17 Chapter 16

Cal's head snapped up at the sudden voice. He thought he was alone in the library as the librarian recently left for a break. Vayla sauntered closer with a smile. Clearly happy she spooked the much larger male. The book in front of him was falling apart in his hands, pages a dark tan and the cover hanging by a thread. The title was worn and barely legible, but as a guess, she would have to say it was 'The legendary: Dragons'.

Cal's mouth opened and closed as he stared wide-eyed at the unicorn. He folded the corned of the current page and gently closed the ancient book.

" Uh, did you need something?" He asked as he placed the book on the table among the sea of other books and parchments.

" Well, you already beat me to it."

" You mean the dragon stuff yeah?"

She sat across from him, shoving the clutter to either side. Elbows on the table she rested her head in her hands before speaking, " Yes, I was thinking we could have a chat on the history, breeds and culture."

Cal nodded before motioning her to continue.

" So how far did you get, that books quite the bore."

" Only, maybe a quarter way."

" Alright then, so you should have read about how dragons were known for being mostly nomadic. Yes, they stayed in generally the same areas or climates but they rotated often. They believed it kept the soil fresh. Fresh soil means better food and to be honest they had that right." She said with a smile," Sorry let's skip the boring stuff, the dragons also believed strong warriors were born from either strong souls or people who're descendants of gods. Sadly their traditions were all oral so we know very little."

" What traditions do you know of Vayle?"

" Well, we know how most if not all of the dragon tribes had female leaders and it was never decided by marriage or social status. When the current leader was reaching their natural end they would hold a large festival full of competition. A huge fight would be held, no rules, strongest woman wins. The winner would be gifted leadership of the tribe."

" Seems fair to me."

" It really does. And the last thing we know is how where they lived correlated with an element of magic. So to sum it up, deserts and mountains are earth dragons, tundras had ice, areas with large bodies of water had, of course, water dragons and volcanos housed those of fire, and finally, forests or cliffsides were once filled with air dragons."

" So, supposedly I should be able to use earth magic efficiently?" He asked.

" Hypothetically speaking," Vayle responded

Cal grumbled, leaning back in his chair, " Yeah, I've used some magic. But it's always been from premade rune stones."

" That's a start, means you aren't completely incompetent.

Cal glared at the younger female, his annoyance made clear by his lips held close together and light wrinkling to his forehead. She only laughed as she thought the face to be cute. Though their interaction wasn't quite as secretive or private as they thought as a figure cloaked themselves in the shadows of the library.

Tanen wandered the similar hallways of the inn. The living floors were much more of a maze than he ever thought to be possible and getting lost was super easy if he didn't pay attention. He was following behind some hybrids he thought acted odd. So being the horrible decision-maker he is he didn't think it through and is now in a worse situation than the forest back home. One was a sheep and the other possible a deer of sorts, they talked in hushed whispers and checked all corners as they talked. Though he quickly lost them leading to his current issue of being lost.

' I don't want to call for help, I need to do this all on my own.' He thought as he puffed up his chest to feign courage. ' Wait, Klaus's room is on this floor if I can find that ill just stay there.'

Slowly but surely he found Klaus's room. The door might have been plain but it was the swirling decals on the doorknob that gave it away. Opening the door without knocking was clearly not the best move to have made. Slowly swinging the door open Tanen was meet with something he never should have witnessed.

" Um... Hey guys."