As much as the money to go home thrilled Fia, the sage's hostility toward Diwa had frightened her. The dragonette wrapped her wings around herself and leaned into Viliant. Why did Sage Rokirith do that?
Because he's a boor. Viliant nudged her back into action. Come on. Let's help Diwa pick everything up.
They scrambled around to put the gecko tails into one of Diwa's woven baskets when Sage Rokirith suddenly rushed back. "Rokirith, I thought you were leaving—" Diwa began. The back of his paw thwacked the basket from her claw. The valuable contents spilled halfway across the dusty ground.
This time, Fia did not shy away from witnessing Rokirith's wayward ways. She glowered at the scattered ingredients which they would have to gather again. Why'd you do that? she demanded of the sage. Just because he had wanted her to stay as his pupil, that did not give him the right to interfere with her mission. That's my ticket home—
Leave it, he said, rejoining the dragons' wordless network. Take cover. Now!
Diwa swooped Fia and Viliant beneath her wings, ushering them all to duck under Rokirith's broader ones. Together, the dragons shielded themselves behind a natural protrusion of rock. Sage Rokirith lay down to fully conceal himself.
A raw feeling ate at Fia's heart. She preferred not to leave the geckos scattered across the ground for the vultures' picking, but she trusted the elder dragons' judgment. What is it? Fia asked, the only one curious enough to peek out. To do so, she needed to rise onto her hind legs with her front claws placed against the boulder for balance. There, her wavering, blue eyes glimpsed the most humans that she had seen since her imprisonment. "Humans!" she squealed and fell over backwards, her tail floundering back and forth.
Silence! Sage Rokirith said, imposing silently upon her mind. His barred fangs loomed close to Fia's face, yet he dared not hiss. If the presence of the human battalion alarmed even the sage, then the dragons must face an imminent threat to their lives.
Fewer humans marched along the canyon's rim than Fia once saw lining the coliseum's stands, but these men were heavily armed. Are these… the same, bad humans? Fia inquired, assuming that the human tribes must have as many numbers and variations as the dragon clans.
Yes, Sage Rokirith replied grimly.
Viliant did not heed the sage's warnings and poked his own horns around the boulder's edge after Fia had fallen. The black dragonet looked much less conspicuous compared to fia's pink scales. With his keen eyes, he was able to provide elaboration to the sage's answer. The Dragon Slayer is leading them.
No…. Fia could not believe that the Dragon Slayer had entered the badlands, not after he had let them go beyond its borders. She crawled along her belly to Viliant's side, feeling the need to see this with her own eyes.
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Sweat ebbed down the side of the Dragon Slayer's face, making his black hair slick where visible beneath his regal helm. A crimson cape ruffled behind him as he spearheaded the human forces. Behind him fluttered a red flag with an emblem of a slain dragon, wings broken.
They're not chasing us again, are they? Fia asked.
No, Sage Rokirith answered definitively, but they might if you are so intent on giving us away! Before the sage could pull Fia and Viliant back by their tails, Diwa also wormed her way over to the side of the rock.
Let the dragonets be. I want to see this too. From the nature dragoness's magic, a sprout rapidly unfurled beneath their chins. The vine soon hardened with bark. Its branches grew around their necks, and even as its leaves expanded, the plant grew around their eyes so as not to obstruct their vision. Diwa's wings rested over the dragonets' tails which stuck outside the newly grown bush, their haunches concealed behind the boulder.
Diwa, Sage Rokirith said with insurmountable disappointment. That bush is the greenest thing for miles.
The obvious nature of their hiding spot did not deter Fia, Viliant, and Diwa from watching with their eyes peeled in terror. A high-pitched dragon's shriek split the sky, but it had not come from any of the dragons in their company. From the depths of the canyon, a brown dragon suddenly emerged—a plain dragoness based on her small ridges and horns. In the midst of her ascent, higher and higher, the brown dragoness performed a complex spiral. Fia assumed the performance to be advanced, evasive tactics.
That dragon's in danger! Fia gasped, panicking as she could not think of a way to save the aerial ace.
Is there anything we can do? Diwa asked trepidly, expecting Sage Rokirith to have an answer to all their woes.
Yet the insidious, purple gravity orbs never manifested from the Dragon Slayer's palms. The prince continued to lead the march unfazed. The brown dragoness kept turning her body over in fanciful loops, soaring and roaring out of glee.
Why is the Dragon Slayer not killing her? Viliant asked.
Because that's his mate, Sage Rokirith replied.
Huh? Fia did not understand how such a relationship would work. Her inherent immaturity due to her age felt particularly raw in this moment. When she felt Viliant and Diwa's concordant confusion, Fia felt much reassurance.
Pay attention to the human on top of the dragon, Sage Rokirith said harshly. They call her Dragon Rider.
Oh. Fia forced her downcast gaze to lift back up, following the brown dragoness as she landed in front of the halted regiment. The slender form of a human slipped off the back of the saddled dragoness. The Dragon Slayer and Dragon Rider met where a rocky ledge jutted over the widest point of the chasm.
A woman, in light riding leathers, trailed her fingers across the brown scales of her steed. Her casual touch most humans might do to the mane of a horse. Her helm had a gilded ring around her head, a smaller decoration to match the Dragon Slayer's crown. She curtsied and passed an oblong object up to his outstretched grasp, followed by another.
Both ovals were plain, dull brown in color but nonetheless recognizable. Eggs. Fia's thoughts descended into horror. They have dragon eggs! After the Dragon Slayer had attempted to slaughter Fia and Viliant—two juvenile dragons—in a political spectacle, she did not want to imagine what atrocity he might commit against the unhatched baby dragons.