A/N: So Witcher 3 has completely taken over my life. Honestly, you're all lucky I'm still posting regularly. Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy and… no omake today. You can blame it on today being the first day of classes for me… but everyone knows it's because of Witcher ;).
KingLuxion: Exactly the reason why I did that, Sir Watson.
Cain: Soon. Very soon.
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Jaune was snapped out of his reverie when the dragon soul spoke its desires, speaking carefully to the knight.
Maldovah, I would like to commune with Krienmon.
Jaune nodded at the strangely polite request, even thought Vedrahgol wouldn't be able to see that, and picked himself off of the side of the Airship. Unfortunately, once his concentration on his thoughts was broken, his body seemed to remember that it was flying hundreds and thousands of feet up into the sky, and Jaune nearly fell onto his knees, dry heaving.
Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea. Jaune thought inside his head, clutching his stomach with one hand. Vedrahgol groaned, almost wanting to slam his skull into one of the nearest walls.
I… I cannot believe that I forgot how weak your constitution is.
It's… perfectly commonplace… to have motion sickness. Even while he was thinking about the statements he seemed to be constantly trying to take deep breaths.
"Wow, that's a new record. I thought you'd be trying to upchuck the moment we lifted off." Yang said in an amused tone, having squeezed her way through to Jaune the moment she heard him fall onto his knees.
"Yeah… what a… surprise." Jaune tried to insert some sarcastic cheer into his voice, but only managed to let his stomach travel a few inches further up his esophagus. Yang made an amused noise and couched down, laying a hand on Jaune's back.
"There there you big baby. Just let it all out." At the mention of letting it all out however, Jaune made a strange noise and swallowed very carefully, making sure to spend a little more effort to raise his head and glare at the girl, who at least had enough grace to look a little sheepish.
"That… was a bad choice of words." Yang muttered to herself. She opted to just simply continue rubbing Jaune's back without saying anything else, if only to help make sure that Jaune wasn't going to throw up in such tight quarters.
That would be bad for everyone here, including her precious shoes.
Jaune grabbed her hands, surprising her a little. With another shuddering breath, Jaune focused, trying to convey his next words without performing Projectile Vomit: The Musical.
"Vedrahgol… wants to talk. With you."
Yang made a little sound in the back of her throat, sounding a little surprised, as well as intrigued.
"Really? Well… okay then, I guess."
And without another word, Jaune focused as best he could on what he needed to do, knowing that it would help relieve him of his motion sickness for a little while.
"Ved… Rahgol." Jaune said this one calmly, which was something that the dragon inside of him approved of. Jaune was learning how to moderate his Voice, starting to unconsciously learn how much power he needed to put into the Shout to produce the desired effect.
If they weren't in a time of war, Vedrahgol would've been proud and satisfied on how fast the human was progressing. However, this was a war, and it was against another follower of the Voice. This changed the circumstances significantly.
Vedrahgol was not satisfied with the progress, and would only continue to push the boy to learn and absorb more, and much faster.
The dragon knew of only one person who could have really feasibly learned shouts in such a short time and turned out to become a force to be reckoned with… but Vedrahgol could only hope that it would be enough for Jaune.
The old dragon felt the stirrings of another presence in his cavern, and he pulled the girl's consciousness straight into Jaune, making the boy jerk in surprise and Yang's body simply collapse on top of Jaune.
"Woah…" Yang said in wonder, looking around at the spacious cavern, before turning her attention to the magnificent beast that was lying in front of her. Jaune on the other hand, was struggling to try and find a way to hold Yang physically in a way that wouldn't get him punched out of the airship while trying to manifest himself into the mental cavern as well.
"This is a pretty neat place you've got here." Yang said idly, turning around to make a full spin so that she could see everything. Vedrahgol nodded, happy to let the girl observe the cave for a few moments.
"Yes. But it is nothing compared to when you are flying through the skies." The grizzled dragon said, dipping his head as if to recall those skies that he had flown through.
"You miss it?" Yang asked, approaching the dragon slowly. Vedrahgol kept still, content to let the girl approach him, before answering.
"More than anything. Jul… humans do not know the power… the freedom that comes with flying. And I do not mean in metal boxes that seem to crash frequently. I mean with your own will, and strength. Once one experiences that… Freedom will never taste the same."
Jaune almost wanted to laugh at Yang's open-mouthed expression that she had as Vedrahgol described the feeling of flying, and the desire that shined in her eyes as he described it.
"That's… actually really cool." Yang admitted. "The closest I've ever really been to doing something like that was during initiation…"
Jaune and Yang tilted their heads back to remember that day, chuckling at the events that happened on that day. It took a few seconds before Yang decided to broach the topic that was on both of the student's minds.
"You know, I don't think you called me over just to talk about your feelings of flying." Yang approached, her tone cautiously polite. Vedrahgol nodded, huffing out a breath before speaking, causing the cavern to rumble a little with his voice.
"You are correct, little one. I wanted to look into your soul."
"You wanted to what?" Yang said, completely caught off guard. Jaune also stared at the dragon, not sure what point he was trying to make. While the beast wasn't human, he knew enough to assume that the two blondes had no idea why he had said that.
"When we were fighting, I felt this… I'm not sure how to explain it." The dragon admitted, shrugging its wide shoulders. "But when the fighting started, I was side tracked for a brief moment as a soul flared brighter than the others. For a second I had thought that a dragon was fighting." Vedrahgol lowered his snout so that it was level to Yang's head, his eyes peering endlessly into hers.
"I can only assume that krienmon would be the source of my confusion. If you would allow me so, I would like to delve into your soul, and see if my suspicions are correct."
Still Yang hesitated, not sure she wanted the dragon poking around her soul, which was supposed to be something important to her.
"Is this going to hurt?" Yang asked a little anxiously, unconsciously crossing her arms. Vedrahgol opened his mouth before pausing a little.
"Actually… I do not know." The dragon admitted. "I have only received another dragon's soul, so I would not know."
Well, that reply sure didn't inspire any confidence in the blonde brawler.
"Can you at least tell me how you're going to do it?"
Vedrahgol nodded, happy to explain.
"Of course. Now, in the eyes of the dovah, a soul is your life-force, the substance that drives you and allows you to live. With this, dragons have discovered that the soul is like an ever present flame, burning brightly within your body." The dragon shifted his head once more, this time slowly letting the tip of his snout touch Yang on the chest, where her heart resided.
"The dragons have devised a way to gauge one's soul, one's power, and one's strength by experiencing the soul onto our bodies, where we can absorb and understand the soul."
With that explanation, Vedrahgol removed his head and lifted it up so that he would tower above the other two humans.
"So… will you humor this old dragon for a little bit, and let me experience the flames of your soul?"
The long-haired girl still looked a little uncertain, glancing down at her gauntlets and towards the majestic dragon.
"So… you want me to… use my semblance on you? Is that what you're asking?" Yang said, trying to clarify what Vedrahgol wanted from her. The dragon dipped his head downwards, acknowledging that Yang was correct.
"O…okay."
And with that, Yang closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to center herself. With an explosive breath, she opened her eyes, and—
"Wait," Yang said suddenly, throwing off the air of tension that she had just gathered a moment before. Even Vedrahgol jerked back, surprised at Yang's sudden interruption of her own process.
"Yes, krienmon?"
"This isn't going to hurt you, is it?"
The dragon gave a laugh that rumbled in his throat and around the cave. "No little one, dovah will feel your flame as if it was a warm patch of sunlight. Do not worry about harming me."
"Oh. Alright then." Yang said, closing her eyes and concentrating for another second, before her lips twisted into another frown.
"Wait."
"Yes… krienmon?" While Vedrahgol was slightly annoyed that this was taking longer than he was expecting, he kept his temper in check, wanting to completely reassure the girl of any of her qualms.
"This won't hurt Jaune, will it?"
That… was actually a very good question. It was also something that the ancient dragon did not know the answer to. Vedrahgol had lived for hundreds of seasons, fought what could have been thousands of creatures, from humans to giant spiders to other dovah… but this was the first time he had even heard of a dragon residing inside a human body.
The semblance was a power of the soul, and while Vedrahgol was confident that his soul would be able to withstand a little fire, he did not know if his human host's soul could do the same.
"I… am not sure, krienmon. This circumstance that you see me in right now is something unprecedented. There has never been even a whisper of something like this happening to another dragon."
Yang's frown only deepened at the admission. With that, Yang shook her head, lips pursed.
"Well, I'm not going to risk anything that involves Jaune's soul then. Sorry if I've disappointed you there."
The dragon sighed, laying his head on a craggy rock nearby. The amount of air that exited the dragon's nostrils was almost the equivalent of a Bullhead's exhaust, and the two blondes made sure to take a step to the side if Vedrahgol ever decided to do that again.
"Very well. I will not force you to reveal your soul to me. I thank you for the opportunity to talk with you once again, krienmon." And with that, the dragon turned around and flared his wings out openly, covering the two humans and blinding them for a brief second.
When the two of them opened their eyes again, they were back on the airship.
Yang opened her eyes to see a chest in front of her. Pushing herself up, she discovered that the two of them had somehow managed to wrap their arms around each other, and Yang was practically only a half step away from being on Jaune's lap. Jaune, being an adolescent teenage boy, was quick to notice this, and was thankful that the blood had rushed up towards his face, instead of going in the opposite direction.
There was many things that could've been said about Yang, but bashful was not one of them. The beautiful girl gave a foxy grin at Jaune and actually tightened her arms around his neck, pulling him a little closer.
"So Jauney. Like the view?" She whispered sultry.
Jaune opened his mouth to try and answer, before the airship hit a rough spot of turbulence, turning his face green.
It didn't take much more for Yang to concede her defeat and jump off of the boy's lap.