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Naita awoke from her nap to find that she wasn't alone.

She grinned, rumbling happily, at the fitfully sleeping leklan. It had been several hours since she had fallen asleep, and her nap had taken her into the darkening hours of Serenia's dusk.

“Hey Cid.” she said quietly, watching as his furry side rose and fell with his breathing, “How are ya doing?” he stirred, and she decided that – despite the injury to his leg – he seemed okay. Good. That was good. She stood up, stretching. “Let me get you some... Well, I guess it's dinner.” she said, loping to the riverside shrubs and tugging out a few leafy branches. She set them in front of the leklan's face. “Eat up.” she said, as it looked up at her groggily, “I'm going to get something to eat for myself.”

Which wasn't hard: all she had to do was swipe a claw through the water and voila: a fish. It was enough to sustain her, and she smiled at the leklan. “See? You're not food. Get that through your head.” she gave the creature a nuzzle, “You're my friend.”

Cid was still not happy about it, she could tell, but at least he ate the greens before him and didn't bolt off again... which was good, since she didn't feel like chasing him down again.

“Good.” she sat down to watch him, wondering what would be next. She didn't feel like doing much besides wander, honestly, though she supposed she did – she remembered – need to find someone to fix up Cid's leg. That could be her next step – find a village.

She waited until Cid finished before standing up over him. “All right, lets go. I'll carry you again, and this time, no struggling.” she reached down with a talon to grab the trembling creature.

Out of the bushes came a vicious roar and a rustle of leaves, followed by talons that gouged her neck. For a brief moment, she thought that the trees themselves had attacked her. She turned and roared, arching her wings over her new friend as she let loose with a gout of flame.

It was then, as it withered and screamed in her flame, that she realized that she had been attacked by a dragon.

It staggered back, badly burned and bleeding, and she leapt at it. She bit and clawed down into it ferally, without rationality or reason, until her blue scales were dyed red with it's blood. It raked at her in return with it's talons, and she felt them burn across her chest as she, with a vicious bite and twist of her head, tore out its throat in a final blow.

Panting and favoring one of her hindlegs, Niata turned to check on Cid, and found herself face to face with a second dragon. It shoved her to the ground, holding her down as she struggled against it.

With a snarl, it bit down, it's teeth digging deep into her shoulder, just behind her wing. She screamed, firing a blast of fire at the dragon, and it released her, dodging her blast, as she staggered to her feet.

The dragon grinned at her, it's horns singed, and began to laugh.

“Whats so funny?!” she demanded. And then her side began to go numb. It spread like a nightmare from the agonizing pain of the bite to her wing and then crept down her foreleg and side until...

“What?!” she exclaimed as her foreleg collapsed beneath her, followed by her hindleg.

The dragon casually walked over to the trembling leklan and picked it up in its claws.

”An excellent practice prey for my hatchlings... Harmless creatures are so hard to find these days...” it said appraisingly, ”I should thank you, lesser being, for finding it for me...” it towered over Naita, who struggled against the numbness that held her whole body.

”But I think I shall show my gratitude in a more novel way.” it laughed, ”You will go nowhere until I return. You will be paralyzed until I return and, soon, the numbness of the venom will leave you, and you will plead with me to end your life. Then, I shall grant you your wish, and feed upon your remains... Is that not grateful?” it laughed again, spreading it's lithe green wings, it's bleating, live prey in its talons.

”Until then, little firani!”

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