Tristan

Garret reappeared in the grass the dragon standing over him in his human form.

I rushed over to them with Wesley on my heels. The stranger stepped away to let us to him.

"Everything went exceptionally well. He's fine though exhausted and dehydrated from some desert shenanigans he mentioned. He requested me to move his body to this point in time."

His words made no sense to me. I kneeled beside Garret and touched his arm.

Strange gray eyes cracked open and a surprising happy smile appeared on Garret's face.

"Mind to give me a hand?" He said and I helped him up. He swayed slightly and rubbed his face. The smile was gone.

"Shit, what a fucking mess." He murmured.

Wes clapped his shoulder and Garret let him.

"Bloody mess mate, no discussion. Let's get you something to drink before you faint again."

Garret nodded and we followed the dragon into his lair. As the relief from Garret being back washed away worry about him, another nagging thought became more loud in my head. But I was Garret's Lieutenant first, I'd see to him and then worry about my personal... attachments.

We got a late-late supper at Felix, who was a jolly fellow, very unlike Talon dragons, or my assumptions about them anyways. Then we got back to the mansion where Jade agreed to watch the house for the rest of the night, that was actually already slightly lighter. She was very animated during our short visit at the dragon and asked him so many questions, that he invited her for a private visit, where he would answer all her questions for hours just to get us to leave. Now she disappeared in the darkness outside to keep watch in whatever manner she found fit.

"Talk tomorrow?" I pleaded Garret even though it wasn't my place to suggest anything. He nodded absentmindedly and went upstairs.

I didn't need to fake exhaustion. I was dead on my feet and yet there was no bed for me yet.

I turned to Nettle before she managed to leave, as Riley and Wes had one of their quibbles about transport. They lingered in the vestibule behind closed inner doors.

"I need to talk to Felix, will you take me to him?"

She looked worried. Mist stopped with her hand on the door handle.

"It's four o'clock Tristan, cannot it wait?" Nettle moaned.

"Please." I insisted.

"I must ask permission, what's your need?" She said pulling her phone out.

I was acutely aware of the risk of Mist, Riley and even Jade overhearing our conversation.

"Cannot you just write, that I humbly and desperately seek his counsel?" I wasn't going to risk Riley overhearing Stealth's name.

Nettle rolled her eyes.

"And am I the one who shall deliver you to him? Tristan we're all exhausted, cannot we take this up tomorrow?" She moaned again.

She thought that I had some burning questions like Jade. But the more I thought about what Nettle and Felix said about the shield's magic, the stronger premonition I felt and now that Garret was fine, sudden feeling of urgency was about to drive me crazy. I would not sleep before I saw Stealth.

"No Nettle, this cannot wait until tomorrow I'm afraid. I don't want to tell you more, because I really don't know what's up and down in here. But should my request show to be unnecessary, I owe you a no-question-asked favour anytime." I tried to persuade her.

"Oh?! And if it's necessary? What do you owe me then? This basically is a no-question-asked favour, that can make me fall out of favour of a very powerful being." Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Okay, I owe you a no-questions-asked favour, just for asking him and if, this shows to be unnecessary, then I'll apologise prettily too." I said.

I was exhausted and on the brink of collapsing, fortunately my training as a soldier allowed me to ignore my body's needs and state to the point of breaking. I held the stare of Nettle's black eyes until I felt dizzy.

"Fine." She said finally and started typing on her phone.

"There, I cannot guarantee they answer..."

Her phone buzzed and she looked at it.

"You're in." She sighed. "Giddy up."

"Want me to come with you?" Mist asked from where she stood at the doors.

"No, I'll be fine. I can handle one soldier." Nettle winked to her and Mist went out. Riley and Wesley were already gone.

I followed the dragonels out where they shifted. Mist glowed slightly in London light night, Nettle was a darker shadow in paling night. Only her black eyes shone strangely. She crouched and I mounted her without words.

The two took off in silent unison. No swishing sound of the wings, only the rush of air and shifting of my weight on the body between my thighs signalled our take off.

Nettle landed in the same garden, but led me into the house through a side doors hidden in plain sight in a vines infested corner.

I followed her through short staircase and dark carpeted hall lit partially by golden light streaming from open doors.

Nettle led me to the doors and I beheld a large office or a small library with walls covered by wooden bookcases filled with rows of leather bound tomes and a lit fireplace flanked by two tall arm chairs of midnight blue plush.

Felix sat in one of them with a book in his hand, that he carefully closed and put on a small wooden side-table.

The gaze that settled on me felt heavy and I suddenly didn't know what to do. How do I address a creature who can crush me in one move and manipulate time? Not to mention convince it to help me in my plight, immediately. He didn't know me or Stealth, it was dangerous to assume he cared about her...

"You want something." Felix said in his normally human if deep voice.

I gathered my resolve and lay my case out as concisely and clearly as I could in the middle of conflict between urge to flee and to prostrate myself and beg for mercy.

"My name is Tristan St Anthony, I'm a lieutenant in the Order of St George. I have arrived to London a week ago accompanied by an adult dragon Stealth. We were unaware of danger and she decided to walk me to the Order's HQ. When we were quite far away off she got a fit and I carried her away. Luckily." I could have just as well carried her to the HQ damn it!. "She woke up, but was stricken with strange weakness. We spent a night together without her getting much better. She then instructed me in accessing her funds through one of British banks, which I did and then she moved to a nicer hotel to recover further. I left her there with money and joined my Order. I haven't been able to contact her since, but didn't think much of it until Garret got hurt and Nettle and yourself made me aware of how strong and dangerous this could be..."

Felix watched me with still eyes and in the blinking light of the fireplace, he looked more and more dangerous.

"I ask you to come with me to where I last seen Stealth to look for her and help her if she needs it." I finished quickly.

Nettle stood by my side like a statue. Skill that she never showed off before. Felix shrugged.

"Okay"

I stood in front of the low building of the crazy expensive though not at all that opulent four stars hotel near Russell Square. There could be no doubt that dawn was close, the sky in the east turned colour of indigo.

"How are we going to get to her if she's unconscious?" Nettle asked.

I just climbed the stairs and noticed relieved that the receptionist was same as the morning I left Stealth here.

I approached the counter and quickly read her name tag.

"Hi... Syrah, I'd like to check up on my friend who is staying here. Her name is Cora Harris?"

I held woman's stare as I relaxed and coaxed warm smile on my face and into my eyes.

Something passed in her eyes, Cora was no longer wanted here and so was I, by association.

"Ms Harris have been unwell and her... other friend requested for no one to bother her."

"I'm sure he didn't mean me." I said quickly but saw immediately that my words didn't land well.

Before the sturdy brown woman managed to retort, Felix joined my side with a smooth move and said in a low voice.

"My young friend here only needs to pass her a quick message. I promise, that he won't stay long." He said with charming smile that was annoyingly way more charming than mine and passed her a roll of banknotes shielding it from the camera with his body.

Syrah's smile didn't reach her eyes as she accepted the tip and nodded.

I knocked on the doors in a narrow, carpeted hall of questionable cleanliness and style. The stars must have been for the location I guessed.

I knocked again.

And again.

I haven't come so far to give up because of a closed doors. But I really wasn't up to kicking a doors in in a fucking hotel with a CCTV camera pointed right at me from the corner by the staircase...

The doors opened and a massive black man filled its empty frame. He eyed our trio clearly unimpressed until his gaze met Felix. Then he visibly paled and I used him being off guard to push my case.

"Is Stealth here?" I asked.

"Came to finish the job St George?" He asked threateningly, the result was ruined by the way his eyes couldn't help darting towards Felix standing behind my left shoulder.

"I want to see her. She might be in serious danger, I came to help..." I insisted.

"Let's not make a scene. May we come in?" Felix said calmly and the man, retreated to let us in.

The room was small with a grey floor and a double bed on which lay...

I stepped closer to the withered husk of a person lying in the hotel bed and a sickly sweet smell filling the room intensified tenfold. Stealth's skin was yellow and thin as paper stretched on a body that consisted of bones only. Her eyes were closed and eyelids were bruised violet and dark blue. Her hair... must have came off because only few thin strands covered her dried out scalp.

I let out anguished whimper as I reached for a lifeless hand resting on the white coverlet. Her hand was thin and frail, more a talon than a human hand...

"She's not dead." I heard Felix voice from behind me as I was unable to think or feel anything from sudden shock of seeing Stealth like this.

"How long have she been like that?" He asked.

"She's lost consciousness two days ago." Came the man's… the dragon's answer.

"How could she gotten like this in only a week?" Nettle's voice was full of fearful disbelief.

"She called me three days ago saying she was sick and needed my help. She's a friend of mine. Ember sent me over here to kill Garret so I could easily come by. I stayed, brought her food and tended her in any way I know, but she declined in insane tempo. Before she lost consciousness... She's made you her heir and asked me to execute her will." He finished with venom and I knew he was talking to me.

But I didn't care, I couldn't stand the thought of what that would mean.

"Thank you, that won't be necessary. Tristan asked me to save her and I will. Now excuse me, we need to get her out of here." Felix cut through and I felt him standing beside me.

He touched Stealth's forehead and I suppressed irrational urge to push his hand away. I couldn't move, I was afraid of what I would do if I did.

"Easy now Tristan, let's get her out of here, ready?" Felix said and reached out his hand to me. I finally tore my eyes from what I had hard time believing wasn't a corpse resting on the neat hotel bed.

"Take his hand, we will... glitch." Nettle said and added.

"What about him?" Pointing to the black man watching us suspiciously but keeping distance due to obvious respect for Felix. Respect that suggested, that he knew what Felix was, that he too was a dragon.

"He may come with us or stay here, whatever he wishes." Felix answered.

Nettle reached out her hand to the man, who probably was a dragon.

"Hold my hand, if you want to come with us."

He eyed her tiny hand with angry frown over his narrowed eyes and just as she made to retreat he grabbed her hand.

"Ready?" Felix asked and then he grabbed Stealth around her waist picking her up with the duvet with one arm and the floor disappeared from under my feet.

I caught balance and blinked. We were in a ballroom. Felix un/shouldered duvet-wrapped Stealth and lay her on the floor in the very middle of the huge room.

The walls dimmed and disappeared and suddenly only the three of us were there.

Felix removed the cover from Stealth and I couldn't bear the view of her skeleton-thin body only covered in black Viper suit, that hang loose! She couldn't survive that! Maybe she could put a disemboweled soldier back together in a matter of seconds, but she couldn't survive destruction of her own magic. I realised that I would miss her terribly.

The dragon stood up over Stealth and made a guttural sound that I guessed was draconic.

Then he made the sound again more insisting and nudged Stealth's face with one outstretched finger.

A rush of power knocked me backwards as Stealth shifted into her impressive dragon form. Only her usually shiny scales looked dull and crooked. Her wings membranes seemed dry and frail, like old parchment.

The corner of the ballroom was missing walls and ceiling, the shiny wooden floor stretched in all directions and disappeared in darkness. I realised that it didn't particularly bother me, it made it possible for Stealth's huge true form to fit into the house without knocking down the walls. Practical, or maybe I was so tired that I couldn't muster more fucks to give.

I looked at Felix, still in his human form looking at Stealth's head with absent expression and realised he was communicating with her. It felt wrong that he could do that and I couldn't, so I stepped forward and lay my hand on her shoulder blade sticking pitifully under her loose skin.

Felix' head snapped to me and he seemed surprised, that I still was there, but he recovered quickly.

"Great! Tristan right? I cannot wrestle her through time the same way, I could your human friend... pushing entire dragon back in time without its cooperation would be... too taxing." He winked.

"But I can push her forward since she's already set in that direction. Yes, I can push her forward to when the worst of it is over..."

I didn't understand the word he said, even though I was sure it was all English.

"Will she go into the future then?" I asked relief mixed with sadness about losing her anyways.

"No, this way she wouldn't need my assistance. She's adult and strong and now, in her true form, she can heal faster than the lingering magic of the shield is hurting her. She'd just sleep for hundreds of years drinking life-force from around her until one day voilà, she'd wake up. But you want her to wake up in your lifetime and I suspect, that she'd prefer that too. So I'll push her time forward outside of this time." He winked and smiled as if he said something extremely amusing.

"Would you hold your hand like that all the time?" He said to me and I braced myself to do so.

At first nothing happened, then the room disappeared and I found myself standing in void. I fought panic and vertigo, but then scales in front of me started to change painstakingly slowly, and my attention turned to Stealth who was lit by extremely faint light, only illuminating her. My hand in front of me was invisible in the total darkness. Stealth's scales straightened, smoothed and regained shine, the skin underneath became more supple and flesh underneath felt fuller...

I must have dozed off became I woke up lying on the shining ballroom floor covered with a soft white blanket. My back was pressed against Stealth's side. I sat up only to discover, that my neck was stiff as fuck.

I turned my body from side to side to discover that the sun was shining through the windows remaining there and that more than half of the room was still shrouded in darkness made even more foreboding by bright daylight.

The doors opened and Garret came in with Nettle, Mist, Madison and the "friend" of Stealth.

I stood up to face them.

"Tristan, what the hell man? It's the day of the election and you're bailing on me?!" Garret greeted me endearingly.

"Are you still going through with the election?" I asked hoping, that he had a plan for avoiding death during anointment ceremony.

"I have no idea what else to do." Garret said flatly.

Damn my neck, Garret, the Order and my luck.

"Oh so you're going to turn into a helpless baby now? After you've been barking orders and calling the shots ever since the day of fang and fire?" I called him out on his bullshit.

"I have just had a hell of a day and night saving your life after this plan almost killed you! I slept on the floor after I collapsed saving Stealth and you came all the way here to give me a reprimand and tell me that we continue with the insane plan?! Fuck you Garret! How about we stop, think, regroup? Or just take a break?" I was tired of this.

"We are supposed to do this together. How about we get a say in this?" I finished more calmly.

" Who's we?" Garret asked.

"Me, Madison, Andrew, Wes and Riley. Maybe even Felix, he seems to know plenty we don't know. How about we listen to everybody's ideas before we decide, that getting you elected while you are unable to be anointed is our only option?" I felt dizzy, I sat down and leaned against Stealth and felt such an immediate relief, that almost I jumped back up.

"Don't go back to the HQ just yet. That's all." I finished.

The girls stood and looked uncomfortable under our exchange and the black man's eyebrows shot up. I forgot about him dammit.

"And who the hell are you?" I asked him grumpily.

"It's Mace, leader of Talon's Gilas." Nettle said and added. "He's helped us escape the hatchling training facility with the eggs."

A dragon then. What was his business with Stealth? This wasn't the time to ask, actually not my business. I needed to shower, eat and sleep. And Garret to get his show together.

I turned and approached Stealth's head, her jaws were as long as myself, but I touched her muzzle without fear.

"Are you going to wake up or what?" I said softly.

"Felix said it may take couple of days or weeks for her to wake up. That she needs to put herself back together after being ripped out of time pushed one hundred years forward and patched back in." Mace said behind me.

"Weeks?" I couldn't stay here for weeks. Or could I?