Only once the dragon had made it back to the forest and had landed safely on a clearing there, Pat let her relief about finding her partner alright and in one piece show, pulling her into a tight embrace the moment they had gotten off the dragon, the redhead by now having gotten over her shock enough to return the hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay", the demon breathed into her ear, her voice trembling just enough to let her notice, "I don't even want to imagine what they would have done to you if we hadn't made it in time…"
"I have to say, you arriving on the back of a dragon was the last thing I expected", Willow gave back, smiling slightly, attempting to lighten the mood a bit, "where did you find it and how did you get it to—"
"I am not an it, young human", the dragon interrupted her, sounding pissed and making her squeal in shock and surprise, having expected the dragon to talk even less than her partner's dramatic entrance, "I am male, the mighty Sahrotaar!"
"…nice to meet you?" Willow gave back once she could be sure she wouldn't faint on the spot; this seemed to placate the creature somewhat, since he let out a huff, then his gaze focused on the demon again, making her smirk with what he said next. "I shall go back to the village, and get the roasted bandit you promised me. Would you like another ride on my back, my friend?"
Even though Pat looked thrilled at the prospect, one look at the witch's face told her that her partner wasn't sharing her enthusiasm; thus, she smirked and shook her head, then let the dragon know that they still had to find some stuff anyway and would return to the city later one, once they'd got it all.
"As you wish", the dragon replied, then took off with a few beats of his mighty wings; Pat waved after him, then turned to look at her partner again, a bit taken aback by the way Willow was rising an eyebrow at her.
"What?" she asked after a moment, frowning when in response, Willow started giggling seconds later, shaking her head as she looked up at the taller woman, her voice full of amusement when she replied.
"Riding in on a dragon to save me?" she wanted to know, still interrupting herself with giggles after every other word, "seriously? I thought riding on a huge bear was the highlight, but clearly, you had to top that."
"Well, what can I say", the demon shrugged in response, now smirking again, as well, "sometimes, I just have to do the epic entrance. And hey, it was the only way to get there fast enough so they wouldn't kill you!"
"I know", Willow reassured her, "but still, it was… well, I think you describing it as epic fit quite well. How did you get him to take you to the village?"
"That wasn't hard", the taller woman gave back, digging out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, "he more or less found me just after I had woken up again from the knock-out this one asshole gave me, and tried to grill me. Thankfully, I'm fireproof though, so he had no such luck, and then decided that, since we're both made of fire, as he put it, I'm his new best friend. And to get on his really good side, I offered him roasted bandit to make up for the snack he missed when he couldn't fry me."
"And a good thing he couldn't do that", Willow gave back, shuddering at the thought of what might had happened if their roles in this whole ordeal had been reversed, the dragon coming upon her instead of her lover and frying her with ease, "or this whole… adventure would have ended really badly for both of us."
"Stupid townspeople", Pat grumbled in reply, momentarily frowning again, somehow managing to cross her arms over her chest without dropping or breaking her cigarette, "trying to burn you at the stake. I should have let him fry them all."
"It's not their fault", the witch replied at once, not really surprising her partner, "after… what I did to those guys, it's no surprise they were freaking out and scared."
"What did you do?" the taller woman wanted to know in reply; in response, Willow swallowed heavily, only now realizing fully what she had done, her knees feeling faint all at once, some of her emotions apparently showing on her face since all at once, Pat looked alarmed and took a step closer to her, ready to catch her the moment her legs would give in beneath her.
"I killed two of them", she brought out in a toneless voice, feeling faint, "they were… holding me down, talking about how they wanted to have pass the time, and there was this deer they had eaten earlier, with the antlers, so I used the magic and stabbed one of them with the antlers and then another one had a dagger and I did magic again…"
Part of her realized that she was babbling and she wasn't breathing right, that she'd start hyperventilating any moment now and then maybe faint, but she couldn't stop herself, the words tumbling from her mouth in a chaotic rush now, without making much sense anymore – and then strong arms wrapped around her and held her tight, but gently, a shuddery breath coming from her as she felt Pat's hands come to a tender rest on her back, the demon's voice down to a low rumble when she spoke into her ear, told her to calm down.
"It's alright", the black haired woman went on when in response, Willow just tried to focus on her breathing, trembling in her embrace, "it's alright, calm down… Slow and steady, that's the way, yeah, just like that, it's okay…"
"I killed them", the redhead almost whimpered in reply, clutching to her now the way a drowning person might hang on to the lifesaving board of wood, "I killed them, both of them, I killed them… I promised myself I'd never do this again after Warren, and now I killed them…"
"It's okay", Pat repeated, once more reminding her partner of her demonic nature and the fact that she didn't have as much a problem with killing people as a regular person, "with what they were planning to do to you, it was the only thing you could do to stop them. And they would have killed you with even less remorse, don't forget that…"
"This isn't what I learned magic for", Willow brought out in response, now, to the taller woman's alarm, sounding as if she was close to tears, "to defend myself, yes, but not to murder people in cold blood… with deer antlers…"
All at once, the image of how said antlers had rammed all the way through the bandit's body appeared in her mind's eye, and her stomach turned; to her relief, Pat clearly realized what was happening, since she let go of her at once, making it possible for her to turn away and even take a few steps before she fell to her knees and threw up, tears filling her eyes and blurring her vision.
"There, there", she heard the black haired woman mumble next to her moments later, accompanied by a tender hand rubbing her back, "it's alright…"
"I had no choice", Willow brought in response, once she could be sure she wouldn't throw up again the moment she'd open her mouth, "I didn't want to kill them, I didn't, but I had no choice…"
"I know", the demon reassured her, pulling her into an embrace yet again when it seemed that she had finished vomiting, "I know, it's alright…"
As an answer, Willow just held on her to her, taking deep and slow breaths in an attempt to calm down; and since she had run out of reassuring words to say, Pat just kept holding her, rubbing her back soothingly and trying to give her the comfort she so obviously needed, for as long as she'd need it.