Tale of Two Paths

Chapter Five: Sense of belonging

Linda had a few good scratches on her, along with the wound in her side from the peacock's throwing blade prior.
The peacock herself is bruised up with a black eye due to a hard jab from the queen.
"Gotta admit...your...not bad"
The peacock said in between heavy breaths, Linda scoffed and powered through the immense pain in her side.

"I don't need your approval, prepare to di-!!"

A pink and cyan fireball crashed into the tree in front of them. A loud and violent THUD met their ears along with the immense vibrations that rattled both of their bodies. Then the contents of the pink fireball was revealed to them, Sonia and the animorph were barely awake and on the verge of passing out.

"Komatta!"

Yelled the peacock before she rushed over to the two but was stopped by the queen.
Linda wasn't concerned with the dragon animorph but her daughter under it, she blocked the peacock's path with a shadow wall.
"Don't take another step"

The peacock didn't listen, and threw a quick blade at her legs to disarm her. She yanked away Komatta by the legs and held her in one arm while the other held out her long blade with fresh blood from the fight. Linda was surprised that she didn't try to take Sonia away, it seemed that she was only concerned with her own daughter. This was proved by her running away when Linda went to grab Sonia.

-

Komatta's vision was blurry, how hard had she and that princess hit the tree? Also how hard did she push herself?
These were the questions that swam around in her head alongside the actual ringing in her head. She could feel her mother's warm embrace while carrying her, holding her the way she liked to accommodate her wings as well.
"D-did I do good?"

She asked the other animorph while looking down at her arms which were covered in blood, burns and lighting marks.
"You did fine Komatta, just relax...it was a mistake to come out here"

She said under her breath while running faster.
Eregato ran as fast as her strong talons could take her through the woods. She told Dominic over and over again that attacking the shadow kingdom of all things directly was probably the worst decision they could make. They were one of the strongest kingdoms in terms of magic alone, and that queen was brutal! Worst part is that no one cared to speak up with her, not Onagi, Leo, Zilex, anyone! They didn't even care that Komatta could've died!

"I'm taking you to the on-site infirmary to treat you, that princess did a number on you...did you catch her name?"

She asked while jumping off a cliff and using her white and red tail feathers to glide down safely.
The smaller animorph wracked her brain for any sort of recollection but shook her head.
"No...she...threw a hell of a punch though..."

Komatta watched as the red tents of the pop up infirmaries grew closer, semi trained nurses came to scoop her up from her mother's warm arms.
She was blinded by the lamp shone in her face, making her pupils shrink.
"Vision is in order, I need some dragon root, lavender paste and bandages stat"

The nurse said to the others as he started to clean the deep cuts on the girl's stomach. Komatta didn't flinch despite it hurting like hell. It's not like this was her first set of injuries like this. Nowhere near the first time. Although the pain from the ground up dragon root never got easier but was followed up by the immediate cooling relief of the lavender paste. Her body jolted as another nurse checked out the fresh lighting marks that violently snaked up her legs. It made her sigh as her pink eyes looked at the other fractal scars that wrapped around her body like barbed wire. Lighting magic was known for its side effect of leaving scars like that. The greater the amount of scars, the higher level of lighting magic mastery someone hand. Her fire magic wasn't innocent of scarring her either, another nurse tended to the flame marks on her cheeks she made from trying to intimidate that damn shadow princess.
"How long do we have to do this for mom?"

She asked the woman who was scribbling down in some leather back notebook
"Hm? Oh don't worry they won't be long dear"
She reassured while flashing her a toothy but kind smile.

Komatta snarled as she felt her wings touched. They were sensitive as with any dragon animorph's wings. The connection to her spine and with that to her brain made it a high bundle of nerves.

Her mind was stuck on that girl. Her power swirled around in her mind. She was strong, no doubt about it. It was annoying how on par they were with each other. Her claws dug into the medical chair as she thought about her father or his friends hearing this news. Her tail curled up against the small of her back.

Eregato closed her book and walked outside to let the doctors do their thing. She was patched up while writing down her thoughts.
"Komatta I'm going to take a walk alright? Mommy needs some fresh air!"
"Okay!"
She responded from inside.
Eregato sighed as she hopped into a tree, she was high enough to be considered away from everyone else. She often enjoyed the breeze that came from such high altitudes, luckily due to her nimble frame she was able to hop around trees like it was nothing. Her edged talons gripped the branches as she tried to relax her anxious mind. Her whole body felt tense which was normal for someone on a battlefield but this was more intense than usual, her jaw felt like it had been biting down on something for years. Her back felt stiff and rigid like an old tree trunk. She could dismiss this as soreness from that battle with the shadow queen.

Even being one of the five generals she couldn't take down one of the queens or kings alone while they were injured. She was surprised at how she was still able to be in the rank of general for so long. Why did Dominic keep her around? She felt almost...useless to an extent. At least compared to the other generals. Like Leo and Onagi, one had Lava magic and the other developed blood magic from studying the water inside of blood. All she knew how to do was swing some sharp metal sticks around. Honestly it wasn't like she couldn't hold her own, she sparred with the other generals and won in the past but that was because she studied and countered their fighting styles.

Either way, she knew that she would be chewed out by the others when she got back. Hopefully it wouldn't be that bad.