Fight or Flight

Chapter 1

Cess, not again... I sighed to myself and reached one hand up to rest against the crystal, then closed my eyes as the recording spell showed me its message.

"Hi, sweet-wings." The image of a blue dragon appeared in my mind. He had one hand held up – he would have needed to touch the crystal to record his message, just like I had needed to touch it to hear the message – and had a gentle smile on his face. "I stopped by, but it looks like you're still asleep, and I don't want to wake you. I'm on the way south – there are some bandits causing problems for some king, and he's offered to pay for help, so I can't stay long." The blue wings fanned out a little at his sides as he looked over his shoulder at something behind him. "It feels like your spell is getting weak." He turned back towards me, and I saw concern on his face. "Are you doing okay, Enola? It still feels like there's plenty of magic in your lair. A lot of magic." The look of concern was replaced by a painful wince, only to return back to the look of concern. "But... if you need anything, you can always ask us for help, you know? We're all still here for you."

The message grew quiet for a moment while the blue dragon stared at the crystal we both held. "I did what I could to shore up your spell, but you know how I am with that kind of magic. I didn't want to make things worse. But I did fill this crystal up with magic – maybe that can help the spell some. I also ended up catching more food than I needed, so I left some of it by that tree on top of the hill here. I'm sorry if that creates more work for you to clean it up, but I can't stay much longer."

Another awkward silence came from the recording, then the blue dragon forced another smile. "I miss you, sweet-wings. Take care." He stared back at me for another second or two, then his hand lifted upwards. The image faded away as the recording ended.

I slowly shook my head as I opened my eyes and took my hand away from the crystal. The blue dragon was always doing things like this. His checkups had gotten more frequent of late, with his recent retirement from the Sea Guard, and as much as I hated the way it made me feel like a helpless whelp that needed constant supervision... it was nice to hear from him. Even hearing him call me sweet-wings – a silly name he had given me back when we were both hatchlings in neighboring aeries decades ago – had been nice.

The magic inside the crystal continued to hum slightly even against my dulled magic senses, and I turned my attention back to the spell woven in the air around me. It was a spell I had cast when I had first come to live here, which spread out over the land like a giant, delicate web. It did need to be replenished with new magic every so often, but it was a very fragile spell. It needed to be handled with a light touch, or...

I sighed as I felt the strain my spell was under. Cess had added his magic to the spell, but it had all clumped into one portion. Most of the web would get nothing at all from it, and the parts of the web that could reach the magic were starting to fray and burn out from the overload. I was going to have to rework everything Cess had done, or else the entire spell would unravel in a day or two. The blue dragon had not helped at all, and had done just as much harm as good. Maybe even more harm than good.

Which... was probably what he had been trying to do.

I reached into the spell and began smoothing it out. A helpless whelp. You must not leave Enola alone for too long. She cannot be trusted by herself. Go check on her and make sure she hasn't set the lair on fire again.

That had only been one time. Or... no, the second time had been Cess' fault, I was sure of it. And if for some reason it had not been Cess' fault, I certainly wasn't going to assume the blame for it now, decades later. But even if it had been my fault – which I was still certain it was not – it would be no excuse to treat me as a hatchling, instead of the eighty-three year old dragoness I was. Which... granted, that was still young for a dragon, but the point was that I was an adult now.

Or... was I eighty-four? It was spring. Had my hatchday come and gone already, or was it still ahead? It was easy to lose track of things like that lately.

I shook my head and set my mind back on the task of repairing the spell and tried not to get too distracted again. But it was frustrating. Cess had been very careful not to actually help me. The spell was still on the verge of failure. The wording of his message had made it clear he had just put magic inside the crystal, not given any to me. The food he had left had not been left for me – he had even apologized for the mess it caused, since he had just left it discarded in my territory rather than as an actual gift. I had gotten very familiar with the tactic over the years.

His words and actions had all been very carefully planned and intentioned so as to avoid creating any debt if I accepted his 'help'. Though neither of us knew if it would actually work or not.

Helpless, useless whelp...

The spell smoothed out under my attention, and I checked to make sure the weakened portions had recovered. It might take them a day or two to be back to their usual strength, but they had already been running low on magic and growing weak before this, and at least now the spell would keep working. The strained areas could even support more magic added to them, so long as it was smoothed out over the spell and not clumped right on top of them.

I reached for the crystal again and carefully touched it with one claw. The hum of magic became noticeable once more against my magesense. Cess' magic. Almost a week's worth of it.

A moment passed while I savored the feel of magic, then I took a deep breath. I focused on the spell around me, and on the magic in the crystal. I thought through what I was about to do. I checked to be absolutely certain I was ready. I took another deep breath... then I pulled Cess' magic from the crystal.

I felt the magic begin to drain away almost immediately. I pushed it through as fast as I could, moving the magic out of the crystal, into my body, and then into the construct of the spell. I moved the magic as fast as I dared – the spell was delicate, and could only handle so much at once – but still felt my heart sink as much of the magic swirled away into a hungry void.

In only a few seconds, the energy of the crystal had been drained. As much magic as a healthy dragon would generate in a week. Powerful energy, strong enough to sustain all sorts of clever spells.

Not even a day's worth had made it into the spell.

All the rest had been swallowed up by my magedebt.

I let go of the drained crystal and examined the spell again. It was humming strongly enough to be noticeable against even my faded senses now, happily putting Cess' magic to work. It felt healthy and strong again. The magic would keep it going for a week or two. After that I would need to use one of the crystals in the mine to recharge it – or probably sooner, to avoid Cess feeling sorry for me and trying to help again – but that was a problem for another day.

My stomach rumbled, still unhappy at being empty. I turned up the hill and began slowly walking up the slope, wondering what Cess had brought me for breakfast. Though, given Cess, I already knew what it was...