Logan watched the little sprite as it curled up around the spikes protruding from his head. It seemed to be sound asleep. The action had rendered him immobile for how ever long it decided to sleep for (which could be anywhere between an hour or twelve hours)

He smiled, pushing away the thoughts. It was good that the sprite was seeking warmth, regardless of the inconvenience it caused him. Regardless, Virgil was sure to laugh at him.

Logan closed his eyes, deciding that perhaps he should nap with the sprite. Besides, Virgil was guarding exits, so it’s not like it could escape whilst he was sleeping. When he awoke, it was still near him, though it was trying to climb behind something, now.

Logan sighed, going to get it. It had done this kind of thing a multitude of times in the past two weeks or so it had been living here, Virgil hypothesised that it was some kind of game it was trying to play

Logan walked closer, quietly, noting the noises it was making sounded like happy noises, though distinctly muffled. He found his way behind the large pile of things and gently nudged it out

It made more of those happy noises, louder this time and started running towards Virgil’s side of the cave. Logan supressed a smile, and went to chase it.

It ended up in Virgil’s grasp before he caught it

Virgil looked at him with a strange expression, like he was trying to stop himself from laughing and make himself look serious

Logan’s scales shifted, and he hesitantly looked up

Virgil sighed, the little one’s clothing still dangling in his mouth. It was wriggling, like it was trying to get to the ground

“Since when am I the responsible one? It’s supposed to be watched at all times”

Logan huffed a little smoke, and gave his friend a small glare

“It was playing the hiding game it likes, and then ran away. I was trying to catch it” He shook his head

Virgil carried the little sprite back to its nest, placing it down, and nudging it back to the middle every time it tried to climb back out

“Sorry, little one. You’re too energetic for today, and it’s too risky to let you out for now” he said, though the little sprite couldn’t understand enough to know to stop climbing.

Virgil left to guard the entrance again

Logan curled around the nest and watched the little thing climb. If it kept climbing, and Logan kept putting it back, it was sure to tire itself out eventually

Logan thought about perhaps finding other games for it to play. Ones that didn’t involve running or hiding, possibly.

Soon would be a new moon, a night where all magic bloomed. Logan wasn’t sure what would happen to the little one (what had been happening to the little one) if its spark didn’t ignite.

Hopefully it would ignite within a few months. He didn’t want it to be ill, or sad, or hurt.

It stopped climbing after a while, leaning against the side of the nest. Logan gently nudged it, just enough to test its warmth. It was a lot warmer than it was when it first showed up, but not warm enough to ignite

He waited until it fell asleep and went to go find Virgil. Virgil was good at watching the little sprite, and Logan wasn’t as good. Logan and Virgil decided that Virgil would watch the sprite for a while and Logan would hunt and guard entrances

Logan emerged from the cave, looking down towards the human town. The humans were rarely ever out of their homes when he was, and tonight was no exception. He looked out at the little structures they made for themselves and let his thoughts wander.

He didn’t take too long to get food, and was back to the cave before the sprite even woke up.

He was careful not to wake it up before it awoke naturally; sleep was an incredibly important step in the healing process it was going through. It needed to gain all the energy it hadn’t been able to produce whilst it was living with humans

It was progressing slowly, but that was better than no progress at all. Logan knew what would have happened had it not sought them out, and he knew that it was still a risk.

He had to be aware of its progress and if it got worse at any point. He curled up next to the nest and his friend.

Virgil was watching every thing, every possible entrance, and Logan let him. It wasn’t often that being overly cautious was bad, especially not with a child to be watching out for. He absently watched the flickering shadows on the wall across from the fire pit. What colour would the little sprite’s flames be?

By the time the new moon came around, Logan was ready to forfeit any celebration in case the little one needed him. Which, as he found out, it did.

It became unwell, that evening, prompting Logan and Virgil to take care of it. It was cold again, and it was crying, an upsetting sound that Logan would rather never hear again. He gently nudged it, lifting it out of the nest, and closer to his own body warmth. Virgil lied next to him, also providing warmth for the sprite

It was still crying, though quieter, and less. Logan didn’t enjoy knowing that it had gone through this before, alone. Virgil was clicking out soothing noises. It mimicked the noises quietly, and leant against Logan’s chest

Logan draped his wing over it and looked at his friend

“I think it will fall asleep soon, what should we do?”

Virgil looked at him

“We let it rest, and we carry on helping”

--

Patton still didn’t understand most of the draconic language.

He still didn’t understand why he was there. They were nice to him, and he wasn’t really being held captive in most ways. Mostly, he found that they seemed almost concerned about him. He couldn’t figure out why.

He still played games with them, and they still kept him warm, and Patton was feeling better than he even knew people could feel. He felt stronger, less sickly. The dragons kept him in ways that made him stronger

He didn’t understand how. All the reports of dragons kidnapping other humans didn’t mention them getting stronger the more they stayed with dragons

Now, he was ill. He became ill every month, usually on the new moon. All the healers he had seen had hypothesised that it was some kind of curse. This was the weakest version of the curse, now that he was with the dragons. He was crying from the pain, still and he was shivering and he was freezing, but he had been a lot worse the month before.

The dragons kept him close, and they shared their warmth with a few clicks that he was sure was meant to be reassuring. He mimicked them quietly, his sobs fading out. He leant against one of the dragons, though he didn’t know which one. A wing covered him, protecting him, and he started to sleep while the dragons conversed above him.

When he woke up, the purple dragon was curled around him, the blue one doing something near the nest. Patton still felt ill, though not as much. He stood up, ignoring the pain settled in his chest. The purple dragon shifted slowly, turning their head to look at him. Patton smiled, looking at the eye that was half the size of him

He greeted them, and they greeted him back, gently picking him up. He wriggled, still not used to the feeling of being carried like that. He was set down closer to the nest, and both dragons started talking to each other. Patton sat down, deciding that he wasn’t in the right state to try play a game. He didn’t know how long he just sat there, but after a while he was lifted back into the nest, and he looked up

The nest was warmer now, and Patton laid down.

It was a few days later when anything really changed. He had woken up like normal, the dragons greeted him as normal, he played a game with them. And then, there was a noise from the front of the cave, by the entrance. Patton tilted his head, trying to think what it could be.

The dragons looked at each other, and said something quickly, before Patton was lifted into the nest. Patton tried to think what could possibly be happening, as the purple dragon rushed to the front of the cave

Patton looked up at the blue dragon, who seemed almost nervous. Patton hummed in thought. There were more noises coming from the mouth of the cave, including roaring. Okay, Patton was getting concerned now.

What could possibly have been happening out there? He attempted to climb out of the nest, but Blue pushed him back, more frantic than usual. And now he was really concerned. He tried again, before sitting on the floor of the nest and giving up.

He was tired.

—

He shook his head regardless. “For one, I was making observations about our people as a whole, in comparison to these humans as a whole, and expressing my confusion over human's endless need for company or community. For two, just where are you going to get draglins from Patton? You dismiss anyone who has flirted with you and the two attempts that someone has made to mate with you, which I will note is the only way for you to get draglins naturally, you've been so disgusted that you refuse to be on the same continent as them.”

Patton's tail thwaped around at them in annoyance. “That's not the only way, and you already promised that I can help raise your draglins if you ever, and I quote, 'experience the urge to copulate with someone for whom procreation can occur'. Given the amount of quests and attacks these human creatures are leading against us, I shall be the best surrogate father any draglin could have.” He huffed out smoke, one of his wings flaring out to gesture at the crowd of humans stalking around the bottom of the mountain the pair were on currently.

“If you desire that to be your route to family, of course I support you and do not retract my offer for you to aid in raising any young I might have. I merely fail to understand why a dragon so desiring of family denies what is both pleasurable and the simplest method to forming a family genetically close.” Logan acquiesed.

“Because I don't find it pleasurable, nor do I desire that. Cuddles are all I need for occasional physical comfort.” Patton stated. “Romance and sex are simply not for me.”

Logan huffed, a couple of smoke rings drifting from his snout. “Yet you only dream of the family that sex should be a fundamental part of acquiring.”

“I'm sure we have a few friends that can I explain to you why the world and who we are doesn't have to run on logic and rational solutions all the time. Roman was only a country away, last I heard.” Patton wriggled more comfortably into the rocky ledge he'd claimed, glancing over the valley again. “We both know that no matter how much I explain my feelings on the subject you will continue to struggle to understand, however much you try to accept it as my decision.”

Patton smiled nervously

“Sca-scared of us? But it’s like a giant spider, and it probably has venom and stuff- and what makes you think that its not planning to kill us all?” He laughed nervously, still terrified that there was a giant spider thing in their house

“I- uh- I heard one of the ghosts. They were telling someone to wake up, that they were having a nightmare, and that they wouldn’t let the humans- us- hurt this person.. It came from the room of webs” Janus fidgeted with his sleeves, as if that would help his case

Patton blinked, before processing the information. A giant spider that was scared of the humans? That couldn’t be real..

Except, there was fear on its face when they first saw it, and it did seem content to avoid them beforehand... 

Shit. They probably traumatised this person 

-

Virgil woke up sobbing. The humans needed to leave, otherwise everyone would die, and it’d be all Virgil’s fault because he couldn’t protect them. He felt a pair of ghostly hands wrap him in a brief embrace, before passing through him. He remembered when the twins couldn’t even touch a living thing at all, but Virgil had helped them, he and Logan had helped them with figuring out their powers. They were nowhere near full potential, yet, but maybe a century or two and they’d be as powerful as any other ghost.

Exactly why the humans had to leave. Any human could find methods to destroy a ghosts soul if they knew the exact resting place of the bodies, and now that the humans had found the tunnels, it would be fairly easy to find their skeletons, which hadn’t been moved from the spot they were in at death. He couldn’t let that happen. They could kill Logan if they had iron weapons, which they had. Iron could cut through dragon scales as easily as steel could hurt Virgil, which was very easily

He couldn’t speak for the next half hour, in which the twins and Logan sat next to his web, whilst he cried. It wasn’t unusual for his friends to see him whilst non-verbal, so after about 50 years, he had stopped worrying about them judging him, but he felt rather pathetic, crying over a bad dream.

A bad dream that could soon become reality, a voice in his head shouted. He shook his head quickly; he couldn’t think like that

-

Remus wished that he could comfort Virgil, but he couldn’t offer physical comfort, due to being a ghost, and he knew that verbal comfort would make him feel pressured to respond and work himself up again.

He decided that they were definitely never telling Virgil about the humans’ midnight visit 

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PLEASE REBLOG!!

As Patton walked around, he wondered how many people he saw had ever been near the mountains. The mountains were far in the distance, though, for the dragons that lived in them, it wasn’t as big of a distance.

He looked at them, considering. There was nothing stopping him from going closer, barring the multitude of warning signs and verbal warnings he had been given 

He knew the rumours that dragons were bloodthirsty monsters, full of anger and greed. He doubted that was true for the entire species. After all, the same sentiment could be held to humans, and yet, most of the people he had briefly met had purposefully gone out of their way to warn him of potential danger.

He would wait for nightfall, so no one could stop him, and he would go up to the mountains. At best, he would see a dragon in person, and get out unharmed (yay!) and at worst-

Well, they didn’t call him an optimist for nothing. He smiled, buying a cloak to protect him from the harsh cold of the night and got ready to watch the sunset.

He stayed on the roof the inn he was staying in (with the owner’s permission, of course) until the moon was high in the sky, and the only lights were the luminous plants that were scattered haphazardly by mother nature. They were magic, the townsfolk claimed, though didn’t elaborate on what kind. Patton shrugged, letting them light his way.

His cloak was warm, but he was still cold. He always was. He was slowly getting closer to the mountain, and it was getting bigger. He could see a plume of smoke floating out of a cave

He was glad that he was getting close, and he looked at the steep path.

He didn’t quite know why he was doing this. It just... felt right, he supposed. 

The moon was lowered down significantly, by the time he actually got to the mountains, and it took a while for him to get to the cave. He always was weak, so climbing want his strong suit. The sun was long since risen, it’s beauty illuminating the dark mouth of the cave

The smoke came from deep inside, and Patton followed it, passing riches and trinkets galore. This would be more than enough to pay off every single debt he was in

Though, that wouldn’t happen; all of this gold, these jewels, they weren’t his to take, weren’t his to use. He wouldn’t.

He found the dragon a while later, curled up around even more gold. Patton didn’t know why he felt so at peace here, but he did. He felt so right.

The dragon had purple scales, perfectly polished to the point of them being as shiny as all of the gold around them. Patton sat down and watched it. It was sleeping, as Patton should’ve been. It was big, each scale the size of his torso. Patton basked in the warmth that seeped out from the dragon’s body, and yawned, almost subconsciously curling up on the stone ground

When he woke up, the dragon was still asleep. Patton smiled, pulling his cloak further over himself, and waiting

There wasn’t any sunlight in here, and certainly no clocktowers, so he was forced to guess the passage of time. It was maybe an hour later that the dragon started to wake up. The first thing it did was focus its attention onto him, growling lowly. For some reason, Patton wasn’t scared. He giggled slightly.

The dragon sniffed him, and Patton was lifted into the air by the hood of his cloak. The dragon was making little chirping-click noises, though they were still holding him with their teeth. Patton tried to mimic the noises, but found that he couldn’t. He twisted around, as best he could, to look at his... captor? They had started glowing slightly, he realised. 

Patton moved around, deciding that the feeling of being carried like this wasn’t as fun as he would like. The dragon made a noise, and soon, Patton was left in what looked a little bit like a nest. It was too small for the dragon, though, and the edges were too high for Patton to get out of. Patton looked at the dragon

Why was he in a nest?

He stood up, and started going towards the edges, though a large claw pushed him back gently. Patton tilted his head and looked up at the dragon’s face. It was large, with golden eyes staring him down. He still wasn’t intimidated. He couldn’t explain it, but he needed to stay near them.

They retreated from the nest for a few minutes, in which Patton tried to climb out to find them, but he only got partially to the top, before they came back, another dragon with them. This one had dark blue scales, reminding Patton of the night sky. They were larger than Dragon One, their noises deeper

Patton was deposited back in the centre of the nest. He smiled to himself. Something about this made him happy, though most of him was telling him how bad it was to be captured by a dragon. 

He yawned, somehow still feeling tired after his nap earlier. How long ago was that...? The dragons were making noise at each other, perhaps talking. Patton felt like he needed to listen, though he didn’t understand

He fell asleep a while later. The cave was warm, chasing away the persistent chill that followed him. His dreams were strange, full of fire and warmth. 

By the time he woke up, one of the dragons was gone, leaving only the dark blue one. They were the bigger of the two. They were curled up around the nest, though their tail was too long to fit. Patton once again tried to climb out, and this time got to the top of the nest. The dragon looked at him with half-lidded eyes, and gently bit down on his cloak and took him out of the nest. 

Patton smiled. He was soon tucked under a wing. The dragons were warm. He had never been this comfortable, he couldn’t even bring himself to be worried about anything.

The next few days were a blur, and he wasn’t worried at all. Well, until his mind cleared enough to actually think. It was hard to think before, something in his mind too relieved about something that was happening. Now, he thought about it

It was worrying that he was being kept here. But, they weren’t doing it maliciously, he didn’t think. Then again, he had a hard time figuring out if anyone was malicious

They kept him warm, and they gave him food, and he was allowed to walk around the cave, though not too close to the exits, and he had his nest, and he was so much more comfortable here. He had never realised how cold he used to be until he was finally warm.

He was pretty sure most people didn’t need as much warmth as he did; he was always confused on how they found the sun warm enough to wear only one layer. But now, he was finally warm.

He didn’t know what was going on, really, but... he wouldn’t mind if it lasted longer. He was sure that there was something going on, but he didn’t really care. They took care of him

He was fairly certain that they were trying to teach him their language, and they seemed happy when he imitated them, even if he messed up slightly. He knew the greeting chirp they used when they came to his nest

He usually got taken out of the nest about an hour or so after he woke up. The dragons would give him food, make sure he was warm enough, and they would do lots of things. Sometimes they would play hide and seek, though they would find him quickly. Patton found the cave a lot more interesting than anything he would be doing if he had carried on travelling through different towns

He wondered what exactly the dragons wanted, though. That was something he couldn’t figure out. Not that he particularly minded, they were nicer than the people back home, and he was glad to be staying in one place, instead of travelling away forever

In fact, the only reason he had been travelling was because he had been following some sort of feeling, but that feeling had led him here, so he was sure that he was meant to be here. 

The purple dragon entered his section of the cave whilst he was thinking, bringing his thoughts away from why he was there. Patton beamed up at them, mimicking their greeting chirp.

Their darker scales started glowing, a bright purple. Patton had seen such happening plenty of times. The carefully lifted him out of the nest, and Patton climbed onto their back. They made a rumbly noise that Patton compared to something between a purr and a laugh. He was taken off of their back, though was carried into the blue dragon’s side of the cave.

Both dragons watched him for a while. Patton was tucked under a wing for a while. Purple brought some food (when had they left?), and Patton was happy.

Patton was always happy nowadays. 

---

Virgil had been sleeping when the small thing had entered his cave.

At first, he had thought it was a human, it was small enough to be one, and it looked fairly human, except for the fact it had no weapons. He had growled on instinct. But then, he smelled magic. The weak kind, the unhealthy kind, the kind that meant it had almost never been nurtured.

The little creature had not even flinched at him. He had carried it to the nest, usually for hatchlings (every dragon cave had one, whether they wanted hatchlings or not), and on the way over, he pondered the little thing

The little guy had been strangely cold, even for a human. Virgil was concerned

“Why are you so cold?” He grumbled, though finding it adorable when it attempted to imitate him. He couldn’t help the way his darkest scales lit up

It sat in the nest for a few seconds, seeming confused, before trying to go to the edges. He gently pushed them back to the middle, and went to find Logan. Logan would probably know what to do, or why it was in the cave, or why it was so cold

The nest was temperature controlled, so it would hopefully warm the little thing up. When they got back to the nest, the little thing had started climbing out. He gently placed it back in the middle, and the little thing didn’t look upset at him, though it seemed permanently wide-eyed. 

He explained the circumstances around the finding of the little creature; that it had wandered in whilst he was sleeping and had just sat there near him for a while, and that it smelled of magic.

Logan looked at the small thing as it fell asleep, and found the answer within a few minutes

“I believe,” He had started, a startling amount of concern in his voice, “That this is a fire sprite, though the state it is in is truly worrying. It is very young, perhaps twenty years old or younger, and by the looks of it, it was never warm enough for its spark to ignite. It is very lucky to have shown up when it did, if it doesn’t nurture its spark, it could die within the next few years”

Virgil stared at the sprite, his scales darkening to the point of almost blending in with his own shadow. That was a sprite? It was colder than a human. And it was so young...

Sprites didn’t live as long as dragons, but in both life spans, twenty was practically infant-age. 

He and Logan spoke for a while, mostly about the sprite, trying to figure out how and why it ended up in the cave. They deduced that it had probably been living with humans, and Logan thought it might’ve been drawn to the magic that was around the cave and the warmth of the dragons. 

Virgil was going to try his best to look after the little sprite. Logan said that the best way was to introduce magic slowly into its everyday life, so it could absorb some to help it. They were also supposed to keep it warm, though not too warm at first

Apparently, that could hurt it. 

Logan looked after it at first, whilst Virgil went to find food. 

At some point when he was out, it had found it’s way out of the nest, and instead was curled up, under Logan’s wing. Virgil laughed quietly, careful not to wake the little sprite.

“It was seeking warmth, I couldn’t deny it that,” Logan justified, scales shifting the way they did when he was embarrassed

Virgil nodded, a teasing smile on his face. 

Over the next few days, the little sprite was very calm, very clingy, and very sleepy. Virgil wondered how long it would take for its spark to ignite. At the moment, it was getting gradually warmer, but not enough for its own magic to activate. 

Virgil was getting worried.

It was cute, eager to imitate him and Logan, but it hadn’t yet ignited. Logan had said that it would die in a few years if the spark didn’t ignite; what if it didn’t ignite in time?

He huffed some smoke out of his nostrils, trying to stop thinking about what-ifs, and instead think about how the little sprite was in fact getting better.

He gave a tired smile, walking in to the nest area. The sprite looked up at him

“Hi! Hi!” it chirped, a strange accent on the mimicked words. Virgil lit up with the adorableness of the scene, and lifted it out of the nest and onto the ground. It climbed onto his back, and Virgil laughed, taking the playful thing off. Though, he didn’t place it on the ground this time, not trusting it not to climb again. 

It was taken over to Logan’s side of the cave, and they both watched it. It babbled in the language that Logan hypothesised was some sort of human dialect (Virgil didn’t like thinking that their sprite had been living with humans, what would humans have done if they realised it wasn’t one of them?) and they watched it.

It was tucked under Logan’s wing before Virgil went hunting; sometimes it would try to follow him, and it wasn’t a good idea to let it outside yet. 

He hummed in thought, looking at the human town about a mile or two away from his cave. What sort of things would the sprite have done when living with humans?

He wondered what the sprite would name itself. 

The sprite was cheerful, though that was likely due to how young it was.

He brought the food back to the cave, and placed it in front of the sprite, who seemed to just notice he was ever gone. The little one chirped at him again, and he greeted it again, pushing the food closer

He waited until it had fallen asleep again, before carrying it back to the nest and guarding the cave’s exits and entrances

--