specific to the angle and placement of every scale, so that viewing the sculpture from any angle would still make it look as if it was in a motion of sorts.

The only problem was that he would have to spend a lot of time on it.

“Looks like we’ll only be able to finish it tomorrow, then.” Gaius glanced at the head of the sculpture, which was still incomplete, before sighing. “C’mon, let’s draw the plans out.”