Chapter 11: Late Night Chats

46 hours stuffed in the back of a cart would be quite an unpleasant experience for anyone, but for Austin, it was just hell. Every little bump was nauseating and to put it simply, the roads were shit. Clearly not built by the Romans. It had been nearly 12 hours since Austin dragged Ellie out of bed and into the cheapest available cart and at this point and the sun was beginning to set past the horizon. As usual, Ellie had already pushed everything out her way and made herself a comfortable spot to sleep in. A spot just about big enough for her, and absolutely nothing else.

‘Giddenavya … Hey … Hey! … Giddenavya!! … You literally told me yesterday that you can hear my every thought, don’t go acting like you can’t hear me now.’

‘I was trying to sleep.’

‘You’re dead, you don’t need sleep.’

‘… That’s kinda rude but you are right, so I’ll let you off.’

‘Sure… Well anyway, after saying your name twice in quick succession just then, I’ve decided I’m never gonna put myself through hassle of saying it again.’

‘You didn’t even say it out loud, you just thought it.’

‘Still too much stress on the brain. Anyway, I was thinking we could think of a nickname, so I don’t have to tire myself out trying to think about it.’

‘No.’

‘Well I’m going to.’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘So we already know you don’t like Goshenite.’

‘Please no.’

‘Wow, you’ve already resorted to begging, some Dragon God you are. How about Giddy?’

‘Ew god no! And I am not begging you!’

‘Well you better start if you like your name that much. But you’re right, even thinking of calling you Giddy makes me cringe.’

‘I will not beg to a mere human!’

‘A mere human that’s about to change your name for good.’

‘Please! I’m begging you! Don’t do it.’

‘Hahaha! Too late, you already called me “a mere human” so now I’m definitely gonna.’

‘You just wanted me to hear me plea, didn’t you?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘HA!! Jokes on you! I had my claws crossed.’

‘That just gives me another reason to change your name.’

‘Noooooooooo.’

‘Anyway, what are we even going on about? I’m not changing your name; I’m just giving you a nickname that’s easier for me to call you. You’ll still technically be Giddenavya.’

‘Oh… Well, I guess that’s okay then.’

‘I can’t believe that’s all it took to convince you. You’re supposed to be a Dragon God.’

‘Yeah, well… I don’t mind a little nickname. It’s a sign of affection, right?’

‘Yeah, and if you want a nice one, you’re gonna have to help. You know what I’m like with making names.’

‘Good point. Okay, how about… God?’

‘Maybe don’t help me then.’

‘Nonono! okay I’ll be serious, I promise. How about just Avya then?’

‘That’s not bad, but I think Ava sounds better.’

‘Ava’s cool.’

‘Hell yeah! First good name I’ve come up with!’

‘Well, you didn’t really come up with it. You just shortened down what I came up with.’

‘All you did was shorten your own name to begin with! … Ahhhh, I’m so tired!!!’

‘Just go to sleep then.’

‘How? I’ve got no room and every time I close my eyes, I feel like I’m gonna die.’

‘Like this.’

“Austin. Austin. Wake up, we’re nearly there now.”

“… huh?... You what?...”

“Come on, get up. Look, you can see the gates.”

“You said wake up?”

“That is what you usually say to people to get them to wake up. Or would you rather me just shout a load of gibberish at you?”

“I’m getting up.”

“I wouldn’t get up; you’d probably fall out the cart.”

“Oh shit, yeah good point. Wait did you say we’re nearly there?”

“Yep.”

“Oh man, how long have I been asleep?”

“I don’t know.”

‘About 16 hours.’

“Damn, 16 hours! That’s crazy.”

“I- how’d you know you got 16 hours?”

“Oh, because Av-

‘THINK’

-figured it out.”

“Who’s Av?”

“I’ve. I said I’ve figured it out. I must have slurred it a bit because I’m still practically asleep.”

“Oh… so what do you fancy doing today?...” Ellie blushed and looked away for a second, this was the first time she’d woken up before Austin, and the first time she’d heard his morning voice. His deep, husky morning voice.

“Sleep. …Nah I’m kidding, whatever you want to do is fine by me.”

“Sleeping with you sounds good to me.”

“In what context do you mean that in? It’s too early for me to try figure it out myself.”

“…How about we grab some lunch first, then we can get a room booked for tonight, and then we can have a walk around town for a bit. It’s supposed to be really pretty.”

“Have you never been before?”

“Nope. I’ve only ever been to Bunpidum a couple of times. Other than that, I’ve always stuck around Incipancy.”

“Then that sounds like a good plan to me. We should check out a couple places to eat before we make up our minds then.”

“Yeah, see if we can find the cheapest place.”

            Just as Austin was about to correct her on what he meant, he remembered that this world seemed to have an acute shortage of anything that tastes good. Every restaurant served pretty much the same food, so it was more common to just go to the closest one for people.

            Austin knew that Claralux was an important trading town for the Northern continent but seeing the size of the gates took him slightly off guard. The gates of most towns are around seven or eight meters tall and the same across. However, the gates leading out of Claralux were around 12 meters high and at least 20 meters in length. With gates that size and no tolls, even with the huge amount of trading carts entering and leaving, there were no queues. And the gates on the south side leading in from the Grand Desert were supposedly even bigger.

            After entering the town and getting a basic, boring lunch and booking a single room with a double bed at the cheapest inn, Ellie dragged Austin around to look at all the stalls and buildings. Everything was available there, from exotic fruits to rare ores, and hides, pelts and horns from creatures only found in the southern continent. The town centre was filled with rows and rows of stalls with crowds of people around everyone, but all of the energy brought by the people was completely overwhelmed by the size of the temple that overlooked everything. With massive stained-glass windows and towers on all four corners, it was like a castle and cathedral mixed into one. Inside the football field sized temple, it was surprisingly empty. In fact, other than a single fancy fountain in the middle, it was completely empty. There were a few what looked like monks and nuns dotted around but no one else. Only after asking one of the monks did the two find out that this was a temple dedicated to the Earth Dragon God, and the fountain in the middle of the temple was supposed to be for people to give an offering to the Dragon God as protection for the town. However, not many people believed in this ritual anymore since nobody knows anything about any of the Dragon Gods anymore, not even what they might look like, or what powers they might hold.

‘PHAHAHAHAHA!!! We Dragon Gods hold more power than you humans could even imagine!!’ Ava’s voice boomed throughout every inch of Austin’s mind, but at this point he was used to it, so he didn’t even flinch. ‘It must have been centuries ago now that the wimpy old Elemental Dragon Gods went into hiding. They’re just a few pathetic cowards if you ask me.’

‘Yeah, well you’re dead. So shut up.’

‘I- Wow... And I gave you a good night’s sleep.’

            After giving a very small donation to the temple, Austin and Ellie walked around Claralux a little longer before calling it a day. But as usual they decided to grab a drink before going to bed, which turned into six, which turned into 15, which turned into them getting royally pissed the night before having to wake up excruciatingly early for the final part of the trip to Occidignus. After only getting a couple hours of sleep each and hungover as hell, even Austin was able to pass out on whatever priced trader’s cart it was they got in. It was only towards the end of the 16-hour journey that Austin had woken up and started feeling more human, but since it was late at this point, Ellie had already woken up, watched him sleep for a bit, then passed out on top of him again.

‘You awake Ava?’

‘As you said before, I’m dead, I didn’t need sleep.’

‘I’m gonna ignore the fact that you sound upset and continue with what I was gonna ask you anyway.’

‘As expected.’

‘Good, glad we’re on the same page. But I was just wandering what the deal is with you Dragon Gods? And why are some of you dead?’

‘To be honest, most of us are dead.’

‘That’s even worse.’

‘IT WASN’T OUR FAULT!’

‘Stop shouting! My fucking head hurts enough as it is, I don’t need you shouting from inside it. Just start from the beginning.’

‘It was a good few centuries ago at this point so the nitty gritty details might be a bit off, but this is how it goes. I will admit, back then our children were out of control. Our red and green dragons would attack and harass humans all the time, we Gods thought nothing of it, humans couldn’t do anything against it, so we just didn’t care. Anyway, a few months after that we noticed that over 75% of the dragon population had been wiped out by an army created by the humans. Naturally, the Gods had to step in at this point. Yes, I know it was our fault it went that far, but at that point, it had gone too far. You know how the saying goes, a tail for an ass.’

‘An eye for an eye, but still, carry on.’

‘Whatever, nerd… But at this point it was time for us to step in. Clearly, the older, Elemental Dragon Gods knew something we didn’t and bailed on our efforts early on. After that, the human army wiped us out one by one with their secret weapon. We didn’t know so we didn’t stand a chance.’

‘You say Elemental Dragon Gods like they were different to you.’

‘Of course! That’s because they were. They were BITCHES!’

‘Okay… anything other than that?’

‘Yes. We Gods were split into different fighting style groups. It’s difficult to explain but we all had our different ways to fight. Different combat types you might say. The Elemental types focused on long range attacks, then there were the speed types that focused on agility and trying not to get hit, they were also bitches, and then there were the power types who fought like real Dragon Gods and killed everything with their bare hands no matter how strong the enemy or how long it took.’

‘Says the one who’s dead.’

‘STOP REMINDING ME THAT I’M DEAD!!’

‘Stop shouting!!’

‘Oh shit yeah, my bad. Anyway, since I’ve answered your questions, it’s time you answer mine.’

‘Tch. Go on then’

‘Don’t ‘tch’ me. I just wanted to know who you are. You’re obviously not from Kosmirium, so where are you from? Who are you really?’

‘What the fuck is Kosmirium?’

‘My point exactly. It’s the name of this planet.’

‘Oh. Well at least we have planets in common. I’m from a planet called Earth and on Earth I live in a country called England.’

‘Earth? What a boring name. And why is there an England in Earth?’

‘Okay, you’re right, Earth is a boring name but that’s not the point. On Earth we have a bunch of different countries and continents all split apart by the ocean. And since there are so many of them, they all have individual name. I guess that’s the easiest way of putting it.’

‘So if everything’s split apart by the ocean how do you all move around?’

‘Boat, underground train, fly.’

‘Your Earth humans can fly?!?!’

‘Y-… Yes.’

‘Interesting… so where do you fit into all this?’

‘I… I work at a bar and live with my mum and dad.’

‘Ah. You’re a loser.’

‘…’

‘So why were you a loser?’

‘It’s not like I had a choice and thought, “Oh, I know, I’ll become a loser”.’

‘So then?’

‘Well it was quite simple actually. If you weren’t super good at anything, that was it, you were a loser. And that’s what happened to me. It’s not that I was bad at anything, it’s just that I wasn’t particularly good at anything. I’ll admit, I am kinda dumb, but it’s not like I had to drop out of school or anything. I passed all my exams. And I was and still am definitely not unfit, but I wasn’t professional athlete level fit, so it didn’t mean anything. On Earth, if you weren’t better than everyone else at something, if you were just an average person, that made you a loser. No one ever said it, because almost everyone was a loser. But in reality, if you met a total stranger and they didn’t know your name already, you were a loser. That’s just how it worked.’

‘… Earth sounds shit.’

‘Earth is shit.’

‘So how did you get here?’

‘I don’t really know. The last thing I remember was being in a crash.’

‘A crash?’

‘Yeah… Hmm… Just imagine running into something at full speed. And then imagine doing the same thing but at a speed that could kill yo-… I fucking died didn’t I…’

‘HAHAHA!! Now you can’t ridicule me for dieing!’

‘No! This is to be confirmed! I can still take the piss out of you because I’m still alive now!’

‘Pft. Whatever.’

            After their chat it was only about half an hour before they passed through the gates of Occidignus. Austin decided it would just be easier to carry Ellie to the nearest inn instead of waking her up and while doing so, she made it very clear that she was awake and enjoying the experience by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself closer into his chest.