In this world, magic is a normality. It's as natural commodity, almost as natural as breathing. It's a part of life, it's a part of death. Some excel at magic; some are average and others are against using it completely. Despite being able to use it, there are others against it. Opposing forces, magic at the hands of everyone and someone who doesn't wish to use it. What's in store for them.
MC's nervousness is getting to her, she's never even seen a dragon this close before, now she has to handle three of them. No matter how big or small they are they're still dragons.
"Alright! Let's do this!"
"…"
Removing his armor, Zen sits next to Vanderwood watching over MC and looking back and forth between the dragons. Kenna lays down, her tail curling around her as Seven stands close behind MC.
"So what will you do?"
Thinking. Millions of thoughts swim through her head. What do dragons like? What if I don't get them in the cage? Will I fail this quest? These babies, they're so attached to this place, what do I do?
"First, I need to get comfortable with them, then I need to see what they like, or what they are interested in. I also need to work on myself, if I am scared of them, what makes me think they won't be scared of me"
"…"
"First step is trust"
MC stares at the little embers, playing around with each other, they wrestle each other to the ground, chasing each other around and hitting each other with their tails.
Walking over to MC, Vanderwood puts a hand on her shoulder.
"I'd suggest giving them names first, it shows them that your vulnerable enough to give them parts of yourself. Naming any person, animal or thing for that matter bares your soul and offers them a piece of yourself in a sense. Try that and see how it works"
MC smiles at him, extremely grateful for his advice, her mood changes.
Seven smirks "Wow, didn't expect you to step in so quickly."
Vanderwood kicks him, internally laughing at Seven's pain. He crosses his arms, staring down at Seven giving his leg a rub to get rid of the pain quicker.
"I needed to improve her mood, her mood will indirectly affect the babies as well, if she's worried and anxious, they will be too."
"Ah~ That makes sense" Seven said
Vanderwood smirked "Of course it does, who do you think I am?"
They watched MC, following her every move, their eyes darting to the baby dragons and her.
Vanderwood taps his foot frantically "I think I might stick with her, she's making me anxious and I don't know why"
Seven nods "Here I'll help you out."
MC watches Vanderwood gather the dragons into a pile around him.
"MC! Slowly, as slow as possible, come sit right in front of them!"
Vanderwood yells out, getting the dragons to sit with him. They notice the others around them but pay no attention since they are out of range. They focus on Vanderwood, nudging their heads against his hand and circling around him, they throw their bodies against his, jumping in his direction.
MC slowly walks over to them, as slow as she possibly can. The tall grass brushes against her leg. Letting out a small laugh the babies take notice of her and she freezes.
"Dammit! I messed up!"
"…"
Everyone is still, MC's racking her brain, before she realizes that she needs to be comfortable around them. Standing up straight, slowly walking towards them the babies freeze, watching her every move. As MC gets closer, they all run behind Vanderwood.
"…"
MC then sits down in the grass, and stares at them.
Sighing Vanderwood nudges one of them to come out.
"It's okay, she won't hurt you. She's here to give you guys something, she wants to help."
They don't budge at all, occasionally one or two of the dragons peek out from behind Vanderwood but then immediately hide after a while.
"It's been 30 minutes.." Seven says
"You think she can do this?" Zen asks him
"I don't know, but she has to if she wants to pass"
Just as she starts to doze off, one of the dragons come out, surprising the ones around him. Surprised herself, she readies herself for what the dragon might do. He comes out but doesn't move far, or actually at all from where Vanderwood is. He sits right in front of him, staring back at MC.
"This one is the most comfortable of the group of babies, he's cautious but he's pretty outgoing and loves to play the most. He's also the most obvious about what he wants and what he likes." Vanderwood explains
MC analyzes the baby dragon, his dark red scales extending from his head all the way to his tail, noticing his black stomach and the black scales on his tail. MC gives the baby dragon a pleading look. Thinking back to what she read in a book, she goes to reach in her pocket.
The dragon perks up, slowly backing up and bumping against Vanderwood.
"No, no it's okay, look!"
Pulling out a gold nugget, the dragon's eyes light up. His ears perk up as he jumps around. He doesn't move from his area around Vanderwood but at least MC knows what he likes.
"Hey little one, do you mind if I give you a name?"
Cocking his head to the side, his eyes dart from MC to the gold nugget, as he stares at the both of them. Vanderwood smiles, leaning on the back of his hands and giving a glance at the other two dragons hiding behind him.
"…"
MC thinks for a while, thinking about things important to her, baring her heart, she thinks about the good moments, in her life, thinking about her nightmares and her trauma, thinking about her family she finally thinks up the perfect name. Unconsciously she calls out the name after thinking of it.
"...Archion?"
The dragon stops jumping, cocking his head to the side. He continues jumping again, you notice his smile. He runs around Vanderwood, bouncing and tripping over his tail, Vanderwood realizing he must really like the name. The dragon gets up shaking off the grass from his head, blowing out a little fire and running around again, his siblings watch him jumping around with him.
Vanderwood whispers "Psst!, Put up your hand. Like you're stopping someone from coming close to you."
MC listens to him, putting up her hand and sitting up straight.
Vanderwood calls out to the dragon "Archion."
The little dragon stops jumping again, looking at Vanderwood and jumps at him.
Laughing, he nudges the little dragon towards MC and he then notices MC with her hand out. Staring at the hand, he walks slowly towards MC before softly nudging his head with her hand.
Surprised at his gesture, she doesn't move, she relaxes as he rubbing against her hand. Noticing the feel of his skin, his scales, his body temperature matching his color. It's warm, almost a bit hot to the touch but not unbearable. She doesn't move her hand, loving the feeling, almost like she accomplished everything that she could ever have accomplished.
"Archion?" He looks at her, jumping around her, flying a little she could feel a little wind around her as he hovers around her and falls a bit. She laughs, finding him adorable, she pulls out the gold nugget and his eyes are so focused on it, it's almost like it sparkles. She constructs into a necklace with leather and gestures him to come to her, slowly he circles around her and she puts it around his neck. He bounces around her, throwing his body into her, she stumbles over in her sitting position before she laughs a bit.
He runs back to Vanderwood, showing him and his siblings what he got from his new friend.
Vanderwood gets up, walking over to MC and giving her a smile.
"Archion huh? That's a good name."
She smiled, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly "Thanks.
"What did you think about when you named him?"
"Hmm, I thought about a lot of things, good things, bad things, personal things."
"That's a good approach. You should think about various things when coming up with names. Especially for dragons. With your thoughts they connect with you and with their names, they embed both you and the dragons fates. Remember that and be careful when giving names." Vanderwood explained
"Right!"
"Keep at it, you still have two more to go, and you have to get them down to the cave."
"Ok…"
Vanderwood and Seven watched as MC tried various things to get the other dragons to even look her way. They paid her no mind as they played with each other, marveling at Archion's gold nugget hanging around his neck, swatting at it as it swayed from side to side as they played.
Kenna laid still enjoying the warmth the sun provided and as MC stared at them.
Sighing, MC started to abandon hope as she watched the other dragons play with each other.
MC sat down in the grass, laying on her back she stared at the cloud covered sky, shielding her eyes from the sun and crossing her legs.
She thought of many ways to get a dragon's attention, she thought of things she heard, things she has read in books and things that her family once taught her about dragons, nothing she could think of helped her in gaining the favor of the remaining dragons and it frustrated her.
Remembering what Vanderwood told her about her emotions, she tried calming down and retracing her thoughts.
What do dragons adore? What do they like most in the world? What about me? How do I feel about them.
MC remembered what she once said.
I need to gain their trust first.
Sitting up, she continued to stare at the dragons.
One of them turning around.
This one is different from the first one
It's not Archion. Archion has black scales running from the top of his head to the tip of his tail while the majority of his body is red. This one is spotted, red scales adorn his body, the black of his body barely visible, he looks more like his mother than anything.
Smiling at the baby ember MC leans back on her hands. She seriously thought they were the cutest things ever.
The little dragon continues to stare at MC, their eyes locked, neither one looking away.
MC felt a chill down her spine, his black eyes staring deep into her soul, she became entranced by their beauty. Full of fire, full of heat, he stared back at her.
Puffing out a small fire from his mouth, MC snapped back to reality to see him shake his head to rid himself of the smoke and turn back to his siblings.
"What happened? It felt like I was out for a while."
"You kind of were."
"Ah!"
"Where did you come from Seven!?" MC yelled startled at his sudden appearance, or what seemed to be
"I've been here for a bit, like I said you were out of it for a while. I think the little one really captured you didn't he?"
"I believe so, his eyes are really captivating. Like he charmed me."
Seven hummed out "Charm…"
"Charm huh?" Seven's eyes lit up
"What?"
"I have something he might like."
"…"
"Speaking of..have you come up with a name for him yet?" Seven asked with a smile
"Now that I think about it, I haven't."
MC closed her eyes, almost meditating, feeling the warm breeze, listening to the chittering of the dragons, feeling the grass on her legs, hearing Seven's steady breath, she calmly breathe in and out, letting her surroundings engulf her. The heat of the sun on her face, the birds chirping, the distant laughing of the villagers she focused as calmly as she could.
"Adias."
"…"
She opened her eyes, the abrupt light blinding her for a bit, after regaining her sight she glanced at Seven who smiled at her.
"That's a nice name"
"…"
"He seems to think so…" Seven gestured towards the spotted dragon
MC hurriedly looked at the baby dragon who ears perked while he stared at her.
"Adias?"
His ears perked again, becoming more alert than ever, he cocked his head to the side, his ears moving frantically.
"This might be a good time to give you this."
Seven pulled out a stone.
MC looked at it in confusion.
"What is it?" she asked
Laughing at her expression, Seven held it up to the sky, slightly noticing the pair of dragon eyes that watched his every movement.
"It's an Ash stone. You see dragons have an attraction towards things that share an affinity with elements like their own. This ash stone may seem a bit dull to people like us, but to dragons and other beings who have an affinity with fire it is an extremely valuable possession."
"See for yourself."
Seven slowly put it into MC's hand, motioning her hand towards the dragon.
Adias seemed deeply interested, the other dragons also eyeing the stone.
Seven whispered to MC "An ash stone in daylight is muted and gray, giving off the scent of smoke and fire..but if you put it in the dark…" he trailed off
Seven took MC's hand, covering the ash stone with it and gestured her to look inside the cracks of her fingers.
Following his instructions, MC gasped in amazement.
"It glows!"
As the rock had now starting to light up, a glow of red and orange formed under the cracks of the rock, the heat of the stone intensifying in her hand.
"That's amazing!"
The small spotted dragon inched closer and closer towards the two as they continue to fascinate over the stone..
"Adias.."
Stopping in his tracks, he froze.
MC smiled at him, knowing what he wanted from her and why he became so interested.
Raising an eyebrow she held up the stone.
"Is this what you want?" she asked him in a tone
He started at the stone and then looked back at her, his eyes darting back and forth between the stone and her, he laid down, his eyes never leaving the stone.
It looked like he was completely content with just staring at it.
Sighing she laid it down on the ground in front of him, his ears jerked once again as he motioned towards the stone.
MC picked it up again as Adias inched closer and closer to her.
She smiled at him again as he laid his head on one of her legs.
She placed the stone on top of his head and gave it a little pat. Smiling knowingly at him she was happy that he trusted her enough to let her touch him.
He slowly got up, staring at her eyes one last time before going to show off his new stone to Vanderwood, his siblings not too far behind him
Vanderwood gave him a little pat, glancing towards MC and giving her an approving look.
MC sighed in relief, thinking that this wouldn't be too hard.
Two down, one more to go.
