[For Sam] Healer & Dragon

[carrythetorch]

It had all gone wrong this time. In retrospect, Lio thinks maybe he'd been going too hard. He was on the brink of exhaustion, and his latest raid on livestock had been met with more resistance than it should have, almost as if someone had known he was coming.

He'd gotten away, thankfully, but not before he'd taken a number of blows -- arrows shot from crossbows with enough power that they'd pierced even through his scales. He'd ripped them out in flight and set the better part of a fallow field on fire before he'd flapped high enough to disappear into the cloud cover. That had been what saved him. It wasn't long before he couldn't keep himself aloft any longer, too much pain, too much blood lost.

Even maintaining his full draconic form is too much, and as he plunges to the Earth and tries to slow his descent with his wings, he fizzles back into his human shape, a lithe, slender man. His clothes are dark enough that the blood soaking them isn't obvious from a distance. He lands in a crumpled pile not far from a road through the woods, just off the trail in the underbrush. And that's the last thing he knows.

...

When he opens his eyes next, he's warmer than he expects to be. There's soft blankets beneath him and over him. He can smell something clean and earthy, herbal maybe, and light spills in setting the whole room in a comforting brightness and-- wait. He's in a room. The last thing he remembers is falling, and, oh.

He sits up all at once, hissing at the way his body protests the movement. Where is he? Has he been captured? Except no, if he'd been captured he'd be bound. Or dead. Maybe staked through to the ground. Not wrapped in soft blankets and tended to. "Where am I?" He asks the question mostly to himself as he blinks against his bleary vision willing it to clear, willing his eyes to focus.

Comments

[barenakedspirit]

Galo freezes and stares at him in horror. The Lord of Dragons. His age doesn’t pass him by but it explains why he hadn’t understood how that changed things. Verbal agreement wouldn’t be enough. Proper respect has to be paid. “We...got to go to the grove!” He says and makes a hasty sweep of his hand. The trees move like a crowd parting to let them pass.

He shakes his head then straightens up and coughs. “We can work on the plants that need checked on in a second. You’re The lord of fire that means this partnership needs properly witnessed instead of verbal.” He gestures and the sigils on his staff ignite into the colors of the sunset. He turns and strides down the new pathway without a backward glance but he calls out,

“Never thought I’d get another pact tattoo but, life is full of surprises. Come on!” The trees all gently press at Lio’s back like a bunch of elders helpfully guiding a younger member of their ranks. Go on.

Follow the pretty man down the path.

[carrythetorch]

Well. Guess he was right; he hadn't mentioned that detail. Lio doesn't expect that expression though, and for a moment he's ready to go on the defensive. But it quickly becomes clear Galo isn't reacting badly, just... frazzled?

Lio looks somewhere between confused and surprised, head canting at a curious angle. "Properly witnessed? By the forest?" By the elements themselves? He tries to think back on what he's heard of the times before, when dragons and humans coexisted, when dragons and healers and mages would stand together like the two sides of the same whole that they should be. He vaguely remembers...

"...tattoo?" He feels that pressure at his back, looks back at the branches of the trees and takes the hint. "You need to be marked for this?" Marked by him? He wonders at himself at the way something in his chest flips pleasantly. But he continues on following Galo down the newly revealed path.

[barenakedspirit]

"Yeah??" Galo says when Lio catches up to him. The pathway is straight and the plants around them seem thicker, the deeper into the forest they go. He looks straight ahead but his tone is gentle. Lio is as young as he is and dragons have been hunting for so long. "Lords govern their people, yeah. But when a healer works with a lord they're working directly with the strongest representative of that element's will on the planet. Working with you as a partner is making a pact with the element involved."

He gestures to the forest. "I can't just go 'I'm working with Fire's Voice', I have to show proper respect. I should have thought of it." He'd been busy being hurt and betrayed. He'll do better. Galo shakes his head. "We really are young guys." He mutters as green motes of light dance in the air and the plants and roots around them glow as they draw nearer to the heart of the wood.

"I dunno how this goes. I think you just follow your instincts. Place it where anyone looking can see it. Maybe you can ask the other elements or fire itself." Galo pauses at the end of the path. Ahead of them the air is filled with green motes of light dancing with gold and blue. A vast grove stretches out ahead of them. Thick green grass lines juts up between the roots of trees so old they seem timeless. The tree roots are banded with lines of green light. As they watch more motes are exhaled and inhaled by the trees. The river they'd been following flows in a curving path around the grove and ends in the heart in a pool of clear blue water surrounding a wide flat stone.

[carrythetorch]

They've been fugitives too long, Lio thinks. Even he's started to forget the place that they're meant to occupy in this world. Dragons aren't supposed to be on the run for their lives, scavenging and hiding and doing their best just to survive. They're meant to live in this world, with humans.

There's a moment that he can't help but look touched by it, the fact that Galo is acknowledging what he is. He shakes his head. "I should have mentioned it. I'd been hiding everything at first, and I didn't think about it mattering." He looks up now. "We are young. But we're strong enough to do this."

Instincts though, his eyes track the dancing lights in the air the glow that emanates from the life of the forest itself. It's otherworldly and beautiful.

He steps up closer to Galo now, nodding. He stops in front of him, lifting a hand, fingertips brushing along his skin at his chest before his palm sets flat to his left pectoral. He knows where the mark will go, can start to see the beginnings of it in his mind. But first he looks up to meet Galo's eyes with his own. "You're okay with it? With bearing the mark of a dragon? My mark?" These tattoos are indelible, after all.

[barenakedspirit]

His staff slides from his shoulder as he lets go of it. The symbol of his role in the balance of the world falls and unravels, the end of it turning to the roots of a tree, sinking in the dirt, grass grows up around it. The staff of it becomes the trunk of a tree as the top turns to branches, spiraling up and spreading over them, delicate blue petals fluttering down as Galo only nods.

Lio's hand on his skin is warm and he can feel the faint shape of the flames, hear them like he used to before he shut his ears to it. Grief and trauma, he knows that but he can't help the way dips his head to acknowledge them and Lio. "Course I'm okay with it. We serve the same thing and...you've been trying to help me even though you could have just let me burn."

The forest whispers around them as he says, "I'm Galo Thymos of Burning Circle, caretaker of this forest!" His voice rings out loud and clear. "Bound to wind, water, and earth. I thought my burning soul was enough to serve as the harmony with the other three. But," His eyes fix on Lio's. Lio knows his story. Lio has suffered too. "I'm done holding that wound open. It needs to close. In the earth, in me. I'll heal myself to heal the world we're all part of," He lifts his left hand and flames burst to life in his palm.

"You okay with take this ember of my life into your fire? Carrying it with you long past the time I pass from this earth?"

[carrythetorch]

Lio looks relieved when Galo says he's okay with it. The healer is a good man, and he wouldn't want to drag him into something this binding, even if it has to be done. And oh it does have to be done. The fate of his people rests upon it.

More than that though, working with Galo feels right, the same sort of completeness and ah. yes. this. when two jigsaw pieces snap together and reveal the greater picture. "Galo..."

And then the healer keeps speaking and Lio can't hide the entirety of an almost exasperated smile. All that pomp and circumstance. But no, Galo is right. And Lio won't let it go unanswered. "I'm Lio Fotia, Dragon Lord, ruler and protector of my people. I am living flame, a vessel of the primal fire that will one day welcome me back to its endless inferno."

He reaches the hand not settled against Galo's chest to wrap around Galo's hand where the flame has appeared. "I'm honored to. Our fire will burn together until I return to ashes."

And with that, the flame flares in their joined hands and another glow of fire begins under the hand still pressed to Galo's chest. It spreads along Galo's skin, spiraling out in the shape of flames that twine their way through the other symbols on Galo's skin, like the fire is taking the place that had been held for it by its fellow elements, waiting all this time. When Lio lifts his hand, beneath it is the shape of a dragon, the source of the flame.

[barenakedspirit]

Heat floods into him but he isn't afraid of it. Galo keeps his eyes locked on their fire as flame's mark spreads over his skin. He can feel it weaving between the vines on his back, over and around the twisting of wind and earth, through the curls of water.

When he glances down at his chest his tattoos feel complete. Lio's hand lifts from his skin and he misses the warmth of it. "The pact is made." He breathes out, as sparks of red light join the blue, gold, and green already in the air. Red flowers bloom among the grass like embers of a fire spreading out in all directions.

The temperature in the grove increases and he can feel fire running under the earth. Galo blinks then blushes and says in a whispery fast tone. "That was the first fire I've lit in years!"

[carrythetorch]

"Yeah," Lio agrees. "No going back now, Galo Thymos." They're bound, and these bonds cannot be undone, intertwined as they are now. Their hands are still joined, and Lio only now takes it away, taking the flame that Galo lit with him, cupping it between his hands. For a moment he looks around, at the fiery sparks in the air, the flowers taking bloom.

It's beautiful.

So is the little flame in his hands. He cradles it gently. "It's a good fire," Lio pronounces and then, in a confused voice, "It's cute."

Should fire be cute? Anyway, it is, and he looks at Galo who is blushing and speaking that way. You okay there, human friend?"

[barenakedspirit]

His gaze snaps to Lio and his blush travels to his ears. "What?" Galo coughs and forces his embarrassment down. Steady. He's a healer and this shouldn't be anything new. "Just forgot how nice it feels." It felt fucking great to light a fire.

Better than it should be. He crosses his arms over his chest and says in his normal tone, "And why would I ever go back. Pacts are important! Made it knowing what was gonna happen."

Yes, he had. "...why you confused anyway? That's part of my soul you're holding there! It's an amazing little flame!" Cute? How. "...and how are flames cute." What the fuck, Lio. His own expression shifts to confusion.

[carrythetorch]

He's really blushing, isn't he? Look at this strange, endearing human. Lio is still surprised by him again and again. But now they're bound together, and that doesn't seem like a bad thing at all. Reaching out, he traces the dragon-shaped part of the mark he's left on Galo's chest.

"I'm glad you remember." Fire is power and life and danger and death. Warmth and light.

Lio is still holding the flame in his hands. A part of Galo's soul, one that he will keep safe and sound within his own fire.

"It is an amazing little flame," he agrees before adding. "Not all flames are cute. Yours is cute. It's warm and bright. The kind of flame that could guide someone to safety." But he can't even picture it actually burning someone.

Still holding it gently, he brings the flame close, closer still to his chest where it flares brighter once before it flickers, sinking into his chest, still glowing even as it does and for a long moment after before the light dims away.

[barenakedspirit]

The flame flicks out of his awareness like a candle being blown out. It belongs to Lio now within his greater flame. “That’s what I was thinking about when I lit it.”

He glances down at Lio’s hand on his chest tracing over the dragon. It tingles a little. “I wanted a flame that would give you some strength when you needed it. Since we’re partners now.”

They’re bound together. He and the lord of dragons. “You good to go?” He doesn’t want to examine it but he really doesn’t want Lio to stop touching him.

[carrythetorch]

Galo isn't the only one not wanting the contact to end, and Lio is studiously avoiding thinking about that too closely as well. Instead he forces himself to draw his hand away, looking up to Galo once more. "Partners. Good. I like that."

Galo may not be able to feel it anymore, but Lio is very aware of Galo's flame burning away within his own. It's warm in a different way, and for the first time in his life, he thinks, he doesn't feel quite so alone.

"Yeah. I'm good." He answers, trying to shake off the impulse to do something absolutely absurd like hug the healer.

[barenakedspirit]

Galo grins and extends his hand to the tree that used to be his staff. It winds back together until his staff is exactly as it was. He plants the butt of it against the earth.

A pulse runs through the forest and Galo realizes he can hear the forest far clearer than before. Had there been some kind of imbalance in himself? Had he truly been as wounded as those he helps?

He still is. He can feel the gaping wound in his soul but it’s mending little by little. Galo opens himself to the world around him and a new path winds between the trees. He is truly of the old ways now. He lifts his staff, and walks down the path. “Let’s go. This will take us to the edge where forest meets the lake. It’s been looking like it will flood the forest since things started tipping out of balance.”

But with Lio they can set that right. His grin is wide and bright like the sun coming out. “We can do some temporary work today. We’ll fix it entirely when we deal with Kray.”

[carrythetorch]

Lio is not sure how he's going to explain Galo to Gueira and Meis and the others, but honestly, he's kind of looking forward to their meeting him, once this is all said and done. He thinks his generals will come to like this strange, idealistic healer.

Oh god he's thinking about taking him home to meet his family. What is that thought??

"I'll follow your lead. These are your woods." When it comes to later, when the dragons are involved, Lio can show Galo the ropes.

Quiet for a long moment, Lio seems to be turn in the next thing he says over in his head before he actually says it. "If we survive this, will you let me meet the rest of your circle?"

[barenakedspirit]

"Course. You need to!" Galo says immediately as he gestures widely to the forest around them. "It's been a long time and we'll need all the help we can get to help us bring everything back into balance. And uh, negotiating peace and or educating people about what dragons are really like."

The path turns muddy under foot and Galo sighs. "Walk where I walk. It's all swampy up ahead." He strides through the mud with full confidence as he says. "And I still need to talk to the rest of your people...if you and they are okay with that." He turns his head to look at him.

"All this goes at the pace you decide. You know what is needed, we're just amplifying your voices with what influence we got on our side."

[carrythetorch]

Lio perks up, interested now. Then Galo isn't against it? Good. "Yes, that's exactly what we'll need. The fear won't go away over night, but if we work to change it..." Maybe they can do it, maybe they can get to a place where dragons and humans can coexist, can live in the same world in peace.

"I want you to meet them. I think they'll like you." He's certain of it really.

He's feeling pretty good about all of this. Except the mud. That he is not a fan of, and it shows on his face as his feet squish. But he follows in Galo's footsteps so he doesn't wind up stuck in a mire. Now would be a wonderful time to fly, but he still doesn't trust his strength to take his other form and sustain it.

"The pace we decide, Galo. We're doing this together. You and me. Humans and dragons."

[barenakedspirit]

"Yeah, yeah we are." He says, tossing a grin Lio's way as the trees part and they come out at the edge of a lake. It's over flowing its banks that is marked by sticks with the tops marked by cloth flags.

Galo walks along the new edge. "Can you feel it?" He can feel things are wrong. Like there's cracks in the metaphysical and the water is seeping through it. The air is humid and he can feel the water gathering on his skin.

The forest whispers to him that it's drowning here. The plants asking for the heat that is needed. Galo turns to Lio and holds his hand out. "...if I give you my power can you send it where it's needed? So you're not using your fire when you need to be recovering."

[carrythetorch]

Lio frowns, opening his mouth to inform Galo that he wouldn't know the first thing about how to start feeling it -- except he does. So he shuts his mouth and nods. "I can. It's unbalanced." The water has gone too far, rushing to fill cracks made by the state of the world.

He looks up at Galo, gaze running from that extended hand up to the healer's eyes. "I can do that. But let's use my fire too. If it's both our strength, it won't take too much." And it feels right to work together like that.

Reaching out, he takes Galo's hand in his. They can fix this, and that thought is thrilling somehow, that working with this man they can start putting something right.

[barenakedspirit]

Galo nods. “You’re right, a mix is better.” He plants the butt of his staff into the water and reaches for the power within him, his fire and asks for Lio’s without words.

The heat in the air spikes like the rise of heat in the desert as the morning sun rises. It’s a heat that calls water to it. Shifting the balance away from the swamp things had become.

He lets that power shape in the air as he pulls up memories of how things looked when he was young. The banks of the lake. The plants swaying gently in the breeze. The soft call of birds and whispering of the trees. He envisions it all and lets the forest tell him what it needs to happen.

“We’ll be like a local circle. You got my fire. Feel how we’re connected. Follow it, see what I see Lio.”

[carrythetorch]

Lio's fire responds before he even consciously realizes it, rising to join with Galo's. It feels right, and that heat in the air calls to him as much as it calls to the water. He feels the pull there and the pull to Galo.

"I can feel it," he murmurs quietly, letting his eyes fall shut.

It takes shape in his mind piece by piece until the whole tableau spreads out before him. He audibly gasps. "I can see it."

He can see all of it, and he knows what they have to do. "I understand. I'm ready when you are."

[barenakedspirit]

Galo smiles brightly and focused. The heat pours in. The dry heat peels back the moisture in the air.

The water’s over abundance ebbs as he guides the power where it needs to be. The water level is going down bit by bit.

The plants respond and spread themselves out. Galo hums to himself. The trees rattle their branches happily. Galo opens himself to let Lio hear them too.

[carrythetorch]

The forest is responding to them, to the call of the heat and the flame. They're fixing this, he can feel it starting to breathe again when it had been choking. He can feel it all and hear it through Galo.

And he smiles. This is the world he was meant to inhabit, that his kind were meant to be a part of, of helping to hold the world in balance.

There are tears threatening the corners of Lio's eyes as it all hits him, stark and beautiful, even if it makes his chest ache with a fullness that he doesn't know how to handle.

[barenakedspirit]

Galo turns enough to get a better look at Lio’s face. It makes his chest ache to see how overwhelmed he looks. He had looked up to Kray, loved him in a way.

He had loved what he thought Kray was. But this. Is one sign of the many how much destruction his supposed hero had caused. Galo lets go of his staff as the magic settles in. He faces Lio and says softly. “This is how it is meant to be. How it will be again. We will do this again and again, as we bring things back to balance. Here. Everywhere. And you will never be alone, Lio.”

His flame will burn on within Lio for all the time Lio is alive. A light in the dark.

[carrythetorch]

Overwhelmed is the word. His gaze turns from the mending lake and forest to look back to Galo as he speaks. Those tears are still gathering, but despite the tears, despite everything, he smiles at Galo -- really, genuinely smiles at him, bright and soft, the first time he's shown that expression to Galo. Or to anyone erally, in a very long time.

"We'll put things right. For the dragons. And the forest. And humans too." The balance will soothe them all. And Lio has never been about vengeance or turning their anger on humanity. He just wants his people to be able to live without fear, without hiding.

Lio sets a hand against his own chest. No, he won't be alone again. He can feel Galo's flame dancing intertwined with his own. "Neither will you. If you call, I will come. Always."

[barenakedspirit]

What a beautiful smile. He smiles back, warm and real with a softness of its own. His smile morphs into a grin. “Course you will! Because we’re partners now.” He offers the side of his fist to him.

Lio will always be there. That makes his own chest feel tight and warm. He closes his eyes against a wave of emotion. Gratitude and something else that takes that loneliness he has felt for so long and makes it a little less. “Thanks.” He opens his blue eyes and that gratitude is in his eyes.