Volume 1 Chapter 12: Truth of a Dragon / Hiram’s Growth

Reaching the village, the children are awakened by the sudden shaking of the carriage. The guards guide the children out of the carriage and into even more guards who escort them to the local hospital. While they had no major exterior wounds except for Danjela's group who were injured. A few parents, guardians, and friends watch worriedly as their children are examined by the doctors and nurses in the hospital before they are let in to see their children. They react with relief as most of the children seem to be perfectly fine, although tired. Noriko comes running to all of the children when she gets the chance and hugs them before expressing her worries. The last person she hugged was Aldrich and unlike the others, she sheds tears.

"I'm sorry, Aldrich. I should have gone with you. I'm so glad you're safe."

Although they were all her students, Aldrich and Yumi were her personal family. For Aldrich, she watched him be born and have lived with him ever since. It was not strange to see her cry for him. Yumi is her niece that she's loved and looked after. Sinclair guards and maids also make their appearance and express their concerns but are calmed down by Hiram who takes a confident stance and states that they are fine and safe. Arriving on scene is Lord Sinclair with a retinue of soldiers. He immediately hugs his children and his niece before saying,

"I don't understand how this happened. We have cleared the area beforehand to make sure there wasn't anything too dangerous. There were no signs of rider rats or even anything close to hundreds of living beings in that forest."

As the crowd of worried people grows, including journalists and other non-affiliated groups, Lord Sinclair announces that the children should be allowed to rest and orders everyone who is not family to leave the children. The doctors take most of the children into bedchambers and allow them to rest before taking Aldrich, Leah, Hiram, Danjela and Peter into a different room. To Peter he says,

"Peter, your guards are here to take you back home."

"What? But I don't believe there's a reason to-"

"Peter I understand your concern, but the matriarch of the Stonesiegward clan has requested your appearance and I can not refuse."

"Mother has?"

Turning to his friends, he bids farewell before heading out the hospital and then being escorted by worried dwarven warriors. Lord Sinclair then talks to the remaining four.

"I'm sure you know why I've brought you here my son."

"Yes father, we're here to give our accounts on the battle."

"Correct. Now explain what exactly happened there."

After explaining how Hiram's group got to farm and then chasing the rabbits deeper into the forest and then encountering the rider rats which then lead to being chased by the horde, Lord Sinclair strokes his beard. Their account of what happened was wild to say the least. A massive horde of rider rats attacking a relatively large group of people, even children, is unheard of. First, rider rats don't group up in large masses. They are pack hunters and would work in small groups. Rider rats also wouldn't haphazardly attack intelligent beings who could harm them, such as humanoid beings. He then asked them,

"Was running not an option?"

Aldrich replies,

"We could not outrun the rats. They would have surely caught up to us in now time and I would have not left anyone there as bait."

"A good decision on your part."

They continued on this conversation, going back and forth until they discussed the intelligence of the rats. Aldrich explained how they were clearly trained in some aspects and knew how to attack through a firewall, breaking it by chopping trees into falling on them and extinguishing the fires with the impact, something quite weird. Lord Sinclair strokes his beard and closes his eyes for a short moment before speaking.

"All of your bravery today has been exceptional. Your decisions has saved your lives and you young Aldrich are a worthy leader. You all may leave except for Aldrich."

Aldrich suddenly becomes worried as his friends leave and he is alone with the lord. Suddenly Lord Sinclair bends a knee before Aldrich. Aldrich looks in surprise and confusion before Lord Sinclair expresses his thanks.

"Thank you, young Aldrich, no rather, Lord Aldrich Elden Agnis . You have saved not only your group of friends from my incompetence, but you have also saved my sons, daughter and niece. To this I give my thanks."

Even more surprised, Aldrich pauses for a bit before stating,

"It was only natural to save them. They are my friends and it was everyone who-"

"No, it was you Lord Aldrich who saved them. Be as it may that they are your friends and that you would have stayed to fight alongside them, you could have fled alone. Rider rats are no match against a dragon, even a newborn one. Even a horde like the one today would have never even put a scratch on your scales nor could they even catch you if you had fled. Remember Aldrich, no other living being in the world is your equal. It would take a god to kill a dragon. Your decision to hold the hill against the rats saved them all. My son, the budding leader that he is, is not yet experienced enough nor intelligent enough to have come up with such a plan in a short amount of time. His decision to have split off from his group had led to his cousin being injured. So I once again thank you for saving my family."

Aldrich had no words for him and instead simply accepted his thanks. Throughout all of this, Hiram was silently listening from behind the door along with Danjela and Leah. Hearing them close their conversation, they quickly leave and head to the hospital bedroom. Heading back, they are silent until Hiram speaks up.

"I prided myself on my leadership skills, but it is clear today that Aldrich is the better leader."

Leah responds with,

"That's not true brother, today was just an unfortunate day."

"It's true that it was an unfortunate day, but it doesn't erase the fact that I got Danjela into danger nor does it cover my hesitation before the battle. Without Aldrich there, we would have died."

Danjela says nothing as to the attack on her but asks a question instead.

"Why do you believe that Aldrich has saved you then cousin?"

"It was Aldrich who gave the order to head to the hill. It was Aldrich who made the plan to hold there. It was Aldrich who gave us hope."

"But did you not lead the covering fire and the creation of the spikes?"

"But it was Aldrich's plan."

"Aldrich was not there to tell them what to do and how to. Your experience taught them how to make the spikes and how to accurately fire on the rats. Do not put yourself down, cousin."

Hiram ponders on this before stubbornly replying,

"But I wasn't ready. I was scared, scared of failure, scared of the rats, and scared of dying. All I thought about when they came was my death. All I could see was me dying."

"Wasn't everyone scared though? Cousin, your worries were everyone's worries."

"But what about Aldrich? He wasn't scared. He charged forth to save Peter."

"Did you not hear your father? Aldrich is a dragon. Don't compare yourself to him. Everyone seems to forget that Aldrich is immortal. He might grow like us, but killing him or even injuring him is a different story. Today Aldrich has saved us, but it was not to cover for anyone's failures, whether for your own or your father's. He has given you both another chance to learn and redeem yourselves. Tomorrow could be a day where you would save us instead so stop moping."

Hiram ponders on this once more before reaching the hospital bedrooms and doesn't respond.