#longfang

Pell, unconscious and revealed to be beyond even the healing on a day dragon, was humbling.  They’d needed Jack’s help to get him down from where he’d been limply tied to Firestorm’s saddle, behind Nolita, and Nolita’s agitated cleaning rituals only drew her away for a brief moment, rushed faster than Elian had ever known her to do them before, before she returned to his side.

In the back of his mind, Elian could feel Ra’s wonder at a rider of a day dragon acting so protectively of a night dragon rider – and not just the riders.  Shadow was twice the size of any other dragon around them, yet Firestorm had still positioned himself between her and the rest of the host, although Elian suspected she had hardly noticed, between her own pain and her rider’s awful state.

Pell is dying, Aurora whispered, her voice quiet and sombre.  Firestorm has tried to heal him several times, but he has been unsuccessful in anything except keeping death at bay for a while longer.

Firestorm and Nolita’s explanation had been brief and jumbled, but Elian thought he had the gist of what had happened: they’d been ambushed by night dragons and Pell and Shadow had drawn the attacks so that Firestorm and Nolita could escape.  Somehow, the opposing night dragons had managed to injure Pell.  Badly.

Fatally, even, if it was beyond Firestorm’s ability to heal, although neither he nor Nolita, it seemed, planned on giving up despite the clear futility.

Behind Elian was a song, muffled and for his ears only.  It had been a constant, since he’d turned around with the orb in his hands and looked at Longfang’s missing eye, only for the dusk dragon to refuse.  We do not know the full capabilities of the orb, Aurora had said, passing on his words.  And he does not feel right, that his sacrifice be overridden so easily.

The dawn orb had healed Elian entirely, when he’d laid hands on it, and he could feel that if he chose to let it, it could heal anything.  It could restore the eye taken to be the sacrifice from the dusk dragons, it could bring back a rider from the brink of death.  Its purpose was to revive the fading Oracle.

They’d met Barnabas, before they’d seen Firestorm and Shadow flying in, and he had been concerned at Elian’s own healing, and relieved that he hadn’t healed Longfang.

“All the orbs, it is said, have their own lure,” he’d said.  “But they are all finite in what they can do.  I do not know how much restorative power the dawn orb holds, but I fear that if it is used too much, it will lose the ability to do what we need most.  After all, it is only a single embryo.  Do not use it again, Elian, except for the Oracle itself.”

At the time, the words had sounded sensible.  They still sounded sensible, but now Elian thought they had been a warning against this temptation; Barnabas had to have known about Pell’s condition.  There was no way the leader of the day dragon enclave hadn’t.

The song was louder, and stepping away from the saddlebags, away from where the orb laid nestled amongst his spare clothes, felt wrong.

Elian couldn’t even say he liked Pell.  He knew Kira didn’t.  Until now, and the way she clung to his hand, he’d have said Nolita disliked Pell, too.  Shadow’s injuries were severe, too; if Pell died she would likely follow, rather than turn rogue.  She’d refused Aurora’s offer of healing on those grounds.

Still, despite everything about Pell that made him generally abrasive, the older boy had done what he needed to.  He’d turned his back on his own enclave, was fighting against them for the good of the world.  Elian had seen him and Shadow near-broken by the lure of the dark orb.

He’d also seen Pell’s distrust of the Oracle, and deep inside his own chest he was doubting, too.

The orb sang louder, more insistent, and Elian realised he was being forced to choose.  Turn his back on Pell, let Pell die to guarantee that the Oracle would revive?  Or save Pell, and risk the Oracle?

It should’ve been obvious.

What do you think? he asked Aurora, but all she gave him was a feeling of uncertainty and he realised with a sinking feeling that she was conflicted, too.

They were supposed to save the Oracle.  That was their quest.  If the Oracle died, the world would fall into anarchy led by the night dragons, and no-one would be safe.  One person, one night dragon rider, was not worth risking it all for.  He couldn’t be.  Yet...

Elian spun on his heel and the dawn orb seemed to materialise in his hands.

Pell was annoying, but Elian couldn’t leave him to die.