Path of Dragons

Book 4: Chapter 2: Getting Settled

The next morning, Elijah awoke feeling refreshed, and it actually took him a few moments to remember the burden of vengeance he’d taken upon himself. The moment he settled into those thoughts, his mood darkened, but he forced the roiling emotions into their own facet, where he could ignore them at least long enough to do what needed to be done.

Because as much as he wanted to simply rush off to Easton, he knew he had a lot to accomplish before he could do so without worry. For one, he needed to finish getting Carmen and the others settled, and that meant introducing them to Ironshore. Then, he had a few other minor tasks to accomplish before he could, in good conscience, fully embrace his new mission.

And one larger task, though that would have to wait until after a visit to Ironshore.

To that end, he pushed himself out of bed, then took care of his business in the bathroom before taking a long, hot shower. To his delight, Nerthus had adjusted both the water pressure as well as the temperature, so even with his high Constitution, Elijah could feel the change. In the days before Earth’s transformation, it might’ve felt like he was being pressure washed by near-boiling water, but now? It was soothing.

So, Elijah took a little longer than absolutely necessary before he stepped out of the shower and dressed. After that, he completely emptied his satchel, placing everything in separate piles, depending on their type. Magical items went in one section, while leftover meat went into another. The few berries he had left found their way into another section, while his clothing – which was universally soiled – was in another pile. There were bits and pieces of animal hide, a few teeth, and some wooden trinkets he’d carved during his downtime.

It was shocking, how much would fit into the Ghoul-Hide Satchel, and looking at his accumulated possessions, Elijah had no choice but to come to one, simple conclusion: he’d become a bit of a packrat.

With that in mind, he set upon the items, earmarking much of it for disposal. He didn’t need a half-dozen poorly preserved rabbit furs, after all. Nor did he need a collection of snake fangs. The same could be said for Thor’s clothing, which Elijah had looted. The cloth was nothing special, and it was all sized to fit a giant. Besides, it was all bloodstained and had been ripped to pieces by the battle. So, it went into the heap of items meant to be discarded.

The man’s armor was a different story. It was mundane. Not even Crude-Grade. And Elijah questioned why such a powerful fighter had bothered wearing armor that was, by every metric Elijah could use, inferior to the man’s bare skin. Perhaps it was meant to assuage the Thor’s vanity. After all, he’d seemed to have chosen his attire to portray a specific aesthetic. Or maybe it had held sentimental value, though from what he knew of the former high-ranker, that didn’t seem likely.

Either way, Elijah wasn’t in the habit of discarding good metal or cured leather. So, he kept that.

As for the magical items, there were a few that had yet to be identified. Like the fanged necklace. Or even Elijah’s new staff. He suspected that it would help his shapeshifting in some way, but he couldn’t be certain of anything until he had Atticus identify it. The Ghoul-Hide Satchel’s functions were easier to discern, but Elijah wanted to get it appraised as well.

The same was true of his Weighted Gloves.

The canteen, too.

Finally, the meat went into his cold storage. It would keep for a while in there, and though Elijah knew he wouldn’t remain on the island long, he intended to leave it there for Carmen and Miguel. They couldn’t hunt as easily as he could, so that seemed the most prudent course of action.

The pile of clothes – as well as his Cloak of the Iron Bear – got a generous dusting of cleansing powder. It would take a couple of hours for that to work, so he donned his lone clean pair of pants before heading out to the grove to refamiliarize himself with everything. He could, of course, sense the entire island right down to the tiniest insect, but there was something about actually laying eyes on the flora that made all the difference.

For a while, he just walked among the bushes and flowers, delighting in the aromas as well as the fat honeybees buzzing about. Thankfully, those insects hadn’t been changed by the touch of the World Tree. Upon finding his patch of lavender, he picked some so that he could get another batch of infused oil going. And of course, as he walked through the grove, he didn’t hesitate to grab a couple of berries here and there.

But eventually, his path took him to his coffee trees. Each one had reached almost twenty feet in height, which was abnormally large for that species. However, Elijah chalked that increased size up to the presence of ethera that had grown so many other things out of proportion.

The cherries were still green, which meant that they weren’t yet ripe. But he could sense that it wouldn’t be long before they were ready to be plucked. Then, he’d have all the coffee he could drink. And hopefully, it would have some special effects, just like his berries.

He was inspecting his trees when Carmen approached. He’d felt her awaken nearly forty-five minutes before, but he’d pointedly not paid much attention to the facet of his Mind that was dedicated to monitoring his Domain. Everyone deserved at least a little privacy, after all.

“Sleep well?” he asked, resting his hand on one of the trees’ branches. He held out his other hand, asking, “Berry?”

“I did. That moss bed was probably the most comfortable place I’ve ever slept,” she admitted, taking one of the berries. She let out an audible sigh upon popping it into her mouth. “Why does every one of these taste different?”

“I don’t know,” Elijah admitted. “Ethera is weird.”

“You can say that again. Are these coffee trees?”

“Yeah,” Elijah answered, finally looking back at her with a grin. He almost felt it, too, but he knew he was forcing it. Perhaps the day would come when every thought wasn’t accompanied by pangs of loss, but for now, he would just have to fake emotions other than grief or anger. To distract himself, Elijah explained how he’d gotten the Miracle Seed. “And after that, Nerthus helped me turn one tree into a whole grove. Though when I made my calculations, I only made enough for personal use. I guess I’m lucky they’re a lot bigger than I expected.”

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“What are we planning for today?” she asked.

“Well, I’m about to train a little,” Elijah said. “About an hour or so. By the time I’m done, everyone over in Ironshore should be awake. So, we’re going over there so I can get your friends settled. You and Miguel are welcome to live here on the island, but I don’t want the others here.” Then, his hand found the back of his neck and he added, “Uh…if you want to live here, I mean. Totally get it if you don’t want to, what with my localized omnipotence. Well, omniscience, at least.”

“What?”

“I’m not all-powerful, but I am all-knowing.”

“I know what the two words mean, Elijah. What are you talking about?” she asked, annoyed.

“Well, I kind of know everything that happens here on the island. Everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

“That’s…disturbing,” she said.

“Try living with it. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but if I didn’t have a Quartz Mind, I’d have already gone nuts, I’m sure. But Opal kind of kept it in check too, so who knows.”

“It would be silly not to live here. For Miguel, at least – the increased ethera density has to be beneificial,” she said. “And I’d love to know more about cultivation. I haven’t stepped on that path yet, but I’m beginning to think that I need to remedy that. I don’t intend to fight, but I’m certain that it will help me with smithing.”

“Oh – yeah. Speaking of that, the town over there across the strait? They have a mine where they’ve found some sort of special metal,” Elijah said. “I don’t remember what it was called, but Carisa – she’s the dwarf in charge – seemed really excited about it. So did Ramik, come to think of it.”

After that, Carmen seemed a lot more excited about visiting Ironshore. However, Elijah meant to keep to his plan, not least because he didn’t want to barge in on Ramik before the goblin even had a chance to properly wake up. So, after extricating himself from Carmen’s interrogation on magical ores, he retreated to the beach, where he restarted the training routine he followed each time he was home.

And he was more than a little surprised to find that everything was quite a bit easier than it had ever been. To make things more productive, he found a couple of huge rocks to carry around while he swam, ran, and did various acrobatics. Still, it was only marginally taxing, at least until he went through his yoga routine in his lamellar ape form.

That was still just as challenging as ever.

About halfway through, he felt Colt approach. The slim swordsman asked if he wanted to spar a bit, and Elijah consented. That’s when he discovered just how lacking his staff-fighting technique was. Even though he knew he should have had a host of advantages on his side – regarding attributes, cultivation, and the general superiority of his chosen weapon – he found himself being soundly beaten by the one-armed man.

Of course, in a real fight, Elijah would have simply switched to one of his bestial forms and ripped Colt to shreds. But that wasn’t the point, and it drove home the notion that he needed quite a lot of practice before he could ever consider himself competent with his staff.

Fortunately, Colt was willing to give him plenty of pointers, so Elijah felt that he made decent progress, even though their practice session only lasted for an hour. After that, he resolved to continue training with the man for as long as he remained on the island.

Part of that was simple necessity. He couldn’t afford to be so vulnerable in his caster form, and his fight with Thor had hammered that into him. In that battle, Elijah could only retreat and hope to delay the man long enough to pounce on any weakness. Hopefully, with enough practice, he could fix that deficiency, because if Colt had proven anything, it was that attributes weren’t everything. Technique counted for quite a lot.

Elijah would have been lying to himself if he didn’t admit that his competitive spirit was responsible for the rest of that resolution. He’d never taken losing well. Usually, his response was to train harder, and this situation was no different.

After that, the pair returned to the grove, where they found everyone else up and about. The spares – as Elijah referred to Theresa and Byron – remained in the treehouse, obviously afraid to offend him by venturing out of bounds. Elijah hadn’t gone out of his way to disabuse them of that notion, largely because he wasn’t comfortable with strangers wandering around his island.

In any case, he returned to his own treehouse, took a blisteringly quick shower, then dressed in his now-clean clothes. He was certain to don his normal magical kit as well. That included his two rings – the Ring of Aquatic Travel that would let him breathe underwater and the often-useless Ring of Anonymity that would give the ability to disguise his identity. Next came his Weighted Gloves, which he willed to disappear a moment after slipping them onto his hands. After that, he tied his Sash of the Whirlwind in place before wrapping the Silver Bracer of Rage around his forearm. Finally, he slipped the Ghoul-Hide Satchel on, settled the Cloak of the Iron Bear over his shoulders, fastened it in place with the silver toggles, then took up his Dragon-Touched Staff.

Thus equipped, he descended from his treehouse and joined the others before leading them to his collection of rowboats. It was then that he remembered just how much he hated rowing across the strait. At first, he was tempted to simply shift into the Shape of the Sky and fly across, but that could very well cause issues with his neighbors. On top of that, it wouldn’t really save any time because Camen and the others would still have to paddle across.

So, it was with some regret that, after everyone was onboard, he shoved the rowboat into the water, leaped aboard, and began the arduous task of rowing everyone across. Of course, some of the others – including the one-armed Colt – offered to help, but he insisted he was fine with it. He even said he enjoyed it, for some indefinable reason.

Regardless, he guided the small boat across the strait with ease, and only twenty minutes later, they arrived at the dock.

Of course, suspicious glances from the residents of Ironshore soon found them. Elijah was used to that, though. So, he wasted no time in tying the boat off and helping everyone onshore.

After that, they headed to Ramik’s office. For his part, the dapper goblin mayor was happy to see Elijah, and he was eager to share that they’d established trade relations with Norcastle on the other side of the mountain range.

“That’s awesome,” Elijah said, forcing a smile. He hadn’t even remembered that they were trying to liaise with the human city, but he was glad of any success Ironshore could find. He had long suspected that their fate would be tied to his, after all. As they rose, so too would he.

Especially since humans were integrating into the town.

“There are only a few so far, but we expect more to come from Norcastle,” Ramik said proudly. “We’re growing, Elijah. In a few years, we may even turn a profit!”

Soon after, Elijah had made arrangements for Theresa and Byron to stay in the city. Both had a few levels under their belts, and Ramik seemed thrilled by their Classes. Next, Elijah took Carmen to see the mine foreman, Carisa. The dwarven woman was even happier to meet Carmen – after discovering she was a Blacksmith – than Ramik had been about the pair of Scholars, and before long, the dwarf and his sister-in-law had forgotten he was even there.

So, Elijah, Colt, and Miguel went to the Stuck Pig, where they enjoyed a nice meal. It was a bit early for lunch, but it only took a whiff of the succulent smells of roasting meat to get the other two onboard.

After that, Elijah ran some errands – buying some supplies for soapmaking, more cleansing powder, and rations – before finally going back to fetch Carmen. She had somehow found an anvil, and was deep into a demonstration for Carissa.

“I’ll return to the island once I’m done,” Carmen said. “You go ahead.”

“It’s getting dark soon,” Elijah responded.

“Then I’ll stay the night here. I’m sure Carissa can find a place for me to bunk,” Carmen stated dismissively. After the dwarven foreman eagerly agreed to that, the pair practically pushed Elijah out of the mining office.

“It wasn’t so long ago that I was sneaking through town and murdering ritualists,” he mused.

“What was that, hoss?” asked Colt.

“Huh?”

“Somethin’ ‘bout murderin’ ritualists?”

“Nothing. I’m sure you misheard. Let’s go,” Elijah said, already walking toward the dock.