"… For some odd reason, I don't think that's it," Zyl said dryly. "They don't arrest harmless Maj for no reason other than the fact that they killed a criminal."
"That's true," Ceria mused, "but I take offense to you calling me harmless."
"That's because you are, and you know it." He poked her with his tail.
She slapped his side, which she knew wouldn't hurt him at all, but at least it made her feel better. "I can be really dangerous if I want to! You've just… never seen it before." It was a weak excuse and they both knew it, but Zyl didn't comment on it.
Suddenly, Ceria heard a slightly familiar voice on the wind, and she tilted her head, listening. She glanced in the direction of the voice, and blinked. There was a figure of what was most likely a dragon, far off in the distance. She narrowed her eyes. "Zyl, is that those weirdos from earlier?"
"I believe it is, yes."
Kasim only casted a glance to the other dragon and Maj, before returning his focus to the mass of sunken city he called home. Had he had a bit more energy maybe he’d fly over and ask questions, but now he realized - leaving the arrows in was not his brightest move. Just because he couldn’t feel anything didn’t mean that he was immune to the symptoms.
And Kasim was a different case. Most Maj who had their weakest sense as touch usually had a slight sense of it, maybe dull - but it was there.
Kasim was completely numb to it all. Never had he felt an ounce of physical pain or touch. It was a foreign concept to him, one that almost made him nervous at the thought of suddenly having a sense of touch.
Onvu slightly craned her head to him. “You alright?”
“I’m..tired,” he admitted. “Let’s just get back quick and get out these arrows.”
“Okay,” Turning her head back, Onvu agreed. Though if it were up to her she would’ve gotten those arrows out earlier. Her eyes maneuver towards the shape of the dragon, seen out of the corner of her eye. Hearing their voices, Onvu tilted her wings in effort to turn away, all while still in direction of the ‘big rock.’
Kasim relaxed, though not too much, as he wanted to stay seated on Onvu for the time being.
It wasn’t long before they arrived, and it was only when Kasim got off of Onvu did he stumble a bit, barely managing to catch himself.
“Take your time,” But don’t, she wanted to say. Your wounds are the priority right now.
She glanced warily at the skies, opening one of her wings to shield Kasim from view for a moment while he collected himself.
(Sorry it took me so long to reply!)
"I smell blood." Zyl held his nose to the sky. "I think the 'weirdos from earlier' got hurt. Or at least the Maj did. Should we try to help them?"
"From the look of the guy? No. He doesn't seem like he wants help from strangers." Ceria stared in the direction the two had vanished for a moment longer, then heaved herself onto her dragon. She was still kind of woozy from passing out, and her limbs shook, but she ignored it. It would be fine. She wasn't going to die.
Probably.
"If his dragon comes for help, sure, we'll help him. But a kind thought is usually taken the wrong way." She sighed. "Come on. We have to find a new place to stay, now that we're forbidden in our own town." She laughed bitterly.
"I still think it's your fault."
"That I'm not under their complete control? I'd apologize, but it'd be a lie." She shook her head. "Let's go."
Kasim couldn’t feel pain, but he could feel the effects of blood loss. He wasn’t immune to that. As he waved down Onvu to lower her wings, it was easy to see the two arrows - one slightly lower than the other, stuck in his back. They hadn’t struck anything vital from what Kasim could tell, but what did he know? He wasn’t much of a medic aside from basic wound treatment, he didn’t know much about medicine, and his supplies were limited. And with his ‘condition’; well, that would make it a lot harder.
He stumbled slightly, and Onvu moved to support him. He accepted. “I’ll head to our home,” he said, “to take care of this.”
“Alright..but I’ll..” Onvu glanced to the sky. “You’ll be fine on your own for a bit, yes?”
He glanced at her. “Where are you going?”
“I need to check up on a few things. I’ll be with you shortly, it won’t take long.” Onvu assured him. There was a delay, but Kasim nodded.
“Okay. I’ll see you there.”
“Remember to clean your wounds!” Onvu called, as she spun around and took off, leaving Kasim alone for the time being. Kasim began heading further into the actual town.
Onvu, meanwhile, followed her nose to the other dragon and Maj. The scent of blood was still thick in the air, from several sources - from Kasim. One with a good sense of smell could probably smell Kasim’s blood all around her. He’d probably been bleeding for a while, Onvu realized, and she inwardly scolded herself for not alerting her Maj earlier.
She wanted to see what their business was, doing so close to their island. And the fact that they were being chased.
((It’s fine!))
Zyl lept into the sky, spreading his wings and pumping them hard. They rose into the sky, the sunlight reflecting off of his silvery scales as he flew in the opposite direction of the Maj and the dragon who had saved them.
"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Ceria asked after a long period of silence.
"I thought you did," Zyl snapped.
"No. I haven't been to any other cities in a long, long time." She leaned against his warm back and closed her eyes. "I'm going to take a nap. Call me if anything happens."
"Does a bird flying past count?"
"Asshole," she responded with a snort. "No. It doesn't."
Onvu caught sight of them, but they weren’t flying towards her. With a low growl, she worked harder to catch up with them. At this rate, it would take forever for her to catch up - well, maybe not forever. But Onvu wanted to get this job done as fast as possible. Sucking in air, Onvu lurched forwards and let out a roar in attempts to catch their attention. It wasn’t an angry or upset roar, more, ‘Hey, look!’ She’d only hope they wouldn’t misinterpret her roar as a battle call and immediately try to attack.
After Ceria fell asleep, Zyl flew in silence for a few more minutes. His wings ached from how hard he had been flapping them earlier, but he knew that his Maj needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
He was just starting to turn towards one of the closer cities when he heard a roar. At first, he bristled, flames leaping up his throat to his mouth, flickering around his snout, until he realized that the cry was a cry for help, not an attack. He turned his head, sniffing the air, until he caught the scent of the dragon from earlier, and her Maj… and blood. Lots of it.
Ceria, who had just woken up, yawned. "Well, that was horrible sleep. What's happening?"
Zyl snorted. "There's a Maj up there who seems to need help." He lashed his tail in agitation. Would she go to help them? "Should we go help?"
"Normally, I'd say no, but we probably should," she said ruefully. "So yes, we should go help them."
With that, he turned toward the roar and strained his wings, doing his best to fly as fast as he could, although it felt like his wings would fall off.
Seeing as they were flying towards her, the dragon with little effort, turned right around and began flying back to the sunken city.
Indeed, to most people, the sunken city just looked like a big rock or mountain in the middle of the ocean of sand. Not much to see. But on closer inspection, it seemed to be a marvellous city, although one of older design. Not as old as that city from before, without the wheels - but old enough.
Onvu landed on the edge, taking time to steady herself. She turned, waiting for the other Maj and dragon to arrive. Kasim was nowhere to be seen, but his scent of blood was thick in the air. Almost too much blood, you’d think he’d be in extreme pain - but no. Tracking him at this point would not be hard.
Zyl dove after the other dragon, and Ceria gripped the spines of his neck to keep her balance. Having just woken up, she was woozy, and her mind was still hazy and full of fog. As her dragon flew, she grumbled to herself. "Why did someone have to be hurt? It's interrupting my nap time, and I get really crabby when I lose sleep. Those horrible people."
"You really do get crabby when you don't get enough sleep," Zyl observed in a dry voice, and she smacked him, although she wasn't sure that it did him any good. Plus, it only made her hurt her hand, which further worsened her mood.
"Quiet, you."
They landed on the ledge where the other dragon was, and Ceria recognized the dragon she had seen in the abandoned city. She pursed her lips and slid off Zyl's back, straining her ears for any hint of a heartbeat, or ragged breathing, or something that would show where the wounded was.
Onvu sniffed the air, briefly flicking her tongue out. Even though the light wind had scattered some of the scent already, there wasn’t much wind, and the location was clear. “Follow me.”
She began to move forwards, into the city. She had an idea of where Kasim was.
Speaking of Kasim, he sat - more so kneeled in front of what seemed to be a small shrine of stones and fabric marked with odd symbols. His breathing was somewhat ragged, and it was beginning to be hard to focus. He sat in a building a bit further into the town, in a building that almost looked like a watchtower but was a bit bigger than that.
"I smell blood," Zyl said quietly. It wasn't that anyone could hear him, but he still felt the need to speak quietly in situations like this. "A lot of it. The Maj is in really bad shape."
"Wonder how he got hurt," Ceria murmured. She caught the sound of ragged breathing, and glanced around. She spotted the body of the Maj from the abandon city earlier, sitting in front of a small shrine. He didn't look too stable, like he would fall over and pass out at any moment, and his wound was bleeding a lot.
She winced. This was going to be harder to take care of than she had originally thought.
She moved over to Zyl's side, where her bag was, that she always brought with her, containing some provisions and medical supplies, among other things. She grabbed some bandages, and some painkillers, before making her way over to the strange Maj.
The two arrows were still clearly in his back, and Kasim had muttered something - not in English - underneath his breath before their approach. Onvu sighed, she’d hoped Kasim would’ve removed the arrows himself, or at least make an attempt to treat himself. But no. It was always going to this shrine first. The helmet he’d worn was at the foot of the shrine - Kasim kept his bandana up, most of the time. He’d be even less likely to want to take it off now that there were strangers.
Onvu approached, aiming to be able to keep an eye on her Maj.
Kasim tilted his head towards the ceiling, briefly closing his eyes, but looked to the Maj from before. He glanced at Onvu, silently wondering if she’d brought them here. Onvu only nodded, as if sensing his thoughts.
“Who are you…?” Kasim muttered.
Ceria examined the two arrows in his back, before wincing. "How are you still alive?" She asked, instead of responding to his question. She knelt down next to him, grabbing a knife from her boot before carefully slicing around the arrows as carefully as she could. If she pulled the arrows out now, then splinters could get stuck in the flesh, and could get infected. Also, if the arrow was barbed, that would hurt like hell.
She cut the first arrow out, which, luckily wasn't barbed, and, from the way the blood flowed crimson, wasn't poisoned. Luckily.
The second arrow was harder, as it was pretty close to his heart. There was a lot of blood everywhere by then, even with her wrapping the first wound right away. She hated that she couldn't put pressure on it. She didn't have enough hands, the dragons were too big, and she didn't trust her telekinesis.
Finally, she got the second arrow out, and wrapped his wounds carefully, making sure that she washed them out first, and stood. She was soaked in crimson. He hadn't made a noise once, which she was glad of.
Kasim was completely still during the entire process, never saying anything, never making a noise. Not even an ‘ouch.’ He simply held his gaze to the wall as she worked.
Onvu seemed slightly happier at the fact her Maj had the arrows gone and wrapped. Although, she’d not let her guard go completely down just yet.
“Onvu.. Ste jih pripeljali sem?” Kasim barely muttered out, not looking away from the wall.
“Jaz sem,” Onvu seemed to answer to whatever Kasim had asked her. It was a question about how Onvu had brought the two to their home. Onvu decided to answer honestly. She had no reason not to. Kasim didn’t react to her reply.
“Were my wounds really that bad that you needed to ask that question?” Kasim finally said after a moment. He referred to the question of ‘how are you still alive?’ Truth be told, Kasim didn’t know that answer. He didn’t realize much, that his wounds were so bad. He could only see the blood on his clothing, on his hands as he touched the wound when Onvu first told him. He tilted his head towards her, looking at the blood.
That’s…a lot of blood.
Ceria, who was walking back to Zyl, to grab a water canteen from his saddlebags, stopped and stared at him for a long, long moment. Then she snorted and turned away. "Yes, genius. Could you not feel the fucking arrows sticking out of your back?" She poured the water over her hands, and blood ran from them onto the dirt, staining the ground pink. She shook her head in exasperation.
And then she glanced back and realized that he really was unaware. And she sighed. "You would have died if I didn't come any sooner. You lost about 4 pints of blood, and looked like you were about to pass out."
She didn't seem to mind him speaking in a strange language.
Kasim moved himself onto his feet, pretty flawlessly for a person who’d just had quite a horrible injury. Although it was easy to see that he’d lost a lot of blood; even if he could exactly feel the affects, it took its toll, and it meant he would move a bit slower for the time being, his reaction level lowered. And he was tired.
“Oh, that’s just..” His tone became rougher, as though he’d been offended by what she’d said, but he didn’t finish his sentence. Onvu knew it was unlikely for Kasim to explain the thing on his own.
“All Maj have a weakness, I’m sure you both are familiar with that. And normally, that weakness means whatever affected sense is at the normal human level.” Onvu began, lifting her neck up. “However, he,” she lifted up a single claw, gesturing to Kasim, “is in the unfortunate few where he lacks little to no strength in that sense. He has a complete lack of touch, meaning he is unable to feel anything.” Meaning non-fatal injuries that would’ve been good for most people, could very easily become fatal to him.
This time, Kasim seemed a bit bothered by how Onvu had went ahead and explained. He looked away, pushing himself back to the wall and resting against it.
The idea of dying to him was weird. The fact that if he - if Onvu hadn’t grabbed them - he could have died on this day. Judging by his silence, he was in thought. He did have Onvu to thank though, for that.
Ceria shook her head, stripping off her bloody jacket and crumpling it into her bags. "If that's the case," she said, after listening to the dragon's explanation, "then you're really lucky that you haven't died already." She flashed the other Maj a grin. "You're lucky you have your dragon with you."
Pulling her hair back from her face, she climbed back onto Zyl's back to grab another water canteen, as her last one was empty.
"Should we stay any longer?" Zyl asked, turning his head to look back at her.
She shrugged. "Probably," she muttered. "We should be good people and make sure that he doesn't get an infection before we move on."
“He is, truly,” Onvu quietly replied from her spot.
Kasim tilted his head up and sniffed the air. He had other interests. Although the dried blood scent was still thick in the area, but he wasn’t worried about others following the trail. Outside, the scent had to have been swept around a bit, making it harder to follow. His real focus were on these two.
“You’re city folk, aren’t you?” He observed. He could still catch a scent off of them - the type that he only caught from city dwellers. “Why aren’t you back there? And why…” His thoughts momentarily drifted off to the scenario before. “..Why did you have people pursuing you two?”
At the way the Maj called them city dwellers, Ceria stiffened. She hated being called that, especially by a strange man who didn't seem to hold her kind in high regard. Her fighting instincts rose to the surface, and when she spoke, her voice was tight with annoyance.
"Yes, we're city folk," she said in a cool voice. "What gives?" She didn't expect him to say anything. Sliding off Zyl's back, she took a sip of the water from the canteen, musty and warm as it was, tasting faintly of the metal that had been containing it. "And we were told to go find something that the government wanted from the old city. As for why we were being pursued," she raised her shoulder into a half-shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine."
"My maj has a wonderful talent for pissing people off," Zyl said, speaking for the first time to the other two. "She probably screwed something up and made them come after her."
"Wow. Thanks."
Kasim sniffed. “Your scent. That’s what gave you away.” The scent of an individual was unique, yet Kasim could easily tell when someone had lived in a city, or at least had been in one recently. It wasn’t noticeable by normal humans or people with regular scent strength. But to Kasim, it was easily among one of his most disliked scents - from a combination of memories and legitimate dislike of the scent. Mostly the latter.
Kasim briefly stiffened when she explained that the two were to find something from the old city. It wasn’t for very long, but Onvu, due to her close distance to him, had noticed how his fingers curled briefly, brushing against the residue sand on the ground. He seemed to have gotten himself under control quite quickly, though.
“Looks like you’ve been booted off of your city, then.” He lifted his head so that he was looking at the ceiling. His tone carried a faint air of amusement to it.
“Hmm. Sounds like a few people that I know,” Onvu said, her gaze sweeping across the room. She did know some peculiar individuals that seemed to have a knack for making people mad, whether it was on purpose or not. At times, it could be Kasim, although it wasn’t often she witnessed it, due to the pair’s reclusive nature.
The scorn in the Maj's voice made Ceria stiffen, and she opened her mouth to say - what? What would she say? That she couldn't help her scent? That wouldn't do anything. Besides, she knew that the city stunk. If this guy had something against her for being from the city, she would show him.
His next words made her clench her fists, and the amusement in his tone was what made her snap. "Does it? I hadn't actually noticed, thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious."
Zyl let out a breath from his nose, shooting out a few white sparks in the process. "Ceria…" He said warningly.
His maj turned to send him a glare.
"Calm down."
Kasim looked back down as to watch the exchange. Surprisingly, he didn’t interject between the whole thing. Instead, he moved to fiddling with some small pieces of sand on the floor.
Onvu sighed. “He didn’t mean anything by it,” she said. “His..and my tone too, can sometimes come a little off at times. We just don’t talk to others often and thus tone can be an issue sometimes,” Onvu had attempted to apologize. Even though she knew that Kasim most likely had a hidden undertone to it all, as opposed to just wanting to poke fun at someone who had been kicked from their city.
"See?" Zyl asked, nudging Ceria. "He didn't mean much by it." His maj had issues with her temper a lot of the time, and so would take things at their face value, not at anything else. Which could be troublesome sometimes, especially when she was supposed to be acting polite around important people.
She just rolled her eyes at him. "He'd better learn, then, or he'll offend some very important people in the future," she said snappishly.
If his expression were visible, he’d be smirking right now. Either way, it was somewhat visible in his eyes as he looked up.
“Oh, offend important people? I’ve already done that! Why do you think I don’t reside in any city?”
Onvu glanced up, watching from her position.
“At this point, what ‘important people’ can I-“ He was interrupted from a growl by Onvu. Though the dragon kept to her spot, her eyes were on Kasim, narrowed and all.
“Enough.” She said, her voice low, and Kasim seemed to fall silent right after that.
Ceria was livid. Her fist clenched at her sides, and she scowled with such ferocity that it was a miracle she didn't implode. She looked ready for a fight, and certainly felt like it, too.
"It's a miracle you've survived this long," she hissed, feeling power tingle at her fingertips. "I shouldn't have helped someone like you." He reminded her too much of all the bullies she'd had to face, as well as entitled dips***s and… well, other people.
Zyl huffed out a breath through his nose, causing silver sparks to flash. He looked at the other dragon, and muttered, "They should really be separated before someone gets hurt."
"I heard that," his Maj snapped. He rolled his eyes.
