I'm so sorry I done y'all dirty in the last chapter. I hope this came out fast enough though.
Chapter 42
The ringing in his ears was all Tyt'o could hear. That, and the muffled sound of something else, but what was it? A waterfall? Was there water nearby? The rushing in his ears was nondescript, so he could not make sense of anything around him. Even his vision had wavered as his hearing had betrayed him utterly in the wake of hearing a Dragon roar so close to him.
Taking his hands now away from his ears, he cautiously opened his eyes which were oddly blurry, and he wiped at them to discover they were wet. He looked at his palms, close to his face, and wiped again. Were these tears?
His disorientation was interrupted by the sharp tugging at his left arm, and though he turned his head to look at what it was he felt his body respond so slowly that it was nearly dizzying. Hermione's frantic and wide eyes were next to his, and as her mouth moved rapidly he realize that her words were the noise he was hearing. Accept he couldn't hear her yet. He squinted to clear his vision, and shook his head slightly.
Her cool hands touched his forehead, and she leaned closer to his ear. The tone ebbing and flowing with her words, but the tenor gentler now. As dizziness swept over him, she guided him gently to sit once more. Had he been standing?
Tyt'o closed his eyes as he did, fighting back as the darkness around his vision threatened to overtake him and pull him under. All the while his sister's voice seemed to slowly creep back into tune as he began to understand better what it was she was saying. Slowly, at first, the words became clearer.
" …..too close, but I didn't think we wouldn't have felt is while we were here. Why do you think…" Her words faded back out again as the ringing returned slightly, and he tried shaking his head instinctively, as though that would help him somehow.
"….be close now. That was so awful….." Tyt'o sighed as his sister kept speaking rapidly. "….soon now, perhaps, we might be getting closer…." Without looking, he reached out his hand and grasp his sister's forearm and gave it a gentle squeeze. When he did, the ebbing and flowing of volume ceased and he felt her palms at either side of his face along his temples, turning his face this way and that as she examined him.
The blur around his vision had begun to retreat and the picture in front of him became clearer. In his immediate field of sight was his sister, peering into his face like their mother would when she was sure they had come back from the barn with fleas. He swatted her away playfully, and she returned the gesture as her attention never left him. As she tried tapping at his upper ear lobe he pried his head out of her hands and looked around her to see what had happened.
Nothing about their sad land dreary little camp seemed to have changed, save for the fact that both Draco and Theo seemed to have been similarly incapacitated, and were recovering slowly as they sat, sagging against their own legs in the dirt below them. Each separately struggling through their own disorientation equally.
Seeing that clearly he was regaining his faculties, Hermione staggered herself towards Theo first, as he was closest to them, and placed a hand on his shoulder. She kept her gesture gentle, and her tone very light, unsure if what response she would be met with after the days of silence and brooding unhappiness they had endured.
"Theo," she whispered. "Are you alright?" The young man looked up gingerly at Hermione. At the girl who had over the months of their tutelage become his friend. Maybe it was a reaction to the terror they'd just experienced, or perhaps even vestiges of the friendship they had forged, but he returned her gentility with a small smile and touched her hand as he gave her a faint nod.
Seeing to Theo, Hermione walked cautiously then to Draco. The one person there she was most unnerved to be close to, and yet the only one there she wanted closeness with as well.
His breath was ragged, and his back rose and fell rapidly. She hesitated as she reached out to him, nearly pulling her hand back entirely as she second guessed herself. Her chilled hand made contact with his cool outer leathers, and instantaneously he responded with looking up at her with wild and fearful eyes.
The pair stared at each other, she from her standing position and he from his seated one before she finally murmured loud enough for him to hear her. "Are you well?" She asked, not sure she could predict what his response would be to her.
It took a few breaths while he held her stare before his own breathing finally moderated. Adrenaline finally receding from his veins, and the wildness of his eyes seemed to calm slightly as he slowly composed himself.
Silence hung between the two as the words they wanted to say alluded them, suspended by the reconnection together. She offered a tentative smile to him, as though to offer an olive branch to him, still keeping her hand on his upper back. When he failed to return the expression, she turned to leave, feeling wan once again at the egregious error cause by her failure to tell them the truth they had been owed.
As her hand had slipped away, she felt it brush by something fleshy, and she glanced back to see Draco's fingers pulling away from her own, and a smile she could not withhold made its way to her face. Though his gray eyes no longer met hers, she desperately hoped it was the reconciliatory sign she yearned for.
Hermione cleared her throat and made back to her brother, and what was left to her water bladder. The scream she had let out had been, to say the least, embarrassing and imprudent. Though luckily not what was to blame on the disorientation they had all felt following the Dragon roaring, which had nearly ruptured their ear drums, not to mention rendered them all unconscious it had been so loud. The long days of travel and constant physical exertion had left her vulnerable and sensitive.
The light of the early morning fog had brightened slightly all around them, showing that the sun continued its ascent into the sky. Though from this high vantage, and the trickery created by the mist, it was impossible to gauge what time, exactly, it was.
Taking a conservative sip to whet her thirst from the mouth piece, she watched over the three young men as they each sorted out their equilibrium and surveyed as much of the landscape as she could in her field of vision. The plateau they had camped in yesterday was obscured immensely by the wayward clouds, but something she could not place had begun to tickle her in the back of her mind about their surroundings that kept her on edge. Especially at the shocking encounter only moments ago.
Still looking out and around them, she was as of yet unwilling to leave the safety of the group to satisfy her curiosities. For as interested as she was in reassessing their position, such foolishness could get her hurt. Or worse; killed.
Her brother came to stand beside her and rubbed at the back of his neck at the tension forming in the tops of his shoulders. "What in the Shadow Lands was that noise?" He asked, and Hermione cast him a baleful glare.
"A Dragon, of course. Should not that be obvious?" He in turn rolled his eyes at his sister.
"That much is obvious, screeching wren." He continued past the playful insult –the first in almost a fortnight, which was a good sign at least. "What was the screaming?" Hermione felt her cheeks warm up despite the chill in the wintery air at his question.
"Oh-" She managed to stammer quietly. "That was, well. That was me." She finished sheepishly. Her brother answered with a half-guffaw and he clapped her shoulder.
"Well, be still my beating heart!" He exclaimed jovially, annunciating his sisters own favorite exclamation in a mocking tone. "My little wren, terrified of a Dragon!" Hermione slapped at his arm, hissing a silencing command at him, but fighting a smile all the same at the playful words.
Breaking through their conversation, a great shadow passed overhead ending their exchange immediately. It overcast the faded sunlight from overhead of them, and a low rumble sounded from the sky above.
All four sets of eyes were fixed upward at the massive form above them. Even the soup of the clouds that surrounded them moved in the wake of the great mass of air that swept by. Hermione reached out to Tyt'o without taking her eyes away from the sight up above them, and he too felt for her as well.
The airborne mass overhead was close enough to where they could see the beating of vast and massive wings with some distinction. The flapping of them intermittently blocked out the light above as their beating slowed and the scraping of claws across rocks sounded as a low, and dark scoff resounded in the fog surrounding them.
Sweet is your blood in my nose, little ones. It said menacingly, the baritones of the tenor reverberating in their ears as the unseen presence behind the voice seemed to circle around them, the grinding of rocks under immense weight following along with it as each clawed extremity moved.
The low chuckle sounded next as, though the mist, the massive head stretched itself upward, the gold of the scales dull through the protection of the clouds as they obfuscated the Dragon as it circled to face the four. All of them were standing stock still as the monstrous creature caged them inward with the mass of its body in their small encampment. The head circling down last to close in the distance with its dark golden eyes reduced to slits of gilded light as they peered down at the quarry.
The scales across his nose rose upward on the long face in distinct patterns, overlaying in a masterfully elegant fashion as they rose upward to the six vast horns that spread out at the crown on his head. The head swayed slowly as it considered the four trespassers now, breathing slowly as the lips parted back to reveal rows upon rows of flesh-rending knives which lie in wait of tender muscle to carve.
The body had encircled them into a terrifyingly tight area, slowly minimizing their escape as any exit over the mass of scales and brawn of the magical creature was clearly going to be impossible.
Hermione and Tyt'o stood unblinking as they started back at the great Dragon, desperately trying to keep from trembling, yet their clasp hands had begun to shake from the vice-like grip they had on each other, causing a pins and needles sensation as the blood had stopped from flowing.
With a sudden exhale through the armored pockets of his nose, the magical being snuffed as his head drew back slightly and he leaned his head around the pair of siblings, and Tyt'o could swear he saw the Dragon's golden eyes begin to burn as though there were fire behind them.
What is this you bring unto my mountain? It growled out lowly as his notice had fallen on Draco and Theo, and the head lowered in a long and threatening hiss as he pulled back to strike.
Instinctively, as the Dragon moved, Tyt'o and Hermione – hand still clasp in utter fear, closed the gap between the Dragon and their friends. With a cry of objection, Tyt'o pulled his sister behind him and stood firm.
Though it mattered little, for truly more than one of them could have fit inside the giant maw that was the beasts' mouth, the creature made a noise of sibilation at the duo in the way of his aggressive display. The curvature of his long scaled body squeezing tighter still until the walls of Dragon flesh were but an arm's length away from their motley little crew of travelers. As the Dragon attempted to work around Tyt'o, the young man held fast between the Dragon and the other three and the animal roared at the defiance.
It was at that moment that his head rose upward atop his elongated neck, and the sudden descent of a second Dragon appeared overhead. Jaws open, and claws down, the smaller golden head snapped angrily at the larger Dragon making brief contact with the armored neck in what could have snapped a person in half, but seemed only to nip at the scaled surface. Quickly the body surrounding them moved to uncurl itself as the aerial assault for the second Dragon continued and the four youths scrambled desperately away to avoid the mass of claws and tails that thrashed around the rocky plateau.
Screams sounded from the larger Dragon, as the one overhead merely hovered above, striking out all around the larger, but failing to make purchase each time. The beating of the large wings kicking a steady wind upward as the clouds were banished from the site around them.
Driven to stay together as they fled for their lives, the troop of young riders fled to the furthest point away from the two warring beasts to find the flat terrain dropped sharply only a few paces away from the dangerous clash of the two Gold titans cut off any remaining escape, but was noticed too late in the cloud cover.
Unable to fully stop the inertia behind the break-neck run she was at, Hermione tried to turn as her body pitched over the edge and over the brink of the cliff into the air, toward absolute death below.
A cry barely left her lips when a firm couple of hands darted out and caught her; one around her upper arm, and the other by the front of her jacket, and with great force yanked her back to the safety of the mountainside.
Beyond them, as the two Dragons spat and menaced at each other, she clasp the arms gripping her and exhaled in relief at Draco, and Theo, whom had caught her. Draco's face was stricken in terror and his heart beating so frantically he felt he might faint on the spot as he looked at her, and pulled her toward him in an uncharacteristically showy fashion, and touched his forehead against hers as he screwed his eyes shut, shuttering his breaths out rapidly.
From behind them, Tyt'o, equally as horrified in that moment, was forced to watch as the pair held each other openly exposed now to both he and Theo. The pair glanced at each other hesitantly and turned when, after a pause, a long growl sounded from where the Dragons had pitted against each other.
The smaller of the two, sleeker than the larger one, and build of less dense muscle overall, stood on all fours, wings raised in a threatening display as high as they could reach and back arched. The body was positioned between the humans and the large Dragon in a protective manner, and the tail whipped from side to side in agitation. But the roaring and snapping of jaws, and claws had finally ceased. With one final trumpet of warning, the larger of the two retreated by several steps, and slipped gracefully from the opposite mountainside and into the air through the clouds.
It was many breaths later that the wings of the creature finally slackened, and nestled comfortably along the long and scaled back of the gold Dragon. The tail laid to rest along the stone of the mountain, and a great scaled head turned around to observe the four trembling and cowed teens.
Though smaller that the opponent it had faced, the beast had been no less fierce in its assault upon the other Dragon, and even still towered over the heights of even the group of young riders as it made a few steps to draw closer into them, and lowered its head to address them.
Oh my dear ones, it breathed softly, and slowly blinked the shining dark golden eyes to the shivering and terrified cluster of bedraggled riders. The voice was softer than that of the larger Dragon, and the moment it had spoken, it dawned on the interloping pair of newcomers that this was a female. Her head cocked to the side, she gently rubber the end of her nose in front of Tyt'o and Hermione, who reverently leaned in, and together embraced the end of her scaled snout as they murmured to the Dragon softly. They were words of love, and affection, and thanks for their protection from the wilder of the pair of Sires.
My sweet strong children, the Dragon crooned gently. How you have grown since I have been gone here, and how I have missed seeing you. The female Dragons eyes opened slowly and a rhythmic grumble sounded deep within her chest that sounded pointedly familiar.
"The Calling!" Theo blurted out, not thinking about his present company when he realize what it was that he was hearing. The large Dragon head, without casting her affixed humans aside, leaned a little outward to see who has spoken to her. The eyes were not as wild as the ones that had raked over them hungrily, as the larger male Dragon had, instead the dark gold –like a sparkling gold near firelight- looked him over carefully and gentle withdrew herself from the affectionate gesture.
Very smart, little one. She crooned to Theo, and settling herself down from her high and imposing vantage, like a mother would do for a small child. The manner in which she held herself was calm and considerably less threatening. And who are these you have brought with you? She asked, looking between the Gresham heirs and the faces she had never before met.
"Theo, and Draco." Tyt'o offered, pointedly leaving their names as their stand-alone title. The female Dragon side-eyed the young man, but offered no objections nor commentary as of yet. Instead, she leaned her horned head to the side and blinked slowly, reassuringly even. I am Imri. She said, and looked to each of them in turn, carefully mapping their faces and heights as she considered them and memorized them.
A whooshing higher overhead caused her to send her gaze upward in a sudden gesture, and a shadow passed through the light above them casting a moving shadow overhead, and the female stood carefully. Her wings raising from her back as one of them extended out and over the heads of the four rides, curving inward to draw them beneath it.
When the Dragon overhead had flown past them, she released the wing from overhead and motioned with her head to follow her. Come little ones. The nest is only close. You are not as safe here as I know your mother would have you. Follow me carefully up the path.
Without question, the four fell into quick step behind the Dragon as she stepped carefully, each paw securing purchase on the rock of the mountain as she ascended through the clouds and upward. From behind her, Draco reached behind him and wordlessly reached out and grabbed Hermione's hand, and held it in towards his body. Drew her close beside him once again.
There was not time for words in these moments, and no place for apologies just yet. The true and real dangers they were up against had struck Draco to the very core of his being, and he refused now to let Hermione walk into the unknown that faced them all without himself by her side.
The smile that crept up on her face as she sighed out her relief, and she threw her arms around him in abandon. A whimsical chuckle from the Dragon sounded as she looked back at her now-growing little human rider, and the overt shows of affection she was participating in.
There will be time enough for this, my strong riders. She glanced overhead uncertainly. We must make haste now before my mate returns to guard his nest. Walk quickly now. Her leather wing, tipped at the front joint, made a motion forward at the two.
The two rushed up the pathway together, hand in hand, as they followed closely at the side of the Dragon, beneath the parasol of her wing as she saw them safely upward into the refuge of her nest.
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