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Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Morva Asari, Siratha

As I continued exploring the city with a smile on my face, the blue sky steadily faded to black and time started to pass once more.

From intricate runes being everywhere to just about every common civilian being as strong as low to mid rank adventurers, the city was full of interesting things.

Most interesting among them though, were carvings of the sun and moon representing the two gods they worship but no matter how hard I looked, almost all of the information I could find about the gods themselves was very basic.

To sum it up quickly, the gods represented not only the sun and moon, but also yin and yang, life and death, and light and darkness.

From my knowledge of the concepts, I expected these gods to be in constant opposition, but according to the few people who actually responded to me, the gods were known to never oppose one another.

It was a fascinating concept that made me hungry to learn more, but I quickly hit a wall shortly after that. For the most part, any additional information I could find was more on the ‘mighty doings’ of the gods rather than who they were or how they acted.

According to a wonderful older elven woman though, if I traveled to the capital during the pilgrimage, I would be able to get those questions answered. -So what should I do in the meantime then?-

Under no circumstance did I want to stay in the city longer than I needed to, but that changed when I ran into a pure dragon around Mother’s age.

Although her personality was a little questionable at times, it felt good to actually let myself form a relationship with someone and not have to constantly remind myself of their inevitable death.

Her name was Amara Chalkos, a strong and youthful dragon who started traveling the world after the unfortunate loss of her younger brother. She was quite the cheerful type but as I got closer to her, it became more obvious she took care of her younger siblings growing up.

She was always the one to try and take the lead in things, and acted like a motherly sibling. This side of her became even more well defined when I met her current traveling companion, a halfie named Yolanda who, coincidentally, was one of Bj?rn's only friends and strongly reminded me of Maria. [1]

But, even with their odd quirks, they were a group that was very careful with each other's identities so I fit in well.

It felt good to finally get close with people outside of my family, but after a few months of small-scale magic practice and general socializing, I started feeling like I needed to break away and be alone again.

It wasn’t that I didn't enjoy spending time with them though, instead, I just felt an odd sense of urgency building deep in my gut. It was this feeling in my gut that told me I wasn't getting stronger and making progress fast enough.

Although the 'gift' from Amphitrite gave me tons of headroom to grow, being in a highly populated city and in my humanoid form was more than limiting.

What I planned to do was fly into the desert to the east and do some more aggressive training with magic and with Ilios. Before I could finalize what I was going to do though, Amara came to the inn I was staying at.

*knock-knock*

-What is she doing here?- I was laid out on the bed playing with magic while Ilios cuddled my tail when she arrived. "You can come in."

*Click* "Sorry for intruding, Vasilias.." Amara, although close to Mother in age, acted much younger.

"You're fine. So what did you come for?" Pausing the experiment I was doing, I looked down and saw her giving me a warm smile.

She slowly walked over to the table and sat on the edge. "I noticed that you seemed to have more on your mind than usual the past week or so.."

Encompassing the room in silencing magic, I continued casually. "Yeah, you could say that."

"So what's up? Are you planning on leaving?"

My ears twitched a bit as she hit the nail on the head. "Yeah, although I can't really say why, I need to get stronger and my growth rate here is pretty constraining... I love spending time with you guys but now just isn't the right time for it."

"Haha, I think I know what you mean..." Her laugh somehow didn't seem forced at all. "Do you know exactly where you're going yet?"

"No, I was thinking of going to the desert to the east though. If its there, I can mess with some really large scale magic without worry." -Being able to play with nuclear in a safe environment would be great..-

"That would work, but there are some pretty strong monsters in there that even I would struggle a bit with..."

"You already kn-"

"I know, I know. I just figured I'd give a downside to it no matter how insignificant."

-What?- "Why?"

"Well I have to give a downside to be able to provide a better solution, right?" She wore a playful smile that piqued my curiosity.

Before long, she managed to convince me of a better spot and gave me some pretty detailed directions, but she made me promise something in the process.

"All I ask is that you keep the place somewhat clean and that you come back for the pilgrimage. I'd like to go with someone I can really enjoy talking to. We can go with Bj?rn and Yolanda, I'm sure they'd appreciate it as well."

"So I just need to come back in 3 years? That should be fine.." Although my original plan was to train and practice for a while then go straight to the capital, I figured it couldn't be a bad idea to travel with others.

"Good. So when are you planning on leaving?"

An awkward look came to my face as I sat up and swung my legs off the side of the bed. "I planned to leave as soon as I figured out what I was doing, so.. I'll be leaving after meeting up with Yolanda and Bj?rn."

"Haha, now that's a look I've never seen on you!” Her smile was innocent yet mocking before turning sincere again.

“There’s no need to be awkward, it's not like you're leaving forever.

I'm just glad I finally found a way to help you out after all this time.

" Her bright smile showed off all her bright white teeth.

Before long, a smile ended up creeping back onto my face. "Haha, I told you that you didn't need to worry about that." As I stood up, I released the silencing magic and walked to the door.

Amara quickly ran up and hooked her arm around my neck. "And I told you that I was going to repay you no matter what!"

There was a short silence as I reached for the doorknob. "Haah, you really are stubborn."

"Hey, you're a dragon yourself, you don't have much room to stand on!"

"Since when was- Ah well, maybe you have a point, haha." With a smile on my face and a bit of friendly banter, we walked out of the inn and headed down the road to meet with Bj?rn and Yolanda.

Although I wanted to give a quick farewell and get to the road, Bj?rn didn't have any active jobs so we ended up going to the bar across the street.

It wasn't until things started to slow down that Bj?rn finally mentioned the topic at hand.

"So you're finally leaving?" He wore a look of content as he leaned back in his seat.

*Thump* Setting down the wooden mug, I gave him a look of surprise. "You knew?"

"Yeah, Amara mentioned it to us a few days ago."

-So that's why they were acting a bit differently recently..- "Haha well, that makes things easier. I'm going to be heading to the west for a few years."

"A few years? So that means you're actually going to come back?" Bj?rn’s look of joy caught me a bit off guard.

The way he spoke sounded as if he knew I was a dragon, but I knew that wasn't possible. -Amara probably just told them it was a possibility..- "Yeah, Amara convinced me to travel to the capital with you guys for the pilgrimage."

"Woohoo!" Yolanda looked ecstatic. "In that case, when you come back you owe us all drinks!"

"Haha, alright. I'll buy each of you something tastey on my way back." -Maybe I should head to the east and get something really good..-

There was a short silence as I thought to myself.

"Well, in any case, we'll stop holding you back." Bj?rn slowly stood up and reached his hand across the table.

A smile came to my face as I gripped onto his hand. "The past few months have been fun, I'm glad you guys were nice enough to give me company."

"It's the least I could do for my savior!" Bj?rn puffed up his chest.

Glancing behind him I saw Yolanda looking at me with a warm smile as if to tell me thank you.

-Haah.. to think she really fell for him..- I tried to convince her out of it, but nothing I said changed anything. -Maybe I should develop a magic to increase humanoid's life spans.. maybe to be on par with the elves...-

As I fell into thought, Bj?rn let go of my hand and Amara turned to me. "Well, I guess this is farewell for a bit." Unlike Bj?rn, her face was a bright smile.

It was quite refreshing and quickly lightened my mood back up. "Yeah, I'll be sure to take care of the place!"

In the next moment, Amara used wind magic to whisper to me. "I'll be sure to keep them safe while you're gone so don't worry." She flashed me a warm smile before turning back to Yolanda.

"Hah..” I chuckled a bit as she misinterpreted my worries. “In that case, I will take my leave. Be safe everyone!"

"Haha, we will!" Bj?rn gave a smile and a wave as he sat back down.

"You too Vasilias!" Yolanda wore a bright smile as she sneakily hung her arms over Bj?rn's shoulders.

"Don't make too much of a mess!" Amara flashed a smile at me before moving to pull Yolanda off of Bj?rn.

-Haha, it's good to see that everyone is in high spirits.- A warm smile came to my face as I looked down at Ilios who was perched up against my leg. "Well, shall we go?"

"Woof!"

"Haha, alright!" Giving him a quick head rub, we turned for the door and started our trip to the west.