Visit Sixteen

“I’ve really been enjoying our time outside,” I told him one day while we were walking in the forest, “You’ve also been very good when are out.”

“Where else would I go,” he questioned, “I wanted away from you all but now I don’t want to leave your side. No reason to run away at this point.”

“Aw, that’s so cute.”

“You like when people are honest, correct,” he stopped and looked intently to our left.

“En? What’s up?”

“I sense something in that direction. I believe it needs help.”

“Your ability is much better than mine so I believe you. Where should we go?”

“It’s at Mt. Imminent Death.”

“Ah,” I faced the direction he was looking, “Yeah I can imagine there are things in distress there. Let me increase your magic so you can hopefully tell what’s making the call.”

I did just that, his mark glowing the same blue as my eyes. His eyes widened in surprise, “It’s a dragon.”

“But I thought there weren’t anymore dragons,” I looked at him.

“It’s very faint but there is a dragon there.”

“Well we better get going then,” I pulled out my D.D.D. and sent a message in my group chat with Dia and Lucifer telling them what was happening. I also sent a message to my coach, who was very used to me getting into random situations so they were understanding.

“It would be fastest if I could fly us there at my full size.”

“Real 9’ size or fake 10’ size,” I teased.

He pouted, “My wingspan at 10’ would get us there faster.”

“I’m just poking fun,” I laughed and gave him back his wings and other features. It is possible that we would get into fights and I wanted to be prepared for that.

This was the first time I saw him at 10’ without him trying to murder me and I felt very small. He leaned down and scooped me up. I was so small that he was able to carry me in a single arm. This wasn’t my first time being held during flight, considering both Diavolo and Lucifer also have wings, so I wasn’t that nervous.

But boy oh boy was he fast. I know when I would take flights with Dia and Lucifer that they were going cruising speed but En is so much faster than I’ve ever seen either of them move. I almost forgot that he greatly outpaced all of us those centuries ago. Makes me wonder what he was like at his peak.

Even at this great speed it took us until fairly late to get to the base of the mountain. Holding him at the expanded size for so many hours took a lot out of me and he landed so I could rest.

“Good thing I don’t sleep anymore,” I mused, “You can sleep all through the night while I keep watch.”

“I won’t be sleeping for a while,” he told me as he sat on the ground, back against the mountain, “I could stay up for days if I need to. But you are magically exhausted and this mountain is dangerous.”

He motioned for me to come sit on his lap and I did so, “I’m sorry. That was just a long time to hold that form.”

“I know this was an unusual amount of magic used. You do not need to apologize.”

“You’ve really come far. Before you would have called me weak.”

“Must you remind me?”

“I’m giving you a compliment,” I put my hand on his jaw, “The fact that you feel shame about how you treated me means that you’ve grown by that much. Isn’t it beautiful that a relationship, even when platonic, can make you grow as an individual like that?”

He looked caught off-guard then his expression softened, “You say very poetic things sometimes.”

I tilted my head questioningly.

“Never mind. You are correct,” he kissed my forehead and pulled my head to his chest as he started quietly singing. I relaxed into him and we spent the next several hours waiting for me to recover. He only sang for the first hour or so and I just meditated until I felt better while he took a little nap. I felt bad holding us up like this but I wouldn’t be of much help if I couldn’t control our magic.

“Alright,” I sat up, patting his chest to wake him up, “I feel better now.”

He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at me. I kissed him before moving to get up. But he gripped me tighter and nuzzled his face into the top of my head. I hooked my arms under his and hugged him back.

“I love you and this is nice but we should get going,” I told him.

“I enjoy waking up to you,” he plainly said.

“Aw, that’s so sweet. I wish I could wake up like that.”

He pulled back to look me in the eyes, “I still find it incredible that you chose to love me after everything I’ve done to you.”

I shrugged, “I’ve always felt like there was a front going on. I mean, I clocked Diavolo’s royal front right away, so I know what I’m looking for.”

“But this has always been me,” he seemed somewhat offended.

“Yes, but it’s been heavily molded by your father and the expectations others had of you in regards to your status as Demon King. I know there’s a lot more to you yet, we just need to uncover parts you’ve shoved aside.”

He kinda scowled, but mostly looked unsure.

“We can worry about that later. We have a dragon to find remember?”

“Yes, that is right,” he slowly let me go and we turned to look up the mountain, his hand resting on my shoulder, “The magic is fainter although we are closer to it. The dragon must be very young and tired.”

“How long will it take to reach it?”

“I do not know. I can tell where it is but finding the path to it will be the difficult part.”

I looked down as I thought. We were out of signal range for my D.D.D. so I couldn’t ask Solomon. But I was pretty sure that there was a spell that would give me possible paths to something I am searching for. I sat and closed my eyes, opening my mental spell book and began looking for the spell.

“I knew it,” I announced, getting up and looking at En, “I learned a spell that would give us two possible paths. One will just take longer than the other or lead us to dead ends occasionally.”

“Is that what you were doing?”

“Yup, I have a mental spell book I was searching through.”

My eyes glowed as I recited the spell. Normally I wouldn’t verbally recite the spell but I wanted to make sure it worked properly. Two small balls of blue light formed in front of me, the glow gently pulsing. They began floating away in the same direction, but stopping before they went too far away, waiting for us.

“Ready to go,” I looked at En and he nodded. We followed the lights up the mountain, keeping alert in case an animal gets feisty. There was also the possibility of running into traps set by predators. Things definitely big enough to eat at the very least me.

After a while the lights brought us to a fork in the path. The one on the left was less worn and probably only used by a handful of animals. The one on the right was probably used by apothecary demons in search of the herbs that grow here.

“So, which way,” I asked En.

“I was going to ask you that,” he looked at me.

“Well if we go right, then we will be less likely to run into the larger animals. But, at the same time, if there is a baby dragon unfound, it would probably be on the path less used.”

“Unless one loops around further than the other or there is a shortcut unknown to apothecaries to the right.”

“That is true.”

“Which hand is your dominant one?”

“My right. You?”

“My left.”

“I thought so.”

“What does that mean?”

“You only have a ruby claw on your left hand and you tend to use that one to do things with.”

“I see. I forget how observant you are sometimes.”

“Well, that isn’t really helping us pick a path unfortunately,” I put my hand on my hips, “I guess we go with some good ole human wisdom.”

“And what is that?”

“If you’re lost, keep your hand on the left wall, and eventually you’ll make it out. Magic wasn’t really a thing most humans did so we didn’t have to worry about traps or illusions.”

“Left it is, then. How are you feeling? Tired?”

“Magically? No.”

“Physically?”

“I don’t really get tired remember? I only get magical exhaustion. Are you getting tired or hungry?”

“Not yet. I will let you know when I need to rest.”

I nodded and we followed the light on the left. With the one on the right dissipating as we walked too far away. The terrain became significantly rougher and my small limbs were having a hard time maneuvering. En had no problem with his longer limb reach. After the third or so time he had to wait for me he just picked me up.

“I’m tired of waiting for you,” he explained as he continued up the mountain.

“I’m sorry I’m so small. I can’t help it and I have to conserve my magic,” I defended myself, pouting.

“Do not give me that look. I’m not upset at you. I should have done this earlier quite honestly. We will be much faster this way.”

“I thought you weren’t holding me in case we were attacked.”

“I can protect us well enough while holding you.”

“Good to know I won’t be a burden.”

“Considering you are integral to me accessing my powers, you can never be a burden,” he continued before I could be sappy, “I also do not think that we will be attacked. Most fauna keep far away from me.”

“I see. Then I hope we can get to the dragon sooner rather than later.”

He didn’t continue the conversation and kept following the light. Eventually it led us to the mouth of a cave. We continued in without hesitation. It made sense for a dragon in distress to be hiding within a cave for protection. But this was a system of tunnels, and we weren’t sure how deep we would be going in.

Thankfully the light was, well, a light, and illuminated our way. Not that Ensharra needed it. He could see in the dark just fine. I was the lame one that needed a bright light to see. Considering neither of us needed to rest it was hard to gauge how long we were moving through the tunnels.

It did start becoming rather warm as we went deeper, though. At some point it was becoming kinda unbearable and I magicked away my outfit into something cooler. But that still didn’t hold up for long and I was becoming distressed with how hot it was for me.

“En,” I tapped him, “I need to do something about this heat. It’s way too much.”

He scowled, “Unfortunately you may have to waste magic cooling the air around you.”

“Will that be uncomfortable for you?”

“How much greater will the strain be if you expanded the range to include all of me?”

“Not much. I should be able to hold it for a whole day if I need to.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long then.”

My eyes glowed as I cooled the air around us to the point where I no longer felt like dying. As we continued I had to slowly increase the magic as the heat continued to climb. Which also meant that the time I could hold this temperature was decreasing. I wasn’t sure if we went the fast or slow way but it’s the way we have to go.

Finally, we saw a glow coming through the tunnels, and we were led to a large cavern. There was a river of magma that flowed through it, illuminating the cavern and the cause of the intense heat I was feeling. There was a large skeleton near the left back of the room. It appeared to be from a very large dragon that died quite some time ago.

“Is this it,” I asked, looking around for anything else.

“This is the area,” he affirmed, walking towards the skeleton. The ball of light dissipated as it had finished it’s job. Amongst the gigantic bones lay an oddly shaped rock that En seemed drawn to.

“It kinda looks like an egg,” I remarked as he picked it up. It was very large, about the size of my torso, but he only needed one hand to hold it aloft.

“This egg is the source of the magical cry for help.”

“The skeleton must have been one of the parents then.”

“Most likely.”

“Shall we take it and see if we can get it to hatch? I’d love to be able to help the seemingly not extinct dragons.”

“It is asking for help, so help it we shall,” was En’s decision as he tucked it close to him, “Can you teleport us out of the cave?”

“I think so. I’ll need to rest afterwards though.”

“That is fine. I can fly without magic and you can rest during flight.”

I nodded and took a deep breath, already tired. The glow in my eyes intensified as I used a significant amount of my energy to teleport us outside the cave. We had traveled quite far deep it seemed. As soon as I was finished teleporting us I leaned into him in exhaustion. I could feel the stiffness starting already.

“Just rest and leave it to me. I’ll bring us home,” Ensharra reassured as he spread his wings and took off. We held each other in a sort of hug, with me looking at the sky, so I had my eyes closed. Until an odd shadow passed. I opened my eyes to see one of the headless dragons speeding at us, claws outstretched.

I panicked and put my hands out in front of me. A large, thick ice shield appeared and blocked the attack, though it got some serious cracks from the damage. The dragon thrashed for a few seconds as I struggled to keep the shield from breaking. Then, it suddenly stopped chasing us and went back towards the mountain.

The exhaustion immediately set in and I struggled to bring my very stiff arms back around En’s neck. With the loss of my magic the shield broke apart, ice shards glittering as the fell through the air. It was soothing.

“What was that,” En questioned.

“A headless dragon,” I barely managed, falling into meditation.

“But we are nowhere near the summit.”

“It kinda… looked the same size… as the skeleton.”

“Are you alright?”

“Tired.”

“Rest. If it has left us alone, then we are safe now.”

I hummed, “Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He concentrated on getting us back as fast as possible while I meditated. I was so worn out that I was still stiff when we got back several hours later. It even took longer to return because En wasn’t at his inflated size. Diavolo and Lucifer were waiting for us in the garden. They rushed to me as soon as he landed.

“Starshine,” Diavolo put a hand on my cheek, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I reassured, leaning into his palm, “We didn’t really run into danger. I’m just magically tired.”

“You need to be more careful,” Lucifer scolded.

“I told you I’m fine. I just need some rest.”

“Father,” Diavolo looked at En, “Why are you still holding him?”

“Because I do not wish to put him down when he is so tired,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I see,” he looked down to the egg En had, “Is that a dragon egg?”

“Yes. It was sending a magical distress signal.”

“Aren’t dragons extinct?”

“Apparently not.”

“Will you be taking care of it Starshine,” Dia looked at me again, thumb rubbing my cheek.

“Actually, it’ll stay with Ensharra,” I announced, “He’s the one that insisted we go, as he’s the one that was able to sense it. So, the responsibility will be on him.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

“You really think having him take care of the egg is a good idea,” Lucifer intervened, arms crossed.

“He wants to help it,” I defended him, “Give him a chance to prove he’s able to be kind to a being other than me.”

He scowled, still obviously unhappy with the situation.

“Stop that. It’s not like I won’t be around to mediate and we have to give him opportunities.”

“Yes, you are right,” he sighed, “I’m just worried is all.”

“I understand but that was unproductive.”

He looked sad that I reprimanded him so I gently cupped his cheek and pulled him forward to kiss his forehead.

“Okay,” I interrupted the moment, “as cute as all this huddle and cuddle is. I’m very tired and would like to rest. How long were we gone anyways?”

“This is the morning of the third day,” Lucifer responded.

“At least it didn’t take too long I guess.”

“I would also like to rest,” En spoke up, “Shall we go, Snowflake?”

“You’re taking him,” Diavolo inquired, obviously wanting to spend time with me.

“Don’t you have work to do? The both of us need to rest and the daytime is my time with Snowflake.”

Diavolo gave him a defiant look but calmed down, “Fine. But I will be picking up Drizzm as soon as my work is done. You’ve spent two full days with him so far.”

“I agree to your stipulation,” En said with finalization and left the conversation with me still in his arms.

“I love you both,” I called to them over En’s shoulder, giving them heart hands, “I hope you don’t have too much work today.”

They gave me the heart hands back and watched us until Ensharra entered the castle. Without me telling him to, he made his way back to his cell. I opened the door and he set the egg on the table then walked us straight to the bed. He laid us down, with me on top of him. His chest rumbled as he quietly sang for a short while before falling asleep. I fell into my meditative state, recovering and stabilizing my magic power.

The sound of a camera shutter and a quiet panicked voice brought me out of my meditative state. I turned to look at the door to cell to see a blushing Diavolo standing there with his D.D.D. in his hands. To be honest, when I hear the camera shutter I knew it was him. He loves taking photos. And I guess he’s gotten used to me and En being together enough to want photos of us together.

“Hi, Sunshine,” I greeted, putting up a peace sign for him to take another photo. He smiled and took a few more.

“How are you feeling,” he asked as he took the photos.

“Still pretty tired to be honest. But much better than earlier. I’m guessing you’re done with work?”

“For today,” he sighed.

“A king’s work is never done, huh?”

“Unfortunately that seems to be the one thing that never changes between kings,” En spoke up, eyes still closed, “How long do you plan on speaking while I rest?”

“Aw, don’t be so grumpy,” I teased, giving him a kiss on the jaw before moving to get up. But, just like at the mountain, he gripped harder, “Oh not this again. First, you complain about me speaking and then, you try to keep me here.”

“Just don’t speak and rest with me.”

“That wasn’t the agreement you made with Sunshine. You are a demon of your word, right?”

He opened his eyes just to scowl at me. I looked at him expectantly. When I felt his grip loosen I smiled and patted his cheek as I got up. I leaned down to give him another kiss, on the forehead this time and he gently brushed his knuckles on my cheek.

“Sleep well, En,” I smiled and went with Diavolo upstairs to spend the rest of the evening and night with him and Lucifer like usual.

“Will you finally explain everything that’s happened,” interrogated Lucifer during dinner.

“Yes, yes,” I sighed, “I didn’t mean to keep you in the dark. I couldn’t use my D.D.D. on the mountain.”

“Well?”

“I was in the garden with En in the morning when he sensed a magical SOS signal. He has a very good grasp on sensing energy and who they belong to. So, he was able to tell it was a dragon needing help.”

“Even though dragons haven’t been around since before even Father,” Diavolo spoke up, “What if it was a trap?

“Honestly, I think En would have noticed. And the laser focus on doing something made me believe that there really was at the very least, a being in danger.”

“So you went to save it,” Lucifer deadpanned then sighed, “How very like you.”

“Though very unlike Father,” Diavolo pointed out.

I nodded, “Yeah I was surprised that he was so into helping the dragon. I think it’s the innate connection you both have with dragons. Considering your both dragon demons. Also, there’s the curiosity of how the dragon kept itself secret for centuries and if it actually exists at all.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Lucifer stated.

“And satisfaction brought it back,” I finished.

He sighed.

“Nothing even happened while we were on the mountain. It was totally calm the whole way up and only at the end did something happen.”

“And what was that?”

“One of the headless dragons attacked us as En was flying away. It looked the same size as the skeleton we found in the cavern with the egg within the ribcage. Like the dragon was wrapped around it and somehow the egg moved as the dragon decomposed.”

“Do you think the headless dragon was the parent,” Diavolo questioned.

“I think so. But there’s no way to know for sure.”

“And your plan is to have Ensharra of all demons raise it,” Lucifer was still not pleased.

“Yes,” I double-downed, “I think this is a great way for En to practice empathy on creatures other than me. In fact, in the Human World, some of the most successful reformation of criminals is done by giving them a pet cat to form a bond with.”

“You’d think he would have learned with Diavolo.”

I shrugged, “Everyone’s timeline is different and, quite honestly, you guys live so long that he’s probably only like 5% done with his life.”

“You may very well live longer than any of us.”

“We can worry about that in a millenia,” I dismissed that uncomfortable thought, “Point is, Ensharra is raising the dragon. We don’t even know if it’ll hatch or when but either way, it’s in his care for the time being. If he shows good reason to take the egg then I will.”

The look on Lucifer’s face told me he still didn’t like the idea but honestly he can deal. Although, it would be nice to be able to communicate with En when I’m out in case something happens. I looked to Dia.

“Can we get En a D.D.D.,” I asked.

“What for,” he took a drink.

“In case something happens with the egg.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you. But if you do decide to give him one, it should probably be bigger than the normal one.”

He just nodded.