A slouched figured entered the cave. When Maga heard the footsteps, it raised its head and stopped from eating the fish it just caught. There was a guilty look in its eyes as it looked at the slouched figure walking slowly, then back to the fish in its paws.
However, Ling ignored the food. After he got near the pile of fish, he sat down and sighed, then remained in a slouched posture as he sat on the ground.
It was already dark outside. Despite that, the cave was bright from the popping fire beside the dragon. After it caught all this fishes, it lit the fire since it knew that aside from the fire lighting and heating the cave, the boy would want his food cooked.
There were no sounds inside the cave afterwards. Therefore, Maga lowered its head again and took a bite of the fish. It chewed slowly so as not to disturb the boy's musings.
Maga had already eaten two fishes when Ling moved again. He picked up a fish from the pile, took a firewood to skewer it, then raised it in front of the fire. Except for the fire popping, no other sound was heard inside the cave.
"What do you wanna hear first? The good news or the bad news?"
When Maga heard the low voice, it stopped from eating its fourth fish and stared at Ling. Ling waited until Maga put the fish aside to turn its full attention to him before speaking again. "So the good news first?"
After Maga nodded, Ling said, "Well, it looks like the town we're in has dragons freely walking around too."
The news put a sparkle on Maga's eyes. But, afterwards, it waited for the bad news.
"The bad news is we're not in Kal'wa Island. We're actually in Gitna."
Maga titled its head and remained staring at Ling. It was unsure of what their next plans would be when they could already live safely here with the other dragons.
"The dragons outside were a lot smaller than you though. Around the size of the wolves in the forest even when they were sitting with their two feet." Ling stood up and put up his right hand in front of his chest to indicate the height of the dragons. "The tallest I saw was about this tall."
Meanwhile, Maga was already taller than Ling even when standing on all fours, and the dragon was still growing. That would mean it would be different than the dragons here even though dragons seemed to be living safely in this town. Should they try to get to Kal'wa then? Therefore, they had to find the crew previously with them or find another one to send them to Kal'wa Island.
Ling didn't need to ask Maga about its preference, but just told them his plans. "If we wanted to meet dragons just like you, we could wait here for half a year for the dragon riders to travel to Gitna again or go directly to Kal'wa. But that would mean we have to find a ship again. Then, we don't have anything to pay in case we found another ship to help us sail through the Limaw Sea."
Hearing this news, Maga lowered its head but still listened to Ling as he continued speaking. "The fish you caught should be enough for us for days and we could catch some again, but we still had to find work to earn money." Ling's smile looked slightly brighter. "Tomorrow, let's look around the towm first. At least you could also go out without worries."
___
The next day, the two looked presentable. Ling went out earlier first to trade some of the fishes they caught for clean clothes. Then, after washing a little with the sea water, they went to the market area.
Contrary to what Ling previously described this place as a town, it was actually already considered as a city—a port city to be exact. The market area he had seen last night was just a small part of this city.
Still, the two decided to explore around the shore first. Ling's other agenda was to try to find the Barko—the ship they set sail with from Kanan Island. If Ling and Maga washed up here, the rest of the crew might be here too.
Soon, the two found the port. The salty smell was more prominent here since several boats were actually fishing boats filled with fresh fishes for trade. This time, most of the fishermen were just coming back from their sailing.
Together with Maga, Ling asked around the port if they met the crew of the Barko. Unfortunately, it didn't look like that ship was boarded here since nobody could answer him about it.
Therefore, Ling asked where he could find any ship going to Kal'wa. There was a group of men clustered around the buckets of their catch, talking to each other after a morning's work, and they were helpful enough to answer a young child's questions. However, when they heard him ask about a ship going to Kal'wa Island, they all laughed.
"Kid, nobody's idiotic enough to pass through the Limaw Sea. Aside from the dragon riders of course." The bearded man looked at his mates as he continued laughing.
One man leaning his hairy arm on a pole then gave a stare at Maga. "But don't think you could try it with your dragon here. The dragon riders use adult dragons and they've trained them for years since birth."
When Maga heard this, it frowned but stayed sitting on the side and let Ling speak for them. "Sir, do you know where are these dragon riders then?" Maybe he could talk to them regarding Maga.
"Too bad for you. They usually come here a few times every month but they've been gone for over a month now."
"Yeah. Maybe they will just be here during their trading after six months." Another one added.
After asking around some more with the other fisher men, Ling and Maga walked back to the market area, dejected after hearing the same information several times.
Even if they managed to earn some money, nobody would take however much amount to take them to Kal'wa Island. They could wait here for six months, maybe even less if the dragon riders returned earlier, since the city was not averse to dragons.
However, they've been gone from the Mal'it Clan's village for almost half a year now with no good news. Despite Ling's thirst for adventure outside their village, he still wanted to return to his family and friends at some point.
"What do we do now?" Ling asked to the same clueless Maga.
Suddenly, the people around the market dispersed, however they were all going to the bigger part of the city. There were shouts in front, inaudible to the two. However, Ling and Maga could tell that it was about a waited for event with the excited looks of the people around them.
Maybe this would also be a good news to Ling and Maga?