Chapter 45: Mother of all Puddles

Sylph jolted awake, much like after a far too realistic dream, and started to question reality. Not even opening her eyes, she felt the cold, wet cotton cling to her side and her tail resting against her chest. She could have absorbed the water, but a fluffy carpet did not magically dry overnight without magical aid that she hesitated to reveal.

A calloused and rough pfod shook her by the shoulder and left a stinging sensation as it did. “Leave me alone,” she grumbled and pushed away the guard’s arm with ease, noting how unexpectedly thin it was. She slowly uncurled until the pull of the chain around her neck stopped her stretching. Last night’s fury returned to her muscles like wind rekindled a fire when she became aware of the heavy collar. Nahana would pay for this.

The guard was alone, a young Sol barely older than herself, with scales like sun-scorched mud and no muscle to speak off. They did not even give him any armor. “Wake up,” he grunted, or rather squeaked, as he moved to unhook the chain from the wall. His twitchy gaze stayed pointed at Sylph at all times, and she could not help to think that he somehow lost an internal bet.

Seizing the opportunity, Sylph jumped forward and jabbed the guard straight in the snout with her right. He recoiled, sneezed, dropped the chain, and sneezed again. Using the precious seconds, Sylph grabbed the chain and darted for the door.

Only a single pfod crossed the threshold before five guards jumped her. She sidestepped the first, but the second and third had already cornered and seized her. Her dragonheart burned hotter, desperately trying to keep standing, but her legs buckled under their combined weight. She tried to force them off, but it was ineffective. She considered her weapon, but against so many it would only slightly jolt them all.

She reached for everything in range, leather, metal, and scales, scratched a few limbs, but ultimately her struggle proved futile and they had rendered every limb of her immobile. One guard peeked into the room and breathed an audible sigh of relief. “He is fine.”

The youngest guard clutched his bleeding nose. “Fhe punfed me.”

“Did you really send the new guy to wake me? What are you? Scared?” Or, knowing Nahana, this scenario tested to see if she was submissive enough to follow a guard she could easily beat up. Which, on second thought, would have made her escape easier later if she had not. But, on third thought, she could not be sure what would happen next, so she should take every chance that presented itself.

The largest Metia, a male with a bronze sheen, bent down towards her and pulled up her head by her horns. “Will you follow of your own accord?”

She glanced at the colorful assortment of guards. There was no reason to fight or run at the moment. “Fine. Where are you taking me?”

“To the baths.” The first guard let go of her head, nodded, and the others let her limbs go free. The chain remained firmly wrapped around the arm of the large guard, and Sylph doubted she could even move him an inch with her full strength.

Sylph knew Nahana would wait for her. The iron collar bit into her neck like horrible flat teeth grinding on her scar. She turned her head toward Brandon’s room as they passed. Hopefully, her actions would only get her punished, not him. Perhaps she should follow Arastra’s advice to play along.

The air grew thick with hot moisture the lower they descended and even thicker with anticipation. Nahana’s gaze settled on her as soon as she passed the threshold of the bath door, eyeing her up like an annoying fly. Being her daughter would hopefully save her from the worst. Nahana needed her. What punishment ultimately awaited her, she could only guess.

Two servants accompanied Nahana. She recognized them as Elina, the Aer dragoness with almost black scales and Biscuit, the Sol speckled like a cookie. They stood at the ready near the cupboard, armed with brushes, cloth, and soap, and exchanged curious and confused glances between them. Her gut realized what the punishment was, but refused to put the thought into words to preserve that sliver of ignorance.

Nahana floated in the back of the pool, standing on two legs exactly in front of the drain. Perhaps she knew how Sylph evaded her guard, or she blocked off all exists. Through the crystal clear waters, Sylph saw the bandage around her arm; Scales had popped off like dead bark and deep, dry wrinkles stretched up to her shoulder. What her ability did to a living dragon was pretty horrifying. If the damage was permanent, she did not know, but with how easily Nahana still moved the limb, she did not think so.

Nahana pushed herself off the back wall. As she soundlessly floated forward, only the pattering of the small waterfall echoed through the dim room. “If you behave like a hatchling. I will treat you as one.”

Her gut allowed the realization to enter her thoughts. Nahana knew she hated to be touched and aimed to exploit it. Sylph stepped forward into the knee deep water of her own accord as the servants approached. Nahana would not get the satisfaction of seeing her whine or resist and beg for her to stop.

Elina and Biscuit glanced at her with an awkward expression, caught somewhere between the smile a servant was expected to wear and terror. They seemed to disagree as much as Sylph with a bath as punishment. It was especially obvious in Elina. Her tail dragged over the floor like a sad mop. She met Sylph’s gaze, then turned around and bowed to Nahana. “Mistress, I was under the assumption that your daughter did not like to be touched by-” Elina’s words carried as much genuine concern as her words.

“Did I ask for your opinion on the task?” Nahana hissed and Elina immediately went silent as the stifling pressure in Nahana’s voice hit her as much as they did Sylph.

Biscuit was the first to move, slowly approaching as though Sylph was an armed trap. His bristly brush scrubbed down her side. While a brush was not as bad as somebody’s pfod or tail, the pressure moving up and down her scales was extremely uncomfortable. She wanted nothing more than to snap around like the trap Biscuit imagine her to be. Her mind played with the scenario where she grabbed the bucket, smashed it over his head, and then threw it at Nahana. And yet, doing nothing should be the way to infuriate Nahana the most.

“We don’t have all day,” Nahana demanded them to move faster.

Sylph stood still as her body was assaulted from all sides and angles. Painful strokes slid over her back like a steel brush and the urge to growl and complain grew with each passing second.

Elina stepped in front of her to better reach her head. “I am so sorry,” she mumbled as her snout passed Sylph’s ear with the tiniest whisper that still carried the genuine emotions she felt. They did not want this. Nahana forced them as much as she forced Sylph to endure.

The sting of their brushes and pressure of the sponge became more painful the longer they continued. It felt like a rough whetstone being dragged over a wound. Sylph clenched her teeth to stop her tongue from moving. Nahana dared to exploit her weakness, she never should have told her about it. But how could she have known? Nahana was her mother. What parent punished their daughter like this?

“Make sure to thoroughly clean her. She is not quite housebroken and still wets herself like the whelp she is. I don’t want my lounge to smell,” Nahana smirked.

Red, fiery anger and shame rose on Sylph’s face. “I did not-!” Sylph protested, and caught her own words. Nahana glanced at her arm and smiled back at Sylph. She cussed herself. She had walked right into that trap, defending whatever dignity she thought she still had. “I mean, that was not an accident, but entirely on purpose,” she lowered her head in defeat. Not even she was convinced by that. “By turning the floor conductive you have more opportunities to make space to fight.” She cussed herself further. Explaining your lie just made it more unbelievable.

Nahana stared at her arm again and narrowed her eyes. “Poison,” Sylph said and dug her own grave much deeper, “One of my teeth carried a poison made from Laydecum and welldust. It rapidly binds water and normally I’d use it to bite someone’s neck and not an arm. Ask Brandon for the recipe.” Her tail should have grown by a mile at this point.

Nahana nodded and raised her wounded arm. “Do you know what I think about lies, little one?”

“You’d lie your scales off if it helped you,” Sylph said and her face contorted in a sudden spike of pain as Biscuit settled his brush on the back of her neck. She drew a deep breath as he continued to scrub, and Elina carefully wiped down her underbelly to preserve Sylph’s dignity at least a little. A short eternity later, the two servants stepped aside. They exchanged a last few glances and then nodded towards Nahana.

“And now, little one,” Nahana said after the door fell closed behind Biscuit, “One lie can turn the favor towards or away from someone you care about.” The words left her mouth like poison. She was after Brandon and knew Sylph lied, or she made a good guess. She could not push her luck, for Brandon’s sake.

Sylph raised her pfod and summoned water to flow from it. “I am a pathwalker,” she admitted. “I absorb and release water, including blood or any other liquids. Are you happy now?”

Nahana’s glare turned into a smooth smile. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Nahana stepped out of the bath and turned her side towards Sylph. The drops of water racing down her scales switched directions and gathered above her raised pfod in a perfectly round, floating ball of water. And yet, unlike Sylph’s ability, a few drops remained caught in the ridges of her scales.

Sylph’s tail splashed down. “So you are a pathwalker. With a similar ability.” It was true, after all. Not knowing the extent of her skill made her even more dangerous. Sylph glanced around the room and felt her scales curl up in a shiver. If Nahana controlled water around her, the baths were a death trap under the guise of comfort and safety.

Nahana closed in and Sylph had to resist the urge to immediately swipe at her face as she unchained her. “These abilities, they are weapons nobody should survive to tell the tale. Do you understand?” Her voice was cold and devoid of all emotion, something Sylph now recognized as the Nahana that made a statement that could even get her killed. “How you behave today will show me if you have learned anything.”

“I will behave,” Sylph grumbled, and lowered her head as she followed. They left the bath and Sylph spotted the two servants, caught in some heated debate that stopped as Nahana entered the corridor.

A mere nod from Nahana was enough, and the servants dried her roughly with two towels. One last time, they peppered her scales with needles. Then it was all over. Nahana started chatting away as if nothing happened. Her voice was back to the normal fake tone, and no guards were in sight. She had to be sure that Sylph would start nothing or run. Was this how she kept her town in line? Punishing them and then acting like nothing happened?

They arrived back on her balcony. Bowls overfilled with fruit stood in between the two lounges, but Sylph was not hungry. The bowl of smoke sent thin plumes trailing towards the sky. It looked like yesterday, but it was not the same. Sylph rested her head on the soft cushion of her lounge. She did not want to sit idly by until Veria arrived, and yet she had no plans for the moment.

There was another fight going on, but it barely filled the arena today. Must be some qualification matches. Despite that, the announcer’s voice filled the entire field with as much power and energy as he did with the major fights yesterday. Sylph peeked downward at the two fighting dragons.

A few minutes of amateur bloodshed and no death later, the gate opened for the next combatants. A rather large black scorpion skittered onto the field. From the other gate emerged a frail middle-aged man that was not Dave. He entered the arena with a shoddy spear and shield. Behind him cowered a young man with unmistakable wild brown hair.

Her dragonheart jumped to life, and heat spread into her body like a wildfire. “Brandon!” Sylph hissed and turned around in terror. Her gaze met that of Nahana. “See, I gave him a friend because you told the truth.”

She had no time to retort or speak her mind. Her body moved on its own.

“Sit down!” Nahana yelled and lunged after her, but Sylph had already jumped.