Chapter 322: Little Mighty Dragon

Chapter 322: Little Mighty Dragon

Glitch saw the open transport door and tried to lift himself off the carry-frame.

"Absolutely not," Jin said.

The veterinary lead caught the handlers’ attention before the frame shifted. They settled Glitch’s shoulder against the padding, checked the straps, and waited for him to stop grumbling.

"Travel clearance," she reminded Jin, handing him the care instructions. "Not walking clearance. He’ll need help changing position, and the receiving team has his records."

"He heard you," Jin said.

Glitch’s tail scraped the frame.

"Whether he agrees is another question," the vet replied. She crouched for one last look at the injured foreleg before allowing the handlers to load him.

They left Highmarch the morning after the award meeting. Jin could walk short distances now, but somebody else carried his bag. He had medication, a follow-up blood appointment, and instructions to rest before he felt he needed to.

He was getting tired of that last instruction. Unfortunately, it kept proving useful.

The reinforced beast compartment had space for Glitch’s frame beside the passenger benches. Flicker’s carrier was secured near Jin’s seat, where she could see him. Elsa took the window and immediately began cleaning a patch of glass with her sleeve.

"It’s outside," Jin told her.

"I can see that now," she said, putting her sleeve down.

On the outward journey, Jin had spent much of his time studying opponents. Coming back, he found it harder to look away from the road.

There were stretches where the escort vehicle was the only moving thing ahead of them. Then a distant herd appeared beyond a ruined service tower, and Elsa borrowed a scope to get a better look.

"What’s that one?" she asked.

Jin leaned toward the viewing strip. "Too far away."

"You appraise things."

"I still need to see them."

Elsa adjusted the scope and tried again. His father eventually took a turn, and the two of them argued quietly over whether the shapes were beasts or wind shifting something across the ground.

Jin listened without joining in. His mother had fallen asleep beside him, her head resting awkwardly against the compartment wall. He folded his jacket and asked Arthur to help ease it behind her.

Elena stirred, opened her eyes just long enough to see who it was, and went back to sleep.

Later, Glitch shifted against his padding. Jin unfastened his seat restraint at a scheduled stop, but the traveling handler reached the frame first.

"Show me where," she said.

He indicated the support beneath Glitch’s chest and let her adjust it. Glitch watched them through one half-open eye, then lowered his head again.

Arthur had followed Jin across the compartment.

"He trusts you," his father said, looking at the lizard.

Jin rested a palm against the horn ridge. "He’s usually less agreeable about his bedding."

"He knows you’re looking after him."

Jin stayed there a little longer after the handler finished. Glitch was heavy and awkward to move, but Arthur had made the ease with which he accepted their help feel different.

That evening they stopped at a fortified waystation. The beasts were checked, meals brought to the transport, and the next morning’s departure confirmed. Jin was asleep before Elsa finished telling Elena about the herd.

He learned the nickname on the final leg home.

Elsa handed him her phone with such obvious satisfaction that he expected a photograph of himself sleeping with his mouth open.

Instead, it was Glitch.

The clip began with the victory roar. His head lifted, the sound rolled through the arena, and the camera caught several waiting beasts shrinking toward their handlers. Whoever had edited it stopped before he collapsed.

Jin watched once, then paused it.

He remembered what came next too clearly to want the loop.

"There’s a longer version," Elsa said, noticing. "They say afterward that you’re both recovering. I sent that one to people who asked."

"Good." He passed the phone back, but she pointed at the comments first.

Little Mighty Dragon.

It appeared several times, sometimes attached to drawings or badly cropped pictures of Glitch’s face. The clip had traveled through regional academy feeds, student groups, and families following the competition.

"That’s what they’re calling him," Elsa said. "People at school sent it to me before I told them anything."

"He weighs over two hundred and sixty kilos."

"Little is affectionate, Jin."

He looked toward the frame. The beast in the video seemed capable of frightening an entire arena. The one beside him had his jaw on a padded rail and a bit of dried feed beneath his mouth.

Jin found himself smiling anyway.

"Did you share it?" he asked.

"With everyone," Elsa said. "I told you I would."

Students were waiting near the academy transport bay when the convoy arrived.

Jin saw perhaps forty of them through the glass. Some wore practice clothes, others still had lecture tablets under their arms, and several began pointing as soon as the handlers opened the rear doors.

He had expected a check-in and a quiet trip to the care wing.

Should’ve kept my jacket over my head.

The handlers brought Glitch down first. Students pressed toward the marked edge of the unloading area, calling to one another.

"That’s him. Look at the horns."

"Is he all right?" a girl asked. "The video didn’t show how badly—"

"Little Mighty Dragon!" somebody called from behind her.

They were looking at Glitch before Jin. He was pleased about that until the frame stopped and three students edged around its side to get a better view of his head.

Glitch woke.

His warning roar was brief and thoroughly bad-tempered. It carried no Dread, but it came from a large injured beast with strangers leaning over him. All three students jumped back. One caught his heel on the bay marking and sat down hard.

For a moment the questions stopped.

Then someone said, delighted, "He sounds just like the clip."

"Stay behind the line," Jin called, moving beside the frame. "He’s recovering. Give him room."

A handler extended an arm to keep the route clear, and the students obeyed. The one on the floor scrambled up, red-faced.

"Sorry, Astor. We weren’t going to touch him."

"He doesn’t know that," Jin said. "You can look from there."

Glitch watched until the nearest students had retreated, then put his head down. His irritation lingered through the bond, familiar enough to make Jin want to laugh.

He didn’t. Somebody was already asking how he’d beaten the tiger, and another student wanted to know whether the gravity skill had changed after the revival final.

Jin answered the question about Glitch’s health first.

"He’s stable. He’s still got a lot of recovery ahead."

The handlers started toward the care wing. Jin followed until his father touched his elbow and pointed to a bench beside the bay.

"Sit while they finish unloading."

"I’m not—" Jin stopped when he realized his legs were shaking. "All right."

Arthur sat beside him without making anything of it.

Elsa joined them a moment later, trying unsuccessfully to look calm.

"They knew his name," she whispered. "Before anyone introduced him."

"I noticed."

"And yours."

"I noticed that too." Jin glanced at the phone in her hand. "Please tell me you weren’t filming me sitting down."

"No. I got the part where he scared them."

Of course she had.

Across the bay, Nessa had found someone she knew and was being congratulated on her win in the final. Corin was describing the double knockout with gestures large enough that Dray moved out of his reach. Renn had stopped beside a handler to confirm where Sledge would be taken.

A few students approached Dray and Renn with questions of their own. Jin was glad. The clips favored Glitch, but he remembered the beasts those two had carried into care after securing their chance to return.

His mother came back from thanking the transport staff and squeezed his shoulder.

"You’re allowed to enjoy it," Elena said.

"I am enjoying it."

"You look like you’re planning an escape."

"Both can be true."

Marris reached the bench before Elena could answer. She checked Jin’s face, then looked toward the care-wing entrance.

"Rest here. I’ll have someone confirm Glitch is settled."

"Then back to my room?" Jin asked.

"Not yet. I need you in my office. Bring your family."

He sat a little straighter. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Marris’s mouth curved. "There’s another notice you need to read."