All The Skills

"Something isn't right about this," Arthur muttered to Brixaby.

The little dragon sank fast, without any of the grace that the older dragons with larger wings possessed. Brixaby didn't glide; he simply buzzed downward, leveling off only when he felt like it – but not before jinking right and left to avoid other dragons passing by.

"What's wrong? We won and sent the enemy back with their tails between their legs." Brixaby blithely ignored the fact that there were several final ongoing skirmishes on the ground by Mind Singer thralls that had been forced to land. But they were being subdued by the hive dragons, and a few of the humans who had come in to help.

That was one area where the crafters excelled, especially those who had cards that dealt with textiles. More than one dragon was snarling and struggling, bound up in cloth ropes that shouldn't have been as strong as they were. Another was draped so thickly in chains that Arthur couldn’t tell if it was male or female. A third had her head sticking up out of a giant, dragon-sized roll of carpet.

It was a goofy solution. Arthur imagined the Kingdom hives would have called it undignified, but if little tricks like that kept the enemy dragons contained, Arthur couldn't fault them.

He pointed to the dragon rolled up in the giant carpet. "Let's start there."

Brixaby buzzed over in a moment and came to such an abrupt stop that Arthur was nearly thrown over his neck. At the last moment, he locked his knees and held on.

New skill level: Dragon Riding (Animal Husbandry/ Dragon Rider Class)

New level: 15

Huh. It had been a while since he had leveled that skill up.

Dismounting, he walked over to the still-struggling yellow dragon and the man watching over her. He was an older fellow with a completely bald head and a nose that could have been better described as a beak. But what really set him apart from the others was the look of deep satisfaction on his face as he gazed at the yellow dragon. It wasn't cruelty or malice. It was accomplishment.

He glanced over at Arthur as he walked up and nodded with a bob of his head. "So, I suppose you're the Legendary rider everybody's been talking about?"

Arthur had a moment to contrast the stiff formality—even fear—of Wolf Moon Hive folk versus what he experienced regularly here.

"Yes, I'm Arthur, and this is Brixaby. I assume this is your work?" He gestured to the carpet.

"Indeed it is," came the reply, again that look of satisfaction crossing his face. "Though, I'll say that Kloy here doesn’t seem to be in the right mind to appreciate it."

In response, Kloy, the yellow dragon, howled in rage—though strangely with a musical note behind it—and bit down on the roll of carpet that imprisoned her. She managed to tear through it with her teeth. At a gesture from the man, the carpet repaired itself instantly.

"Kloy?" Brixaby asked. "You know her?"

"She’s my sister's dragon, from another hive," the man answered. "Though, I don't know where my sister is. And Kloy isn’t telling me."

"Let's ask her, then." Arthur stepped up to the still-bound dragon and concentrated on his mental shield area of effect skill.

He felt the skill cast out into a wide, though invisible bubble. Instantly, the yellow dragon's howling fell short. She blinked and looked around.

Then, in a high, but surprisingly clear voice, she asked, "Where am I?"

The man stepped forward. "You’re in the Free Hive, Kloy."

"Georgie? Is that you?" She squinted down at the man in shock, then at herself, all bundled up. "Is this supposed to be a prank? Where is Perita?"

Brixaby flew up to hover practically nose to nose with the other dragon. "You attacked my hive, and now you will answer my questions. What can you tell me of the Mind Singer?”

"Who?"

"The scourgeling that took over your mind! What are her plans? What were her orders?"

"A scourgeling? I assure you, I don't know what you're talking about. I was going to get a snack, and Perita, my rider, was to watch my eggs—my eggs!" She gasped, then wiggled more fiercely than ever before. " Georgie, let me out of here. This isn't funny. Where is my clutch? Where are my eggs?" She looked around, worried. "Where am I? Why am I in your hive, Georgie?"

The man, Georgie, glanced at Arthur for permission. At Arthur's nod, he gestured, and the large, intricate carpet unrolled itself, dumping out the yellow dragon. The carpet instantly snapped several times in the air, ridding itself of all dust before it wrapped itself into a neat bundle again. That, Arthur suspected, was likely his card power – a power over rug and carpet cleaning. But with enough time and skill, Georgie had adjusted it to do his bidding.

The yellow dragon was unceremoniously dumped out but leaped to her feet again, a frantic look in her eyes.

"Where are my eggs? Where is my rider?" She might have taken to the sky, but Brixaby hovered above her and gave a deep growl.

Kloy, finally seeming to sense Brixaby's rank, quailed.

"We're trying to find out what happened,” Arthur said, feeling a twinge for her. "Your hive was taken over with mind magic. And the one responsible sent you to attack our hive."

Kloy's gasp of horror did not sound fake. "But what happened to my clutch and my rider?"

Brixaby was… less than emphatic. "Why don't you tell us? I command you to tell me the last thing you remember."

She straightened. "I told you. I needed to eat. I had freshly laid my eggs only three days ago, and I left my rider behind to go grab a lamb from the pens. I flew out of the hatching ground and I heard... a song?" She cocked her head, the scales over her muzzle crinkling as if she wasn't sure of her own memory. "And the next thing I know, I woke up here."

"Nothing else?" Arthur asked. "No orders? You don't remember the scourgeling? Or how many others she had with her?"

"I don't remember anything at all. I just woke up here." She gave Arthur an annoyed look, but then glanced around, seeing the other dragons, many of whom she likely recognized, Kloy slumped. "I don't know what's going on. Please, sir, may I return to my clutch?"

Arthur exchanged a glance with Brixaby who shrugged his wings. "I don't know if it's safe yet,” Arthur said, “For now, stay here with your rider's brother."

"But what about my eggs? I trust my rider, but she is human. Only a dragon knows how to take care of her eggs."

"Kloy, it sounds like it may be dangerous to return right now," Georgie said. "You know how devoted Perita is. She'll keep your eggs safe."

The yellow dragon looked less than certain but also so lost that she didn't have much of an argument. After glancing again at Brixaby and seeing his stern expression, she nodded.

Arthur gestured to Brixaby, and the two of them stepped away to speak in private. Arthur lowered his voice.

"Do you think it's a coincidence that she's a nesting mother, and the Mind Singer’s other dragons just took off with the Free Hive's eggs?"

"What would a scourgeling want with eggs?" Brixaby demanded. "Eggs are useless until they hatch, and then baby dragons are useless for months afterward. Unless, of course, they are Legendary," he added. "But Kloy is only a Common."

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"You came from a Common," Arthur reminded him. But then he shook his head. "It may be a coincidence, but I don't like this. Where are Joy and Cressida?" He'd lost track of them during the fighting and only caught a glimpse of the two helping to put down the last of the skirmishes. Glancing around, he caught a flash of Joy’s bright hide wheeling in the sky to the north. They weren’t in a fight – it seemed she was keeping a lookout.

“Brixaby, send a message: I want them to go back to the Free hive and tell me what's happening there.”

Brixaby nodded, and his eyes, his blood-red eyes, focused for a moment as he mentally sent along the order – a holdover from a mental card he had consumed. “Done.”

Meanwhile, Arthur turned to the rest of the subdued dragons.

Now that the tide of battle had turned, more and more reinforcements had come from the Free Hive to see how they could help. Many brought along healers on their backs.

Brixaby grumbled at their late arrival, but Arthur decided to be generous and assume the latecomers hadn't received any of the combat cards. They were crafters and couldn't fight outright. But they could help now.

However, once this was over, he intended to speak to the council and get a list of who exactly could fight, and their general capabilities.

They had gotten lucky that the Mind Singer had only sent a couple hundred dragons this time. Had it been a whole hive's worth... well. He doubted the battle would have gone their way.

Was it luck? Or something else? And why did the Mind Singer go after the eggs?

He set those worries aside for now and concentrated on visiting the groups of subdued, enemy dragons and freeing them from the Mind Singer's control. He had to work at a methodical pace to allow his mana to recharge. The spell helped, but after a few hours, his insides—his spirit—felt sore. Like he was exercising a muscle that didn't normally get a lot of use.

It was a discomfort he could set aside. The dragons, and the people, were more important.

It was satisfying to see blank eyes become focused again. Though, like Yellow Kloy, none of them seemed to have a memory of falling under the Mind Singer's control. They had gone about their day, then woke up and found themselves confused in a brand new place. Some of them were rightfully upset to find that they were injured during their ‘missing time’.

More than once, Brixaby had to flex his Legendary dragon authority to keep brand-new squabbles from breaking out.

The more dragons who woke up from their spell and claimed not to know anything, the more Brixaby became frustrated. “You mean to say that you let a scourgeling all the way into your hive, take over your dragons and riders, and you didn't even put up a defense? You didn't notice?” he demanded while buzzing around the head of a sheepish-looking pink dragon.

Brixaby was harder on this one than the others because the pink was one of the few Rares that had come through the portal.

“I don't know what happened,” the pink dragon said as he gingerly flexed a wing. Unlike Joy, there was no shimmer quality to his hide at all. His color was a washed-out pale red. “I was taking a break from work — my card specializes in logistics, and we just had a meeting planning out the best crop rotations, you see. It was midday, and the rocks were nice and warm. I went up for a nap. Then I woke up... here.”

Brixaby snorted in disgust.

“How do we know that you didn't kidnap us?” piped up a young green common dragon. “How do we know it was a scourgeling at all? Maybe you’re the one with mind magic!”

Brixaby turned a withering glare at her, and she shrank back.

“I protect the dragons under my care,” Brixaby said coldly, turning his angry eyes back on the pink. “As any higher-ranked dragon should. No scourgeling would ever creep up on me.”

The pink dragon gulped but got the hint and extended a wing over the young Common green as if to cover her.

Brixaby snorted again and turned away.

Meanwhile, Arthur wasn’t having luck with the human contingent.

“There wasn't any warning at all,” one woman said. “I was washing some clothes – I'm on laundry duty today, and I thought I heard a song on the wind. Sort of far away. I was wondering if there was a festival about to break out. And the next thing I know,” she shrugged. “I’m here.”

Arthur nodded, then directed her to join the rest of the abled-bodied on the trek back to the Free Hive where they could get shelter and something to eat. Then he went on to the next group.

This one contained the silver with the mana card.

Brixaby buzzed down to join him. For a horrified moment, Arthur thought he was going to try to land on his shoulder. But Brixaby seemed to remember his new size at the last second and instead landed on the ground to walk beside Arthur. On the ground, the slight arch of his spine reached Arthur's ribs. Arthur slung an arm over Brixaby's back, just because he could. He still hadn't gotten over how much his dragon had grown.

“You did good today during the battle,” he said.

“Of course I did,” Brixaby said, his head lifting in pride. “And it was much more convenient to have you flying with me, than riding on someone else. Though, the first thing we do once we reach the Mesa Free Hive is to commission a riding saddle for you. I will not have my rider falling off in battle.”

"I'd rather not fall off in battle too,” Arthur agreed.

Then he paused for a moment and looked around. While there were people everywhere, everyone seemed busy. There was so much chaos he was almost certain they weren’t being watched.

Arthur took a chance.

“Brix, I don’t like this. Is your Return to Start anchor still keyed to Wolf Moon Hive?”

His dragon looked surprised. “We cannot go back. That would be leaving Joy and her rider–”

“No.” He shook his head. “I think we should key it here. Not at the Mesa Free Hive. Right here.” He tapped several pebbles with his foot. “The council may turn on us for the combat cards, or try to pin the missing eggs on us somehow. Or maybe the Mind Singer will open up a new portal late in the night and attack the hive. I don’t want to be trapped in there.”

Brixaby made a pensive growling sound under his breath. “I suppose one escape route is as good as another. If I must use that card, I would rather not find myself back at Wolf Moon at this point.”

He reached down and plucked a pebble. It glowed brightly as he keyed into it. Then he dropped it on the ground. Arthur repeated the process with a pebble of his own.

Return to Start was an escape hatch – one they hadn’t had to take yet. Arthur hoped that they wouldn’t need it, but it was good to have.

With a mutual nod, they continued toward the group of dragons.

Brixaby looked ahead to the silver and his rider who were standing sullenly beside some healers. The silver seemed to be focused on the rider more than the dragon, though there were still streaks of dried blood that ran down the dragon's ears. A result of Brixaby’s stunning shout.

The look he turned on Brixaby was murderous, and Arthur thought he caught a little bit of distortion in the air around him as if he were readying a spell.

Arthur cut that off immediately by extending out his mental blocking shield.

It took a few more seconds than usual – likely some interaction between the silver's natural magic and his own. Then the silver blinked pale blue eyes and looked around. “Where am I? My rider? Hershel!” He nearly shoved the healers aside to check on his rider. “What happened to him? Will he be okay?”

"I weary of explaining this over and over,” Brixaby sighed but trotted forward to do just that – in a blunt, unfriendly way.

Arthur stepped close to the healers to exchange a word. “Will he recover?”

“Yes sir, in time. Though he may have headaches for the next week or two. It's almost like he was bludgeoned upside the head, though we don't see any impact...”

“It's a sonic injury,” Arthur said, nodding to his dragon.

The healer blanched. “From a Legendary? Then he's lucky to be alive.”

Nodding, Arthur turned to Brixaby who was giving the silver the most insulting offer to join his retinue, ever.

“And of course, I already have a reliable second hand, but I shall require you at my side to serve me.”

“I'll... think about it,” the silver said.

“It's a shame that very useful mana card is your core card – pity. I would very much like to have it.” Brixaby gave a long lingering look at the silver's chest.

Arthur thought it was time to step in. “We haven’t had time to introduce ourselves. I’m Arthur and this is Brixaby. When your rider wakes up, have him contact me.”

“Yes... yes, of course,” the silver said, though he sounded doubtful. And after a beat, he added, “My name is Tannai, and my rider is Hershel.”

Arthur quickly pulled Brixaby away.

"He will make a fine addition to my retinue,” Brixaby said, loud enough for Tannai to turn his head and stare at them as they walked away.

“Maybe he would join, if you toned down looking like you want to eat his cards,” Arthur suggested.

Brixaby gave him an offended look. “I would very much like to ingest his cards... upon his, uh, natural death, of course,” he added.

"See, talking like that doesn’t help,” Arthur said, but dropped it as they came to the next group, and the next.

Unfortunately, none of the rest had much more information to add about how their hive was taken over. Arthur suspected that there might be some memory alteration at play, which was disturbing because that meant the Singer had access to more mind cards.

Either that, or she truly had been able to creep into a hive and take over without anyone knowing.

He waited to share his fears until he and Brixaby had finished with the last group.

“If the Mind Singer could just take over a hive like that,” Arthur snapped his fingers, “why didn't she do it here?”

"Because of us,” Brixaby said.

Arthur looked at him.

The dragon looked back, completely serious. "Didn't you once tell me you were able to shake off her power before?”

"It wasn't easy,” Arthur said, “and it was only because of my skills—"

"Which have gotten stronger, no doubt, and that was before you linked cards with me,” Brixaby said, shifting all four of his wings up and down in the approximation of a shrug. “I would like to see her try to take over me.”

"You might have a point,” Arthur said. "Also, she might have a limit to how many minds she could handle at one time. I just wish I knew why she had her dragons take off with the eggs.”

Brixaby shrugged again. "We haven't interrogated everybody.”

“We haven’t?” Arthur looked around. He couldn't see any other groups of dragons which were being actively subdued. Most that were able to fly had left for the Free Hive, leaving a few scattered groups that were being visited by healers. They’d visited them all. "Who did we miss?"

In answer, Brixaby stepped back and then removed the brown dragon they’d fought last night from his storage space.