As I looked up, Ares and Falco being focused on their own dragons.
High up in the sky, there was a dark shape, barely bigger than the tip of my finger. Black scales reflected the last dying embers of the evening sun.
And then the shape stopped moving. It went still but I noticed something. The wings were no longer visible.
"FUCK! RUN YOU IDIOTS! ITS DEAD DROPPING!"
"What is?"
"THE MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON IS! YOU MORON! NOW RUN YOU GREEK BITCH OF A WHORE!"
"MAAAASSSSSSTAAAAA!"
"Who said that?" (Ares)
But I did not bother to answer. I was already halfway across the platform and just about to jump for cover when ....
*WHAM*
....half the platform exploded. The dragons and their riders were thrown of the cliff from the shockwave while the ambassador and the mage were flung towards me and bounced of the ground twice.
The unconscious mages hidden around were not spared either each slamming into vertical boulders that covered a part of the platform.
I myself had braces for impact, even placed a small shield Infront of me to prevent any debris from hitting me. Course it got hit by one or two mages, including the obvious sounds of bones breaking, hopefully only ribs.
"Master! Where are you? Please Master! We missed you!"
Sure you did. By about 15 meters you did. Also who is we?
I thought while the dragon, of whose identity I was almost certain by now, was still hidden in a dustcloud created by his impactful landing.
Then my barrier was suddenly shredded.
"There you are! Oh my god! We missed you so much! It's been almost an entire year since we last saw you!" and on and on he went, disregarding the fact that his rather impressive snout was mere centimetres away from my face. Not to mention the claws that shredded the shield had barely missed my arm by even less.
"Hello Abraxas. How have you been?" I asked knowing who he was for certain the moment my old injury, although not present in this body, started experiencing pressure. Not the kind of crushing pressure but the feeling of a warm, scaly weighted blanket concentrated on my entire body but most notable where the injury had been.
"Perc." A small kind smile on overly large fangs that I knew had pierced me once. Speaking of.... shouldn't I still be able to take on my undead from with that old wound? Gotta test that out sometimes, it might be possible after all.
Then I was picked up by the scruff of my neck, like a wet kitten, and carried over to where the others had already although barely recovered. Falco and Ares were clearly disgruntled and not to speak of their dragons. Their pupils were wider than a saucer pan.
"Percy? Why is your dragon so different from ours?" asked Ares, noticing the sheer size and length of Abraxas. Not to even mention the clearly visible muscles that coiled like divine steel cables whenever he moved.
"Well Ares." here Abraxas have a low his towards the aforementioned.
"This is Abraxas. A Dragon I fought a while ago. He killed me. I killed him. We've been partners ever since. Though I did keep him and many others out of thatquest we had."
"Oh I bet you did. If any of us had known about him, we wouldn't have let you leave camp in the first place. Dragons like that tend to go of the tails if their master dies."
Here the dragon, in whose mouth I was still hanging, gave an enthusiastic nodd.
"So that's why you only showed up after that guy died."
"No not really. He was the reason I became that way in the first place. That order he was part of essentially enslaved us so his death was....liberating to be honest. Though I still don't get where his soul went. Should have gone somewhere but I can still smell his torment sometimes."
"Oh...guess I never told you. Anyway. That will have to happen later."
"Wait. Dragons can't speak." (Falco)
"No. They indeed can not." (Lucien/Ambassador)
"Well no. This is highly unusual." (Ares)
"Indeed. How peculiar." (A certain dragon smoking a cigar while his rider still hung from his lower jaw)
"No no my dear gentleman. A stranger sight has never graced my eyes." (Said rider staring of in the distance)
*WHam*
A piece of debris flew towards my face only to get smacked aside by claws almost as big as the other dragons.
" So anyway. Let's get something to eat while Falco and Co. fake that other guys death. Alright?"
" Sure sure. But you will explain what happend in more details."
" No I will not."
" Neither will I. Our meeting was..... special. We practically ripped towards the core of our issues on sight."
"You most certainly did. My arm was barely hanging on."
"And you kept running away from me."
"Obviously. You kept trying to kill me."
"Only because you ran away."
"So If I had stayed still...."
"I'd have had an easier time killing you."
"Do you see now why I ran?"
"No. I was hungry and you were perfectly snack sized 😋. I was in the right."
"And so was I."
"Indeed."
"Guys? What ever is going on....I'm not faking his death. Not alone that is. It was bad enough the first time. Besides, Sidan doesn't want to leave my side."
"Ares?"
"Forget about that, Perc. You need to explain some things first. Also I still need to name him." His dragon snapped towards his legs right after, ripping of part of his leg wear but not harming the bare skin beneath.
"Her. I believe." Said Abraxas, who somehow still had a cigar in his jaws, smoking next to my head. The smell was murderous.
" How do you even have a cigar, Abraxas?"
" What cigar?" and it vanished, as did the smell.
" I never had a cigar in my life. Their smell is disgusting."
I would love to believe all of us gave him a dead pan state, but sadly the dragons were still weirded out or (in Ares case) munching on their partner's pants. And the other conscious people were staring at us two as If they were being overwhelmed by everything that was currently happening.
"So...I never got to ask this but....how was your death, Master?"
"A solid 9 out of 10. Best hugs ever, almost tied with Mom's. Would recommend."
"Similar to mine then. Best rest I had in a while."