Her eyes opened slowly.
"Where am I?" thought the confused dragon. She looked around herself. Looming above her was a mountain, and littered around her were rocks, stones, and boulders of various sizes.
"What happened?" thought Marina. "Basically, I went looking for Aquaflame, released Ecru, and fell here. Wherever here is," finished Marina in her thoughts.
She stood up. And quickly fell down, pain searing her front left leg. Marina roared, spewing a beam of ice and slicing several trees before stopping as a slushy mess on another tree. Never before had she felt this pain. It was night time, and Marina tested her wings. Well, one of them.
"Great," Marina muttered out loud under her breath, "one of my wings is broken. It'll take days, maybe even weeks to heal."
Marina stayed where she was and licked her leg, cleaning off dried blood from her scales. Marina heaved a sigh.
"Maybe if I rest, I'll heal faster. I think I heard from Ecru's mother that a nice long sleep does wonders. Maybe that's how Cerise is able to keep her scales that lovely sheen. Ah well, if I'm to find out, I suppose I'd better get sleeping!" Marina laid her head down and was soon fast asleep.
Miasma hissed with glee. "Ecru, you'd do anything?"
"Anything," said Ecru with finality.
"Well, this is easy then. Just hand your life over to me," Miasma grinned, although Ecru wouldn't have been able to see the grin in the dark very well, but it didn't make a difference, as Ecru wasn't paying attention to Miasma. He was staring out into the deep forest.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Ecru, suspicion rising.
"I mean, become my slave, and when the time arises, I'll free you of this agreement and you can rejoin your mate," Miasma replied deliberately, as if it were obvious.
"No! My life, as you so lightly put it, belongs to my mate!" Ecru jumped up and snarled at the two unicorns. "You evil beasts," he finished, spitting venom at them.
Cyanide stared directly at Ecru, concentrating on his forehead, trying to insert ideas to make him more vulnerable.
Miasma seemed to take Ecru's reaction in stride. "Well, if you say so. I suppose your devotion isn't quite true to your word of doing anything."
"Now just wait a minute-"
"And," continued Miasma, who was irked at being interrupted, "if we find any dragons, we might just have to, say, dispatch them."
Ecru's eyes widened. "You wouldn't dare!"
Cyanide continued his manipulation as Miasma continued her case. "Oh, I would. Why would I bother to keep your mate alive?" She turned as if to leave. "You aren't the only one that can breathe fire anyways. Your mate will be toast!"
Ecru paused, stuck in the inner turmoil Cyanide was causing the dragon, and Ecru finally relented. "Okay, I'll do it."
"Good," Miasma giggled. "Now, let's whip up this contract, shall we?"
Ecru reluctantly nodded. "Fine, what do we do?"
Miasma turned to Ecru and focused her magic. Silver lines began swirling around Miasma.
"Ecru, all you have to do is donate a bit of your blood, and that's it."
Ecru seemed taken aback. "Excuse me?"
"Your blood. Let's have it. I don't have all night you know. Now, you have fangs, yes? Well, slice yourself open!" Miasma seemed rather impatient, as if she couldn't get this part over with fast enough. "I need your blood as a sort of signature to this contract that you'll do whatever I say, and I'll release you when I deem is the right time and you can go play happily ever after with your girl."
Ecru, though still suspicious, recovered. Lifting his leg, Ecru closed his eyes and tore into it, leaving the scale alignment deformed as Ecru had basically pushed away scale to get to the soft flesh. Ecru clenched his teeth tightly and held out his leg.
"Thank you," muttered Miasma somewhat sarcastically, and the silver lines began swirling downwards to Ecru's wound and began closing around the blood. The lines laced together and formed a single solid sheet around the blood, acting as an effective container. The container, which looked like a pearl with a one inch diameter, floated back to Miasma and hovered in front of her. Miasma contemplated how to keep the pearl look-alike with her, and another silver strand appeared and acted as a chain, turning the container into a pendant of a necklace. Finished with the magic, the formerly luminescent pearl-like pendant and it's necklace stopped glowing and dropped to the forest floor. Miasma carefully hooked the delicate chain with a fang and put it on swiftly, as if it were a procedure that was practiced repeatedly and precisely.
Ecru blinked several times and sniffed his leg. At least the bleeding stopped. "Miasma, can we start looking for my mate now?"
Miasma glared at Ecru. To Ecru, Miasma's eyes were glowing, lit internally like a jack-o-lantern's. "We're not going to search for anything at night, slave," snarled Miasma who presently tucked her legs underneath her. "We're going to sleep."
Cyanide also got into a position that he thought was comfortable, and began drifting off.
Ecru got up, somewhat frustrated, and began walking off, when he rebounded back as if he was hit by a forcefield.
"We're staying here," stated Miasma.
Ecru, stuck with the two unicorns, tucked his wings carefully and laid down. With nothing else to do, Ecru fell asleep.
