And I drove the syringe straight into Varen’s pupil in one motion.
I’d given injections hundreds—no, thousands—of times. But ramming a needle in like this was a first.
“Ngh!”
Thankfully, the finely honed needle punched into the dragon’s eye. I pressed the plunger and pushed the entire antidote in.
“Aaah—Varen, just a little longer!”
The crossbows were swarming as if to unleash a final barrage. The broad curtain barely kept us covered, but every time a bomb went off the dragon’s body shuddered.
There was no way to keep my balance. I flattened myself on Varen’s brow and, in a low crawl, worked my way to the other eye.
Then, the second syringe in hand, I lifted my arm high once more.
A rush of tangled feeling hit me.
Today truly hadn’t stopped for a second; I’d faced death more times than I could count.
At this point I felt neither fear nor terror. Only a grinding weariness.
I packed the truth rising from my center into my voice and shouted myself hoarse.
“Can we run now, please!!!”
Thunk—the second syringe punched through Varen’s eye. The blue liquid soaked straight into the dragon.
“Ngh... ghk....”
I tossed the empty syringe aside and, catching my breath, checked him.
Crossbows were still pouring down over the golden curtain in threat. The tower he clung to was a breath from collapse.
For all his mountain-sized bulk, the needle had hurt; Varen blinked fast. Each sweep of those long lashes made a low whumm of wind.
“Haa... Ceryl...?”
It was the same voice as a moment ago, but the feeling was clearly different.
Facing Varen finally back in his right mind sent a shiver through me.
“Varen, are you back? The situation—aaagh!”
A dragon with reason didn’t need my plan anymore.
Varen’s sea-blue eyes rolled fast, taking everything in.
And a split second before the crossbows from both sides hit, he went straight up.
Bang! KWA-BANG!
By a hair he slipped them, and the crossbows smashed into each other, doubling the blast. Where ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) Varen had been a heartbeat ago, only black smoke boiled.
Dodging was good—but with no warning, the dragon’s surge sent me tumbling.
“Hey, you little—!!”
“Kh—hold tight, Ceryl!”
I rolled down along his spine and scrabbled. Luckily, I caught the feathers running the ridge.
Perched awkwardly at the nape, I braced my legs hard.
So I wouldn’t fly off a dragon doing aerobatics.
“Damn—my wing...!”
So that was why his flight felt shaky: the big hole in one wing.
At his voice I slit my eyes and looked down.
The magic weapons were still dogging us like ballistic missiles. Varen twisted and juked, but there were too many to shake them all.
I wrung out the last of my strength and ransacked my memory.
The rooftop crossbows moved without humans. And the bolts kept auto-reloading.
“Ugh—Varen! You have to break the tower! Take that out or this never ends!”
At my words Varen flicked a glance to fix its position.
Then he folded the wings tight to his body. Like stomping the accelerator, he rocketed straight up.
He was so fast I felt I’d lose my grip on the feathers if I relaxed for a second.
“M-m-m, mm....”
The white snake couldn’t handle the acceleration and burrowed into my chest, making a strange noise.
Once he had altitude to spare, the dragon hung motionless in the open sky. Then he flung his golden wings wide again.
Human-made weapons, at best, couldn’t keep pace with a Dravergh. Varen glared down at the crossbows still far below and opened his jaws wide.
“KRAAAAAH!!!”
It was a different thing entirely from the indiscriminate flame he’d spewed without reason.
An attack with a clear purpose struck true and hard at its target.
Clustered together from chasing Varen, the crossbows couldn’t punch through the dragonfire.
Bang! KWA-KWA-KWANG, bang!
Dozens of bombs went off at once, chaining explosions that shook the sky.
The sound was like it would rip my eardrums, but I had no hands to clap over them. I only ducked my head and endured.
“KRAAAAH, KRAAAH!!!”
With the homing bolts all burned down, Varen breathed fire once more.
This time at the tower. The stone structure, already collapsing floor by floor, crumpled pitifully under a single blast of dragonfire.
Hundreds of great stones avalanched down. The rooftop crossbows were crushed under the rockfall.
Nothing threatened the dragon anymore. Even so, Varen didn’t stop breathing fire.
“I’ll kill every human who took Ceryl from me!”
Even in that, I couldn’t help thinking—why does he say it like that.
I shook the feathers in both fists like reins and yanked his attention back.
“Varen—cough—that’s enough. Stop... stop now.”
Even tucked in behind him, I couldn’t take the near-molten heat pouring off him.
A dragon’s body temperature climbed without end when he breathed fire.
I was plastered to him because I didn’t want to fall, but at this rate I was going to burn.
“Ceryl! Are you all right!”
The good boy cut the flame at once at my word.
He twisted his long neck this way and that to try to see me behind him. But I was right on the nape, so it didn’t work.
Right on cue, my consciousness was dimming.
My grip on the feathers went slack; the lower body I’d cinched tight was seizing with cramps.
“Ha... catch me... a sec....”
All the tension let go, and my limbs went limp. Sliding down his trunk, I was caught in Varen’s foot—dainty for his size.
Unlike the trunk that had simmered with heat, his pads weren’t that hot.
I could never call them cool, but by comparison they were a relief.
Cradling me with care, Varen closed his toes softly.
“Ceryl, focus. Are you all right.”
“Uh... uh-uh, no. Not all right....”
At my words, the blue eyes looking straight at me glossed wet.
The dragon who’d looked like he’d burn the world a moment ago showed a weak face, and laughter slipped out of me on its own.
A creature the size of a mountain was acting cute.
“Ha... I really thought I’d die this time.”
“Me too. I thought you were dead.”
At a hundred meters up, the air was quiet. Varen held altitude with slow beats of his wings. It felt like we were just floating.
I let my body go slack inside the dragon’s pads and let out a long, long sigh of relief.
Everything today felt like a dream.
After a short charge, I peered at Varen’s face with tired eyes. Meeting the worry surging in his gaze made me remember what I’d forgotten.
“Varen, did it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt. That kind of weapon....”
“No, the injections I put in your eyes.”
It was silly to ask a dragon who’d taken countless bomb-blasts if a needle hurt.
But my hands had done it, and it stuck in my mind.
“Sorry. I’m usually good at making shots not hurt, but I wasn’t exactly composed back there.”
“Ah....”
Varen let out a low breath.
He lowered his eyes for a moment to pick his words, then looked straight at me again.
“It hurt.”
A transparent bit of theatrics. The blue eyes telling the lie trembled, just a little.
But right now I wanted to indulge even the obvious babying.
Still in the dragon’s grasp, I spread both arms wide.
“If it hurt, I’ll hold you.”
With a face sagging from fatigue, I gave him a crooked grin. Varen brought his brow to me.
When the familiar dragon skin touched along my body, I could finally breathe.
“Ha... now I can live.”
The dragon against me was still hot—and below us, the forest still burned.
But there was another heat.
I squinted and turned my head; the sun was slanting down in the west.
Common sense says temperature drops with altitude.
But the fantasy weather of a world that ignores physics made me laugh again.
“Wow—are we hotter just because we’re closer to the sun? That makes no sense.”
When I smiled at the red dusk, Varen’s gaze went there too.
He stared at the sun a moment, then looked back at me.
“Ceryl Aylos.”
Called by my full name in a voice low and settled, I met his eyes.
More serious than ever, his gaze was full of certainty.
“I will never lose you again. I swear it by that sun.”
Instead of the scorching heat that burned the ground, a soft, warm breeze flowed. The wind tossed my black hair.
Varen lifted his free hand and carefully stroked my head. He seemed to be trying to smooth my hair, but one dragon finger was bigger than my skull, so it didn’t go as he wished.
Maybe that bothered him—his brow creased. The delicacy at odds with his size brought an easy, good laugh to my mouth.
“Ahaha, okay. Don’t lose me. It was too hard without you.”
He looked at me in silence, then pressed his brow to mine again.
My right shoulder ached, so instead of spreading my arms I met his forehead with mine.
“Ceryl, I won’t let you be in danger again. I’ll burn the world if I have to, to protect you. I swear.”
I should have told him not to burn the world—but right now I didn’t want to.
Behind us the sunset was unhurried, and the noises of the earth didn’t reach.
It felt like there were only two beings left in this world—Varen and me.
