“All right.” Kaluo looked around and discovered that the blacksmith shops and small stores where people were sheltering from the rain were already packed. There did not seem to be room for them anywhere.
“Let’s go into Old Jack’s Tavern to get out of the rain,” Jieke suggested. The three had barely reached the tavern entrance when a wealthy-looking human came running toward them, his flesh jiggling as he moved. His voice was eager and delighted as he went straight to Kaluo. “Strongman, would you be interested in making a deal? I have a shipment of precious herbs that needs to be delivered to the southern Yidaer Empire. As for the payment…”
Kaluo narrowed his eyes and looked down at the human. “What did you just call me?”
“Str-strongman…” Master Jita stammered as he took in the man’s powerful, solid muscles, height nearly comparable to a Rhine beastman, and exceptionally healthy deep-wheat complexion.
“Pfft—hahaha!” Ailusha laughed without the slightest restraint. Kaluo had been chubbier than most dragons when he was young, so he had always hated any form of address that carried even the slightest implication of being fat or bulky.
“Perhaps you should call him a knight.” Jieke turned Kaluo around so the human could see the enormous sword strapped across his back.
“My heavens, you’re actually a knight? How terribly rude of me.” Jita wiped rainwater from his face and immediately lost hope. Hiring a greatsword knight like this was not cheap.
“Wait. Did you say the Yidaer Empire?” Ailusha suddenly asked.
“Ah, yes.” Jita looked at the elegant, captivating woman, his gaze settling on her green staff. He suddenly felt somewhat intimidated. Could this woman be a mage?
Kaluo stroked his chin and pulled the scroll from inside his clothes. The very first entry was a promise from Huerte of the human Yidaer Empire: five hundred jin of high-quality pearls, ten jin of top-grade pure-domain magic crystals, fifty chests of glazed-glass fragments, one thousand jin of gold, eight hundred jin of rubies, five hundred jin of emeralds…
“Who’s the king of Yidaer now?” Kaluo dragged the human back over.
Jita’s eyes widened abruptly. “I-it’s Emperor Heerke.” Why did this man sound so fierce when he spoke?
Ailusha brushed back her long emerald-green hair and recalled, “I remember Huerte had quite a few sons. One of them wanted to form a contract with Yin back then.”
“Then Yin teleported him to the orc goblins. When that germaphobic prince was sent back by a teleportation scroll, the smell nearly knocked everyone unconscious.” Jieke remembered it too and could not stop himself from laughing.
Kaluo sent the human merchant away. He was younger than the emerald-dragon couple and had only just reached adulthood during the Holy War, so he had been confined to Dragon Island and did not know much about what had happened back then.
“So are we going to the Yidaer Empire? Honestly, I’d rather use my true form.”
Kaluo tugged uncomfortably at his clothes. He hated anything constricting him, but human knights all dressed this way, so he would simply have to put up with it for a while.
Ailusha looked through the curtain of rain in the distance, took the necklace from Kaluo’s neck, and closed her eyes to sense it. Then she slowly opened them. “Follow the dragon-soul necklace. I can sense the cub somewhere in the southern part of the continent. I just don’t know exactly where.”
“We should hurry. Once we find the cub, we can take it for a stroll through Yidaer while we’re at it,” Jieke decided.
And so Kaluo and the others hurried back onto the road.
…………
When Long Ming woke, he suspected for a moment that he was looking at the moon. He sat up abruptly, rubbed his eyes, and immediately saw a glowing luminous pearl beside his bed. A soft halo spread around it like moonlight, so misty and ethereal that, without looking carefully, one might mistake it for a layer of fog.
His tail acted before his mind did.
The short, chubby little tail was surprisingly nimble. It looped around the moderately sized luminous pearl, and its pointed tip could even flip upward to catch the smooth glowing orb after tossing it into the air. Long Ming stared at the round treasure, his big golden eyes instantly shining.
“Once you’re finished playing, you have to practice magic.” Aoduoduo smiled faintly from nearby.
Long Ming hugged his tail and answered in a soft little voice, “Awoo~” Then he hurriedly added, “Thank you, Oreo.” One look told him Oreo had given him this pearl.
Aoduoduo propped his head on one hand and watched the little chubby cub lie across his diamond chips, somehow inventing several different ways to play with a single luminous pearl.
“Is Gelu sleeping?” Long Ming asked, swaying his little tail as he looked toward the goblin nearby.
“Mm.” Aoduoduo took out a book, intending to explain its contents himself.
“Mages are among the most important military forces on the Azerik Continent. They can summon the elements drifting through the air, the sea, the wind, or the earth and make those elements serve them.”
“In addition to the common fire, wind, ice, earth, and lightning elements, there are also light and dark elements. Believing in the chief god associated with your element can grant you greater elemental power, so mages generally have a patron deity they worship.”
Long Ming sat obediently on the grass mat and listened to Oreo’s slow, serious explanation before asking, “Then how do you know which element you belong to?”
Aoduoduo smiled helplessly. “Good cub, you’re thinking too far ahead. For now, all you need to learn is how to meditate and sense the elements.”
“Close your eyes and calmly sense everything around you. Don’t rush at the beginning. It’s normal if you can’t feel anything.”
Long Ming felt Oreo’s hand cover his eyes. He slowly closed them and thought it did not feel very different from going to sleep.
“I’m going out to find food. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. Good cub, stay home and practice. If colors or shapes belonging to the elements appear in front of you, that’s enough.”
Oreo’s voice faded away. Long Ming sat patiently on the grass mat and tried hard to quiet his mind. Everything before his eyes was black. He had no idea how much time passed before the surroundings began to feel hot. Delight rose inside him. Could it be the fire element? He had breathed fire yesterday! Surely the fire element must be gathering around him.
Long Ming kept his eyes tightly shut. The temperature rose and rose, as if he were soaking in hot water. His tail felt especially warm, with the source of heat constantly crowding toward its tip. He could not help secretly shifting his bottom and swishing his tail once, only for the heat source to cling to it anyway…
Something felt wrong. Was his tail on fire? But he could not smell anything burning.
After enduring it for a while, Long Ming finally could not resist turning his head to look. Then his eyes flew open and the tip of his tail swished involuntarily.
His tail really was on fire. A tiny flame-like creature was clinging to its tip. The warm yellow fire illuminated the cub’s eyes, making them glow even more brilliantly like flowing gold and dazzling the fire spirit.
Oh… it loved this creature’s eyes. They looked like flames melting gold.
Long Ming could not shake the flaming little creature off his tail, so he could only hug his tail close and carefully study it. He saw a… tiny spirit.
The Thumbelina-sized spirit stood shyly on the tip of his tail and greeted him in a tiny voice.
“Hello.”
Long Ming tilted his head at the flame-like spirit and answered in his own soft little voice, “Hello.”
“My name is Sailiya. What’s yours?” The fire spirit flapped crimson wings and spun around once before settling back onto Long Ming’s tail.
The cub hugged his tail. His large golden irises were clear and bright, and under the warm orange firelight, they actually seemed to shimmer with beautiful watery light. The sight excited the fire spirit. Just as it wanted to move closer and deepen their budding friendship, it heard a slightly aggrieved, milky voice.
“Sailiya, if you don’t move, my tail is going to catch fire.”
Long Ming felt that this little spirit ran far too hot. It was so tiny yet so scorching. If it stayed on his tail any longer, his tail really would burn.
But the spirit was smaller than one of his claws. Long Ming worried that if he carelessly grabbed it, he might crush its fragile wings. His strength had always been excessive, and he did not want to hurt the little spirit.