[Open by request, please PM! ^.^]
Alright. Just a pinch of dock leaf, and-
BOOM.
Alleya was knocked head over tail as the bubbling liquid in the small cauldron suddenly blew up in her face. She was sent rolling across the ground in a tangle of legs and wings until her back fetched up rather painfully against a tree trunk. For a few moments she simply lay there, dazed and bleary eyed.
Slowly, she clambered to her feet, wincing and grumbling as her body protested. Her eyes flicked to the scorched remains of the cauldron and the few sputtering fires that had started up around it.
"Ohhhh- hell's bells!" The dragoness snorted a jet of smoke and lashed her tail back and forth like an irritated cat.
She knew the potion had been a long shot, and after countless failed attempts she shouldn't get her hopes up, but she had. Cursing under her breath, she reached out and delicately grasped the twisted scraps of metal between two claws, smothering the little fires with a few sweeps of her tail.
Gods, she just wanted her old body back- was that really so much to ask. "Damned potions," Alleaya muttered. "Damned spells and magic and- and everything!"
She huffed a short jet of flame- luckily the foliage in the jungle was too damp to really burn, though she did manage to crisp the edges of a few vines that surrounded the small clearing where she'd set up shop.
Ah, jungles. Jungles are so much better than the endless, boring sands of the desert. Not only are they generally more interesting than a hot wasteland of nothingness, but they reminded Zaryn just a little bit of home. I mean, it lacked the swampy floor, the thick, dangerous smog, and the giant, poisonous everything, but hey, he'll take what he can get.
Unfortunately, it wasn't vacation that brought Zaryn here; he was sent here by contract to hunt down a group of bandits that fled south from Essryn, and they should be here somewhere....
Boom!
Zaryn drew his scimitars and dashed in the direction of the explosion. He took the high road, climbing up onto the branches and hopping from tree to tree, ready to dive at whatever threat he came across. What he actually came across took him by surprise: a small dragon, flailing angrily besides a smoking cauldron.
"Hey," Zaryn called out as he leaned against the trunk of the tree, an amused smile cracking across his face. "You need help down there?"
"Eek!"
Ally hadn't even known a dragon throat was capable of producing such a squeaky sound. Whipping her head around, she peered up in the direction of the voice. "Oh..."
Well. The dragoness had thought she was quite used to things that were out of the ordinary, but this took her a bit by surprise. Her scholarly interest was immediately piqued and she rose up onto her hind legs, wings flaring to help her keep her balance.
"Um- well, I'm not sure what you could do, but if you want to try to help...sure." She cocked her head to the side, puppyish. "What are you?"
If dragons could blush, she would have the instant the words left her mouth. She ducked her head and shuffled her wings awkwardly. "Er, ah- sorry. I just- ahem."
Zaryn pointed to himself. "What am I?" He didn't seem particularly irritated, but rather slightly entertained. "X'zyri." He pointed to the dragon. "What are you. More importantly, what are you doing?"
"X'zyri," she repeated, cocking her head to the side again. Huh. That sounded vaguely familiar- maybe she'd read it somewhere?
Whatever it was, she couldn't remember any specifics. She snorted and shook her head, then sighed as she glanced at the scorched clearing. "Well, I'm..." Hmm. That was a bit more complicated to answer than she would've thought.
"An alchemist," Alleaya decided after a moment, looking back to him. She blinked at him. "I am- or I was- attempting to create a potion."
"Oh, are you an alchemist?" He gave her a great big teasing smile as he hopped down to the forest floor. Zaryn walked up to the cauldron and peered inside it. Smoke was still billowing out of it. "Sweetheart, I'm not an alchemist myself, but I don't think you're doing it quite right."
Ally growled, baring her teeth in an unconscious gesture. She snorted a cloud of smoke. "I am quite aware that something went wrong, thank you," she sniffed.
She twisted her head around to delicately picked up a very human sized travel pack in her teeth, dropping it between her front paws to root around and pull what appeared to be a well-worn journal out with two claws.
"See?" She opened the book to a page somewhere in the middle and tapped it with the tip of a claw. "I followed the instructions exactly! I don't know what happened..." She huffed again and let her head hang dejectedly.
"Easy now," Zaryn chuckled and brought his hands up in front of his face. "I'm just teasing. I probably would have blown my face off if I were in your place."
He raised his eyebrows in bemusement as she dug through a very human-sized traveler's pack. It was rather odd to see a dragon with such un-dragonlike mannerisms, but he didn't question it. Oh, and to top it all off, she was carrying a journal. Weird.
"Uh-huh..." Zaryn brought his face up close to the journal and squinted his eyes as he examined what was written. "Yup. Just as I thought... I have absolutely no idea what it says, but," he brought his face back up and gave the dragon a thumbs-up. "I believe you."
Zaryn eyed the book, then the cauldron, then the bag, and lastly the dragon. "I still have no idea what's going on."
With a sigh, Ally flopped down onto her belly, front legs crossed with her head resting on them. "It's kind of a long story," she grumbled with a dejected snort. The breath fluttered the pages of her mother's journal and she reached out to close it with a claw delicately.
"Suffice it to say, I really need to create a specific kind of potion. Problem is, no one's actually invented it yet- so I've been trying to cobble something together out of other potions and spells."
"Okay, then." A glint of sympathy shone in Zaryn's eyes as he watched the dispirited dragon. He sighed as he ran a hand through his silver-white hair. "I don't know how, but I can help you if you'd like."
Her head perked up a bit and she blinked at him, eyes strangely doe-like for a dragon. "Really?" Her drooping tail sort of curled around, seeming a little more lively. "Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you!"
Ally got to her feet and grinned. Which was a rather terrifying expression on a dragon, but she couldn't help it. "Actually, I think I know a way you could help me," she said excitedly. "See, I came to the jungles a few months ago because I thought I found a lead- there's these old ruins a few miles west of here, but I can't fit." Her tail lashed like an annoyed cat as she twisted and started packing her things away.
"If you're really willing to help- oh." Again with that sheepish little look and she sat back on her haunches, clearing her throat. "Um, my name is Ally, by the way. Nice to meet you." She dipped her head to him politely.
"Ally? That doesn't sound like a dragon name." Zaryn smirked and crossed his arms, giving her a look of curiosity. "But whatever. Name's Zaryn. So, you want me to go into some old ruins, eh?" His smirked disappeared as he rubbed the back in his neck. He really should be hunting down those bandits... "I don't usually do charity work, sweetheart, but I'll make an exception today. What do you need me to get?"
"Oh, well..." Her habit would have been to bite her lip, but that wasn't really an option. "It's Alleaya, actually, but I go by Ally... Anyway." She shook her head and eyed him up and down. "It, um, doesn't have to be charity. I don't have much, but I could pay you."
She glanced at her pack. There were still some coins in there, right. Clearing her throat, she continued, "And I don't need you to get something, exactly. There's, ah- there's supposed to be old alchemic sigils carved into the walls and floor of one of the underground chambers. If you could copy them down into the journal..."
She glanced at him hopefully.
"Wait, wait.. You want me to copy alchemical sigils? Me? Are you sure?" He shifted his weight uncomfortably and gave her an incredulous look. "I mean.... I'm not saying no, but... I have to warn you that I have absolutely no knowledge in alchemy. Hell, I can't even cast a spell to save my life." He closed his eyes and shrugged. "I mean, I'll try my best."
"Oh, that's okay!" Ally tried to smile at him. "Alchemy is more a combination of science and art than magic itself. You'll just be writing things down, you don't need magical talent to do that."
She darted her head forward to snap up the straps of her pack and twisted her neck around to hang it off of one of the spikes that lined her spine. "Oh." She suddenly froze, then twisted her head around again to look at him. "I'm sorry, I've been very rude."
The dragon cleared her throat, then carefully extended a paw and offered one foreclaw to him. "A pleasure to meet you, and thank you very much for offering to help."
"Yeah, no problem, darling." He reciprocated her handshake. "The pleasure's mine." Zaryn smiled and gave her a wink. He felt quite relieved to hear that no magic was necessary for the job, yet still felt a little nervous. Academic-related jobs are quite out of his comfort-zone, and he still wasn't sure what to expect.
"Say, do you know anything else about these ruins?"
Ally found herself not-blushing again and ducked her head as she pulled her paw back. "Well, I don't know much- I managed to get into some of the larger hallways that weren't totally collapsed and disabled the traps in there, but there might be more further in."
She twisted to make her way into the trees, then paused and glanced over her shoulder. "Um... It'll be faster if we fly..." She hedged a moment, then sighed and mumbled, "You can, ah, ride if you want."
"Sounds good to me." Zaryn climbed up onto Ally's back. She seemed kind of embarrassed to offer him a ride.
What a weird dragon.
"Oh, one more thing: will you be accompanying me as far as you can go?"
Ally tried not to squirm as he climbed up. She'd never carried someone before, it was an odd feeling.
"I'd like to, yes," she answered, backing up into the clearing so she had room to take off. Her wings fanned out to either side and she took a few bounding steps forward, flapping.
Because it wasn't her natural form, no one had ever actually taught the young dragoness how to fly. Her takeoff was a little shaky and clumsy, but she at least got them into the air, spiraling up over the trees and she tried to even herself out.
"Good, cause I get a little lonely," he said with a joking tone.
The rocky takeoff nearly sent Zaryn flying backwards, but he managed to to find his grip on one of her spikes. "Woah there!" Zaryn garbed a hold onto the dragon's neck. "Are you sure you're actually a dragon?" His teasing voice held a slight hint of unease at the way she was struggling to fly.
With an irritated huff and a flick of her tail to act almost as a rudder, Ally craned her neck back to give him a brief, narrow eyed look and banked west.
"Actually, that's part of the problem," she muttered, almost more to herself than him. "Just- hold on and try not to wiggle too much. I'm not gonna drop you, but if you fall I can't guarantee I'll catch you."
Hm. Maaaaybe she should've mentioned that before they got in the air. Ah well.
"Wait, WHAT?!" Zaryn's eyes widened and a look of panic colored his face. Ally's warning to keep still practically did the opposite as Zaryn squirmed to look down at the ground below him. He had never been afraid of heights, but he was suddenly feeling quite queasy at the moment. "What the hell do you mean?! Do you know what your doing?!"
"H-hey- keep still!" Ally flapped frantically to right herself as his squirming threw her off balance. "Of course I know what I'm doing, just- just hang on, alright?" she snapped. She was rather hoping a "fake it 'til you make it" mentality might pay off.
Luckily, the ruins weren't far at all by air. It was only a matter of minutes until she was looking for a place to land.
Unluckily, her landings were even shakier than her takeoffs. And it wasn't easy to find a clear space among the dense foliage of the jungle. "Um...hold onto something, okay?" She took a breath and banked into a dive.
"Hang on to what?!"
The two of the plummeted to the ground, crashing into branches and twigs on the way. As Ally jerked to a stop, Zaryn was sent flying backwards and into a bush, landing with a dull -thud.-
"Uuug.." Zaryn heaved himself out of the bush, rubbing his sore, bruised back. "Ally..." He eyed the dragon. "Can you explain this whole situation to me just a little bit better? Pretty please?"
Ally winced as she stumbled into her landing, flapping her wings wildly to try to keep her footing. She twisted around to look at him and blinked, then coughed awkwardly.
"What, uh- what do you mean?" she asked far too innocently. "Oh, um, here." Her head snaked forward and she nudged her nose up under his arm to help him to his feet.
Zaryn leaned on Ally's nose as he heaved himself up.
Ugh, what a rough landing.
His back popped as he stretched his torso around. Lucky for him they weren't too far from the ground when he fell and at the most he'll have a bruised back for a couple of days.
"You said..." He sighed, a look of irritation and defeat coloring his face. "Never mind. Shall we get going?"
The dragoness heaved a quiet sigh of relief that he wasn't going to pursue it and nodded. "Right. It's just this way." She twisted around and started shouldering her way through the trees.
The ruins were so overgrown they almost seemed to just suddenly appear around them. One moment there was nothing but jungle, the next Ally's claws were clicking against stone and she drew up short, looking around.
"Here." She jerked her head toward a smallish stone pyramid that rose from the foliage, it's crumbling peak brushing the canopy. "It's inside that temple." The entrance had fallen into enough disrepair that it was more a gaping hole in the side of the pyramid than anything else, large enough even for a dragon to fit through.
"Alright," Zaryn clapped his hands and sauntered towards the ruins. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we."
He walked up to the entrance and peered into the dark cavern, examining the contents. "Oh, can you describe what I'm looking for? 'Cause I have no idea myself."
"It's down this hall." Ally squeezed herself through the entrance and nodded down a rather dilapidated passage. "I could only fit about halfway, but there should be a set of stairs at the end. Follow those down, and you'll come into a circular chamber. You're looking for symbols- one massive one carved into the floor and six others circling the walls."
She twisted her head and lifted a paw to root through her bag, then came up with her own journal and passed it over carefully. "I need you to copy them down as precisely as you can onto the first few blank pages in here. Please?"
Zaryn grabbed the notebook from the dragoness' claws and gave her a salute. "I'll do my best!" He looked around the room, grabbed a torch from the wall and lit it with the flint and steel he had in his traveler's pack. Zaryn ducked into the decrepit hallway and slowly made his way down, scanning the walls, ceiling, and floor for any signs of trap. As he made his way, it felt as though the hall was getting smaller and smaller; the walls were crumbled, the floor was uneven, and and the ceiling had caved in at parts. Finally, Zaryn came across the stairs. He peered down into the depths of the chamber below. With his torch, he could only see a few feet in front of him before the darkness swallowed everything. He sighed and gingerly made his way down the crumbling staircase. The bottom of the stairs opened up into a large, circular chamber which contained seven symbols: one on the floor and six on the wall, just as Ally had described.
"Well, time to get to drawing," Zaryn said to himself as he set the torch on the ground by the large symbol and flipped open the notebook. He did the best he could to replicate all of the details in each symbol, but whether or not it was sufficient enough, he couldn't tell. Upon completing the last sketch he examined his work once more, retrieved the torch and made for the stairs, crossing over the large carving in the ground.
-Thunk! Hisss!- Zaryn spun around. A hulking corpse with glowing blue eyes stumbled out of a trap door on the far end of the cavern. -Thunk! Hisss!- -Thunk! Hisss!- A second appeared to his left followed by a third to his right. They were all brandishing rusty weapons and were clad in aged armor. In one swift motion, Zaryn place the torch and notebook by his feet and drew his two scimitars. He dove behind the first corpse as it swung its rusty sword at Zaryn. One well-aimed slash across its spinal column sent it crumbling to the ground. Zaryn spun around and grabbed the second corpse, using it a shield to block the swinging ax of the third's. The second corpse fell heavily to ground as the ax made contact with its skull. It only took a second for the third to swing its ax at Zaryn, making contact with his arm as he attempted to dodge it. Zaryn clutched his wound as blood trickled down his arm. He lunged forward, slicing the neck of the third corpse.
Zaryn cursed under his breath as he scooped up his belongings and made his way back to the dragoness.
"I got your sketched right here, sweetheart," he said, as he exited the hall. He gave her a cheeky smile a small wink as he handed over the book. It had a few drops of blood on it, but was otherwise clean.
If she'd had room to pace she would have, but as it was Ally was stuck with twitching her tail back and forth and tossing worried glances down the hall every so often as she waited.
Suddenly she heard strange noise echoing out of the dark. Her lip curled back in an instinctive snarl and she felt heat building in her chest as her boy prepared to flame, wings shuffling. It seemed her dragon's fight or flight reflex was quite literal.
Thankfully, Zaryn emerged soon after and she huffed a small sigh of relief.
"You didn't run into any trouble, did you? I thought I heard something-" Ally froze with her claws pinching delicately around the journal. Her nostrils flared. "You're bleeding." She ducked her head and sniffed at him, then gave a small growl of frustration. "C'mon, let's get out int he open so I can take a look at you. What happened?"
"Oh this?" Zaryn examined his booody arm. "I was a bit sloppy with with my footwork and got a little nicked. No big deal."
As the two of them walked outside, Zaryn summarized the events that took place in the chamber.
"Took me by suprise," he said as held out his arm. The cut wasn't too deep, but it had started to swell and look raw. "Damn, already?"
Ally tutted as she vent her head to examine the wound. "Here, hold on a moment."
She twisted around to root through her pack, emerging after a few moments with a small vial filled with a greenish sort of paste clamped delicately between her teeth. She held it out to him, speaking around it with some effort.
"Thi' should stah infe'tion. Rub ih on da wound." She furrowed her brow at how ridiculous she coiled and snorted a small jet of smoke.
"Thanks." Zaryn took the vial and poured a bit of paste ok his fingers. "Damn rusty iron weapons..." He winced and cursed under his breath as he rubbed the paste into his wound. "So, what now?"
The dragon laid er normal on the ground and carefully flipped to the pages bed drawn on. "Now," she murmured, "I need to figure out how these work..."
She hunched over the little book, the tip of her tail twitching back and forth as he eyes scanned the pages.
"Great." Zaryn sat with his back to the tree and stretched his arms. "Let me know if you need any more help." He yawned and closed his eyes.
Ally sort of grunted in acknowledgement, but she was worlds away, combining the symbols in her head in a variety of ways, trying to figure out what might actually work.
Zaryn peeked one eye open and watched as Ally studied away in her notebook.
What an odd dragon... he thought to himself. What does she want with those symboles anyway?
He watched her for a little while longer before nodding to sleep, snoring quite loudly.
As he slept, Ally seemed to come to a sudden realization. She gave a small noise of satisfaction and suddenly burst into movement, clearing a large swatch of land with her tail before starting to draw symbols with her claws. She worked with a fevered quickness, eyes alight with some combination of excitement, curiosity, and something like hope.
She almost seemed to forget Zaryn was there as she stood in the center of the circle she'd created, the symbol from the floor of the chamber under her front paws and the other six linked together around it.
"Okay," she breathed, closing her eyes and focusing. A pinkish-lavender light started up around her paws, then spread over her whole body. Her scales started to itch and tingle and her breath hitched. Was it actually working this time-?
CRACK!
The energy gathered in the air around her snapped and Ally gave a sharp, high cry as she collapsed to her side.
A very human cry. Unconscious but returned to her original body, Alleaya lay collapsed inside her alchemic circle, panting, skin flushed and hair tossed about her from the small explosion.
With the loud crack, Zaryn was startled awake. He looked around the clearing in search of the source of the noise.
Where the hell is that dragon?
Zaryn looked towards the ground. Where the dragon once was there was now a human girl.
"Oh shit!" Zaryn heaved himself up and scrambled to the woman. "Hey lady, you alright?" He shook her gently. She was still breathing but appeared to be out cold. Zaryn scrambled back to his pack and retrieved his water flask. He scooped her into his arms and started splashing cold water onto her face. "Hey sweetheart. You hear me? Wake up!"
Spluttering, Ally jerked awake with a gasp. She stared up at Zaryn for a few moments in confused silence. "You- you got a lot bigger."
Wait. No, that wasn't right.
"Oh my gods!" She jerked up and looked down at herself, then gave a delighted laugh. "It worked! Oh my gods, it worked! Yes!" She sprang to her feet and twirled happily, clapping her hands together and laughing.
It was only then she realized she was naked. Well, she hadn't been wearing any clothes as a dragon, so it made sense. Still.
"Oh!" She squeaked, eyes going wide, and collapsed back onto the ground, drawing her knees up to her chest in an effort to provide some modesty.
Zaryn chuckled as he watched the naked woman jump around the clearing. He shook his head in disbelief. "I think I'm going insane," he said quietly to himself.
"So, uh, Ally..." He paused, maintaining eye contact with her. "Actually, no. I don't know where to start." He chucked to himself again. "Do you... ah... need help?"
"Ahem." She cleared her throat and tried to pretend she wasn't blushing quite as much as she was. "I, ah, I don't suppose you have any extra clothes on you?" she asked innocently.
"Ah, yes." Zaryn got up and dug through his travelling gear. "Here we are." He walked back to the naked girl and handed her a plain grey shirt and large baggy pants similar to what he as wearing. He held them out in front of her. They fit him perfectly, but seeing as he was much taller than what would be considered "tall" in human standards he snickered at the thought of such a small girl wearing his clothes. "I'm afraid there quite big," he said as he tossed them to her and turned his back. "Let me know when you're done."
"Thanks." Ill fitting clothes were certainly better than being naked. Ally dressed quickly, doing her best to roll the hems so she wouldn't be tripping over with every step. "You, um, you can turn around now."
Ally stood carefully, getting herself used to her human body. Gods it was strange to only have two legs again.
Zaryn turned around and chuckled at how small she looked draped in so much fabric.
"So..." Zaryn gave a friendly smirk. "What happened to that dragon?"
Ally huffed out a breath- she knew she must look ridiculous- and folded her arms. "You seem like a smart enough man. I'm sure you know I was the dragon."
She tossed her hair, a little part of her delighting in the fact that she could actually do such a thing again. She wiggled her fingers and toes a bit, just because she could.
"Well, yeah, I got that, but, what exactly happened?"
It was quite amusing to watch someone receive so much joy from such small things such as the touch of the own hair or the way her toes moved.
"It's...sort of a long story." Ally sighed and sat down again, drumming her fingers on her leg. "See, my mother was an alchemist. Like me. And she had this grand spell she was working on before she died. I found her notes and- and I tried it."
She waved a hand by her head airily. "Obviously it did not go as planned. I've been stuck in that body for almost a year," she muttered sourly.
"See, that wasn't too hard to explain." Zaryn teased her. "Well, you have your body back. Congratulations! How does it feel?"
"Um...good?" Ally flexed her fingers, a puzzled frown stealing over her face. "Odd? I'm actually not quite sure yet."
She sort of smoothed her hands over her body, as though reassuring herself that everything was in fact in its proper place.
"Well I'm happy for you, sweetheart." Zaryn gave her a pat on the shoulder. "But now what?"
That...
Was a good question.
"Hmph." Ally frowned and got back to her feet, slowly "I- I'm not really sure. I suppose I should try to go home..."
She glanced up at him and suddenly tilted her head to the side. "You keep calling me that. Sweetheart." She wasn't entirely sure if she liked that or not.
"I call every woman sweetheart." A little smirk painted Zaryn's face. He's was definitely quite the known womanizer in Essryn, but he doubted that Ally would know. "I can stop if you want. Where is home for you anyway?"
She sighed and murmured, "Serendipity. The outskirts of Arca."
Biting her lip, Ally glanced down at her circle, then north, where her home lay past jungle and desert and mountains. While being a dragon had been more of a nuisance than anything else, at least she'd been fairly confident traveling such distances on her own. Now...
Her grow furrowed and she huffed out a breath. "I suppose I will have to procure some mode of transportation. Perhaps a ship..."
She shook her head and focused on Zaryn, forcing a small smile. "Thank you for your help," she murmured. "Truly. How can I repay you?"
He noticed the mixed emotions and covered her face as she spoke of home. Perhaps there was something she missed about being a dragon after all.
A freindly smile spread across Zaryn's face. "Just enjoy being your old self, alright? And if you ever find yourself in Essryn, come find me. Drinks will be on you." He gave her a teasing wink.
Ally laughed quietly and nodded at him, her smile becoming more genuine. "Alright, deal." She held her hand out to him. "A pleasure, Master Zaryn. And once again I'll thank you for your services." She paused, then added with a small blush, "And your clothes."
"The pleasure is mine, Miss Allaeya." He shook her hand. An odd human gesture to him, but charming nonetheless. "And consider the clothes a parting gift."
For some reason, the touch of his hand sent a little bit of warmth zinging through her. She snatched her hand back and frowned at for a mement, puzzled, then shook her head.
"Um, right. Thanks." She cleared her throat and her frown deepened. The warmth was spreading, crossing the border into heat, curling up in her chest and burning steadily, like a hearth fire. Like magic.
What on earth?
Zaryn watched as an uncomfortable look rose on Ally's face.
"You OK there sweetheart?" He gave her a concern look.
"Um. Yeah. I just-"
Aly's voice cut off in a soft cry as the heat suddenly seemed to surge through her body. She staggered back a few steps, wrapping her arms around her middle with a whimper.
"Woah woah! Uh.." Zaryn tentatively grabbed her shoulders in attempt to comfort her and frantically looked around the clearing. Holy shit! Holy shit! What do I do?!
"Um, water! Do you need water? Are you okay? Oh no... what do I do?"
"Get- get back!"
She was barely able to get the warning out before fire seemed to rip through her veins. The feeling was unfortunately familiar, as was the twisting, burning, stretching feeling in her bones and muscles.
In just a few seconds, Ally was a dragon again. Her head hung low and she panted desperately, eyes clenched shut.
Zaryn dove away as the sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh filled the air. He looked up and was faced once again with the dragon.
"Well, shit." He gaped up at Ally, unable to wrangle his thoughts into something meaningful.
With a low groan the dragoness felt her legs give out and she collapsed with a thud.
"My thoughts...exactly," she panted out. Ally twisted her head to glare at the circle she'd made. What could possibly have gone wrong this time?
Zaryn furrowed his eyebrows, moving closer to the dragon. "I... hm... maybe I missed a detail?" He bit his lip in a contemplative manner and shook his head. "I don't know what to do."
Ally shook her head slowly. "No... No I don't think it was your fault." She sighed and cast another baleful look at her circle. "The spell that changed me was experimental anyway, this was a long shot. Maybe the...cure was only temporary."
She suddenly found herself in the verge of tears and squeezed her eyes shut, sniffling. Dragons shouldn't cry- it looked ridiculous.
"Oh no. Please don't cry." With a look riddled in sympathy, Zaryn patted the dragon on top of her scaly head. His gesture of comfort was awkward yet genuine. "It'll be okay. We'll get your human body back. I promise. I'll do whatever it takes."
Sniffling, she glanced up at him with wide, rather teary eyes. "Wh-why are you helping me?" she asked thickly. "You don't even really know me..."
She wasn't objecting to the help, but she was a little confused by the motivation.
"Hm...." With a look of contemplation painting his face, Zaryn scratched the back of his head. He, too, wondered why he felt so invested in this one person's plight. Perhaps it was simply out of pity. "I guess I just feel too invested in this to do nothing." He shrugged. "So, I guess your lucky -- or unlucky. Heh." Zaryn face lit up as he gave her a cheeky smile. "Just don't fall too hard, ok," he said, giving her a teasing wink.
Ally snorted a jet of smoke at him- only partially unintentionally. "Yeah, yeah." She rolled her shoulders and stretched her wings with a sigh.
"I can't solve this on my own," she sighed after a moment. "I need a master alchemist- I just don't know where to look for one!"
Zaryn sighed and set his hands on his hips. "A master alchemist..." He bit his lip and looked up and to the left, trying to recall any past interactions he may have had with an alchemist. "Hm... sorry," Zaryn said as he shook his head. "I don't think I know one..."
She sighed again. "I didn't think you would, really." Her head lifted slightly and she frowned at the sky, judging the position of the sun.
"I- I know some places in Arca. But they couldn't help me before, I don't see why anything would have changed." Ally glanced back at the circle she'd made. "Although they may at least be able to tell me what I did wrong..."
"Hm... Arca..." Zaryn rubbed his chin as he thoughtfully eyed the circle on the ground. "I've never been, but I've hear about it. It'd probably be the best place to start, honestly. But then again.... I'm no mage or alchemist."
Ally gave him a curious look. "I appreciate the offer of help, but you don't have to come with me if you don't want to."
Zaryn shrugged. "I mean, it might be interesting to check out a new place, but I'm afraid I won't be of much help. It's up to you, though."
She tilted her head, thinking it over. It would be nice to have some company, but she really didn't know all that much about him.
Then again, she was dragon (well, most of the time). She could defend herself if something happened, right?
She shuffled her wings in a shrug. "You're welcome to come along, if you like."
"Woo!" Zaryn pumped his first in the air, unable to contain his excitement. "Adventure!" He smiled at the dragon and crossed his arms. "So, when shall we take off?"
Ally chuckled, shuffling her wings. "Now, if you're ready to leave." She crouched down. "Hop on."
"Sweet!" Zaryn gathered his belongings and climbed onto the back of the dragon, holding onto her as best as he could. "Ready to go, sweetheart!"
"Alright, hold on." Ally shuffled her wings, then spread them wide and jumped into the air, flapping desperately to get herself truly aloft before she banked away over the trees, heading in the direction of the desert.
*****
Continued here (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=20829.0)!