"When the gods covered the worlds in crystaline domes, they left gaps that that heroes may battle with dragons."

Pieron Gerong

---

It only took a couple minutes to walk out to the closest footprint. It was even more unfathomable up close. A grown man could lie down in the middle and not touch the sides. Rain had turned the crater into a pond, and frogs scattered at our approach. By instinct I tried to catch one, but the slippery devils immediately vanished into the water when I made a move. It was deep enough that they were entirely hidden, a good two feet at least.

Kelk examined the print for but a moment before moving on. His tracking skills weren’t really necessary. The path the dragon took was easy enough to glean even for me. But I was happy not to be alone. My eyes were always scanning the blue expanse above, ready for a griffon to appear out of nowhere. All I ever saw was the occasional vulture, taking advantage of the heat the open ground gave off to glide about.

While the change in scenery was at first welcome, it quickly became clear that it was significantly duller than the forest out here. Hotter, too. Late summer was cool enough in the shade of the forest, but out here the sun was constantly beating down. The pools of water that had gathered in Ki’margarhara’s footprints were convenient spots to water Shiro, but also spawned massive swarms of mosquitoes. I practiced a few different illusions with them, but they seemed undeterred no matter what we looked like. They only went after Kelk but that was unfortunate enough.

Bored and sweating, I distracted myself with illusions. While the mosquitoes ignored anything I did, I was able to make the frogs chase after imaginary beetles and even lured one right into my hands. I gleefully wrapped my fingers around it and was ready to bite its head off when I met its eyes. We blinked at each other a few times before I tossed it back into the pond. Kelk laughed again and we simply moved on while I tried to dry my hands of frog slime.

What had happened? I had killed my own food before. In my earliest memories, I was hunting mice alongside the farm’s cats, and I had supplemented the meager rations offering at the academy by snaring quail. But looking at that frog, I couldn’t bring myself to harm it. Had my breakthrough altered me more than I had anticipated? I had learned how to see the world through the eyes of others. Had that changed me? And if it had, was that for better or for worse?

I considered trying to tap into that mindset again and see the world like an amphibian, a creature who crossed the boundary between land and water with consummate ease. Or perhaps a circling bird, a creature who saw the world from a comfortable distance and held no allegiance to the earth. Or even a despised little speck, something which lived in a land of giants who both fed and destroyed it.

But then I heard it. No, felt it. The slightest rumble, caught by my feet before my ears. Shiro’s ears also perked up and I knew we were both reacting to the same thing.

“He’s close.” I said.

“I felt it too.” Kelk spoke, and it was breathless and nearly silent. His fingers nervously tapped at the handle of his axe.

The earth rumbled again, and my body trembled uncontrollably. After all this time, it was here. Reluctantly, I diverted from the path and climbed the nearest hill, a bit taller than the rest. Loose soil crumbled under my toes and I slipped, like the world itself was trying to keep me away from Ki’margarhara. Perhaps it was. He wasn’t of the earth, so it made sense that the world would reject him. Unfortunately, the world couldn’t stop me and I crested the hill and saw the apostle of chaos.

Ki’margarhara truly was like a mountain. It was impossible to recount just how vast a creature he was, enormous in my vision despite being nearly at the horizon, miles away. A serpentine neck rose up and up and up, higher than any vulture had ever flown. Its head was an enormous chunk of rough, pitted stone, a massive bar of rock sticking out from each side of its head. I saw no sign of eyes, but as I watched the stone split in two and it dived down into the trees below. I could hear something like the snapping of thousands of twigs, and an entire grove was pulled up by the roots and swallowed.

A few more mouthfuls and it took a step, shaking the earth once more. Just how heavy was that thing? Through its green hide, I could see more stones sticking through, with a row of plates like roof tiles protruding from its spine. How much was stone, and how much flesh? And where was the sword? I couldn’t see anything from here. Surely it hadn’t been swallowed into the creature’s body through its growth over the years? Hidden under layers and layers of stony flesh?

I slid back down the hill and waved to Kelk. Reluctantly, I led the way. I was beginning to smell something strange. There were less smells out here in the barren fields, so it stood out. It wasn’t a lovely smell or a terrible one, but simply alien. Not like an animal or plant, but like some foreign substance burning. My heart pounded the more the smell grew. Even when I couldn’t see that great stony head peeking over the hills, I was surrounded by its presence. The air seemed to swim in it.

I heard a yelp and turned. Shiro was rearing back, forcing Kelk to hold on for dear life. The unicorn’s eyes were mad with panic. Kelk shhed and patted him, but he was inconsolable until he had squirmed backwards a good dozen paces. Even then, his silver eyes were bloodshot and he panted like a hound on the chase.

"I think we have to leave Shiro behind." Kelk dropped from his mount. "Shiro, wait for us where we set up camp."

The unicorn seemed as reluctant to leave his master as he was to closer approach the dragon, but after some anxious pacing, he turned and trotted the other direction.

"He'll be fine." I assured the noticeably shaken Kelk.

"Of course. He's headed away from the dragon." Kelk didn't move till long after Shiro vanished behind a hill. "I should have been ready for it. He is a creature of nature and Ki’margarhara is opposed to nature. That thing makes my skin crawl and I can't imagine what it's like for Shiro."

I just nodded. Humans tended to believe in some sort of wisdom of animals, attributing them the ability to detect spirits or danger. In this case I don't think it took horse sense to realize how wrong things were.

As we crested the last hill before we were upon Ki’margarhara, I saw Kelk signing out a prayer in the corner of my eye. It couldn't hurt. I copied the prayer and added an addendum asking the goblin who had recently been sent to Kelk's gods to put in a good word for me.

In the time that had passed since my first glimpse of the mighty stone drake, the sun had reached its zenith. His craggy head was lost in that blinding light, his body too big to take in all at once. Four legs like pillars held him up, and now I saw a tail as long and flexible as his neck, waving back and forth far above our heads.

The green patches I had seen from a distance turned out, up close, to be thick layers of moss and lichen, growing both on the exposed stones emerging from his body and the patches of wrinkled, scaly hide that covered the rest of him. 

It didn't seem to take any note of us and just continued to eat, swallowing trees roots and all with a terrible sound. And here, I realized something odd. As horrified as I had been and still felt I should be, the mountain king radiated nothing but calm. For a creature of chaos,in this moment it seemed like the most natural thing in the world, a part of the earth that had simply stood up and walked away. It was beautiful in a way.

I was still wary as I circled around. Calm as it was now, this was a force of nature that had killed people far more capable than myself. It was less a mountain and more a dormant volcano. And now, to climb it.

—

“I should have asked earlier, but how exactly do you plan on getting to the sword? You can’t even climb, I heard.” Kelk said. He was looking over the dragon piece by piece, trying to piece together what kind of route he would take. I didn’t like how long he was staring, but it wasn’t like I was going to have to climb from the bottom anyway.

“Not on my own, but that's why Mal’oko gave me this." I slipped off my pack and removed a length of rope. I wasn't the best with knots, but I could make them good enough to hold my own weight, and that was plenty.

"I don’t believe you were supposed to use rope." Kelk smirked.

"I'm not supposed to use magic either but check this out." I took a deep breath and tried to set foot in the mind of the dragon. Through stone I sank, into the little obsidian chip at the center that served as his brain. Color vision? Seemed likely. Possibly more colors than I could see, nothing I could do about that. Focus on food. From what I could tell, a preference for taller trees. Try that first then.

I decided the appearance of the tree didn't need to make much sense. See, there was something I didn't communicate fully with the any of the squirrelfolk I had met. The dragon I was dealing with had a name to the Gurngamosi as well, not as an individual but as a type.

They called it the numbskull, and it was renowned not just for its power but for its equally impressive stupidity. It was said that the creature’s head was stone all the way through, without a brain to be found.

I made a lasso of the rope and threw it for a nearby tree’s lower branch. Then I did it again. The third time, Kelk helped me and I managed to hook the branch. With that, it was easy. My arms weren’t made for climbing, but with the help of the rope, my feet were plenty. I mused that a stronger goblin would probably have a much easier time living among the squirrelfolk. With our long arms and grasping feet, perhaps we were actually made for the trees and I just got the short end of the stick.

I clambered onto the branch and perched while I picked my target. There was a wild apple tree not far away, short and stubby compared to the mighty pines around it. A perfect target. I undid the rope and prepared it for another throw while my mind expanded to rewrite reality.

I grabbed the apple tree and stretched it like rubber, taller and taller till it was halfway up Ki’margarhara’s neck. Branches I extended, adding new forks and bushels of shining red apples, perfect and ripe. When it was done, it was the most glorious tree in the forest. I was almost fooled myself.

The dragon’s head came low and for the first time I saw its eyes. Miniscule, glassy specks glinted from deep crevices in its craggy face. There was no curiosity when they glanced over me. Not even recognition. I was simply too small to even notice.

A cleft appeared in its stony face, rapidly expanding into a mouth big enough to swallow the entire tree I was on. In fact, it was coming right at my tree. I was paralyzed gazing into that unfathomable maw. It was all stone, the damp and rough rock of a cave, but for a forked tongue large enough to be an ogre’s bed that slithered out to taste the air.

It grew closer, serrated edges forming a beak that would slice me in two. I couldn’t move! Closer still, crushing surfaces of the stone inside becoming clear, made to shatter tree trunks to pulp. I couldn’t move! The tongue rolled out from the mouth and touched the branches below me, tasting the leaves. Finally, a great involuntary jerk threw me from the limb and I plummeted to the ground.

The impact slammed the air from my chest, leaving me floundering. The world became dark as the mountain king’s head closed in over me and his beak bit down, digging into the trunks of a half-dozen trees at once. I heard the same sound I had heard over the horizon before but multiplied a thousand times over. A crescendo of wood stretching, roots snapping as they hit their limit. The earth bounced, enough to throw me into the air, as every tree was ripped from the ground. I could only stare up as the trees vanished and dirt rained down.

“Malki? Malki!” Kelk was yelling out loud. “You imbecile, what were you thinking!?”

“Ehh.” I attempted to speak but only managed a little hiss. I still had no air in my lungs. Sitting up made my entire back throb, but I was soon breathing again.

“It didn’t… I was worried about… blue magic won’t work!” I managed to gasp out.

“What? Why not? I thought magic worked on everybody?” Kelk went back to hand speech as the dragon’s eating became overwhelmingly loud.

“No, if magic didn’t have limits everybody would use it. Illusions are mental. If you can’t connect with somebody’s mind, you can’t affect them at all. That dragon… has no mind at all. It’s as intelligent as a slime. Or a rock, I guess.” I groaned and leaned into my hands. “And if I can’t trick him into lowering his head, I have no idea how I’m going to do this.”

“For now, can we get away from this thing?” Kelk picked me up off the ground without waiting for a response and jogged away from Ki’margarhara’s legs. It was nice to be carried again. I needed to find another mount, that would make things better. I was wondering who I could get to carry me around when Kelk frowned and stopped. He put me on the ground and knelt to inspect a patch of bare dirt. The faint outline of a print could be seen, but I couldn’t see what it could have been.

“We need to get Shiro. He isn’t safe.” Kelk set me down and pulled a small whistle of bone from his shirt.

"What!? Is it a griffon? I thought you said he would be fine!?" I looked first to the sky before even bothering to check the print.

"No, Shiro’s too clever for griffons. But not too clever for an oker. Especially a galki'oker." Kelk blew the whistle, and a keen noise like a hawk's scream cut through the air.

I winced at the sound, bit in my head the waterwheel was turning again. Oker just meant ogre, and galki was an added descriptor added to wild animals. A tame hippogriff was a erikiki, a wild hippogriff was a galki'erikiki. A wild ogre…

"Kelk, can you trust my judgement?" I asked and Kelk gave me a long look.

"Not really, given it got you here." He paused to think another moment. "But I can at least hear you out."

"Great. Kelk, we need to find that ogre. I need more friends if I'm going to do this."