“That’s right, disappear!” Kaara shouted at the Osazi as it vanished. She turned to the noxa, “Are you alright?” She looked at the girl he was holding close, her face swollen up and cut from bare knuckle blows. Kaara summoned her healing water,“Let me help. She looks pretty bad.” She glanced over to see the bat drake who had consoled her before. She felt a lump in her throat, trotting over to it and pressing her ear to its chest.

Its heart was stopped, but Kaara knew that did not always mean it was dead. She did not have much time, though. She closed her eyes, imagining its heart. The blood in its veins, the water which carried life. She willed it to pump and flow as she pressed her palms to its ribs. She pressed down, “One, two, three,” She muttered in an attempt to get its heart to start. Morbidly enough, she only knew how to use blood magic because of how often she butchered other animals for food.

She could pump its blood, but that would not get its heart to start beating again if it had stopped completely. It would only keep it alive for a little bit longer. What could she do? Kaara gnawed at the inside of her cheek. Something like this could not be healed by her water.

She turned to the noxa “Go and get Shiira I’m going to-”

A low metallic hum rang out like the chime of a bell. Kaara felt electricity prick her palms. She pulled away from the drake, hearing a high pitched whine followed by a low thump. The drake seized up, another high pitched whine, and another thump.

The drake’s eyes fluttered open, its limp ears now standing at attention. It scrambled up, looking around as if it didn’t remember where it was.

“Ezo!” The cloaked Noxa launched himself into a hug with the drake, “Thank you! Thank you…” He said, digging his face into the drake’s mane.

Kaara breathed to say something, but stopped herself. What had happened there? It was as if the drake had shocked itself, but that was not possible. She looked over to Amaro and Deka. Both of them were still unconscious.

She hovered healing water over the drake, “There are still some electrical burns, so let me help with that.”

“Why didn’t you use your magic to attack that thing?” the noxa asked.

“Hm? Because that was an Osazi. They can end up locking your magic if you try to do that.”

“I see.”

“That thing’s been following you for a while, huh?”

The Noxa nodded, “But please don’t-”

“I won’t tell anyone, don’t worry. It’s not like we can do anything even if we know about it. Those things can’t be trapped, hurt, or killed. They’ve gotta harm themselves until they die.”

“So I’ve heard, but I tried to test that earlier. Now I can’t use my magic. I don’t know if it will ever come back.”

“Oh, if that happened, then ask Shiira! She can help you with that.”

“Now that you mention her, I think she already did. She gave me a seed to eat.”

“That sounds like the cure to me. You should be able to use your magic again when the sun comes up.”

“Have you dealt with that monster before?”

“No, not me specifically. I’m sure Shiira has helped people in the past. Malaki have a lot of different ways of tormenting people and even more ways of keeping themselves hidden while they do it. Someone like Shiira’s probably seen it all, though!”

“She definitely gives me that impression. Thank you for driving it off by the way.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Kaara giggled, “I honestly didn’t think chucking snowballs would work, but I couldn’t really think of anything else. If you hadn’t shouted like you did I probably wouldn’t have woken up.”

The bat drake pushed into her, dragging its warm tongue across her face.

“Ezo!” The noxa whistled for it, but Ezo kept licking.

“It’s fine,” Kaara laughed, “You’re just trying to thank me, right?”

The drake nuzzled its cheek against her, laying on her legs to cuddle as its tail swished to and fro. Kaara scratched behind its ears until hind leg was thumping about, “Drakes got a lot of the same spots as Wulviir, huh?”

“At this rate he’s not going to be following me around anymore.” The Noxa said, sitting down to run his hand through Ezo’s mane. He looked to the girl as Kaara’s water healed her wounds. He pulled a copper knife from his pocket, “You can have this back, by the way.”

“Oh, thank you.” Kaara said, “This isn’t the first time you gave me this knife, is it?” she grinned.

“I guess it’s obvious now, huh?”

“I remember you three. We met in Yvian, right? Well, I guess you weren’t conscious.”

The noxa stayed silent, fiddling with his scarf as if to check if it was still on.

“Why’re you hiding your face? Did something happen to it?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just… If people find out I can do what I did, I might be killed.”

“Why would someone kill you?”

The noxa was silent.

“I get it, you can’t say because if I say something about it, then you might get in trouble, right?”

The noxa nodded.

“Your mom’s a Venator Knight, so that’s got something to do with it too, probably. You spoke like Deka does when he’s using Ux. Maybe that old guy who rescued us in Yvian has something to do with it as well? His name was Oikevas if I remember.”

The noxa tensed up under his cloak. Kaara hit the nail on the head, “Well now you’ve gotta tell me, right? I’m already too close.”

“If other people discover I can use Ux, it’s going to lead them to my master, Oikevas. I guess the nobles see him training me as a threat or something. They wanted my master to train Deka instead, but he refused.”

“So you’re the reason Tadios was acting so smart, huh?”

“What? No, I-”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know if I can claim I did all of that, though. All I did was come up with a plan. Tadios believed in me, so I didn’t want to let him down.”

Kaara wiggled herself out from under the drake so she could sit down next to the noxa, “Thanks for helping me out earlier too. That was you who helped me when I fainted a few days ago, right? And this drake clearly belongs to you, so you’ve been watching me since you got here huh?”

“Sorry.”

“Why apologize? I’m looking for a ‘you’re welcome’ not an apology,” she huffed.

“You’re welcome?”

“There, that’s better!” Kaara nodded to herself, “I wish you had met with me sooner, but I understand why you didn’t. You’re trying not to be discovered, and you knew I might recognize you, right?”

“That’s part of it. The other part is that I did not know what to say, or if you would remember me. Or if you would even care.”

“Of course I care! Why would I save you if I'm gonna spit on you when you try to thank me?”

The noxa chuckled, “I guess you’re right about that.”

“What’s your name, by the way?”

“My friends call me Argo.”

“Not a lie, but not the whole truth, huh?” Kaara smiled, “Well if your friends call you Argo, I’ll call you Argo too cuz you and I are friends now!”

“I can see why Tadios spoke so highly of you. Sorry for cutting your horns so much, by the way.”

Kaara grabbed at her horns, only to find shallow stumps in their place, “Aw cmon! You didn’t have to cut that much off!”

“I was angry and I took it out on everyone. I’m sorry.”

Kaara swiped her hand through the air, cutting the noxa’s horns off, “There! Now we’re even, and no one will suspect you’re the one who took our horns because yours are cut too!”

Argo looked stunned, but they relaxed, “Good thinking.”

“I think if anyone asks me what happened, I’ll just say something about Tadios fighting, or something and let them fill in the blanks. I’ll make sure they can’t track things back to you.”

Argo bowed his head, “It’s pathetic, honestly. I train so hard every single day, but no matter what I can’t save anyone.”

Kaara had to laugh at that, “What do you mean? I barely know you and you’ve saved me twice!”