Chapter 33: Pegasuses
"Hello, I'm Levana! Nice to meet you!"
As they exited the palace, the first one to break the suffocating atmosphere was Levana. She cheerfully displayed her puppy-like gestures and clumsy way of walking while introducing herself to Erik.
Erik on the other hand looked at Levana with arrogance filled teal blue eyes and crossed all four of his arms. His whole demeanour screamed: 'I am very unimpressed.'
"Rank?"
"Huh?" Levana tilted her head, the language of titans still seemed unfamiliar for her.
"Your core rank, tell me your exact core rank!" Erik growled, frowning as if he encountered a foolish donkey when he needed a healthy horse.
"Ah! It's F-! Don't worry I'm really good with my legs, I'll kick the soul out of all the monsters if my spells are too weak!"
"Hmph…what are you going to kick with this low rank? An overgrown noodle?" Erik sneakered like a third rated minor villain in a soap opera. "In this day and age, I thought elves around my age are already at E rank. But what the hell is this?"
"H-huh? Uh?"
"You are pathetic."
"..."
"Are you afraid of hurting monsters too? Like you hate hurting trees and animals? If you are this soft hearted, forget about teaming up, I'm doing it alone."
After masterfully shutting Levana up, Erik turned around and hastily left. His long legs carried him far away in a few minutes as if he was just a violent wind passing by.
"Wow…what an axxxxxx." Ethan mumbled in Drakonic, which was the most used language in EESOP.
"Why didn't you stop him?" Euclid tilted his head, also switching to Drakonic.
His white hair with aquamarine tips blended with the snow filled scenery and the soft sunlight so perfectly that Kyriaki saw a halo behind him for a moment.
"Why should I?" But instead of admiring that charming appearance, Kyriaki calmly answered his question. "I told you it's better to ignore him."
"But if we are a party, we need team work."
"We are not a party. He's here to spy, not help us. Treat him like a pillar we have to carry around."
"Cough.cough." When Kyriaki shrugged her shoulders with a relaxed smile, a sudden cough, as if the one who was coughing was having lung problems, came from behind the KyrioswithoutKyrios-13 team.
They all turned their heads to see Bjorn coughing like he was on verge of exploding. His pastel blue hair and beard swayed with each of his small gestures.
"I-i'm sorry!" Bjorn waved his under arms while still covering his mouth with upper arms.
But the children just gave him a glance and turned around as if they hadn't seen anything. They began to talk among themselves once again.
"So he won't slay monsters?"
"That's up to him. But don't expect anything grand and novel."
"What a useless pillar."
"Should we just throw him over monsters? Since he's a pillar anyway, it might help us to crush monsters with weight and gravity pull." When Euclid said playfully, everyone except Kyriaki bursted into laughter. Even the Titan behind them twitched his lips, holding back so much more.
"Pfft…true."
"But we shouldn't judge him too early. Maybe he'd help us after all." Levana shook her head, a faint trace of laughter was still evident on her lips.
"Right," Euclid winked. "Pillar is still a pillar, it might crumble if we throw it too hard. Let's treat it right so that it can be of help to us." Another laughter burst out at Euclid's increasingly playful wordplay.
"Careful, Eucee. He's not just any pillar. He's a royal pillar. At the least, treat him with the bare minimum respect his position deserves." When Kyriaki's beautiful voice wrapped their laughter like a blanket, everyone shut their mouths.
Although he was arrogant, he was a prince. And although not as much as dragons, titans too loved their kin very much. It wasn't safe or polite to badmouth someone like that in the heart of Titan nation, even if the language was different.
After that, their walk was very quiet and calm. Euclid refrained from making jokes after Kyriaki's not-so-tough warning. The three elves sipped their mouths after realizing where they were. And Bjorn just followed them from behind like an attendant without uttering a word.
Finally, when they reached the stable they were introduced to, a marvelous scenery greeted them like it was from another world.
"Ugh…why are you so slow?" Erik expressed his displeasure with a twisted face. But was ignored by the children.
"...Wow." The first one to gasp was Adam, who was always timid and quiet.
"Holy crap."
"So pretty! So big!!"
"..."
"..."
Before them, inside the stable was a line of stalls. Stylish and sturdy. Full of horses.
No, even a blind man could tell it was not just horses.
"...Pegasus." Euclid mumbled beside Kyriaki.
"That's right." A familiar voice came from behind the children in Drakonic.
The elves went pale in an instant, realizing there were people who could speak Drakonic fluently.
"Greetings, Magnus Mimirson, The Great Sage of Isaz." Kyriaki gave him a polite nod with a dignified tone.
The three elves opened their eyes wide and looked back and forth between Kyriaki, Bjorn and Magnus. Euclid, although he seemed already aware, joined their foolish actions without any shame.
"So he was the famous Great Sage?"
"I knew it! Who else but the great sage could stand beside the king of titans!"
"I had a hunch, because the one who attended to us also had Mimirson in their name."
"Wow, it's fascinating."
While her team mates were in awe, Kyriaki gestured to Magnus as if she was used to it.
"From what I learned, Pegasuses are exclusive to Valkyries only. Why are they here?"
"To transport you to Lagujarna Lake, of course. This is the fastest and easiest way."
"How about teleporting portals?"
"There isn't any near the Lake. Pegasuses also use teleportation, so it's convenient to use them instead."
"I understand." Kyriaki nodded her head. "Are you coming with us?"
"No, my son will accompany you to the Lake, from then on you'll have to rely on His Highness Prince Erik." Magnus smiled gently and gestured to the prince who was already on a massive pegasus.
"Haha…no thank you." Kyriaki spat out bluntly without any filter and smiled back.
"Umm…forgive me for interrupting, but how do we divide our party to ride those…umm—pegasuses?" Euclid raised his hand like a student asking a question from his teacher in kindergarten.
Everyone's eyes turned to him and then to the line of pegasuses.
Pegasus, a species of rare beasts native to the Kingdom of Isaz. An average pegasus was over 8 meters tall with a muscular body that could withstand the attacks of several wyvern. The long wings that look similar to a bird's were the source of their flying ability.
Pegasuses were a type of beast that used the Space attribute as flawlessly as a mage. Born with a high intelligence, their control over the space element was so great it could rival seventh circle space mages.
This was the splendid scenery they walked into; The legendary Pegasuses.
Kyriaki tilted her head before the horse-bird hybrid creatures that looked like giants in front of her. There were four of them. One was already occupied by the arrogant prince while the other three pegasuses curiously looked at the tiny guests that visited them.
Up until now, everything felt so giant and the children seemed like ants compared to them, it was similar to when they were in the Selene Palace. But when even animals in the land of titans are so massive, Kyriaki truly felt like she had become Gulliver in the book
"One remaining pegasus will be used by me." Bjorn took a step forward and extended his hand.
The pegasus beside Erik lowered his head and sniffed the back of Bjorn's hand curiously. The picture of it looked like a noble man asking a noble woman for a dance by kissing the back of her hand. The only difference was that Bjorn had become the noblewoman offering her hand.
After several seconds of sniffing, the curious pegasus let out a very horse-like noise and took two steps forward.
"That's how pegasuses accept you as a rider. If they refuse you, you won't be able to ride them." Bjorn explained. "The remaining two pegasuses are for you guests. It wouldn't be hard for one pegasus to carry all of you if not for pegasus' nature of picky choosing."
"By the way…" The moment Bjorn finished his explanation, Magnus brushed his grey beard while observing Kyriaki and Euclid closely. "It seems you two are excellent at hiding your dragon smell and aura. The pegasuses treat you like any other without getting scared."
The smell and the aura of a dragon was enough to scare away animals and beasts. Sometimes even lower rank monsters and species wouldn't dare to go near a dragon who had those things very strongly on display.
Although it doesn't harm others like Dragon fear does, those aspects of dragons make it harder for them to interact with other species in an equal footing.
Along with teaching
Thus, it was no secret that the length of their control indirectly displays the hatchling's capabilities.
Magnus was aiming for that fact. The fact that the two hatchlings were on par with adults in their mind. It was a hint that was thrown at Kyriaki to say he knows her inner thoughts.
'Hah…the art of politics.' Although she sounded exhausted, she always had fun playing with words, just like Euclid.
"Is that so?" Kyriaki gave a natural answer and stood in front of a white pegasus with honey brown eyes.
She slowly extended her right hand as if she was a higher being about to bless a weaker one with care. The pegasus tapped the ground with his front leg and slowly extended his neck. His long eyelashes fluttered and the sound of sniffing stole the attention of the entire stable.
Then the pegasus let out a cheerful noise and took two steps forward like a child who found his favorite toy. He even went a step further and rubbed his nose on the top of Kyriaki's head.
"Pfft.." Kyriaki covered her mouth with the back of her hand and giggled. Her giggles, like tiny bells of a shamen's staff, reached every corner of the massive stable in a pleasant manner.
"Aren't you so bold?" She extended her smart watch and gave it a command. The next moment a golden colored fruit with tiny purple star-like patterns on the skin, that resembled an apple in each way appeared on her hand.
"Here, it's a gift." The pegasus gladly accepted her gift and munched on the favorite food of a pegasus; Epil. It was a rare elixir with space attribute, said to have properties of eternal youth inside its' delicious taste.
The other pegasuses looked at the brown-eyed pegasus with envious looks. Magnus laughed at the sight of a dragon getting along with beasts like an elf.
Euclid was rejected by the other pegasus, perhaps because he didn't offer a tribute like Kyriaki did. He ended up riding the same pegasus as her. The three elves, two of higher order with the ability to communicate with animals, were accepted by the remaining pegasus right away.
And thus, they experienced a thrilling sky ride like the day they visited the moon for the first time.
But their thrill was short-lived as the pegasuses, as instructed before, opened a direct portal to the location of Lagujarna Lake with ease.
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