Ever since Soaring Cliffs, Mara had done a diligent and complete job of avoiding Trask completely. They never saw each other or had to interact for any reason. At first, Trask believed it to be a coincidence. Their paths just had never crossed. But once they reached Wyrmroost, he wasn't so sure.
All through the dragon sanctuary, Mara stayed as far away from Trask as she could. Never speaking to him unless she had to, walking at a different pace than him, and always, always making sure she was never alone with him. When the shift changed, there was never an opportunity where Mara and Trask would be the only ones awake. Trask believed this to be a coincidence too, but as time went on, he grew less and less sure. Was it possible Mara was as smart as she was beautiful and deadly? It would have required planning of a degree Trask could not comprehend. Planning and schemes he left to the others; he was there for protection, advice, and talking to dragons should the need arise.
The best chance he had was right after the peryton attack. Mara went to find and revive the incapacitated Tanu. He darted off after her, catching her no more than twenty feet from the gargantuan Samoan.
"What do you want?" Trask felt like the temperature had dropped ten degrees at the ice in her voice.
"I don't want anything. I just want to know why you've been avoiding me."
"I haven't been avoiding you." Mara started walking again.
Trask grabbed her arm. "Yes, you have."
He had anticipated being able to hold her easily, but the Native American woman proved stronger than expected, and wrenched her arm away. "So what if I have?"
Trask had thought this through considerably less well than anticipated. "Why?"
"Because," Mara looked away angrily, "whatever the hell happened at Soaring Cliffs was nice, but nothing can ever come of it. You know that as well as I do. And right now, the most important thing is getting the key and getting out of here before someone gets killed. I can't keep my thoughts straight around you. So I stay away. You'd do the same if you were me."
Next came the ambush. No member of their party had been expecting the dragons to appear like they did. The fight and flight was short-lived and unremarkable in the outcome. Trask had no choice but to drink the potion and pray for the best. He saw the Mara, Kendra, Gavin, and Dougan take off for Sidestep Cleft. Then they rounded a corner and disappeared. Less than a minute later, a large black dragon rose up to give chase to a yellow dragon. It was all Trask could do to try to keep his particles together and drift to a safe place.
Ten or so minutes later, he felt the tingling sensation indicating that the potion was wearing off.
As quick as possible, he landed on the nearest patch of ground. Sadly, there was a cliff between him and where the others had run, so he had no way of knowing if they were safe.
So he started walking. There wasn't a hell of a lot else he could do. The rain was coming down hard, soaking him to the bone. But he kept walking, determined to get somewhere, even if it was just a dead end.
And that was when he saw it.
At first, it looked like a small animal or rock laying on the ground. He approached cautiously. That was when he realized it wasn't an animal or plant. It was a human being, lying crumpled at the bottom of a cliff. And he sure as hell didn't believe there was a living human in Wyrmroost that wasn't one of his. The possibility it was a trap passed through his mind, of course, but it wasn't terribly concerning to him.
He skidded up to the body. "Goddammit Mara! What the hell happened?"
"Hi Trask." She panted. Sorry you weren't there to see it. It was a pretty spectacular sight."
"What was?"
"Gavin. He's a dragon."
"You mean dragon brother?" Trask asked.
"No. He transformed into a fucking dragon. Knocked me off the cliff pretty good."
"Are you okay?"
"I fell off a fucking cliff. What do you fucking think?" She winced, clearly in pain. "I think some of my ribs are broken. Plus I have scrapes and cuts everywhere. But that's not important. What happened to everyone else?"
"I don't know. I used the gaseous potion and ended up down here. I couldn't follow the group."
"Goddamn... We need to find them."
"Yes, we do. But you aren't going anywhere with those injuries."
"No, I'll be fine. Just give me a hand up."
"Mara," Trask protested, "that's crazy." But he reached out his hand to pull her up.
Mara pulled herself halfway to her feet before falling back down. "Fuck."
"It's okay, I'll carry you."
"Not on your life. You are not carrying me anywhere. I just need to get up, and then I'll be good."
Between them, they managed to get Mara up on her feet, even though it was obvious she was in a lot of pain. Trask got an arm under hers and her arm was around his neck. It was slow going, and awkward by circumstance, but finally they made it to the point where they could get up to higher ground and make their way to Sidestep Cleft. When they arrived, however, they found a less-than-good sight awaiting them. Kendra was standing with a shimmery dragon over the burnt remains of the knapsack.
"Kendra!" Trask exclaimed. "What happened here?"
"Gavin... he turned into Navarog... and he ate Dougan and burned the knapsack and Warren is still inside and..." Kendra broke down in tears. The dragon wrapped a claw around her comfortingly.
"Get off Kendra, dragon." Trask commanded, tempted to draw his sword but resisting the urge.
"No, please! This is Raxtus. He's a good dragon." Kendra said.
"What the hell is a good dragon? So far, dragons have done us nothing but harm." Mara growled.
"Please!" Kendra repeated. "He's kind of an oddity. But he's smart, and he saved my life. Plus, he ate Navarog."
"That runt ate Navarog?" Mara repeated skeptically.
"Yes, I did." Raxtus's voice was proud.
"Mara, be nice." Trask whispered in her ear.
"There will be enough goddamn time to be nice when this is all over and done with. For now, I am going to remain suspicious of any dragon claiming to help humans." Mara didn't bother with whispering. "Plus, I have at least one broken rib and blood flooding from my body, so I would kindly ask you to shut the fuck up."
Kendra looked vaguely surprised at her outburst. "You'll just have to believe me until we get out of this mess. We need to find Seth and Tanu before something happens to one of them."
"Seth's with Thronis. He should be safe, at least for the moment. But Tanu is still in the woods somewhere. We should make it a priority to find him." Trask said, assuming control.
"If you want, I can take your injured friend somewhere safe." Raxtus offered, pointing at Mara.
"For the last fucking time, I'm fine and I don't need your help." Trask had not known Mara had such a foul mouth. Maybe it was only because she was in pain.
"I could try to heal you?" Raxtus offered half-heartedly.
"I think you better not." Kendra intervened before Mara could reply. "After what happened with Warren..."
"See? I told you I'm a failure." Raxtus hung his head.
"We need some way of contacting Thronis to get him to return Seth to us." Trask said firmly.
"Thronis has a seeing stone. He'll know where we are and Seth can talk to him. Tanu is a priority." Mara said, her words slightly twisted by pain.
"Agreed. Kendra, Raxtus and I will go to where Kendra last saw him and try to find him. Mara will stay here to look for Seth," Mara opened her mouth to protest, but Trask cut her off, "and try her hardest not to get any more injured than she already is."
Mara glared, but complied.
