Marked mature for illness-related gruesomeness.

A loud, moaning cry echoed through Orion.

The sound was distinctly agonized, with a rasping, wet edge to the pain.

It had been only a few days since the young dragon had snatched the bat from the air--and only the briefest contact had been had with the body--yet here he lay, wings folded along his back, tail slowly sweeping in a trembling arc as he suffered.

He hadn't made it to any particular point in Orion--he'd been flying, and then lowered himself to crawl, and then gave up, the pain too great to carry on, for now. Mucus dripped from between his teeth, pooling on the ground beneath. Ember eyes had grown cloudy with pain, and now and again hacking coughs wracked the jet black body, scales shimmering in Orion's light as he writhed. Each time he grasped a racking gasp, the multitude of wounds in his mouth were visible, blood pooled around them. Already his scales clung loosely to a dry body, too, the dehydration deeply apparent.

Should any come close enough, the heat that roiled off him would also be evident: as if, even with his reptilian appearance, the dragon had developed a severe fever.

Nothing made sense--everything hurt. He just wanted it to stop, to go away, but he was stuck in the pain, the sweltering heat, the shivering cold. The fear of choking, of drowning, when his lungs seemed to fill with fluid. Everything was agony.

With another violent cough he slowly lowered himself to lie on the cool stone, head lying on the rock at the end of an extended neck, tail now limp behind him. Trembling slightly, Dread let out another long and echoing moan of pain, as if beseeching someone, anyone, to come and take it from him.

"πηγαίνετε σε αυτόν, χάος(Go to him, Cháos)."
He guides her. The faint aroma of him so absolute; His language ancient to her perception. Ordered? No. But advised?- Yes. So without a fit, she goes to the cries heard amongst her travelling path that goes to wait another time. He has guided her to this moment. And with a voice so rare to her, Cháos wouldn't dare act otherwise.

This place is not new. But still, she hadn't seen it so gloomy before. After her slumber, being gone for time meant change. So this is taken lightly; tones different but nonetheless the colour same to her mental data. There-, it lays afar as her pink eyes glow an ominous stare that fog brightly. The creature is large though so is the Anaconda. The creature is reptilian, ergo her favoritism bore him. Glinting scales of the creature reflect her own as she bravely slithers forward on a silent tread.

One she has never seen before, winged and serpentine. Handsome despite the malady he seemed to bear. Cháos was not sensitive to what appeared as gruesome. Thoughts inactivated by her will as she closed near the creature; focused. Slithering upon the colden ground, she dare goes closely though keeping a feet or so to herself. "Handzome one. Let me cure you." Such an angelic voice she has. Her thickened skull lifts to stare at the brimstone eyes of the creature. So beautiful. She must help him.

The dry whisper of scales on stone did not escape him, but he hardly spared it a glance. The world was pain; he could barely breathe, and that half-panicked sense of drowning was only amplified by the fever, the exhaustion, the pain that wracked his limbs.

His head turned slightly, agonized ember eyes catching site of the approaching serpent, the clouded gaze watching her emptily, looking through her. He heard her say something--what it was, he wasn't sure. In the back of his mind, he knew that others might try to attack him in his weakened state, and in tormented exhaustion, he let out a roar of warning.

The sound was weak, distressed, but still a dragon's roar, albeit a young one. It was hoarse, almost a screech, and wet with mucus. He shuffled a step back, then, tired merely by this movement, panted for breath through his multitude of long teeth, laying his head weakly back on the stone. It was not real aggression that he directed at the snake--merely the defensive warning of an injured, cornered beast.

The heat threatened again to overwhelm him, and with a gurgling hiss he half-closed his eyes, gasping wetly for breath once more. After a long moment a single, pathetic word escaped him, full of hissing and choking and blood. It was but one word, but there were depths of pain and misery in it that the young dragon had never before had to express.

"Hurts," he groaned, the spines along his back rippling with jerking, stressed twitches.

@χάος

[quote='χάος' pid='42756' dateline='1524952067']

Rude. A roar with breath quiet potent, she winced. Altogether unfazed, she is motionless. Slightly angered, her annoyance is flaunted. "Appreciate me or I will cease to ease you at all.". She was not too far from furthering his condition either. A glint of spite leaves her orchid pink gaze.

After their differences are had, she goes. Tending to him, assuming she is allowed to. She is careful, channeling her power precisely. Her heavy gem glows dimly as she approaches the core of her power. She can see the bacteria that chews at him, covering him like a blanket. It was clear he was severely altered by the bacteria. A strong strain.. it would take a lot to cleanse him. Still though, successful identifying the bacteria was a step towards effectively healing him.

Such a perfect strike from this bacteria, she wondered.
"Has someone done this to you?"

@Dread

The dragon quite simply did not understand the words of snake that slithered up to him; he language was not particularly well-developed as it was, and his illness fogged his mind. He let out another pained bellowing moan, tail slowly lifting and thumping down again on the floor--but at least this one wasn't a roar. He could understand that Chaos was speaking to him, and so he was aware enough at least that she was unlikely to try and kill him. With another groan, he turned to watch her with bleary, milky eyes.

"...done this to you?" That, he understood, even if he didn't grasp "appreciate."

"Smelly... bat," he answered exhaustedly, pain in his voice; the memory of the cloud of black bats hurtling through Monoceros filled his mind. He then blinked it away, groaning again. It felt as though every corner of him were swollen and aching, and as the snake began to sense him with her magic, he groaned.

Trembling, he called on his own magic, trying to heat the air around him. He wasn't sure why, but it seemed the best course of action; he felt better when he was hot.

The air around him shimmered, his already-feverish form heating further, and he settled, a little, hissing out in deep and obvious stress. "Tired," he offered in that same weak moan. "Feel bad."

@χάος

"Smelly Bat.." Brows perk, she listens. Genuinely interested.. she comprehends. Now that she thinks of it, Khloros looked as this dragon had. Though the stallion proved completely immune to whatever he bred. Could this have something to do with Khloros? The success of his spread quite scary but the same as the stallion, Cháos is a user of life and death- there was a way out. As for others who were like Dread, she could see them wither.

She hisses, angry that this was a possiblity at all. Poor handsome dragon. Her dragon. Possessiveness that would save the young dragon. Keeping her distance, she focuses once more. This time more effectively as she channels the prokaryotes that flood Dread. They are relentless. He would die if she left him this way. Such help she gives him, surely Dread knew this costed.

As she exhales, she glows a green light that gravitates to Dread. It soaks within him, or so it intends to. Healing him if he allows such. And within the midst of her power, she hums to him. "Mine." Whatever he said after, ultimately did not matter. Like her power element, Cháos is relentless. Dread would heal no matter how many times she had to summon her power.

@Dread

Dread lifted his head, letting out a long and rumbling groan as the magic took effect. There was little more that could be done, in truth: the plague was already fading. He lifted himself up, blinking slowly, the milky haze fading from his eyes.

He was, needless to say, surprised--but more than that, he was relieved. The pain was fading, although even now he could feel that it would take time. Faint strength was returning and that horrific sense of wrong, too, was slipping away, as if it had all been a bad dream.

He pulled himself further upright, panting a little, peering down at his savior--and let out another hot-breathed groan. It suddenly occurred to him that a gift had been given, and he remembered what White had taught him to say, in such circumstances.

"Thank... you..." he grumble-hissed--then waited, peering down. He was puzzling over how this stranger had helped him; and more than that, why.

It did not occur to him that possibly, she might want payment of some kind.

@χάος

[quote='χάος' pid='43522' dateline='1525754409']

A grin threatens her serious tone and it fails to show through- her facades exactly precise; muscles perfect from the cheeks down. But when she watches as he rises far past her, she stared with eyes widened, blinking if they could. He's more grand than she perceived. A valuable asset. A wondrous specimen to breed from. On the verge, approaching her adulthood, formal recreation had been a revisiting thought. And with he, this beast, her prayers (if she prayed at all) were answered.

Now.. to get him to agree to such a proposal of.. closeness. He deemed rather paced with intelligence. Good. A haugty one went unappreciated as Kavish had been. And any as difficult as Reseda would be rejected.

Quickly, she thinks silently after hearing his groan. Tending to him as a mother or even a mate would. She's still spaced from him, careful to remain untouched. She hums, drawing again from her gem to channel more of her power. Consequently, she is draining her power. For how long, she does not know. It's effect itself unknown. Had this dragon observed her favor to him yet? Yet unsaid her motives went, she exhales a fog of viridescent light to his body to be absorbed.

She experienced a mild headache, even her temperature drops. Potentially dangerous for a snake. She then slouches, breathing heavily as if mustering all her forces. Still, she proves relentless. "Not.. finished." She too pants. Her eyes beam forth at him, her pupils oddly dilated as she gains some energy back herself. She rises tall herself, her eleven foot body leveling him(or trying to). "Name?" She even tried to speak in a more simplified sense.. for him.

@Dread

The dragon huffed, the infinite pain slowly, against all odds, fading. It seemed to drain away even more swiftly, the fog lifting from his mind as the snake continued her work. He let out a hiss of approval, twin strands of smoke puffing from his nostrils, and focused for a beat further. He would help--he would help them both, with his heat.

The magic did not answer to him--his weakness noticeable in this regard, or maybe he was not focused enough. Indeed he did not even notice that it hadn't worked.

He turned and peered down, again, at Chaos. She was asking his name, though she seemed tired, and he shook himself, doglike, as if clearing the haze from himself physically.

"Name? No name. I am hot. Hungry." He had simply, up until now, been introducing himself as "hot;" in his own mind, he was two things. One of those things was heat and fire, the other an always-ravening predatory instinct. He loved to hunt, to kill, to breathe fire, therefore, he was "hot."

And "hungry."

Dread waited, peering down, tail swishing slowly over the stone with a quiet rasp of scale on rock. "Good magic?" he queried in his screeching rasp. "YOu have good magic? Help?"

@χάος

"Yez.." Her brows perk. Was this important to him? Help? 'Good magick'? Truth be told, she was a villainous creature. With mindful ways and a impurity so pure, it would've confused many such as the nameless dragon. Much too complex for him or anyone to understand, she lies. Naming herself hero when she was a darkling at heart; a woe & madhatter. Secrecy her newest game. She wouldn't risk causing any dislike from the mighty dragon. She sought his own favor though his maturity missed. She's not discouraged though.

"I have good magick." In a way she did. But she was more powerful in her adversarial focuses. She liked to be above things. Her lust for superiority amazing, possibly unnatural. Had to domesticate things. Even this dragon. But wait, she had great intentions for this boy. She desired to help him, oh yes. And at a tiny cost.. wasn't that fair?

"Warm me?" Devious and daring she sounded. Nearly testing him. She shivers, signaling her own need. If he tried to earlier, it went unnoticed. She'd continue her healing blessings after.


@dread