Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Archaiphage ❯ Dragon and Kitsune ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Dragon and Kitsune

"We've been wandering around these woods since sunrise," Eita said. "Where did Thielos say this thicket was?"

"Around here somewhere," Rystard snapped back. "And, no I can't give you any more details than that. I say we light a fire and see what happens."

"Don't you dare!" Kuen said. "That would hurt all the animals that live here."

"I wasn't serious... besides, all this green wood wouldn't burn at all well... er, hello..."

They had seemed to materialize out of the brush in front of them. Five kitsune with rather large polearms -- pointed squarely at Rystard's chest. "Cast a spell, human, and you will be quickly separated body-from-spirit," the lead one said in accented but still understandable voice.

Eita took a close look at them. She had seen a few kitsune merchants in town, but they usually did their best to blend in with the crowds of humans. Here was her first chance to see them in their element.

They were about human-sized, with straight black hair worn down. A pair of pointed, hair-tuffed ears was positioned a bit higher on their heads than human ears. Their eyes were paler shades of gold, amber, green and blue. They wore simple shirts and loose pants of silk -- colored brown with green sashes holding the shirts closed. They were barefoot, with dark finger and toenails that were pointed, like claws. Eita could see their tails -- with the same color hair as their ears -- twitching behind them.

"I wasn't going to, really!" Rystard said, his hands held to his sides, like an invisible rope was binding them there. "I just wanted to get your attention!"

"You have it. Speak." The middle figure, a female with brownish ears and yellow eyes, spoke. She alone had a copper bell tied to her belt sash with a silk rope.

"Some time ago, a human came into your camp, gravely injured," Eita said. "Your healer tried to diagnose him, but was interrupted by a patrol of zendlo who took the human."

If the leader of the patrol looked surprised that Eita knew this, she didn't show it. "And what can you do for him, human?"

"We're healers, too." Kuen said. "We can help dispel the spell he was under."

"And why should we trust you?" One of the other guards asked. "A human put him under this spell. Why should a human take him out of it?"

"That's a lie!" Rystard said.

Eita held out a hand to silence him. "What Rystard means to say is that the zendlo did not directly cause the condition of your healer. He was engaged in a mindbond with the patient when the zendlo came in, and was unable to sever the spell."

"And how do you know that?" The other guard asked. "Unless you were in contact with them..."

"Um... well... that's a good question, actually..." Eita said nervously. Given what most people think they know about dragons, I don't think they'd accept 'the patient's dragon partner told us.' And they still have those polearms pointed at us...

"We were sent by the dragon Thielos Rotuchel," Kuen stated with all the matter-of-factness of a weather report. "The human who visited here was his chiera, Chosief Riit."

Eita rolled her eyes. "Kuen, they're going to think we're startouched if we tell them that! Heaven and Earth, I don't even know if I believe it, and I was there."

As one, the guards raised their weapons -- not to attack, but in a saluting posture. They knelt, eyes downcast. The patrol leader -- the female kitsune in the center with the bell -- bowed. "I see... if you are a messenger from Lord Rotuchel, then we must take you to the priestess. Follow me." The other four guards rose and drew around the trio, leaving them no choice but to follow the female kitsune.

"Lord Rotuchel?"

Eita wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but Kuen answered her. "The kitsune believe the dragons are personifications of the divine in the physical world. The fact we said we came form the dragon, and could give his name and identify his chiera means that we must be trustworthy people."

"I'll bet Iyar just loves that," Rystard commented.

"Well, it's not widely known... most people don't even see a kitsune outside of merchants trained to obey local customs," Kuen added.

"Really," Eita said. "How'd you come across the information, if I may ask?"

"Um... well... I happen to like dragons, and raided the libraries for info on them... it was tucked away in an old book," Kuen said quickly.

"I see..." Eita said. She was stopped from further questions by the halting of their honor guard.

The woods in front of them degenerated into a thick grove of bamboo and undergrowth. There was no way anyone, not even the nimble-footed kitsune, was getting through.

The patrol leader untied the bell form her belt and raised it. She rang it five times, then gave a bark in her own language. There was an answering bark from inside the thicket. Then, almost as if it were fog being burned away by the morning sun, the image of the thicket dissolved into what looked like a small village. Most of the houses were built into the ground between tree roots of the large trees, with only doors peeking out. The streets weren't straight at all, but curved around the trees. Small, multicolored lights -- that almost looked like candle flames, but had no candle -- seemed to dance along lightweight strings mounted between bamboo poles along the streets.

The patrol leader stopped along one of those strings, and pulled out a pouch from inside her shirt. She removed a seed from it, then muttered a few words in her own language. The seed started glowing a brilliant green until it looked exactly like the lights on the string. She raised her hand, and the seed-light moved from it to the string. After a final command from the patrol leader, it took off racing along the string.

The patrol leader folded her hands, and assumed a relaxed posture, leaning against a nearby tree. "Now what?" Rystard asked.

"We wait," the guard leader said. "The priestess will see us at her convenience."

"Great... and I didn't even bring a book," Rystard leaned back against one of the bamboo poles, but jumped back as a seed-light, this one glowing white, ran down the string, down the pole, and onto the end of his nose.

The patrol leader laughed, and held out a hand for the seed-light to run onto. She held it up to her ear, where Eita thought she heard a whispered voice in the kitsune language emit from the small light. After the message, if that's what it was, the light dimmed. The patrol leader nodded, pocketing the seed. "That was very quick," she commented. "Shall we then?"

Eita nodded. "Let's go get this over with."

The patrol leader led them through the thicket. Eita had trouble keeping track of directions -- all of the doors looked the same to her and the footpaths and roads seem to have no pattern at all, cut around the trees. If we were to need to leave this place without our hosts, I better hope Rystard or Kuen has a surprise plan, Eita thought. I'm completely lost... I can't even see Sun, Moon or stars clearly.

The door they stopped in front of didn't appear to be distinct. It was made of the same earthen-colored wood as every other dwelling in the thicket. The kitsune patrol leader, however, stopped in front of it, indicating this was the final destination. She rapped on the door, and it creaked open. "Go on. The priestess will send for a guard when she finishes with you to escort you out."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Eita asked.

"It is not my business to know this. Besides that, I am still on duty," the patrol leader stole a glance back in the direction they had come. "I should not leave my post for as long as this may take."

Eita looked at her two companions. Rystard was looking down into the entryway with some skepticism. Kuen also looked nervous, but it was hard to tell if it was just her general nervousness or because of the situation. Why did we think this was a good idea again? Well... Kuen was going completely trancy over the dragon... if he told her to stare down a demons' nest, she probably would have. And Rystard... well, for him it seems like it's just a desire to annoy the zendlo... so why am I here? Why are I in an alien settlement, surrounded by guards with no moral objection to introducing intruders to their polearms in a personal way, about to go down to meet a priestess of some bizarre religion, sent by a large something with very sharp teeth? Why aren't I back at the wagon on the way to my internship now? She sighed. "We've come this far... might as well keep going," she said as she stooped to enter the open doorway.

The doorway led to a long, dimly-lit passageway, angled downward at a pretty steep grade. Lights similar to the seed-light messengers hovered near the ceiling. As Eita walked, they followed her. No wonder the kitsune are barefoot and have those claws... they would help them keep their footing in this tunnel. Especially with the low light. She batted away one of the hovering lights which had gotten too close.

Booted footsteps behind her showed that Rystard and Kuen had decided to follow her in. So I'm the leader now? Or at least when they've gotten themselves over their heads I am. They're perfectly fine when things are sunny and clear to do their own thing, and ignore anyone else, but when it's dark and cloudy, they follow behind me, like baby birds.

They came to an intersection in the tunnel after a bit -- Eita estimated they were a good 5 paces underground, as the worm digs. The lights turned, going to a side passage. So they don't just follow any living thing moving in these tunnels, Eita noted. She peered down the other passageway. Dark... and unless I had a torch or fireglass, or had rystard work up some spell, I wouldn't try to chance it... the kitsune know these tunnels better than me.

She turned down the tunnel... this one was level and straight. On the walls, she saw tapestries with what looked like words in a scratchy alien script woven into them. They room opened into a circular room with a high ceiling -- panes of green translucent material covered what had to be a ceiling open to the sky. The center one was open and a ray of sunlight shone down onto an ornately patterned wooden floor. Eita blinked with the sudden change of lighting, trying to get a look around. There was a stone hearth with a fire burning in it in one corner of the room, opposite the door, a pile of branches and herbs near it. On the other side of the hearth was a copper urn, a ladle hooked to one side.

"Welcome, travelers from the Lord Rotuchel." Eita almost hadn't noticed the kitsune woman standing in the center of the room, she had been so absorbed in taking in the contents of the room itself. She looked old -- every hair on her body, including ears and tail, were white and her face was a mass of wrinkles. However, she carried herself with the bearing and posture of a woman in her prime and there was no weakness in her voice. Her violet eyes were bright and met the gaze of each of them. She was wearing what appeared to be silk, as were the other kitsune they had seen, but, while the others had mostly favored the colors of the forest, her robes were a mixture of colors, seemingly shifting from one to another in the sunlight. "I am Hakkou. I suppose you would call me a priestess or a mage... I never quite understood how humans delineated things. Regardless of what exactly you call me, I am considered a leader in this community."

Eita nodded. "I suppose any of the rest isn't important right now."

"Yes. Now, I was only given the barest of details from Keya. You were spotted outside our community, and you claim to be sent on business from the dragon Thielos Rotuchel."

Eita nodded again. "That's right."

The priestess, Hakkou, moved over to an intricately-carved wooden cabinet standing by the door the trio had entered from. She opened it, removing several cushions. She set them down in the center of the room, and sat on one. She motioned for the three human to join her. Eita did so first, arranging her skirts carefully to keep them off the floor -- it looked clean and well-swept, but one never knew. Kuen joined her, resting her parasol across her lap, and, after a look from Eita, so did Rystard. "Tell me why you were sent," Hakkou said.

"Well, the dragon asked us to look after one of your people. His chiera... do you know that word?" Eita paused.

"We are familiar with the human Chosief Riit. He was often sent on business to us, if Thielos Rotuchel needed something from a kitsune. Go on."

"Well, a couple of weeks ago, chiera Riit visited this village. He was hurt and on the run from the zendlo. He was brought to your healer, who attempted... I'm sorry, the dragon wasn't clear on the spell he used."

The priestess was nodding as Eita spoke. "I remember what you speak of," the priestess said. "He was discovered by Keya's patrol, and collapsed before she brought him into the shrine. Concerned, she summoned the healer Mebari and myself. Mebari took one look at him, and demanded to know what happened. Keya didn't know. So Mebari used a spell to set up a mental link to chiera Riit.

"It was at that time that the zendlo appeared. There were six of them. They had dispelled the glamour around our community and had stilled the guards with their 'holy magic'. I demanded to know what was going on, and was told that chiera Riit was a dangerous tool of Mefisem-Tuke and that we were to surrender them to the Holy Order of Orihan-Chini at once so he may repent his allegiance to darkness. I told them that I didn't care who or what he was, while he was with out healer, they were not to be interrupted." She sighed. "When Keya and I came back into consciousness again, both the zendlo and chiera Riit were gone and Mebari had collapsed. Keya suggested going after the zendlo and taking chiera Riit by force, but by the time we all awoke, they were too far away for pursuit. We moved Mebari back into his chambers, but were unable to dispel his mental link with chiera Riit." She smiled wanly. "Our magic is much more suited to the mental plane. Mebari's mental link spell... the illusion that hides out communities from unwanted intrusion. The aspects of meta-magic -- altering existing spells -- are much more alien to us. One does not seek to alter that what is, one bends around it."

"That's why Thielos sent us," Kuen spoke up, her quiet voice seeming to echo in the large room. "Ferinan mages are taught to dispel magic... though he did ask that Mebari be brought to him. He seemed concerned."

"Between us and the dragon, we should manage to fix him up just fine," Eita smiled reassuringly.

"I pray that you do," Hakkou said. "I have been praying for Mebari. I have been his caretaker since he has fallen ill, and I must say, it is a terrible sight. He has yet to regain full consciousness, but he is often curled up in pain. It takes every bit of my willpower not to end his suffering... if an option to cure him hadn't presented itself, I would have had to. It is a frustrating feeling to know a creature is in pain, but there is nothing you can do. Come." The priestess stood up quickly, and started down the corridor, giving Eita and her companions little choice but to follow her.

Hakkou led them down the main downward-sloping hallway farther, to a wing containing a series of rooms. She entered one of them and knelt by a pallet. Eita peered over her shoulder to examine the patient lying there.

It was another kitsune, a male with golden ears. He would have probably been quite handsome were he conscious -- he had a well-proportioned face and looked like he had been trim and fit before his illness. He was huddled up against the wall of the chamber, the farthest from the door, and his eyes were clenched shut so hard that tears were forming in the corner. His breathing was shallow and strained.

"Hello, Mebari," Hakkou said gently, as if she were speaking to a child. "I've brought you some guests... some humans. They are going to help you get to Lord Rotuchel. He has offered to help you." She looked back at the three humans. "I don't know if he can even hear me when I speak to him. If he can, I hope that he can use my voice and a sort of anchor back into reality. If he can't... well, no one will admonish an old woman for her follies." She motioned to a stretcher by the door. "I suggest that two of you take him out on that. We can provide an honor guard to return you to Thielos Rotuchel's chambers. It is the least we can do. Many of us would rest guilt-free in our beds tonight if we know Mebari was once again fully here in this world. Many decisions were made that day, and it is far too easy to regret decisions made when viewed through hindsight."

Rystard and Kuen took the stretcher and laid it parallel to the pallet. "On three we lift?" Rystard asked. Kuen nodded. He gave the count, and the two of them carefully maneuvered the semi-conscious Mebari onto the stretcher. When Rystard tried to secure the restraints to hold him in the stretcher, Mebari let out a loud yowl of pain, and dug his claws into Rystard's hand.

Rystard jumped back, clutching his hand and swearing profusely. "How are we supposed to carry him up that slope if he won't let me secure him?" he demanded.

"Allow me," Hakkou told him. She started chanting softly in her own language. Mebari seemed to relax perceptibly, and slowly Hakkou secured him into the stretcher. "We have to do that to keep him fed.... I'm sorry I should have warned you."

"Yes, thanks for that," Rystard had removed some bandages and salve from his pack and was wrapping his injured hand up. "Eita, take the other end of the stretcher... I can't manage it with my hand."

The restraints prevented the agitated kitsune from being any more than a minor hindrance as they walked out of the underground shrine and back into the filtered sunlight of the woods. Hakkou quickly summoned the guards using another seed-light. She then addressed them. "We are going to need one of you to accompany these three healers to Lord Rotuchel's dwelling. Only one -- I refuse to leave this community unguarded or under-guarded for even a moment."

The patrol leader -- Keya, Hakkou had called her, Eita remembered -- stepped forward. She knelt at Hakkou's feet. "Priestess, I consider it my duty to accompany Mebari on his trip to Lord Rotuchel for healing."

Hakkou said something in her own language, which Keya answered in the same tongue. "Very well," Hakkou then spoke in Ferinan again, presumably for the benefit of the humans. "You may be the honor guard for Mebari. Go in peace."

"And you as well," Keya rose, bowing. She moved to the side of the stretcher. "Let us get started, shall we?" she looked at Eita.

"Right," Eita nodded.

Even with Keya willing to help carry the stretcher, the journey back was slow, and they were forced to camp about halfway to their destination. Eita readied the warding charms, placing them around the campsite. There were two types she learned -- the outer set of wards was designed to create an aura of disinterest in the area. The inner set, which covered anything that managed to penetrate the outer wards, were triggered to give an alarm if anyone crossed them. While she did that, Rystard and Keya started the fire and, once it was hot enough, prepared their evening meal. Kuen crouched by Mebari's stretcher.

"What are you doing, Kuen?" Eita asked, walking over after she finished casting the wards.

"I think he's hungry," she told Eita.

"Well, there's a not a bit of good the rest of us can do about it -- I don't think we know enough about the spell to interrupt it long enough to feed him," Eita told her. "If we were in a clinic with the proper equipment, we could try to set up a nutrient drip or something similar. As of now, his best hope is for us to get him back as soon as possible."

Kuen nodded. "Hey, cheer up," Eita told her. "He'll be on his feet in no time, with any luck." She sniffed the air. "Smells like Rystard and Keya have finished cooking supper. Why don't you go get something to eat?"

Kuen stood up and walked over to the fire. Honestly, how much hope does our patient have? I haven't the smallest idea of what spell he used on himself, or how it interacted with the torture and death of the mind he had tied his to. Who even knows if he has a mind left to free? I can't tell Kuen that -- she worries far too much. Best to let her think he has a chance. Eita stood up. Well, no sense in letting myself get cold and hungry. She walked over to the fire to see what Rystard made for supper.

Supper was all right -- Eita gave Rystard a hard time about an insect she found in her stew, and he quipped that it would give the stew extra flavor. They settled down for the night after supper -- their bedrolls and Mebari's stretcher circled around the fire. They didn't post a guard -- despite Keya's insistence, Eita pointed out that they would need to be well-rested to make it back before nightfall tomorrow, and that the wards would alert them in plenty of time to deal with any intruders.

Eita woke sometime in the night. Someone's moving around... probably had to relieve themselves or something. She decided to chance a look anyway, just in case of trouble. She opened her eyes and turned her head slightly.

She spotted someone crouched by Mebari's stretcher. Her eyes were having trouble focusing on the person -- they were sliding off, like water on oilskin. They didn't look like Keya, or Rystard or Kuen, though. Who's that? she wondered. She tried to get up, but her limbs felt drowsy and leaden. Her breathing quickened. This isn't good... her mind ran through the possibilities. The zendlo would be more obvious. The kitsune would have alerted Keya at the very least. The dragon... well, that's not a dragon, and he didn't appear to have more than the one servant. And whatever it was, it didn't break the wards. Breaking them would have set them off the alarm as sure as crossing them... unless the breaker was more magically powerful than the three of us. That didn't bode well at all. Either this person has friends, or they are something like a demon or vampire.

She tried to pull together enough willpower to override the lethe hanging over her limbs. She managed to sit up. The figure turned towards her. Eita couldn't make out detail in the darkness, but it looked to be female. "Hey, who's there?" she called out, perhaps unwisely. 'Who's there?' I could be starting a spell or yelling for the rest of the group or something, and I yell for the person to identify themselves? Idiot...

Whatever it was jumped at the sound of her voice. Almost tripping over its feet, it rose and stumbled off into the darkness. Eita stared after it in puzzlement. This gets stranger and stranger.

She tried to stay awake, but as the rush of adrenaline wore off, it left her feeling even more tired. She soon drifted back to sleep. When she woke up that morning, she was willing to dismiss it as a dream -- it didn't quite seem real. Certainly, as they were breaking camp, no one else mentioned it. The wards around the camp were completely undisturbed. Must have been stress or something, Eita thought. It was a weird dream.

"Is your hand better, Rystard? Could you take the stretcher today?" Kuen asked. "I didn't sleep at all."

"Just give me a second to make a harness or something," Rystard busied himself with some rope from his pack.

"Why didn't you sleep?" Eita asked. Maybe she'll be able to confirm or deny the dream.

"I don't know... I kept waking up," Kuen shrugged.

"You didn't see anyone else around camp, did you?"

"No... not at all," Kuen said. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." It must have been a dream... how embarrassing...

Thankfully, this day's walk was as uneventful as the last, and, as sunset colored the distant trees of the forest behind them, they drew near the lighting-struck tree marking the dragon's dwelling place. "We're here," Kuen said simply. The door opened up and they walked back down into Thielos's lair.

/Did you bring the healer?\ Thielos asked as soon as they rewached the main room of his dwelling.

Eita heard a sharp intake of breath from behind her as Keya saw the dragon. Her eyes went large and round. She froze.

The dragon noticed her. /Hello. You don't need to be afraid. Or to be awed... I'm a very informal person. Really, I am. I know I don't look it. It's the size, isn't it? Or the claws and teeth, maybe? It's hard to look relaxed when you dwarf your companions and look like you could eat them for tea.\

"Er... um... yes," Keya said nervously. /I see,\ Thielos nodded. /Well, maybe you would feel better if you slept for a bit -- you can use the sleeping chamber over there. See it? Good. You've had a long trip, after all, and you're not a spellcaster, are you? No? I didn't think so.\ He watched her scurry off. /I'm not sure which Mortal Species has a funnier idea about me -- humans who either think I want to eat them or corrupt them to evil, or kitsune who think I'm a divine being of some sort and are just as terrified of me.\

"Well, you're not exactly unimpressive," Rystard said. "You expect people our size to not be awed of a large predatory thing?' He shook his head.

"Let's just get started on the patient," Eita said. "I'm sure it wouldn't be good for Keya to be gone from her post for long."

/Of course.\

Kuen removed one of the dragons' books -- their textbooks were still on the cart and were probably in Rotuche by now -- and drew the dispelling circle. Rystard lit some incense -- nonmagically, as to save his energy up for the difficult spell ahead. Once the circle was drawn, Kuen moved over to the stretcher, where Eita was already waiting and they lifted it into the center of the circle.

/Undo the restraints,\ Thielos said.

"Last time one of us came near them, he clawed Rystard's hand up," Eita explained.

"You're the one with the tough skin -- you do it," Rystard set the incense in its holder, positioning it carefully, before moving to join the women. "I'm not going near him until his wits are about him."

/My claws really aren't suited for such delicate work,\ Thielos complained. He carefully slit the restraints with them, anyway. /Are we ready?\

"Yes," Rystard nodded. "All we need is the incantation." He sat down at the dragon's left, letting Eita take the right, and Kuen take the spot across the circle from Thielos. In unison, they began to chant.

Eita closed her eyes, letting her sense of the currents of energy -- a sense that had been carefully trained along with her recall of the spells and techniques themselves -- take over for her eyesight. She could see the energy for the spell coming off of her like moonlight. Kuen had a similar current coming from her. Rystard did as well, though his was tinged with the warm glow of a fire. Finally, Thielos under this sense looked even more impressive than he did by eye -- he glowed so bright it was like staring at the sun, and around him seemed to crackle lightning.

The spell itself on Mebari looked like a mirrored ball. It obscured the kitsune himself from this sense. Eita felt the combined magical energy leap out from them, probing the ball for weaknesses, any chink that would let it break the spell open from the inside, without harming the mind imprisoned in it.

Nothing... the spell wasn't designed to be broken form the outside, after all. Eita sighed. She felt the others' attempts fail as hers had. /We might have to risk brute force,\ Thielos said. /I would summon up your reserves. Eita, will you be the prime caster of the spell?\ Eita nodded. Being the prime caster meant that she would be in control of the spell's power -- the others would merely be in change of powering the spell.

She felt Rystard's and Kuen's energy add to hers, and she braided the strands together. She then set to sorting out what she could use from Thielos's energy -- some of it slid through the fingers of her mind and will like water and some of it she couldn't even grasp a hold of. She then sent this lance of energy to boring a hole in the spell.

It was like trying to cut through an iron pot with a spreading knife. Eita tugged a bit on the threads connecting the energy in the lance back to Rystard and Kuen, trying to get them to give her more energy. She felt Rystard lend her a little more, so she looked over to Kuen.

The energy around Kuen was agitated. The white energy of her magic swirled around her, occasionally forming gaps into which Eita could see something... something dark. What in Heaven and Earth's name is that? She tried to pull more at Kuen's thread of energy, to expose more of whatever it was that the quiet girl was hiding.

She must have pulled too hard. Kuen let out a cry, and withdrew all of her energy. Sighing, Eita canceled the spell. "Are you okay, Kuen?"

"Yes... yes..." Kuen nodded. She had fallen out of the circle. "Just a little tired. I overextended myself. I'm going to go lie down with Keya now. Excuse me." She stood up, dusting off her skirts, and walked into the other room.

Thielos sighed. /I was afraid it would come to this... there is no way we can breach this spell from the outside, even with your help.\

"So what would we have this unfortunate do?' Rystard demanded. "Starve to death? Lie here until he drops from old age?"

/There is a way... were he my chiera, I could use my not-inconsiderable force of will to end the spell from within. I have no idea if the ritual would penetrate the spell, though. And... there is another matter...\

"What is it?"

/Normally a chiera is asked willingly, without coercion. In this case... I cannot help but think coercion will be involved. Become my partner... or remain comatose. I do not want to have a relationship based on that.\

"The kitsune are entranced with you, though. Any one of them would jump to be your helper."

/That's not the point... he might have a mate... a child...\

"Neither of whom he'll ever be able to see again if he doesn't regain consciousness."

"Honestly," Eita said. "Thielos, Mebari would know what it entails, wouldn't he? Because he had the link with Chosief? So, you could maybe tell him we could take him back to Misho City -- the Mages there would almost certainly be able to break the spell -- or you could try this here."

Thielos considered it. /That would be an option, taking him back to the city, yes. I'll have to start the ceremony to speak to him, though. And it will take a while. Feel free to wait.\

It was hard to tell what was going on, save that Thielos's head was bent over Mebari, as if in prayer. As far as she knew -- she did sleep some that night, though the magic she cloud feel flying about was distracting and she swore she could hear faint chanting in an alien tongue -- the ritual lasted all night and Thielos was still at it when she awoke and managed to get Rystard to help her make their morning meal.

The four of them sat down at the table. Rystard peered over towards the still dragon. "How long does it take to cast a spell anyway?"

"It's a complicated spell, I suppose," Eita said. "It's not exactly like lighting the bread on fire, you know," she said as she munched on the burnt toasted bread.

"That wasn't my fault... the stove was cold and all the magic flying about made my spells misfire," Rystard said. "Besides, put enough preserves on it, and it tastes just fine." He demonstrated on his own.

"There's a wondrous little device called a flint... you should learn to use one. And leave some preserves for me!" Eita retorted grabbing the serving spoon.

"I think the spell's about to go off," Kuen interrupted. Eita looked over with her mind's eye. The aura she had felt about Thielos yesterday had enveloped them both -- it was even more blinding, forcing her to close down that portion of her mind and look with her eyes only. She saw Thielos raise a clawed hand, and use a claw to give himself a gash along his palm. He then maneuvered one of Mebari's hands free -- or perhaps the comatosekitsune moved it himself -- and gave him an identical wound. Then, he gently covered the wounded hand with his own. Bending close -- so close it almost looked like he was going to bite Mebari's head off -- he murmured -- in the same voice Eita had been hearing all night -- a final incantation in the strange, ancient, tongue of the dragons.

The magical energy released then was like an explosion had been set off -- even with her magic senses all but shut down, Eita felt it. She heard Kuen gasp.

Mebari, sat up, looking around. "Is that breakfast I smell?" he asked.