The 'Dragon Defender'

Training

I stay out with Plasma until I feel him slump against my side. I crane my neck downwards, seeing he's fallen asleep. I can't help smiling slightly at this, then I carefully move him onto my back and start heading inside.

It's not the first time I've had to try not to wake someone up while I'm moving them, but it's the first time I've done it in dragon form aside from just moving little Melanite around, which is kind of different than moving a whole human body. It's not an issue with the weight, but I can't just hold onto him in the way I would Melanite, so it's a bit of a balancing act and a lot of very careful movements to avoid jostling him about and waking him up. Still, we manage to get to his cave after a minute or two.

I get Plasma settled in his nest, making sure he's comfortable. There's still light flickering in the fire pit - there's not much in here that can burn, so I wouldn't exactly call it a fire hazard -  which allows me to ensure he's still soundly asleep, his lashes casting long shadows across his cheekbones that shudder under the glow of the flames. His chest rises, then falls. Once. Twice. Three times. Slowly. Steadily.

I blink, then shake my head and leave him be.

~•~

"Here's your recruits, Nightling," Plasma gestures to the group of Morphwings that were interested in my training. After Plasma proposed the idea to his father, which was quite quickly agreed to be a good course of action, we set out spreading the word around the caverns, drumming up quite a bit of intrigue. We got about a dozen people joining us for training, including Asher and Adriana.

"Quite the bunch," I note, looking over the group. "Mm," he agrees. "What's your plan?"

"I'll see what they can do, first off," I shrug. "Then I'll see where we can improve. But from what I've seen, we shouldn't have many issues."

Plasma nods, then steps back. "Well the floor's all yours."

I clap to get the attention of the group, which manages to work, all eyes turning to me. "Alright, thank you all for coming out here today," I begin, looking over them all. "For those of you that don't know me, I'm Indigo, but I've also been called the Dragon Defender. I want to make sure you guys are able to handle yourselves in the event of dragon hunters coming too close for comfort, so I'll be taking you through the training that myself and my own pack have gone through for years. Any questions?"

A few hands go up. I gesture to one of the people. He's tall, maybe mid- to late-twenties, with shaggy brown hair. "Yes?"

"You're saying those myths are real?"

"Looks like it."

"And you're expecting us to believe you're the Dragon Defender?"

"I frankly don't care what any of you believe about me."

"Then why bring it up?"

"I was just trying to give you all a sense of what sort of thing we'll be doing here. Look, I think we're getting side-tracked here. Any other questions?"

A few hands go up again. "Any questions that aren't related to the whole 'Dragon Defender' thing?" I check, causing all the hands except Asher's to go down.

"Any questions that aren't just a sarcastic remark?"

Asher smirks as he puts his hand down.

"That's what I thought. Right, let's get to work, shall we?"

~•~

We spend about two hours out of the caverns, with me testing everyone's speed, endurance, agility, reaction times, all the usual stuff I go through on a first training session. There's one or two people I'll have to keep an eye on, but for the most part I'm pleased with how they're all doing, especially so early on.

After dismissing everyone and thanking them for their time and effort, Asher, Adriana and I head back inside, panting and sweating, but overall pretty good.

"You guys find that okay?" I check with them both. "Yeah, it wasn't half bad," Asher nods. "But, uh, how did you do that in your armour? You must be dying right now."

"It's dragon scales, so..." I shrug it off. "I'll probably take it off once we get back to the cave, though. It could do with some polishing."

"What dragon are the scales from?" Adriana asks curiously. "Slitherwings," I reply. "They shed nicely. Once the venom is cleaned up, the scales are pretty durable, not to mention the obvious resistance to similar toxins. Slitherwing venom can't penetrate my armour."

"That's really useful," Adriana nods. We reach the cave, sitting down as Melanite happily approaches us. "Hi!"

"Hey," we chorus, letting Melanite hop around us and all but demand pettings. When we do, however, she sticks her tongue out and runs back to Selene. "Ew! You're all sweaty and gross!"

"We've been training," I chuckle. "Maybe one day when you're older you can join in."

"Ooh, yeah!" Melanite agrees eagerly. "I'll be the best at training!"

"Sure will," Asher laughs, holding his arm out towards me and making the 'give it to me' gesture with his hand. "Pass the canteen."

"It's my canteen," I remind him, but toss it over anyway. He catches it and gulps down the water. "Mm. Yeah," he huffs after he's done. "What are you gonna do, take off the mask to drink?"

"Pass it here."

He laughs and passes it to Adriana, who hands it back to me. Neither seem to think I'm serious.

I pull down the mask and gulp down the rest of my water.

Honestly, after Adriana saw beneath my mask, I felt a little bad that my own family hadn't seen yet. I was going to save it for a good time, but this seemed the most comical and I just couldn't resist it.

When I'm done, I look to the others, who have all fallen silent, Melanite included. They're all staring at me in shock. I decide to just wait it out, see who decides to break the silence. It's anyone's guess, really.

"... I swear this is just a joke, but... ugly!"

Asher bursts out laughing at his own joke, not even reacting when Adriana and Selene both gasp and hit his arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He splutters out, practically rolling on the floor already. "I didn't mean it! I just wasn't gonna get another chance!"