“And a bath,” Lolliyant added as Oxle’s mouth dropped in shock.
“Uh- Dibs!” he shouted, but corrected himself, “I mean, uh, I’ll help or whatever.”
“Nice try there, slick,” Kiri jumped in, “But I have to heal her anyway so I’ll go with her.”
Lolliyant scoffed, “Why can’t I bath alone?”
“Well,” I reluctantly stepped in, “You are hurt. I wouldn’t want to see you drown.”
She sighed before finally accepting, “Fine, but I get to pick which one of you comes with me.” 

I hoped it wasn’t me. Sure, she didn’t wear clothes so it wouldn’t be anything I hadn’t seen before, but seeing her bath was just… I don’t know. Different? It felt wrong. 

“Come on,” Kiri insisted, “I can heal you. And I’m a girl.”
“Good points,” Lolliyant nodded.
“Well, let’s face it,” Oxle started, “I’m hotter.”
“Sold,” Lolliyant said, shockingly seriously before putting down a hand for Oxle to climb onto. 

Kiri and I watched, dumbstruck by Oxle’s ability to be attracted to a blood covered dragon that just chewed people into meat chunks as Lolliyant walked away with Oxle in her hand. 

“There’s a healing spring down this way,” Lolliyant informed us as she walked off, “So don’t worry about healing me.” 

Kiri and I exchanged a glance. 

“Are they… gonna…?” I trailed off.
“I… hope not,” was all she could assure. 

We shared a laugh as the realities of what our situation really was sank in. We were standing at the edge of a dragon’s lair, staring out over a sea of grass and blood that leaked into the fissure that stemmed from the crater made by Lolliyant’s rage. Broken bodies littered that sea and tainted the once so beautiful field with the very human element of war, something I had grown up preparing for. I was a knight, specially built to kill without remorse, but seeing the aftermath of this… slaughter was almost too much for me to take. 

“Kiri?” I asked, “Were we wrong?”
“Wrong?” she repeated.
I sighed, “I think we made a mistake by making Lolliyant fight.”
“What?” Kiri questioned, “She would’ve died!”
“But we could’ve stopped that!” I argued, “I think we poked a bear here.” 

Kiri didn’t say anything. She just casually sat down in the grass and looked over the setting sun that struck the crimson field with a pink shimmer that would’ve been beautiful if created by anything else. I sat next to her. 

“If you’re right…” Kiri started, “And I’m not saying you are, but if you are… we just started a war. And we’re on the wrong side.” 

I suddenly felt a warmth in my hand and looked down to see Kiri had subtly put her hand in mine. 

“We’re gonna die?” she asked.
“Probably.”
“You think it’ll be fun till then?”
“Probably.” 

The meadow fell to a silence that could only be matched by the gallows after a drop and it lingered until the comfortable peace dissolved into a bubbling mess of tension and unease. 

“By the way,” Kiri said, finally breaking the tension, “You tell anyone about this and I will kill you.”
“Sex- uh- crap!” I stuttered and got a confused look from Kiri, “Secret, not sex. Secret. Secret’s safe with me.”
“Smooth,” she remarked dryly. 

A subtle fear in my stomach kept me thinking that this would be the calm before the storm, but as Kiri leaned against me and the world melted away into a blur of sunlight and a breeze… I decided it was a pretty good calm.