Dragon Healer

By the time we got there, Rawst had abandoned the patch of lemon grass for the shade of a nice old oak, and Emralc and Chunk were lying in the sun close-by. Ruby pranced over to Rawst and started a conversation in dragonic while I told Emralc about her, and made an excuse about returning bane to his mother to explain what should be changed while I left for her kingdom. Chunk was asleep. I noticed behind me that Rawst had changed into his human form, giving Ruby elevator eyes. I didn’t blame him. Ruby returned the elevator eyes, and they both kind of absorbed each other. I set Bane down and he transformed enough to stand up on his own, Chunk woke up, and noticed Bane, he walked a ways away, and then motioned to him. “Excuse me ladies.” And with that, Bane walked over to join Chunk, he started a rather heated conversation with him, using old dragonic. Damn. I didn’t get the chance to learn old dragonic. So I couldn’t eavesdrop. Rawst behind us was blatantly hitting on ruby, and ruby was flirting back. “I think they will be living together during her stay here.” Emralc said. Her English caught me off guard, since I had been talking to her in dragonic out of habit. “And I think you are right.” I replied in English. “You’ll have to pardon me, it’s a habit to automatically address a dragon in dragonic.” she smiled warmly, then looked over at chunk, it must have been something he had said, she make a scolding noise, and uttered one of the few dragonic expletives that I had already figured out. Chunk backed off, leaving Bane to walk over and sling me onto his back. “What is this! You need time to heal! What do you think you’re doing!” he started for the trail, “taking you home to pack. Things seem to have taken care of themselves here.” I cannot believe how stubborn he is. No need to argue though. I just threw my arms around his neck and let him carry me. My feet could use a rest, and if core wanted to, he could carry me wherever the hell he wanted. We got home and made good time since bane was faster in his natural form. wait...that would explain a lot...the slow healing, for example, is he just trying to stay human looking for me? Awww. But in staying in that form, he would also expend energy. He sat down in his chair and pulled out a strip of jerky. “I can see why jess liked this stuff...” and he started to transform, but I stopped him. “There is no reason why you should choose one form or another. You should be comfortable here, so stay the way you were born.” he set down his jerky, frowning. “Are you sure?” I nodded, “absolutely.” so he reverted to his natural state, with tiny vestigial wings, stubby horns, a small tail, and delicate scales on his shoulders. Otherwise, his appearance was not altered. So yes, he was still hot. At least I thought so, and upon further inspection, his cute, short little tail was missing the top prong, just like in his dragon form. he was waiting for my opinion. “That it?” he looked baffled, “ ‘that it?’ is that all you can say?!” I answered truthfully, “mmkay, you’re hot. Happy?” he looked surprised, “you mean you don’t think I look like a freak?” I shook my head, “no, why would you be a freak? You're you! It’s all you can be. And I except you for the way you are.” I gave him squeezey hug, and then walked up to the barrier between the setting sun, and core’s resting place. “But don’t think I’ll date you just for that! Oh no! I have to have standards!” the sun had retired for the night, and hundreds of tiny spiders crawled out from under the barrier, they were wolf spiders, but still, it surprised me. They condensed into the form of core, and bane spoke up with a smirk. “Standards you said?” I turned around. “Shut up bane.” core laughed a maniacal laugh, and picked me up and twirled me around. Scattering the remaining spiders, “wolf spiders?” he set me down, “only the best, baby.” and then with my ninja-like stealth, I introduced my plan to them. “We all need a bath. I am going to march you both down to a nice bathing place, and you can both wash up, I have bathing suits in my dresser for all types.” Core piped up, “I know, and you have a few robes and towels, should I get them?” I gave him a stern look.“Two words, garlic. breath. I’ll get what we need, you guys pack what you want to eat when we get there.” Core shrugged his shoulders and picked me up by the waist, “I’m ready...” I turned around indignantly “hey!” bane just scowled and grabbed his jar of jerky. I squirmed free of core’s playful grasp, and walked to my room to get the little prepacked bundle of bathing suits and stuff. I threw it at core. “Think You can help me carry this?” he caught it and slung it over his shoulder. And gave a stiff nod. “Alright then, bane? Core? You both ready?” they gave their consent, and we were on our way. we walked down the beaten path, to the waterfall I had visited before. I was happy that Bane could walk in his natural form, it helps that I didn'thave to carry him. and i was happy they were getting along. I know that Bane was not happy about my interactions with Core, but that's tough. and he seemed to be taking it well. we passed the spot where the royal party had been lounging, and found that they were long gone, but they had demolished all the mint plants,and flattened the lemon grass. it would all grow back, but it would take a while. we walked past figs, and hard cooking-pears, birds of all shapes and sizes, past a slumbering green, and finally we started to see some blackberry bushes. i stopped to pick a few and core walked on, bane stopped and watched me. "do you have to hover?" he blinked and backed away a little, core was still walking."you should wash those." i bent to pick a few more, and saw that core was leaving us behind. gah, men.i grabbed bane by the hand, and ran to catch up with core. "well bane, i guess i'll be washing them at the falls hmm?" he was surprized that i grabbed him, and nearly knocked me off balance just by standing still before he got the drift. we caught up to core at a fork in the path and he just raised an eyebrow. "oh!" i had forgotton that bane and i were still holding hands, i let go. "well, this way gentlemen," and i started down the path less traveled, i had made sure it always looks like that too, sometimes i even had to plant things to keep the falls all to myself. i didn't want someone to come and build right around my favorite bathing spot. we reached the top of a hill that put the falls in sight, i started laughing and ran the rest of the way to the water's edge to wash my berries. i didn't see what core and bane were doing, i wasn't paying attention. i ate the a few of the sweet berries as i turned around to watch the boys progress. core was already sitting pretty underneath the spreading branches of a nice sized oak, and bane...wait..."where's bane?" i turned around to the sound of wings passing overhead, and saw bane barely staying in the air on his ridiculous (and obiviously) almost-vestigial wings. "cannonbaaaall!" "Oh-no-you-don'tbaneihaveallthedryclothesAAAAHHH!" I was silenced by a vertiable wall of water, but luckily core had snached all the clothes, so we were still in business. i had worn my suit underneath my regular skirt and top, but i wasn't about to tell them that...bane was swimming around in the clothes he was wearing when he had first darkened my door, of course they needed to be washed, but still. he could have put on his suit first. he paddled around on his back, as i took the bundle from core and laid out the swimsuits that i thought would fit them, swim trunks to be exact. i had three (one of them had a tail hole.) just in case. i grabbed my wet shirt and started to pull it over my head, that got their attention...to reveal a nice one piece black-and-white swimsuit. i stepped out of my soaked skirt, and fell into a perfect swan dive into the cool water. i surfaced to see core pick up two of the suits, bane hopped out of the water, literally, hopped out, with no support to spring from. and core tossed him a set of swimtrunks and started taking off his shirt. i kind of flushed, and turned to the waterfall, swimming towards the mist. i bet that dork-fish was in for a show. i snickered. imagineing the big girl sticking her head out of the water and wolf-whistleing at them as they changed. hee hee. they must have finished as i heard them both jump into the water. i swam in a circle to see core wearing red trunks. and bane wearing the black trunks with the tail hole. well, i guess. since he was threshing the water with his tail. core swam toward me with all the grace of a football player. "huh, core, i thought vampires couldn't cross running water." he paused and floated for a moment, nodding his head. "it is a commom misperception." he paused to look back at bane, who was chaseing small frogs in the shallows. started to say something, paused, then he just shook his head. i turned to watch bane,as he glided through the water like a silver fish. i dove under the surface, and swam under the very surprised core. i kicked, and let the kick carry me forward before tilting upward and riseing slowly to the air. i hit the surface and took a deep breath. "oh no you don't!" core started after me. i just giggled and splashed him, diving for the bottom of the pool. i wonder how jess is doing...i hope he's gotton over it. Ruby will take good care of the greens and foxes, she helped me tend my regular patients while she recovered...and she had quite a touch for healing. i surfaced a few strokes from the shore, and turned around to see a familiar shadow right underneath core, before anyone could display a reaction, core was sitting high and dry about 50 feet out of the water on the largest dorkfish yet discovered. she was 180 feet long, seven feet wide, and had teeth the size of bananas. my jaw dropped. and I heard bane yell at him, "don't hurt her!" on top of the monster dork-fish's head, I could see as core kind of petted it's rubbery hide. "nice fishy!" I giggled, and I saw that there were hundreds of dork fish, all congregating towards their grandma..(I think) "awww! such a sweetlittle dork fiiish!" I swam over to the giant and gave her as much of a hug one can give a very large fish. all of her children and grandchildren watched me carefully, and a few came close to poke me with their sensitive snouts. the dorkfish mother I had fed swam beside me for support. grandmother dork fish eyed me, and I swear she smiled. now would be the time to give you a lesson on natural history, and another reason why dorkfish were such common pets. they had very sharp senses and seemed todetect undead uncommonly well. they were common pets not only for their looks and disposition, but because they have a strange reaction to undead and dark creatures in general. unlike some other light based creatures, which despise anything of the dark nature and seek to destroy the offending creature, dorkfish seem to have the overwhelming urge to poke them. yes, poke them. what makes them even stranger, is that the dark creature or undead in question seems to aquire the desire to go to any and all dork fish in range and stay still, rendered harmless by curiosity. this made it safer to live in smaller groups on the outskrits of large towns and citys. dorkfish went out of popularity after wards became cheaper and easier to manage. and had been forgotten for some time, but I though it was harmless enough to forget about, since almost every body of water in the general area had a few dork fish at least. and the native vampires seemed to have no problem with them. core clung to the granma fish, and she slung him up in a high arc. oh no! was she going to eat him? she snorted, and promptly served him like a vollyball with her nose, sending him flying. "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" bane, and all the fish watched him and tracked his arc to the water, he landed, unharmed, about a foot away from me. he bobbed to the surface, staying perfectly still. for a frozen moment, nothing happened. then 'my' dorkfish swam up and gently beeped his nose with her snout. another second passed, and then every dork fish serged in at once, carefully pokeing him in a strange frenzy. I was laughing so hard, I got an awful cramp, and 'my' dork fish had to support me and keep me afloat. bane was on shore, gasping for breath and rolling around in tears. core was NOT amused. he tried swimming away, only to be poked back into place. I swam back to bane, and collapsed on the ground beside him. core was yelling at all the dorkfish, all of the big ones and medium ones had already poked him once so now the youngest and the hatchlings were all pokeing him and moving him around like he was an angry bath toy. " stop it! hey! stop that right! hey! aaaaaargh!" we were wipeing the tears from our eyes by the time every one of the dorkfish had poked core. he waded on shore, looking ruffled. the grandmother dorkfish watched, as all the other fish went in their way, their little lives fufilled. I thew some blue berries, still chuckling, to grandma fish. who swallowed them before turning around and dissapearing into the mist of the falls. the water looked like it had never been disturbed, and I went a ways away to change into dry clothes in a nice bramble while core and bane changed at the falls. we met back t the fork in the path and walked a few feet before bane and I had to lag behind so core couldn't see our faces. we kept from snickering before bane started to speak up, and core cut him off. "one word..." he turned on his heels, and his hair flew up dramaticlly behind him, "and I'll..." bane snorted, "you'll what? poke me? is it contagious?" I looked at bane in mock-severity, "now bane! be a good little hatchling and stop picking on my little core-loaf!" bane snorted agian, and almost lost his balance holding back laughter. I ran a few feet and flying glomped core, he frowned, but then smiled wide showing pale fangs. the look on bane's face fell like a ton of rock. he pouted but followed us obediently. core spun me around and started laughing "poke!" I twisted around in his arms "hey! no fair!" core just laughed, "poke! pokepokepokepoke!" I was too busy giggling to see what bane was doing, core was tickling my sides carrying me down the trail. "stopit!heeheehahahaha bane! help me out here! haahaahaa!" bane landed right in front of core, "gotcha!" he snatched me out of core's arms and jumped straight up into the air on those tiny wings. and this of course shocked me out of my giggles. core jumped into the air like a ninja, sprouting wings out of his back and almost catching bane had he not dodged right into a big oak tree. core retained his wings, and sat down on one of the larger limbs of the tree chuckling "smooth move bane." bane just growled and squirmed around trying to untangle himself. I dropped out of the tree and sat down on the ground beside a small pile of branches bane was dislodging in his struggles. core grinned ear to ear and flew down to sit beside me. "so, what happened while I was asleep?" bane was writhing and growling, still stuck in the tree. and I giggled. "well, we met an old patient of mine today, ruby, she's a red, she'll be takeing care of the greens and generally subbing for me." core quirked an eyebrow, "what about the queen? what has she said about it? I looked up at bane, who was looking down and listening intently. his clothes were still a bit moist, and a few drops of water started ploping down onto the pile of leaves beside me. "are you quite finished, bane? bane pulled the last of the branches away and dropped onto the leaves, throwing tiny drops of water in every direction. core shook his head and sighed, bane smiled a big toothy grin. "yep!" I looked back at core. "well, I told her about it just before..." bane interjected "I had to carry her home on my back. Tankar was telling me about.." core sweeped over me and picked me up in his arms, bridal style. bane stopped short. and squinted his eyes at core, I looked over to bane quizzically, "Tankar?" bane rolled his eyes. "you know-Emralk's mate. Tankar." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "oh! yeah! you mean chunk!..oops. I..uh...shouldn't have said that.." core's chest bobbed with silent laughter, eyes closed to hide their merry twinkle. "hey! core, watch it." I put my hands on his chest to steady myself, feeling steely muscles move under his shirt. bane rolled his eyes, "chunk. nice." blushing slightly, I took my hands off his chest and planted them on his shoulders, trying to let myself down."It's actually a long story, uh, core? would you mind putting me down for a second? core stood stock still for a moment, then frowned at me. "yes. yes I would." I pouted at him, to no effect. bane notice the impending aquward silence, and broke it before it took root. "we need to get back and pack, we've had our fun. " core nodded, and I just shrugged my shoulders and held on to him "let's go." and we were off, into the night.



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the dorkfish are modeled after my skink, honeny, whose nickname was dorkfish when first got her at the F.I.R.E. reptile expo. about four years ago. My dorkfish and 'the' dorkfish in a 'popular comedy routine' are not related, and I have rights to my specific species, dorkus redicularus in case you were wondering. -pyra