"Ah." Roderick clasped his head as bells clanked within his brain. "Phack." He grabbed his hair, making sure his head was still attached to his body.
"Glad to see you're awake." Roderick looks over to see Chris sitting on a rock, his blue jacket off and his top button undone on his ruffled shirt.
He sat up and looked around, seeing they were just outside a cave, "What the?" Roderick stood up, slowly, as his joints ached from falling. He looked up from where they fell, "How did we not die?"
Chris drank from his tin cup, not saying anything. Lying in the shade.
"Where did you get that cup?"
"Something broke our fall." Chris placed his cup down, "Or rather, someone."
"What?"
Chris then pointed towards the dark cave, "She's in there, sleeping."
"She?"
Chris' countenance held confusion and confliction, "It's all very complicated."
"Stop brooding and just tell me." Roderick sat on a rock opposite it. Dusting his pants as they were covered in dirt.
"She's a dragon."
"..."
"What?" Roderick asked.
"Apparently dragons are shapeshifters, they have a human form." Chris sighed, clearly tired from their excursion
"Ahh, I see your friend is up." An unfamiliar voice emerged.
Both men turned their heads to see a fiery red-headed woman sauntering over to them, hair cascading down to her breasts; she was naked.
"AHH!" Roderick flipped and stumbled backwards. Falling off his rock and doing a backwards roll, "Why are you naked?" He covered his eyes.
"I though I gave you my coat for you to cover up." Chris said, less startled, but avoiding looking at her.
"Oh, you humans and your weird prudishness, there's nothing inherently sexual about the human body, it's only because you have lustful and perverse thoughts about it that makes you uncomfortable."
"I'm gay!" Roderick shrieked and threw his green coat on, "Now button up!"
"Fine..." She rolled her eyes and dressed herself, "You should be grateful I saved your life, though."
"T-thank you." Roderick faced outwards, not trusting this woman to be fully clothed yet.
The woman huffed humourously, "Well, now that your friend is up, I guess you can be on your way, and I presume you would want to leave with your jacket." She threw his jacket back at him, covering his face. Turning towards the cave.
"If you may, miss," Chris started, "The sun is setting, it would be more practical for us to leave at dawn."
The woman looked up to see the sun setting, "Fine, but I need to go out to get some food, try not to die."
Roderick removed his coat covering his head and saw the bare backside of the woman turn into red scales and flew off, "What the fuck!" Roderick once again tripped over his feet and fell.
"I told you."
"What the-" He pointed at where she flew away, "What the fuck! What even is this world! Ah, I hate it here, I just want to go back home..."
"And we will, tomorrow."
Roderick looked at Chris and sighed in defeat, "Did she tell you anything?"
"What?"
"You know, like, in-game information, do you even know her name, why she can shape-shift?"
"Uh..." Chris uttered, "Sangcruor? Something like that, we'd only met briefly. She isn't much of a talker, she was just in her cave while I was out here looking over you."
"Jayne mentioned none of this stuff." Roderick said to himself.
"Huh? What does Jayne know about dragons?"
"Uhhh. Nothing!" Roderick stammered, "Forget what I said, do you know what this means!" He stood up, being proud that at the revelation his has discovered, "Dragons are civilised people, I mean, she didn't try to eat us, right? Maybe she knows the dragon who took Jayne." He paced around the cave, a newfound excitement washing over him.
Chris' eyes widened, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? This may prove to be beneficial." Chris grinned, "Finding Jayne may be easier than we thought." He leaped from his rock.
Half an hour or so passed as they waited until Sangcruour came back with a dead rabbit in her hands. Christopher insisted that she put on his coat again and she reluctantly agreed only to shut him up.
She breathed fire to cook the rabbit instantaneously, Roderick whimpered at the sudden fiery flames, and but Chris was amazed at her abilities.
"So, Sangcruour, how was your day?" Roderick asked nervously.
"I mean, a little more interesting than usual, with your presence and what not." She tore off a leg.
"Great..." Roderick muttered, nibbling on his meat.
"So, Sangcruour, we were actually on this mountain because a friend of ours got taken by one of your... kind. We're just wondering if you have any ideas on who that might be?"
She chewed on her meat silently, taking a big gulp before answering, "Dragons, we tend to be isolated creatures. See anyone else in my cave?"
Chris and Roderick gave each other a glare before looking back at her, "How do then... reproduce?" Roderick asked.
"Oh, we dragons have thing called 'agapengus'. The closest human translation would be 'soulmates' I guess. When in close proximity, we can sense our soulmate, we meet, copulate, have kids, then once the kids are old enough, they get booted out of camp so they can meet their soulmate and start the whole cycle again. It's tedious really." Sangcruour wiped her blood from the rabbit onto Chris' coat sleeve, "We can sense 'auras' from all sentient beings, dragons and humans alike, and before you ask, you." She pointed at Chris, knowing that these little humans would ask her anyway "Your aura is... noble, I can read you like a book, your chivalrous, selfless, God, it's like you're not even a real human being." She scoffed, "And you." She pointed towards Roderick, "You are... a coward."
Roderick choked on his water, "But you have so much gaiety in you." She continued
Roderick spat out his water at the further comment. Dragons have gaydars?!
"Anyway, since I can sense auras, I can tell when dragons come and go. Biastos headed south, and he's never done that before."
"Biastos?" Chris asked.
"He's my brother, our father died prematurely and our mother... it's complicated. We were left on our own, well actually, I sort of left him on his own, he five years younger than me, and I couldn't be bothered to raise a brat like him, maybe I shouldn't have left him when he was a little lad, but I knew he was still alive. No matter how many times he would beg me to stay with him, he never got the hint..." She growled under her breath. "But then one day he got the hint and stopped chasing after me. He disappeared for a couple of years, but he came back, don't know why." She shrugged, not really caring, "He's always been a dragon who never enjoys solitude, he's not really a dragon then in my opinion."
"Wait a second." Chris interjected, "If I connect the dots here, did 'Biastos' kidnap Jayne because she's his... soulmate?" He voice was laced with disgust and malice.
The air was silent as the fire crackled, "Perhaps." Sangcruour took a sip of water, "Usually our soulmates are dragons, but humans sometimes can be. Plus, I did sense a new aura enter the mountains, and then that new aura left with Biastos' aura." She said with indifference.
Roderick and Chris' jaws dropped, "This is preposterous." Chris said and stood up, pacing around, his hand running through his hair, "By the gods, this is insane!" He screamed, "Can't you go get your little brother and tell him to bring her back."
"You say that as if a should care."
Roderick saw Chris' face sour in an uncharacteristically gloomful tone. "Well, you should care." Chris spat.
"I don't care about your little human affairs, now be quiet."
Chris stood up and searched around the cave, a newfound emotion residing within him as he wondered how this thing had the audacity to speak like that. He found a rock and picked it up. Tackling Sangcruour to the ground and placing a hand around her neck, firmly holding the rock above her head, "Listen here, you are going to help up us get Jayne back or I will smash your head in with this rock." He spat onto her face.
"Chris!" Roderick shrieked. What was he doing?
"AH." Sang choked against her throat, clawing his hand, "I could breathe fire on you and burn your face off, let go of me." She found inhumane strength to grab him and toss him into the wall. His head landing on the rock and making him pass out on impact.
"Are you okay?" Roderick asked, but too scared to approach.
Sangcruour looked over at him with a grimace, "Your friend over there, his aura is not so honourable as I thought." She heaved and scratched her throat, "He'll be out for a few hours, when he wakes, I want you gone, or else I'll kill you." She unbuttoned Chris's jacket and threw it on the floor, walking into her cave.
-
A drop of water landed on Jayne's forehead, waking her up, "What the-" Jayne sat up and looked around, seeing that she was back in the Thrinician cave.
"Oh good, you're awake."
Biastos came running over with some soup, "Here you must be hungry." He held out a spoon.
"Uh, thanks." Jayne cringed and tried to reach for the spoon, but she pulled back.
"Nuh, uh."
"Huh?" Jayne asked, mouth agape, letting Biastos spoonfeed her and place the contents in her mouth. Both were equally red from blushing.
He chuckled, and she coughed, grabbing the spoon to pull it out of his hand, causing him to playfully frown, "Stop it." She whacked his nose gently with the spoon.
Jayne remembered of the incident that happened last night, not to sure if she would want to take part in such confrontations with him.
Biastos must've noticed her tensed up and he wrapped an arm around her, "What's wrong." He cupped her cheek, stroking it with his thumb.
Jayne pulled away, "It's just... last night... you... killed a man."
The only sound Jayne heard was her own heartbeat as she felt Biastos stare at her.
She then felt a hand grab her's.
"He was a horrible man..." Biastos muttered, "If not you, then he would've attacked a different girl... men like him don't deserve to breathe."
Jayne looked up to see the sneer on his face. He wasn't looking at her, but at some unknown figure, as if that man were there right now, behind her. "I understand I may have been a little too violent." He chuckled sadly, facing Jayne, "But that's because of you, it's my duty to make sure you face no harm, and I know you can protect yourself, but that doesn't mean that you should have to."
Jayne gulped. Not too sure what to say, "I- I still need to find a job, and, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to kill people Biastos, we might get arrested."
"No one is going to report the village's rapist getting killed, I would never harm anyone if they didn't truly deserve it."
"... ha." Jayne laughed dejectedly, "Let's just... go to a different village, one where no one has seen our faces, as lovely as this cave is... I would prefer a more... human house."
Biastos snuggled up against Jayne, who was too terrified of him to refuse his advances.