Dragon's Hoard

Lake of Forgotten

Time was running out.

He needed to hurry.

The burning of his seal grew more intense with every passing minute. Apparently, Kong had woken up earlier than expected. He just had a few moments left before his familiar got to him. He tried to patch it up as best as he could, then picked up his basket full of herbs.

Please don't be angry.

"YOU!" He felt himself being yanked back, and he turned to see the angry face of his familiar. "What the heck is your problem?"

Arthit knew he would be upset, but he didn't expect him to be so angry that he couldn't help but stare.

"You promised me you weren't going to disappear on me again. And now I find you here-" He growled as he looked around trying to figure out where the 'here' was. "What the heck are you doing here?"

Arthit put on his most innocent expression-which was sometimes mistaken for his most guilty expression, depending on whom you asked.

"I need to gather these..." He raised the basket in his hand. "We're out of it."

Kongpob looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Was he serious?

Looking at him, he noticed the human was trying to hide something behind his back.
Lurching forward he grabbed his arm and studied it. The bandage seemed to have been done in a hurry. Little Thing looked uncomfortable as he glanced around and tried to withdraw his hand in a subtle way.

He raised an eyebrow and, ignoring his complaints, the dragon quickly untied the bandages.

"Kong, hey, what are you doing?"

He gripped the human's arm even tighter, so that his skin whitened under his fingers and his nails left small crescent-shaped marks on his soft skin.

As he regarded him, his cold eyes narrow with anger, Arthit felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. Why was he so angry?

Without touching it, using his finger, Kongpob traced the outline of the burn mark on his arm as closely as possible.

The wound was not completely healed yet, that was normal, but there was an unusual redness around it that was a cause for concern. When he did look back at the human, it was to glare at him.

"What have you done?" His voice sounded tired, resigned, and just hearing this tone made Arthit regret doing so.

"I'm sorry it's just that... there was something I needed to sort out before I could move on... And I had to pick the herbs for-"

"What's so important to use a memory spell?" Kongpob obviously ignored his attempt to change the subject.

Using a memory spell to overcome a curse was stupid. Extremely stupid. Especially since it wasn't really himself in those moments; it wasn't in his memory he had to dig. No, he had to do it through the mark on his arm. Mark that Kongpob had burned.

How could he be so stupid?

"So?"

The human shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then back again. He looked around, avoiding his gaze as though embarrassed. "It's just that... Um..."

"What?" He was getting irritated again and his voice rose in pitch.

"Yesterday when we kissed... I was under the distinct impression that we'd kissed while I was under the curse."

Kongpob didn't answer, confirming his worst assumptions. Horror at the mere thought of forcing himself on his familiar caused bile to rise in his throat. He swallowed hard.