I have to chuckle a bit, it seems Tiktik can be almost as distractable as me. I flop my hand towards her, waving in a motion for her to continue. Kitten, for her part, giggles at my thought train.

Tiktik continues, “Right, right, so, this was a long time ago, you have to understand. Years and years ago, before I really understood the Twixt, long before I had the courage to tell Littlebit how I felt about her. I picked up a bounty on a supposed art thief who had gone too far on his last heist and killed someone. The Twixt didn’t even really make up a victim, so it was just words, just a thing he did, supposedly. This guy was slick, slippery, tricky, hardest catch yet. I followed clues and leads all over, and the Twixt even made up entirely new cities for me to scour. In one town, he’d have made off with an innmaiden’s family jewels after seducing her, and having stayed there for the week before I even made it to town. Then he’d have a night or two with a nobleman’s wife, or daughter, here or there around the town.”

I chuckle and blush at the implications. Tiktik grins derpily before continuing, “Right, so, the goof is obviously supposed to be charming, debonair, and whatever, right? Like, like some real Casanova type, a Don Juan or whatever.” I blink at the references Tiktik makes that seem to come straight from my Fakeworld memories.

Tiktik shrugs, and goes on with her tale, “Anyway, by all accounts, he’s handsome, fine-lipped, smooth, with gorgeous hair and a jaunty gait and yada yada blah blah all the girls faun over him or swoon when they see him. Pfft. The Twixt was setting up a real bit, and all the while, I’m laughing while tracking down clues, and testimonies. I was starting to realize something about myself, that, well, I hadn’t realized, because I hadn’t really thought about other possible partners, especially not long-term. I catch up with Rufiqo, and we tussle, all the while he’s trying to smooth-talk me, butter me up, congratulate me for catching him, get on my good side. He knows we’re going to have to share inn-rooms on the way back for me to turn him in for the bounty.”

I blush, uncertain how in-depth Tiktik is going to be going with this tale, the way it sounds like it’s headed. She playfully thwacks me with her magical hand wrapped up in her hair for my thought-train before continuing, “Aaaaanyway. I kept the goon trussed up. Every new town on the way home, he’s wheedling me, trying to seduce me, but I’m giddier and giddier as we get closer to the town to turn him in at. He thinks he’s working his magic on me, thinks the compliments and flirtation’s working. Hehe. We finally get home, and as I’m handing him over, he’s asking how I was so strong-willed or why his charms didn’t work or whatever. I just giggle at him, I don’t have the heart to tell him.”

I raise an eyebrow, so Tiktik finishes, “I’m a lesbian silly! Even if I was going to run off in the Twixt and lead some fantasy life with some long-time lover, even if I could trust that it wasn’t some con, it’d be with a woman, or agendered individual. I guess the Twixt helped me realize that, in a roundabout way. I mean, I had eyes for Littlebit since, well, we were little, but I didn’t know if that was a just her thing, or in general.”

I smile Tiktik’s way, wearing an almost-smirk. I’d never thought to ask her sexuality, since I hadn’t intended on seducing her or any such thing. She’s been a jumble of nerves though, and I’m not quite sure how this piece fits that picture.

Tiktik sighs before answering my train of thought, “Because Tiger, I could see myself being with you guys. Like, really with. Long-term. But I can’t. I’m not going to. You know it, I know it. At least, if we somehow succeed. But, but I’m also scared. I don’t know how long it could take to succeed at something like this. If we’re working on this war for Rayileklia for years together, and in all that time, I’m pining, I just. I don’t want you to think I am, and that, that well, if I turned to you, that it’s some sort of moment-of-weakness thing. I like you guys. I truly, really do. It would be because I honestly want to spend what time I have left with you guys. I’m scared about not winning, about one of us being offed before we succeed. I’m even more scared about not, not, not, um. Glp. I—. I don’t wanna die alone Tiger. I’m pretty fearless, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna die on this quest. I don’t wanna die alone, but I don’t want it to be because of pity, because of me not wanting to die alone. I, I need you to, to know that if I turn to you, it’s because I feel, I really feel.”

My smile drops as sadness spreads across my face. I respond, “Oh Kitten. It’s okay. Whatever your motives, if and when something like that happens, I understand. You’re an amazing, wonderful friend, that I deeply cherish. An ally that I trust implicitly and explicitly. You’ll have nothing to worry about. If it eats up at you, and you have some sort of yearning to feel like considering yourself together with someone, or someones—. Well, I mean, I honestly don’t even know what would change, but I’d be there for you, for that, all the same.”

Tiktik wears a wry grin, one fang sticking out from between her lips as she teases, “Well, there’d probably be more smooching for one.”

I blush and chuckle. I suppose that’s true. I gaze at her for a while longer yet, trying to assess her emotional state. She’s someone whose happiness I desire. If that included some sort of polyamorous romantic involvement, I’d be happy to be a part of that. She already knows Teuila has my undying devotion, so there’s no chance that I’d have to worry about that. She’s a Fae, so she knows plenty about open relationship boundaries, setting expectations, sharing affection with and without ties. Still—. In some ways, I hope that her yearning never comes to pass, because it would mean—. Huff. I sigh and rest my forehead against hers. I just want to get us all to where we should be, safely, in one piece, where we can live happily, in peace. I tilt my head up slightly to kiss Tiktik’s forehead, before I work the electricity through my nerve tunnels to begin stretching. I flash her a sad half-frown that she returns, since she knows I’m about to leave the carriage.

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I feel a bit rotten, doing it right after that admission. Still, I let my gaze linger on her for just a moment longer yet as I extricate myself from her, don my armor, and open the carriage’s door out into Rayileklia’s gloomy, oppressive air. The pitter-patter of the constant acid rain, and the unending crackle of lightning and roar of thunder meets me as usual under Rayileklia’s darkened skies. The plip plop of water dripping into long-standing puddles, and the eerie reflections of lightning on those self-same puddles are a mix of audio and visual cacophony. It’s all so much stimulation, too much. I close my eyes momentarily, and it feels like blood rushes to my ears to enhance my hearing, despite my desires for quiet, for respite from the storm after mere moments of exposure.

Sighing, I open my eyes again. Glancing to the east, where the entrance of the Derbrightmine Dominion’s underground city should be, instead there’s something that seems like an ice-sculpture placed upon a figurehead carved into stone. The horses slow to a halt, giving the scads of kobolds and canines time to catch up. It also gives me time to investigate the region. Wandering close to the stone-sealed area that should be a tunnel entrance, I glance up and gasp when I realize what I’d seen from afar.

The bodies of Don and Paulette Derbrightmine are encased in ice, frozen solid. They’re mounted on some sort of stone carving of a dragon’s head, in its jaws, a grizzly reminder of how they earned their fate. They weren’t my friends, hell, we were potential enemies, but to see them reduced to this hits me square in the gut all the same. Gulping, I amble back to the carriage with my erratic walk, powered by my internal electrokinesis. I try to focus on manipulating the energy within me through my cored out nerve pathways, so that I don’t have to imagine the fate of the rest of the Derbrightmine Dominion.

Teuila’s face is pure grim determination at the moment of my arrival back to the carriage. At this very moment, I can tell she wants to hunt the great white dragon. We’re vaguely in telepathic contact again, mostly just the mildly affirming presence of sensing each other’s emotional wavelengths, little more. She’s still not ready for more, to connect, to be loved. She’s punishing herself. She’d hate herself if she thought her self-punishment was hurting me, so I mask my emotions as best I can upon my realization. Sighing, I slowly return to the carriage, knowing there’s nothing I can do here.

I need to distract myself. Their fate is horrifying, whether dead or alive, trapped, encased in ice, made an example of. What about this situation could possibly provide a positive distraction? I guess, well, if we catch up to the dragons, I might be able to live just a little bit longer. We’re so close to my expiration date. I’m jittery and nervous. I’ve got between two and six weeks at the very maximum, probably less. It’s something like August twenty first. I really hope I don’t just drop dead immediately on September first, but there’s no telling what will happen when Kozzurth’s dragonforce fades, and I’ve only got best-estimates on when that will be exactly. Erm, right, positive distraction Reggie, positive.

Kitten chuckles at me telepathically. My telepathic avatar flashes hers a smile, and that’s when all hell breaks loose. With a roar that seems to challenge and compete with thunder rolling nearby, the white and black dragons both swoop down from a nearby butte. They’ve been waiting for us, and now that they’re now in sight, Teuila freezes, hesitating in the driver’s seat of the carriage. She glances back at the long line of kobolds and canines following our carriage that are now scattering in terror. My eyes flash wide in horror, having feared almost this exact scenario. My Wings, the woman most beloved to me is caught in her own uncertainty. Despite that grim determination that she was steeling herself for, she’s second guessing herself, mistrusting herself.

The two beasts land on all four limbs, and each one splays their wings as they take position at the fore of our procession, aiming to the south. They’re seemingly content to attempt to murder everyone in a single combined blast of frost and acid. While their forelimbs are powerful, the white’s more obviously so, I can’t help but wonder about their hind legs, and tails, those are hidden from view by their massive wingspans. Her form is all slender grace, scales as dark as onyx, glistening with an otherworldly sheen, reflecting the lightning like obsidian gemstones. His form instead is a massive presence, with weathered scales that were once as pristine as freshly fallen snow. Despite the obvious age of the grand beast, his scales still shimmer with an ethereal luminescence beneath the flicker of lightning.

The white beast is missing his left eye, his eyelid scarred from our recent encounter. His wings, grand and expansive, are blocking most of this path across the canyon floor. They bear the marks of countless battles, the scars in the dactyl-leather plainly visible as he splays his wings in a show of dominance and power. Where he stands slightly at the fore of the pair, partially covering her with his wings splayed, she crouches in the rear, her neck low and her fearsome maw wide. Her wings however, compared to his, are sinewy, a marvel to behold, untouched by battle, as dark as the night sky with a span that seems to stretch beyond the horizon, completely encompassing the path, from chasm wall to chasm wall, and they aren’t even fully splayed.

I need to scare off the black dragon before she belches acid over everyone. If that happens, I lose everyone, and every thing. There’s no time to hesitate, or to think, I need to accomplish that, and also get the attention of the white dragon. I unleash a rain of fireballs in their direction the moment they begin to exhale after they’d opened their maws, aiming towards the carriage, everything my archsorc staff can safely muster, evaporating the acid spewing forth, and causing a mixed steam explosion after melting the ice. The last charges of the staff create a massive wall of fire, hopefully buying us precious seconds.

Thankfully, I’ve got their attention, and they no longer have a charge. The black dragon growls a challenge, and through the flickering flames of my wall of fire, I can see the organ in her throat begin to re-pressurize to deliver another stream of acid. D@%^ it all! What do I have at my disposal? Wait, if she’s smart, she won’t let me in her mouth. If she’s dumb enough to let me in there, I’ll destroy her acid-organ, and if she’s smart, she’ll keep her mouth closed. Either way, it takes her breath weapon off the board, keeping her from spewing acid across the battlefield. The white takes wing, leaping from butte to butte, seeking the best angle for devastation while the black dragon remains landbound, officially challenging me. I channel my internal electrokinesis, and take off shakily towards the acidic beast, drawing a pummeled, ever-so-slightly dented, partially cracked sheet of orichalcum out of my hyperdimensional haversack as I do. Here’s hoping I know what I’m doing.