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“No,” Lithian cut in immediately as Casseth tried to blame himself. “We both wanted to come out here, and it would have been fine if nothing had showed up, but you can’t possibly blame yourself because they did. Don’t…move.”

Lithian’s mind moved quickly as he worked Casseth’s pants away from the wound as best he could. He wanted a knife, to cut back the fabric and give him more room to work and less clutter. He also could make good use of his water vials now, but the last thing thing he wanted was to leave Cas behind and have him attacked while he was helpless. Worrying his lower lip and rubbing at one of his horns, his eyes scanned down the beach towards where they’d left the rest of their clothes.

After a long moment, though, he sighed and shook his head, turning his focus to Casseth’s leg and his own magic. He didn’t need physical water to work his healing magic, though it certainly helped as a grounding point and for simple cleaning and washing purposes, but under the given circumstances, he knew he’d need to make do without. Splaying his fingers over the source of the wound — thankfully very localized thanks to the nature of it — Lithian shut his eyes, and gathered his magic, clustering it in his open palm and then moving it out, into Casseth and through the injury itself.

Deep puncture wounds from the teeth, a fractured — though not fully broken — bone, and some additional ripping of skin, though luckily not much, from a messy release. Extra pressure or movement now would only agitate the wound further and, potentially, snap it into a full break. Breathing out, Lithian focussed on the worst culprits, strengthening the bone itself, removing the fragmented shards and stitching the body of it back together as best he could. He knew his attempt wouldn’t be nearly so precise as that of a more practiced healer, but the magic intrinsically knew its purpose there — crafted by his god for the art of healing — and though his personal knowledge was limited on some specifics, he trusted his magic’s natural instinct to do more help than hurt.

After doing what he could to strengthen and reinforce the fractured bone, he sent another, smaller pulse through to do what he could for the pain, hating to see Casseth wince.

“You can’t walk on it,” Lithian said. “You’d only make it worse, but I’ve healed what of it I could, and I should be able to do more if I had the materials in my belt. My flasks and…your gift, also.” He flushed. “It’ll make my magic that much more effective. I think, the way it is now, as long as you don’t put your weight on it, we can move you. Put your arm around me, and I’ll help you up?”

Lithian flushed and shook his head, already sifting through his things in search of what he needed. After pulling the smallest knife in his inventory — designed for precision jobs like this, not fighting — he carefully cut away the cloth around Casseth’s wounded leg, pulling back the fabric there as gently as he could before unstoppering one of his ordinary vials and lifting some of the fresh water therein out.

“I’m not hurt,” he answered at length. “I was eleven last I fought kiandris…” He shook his head, manipulating the water to wash thoroughly over Cas’ leg and applying a pinch of cleansing magic as he worked. “I couldn’t have even taken on one alone at the time. I was with my eldest sister, Ysette, and two of my brothers…my first encounter with dragons ever, and we ended up facing thirteen of them. We were eventually aided by a khehora as well.”

Drawing the water back, away from Cas’ leg, Lithian ran another pulse of magic through it to purify it, making sure it was clean before guiding it back into his flask. He ran his finger up the vial Casseth had gifted him, still in awe of the fact that he had such a thing to work with. Carefully, he unstoppered it. Guiding its contents up and over with the pull of his magic, he let it flatten over the wounded area of Casseth’s leg, rippling like a gel and glowing white-blue. Lithian could feel the difference — the innate power of the water itself seeming to bolster the strength of his own magic effortlessly — and it reacted naturally, seeping in and repairing, staving off infection and knitting together wounded tendons that Lithian hadn’t had the strength for on his own as well as almost certainly dulling the pain further still.

By the time Lithian withdrew the waters of the healing lake, his cheeks were flush again, unused to working with something so naturally powerful. The water barely needed to be cleansed — already self-purified — and so he tucked it back into its vial and stoppered it.

“There,” he said. “I think that’s all I can do for you for now, but we should be able to take you home as you are. I still wouldn’t recommend putting much weight on the leg just in case, but the waters of Vonafel…they did more than I ever could have hoped to on my own and your leg should heal completely within a few days. A week at most, though I suspect it will be faster. I will…apologize to your father personally.”

"Apologize? For what? You didn't gnaw on my leg Lith." Casseth winced as he pushed himself up from the ground. The pain in his leg had dulled even more after Lith had used Cas' gift but it was still there and could be felt even stronger when he tried to put weight on the leg. He kept most of his weight on his good leg as he bent and scooped up his now dry shirt. Slipping it on he frowned at his friend. "None of this is your fault. I dragged us out here and I wanted to go rock climbing. Dad...will understand." He wrinkled his nose at that, silently hoping Kilian would not be mad at Lith. It honestly was not his friend's fault.

Cas rubbed at his arms, worry coursing over him at how his dad would react. "Lets...get going then, hmm?" Cas stuck close to Lithian, limping as they made their way along the beach. Despite the dragon attack and being so close to water, Cas had had fun that day. He was just glad he had avoided Lith trying to drag him into the water. Cas frowned as he heard a distant noise. His gaze roamed out over the ocean as he stopped walking. "Lithian...do you hear that?" He frowned, narrowing his eyes as something seemed to rise up from the ocean. scales glittering in the sunlight over head. Cas groaned as he tugged at Lith's arm. "We've got more company. Peisios...and an aiskala? What is it doing here?" Cas asked as he took a step back from the water.

Cas's arms instinctively moved out and up, at the same time sharp spikes of earth shot up from under the sand. He grunted as a pain shot through his leg but grit his teeth and pushed through it. His element was weak against those of the water element but he would do his best to help his friend defeat the dragons, despite that and his injury. As the dragons neared them, Cas focused on the one dragon that he knew wasn't stronger against him. He brought his hands forward and together, focusing on the lone aiskala dragon, sending his spikes soaring through the air and right into the beast, puncturing it's flesh in many different places. He winced as he stumbled back, another pain shooting through his leg. He only just managed to avoid the teeth of yet another dragon as a peisio swooped down towards him, taking advantage of his distraction. Casseth cursed, something he didn't do often, and sent sand spraying up into the dragon's eyes. He grabbed hold of the sand with his magic, willing more of the earth to follow his lead. Quickly he encased the dragon's head in the loose earth and closed his fist, bringing the earth in on itself and crushing the dragon's skull.

Just as he finished the second dragon off, another one swooped in, catching him off guard as he panted from the exertion. Cas yelped, clawing at the ground as he fell and the dragon's claws wrapped around his legs. He wiggled, struggling to get out of it's grip when the dragon began flying. "Lithian!" He called out for his friend as pain shot through his leg and tears began to fall. He beat at the dragon's feet, desperately trying to get free. For an instant, time froze. One moment the dragon's claws were clutching at his legs and the next he was falling. Straight into the ocean. Panic set in, a scream tore from his throat as he broke the water's surface. He tried calling for Lithian but the water just invaded his lungs as he flailed, struggling to stay above the surface of the water but failing as each wave from the water crashed over himand pulled him under.

Casseth coughed, the water being forced from his lungs by his own body. He groaned as the weight of something pushed down on him. He forced himself to open his eyes, blinking when he saw nothing but blue hair at first. "Lithian...?" The last thing he remembered was falling into the ocean and hoping that Lith had been able to escape unharmed. His fingers curled into the sand, reality finally coming back to him as he realized he was soaking wet and laying on the ground.

He felt Lith's body shake, concern for his friend instantly shoving out any thoughts of what had happened to himself. "Lith...what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Cas wrinkled his nose up. "You had to save me again. I'm sorry." He banged his head against the sand, letting his eyes shut and huffing out a frustrated breath.

Casseth wrinkled his nose up at that comment, a laugh bubbling up from inside. "Yeah, good thing, hmm?" He pushed himself up from the ground, leg throbbing but going unnoticed for the most part. He watched Lith move, frowning as he thought about the danger he'd put them both in. His dad was going to be mad when they got back, he just knew it. He rubbed the back of his neck and let his hand run up over his mohawk, causing the wet strands to stick up.

"Lithian...thank you." Cas flushed and looked away from his friend, out over the ocean. "Maybe...you can teach me to swim one of these days?" That had been a scary experience and one he did not wish to repeat any time soon. So what better way to remedy that than get a peisio dovaa to help teach him. Forget that it would just give Cas another excuse to see his friend some time in the future. "Maybe we should get home before more dragons attack?" Cas said as he looked back over at his friend, smiling.