13 - The other side of the forest

Jane listened to the silence for a bit before she slightly shook Merlin as she called out to him

"Merlin?"

Noticing that he was unconscious Jane took extra care as she quickly checked him over, she showed a concerned frown once she noticed the burns on his back, she checked the temperature on the floor of the fighting compartment before she shook her head and carried him out of the tank and was about to lay him down face down when she saw the dragon's blood flowing down into the lake dying it red

"Dragon blood…"

She quickly picked up Merlin and carried him to the other side of the lake where she slowly laid him down at the shore of the lake where she scooped up some dragon blood-stained water up and purred it onto his back and saw it instantly heal slightly, she showed a smile and spoke

"The legends are true…"

Then she picked him up and walked into the lake with him in her arms and lowered him into the water keeping his head above the water as she sat down on the shallow parts of the lake and closed her eyes as she felt the changes in her own body as well as Merlin's…

Merlin was floating, he had one of those dreams where he was aware he was dreaming but unable to wake up, so he simply floated around in the empty void for some time until he heard a cool female voice speak out to him

"Child of man… Wander Merlin..."

Merlin felt this voice was oddly real for a dream so he answered the call

"Yes?"

At once the ocean he was floating around in began becoming stormy reflecting anger as the cool voice spoke out again

"To have been killed by a human from an otherworld… Well, I suppose it was my destiny all along…"

Merlin felt slightly confused by this so he asked

"Umm… Are you dissatisfied?"

The waters suddenly became calm again as the voice sounded out once more

"No… I suppose not, I tried to kill you… You just happened to kill me faster than I could kill you, heh… I did get a good hit in I see"

"Yeah, I felt that… I am going to have trouble sleeping on my back for the rest of my days I figure…"

"Don't be so hasty, your mate is caring for you, you'll be all fine once you've been bathed in my blood…"

"I see…"

"And as a bonus, I'll give you a gift for beating me… Though some may call it a curse, do you want it?"

Merlin nodded without hesitation as he spoke

"I've never gotten a gift from a dragon before, I would be a fool to refuse it"

The waters soon turned completely still before the voice sounded out again

"Good courage! Though if your vessel can take it remains to be seen!"

Then Merlin was pulled under the water at once, he felt a particular feeling as if he was a color that was being dyed, washed out, it wasn't painful it felt some constable that he wanted very much to just float along with it and be washed out, become completely blank, completely clean, though as the image of Jane passed through his mind he instantly began fighting back, he didn't want to be washed out, he didn't want to disappear and for the first time in his life he wanted to keep living for the sake of another person

"Heh… She really is your mate, though no matter she's a fine one at that… Makes me a little jealous, perhaps in another life…"

A few hours passed like this, the waters attempted to wash out his color as he resisted, but eventually, he surfaced again, a new person

"Thank you for the gift, I'll be sure to put it to good use"

"You're welcome, now it's time to wake up before your mate sheds any tears…"

Merlin felt his body float up from the waters and soon he left the world of dreams behind and opened his eyes, he saw Jane sitting and looking down into his face, she carried a faint hint of surprise and her red otherwise intimidating eyes showed a certain kind of tenderness that lured Merlin in, though before he lost himself in those eyes a voice sounded out in his head

[Ding! Congratulations host! Achievement unlocked: Dragonslayer, 1000 points awarded, Gift of Yrraness received, Dragonflame magic unlocked]

Merlin's eyes went wide for a moment before he suddenly sat himself up and looked around, it was evening, moreover, he didn't feel any presence of magic beast in the vicinity, he didn't even hear a single insect cry, it was completely silent, he eyes quickly went back to Jane that looked at him, then he quickly hugged her, Jane was confused for a moment before she hugged him back and spoke

"Welcome back to the land of the living"

"Yeah, I am back…"

The two of them shared a long hug before Merlin broke it again and asked Jane as he looked her over

"Are you hurt?"

Jane's eyes showed slight confusion for a moment before they once again showed tenderness as she showed a soft smile

"No, I am fine, thanks to you Merlin"

Merin felt his heartbeat speed up slightly as he blushed and averted his gaze and stammered

"I-It's good that we only lost the few tanks that we did… I didn't expect to fight a dragon all of a sudden…"

Jane nodded before she suddenly looked guilty as she explained

"We ran into that dragon early in the expedition, I should have told you about it"

Merlin didn't become mad, instead, he repeated what she had just said

"Early in the expedition… Does that mean that we're close to the edge of the forest of death?"

Jane nodded before she spoke

"We're only 3 days on foot away from the edge, but instead of rushing out of the forest I have a proposal"

Merlin glanced over at the dead carcass of the dragon and swallowed before he asked

"Are dragons rare?"

"Yep"

"Then that must be worth a fortune, right?"

"Yep"

Merlin nodded before he showed a smile and spoke

"In that case, we can save the orphanage… Probably also buy up a bunch of magic cores…"

Jane nodded before she explained

"The scales on the dragon alone would be enough to save the orphanage, there's also the claws, fangs, teeth, hide and magic beast core"

Merlin nodded before he showed a smile

"Looks like we're going to be busy the next couple of days…"

"Yeah, but with the two of us it should be no challenge"

Merlin nodded before he stood up and reached his hand out to Jane and helped her up, Jane took his hand with a smile and the two of them walked back to the Panther tank where they climbed inside and soon fell asleep, this time closer than they had been before, though neither of them minded it

The next few days consisted of disassembling the dragon carcass, first, they removed the scales, then the fangs and teeth then came to the claws before theý took an entire day to remove the hide, the bones were also removed and were almost too heavy to load onto the tanks, but after distributing them they managed to keep all of them. As for the organs, none of them were in very good condition due to the time it took to remove the other parts and the heart had a gaping hole right through it, still, the two of them ate well for a few days before the meat soured as Jane managed to recover a firestarter from the leftover abandoned camp, then 4 days after they the dragon had been defeated the Churchill crocodiles got moving again as they continued to burn a road through the forest, then 7 days after they killed the dragon it happened, they breached the forest and emerged on the other side, Merlin opened the commander's cupola and popped his head out as he looked through his binoculars at the city in the distance and muttered

"Civilization it is…"

The reason why Merlin sounded slightly sour was the significant buildup of armed forces on the walls that were observing him as he was observing them with caution, he wanted very much to yell that they were in range and if he wanted he would have already shelled the palace from a distance but Jane advised against it, as she herself had another idea which Merlin shoot down at once

"Why not?"

"Because I can't guarantee your safety like that, what if they decided you are possessed and want to hang you?"

Jane sighed before she spoke

"They won't"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because they can't, I bathed in the dragon blood too you know?"

"Oh right, the dragon blood…"

Merlin sighed, the dragon blood had not only healed his burns but also restored his tank commanders jacket, though it turned it an eerie shade of red, it also raised his physical strength by quite a bit, this, of course, also applied to Jane that actually had some strength to build on, she had displayed fighting strength during the disassembly of the dragon by caring the bones that weighed up to 500 kilograms a piece like they were firewood, while Merlin's strength had been increased too he was not able to display such power yet due to his mediocre physical shape, after considering Jane's proposal for a bit he eventually nodded and spoke

"Okay, but I'll shell the shit out of them if they try to hurt you"

Jane nodded and showed a fearless grin as she spoke

"As if they could"