Lavanderia

Elcid grunts as a blast of lighting hits him from above, the energy zapping in and out of him with intensity like he has never felt before. Oh, it burns. But he can't care about that at this moment.

The guardian has almost no energy left, is on the brink of falling over, but he was always too stubborn for his own good. Getting up on his hind legs, Elcid roars and slashes down towards the coatl in front of him, using the full weight of his descending body to his advantage.

The coatl is eerily fast and avoids having Elcid crush her with his weight or having her face slashed by his claws, but she does not predict his tail slamming towards her right side, causing her to cry out in pain and to be thrown against a crumbling rock statue.

The already damaged structure falls apart and the head of Lightweaver is going down, casting an immense shadow above her, about to-

Elcid startles awake. Right. Another dream.

He sighs, looking up at the open night sky and figuring he won't be able to sleep anymore, after that. He pushes his aching muscles to move, deciding to walk until he drops, as he often does. No time to think if he is constantly too tired to do so.

Elcid longs to be recalled on the battlefield, for this godforsaken 'break' to be over, and for some lucky dragon to finally deliver the finishing blow on him. What is there to care about anymore? His entire life has been an endless circle of death, and Elcid is so tired of it. He almost resents the Gods, for being the ones to start this battle for dominance.

But if it wasn't for it, where would he even be? Elcid barely has any purpose as things are now.

“Snap out of it.” He grunts to himself, restlessly digging his claws into the dirt. Right. Just walk. Walk, and soon you won't be able to think.

And Elcid does lift a paw so he can start his journey, but he has not even time to take the first step before he hears a distant explosion. Wondering what in the shade-touched hells that could have been, Elcid turns towards where the sound came from. Behind the ruins of an ancient house, smoke can be seen.

Another explosion follows, loud laughter along with it. Right. Probably some fledgeling using their magic to wreak havoc. Everything here is just ruins, after all, why would they care about destroying more of it? Elcid sighs once again, turning his back to walk in the opposite direction.

And yet, he has not taken more than five steps when a third explosion rings out, this one accompanied by an exhilarated scream. Why him? He wonders.

Two more steps and Elcid realizes the scream is getting louder and louder, a shadow on top of the guardian getting bigger and bigger. It is strangely reminiscent of the head of Lightweaver falling on top of the coatl, and Elcid wonders, was the dream a prophecy?

But no, the shadow was distinctly dragon-shaped, and Elcid turns just in time to see the skydancer with her eyes closed in joy and wings fruitlessly flapping to stop the fall. Elcid thinks about getting out of the way, but decides to stay rooted where he is, and the skydancer collides with him, bouncing up on the air once more and then falling to the ground. Small even for a skydancer, her landing on top of Elcid had felt more like a feather falling on top of him.

The skydancer laughs with joy, not moving from her sprawled position on her back. “That was fun! Did you see? I went up so high!”

Like this, the guardian can more accurately observe her. The girl must surely still be a fledgeling, for she barely looks grown. Elcid doesn’t deny that, being a guardian, his sense of length and height for smaller breeds may be skewed, but he is sure that all adult skydancers he saw before this were bigger than her.

Her coat of fur is a light gray, darker at her extremities and fading into a lighter version of it the further up it goes. Her wings and crest of feathers are a darker orange color, almost brown, full of speckles that give her a playful air. Her short mane is a similar orange to her feathers, though somewhat brighter.

“I didn’t.” Elcid answers in a deadpan. Despite that, he can’t help but feel charmed. “Where are your parents?” He asks next. No matter how much fun she seemed to have, whatever she did was still extremely dangerous. What if she had fallen on top of something sharp?

“Don’t got any!” She answers with strange cheer. “‘Sides,” and now she decides to get up, shaking herself to get rid of any dust. “I’m older than I look, you know. I’m a full adult!”

“Are you?” Elcid asks doubtfully. This girl certainly doesn’t look it. “What are you doing here?”

“What a weird question to ask!” She tilts her head, looking straight at him. Only now, does Elcid notice her eyes. They are strange, where pupils should be, there instead is the beginning of a swirling circular shape. It makes him somewhat nauseous to look at. “What are you doing here?” She shots back.

Elcid huffs. “Waiting.” She opens her mouth, and Elcid already knows what she is going to ask, replying before she can form the question. “To be recalled into the fight.”

“Oh.” She wrinkles her snout, clearly not a fan of the idea. “That’s too bad. I bet you’re happy to have a break! If it was me, I would run away the first chance I got!”

“Happy?” Elcid repeats back. “I would be happy if they finally managed to make me stay down.” Elcid accompanies that with a half smile, in an attempt to make it seem like a joke.

“What a sad thing to say!” She exclaims. “No wonder I kept feeling all sorts of bad feelings around you!” The girl moves back and forth in a line, agitated. “I thought you were just sad that your sleep got interrupted by me! This is no good.”

“Ah.” Elcid had forgotten about this particular ability of skydancers. He wonders if there exists some way to turn back time. He didn’t mean to make this girl feel bad.

“Mister- What is your name, by the way? I’m Danya! Mister, I think you need some light in your life! C’mon, let me show you how I got shot up like that, I bet that’ll cheer you up! If not, I have a million other things to show you!”

Danya wraps her tail around his left front leg and begins trying to drag him towards the place she came from.

Elcid, not knowing exactly why, finds himself letting her do so. There is simply something to her that Elcid cannot resist. It is not any sort of attraction, more like a desire to… protect. “My name is Elcid. And… I think you may be right.”