“I’ll be anything but sharp,” Kian muttered.
“If you’re in too much pain to move, you’ll be useless,” Adrissu pressed, and Kian glared up at him. “You’ll be worse than that. I’ll have to worry about taking care of youanddealing with this dragon.”
“Fine, fine, fine,” Kian muttered, angrily digging through his knapsack to find the vial of liquid Adrissu had stashed within it. “I’m taking half. I already said I was only going to take half this morning. Happy now?” He made direct eye contact with Adrissu as he wrenched the stopper free, tilted his head back, and squirted half the stopper into his open mouth. Even though he knew Kian was angry, Adrissu smirked, all his teeth showing.
“Yes,” he said, lowering his head to hover just above Kian’s, breathing in the scent of his hair. “Thank you. That was the last time you’ll ever have to take it.”
Some of the tension drained from Kian’s shoulders, and although his scowl barely faltered, he reached up to cup Adrissu’s snout in his hands.
“I know,” he said, his voice softer now. “Thank you for doing this for me. I love you.”
“I loveyou,”Adrissu replied. “Anything for you.” He felt Kian nod. For a moment they stood, motionless and silent, as Adrissu’s eyes slipped closed. The air around them was cool and damp, making Kian’s hands against his scales feel warm.
“Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be ready,” Kian sighed, as he released Adrissu’s snout to carefully stretch, leaning over to touch his toes. “And then we can go kill a dragon or whatever.”
“We aren’t killing it,” Adrissu sighed, though they had gone over the plan many before. “Just incapacitating it enough to perform the ritual.”
“Same difference?” Kian teased, smirking up at him. It was a relief to see him smile, enough that Adrissu had no retort; he only gave a long-suffering sigh and nodded, relenting.
“When we go over there,” Adrissu continued, Kian’s expression becoming more somber at the change in his tone. “I don’t think I should strap you to me. I think you should be able to jump off as soon as I land. Can you do that? I won’t be flying high, just enough to clear the forest until I can sense where he is.”
Kian frowned, eyeing Adrissu’s back.
“Maybe,” he said, but sounded nervous. “Maybe just one?”
“I just worry that you’d be stuck if... well, you know. We wanted to have this be two against one, but it might not work if you’re on me the whole time.”
“You don’t think I’d be safe on you? I wouldn’t be more of a target on my own?”
Adrissu hesitated—both were possible, and he had considered both options. But Kian was well-versed enough in magic that he thought he could hold his own, and he might need to move around or quickly create distance between them.
“I still think it would be better,” Adrissu said. “Your magic will keep you safe. I think it would be better for you to move as you need to. Plus, it’s harder to hit two targets. And you might be the easy target, but I’m the more threatening one, so I think I’ll command most of his attention.”
Kian laughed. “Yeah, I guess youarekinda scary.”
After a few minutes longer, Kian climbed back onto Adrissu, settling just above his wings. Only a single leather strap bound them together now, so Kian’s grip around his neck was even tighter than before. Adrissu lifted into the air, and he could feel the human’s breath quicken as they soared almost straight up for the best vantage point. Cautiously, Adrissu flew closer to the edge of the forest; from here, he could just make out some crumbled structure in the distance deep within the woods. Some sort of abandoned building, he guessed, but it would be a decent spot to hide an entrance to an underground lair.
“I think that’s it,” Adrissu rumbled. “There’s some kind of building in the woods. Do you see it?”
“Not really,” Kian replied, sounding nervous. “It’s too foggy.”
Adrissu grunted and soared closer, but stopped well short of the edge of the forest. He could see the structure better now: it was some sort of watchtower, but long abandoned. Even from this distance, he could see crumbled stonework. “Now?”
“I think so,” Kian agreed. “I mean, yeah, if you think it’s there...”
“He’ll be able to sense me as soon as I get close,” Adrissu warned. “I think that’s it, but we’ll have to act fast.”
“I understand,” Kian said. His grip around Adrissu’s neck tightened. “I’m ready.”
Adrissu nodded silently, then surged forward. It took only a few flaps of his wings before that familiar awareness of another dragon in his space flared in the back of his mind, sparking an urge to flee that he firmly tamped down. The clock was ticking.
“Hold on tight,” he murmured, and Kian’s arms and legs tightened even more around him. He tucked his wings in, and they dropped, speeding toward the tower and the forest floor below.
The tower filled his vision as they descended rapidly—and, suddenly, a glimmer of yellow scales, a flash of teeth—the tower wasnotan entrance, but the lair itself. The dragon had already spotted them, Adrissu realized with a surge of anger, but it must be younger and smaller than he thought for its entire lair to fit in a singular tower.
“It sees us,” he hissed, realizing all this in a split second. “We won’t surprise it. Be ready to jump off as soon as I land. Hold on!”
Kian did not have the chance to reply, as Adrissu stretched his wings once more, slowing their descent so he could maneuver between the dense trees and land in the small clearing around the tower, where the yellow dragon was already leaping forth. The ground beneath them was wet and muddy, making his claws sink in heavily as he landed. Adrissu swore, wrenching himself free, even as he felt Kian quickly unbuckle himself and leap down into the mud below.
