Minglings - Book 3 chapter 11: Registration

Just before Mason was ready to turn around, Salvo stopped leading them up higher. He turned and began flying along the side of the mountain, and soon a crevice appeared in the distance. Previously hidden from view by a large amount of snow piled up around it, it was barely big enough for a dragon to fly through. Still, Salvo was heading straight for it.

"Alright, we are flying in, and whatever you do, stay close to me," Salvo shouted. "I am not coming back to find you if you get lost!"

Yes, yes. Mason thought grumpily. Stay close to papa. Whatever. He could feel his mood worsening. It was mostly the cold that sapped away at his strength, but also the hunger… His stomach clenched, and he gritted his razor-sharp teeth. No, definitely the hunger.

Mason followed Salvo as he flew into the opening, trying to keep his growing irritability under control.

The pale light from outside disappeared as he entered a chaotic labyrinth of dark and shadowy tunnels. Narrow crevices were filled with moss that somehow thwarted the cold and altitude. Salvo seemed to know exactly where he went, flying forward with a steady certainty. The temperature rose a fraction, just enough to take the edge off, and Mason felt his mind clear. The anger receded enough for him to realize he really wasn't good with cold. Nor with hunger.

Salvo seemed to know exactly where to go, and Mason quietly followed him through dozens of tunnels along crossings and intersections. Everything looked the same, and between keeping his wings from sharply pointed stalagmites and keeping track of Salvo he was completely lost within moments.

If he leads us to a trap, I'm never finding my way back, Mason thought, slightly worried. He didn't think it would happen, but still....

Bending his long neck around, he looked at Baudron. The brown dragon's eyes were looking around sharply, and he showed no indication of worry or confusion. Just interest. Somehow Mason had the idea that Baudron could remember the path they were taking.

Not all that surprising, he thought. If you dug around in the dark all the time, you were bound to be good and find your way back out.

An indeterminate amount of time later, they flew through a tunnel with a blue light at the end.

"Finally out," Mason muttered, wondering why they had to fly through the mountain instead of over.

Salvo shot out of the tunnel, and happy at the prospect of fully stretching his wings, Mason followed. His eyes took a moment to adjust, and when he could see, he couldn't hold back a surprised gasp.

All around him stretched out a massive cavern, the roof made of ice that sparkled like a blue sky. The biggest jewel he had ever seen sat in the corner. Probably dozens of feet across, it was golden yellow and glowed with a dazzling bright light that illuminated a massive ruined city that covered a large section of the cave floor.

Mason looked down in utter confusion. The whole thing reminded him of a painting of a futuristic city made from gleaming metal. Massive sections of it had been destroyed in what had to have been a massive battle. Even with all the half-molten sections and ripped-apart roofs, it gave a sense of majestic wonder.

It was also far more modern than anything he had expected to find.

It almost looks futuristic, he thought as he glided after Salvo, his gaze darting around.

Although some calamity had befallen the place, much was still intact, and his widened as he saw hundreds of dragons busy removing debris and seemingly repairing parts. Most brown, grey, and a few more metallic, they flew between the towers, carrying debris with them that they dropped to the sides of the mountain where massive piles were steadily growing.

"Welcome to The Last Stand!" Salvo shouted, appearing to take great pleasure in seeing them stunned silent. "An odd name, I know. You can ask the Queen about that. She named it that after she found it."

Mason chalked it on the list of things to ask Sandra and looked around.

"Where's Sa- the queen?" he asked.

Salvo laughed loudly. "Everybody always wants to see her first. Don't worry, she meets all of the newcomers once a week, and you are lucky because that's tomorrow! Let's get you registered. After that, we can find you a place to sleep and some food!"

Registered? Mason thought, repressing a shudder. Sandra hadn't brought any bureaucracy with her, had she? Seeing the other dragon continue forward, he quickly flew after Salvo, who folded his wings and dropped down towards the ruins.

Salvo led them to a massive pillar that had openings that seemed meant for dragons ten times Mason's size. Constantly looking around, he saw more buildings with wide, spacious openings, and he shook his head as he thought back to the narrow passage they had taken.

That can't have been the main entrance, he thought as he followed Salvo as he flew into one of the massive openings.

Salvo dropped to the floor right away, landing and beckoning them to follow.

Something's fishy here, Mason thought.

As he landed beside Salvo, his claws ticked oddly on the metal. It sounded familiar, like something from long ago. Curious, he sniffed the floor, and his eyes widened.

It smells like steel! he thought, looking around at the gleaming walls that surrounded him. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Salvo said, his voice echoing in the massive hallway. A few dragons that were moving around looked up but ignored them when they saw Salvo.

"This way!'

Mason quietly followed Salvo deeper into the building. The whole construction had a vaguely familiar feel, as if he had seen it before.

The building seemed meant for dragons, with massive ramps leading up and down to other floors and doors so big Mason could almost spread his wings between the doorposts, but still.... something about it, the make of it. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew he'd seen something like this before.

They came across a few other dragons that stared at them curiously, and Mason examined them. They were all a variation of yellow, brown, and grey scales. No blue, green, or even red like him anywhere.

After a short trip, they arrived in what he could only think of as an antechamber, with odd round stools that seemed curiously cozy along the walls and a massive set of wide-open gates at the end. Through the gates, Mason saw walls lined with what looked like empty metal bookcases and a metal beam that he imagined held up the ceiling.

"Alright, now we are going to talk with Glarissu, and whatever you do, don't tell her we just saw the Hound. She will go all concerned-mother again, and it took me days to get rid of her last time," Salvo whispered.

"Salvo, don't be like that! Now bring our new friends inside for me to see!" A sharp voice came from the room, and Salvo sighed.

"Ears like a Glorian Ox, that one," Salvo whispered, leaving Mason confused about what a Glorian Ox was supposed to be.

"Yes, oh most beautiful and glorious Glarissu," Salvo shouted with a mock look of pain. As he moved inside, he beckoned Mason and the others.

As tired and hungry as he was, Mason couldn't hold back a grin. He stepped inside the room and froze, looking around and up as his eyes grew large and round. The room was at least two hundred feet high and lit by what looked like pale yellow glowing crystals. Although he could see sharp edges of the crystal, and even tiny runes, at a glance, they looked so much like the lightbulbs from Earth that he felt a deep longing.

It lasted for only a moment, and then he focused on the rest of the room.

A massive opening in the top left corner led deeper into the building, with ramps and balconies leading to it.

Metal beams sat below the bookcases, like bird perches, and atop one, a dozen meters high, sat a yellow and grey dragon. Her grey scales gleamed softly, reminding him of brushed metal. She held a metal-bound book the size of Mason's head, but her eyes were focused on them.

If he hadn't just seen the massive white dragon, she would have easily been the largest dragon he ever saw.

"Oh my! Three at once? You've outdone yourself, little Salvo," she carefully placed the book back and jumped down. Her spread wings created an enormous shadow as she glided down and landed in front of them. As she rose on her hind legs, her front limbs folded in front of her chest, she looked down at them with amused eyes.

Dragon auntie, Mason thought. He swallowed, wondering how long it would take him to get this big.

"Now, Salvo, why don't you tell me who your friends are? Or did you forget to ask them again?"

Salvo flinched before scraping his throat. "Yes…well, about that. This one is called," and he gestured at Mason, pointedly looking at him.

Mason looked at the other's uncomfortable fidgeting, and his mood skyrocketed. He grinned widely.

"Mason, remember? I told you already. Did you really forget?"

Salvo's eyes widened a fraction, but then he raised his scaled arm, a look of shock on his face.

"Yes! So sorry, I'm just a tad forgetful at times!" he turned to Glarissu, his eyes large and innocent.

Mason looked to the side where Baudron and Maru stood, both with looks of utter confusion.

"See? I asked their names this time! Now I need to go find Torroh and arrange a room for them! And some food," as he spoke, he backed up until he was out of the room.

"I'll come back in a bit to pick them up. Thanks, Glarissu!" The last words drifted inside, fast and soft, as if he was a great distance away already.

They heard quick, ticking footsteps as if something large tried to run away inconspicuously.

Mason grinned widely. The whole thing made him think of simpler times when he and Jake were small. They always got away with not doing the chores Jake's mother posed them or tried to.

"Ah, that young one. He really needs to start taking things more seriously," Glarissu sighed, her eyes on the massive doors for a moment.

Then she turned to Mason and the others, her eyes soft and kind. She reminded Mason of his grandma, old and kind.

"Alright! Now, knowing Salvo, he didn't welcome you properly. So, let me welcome you to Last Stand, the sole remaining safe haven for dragons on this hemisphere."

All three stared at her in stunned silence, and while Baudron whispered drakes not dragons, soft and confused.

Though that surprised him to, it wasn't what got Mason confused, however. It was how comfortable she had just said a word he didn't even know this language had.

"Hemisphere," he said, tasting the odd yet somehow familiar syllables. As he did, he looked around again, and his eyes widened.

It looks like things from Earth!

He barely noticed that Glarissu turned her full attention to him. She seemed stunned, and her eyes were sharp and clear as she examined him.

"Where have you heard this term before?" she asked.

Mason wasn't sure how to answer and eventually just shrugged. His mind was buzzing, preoccupied with a discovery he had just made, and he absently kept talking.

"I've had an...odd life so far," he said before quickly changing the conversation to something else. "You just said dragons, but everyone here keeps saying drakes…"

He didn't really care about that but needed a distraction so he could gather his suddenly jumbled thoughts. Everything around him looked too much like things from Earth, from the steel and lightbulbs to the words Salvo used and the way Glarissu spoke and acted. If the place hadn't been in ruins, he would have thought Sandra built it all and taught the other dragons what she knew. But she hadn't been gone long enough for that.

"You are going to have to tell me that later," Glarissu said slowly. Then she turned to the others, who were still gaping at her.

"Lets get this out of the way first. We are dragons. Not drakes, or half-dragons, or any other nonsense you may have been led to believe. We are different from the ancients. That much is true. Our blood is mixed, and because of this, we can no longer breed as we should. All new dragons are born from the kobolds. When one of them is born, sometimes latent genes activate that lay dormant in the whole race. However, all this said and done. We are dragons."

Mason gaped and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Where did you learn these things?"

Baudron and Maru were looking at the massive dragon in confusion and disbelief, and suddenly Baudron stepped forward, interrupting what Glarissu might have said to Mason.

"This is impossible! Only Lauruna is a real dragon," he shouted as panic and pain crossed his face.

Glarissu stared at Mason for a few moments, then slowly turned to the brown dragon. She sighed sadly. "No, little one. Lauruna was magnificent, and without her, none of us would be here, but she isn't the only dragon, not then nor now."

Baudron seemed ready to explode again, showing more emotion than Mason had ever seen from him. Mason quickly stepped forward and lay his long tail on top of Baudron's, a gesture that he knew instinctively mirrored the placing of a hand on a shoulder.

"Calm down, Baudron. Look around you. Remember that white dragon we saw... we don't know everything! And apparently, neither do any of the Kobolds."

Glarissu sucked in a breath of air, but Mason ignored it, his eyes staring deep into Baudrons. He saw anger and pain inside, but most of all, fear.

"If this is true...why do we get hunted?" Baudron whispered, asking the question Mason had wondered about since finding him.

"I don't know. But I've got the feeling we can find the answer to that right here."

Baudron was breathing heavily, took a step back, and shook his head, shivering all over. He looked at Maru, then Mason, and finally, slowly calmed down. Maru beside him moved forward and also placed a tail on the large brown dragon's, but her gesture was decidedly different from Mason's.

Mason stepped back, suppressing the wonder of how he suddenly knew so much about how dragons should act around each other. Instead, he turned to a worried-looking Glarissu.

"Did you see the Hound?" she asked immediately.

"If you mean that massive white dragon that flies above the clouds and tried to eat us? Then yes," Mason said, guessing he had to apologize to Salvo for not keeping his promise.

"I'll have to tell Sandra. He is getting closer and closer, and there is no idea how much longer the defensive grid will hold…" Glarissu muttered to herself before turning to Mason.

Defensive grid? What the hell is going on here? Mason thought as he held his tongue.

"Come, we need to make your welcome a bit shorter than normal. I'll make it up to you later, but for now, we need to get you registered."

Galrissu turned and walked deeper into the room until she reached a table that made Mason feel small. She took a book that was atop, opened it, and began tapping and scratching inside. After a moment she turned to Baudron.

"Name?" she asked.

"Baudronious... Ral Lakrion," Baudron replied, although the second part came out hesitantly. Both Maru and Glarissu suddenly looked at him in surprise.

"You are the grandson of Balriond?" Glarissu asked, staring at the brown dragon with more interest than before.

Baudron nodded, staring at the ground. "I was. Until I awoke…"

Glarissu began scribbling inside the book, asking his age and many things related to his parents and siblings before looking at him intently.

"Now, let's see. Dark brown, yellow, and a bit of grey. Right…three bloodlines, if I'm not mistaken."

Baudron just shrugged in a confused answer, and Glarrisu smiled softly.

She scribbled something down before turning to Maru. There were little surprises this time, and Glarissu wrote down two bloodlines, saying something about Maru being remarkably pure, mainly yellow with barely any brown.

As she was busy, Mason was just standing there, slightly zoned out. Even the whole revelation of Baudron's name apparently being famous passed him by. Instead, he was thinking about the things he had seen and heard. All of it made absolutely no sense, and he wanted to see Sandra and ask hundreds of questions. He had just decided to tell Glarissu he wanted to meet her now when he heard his name.

"Mason!"

He looked up and saw Baudron stare at him before motioning to Glarissu.

"I understand this might be boring, but there is no need to fall asleep," Glarissu said humorously. "Now. Name?"

Thinking for a second, Mason decided it should be fine. He wasn't getting a bad feeling from her, and if Sandra was here.

"Mason O'Connor," he said slowly, pronouncing it as his grandmother did, and in a way none of those present would be able to.

Glarissu's eyes widened as she stared at him for a moment, then simply nodded.

"Age?"

"Probably twenty now…" Mason said, unsure how he should even keep track and if it mattered.

This time the others looked at him in surprise, even Baudron frowning in confusion as he scanned Jake from top to bottom.

Now what? He had expected confusion or interest in his name, not his age.

"Odd…" Glarissu muttered.

"May I ask what island you were hatched on?" she asked, staring at him intently.

Stealing himself, Mason decided it was about time to rattle the cage. In the last split second, he decided to keep the fact he wasn't born a Kobold to himself.

"On the planet Earth…" he said softly.

Glarissu froze, then her head shot forward until her eyes were half a meter away, gazing deep into his.

"Incredible! I see… that explains it then…" she shut the book with a loud slam and tossed it on the table as if it were suddenly unimportant. She turned to Baudron and Maru.

"You two, wait here until Salvo returns."

Then she turned to Mason. "You are coming with me to see Sandra. She will want to see you immediately."

"You don't know the half of it," Mason retorted.