Progress Update + Snippet of new chap

Heya.

Yeah, I ran over the expected time. After doing a re-read, I didn't like what I had and decided a redo was in order. It's not a total re-write, but I do want another day or two to get it just right. Sorry about that.

Here is a bit from the new chapter that I decided to keep. I hope this little bit can tide you over until I finish up.

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“Why wasn’t I told that Sala was still alive?”

Zinnia’s biting question is the first thing spoken as everyone sits down in the hut Lee and Co have called home for the last six weeks.

Seated across from Zinnia with Danae at her side, Elder Juniper sighs deeply. “We thought him gone as well, granddaughter,” she speaks, each word weary. “When we found him beside what remained of Aster, he was delirious with grief, and we could not approach for fear of his aimless wraith. Then he took to the skies, flying to Metron’fall Krate, and we could not pursue, for we had to prepare the final rites of Aster. We feared he wished for solitude, to expire from a broken heart in peace.” Juniper closes her eyes. “Weeks after Aster left into the sweet embrace of the ancestors, he returned, curling by her grave and refusing to hear any words spoken to him.”

Zinnia’s frown is decidedly unsatisfied. “That still doesn’t explain why I wasn’t told.”

“We assumed you knew, Thelban. We assumed that of all our tribesmen, you would have gone to pay respects countless times and seen him,” Danae doesn’t meet Zinnia’s eyes.

Her frown transforming into a frustrated snarl, Zinnia turns her head and growls. Whether she’s upset with herself or the elders, Lee isn’t sure.

Sitting with Zinnia in the couch with Ninetales standing to his right, Lee swaps between listening to the conversation to looking out the window, where Sala lays curled up just outside the hut.

It's no wonder Zinnia wasn’t concerned about Sala when he finally lost the energy to keep fighting. The brute got back up within ten minutes, many of his wounds already scabbing over. Even then, though, Lee’s first instinct was to treat the dragon’s wounds. Sala tried to ward him away with a snarl, but Lee wasn’t having any of that.

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“Don’t give me that shit,” Lee answers Sala’s snarl with a seldom-used scowl. “You lost, bud, and I know how dragons handle things like this. Your fate is in our-” he gestures to himself, a smirking Sceptile, a stone-faced Salamence, and an amused Zinnia “-hands. If I say I want to fix you up, you’re in no position to complain.”

Lee drops his bag, unzips it, and fishes around inside, producing a Sitris berry and a capped Super Potion. He thrusts the berry towards a flabbergasted Sala. “Now eat this and hang tight.”

Still stunned, Sala takes the offered berry with care. The apple-sized fruit is comically small between the dragon’s teeth and is swallowed without needing to be chewed.

Lee watches with a self-assured nod, then clambers into Sala’s back, uncapping his potion and giving the gory wing-joint wound a critical look. “This is going to sting, just a heads-up.”

Sala sends a glance towards Sceptile, who just shakes his head. “Don’t fight it, you won’t win,” the Grass-type's amused growl seems to say.

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With the worst of Sala’s wounds taken care of, the great dragon was able to fly all the way back to the Meteorfall Crater at Lee and Zinnia’s behest, though he did pause to give Aster’s resting place a mournful glance. It was surreal to see all the grumpy dragons nesting around the crater’s entrance duck their heads or even vacate the area as Sala flew in.

‘I guess Sala is still a big deal to the locals, even after years of being absent,’ Lee muses.

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Thankee much for your patience,

Fuggmann.