Dragon Hunter

Chapter 11: Important Research

"Like the ancient elves and the dragons!" Cooper exclaimed.

Kith's eyes narrowed.

"Why do you say 'dragons'?" he asked.

"Uh, because they use magic?" the human replied, brow lifted in silent question.

How much of his epiphany did he actually want to share with this guy? It's not like Kith and his paladins had done anything to earn his trust. It was his own desire to do something to save Humanity from extinction that made him leave Morgan behind and step into that portal. Not Kith's kind face and winning personality.

Not to mention, he was still trying to wrap his brain around the idea that he, as a dragon hunter, had been made with a powerful spell. And made to wield a magical weapon called the Crown of Oberon. Wait a sec; wasn't Oberon the king of the fairies in that play by Shakespeare? What was it called? Right, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. So either there was a mistranslation by Feron on the weapon's name.

Or there really was an Oberon, likely an ancient elvish explorer, who's deeds made their way into the stories that became myth about their visit to Earth so long ago. And the dragons, to honor that explorer, named their weapon after him?

Cooper mentally groaned. He needed to stop overthinking this thing right the hell now! Or he was going to go mental over it. No more going down rabbit holes, no matter how interesting. Time to focus on what he had to do to find the weapon and defeat the dragons once and for all!

In the meantime ...

"C'mon, you can't tell me the elves don't recognize that dragons use magic! Just a few minutes ago those reds were using an arc bridge spell to knock over your anthill! Pretty sure you noticed that. Unless you were covering your eyes through the whole thing like a bitch."

"No, no, I didn't say the elves don't recognize dragons as magic users, Cooper Jacks. In fact, we have long acknowledged that they are some of the most powerful magic users in all of the Garden."

Kith cocked his head to the side.

"I ask because the earliest parts of the Annals are written in draconic. At first, we thought it was part of the confusion spell that was being used to hide the book's meaning from any that weren't gifted ..."

The elf stumbled into silence as something occurred to him. Then he was looking back at Cooper with eyes wide with realization.

"You can read draconic!" he exclaimed.

"Can I, though?" Cooper retorted. "Can I really? Like how the hell would I even know?"

"Feron would've passed over only the ability to speak the two elvish languages that he knew. He was unfamiliar with the draconic tongue. But there's a way to determine the right of it."

Kith pointed at Cooper's pack.

"Pull out the book," he said. "And we'll find out right now!"

Thankfully the wooden bound book was sitting at the top of Cooper's pack, being the last item in from the repack at River Bend. Fishing it out, he handed it to Kith.

Only to have the elf snatch his hand back with a surprised hiss of pain and dismay.

"Strange," he said as Cooper looked at the book with a confused frown. "It didn't have that protection in place while Feron was in possession of the book."

Kith put the injured hand into the small of his back.

"It doesn't matter. When Feron found your name in the book, we knew it was intended by whoever created it to be in your hands."