Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Dream or Nightmare?

They flew for about an hour farther north before landing on a flat space of meadow.

I sat down in the dirt and trembled.

"We need to find this Assund," Itek said. "Either him, or record of him having been alive. He was Captain of a Guard. There has to be a record of him."

"Agreed," Korr nodded.

Ethat, still in dragon form and keeping watch for trouble, ruffled his wings. He lifted one claw and examined it. The green scales had turned a bit yellow. He breathed on his claw.

"Are you alright?" I asked, shaking off my fear for a second.

"Brother?" Korr inquired.

Ethat looked at his own claw. Also yellow on the bottom. He breathed on this one as well, then laid his wings flat against the ground. After a few minutes the edges of the wing membranes started to yellow.

"You're withering!" I exclaimed, jumping up.

"This place is more contaminated than we realized," Itek said, brow furrowing.

"I will take over," Korr stated. He shifted into his ice form, and Ethat traded places. Korr laid his ice-wings flat, causing frost to lash over everything so it collapsed in ice crystals like shattered glass. A layer of frost spread across the ground briefly, then warmed in the summer sunlight.

Korr's wings did not yellow or change.

"I am more vulnerable," Ethat said to me. "It is not concerning."

"Liar," I snapped.

"This place is very tainted," he said. "The taint lives deep in the ground, comes up through the plants and soil and bugs and everything else. I am vulnerable to it, as I am... what I am."

"You mean a green dragon?" I asked, feeling stupid.

Green silk swirled around him in the breeze. He grasped me by the waist and pulled me against his him. "I am more than green, my love. As you can sense, hmm?"

"Pervert," I said, ignoring the bulge against my hip. He tugged me closer, pressing into me.

Itek chuffed a laugh.

Ethat said, voice husky, "I'm fine, as you can feel. I'm very resistant to it, but I don't like to expose myself more than I have to. It has virtually no effect on Korr, and he can shield himself from it. The taint cannot come up through ice. It can fall in snow and rain, though, then it soaks back into the ground. But it is trapped in ice and frost."

"What about stone?" I asked. I tried to squirm out of his grip, but it didn't work.

"Stone can contain water. Stone can trap it, but the stone still leeches." Itek said. "Korr was chosen for this because his magic lets him resist the taint."

"And I am stubborn and we never wish to be apart," Ethat said.

"Can you... do anything about the taint? Purify it?" I asked.

"Not within my power. We should focus on this most spectacular mystery you've laid before us."

I sat back down on the frozen-wet ground. Korr had settled down as well, his magic providing a constant thin veneer of frost for us to sit on, but for Ethat, he provided a thick layer of ice, which melted in constant rivulets and formed a puddle.

I flicked little pebbles into the puddle. "I swear it was real."

"We believe you," Itek said. "But we have to figure out what happened. The first thing we need to do is find Assund. Either he is very much alive and had the same experience as you, or he is dead."