A goddess's legacy weighs heavily on the shoulders of a socially-challenged college freshman.
***
Liza Shiel-Smith--so named for an otherworldly ancestor who easily cleaved space with a flick of her finger--wants nothing more than to enjoy college...
Eventually, the grass thinned and became manicured to a bit under knee-height. Without foliage obscuring the sun, everything became much harder to see. On a whim, I tried to see through Mar'kost's eyes like he'd done with mine before. There was a bit of resistance, but he let me through after a moment.
We approached a massive paddock where a herd of drykons that looked like Duskfeather were grazing. To the left were a dozen or more round pens of varying sizes, each with a lizard person running a drykon through their paces. Past them was a smaller paddock next to a stable. A road led from the stable into the thick grass at the edge of the property. Partway between the stable and the grass was a decent-sized house.
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All in all, it was a fairly standard ranch—if you ignored the fact that the 'horses' were scaly creatures smart enough to hold a conversation.
[I'll talk to Cadmus about how he treats the drykons,] Mar'kost offered.
Despite how reverent Cadmus had acted when we met, I doubted he would make any changes based on my complaints alone. He'd already seen how unthreatening I was, and as far as he was concerned, he wasn't mistreating the drykons to begin with. If they'd been horses, I wouldn't have disagreed with him. They all looked fit and energetic, and despite Pretty Boy's annoyance earlier, he hadn't actually seemed afraid of Cadmus.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the drykons stayed here because they didn't fancy living like wild animals. The fences certainly weren't high enough to keep them from running away if they really wanted to. Besides, I already had enough to worry about right now. If the drykons actually needed a revolution, it could wait until after I'd protected the ship full of magic weapons from looters and rescued the other Earth-born Ortai.
[Do you need to go to the toilet?] Mar'kost asked.
Unfortunately, the answer was yes, and he took me to an outhouse behind the main house. It had a composting toilet with a crank handle, but at least the sink had fresh water. Afterward, we bypassed the narrow back door for the wider front door.
When we reached it, Mar'kost refused to let me off. I opened the door from his back, and he carried me into a small mudroom. Though the interior light stung a little, I could see clearly enough. The creaking floor was unnerving, but I tried to ignore it.
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