XIV. Memories of Ssaull

"Damn, damn, damn! Please don't die Ssaull" Alexandra yells placing Ssaull gently on the floor of the store.

She looked desperate and quite scared, she was clumsily taking all the objects and medicines that were used to help save the dying dragon. She was nervous, the art of healing was not her strong point, she always hurt or intoxicated her instructors because of how little she understood the techniques to save lives.

She placed everything on the ground without any specific order, she released a small prayer hoping that her ancestors would listen to her and she will offer her good fortune to save the life of that dragon; remembering as best she could all that she had learned about medicine and how to treat the worst wounds, she Alexandra sets out to save Ssaull's life or rather to try. Time seemed to stop, despite being unconscious, Ssaull was somehow aware of what was happening around him, he could hear the cries of a female, it was someone worried and sad and he did not understand why his head did not he was focused and seemed to forget the world around him.

The old memory is triggered in response to that cry the human was emitting for her injured partner, taking Ssaull back to a moment in the past that resides in his dying memory.

"Ssaullyy!" shouted a dark-skinned girl running happily upon seeing her best friend.

"Hello, snack" Ssaull hugs happy to see her friend. "It is always a fortune to see you, Rebecca, of all the humans in this place, you are the only one who comes to talk to me and the only one I want to talk to" he expressed with pride.

"The same I say my terrifying friend," she adds some strength to her embrace to show more her affection, shortly after she separates "and tell me little dragon, did you have an important mission of life or death as a Greater Dragon?" the human asks brightly in the eyes.

Ssaull smiles, already used to that same question as always, it is true that he was a formidable warrior, and his Greater Dragon missions used to be more important than other guilds or warriors, however, he did not always have high-risk missions and he already He had told of all the awesome missions he had in the past. Even so, the blue dragon made up stories and false missions to please her and give her a good story with a great ending; Ssaull and Rebecca took time to talk like they always did, the way she felt comfortable with his presence and how happy she was to have him as a friend made the dragon appreciate every moment he could have to see his best friend.

Even the dragon had gone to the trouble of learning the human's language; Since humans began to appear in the lands of the dragons, only a group of them have learned to speak Dragonica to establish communication with the dragons that had helped them so much since their arrival, instead, Ssaull seemed more interested in learning more about your friend's language as a token of appreciation for your friendship with her.

Visits to the human camp were not very frequent for Ssaull, he had things to do, important responsibilities that he could not put aside, and missions to answer; even so, he always managed once a month, during the holidays that celebrate the arrival of the full moon. During these parties, their ancestors were honored, especially honoring Desthy, the mother of all ancestors and who was born during a full moon night according to the legends, during these parties everything was more peaceful and calm for which he perfectly went to the human camp to see her friend and was leaving the next day.

Rebecca always waited for him every day that the arrival of the full moon was confirmed, and as always Ssaull came to be able to spend those days with her, learning about each other's culture.

"Hello my good friend" he cordially greets his human friend who did not seem to be as cheerful as always in his other visits "and that face Miss Rebecca?" is placed close to her to see her better.

"It's okay Ssaull it's just that, it doesn't matter" she covers her face with her knees releasing some sobs.

Ssaull felt a bit disgusted to see her cry, be they humans or dragons, the simple act of letting tears of pain only annoyed him, he hated that pathetic state in living beings; only when it came to be his first and only true friend, the dragon tried to be as empathetic as he could be even though he didn't know how to be.

The dragon approaches his hand and slaps her with some doubt on the back of her, he felt strange with himself for collaborating with this kind of attitude so little useless for the life of every living being as he thought.

"Rebecca this uh, do you want to talk?"

It felt more and more strange Ssaull, each warrior in the group of this dragon who showed this type of behavior himself was in charge of correcting it with hard physical training so that they would feel the true pain and everyone understood that if they had to cry, he could only do it if someone was killing you. But Rebecca was not those dragons, she was always a good person to him, she never discriminated against him as other dragons or humans did, her appearance of bones always gave her race a bad name and not even skeletal dragons gave themselves enough comfort anymore that most applied the survival of the fittest or fittest. That is why Ssaull learned to be strong and avoid those pathetic and weak emotions, only when it came to Rebecca, Ssaull could not treat her like others when they showed weakness, but the blue dragon felt that if he did not reach anything with the sample of empathy he gave, he was going to be very upset.

The human wipes the tears and mucus that she had on her face making Ssaull uncomfortable to see her like this.

"Sorry for worrying you friend, it's just been a year since I got here and I begin to believe that I will never return to my home with my family or my friends; I will never see my old life again"

The latter said with much pain and sadness, the dragon understood her pain of not being able to return to her home with her family, however, he thought that Rebecca should be more grateful for at least living with other humans while the matter of come home to many of them.

Ssaull only did what he had witnessed many times in this type of situation, he took the human and hugged her the best she could to convey comfort and calm; he felt that if she said something, he would say something cruel or unfit for the feelings of the only friend he had. Rebecca reciprocates the embrace of the dragon and was grateful to have him as a best friend, despite being an eighteen-year-old girl, the adults who had remained in these lands like her did not let her be free, she understood that going beyond the camp in a Strange and dangerous land with dragons was unsettling for many and dangerous, but she wanted to feel that she was in control of her life again and not feel held back by the fear or insecurity of tomorrow.

"I promise to take you home to see your world and old life again" was all Ssaull said hoping they were the right words.

"Thank you very much Ssaully, you are the best dragon friend I could ask for." Her words were a valuable gift to Ssaull and he did not know how he would do it but he would fulfill that promise at all costs for Rebecca's sake.

The dragon heard that nickname that Rebecca had given him so many times that it seemed that it became an echo in the environment, he did not know when but the nickname suddenly changed to his name and with a voice completely alien to Rebecca's, becoming more repeated and stronger for him.

"Uhmm" feels like his eyelids are strangely heavy and difficult to open.

"Please Ssaull you have to continue living, you cannot die like that. I beg you, ancestors, that the skeletal dragon Ssaull can live longer, I implore you that this is not his final destination" Ssaull manages to open his eyes a little, observing how his friend She was with him again, inside his mobile tent, but he did not remember her praying to the dragon ancestors once since he met her. "Ssaull if you survive I promise to be a better travel companion and I will try to better protect you and your tent, but please survive."

Ssaull saw her friend, but she did not sound like her, he hoped that her vision adjusted better to the light and focused better on her image; his friend Rebecca had disappeared revealing that the girl worried about him was Alexandra, the human with whom he set out from Rulliam to Shairum.

"You are not Rebecca and we are not in the central human camp," said the dragon trying to get up but a great pain made it impossible for him "Damn my body feels like a thousand blades stabbing me!" he cursed when he felt that intense pain.

"Ssaull!" The human smiles with tears in her eyes feeling grateful to see the dragon still alive. "I thought I had lost you when your heart stopped beating" she commented wiping her tears.

The dragon pales a little when hearing about his heart, it was a miracle that he is still alive if that was the case. When his pulse eased a bit, he made a great effort to remember everything that had happened in his life leading him to this point.

"Shit Reblellion almost killed me, but what an idiot I was Ssaull you are a Greater Dragon, and you almost got killed by a lot of useless, how humiliating" he made a face of disgust at remembering the bad taste in his mouth that his mistakes in combat generated.

"At least you're still alive Ssaull, that's the important thing" she mentions helping the dragon to be calm.

"Yes, that is true." she begins to inspect her bandages to evaluate the quality of these "This is not the correct way to bandage someone, much less to treat blood loss, I am surprised to continue living with this."

The human looks down feeling bad with his cruel comment, she tried to save his life, a simple thank you was all he could have said for his effort.

"Still you achieved the impossible and brought me to life, like this that I am greatly indebted to you, Alexandra, daughter of the great Magarai. "

She is surprised by what he said, seeing how he bows of thanks with the little mobility that Ssaull had. Alexandra sees how Ssaull was going to get up, but she intercepted him keeping him lying on the sofa.

"No Ssaull, you need to rest, you are still very weak and you will not bear much pain when moving".

"What could you know about my pain tolerance?" He watches as the human pulls out a small book with instructions for treating the wounds of a skeletal dragon.

"While I was looking for things to heal you, I was able to find this little guidebook of your kind" she opens a part where it shows information about their tolerance to pain, "you didn't tell me that you felt four times more pain than any of us, one simple cut with a knife would be normal for anyone, but for you, they would be something much more serious than usual; I had to read every detail to make sure not to make a mistake and cause even greater pain that would kill you" she clarifies placing the little book on the table in front of Ssaull.

The dragon has the old memory of when Rebecca wrote in her notebook everything she learned about Ssaull and her race, the blue dragon was always reserved with others, but with her, he felt free to talk and tell a lot about himself because she seemed to be the only one interested in meeting him and his people. She even wrote it in the dragon language so that in case a dragon saw Ssaull injured, it could help him without problems, a rather innocent idea on the part of the human, only that the dragon never said anything against it.

He closed his eyes and smiled at having had the book that his friend had created for her, but who knows what Alexandra would have done without the guidance of that book.

"Thank you Rebecca," he said to himself, but the human listens to him wanting to ask.

"That Rebecca, is she a friend of yours?" the dragon opens his eyes observing the human in front of him "I don't want to be intrusive with your past, but you said that name when you woke up telling you that I was not her, and now it seems that you are mentioning her again" she comments curious.

"Rebecca was my first human friend that I had and the only one that I considered my equal in the entire kingdom, not even with the other Great Dragons like Magarai or others they managed to have that effect on me"

Ssaull takes the book in one hand treasuring the creation of his closest friend.

"She was like you, a pretty cheerful and irritating girl at times, she was almost a terrible headache"

Alexandra smiles when listening to a human with a personality equal to her, perhaps they would have been good friends if they had met.

"If she's like me I bet we'd get along pretty well," she says cheerfully.

"She was the best person I could ever meet, I never judge or hate my appearance for no reason, she was the only one who wanted to meet me when others didn't. Rebecca just wanted to go home more than anything in the world, she wanted to see her family and go back to his old life. Only ... "The dragon presses the book with some force remembering that massacre," the damn fate had other plans for her and I could never fulfill my promise with her "

Alexandra places her hand on top of his hand and smiles at him in such a way that she managed to calm the fury that the dragon was beginning to feel at the terrible memory of the past. The human girl wouldn't ask, she knew that Magaria should be the one to tell her the truth, so for now, this human warrior would focus on taking care of the dragon for the duration of the trip.

There was a small explanation of the events about what happened before Ssaull fainted, Alexandra perfectly told him everything about the chain, what she called it, and when she touched the box, it only opened revealing what the human said was Known as The Colaza of the Moon. Ssaull asked how she knew the name, to which she replied that it was the same chain who told her at the time they made contact, but since then she has not heard her again, however, she seemed to be overflowing with a lot of mana and magical strength because Alexandra could use the chain to cast dragon spells more than once, using its mana instead of hers. She did not expect Ssaull to accept what she said as true, she expected an incredulous comment or some opinion contrary to what she said, but the dragon accepted each of the words as true.

At dawn, Alexandra smiles when she sees certain mountains that were familiar to her, it meant that there was only a short time left to reach Shairum. At last, her long journey was coming to an end for her and she would soon be able to return home to her mother, friend, and sub-captain of hers; she felt how this trip helped her better understand what it meant to be a true dragon warrior and how much she should continue to improve if she wanted to be a strong warrior and prevent her loved ones from being in further danger. They only had to wait for a few more kilometers before they both part and everyone lives the legend of her.