Antichrist's +1

Niko peeks an eye out, peering at where the sound was coming from. There’s no more sound and Niko takes a deep breath.. they probably don’t want to kill her and carve out her heart, because they sounded terrified. It’s definitely not a bird or a wyvern because they would have used their wings.. curiosity makes her uncurl, slowly, and make her way over…

She clears her throat. “Excuse me? Um, I’m sorry, but I’m not really prepared for guests, so could you please—oh,” she gasps.

The creature is lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of her wisteria vines, in a growing pool of its own blood.

Niko’s heart sinks, twisting horribly in her belly. It’s so small. It’s barely the size of her smallest claw. It’s choking, awful, wet, wheezing breaths that make Niko feel like she’s gonna throw up.

“Oh my god,” she breathes. “Um—oh, hold on, please dont die—“

She whips around, diving into the hall into the spare storage cave, rifling through her potion bottles, wiping at her stupid blurring eyes, oh god, where did she put it, it’s so tiny, it’s gonna die if she can’t find it, why does she never ever organize her—there! She slams into a wall as she flies back, and the poor thing moans in pain.

“Please, please work,” she whispers, fervent, uncorking the bottle, paws shaking, and she upends the bubbling pink liquid over its body. It makes a sizzling sound, and the creature—twitches, all over, and goes still.

“Oh no,” Niko moans. She eels her head closer, listening—please, please—

It’s quiet. So, so quiet, and—

Thump.

“Yes!” Niko roars, beaming.

She flaps her wings and does a little dance, careful not to step on it, wiggling her tail and jumping a bit for good measure. Its heartbeat is so faint she can barely hear it, but it’s there.. it’s probably a good thing the creature is very unconscious, because her dancing shakes the earth, her crystals making a lovely sweet clinking sound, but anything as big as her moving over it woukd be kind of terrifying.

Hmm. She gets in a couple more celebratory wiggles before she starts thinking through her problem. Shes really big, and trying to help is gonna be sort of terrifying for a creature that small, let alone getting it to trust shes not trying to hurt it.

————-

That is how Edwin wakes, vision blurry with blood loss, to a vast, shining mouth of teeth the size of trees, the pink dragon’s hot breath rattling in his ribcage.

“Hi, new friend!”