Next chapterrrrrr! This one will be a talking one. Lots of talking, without me trying to give away too much. Maybe just an explanation of powers, some lore building, the boring stuff… I don't know what I want. I'm sorry it took so long.
The churning waves of the open sea brought the ship's cabins swaying. Everything not nailed down was sliding across the damp wooden boards, and everything that was held down still groaned like it wanted to join its companions in their roaming. The waves were called gentle by the crew. Compared to his first voyage to Avalar in a horrible storm, Dilonwid had no wings to fly on to disagree. Even if he wanted desperately to do so. The swaying was killing his stomach.
The crew above was working as Fyrir ordered, his shouts ringing all the way down below deck. That male had a baritone roar when he chose to, but Dilonwid knew that was just one of the qualities that made a great captain.
The room he had been given sat close to the bow of the ship, under the forward cannons, dipping just below the waves. He could hear the ship creak every time they crested a wave that was a bit too large, but he didn't want to seem cowardly to the crew and tell someone he worried the walls would be breached. Especially when he was revered so well once he explained his title and predicament.
His job demanded he work now that he was finally safe, and so he had requested pen and paper. The best they could find was a paper torn from a ledger and a feather dipped in a cup of ink.
The letter he'd quilled for his King to read upon his arrival was sitting on his desk, kept safe from the sliding inkwell and sealed with the crest of his Kingdom. Within he had told the entire damning story of his incarceration by the Dragons just for a few bold, mildly unorthodox mannerisms. He didn't expect a military action, but he wished with all his heart for the Goddess and Ancestors to make it so.
There wasn't much else to do but write since sleep seemed to evade him every night. Even now, with the letter finished, he was staring at the wall of his cabin and waiting to feel something that could be mistaken for peaceful sleep, but only found little dots dancing across his vision as his eyes were giving out.
Dilonwid wanted to blame his sleepless nights on the little annoyances, like the creaking ship or the loose objects, but he couldn't. Some of it was actually quite soothing, like sleeping in a cradle and knowing he wasn't in danger of assault by a racist guard in Warfang. In his heart of hearts, the magical center of his body, whatever the great philosophers at the time wanted to call it, something pulled on his mind, a shadow outside his mind
His bed wasn't as generously soft as the captain's, but it was better than the wooden floor that some of the crew had to sleep on. The lack of windows in his room meant that whether it was day or night, he should be able to sleep. But every time he closed his eyes, adrenaline peaked. A chill across his scales, the feeling of being watched almost omnipresent.
He'd checked the walls for peepholes, opened the door several times late at night, but saw nothing except wyverns finding comfortable places to sleep amidst supplies and fireball cannons.
The first night of travel was exhausting. He'd woken up in the captain's bed feeling as if he hadn't rested at all, and then tried in hopeless futility to alternate between helping the crew and trying to get back to sleep. His room was set up quickly by a few extra ship hands, but even as the sunset on the endless horizon of the blue ocean for the second time on this ship, rest evaded him.
Now, three days at sea, he was afraid of going mad. He'd gotten minor rest here and there, little blips of unconsciousness, and Fyrir had ordered him to stay below deck. Somewhere he wouldn't pass out and slide right overboard.
He'd obliged in shame, but his fellow Wyvern passengers were always polite about it. They told him how much they respected him and understood that after such a horrible ordeal in another country he must be panicked and exhausted. Sweet, kind, honeyed words he had heard countless times in his journeys.
Briefly, his gaze turned to look at the desk, head tilting in his pillow, body shifting. How much of their respect was out of fear, and how many wanted favors for their kindness? The debt he imagined some of them cashing in for his rescue from the guards on Avalar's shores kept growing monstrous in his mind. And he doubted the king would be willing to help him if they came knocking, demanding their payments.
In fact, the king would most likely just throw him to the wolves. Let the crew come and rob him, then still expect him to do the job that was required of him after he had just been abused by Dragons and Wyverns alike.
Maybe he should have hidden on the ship, been a stowaway rather than a passenger. Not come invited aboard, given succor only by their hospitality. Maybe he should have fought.
Should have taken.
A metallic knock on the door snapped his daydreaming mind awake, and he looked around. The walls and ceiling felt like it had just shrunk away from him. He raised a wing to rub his face, only to find cloth clinging to his talon. A quick inspection revealed a small tear in the bed.
"Come in." He called, reaching his tail between his legs to rub at his bleary eyes instead, working to dispel the dots of darkness that drew him towards another fit of microsleep. They clung on like leeches.
The door creaked as it opened, the sound of metal grating the wooden knob as it let go made Dilonwid's heartbeat explode into a march. His head lifted off the pillow to watch the green dragon waltz his way into the ambassador's chambers, carefully seating himself across from the wyvern just at the table. His armor glistened in the dim candlelight, the oily sheen tinted by orange.
"What do you want?" Dilonwid rasped, cursing his vocal cords for making him sound so weak. Something about the green dragon's presence made his internal organs cease existing.
Bricriu's eyes roamed slowly, casually, over the resting Wyvern's form before he answered. "To check up on you. The captain has taken notice of your lack of sleep and I offered to see if I could help put you to sleep with a goodnight kiss." His maw opened for emphasis, green saliva contrasting the orange light.
Dilonwid hissed at the joke, his body recoiling back until it pressed up against the wall on the edge of his cornered bed. "Absolutely not!" His hind claws curled, fear resulting in a loss of control.
Bricriu nodded his head, his mouth shutting with a wet noise to suck down the poison in his mouth before he spoke. "I figured as much. So perhaps we can discuss something dull and boring until you pass out." His tail curled around his legs, laying over his forepaws as he sat and watched Dilonwid.
The confused wyvern felt his body relax slowly. Talking was meant to be his forte, and yet in this quiet moment, he could not find his tongue. "What would you like to discuss then?"
Revealing a smile shouldn't make someone's blood sour, but Bricriu's mastered the art. "How was it?"
Dilonwid's blank stare met Bricriu's excited one. For the first time since that green dragon had come out of those lonely mountain ruins, this felt like the genuine article. No mask. Still, the question flew over his head. "How was what?" Dilonwid asked.
"Staring into the ring." Bricriu cooed, his tail rubbing along the digit the ring rested on. "I have my theories, but I'd rather hear your description before I make any bold claims." His tail tip had the audacity to wiggle, like a hatchling suppressing excitement waiting for a present.
Dilonwid's gaze darted to the uncovered paw that held the yellow gemstone, half-expecting the black pupil to meet him, but saw only the light glow of yellow amber, brilliant despite the low light. A shiver went down his spine.
"It was…" He trailed off, trying to think of how to describe it. "Like swimming in light. I felt like I was in paradise, nothing could make me happier." His vision swam and he shook his head, breaking free from staring at the gemstone. The floor seemed far safer. He didn't want to mention the darkness he had seen leave him to dance, that hollow part of his body. Just in case Bricriu could do something with that information.
"Paradise… Interesting." Dilonwid saw out of the corner of his eye that Bricriu had drawn his paw back, and when he dared to follow the limb he saw Bricriu staring deep into his own ring, curiosity scrawled across his visage. "I had assumed another outcome."
The silence that stretched between them was antagonizing, with Dilonwid processing what the green dragon had said. "What other outcome had you expected?" He muttered eventually, drawing his attention back.
Bricriu licked his lips and grinned before quoting. "Those who look within. Will urge our lord to begin. Bring darkness to light." The ring shimmered with glee out of the corner of Dilonwid's eye. "I had theorized it would make you recognize your sins, force you to become who you truly are. Now, I'm not so sure that's what happened."
"And what did happen?" Dilonwid hissed. "You were the one who put me under the spell. What did it look like?"
Bricriu thought for a long moment, his hesitation making Dilonwid's blood boil as fear stoked the flames. The ship rocked, a wave crashing uncomfortably high into its side, and Dilonwid's claws dug into the bed as a result.
"I don't quite know." Was his curt, giddy little reply, and Dilonwid snapped.
His shadow fire flew between his teeth, caking the room in darkness. The candle was the first casualty, allowing the fire to spread freely. Its bitter cold grasp licked at the wood, causing the table to groan as it was eaten away by nothing. The quill was sucked away into the darkness.
As the magical smoke cleared, the wyvern scanned the darkness with his enhanced vision, blinking to clear them. Silence danced into his eardrums, and it was not the correct response to being burned by shadow.
Bricriu's glowing orange ring emerged from the darkness first, his paw placed on the ground. Dilonwid gasped as the rest of him slowly revealed itself, completely unharmed, the dark flames casting a silhouette around him on the wall like an ink splat.
"Hm." Bricriu said simply as he raised his bare paw, drops of black dripping off his green scales. "So that's what it meant."
"What what meant!?" Dilonwid screamed, his heart pounding as he looked between the destruction of his magic and the invincible green dragon who sat nonchalantly in the center of it all. The table behind him snapped in half, so burned in the center it was unable to support the weight of its contents.
Bricriu's eyes shot up to meet his, and Dilonwid's tongue went lax. His tail tucked under his body.
And as Bricriu's smile cut through the darkness like a blade of white, Dilonwid's body quivered. He hated this weakness, but what could he do? This dragon was invincible! That ring made him all-powerful somehow. He needed that ring.
"That's enough experimentation for one night." He stated, standing up and letting the ink drip from his body armor and down his legs. Dilonwid's mind racing, he didn't dare complain when the armored beast walked to the doorway and threw it wide open to bang against the wall of the ship. He couldn't think of anything else to do. His thoughts had run screaming into the safe comfort of his shadow magic.
As Bricriu moved, the oily sheen of his armor slowly revealed itself under the dripping liquid gloom. Its colors were muted but still present across every centimeter of scale-plate armor.
Helpless, Dilonwid watched him stroll out and shut the door with his tail, every step echoing with creaking wood. He then turned his head to the destruction he'd wrought and whimpered as his letter shriveled up into nothing on the ground. Not even a pile of ashes remained.
He willed his stiff wings and legs to move, stepping up to the carnage he had wrought. Shadow flames licked at everything wooden, save the boards of the ship that were reinforced to survive a fire. He took a breath in, drawing the fire back into his heart, absorbing the mana he had used. But the dark stains across the wood still remained, like scorch marks that were cold to the touch. Save for licking the wood like an animal, he couldn't clean them without supplies.
Which meant leaving the cabin and potentially running into Bricriu just outside.
He felt like he was living an old fairy tale used to scare hatchlings. The big bad Destroyer was outside his door, ready to subjugate him to bring destruction to his kingdom.
Body made of lead for what felt like the hundredth time this month since he met the green dragon, Dilonwid moved for the door. His ears strained, but he heard no one out there.
The door opened with a cripple's agility as Dilonwid's wing pushed it forward, eyes peeled to scan the exterior room.
Amidst barrels and boxes of supplies, there was no sign of the green armored dragon, and so Dilonwid found his courage sprouting into his veins and moved towards the stairs, climbing up, calling out Fyrir's name once he saw windows streaming with sunlight. No worries about the crew being asleep.
As he went up, he could hear a voice over the ship's creaking body, raising and lowering like the tide that carried them. As he crested the next set of stairs onto the deck, he looked towards the helm and saw Fyrir's gaze locked forward. Though not on the horizon.
Dilonwid followed the captain's gaze and saw the entire crew lounging around the bow, their attention rapt on the green dragon currently regaling them with a story entirely made of his own imagination or of his people. He seemed so far into the story, he had to have been there for several minutes. Several minutes that Dilonwid had spent in his room, terrified of the demon that wasn't even outside his door.
Leaving the crew to distract the demon, he moved for the stairs and called out. "Fyrir!" The flame wyvern snapped free of his daydreaming, shaking his orange scaled head to make it glimmer in the clear sunshine as he looked over and smiled happily to see his friend. Until he saw just how panicked and exhausted Dilonwid looked.
"You look like Gremlin dung, friend!" He said as Dilonwid approached, turning his gaze back to the sea ahead. "Still not sleeping well?"
"Not at all." Dilonwid murmured, looking at the crew as they were brought to a burst of roaring laughter. Bricriu was smiling, and it was horribly contagious. It felt real, but something scratched Dilonwi's mind to reject it. A paranoia hissed that it was a lie. "And I doubt I ever will with him constantly pestering me."
"Pestering?" Fyrir's eyes narrowed on the narrator, speaking of a world of princesses and roguish knights. "He told me he knew how to help you sleep. Well, that's what I get for trusting him just because he's got a silver tongue."
"He could have killed me. Why would I ever let someone I hardly trust poison me?" The ambassador looked towards his traveling companion, watching him get more and more invested in his own story, waving his paws and tail around. The bastard even had the gall to smile and laugh at his own jokes. It couldn't be real.
He meant to look away, but a realization stabbed him in the heart, kept him staring. The green dragon's gauntlet and ring were both absent from his paws. Bricriu fluttered his digits like waves, then simulated a crash by clapping his paws together, the sound of scales colliding with scales ringing across the ship. It was not an illusion or a trick of his eyes.
Dilonwid wanted to find that ring. His every instinct pleaded for it. He thought to where the dragon might have put it that he would consider safe. Why would he ever put such valuables unguarded on a ship of strangers? He didn't have a room to himself as the ambassador did.
"I guess that's fair. I don't know, he must have worded it nicely to me while I was still shaking off my hangover." Fyrir's words snapped him out of his mental scouring of the ship, and Dilonwid turned to look at him. He loathed the distraction from his plans, but he didn't want his friend to make the same realization that Bricriu was without his power source. "What happened down there?"
Wasting no time, Dilonwid spun truth with fiction, informing Fyrir of how Bricriu had offered to drug him for sleeping and then continued to pester him about it until Dilonwid had gotten fed up and ordered him out. He wanted to ask for something to clean the shadows, but that would make him look suspicious as well as force him to reveal the violence of his outburst.
Fyrir nodded thoughtfully, turning his head back to his crew. The movement of his eyes made Dilonwid's heart sink. "Well, I'll have someone take him down to the brig to be locked up for a while. We still have a room open that can be locked up. Unless you'd rather we kill him before he becomes a further issue?"
"NO!" Dilonwid barked immediately, hearing his voice carry but too panicked to care. The crew could see him. Bricriu could see him. He just needed that ring. "I need him alive!"
"For the king?" Fyrir asked, eye ridges raised at the sudden outburst.
Dilonwid's eyes drifted towards the crew, noting their stares. Bricriu's quizzical look. "Yes. For the king. He'll want to know what happened out there. And my thoughts might be muddled since I was kept prisoner." He nodded to Bricriu in particular, feeling the combined gaze of the crew move between them like newborn birds. "Not to mention he will know more of the people, being one of them. He'll know the common folk's opinion of their rulers."
The pure lie felt like rancid honey on his tongue. It'd been different before since Bricriu truly had been pestering him. Now, he just didn't want the green dragon to die so he could tell him the secrets of that ring. How to break its effects… or how to use them so he could remain in paradise forever.
But that would reveal everything to his friend. Put him at risk.
Fyrir's wing tapped the floor as the wheels in his head turned, then slowly nodded. "Alright. We will keep him locked up till we get to port and make a call there."
Dilonwid's tongue licked at his lips, throat feeling dry like drought. "Yes. Might as well leave him be for now. Give him time to entertain the crew."
"If you say so, Dilonwid." Fyrir murmured, finally resting back enough to put his wing talons on the sides of his wheel, gazing between the waves and his crew surrounding the troublemaker on his ship.
Dilonwid backed up slowly, tail searching behind him for the start of the stairs. "Well, I will return to my room for more sleeping. Good luck Fyrir."
As he turned to head down the stairs onto the deck, he saw the crew watching him closely. Bricriu was still speaking, but his voice was lowered. And while he strained his ears to hear the green dragon, he picked up Fyrir's muttering voice. "More sleeping? He'd said he'd hardly gotten a wink."
He didn't have time to correct the captain. With all the attention, Dilonwid picked up his pace, moving down into the layers of the ship. It had to be down here somewhere.
Once he was out of sight, he moved around to find the spot Bricriu slept in, careful not to let the boards creak by using his shadows as a cushion. Every bed and hammock looked the same, taunt and ripped from overuse, and so he just checked everywhere, searching under blankets, loose boards, in overhead bins meant for trash and kept out of sight. He found countless valuables and trinkets the crew had amassed, stolen or purchased knickknacks and baubles, even a stash of spare magic crystals. No silver gauntlet or amber ring.
Blankets flew up to get caught in ropes overhead, tossed over his shoulder by using his snout as a shovel. After one side of the ship was searched, he moved to the next, treating every obstacle like the trash it was.
A ringing sound from one of the blankets made him pounce on it, wings clasping around it like a rabbit about to escape, but a quick turnover of the cloth revealed a simple bell. The sight brought him to tears and tearing up the blanket as he went back to it.
It had to be here somewhere. He had to find it.
The urge to panic swelled like a horrid growth. He wanted to tear the entire ship apart, rip boards from the floor, but some part of his mind still in control knew that would make him look crazy.
Crazier, anyways.
His wing thumped into something solid under a blanket, making his heart skip a beat as he moved his tail forward to lift the cloth away.
"Dilonwid?" Bricriu's voice sent his soul out of his skin. He whipped his head around just as his tail brushed under the blanket to see the dragon's armor shimmering in the light straining down from the stairs. "What're you doing with Lovasuv's mate's music box?"
Dilonwid darted his gaze down to Bricriu's paws and held back a gasp as he saw the silver sheen of his gauntlet and ring. His tail smacked against the music box he had felt under the blanket with malice. "How did you get your ring back?"
"I had them on deck." He stated simply. "I think you're unwell, Ambassador. You haven't slept for days, and that can have effects on your mind."
"Don't toy with me, Bricriu!" Dilonwid snarled angrily. "You have them all fooled, but I know it's an act. You're some sort of emotionless freak and I should have never helped you escape!" Fear barbed his words.
Bricriu's eye ridge raised and his armor grew dim as he stepped forward. "You need to rest, Dilonwid. I understand if I scared you before, but you're my companion. I'd never harm you."
"Liar!" Dilonwid shouted.
Fyrir's booming voice cut from the top of the stairs, drawing away Bricriu's attention and cutting Dilonwid's intended speech short. "Bricriu, I must ask you to go to the storage cell."
Bricriu frowned up at the light and Dilonwid was hoping he would object but he simply nodded his head. "Very well." When he turned to look at Dilonwid, the betrayal in his eyes was glistening. It forced Dilonwid look down to avoid the stabbing regret in his chest.
"I'll escort you down."
Dilonwid interrupted before he could comprehend what he was doing. "No, I can take care of it." His eyes were locked on Bricriu's ring. "This is all my idea, after all."
Fyrir paused in climbing down the stairs, then sighed as one of the crew shouted his name. "Alright Dilonwid. Be careful."
As his shadow withdrew from light, Bricriu cooed. "Thank you Dilonwid."
Dilonwid only nodded as he walked towards the stairs that led further down into the hold. He'd seen it again. Even if he'd managed to tear his gaze away from the ring after moving, he knew what he had seen. The ring had a pupil that had met his.
"Though it was hurtful to learn that you wanted me locked up." Bricriu kept talking as he walked behind the ambassador, metal claws clinking on the wood. "I consider you the only friend I have left anymore."
"We aren't friends," Dilonwid said softly, mind focused elsewhere. To what he thought he was doing with all of this.
Bricriu sighed. "Well, we are companions at the very least. We've helped each other quite a great deal. I've gotten you safely to your people, and you've helped me learn."
Dilonwid's eyes felt heavy. "Learn what?"
"Well, that my armor makes me immune to shadow magic, for starters." He hummed, tapping a bare claw against the silver scale plates, the ringing making Dilonwid's ears hurt. "As well as pieces of what my ring can do."
They'd reached the cell by now, and Dilonwid stopped to look at the mentioned ring. No pupil. "Get in the cell." He ordered, watching closely. He needed to know.
The ring had captured him once before, but maybe if he was prepared this time, he could fight back and stop its effects. He was stronger than whatever this Avalar dragon had prepared for him.
He saw Bricriu's claws grate the floor, and then there it was! The pupil stared up at him, and though it shocked him at first, he kept his cool and glared back. Heart pounding, head aching, he refused to be cowed into submission, and put a wall between them.
Quiet eternity followed, and Dilonwid expected to be dragged away to paradise. He expected failure, and instead he blinked. The pupil was gone, and with it all that pain he had imagined.
He'd beaten the ring's effects.
Grinning proudly, Dilonwid looked up to Bricriu, meeting the green dragon's quizzical look and ordered again. "Get in the cell!" The triumph in his tone rang clear, and it made Bricriu flinch. Dilonwid reveled in it as the cowed armored dragon moved into the cell and let it shut behind him.
His tail was even tucked, the poor coward. "Looks like you can still feel fear." Dilonwid taunted, his long barbed tail carefully locking the door. "You'd probably listen to anything I say, wouldn't you?"
"Of course, sir." Bricriu responded, sounding more and more like the whimpering dragon he'd met in the dungeons of Warfang.
"Good." He looked at the ring, licking his lips. His tongue moved to demand it.
"Keep your precious ring." Dilonwid murmured, his eyes going wide at his own words. But the realization sank in quickly. If he took the ring, he may never learn its secrets. He'd never see his paradise again, never feel so fulfilled with life. Better to let Bricriu experiment with it and take it when he falls than to take that target himself.
Maybe the green dragon would learn its secrets and then Dilonwid could learn from him. It'd save him the trouble.
Besides, the crew liked Bricriu already. They'd be suspicious if he showed up with Bricriu's jewelry. Dilonwid could find himself on the opposite side of a story spun to make him look like a mugger. And ships did not have equal rights judicial systems.
"As you wish, sir." Bricriu muttered, head bowed so that all he could see was Dilonwid's wings against the ground in front of his cell. Dilonwid's blood pumped with fervor now. Seeing the dragon who had tricked him into trashing his room now quivering before him was a welcome sight.
Thinking of his room made him realize just how tired he was. It would only be a matter of time before his adrenaline wore off and he'd be back to moping about the ship, stuck between consciousness and slumber. "Tell me, could you really put me to sleep with poison?" He asked the prisoner.
Bricriu looked up, blinking with surprise. "Of course sir. It's one of the first basics of poison mastery, I learned it when I was young."
Dilonwid felt his tail wag as he was called sir yet again. It made him feel respected for the first time since they'd escaped. Like he wasn't just an accessory for the green dragon to bring along. He was in charge now. And all it had taken was overpowering the ring to reverse the curse back on the wearer.
"Give it to me." He ordered. Bricriu was quick to obey, standing slowly, his tail tucked as he approached Dilonwid, who moved his head up to tower over him. Bricriu's maw opened to inject him, and he leaned forward to accept.
A cruel image flashed in his mind. It went against the unspoken laws of his country, but he wanted nothing more than to truly crush the dragon's resistance and get revenge for how he was treated this entire damn journey. This power was maddening.
"No." Bricriu froze under him as he brought his head down to the dragon's hunched level and whispered. "Give it mouth to mouth." The shock in Bricriu's eyes made all of it worth it as Dilonwid pressed his snout through the bars.
He felt their lips touch only for a moment, reveling in the feeling of Bricriu's submission as his tongue dared to graze Dilonwid's lips, asking politely for entry. Granting it only long enough for the dragon to apply the poison, tasting the liquid with a minor texture of chemicals, Dilonwid pulled away. Seeing the emerald dragon's scales grow a few shades darker in the cheeks made breaking all those laws worth it.
"Good. Now remain here while I get some sleep." Dilonwid cooed the way Bricriu had done to him, turning to head to his room on the other side of the ship's lowest floor.
He could get used to having Bricriu so subservient. Perhaps he could convince the King to hire him as a servant, so they might see each other around the castle more. Or maybe he would just hire the dragon outright to work in his home.
A crate jutting out from the stacks snagged his wing and snapped him out of his daydreaming by making him stumble. Shaking his head with a low chuckle at himself, he opened the door to go to bed.
The shadows scorches painting his room laughed in the face of his forgetful hopes.
He groaned from drowsiness and annoyance in equal parts, turning to the stairs and slowly climbing up. His wings and claws were going numb, but he needed to get this done before he could dream of paradise.
He thought back to the ring, wondering if maybe he could have truly gotten away with taking it outright. It had been his intention since the beginning, why change it now?
Moreover, why had he kissed the dragon?
His wings reached the top step before he lost feeling in them.
He'd wanted to show his power over Bricriu, but the laws of his people forbade such actions towards the same sex. He could have let himself be bit, save them both the trouble, and yet he had done something most considered vulgar and improper.
His brain felt like it had been telling his body lies, but his body felt like it was desperate to do it again. What could he trust?
His lower half was numb and the world was spinning more and more, diving and weaving with the waves of the ship. He hadn't felt this sickly since the Poison Guardian in Warfang had bitten him for his egregious actions there. He was drunk and foolish then, but had no excuse now.
It had been his thoughts in control. He had beaten the ring at its own game, overpowered it, made it obey him. Everything he'd wanted to do was his own intentions and desires. It made the fact he had given into them far more intimidating.
Someone called his name. They sounded so worried, but so far off. They'd never reach him in time, he realized. He needed to do this himself. He needed answers
He turned to go back downstairs. He would kill that green dragon and take everything from him. His ring, his dignity. Everything.
His head hit the bottom step before he even realized he was unconscious.
WOW okay this one took a while and went on longer than I was expecting! What can I say, Bricriu wanted to drag this out. He likes to make sure every chapter is a riveting read, and I felt like I needed to apologize to all you amazing readers. Yall are wonderful, and I am sorry I'm as lazy as sloth's sweatiest circle.
I hope the kisses weren't TOO sudden. I realized about a chapter too early that this is a great plot point that I want to explore and see where it goes.
