Hello, hello! It's chapter two of The Dragon Priestess! The first chapter received a lot of positive feedback, so I'm excited to share chapter two! Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and/or reviewed! I love you all! There's a lot of questions to answer and things to address, but that will happen over time, so I hope everyone can look forward to that. Also, I made some edits to chapter one. Nothing major, but it fixes some typos and adds a little bit more to a few scenes. Anyway, as always, more at the bottom, so for now, on with the story!

Note: Dialogue that's all in italics is telepathic conversation. Anything without the quotation marks that's in italics is either thoughts or is italicized for emphasis.

"So, your main duties will be to pray daily, gather followers, assist in rituals and other duties that come with being a head priestess, and of course, clean and fix the shrine," Yang said, gesturing here and there.

Weiss had initially thought that the shrine was in disarray, though as Yang led her around, she realized that it was basically ready to be demolished. Honestly, she was surprised the place was still standing. The wood in the main structure, as well as in the torii and offside structure was practically rotted through.

"Sorry, but there's a ton of work to do. That's what happens when nobody maintains a shrine for hundreds of years," Yang said sheepishly.

"Ton of work" was an understatement. Weiss was sure that what lay before her was several months' worth of work. She was probably not going to have any free time for a long while.

Yang swam in front of her vision, gesturing to the main structure. "You're gonna live in there. It's a lot bigger than it looks."

The beast paused a minute, fixing Weiss with an apologetic look –or at least as apologetic as a dragon could look. "That's what you've gotta clean first. If you wanna be done by the time it gets dark, you gotta start now. Don't worry though. I'll help you!"

Before any work could be done, Weiss had to make a trip to the nearby chain superstore to purchase cleaning supplies, a sleeping bag, and some food for dinner.

The dragon had managed to hide its presence in order to assist Weiss with carrying her purchases. Apparently, the method altered people's minds around them so that they simply didn't notice the giant golden beast. It was about all Yang could manage with only one follower.

Weiss tried not to think about it too much, instead opting to thank the dragon for the assistance. She heaved a sigh; it was going to be a long day.

When she returned, she quickly set to work. Hundreds of years of disuse had caused the shrine to accumulate a massive amount of dust, not to mention rotten flooring, holes in the wooden doors and their screens, and a draft coming from an unknown location. To Yang's credit, the main building was indeed larger than it looked.

"What do you want me to work on?" Yang asked, swimming into her vision.

Weiss handed the dragon a duster. "Fly up to the ceiling and dust. If you can find the source of the draft up there, let me know."

Yang glanced at the duster curiously before nodding and swimming up to the ceiling.

Weiss rolled up the sleeves of her jacket and tied her hair into a braid; the last thing she wanted was to get her hair dirty and have to find a place to bathe.

Grabbing a duster of her own, she set to work, moving methodically from one spot to the next, leaving no place untouched. If she was going to live here, she wanted it to actually be suitable for living.

To her surprise, Yang worked quietly, only occasionally breaking the silence by asking Weiss a question or two. Perhaps the dragon felt obligated to work as hard as possible to repay Weiss for agreeing to stay and help.

After the deity finished dusting, the small girl handed over a damp cloth, instructing the dragon to wipe down the high beams. She set about doing the same, running the cloth along the walls and floor.

For the time being, nothing could really be done about the holes or the rotting wood, so Weiss focused her energy on what she could do for now. This weekend she would have to figure out some way to replace the rotted wood and patch the holes.

The pair worked in silence until the former heiress's stomach grumbled loudly. Yang chuckled. "Shall we have dinner?"

Weiss agreed, going to one of her unpacked bags and pulling out a sandwich she had purchased from the deli department of the store. "What are you going to eat? There's hardly enough here for both of us."

Yang hummed. "I actually don't need to eat food; prayer and belief are what keep me alive. Gods usually just eat to enjoy taste."

Weiss tilted her head in thought, taking a bite of her sandwich. "Do you have a favorite food?"

The golden dragon brought a talon to its chin, tapping it in thought. "You know, I haven't tried it yet, but I think I'd really like pizza."

Weiss giggled. "Pizza is pretty good. I'll buy some tomorrow."

The two continued to chat long after Weiss finished her sandwich, letting their voices fill the air as the moon began to rise into the sky.

The former heiress yawned, stifling it behind her hand. "I should probably get to sleep. I have to go to school tomorrow after all."

Yang nodded, swimming into the air above Weiss and curling into a ball. "I'll make sure to wake you in time to get to school. And don't worry about papers or class assignments or anything like that. I'll take care of everything."

"Thanks, Yang." With that, Weiss unrolled her sleeping bag and climbed in.

It was early fall in Haven; the days were warm, but the evenings were definitely chilly. A particularly cold gust of wind blew through the shrine, sending a shiver down Weiss's spine. She burrowed into the sleeping bag, bidding a quiet "goodnight" to Yang.

The dragon simply floated there, waiting for the new head priestess to fall asleep. The poor girl had been forced to make an impossible choice, and Yang couldn't even properly thank her for helping. A rundown shrine was hardly a way to welcome Weiss into her new life.

Weiss had certainly been adjusting... surprisingly well. Honestly, the dragon god expected more complaints from the former heiress, who had made it quite clear that she hadn't wanted to be dragged into Yang's predicament. In the near future, Yang guessed, Weiss would take some time to reflect on her choice once things settled down. Yang would be there every step of the way to help her through it; it was the least the dragon could do after all. And despite her earlier reluctance, Weiss had a good heart, and she had ultimately let her conscience decide her fate.

Nearly an hour later, Yang heard something strange. The former heiress had certainly drifted off to sleep, so the dragon was puzzled about the shuddering, clipped breaths coming from Weiss's sleeping bag.

Yang swam down for a closer look.

Weiss was shivering violently, her teeth chattering with just as much vigor. Unconsciously, she had a white-knuckle grip on the edge of the sleeping bag.

Yang's eyes widened. The dragon had an incredibly hot internal temperature, often radiating warmth outwards like a heater, making it hard to determine outside temperature.

Quickly, but gently, Yang settled down behind Weiss, curling around her petite form, ensconcing her firmly within the dragon's warmth.

The shivering slowly began to subside and the tiny girl's breathing began to even out. Her grip on the bag lessened until it was nothing more than a gentle curl around the edge. Something though, was still not right.

Lilac eyes widened as Yang watched tears slowly roll down the sleeping girl's face. The dragon felt its heart nearly shatter.

Yang curled tighter around Weiss, trying to indicate that she was not alone; that someone was there with her who wanted to help her.

Seeing Weiss crying sparked something in Yang; the dragon would do its absolute best to make Weiss happier. But what could the god do? There had to be something.

A flash of red popped into Yang's mind.

I've got it. The beast grinned toothily.

Silently, Yang laid down, humming with contentment at the thought of surprising Weiss tomorrow. She'll never see it coming.


Weiss awoke to the sound of birds chirping. That's strange. I've never heard any birds from my dorm room before.

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking sleep from them as she sat up. Where is my desk? Why is the ceiling so high?

"Morning," Yang chirped, uncurling from around Weiss. The dragon rolled its neck, working out a crick.

Weiss was hit by a flood of memories all at once. She lowered herself back to the floor. "I'm going back to bed."

"But you'll be late for school," Yang said, swimming back and forth above the new head priestess.

That got Weiss out of bed quickly. She unzipped the sleeping bag, climbing out and rolling it up. "Where do I get the uniform for Haven Academy?"

Yang swam over to the door, sliding it open and pulling open the donation box. The dragon withdrew a black jacket, a white blouse, and a black and gray checkered skirt. Atop the pile of clothes was a white armband.

"Here you go," Yang said, handing the pile to Weiss, who stared blankly at the dragon.

"Where did you…? You know what? I don't want to know. Now turn around so I can change," Weiss huffed.

Yang obliged, snickering about Weiss's surprise that was waiting for her.

A thought popped into the dragon's head. "Hey, Weiss."

The former heiress half-turned while she zipped her skirt. "Yes?"

"I've got two surprises for you! You'll get one at school and one when you come home," Yang grinned.

Weiss fixed the god with a suspicious look. She narrowed her eyes. "What are you planning…?"

The dragon chuckled. "Nothing bad, I swear! You're gonna love them!"

"Somehow I doubt that," the girl drawled. She grabbed her backpack and headed for the door. "I'll see you later, Yang."

The dragon waved its front leg, snickering. "Have a good day!"


Weiss arrived at the front gate to Haven Academy ten minutes later. During her walk, she discovered that her jacket pocket had a class schedule, along with a list of names and photos of her classmates and teachers. In her bag, Yang had somehow managed to gather all the textbooks and other materials Weiss would need. Deities were something else, Weiss mused.

Funny enough, nobody paid her any mind as she walked; no whispers, staring, not even a mere glance in her direction. She truly seemed as if she had been a student there the whole time.

Instead of worrying about being out of place, she was free to think back to Yang's snickering. What was that overgrown lizard up to?

Before she could ponder, she heard a voice shout, "Weiss?"

She whipped her head around so fast, she was convinced she nearly snapped her own neck. Running towards her with a hand high above her head in greeting was Pyrrha Nikos.

The tall redhead stopped in front of Weiss, grinning widely. "It really is you, Weiss! I'm so glad to see you!"

Every function in Weiss's brain had stopped. What on Remnant was Pyrrha doing here? Her jaw worked mechanically, moving but not producing any sound.

Pyrrha tilted her head slightly, the smile still on her face. "Is something the matter, Weiss? Are you that surprised to see me?"

Sensing that her vocal chords were not going to cooperate, the new head priestess opted to nod stiffly.

The taller girl let out a laugh. "I'm just as surprised as you are! I can't believe we transferred to Haven Academy on the same day. What are the odds?"

An image of a laughing golden dragon popped into Weiss's mind and she ground her teeth. She knew the exact odds.

Weiss let out a sigh. Even though what Yang had done was beyond unfair to Pyrrha, she was grateful all the same. At least now she wouldn't be as lonely.

There was something that nagged at her though; why did Pyrrha think Weiss had simply transferred while all the other students seemed to think she had always been a student there? The number of questions she had for Yang was growing.

Realizing she hadn't said a word to Pyrrha yet, Weiss coughed. "It's good to see you too, Pyrrha." Silently, Weiss resolved to be friendlier to the redhead; the girl was one of the few people on Remnant that would actually be happy to see her after all.

The two exchanged a warm smile until the school bell rang, signaling that students who weren't already inside should hurry and enter.

Weiss and Pyrrha hurried into the building, confirming that their schedules were the same along the way. No doubt that was Yang's work again. She'd have to thank the overgrown lizard when she returned home.


The final bell for the day rang and students began packing up, opting to ignore the teacher who was attempting to talk over all the noise. Realizing that nobody was listening, the teacher gave up, leaving with an indignant huff.

Weiss was surprised yet again that nobody questioned hers or Pyrrha's presence in the school. It made her wonder just how much power Yang had. What else could the god do that Weiss didn't know about?

A flash of red appeared in her vision and she looked up into kind emerald eyes. "Hey, Weiss. Since you just transferred to Haven, I was wondering if you'd like me to show you around," Pyrrha said, a friendly smile on her face.

Weiss bit her lip. While she would like to join the taller girl, there was still a lot of work to do around the shrine. There might also be some ritual or another that she had to perform.

"It's alright if you want to hang out with her. There's nothing you need to do here that can't wait a little bit."

Weiss yelped, startling Pyrrha. "Weiss? Is everything alright?"

No, everything was not alright. She heard a voice that was not her own inside her head. "Yang?!"

"Sorry to scare you like that, Weissy. I can speak to you through telepathy, since you're my head priestess and all," the dragon chuckled.

"You couldn't have told me about this before I went out in public?! Are you trying to make me look crazy?!"

She suddenly remembered Pyrrha; the poor girl was worriedly looking at Weiss. "I'm fine, Pyrrha, really. I just… um… stubbed my toe on the desk leg is all. Sorry about that."

The redhead breathed an audible sigh of relief. "I'm sorry to hear that, though I thought it was something much worse."

Weiss coughed awkwardly. "A-Anyway, I'd love it if you showed me around."

"Wonderful! If you're ready, let's go," Pyrrha said, a wide smile on her face.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do when I get home, Yang."

All she got in response was roaring laughter.


Pyrrha and Weiss spent the afternoon walking about Haven's streets with Pyrrha pointing out where various shops and attractions were.

Taking advantage of their time together, Weiss made sure to ask her companion various questions about herself, trying to make up for not befriending the redhead earlier.

Pyrrha, of course, was happy to oblige, answering cheerfully and asking Weiss questions of her own; she knew as little about Weiss as Weiss did her. It was a productive time for both of them.

Several hours later, Pyrrha showed Weiss a pizza shop, where the smaller girl ordered a large pie with various toppings to share with Yang when she returned home.

Afterwards, the two parted ways with a promise to see the other tomorrow. Weiss arrived at the steps leading up to the cat god's shrine and began her long and arduous trek back to her new home.

When she arrived at the rotting torii, her legs felt like jelly. She wondered just how much exercise she would get from all the walking each day.

Yang swam forward to greet her. "Welcome back! How was school?"

"Fine," Weiss huffed out, her lungs still burning from her journey.

"And how was your surprise?" The dragon's voice dripped with amusement.

"I can't believe you made Pyrrha transfer here. Why did you do that?" Her tone was one of exasperation, not anger as she questioned the god.

"I didn't want you to be lonely. She seemed like a good friend, and I wanted you to be happy here," Yang said, having the grace to sound somewhat sheepish.

Any snippy reply she'd had was gone at that. She couldn't truly be mad at Yang for wanting to help her. Plus, Pyrrha didn't really seem bothered by the whole situation.

"Well… thank you, Yang. But why does Pyrrha think I transferred while everyone else thinks I've always gone to school at Haven?"

The dragon shrugged. "I thought it would be easier to alter Pyrrha's mind just a little bit rather than completely mess with it. Besides, I'm pretty sure your relationship with your classmates and teachers would be the same either way. You didn't exactly seem to be a social butterfly."

Weiss had no response to that; it was probably true anyway. "Alright, fine. But what about the telepathy stunt you pulled?" Irritation seeped into her voice.

"You mean this?" Yang's voice was clearly amused.

"Stop that! Explain yourself," Weiss snapped. The overgrown lizard had been getting on her nerves fairly often for how short of a time Weiss had been in Haven. She was beginning to wonder if she hadn't made a huge mistake.

The dragon shrugged. "You're the head priestess and we can talk to each other through our minds. It's out of necessity, since the head priestess and the god are connected on a deeper level than all others. You seemed to get it earlier when you were at school. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that you didn't tell me we could do that and you scared me half to death! Warn me about things like that next time!" Weiss had entered the shrine during the exchange and set the pizza down.

The dragon raised its legs up in a placating fashion. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry and I won't do something like that again without warning you first."

"Good," Weiss huffed, opening the pizza box. "Now come over here so you can try the pizza."

Needing no more incentive, Yang quickly swam over, golden tail swishing happily behind.

Weiss pulled out two slices for Yang and one for herself. They lacked any plates to eat off of, but with pizza, it didn't really matter.

Before the dragon took a bite, it paused, gently setting the slices of the coveted food back inside the box.

"Hey, Weiss! You remember how I said there were two surprises for you?"

The new head priestess nodded warily, mouth already halfway open to take a bite. Her stomach grumbled in protest at the delay.

"I almost forgot about the second one! Are you ready?" Yang asked, tail swishing once more.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Weiss muttered.

Suddenly, she was blinded by a flash of brilliant golden light. She nearly dropped her slice of pizza in her haste to shield her eyes.

From what she could make out, Yang's body began to shrink, changing shape all the while. With a final flash, the transformation was complete.

Sitting in front of Weiss was a tall, well-endowed woman with sun-kissed skin and rippling muscles. A wild mane of blonde hair framed the woman's face and lilac eyes and tumbled down to her waist. Adorning her body were ornate orange robes, decorated with red leaves.

The woman, presumed to be Yang, rolled up her oversized sleeves and grabbed the slices of pizza she had set down.

"Surprise," she cheered before chowing down on her meal.

Poor Weiss. Her life is so hard when I'm the author. I'm sure everyone saw Yang's surprise coming, but Weiss certainly didn't! I noticed that I make Pyrrha a prominent character in my stories a lot. What can I say? I love my magnet child! One of these days I'm gonna do a North Pole story, I swear, considering how often Weiss and Pyrrha are buddies in my stories. Also, Yang's robes are basically a kimono, but since Japan doesn't really exist in the story, I didn't just outright say that it was a kimono. The same thing goes for the red leaves. They were meant to look like the Japanese maple leaves, but like I said; Japan doesn't exist in this story. Does that make sense? If there's any confusion, feel free to PM me! Until next time~!

Notes:

Torii: A tall red gate, often made out of wood, that signals the entrance into a shrine. They are often associated with Shinto religion, and thus are prominent for Takusan.