Dragon!Denmark x Reader ~The Dragonsight~ 18

~Chapter 18~

There was no time to waste. With Mathias captured, you would lose all hopes of getting your parents and your sight back. Ignoring the others’ protests, you burst out into the open right alongside Mathias.

“Damn!” you cursed. “How can they tell?”

“I think the most obvious reason is because he looks nothing like the locals here,” Tino quickly deduced. “But applications aside, ____________, I highly recommend you get back into safety—”

“No!” you refused. “There’s a lot riding on Mathias right now. If I just leave him here, then I’ll—”

“______________, what in Eliatha are you doing?” Mathias gasped as he noticed you standing behind him. “Get back inside the caravan!”

“Mathias, I’m not letting them take you away,” you snapped. “Last time was a close call. This one might be even closer—”

“Look out!”

The air in your lungs whooshed out in a short “Oof!” as Mathias grabbed ahold of you and slammed you down on the ground. Your Dragonsight still active, you were able to catch a glimpse of something long and shiny hurling through the air and narrowly missing your neck. When your senses came to, you realized that the object directed towards you had been something along the lines of a javelin.

“Mathias…” you breathed. “Th-Thank you—”

But when Mathias’ eyes adjusted, you gasped in horror as a definite splash of purple dragon’s blood was splashed throughout the snow. The heat of Mathias’ dragon blood had already begun to melt the snow as a semi-sweet smell began to steam in the air as it sank deeper into the white crystals.

“Oh gods…” you choked. “Mathias, I’m so sorry.”

“Save it,” the dragon grunted, his voice void of any forgiveness or anger. “You need to stay down. Worst comes to worst, Berwald will be able to take care of you. Tino, too.”

“But—”

“No buts, _______________,” he snapped.

You cursed. Had you not chosen to step outside, the projectile wouldn’t have grazed Mathias’ arm like that. It had been much too close of a call—a call you didn’t plan on letting happen again.

“Mathias, stand back,” you said.

Through his eyes, the dragon looked back at you and narrowed his eyes.

“______________, Tino’s in your heart. If you get captured, your heart might be confiscated—not that I’d let that happen—”

“I said. Stand. Back.”

You could detect something stirring in Mathias’ mind. It had to have been the Dragonsight finally projecting enough power to allow you to feel his emotions. He was hesitant. As much as he had been hiding it, you realized Mathias cared deeply for your own safety, too, not just the little part of your soul he had been carrying around. You were riding on the gamble that if you didn’t screw up, you wouldn’t have to keep Mathias from worrying anymore, and you wouldn’t have to constantly worry about him getting hurt for your own sake.

“You idiots!” you heard Yong Soo suddenly shout above the others. “There are dragon hunters! Are you trying to compromise your journey?!”

“We’ve got everything under control!” Mathias shouted back. “Don’t worry about us!”

“I’m a little worried!”* Yong Soo cried.

“Mathias, please,” you pleaded. “Trust me just this once.”

You weren’t able to see the look on Mathias’ face, but you hoped it was an expression telling you that he could rely on you. As far as you were concerned, you were all in this together. You would have to rely on each other from here on out. It wasn’t a matter of being strong enough to destroy all of your enemies; it was about being strong enough to protect one another. You hoped the potentials you carried would be enough to do just that.

With your concentration as focused as you could muster, you let out a deep breath. Tino, I know you can hear my thoughts, but I want you to help me with this.

“You’re being very reckless, you know that?”

You smiled. Yes, but I think I can control it right now.

Tino paused. “I’ll trust you on that.”

“Mathias, can you be my eyes?” you asked.

“I…” the dragon was momentarily confused with your question. He already knew you were using his eyes to see, but he soon caught on that you wanted them on a grander scale. With a dragon’s eyes at your disposal, you would be able to see farther than any human, and that would play a big role in formulating what you were about to do.

“______________, you’d better hurry,” he finally said. “The Red Caravan can’t hold off the hunters much longer.”

It was true. It had been hard to relate to when Mathias was looking at his own view of things, but there were little bands of dragon hunters attacking from all sides. Leon and Yong Soo’s team of workers weren’t to be taken lightly, however. Each one appeared to be able to use a weapon, and they didn’t hesitate to fend off anyone who dared approach their precious merchandise. Mathias wasn’t presently focusing on Leon or Yong Soo, but you were sure that with their knowledge and expertise, they were holding up just fine against the enemy.

“Okay then,” you breathed. “I’m going to do this based on your eyes so don’t get distracted. Got it?”

“Got it,” Mathis nodded. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“I’m ready,” you said.

Then, you took a hold of Mathias’ neck and repositioned his eyes do you could find out where the source of the attacks was coming from. Instead of being a single location, there were attacks from all sides—most of them long-range. That would make things easier.

When you found a place that seemed to be heavily attacked, you began shutting down all of your outside distractions and channeled your energy towards the tips of your fingers.

Remember your training, you told yourself, closing your own eyes and picturing the image of your magic manifesting at your disposal. The entire time, the Eye of the Topaz Blizzard did not speak a word as he was focusing on transferring his magical energy into something disposable and useable in your form.

Suddenly, like a geyser at its erupting point, you felt a surge of energy come rushing forth, and in a second of an instant a deafening, shattering sound broke through the shouting and fighting. The sound of something hard crackling crunched against the snow as the structure began to take physical form. Men screamed and horses neighed in shock as a large wall of translucent crystal came shooting out of the ground and curving inward around the caravan like a protective wall. When the wall was well over ten meters tall, you turned Mathias’ head in a different direction racing to see if there were any more spots that were vulnerable. Once you found it, you did the same thing, concentration your dragon’s magic onto a pinpoint location and sending another wall of crystal to shoot out of the ground. With two sides of the caravan completely sealed off, it was easy for the rest of the crew to take out the dragon hunters before completely finishing them off all together.

“Let’s move!” you heard Yong Soo roar into the enclave of crystal. Some of the caravans, however, were still fallen over due to the first surprise attacks from the dragon hunters. Even with all of the men struggling to push the caravans upright, they still lacked the strength to get them upright.

“This isn’t working,” Mathias mumbled. “______________, are you done?”

“I think so,” you panted. The last wave had completely drained your energy to the point where you were feeling faint. Your legs were beginning to shake, and you thought of steadying them when your knees suddenly buckled without warning, and you went tumbling down into the snow.

That was when someone caught you. It couldn’t have been Mathias, though. His eyes had long since left you, and the dragon was getting farther and farther away to aid the caravans that were fallen on their sides. It couldn’t have been Berwald because he, too, was busy helping the other caravans up. It wasn’t Leon or Yong Soo. They were busy, too. So then who…?

Oh gods.

You didn’t think. You just bolted up and ran. Never mind being completely blind. You knew someone was after you, and you didn’t plan on waiting around to find out who. However—

“Mathias!” you screeched. “Berwald! Leon! Yong Soo—Mmrph!

“Aren’t we the lucky ones?” you heard someone muttering under his breath—you could tell it was a man by the slight raspy note in his voice.

“A human with dragon magic,” someone else said, his voice a little clearer than the other.

Your arms were the first thing they restrained. Tino was screaming in your head, commanding you to break free. For a moment, he even took over your body to burst from the hunters’ grasp but to no avail. For some unknown reason, these hunters were abnormally strong. At first, you thought it was perhaps due to the smoke you had encountered while approaching the Red Caravan’s camp, but Tino was still able to communicate with you. That couldn’t have been it.

Next was your mouth. A rag was pulled over your head and wrapped around your mouth and wedged in between your teeth so you could neither scream nor bite. Then, despite being technically blind, a separate cloth went over your eyes. Your breath was short. Even with Mathias’ sight as clear as day, he was too occupied with the caravans to pay any attention to you. The same went for Berwald, unfortunately.

Your legs weren’t even a problem because the moment you attempted to flail your boots, someone pulled you off the ground and slung you over your shoulder. You were suspended in what felt like midair, and because of that, you were hindered useless, blind, and terrified. What was going to happen from here? You couldn’t see, and there was no way to communicate to the other dragons like ~~~~~~~~ could. And your parents…Your parents were still with Mathias. Without your protection, Mathias could have gotten into trouble—Berwald, too.

Those idiots, you cursed as you began to feel something like an up-and-down trotting motion. So they were carrying you away on horseback. You were surprised even after all of that, no one had been able to spot you being dragged away by these hunters. If they got what they came for, would you see Mathias and Berwald beside you chopped up into dragon parts? How much purple would you see before this nightmare would be over?

Lukas and Emil, you remembered. They were still out there. You had all promised that when this was over, you would be waiting at Eldur Mountain. They had all the time in the world. How long would they wait before realizing three of their dragon companions and an irresponsible human never came back?

You cursed. Against the winter winds, your tears stained your cheeks in icy streams. It stung to cry so you fought back the remaining drops and shut your eyes. You were blind, anyway, and at this rate, you would remain that way forever.

“Relax. We’re not going to hurt you,” the deeper of the voices said rather casually. You decided he was only masking his sinister thoughts. Who knew what dragon hunters did to their female victims before killing them and extracting their hearts?

“The little thing is scared out of her wits,” the other one noticed. “I suppose we could have done without the blindfold.”

“Probably,” the dragon hunter laughed. “She’s blind, you know.”

“What?”

“I didn’t tell you back there because I thought you knew.”

“What in gods’ names…?”

Then, you felt something touch your cheek as the cloth over your eyes was lifted away. The person who examined you let out a soft curse in a strange dialect of Eliathan. Now thinking about it, you found it odd that these dragon hunters were able to speak Eliathan at all. Seeing as how you were in the far east, you thought everyone here would be speaking Xiangese.

“See? What’d I tell you?”

“Strange. It looked like she could see a while ago when we were watching her.”

“Maybe she has Dragonsight.”

You breathing stopped.

“How would they know about it?” Tino asked in your thoughts. “Even I didn’t know…”

I don’t know, Tino, you responded through pressed lips. I really don’t know.

“Is that possible? It hasn’t been practiced for a long time.”

“That’s because there weren’t any dragons around, idiot. It only makes sense that there’d be someone who was subject to it after Dragonrise came around.”

“Not many practiced it then, either.”

“Dragons are all stupid.”

“I beg your pardon,” Tino responded in your thoughts.

All of a sudden, you stopped dead in your tracks without any words or warning. You could only imagine what might have been going on.

“You think we’ve gone far enough?” the younger-sounding one asked.

“I think so,” came the reply. “Come on. We should get going. Those hunters might be coming this way.”

“Nah, they came from the other direction. No need to worry.”

“Okay, then.”

You blinked. It didn’t make any sense. Why would these two be trying to get away from the dragon hunters if they were part of their team? Were they trying to maximize their profits by selling you by themselves? That was a possibility but one you couldn’t have considered right away. It didn’t seem to be in the nature of those who worked together to hunt dragons. It was an effort of teamwork. Was this what the law in the far east was?

Before you could ponder any answers, you felt someone take you off his shoulders and lie you down on the ground.

Oh gods… you whimpered. Not this. Not here…

“____________, run!” Tino shouted.

You tried. You kicked your feet and lift yourself onto the ground, but it was no use. Something had locked your legs up automatically like the reflexive, in voluntary trigger back at the caravan. Your best guess was that the reason for this was because you had overexerted yourself when using magic. Without your legs, however, you were no better than a sack of living, breathing flesh. This was the end.

“________________!”

Someone touched your shoulder. You flinched and brought your head up to your perpetrator. Granted, you weren’t sure if your head-butt had hurt you more than it did the man, but you eventually heard a soft curse coming from what sounded like the younger of the two.

“Stupid little brother,” the deeper one sighed. “And I thought you knew how to handle a lady.”

“She hit me!” the younger one hissed. So they were brothers. No wonder they had decided to stick together instead of having one person taking the credit.

“I’ll take her, then,” came a sigh. “I think you’re too weak and small to be carrying her around.”

How about none of you carry me, and I can go free? you thought.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, _______________...” Tino hopelessly sighed.

I know… you miserably thought. It doesn’t hurt to hope.

Instead of defiling you as you had expected, someone lifted your body back into the air and slung you over his back. You wondered what the whole point of putting you on the ground was, but you weren’t able to get any answers. They had stopped speaking.

Tino, what do you suppose is going to happen to us? you asked.

“I have no idea, ___________,” Tino could only reply. “I suspect they’re going to go through with a dissection process—"

Oh gods, you groaned.

“My apologies, _______________, but there’s no pleasant way to put it.”

I guess not.

Your conversation was cut short when the up and down motion commenced again. This time, however, the pace was much faster to the point where the wind began to whistle through your hair. The feeling was familiar. You had experienced this somewhere before. It hadn’t been too long ago; that you were sure of. Though, for the light of it, you couldn’t recall where you had felt this feeling before. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were being held against your will, it was almost exhilarating, like being free.

Free…

Suddenly, the trotting motion stopped as one final lurch later, the motion became smooth and beyond the speed of any horse you could have imagined being on. The wind was still blowing in your hair, and in that moment your eyes felt dry. Shutting them, you remembered something from not too long ago. Back when Tino had been alive, when he hadn’t been reduced to a soul, you remembered feeling the same thing. You had been on the back of a dragon at that time. It didn’t feel too long ago.

You remembered this feeling. It was obvious, though at the same time, it made no sense. However, without a doubt, you knew what this sensation was, this unexplainable rush of freedom as you took off into the sky: you were flying.