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“The mountains are beautiful. Is it like this all year?”
Anri gazed out over the vast wildlands. Trees cluttered together into a layered mattress before him, stretching on for as far as he could see. Leaves turned to evergreens as the forests climbed the mountain slopes – some of them all the way to the desolate peaks. It was a spectacle bathed in sunshine and speckled with the colors of summer’s dusk.
The man at Anri’s side gave a shrugging motion in response to his question; though really the man was too tall for Anri to see his shoulders properly and thus know for sure that he actually shrugged, but the red cloak was lifted higher, and fluttered more freely in Anri’s direction.
“The obvious answer is no.” Iote wasn’t one to chuckle; his laugh was booming enough to cause quivers in the ground and he prided himself on that – but this time his laugh was a careful, soft one. “The leaves fall off the trees here just like everywhere else. You’re right though, it is beautiful. I hope to be able to appreciate such wonders in the future, and that my people will do too.”
Anri grinned and glanced up on his friend. “You already call them that?”
“They were always my people, sweet Anri, as we were all part of the same injustice.” Iote’s hand moved to his chest, where he placed his open palm over his heart. It had been an instinctive gesture for as long as Anri had known the man; the secret greeting amongst the manakete slaves, or so Anri had gathered.
“I’m glad we were able to end their reign right here on the ground where we bled under their claws”, Iote continued. “This is where our history begins, beneath their crumbled temple. And I’m glad I get to share this moment with you, sweet Anri.”
Anri grinned wider and turned his gaze back out on the view below them. He wasn’t sure when exactly Iote had begun calling him ‘sweet’. It was a simple mystery that Anri never intended to delve further into – because what reason could there be for complaint or change? That was just Iote’s way – he’d called the empress of Archanea ‘little wonder’, the highest chieftain on the western peninsula ‘my beautiful lad’ and most others were ‘dears’ and ‘darlings’. Though for as much as he cooed over every single friendly face, there was but one that had drawn the name ‘love’ from Iote’s lips.
“I’m happy for all our sakes”, Anri said; “Though when this moment passes, what will you do?” Anri still didn’t look away from the view, but he noticed Iote shift and scoff – the man was very hard not to notice when he moved. “Your people will be welcomed under my father’s lordship; our island needs more settlers and I would love to have my best friend close.”
“Oh, nah”, Iote smiled – Anri might not be able to see that, but he heard it in his voice. “Thank you, my friend, but that is not the future I see.”
“Then what is?”
Iote moved his arm, gesturing out over the wildlands, all the way to the eastern mountains where the feral wyverns outlined their shapes against the sun. “This is the land my people toiled in, the land that will be but forests beneath an open sky, without the manakete's corroding legacy. I intend to change that. This is where my people were born, and where we will build our kingdom. This is where we will grow strong enough to keep the mad dragons at bay, should they ever try to retake our land.”
“I know you will honor those words, friend. Your people could not ask for a greater leader.” Those words came from the depth of Anri's heart, though he couldn’t help some concern from bleeding into his voice as he went on; “However, the remaining manakete will not assemble without their king; perhaps that strength you mentioned could be put to better use elsewhere?”
“I don’t know about that, sweet Anri. Dragons are a tenacious sort.” Iote lowered his arm; his shoulders tense enough to make the leather in his armor creak dangerously.
The manakete were fools for thinking they could keep this man in chains, Anri thought.
Then again, giant or not, when Iote relaxed his shoulders he really didn’t seem that intimidating; especially not as he let out a quiet laugh once again.
“If you worry that my people’s strength will cause you trouble, I assure you I will never ever put my future soldiers to march. We are free of our chains, and have no interest in ever placing others under their weight – the day my Macedon goes to war is a day unheard of. I swear on my shield.”
The shield taken from the manakete along with the axe that Agathae, Iote’s betrothed, had slung over her shoulders with the words ‘it’s as light as a feather, I swear’. Though it most certainly was not; when Anri had tried to lift it, he could barely get it off the ground. Those were things Anri had rather they left untouched – he hadn’t wanted for his friends to take trinkets infused with unknown dragon magic - who knew how that might end?
Though Anri wasn’t one to speak; the sparkling blade blessed by Naga hung in his belt, which had earned them their victory many times over. How could he deny his friend an impenetrable shield and an axe only his betrothed could wield? Anri were many things – cautious, if nothing else – but he was not a hypocrite.
“And you, my friend, what will you do?”
Anri was a bit startled by Iote's question, but he hid it beneath a grimace. “I assume my father will push for me to settle down properly – he really doesn’t understand, it seems.”
“Mm”, Iote hummed. “Then why don’t we get married? I know what you’re all about – I’d let you live your life in peace. In fact, why not be married at a distance, where I am here with Agathae and you are home on your island, matrimonial medallion around your neck, free of your father’s garbage?”
Laughter bubbled inside Anri, along with the genuine love for his friend. “Thank you, Iote, but no. It is a kind offer, but marriage truly isn’t something for me even if it is a false one. It’d make my father happy, that’s for sure, but it’s better if I didn’t have to lie to him. I will never be in such a relationship, and he has to accept that. I leave marriage to my brother.”
“I want nothing but happiness for you”, Iote said with an elbow in Anri’s shoulder. “Husband or not though, be sure to visit my Macedon quite often.”
“I will, if I ever yearn for your face – oh wait I mean, plackart. Yes, I will surely miss the sight of your plackart.”
“The fault is not mine that everyone is small but me.” Iote snorted, and crouched down beside Anri. “This is my face, in case you haven’t seen it before.”
“I jested, dear friend.”
“As did I.” The scars on Iote’s face folded inwards as he smiled. The hair hung wild over his shoulders and moved gently in the breeze. A few tangles threatened to get stuck in a brush beside him – Iote knew nothing about the art of keeping his hair long, but he would sooner die than cut it. The manakete had apparently clawed the hair off their slaves as soon as it grew too long, and to Iote the tangles in the breeze were yet another sign of freedom. He’d learn to care for it, or so Anri hoped.
Iote’s gaze was stuck on the mountain to the west, where the shadows of the wild sky beasts roamed. Anri noticed how he pursed his lips for a while before he finally spoke; “My friend, an honest question for you; do you think a wyvern could be tamed?”
“I dearly hope that was another jest.”
“It was not. They called my Agathae mad when she took one of the wild sky horses as her mount, but without her in the sky… would we have won this war? She is a hero for taking that first step; we now know it can be done, the pegasi can be our friends – but what Pegasus could carry one such as me? How could I possibly join my love in the sky? No, only a wyvern would be strong enough to bring me to her realm.”
Anri shook his head. “Do be careful.”
“You know me, sweet Anri. I assure you, I will not be.”
Anri let out a scoff, and tackled his shoulder loosely into Iote’s. He knew better than to say anything else.
They stayed like that for a time, Iote rocking comfortably on his heels and Anri standing beside him, watching as the sun slowly sunk behind the mountains.
“We ought to leave this place”, Anri finally said. “It is time for the Dragon’s Temple to be forgotten.”
Iote threw an eye over his shoulder, at the vast temple behind them. At the start of the day it had crawled with the manakete, but as the sun now set, its chambers were empty save from the corpses of its former masters.
“It is indeed time”, Iote agreed. He rocked up to standing, and walked back to the temple. Anri was just about to turn around and join him when he heard a loud, sickening crack, a sound that put the hair in his neck on end. He spun around, and was met by the sight of Iote, fully invested in kicking through the ribs of an old dragon skeleton near the temple entrance.
“That seems a bit disrespectful to the dead”, Anri protested - a careful jab to calm his heart, if nothing else. Iote pried the sternum off the ribcage with a grunt.
“They did not exactly respect us in the living.” Iote dropped the sternum before Anri. “Now, the camp is at the foot of the mountain, is it not?”
“Yes, and if we start the walk now, we can get there before night has fallen—“
“Walk! What nonsense.” Iote’s grin was wide as he gestured to the sternum at Anri’s feet. “My people used to transport wares down the mountain by sleds all the time – it was the only fun we had. Why should I not enjoy that one last time, in the presence of a friend?”
“Did you… transport on dragon skeletons?”
“Oh yes. There’s magic in them still, and they glide beautifully on the gravel slopes. It is perfectly safe, I assure you. I’ve done it since I was a child.”
Anri did not smile when he entered the makeshift sled, nor did he smile when the air current had him grasp at Iote’s armor for dear life. But when Iote had made the second turn, and when his loud laughter shook the sled beneath them; that was when he smiled.
In the rush of colors that blurred past him, Anri thought of the future with newfound clarity. It was now that the fires of victory truly coursed through his veins, it was now that the mad laughter within him was finally released.
They had won, and even though their paths may split, Anri knew with pride that as long as the people of Macedon had the shining, fearless eyes of Iote watching over them, they needn’t fear anything.