Jerrar had on the expression of disappointment, but it didn't last long as her cracked a smile and laughed quietly. "I'm not mad at all. I remember now. I forgot about the little story I heard about the spirit elder and the great mage. Now I remember you making a point of trying to find the time elder, after I told you of the story. As we were flying to my mountain, I remember knowing the purpose of this journey. I guess I just forgot." Jerrar kept a smile and bent his head over to feast on the meal Kiriei had brought.

Kiriei blinked, feeling something between relief and surprise. He'd figured out the reason all the way back then? Kiriei gave a slight laugh and a gentle smile appeared on her face. Had she made it that obvious? All the same, it was a relief knowing Jerrar wasn't mad at her for dragging him along on all of this. She felt her heart rate settle and dug into her meal.

"Let's get a good rest," she said. "Then we'll fly hard in the morning; all the way to the flaming islands."

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"Sounds like a good idea. Good night." Jerrar said, a slight smirk still on his face. How could he have forgotten? At least now he knows. He had finished off his meal and set his head down to rest, after laughing, he nearly forgot about his injured, but now the pain was back, like a rising tide increasing, decreasing and then increasing more than before, though slowly.

Jerrar hoped his wings would be alright in the morning, but that was a small issue compared to the one he faced now. How is going to sleep while being nearly overwhelmed in pain?

Somehow, Kiriei managed to fall asleep. After all she'd been through, her sleep schedule was practically nonexistent. She was supposed to be nocturnal: sleeping in the day and active at night. She'd managed to reverse that for the sake of blending in with the humans, but recently she'd been sleeping (respectively) both at night and in the day time. It probably didn't help that whenever she used her human form she would sleep directly after. It was hectic and sort of put her on edge. All the same, sometimes things like that needed to be done in order to accomplish something bigger. Kiriei had a sweet dream that night. It was hazy, but she remembered feeling warm, wet, and cozy at the same time; like taking a relaxing nap near (or in) a hot-spring. Ha! She was dreaming about sleeping!

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The morning sun peaked it's rays over the tips of the trees and filtered it's way to the two dragons. There was a bit of dew on the grass, and also on the two reptiles. Jerrar awoke, but didn't open his eyes. The pain which kept him up for the majority of the night was hardly noticeable now, though there was a weight on his side, he assumed it was the numbness of the now probable bruise where the drake rammed him.

He cracked opened one eye, letting it adjust to the light around him. Suddenly a scent wafted to his nostrils, a bitter, harsh scent that made his eyes water a bit. He lifted his head in alarm only to come face to face with a very scraggly looking human with terrible concern and fear in her eyes.

Jerrar was prepared to snap at her, but he resisted when he found her shaking in fear and harmless. He looked at her with his orange eyes, staring at her blankly. "Kiriei." He said in the dragon tongue. This was merely a low growl to the human and she stepped back a step.

As Kiriei heard her name called, she lazily peeked open one turquoise eye. When she noticed the human standing amongst them the other quickly opened and she lifted her head in surprise. The human woman jumped after seeing the movement, apparently she hadn't noticed the Night dragon cloaked rather well in the dim shade from the trees. The poor thing was shaking and... and she smelled very bad. Something sour that stung her nose and brought tears to her eyes. Kiriei quickly blinked the water away and turned to look and Jerrar. He looked about as uneasy and uncertain as she felt. "It looks harmless..." she said quietly, causing the woman's head to twist toward her in fear for a moment before looking back to the closer, bigger male dragon. "What's it doing here? Think she got lost?" The poor woman looked ready to faint by now, and her skin was turning a ghostly pale.

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Jerrar turned his head to reply to Kiriei but was interrupted by a nearly silent sob. To his surprise, the weight on his side was not the bruise where he had been injured, but instead a child, perhaps ten years of age, crying. "I don't think she's lost. Let me ask her." He said and carefully scooted the child off of his side and onto the cool moss. Even through his scales, he felt the intense heat of the child, and the smell which had watered his eyes was so strongly emanated from this child at such a degree he had to lift his head quickly so that he scared the human woman into collapsing and screaming.

There was soon a man and another woman by her side, frozen by the now conscious dragon staring at them. The man rook a risk and slowly moved towards the child, whose skin looked very flaky and scaly, he quickly picked up the teary-eyed child and took her away behind the fallen woman. Jerrar closed his eyes and changed into his human form, his cloak covering his face by default. He removed the hood and looked at the humans, he spoke calmly to them. "What is your purpose for venturing so close to a dragon?"

Obviously speechless by the transformation, the three humans simply gaped. Jerrar asked again, "Why have you come?" His voice was soft, and hopefully he would elicit a response from them.

The human man gulped, and opened his mouth to say something. However, it was the woman who was collapsed and shaking that spoke first. "Th-the children," she whimpered. "The children are sick."

Kiriei raised and eyebrow, or the dragon likeness of the action, but it seemed the woman would say no more, as she'd broken down sobbing. Kiriei glanced over at the child in another human's arms. She did look a little off. What kind of sickness was it? It certainly smelled bad, to say the least.

The Night dragon followed Jerrar's lead, she stood on all fours, closed her eyes, and transformed. When she opened her sapphire eyes again she was the human Kiriei: average-- at best-- height, a kind, pretty face, long, silky black hair tied up in pigtails, and attractive curves. The humans jumped again, this time surprised by Kiriei's transformation. "What kind of sickness is it?" she asked, directing her question to the man since the crying woman seemed spent.

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Jerrar approached the man with the child, holding his arms open to receive it. The man almost unwillingly gave it up. Jerrar took the child in his arms, and even in his human form the stench still lingered on the child, though dulled down quite a bit. He lifted the arm of the child to reveal many callus patches on the skin, they were flaky and looked much like tiny scales.

The man began to explain as Jerrar inspected the child. "They have a sickness called the Dragon's Curse." Jerrar looked at the man in surprise of the name of the illness, and gulped. "Their skin itches and starts to look like scales, and their throats burn like they have swallowed fire. It's supposed to be a fatal disease because only dragons are able to cure it, but there are hardly any dragons left." He spoke.

Jerrar nodded, though a bit insulted by the name. "Why are you wandering out in these woods with this child?" He asked, scratching his head through his fiery orange hair.

"Actually there is many more children with us," the man corrected,"and they are all sick. We were cast out of our village so protect those kids who had not yet caught the disease. We kept telling the children that we were taking them to dragons, but we never expected to find any. We were just supposed to let them die in the forest, and hopefully let the disease die with them."

The fallen woman recovered and was helped to stand by the other woman who spoke. "Will you please help us."

Jerrar looked at the young boy in his arms, his eyes were crusted with dried tears and he hardly breathed, presumably because it hurt him too much to try. Jerrar looked at Kiriei,"I don't know how we would help, I doubt my little bit of magic would do anything."

The adults looked discouraged at Jerrar's response, but they met eyes and came to a silent agreement. "You must at least come with us to the camp," the man insisted.

"I'm not sure..." Kiriei muttered, but the sight of the sick child still wrenched her heart.

"Oh please?" one woman begged. "Perhaps you can remember something that can help them."

"I hear dragon's milk has soothing properties," the other woman added in. "And I hear scales and horns can be ground into potion ingredients."

After hearing that, Kiri was ready to downright refuse them, but then she saw the desperate looks on their faces. A pink tinge crept onto her face and she crossed her arms and stubbornly gazed a tree. "...I'm not doing anything painful," she muttered, glancing at the humans out of the corner of her eyes. Tired smiles broke out onto their faces, and they turned, expectantly, to Jerrar.

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Jerrar thought for a moment and he turned to Kiriei, "Why not? Perhaps we can get some good rumors going if we really can help." He nodded to the humans and they began to walk towards the camp with Jerrar following, the child still in his arms.

The stench that the child emitted grew considerably and Jerrar knew they were close. They came to a small clearing in the woods, the one that Kiriei would recognize from the night before. Lying about the clearing were many young children, some under blankets, others laying in the shade. All of them were sobbing or crying, moaning or wheezing painfully. There was another man who was pouring water into the mouth of an older girl, she was in her teenage years, though she was skinny and pale and her blonde hair was a dirty mess. She was the only one of that age, the rest were toddlers and those under the age of 8.

There were perhaps twenty to twenty-five children there. Jerrarekoth looked at them all, thinking about how their parents just sent them off to die. He handed the child that was in his arms to the man that had escorted them there. He then walked around, looking at all the children. He returned to talk to Kiriei. "They all have the same thing. What should we do? I don't know anything about this type of disease. And as much as I want to help them, I don't want them to grind my scales to make a potion. "

Kiriei frowned helplessly at Jerrar. She wasn't so thrilled about some of the "cures" the humans suggested either. A child nearby them coughed then muttered something in a hoarse voice. "I'm so thirsty," it said. A woman who also heard this sighed and explained to them. "They all say they're thirsty, but they won't drink anything we give them."

Kiri looked over to the one teenage girl and saw that even she was just letting the water given to her roll out of her mouth. "Dehydration and starvation, those are usually the ultimate causes of death. Please, is there something you can do to help?"

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Jerrar stood stumped for a moment. "Didn't one of them mention milk?" He asked. Jerrar's eyes drifted downward from Kiriei's face as he mentioned 'milk'. "Why don't we give it a try?" He suggested to her.

He had been speaking to Kiriei only, quiet enough that the hopeful adults could not hear though no doubt they were straining to. The longer he remained there, the more he was motivated to find a cure for this. I might have been a sense of repayment for what certain humans did for him so long ago. Or perhaps he did care for humans. He himself did not know his reasons, but he intended to help the suffering humans.

Milk? Kiriei pondered, before she caught Jerrar's eyes and caught his meaning. Upon this realization, a heavy blush crossed her face and she lifted her arms protectively. "B-but that's..! I.. I've never done anything like that before! I-I don't know if I even can.. I mean... how-- er..." she fizzled out there, completely flustered. If she'd been a fire dragon there might have been smoke puffing out of her ears at the sheer exasperation of the request.

Her tone was a bit louder than Jerrar's and one of the nearby women caught on. "Oh, please Miss Dragon. Please try--for the children."

"I... I..." she looked to Jerrar for support. If not on her side, than at least some moral support for what she was probably about to do.

The woman dragged Kiriei (with Jerrar not far behind) to a slightly more secluded area, and handed her one of the smaller children. The girl tried not to recoil at the stench of the infant's illness as it was set in her arms. Feeling helpless, the female dragon gave in. She set the baby in her lap as she undid the top buttons of her shirt. All she could hope then was that nature would take its course.

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Jerrar caught himself staring and he quickly spun around. He looked to the woman. "Er...If this works, I believe my companion will be needing some water and food, else she won't. . .have enough for all those children."

The lady nodded. "I'll go get some right away."

Before she could leave to retrieve them Jerrar put a hand on her shoulder. "Let me. Where might I find some?"

"O-oh. Um, ask my husband, his name is Gerald. He'll know where we keep them." She said.

Jerrar nodded and left them, feeling rather awkward and slightly aroused. His mind drifted back to the sea-side town they had been in before they crossed the desert. The intimate scene flashed in his mind and he was glad that Kiri hadn't been around because he was blushing of embarrassment. He made it to the camp and asked for Gerald.

"Pleased to meet you, Dragon. What can I do for you?" He asked, he seemed to be prepared to do anything.

"Just call me Jerrar please. And may I ask where you keep the water?" Jerrar felt his stomach began to become a bit queasy, from his time in the human form, as the man nodded and turned pointing to a few vats. "I see. I'll be needing a few portions of it for my friend and I. We're still a bit dehydrated for we came from across the desert. A painful journey indeed."

The man smiled. "I can tell. Your cheeks and ears are burnt pretty badly." They had made their way towards the vats, stepping over children and infants and now the man was scooping water up into a canteen. "We have some medicine to help the burn. We thought it might help the kids skin, but it's useless." Gerald man handed him the canteen and replaced the lid on the vat.

Jerrar considered the offer. "Yes please. My friend might be burnt also, so I'd like enough for both of us." Jerrar replied, graciously taking the canteen. "I'll come back for it. I'll take this water to my friend first though." Shaking hands the two parted, Gerald making his way to a tent and Jerrar making his way back to Kiriei.

It seemed to be the child's instinct more than her own that aided in nature's process. It knew exactly where to put its mouth to get what it wanted, and, to Kiri's amazement, there actually was sustenance within her breasts. The dragon let out a gasp when the child first began drawing from her. Her human skin was more sensitive than she'd realized, and this was her first time attempting such a thing.

The child drank for a while, and that alone seemed to make the human woman overjoyed. When it decided it had had its fill, it stopped and relaxed in her arms. Its breathing had leveled out a bit, like breathing didn't hurt so much anymore, and it looked ready to fall asleep, like this was the first time it had felt so luxuriously relaxed and at ease.

The woman took the child from Kiriei, thanking her many times in earnest, then rushed off with it, ready to put it somewhere to rest and fetch a new child. Jerrar appeared but a moment later, and she pulled the ends of her shirt together when she saw him coming.

"I'm exhausted," she admitted. "I'm not sure if it's because that child just sucked half my life away, or I've spent too long in my human form, or both!" She smiled weakly, "Did you find water?"

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"I did. Here." He said handing her the canteen. "So it worked?" He asked her.

They were now alone in the forest together. The woman seemed to be taking forever to retrieve another child, either that or time seemed to slow down quite a bit. Jerrar stood there feeling sorta misplaced. He put a hand to his cheek, it was burning. "That woman's husband offered some medicine for the sunburns. I asked him for enough for both of us."

"Thanks," Kiriei said, accepting the canteen from Jerrar. "And I suppose so. The child drank like it was possessed, and seemed to be shape afterwards. She sat where she was awkwardly then. Jerrar and her had been left alone (which wasn't unusual), but for some reason, she didn't know what to say. She was grateful when he brought up his own topic about the sunscreen. "That sounds like a good idea," she agreed. The back of her neck and her back were practically aching with burn. It was nice that they seemed to be able to get along with these humans.

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"I guess I'd best return to go fetch it then. Don't let these people wear you out, if you need to rest, then rest." He told her before smiling and leaving. It wasn't long before he passed the woman who was returning to Kiriei with another of the younger infants. He opened his mouth to tell her not to let things out of hand, but she sped by quite quickly.

He sighed and just kept going. He soon returned to the makeshift village of stinky children. He saw the man he had spoken to before, Gerald. "Hello there. Have you the medicine?" Jerrar asked the man.

The man turned to face him, a large jar of creme in his hands. "Why of course. There should be plenty here. You'd have to apply it in your original form and reapply it three times a day. After one day the sunburn should be gone and the creme will help you from getting another, to a certain extent."

Jerrar smiled at the man. "Thank you very mu-" As Jerrar was about to take the jar, the man drew it away from Jerrar's grasp.

"Na huh. You may only get the jar after all the children have been cured." He said sternly. "You help us, we help you."

Suddenly furious, Jerrar nearly exploded (and being a fire dragon it might have been possible). He growled and glared at the human. "Do you doubt me?" He inquired in a voice deeper than thought possible, perhaps because he was on the brink of transforming into a dragon to devour the human on the spot.

Holding his ground the human looked Jerrar in the eye. "I am only assuring that these children are cured. I cannot risk you taking the medicine and leaving."

Jerrar felt as if he might breathe fire in his human form; he turned away from the human just in case. "A dragon is an honorable being and once he decided to do something, he will never stop until he is finished. It is the way of the dragon to complete what he has begun." He spat, giving the human a sideways glare. "Also, a dragon will never go back on his word."

There was pause that seemed to last forever. After deciding that what he said had enough time to sink into the human's hard head, her spoke again. "I give you my word that we will not leave before these children are cured. Now, the medicine." He demanded holding out his palm to receive the jar.

((Nostalgia compels me to post once more!))

By the time Jerrar returned, Kiriei had nursed two more human children, and was finishing a forth. She was tired enough to stop after the third, but she felt... Uneven. The human woman started to run off to fetch another, but Kiri called out to her. "Please, wait!" she said. "I am not an eternal fountain of milk. I must rest before the next child."

The woman looked like she wanted to protest, so eager was she to see these children cured, but then imagined how she would feel had she just nursed four small children. With mild surprise, she realized she wouldn't even have managed four. She empathized with the creature despite herself.

"Very well. Come back to the camp and you may have a moment to rest."

Kiri smiled with relief. "No, but thank you. Every dragon transforms differently, but I cannot remain human while I sleep. I will rest here."

The woman gave a nod and rushed off, and Kiriei slept.

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