Dragon 6 Chapter 23 (Patreon)

“This is so boring. Where are the things to stab? I was promised lots of stabbing,” Helena complained as we continued through the mist.

“Don’t jinx it,” I grumbled. “Just because you have issues that you like to work out with violence doesn’t mean the rest of us wouldn’t love a simple journey.”

“I do not have issues,” Helena shot back.

The entire group went silent.

“Really? Nothing?” She turned to all of them.

Evelyn shrugged. “You do kind of have issues. But hey, who doesn’t?” She followed up quickly as Helena gripped her big spear.

“Haven’t we passed this rock several times already?” Regina pointed at a rock to our right.

I frowned. “I don’t know. They all look the same to me.”

Helena stabbed the rock with her spear, making a shallow cut in the stone. “Now you’ll recognize it.”

“Issues,” Evelyn said quietly, earning a glare from the nephilim. But Evelyn wasn’t dissuaded. “You know, a good roll in the gold would probably help that.”

“Excuse me?” Helena raised an eyebrow.

“You know, he likes to lay with women in his hoard. So a roll in the gold rather than hay,” Evelyn explained the saying.

I wanted to facepalm, but I was trying not to draw attention. Helena was likely to go postal over the statement.

“That’s not going to happen,” Helena snorted. “He marked me, sure, but we didn’t mate.”

“You are not his mate? Then why did you allow him to mark you?” Regina asked, confused.

Helena slammed the butt of her spear into the ground. “I did not allow him.”

“Ah. Got it. Now I get why you’re so touchy. You weren’t strong enough, and he asserted his right as the stronger of the two of you.” Regina nodded to herself.

“His right?!” Helena squawked. “He had no right! I was possessed by a demon.”

“Oh. Then he marked the demon?” Regina asked in confusion.

“She whammied me with her love magic,” I clarified for the confused red dragon. “That made me love her, and so my dragon responded and marked her. And because I did that, I was able to drive out the demon that was trying to consume her soul. But she likes to leave that part out.”

Regina looked to Helena with full seriousness. “Sounds like you owe him your life.”

“Shut up.” Helena had suddenly become less interested in the argument. She must have at least agreed with Regina on some level.

We passed a rock, and I looked closer. Sure enough, it had Helena’s mark.

“Ugh! We’re going in circles.” Helena smashed the rock with her spear, creating a loud bang as the rock exploded and chips shot across the ground, several splashing in some pond in the mist.

“Ouch,” a woman’s voice said from the mist. “Why are you throwing rocks?”

Deciding to take a chance, I answered, “Sorry, my friend here was frustrated and broke a rock. We are walking in circles.”

The woman made a surprised noise, and there was a swish of water before a woman dressed in sheer cloth came out of the mist dripping wet. The sheer cloth wasn’t very effective when wet, displaying her nipples clearly through the fabric.

“And who are you?” She twirled a finger through her hair as she eyed me, her eyes raking up and down my body.

“Zach.” Helena’s tone was dripping with warning. “Don’t be a horn dog.”

I rolled my eyes, not feeling any glamor coming from the nymph. “I’m Zach Pendragon, the Dragon King. I’m looking to meet The Dreamer.”

“Ooooh,” she made an impressive sound. “A king. Yes, you do have the aura of a king.” She approached in a fluid motion, her hands resting softly against my arm as she looked up at me through her eyelashes. “How can a little nymph like me help you, Mr. King.” She bit her lip and blushed.

I cleared my throat. “We find ourselves walking in circles. Can you help us find a path to The Dreamer?”

“Of course. I know a path. For a man like yourself, you shouldn’t be trotting through the jungle. I can take you.” She was so delicate as she took my hand and pulled me along.

“Come on, girls,” I said, feeling good about the nymph.

“Twenty to one odds she tries to fuck him,” Helena said.

“I’m not taking that bet,” Poly said quickly. “I think the question is if she’s actually taking us to The Dreamer or to some trap.” Poly followed close behind me.

As we took a few steps through the mist in a new direction, I found myself going downhill into a pool that seemed to have more mist pouring out of it.

The nymph licked her lips. “We can swim there. The Dreamer is a plant, so she needs lots of water.”

“Makes sense.” I smiled, allowing her to lead and knowing that I was probably about to get glamored, but that’s why my mates were with me.

As soon as she was up to her waist in the water, she tugged me. “I have the man,” she stated, her voice losing a touch of the airiness.

I was pulled off my feet as a gaggle of nymphs came out of the mist and tried to stop my mates, filling in behind me. But the nymph who had me was a strong swimmer.

“Hey.” I flailed in the water and caught my foot on a rock, shifting my feet to claws and digging in.

She tugged again before she got close, her eyes locking onto mine. “Don’t you want to come with me?” she pouted, and a glamor hit me like a hammer between the eyes.

I blinked, trying to right my head, but it flipped upside down. “Yeah, I want to come with you.” I let go of the rocks. “Why don’t we go?”

The pretty little nymph giggled and came closer, kissing me. Her lips were so soft as we started drifting down the stream. The nymph’s cry broke our kiss, water exploding around her as a silver spear nearly cut the nymph in half.

I immediately turned to defend the delicate woman, spotting Helena. I was mad at her for being so jealous when she continually pushed me away.

“Helena!”

“Oh shut it.” Her spear lashed out again and drove the nymph away from me. “Get your head back on.”

Someone splashed into the water next to me.

Evelyn came into my arms and hit me with her glamor, shattering the previous one. She pressed her wet chest to mine as she held my head in her hands and looked into my eyes. “Won’t you come back with me instead?”

I smiled, ready to answer as her glamor faded and I was once again clear in my head. “Fuck.”

“You are really weak to those,” Regina commented as the nymphs scattered.

I groaned. The glamors left me feeling hungover. I held my head. “Yeah.”

“Carry me,” Evelyn pouted. “I’m wet.”

Scooping her up, I didn’t even notice her weight. “Dry off against me.”

“Stop glamoring him,” Helena growled.

“She’s not,” I snapped back. “This is just me caring for her. That’s what people do, Helena. They care for each other even when magic isn’t involved.”

“Whatever,” she replied, looking away.

“Could you at least be a little more pleasant now that you got to stab something?” I asked.

She huffed. “As if those nymphs were even worth a fight.” But she went quiet and kept on moving.

“Maybe we broke out of the loop by going through the river,” Maeve suggested, trying to get me moving before Helena got too far ahead.

“As much as the two of you grate on each other, there’s a lot of sexual tension there,” Evelyn observed from my arms. “You two should really just fuck it out of your systems once in a while.”

I snorted. “I doubt that’ll ever happen. She’s diametrically opposed to the mark I left on her.”

Evelyn gave me a look saying that she wasn’t buying it. “Why would she even come to Faerie with you if she was that opposed? Hmm?” she pushed me.

“Her partner needed a break from the feds and so she joined her,” I reasoned.

Evelyn didn’t look fooled. “I don’t see her partner here in the Wilds. There’s something else that brought her here, and I’m fairly certain it isn’t my incredible charm.” She brushed her hair over her shoulder.

I had to be honest, Evelyn had been pretty perceptive when it came to matters of the heart so far. “What would you suggest then?”

“A hate fuck. When we are out of here, rile her up, argue, fight, and then pin her against the wall.” Evelyn sighed. “I wish I could watch. She has some serious pent-up issues. I bet it will be hot.”

I shook my head. Angry sex wasn’t my idea of building a strong relationship, but maybe it would help tear down the walls, sort of like pushing past friendship boundaries. We just needed to push past the fact that I’d marked her.

“Oh, you are thinking about it. Just think how rough she can take and give,” Evelyn encouraged me.

“Stop trying to fill my head with those thoughts.” I rolled my eyes at the nymph in my arms.

“You love it.” She grinned from ear to ear.

I stepped on something, and it gave way below me, my feet suddenly unable to find footing. I sat down on instinct as I slid through a winding tunnel of twisted roots.

Evelyn screamed and clung to me like a life raft.

“Hold on.” My voice deepened as I took on my hybrid form, wanting to be more solid for whatever lay ahead.

“Zach! My king!” shouts came from up the tunnel.

I wanted to answer, but everything was happening too quickly. My body kept sliding down until I found myself sitting on my ass in a dark chamber.

Evelyn was quick and tossed up a globe of cold light. “Where are we?”

The walls and ground, everything in sight, were made from tightly woven roots. I didn’t like the feeling of the area one bit.

There was a scream from the tunnel above, and I stepped away before Maeve shot out, followed quickly by Trina who knocked her over. Finally, Helena came out, snapping her wings open and gliding over the two much more gracefully.

Polydora came out in a roll followed by Regina whose dragon claws had been slowing her down. She basically stepped off at the end.

“We are underground,” Regina said, stating the obvious.

“Geniuses. I’m surrounded by geniuses.” Helena threw up her hands.

“We are in The Dreamer’s root system,” I said, realizing there was really only one thing that had roots so large and this vast.

The roots started to wiggle as something pushed their way through the roots.

“You don’t suppose that there's some defense mechanism in here for intruders, do you?” Trina asked.

“The giant flower that can kill people on contact?” I frowned. “Why would it need a defense mechanism?”

“That was the flowers and vines. Maybe the roots don’t have the same properties,” Trina argued as something was clearly pushing its way out of the root walls. “Can we get back up?”

She went back over to the tunnel we had fallen down, but her hands couldn’t find purchase on the slippery inside of it.

“Get ready,” I growled, stomping forward as a vine limb shot out from between the roots, questing for something.

More of the creature pulled its way out. It was a thorny vine that was vaguely coiled in on itself, but then it formed a quadruped. With a lot of the thorns around the head, it sort of looked like a lion’s silhouette to me.

“Oh. It’s blind,” Evelyn said from my arms.

As she spoke, the plant creature spun in her direction.

“Talking was a poor choice,” Polydora muttered, stepping around to the side as the plant creature turned with her.

Another creature pulled itself out of the wall.

“Stay close. We need to move.” My fire breath washed over the two vine lions.

Their thorns caught fire, making them eerie. The fire made the surface of their vines smolder, but there must have been enough water in them that they weren’t going to catch fire so easily.

Helena’s spear blew right through one. Its vines uncoiled and opened up, allowing the spear to pass right through it before the spear landed amid the roots beyond them.

I took a deep breath and switched to frost, covering both of them in a thin layer of ice.

“You really should get used to death.” Trina shifted and stepped forward as the creatures started to wiggle and break free of the ice. Her purple fog caught the two vine lions, and they became dried, brittle coils of thorns.

Regina shifted and kicked one. It shattered against the wall like a dead plant left out in the sun far too long. “Okay, take point. We’ll take care of moving them out of the way.”

The walls of the root-lined cavern wiggled, and more of the vine lions began moving through the substrate.

“Get moving,” I growled, taking up the front with Trina as my scales shifted to black and copper.

The vine lions came through the walls quicker than before, but with the two of us up front coating the hallway with death breath, the others were able to kill The Dreamer’s defenses as fast as they came.

“So much for this place being safe,” Helena muttered, but she had a smile on her face as she whacked at a dried bundle of vines, shattering it.

“Keep going.” I pushed through the tunnel until we were dumped out into a much larger chamber. “Fuck. Where the hell are we going?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Evelyn shouted.

I picked a direction and started to work my way around the cavern. “Give me more light.”

Someone put another spell into the air, and it was like midday in the cavern all of a sudden. Vine lions were everywhere. They were coming out of the walls, the floors, and even the ceilings. The tunnel we had just exited started pouring more out behind us.

“Forward.” I sprayed death breath in front of us while Trina covered our side.

Even as they died, they left huge batches of brambles that I had to clear for our less scaly members of the group.

“Regina, light up the ones Trina has killed,” I said, realizing they may hold fire better now that they were dead.

Her flames roared over the dead vines, setting them ablaze and circling around to our front, but I didn’t let the heat bother me as I continued to tear a path through the brambles.

“Up ahead.” Helena pointed. I followed her line of sight, spotting another tunnel.

We had no idea what would be through it, but we needed to get out of the current chamber.

I started moving just as a vine lion fell down on top of me, quickly wrapping itself around me. Trina breathed purple fog on me, and I tore off the dead vines as I kept my breath on the forward section.

Another fell down onto Helena.

“Get this off me!” she screamed, pulling at the thorns.

Trina took a breath almost by instinct and paused, realizing the damage she could do. Maeve was quicker. Her hands touched the vines, freezing them over. After they were frozen, Helena was strong enough to shatter them.

But our pause to help Helena had let the mass of them close in on us. More took up the strategy of their predecessors, climbing the walls to drop down on us en masse.

My death breath dried many of them, but it was hard to spray it up and forward without hitting the others. Maeve was doing what she could to freeze them, but there were just too many.

Evelyn went down, tangled in the vines before they stabbed into the ground and she sank into the roots.

“Get her up,” I shouted, dealing with my own vines. We were losing the battle. I tried to move to help her when the others couldn’t, but the vines were just too much.

Maeve went down next, the vine lions pulling her down too.

I roared in frustration, shifting and letting out a huge gout of death fog, killing as many as I could and trying to buy time as my claws raked into the roots.

I went wild, trying to dig Maeve and Evelyn back out, but they were gone. My claws found nothing. I turned, struggling against the roots to make out the others who were also covered.

I saw Helena’s wings disappear into the ground, followed by Regina’s bright red scales.

“My king.” Trina breathed death breath on me, even as I was being swarmed.

In the time she took to try to help me, she was pulled under and her breath vanished. I whipped about, beating the vine lions off. But I was alone at that point, my movement the only sound echoing around the large chamber.

They began to pile on top of me, anchoring me to the ground. Even my giant dragon form could barely move as they anchored my neck and prevented me from turning my death breath upon them.

Slowly, I sank into the ground.