Chương 179: Chapter 178 [Apollo]

Torren was the first one to step back into the clearing, moving slowly so as not to wake the little dragon; the rest followed at his heels the same way.

"Well?" Rika whispered, already craning to see over Torren's shoulder. Luka looked up at them, one hand resting light against the small golden shape curled in his lap.

"He's out cold. Come have a look—just quiet, yeah?" They gathered round in a loose half-circle, careful of the space, and for a moment nobody said anything. The dragon—not yet named—lay curled tight against Luka's leg, small chest rising and falling in quick little breaths, one wing draped half over his own snout like a blanket he'd forgotten he had.

"Oh, he's precious," Rika breathed, wings fluttering despite herself.

"Tiny," Parmo agreed, crouching down for a closer look.

"Didn't expect him to be this small."

"He'll grow," Torren said.

"Pretty quickly initially, then it'll be slow but continuous growth until he gets to his full form. No idea how long that might take given how little we know of his type." Phil reached out a hand like he might touch him, thought better of it halfway there, and pulled back.

"Gold, then? Suits him."

"He's not a Gold Dragon," Luka said.

"He's a Light Dragon, apparently. I got a new tab in the UI for companions. That's what the tab called him, anyway."

"Same thing, though, right?" Phil said.

"Growlie's a dark dragon: black scales, likes hiding under stuff. This one's gold. Light versus dark. Tracks."

"Guess so." Luka looked down at him again.

"Means the watches are kinda pointless, though. Should make raising him easier, though. It's not like sunlight's hard to come by." He nodded toward the sun still pouring down into the clearing.

"Let's hope he doesn't suffer from S. A. D."

"Huh," Sam said, sitting back on his heels.

"That's actually a decent theory."

"Not mine. Companion tab said as much, sort of. Didn't spell it out, but—" Luka pulled the tab up in his mind and read the message out loud, low enough it wouldn't wake him.

"That's..." Rika trailed off, looking for the word.

"That's kind of a lot, actually."

"Yeah." Luka looked back down at the dragon.

"Similar to the message we got with the rewards and the message about going home." For a while nobody moved things forward. Rika stayed on her knees beside him, hands hovering just shy of touching, whispering something to Shai about how his scales caught the light differently every time he shifted, gold going almost white at the edges. Parmo leaned in close enough to study his wings properly, muttering about how tiny they were, like tissue paper folded a dozen times over.

"The message said he's special, but I could see that from his egg," Torren said eventually, nodding at the steady rhythm of his breathing.

"I'm curious to know where he came from. With the way the UI is, I have thoughts that are a little intimidating."

"Like what?" Leo asked.

"Well, what if this is the child of a dragon that's either not around anymore, or one that is so rare it wouldn't be strange to have never seen one?" Torren admitted.

"The first one makes me less nervous than the second, even if I have no idea how that could be. The second thought, though... You remember when we mentioned the bigger, older dragons?"

"Those ancient ones that have been around for millennia?" Phil asked.

"Yes. If he is the child of one of those dragons, then I fear we may end up meeting one at some point, and that's a pretty scary prospect. Not because they are famed for harming people, but because I've never heard of anyone meeting one in the last thousand years, so I have no idea how friendly one would be. Let's hope I'm wrong." Phil cleared his throat, using the noise to break the moment.

"He needs a name. Can't keep calling him 'the little guy' forever." Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Already vetoed Toothless," Parmo said.

"Since apparently that was obvious."

"It was," Sam said.

"What about Sol?" Phil offered.

"Y'know. Sun. Light. Simple." Luka considered it, tilting his head.

"Maybe. Feels a bit off, though. Makes me think of a girl."

"Ray," Parmo tried.

"Romano is the first thing that comes to mind, and now I can't stop picturing the little guy with a weird-sounding growl," Phil said, laughing.

"Nova?" Sam offered. Luka turned that one over for a moment longer than the others, then shook his head slowly.

"Close. Not quite." Torren was quiet for a moment, watching the dragon rather than the conversation.

"In my tribe's tongue, there's a word for the first light of morning. Aphillos. Not quite the same as anything you'd know, but it might sit close to what you're after." Luka said it back to himself, slow.

"Aphillos." He shook his head slightly.

"Close. Still not quite there, though." Leo had gone still beside him, turning the word over.

"Aphillos," he repeated.

"That sounds like—" He stopped, frowning, chasing the thought down properly.

"Apollo. That's the Roman god of the sun. Greek too, actually—they shared him." Luka looked up sharply.

"God of light," Leo went on, warming to it now.

"Music, prophecy, all sorts, but the sun's the big one. Fits, doesn't it?" Luka looked back down at the little shape curled against him, gold scales catching the light every time his chest rose, and felt something settle into place that had nothing to do with the bond itself.

"Apollo," he said, testing the shape of it.

"Yeah. That's the one."

"Good name," Phil said, nodding. They stayed like that a while longer, the group easing down onto the grass around him, keeping their voices low out of some unspoken agreement not to wake him before he was ready. It was Sam who eventually broke off from the rest, wandering back over toward the oval still hanging above the spring, exactly where he'd left it.

"Still there," he said, mostly to himself.

"Course it is," Phil said, following him over.

"Nothing about today has suggested it's going anywhere." Sam stood in front of it, arms crossed, studying the shimmer like it might give something away if he looked long enough.

"Anyone else think this looks like—""A portal?" Parmo finished.

"Yeah. Been thinking it the whole time. Didn't want to say it out loud in case it sounded stupid."

"Same," Phil admitted.

"Imagine if your weird rock is just a strange portal gun. Luka's head's kinda the same shape as a Companion Cube." Luka gave him the finger.

"Only one way to check," Sam said. He crouched down, picked up a fist-sized rock from near the spring's edge, and turned it over once in his hand.

"Wait," Torren said.

"If it does something unexpected—""I'll throw it, not my hand." Sam stepped back a pace, lined up, and lobbed the rock underhand toward the shimmer. It hit the surface and bounced straight off, clattering into the grass a few feet past it, same as if it had struck a wall.

"So. Not a portal, then," Rika said.

"Maybe." Sam didn't look convinced either way. He walked closer, crouched down, and studied the spot where the rock had struck. No mark, no ripple, nothing to show it had happened at all. He tried a second rock, a slightly bigger one this time, thrown harder. Same result—a dull impact, then it dropped away into the grass like it had hit stone.

"If it is one, though, it wouldn't work like that on its own," he said, half to himself now.

"You don't get a portal that goes nowhere. It'd need something to connect to."

"A second one," Phil said slowly.

"Exactly. If I made another one somewhere else—closer to town, maybe—and it linked up to this somehow, then we'd actually know." Sam straightened up, already turning the idea over properly now.

"Worth trying, at least."

"And if it doesn't link to anything?" Leo asked.

"Then I've made two useless magic ovals instead of one." Sam shrugged.

"Not the worst outcome."

"So what do we do about this one?" Parmo asked, nodding at the oval.

"Just... leave it here?"

"Don't see what else there is to do," Sam said.

"I can't shut it down, and I'm not about to start smashing it open to find out what happens." He glanced at Torren.

"You said yourself the area feels stable enough. Maybe it fades on its own eventually. Maybe it doesn't. Either way, nothing about it's actively dangerous, far as I can tell."

"You're sure about that?" Shai asked, tail giving a slow, deliberate flick.

"No," Sam admitted.

"But I'm reasonably confident. That'll have to do for now." Torren nodded slowly, looking at the oval one last time before turning away from it.

"If it is a portal, and you can link it to one closer to town, then that means we can come here anytime. Might be good for little Apollo here. A quiet space with plenty of sunlight and ambient mana."

"True enough. Gives us somewhere to go whenever we get sick of sitting round in town as well," Phil muttered. Sam kept his eyes on it a moment longer, arms crossed, working through something in his head.

"If this actually works the way I think it might," he said eventually, "it's not just a neat trick. Think about it—a fixed point you can step through instantly, linked to wherever we plant the next one. Trade between Stonehall and Monkhaven would stop being a day's walk each way. Villages further out that we can barely reach now, we could be there in a heartbeat once the links are set up properly." He looked round at the rest of them.

"We could build a trade hub somewhere in or near town and set up multiple portals. That could change how this whole region works."

"Big talk considering how that rock bounced off it," Parmo said.

"Not today, though," Luka said, careful not to raise his voice too much, one hand still resting against Apollo where he slept on.

"Today I think we've done enough. We should head back. I want to make sure the flat is child-proof."