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Chapter 19

I left early the next day, when the sun was barely kissing the horizon. The others were still asleep, their presences more subdued than normal. Only the Tsahn stirred to look after me as I hurried out the entrance.

The night’s sleep had helped ease some of my heavier thoughts - yesterday’s irritability gone - but there were more to plague me. I was quite certain that, for a time at least, I’d found my Krahl during my first encounter with Avanor and his friends. For a minute, then, I’d had incredible powers at my fingertips, capable of wiping the intruders out in an instant. I would’ve expected myself to do so.

And yet I hadn’t.

It had to have been my Krahl, I thought. Something about that moment had been the thing I was looking for, and yet I had no idea what it was. For a while I’d thought it was because I was protecting my home - the thought did manage to calm me, after all - but I wasn’t so sure anymore. A dragon that knew it’s Krahl was supposed to always have that kind of power. Rahk had had it. I’d lost it as soon as the danger had passed.

That, I thought, meant there was more to it. More than this cave I was so tenuously calling home, more than the idea of protecting it. Something about those moments, when I’d been lying on the floor, defeated, had incited me to bring forth powers that, even now, I could barely imagine. And yet that very thing had disappeared only minutes later, leaving me clueless as to what it had been in the first place.

***

I hadn’t arrived at an answer by the time I returned from my hunt, but I did think I had a clearer idea of where to find it.

The Tsahn and Loriel were gone, probably just for a casual flight. The others were sitting in a circle, having breakfast. Avanor waved me over in between spoonfuls.

I trotted towards them, giving the decision I’d come to one last consideration. With intent eyes I looked around me, at the walls and pillars that I’d spent the last days around. They were growing familiar by now. But in light of what I was searching for, they were hardly the place to find it.

“I want to go,” I said, facing Avanor. He paused to meet my gaze.

“I wasn’t expecting this so soon. I’m not even sure where we’d go,” he said. I remained silent, letting him think.

Saren cleared his throat. “How about the Nii caves to the northeast?” he suggested, shrinking a bit when we both turned to him. Ophara watched us over the rim of her bowl.

“I was just thinking about it, since we were talking about visiting somewhere without people around,” Saren said. “I’ve wanted to go there for a while now, but it always seemed too dangerous to be justifiable.”

“Nii?” I asked. The word was unfamiliar to me.

“They inhabit stones and make them glow,” he explained. “Sometimes a lot of them congregate in one place when there’s enough rubble around. It’s supposed to be incredibly beautiful.”

I kept my expression neutral as I turned to Avanor to see his reaction. He was scowling. “Those caves are in the middle of Seklav territory. Not to mention there’s at least three dragons nesting nearby.”

Saren lowered his gaze, shrugging. “I figured we’d be fine with a dragon around ourselves.” Avanor didn’t seem convinced.

“He’s right, you know,” Ophara chimed in, putting her now empty bowl aside. “The Seklavi wouldn’t dare bother us with a dragon so closeby.”

“I know. It still seems like an unnecessary risk.”

A rush of air from behind caught my attention and I turned around just in time to see Loriel return with the Tsahn. She jumped to the ground, sorting her hair.

“What’s got you so serious?” she asked when she noticed Avanor’s expression. He looked over at her.

“We were just discussing where to go and Saren suggested the Nii caves northeast from here.”

Loriel’s eyes lit up at that, her gaze snapping to me. “Ooh, this is the perfect opportunity! I’ve always wanted to go there!”

I looked away, not sure how to respond.

“Don’t you think it’s too dangerous?” Avanor asked.

“Hmm, no,” she answered. “Not any more dangerous than coming here.” She stopped, eyes darting to me. “Sorry.”

I shook my head, but didn’t react otherwise.

“But there was a purpose in coming here!” Avanor replied.

“And there’s a purpose in going to these caves.” She knelt down in front of him. “We all know what we’re doing, not to mention we have a dragon with us ourselves. I think we can handle a few wild ones.”

“Sure,” he said, unconvinced, “but there’s plenty of other places we could go that wouldn’t be dangerous at all.”

“And not nearly as interesting.” Loriel got back up. “Come on, stop worrying and let’s just go.”

I saw a chance to end the discussion and got up as well. “I agree.”

Avanor shook his head, sighing. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Loriel just smiled and I thought I spotted Ophara and Saren exchange a small grin. Together the four of them gathered up their things and got ready to leave.

Ophara stepped up to me. “Just follow behind us, we’ll fly at a decent clip, so it shouldn’t take more than a few hours to get there,” she said to me as she waited for Saren to get onto their Tsaha.

I nodded, stepping aside to give them space to lift off. Both of the animals extended their flying membrane, the blue, crystalline liquid stored in the pouches along their sides, and summoned a soft wind to carry them out of the cave. I followed close behind.

As Ophara had said, we flew relatively quickly, to the point where the wind made normal conversation impossible. Despite that the others seemed to have no trouble with it. Their hair seemed unnaturally still, in fact, only waving as if in a slight breeze.

Investigating with my mind I noticed something like veil of air surrounding them, tapering off towards the front. Curious, I asked Avanor.

What’s that around you?

He took a moment to realize I was talking to him. Hm? You mean the wind shield?

I paused, a little perplexed. That’s what it’s called? A ‘wind shield’?

Ah… yes? Avanor said, confused. That’s what it does, after all.

Yeah, it’s just… nevermind, I shook my head. I was just wondering how it works.

Oh, it’s just being held in place by my Im. Nothing spectacular, he replied.

Im? I asked, feeling a little ridiculous. It seemed I had to ask about some common thing at every turn.

I never told you about them?

No.

He considered his response for a moment. Well, Imi are a bit like an artificial mind, though they aren’t quite as complex. Everyone has one implanted when they’re still a baby, so nowadays it’s almost impossible to live without one. He paused for a moment, thinking. As you can see, an Im can maintain simple magic, but it’s most useful for sharing and obtaining information. You can talk to anyone you want, check in on your home, read a book, play games… all kinds of things.

I see, still not quite sure what to imagine. It sounded a lot like a magical phone.

I suppose it’s better experienced than explained, Avanor said. We’ll get you one when you feel ready to visit a city.

I gave a silent sign of acknowledgement before withdrawing my mind again. From the few things I’d seen and heard so far this world seemed to be far more advanced than expected. Their magical food-maker, the oddly comfortable sleeping mats, the ‘Ves’ used to easily store and transport anything you might need, and now these ‘Imi’ all painted a picture of a technologically advanced world where the basic needs of survival had long past stopped being an issue. I wondered what life here really looked like.

I considered asking for a moment, but quickly decided not to. There was going to be plenty of time for me to learn these things later. For now I was going to make sure I even had a life where they mattered.

***

As Ophara had predicted, it took us a little more than three hours to get there. The Tsahn had flown quickly and without slowing down, even when a dragon had appeared on the horizon. We’d simply adjusted our course to keep our distance and avoided confrontation altogether.

Now, we touched down next to a narrow canyon splitting the land. Craning my neck, I saw several large holes in its side, most filled with rubble, but some more open. The entirety of the bottom was filled with the same, about head-sized, chunks of stone.

“Here we are,” Saren announced as he dismounted. “One of these holes should lead us down into the caves.”

“Ideally, anyway,” Ophara commented, suspiciously eyeing the ground beneath her boots.

Confused, I directed my attention downwards as well. I thought I sensed faint vibrations far below us.

“Seklavi,” Avanor explained, expression serious. “They tunnel through the stone, sneaking up on their prey from below.”

“Luckily for us, they’ve learned to avoid dragons. Now let’s go,” Loriel added, seeming excited as she stepped up to the chasm’s edge.

She looked around for a moment, searching, before pointing at a tunnel directly opposite of us and maybe seven meters down. “That one,” she said and jumped, letting herself fall before a gust of wind caught her, gently depositing her in the opening. I judged it to be about twice her height in diameter.

Avanor followed her, his landing just as smooth, while Saren urged the Tsahn to come closer. They seemed hesitant, but after a short exchange of quiet words and pats they dropped down one after the other, having to retract their flying membranes a bit to allow them to fit into the tunnel.

Meanwhile Saren handed Ophara a pair of disks with straps before attaching another pair to his own feet. Once done he simply stepped out into the air, hovering there for a moment before slowly descending towards the hole. Ophara looked at me before following him.

Now the only one left I shrunk down, keeping my dragon form, and glided down, careful not to let the tips of my wings touch the walls. Landing in the tunnel itself wasn’t much different from the cave I’d grown used to over the last few days.

Loriel smiled at me when I stepped up next to her, folding in my wings. “Being a shapeshifter must be handy,” she said. I was more or less at eye level with her now.

“It is,” I replied, not sure what to say. Their friendliness still made me uncomfortable.

“Everyone ready?” Avanor asked as Ophara handed Saren her disks for him to stow away. Everyone nodded. “Good. Let’s go.”

A soft glow appeared around him as he led us into the darkness, Loriel right besides him, then the Tsahn and finally Saren, Ophara, and me. We walked for a while, steadily downwards, occasionally coming past intersections, though the other routes always seemed to be filled with loose rocks.

“Where do the rocks come from?” I asked when we came by the third one.

“They’re Seklav tunnels. They break up the stone in front of them with thin hairs before moving them past their own body and depositing it behind themselves,” Saren explained. “This one’s been cleared out, partly by Nii, partly by people coming here to study them.”

“And the odd sightseer,” Ophara added, grinning. She seemed to be getting excited now that we were getting closer. I still wasn’t sure what to expect.

I considered asking, but before I could decide, a yellow glow from further up ahead caught my attention.

“Look!” Saren said, stopping as he pointed at the slowly pulsating light. It got stronger, seemingly getting closer before a small, fist-sized ball of light appeared around the corner, floating in midair. It was bobbing up and down as it moved towards us.

“A Nii?” I asked.

“Niif,” Saren corrected me, “but yes.”

Whatever its name was, it seemed largely unconcerned by our presence, calmly moving past Avanor and Loriel. When it reached us, Saren pointed at it.

“Look closely,” he said. “You can see the stone it’s inhabiting.”

I focused on it, searching for any hint of unevenness in the smooth sphere. Only after a few moments did I spot a faint outline beneath the almost tangible seeming layer of light. I resisted the urge to grab it as it floated past my head.

We continued on, occasionally coming across more of the strange creatures. They came in different colors and sizes, but all of them seemed to not even notice our presence as we passed them on their slow way up the tunnel.

As we went they appeared more and more frequently, sometimes even out of a side tunnel that were opening up. It seemed like we were entering the border region of the actual Nii caves themselves.

“There should be a cavern not too far ahead,” Loriel said with a low voice, turning back towards us. Even so, her voice echoed throughout the tunnels.

Saren nodded. More and more Nii turned up all around us, now not all moving in the same direction, and after a few more moments I began making out a more intense, multicolored glow up ahead.

I looked over at Saren, who gave me a quick smile before facing forward again. Ophara seemed even more transfixed than him, eyes glowing with excitement.

Seeing their anticipation was making me eager myself. A sensation I was feeling more and more often recently, I thought to myself.

Up ahead I heard Avanor and Loriel gasp, both stopping in the mouth of the tunnel. Past them I could see a veritable sea of light, swirling in thousands of different colors. Carefully they stepped out onto the room’s floor, allowing the rest of us to follow. I felt my breath catch when I finally reached them, tens of thousands of Nii filling my entire field of view.

I wasn’t even sure if tens of thousands was enough. There were so many I couldn’t even see past them, always another ball of light there to block the way when I thought a hole was going to open up. It made gauging their numbers impossible. Like an ocean of light.

Carefully I stepped onto the loose rubble that made up the floor of this place, noticing some fainter Nii lying in the cracks and holes. Some of them were still moving slowly, grinding along the stones below, but most were simply lying still.

As I watched I saw one of the fading ones haul itself against a slightly smaller rock, before staying there, giving out a few short pulses of light. Some of the surrounding Nii picked up on it, beginning to pulse in the same rhythm and congregating around the older one. Perhaps two dozen of them crowded around the old one and the stone besides it, before suddenly all simultaneously flaring up brightly.

For a few, short seconds they stayed like this before returning to their normal brightness. One by one they floated up, joining the others again. The fading one was still there, it’s light barely noticeable anymore, but there was one key difference. The stone beside it was glowing as well now.

Enthralled, I held out a hand, beckoning the newly born Niif to come to me with my mind. It responded immediately, lifting itself up from the floor and crossing the short distance between us to drop itself into my palm. It fit snuggly, feeling warm in my fingers.

I could feel it with my mind and body, the new life that had just been created. Out of seemingly nowhere. It seemed miraculous. It was beautiful.

It was there, holding the young Niif in the middle of a sea of color, that I understood what I was looking for. A place to live was only part of it, part of what made a home, part of what made a life. It was this that moved me, compelled me to go forward, the way such simple things conglomerated into something much, much more. Friends and family, happiness and love, memories and experiences, actions done and lessons learned, they all came together to form a whole.

A life.

A life worth living.