Chapter Text
Every time Drift made friends, it was more of the same. She found people she cared about, felt like she belonged, then something happened to rip them away. She thought maybe this time would be different, maybe this time she could actually stay with these people who had been nothing but kind to her. She thought wrong.
Drift stepped out of the woods, blinking. What could they possibly have done to screw up the ritual this badly? She didn't even know there were teleportation rituals. Fern was walking alongside her, having refused to get back in the backpack. It was rather inconvenient.
As she emerged into the dawn light, she saw in the distance a river encircling a small town. This was not one of the towns by the Academy. Where was she?
“Hey, you! Who are you and what are you doing in the Red Kingdom?” A knight in silver and green armor was standing on a hill a few yards away.
“Um, hi? I'm Drift, I think I'm a bit lost. Where is this place?”
“Well, this is the Red Kingdom, as I said, and across the river there–” she pointed to a faraway bridge–“is the Blue Kingdom.” The knight narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You weren't sent by them, were you? Those are our sworn enemies.”
“Uh, no? I came from a place called the Academy. My friend and I were trying to do a spell but it went wrong and sent us here. He went that way, actually.” She gestured in the direction of what was apparently the Blue Kingdom.
“Hm. Well, I suppose I have no reason to distrust you. I am Ser Bek of House Yamon, but you may call me Ser Bek. I shall take you to our king, and let him decide what to do with you.”
“Your… king?”
“Yes, King Cam!”
“Huh… crazy coincidence, I knew a guy called Prince Cam back at the Academy. He was kind of insufferable though.”
“Ah, nothing like our king then– what– what is that???” Bek gestured to Fern, who was hiding behind Drift. Or at least trying to. The dragon had grown to nearly twice the size she originally was, so she couldn't hide as effectively anymore.
“Oh, Fern? She's my dragon. She doesn't bite, usually.”
“A dragon? You've tamed a dragon?”
“Yeah, I've had her since before she hatched.”
“…You will certainly be an asset to the Red Kingdom with the skill to raise a dragon. Well, follow me, Drift!”
When they arrived in the town square, there were seven other people waiting.
“Bek, who's this with you?”
“This is Drift, I found her near the forest. She has a dragon!”
“A what?” The one wearing blueish armor stepped forward, pointing a spear at Drift. Kind of rude, but okay.
“Oh, yeah, this is just Fern. She doesn't bite, I promise. Unless you poke her with a spear, so I suggest not doing that.” The person standing behind the knight wearing blue put their hand on the knight's shoulder.
“Apo, calm down, it's a baby dragon.” The knight, apparently called Apo, reluctantly stepped back. The other person moved forward, staring curiously at Fern. Then their gaze moved to Drift.
“Hi, welcome to the Red Kingdom. Sorry it's in a bit of a state right now. I'm Cherri, this is Apo. We're not from here.” Fern cautiously approached Cherri, looking up at her questioningly.
“She seems very friendly,” Apo remarked. Cherri knelt down to pat the dragon’s head.
“Ahem.” Drift turned around to see a man who looked shockingly like Sausage, except with no copper limbs and two different-colored eyes; one blue, one orange. “Well, I'm Sausage, the local necromancer, at your service.” He did a mock bow.
“Yet another crazy coincidence, I knew a guy who looked a lot like you and was also named Sausage.”
“Now that's interesting. Well, I suppose we should all introduce ourselves?” He looked around at the larger group. The person next to him stepped forward. There was a yellow feather in their hair.
“Hi, I'm Kitty. I'm also new here.”
“Most of us are, it seems,” the person beside them said. “I'm Katie, I've lived here for… what, three or so years now? I promise, the Red Kingdom is very nice. We're just recovering from the Blue Kingdom's latest attack. It kind of wiped out most of us. The ones you see are the only ones remaining. We all just gathered yesterday, so we've made a lot of improvement! Before there were just ruined shells of buildings.”
“I am King Cam,” the blond one with a crown interjected after a few moments of silence. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am a healing mage, so if you ever need medical help, you can come to me.”
“Does mage just mean you can do magic?”
“Yeah, pretty much, why?”
“Well, uh, you might want to step back.” Cam stepped to the side, leaving enough room for Drift's newest power. “I can do this.” She held out one arm and at the slightest thought it might, the earth cracked. A faultline emerged from the stones. Then Drift called the stones back and corrected the positions.
“Wow,” Cam said. “That's… where did you learn that spell?”
“Oh, I didn't really learn it, it just kind of came to me naturally. I can also throw boulders and make walls, and do this.” She held out her other hand and a small yellow flower blossomed from the grass beneath her feet. A dandelion.
“Aww, that's lovely! Your powers are so cool!”
“Yeah, the Cam from my academy had horse powers and charm powers.”
“Uh. Horse powers? Do tell us more,” Ser Bek said.
“He had a horse named Pip that he could summon whenever. It was really fast. And he could also steal an item from anyone by distracting them with his face.”
“I wish I had horse powers. I love horses.”
“Fair enough.”
There was a brief pause in conversation as a pigeon swooped by, dropping a paper into Cam’s hands. He read it aloud.
“Dear Red Kingdom, we have found a young man near our borders. He says he came with someone else. If you have them, could we meet at the bridge? Yours truly, Queen Shan of Blue Kingdom.”
“So, Drift, did you come here with anyone else? Oh, and I'm Frogue by the way.”
“Uh, yeah, I came here with my friend Legs. He's probably over there. We should meet with them, I think.”
As they travelled to the bridge, Drift took some time to think. The Red Kingdom was nice enough, though it was a bit painful to see familiar faces everywhere. King Cam was so different from Prince Cam. Sausage the necromancer was… kind of like Academy Sausage? But a lot more sinister-looking.
Then, they finally arrived at the bridge.