The Rescue

She caught a glimpse of the dragon through a not-quite-closed door.  He wasn’t looking so Esa hurried past, but she couldn’t get the memory of his exhausted, worried eyes from her mind.  Despite all the trouble he’d caused, all the people he’d killed in another life, Esabella’s heart ached for him.  To be used as nothing more than a pawn, to have your child in such danger was not a fate she would wish on anyone.

The few minutes it took for the four of them to find the child seemed to stretch into an eternity.  Every small sound, every quiet shuffle made Esa cringe, certain that someone would hear them.  The harder she tried to keep her breathing even, the harder the task became, so Esabelle finally gave up the effort and simply tried not to hear it.

Heart was the one who finally found the dragon-child.  He looked terribly uncomfortable as he grabbed Esa’s arm and pulled her over to the doorway of the child’s room.  She realized quickly that Heart’s discomfort was not because of his lack of experience with children as she first thought.  Esa felt her stomach turn over at the sight of a small, tawny-haired boy curled up on the cold dirty floor, shivering.  The dragon-child was probably in his human form because even as a toddler his dragon form would be too large for the closet-sized room.  Esa had to fight down a rush of nausea.  They hadn’t even tried to take care of the child.

“Oh God,” Alice whispered, having walked up behind the pair as Esa froze in the doorway.  The stunned words were enough to propel Esa into action.  Two steps were all it took to cover the distance to the little dragon’s side.  She could hear Alice quietly demanding the boys’ jackets behind her.

The child woke with a start when Esa knelt next to him.  His wide ruby eyes locked onto the sea-green of Esabelle’s and for a moment she couldn’t breathe.  An ache settled into her chest just long enough spark the beginnings of fear, then the ruby eyes began to glaze over with weakness and the heavy feel of magic lifted.

The child’s soft whimper of distress clutched at Esa’s heart.  She couldn’t bring herself to be upset at the dragon’s instinctive reaction to being startled.  Esa had to wonder when the last time was that the little one felt safe as he woke from sleep.

“It’s alright,” Esa soothed, resting a hand gently on his shaking shoulder.  “I’m sorry, lheetii.  I didn’t mean to frighten you.”  The wariness in the dragon-child’s eyes began to fade at her unintentional use of old-speech.  The soft word of fondness could not be spoken untruthfully, and it said enough about Esa’s intentions to make the child want to trust her.  Esabelle was just relieved that it seemed they wouldn’t have to fight the child to get him to come with them.  “We’re going to get you out of here, but we have to hurry.”

That deep ruby gaze studied her a moment longer, then the child closed his eyes tiredly and nodded.  Alice stepped forward to offer the jackets.  Esa gave her a strained but grateful smile, taking them to wrap around the pale sickly boy.  She picked him up as gently as she could and clutched him against her, feeling terribly protective as he raised a hand to cling weakly to her shirt.

“My father?” the child whispered as Esa stood and moved towards the door.

“Can’t free himself until you are safe,” Zef replied as they all gathered around Esa, knowing that the boy’s protection came first.  The dragon nodded, resigned, then no more was said as they all tried to leave as quietly as they had arrived.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Some time later, after returning to the surface...)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dragon flared his great black wings, blocking out the sun, then landed with a gracefulness surprising for a creature so enormous.  Even without the snarl on his face, the quartet of friends would have been able to read the tightly controlled anger evident in his every movement.  They knew it wasn’t exactly directed at them, but even so they were hard-pressed to hold their ground as the shadow-born dragon stepped into striking range.

Zef spoke quickly before the dragon could relay this threat, wanting to be done with this game.  “We know who you’re working for.”

“That matters little,” he growled in return, but there was a brief hesitation in the dragon’s step before he continued towards them.

“We know what they were holding over you,” Alice continued.  That was enough to stop the dragon in his tracks.  The great breaths that heaved beneath his blue-black scales were coming faster, almost expecting her next words.  “We think you should know that they don’t have your son anymore.”

A brief flash of fear sparked a rage in the dragon’s eyes far more sincere than that which they’d seen before.  “What have you done–”

“He’s safe!” Esa had to shout her loudest to cut through the dragon’s roar.  He went still, the emotion in his black eyes gone as quickly as if someone had flipped a switch.  There was a long moment of silence as they just looked at each other, then the dragon dropped his gaze.

“You have him then?” he asked quietly.  A deep sigh rocked his frame at the nods he got in response.  The leathery wings at his sides drooped against the ground, making him seem smaller, diminished somehow.  “He is well?”

They hesitated, not sure exactly how true that was.  Esa answered carefully when the dragon cringed.  “He will be.  He is healing, regaining his strength.”

The silence stretched longer this time as none of them were quite sure where to go from there.  Alice was about to offer to take him to his child when the dragon spoke first, resignation coating every word.

“What is it you want from me?”