Origin (Scales 'n' Spells 1)

It was the right tactic. The mage relaxed his guard completely, returning his smile. “Oh, thank god, your English is amazing. Yeah, I think he mistook me for someone else? My German isn’t great, but I thought I caught something about magic? I’m assuming he’s a LARPer or something.”

Alric’s smile froze and twitched. Did this man not know he was a mage? How…How was that even possible?

Or was he pretending to be only human, as Alric himself was doing?

This would take more than a few minutes to figure out. And it did put a wrinkle in his first plan. He’d hoped to simply find a private setting to reveal himself as a dragon and then take the conversation from there. That option was clearly out. To buy himself a moment to think, he offered a hand. “I’m Alric Burkhard.”

The mage accepted the handshake with a firm one of his own. “Cameron Park, nice to meet you.”

“You’re here on holiday, I take it?”

“Yeah. I heard someone say one of the larger Dragon Festivals in Europe was here for some reason, so I decided to come and check it out.” Cameron looked about and shook his head in bemusement. “It’s been more than I bargained for. They weren’t kidding, this is quite the party. Why here, though, I don’t understand. Sonthofen’s not really that big. I figured Munich or even Berlin’s would be bigger.”

“It’s more the location.” Alric experienced a sinking feeling in his stomach. This young man was not aware at all of the significance of who he was—or who he spoke to. Alric needed to handle this carefully. He couldn’t lose his chance to win Cameron over by scaring him off. He absolutely must bring him into the clan somehow. Flying by the seat of his pants, he turned and indicated the Allgäuer Hochalpen mountains nearby. “In the mountains is Schloss Burkhard. Traditionally, the castle was believed to be the home of the Fire Dragon Clan.”

Cameron’s mouth formed an O in understanding. “Burkhard? Like your family name.” Alric only smiled in return. Better to simply evade this question than try to convince him he was a dragon. Cameron winked as if he was in on the joke, and Alric studiously ignored the stab of guilt that came from purposefully not correcting Cameron. The omission felt like a lie. “Gotcha. That makes more sense. But why not hold the festival up there?”

“It’s not open to the public. They choose to hold it here, nearby.”

“Huh. That’s interesting; no one mentioned that part.”

Alric extended a hand toward the festival. “Please, allow me to give you a proper tour of the area. I know it and its history well.”

Cameron’s interest visibly perked. “Oh, you’re a native here?”

“I am. I live in Burkhard Castle, in fact. I’m happy to play tour guide as an apology for Ravi.” Alric held his breath, fervently hoping his lure would work. If he could get Cameron to walk with him of his own accord, so much the better. He needed to spend time with this man if he was to foster a better connection with him. And he didn’t have much time if Cameron was simply passing through.

Cameron didn’t even hesitate. “Sure, I’d love to take you up on that. Frankly, it’s always so much better to get a native to show you around rather than a tour guide. You get to see the really cool out of the way stuff the professional tours never hit.”

Alric dared to breathe out. “I feel the same. Are you aware the city is very old?”

“No, really?”

“Indeed. Sonthofen was already inhabited during the Stone Age. It was settled by Germanic Alemans who first built at the foot of the Kalvarienberg—” Alric continued on, gently leading him through the crowd to the outside of the city center, partially so he could be heard without raising his voice. It was quite noisy in the middle of the festival throng. He tried not to ramble too much about the history. A hard thing to do, as he was quite keen on history himself. But that wasn’t the point of this. The point was to earn enough of Cameron’s trust so the mage could openly admit who he was. What he was.

Why did he hide it? Surely the name Burkhard meant something to him. The Fire Clan had been known to all the mages before the war. Cameron should have realized instantly that he was safe with Alric because he was a Burkhard. It didn’t make any sense to Alric. The dragons were very eager to find mages. Wasn’t the reverse true as well?

Then again, considering how the Dragon War ended, perhaps not.

He weaved in many a story of mages and dragons as they walked, watching Cameron’s expression keenly. Aside from interest, and curiosity, there was no other emotion, as if this didn’t connect to Cameron himself on a personal level. Alric wasn’t sure what to make of this, but it boded ill.