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“Come with me. In the first house on this street lives the Residency Official. She has all of the keys for the vacant houses and will take you through the process of making the home yours. It’s not much, because we’re all provided with housing. You’ll just need to find work soon,” Valkyrie explained.
"Ah, right, work." Mara has never worked in her life, she was pampered growing up so she doesn't have many talents. "What kind of work do you have here?" She had to be able to do something right? Riven stayed by the house as Mara followed Valkyrie once again.
"Anything you would need in a normal village, plus a few others that deal with dragons. I, for example, started out as a farmer when I came here because it was the only thing I was good at. I hated it, though, because I was forced to do it where I came from, so I learned to be a blacksmith," Valkyrie said, "Honestly, just do whatever you are good at, and you can pick up more trades later if you would like."
Valkyrie knocked on the door of the house at the beginning of the row and waited for an answer.
"I'm good at drawing and taking notes. If that helps with anything." It felt weird not having Riven right there by herside. "Did you and your dragon click right away?" Mara tried to make small talk so it wasn't as awkward.
"I have a… history with dragons. It was hard," Valkyrie admitted. She tried to change the subject. "But with drawing and taking notes, I'm sure there's a job for you. You could maybe be a scribe for a town doctor, or work in the library, or something."
"I do have trouble spelling and reading, but Farron said he would help me." Mara, could wait to learn more, since she loved learning new things.
"Oh, I'm sure someone will be willing to teach you," Valkyrie said, "I couldn't read at all when I came here. It's nothing unusual."
Quincy began pulling out all sorts of books on Drakes. Or dragons types at the least. Jade had stricken her when they first met since the dragon hadn't seemed like a normal dragon. However after some research she figured Jade was just wyvern draconic hybrid. Hence the larger wings.
Aurelius looked through the shelves for books on drakes specifically. There were only four books on the subject, and none of them were very thick.
Quincy groaned when she looked at the few books they had, "This is it? We really do need to go and research."
"I mostly can, it's just curtain things that's hard." Valkyrie was pretty easy to talk to, which made Mara feel a bit better. "Do the house come with beds and stuff already?"
"I guess so," he replied, "But I'm afraid that if they send all of us out for a research mission, we'll be one short. Well… mostly because they won't send all of us."
Valkyrie nodded. "All the necessities. Any decor you might want is on you, though. I haven't done much with my place. I've been here a little over a year, and the desire to do so never hit me. Most of the money I make goes towards necessities and my family back home."
"Okay. I was just making, because I have no money right to buy any of that." Mara let out a little chuckle. She really wanted Riven be her side right now, but if he didn't stay behind someone might take that house. She just couldn't wait to have the keys in her hands and have a place to actually call home.
Finally, the residency officer opened the door.
"Ah, Val. And… someone new?" he said.
"Yup. This is Mara, and she wants to live in house 18. The cute tan one with a good-sized yard."
He nodded. "Lemme go get the key and document this, and it's all yours! Not much of a process really."
For a moment, the man ducked behind a counter. Valkyrie could hear the jangle of keys before he tossed the key to house 18 up on the table. Then, he came up with a stack of papers.
"Here. You just need to fill out a bit of information. It's not much." He slid the paper and a quill and inkwell towards Mara.
"I guess so," he replied, "But I'm afraid that if they send all of us out for a research mission, we'll be one short. Well… mostly because they won't send all of us."
"Why wouldn't they?" Quincy asked looking through one of the thinner books, "I mean really, that would just be stupid."
"I… did something… I messed up majorly last time I left, and they won't let me any farther out than a patrol anymore," Aurelius admitted, "I guess word never got around because no party involved ever wanted to talk about it."
"Oh, that's not good," Quincy looked up from the book, "What happened anyway?"
"Uh… well… You see, I was sent on a rescue mission. I saved the target dragon, but it killed thirty people or so. But that said, if those mistakes hadn't been made, Val wouldn't have ever joined us," Aurelius said quickly.
"Okay," Quincy shrugged in acceptance looking back down at the book.
"See, you get it. I can't exactly control creatures with free will," he muttered, "If it had been entirely my fault, I might accept my punishment."
Aurelius opened a second book and began skimming through. This one was an old, ragged journal written by someone who studied on the field. It was all hand-written and carefully illustrated. He flipped back to the cover to see what he could find out about when and where the observations took place. It was written fifty years ago in a province northeast of where they were.
Quincy put the book down with a slight sigh, "Well that provided zero information."
"Yeah… this one is fascinating, but it's about drakes from another region, I think. I'll flip through all of the illustrations to see if I can find anything that looks like Riven, but if not, we might be back to the drawing board."
Aurelius flipped towards the end of his book. "Wait. There's one here that's unidentified. We should mark that. Says it's rarely spotted by humans, and there are only believed to be at most one hundred of them left in the wild, if they exist. This was written fifty years ago. There's no way to be sure yet, but this entry might be important."
"Definitely," Quincy nodded picking up another book, "Besides half a century isn't that bad is it?"
"For a species that's being poached, it's enough time to be hunted to near extinction. Riven could be one of the last of his kind," Aurelius said sadly, "Unless Dragoncallers in the east have taken measures to save them, that is."