Red dragons are the largest and thus most powerful of chromatics, a point that they often use to their benefit when interacting with their cousins. A red dragon has little affinity for anything aside from fire, but why would they want anthing else when their fire is one of the most potent flames ever found in pure destructive power. Rare is it for a red to manage to gain sentience but even rarer is it for one who has to be killed. They are the pinacle of chromatic dragons.

Adrian

I enjoy flying around in the morning sun, Lysan is on my back, something between joy and fear on her face. I think she likes that I brought her more than the flying. It did not take long for me to fly over most of the city but I circle more than once around the city even though I only find one other area with something that could be a problem.

Some Althaen who had set up another one of their encampments though it is far smaller than the one back home. I frown at them and want to rain down destruction but I told the others I would return and so after a short few hours I land before the entrance to the ruined school.

I make sure Lysan has climbed down from me before returning to human form. Within the building itself are several sleeping bags and blankets, the only person currently awake is K.

She walks over to me as Lysan goes over to the pile of blankets clearly meant for four.

“Any problems?” I ask.

“No, a few goblins but they were good practice to test the spells you teach me.”

I smile, “you look tired, I’ll take over the watch.”

She smiles and yawns before joining the elven twins in the pile of blankets. I move and sit at the entrance, once more pulling out the handwritten book my father left.

The quiet morning of reading after my leisurely flight around the city comes to a rather abrupt close as I am startled by screams from behind. I turn around and rush back to the others only to see that Ria is screaming in her sleep, asking for the pain to go away.

All of us have become light sleepers out of necessity due to what we have been through and the others are likewise currently looking around for threats. Abagail and Bryan have moved over to Ria and trying to wake her, without success.

“Bryan, Abagail, use magic.”

They both start chanting for a moment before Ria returns to a comparatively calm sleep, Bryan frowns at whatever his spell did, I really have no idea what they cast but bards have emotion spells and Bryan is smart enough to use something relavent.

“What is it” Abagail asks him.

“She was terrified from whatever she was dreaming about.”

“Probably whatever she went through to put her in the condition we found her in” I interject and Abagail nods before I continue, “anything we can do to keep this from happening again?”

Abagail shrugs, apparently the bardic skills she has been picking up do not cover night terrors. Bryan does however speak, “not immediately but my spell let me know that in time she would get better. At least as long as she feels safe and protected. Is the risk she brings worth it?”

That is a good question, one I actually am not sure the answer to. She has proved herself useful in finding loot we missed but that alone is not reason enough to keep her around not if there is a negative side to her coming along.

“I don’t know. Depends on if she can do more than find stuff.”

They nod and I can see that Abagail won’t like the idea of ditching her if we have to.

“Did you find anything as you flew around?” Bryan asks clearly wanting to change the subject for some reason. Paladin stuff probably, at least it has not been in the way very much.

“Aside from wandering goblins, the only thing was a small camp of Althaen. Unfortunately, I don’t know how friendly our government currently is with them, I don’t think they will have too many strong casters though, just a lot of people. No slaves oddly enough, at least no enslaved people from our world.”

“So, we won’t be attacking them, at least for now” Bryan replies with a partial head nod.

“We should still wander through what we can of town and see if we can scavenge modern weapons”

“Agreed, but first more sleep.”

Abagail and me both nod to that, even though I won’t be sleeping, sitting in the sun is nice though. . .

It is around noon once everyone is awake once more, Ria being the last to wake up. Our small makeshift camp is quickly taken down but I find myself surprised as Ria gives the blankets loaned to her back to K says, “Thank you.”

“How did you learn English so fast?” I say with some confusion as I walk over

“I got it from the Grey Dream, your mate Kythia told me how” Ria answers me with a submissive smile but I’m not sure if I like the title assigned to K. I fairly sure it is a normal thing to both of them but it seems weird to me.

“How much did you tell her?” I ask.

“I told her how to get the Grey Dream to make a character sheet and how to use it. I also told her to buy languages since they are fairly cheap but to wait on anything else in case you could tell her how to be of better use to our pack” K answers.

So much for the possibility of Ria not following us around, even if she is worth less than her cost I cannot risk people like the Althaen doing as I do with the Grey Dream. She will have to be a benifit to the group or be removed as an enemy.

“I thought you didn’t like her”

“I don’t, but teaching her a language would take a lot of time I would rather have spent on other things. She also made an oath over it, she can’t betray you”

“If it is anything like my contract with Thrane I’m not sure how well . . .”

“Her own tails are the medium, if she breaks it she losses them.”

“Could one of you explain the significance of this?”

“If she breaks her oath she’ll lose her magic and most of her lifespan.”

Alright, though I know of plenty of reasons to go and break such a promise anyways, at least the secret of our rapidly growing power is still safe. If we treat her well and don't end up enemies of her kin there should be no chance of a betrayal.

“You wouldn’t have a map of the city Adrian, would you?” Bryan asks as everyone else walks over to us.

“No, but I did see where a mall and a few shopping centers are that seem mostly intact.”

“That sounds good, hopefully there will still be stuff there.”

We all save Ria nod having decided were to go and it is not very long until we run into a small group of goblins. The six are not really a threat to us anymore but they can be targets to show me what Ria can do, especially since the little idiots have yet to notice us.

“So, Ria do you think you could handle them?” I ask.

She nods, but it does not seem like she is sure. Well, if she can’t the rest of us can bail her out.

“Try, if you can’t handle them yourself we’ll step in” I continue before giving her a slight push towards the six monsters.

Abagail is giving me an eye of disapproval but K is grinning and the rest understand what I am doing with this test. Ria herself nods and slowly walks ahead of us but in whatever unease she seems to be suffering from steps on some of the trash that always litters the streets of any large city.

The metallic crumple catches the goblins attention and pulls them away from what I think was them trying to start a fire. Ria screams in panic but does keep herself together enough to start fighting, the same green fire that she threw at the demon appearing in her hands. Two of the goblins catch fire and begin to roll on the ground as her flames refuse to be snuffed out.

The other four manage to reach melee distance and another die in flames before Ria gets hit by one of their knives. Abagail and Bryan begin to run up to rescue her, I should act to. I twist reality and three small bolts of death equal to the life force in the remaining goblins form in front of my hand before flying out to strike them.

Bryan reaches Ria by the time I pass Abagail and he begins to try and calm her but she is in a full panic attack, just like in whatever nightmare she recently had. Crying and muttering for the pain to go away. She is moving around too much for Bryan to begin one of his spells to fix the wound she took on her right leg.

“I’ll handle it” I say as I reach and grab her shoulder. My magic has few restrictions and truly I don't even have to usa a point of contact like Bryan has to. I warp reality and restore her to health, soon after her panic ceases but she keeps muttering ‘sorry’ in the tongue I learned from my bond with Lykou.

Abagail begins to comfort the poor girl and I feel a little guilty for making her fight. She can and that fire seemed effective, enough that I will probably try and duplicate it later, but she is too scared of getting hurt. She calms over the next few minutes while I think of what to do with her.

I can’t let her leave even though she will be a burden in combat. She can find loot I missed though that is good it is not enough. She could become useful in a fight to if we can get her over this pain panic thing or away from taking damage. With conditioning and or tactics she would be a posative asset to the group.

“Please don’t make the pain come back, I’ll be good. I’ll try harder” Ria says and begins to repeat the phrase before Abagail stops her.

“Shh, it ok. We won’t hurt you” Abagail says but she isn’t who Ria is looking at. Ria isn’t really looking at anyone.

“Why are you so scared of pain?” I ask. K gave her knowledge I can’t let out so I need to make her as useful as I can.

“It hurts”

“And what are you going to do about it?” asks K earning a glare from Abagail.

“Be a good girl so others don’t make me hurt” Ria whimpers.

“That won’t do anything about your pain” K says and I begin to see where she is going with this. Harsh but I hope it works.

“People don’t hurt you if you do what they say.”

“People don’t hurt you when you don’t let them stupid fox.”

“People don’t hurt you if you do what they say.”

K slap her bringing tears to her yes and Abagail begins to move herself between K and Ria only to back away from K’s glare. I walk up to Abagail and whisper in her ear, “I think she is trying to help.” I almost add that Ria seems to have had some sort of obedience training to react like that but its better if I don't say that.

“You’ve done what I’ve told you to so why did I hurt you?”

“People don’t. . .”

K slaps her again, “you did what those demon worshipers told you so why did they hurt you?”

“People . . .”

Another slap before K continues, “people hurt you because they wanted something from you. If you want the pain to really stop you have to make it stop. Do you want the pain to stop?”

Ria nods but does not move and K slaps her again.

“Do you want the pain to stop?”

Ria nods but still does not act and K repeats this for several moments before she pushes at K. Not enough to force her to stop but K does anyways, “good, grow a backbone. I don’t like it but you are in my pack and I will not let you shame us with weakness” she says before pulling Ria to a standing position.

K then cast a healing spell, Ria clearly feels some pain from it and then her bruised face is fixed. That finished we begin to once more walk towards where I saw some shops while flying earlier, K forcing Ria to make the goblins we encounter 'stop hurting her'. Her method seems cruel but at least it is showing results quickly.