Dominator Stellae

31 | Insidious

4,090 years ago

Tension hangs low in the air above us. It's been like this since Morax had caught wind of Havria being forced to give up land due to more powerful gods encroaching upon her land and taking over. Paranoia had taken over his very aura, creating a strange new version of him. Any semblance of his previous temper had slowly tickled away every time we heard news of an ally being attacked or vicious fights starting and destroying practically everything in the vicinity. I would say it weirded me out but war changes you. I knew that firsthand and, to be honest, I didn't want to experience this again. It's not like I could do anything to really change this, however.

The warmth of Morax's body beside mine almost felt like the only thing keeping me grounded in reality at this moment. A soft rumble of a snore left the dragon god as he shifted in place. The two of us had situated ourselves atop a mountain. Originally, we'd come up here to get a lay of the land due to the idea Guizhong had brought up about fortifying the Guili Assembly. We would desperately need to do so if we wanted to prevent as many civilian casualties. We, as the tutelary deities of the settlement, would provide offense- er, well, Marchosias and Morax would. My and Guizhong's abilities lay more in defense as opposed to offense. We were essentially the brains of the operation and the other two were the brawns.

However, the original plan combust into flames the moment Morax perched himself on a sun-warmed rock. The man had almost instantly fallen asleep and all I could do was stare at the slumbering lizard deity in disbelief. Resigned to my fate, I decided to go ahead and survey the land myself and took note of everything that I believed would need to be reinforced. Pulling a rolled up piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal from my travel bag, I sat on the ground beside Morax's form and scribbled away notes with my charcoal. Autumn had just begun so the air was nice and warm, perfect for relaxing if the circumstances we'd come here had been different.

A loud snort from Morax nearly scares me into messing up a character I'd been writing. This man. I carefully folded the parchment back up and tucked it and the charcoal away. Then I turned to stare at Morax.

He's changed quite a bit since we first met. From an insufferable, temperamental dragon deity to a less insufferable, temperamental dragon. His jawline has since sharpened up and he's grown into an even more handsome man. It's a strange thought to think about how much we've grown. My face warmed once I realized his eyes were open and he was staring directly into my face.

He narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What are you doing?" He asked, tail flicking in interest as I went silent. There was no theory I could presently come up with that would make enough sense to make it seem like I wasn't shamelessly staring at him. That's until I remembered I'd brought with me parchment and charcoal. I could pretend I was drawing him. There we go. My intelligence is certainly something else if I did say so myself.

I pulled the other clean piece of parchment from my bag and held it up. "Well, since I've managed to create a map of the areas that will need the most fortification after you so rudely fell asleep, I decided to draw you," I said, trying not to appear like I was getting defensive. He huffed at me calling him rude and let his head lull back onto the warmth of the rock, stretching much like a cat would. Huh, he truly did act like a cat. Were dragons just glorified, scaly cats that could fly? I mean, considering some dragons had fur on them, it could check out. "We're free to leave whenever you want."

The horned god hummed and scooted over, patting the rock beside him. "Why don't we just relax for a moment. Tensions have been high for the past few years. I know you haven't been sleeping properly," He said as he leveled a pointed look at me. I couldn't exactly deny the truth when it was laid out like that in front of me. Another facet of dragon behavior was possessiveness and that meant over anything they deemed worthy of protecting. I don't think I'd ever understand it but I supposed he liked me well enough to trust me with something like this. I moved my bag and laid down beside him, not protesting when his tail made itself home around my waist and tugs me closer so his ear is pressed against my chest. The soft rumble of his purr was quick to follow him.  There was no way we were going to be moving for a good bit.