Trail 58: Good Dragon Gone Mad

--- Jon ---

“So, uh, what was so important we needed to ‘drop everything and come to the house now’?” Miss Edna asked as he continued to stare down at his backpack as he had since getting home.

“Whatever has him so distressed seems to be in his pack.” Ying noted, having followed along from whatever she and Miss Edna were in the middle of to train Ying’s powers.

Something about that irked in the back of his head, (something I should remember…) but he felt like that could be dealt with later given how he had more dangerous priorities at the moment.

“Yeah, from the way he’s looking at it he might’ve had to stash a body inside.” His second parent joked before her smile slowly faded. “Jon, do you have a dead body in your pack?”

He shook his head.

“Oh, good. I don’t need someone dropping that on me again.” Miss Edna sighed, looking fairly relieved.

“The quartermaster?” Ying frowned.

“And my ex-husband.” Miss Edna nodded before pausing. “Uh, just to be clear I don’t mean he killed my ex, just that they both… you know what I’m going to plead the fifth now.”

“That’s probably a good idea…” Ying admitted looking a little uneasy before refocusing the conversation on him. “Uh, Jon, what is the emergency exactly? Your silence is becoming worrying.”

He grimaced, before forcing himself to admit that (I can’t really stall this anymore…)

Opening his pack he reached inside and pulled out a black chest covered in locks. “I… found this…”

“You found this, how?” Miss Edna asked slowly, looking the chest over with a faint glow to her eyes. “There are… a shit ton of seals on these chains.”

“Um… some stuff happened, I fought a guy, met a fish person, and the fish person sold me this to screw over the guy, who in turn had to pay for this.” Not exactly what happened, but he didn’t quite feel like recounting the entire story. Especially since various concussions had made several bits and pieces of his fight with Tru Grit a bit blurry in his head.

“O…kay…” Ying nodded. “That… leaves me with several questions.”

“Why? I mean it’s all pretty straight forward.” Miss Edna frowned, before clapping his shoulder. “Also I’m assuming you got the most expensive thing in the shop?”

“Of course.” He nodded.

His second parent gave him a grin. “Good job, kid.” before resuming her study of the chest. “I’m guessing whatever you ended up getting though was also pretty dangerous given the way you’re acting.”

“Yeah, he, uh, they, uh, whatever…” He shook his head, having trouble putting his thoughts together. “They, uh, said it was a Core of some kind but… besides the bad feeling it gives me… I’ve no idea what it actually is. I was kind of hoping you could tell me what it is.”

“Hmm… several kinds of ‘Cores’ out there, and a lot of them can give off bad feelings…” Miss Edna shrugged before snapping her fingers. “Okay, locks can’t be magically opened… at least not without enough power to blast the chest to pieces.”

“Uh, here’s the keys.” He offered her, figuring that as the one with decades of magical experience it was probably best that Miss Edna be the one to actually open the chest this time.

“Alright, just to be clear you have opened this thing without it exploding right?” Miss Edna checked as she accepted the keys.

“Yeah, just… it started whispering when the chest was open for too long.” He shivered, his bad feeling growing for some reason. “I’m pretty sure it’s Madness related but…”

Miss Edna paused, first key in its lock before giving him a look. “You, uh, you sure you want me to open this kiddo? I’m pretty sure if this thing is related to Madness your best option is to just chuck it into the sea.”

“The shopkeeper said whatever it is is getting stronger, I figure it’s best to make sure it’s disposed of properly and he said the fact I recognized the magic meant I had a better idea of whatever it is than him.” He tried to explain. “And while I don’t you might, and if you don’t… there’s always the nuclear options.”

“Ugh, I’d rather not call DeSade for help.” Miss Edna grimaced. “Asshole would be smug about it and use it as evidence in our case.”

“Our case?” He frowned, figuring that was a better topic than the fact he’d actually meant the Cheshire.

“Uh, don’t worry about it kiddo. Just association stuff after everything in Blackwell and DeSade trying to get more… credit than he deserves.” Miss Edna assured him, before giving the locks a bitter look. “Guess we might as well see what the big deal is…”

Removing all of the locks and chains Miss Edna popped the chest open and found the small spherical &%!#@! sitting on a velvet pillow.

(“Oh, it’s so good to see you my beloved huntsman…”)

“Fuck, where did they even find a Void Core this condensed?” Miss Edna cursed.

(“Only Madness knows!”)

“I’m guessing that’s a bad thing?” He couldn’t help but ask as he forced himself to ignore the whispering in the air.

(“I’ll admit I am a bad girl sometimes… but that’s because it’s more fun!”)

“Yeah, no wonder you were hearing whispers with how much… Madness…” Miss Edna trailed off in a way he really did not like before her head snapped to Ying. “Ying you need to get out of here now!”

(“Oh, and who is this pretty little thing?”)

“Miss Edna, w-what’s wrong?” Ying swallowed, her breathing all wrong.

(“Ah, and you’ve been playing with the fun stuff without me!”)

“Fuck, Pix, start healing her now!” Miss Edna ordered as she began making several gestures with her hands as a ring of light began to glow above the chest.

(“Ah, come on I just got here!”)

Ying curled in on herself as Pix began to fly around her, the little fairy’s magic seemingly doing nothing to aid the obviously distressed teen.

(“Let’s at least have some fun!”)

“Miss Edna, what’s going on exactly?” He asked before feeling a pulse of something wash over them.

“Oh, that’s not good…” Miss Edna mumbled, her eyes repeatedly darting to a Ying that had suddenly gone still.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Realizing that he was clearly missing something he reached for the other teen, “Uh, Ying, you feeling alright?”

“I… I’m…” Ying inhaled deeply before smiling as she looked up at him with two yellow draconic eyes. “I’m feeling wonderful. Especially with you here Jon.”

He stilled, before taking a step back as Ying stood up with a smile on her face. “Ying… stay calm…”

“Oh, I’m perfectly calm.” Ying promised as she licked her lips. “Though I am feeling a little excited.”

“Uh-huh.” He swallowed, glancing at a cursing Miss Edna who was working on trying to close the chest that refused to budge as an invisible force -(black thorns curled out from the core and)- kept the chest from closing.

(“No, I want to watch!”)

“Just, just try to stay in control.” He told his friend with a gentle tone of voice. “Just, give us a minute and we’ll get this whole thing sorted out.”

Ying gave him an amused grin. “Oh, but Jon haven’t you learned yet?”

Moving faster than he could react, Ying jumped, tackling him to the ground and bashing his head against the carpet.

He blinked away the daze from the sudden head blow to find Ying on top of him, her legs straddling him and her clawed hands pinning down his wrists.

“Sometimes a girl just wants to lose control.” The draconic teen grinned, running her teeth over a mouth full of fangs.

“Uh, Ying… you uh, what are you doing?” He asked, feeling an odd sort of panic building in his chest.

Ying switched her grip on his wrists to one hand, before trailing a claw along his cheek. “Well, since you want me to stay in control…” The draconic teen suddenly grabbed the collar of his shirt before ripping it open. “I’m going to take control.”

Seeing that he was in trouble and that Ying wasn’t acting like herself, Pix flew in front of her before zapping the teen in her face.

Knowing that that wouldn’t be enough to stop the Draconic teen, he quickly glanced around the room trying to find a way to get out of this without stabbing his temporarily insane friend. (Miss Edna’s almost got the box closed so she can’t help, but maybe I can reach my pack if I can get a hand free…)

“Ah, don’t worry Pix, I haven’t forgotten about my favorite little fairy.” Ying purred as she snatched said fairy out of the air. “That said, you are going to have to wait your turn.” Ying warned her, letting his wrists go so that she could drag a claw down her shirt to slowly pop the buttons off her shirt.

While she was distracted with this and keeping her eyes locked on his, he subtly used his free hand to reach for his pack, his fingers just barely brushing against it as it stood just inches out of reach.

Needing to take a risk he quickly sat up and tugged the pack a little closed before being pushed back down by Ying. “Now, now, Jon… I said I was in control tonight.”

“R-right…” He nodded, even as his fingers slipped inside his pack and he used the search enchantment to try and grab something of use. “I, uh, I like that?” He offered, definitely not liking any of this.

“Oh, you do?” The Mad Ying smiled as she began to shift against him.

Finally grabbing something inside his pack he honestly answered, “No, no, I don’t.” before popping a vial open and splashing a tranquilizer potion into Ying’s face.

The draconic teen hissed as she pawed at her eyes, leaving him free to shove Ying off of him and onto her back before shoving his hand back into the pack to pull out a spool of wire to hopefully restrain the mad dragoness.

Having bought himself only a few moments, he moved as fast as he could to wrap the wire around a surprisingly accepting Ying.

(“Oh, is this what you like my Huntsman?”)

“Well, I wanted to be in control but… I suppose I should be thankful you finally want to take control.” Ying laughed even as he bound her arms behind her in several loops to keep her from escaping. “Though I didn’t think you were into this of all things. I guess this is what they mean by ‘beware the nice ones’.”

(“I know, I’m going to have to remember this for later!”)

Ignoring her he instead asked Miss Edna, “How’s that chest coming along?” as he moved onto Ying’s legs.

“Almost… got it!” The older woman sighed as the chest slammed shut. “Just give me a second to re-do the chains.”

(Boo, I wanted to play!)

“Ooh, nice and tight.” Ying giggled in a way he found distinctly uncomfortable given how he knew (she’s insane right now, she doesn’t mean it.)

With the dragoness properly bound, he stood up just as Miss Edna turned back to them before giving Ying a look he couldn’t quite decipher beyond discomfort. “Jon, you are very lucky I know you as well as I do.”

He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what she meant by that.

“Oh?” Ying asked curiously, something dangerous to her tone. “Well, you’ve basically adopted us so, is this going to be a step-family threes-”

“Nope.” Miss Edna immediately shut down, swiping a finger through the air and silencing Ying with a band of magic over her mouth. “I am not hearing any of that from someone that I gave the sex talk to.”

This new restraint seemed to cross some tolerance threshold for the insane Ying, sparks of electricity jumping across her skin as she glared at them and tried to break out of her bindings.

“You, uh, you okay, kid?” His second parent asked, giving him a concerned look as Pix mended his shirt. “I know that was… a thing for you.”

“I’m fine, but…” He frowned, looking down at his out-of-her-mind friend. “How long do you think she’s going to be like this?”

“It’ll… it’ll wear off in… an hour or two tops with her… weakness to madness.” Miss Edna guessed, looking a little unsure about it before shaking her head. “Not much I can do for her until then. But how about you? I know she was getting a little… handsy with you, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I mean, it’s not that different than half of our spars…” He shrugged, running a hand over the back of his neck. “Though given what she’s saying, I don’t think she’s going to be happy with herself… Especially not with how hard she is on herself whenever the ‘dragon hormones’ start slipping.”

“Just to be clear… she hasn’t acted like this before, right?” Miss Edna frowned. “Because if she has then this is absolutely something I need to talk to her about.”

“It’s usually flirts and innuendos that fly over my head, but that comes and goes based on how much she uses her powers.” He admitted, because while he didn’t get certain things, he wasn’t that naive even if, “I only really notice when she apologizes. So I know she doesn’t really mean it beyond dragon instincts.”

“So nothing forceful?” His second parent made sure.

Which he appreciated even if he was getting annoyed enough to point out that, “I’m pretty sure I’ve thrown her to the ground and pinned her down more times than she has me.”

“Right… just going to pen that down as a martial arts thing.” Miss Edna told him, finally letting it drop. “For my sanity if nothing else…”

With that matter done they both glanced down at Ying as she continued to struggle, the scent of ozone filling the air more and more as she found his wires a lot more durable than she’d been expecting.

Seeing all of this Miss Edna grimaced before turning back to him. “Alright, Jon, I’m going to be blunt here. It might be best in both your and Ying’s interest if you make yourself scarce for a couple of hours.”

“Why?” He frowned. “I mean if she needs help-”

“After what just happened… I know you don’t…” Miss Edna ran a hand down her face. “Look she’s going to tear herself up over this… and while I know you’ll forgive her because this was all on the Madness, not her. That doesn’t change the fact that… if she remembers this… she’s not going to be happy or proud about what was running through her head. And while I can talk her through it… it’d probably be easier if you weren’t here.”

He opened his mouth to try and argue before closing it as he realized (She’s probably right.) “Al-alright… just… let me know when it’s okay to come back…”

“I will…” Miss Edna promised, before glancing at Pix. “Keep an eye on him alright?”

Sensing that something was off even if she didn’t quite understand, the little fairy gave Miss Edna a nod before flying over to him and mending his shirt as he made his way to the door.

Once alone in the hall he considered everything that had happened as well as the fact that (I knew… I knew Ying was weak to Madness and I…)

He ran a hand down his face as Pix trilled sadly.

“I think… I think this was my fault Pix. We’re the only ones resistant to Madness, not them.” He sighed, before nodding to himself as he decided. “We can’t risk anyone else with this.”

Scene Consequences

-Ying has taken massive mental health damage.

--Ying Assists Disabled until Ying’s Mental Health recovers.

-No progress was made on deciphering the Void Core.

-Choices involving Void Core have been altered, Jon will no longer involve people he cares about in it until this project is finished. (Pix excluded given her own resistance to Madness.)