“This is...”

Waver stared at the blood-soaked object in his blood-soaked hand. As expected, it was a rock from the mountain, dislodged during their chase. They must have been moving terribly fast for it to lodge itself so deeply under the dragon’s scales.

the dragon growled.

Waver was curious. He didn’t know what a wild dragon could possibly be beholden to.

“Huh?!” Waver exclaimed, reverting to human words inadvertently. “I’ve never heard of anything like that!”

Seaweight. I think I’ve heard of those. They fly under the waves as if they were in the air. What a strange symmetry.

There was a tension in Ishcal’s voice, as if she were saying something she were duty-bound to say. She brought her head down in front of Waver, looking him straight-on.

Waver suddenly had a bad feeling.

Waver shrieked, cutting her off, covering their ears with their hands even though Ishcal’s dragon words could easily pierce such flimsy barriers. He sounded pathetic and panicked even to himself.

With Ishcal speechless, Waver pulled the knife off of his waist and slashed the back of his forearm open before either her or Benet could react. Something in his head was burning, his heartbeat loud in his own ears, which felt hot. He stepped forward with a force the surprised even him, grabbed one of the skylight’s teeth, and yanked her mouth slightly open. He shoved his arm inside, and rubbed his arm on the dragon’s tongue. Her eyes opened wide at the taste of human blood.

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Waver intoned with dragon words.

Benet, behind him, was furious.

Waver wasn’t entirely sure what he had said, even as he said it. His mouth was hot. His arm was hot. His head was hot. He could still taste Ishcal’s salty blood on his tongue.

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Twelve hours later, Waver’s arm was trapped in a smaller, hotter dragon maw.

He winced.

Valor’s throat rumbled, unable to fully form dragon words while sucking on Waver’s forearm as if it were a piece of hard candy, but Waver could imagine roughly what they would be saying if they could. “Good, that means it’s working,” probably. Or maybe “You deserve it.” Ugh, I can’t even say anything back to that.

After a good minute -- perhaps longer than strictly necessary, but Waver wasn’t in a position to complain -- Valor finally let their friend go. Waver’s arm quickly dried in the sunlight, and Waver wasted no time applying ointment and wrapping the wound. He was a little woozy from the smell of alcohol.

Waver stifled a giggle at his prediction coming true.

Waver wordlessly picked up his bag and pulled out a cloth bag full of coins. Valor poked it with their nose. It was heavy. They snorted in satisfaction.

The green drake squinted at Waver.

Waver nodded.

Valor said, without a hint of sarcasm. Waver nodded.

The rumor network made of dragons domesticated by humans couldn’t be underestimated. Humans paid little attention to when they came in contact, and most humans thought dragons only growled and whined like wild beasts -- instinctual and meaningless, so there was no need to monitor it. And so, they were able to gather and spread information without even a smidge of interference.

Valor sighed deeply after Waver told them his story.

Waver froze.

Waver hoped that Ishcal wouldn’t face any weird consequences as a result of the one-sided contract. Either way, he thought grimly, it would probably be a long time before Valor let him out of their sight again.