Darren's Game

12

The large dragon shimmered in the dying sunlight light scattering through the trees, its amber eyes fixated on the three men below it. Even with its chin resting on the ground, its head stood taller than the three. Its eyes shifted to Brune often, noticing the desire to attack coming from him. Although the dragon rested calmly in front of the group, not showing any signs of wanting to harm them.

The black-haired male glanced from the bronze dragon to Eadward. "We're all going to die because of your actions! Brune seems to have a bigger brain than you!" He didn't waste time apologizing to Brune for the stereotype, but instead looked back at the dragon and tried to muster an image in his mind to cast on the beast.

"Don't attack him," an echoing voice spoke out.

It caused the three to tense up, not knowing the source of the voice. It almost seemed to be like a voice inside of their head, like the announcements in the barracks. They were still scared to move, not sure what would happen if they did approach or try to flee the large beast. Although something would spark inside of Eadward, making him take a hesitant step forward.

Vesta's head snapped towards the brunet. "What are you...?"

"There's something odd, like something drawing me toward the dragon," Eadward spoke. He would take another step toward the beast, watching him carefully and seeing how steam seemed to emit from his flared nostrils. A few more steps forward and he spotted a humanoid leg dangling off behind the spikes coming off of its head. "Hey!"

"And now you've noticed me," the same voice said again, now followed by a chuckle. The figure seemed to shift and slide off the side Eadward's eyes were trained on. 

The person in question was sturdy in build and lean, muscle showing underneath the scale armor they wore. Although the armor wasn't that of metal, what looked like discarded scales from the same dragon they were riding on were there instead. It was almost difficult to discern skin from armor, save that the copper armor had a shine to it and the bronze-toned skin was matte in comparison. Dark brown eyes showed through the hand-crafted helmet they wore, along with slight age lines below them.

"You are recruits from this year, yes?" the woman asked.

"We are..." Brune spoke as he caught glimpse of the woman. He had never seen armor like it before and was wondering how the person had obtained it.

"Where is the injured one? That is why I'm here. Tarroren and I only come to ward off other monsters when a white beacon is shown." The woman began walking forward a bit more, surveying the area for anyone else. Her braided black hair bounced off her back, braided tightly to her scalp so the short back of her helmet could stay on. Her ears were also fully exposed, being longer than any other elf's ears the three had ever seen.

Vesta glanced over where the small build was from Paskalin. Did he shout out to tell him to remove their cover? He still wasn't sure whether to trust a random stranger who was allied with a dragon. Although the rocks soon collapsed, blown away by the strong air being pushed from the dragon's mouth. The other three in their group were now exposed. Hilke now holding Cassia partially up as Paskalin was still trying anything medically he could with his kit. 

The woman eyed the surroundings and then looked at Cassia. She had seen this before, back when she was thrown into this closed-off forest. Those who didn't know of the quilled lizard dragons' venom usually did die to it. But she could do something for their friend. A few strides forward and knelt down next to Hilke to examine the wound in Cassia's leg.

"These aren't the right herbs. Do you have cherry powder?" She'd ask Paskalin.

The tanned man would nod and go to dig into the satchel he wore, pulling out a small bag and offering it to the elf. It was light, but the contents inside of it rolled at any tilt or press against it. The bag was opened and a small amount was poured into the elf's hand. She'd spread it out to be even and in a circle, beginning a chant in the known magical language. A similar color to the powder radiated off of it, although it began to glow more to an orange color as she flipped her hand upside down and pressed it to the wound on Cassia's leg, all while still repeating the chant over and over again.