The fifteenth day Quistis was in Qu Village, a little Qu came to Quistis's 'house' and told her that there was to be no training today because Quale had been called to oversee a dispute. Quistis said she understood but suppressed twin surges of annoyance (her teacher was gone) and mortification that she had been depriving the village of its leader. Especially because there had been no progress towards becoming human. After two weeks of nonstop meditation and self-contemplation, there was nothing so much as a dropped scale to show for her efforts, and honestly? Quale was no help. Xe simply told her to be patient and keep trying, which was so unhelpful as to make Quistis want to scream. She was not used to failure. Even the most boring and menial work of mucking chocobo stables had a concrete result, but this practice yielded nothing except a fear that she might never go back to who she'd been because she'd never known who she was at all…
That thought kept Quistis up at night, particularly if she thought about the lack of progress meant she actually would be better off as a dragon than a human. After all, she had been able to fly and breathe white-hot flames on pure instinct, and she no longer tripped over her new configuration of limbs. One of the occasionally wise things Sir Loire said was: "Don't hold onto a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it" which was of course, quite sensible, but then Quistis would get angry because she did not want to feel like her entire life up until this point was a mistake. Being a human couldn't possibly be a mistake, it was who she was, so why couldn't she change back already?!
"Quale said that if I knew who I truly was, I'd be able to break the enchantment. But I don't know how I could know myself more than I do already! What am I doing wrong?"
Moodily Quistis laid on the stable floor and sighed, making dried reeds fly out of the mouth of her temporary dwelling. Predictably this was when Seifer looked over from next door and got a face full of chaff, which added a dusting of embarrassment to her already poor mood. Fortunately Seifer huffed the dried reeds away and said, "I found something neat. Let's go."
"I don't feel like going anywhere, Seifer," sighed Quistis, putting her head down on her crossed arms. "Even if Master Quale can't teach today, I can still meditate on my own."
"And you can meditate when you come back too. Come on. You're getting all pink instead of red and orange."
Quistis grumbled. "And what's wrong with pink?"
"It makes you look undercooked."
"Undercooked!"
"And raw. And slimy."
Quistis immediately stood up. She knew Seifer was trying to goad her into action but couldn't stop herself from responding. "How dare you!"
He grinned at her and disappeared from the front of her 'house'. A second later she heard his heavy tread running away and with a growl that he'd managed to pry her into action so easily, Quistis gave chase. As soon as she moved, vigor seemed to reawaken in her limbs, both giving her speed and the realization that aside from one quick game of tag two weeks ago, she had not really moved or played once. And now that she was moving, Quistis couldn't think of why she hadn't. It felt good to run!
It was not hard to follow Seifer through the marsh between his size and bright silver-white color, though for a second it seemed like he burst into flame when he left the dark swamp and ran into the sunny grasslands outside. Quistis braced but was still nearly blinded by the sudden light and as a result, felt rather than saw Seifer take off into the air. Without thinking much about it she did the same, and the surge of motion and activity brought on such a rush of satisfaction that for a moment, Quistis forgot her fear of heights and her worries about being stuck forever in a wrong shape. Right now, this was the best possible body to be in. A knot in her chest seemed to loosen, which would have made Quistis elated if she'd noticed it.
It was a gorgeous cool spring day with sunshine just thick enough for Quistis to feel her blood warming toward it. Seifer was flying downriver and she drafted behind him, chuckling every time he glanced over his shoulder at her—was he checking to see if she was following, or did he think she was going to bite him again? Quistis toyed with the notion since he had called her slimy before, but decided against it. He hadn't meant it. Plus, she could call him 'dented' or something and it would even out. She had the feeling it would make him laugh too, which always made his eyes glitter attractively and his wing webs turn from ruby to rich garnet. A part of her brain that was decidedly all dragon read these signs as 'charming' and 'mate material', however, so Quistis didn't linger on Seifer's looks for long. She was not going to do anything as a dragon that would horrify her as a human, no matter how much potential fun it might be. How would things even work, anyway, in regards to what fitting where and such?
Abruptly the air became harder and Quistis realized Seifer had started to go down. Instead of dropping like a hunting hawk, he was taking his time with a long and leisurely glide that ended with a few economical backward sweeps and a neat, still landing. Quistis did her best to emulate his example but came down too fast and sharp, so instead of settling nicely on the ground like a songbird she hit the ground like a goose on the water and nearly plowed into the earth facefirst. Seifer snorted but otherwise did not comment on her skills.
"Come up here," he said, tapping the spot next to him on an ever-so-slightly higher patch of dry-ish land. Quistis obliged, keeping her wings tight to her body to avoid touching him by accident. Uncomfortable attraction aside, she was not sure about dragon manners and did not want to be rude by accident. "Alright, what do you smell?"
"The swamp," said Quistis, looking around. "Wait, you said smell?"
Seifer nodded, eyes alight. Quistis inhaled and then a second later looked at him in deep affront. Seifer laughed, understanding her expression at once.
"It's the swamp, not me," he said, grinning. "Come on, I'm not a human child. Anyway, you know what that fart smell means?"
"I'm sure I don't," said Quistis stiffly, embarrassed for multiple reasons.
Seifer's grin became bigger and positively unnerving. He took a deep breath but instead of launching into a delighted description, he held his breath… And then took another. And another. Quistis leaned back as the humid air went hot and dry around Seifer, just like it had a little over two weeks ago in Fujin and Raijin's cave. Seifer turned and half-stood, looking distinctly rounder in the ribs, and making sure to point his head out toward the swamp, opened his mouth and let loose a torrent of scarlet fire that made Quistis flinch ever so slightly. In dragon form she didn't feel the heat but the sound of the fire and the pressure it sucked out of the air were still overwhelming.
The fire burned over the swamp and to Quistis's shock, fanned out in irregular puffs and plumes that jumped like lightning. As the flames kept popping up and poofing away, Seifer laughed at Quistis's look of surprise.
"Marsh gas," he explained. "You try it."
"Where does it come from?"
"The swamp."
"I mean where in the swamp?"
"Underwater," said Seifer, gesturing with his wings and tail. "And around the plants. When they die, they rot and give off flammable gas. And make fun times for us. You try it."
Quistis looked doubtfully at the flames, which were dying out but nevertheless far in the distance. "I don't know… What if it keeps going?"
"It's been a wet spring," Seifer pointed out. "Nothing'll catch on fire for long, and we can put it out before it turns into anything serious. It's not like we're not surrounded by water or anything."
Quistis had to laugh at that. "I'm not sure my kind of fire would work on gas."
"Try it."
There was nothing to say to that without sounding like she was whining, so Quistis set her amorphous objections off to the side and tried to breathe fire instead. She was not sure how she'd done it, however. At the time, Quistis remembered literally wanting to scream her rage out like it was a weapon to be used, and the shockingly direct fire was what had resulted. But she wasn't angry now. Should she scream out a different emotion? But she didn't have anything that seemed 'fire-ish' in the least. So somewhat doubtfully Quistis took a few deep breaths like Seifer had and was surprised when she felt an oddness in her long throat and chest. It was like nothing she'd ever felt as a human, yet entirely natural… Much like flight, actually. Thoughtfully she held this breath and felt it heating up in an area just over her throat, and a sense of itching started to go over her teeth. She nearly ran her tongue over her gums to alleviate the sensation but it refused to move.
"Go," said Seifer, startling her into movement. The heat abruptly escaped, but not through her mouth; pain flared through Quistis's face instead as heat vented explosively from her nostrils. Quistis immediately clapped her hands over her throbbing nose, automatic tears welling up in her eyes. Seifer winced. "Not like that, though. You're supposed to breathe fire, not snort it."
Quistis glared at him like she could shout "REALLY! I hadn't thought of that!" with her eyes and Seifer had enough grace to look embarrassed. But only slightly. Reaching down, he scratched up a clawful of sticky black swamp mud and held it out to her.
"Here," he said, and when she looked at him incredulously, he said, "Put it on your face. It's cold."
Quistis glared. It wasn't her face that hurt, it was her nose and honestly, she had had worse in training. Defiantly dropping her paws from her muzzle, Quistis put on an expression of forced calm as the pain immediately doubled without pressure.
"I'm fine," she said sternly. "But don't interrupt me next time."
"Yeah, yeah," said Seifer. He apparently took the uncovering of her face for a sign and approached with the mud, which made Quistis lean back.
"I don't want that on my face, Seifer."
"Fine," he said, flinging it off into the swampy waters. Swiping his claws on a tussock of marsh grass, he groused, "Enjoy your burning face for the next week, then."
Quistis huffed, which sent a new pulse of pain through her head. Nevertheless she managed to say politely, "I appreciate the gesture."
"Whatever." Seifer looked at her sidelong, his eyes seeming to glow under the curves of his ruby horns. "You're not smelling blood, are you? That's bad."
"No, Seifer. It just hurts a little."
"Alright." He straightened a bit and looked around the swamp. "Well. Fire's fun and all, but it's not everything. We can do something else."
Was it annoyance or something… Softer she was feeling? Quistis analyzed the sudden tightening in her chest and decided to go with 'annoyance'. There was absolutely no point to being charmed by Seifer's consideration. Absolutely none. Besides, aside from the occasional wicked look, Seifer had been nothing but friendly towards Quistis since she had turned into a dragon and she was not about to make things confusing between the two of them. After all, he was going be stuck in that shape and it would be very unkind to tease him when she was going to turn back human. Really, she was just looking out for him, as it was clear that his judgment toward her could not exactly be trusted…
"He hasn't said anything about me being his hoard in two weeks… Though we haven't really talked much, aside from exchanging pleasantries and seeing each other at meals. I wonder what he does all day?"
Abruptly Quistis realized she was staring at Seifer, and more than that, he was staring back. Compelled by curiosity, Quistis resisted the urge to look away and met his gaze steadily, which resulted in Seifer's eye-slits slimming to near-nothing and a subtle brightening of his scales as he puffed his chest a little. Oh dear. He was really quite handsome.
"Yes?" He asked in that lower, throatier purr that made Quistis swallow. Almost.
"You're looking pale too," she said, deliberately contrary. Seifer snorted.
"How dare you? I fly every day. And hunt every other one."
"What do you eat around here?"
"Boar. Chocobo. Deer—" Seifer suddenly lifted his head, eyes narrowing. He looked around suspiciously. His abrupt shift had Quistis looking around too, and as she straightened she became aware of a strange smell that was coming up under the marsh gas in such a slow, subtle way that she realized she'd been smelling it for some time. But it wasn't coming up from the marsh. She took a few deep breaths and turned toward the source of the smell, which was a hillock not too far away covered with grass and otherwise totally innocuous. She started toward it, but Seifer stepped on her paw. He literally reached and stepped on her front foot, hard.
"Stay sharp," he said seriously when Quistis nearly snapped at him. "Someone's trying to trap us."
Quistis looked again at the hillock. It was a very round hillock. And the grass on it seemed just a little too straight. She backed up just as the strange smell registered in her head as both 'relaxing' and 'dragonsbane'. It smelled so much sweeter in her current shape, which was probably why it soothed dragons as much as it did. Knowing why she was smelling it now, however, and who was probably trying to employ it against her made Quistis feel slightly sick.
She raised her wings and immediately heard an unfortunately familiar hissing noise. Two jolts of pain through each wing made Quistis gasp and Seifer checked her hard with his shoulder, knocking her down before more arrows perforated the air. None of them had come from the hillock, which made Quistis roll to her feet and look to her left as Seifer looked to her right. She couldn't see anything in the long grass, and what was even more annoying was that instead of just grass around here, there were big puddles and small ponds that no human should have been able to hide in without being seen. Was their camouflage better than the shifting browns and greens favored by the Qu? Or were they using magic to remain hidden?
Seifer pressed up along her side, just tall enough that he could sling one of his wings over both of hers. "This is why you need to fly more," he said, focused but not overly troubled. "Gotta toughen your wings up."
Toughen them up? Quistis glanced at her left wing. It was aching something fierce, like a deep cut on the palm, and her eyes widened when she saw two neat arrow holes through one of her wing webs. They both bled vigorously, but there was no time to wonder about what dragon first-aid might entail. Ahead of Quistis there was a flicker of movement that she initially dismissed as a stray breeze, except between her training and her draconian sight, she realized there was something behind a tall tuft of grass. Seifer clearly saw something on his side too because the sudden snarl of blasting flame at Quistis's back nearly made her jump, and at once she heard multiple human voices yelling in shock. Three, it seemed like. She assumed there were that many in front of her, but held her flames in reserve. Her face was still throbbing and Quistis had the feeling that if she tried to breathe fire, she'd be breathing blood too.
Their cover blown, the hunters facing Seifer decided to rush. Quistis heard the stomping and splashing of feet and the clatter of weaponry, and despite knowing she should keep an eye on enemies to the rear, she looked over her shoulder. She had been mistaken. Five humans in both swamp camouflage and the remnants of a refined Reflect glittering off them were running towards her and Seifer, two of them with drawn crossbows, one with a sword, and two with long-handled axes that would be a problem. Seifer spat flame again, forcing them to spread out, and Quistis noticed one of the axe users darting forward instead of the side. He ran towards her, which made Quistis glare. She took two steps forward and turned halfway, slinging her long, slim tail like she was cracking her whip. But instead of ripping the weapon out of his hands, she slashed him across the arms with the blade on the end of her tail and smiled grimly when he dropped the axe with a howl of pain. Seifer made an appreciative noise even as he raised his free wing and stopped two crossbow bolts from getting his eyes. The armor-piercing bolts bounced harmlessly off his toughened wing webs, like pebbles being tossed at a canvas tent, but then Quistis heard twang-twang and two longbow arrows sped through the air. Fortunately their aim was off and they hit Seifer's horns instead of his face, but it was close.
Seifer snarled and flapped his wings hard, flattening the grass around them and temporarily exposing their attackers. There were nine people about, all armed, all looking competent, and maybe with two more people in the hillock if the dragonsbane smoker held anyone in it. Despite her new shape Quistis was nervous. She knew better than most about how to kill dragons, and if someone chained her and Seifer's heads to the ground and hit in a certain spot behind their horns, they'd be stunned. And then it would take only two or three whacks of an axe to kill them, though it would take many more to actually sever their heads…
"Seifer, let's fly," she said urgently, looking around.
"We can't," he said, and then clarified, "Your wings are shot. They'll shred if we take to the air. And I just flamed, so I can't fly for another five minutes."
"What!" Quistis couldn't believe what Seifer was saying. "What do you mean?"
Seifer huffed. "I just can't, alright? Anyway, how many can you take?"
"How…" Quistis gulped. In her old shape, she could dispatch three people with ease. In this new one…? "Uh… The three I'm facing."
"Then I'll get the rest," said Seifer confidently. "They don't look armored, so you can bite if you want. Or swat them away. Don't be nice with your claws, either."
Quistis winced. She had seen the effects of dragon claws on several unlucky squires of the Order, and while none of them had died, none of them took their shirts off in the summertime either. Nevertheless, this was her life on the line here, as well as Seifer's. Clearly he was not going to abandon her… And Quistis had to shove that squishy feeling away before it got distracting. This was definitely not the time.
"On my mark," said Seifer, lashing his tail and flattening an arc of grass at his back. "Ready… Mark!"
He sprang forward, a magnificent fury of claws and fangs that made the hunters scream even as they raised their weapons. Quistis opted not for flash, but for substance. Darting toward her targets, she half-turned again to whip them all with her tail, knocking their feet out from underneath them. Before they could recover, she literally pounced on two of them, careful not to crush them even as she pinned their weapons to their chests. The third one she disarmed by slashing through the string on her longbow, and while that one was gaping in shock, Quistis broke the shaft on the one hunter's halberd and threw the pieces away, and the other one seemed like he was a mage since he had a mace and nothing else, so she threw his weapon across his marsh and then him too to prevent any more problems. Quistis didn't mind killing when she/ had to, but this was not a case when she had to, not when she was so much bigger and stronger. Leaving the hunters boggling at her mercy, Quistis turned to see if Seifer needed help.
He was… Doing very well. He was much less considerate than she was, and was laying into the hunters with a casual mastery that had blood flying now and probably limbs flying later. Two hunters were down, one of them possibly dead and the other staunching a huge cut that had made the muscle of his thigh snap up into his hip like a ball. One hunter was actively fleeing, screaming and running a path through the marsh grass that a blind bull could follow. The other three were still trying to hurt Seifer somehow and it was clear they were used to working in a team judging from the way they tried to lure him out and take turns hitting him. At first Quistis thought Seifer wasn't falling for it, but then she saw him lunge at someone who had the point of his sword down on purpose and immediately the others moved in, raising an axe and a mace respectively. They were aiming at the base of his neck and wings, no doubt looking to paralyze him…
"Seifer! Look out!"
Seifer didn't seem to hear her. But then he dug one foot into the ground, swung his entire body in an arc, and smashed all three hunters into each other by essentially batting them with his side. They went flying and landed in a sloppy, splashy mess some distance away, and Seifer pulled his claws out of the mud with a very loud squelching noise as the swamp mud reluctantly gave him his paws back.
"How are yours?" Seifer asked, flinging the mud off as soon as he was free.
"Well enough," said Quistis, looking back at her targets. They were both flat on their backs, eyes wide with fear, probably hoping she'd forgotten all about them. She set her tail across their chests and they went even stiller. Now satisfied they wouldn't try to attack her while her back was turned, Quistis looked at Seifer once more. "You?"
"Fine," said Seifer, fanning his wings. There was blood spattered across his legs and chest but judging from the proud look on his face, none of it was his. Wiping his claws on a bit of grass, he said, "The day a bunch of low-level adventurers get the drop on me is the day I stop living."
The boast was a bit too close to home for her liking right now but Quistis suppressed a shiver. "Do you deal with these kinds of things often?"
"Often enough to be annoying," said Seifer, coming over to her to inspect her prisoners. "Apparently the color of my hide is unheard of and people want to make something shiny out of it. But you know, maybe if they kill me, they'll find themselves with a human corpse instead of a dragon's. Heh!"
It was the first time Seifer had mentioned anything about his own humanity. Quistis hesitated a second before asking, "Have you ever thought about turning back?"
"No." Seifer looked over her captives, one of whom started praying immediately. He poked that one with his claw, making the man pray even harder and shut his eyes. "I've been a dragon longer than I've been a human. What's the point?"
"Well… You wouldn't have hunters coming after you."
"What, these things?" Seifer poked the man again, a little harder this time. "They're flies. Knights are a problem sometimes, but they take so long to train and they're so noisy coming up that I have plenty of time to deal with them. In a hundred years of life, you're the one I had the most problems with."
"But your scars—"
Seifer rolled his shoulders, making light glitter off his many silvery marks. "Fujin and Raijin. Real sea serpents. Behemoths. Once, a pack of starving dire wolves. No human has ever marked me except for you."
Quistis opened her mouth to say how that shouldn't be taken as a guarantee of anything and instead found herself gagging as something flew directly into her jaws. She hacked it back out immediately, expecting to see an exceptionally stupid bird or something of the like, but instead a little bladder of sweet dragonsbane fell out of her mouth and into the swampy ground at her feet. It split open upon hitting the ground but Quistis immediately swept a pile of marsh grass over it before the powder could waft up and stun her. At the same time she heard Seifer choke, and when she looked at him in alarm he was backing up, shaking his head with plumes of purplish powder roiling from his mouth as a torn bag flapped from his fangs. Quistis cried out in alarm as Seifer slowly sank to his knees, his head starting to droop.
"Get," he gasped at her. Quistis instead ran up to him, fanning the powered dragonsbane away as much as possible.
"Drink water!" She commanded. "Spit it out!"
"Too late," said Seifer, his eyelids fluttering. Quistis heard a soft 'snict' behind her and saw her prisoners, the mage she had tossed, and three other people approaching. Two of them had pouches of dragonsbane loaded into slings and were approaching cautiously. The mage and the newcomer were also holding chains that glittered in Quistis's sight and translated to her brain as 'magical'. Quistis immediately put herself in front of Seifer and took a deep breath through her burned muzzle, ignoring the flare of pain.
"Go away!" She shouted at the approaching humans. "Don't force me to kill you!"
"Oh thank god," one of the human said, which made Quistis's spirits lift—and then fall hard as he added, "We won't have to chase the other mate down. We might be home before nightfall."
"Hold on, what about eggs?" Someone else said. "If we kill them both now, we'll never see any eggs."
"They're too young to have eggs," said the newcomer, who sounded older than the others. "This is a newly mated pair. Accounts for the stupidity of playing in the open too."
"Young love," someone said, and snickers went over the group.
Quistis snarled. It wasn't a cheap thing like a human might produce, but a roiling, boiling, growing thunderhead that started in her chest and vibrated down her long throat to hit the air like a summer storm. The humans froze at the sound of it, but did not flee. Quistis glared at them, unconsciously lowering her head like a snake so she was just slightly taller than the humans but still able to see everything they might do. Unconsciously too she flared her wings, hiding Seifer from the hunters, and swept her long tail around to keep the blade ready for attack.
"Careful, boys," said the leader, watching Quistis warily. "The Silver Dragon's never been a pushover, this Sunset one won't be either."
Sunset, hmm? For these people, at least. Quistis took a deep breath that made her ribs ache and her stomach swell. Her face went from throbbing to burning, but she barely noticed as protective fury rose in her blood and her chest started to heat up again. Once again her gums started itching, but this time Quistis was not distracted by the situation. She glared at the hunters as they approached, and a last shred of mercy made her point her head at the ground just in front of them before she snapped her mouth open. A thick column of white-hot fire that burned off into shreds of red and green flame blasted from her mouth, scorching the marsh grass to nothing and firing the damp earth to clay. Steam boiled into the air. And there was a loud, muffled series of booms that thrummed through Quistis's claws and made the hunters look around in sudden fear. A second later one of them went flying as the ground underneath her feet exploded. Marsh gas. Apparently Quistis's kind of fire could do something to it.
"Holy shit!" One of the hunters yelped, staring at Quistis in shock. "It breathes a lot hotter than the other one!"
Quistis screamed another bolt of fire at him, now more certain of her aim. He managed to dodge with a curse. Meanwhile the other hunters rapidly regrouped and started quickening their approach, correctly deducing that getting closer meant getting into Quistis's blind spot. She spat short bursts of fire at them, but only succeeded in scattering and not hitting them. The ones with the dragonsbane pouches loaded their slings again, their eyes on her jaws. Quistis first clenched her teeth, then after a thought opened her mouth instead. As she'd predicted, they threw the pouches. Quistis held her breath, rose up on her back legs, and flapped as hard as she could, making the little pouches fly back before they could hit her. They exploded harmlessly on the ground. The hunters boggled.
"What the hell?!" One of them blurted out.
Quistis resisted the urge to lash her tail in satisfaction, concentrating instead on what to do next. These hunters were falling into the same trap that she had when she'd first fought Seifer: they didn't think she could be smart. So what to do next?
"Kill them. Kill them all. It would be easy. And not even the first time you've done it. They deserve it."
In her human shape, Quistis would not have hesitated. But in a dragon's shape, the desire to protect oneself was a far second to a raging bloodlust that made her resist violence out of principle. What if giving in to the dragon's instincts froze her into this shape? Sudden doubt made Quistis tense up even as the hunters began to approach again.
Then without warning, the swamp silently exploded. Quistis ducked her head, flinging her wings over her head and Seifer's as the marsh waters surged up like they were falling toward the sky, and the most dreadful groaning suddenly filled the air. It sounded like the roar of the sea during sky-breaking storms, and Quistis couldn't help but shut her eyes as the horrible noise rattled deep into her flesh and bones. Seifer's head was under the base of her neck and she felt him lift his head slightly, as well as chuckle. But what he was laughing about, she didn't have time to ask. The water had been falling up toward the sky before but now it was suddenly rushing around them like it was being pulled somewhere. There were a few light thumps against Quistis's back legs and sides and then nothing for a while. The waters receded. In the silence after the strangeness, Quistis cautiously lifted her wings and looked around. The swamp was totally drenched and still half-flooded, but every trace of the human hunters was gone down to their fake hillock. But Fujin and Raijin were there, both of them picking through the grass without an apparent care in the world.
"FOUND," said Fujin triumphantly, picking a mage's mace up out of the swamp mud. In her grip, the mud fell off like floured dough, leaving the mace itself as bright as the day it had been forged. Raijin looked over and hummed in approval before going back to his spot in the swamp.
"Was that you two?" Quistis asked, astonished. "With the water?"
"YAH."
"Thank you!"
Both dragons grunted and didn't look up, but seemed pleased at the acknowledgement.
"What happened to the humans?" Quistis asked, suddenly wondering if Fujin and Raijin had drowned them all. The thought perturbed her. Killing someone in combat was one thing, but deliberately drowning them was a different and unnecessary kind of ruthlessness.
"Eh, they're probably washed a mile downstream by now," said Raijin with a rippling shrug. "They're not dead, but they'll be sleeping like it for the next week or two."
Quistis sighed in relief. She was not worried about the hunters' wellbeing overly much, but it was nice to know that Fujin and Raijin weren't murderers.
"How did you know we were in trouble?" Quistis asked, making them exchange glances. "Were you following us?"
"SEIFER," said Fujin, looking at her friend with a scowl. Quistis followed her line of sight and saw that Seifer was now completely flat on the ground, eyes half-closed and his mouth open just enough that he appeared to be drooling into the swamp. He looked the definition of the word when Fujin scornfully said, "STUPID."
"Yeah, we keep telling him to switch up his hunting and sunning grounds, ya know?" Raijin pulled a halberd out of the ground, studied its make, and finding nothing of note, tossed it over his shoulder as he said, "But he's stubborn. He does what he wants."
"STUPID," said Fujin pointedly again to Seifer. Seifer made a noise like he wanted to swear at her, but by now the dragonsbane was so throughly in his system that he couldn't even coordinate a word. He seemed to have as much structure in him as a melted pancake.
"How long will it take for him to recover?" Quistis asked the older dragons, who stopped their treasure hunting to inspect their friend. Seifer's growl increased as they started poking him in the face and prying his mouth open with their long, surprisingly strong whiskers.
"He should be back to normal in about a day," said Raijin. "The hunters weren't kidding around this time, ya know. I'm surprised he's still conscious."
"They called him the Silver Dragon. Is he well known?"
Fujin and Raijin grunted. "SHINY. THEREFORE, PRESTIGIOUS."
Prestigious? Quistis nearly said there's been nothing like that about Seifer in the Order's books, but then remembered her own motivations for going after him in the first place. Just because she hadn't been after his hide didn't mean she hadn't been after the admiration that vanquishing him would get her… She squirmed a little. Even supposing she turned back to human the next day, Quistis knew she'd never be any kind of normal knight now and reluctantly she had to admit that Sir Loire's frustratingly common mercies had their appeal. Though she definitely didn't want to stay a dragon either. The hunters had called her the Sunset Dragon, so she was now a prestigious target too…
Fujin poked Quistis in the wing, making her jump and then remember her arrow wounds. But when she looked, there was nothing other than two irregular trails of dried, flaky blood to show where she'd been marked. Quistis fanned her wings experimentally but felt no pain or pulling, and silently she marveled at a dragon's recuperative powers. She certainly couldn't heal that fast when she was human.
"Let's get you back to the village," said Raijin to Seifer, who grumbled. "Unless you want to get nibbled by gators until you get better. Betcha they don't eat dragon very much, ya know."
Seifer made a noise that sounded like it wanted to be a word. Probably a rude one. But the dragonsbane had paralyzed his tongue just as much as the rest of his body, so he ended up sounding like an old drunk instead of a fearsome creature of might and magic. Now that the danger was gone, Quistis couldn't help but snicker just a little.
Raijin slithered underneath Seifer's wing and rolled in such a way that Seifer ended up on top of his back. Fujin fastidiously tucked Seifer's front and back legs up underneath him so they wouldn't drag when Raijin started to move, and Quistis did the same with Seifer's wings. She was glad for their help. Obviously Seifer couldn't lie around in the open while he waited to recover: more hunters might reappear, or some kind of opportunistic scavenger, and Quistis was not totally confident in her ability to protect him while he healed. Dragons were powerful, but far from invincible. Not that Seifer appeared to acknowledge that. He had just enough muscular control back that he could scowl.
"Auu'o'uuaammmfaaaghhhh, aaa'aee'ii…" Seifer slurred unintelligibly, making Quistis laugh again. She saw his pupils dilate with annoyance. "Oouu'ooo'aa'aa'eee, iiiaahaaa'aaa'ooo."
"Yes, she does have a nice backside," Raijin quipped, making Seifer squall in wordless outrage and Quistis laugh even harder. With a little hop Raijin took off into the sky, holding Seifer steady and wriggling just the last third of his long serpentine body. Fujin jumped up to steady him on the left and Quistis came up on the right, though she couldn't fly as evenly as Fujin and Raijin and kept losing altitude.
In any case it was an easy flight back to the village and Quistis even managed a graceful landing. Raijin deposited Seifer into his sleeping cave while Fujin went in search of a healer, and a few minutes after Seifer had been arranged into a slightly less boneless-looking pile in his dwelling, Quina was there with a big bowl, a bigger spoon, and a sledge full of herbs in large glass jars. S/he poked Seifer in the lips and gums with his/her fork, which made Seifer growl in irritation.
"Moushenlong," s/he pronounced with authority. "Lots and lots of moushenlong. Stupid. Why you no spit?"
"Arglrlglalhghaghh…"
As Fujin and Raijin chuckled at Seifer's response, Quina started taking herbs out of the glass jars, dumping liberal amounts into the bowl, and smashing them all together with the back side of the big spoon. After everything was pressed into a homogenous powder, Quina started adding what looked like random amounts of clear, sparkling water to the bowl and then stirring it in until s/he had a sort of mud. Then s/he began vigorously kneading the mixture into dough that turned from brown to red to gold, and rolled the stuff into a fist-sized ball. Quistis was not sure why she hadn't realized that dragon-sized pills would be so large, but there they were. Fujin and Raijin looked similarly interested in the process, both of them watching Quina with a hunter's still focus.
With an amusing brusqueness, Quina levered Seifer's mouth open with his/her long spoon and then fearlessly shoved the pill as far down Seifer's throat as s/he could reach, his/her arm disappearing all the way up to his/her shoulder. Seifer gagged but the spoon kept him from biting down even though it bent somewhat alarmingly. Retrieving his/her limb and sitting back, Quina squatted on his/her haunches and waited with an intensity that had Quistis holding her own breath. However she was still taken aback when Seifer suddenly sat up straight, eyes ablaze and wings banging off the sides of his shelter as he swung them up for flight. Fujin and Raijin exclaimed in surprise, Raijin even half-rearing in his shock. Quistis was impressed too. The concentration required to render a dragon of Seifer's size and weight to the state he'd been in was already intense, so how much stronger did this medicine have to be? And exactly how much could Quina do?
"Ho," said Quina, unperturbed. "How feel?"
S/he dodged with aplomb as Seifer spat the spoon at her/him, the utensil spinning end over end like a weapon before bouncing off the ground next to Quina.
"Were you trying to choke me to death?!" He demanded in outrage.
Quina grunted in satisfaction and stood up. "Loud voice. Is okay. Call if you fall down."
"QUINA!"
"Blah!" Quina spun around, red face mask flapping like a flag, and looked furtive and guilty as Quale came up to the dragon stables. Quistis was astonished at xis appearance. Up until now she had seen Quale in plain camouflaged clothing of browns and greens, but right now Quale was wearing a brilliantly white robe with a very fancy matching hat, and patterns of eye-watering complexity dazzled at xis hems. Xis face mask was gold instead of red and went all the way down to the floor, covered every inch of the way with more patterns done in gold thread. Quale looked quite dignified even as xe pointed at Quina in a temper.
"What you do?" Xe demanded.
"Fix guest," said Quina, sullen but far from defeated. "Moushenlong poisoning. Guest better."
"Too fast! Moushenlong poison—"
"Fix with grand centipede and wood ear." Quina puffed a bit. "Makes healing time fast. Very fast."
"And vomit?" Quale asked severely, which made Quistis look at Seifer in alarm. Seifer looked down at his chest and stomach with sudden misgiving.
"Fix with dried and powdered red ginger skin," said Quina immediately. "Lots for dragon weight."
Quale looked immediately at Seifer. "Open mouth," xe said brusquely. "Tongue. Out."
Seifer obliged, letting his long tongue roll out almost double the length of his muzzle. Quistis was shocked. She wondered if her own was that long and got a sudden strange mental image of Seifer licking his eyeballs like a lizard. Shuddering it away, she nearly missed Quale taking out his long spoon and poking Seifer's tongue in a few places.
"Hmmm," xe went, sounding very serious. "Hmmm. HMMMM."
"What?" Seifer demanded, rearing back up. "What's that mean?"
"Hmmm," said Quale, looking sternly at Quina. Quina returned xis gaze defiantly, making Quistis smile a little in recognition; she'd had that look on her face no few times when Sir Loire was trying to talk her out of something. And while Quale seemed much more dutiful than Sir Loire, the frustration from Quina was similar nevertheless.
"No decoct without me again," xe said finally. "Understand?"
"Yes, Master Quale."
"Clean up. Go."
Quina nodded briskly and started packing away the herbal things. Quale meanwhile looked at Seifer and Quistis.
"So you two encountered hunters outside the swamp," he said formally. "Aside from the dragonsbane, did either of you come to harm?"
"We're fine," said Quistis, but Quale looked her over. Xis eyes fell on her wings, which still had a few flecks of dried blood on them.
"Fine now," xe said sternly. "You must be careful. The enchantment on you is strong, and the fact that you have Qu blood makes it stronger still."
"What?" Quistis reared back, startled. "But you said I'd be able to change back because of it."
"You can be frozen and freed for the same reason," said Quale, slipping xis hands into xis sleeves to stand in a wise way. "A Qu's mind is their greatest weapon and defense. If you think of yourself as a human, you will become one. But the longer you think of yourself as a dragon—and this includes your hidden mind, your emotional mind—then the more you will become one."
Quistis shivered, remembering the bloodlust in the swamp. How fortunate she hadn't given in! And just because she hadn't made any progress turning back into a human until now didn't mean she wanted any progress to become negative.
"This includes injury," said Quale, nodding at her wings. "Your hidden mind begins to think that since you have healed in this shape, you are now more this shape. I will not tell you to fly or hunt or be healthy, but be careful. Please."
"Yes, Master Quale," said Quistis, inclining her head. Seifer grumbled and fluffed his wings, which made Quale look at him sternly.
"And you, please do not lead our child into reckless circumstances," xe said, which made Seifer's grumble swell into a growl. "She is not as experienced as you. She also has much to lose. If you care for her, you will value her."
"She's my hoard," Seifer snapped, baring his teeth like he wanted to bite Quale. Quistis's draconian heart lurched at the sound of the word, or maybe it was just that silly infatuation she kept trying to ignore. As Quistis beat her unseemly emotions back into place, Seifer shouted, "Of course I value her!"
"Leading her into an area with hunters about says otherwise."
"They weren't there when I scouted the place! Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Quale looked at Seifer pointedly, which made Seifer blink and then swell with temper. The subtle increase in his mass made his scars seem to gleam especially bright, which made Quistis wince a little for his sake.
Nevertheless she was totally unprepared for Seifer lunging at Quale. His mouth was not open. Clearly he meant to knock the Qu down. But Quale sidestepped the blow and then with stunning speed and precision, hit Seifer in the back of the head with the butt end of his large ceremonial fork. It was exactly the place that Sir Loire had shown Quistis where to hit, the one spot underneath a dragon's horns that would temporarily paralyze them, and for the second time in as many hours, Seifer fell to the ground in a loose, uncontrolled pile. The shock on his face would have been funny if Quistis had not been so horrified at his near-attack on Quale, nor dismayed by a sudden hot rush of fury that Quale had dared to hit Seifer.
Immediately Fujin and Raijin reared up like snakes, eyes blazing and short but numerous fangs bared in temper. Until now Quistis had not thought of either of them as looking particularly ferocious, what with their slightly camel-like heads, their blunt and fuzz-covered horns, and their very short limbs on their very long bodies. But now they both blazed with power she could feel more than see, and in Raijin's case, lightning began crackling over his bronze hide. Wind whirled around Fujin in a tight cyclone outlined with debris. Their eyes went from placid gold to deep, threatening red.
"FIX," Fujin bellowed at Quale, while Raijin's bronze scales turned a darker, more threatening shade of brown.
Quale eyed Fujin and Raijin. Then without a word to either of them, xe hit Seifer again in a slightly different place at the back of the skull and Seifer surged back up onto all four legs, which immediately made both Fujin and Raijin settle back down and release whatever rage-given powers they'd nearly summoned. Would the waters of the swamp here have come to their call and drowned Quale?
"And what about me? My own temper wasn't any less hot than theirs when I saw Seifer fall. Oh dear, I've been in this shape too long…"
Seifer now eyed Quale warily. The elder Qu eyed him sternly until Seifer backed up and ever so slightly inclined his head in careful respect. Quale was small and old but clearly not fragile, and moreover he seemed incapable of being intimidated. Or perhaps xe had faced scarier things.
"I will allow you this one instance of temper," said Quale to Seifer. "Misbehave again, and you will be made to leave the Village. We cannot have an undisciplined dragon around our young. Is that clear?"
Seifer lashed his tail hard enough to fling the dried reeds and grasses of his cave floor into the walls. But though he looked mad, his voice was deliberately calm as he said, "Don't worry about me."
"I would be most happy not to," said Quale coolly. Xe then turned back to Quistis. "Please take the rest of the day to relax and settle. We will resume training tomorrow."
"Yes, Master Quale."
Quale then looked at Fujin and Raijin, who were half-sitting up in what seemed like regal, aloof postures. Xe had always addressed them formally, so it took Quistis quite by surprise when xe told them plainly, "Your ward is spoiled," and left. Even more surprising, both Fujin and Raijin looked embarrassed as soon as Quale couldn't see them and both of them looked at Seifer with narrowed eyes, which made him hunker down against his shoulders. Quistis then remembered that by Seifer's own admission, no few of his scars were from them. A surge of protectiveness made Quistis rise, distracting them all.
"He's already been scolded enough," she said to Fujin and Raijin. "And he said he wouldn't happen again."
"He told Quale not to worry, which is not the same thing," said Raijin, looking back at Seifer. Fortunately he didn't seem particularly angry, just rather annoyed. "What were you thinking, Seifer?"
"He called me stupid!"
"We call you stupid all the time!"
"Yeah, but I like you two!" Seifer retorted, and as an afterthought added, "Jerks."
"DUMMY."
"Dingdong," said Raijin, and quite mysteriously all three of them relaxed. Quistis was confused, but not so much so that she needed to know why. Clearly they were all quite close, scars notwithstanding.
"REST," Fujin ordered Seifer. "RELAX. EAT."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Seifer rolled his shoulders once, twice, and on the third time there was a loud cracking noise that nearly made Quistis jump out of her skin. But Seifer sighed deeply. "Ahhh, there they go."
"Were those your wings?"
"Yeah. Normally they get back into place by themselves, but sometimes they need a little help." He rolled his shoulders again, nodding in satisfaction when there was no cracking again. "Well. I didn't need to go anywhere again today anyway. Time to get something to eat."
"He's so calm about all this," Quistis thought, admiration mixing with dismay. In so many aspects Seifer seemed so suited to being a dragon, but it was hard for Quistis to overlook the fact that he had needed to be taught how to fly, and that he couldn't fly and flame at the same time. What other 'instinctive' dragon things did he not know how to do? Would they hurt him in the future?
"Would they hurt me too?"
"Hungry, Quistis?" Seifer asked, looking at her sidelong.
"No," she said, mantling her wings. "I'm… I'm a little tired. I think I'll rest."
"Come on, it's still ear—OW!"
"SLEEP," said Fujin serenely while Seifer madly rubbed one of his eyes; she had poked him with her whisker. Raijin looped one of his around Seifer's nearest horn and tugged until Seifer came along, grumbling and walking three-legged so he could still rub his eye. A chuckle that didn't quite make it out of Quistis's mouth nevertheless puffed from her muzzle as the three dragons left and Quistis went into her 'cave' with a slightly less heavy heart. Seifer would be fine for now, as would she. But more than ever, Quistis wanted to be human again. As a dragon, it was likely she would be dependent on the help of others until she found her footing, if she ever did. But as a human, she could definitely take care of herself and others too.
Quistis missed that. She missed the certainty of knowing herself as a human, or at least the illusion of knowing herself. Because if she really did know herself, the enchantment holding her should be broken, and yet here she was, scaled and winged and entirely inhuman. Quistis sighed, the weight of her worries seemingly pressing her into the ground. The optimism of two weeks ago was becoming very hard to hold onto and the creeping dread that she might never become human again started to rise much faster than Quistis could convince it away. A knifelike sensation formed in her neck, familiar and yet so much more painful as a very long draconian throat locked up with tears. With no one around to see her, Quistis hid her face underneath her wing and cried.
/\/\/\
a/n: I smashed some Chinese words together for "moushenlong". I was told that 'mou' means 'absence of' in Cantonese, hence 'moushenlong' could mean 'no more dragon'. A lot less nice-sounding than dragonsbane, right? I think so.
