Chapter 45: A Dragon’s Debt
--Chapter 45--
Title>> A Dragon’s Debt
Fiona carefully folded her wing back into place. The absurdity of the thought from earlier made her try to think of something else.
But her mind inevitably drifted back to the dragon.
It wasn’t just the fact that he somehow possessed an Aspect that was the only problem, there was the matter of his offer.
She’d never heard about dragons becoming healers. Truthfully ...that wasn’t how dragon bloodlines worked.
If anything...healing was the fairy’s forte under their Elvian ancestry.
Dragon’s instead, conquered, expanded and forcefully subjugate kingdoms through strength and dominion.
Yet...
He’d offered to heal her without asking for anything in return. Tnat alone was enough to make her suspicious.
Fiona walked across her room and sat on a rickety chair. She couldn’t help but replay all that happened.
All through the excursion, she’d been subtly watching him. And the cuts on his hands had been there since when he arrived.
But by the time they crossed into the village, they’d disappeared.
She could have swore, he hadn’t swallowed a pill. Or casted a skill or even slowed down.
The wounds had simply...Disappeared.
Fiona frowned, her brows furrowed. She couldn’t explain it. But she smelt foul play somewhere.
But the fact she couldn’t pinpoint when it happened, bothered her far more than she cared to admit.
Then another thought quietly surfaced.in her mind, contradicting her caution.
’what if... If he can truly could heal me... Wouldn’t that mean I would owe him?’
Her expression turned into stone,. almost immediately.
"No," The single word escaped before she realized she’d spoken aloud. Even as she grabbed the handle of her wooden chair, nearly crushing it.
Debts owed to dragons had never ended well in any story she’d grown up hearing.
Whether those stories were true or not hardly mattered.
"What if... he asks for me?"
Fiona grumbled, she had no intention of becoming anybody’s slave.
The thought ended there. She refused to pursue it any further.
***
Fiona had barely closed her eyes for a nap when a faint blur swept past the window.
Before Fiona could lift her head from her resting position, the blur circled the room once with incredible speed before settling quietly on the backrest of a nearby chair.
"You’re late," Fiona said without looking up again.
"I would’ve been earlier if people stopped asking me questions every three steps," The familiar voice carried its usual warmth.
Fiona barely opened one eye to look at the fairy at the other chair.
Skylar sat comfortably on the wooden chair, her pale golden eyes already fixed on the folded wing behind Fiona.
"You look terrible sweetie."
"I know."
Skylar floated off her chair and drifted closer, she didn’t reach for the wing immediately. Instead, she studied Fiona’s tired face first.
Only after a few quiet seconds did her attention settle on the darkened veins spreading beneath the delicate membrane of her wings.
"It is spreading faster."
Fiona stayed quiet and simply answered with a small nod, shutting her eyes again.
Neither of them spoke for a while. Allowing the comfortable silence settle between them.
Skylar eventually sighed. "So...We have a dragon at our gates?"
Fiona shook her head. "We have...something and its definitely inside the village."
Skylar’s brows lifted slightly, her tiny dark wings fluttering in the air.
"You’re unsure what it is?"
"I’m certain he carries a dragon bloodline," Fiona paused. "What I’m uncertain about...is everything else."
Skylar quietly waited. Even though she and Fiona were basically one and the same person when it truly came down to it.
She couldn’t understand what Fiona meant by that.
Fiona let out a slow and painful breath, wincing In-between each gasp.
"He healed himself."
Skylar looked back at her with a confused expression. Expecting more.
Fiona went on to explain to her, how Xavier hadn’t taken any potion she had seen. Even after arriving bruised and battered due to someone hunting him.
Skylar tilted her head thoughtfully. "And?"
"Are normal dragons supposed to do that?"
The question came with a brief silence that settled between them again.
Skylar eventually smiled to herself. "This is the most interesting thing I’ve seen or heard in centuries."
Folding her tiny, almost pixie like arms loosely. She continued.
"So, has he threatened anyone yet?"
Fiona answered immediately. "No."
"I suppose he hasn’t demanded anything? Or tried leaving?"
"No," Fiona responded like a broken record.
Skylar nodded once. Each answer quietly found its place somewhere behind those golden eyes.
"So why do you look like he’d declared war on us?"
A blank expression found its way on Fiona’s face but her silence communicated worry before anything else.
"He offered to heal me."
"And?" Skylar’s squinted slightly.
"I-I refused."
Skylar shook her head slowly, she wasn’t surprised. And simply continued.
"Did he argue? Or insisted? Or maybe wnate to bargain ?"
"No," Fiona answered again.
And that finally made Skylar pause. "Are you sure he isn’t broken or something?"
Fiona glanced toward the nearby window. Even her blank face held back a tiny smile.
"I know right , he shouldn’t make sense."
"He doesn’t," Skylar cleared her doubts but remained thoughtful for a long moment before speaking again.
"Everything I know about dragons begins with them demanding something."
"And..." Skylar continued, caressing something on her back like an old scar. "They’re rarely subtle about it."
She looked back at Fiona. "This one hasn’t asked for anything."
Fiona stayed quiet but there was one thing she still hadn’t mentioned.
Skylar noticed it almost immediately and raised a brow. "What else?"
Fiona leaned back, her eyes staring at the twisting trunks that flowed around her ceiling.
"I think...," she paused.
"I believe he has an Aspect."
The room became noticeably quieter after that. It was as if the temperature dropped at a pace that could take the Fairy village into the ice age in the blink of an eye.
Skylar stopped moving altogether. Her face froze in both annoyance and yet reverence.
"...You’re certain?"
"I don’t know, " Fiona rubbed her forehead, the pressure was definitely getting to her.
"But--But I know what I felt."
Skylar searched Fiona’s face for several silent moments. And finally exhaled.
"I’ll speak with him then."
"Please don’t..." The answer came almost immediately even as Fiona met Skylar’s eyes.
"If he has an Aspect then he truly can heal me..." She stopped, her eyes lowering even as something weighed heavy in her chest.
"But you and I know what that means."
Skylar remained quiet before speaking in a whisper. "A debt."
Fiona’s fiddled her fingers. "I don’t expect him to give me anything without expecting something in return."
Her shaky emerald eyes drifted briefly to.the side. "If I accept his help...and i become indebted to him."
Fiona sighed deeply "So.."
Before she could finish, Skylar completed the statement.
"So does every one in the village."
Fiona looked back at Skylar, and stopped fiddling her fingers as she steeled her voice.
"I won’t put my people beneath that kind of obligation. Not for my sake."
Silence settled between them sgain. Skylar understood her concern. Any and every fairy would.
A debt was basically a fairy’s bane, it was to fairies what wishes was to genies. They could never say no.
Furthermore, there were stories even far back to the age of myths. One thing was relevant in those stories.
Never owe a dragon.
Skylar remained silent a little longer. ’But what if this dragon was different.’
Her thoughts were absurd but for the sake of Fiona’s recovery, she dared to have them.
"And what if those stories are wrong?" Skylar finally spilled.
Fiona didn’t answer immediately."They’ve kept our people alive this long."
Skylar smiled faintly. "And if this dragon isn’t like the other elder dragons?"
Fiona’s expression remained unreadable. "Doesn’t that scare you?"
Skylar held her gaze for a few quiet seconds before giving a small nod.
And just then she came to a silent resolution immediately she saw Fiona groan in pain again.
"I’ll speak with him."
Fiona even in pain wanted to interject but Skylar quickly continued. "If he’s lying...i’ll know. And I’ll handle it while he isn’t a calamity yet."
"And if he isn’t lying?" Fiona managed.
Skylar suddenly smiled "Then perhaps we’ve both misunderstood something."
Fiona watched Skylar for a long moment. She had more than one reason to stop her.
And every one of them made sense. Every one of them was meant to protect what they’ve built here.
Yet none of them left her lips. Skylar had always been like this.
Once she believed something was worth seeing for herself...she would go ahead.
And trying to stop her now would only waste both their time.
Skylar drifted toward the doorway before pausing with one hand resting lightly against the living wood.
Without turning around, she spoke. "Don’t worry i’ll be careful."
"I know," Fiona replied.
"And I won’t make any promises."
That finally drew the faintest smile from Fiona. "I know that too."
Skylar chuckled softly before she phased through the door as if she was merely a speck of dust.
***
Outside, the evening breeze was slowly picking up. And the village had began settling to a new calm.
Cooking fires flickered beneath the living homes, their warm glow spilling across winding root paths.
Children chased one another along the elevated walkways, flying and laughing as the flowing water swallowed the growing laughter.
Life continued. Just as it always had.
Skylar hovered in mid-air, he gaze fixated toward the direction where the aclove was.
Two guards still stood outside the temporary shelter.
Faithful as ever. She smiled to herself.
"So..."
"Let’s see what kind of dragon you really are."
With that, Skylar quietly made her way toward Xavier.
--End of Chapter--