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Chapter 7...

Seven hundred leagues away, Kalaw shifted in his cave, jaws pausing above the terrified bear knight who was about to serve as aperitif to his horse...The latest fool to come and try to claim his life and horde for his own...Pathetic! The shift in the power currents were not though...

He felt his own internal magic reserve dip for a few moments, gorge rising in his throat as his stomach upset and dizziness washed over him. The bear below him used the release of his claws to try and sidle sideways away from him, so he just dropped his head and nipped the knight's head off without thinking, ignoring the fountain of gore that soaked his scales and ran down his belly to part in twin waterfalls around his engorged member...Wait!? He glanced down...he was erect! What the fuck was going on!?!

He had felt his brother die...again...A few days or more back. And then their thrice damned father's bracelet, resurrect him again! Stupid fucking bastard whom had killed him had not separated his head or heart from his body in time...Four hundred bloody years he had been waiting for that to happen...Waiting for his big brother to die so his power would feed back through the blood link and make him the most powerful Mage ever known. Four hundred years since his sneak attack in the night had almost succeeded, tearing his belly open with magic... Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!!! He did not know at the time that if he had killed his own brother, he would have died too!

As he had reached for his sibling's heart, his own had spasmed, wracking him with pain and giving that bloody bracelet the chance to heal him whole again...almost...the magic scar had remained in place. He did not know what had possessed him, but in a moment of sheer brilliance he had woven a hatchling's memory cantripp into the green powers as they coalesced around Dante's body...robbing him of all but his racial blood memories... preventing him from remembering the spells and lore that had made him the strongest Mage the dragon species had ever given rise to... He had then had fled before he awoke, snatching a few sacks of horde and flying as far and as fast as he could to where he was now. Sacrificing a couple of diamonds, he had enlisted a dark Mage to teach him the ways of blood and carnal magics...And got the explanation over that cursed bracelet. The greater power that was his right could still be gained...but only when someone or thing killed Dante...and there nothing to say that that something or one could not be hired by him to do the deed though!

Eleven times in four hundred years he had sent assassins...nine had reached Dante and attacked before dying themselves...two had fallen on route. His twelfth attempt was to be a powerful Mage and killer by the name of Sekal, but he had divined his true intentions when approached five years previously and had turned on him without warning. He had only just escaped with his life, his own blood and soul magic reserves almost drained to the point in his final strike that had left Sekal crumpled and dying, he had barely limped half a league aloft before crashing to the ground unable to fly. The place had reeked of both the dead Master's magic signature, and that of an unknown bitch's too, so before he closed his eyes in exhaustion, he had cast a wandering illusion spell in his likeness and sent it flying in the general direction of his brother. There was no way he could have fought off even a rank amateur that night, so it was best that the apprentice or other Mage thought he had fled intact. Maybe that Mage would kill his brother for free in revenge...

Three years it had taken for him to recharge his strength from that battle, two more still before he felt an attack grip his brother through their soul-bond with the same magic signature as that unknown Mage...but the stupid female had not killed him, and was probably now lining his stomach as a snack...But the currents had just shifted again...was it another attack? So soon as well? And why was he bloody erect!?!

Kalaw raced to his scrying pool, ignoring the two whimpering dragonesses who he had chained to the walls of his cave as personal slaves to his whims. He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to follow the soul-link across the leagues to where his brother was...running into a shield that had never been there before. And yet...he could feel Dante's power being drained steadily, like a leech blade was sucking it from him. That would not do at all...he wanted that power...wanted all of it for himself! He turned to face the dragonesses...he would need a boost to break through that shield, ironically to save his brother's life, if only for his own long term gain!

With a flick of his claw he sent a bolt of red-black power into the chains holding the blue one. As she cried out, a second bolt penetrated her skull and she walked dazed across the rock floor to him, under his complete control. Gripping her head viciously, he took her maw into a kiss as he unfurled his wings, before plunging her nostrils under the water of the scrying pool and holding her there as he kicked her tail to one side. Sex magic...capture the power of a final orgasm as a being expired...that was what he needed... His victim started to thrash, but he pinned her firmly, his erect member seeking her entrance and driving within in a single sharp movement. In out, in out, speeding up as his own peek neared and the thrashing of the dragoness became more frantic...bubbles ripping the still waters of the pool apart from her nostrils as her passage clamped impulsively around his twenty inches of throbbing power.

She froze for a moment, and then everything clamped down on him as her last scream nearly blew the water from the pool and the dregs of air were flushed from her lungs. He let himself ride the moment for a second, then filled her dying womb with his own orgasm as his claws all curled reflexively and ripped the throat out, her heart's blood replacing the spilled water as he drank her power though his senses while his balls still emptied themselves, the crimson fog of death and passion surrounding them as her magic merged with his and her eyes glazed over in death.

Throwing her limp body to one side he withdrew with a lewd slurp and channelled the new power into the pool, a single lightning bolt of evil tracing the lines and then blasting through the shield without alerting its caster. "NO!" he screamed, realising what had happened. The stink of the Mage bitch flooding his senses suddenly, his brother's signature merged and masked with hers, the two powers melded firmer than any. A blood oath...Dante's power feeding his attacker, hers feeding him...both equal now, but together... Kalaw shuddered... together far more than any living Mage could take on...But what of his arousal?

Gently he probed at the swirling and interlocked ball of force, realising that both parties were asleep...but his brother was aroused, and so was the bitch Mage...Had they had intercourse? Surely not...The magic that wiped the memories, activated when a dragon's heart rate increased... Had his brother orgasmed, his memory would have reset again...So no...But the haptic feedback had been enough to bring him to erectness 700 leagues away as his power had been drained. So both were pent up with desire for each other...and carnal desire was a weakness if only it was not love... He knew what he had to do...Kill the bitch from afar and the blood oath would kill his brother. Carefully he prepared his spell...

~~~~

Grillion looked up suddenly from where he was standing the dog-watch on the entrance to the clearing. His hips still ached from where he had been so neatly disabled by the bitch he was now bound to serve. But he was as good a soldier as Aspenall claimed...and well...maybe he had deserved the punishment just a little. Better humiliated than he dead in the long run... But his thoughts were not what were causing him bother at the moment...every single hair on his body was standing up and crackling with static. He glanced towards his sleeping comrades as one by one curses began to sound from the tents and the horses shifted on their tethers.

Dark red mist began to flow from the ground, coming from nowhere as the fire in the central pit snuffed out as if a river had just flowed across it, not even a puff of steam escaping the logs as all air was sucked from its flames. He grabbed the attack bell from the floor and began ringing it for all his worth as the tents burst open and everyone staggered to arms...But there was nothing that any could do.

With horror in his eyes, Grillion, Aspenall and the soldiers all watched helplessly as the red vapours enshrouded Dante and Rena, the Captain holding the soldiers back for fear they would die if they contacted it. Dante snorted once, his body suddenly glowing green as Rena screamed, her body slipping out from under his wing as it was lifted from the floor to hover, every limb arrow straight, every finger and toe pointed as red lightening crawled all over her. Her naked sex gushed, the unmistakable smell of femme cum filling the air for a second as she orgasmed violently. Dante's body suddenly erupted then, his forelegs propelling him over onto his back, thrashing in unconsciousness and pain as his shaft erupted from his belly sheath, twenty four inches of concealed maleness battering his scales as he too was granted the orgasm of his life and his seed fountained into the air. Rena's body dropped in a crumpled heap to the grass, chest stilled as the vapours withdrew from her while Dante lay, a few huge gasps being all that could be heard before his body fell still too.

Silence, Aspenall taking a step forward to see if what his eyes were telling him was true...

The strange band around Dante's wrist suddenly flared into life, blinding all the watchers with a green light as they staggered backwards from his body. It flowed all over him, and then a river of it ran from his chest across the grass and enveloped Rena's limp form too, seemingly sinking in through her bared breasts as she spasmed once, twice and then howled out in pain as her lungs filled with air again. The green flow ceased, Dante opening orange-red eyes for a second before they closed in exhaustion, unconsciousness claiming both him and Rena as they settled into a pattern of steady breathing and the light from the bracelet vanished, leaving the clearing dark again.

"'NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'" A scream on the wind carried through the still air in the aftermath, as the soldiers and horses all dropped where they stood, exhausted in the grass, not knowing as they all collapsed that their own life force had been used by the spell that bound them to Rena and Dante, to revive them from the dark magic attack.

~~~~

Kalaw picked up the body of the dead dragoness in his anger and threw it across the cave to smash into his other, still bound captive as she whimpered helplessly, the blood of her sister splashing across her scales.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kalaw screamed, "Fucking bracelet saved her because it knew that if it didn't he would have died! Must be more than a blood oath...Must be! Horniness...I was erect..." He muttered, his mind spinning and searching for possible reasons for his failure, his own internal powers diminished slightly from the remote attack, "They both desire each other...The bracelet must not be able to determine love from lust...That has got to be it. No dragon could love a fur...Father told us both before he died that it would protect not only the wearer, but the wearer's Mate...Blood oath must have confused it...She was dead...And when she died my attack ripped into Dante, triggering the ancient magic...but not before he had blown and died...But he had died...He had definitely died...A lot easier to kill a bitch than it was to kill a dragon..." He turned and assessed his diminished horde, only a few diamonds left from the original sacks. The dragoness sisters had been a risk, as he had normally just captured furs for his blood and sex magic...but he had needed their wealth! Thirty years they had refused to give him the key...but thirty years of fun and free power...

"I cannot allow the two of them to reach me...They could kill me no matter the fact that he doesn't know how to use his magic. With a blood link between them she could use his power even if he just sat there like an ornament on a castle wall, and she is trained. Must kill her somehow and make sure she is beyond revival...But magic obviously will not work... Assassins... Bandits... Corrupted soldiers...They are over 700 hundred leagues away...A lot can happen in 700 leagues...I will hire the best...Bring her down and rip her head from her body and he will die!" Kalaw continued to mutter before turning his attention to the remainder of the two sisters. "Tell me the spell to reveal your horde now or I will fill your living body with the ghosts of scale worms until you expire from the pain and mental anguish!" he screamed at her.

"You have killed my sister!" she coughed through her tears, "Kill me too, you beast!"

Kalaw cackled, "In time my lovely, in time...But it is up to you how you die. Clean and quick while screaming in ecstasy like she did...or the other way. Do you have any idea how long it takes to die from scale worms? Seventy years...seventy years and that is if they were actually eating you! With just the mental torture...who knows...maybe you will still be here in a hundred and seventy before your brain gives up finally!"

"Credo eos qui glorificabor in loco ..." she whispered, "I will never trust you though, so you will never get your paws on it you evil bastard!"

Kalaw grinned evilly, "Trust? Such a simple thing...Here I was thinking that it was love that was the key. Love I cannot instil upon you...but trust I can!" He closed his eyes for a second as hers opened wide as a small sphere of red formed in his claw tips. He grinned, flicking a claw and driving it into the centre of her forehead, "There...you now trust me... simple as that...I will be back soon, I will let you enjoy the company of your sister until she starts to stink...though having said that...I have already eaten...So trust me when I say that eating your own sister is perfectly tasty and acceptable...Chomp down, but don't eat her all at once!!"

He turned and left, chuckling as he heard the nauseated choking of his remaining captive as she dipped her head to take a bite out of her still warm sibling's body...

~~~~

Flaughten opened his eyes first, shivering even though the sun was half way to its apex and was bathing him in warm light. God he was tired...and yet. He sat bolt upright as the memories of the night before came back to him. The campsite was a mess, the horses twitching where they had fallen, fire was out, the rest of the troop lying like limp dolls all over the place. His eyes were dragged to his employers though. The Princess lay crumpled in a heap, thumb claw in her mouth but puffs of air coalescing in front of her nostrils revealing that she was still alive...but totally naked. He staggered to his feet and grabbed his cloak, gently placing it over her still form before dragging her nearer to the fire pit and hastily reigniting the half burned wood with his pair of flints. He wandered over to Dante, watching as his chest rose and fell steadily, but covering his nose as the horrendous scent of stale maleness arose from the creamy stains all over his scales. He did not dare touch him, not knowing if whatever had attacked them last night was still active...

It took a further three marks for him to wake the rest of them up, though Rena and Dante still lay quiescent without having so much as emitting a whimper. Aspenall sat, sipping a jack of broth that had been quickly brewed up over the now blazing fire, eyes flicking across at the silent wolf bitch every so often.

"Ahem, what do you want to do Sir?" Flaughten asked, sitting on a log next to him.

"I don't know Flaughten...I have never seen or heard of a magical attack like the one that struck us last night. I saw with my own eyes, first Rena and then Dante die...and yet, they are both still breathing as something counteracted the red magic. I would send for a Wizard's help from the town...but none of us here would be allowed back through the gates, and we are too far out to seek it from Gilensia. What would you do if you were leading?" Aspenall asked.

"I would dispatch Wealdon for Gilensia on your horse...he might reach it by the morning and if he uses her as a bond with a stables, might be able to find a Mage and return on a fresh horse by this time tomorrow..." Flaughten started.

"No..." The quiet croak turned both their eyes back to the heap of blankets that covered Rena from head to toe, "I need blood...fresh blood and quickly..." she coughed, "I know what attacked, but I don't know who...Bleed a pack horse for me, but keep it alive for Dante...he will need it to come out of Mage shock."

Aspenall jumped to his feet, tipping his jack of broth on the floor as he ran over to the horses. Flaughten jumped across the fire and gently helped Rena sit up, her paws clamped over her head as the pains shook her from the tip of her nose to her tail. "Is there anything else you need Princess?" the concerned tiger asked.

"Get one of the others to fetch my poisons pack...I carry medication too. I will mix Willow bark and Digitalis with the blood..." Rena muttered, "Got to get my head clear quickly...just in case...just in case..."

"Grillion...fetch the Princess' pack!" Flaughten barked.

"Yes Sir!" the wolf responded, jumping up.

"Why the blood, if I may ask?" Flaughten asked Aspenall jogged up with his jack full of it.

"That was a blood magic attack...mixed with sex magics. Only a Dark Mage would use it... The sex is designed to disable the target before the final strike occurs...It killed me didn't it?"

"So it appeared," Aspenall answered her, turning his head away in disgust as she swallowed a couple of long drafts of the horse blood.

"I know Captain, it disgusts me to...But I needed pure blood to replace my own now tainted which runs in my veins..." She reached into her pack that Grillion had placed next to her, grabbing two vials and sprinkling a good dose of both into the blood before swilling it around and draining it fully. "What I am interested in knowing is, if it killed me, why am I talking to you now?"

Aspenall scratched his head, "I have no idea Princess."

"What exactly happened? All I remember is..." She flushed scarlet for a second, "Well I think you all know what I am likely to remember...But it certainly disabled me so I couldn't counteract the spell, and then blacked me out...My last feeling was of my heart stopping."

"Erm...Ma'am..." Grillion started, "I was on watch and the first time I knew something was wrong was when every hair on my body stood on end. Then this terrible red mist appeared from the ground and snuffed out the fire. I began ringing the alarm bell, but everyone else was awake by then because of the fur issue, but there was nothing we could do. The mist covered you and Dante, but he sort of turned green and held it off until you were lifted from under his wing by it and started screaming before..." He flushed then, "Before what happened to you happened."

"Thank you for your report Grillion...It doesn't answer my questions though, it just adds to them. First thing is...Did the mist go for me or Dante first?" Rena asked.

Grillion looked at Aspenall and Flaughten, "You," they all answered.

"When it touched Dante, he went green, so it concentrated on you," Aspenall added in addition.

"He went green you say?" Rena asked, her mind processing that information.

"Yes."

"Then the attack was aimed at both of us...but his unique protection held it off..."

"Only until you had been...Erm disabled..." Aspenall pointed out blushing, "As you can probably smell, he was then affected in a similar fashion."

"Blood link Captain...We are linked by blood oath. My...disablement would open a raw channel direct to his blood..." Rena replied, pausing as her jaw dropped and turned to stare at the still form of her oath-mate.

"That could be rather...embarrassing..." Flaughten said after a few seconds of silence during which everyone looked at no-one.

"Remind me to warn him not to go seducing dragonesses while he is bound to me please..." Rena continued flatly, causing everyone to start laughing.

Aspenall cleared his throat, "Erm, not meaning to dampen the mood, and though I have no children of my own I am not unfamiliar with the feminine form as you may have guessed from my reaction to your tease...But what will happen to him when you go into heat...as you have clearly pointed out that you are unfamiliar with suppressing it the natural way?"

Rena frowned, "I will have to supress it even more than usual with drugs. Only dragons deal with blood oath magic gentleman, and when I agreed to this arrangement with Dante, I was unaware of this complication. But the question of why I am not dead has still not been answered. What happened after we were disabled?"

"Erm...You dropped to the ground dead...or at least you were not breathing. Dante then gasped out a few last breaths and also expired. I was about to step forward and see if you could be revived when his bracelet began to glow green, near blinding us all." The otter answered.

"His bracelet...I wondered when or if that was going to make it's play. You see I killed him when I met him thinking he was the goal of our quest...Kalaw. But that thing around his wrist revived him, stopped my mage rope from slicing and dicing him into little pieces. I am guessing that he glowed green all over, eyes went orange and then he fell into the sleep he is in now?"

"Yes Princess," Flaughten answered, "But with one difference."

"And what was that Sargent?" Rena asked.

"A green tendril of power emerged from his chest and plunged into yours...and you started coughing," the tiger commented.

Rena turned to stare at Dante again before standing a little shakily, wrapping the huge oversized cloak of the tiger around her tightly, "How come you and the horses were all knocked unconscious though..." she mused aloud, knowing they didn't have the answer.

Slowly she began walking over to the huge somnolent body, her nose puckering a little as the scent of his 'disablement' became apparent. Her foot paws were dragging a little and she glanced down as a dam of grass built in front of each step. She bent, picking up a handful of the blades, sniffing them and then kicking out in a semi-circle as she realised that not one in the vicinity had a live root... "Life-force...His bloody bracelet sucked all the life-force from everything and one around it to save that whom it protects...except...It couldn't allow me to die either, as that would have killed it's ward...So it saved me, but had to borrow life-force from all of you and the horses to do so..."

"So that put us to sleep?" Flaughten asked.

"It was bloody lucky that it didn't kill you! If the attack had only killed one of us, the other's life-force would have been enough for the spell to act upon. With both of us down it borrowed, but didn't kill...or at least it didn't kill anything sentient enough to be mobile. The clearing I am afraid will be barren and dead for years."

"So that bracelet is a danger to us?" Aspenall asked.

"I don't think so Captain...but when dealing with the unknown I can never be sure. I have never in all my teachings and experience known of anything like it. Dante doesn't know where it comes from, or why it does what it does. That is my part of the deal...I must help him discover who he is and...Oh shit! Grab ropes, canvas...everything we have with us. Tie him down and make sure he cannot move when he wakes up!"

"What, why!?!" Aspenall queried as the men who had all been listening scrambled to do as she ordered.

"Memory...That bloody wrist band also wipes his memory when it revives him. That is why I am to try and unravel his origins. He will not know who you are and may attack...He may not even know who I am this time." Rena replied, slumping to the ground again as Flaughten began to help the others bind Dante up, "We will just have to wait and see..."

~~~~

Dante groaned, opening his eyes, only to be greeted by the inside view of a stretched canvas, "Not again...What the fuck happened this time...?" he muttered, realising that he couldn't move, his wings, tail, legs or neck either.

"Dante Dragon...Do you know who is talking?" A female voice asked from near his head.

"Rena?" he asked, some memory coming back to him, along with unmistakable smell of his... He started struggling, "Rena...What the fuck? Oh no...I am sorry...I should not have...What have I done?"

"Stop...stop! You have done nothing!" Rena shouted, as she cut the canvas free from around his head so he could see.

"But...But...I must have done...I must have had intercourse with you...I can smell you and me... we..." His eyes focussed on the ring of soldiers that were also observing him, "Who are these soldiers? Were we captured in the act?"

Rena flushed red, "Not exactly, and no we did not have intercourse. We were attacked though. Do you not recognise any of these men...we employed them to help us on my quest...?"

"No...I...FUCK! Fuck this bloody bracelet!" he cursed. "Hang on a minute...I remember your name though and what we are doing together...I thought...I thought that like the other times my heart rate has risen past a certain point during intercourse my memory loss had been caused by sex...Dracos I remember having a monumental orgasm...And then nothing..."

"Not sex Dante...Sex magic followed by a blood strike...And it got me first as you can scent. Disabled us both effectively and then killed us. If we release you, will you not attack us? You must drink the horse I give you dry of blood before eating it to...We were corrupted."

"Release me then," Dante said, "I will hold off escaping..."

"No escape Dante...They are bound not to harm you or I...You provided the power for me to complete the spells," Rena stated, running a hand over the top of his nose gently as she signalled for the ropes to be released.

"But I Can't Fucking Remember!" Dante whimpered, "And you said it killed us both? Then why are you not a corpse, and me pining for you? The bracelet would have revived me, only for me to die from our oath..." He paused for a second, "It revived you too?"

"Ah ha...And I wish I knew why...and how. It took or borrowed life-force from everything around us..." She backed off slightly as the pack horse was brought to his muzzle as he righted himself, and then turned her head as he nipped a hole in its neck and drank until it collapsed senseless without protest on the floor, the spell she had so carefully cast not causing it to panic even as it died. A single crunch crushed the horse's skull and ended its suffering.

"I need to know the rest of the story...between our oath and now...Trust in me again..." Dante turned his head to Rena and without warning, bent and bit into her shoulder gently as the soldiers drew their arms. He drank of her blood lightly, the memories of its soul flooding his brain and refreshing his as she gritted her teeth and held her arm out to stay the arrows that were being drawn. He released her, sparking a gust of healing flame to sooth the wound as his eyes scanned across the soldiers, "At ease Captain Aspenall, Sargent Flaughten...I am back now. Who attacked us?"

"I don't know Dante," Rena replied with a sigh, "But it was a none physical attack by a dark Mage...The spell tracings are all linked to you, but it killed you so you can't be the origin, and I know through our oath that you are not a dark Mage, though you are the most powerful reservoir of magic power I have ever encountered."

"Kalaw...if it killed you first...it might be Kalaw. But how did he channel it through me?" Dante mused as her jaw dropped.

Rena just stared at him, "Kalaw? But that would mean...I mean...I know a blood Mage can use blood links...but..." she stuttered.

"It would mean that I am related to him in some fashion..." Dante finished for her. He glanced up at the soldiers, "This could complicate things gentlemen. As if he is say my brother, father or son, I cannot kill the one we seek as I will die doing so. I do not know though if he is, as I know nothing of my history, nor do we know for sure if it was Kalaw that attacked us last night. I know how Rena bound you, and without her permission I will say this now, if you want to cut free now the intelligence has changed, we will do it." Rena glanced up at him, a frown on her face, but he shook his head to silence her.

It took a few moments, but eventually Grillion stepped forward first, "You have treated me fairly Ma'am, Sir. I could die tomorrow on a gate working for a faceless lord whom I will never meet. So I feel that if my life is to be spent earning money anywhere, I would rather it be serving those I respect...I will stay by your sides until I die or your quest is complete."

Rena looked surprised, but nodded as Dante echoed her movement from above, "Thank you Private," he said quietly.

Aspenall was next, followed quickly by the remainder of the troop, "I was never going to quit you know," the otter said quietly afterwards.

"I knew that Captain...but we may have to promote you. An attack as strong as last night's means we have at least one very powerful enemy, be it Rena's or mine. We are going to need more men as I fear it is not the last time we will be surprised."

Aspenall grinned, "No more of the King's then...or we will have the army down on us! Gilensia has a mercenaries barracks. If we are lucky, they will have a band or two in search of work and you can hire there."

Rena chuckled, "Settled then. Dante and I will need to rest for at least another day. Sweep the ground clear of dead grass and re-pitch the camp. Double watch in case we get more physical visitors while we are run down on magical energy. Dante and I need to wash up before we drive each other mad, so if you could avoid the stream and the privy area until we return it would be much appreciated."

"Yes Ma'am," Aspenall replied, saluting before turning to the soldiers, "Well you heard her men...let's be at it then!"

Rena gathered up her clothing from where it had been bundled and leaning slightly on Dante for support, they made their ways down to where the stream exited the clearing. "About this..." she started, gesturing to his white stained belly and her matted leg fur.

"No...I didn't know," Dante replied turning his head slightly, "And you must ward yourself against it happening again. I have never been killed by dark magic before. If I am incapacitated by you having intercourse, and visi-versa, we must avoid it at all costs. I can read it in the eyes of the soldiers, it was not just the grass that died last night, was it?"

"No..." Rena replied, dropping Flaughten's cloak and hissing as she stepped naked into the freezing stream, "A little of them did as well because of your bracelet. I will shield us both as soon as we have regained strength," she continued as she began gently cleansing her fur.

Dante nodded, "Then we will say no more of it," he replied and began scooping up handfuls of the water to scrub his belly scales off.... 'Yet...' he thought silently.