An Oath [ Part 2 ]

There was a moment of silence. Emre couldn't tell if they were shocked or simply looking for words, but he didn't move from his spot. Then he heard the faint sound of Ragan about to speak up.

"Yes." She spoke first, her voice serious. "Even if it puts my life at risk, he is my son. I want to save him."

Emre approved of her resolve. 'Then repeat after me.'

He started to cast Divine Oath. Emre couldn't see it but a few small transparent chain links began to float in front of the woman. He couldn't have people revealing his identity so in order to save this boy he needed some reassurances. He didn't think that he would use this spell so soon.

'I swear to Tirian,' He started. 'that I will not reveal the identity of the one who heals my son to anyone. If I do so, may my tongue be ripped from my mouth, my sight torn from my eyes, and my ears void of hearing.'

The woman repeated his words with her own mouth. Her voice shook but she went through with the oath. Once the oath was finished the chain links floated toward her and laid upon her arm. When the chain links touched her skin they disappeared and in turn, a faint golden chain tattoo wrapping around her upper forearm appeared.

'Tirian you truly gave me a powerful spell…' He thought to himself before he crawled out from the back of the couch.

He walked around to the end of the couch, revealing himself. The woman took in a small sharp inhale. She had long loosely braided brown hair and brown eyes. Her clothes looked like a normal hunter's outfit aside from the rips and tears from getting attacked. She looked shocked and confused but backed up when Emre pushed in front of them to look at the boy.

The kid had dark brown hair that was almost black. He had long bangs that stuck to his face due to the sweat. His skin was sickly pale, his lips were purple and his breaths were ragged. His left forearm and side had been torn into. Both of the injuries were oozing black blood. The darkness of the wounds had started to spread, dying the whole area around it black.

Taking in a small breath to cool his nerves, Emre lifted his hands toward the injury on his side first. A child's skin was more sensitive and easier to rip. This wound was even worse than the one Ragan had. Emre was genuinely surprised that he was not already dead. It was like a large chunk had been simply torn off.

His small white scaled hand touched the outer edges of it. Casting Healing Touch, the blackness that had spread along his skin immediately started to fade away and return to a pale pink. The wound itself stopped bleeding and the flesh started to come back together.

He cast Healing Touch twice more and the wound began to heal faster. The boy's breathing became more stable but he remained unconscious. With the wound healed enough, Emre switched to the still bleeding arm.

[ Healed a Human, gained 1400 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 3 stat points ]

He ignored the messages as he examined the arm. Looking at it, he could see the faint peek of white through his flesh. It was so torn open that he could see his bone. If Emre wasn't the one healing him, he would likely have lifelong issues with it. He had to cast Healing Touch another few times to heal his arm.

[ Healed a Human, gained 1200 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 3 stat points ]

Emre let out a sigh, noting the fact that both injuries gave him over 1000 experience. Which meant both were pretty life-threatening. It was truly amazing that he had managed to survive this long.

Casting one last Healing Touch on the boy's side, felt that he had exhausted his mana. The color returned to the kid's skin and although there were large scars left over, he was alive.

Finally done, Emre sat back on his hind legs and turned toward the two humans behind him. The woman was weeping and Ragan wasn't sure how to react to this situation so he was just awkwardly patting her shoulder.

'He will live… He just needs some rest now.' Emre stated, trying to hide the tiredness in his voice.

"T-thank you…" The woman sobbed out as she rubbed her eyes over and over. "Thank you so much."

Emre only nodded and stood up. He took a step and felt himself wobble. He stopped walking as his head throbbed in dizziness. What? How many times did he cast Healing Touch? Ah… it must have been because of the spar they just had.

"Emre?" Ragan spoke up, concern in his voice.

'I'm fine.' Emre responded, making it so only Ragan heard him.

Recovering his steps, he approached the woman. She had corruption injuries as well.

'Let me see your injuries.' Emre said, reaching his hand out.

She showed him her arms without question. One had a minor bite and two long scratches the other had a few scratches as well. He used Healing Touch on the bite and it felt like a brick hit him.

[ Healed a Human, gained 500 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 3 stat points ]

[ Healing Touch has leveled up ]

There were still wounds to heal even despite his mana running lower and lower with each cast. He moved his hand toward the scratches but the woman moved away and Ragan reached forward and grabbed his arm.

Emre looked up in surprise, seeing that they both had the same idea to make him stop.

"I'll get the rest with herbal treatment. It'll be fine since the rest are just scratches." Ragan stated as he let go of Emre's arm.

Emre found himself looking back up at the woman. She gave him a gentle smile and nodded her agreement with Ragan's words. It seemed he had pushed himself a little too far.

'Alright… I'm going to rest.' Emre said.

It hadn't been this bad yesterday, so why was he so exhausted right now? Was it because he hadn't slept? With a sigh, he slowly made his way to his room with a now pounding headache. Crawling up onto his bed, he closed his eyes and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

When he opened his eyes things weren't like normal. No, he was in the sky. It was dark, the stars and moon weren't shining as bright as usual. A sense of dread filled his chest for some reason as he tried to understand his surroundings. A dream?

He was in the sky, but his wings weren't flapping, he was just floating there. A forest stretched out around him. He was floating above one large clearing. It looked just a bit smaller than the clearing that Ragan's house was in.

Confusion filled his head but then he realized something about the clearing was off. There were things going through it. Squinting, he felt as if his heart stopped beating for a second. There was a group of creatures quickly traveling from one end to the other. They were big and smoke rose off of their pelts. They were corruptions.

He counted three large ones and at least ten smaller ones in the clearing but more were coming from the forest ahead. What was going on? Why was he here?

Blinking, he tried to move but realized he could not. Then the land around him began to warp. Like fading into mist the scene transferred into something different. It was still night but there was barely any moonlight. This time he was on the ground.

The grass was brown and dead, the trees were leafless and the branches rattled together when a slight breeze came through. In front of him spanned out barren wasteland with large spiked rocks and dying shrubbery. There was a single lake that was black and murky. It looked even worse than the Black Swamp.

Not far from where he was standing there was another corruption. It was alone and lapping at the water. What astonished Emre was the size of it. It was easily 7 feet tall with long legs and a robust body. If Emre had to compare it to an animal, it would resemble a massive tiger with long pointed horns atop its head.

It stopped drinking and jerked its head upward. Turning its head toward him, Emre felt like their eyes locked for that mere second. At that moment the scene faded again. He was floating in the air once more. He was above what he assumed to be the same, yet in the distance, he could see a light. It was a bright orange light, flickering strongly in the dark.

Unable to move, Emre could only squint toward it. It was a fire. A massive fire with black billowing smoke lifting into the air. A forest fire?

Emre wasn't able to look long before he blinked again. With a jerk of his body, he sat up. He was back in Ragan's house, laying in bed. The exhaustion was gone but it felt like only a minute or two had passed.

He quickly opened the window to see what time of day it was. The sky was slowly lightening as the sun came up. He could hear birds singing in the trees and the distant sound of a goat baying.

Yeah, he was awake.

His mind really wasn't getting a break, huh? What was all that supposed to be? A swarm of corruption, a barren land, a giant corruption, and a massive fire. Was that supposed to be a sign or was it simply a nightmare?

Emre knew the corruptions were increasing in numbers ever since Ragan had told him that they had been appearing in this area more often. Not only did a pack come through and attack Ragan, but it seemed a different group attacked the woman and her son as well. He knew this, but he didn't think it was bad enough for him to have a nightmare over it.

It had to be a sign or vision. Was Tirian trying to tell him that things with the corruptions were going to get worse? If that was so then he needed to find the ones lurking in the forest and get rid of them as soon as possible. He figured the pack that attacked the woman and her child were of the weaker type so he had to find them.

The problem was going to be finding and killing the one that Ragan had dealt with. It was strong enough to exhaust him, but he was also able to make it run away. That meant that if both Ragan and him took it on together, they were more likely to win.

Hopping off the bed, Emre headed into the next room. He stopped in his tracks as he noticed the kid was sitting up and actually staring directly at him with his bright blue eyes in shock. He must have been well enough to wake up this morning. The woman was half sitting, half laying on the couch looking well asleep while Ragan was sitting at the dining table with his head down, snoring.

Emre guessed that Ragan had decided to stay out here with them instead of going into his room. The problem was that the two adults were snoozing away so Emre was stuck being stared at by the child who only looked to be about ten or eleven.

He didn't exactly think he was the best at dealing with kids…

"What are you?" The kid asked with a hushed voice as if intending to not wake the two adults.

'I am a Faerie Dragon.' Emre answered simply as he continued walking into the room.

The kid stood up and sat down on the wooden floor to be eye level with Emre. Emre couldn't help but note the obvious scarring on his arm and side and silently wished he could've been able to make his skin heal without scarring.

"My name is Audr. What's yours?" The kid said with a smile.

'Emre.' He answered simply. 'How are you feeling?'

Audr glanced at the scarring with furrowed brows but still looked back to Emre with lightheartedness. "I'm okay."

'That's good.'

"Where are we?" Audr then asked, looking around the herb-filled main room.

'This is Ragan's house. He's the man over there.' Emre nodded toward Ragan who was still loudly snoring on the dining table.

"Oh! Are we still in the forest? Why are you here?"

'Ah, yes. We are still in the forest. I'm here because I live here with Ragan.'

"A dragon lives with a human? Shouldn't this be your house then? I thought dragons were supposed to be big and scary. You're small and pretty, not scary." Audr spoke quickly and Emre felt like he had whiplash from how fast his words flew out.

Emre tried his best to respond to his words. 'Yes, I live with a human. It was Ragan's house first so it wouldn't be fair for me to claim it as mine even if I'm a dragon. And thank you for saying I'm pretty, but I'd like to think I'm still big and scary at heart.' He explained. 'Just like how you're small too, but you're still big and strong enough to survive an attack from those scary black monsters.'

Audr grinned at his words. "Heck yeah, I did!" He said loudly only to cover his mouth and glance toward the sleeping adults. "Whoops." He whispered.

Audr's mother stirred and slowly sat up with a yawn. Looking to her side, she realized Audr wasn't laying next to her and just about jolted out of the seat only to notice that he was just sitting on the floor in front of Emre.

"Sorry Mom, I didn't mean to wake you up." Audr said apologetically as he stood up and ran over to hug her.

"It's okay! How are you feeling Audr? Any pain?" She asked as they hugged.

"Nope! I'm all okay!" He answered loudly which led to Ragan now lifting his head from the dining table.

The woman turned her head to Emre who was still sitting near the couch. "Thank you again, Mister Dragon." She spoke respectfully.

Emre shook his head and stood up. 'You can just call me Emre. I was just doing what I was meant to do.' He made it so that his voice transmitted to everyone.

"Even so, you risked yourself to do it…" She spoke quietly.

Was it because of how tired he'd been yesterday that she said this? Or was it because he made her make an oath before appearing?

'It's fine.' He answered with a shrug.

"Emre, were you the one who healed me?" Audr asked with astonishment as he leaned over the couch to look at Emre.

"Audr don't be disrespectful—" His mother quietly said.

'I was.' Emre nodded with a small chuckle.

"Wow! Can you like, heal anything?"

'I can heal people and animals.'

"My Dad said that healing magic is super rare!"

'It is.' Emre nodded. 'Because of that, Audr can you make a promise for me?'

"Depends, what's the promise?" Audr's voice became mischievous.

"Audr!" His mother quickly moved to scold him.

'Well, the promise is that you won't tell anyone about me.' Emre chuckled anyway, not minding.

"Huhh? Why?"

'Well, it's like you said. Healing magic is super rare which means that if you tell someone about me they might try and come capture or hurt me. So you can't tell anyone. Not even your closest and most trusted friends.'

Audr's eyes widened and then he nodded. "Okay, I promise!"

'Good!' Emre smiled.

He wouldn't make Audr do an oath. He just had to trust this kid's morality. If he knew it might hurt Emre, Emre didn't think he would try to tell anyone. His mother let out a small sigh and went to rub her temples.

Ragan at this point had stood up and been stretching. "Well! Now that that is over with. Who wants breakfast?"

Audr's eyes lit up and he turned toward Ragan. "Me!"

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want us to burden you…" Audr's mother spoke up.

"It's no burden, Mrs Anne." Ragan stated. "It's been a while since this house has been this lively. A big breakfast is natural for a good morning."

"Yeah!" Audr loudly agreed, flinging his arms up in the air.

"Alright, who wants to come to collect eggs?"

"Me! I do!" Audr quickly scrambled off the couch.

'I can come.' Emre also added.

"Well, I can't be left out now can I?" Audr's mother, Mrs Anne stated.

All four of them headed out to collect the eggs for their breakfast. Emre thought this felt peaceful. He wished that his family had been this lively in his past life.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how long this liveliness would last.