Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 63: Shut it

Clove shot to his feet as soon as he heard a pained groan. His muscles ached and his bones cracked as his fingers elongated.

He was ready to fight, yet there was no enemy to thrash. Fern was the only one here with him.

"Where...?" Fern asked weakly. She hissed as pain coursed through her entire body.

"I... Honestly, I don’t know." Clove laughed just as weakly, each breath draining his energy.

He really didn’t know how they got here—wherever that was. They were still in the Eserian, but the grove was nowhere in sight.

"I submitted to my bloodline and brought us here. I...think?" Clove turned to Fern. "I don’t remember much after turning. The dragonflames nearly got to me, and I never really carried anyone with me as a full-fledged Inugami."

"You submitted?" Fern pressed her lips tightly together, her vibrant golden eyes dimmer than ever. "How much did you lose?"

Clove only shrugged at that. "A lot" would be the appropriate answer, but that was all he could say at this moment.

"You’re not recovering." He pointed out the obvious instead. While most of his severe wounds had already begun to heal, or had already recovered enough to be called mild, Fern actually looked worse than before.

"I am fi—" Fern tried to sit up, but her arms were still disfigured and didn’t move like she wanted. She slipped and ended up in a fit of cursing and crying.

"No, you’re not." Clove approached her. "You need help."

What they did next was something he would have loved to forget right away. Even better would have been if it had never actually happened. Clove bent down before Fern, their eyes saying more than a thousand words could. Then he began fixing her broken bones.

"Bite on that." He handed her a branch of Ironwood, which she placed between her teeth without a second thought.

Clove cursed his fortune but moved onward. He broke her bones. Over and over again.

The sound of breaking bones rang in his ears, and the image of Fern biting down on the ironwood branch, tears streaking down her cheeks, imprinted itself on his mind. Her muffled screams echoed in his mind a thousand times, which only worsened as her breathing grew rougher by the minute.

"Fuck that shit!" Clove made out Fern’s curse, making him stop.

She glared at him through teary eyes. "What? Am I not allowed to curse at such a god-forsaken time?"

That was a good point. Clove nodded reluctantly, but he couldn’t quite believe that Fern was actually cursing. Next, he continued fixing her bones, the sensation even more disgusting than he imagined.

It was probably a good thing that Clove wasn’t breaking someone’s bones for the first time. He’d seen the Dryads do it often as well. If only one of them were with them. They’d heal their burns and fix Fern in a heartbeat. Or a day. Probably a day, considering Fern’s state.

"I cannot fix your rib cage, so...I can only hope your body knows what it’s doing. If not, we will have to search for a healer in the Forea Alliance or somewhere," Clove said once he was done.

"You." Fern met his eyes, her golden eyes a little brighter than before. "You don’t think the Dryads made it out of the grove in time?"

Clove didn’t want to respond. Responding felt like acknowledging what happened in the Eserian Grove. That the grove no longer existed. That everything they once considered home was no more.

"The Elders are dead. They couldn’t fight the dragon. Nobody could. It thrashed us effortlessly." Clove grit his teeth.

Fern looked into the distance and let out a heavy sigh. "I hope Xavier is fine."

Clove snorted. "He’s probably more than fine. Knowing him, he’s probably stirring trouble somewhere else."

"You don’t think he’s at fault for the dragon’s arrival?" Fern asked, glancing at Clove from the side.

"Xavier? How would he be at fault for that?" Clove narrowed his eyes at her. "Because he’s human? Don’t be foolish. Even if I don’t particularly like humans, even I know that some good humans exist. It’s just the Zetrian Empire that’s a mess. And, well, maybe a few more kingdoms, both human and others." He waved dismissively. "Xavier is fine, and so are the majority of humans in the Forea Alliance."

He looked away and muttered, "He’s a thousand times better than my own people."

"I agree. He’s a good guy. A great mate." Fern smiled but grimaced when her burns hurt once again.

"Ask the Eserian for aid. Or Naturar," Clove said, guiding Fern to an ancient tree. He made sure her back was comfortably pressed against the tree. She closed her eyes for a moment, and the Lifeveins beneath her skin started to glow. That was good enough for Clove.

"About Xavier." Clove sat down beside Fern once he was sure she’d heal. "As long as he makes you happy, I am happy for you as well."

Fern opened one eye ever so slightly. "As long as he doesn’t spend most of his day training with you for the rest of our lives, he will make me happy."

"I can’t promise that. Training is important." Clove snickered, but a trace of seriousness lingered.

Training was indeed important. Maybe, with enough training, they could have stopped the Nature Dragon. No, they would have probably failed anyway. A dragon, no matter what kind, wasn’t something the Eserian Grove’s fae could have fought under any circumstances. However, more than the two of them would have survived if the Elders had been training more often.

Instead of training, or hunting of any kind, the Elders focused more on the grove, its beauty, and ways to provide more luxury to its residents. While not entirely useless, Clove never understood how the Elders could neglect their combat prowess this much.

They had grown complacent, which didn’t change even when the times had. The Eserian sent them a warning with the Hnolls and monstrosities born from its desperate attempts to defend against the Zetrian Empire, and they had ignored them.

That, however, did not explain the dragon.

What did we do to deserve a dragon’s wrath? He wondered while Fern turned away.

"I need some rest." She muttered.

"Sweet dreams." Clove smiled. "But don’t dream too much about Xavier. I don’t want to wake up to you moaning."

"Shut it, Clove." A branch whipped at him, clipping the back of his head. He let out an exaggerated yelp and fell to the ground in a theatrical way.

Then, his eyes closed, and a few minutes later, they were both fast asleep.