Rushing feet moved about the confused village as the villagers and Zen watched in awe while the pirates that had come to invade their home now ran around carrying out resources from their ships and laying it in a growing stack at the centre of town. Erika standing with arms crossed right next to it, "Put your bones into it less you wish me to remove them!" She'd shout out inspiration for the bandits, making them work harder.

As right next to her, Fang sat on a small crate whilst one of her companions, Celest, gave the charred lizardman first aid.

"S-Should we...give a hand?" One of the villagers asked Zen with a confused tone.

"No, she said not to lift a fin." Zen responded.

This is their punishment she said...carrying their own spoils to give away for free. Strange I've...never met such a strange person.

Zen pondered as he gazed over Erika and her group, as finishing with the lizardman Celest approached him, a blank resting face upon her small figure she gazed up at Zen and asked, "Any injuries?" a blank tone in her voice.

"Scratches compared to what she dealt to him." Zen mused, glancing at his own wounds, some of the bullets having penetrated through his armour of water but severely slowed, they barely broke skin.

"Cuts, bruises, stab wounds. Doesn't matter, you should accept help when offered." Celest sighed, pulling out a tweezer, she pulled out the only projectile still in Zens body without much of a reaction from the Mer. Then, letting out her tongue, she licked her thumb and nonchalantly placed it over his wound. Her saliva, spread out and mixed with the blood, quickly drying it out and closing the injury.

"What...magic is that?" Zen asked, noticing the strangeness.

"No magic, she is the only one capable of that in our group. Our people are simply cursed with varying oddities." Celest explained simply, before looking over the rest of the villagers. "Any other injured?"

The villagers before her shook their heads awkwardly.

"Cursed? And she is one of you as well?" Zen asked.

"No, and yes. We are Lycan, our blood cursed by our very gods. She...is something different." Celest sighed once more, glancing back at Erika as she stood over the pirates. "But in other ways, she too, is cursed." She said, turning around and beginning to walk away.

I can see it, in her eyes.

Zen thought, gazing with understanding eyes at Erika.

Her curse, foolish pride, burdening her shoulders with a weight she need not carry. Just like me.

His gaze then spanned each of them.

They think they can fight back. Fools.

As Celest reached Erika then, laying her hand over the dragoness' shoulder. "It's your turn." She said, meeting Erika's fearsome eyes as they settled back to her.

"I'm fine, someone nee-" Erika began to say, but Celest wanted none of it.

Squeezing her shoulder, "I insist." Celest said, and Erika's eyes visibly trembled if for just a brief moment.

"F-Fine." Erika responded, nodding at Dust and Drun, "Watch them." she said and both boys nodded in return.

"Come." Celest added, dragging Erika off by the arm and into a ramshackle house the village offered them to stay in.

Closing the door behind them, "Take off your clothes, I can't help you through absorbing material." Celest said, crossing her arms now and staring back with her usual dead-pan cold gaze.

Erika groaned, "There is no need for this..." but still obliged, taking her armour off and then shirt.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Celest briefly looked her over, "Sit." she then said, pointing at a nearby stool and Erika did as told knowing there was no arguing with her.

Celest crouched down behind Erika, looking over her tail then up to her back, the scorch marks visible all over her skin there and her arms, thighs, belly and shins. "I can heal the burning, but my ability simply quickens the process. The scars will remain." She said, and Erika nodded. "You seem to fight so carelessly, but you hide your own self injuries. Why?" Celest asked, as she began licking her palm and running her saliva over Erika's back.

"Because when others look onto my back, I don't want them to see the scars, just that it's there." Erika responded, wincing at the pain as the burn marks quickly healed over but did not disappear.

Celest sighed, pausing as she reached Erika's left arm, "Why?" she then asked, receiving a raised brow look from Erika. "Why do you carry yourself like this? You don't need to, we're the ones sheltering you so, why do you insist on carrying everyone?" Running her palm over another burn mark, Erika once more winced. "You're just as mortal as the rest of us."

"I-I may be, but mortality won't change what I am." Erika added, wincing further as Celest continued.

"What are you? A Dragon? I don't even know what that is, and yet you preach about your kind all so much I cannot help but wonder, are Dragons even that great? If they are, where are they? Why aren't they here, saving our skins instead of us having to save our own." Celest grumbled, "It doesn't matter, Dragon, Lycan, Undead, we all die someday."

"Yeah," Erika chuckled coldly, "Dragons die, as well. But that's why, that's why my father keeps fighting. Just because we live longer than the common human, doesn't mean we're much special no. No what makes us different, is the power in our blood." Erika's eyes wandered, her gaze staring off into nothingness. "Raw magic, the power to bend storms and mountains. The power to collapse kingdoms, and at our peek, entire civilizations. "

"Even more of a reason, to not care. Why should creatures so powerful care of beings like us who live lives so short and pointless in comparison?" Celest asked. "Living long lives, why waste it on those who cannot?"

"We have a duty, to defend those who cannot defend themselves. And...Legacy." Erika then said.

"Legacy?" Celest repeated, meeting Erika's empty gaze.

"Through the long lives we live, it is a shame to waste it and our power standing aside and watching the world burn. Those, are my father's words, but I really should start using my own..." Erika mused, "Legacy, what we leave behind after we die. And with such long lives, we Dragons leave behind so much more. It is true, that everyone dies one day. But legacies, as long as they are nurtured and built up properly, they can live on forever just like an immortal. That is my father's dream, to build a legacy that shines longer than every sun."

"And what's your dream?" Celest then asked, going on to healing the burns over Erika's legs.

"My...dream? I guess, right now, it's returning home?" Erika said.

"That sounds like a wish, not a dream. Doesn't it? You said your father wants a legacy, well that happens after he dies no? So what's yours? You want to build a legacy too?" Celest argued.

Erika sighed, "W-Well aren't you talkative today."

"Hm." Celest hummed in annoyance, glaring up at Erika as she slapped a hand of saliva over one patch of burned skin, causing Erika to yelp.

Evil.

Erika thought and groaned, "A dream...I had one, once." Her expression then turning dark at the thought.

"Oh?" Celest mused, continuing to heal her legs.

"It's impossible now." Erika added.

"Says the girl who wants to take over the world, what is impossible to the you of now that was a dream to the you of before?" Celest argued, finishing with treating the burns, she glanced up at Erika, her own eyes going wide as she saw the dark stare that was now solemnly gazing down at her.

"You can't bring the dead back to life." Erika said, standing up from the stool and beginning to put her clothes back on. "And while, I could go see the world alone. It really doesn't sound as good, does it? I was too foolish, too blinded by my comfortable upbringing. That is, what he would tell me anyway." She explained with a sad expression as she put her armour back on.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Celest began to say as she lay there kneeling by the stool, but Erika shook her head.

"He told me, 'Steel yourself', so I will. He said that, 'Ahead of you, is a harsh and cruel destiny', so I will defeat it." Erika said, exhaling as she clenched her fists. "It is that simple in my mind. No matter the scars, no matter the pain I must endure. I will not let his...his death, be in vain. This world, I will save it."

"And all like it?" Celest mused, "Who knows how many more lay out there, who have fallen just the same. Or is it just here, just this world, that he wanted to save?"

Erika paused for a moment, "No...they both, as many worlds as they could, they'd save them all if they could."

"Saving all the worlds? Doesn't sound like something you can do in just a single lifetime, could a Dragon?" Celest asked, her own gaze falling to the floor.

"No, I dont think even in a Dragon's life time, but that is my family's curse in the end." Erika sighed as she approached the door, As Celest stood up and turned back to look at her. "Our pride, it disallows us from setting limits on ourselves. No matter the odds, no matter the fate, no matter the impossibility. I know, I'm a hypocrite, aren't I?" Erika then laughed. "I guess, I still hold onto it, that dream of mine." She said, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Celest remained standing alone in the room, eyes wide, they slowly resettled as she turned to stare at her feet. "I wish, I had conviction like yours."