Kotsik Saves the Day

Discovery, Exploration

Fenneck and Natalya catch each other up on what has been happening over the last month they've been apart. Kotsik knocks an ancient white dragon unconscious and it's fucking amazing.

Natalya opened her eyes and felt joy overwhelm her realizing Fenneck was curled up in her arms. He was still meditating and everyone else in the little foyer was still sound asleep. Natalya gently sat up, causing Fenneck to open his eyes and give her a weak smile. She sighed with relief as reality set back in that he was actually with them and safe. She leaned down and kissed him softly before looking over to see Tarin shivering in his sleep. The fire had gone out from the night before.   Natalya reluctantly pulled away from Fenneck and went over the fire to start it back up. "Kotsik!" she whispered, waking up her little dragon who popped his head up and flew over to her excitedly and huffed a small poof of fire onto the firepit, causing it to light again. Natalya went back to Fenneck and settled back down with him in the bedroll they were sharing. Kotsik settled on her shoulder and gave Fenneck a quizzical look.   Fenneck smiled curiously at the little dragon and gave Natalya a quizzical look. She smiled. "This is Kotsik," she introduced them quietly so as not to wake the others who would probably be asleep for a while more. Kotsik sniffed Fenneck's face and gave him a curious look and Fenneck's eyes lit up in recognition. "Hi, little guy," Fenneck said weakly. "Where did you find him?" he asked Natalya. Natalya smiled. "In Sivania. In Sethrekar's lair," she explained. Fenneck smiled. "He's the one I saw the first time I went to meet Ukris! Aren't you?" he asked Kotsik who nodded his tiny head and climbed onto Fenneck's chest to sniff him curiously. "I scared him when I tried to pet him," Fenneck explained. "I thought you hated pets?" Fenneck teased her as he admired their newest family member. Natalya scoffed at him. "I never said I hated them," she said in defense. "I don't know, we... clicked I guess. He likes to play with ball bearings," she said, smiling admiringly at her little companion who was intensely studying Fenneck. Fenneck reached a hand out and gently rubbed the little dragon's head causing him to let out a low grumble of happiness. Fenneck giggled. "I love him," he told Natalya excitedly. "Me too," she said.   Fenneck suddenly winced in pain and laid back on the mat, clearly still exhausted from his horrible time here. He turned to Natalya and shook his head. "What... what's happened?" he finally asked her. "You didn't kill Zeitdrache, right?" he finally asked her. "I mean, maybe he was doing something nefarious and he had it coming but if so I didn't see it coming." She shook her head. "No. Of course not," she assured him.   She took a deep breath and tried to decide where to start. "So... I went to Arrallath and settled the family in Tempestua and everything went fine. Then, as I was heading back through Tempestua on my way home, I ran into Nerlureel," she said, motioning to the sleeping dragonborn. "And his son, Tarin," she motioned to the human who was now sleeping warmly next to the fire.   "Nerlureel was the dragonborn who helped me defeat Arrallath," she explained. "He married Henrik, the warlock who also helped us and they adopted Tarin here." Fenneck smiled over at Tarin and Nerlureel before turning back to Natalya. "We started chatting and suddenly my ring was gone," she explained, motioning to the ring on her finger. "So was his wedding ring. I saw a thief running through the crowd and we chased after him. We ended up on the ferry trying to hunt this guy down and while we were there we ran into a wood-elf name Kai, one of Zeitdrache's advisors and Tebi who we have since learned is Zeitdrache's son."   Fenneck shook his head in surprise at this. "Zeitdrache has a son?" Natalya nodded. "Yeah," she confirmed. "I was skeptical at first. Kai told us he was his body guard or something and that they were trying to keep his identity a secret so he would have a normal, humble upbringing. Baegla confirmed their story though. I guess she's known about him." Fenneck pursed his lips as he considered this.   Natalya decided to keep going before he got upset about Baegla keeping secrets from him. "They told us that Zeitdrache was looking for us. That he was trying to find the heroes who defeated Arrallath for some reason. The ferry we were on was going to Sivania though and Kai asked us to meet with Duke Rajyet. While we were on the boat it was attacked by a weird invisible cat thing and in the sky above we saw the clouds open up and..." she swallowed. "We saw it again. The evil monster in the Abyss. It vanished though and Nerlureel and I weren't really sure what to make of it. We finally arrived in Sivania and caught the thief as he was trying to get off the boat and we got our things back. The thief ran off though and Kai led us to Sivania to the palace, which I though sounded reasonable and I figured I should tell Alexei and Padma hi while I was there," she said.   Fenneck nodded understandingly. "I assume they sorted out all this misunderstanding about Zeitdrache?" he asked. Natalya gave him a frown. "Well, no," she told him worriedly. "We made it to the palace and we were met with a bunch of guards who led us down, eerily quiet and empty halls down into a room with a judge in it. They closed the doors and surrounded us with guards and that's when they decreed that we had killed the king and they showed us what happened in a sightstone."   Fenneck looked concerned. "So... Alexei and Rajyet weren't there? Where were they?" he asked, worried about his friends. Natalya shrugged. "I don't know. We never figured that one out. I wasn't sure what to do and they sentenced us to death and then some of the others started to fight and next thing I knew we were in the desert because Kai teleported us out of there. Nerlureel and I accused them of fowl play and that's when Kai and Tebi told us who Tebi was and that they didn't know what was going on."   "We ended up wondering around in the desert for a while before we passed out from exhaustion and that's when Ukris found us. He told us that something weird was happening with the dragons and asked us to get a candle from Sethrekar's lair for his girlfriend who I think was a bronze dragon? I'm not sure, we never met her." Fenneck's face was full of frustration and confusion as she relayed their crazy story.   "So you went to Sethrekar, the very dangerous, very deadly blue dragon's lair?" Fenneck asked her disapprovingly. Natalya raised her brow at him and glanced around the lair they were in, prompting Fenneck to nod. "Fair enough," he said, realizing he'd never be able to live this down. "Oh trust me," she assured him. "You're going to get grilled for your stupid decision to come out here alone to a white dragon's lair!" she scolded him. He nodded. "I know," he said sincerely. "I messed up, Nat. I walked into a trap. I was foolish and I put a lot of lives in danger because of it," he said, rather sadly and resolute in his foolishness. Natalya sighed. She couldn't stay mad at him. He'd been punished enough by the Mage of Shadow.   She leaned forward and kissed him and he kissed her back, managing to lift a hand behind her head to pull her into his embrace. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said. "I know you did what you thought was the right thing. I know you were trying to protect Niko and Flottenheim." Fenneck gave her a soft smile. "How is Niko? How is everyone? I assume you got my letter and everything was fine when you got there?" Natalya thought for a moment. "Well. He was still having nightmares when we left. Long story, very short, we made it through Sivania, Gladeon and Brindellis trying to get back to here. We had to break Kai and Tebi out of prison in Sivania because they wanted to throw us all into the arena to fight to the death. We managed to escape though. Gladeon was mostly fine. We met the swamp elves and we explored the black dragon's lair while we were there. Then we made it to Brindellis which had been captured by the thieves guild."   Fenneck shook his head. "What do mean captured?" he asked. She shrugged. "They were taken in a coup by the thieves guild that was somehow orchestrated by this same lunatic. We were able to save Mr. D and southern Brindellis but the north was too far gone for our little group to help. We don't know if Duke Gillahad survived or not," she explained quickly. Fenneck had a grave look of concern on his face, but let her continue.   "Then we took the long way around to a ferry that would take us to Glitterfjell across the Brind river. That's when we met the Mage of Shadow for the first time." She looked around in fear as if saying his name might make him appear again. Fenneck took her hand and gently rubbed it comfortingly. "He threatened us and told us that Nerlureel and I should feel guilty for letting so many people die in Arrallath," she told him in confusion. "That we didn't save everyone in this town that was burning."   She shook her head, still unable to decide what to make of that. "He then threatened me about Flottenheim and some plan he had. That was also when he told us he planned on resurrecting his dead... partner? His boyfriend I guess, but I don't know how he died," she said. Fenneck chuckled. "I can relate but I never would have thought to resurrect Tiamat in order to get Erikur back," he said, poorly attempting a joke. "It's bloody genius," he said sarcastically.   Natalya scoffed at him. "I don't know how he convinced himself this was a foolproof plan. I was angry and I tried to shoot him but he vanished into thin air. Then we fought a red dragon and then met the ferryman. Then we headed into Glitterfjell." "You fought a red dragon and you didn't die?!" Fenneck asked in disbelief. Natalya shrugged as if it were no big deal. "Yeah," she said casually. "Well, Tarin almost got himself killed but we managed to scare the dragon off." Fenneck gave her a look, clearly finding this impressive.   She rolled her eyes at him and took a deep breath, remembering her fear as they entered their home in the storm. "When we got to Glitterfjell it was pouring rain and we got to the first check point and I ran up and said who I was and that I needed into the city, urgently. The guard looked worried when he saw me and... I realized that you and Baegla had put out orders for my arrest."   Fenneck sighed, clearly out of frustration and guilt. "I never wanted to arrest you, dear," he tried to assure her. She nodded. "I know, Fen. It's okay. I assumed that would happen when we arrived. They let us through and we ended up fighting a bunch of hellhounds and at the next checkpoint one of the guards let us stay in the stables. He tried to hide us though," she said sadly. Fenneck gave her a pained look as she continued. "I tried to get him to arrest us but he wouldn't. He said he believed I was innocent and it was becoming a big political divide among the people. At the next checkpoint, it was nightfall, I ran up again and this time a guard opened the door, who was clearly intoxicated but that's a whole other thing we can talk about later. They finally arrested us and threw us in a prison carriage and carted us up to the palace."   "On the Skyway next to the palace was a Storm Giant who told us to find his kin before disappearing and clearing the skies of the storm. Killion was there we stopped but... he wouldn't look at me," she sniffled sadly, remembering Killion's coldness. "We were brought in to Baegla and she read our minds and decided we were innocent," she said with relief. "She told us that you had left once Niko started having nightmares, not long after I had gone to Arrallath and we decided to go find you and figure out what was going on in this temple. Niko's dreams had gotten so bad that he was projecting them to Baegla at night. They said he was seeing a white and a black dragon now and that at first it had only been one."   She hesitated, knowing her next words would definitely make Fenneck upset. "Killion was acting really weird, Fen. He wasn't himself. Even Lenni and Niko pulled me aside about it. I warned Baegla that the Mage of Shadow was able to brain wash people, we had seen him do it in Brindellis, and that she should keep an eye on him." Fenneck's face grew somber. "How long ago was this?" he asked her. Natalya thought for a moment. "Three to four days ago? It's hard to tell how long we were in the blizzard though," she told him.   She suddenly remembered Dimitri and swallowed, wondering how Fenneck would feel about him being in Flottenheim. She hoped Chad and Fjord were able to get him there safely. "There's something else, Fenneck," she said slowly. Fenneck gave her a quizzical look. "When we got to our cave," she explained. "- on our way to find you... Dimitri was there." Fenneck's eyes widened. "What?" he asked becoming extremely concerned. "Milosh was sent to kill him," she explained. "He was stabbed in the gut and he somehow managed to escape and climb through the mountains and make it there where we found him. I tried to heal him but the... the weapon that Milosh used was cursed somehow so he couldn't be healed with magic. Chad and Fjord arrived and they took him back to Flottenheim. I don't know if he's okay, but I told Chad and Fjord to stay in Flottenheim and to tell Anastasia and Casper to do the same. It's over, Fenneck," she said sadly. "No more refugees."   Fenneck pondered all of this for a while, holding Natalya comfortingly. "We need to get to Flottenheim," he finally said, sounding determined. "Did Dimitri tell you why Milosh was sent to kill him?" he asked her, sitting up and pushing through his exhausted state. Natalya sat up with him. "He made it seem as though he had expended his use to the KAV. It didn't seem like Pufuktin knew anything about the refugees but I..."   She stopped and put a hand to her forehead in distress. "I'm such an idiot," she said. "What?" Fenneck asked her. She shook her head. "I didn't check to see if he was followed. He was covered in blood, Fenneck. He left a direct path to the cave from Lenisily. It could have been a trap." She shook her head at her carelessness. "I was so focused on finding you I... Dimitri was also concerned that you were missing. He was very persistent that I should find you. He... he wasn't being up front with me. There's no way Milosh let him get away without spilling something or tracking him down to find me." Fenneck shook his head.   "Natalya, they've been assuming you've been in Flottenheim for the last couple years," he pointed out. "Why would they risk letting a senior KAV soldier escape into Glitterfjell to find you? They know where you are." She shook her head. "That means they know I'm not in Flottenheim most of the time, Fenneck. It means they know I'm in the mountains, alone, they just don't know where."   Fenneck took a deep breath. "Look, no doubt Pufuktin is trying something. We also have this mess to deal with, though. We're too vulnerable with Thymryu in the shit show it's in right now. This lunatic wants to raise Tiamat from the dead and cause the different fiefdoms to break apart from Thymryu," he explained. Natalya looked up in understanding. "He does?" she asked him. "So that explains Killion's behavior. He's been spreading rumors and trying to persuade Baegla to pull Glitterfjell from Thymryu. I was worried it was your idea at first but... if that's this guy's plan then..." Fenneck bit his lip in thought.   "What the hell happened to you?" Natalya finally asked him. "What's really going on here?" Fenneck took his turn to tell his story. "Well, I arrived here and was instantly captured," he said, raising his brow in annoyance with himself. "I was attacked in the blizzard but I didn't see what happened. I'm not really sure what I expected," he said, giving Natalya a guilty smile. "I think at first they planned on killing me and they threw me into this library with a frost salamander. He was also a captive I think and-" Natalya cut him off. "Yeah we found him and released him, he left right before we came down to find you." Fenneck smiled. "Well good. He was quite nice, actually," he said thoughtfully.   "So after a couple weeks," he continued, "they decided I was... 'strong willed' was how they put it, enough to help them raise Tiamat," he explained. "Luckily, my language lessons with Killion came in handy and I was able to understand what they were saying in infernal in front of me without them realizing it. He did mention his dead lover, which, trust me, I get it, but like, don't destroy an entire country over it, you know?" he said, throwing his hands up in annoyance.   "He also said something about raising a bunch of people who had died in some incident that occurred in one of the fiefdoms. I wasn't sure what he was talking about but he seemed upset with the political system. He hated how the fiefdoms were too weak to hold off attacks and defenses on their own and that it was essentially the king's fault for not being able to respond fast enough to things," he said, shrugging as he continued. "Which I would agree with. It scares me sometimes to think about how long it would take Ringstadt to mobilize if we were ever attacked by Lenisily and I've had many long conversations with Baegla and Zeitdrache about this very issue," he said, taking a deep breath to focus on the matter at hand and not get distracted by his political beliefs.   "What baffled me, though, is that this man truly believes he is capable of pulling this off and everything turning out better in the end for it," he continued. "He truly believed the aboleth was helping him, which is just... I think they shared a similar goal but to think you have control over an aboleth must mean you have a serious egotistical disconnect or something," he said. Natalya huffed in agreeance. "Clearly," she said. Fenneck nodded.   "So they need a 'strong willed' person in each of the lairs to perform this ceremony of sorts to pull this off. I'm not sure if they've managed it yet in any of the others but they clearly came close here." Natalya remembered the hag in the black dragon's lair and the children. "In the black dragon temple in Gladeon, this... hag was capturing the swamp elf children for some sort of resurrection ceremony. They needed five for some reason but we were luckily able to save them all and escape. There's also been this weird suit of armor that's chased us out of all the other lairs. It caused the black dragon one to crumble and vanish into the ground." Fenneck shrugged. "I don't know if the kids were for the ritual, but I'm glad you've been able to stop them so far," he said admiringly.   He took her hands in his own and looked lovingly into her eyes. "I know these last few weeks have been extremely hard and terrifying for us both. I know it's not over, but I just want to say that I'm so honored to be your thiramin," he told her admiringly. "I love you so much and I love how good you are and how much you've risked for our country. I'm so glad you're my partner. My person. My - hopefully - wife," he told her lovingly. She smiled at him, grateful for thiramin and for once feeling certain of their connection to each other. "I love you too, Fenneck. I love how much you're willing to risk for your people and the ones you love. How much you're willing to risk for Niko..." she said thoughtfully.   "You know..." she said, giving Fenneck a soft smile. "I think one of the reasons I've been nervous about our marriage is the idea of having children. Being around Nerlureel and Tarin, though... I don't know... I'm starting to really like the idea of having kids," she said, looking lovingly into Fenneck's eyes. He smiled excitedly. "Me too. I so dearly want to experience it with you," he said, pulling her into his arms and holding her waist in his hands.   "You know, when elves are with child," he told her. "- the mother can communicate with her young elf before it's born, not unlike the connection you have with your little dragon," he said, tickling Kotsik's neck. Kotsik licked Fenneck's hand happily and Fenneck smiled and turned back to Natalya. "The mother picks a name and can decide with the child whether they like it or not before they're even born," he said, excited to talk about something more hopeful than the unsettling reality around them.   Natalya smiled at the idea. "You have any suggestions?" she asked him teasingly. He shook his head and nuzzled his nose against hers. "No! It's supposed to be a surprise for the father once the child is born!" he explained. Natalya cocked her head. "And what if you hate what I come up with?" she asked him. He smiled. "Impossible," he told her confidently as he pulled her into his lap, showing her just how excited he was to see her again after these long weeks away from each other.   He pulled her down into a kiss and he reached under her shirt. "Stop! There are people in here!" she quietly scolded him, motioning to their sleeping compatriots. He gave her his big puppy dog eyes. "I thought I was never going to see you again, Natalya," he begged her. "I don't know if I can wait much longer... not with the way things are," he said desperately.   She looked into his eyes and knew he was terrified of what awaited them in Flottenheim. This might be their last peaceful moment together. Natalya thought about all the times she had almost died over the last few weeks. They still had to make it back through these mountains, too.   "I have an idea," she said, peaking Fenneck's interest. She pulled her coil of rope out of her bag and closed her eyes and focused magic into it until it rose off the ground and dangled above them. Fenneck gave Natalya a quizzical look and she stood up and started climbing the rope, beckoning for Fenneck to follow her. After a few feet, she entered into what looked liked a weird circular room with no clear definitions of where the walls and ceiling were. The entire space looked like the beautiful animations above the tree during the Winter's Eve festival: as if they were standing in a beautiful night sky, suspended in the air. It was mostly blue and green with swirly stars and beautiful galaxies. The floor was sturdy even though it looked like she would fall into space as she cautiously stepped onto it. She walked around in awe and Fenneck climbed in behind her in shock. Natalya looked down to see the room below them in a little trap-door-esque hole in the ground and saw Kotsik and Leesa looking up at them confused. Natalya pulled the rope up, causing the entrance into their bubble to disappear.   Fenneck looked at her in shock. "How- how did you do this?" he asked her. Natalya shrugged. "Hanging out with a warlock has taught me a few things I guess," she shrugged. "WARLOCK?!" Fenneck exclaimed. Natalya giggled. "No no! Not like a real warlock! Tarin! His patron is some cool devil that is good now or something. It's Henryk's patron, too," she explained, walking into his arms and caressing his back. He relaxed and smiled at her. "How long will this last?" he asked. She shrugged. "An hour? Not really sure. We don't really have much time anyway before they all wake up and wonder where the fuck we went," she said giggling.   Fenneck excitedly pulled her tight against him, allowing his hands to caress her body. "Are you sure you don't want to wait a few more months?" Natalya asked him. "I mean, we only have an hour and you've made it very clear that you like to take your time with things," she teased him. Fenneck started kissing her neck passionately as she spoke. "Not to mention the fact that you're still in awful shape and clearly need rest-" She suddenly gasped as his hand caressed her groin. "Fenneck! You've waited thirty years for this to be perfect!" she exclaimed, pulling away so he would look at her. He giggled.   "It is perfect, Natalya," he said, with more composure and peace than she'd seen him with in the entire thirty years she'd known him. "You're perfect. This is perfect. I want to do this," he told her confidently. "I regret with every fiber of my being not being with Erikur when I had the chance. I'm not going to risk missing this again. We might not make it back to Flottenheim, Nat. I have to be with you. Besides, you really think I can last longer than an hour after waiting thirty years to make love to you?" he told her jokingly.   She gave him a sad look. "I saved you," she argued woefully. "We can make it through this-" He stopped her with his hand. "I don't know that, Natalya," he said sadly. "I have taken way too much in my life for granted. If you really want to wait, we can. But... it's just sex. I thought we established long ago I was being a bit ridiculous about the concept?" he asked her. She shook her head sadly. "If this was just sex then we wouldn't have waited this long for it, Fenneck."   His shoulders collapsed and he looked down in distress. "I'm scared, Nat!" he finally exclaimed. "I'm scared to go home! What if Pufuktin is there surrounded by the bodies of everyone we love? What if this Mage of Shadow succeeds and wrecks havoc on all of Thymryu by raising a dragon god from the dead?! What if we die before we make it home? What if we never make it to our wedding day?!" He looked up at her with a sad desperation in his eyes and Natalya felt her heart break for him. He had been through so much in this life, so much pain and heartbreak, so much grief, so much regret.   "Fenneck, I want to believe we're going to make it through this," she said sadly. Fenneck started crying softly and Natalya pulled him into her arms and helped him sit down on the ground. He was shaking and clearly still weak from whatever weird magical effect he'd been under the last few days. "Fenneck," she said softly, caressing his pretty white locks as he cried into her chest. "We're going to be okay. We're going to make it to our wedding day. I promise," she told him, hoping some part of her believed it. "We're going to live such wonderful long lives together in Flottenheim. We'll have babies together and a big wonderful family," she promised him, kissing his head gently.   "But we have to fight for it," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe there's a silver lining in all this. Pufuktin, Lenisily, Arrallath, Thymryu and so many other things have cast dark shadows over our lives for the last thirty years. Maybe this is our chance to rid our lives of those shadows forever?" she suggested. "Before we start our marriage together. Before we reach our happily ever after," she said a bit teasingly. He sniffled and offered her a soft smile. "You're right," he conceded, nodding softly. Natalya smiled.   "I love you so much, Fenneck," she told him as she looked deep into his bright green eyes. "I want us to do this right. I mean, if we fucked right now and ruined our thirty year streak together for a half-hour in a creepy dungeon because we're afraid we might die, I would be pretty pissed you held out on me all these years because of some sacred vow we threw out the window because things got tough. Our lives have been nothing but tough, Fen. I feel like it's been preparing us for this moment. Yes, Pufuktin might see this as a window to attack, but we can see this as a window to rid our lives of him forever. We can save Thymryu and defeat this mage of shadow person," she said confidently. "We almost had him, Fenneck! He ran away. We won this one. We're close, Fenneck."   He gave her a small nod and she pulled him into a kiss. "Doesn't mean we can't do other things together," she told him sensually. "This thing still has some time left and they're all sleeping anyway." Fenneck smiled and kissed her back as he laid back on the ground. Natalya climbed on top of him and kissed his neck gently for a moment.   He looked really tired and she gave him a comforting smile. "Are you okay, Fen?" she asked him, concerned about his state. He nodded. "I'm sorry," he told her sadly. "Whatever he did to me just... drained me. Maybe it's a good thing we decided not to fuck yet," he chuckled weakly. Natalya smiled lovingly at him. "I'm sure you can handle some things," she teased him as she let her hands tease his groin. He smiled up at her. "I love you, Natalya," he told her. She smiled mischievously. "You'll love me a lot more after this," she teased him as she pulled his pants down and wrapped her lips around him for the first time causing him to moan in excited pleasure. "Oh Natalya," he gasped. "Oh my gods!"   After a while, Natalya was crouched over his face as they pleasured each other together and she realized the spell was about to wear off. "Fenneck!" she exclaimed. "What?" he said, reluctantly pulling away from her. They were both naked and Natalya quickly jumped off of him and started to get dressed as the roof of the dimension started to dissipate. Natalya slipped her pants on and had her shirt over her head and Fenneck grabbed his pants and managed to get them around his ankles by the time the floor disappeared underneath them and they fell into the room with a loud thump.   "Owwwww!" Fenneck complained painfully as his bare butt slammed into the hard ice. Natalya had managed to catch herself a little but still stumbled. Luckily, Leesa had settled by the fireplace and had managed to avoid being crushed by Fenneck's butt. Kotsik flew excitedly to Natalya, clearly concerned that they had disappeared. Tarin, Nerlureel and Fargrum woke up from the ruckus and saw Natalya as she quickly pulled her shirt down and Fenneck who had given up on his pants and was rubbing his sore buttocks.   "Where the hell were you?!" Nerlureel asked in fear and confusion, seeing them drop down from the ceiling. "Uhhh... an extradimensional space, I think..." Natalya told him. "Hello! Sorry about that!" Fenneck apologized, cheerfully as he pulled up his trousers. "I uh... Thank you... for saving my life," he told them. Nerlureel raised his brow at Natalya and smirked at her before turning to Fenneck. "No problem," he told her fiancé. "You two really missed each other huh?" he asked them. Fenneck smiled proudly and Natalya rubbed her face in embarrassment. "Well," Fenneck said, "when you come this close to death you learn to take advantage of of the time you have with your loved ones." He smiled at Natalya lovingly. "Yeah," Nerlureel agreed, looking off into space. "I miss Henryk too," he said longingly. Fenneck nodded understandingly as he pushed himself to his feet. "I'm sure you do," he said. "I can't thank you enough for sacrificing your time and risking your lives to help find me and to protect Natalya these last couple weeks," he told them as he started getting dressed. "Of course, but normally she's the one saving our asses," Nerlureel told him. Fenneck smiled proudly at Natalya. "She's pretty damn good at that," he said, gesturing to himself as evidence. Leesa ran up to him and started gekkering to him. "Shhh! hush!" he told her as he started petting her head. "I was right here the whole time," he assured her. Kotsik also seemed frazzled and was sniffing and climbing all over Natalya to make sure she was okay. She scratched his head and managed to get him to settle on her shoulder so she could start getting ready.   Everyone got up and got ready to head back out into the tundra. When Natalya was ready she met Fenneck's eyes and he walked over to her and pulled her into a passionate kiss, staying true to his character and not caring about the watchful eyes of their companions. Natalya leaned into him, allowing her heart to enjoy the wonderful closeness she felt with him. "Ready to get the hell out of here?" Natalya asked him. Fenneck smiled sweetly at her and nodded as he caressed a loose lock of her hair from her face. "Let's go home," he told her.   Nerlureel led the way up the dark staircase and opened the door to the wide expanse of tundra before them. The blizzard was gone now and all they could see around them were large snow mounds and the mountains in the distance. The skies were clear and Natalya saw Fenneck sigh with relieve at seeing the sky again. The door to the liar rumbled and disappeared back into the ground. "Well," Natalya said. "No turning back now." Fenneck closed his eyes and focused for a moment before waving a hand in front of him. Natalya watched beautiful colorful swirls of magic appear before them and constitute themselves in the form of six reindeer, each a different color of the rainbow. "Figured we could use a lift," he told them as he gracefully swung himself onto the back of the blue one. Natalya claimed the green one, Tarin the purple, Nerlureel the red, Almyr the orange and Fargrum the yellow.   They took off across the snow and after a couple hours they came across a large black disk on the ground, maybe thirty-feet in diameter. Above it was a purple haze. Fenneck gave Natalya a cautious look as he approached the edge of the disk. "It's a portal of some kind," he told the group as they approached. "Well, should we check it out?" Tarin asked them quizzically. Fenneck glanced around the group before shaking his head at Natalya and turning his reindeer away. Natalya nudged her deer to follow him.   As they turned they heard a low rumble across the ground. "Tarin?!" Natalya whipped her head around and stopped in surprise seeing Tarin right next to her, having decided to follow her and Fenneck and looking at her innocently. Natalya turned her reindeer and saw the portal starting to shrink. "Thank god!" Tarin muttered with relief. But as the portal narrowed they saw giant white claws appear on the edge and push the portal back open. "Oh shit!" Nerlureel exclaimed in fear as a huge ancient white dragon rose out of the ground in front of them.   The dragon towered above them and let out a piercing roar through the skies. Natalya quickly drew her bow and watched a couple of Fenneck's arrows fly up toward the monster. She nudged her reindeer to move forward to get to the other side of it, hoping to get a better aim at it's face. She loosed an arrow and managed to hit it in the nose, causing it to snarl. She saw the dragon flap out it's humongous winds that were larger than the sails of a ship and send a gust of wind at her companions sending them all flying off their respective reindeers and falling to the ground. "Fenneck!" she exclaimed in fear seeing him stumble to the ground. The dragon let out another roar and slammed himself to the ground and bit Nerlureel in the shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain.   Natalya notched another arrow and Kotsik clawed at her shoulder anxiously. "You can help," she told the little dragon. "Go ahead. Just be careful!" she told him as she loosed another arrow at the back of the dragon's head. "Woah!" she exclaimed as the reindeer underneath her disappeared and she caught herself before falling into the snow. She looked up as she heard the scree of two magical giant eagles Fenneck had summoned soaring toward them from the skies.   Kotsik was flying around carefully and darted up toward the dragon and managed to sneak up behind the creature's back before swinging his tail and poking the dragon with his stinger on the soft part of the base of his wings. The dragon roared in searing pain and Kotsik darted frantically back to Natalya. The huge dragon stumbled a bit before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.   Natalya ran back toward Fenneck and the rest of the group. "What the hell happened?!" Fenneck asked her in shock. "Kotsik poisoned him!" she explained. "We don't have much time, let's finish him!" she told the group. "Kotsik did this?!" Nerlureel asked as he clutched at his shoulder. "Size can be very deceiving," Fenneck mused thoughtfully. "I'm sure you all met Baegla," he pointed out. "Try to hit weak points, this guy might wake up as soon as we hit it," Natalya warned them. They all stabbed their weapons into the beasts flank, sending deadly blows against it until it opened it's cold, icy blue eyes and reared up as it roared in pain. It let out a load piercing roar through the skies before collapsing and disappearing into a pile of snow.   Fenneck ran and grabbed Natalya into his arms and pulled her into a fierce embrace. "Are you okay?!" he asked her worriedly. She nodded, motioning to her unscathed body. "I'm fine! Are you okay?!" she asked him. He smiled and nodded and she saw his gold swirls of magic encompassed them. Kotsik landed on Natalya's shoulder and puffed his chest out proudly. Fenneck smiled at him and scratched his head. "You're the coolest little fellow, aren't you?!" he told him proudly. Kotsik nodded cockily and Tarin ran up and held out a fist for the little dragon to bump. Kotsik did happily and flew around their group, gushing with pride for his amazing attack. "He's the best," Natalya said proudly as he landed back on her shoulder and nuzzled against her neck. "We'll make sure to give him a whole pool full of ball bearings and his very own cot to sleep in once we get back to our tower," Fenneck declared proudly, already falling madly in love with Natalya's little companion. "Not that we wouldn't have anyway," he assured Kotsik as he tickled his neck.   Fenneck looked down at the pile of snow before them and studied it thoughtfully. "I guess Niko can sleep soundly now," he mused. Natalya leaned against him and he wrapped an arm around her. "Thank you," he told her. "I was foolish to try and do this by myself." She leaned against him affectionately. "I shouldn't have left either," she said remorsefully. "We work better when we're together." He kissed her head lovingly. "There is a reason we're soulmates after all," he told her affectionately. She smiled up at him. "Well, we've survived this far. Let's keep going. Flottenheim needs us."   They continued across the tundra and finally reached the mountains by nightfall. Fenneck helped Natalya build their tent and they curled up inside together with Kotsik and Leesa, wrapped underneath their blankets to keep warm. "Goodnight, my love," Fenneck told her as they curled into each others arms to meditate. "Goodnight, Fen," she told him happily as she closed her eyes, happy to be spending another night in their mountains together after so long.