Chương 180: Chapter 179 [Big Brother Energy]

Apollo woke somewhere between the southern gate and the flat, blinking up at Luka with the same sleepy confusion of anyone who'd dozed off somewhere and woken up somewhere else entirely.

"Morning," Luka said, though it was well past midday by then.

"Or afternoon, I suppose. Rough first day, mate." Apollo made a small sound, something between a chirp and a yawn, and immediately started twisting in Luka's arms to get a proper look at everything around him.

"Careful," Luka said, tightening his grip without really thinking about it.

"Plenty of time to see it all." By the time they reached the flat, Apollo had gone from sleepy to fully alert, head swivelling at every new sound — the creak of the stairs, Phil's boots on the floorboards, the general chaos of five people trying to get through one doorway at once. Luka set him down carefully in the middle of the main room and stepped back. For a second Apollo just sat there, gold scales catching the last of the afternoon light through the window. Then he started to move. It wasn't graceful.

He half-crawled, half-stumbled his way across the floor, wings out for balance more than anything else, sniffing at the leg of a chair, then the edge of the rug, then Sam's boot.

"He's exploring," Rika said, delighted, crouched low to watch at his level.

"He's about to eat my shoe," Sam said.

"Well, dragons love fish. Maybe it's the horrible smell they like."

"Jesus, you just got burned, dude," laughed Parmo. Luka set the dog bed down near the corner, tucked between the sofa and the window where the sun would still reach it come morning. Apollo noticed it almost immediately, some instinct drawing him straight over, and gave it one exploratory sniff before climbing in and turning a full, wobbly circle before settling.

"Well," Phil said.

"That was easy."

"Don't jinx it," Luka muttered. Torren was quiet, watching from the doorway with the same curious interest he'd given the egg back in the clearing.

"He seems settled."

"For now," Luka said.

"Feels like having a puppy, and they can be a nightmare early on, especially during the night. That's probably going to be worse with him being a light dragon." Parmo produced the fish they'd picked up on the walk back — they'd taken a detour to the marina where people were fishing and introduced the little dragon. The men at work almost tripped over themselves to hand over some food for the little guy. He held it out toward the bed with a look of genuine uncertainty.

"Does he even have teeth yet? He's not going to bite my hand, is he?"

"Only one way to check," Luka said. He unwrapped a piece and set it down a short distance from the bed rather than handing it over directly. Apollo's head came up immediately, nose working, and it took him all of two seconds to abandon the comfort of his new bed entirely in favour of half-tumbling toward the food. He ate like he'd never seen food before in his life, which, to be fair, was true.

"Careful, mate," Luka said, laughing despite himself as Apollo nearly choked trying to fit too much in at once.

"Slow down, there's plenty."

"Bottomless pit already," Phil said.

"He's probably got the appetite to match the dragon he'll grow into."

"It's a good thing the crops have sorted a large part of the food problem. The fact we're on the sea is a huge help as well." By the time the fish was gone, Apollo had curled back into the dog bed of his own accord, stomach visibly rounder than it had been an hour ago, and was asleep again within minutes.

"So that's day one," Sam said, checking the position of the sun through the window.

"Feeding, exploring, sleeping. Feels like there should be more to it." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Give it a week," Torren said.

"There will be." The pub was busier than usual by the time they made it down, early evening crowd settling into the corners, and their usual table in the back was already occupied — Nessa with her arms folded, watching Mars with a grin that suggested she'd been enjoying herself watching him get nowhere for some time already.

"—and she said that?" Nessa was saying as the group approached.

"To your face?"

"Well, yeah, but I think she was joking. You know what everyone round here is like. Half the things out of their mouths are a joke or sarcasm."

"Now you know how I feel whenever you try to mess with me. I must admit it feels good watching you experience the same thing. Feels like one of the gods is smiling on me."

"Room for a few more?" Leo asked, already pulling out a chair.

"Of course," Nessa said, not looking away from Mars.

"You guys want to join me in my new favorite pastime?"

"We're not going to join you in checking out Mars' arse, Nessa," joked Sam. She rolled her eyes.

"You're a prick." She turned to Leo.

"Did I get that right?"

"Spot on," he chuckled.

"Still no luck, Mars?" Luka asked.

"Nah, not really. Sometimes she seems to be flirting with me, but it's hard to tell if she's serious or not," Mars said quietly.

"I made her laugh earlier," Mars said.

"Wasn't her polite laugh either. Proper one."

"And?" Nessa said.

"She's always laughing. Look, she's doing it right now." They looked over. Victoria was at the bar, laughing with one of Agnes' friends, the two of them clearly deep in gossip.

"Oh, that's Anna," Torren said.

"Lovely woman. Loves to gossip, though." Rika and Shai both turned to look at him.

"Sure," Rika said.

"Because you'd know." Shai shook her head.

"Neither of you can talk. You two are the worst gossips in the whole village." Luka set Apollo's bag down carefully by his chair, the small shape inside beginning to stir with the noise of the pub around them.

"Might want to save the material for later. Got a bit of a distraction here." He lifted Apollo out and set him carefully on the table, where he immediately shook himself awake and started taking in the room with the same wide-eyed alertness as before. Nessa's expression softened instantly, the argument with Mars forgotten.

"Oh, wow."

"Meet Apollo," Luka said.

"He's gorgeous," Nessa said, leaning in for a closer look. Mars had already abandoned the conversation entirely, crouched down to get eye level with him.

"He'll be good friends with Growlie, I reckon," Mars said.

"Speaking of." As if summoned by the mention of his own name, Growlie climbed up Mars' leg and onto his shoulders, settling there like some strange scaly scarf before hopping down onto the table and making straight for the smaller dragon the second he spotted him.

"Careful," Mars warned, half standing. He needn't have worried. Growlie slowed the second he got close, sniffing carefully at the smaller dragon, and when Apollo let out a nervous little chirp, Growlie simply lowered himself down beside him, settling into a protective curl without a hint of aggression in it.

"Look at that," Rika said softly.

"Big brother energy."

"He's a good lad," Mars said, clearly pleased.

"First time he's seen a baby dragon, so I wasn't sure how he'd act, but look at them."

"He looks happy," Luka said, pointing at Apollo, whose little wings were twitching, not yet strong enough to flap properly. About twenty minutes later, Diane and Ronan arrived, spotting the group easily enough from the noise alone.

"Heard there was a new dragon," Diane said, sliding into the seat beside Sam without waiting for an invitation.

"Had to see for myself."

"He's called Apollo," Luka said.

"Adorable," Diane said, already leaning in.

"What do we know? Diet, growth rate, anything about his magic yet?"

"I got a new tab with all his info," Luka said.

"Not much detail beyond species and sex so far."

"I'd love to study him properly at some point. Compare growth patterns with Growlie's early records, if Mars still has them."

"What?" Sam said.

"And risk him picking up something weird. What if he comes back and suddenly he's all nerdy. Don't do it, Luka."

"He'll pick up plenty from you before he picks up anything from me," Diane shot back.

"Mostly how to lose spectacularly at everything."

"That happened once."

"Yeah, 'cos we've only played each other once. Don't pretend it wouldn't happen every time." Ronan leaned in over the table, studying Apollo with genuine interest rather than the scientific angle Diane had taken.

"Gold, though. That's not a colouring I've seen before. Most dragon breeds run darker — blacks, greens, the odd red."

"Light dragon," Torren said.

"That's what the tab called him."

"Huh." Ronan tilted his head, considering that.

"Can't say I've heard of the type myself, but that doesn't mean much. Plenty of breeds I've never come across."

"Obviously this could be wrong," Torren said carefully, glancing at Luka before continuing, "but what if he's connected to one of the elder dragons. Given how he came to us." Ronan didn't laugh it off the way Luka had half expected.

"Wouldn't rule it out. Elder dragons are old enough that half of what's said about them is probably wrong by now anyway, and the other half's guesswork." He shrugged.

"Worth asking around, next time we're in Stonehall. Older guards might know more than I do. Wouldn't hurt to check. I can't see a dragon common in other parts of the world being something the UI would give as a gift, though."

"Yeah, there might be a few people. Same goes for the other villages. You never know what knowledge the elves and dwarves over in Pinehollow have," Torren said. Apollo, entirely unaware of the conversation happening about his own possible ancient lineage, had curled himself in against Growlie's side and gone back to sleep, small chest rising and falling in time with the much larger dragon's steady breathing.

"Well," Nessa said, watching the pair of them.

"At least someone at this table's got their life together."