Sorry for the wait guys... I'm getting way too distracted by way too many other things. But, as always: Dragonpath is not going anywhere ^^ Let's go!


Chapter XXXVI

The Shattered Crystals"

The rain missed the part of the mountains in which Armailith's nest was situated, and I spent some time just gloomily watching how the sun changed the pattern of shadows in the cave. Eventually, I fell asleep again. The daze from meeting the dragoness, the depression caused by what I learned from her and the recurring pain in my left wing didn't leave me much strength for anything else.

When I woke up again, it was already dark, only the moon lit up a part of the cavern by the northern wall with its silvery light. I rubbed my eyes, trying to stretch a little without moving my wings. I felt Armailith shift the wing she was shielding me with and lift her head from the hay to look at me. In the light of the moon, she looked like a heap of silvery-golden charcoals.

"Finally..." she purred. "I was afraid I would have to venture out hunting without informing you." She slowly got up to her feet, her scales rustled in that familiar, resonant way... "You must be terribly hungry, you didn't eat for so long. I will come back as soon as I can."

When I nodded, still half-conscious, she carefully climbed onto the rocks surrounding the opening above us. I heard her spread the enormous wings and she leaped into the dark night.

I shook the remnants of sleep off and reached to one of my shoulders. To be honest, I didn't even expect to find my haversack with the food there. I obviously lost it in the commotion... By now, I was incredibly irritated by lying in the same position for hours, but there was nothing for it if I didn't want to make the wing worse. So for now, the only thing I could do was to sink deeper into the little warm pit in the hay, wanting to take a short nap until Armailith returned... but then...

I heard a noise...

Like a quiet whisper of footsteps, like a murmur of a conversation in the distance...

I couldn't stop myself from jolting up from my bedding, even ignoring the sharp pain that shot through my left wing, just praying that this wasn't some illusion... I looked around and spotted the opening of a tunnel, that was hidden behind the enormous body of the dragoness before.

There were two tiny lights flickering in the darkness, two little flames... The joy and relief took my voice away completely...

Fortunately, I didn't need it, because soon Asuna's joyous shout echoed throughout the cave, and she swung her arms around my neck just seconds after. It was the most desperate and most painful hug in my life, but how could I forbid it, when I felt the warm tears on my shoulder... I embraced her and started to stroke her back. I soon felt Eugeo's hand on mine, as he kneeled down next to us with an expression on indescribable relief on his face.

"I'm so glad..." Asuna managed to sob out finally, not even letting go of me. "We were starting to lose hope..."

She pulled back a bit. Her cheeks were wet with tears, but her eyes were smiling brightly like never before. She was dirty almost all over, her pants ripped and blood-stained on her right thigh, but it seemed unimportant to her. Eugeo didn't look any better, and he looked utterly exhausted on top of that...

When Asuna moved away a bit further to put herself in order, Eugeo reached into his pocket... to my surprise, what I saw in his palm the next second was the emerald-green of my sirath.
I raised my eyebrows and touched my neck involuntarily. I didn't even notice that I lost it...

Eugeo smiled and swung the leather band over my head to put it back where it belonged. He then put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "Please... make sure that whenever I'm holding it in my hands again, I never have to think that this is the only thing left to me..." he said quietly.

I would have liked nothing more than just give him a bear hug at that moment and let my relief and the apologies go free, but... there were still Armailith's words echoing in my mind... "All this time, you were accompanied by the rightful ruler of Earlindon..." I turned my gaze away and nodded simply. I didn't see Eugeo's face, but I could almost feel he was taken aback by my cold reaction...

"What happened to you?" Asuna interrupted the weird silence between us rather quickly. "After you disappeared along with two dragonnes, all we found was a collapsed wall... it was so dense and the rocks so huge, we couldn't find a way through the mass... How did you get here? And why didn't you respond when we were calling you? I was sure we could be heard from afar..."

"I didn't hear... I regained consciousness only this morning, and I couldn't really search for you either... my wing is fractured..."

"Oh no... can I see it?"

She carefully touched the damaged spot when I showed it to her. I shivered upon feeling the brush of her slender fingers on the inner side right below the leading edge and bit my lip, but didn't protest until she finished the examination.

"Well, you had some luck in all of it," she finally stated. "It seems to be broken only in one spot and the parts of the bone are not shifted too much..." Without much hesitation, she took the leather band with her sirath off her neck and repeated Eugeo's previous action before
I could protest. "You need it more than I do right now."

I just smiled, knowing that I won't convince her. "Thanks."

"What even is this place?" she finally decided to have a look around, curiously eyeing the nest of hay around us. "And how in the world did you manage to get this far with a broken wing?"

For some reason I felt too lazy to answer all those questions... and I decided to leave the explaining to Armailith. The sheer thought of the dragoness and the presumable faces of my companions when they see her was enough to almost make me snort with laughter.

"Did I miss something funny?" Asuna seemed to nevertheless notice the amused glimmer that must have appeared in my eyes.

"Not at all," I replied, trying to keep a straight face. The tone of my voice wouldn't have convinced anyone though.

Asuna and Eugeo exchanged looks, likely silently agreeing on the fact that I might have not been feeling very well still.

Suddenly a loud noise became audible somewhere above our heads and a slight wind picked up. All three of us lifted our heads. I, of course, knew what it meant, but my companions seemed deeply disturbed.

Shortly before the air finished its dance, there was a loud thump, which shook the whole cavern and all of its contents. Eugeo jumped up to his feet. We watched the opening in the dome for a few more moments, before the enormous silhouette of the dragoness appeared against the night sky. The glow of the full moon subtly reflected off of her golden scales... Armailith folded her mighty wings and peeked inside the nest, craning her long neck.

Eugeo sunk back to the hay and Asuna's hands just dropped to her lap.

"Oh, I see we have guests," the dragoness noticed, eyeing them amicably.

For a few moments, there was dead silence in the cave.

"Is that some joke...?" Asuna finally managed to stammer out. "Or... some trick...? Wait, that's probably one of Chrysheight's illusions again. Admit it, you met him here." When I just started to laugh, she smiled a little. "So I'm right."

"Not quite."

Armailith swung her tail from left to right one time, a hint of annoyance perceptible in that movement. "I knew that humans need a long time to believe in anything, but I never would have expected that a druid would call me a joke," she purred.

"But..." Eugeo finally found his voice again as well, "it's impossible... the dragons..."

"Kirito was convinced of that as well, dear Eugeo," the dragoness interrupted him, starting to sound amused. "And yet he had to admit that he was wrong."

I felt Eugeo's stare on me, but I didn't answer it. Armailith slipped into the cave, careful not to damage any of us with her wings or tail and laid back down on the hay. I noticed that she didn't bring anything with her. "You're back really quick..." I started, as if it was the most casual conversation in the world. "I thought you wanted to hunt."

"I did, but I just couldn't concentrate properly. The thought that I left you here all alone didn't give me any peace of mind. Luckily, my worries turned out to be superfluous."

"Are you two having fun?" Asuna suddenly interrupted us.

Seeing the impatience and the still deep shock in her eyes, I decided to finally take pity on her and Eugeo. I sat down comfortably, leaning against Armailith's stomach to lend some support to my broken wing, and briefly summarized what the dragoness told me about the fate of her race earlier that day.

When all doubts were finally dispelled, we made a meal from the remnants of Eugeo's and Asuna's provisions, and Asuna decided to take care of my wing, so it could start healing properly as soon as possible. She dug a few bands of fabric out of her bag, a bit dirtied but long and resistant, and a little wooden container full of some salve with intense, herbal scent. She asked Eugeo to bring some twigs from the brushes growing just outside the cave and soon after my wing was nicely secured and covered in a balm that brought heavenly relief.

Eugeo and Asuna decided to get some well deserved rest early, but I didn't feel like sleeping at all. Two days of just laying in the hay brought back most of my energy. A little past midnight the wind wiped the sky clean of any remaining cloudlets, the night got brighter, full of some peculiar, greenish glow, a part of which was falling into the cave. A few pale stars lit up like small gems on the canopy spread above the opening in the dome. When the only thing audible in the dragoness' hideout was the calm and deep sound of her breath, reminding me of the rush of waves around Tacritia, I carefully got up, got out of the nest as quietly as possible and sat on a big, solitary rock underneath the opening.

I stayed there for a while, following the little dots with my eyes. They were heading for a far away summit, just the very apex of it visible from the cave, black against the imperfect darkness of the sky. I could hear an occasional flutter of a bat's wings, a few of them probably hunting near the brushes outside.

I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, near Armailith's enormous form, and glanced to my left. A familiar silhouette cautiously circled one of her rear legs and came closer.

"Can't sleep?" asked Eugeo.

"I was sleeping way too much the past two days."

"I see... we had trouble with that. All this time, we were wondering if you were still alive, or if..."

I didn't know how to answer, so I just cast my eyes down. I was scared to talk to him, just like at the beginning, but for a different reason. Right now I was terrified that I could say something that I would regret for the rest of my life.

"Why are you so silent...?" the quiet voice of my friend ripped me out of my thoughts. "Since we found you, you hardly said anything to me... did I do something wrong? Or maybe I said something that offended you...?"

I sighed. "No, it's rather about what you didn't say..."

He tried to look me in the eyes, as if searching for something in them, but kept quiet for
a long time. I thought I felt something akin to fear from him, followed by silent understanding... Eventually he sighed and looked up at the sky. "Who told you?" his voice sounded depressed, a depression coming from somewhere deeper than this conversation. "Did Asuna connect the dots after all...?"

"That's not the right question to be asked at this point," I remarked, my tone way colder than
I intended. "I should be the one asking why I didn't learn about it from you, but from
a dragoness that I got acquainted with just yesterday."

"I hoped so much that I wouldn't need to explain this to you..."

"But I would still prefer if you did."

"Listen..." for some reason, it was Eugeo's turn to sound increasingly irritated, "I had
a number of reasons, the first of which being the fact, that I hate discussing that topic, because everyone always seems to try and prove that I'm wrong... Besides, I don't think you would have felt very comfortable around me all this time if you knew that you were playing the role of a little usurper who occupied the place that was meant for me all this time..."

There were reasons... I knew immediately that there was so much more behind his words, so much more that he needed to tell me before I understood completely... but at that moment, it didn't stop the soft storm clouds of my eyes to turn into two hard obsidians. "Ah, I see..."
I muttered, overcome by a sudden anger, but at the same time feeling some unpleasant sting inside my chest. "Good to know what you were thinking about me all this time... it just doesn't quite explain why you didn't seize what's rightfully yours and instead just watched me suffer..."

"You know it's not like that, I didn't..."

"Go to sleep," I interrupted him, trying to stay calm. It was a foreign feeling, to be so angry at him. "I'm sorry I even dared to ask about it your highness..."

At those words, Eugeo fell silent completely. After a moment, he turned away from me. Nothing happened for a while, it felt like he was waiting if there would be anything else
I wanted to say. I did want to, because I already started to feel bad about it all, but the words somehow didn't manage to get past my lips. Finally I heard him leave and return to the nest. Armailith took one deeper breath, which sounded like a sigh... I started to wonder if she heard everything... I slid down the rock to sit by it and lean my back against it. I spent the rest of the night stargazing, and trying to shoo away the feelings of guilt...


When it rains, look for Rainbows,

When it's dark, look for Stars"


Yeah, I'm not quite satisfied with that ending there... this is not quite like Kirito. Sorry about that. I'm trying to adjust the original work a little but I can't do it much in some places without doing damage to further development of some events. So bear with me for a little.

Thank you so much for the review sweetheart 3 It was such an amazing feeling to know that after all these months I managed to live up to your expectations... It's like a dream becoming true.

I will try to be more regular about the chapters again. No promises though XD Thank you all for reading, favoriting and reviewing, I hope I will see you soon ^^