Memory Bonds

It wasn’t just a straight trip to what Fleck was smelling and back.

Which was good. That sounded short and boring. It was a final destination, but he’d wanted to see more of the city in the first place.

As soon as they were past the street that had the grocery store and Udo’s shop, they slowed down. Fleck climbed onto Harmoni’s shoulders. They might go to the grocery store later. Harmoni liked Udo’s cooking, but his ideas for vegetarian dishes seemed limited to sandwiches and pasta. There was a lot of variety you could get with those two, but there was more you could do. Salads, casseroles, soup. Why, she knew he could make soup.

‘Soup in the desert?’

‘There’s cold soups.’

‘You can have cold soups?!’

Harmoni laughed into her hand, just a little. Then the two of them looked at what was on this street.

There was a café on the street. Based on the smell it would be a nice place to eat when they had a bit more money. There was another restaurant further down, and a few places to stay. Not something either of them needed.

There was also what looked like a tacky gift shop. It had shirts and mugs, but most of what Harmoni saw in the window was figurines. They sold dragons and . . . roly-polies? The weird little bug things. That’s what it looked like anyway.

Harmoni wasn’t sure she understood the logic of the gift shop, or the hotels. Who would be taking an expensive, multi-day flight across space to only give Xentron a short visit? And there weren’t many other towns on the planet people could be visiting from. But if these places were open, she assumed people were using them.

She slowed as she saw a clothing store. There were various knee length skirts and white dress shirts. There were red dress shoes in the window that caught her eye, and she stopped completely to stare at them for a moment.

‘You should get something from here,’ Fleck suggested.

He didn’t really understand clothes, but then again, his scales would just tear them. He did know she could use more.

Harmoni glanced at Fleck. ‘Your scales cover up the unacceptable bits.’ That wasn't the only reason to want clothes, but it was a reason dragons didn't have to worry about.

She turned back to the store. She did need more clothes, and she was drawn to some of these. But she had limited money, and these were nice clothes. They weren’t a good choice for working at the spa. She needed to be practical.

“Oh.”

Well that was disappointing.

It was. But Harmoni knew for a fact there were more places that sold clothes around here. She’d tried to get an apprenticeship at one. She wasn't sure she wanted to shop at that one specifically, that sounded awkward. But she could, hopefully, find something she liked at a different store.

The two continued on their journey. As they moved, they reached an open space, where the buildings were farther apart. It left three open squares of sand.

Harmoni had been here before, before she met Udo. It was sort of like a park, or a sports arena. Whichever one people wanted to use it for. The last time she’d passed through, it had been mostly empty, a family or two having a picnic in the space. Today, there were a lot of people outside, taking up space in the left half of the area. Both dragons and riders stood in the crowd, cheering, groaning, or jostling each other. Harmoni could just make out a low stage, temporarily set up on one side of the crowd. But she couldn't tell what was going on in the center.

Both her and Fleck were curious by now, so she turned, and walked towards the crowd.

As they drew nearer, they saw an imp and a blood-colored dragon about the size of a bicycle dipping and waving through the crowds, asking for bets. No one was at the stage, currently.

Harmoni pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. She wove into the crowd, trying to make her way through. But there wasn’t a lot of space in the crowd, especially with people clumped close to who they knew, and Harmoni didn’t attract a lot of attention.

“Excuse me. Sorry. ‘Xcuse me. If I can-never mind. Sorry.” Harmoni paused, and slowly let out a breath. She could more or less see through the crowd now. She saw a square of sand. It had been tossed up enough, it had clearly been used for something, but she still wasn’t sure what. “Well, what is this?”

“It’s an arena.”

Harmoni jumped. She hadn’t been expecting an answer. She’d been thinking out loud, and to Fleck.

She turned around. There was a colbber kid next to her now. Looked about her age, maybe a little younger. His nose looked like it had been broken, and healed poorly. He had dark brown hair and eyes. His skin was also a sort of lighter brown, but it came with an orange tint. Combined, it made his skin look a bit like rust. That kind of tint was very common in colbbers.

Colbbers were also natural born cyborgs. There was a bronze metal rim going around his left eye. He had a metal exoskeleton on his right arm, starting at the elbow and running all the way to his fingertips. There was still flesh on his arm and hand. You could high-five him and his palm would be all skin, but the metal on top was clearly built to replace bones. He had the same thing on his left leg, starting just above the knee and dropping into his shoe. He was wearing shorts, and the metal stuck out far enough it would probably be hard to wear long pants.

And he had a dragon!

Fleck quickly flipped directions so he could see her. The dragon was standing by the colbber’s feet. She was pale silver, or maybe even white. Like the moon. She had gray eyes. She was about the same age and size as him, but she was a bit thinner, and longer. Rather than being shaped like a cat or fox, she was shaped like an alligator.

She’d been keeping her head level and watching people’s feet, probably making sure she didn’t get stepped on, but she looked up and smiled when she noticed Fleck watching.

Fleck wagged his tail a bit before returning to what the colbber had said. “An arena?”

The colbber nodded eagerly.

Well, that confirmed he and the dragon were bonded. It was the most likely reason he understood Fleck.

“This place is an arena, for fighting. Safely. Lots of people with healing abilities around. It’s really cool. Lots of people have some sort of power or trick to keep things interesting. Look.”

He pointed at the arena. At this point, the imp and dragon from earlier climbed onto the platform on one side.

“Welcome! Everyone!” the imp shouted. Considering he had no microphone or anything, he could really project. “Is everyone ready?!” There was a fair amount of cheering. “Good! Today’s first round: Piese versus Erna!”

Two people walked out onto the sand, accompanied by some cheering. One was a zenny, his gray skin so pale he could almost pass for a human, all be it a short, sickly one. He had green eyes, and amber hair. Like all zennies, his eyes and hair had some darker streaks in them. It made them look deeper than they were.

The second person was a gnome. She was, of course, short with pointy ears and big eyes. She had light skin, and brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. Harmoni couldn’t see her eyes. She was wearing sunglasses.

‘Well that doesn’t seem like it can stay on.’

“These two have both fought here before. From what I learned about them, Piese is a magic user, and Erna is an alchemist. Now, I don’t want to knock alchemy, but I think Piese has got this,” the colbber explained. He was trying to speak quietly, but it was a stage whisper. “He’s got the five second foresight advantage and Erna is . . . like that.”

He waved vaguely at her. Erna was hopping on one foot, spinning slightly to wave at the crowd.

The imp at the podium raised a gun. Not a show one either. That was an actual gun. Why was everyone so calm?

Harmoni’s eyes got a little wider. She put a hand on the colbber’s wrist, ready to yank him away.

Then, the imp pointed the gun at the sky, and fired harmlessly up. The match had begun.