The Stubborn Earth

Fidelia gnawed on her pencil once more, her teeth creating small, tiny marks all over it. Wood could be tasted on her lips whenever she licked them and her tongue would leave with that feeling. In her other hand, she gripped her sketchbook, flipping it open occasionally and scribbling some notes down. Akeem made no remark on this as they flew through the air, him following an unseen path. They were getting close and she huffed, closing the book.

The anxiety gnawed at her, for one of the times she should've felt confident, she didn't. She didn't know what Malakai would say when she would ask if she could make him armor. She had wanted to make armor for his cybernetics, or at least, for his cybernetic hand. She sighed, this was going to be awkward.

"We're here," Akeem rumbled to her, and she carefully put her book and pencil into her back pocket.

As Akeem landed, she carefully slid off him as she was wearing her boots and she didn't want to accidentally hurt him. Vita simply stayed on top of his head, her still dozing, before they started making their way towards Malakai's caravan.

~**~

Malakai was standing just outside his caravan, mindlessly sweeping the floor. This time, they'd parked their caravan next to the lake they usually stayed at during the warmer months for some strange reason - What was even stranger though was the fact that the terrain had changed a little bit.

The rocky outcropping was still there, yes, but everything beyond that had a different look to it. Three large boulders marked a sort of barrier between the trees and the very obvious campground that now sat there, making it also obvious where Malakai was this time. The trees had been removed and made into a large flat clearing like someone had maybe tried to start a logging business in the area, the ground torn up in various places.

To get to the campground you'd still need to go through the trees, but from the air, you could just about see the roof of his caravan over the massive tips of the trees if you angled your head right, not that far from a small sandy shoreline.

Rivia or Grim weren't anywhere in sight for the time being, but that didn't necessarily mean they weren't there at all. Malakai seemed quite contented, and his traps weren't quite as dense as they once were.

~**~

Carefully, the small group made their way through the forest canopy, much easier to get through when there wasn't a land of snow in front of you. Fi kept her hand on Akeem's neck, Vita still silently dozing as they walked. Akeem would sometimes push Fi one way or another, having seen the small caravan as they flew and he could pick out Malakai's scent through the dense forest's. He rumbled as they left the forest's grasp, it obvious that there had been more forest before.

Fidelia perked up when she caught the sight of the large boulder barrier and Akeem silently pushed her towards there. Reaching it, Fi poked her head out, before scrambling over to where she could see Malakai. A grin appeared on her lips, her tail silently showing her excitement.

Her idea was silly and rather foolish, but it came and it stayed. She had often surprised family by pouncing on them or silently laying her hands on their shoulders. Very foolish indeed, but it was there and it stayed.

Silently, she made her way over to him, careful to not disrupt a single strand of sand or make any noise. Closing in on him, the excitement built up, and silently, not having to raise her hands far, only being about a head taller than Mal, she placed her hands on his shoulders.

~**~

To any other rider, animal or not, Fidelia's little joke would've been nothing more than a small scare and a laugh between friends. But to this particular vernid, it turned out not to be the best idea at all.

Malakai's reactions were like lightning, and before Fidelia could likely utter a word of surprise, Malakai had dropped his broom, grabbed both of her arms in a vice-like grip from his shoulders, and threw her. His leg swept out behind him and his back arched enough to propel her into the air, before his strength managed to take her clear over his head and slam her into the ground in front of him.

He had a snarl on his shocked face, baring his teeth like the first time they'd met, but there wasn't any venom. The whites of his good eye showed. His ears were pinned back and his tail was out and balancing him.

The second he seemed to realize who it was, though... his demeanor near-instantly changed. His lips fell back over his teeth easily and he let go of her arms so sharply it was like he'd been burnt by the contact, jumping back and holding up his hands to his face in mild horror.

She'd been playing with him. She- It'd be Fidelia. Damn it.

"I- I'm sorry, I didn't... god are you okay...?"

His voice broke a little and he slowly moved closer to her, crouching by her head, a worried, guilty frown on his face.

~**~

Feeling the vice grip on her arms suddenly disappear just as suddenly she had been thrown onto the ground surprised her. Her back ached like a puta and she groaned, arching her back a bit. Her eyes opened up, before awkwardly smiling up at Malakai's very worried face.

"Uh, hi, Malakai," She laughed, awkwardly, before awkwardly pushing herself off to the ground, sitting upright.

She twisted her head to stare up at him, her own ears pinned back to her head in an ashamed statue. Hearing his apology though was enough for her to finally get up all the way, flicking her tail awkwardly. Why was he apologizing to her? She had spooked him and she almost reached out to calm him down, but she caught herself. Now would not be the best of times to do that.

"Hey, hey, Mal, it's alright," She laughed, rolling her shoulders to show she was alright. "Don't apologize, I was the one who spooked you."

She laughed, awkwardly at her words, and rubbed one of her arms, feeling shame bite at her for scaring him.

~**~

"Sorry, I just- I don't..." he sighed and stood up as she did, folding his arms loosely over his chest and looking down, his ears still back.

"I don't like people touching me, really, especially strangers. In the middle of the woods. I just-" his guilt slowly filtered away, replaced by slight embarrassment and irritation. "Why would you do that anyway...? You could've- if it was anybody but me you could've gotten seriously hurt."

~**~

She watched his guilt transform to irritation, how his ears and facial expressions showed such a thing. She gripped her arm a bit as she listened to his scolding. She curled her tail close to herself, waiting until he was finished.

"Playing, I was playing," She finally stated. "I do that with friends and family. And I-"

She explained it, her voice soft and calm until she got to the last part. She did consider Malakai a friend, but she didn't know if he had such thoughts for her.

~**~

Malakai sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose slightly, before running a hand through his hair, pushing it back from where it had fallen into his face.

"I know you were playing... I'm not angry I'm just worried if you go doing that to strangers, then you'll get hurt."

The fact he'd differentiated himself from a stranger in his wording seemed to hint at the fact he thought of her as more than an acquaintance, as a friend, without really having to say it out loud at least.

After a moment, Malakai looked around a little, trying to see where her dragons were. He guessed that if she was here, her dragons would be nearby too.

"Sorry about the boulders..." he murmured, seeing Akeem nearby one of them. "They're... they're a long story."

~**~

Fidelia perked up a bit at his words, how he at least hinted they were friends. She felt a small purr rumble from her chest a bit, barely audible unless you had your ear against her chest.

While Fidelia was with Malakai, Akeem had moved to a laying position, having toppled Vita off him, who was squawking angrily at him, her poking her snout into his. Akeem shot a tired look towards Malakai, tail silently wagging through the sand.

"It's alright," She finally said, moving to stand next to him. "It's protection, at least. But, where are your dragons? I didn't see Rivia or Grim."

~**~

"Rivia has gone to forage for some food and Grim is trying to wheedle some new parts for me. I promised if he got me some decent iron I'd upgrade his sensors so his head doesn't keep getting stolen by that little grabby..." he growled before he sighed and shook his head.

"Besides I have a newish dragon. Sort of. I don't think he considers himself mine but he's been hanging around for the last month and a half so... anyway he's gone as well, but he's nearby. Riv isn't far either."

As if summoned by her name, Rivia suddenly burst from the trees, skidding to a stop and looking around in a panic for the presumed danger. Shed felt Malakai's panic spike and had rushed from where she'd been eating to come to see what the matter was. A tangle of vines were stuck in her spines, as was part of a bush.

Seeing the situation though, she just sighed and sat down, groaning. Malakai quirked a single eyebrow before looking back to Fi. "I... stand corrected, I guess."

~**~

Fidelia chuckled at seeing Rivia's sudden panic almost turn to utter dismissal, with Malakai's quirked eyebrow making it more hilarious to her. She tilted her head curiously at hearing he had a new dragon and she grinned.

"Oh? How'd you meet him, unless he's just decided to start hanging around?" She purred, voice tinged with amusement. She flicked her tail lightly against the ground, placing a hand on her hip as she watched him curiously.

Akeem rose his head at seeing Rivia and he chirped loudly in greeting.

"Rivia! Where were you?" He asked, his tail thumping the sand, with Vita's squeaking rising. He simply ignored the small Ocean dragon's complaints in interest of listening to Rivia.

~**~

Malakai glanced back to her as she asked her question, having gotten distracted by Akeem's chirping. "They sure got friendly fast, huh?"  he half mumbled to himself, thoughtful, before focusing his attention fully back on Fidelia, his arms still loosely crossed but his whole posture much more relaxed.

The night at the campfire seemed to have chilled him out a lot where the Bestia was concerned.

"Oh, uh... well... that's the long story I mentioned," he sighed, starting to walk over to his caravan, planning to pull his work stool out for Fidelia to be able to sit on, closing the small distance and stepping up into his caravan quickly. "Come on. You're gonna want to sit down for this one..."

Rivia looked up as Akeem spoke to her, looking kind of surprised he was there. Chewing and swallowing what was left in her mouth, she slowly got up and started to wander over to them.

"Eating," she gruffly answered, coming to a stop beside the two. She looked a little concernedly towards Malakai who was too busy wrestling the stool out from under the pile of wires that had near fused the damn thing to his bench legs. "What happened?"

Malakai eventually immerged again and he stepped down the couple steps and sat on the last one with a puff of air, offering the other seat to Fidelia.

~**~

She quickly moved over so Malakai could grab the stools, watching with interest as he moved around. She had never really seen his caravan that much and while he off getting the stools, she observed it quietly. She tried to take in all the details, much closer than the last time they had met. Hearing him return, she turned her gaze back to him, softly grabbing the offering stool.

She set it down near him, placing her elbows on her knees, peering at him curiously, her tail curled around the stool's legs.

"So, what happened?" She questioned, smirking a bit.

Vita finally calmed down, nestling into the curve of Akeem's arms, back to dozing once more.

"Fi scared your friend when she snuck upon him. They've made up and are now chatting," He answered, shooting a glance towards where Fidelia and Malakai were talking. He made a soft chirping sound towards them, distracting Fi enough to shoot a soft glare towards him. He simply grinned back at her, before turning towards Rivia.

~**~

Malakai's caravan was a nice, but worn looking mobile home. It was a very old-world and definitely belonged to a traveling man. It was a rounded shape, long and delicately engraved with different little markings unique to the carpenters of his family. It had been a gift given to him before he too left home and began his own journey.

The door, engraved with some horse-like dragon swung open into two parts like a barn door, the top half being two sturdy-looking shuttered windows and the bottom being a hard solid wood. The roof was a smooth metal-wood combination with a tiny chimney spout at one end. Curtains drew over the window at the moment, blocking the inside of the caravan from view now the door was shut.

The four large wheels were planted securely into the ground, and at the opposite end to the entrance was a place where a rider would clearly sit. A half ladder provided access to the wooden bench, and a small awning protected the rider from the weather. Two large wooden shafts, big enough to fit the width of Riva considering the size of the caravan, sat beneath the seating and currently rested on the ground, Rivia's tack placed in a chest on the underside of the caravan it seemed.

It was all coloured in greens, golds, and blues - all colours that seemed to suit him.

Malakai got comfortable on the steps up to the caravan, resting his feet on the lowest step and tucking his legs up into a position that seemed most favourable to him, tail limply flicking between the slats as he looked thoughtfully on.

~**~

She listened carefully, her eyes wide as she listened to him, placing her chin on one of her hands. She drank in every word carefully and hummed a bit at certain spots to show she was listening to him. She couldn't believe he had done all of that while she and Akeem were gone, it was almost unbelievable, but the way his eyes looked. She knew it was true and it seemed natural that he would face such adventures. He was so weary all the time that it made sense, and she leaned in a bit closer.

"Go on," She hummed softly as he trailed off a bit.

"She's done it before with her family," He purred, shaking his head a bit proudly. He soon repeated a common phrase Fidelia often said to them, "Practice makes perfect, after all."

Vita stirred a bit, back scrutinizing up a bit, before poking her head up. She stared wide-eyed at Rivia, not expecting her to get close before she huffed.

"Hmp," She snorted, but she let out a few chirping noises. "Hi."

~**~

Riva snorted a little bit, amused by the smaller dragons chirps, ending up blowing warm, plant scented air over Vita as a result.

"Sweet little thing... and yes, I have heard this expression before. It is true."

Malakai rubbed a hand through his hair briefly again, half closing his eyes.

"Well, it... we turned up to this farm. It had a post about this huge creature destroying his cow field and eating everything inside it - so most of his livestock. Said he'd give us bed and board until we got rid of it on top of the money, and so we went ahead, had a look - turned out to be this... enormous earth dragon. Bigger then Rivia and Akeem. He's almost as tall as these trees when he's at his full height," he murmured, gesturing to the young pine tree next to them, a good 20-25 feet tall.

"He's like a weird mix of a snake and some kind of dinosaur I think. He has a plated spine, and feathers, and small forelegs - and a vicious tail too. Took us four goes, but, Riv got him in the leg with her tail, and he finally fell and left in defeat. We took our money and left, and we thought that'd be the last we'd see of him, but... low behold about four days later we come across him in a ditch, his leg infected as well as a few other wounds that looked like dragon bites or spears, and unable to really move since he couldn't hunt in that time either. So I do what I do best and I fix him up.

"Weirdly, he thanked me, and then hasn't really left our party even though he's better now... which... brings me to this,"

Malakai gestured around to the clearing as he finished.

"He did this. Turns out he's claustrophobic."

~**~

Vita sneezed at the sudden scent and buried her nose into Akeem's arm, grumbling quietly to herself.

"Fi loves saying it," Akeem admitted. "Common phrase from what I've heard."

Fidelia's pupils widened as he pointed to one of the young pine trees, her breath catching in her throat. Damn. As she listened to him, she counted the blessings to the Gods that they survived the action and that they were able to chase the earth dragon from the farmer's territory. She perked her ears up as he recounted how he found the injured Earth dragon and healed him up, her respect for him growing. She surveyed the clearing once more as he gestured around them.

"Guess a forest isn't exactly the best place for him to live," She murmured to herself, tail fidgeting a bit. She twisted her gaze back to him and she leaned back, removing her chin from her hand. There were many things she wanted to say and ask, but she stopped herself, slowing herself down. Might as well ask about Grim, since two stubborn dragons might butt heads."Has he been getting along with Grim? I know how much of a little shit he can be."

~**~

"They've not really crossed paths yet, which I'm grateful for. Grim's scared of him because he's big, and Monti - he's called Monti - has been too busy cultivating this weird flat space to really take notice. We've been here since I found him. Besides I've been too busy trying to plot out a camping route so that he doesn't destroy every tree and landmass he comes across to deal with a fight. If I can just keep him in one place.."

He slowly chopped the air with both his hands to make his point clear. "Just one place at a time, then I won't get in trouble for local forestry companies for messing up their stocks. I'm lucky I tend to favour desolate camping spots anyway... so I'm keeping here, and about five other places as 'mine', so to say."

~**~

"Monti," She whispered the name to herself. It rolled off her tongue nicely and she nodded to herself. It's a good name, though she had to admit, she expected something more frightening for such a large Earth dragon as Malakai has been telling her.

She let out a soft laugh as he talked about the forestry companies. She could imagine the complaints, coming in one after another. Malakai was indeed lucky he preferred desolate camping spots, though, maybe not with crashing Ocean/Wind dragons.

"Well, that'll make it much easier to find you," She joked, shrugging her shoulders as she grinned at him. "You'll have to show me them later."

~**~

He nodded a bit, not even questioning the fact she wanted to visit him again, accepting it without even thinking about it.

"I can show you Monti too, if you like. He'll probably scream at you though, but. He's mostly bark and no bite anymore unless you really get on his nerves. I... have a feeling he tried to take his luck with the Naki in the nearby village and they made him realize a dragon as big as him can't just go round doing what he likes and expect no repercussions."

~**~

"I think I can handle him. I handled you, didn't I?" She teased lightly, rolling her shoulders back once more.

So far in her travels, whenever she did travel at least, Malakai was the most threatening she had come across and if Monti was all bark and no bite, she was certain she would be fine. It was Akeem and Vita she was more worried about. Akeem especially.

~**~

"I think it'd be best if we went alone, if I did show you. He knows I'm safe, but... coming up to him with two new dragons, Rivia and you would freak him out. He's.. delicate, right now."

~**~

"Of course."

She nodded at his words and got up, untwining her tail from the stool legs. She picked it up and lightly placed it against the side of the caravan.

"Is it alright if we go now?"

~**~

Malakai looked surprised, but not put out. He nodded and slowly stood up, stretching his back out.

"Rivia, I'm going to go introduce Fidelia to Monti. Stay here, okay? You know what he's li-"

"No."

Malakai frowned and looked in her direction. Rivia had stopped talking to the other dragons and was now looking directly at him, her tail slowly moving side to side in an agitated pattern.  She did not want him going anywhere near that dragon without her.

"Rivia. I'll be fine."

"No, you won't," She groaned, narrowing her eyes and swishing her tail a little more aggressively as she turned, narrowly missing Akeem's rear end as she did. "You will not go without me."

Mal narrowed his eyes straight back and curled his lip a little, showing one sharp point of canine and straightening himself up from his slouch.

"Don't take that tone with me, Rivia."

~**~

Fidelia's pupils dilated as she watched the silent argument that was happening before her. She shot a glance towards Rivia, who looked extremely agitated.

"What's going on?" Akeem asked, also watching the silent battle between Mal and Rivia.

"I-I don't know," She admitted, voice tight with worry and concern. It could be, oh! "Rivia doesn't want Mal to go by himself to see Monti."

"Monti?"

"An earth dragon that they met and is somewhat Mal's new dragon."

Akeem shuffled his wings as he heard that, watching Rivia's tail more closely. Monti must be concerning if Rivia was this agitated about Malakai going to see him alone.

"Malakai," She finally said, finding her voice. "Is everything alright?"

~**~

A soft growl worked in his throat, but he tried to calm it as he spoke so as not to make Fi think it was aimed at her for asking a question.

"Rivia is being stubborn..." he rumbled, his eyes never leaving the large earth dragon.

"Look. I know you're worried. I know you don't like Monti, and I know he worries you. But he's made an effort to change and we should respect that."

"If I had not been there before, he would have killed you and left you for the vultures," Rivia hissed.

"Back at the farm yes! But not after we rescued him. I've gone to visit him before now without you and it's been fine."

Rivia's head jerked back in surprise, before she whipped her tail again in agitation, missing Akeem this time by a mile as she took a step forward. He was safe from it.

"I know you're worried. But if you stop me trying to put him back into society, into a normal dragon-handler relationship, then he's going to be permanently ruined and scared of people. You don't want that do you?" Malakai tried to reason.

~**~

Akeem whined, his skin prickling as he sensed the agitation and shock spewing from Rivia. Lightly dragging his front legs away from Vita, who stayed silent. The air was tense enough for her to also take notice of it.

Akeem pushed himself into a standing position, moving to stand next to Rivia, lightly pressing a gentle wing to her shoulder. He made a soft cooing noise, that rumbled from the back of his throat. It was him trying to calm her down and he focused his gaze on her.

"Rivia, maybe it would be best to listen to your friend?" He gently asked, trying to be calming with the limited knowledge he had of the argument between Rivia and her rider. "We'll be nearby if it gets dangerous."

~**~

Through Akeem's wing it was likely obvious how much tension was flowing through the earth dragon, her muscles tensed and her claws scoring the ground beneath them in her attempts to ground herself, to stop herself from running over there right now and burying her rider in a protective, 8ft deep hole so he couldn't leave. Her skin was even slightly tacky, something that only ever really happened when her dark magic was close to the surface, something that only really happened when her more wild emotions grew too strong. Like anger, for example. And overprotectiveness. And anger.

Did she mention anger?

His touch did seem to  calm her down the slightest bit, though, his words didn't. "You have not seen Monti, Akeem. You have not seen!"

Her words were so raucous, so emotional, that they came out in a gruff bark audible to their riders, despite them not making any sense, being in their own tongue.

~**~

Akeem forced himself to not remove his wing from her. It made him flinch to feel all the anger and tension coming from her, how strong it was. It made him want to coil away, but he didn't, simply listened to her strong words. It was covered in the emotions he could feel through her skin. He focused on it, before spreading his wing and laying it over her back.

"No, no I have not," He admitted softly, his cooing turning into the roughest sounds of a purr. "But, Malakai had seen him as well. He's rational. I'm sure he would not go see Monti by himself if he wasn't sure Monti would be friendly to them."

Fidelia jumped a bit at hearing the gruff bark coming from the typically calm Dark/Earth dragon. She focused on her breathing to calm herself down.

~**~

Malakai rubbed his face and closed his eyes. "Sorry..." he murmured, not having thought Rivia would freak out like she had. He was a little shocked by it as well, but he was better at dealing with it, having to deal with the strange emotions a lot, his connection haywire, his heart racing and his cybernetics flickering a little with the added stress.

The lights tended to be somewhat of a reflection on his health at times, and this was one of them.

Rivia seethed quietly, half noticing Fidelia's start and not wanting to scare her. That wasn't her aim in this. Neither was making Malakai as stressed as she seemed to be getting. Akeem's wing had stopped her tail lashing so violently for the most part as well, considering she didn't want to tear the fragile membrane with her spikes

She didn't say anything else, for the time being, focusing on trying to quell her emotions so she could think and act clearly rather than brash and aggressive like she had when she was younger.

~**~

"I-it's alright," She replied, tone soft as she calmed her own racing heart.

She caught sight of the flickering lights on his cybernetics and she paused. He was stressed out as well, and pity for him bloomed in her chest. She slowly approached the cybernetic side of him, twisting around him to see better. Her eyes watched it flicker every once in a while, before flickering over to his tired eyes.

"Are you alright, though?" She finally asked as she crossed her arms over each other, to stop the urge of wanting to grab his arm and make sure everything was really alright. "Your cybernetics are flickering a bit."

~**~

Malakai paused his rubbing motion as she spoke, opening his eyes again and looking down at his right arm. He blinked softly in surprise before he nodded his head. "Yeah, don't worry about that..." he mumbled, not wanting to admit what it meant despite it being obvious, rubbing it a bit and running his thumb along one of the soldered edges as he thought up an excuse.

"It'll calm down in a bit. I'm just... tired. Stuff goes wonky, sort of, when I'm tired," he finished finally, his tail brushing over the loose earth sluggishly as he moved it to cover his leg a little.

Rivia finally calmed down enough to look towards Akeem. She studied him briefly, mostly lingering on his wings. If the worst could happen - which it probably would - he would be able to fly above the trees and get Malakai to a doctor. She couldn't do that - get there as fast as a winged dragon, should something ever happen to him while they were alone.

She cursed herself.

"He is not well," she spoke eventually, voice quiet and bathed in anxious worry. "His insides - they're not good. He's not strong, he's... he's not like a dragon, he's not..."

She trailed off, her tail dropping limply to the ground with a heavy thud from its clubbed tip, making a loud, but muffled sound like a boulder hitting sand.

~**~

Fidelia watched his movements, concern bubbling up in her chest despite his words. They didn't feel right, but she took it that he didn't want to truly say what was wrong. She felt a sigh bubble in her throat, and her shoulders slumped a bit. She would have to let it slide, she didn't want to push him even farther than what he wanted to say.

"Alright," She finally said, nodding stiffly. "Well, I.." She paused, trying to find the right words. She couldn't do much, especially if he didn't want the help and she felt the sigh escape, a bluff of air. She tried to grin at him as she spoke once more, though it felt terribly fake. "Get more rest then, Dioses Mio, nunca debes dormir, ¿verdad?"

Akeem listened to her concerns, eyes soft and he butted her head against her's. He understood such worries, to be covered in anxiety over their rider. Hearing the thump, he lightly placed his feathery tail against her club ones, being careful to not get snagged up on them.

"Fi will be there," He replied, voice soft and tender. "And she will tell me if I need to get them. We can't guard them like they're hatchlings forever, just as they can't for us. We're here though if they need us."

~**~

Malakai frowned a little at her reactions, as well as the Spanish that flowed from her mouth. He felt a little awkward at the attention from someone outside of his family, and while it was nice that someone did care about him, it was just. Strange. He wasn't used to it.

Plus he had no idea what that last part was.

"I forget that you can speak Spanish sometimes" he murmured lightly. It wasn't an insult or a disapproving tone, just a simple, light-hearted fact. "I know, I know. I get it from Rivia too... but I needed to fix something for the nearby town. I've not had time to-..."

Malakai frowned properly as he looked over to the dragons, surprised by how close they had gotten during his and Fidelia's conversation.

He didn't see that coming. Especially the fact that whatever Akeem was saying seemed to be working. Rivia looked a lot less agitated then she had been in her body language and their connection had gotten a little calmer. His lights had stopped flickering as well.

Rivia let out a soft, choked sound from the back of her throat and her gaze shifted from Akeem to Fi, and then to Malakai before completing the rotation two more times, lingering on the riders for longer on the last and stopping completely on Fi.

The dragon fixed Fi with a look that was, somehow, both threatening, fearful, and desperately pleading. The kind of look a mother would give a newly made friend of the family when leaving their children in their care for the first time unsupervised.

It screamed 'Please take care of him' with an undertone of 'things will not end well for you if he gets seriously hurt.'

~**~

"Sorry about that, sometimes I accidentally start speaking it when I get into something," She laughed lightly, her fake grin disappearing into a small, thoughtful smile. She perked her ears up when he trailed off, her gaze following his to their dragons.

Her eyes widened at seeing them close together, watching Akeem speak lightly to Rivia. Seeing Rivia slowly lose her agitation and grow calm. Flicking a glance towards Malakai's arm, she could see the flickering had also stopped. She let out a grateful sigh at seeing him seemingly calm down.

As her gaze returned to their dragons, she froze at Rivia's look. Her tail stiffened and her pupils dilated as she took in the look. She shot a questioning glance towards Malakai before Fi turned her gaze back to Rivia. She was telling her to protect Malakai? That baffled Fi, she doubted Mal would let her do such a  thing, but...

Seeing how choked up Rivia was, to sense the fear coming off her, she couldn't refuse. She numbly nodded, as she turned to look at Malakai.

"Ready to go see Monti?"