Blood Shaper

Chapter Seventy-two

Kay, Eleniah, and Murunel stood in a small clearing in the woods north of the as of yet unnamed settlement. No one else had joined them, probably for various reasons, but Kay was thankful for it. It was Kay, Eleniah, and Murunel when they’d managed to break part of the trap and allowed her to talk to them, and now it would be the three of them as they broke her out completely.

Eleniah held out the wand towards Murunel’s ball. “Is everyone ready?”

“We’re going to just… do it?” Kay asked.

“Yeah? Let’s get her out as soon as we can.”

“You’re right; I just feel like this is important, and there should be some fanfare or something.”

Murunel stirred and flexed her claws as she looked up at the two of them, “Do it? Please?”

“Of course!” Eleniah went to tap the wand against the ball.

“Wait!” Kay grabbed the tip and pulled it away.

“What are you doing?” Eleniah demanded, “There’s nothing-”

“If she goes from the size she is now to her normal size,” Kay interrupted, “Won’t we be crushed since she’ll end up right on top of us?”

Eleniah stopped talking, her mouth still open as she slowly turned her eyes down to look at the ball. Murunel stared up at her with similarly wide eyes. “I didn’t think of that.”

“I’m not that big!” Murunel protested, “It’s not like you’d die!”

“Eleniah would be fine probably, but I’d get injured for sure. I’m only tier three,” Kay pointed out, “So let’s think of a good way to do this without anyone getting hurt.”

“Here,” Eleniah handed Kay the wand, “We’ll do it like this. You tap the ball with the wand as fast as you can, and I’ll throw straight up. Murunel, you get ready to fly once you’re out.”

“Will you be able to stay airborne?”

“Oh, sure! That’s easy.”

“Alright, ready?” Eleniah held her hand back at an angle, positioning herself to throw.

Kay nodded and held out the wand. “Three, two, one.” He flicked his wrist as quickly as he could, tapping the metal tip of the wand to the glass sphere before jerking it back. Eleniah’s arm blurred, and Kay heard the sound of something being launched into the distance. A tiny object flew through the air away from them, fast enough that Kay almost lost track of it. He thought he saw a hint of a glowing light for just a moment, followed by a quiet tinkle of breaking glass.

Then, a few hundred feet above them, there was a dragon.

He’d had time to look Murunel over while she’d been tiny, but that was nothing compared to the majesty of a full-sized adult dragon in the sky above him.

She was the size of a passenger jet, with massive wings that blotted out the sun as she flapped them. Her golden scales shimmered in the light as she began to move. Her massive golden eyes were wide with joy and wonder as she started to fly around the area. She started just gliding around, occasionally flapping to stay in the air. There was obvious magic involved in keeping her afloat as she began to do more intricate-looking tricks and acrobatic maneuvers. Barrel rolls, flips, complicated-looking corkscrews, and quick jukes followed each other in complicated patterns as she frolicked across the sky.

“Gorgeous.” Kay breathed out as he stared at her.

“Yeah.”

Murunel came to a stop in the air above them, and they started to get battered by the wind from her wings. Kay held one hand out in front of his face to keep the worst of the wind out of his eyes as Murunel threw back her head and roared.

The only thing Kay had ever experienced to compare to this was the hydra roaring, but except for volume and the fact that you’d use the same word for both actions, there was nothing similar about the two cries. The hydra was nothing compared to her, and its roar was a weak imitation from a lesser creature, not as powerful or merely as awesome. As Murunel’s roar echoed around them, it was majestic and filled with absolute joy as she celebrated finally being free from that ball. Kay watched, wide-eyed as a half-forgotten childhood dream that most people had suddenly come true right in front of him. This was a dragon.

Slowly and with obvious care, Murunel landed in the clearing. The ground shook as she walked towards them. She stretched out her neck and gently toucher her nose to the center of Kay’s chest.

Reality seemed to shimmer for a moment, and then she disappeared. Or, more accurately, changed.

Kay had just a second to take in long curly golden hair and a pair of similarly golden horns before she was hugging him.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…” She just kept telling him that over and over again as she shook.

Kay reached around and hugged her back, holding her close as she cried.

Eleniah stepped close, smiling widely when Murunel reached out and dragged her in.

They stood there hugging for an indeterminate amount of time. However long it was, eventually Murunel pulled her head away from Kay’s chest and looked up at them. She smiled widely, her golden eyes flashing. “Thanks.”

Kay grinned back. “You’re welcome.”

She turned to look at Eleniah, who reached up to wipe her tears away. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad we could help.”

Murunel stepped back. “So, I have to go see my parents and tell my family I’m okay, but I’ll come back!”

Kay gaped at her.

She looked back at him, confused, “What?”

“Uhh…”

Murunel looked down and found herself completely, and in Kay’s opinion, gloriously naked. “Ah!”

Eleniah smacked Kay in the face as she covered his eyes with her hand. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Sorry.”

“I forgot I was bathing when that asshole who captured me showed up. I turned back into my regular form to deal with him since I didn’t have clothes.”

“Not a problem!”

Kay could feel Eleniah glaring at him. “You’re imagining it, aren’t you?”

“No comment.”

Murunel giggled loudly, “I’m going to go now because my family’s probably been worried about me, but I’ll come back, I promise!”

“I believe you.” Kay grinned at her, his eyes still covered by Eleniah’s hand. “We’ll see you when you get back.”

“Okay!”

Eleniah moved her hand, and Kay watched as Murunel took off in her dragon form, flying away from them. He watched as her glittering golden shape quickly flew into the distance. With seconds she was a golden dot in the distance, and by the time a minute had passed, she was gone from sight.

“She’s really fast.”

“Most dragons are.”

“I’m sad now.”

“Yeah, I miss her already too. But she said she’s coming back.”

Kay sighed and turned back towards the settlement. “That’s something to look forward to.” He glanced down at the wand in his hand. “Have we gone through the rest of that bad we kind of stole?”

“No, it’s on the list of things to do.”

They started walking back home, talking about anything they thought of to push away the slight feeling of loneliness already creeping in.

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Deep inside the dark tunnels underneath the plateau that sat above the valley, behind the cliff that Kay and his people were making their new home on and around, a figure stirred. It had heard something. A roar that had echoed through the entrances to this distant spot in the darkness, at the very edge of their territory. The figure sniffed the air, searching for a clue as to what that sound was from. It smelled nothing, but it knew it had heard that roar.

Once, this being had been something more than what it now was, but that was long ago. Now it only sought two things. Its raspy voice bounced and echoed down the tunnel, drawing more of its kind as it moved towards the outside world, searching for the source of the noise it had heard. “Food? Sacrifices?”

More and more of its brethren gathered, following the first figure upward.

“Food?”

“Food?”

“Food? Sacrifices?”

“Sacrifices?”

“Sacrifices? Food? Food?”

“Food?”

“Sacrifices?”

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