Relief. Pure, unadulterated, relief. That was what Brickwrath had felt upon seeing the shape of The Dragon above them. Absolute pure relief.
The two of them had been on the road for a few weeks now, and they were pretty sure something was tracking them. It had started with strange noises in the forest, rustling and creaks. Later it became a movement of leaves when there was no wind and swirls of dust on the road, heading in the opposite direction to the breeze.
Once, a snapped twig, loud behind them. Elegantlillies had spun around, her gun in her arms, but there had been nothing there. Only smudges in the dust of the road, the smell of hot breath, and the headache-inducing scent of jasmine on the wind.
She had growled and shouted into the empty air, but nothing had come of it, and eventually, they had had to carry on.
After that, they had taken to keeping their fire low at night, no more than embers. Whatever was following them, it liked the light. They were lucky the weather was good, or they might have frozen then and there on the road.
Then one night, when the haunting was at its worst, the noises of movement and the breath of animals all around them, the silver shape had appeared in the sky, circling like a beacon under dark clouds.
Elegantlillies had spotted it first, an air of final defeat in her voice as she pointed upwards. Her face was hidden in the darkness and Brickwrath couldn't see her expression, but he knew it deep in his soul. Exhausted by so many sleepless nights, what was one more monster.
Then he looked up, and his reaction couldn’t have been more different. A moment of resignation, and then a surprised whoop and a mad scramble for material for the fire. He knew that shape anywhere! Had spent days of his life watching out for it. Elegantlillies had at first tried to stop him, what about the stalker, what if it was a different dragon, but they both already knew.
An outward sigh, one last movement through dried leaves, and their ghost had left. Had left minutes ago. A pressure against the edges of their consciousness they weren’t even aware of until it was gone, and weren't even aware was gone until they looked for it.
-
'Crests the Skies on Wings of Knowledge' had grown bigger since they’d last met, or Brickwrath had grown shorter, either was possible! At the same time, the dragon looked harried and worried, his mail packs missing and the rider shaky and worn, wearing none of the safety equipment he would have expected. As he watched the two make their way towards him, Brickwrath wondered exactly what had happened, and was ready to confront the rider, with violence if needed.
'Was it possible to steal a dragon?' He thought as he ran towards them. It would certainly be a good tool for highway robbery! Nobody’s going to argue over a bit of gold and a few rings when you’re brandishing a creature the size of a boat.
Either way, it was still His Dragon, stolen or not. Beautiful and resplendent, with scales shining like plate armour under the moonlight, each one a perfect diamond. They mirrored the glow of the firelight behind him, and as he reached up and grasped the familiar face in his hands, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He drew the big ol' head down, wrapping his arms around the nose and pressing his forehead against the scales in silent thanks. The old boy really had grown bigger!
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Then, as the dragon huffed softly into his chest and stepped back, the rider came forward into the light, and the face resolved itself into one he knew. The young artist who had been in his squadron for a while, and who he rather embarrassingly still couldn’t remember the name of. Over a decade older and half a continent away from where they'd last met, but still recognisable.
The world was a strange place sometimes, he reckoned. The lad had always had a fascination with dragons, hanging around anywhere he might land and making endless sketches, but this was still unexpected.
A hug and a clasping of hands, and as they settled down next to the fire, the relief he felt was palpable, a violent ache as the muscles in his chest relaxed. The first breath of a drowning man, plucked from a ragged sea.
Elegantlillies was still wary, she said it was something to do with the teeth, but Brickwrath and Windwash, as he called himself now, settled down much more comfortably, the body behind them, the fire in front and the old friend making for the best camping experience he’d had in years.
-
It took most of the night to get their stories out, but they managed. After the ponies had succumbed, they, he and Elegantlillies, had waited several weeks in tense anticipation, but no symptoms had manifested, and somehow, against all expectations, they had lived.
After deciding they were as clean as they could get, the two of them had decided to head west until they hit civilisation. Brickwrath had pulled out some old maps and they had decided that the road had to go somewhere, right? Normally travel from this part of the world would be via boat, as the land routes were long and unsuited to those travelling under their own speed, but needs must.
They hadn’t taken much with them, only what they could carry. A small amount of provisions and clothes, the battered leather case he had carried throughout his time in the army, and a few odds and ends to make camping less miserable. They were lucky that it was the dry season, but there was a reason they hadn't set out earlier.
Food along the way had been simple fare, mostly fruit and mushrooms scavenged from the woods, with the odd rabbit or ground bird thrown in, and they had both lost a significant amount of weight over the course of their journey.
They were lucky in that it was standard practice to plant up the edges of new roads with fruiting plants and shrubs. The plants served the dual purpose of proving food, and of having been bred for generations to provide a thick hedge, blocking the way into and out of the wilderness. After months of neglect, much of the hedgerow had been eaten away, with regular breaks where beasts and animals had decided to reclaim trails lost to them for generations, but there was still enough about to keep them both alive, if not much more than that.
They had seen signs of the other refugees ahead of them, marks from fires and slashes cut into trees, but the forest was already reclaiming them, the vegetation fast encroaching onto what had the year before been a hard-packed road.
-
Once he’d learnt of the stalker, somewhere past midnight, Windwash had urged the two of them to fly back with him. Elegantlillies had given that a “Not on your life”, and Brickwrath was prone to agree with her. While the lad was thin and tall, able to cling on with grit alone, balancing three of them at once would have been like a doomed circus trick. If they managed to make it back like that, then maybe they could take it as a reference and use the experience to join the show as acrobats.
Questioning the man on what exactly had happened back at base had caused him to go bright red, mumbling something unintelligible under his breath, and Brickwrath realised that it was possible that he might have stolen the dragon. It was all a little unclear, and after a moment of internal conflict, he decided that he didn't want to know.
The Dragon didn’t seem too fond of the idea of carrying all three of them either, nudging his way into the conversation with snuffles and blinks and a lot of head shaking.
He seemed to shake his head even when in agreement, sometimes, which was a little confusing, and at one point had tried to communicate something using his wings, which nobody had managed to interpret before he had accidentally swept away both the campfire and a lot of the road surface, but they had worked it out in the end. Windwash was to go back, report on what he had found, and if he wasn't arrested the moment his feet touched the floor, then The Dragon would return for the two of them in a few days, with the appropriate safety equipment this time.
Hopefully, he would have managed to talk Elegantlillies into the idea by then, so far she was not impressed at all.