Vanagloria stood atop the mountain, looking down at the valley below.
She had spent the past few hours happily exploring the rainforest, avoiding dragons, gathering food and trying to figure out how she was gonna find Martyr and Vega.
She somehow had to find a way to survive in the Draconic Rainforest long enough for them to spot her, but also keep low enough so no dragons would spot her.
It felt like every few minutes walking up the mountain trail, she had to stop and bolt behind a tree or Boulder because a dragon started flying too close to them.
But she kept going.
She had to find them.
By the time she made it to the summit, it was Friday morning. She had two days left to find them before her trial was over.
No endorsement.
Stuck in Alfhiem's wildlands.
She decided that if she made it to Sunday she would start making her way back, on foot.
No way would she be able to survive for very long by herself, with a baby wyvern.
So her plan was to get to the top of the cave mountain and scout out the forest.
It was a very pretty view.
The bright green forest stretched on for ages, ending abruptly at a mountain range surrounding the entire region of Alfheim.
The mountains of Astruem.
If one were to scale them, they would reach the very island itself and be able to look into the void of space.
If one were lucky, they would be able to see the earth or the sun. Depending on where the islands were in their rotation around earth.
But she couldn't see Martyr or Vega anywhere.
But what she did see was interesting.
Out in the distance was a smoke trail. It was coming from behind a giant stone statue of an ancient naga warrior poking far over the treetops. It had a massive rusty steel weapon with a long shaft and a crescent shaped blade. Vines from the small floating island above it had crawled down and grown over it, entangling the upper half of the once mighty demi-human.
The lower snake-half of its body surrounded what looked to be a naga village, creating fortified stone wall around it.
If the village hadn't been overrun by a dragon attack, Vanagloria might be able to ask the residents for help. Naga's were supposed to be friendly to humans, as long as they came unarmed which Vanagloria definitely was.
'nweerooo'
If it were for that whimper, she might've forgotten about the most dangerous part of her journey.
Salazar had her head poking out from the flap of her satchel, her wings clinging to the top of it.
"I'm not gonna forget you." Vanagloria said, putting one of her plastic water bottles up to her snout to drink out of.
Vanagloria had to keep Salazar a secret if she were to go into the village. Aggressive dragons like the wyverns were the naga's mortal enemies. If she went in with a baby wyvern attracting its parents into the village, there was no doubt they would kill her on sight. Not to mention they were one of the most aggressive Demi-humans.
Everybody was probably gonna tell her to abandon Salazar as soon as they saw her.
Her one hope was Martyr.
He had mentioned that taming a dragon could maybe be a good idea if they pulled it off.
Martyr was probably the only person that could back Vanagloria up.
Although he was gonna have to apologize to her first.
"Alrighty. Let's head on out Salazar." Vanagloria told the infant, making her look up to Vanagloria attentively.
Her little yellow tail started wagging around in the satchel, the small black point scratching the sides of the satchel.
It made Vanagloria worried for her blanket.
She stuffed it in at the bottom of the bag to make it a little more comfy for Salazar, but she was worried it was gonna get torn up by her wyvern claws.
That blanket meant a lot to her.
Plus it smelled like Martyr now.
Actually that deducted its value. Maybe she should wash it off.
"I'm getting distracted, let's go." Vanagloria shoved the water bottle into one of the side pockets and started her way down the mountain, going in the direction of the smoke trail.
On her way over she crossed the lake.
The lake she had spotted out even before she entered the rainforest.
The same stone pillar was coming out of the center. Except there was no wyvern anymore.
It must've flown off at some point, which was definitely not a good sign. If it smelt Salazar, Vanagloria's journey ended here.
Vanagloria would've tried to show Salazar the lake, to see if she recognized it but she was asleep right now.
Vanagloria had found a small dragon fruit and gave it to her, making her pass out super easily.
She cautiously walked past the lake, keeping an eye on it.
It took her until midday to get to the naga village.
She had almost 5 different encounters with dragons, fighting 2 of them. The only thing she had for food was dragon fruit. She was still covered with scars and scabs, sweat and blood, dirt and grass.
She really was considering taking her risk and staying a night here.
The giant statue was surrounded by a river going around an island. Dragon carcasses were floating in the murky waters. Something Vanagloria definitely didn't want Salazar to see.
A large bridge being held up by the massive crescent weapon, leading to the entrance.
The entrance was just a simple wood door carved into the statue. No guards, no warning signs, no traps, just a door.
Martyring sure her satchel was tightly closed she started to walk across the bridge, eyeing everything around her for potential danger.
Tall wood buildings popped up slightly above the statue walls. They were dark inside to tell if anyone was in it, but she still felt the watchful eyes as she crept up to the entrance.
She tried to seem as casual as possible, so at the very least they would assume she was dumb and let her in for protection.
"Aight, did you see any humans go by? Did you see any humans around? Did you see and humans… shit." Vanagloria recited in her head as she walked up to the door.
"Whatever."
"I'll just wing it."
Vanagloria took a deep breath…
Long exhale…
'knock, kno…'
'B-BAAAAM'
Immediately Vanagloria was surrounded by two giant lizard guys, decked out in full emerald upper body armor.
They were both towering over her, spears pointed right at her head. They were hissing in some language Vanagloria didn't understand.
Her hands were instinctively already up, absolutely terrified for her life.
After a moment of the two naga's hissing at each other, they seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, causing one of them to go through the door.
The other continued pointing his spear at her with a stern look, its yellow and green snake eyes bearing into her soul. Its pupil was thin and sharp, it almost looked like a thick eye-lash. Dark green scaly skin covered it's whole body, all except his marble white belly. He had a dragon head and human arms, and he must've been standing at 8 feet right now.
"Sorry…?"
'hiss'
The spear was poked closer to her chest, almost touching her shirt.
They stood like this for what seemed way too long, until the front door swung open.
Out came the same naga as before, but he had brought two other naga's with him. They quickly slithered over and grabbed Vanagloria's arm before she could even react. He tried to struggle out, but they both had an iron grip.
Then much to her surprise a human walked out.
He was decked out in silver armor and cloth. He must've been in his early 50's, white hair taking over the once black. He was fit for his age and looked surprisingly calm around the naga's.
Behind him was a much bigger naga. Blue scales, gold armor and platinum sword that must've been her height. He wore a crown of flowers, rainbow colors poking out of the green stems.
Most likely their chieftain or something like that.
The big blue naga hissed at her, causing the human to extend his hand out.
"Your bag."
"What?"
"Give me your bag." He said sternly.
Vanagloria actually had no idea what to do. She wanted to bolt out of their hands, but she couldn't turn her head around to look out at the forest. The only place she could bolt to was right in the middle of this circle of naga's or up towards the walls. Plus if she did, they would probably tear her apart. She was considering throwing the bag into the river, but she had to open the bag for Salazar to escape.
"Maybe if I opened it now and let her free…"
Before Vanagloria was able to finish her thought, the satchel was snatched out of her hand by a naga and was thrown over to the human.
"Thanks."
He then lifted it up towards the chieftain, who started sniffing the bag.
Smoke puffed out his snake nose in anger after a good wife of what was inside it.
'hiss'
"So there is one inside it. There always is." The human said, unbuttoning the main pocket.
He then pulled out Salazar by her tattered wing, yelping at the human.
'hiss'
"Oh wow, a lightning wyvern. A rare find." He said, like he was speaking for the chieftain.
Every naga had perched up, quietly hissing at the mini wyvern.
"Don't touch him. Just let us go and we won't have to get into a brawl." Vanagloria could feel anger boil inside her. She had no clue if she could even kill a naga, but she knew she could at least kill this guy.
He looked up from Salazar to listen to what she had to say and then turned around to talk to the chieftain in an extremely strange ancient language.
Instantly the chieftain burst out into laughter, causing all his soldiers to awkwardly do the same. He then started hissing back at his translator in between his laughs.
"You want this wyvern baby that badly?"
"Yes. Just let us go, you won't ever have to see us again."
"Okay… come with us." The human said, walking back through the door.
She started to feel the naga's holding her start following him, tugging on her arm.
"Wait, I said let us go! I don't want us to go in there!" Vanagloria planted her ground and tried to stop the naga's from dragging her through the door.
"You will."
"No I won't! Did you not hear m…"
'CLANG'
Vanagloria's whole consciousness faded away after a wildly sharp pain hit her head.
She could feel her whole body going limp as the pain overtook her brain.
….
…