Remove ads

Spread your wings.

Reader mode
Remove ads
35
  • Threadmarks
    • Something stirred me from my sleep.

    Movement.

    Someone was removing the bandages wrapped around my head.

    "Easy, young one." a female voice said right in front of me as she finished removing the bandages, "Soon you will be fine."

    "Who..." I started to ask, pulling from her grasp.

    She tightened her hold on my snout, "Still, young one." she commanded and there was pain as she pressed a hand between my eyes for a second before a warm... comfortably burning feeling covered my head.

    I snarled and tried to pull away but she didn't let me.

    The burning feeling faded away slowly and I suddenly felt drained, collapsing against her hold.


    She gently put my head down in the grass, "Open your eyes."

    My eyes?


    My eyes fluttered open and I quickly closed them again against the light!

    I could see.

    I quickly opened my eyes again and turned towards my healer. She was kneeling by my head, a smile on her lips.

    She also looked to be about two and a half meters tall when standing up, not counting the half meter long horns on her head.

    Oh and she was mostly naked, wearing what seemed to be a actual chainmail bikini and a red cloak, matching her long red hair.


    I've never met her before. Never seen her before. But I knew who it was from Kalecgos descriptions of the other Aspects.

    "Alexstrasza." I said softly, "You healed me."

    The Dragon Queen smiled softly and nodded, scratching gently behind my second horn, "Your friends got a message to the blue dragonflight a couple of days ago. Kalecgos asked this of me as a favor to him. I accepted." she said.

    I looked up at her in surprise but I was barely able to lift my head.

    The disguised dragon must have seen my unspoken question because she smiled again, "You got your injuries stopping The Legion from returning. How could I refuse to help if all you needed was some healing?"

    Healing.

    "Venir.. she..." I started and the Dragon Queen put her hand on my snout.

    "Relax, Atregos. Your mortal friends are well. It have been over two weeks since the battle. She have already healed fully. They are currently waiting at the inn, I asked them to leave us during the healing."

    "Thank you... I am in your debt, Alexstraza." I said softly, struggling to raise my head again.

    She raised her eyebrow, "I think not. I just repaid our debt to you."

    I sighed and let my head drop again, not bothering to ague the point. I couldn't find the energy. "So weak."

    "Well, You haven't eaten for over two weeks." she said with a chuckle, "Luckily, I have had some experience in these matters." she said and gripped my snout in her armored hand, turning my head to see a dead deer laying on the grass next to me.

    I sniffed the air. Oh that smelled good.

    Shakingly I struggled onto my paws, turning towards my meal as The Dragon Queen smoothly got onto her feet, "I will return to inform your friends about your recovery." She said and then smiled again, "I am opening a portal back to Wyrmrest Temple tomorrow. If you and the mortals wish to return with me, you should be ready to go then. Now eat. Gather your strength. We will talk more once we returned to Northrend."

    She didn't need to tell me again and I tore into the dead deer like I hadn't eaten in two weeks.



    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX



    "Venir!" I exclaimed as I saw the group approach.

    Sheildforest was towering over the rest, a full head taller than Venir's horns. Sheila walked along, wearing a pair of green robes instead of her normal white ones.

    Venir was wearing her normal black leather pants but her chest armor had been ruined so she had replaced it with a simple white fabric blouse.

    I quickly pulled back from my meal and bounced over in a burst of energy, almost knocking her over as I bumped the side of my head against her chest.


    Venir grinned and put her arms around my head, hugging me, "I'm so glad you are better!" she said with a smile.

    "Thanks to you. You sent a letter." I said and laid down to bring me more to a level with her, "I was so worried about you."

    She sighed softly and released the hug, stroking my head between my eyes, "I just sent a letter to Targos, telling him what happened. You were hurt worse than I was."

    "You almost died!" I answered, raising my head to look down at her.

    Venir glared up at me, giving my nose a hard bop, causing me to jerk back, "So did you, you stupid lizard! I've already lost too many friends! Don't you are do that again!"

    I chuckled and leaned down, giving her a big lick across the face, "No promises."

    "Oh ick!" Venir laughed and stepped back, looking down at her previously white shirt. The front was now covered with blood, "Oh ick!"

    Sheildforest chuckled and shook his head, "Well, we did interrupt his meal. It is good to see you well again, Atreus."

    "That was quick thinking with the Ogres." I said, giving the elf a bump on the shoulder with my snout, "Thank you."

    "No licking." he said but patted the side of my head.

    Not on your life, elfy.



    AN// Old Soul is the one to be thanked for betaing this section.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Best Druid EVER! Turning a nearwipe into an escape by drawing an aggro train of enemies that are also hostile to your current opponents into the fight? Awesome.
     
    Fluffy said:
    now that you put it like that, it sounds like that could be a situation from an actual wow raid
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Pretty sure game mechanics won't let you do what he did, between issues with transfering aggro and the fact that he pulled dudes from outside the dungeon into it. But then, this fic has been ignoring mechanics a lot, given that the chunky salsa rule, dragon corollary is in full effect.

    For the unaware, the chunky salsa rule is from Shadowrun: Anything that would reduce a characters head to the consistency of chunky salsa is instantly fatal, no matter what the dice say. (Does not apply to actual dragons, they can do shit with Edge/Luck that PC's can't do, up to and including surviving a megaton nuke going off inside them.)

    The dragon corollary is as follows: Any hit to the head or torso of a humanoid from a dragon will invoke the chunky salsa rule. Any hit to the neck or head of pretty much anything from a dragon will invoke the chunky salsa rule.

    See: Every single fight that Arteus closes to melee in ending essentially the instant he lands a hit.
     
    Lirana said:
    Well, if your great idea was to pull a whole bunch of big and nasties into an enemy faction town or something like that, it should still work.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Reminds me of something Captain Hat told about on the SB Meetup earlier this year.

    Involved a Zombie RPG, Gurnsey and drawing mutants and zombies into a camp of raiders...
     
    36
  • Threadmarks
    • "So what now?" Sheila asked as she sat with her back against a nearby tree by the small campfire.

    We were all gathered outside for a 'team meeting' around a campfire. It was nice of them to include me, they could just as easily have had it in the inn.

    Venir rested with her back against my shoulder as I rested my head on my front paws, while Shieldforest was sitting with his legs crossed on the opposite side of the fire from me.

    Now that I was actually awake, able to both think and see, I had noticed that my armor was missing.

    No idea where it went and I didn't really care. My satchels were safe in any case.

    Venir sighed. "I don't know." She said softly. "I don't really..."

    I turned my head to look up at her, giving her knee a bump with my snout. She smiled softly and scratched behind my left eye.

    "What do you want to do?" I asked softly as I looked up at her.

    She was silent for a long moment before she spoke up. "I want to go home."

    "Then you should." Shieldforest said and nodded. "I am also weary of continuing in this line of work. Perhaps it is time to return to Moonglade."

    Sheila crossed her arms and frowned, looking down at the fire in thought before she nodded. "With the rewards for stopping the 'Cult of Embers', we do have enough each to settle down if we wish. Perhaps... it would be nice to stop the fighting."

    I nodded and asked, "Settle down doing what?"

    Venir moved her scratching to behind my nose horn. "I do have enough to start up the shipping company. Not enough to purchase even a small ship for it, but enough for a starting capital for ordering cargo. Maybe I'll start a company up in Stormwind."

    "Not Exodar?" I asked and she shook her head.

    "Stormwind is the hub of the Alliance. Exodar is on the wrong end of the world. While it would be nice, it wouldn't be practical."

    Sheila nodded. "I'm not sure what to do, actually. Maybe I could teach Enchanting in the Mages Quarter. I never tried teaching before and I did enjoy helping you, Atreus." she said before she turned to look at Shieldforest.

    The elf shrugged. "It is about time I go back to teach as well. Over time, in fact... I was recalled to Moonglade years ago. I have been... putting it off."

    "What about you, Atreus?" Venir asked as she looked down at me.

    What about me?

    What would I do now?

    I couldn't come with Venir, not if she was heading back to her village and then to Stormwind. I couldn't keep Sheila company either, even if she was willing to have a dragon follow her around. She was also going to Stormwind.

    The elf?

    No. While friendly, we weren't friends. Not like with the others. I had been closer to... the Gnome.

    Suppressing the urge to growl at the memory, I shifted my wings. "The best choice for me is to return to Northrend with Alexstrasza tomorrow and then back to the Nexus to continue my education."

    "So this is where we all split up, huh?" Sheila said and sighed. "It was... a good group."

    "For the most part." Shieldforest added, poking the fire with a stick.

    We stayed in silence for a long time after that, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I didn't spend that much time with this group, just a little more than a month.

    But... I liked this time. In retrospect, other than that bloody swamp, it was nice.

    Fuck it all. I was going to miss it.

    "Would you like a partner?" I asked and looked up at Venir. "As it turns out, I have suddenly come into a bit of money and I am looking for an investment opportunity. I'm afraid I will be unavailable for day to day operations though, so the decisions and responsibilities will fall to you."

    She blinked and then looked down at me in surprise. "Really?"

    "When we traded, you did have a keen eye for business from what I saw. It was outside circumstances that caused all the problems. I see no reason this would not work out... besides, a larger starting capital causes the profits to start rolling in faster, correct?"

    "In theory." She said. "Are you sure?"

    I nodded. "I am. What am I going to do with the money at this time? I hunt my food. But I may require it in the future. It seems like a good idea to have my money work for me."

    "Thank you..." She said softly. "I'll do my best."

    I shifted my wings in amusement. "You may thank me with healthy yearly returns on my investments."

    "Can I get in on that as well?" Sheila asked. "I mean... Atreus has a good point. I don't need this much money to find a place to live. If I can get the rest working for me, that seems like a rather good idea."

    "If everyone else is getting into this, perhaps I could as well?" Shieldforest said. "It was a rather large reward. I would be willing to invest half into this venture."

    "What... you all want to..." Venir said, looking surprised. "I mean... yes! W-we need to draw up contracts of course. Make it all notarized and legal."

    "You know where to send mine." I said and gave her leg a nose bump. "Going to miss you." I said and glanced at the other two. "All of you."



    AN// All the thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. This is the last part of this arc so this is a proper time to take a break from it. Tomorrow, we continue with the sequel to 'Not Quite SHODAN'.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Hiver said:
    Tomorrow, we continue with the sequel to 'Not Quite SHODAN'.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I'm simultaneously disappointed that this is being suspended and really fucking excited that Not Quite SHODAN is being continued. AI SIs have a tendency to be OCPs for the insertee universe, and butterflies are always fun.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top