Izuku and His Dragon Maid

Chapter 22: The Cure

"We'll get there in the morning," Tohru said before lying down in the grass. "Just continue for a bit longer, then you'll be back to normal." She turned onto her side and looked at Izuku as he slept. He wasn't at peace, for with each rise of his chest his brows furrowed. She couldn't possibly imagine how much pain he was in, "here, this will help you sleep better, Izu." Her left hand hovered over his chest and a dull orange light leaked from it. She waited for him to take another breath to see if it was working. When he finished his breath, she looked towards his eyes to see if he was wincing. Instead, his eyes were unflinching, unabated by the constant, aching pain dwelling in his chest. With her main goal accomplished, she feel asleep. As the night wore on, there wasn't a single ounce of pain felt by Izuku that disturbed his rest.

When the sun finally rose, Tohru was the first to wake up from the swelling light on the horizon. She sat up and blinked a few times before stretching her arms, "mornin'." Izuku greeted, "did you sleep well?" Tohru groggily looked at him and back towards the sunrise, her brain clearly wasn't working at full capacity. For three seconds passed by before she registered him being awake.

"What are you doing up before me?" She could do nothing but stare at him as the sunlight illuminated his semi-bandaged upper half. Something...glowed within him, as if something alive was snaking under his skin, reacting to the sun. It was absolutely radiant, but she kept her wits about it. "Are we ready to go? Is Kanna awake as well?"

She looked around for the small child, "she's right here." Izuku took a step left to show the child that clung to his hand, as if for dear life. "Are you sure you want to go, we don't have to go the moment you wake up. We still have some time to kill before we have to go," there was a dreadful tone hidden in his voice. Especially when it quivered, wavering in that bravery he showed momentarily before.

"I'm fine, we should go right away," she stood up, either not hearing or not caring that he feared something. "The sooner we get there, the sooner you can get treated by Fafnir,"  turning around she looked at their destination. A gigantic rock hiding an even bigger cavern. "Besides, it's not like he'll bite unless you're Siegfried, they hate each other." She walked past the two, "come on, let's go get you healed, Izu."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Izuku offered to help push the rock, but Tohru declined for obvious reasons. It took her one quick push to move it well out of the way; light flooded into the cavern, revealing the flora inside. He had heard the tale of Siegfried and Fafnir, so he somewhat expected the save to be filled with gold. Nobody would ever expect his inner sanctum to contain hundreds, if not thousands, of different flowers, moss, and even trees. "How are they even alive?" Izuku asked aloud, not seeing the slithering flat head moving towards the trio.

"It is the curse bestowed upon me by my rival's sword, Gram," the mass lifted its head from between the bushel of flowers. In front of them, was a flat headed dragon that looked more like a wyrm to Izuku. "Good morning Tohru, what brings you here with...an outsider?" Disgust lacing his tongue like an assassin's knife, awaiting its next kingly target.

"I'm calling in a favor," the difference between them was like night and day, "can you please get rid of the curse on my outsider? I'll help you get rid of the flowers again if you do," a moment passed before smoke began to billow from his nostrils. It quickly filled the room, blinding the trio. Izuku was about to ignite his hands, but Tohru grabbed one. "It's fine, Izuku, Fafnir can't even hurt a fly. It's his curse," she reassured him, but that all went out the entrance when the smoke cleared.

"You know that I hate it when you tell people that Tohru," how could this man be standing in front of him? He knew that every dragon had a human form, but there was no reason as to why he was a splitting image of the Fafnir in his dream. The hairs on his neck stood on end, "regardless, outsider, where is the curse?" It was like a carbon copy, but how? Was his dream prophetic? Was that why he felt uneasy about this entire situation, because he dreamed something bad would happen? "Well? Don't waste my time standing there," Izuku shook his head and muttered something before tearing the rest of the bandages off.