The forest edge was not exactly a precise location for a meeting spot, but Temeraire could not generally go anywhere that had a proper address, and besides it was easy to spot people from the air, so long as he didn’t go too far aloft. He saw a figure standing as though waiting in the approximate area he was heading for, and, presuming this must be the man who liked to imagine a game of dragons and who had so much interest in the Divine Wind, came winging in to meet him.
Temeraire rarely if ever resisted the chance to show away, unless there was some special reason why he ought not, but he didn’t see any harm in it in this instance. He was starting to get a little tired - though of course he understood people could not help it - of new arrivals expressing so much shock and awe over, if not his very existence, then his ability to speak, or read, or otherwise communicate. It was quite like the stupid people from the admiralty all over again, although they at least ought to know better. It was nice to meet people like Abi and Eddie - they tended to be the younger ones, he couldn’t help noticing, but then he was used to young people and even children as crew and companions - who had real interest in meeting him for his own sake. Still, he came down quite a safe distance away, much further away than he would have for a trained aviator, just in case the young man took fright and ran away.
“Hello,” he said politely, stretching his wings out with some satisfaction before folding them back in. “I am Temeraire. A pleasure to meet you in person.”
Eddie hadn’t quite known what to expect when he agreed to meet a dragon. He’d read enough fantasy books to know that they were usually a good deal larger than a human, and so he’d been expecting something big. Maybe the size of an elephant, or maybe a whale.
He definitely did not expect something large enough to likely make a quick, two-bite meal out of an elephant, or that could carry around a whale in its taloned hand. But as the dragon approached, he definitely got the impression that yeah, Temeraire could probably eat a whale in a single sitting and still be hungry.
Which was comforting, in a way, since it probably meant humans weren’t worth the trouble. At least, he hoped that’s what it meant. He’d seemed friendly enough on the Network, and Mike had said he’d ridden him when he arrived, so Eddie fought his first instinct (which was to swear, run, and hide), and instead raised a hand in greeting.
From a dragon that size, who claimed that he could destroy things with his voice, Eddie had braced himself for a greeting that was unbearably loud, like something Black Bolt might utter. He was, instead, surprised at the fact that it was a reasonable volume, and actually kind of pleasant. The English accent was unexpected.
“Hello,” Eddie said, and if he was yelling, it was only because he assumed that he’d need to to be heard way, way up there. “I’m Eddie! It’s nice to meet you too. You’re… a lot bigger than I was expecting.”
“Thank you,” Temeraire replied, opting to take that as a compliment. “And your wig is very fine,” he added, thinking he should probably offer one in return, as was only polite. The thick brown curls reminded him of the sort French diplomats often wore. He closed the distance between them in only a few strides.
For a moment, Eddie was struck speechless, but only for a moment. Then he laughed. “This is my real hair, but thanks, I think?” He thought it was probably meant to be a compliment, at least. Hopefully his hair didn’t actually look like a wig, but he thought it was probably hard to tell from so far away.
“A lot of guys wear wigs where you’re from?” he ventured.
“Many of them, who are not in the military,” Temeraire said. “And also some of the admiralty, but theirs are not usually so long. I understand the styles of dress are much different in the future, but I have not made a study of it.” Other than making sure Laurence always showed to advantage, in public, he did not have much interest. He looked around. The trees here were quite thick and old, and it seemed a shame to break them as well as a great deal of effort - some thin dry trees would do much better, he thought. “Perhaps we might fly down the coast a little way,” he suggested. “So that we might find something suitable to practice upon that no one will miss.”
“Not a whole lot of people wear wigs these days,” Eddie said. “Well, at least, not many who’ll admit to wearing wigs.” He wondered when Temeraire was from; Eddie wasn’t as familiar with his history as he likely should have been.
At Temeraire’s suggestion though, he nearly gaped at him. “Wait, are you offering to fly me over there?” he asked, just to be clear. For all he knew, humans in Temeraire’s world just sprouted wings whenever they wanted and could fly alongside the dragons, which would be have been great, but also entirely impossible for Eddie. “Because if yes, then yeah. That sounds like a great idea. I’ve never gone flying before.”
“Yes, of course,” Temeraire said. “It would not be very convenient if you had to walk. I can carry you in my talons, or on my back, if you prefer, though since you do not have carabiners you will have to hold on very carefully. Although, I dare say I could catch you, if you fell,” he added, and it was not as though he would be going very high.
Eddie's gaze travelled from Temeraire's talons – which looked very sharp and very long – and Temeraire's back, which was high up even sitting on the ground and did not look like it had a lot of great places to hold on to.
"Maybe I'll have you carry me this time," Eddie said after a moment. "Next time we'll see about going dragonback." Especially if there was equipment to do it. He wondered for a moment if Steve would've gone dragonback and then shook the thought from his head. Steve wasn't here, and anyway, the last time he tried to be as brave as King Harrington, he nearly got himself killed.
“Very well.” Temeraire held out his foreleg with the talons up, allowing Eddie to step into them. He was perfectly used to carrying people in this way, and he knew how to do it gently so that they were not tossed about too badly. He went aloft swiftly and flew away along the treeline in search of something breakable. He was not in any particular hurry, and felt he could take the time to be choosy if he wanted to show to best advantage.
At first he saw nothing worthy of attention, and before long he had reached the coastline. He was just wondering if he ought to ask Eddie if he would mind getting a little wet and indulge in a little fishing - the dolphins really were good eating if you could catch one - when something caught his eye. He dove towards it.
There was a wreck washed up against some rocks, a good distance away from the bay or where any boat had any business being. It was only a small boat, by Temeraire’s standards, and looked like it had been there a while even though he had flown this way many times and never seen it.
It was a bit of an awkward landing, but he managed to find a dry spot on some big rocks just big enough for him to perch on, with a smaller flat one where he could put Eddie down carefully.
Eddie had always dreamed of flying. Of course, if he had been pressed to say how he’d manage it, he’d have said with an airplane. He definitely never thought that the idea of being carried by a dragon was possible.
And yet, here he was, wind whipping his long hair behind him (and occasionally, annoyingly, in his face. He should have worn a bandana or something), the ground passing far below, trees in miniature. Temeraire had obviously carried humans before – there wasn’t enough space between his claws for Eddie to tumble from, unless he really tried – but Eddie still peered between Temeraire’s knuckles to get a better view.
It was almost too soon when they finally did land, though Eddie took comfort in the idea that, at the very least, Temeraire would have to fly him back to shore. There was no way Eddie was going to swim back, and Temeraire didn’t seem like the type of dragon to just leave him out here.
“That, my friend, was fucking deadly!” Eddie said, jumping off of Temeraire’s palm onto the rock, fists pounding in the air. The rocks were slick, and he nearly slipped, so – once he caught his balance, arms windmilling – he stopped that. But he still turned to Temeraire, beaming. “I can see why Wheeler was so pumped.”
Temeraire was about to protest that it had not been dangerous at all, he had been very careful, but caught himself just in time. “Ah,” he said, shaking sea spray off the edges of his wings. “Another figure of speech, I think. Does it have the same meaning as ‘bad ass’? I like that one.”
“Yeah, it does. You’re a quick learner,” Eddie said, grinning. “We’ll have you talking like one of us in no time flat.”
He sat down on the rock, spreading his legs in front of him and leaning back on his hands. “This is kind of nice out here. You know, I never saw the ocean before coming here. Definitely never on the ocean before.”
He couldn’t tell whether or not he liked the ocean spray and the smell of saltwater, or if the endless horizon made him uncomfortable, but he was going to enjoy it for now.
“Not at all? I was hatched at sea,” Temeraire said, proudly. “And I have crossed oceans many times; it can be a little boring, sometimes, but occasionally there are ports or sea serpents or other things to see. It is not at all pleasant in a bad storm, but in fine weather I like it very much. So long as the voyage does not go overlong, and there are some good cooks to make sure the food is not too boring. And so long as there are no bad fires, and the sailors do not get too drunk,” he added, the list of provisos growing further and further the more he looked back on his extended periods at sea. “It is not very pleasant to be shipwrecked at all, especially in the middle of the ocean where there is no land anywhere close.” He peered over at the wreckage which clung by its side to the rocks; it seemed to be made mostly of wood, unlike some of the more modern, very fast ships he had seen in the bay, something resembling the kinds of vessels he was used to seeing in his own time. “I wonder where it came from.”
“Not at all,” Eddie confirmed. “I’m from a state in America called Indiana. There’s a pretty big lake up north, but I haven’t really ever been to it, either. But Indiana is pretty far from the ocean so…” He shrugged. He didn’t think he was likely he’d ever have the chance to see the ocean on Earth now.
“You must have been just as shocked at seeing land for the first time as I am at seeing all this water,” he said.
At Temeraire’s question though, he peered over the side at the wreckage. “Maybe it came through the same way the rest of us did?” he suggested. “I hear that sometimes things from other worlds can end up here too. But it seems pretty low tech for this place.”
“Yes, I expect you are right,” Temeraire said. “I don’t suppose there might be any treasure in it,” he added, “It would be famous to find some pirate’s horde of gold - but then, I saw Blackbeard’s ship, it was much finer than this one, and it looks like it was wrecked a long time ago, besides.”
Eddie hesitated for a moment, because wandering around on a rotting, shipwrecked boat, which neither of them could say where it had come from, seemed like it could be a bad idea. But it couldn’t be any worse than the Upside Down, and chances were that the only real danger it posed was the chances of breaking a leg or something, which didn’t seem so bad when this place was filled with healers. Besides, there could be treasure in there – Vallo seemed like the kind of place for random treasure, and he had a dragon on his side.
“Did you want me to check it for treasure? Before you destroy it?”
“Ooh.” Temeraire shifted excitedly. He didn’t think much of letting Eddie do something dangerous if he wanted to, after all, Emily or Demane were not much younger than him and he certainly wouldn’t have stopped them looking for treasure. He put a foreclaw out to help Eddie get across the rocks to the deck, which was stuck at an awkward angle. “If you get stuck you must cry out,” he said, “and I will pull you out again.”
“Deal,” Eddie said, balancing carefully on Temeraire to the ship, and then hopping down onto the deck. “Though, be gentle about it if you do have to come rescue me.”
The ship was listing weirdly, so it took Eddie a moment to gain his balance, but once he did he made his way below decks. Caught in the rocks as it was, the ship hardly rocked at all, which Eddie took as a blessing – much of the planking had rotted, and he had to carefully place his feet as he went, testing each board before he committed his full weight to it. The stench of fish and brine was strong – not strong enough to make him gag, but stronger than he was used to, coming as he did from Indiana.
He checked a few cabins before he finally reached what he thought must have been the captain’s cabin. The captain’s log was written in a language Eddie didn’t recognize – not even a little bit, which made him wonder if it was an Earth language at all – but in a drawer of his desk, the lock rusted with age and easily broken – he found a small chest with an amulet, resting on a bed of gold and gems.
It seemed like the kind of thing that might be haunted, but it also seemed like the sort of thing a kind DM might leave behind for an adventurous explorer, and so he tucked it into his leather jacket, doing up the zipper so it wouldn’t slip out, and then made a very quick exploration of the rest of the ship – there didn’t seem to be much else to find. The hold was filled with water and what looked to have once been grain, and there wasn’t much else to be found. Eventually, he made his way back up to deck.
“It’s a good thing we decided to look around,” Eddie said, cheerfully. “You wouldn’t believe what I found.”
“Oh?” Temeraire had been waiting a little anxiously, simultaneously trying not to get his hopes up while also getting unavoidably excited at the idea of not-quite-sunken pirate treasure. “Is it gold? Or jewels?” He rejoiced inwardly; for once he had found a prize before Iskierka could get her greedy claws on it.
“It’s both,” Eddie said, opening up the chest. He didn’t know how good the dragon’s eyes worked for something that was so relatively small – Temeraire’s eye alone was bigger than the chest itself – but the sun reflected off it, nearly making it glow.
“I thought the amulet might look good on you,” he said. “It’d compliment the jewel in your… uh, necklace?” Breastplate? Eddie wasn’t really sure what it was considered, other than more expensive than everything Eddie owned, probably. “But I thought I might keep the gold and jewels, if you’re okay with it. The kids would probably get a kick out of them.” At least, he was sure Henderson and Wheeler would, and he suspected Byers would too. Max didn’t seem as into All Things Nerd as the boys did, but hey, shiny pieces of gold and gems were still shiny pieces of gold and gems.
“Oh, how famous,” Temeraire exclaimed, examining the treasure with great interest, his ruff quite stiff and wings bridling with excitement. He was a little put out at first to have to give up even so much gold, but Eddie had after all done most of the work, and Temeraire didn’t really need more money. He inspected the amulet more closely. “Yes, I think you are right,” he said eventually. The colour would stand out nicely against his hide, he thought, even if it was too small to really been seen very well unless one was quite close. “Will you tie it to the chain?” he asked, reaching out to lift Eddie and the chest up so that he could reach. He was sure the treasure could not possibly belong to anyone, at least no one actually in Vallo, or they would have been complaining that it was missing, so it was quite a lawful prize - this argument he composed quickly in his head in answer to Laurence’s theoretical objections.
It was a little surprising just how quickly someone could get used to being lifted up by a dragon who could probably squish Eddie like a pimple if he wanted to. Even if this was Eddie’s first time meeting the dragon (or any dragon, really), he was already pretty confident that Temeraire probably wasn’t going to squish him. Unless he deserved it, at least.
He brought his hand to his chin, considering the best place for it – it really was pretty small, even compared to the sapphires that surrounded the enormous pearl, and would probably look pretty silly if he didn’t do it right – and then looped the chain of the amulet through the links in Temeraire’s breastplate so that the ruby hung in the centre of the pearl, like some sort of crimson pupil. He considered it for a moment, and then pat Temeraire’s hide affectionately.
“There, what do you think?” he asked. “I can move it if you want me to. I just thought it looked kind of cool.”
“It is very fine,” Temeraire said, craning his neck a little to try and see. He could always ask Laurence to adjust it later. “Thank you! Now we are proper treasure hunters indeed.” He put Eddie down at the base of his neck where he would have a good view, and also be safe from any waves that would almost certainly be kicked up by the Divine Wind. “Was there anything else of interest inside?” he asked, cautiously. “I would not like to be accused of damaging something that might be of use to someone.”
Temeraire was tall. Eddie had just grown used to sitting in his hand, and now… well, it was really something. He was taller than a lot of buildings, but Eddie could feel his body heat, and his muscles moving beneath the scales. Like a house that breathed, or something. Maybe it should have been creepy after everything that had happened in the Upside Down, but it felt more magical than anything.
“No, I don’t think so,” Eddie said. “Almost everything else that was in there was pretty rotten. I don’t think I’d have even been able to bring it up if I’d wanted to without it falling apart. I think this ship is ripe for destruction, my draconic friend.”
“Very good. You had better hold on then, just in case.” He adjusted his position so that he could fill his chest with as much air as possible. It was a while since he had used the Divine Wind; there had been no need to use it since the last battle of the war. He let out a little test roar, first, to make sure all was as it should be, before bristling his ruff and all along his back as his whole body tremored with the full force of the Divine Wind. The little ship cracked and splintered most satisfyingly, with bits of wood and metal bursting out into the air and bouncing off against the rocks. A wave went up as well, nothing so big as he could have done if he was actually aiming at the water, but impressive nonetheless.
Eddie held on while Temeraire roared, eyes wide in amazement as the ship splintered and shattered and the wave rose up from the ocean. He’d seen, mostly in cartoons, glasses shatter from the pitch of a woman’s singing voice, but he’d never seen anything like that.
His ears rang. Eddie didn’t care.
“That. Was. So fucking cool!” Eddie exclaimed, standing, fists in the air. “That definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Way, way cooler than breathing fire.”
“Thank you,” Temeraire said, with pride. ‘It is an ability unique to the Celestial dragons, of whom there are less than a dozen in the whole world - at least, in my world,” he added, with about as much optimism as he felt; he supposed there might be worlds that were full only of Celestial dragons, if one expanded the theory of multiple universes by Chrysippus, which Vallo by its very existence proved to be true, but he somehow doubted it all the same. “So there are only a very few others who can do it.”
Less than a dozen of his breed in an entire world sounded… well, kind of lonely, really. There weren’t a lot of metalheads in Hawkins – yay small town Indiana, so open-minded and willing to embrace change – and… well, maybe there weren’t less queer people in Hawkins, but they were less willing to let themselves be known. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the same, but it wasn’t entirely different either.
“There weren’t a lot of people like me back in my hometown either,” Eddie said. He sat down and leaned his back against Temeraire’s wide neck, hands laced behind his head. “But fuck man, the fact that there aren’t a lot of people who can do what you do makes it better if you ask me. Makes it more unique. Who wants to be like everyone else, anyway?”
“Oh, I quite agree,” Temeraire said, admiring the results of his work. The Divine Wind had revealed a cross-section of the ship, which was quite interesting to someone who hadn’t been belowdecks since the first week of their hatching. “My hatchling, Lung Tien Ning, has an ability quite unique to her, although,” he added, “it is a little too flashy, in my opinion.” He sniffed the remains of the boat a few times before deciding that there was nothing else interesting to see within. The tide was already breaking up the pieces that were left. “Would you like to go back now?” he asked. “I could drop you off wherever you like, so long as there are not too many buildings.”
It was a shame, really, that 300 Fox Way was in Vallo City, surrounded by other magic shops: he was pretty sure the kids would have loved to see Temeraire up close (even if Mike had already met him), and while he didn’t know if Steve would be overawed or terrified, both reactions would have suited Eddie just fine.
“Yeah, we can go back,” Eddie said. “Maybe to the Crossed Quills. I think there’s a waypoint there that’ll get me back home. What sort of ability does Lung Tien Ning have?”
“It is hard to describe,” Temeraire admitted, as he transferred Eddie once again into his talons and took off with a great rush of air; a significant wave kicked up in his wake to wash the rest of the ship away. “Her dam, Iskierka, can breathe fire, and so can Ning, but it is very hot and fast, and there is a very great sound as well, when she does it. I am sure it will be quite dangerous once she has reached her full growth, and had some practice,” he added, with a combination of pride and resignation. He hovered for a moment above the edge of the cliff before shifting his direction slightly - he had learned the hard way that it was best to check the position of familiar Vallo landmarks before trying to get anywhere - and soared eastward towards the inhabited side of the forest.
“No shit,” Eddie said, though he thought he could picture it just fine, if it was something like Temeraire’s power alongside fire. That did sound dangerous, but also cool as all hell.
He had about a hundred questions about dragons. Probably too many to ask during their flight back, but that didn’t mean Eddie wasn’t going to try. As they flew away from the sun, Eddie’s chest clutched in his hands and Temeraire’s amulet on his chest, Eddie began.