"To go after them?" I repeated, without processing the words. "Huh?! No way! Didn't you hear that they have new weapons... and they are unscrupulous assassins. I can't stand a chance against them!"
"We have to take back that gold. It will make me stronger."
"How's that?"
"Each treasure a dragon owns represents its power, everyone knows that. I can't really gain power on my own, because..."
"Because?"
"It's my curse... I have healing powers... but... the backlash is life upon death and death upon life..."
"And what does that mean?"
"I can save someone from the brink of death and also bring death to a living being with my powers."
"No shit, Sherlock. That much I figured out the first time you said it. I mean, it's quite obvious."
"My name is Pyrope, not Sherlock", he corrected me, baring his teeth. "It is more complicated than it sounds. And much worse than you imagine. Anyway, it would be easier for me to gain power in the usual way of common dragons. And that would be to your own advantage too. Now, get on my back."
I sat there frozen as he lowered himself, waiting. A wave of nausea made my stomach churn.
"Are you... planning to fly? I'm afraid of heights. I never rode anything in my entire life, except a bicycle. I can't do this. Besides, I'm not properly dressed..."
"Fine, then I will leave you here alone... in the dark... with the others."
I gulped.
"Who are the others?"
Pyrope gave me a wicked smile that almost made my eyes pop out of dread and all the sounds blocked on my throat.
"You will meet them... soon after I leave. Darkness has more than shadows lurking in its heart. But I see you are brave enough to face anything... with the cost of your life."
He chuckled darkly and lazily strode towards the window.
"You son of a... No, no, no! I can't let him annoy me. Damn it, I almost swore."
I walked nonchalantly closer to Pyrope, clearing my throat, although my knees were turning into gelatine.
"I don't think it's safe to fly drunk. You may hit another... uhm... flying thing and collapse to the ground. It's night time after all, can't you wait until tomorrow? And it's a blizzard out there!"
The dragon just lowered his body in expectation. I could tell from the sound of his breath that he was becoming impatient by the minute. I wanted to scream at him, but he was stubborn as a mule. I sighed exasperated and climbed on his back. My hands were shaking while I grabbed his horns and my pulse accelerated. My heart was pounding in my ears and I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself.
When he opened the window and stepped into the balcony, a blast of cold wind engulfed me and the snowflakes glued immediately to my face and skin.
"I can't. I will freeze to death in minutes. I can't..."
Before I could complain further, his body became warmer and I could see the snowflakes turning into steam around us, melting right away into a foggy white aura. It was as if I sat into a car with the radiator warming me up.
"How?!"
"Mana control. I take little bits of mana from the nature and form a protecting barrier around us, that maintains my body temperature inside. How do you think I was thriving into this cold? I am not one that prefers this frozen northlands, but I'm not a stranger from them either."
"That sounds really amazing. Can I learn it, too?"
"I could teach you. It's one of the very few things that I'm really good at. Not many can do it... or need it."
Pyrope jumped over the edge of the balcony and in that moment I felt my stomach instantly traveling in my head. I squeezed my eyes shut, while clutching tighter on him, then the falling stopped and his wings unfolded.
"Stop screaming. You're deafening me."
I barely realised that I was screaming, until my throat started to feel sore. I opened my eyes, but the view was nothing I was expecting. I couldn't see anything other than fog and snowflakes all around us. It was like swimming through the clouds and that seemed to calm me down a bit, since I didn't feel threatened by a possible fall as I couldn't see anything below us. I started to get used even with the sinuous moves of his spine and wings. The dragon flew quite slowly and my stomach stopped bouncing to my brain. Even with his mana barrier, I could still feel the cool air currents, and that eased my nausea.
"Are you feeling better, now?"
"Maybe. Yes. Thank you. I think I am fine now because I can't see anything except fog. How can you fly without seeing? Aren't you afraid of crushing into something?"
He chuckled.
"No, because I am seeing everything around me. And even without my eyesight, I can still fly without troubles. I can sense the location of things and everything that comes to my direction about ten meters away from me."
"So... you have like... a biosonar or something like echolocation? You have some sort of bat power?"
"I am not sure what you're talking about. I am not a bat. I just feel the mana around me and its changings. Not many can reach such a high level of mana control like me. The strongest ones can't really learn it because they don't need to rely on the free mana, while the weakest ones don't have the patience to learn it because it requires lots of practice, which most of them lack... also, it's not like they can use it in their life to be worth learning. It takes too long for a human life."
"Is it that difficult?" I asked, already disappointed by the answer. No matter how patient I was, if my efforts were in vain, then I wasn't even interested in trying anymore.
"It is, but not impossible. Do you want to see what I see?"
"Uhm... how?"
"Did you forget already? I shared my blood and eye with you."
"You didn't say anything about my eye."
"Must've slipped my mind. Anyway, your wound was bad. There was no eye for me to save, so I gave you mine."
Pyrope said that as if it wasn't a big deal, but I just couldn't comprehend how was that even possible.
"That doesn't make any sense. The size of your eye couldn't have fitted into my eye socket. And how could the nerves be connected to my brain? That requires surgery... Also, it looks normal, not dragon-like..."
"You overthink and complicate even the simplest of matters. I reshaped one of my eyes to fit yours."
"What is that implying?"
Pyrope made a sound that resembled exasperation and I suddenly remembered that we were flying. That made my fingers clasp his horns even tighter.
"I took one of my eyes and cut it to a smaller size. My body regenerates and repairs itself... it comes with the immortality curse. I gave you my blood so I can trick my eye to accept your body and to attach to you..."
"Like... a parasyte?"
The dragon roared, his mouth ablaze, and started to fly faster.
"You are creepy. No, it's not like a parasyte. Just an eye to serve you and not be blind. You are so ungrateful. Did you wonder how I felt when I gauged my eye? Yes, I can heal myself, but that doesn't mean I can't feel the pain. I saved your life and you act like a scorpie!"
"What's a scorpie? A scorpion?"
He ignored my question, growling softly.
"I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to insult you. I just... can't seem to find the right words. In my world we don't have magic or dragons... except in stories, and the healing is way different. I will probably say more stupid things, but don't let that bother you. I try to understand this new world, so don't expect me to..."
"You are also very arrogant. Even as you apologize... you just scolded me in fact that I got upset with you."
"Arrogant..." I muttered to myself, then the realization made me laugh.
"What's so amusing?"
"No one has ever told me I was arrogant."
"So that means you are arrogant now only towards me?"
"I'm not arrogant. I never encountered a situation where I could act without thinking before, well, except lately. Most of the time I just had to keep my calm and be polite even with people who were simply jerks. It was easier and immediately after finishing my shift for the day at the library I would forget everything about my job and just relax. Even with my fiance I acted that way... perhaps that's why I was so wrong about him. But you... you are the closest thing to what I would call a..."
"Call what?" his tone was genuinely interested.
"Nevermind," I whispered, thinking about my recent experiences and being suddenly afraid to call someone a friend. "Anyway, where are we going?"
I looked around and something strange started to happen. It's like the fog cleared away or became thinner and thinner. I gazed mesmerized at the mountains that flushed in soft hyacinth hues that seemed to glow beneath the snow. The sense of the distance seemed to warp into my head between further and close, foggy and clear, until I couldn't keep up anymore. I saw that Pyrope followed the course of the river that looked like liquid diamonds turning into solid ones.
"What am I looking at?" I whispered fascinated, but I felt like my head was spinning and my vision was oscillating between images.
A wave of nausea hit me when I started to get a grip on the height we were flying and my fingers started to feel like thousands of ice needles were crawling under my skin. A sharp coldness enveloped my head and stomach, making me vomit.
"What on..." began Pyrope, but seeing the situation he made a turn at an impossible angle for me to hold onto his back without harnesses. My arms went numb and I fell. It was like everything was happening in slow motion.
I knew I was falling, but even my feelings were too numb to react. As I fell, my hearing faded, my head filled with a sharp whistling, my vision was blurred by the fog and the snowflakes, and I gradually felt the biting cold.
Pyrope pierced like an arrow between the clouds of fog, catching me into his hands.
"You try to get rid of me?"
"I would've got more creative than that, if I intended to get rid of you."
Still shaking, I closed my eyes, trying to control my breath and regain my senses. My fingertips and my toes still stung. It was the same reaction I had when I looked at tall buildings or I was on the rooftop of one.
"What the..."
Before I could ask what happened, I felt my bladder relieving and, unable to cope with the shame, I started to cry, as I felt my face burning.
"Seriously? You are crying because you pissed yourself? And you literally pissed me off..."
At his words, I covered my face with my hands, although I could tell the dragon was amused.
"Shut up!!! I'm already at the bottom of my dignity, let me save some face and forget this ever happened."
I sobbed and my tears mixed with snot, pouring down his hands.
"I suddenly feel like I have a baby in my care. Do you feel like you have something else to release? Like a shi..."
"Just throw me already!" I yelled at him, before he could utter another word. "You insensitive lizard!"
"Forgive me, bratty human. I was rude. But... does it happen often?"
"No!!!" My mind immediately conjured the recent events that made my bladder lose control twice before. "Not normally. It's because I went through hell recently, and I haven't got out of it yet. I told you I was afraid of heights."
"Then stop being afraid."
"That's easier said than done."
"I wonder how you survived this long."
I refused to reply. I was way too embarrassed. The awkward silence that followed was broken by the raging sounds of water. Pyrope was descending towards rocky cliffs in the middle of the river. As he was holding me above the rapid waters that came from the subterranean caves of the Amethyste Mountain, the waters were almost howling and they looked like boiling in the narrow rocky banks, creating whirlpools while crushing on the sharp cliffs that were emerging from the deep like ashen purple fangs. Despite the snow that fell for hours, the river, although freezing cold, wasn't frozen at all. My fear spiked on a whole new level.
"The water level is rising," said Pyrope, sniffing around. "When it reaches the peak, all these sharp rocks are completely covered."
"And...?"
"You said that those who tried to kill you went with a ship through the underground caves. That's beyond risky. The water that accumulates at the top of the river, up in the mountain, can inundate the whole cave system like a deluge, in minutes. A ship caught in there will have little chances of survival. If the water pushes it, surely will be crashed into these rocks. Even the most powerful mages don't dare to mock the river's fury."
"And why are we here?"
The question froze on my lips, as I saw what the dragon was looking at, and, despite the cold, my blood started to boil with rage.