"Yeah, sure. That's my main weapon, lucky for you," Aurelius replied, "You'll need that skill in the future."
Pollux threw his hands up. "I knew your parents, kid. I knew all the adults in our village. They wouldn't want this for you any more than I do."
"Pollux, it's not worth it…" Aurelius murmured, "Stop arguing, there's no point."
"I'm doing it, and you can't stop me." Oliver walked to the entrance of the cave. "Vey, let's go practice." His dragon looked at the older two men and the. Followed Oliver outside to practice. They were going to need if if they went to war.
When Oliver had passed, Pollux made sure he wasn't looking and grabbed Aurelius by the shirt.
"I am not a violent man… Yet only a few times have I ever wanted to strangle anyone so badly."
(I'm loving how Oliver is so mean to Pollux but Pollux still cares. It's cute.)
(Yes… Pollux is group dad, and also feels this especially strongly towards Oliver because they grew up in the same village and basically everyone they knew is now dead… The man is also super tolerant with most people because his job requires it.)
(Part of me wants to maybe time skip a tiny bit, up until they leave, but idk)
(Okayyy, lemme type a little out then.)
It had been just shy of two days since the young riders had found out that they would have to go on this spying mission. Aurelius had packed what he could, which wasn't a lot. After all, they were far from home now. When he was done, he sat at the mouth of the cave, staring towards the light outside pensively.
Pollux finished shoving some medical supplies into his bag; he knew they'd need those. He started to look around and see who was ready to go, and who might need a few more minutes. He had seen Aurelius start towards the entrance and figured the other man must be dying to go.
Quincy finished packing up a small bag of supplies she would need for on the fly alchemy. She let out a sigh and put the bag into her bigger bag with clothes and supplies. She looked to Jade and the two headed out towards the mouth of the cave. She was ready to go whenever the others were.
Pollux approached Quincy carefully, his bag slung over his shoulder. "H-hey… I know we haven't talked much, but I figure, since we're going to have to work together more, we should get to know each other a bit. If you have a minute, that is. I'm all ready to head out once the rest of us get everything prepared."
Quincy looked over to Pollux and smiled, "Oh of course. What do you want to know?"
"Anything. You're still all perfect strangers to me," Pollux replied, "Say, weren't you basically group healer before I came along?"
Lucky finished packing her bag and tossed Frost some meat for the journey. Suddenly feeling very emotional, lucky put in a fake smile and told the others that she was going out to find a few more supplies.
Once outside the cave, she sighed and leaned agai st a tree, facing the lake they had stopped to drink from when they found the cave.
Aurelius got on Nox's back and had her perch around the cave entrance. He saw Lucky and headed over.
"Raring to go too, I see?" he asked, "I hope everything goes smoothly enough."
Quincy let out a slight groan, "Yes, I was. I never asked to be, but I was the only one with the skills to do so. I'm still extremely thankful you came along to take my place so I could focus on other things."
"That's what I do… I was next in line to be head medic in my village, or at least, that's what I think the plan was. Then of course, this happened and destroyed everything I had ever worked to preserve and care for…" Pollux played a tiny bit with his lip piercing. Talking about this was a lot harder than he thought… Perhaps he'd be better off leaving it alone.
"Were you originally from your village?"
"No, I moved their after I discovered I was a Dragoncaller," Quincy sighed her hand turning in motion, "You see I come from a long prestigious line of dragon hunters, and you can't exactly kill a dragon when you can hear it. It was actually one of my older brother's who also found out he was a Dragoncaller that I ended up there."
Pollux was about to ask what happened to her older brother, but held that back. He wasn't here now, and that wasn't a good sign. "Interesting… I wasn't born in my village, but I might as well have been. My mother came across a dragon in the wild when she was a girl, or at least that's what she told me. She was startled, but they just talked… She didn't think anything of it until years later, when a few Dragoncallers were hired to guard our town after some strange attacks. She had me quite young- about nineteen, perhaps a little less, and we moved in by the time I was a year old because she managed to find someone willing to bring her in."
Pollux's mind started going into overdrive, just a little. He had just lost her. He had lost his mother, his friends, his mentor, his patients- everyone. He let out an audible sigh.
"Hey, are you okay? I know you lost a lot of people that were close to you, but you have new friends now," Quincy attempted to comfort him, "And your mom sounds amazing. With everything she did and having you at such a young age is just amazing."
"Yeah, she was…" Pollux muttered, "And you'd be surprised. I'm more fine than anyone should ever be following such catastrophe. I feel sad, but not shattered. Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing suffering and death, but even so, never en masse like that. Perhaps the worst part is the guilt. You know? Why me? Why didn't I die too? Literally anyone else could have lived, yet fate chose me."
“Maybe because fate knew that this ragtag band of travelers needed an actual healer?” Quincy suggested jokingly, “It likes to work in funny ways.”