Lineage

While the encyclopaedia was an interesting read on the train, I decided I’d best focus on the task I’d need to face first: the Narrowscale. It was as I walked through the corridors of the castle, having already dropped the encyclopaedia off in my room, that I began to think of a new strategy to try and complete this newer objective. I figured it would be even harder than killing it, which seemed an impossible task to begin with and now this new objective was slapped on top of it all.

Luna had mentioned that the ealdorman of the village that wanted the dragoness gone would want it dead, and that meant bringing back something as a trophy to prove I’d done the dragon in, which wasn’t going to be easy seeing as how I couldn’t just lop off it’s head and throw it on a table. At its age, its head was probably the size of a small cottage and wouldn’t be easy to cut off, even if it was dead. With a heavy sigh, I began to think of what the best was for this situation. Minutes trickled by as I wandered aimlessly, thinking thoughts of traps, spells, drugs, and tricks to get into the dragoness’ metaphorical panties were drawn up and erased within seconds of conception. Knowing that this was getting me nowhere fast, I decided to go with the best of plans for the worst of situations:

I was gonna wing it.

With a rub of my eyes and a heavy sigh, I headed down to the spot I knew Luna liked to hang out this time of day: the Alabaster Woods. It was a rather large collection of trees that had been found several thousand years ago in the eastern part of the world, now world-famous for its beautiful environment, serene atmosphere, and the overall peace the area seemed to produce, of both mind and body. Now some of you may be asking how in the hell Luna manages to get from the land of the war horses to the land of the rising sun and back again in a single day, so I’ll tell you: the Standing Stones.

The Standing Stones themselves are a collection of ancient, doorway-shaped rocks that have been around longer than Celestia and Luna have been. The legends surrounding them say that they were left there by a precursor civilization. Some historians say that the society in question was the not-sure-if-real-but-believed-to-be-extinct-if-they-ever-were race of creatures known as the Highmoore Elves. There’s a lot of arguments between historians, both of magic and others of an archaeological profession on whether or not the Highmoore are real. Some saying that they must’ve existed tens of thousands of years ago due to two notable pieces of evidence: several large structures that share a similar type of architecture and a large stone inscribed with runes vastly similar to a tablet inscribed with the believed-to-be-yet-untranslated language of the Highmoore. The other side of the argument is that the two civilizations in two different parts of the world with radically different climates and locations wouldn’t construct their buildings in the same way unless it was the same civilization migrating across the sea, as well as the two different yet very similar rune languages being either a derivative or a bastardised form, adopted by a sect or clan of Highmoore that had abandoned the main colonies where they first existed.

The arguments against the Highmore… wait, shit. You guys aren't here for a history lesson, are you? I’ll get back on topic. Anyway, the Standing Stones are ancient rocks that act as portals when the name of a location is spoken in the language inscribed on the mouth of the Stone’s doorway, this believed to be an English-Highmoore hybrid carved sometime before the disappearance of the Highmoore from the face of the Earth. The Stones can transport you to anywhere in the world where one of them is located, which luckily for Luna, the one for Nippon is actually right inside the Alabaster Woods. Fuck, I never explained the Woods either? Right, well, the Woods gets their name from their colour, obviously. Everything that exists in the expanse of trees, be it the bark, leaves, and roots of the trees, to the birds that chirp and sing in their branches, or the hares, rabbits, foxes, and dogs that roam the areas, they’re all a brilliantly stunning shade of white. Even the water that flows down the rivers in the Woods are all a pristine white. Some people say that the Woods are that colour because it’s a holy site, others say that the Woods are the area where a portal to another world exists, while others say it’s merely because of the area’s geographical location and subterranean factors.

The last one really kills the magic, doesn’t it?

But anyway, the Standing Stones are kept in a private section of the royal gardens and are restricted from public viewing because of how old and valuable they are, making them a prime target for vandalism. I made quick time down to the gardens and into the section where the ancient doorways remained, each one of them standing arranged in a circle, their colossal size looming over me in an almost haunting way, the shadows they cast stretching far across the walls of shrubbery they were surrounded by. After walking over to the correct stone and trying and failing several times to pronounce the name of Nippon in the strange, unnamed language (seriously, I can never remember how I’m supposed to pronounce that weird line above the O on this stupid name) its magic activated and a large, glowing portal sprung to life in front of me, the light warping sound having a calming and rhythmic feeling to it. Taking a breath, I stepped into the portal and had my hearing cut out for a brief moment before stepping out into the bright sunshine of an extremely humid day.

I covered my eyes, hearing, and feeling the different place in the world I was in and adjusting the to the slight discomfort it brought onto me. I looked around for the usual spot Luna would be: a large, smooth tree stump that had lost its roughness after having her sit on it for well over seventy years. I turned my eyes to the spot she usually inhabited, only to find that she wasn’t there. Counting down the other three locations: the apple orchard, the Hollow Saviour, and The Beauty’s Den. Judging by the time of day, I guessed she’d probably be enjoying some of the crisp, ripe apples in the peace of the orchard, so that’s where I headed.

I doubted she’d be in The Beauty’s Den, which was a small and cosy hot spring inside a cave a few minutes walk from here, as she’d already showered today and there was no specific reason why she wouldn’t be at Hollow Saviour, but neither was there a reason why she would be, so the apple orchard seemed like the best choice. If you’re curious about the name Hollow Saviour, it’s an enormous hollow tree that got the name from a Nippon folktale about a woman fleeing into the forest from an abusive husband, who happened to be an excellent tracker. She realised that she had no hope of escaping her husband’s fury, so she prayed to the gods to save her life. They answered her prayers and lead her to a gigantic tree with a certain section near the top that’s completely hollow, but at such an angle that you won’t see it from the forest floor below. The woman hid in that tree until the sun rose and her husband gave up. She then escaped from him and lived a happy life from then on out. It’s a short and simple story, but it is just a little tale for children that I read when I was younger.

Walking briskly through the beautiful and serene forest, I came to the apple orchard, spotting Luna sitting under one of the larger trees with a small pile of apples, a teapot, a cup, and a book in hand. She’d once again adopted her usual attire: a white cotton shirt and a pair of leather leggings, her hair tied up in a high ponytail, and a hand-and-a-half sword belted at her hip, angled at a more horizontal position to prevent sticking the sheath into the ground and to avoid general discomfort. I was no closer than ten metres away when she addressed me, her eyes not glancing up from her book to even prove her suspicions of my presence.

“Richter,” she said, turning a page over in the old tome.

“Good afternoon, Aunt Luna,” I said with a polite smile. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Go right ahead,” she said, gesturing for me to sit with a wave of her hand. “I’m sure you haven’t come continent-hopping to find me without a good reason.”

“You’re correct,” I said, sitting down on the soft grass with my legs crossed, leaning back on my hands and feeling the warm, lush grass compress against my hands. “I think I want to go and find the Narrowscale.”

“Do you have a plan of action?” Luna asked.

“Nope,” I answered honestly.

“Do you have any sort of strategy for what you’re going to do?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said just as truthfully.

“And do you have any inclination of where to start forming an idea of how to proceed with your quest?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said with a smirk. “But in all fairness, would you have any idea where to start if you were required to fuck a dragon older than most settlements on the eastern border?”

She still continued to read, opening her mouth for a brief moment to give a response before promptly closing it with a brief tilt of her head and a flair of her eyebrows, showing that she had no idea either.

“In my time, I’ve formed many a strategy that has saved myself and my soldiers from what seemed to be suicide missions,” she said after a moment of pause. “But this… this goes far beyond my realm of experience.”

“I would say I’m a lot more equipped to handle this. Charming my way into a woman’s underwear is kind of my thing,” I said, scratching my cheek with a small smirk. “But I highly doubt that there’ll be a collection of food and wine, a ballroom dance, and a romantic sunset for me to take advantage of this time around.”

“So it seems we’re both out of our league here,” Luna said. “Not to mention that the villagers will expect you to have killed the dragon upon your return.”

“Aye, that is a big problem,” I nodded, thinking about how to fake a trophy from the dragoness. “Perhaps I could convince her to lend me one of her prized possessions afterwards? Show them the most valuable treasure in her horde before giving it back to her at a later date?”

“You’d have a better chance of teaching the sun to play dead than convincing her to let you take a piece of treasure, never mind her crown jewel,” Luna said, turning over another page and sipping from her cup. “No, I think that the best thing to do right now is cross each bridge as we come to it. So the first bridge we need to worry about is clearing the Hangman’s Pass at the edge of the Winter’s Maw.”

History lesson: Equestria’s had a few spats with Winter’s Maw in the past few millennia over things like territory, supply lines, trade routes, and gem mines; during one of the nastier wars, the king of Winter’s Maw demanded that every Equestrian noble they captured was to be hanged from a large bridge that went over the valley that was once known as the Guardsman's Respite as a display of power and hatred. The bridge was of course destroyed by Equestrian siege towers and trebuchets during the war, and since there was no bridge to name the area after, it became known as the Hangman’s Pass. Obviously.

“Is it that dangerous this time of year?” I asked.

“Yes, this time of year is harvest season, meaning that a lot of trade routes are going to be carrying a lot of precious things: grains, wheat, and food, into the cities as tributes and sales from the farmers to the city, as well as a large amount of gold and jewellery being transported back as payment for their crops,” Luna nodded. “So that means there’ll be a high bandit count in the mountains looking to rob the caravans carrying the goods. If we travel lightly, even if they see us, they’ll avoid us, but they tend to get greedy every now and again to try their luck.”

“Surely we can handle a few measly bandits, right?” I asked, leaning forward over my legs.

“Of course we can,” Luna nodded. “But there’s a lot of factors that can change the outcome of a confrontation, be it the condition of the ground or the desperation of the opponent. You can never be too careful, especially in a land that you don’t know as well as your own.”

“Right,” I nodded. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” Luna said, finishing off the drink in her cup and setting it down next to her, turning over the page in her book and continuing to read. “Now, while you’ve been trained with both, would you rather fight with a shield or keep a hold of a silver sword? I know of a few shields in the armoury that can help with a dragon’s breath, but if you run into any monsters without me there, you’ll be hard-pressed to kill them without a silver sword.”

A good question. The idea was to get in and get out without any kind of fighting, but if that plan ever worked I’d never take a sword with me anywhere I went. I knew of several dangerous monsters that inhabited the icy regions of the north: Ice Wraiths, Blizzard Hounds, and a few types of wyvern that had evolved to survive in the cold, but they often strayed away from civilizations. But then again, I had no idea how far away the dragon’s cave would be, and I’d much rather have an enchanted shield to protect me from something as dangerous as rot or lightning if the dragon decided she wasn’t up for a roll in the… freezing gold coins she’d amassed over the years… maybe I should add a thermal under-layer to my armour set up this time around. I thought about it for several long moments before deciding that the monsters could be avoided if I kept my senses tuned and that a shield would be the best choice to go with this time around. I voiced by choice and reason to Luna, the older woman nodding along as I did so, before folding the corner of her page, closing the book, and standing up.

“Very well,” she said with a sigh, stretching her back with a loud crack before standing up straight. “We shall get you to the armoury and see what exactly you’re going to equip yourself with. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’m gonna be,” I nodded, standing up straight and dusting my backside of stray grass that had stuck to my pants.