Fight or Flight

Chapter 27

Enola

The afternoon wore on... and Simon was still gone. I had gotten a magical message from Cess earlier in the day, which had been nice, but it had just been a short update telling me that the human knights – or 'soldiers', as he still insisted on calling them – had found the bandits' trail and would be on them shortly... which had not been nice. Draining a crystal just to check up on him would have been a frivolous waste, so I had nothing to do all day but grow more and more concerned for him. Even rearranging all of Simon's things had been far too short of a distraction.

And as much as I hated it, I found myself worrying for Simon, too. The annoying human had left in the morning with some vague story about needing to follow up on something in Lakeshire. I had made some snobbish comment about not getting lost, as humans are wont to do, instead of asking what he was up to or how long he would be. It had seemed fun at the time, but if I had known Cess would send me that message and cause me to worry, I would have asked more questions about what Simon was up to, and when he would be back. Now I was worried something had gone wrong with Simon, too, on top of being worried that something was going wrong with Cess.

There was always the option of going to check on Simon, so I would at least have one less thing to worry about... but the last thing I needed was for Simon to start thinking I could not get through even a single day without him.  The mere idea was beyond embarrassing.

I was also hungry. At this rate it seemed like Simon would not have time to cook whatever I caught for dinner, which meant I would not get to taste any of his new spices and recipes. Or have any of our usual conversations.

This was a stupid day, and I hated it.

I grumbled and climbed to my feet. I summoned the healer's kit to me, feeling my body grow lighter as the spells within it took effect, and took to the air with a few flaps of my wings. Maybe killing something for dinner would cheer me up.

~

My eyes narrowed as I caught sight of Simon in the distance. Of course. He comes back right as I finish dinner.

I gnawed on the bone left behind from the meal I had just finished, venting some of my annoyance – and worry – on the leftovers. It took far too long for Simon to walk the remaining distance to the hill, and then to climb up it – I was certain he was walking slowly on purpose, just to annoy me – and I spat the leg bone out on the ground as he finally reached the top of the hill. "You are late."

"Sorry." Simon eyed the leg bone nervously, then slumped down to the ground, arranging his cloak into a makeshift pillow. "I was meeting with family."

"Oh." Of course. Simon had come here to find answers for the Wellsprings... so at some point he would have to meet with them to give them those answers. "I see. Anything that I should be aware of?"

"You dragons will be getting some visitors soon, once word starts spreading. That might be worth letting them know about. You'll probably have a few weeks before that starts, though. My cousin won't be leaving just yet." Simon smiled slightly and looked back towards the human town. "He has to fill someone else in on a few other things first."

That sounded infuriatingly cryptic, and just begged for me to ask for more details. So, of course, I ignored it completely. "Cess believes he has found the bandits, and should be finishing up with them soon. I will drain a crystal in the morning and let him know, and he can tel-"

"HELP!!! I found the naga, but-" Cess' panicked words broke off suddenly, and I jerked upright. Simon looked at me in alarm, but I ignored him and tried to focus. I had the sense that Cess' message had been directed at multiple dragons – since it was a call for help, likely others he knew in the Sea Guard – but they were probably days or weeks away. My mage senses gave me a general idea of where Cess' communication spell had come from, but it was just a vague sense of somewhere behind me.