Adventures in Summoning

Chapter 24

The crash of thunder woke me up, and then the bodies of Helen and Dee pressing against me brought me further from whatever dream was now slipping from my mind. They had joined us in our nest after getting drenched, and now we all huddled against Quin, who was using her injured wing to cover us from the rain, as our little nest began to fill with water. Not exactly the most comfortable of nights. I looked up at Quin and could see the pain etched in her face as she kept her bad wing extended. This wasn't good.

I envisioned a tent structure but wasn't sure what to make it out of. I finally settled on thin stone, like slate, and before long, I had sheets of stone for a room and walls, and a ditch surrounding us to try and drain the water away. The nest was still a little soggy, but at least Quin was able to take down her wing.

"Thank you," she moaned gratefully.

"Turn around," I directed her.

She looked confused but turned her back to me. I examined her back and started to massage the joint where her wing connected near her shoulder. I'd never given a massage to anyone else, just my own knee after PE a few times, but it couldn't hurt in this situation. I knew she had to be sore after using her bad wing like she did. Much like her dragon hide, the skin of her back and wing was amazingly soft and supple, and I heard her sigh deeply as I went to work. I wasn't sure if anything I was doing was helping, but she had been willing to sacrifice her own damaged wing for our comfort, so it was the least I could do.

Dee and Helen continued to huddle together, the chill of the water having soaked into our skin by now, and I desperately wanted a fire.

Wait, we could do that! I imagined the stone walls once more, and made our shelter larger, and left no openings other than for a few small ones for air, I could always open them when it was time to leave. The elementals promptly took their places, and I then imagined a small fire elemental in the center of the room, which brought warmth immediately with the walls reflecting heat back at us. We all stripped off the majority of our wet clothes so they could dry near the fire on yet more small earth elementals. Luckily, all the ladies kept their underwear on, though evidently dragons don't have bras, so I just averted my eyes a lot and blushed a bit.

"Oh, that is so much better," Dee sighed gustily.

"Oh, I guess the snuggles weren't good enough?" Helen said with mock hurt.

Dee playfully slapped her on the shoulder, and then sunk back into the crook of her arm. They looked so good together, I really hoped that their relationship would continue after the stress of what we were going through. Hell, I hoped we would survive period.

"Helen, why didn't you prophesize that we should all bring bathing suits for this trip?" I joked, as I went back to massaging Quin's wing joint.

"Oh, stop it!" She chuckled. "I just wish I were having more dreams about what we're doing here. It seems right, but I haven't seen anything about the war in a while," she added, worry in her voice.

"I'm sure you will," Quin assured her. "But so far you have all done exceptionally well, and I thank you for your assistance." The gratitude in her voice was touching, and I just hoped that we could continue to make her feel that way.

Looking over at Dee and Helen, they had finally drifted back to sleep. I leaned forward to whisper in Quin's ear, "Is this helping your wing at all?" I hoped so, but I truly didn't know if it helped or if I was wasting my time and keeping her awake as well.

She jumped a little in surprise, but then turned her head to look at me. "Yes, it is. It helps to relax the wing. Could you move further out to some of the other joints?" she asked softly.

"Of course," I smiled. I slid my hands along her wing until I found the next bend in her wing, and slowly started to massage there as well. I didn't want to press too hard, as hurt as her wing had been, but I was sure that she had used it too much in sheltering us and wanted to make the muscles less stiff. I could see and feel her relax more as my hands moved, and all I could do was smile. Once I felt she was relaxed enough there, I moved out to the next joint, and kept at it. I enjoyed this, I'd never had this kind of closeness with anyone, and though it wasn't exactly your normal relationship it felt great.