Soren slowly opened his crimson eyes to find himself lying on a pallet of soft blankets and sheets, the chipper sound of voices echoing from just outside of Ella and Tami’s cottage home.
The dragon blinked, lifting a paw to rub at his crimson eyes before he slowly worked himself upright. He was incredibly sore and weary, but all it took was recalling the last things that had happened to him to put life and energy back into his step.
Ike hadn’t abandoned him. Mistakes had been made, but their friendship remained steadfast and stronger than ever.
A small smile flickered to the dragon’s lips as he shook himself, moving over
Soren plummeted, wind whipping at his useless wings and battering at his long tail, the whistle created by the speed of his descent taunting him with the knowledge that he was probably going to die here.
He pushed these thoughts away as quickly as he could. Ike was all he was concerned about; it didn’t matter if he himself died in this fall.
The commander had managed to slit the throat of the laguz that had tackled him, and he now kicked the corpse free and let go of the knife he’d held, free-falling through the air towards the ground that waited far below. He had yelled at first, but now he was pale-faced and silent, knowing th
It wasn’t hard for Soren to pick up the trail of the other mercenaries. All he had to do was follow Rhys’ bloodstained path back to the ambush site, then look from there. Not that it would be an easy thing.
The scene of the attack was a mess of blood and bodies. Luckily, none of the corpses on the ground belonged to the Greil Mercenaries, but it was still a horrifying sight. Feral laguz bodies littered the area, along with a few of the mercenaries’ horses. Soren winced when he saw Ike’s black steed lying twisted on the ground, guts hewn through the dirt from a pair of sharp claws.
The dragon turned away from the sigh
“Titania?”
The red-haired woman glanced up upon hearing her name, blinking her eyes wearily as light illuminated Oscar’s room. “Boyd,” she said by way of greeting, standing up to face him. “What is it?”
“How is he?”
Titania sighed. It was the seventh time that hour that the warrior had entered the room to ask after the paladin. Turning her gaze down to where the eldest of the three brothers lay, Titania took in the sight of him, still unconscious. Occasionally his eyelids flickered, as if he wanted to open them, but was unable to. The deputy-commander lowered her hand and stroked his ha
Soren paced. He found that he could do nothing else but pace. Stride the floor, claws clicking softly against the wood as he walked, tail lashing from side to side.
Ella was caring for Rhys. The healer was resting now, settled on a pallet of blankets in front of the fire in order to keep him warm. His bloodstained robes had been removed down to the thin pants he wore under them, and his bare chest was bound in compresses and bandages. His skin was pale – dreadfully so – and he had developed a slight fever. Ella did her best to keep cold rags pressed to his forehead.
Soren cursed, a bit of fire leaking from his jaws. What could
Soren lay quietly on the bed, watching as Ella stoked the fire. Against his belly, Tami shifted and rested her cheek against his warm black scales, sighing in her sleep.
The dragon was resting in the little hut with the two he had chosen to protect, still feeling a bit woozy from blood loss. Ella (that was the mother’s name) had safely removed the poker from his chest and had bandaged him up firmly. He’d been lucky, she had said, that the tool-turned-weapon hadn’t punctured a lung or gouged out his heart.
Now, with his narrow chest swathed in a mass of white bandages and his stomach full of warm stew, the dragon felt a sen
The little girl walked along the flowery path near her home, enjoying the feeling of the grass against her bare feet and pausing every so often to pick a flower. She giggled when she found a pretty blue bud, just beginning to bloom, and she sat down for a bit to stroke the soft petals with one finger.
She was a young beorc girl, her soft brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and her bright green eyes wide with innocence. She giggled happily as a butterfly flitted into the air, disturbed by her touch on the flower it had rested upon. She smiled immediately and was content to watch it fly, allowing it to leave her presence and disappear into
The next morning dawned bright and calm. Soren was still asleep, and Ranulf was going to let him stay that way as long as he wanted. The laguz headed off to hunt as the dragon slumbered away, and when Soren woke, there was a string of fish cooking away on the stick above the flames.
“Good morning!” Ranulf said happily as the dragon roused. “What would you like for breakfast? Fish or fish?”
“Silence…” the dragon said, rubbing his crimson eyes with a paw.
“I’m afraid we don’t serve that here,” the laguz said seriously, poking at the fish over the flames. “Just the fish,
Soren walked aimlessly along through the forest, exhaling heavily as he did so.
After getting away from the others and running as far as his trembling legs could take him, he had collapsed, where he had slept for several long hours. Upon waking, he had freaked out for a moment, angry at himself for falling asleep after he had just ran away from his ‘pursuers’.
Once he had assured himself that the Greil Mercenaries weren’t around, he had risen up, hacked the lone rope from his neck, and started walking, too tired, hurt, and hungry to run.
And so here he was, walking along ever so slowly, his paws hurting. He wanted to stop
Soren exhaled heavily, lowering his head a bit. Ike hadn’t come. He didn’t care at all, did he? This had to be what that meant. The one person that Soren cared for with all of his heart had abandoned him, utterly and completely.
At this point, he just wanted to get away.
But there were a few problems with that idea.
“Soren!” Mist called again, waving. “Soren, is that really you?!”
He said nothing to her, his eyes hardly able to focus. The pain in his head was growing worse… And it wasn’t like she was especially quiet.
“Go away, Mist,” he said, turning and limping back inside th