Hellbeast

13

A/N: Sorry for being gone for three thousand years guys. I'm finally a senior in high school and I've started applying for colleges and actually taking care of shit. I'll be updating way more so no worries!

1067 words

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Exhaustion and nightmares had pulled Damen into a deep sleep. When he woke up, he wasn't in the forest with Ciril anymore. The golden haired elf was no longer laying beside him, instead Damen was alone in a big forest, and not his forest. He trotted along before realizing he couldn't turn into his human form. The forest lead into a small patch of grass with a figure in the middle. Shallow, cold breaths invaded the even colder air. Warily, Damen approached.

There lay the same boy that had been in his home for the past several weeks. Red stained his clothes and pooled out into the snow beneath his limp body. The only thing that gave him away to being alive was the deep rattling in his lungs as he inhaled shaky breaths and exhaled weak puffs of air. 'He's dying.' The one thought alone made Damen lurch forward and push his face into crook of the other's neck. A warm, wet hand touched his fur and rubbed gently at his head. When it pulled away, Damen felt the sticky blood clinging to his fur but paid no mind. What had happened? How had he woken up here, and why was the little one he had taken in and nursed back to health dying again?

Blood continued to stream rivers and then pools into the melting snow below them, and Damen realized with pained anguish that there was nothing he could do. He had no supplies to try and help Horus, had no home, not even human hands capable of mending him. Horus did not speak to him. He stayed silent on the forest floor until his unsteady breathing stopped and his hand fell off Damen's warm fur coat. Matte with blood, Damen stood above the cooling body of the stranger he had come to adore.

The wolves howling in the distance woke Damen up from his unfruitful dream. Dizzy, and with a pounding headache, he sat up straight before immediately jerking forward and expelling dry heaves. Warm hands rested on his shoulders and lifted his hair from his face. The scent of grass and chamomile invaded his senses and he was hyperaware as Ciril's soft whispering started turning into more legible sentences. "Are you okay? Damen? Did you eat something bad?" The bigger man could do nothing but slump on his companion for support, flashing images of bloodstained hands petting his fur erupting in his mind.

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The smell of burnt wood and dirt filled Eris's nose and he scrunched up his face unpleasantly. After alerting Mavic that the compass's needle had changed directions, the broody dragon had erupted in flames so high, they scraped the clouds. All the surrounding foliage had been set on fire and Eris had panicked and backed away quickly, as his aversion to fire resurfaced in his mind. It had taken a couple minutes for the column of fire to stop erupting from Mavic's body, and when Eris could finally see if nothing but the faint outline of the man, he was face to face with a giant dragon the size of a- well- a dragon. The beast had stared at him with one eye, unblinking, then lowered its head onto the charred earth. Eris's heart momentarily stopped pulsing as he understood what the foreign prince wanted him to do. Mustering all the courage he had, Eris climbed onto the massive red creature and held on for dear life as wings beat furiously into the ground. One clear thought had made its way to the front of his mind. They were heading south.

Eris didn't know how long he'd been sitting on the uncomfortably hard scales of his friend. He knew his ass was sore and all the stories he'd read about how magical it was to ride a dragon were completely false. He was sandwiched between two spikes, hugging the one in front with a fierceness one would only have if they didn't want to die. He tapped the neck gently, not wanting to get thrown off and plummet hundreds of miles to the unforgiving ground. A snort of hot air forced its way back into Eris's face in acknowledgement. At least he wasn't being ignored! "Can we land soon?! It's already night and I'm tired!" The sudden fall caught Eris off guard and he screamed so loud he might've shredded his vocal cords. When he said he wished to land, he didn't expect for Mavic to stop fucking flying.

The dragon twisted expertly in the air, flapping his wings at the last second to land gracefully. Eris fell off his back and instead of hard floor, got thrown on warm, soft muscle. A deep chuckle reverberated from Mavic's chest as he held the small mer between his buff arms. "Did you think I was going to let you die?" Instead of responding, Eris politely climbed out of his arms and threw up in some nearby bushes. He felt the ground move in sway with dragon's heavy footsteps, then arms getting wrapped around his waist, and a warm face being pressed into his neck. "I'm sorryyy." It was already hard to get angry at Mavic, him being so cute and pouty when yelled at, but even harder to not forgive him for his impulsive actions.

Eris sighed and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, turning in time to see Mavic making a sour face at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Mavic looked disgruntled. "You carry a handkerchief?" Mavic stared at the dragon with a blank face. "Yes, I do. I was raised right." Eris lost his breath as Mavic pushed him onto the ground and wrestled with him on the grass. "Say it! Say I was raised right!" But Eris refused to give in, trying his hardest to fight back. "Resistance is futile, fish sticks. I am stronger than you." The teasing lilt in the ginger man's voice, coupled with the smirk and their flush bodies pressed together, served to give Eris a striking hard on. Mavic licked his lips with the tip of his tongue and leaned in, if only to bite at Eris's lips. "I can take care of that for you." The Mer prince was at a loss for words, but that was okay for Mavic. All Eris had to do was spread his slender legs, Mavic could handle the rest.