Arthur was surprised how much he missed Paladin’s floating orb. The light of his lantern flickered and faded with the wind, and while the glow was more pleasant and the warmth was welcome, he valued the brightness more. Worse, this was his backup lantern, his best one being the only thing he’d lost in the house fire. The weak flame cast shadows across the junkyard, making creatures that danced in the shadows only to vanish. After spending so long paranoid about a dragon swooping down and killing him, and with the sky permanently darkened by a ticking metal shell, Arthur had thought the dark would stop being so scary.

  He dug through the plates, trying his best to find anything remotely useful. He didn’t find much. Corroded iron, carbon fibre plating that had been scorched by plasma and dragonlasers, plastic containers that still refused to break in the midst of an apocalypse. Not much attracted his attention, until he really began to dig through a certain pile that was taller and slimmer than a lot of the ones that surrounded it. As he pushed aside corroded metal and a disused oven, he saw a spinning gear inside.

  His hand immediately stopped and he reeled back, recognising the marks of the Clockwork Rot. He checked the metal he’d touched, but it hadn’t been corrupted…yet. He looked at the gear for a second, confused. The Rot worked fast, and if it remained like this, the junk pile would be consumed within the day, with the rest of the junkyard likely following the day after. Despite this, the Clockwork Rot was on the inside of the pile. Something inserted an object consumed with the Rot deep into the pile of junk. But what?

  Arthur had long since tried to get rid of his sense of curiosity for the sake of the mission, but nothing he did worked. He grabbed the thick metal plates, pulling them aside, making certain to check for the Rot and not touch the parts of anything he couldn’t see. Beneath the gear was a smooth, translucent shell of bronze, something he’d never seen the Rot make before: usually the metal formed in jagged, bizarre shapes, and being completely opaque. Gears rotated and spun as usual, but unlike with the Rot, they were mostly inset into the object, and actually all connected to each other, spinning at an even place, instead of being completely random.

  Then, through the metal, he saw something on the other side. A claw touched the metal. It was like a dragon’s claw, but it seemed unfinished. Wires were clearly visible inside, hundreds of tiny gears mixed in with sinew. It scratched the wall, as if curious how light had been let in, and then retracted. Arthur slowly went to grab his rifle.

  “Shit,” Arthur muttered. “It’s an egg.”

  Before he could say anything, he heard something flying overhead. Arthur instinctively turned and ran, diving behind a junk pile, and swiftly loading his rifle. The dragon landed in front of the egg, tilting its head to the side as it tried to figure out how the scrap was moved. It then promptly moved the scrap back, turning around and taking to the air again. Arthur breathed a sigh of relief as it flew out of sight.

  He could kill the egg now. The dragon seemed to have less metal armour while in the egg. It would be fairly easy for Arthur to just shoot it, killing it before it had a chance to hatch. Still, he knew that would just incur the wrath of the mother, and even when it came to creatures as inhuman as the dragons, he still had an issue with killing their young.

  Then he heard the clicks of a dragon preparing its breath weapon from up above him.

  Arthur turned around and ran to the side as the laser sliced past him, diving behind a scrap pile. Then he waited, patiently, for the dragon to fly around. As soon as it did, he pointed his rifle straight at it and fired. The shot almost hit them directly in the eye, fizzling out on the snout.

  Arthur cursed how great of a shot he almost was as the dragon prepared another beam. He scrambled up onto the scrap pile out of some misguided instinct, but as soon as he did, the dragon didn’t fire, the metal clicking back into place. It didn’t react at all, simply watching Arthur, beating its massive wings.

  Arthur was confused for a second. Then he started to think about why it wouldn’t shoot him. He grabbed the metal below him and threw it aside to reveal another dragon egg.

  “It’s a damn hatchery!” He shouted in surprise.

  He turned to look at the dragon, which continued to glare at him. Arthur sighed: he knew it couldn’t kill him without damaging an egg, and if he opened fire from such a vulnerable position it could dodge easily. He was stuck in a stalemate.

  “C’mon, Paladin,” he muttered. “Help a man out here.”

  /////

  Paladin could hear the monster from where he was. For a while, it barely mattered to him. Even though his body wasn’t damaged anymore, his body hadn’t caught up. Everything hurt. His lungs burned, hating the regenerated tissue. His heart hammered in his chest, only just catching up to the panic he felt when he’d nearly been destroyed from the inside out.

  Eventually, his mind refocused, and he staggered to his feet, reactivating his light spell. He could see the dragon circling one of the scrap heaps. He waited for a few moments, making sure that the flight pattern was consistent, before deciding to put his plan into action.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Searching through the scrap heap he looked through earlier, he found a long metal pole, along with some thin but surprisingly tough metal wire. Paladin used the wire to bind his sword to the poll and hefted it over his shoulder like a javelin. He tried to call forth as much of his magic as he could without making his organs explode again. Electricity sparked between his hand and his sword, electrifying the metal poll. His arms started to regain the supernatural strength he now realised he was over-relying on.

  Paladin stepped forward, planted his feet firmly, and just as the dragon came back into view, he swung his arm forward and threw the electrified javelin right at it.

  The dragon sensed the sudden change in air pressure and spun around in mid air just to see a massive bolt of lightning strike it through the chest. It screamed on impact, but it was cut short as Arthur took his chance to shoot it clean through the eyes. The monster landed on the ground with a loud crash.

  Paladin sighed, and collapsed with his back to the generator. All this magic had made him ravenously hungry, which he knew Arthur would hate him for.

  “Problems for later, John,” he muttered to himself. “Let’s actually get that rocket built first.”

  He lifted up the generator and began travelling back towards the rocket.

  /////

  Paladin dragged the generator back to the rocket to find a Arthur with his gun fully loaded, spinning around, aiming at the junk piles. A mess of cables and pipes lay at his feet. Paladin tried his best to stay standing, but the pain from the Worldwyrm still hadn’t gone away, and the powerful magic he’d drawn from earlier had taken a toll on him.

  “Is everything ok?” Paladin asked.

  “This is a dragon hatchery,” Arthur said bluntly, panicking. “We killed the mother, but any of these can hatch at any time. We need to get this rocket up now.”

  Paladin nodded. “I have some limited knowledge of engineering but I imagine you’re better than me.”

  “Obviously. I’ll need your help, though. If only for the light. It’ll take a few days, even with the both of us. We sleep in one of the buildings in town, we can’t afford to be around here with the dragons.” He sighed to himself.

  Paladin looked confused. “Is there something you wish to ask me, Squire?”

  “Don’t call me that,” Arthur muttered, before speaking up. “It’s just…dragons are hard to kill. I’ve seen big guns kill them-capital ships, tanks, AA guns, that sort of thing-but I’ve never seen a single person kill them before. Even when they’re armed to the teeth, a regular guy can barely put a dent in them. And you’ve killed two now!”

  “You should not be disparaged by this, Squire. I have spent decades honing my craft and fighting against monsters like that. I carry magic that your world never learnt.”

  “Then teach me!”

  Paladin’s helmet hid his surprise. “What?”

  “You said this universe had magic, right? Let me use it! Teach me how to throw lightning spears and make lanterns and stuff.”

  Paladin walked over to Arthur, glaring at him. “Squire, I cannot teach you these things.”

  “Why not? Is that all you have to feel special? Without that, you’re just a normal man right?”

  “That’s not what I-” Paladin growled. “It is dangerous. There is something corrupting the magic of this universe. It nearly swallowed me whole. I feel it will consume you. I am doing this for your own safety.”

  “Well, maybe it just doesn’t like you!” Arthur snapped, before calming down a little. “That’s not what I meant. I meant…you’re not from this universe right? Maybe it’s pushing back against you specifically. If I attempted it, then maybe I could work it in a way you couldn’t.”

  “You might have no aptitude for magic to begin with. Humans in my world do not naturally know how to manipulate magic. They need…” Paladin trailed off for a moment. “If the inhabitants of this universe have not found a way to access its inherent power, then they might not be attuned to it at all.”

  Arthur opened up his pack and pulled out the binder full of diary entries. “Well, clearly I’m attuned to some kind of magic, because what the hell do you call this? You keep calling me your Squire, but if that’s the case, why not teach me something about being a knight?”

  Paladin thought for a moment. His logic was annoyingly sound.

  “Of course,” Paladin said. “I am…sorry that I became so heated. I only wish for your safety.”

  Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “Same here. Being here puts me on edge.”

  “Whenever we return home from work here in the junkyard, I will teach you a little bit of my magic. The work will be hard, but if you have drive, maybe you can find a way.”

  Paladin unbuckled his sheath from his belt and handed it to Arthur. Now he could get a proper look at the hilt, Arthur could see a dark blue crystal embedded in it, hidden by the leather wraps, but still projecting a warm glow.

  “The crystal in the sword helps conduct magic.” Paladin explained, before locking it back to the belt. “It may help you.”

  “Alright, we can talk more once we get out of here. Don’t want to be closer to the hatchery than I have to be.” Arthur smiled. “Thank you, Paladin.”

  “Of course, my Squire. Anything for the quest.”

  The two turned around and headed back into town, ready to begin the squire’s training in magic.