Mario was silent as he listened to Brandon speak, but was obviously worried about something and went into his thoughts once the meeting finished and everyone left. Why was he worried? Well, since him and his brothers are dragon slayers, they go through heat, his and Bryan's heat starting in four days, not to mention he was extremely worried about Bryan.
He was worried about Bryan because Bryan is a fire dragon slayer, meaning heat could kill him if he isn't taken care of. There's a bit of an explanation for this, but none of the dragon slayers were able to tell if it's a good one.
Fire dragon slayers can go into something called ''overheat''. Overheat is dangerous to the dragon slayer who goes into it, because it causes their body to heat up way more than they can handle which causes their magic to become to strong for them to handle. This causes them extreme pain that is even more painful than normal heat pains, and the only way they can cool down is if they use their magic, put themselves in cool water or an area with a cool climate, or drink or eat cool drinks or food.
But when dragon slayers go into heat, they can't use their magic and can barely move due to the pain. This means that if no one watches over them, than the fire dragon slayer can die from being unable to cool themselves since heat causes the body of any slayer to heat up. He snapped out of this thought when he realized that he was going to need an excuse for leaving for a week.
Him and the other dragon slayers, decided to keep their heat a secret from the guilds. This is partially because they didn't want anyone that wasn't a dragon slayer to know, but the main reason is that their soulmates are in the same guild as them. Mario found that it was hard for him to be around his soulmate because it's someone who's always stripping. Mario's soulmate is David, Bryan's soulmate is Jakey, Mitch's soulmate is Pat, and Colin... is a special case.
He had two soulmates at the same time, which was rare for a dragon slayer to have. When something happens to the soulmate of the dragon slayer, whether the soulmate dies or the soulmate changes and begins to hurt the slayer, the dragon slayer's soul will break away from the ex-soulmate's and look for a new one to bond with. When it finds and bonds with someone else's soul, than that person becomes the new soulmate. There are a few occasions where dragon slayers can get more than one soulmate at a time, and it's considered both lucky and unlucky, because if something happens to one soulmate, the soul might also break away from the other soulmate. Colin is one of those lucky and unlucky dragon slayers, with his soulmates being Seekah and Lily.
Mario and the other dragon slayers wanted nothing more than to claim their mates, but they didn't. Colin was scared that Zata would hurt his mates. Mitch was currently spying on The Garden and he also didn't want to risk losing Pat like he lost his parents(even though the dragon slayers are the only ones who know about spying on The Garden). Bryan didn't want to make Jakey feel like he had to let Bryan mark him because Bryan knew that might make him stressed out. Mario didn't mark David because he would have to end up explaining what he did and why he did it, and he didn't want to risk David feeling like he had to be his mate.
He got up and went to go find one of the leaders to ask for the next two weeks off. He found Brandon and asked, making sure to say it was for a training mission. Once he was given permission, he went home to grab some motion sickness medicine. He only uses the medicine when he's close to going into heat be cause if anything comes up and he has to wait until the last second to leave, he can't let motion sickness slow him down.
Once he got to the mainland, he immediately started making his way to what the dragon slayers call ''dragon's cavern'' which is where they always go when they have a meeting.
After an hour of walking he arrived at the forest of living trees, and continued on the path until a large rock was seen at the side. He walked off the path and the tightly knit trees moved aside, showing a secret trail. He thanked the trees and went down the path, hearing the trees shift to cover the path from view. When he got to the entrance, he walked into the tunnel causing the torches on the wall to start burning green flames that faded once he was a certain distance away. He finally reached the end of the tunnel and smiled at the sight of the cavern. The cavern was very large and filled with magical energy from the numerous crystals that grow here.
The roof was covered in a mix of day and night crystals which allow the dragon slayers to see if it's day or night. The water crystals caused the large waterfall to produced magical, crystal clear water that helped make everything so lush and vibrant. The cavern also has nature Crystal's that brought vines and mosses into the cavern. But when the dragon slayers brought in some nutrient rich dirt, it also caused lush and vibrant plants to grow, but left a path for the dragon slayers to walk on. The slayers created a circle of dirt in front of each of the houses they have here with some sapling of their favorite fruit trees planted in them. The next day, the trees were fully grown and the fruit was delicious, growing back almost instantly. Each of the houses that belonged to a slayer had crystals of the same magical element on them and inside them. There was also a guest house that had been built even though no one has ever come here.
At the back of the cavern, was another tunnel that lead to another cavern that was much smaller yet just as beautiful. It had four small pools (the size of a hot tub) of the same water from outside and a total of two statues on opposite ends of the room. Each of the pools was surrounded by 1 of 4 different types of crystal. Earth, fire, poison, or shadow. The crystals show who's pool it is. The magical water from both inside and outside have healing properties and helps ease the pain of the dragon slayers when they're in heat, not to mention it helps keep Bryan from overheating. It has vines with beautiful flowers that smell amazing, which somehow helps keep the dragon slayers calm.
There was also a variety of animals that help keep the place nice and take care of the dragon slayers when sick, injured or in heat. Whenever a dragon slayer falls asleep in the pool when they're there because of an injury, illness, or heat, they wake up to a basket of freshly picked fruit from the tree in front of their house.
Mario walked down the path, making sure to say hello to any of the animals he comes across. Once he gets to the center circle (where the houses are) he ran into Mitch.
''Hi Mitch.'' He greeted his brother, who turned to him.
''Hello Mario. You here because of it?'' Mario nodded and Mitch spoke again.
''You should probably go and rest now since we don't know how much sleep you'll be able to get.'' Mario nodded knowing why.
Another thing heat can do to a dragon slayer is give them pain in their sleep or make it so that while they do sleep, they feel like they don't get any sleep.
''Alright Mitch. I don't know I don't know if Bryan's here yet but if he isn't than make sure he sleeps.'' Mitch nodded as Mario walked into his house.
Images not mine: His livingroom/main room
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
His bedroom:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He walked up to his bedroom and curled up on his bed, dreading the moment his heat begins.
Remember to always try and have a good day/night. Happy holidays wolf pups!!
