An Unexpected Companion

[Bones]

"Are you sure we're going the right way, we've been on this path for what feels like days. Why didn't you just fly us there?" A small pale blue dragon asked from the comfort of being wound atop the males' broad shoulders. Letting out a sly chuckle, the creature known as 'Bones' reached up and patted the tiny dragon's head a few times to ease any sense of discomfort. Still, however, he said nothing as he continued to put one foot in front of the other. His face had returned to a battle-hardened grimace. Upon noticing this the dragon let out a sigh and lowered her head back down into his shoulder inwards of his chest peck. "I see you're still in a mood." She assessed. "Shadow you're fine...." She whispered low enough to let it be known that she had felt this way.

After walking for what seemed to be about another day he came to a stop as he could sense through his heightened sense that they were getting close, he could hear laughter and just pure joy. Assuming they were near a town of some sort he stopped and let out an exasperated sigh and found the nearest oak tree filled with some sort of magick and took to it. He leaned his back against it propped one foot onto the tree and crossed his arms. His eyes glistened over ever so slightly as he began to peer into the distance as to see if he could see into the town from where he was. He wasn't quite sure about this particular task that he was on, but one thing was for sure; he had no intentions of getting into any messy situations of any kind.

Pulling his eyes away for just a moment he looked down with just his eyes and saw that his companion was fast asleep and smiled for just a moment. "Thank you, old friend." His tone was somewhat mockish. "I heard that," muttered the tiny dragon. Returning his sight back to the city he allowed his eyes to soar as if he were up close and personal searching, as he spoke, "The gem has to be here. I've checked everywhere but here."

[Eloisa]

The sun shone on Eloisa's face from the open window of what used to be her bedroom, the lawns were overgrown and the gardens were well past due for a tidy-up. She had long since given up on tending to them. It had been a year since the passing of her parents, and the house had started to come to disrepair and none of the other people of her village wanted to disturb the house.

With a sigh she rose and dressed, the clothing becoming increasingly baggy on her as her figure became more frail. Her first thought was for food, she could cook, rudimentary food but not enough to sustain her for long and the ingredients that her parents had stored had long run out. That caused another sigh, she hated begging and even more, stealing, but she needed to eat, to at least sustain the small amount of life she had left to her.

With a small satchel, Eloisa left the house and headed for the market square. A loaf of bread would feed her for a few days; she just hoped she could snatch one without anyone seeing her. The walk to the market square was short and she arrived after 5 minutes, the smells of the market assailed her nose and she closed her eyes for a moment to breathe in the smells of freshly baked bread, fresh fruit, and vegetables, the dirt of the roads and the fresh air around her. Her feet began walking before she realised and when she opened her eyes she was standing in front of the baker's stall. The man behind the stall smiled at her and offered her a round loaf. "I'm sorry sir, I cant pay for this." Again he smiled and offered the loaf, Eloisa took it in her hands, a humbled look on her face, "Thank you, Sir." Placing the loaf in her satchel she started back towards the house.

[Bones]

A cloth stall, a wine stall; his eyes continued to search through the city's entertainment still to no avail. Feeling a sharp pain in his eyes his sight snapped back like a rubberband causing him to hiss. "Still haven't recovered from the last extravaganza have you?" Asked his tiny friend. "I'll be fine" he replied as he pulled a hand to hold his face, closed his eyes, and tried to relax. Taking a few more deep breaths he pulled his hand down and looked once more

Soaring through the crowd like an invisible snake, his vision returned to the spot it had left off from and continued to go even further. A jewelry stall was thoroughly searched yet still wasn't what he sought. At the bread stall a small frail girl seemed to have received a loaf of bread. "Wait a second," he whispered as he continued to look past her, and almost immediately behind her was a small group of mercenaries, one seeming to be wearing a necklace with a gem that only lit up underneath a certain gaze. "Got you."

The tiny dragon better known as 'Lady' lifted her head and looked up at him. "Wait, are you serious?" She asked but was given her answer once he crouched and launched himself forward. Moving through the crowd in almost a mist-like manner only to stop in front of the small group of men. "I believe you have something that belongs to me," eyeing the necklace. The male looked down at the necklace and then laughed but his laugh was cut short as Bones reached up and took the male by the neck and removed the piece of jewelry from his neck tossing him to the side with ease and now scowling at the rest of the entourage whom all seemed to be wearing fear upon their face.

Turning he looked over his shoulder to see the small frail girl in what could only be described as rags, he turned to threaten the men once more before turning and beginning to follow her from a distance. Surely she'd be heading somewhere less obvious so perhaps he'd find somewhere near there to hide out for a spell while he figured out what exactly he was meant to do with his new trophy.

[Eloisa]

Eloisa took her time walking back towards the house, she wanted to savor the feel of the sun on her face. The satchel bumping against her hip as she walked reminded her of the meal she could have that day. Her mind wandered so she didn't notice at first that someone was walking behind her, far back enough not to be a threat but close enough that she could still sense him. She refrained from turning to see who was following her. She didn't like people and her heart was already pounding in fear. Her pace quickened slightly, she could see her house getting closer in the distance and she needed to get there quickly.

What seemed longer than possible, she reached the gate to her house. Her hand trembled as she pushed it open and almost ran to the door. Throwing open the door, she rushed inside, closing it quickly behind her as she slid her back against it to the floor. Her small frame shook as she clutched the satchel to her and hoped that whoever followed her had kept going past and would not stop at her place.

She crawled towards the kitchen and under the large table, pulling her loaf of bread out of the satchel and breaking off a small chunk to nibble on as she waited to see what happened next, her heart rate slowing as she filled her belly with the soft fluffiness of the bread.

[Bones]

Still following the small child as they came upon what was a rather decent size home, he noticed that she'd quickened her pace a bit. He chuckled a little as he realized that he'd been found out. "Smart little cookie aren't you." Slowly dropping back he watched from his peripheral as she made her way inside. Continuing to walk past the home so as to not spook her any further, he cut a nearby corner and looked around making sure that he was alone in the alley before leaping using his genetic muscles and landing atop a nearby unoccupied home close by. Walking to the edge he looked over down to the home in which the child had entered. "What're you doing?" Asked the tiny dragon. "Quiet you, and go back to sleep."

Peering off to the side a bit he could see that the mercenaries from earlier were making their way down the road. They appeared to be going from home to home clearly searching for him. He growled low and uttered a few swear words. "Don't even think about it. You got what you came for, we need to leave before they call for more." Demanded the dragon. "I'm not just going to leave her to incur their wrath because of me," he barked back.

Jumping and landing atop the home that he'd seen her go into; he landed with a small thud; he was a bit heavy in stature he was a dragon after all. Licking his lips he watched and waited as he saw them poise themselves to enter. Reaching up to his neck allowing the dragon to coil around his arm he took her and lowered her down into a nearby open window. "Find her and get her to safety. I'll deal with them." She squealed quietly in protest but did as ordered. Vanishing through the mist he went to work.

[Eloisa]

There was no sudden banging on the door and all seemed safe, Eloisa had finished the small chunk of bread she had torn from the loaf so she crawled out from under the table and put the bread away, and hung the satchel on the hook on the back of the door. While the man who had been following her had not seemed to enter the property, she could still hear a commotion down the road. Men yelling, swearing and women screaming, Eloisa wondered what was going on. A sudden thud on the roof almost made a scream escape her lips but she was able to contain it to just a small squeak, the fear from before quickly returning.

The commotion from down the road sounded closer now as if it was going from house to house, she dared not peek behind the curtains that covered the windows for fear she would be seen, she thought it was the man who had followed her. Closer still the commotion came until she heard the small bell tinkle that her father had put on the gate, whoever it was, they had just entered the property. Fear now set in more and on trembling legs, she moved towards the back of the house where the bedrooms lay, moving as if on autopilot towards her room where she fell to the floor and slid under her bed to hide. Her small frame trembled and she tried not to whimper. They would surely be at her door by now, ready to smash it in.

Eloisa was not sure how long she lay there, waiting for something to happen, she was not expecting to hear soft wing beats and what sounded like someone or something cursing a man. She was not expecting to see a tiny blue dragon that landed on the floor and slowly turned until it was looking right at her. "Ah, there you are! come, we must leave, now." Eloisa stared at the dragon as it uttered words she could understand but still, she did not move, her ears could hear fighting outside now, she looked at the dragon who just stared back "Well? are you going to move or do I have to light a fire under there to get you moving? I was told to find you and get you to safety, so move!"

Eloisa slowly inched her way out from under the bed, she was not sure why the dragon had been sent to find her or get her to safety but she was more scared of it burning the house down if she did not move. "I, I just need my things from the front room." On wobbly legs, she moved to the kitchen and grabbed her satchel, the door flexing but not opening as if something landed heavily against it. She then scooped up the bread and any other small treasure and stuffed them in the satchel before moving back to the bedroom, the dragon was now sitting on the window sill of the open window. Eloisa climbed out after it, falling heavily to the ground with a small grunt.

[Bones]

For a good bit of time, Bones had been keeping the mercs at bay doing his best to make sure that nothing in the home was destroyed. Even having a bit of fun in the process. Though, he wondered where Lady was. Having been slightly distracted by the thought, one of them managed to somehow get the necklace that he'd taken from them before and make a run for it through the back door. His eyes quickly followed him and as he was about to give chase he was cut off by even more that seemed to have now entered the house. "Ugh, how many of you are there?" He growled low in his throat; quite a bit of irritation and frustration obvious through his tone.

Quickly grabbing one he picked the male up and ran straight for the back door, crashing into it. Taking the door off the entire frame at this point he saw Merc with the necklace just at the bottom of the stairs and not too far off from him was the little girl and lady. Yelling to Lady, "GO!" He sprouted his huge wings from his back and a dragon's tail. His horns manifested from his forehead and arched backward. "If I were you I'd give that back." He barked at them as more and more mercs came from the side of the house as well as the ones inside gathering themselves and walking up behind him.

Looking over his shoulder to them he growled and before returning his eyes to what was in front of him, "I'm not in the mood for this, nor do I have the luxury of taking it easy on you. So I'll say this just once, leave the necklace and the girl alone and I'll let you all off with perhaps a threat or at the very least only one broken limb." He searched around to see what had become of the Lady and the girl, if they were still there or if they'd done as he told them.

[Eloisa]

After falling out the window and landing heavily on the ground, she gave herself a moment to collect herself, pulling the satchel over her head, looking up in time as the back door burst apart and two men came rushing out. The colour quickly drained from her face as one of them started to change, barely registering his shouted word "Go!" her small mouth opened in a scream as the man sprouted wings, a tail, and horns.

The small blue dragon flew at her shoulder, forcing her to move, she stumbled a few times but she started running, running towards the forest, the safety of the trees. She did not stop, nor did she look back. She hoped the small dragon followed but either way, it didn't bother her, so long as she got away from the monster that man had become.

It felt like an age but she finally reached the safety of the large trees, her breathing coming in short gasps as her frail body struggled to get oxygen in. Branches tore at the rags she wore and roots tripped her up more times than not but still she kept moving, deeper into the forest until finally her body gave up and she stumbled once more, falling unconscious in a pile on pine needles and leaves.

[Bones]

Seeing the girl run off he turned his attention down to Lady as she hesitated. As he tilted his head he could hear her hiss at him in protest but never the less she took after the girl. Once they were out of sight he turned to the men and made a mess of them. Still, he took every bit of care not to damage the property too much; after all, it was indeed his fault that they were there in the first place.

Once enough of them had been dealt with with, the others being left running away in fear he slowly began to dissipate his transformation wings, horn, tail, and all. He stretched and flexed a bit due to feeling discomfort from the form and suddenly remembered the girl. "Fuck...." He uttered as he took off on foot sprinting into the forest. Using his vision as he'd done before he began to search for her. Picking up on the small footprints running through the forest.

It wasn't soon after a while that he'd lost the footprints and he came to a sudden halt causing him to slide against the soil beneath his feet. He looked around in search of the girl but to no avail, he hadn't yet found her. Growling low in his throat he felt a low rumbling from his inner cortex and threw his head back and looked up to the skies and was about to let out a dragon roar that would have surely been heard for miles to come. However, the tiny dragon had all but jumped down his throat to stop him from doing so. "Quiet," she demanded of him as he pulled her from his lips. "The girl, where is the girl?" he had asked.

Lady looked at the male for a moment and said nothing nor did she move until after a few ticks of seconds and then slowly turned her head backward and towards the ground. Revealing the location of the child that she'd somewhat buried in leaves like she'd been wearing a blanket. "I didn't know what to do. I'm not used to this.... babysitting thing so I hid her underneath the shrubbery." Smiling he petted the dragon on the head and, "Good job," he spoke in a condescending tone. Words were spoken as he walked over to the child, once there he took to one knee and removed the leaves and things from about her person and then caressed her cheek with his thumb before sighing. "We can't go back just yet. They'll be scouting."

Lifting the child into his arms and cradling her he made a clicking sound with his mouth while looking over his shoulder to Lady and she all but immediately returned to about his person as he began to walk with the child in his arms. "Where will we go?" asked the small dragon. "We're heading back towards town. I'm sure I came across an inn that we could hideout in for a spell." And so they walked for what seemed like hours until they finally made it to their destination. As he stopped outside, the dragon yawned, looked up at the building, and gave it a hiss. "You said an inn... this.... is FAR! from just an Inn," uttered the now clearly angry dragon. "Quiet" he demanded as he knocked on the door. His form changed once more but this time not his physical features; a cloak of some kind had suddenly appeared over his body hiding not just who he was but the dragon and the girl too as well. The cloak had a hood which he was also wearing.

After another knock a woman opened the door and you could hear laughter, music, and some light moaning here and there. As the woman answered the door she hadn't looked at him as she'd asked," What's your poison before looking at him." Only when she'd turned to face him did she give out an overly exasperated sigh. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" she'd asked and suddenly he began to speak in a dragon tongue, "Just a few days and I'll be out of your hair." is the translation of what he'd asked. The woman sighed and began to rebuttal and before she could even get the full sentence out he moved the cloak just barely enough to show the child. Sighing once more as she contemplated, she eventually spoke back to him in the same tongue that he'd done. "Fine, you have a week.... and then after that you owe me."

After being led inside, and a few eyes around the room catching sight of the fairly large male being led upstairs and eventually to the room at the top of the building which was rather large in stature and had everything you would expect it to have. Once there he laid the child on the bed and tucked her in before removing the hood walking back to the door and speaking with the woman from before, "Who is she?" she asked and without even looking at her he responded "We don't ask questions like that remember?" he returned. "Besides the obvious question you want to ask is if she's mine, the answer is no. She's a stray that roped into my misdeeds." Giving one more look to the girl and then to Bones, who at that point still had yet to take his eyes off the child; she sighed and began to move away from the room; but before she did she reached up and placed a hand on his bare chest. "I'll bring up a platter for the gods. She looks like she could do with a decent meal." She spoke in almost a loving tone as she pulled the door closed and locked it so no one else could enter but they could go as they saw fit. And just like that he stayed there, leaning against the door just waiting.

Eventually, the food was brought back up and placed on a small table in the room by the woman from before who placed a small kiss on his cheek as she left. Not once did he even move to take his eyes off the child as he continued to wait for her awakening.

[Eloisa]

Outside her unconscious mind, Eloisa didn't know what was going on but in the deep recesses of her mind, she replayed the horror that she had witnessed. The man, she knew must have been the one following her earlier, transforming into...something. She couldn't escape it, the image replayed itself as if on a loop. She screamed in her mind, she cried, she wanted out of this mental hell.

Finally, she felt herself gaining her senses, she could hear noises around her, moans, laughter. She wondered where she was, she could feel something soft under her and something covering her on top. Was she in a bed? how did she get here? thoughts raced through her mind. The smell of food assailed her nose as her stomach growled in protest of hunger. Slowly her eyes flickered open and she looked around the room, barely moving her head. A pain throbbed at the back of her head as she moved it slightly to look around, it was almost bad enough to pull her back under to unconsciousness but she fought it off and lay still instead, a groan of pain escaped her lips, alerting those around her that she was once more awake.

At first, when she had looked around the room, she had not seen him standing there, against the door but as she came to be more conscious she realised she was not alone and she saw him then, a hulking figure standing guard against the door, trapping her in here with him. Regardless of whether he had been the one to bring her here, the horror that had played on a loop in the depth of her mind surfaced and she screamed, sitting upright, screamed again at the pain in her head as her hands instinctively came up to cradle either side of her head. Her chest hurt as well, from the difficulty of breathing from running, in fact, her whole body hurt, she could feel scratches from the branches and the many times she had tripped and fallen. Her heart pounded in fear in her chest, she didn't know what to do.

[Bones]

It was like he hadn't moved a single inch from the spot he'd been in. His mind ran over the events that had transpired that night until he realized the key reason. As he reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace he looked down and started to examine it. He could see with his keen sense of sight that there were writings along the edges of it. A language that seemed to be much older than he and not one that he seemed to know. "You seem a little disappointed there. Didn't quite turn out to be as easy as you'd thought it would I take it." Jested the tiny dragon who only now seemed to fly over and rest atop the bed at the foot of it to not disturb the child.

"Either way I got it, now all that's left to figure out what to do with it. And if I can't figure out well we know someone who can," he spoke as his mind pondered over the piece of jewelry his ears twitched as he heard a small groaning sound coming from the direction of the bed. Dropping the new inventory item back into his pocket he slowly lifted his gaze to watch as the child seemed to be stirring. A few deep breaths were taken in the same amount of time that it seemed to take her to finally start to stir in her sleep. She'd been out for several hours at this point; almost long enough for the food only now to begin to become a bit lukewarm.

Not too soon after the girl sat up and he stared at him finally, she seemed to be frightened of him; so he chose to keep his distance. Hoping that she just needed another moment to catch her bearings he spoke in a far more gentle tone than he did that of his traveling companion. "You should eat something and then we can discuss what's going on and where you're going next." It wasn't meant to come off as him tossing her away however there were times when he'd been known to not fully be able to display what he meant when it came to words, but never the less he gestured with a slight raise of his chin over to where the food on the table close by the bed just so happened to be. He wondered if she'd even have an appetite. She was still a while card to him, one for which he now felt slightly responsible.

[Eloisa]

While she tried to get control of the pain threatening her head, she heard his voice, the mention of food once more making her stomach grumble. She sighed, wincing as she moved her head in the direction he had been indicating and saw the food there. It was not steaming so she knew it must have been there for some time but still, food was food, she would have to eat slowly, her body was not used to a feast such as sat near the bed. With exaggerated slowness, she inched towards the food, her tiny hand reaching out to pluck something from the plates. It was not hot but not cold either, a lukewarm meal was better than nothing.

As she sat back and began to nibble at the food, she noticed the small dragon sitting at the end of the bed. Now she was able to relax somewhat, and she was able to pay closer attention to what exactly the creature was—a small, blue dragon. Eloisa had never seen a dragon before but her parents had told bedtime stories to her, about large monsters that killed and pillaged and hid deep in caves. She cocked her head wondering why this particular one was with this man and why it was so small. She wondered if it was really friendly or if it was just acting that way because of him.

Eloisa broke off a small chunk of the meat she had picked up, it tasted like chicken, and put it out in front of her, coaxing the little dragon to come closer to her so she could get a better look. Her headache was slowly diminishing, so long as she didn't move too much or too quickly, and she could focus on something other than the pain. Her eyes trailed to see what the man was doing, she could still see he was standing against the wall near the door, his eyes on her.

[Bones]

He continued to watch her from where he was. As he watched the child interact or rather make an effort to make some attempt with Lady; he chuckled slightly as the tiny dragon began to take the bait of the food. As Lady heard his laugh she turned back and hissed at his general direction. It was then that she noticed that he was unlocking the door. Leaving the room he moved about where he went up to the bar asked for tea and stayed there till it was brought to him. After which he paid for it by flicking a few coins into the air, to which the Pixie-like creature caught and went about her day.

Stepping away from the bar, he took a sip as he paused, looked around the room, and began to observe everyone else there. It wasn't long before he caught sight of the woman who'd given him the room when he'd first got there. Moving to her he was stopped by someone who seemed to want an altercation with him due to them having been drunk. The visible look of annoyance upon Bones's face must have been quite something because the woman he sought out had now seemingly floated over to get in between the two. After calming the customer she looked at him and whispered, "I thought you were going to stay upstairs and out of sight."

"Yeah well I would have but you didn't bring up any tea, just milk." He returned. "Well I was working on it but you need to keep out of sight if you're meaning to lay low." She spoke as she began to walk away. Reaching out he took her hand stopping her and moved in and spoke more cautiously at this point, "I've another favor to ask." The woman sighed and took her hand from his own. "I already know, I'll bring up something more... weather appropriately for her in a bit." Nodding he turned his gaze to the stairs that had led up to the room and he saw two shady-looking men heading up. Uttering a swear he practically vanished as he moved through the crowd launching himself in front of them and giving them a stare that could kill. The fear in their eyes was visible as they darted back down the stairs.

Returning to the room he locked the door back behind him and looked towards the two who had still been in the same spot and condition that he'd left them. Posting back up in the same spot he began to sip the tea as he watched them. "How do you feel?" He asked in a gentle tone.

[Eloisa]

As the small dragon inched towards the offered meat, Eloisa didn't even notice that the guy had left the room. Only once the small dragon had taken the meat did she look up and see he had gone, a small sigh of relief was heard. "Is he always so....intimidating?" She looked back at the dragon, offering another piece of meat before reaching over to get more food from the plate.

Lady cocked her head slightly to the side before taking the offered morsel. "He has his reasons for being the way he is." She silently ate the meat that the child had given her, watching her for some kind of reaction, curious as to who she was, "Do you have a name Child?"

Eloisa ate in silence for a while longer before answering, "My name is Eloisa, mum used to call me her little Elly." A faraway look came over the child at the mention of her mother and a tear fell from her eye, quickly wiped away as she came back to the room, "What does he call you? I've never known dragons to be so small." She said this last bit so quietly she was not sure the dragon would hear it.

Lady looked up from the small pile of food that Eloisa had put in front of her, "He doesn't call me anything. But you can call me Lady. I think that should be a good enough name, you'd not be able to pronounce my real name anyway. As for my size, I am fully grown, but I come from a smaller breed of dragons. Not all of us as large flying monsters." After she said this she looked up at as the door opened and he walked back in, once more taking his spot against the wall and watched them.

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