Chapter 3
The following morning was hell, the rain never stopped and was still raging though the early hours. If there was one thing she hated in the world it was not being able to escape wet hair. Being a human is AWFUL, she grunted to herself. She found Saal and Lil who were both dressed in their perspective armor and the trio left hours ago. They should have reached Stiol Coast by now, but the roads were affecting the carriage they rented for the trip. Lil looked miserable as well, he kept shaking to get the water off his dense fur. Poor kitty, she smiled to herself.
The carriage stopped abruptly again, Lil and Zorina looked at each other. Lils ear twitched and suddenly they both heard a loud yell outside; he jumped out of the carriage quickly and saw Saal slicing someone in half. Blood spilled out of the body and down his blade only to be washed away by the rain as soon as it arrived.
Lil grabbed the two-handed sword from his back and turned back to Zoe "Stay here." he ran up to Saal. One by one they disposed of the bandits; he could tell Saal was beginning to lose his temper. Hair beginning to electrify up the back of Saal's neck, eyes glowing white and a mist seeped from under his clothes. This needed to end quickly but they kept coming as if it were endless. At this point it looked like a massacre.
"Something is burning..." Saal looked at Lil confused.
"It's pouring rain, that's impossible." they turned to the source of the smell. The carriage had burned to a crisp and Zorina was walking out of the charcoal wreckage.
Her arms were completely on fire, along with her eyes. "I. Hate. The. Fucking. RAIN! DUCK!" she casted Burning Hands and shot an explosive amount of fire 15 feet in every direction. Saal and Lil dropped to the floor although they felt the flames singe parts of their hair regardless of their swiftness.
When the rain ceased, Zorina chirped, "Hey, the rain stopped. Alright let's get going, I think I see the city." she started walking towards the two men and kicked Saal's boot. "Nice choice in fabric by the way, my flames run a little hotter than most. I'm surprised it held up this well." Then she walked towards the coastal town, the ends of her sleeve that were once white and gold were now black.
Lil looked at Saal shocked, "Isn't that robe Dragon breathe proof?" Saal nodded in return, "What kind of wizard is she?" this time Saal shrugged in return.
"Do you think they will charge us a fee for that?" Saal pointed towards the 'carriage'.
Lil laughed, "As long as she handles the negotiation I think we will be fine."
When they arrived in Stiol with just enough time to board the ship. Lil had grabbed everything that was salvageable from the wreckage, which had unfortunately not been a lot. Zorina didn't have a lot of items so she wasn't too worried. Saal had a few wedding gifts that surprisingly made it and some miscellaneous items that didn't. Lil carried most things on his person but the saddle was long gone with anything in the pockets of it. Not that he cared much for being Saal's horse on occasion, but now they'd have to purchase a new one.
"ALL ABOARD" A older sailor yelled from the bow of the ship. They set sail immediately.
Now all Zorina had to do was make it a week and then she could kill that stupid old Dragon with her own two claws. The skies were clear for the first few days, Lil and Zorina had started a rather nice friendship. It was truly the first time she had made a friend outside of her race. He was kind, gentle and funny; frankly she was surprised he hadn't been married yet. She also found out how much he liked to gossip about Saal. Turned out Saal was more than reluctant to get married, his father and himself had gotten into multiple fist fights over it. What changed his mind was Lil.
"What did you do?" Zorina asked, she avoided Saals eye contact as he grunted at the Leonin and wondered off.
Lil smiled, "I've met her before. She was young though, probably fifteen. Just a whelp with amazing golden eyes. Her father handed her to me and told me she'd ruled the world one day. I couldn't help but fall in love at that moment, platonically of course. But I told him how she can capture someone heart with a look, on the good end of one at least. She threw a tantrum while I visited and nearly took someone's arm off." he laughed, then noticed her face. She looked genuinely confused by what he had said, didn't know Leonin's used the word Whelp. I thought maybe Pup or Kin would be more in their vocabulary, she thought.
"A whelp, huh? Interesting use of words." she smiled as she started thinking about her brothers and sisters when they were young. Just small baby dragons, fresh from the egg and already flying out to cause ruckus amongst the clan. Zorina truly missed them; she imagined her older brother being very angry at her flying away. "I'm going to get some fresh air Lil, I'll be back. "
Lil nodded at her as she stood and wondered up the stairs and to the deck. Saal strode back up to find her gone now, "Where'd Zoe go?" he sat down next to his furred friend.
"Fresh air." Lil turned to his friend, "So when are you going to just tell her you think she's pretty?" he questioned his friend.
Saal spat out his drink, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he chuckled under his breath. "Lil I never said I found her attractive."
"You've been giving her googly eyes for three days now," he held up three of his own bean toes. "And frankly I'm getting sick of it."
"I'm not risking getting burned to a crisp, she might as well be a Dragon with those flames." Saal retorted. "Scarier than any Dragon I've met before."
Lil laughed, "And you've met a lot of them, Sir Dragon Hunter?"
"Hardy-Har-Har Lil..." Saal paused. "We have a job to do, let's focus on that."
The Leonin sighed, "Do you really think killing the Princess is the best option? You could try actually marrying her like I suggested."
"My father wants this to be the end all so we either make peace through marriage or I finally eradicate the Golden Dragon Clan once and for all. I choose the more fun option." he growled and his eyes glowed in the dark room, his words dripping of bloodlust. This was the man who coincided with his rumors, the blood hungry war monster. The version of him he couldn't let loose unless it was at war.
A few hours passed after their conversation and Saal walked through the door to find Zoe laughing to herself and staring at the ocean. She really was beautiful; through the short time he'd spent with her he'd found out so much. She liked flowers but only wild ones, she had a short attention span, so reading was out of the question. The idea of her studying at the Wizards college almost seemed fake when he found that out. Zoe loved food, any kind and sometimes raw meat. Definably not human, he thought. She had anger issues, liked shiny object and had an aversion to people in general. She truly wanted to be alone unless of course it was from Lil. Saal felt a tinge of jealousy poke through his chest. He shouldn't feel this way but there was something special about her, after he disposed of the Princess maybe he'd look for her.
He continued to observe her only to see a giant head pop out of the water right in front of her. Saal quietly tried to unsheathe his sword, Damn Water Dragons, they're supposed to nice to humans. What is it even doing here? He thought. The head was so enormous it created waves around the ship, its wings peaked out from behind the body still encased in the ocean. If someone didn't know Water Dragons were nice, they would be terrified of the size alone. By all accounts, they were the largest Dragons but the least aggressive. They usually took Sea Elf form when they transformed and even those Elves are known to be nicer that any Elf on land.
Much to his surprise Zoe hugged the tip of its snout. Since he was still going unnoticed Saal attempted to listen. He realized rather quickly that this Dragon was First Prince Jormungandr of the Water Dragons. But why was he talking to a random wizard like Zoe? Sure, the Water Dragons were nice, but they still didn't interact with people that much. Saal shook the thoughts out of his head and peered around the corner, the duo was laughing. Zoe shook her head and looked down, Jormungandr nudged her head with his own giant one and licked her cheek.
"I will return soon my friend. First, my Father must answer for this." she gestured to her whole body.
Saals ear twitch, she was speaking Draconic. Not entirely strange for a wizard but she spoke it without an accent which was strange. Even humans who had practiced their entire lives couldn't pronounce certain words or fluctuate the syllables correctly. The more he learned about her the more fascinating she was. Here she was, speaking to a Dragon in their Mother tongue in the middle of the night.
There was a flash of light, Saal turned back to watch the two but now Jormungandr was in his Elven form. He had long blue hair tucked behind pointed webbed ears and scales going down his legs acting as a natural armor. His back still had sharp fins coming out of it and the back of his waist had what looked like a cape but was just more fin work. Pretty boy, Saal thought to himself. The Prince had claws, which were now wrapped around Zoe's arms as he his face down to touch foreheads with her.
Saal had enough of standing behind a corner and decided to make his way over to them. He wasn't too fond of Fishboy in the first place, it had nothing to do with his scaley claws rubbing her shoulders.
Zorina heard Saal feet stomp their way over to her and Gandr, she rolled her eyes and turned her head. Surprisingly he looked pissed off. In the time she had spent with him she had seen him confused, irritated, laugh and just plainly staring off into space but never this angry. He was sizing up the Water Dragon, not knowing what he was could get him killed.
She wiggled out of Gandr's grasp and stepped between the two of them, "Saal, this is my friend Gandr." she raised her hand to Saal's chest to prevent him from getting closer. "Gandr this is my...companion on my journey back home, Saal."
"Fishboy."
"Ice breath."
They continued to glare at each other, basically growling. Zorina sighed "What the fuck is wrong with you two?"
Gandr grabbed her arm pulling her close to his body, "Z, I don't think it's safe for you to continue home with this creatin. I will take you the rest of the way and we can discuss this business with your father immediately." Zorina pinched her brows together, confused at what he was implying.
"Who are you calling a creatin, you scaley blue hair fuck-"
"Scaley? You're one to talk!" Gandr cut him off. "Nice armor, who'd you kill to get it?"
Saal looked shocked, "I made this with my own-"
A door slammed open; it was Lil. Oh, thank the Goddess, Zorina thought. She didn't want to have to burn the ship down and swim home. Her eyes pleaded for Lil to take Saal out of here. Angry Dragons were not meant to be tempted with battle and Gandr was one of the best fighters in the ocean. They were too busy yelling at one another to notice Lil walk up to them only to smack their foreheads together quickly knocking them out.
