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He coughed.
“We should get you back to Lemuria so your lungs can be examined, and some treatment administered.” Auryn shifted into human form and rifled through the bag. He pulled out a dark green shendyt, then a square of wool fabric. Another container of water. He wet the wool and told Keon, “Human form. Get dressed.”
“Fix my damn lungs here,” Keon said.
Auryn shoved the shendyt into Keon’s chest.
Akoni pushed the two of them apart. “The Gate will lose power soon, and I do not care to be on this side of it when that happens. We are not alone on this planet, and I do not want to be here with nine surly guards, an exhausted consort, and the one of us trained in First Contact unable to speak two words without coughing.”
Keon scowled at Akoni but yanked the shendyt from Auryn. Auryn said, “Human form. Iwilllet you choose which one of us to ride in triumph.”
“Fuck you, Auryn.”
“Oh, me, me!” I teased. “I flygreatnow.”
They all gave me a look like I had also declared I was fluent in every dialect going back to the Living Days.
“What? I flygreat.”
“Get dressed,” Auryn told Keon. “Ignore her.”
I scowled and Akoni snickered, then jangled his tail impatiently.
Keon grumbled, but sashed the shendyt around his hips and tied the wet cloth over his nose and mouth. I preened my finlets at him. “Ooo, interstellarbandit. Here to steal my purity points and virtue.”
“This more concentrated O2is making you silly,” Akoni said.
“Look, it’s a race to the purity scale bottom, and I intend to win.”
“I swim faster than you.”
Not if he wouldn’t play with Auryn for my amusement, he didn’t.
Akoni cocked his head to the side, neck in an indignant arch as Keon shoved a foot into the crook of his fore claw.
Keon grabbed a handful of finlet and deftly mounted Akoni like he was a large, metallic horse. Auryn suppressed a smirk at our resident princeling becoming a beast of burden.
A sound that resembled the background moaning that grated against my magic made us all yank up short. My scales tingled and every magical sense ignited.
I flapped around with a chirp just as Auryn’s scales ignited with a rush of light.
The toxic background radiation of the planet intensified. Something wafted over me like the fetid stink of an opened sewer, sinking into my scales, trying to slide between them and smear my hide.
**HOWL**
Keon dismounted from Akoni just as fast as he’d swung on. Auryn circled backwards to shield his cousin from whatever was coming.
The scream came again, a cross between an enraged raptor, a very angry mountain lion, and something straight out of my nightmares. The background moaning hit full force and the scream echoed and echoed andechoed, while the dead dog animated itself and staggered around after getting hit by a cosmic bus.
Something dragon-shaped came towards us across the sky, flapping on wings that were crooked. It limped and staggered through the air, but made damn good time. It washuge—bigger than Immoalen—with that chunky Homeworld dragon appearance, but it lacked scales.
Was that a fucking...zombie?
My scales hummed with terror. The same terror I’d felt on the blue dragon’s bones.
It moved with deceptive speed. It had beenthere, and now it dove/staggered through the sky, plowed along the ground in a rush, scattering us, and staggered/flew back up into the sky to curl around for another pass.
Akoni raised his wings with a metallic clang as his scales hardened.
