Blood Dolls

Grinning broadly as they plummeted head first toward the ground, the demon let out a yell, "Yes!! Faster!!" With one arm wrapped around the shifter's dragon form securely, the demon began harnessing what looked like shadows into a ball within a few inches of the palm of his other hand, then as the dragon's belly grazed the ground and guards began to run after them he flung the ball of shadows back at them. The shadow attack didn't take very long to reach them and as it made contact with one of the guard's feet it caused an explosion exponentially bigger than it had been upon impact, tearing a few guards to pieces and casting pieces of their bodies in all directions from the explosion. The demon cackled from his belly as he looked back at the ensuing carnage, turning his head to look where they travelled and reaching his free arm up to pat the dragon on the shoulder heartily, "Excellent work, shifter."

As they flew along the countryside away from their former prison, Simion shouted at the demon from within his mind, fighting to once again take control of his own body though his screams were only in his mind. "
Give me back control of my body, Agorroth!!" The demon heard him, but ignored his pleas as he was enjoying being able to fly for the first time in hundreds of years. A few moments later the demon began to gag audibly, then coughing near Dylan's dragon ears as he fought something that was invisible and inaudible. "Our holy father, who art in the heavens, give us this day..." The demon cast himself away from the dragon's body at that moment, spinning face down in circles toward the ground, "Now get yourself out of this one with your controlll..." Laughing and growling as he did, the demon left Simion's body to his own control again, his golden-hazel eyes snapping shut for a moment then opening wide as he realized he was free-falling toward a grassy plain from thousands of feet in the air. "Oh shit..." He spread his limbs out as wide as he could, trying to make as much resistance as possible to somewhat slow his fall, though gravity was definitely winning this battle. "DYLAAANNN!!"

The demon, Agorroth had all but disappeared from his mind, leaving him to fend for himself. If he survived this he was going to have to do something drastic in order to regain control of it, perhaps needing to conduct a summoning ritual to gain the powers of a different demon instead if this one had actually left his body. "Agorroth, you bastard!!" Simion began hyperventilating as got much nearer to the ground, panic-stricken and shaking, he still had so much that he needed to do and yet here he was about to die.
 
If dragons were capable of grinning, Dylan wore something like a grin on his face as the duo sped away, the sounds of the carnage behind them music to his ears as he put distance between them and took to the air again. Though, he grunted out a response when the demon pat him as if he were actually a steed. He rolled his eyes as he flew. Demons. Assholes. The whole lot of them. He didn't know what the relationship was between Simion and the demon inhabiting him, they hadn't had much of a chance to talk about it with everything that went on in the castle, and he knew enough about demons to know that the creature probably wouldn't answer him. Hell he wasn't even sure if Simion himself would come back. It all depended on whatever their bond was.

He got his answer soon enough when the demon's voice started to gag and there was silence and then...he was several pounds lighter as his back felt empty and the wind swept over his back in a rush. "Ah fuck," his voice came out in a deep rumble not having to see to know what happened. Dylan banked right and into a head long dive, a race against gravity to try and reach Simion first as the ground came speeding closer and closer. He used his wings to gain momentum moving forward, cursing the fact he had chosen to be smaller. A larger dragon definitely would've been useful in that moment. With one last powerful flap he rocketed forward but there wouldn't be enough room to pull up. Instead, he opened his jaws and clamped onto the back of Simion's shirt and flung his head back, sending the man up airborne enough to give himself enough room to roll onto his back in the air. Simion would've hit his scaled stomach as his armored, sturdy back hit the ground, hopefully letting the man bounce off with minimal injury as Dylan's own large form hit the ground hard and went skidding through the ground, tearing it asunder as he slid several dozen yards before he came to a stop stuck facefirst in the earth and still, groaning loudly.
 
Screaming at the top of his lungs, "Oh fuuuuuuuck!!", Simion began to say his last prayers, the imminent ground before him would be the last thing he ever saw. Tears rolled from his eyes and flew away when suddenly he lurched up, up and away, flipping backward as he flew and barely managing to see Dylan's dragon form crash roughly into the grass-covered dirt. Oh no, he thought, he's gone and sacrificed himself. Just as the thought had crossed his mind, he found gravity pulling him back toward the earth, diving face first straight down as his centrifugal force had worn out and he crashed into the dirt with his face next to Dylan as his arms stretched to somewhat break his fall. Laying there, he felt as if his back had bent quite unnaturally, turning his face away from the dragon and reaching a hand to his back behind him. Nope, it wasn't broken, it just hurt like hell. Raising his head and turning to face the dragon man beside him, he remembered that he'd just crashed into the ground attempting and succeeding in saving him, instinctively pushing himself up from the dirt and groaning loudly as his back protested with severe pain. Wincing and snapping his eyes shut, he groaned for a moment longer and rubbed his back, shaking his head and looking down at Dylan who was still laying there. "I never showed you what I can do without Agorroth helping..." Planting his hands flat on the dragon's chest, he began to pray, his hands starting to glow with a golden energy that poured across Dylan's entire body.

"Praise be to the gods, whom forever shall hold the keys to peace, and fill this world with their everlasting light." He whispered the prayer, not really intending for it to be heard by anyone but them. "Their power is my power, so long as I remain steadfast and faithful, a servant in the dying darkness of night." Simion ended his prayer there, and the golden energy diminished, fairly sure that he had healed any kind of serious injury to Dylan's body. Lifting his hands away and letting them fall to his sides, he felt extremely weak now as he'd used whatever power and energy was available in his effort to heal this man who'd thrown himself in the way of his death. His throat scratchy now, he barely managed to get above a whisper, "D...Dylan? Are you okay?"
 
The prone draconian lay facefirst groaning, clinging to conciousness by a thread. Eventually his body would mend itself and he'd pop back up, in the meantime he'd just lay there. The grass and dirt smelled good and were comfy. He could vaguely make out a semi-familiar voice but he couldn't quite place it. After a few seconds passed he began to feel warm and fuzzy and a sense of relief washed over him as the few bruises and scrapes healed, as well as the few minor fractures his limbs had suffered. Only...this wasn't how his healing ability felt..where was this coming from? When it stopped he was able to raise his head and he groaned again now that his body was shrinking and returning to its normal state.

Dylan sat up and rubbed his forehead, brushing away bits of grass and dirt that still clung to him and gave the other man a thumbs up. He was silent and then he spoke with a croaking voice. "Yeah, I'm good..you good?" he asked Simion, craning his head so that he could look to him with a curious, yet concerned gaze. "That's a pretty handy trick, thanks, Simion."
 
Simion smiled warmly as Dylan sat up, his happiness beaming through his gaze as he nodded back, "You're very welcome. You just saved my life... I thought I was going to die for sure. That dragon form of yours is pretty awesome." Standing up, he groaned quietly and rubbed his head as it was beginning to ache. Cradling his forehead in his hand, he looked down at Dylan and asked, "So where do we go from here?" Looking around the plains of grassy land, there didn't seem to be signs of civilization in any direction, and Simion wasn't quite sure where they even were at present. Letting go of his head, he offered his hand to help the other man up from the ground.
 
Dylan chuckled as he took the offered hand and pulled himself to his feet with a groan. Despite the healing, his back still cracked as he stood and he shuddered, feeling the relief course through his body. The sky was either getting dark, or getting light..he couldn't tell if twilight was taking hold or if the sun was about the rise. Given how long he had been in the dungeons he had lost all sense of time during his stay at the castle. "It's among my handier tricks," he admitted with a dry laugh as he looked around to the forest they had landed near. "I have no idea where we are..hopefully far enough away from those bloodsuckers we got some breathing room. I say we head into the forest, make camp for the day...night...whatever time it is, and figure it out from there."
 
Nodding as Dylan finished speaking, Simion looked toward the forest he had indicated, "It's nighttime, so we've got a good few hours of darkness ahead of us. Making camp in the forest is a good idea though, though we should probably figure out something to eat reasonably soon." He started walking toward the edge of the trees, sticking his hands into his pockets as he walked and glancing back to see if Dylan was following. As he turned back to the forest he heard a rustling noise, crouching down cautiously and raising a hand in a stopping signal as he listened and observed to make sure they weren't walking straight into a trap. Just then a familiar voice came racing through his mind, "It's just a rabbit." Simion's head jerked to the left slightly as the demon spoke, his teeth gritting together as he spoke aloud to the other inside his mind, "Shut your worthless trap, Agorroth." Then he gestured for Dylan to follow, nodding his head as he approached the forest's edge more cautiously and spoke to the demon again, "You've got a lot of nerve throwing me to my death then just talking to me like nothing happened." His voice was quiet as he didn't want to spook whatever prey it was that might be near, and that he could possibly eat very soon. "C'mooon, just let me hunt the rabbit, then we can EAT!"

Simion sighed heavily as the demon spoke, realizing he probably wasn't going to catch this bloody thing with Agorroth's help, he said, "Fine, as long as we're on the same terms as before. I let you out to play, but I have full control." Agorroth laughed inside his mind, "
Of course, Simion, but this time I'm going to give you my full power to play with, I've found it's a lot more fun that way." His eyebrows raised, not expecting the demon to agree so easily, let alone let him have full use of his powers. "I think we may just get along better from here on out, Agorroth." Simion stood and held his palms face-up toward the sky, small spheres of darkness even darker than the night forming above them before he took them in his grasp, his pale hands turning inky black with an eerie dim glow coming from them. "Now we hunt..." His feet slowly began to lift off of the ground, then he took off apparently running through the forest, though no footsteps could be heard. A few moments after he'd raced off into the dark forest, he had accomplished his goal, the demon's speed and power allowing him to hunt very efficiently and silently. He called aloud from a clearing he'd found about one-hundred or so feet from the edge of the forest, "Dylan! Come here, I've found us some dinner!" He built up a pile of what dead wood and kindling he could find, three dead rabbits laying near him bundled together, then he began trying to make the fire start. "Hey, can you breath fire?!"
 
The shifter had started to follow after Simion until it appeared the man was having a conversation with himself. At least that was how it appeared at first but eventually he understood what was happening. The demon again. Dylan couldn't explain why but knowledge of the demon was starting to put him on edge and make him wary of Simion. He felt he could trust Simion but the demon...that was an entirely different manner. Especially after the demonic being had thrown its vassal off of his back high up in the air. That was a level of dastardly Dylan would rather avoid if he could help it. "Yeah, I'm coming," he said quietly, wanting to stay quiet for the sake of not alerting any potential nearby hunters or predators to their presence.

And then, Simion was gone. In a show of darkness similar to when they were escaping the castle, the other man had rushed off. It sent a chill down Dylan's spine and his instincts were screaming at him to get away and get away fast. Far and fast actually. But..he couldn't really leave Simion out here on his own. That just wasn't his style, so, cautiously, the shapeshifter meandered along after him until he heard his name shouted out some time later and he broke out into a jog.

Once he found Simion, he saw the man appeared to be the same, and what was more, he was accompanied by three dead rabbits and was trying to start a fire. Dylan knelt down beside him as he helped rearrange the thicker branches in a cone shape over the kindling. "Breathe fire?" he asked, looking to him, and he considered it for a moment. "I mean, yes, I can. I'm just not sure if a quick small flame will wipe me out," he said before he explained further. "The forms I take...if they possess abilities, I can use some of them, but its a limited use. In dragon form..I've got one good breath attack in me. After that...I can't do much shifting for a couple weeks sooo...here goes nothing.." he crossed his fingers and leaned towards the pit, focusing hard so that he breathed out the tiniest, most minute, quickest of small flames he could manage to get the fire going before he flopped back on his rear and sighed, transforming back completely to his usual form. He felt drained. He had been malnourished for far too long and what had he done as soon as he had a bit of energy stored up? Picked one of his most taxing shifts to make a daring escape. He'd be sleeping and eating a lot in the coming days, as often as he could, to get himself back to a prime condition.
 
He watched in silence as Dylan shifted the pile of wood, nodding as he spoke of his dragon form. "That's what I was hoping for." Grinning as the small breath of fire caught on to the timber and the fire began to build, he stood from his crouched position and stepped over to the rabbits, forming a black blade from the darkness that poured from his hand and slicing the furred skin from the muscle that would be their meal for the night. Now carrying three furless and skinless rabbit bodies to the fire, he removed his shirt and laid it upon the ground, setting them on it to avoid them getting covered in dirt. He then took a long slender branch he had found and used the blade of darkness to sharpen the tip, skewering one of the rabbits and handing the handle portion of the skewer to Dylan, "Here you go, dinner. They shouldn't take very long to cook."

Finding another skinny branch to turn to a skewer, he sharpened it and speared another of the rabbits, lifting it over the fire and sitting finally as his black eyes slowly faded back to hazel. "I definitely didn't think we'd be camping tonight, let alone in a forest with rabbits for dinner." He laughed a little and rotated his skewer over the flames, trying his best not to burn the only meal they had. "I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight..." The dark of night had taken full hold now, crickets chirping through the trees and birds as well, rustling here and there probably of wild animals on the hunt for their own dinner.
 
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