“Kas, hey.” Eira shook the sorceress slightly, and Kas jerked her eyes open and breathed in deep before she looked around in a wild panic.
“Are you alright?” Asta asked, and she looked at Kas with confused yellow eyes.
“What happened, did it work?” Kas asked.
“Were you in a trance or something?” Eira pushed, and her red eyebrows furrowed together.
“What?” Kas shook her head. “No, I was just really focused. Did it work?”
“See for yourself.” Asta smiled and gestured to the egg in my hands.
“Ohhhh.” Kas looked all around the little egg and grinned at me. “I did it?”
“You did it,” I chuckled.
“Oh, thank goodness,” the strawberry-blonde breathed, and she put her hand on her chest. “I was so worried it wasn’t going to work.”
“You’re stronger than you think,” I told her.
“I know.” She nodded. “But magic isn’t a sure thing, and I wasn’t sure how long this little baby would last in there if we didn’t heal him quickly.”
“That’s a good point,” I agreed. “I can’t be sure of that either, but--”
Suddenly, I felt something move inside the egg.
“What?” Asta asked, and her yellow eyes were wide as she looked me up and down. “What’s going on? You just made a weird face.”
“I felt the little dragon inside,” I whispered. “It moved.”
“What?” Kas squeaked, and she looked down at the egg. “Is it going to hatch?”
I focused on the feelings of the dragon inside, but all I could sense was a small bit of comfort emanating from the egg. The dragon moved again, and it seemed to settle into a different position before it went still.
“Did it move again?” Eira asked.
“Yes,” I laughed. “But I think it was getting comfortable now that its egg is healed. I got a small sense of comfort, but now nothing. I think it’s gone dormant again.”
“Awwww, the little guy just woke up for a second to get comfy.” Asta smiled so big her cheeks pushed her eyes closed.
“I think so.” I smiled back and turned to Kas. “Good job, that was amazing.”
“Oh, thank you.” The strawberry-blonde blushed slightly. “I’m just glad he’s okay.”
“Me, too,” I agreed, and I looked around the room. “I’m going to start putting the eggs into these trunks. We’ll take them to the valley first to see if any mothers claim them, and whatever ones are dormant and unclaimed, we’ll take to Preyna and the council.”
“Alright,” Eira said. “Asta, Kas, and I can keep looking around.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let me know if you find anything.”
“On it,” the redhead said.
Kas reached out and stroked the small egg for a second, and then she smiled at me, stood up, and walked over to one of the nearby shelves.
Asta bounded off to join Eira at the desk Svass and the other little dragons were still on.
During the egg healing, Blar, Inger, and Uffe had joined Svass and the little green male on Kas’ scarf, and they were all curled up and snoring softly.
I stood up and started to carefully place the eggs in the trunks. I figured the frost giants weren’t using them anymore, so we may as well take them.
There were so many eggs, I wasn’t even sure they were all going to fit in the trunks we had on hand. We might have to make use of Kas’ bottomless satchel, though there were so many things in that bag already, I wasn’t sure I trusted it to carry the eggs as well.
Still, I didn’t want to have to come back to get them. Blar’s portals were good, but they weren’t exactly precise yet, and it would be easiest for all of us if we could make one single trip with the eggs.
“Uh, Rath, I think you’ll want to see this,” Eira said as I placed a dark-purple egg in the trunk.
“What is it?” I asked as I quickly walked over to where the redhead stood in front of the desk.
“It’s a letter from the Elf King,” Eira said, and she held out the paper to show me.
“What does it say?” I asked as I took the page she offered and started to read it.
The letter was definitely from the Elf King, though it didn’t outright say it. It talked about the eggs and how the frost giants’ payment would arrive via courier after all the eggs were delivered to the training camp.
“There’s this one, too,” Asta said, and she handed me another piece of paper.
I looked over the writing, and my eyebrows pinched together with confusion as Blar leaned down from my shoulder to look at the paper, too.
“This is meant for a dwarf named Garnlif,” I said.
“Yes.” Asta nodded. “It appears to be from the King, too, though. The paper is the same.”
“It is,” I agreed as I looked over the paper carefully.
Each page had a small golden mark in the upper right-hand corner, so even though the letters didn’t outright say they were from the Elf King, it was clear they were.
I wasn’t sure if he wasn’t smart enough to disguise the fact that it was him better, or if he simply didn’t care, but either way, it was easy to tell who it was since we knew about his deal to get the eggs. And the handwriting was the same for both as well.
“What’s it say?” Eira asked.
“It asks the dwarf to make some special--” Asta started.
“Weapons,” I finished, and my eyes went wide as I looked up at Eira.
Her green eyes bored into mine, and as warriors, we each understood what this meant. The King was definitely planning an attack. If I had any doubt about that before, it was gone now. Kings didn’t have weapons commissioned so they
