The Dragons Of Crestwood Forest || Sanders Sides

Chapter Fifteen

Ah, smell the fresh scent of angst

TW: swearing, talking over everything that just happened,

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The flight back gave Thomas some much needed time to think over everything that had just happened. He had jumped in front of a chimera and lived. He had saved the unicorn. But god, he had came so close to death.

His mind couldn't wrap around what had happened. Never before had he came so close to his own death. His life may not have flashed before his eyes, but his regrets certainly did. Regrets... he had a lot of those.

But there wasn't any time for that. They were touching down, and there was a clearly anxious Remus pacing in the clearing. When he saw Thomas his face filled with relief.

"Thank god you're alright," Remus muttered. "Where the hell were you? I was terrified that you had disappeared."

"I'm alright, Remus," Thomas said, sliding off of Logan's back. The other three changed back into their human forms. "I was with Logan."

"Please never disappear again without leaving a note. Now what the hell happened to all of you?"

"We ran into a little bit of trouble, but let's wait for the others to get back to fully explain what happened," Logan stated. "We need to take a dip in the lake anyway. We're a bit injured."

Thomas sat on the edge of the lake, mind numb as he watched the others heal their injuries in the water. It wasn't like he could join them. Despite how tired he was, the water would probably kill him, or at least put him in a ton of pain, and he was no masochist.

Remus sat next to him, observing everything with troubled eyes. It was clear that his mind was racing, but Thomas didn't know how to help with that. He wasn't even sure how to help himself, let alone someone else. So the two sat in silence.

~

A few hours later, Virgil flew into the clearing. The others had eaten, having found plenty of food in the forest. There was an abundance of available food.

"You're all sitting here like the world is ending," Virgil said. "So what's going on?"

"We have a lot to discus." Logan sighed. "It's been a long day. Does anyone know where Roman is?" Both Remus and Virgil visibly tensed.

"I haven't seen him since I left this morning," Virgil muttered. He sat down on the ground near the others. "I don't know where he would've gone."

"I haven't seen him since..." Remus trailed off, looking increasingly uncomfortable. "Yeah... I haven't seen him."

"What happened this morning?" Logan asked, looking between Virgil and Remus. "You both clearly know something."

"Roman probably won't be back for awhile. Let's just get on with this." And that was all Remus said.

"Fine then." Logan shook his head, exasperated. "This morning on patrol I ran into a chimera, except it was in the deep forest, not the usual area. There was a unicorn that it killed in front of me, separate from any other herd. And then a human came and tried to dart the chimera. I jumped down and killed the human." He cast an apologetic look at Thomas. "It was the only thing I could do."

"It's alright, Logan," Thomas mumbled. "I don't particularly like people much anymore."

"So what's the problem?" Janus asked. "You said that you killed the human, so problem solved. Right?"

"Wrong. The unicorn and chimera were both out of their habitat, and if one human knows what's out here, more humans know what's out here. They never come alone. You seem to forget we once were human. Of course they wouldn't come alone. And if that was so close to our base... I'm afraid it's not safe for Thomas to stay here alone anymore."

"So that's why Thomas was with you," Remus said. "That makes sense, but what about why you all were injured?"

"I took Thomas to see the unicorns," Logan admitted. "If he's going to be here he needs to see this stuff. But a chimera was hunting at the time, and Thomas made the idiotic decision to jump down and try to get the unicorn to run. Which did, in fact, work, though it was risky and I had to jump in to protect him."

"And Janus and I heard when the chimera roared," Patton explained. "So we rushed to where it came from, and joined Logan in the fight."

"But why were you two together?" Logan asked, narrowing his eyes. "We always patrol alone."

"We just happened to run into each other on patrol," Janus said quickly. Logan didn't look convinced, but he didn't push.

"Well, all of that sucks," Remus muttered. "And now on top of that, my idiotic twin has decided to run off. Any other bullshit to report?"

810 words.