The Golden Dragon's Hoard

2 - 6

"One man's inconvenience is another's joy.”
-NF

So sorry this was late! My dad had to go to the ER ://

Part Two - Chapter Six
"The Dragon's Lonely Witch"

“We’re leavin’ tomorrow, runt,” Athanasius reminds him, red eyes pinned onto his frame as he hugs his dad’s leg to his chest. “Ras told us to be productive.”

“This is productive,” Stray said.

Sitting on the floor in front of where his protector is perched on the couch and basically latched onto him like a leech, the youngling looks up to meet his eyes, red to blue.

Keeping to the eye contact, he wiggled his wings until they weren’t squished against the front of the couch and until his tail was around Atlas’s foot, too.

“Heh?” His dad frowns, reaching down to pat him on the head. “How?”

“I’m recharging my mental health, it was low as fuck.” Then, he growled softly, tired-safe-love.

Loved-loved-safe, is what’s rumbled back at him.

“Rough night?” Atlas hummed, running his fingers through golden locks, careful not to let his rings catch on anything. He nods. “Wanna talk about it?”

He shakes his head, snickering when his horn knocks into the other’s knuckles.

“Alright, do ya want me t’read you a story, then?”

“Oo,” Stray pulled himself closer, eyes widening. “Yes, please.”

“Okay,” his protector chuckled softly and reached over to grab one of the books on the table. The golden dragon poked his cheek as he got closer, smiling when he got a raised eyebrow in return.

The big dragon leans back in his seat, checks the cover, and looks back down to the youngling. “Do y’want to hear about ancient mermaids or the fae?”

“Mermaids,” Stray rests his head onto his dad’s knee.

“Hm, alright,” Athanasius ruffles his hair before clearing his throat. “Once, before the great mountains were formed ‘n all the giant oceans had yet to fall, there was an ancient race…”

Falling asleep to his dad’s voice was a lot easier than he thought it would be.

-——-——-

“It should feel like a… tugging, of sorts,” the phoenix stands in front of him, smiling softly but nervously, feathers fluffing up before settling back down repeatedly.

“I know, Ras,” Stray sighs, having been told three times now.

Athanasius was shifted, red scales gleaming as he laid in the field for them to finish.

His dad’s snout was between him and Oziamon, so he could barely see the witch besides a fluff of brown locks and slightly smudged glasses. Their bags were packed and tied together, stuffed into a small, ‘endless’ bag Ozzy had enchanted earlier that week.

They had just completed the spell, the one used to track the voidwalker.

It made Stray nervous to have magic used on him, even if he was used to his coven’s magic. He had shifted reflexively, his body apparently not convinced it’s okay even after all these years.

It was bullshit, if you asked him, that the past made him all huffy and panicky around people he felt completely safe around.

Regardless of the small flashback and how the big dragon had circled around him and growled at anything that came close until he calmed down, the spell went well. Oziamon’s proficient at casting and pairing it was Ras’ abilities, the tracking will be fairly easy, supposedly.