Adventures of Jessa

69

Jessa seems to get tired before their very eyes as dinner draws to a close. "I'm sorry everyone, but it seems that I need to return to my room once more." Jessa tells them all.

Immediately Dhiren is at her side and gathering her up in his arms. Even while everyone else tells her that it's fine and they understand.

Once Dhiren has left the room all eyes turn to Alaric before Kallen asks what they all truly want to know, "How is she honestly?"

Alaric gives them all a bland smile. "She is awake and came down for dinner. That says it all. She'll be fine, she's just been very close to death not once but twice in the last few weeks. It takes time to recover from that. It will be more than a week before she is able to stay up for more than a few minutes like this. But from now on her health will grow. She is out of the danger zone and will become stronger. Eating and sleeping will more or less be all she'll be doing for the next week."

The elves relax and finish up their dinner once more in a relaxed manner, but Frosnak gives him a look that wants more information and he nods to her. After a bit she relaxes and returns to her own meal.

Dhiren is quick to take Jessa back to their room. There they find two packages on the bed. "What are those?" Jessa says as she spies the packages.

"One is a gift being returned to you and the other is a new gift, something I found while wandering the bazaar earlier today." Dhiren tells her after she has time to do whatever she needs to before getting back in bed. He makes sure that she is comfortable before getting the packages to Jessa.

He hands her one, "While it was unknown if you would live or not I had the armorer work on this."

Jessa opens the package. In it she finds the mithril shirt that had been damaged is back to being wearable once more. Then she notices that there is a faint sheen on it when the light hits it and takes a closer look. "Dhiren, did you have further enchantments added to it?" The light hits it and she sees it look blue and take on the look of scales. She moves it and it takes on a reddish glow and takes on a different look of scales.

Dhiren is shaking his head when she looks at him. "The mail took on the enchantment of the magic that went against you. The armorer said that you must have gotten blue and red dragon blood on the armor. He reforged the links with the blood that was on it from your fight to make sure that the blood gets on the new links as well. Then I made sure that the whole shirt was as strong as before. The whole shirt equalized once it finished just as if a dragon had healed."

"I had known that I fought dragon kin, of course, but I had never thought that their blood would strengthen my armor." Jessa says astounded by what she learned.

"It helps me to know that you will be gaining the strength of your enemies to fight them. Since you have their blood on the armor you likely have it on your sword as well. You'll need to talk to your grandfather to find out how to unlock their weapons against them. Especially that ancient blue you fought at that battle."

Jessa looks at him in confusion. "What ancient blue dragon?"

Dhiren looks at her as he takes a seat on the bed next to her. "Your last opponent, the one that managed to hurt you, he was actually an ancient blue dragon that turned to human form. We believe him to be the one that made the call to have the bandits gather at the pass."

"I fought and killed an ancient blue dragon?" Jessa asks beyond astounded. She sits there with her jaw dropped staring at Dhiren.

"Yes, and you did a magnificent job of it." Alaric says coming in.

Jessa is in too much shock to even give him a dirty look. "If it makes you feel any better, you avenged your father. That is the one that took out Reniel."

"What?" Jessa squeaks out.

"I've been searching for him long and hard. When I saw him lying on the ground killed by the daughter of my son, one of his victims, it eased something in me. The only anxiousness I had was to make sure that he didn't take you from me as well. You are far stronger than you can possibly imagine. You survived a wound that would likely have killed a full grown dragon in human form.

"You have my thanks, Dhiren. If you and your elven healers hadn't gotten to her and helped her when you did, that bastard would have taken the last of my family as well." Alaric tells her coming further into the room.

Alaric nods to her mail shirt, "That has been doused not only in the blood of dragon kin, but in the blood of an ancient dragon. It was a miracle that none of that blood found its way into the wounds you were sporting at that time. If it had nothing would have been able to save you, not even turning, you wouldn't have been strong enough."

"How do you know that none made it into her wounds?" Dhiren wants to know how he'll be able to tell in the future.

Alaric sniffs, "Should dragon blood make it's way into her blood it will cause her pain like when her arm was licked to heal her before." They both wince at the memory. Jessa remembers the burning pain even if she doesn't remember the events since she was unconscious. "Perhaps worse. That is what you will be going through if the time ever comes for you to turn, Dhiren. You will have to survive that agony."

Dhiren turns to Jessa and gently caresses her face, "If it means I'll get to be with Jessa as a dragon it will be worth it."

Alaric sniffs once more, "You say that now, but when the time comes you'll wish that you could die." Alaric ignores the tense atmosphere he created and checks on Jessa's wound before once more heading out. "Sleep, Jessa, that is the best thing at this point to help you heal." He says nothing to them as he closes the door. He just lets out a breath he'd been holding. His granddaughter had survived the very dragon that killed her father. She had been tired from fighting the other hundred plus bandits/dragon kin and still won against the ancient blue that he's sure had waited for her. She is the strongest dragon he's ever met and she's not even full blooded at this time. He can't wait to find out just how strong she'll be when she turns and to his mind there is no doubt that she will in the future.

Now they just need to know if Dhiren will be strong enough to survive the turn. His granddaughter will have need of a strong mate. One to equal her in strength physically and that of duty. He has a feeling that there is another war coming that will equal that of the one that forced them to go into hiding. He's already sent out warnings to the other gold dragons to prepare and they have been.

He's been in contact with the other metallic dragon leaders as well. They are quietly preparing as well. The silver dragons are having a hard time dealing with the sun elves though, they aren't listening.

Alaric shakes his head at the stubborn fools. He should send Jessa out to deal with them, she won't take any of their crap and will get them in line in short order.

That thought makes Alaric smile as he stands up straight once more and goes to his room.