A strangled cry left her but it was quickly swallowed by the sound of rushing wind in their ears, screaming as they careened closer and closer to the ground. Her arms flailed, instinctively pinwheeling futilely. Anything to keep them from the inevitable death when they crashed into the jagged mountain peaks that drew closer and closer every second. Her eyes squeezed shut. She knew at any second they would hit the ground. In the moment she accepted the hopeless end but for a split moment, she felt weightless and free while caught in the wind's embrace. Like she was a bird catching an updraft to soar above the world, until they splat. Strelitzia only prayed it would be quick.
And then the bubble reappeared, snapping back up and taking a harsh curve toward the mountain side. The invisible force slammed against its jaggy side, bouncing down and down until it fell through an opening. This time when they fell, they drifted as light as a feather. Down and down until they landed on the inside of the mountain's floor. Baeron landed on his stomach and her mother landed against his back, both of them unconscious.
Everything was dark but the small sliver of moonlight beaming down into the opening. The darkness pressing in. Whispers and echoes slithering around.
When her eyes finally opened Strelitzia was almost sure they'd fallen straight into the land of the dead; if not for faint light from above. At the edges of her vision the darkness crept in as if it were a living being determined to swallow her whole. Strelitzia scrambled into a stand, turning this way and that. There had to be someone there. Someone who could help. Goosebumps rose along her exposed skin, still dressed in nothing more than a now haggard nightgown.
Strelitzia wanted to search or call out for help but something about yelling into the unknown frightened her. What if the voice that answered back had other plans?
Every moment of hesitation and doubt was another that her mother and the mage's wounds went unattended. The risk for infection growing. She swallowed her fear and hesitance. The man escaped from slavery to come rescue them. The least she could do was make an attempt. "If someone is there please help us! They're injured!"
A pair of red gleaming eyes appeared in the dark, slitted and nearly as large as the opening above them. "What issss it you want? Why have you entered my cave?"
That was what she'd been afraid of. A monster lurking in the dark. Strelitzia took a step in front of the other two, gazing up at the leering red eyes. "We fell. My sincerest apologies for trespassing. We will gladly leave but I'm afraid my companions are worse for the wear."
"Wounded how? And why should I help you mortal? Aren't you all wretched and filled with greed?" The beast asked, white sharp teeth gleaming through the darkness. It's slitted pupils widened and shrunk.
She tried to steal her nerves which threatened to make her knees weak and her voice quiver. But whatever the creature was hadn't called for their deaths, at least not yet. It was inquisitive instead. A being with reason and probably much older than any human who had the misfortune of stumbling upon it. "I cannot speak for the entirety of my race but I do believe everyone is inherently good. Isn't it only after we've been taught the ways of the world that wickedness enters the heart of men? Faulting a dog for it's mentality once it is trained to be vicious is no fault of its own but its master. It cannot recognize its own actions as evil nor good. It just does."
Strelitzia wasn't sure if the words had come from the many books she'd read or some inherent need to please the creature who towered above in the darkness. "I admit that there is no reason you should aid us. Only that you might appreciate the quiet without our interruption."
The beast huffed and the air from its nostrils sent her clothing rippling beneath its harsh gusts as a large scaly clawed foot lifted her up like she weighed little to nothing. Its sharp nails tore into her shirt to make her easy to lift up. She dangled beneath its nose, and those slitted eyes blinked horizontally within the darkness. "My tears could heal them, the purest magick this world would ever see."
It was an effort but Strelitzia managed to keep her face calm. She focused on the massive creature before her unlike anything she'd heard of. Who knew that such ancient and terrifying beings still hid in the crevices of the Earth? Now she was glad for her mother being unconscious because surely she would have panicked while Strelitzia dangled from its claws that held her as if she weighed nothing.
"Would you be so kind? I fear that they won't last long in the cold and dark with such grievous injuries. It's what sent us plummeting into your mountain. The good sir there," She waved a hand at the burly redhead, "Saved my life. I owe him my best attempt to see him safe."
"A kind heart mortal. A raaare sight to see. It's a shame they slaughtered my people and stole our magic, now look at the world." The beast had a leathery tone as it spoke, and it slung Strelitzia unto its back so quick she didn't even have a second to react. A thump thump, the feeling of the beast charging forward, then the next thing they were swirling upwards towards the opening. When the moonlight hit the beast, it had over a thousand scales, a long golden tail with jade wings lime with the same color. It dipped over the mountain top fast, diving down towards a stream at its base, slushed from frost and ice.
When it landed, it left two clawed footprints in the earth. "Fetch some water. I'll mix it with my tears so you can have extra."
The beast was terrifying and beautiful all at once. Pale moonlight illuminated every scale seemingly an ocean in the night; how it ripples with each moment struck her with an unabashed sense of awe. Though she had no name for the fearsome beast before her, Strelitzia was honored that it could find room in its heart to trust her. Humans had hunted its kind to extinction, drove it to hide in the mountains undisturbed until they crashed in. A part of her heart ached at such a lonely thought.
She shook her head clearing her thoughts so she could focus on the task at hand. There were no buckets handy on the barren peak where snow coated the ground. Somehow the plants where unharmed, protected by a coat of ice which kept their vibrance even amidst a scene more befitting of Frostfall. Plucking a cupped leaf, she gathered a pool of water from the stream before presenting it to the beast. "Is there some way that I might help you as well? I know you think ill of humans but being up here seems terribly lonely. Don't you want to see what's become of the world?
"Help me what?" The beast said, sticking a claw in between his teeth to clean any meat or meals he left behind in its crevice. Those jade shimmering wings edged with gold pulled inwards tight towards his massive scaled body as those large slitted crimson eyes caste down in her direction. "There's nothing you can do for me. I am the last of my kind. Gods had given magick to those with royal blood, then we were hunted for the darker kinds. The kind that cannot bring life. You can't kill such great beasts and think no curse will come of it. If I see what was built from the horrors and the wars of this world, I may light it on fire, delivering to ashes and dust. I'll give them the king this wretched world truly deserves."
Shaking, the folds on his neck rolled and he breathed so heavy snot came flying out his nostrils and flying into Strelitzia. One clawed foot slammed down not too harshly an inch away from her, making the ground quiver ever so gently.
He lowered his head towards the ground, long neck arching like a bridge pointing heaven words. The fins running down its spine flared upwards like a fish's, sparkling an amethysts that bordered translucent. Magick twinkled inside like specks of stardust and stars swirling forever within. "And out of all the people in the cave that became bones at my feet, you survived, and you can hear me when no else can't. So I wonder just how dangerous you are. I know Baeron. But you better watch yourself girl."
"That's enough." The beast said after she showed him the water she'd collected. Extending a wing, he waited for her to climb back up to settle on his back.
Strelitzia wasn't sure how to respond to that. She'd never been anyone remarkable. Rich, but that didn't merit any special privileges when she'd spent her life cooped up. Not that it mattered now when her house exploded with her father in it. She let out a breath through her nose while carefully climbing up its back, clutching the water within her grasp. "I don't plan on hurting you or anyone for that matter. Not if it can be avoided."
She perched on his back, a frown on her face. "I'm no one special. Really this is my first time away from home like this in years. I promise not to make trouble. I have no magick nor am I seeking it. The only thing I want is to heal the others and figure out what we're supposed to do now."
The beast laughed and the single tendril whiskers around it's mouth danced like seaweeds in water. "I don't fear you hurting me. I fear no mortal. I don't even fear the gods that turned their backs on you. And aren't those the people in the stories you read. The ones who think they aren't special and become a princess. Or perhaps the ones who'd never seen the world but holds the purest of hearts. Keep selling yourself cheap and cheap will be all you can give."