I made my way through the village, I sprinted as fast as I could, just taking a moment to look back; Neso was standing looking at me go through the party's entrance, his face looked disappointed. I didn't have time to consider his feelings, or mine for that matter. All that I had left was Dragan, I had to go back to him. I had to make sure he was okay. I had to let him know it didn't bother me he was part Dragonkin. I needed to see him.
When I arrived at the grimalkin care clinic, Dragan was already awake. A Grimalkin doctor was standing at the entrance, I jumped in the lobby with quite a sprint, and the doctor was taken aback. He was filling out some paperwork.
"Where is he?" I asked not to take time with formalities.
"He's in the back, resting, you should take it easy on him, and don't use mana around him, you might trigger another transformation," said the doctor. I nodded just wanting to get this over with.
I went through the doors that were back to the doctor, then I was in a hallway. More Grimalkin nurses and doctors saw me, they were much smaller than me, every Grimalkin was much smaller than humans, except Neso, he was the one exception.
They pointed to a room, at the far left corner.
I took a deep breath and swallowed my pride.
When I turned the corner, there he was. Only wearing pants, the doctors had to tend his flesh wounds, his back to me, even so; his muscles were still visible. He was crouching down, his face towards the ground, even if he didn't flex, those muscles were still unbelievable. His waist wasn't exactly tiny, but still small enough. I could perfectly wrap my whole body around it and it would make one whole loop. My whole body was smaller than his frame. His arms were still massive, and so were his shoulders. He was like a bodybuilder through and through, he did work out like one. It was built into his stamina.
He felt my presence, as he moved and looked back. His face was also banged up, he had a bandage around the upper part of his nose and a square one on his left cheek.
I stood in shock as we locked eyes.
His hair was all gone, he had shaved it all off and now had a full-on buzz cut.
He didn't smile, just simply looked at me, he then scoffed and turned back.
The air changed, it was dense, and the situation had turned awkward, the moon was shining down through the window, illuminating Dragan, but he was casting a shadow, bigger than before, it was like he was gone, like darkness had taken over. That person that I knew was gone and had been replaced by whatever was in front of me.
I wanted to cry. I opened my mouth but no words were coming out. We stood there, in silence, for a good long while. Then he finally spoke.
"I was wondering when you were gonna show up," he said, his voice was tonally different, his deep voice was more passive-aggressive, and there wasn't any more happy-go-lucky naiveté behind it.
Had it all been a rouse? Tears started forming in my eyes, but my voice didn't crack. I didn't know what to say.
"Having fun at the Knox Galla I see," he said. My outfit outed me.
What the hell was going on with him? Would the Dragan of the past have reprimanded me for having fun while he was in recovery? What was this ego I was feeling, and why was he acting like he was the victim here?
"It's not like I was on the brink of death or anything,"
"Oh, so what? - " I started, and I couldn't stop myself. "You wanted me by your deathbed like some type of dog or something?!" that was harsh, but his tone made me snap. He still didn't look at me, just staring out the window. Even though I was shouting already, he maintained a cool voice.
"If you cared about me like I thought you did, you would have," he said. Full tears were streaming down my face now, the waterworks weren't stopping, I was mad now, really mad at him.
Was he seriously this stupid?
"I can't believe you-" I said
"What?" he said confused.
"You're going to sit there and mope around like some wimpy loser -" I couldn't finish that sentence because he stood up and pushed the bed to the side like it was air.
It was comically large for him, he had to curl up in a ball just to fit half his body. He stomped towards me and pushed me to the wall.
"You HAVE NO IDEA how hard it is for my people!" he started spouting. He was unreasonably close now, and close to a violent act, he punched the wall next to me and left a visible mark.
"For Dragonkin?"I asked
"Yeah…" he said despondently. He didn't care about my tears.
"I got the gist of it," I said as calmly as I could. He let go of the wall hug and started throwing a tantrum around the room like a little kid, except his power destroyed the Grimalkin's chairs and desks laid out around the room.
"You get it so easy, don't you?" he said with spite in his words.
"What do you mean?" I asked calmly.
"UGH - I can't believe I have to spell it out for you." He said pacing around the trashed room, I could feel some of the Grimalkin watching and cowering in fear.
"Your maker, Zomearon, he's one of the few Customary Fey with infinite amounts of mana, and you get to inherit his will, don't you understand? You'll never have to dust the crumbs for that extra piece of mana that's just enough to keep you alive. You'll never have to barter or trade with your life, just so you can keep your existence, you'll never have to be degraded and be put down just so other people can give sliver amounts of their mana, you're rich.
You're affluent in mana and you didn't even have to work for it, meanwhile, my kind begs for mercy from the common folk!" he said all of that in one single breath, it was honestly impressive.
I was getting a better understanding of why mana was so important to Dragan.
"Do you need mana to live?" I asked it was a genuine question.
"Cut the bullshit!" he said
"Wha-?"
"You saw it right? You saw how I turned into a Dragonkin, there's no turning back now!"
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked seriously "It doesn't bother me, you transform into a Dragonkin because of your lineage, and it needs an incredibly huge amount of influx of mana, am I getting that right?" I tried to talk sense into him.
"It has to do with everything!" he continued. "You've seen through me, you know the truth now."
"Seen through you? I don't understand?"
"Hasn't Zomearon filled you in already?"
"He's told me nothing, Dragan please," I begged. There was a pause when he looked at me, tears were forming again. My body was shaking, in fear or anxiety I wasn't sure.
"You lie!" he spoke again. "Humans hate Dragonkin, we can only take mana but never give it back," yet I was no human, but a slime with a fake body.
"Is that what this is? You think I hate you now just because you have a talent that has to be hidden away,"
"Yeah - that's how it usually goes," he said. There was another beat. The room went dark, fog covered the moonlight, and my emotions were casting spells on their own.
"You're so stupid!" I exclaimed.
"Wha-?" he said confused.
"You know, I was going to make this all go away," tears streamed down my eyes, my throat started to hurt, and my salty tears reached my mouth. "I was going to pretend like this never happened, and we would go on our merry way, we still need to find Veldoran and register for your cleric training and my druid scholar," I said my voice breaking.
"Ugh, you still on about that; Kamika only told you that so you'd have a narrative to hold on to, it was all fake, everything from the very beginning," I couldn't believe it, he had been using me this whole time. For everything.
"Even the sex?" I asked. He lowered his head to the ground and stopped making eye contact with me, he didn't say anything, but his silence spoke volumes.
"You're blocking me off, you're doing this on purpose, right? You're lying to me right now," I said barely through creaks and moans. He didn't look me in the eye, just at the ground, he nodded no.
"You know nothing," he said in a small voice.
"Fine!" I said clenching my jaw. "You want my mana? Take it! Take it all, I don't care anymore, I'd rather be dead than suffer another minute in this hell of your making!"
"It doesn't work that way, now you only mock me and my kind,"
"You'll only take my mana by force then? Is that how it works, huh!?"
"Stop!" he said in a commanding voice. "You wouldn't understand, Zomearon spirits never understand."
"Try me! Try to explain it to me because you're doing such a good job right now,"
"You're being a child, leave me alone,"
"I-ugh-I can't believe you, I can't believe you're doing this right now, where is this ego coming from!?" he didn't say anything. "You know what, fine… Have this whole month to yourself, since you want to be alone so much, you can jerk off to yourself since you love doing that so much!"
He walked two steps and spit in my eyes. I wiped it off with as much grace as I had left.
"You're unbelievable, I came in peace, but you're being an impossible dickhead right now, take a chill pill and go suck a dick!"
I was about to leave, but something compelled me to ask one final question. There was a pause, he would look at the floor then at me cowardly and awkwardly.
"Do you even like men?!" I finally asked.
He shrugged.
"I've never been with a human so I wouldn't know," those were his final words because I stomped out of there mad furious. I couldn't believe him, there was so much ego in his words, when before there was none. Just because I saw him turn into a Dragonkin, just because he has to beg and hustle for mana.
If only he had been honest from the start. If only he would have asked, I would have given it to him.