[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

[carrythetorch]

Lio follows after, shifting into his full dragon form. His wings flare and he takes to the sky after Galo. It's always freeing to take wing, and to fly in the open without worrying about drawing attention, without worrying about an attack, it's freeing.

He drops to earth as well, shifting back to his half form halfway down so that he lands on silent feet, wings flaring before draping around himself like a cloak. He straightens up. Not that Lio would admit it, but he's a little nervous. These are Galo's friends, his family, if what he knows of druid circles is any indication. He wants them to be okay with him, with him being Galo's mate.

His gaze moves over each individual as he comes up to stand beside Galo. Lio looks startled at Ignis's observation, but smiles. "The sun rose brighter than it has in a long time this morning. Thanks to Galo."

[barenakedspirit]

"That it has. Good work." He tells Galo who beams with a flash of dragon fang. "Just doing my job sir!" He says as Ignis snorts. But blinks as Galo adds, "And I couldn't have done it without my mate." He smiles a little softer at Lio.

The rest of the circle blink then the pink-haired woman shrugs. "Seems like a good match to me. And those eggs?"

Galo puffs up a bit with pride. "Ours! The Earth's interpretation of the balance but would have happened one day anyway." He directs that soft smile at Lio as he adds, "And one of those eggs contains a healer to be." The blue-haired man raises an eyebrow. "Then we better start getting dragons slowly introduced. We can start by spreading the word to other circles. As they get people to see the truth, we can maybe enforce this by having dragon healers in the circles. Like we do other elementals," He says looking at the dark-skinned man that looks built like a boulder.

"Yeah, and I can help spread the word. Me and other Earth elementals."

[carrythetorch]

Oh. There goes Galo saying it right out loud. Lio is caught by that smile and his expression softens before he remembers himself and stands up straighter. That's right. Galo's mate. That's him. He's proud of this fact, and the casual acceptance is nice. A good sign, right?

...he will however be fighting a blush at would have happened one day anyway because, well, yeah. It would've. Ahem.

"The Flight has healers among us already, though they've been left to teach themselves in isolation. I'm sure they'd be willing to work with circles, to learn, to help spread the balance."

[barenakedspirit]

The blue haired man, Remi nods. “Would you allow us of the Burning Circle to help teach them more? We can teach them what was lost and in turn when more dragon druids are born, they will be able to pass those teachings on.” Galo looks to Lio. This is a good thing.

But Lio has to have the final say. The Forest will accept them but. Again. Fire lord. He almost vibrates. His circle could do this!

They trained him. “We’ll also start doing something about the stigma surrounding fire mages. That must end.”

[carrythetorch]

Lio nods without hesitation. "We'd welcome the knowledge, and the Healers in our Flight may have things to teach as well. We've been playing with fire all this time, after all." And fire had too long been absent or minimized in human circles. He looks over at Galo. These people are Galo's people, and they seem to share his determination to help, to do what is right.

Lio finds he likes them.

He nods his agreement with Galo's observation about fire mages. "The Flight can help with that too. Fire mages and dragons as fire elementals will be drawn to each other." ...Lio has felt that first hand. He went and mated the first fire mage he met. Oops.

[barenakedspirit]

Ignis nods, “It will be a mutual exchange,” Remi nods with a bit of a smile on his face. “Learning from each other, yes.”

Galo pipes up with a grin that’s all fangs. “We’ll learn what we’ve lost too.” The rest of the circle studies him then Aina says, “You look complete.” Remi nods too. “I wasn’t going to say it, but yes.”

Galo snorts. “Yeah, because I’m happy. We’re doing good work and my partner is everything I could ever want.” He beams and Ignis snorts. “Good. Fire Lord Lio by the grace of your flames, do you think there is anything that needs handled immediately aside from those issues?”

[carrythetorch]

Lio needs to not go and blush just because his mate is saying sweet things. He's the intimidating fearsome Fire Lord, right? Except he's also thoroughly smitten Lio who is head over heels for this beautiful, charming, brave idiot he's chosen as his mate.

Lio inclines his head at the question and acknowledgment. "Those are good starts. First and foremost, we need to heal. Dragons and humans both."

They'll manage it, and they'll do it together. "I'd like to introduce you to the Flight, and to my generals. They'll want to help as well."