pt. 2

<Year 13>

They all relaxed in that area, seeing hardly any reason to move elsewhere when all the danger had recently left. Even with the sun blocked by permanent dark clouds, the sky noticeably darkened as the day ended. In the end, with Zyrtec not waking up and their path unchosen, they had all found a comfortable spot to sleep, Nylotte between her brother and Darezen to prevent fights. Sometime around midnight though, Zyrtec opened his eyes slowly, finding himself in his sister's protective grasp. He hesitated for a moment, then wiggled out carefully, making sure not to wake her up. Glancing around as he stood on wobbly feet, he felt quite lost. Moving over to Darezen, he crouched and shook his friend's shoulders gently.

'(Stop it…)' The sleepy thought he got in response almost made him laugh. Trying again, Darezen blinked at Zyrtec lazily, then sat upright abruptly. Toning his voice down to a surprised whisper at the last second, he exclaimed, "You're awake…!"

Zyrtec put a finger to his lips and said, "Don't wake them up. They need sleep."

"Wha…? Then why did you wake me up?"

"Jarkko. Nylotte will still tell him most things because he's still our sibling. You, however, are avoiding him and he is to you as well. With how he was asking, he won't want information from you unless he can help it."

"Yeah, just why is he so mad at me?"

"Your magic wasn't strong enough to save our momma."

"Oh…" Darezen cast his gaze downward. '(Then why isn't he mad at me?)'

"Because it's too much to expect you to be able to do what we couldn't." He jolted and looked at Zyrtec in shock.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"No, it's the power I told you about before."

"So what, do you just hear everything I think?"

"Not really. I can choose when I hear thoughts and when I don't, as well as from who I'm listening...specifying the target took some practice."

"I'm not sure I like that."

"You don't have to. Listen to me and stop talking already." Darezen tilted his head at Zyrtec, finding him a bit too awake now. "My magic is off balance. Something changed."

"Is that why you kept passing out?"

"Yes."

"Then what all is wrong?"

"Follow me away from here and we can find out." They both stood straight and started walking as quietly as they could, Darezen having to support Zyrtec every now and then. Taking cover behind a hill as far as they would dare go from the others, Darezen was a bit lost.

"So what now?"

"I try to use my magic again."

"Why am I here though? You could've done this alone."

"You can use barriers."

He paled. "Huh?"

"If mana is handled improperly, or gathered into one spot recklessly, it could explode outward, an example being what my momma did back there to give us a chance to escape."

"Ah...fine, just get it over with."

"Put a barrier around me before I even try." He nodded to Zyrtec and raised his hands to get ready. The young dragon took a few steps back and closed his eyes, focusing on his mana. Soon after, he opened his eyes and stared blankly, stunned by this discovery.

"What's wrong? Are you doing anything yet?"

"I...can't. It feels like there's a hole where my mana should be. I can't use magic…" Panicking, he shook his head and opened his mouth to bite his arm, trying to control the blood. When it began to move a bit, he was confused.

"Zyrtec?" Dropping the shield, he went closer, finding his behavior strange.

"I can do everything that doesn't involve magic, but…"

"So you can't use magic now? What exactly happened to you?"

He went silent for a moment, then mumbled, "I dreamed that my momma said something to me. That she gave me something. The only problem is that I can't remember what it was."

"That's not good. How about we all go back to sleep now?"

"You just want to sleep. But fine." Walking back carefully, they both found a place to sit, Darezen laying down immediately. Zyrtec stayed awake, fretting over his mana too much to be able to sleep. 'Why can't I sense it? Where is it?' He kept trying to find his mana but never tried to use magic, afraid of what it could do to his body. Frustrated, he put his hands on his face and tried to calm down. 'She taught me how to use it better, I can't lose it!' The stress of it was getting to him, causing panic as he continued to fail. While he was distracted, a slight vibration was felt though the ground several times, growing as seconds passed. Eventually, a thud shook the ground, tossing the group from the dirt and waking up all that were asleep. Zyrtec mostly ignored it, twisting to land correctly only to keep trying to find his mana. The others however, were frozen in place, staring up at an adult basilisk that was just past a nearby hill.

Jarkko, very steadily and quietly, moved over to the others and said, "I don't think its seen us yet. Don't make a loud sound and move slowly." It was a giant, grayish green lizard with a third eye on its forehead that could petrify a living creature easily. They all started to back away, but stopped when they realized Zyrtec wasn't moving. Confused by his brother's actions, Jarkko whispered, "Come on, whatever you're doing isn't worth it. We need to leave." When he didn't budge, he scooted closer to his brother and touched his arm to get his attention.

Rather than react the way they expected, Zyrtec snapped, shouting, "Leave me alone! It isn't working! I need to fix it!" They froze up, not only in surprise from the sudden shout, but because the basilisk was now looking directly at them. The large eye in its forehead opened, glowing. Seeing this, Darezen immediately put up a barrier without holding back, pouring every ounce of strength in to make it strong enough for the attack. A beam of light blasted from its eye when it finished charging, striking the barrier with incredible force. Parts of the magic seemed to crystalize as it went on. When it finally ran out, the barrier was dropped to conserve power and they were unsure whether to fight or run. The attack had gotten Zyrtec's attention though, making him realize the danger he was in quickly. Without the use of magic, he felt far more vulnerable than he otherwise would've. Afraid, he hid behind the other three, more than ready to just run away.

In the end, Jarkko calmly said, "It's faster than we are in these forms. We also can't just shapeshift because our scent will most likely be restored."

"Does that mean…?" His sister leaned closer.

"We have no choice but to fight."

Nylotte grinning and pumped her fist, saying, "Yes!"

"Hold on, I can't make that many barriers strong enough." The basilisk was sliding closer deliberately slower than it needed to be, not even viewing them as more than a meal.

"You don't need to. It takes about five minutes for it to charge the eye and we've wasted about two now. We have three minutes before the chance of being petrified, but don't get bitten."

"There's more danger than the eye?" Darezen liked this less and less.

"It has venom. It's not strong but not necessarily good either." Jarkko got into a crouching position. "It has tough skin, we have to aim for where the scales reverse underneath its neck to have a better chance." He narrowed his eyes and added, "We have two minutes now."

Nylotte, tired of the talking that was wasting their time, charged in yelling, "Fine! Then let's just get to it! No point in whining about it!" Its prey running towards it, the monster paused momentarily out of confusion. Soon after, her hand partially morphed, giving her dragon talons. She swiped at the basilisk, drawing blood easily but got her hand stuck on the hide. It hissed in pain and went to whip her with its tail but was blocked by a shield. Ripping her hand free, she twisted away and ran around it, continuing with dealing small amounts of damage. Jarkko disappeared from in front of Zyrtec, who was the one one not budging and staying away, and reappeared above its head, spinning down to stabbing his hand into the back of its neck. They weren't going to the weak spot for the simple reason that it was naturally protecting it all the time, forcing them to distract it and make the creature think they didn't care about it.

The young dragons misunderstood the reason why Zyrtec was still hiding, only Darezen knowing why. For this reason, when the basilisk reared its head and stopped caring about its neck, Jarkko shouted, "Zyrtec, get it now!" He stumbled to his feet in shock, trying to participate, but without mana he couldn't shapeshift either and was stuck in a human form. He knew that and didn't even try to change his hand like his siblings were doing. With magic locked, he did the only thing he could and raised his hand, drawing in the black blood leaving its body until it formed a spear in front of him. Shoving his hand forward, he threw it at the exposed neck as hard as he could, hoping it wouldn't miss. The blood spear shot forward, sinking into the soft neck where the scales reversed and exploded when Zyrtec stopped controlling it. The basilisk shrieked in agony and gurgled, then coughed and narrowed in on the one who hurt it to that degree, marking them as a danger.

"Zyrtec!" Darezen leapt in front of him and raised a barrier, the eye fully charged and already aiming. The impact made him stagger, slowly losing balance. In response, Zyrtec placed his hands on Darezen's shoulders to help support, taking some of the weight from the blast. Nylotte and Jarkko busied themselves with striking around its neck while avoiding the beam, trying to weaken it more. When it finally stopped, Darezen fell back against Zyrtec, exhausted, and he caught his friend hurriedly. Looking back at the fight, Jarkko had taken the role as a distraction as Nylotte snuck closer and closer to the open wound. Eventually, when she saw a chance, she jumped at it and shoved her hand inside to tear at it viciously. It hissed at her and she hissed right back, not stopping for even a second. The basilisk whipped around wildly trying to throw her off, forcing Jarkko to create distance before he got hit. Her arm was only going deeper, just past her elbow as she clawed at everything she could reach. "You know, I'm glad she's not my enemy," Darezen said as she practically climbed inside the wound.

Zyrtec nodded. "Yeah, definitely." In the end, it let out one last gurgling screech and went limp, falling over heavily. Darezen glanced at the dragon siblings and only just realized that their hair has darkened from the blood they had used, especially Zyrtec who currently had black hair. He figured his own had probably done the same, but seeing his friend with dark hair was a tad spooky and part of him wished he hadn't noticed.

Meanwhile, Nylotte was already taking bites out of it without bothering to ask Jarkko, too hungry to care. "Hey!" Jarkko walked towards the two as if he was calm but his eyes burned with fury. The biggest surprise was that he had started to say something to Nylotte but had instead turned to the two boys. "Your shields barely helped in any way."

"As if that's my fault, I was trying to conserve my mana for the next beam! Which I blocked! Both of them!"

He was completely ignored when the dragon turned away, sparking anger. "Zyrtec, why did you attack that way? Your control over blood is unreliable." Zyrtec just looked at the ground and didn't answer, believing it to be a dangerous choice to tell the truth in the current situation.

When Jarkko started to get impatient, Zyrtec finally said, "I was too far away and still feel tired. I didn't think I'd be able to get there fast enough."

He stared at him for several seconds, then sighed, "Well, Nylotte seems to have gotten us food. We should eat while we can." With not much else to do, they all went to share in the meal in silence.