Soul of a Dragon

9

Six lives lost, and several more hanging in the balance. They would have all probably been killed if Taehyung had not let loose his power.

Piling the carnage from the fight to the side, the party decided they would move as soon as all were able. The wounds among the living ran from a variety of broken and crushed bones, to cut arteries and lacerated flesh. Fortunately, those that still breathed had not been poisoned by the creatures. There was no cure for their venom.

The four elves able to work did so, using their gift of energy healing to bring back even the worst injured among them to a stable state, careful to not completely exhaust themselves in the process.

The humans worked beside the elves, reassuring those that woke as gradually their bones and flesh mended.

Siobhan's pale eyes landed upon Taehyung as the soldier tended to one of the elves who'd lost almost too much blood from the various tears in his body. Sensing the gaze, he looked over his shoulder, and met the elf's eyes. Finishing with the one he looked after, he then walked over to the long haired blonde.

"Yes?" He asked almost impatiently, though it was from a weariness that had begun to drag at him. Siobhan eyed him for a moment where he sat before speaking.

"What are you?" He asked, a tone of mild disquiet in his voice.

"A soldier. Nothing more, nothing less." Came the unnerving reply.

"Like hell that's all you are." The blonde said. "No human can do what I have seen you do this night. Even magefire does not burn so readily."

Meeting the half glare the elf was sending him, Taehyung knelt next to the wounded leader.

"I do not even know what I am." He said quietly after a moment. "On the eve of my fifteenth birthday, this power surfaced within me. It raged for a time before quieting again, but my family had had enough of it to disown me." The unusually long string of speech seemed to surprise the elf.

"Have you not tried to find anything about yourself?" Siobhan asked. "Were your parents human?"

Taehyung eyed him.

"You think I haven't tried to find out what I am?" He asked with a tone of incredulity. "I don't wander about simply because I enjoy it, despite how worthwhile this lifestyle might look." Regardless of the fact that the words were heavy with sarcasm, somehow it didn't reach his voice, and it remained a monotone.

"As for parents, I was adopted when I was three, so I don't know who my parents were.... and I have no care to find out." He ended that sentence on a note of finality which told the elf to not go any further with what could be potentially dangerous to his health if he did so.

That said, he left the elf to go and check over the other injured. It gave Siobain yet another something to puzzle over.

...

Virtually all but two of the six that had been wounded were able to move around without too much difficulty two days later, and those two had a pretty good reason to not be able to move.

Jimin was one of those two. He was still weak, but his pale color was closer to normal, and he'd woken the morning of the day after the attack. It might have been humorous to hear of someone waking to such a situation, but there was no humor to be found in the scene that met his eyes when he came around.

It was as Jungkook had said. Over half of the mage's life had been sucked away by the collar that bound the boy. It would take time to recover his energy, despite what the elves could do to help him. One could not replace life energy overnight.

The day following the attack, they'd relocated their camp to another position a good three to four clicks away. All of the horses and Equestrians had scattered when the Vasillisk had attacked, though most of them had returned by that morning's light. However, the two destriers belonging to Taehyung and Yoongi had not fled. The valiant steeds had died in their efforts to protect their masters. They were witnessed taking out one of the beasts when they were cut down.

Siobhan offered two Equestrians to replace the steeds, their previous masters dead. Agreeing, at least for the time being, the two warriors had mounted their new chargers, Taehyung's a white stallion with bright silvery blue eyes, Yoongi's a rich chocolaty brown mare with yellow tinged black eyes. They would each be carrying one of the injured.

As none of the elves would carry those in the human party, what with their own to contend to, both Taehyung and Yoongi would have a second rider.

Taehyung received what he considered to be the burden of having the mysterious youth, Jungkook, ride before him while Yoongi would support Jimin before him. The young man had woken before they made the attempt to move, and had been given a short interrogation by the stoic soldier.

"What is your name?" The first thing out of the dark eyed young man's mouth was a bit harsh when he'd knelt next to the doe eyed youth who'd just woken moments before.

"J.. Jungkook" the boy answered after an instant of stunned silence.

"Why were you in the dragon's cave?" Short, to the point, and annoyingly curt.

"D..dragon's cave? What dragon's cave?" Jungkook answered, wide eyed.

"You expect me to believe that you don't remember?" Taehyung had replied brusquely. He was an expert at reading emotions from a person's expression, their body language, the dart of the eyes. Something few people knew, if one moved their eyes a certain direction while answering a question, then that person was lying.

Everything he read from Jungkook said the youth was telling the truth, but he continued in this vein of questioning.

"Why do you wear a collar?" He'd asked.

That was when Jungkook seemed to take control over himself again, and eyed the soldier.

"Why should I answer you?" His petulant tone was nothing like what Taehyung had heard the first time the boy had spoken. That time, pushing through the ring surrounding the mage, his voice had sounded flat, like there was nothing behind it but emptiness. Now, there was definitely something behind it, and that something happened to be an attractively irate doe eyed young man.

"Because you are in no position to be denying me answers..." Taehyung had answered after a moment's silence. Jungkook's eyes had narrowed, and a scowl had set upon his features.

"I don't have to tell you an-"

"You have endangered the life of one of my company." Taehyung interrupted callously. "Only because you released him and saved the life of another are you still alive."

"What happened to your friend wasn't my fault." The boy replied instantly, tone defensive and heavy with anger and hurt.

Fortunately, the conversation had ended there before it came to blows as one of the elves had approached Taehyung with a message from Siobain. Everything and everyone was ready to be under way, and he moved off to help.

Safe to say, this was evidently not going to be the most pleasant of associations.