Cora hummed as she walked down the long street, Kylen trailing after her. Kylen's interference had resulted in the jewelers paying more for her stones. Some of them had been rare, according to Kylen. Cora hadn't missed the angry glare one of the jewelers kept shooting him every time he interrupted.
"I can't believe you had so many star sapphires, and so big at that!" Kylen chuckled. "I thought that they were going to stab me with a pair of pliers or something."
Cora smiled as she glanced at him. Kylen was in high spirits. From what she could gather, he hadn't been on good terms with a couple of the apprentice jewelers in the shop.
"Where's Enlais?" Cora asked.
"She went to buy tickets on the next caravan to the coast." Kylen shrugged. "It's a diversion, really. I think someone is watching us, but I can't be sure. I wasn't so twitchy until I met you."
"I'm amazed that you weren't 'twitchy' before this," Cora said, making little air quotes with her fingers. "That argument you had with your brother when I arrived was watched by so many people that it didn't make much sense. It's not lack there's a dearth of entertainment."
As if to prove her point, a cry rang out at the edge of the upcoming plaza. Drawing closer, they could see a pair of acrobats performing to the accompaniment of a fife player. Cora glanced at the little boy collecting coins from the surrounding crowd. She was surprised to see some of the miners in the audience chucking small bits of ore into his little cap.
"Mining town," Kylen explained, noticing her surprise. "You can get a lot of money being a performer, even here."
"And it still doesn't explain why there were so many people watching your argument. It's like they just appeared out of nowhere," Cora added with a shiver. "I was just passing by, looking for a place to sell my extra stones and maybe get some ore smelted."
"You have ore to be smelted as well?" Kylen jerked to a stop, peering at her with increased interest. "Do you have a mine, then?"
"An unused mine," Cora grumbled.
"Really?" Kylen glanced around. "No one's mining it?"
"Just me every so often," Cora admitted. She paused in walking to let Kylen catch up.
"And you're looking for population, hmm," Kylen mused as he caught up. "Let's hurry back to my claim. My eldest brother was making noises this morning about giving me something more profitable."
Cora glanced at him in disbelief. Kylen huffed.
"I would have you know that I'm the most spoiled member of my family," he said.
"Most people don't brag about that."
"And they all think I have a bum claim," Kylen continued, sounding slightly irritated. "My dad says that I need to produce something in order to pass the test."
"And maybe someone offered to buy out your 'useless' claim," Cora tossed out. She paused at a stall and fished out a handful of coppers.
"Just a one for this, dear," the old lady manning the food stall said, trading the said copper for a stick of steaming dumplings coated in hard shells.
"That's not good to eat," Kylen reproved.
"Which makes it just right," Cora replied. She shoved the rest of the coppers back into her pocket and kept walking.
She happily ate the dumplings as she walked. The feel of the hard coating cracking under her teeth was interesting. Cora couldn't quite place the flavor of the dumplings themselves, something between caramel and snickerdoodle while the coating resembled chocolate caramel. It was very interesting.
Kylen was silent as he trailed after her. Cora glanced at him from time to time. He seemed to be deep in thought.
A few minutes later, they neared Kylen's claim. They jerked to a stop at the sight of several men standing near the entrance. They resembled Kylen to a certain degree. The men all turned towards them nearly at the same time, surprise and happiness on their faces. Then a smaller figure broke free, a wide smile on her face.
"Kylen! We got here before you left!" The woman said. "Just tell us, Kylen. Are you so depressed by getting this claim that you're leaving town?"
"Depressed?" Kylen asked, approaching the group. He let the backpack on his back slide down to the ground. "Where did you get that idea?"
"It's okay, Kylen. It's just a bad claim," an older man with a distinct resemblance to Kylen came up. "No need to abandon the family over it."
"I'm not abandoning the family!"
"See? I told you he'd deny it. Pay up," one of the previously silent men told another, holding out his hand. A gold coin was slapped into his palm. "Pleasure doing business with you."
Cora gingerly moved to the side, polishing off the last of her dumplings as she watched. She glanced around, noticing that the area was a little livelier than usual as people lurked around, watching the escalating argument that Kylen seemed to be losing.
"Wow, I really didn't think they'd all turn up," Enlais said, sitting down next to her. At her feet was a pack similar to Kylen's.
"Probably should have warned him," Cora said, sticking the dumpling stick into her bag.
"I'd no clue a word to my da would result in him having a word with his da," Enlais protested. "My da is happy enough that I'm going off to look at the wider world and perhaps find a decent enough claim to support a few relatives and such."
"He thinks you're off prospecting?" Cora looked at Enlais who had her feet resting on her pack. Anyone looking at her would think she was merely using it as a resting spot. "Did you get the?"
"Yup," Enlais nodded. "Which is why we need to hope this ends soon. My great-grandpa and his brothers are sleeping now, but tonight is when they go off to the bath house. We don't want to be around when they find their cloaks missing."
"Is this going to cause you trouble?" Cora asked.
"Not as much as people finding out about those kids. I asked my great-grandpa about mining legends, and he said that the best treasure is what he called 'homunculi.' It sounded like the kids, but whoever made up the original story seems to have cut out what they really are. If you just believe the story, then they're nothing more than walking treasure chests. It took a lot not to say anything or throw up," Enlais said miserably. She shivered. "That story is an old dwarven one. We can't go near any of the dwarven towns. They'll be like locusts."
"Or hyenas," Cora added. "Should we interrupt? I can say that I hired Kylen for something."
"Kylen's known for knowing absolutely nothing," Enlais replied. She hunched her shoulders. "It's not true. Kylen's picked up a lot of things over the years. He just doesn't use them."
There was a ripple through the crowd, small gasps and exhalations. Enlais and Cora turned to look at the crowd, finding that their stares were directed upwards. They looked up to find a trio of dragons approaching, notable for their size. One was small, one medium and the most eye catching one was a spectacular mix of orange, red and black.
Even as their attention was caught by the dragons, the ground rumbled beneath their feet. Cora shot a look to the mine entrance, noting the falling dust and debris as the ground rumbled again, harder.
"Heart of the Mountain," Kylen cried, pulling free of his family's concerned, smothering embrace.
"What?" Kylen's mother demanded.
Kylen's father frowned, following after Kylen along with his two brothers. Several other men broke out of the crowd and followed along, each wearing the same crest of pickaxe and shovel.
"Are those all Kylen's father's men?" Cora asked Enlais, frowning at the sight.
"Yep, but I don't know why they're here," Enlais said, hitching her pack onto her shoulder. "I'll follow after."
She suited action to words. Cora took a step after her, pausing as the dragons landed in the plaza, instantly making it smaller. "Sycamore?" She asked, looking at the proud smallest dragon.
Sycamore had changed since she'd last saw her. She was now mostly black with very little gray, but there was a thin line of red limning each scale as if there was lava flowing underneath. She was a couple sizes larger, nearly reaching her brother's shoulder.
"I'm not a fledgling anymore!" Sycamore announced, arching her neck. "See, see? I think I'm going to be a fire breather! Just like my grandma and Germaine!"
"And she won't shut up about it," Dewalt complained, easing away from his enthusiastic sister. His scales had gained a further deepening of color, now shading from black to green near the edge of each scale. "She's been bugging us ever since the level up to come see you."
Dewalt looked around at the murmuring crowd. Several men with weapons were paused at the entrance of the plaza, glaring in the direction of the mine entrance but wary of Germaine's imposing presence. Germaine was watching them with narrowed eyes, her black and red wings half-opened. In the sunlight, it seemed like fire was flowing through their veins.
"Of course I had to come see my friend," Sycamore replied. She blinked as she looked around the plaza. "Why are you mining? You are mining, right? Because that's a mine right there."
"Um, my friend's sort of mining," Cora replied, trying to fight off the fascination for a few seconds before giving in. She circled Sycamore. "You're so big! And your scales, both your scales, are adorable and awesome."
"Thank you," Dewalt said, preening. He half-opened his wings. "And now we can even fly. Not for long, but that just takes practice," he added.
"And I can fly!" Sycamore said, leaning against Cora's leg. "Aren't I awesome, Cora?"
"Very awesome," Cora promptly agreed. She could feel her heart melt at the blinking gold eyes. "You should come visit me at my town," she added.
"Of course, I can! You'll let me?" Sycamore asked, glancing at her brother and Germaine.
"All three of you can come," Cora smiled. She heard a faint ding and sighed internally. She made a mental note to check later. "I'm just a little worried about my friends in the mine," she added with a shrug.
"Hmm, are they after the Heart of the Mountain?" Germaine asked, looking at the shifting crowd of restless, armed men. "This mountain seems to have one."
Cora's response was stalled as one of Kylen's brothers, the one he'd been arguing with her first day in Cochran, staggered out of the mouth of the mine, dirty and bleeding down one arm. He snarled something to their mother who seemed to morph into an entirely new, sterner person.
Very quickly, the plaza was emptied of people who didn't work for the Horalds. New men showed up in livery who eyed the dragons cautiously but shooed off any overly curious people. There was a brief skirmish between them and the crowd of men that ended when Germaine snorted in their direction.
"You must be that mayor girl," Kylen's mother sniffed. She gave a small shake of her head. "No matter. Kylen's grown. Plus he's announced that he's off to work some unclaimed mine out there somewhere. Poppycock! There's no unworked mines anywhere around here."
Cora wisely remained silent. She liked Kylen, but she wasn't so sure that she liked the rest of his family.
Whatever else Kylen's mother was going to say was cut off as a few figures emerged, half of them clad in shadow. One peeled off towards Kylen's mother and pulled back a hood to reveal his father.
"We've to smuggle some stuff out of town, love," he told his wife. There was an awed look in his eye. "My grandda's diary wasn't wrong at all."
Kylen's mother's eyes went wide. Then she swept a cautious look around the plaza, chewing on her lip. With a jerky nod, she went back to ordering the men to block the entrances to the plaza.
Kylen's father gingerly crossed to where Cora was standing with the dragons.
"If you could ask them to help smuggle them all out, I would be appreciative," he asked Cora.
"You can't ask them?" Cora asked, bewildered.
"I don't speak Draconis. I don't think there's many who do in these parts," Kylen's father replied with a startled look.
"Draconis?" Cora vaguely remembered seeing a line in her status once upon a time. Then it had vanished along with several others to be replaced by something called 'Superior Diplomacy.' "You mean, you can't understand them?"
"Not a word," Kylen's father assured her. He glanced back at the mine entrance where the shadowy figures were lingering. "Can they help?"
"Tell him that we will," Germaine said. She sounded intrigued. "I've never met any of them before. I get to talk to them before they leave, right?"
"Germaine says she'll do it if she gets to talk to them afterwards." Cora looked at Sycamore and Dewalt who gave her boneless dragon shrugs.
"I think we might be able to do that," Kylen's father said as Germaine stalked forward, wings mantling defensively.