Put back together

34. A Human Mother

Logan glared at the back of Virgil's head. He knew that he wasn't going to get an answer but that didn't mean that he didn't want one.

There were multiple species that could be referred to as 'more or less human' if one really wanted to.
Halflings, Elfs, Fae, Changelings, Dwarfs, Giants, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches...
The list went on and on.

But Logan was none of that.

He had no problems with salt, sunlight, silver or any other weakness one of those would typically have.

He was human.

Maybe the MIM was getting worse again though he hoped that that was not the case. He doubted they'd be lucky enough not to go in the completely wrong direction again and he wasn't sure if they could survive being on the Cursed Islands for too much longer.

Logan's feet hurt. He guessed this was largely because he wasn't used to walking for this long and because his shoes were by no means made for this either. 

He glanced over at Patton. The backer had been traveling like this for far longer than him.
Sure, Patton and Roman had had horses but that didn't make it much easier. Riding was exhausting too as far as he was aware.

Logan wondered what had happened to the horse that they had let go.
The spider creature had followed them but there were a lot of other creatures on these Islands.
It was more probable for the horse to be dead by now than alive.

"It's about two days more until we  reach Terona, right?" he asked.

"If we keep walking at this speed. If we speed up a little it might be less," Virgil murmured. "Or if we find something that we can ride."

Roman perked up.

"In the not sexual way," Virgil added quickly.

Logan only now realised how Virgil's sentence could have been interpreted and felt his cheeks heat up.
Why the hell would any of them think something like that?

Patton made a confused noise.

Nobody wanted to explain it to him.

"Is there any animal around here that can be ridden?" Roman asked stumbling over the last word after Virgil's comment.

"A couple. Unicorns, Pegasus, corrupted horses..."

"And how would we find them?" Logan asked curiously.

"They find us or we're extremely lucky. Unicorns especially tend to avoid humans. Unless they come across someone who is 'pure of heart' or whatever," came the answer. "I know for sure that I don't fall in that category. Who knows if one of you does. Unicorns are picky as hell. Don't tell them but I suspect that they actually are like in Gravity Falls - assholes who pretended to be the purest of the purest."

Patton shot Logan a confused look but he only shrugged. Elliott made a delighted noise at the movement and let his tail flick from side to side like an excited dog.

Virgil looked up at the noise and his dark eyes seemed to sparkle in the suddenly rose colored light.

"Or maybe we find an adult dragon and manage to convince it to take us to Terona! It would have to be a big enough one though... Or more than one. And a species that understands human speech," he rambled.

"Are you being serious right now?" Logan interrupted him suddenly.

"Yeah, duh!"

Logan stared at Virgil in disbelief.

"We can't ride a dragon", he argued.

"What? Why not?" Virgil seemed genuinely confused.

"Why not? Hundreds of adventurers and thrill seekers have tried to tame and ride dragons before. They tried in all imaginable ways, each coming up with a different creative and elaborate plan. All in vain. Not a single one survived long enough to even touch a dragon. Not to mention ride it!"

Virgil narrowed his eyes at him.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really!" Logan was starting to lose his patience.

"Then what's that nuzzling itself against your neck? Touching you?" the mage smirked at him and the only time Logan had wanted to punch a person more had been when Roman had pulled him onto that stupid horse.

"Elliott's different," he snapped. "They believe Patton and I to be their parents. Other dragons don't."

Virgil just shrugged.

"My point still stands. You can't tell me that no one has ever touched a dragon while you are doing it yourself! And those adventurers only died because they were morons. Are you a moron?"

"No, I'm not!"

"Then you'll be fine."

"Why do you call them morons?" Patton asked.

"Huh?" Virgil shot the baker a questioning look.

"Lo said that they came up with really good plans, so they couldn't habe been completely stupid, right?"

"If the plans were that good the morons wouldn't have died. So, yes, they were completely stupid."

Logan wanted to argue with that.
Just because a plan failed didn't automatically mean that it had been a stupid plan. Sometimes even the best of plans failed simply because whatever one had tried to do was impossible. Even the best people failed sometimes and it wasn't their fault.
Virgil was wrong. He was being unnecessary harsh to people he likely had never met and it confused Logan to no end.
He couldn't understand the mages reasoning in the least and while he wanted to chalk it up to MIM Virgil's eyes had been clear and focused.
Apparently he tended to irrational thinking even when he was completely sane.

"Let's just stick to horses and the like!" Roman declared before Logan could say anything. "Do you know if there are any around here?"

"Not right now," Virgil responded leaving them to wonder whether he meant that no horses in the area or that he had no idea if there were any.

Logan sighed in frustration.

Elliott gently rubbed their head against his cheek.

"Maaa," they made and Logan could feel them lightly nibbling at his chin. "Maaam... Maaam?"

"Could it be that your kid is trying to call you 'Mom'?" Roman asked.

"Mooom," Elliott said.

Logan could feel his cheeks heat up.
Mom.
Elliott couldn't mean it like that, right? They most likely were simply making noises and mimicking what Roman had said, right?

"Mooom~"

Logan turned to look at them and Elliott let out a delighted noise.

"Mom!" they rubbed their nose against his, pushing themselves up with their forelegs against his lower lip. "Mom!"

Oh dear gods.

They meant it like that.

Logan couldn't quite seem to recall the next few hours no matter how hard he tried to later.

Elliott had called him 'mom'.

Cute dragon causes Windows error.

I'm not sure why I made Virgil piss off Logan so much but... It just kinda happened.

What creature would you like best for them to find and possibliy ride? Please tell me in the comments!

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day?