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It took half a day of flight at dragon speed to reach the meeting place of the wyrm elders. To get there, we flew southwest from Vruulkthaz's cave, out of the Frozen North, over the Valorhelm Dominion, Argus Kingdom, and a few other small kingdoms and independent states.
During that time, the flight was rather uneventful, and there was nothing that bothered our flight. If there was anything stupid enough to mess with two elder dragons, I would be extremely surprised.
During the flight, I kept myself busy with small talk, but I had to find a way to calm the restless Spot, who was relentlessly pawing me and trying to get out of my grip. It was only when I noticed his small developing wings, excitedly flapping around in the buffering wind, that I caught on to what he wanted to do. His instincts as a creature of the sky were pushing him to ride the wind.
So I decided to humor him and pulled out some rope and a few of my spare shirts. I looped the rope around Spot's neck and midsection to get some rough measurements, then wrapped my spare shirts around the parts of the rope that would be in contact with his body, and tied the rope into a harness.
With Professor Sageira's permission, I secured the other end of the rope to her spine spike and slowly gave the rope some slack as Spot unfolded his wings, catching the wind and spiraling around erratically.
I was about to pull him in, but Professor Sageira told me to just wait, see, and trust Spot's instincts. And true enough, after a few seconds of flailing, Spot adjusted his wings, righted himself, and rode the wind as he chirped happily.
I cheered him on and encouraged him until his wings got tired and went back to flailing in the wind. So I pulled the hippogriff chick in and let him snuggle his tuckered-out body into my lap to rest.
***
Our flight eventually flew out away from anything that could be loosely counted as civilisation. We were flying into unconquered land, and it was unconquered for good reason. Out here is where the truly powerful magic beasts reside.
Professor Sageira told me that empires and kingdoms throughout the ages have tried to conquer it, but all have failed. If it was not the megafauna that killed any intruders, the megaflora, or the environment would. And from a bird's eye view, I believed her. In the distance, I could see many places where huge trees swayed, telling me that something huge was moving just beneath their canopies, but that was not what scared me. What scared me was that there were some creatures that were taller than the trees.
Professor Sageira's real size was already pushing the limits of what I understood of the square-cube law, which dictated the size of an animal before their skeleton could not support their mass, but that could be handwaved away by magic. What I was seeing threw that law out the window and killed the neighbor's dog.
One of those creatures that were flagrantly disregarding the square-cube law could only be described as a tortoise that was as big as a small mountain, lazily grazing on the tree canopy that reached its shoulders.
[What is that thing? I have never seen it in any beastery.] I asked Professor Sageira
[I would be surprised if you did. I doubt any scholars could make it this far into the Wild Lands. That is O'zet, and the only written record of him I have ever come across is a mythological one. In those myths, they call him a World Tortoise, many millennia ago, long before I was born. O'zet was stomping around and was even worshiped by the weaker races.] She explained.
[Wait, so is O'zet his name or species?] I asked.
[O'zet is his name. If you ask him what he is, he will just say he is a tortoise. From what he has said, he was once a normal tortoise, eventually became a magical beast, and the rest is history. If it were not for him and his kin munching on the forest, this whole place would be an overgrown mess.] she replied.
[Wait, there are more of him? How has this place not been stripped bare of any plant life?] I ask in amazement.
Professor Sageira shook her head with a chuckle. [Yes, there are more of his kind. No, they are not as big as he is. O'zet is just a freak of nature. And there is no need to worry about him or his race stripping the place bare. They only have a mating season every century, and if you have ever heard the sound of a normal tortoise while mating, you might want to make yourself scarce for a few months if you do not want to hear O'zet moan.]
As I was processing the info dump, I caught on to something. [When you said "he will just say he is a tortoise" that implies that he can communicate. What language does he even speak?]
[A few actually, but they are all ancient or dead languages, I thought you a few during your Academy days. If you want, you can go have a chat with him after the meeting. He is always happy to have someone to talk to. As you can imagine, there are not many creatures that can communicate at a higher level than barks, hisses, and growls.]
[I would very much like that. It is not every day I get the chance to talk with a mountain-sized tortoise.] I said.
***
As we flew deeper into the Wild Lands, we closed in on a huge mountain range. We headed toward the tallest mountain on that range, one that had its peak hidden in the clouds. When we neared that mountain, Professor Sageira told me to hold on as she started flying up towards the peak.
As we neared the clouds, I used water and air instinctive magic to part the clouds around me so I wouldn't get wet, and when we made it out the other side, we soon arrived at a cave entrance twice as tall as Professor Sageira.
But this did not look like any ordinary cave entrance. The entrance looked to be carved with smooth intrinsic patterns, and it was flanked by two life-sized obsidian dragons sitting on their haunches, covered in enough finely cut precious gems to bankrupt a small country.
[Welcome to what we believe is the lair of the first dragon, Urn. Roughly translated to common would be The Root of Flame.] Professor Sageira gestured grandiosely as we entered.