~ 22 ~

The Power to Consume Beasts

"What the..." Astria went silent upon holding out her hand, seeing the golden swirl beginning inches from her fingers. She pointed the brightness at me, though an invisible force guided her hand. Once she aimed her palm at the dead dragon, her magic swirled faster, and its vacuum sucked harder. "What the hell is this?"

"Are you consciously channelling magic right now?" I asked.

"N-No, I-I'm not." Astria shook her head, holding her hand toward the dragon. The pathway of blood had started to bubble as she directed her fingers to the beast's torn side. "It's channelling through me instead."

"A-Are you okay?"

"It doesn't hurt," she replied, daring to take another step forward, the blood at her feet, starting to shake. "It's not pulling me either. But it's directing me to his corpse. Like it's trying to p-pull from it or something."

I looked to the cave's exit. "Should we leave?"

"I-I... I don't think it's anything dangerous, either." Astria kept walking forward and, to the best of my judgement, she seemed in complete control of her senses. But I didn't trust that dead, laughing body for one second. It was doubtful As'gar could come back to life or infect her somehow.

But it was a chance that I really wasn't wanting to risk.

But the choice was removed from me.

The princess stepped across the blood, the golden swirl, enlarging the closer she neared the dragon, reminding me of pictures of the Milky Way. Twinkling pinpricks appeared in the magical current. Words of an unknown language chanted from her mouth.

I held my tongue, and allowed for this to happen.

Astria reached the dead dragon's claw and, placing her hand on it, her magic spread across the dragon's corpse. It vacuumed the golden from his scales, which melted into metaphysical energy, the corpse thinning into a colourful stream.

Winds slashed across the walls of the caves, knocking rocks and dust out toward the exit. The pool of blood twirled upward into a tendril, one that wiggled in the air, its tip connecting to the back of her neck.

I stepped forward to stop her, but once my foot splashed onto the blood, something sliced a layer from my underside. The lake of red thinned as it channelled into her. A patch of green swirled into the tendril, seeping into the human.

I winced and grabbed my leg out of instinct. Turning my foot over, I saw my scales, there, were a dulled green. I exhaled at the reveal, bringing my foot back down. Looking at the princess, I wiggled my claw, feeling myself inch into a stance.

The last of As'gar's flesh had brightened into a light, vacuumed into the princess's palm, which flashed before vanishing. Astria had clenched her eyes shut, but once the light had faded, she looked forward, seeing the skeleton before her.

"W-Woah..." Astria turned her hands to look at her palms, seeing nothing more of the spell—but that all previous cuts had been healed. More than down, down her body, all wounds and cuts, somehow, had ceased to be. Only creamy, perfect skin remained. "I'm... healed? But how the fuck..."

She looked at the bare stone of the ground. Not even a fleck of blood remained on her outfit. "Blood. I-I... I drank all of it. But... shouldn't I be bloated right now, or..." Her eyes struggled to remain open through the confusion—like there was a pounding behind her eyebrows. "I feel good. Strong. Powerful. Refreshed."

I cleared my throat, earning Astria's notice. "Hey, hi, uh, still you in there, right?"

Astria blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't happen to be a dickhead dragon capable of possession or infecting others with your consciousness, right?" I asked my foolish, or maybe not so silly, question. "Like you're not about to spring a trick on me, or rub your hands together after we leave the cave, with me believing that you are still.. you."

Astria tilted her head and glanced upward. "Guess you've got a point. Maybe I could have been infected." Then she bunched her lips together. "Nah."

I scrunch my face. "Nah? What do you mean, nah?"

"Nah, like in, y'know, nah." Her upper lip flared while she looked away. "Like it just doesn't feel like that."

"That's what we're basing the absolution of your possible corruption on?" I asked. "On a nah, doesn't feel that way?"

Astria threw up her hands. "Well. You have two choices. I'm pretty sure I'm good, but then that could be a trick because either As'gar is hiding really well inside of me—or already has full control of me. If you believe that latter, then you'll have to do... whatever it is you have to do. Kill me?"

"No! What the fuck!? I didn't tear a dragon's stomach apart just to have to kill you." I sighed and slumped. "I might have to beat him out of you, somehow."

She squinted her eyes. "Now, how the fuck would that work? Leaving me would mean his consciousness—or something close to it—dying or something."

"I dunno! Maybe, if I inflicted enough pain, he'd decide that death was better than agony?"

"But then I would be left with the same choice too."

"Then maybe I would have to perform an exorcism. It would be a quest to find a witch or flower for a potion or some shit like that." I shook both my head and claw, looking down at the tiny human. 'Y'know what? Fuck it. I'd rather take being betrayed further down the line at this point. I'll just trust you're still the princess."

"A princess..." Astria began, feeling safe enough to turn away from me, heading toward the other cave wall, which had a vertical, stone ski-like slope to it. Treasure and weapons laid across its base. A giant, painfully familiar cannon stood above the rest of the riches. "...who absorbed the flesh and blood of a dragon."

"More like you converted him to magic—then drank his blood."

"Could that have been the power that everyone was speaking of?" Astria clambered over the knee-high water of gold coins, approaching the base of the cannon. Raising a hand, she focused on it, a flare of gold fire streaming around it. "But why would I have something like that? Do I even have it?"

Astria seemed done with questions. Pressing her hand to the cannon, her gold touch infected it, a gold encrustation shooting across the object. She retracted her hand out of fright. The gold covering stopped halfway on the cannon, its wooden base, now gold, with half the device's metal transitioned the same.

It housed her reflection atop the coins in a clean shine.

"What the fuck?" I couldn't help myself. "Did you curse yourself?"

"W-What? No! That was a spell! A channel of magic! I didn't just screw myself!" Astria ceased her magic and bent forward, grabbing a coin and holding it upward. "See! No effect whatsoever!"

I glared at her. "That's a gold coin, you idiot!"

"So?"

"So it's already gold!"

"And my touch would have made it double gold! Like another layer! It would be a thicker coin!"

"It doesn't work that way!"

"Oh? And how do you know?"

"Fuck that! How do you know?"

Both of us looked aside for a moment and, at precisely the same time, realized that we were fucking morons.

We shouted simultaneously.

"Fuck!"

Astria channelled the power again. Gold flashed from her arm and into the coin. Nothing happened. She grabbed another, and then another, finding all of them unchanged. My grin enlarged with every coin grabbed and widened with every coin dropped.

Bent forward, she looked up at me, clearly not liking my smugness. Making a face, she dashed back to the cannon. Upon touching the wooden base with her hand, the gold transformation continued across the cannon. Her face might as well have dropped from her head.

Astria looked at me in silence, and I could only do the most mature thing that came to mind.

Putting the back of my claw to my forehead, I made the shape of an 'L' with my talons and stuck my tongue out. I sent it to the ground, letting it settle in front of her. Then I made it dance in victory.

"Grr!" Astria pumped both hands upward, alighting them in golden magic, then lunging after my tongue. "That does it! C'mere!"

I choked. "Ack!"