Slowly, we make our way back toward the cabin. As it comes into sight, I spot two silhouettes– one with feline ears, the other with a hood– anxiously standing by what remains of the fire Angus and I left behind.
It isn't long before Sam and Marvin see us and come running.
"Jack? Angus?" Marv calls, the moonlight glimmering in his multicolored eyes. Then he slows down, seeing the hunter's wound, and begins to shake his head. "Wh…? What happened?"
Sam, arriving shortly after the boy, widens his eyes as well. "Angus? Are you all right?"
He tries to hide the fact that he's flinching with a laugh. "I'll be fine, mate… hah, hopefully, anyway."
Soon enough, the four of us are sitting around the reignited flames– Marvin and Sam on one side of Angus, me on the other, all of us inching to get a closer look at his wound.
In the light, I can see it better. It pierced him too deep to be called a mere scratch, and the lines run from his upper thigh all the way down to the back of his ankle. They curve, as if the claws raked him at a bit of an angle, but the cuts are clean– seemingly almost concise– in a way that suggests that they weren't the work of anything barbaric.
"I… I don't get it," Marvin says quietly, shaking his head a little as he kneels beside his leg. "I've never seen an animal big enough to make claw marks this size with a single swipe."
"I have to agree," Sam mutters, letting out a breath of fear and awe. "Even wolves and bears couldn't manage this– especially the cleanliness of it. This seems almost… practiced. What could've done this to you?"
Angus and I exchange a bit of a glance before turning back to them, the hunter bearing his signature half-smile for a moment.
“How about this...” he finishes, blinking firmly as if he’s holding back the pain he’s in. “I give you an explanation, and you help me regain the use of this leg?”
—
After helping him get inside, Sam and I watch from a distance as Marvin digs around in his satchel for something that can help Angus’s wound.
Crossing his arms, the hooded hero finally turns to me with a quiet voice. “So, what happened out there?”
“It was all so fast, I’m not sure I’ve caught my breath from it all yet,” I answer, shaking my head a little and feeling a grin hiding on my face.
As he pulls his mask down a bit, I can see that Sam is smiling a little, too. “That tends to happen when someone experiences something larger than life. I can see it in your face that it must’ve been nothing short of incredible.”
“You... have no idea,” I breathe, feeling my eyes going wide again as the memory comes back to me. Then, swallowing and lifting my gaze to his again, I find my words. “It was... a dragon.”
At this, his eyebrows furrow, and I see doubt glittering in his eyes. “You’re serious? A real one?”
All I can do is nod earnestly and reply, “As real as you and me.”
Before I can go on, my attention is caught by Marvin helping Angus stand across the room from us. In the dim light, I can discern through his torn pants leg that his wound is nothing more than a long, winding scar now– Marv must've given him one of his healing elixirs– and I can also see on his face that he's stricken with disbelief.
"Bloody hell," I hear him mutter as the boy lets him support himself on his own.
Glancing back at Sam before I go, I take a few steps up to the hunter and try to meet his eyes. "Are you okay, Angus?"
He huffs a little before giving me his response. "I feel fine. It's… strange."
"It'll take a while for your body to fully adjust to being back to normal," Marvin puts in gently. "The change can be pretty stark in cases like this. You should still rest until you feel completely better."
At this, Angus shakes his head. "I can't. Jack and I need to go back out there, as soon as possible."
"He's right," I add, suddenly remembering our promise. "There's… something we need to take care of."
“Angus, no,” Marvin suddenly asserts, sitting at the hunter’s side. “You’re staying here for now. You really need rest.”
Sighing in defeat, Angus finally looks to me.
“Alright, fine. But Jack shouldn’t go out there alone– there can be some dangerous creatures out there around this time of night.”
I let out an almost-amused breath. “It can’t possibly top what we saw earlier, right?”
At this, he chuckles a little again. “Fair enough, mate. But, Sam–?”
“I’m on it,” the hero responds confidently before he can properly finish. “I’ll accompany him.”
“Good,” Angus finishes, then he meets my eyes again with a grin and a nod. “Show Sam the way, will ya?”
—
I lead the way as we make our way back out into the receding night. There’s a silence for a while, one I can’t quite tell the nature of…
“So… you’re saying it was a real, living dragon that injured Angus?” Sam finally asks to break it, his doubts still showing. “I’m still not sure I believe you.”
“Honestly? I wouldn’t believe me either, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” I respond quietly.
Then, realizing how close we are, I hold my arm out to the side, letting Sam know to stop, then I pause for a few moments. Cricket song and the other sounds of the night-time forest fill my ears at first, but after a bit, I hear low, rumbling, rhythmic growls that I recognize as familiar…
Picking up on them, Sam’s eyes widen, and he quickly pulls his sword out– but I stop him in the act with a single look, knowing that this may very well be the only time I ever see him tremble in fear.
I take a few steps forward toward the clearing, then beckon for him to follow. He hesitates for a second, but eventually comes closer, looking in over my shoulder, and together, we see…
Laying with its head tucked beneath its injured wing, the blue dragon rests, the tip of its finned tail twitching as it senses our presence nearby.
I hear Sam let out a short breath of disbelief, of speechlessness behind me, and I hold my hand up again to let him know not to follow me. Swallowing, he nods and takes a half-step backwards…
With that, I proceed forward a little, then some more. As I approach, the beast blinks its eyes open slowly and raises its head, a low, soft growl emanating from its throat as it moves…
Finally, its gaze finds me, and it begins to stand again. Carefully I pull Loinnir out, and as soon as I do, the dragon focuses on it curiously.
“Hey there,” I begin quietly. “I’m back.”
It bows his head a small bit, then turns it to one side, as if to ask me where my companion went.
“Angus is still recovering from his wound,” I try to explain slowly, hoping it understands my words. Then I make a gesture toward my leg and nod a little. “He’s injured, right here.”
At this, the dragon’s eyes fall… could it be that it never meant to harm Angus in the first place? Was it the corruption that drove it to do that?
Shaking my head a little, I try to get its attention again, raising my blade slightly.
“This sword… it’s special,” I attempt to go on, hesitating, but remembering something Prosperus told me. “It has an opposite, from your world. Do you know anything about it?”
But as I finish, the creature just seems… confused, like it doesn’t know what I’m saying.
I sigh, looking up to the half-morning sky above us. The sun’s just beginning to rise, but the moon is still in faded view. I wish there was a way I could communicate my idea…
As the thought passes through my mind, though, a glimmer from the eastern horizon catches my eye, and suddenly I look down to see…
Loinnir, glowing as it never has before. At first I’m surprised– but then, I recall something Sam once told me about the sword, back when I first wielded it…
It was said to have been forged in the golden rays of daybreak, and to be able to cut through any darkness inside a person's soul. The blade was named Loinnir, for its shine when held in the daylight is like that of the rising sun.
I’ve never seen it quite like this before…
Bringing me out from my awe, a small grunt from the dragon before me brings me back to my senses. It seems anxious now, adjusting on its feet and shaking its head back and forth almost violently, as if it can see something new in its mind…
“Hey– hey, easy,” I try to tell it as its wings flap down forcefully and a screech escapes its throat. “Easy, now!”
At the sound of my voice, the beast trembles as it tries to hold itself still, but it obeys to the best of its ability, bringing itself lower to the ground.
Letting out a small breath, I crouch down to its level and finally ask it, “What do you see?”
After a long pause of silence, its eyes slowly begin to open, and as I meet them, I feel a strange, hypnotic lull come over me, and suddenly I can’t look away–
Foreign images flash through my mind. A wild place I’ve never seen before that rests under an orange sky bleeding with red clouds, untouched by humankind. In the middle is a great, dark mountain taller than everything, with small winged creatures flitting around it expertly in the distance– at first I think they’re merely birds, but the echoes of unnatural howls they make quickly tell me otherwise.
A chill goes down my spine. Is this what I think it is…?
The image of the mountain grows closer and closer still. Now I can see there’s a cave at its center– I can’t help but wonder what kind of massive being must call it home. But before I can even deliberate on the question for longer than a moment, I have my answer...
With the sound of an earth-shaking growl, I see a pair of huge golden eyes open before me, boring into me from the radiating darkness surrounding them. I can just make out the shape of a beastly jaw beneath, and just-barely-glowing curling horns above them...
And, by the faint light of the iris’ glow, I see an empty pedestal, just long enough for a sword to rest on.
Then, suddenly, the sight is ripped from my eyes again, and I stumble backwards, a frightening realization coming to me as I arrive with my senses once more.
Catching my breath, I can only whisper as my draconic messenger meets my gaze one more time...
“Your guardian... it’s corrupted.”
—
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