Summary: Ishibil is used to defending his forest from Union knights and other humans trying to kill him, but then two humans come to his forest who are different from what he's used to.

Contains: Some blood and gore.

Dragon!M-21 AU.

Thanks to Myriade for all the help she gave when I was stuck in places! And to Laryna for the support as well. :3

Inspired by otpprompt's, 'Imagine your OT3 as a Princess, a Knight, and a Dragon who all live together in a tower.'

I'm using 'ser' as a gender-neutral term.

Hoard

By Dark Ice Dragon

Ishibil's ears flicked towards the entrance of his den and he held back his growl, in case he alerted whoever it was before he got a good look at them.

His den was embedded in the side of a mountain, created by the magic his broodmates had wielded. The entrance was at the end of a curved tunnel that let in enough sunlight to be able to see, but also hid anyone who was coming in or going out. That way, the ones inside could hear anyone coming in, and the ones outside wouldn't know what was inside until it was too late.

The animals in the forest knew the den belonged to a dragon and stayed clear. The only creatures that would come this close were humans. If it was the Union knights trying to kill him or trying to find the graveyard of his broodmates again…

Ishibil curled his lip, baring his fangs as he lifted himself up, making sure his tail didn't drag over the ground as he crept over.

He peered around the corner and saw two humans standing at the entrance. Neither of them were wearing the white cloth the Union knights preferred — the two were in duller browns, the fabric dusty. They were bundled up for the coming winter weather so only their faces and hair could be seen.

One was half a head taller than the other with long hair, while the other's black hair stopped at their ears. The scent of magic in the air made Ishibil's stomach twist, reminding him of his broodmates; it didn't smell the same though, more like what was left in the wake of a lightning storm rather than a more concentrated forest scent.

A mage and a…princess?

Every few moons a parade of knights would come to his forest, demanding he release the princess he'd 'kidnapped' from their kingdom, but he hoarded skulls, not pincesses. The princesses all had the same description with long hair, and the taller one seemed to fit that.

Ishibil heard a sharp intake of breath, the princess straightening — the princess must have seen him.

The pair didn't run, but they didn't draw weapons either. Not that the mage needed one -even though one hand was wrapped around a staff- and the princess was also holding one. Instead, the mage stepped forward, arms stretched up towards Ishibil's face.

"Oh great dragon!" the mage cried out, "we come seeking refuge!"

Ishibil stared at them. That wasn't the usual speech he got from humans. "Was that supposed to be a greeting?" It was better than declaring they were going to kill him, but at least Ishibil understood what that meant.

"Um." The mage scratched the side of their face while the princess made a soft groaning sound and reached out to snag the mage's sleeve. "The stories I read said it was a good idea to be polite...?"

Humans had strange ideas what was polite. "Leave," he growled, drawing himself up to tower over them more. The mage's shoulders slumped while the princess tugged them away. He had no interest in humans in his den; that wasn't what he hoarded, and all the others had wanted to kill him.

"Thank you," the princess said, giving him a small nod as they left.

Ishibil flicked an ear, staring at them. The human was thanking him? Hn, maybe because he hadn't killed them outright — but they hadn't tried to kill him either. There made a difference.

They kept talking when they were out of his sight, the entrance picking up their words and bouncing them back to Ishibil. "Aw, but I was hoping-"

"Not now," the princess hissed.

Ishibil stayed at the entrance, watching them descend the mountain in case they decided to sneak back. They didn't, and he went back into his den.

xOx

Ishibil heard clashing metal and shouting a few days later, and he went to the entrance of his den to investigate, his ears pricked. The wind carried the sound of fighting up to him, and he narrowed his eyes at the plume of smoke rising in the distance. Only humans made that kind of disturbance.

Growling, Ishibil launched himself into the air, heading to the source.

He saw magic flashing through the trees first. It had to be the mage from earlier – the Union thankfully didn't have many mages, or else it would have been harder to defend himself against them.

The pair were fighting — he roared, recognising the white uniforms. The humans froze, spinning to stare up at him. He crashed down on one, feeling and hearing bones snap under his claws as he span, smashing his tail into more humans.

Magic was building up in his throat, just on the edge of releasing but he didn't reach for it, knowing it was useless. It had never worked, no matter how much he'd wanted it. So he used his claws and fangs to rend the humans apart instead, hearing others screaming. He curled his lip at the sound. Good. It made them easier to find.

He snapped back, flapping his wings and hissing when he was splashed with liquid and he shook his head. There was a pair of white-uniformed humans beside him, carrying a barrel between them. He huffed, swaying as whatever was in it took effect and he snarled again, crashing forward and crushing the pair.

His vision was blurring, but thanks to the uniforms, he could pick out who he needed to kill against the brown forest. Whatever it was, it made his legs unsteady, but it wasn't strong enough to make him collapse.

He roared, and he could feel the weakness from the poison leaving. Hah. He may have been the runt of his brood, but he was still a dragon and poison wasn't going to bring him down that easily.

His vision had cleared by the time he'd smashed his way through the last of the knights in the area, leaving the mage and princess leaning by a tree.

The princess kept their bow raised at the trees around them, the mage also keeping their staff up. The princess glanced at him. "Thank-"

Ishibil whirled on them, snarling. "I didn't attack them to save you," he snapped, flapping his wings. If any of the knights had escaped - if this group had the same goal as the last ones-!

M-21 launched himself into the air, trying to find more of the white uniforms.

He flew in an expanding circle but he didn't spot anything. He didn't trust that; the knights could be hiding from him, so he kept searching.

Once he was satisfied there was no-one left alive, he flew back to the graveyard where his broodmates were laid to rest to make sure.

He landed softly, trying not to disturb anything. He inspected the ground and sniffed the air, but there weren't any new scents apart from the usual ones.

Good.

He curled up in the centre, keeping watch over his broodmates, his ears pricked for anything approaching. It was quiet and he sighed, taking in the scents his broodmates had left, saturating the earth with their magic.

There had been an illness that had swept through his brood, and even though Ishibil was the runt, he had been the first to recover.

They thought everyone else would be the same. If Ishibil got better, then of course the others would. But they didn't. Each of his broodmates succumbed to it until Ishibil was the only one left.

He closed his eyes, exhaling as he laid his head down on the ground. He was no longer the twenty-first of his brood, but the last. There were times where Ishibil wondered if it was because he'd been the runt that he'd survived. If him being magicless was what had saved him while it took the others.

There was no way to find out, not that he really wanted to.

All that mattered was that his broodmates were dead and the Union had started to invade his forest soon after, intending to dig up their bodies.

He didn't have magic and he had only been able to watch, helpless as his broodmates died in front of him, but he wouldn't allow the Union to take their bodies.

xOx

Ishibil glided over his forest, patrolling in case more Union knights were stalking around.

It didn't seem to be, but he did spot two humans that were starting to become familiar.

He folded his wings and landed next to them at a crouch, hearing a satisfying yelp from one of them.

"Are you allied with the Union?" he demanded, ready to pounce if they were.

"What?" the mage yelped, their mouth gaping as they scrambled back.

"We're not, ser," the princess said, hand tight on their bow, an arrow ready to fly. "We're running from them, in fact."

"Yeah!" The mage waved their staff. "If we were allied with them, why were we fighting them?"

Ishibil narrowed his eyes but straightened, bringing his wings close to his body again. ...That was true. Though he hadn't seen them much during the fight, too distracted by killing the Union knights.

Now that he was this close to them, he could see a number of bandages of the pair's bodies.

"They're interested in you?" Ishibil peered at them, furrowing his brow. The Union attacked their own kind?

"Well, yeah," the mage said, glancing away before looking back at him again. "I'm a mage."

Ishibil flicked the tip of his tail. "That's obvious." The scent gave them away.

"Anything to do with magic are well sought after with that kingdom, ser," the princess said, lowering their bow bit by bit. That Isihbil knew well, and he growled at the memory.

"Yeah..." The mage rubbed the back of their neck. "I wasn't lying when I said we were looking for refuge."

Ishibil snorted. "More of your stories telling you a dragon would look after you?" Hadn't they hadn't learned they couldn't trust those yet?

The mage chuckled, the sound weak. "Not…really. You're just the only one not trying to kidnap me or forcing me to do something I don't want to."

Ishibil considered the pair, not believing what he was hearing. "You went to a dragon for safety." When most humans either steered clear of his forest or specifically tried to hunt him down because humans considered him dangerous or thought he'd stolen an important person for his hoard.

He turned to the quieter one. "Your mage is strange, princess."

"He's not my-" The princess' eyes widened as the mage sucked in a breath, spluttering. "I'm, ah, not a princess, ser. I'm a knight."

"I'm the prince," the mage said, flashing their teeth at him, tapping their own chest with their fingertips.

Ishibil considered them both with the new information. The knight wasn't wearing armour or carrying a sword like the other knights he'd encountered, only having a bow as a weapon. And the prince(ss) had short hair.

"What's the difference between a prince and a princess?" They sounded the same, but there had to be a reason why the mage-prince had corrected him.

"Well," the mage-prince said as they waved a hand, "princesses are women and princes are men."

Ishibil squinted at them. They had different titles depending on their gender? Why make it more complicated? "Are you both male?" He should ask to make sure.

"Yeah!" The mage-prince nodded.

"And you, ser?" the knight asked. "We don't want to assume and get it wrong."

Like he'd just done with them? But then, he didn't have to worry about the two being angry if he'd insulted them and being stepped on. And it wasn't as if dragons themselves could tell if another dragon was male, female or other at a glance. "Male," he said with a short lift of his wing claws.

The mage-prince flashed his teeth again. "Though names are an easier thing to call us. I'm Tao, and this is Takeo." There was a pause as they both looked at him.

He'd never had to introduce himself to anyone before, not when he'd been with his broodmates since he'd hatched. The humans he'd met before hadn't been interested in his name either, attacking him instead.

"...Ishibil." His name felt strange on his tongue.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ishibil," Tao said as Takeo gave him a short bow.

It was strange to hear his name again after so long.

He didn't know how to react to that, his ears flattening. "Fine." He wanted to warn them away from the graveyard, but that would have given them a direction. He turned and flew off, circling again in case they tried to follow him.

xOx

The next time Ishibil patrolled his forest, his nose twitched at the scent of something he hadn't smelled before and he tilted, searching for the source. Anything new or different usually meant humans were doing something again.

He narrowed his eyes at a thin plume of smoke rising above the tree line and he flew over to it.

There were two drab forms huddled next to a small fire and he landed next to them, extinguishing the fire when he flapped his wings.

The m – Tao scrambled back with a yelp, staff in hand, his other hand lighting up with magic while Tak – huh. So his staff could become a bow.

There was a pause where both Tao and Takeo froze, staring at him. Then Tao wheezed with a soft laugh, flopping backwards to lie on the ground.

"Can - you give us a warning before you do that?" Tao asked, still staring up at the sky. Takeo had lowered his bow and unhooked the string from it. The wood snapped straight again, looking like a staff once more.

"...You want me to roar first?" Ishibil said, tilting his head. He did to scare humans off.

Tao chuckled at that, which Ishibil squinted at him for. He hadn't said anything amusing.

"I think you'd make my heart stop if you did that!"

And the thought of his own death was funny? Tao really was strange.

"Though I guess anything you'd do would scare me," Tao continued on. The human…never seemed to stop talking.

Takeo poked at the fire with a different piece of wood while Tao rolled to his feet.

"Why are you doing that?" Ishibil asked Takeo, watching the fire flare up again. It was deliberately made, but not in the same way the Union knights used it to damage his forest.

"We're cooking lunch," Takeo said, turning the sticks close to the fire. There was meat on them.

"And it's cold!" Tao tightened the cloth around him, keeping his hands tucked under his arms. "Aren't you?"

Ishibil blinked at him. "No. It gets worse later on." The weather was mild for what it could be.

"Worse?" Tao's eyes went wide, his mouth dropping open. "I'm shivering already!" Tao adjusted his clothes, wrapping himself up tighter. "How worse?"

Ishibil flicked his wing claws upwards before drawing them to his body again. "It gets colder until it snows."

"Snow?" Tao turned to Takeo. "…Well, I did say I wanted to see that one day…"

More he'd heard from his stories? "If you stay, you probably will," Ishibil said. The winter had seemed normal so far, so it wouldn't be too long until the first snow.

He doubted they would stay for that long; no humans did.

His curiosity satisfied, he flew off.

xOx

Tao and Takeo seemed to be somewhere new every time Ishibil patrolled. Were they searching for something, or just restless? They stayed away from the direction of the graveyard, so Ishibil was content to leave them to it. Maybe it was a human thing to keep moving around rather than making a den to live in.

He spotted Tao and Takeo on his way back to his den and he hovered there, seeing the body of a stag they must have killed. It was more than what they could eat at once, unless they intended to store it somewhere. It was larger than their usual kills but maybe they would eat this and not need to again more for the next few days. They seemed to be eating whenever Ishibil flew over.

Takeo noticed him first and waved a hand at him. Takeo repeated it when Ishibil stayed where he was, sweeping his hand to his chest, and that drew Tao's attention to them.

Ishibil wasn't going to hear them if he tried to talk with them at that height, so he swooped down, landing far enough to not put out their fire.

"We were wondering the next time you were going to visit!" Tao said, and Ishibil blinked. They had? Why did they care?

Takeo had started walking towards the stag, so Ishibil turned his attention to Tao. "What did that gesture mean?" Ishibil asked.

It was Tao who tilted his head this time. "This?" He repeated what Takeo had done and when Ishibil nodded, Tao said. "He was asking you to come closer."

Oh. Dragons did that with a jerk of their snout. Which humans didn't have, or a long enough neck to do it either. That had to be why they used their hands instead.

"...Why?" Ishibil asked, watching Takeo carry the stag over to them.

"We didn't get to thank you earlier," Tao said as Takeo set the stag down in front of Ishibil. "My stories didn't cover how you're supposed to thank a dragon -and it'd probably be wrong anyway, heh- but we figured food would be at least something."

Ishibil wasn't paying attention to Tao's words, focusing on the stag's horns instead. The way they branched out and curved, they reminded him of Ishibsa's.

"…Thank you," he said, dragging the stag closer, intending to take it to the graveyard. He would put it-

"Great!" Tao said, clapping his hands, baring his teeth again. It was accompanied by a laugh, and maybe it wasn't the aggressive snarl Ishibil thought it was. "You can stay for dinner!"

"Gah - Tao-"

"What?" Tao turned to his knight, who had covered his face with a hand. "It'll be fun, won't it?"

"Dinner?" Ishibil repeated. He didn't know what that was, but Tao was asking him to stay?

"Yeah!" Tao nodded. "We're going to eat soon; we can eat together if you want."

Ishibil stared between them, but it didn't seem like Tao was going to take back his words, and Takeo wasn't protesting either. They were asking him to say.

"All right," Ishibil surprised himself by saying. It...would be nice to share company again, even if they were humans. He was due to eat anyway.

It turned out that Tao's mouth could uncover more of his teeth, and that Ishibil hadn't heard just how loud Tao's laughter could be until that moment.

xOx

"Hey, Takeo, do you know where-"

"It's in your pack — left pocket." Takeo said it without looking up, his attention on slicing the meat in front of him.

"Oh, right, right." Tao went over to one of the packs by a tree and started rummaging.

"While you're there, can you get-"

"Already got it." Tao waved a small pouch, his other hand inside the pack.

"And-"

"I won't throw it over this time, I swear!"

It was interesting watching the pair — it was as if they were joined at the head, knowing what the other was thinking and finishing each other's words.

Preparing and cooking the food took longer than Ishibil thought it would; he'd eaten most of the stag by the time the pair sat down to eat. It smelled nice though, and he could identify some of the plants they'd used. With the rest of the stag gone, he turned his attention to cleaning the skull.

"Ah, Ishibil?"

His ears pricked up at his name and he almost didn't react, so unused to hearing it. He glanced at Takeo, who was gazing at the skull. "Yes?" Ishibil said.

"Is that what you hoard? Skulls?"

Oh. He nodded. His hoarding instincts hadn't been as strong as his broodmates, but then everything about him had been lesser, down to his size and magic. It wasn't surprising his hoarding urge had been the same.

"Then we'll pay you back in horns," Tao said with finality, nodding.

Ishibil stared at him. How could Takeo predict everything Tao was going to say when it seemed like Tao said things at random? "Pay me back for what?"

"You saved our lives!" Tao said, waving a bit of meat. "Even if you didn't mean to. And you let us stay here. We owe you a lot, and I always repay my debts." Beside him, Takeo nodded.

Maybe it wasn't just Tao's stories about dragons that were wrong, but also what he thought he knew about humans… The pair weren't like any of the humans he'd met before.

"Though I'm a little surprised you haven't grabbed every horned animal around here already," Tao continued.

Ishibil snorted. "Our hoarding urges come and go-" His more than others. "-and I only need to feed every few days." Or else there would have been nothing left if he ate at the same rate Tao and Takeo did.

"Really?" Tao leaned forwards, like he wanted to make sure he heard everything Ishibil said.

Ishibil nodded. "I get most of my energy from the sun." From the way both Tao and Takeo straightened, that was surprising to them. No wonder humans used cloth to cover up their skin if they didn't get their energy the same way dragons did. "And I eat meat for what sunlight doesn't give me." To heal wounds or to grow. Ishibil's broodmates used to bring him a lot of food to eat but he'd resigned himself to his height. He was small for a dragon, but Tao and Takeo's heads still only reached the bottom of his chest.

He huffed, shaking his head. "You don't have to give me horns every time we meet." He was picky about the horns he brought back. It would be a waste.

"Aww, all right."

The two continued to eat as he finished cleaning the skull, and when he was done, he picked the skull up between his claws and flew off to the graveyard.

xOx

Ishibil took in a deep breath as soon as he landed. Not that he needed to, knowing where every one of his broodmates had been buried, but their magic still saturated the air and he closed his eyes, taking their scents in again.

When he opened his eyes again, he carried the stag head to Ishibsa's grave, setting it on top. Ishibsa's grave was the crudest out of all of them, Ishibil not having the magic to make one like the others and had to dig it out with his claws. He'd hated his lack of magic then, not being able to give Ishibsa a proper burial. The best thing he could do for them now was to collect horns for them to honour their memory.

"Hey," he murmured, curling up and staring at the skull. He saw Ishibsa's horns instead, his chest aching at the memories. "I found — no. Humans gave me this." Not that the pair had realised what it meant.

"It hasn't been as quiet as it used to be," he said, huffing. It couldn't be when Tao and Takeo was always doing something new the next time he saw them.

"And…it's nice," he admitted, curling up into a tighter ball. "I've missed you. All of you." Being surrounded by others, hearing someone close by and feeling their warmth.

He longed for the used-to-be familiar press of scales against his own, but there as none.

Exhaling a shuddering breath, Ishibil closed his eyes and remembered when the others used to be alive.

xOx

When Ishibil patrolled a few days later, his nostrils flared at the scent of magic. One that itched the inside of his nose he associated after a lightning storm. Tao.

If Tao was casting magic, that meant he and Takeo were being attacked. There had to be more Union knights in his forest again.

Narrowing his eyes, Ishibil changed direction, tracking the scent.

There was movement next to the river but then he paused, hovering there. No-one else was there. Tao was casting magic, Ishibil getting a stronger whiff as the wind carried the scent up to him, but he was directing it at the trees. Takeo was holding a long branch in front of him as he stood by the river, the branch tip over the running water.

What were they doing…?

Tao saw him first, his magic spluttering out as he gestured in the same way Takeo had last time.

Were they going to give him something again already? They'd given him the stag a few days ago. There wasn't another stag in sight, only a few fish next to Takeo, but Ishibil landed anyway, looking around. The earth was disturbed in places, exposed roots with dirt still clinging to them.

"Thought it'd be better if you came down — I don't think my throat would be able to handle having a conversation like that," Tao said.

He glanced back at Tao. "Why were you using your magic?" Ishibil asked. There weren't any other humans in the area, and he didn't smell any blood either. The pair didn't look like they'd been fighting either.

"Mm?" Tao span his staff in his hands. "I was practicing."

"Practicing?" Ishibil repeated, tilting his head.

"Yeah. Magic's a muscle you have to learn how to use, just like learning how use a bow." Tao nodded to Takeo. "So I have to keep using it to get stronger and to figure out what to do."

Tao blinked up at him. "Don't you do the same?"

"...No. We..." Ishibil trailled off, his ears flattening before he raised them again. "We have a set amount of magic we're born knowing how to use. If we want more magical strength, we eat more, but that's only a temporary boost." Not that it worked with him, but they didn't need to know that.

"Is that why some areas around dragon dens are desolate?" Takeo asked, bringing the fish over.

Ishibil squinted at him. "Is that what you know, or is that what you've heard?" With those two, it could be either.

Takeo was quiet before he nodded. "I've passed through a few forests that used to have a dragon's den."

Used to. Before humans had attacked and killed them.

"There wasn't much left of the forest — there wasn't anything living left in it, like something had sucked all the life out of the earth."

Ishibil gazed at him, furrowing his brow as he thought it over. "That doesn't make sense…" he said.

Tao's eyes widened. "It doesn't? How come?"

"If a dragon was trying to keep their magical reserves up, they would only eat more of the animals. Our magic isn't taken from the land." He looked at Tao. "I don't know how humans cast magic though."

"We don't do that either!" Tao waved his hands in the air, then paused, grimacing. "Except there's some magic sucks the life out of things. But that's dark magic! And – and…" Tao's shoulders slumped. "I can see the Union doing that and blaming the dragon."

Ishibil growled, lashing his tail. "So they're not just killing us, but they're blaming us for destroying our own homes?" Then more humans would go to his forest to try and kill him because they thought he was something dangerous to be stopped.

Takeo was staring at him, not in the way he usually was.

"What?" Ishibil said, looking back at him.

"Ah." Takeo hesitated, looking away. "There's something I've been wondering… "

Ishibil waited, listening.

"The Union's attacked your forest so much you can recognise their uniforms, but you're still hunting at the normal rate."

Ishibil shifted the weight on his feet. After what he'd just said, that would seem suspicious.

"And..." Takeo hesitated again. "You didn't use magic in the fight when you saved our lives." Takeo paused again, staring up at him. "You...don't have magic, do you?"

Ishibil froze before he huffed, one of his usual retorts he'd given to a broodmate coming to his tongue. "And I proved I didn't need to use magic in that fight."

"Ah. That's true." Takeo nodded. "That makes sense; forgive my assumption."

That...had been too close. Takeo was right, but if the humans knew he couldn't cast magic, more would come until he couldn't protect himself or the graveyard anymore.

He couldn't let that happen.

"So I guess if it's innate for you, I can't ask you to teach me anything?" Tao asked, twirling his staff.

"No." Even if he could use magic, he didn't think he would be able to. His broodmates hadn't been able to teach him, no matter how much they'd tried and they used magic in the same way. Him trying to teach a human magic when he didn't know how they cast their magic…. It wouldn't work.

"Ah well," Tao said, baring his blunt teeth. "I'll get there eventually."

"What does that mean?" Ishibil asked, staring at Tao. He'd seen enough to know it wasn't the threat it would have been on anything else, but he'd been wrong before so it was better he made sure.

"Eh? What does what mean?"

"This." Ishibil peeled his lips back to reveal his fangs.

Tao's eyes widened. "Uh, okay, when you do it… I guess that's why you're confused." He shook his head. "It's a smile. It means I'm happy!" Tao lifted his lips again into a smile

Hn, that matched up with what Ishibil had guessed.

"How do dragons show they're happy?"

...When was the last time he'd been happy? When his broodmates had been alive. What had he done then?

"We usually rumble deep in our chest and nudge the dragon we're happy with." Not that he could do that anymore.

"Aah." Tao nodded, then he stretched his arms up to the sky with a groan. "I don't think I can cast anymore anyway, so do you want to stay for lunch?"

They wanted his company again? Shuffling his wings, Ishibil said, "Yes."

xOx

"Do you practice magic every day?" Ishibil asked, watching the pair eat.

"Every other day," Tao corrected, nodding. "Using magic tires me out so I have to rest in between."

Hn. Had that happened with his broodmates? They hadn't needed to use magic that often, or for that long. Especially since there had been so many of them to support each other.

"I've been trying to work on controlling roots," Tao said, holding a hand out, his palm facing the ground. "I lean towards lightning magic -which is really helpful against knights- but I need something less flashy. It's no good if the person I'm trying to hit gets a warning because they saw me calling lightning." Under Tao's palm, the ground shifted, roots lifting out like they were being carried.

Ishibil stared at him. Tao's other hand was still holding the bit of meat he was eating, his staff by his side.

"Ishibil...?" Takeo said, and Ishibil huffed.

"I thought mages needed their staffs to channel their magic." If he could separate a mage from their staff, then they were helpless.

"Oh!" Tao's hand relaxed and the roots flopped back to the ground. "It helps, especially if they're imbued with-" Tao's smile flickered. "-uh, certain materials or stones." Which meant parts scavenged from dragons and other magical creatures that had been killed. "But we don't really need them to cast magic. I just like this one because I needed something to help me up the mountain, and it's pretty handy as a club in case my magic doesn't work."

Ishibil blinked. "Why wouldn't your magic work?" He knew his own didn't, but Tao had magic.

Tao laughed, taking another bite of what he was eating. "Well, it wouldn't work against you, but then, neither would my staff. And it's a little hard to concentrate on casting magic when someone's trying to kill you, heh."

Hm. That was true. Even if he couldn't cast magic, Ishibil was still resistant to it. Though that hadn't stopped his broodmates from magicking the things around him as a joke.

xOx

The next time Ishibil found the pair, Takeo was practicing using a bow while Tao sitting next to him, leaning against a tree and...

Ishibil hovered long enough for both of them to glance at him and he landed before they could gesture for him to come down.

"What are you doing?" Ishibil asked, watching the roots Tao was calling out of the ground and forming a longer stick with one spaded tip and the other end jutting out with long thin spikes.

"Practicing making arrows!" Tao said, smiling at him as he tugged off another one and dropped it inside the arrow holder by Takeo's feet. "I also made Takeo's bow, so we're just seeing if they're usable."

Takeo gave Ishibil a small dip of the head before saying to Tao, "You need to make the fletching thinner."

"And I didn't know arrows had to be that precise," Tao said with a laugh, coaxing out another bit of root with a wave of his hand. He kept his hand over the bottom of the arrow for longer before dropping it into the arrow holder.

"Because you didn't have to make them before."

"And at this rate, I'll know how to make and control root hands by the end of the week."

Takeo placed one of the arrows Tao had made into his bow, and drew it back. When he let go, the arrow flew and thudded into one of the trees.

Tao's head snapped up, and he pointed at it. "Hey, you hit it this time!"

That was the first time...? Ishibil looked at the tree Takeo had hit and - hn. It was surrounded by arrows, most of them imbedded into the ground or past it.

"Buuut, I think that's all I can do for now," Tao said with a huff, interlocking his fingers and stretching his arms above his head. "I'm starting to feel hungry."

"You're always hungry," Ishibil said with a snort. Whenever he found them they were just about to eat.

"It probably looks like it to you since it seems like you never eat at all to us," Tao said, flopping back onto the ground while Takeo went over to the tree and started picking up all the arrows. "But it was fun. I'm starting to get the hang of it, anyway."

When the pair started preparing their lunch, they didn't ask if he wanted to stay, but they didn't act surprised that he didn't leave either.

xOx

Ishibil watched his breath freeze in front of his snout. The temperature had been dropping through the day and snow had just started to fall as night descended. It was during those times he and his siblings would curl up together in a heap, using both their bodies and magic to keep warm.

He had neither now and... Ishibil peered at the snow again. Tao and Takeo were out in that. They were much smaller than him and Tao had already been bothered by the cold before it had snowed. But they had each other, and Tao had magic. That would help. (They didn't have a den, did they? Or had they found one but just didn't stay near it during the day…?)

They would be fine.

Ishibil stayed near the entrance anyway, watching the snow fall in case it got worse.

xOx

Ishibil paced the entrance of his den, snow speeding past and hearing the howling wind. He'd been through worse, but that didn't mean much.

One of his broodmates would be in trouble if they'd been caught out in that, even using magic to help.

The pair weren't one of his broodmates though; why did he care what happened to them? He'd only known them a few moons!

It didn't matter, not when he was worried about what was happening to them right now. Every moment he wasted was one he could have spent finding them.

Bracing himself, Ishibil charged and flew into the storm.

Next half will be posted next Sunday!

Just a note: Ishibil means 21, and Ishibsa means 24.