Isekai Elf King: Architect of a New Empire

Hugh stared at Leo, his whole fearsome-dragon aura ruined by being on his back, like an adorable kitten. His clawed feet paddled through the air.

"So, do we have a deal?" Leon repeated.

"Yeah," Hugh said, "it sounds really fair, actually. For a frail little mortal, you're pretty resourceful. It's a deal!" He brought his tail around and then frowned at Leo. With a sigh, he returned his tail to its original position. "You wouldn't have the tail clasp to seal deals, of course, sorry. All the younger dragons in the Storm Vale use it. Well, the cool ones do."

He then offed one of his clawed hands, and Leo grasped Hugh's claw with his uninjured right arm. They solemnly shook.

Hugh laughed. "You look so cute when you get all serious before shaking."

"Yeah, well, upside down dragon gives me kitten vibes—maybe tiger kittens, but still."

"I just said, cats are dumb." But Hugh laughed and waved his feet in the air again before rolling over. "I can't actually sleep like that, and it's getting late and I'm really tired. Let's go to bed, my new friend. Tomorrow, we will continue the quest for my sire's hoard."

"Yeah," Leo said. "Sure."

Before going to sleep, Leo ripped one pants leg off and bound it around the claw wounds.

Leo curled up on the ground, then scooted over closer to Hugh. It was super awkward, but since he was wounded and hadn't prepared a fire, he figured he would need the warmth.

The dragon didn't say anything, but he scooted over toward Leo as well.

There was another long pause.

Then Hugh gave a forced cough. "So, um, pretty cold out tonight."

"Yeah, a bit chilly," Leo replied.

There was another long pause, then the dragon scooted closer still, until he was up against Leo. His body radiated heat, far more than Leo would have expected. He had known, based on a variety of factors, that Hugh was most likely warm-blooded despite his scales, but the warmth seemed far too high even for that. He was putting out quite a bit of heat.

"So, um, goodnight, new friend," Hugh said, his breath disturbingly awkward in Leo's ear.

"Yeah, um, 'night, Hugh," Leo replied.

On that thought, Leo laid his head down on his arm and tried to sleep.

***

 Leo woke up for roughly the twenty-third time and decided to give up trying to sleep.

His arm hurt notably, which had kept him sleeping on one side or his back. And Leo had mostly been half-frozen the entire night as well—whichever side was facing away from Hugh, usually his right side.

And I would kill someone—well, at least badly maim—for a cheeseburger right now.

Once during the night, Leo had woken up with the dragon's arm over him. He would take that little factoid to the grave.

 And Hugh snored. Dragon snoring was… impressive.

 All in all, he had slept for about five hours and woken every twenty to forty minutes of that limited time. Leo wasn't in the best of moods.

It was still dark out, with the moon's light providing a tiny bit of illumination as its beams filtered through the sparse forest around the river's edge. But each tree was still a patch of shadow Leo couldn't see into, and after the last couple of days, each felt like potential danger.

Rising, Leo walked a couple hundred feet down the boulder-strewn edge of the river carefully, never going into the dark patches. Once away from Hugh, he relieved himself and then walked back.

 Just before he returned to Hugh's side, a familiar wolf poked its head out from the shadows around a tree about twenty feet from Leo.

 "Whoa!" Leo half-yelled as the giant wolf emerged from the treeline. "You make me glad I already went to the bathroom."

 The wolf rolled its eyes again but just waited patiently.

 "So, um, I'm down for this whole elusive and mystical wolf buddy thing we have going, but seriously, what's your deal? I'm new here, and I don't really know anything."

 The wolf walked toward Leo.

 An earsplitting roar pierced the predawn calm, and Hugh charged over. "Shoo, vile mutt! Back, or I dine on canine! And if you've hurt my new friend, I'll start with your back legs!"

 The wolf unhurriedly turned and loped into the forest with a glance back at the dragon's charging form.

 Hugh skidded to a stop next to Leo and then smashed his tail against the nearest tree. "And don't come back!"

 "Whoa, dragon—I said, whoa!" Leo rubbed his head after all the noise. "It's too early for you."

As Hugh's voice faded, Leo heard the flapping of bird wings, and somewhere nearby, an annoyed creature gave a yowl. The whole forest seemed to be echoing Leo's irritation at the dragon's exuberance.

 "I saved your life!" Hugh said, huffing. "That was a ghost wolf. They eat hatchling dragons and mortal people. They've been doing it ever since their pact with the elves broke when my sire killed the old king around here."

 "Wait, your dad killed the old elf king and broke a nature pact?" Leo asked. "And now nature is hunting man and dragon?"

 "And elves and stuff, yeah," Hugh replied. He tilted his head slightly. "Why?"

 "Well, don't get all huffy, but I'm getting the vibe that your dad is the villain in this story."

 Hugh tilted his head back and forth. "Well, I mean, he is a dragon. A little bit of mayhem, destruction, and lust for treasure comes with the territory. But it's not like the elves were the good guys. They nearly took the entire Storm Vale from us, hunting us storm dragons to the edge of extinction."

 "Yikes. That's a lot to unpack."

 "Right? At least, that's what Mom said. They got her clutch-mate, Xochikalkcho. Although I suppose he was kind of a bastard from what Mom told me, and he might have provoked someone. Still, the elves made him into armor."

 Leo sang out, "It's the circle of life!"

 "What?"

 "Nothing," Leo muttered, faintly embarrassed. "It just seems there's a lot of killing going around in these parts. Back and forth."

 "Well, yeah," Hugh said, seeming surprised at the comment. "When they were on top, the elves killed a bunch of us. And when the dragonflight happened, my sire paid them back."

 Another sign about this world's morals that bodes poorly. A giant neon sign flashing in my face that says, "Leo, my boy, you probably won't like it here." At least my plan is to leave.

 Leo sighed. "I'm gonna take a quick dip in the river and wash, and check on the arm wound. You do whatever morning beautification routine dragons do, okay?"

 "Heh, you're a funny one."

 "Thanks."

 The dragon settled down on the rocks as Leo stripped his pants off and waded into the frigid water just as the first lightening of the dawn began. Shivering, Leo gave himself a thorough rubdown to clean everything off, then stood in the waist-deep portion and examined his arm.

 It still seemed like a nasty wound, and while it wasn't pouring blood, even taking the bandage off had caused it to bleed a bit. Idjit dragon here did a number on me.

 He gently rubbed the river water along the outside of the wound, trying to clean it. The edges felt warm, and he couldn't remember if that was a sign it was healing, or that it was infected.

 I need to find whatever passes for a doctor on this world. A sudden thought struck Leo. Or just get magic. That elf woman healed a broken arm in seconds.

 "Hey, Hugh, can you heal people?"

 "No, of course not," Hugh said with a snort, knocking a medium-sized rock back and forth between his paws as he talked. "I told you, I only have Earth magic."

 "And Earth isn't the healing magic, I take it?" Leo asked as he finished cleaning himself in the water.

 "What? No, of course not." Hugh's voice became a touch condescending. "Only Body and Wyld magic have healing. Sheesh, even I know that!"

 "I'm from a different dimension, remember?"

 "You guys don't have magic there?" Hugh asked with a tsk.

 "No," Leo replied. "No, we don't."

 "Wait, seriously? No magic? Everyone is stuck at Level One their whole life, and you just all grub in the dirt and stuff, like, forever?"