Galbrecht sighed. "We were going to wait for Serius to test them, but I don't think that's an issue any longer—at least not for Nico. He clearly has magical ability."

  "Fine, so he's a wild mage. All the more reason to kill him. But who calls a dagger a claw?"

  Cami moved to stand between me and the rogue. "You're imagining things. You've hated Nico from the beginning. What's your problem with him?"

  Before Modessa could answer, the paladin stepped forward, too. "The girl does have a point. I know your history..."

  "Shut your mouth,” Modessa hissed. “Not a word about that."

  Galbrecht sighed. "Fine. But I know you and I know your past. Generally, I trust your instincts, but I can't see what has you so worked up about Nico."

  "I don't know, either,” she admitted. “According to my skills, he is what he says he is, but I trust my gut… and my gut tells me something is off about him."

  "We can question him more later, but we can't afford to fight amongst ourselves out here. You saw those monsters, but more importantly… you know what their presence means." Galbrecht's tone was solemn.

  "But what if he's with them?"

  Cami spoke over top of the two of them. "I don't know what you are talking about."

  Both the rogue and paladin focused on the farmer's daughter for a moment.

  She blushed, but quickly added, "I don't know what ‘those monsters’ means. Can someone explain it to me? This is my home, after-all."

  Modessa frowned but Galbrecht's expression softened. "She has a right to know."

  Almost like she was spitting Modessa said, "Fine. You tell her, but I'm keeping my eyes on him."

  Galbrecht seemed to focus on Cami and his voice took on the tone my mother used to have when she would explain simple things, like how to tell if meat was rotten or safe to eat.

  "What did you notice about the monsters Modessa was fighting earlier?" the paladin asked.

  "They looked like rabbits,” Cami replied with a grimace, “but not really. They were much too big, and had wings and talons like birds."

  He nodded. "Right and that's sort of like the ones that Nico described encountering last night, right?"

  "Yes… except those were part monkey and part mosquito."

  "Both are examples of what are known as the mutated. They come in all shapes and sizes. They are always a combination of at least two different natural animals or insects, though—and sometimes more than two."

  "Okay, but where do they come from?" Cami asked.

  "Horrors."

  I heard the word as Galbrecht spoke it and it tugged at a memory. Specifically, the dream about my ancestor and the orc riding on her back, Tra'vis. They had been fighting giants, but the word ‘horror’ had meant something to her. Maybe it was only because that memory was so fresh, but I felt a lingering connection with that ancestor—more so than with any other I’d dreamed of before.

  Modessa cut back in, her voice hard. "Horrors are creatures from the underworld who have escaped from their prisons. They corrupt the land and change the animals into those things you saw."

  Cami's face paled and she looked a bit sick at the thought.

  Galbrecht continued, "That is just a rumor. We don't know that they are actually tied to the god of death."

  Modessa's voice came in again, "Fine, we don't know it for a fact… but do you have a better explanation?"

  Galbrecht sighed, "Regardless, this is why it is important to take all the precautions we can, and why we all need to stay together. It is safer that way."

  I had remained quiet, so as to defuse Modessa's mood, but I finally realized what I could say to help the situation. The trick was, with a paladin, I had to ensure everything I said was the truth—well, technically true, at least.

  "My ancestors fought horrors in the past,” I said. “Some even died fighting horrors."

  The last part had just popped out. I didn't have a specific recollection from the dragon dream about that, but the dream was always the most confusing about emotionally charged moments like the death of a dragon. Still, I was sure that it was true, even if I didn't know how I knew that.

  Modessa stopped looking at me long enough to glance at Galbrecht. The paladin quickly nodded his head.

  I might not be very adept at reading human expressions, but even I knew he had just confirmed for her that I was speaking the truth.

  The rogue sheathed her dagger. An odd expression was on her face like she had just tasted something bitter. "Fine, I suppose you can't help it if you suddenly developed magic. It isn't like you caused the horrors. Maybe their presence here is what led to both of you developing magic.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes at me. “I still don't trust you, but as long as you don't use any magic without permission, I'll make sure you reach the university."

  "And normally, that would be the most important thing, but we have a duty to gather information about where the horror came from, and where it might be going," Galbrecht said.

  Modessa laughed. "Oh, great, now that I'm agreeing to take them to the university, you want to stick around?"

  "You know we can't leave a horror running free,” Galbrecht snapped. “Power comes with responsibility."

  "Maybe for you. There's a reason I didn't join a guild or any of the churches. Besides, as strong as we are, fighting some mutated is one thing, but fighting a horror is something entirely different."

  I weighed the situation in my head and pondered if I should tell them I had seen what I believed was the horror. So far, I had only talked about the mutated monkey monsters I'd fought last night. Only Cami knew about the other thing I’d seen. Even thinking about that thing made me feel uncomfortable, as though its mind was still reaching out to crawl into mine.

  Galbrecht sighed, "Fine, we'll leave for now. We can wait until Serius and the others arrive. But we all need to keep our eyes open in the meantime."

  He looked at Cami, "Do you know who the mayor is? We should probably warn someone here about this."

  She nodded.

  Galbrecht started to turn back to the town but then paused. “Actually, we still need to find the spot that Nico first saw the mutated. How about this… You take Cami back to town and fill the mayor in. Meanwhile, Nico can show me what he found last night. Then, at least, we’ll have a full picture for when the rest of the team arrives.”

  Modessa looked at the paladin. “If you weren’t such a goodie-goodie, I’d think you were up to something. Fine, I could use a bath, anyway. It’s not even noon and I’ve got monster guts all over me. The worst part is that they weren’t even strong enough to give us any XP.”

  With that, we parted ways.

  Galbrecht and I turned to walk further into the woods while the two women headed back to town. Oddly enough, I was more worried about Cami leaving with the rogue than I was about what awaited us in the woods. Something was definitely wrong with me.

  Chapter 14 - Asking for Help

  I lingered for a moment, watching as Cami left. When I turned back I noticed the paladin staring at me.

  "You really like her don't you?" he asked.

  I narrowed my already squished eyes and didn't say anything.

  "It's okay. She's about your age… and cute, I guess. It's hard for me to think of her as anything other than a little girl."

  "She's almost grown. Her sire… err... her father said he was going to marry her off soon."

  "Yeah,” he sighed, “they do that pretty young out here in the farming villages. I guess they always need more hands to work the land. And we all eat what they produce, so maybe I shouldn't judge. You'll find that it's different in the city. You said you're seventeen, right?"

  I thought back about if I had already mentioned my age and realized I had. But at the same time it also seemed like they had more information than I had given them. Clearly, Modessa or he had an ability which allowed them to see my stat sheet, at least in part. Even with whatever ability they had, though, they thought I was a normal human.

  I couldn't hold back a smile as I thought about how stupid humans were. My natural dragon ability didn't just change my shape, it changed who I was—and even these two high level adventurers weren't able to pierce through that.

  "Yeah, seventeen. Why?"

  Galbrecht watched me for a second before responding. I'd seen this before with my clutch mates. Just because I knew he had been peeking at my stat sheet didn't mean I had to challenge him about it—and now he was wondering why I hadn't.

  Keeping your foe off balance was always a good thing.

  "Just that in the city,” he answered, “you won't be considered an adult until you're eighteen. And even then, at the university you will be treated as a child in many ways until you pass your courses and reach at least a journeyman level in your chosen path."

  I shrugged. "How others see me has never bothered me. I do what I have to do. But what do you mean by path?"

  "I can respect that. As for paths, I should leave that for Magus Serius to explain. He still teaches some courses at the university and will no doubt want to convince both of you to become full-blown wizards. For now, I just need you to show me where you fought those mutated last night."

  Rather than argue, I started walking into the forest. My pace was quick, but Galbrecht had no trouble keeping up. Soon, we neared the clearing. The corpse of the bear had already been picked clean. It looked far more like it had been here for months, rather than a few hours.

  As for the remains of the mutated monkey monsters, they were simply shriveled up husks. Anything that had been inside of them—whether that be blood, muscle, or bone—was gone.

  "Is that normal for the mutated?" I asked, pointing to the shriveled husks.

  Galbrecht shook his head. "No. It's most unusual. I can't say what could have done this as I've never seen anything like it before. I don't have a great deal of experience with horrors, or mutated for that matter.”

  “How are you sure these mutated are from a horror, then?” I wanted to know.

  He snorted. “I know enough to recognize the mutated. It's possible that the horror came back and did this to them after you killed them. For now, we should return to the town and wait for the rest of my party."

  I held up my hand as I felt a lingering power in the air. Internally, I cursed my inexperience. My mother would doubtlessly have known what to do. She would never have run last night.

  Ah... that must be it.

  I realized that it was bothering me that I'd run—and not once, but twice. First, I'd run from the adventurers and allowed them to murder my last clutch mate. Then, last night I'd fled from the horror.

  Dragons shouldn't have to run from anything. I needed to get stronger and I needed it quickly. Especially, if I was going to protect Cami.

  Galbrecht seemed to sense my inner turmoil. He put his hand on my shoulder and gave me an understanding smile. "You have potential, Nico. Driving off a dragon—even driving off a young one with trickery—is no small matter. And the fact that you fought and killed half-a-dozen mutated on your own speaks for itself."

  He kicked the remains of the stone tipped spear I had fabricated last night. "I assume you used this?"

  I nodded.

  "Impressive." Then he squatted down. A second later he let out a low whistle. "Hmm... look at this."

  I took a step closer and dropped down onto my haunches. Hmmm... did humans call it sitting on their haunches? I didn't know. Probably… it didn't matter.

  What I saw did matter, though. The wood of the spear was all dried up and brittle. Last night it had been extra strong, fabricated to be thick and dense. But now, it looked more like a hollowed-out reed.

  "I take it your spear wasn't like that when you were using it?”

  "No.” I shook my head like humans did to reinforce the negative. “Not hardly. Something seems to have drained the very life from it."

  "Interesting that you put it like that,” he mused. “One of the teachings of Miseria is that the horrors are not so much a representation of death but a twisted perversion of life—which is antithetical to all living things. The church teaches that is why normal animals mutate into what we've been fighting anytime a horror appears. That, and other odd things happen.”

  He raised his eyebrows, peering at me. “Such as perhaps two young people gaining magic." He stared at me, waiting for me to reply.

  It was a trap, though. I couldn't agree with him because I knew that the horror wasn't what had caused my magical aptitude. In fact, it was more likely the other way around. I was still piecing things together, but that matched up with a fragment from the dragon dream.

  Eventually, Galbrecht muttered, "It seems as though this horror drained the life force out of its own mutated. Your spear must have gotten caught up in that."

  "Why would it do that?"

  "That's the question, isn't it? Perhaps it has limited power and had to take some of it back."

  I pondered that statement, wishing I had a better understanding of magic. Even in the dragon dream, magic was simply something my ancestors did. They didn't study it to understand it.

  Caught up in the moment I admitted, "I feel so inadequate to understand what is happening here."

  Galbrecht patted me on the back with his armored gauntlet. "Perhaps one of these days, you will be a powerful wizard, my young friend—but even the powerful need help.

  "My team and I were sent on a mission by direct order of the emperor and Archmagi of the university. We were meant to do something which would hopefully help protect the entire empire."

  I paused, my other thoughts all coming to a stop in my head. He was talking about the raid on my clutch. How had we been a threat to the empire? I didn't even properly understand what the empire was. Dragons paid little attention to the political structure of the lesser races.

  I slowly exhaled in an effort to calm myself. "You had to hunt down an enemy of the empire?"

  Galbrecht stood back up, shaking his head. "No, quite the opposite."

  I'd been leaning forward with my hands clutched into fists without even realizing it. His words caused me to rock back on my heels. What did he mean? My mind was racing as I tried to figure out how to respond to that.

  "I'm confused..."

  He suddenly signaled for silence.

  At first I continued to speak, but then I too felt… something. If I hadn't been so fixated on his words, I would have noticed it sooner. There were monsters coming.

  I raised my hand and pulled the mana together to cast Force Darts. It chafed me that the spell took five full seconds to cast. In combat, that was an eternity.

  Fortunately, Galbrecht didn't have the same limitations. He stepped forward and shouted loudly. There was magic laced into the sound of his voice.

  I didn't know exactly what it was as I was too focused on my own spell. Whatever it was, all three of the bunny-birds that suddenly appeared went straight for the paladin. It was like I didn't even exist.

  When my spell went off, it was easy to direct both force darts directly into the head of one of the beasts. The magic might not have been strong enough to kill one of them with body shots, but by hitting its unprotected head, I did it in—immediately feeling the rush of energy as a portion of its life force returned to me.

  An instant later, Galbrecht beheaded a second monster. I looked about for a weapon but the spear was useless. The beast kept bouncing against the paladin's shield trying to get at him, like he was the tastiest treat in the forest.

  His shield glowed with an angry red aura and Galbrecht bashed it into the beast's head. The effect seemed to stun the rabid, over-sized bunny, who was headless a few seconds later.

  I had to hand it to the paladin. He was strong and lesser monsters like this didn't seem to affect him. The threat couldn't have been that great, though, because I didn't even earn a single DKP from my kill.

  Galbrecht whirled on me. "You weren't supposed to use magic without permission. I won't do anything about it, this time. But rules are meant to be followed. Casting is forbidden for wild mages."

  "You use magic all the time," I muttered.

  "What? I'm not a mage. You have much to learn, my young friend. All users of magic must attend the university. Some, like me, have a limited aptitude. My ability is with divine magic and Miseria was kind enough to accept me. I selected my specialization as a paladin, then—a chosen sword and shield of the goddess.

  "There are priests with far more magical ability than I have, even at my level. But I was still trained at the academy—just not for as long as a true wizard or similar caster might be. You might have seen Modessa using poison magic earlier, or her shadow magic.”