Dragon Child: The Journey Begins

Chapter 21

Ouch! My ears!  I couldn't even cover them with my hands tied up as they were!

"Hey, you slaves! Keep it down in there!" A bandit banged on the side of the moving box we were in.

Thank you Mr. Bandit! My poor ears especially thank you! Who knew females could be so ear peircingly loud and high pitched!

"You can use magic still?!" Lilliana asked me with a quiet, breathless voice. 

I'm not too sure what exercise she was doing to make her fall into such a state.  Maybe sitting up while tied up like she was exerted more energy than she was expecting. I'm just glad she was screeching anymore!

"Yes?" Didn't I say that?

Why is it so hard to believe? Is it normal in their culture to believe that magic is unavailable when wearing these collar things? How can I convince them they're wrong? I feel a headache coming on.

I need to know their opinion. I'm not sure how long we've been traveling, or in what direction. So getting back to Ben and the others seems like a hard task.  So we could wait until we arrive at where we are going first and then leave. Or we can leave now and be by ourselves, lost in this forest, but closer to Ben and the others.

"We.....we need to leave now!" Marybelle suddenly yelled out.

"Hmm, Marybelle is right. We need to leave now. We can't wait until we get to the slave house. It will be ten times harder to escape from there." Lilliana agreed.

Okay. So I guess we are leaving now. However, I was told to only use my earth magic. Unfortunately, my earth magic will take a ton of concentration because of the collar. It will be a bit harder than usual, as I'm not touching the earth.

Should I wait until we stop for a rest? Will they stop for a rest? That time when we went to rescue Marybelle from that human's dinner plate, we ran all night and day without resting once.

However, that bandit leader has the ability to use earth magic too. I also don't think that he is as restrained as I currently am.

Well, as a dragon, I love a challenge!  Sort of. Well, it really just depends on my mood, I think. Either way, I'm currently in the mood for a challenge.

I must think this through thoroughly before I do anything.  As I've said before, though, I'm not really the best at planning things.  But I figure that it is indeed a skill I should probably work on.

Okay, let's think about this fully. Should I attempt to place a rock in their way so that they must stop?  But how should I do that without using anything but earth magic?  How do people with only one magic do anything?!

With this collar on my neck, it's really hard to concentrate on the earth.  I wonder if I can just take it off.  I am still feeling a bit weak from when he put this collar on me.  I'm not sure I can just force it off in my current state.

Maybe those females would know a better way.  I couldn't help but to turn and look at them.

"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know how to remove these collars, do you?" I realize that no matter what they say, it would be incredibly difficult to remove the collars while tied up as I am.  However, it never hurts to know your options.

"The only way to remove them is by using a slave gem.  Slave gems contain the release words. It also contains the compelling words.  Slave gems are very hard to get, though.  The collars were originally meant to subdue beasts so that they could be used as beasts of burden. As such, release function on the slave gems weren't really needed that much.  Only the owners are allowed to compel beasts,  so for every fifty collars, theres only one slave gem.Thats why there aren't that many.  It was really hard to get mine." Lilliana sure knows how to talk.