Guo-Li, Chen-Fe and Lieren left what remained of the Demi-human raiders to decorate the stone slabs of Dark-Scale mountain and headed back home.
The trek was a three hour walk through forests, spinning rivers, sightless walk paths and—
"Serpent Valley….." Guo-Li stopped at the fork in their path. The footprints of where they came in from were still shown in the stone dirt on the right pathway. His eyes lingered to the left.
"Wait— please don't tell me you want to walk through Serpent Valley this time, Guo-Li!!!" Chen-Fe whined as he hugged his axe.
Guo-Li stood ahead of him with his right hand rested on the handle of his sword to stop the shaking. "We talked about how I may be able to talk to reptiles now, didn't we, old friend?"
"Now isn't the time for theories! We just walked all night to speak to spiritual moon-dragons then had to fight off leopard-men on top of a cursed mount—"
"Blessed." Guo-Li held up a hand, "Blessed mountain, that gives blessing."
"Yes, but it doesn't remove fear." Chen-Fe stated, "Just because you've become a Weredragon doesn't mean you aren't terrified of snakes anymore."
Guo-Li took a deep breath, "You don't overcome your fears by submitting to them, Chen-Fe."
He made his way inside, taking a new route back home. Now with new strength.
The moment they stepped foot into the snake infested grass valleys, Guo-Li began to sweat.
Beside him, Lieren's fur stood on end and his claws extended.
"You know, Guo-Li…. you never told me why you have such a fear of serpents. In all the four years we've known eachother. You never say why…." Chen-Fe said as they walked.
The valley was massive, bordered by mountains and deep pockets of rivers where sea serpents slept in coils at the bottom of the water. It was said that Dragon-Tamers of old commanded the skies while Serpent Charmers did the same for everything below. They too were abandoned in a way due to their relation to dragons. They were less emotional about it.
He could sense they were still present. Hiding.
"And you still won't tell me why." Chen-Fe answered on his own.
"Sure I will. I was bitten by one as a child." Guo-Li lied. He had no reason to tell Chen-Fe when he lived as a human poacher-hunter on earth, he was bitten by a cobra in a sting operation….. where he died. A can of worms he didn't plan to ever open.
"How did you survive…?" Chen-Fe asked in amazement.
"Luck." Guo-Li replied cheekily.
Chen-Fe shivered as they walked under the shadows cast by the bordering mountains on their path. "Let's hope we keep that luck for the duration of our wa—...."
The half-ofc bumped into Guo-Li as he suddenly came to a stop ahead of him.
Beside them, Lieren let out a low growl.
"Our luck continues…."
"Your definition of luck makes no sense." Chen-Fe said.
Ahead of them, a snake teleported into existence. It was five feet long and quick in its movements. It's scales were black— except for an assortment of scales on its back that looked like ocean surfaces. The same could be said for its eyes.
Guo-Li's mind rambled, "Porter-Serpent…. aggresive— jumpy, charged with the magic of Aqua-Portals due to their sea-serpent ancestry. This worlds bodies of water also work as portals to send you all over the world or even outer worlds. Something about the water working with and expanding our PsyQi. Wherever we think, we go. Expert Serpent Charmers can do the same with Porter-Serpents. Even in regions with no water. A valuble bond could be formed."
The Porter-Serpent teleported back and forth in front of them with a fizzle of glowing bubbles and steam. Lieren moved his head like it was on a swivel as he kept his jaws aimed at the serpent.
"Well….?" Chen-Fe mumbled.
"Well what?"
"What is the snake saying?"
Guo-Li watched the serpent blip in and out of existence. The beast must've viewed the world so differently from him. No distance too great. Everything a step— an impulse, away, even taking his own life. Could he even understand the snake if he could hear its inner wor—
The serpent teleported and landed right in front of him. No less than a foot away. Lieren hissed.
Guo-Li was suddenly back on earth in the stale heat, jumping as a snake lunged and sunk its fangs into his leg.
He blinked and found himself clinging to his brute of a friend. Shaking.
The Porter-Serpent eyed him once more before turning away and teleporting out of the valley.
Guo-Li sighed. "I'm not ready."
Chen-Fe patted him on the back, "It's been a long night. I wouldn't stress it too much, we have a month to get ready, I'm sure you'll have ten snakes by then!"
"Yes! You and me both." Guo-Li jumped at the positive idea.
"Oh— I think I'm ok." Chen-are laughed nervously.
"Can you imagine it? The outliers, coming to the Tamer's School entrance games with twenty serpents and two dragons. We'll be scaled kings!" Guo-Li said.
"That sounds like a nightmare!" Chen-Fe replied.
"Blessings and curses, friend. Blessings and curses." Guo-Li turned and left Serpent-Valley, taking the old way home as he tried to stuff away his disappointment.
Yes, he'd become a Weredragon, but his current shortcomings weren't physical. They were mental.
And that was an enemy he couldn't brave with stone scales and gray-fire.
***
They made it through the various biomes between Dark-Scale Mountain and their home City-State unscathed.
Guo-Li could smell it before he saw the jade-metal gates. They were grand— so tall the green ornamental guardian rails looked like they were piercing the shadowy clouds. They sparkled like verdant galaxies given shape— speaking to their magical edge.
"Welcome home, Guo-Li. Back to the gracious and diverse City-State of Fengfu." Guo-Li told himself, failing to sound excited even in his own mind.
They approached the entrance gates where guards in jadenite ore armor waited riding war-horses and leading leashed packs of huntsmen hounds. The strength of their Psionic Bonds was clear in their matching eye glow.
"Name and citizenship badge." The guard said as he dropped the leash holding back his huntsmen hounds at the gate.
"Guo-Li." Guo-Li dug his citizenship badge out of his pocket. No more than a jadenite coin on a necklace.
The guard looked at him with disgust from his seat atop his war-horse. The beast was eight feet tall and musclebound. It didn't have thin skin and short smooth hair like the ones of earth. It was shaggy and the skin beneath was like that of a rhinoceros. Speaking of rhino's they also had horns at the ends of their snouts and sabered fangs. Terrifying and aggresive beasts.
But still somehow, the guard in glowing green metal armor was scarier. Because he made the beast submit.
"Present your badge to the hounds." The guard said.
Guo-Li held his badge to the hounds. They had long flappy ears and bulky heads with grey eyes and dark brown fur. Like a bloodhound wolf hybrid on steroids and somehow with even more stamina.
Also, they hated him.
The hounds growled.
One— assumedly the second in command, looked back to the guard. The fizzle and pop of their Psionic bond glimmered as they shared a conversation.
The guard looked back to Guo-Li and then to Chen-Fe. "You two smell like cat. Big cat. And demi-human blood. Where are they. Are you trying to sneak a raiding party into the beautiful city-state of Fengfu?! You humanoid filth!"
"We took the jungles on the way back and ran into some leopard-men. We fought them off— you can smell their blood on our blades if you'd like." Guo-Li explained, "Or we can keep up the racism." He thought after.
"If you pull out your weapon I'll have my alpha hound use his newest technique on you, cat-tonguer."
"That is a slur!" Chen-Fe said in horror.
"Shut-it!"
Guo-Li stood strong. He held the guards gaze. The memory of his failing to face down the snake burned in his psyche.
"This is also why I climbed that mountain. THIS right here. I want the power to burn this corrupt hierarchy to ash. Then I want to take the ash and throw it in an ocean. I wish to bring the dragons."
Something burned within him. It burned like the sun. Hot the blinding and planetary in its smoldering mass.
A familiar voice from a familiar dragon bellowed in his mind.
[Then bring it, elf.]
Something in Guo-Li changed. Strongly enough to ripple the Psionic bond shared between the guards and their hounds. His PsyQi aura flared like flames. Great purple and grey flames that took the form of dragon wings.
The war-horses screeched and the huntsmen hounds yelped in terror as they all ran, taking the guards with them. Due to the bonds shared between them, they too ran in horror, leaving the entrance gates open and unmanned for the time being.
Chen-Fe looked from the fleeing figures back to Guo-Li.
Guo-Li motioned towards the gates into the city. "After you."
Chen-Fe smiled, "I think I can get used to this."
Guo-Li followed, "I knew you would. You're adaptable. Like a…. mushy stone."
"I think you're sleep deprived friend—" before Chen-Fe could even finish his comment, Guo-Li had climbed onto his back and fallen asleep.
Chen-Fe nearly fell over.
"Geez, Guo-Li. We haven't talked about how—ERCK, much you've grown. They may start mistaking you for the half-orc!"