“What do you mean you don’t give a shit?! It’s a temple, there was like pottery and shit there. Old carvings, probably a few scrolls or something, pretty much guaranteed.”

“Miss… We asked you to measure the borders of the forests on the island. To see if they were growing or diminishing… I don’t know anything about ancient temples or rock carving,” the old dilapidated clerk replied, entirely unenthused with Nik and Elsara’s findings.

Elsara couldn’t understand why. Half the contents of his tiny, cramped office were covered in dust and spiderwebs. Some stacks of parchments were stacked all the way to the ceiling. 

“Yeah, but this shit could actually be important.”

“Here at the Cartographers’ Guild, the accuracy of our maps is very important. And at the Bureau of Land Management’s Forestry Subcommittee for Heaven Oak Preservation Upon the Frontier… The size of the forest is supremely important.”

“… Whatever man. Just fucking pay us alright, we’re so taking the location somewhere else by the way,” Elsara rebuffed him, feeling rather crestfallen.

“You are 3 months late in handing in your labours. The late fee was 15 silver per day. However, do not worry; the contract stipulates that it would be impossible for you to end up owing us money. We care deeply for the financial health of our contractors…”

Elsara stared at the pathetic paper pusher for a few moments. She had, of course, never actually bothered reading the contract; all she and Nik had cared about was getting paid to go exploring. Meaning they may or may not have taken quite a few detours both on the way to the destination, at the destination, and on the way back home again.

“You… arhg for fuck’s sake! Forests don’t fucking move you… you…”

“Would you like a cookie?”

Elsara stared at the pathetic little man with confusion before glancing at the small glass cookie jar sitting on the table as he lifted the lid for her. Cookies were sweet, so she was definitely having one of those. Maybe it was some sort of clerk defence mechanism, like an Odahir covering itself in acid when scared. Wordlessly, she stuck her hand in and fished one out, going to munch on it right away. Her nose wrinkled as a taste not too dissimilar to hardtack crumbled its way across her tongue, taking any semblance of moisture with it.

“What the…?”

“The finest oats in the city, my mother bakes them for me every tenyear… aren’t they wonderful?”

“They taste like desperation and sadness. Or a hunt gone wrong.”

If the clerk’s feelings were hurt, he certainly didn’t show it, his perfectly placid expression remaining obstinately unbothered by her outbursts. He just put the lid back on the jar and folded his hands expectantly.

“I… What the hell is the point of a deadline anyway?” Elsara burst back out, returning to the topic at hand. “Like I said, It’s a fucking forest, they don’t move? We navigate by those damn things you know.”

“The point of your going was to see where they were now. So there was a point in the deadline. What if the forest has moved since?”

“Dude… when was the last time you had someone go look?”

“83 years ago. Much much too long if you ask me.”

“And you’re fucking upset about us being 3 months late?…”

“As per the contra-”

“I don’t give a black drake’s dripping arsehole about your contract, I wanna get paid.”

“I really don’t see what racial stereotyping has to do with this issue,” the clerk replied calmly, shaking his head, hands remaining folded.

Elsara’s shoulders just sagged as she started to realize she really wasn’t gonna get a single copper out of all this. They didn’t need much money, but they definitely needed some. That left selling off what they had found, which normally went about as well as trying to eat soup in flight… She really didn’t get that saying, she just used a waterskin, suckers. 

“Perhaps the mining guild would be interested? I know they like rocks,” the little man offered with feigned optimism. 

“Not fucking sandstone they don’t,” Elsara spat back with as much venom as she could muster before straightening her back and, in one swift motion, scooping the hand-drawn map scroll from the table. “I’ll be keeping this then. No pay no prize.”

“Oh that is okay, the quality of work was quite insufficient. I just didn’t wish to abrade your feelings any further.”

Elsara stared a moment longer holding her precious maps that she had toiled over for hours before coming here. She had been really proud of her work; it was the first time she’d tried mapping out something to actually be sold after all. “…I got nothing…”

“… Also I am in fact a woman.”

“The gods don’t love you.”

“Blessings of Lotek be with you. Now, please vacate my office.”

—

“Yoo what did they say? Were they happy with like, the temple there? Did you show them the sketchings? We’re going right now, right? Go find ’em all the crap they can’t?” Nik questioned enthusiastically as Elsara came walking down the stairs leading to the small subwing of the cartographer’s guild. 

She was keeping her head high for appearances’ sake. She didn’t actually know why, they had fucked this up beyond all belief and were probably not going to be getting any more jobs out of those offices for quite some time. Or ever.

“Not really, no,” she admitted, still pretending all was well. “Remember that pot you found?”

“The green one? With the zigzaggy pattern and the naked dudes carrying fruit baskets to like the most comfy looking dragon ever?”

“Yeah. Let’s try selling that.”

“Aww, but I like that one. It’s like totally me.”

“Bro, do you want dinner or a carving of dinner?”

“Dinner,” the dragon replied, ears slacking before he looked back to her as she was already climbing up into the saddle. “Wait, what about that contract though?”

“Void due to being late… and some other ox shit,” Elsa replied dejectedly as Nik started moving off.

“Awww maaaan. I thought we did well. Dangit.”

“Fucking desk-riders thinking we got like drawing shit when out there. I guess we need to go get like some actual quills n’shit if we wanna do maps. Claws and char ain’t good enough for some people. Or just tell those sad fucks to go fuck themselves, see if anyone wants to work with them.”

“We could also like, keep it dry next time.” The dragon sighed as he started trotting out into the open street.

“Not my fucking fault it decided to storm. Useless chest’s leakier than a coinpouch. Stupid fucking contract moving forests, my ass.” Elsara grumbled as Nik lined up in the middle of the wide street, some people in front of him starting to part already.

“Yooo! Dudes and dames, move or get moved!” Nik shouted out, getting the attention of those who hadn’t seen the takeoff in progress. Some sprung for cover, others rolled their eyes and slowly sauntered a meter or two closer to the edges of the street, giving the small dragon all the room he needed. Assuming they ducked.

“Watch yah hornes! I’m going!”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Get your trinkets! Genuine artifacts of a forgotten world! Ancient pottery and drawn recreations!” Nik shouted down the busy market street, head raised well above the crowd. Everyone was either looking bemused by his hollering or avoiding eye contact like his scales were turning black. “Just discovered remnants of who we used to be!”

“Dude just… give it a break,” a quite sad-sounding Elsara interrupted. She was sitting on the small chest they had for carrying stuff around in that was at least sorta precious. It still leaked and weighed far too much for Nik’s liking. 

He did stop his outcries and lie down on his side to face her on the nice warm cobblestones. It was really quite a nice day if not for the rather big problem of no one wanting to pay them for much of anything they’d spent the spring and early summer doing. Elsara had at least managed to sell a few items, and luckily not his big pot. He had quite wanted to keep it, maybe bury it somewhere so he could come find it later. They both agreed it had to be worth at least 5 gold, but no one had offered them more than a single one so far. 

“How much have we made so far?”

“3 silver and 14 copper… enough for dinner but not much more,” Elsara replied dejectedly. Nik knew full well he was the more expensive one to feed of the two of them, but he was also the one doing all the work most of the time, so that seemed fair enough to him.

“Well that sucks… I guess no new gear then.”

“Fuck gear, we might starve before we can get back out to someplace we can hunt again. We’re dead broke, bro.”

“Maybe we could take some work in the city? Remember this winter? That wasn’t so bad.”

“They don’t need someone frostproof during the middle of summer, and I ain’t freezing to death so you can have Tirox for dinner.”

“Maybe we could get one of those tents for keeping you warm?”

“With what money? You need oil for that shit too. Ain’t no way. It’s the middle of summer too. You’d be lucky to haul some boxes around for room and board. And then we’re stuck here.”

“Oh… yeah… Maybe we shouldn’t have had that big celebration feast in spring before setting off. That shit was gooood though, I so wanna go back to that place. What was it called again?”

“Ember’s Smoke House. And yeah… We so need to go back there some time. Good food is the only reason there is for being in a city. That and making money or buying shit. But clearly we suck major ass at that.” Elsara sighed, leaning back far enough Nik hoped she would tip over backwards, just as a gentleman cleared his throat.

“Excuuuuuuse meeee, is the crockery for sale?”

Elsara looked up suddenly and Nik took his chance to bat at the saddle a little bit, causing her to fall over backwards, legs reaching for the sky before coming back down in a heap. The dragon chuckled a little as Elsara scrambled back to her feet, seemingly none the wiser as to why she had gone on her ass. She was much too busy with the prospective customer.

“Uhm, yeah, yeah yeah it’s for sale. We just came back with it from the island of uhm… uhm…”

“Crane,” Nik helpfully added as she scrambled to her feet properly, dusting herself off.

“Right, yes, Crane Island. We found it in this ancient old temple in the forest. There are a bunch of them down south. Well, southeast from here, but you know where it is of course.” 

“Hmmmmm. Yeeeeeees,” the man replied, with an accent so posh sounding Nik believed it just had to be faked. Maybe the geezer was trying to seem more important than he was. Nik could understand that. He’d been barred out of places fit for dragons many times just because they didn’t know him and he didn’t have any money. 

“I like it…” the man declared with a swoosh of a lengthy sleeve that hung almost to the ground, made of fine white silks. He was clad in all white, which contrasted quite nicely with his various golden jewelry.

At least Nik thought it was gold. He wondered what he might look like with golden rings on his fingers. They sounded quite handy, all you had to do to buy a meal and a nice hot-floor stable to sleep in was take one off and hand it over. 

“Does that mean you wanna buy it?” Nik questioned cautiously as Elsara looked at the man expectantly. 

He certainly wasn’t in any hurry as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

“I would quite like… A set,” he finally declared.

Nik could see Elsara curse under her breath as her hopes were once more dashed. Thinking quickly Nik interrupted.

“You could sponsor an expedition to find more, only 50 gold.” 

“10,” the man responded almost as if on cue, the small servant behind him nodding with physical delight.

“30, we gotta get supplies.” Nik countered right back. “It’s expensive being a dragon like me.”

“20 not a copper more. You couldn’t eat more than a gaggle of children if put to it.” The man spoke with a confidence that seemed entirely rooted in uninformed personal beliefs. Like most nobles really.

“Sold!” the dragon declared enthusiastically, Elsara hurrying to step up in front of him.

“With the rest when we get it. Uhm… uhm… 10 Gold each?”

“5 and only if they are just as nice as this one or nicer,” the noble demanded.

“Oh they’ll be great, all of them. Promise. We’ll just bring the lot,” Elsara offered, nodding enthusiastically. 

“Splendid!” the man declared triumphantly. “Do see if they have any in blue. Or purple, I like purple.”

“Sure thing sir, we’ll bring back all the pots. I’m sure ‘They’ have all sorts of stuff,” Nik interjected again, not quite sure if the man actually thought there was someone there they would be buying the pots from, but at the end of the day who cares. 

“Oh, naturally I am sure it is a large place, I have hundreds of pots at home I think, and it isn’t even a ruin. May I keep the first pot then?”

“Uuuuhm.” Nik hesitated, looking to Elsara, who nodded with similar enthusiasm to the dragon. “Sure, proof of uhm.. purchase or something. We get 20 now, you get the pot, we come back with more pots, 5 golds each at least.”

“Absolutely delightful! I am sure Caranile will adore it. Jeeves, pay them please,” the man declared, holding his hands out for the precious pot, which Elsara gently handed over to the strange nobleman. 20 gold was a lot of money for them. For a dragonette, that could be like 2 years salary if you were poor. For a young dragon, it was more like a few months, but he didn’t want to go work those ordinary jobs any longer than he had to. 

Jeeves, as the servant was apparently called, counted out the gold pieces for Elsara, helpfully handing them to her ten at a time as Nik counted on his claws that they did in fact get 10 coins each time. 

“They have been paid maaaster.”

“Splendid work Jeeves, where is home? I want to go show Caranile what I bought. She said find something to do with flowers. This is for flowers… right?” he questioned, looking to Elsara, who just nodded.

“Ooooh yes. It’s a flower pot made especially for uhm… Sunflowers? Maybe some red crests or yellow dollars?” She was definitely lying. They thought the pot might have been for wine or something, primitive old people not knowing how to make handles yet was just a funny little quirk.

“Jeeeves! Write that down on something. I need to find out where sunflowers come from. Let us find a druid!”

“Sir, druids aren’t real,” the servant responded, starting to waddle after his master who had already taken off in a seemingly random direction holding his new property. It didn’t look like Jeeves had anything at hand to write on, but Nik kinda doubted the master would realize.

“Nonsense I read about them in this fine book I got. Something something, tales from the frontier. Marvelous thing, do you read Jeeves?…” the man prattled on as they disappeared into the crowd to be someone else’s headache. Nik and Elsara both stared after the pair for a moment before looking to each other eyes wide. 

“YES!”

“Quick, before he drops it.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“There’s nothing here, dude. It’s all rotten or smashed to shit.” Elsara sighed, sitting down against the wall of the ancient old temple or whatever this place was. She put out her torch for the moment and leant it against the wall as she took a minute to just relax. Her feet hurt like hell and she had definitely cut herself a few times as they were exploring.

“I’m sure we’ve not seen aaall of it yet. There’s gotta be something somewhere,” Nik objected, not wanting to give up like always.

‘Stupid dragons, able to walk all day and not get tired.’ Secretly she was quite happy Nik didn’t get tired easily, it meant she always had a ride when her legs gave out. In here though he only just about fit, leaving no room for her in the saddle unless she wanted to lie down on him or something. 

The dragon laid down beside her, the twin torches strapped to his horns now providing the only light in here. They still had a few spares, but supplies in general were running out. They could hunt for food, but not lamp oil or rags to make torches. They were also out of salt, her waterskin had a hole in it, and the flint in her firesteel broke yesterday. It still sorta worked, but it was a bitch to get sparking.

“We’ll just chill. Then keep looking, we ain’t been down here before.”

“Oh we soo have, I recognize those ones,” Elsara objected, pointing to yet more carvings on the walls. They were everywhere you went in this place. Some of them looked good, others looked like her and Nik writing “We were here,” on some ancient, old, priceless throne or whatever a high priest sat on. 

“It all looks the same, just think of the treasure. Find like a pantry or something, pots and vases on shelves from floor to ceiling. We gotta keep looking. It would be like 200 gold.”

“In your dreams. Face it man, we’re fucked, ain’t shit here and now they’ll want us for like theft or some shit when we go back there.”

“We didn’t promise we would bring anything, only that we would look.”

“Do you think they’ll give a shit with that whackjob telling the story?” Elsara questioned rather sarcastically, looking to the dragon, who looked like such a dumb dumb with his pair of torches.

“Soooo, go to some other city for a while?”

“I guess… not like we have anything to sell anyway.”

“We’ll find some, what about… bits of old priests? There were a few skeletons back that way,” the dragon offered with enthusiasm, pointing back the way they came.

“We don’t know if those were priests or not, what if it was the cleaning guy?”

“They won’t know either,” the dragon said with a shrug. “It’ll be fine, they get a saint or something, we get paid for bringing them back. Oh even better, we just burn the guy and demand money for sending him to heaven.”

“I’m pretty sure they would want some proof, man.”

“Then we bring the skeletons back and burn them in front of them. Or let them do it. Easy job.”

“Worth a shot, I guess… We’re gonna look shady as fuck with a couple skeletons riding with you know that right?”

“I’m white, it won’t matter. People trust me.”

“Lucky bastard… Fuck it, backup plan it is. Let’s keep looking though, don’t wanna share with a dead guy.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Dude just put some effort in. What are you, a giant grandma?”

“It won’t budge man, this shit sucks,” Nik complained as he strained against the giant door. They had finally found something that looked promising deep down on the lowest level they had found yet. At the end of a corridor there was a big, solid stone door with a bunch of markings carved into it. It looked like it had been vandalized at some point, with lines of runes running this way and that across whatever it had said to start with.

Elsara had tried to discern some of it, but other than bits of prayer she couldn’t work it out. It was a temple after all: there were prayers and shit everywhere. What they needed was to get inside. Sadly that was Nik’s job.

“Go ooooon, can’t be that bad,” Elsara chided as she held her torch high. Nik had his shoulder against the stone and was pushing with all his might, claws scraping on the stone floor. “Maybe it needs to push to the sides, try grabbing the line instead.” 

With a heavy sigh Nik relented and took a step back to look at the door. There was a line splitting it into two so maybe it did slide, worth a try at least. 

It took quite a lot of work to get his claws jammed into the crack so he could get a hold, and his claws were definitely ruined by it, but who cared? What mattered was that the doors budged a little as he worked his claws in.

“You ready?” he asked, confident this was it, the payday they had been waiting for.

“Ready,” Elsara agreed with a nod, waiting with baited breath.

“Hnnnnnmmmmmmgg fuuuuucking shit!” Nik strained and one of the two doors started to slide open with a horrendous grinding noise that had Elsara covering her ears.

When finally it was about halfway open he relented again and put his shoulder against the other door. With a big push it too yielded. He stuck his head inside to get a look as Elsara darted under him, torch held high to light up the room.

The flames licked his neck a bit, and he snorted cold air down at her to try and annoy her back but accidentally put out the torch instead.

“You massive doormat!” Elsara cursed as he heard her settle down with the broken flint and steel to try and light it again. His own torches had burned out over an hour ago, and they were trying to save on the light, so they only had one lit.

“You burned me,” he defended himself with mock outrage. “What if I turned black from soot?”

“Then it would match your personality,” Elsara chuckled as she laboured. They couldn’t be in a bad mood right now, they had found something for sure. He could feel it, and she could too. 

With some grunting and a few sparks the torch spluttered to life once more and she held it up high, illuminating the room.

“The shit is that?” she questioned as Nik tilted his head. It wasn’t a room full of pottery, but it certainly was something. 

“An altar?”

There was a large white marble slab in the center of the room which stood out quite a lot since everything else here had been sandstone thus far. It was covered all over in runes and really looked quite well preserved for being so old as all this stuff surely was.

“Looks really good.”

“Think it’s magic?” Nik questioned as Elsara walked into the room proper and he squeezed through the doors, scraping his rig a little, but it would be fine. It was tough stuf,f and this was what an exploring dragon did for a living.

“Might be. What is all this crap, don’t they like to pray up in the sun?” Elsara questioned as she started looking around. The room was quite large and had six even sides to it. There were grand carvings cut to each wall, all depicting a dragon.

“Duuude, check it out, it’s me!” Nik burst out as he looked over the carving, the distinct features of an ice dragon clear for all to see. The spiky scales and spines, angular jaw, and jagged horns. It was a white dragon alright. Looking to the next one that looked like a green, fangs on full display as the visage snarled. “These are really damn good.”

“Yeah, really cool stuff. Check out the design behind them. This one has a flame, it’s a red duh.”

“I got a snowflake, what the shit? At least make it like an ice spike or something.”

“You get what you deserve,” Elsara chuckled as she moved on around. “An epic craftsman did this stuff for sure,” Elsara said absentmindedly as she walked around, taking it all in. “So we got white, green, red, black, blue and… what’s that one?”

Nik turned to look and she was pointing back at the wall they had come through, above the door the last visage. A dragon Nik certainly didn’t recognize, with a shimmering pattern coming from behind it like sunlight or maybe starlight. He’d seen that motif used before, but not the dragon in question.

“No clue, looks… Like it’s smooth, right? Like a blue, thick-set horns and short snout. Looks more stout. Would.”

“Oh shut up you dumbfuck. Ain’t even working yet.” Elsara chuckled as they both tried to study the image. “She wouldn’t want you, she’s important.” The teenage dragonette turned around to look at the other visages, holding up the torch. “She’s elevated over all of them.”

“We’ll like totally have to ask about that. If we find a scholar or something.”

“They’ll just tell us to fuck off. Juuuust like last time. Anywho, what’s all this got to do with that altar thingy? No chairs, no podium, what’s this for? Praying to the dragons? Wait… You think this place worshiped dragons?”

“That’s like super illegal, right?” Nik questioned rhetorically as he turned to look at the altar, stepping closer for a better look along with Elsara. 

“Yeah like, prison if you’re lucky illegal. Think the Inquisition would pay us to wreck this place?” Elsara questioned. It was probably sarcastic, but they did really need some money. 

“I don’t really want to, it’s cool,” Nik objected. They’d agreed they would at least try not to break shit. Unless they needed to in order to find more cool shit. They didn’t need to break any of this though.

“Bitch of course you like it. They worshiped you,” Elsara chided in response. “Giant ass princess, I should have found a red instead. Big, butch, warm, not a lawn princess.

“But what about my gentle temper, cool refreshing breath, and entry pass into any church you can stand? Gotta be worth a bit.”

“When was the last time we went and slept in an actual church anyway? They always try to make you stay, or have you recite prayers. Then I have to be insulted cause I ain’t good enough at the damn prayers to deserve traveling with you,” Elsara grumbled. They had truly had some pretty bad experiences before, but you could always count on priests to help if you had to as a white dragon.

“I know I’m very generous to allow you to stay with someone as cool as me,” Nik recited with as much pomp as he could muster, a paw held before his chest for emphasis. ”If you ask me, a little worship would be nice. That’s kinda lacking in today’s world, you know?”

“Shut the fuck up man.” Eslara chuckled as Nik started laughing. “I swear to your scaly ass that if you start asking for morning prayer I’ll report you to the nearest ‘quisiter for skinning.”

“Awww maaaan, I don’t wanna be a hat on some retard who thinks they own like the whole idea of being right. At least let me work in the mines with the pleasentry.”

“Peasantry, bro, it’s called peasantry. And you’re a peasant for sure. You ain’t even got a hole to sleep in that’s yours.”

“You don’t either,” Nik retorted with mock hurt feelings. “It is hard being a dragon, you know?”

“Suuuuure. Big as a hunk of muscle and wings.”

“Why thank you. You flatter me,” Nik snickered, trying to look abashed. 

“Not you, a real dragon. You’re like a little twig in the wind.”

Nik just rolled his eyes. Any bigger and he wouldn’t fit in places like this. And he got the door open just fine; he’d done his part. “Just cause you’re fat and jealous.”

“Fuck you.”

“No thank you, I want that one,” Nik retorted, pointing back at the strange elevated dragon. “I’m sure she would be much nicer to me.”

“Bro, I do, like, all the shit a whole groundcrew does, get over yourself… Now what the fuck is all this for?” Elsara questioned as she ran a hand along the altar.

“Yoo, don’t touch it! What if it’s cursed or some shit?” Nik cried out. It was a bit halfhearted. She had already touched it. If anything bad was going to happen, it probably already had. “You’re so gonna get turned into a darkling one day.”

“Sun shit don’t make darklings. There’s like suns and stars and real drakes all around. Whatever that one up there is, it ain’t a shadow drake,” she objected, nodding to the strange drake.

“I mean, yeah. It’s like sun or moon. Maybe a star dragon? Ain’t ever heard of anything like that before.”

“Whatever it is, she looks alright to me. Meaning this is probably alright too. Who knows? Maybe it can, like, give you a divine blessing or something. Maybe it, like, turns me into a dragon? I ain’t saying no to that.”

“Hoo it’s like that is it? Think it’s easy being a dragon?” Nik questioned humorously. “I’ll have you know it kinda sucks not being able to clean your nails or open your mail.”

“Gee such hardships, however will I manage?” Elsara replied sarcastically as she crouched down to inspect the runes. “If it is magic, I got no clue what it does. I can’t read that shit. Probably too old to work anyway, gotta reinscribe that shit.”

“It looks like it’s alright. It’s like super nice work. The carvings are still sharp like new… It came from far away,” he concluded, giving the still flat and smooth top surface a tap with a claw. And with a flash, the runes lit up, and his vision went white with just a twinge of blue.