'So how're you liking flying, Robin?'

'It's very…high,' Robin replied over the rush of the wind.

'That's the whole point, silly!'

Robin was small and fragile in her arms. Breakable but trusting as he allowed her to pick him up; to manoeuvre him against her chestplate of toughened dragon-skin. He allows her talons to rest against him when she could pierce through him easily and when her wings beat, the air swirls and she lifts into the skies, Robin merely presses closer and grasps on tighter to her arm.

Robin was a human. Humans didn't tend to like anything that was different from themselves, and when they did it was because it was useful. Nowi could be useful but she was also dangerous. Of course, all Robin had seen when he had run to save her that day was a little girl being chased, not an animal to be hunted, and when she had been forced to transform and his heart rate had spiked - he hadn't gone on to treat her as anything lesser.

Nowi didn't have anyone - not anymore - and she had no where to go but she still thinks, even if she did that she would have followed Chrom and his Shepherds regardless. She hadn't had much luck with humans before now, especially not from the ones she had been escaping; the ones that had taken her freedom, her humanity and had chained her and hurt her. Nowi had faith in these men and women though.

Robin was particularly kind to her but then he seemed to take it as his job to look after everyone, no matter how rundown that made him. His days were spread thin between taking care of people and plotting their battles so Nowi didn't get much of his time, but when he sought her out, she was always happy to include him.

(Nowi knew better than to make him play house like she had with Lon'qu, too, so instead she learnt. It was small things, like how to make a leaf a whistle, the basics of cooking, how to catch a fish, how to throw a rock at a target…)

Robin always seemed…safe, to Nowi. She felt a comradeship with him since she had recognised something in him as soon as they had met. From whispers Nowi had known that Robin didn't have a memory beyond meeting Chrom, had no past, no home. Nowi remembered more of her thousand years than she cared to recall but she didn't have a family anymore, or friends and had no place to go either. They also both struggled through their scarcity; their lack of knowledge with the simple things every person knew from growing up.

It eased Nowi into the Shepherds; allowed her to feel…normal. Or as normal as a girl that didn't grow, who could turn into a dragon could. Not that Chrom's army wasn't full of unusual people, because it was. From weird mages who liked to hex people, to maid like knights, it was full of characters that enabled Nowi to be one of many.

That wasn't a sentiment that Nowi could have expressed before and now she could and she had a human in her arms and somewhere to go. Her lifespan meant the time she shared with her new friends would be brief and it would hurt when they left her, however it ended but it was better to have had and experienced than to never have had at all.

Now that the fighting was over, things would settle down; the risk of Nowi losing someone she had come to care for lessened.

'It's so free up here,' Nowi murmurs lowly, allowing the words to role through her armoured chest.

'I've always found it unnerving,' Robin responds, luckily Nowi's hearing is super-duper good, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to hear him above the wind and the flapping of her wings.

'Oh? Why's that?' Nowi asks in interest, Robin always had something good to say even if it was just a cool drinking song.

'Airborne units are the hardest to anticipate. With ground units, they're always restricted with terrain and the borders of their army and ours. A pegasus knight really only has to worry about long-ranged fighters and even then, that's just when they're going into range of them. I hate having to plan for them.'

'Huh.' Nowi blinks her third eyelid as the air dries them out and the familiar pebbly-thing started to clog her sight. 'I didn't even think about that! That must be really hard. Is it the same for when I'm fighting?'

Robin's eyes are fixedly staring at Nowi's face, leaning as close to her body as possible with his hurt leg as stiff as a board. 'No…you don't fight the same as pegasus knights or griffon riders, so I don't have same issue.' A smile curls at Robin's lips and he softens as he says; 'you're one of a kind, Nowi.'

Nowi has been alone but Robin didn't mean it like that, he was too kind. Sometimes it was hard to understand what people meant and she occasionally misread things but it was getting easier. 'There's only one Robin, too.'

Robin's expression becomes sort of fixed. 'I'm a dime-a-dozen Plegian whose betrayed their country and has a memory problem; that's probably a good thing.'

'I turn into dragon and eat people when I'm angry,' Nowi returns after brief pause, 'but you've let me fight for you, and you're letting me carry you now.'

Robin tilts his head. 'You're not always angry and I know you wouldn't ever deliberately hurt us,' Robin states like a fact, indisputable and unquestioned.

Nowi's feels her toughed face stretch and flex into a dragon's smile. She believed him, she always did when he spoke to her, she just wished Robin would believe her too. 'Robin's doing what he thinks is right. Plegia were being mean so you stopped them and your memory isn't your fault.

His other friends didn't have the bad thoughts Robin did about himself, Nowi wished that'd help more. 'If you think I'm okay than you must be too, Robin. You're the only people I've had.'

'You do know, Nowi, that you'll always have a place with us?' Robin asks tentatively after a pause, eyes shining from the colours in the sky and seeming to ignore any praise directed his way for the sake of comforting her.

Nowi feels herself still and has to remember that they're in the air, above the clouds and that carrying a person this high came with hazards. She had to stay focused. '…a place?'

Robin nods and reaches out to lightly brush his hand against Nowi's chest plate. His skin feels like that silky dress Lissa had shown her, before the princess was dragging her away to force Robin into wearing it. He was soft, delicate and his touch was gentle but almost impossible for her to sense while she was in this form.

'You might not want to settle down in Ylisstol, you can travel or move elsewhere, we'll help with that too.' Robin tells her as his skin warms her through. 'But I thought I should mention it while I have time to: Ylisse will welcome you, you could…stay, with us.'

Nowi's dragon form couldn't cry, her body didn't tear up like her other one did but she thinks if she wasn't transformed, she would. No one had told her that before, no one had ever asked her to stay.

Eye-Spy was getting sort of repetitive and Robin was losing focus, he was struggling to stay awake but he was too worried to sleep. Nowi tried urging him to rest, he was poorly, obviously in pain despite Lissa's and Mary's best attempts to stop thatbut he didn't listen very well, even if it seemed like he was shivering.

Nowi tried asking him how he was doing. At this height it was probably very cold for a human but she wasn't very good at feeling it in this form, her body kept her warm with the fire in her belly and the thickness of her skin. She also didn't have any other experience, it wasn't like there were people lining up to go for a flight, even if that should totally be a thing.

Anyway, Robin wasn't very straight forward when she questioned him, even with this stupid Curse he was under. It wasn't like it wouldn't be normal for Robin to be feeling a bit cold; he didn't even have his cloak and he was made for the sun.

Robin probably didn't want to worry her.

She worried anyway.

Once the sun had started to set, Robin's shivering became more noticeable to a point that Nowi could now feel him rattling against her. She lights a small fire on the tip of her tongue, ignoring the taste of brimstone as she parts her mouth in order to better see her travelling companion.

Her two hearts drop at the sight of his trembling body, huddled to her and stiff as the dead. Robin is pale - paler than he ever should be with his dark skin and sweating. A fever, her mind supplies as concern speeds her forward.

Robin had stopped talking what felt like forever ago, and Nowi had first assumed that he had just finally fallen asleep. 'Robin?' Nowi whispers worriedly, after puffing out the fire harmlessly into the air.

'…Nowi?' Robin croaks, his chest sounding fluid-y to her sharp hearing in a way it had no place to be. He's gotten ill, her ears pick it up, the gross mucus clogging his throat and nose, the sweat bubbling through his skin, his fast breathing… She's gotten him sick.

Freddy had forewarned her that she was going on ahead and wouldn't be able to stop until she reached The Longfort. Nowi had past their friends position by miles and miles, they were days away on foot and she wouldn't be able to find them now, even if she did double back. She couldn't just pullover, not when it was only the two of them. Robin couldn't defend himself and if the Risen over took them…

Her wings were tired, muscles straining but she needed to keep going. Nowi had agreed to this journey because Cordy doing it would hurt Robin too much, and she didn't want that, so Nowi had promised to look after him. She was soaring through the Border Sands, another half a turn from the moon and she'd reach the small stretch of ocean before she could follow the wall of The Longfort's to reach its entrance.

Nowi was in half a mind to go straight to Ferox but Freddy had cautioned her against that. Without Chrom, Flavia or Basilio she didn't have any sort of jurisdiction and even if someone recognised Robin, there was still risk. Feroxians fight first and ask questions later, Nowi couldn't afford to land and chance a battle if they didn't recognise her as part of Chrom's militia.

'Hey Robby, you hold on okay? We're getting close now.'

'…'kay, I trust you,' was Robin's weak response, before he's silent again.

Nowi clenches her giant jaw and prepares herself to fly faster, slashing through the air like one of Robin's Thoron attacks and continues at her fastest speed through the salt air, and the ocean rumbling below, through the ice and the snow fall.

By the time Nowi has reached the gate of The Longfort, she is tempted to drop through her descent but she forces her wings to flex; to balance in the air to ensure she doesn't jolt Robin on her way down and glides instead. Her vision is narrowing as she forces herself to stand, stomping and dragging her tail to the entrance while soldiers swam around them.

'State your business dragon,' one demands as they poke her side with a spear. She can barely sense it and she doesn't care enough to react otherwise. It wasn't a Beast Killer, Nowi didn't even think it was steel and Robin was safe in her arms, anyway, out of the way. It would take a lot more than that puny spear for them to hurt her.

Now. Words, she had to use words. What had Freddy said to her?

'I - I am an envoy of Chrom and - and your Khan.' Her voice echoes, and a few of the closest soldiers take a step back from her. Nowi doesn't know why, she probably doesn't look all that scary when she is falling asleep on her hunches.

'You? You're a dragon.' One sneers out from the crowd while having the same tone others have used to say freak, or monster. Nowi is too old and too tired to flinch at that now, not when she had more important things to worry about.

'I bring Tactician Robin, he - he's been hurt in the battle,' Nowi tries to reason as she shifts Robin in her arms. It is a gamble but she forces herself to lower further to make Robin visible to the humans, hoping that that would be enough.

'You are trespassing -' one continues, starts to advance with a weapon to their side. Nowi prepares herself to fight, thinks that Robin will be angry at her for hurting their friends but they're not acting very friendly and she has to look after him.

Her feet crunch in the snow, her legs preparing to jump back into the air so she has the distance to unleash her breath when there is a commotion behind the gate. There are voices yelling and the soldiers startle when the entrance opens, and a person of metal is marching forward.

'You!' the metal person addresses as they pass through the soldiers. Nowi notes numbly how they part for them, weapons lowering. 'You say you bring Sir Robin to us, does that means the battle went poorly? Did our forces have to fall back?'

Nowi blinks tiredly, exhausted from the flight and from carrying Robin all this time but she knows that question is important and shakes her head. 'No, we won. Gangrel is dead.'

The metal person takes a breath, drops their weapon into the white, ignorant to the cries around them and treks forward until Nowi rears back. 'I am a boarder guard here, to let you through I must know you are not with the Mad King. I have fought Sir Robin before, allow me to identify him and you have my word that I will look after him.'

Nowi hesitates but it is cold here and Robin is a creature of fire, not ice. It is making his fever worse and she needs to get him warm, needs to look after his leg. She nods and further lowers him so that he is cradled to the metal person's eye level.

The metal person carefully takes another step forward and is exceedingly slow, and cautious when sweeping Robin's colourless hair out of his face. It doesn't take a second before the metal person's eyes widen, and then they're swearing. 'Damn!' They turn and point to one of the nearest soldiers to their right. 'You there! Get me out of this, I cannot take my armour off myself.'

The solider delays before scrambling to remove the metal shell from the person. Gradually, the metal person loses half their size until they are not metal at all. 'Fierce dragon, I am Raimi. Allow me to carry Sir Robin into our fort. He needs warmth, quickly, before the cold can take him.'

Nowi does not want to let him go, she had made a promise and Robin trusted her, but Chrom and Robin trusted these people too; called them friends and Chrom wouldn't ever let Robin get hurt. She takes a breath, allowing it to heat her mouth. 'If you don't look after him, I'll. eat. you,' Nowi warns.

Raimi inclines their head and deliberately positions herself to take Robin from her when Nowi remembers: 'be careful of his leg, it's broken.'

Raimi stills, eyebrows knotting as they examine Robin's legs and suddenly notices the one with the brace. Raimi swears again but still hooks one of their muscled arms under Robin's knees while the other curls around his shoulders. 'I will be careful,' Raimi swears.

Nowi watches tiredly as Robin's weight is taken from her and slumps forward. In light and petals, her dragon form melts away until all that is left of her is her faux human body. Raimi double-takes but simply tells Nowi to follow their lead.

'Are you able to walk?' Raimi asks as Nowi struggles to keep up, swaying in place as her muscles ache from the smallest of her hairs to her biggest toe.

'I - I can.' Nowi responds, determined to stay with Robin and see that they take care of him.

Raimi's eyes narrow and the next thing Nowi knows, she has been scooped up by another soldier and she is getting carried inside with Robin.

'Do you know all of Sir Robin's injuries? Would you be able to relay them to a healer?' Raimi inquires shortly.

'Yes,' Nowi replies, blinking. 'But Lissa's already fixing Robin's leg. He just got poorly on the way here.'

'I see,' Raimi responds. 'I remember Princess Lissa, she's a very talented healer.'

'Yeah, Lissa's great.' Nowi smiles as two soldiers come forward with a pile of furs, one of which is blanketed over her, but she is far more interested in how the other soldier covers Robin.

Raimi probably notices her watching but they don't say anything about it. 'We don't have many healers here but we are good at treating the cold. Beside that, Sir Robin is strong, he will recover.'

Nowi nods. 'Of course he will.'

Con/Textual: Sort of a set up but I hope it's interesting enough. I liked writing Nowi. For the first page and then it got pretty hard. If you are wondering why Nowi refers to Raimi as "they" it's because Nowi's tired and isn't always very good at working out gender. Or, that's what I figure; she's not human herself, I like to think she finds us really weird ^^".

I also gave her a nictitating membrane; a third eyelid like a crocodile and two hearts because I was thinking too deeply on her physiology. I reckon she'd have a third eyelid to protect her eyes from drying out in flight and two hearts to help regulate blood since her body is so large. Anyway, yeah. Thanks for waiting! More happening in the next chapter :).

(Originally uploaded: 27/10/2017)

Oz