The dragon's roar echoed furiously along the walls, the ground shook, and debris fell from the roof of the cave as the two of them ran. Serah looked behind her and saw the Gecori mother move like a serpent through the tunnels while viscously clawing at the stone walls. The two of them knew they weren't fast enough to escape, they had to do something to stop it even for just a moment.
The red-scaled hunter twisted his body to face the dragon and threw two javelins at the dragon, aiming for its eyes. In response, the dragon ducked and weaved under the javelins with its superior agility. It roared louder, causing their ears to ring as they ran.
"Gods below!" the hunter cried out as he ran and cupped his ears. "Can't you do something?!"
"Like what?!" Serah shouted as her muscles stung from running.
"I don't know!" the hunter replied. "Witchcraft or something!?"
"You honestly believe that load of-" Serah tried to explain but before she could say more the dragon swooped and threw down its claw between them, almost splitting them in half.
"Fine! Eat this!" Serah threw five balls of sleep powder from her belt, hitting the dragon on its snout. "Hah! Got you!"
She shouted in celebration but as she turned around she noticed the dragon didn't even slow down.
"Okay, that didn't work..."
"You think?!" the hunter shouted back "Any more bright ideas?"
"I got a couple!" Serah tried to sling her bag in front of her to try and get her paralysis toxin, but before she could do that the dragon swung downwards cutting her shoulder. She yelled in pain as she dropped her bag accidentally, sending it rolling behind her as she tried to escape. "Okay, I have one idea."
Serah began to unhook the charming potion she had from her belt, she didn't know if it would calm down a raging rogue dragon since the sleep powder didn't work, but she had to try. She held up the bottle and waited for the right moment to throw it. As soon as she saw an opening she sent the bottle hurling towards the dragon, but instead of hitting it, she overshot her throw. Sending it high above the Gecori's head.
"Alright, I'm out of ideas." Serah said in between breaths, meanwhile the hunter only had one javelin left.
The hunter jumped and twisted backward one last time. He threw the javelin with a mighty throw, sending it straight to the dragon's shoulder, causing it to slow down and roar in pain.
"Don't worry, maybe we won't need it anymore!" He said triumphantly as he pointed forward. "Look!"
Ahead of her was the cave's entrance, she saw the orange glow of the afternoon light, saw the vibrant green trees, and a group of hunters waiting with spears at the ready.
"Now!" One of the hunters shouted as the two of them left the cave.
"Get down!" The red-scaled hunter shouted as he pulled Serah to the ground. A net then flew over their heads and captured the Gecori.
"What in Vritra's pits is going on here, Zhern!?" A burly female dragonkin demanded. She had a commanding presence, wielded a great sword, and had the distinct colors of a pack leader tattooed on her shoulder. "What is the white devil doing here?"
"Egira, thank the divine you made it!" Zhern said while catching his breath.
"Let this be a lesson in not running head of the group, Zhern." She sneered. "Now, tell me what happened in there."
"I found the devil in there." He explained "She treated the Gecori."
"You what?!" She shouted at Serah, spittle flew towards her face. She was furious. But before she continued three of them could hear the Gecori tear through the net. "When we're done here you have some explaining to do. This is far from over!"
A Gecori would usually observe their prey's movements, attack intelligently, and run if the encounter wasn't favorable - but this wasn't a normal Gecori. This Gecori was a rogue dragon and it snarled with a viscous bloodlust, telling everything around it that it wouldn't back down from this fight.
A rogue dragon is a dangerous creature. They didn't act according to their nature and they were known to be violent to everything around them. The frenzy of these dragons was palpable and their fury was insatiable. When a dragon had gone rogue, it was the duty of the marked hunters to put them down mercifully.
"Form up!" Egira called out with a booming voice and all the hunters paid close attention.
"Covak, Netiri, Tor, and Ry'or, Flanks! Fein, Tyr, Trees! Zhern with me!" She commanded them with ferocity and strength. Her voice held so much authority that Serah couldn't help but fall in line and listen. "Devil!"
"Yeah?" She replied as she stood there ready to aid the hunters as best as she could.
"Stay out of our way." Egira snarled before charging at the dragon.
She held her great sword high and released a fierce war cry from her breast. The hunters battled the Gecori like a graceful dance. They attacked and defended at the same time, kept a close watch of each other's back, and expertly stayed in formation. The dragon attacked them recklessly, swinging wildly at the hunters as if they were swatting at flies they couldn't catch, and although it seemed like the hunters had the upper hand, they didn't. No matter how many times they thrust their spears, shot their arrows, and slashed with their swords - they couldn't penetrate the dragon's scales. The only part of the dragon that was even remotely vulnerable was its soft underbelly and the Gecori protected it with a tenacious ferocity. Whenever the hunters even got remotely close to landing a killing blow, the Gecori surrounded itself with its poison breath. Serah wanted to turn the tide somehow, this was her mess after all.
As the battle raged on the hunters and the dragon took their fight to different areas in the forest. The Gecori slithered around the trees, using them as cover and making their movements unpredictable. However, now that the fight was elsewhere, Serah had an opening to go back into the cave. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring the blood that poured out of her shoulder, and soon she made it back into the cave. She searched for her backpack and found it torn and broken from the rampaging dragon, but the contents were still safe.
With one hand she searched the pack for her blowgun, her darts, and the paralysis toxin. And although she didn't want to use it, she had no choice. After coating four darts in the poison she ventured back out and chased after the hunters. Despite feeling like she would have fainted at any point she pushed on and as she got closer to the hunter's battle, she got ready. She carefully loaded her blowgun and aimed, but she couldn't shoot - the dragon was moving too fast.
At that moment she had the terrible idea of getting its attention for a clear shot. For a moment she thought about it, would she risk her life here for people she just met? No, but her conscience couldn't live with that. So, all she had to do was not die and then she shouted.
"Hey, swamp breath!" She taunted at the dragon and although it didn't understand her language her words were irritating enough to matter. "I'm about to mark my territory on your cave!"
Blinded by rage the dragon ran in a straight line towards Serah, ignoring the hunters completely. Taking advantage of this blind fury, Serah took the shot and sent a poisoned dart soaring towards the Gecori. She hoped it would have all been over there so she could go home, but as Egira said, it was far from over.
The dragon nimbly dodged the shot, ducking around it like a serpent, before ramming its head straight into her. Serah was sent flying through the air as the dragon knocked her back. On her stomach she could feel warm liquid pooling over it. She couldn't see it but the stinging pain in her stomach and the feeling of warm, viscous, liquid splattering on her told her everything she needed to know. She was going to die here.
As she laid on the ground, the dragon stood over her as if gloating over her victory. Serah no longer had the strength to fight back so she accepted her defeat, and waited for the inevitable. She felt the dragon set its tongue on her body and lick her, she could feel its warm poisonous breath on her skin, but rather than gnashing teeth - it licked her again.
When Serah looked at herself and the dragon on top of her, she noticed something odd. She wasn't bleeding and the dragon's eyes were dilated. As the motherly dragon tried to nurse and protect her she noticed that the last bottle on her belt was broken and that the warm liquid she felt on herself was the potion itself. As Serah breathed a nervous sigh of relief she heard the loud war cry of several hunters converging on her. When the dragon heard this she immediately jumped up to go into a defensive stance, wrapping Serah up with her tail.
"Wait!" Serah yelled as she held up her hands from the dragon's tail "Stop, I'm okay!"
"I think I got it to calm down." She said as she faced them while petting the mother dragon. "So I think we can all just quietly go home now, yeah? At least I think so?"
"What did you do?" Zhern asked "And what do you mean, you think?"
"Okay, everyone step back." She said as she steadied herself back on her feet. She looked at everyone around her and said again. "Further back."
Once they were all far enough Serah clapped her hands together to wake the dragon from the Trance. She instinctively ducked down and raised her arms to protect herself, but instead of getting jumped, the dragon simply stood there. It looked around itself, saw the dragonkin, and calmly walked back into its cave without question.
"I think we're good." She said confidently as she fell back down to the ground.
"Alright, devil" Egira demanded "What exactly happened there?"
"Can you patch me up first please?" Serah asked as kindly as she could while her voice quivered in her pain.
Egira nodded to a pair of hunters who quickly administered first aid. They slathered a mucus-like disinfectant that sent a cooling sensation on her back. They then placed large oval-shaped leaves over her wounds to stop the bleeding before finally bandaging her shoulder and other wounds.
"Ah, that's the stuff." Serah groaned as the medicine stung for only a quick second. "Can someone please get my bag?"
When the hunters returned with her things she crawled towards it and took out the last awareness potion in her bag. Chugging it down like no tomorrow.
"Okay, I'm ready." She said as she stayed there lying on her belly. "What do you want to know, huntress?"
"Alright, devil." She sneered at her nonchalant expression. "What did you just do to that rogue dragon?"
"An alchemist's secret." She replied. "All I know is that it seemingly marks you as friendly to Gecori. Not sure how it'll work on other dragons though."
"What do you mean not sure?!" Egira's voice boomed. "You made it didn't you?!"
"I did, but I made it just today so I'm not entirely sure about its effects." She said matter-of-factly.
"So you're saying that dragon could go rogue again?" the hunter named Covak asked.
"I hope not, but I can't be sure." She replied "You should probably keep an eye on this one if you really want to be sure."
"Is this a joke to you?" Egira pulled her off the ground and lifted her by her collar. "For all we know you could have made this worse!"
"Hey, I saved your life just now!" Serah shot back "This is how you're going to treat me?"
"Saved, my life?!" Egira replied with a puzzled expression "We had it handled until you showed up!"
"And you're welcome!"
"I didn't ask for your help devil!" She shouted as she threw Serah down. "What else do you have up on your sleeve huh?"
"Egira, calm down." Zhern said "We should be happy we didn't have to kill the Gecori anymore. Even if it is just temporary."
"Calm down?!" Egira shouted "Aren't you at all concerned at what she did here? She just drugged a dragon to submission! We could be next!"
"Okay, I think you're over-exaggerating here." Serah said, trying to calm her down.
"Am I?" Egira shot daggers at her with her glare. "How about you explain that to Riam?!"
"That was an accident!" She shouted, wincing as the wound on her shoulder still stung.
"Just like how you're in this dragon's cavern by accident?" Egira probed her for an answer. "How about you explain that, huh?"
"I told you I-"
"Just stumbled into it, huh?" Egira interrupted her with a doubtful stare. "How do we know you didn't cause this in the first place?"
"And how would I have done that?!" Serah was shocked at the absurdity of the accusation.
"You don't have proof of that, Egira" Fein interjected "and she did help us today, I think we can give her a pass."
"A pass? Did you all just forget that adult Gecori are territorial?" She asked them all angrily. "Who's to say she didn't make this dragon go rogue by 'accidentally' stumbling into her nest?"
Serah wanted to say something but she realized she couldn't because it was possible. She had entered the Gecori nest, sent a series of explosions through the cave network, and charmed her children with a potion. She might have been the catalyst for this, she thought.
"What? Are you going quiet now? You had a lot to say earlier." Egira pressed "What do you have to say for yourself now huh?"
"It's not her Egira." A new voice had entered the stage, to defend Serah.
This was a voice she recognized, a voice she'd heard plenty of times, a voice she hated.
It was Urok. Again.