It had been more than ten minutes. Even with the power Kar'zul had been pumping into my legs it felt like I was getting nowhere fast, the dragon had been tearing its way through the trees and undergrowth, it's claws tearing everything apart easily as it chased after the annoying little hunter who had killed it's buddy.
"Kar'zul! Any help yet?" I shouted, vaulting over a tree root before sliding under a few low hanging vines already heaving the dragon slammed through the root and nearing the vines quickly.
"Is that dragon still chasing you?" Kar'zul replied.
"Well yeah!" I shouted back.
"Then no." He chuckled.
"You are such a prat!" I shouted back, I could barely breathe I've been running for my life. It had felt like days when it had only been ten minutes. Funny how running for your life for ten minutes makes it feel like days, real funny isn't it.
"It is hardly my fault that this dragon is wanting to kill you for killing it's friend!" Kar'zul shouted back, his voice ringing through my head.
"Dude you're a bloody dragon mind your voice!" I shouted, just about hearing my feet hitting the floor of the dark forest.
"My apologies but with all the shouting coming from you I thought I should raise my voice to get your mind back onto the task at hand, of you running from the dragon" He replied softly, it felt like my ears were bleeding.
"It's kinda hard to forget about the task" I replied, I had learnt a very important lesson today. Don't get into a shouting contest with a dragon.
Coming up to a drop in the between the forest and a small canyon I leapt over the edge before sliding down the rest of the drop, the mud beneath my boots making it easy to slide. And easy to fall. Suddenly my feet slipped from under me and I fell on my back, a sharp rock digging into my back suddenly making me cry out in pain, my head hit the muddy floor as I continued to slide down giving me a perfect view of the dragon jumping over the edge to and start tumbling down the edge with me, it's roar's sometimes being interrupted by sudden high pitched roars as it apparently snapped it's wings under its body.
As I came to a stop I scrambled onto my feet and continued running, hearing the dragon come to an almighty crash! but seemed to be even more pissed off now and was already chasing after me.
"This thing is way to persistent" I muttered, vaulting over a small pile of rocks in my way and continuing my marathon sprint, the dragon walking over the pile of rocks and continuing its chase, black blood leaving a trail behind it.
"You would think it would of given up after what's happened to its wings" Kar'zul mused "I'll give it that, it's persistent"
Suddenly I heard a sharp cry from behind and looked back to see Blanc and White heart slamming their hammers into the dragons head almost flipping the dragon over with the force of the hammers.
"Looks like the cavalry's here" I breathed with a sigh of relief coming to a halt
"I have the sudden urge to hit something..." Kar'zul muttered, confusing me slightly but I pushed that out of my head as I watched the girls descend on the dragon. I could see a sudden flash of green as both of the Vert's slammed their spears into the dragon's side, I could see the force from the distance I was at because the dragon was lifted onto its side, a roar emanating from its already beaten form. Turning my head I decided to not watch the dragon get turned into thin slices.
"Glad you are okay" I heard Neptune say after a while, turning round I could faintly see the dragon's corpse in the distance before focusing back on Neptune, her face had a bit of dragon blood on it.
"Yeah so am I" I chuckled before turning away to cough, my throat felt like the canyon we were in, dry and filled with rocks.
"Heh need a drink?" Neptune giggled, apparently finding my pain funny.
"Yeah I do you sadist, just don't have my bottle on me" I managed before turning back to her "You've got blood on your face by the way" Walking by her as she squealed in disgust I walked towards the corpse of the dragon, calling it thin slices wouldn't be a inaccurate term for how it looked.
"This is why you need more than a two man team dummy" Blanc said, walking over and punching my shoulder.
"Well it wouldn't have came to this if my usual method's weren't changed by my poison being turned into some fast acting acid or something" I replied, it was funny as she had to reach up to punch my shoulder
"If you had that why didn't you use that on the dragon?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
"It's hard to fire a bow on the run, ever thought of that?" I replied sarcastically before I felt something slam into my back, pushing me forward a few steps. Looking round I could see a teary eyed, pissed off IF holding me.
"H heya..." I managed to say, I knew this was going to be the lecture of my life, she had began lecturing me on my lifestyle in the wild and a lot of things as I didn't do things the 'official' way like she does.
"Do you know how worried I was!" She shouted, it was hard to read her emotions due to the amount of them going through her.
"Um... no?" I tried to smile but the look on her face silenced any form of humour coming up in my system. I could see her going into lecture mode and I knew this was going to be evening when she was done.
"Do you finally understand!?" IF shouted, her hands were balled up into fists by her side, her face had become flushed by the time she had finished. We had been walking back to the city with the girls going on ahead to clear the path. Suddenly I wished I could fly like them, my ears were hurting even more than when Kar'zul had shouted into them.
"Yes mum..." I managed to say, my emotions were flat lined right now.
"Good now you are going to get cleaned so go!" She shouted, making me run for the basilacom, I had been scared before, fighting dragons are scary, running even scarier but IF... She took the crown as most scariest being there is. She has an extra ordinary amount of energy when she was mad. To sum it up she was pissed off that I left without her, she was afraid I had died and was angry I was so messy now.
"She's like a dragon herself" I heard Kar'zul mutter, even he was intimidated.
"Yeah..." I replied, stripping quickly and getting into the only male shower.
"Are you sure you haven't gotten into a relationship with a hell dragon?" he asked, his voice sounding small and fragile. He had started calling her a hell dragon after we witnessed IF diving headlong into battle with a few plant like monsters who had managed to grab me and were about to eat me. I could of gotten out given a few more seconds but IF was apparently faster.
"Now... now I'm not too sure" I muttered, feeling the water hit my skin, it felt like heaven had returned to this earth, hot water on overworked muscles.
"You know come tomorrow you are going to be hurting all over right?" Kar'zul asked, his confidence slowly returning after the lecture.
"Oh yeah I know, I also know I need to get IF a gift to make up for what happened" I replied, turning off the water tap and stepping out to get dried up.
"She's not gonna let you wear your normal clothing you wear when you go out" Kar'zul said making me freeze up. My normal clothing was my armour, I had refused to go out in casual clothing due to the feeling of weakness I get when I am not wearing my armour.
"Crap... I can't really wear my weapons either due to the fact they are dirty also and it'll take a few days to clean them to her level of perfection. I loved IF with all my heart.. but she has a few things she is adamant on, one of them being things being clean. When we were in the wild on a mission she wouldn't mind but the moment we were in the city she insisted I wore respectable clothing.
Reaching my room I got changed quickly, slipping into some night clothing and falling face first into my pillow, I would chose clothing and the rest tomorrow. Right now, sleep took priority.
By the time tomorrow came I hated myself for having to pry myself from my bed. It felt glorious compared to the rough wet floor of the forest. Standing up I looked around to see a pile of clothing on a chair in my room with a note on top of them.
"Meet me at the fountain at 11:00 sharp. Me and the girls are going to go shopping and you are coming, no excuses. I know you have a... lack of public clothing beside your now dirty armour so I decided to get you some, the lady was very happy I brought so much clothing for you that she gave me a discount if I passed on her thanks to you for saving the city and her grandson. So now you are obliged to wear the clothing. Pick whatever you think is best and meet us at the fountain. Better hurry up silly. Love IF" I read. This was not going to be good.
Reaching down I pulled out three separate bags of clothing, one of them came with a charcoal black trench coat and high leather boots, one of them was more casual and welcoming so in other words a blue jumper and some bright clothing and the last was a full on suit, complete with a bow tie and vest.
"IF... You evil little girl" I growled through clenched teeth before looking at the time, it was 10:30. God dammit today just isn't my day...
This chapters a bit shorter than the last as I want to get all that happened on the day in one chapter, it's going to be a fun filled adventure for Fletcher and there will hopefully be parts that shall make you laugh at his misfortune. Have a good day / night everyone who is reading this still. Thanks again for the support!
WretchedSpectre