Dragon's Blood -- Chapter Five
Author's Notes: You know, I don't think I'm going by Greece's climate in this fic. I think I'm going with New Zealand's climate, where the show was actually shot. I think Greece is warm, isn't it? … shrug Oh well. Weather's weather. ((I'm gonna get killed for that, lol.))
Disclaimer: I own nothing and you know it.
Iolaus awoke, feeling warm and toasty. And better than he'd ever felt in his life. His leg, ribs, and head no longer pounded. He felt brand new. Ready to take on anything, if he had to…
He opened his eyes and noticed he was covered with something big, black and leathery.
'A wing,' he realized, upon closer inspection. He studied it closer, moving his head this way and that when he noticed the hidden rainbow within the blackness. 'Ravenwing, indeed.'
"Welcome back, Iolaus."
The voice was like a missed friend, and Iolaus was glad to hear it again. The vision of a clear brook running over smooth, round rocks entered his mind again.
"Thanks," he replied, noting that she didn't call him Little One. Oddly enough, he missed it.
"When I was hatched, the Eldars of my clan took to calling me Ravenwing for that reason."
Iolaus smiled when he felt her amusement flair. In fact, he felt a whole other presence in his mind. A presence, he knew, that was Ravenwing.
He stood up, stretching. Iolaus performed a few complicated looking kicks with his previously injured leg.
"It is good to see you well."
'It's good to be well,' Iolaus thought to her without thinking. Then he realized they weren't touching, yet he could still hear her. He froze in midkick, lowering his leg slowly.
Iolaus turned to her, questioningly. Cocking his head to the side, he looked like a puzzled puppy as he tried to work it out on his own. He quickly came to an obvious conclusion.
'It was your blood, right?' he sent to her, enjoying the new freedom.
"It was," came her reply. Ravenwing nodded her great head, making even a small movement like that seem elegant. Her scales shifted to accommodate.
'I thought I felt something different this morning. Besides being perfectly fine after a night like that, I mean.'
"You are one of the quickest to figure it out, Little One," the dragon rumbled good-humoredly.
Iolaus couldn't hold back a smile when she called him that.
'You know, I usually hate it when people call me little,' he confessed to her.
She smiled her dragon's smile at him.
"You like it when I do," she teased gently.
'I do,' admitted Iolaus.
Hercules made his way through the tightly knit forest, shrugging his borrowed fur firmer around him. The weather was grey. It called for rain, and it was going to be a cold one. Hercules could already see his breath fogging in the air.
He finally made it to the general area here Iolaus said he would be camping. The demigod had yet to find a sign of his friend.
"Iolaus!" he shouted, not caring if someone else heard.
Hercules had heard the story the men back at the tavern told, and hoped they were exaggerating about the fight. He hoped to find his friend, sitting at a campfire cooking a fresh caught trout for breakfast, nursing no more than scrapes, bruises and maybe a wounded ego.
So intent on his ponderings, Hercules would have missed the small clearing, had he not tripped over the cold remains of a campfire. He turned an awkward looking pirouette to stay on his feet, thankful no one was around to see it. He steadied himself quickly and turned around to see what he stumbled over.
He got down to his knees for a closer look.
There was a ring of similar sized stones around the logs, creating a temporary fire ring, with a diameter of about two feet. Hercules knew, on nights when Iolaus built the fire, he would rarely go larger than what he was looking at right now. The blackened logs clunked together as a half standing pyramid collapsed inward, unable to support themselves for any longer.
And Hercules was positive this spot was Iolaus' when he saw the bed of pine needles and leaves his friend had gathered. It was layered. Needles on the bottom for cushioning, leaves on the top to avoid poking. A simple, but useful trick if one had the time to gather all the needles they needed. It was something they learned in their Survival Class back at the Academy. ((Uh, sure…))
The demigod scanned the area for tracks of some kind.
There. Near a pair of crossed elm saplings. A circle of light footprints, as if the creator had turned a 360, perhaps looking for enemies… They went off east, towards the mountains.
That afternoon, Iolaus ventured outside for a look around, but not without exploring the cave, first. It was a big enough chamber they were in. It housed the dragon a little snugly, but she had enough room to maneuver her bulk around with relative ease.
At the mouth of the cave, just before it turned into a curving tunnel about forty feet long, there were two large stalagmites on either side.
As he came to the mouth of the cave, Iolaus had to blink at the grayish light coming from outside.
The sky was full of clouds, and the chilly air promised rain. The ground was still dry, indicating that it must not have started yet.
Iolaus made his way over to the spot where he'd first staggered to a halt last night. He took in all the locations of the trees that looked strong enough to hold a trap or sling. There were boulders around that looked big enough for two or three people to hide comfortably. Automatically, the hunter checked behind them (out of paranoia) and found nothing.
There was a large smear of something red in the gravel next to a short ledge. On a small, smooth rock next to it, there was another in the shape of a boot toe. The blonde glanced down at his feet.
Yep. Sure enough, the toe of his own left boot was a sticky red. He figured. Iolaus looked over the little ledge and stared. Every few feet in the gravel, he could see a bloody footprint.
'How much blood did I lose last night, anyway?' wondered Iolaus. He noticed the calf of his boot was encrusted with dried blood. 'Ouch.'
"You were in bad shape when you arrived," Ravenwing's voice echoed in his mind. "Nearly a third of your blood lies in the forest."
'I thought I was going to die,' admitted Iolaus, concentrating a little harder than necessary on the trees.
"Your head wound alone was enough to make me wonder. It was surprisingly resilient to the magic in my blood."
Uncomfortable, suddenly, talking about his brush with death, Iolaus pushed down an oncoming wave of guilt at what Hercules must be thinking. He looked back out over the treetops and wondered what he was doing to a moment.
'Is there a stream around here?' he asked her.
There was so much blood on him, he was debating on just jumping into said stream fully clothed to get the worst of it off. Even his upper left arm was coated in blood. Which was odd, because Iolaus couldn't recall having been struck there.
Iolaus moved the arm closer to his face and rubbed some of the coppery-colored flakes off where they began. Sure enough, there was a very faint, very thin scar underneath, almost as though it were made by something small and fast.
'An arrow?' Iolaus wondered to himself.
Upon closer inspection, to the hunter's dismay, there was a clean rip, ending in a missing chunk near the scar. Something clicked in his mind.
"Oh, sonnuva bacchae, he got me more than once!" he swore indignantly, kicking the gravel.
"What's the matter?" asked Ravenwing.
"Nothing important," he said, the slightest bit hollow as he wondered if he was losing his touch. 'About that stream…?'
"To the West, not far from here. On quiet days in the forest you can hear it. Today, I fear, is not one of those days."
Iolaus turned back to the cave. Ravenwing was not fully outside. Only her head and neck were visible, the rest of her was hidden in shadows.
'Ah, well. It would figure. I guess I can wait for a few more seconds,' shrugged Iolaus, looking up at the gray clouds.
Sure enough, a drop of water landed on his shoulder as the sky seemed to open up. Rain fell, thick, hard and refreshing onto the forest below them. Iolaus whipped his vest off and spread it out on a nearby boulder so the pounding rain could work out the blood. The blonde bent forward, flipping his mass of curls upside down to get at even more matted blood.
Ravenwing watched the spot turn pink as the as scarlet washed away. The rain left his leather pants shiny and clean. His left boot was slowly changing to match the same shade of brown as the right one.
Iolaus turned his face to the sky, smiling at being clean again. He jogged back to the cave entrance, leaving his vest on the boulder. He stopped just inside the cave and shook himself like a dog. The soaking blonde hair sprayed water all over the wall and Ravenwing. She snorted softly.
"You did that intentionally!" she accused playfully.
Her voice was amused and she bared her teeth in what Iolaus knew was a smile.
"Pretty much," he said aloud, sitting down to watch the rainy haze falling over the rest of their surroundings.
Still smiling, Ravenwing settled down next to him.
Author's Notes: Okay, so , lame. I know. I don't care.