Chapter 51 41. Complications

It was a difficult goodbye the following morning. The dragon and rider hadn’t been truly apart since their bonding in Fellrock three weeks prior. Even when Safraxi avoided Tifse for a few days, they were in range of the bond. They could feel each other’s presences, even if they didn’t talk.

The idea that the two had started out hating each other felt bizarre now, in hindsight. Safraxi couldn’t imagine living without her Pipsqueak again. It really was like Amjazel said, losing a rider could be incredibly traumatizing. She hoped never to experience it. She feared just going a few days without Tifse.

A rider bond did at least have a few hundred miles of range, though because of Safraxi’s youth it was likely closer to one hundred still. The two promised each other that they’d keep chatting the whole time until Safraxi finally moved beyond their limit.

Once again Safraxi and Idami found themselves on a shipping barge, this time headed all the way to Fellrock with a shipment of, ironically, steel. The captain seemed wary of accepting the draconic passengers, plus Magli, but after a hefty deposit into his own pockets from Safraxi’s hoard he agreed.

Safraxi and Tifse stood at the edge of the docks, before sun up even, just enjoying each other’s company. Safraxi had lain down on the stones along the docks, and Tifse was hugging her entire head and stroking her snout comfortingly. Tifse was much more concerned for Safraxi than for herself.

The dragon’s emotional state was far improved from where she was when they’d left Fellrock. In fact, the coldmark had even begun to shrink again. It had gone from covering her entire head and parts of her neck to resting on the top of her head like a skull cap. It gave them both some hope that they could both go back to normal, even if neither of them wanted to talk about it out loud. They were worried they would jinx it.

“Oi, dragons! It’s time to go.” One of the crew from the deck called down.

Safraxi startled at the yell and nearly knocked her rider into the water, however, she managed to catch her by the scruff of her tunic before she went in, and pull her back up. “Sorry, Pipsqueak. Hah. All this time and I’m still knocking you around on accident.”

“Eh, I guess you’re just a klutz. It’s cute.” The fox regained her footing and gave her dragon one more kiss on the snout before she had to depart. “I should get back to Tani, too. We don’t know how much time we have to find her fiance.”

“Yeah. Don’t get into too much trouble, Pipsqueak.” Safraxi licked her over her forehead, flattening the little bit of odd irregular fuzz that usually rested between her ears. “I’ll see you in a week.”

“See you in a week, Icebrains.” She patted Safraxi’s snout. Neither of them moved.

“Hey! I said it’s time to go! You want on or not?” The crewman yelled again. Magli and Idami had both already boarded.

Safraxi quickly turned and trotted up the gangplank, making her best apologetic nod to the sailor. “I’ll see you in a week, Pipsqueak! I’ll miss you!”

“I’ll miss you too!” Tifse watched as the gangplank was pulled up, and the ship began preparing to set sail. She didn’t move from her spot until the ship was already leaving the dock, and making its way out of the harbor entirely. Safraxi hadn’t even left her range and she was already beginning to feel as if something were missing. “It’s all a part of the plan. It’s all a part of the plan.” She told herself as she finally turned and began walking back to the palace. “Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for family...”

The winds were strong, and in the boat’s favor today. Safraxi couldn’t decide if this was lucky, or cruel. After only three hours it was already getting hard to speak with Tifse. The fox was already on the hunt with Tani, and unfortunately couldn’t give Safraxi her full attention. It was taking as much strain for them to talk now as it had when they were first learning how to communicate telepathically at the academy.

“Hey, Safraxi.” Idami interrupted her niece’s depressed stare out over the horizon, back toward her rider.

“Hm? What’s up?” The blue dragon glanced up at her aunt, dejected. She hadn’t felt like this in… she didn’t know when. Usually if she was upset she was furious, even if it were with herself. Having nobody to blame and just feeling down was unusual for her.

“Well, I remember no one being able to show you how to use your breath before. Their instructions for fire didn’t work. I haven’t really tried yet, myself. I don’t know which I’ll have.” The orange dragon stepped up and rested her head on her niece’s. “Want to give me some lessons?”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess.” Safraxi sighed and relaxed a bit more at Idami’s touch. “What do we do? Just hang out heads off the back of the boat and try to squeeze one out?”

“Yeah! But don’t phrase it that way, I’m begging you. There should be just enough space for us to squeeze between the cargo and move around on deck this time.” She bumped her snout-horn against Safraxi’s jaw and lead her between the palettes of stacked steel. The materials were so dense that the boat couldn’t carry as much, which fortunately permitted them to roam the deck more. The two dragons simply had to be careful about moving around gently. The boat was already bearing a lot of weight.

“Alright… I kinda figured mine out by accident.” Safraxi made it to the back and hung her head off the aft railing. “It’s… different than how everyone described their fire breath to me. Mom and Rubis always called it your ‘flame heart’, like, a sort of pit in the core of your chest that you pull the magic from. But for me, it came more from the base of my neck, sort of from where my roar comes from. I guess I’d call it a… I don’t know. Ice… lung? Ice heart?”

“Ice heart works.” Idami giggled. “Mind if I ask a quick off topic question?”

“Huh? Go for it.” Safraxi tilted her head at the former-weasel in confusion.

Idami considered how best to phrase things for a moment before speaking again. “Did you mean to call Amjazel mom just now?”

Safraxi’s jaws gaped open for a moment in shock, but slowly she shook her head. “I guess… that’s the second time I’ve done it. I think. Memories between Safi, Raxi, and Fraxi are hard to untangle sometimes. I… think? I’m Fraxi right now? I heard from Tifse that Whiskers called Emren mom too, but I’m not gonna count that. And... I guess I did call Emren mom a few days ago, too. So... yeah, Mom.”

“You don’t seem embarrassed.” Idami grinned and hung her neck out over the water again. She made a few sad wheeze sounds as she tried her own breath attack again, but did achieve a few small bursts of sparkling ice as she froze the moisture in the air. “H-holy shit! I did it!”

“I guess-” Safraxi’s eyes went wide at the small spray of cold. “You did it! Holy shit... you’re an ice dragon too!” She perked up and bumped her horns against her aunt’s. “I’m not the only one! Hahaha!” She felt ready to jump straight off of the boat and do a loop in excitement after seeing that. She wasn’t the only one anymore!

“I- that was weird.” Idami stuck her tongue out and scraped a claw over her tongue, where her saliva had frozen into a film. “How do you stop it from doing that?”

“Oh, you know, I guess I haven’t had that problem. Maybe you didn’t stick it out far enough? I gotta tell Tifse about this!” Safraxi stared back at the horizon, toward Tifse again. She reached her mind out to the rider, straining to make contact. “Hey Pipsqueak. Just checking in again.”

Tifse and Tani had returned to the palace now. Following the lead from a guard that she’d bribed had gone nowhere. She and Tani had just done a loop around the base of one of the mountains, searching for a trail that she couldn’t find any sign of. The two were grabbing lunch back at the palace now, but were going to get back out and keep searching for new leads as soon as they were done.

“Nothing much has happened. Just… dead ends and red herrings.” She sipped from her wine and rested her cheek on her hand. She must have slept worse than she realized the previous night.

“Well, guess what. Idami’s got ice too! I’m not as much as a freak anymore!” Safraxi would be grinning like an idiot if she had the lips to do it. All of her giddiness and relief was washing over the link into Tifse as well.

“That’s... good...” Tifse wasn’t sure why she was so flat about it. She should be excited for her dragon and her dragon’s aunt, here. Was she getting sleepy all of a sudden? “Is the weather good out there at… least…” Her head was beginning to swim. “Wine… What was in the-” Feared spiked through her as she dropped the goblet.

“Ugh… what a waste of energy it was dragging you through the desert.” Tani sighed as she stood from the opposite side of the table. Tifse hadn’t even registered until now that her sister hadn’t had a single sip of it. “You really thought you could steal from the family?”

The rider shot to her feet. She couldn’t see straight after drinking whatever it was they’d slipped her. “G-get away- from me.” She tried to draw her sword but fumbled it. Her fingers weren’t responding the way they were supposed to. She was only still standing at all because of the draconic magic flowing through her. “Why…?”

“Because I’m not the bargaining chip for the negotiations coming up, you are.” Tani kicked away the khopesh. “You just happened to give us the perfect opportunity to hand you over. I would have preferred to keep the gold from the vault, too. But I wasn’t about to try messing with a dragon too.”

“Safraxi… Safraxi won’t…” The fox toppled forward, her consciousness leaving her and… Reappearing elsewhere? Suddenly she was staring at Idami, rather than Tani.

“Idami?” She tried to exclaim, but instead her lips uttered “grargrareh?” That wasn’t right. Why was there so much white in the center of her vision? Everything felt so sharp all of a sudden. She could smell the lake, the wood on the boat, the dragon in front of her… She looked down, and was greeted with a blue neck and chest, and legs. “Am I in Safraxi’s body?”

Idami blinked in surprise at the words. She could still sense Safraxi here, but Tifse had suddenly become the more distinguishable presence. “Tifse? How did you-”

“I can’t be here! My body it’s-” She tried to run for the front of the boat, but tripped on her own feet and slammed face first into a three foot tall stack of steel ingots, right between the horns, and was out like a light.

Axe slowly began to drift awake. Its head hurt as if someone had been roasting its brain over an open fire. Its senses all felt strangely dull as well. It was someplace so dark it couldn’t even see. After a moment, it rolled over and attempted to stand. Judging by the movement of her arms it was bipedal right now, but it all felt off. Its proportions weren’t right. Its tail was too light, its center of gravity too far forward.

It winced as it made it to an upright position. Its headache wasn’t any better sitting up. It tried to remember what had last happened… it was on a boat, Tifse was back in Salafir… Right, the wine. Fraxi had been talking to Tifse, and the panic was coming through, and it had… right. It had stepped in to take control of the situation on instinct.

“Dammit…” The words came out in Tifse’s voice, not its. That confirmed it. Axe was so used to stepping in when Safraxi was in danger, it hadn’t even considered the consequences if it did it then. It reached out with its mind for the rest: Safi, Fraxi, Raxi, Whiskers, Tifse, anybody, but met dead silence. They were out of range now. Tifse must have been shunted into the dragon’s body just as it was shunted into the desert fox’s body.

It felt… wrong. It had never been alone like this. The others were always there, even if none of them, except maybe Whiskers, realized that the others existed. Axe only came out when they were in danger, or needed to get shit done. It had been the one to steal the sapphire back from Tifse, break through the wall to Clem’s shop, dragged Audirei away from Tifse, body slammed Magli in the cell... and… been the first to use the body’s ice breath. Even it could admit it wasn’t its greatest moment. It had tried to come out more sparingly after that. No one seemed happy with it after that one.

Jumping into Tifse’s body to try and help her when she was already seconds away from passing out was, once again, not its best work. It had technically kept its rider safe, but her body was still in danger. She probably couldn’t even switch back now, the boat was still moving away. If the rest of Safraxi was coming for her then it would be out by now. That much she knew.

So why hadn’t they come then?

Tifse groaned as her eyes cracked open again. Magli was bent down over her, gently rubbing her neck and saying something to her. She just couldn’t quite make out the words. She opened her mouth to speak and a guttural throaty groan echoed out instead of words. Right. She was in Safraxi’s body. Did that mean Safraxi was in her body back in Stefaial?

“Right here, Pipsqueak.” Fraxi responded. It just felt… different. It didn’t feel as it was coming from another connected mind. There was something more local about it.

“Fraxi? I thought you-” She groaned and tried to force herself into a sitting position. Her head was sore as if she had bashed it into something…

“You did, actually. Bash it into something. Sorry.” Safi’s presence made itself known as well.

“Yeah, you bashed our head, nice going, Pipsqueak.” Tifse could hear the eye roll in Raxi’s mental voice. “Looks like you’re in control still.”

“Axe is missing.” Whiskers practically whispered from the deepest corner of their shared mind.

“Wait, we left her behind? Fuck, she’s probably tearing shit up.” Fraxi mentally chuckled. “Welcome to the party though.”

“Is it normally like this in here? You can talk and everything?” Tifse had managed to raise her head up and look Magli in the eye, but she still felt disoriented. It looked as if they were in the mountains now, making their way up river. How long had she been unconscious?

“No, this is new. You shoving all of us to the sideline is helping us play nice I guess.” Raxi clarified, with a bit of impatience. “We’ve gotta go get Axe, though!”

“Hey, Safraxi, you good?” Magli poked the dragon between the eyes. “You were out for a while.”

“How… how long is a while?” Tifse responded. “I’m- it’s Tifse. My body is in trouble back in Salifir! We left Axe behind!”

“Which one was Axe again…?” Magli rubbed her chin. “Was that the snake?”

“What does it matter? Someone got left behind!” Idami seemed just as panicked as Tifse. “Tifse says there’s trouble, we have to go back!”

“Yeah, we should have them turn the boat around!” Tifse tried to stand, and collapsed into Idami instead. Moving around in this body was harder than it seemed from her mental contact with Safraxi before. Moving one limb at a time to mess with her or moving through her body on accident was completely different. “Someone else needs to take over. I can’t move right!”

“Yeah, been trying.” Fraxi was straining to get control again. “We still don’t know how to do it on command. It just sort of happens sometimes.”

“Whiskers, you took over my body on purpose before! Can you do it again with this one?” Tifse turned her attention to the child hiding in the depths of their mind. Surely she could do something. She always seemed to know more than the others.

“No… you’re stuck.” The little voice giggled. “I don’t know how.”

“Then just go talk to the people sailing the boat for Tiamat’s sake!” Raxi bellowed. “There’s no way you can fly if you can barely walk! Have you not paid attention when we’re flying?”

“Look, following you doing it and doing it myself are two very different things!” The blue dragon was stumbling and falling over every few feet trying to make it to the helm.

“Hey, hey, Tifse.” Magli made it around her and cut her off. “You can’t ask the captain yourself anyway. Your mouth?”

“Right… shit. Fuck! Ask for me! I’m not letting Axe be used as a bargaining chip in my place!” She growled at the moose. At least she could do that right.

“No.” The doe crossed her arms and shook her head with finality. “Think about it, we already have them exactly where we want them. If they’re using her as a bargaining chip she won’t be hurt until after negotiations. That just means we have to be fast.”

“But- but what are they going to do with her? Offer her up to the chief of the Northern Reaches? Offer her up in MY body?” She collapsed back down in defeat, almost landing on top of the moose.

Magli regained her balance against another stacked pallet of steel as she was nearly crushed, quickly switching to mental communication. “We don’t know, but we can also use the steel recipe as a bargaining chip against the chief ourselves. We could just convince him to hand Axe over to us in return, and then let him fuck over your dad even harder!”

Tifse faltered. Damn. Magli made a good point. “Then… we have to be fast. I don’t know what they’d do with Axe if my dad handed her over to him. We’ve already lost three days out of the six before the negotiations start.”

“But the negotiations will also last a few days.” Idami reminded her gently. “I don’t think we could get them to turn this boat around now anyway. If Safraxi manages to take control again on the way out she can fly you back, and you can rescue Axe. How is that?”

“Plus, this is Safraxi, or a part of her, that we’re talking about. If anyone will find a way to weasel out of their grip and get on the run it’s her.” Magli patted the dragon’s back.

Idami gave the moose a bit of side eye for the phrasing, but also nodded to confirm. “We’ll manage. She’ll manage.”

“Yeah… yeah. Okay.” Tifse’s panic was still simmering, threatening to boil over again, but she didn’t feel as ready to explode as she did before. “I guess it’s up to you guys to figure out how to get control back.” She directed internally to the different versions of her dragon at the edges of her mind. These next few days would be agonizingly slow if she couldn’t give them control again.