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Sunday, April 19, 2167

The Gray Ward

Dragon Heights, Wyoming

An older andtaller version of Cedrick manned the bounty office, and he regarded me through narrowed eyes. Like most dragons, the titanium carried himself with confidence. If I believed his expression, he believed me to be a worm, albeit an interesting one he had no interest in dispatching.

The lemur, which remained docile thanks to draconic magic, slept in my cupped hands, and I held it out. “This one isn’t doing so well.”

The dragon’s expression changed to something a little more neutral, and he came to investigate the lemur. “I see you were wise to wear gloves. These have a rather toxic bite.”

“It hasn’t tried to bite me, but it’s very sluggish, and I couldn’t find anything it would eat. I was able to give it water, but that was it.”

Going to the counter, the dragon retrieved a pair of gloves, slid them on, and took the lemur from me. “You must be Kinsley. Cedrick has told us much about you, the bounty huntress with a heart of gold and a weak spot for the animals.”

I nodded. “I know I can’t keep any of the lemurs, but they’re wretchedly cute. Will it be all right?”

“This one is a little girl, and she’ll be fine once in a better environment for her. She’s a little weak, but she isn’t obviously injured. She’s likely just hungry and scared. Those are curable enough problems. Let me go put her in the back, and I will bring your payment. How long have you had her?”

“I picked her up last night fairly late, and I came as soon as I could.”

“Good, then she did not get cold during the night. It’s a bit nippy out there for this time of year.”

I hadn’t noticed, but as soon as I’d figured out how to keep the lemur contained, I’d taken the quickest shower of my life before flopping into bed.

With free rent on the horizon and cash in hand, I would indulge and buy a new bed. I’d gotten mine at a thrift store, likely something a teen or child had outgrown.

I’d even indulge in a queen sized if the money worked out.

Ten minutes later, the dragon handed me a fairly thick envelope. “I took the liberty of auditing your bounties after Cedrick informed me you’d brought in a good number of live, healthy lemurs. We do adjust and audit if we receive rare acquisitions, but you need to ask if there was an audit done.”

Huh. I hadn’t known that—and I had checked the fine print. “That’s not what the contract says.”

The dragon flashed me a rather toothy grin. “We try to be fair, and the contract does say what we should be paying out. I recommend you request for your account to be audited mid-month. We try to be finished by the end of the first week, but delays sometimes happen. We also do not charge back if we were the one to make a mistake.”

“I’ll do that, thank you.”

“Tell me, Miss Kinsley. Do you plan on petitioning?”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “Me? No, not particularly. I couldn’t afford that bill anyway. Why do you ask?”

“You are liked, especially among the titanium dragons. Our magic sings when you bring us our bounties. We can tell, you know.” The dragon smirked. “Cedrick told me what you would do to us if we were to summon a rain of kittens, puppies, or ponies.”

“Well, I’d said horses, but ponies are included.”

“His talk with us made it clear we have, perhaps, caused some distress to you unintentionally. As such, I have prepared a gift. We will understand if you choose against accepting the gift, but I feel you will appreciate it.”

“Can I see what the gift is first?” I pocketed the envelope, wondering what was inside.

Dragons had a sense of humor. Once, I’d seen Cedrick give one of the greedier hunters a bulging envelope, filled with one dollar bills and coupons for stores in the Gold Ward, a place the dragon’s target could not afford. The bounty hunter had learned to be a little less greedy, although the dragons could not resist jabbing him whenever he did come by.

On second thought, the man had all the motive in the world to put an end to pilgrims, something I would keep in mind to write down after I finished my business with Cedrick’s father.

“You are such a delightful human. You would make a stunning dragoness, although you would turn our city upside down with all the eager dragons wanting to win a jewel such as yourself. Of course you may see the gift first, and I will even tell you all you need to make an educated decision.”

That worried me. “Thank you, sir.”

“Phillip,” he replied. “Don’t ask how many numbers come after it, for I would be required to go through my entire proud lineage, and such a thing would pain us both.”

“I thank you for your courtesy and generosity,” I replied.

“What a marvelous dragoness you would make,” he stated before heading off into the back.

When I next saw Cedrick, I would offer to rescue him from his family while stating I did not need to court any additional problems.

I had no desire to be responsible for another rain, and I’d already sacrificed enough and had no need for any more of my heritage rousing on me.

My parents had warned me, when I’d turned twelve, that I might wake up one day with some new gift from my ancestry. I’d already experienced such a thing not that long ago in the form of being able to conquer any jar to cross my path. As far as draconic powers went, it was both the most useless yet also the most useful.

I loved pasta.

Phillip returned carrying a small animal carrier in one hand and a rather irritated black cat in the other, holding it by its scruff. “The cat is not your gift, although if you could tame this bastard, you’re welcome to him. This is Monster, and he belongs to my wife. Monster, alas, is required to give you your gift. There is, I must admit, a process involved, although it will not take long to complete. The ancestors must be honored.”

Uh oh. I detected trouble in copious quantities headed my way. Dragons believed in a lot of things, including the power of the past influencing the future. Dragons chased after myth and lore, and they loved the thrill of uncovering the unknown and discovering how magic worked at every turn.

Monster, as though resigned to his owner’s insanity, heaved a sigh and regarded me with a rather baleful expression.

“Monster is a beautiful cat,” I said. “Are you sure you have correctly named him? His fur is glossy, he seems quite in good health, and you are still in possession of your hand while all four of his paws are available for his use.”

Phillip snickered, and he thrust the cat out to me. “Please hold him.”

I identified the trap, and a smarter person would have refused to accept a cat named Monster, but I did as told. Unlike Phillip, I arranged the cat so his front paws rested on my shoulders, and I secured a hold on his hind paws so his weight would rest on me rather than dangle. Monster did not attempt to murder me, instead rewarding me with a purr. “Please tell your wife that Monster is a lovely animal.”

“I shall do so.” Phillip set the animal carrier down on the floor, drew a circle with some chalk around it, and tossed down some red, uncut gemstones. “Throw Monster into the ring.”

“Throw?” I asked, raising a brow.

“He’s a cat. He won’t care. If you are suitable for your gift, he will poof back off to my wife’s loving embrace, and all will be well in the world.”

“Throw?”

Phillip sighed. “I suppose gently placing him into the ring might do, but I promise you, that little shit-eating jerk deserves to be thrown.”

“What did Monster do to deserve that?”

“He stole my pillow last night.”

Ah. I had heard similar issues with cat owners in the past. Sometimes, the cat picked the owner, and the owner wished the cat would pick someone else.

Phillip had been chosen, which said a lot about him.

Cats were often wise.

As I would not throw the cat, no matter how much Phillip wanted revenge for his interrupted sleep, I went over to the circle, eased the fluffy baby off my shoulder, and set him in the ring. The instant I released him, Monster vanished in a red glow. Little flickers of golden light danced in the luminescence lingering in the air, although after a few moments, the colors dimmed and faded away. “I hope he’s all right.”

“Monster is a conjuration given life. He was the gift of a necromancer grateful for a second lease on life, so when he saw a dying kitten, he created a healthy body for him and transferred his soul. That kitten is now Monster.”

I went cold at the mention of necromancy and that someone had broken through the divide between life and death. “He is alive?”

“He is as alive as you and I, and he will bleed if you cut him. He ages, just like any other cat, although he is a great deal more durable. The soul ages, and when his soul ages to its predestined limit, Monster will move on. All the necromancer did was change the date in an act of kindness. Consider it healing if necromancy bothers you. Monster’s original body was dying, so the necromancer conjured a body and gave it life, and so Monster lives. Perhaps in a slightly different form, but he is a cat living his best cat life.”

“I had no idea necromancers could do that,” I confessed.

“Necromancy is misunderstood, although we can all agree that one, perhaps, tested the boundaries of life and death a little too much for anyone’s comfort. Soul swapping is not a new concept, Kinsley. It has been around for a long time. The dying body did not require a soul, so all the necromancer did was give the kitten a little bit of a nudge and end Monster’s suffering through giving him a new body. Perhaps conjured, but souled. Cedrick informed me you had misgivings about the conjured animals that die.”

I wondered what game the dragon played, but I nodded.

He spoke the truth.

“They do not have souls and do not live. The bodies do not feel pain. They feel nothing. View the conjurations as models, elaborate models that could, if a soul were provided, begin to live, like Monster lives because a conjured body was available when his died. You do not view Monster as an aberration now, do you?”

“Of course not.”

“I hope this puts you at ease. Every conjuration, until the moment a soul is provided, is an empty shell. They are possibilities, and nothing more than that. As they lack souls, they rot, for they are not alive and were never alive. They have no capacity for anything, and they do not even breathe upon conjuration. There is no soul to provide the spark of life. And while we can conjure many beautiful things with our magic, we cannot conjure souls.”

I tensed, as something about the dragon’s word implied they had not conjured souls yet.

“Don’t look so alarmed, Kinsley. We’ve no interest in conjuring souls. There is too much risk involved with pursuing such things. When not even necromancers will toy with that magic, we are wise to follow their example.”

“Have I passed whatever test you just put me through?” I asked, deciding I would worry about the issue of conjurations another time.

A titanium dragon sharing space with me counted as a far more immediate problem.

“As a matter of fact, yes. Go ahead and open the carrier. The animal inside is quite young, so you will have to be her mother for a while. She’s already been taught her manners, however, so you won’t have problems on that front.”

“Her manners?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

As only a fool irritated a dragon, I went down to a knee in front of the carrier, popped open the door, and placed a hand on the ground so I could peer inside.

A tiny golden flicker of light hovered in the back of the cage. Puzzled, I eased my hand inside.

The ball of light, reminding me of a firefly in a way, retreated. I froze and waited, wondering what sort of animal I beheld. Patience paid off, as the flickering light eased forward and investigated my hand. Living warmth touched my skin, and I kept still so I wouldn’t startle her.

My knee and back protested my pose, but I refused to move, aware of how animals needed time to adapt, especially when they weren’t under the influence of over-enthusiastic dragons and their magic.

The light brightened, and the golden light made way for red fur frosted with white, oversized kitten ears, a fluffy tail, and tiny paws. Unlike cats, the animal’s paws were a glistening bright red, reminding me of gemstones.

The animal nuzzled my hand, which I took as an invitation to pet her.

I could lose many an hour stroking her plush coat. “What is she, Phillip?”

“Garnet is a carbunclo, and she was a gift from a Chilean ruby dragon for a favor my family had done for hers. Garnet is a great honor, but we do not have the appropriate temperament for her, so I inquired if we might bequeath our gift to you, who has shown much kindness without receiving sufficient kindness in return. In a matter of souls, you are unbalanced, for you have helped many more souls—few have helped you.”

“I was unaware that titanium dragons were concerned with such spiritual matters,” I admitted. “I thought titanium dragons were more of the fighters of the dragon world.”

Like their namesake metal, titanium dragons took being tough to extremes, difficult to kill at best. They died like other species, but most perished from old age rather than injury.

It took a lot of work to injure a titanium dragon to the point of death.

Phillip chuckled. “You are not wrong, although we are strategists as much as we are fighters. Our human children are harder to kill, and they’re more likely to survive the transformation from dragon-kin or human to dragon. We are like the metal we are named for, strong in many ways, but we are also unyielding. Garnet needs someone with a kinder spirit.”

“You all work to preserve many of the animals from the rains, and you call yourselves unkind?” I blurted.

Phillip chuckled and shrugged. “You shame us in that department, young Kinsley. We do our work out of a sense of duty. You do it for the little ones you rescue, even the toads.”

“Is Mouthy Asshole still doing well?”

“My wife instructed me to offer you an invitation to visit him, for it seems he enjoys fighting with humans and becomes sad should he not be given a chance to bite. You aren’t afraid of him. Many are.”

“Well, I’m not afraid of him when there are dragons willing to heal me around and I have gloves,” I corrected. As Garnet had not protested my attention, I picked her up and got back to my feet, cradling her against me.

Her gemstone paws cooled my skin in contrast with the rest of her, which radiated warmth.

“Carbunclo are affectionate creatures, so you will either have the company of a feline or she will make use of her other form. If you need a light in the darkness, she can be that for you. She can also fit in places cats otherwise could not. While I don’t think she’ll ever learn to speak, some carbunclo do. Unless you decide to petition, she will live many lifespans beyond yours. She will outlive even dragon-kin.”

“Well, if she’s going to be living lifespans beyond me as a human, then she’ll live almost as many lifespans beyond that of a dragon-kin. They aren’t that far ahead of us.”

For some, the extra forty years meant something. I would need a lot more reasons than I had to want to tack on forty extra years. Or, if I were to do as my parents pleased, hundreds upon hundreds of extra years.

“This is true. So, her care is simple enough. Feed her whatever you are eating, and she will be pleased. She has a rather strong interest in shiny things, especially when they are made of stone. You need not buy her diamonds, but she will appreciate any stone you search for yourself and gift to her. You will want to make her a little bed, although do not be surprised if she joins you in yours.”

“If she can become light at her will, what kept her in that carrier?” I asked.

“She wanted to be there,” the dragon replied.

Well, that changed things, and no matter what little bad habits she picked up or how much work she ended up being, if she wanted to come home with me, I wouldn’t deny her. “Please tell me she uses a litter pan.”

“She is trained to use a litter pan, but she can also make use of a toilet if there is one available. She even has enough strength to flush, although she uses a bit of magic for that. Her light form can be converted to bursts of pressure or mass, allowing her to manipulate things like toilet handles.”

“I’ll make sure both are available to her,” I promised.

Two mouths to feed might become a problem later, but it was a problem I would deal with while smiling.

I enjoyed the idea of no longer being alone all the time.

“Excellent. Grooming her will be a simple enough chore. Use a regular brush meant for cats. I recommend keeping the fur you gather. It can be spun into thread for embroidery and the like. Perhaps a hobby to keep you at home, amused, and in good company with Garnet.”

“I know nothing about spinning fur,” I admitted.

“There is no better time to learn than the present. I can introduce you to someone who can teach you and provide more mundane fur for you to practice on.”

“I’d like that.” Perhaps a hobby might make me a little happier even though it wouldn’t put food on my table or pay my rent. “Thank you.”

“And thank you for bringing in the lemur. I’ve found that most would have left it to face its fate alone. You have saved its life, and while it cannot show appropriate gratitude, I can.”

“Well, I see where Cedrick gets his base personality from. It must be learned from you.”

“In some things, yes. In others, not so much. Your kindness is appreciated. Do be careful out there. It’s a dangerous world. You can take her carrier with you. She views it as a safe place, but she will stay with you. She knows she belongs with you as much as you belong with her now.”

The dragon had given me much to think about, and I thanked him again, picked up Garnet’s carrier in one hand and held her with the other.

At home, I would worry about the envelope’s contents and ponder why a titanium dragon had been waiting for me in the shop with gifts.