Devil's tale

Devil's tale chapter 15

When Avarice came to his senses, Mormir was gone. The minstrel fell to his knees, gripping his bleeding arm as the poisoned wound festered horribly. Jazz was shaking Avarice's shoulders frantically, asking him if he was alright. Avarice slowly nodded and asked what had happened to Mormir.

"Just ran off. Had a look in his eyes of just... some weird kinda shock." Jazz answered.

Avarice gripped his aching arm. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm still reeling myself after that." He limped over to check on Rheagos, who had a nasty wound on his right wing. It seemed that in the fighting, Mormir's flailing blades had ended up slashing the dragon, and the wound was festering with a toxic, green colour. The dragon's eyes were closed and his breath was barely audible. His immune system had been weakened by his shedding of his scales, and he'd surely die if nothing was done. Quickly, Avarice began to cast a healing-spell. Over the course of the next hour, he mended the wound and made the greenness disappear from the dragon, returning colour to his hide. Before he had a chance to feel good about himself, however, Avarice felt a sharp pain in his chest. He bent over and turned around as he vomited up blood. It felt like an intangible wound had opened up below his ribs. He realised what this was. He'd wounded his soul by connecting to and subsequently ripping away from Mormir on the astral plane, this was the result. This and his wounded arm would not be fixed by a simple healing-spell, even if Avarice could have used magic on himself, which he could not.

"Are you alright?" He asked Rheagos, who's eyes opened weakly.

"I've been better." The dragon managed to say.

Avarice took a moment to sit down and think. He told both Jazz and Rheagos what he'd seen in the astral world, and looked down at the bonfire he'd built with a grimace.

"Dude's a piece of shit, but no one deserves that... to lose his ma like that..." Jazz said, looking at the fire blankly.

"No, and it's this blasted kingdom that made him into what he is now. I'll be glad to leave once we've dealt with him." Avarice said, scowling into the fire as the flames roared up alongside his smouldering anger.

Over the next few hours, Avarice and Jazz tended to the fire while Rheagos began to shed his scales. One by one, old scales were replaced by new ones as the discarded pieces of armour fell to the floor, smouldering from the heat of the new scales which had grown underneath. The scales were both tough and surprisingly flexible. The  total process took around one and a half more days to complete. Afterwards, the vibrant, dark red colour of the dragon's scales had returned to him, and the fire within his gut felt to Avarice as strong as it had ever been. As for the discarded scales, Avarice made sure to collect as many as he could in his bag, knowing they'd either sell for a lot of money, or make extremely good equipment, later down the line. He also took an empty flask out of his bag, cast an enchantment on it, and requested Rheagos breathe fire. Once the dragon did so, Avarice used his magic to capture the dragon fire in the flask, storing it there until it was opened again.

"You need to head eastward do you not? Have you figured out where?" Rheagos asked, the morning his shedding had finished.

"I have, actually. While I was on the astral plane, my mind briefly became connected to Mormir's. We need to head to the castle-town of Jeddin." Avarice said.

Rheagos nodded, he gestured with his head for Avarice and Jazz to follow him. The dragon lead the two vagabonds out of the cave and into the crisp, outside air of the mountains.

"It's been decades since I've seen this sight..." Rheagos admitted, seemingly speaking more to himself than to either of the people next to him. The drake spread his massive wings wide and took a deep breath, inhaling, then exhaling a stream of fire into the sky with an ear-piercing roar. He turned to Avarice and said.