Riley
"I'll help her helping." I said to Commander St George, not exactly a question. He nodded slowly. I made to take the dragonkiller, but he said. "No. It's useless against small fast moving targets and too precious for us to risk losing." He shouldered the gun and turned leading St Anthony away. I had a feeling he didn't believe me. Stealth was perfectly able to finish all these vessels and then kill each and every person in this base on her own.
Since she took soldier's M4 and he took the dragonkiller, I only had my two guns against a viper armed with a rifle. I cursed under my breath and hurried to follow Stealth.
She was already nearing the armory looking up to where vessels worked trying to collapse the entire wall. She carefully laid the M4 down, shifted and took down three vessels, biting one in a half and in the same move slicing the one next to it open with her talons, while her other front paw simply smashed unlucky clone on the other side. She threw the carcass away with a powerful toss of her neck. Again I was shocked with her size. She was perfect at stealth in more ways than I thought. She has been more sneaky that I could ever suspect any dragon to be, somehow appearing casual and less threatening, while in real she was an adult older than Lilith, judging from her size. And then there was the question of her human form...
Remaining vessels reacted immediately by fleeing into the hole in the wall and disappearing inside the building. Pursuing them in her dragon form would mean destroying entire building and risking to kill or hurt humans inside. Stealth shifted back and picked up the M4. I cursed myself for my own indecision, but the moment was gone.
"I'm going in, wanna join?" She asked and not waiting for the answer she leaped up gripping the edge of the hole. Dragon or not, this shouldn't be possible in human form. She pulled herself up effortlessly using one hand and legs. Then she rolled into the shade inside and immediately shots sounded from there.
Damn it! There was no way I could scale this wall like she did... I considered trying the other side of the building, where the hole was lower, when I saw her again dragging something heavy, a vessel. She pushed its corpse to the edge so that its wing hung down... "Grab it" she said casually and for a split-second I was about to refuse, but then I grabbed the tip of the wing instead. It was limp and gross in a way that only corpses are but it actually worked pretty well. I climbed up and crouched beside Stealth in the dim area, I could hear shouts and shots from the inside and then nothing.
"They pushed forward when I attacked. I got most and soldiers on the other side got few, but I think four managed to break through..." Stealth whispered. "It sounds as if it's done now, let's see..." I said and started towards the middle of the building.
There were dead vessels all over and at times we have to move them or step on them in narrow passages. The stairs were covered in blood and I followed Stealth down to find three more dead vessels at the bottom and a bit further, the forth lay on top of a soldier, whose back was practically torn open by talons of the now dead hatchling. This must have just happened, because the man was still very much alive and screaming, and the puddle of blood around him wasn't very large.
I stopped abruptly as at least four rifles were pointed at us. "Not a step closer dragons! Where is Commander Sebastian?!" A man, Commander Knight shouted at us and Stealth's eyes narrowed.
"He is outside with Joseph and Tristan." I said purposefully using their first names. "You can just call him over." I really hoped this wasn't the moment, when degraded commander decided to act more creatively on his own, and me and Stealth were going to be gunned down before St George comes.
Just then a woman I knew as Amanda Knight entered and exclaimed. "Josh!" And then took in the rest of us and addressed the commander. "Jason, he will die if we don't do something now! Whatever it is, must wait till later." And without waiting for his answer she bent over the injured soldier. The men whose line of shot passed through where she now stood lowered their guns.
"He's dead no matter what we do!" The man spat eying us with hateful gaze.
"No he is not!" Stealth said. "We can help. I need a cup or a bowl..." "None of your demon tricks dragon." Commander Knight hissed as his wife said to no one in particular. "Give her a cup and fetch Archie... and Madison." The man grunted and lowered his gun. And we were handed a small plastic cup, that Stealth grabbed and turned to me with "come". Then she raced up the stairs and I followed her, not willing to see, how long Mrs. Knight's authority would override Commander's. "St George? Where the hell are you, Commander Knight was about to shoot us!" I muttered angrily into my wire as we quickly crawled out the hole we've used to get out earlier.
I waited in vain for a reply as I turned to see Stealth in her true, intimidating form. I instinctively cowered and then straightened myself. "Take the cup and draw some of my blood into it! Quickly!" She said and I looked at her as if she was mad. Then I looked at thick scales covering her entire body. She whipped her tail forward. "Shoot me." This I would not pass up. I carefully aimed at where the underside scales merged with the rest and shot her on the tip of her viciously armed tail. The bullet ricocheted but managed to take off one scale and a bit of blood started pooling in the small wound. She didn't even flinch. "The cup!" She hissed and I obeyed feeling like in a dream. There was barely enough to fill the cup, when the wound closed and Stealth shifted back tearing the cop from my hands without spilling a drop of its contents. She almost run around the building towards the front doors that were sealed, melted by the adult dragon. Soldiers inside have just found out, that they were unable to open any of the doors.
"Damn." Stealth said and turned around to where we've come from. "Hold it." She's pressed the cup back into my hands and I followed her. "What the hell are you going to do with this? You know how stupid it is to go back in there before St George comes back?" I couldn't hold it back any longer as she jumped and grabbed the edge of the window as if it wasn't at least twelve feet. This was starting to get on my nerves. "Gimmie" Stealth reached down her free hand behind her and I did, just for the hell of it. If I was going to die shot full of holes by my 'allies' in St George, I at least wanted some entertainment before. She placed it carefully on the edge of the wall and pulled herself up. I followed her flying up into the wall and shifting just in the last moment, so that the momentum carried me through the hole in the wall. I hit the floor rolling and felt stupidly happy that St George haven't seen me like that.
Downstairs Stealth was faced by only two soldiers with guns. When she was about to say something Madison appeared behind them. "Mom says they're to be brought to her immediately." She said, and soldiers stood down. Mrs. Knight must have had huge authority indeed.
Stealth followed Madison to a small room arranged into a makeshift first aid point, where the guy Josh was laid face down on a table, smell of blood hung thickly in the air and stains were visible on the table and floor. For now poor bastard wasn't bleeding too much, maybe didn't have more blood left. Mrs. Knight was sewing one of his minor slashes with a bleak expression. Without taking her eyes off the patient she spoke. "So what is your remedy dragon?"
Stealth approached the table with a cup in her hand. "Don't be afraid." She said.
"I'm afraid Josh is dead if what I can do for him is all help to get. So you try all you can." Was Amanda's terse answer.
Stealth dipped her finger in her blood from the cup and run it over the longest and deepest of the slashes, the one almost baring poor Josh spine. The wound closed on our eyes, like a video clip on reverse. Stealth just continued with the rest until his back was whole and only marred by old faded scars he must have gotten before. Madison, the paramedic and Mrs Knight watched in silence. The latter checked Josh pulse, and started to wash the blood off his muscular back. "Let's not tell this to anybody" she said slowly looking at Madison and the paramedic.
"There's no hiding this unless we cut him open again." The paramedic interrupted her a mix of awe and fear in his eyes as he looked at us.
didn't know what to think about this. I've never heard of such ability... As we each stood there gathering thoughts, Stealth went to another end of the room where a young soldier was airing a nasty burn on his cheek. She touched his wound with two fingers dipped in blood and it covered with new skin. Conflicting emotions warred in his eyes as he said "thank you".
Stealth went back to me "It works. Let's get back to St Anthony."
An ugly suspicion that this somehow was all about him crossed my mind, but I agreed with her, we needed to get to them ASAP.
"Can we get a lid for that cup?" I joked and was surprised, when I got a plastic lid from awestruck Madison.
"Hello?" I hollered in the hall, to make sure I won't get shot in dim twilight lit space. St George appeared in one of the doors and I approached him quickly saying. "All vessels are dead. It's over."
Stealth entered the room. And went straight to St Anthony, who sat on a chair by the wall. Now I could see he was flushed and his eyes seemed absent. She stopped in front of him. "May I?" She asked. He nodded though he couldn't have understood her question. She removed the lid and painted two lines on his forehead starting in the middle of the forehead and ending at the temples. They immediately disappeared as if sucked in and he blinked. "What will this do?" He asked. "Save you some headache." She smiled at him. He shot a scared look at St George but said nothing.
I still didn't trust Stealth at all, but since she was currently in healing mode I decided to prompt her to do something really useful. "Can you heal his leg?" I asked pointing at Joseph. Stealth eyed St Anthony for a split-second more, I swear she didn't want to look away from him just yet. What the hell was going on? One couldn't leave these soldiers unattended for a couple of weeks without them wooing dragonells into idiocy!
Stealth pivoted on her toes and kneeled beside Joseph. He was one of the soldiers who helped rescue dragonells from the breeding facility and took part in the final battle, so he had some experience of not all dragons being malicious monsters, yet he looked scared as, he would have crawled away broken leg and all if he wasn't already cornered.
"I'll need to cut your pants to expose the flesh. Do you have a knife?" She asked him as if she was a nurse receiving a patient at ER. St Anthony reached to his belt but his Commander stopped him with a look and slight shake of his head.
After a moment hesitation Joseph took out his knife and handed it to Stealth. She unsheathed it with an expert move, that has done nothing to put Joseph more at ease, then made a quick job of a leg of his combat suit pants and set to unlace his boot.
"What is this about?" St George asked me and I winced thinking about this story getting out of my normally reasonable if humorous mouth. "Apparently dragon's blood can magically heal wounds on humans". I said curtly, watching Stealth spreading her blood on Joseph's shin. The soldier watched her horrified but then suddenly exhaled and relaxed as the blood disappeared from his skin. He carefully flexed his foot and smiled. "It's fixed!" He exclaimed and the other two soldiers exchanged worried looks. "Don't over exert it for now" St Anthony offered with grim expression, he seemed more awake now.
"Let's get back to the other's." St George said. "There's a problem. Both doors are melted shut." I said. "Oh and Commander Knight had his men aim M4s at us." I added. He rubbed his face, poor kid, this day was starting to wear him down. I didn't envy him being the commander of these bunch of bloodthirsty idiots.
In the end we parked a car under the hole in the upstairs wall and people crawled out this way. St George ordered temporary HQ to be established at one of the buildings, that have not taken that much damage.
Stealth followed Mrs. Knight, Madison and St Anthony looking for survivors in the debris of the less lucky structures. I would deal with Stealth soon, I really needed to talk to St George right now and he was in demand. Accepting reports of the battle, conferring with Commander Knight about what the hell were they going to do.
St George to his credit was taking it well, he issued orders for makeshift sleeping area to be arranged in adjacent room. All were to sleep together, except for Lieutenant Mitchell, Josh, Madison and her mother switching on watch in tech room in the armory.
As the others went about following orders commanders and lieutenants sat to discuss larger plans.
"There are no casualties and everyone is fit for fight. We have supplies enough for a week or so, we were supposed to refill tomorrow. Most buildings are in okay shape, but we have no good place to defend from dragon attack or any attack really." St Anthony recounted.
"We are in such a deep mess! This fucking bitch! She might be able to end the order, but we take her down with us!" Lieutenant Ward spat and I tensed knowing very well who was the "she" he was talking about. Ember. Garret kept his eyes focused somewhere in the middle of the table but somehow everybody heard him, when he said quietly. "We'll go to England."
"What?!" Commander Knight said and I would have enjoyed his total surprise, was I not just as much surprised myself.
"The headquarters of the Order of St George are there and we have a men there. I know of a house of former Patriarch that we can occupy. And... I know someone there who can help us finding the trove." Garret continued calmly. "We will be out of Talon's reach and we will have time to lay a plan for future."
"And how will you transport 20 undocumented men over the ocean?" Lieutenant Mitchell asked.
"We could sail." Garret offered.
"When would you have us go?" Was Ward's question and so it went. St George stood firmly and slowly got the others convinced to his plan.
My respect for the kid was growing.
I let them plan for a while trying to fit, what I was going to ask for into their agenda.
Finally I asked the soldier for a word, but he just braced his elbows on the table and looked at me expectantly. With my favorite Lieutenant Ward and the Asshole Knight listening intently.
They stared at me and only the soldier's gaze had any sympathy or compassion in it. The Ward started. "You're telling me, that we're to go and risk our lives to rescue breeders dragonells from a Talon's facility. Same breeders, that we've rescued no more than half a year ago?!" He was so shocked, that he forgot to be angry.
"If we move quickly there won't be much risking of your lives. It was a low security facility last time I've checked. We have a contact inside. And it's not the same dragonells, it's just four of them and their eggs, that Talon wants to use to produce more cold-hearted murderous bastards to serve... them." I couldn't get myself to say "her". Something just didn't make sense about Ember turning Elder Wyrm 2.0. I could feel, that Commander Sebastian had same thoughts and hoped to investigate further in a future where we both were alive and had a bit of time from dodging death.
"And what's in this for us dragon?" Commander Knight asked.
"Is being a decent human being not enticing enough?" I smiled. "We will fly you to London." I continued smoothly when he was about to retort.
"What?!" This time everyone asked.
"My dragons will fly you across the ocean, so that you don't need to show any documents to those thorough immigration services.
These dragonells need to get away from... Talon too and will carry you overseas in exchange for protection on your territory. " I said triumphantly. I wasn't sure how I would fulfill this promise, but Autumn and her egg were worth it even if I was to fly them all by myself.