"Can you shut up?" The sound of the creaking bed and giggling was getting annoying. They always started off on different beds but somehow ended up on one. Of course, I couldn't blame them for relieving, they wiped out half of today's battlefield on their own.
Out of all the vices making love to your fiancee at night can't be the worst.
But there were only so many times I could be forced to bear this torture.
So I excused myself instead. I hopped out of the window and jumped a couple of roofs down to a more comfortable hay one. It was a treat to see the wide expanse of snow that lay in front of me. It was the middle of summer. This late at night the snow shone blue under the moon and the river of stars. With glittering torches dotting the picturesque scenery.
And behind me was the antithesis to such beauty— a field of blood.
I laid down on the roof. "How pretty."
The last stronghold of humanity before entering the Untouchable territory of Letchkia. It had been a long day today operating with the military and following procedures. Luckily tomorrow was the final one. I heard that the Lord's personal familiar would be making an appearance tomorrow. This is the last mission the estate had appointed us for.
This was the least I could do for them after completely botching their chain of command.
Before I knew it, under the weight of my own fatigue I slept.
*
*
*
Flap. The sound of a bird and the burning sensation of the sun on my skin.
It was chilly.
Flap. Flap.
"Just one more minute."
Flap Flap FLAP FLAP!!
"I said one more minute!!" I shot up off the roof and saw a whole dragon flying in front of me. "Oh."
A moment of mutual understanding overcame the being and myself. He opened his mouth. I saw the back of his throat glow.
"It's still too early for this." I rolled back down and kickflipped straight at the dragon. The move was not to beat him, just not be in his direction of fire. My heart was beating out of my chest. This was the first time I had been caught this off guard. Clearly, the battlefield was not my home yet.
I mounted its face with my feet in its nostrils.
It was bright blue with hints of gold, burning red and strong blacks. A very exaggerated face that became even more so as it jumped off into flight. Shit shit shit.
I felt its nose get hotter. A dragon's fire was like their breaths. If it could leave their mouths, it could leave their noses. And their asses apparently. Though I don't think you can breathe through ther-
"Gawwr!" The dragon tried to force a sneeze.
I dug my fingers and cracked its scales right above its nose, which allowed me to grab and hop onto its head, and as soon as I did its nostrils let out the most violent flames. The soles of my feet got burnt. It hurt to step foot, but at least it wasn't permanent damage. Javes could fix it.
"Safe from the flames. Phew."
Its eyes were crossed looking at me. Fire being one thing, it still had its hands to throw. And throw he did. I saw the ginormous things rush at me. Allowing myself to get cornered like this was one of the worst moments of my life.
Wait for it. Wait for it.
As soon as its hand was only a couple of feet away, I threw myself in the air. The fact that the dragon was flying coupled with inertia coupled with the air pulling me back, I flew straight into and caught hold of its mane. A lot of mobility and now, it didn't have its sight on me.
Similarly I was not in a position to attack. The only thing I could do was ride it until someone came and saved me. Or use my Prana. Which I didn't want to do. The incident with the King left my vision noticeably darker. It was already at a stage where it affected my daily life.
"LITHIA! JAVES!" I shouted while getting flown around in circles. No response. "I fucking swear if you're still going at it, I'll chop it off!"
"COMING!" Both of them rushed to the window with a sheet covering them. "Oh, shite."
They were fumbling about unable to figure out what to do.
"Just throw my sword here!"
"Oh, yes." Javes rushed inside looking for my sword without covering himself up. I was expecting to wake up to a lot of things, but a dragon and an asscheek weren't one of them.
"Here!" He dashed to the roof and threw the sword from there since the window was too small. I saw something I shouldn't have. Really now. My eyes need a rest today.
"Damn it!"
I leapt off the dragon and onto the Iudex. My heightened senses paired with moving so quickly all the time meant that everything I saw moved in slow motion. The dragon's wings slowly flapping, the sword slowly dashing towards me, and my blood slowly pumping in my veins.
I extended my feet forward and landed on my massive sword before spinning on it and gaining momentum, then I used the momentum to kick the sword, grab it with both my hands and drew it back like a spear shoving so much Prana of Electricity into it that it started to oscillate. And in one smooth motion, I threw it right at the dragon's wing socket.
Shew!
With no way to stop my momentum, I flew straight into the side of the roof as the sword flew forward. My head was spinning.
Bwoof! Knocking half the tiles off. As the dragon chasing me crashed right underneath.
"Are you alright?!" Javes extended his hand to me to pull me up. And lo and behold, I saw everything. Damn it! I should have used Prana of Time 'til blindness so that I didn't have to see this shit. What a terrible day to have eyes.
Lithia came running from behind in a gown and threw a sheet at him.
Well, my part wasn't done yet. I cracked my neck and jumped back down into the snow.
"I wasn't expecting the Lord's familiar to be a whole dragon. At best I thought it'd be a Cervina." I grabbed the beast's tail and flipped it onto the ground. It was out of commission. As beasts got bigger, one of their biggest threats became their own body mass.
I pulled my sword out of it to hear a grunt. It was only pretending to be knocked out. Cheeky bastard.
"Can you understand what I'm saying? If you don't nod you die." I sat down next to the thing. It nodded.
"Can you talk?" It denied.
Looking at it the cheeky bastard was a cute little thing when it wasn't trying to kill you.
"Will you become my mount if I let you live?" It didn't move its head. "Alright, I'll just have to kill you then." It frantically started to nod sideways.
"Hmm." I crouched next to him. "What's your deal then? Do you not want to attack your Lord? Is that it?"
It reluctantly nodded.
"What about his army? Do you want to fight them?"
It shook its head diagonally after squinting. Like saying 'it's alright'.
"Understood. From this moment on you'll work at this battlefront indefinitely. You won't hurt any ally of humanity within these lands. Understood?"
It nodded suspiciously agreeably.
"As if I would leave it at that." I looked up at the sky. When two people consent to it, a contract can be written down in the code of this world's laws. Laws which are physically impossible for anything existing in this universe to break. Of course contracts can be broken so you have to put a condition on them as well. Not everyone can for a contract, but I wasn't just anyone. As an Apostle directly under Leia, forming contracts was my bread and butter.
"Magistrate ruling the world below, I implore you to place a collar around this one's neck. From this moment onwards he shall not harm any being that is on humanity's side lest he do so he forfeit his life."
The sky's remained silent and then a long deep droning brass filled the sky.
"There we go." And with a dragon companion to protect humanity in our absense, the first day of our journey started.