What’s a Human Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

  Vicki blended perfectly with the rocky cliff edge as she watched the human and his odd companion walking towards her position. She was about 4 meters above the trail they were walking on. They were headed straight for the dragon's hunting ground. Unfortunately for the strange pair, the children were out today, so there was only one way this would end.

  When they crossed beneath her she turned her head to release her breath. A tentacle pierced the cliff beneath her and several more metal tipped tentacles were headed straight at her. Flinching back slightly, she released her breath turning the slime into ash and redirected her breath onto the human who was…smiling…at her. What kind of slime could detect her? What kind of slime would attack a dragon? Why did the human just stand there smiling?

  “Sorry human. Wrong place at the wrong time.” she said as she stood to head back to the hunting party to report the incident.

  “Holy crap. 5pts from one breath. Can you do that again? Oh wait…let me get Gum…” The human who was standing a few feet away from where she thought she had killed him was stopped mid-sentence as her tail pierced his chest and cut him in half and he once again turned to dust.

  “I’m John. And this is….” She spun and released another breath this time killing both the slime and human again. Spinning back the other direction she saw the human appear and quickly summoned the slime who waved at her. “Gumdrop. Although he’s getting a little too shiny from all the metal he’s been eating. Well at least that’s what I assumed. Maybe he just wants to be shiny. He might even be a she now that I think about it.” the human continued while looking suspiciously at his friend who slapped him with a tentacle. “Okay. Guess, I was right. He’s a he.”

  “What are you?” Vicki asked.

  The human pointed at himself, “Human…John.” He then pointed at the slime “Slime…Gumdrop or Gummy.” A loud roar rang out and fire shot into the sky a couple kilometers away. The dragon took to the air leaving John and Gumdrop behind. In the distance, two more dragons took to the air and flew towards where the fire had lit the sky.

  John turned his head to look at Gummy, but the slime was swinging from the dragon's tail as she flew away. The dragon turned her head and killed the slime again. John started running after the dragon and recalled Gummy who appeared next to him and quickly followed.

  *****

  Maggy, Tammy, and Courtney watched as Bill stalked the large buck that probably outweighed him by 20 kilos. He crawled up behind the deer and stopped about 5 meters away. He quickly conjured two balls of lightning and drove them into the deer's face. It jumped and spun to run from whatever attacked it, but Bill hit it with his lightning flame breath before it landed and his sister plowed into its side catching its neck in her jaws as she tore into it with all 4 sets of claws. The buck turned to dust within 2 seconds. Donel pulled the venison she had gotten as loot out of her storage and quickly cooked it with her breath. She carefully cut a slice of meat and handed it to Bill who screamed in agony.

  The tip of a jagged spear of shadow was sticking out of his chest. Courtney roared as she shot her breath into the sky and charged. Maggy created a shield of water around Bill and ran forward to pull the spear from her son’s back. Tammy moved forward to grab Donel.

  Shadow creatures with short legs and long arms appeared and attacked Courtney before she reached the children. Donel tackled one and began ripping it to shreds as her body lit up in flame. More shadow creatures appeared from behind Maggy and lept at her, but she sent blades of water to cut them down. When she reached Bill, she ripped out the spear and tried her best to flush the shadow essence out of the wound as she began weaving a healing spell inside him.

  Courtney was calling down a rain of fire on the area as she ripped her way through the shadow creatures surrounding them. Kristy and Joanna tore through the canopy and shook the earth as they landed on swarms of shadow creatures. Maggi used her claws to stab and flick away the wormlike shadows she pushed out of her son. His eyes were wide open and she could sense he was purposely circling his essence to maintain his consciousness and sending pure lightning essence to fight back the shadow essence trying to spread in his body.

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  A mass of shadow creatures rose up and charged at Maggy. Tammy raised a barrier of solid wood to deter them and Vicki slammed down on top of them with blades of wind whipping around her. Bill was fading fast. Everywhere Maggi looked more shadows were coming to life. They were small and weak, but there were so many of them. Donel was being swarmed by shadows, but her flames were holding them at bay for now while she tore into them. And Bill…Bill was dying.

  A shield of raw essence appeared around Maggy and Bill and a rough but powerful healing weave pushed into Bill. A human wielding a staff of lightning ran through the shadows from the direction Vicki had come. A mass of …something with tentacles and blades flung itself past the human leaving a path of dying shadow creatures as it wove between Donel and Kristy and disappeared as it entered the trees.

  *****

  Gummy had almost caught up when John suddenly cast what looked like a shield followed by a healing spell and his body lit up with lightning essence, that is how John referred to his glowing bits. Gummy used his own essence to form metallic blade tentacles and angled himself to John’s right. As he crested the hill, he saw several dragons fighting creatures made of a dark essence that seemed to suck in the light. As he charged in he saw something else. A large mass of the dark essence moving towards the most muscular of the dragons.

  Gummy didn’t like the taste of the dark essence, but that big mass looked like trouble, so it became his target. The large dragon was ripping the smaller shadow creatures to shreds, but Gummy didn’t think she saw the larger one coming. He went into stealth mode and swung himself up into a tree and then over to intercept the shadow thing. As he reached his intercept point, he dropped and spread his body out. He created a series of long crossing blades as he fell in hopes he could cut the shadow essence apart.

  As Gummy fell, the shadow essence coalesced into a black dragon that lifted up its front two claws to form a massive blade of shadows. This is gonna hurt. Yep…that stings. Gummy thought as he impaled himself on the blade and wrapped his body around the dragon cutting off his legs and tail and penetrating its skull.

  The dragon’s essence shifted into its previous form. Welp…I’ve died for worse reasons.

  *****

  Courtney was furiously tearing into the swarm of shadow creatures when suddenly a shadow dragon appeared with a black sword swinging for her neck. She tried to react, but the shadow creatures jumped onto her. A mass of blades and…metallic slime… appeared out of nowhere and cut deeply into the shadow dragon stopping its swing as the blade pierced it. The shadow dragon attempted to escape to the shadows when the thing split into long thin blades and Courtney was blown back by an immense blast of lightning.

  All the shadow essence drained out of the creatures as they fell dead. Before the bodies turned to dust, Courtney saw they were the pale grey typical of subterranean creatures.

  *****

  “We’re not going to be able to save him.” John said. “The shadow essence is keeping us from healing him. But I can bring him back.” He quickly began forming a companion crystal like he had done with Gummy.

  “What are you doing?” Maggy asked.

  “If he accepts a companion bond, I’ll be able to bring him back like I do with Gumdrop.”

  “You will not make a slave of the prince.” Joanna stepped forward but Maggy stopped her with a wave.

  “He’s right. Bill is dying. We are not strong enough to save him.” Donel tried to rush to her brother, but was picked up by Vicki who hugged the sobbing little dragon and walked away whispering to her. “I’ve got no choice. Do it human.”

  The light was fading from Bill’s eyes as John sat the ball of bonding essence on Bill and it sank into his chest before his body turned to dust.

  *****

  John saw an icon of a young blue dragon appear next to Gummy’s icon right before it greyed out. “It worked.” He quickly resummoned the dragon who appeared next to him.

  “Thank you…” the dragon, who was the little one’s mother said.

  “His name’s John.” the dragon that had killed him a few times spoke up.

  “Thank you. John. I will forever be in your debt.” the mother said. “Do it Courtney.”

  John looked down at the two dragon talons that were sticking out of his chest as they ripped him apart. John opened his eyes and heard. “...any good. I killed him several times and he kept coming back.”

  A little angry, John spoke up. “I’ll be around. Kill me whenever you want. Dragon breath gives great increases to my resistances. If I see the boy has died again, I’ll resummon him and head this way to find you. Come find me if you want a safe place to stay, a place to train the young ones, or anything else.”

  He understood why they did it, but he was angry anyway. John figured the only way to prove he had no ill intentions for bonding with the boy was to leave them alone and let them figure it out. So he walked away and resummoned Gummy who waved goodbye to the dragons as they went off in search of more fun.

  *****

  As the shock of a typical first meeting with John and Gummy wore off, Maggy sniffed the air. “Celestial. The gods have been playing with that one. Where did you find those two Vicki?”