Maddison wandered around the burnt clearing while Endris patched up Sajus, toeing the scorched bodies for anything salvageable. Potions, arrows, coins. He just needed a distraction while he thought through the next plan. He came upon the two freshest corpses, a cheap shield partially melted to one of their arms, their entire body singed to be hardly recognizable aside from the metal sigils that had survived the inferno. The second, who appeared to have used them as coverage had their cape partially intact, but the iron helm they adorned had been their ending. It had caught the dragon's fire and melted, oozing to their neck and shoulders.

Common metals did practically nothing against a dragon's fury, they would have been better to keep to their leather.

"There's a healing spread in my pouch," Endris called, eyeing Maddison expectantly as she pointed to the bag just out of her reach, her hands distracted with holding a wrap of linen around Sajus' head.

Maddison complied with the order, crouching over her pouch to sift around the surprisingly empty space. He saw the jar of spread right away, a small sharpening stone, a little bit of dried meat, and a chunk of flint for fire being the only other occupants. He frowned at the light packing, tossing her the spread and leaving the pouch where it was. To her credit, it wasn't exactly a long hike to the dragon, but he had expected at least an antidote for the poison she had doused her blade in, and maybe a few more vials for variety.

He slowed his walk, looking around for the glint of the glass bottle she had discarded. It was easy to find, some of the vibrant green liquid still coating its inside and oozing out onto the grass as a tacky paste. Careful to keep it from touching his skin, he lifted it, reading the inked label and immediately shooting her a curious look.

"Smart thinking to put poison on your weapon."

Endris paid him with a smirk. "Always gotta be prepared."

"Got a kiddo, he's interested in the stuff." Maddison continued, wandering about the clearing once more to slowly collect the crossbow arrows he had scattered in the dirt. He scraped what little poison was left onto as many heads as he could, and carefully packed them back into his quiver, leaving one to load into the nose of the weapon. "Vala Naga, hard to come by, isn't it?"

"Nearly impossible in this region," Endris laughed, distracted with patching a smaller scrape on Sajus' shoulder. "Managed to pull a few strings."

Maddison breathed out a chuckle, loading up the crossbow and aiming at Endris.

She froze. "What are you doing?"

"That poison only works on dragons."

"And...?" She gave him a dead look, "A fearsome cave-dwelling serpent? You read the script!"

"Dragons aren't a dime a dozen in this region. There's a basilisk in every other cave like this, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess," she growled.

"Bull." Maddison's stone glare barely twitched into a smile. "Sajus, move away."

Knowing a sour situation, Sajus scooted away, leaving Endris fully exposed to the line of fire as she held her open palms up.

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Her lips flattened to disappointment. "I'm wearing armour."

Maddison tilted the weapon up a little. "Your head isn't. How many times have you been here?"

Her gaze darted to the burnt clearing, then back to the crossbow, a defeated sigh hissing through her teeth. "Does it matter?"

"You weren't twisting that script to come with me?"

"No," Endris admitted, dropping her gaze to the dirt. "But last night was the first time I changed that one, and it worked. I just skatted up my part." She spat, giving her sword a burning glare.

Maddison put the pieces together, disgust pitting his stomach. "How?"

Her gaze slowly drifted to the broken iron pike.

He lifted the crossbow again.

"That poison takes nigh thirty minutes to down a dragon, plenty of time for the bastard to land on Maynard's house and eat him then keel over." Endris bit back. "I was supposed to drive that poison right into its flesh. It was written." She stood, uncaring for the weapon pointed at her as she rubbed through her hair in frustration and guilt. "At least, once he's dead they can run, they can actually escape. They have a chance."

Maddison let out a heavy sigh. "They don't, you should have left it to a professional."

"You? You really think you could have killed that bastard? He has a mob at his fingertips!"

"So you sent a child here to free a dragon?" Maddison boomed, scaring every fire of rebellion back inside of Endris.

"I didn't. He wasn't supposed to..." She choked on her words, her face slowly contorting as she came to a horrifying realization. She frantically patted down her pockets, ripping out a folded bundle of papers to hungrily read over the script she had made the night prior. Her eyes widened, the colour ebbing from her cheeks as she fell to her knees. "I didn't write this..."

Maddison eyed her curiously, lowering his weapon to pull out his quest.

You have been tasked with slaying the demonic threat that looms over Bervolt.

Endris Grey, and the Great Sajus have agreed to join your company to put an end to the beast.

He skimmed the rest of the writing, stopping near the end where he had assumed Endris had added her input. Or at least tried.

But as you fight the fearsome foe with your party, the creature of hate breaks its chains... thirsty for the blood of the man Town that cursed it.

He lingered on the sentence, 'Town' had been messily written in a reddish ink, replacing 'man' which had been scratched out below it.

"A change doesn't work unless you burn the script..." Endris breathed, her voice shaking in fear and anguish. "But it's here, I have it here. I didn't write that."

"No, you just trusted the rules weren't a lie," Maddison growled, packing up the crossbow and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"You're going back?" She said, aghast at the sight of Maddison packing his supplies.

"Left something there," Maddison grumbled, trying to mask the worry in his words while he predicted what Sariel would do if she saw a dragon. Hopefully petting it wasn't a contender. He eyed Endris, still sitting in the dirt with her sword splayed to her side. Defeat had hollowed her gaze, her bangs sticking to her forehead with mud a sweat as her arms hung limply. "You coming? Or are you a coward too, soldier?"

“There's no hope," she spoke, her voice breaking up as she squeezed a handful of dirt. "How do we even catch up and kill that thing?”

“There’s no defeating that thing now that it’s airborne. We need to break the spell so the villagers at least have the wits to hide until it leaves.”

“You didn't answer my question," she spat.

The two of them cranked their heads at the sharp whistle that met their ears, watching Sajus in bewilderment as he poised next to two horses with a smug grin. Two horses that they didn’t walk to the cave with.

Maddison paid Horse a squint, the horse whinnying as if it hadn't just appeared out of the bushes.

Endris’ mouth hung at the sight. “How…?”

“Inventory.” Sajus chimed, giving Horse's rear a little slap and earning a side-eye from the beast.

“I’m not asking,” Maddison grumbled, quickly jumping onto Horse, and waiting for Endris to pull Sajus on to her mount. “First stop, Old man Maynard.”