They couldn't move.

They couldn't move away, could only stare in a petrified daze of terror as the dragon's purple eyes blazed into them, smoke rising in curling swirls into the air and illuminated purple by the dragon's glowing eyes.

It stared. There was no movement.

None whatsoever.

Aiden was frozen too, staring back into the dragon's purple eyes, his own red one gleaming violet in the light.

It was like they were all statues.

The dragon snorted at last, another rising wisp of smoke curling out of its nostril as heat seeped into Jesse's skin, stole every ounce of moisture from their wet clothes. Reuben whined, burying into the backpack and trying to hide himself from sight.

One clawed foot tap, tap, tapped on hard stone, metal on rock, as it eased forward, scales rustling- rustling, like snakeskin on grass- as it shifted forward, closer.

There was a moment, a split second where Jesse considered which way to run.

Left or right, it didn't matter, it was solid stone and Jesse hadn't spotted any huge holes and there was still red light bleeding through their fist. There was no sure way to get out of this small pit, though, and it was so dark that the only light that Jesse could see were those terrifying purple eyes. But maybe if they got to the pool they'd landed in, they could-

And then Aiden grunted weakly behind them, reminding them of his presence, and their blood froze.

Aiden.

He couldn't move. Not without pain ripping through him and sending him back down into a pool of bloody water, his breath catching his chest.

They couldn't leave him.

Somehow, it didn't occur to them, despite his biting remarks and cold demeanor and the way he glared and sneered at them, despite the way he pushed them away and tried to ignore them and acted as though they were a nuisance (they were, they were, they were a nuisance to everyone)-

Somehow, despite that, it never occurred to them to leave him behind.

They slogged to their feet, staggering from the weight on their back, and planted themselves in front of Aiden, spreading heavy, wet arms to block him from sight, all of their tiny height and overly thin body and their tiny weight shaking and trembling and blocking Aiden's weak body from view the best they could.

"Wh-wha're you..." Aiden's breathing was raspy, and labored, and weak, but they didn't dare turn to look at him, staring instead into the dragon's glowing violet eyes, huge glowing things that were fixed upon the tiny human with a vessel creature on their back.

The eyes struck terror into their heart, making it speed up and making their knees quake in fear.

So they closed their eyes instead, still seeing the purple glow, still seeing the light through the darkness.

They braced themselves, arms spread apart, their fingers trembling and their eyes closed. They could still feel every slow puff of breath from the dragon, the heat and the magic so heavy that Jesse was almost driven to their knees as their skin tingled like it was burning, burning alive and leaving nothing but a pile of ashes.

Maybe the dragon wouldn't go after Aiden if they stayed like this.

Maybe it would tear them apart instead and leave him alone for the other October Children to find him.

Maybe.

Maybe not, but maybe it would.

They couldn't really protect him.

They couldn't do magic like Lukas and Maya, they couldn't run or fight or dodge like Gill or Petra, they couldn't even stare intimidatingly like Aiden could. Hell, they didn't even have anything resembling a weapon.

But they couldn't just leave him there, either.

Then a large, overly huge snout that was reminiscent of Kaster and Bedivire's, only less solid and metal, almost knocked them over straight into Aiden.

They opened their eyes.

The dragon was cautiously pressing its snout up against Jesse's tiny body, giving curious sniffs that were probably tiny for the dragon but almost sucked Jesse's clothes into its nostrils and knocked them over for Jesse, who wasn't over 100 pounds when soaking wet. Its violet eyes looked less furious, less rage-tinged and horrific and more curious. Gentle, almost.

Shakily, trying to breathe, they reached out with their fingers and rubbed the snout with their fingers.

Despite the heat and smell of the smoke, the scales on the dragon's nose were cool to the touch, almost like snakeskin.

The dragon stared at them, still cautiously sniffing Jesse.

Then a serpentine tongue poked out, in such a way that Jesse almost laughed at it, and it licked them, running the snakelike tongue up their body in an affectionate gesture.

Jesse sank to their knees, relief flooding them so much that they abruptly were unable to stand. The dragon huffed, smoke puffing into their face so roughly that tears were instantly drawn to their eyes, and gently nosed itself forward, wrapping its neck around Jesse almost protectively so that its scaly shoulder pressed up against Jesse's thin little body.

It was only when Aiden gasped (from pain or from fear or from both, Jesse couldn't tell), and the dragon began to rumble like a thunderstorm forming in the distance, that Jesse remembered the danger they were in.

"No!"

Jesse hastily backed away from the dragon, situating themselves between it and Aiden again and blocking its vision of him.

"No, no, he's- he's okay. He's alright, please," Jesse said hastily, in the most soothing tone they could muster with a wavering voice, unsure if the dragon would know what they were saying and if they would have to leap in front of Aiden again.

To their surprise, it stopped and huffed at them, more smoke wafting into the air.

This huff sounded confused. Almost adorably quizzical.

"He's okay. He- he wasn't trying to be mean, when he hit you. He just didn't understand," Jesse stammered.

The one time they were able to mediate some kind of tense situation, and it was when one of the people was bleeding out in a shallow pool of water with claw marks gashing his front and the other was a dragon that was so big that it could've swallowed Jesse in one bite. Go figure.

The dragon considered this.

It apparently decided the explanation was acceptable, because it licked Jesse again, blinking its big purple eyes and momentarily plunging the cave back into darkness.

The human shakily breathed out again, rubbing the dragon's snout. It rubbed its head gently against Jesse's chest, making a pleasant sort of grumbling sound. "You just didn't like getting whacked with things, huh?" Jesse asked softly, running a hand over its snout again.

It snuffled, almost like Reuben, and nudged them with its snout again.

Well, this was better than the alternative. (Being roasted alive.)

Jesse didn't mind this.

And then Aiden grunted in pain, a little splash of water sounding behind Jesse, and they were reminded- with something cold dropping into the pit of their stomach- that he was still there, still hurt

(dying)

- and they had to do something.

"Damn, it's so dark..." Jesse knelt beside Aiden, his chest slowly heaving (and there might've been a bit of surprise on his face at the fact that Jesse had just said 'damn', but it was too dark to see) as he tried to breathe. "I wish it was lighter... maybe the trackers could work..."

(And make the blood look worse, look like it was drowning Aiden, but there was no other source of light that they noticed.)

The dragon made a sound that was almost distinctly pleased, as if this was something it could do, before it tilted its head back.

A jet of purple fire spewed out of its mouth, Jesse squeaking in surprise as it shot into the air and Aiden flinching before gasping in pain, despite himself.

The fire's pure heat washed through the cavern, heating Jesse's clothes again to the point where they were actually kinda cozy. With the heat came magic- except this magic wasn't just heavy (though it was, to be sure), it was almost warm and cozy and almost kind of hugged Jesse before dancing into the air.

Bells.

It sounded like there were bells ringing, the sound filling the cavern, a nice tinkling sound that quickly became almost deafening with the acoustics of the cavern repeating the sound over and over until it was like some kind of giant bell tolling in a clock tower, and crystals- little tiny crystals that Jesse had not seen earlier, due to how damn dark the whole place was- sparked to life, glowing with violet and cyan and pink and yellow light.

The hole Jesse had fallen into was deep- and large, much larger than they'd initially thought, with enough room for the dragon to fit inside and probably comfortably rotate within it, wings extended.

Glowing crystals ended at the edge of the hole, leaving the far-above ceiling in almost pitch black darkness, but the glowing crystals lit the area much better than the little trackers Jesse had been leaving, or the one that was in their fist.

The dragon made a sort of croaking sound, looking down at Jesse and scooting onto its stomach, curling around them and Aiden almost protectively and looking at Jesse as if expecting praise.

Jesse blinked twice.

Then patted its snout carefully, still trying not to look slightly boggled by what they were sure had been a display of some kind of magic.

"... okay, that works..."


A/N: Isa, you're not the Beast Tamer Lord anymore. Give the title to Jesse. Go on, git.

Well... a nice development! I mean Aiden's still not doing great but, uh xD

Pssst. I have a few games I'm working on... Fata Morgana (known previously as Phantasmagoria, if you read Hybrid: Cinematic Mode ever), a game about dolls I'm co-writing with Toni42, aaaand this one that may or may not be a MCSM dating sim... feel free to check 'em out. I'll probably note the sites down soon.

I am a pen. Reviews are my ink. I would like more, but thank you for putting more in. xP

Responses to reviews!

LegendEmpress: I never said I was a good chocolate-chip cookie xD Also in my defense, I was craving cookies at the time and that was the first analogy that came to mind. / Thank you!

Toni42: Hehehe xD / Not as bad now, so that's good xD / Hehe, thanks, bear. / Noooo x

TheAmberShadow: Hehehe, that'd be fun too. / I just changed my profile picture! I am thinking about making an official cover, but... eh, I'm lazy xD / True that! / Very good pig, yes. / No, that was a beautiful pun, thank you. I'm not a fan of "dry" humor anyway. / This xD

ThinMintE: Jury's still on that xD / They might not need to bring the dragon down after all! / Healing magic or items are generally very hard to operate. Healing magic, while actually an essential spell, is also inherently hard as hell to perform or enchant an object with. Healing potions are easier (you just need glistering melon), but they also don't heal as much as healing magic. Just... something to keep in mind. / Thank you!

Darkbeast Dend: I'm glad you liked it. :3

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x