Feyra had heard this roar and immediately thought of one thing: A dragon!
This roar could have only come from a dragon. She stood up and tried to locate where the roar had come from before she started to walk in that direction.
Somewhere between the trees there was a bigger open space and the creature lying in this round shape, slightly hidden by the crowns of the trees should an enemy try to find it, was a dragon.
Feyra went to the dragon, walking slowly and calm towards it.
"What do you want?", the dragon asked Feyra in her mind speaking in the draconic language.
"I heard your roar and I see that your right wing is injured.", Feyra answered back.
"You speak the draconic language? How?", the dragon asked looking at her with its eyes.
Feyra stood there with a smile. "I learned it a long time ago from a book."
The dragon raised it's head and sniffed at Feyra for a while.
"Fallen Angel you reek.", the dragon said moving its head slightly back.
Feyra was quiet for a moment. Did the dragon mean she should bathe again!?
"I know I smell a little bit bad. I'm sorry."
"No you reek like all those other Fallen Angels. You can't get rid of this smell. Though it's good for me to know I can trust you.", the dragon said and Feyra looked surprised.
"Your knowledge must be great. It's an honour to meet you. My name is Feyra and I'm as you already said a Fallen Angel."
The dragon closed its eyes slowly in acknowledgement before opening them slowly again.
"This wise and great one is Aphel.", the dragon said moving its front paws slightly forward.
Dragons were truly astonishing and a little funny occasionally. They were big and could be destructive but when someone knew dragons as a friend one noticed how similar they acted to cats.
Some people even describe them as wise, big destructive cats with scales. I suppose it fits.
The dragon tried to move its tail out of habit but had to stop as it was in pain.
"Your tail got injured too? How did that happen? Were you the one who summoned this storm yesterday?", Feyra asked looking at the dragon and its wounds. She felt sorry for Aphel as dragons usually have hard scales that make it almost unable for them to get injured.
"A caster tried to hunt me. She was smiling crazy the whole time. With her staff in her right hand she was able to injure my tail and wing. Though I also scratched her once, when I saw the blood and how she didn't stop smiling I only knew that fleeing was my only choice. If I had fought her just a little longer I would've died.", Aphel said turning his head to Feyra who was looking at the injured wing.
"Your wing is broken. Let me help you.",
"It's late though. Rest for now. I let you have a place under my wing so wind and weather won't disturb you.", Aphel said and lifted his left wing.
Feyra thanked him and leaned on his body before she fell asleep.
The next morning Feyra woke up and was greeted by Aphel who was truly more acting like a cat now rubbing his nose on Feyra.
"Awake?"
"Ugh... Did I sleep in?", she asked rubbing her eyes and standing up. She was a little wobbly on her legs trying to stand up too fast but soon adjusted to it. She went to a water source and washed her face to get a little bit more awake.
"I'm going to look for some materials to stabilise your wing and get some medicine for you. Try to stay hidden if possible. I'll also try to find something I can use for your tail.", Feyra said in the draconic language before moving and walking the path further. For now she needed to find something that could help stabilise the wing. Some sturdy branches would be good so she started by looking at various branches she saw.
Mostly she didn't want to break off any from the trees and looked at the ones on the ground. Yet most of them didn't seem good enough for a dragon.
"Ugh... I'm still so full and my head is done for.", a voice from afar drifted to Feyra's ears. It seemed there were travelers who had enjoyed a long night with some alcohol based on the complaints they made.
"Well we have an empty barrel now...", another one of them mentioned.
Feyra was wondering who these people were but she also wondered if she could ask them for help.
"Ah crap! There is something in the bushes!", the voice from before said and got scared.
Feyra emerged from the bushes and waved with her right hand. "Hello. I'm sorry for disturbing you. Are you travelers too?"
The group of three looked at her. There was one lean young man who had a short beard and also wore leather armour. He had a sword hanging on his side.
The other guy had a bit more of a round figure and wore normal clothes. He was still sitting on the ground so Feyra guessed he had been the one complaining beforehand.
The last member of the group was a woman who wore leather armour too and had a bow on her back.
"Another traveler?", the woman asked looking a little suspicious at Feyra.
"Seems like it.", the young man said.
"Isn't she suspicious? Look at her hair colour and who would come through the bushes rather than use a path?", the woman asked, now looking even more suspiciously at Feyra.
Feyra just smiled not thinking of anything.
"How can you judge her when you haven't even... Forget it... Discussing with you is a pain in the ass.", the young man said turning around and helping the other guy up.
"Thank you. If I'm allowed to also say my opinion I suppose she isn't like us. Weren't we taught that there are also Immortals and other kinds of people?", the guy said having a surprisingly high and soft voice for a guy.
"Dummy! An Immortal doesn't have such a hair colour!", the woman said pointing at Feyra.
"If I may interrupt... I'm a Fallen Angel.", Feyra said trying to ease the tension a little.
"And where are your wings?", the woman asked with a serious face.
"My wings? I hide them because else my clothes would rip and I would always have to fix them. And it's more convenient when I lie on my side if I hide them."
Now the group looked dumbfounded at her.
"Didn't I tell you? She is something like an Immortal. Though we have been taught that Fallen Angels often have wings and peculiar hair colour so I suppose we can trust her. From the rest we were told it's said that Fallen Angels rarely lie and those that do seem to not interact a lot with humans. Since you're here you have interacted more with humans than those we should avoid."
The woman looked at the guy even more dumbfounded.
"How can you trust her so easily!?"
The man just shook his head before stepping between his two companions.
"Enough. Flore is right. She has a peculiar hair colour... Wait... Do you have patterns on your hair looking like spilled ink?", he said turning to Feyra.
Feyra turned around and showed the full length of her hair which has the exact patterns the man had asked for.
"Okay the debate is over. She definitely is a Fallen Angel.", the man said and both of his companions fell quiet.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Mattes and the guy with the little belly is Flore. The woman is Najenda. What's your name?", Mattes said holding his hand towards Feyra.
Feyra was a little confused on Mattes' gesture but she soon understood that he wanted a handshake.
"My name is Feyra. Nice to meet you too."
"So is there anything you need or want?", Mattes asked seeing that Feyra held some branches in her left hand.
"Oh I need some sturdy pieces of wood and something I could use as bandages.", she said looking at the branches and showing them to the group. Najenda looked at them thoroughly before looking around. "I think we have something more sturdy."
She went to the side and found a large piece of wood that was from a tree that had fallen over.
"We can cut it smaller."
Flore, Mattes and Feyra followed her and looked at the tree. The bark was sturdy and fitting to the purpose that Feyra needed it for.
"I need a long piece that isn't too thin but also not too thick.", she said knocking against the bark. Luckily it didn't give off a hollow sound relieving one of Feyra's worries a bit.
After having discussed how big she needed it, Flore had started to work and cut the bark in the right shape and size.
In the meantime Mattes, Najenda and Feyra went to try and gather some other materials Feyra had asked.
"All of these planst are herbs. What do you intend to do with them?", Mattes asked bringing them back to Feyra.
"I want to make a salve helping with recovery. I need a pot too for that."
Najenda also came and brought even more herbs.
"I'm versed in medicine too but those herbs seem mostly useless for humans. What do you need them for?"
"I found an injured dragon and want to help him."
Mattes and Najenda looked dumbfounded and surprised at Feyra again.
"A dragon!?", they exclaimed at the same time unable to believe what Feyra was saying.
She explained the situation to them and after that they seemed to understand and calm down a bit.
Only Flore learned of it later and had almost the same reaction to it besides the fact that he immediately started speaking of the knowledge he had on dragons.
"Dragons are great creatures but they're also rare. That you managed to find one is truly... Remarkable.", he said and showed the piece of wood to Feyra.
"I've tried my best to remove any sharp parts but I don't have all the tools to make it perfect. I hope this works."
"This should be fine.", Feyra said and took the piece and looked at it from every side.
"Don't you need something like bandages then too?", Najenda asked crossing her arms.
"Yes, as I've already said I need something I could use as bandages."
Mattes looked through the stuff they had until he seemed to find something.
"It's no bandage or something but I found a spare pot.", he said and Feyra seemed excited seeing the pot.
"Great."
"Hmmm... Where could we get something like bandages from? I know there is a village nearby so perhaps we could go to them and ask if they have something.", Najenda suggested but was met with disapproval.
"The village is too far away. Don't we have any cloth or so we got on our travels?", Mattes asked rummaging through the big bag standing next to Flore.
"There is one thing I wanted to ask already but... The name Flore doesn't seem to come from around here. Are you perhaps from further away?", Feyra asked Flore.
Flore nodded and showed with his finger in the northwest.
"I come from a smaller country in the northwest. You have great knowledge too to know that. These two picked me up there as I was thrown out of the house for eating too much. I seem to have a never ending hunger. Luckily our bag is big enough to fit enough food for me. And Najenda also said that if I travel with them it's going to be better than if I stay home."
Seems like another condition I had read about in that book. He can be lucky Najenda seems to try and prevent a fate that's worse for him, Feyra thought nodding.
Mattes seemed to have found some old cloth and showed it to Feyra who nodded and approved of it.
"Thank you. It's getting quite late. May I borrow your pot?", she asked.
"What for?", Najenda asked, and Mattes and Flore were looking expectantly at her.
"For mushrooms for dinner!"