The fact that the red dragon had only moments ago been trying to kill her did not change the fact that Jadis didn’t want the beast to die. If she had wanted to, she could have cast her Crack the Glass spell while she was inside of the dragon’s mouth and punched her way up into his brain cavity. Slaying the beast would not have been that great of a challenge. Not slaying the dragon while also protecting herself and her loved ones had been the hard part. Still, there was nothing that said she had to keep the dragon alive. She hadn’t even technically caused the mortal blow. It had been a freak accident, a wrong move on the part of the ice blue dragon.
And yet…
As Jadis descended from the sky, her eyes already scanning the destructive path of the avalanche for any sign of the red dragon, Meli called out to her.
“Please drop me near the female dragon.”
“Are you sure?” Jay asked, her voice overflowing with worry. “She was dead set on tearing me to shreds. I don’t think we should go anywhere near her if we can help it.”
“You should not,” Meli agreed. “I will be safe.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I am an avatar of Villthyrial. I will be able to speak to her. She may decide to kill me later depending on her feelings towards you, but no sensible dragon will kill a Dryad without good cause.”
“Nothing about what you just said is either comforting or convincing,” Jay said dryly. “I think you should stick with me, in case we need to make a hasty retreat.”
“Jadis,” Meli’s tone was unflappable. “Trust me. My Father would not guide me to ruin. Fly me over the female dragon.”
While every instinct was telling Jadis that it was a terrible idea, she did trust Meli. If her lover felt that she would be able to talk to the dragon, then she wouldn’t stand in her way. But she was going to hover nearby, fully prepared to rescue the Dryad at the first sign of trouble.
At Meli’s direction, Jay flew so that she was hovering over the ice blue dragon by maybe two hundred feet. She could see that the beast was actively rooting around in the snow, logs, and rocks, no doubt trying to sniff out her mate’s location. While she was still on edge, and more than a little upset that the dragon had attacked them, she couldn’t help but look at the scene with pity.
“Give me some time and space,” Meli advised before leaping from Jay’s back and falling to the dragon below.
As the Dryad fell, Jadis got a much better look at her lover’s new animal form. She was, well… a giant spider. While she wasn’t able to do a detailed examination, she noted that Meli’s form was more compact than she had expected. Jadis was no biologist, but if she had to guess, she would say the transformed Dryad looked more like a jumping spider than the classic spindly-legged arachnids. She was also made out of leaves and flowers, which really helped soften the spidery creepiness factor.
Spreading her legs wide, Spider-Meli descended at a much slower rate than she would have in her normal form. When she landed on the snow next to the dragon, it was with barely a puff. Jay watched nervously as the Dryad approached the distressed beast, her palms sweating as she readied herself to dive in and save her.
At first, the dragon didn’t seem to notice Meli, too absorbed in its search to pay attention to anything else. Then, Jay saw the moment when the dragon’s red eyes swept over the transformed Dryad. There was a snorting growl, a puff of icy breath, but then the beast went back to digging through the wreckage of the avalanche.
Breathing out a small sigh of relief, Jay continued to watch the strange interaction between spider and dragon. There wasn’t much in the way of verbal communication, from what she could tell, and the body language was a little too alien for her to interpret except in the most basic of senses. However, it became clear quickly enough that Meli was, in fact, having some kind of conversation with the great blue beast.
“What is happening?” Severina asked as she came to a stop next to Jay’s hovering form.
“The red dragon is bleeding out somewhere under all that snow,” Jay answered succinctly. “We’re trying to find him.”
Severina went still for a second, clearly processing the situation.
“Is that our concern?” she asked a moment later. “The dragons were the aggressors. We should take our leave before the blue one becomes hostile again.”
“You’re probably right,” Jay admitted. “But this is all just a horrible misunderstanding. I don’t want that dragon to die if I can help it.”
As Jay explained her reasoning to Severina, her other two selves were busily searching the devastation for any signs of the wounded red dragon. She was careful to keep her distance from the blue dragon, not wanting to provoke the beast into aggressive action, so she mostly concentrated her search on the lower slopes of the mountain, where the snow had travelled farthest. Despite the late spring, bordering into summer, season, the wind was cold and biting so high up. Jadis didn’t know the name of the mountain range, but she guessed the towering peaks were covered in snow all year round.
Jadis would have thought that finding a giant red dragon would have been easy, but the avalanche had done an excellent job of covering all tracks. It didn’t help that the sun was setting and her eyes were not great for seeing in the fading twilight hour.
Both her Dys and Syd selves slapped their helmets. In all of the commotion, she had forgotten about the best option she had for finding the buried beast. Casting Eyes of the Succubus, Jadis scanned the landscape again, looking for any hint of the dragon’s magic aura.
It took a few seconds, but Jadis spotted a tiny cloud of bright colors several hundred yards further down the side of the mountain. Flying down to check out the magic, Jadis immediately recognized the tip of a dragon’s claw sticking out from under snow and broken trees.
“Meli!” Jay shouted from above while pointing in the direction her other two selves had gone. “That way! I found him!”
Turning to look at Sev, Jay continued in a quieter voice.
“We’re probably going to need your healing, too. The dragon’s neck was sliced pretty bad.”
“If the creature is still alive, I will try my best to assist,” Severina said with a hint of reluctance.
The dragon was definitely alive, Jadis could tell that much, though for how much longer she couldn’t say. The great red dragon’s form, and therefore his aura, was hidden under the snow and debris, but what little she could see peeking out was definitely the aura of a living creature. Using her size and strength, her Dys and Syd selves began to toss the larger pieces of timber aside as she uncovered what turned out to be the red dragon’s right back foot.
By the time Jadis had managed to uncover half of the beast’s leg, the shadow of the ice blue dragon had fallen over her two ground bound selves. Hastily moving out of the way, Dys and Syd gave the growling dragon room. The beast snapped its jaws at her, but only once before it rapidly began to uncover its unconscious mate. Hovering a few yards back, Dys almost jumped out of her armor when a huge spider landed on her back and wrapped its legs around her body.
“Her name is Vetraka,” Meli spoke close to Dys’ ear. “And you were right, she is pregnant. She is still angry, but she has accepted my explanation of our peaceful intent. For the moment.”
“Vetraka?” Dys asked. “You wouldn’t know if she is related to Vetregin, the great ice dragon down in Weigrun, would you?”
“Probably,” the Dryad clacked her fangs together. “Dragon names have a flow to them, from sire to child. I don’t know for certain.”
Jadis didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing to find out that the angry dragon was likely a blood relation to Vetregin. Maybe even his daughter. She was beyond being surprised at the coincidence. That was just how her life went, ever since arriving on Oros. At that point, she was just hoping that the red dragon could be saved, otherwise things were going to become very awkward, very quickly between them and Vetraka.
Before long, the blue dragon had fully uncovered the red dragon’s upper body, including his neck and head. The moment the bleeding neck wound was revealed, Vetraka blasted the sliced flesh with a controlled burst of her ice breath. The blood flow cut off as it froze completely, though Jadis wasn’t sure that the technique was good for the dragon’s long-term health. Then again, frostbite had to be less of a concern than bleeding out. For all she knew, dragons were immune to extreme cold temperatures, which would certainly explain why they seemed to like to live high in the mountains.
With the wound staunched, at least of the moment, Vetraka settled her large bulk down on her mate’s side, partially covering him as she nuzzled against the red beast’s scaly head. The male dragon, who Jadis didn’t yet have a name for, did not stir, though she could see that he was at least still breathing. Turning her head to address Meli as directly as she could, Dys pointed out Severina’s presence.
“Do you think Vetraka will let Sev heal him?”
“I will ask,” Meli said. “You should fly me closer to her.”
“I thought you said I should keep my distance,” Dys pointed out.
“That was before,” Meli explained without actually explaining. “Now you should accompany me.”
As Dys slowly floated closer to the two dragons, she felt Meli shift around on her back. In moments, the Dryad’s transformation had been reversed, and she was back to being a beautiful plant woman rather than an extremely large flower spider. Dys held Meli in her arms, sweat dripping down her back. She wasn’t afraid for her own safety; she knew she could survive anything that Vetraka might try to hit her with. Meli, on the other hand, was significantly more fragile. The dragon might have been willing to stay her anger while talking to the Dryad alone, but Jadis wasn’t sure that would be the case when she was present.
A deep, rumbling growl shook the snow from pine needles as Vetraka eyed their approach. Coming to a stop a few dozen yards away, Dys tensely waited for Meli to communicate with the dragon, or for the dragon to try and blast them with lightning and ice.
“Είμαστε εδώ για να θεραπευθούμε,” Meli spoke in her native tongue. “Δώστε μας την υπομονή σας, Vetraka.”
Then, Meli made a series of growls, grunts, and howling noises. The animalistic sounds were so unexpected that Jadis almost forgot how serious the situation was and let out a nearly silent snort. The growling, snapping, and teeth baring that came with the dragon’s retort got her head back in order, though.
The discussion, if that was what it could be called, only lasted for a minute, maybe two. By then, Jay could see that Wilhelm and the rest of the flyers who had been pursuing her and the dragons were circling above them. None were coming down, thankfully, since Jadis wasn’t sure if their presence would just lead to more agitation. However, she could see that they were all positioning themselves at different angles, so at least it seemed that they were prepared to back her up if things turned violent again.
“Severina may approach,” Meli abruptly said as the louder growling cut off between her and Vetraka.
Taking another look at the blue dragon, Jadis saw that her posture had changed to be slightly more open. She was still glaring daggers at Dys, an icy mist pouring ominously out of her nostrils. Vetraka didn’t look like she was going to physically attack them, at least, so Jay let Severina know that she was clear to move in and use her healing spell on the unconscious dragon.
Jadis wasn’t sure how many times Severina pumped healing into the downed red dragon, but she saw the flash of her Divine power surge at least ten times before the wounded beast began to stir. Eventually, the dragon opened its golden-colored eyes and let out a noise that sounded like what Jadis could only describe as the moan of a deflating elephant seal. When the red dragon moved to sit up, Vetraka pushed her body against his, helping him to get his feet under him. Severina quickly moved out of the way, putting distance between her and the two dragons. Meli, however, jumped out of Jadis’ arms and approached them, calling out in a mix of her own strange language and beastly growls.
“How much did you heal him for?” Jay asked as Sev returned to her side.
“Nineteen hundred health points,” the Seraphim quietly replied. “And I am certain I could have poured in more. Dragons are hearty creatures.”
“I’m glad I didn’t get hit by that tail whip,” Jay murmured as she watched Meli talk with the pair of dragons.
“I almost wish you had.”
Jay turned to look at Sev, offense coloring her voice as she spoke.
“What the fuck, Sev?”
“I am entirely certain that you would have been able to weather the blow,” the justicar explained. “You would have shrugged the attack off, we could have continued to flee the dragons and their territory, and we would likely all be safely far away from these beasts by now.”
Tilting her head to one side, Jay narrowed her eyes as she regarded Sev.
“Are you scared of dragons?”
“I am not scared,” the Seraphim shook her head. “I am cautious. I have seen the aftermath of dragon attacks on villages and towns in my own family’s lands. They are destructive creatures, and I often question why Villthyrial would create such ridiculously powerful beasts while making them entirely ungovernable by the laws of Valtar.”
“Well, I imagine that being wild and ungovernable was probably the point,” Jay mused. “Considering what I know about Vill and his nature. Anyway, I don’t blame you for being scared. Dragons are definitely up there on my list of things to not mess with.”
“I am not scared of dragons.”
“Maybe a little bit.”
“I am not!”
“It’s okay, Noll isn’t here to judge.”
“I said, I am not scared and that is fina—”
Severina’s words were cut off as a loud roar came from the direction of the dragons. The justicar flinched backwards, her feathers puffing up as one hand went to her sword. When she realized that no attack was imminent, she glared at Jay through the slits in her helmet.
“I am not scared.”
“Whatever you say,” Jay shrugged, happy that her helmet was hiding her grin.
While her Jay self had been talking to Severina, and her Dys self had been watching the interaction between Dryad and dragons, her Syd self had floated up to her circling allies so she could let them know what was going on. As Dys floated just above the ground, Meli turned away from the dragons and waved at her, a bright smile on her face.
“Jadis! I have good news!”
“Oh yeah?” Dys called back, curious to know if they were free to go or if the dragons still had a bone to pick with her. “What’s that?”
“Vetraka and Korsregon have invited us all to share the meat of a hunt with them, as an apology for the attack!”
“Oh,” Dys blinked in stunned surprise at the shift in events. Glancing up at the two glowering, magic-wielding flying lizards of doom, she hesitated in her response. “That isn’t, uh, necessary! I think we’re all happy to just… let bygones be bygones! We can just go and leave them to their, uh, nesting!”
Meli frowned, looked back and up at the dragons, then turned her gaze onto Dys again.
“I do not think it is wise to reject their offer, Jadis.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because if you do, you will insult them, and they will treat you as an intruder rather than a guest.”
“And I assume that’s when they’ll try to eat me and everyone else again, right?”
“Yes!” Meli smiled again. “You understand dragons well!”
“Wonderful…” Dys let out a long breath before shrugging her shoulders and opening her arms wide in acceptance. “Well! What’s for dinner?”
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