Ukila Local Time: Early Morning. (January 13, 1512)

Dragons!

While Uthica had told me she had a way to draw dragons in, I wasn’t prepared for the sight that greets me when I emerge in the morning. There are over a dozen wild dragons circling our mountain. Crimson, emerald and sapphire scales all glint in the sun overhead. There are even a pair of smaller dragons playing in the pool outside our super-secret hideout, drawn by Uthica’s magical lure.

By the time I’ve taken in the breathtaking sight, Uthica is already approaching the larger of the pair, a deep burgundy dragon with pink highlights. He seems to be eyeing Uthica with suspicion, but not hostility.

The other dragon is black as… well, black as most of Josh’s public wardrobe before we came to Akilo. He’s far less concerned with our presence, his sleek head darting in and out of the mountain pool. I don’t know what he’s doing, cause I know there weren’t any fish in that pool yesterday. Maybe he’s trying to sharpen his scales even more. He does seem to have a lot of sharp lines around his snout.

Despite being smaller than the other dragons — who are settling in the valley below us even now — this pair are still large enough to ride. If Uthica can convince them to serve us. Which she assured me last night, shouldn’t be too hard.

These aren’t the first dragons she’s wrangled.

While I may be in awe, Smoulder’s not impressed with either of our prospective mounts.

The way they’re both playing in the pool probably doesn’t help. Nor does the fact that neither seem to have any affinity for fire. The one Uthica’s approaching has a strong stone affinity according to my Facet scan, his name roughly translating to Jagged Redstone.

And the other…

“Creature analyzed: Dragon. Gene seed D. Substandard physical reinforcement. Advanced magical pathways. Twilight-affinity.”

“Name: (The Darkest Period of Night, when Light Flees the Shadow)”

My new System provides me with a much more detailed breakdown, including a general plan for food and mana supplements for optimum growth. I’m starting to appreciate the less nuanced overview the old System had. I’ll need to figure out if I can program the new System to do both, and to store the advanced scan while showing me the simple one.

In fact…

It only takes me a minute to figure out how to set it up. Nice that some parts of my new System are intact.

And if Temporal Library works the way it says it does, once I can access it, I might be able to restore the rest.

My attention returns to where Smoulder is snorting at the much larger black dragon, who is currently ignoring her and darting its head into the pool.

Further upstream, Uthica seems to have come to an understanding with the burgandy-stone dragon, trading some of her stored Bittelers to it as it makes a deep rumbling noise.

Deciding to intervene before Smoulder gets carried away, I approach the black dragon. Slowly. It’s only as I get within a couple steps of Smoulder that it acknowledges me, pausing its darting motions. His eyes track my movement as I get closer, and it’s only as I reach down to pick up Smoulder I realize what he’s really watching.

My elemental hand.

Even as I’m shifting Smoulder to my other arm, I extend the currently steel and titanium limb towards him. He blinks, very slowly.

Then his head darts forward and he… takes a bite out of my hand.

Or at least, he tries to.

He’s grinding his teeth, but unable to actually pull my hand free. Or even budge me by much. He’s not very strong, despite his size. That doesn’t stop him from trying. Smoulder just snorts at him again, though I feel a faint annoyance through our bond since I’m not giving her headscritches.

Considering Smoulder and my bond, I decide to extend a tether towards dark and drooling. I can feel him come into shape at the edge of my soul-scape. And as soon as it forms, the connection feels different.

Midnight, and I know that’s what he thinks of himself as now, stops chewing on my hand, closing his eyes. Then I see the bond thicken. Not nearly as strong as my bond to Smoulder. But it’s almost as thick as my bond with Uthica, which I’ve reinforced.

Once the new bond has stabilized, he doesn’t even wait, chomping down on my hand again. And successfully biting a finger off.

Much like Smoulder, I can feel satisfaction emanating through the bond. And I can feel Smoulder’s displeasure radiating right back.

Which Midnight picks up on, turning to look at Smoulder, tilting his head to the side. They stare at each for several seconds before I feel my System prompting me.

“(The Darkest Period of Night, when Light Flees the Shadow) is attempting to form a partnership bond. Allow bond to be formed? Existing partnership bond will be used as a template.”

“Uh, sorry bud, but I hardly know you,” I say instead of allowing him to strengthen our bond. And I send a feeling of… patience and curiosity across the bond, trying to impress the idea of spending some time together first.

Also, a general impression of riding on his back through the sky. Cause… dragon.

Smoulder decides to help by sharing an image of herself atop his head. The feelings she imbues are ones of arrogance and majesty.

I do my best not to give in to the pure adorableness.

I fail, but Smoulder accepts her tribute of headscritches as fair atonement. Midnight doesn’t seem to understand the meaning, and snorts before attempting to nibble my hand again.

Which I realize, is because it’s made of super tasty mana. Cause, of course a Twilight dragon would find dense mana tasty.

Our interaction is interrupted as a mighty roar comes from just up the pool.

It’s not the dragon. Well, not just the dragon. Uthica is standing on the dragon’s back, and they both have their heads thrown back and are howling at the sky.

Midnight just huffs, but the dragons in the valley below respond with roars of their own.

So much for a stealthy hideout.

“What was that?” I ask Uthica, walking up to her as she and her dragon stop roaring.

“It was my acceptance into his pack. Sign of our agreement to work as one,” Uthica explains, patting his horn before sliding down his side to stand beside me. “And now his pack won’t attack us when we leave.”

“That… was a thing?” I ask, glancing down at the dragons below. I don’t think any would be a threat, but I wouldn’t have wanted to accidentally hurt them during our escape either. They’re technically not monsters, being natives of… I’m not sure if they’re from Akilo or Ukila, considering they’re on both planets. But I’m sure they’re from one of them, and not just a mana-beast.

“It was. Now, I shall guide you on how to…” Uthica trails off as her eyes move over to where Midnight and Smoulder are taking turns blasting a rock between them using puffs of fire.

Turns out that a Twilight dragon is more of an all element dragon. Midnight’s just really weak. At pretty much everything.

For the moment.

“You’ve already reached an agreement with him,” Uthica states, nodding her head. She doesn’t seem surprised, as if she expected me to be an expert dragon rider negotiator person. “Will you join your voice to his?”

“You… want me to roar? With a dragon?” I ask, just to make sure of what she’s asking.

“Ye-“

I don’t wait for her full response, already teleporting to Midnight’s back. Then I motion for Smoulder to join me, while sending the gist of what we’re supposed to do to Midnight.

He huffs, shaking his head then giving Redstone some side eye. Through the bond I can’t help but notice that he’s feeling nervous.

So… I may show him how to use Twilight to enhance his voice. Just a little.

As the three of us raise our voices to the sky, the mountain beneath us shakes. The dragons in the valley answer our call with one of their own, nearly as mighty. By the time we’re done, I realize I’ve lost over a hundred Health from the backlash.

Worth.

Now that we’re officially bonded, instead of waiting around for trouble, I get Uthica to move closer. Then with my improved teleport spell, I send us all to a ridge on the horizon.

My teleport has improved so much that not a single passenger — whether K’tharn, dragon or doom-bunny — is left sick. The trick seems to be in giving them time on each end for reality to ‘fade’. It’s a technique that warps their perceptions, and makes the teleport take an extra couple seconds, but it’s worth it.

Of course, despite us sending a warning over the bond, Midnight and Redstone are both shocked by the sudden displacement. It takes the rest of Uthica’s Bitteler corpses to satisfy Redstone, and it costs me two whole fingers to do the same with Midnight. Which… not much of a real cost. Still a little annoying since they’re only tasty if Midnight eats them from the source.

And I can feel the separation of the bits of mana even if it doesn’t hurt.

After, we spend an hour getting used to flying around as partners. Which includes maneuvers where I jump off Midnight’s back to free fall for hundreds of meters before lining up with him again.

Rufka would love it.

I almost let myself smack into the ground after having that thought, only catching myself because of a swift Pause. Staring at the ground less than a meter in front of my face, I try to take in a breath only to remember I don’t get to do that in Pause.

Instead, I teleport myself back into the sky, where the rush of air quickly refreshes me. After adjusting my velocity, I teleport over to Midnight who’s circling the spot I fell a second earlier. Smoulder spots me first, hopping into my arms even as I appear atop Midnight’s back, sensing my disquiet.

When I kneel down, I lay my hand on Midnight’s back, and he finally notices me. He sends an image of satisfaction, pleased his tasty snack-maker hasn’t been damaged.

Truly, I am the most appreciated dragon-rider ever.

Feeling that I’m as in tune with Midnight as I’m going to be without considerably more practice, I urge him to land next to Uthica. Which results in him stumbling during the landing, unaccustomed to the extra weight.

Which leads to ten minutes of practicing his landings. Since I can just teleport him into the air, landings really are all he has to practice. It also earns me extra bonus cool-rider points, since he appreciates not having to do the hardest part of flying himself.

Once Midnight’s gotten used to landing with me on his back, I hop down beside Uthica as he moves over to where Redstone is basking in the sun. Midnight pauses, looking at Redstone for a second. Then his gaze meets Smoulder’s and they move over to another rock. With both dragons taking a rest after the intense workout, Uthica joins me, her hand landing on my shoulder. “You’re… not a natural dragon-rider.”

“I thought I was doing pretty good,” I reply, feeling a little hurt.

“You… put yourself in danger before your dragon. And are far too willing to throw yourself off his back. These are…” Uthica shakes her head. “At least you’re not hurting him.”

I raise my hand, one metal finger raised. Then I shrug. She’s not totally wrong. “Guess I’m more of a dragon-buddy.”

“I… yes, I suppose so,” Uthica replies, a small smile tugging at her lips. “And now that we have our mounts, we should move on to the next stage of my quest.”

“After you,” I reply, bowing at the waist while waving to the side. Which I’m pretty sure is the opposite of her quest objective.

Clearly my form is off, because she neither laughs nor is fooled, moving over to leap onto Redstone’s back instead.

I stand up, dusting myself off.

Now that we have dragons, it’s time to ride them forward and slay hordes of monsters from their back.

Sab would be so jealous.

Only need to wait five-hundred years to tell her.