9 Emollient.

They had been flying for hours or at least that's how the captain had felt. His half unconscious state had made it hard to tell, but he was quite sure that they had made a couple of stops along the way. From the screams that had surrounded him, he knew that they were unfortunate stops, at least for his fellow mankind, but the surrounding dragons seems to very happy about it and it reverberated against him in dark waves, as that was the only way he could truly describe it.

Now they were above an ocean, he knew this from the salty air that he tasted and the sound of the ocean waves crashing beneath him. Even in his weakened state he couldn't help but wonder where these creatures were taking him. Did they have a home? A den of some sort? Even as he thought heavily upon this he could not help but notice the sight of the sun breaking over the horizon, sending its orange and pinkish glow over the morning sky.

Curious, he opened his eyes and trained them on the surrounding dragons, flying closely beside their leader in V-formations. One by one, starting from the smallest, they started dissipating into a dark mist. As he stared on, the dragon above him started dissipating too and all of a sudden the claws that had been holding him disappeared and he found himself falling and falling and the dark ocean rising up to meet him.

He had lost his consciousness after that and

now he felt warm hands glazing his matted skin. His eyes flattered open to stare into yhe set of browns that were gazing down at him with a look filled with concern. And just like that they disappeared from view and he found himself wondering if he had really seen them or if his imagination was playing tricks on him. Something hit the ground beside him followed by a cry and instantly he knew that it was real and that he had not imagined any of it.

Slowly the owner of the cry and the brown eyes rose up to his side and the other thing he noticed was the long black hair and the red robes that covered her entire form. Red and gold, he noted to himself and a skin so dark it was almost caramel, but a little shades lighter.

"You're the red streak." He croaked out, his voice sounding scratched out from his very nasty ordeal and all the screaming he had done.

"Red what?" the girl asked, her brows furrowing into a deep frown. The captain chuckled at her expression before addressing her again.

"I am not dead, which explains that sharp pain in my torso and my extremely weak state." He added knowing fully well that it was his suit that was preventing him from going under.

"No, I do not think that you are. I was trying to help, but I do not know how remove it." She replied even as she attempted to remove the suit again.

"Do not. Pleas don't." he rasped out again. "That suit iswhat is keeping me alive!"

"Not for much longer especially if you chose to remain this stubborn." She replied her brown eyes glaring daggers.

"I am going to die either way, that is if I do not make it back to civilisation on time or if the sun sets and the terrors come back again."

"I can help you." The girl reached out into her robes and retrieved a small crystal bottle. She uncapped it and tipped it over into her hands and a small amount of the golden liquid inside it flowed out into her outstretched palm even as the captain looked on curiously.

"What is your name?" she asked him before capping the bottle to place it on the ground. She then rubbed the palms of her hands together and spread out the liquid quite evenly on her palms.

"Killion and what are you up to?" he told her, but she did not respond. Instead, she closed her eyes and reached her palms out to his forehead. The captain attempted to slink back in a show of apprehension, but of course he did not have the energy to do so. So he remained in place and resulted to studying the girl even with her eyes closed and her palms on the sides of his forehead.

"Calla would be furious." He thought even as he imagined the female sergeant with a persistent frown on her face. As he continued to think back to that particular girl and her openly jealous ways, the other girl's hands started to glimmer and a white light emitted from them, eventually spreading out to the entirety of his body. He could feel the warmth through his skin and deep in his bones and slowly the flesh knit together, the gaping holes no longer there even as his health was finally restored to him. As the girl's eyes finally opened, strength returned to his bones and the skin that once pasty became flushed with life.

"How were you able to do that?" He asked sitting up for the first time in over twelve hours.

"I am a Great and the Emollient helps us do that." She replied with a smile just as she stood up with the crystal bottle in her hand and the remaining golden liquid inside.

"That's the Emollient?" she nodded her head. "And what exactly is a Great? Scratch that. What is your name?"

"I am Havillah, daughter of Jaykob and Tamaar, elder of the Great." She droned out, just like she had been taught to say ever since she was old enough to speak.

"Okay..." the captain murmured to himself too lost to speak any other words. He was tempted to think that the girl was loony, but he had seen and felt her heal him and he had also seen her fly! He took in her heavy shimmering robes that were a fashion that he had never seen or heard of before. Then there was the gold, which was real gold and not just gold thread and he felt his mind boggled.

"Honestly, I don't know what to make out of this, but thank you for helping me. Now I just have to figure out how to get home. Can you fly me there?" he asked as he shot her a sly grin.

"I am sorry I can't Killion. I am lacking enough of the First Virtue to attempt a feat like that."

He nodded, understanding none of it. "First virtue? What in tarnation is that?" the young captain thought.

"You do not understand any of what I am saying." The girl grinned back at him.

"Absolutely." He replied.

"Well... I have an idea." She said gripping his arm tightly. The air beneath their feet started rippling and slowly but surely they were lifted up into the air and launched sky high much to Killion's delight.

"For a first timer, you don't look that scared." He shook his head.

"After a whole night of flying with dragons, this is nothing that can scare me again."

"Dragons?" she furrowed her brows at him and he nodded back at her. "So, that was what they were?" she added more softly and mostly to herself. As she finished saying this, their feet landed on the clouds on the view point and she was glad that it was way beyond the barriers of Triberias, otherwise she would have been in very big heap of trouble.

"Close your eyes and imagine your home? Can you describe it?" She asked urging him forward. The young captain raised an eyebrow at her, but obeyed her nonetheless.

"It's a small town. A seaport town...we call it Bethesda." He said as closed his eyes and smiled at the images that he had started to conjure up in his helmeted head. As he droned on, the young girl Havillah turned back to the view point and started flicking the clouds with her hands, changing their form and subsequently, the view beneath them. As Killion finished describing it she turned back to him and smiled at what she had found.

"Is that it?" the young man opened his eyes and gaped.

"Yes? How did you..." he started to ask, but changed his mind as he smiled. "Never mind that, I wouldn't understand anyway."

"Shall we?" she asked again and this time Killion let out a boisterous laugh.

"Calla would really hate this." He thought again even as snickered at his own thoughts.

"I am sorry I'll have to drop you into the ocean." The girl said and Killion raised another eyebrow at her. "As it is, I am not supposed to be seen by a human." she continued to explain herself.

"Right, because you're a Great."

"Yes." the girl nodded. "And I trust that you will keep this encounter a secret?" It was Killion's turn to nod and as he did so she hovered above the water and dropped him into the ocean just a few metres from a secluded beach. After seeing him safely into the water, the girl shot up into the sky again, a little red blur flying in the air and disappeared into the clouds from whence they had come from.