"Your highness, may I suggest taking out the venomous stinger the next time you have one embedded in your body? I don't quite understand how you're still standing. The good news is that we won't have to amputate the leg, but the poison is currently traversing your body. It's why your natural healing has been blunted. What were you thinking?"

"You yelled at me the last time I removed an arrow from my leg! You told me specifically not to take out things that had stabbed me because I always ended up doing more damage than before," Charlie reminded Penny, grimacing as she looked at the hole in her leg it was oozing black pus and she could see that it was spreading.

Penny opened her mouth and then closed it, "You know, I've heard rumors that you don't actually listen to advice you don't want to hear, and you conveniently forget basic things when it suits you. I feel like that it should be common sense to remove the clearly poisonous monster stinger from your leg."

Charlie made a face, "It didn't hurt that much, and I do listen when it comes to survival, you told me not to remove sharp pointy things that pierce my body, so I don't. Besides, it hasn't started to smell yet."

Penny stared at the princess in exasperation, "That is not the—don't poke it, your hands are dirty and I just cleaned it! What is wrong with you?"

"Your exact words were, under no circumstance are you to remove anything piercing your body again. I listen and I'm still getting yelled at, there was a circumstance in which I should definitely remove something that pierced my body but you didn't give me that information. This is on you Penny."

Penny rolled her eyes at Charlie's inability to take any sort of responsibility, "Well, you still need to heal and we need to get rid of most of the poison, there is far too much in your system for the antidote to work Charlie, so my suggestion is that you sweat it out. A hot bath with steam will definitely do the trick. You need to rest otherwise, I can send a note to the palace and let them know that they need to prepare. A steam bath every day for a week, actually take the antidote, it will help. With your healing, and if you keep away from strenuous activity for a few weeks you should make a full recovery."

Charlie hesitated as she had a system, training in the morning, doing whatever duties she needed to do to keep Sebastian off her back and then drinking in the capital with the people. "When you say no strenuous activity—"

"Fighting with Princess Kara is a nonstarter, as is doing whatever it is you call training. That's not to say that you can't do anything, light exercise is okay—"

"What about sex?"

Penny paused and looked at Charlie, "Not with me!"

"I've never once asked you to sleep with me, and I have no intention of doing so," Charlie retorts immediately, frowning at the idea.

"You've currently got quite a bit of crystal scorpion venom flowing through your veins, I have no idea what will happen if you have sex with someone, but it is in your spit, your blood, and I imagine—"

"So no sex."

"At least not for a week. Think of that as an incentive to actually follow my instructions for once—" Before Penny can continue the door to the examination room slams open causing Penny to jump and Charlie to reach for her short sword. "Doctor Chin—"

"Dragon, a dragon was seen heading towards the palace."

Charlie turned to look at Penny and gave her a look, causing her to sigh. "Fine, go and slay a dragon and then do as I say! Do try not to die."

Charlie grunted and hopped off the table, her armor was in tatters, but at least she had her swords with her.

~ O ~

"And Charlie has chosen this beastkin?" Lawrence questioned.

"Well it's not as if Charlie has a lot of choices," Quinn muttered under her breath only to shut her mouth when her mother turned to glare at her.

"She's my mate," Santana speaks up. "She's accepted that—"

"Charlie probably has no idea what that means and is only doing it because she's really pretty. It's the Lena situation all over again," Frannie interjects. "We both know she's rather incapable of carrying out a relationship. She scares most of the noble women in the country, even the nobles from outside the capital aren't interested in being with her. Really grandpa, this might be her only chance at finding anyone willing to overlook—everything."

Santana scowled her claws coming out, attacking the royal family was probably a terrible idea but she wasn't going to stand here and be insulted. Or let Sansa be considered correct. "I don't care if you're her older sister, you shouldn't talk about my mate like that. Everyone keeps insulting her intelligence, when she's the only one that my people feel comfortable talking to, and thank god she's the heir. You'd have a rebellion on your hands within the week. And as for you, any woman who turned you down because they were interested in her, you tricked her, and played cruel pranks on her to make her seem far worse than she is. She's not an idiot!"

Before anyone can make a rebuttal, there's a loud crash causing everyone to turn to where one of Hiccup's feet had gone through the roof. It was followed by screaming as people immediately exited the broken carriage. Without saying anything, Charlie grabs her largest sword, the runes that had been etched on immediately glowing a bright yellow as it hums with her power, as she hops off the carriage. "Where's the dragon?" Charlie demands, she wasn't in her best armor; it had been shredded by the crystal scorpions but she should be able to hold a dragon back long enough for her people to set up their defenses. "And why is everyone just standing here, there are reports of a dragon entering the capital, the guards are getting ready but where is it?"

Santana flushed when all of Charlie's sisters turned to look at her, as if this proved her point, but Charlie didn't seem to be aware that she was anything other than human. She clears her throat, "Charlie your grandmother is here to visit."

Charlie tilted her head and immediately took a few steps away from her grandmother, "You should go inside for safety Santana, dragons can be—"

"For fucks sake Charlie, grandma is a dragon. We've heard stories all our lives!" Quinn snaps at her twin.

Charlie stared at Quinn, "Did Grandma throw you off a balcony too? Those were bedtime stories that mom told us, so we'd behave ourselves. We aren't dragons, we can't turn into dragons. And people say that I'm the dumb one."

Santana immediately hid her face in her hands, she didn't even know where to begin with this, but she could practically feel Frannie's smug grin on her features. She takes a deep breath and looks up at her mate, who looked terrible, and she could see that many of her veins were black, "Are you okay?"

Judy sighed and turned to look at her youngest, before taking a step back as Charlie suddenly bends over and hurls a thick blackish substance, which spills out onto the smooth brick road, the black sludge eating away at the brick as Charlie drops to the ground.

Kara, who had been watching the drama with glee, can't help but give a slow clap at her friend's misfortune and she's rewarded with Charlie looking at her, rather pitifully and somehow managing to give her the finger.

"Charlie—mother do something."

Artemis tore her eyes off Lawrence for a moment and looked at her granddaughter. "Looks like crystal scorpion poisoning, she'll be fine."

"Crystal scorpion—you can't find those in the badlands," Brittany winced at the smell. "You were in the draconic kingdom? Why?" She's rewarded with more black sludge being spewed near her, "We should probably send for healers."

"She's fine, just getting the poison out of her system, that's quite a bit. I'm surprised she's honestly still—"

"Mother."

Artemis turned to look at Judy with an unimpressed look on her face, "It's better for her to build a natural resistance. "

Charlie, who had finally finished purging her system, takes a seat on the ground, as the whole world is currently spinning and turns to look at Santana. "Your parents have given us permission to marry, and I have a gift for you."

Santana is about to say something when Charlie suddenly pulls out a massive crystal scorpion from her satchel and drops it on the ground away from her vomit, it was bigger than most of the carriages that her grandfather had ridden on. "I was told you like—" before she can finish her huge speech she falls backwards, the exhaustion and the poison wiping out the last bit of her adrenaline.

"See," Frannie says as there is an immediate panic from nearly all the people around her. "Idiot."