They came, the mare and her dragon, like spirits summoned from the swirling mist. Their voices joined the echoes of his wordless pleading and spread with the wind, shattering what little silence that could be found between the raging battles - some must be over soon, like his own, while others might be starting only recently. Any other day the gray stallion would have hurried onwards to find another foe, to aid his family and friends and beat back the invading forces. At any other time his own aches and bruises would have been forgotten against the threat the northerners posed, the burns ignored in favor for more exhilarating chaos.
Not today. The battle had been wiped from his consciousness like hoof prints on a windy beach, erased by the all consuming worry for the little soul sister that bled out before his very eyes. He just barely registered the limp and the blood that marred the visage of the smoky mare as she hurried up to them, barely clipped an ear in annoyance as the blue Zaffre closed in on his friend. Lace said nothing in reply as Smoke assessed the damage and started working, only watched with eyes that spoke more than words ever could about the fears that clenched his heart.
He wouldn't survive without Fajira.
To someone who had never experienced the bond it would have been impossible to understand, but he knew that the healer beside him was fully aware of the implications the dragon's death would have. They weren't simply friends who had spent some years together. They didn't simply know each other on a level where words were unnecessary - the dragon and the horse had long since ceased being two separate souls. While they still retained separate personalities and views on certain things, they were essentially one spread over two bodies. For the dragon to lose the strength and stability of her earthbound bonded, for the stallion to be parted from the sensation of wind beneath widespread wings and dazzling sunlight high above alabaster clouds... It would ruin whichever part of them that would remain, should one be torn away.
With a shivering breath he closed his eyes and focused on the part of him that connected with Fajira. The black void called to him, beckoning for attention while the hum of the Blue vibrated through the air - he allowed himself to fall into it, diving deeper than ever before in search of the one thing that kept him sane in the chaos that was life. It was a falling not entirely unlike the one they had experienced when dragged into the depths of the Heart, and like that time Lace kept searching for the bottom, for light and movement - any trace of the familiar flavor of freshly fallen snow, moonlight and pale bone, of marble and ice and the brightest sunlight that was her. The search was growing frantic as moments passed, his chest heaving faster and faster as black winds knitted the tissue of the dragon back together without doing anything to restore the mind; then he noticed something. A flicker, a twitch, like a movement behind the back just beyond the field of sight. Quick as a viper he latched on to it, cradled it in a mental grasp at once firm and endlessly gentle. It took effort to maintain it, even more to begin the long climb back up towards the hum of the dragon kin who acted as guide...
The glimmering bloodstained scales shifted, barely noticeably. A weak, feeble breath expanded the chest, followed by a jarring cough that wracked the little body and sounded like she tried to expel her very lungs. Golden eyes snapped open and in a heartbeat he was there with a velvet nose, soothing and supporting as the cat-sized dragoness slowly returned to consciousness. Lace looked up, tears burning behind the eyes as he for the first time actually looked at Smoke, and with a single swift stride he slipped in beside her, neck reaching out to wrap her in a tight embrace that had a feeling of desperation to it.
"Thank you" he whispered hoarsely and closed the eyelids tightly, unable to keep a tear of relief from rolling down the black cheek but still unwilling to see her reaction to the uncharacteristic display of emotion. "Thank you.. thank you.."
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