They left early in the morning after having a surprisingly delicious meal of campfire seared naga steaks. The beauty of the forest was still there, but none of them wanted to stick around to see what other Disneyland shit came out of the trees.
Both Izuku and Katsuki commiserate over their poor sleep by looking at the other's eye bags and sighing. When Izuku inevitably conked out against Katsuki's back while they were flying, he didn't make any 'no homo' comments. He did, however, feel jealous of the nerd because he didn't have anything to lean on to nap. Not unless he wanted Izuku sleeping on his butt or some other outlandish thing. Not to mention there was a saddle horn in the front that prevented him from just hanging of Eijiro's neck like a dead monkey on a branch.
Eijiro was not a full grown dragon who'd been flying for a decade or so. Thus, he started complaining around noon for a break, but the forest was still going strong beneath them, like some sort of murderous green carpet. Eijiro was able to spot a river of sorts, though, and suggested they touch down there.
"And, what, get screwed over by mermaids?" Katsuki shouted over the wind. He wasn't keen on dropping down at all until every damn tree was gone.
"Mermaids are more of an ocean thing, aren't they? We should be more worried about kappas."
"That isn't helping, nerd."
" We'll do fine, I'm a dragon! It's either go down now while my wings still have the strength or drop out of the sky like a rock."
So Katsuki didn't really get a choice in the matter. He grumbled a bit about Katsuki being a weak shit, but knew, it his black hole of a heart, that it was really him who was being a coward.
The river just had to be asscrack beautiful like the rest of the forest. Asscrack as in a very pretty crack with glitter and flowers and effing perfume. The crystal clear water burbled over many colored stones and teased dropping grass stalks into dropping lower. The trees leaned across only enough to leave the sun coming through in diamonds and pillars.
They found a grassy bank between the knees of a great oak to chew their lunch.
"Almost makes you want to go swimming in it," said Izuku around a mouthful of jerky.
"That's exactly what it wants you to do," Katsuki grumbled. "Walk in, slip, and don't get back up. Probably fucking fairies of the stream somewhere."
"You know, logically, not everything in this forest is going to be bad. Everywhere has good and bad."
"And some of that bad makes the good not even worth it."
Izuku shrugged, probably to drowsy and wind-chilled to argue.
Katsuki certainly was. He inhaled his food, then found his head drooping off his shoulders as he waited for Eijiro to announce he was properly rested.
At some point, Eijiro leaned his big head over the stream, sniffed it, then took a careful sip.
" Oh my gosh, this water is good! "
"If you get cursed…" Katsuki mumbled.
But Eijiro ignored him, lapping it up like a happy dog.
Next thing he knew, Izuku was shaking him awake.
"Time to go," he said. "You want to ride in back this time?"
It was a testament to just how tired he was that he didn't refuse. He wasn't upright in the saddle for long. The moment Eijiro stopped his upward climb and evened out, he was out against Izuku's back.
He woke up again sometime in the afternoon, body aching from sleeping upright and extremities chilled. The sun sat low in the sky.
" We got a problem," came Eijiro's voice.
"Then blow it up," Katsuki mumbled, only managing to get a few of the words through telepathically.
" Kind of hard to blow up an entire swamp. "
Katsuki leaned around Izuku just enough to get a look at the land beneath them. There were still trees, all right, but something about them had changed. They weren't as tight together, and through the blanks came the reflected glimmer of sunlight. Water. As they flew far enough to not get sun reflected back at them, the water turned a gray brown.
"Wasn't this on the map?" he asked over Izuku's shoulder.
"Well, yeah, but I don't know how fast Eijiro can cover distances. I thought we might be still over the forest by now."
"If he's going faster than you expected we'll just have to get over this by sundown."
" Yeah, about that…" There was a reedy sort of tone to Eijiro's voice in his head.
"What?"
Eijrio gave a long, needy keen.
"His wings are about to give out," said Izuku.
Katsuki cursed under his breath.
"Maybe we could sleep in a tree or something," said Izuku. "If we can't find any dry ground."
" I can't fit in a tree!" cried Eijrio.
"Tough shit, lizard, what do you expect us to do?"
" I don't wanna be a dragon anymooooore."
"Did you ever want to be one?" asked Izuku.
" Maybe for a little bit at first-ow ow ow! OKay, I'm sorry, I have to go down now, my wings are locking up and-owie!"
"Just go! Stop whining!" barked Katsuki.
Which was how the trio found themselves in a mosquito infested, rotten smelling swamp. Katsuki and Izuku were quick to clamber on to some branches that so fortunately were level with Eijiro's back. Eijrio, on the other hand, was knee and belly deep in water, which quickly turned to mud.
" Eww eww eww, this feels so nasty!"
"Stop being a girl," said Katsuki.
The dragon puffed up. " How about you try it out and tell me it isn't gross? "
"Because flying with wet clothes will give us hypothermia? Or did you forget since you're always butt naked?"
Izuku giggled, because the nerd hadn't grown up out of naked and bathroom jokes.
Even so, Eijiro kept making sad, whiney noises as Izuku and Katsuki climbed near the trunk of the tree, where a sort of bowl was made where the top of the trunk split off into branches. It wasn't all that bad of a camping spot, all things considered, especially since the tree was green and soggy enough to not burn when they set up a camp fire to stave off the encroaching evening chill. Good thing Izuku thought to pack some dry wood, though it would only last them for a few hours.
The swamp came alive as the darkness deepened. Crickets started up a symphony as various animals sung and croaked to one another. Fireflies lifted off to drift across the canopy of drooping willows.
Eijrio managed to wheeled his big head into the bowl, looking utterly miserable.
" I'm so cold, " he whimpered. " I'm wet. It's gross. What if there are crocodiles in here? "
"Then you eat them," said Katsuki around a mouthful of dried dates.
"Maybe we should try flying to dry land now," said Izuku with a frown. "It can't be good for a fire dragon to spend the night in water."
As though to verify this, Eijiro gave a great shiver.
Katsuki narrowed his eyes at him, searching the red, scaly face. Eijiro's teeth hadn't started clacking yet.
"Even if we do, how will we see anything in the dark?" He slapped his arm, killing another mosquito. Even if he had managed to pull out another tunic from the bags, the vampires still went for his hands and face. Izuku already had some telling welts he was scratching on his neck.
When Izuku didn't answer, Katsuki sighed.
"Why'd you have to be so high maintenance?" he asked the dragon.
" Hey! It's nothing I can control!"
"Try finding a bigger tree. Maybe you can climb in, even if you have to break some branches or stuff, maybe it will make, like, some sort of raft."
Eijrio gave him the dragon's version of a disbelieving look, but then he shrugged his huge shoulders and said, " Couldn't be any worse than this," and withdrew his big head.
Izuku frowned. "What if we piss off another forest guardian or something?"
"Then we deal with it then." Katsuki was tired. Napping on a flying dragon did not a restful sleep make.
Both boys flinched when the sharp crack of snapping wood broke over the night time noise of the swamp. A great flume of fireflies rocketed into the sky like a cloud and several birds gave offended shrieks.
"Mosquitos aside," said Izuku as he slapped at the back of his neck. "You got to admit, this place is a bit beautiful."
"Like I said earlier," Katsuki slapped at his arms. Suckers were going through cloth now. "The good doesn't always make up for the bad. We're going to fucking die of malaria at this point."
Izuku chuckled, but it was high and nervous.
They slept head deep in both their blankets and hides that night, desperate to have some layer of protection from the mosquitos. But whenever they'd peep their heads out to get a fresh breath of air, either awake or asleep, they'd be waiting to gnaw on their faces.
By morning, both Izuku and Katsuki looked like the victims of a violent allergic reaction, covered in red, swollen hives that crawled up their sleeves and shoulders and hardly able to function past scratching.
Eijrio sloshed over from his wreck of a tree-bed not looking much happier. His soft eyelids were swollen and his nostrils were crusted with specks of blood.
"Mosquitoes got you too?" asked Izuku with deep sympathy.
Eijiro just whined.
"Fuck adventure," Katasuki muttered with sour venom.
"Yeah," said Izuku, clawing under his chin. "I wanna go home."
"Oh yeah?"
" If we go back now, all this pain will be wasted, " said Eijrio, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself.
"Whatever, let's just blow this joint."
They tied up their bedding and supplies on the saddle and got themselves situated on Eijrio's back themselves. But just as Eijiro lifted his wings, he let out a bark-like cry and dropped them.
" Ow! Ow! Owie! Oh shit."
"You going to live?" asked Katsuki, every part of him tightening in alarm despite himself.
" My wings-ow-I think I pushed them too hard yesterday. And then the cold-ow, every part of me hurts." And just to add insult to injury, Eijiro's claws came out to scratch at his poor swollen eyes.
"Maybe try some stretches?" said Izuku hopefully.
And Eijiro tried, only for his wings to seize up and drop the moment he tried spreading them out fully.
"Well, shit," breathed Katsuki.
Eijiro whimpered and dropped his face in the water in shame.
" So unmanly… " came his burbly voice in their heads.
"You know, all you had to do was coat yourself in some mud."
They all jumped, including Eijrio, which sent a great sloshy wave up the sides of the nearby trees.
That last voice had come from the trees, high and feminine.
Izuku and Katsuki rushed to draw their swords from their saddle bags.
" Wait, that voice," muttered Eijiro.
"No need to get alarmed," said the voice again, the whispery sound of scales on branches before a 'thump' of something semi-gently dropping into the water. "I'm not going to hurt you, though I probably should for what you did to this poor tree."
" Mina?" croaked Eijiro.
Through a curtain of willow branches, long pink and gray body floating atop the water as they swam, came the familiar pink skinned and hair torso of Mina Ashido.
Her black sclera eyes blinked, then she cocked her head to the side.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
Rather than be reincarnated as a human or dragon, Mina had been reborn as a pink and gray speckled naga.
Katsuki suddenly felt nauseous.
Eijiro must have felt so as well, as all the muscles beneath them clenched.
"Shit," said Izuku.
Did it count as cannibalism that they'd enjoyed naga steaks just the day before?
For the first time, Katsuki and Izuku witnessed a dragon vomit.