Madison
"He is getting worse! We need to call a doctor!" I said trying to get Tristan's full attention.
"I agree..." Wes seconded, he stood by the bed feeling Garret's wrist.
"Hi guys, how is he?" Nettle asked walking into Garret's bedroom.
"Oh. Hi Jade." She beamed spotting the eastern dragon and then asked sheepishly "When did you come back?"
"Hi Nettle, I just got back. To find Garret in his dying bed as usually... or he got into it shortly after... How have you been sweetheart?"
"There's no time for that!" Tristan interrupted annoyed. "We have to get Garret a doctor soon or..."
"No wait! This is a magical injury, doctors trying to strengthen his body might not be enough to stop magic from hurting him further. There's... someone who can help him... I can take him to them." Nettle said and Riley sent her a sharp look.
"Are you out of your mind?" He retorted.
"He is a soldier of the Order of St George and future Patriarch! I see them slitting his throat and being done, not helping him."
"No, he is a soldier and a future Patriarch who wants to end Order's war on dragons. Without Garret the Order still has the shield and can rise again and again." Nettle stood her ground fiercely.
"And you'll take him to a witch doctor instead of hospital?!" Riley didn't give up yet.
"Oh?! Because you took him to a doctor, when the former Patriarch shot him?! Get off your high horse mate!" That was Wes.
"Wait a minute? Where do you want to take him?" Tristan interrupted.
Nettle looked way less self assured as she turned to him and Andrew.
In the end she chose to look at Jade as she answered.
"There's an elder here in London, a dragon of great knowledge and powers. He knows of the magic of the shield and can assess what needs to be done to help Garret. Maybe he'll send us to a doctor in the end..."
"Then let's make this process shorter?" Riley insisted.
"Whoa! What?!" Tristan was wide eyed. "There's an adult stranger in London and you didn't find it important to tell us?" He looked at Riley.
"There's nothing you can do about them anyways." Nettle said.
"Don't look at me. I've never met the bastard and I don't intend to, if I can avoid it." Riley snorted.
"You want to take our Commander to a stranger dragon?" Andrew asked shocked.
"They're friendly, they've been very helpful to me, Mist and Kain..." Nettle insisted.
"You are dragons! He is their enemy..." Andrew said angrily.
"No! He is our friend. He was our friend before the Order took him back. I stand by him and I only came here, because I believe, that his life is in danger and I might have a way to save him! Please listen to me. The magic that made him immortal is now being burned out from his body by the magic of the shield so it cannot heal him, and at the same time it is literally burning cells of his body as it is being annihilated. Time is against him, as with time there's less and less regenerative magic in him and his body is more and more damaged. My friend has magic that can remove lingering shield magic." Nettle pleaded.
"I have never heard of a dragon with such powers. If his invitation extends to me, I'll go with you and do all in my power to guard and protect Garret." Jade said as if all was decided.
It looked like they could argue for hours on, we didn't have time Garret was getting dangerously warm...
"Let's vote!" I shouted and all turned towards the bed, where I was still leaning against headboard and clutching Garret's limp hand. I saw confusion on their faces. Neither Talon nor the Order were a democracy, you followed the orders of your superiors. But maybe we could change it.
"We are all his friends and his inner circle here. We care greatly about his wellbeing. We cannot agree, let's vote." I continued.
They looked unsure but Nettle picked up my suggestion.
"Who's for taking Garret to a dragon, who means they can help him?" She asked loudly.
Jade, Wes, Myself, and Nettle raised their hands, after a while Tristan raised his too.
"That's settled then." Nettle said.
"What's settled?" Mist came through the doors.
"We're taking him to Felix." Nettle answered quickly.
Mist looked at Garret and nodded.
"Okay, how?"
"A cab." Wes lifted his hand.
"We don't vote, we fly." Nettle said and talked over protests.
"It's the fastest and safest way, we fly together and remain invisible. Jade will you carry Garret and someone holding him?"
Jade looked offended, she pursed her lips and said.
"No one has ever mounted me."
"I can carry two." Mist offered quickly.
"But!" Jade continued displeased by the interruption. "There's first time for everything and I guess it's more me carrying an injured friend to safety that them riding me." She looked at us daring anybody to contradict her.
"Let's go people!" I prompted them.
Tristan and Riley carried Garret down the stairs to the garden, where Nettle, Jade and Mist shifted.
"We'll flank you, so no one sees you." Mist offered.
"Girl I can cloak myself." Green dragon hissed indignant.
I helped Riley and Andrew lift Garret's limp body onto Jade's narrow back, where Tristan gripped him around the waist with one arm and fisted his other hand in Jade's mane.
I mounted Mist and saw Wes jumping onto Nettle's back as if they've done this thousand times before.
"Whoa!" I clung to Mist's neck as she set off with a powerful push of her pale wings. Into the diluted, light London night.
Tristan looked tense clutching Garret's lifeless body to his stomach.
I held on for my life for a couple of minutes when I felt my body relax as it has before. I shifted my body weight anticipating Mist's moves, let go of where I held on to her neck and straightened up. Tickling exhilaration filled my body and for a moment I just tuned into the rush of air, swoosh swoosh of Mist's wings and awe of flying. I felt like whooping, I felt a big smile on my face and happiness in my heart. I didn't even wonder at sudden oblivion, it felt so obvious that riding a dragon through a night sky made me happy...
Suddenly Mist dove and after short vertigo we touched down in a secluded garden behind tall walls of a huge town house. I looked around. Nettle thumped down beside Mist, sitting down on her haunches from impact and looked suspiciously smug when Wes cursed her.
Jade glided gracefully down her long body winding between and around two western dragons.
I snapped out of the flight lull and jumped off Mist as Wes crawled off Nettle and the two dragons shifted and we all surrounded Jade ready to help Tristan get Garret down.
"Welcome to my home." Smooth deep voice said behind us.
We all turned towards the house where a dark haired handsome man in his early forties stood in open french door. He was dressed in a navy blazer over white shirt and brown pants. He exuded affluence and magnetism such as I've never experienced before. His gaze stopped at me shorty and suddenly I was unsure if any of us would even try to stop him if he really intended to slit Garret's throat.
"Hi, this is Felix. Felix this is Madison, Tristan, Wesley and Jade." Nettle introduced everybody. "Jade helped bring Garret over is that okay?" She asked quickly as if realising how wrong things could have gotten.
The handsome stranger stepped out of the doorway and down the stairs to where our small group stood frozen on the lawn.
"Welcome Madison, Tristan, Wesley and Jade." He said in his voice at once commanding and seductive, I felt sudden blush creeping up my throat at the influence his voice and gaze had on my body.
He stepped towards Tristan, where he still sat astride Jade with Garret.
"Your friend..."
"Garret." Tristan said quickly.
"Garret is in clutches of a very malicious and quite powerful magic. A magic with intent of killing every dragon it touches. This magic has finally recognised your friend as a dragon and now it won't let go until he is dead. There's no time to waste, his human soul might leave his damaged body any minute he suffers. I'll have you take him down and lay him here on the grass." He said and Tristan nodded silently. I rushed to help him and with me holding Garret's head, Tristan holding his torso and Mist legs we carried him to the middle of the lawn and carefully lay him onto the dew covered cool lawn. His body was very cumbersome as he was completely limp and fell between our hands. I kneeled and held Garret's upper body to my chest. He was burning with fever, still lifeless and his smell became slickly. Far cry from the last time I held him... I felt sad and thought for a while, if things had been different, if we didn't lay together that night. Maybe if Ember haven't seen us that morning, she wouldn't have sent the clones to wipe out the Order, she wouldn't have ordered Garret to be killed, we would be getting the reparations as agreed upon and Joseph would still be alive? Piercing pain blossomed in my chest and I felt hot tears streaming down my cheeks and dropping onto Garrets pale bruised face.
Jade shifted and faced our host.
"I'm Jade." She said with a small bow of her head full of stiff dignity as she seemed to fight the need to shrink and cower from him.
"Welcome Jade." He said and turned to us.
"Listen carefully, once I begin I might not be able to answer questions. I will now do what needs to be done for your friend to survive. The magic of the shield is evil and twisted and has claimed lives of many dragons. I wish to have nothing to do with it. But I have another kind of magic, that I can use to heal your friend. I'll now push him back in time to before he came in contact with the foul magic of the shield." He stated and I tried to understand what he meant.
"But how? Will he disappear and go back in time?" Tristan asked unsure.
"No I'll extract his body from this reality, move it back in time to when his state of health was better and push him back into the very same moment." Felix explained to shocked Tristan.
"Is this safe?" Tristan asked.
"I've done it before successfully with humans suffering from not magical health conditions. I dare say there are large chances for success if Garret wishes that."
"What do you mean if he wishes that?" I asked feeling ugly premonition.
"In order for his body to move in time without him losing his memories I'll extract his mind from his body and hold it while I... manipulate his body into health. He must cooperate for me to be able to do this.
"What if he won't?" I asked.
"Then I have two choices, push him back in time to where he was before the shield's curse first licked him, or leave him alone." Felix explained.
"What if you push him like that?" Tristan asked.
"He will feel as if he travelled forward in time, he will have no memory of the time that passed."
Wesley, Mist and Nettle all looked at Tristan, it was his decision, he was Garret's oldest friend.
Tristan stepped beside where I held Garret and fell down on his knees. His gaze lingered shortly on my wet face before he took Garret's hand in his and visibly shuddered at the clammy lifeless feel of it.
"I don't know what all this means to you mate and if you'll hate me for it..." Tristan whispered so low that I could hardly hear him "But I figure you have fought so hard to stay alive ever since I have known you... You survived, that attack, when your mom was killed, death sentence, being shot by the Patriarch, explosions in that lab... you really wanted to live... For your dragon and for us in the Order... and we need you. That's why I let them do this to you. It's an act of love and I really hope it's not misguided..." I was surprised to see tears shining in Tristan's eyes as he squeezed Garret's hand one last time. "See you on the other side mate." He said and touched my arm briefly before he stood up and went back to Felix.
"Okay, what do you need from us?" He said at last.
"To stay calm. Holding a human mind in mine while manipulating time is a very delicate operation that requires my full attention. I'll take your friend to another reality, so that we won't be interrupted. It should not take more than 10 minutes. You can wait here or go inside. Nettle and Mist, you know this place feel free to be hostesses to your friends. If everything goes as intended, I'll see you in a short while." He said and turned to me.
"Leave him Madison." He commanded and I carefully lay Garret's chest and head on the grass. As I was to get up I felt hands gripping my arms, hoisting me up onto my numb legs and steadying me. Nettle and Mist flanked me and Mist said. "Let's go inside and get you some hot chocolate..." we walked to the stairs where Tristan and Wes stood watching Felix standing over Garret's body. Suddenly I feared that we've made horrible mistake but then Felix shifted...
He was huge. I have never seen the Elder Wyrm but she was described to be larger? He was a size of his house, half of his huge pearl body was in shadowy cave that now opened in garden's wall.
I heard Tristan inhaling sharply and Wes whistling as the dragon lifted his massive horned head and blew fire obscuring himself and Garret from our view.
Then they disappeared.
"What the hell?" Tristan exclaimed.
"It's okay, dragon can do different magic with their fire, it was just warping time and space." Nettle explained wistfully and somehow it calmed us down. Tristan sat on the top step and watched the garden flanked by Jade.
I went in with Mist, Nettle and Wes as even though the situation was grave I was curious of a real dragon dwelling.
Inside Nettle led me and Mist through an opulent sitting room and hall covered in soft carpets and into a spacious kitchen with shiny wooden and tile floor. Three steaming mugs stood on a granite kitchen counter.
Nettle went straight to them and took a sip. Mist took two other cups and handed me one of them. It was large but light made of thin china with gilded peacock painted on the side.
"What are you doing?" I asked recoiling from her.
"Easy, these are for us. Hospitality." Mist said with small smile.
"Besides this chocolate is worth risking having your head bit off by an angry dragon if you ask me." She added seriously and took a sensuous inhale from her cup.
I took the offered cup and let the rich smell fool my body to relax slightly.
"So how is your work for the Order going so far?" Mist asked and I stopped to think.
How much could I tell her before Garret meant I betrayed his trust? I'd better ask him if he survives.
I made a vague gesture with my hand.
"Yeah. If you ever need anything let me know. It wouldn't do to let Garret and that other kid push you around." She said and closed her eyes sipping her chocolate.
"They're not bad, you know. Even for humans Garret and Tristan are exceptional. But they are young and inexperienced and men."
I listened in silence not knowing what to say to that.
"So if you need to hang out with some females, shop or something, let us know." Mist finished and smiled beautifully.
I felt a strange mix of sympathy and jealousy. She smiled to me, to reassure me. At the same time her ethereal beauty only got more prominent in this smile and the fact that she'd be just as beautiful long after I'd be dead seemed unfair.
"How is he going to be?" Mist said next.
"Fine. Felix was surprised that the shield recognised him at all. Riley must have pumped him full of magic in the heat of the moment." Nettle answered from where she leaned on the windowsill with her cup.
Mist snorted. I wasn't sure what they were talking about.
"We will not ask you to talk about things you must not talk about." Mist turned to me startling me with sudden seriousness.
"But we need Garret and Tristan for what they're trying to accomplish and... maybe some other things. And we hope that you will be of service to them."
"If you want me to spy on them for you..." I started feeling queasy. I so wanted their friendship, but I was not going to let them use me like my father used to, so that they liked me. At the same time thought of Mist turning cold and aloof as she was with others made me dmfeel desperate.
"Oh no. We are keeping an eye on them twenty four seven, we basically perch on their headboard when they sleep. No, if we want yo know something about the Order's moves we can just talk to their soon yo be Patriarch." Nettle scoffed and Mist smiled even more.
"We just want you to know, that even though we have our own agenda, we greatly care about Garret and Tristan. And you." Mist said and yawned.
"They're coming. About time too." Nettle said looking towards the doors to the hall we came from.