[IC] Dragon's Heart [Monochromatic & Ez]

[EzrealEz]

He followed Ver's line of sight and noticed the colorful birds. "Yeah, it's pretty." he whispered too, not wanting to scare the birds away with their voice, even though the birds are far away. But, hey, don't really want to breake the peaceful atmosphere with their loud chattering noises. Lu noticed that they walked quite far away from the place where they were landed. He's sure that the elder won't chase them until this far, since humans tend to get scared by trying new things, and that's what he learned back in the city. Nobody ever tried to go out. Except for the rebel =s like them.

Lu stopped for a moment and plucked some leaves from the lowest branch, and he dipped them into the water. Make sure he cleaned it off from dirt and anything harmful, since he could use it to cover Verloren's wound, and stopped him from touching it. After he was done, he approached the teen and carefully covered the wound with the clean leaves. "It look silly, but better than exposing it to the air." He smiled and they continued to walk a bit further, until they found a huge, old tree. The middle of the wood.

He remember the dragons told him about the center of the wood, where a giant tree with massive branches and leaves grown. They called it the Elder Tree, even though they never know why. Maybe because the tree already hundred years old? Who knows, but more importantly, they could rest there peacefully for a night. At least until morning came and they could continue their so called journey.

"It felt like, we're a criminals that trying to run away from prison." Lu chuckled as he sat down on the ground. Wrapping his hands around his knees, under the cape. Maybe he should try to make a fire, but.. That's not his ability.

[Monochromatic]

Verloren stared up at the tree, tilting his head to the side for a few moments as he watched Lu sit down beside the tree, wrapping his arms around himself under his cape. The teen tilted his head to the side a bit, slowly lifting a hand up to lightly tap his chin, trying desperately to not touch the leaves that had been carefully placed on his face to stop him from touching the wounds. They stuck extra well due to the medication he had applied before, but now it sort of itched.

"I think you can return to being dragon if you want. It might be a bit difficult with all the trees and the bushes and stuff, but you'll be a lot warmer. But I can have a fire going here in just a few minutes, gotta' collect sticks and stuff. Flint is in my bag somewhere too." Ver mumbles, quickly starting to fumble around with his bag as he brought it around to his left side so he didn't have to strain his face as much to get a better look inside the bag and its various small pockets.

"Uhm. How is your wound doing?" He asked, still rummaging around in his bag for the flint.

[EzrealEz]

"No, I'm fine like this. Unless you want a dragon to warm you up, I could help with that." Lu grinned and he collected some sticks around where he is sitting on. That could help with making fire. He lifted his head as Ver asked about his wound, and he shrugged. "Not much pain, I guess it's healing. What about you? It looks a bit red on your skin. Does that itch?" He piled the sticks and small pieces of wood nearby and sat down again.

He should probably walk around the sunlit area to find more dry woods for their fire, but he decided that leaving Ver alone was not a good idea. The day already getting darker, since it already nearby the twilight, the time where evil creatures came out, at least, that's what people said to scare the kids. Lu was wondering if creatures like that also exist or not. Guess they will find out about it when they continued their journey.

[Monochromatic]

"It does sort of itch, but it will be fine for now." Verloren muttered, still digging around in his bag before finally letting out a soft, defeated sounding sigh. "Though you know, I am starting to wonder if a fire is a good idea or not. Because if the things they say about the real monsters appearing during the night, wouldn't they be able to spot us and single us out rather easily with the light of the fire?" He might not have been an expert when it came to studies of the arts or anything, but Ver did pay attention to the things he thought were important. Hunting and some basic outdoor survival stuff was just some of it.

"Maybe having a dragon blanket for the first night might be a good idea... it kind of worries me a bit. Ya' know the whole thing of how light attracts danger in the dark, especially predators that hunt at night. Like those big cats! Or the, uhm... what are they called, the things with the huge teeth and thick fur..." Verloren stopped for a few moments, making some weird hand motions as he tried to recall the creature he was thinking of. But after a couple more moments, there was only a small sigh of defeat, he couldn't remember what it was to save his life!

"Tomorrow we can get up early and scout the place better if we feel like sticking around here, or maybe we could take off a bit farther past the forest or something." Slowly Ver lifted a hand up, lightly rubbing the top of the leaves with two of his fingers. A small content groan escaped him as he did so, it was apparently itching a lot more than he thought it was! But then again, being tired really didn't help that factor. By now his adrenaline high was dwindling, and even if he wanted to explore more, it was getting too dark really look at anything else now.

[EzrealEz]

Lu needs to agree on that. Well, making fire sure made them easy to spot, so he decided to transform back into dragon and warm them up. Unfortunately, he bumped his head after transforming into his real appearance, and he crouched down to hold his head with his claws, rubbing the sore spot. "I guess this place is a bit too small for me. But anyway, come here." Lu laid down on the ground, and urging Ver to come closer.

He stared at the boy as he scratched on his leaf covered wound. "Should the wound itched like that? I mean, normally, when they got covered?" He rested his head on Ver's lap once the teen sat down near him. He carefully folded his wings, avoiding to make the injured part got worse.

[Monochromatic]

Verloren gave Lu a small pat on the head as the dragon laid his head into his lap. "Its alright, really. I sometimes have weird reactions to medications sometimes. Remember a few years ago when that one kids dragon got really angry and accidentally burnt my foot? And how I couldn't walk for nearly two weeks because the medicine they used on it had a really bad reaction and instead made it worse?" The teen sighed, just shaking his head.

"It'll be fine in the morning. I just need to be sure to wash it really well. Plus, it just means that it is working." He nodded, talking in a rather calm, reassuring tone. He didn't want his draconic companion to panic or worry over something like this. If they were out here on their own like this, there was no doubt in his mind that there would be other times when both of them would get wounded. He had seen many elder dragons before and their riders, they were all covered in scars, some of them even missing limbs, eyes, wings.

He couldn't say it outright, but it had always bothered him how the older the riders and their dragons got, the more wounded they became. It confused him a bit too. If things were so dangerous out here, why was there never any attacks on the walls? It was always far away from the walls... Hm. Oh well, now wasn't the time to give it much thought.

Shaking his head a bit, Ver slowly leaned his head forward, lightly resting the left side of his face against Lu's, letting out a rather tired sounding sigh. "Now that we are just sitting here, I am actually really tired." He muttered.

[EzrealEz]

"Yeah, I remember it very well. You got a really huge swollen foot. Gotta hold myself back from stepping on it." Lu let out a throaty chuckle and felt Verlore rested on his head. He felt that the teen was quite feverish, doesn't that meant that he got an infection?? "Well, go ahead and sleep. I will stay awake just in case. Tomorrow we could fly around to see if we could find another town, or a village nearby." Lu muttered and tried to re-assure his companion that everything will be alright. At least, right now.

He let Ver rest until morning came around. And good thing, nothing came to ambush them even though Lu saw some creatures tried to get close to them. He just need to whip his tail around to shoo the said creatures, and they didn't came back until morning. What a good luck.

His eyes glanced at Verloren who was sleeping on his side peacefully. Lu decided to let him sleep a bit longer so the teen could regain his power by the time they need to move.

[Monochromatic]

Verloren slept soundly as ever snuggled up to Lu. Probably better than he ever had in his own bed, truthfully. There was just something about sleeping outside that was oddly comforting. Or maybe it was the fact that he was sleeping beside Lu. Oooor maybe it could have been the fact that he was feeling a bit too warm. The sun was up and he needed to get up now too.

A soft groan escaped Ver as he slowly pushed himself up. His face was kind of red, though it wasn't from the morning sun or anything. Probably a bit of a fever. "Lu. Mmm... need to go clean my face off." He muttered softly, giving the dragon a light pat before he slowly pushed himself to his feet, stretching himself out a bit. The leaves that had been stuck to the right side of his face the previous night had all managed to fall off, leaving to show the cuts on his cheek and ear. Frankly, neither of the wounds looked that great. They were red and a bit swollen, just adding to prove that they probably were a little bit infected.

"I gotta' say though, that was probably the most peaceful sleep I have ever had in my entire life. Aside from feeling a bit too warm, I honestly feel like I could climb a mountain or something!"

[EzrealEz]

Lu shook himself awake from the sleepiness and he pushed himself off the ground. "Well, aside from your fever, you look good enough." He turned back to his human form, wanting to help Ver to clean his wound. It swollen and looked visible enough from far away. They need to find a village to at least buy some decent medcal supplies to treat it properly.

"Here, lemme help you wash it okay?" After he drapped his cape over his body, he approached Ver to help him. "Do you feel any other kind of pain?" He asked as he rummaged inside Verloren's bag to get a clean cloth. He just need to dip it inside the water and then clean up the wound.

[Monochromatic]

"It kind of throbs, but, that's about it." Ver grunted softly, giving his head a light shake. "Its alright though, Lu. I really just need to wash it really good and put some more of that medicine on it and it will be fine." He flexed his face a bit, enough to make himself wince as the cut on his cheek was moved a bit more than it wanted to be. "It already formed a scab! That is a good thing."

Ver had wondered over to the riverside, though was unable to drop down to dunk his head into the river while Lu dug around in his bag for whatever he was looking for. There was quite a bit in there, though. Flint, various small tins, a few rags, some food, and a spare change of clothing.

"I just need to dunk it under some water to be sure to get my ear too." Verloren slowly lifted his hand up to lightly poke at his ear tenderly, wincing a bit at the touch. It hurt a bit more than he thought it would, but then again, if it was getting infected, it was only natural it would hurt. He had dealt with infected cuts before, he had had several from roughhousing with other young riders and from training. But he had been able to see all of those ones and was in the city where he could get help if he truly needed it. Oh well.

[EzrealEz]

Lu carefully wiped the wound with wet, and clean rag. Making sure to get rid of the excess medicinal stuff on the skin. He also cleaned the ear wound slowly, stopping every now and then, every time Verloren winced or hissed from the stinging sensation. After he was done, he took the herb tin and dig inside the container to get the herb, and the dragon applied it all over the wound.

"Anyway, I found a bandages inside your bag. Do you want me to cover the wound with it?" He asked. Since he doesn't have any medic experience, he need to know about the next step after cleaning the wound and applying the medicine. That way, he won't make the wound getting worse than it should be. "It looks bright red. We need to find any nearby village to get more medicinal supplies." He could probably sell his shedding scales, see if it could be that much worth of golds. He wondered though, perhaps he should let Ver to handle the selling or buying things.

Being in the outside world, especially when they need money like humans, made him uncomfortable. He just realized that he know almost nothing about the world. Like, how the market work, how much the money worth to buy supplies, where are they gonna go, or even...if there's any bad guys or dangerous creatures. Lu never joined the field to train since he's not an adult dragon yet. Of course he know how to fight, or at least to counter a few attacks in combats.

But, what if he met a creature that he didn't know how to fight? What if.. he needs to fight another dragon up in the sky?

His hand stopped cleaning the wound as worry took over his mind. Maybe, just, maybe this wasn't a good idea at all. But he can't back down now! He doesn't want to make his one and only rider became disappointed in him. He's not gonna take away Ver's freedom like people back in the city.

[Monochromatic]

"Lu?" Verloren murmured softly, his mind slowly starting to wake up a bit faster, much despite the fever. He had been twitching and cringing while the dragon cleaned and reapplied the medication. As he stopped cleaning the wound, Ver carefully lifted a hand up to lightly pat the dragon's mop of white hair with a faint smile.

"Thanks. Its actually really difficult to do that on my own. I don't know why I didn't just ask you to do it. We don't need to head into a village yet, unless you really want to. I kind of want to keep exploring and getting farther away from the city though. I don't think they would still be chasing after us, but on the chance that they might, being caught at this point would be kind of difficult. They'd probably check the near-by villages for us anyway." Ver pulled his hand back from patting the top of Lu's head, digging around in his bag for the bandages. He had brought two kinds, thankfully. A roll of wrap and then some gauze pads that he could use to stick on places he couldn't wrap! Like the entire right side of his face.

Pulling out one of the pads of gauze, he gingerly poked at the cut on his cheek for a quick moment before looking at the strip of thick, sticky gauze pad. "Here, can you put this on my cheek? I cant see how big it is clearly. Don't worry about covering the ear though, that will just have to deal with the air for now."

In truth, he was kind of disappointed that he was already hurt on the first day of their escape, but he couldn't say he wasn't happy either. Now that it was a new day and they were still free, all his excitement was returning already, making his fever and the dull ache from the wounds nearly vanish! There were some advantages to being young, and maybe this was one of them. Or maybe it was just because he really didn't want to go back yet, if ever.

[EzrealEz]

Lu snapped from his deep thought as a familiar hand placed in top of his head. He saw Ver rummaging around his bad and pulled out some kind of medicinal..tape? Even though he's confused, he took it and placed it on top of the wound, carefully, and making sure he didn't put any pressure on the swollen areas. Now, the teen infront of him look a bit bratty. Like some kids who get into a fight almost everyday and their face are full with bandages.

"Well.. we could visit a village for a short time, at least until your fever got away. You're not gonna make anywhere far with your condition." Lu said, a bit worried. At least, they could grab something to make the fever go down a little before continuing their little adventure. Making sure that Verloren is in a good shape for a long walk. But, maybe they should start the day with breakfast.

His head turned to the river as some fishes made noises by the water. "I'm going to get them for you. Without waiting for the other to reply, he ran to the river and took off his cape. He immediately dived down the clear river and blinked to adjust his vision. He never learn how to swim, but he guess that he sorta know how, and at least he could float. He swam to the surface to take a breath and leaned on the riverside. "I saw a huge one there." A wide smile, almost formed a grin was plastered on his face and he dived in one more time.

[Monochromatic]

"Bu-...alright then!" Verloren said with a soft huff as Lu dove into the river. He wasn't sure if his companion knew how to swim, but after he popped his head above the water and dove back down, he figured he wouldn't drown at least. Sometimes dragons were lucky and just knew some things instinctively, he guessed. Offering a small shrug after Lu dove back into the river, Ver lifted a hand to lightly rub at the bandage covering over the cut on his cheek. With it covered like this, it felt a lot better. He was sure it would be a few days, but it would be fine and his fever would subside all on its own.

But he wasn't sure if Lu would be entirely willing to allow him to just wander around with this bit of a fever, even though he had dealt with worse before without medicine. Hm. He'd try to explain it after the dragon finished with fishing... in the meantime, he supposed now was a good time to start a fire!

Verloren was quick on his feet. He grabbed some sticks nearby and quickly began to dig out a small pit with his hands. It didn't take him too long to set up the sticks like a small tent, putting some rocks around the bottom of it before he tossed some dry leaves into the mix as he began to dig around in his bag for the flint once again. It was here somewhere, he knew!

[EzrealEz]

Lu came back to the surface and threw two, large silver colored fishes on the grass. Then, after a while, he lifted himself off the water and shivered. The morning breeze is really his weakness. Maybe he should've brought another pair of clothing, thicker one. Shrugging a bit, he took his now dirty cape and drapped it all over his body, and he unconsciously let out a sigh of relief at the warmth.

The fishes are still twitching and he felt bad to eat them. But, then again, they need to survive. No one's gonna provide them any three course meal a day, no longer. With his not so much strength, at least when he's in his human form, he dragged the fish and approached Ver with one of it. "So, I've been wondering if we could sell something and obtain any gold. Do you think, my scales will worth some of it??" He asked as he went back to drag the other fish.

"But, uh, if that would make our track visible, maybe we could try to catch some fishes and sell it."

[Monochromatic]

"Yeah... selling your scales isn't a good idea. We don't really know much about the outside world and for all we know, dragons could be a rare and people could be suspicious of how we got them." Verloren stopped digging around in his bag for a moment, tilting his head to the side with a soft grumble. "Actually, we should probably try to keep the fact that you are a dragon a secret if we can help it. At least until we know more. I've got some gold in one of the pockets of my bag we can use for now though." There was a faint smile at the corners of his lips.

"I thought ahead on this quite a bit." He chuckled, finally pulling the flint out of his bag and crouching back over near the fire he had yet to light. He was quiet for a few moments while he chipped the two bits of dark stone against each other, it didn't take long for several of the sparks to catch on some of the dried leaves he had nestled by the wood. It took only a couple of moments for it to catch fire as he fanned it very, very carefully. It would be a few minutes most likely before the rest of the wood caught on fire though. So he turned a bit, sitting down while he watched Lu drag the other fish over.

"But once we get to know the outside world a bit more, we can start doing other things like that."

[EzrealEz]

"Alright." Lu replied softly, his voice almost inaudible. Well, he felt terrible that he seems to know nothing useful for both of them. He sighed and sat down on the ground, watching the fire as it became bigger. After a while, he absent-mindedly giving the fish to Verloren to cut it, since he could eat it raw, but not sure if Ver could handle the fishy smell or not.

"You know.. I barely know a single things about humans. I'm not sure if I could be useful in this journey."

He casted his eyes downward, staring on his toes as his irises slowly changed into a dull, blue color. Not quite depressed but, a bit sad that he couldn't be more of use. It's been a while since he felt this way. Earlier, his top priority was to make sure that his partner's fever will go down anytime soon. But, now, he doesn't even know what he's doing anymore. The elders warned him about the cycle called life and death, and humans tend to pass away easily. They grow old and get sicker each time, but not with dragons. Brume have some adult dragons that lost their riders, and they end up living aimlessly.

In short, Lu was afraid on losing Verloren. It's their first day, and getting injured was not a very good sign. What if next time, Ver got injured more than this, and he got no knowledge at all on how to help his rider? He will be the cause that his partner's dying and.. and-

Lu let out a sharp gasp and he blinked repeatedly. Eyes turned back to its crimson color, along with his breath that slowed down. "S-sorry.. I was-" he turned his head away and hugged his knees.

[Monochromatic]

Verloren watched Lu carefully as he spoke, listening to the dragons every word. He didn't even really need to look at the dragon to be able to feel his distress, but it helped sometimes to get a clearer view. Instead of starting to clean his fish, he pushed himself up a bit and hobbled over beside Lu before plopping back down beside him. He reached a hand up once again to lightly pat the top of the dragons head, a smile on his face.

"You know, its alright. There are things I don't know and cant do, and there are things you don't know and cant do. But that is the best part about this! We are partners, you know. We are here to help each other!" Ver leaned over, lightly bumping his head with Lu's before sitting back up. "If there is something you want to know or don't understand, its alright, really!" Slowly Ver shook his head.

"If you don't know something, or don't understand it, it is completely alright to ask. I know you don't really know a lot about humans. But you are a dragon, so its understandable." He chuckled. "I only know so much about dragons because of you and because of all the training they've been teaching me since I was about two. I mean... if you want to know something, you can ask me. And I will try to answer it the best I can." Ah, Verloren sure was trying to be comforting. He could only hope it would help to ease the dragons fears a bit.

[EzrealEz]

Lu nodded quietly as he held Ver's hand and tightly clenching his teeth. He know that, he know that they're supposed to fill each other's weaknesses, but he couldn't help to feel insecure. The teen sure, tried his best to comfort him but he's not completely cheered up yet. Though, he smiled a bit because he doesn't want Verloren to worry about him too much. He lifted his face and chuckled. "Don't blame me if I ask a lot of questions. Like, A LOT."

He moved away a little bit, releasing Ver's hand from his grasp as he took the knife to clean the fish. "So, we are going to the nearest village and patch you up before going anywhere else. I'm not gonna let you sit on my back if you insist on going anywhere with your fever." His voice was firm, but it held no harm as he just want to make sure everything would be better for them to take care of their wounds first.

[Monochromatic]

"Awh, but... but Lu. I'll be fine in just a few days after the wounds heal up a bit more. Humans get feverish while healing a lot of the time. It just means the body is doing what it can to recover while fighting off infection and other things! The human way of healing. A fever is only a real problem if I am dizzy and cant get up." Verloren suddenly looked a bit worried as he eyed Lu, trying to gauge if he was serious about not letting him ride on his back while he had a fever. Though the look quickly faded as he let out a small laugh, a bit more serious.

"Well, I don't mind if you ask a lot of questions. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability!" He stopped for a moment, pointing towards the still uncooked fish. "For example, we can eat raw fish, but it has the chance to make us rather sick if it isn't prepared properly."