In the cave, the salamanders argued about Xavier's presence and how he had helped them.
'I understand you, Temma, but he is a human,' repeated Uruk.
'A human who saved our lives, your life, at the risk of his.' Temma retorted.
'We can't trust him.'
'And we do not have to trust him, but we are in an unknown world. Humans use that magic, of which we know nothing. If we want to survive, we have to learn how the human world works, and he is the only one who can teach us.' Moger said. He woke up two days after Xavier used his magic.
'We need him,' added Temma.
'Hmm,' replied Uruk angrily, saying nothing more.
It took Xavier four days to wake up; he was weak, thin, pale, and his appearance was deplorable. Moger had recovered and began to move around the cave.
'Are you all right?' asked Temma.
'I will live,' replied Xavier with some difficulty. He found it difficult to breathe; he was tired and sometimes coughed, but at least he no longer expelled miasma. He ate a little; however, he didn't have much food now. The moisture in the cave had spolied the bread. Most of the dried meat and cheese were good for the moment.
'I'm sick. I need to get out of the jungle and go home.'
This worried the salamanders. After all, he was a human. If he brought back the army of the kingdom or something like that, they'd be in trouble.
"It makes no sense," Temma thought. "To risk his life and then betray us, although..."
From Temma's point of view, Xavier had not much to gain from this association; his actions had left him weak and sick. The salamanders had nothing to offer. Still, Temma decided to trust for the moment.
'I'll take you home.'
Xavier traveled on Temma's back for half a day. They traveled slowly. Xavier didn't have the strength to hold himself properly. Temma had to take care of his walking and maintain balance. They finally arrived at their destination. Since Xavier's house was almost inside the jungle of Morr, it was not difficult for Temma to get close without being seen.
The house was a disaster. In his absence, some burglars had entered. Luckily, Xavier never had anything of value in there. His treasure was hidden inside the jungle of Morr, and the noble suits that had some value were hidden in a secret compartment in the wall of the house that could only be accessed from outside. No one would think about that.
'Thank you for bringing me home. I'll take a while to recover; maybe we'll see each other in a couple of weeks.'
'How do I know that you will not betray us?' asked Temma directly.
'It's not worth it.' Xavier thought for a minute about how to calm the fears of the salamanders. 'Now you are strong again. Mercenaries will continue to enter the jungle. If you take care of them, I'll take the spoils. It's a good deal, don't you think?' It wasn't a lie. Xavier didn't trust the salamanders or the kingdom. But as long as they had a business relationship, things could work out.
'You can count on us,' said Temma, showing his teeth in what could only be interpreted as a smile.
The salamander returned to the jungle. Xavier sat at the entrance of his house. Soon, one of the boys in the village would pass by. He would use him as a messenger. With the silver coins he had and the spoils, he had enough money to cover the costs of his recovery. As he expected, one of the boys from the village came by his house.
'Boy, come here,' called Xavier.
The boy would be about ten years old; he was a thin mulato with crisp hair, brown eyes, his rough clothes, and his bare feet, which were the typical view of the miserable villas of the dynasty. Xavier pulled a copper coin out of his pocket.
'Go to the village; tell Manila that I have a job for her.'
The boy took the copper coin and ran down the dusty road.
An hour later, the boy returned with a woman about fifty years old; her face was not very pleasant, and she was starting to go bald. Her sun-burned skin gave her face the appearance of a badly polished, ugly wooden statue. Her body appearance was strange, as if she were thin, but at the same time she had too much fat in the wrong places. When she smiled, she showed her rotten teeth, of which some pieces were missing.
'Why do you need me for your honor?' said the woman with reverence.
'I need someone to do the housework for a few weeks. I'll give you a silver coin a week. Don't tell anyone. Do you understand?'
'Yes, your honor.' A cold sweat was running down her back. Xavier was known for being somewhat ruthless. When he worked as a mercenary, he was brutal with captured bandits and even applied some torture. He had gained some fame for his actions; although he was not a very famous mercenary, he was someone with whom none of the locals wanted to have trouble.
'Help me up' The woman helped him get up and get to his bed. 'In two days, I will need a carriage to go to Mola. Take care of that.'
The house was a disaster. Manila was in charge of cleaning and organizing everything that had been destroyed by the thieves. She also took care of shopping and cooking. Two days later, Xavier had recovered some strength and could walk slowly. It was easier for him to breathe; he had less coughing; and the feeling of oppression in his chest improved. He changed into one of his noble suits and boarded the carriage with the materials and equipment of the dead mercenaries he had collected.
He informed Mola's mercenary registration office of the deaths of the mercenaries. He said that he found them by chance in the jungle of Morr when he got lost after being caught up in a fight between basilisks. He got wounded and spent weeks lost in Morr's jungle. His bad health condition and the fact that he had no wounds made by human weapons made his story somewhat credible. As for the belongings of the mercenaries.
"Finders, keepers"
It was the law of mercenaries.
His next stop was a local clinic. The doctor examined him.
'Well, you're sick, but, as far as I can see, you don't have the miasma disease. What did you do?' asked the doctor.
'I got lost in the Morr jungle for weeks. I ate a lot of weird things in there. I don't know exactly which one helped me.' Xavier used this story as an explanation for the improvement of his illness; the rumors of plants that could cure the miasma disease had spread like wildfire, making his story credible. maybe too credible. The doctor kept asking for the plants he had eaten.
'I don't remember,' Xavier repeated.
'All right, however, it is strange; the symptoms and the sound of your lungs remind me of people who have been in fires or those desperate magicians who take potions to improve their affinity for fire and burn themselves from the inside. And there are also your hands; those wounds are old; you didn't have them a few months ago.' The doctor pointed to Xavier's hands, the black scars, like a tattoo, went up to his elbow, and then the lines in the path of his veins reached to the chest.
'I don't know; I was already like this when I woke up after a basilisk tail hit me.'
That part of his story was very strange; nobody was so lucky. Basilisks were the deadliest creatures in the Morr Jungle. The doctor was convinced that Xavier had tried to force his magic affinity. He prescribed some herbs, ointments, and potions. Xavier returned home in the afternoon. Two weeks later, he was already walking normally. Although he found himself short of breath if he pushed his body too much, he could still stand for himself. He no longer needed Manila; he paid the woman as agreed and sent her away.
As soon as the woman left, Xavier heard knocks on the wall of his house. He left the house and began to look among the trees in the jungle. Temma was waiting for him.
'We have collected some stuff from other mercenaries and hunters. They're in the cave.'
Xavier climbed on Temma's back, and they traveled to the cave. He needed the salamanders as guides; otherwise, he would get lost. On his first trip to the cave and on his return home, he did not worry about marking the way. He broke one of the first rules for exploring mercenaries.
"You should always mark the way to avoid getting lost... unless someone is following you."
There was a good collection of things. The salamanders gathered the equipment and materials of all the mercenaries and hunters they had killed since they arrived in the Morr jungle. In fact, they were the reason why the jungle remained a dreadful place.
'There is a good treasure here. Selling it all should yield about five gold coins. They made several deals in the following weeks. Xavier taught the salamanders about the human world. The money, the social castes, the royalty, the nobility, the magicians, the knights, the guards, the recruited soldiers, and the peasants.
For his part, the salamanders told him about their world.
'Wait a moment. You don't have females?'
'No,' replied Temma. 'The great father decides when a dragon is going to lay eggs.' Sometimes, what you call centuries might pass before we have offspring.
'Wow, thats weird.'
'We can say the same. That mixing and mating like animals sounds repulsive to us.' Uruk argumented. He did not entirely like the human, but he had become accustomed to his presence.
'Yeah, maybe. But you don't know what you're missing.' Xavier said, laughing.
One day, Xavier heard knocks on his wall. It was the usual thing to do when the salamanders were looking for him. Although it had been less than a week since he was in the cave. The number of incursions into the Morr jungle had fallen. Too many mercenaries had lost their lives. Xavier advised the salamanders to stop hunting them for a while; they could drive them away, or worse, cause the royalty to send elite magicians or a titled master. He didn't want to test the true strength of his new partners yet.
'Moger?' Xavier recognized the scaly, blue-colored skin.
'Yes, it's me. You have to come and see Temma; something very strange is happening to him. Moger said getting closer and becoming more visible. Its size had decreased considerably. Originally, he was much bigger than Temma.
'Are you smaller?'
'Yes. We're shrinking. We don't know what's going on; you have to come.'
'Okey, let's go.' Xavier picked up some things from the house and went into the jungle.
The journey back to the cave was very tiring for Xavier. Even with Moger opening up the way with his uncommon strength, they advanced slowly; walking in the jungle was hard. Thorns, branches, and wreaths made the way difficult. Fortunately, animals and monsters avoided the salamanders.
'What the fuck?'
Xavier recognized Temma by the gray color of his skin. It had shrunk in size. He didn't have a tail anymore. He was on the floor, trying to stand. He had arms, legs, and a humanoid face, the only thing that made him look different from a person was his scaly, gray skin. But the surprising thing wasn't that. What was surprising was the magical energy coming out of him. This was a magician's awakening.
"How is it possible?"
'Xavier, what is happening to me?' asked Temma, still struggling to stand up.
'You've awakened, like a human magician would. I don't understand how it works with you,' replied Xavier.
Xavier told them about his experience. About how the magicians woke up as talents at the age of sixteen and the test of elemental identification and affinity done in the guard tower.
'But we cannot be among humans,' Moger reminded him.
'There are other options. We'll talk about that later.' Xavier was thinking about small villages and subjugation missions. That was the way in which the clandestine magicians identified their elemental affinity without registering. A bribe always works with the employees of the registry offices.
Xavier stayed with the salamanders for a few days. He had already marked the way; he could come and go by himself. However, the cave was in the deepest part of the jungle. The salamanders had no problem walking freely around their territory. Xavier, on the other hand, risked being the food of some creature.
He traveled several times between his house and the cave, guarded by one salamander or another. The salamanders were gradually transforming. By the time Temma had learned to walk like a human, Moger and Uruk were awakening.
Weeks later, the three salamanders had completed their evolution. Temma and Uruk looked almost human, except for the thin scales and the color of their skin; one was gray, the other an intense red. Their fingers had long, thick nails that looked like hard, sharp claws. Their eyes, with irises of the color of their skin and long vertical pupils, and their mouth were full of pointy, sharp teeth. Moger, however, was even more inhumane. His limbs were stronger and thicker, and his claws were more prominent. His semi-human face had a more reptilian appearance, with a wide mouth full of sharp teeth and thin lips. His scales were thicker, and, unlike his brothers, he kept the tail. This caused unrest among them; after all, Moger was the only one who looked like a dragon, or at least a salamander.
'What are we? What has this human man done to us?' Uruk protested, annoyed.
'We're dragons. He saved our lives and yours, risking his own, remember?. We are the only hope for our race. That is what we are,' replied Temma.
'It will be difficult for me to pass through as a human,' said Mogar. 'You have an advantage in that.'
'This is not good. I don't want to be this!' yelled Uruk, looking at his human-like hands.
'The great father always gives us what we need, Uruk. Don't forget it,' Moger replied.
The two older salamanders had some faith in the future. Although they were somewhat uncomfortable about their situation, they were sure that something would happen later. This was nothing more than an intermediate step.