When Urru’s body arched up, he gagged and threw up. Liquid splashed across the ground, not very solid in nature. This was a situation in which Val wished she had not developed the sense of smell in her vision. While his puke was mostly water, dragon barf still smelt rancid.

“Ew, gross!” Arius cried. Despite the way that he already had his back turned, he covered his face. “Are you okay there, buddy?”

Once he finished throwing up with a few more heaves, Urru cleared out his throat, long and deep. “I just swallowed some water, I think. I’m fine.”

“You look like you swallowed half the ocean.”

“Hm.” Urru made an unamused sound and threaded his massive frame through the trees. As he walked away, the thick of his tail hit Arius in the chest and knocked him down.

“What was that for?” Arius held out both arms, wide in his innocence.

“You have no respect,” Urru grumbled. “I cannot have a moment of privacy, not even to empty my stomach.”

“I’m sorry. How was I supposed to know that you slunk off to throw up?”

To be fair to Urru, he had a right to expect a moment to himself, especially when he walked off into the trees like that. What if he had been trying to relieve himself or something?

Arius jumped up and followed after Urru. They arrived back at the beach where Evalaite ran to rejoin them with a small bundle of possessions. The different colors of fabric looked like she had decided to pack mostly clothes.

"Oh!" she said, jogging up right in front of Urru. "This is your dragon!"

Slitted eyes narrowed, enough to scare anybody if only Evalaite had an ounce of self-awareness.

"I am no possession of any human," Urru snapped. Some licks of fire curled around the corners of his jaws.

"Uh, yeah. We are just friends," Arius said, trying to sooth Urru with a certain pet on his nose that he seemed to like. "Urru is kind enough to let me ride on his back, but his patience is not unlimited."

A thick growl came from Urru in response to that. His jaws snapped at Arius in warning, but obviously good-natured enough as to not snap off his hand. "For one thing, no one is allowed to call me Urru except for this human. My name is Rakurruakanthor. If you cannot remember that, then refer to me as the red dragon."

Evalaite's eyes drew wide. "Um, sorry, but could you say that again?"

Before Urru could decide to humor her or come up with another abrasive response, Arius stuck up his hand. "Could you please be nice?" he said between hissing teeth. "I am sure that she has already been through enough. She could use some friendly faces."

"If you have her call me Urru, then make sure she regards you as Tongueless."

Arius scrunched up his nose in distaste.

"Tongueless?" Evalaite echoed with a tilt of her head to Arius.

"That is just what Urru calls me. As a dragon, he does not think very highly of humans, including me. The name means nothing."

"I see," Evalaite replied tersely.

"I'm Arius!" He clambered onto Urru's back and offered a hand down to her along with a golden smile. In accordance with his horrible alignment with the world, Arius was devilishly handsome, and that made Val hate him all the more.

Likewise, Evalaite was an impossibly gorgeous woman, almost a crime in and of itself. Val supposed that the two of them looked like a god and goddess as they gazed at one another.

With her own sly smile rising to her lips, Evalaite grasped his hand and accepted the help up. Nestled onto Urru's back and directly behind Arius, her attention directed out to the trees.

She continued to stare back at the island as they ascended and left Tavras's Paradise behind.

The long thrums of Urru's wings filled the air. Tendrils of wind blew threw both of Arius's and Evalaite's long hair, red and gold. Despite their individual beauty, they looked kind of bad together like ketchup and mustard.

Insults aside, Val was watching the past for a serious reason. This vision allowed her to glean a lot of personal insight into Tavras's enemies, which might just reveal something useful to use against once she understood the whole story better.

The long pause between the duo persisted.

"You are awfully quiet," Arius began. "I can imagine that this is hard, despite everything."

"I am leaving a long chapter of my life behind me," Evalaite mused in a whisper. The island had already faded into the distance a while ago, but she still stared off as if she could see it.

"You will be going to a new and better place now. I will help you get situated somewhere on the Summit that is to your liking."

"Thank you."

"Let's get your mind off of all that. Would you mind introducing yourself?"

After a pause, she must have decided that honesty was the best policy in dealing with Arius. "My name is Evalaite. I am a simple demigoddess. My attribute is…. Well…." She trailed off and did not continue.

"It is okay if you do not have any attributes." Turning to the side to offer his encouragement better, Arius smiled at her. "You may be an old demigoddess, but there is no shame if you have not been able to develop one yet, especially given what you have been through."

Her chin nodded thoughtfully, but a little spark had kindled in her eyes. "You have neglected to tell me your status or attributes. You must be a young god, and a very powerful one at that, to have managed a defeat over Tavras."

"Uh, yes," Arius said. "I'm sorry if I was being rude. I just did not want to introduce myself like that, in case that would intimidate you. Besides, most people already know me." He was rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm the god of war."

"Why do you say that you are the god of war?" Evalaite asked, an emphasis on the definite article. "What about Hextophale, the Obliterator or Charmaine, the General?"

"Did you not hear about that? I killed them, along with any demigods or demigoddesses that lay claim to the title."

"Oh. Tavras never told me about that." Evalaite had nothing else to say in regards to that.

Their conversation was casual, and painfully awkward in the way that they saw it fit to dance around their introductions. Val wanted to cringe in this vision, especially knowing that this was the first meeting of a future romantic couple. Her only solace was the fact that these two were so horrible that they deserved each other.

Considering how Urru had to deal with these two on his back, he was the only one that Val found herself able to sympathize with. That final attack that Tavras had discreetly laid on him still worried her.