Druid and the Dragon

      The sound of an arrow whizzing by was much too audibly close for Zephaniah's liking. He flinched as it gave him a start, bandits yelling threats as they tried to intimidate the Dragonborn and Elf to drop their belongings. Not being one to be easily swayed, Karith intimidated the group; three ran, two stayed, one rather shaken. It was the one who's arrow had barely missed Zephaniah's ear, he didn't really seem to be here, not facing down a large Dragon-esque being, anyway. Karith was doing what he had hired her to do well: intimidate, and protect. He had to strategize quickly, but while he had been planning some kind of optimal positioning, Katith whispered "Don't go too far. Trust me." It had been enough, for now, to stop his possible movements.
     The sound of another arrow being released reached his ears, and Zephaniah's insides churned when he heard the audible loud pang of Karith's greatsword coming into contact with the projectile, and then consecutive arrows hitting the floor.
     The world then slowed down as Zephaniah saw an arrow speeding towards him. It never made contact as the Elf saw his vision taken over by Karith's back and she swatted another away. He felt his stomach twist as the sound of an arrow striking flesh reached his ears, followed by a loud throaty hiss, not unlike a gator's, from Karith.

     "Karith!" he yelled as the Dragonborn charged forward, moving swiftly and with her own momentum, knocked out one of the remaining bandits. The other bandit froze up, and stared up with dread plain on his face, at the towering fighter. Zeph took the chance to fire some spells before Karith knocked the man down, unconscious. It was not before another arrow, one fired last moment by their remaining attacker, struck Zephaniah in the side. His pained yelp was enough to snap Karith out of her fit of rage, and she ran over in a moment's notice. She looked down at the arrow sticking out of him, and his trembling hand close to it. He heard her mutter something about it being near the surface, followed by a sigh.
     "Don't. Come on, let's properly tend to these." She helped him walk back, almost seemingly unfazed by the arrow sticking out of her shoulder. She helped him walk, bending down so he could sling an arm over her shoulders, and she could help the Elf keep the side the arrow was embedded in straight to lessen the pain. It almost felt worse in this state, but it kept it from embedding itself deeper and moving. She seemed almost unfazed by the arrow in her shoulder, he then realized Karith had another in her thigh, and in her forearm. She had yet to drop her sword, however, as they carefully walked to a safe clearing.

     When they arrived, the Dragonborn carefully slid Zephaniah's arm from her shoulders and helped him sit down against a tree. She knelt down with a little effort, embedding her weapon into the ground close by and putting her hand on his shoulder, gently yet a bit firmly. When he looked up at her, she appeared calm, yet the flames of rage danced within her eyes yet.
     "Alright, Zeph. This is going to be terrible and painful, but you're going to have to trust me on this. And you gotta stay awake, alright?" She spoke with a strange soothing calm voice, Zephaniah grunted and nodded quickly. He wanted to comment on her sudden nickname for him, but he was too distracted by the pain. This was the first time he had been struck by an arrow, and it was horrible. She removed her gauntlets, but left the rest of her armor on, that worried him slightly.
     "Okay." Karith said before reaching down and snapping the arrow shaft to a smaller size. The pain still shot through Zephaniah's side and he grunted, taking in a sharp breath past gritted teeth. Chancing a look, he could see the wider part of the arrowhead sticking out of his armor.
That was good, right?
She grabbed one of the vials in her bag and poured some of the contents on her claws. That definitely worried him as the smell of disinfectant reached his nose.
     As he happened to be putting his head back and resting it against the tree he was propped up against, Karith pressed his shoulder against the tree and reached down carefully, yet quickly pulling the arrowhead free with the help of her claws. Zephaniah let out a pained yell before slumping forward again, Karith quickly pulled his armor off and placed his hand against the wound "Heal yourself, quickly, or it might get worse."  She stayed close by,  keeping an eye on him, when he didn't move right away, she grabbed his wrist firmly and in a low voice said "Don't you dare fall asleep."
     Zephaniah's vision swam, the borders of it dark as he was slightly delirious from the pain, but he looked down as Karith reached down and pored a vial onto a cloth she pulled out of her bag, then pressed it into the wound. It was enough to treat it, although the pain still lingered as a dull throbbing pain on the traumatized skin. He rested his head against the tree again, shutting his eyes as he tried to control the trembling of his hands, holding the medical fabric in place. He was familiar with the vial's contents, a medical and magical concoction that helped rapidly heal wounds, but it still didn't mean the pain would go away immediately as it worked its magic.
     He began to mentally recite the ingredients in his head to keep himself busy.

     It was then that Zephaniah noticed he had momentarily slipped into unconsciousness, and forced his eyes open slowly, as a loud noise started him, a voice. Karith had tied up the two bandits and was barking "Hey! Zeph! Stay awake!" No sleeping!" The early calm demeanor was gone, and for a moment, Zephaniah remembered the commander at the head of a group of knights, barking orders to keep everyone in order. He left one eye open as he watched Karith drop the unconscious men somewhere close by, then make her way over and begin to remove her armor to repeat the procedure that she had done on him. She grunted and quickly treated her wounds, standing for the majority of it, grimacing for a brief moment before focusing on her treatment.
     Zephaniah stared at the Dragonborn, still in a haze "That... sucked." he chuckled, but winced. It didn't go unnoticed that there was a visible relief to Karith's overall demeanor as he shifted around very carefully.
     Her stiff shoulders slacked  "Ah, yeah. Sorry about that, I should have been more careful."
     He wasn't sure if it was because he was lightheaded, or felt bad for worrying her, but the Elf reached up with his free arm and smacked her shoulder with the back of his hand as he clicked his tongue. "If you could catch arrows out of thin air, you'd have your own monestary." Zephaniah got an unsure, yet thankful smile out of her.

     She sighed as she got back up and offered an arm "That might be a little tender for a bit. I don't know how new you are to all this, so..."
With some hesitation, Zephaniah slowly reached out and allowed his weight to be pulled up by the larger Dragonborn, and just as she said, there was a dull jab of pain from his healing wound. He noted just how easily she seemed to move him, and raised an eyebrow towards Karith "Well, you're taking this in strides."
     "Yeah, well I'm trained for it. You, on the other hand..." Karith held her hands up "No curses, promise."  
     "I'll get back to you once I," he paused to grunt in discomfort as Karith began to help him walk "Once I start growing scales." At his words, the Dragonborn chuckled, making her rumble slightly.
     "Not the worst thing being a Dragonborn. You know, besides some of the looks you'd get." A small smirk formed on Karith's lips.
     "What about those two?" Zephaniah glanced at the unconscious thieves as they passed them.
     "The guards'll get them once we tell them where they are. Trust me, they're not getting out of those ropes."
     "Speaking of those two, first time I see someone trying to stop projectiles instead of taking cover." Zephaniah focused on the path ahead of them to try and ignore the dull, yet very prevalent, painful throbbing at his side.

     Karith raised her scaled eyebrows as Zephaniah chanced a lightheaded spell to look over at her "Trained for that, too. We used to stand and defend each other instead of trying to find cover. 'Move as a group, shields up!' I can still hear it." Karith held her arm up that bore her shield, rather big for him, but not so much for her in well-rehearsed movements. "We had big shields, make a moving barrier and inch forward, you had to try hard to break through." she lowered her arm again, a nostalgic distant gaze in her eyes. It had been some time since they had begun travelling together, more than several months at the bare minimum. Maybe a year? She'd figured he would get tired of her heavy handedness, and he figured she would get bored of his less than cordial attitude.
     Yet here they were, walking up on a small village.
     The villagers were alarmed seeing Zephaniah holding his side. Karith waved off their precaution, and in a different, more official and formal tone, pointed where the bandits were. One of the guards called to another close by, and it wasn't long before some armored guards passed. Their metallic gear jingled along with the unseen chainmail under their chest plates. He thought they'd make for the clinic, but instead Karith got them a room at an inn and helped him up the stairs, while asking for some bandages on their way.
     She had him sit down, answering the door shortly to receive the bandages she had asked for, along with a few bottles of some medical liquid. Zephaniah managed to get a quick glance at it, more than likely some disinfectant.
That stuff usually stung.

     Karith knelt back down and tugged at the fabric of his shirt, Zephaniah complied all the while wincing as the sore spot rubbed up against fabric. He looked down to see the wound still in the process of healing, although faster than normal thanks to the potion. Just as Karith had been about to move, Zeph pressed his hand against his skin, it glowed faintly for a brief moment as he used magic on himself. His companion watched, like a child watching candy being made before her, until he lifted his hand away with barely a trace of the wound. She looked up at him "Why didn't you do that before? You walked all the way here, while you had the ability to heal it!" While she was there, Karith at least cleaned the mix of dried and fresh blood on his hand.
Zephaniah felt a bit weird at how casually she grabbed his hand to clean it, it was much too easy to compare it to a doting mother. He quickly brushed the thought away, not wanting to risk any more awkwardness.

     "It's still going to be sore for a bit." Zephaniah responded while letting himself fall backwards on the mattress. "And I'd rather risk passing out in a room than out there."
     He heard the shuffling of fabric and armor being removed "I coulda' just carried you back if that was the case."
     Zephaniah groaned "Well as you can plainly see, I'm no storybook princess." he motioned to his chest. "I'm in no need of saving."

     He opened his eyes when he heard no reaction, no chuckle, and found Karith staring off out a window. He wasn't sure what her face read, she had her teeth gritted together, but her eyes were a mix of different emotions: anger, sadness....
     Fear?
     She was standing with her hand still holding on to her sword's hilt, having been in the middle of removing it.
     Zephaniah slowly lifted himself up with his elbows, and slowly spoke "Karith? Are you... Alright?"  
     As if his voice was some kind of switch, Karith blinked and removed the weapon, leaning it against the wall before sitting on the mattress opposite of his. He just realized that it was there in the first place. The Dragonborn had interlaced her fingers, staring down at them.
     "I... I couldn't save them. I gotta at least save someone." Her voice was small, cautious and reserved. Completely different from how she carried herself in combat and in public "I know it's just arrows, but one misplaced arrow, and that's all it takes."
     Zephaniah furrowed his brow, he had been about to speak when he realize her expression wasn't exactly here in the present. She was stating off at something not presently there, some kind of phantom that was staring back. It clicked in his head suddenly, that's why she'd drink so much, why she'd have moments where she would seemingly focus on nothing. He shut his mouth as it became a thin line. While he had studied in his Circle, this was something he had read about, someone stuck in the haunting memories of their past. He couldn't do much about it, not now anyway.
     Besides listening.
     "What were they like?"

     Karith looked up, the distant look still on her face, but at least she was smiling "A bunch of hopeful buffoons. We all set out to be heroes, be the big strong Dragonborn everyone could rely on to come swooping in and save the day." She reached down to grab the tattered fabric she usually wore around her neck, and unfurled it in its entirety. Zephaniah was almost taken back by the intricate design on it. A massive dragon wrapped around a tree, protectively, staring back at him intently as if it was sympathetically looking down at a child. However, it was drastically damaged, parts of the cape missing, or torn to shreds, obvious cuts, and old faded stains that she had not been able to entirely remove.
     Karith set the cape down on her lap "The Dragons of the Mother, a small faction among many that made up our forces. Most of them were others I grew up training alongside. We all had goals and hopes, all sorts of different Dragonborn, we also had a couple of humans, Dwarves, and a handful of Elf scouts. They had their own commander, he was the fastest thing ever, he'd always report to me without fail. He was a small elf, but about two hundred and fifty! Barely looked twenty-five, though."

                                                                                                                   ..........

     She looked up, and expected him to be scowling, but instead he was looking back, listening intently with his ears slightly pointed upward. She remembered that one of the younger elves in her group used to do that when he was interested in something.
     Maybe...
     Maybe Zephaniah wasn't so bad.
     "He was a bit taller than you, had is hair always tied back, some of us called him Sunflower because he was so tall and had this really golden hair." Karith rubbed the back of her neck nervously "Ah, another Dragonborn Daciella, she was a great ranger, she was really blue with these bright pink eyes. Her older brother was a mage Arcillius, he was great at using spells as diversions and being creative with it. And there's my best buddy: Baythax Hewunax! He's a spearman, much much taller than me, he's a white Dragonborn, we'd call him Spotlight since he's so bright it was almost like staring at a spotlight dead on, hurt your eyes!"
     He had to know, they'd been travelling this long and she'd acted up a handful of times, and tried to drink. He deserved that much.
     She sighed and released her fingers, letting them hang limp as her elbows held up her arms against her thighs.
     "I can remember them, but that won't bring them back. There's only a handful of us left. Not so proud anymore." she looked up to gauge Zephaniah's reaction.

     He wasn't upset, he looked like he was openly sympathetic, a small smile on his face, understanding. She shrugged and nodded "We were supposed to be out in the field after hearing some rumors of an ambush attack. It wasn't just us, but other parts of the Dragons of the Mother, and several other allied factions." Karith got up and grabbed some coins from her bag and shifted over to the bedside table between the two beds, Zephaniah followed suit. Carefully, like she remembered on the map they had all organized themselves on, she laid out the groups, a wide circle of silver coins, and three copper in the center. "These were our allied factions, while we," she held up a gold coin placing it down at the upper right silver coin "This was us, with me in charge. These guys were the supposed enemy faction we were going to surprise. Flank in, take them out, take the leader, out. No more pesty skirmishes that the nearby towns were facing with undead."

     Karith began to push the gold coin in followed by the silver coin.

     "We lead the charge in, but when we got to the center.... Nothing. It was a confusing mess, us Commanders were trying to confirm the info we had, but then...." Karith dropped another copper coin in the middle of the grouped up silver coins "Screams, a bunch of undead appeared from the ground. The Silver Streaks were taken out since attacking at such close proximity would have been dangerous. Then..." She began to drop copper coins, surrounding the silver coins "It began to storm, horribly. The storm was damaging our gear. I tried my best to set up the shield barrier around our remaining factions, but that had no point."
     Zephaniah quietly responded "They were all beneath all of you."
     Karith nodded "Hundreds of undead, someone had molded the earth to disguise it, and they laid in wait for all of us. And then undead dragons came from seemingly out of nowhere. Whoever died came back as an enemy, it was straight out of a nightmare." Karith grabbed the sole gold coin and set it on top of all the copper coins.

"I was left with a handful of men, Baythax was somewhere close by, but we lost track of each other. I was shouting for Trivion, the elf scout commander I told you about, but I only found him much later, dead. One of the dragons got him. And he was just... Hanging there." She shut her eyes and sighed "There's an old hero in our tales back at Druvull. He was Arthas, he was a great knight thousands of years ago. You can read about him in older books. But here he was..."      Karith set down another gold coin "As we know him today: Black Plague. A pitch black Dragonborn with bright blood-red eyes, he cut through some of my men easily and I commanded the remaining men to start retreating. There wasn't many of us left, from forty-three to about ten of us. They didn't want to retreat but I forced them back, while I stayed behind to buy them time."
     She looked up at Zephaniah again, now sporting a concerned expression.
     "I don't know when it happened, but after taking a horrible beating, I realized I was unconscious, and I woke up in a clinic. Baythax had found me and carried me all the way back." The Dragonborn looked down a the scar on her arm "I was permanently branded with all these scars, I self-exiled to go on some self-discovery journey, or so I tell myself. Then I met you, you hired me, and here we are today."
     Zephaniah nodded, looking down for a moment "Well, I'm sure that wasn't east to get off your chest. Uh, thank you for telling me." He was talking in a soft and  cautious manner, it both made her thankful but irritated her slightly at the same time.
     Karith shrugged and lifted her hands "Yeah, figured you should know. It's about time, and well... You're not a bad guy. You're just a little rough on the edges, intentionally or not."

     And usually something someone did to protect themselves.

     Zephaniah shrugged "Well, guess I should say just why I'm here. I'm not sure if you heard of the outbreak at the Salram Glades. There was a fire when I was younger, it caused a food shortage and a disease outbreak. When I was younger and my Druidic powers were awakening, I had dreams of something terrible happening at Albersend, my hometown. My best friend was trying to help me not worry bout it all the time."  The Elf leaned back, using his arms to hold himself up "Unfortunately he ended up getting sick, but he kept assuring me things would be fine, and I would be fine." The Elf's hands lifted up "He  was right, I was fine!" Zeph sighed as he dropped them again "He, unfortunately, succumbed to the disease." Zephaniah tilted his head shutting his eyes as he continued, now almost sounding recited.
     "Now I'm here, and I'm trying to find a way to bring him back, if I can. Druid's do have a way to revive the deceased, and I'm out to try and find out just how to do it, the answer has to be out in the world somewhere." he turned his torso side to side as he spoke, more than likely to test how sore the earlier wounded area was still sensitive. He winced but continued speaking past a grunt "And, as you know, Druid's aren't physically strong on their own. Not one on one, not while we're young, that's why I hired you." Zephaniah clapped his hands together after finishing with his twists. His lips were thinned out, pinched at the corners and eyebrows raised, somewhat uncomfortable being this open. He more than likely was bracing himself for a negative reaction.

     Karith let out a silent laugh and nodded "Well I'll help you find it then, you hired me to be your bodyguard, so that's what I'll do." She watched as Zeph blinked, surprised, before a relieved smile formed on his lips and his eyes grew warm. Karith sighed as she tilted her head "Hopefully I can shield you from incoming fire better in the future, though. I'm a bit rusty compared to how I was in the past." She felt a bit embarrassed admitting the fact, but she was hoping that he would understand and not lose his faith in her capabilities. She blinked, and the warm smile was still on Zephaniah's lips "You've been doing just fine so far."
     Without thinking, she pointed at him with her mouth hanging open "You can smile! There it is!" Her words caused Zephaniah to sigh, roll his eyes and busy himself with removing his shoes so he could lift his legs up onto the bed.
     "Yes, yes. How dare I feel emotions? Oh the humanity. Whatever will we do." He spoke monotone, once more the usual serious expression plastered back on his face.
     It was Karith's turn to clap her hands together "Well since we're here already, let's order some food. Yeah? Get us some extra rest after today." She tilted her head when Zephaniah narrowed his eyes at her "Uh, what?"
     "You're...still kinda bleeding." The Elf mumbled, pointing at her arm. And sure enough, there was a light spot of red on the bandages. she had strained the wounds while helping Zephaniah walk, despite him not being all that heavy. One thing was arms being able to hold weight, but wounds another case, barely able to hold themselves closed. Karith clicked her tongue, undoing the bandage. While she was in the middle of it, she felt the weight of the bed shift as Zephaniah took a seat beside her. "Here, I can still use some of my magic, I'll get the worst ones."
     Karith squinted, smirking as she spoke and rested her arm against his hand "Oh, you're so forward! What ever should I do? I haven't even washed up yet!"
     Zephaniah instantly reacted, glaring daggers at her, despite now holding on to her arm "What kind of commentary is that!? I'm just trying to heal you, get your mind out of the damned gutter! Besides, you're not my type. Too scaly."

     Karith laughed loudly as Zephaniah busied himself with healing her reopened arrow wounds.

     Yeah, he wasn't so bad. After all, it was the first time that she felt she could lower her guard a bit, set down her shield. It seemed that he felt likewise if he had divulged the details of his aventure. Whenever anyone asked, he as quick to deflect it, or redirect the question with an overly blunt answer.
     Karith watched as his hand gave off a faint glow against her skin, she wiggled her toes and frowned "No offense, but even though that feels nice, it also tingles." She wiggled her shoulders side to side, resisting the urge to grab his hand away to examine his handiwork. She didn't have to wait long, though as he lifted his hand away to examine, there was no trace of the puncture left. He looked pretty satisfied with his work, and while still holding on to her arm, he turned it to look at a very faint faded line of a scar on it.
     "What happened here?"  Zephaniah turned her arm the other way, making sure he had gotten them rest of her recent wounds.
     His hands were surprisingly soft.
     Then again he always had them covered up with gloves, or was it an Elf thing? Now she had to find that out.
     "Oh, while training when I was much younger, I swung wrong at my partner, and my sword bounced back and struck me. Somehow cut me even though it was intentionally dull. I guess I put too much force into it."
     It seemed that his slow blink was intentional, he then began looking down at his own arm, turning his arm one way, then the other. It was then that she noticed it, a faint tiny scar on his arm "Here it is, used to be way bigger when I was little. I fell down being an idiot, climbing some rocks. Hard to believe, yes I know, but I was a little mischievous. I thought my parents were going to kill me." Zephaniah sighed, sitting back and using his arms to hold himself up "They almost did, I ruined one of my early Druidic uniforms by bleeding all over the sleeve." Karith saw him flash a mischievous smile, before his left hand quickly covered his mouth. He played it off as him laughing at himself, and he was, but he was also probably thinking back to other memories.

     As they exchanged childhood stories, of their varied misadventures and antics, it was easy to forget the stress from earlier before. They eventually ordered food, and relaxed, eating on her bed as they were both wary of the ground, despite the inn's pristine condition. They traded fruits and other assortments as they ate together, still telling each other stories over the metaphorical campfire. Karith almost felt a nostalgic, and very familiar feeling.
     It was like she was back with one of her several comrades from the band of knights she was in. She'd always go out of her way to make sure they remembered that she was still a Dragonborn like the rest of them at the end of the day. A commander in the field, and another one of them when not on duty. The two of them laughed until they began to feel the exhaustion from walking all day earlier on.

     Karith laid back on her pillow, of course both had taken their turn showering and changing to suitable sleepwear, while Zephaniah had begun to prepare to meditate. As he was doing so, Karith spoke up "Y'know, this isn't so bad. And we have gotten to the point that we'd call in my group: The Lowering of Shields." Zephaniah gave her a look that told her he was outright confused. She smiled and turned her head to look towards him "It's not a Dragonborn thing, it was an 'us' thing. When the newest member would stop being so formal and uptight, let loose." The elf blinked as he stared for a moment, and Karith realized she could almost see the thoughts processing in his head through his eyes. He blinked, his eyebrows raised, and he nodded while tilting his head.
     "Interesting name, but fitting. And here I didn't think we'd be anything but formal."

     Karith shrugged "Not a lot of people seem to want to sit down and get to know a Dragonborn. For some reason a lot of people fear me."
     "Lots of myths about your kind out there." While he had been tidying his side of the room, Zephaniah paused and looked over his shoulder at her. Karith returned the gesture, and stared. "By the way," he started "Why one room? You'd been content being by yourself all this time." She shrugged, looking back towards the ceiling in thought before yawning and shutting her eyes "Dunno, used to bunking with others. Besides, I thought you would have needed more help, so I wanted to be close by."

     She felt eyes on her still, and found Zeph staring still with an eyebrow raised. She smirked and rolled onto her side propping her head up with her hand "Maybe I started enjoying hanging out with a wooden board of an Elf!" This was enough to make Zephaniah roll his eyes, before turning back to his supplies and eventually sitting down on his bed, in the usual meditative stance he always took up. Karith, still smirking said "Night, princess!" In a singsong voice.
     Zephaniah gave her a flat "Zeph works just fine." while keeping his eyes closed. With a hearty laugh, Karith rolled over "Fine, Zeph it is!" before letting  sleep overtake her.
     For once she had no nightmares. She dreamt of a campfire, and the warm smiles and laughter of her old companions. She still woke up with the lingering feeling of having cried in her sleep the next morning, but she wasn't sad.
     No, she was feeling nostalgic, almost homesick.

     When she turned her head, Zephaniah was seemingly busy reading a book, but a fresh cup of dragonfruit juice sat on the wide dresser, waiting for her.