The Outskirts of Zolftar Forest
"Freedom!" I called out joyously as the last buckle came undone, and the dreaded, leather torture device fell to the loamy forest floor with a soft thud.
Leon chuckled. "For now, at least." He said smoothing a hand over my scales. "And when we get home, I'll look into those rings."
The flight from Helios to the forest was the most uncomfortable in my short life, but at least it wasn't a long trip compared to when I left this forest for Helios all those months ago.
The saddle itself was not physically painful, nor uncomfortable, but it was constantly on my mind; irritating and frustrating me to the point of stressing me out.
Luckily, on the first night on the wing, we stopped back at Kempfer to spend the night in comfort.
There was a lot of fanfare for our arrival, but the Duke and Duchess were not in the city.
They, and the young ones, had already left for Helios to celebrate with the Royal family for the upcoming Dragon Festival.
Apparently it it was the little ones' first time leaving Kempfer, so they were quite excited.
Though I initially felt a twinge of disappointment that the royals weren't here, it faded fast. After all, I didn't want to be seen in this blasted saddle by anyone, especially people I might have to spend time with on a semi-frequent basis.
I was already mortified by the knights that greeted us when Kalon, Grysbok, and I landed at the Kempfer palace, who had witnessed me in the hated scraps of leather.
Since the Duke and his family weren't here, it was a lot less noisy that night then I had anticipated.
Instead, we spent time with a man by the name of Farnin.
He was a high ranking knight of Kempfer, who was apparently an old friend of Kalon, and an acquaintance of Trent.
According to the variety of 'old war stories' traded amongst the trio, I learned that the elf man had been a close companion of Kalon's previous Dragoon, and they had spent quite a bit of time together just after the dragoon had graduated from the training program.
Since Trent had become Kalon's dragoon, he and the elf had met a few times.
The man became my second favorite elf (Leon being half elf making him my first favorite elf and human) when he heard of my deep seated hatred for the saddle, and an idea occurred to him.
The next morning- before we took off once more- he had come back to the palace with a set of rings.
One was relatively small, looking like it was meant to be worn on the hand of a fairly large man.
The other was much bigger, perhaps to be used as a bracelet.
"I got these when I was traveling through the Southern Plains many years ago.
" He'd said, offering the set to Leon. "The natives of the plains use rather fierce looking beasts as mounts known as Kastaks.
They look like a mix between a giant ferret and a large cat.
.. more importantly, they are outrageously fast and agile, and are covered in short, abrasive barbs rather than fur. "
"Why is that important?" I'd asked, sniffing the offering in Leon's hand curiously. They simply looked like golden rings, though I could sense a little magic coming from them...
"To say that the human riders of the Kastak couldn't have taken to their mounts without saddles is an understatement.
The problem is that there are no hides in the plains that can withstand long exposure to the abrasive barbs of the Kastak.
A saddle on one of them would be absolutely ruined in less than a month.
So the natives came up with a very useful set of enchantments. "
"Enchantments?" asked Leon, holding the rings up so that Kalon could snake his head down over me and look at them as well.
"They are spelled with a special combination of gravitation and shielding magics, passed down for generations.
I'm not an expert in enchanting, but I know Helios- or even one of the elven kingdoms if the mages of Helios can't do it- can probably duplicate the magic, and put them on objects that could fit on you Allura.
Better a toe ring or a arm brace than a saddle, right? "
"What do they do?" I asked, curiosity peeked.
"The larger ring is typically attached to the Kastaks' ear, then the rider wears the smaller ring on their finger.
They speak an activation word, and the magic holds the rider to the back of the Kastak so that- no mater what crazy moves the creature do- the rider is never thrown.
At the same time, the shielding spell forms a barrier between the rider and the barbs, protecting their backside and inner thighs. "
To say that I had been very interested in the elf's gift was putting it mildly.
We couldn't use them now, as the ring couldn't fit on Leon's much smaller finger (and steady contact with skin is required for the spell to stay active, so putting it on a chain wasn't and option), and the larger ring was still too small to fit on me.
It sort of fit on a claw, but it would've been too easy to slip off on there, and it was irrelevant if Leon couldn't wear the other one anyways.
At least I had something to look forward to when we got back to Helios.
Though there was no telling how long it might take for the Helios mages to work out the Kastak techniques in order to replicate them.
However, Farnin and Leon seemed confident that they would be able to accomplish what it was we wanted.
After leaving Kempfer- our new prize in hand- we flew non-stop to the Zolftar forest, and were now making camp just outside the thick trees.
There was still a bit of day light left, but Kalon and Trent stated that it would be a bad idea to march into the forest with night coming on, and it would be smarter to wait for the morning light before delving in.
As a girl who spent a goodly amount of time living in Zolftar, I had to agree.
Even the small area I had existed in- heavy with the scent of a full grown dragon dam's nest, scaring smarter predators away- it was quite dangerous.
Just thinking about those snakes and bears when I was still a hatchling could put a shiver down my serpentine spine.
Grysbok let out a roar like yawn as Benson tossed another log onto the fire the drake had lit.
The young man then settled back against his dragon, their saddle resting some distance away, now that it had been removed.
Trent was just finishing unsaddling Kalon, while my own monstrosity was discarded as far from me as I could get it.
Was that childish of me? Perhaps... but it was really impossible to overstate just how much I despised the damn thing.
Still, now that we had reached the forest, we shouldn't need them again until we had to leave. A fact I was quite happy about.
"A shame we have to put it back on again in the morning.
.." Leon stated, following my eyes and glaring at the saddle that he had placed carefully against a somewhat distant boulder.
As much as we despised the thing, Leon still treated it with care.
Unlike me, he had a little respect for the craftsmen at least. I wouldn't insult the people to their face- probably- but I didn't see why I needed to praise the crafters of torture devises, just because they made really good, very beautiful torture devises.
No thanks.
"What! Why?" I growled, having thought that I would be free of the thing for a day or two.
Frowning, Leon answered. "Well, it isn't like we can carry it around any other way. And we can't just leave them here either. That leather one that you were using-"
"I wasn't using it, you were." I growled, annoyed all over again.
"Er, right. Well, that one is already quite expensive. The ones used by Ka-" Seeing my glare Leon quickly changed his words. "-Captain Trent and Benson are worth a small fortune, and are the result of weeks, or months, of hard work. We can't leave them here to be stollen or destroyed."
I didn't see how, or why, anyone would steal the blasted things.
It isn't like some farmer or bandit had any use for a dragon's saddle, nor would there be a place to sell such pieces.
It would be the equivalent of stealing the Mona Lisa back on Earth.
Where in the world would they even be able to sell it without getting arrested?
No one who bought it would be able to display it without suffering the same fate.
On top of that, these saddles weighed a ton. It'd be such a chore to even attempt to steal them...
"The only way to take them with us is for you all to continue wearing them." Leon finished.
"I'm afraid Prince Leon is right." stated Trent, easing his saddle to the ground as best he could.
I highly doubted just letting it drop would cause something designed to be worn into battle by a dragon any harm.
I would've let it drop, then back-kicked it like a dog burying a bowel movement.
Humph. "As much as you detest them, they do have value, and a use. Kalon's-"
I snarled at the man, and heard Grysbok chuckle behind me, while the large black dragon merely settled himself on the grass without a care.
"... I don't feel comfortable calling it 'mine', given the history it holds.
" Trent sighed. "This saddle has been used by the Dragoon assigned to Kalon for the last three generations.
Willingly allowing harm to come to it seems as disrespectful to my predecessors as it is to the craftsmen who created it. "
"Can I not just toss the lot of them into my storage and be done with it?" I sighed, throwing myself onto the grass with far less grace then had been afforded the stupid saddles. "Or is that too disrespectful as well?" I growled.
"Are you saying you have a storage skill?" Kalon asked, perking up.
"Yes." I said flatly. "Where did you think I was keeping my mother's remains?" They obviously thought I had left them where they'd fallen; I was just being a little brat due to my frustration around the saddles. Still, I wasn't about to apologize for my attitude, even if I was aware of that.
"You have a dimensional storage that's large enough to hold and entire dragon corpse?
" asked Trent, looking at me with wide eyes.
"I know that the gods do favor the dragon's when it comes to doling out skills, but it's astonishing that you would not only be granted such a rare skill, but also have enough points at your age to increase it's capacity to such an extent. "
Oops. We were getting dangerously close to me having to tell them about the massive amount of skill points I had inherited from my mother.
And as far as to the wide variety of skills I had access to.
.. well, I didn't really think I was ready to tell people about being a reincarnated soul.
I didn't think they would be mad, perse.
But I was worried that they may try to turn me to a god on earth if they found out.
They all fawned over me enough as it was.
"Well?" I asked, deciding to avoid the questions altogether. "Is it, or is it not, a good idea?"
Kalon lifted a scaly eyebrow, setting hid large head on the grass. "That would be quite helpful." He said, sounding amused.
"Humph." First I'm a saddle horse, and now a pack mule. At least I wasn't needing to wear the darn saddle again for a few days, and hopefully- quite soon- I'll be rid of it altogether.