The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 5

Waking up to the sound of a branch snapping I stay still while observing outside of the nook. It is still dark and hard to see. I notice small movements of something bending down and straighten back up as if picking up something. It turns around and walks off in the opposite direction from me. Deciding it would be best to move on but not before seeing where the figure was going. So, I silently trailed behind the figure coming upon a small creak with a campsite at the side. Not knowing if the figure was friendly or not, I hide in the dark bushes to observe and maybe gain some information about the area or the state of things in general.

            The figure dropped what sounded like wood in the middle of the campsite and began building a fire. After a while another figure comes up to him and says, “You get the firewood Noah?” “Yeah, I got it Loka. Mind lighting the fire, so we aren't blind in the dark.” Blinded by the sudden light that seem to have come out of nowhere the man named Loka had a small flame dancing on his palm where he pushed it onto the kindling in the campfire. Soon a healthy fire was going as another two men of the group sat around the fire talking and eating field rations. Now sitting around the fire were four men all ragged looking. From where I am it looks like two humans, a dwarf, and a mink that looks like a bear only more humanoid.

            “How much fur’er do we need to go Abel?” The dwarf asks the bear mink who looks at the dwarf and replies, “We’ll reach it by around midday or a little after for the tenth time, Musir.” Loka chews his dried meat and swallowing before saying, “Well, what we are investigating is the mysterious explosion from a week ago that has everyone nervous back in Melcox. Even those pompous nobles are gossiping about it. We are all a little on edge about what we could find if the calculations and predictions of the scholars are correct.” Abel grunts and continues his munching on his dried fish. 

            “Has anyone seen Tye? I haven’t seen him since noon.” Noah asks stocking the fire. Everyone shakes their heads. “Dammit I told him not to go too far ahead of us. He is fast but not too smart.” Loka shakes his head in disappointment and says, “Well he only joined us because we had a spot open in the party for a scout. Each adventurer is responsible for themselves so if something happened, it’s his own damn fault for not staying closer to us.” “What the hell, that guy was part of their group. Shit.” I thought as I was listening to their conversation. Soon it dies down and they head to their bedrolls leaving one up for night watch.

            Backing away from my hiding spot I put as much distance between me and the group as I can before stopping again to rest for the night. I found a spot along the same creak as the group of adventurers because this is the only water source I have seen since coming here. Hoping the water won’t make me sick since I do not want to start a fire to signal my location to any monsters or beasts in the area, I rehydrate myself and feel immediate relief throughout my exhausted body. I decide not to stay on the ground to sleep for the rest of the night. I look around for a sturdy tree and climb up onto a big limb to sleep for the rest of the night.

            Waking up from rays of sunlight beaming through the canopy of the trees I jump down and stretch to continue my way out of the forest. “I feel better than before I died. I wonder if the system manipulates the body.” I inspect my wounds for infection and to my surprise all that is left is small scars on my thigh and shoulder. “Holy shit! How is that possible? Is it because of mana in the air or something do with Tiamat and Odin.” Amazed at how fast my body has healed itself I decide to put questions on the backburner until I’m in safe location.

            It takes until midday until I finally break away from trees and come upon hills marking my triumphant escape from that dastardly forest. Along the way I had to fight ten goblins and packs of stray dogs earning me wounds from spears, bites, and claws. If someone were to see me now, they would think a mummy had risen, the only difference is that my head is the only appendage not wrapped up. On the bright side I seem to have leveled up three times. It seems to get harder to level up with the same monsters.

            I climb a hill to get my bearings of the surroundings and hopefully find a landmark or road. I reach the top and see rolling hills with sparse trees. In the distance to the north of my location I see stone walls and buildings. “So, civilization has reverted back to hiding behind stone walls.” I sit down to massage my legs from walking and fighting for so long. I place the small bag with about six stone tip spears tied to it on the ground beside me. I have one spear in my hand to be ready to fight if I have too. I can’t let my guard down just because I’m out of the forest.

            I close my eyes to invoke my personal scroll to check my status before heading off down to the road that heads in the direction of the stone walls.

“I really need to find out how the attributes work, and I don’t need to see exhaustion on the status effects when I feel it in my bones.” I complain in my head as I open my eyes and rest until I’m ready to move again. After twenty minutes of redressing my wounds and resting, I head down the hill to the road. Traveling north I pass other people along the way, races varying between mostly humans to dwarves, and minks of different kinds. I try not to stare but everything is so alien to me that I catch myself staring. I shake my head and continue on until I reach the stone walls where a gate house is opened with a line of people and carriages waiting to go inside the town.

I step into the line and observe the walls ahead me. They don’t have the same clumsy placement of stones like what I had seen in movies and documentaries in my past life, but rather neat and calculative placement and I could feel something emanating from them similar to what I felt when I first hatched from egg. Though thinking about it now, I’m just noticing I felt something back then.

As I move up the line, which is moving at a steady pace, I can feel stares on me. “Why are they staring at me so much?” I look behind me and only see the same type of people behind me as are in front of me. “Maybe it’s just the number of bandages I have wrapped around me though I see similar people around me that are wrapped up in bandages worse than me.” I finally reach the gate where a solider garbed in light metal amor with a spear in hand steps up to me and says, “Fifty copper to enter the city of Melcox, boy.” I narrow my eyes with irritation at the man who calls me a boy. I keep my mouth shut from a retort and drop my bag and pull out the small leather pouch.

I had looked at the coins while resting on the hill and determined which coins were which, so I pulled out fifty small copper coins and handed them to the guard who pulls out something that looks like a thin glass plane. “Place your hand on the Scroll of Law.” I hesitate before asking a question I’m sure everyone knows but me, “What does that do?” The guard rolls his eyes and sighs, “Haa, it’s a scroll to determine if you are a criminal and displays your name and level, boy.” I my eye twitches at his rudeness and calling me a boy again. I just nod and put my hand on what looks more like a tablet than a scroll which promptly displays my information.

[Ladon. Level: 6 No criminal record]

The guard grunts after reading my information and motions me to move forward into the city. I reach the other side of the gatehouse and various smells, and sights hit my nose and eyes all at once overwhelming my senses. The city smelled of cooked food and mortar which surprised me since civilization regressed. I was expecting smells of sewage and horse manure, but the streets are cobbled and clean as were the people walking up and down the streets. The buildings look more fantasy like than medieval. Some buildings were made of wood while others made with brick or a mismatch of both. They leaned in impossible ways for them to be still standing and painted in every color the owners deemed worthy of coating their buildings.

“Holy shit, this is so awesome.” I whisper as I stare in amazement at the town before me. I notice I am in people's way, so I move to the side of the street and look for signs pointing towards an inn or hotel. Not seeing anything I spot a food vender and walk over to ask for directions. “Hello, ma’am could I ask you some questions if I buy some of your product?” I ask the human woman who seemed to be getting on in years. She goes wide eyes and just stares at me. I wait but then cough to get her attention again. She shakes her head and in embarrassment she stammers, “Ah yes…of c-course I just have apples today for two coppers each.” I give her the four coppers and put two apples in my bag then I ask, “Could you point me in the direction of a decent inn?” She points up the street then says “Head up the main road and turn left at the third street. Keep going until you hit a crossroads and there is an inn right beside the Adventure’s guild called the Drunken Elephant. Ya can’t miss it young man.” I nod and say thank you as I head up the street.

I walk and look around noticing shops and stalls all along the main road. Still exhausted from the today’s fighting and traveling I do not pay too much attention and only focus on getting to the inn. I turn left at the third street, and it doesn’t take me long before I reach the crossroads. I look for the inn and as the older woman said the inn would be hard to miss. On top of the inn is statue of an elephant with a tankard wrapped up in its trunk moving its trunk from its mouth back and forth. “Maybe it’s moving by magic. It looks almost real by the way it is moving.” Too exhausted to pay any more attention to the display of wonder before me I enter the inn which turns out to be more of a tavern with a bar on the far side and tables scattered about with only a few patrons drinking.

“Hmm, must not be rush hour right now.” I walk up to the bar where an elephant mink was scrubbing down the counter. He had skin like an elephant along with the ears, trunk, and tusks of an elephant. He had a bigger than average body than that of a human man. The only thing about him that was humanized was his hands which were those of a human, but bigger and gray colored. “Excuse me sir, my name is Ladon. I would like a room here. How much would that be?” The elephant looks at me for a moment before replying with a smile and says, “Well sonny, one night is five bronze and with meals included, meaning breakfast and dinner, that would be eight bronzes.” I take out the leather pouch and put sixteen bronze coins on the counter and say, “I’ll stay for two nights for now I’ll pay more if I decide to stay longer.” The man nods and says, “Name is Cliff by the way. I have room 305 vacant, it’s on the third level and the stairs are over there.” He points to the stairs on the right of me. I nod and start to head over before he calls again, “Need any water or anything?”

I look back and nod saying, “Yes, please, lots of drinking water.” “Okay sonny I’ll bring it to your room in a few minutes.” I nod and climb the stairs to my room. I reach the door and use the key he gave me and enter the room. Inside was a single double bed with a desk and a lamp. “Wait a lamp?” I walk over and inspect the lamp. I see no string, button, or cord to plug in the wall, which has no plugins after looking. Confused, I am brought out of my inspection with a knock on the door.

I go to the door and speak through it without opening it. “Yes, who is it?” An answer came in the low voice of the barkeeper, “I have your water for you.” I open the door to see Cliff holding a tray with a pitcher and wooden cups. I take the tray and set it down on the desk. I turn back and ask, “How do I turn on this lamp?” Cliff raises his eyebrows and says “Just pass mana through it, sonny. How would you not know that?” I look at him and still my face from showing as much emotion as possible before replying, “I have my reasons, sir.” Cliff looks at me suspiciously then nods and says, “Well, dinner will be ready in about an hour would you like it brought to your room or would like to eat downstairs.” Wanting to rest I tell him I’ll eat in my room to which he nods and leaves.

“How the hell do you pass mana through something?” I thought as I sit on the bed and look at the lamp. “Okay Ladon, Odin is your father along with the God of Magic and Wisdom so you can at least figure this out as not to embarrass yourself again in front of someone because you can’t turn on a simple lamp.” I talk to myself as I instinctively place my hand at the base of the lamp. I close my eyes to concentrate. I feel a warm and flowing feeling inside myself. “I have never felt that before. Is that mana? So, mana is inside the body. Hmm…I guess that makes sense in a fantasy world, but this is only my own conjecture.” I try to will the flow to my hand and outward into the lamp. It takes a couple of minutes to get the hang of it, but eventually I see light through my eyelids. I open them to see that the light is on. “What is making the lamp react to the mana?”

I take off the shade covering the lamp to see a stone the size of a golf ball cut like a jewel maker would make. “Um…a magic stone? Looks like power sources has switched from electrical to magic. That’s pretty good if it is not damaging to the environment, but I wonder how powerful it can be. Ah fuck, one day at time Ladon, you’re not very smart in the first place.” Too tired to contemplate the energy power structure of the world now, I lay down on the bed. The next thing I hear is a knock on the door.

I groggily get up half asleep and say, “Yes.” I hear a feminine voice on the other side say, “Sir, I have your dinner.” I open the door and don’t see anyone there, so I look up and down the hallway seeing no one. Confused thinking I was dreaming I was about to close the door before the voice speaks up again. “Sir! Your food.” I look down to see a young woman with dirt brown hair, blue eyes, and pointed ears that only came up to my stomach. “Oh, um…thank you miss.” She smiles and hands the tray of food that had meat and potatoes and a mug of what I assumed was beer. “You’re welcome, sir. By the way I love your hair it’s so cool.” I look at her confused and just smiled and thanked her before she left for the stairs. I close the door wondering what was so great about my hair and then it finally dawned at me that I still haven’t  looked at my reflection. I set the tray of food down at the desk to eat.

The food was pretty good though lacking in seasoning which makes sense. “I guess if technology has been lost then trading has been reduced and especially with monsters on the prowl, I suppose spices are pretty expensive.” When I finish the meal, I look around the room again and notice a door besides the one that is the entrance to the room. I get up and open it to reveal a small bathroom furnished with a toilet that looks like it will flush along with a shower and a sink with a medium sized mirror above. “Oh, thank God…or gods. At least plumbing wasn’t lost to time.” I move to the mirror to finally see my reflection and almost think another person was in the bathroom before realizing that the person in the mirror was me.

My medium long hair is white with tinges of crimson red and midnight purple at the tips. My eyes are sharp and piercing as if they are looking into the soul. The irises were swirling and not figuratively either, with crimson red and midnight purple. My ears pointed towards the back of my head. My skin was white but not an unhealthy pale white. I had stubble for a beard that was the same color as my hair.

I stood there staring dumbfounded at how much I changed. “I haven’t seen anyone like this when I was going town. Is that why everyone was staring at me?” I shake my head coming to grips that this body isn’t the same one as before and I am pleased with the way I look now. I mean I look cool, but the reality is that I stick out and I am still weak and ignorant compared to others in Marble. “I need to get stronger quickly if I want to survive the cliches that I am sure to occur.” Seeing as there is a shower, I strip out of my sweat covered clothes and start to inspect my body in more detail. I take off the bandages as well to properly clean my wounds I’ve sustained.

Taking off the bandages I realize the wounds are already healing now with a couple days old scabs. “How is this possible?” I look at the rest of my body in the mirror and see that I have the build of being lean and toned. I notice that my biceps are defined, and I have a six pack of abs. I notice a tear streak down my face. “I tried so hard in the army to have a better-looking body and now I have it. Genetics truly are not fair.” I push down my emotions and turn on the shower and wash myself and decide to wash my clothes and makeshift bandages as well. Once done I hang the clothes on the windowsill in the room and lie down with sigh. “Haa…I wish I could slow down a bit, but I need money so tomorrow I’ll head to the Adventurer’s guild. Hopefully I’ll get some answers to my questions that have been piling up. Well, that’s for future Ladon to worry about. Right now, it is time to sleep and recover.”