Path of Dragons

Book 7: Chapter 3: Alone Again

Oscar squatted at the tree line, his hand on the trunk of a massive oak as he studied the glade. His face remained impassive, but his mind roiled with the events of the past few days. The end of the Trial had taken more from him than he ever could have expected, and upon his return to Earth, he’d found himself suddenly alone.

Sophie nudged him with her snout, reminding him that he would always have his pack. But was that enough to survive? No matter how much he pretended otherwise, he needed human companionship. He’d thought he was accustomed to that loneliness – he kept telling himself that he was happy with his pack – but the events of the Trial had reminded him that, regardless of what he told himself, he was still a human being.

And humans were social creatures. Never had that been clearer than during the time he’d spent among the other participants. Only a few had truly accepted him for who he was, but even that much had felt undeniably pleasant. Almost necessary, if he was honest with himself.

Returning to Earth had robbed him of that.

Sure, there were people in the town where he’d first departed, and they hadn’t gone anywhere during the Trial. However, the way they looked at him – with a mixture of fear, distrust, and a little opportunism – left him feeling uneasy. So, he’d fled without a word, and he’d kept running for hours.

Only now, when he’d seen the glade, did he stop to take stock of his situation.

Escobar let out a little bark, and after glancing in the chihuahua’s direction. Oscar responded, “I know. It’s just the sort of place Jojo would have liked.”

The other dogs twitched their tails in agreement, and with that, Oscar’s task solidified in his mind. Once his way was decided, he wasted no time before unshouldering his pack – it had been given to him by Elijah – and reached inside. A moment later, he felt the cold cloth he’d used to wrap Jojo’s remains.

He’d found the shih tzu only a little after reuniting with the other humans, though he hadn’t made a big fuss of it. Aside from the Druid, none of them had shown any care for the dogs. Besides, Oscar didn’t like sharing those kinds of moments. His pack was his, and letting others see its inner workings made him feel dangerously vulnerable. So, he’d quickly wrapped the dog’s body in a spare shirt before gently placing it in the bag.

The bundle was so small. Barely a few pounds. And when Oscar unwrapped the body, he just stared at it. He never should have let Jojo have so much freedom. He’d always been prone to biting off more than he could chew. But he’d idolized Escobar – even from the very beginning – and he took his cues from the much more powerful dog.

And in the end, it had gotten him killed.

There wasn’t a mark on the small dog. Instead, he’d been slain by some sort of spell that had drained his life. Even that wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t been snared by an ethereal trap.

In his more lucid moments, Oscar had come to realize that it was a warning. The world was not a simple place, and there was a myriad of abilities that could easily overwhelm him and his pack. They possessed plenty of power – especially when they worked together – but they certainly weren’t the only ones who could claim as much. One wrong move, and they would all be caught and killed.

It was enough to make Oscar wonder why he bothered with people in the first place. His species was filled dangerous and unpredictable people, and he knew he and his pack would be better off sticking to the wilderness. Certainly, the beasts and monsters were potentially deadly as well, but they represented dangers he understood. And that understanding had allowed him to guide his pack in the right direction.

Until he’d failed.

That guilt infested his mind as he and the other dogs spent the next hour digging a deep hole. It was much larger than necessary, but everyone wanted to participate in the labor. Their dedication to the task felt ritualistic in nature, though Oscar knew it was just their way of paying homage to their fallen brother.

Once the grave had been dug, Oscar climbed down and laid Jojo to rest. He tried to do so stoically, but he couldn’t stop the tears from tracing lines down his dirty cheeks. He sniffed, wiping his nose with his tattered sleeve before climbing free of the grave. After that, he and the rest of the pack pushed the mounds of dirt back into the hole they’d dug.

Nausea twisted Oscar’s stomach into knots as the first layer of soil covered the white bundle of fur. He was so small. In a normal world, Jojo would never have survived the wild. And yet, by finding his own path, he had thrived. And the world was worse off for his absence.

Oscar remembered the playful dog, bouncing around like a puppy as he pestered the larger members of the pack. The harrowing battles where they’d all found their niche. Jojo curling up in the crook of Oscar’s neck as they slept. A hundred other memories flashed through the Pack Leader’s mind as he buried his beloved brother.

He could feel the other dogs’ emotions surging with every cascade of dirt. They didn’t know how to deal with those feelings, and it wasn’t long before their pitiful whimpers filled the air.

Oscar wanted to comfort them, but he didn’t know how. Besides, he needed to complete the task at hand. So, even as their keening cries echoed through the picturesque dell, Oscar continued his labor of love and remembrance. Eventually, the last pile of dirt joined the rest, and all that was left of Jojo was a slightly raised mound of freshly turned earth.

He sank to his knees, his breath even. He didn’t wail like the other members of the pack. As their leader, he owed them more than to scream at nothing and beat his chest with the senselessness of it all. Yet, regardless of his attempts at stoicism, the flow of tears continued.

More troublingly, that was when the guilt truly set in.

He’d tried to protect Jojo, but the rambunctious dog was strong-willed. He’d made a habit of throwing caution to the wind, regardless of Oscar’s warnings against carelessness. What had happened seemed almost inevitable, at least in retrospect. And Oscar vowed to be a better leader going forward. The lives of his family depended on it.

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To that end, he recalled the guide he’d bought the last time he was in the Nexus Town. He wasn’t at the point where his class evolution was impending, but he was close enough that he felt it prudent to start thinking about it. Thus, the purchase of the guide. He retrieved the glittering leaf from his pocket, but before he re-read it, he looked at his status:

Oscar knew his development wasn’t as advanced as with some people. He’d muddled his way through cultivation, but he lacked the talent of someone like Elijah, for whom cultivation was a mere speedbump on the road to power. He’d made plenty of progress, especially with his Core cultivation, which had reached the third stage, but he lagged behind in the other categories. Still, he’d made plenty of gains during the Trial, and he knew that he would soon need to address the issue of his class evolution.

That was why he’d purchased the guide. He wanted to be prepared for that eventuality, if not for his own good, then the well-being of his pack. His family depended on his leadership as well as his abilities to enhance their power. He’d even chosen the Development specialization to hasten their progression. It would take some time to bear fruit, but he would much rather invest in his pack as a whole than gain power for himself.

Jackson nudged him with his snout, and Oscar lifted his arm for the dog to get closer. A few moments later, the others – all but Escobar – surrounded him. They crowded close, as if they all wanted to touch him. And like that, they remained while Oscar finally opened the guide:

It was far more information than he’d ever gotten regarding his class, and it had cost him quite a lot of ethereum for the Librarian to hunt it down. Even finding the Librarian, who was hiding among the Consortium, had been difficult, and Oscar was certain that few others in the Trial of Primacy had even known of her existence.

Still, he wasn’t certain what he was supposed to do with the information in the guide. He knew each evolution would be powerful in its own way, and he could easily imagine how they could help him protect his pack. Beyond that, though, he wasn’t certain which way he would go.

But his first impressions had him looking very carefully at the final option. The notion of taking on a canine form would have once horrified him, but after spending years away from humanity, he found the idea far more palatable. He could also sense that the Pack Ascendent option was the most powerful of the three. How he knew that, he wasn’t sure, but he felt certain of it all the same.

For a long time, Oscar just knelt beside Jojo’s grave, his mind flitting back and forth between his grief, his upcoming evolution, and his plans for the immediate future. Coping with the first was difficult, but he managed to stave some of those feelings off by focusing on the good times with Jojo. Those memories were all tinged with sadness, but that felt natural enough.

However, he had no answers concerning where he was going, either in the long or short term. Part of him wanted to hunt down Elijah and take the Druid up on his offer of shelter within his grove. However, he didn’t know how to manage that, considering he had no inkling of where Elijah’s island might be located. For all he knew, it was on the other side of the world, and he didn’t even know which direction to go.

In addition, as much as he wanted to trust Elijah, he couldn’t help but remember that the man was human. And Oscar’s experiences with his own species were not positive, especially of late. So, he shied away from going to the Druid’s island.

“I think we should go back to that frozen tundra,” Oscar said, as much to himself as to the other dogs. “It was good experience, and I want to find whatever is at the center.”

The dogs all agreed, and just like that, Oscar had a plan – at least for now. He would address issues like his evolution when the time came.