The Cost of Peace

[Soran Nightblade]

"I'm fine, of course," Vlad said haughtily. "But Atul was right, I tried earlier: my ports aren't working out on the sand. If this plan turns out to be a wild goose chase, we'll have to get very creative, very fast," he said. His eyes darkened briefly as the scenario he kept playing privately in his mind came up again. If they ran out of water or were trapped here too long, the only way to keep Tenele alive would be to... He straightened out his expression, rejecting the idea for about the 30th time. He would just have to make sure that didn't become an option. Still, he decided not to push the issue of carrying her... for now. "By now, they've probably contacted the queen. They probably informed her we were dead. Since our link was destroyed earlier, she might even believe them.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele froze and her eyes slowly looked up to him. "I didn't even think of that. Gods..." Her expression had fallen into one of sorrow. She could imagine what Sinead was feeling right now, and she wanted to give all the world just to let her know that they were alive. She couldn't. They were trapped in the middle of the desert. "Vlad..." Sinead was like a mother to her, it broke her heart to think that Sinead was in pain. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly for a moment.

"Really," Atul said, turning back to them. "Keep moving. Trust me..."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad frowned. He didn't like to admit it, but the thought of old queeny getting depressed over their demise didn't please him much either. After the events of the last few hours, he had a slightly different perspective on the bond that he'd previously seen as more or less indentured servitude. Sinead didn't just control him; she also protected him, in a way. She prevented him from becoming the things she knew he wouldn't want. He'd just never noticed before.

"It's not like her to get all blubbery. She'll be fine," he half lied. It was true that she wouldn't let it distract her from protecting her country. As for being fine...he remembered her surprisingly panicked reaction to the situation on the ship a few days before. "The sooner we get back, the sooner things will be set straight."

He raised his eyes to Atul, who was watching them. "Yeah yeah, lived in the desert your whole life, you're our only hope, et cetera," he snorted dismissively. "Lead on, oh wise and trusted guide."

[Emora Deen]

Atul was about to say something when suddenly the sand between them shifted, as if something had passed under it. Tenele blinked, looking back at Vlad. "What was that?"

Atul took a step back. "Come on. It has caught on to our sent," he whispered.

"What, has caught on to our sent?"

"Just move!" Atul took off running the thin line of sand that was the top of a large dune. Tenele took off running as well, watching as something down bellow shifted under the sand, heading back towards them.

"This is it!" She called out. "I quit! I'm retiring! A hundred and twenty years of this crap is enough!" So she ran a few more steps before growling. "Screw this." She drew her sword turned to face where the slithering creature was coming from. "I'm sick of danger. I'm sick of monsters. I'm sick of demons. I'm sick of egotistical Gods that think they can meddle with peoples lives."

"Tenele!!" And it burt up from the sand, stretching higher taller than she had expected. The head of a dragon, with sand colored scales and black eyes. It roared at her, and tossed the hood of her cloak back.

Tenele blinked for a moment and took a step forward, screaming angrily at the top of her lungs. She had wanted to scream for so long now... She had wanted to just vent it all out. The dragon's head tilted back, as if he were suprirsed. Then slowly it slinks back to disappear beneath the sands again.

"That was easy," she said softly.

Atul was left to stand in shock, waiting for her to be gobbled up.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad froze, and listened closely. The scratch and hiss of a living creature moving slowly away almost made him believe the dragon had left. It was becoming quieter and quieter... But a sudden sound just beneath them said something wasn't right. Impossible...it had deliberately tricked them? A simple dragon? Vlad took stock of the sound's direction and barely finished shouting "Atul!" before the dragon exploded directly upward from the sand beneath the prince's feet, its jaws wide.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele stumbled back, falling flat on her butt in the sand. She scurried to her feet as Atul, clumsily moved out of the way, just in time as the dragon snapped his mouth closed. "Move!!!" Atul yelled again, taking off in a brisk run. He didn't look back my make sure they were following as the dragon disappeared once again. Now, it was every man for himself.

"Your a demon! Can't you talk to it or something!" Tenele called as she ran behind him, her chest growing tighter. It was so hard to run in the sand, it felt like she was being bogged down because of how deep her boots would sink with each step. "We can't outrun this thing. So someone better come up with a plan." She glanced back in just enough time to see the dragon coming right up behind Vlad, bursting from the sand with its mouth open, ready to gobble him up. "Vlad!!"

[Soran Nightblade]

At Tenele's warning, Vlad glanced over his shoulder mid-sprint and saw cavernous jaws closing in on him. He wasted a split second reflexively trying to teleport behind it. Cursing under his breath, he stopped short in the sand, skidding nearly a yard and sending up a shower of sand as he dove sideways and tumbled down the side of the enormous dune they'd been crossing over. He managed to right himself and skid to a stop near the base of the dune, but he was now some thirty feet below the others, and when he looked up, the dragon's open maw was closing down a few feet above him. He went with the very first plan that came to his mind, which was to get up close and personal. He braced himself as the dragon's jaws closed down on him, leaping upward straight into the monster's mouth while extending his nails into long claws. Not his first choice, not by a long shot, but he hadn't had much time to react.

As the dragon bit down, he braced his feet against the base of its jaw and dug his claws hard up against the roof of it's mouth, opposing the force of its bite with all his strength. It seemed to work, to an extent. Blood flowed down over Vlad like a molten shower. The dragon didn't close its mouth fully, hesitating to puncture its own brain or nasal passages. However, it still had a tongue and a great deal of strength. Vlad, on the other hand had slippery footing and a very large, very strong tongue to deal with. He scrambled to keep his balance and forced his claws further upward, trying to stab the creature's brain before it managed to shove him into a more convenient chewing position.

Then came something he hadn't really expected. Fire. Great. He smelled the intense heat of smoke before it came up the monster's lungs, and decided to abandon his plan and make the quickest escape possible. A fierce thrust upward was enough to make the dragon momentarily widen its mouth, and he used all the traction he could get to launch himself out. The fierce teeth managed to catch on his right leg, razing a deep gash from his knee to his ankle, but he made it out and tumbled roughly into the sand.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele skidded down the hill as fast as she could to get to them. Atul following behind her. "Leave him alone!" She called to the dragon, who could clearly hear. Its head turned in her direction and he came a few feet further out of the sand to loom over her. Its head tilted at her, as the sun caught her gleaming silver hair. It huffed hard, and it caused the strands of silver to toss about.

Tenele froze when it suddenly lunged forward, but it stopped short. She leaned away as it sniffed her hair. "What is it doing?" Tenele whispered, feeling a sting as its blood dripped from its mouth. Hot, it struck her like scalding water.

"I think it likes your hair," Atul whispered, giving Vlad a quick glance. "Dragon's like shiney things."

"Okay..." Tenele replied, seeing how it had backed off when it had blown her hood from her head. It had seen her hair. Tenele took slow steps back, taking her hair in her hands. "If I give you this, will you go away?"

"Your going to give it your hair?" Atul asked, thinking it was a wretched idea. He had never seen hair like hers.

Tenele's hair was well past her shoulders, nearly to her hips. She put her sword away and took a good handful of it, bringing her dagger out. She cut her hair rather roughly until it fell loosely to hang just bellow her shoulders. Tenele tied the hair into a knot and tossed it just before the dragon. It sniffed the large lock of silver hair and slowly sank back beneath the sand, scooping the hair into its mouth and taking it with it.

Tenele was very still for a moment, afraid to move. What if it really wasn't gone?

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad scrambled to his feet and jogged to Tenele, limping slightly as his right leg refused some of his weight. He wasn't ready to believe the thing was gone. But as he reached her side a few seconds later, he still heard no signs of the monster returning. It had literally been appeased with a lock of hair? He stood next to her and Atul, his claws still out and ready in case. "I didn't know shinyness was a survival skill," he said.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele sank down to sit in the sand a bit wearily. Tenele was worried that they weren't going to make it out of this. That this desert was going to kill them, or make them kill eachother. Vlad would need blood, and she would need water. Vlad would definitely kill Atul first, but what was going to keep her from dying? She rested her head in her hands. It was getting darker now, since they were surrounded by mountianous dunes of sand. The heat had lessened, and a cold chill was suddenly filling the air. It was going from one extreme to the other. Or maybe it just felt cold since her body was being allowed relief from the heat.

Atul hated to admit it, but they needed to rest. He had to remember the mortal, and now one of them was wounded. he went over and plopped down in a higher pile of sand.

"You wouldn't happen to have any food in that bag, would you?" Tenele asked.

"No, just water."

She sighed before glancing up at Vlad. "Your hurt," she said worriedly. "Is it bad?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad glanced down at his leg, as if he'd forgotten about it. The wide stain on his pant leg was already caked with sand and clinging to his shin. He sighed like his shoelace had just come untied and dropped to a seat in the sand. He rolled up the fabric, mostly for her benefit. The ragged gash was already knitting itself back together. Vlad rested his elbow on his knee impatiently for the half minute it took for the wound to finish healing. "Good as new," he said blandly, slapping his leg and springing back to his feet. He glanced at Atul and smirked. "Great job running for your life there, leader," he sneered at the other man.

[Emora Deen]

Atul chose to ignore Vlad for the moment, as he turned his head up to the ever darkening sky. "I should have known you'd take on a dragon, if your stupid enough to take on a God," he muttered. "It could have killed you, you know. Could have eaten you up, and where would that have left you? Dead, where would that leave her?"

Tenele glanced at him, and his eyes were very hard. She remembered what he had told her about the woman he had loved, and how she had been sacrificied. He couldn't have done anything about it, even if he were the prince, because Verin wouldn't have let him.

"What would have happened if Verin would have killed you? Or taken control of you. Do you even think of the consequences of your actions? Did you even consider what would have happened to her? He couldn't harm her as a God, but what damage could you have wrought under his control?" Atul shook his head. "You couldn't have, or you wouldn't have challenged him so foolishly."

Tenele wanted to retort, but she was to tired for that. She laid on her side wearily in the sand, resting there as she listened to Atul rant.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's eyes darkened fiercely as he turned on Atul. "Do you want to finish what we started at the banquet?" he seethed, looking ready to hit him. "I think we left off where I was soundly whooping your ass."

[Emora Deen]

"If you both don't stop we'll leave off this time with me whooping both of your asses," Tenele muttered as she curled up into a more comfortable position, using the hood of the cloak to rest her head on, so sand wouldn't get pressed against her face or in her ear.

She was so hungry all of the sudden, and rightfully so. She hadn't eaten in.... Damn it. She hadn't eaten in a while, if you didn't count the minute amount of breakfast she had eaten that morning. Barely enough to make up for the meals she had missed before that. She'd just ignore it, like she usually did. "Let's not fight. Not now." She glanced at Vlad. "Let's rest."

Though, they probably didn't need rest. She was the only one that didn't have a super-human body. She was just a mortal... one that could live quite a while.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad was distracted from his anger at Atul by the weariness in Tenele's voice. He looked down at her. How long had they been walking now? She had to be starving already. If they stopped for the night, she'd be that much weaker, and he had no body heat to keep her warm once the sun set. "Tenele..." he said quietly. "Would you be able to sleep in my arms? I'll walk steadily."