Fia watched longingly as the adult dragon disappeared in the distance. There goes our chance… she thought to herself dejectedly, but she needed to put more trust in Viliant. Their survival depended on him. If Viliant claimed that the adult dragon posed too big a risk, then they could not consider calling for help. Viliant turned his attention upwards to the darkening sky. I'll catch something to sate your thirst, he promised.
The colors of sunset faded from a transient violet to a murky indigo. Long streaks of shadow began to rotate from his magical influence. The circling vultures were blissfully unaware that their target had turned to hunt them until it was too late.
The shadows formed a vortex around the nearest vulture. Its compatriots sensed something amiss, so the other condors fled with their shrill squawks splitting the sky. Viliant's lone prey remained. As the darkness manipulated by his magic closed on the bird, the vulture tightened its flight path inward. The shadows quickened their spiral and steadily overtook the vulture. Fia recalled how a single swipe from his shadows had made her heart feel weak and palpitate, so the shadows pressing from all sides must steal the bird's lifeforce away. Its massive wingspan folded, and its lifeless body dropped to the ground.
When the bird struck the rocks, its light, hollow frame gave a splintering crack. A plume of black feathers rose up and rained down around it. Fia winced away, but her eager gaze gravitated back as hunger grabbed her belly.
Oh! she marveled at the floating feathers, like an alluring invitation to dinner. That was amazing, Viliant!
A series of stunned blinks fell over his eyes. I wasn't sure if I could use my shadows to stop its heart from this far away. His legs trembled as he approached the successful kill.
Fia followed him in a three-legged limp. Up close, the vulture looked like the same kind which Viliant had easily bested in the coliseum. Some sharp pieces of bone had punctured through its flesh and joined the feathers in disarray. The rich sight of oozing blood made her dry mouth water.
Hastily, Viliant ripped away some patches of feathers which would tickle their noses and get stuck between their teeth. A single claw created an incision across a large vein in the bird, allowing the red liquid to steadily seep out. Drink up, he said to Fia.
Her aquamarine eyes glimmered from excitement. She sank her fangs around the cut and greedily swallowed the refreshing, metallic taste. Fia carefully sucked the vein dry before moving onto a new one. The dragons tore open the bird's breast and belly. Their narrow, forked tongues lapped at the blood which pooled around the intestines. When they punctured the heart with their claws, they could gulp directly from what had once been the source of all this blood.
Usually when Viliant hunted, he performed a messy slaughter which lost plentiful blood to the earth. Fia's cooking caused more to run off and clot, resulting in a scrumptious meal but less to drink. Without any water nearby, the dragons had become desperate enough to seek alternatives.
Mm. It's tastier than water, Fia tried to share her gratitude. Thank you!
Hmph. Viliant brushed off her appreciation. It's not as good as water for hydrating us but should hold us over for a couple more days. Viliant lifted his red-stained maw from the vulture's carcass and aimed his attention towards the way that the adult dragon had flown. We'll find a proper water source before then.
Though the blood slaked their thirst, it could not sustain them forever.
***
The subsequent days were grueling, each day harder than the last. Fia could hardly keep her three claws moving in a straight line anymore. She limped and swaggered from side to side. Violent chills seized her. No matter how much heat she absorbed during the daytime, her body shivered for more warmth. All night, her internal flame smoldered to no avail. The fire dragoness did not know how she could endure, perpetually wracked with cold.
Her friend offered little consolation—not that she expected any from him. Viliant no longer had any reason to bother sleeping close to her for warmth.
I'm sorry, Viliant, she moaned meekly.
Just hang in there, he said with a rather touching degree of consideration. Focus on getting better.
Fia clenched her jaw as she tucked her chin over her claws. A particularly vigorous quiver ran down her spine. She would have preferred it if she had not earned Viliant's sympathy. I must be doing really bad if he's being nice, she figured to herself. Just as he had advised, she did not waste her conscious effort on anything aside from tending to her inner flame. If she could just get warm, then maybe she stood a chance at recovery.
Viliant had not fallen asleep yet and remained connected to her mind. Though he did not consciously express anything, irritation filled him causing him to let out a groan. He rolled over with floundering wings and flopped onto his other side. His back now turned to Fia, he snapped, Relax. Try to conserve energy.
But it's so cold, Fia whimpered. There was no use complaining. Viliant must endure these uncomfortably low temperatures as well, but he did so without letting on so much as a shiver.
You feel cold? Viliant asked in alarm.
Um, yeah. Her thoughts filled with shame as the dragoness did not want to admit that her internal flame had cooled. My fire magic isn't working like it used to.
Feels like it's overworking to me, Viliant said. You're making it too hot to sleep.
Oh. The reality dawned on Fia that the fire in her belly raged as a response to the inflamed injury on her shoulder. Viliant still benefited from the heat which billowed off her, the reason why he slept so far away. However, the seemingly contradictory response of her body left her confused. If you say I'm too hot, then why do I feel too cold?
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I don't know, Viliant replied and repeated, Just focus on getting better.
As the night wore on, Fia fell into a feverish fugue. Her slitted pupils twitched and danced against the backs of her closed eyelids. Sometimes a nightmarish terror seized her. I'm going to die! Mom and Dad. Arenis. Everyone I know is going to die! Tears streamed from her eyes and hiccups added a little jolt to her shivers. Other times, she dreamed peacefully of home as if her reality were a bad dream—as if getting captured, taken across the ocean, and fighting in the coliseum had never happened. Lastly, her mind experienced some fleeting moments of awareness unaffected by panic or bliss. Fia was uncertain if she had managed to sleep at all.
Suspended in this state, the dragoness tried to rest as best she could.
***
With his eyes narrowed against the eastward sun, Viliant faced the direction that they must travel in a strong stance. He had awoken with the break of dawn, but he waited in the hours of the wee light for Fia to stir. Hopefully the extra sleep would help rectify her condition. Viliant could do nothing for her aside from continuing his search for water.
That mission must resume now. Rise and shine, Viliant said to Fia. Time to get going. After a few seconds of silence, he asked forcefully in her head, Fia?
No response came from the dragoness. Her body lay sprawled on one side. Her scales, originally pigmented a bright pink when they had met, were covered by a layer of dust and bleached by the sun. Her ribs rose and fell with her shallow breaths. Though she pretended to sleep, her mind was awake—neither seeking out their telepathic link nor rejecting it.
Fia? he asked again in greater concern. The dragoness was unresponsive to the mental prodding, so Viliant nudged her shoulder with the back of his claws. "Fia," he said audibly to demand her attention.
"Viliant?" rasped past her throat. I don't think I can.
At first, Viliant did not know what to say. His attempts to show kindness and understanding were not working, so he growled fiercely. Finally, he barked an order which Fia simply needed to follow. Get up. You have to.
The muscles of her legs flexed as she tried to right herself, but her body collapsed back to the dirt. She grunted and repeated with greater remorse, I can't!
Viliant let her lie there, and he slunk away with his head and tail hung low in defeat. The dragon needed to get out of range of the fire dragoness's heat while he tried to think of a solution to the impossible situation.
Are you leaving me now? Fia whined. Can you still go home for me? Warn my people? Tell Mommy and Daddy how far I got? I miss them.
A murky sigh hefted from Viliant's nostrils. He could lie to Fia at the end of her life to console her, but he had little interest in finding Carlinoa Island on his own. The child was his ticket to acceptance and gratitude amongst her clan. Without Fia, he might end up shunned as an outsider soon after he relayed his message. Besides, he would lack the motivation to make it that far in the first place without her.
To himself, he rationalized what he knew. I'll survive either way, but I'm watching my friend die. And I'm powerless to do anything about it. For her recovery, she required water, rest, and medicine—none of which Viliant could provide. He did not bother unwrapping her dusty bandages just to look at the infection rotting away at her shoulder. Whenever his tongue flicked out of his mouth, he could sense the sickly odor of death on her.
However, Viliant did know one thing; he promised not to leave Fia behind, so he responded to her gruffly, No. I'm not leaving you. And you're not dying.
After a big intake of breath, Fia tried harder to get up and wobbled onto her three legs. The imbalance on her front half threatened to land her right back on the ground. Viliant dashed forward to support her before that could happen.
A sudden hiss escaped between his fangs. Her body was too hot for comfort against his own scales, but Viliant bit back his complaints. At least she had managed to stand on her own, a much better way to travel than the only other option: dragging her.
Maybe Fia was right, Viliant lamented to himself, never willing to admit such a thing to the dragoness and encourage her sprightly, defiant attitude when her health returned. If she was going to die either way, she might've as well called the adult over. The black dragon could have hidden in the shadows while she took a chance that he was not willing to take. Viliant did not rely on others for his own survival. In contrast Fia presently relied on him for every single step that she took.
If they saw the adult dragon fly overhead again, that was what they would do, Viliant decided. For now he needed to pay for his short-sighted decision days prior, back when he had not expected Fia's condition to deteriorate so rapidly. If they found an oasis for a prolonged period of drink and rest, maybe she still had a chance to rebound.
That hope pushed him onward with one, laborious step after another. Every breath which he took sounded like a ragged gasp. Squinting against the harsh, noonday sun, Viliant felt as though he were boiling underneath his black scales. Wish I could make myself some shade, he said, sharing that thought with Fia.
"Hm," she hummed in acknowledgement, possibly amusement.
The act of performing shadow magic took much more effort than it was worth in broad daylight. Instead, Viliant could only fan out his wings to help cool his body. One wing draped over his head to offer him some shade. The holes still let sunlight through. Most of the blistering heat, however, came from the feverish fire dragon at his side.
While he trudged onward, head down, Viliant stopped with his claw tips at the edge of an abrupt impression in the ground. A line of massive tracks cut across the dragons' intended path. That's a big one, Viliant observed, impressed that a large animal would choose to inhabit the arid wasteland. A creature of those proportions would require a lot of resources to sustain it. Instinct bid him to stay away, but then he sucked in his breath. An animal as big as that needs a lot of water, don't you think, Fia?
"Hm?"
Big animal leads us to water! Viliant expressed in simple terms. If the little dragoness at all considered the outcomes of her actions, Fia must have wishfully imagined something like this when she tried befriending the ghast lizards. But unlike those tiny animals which required negligible amounts of water, this time her idea would actually work.
Friend? Fia asked for a one word, delirious response.
No, Fia, no friends! Viliant roared back in the closest thing that he had to a playful tone.
Her sickly frame shrunk into herself further. Evidently, Fia could not tell the difference between serious reprimand and a good-natured joke—not that Viliant joked around all that much. He held back more of his frustration now that Fia's physical deterioration had robbed her mind of what little sense she had. Luckily, there was still a chance for her.
With renewed spirits, Viliant beckoned to Fia to quicken the pace. The dragons could look forward to finding water at last. Viliant only hoped that they would not have to face whatever massive monster led them to the watering hole.