In the Heart of Pernelle

Episode 5 (3)

"Inuro?" The dragon boomed, wrestling with his non-compliant limbs to stand. "Inuro!"

Eirian looked around frantically, his eyes hardly focusing as the dreariness accompanied with sleep splashed off of him slowly. His ears were drawn to the lakeside by the flushing waterfall, in which he saw the faint trail Inuro had used to navigate though the long grass towards the creature's voice. Quickly, he made his way down, following the trail more with his snout than his blind-seeing morning eyes.

It took little time for the large dragon to reach the lake, the ground shaking slightly under his feet. He stood nearby the shore, gazing out to a woman with nearly glowing skin reaching a hand out of the lake towards the boy with curly blond hair and long ears.

"Inuro!" The dragon scolded, trying to contain his slight fear.

But the boy hadn't heard the dragon, or perhaps he wasn't listening, as he grasped the offered hand by the siren with curiosity. The dragon gasped.

At first, nothing happened but the two held hands, eyes glistening into the other's. Suddenly the area around Inuro dimmed, as if color was draining from the life around him, plants dying and falling over limp. Eirian watched on in horror, never seeing anything like it, but soon the hand holding Inuro's began to turn a shining, shimmering gold, reflective like metal. The siren looked at the hand with surprise for a moment before smiling widely back up at the boy, joyous, her song stopping mid way through. Eirian watched as the gold spread throughout the siren's entire body, casting her in a gilded shell, resolving any previous imperfections. The area around Inuro continued to fall dead while the siren's eyes glistened from mint green to a shining silver, long hair encased in the gold as well. The siren looked ecstatic, and though Eirian had no clue what was going on, his anxiety eased as he watched the scene.

Finally, the siren let go of Inuro's hand and graciously kissed the tip of his nose, causing his eyes to cross wondrously. A second later, the siren was gone, delving back into the waves, shining tail blinding as it flipped through the water.

Inuro batted his eyes surely processing what had just happened. As he relaxed, he turned towards Eirian, who stood frozen a little ways away, doing the same. The ground around Inuro remained dead and decaying, and as Inuro turned he saw the destruction surrounding him. He jumped up, frightened at first, before breathing a deep sigh and hunching back down, closing his eyes as he pressed a hand to the earth. The decaying plants slowly returned to their green hue, adorned with multiple colors of flowers and leaves.

When the scene was back to normal, Inuro opened his eyes slowly, eyelashes fluttering with something similar to exhaustion. He turned back to Eirian, expression serious, as the dragon looked on.

"You're going to explain this to me." Eirian spoke slowly, eyes boring into the boy who just made the plants grow with the touch of his hand. Inuro simply looked down at the ground and nodded reluctantly. 

--

"So you're powers," Eirian spoke quizzically as the two exited the paradise, packing anything useful they could find, "They're regenerative, are they not?"

Inuro shrugged dismissively. "I don't know."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means I don't know." The boy clearly hadn't a liking for explaining his peculiar powers, but the dragon wasn't about to let him get away with a simple excuse like that. 

"What did you do to that siren?" He asked cautiously.

"Siren?" Inuro turned towards the dragon in realization. "I didn't know she was a siren."

Eirian looked at him incredulously, shaking his head slightly in utter confusion. "What else would it have been?" 

Inuro scrunched his brow together in thought before looking regretfully at the ground. "...I don't know."