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enigmaart · 1 year

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@piixelpaint TADA!! ITS YOUR PRESENT!! FROM YOUR SECRET SANTA!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43974463

I hope you enjoy!! Sorry that it's so late but I think you'll like this one!!

Edit: AO3 is down rn :') so you can just read it here:

"Rise", said the King.

Piixie put on their best pokerface and raised their head to the King.

"Knight Piixielus Paints-a-Lot, explain to me why your quest to capture the two dragons has failed to reach completion after two months."

Piixie avoided the King's gaze, and spoke calmly and evenly, "Your majesty, I'm troubled to tell you that I simply cannot find those troublesome 'dragons' you speak of, no matter how hard I look for these 'ginormous tracks' you speak of."

The King began to grow red in the face. His servants and squire beside him were beginning to get nervous. Ever since the Queen had died, the King had been in quite the temperamental mood. That is, until, he had come back one evening from a walk, in a very excited frenzy, claiming to have seen 'a dragon's foot!' somewhere in the forest.

There are tales told to children of two mighty dragons who live deep in the forest, so deep, once you wander too far, you may never be seen again unless guided by one of these dragons. The Sollios dragon is said to be the one who guides those who are good and righteous, and if they respect their forest rules, will lead them to treasures untold on the way home. The Lunengari dragon, on the other hand, is said to actively seek out those who disrespect the land and eat them alive.

In other stories, it is told that the dragons' hearts had healing properties, and if you were to tear out a heart and make it into a special serum, you could pour it over a corpse and bring it back to life! Only one person is said to have accomplished this goal, and there is speculation that they were a noble knight who used the heart to revive a true love lost to sickness, much like the King had lost his Queen to.

And so, the King, believing at once that the tales must've been true after seeing this supposed dragon's footprints, sent his most loyal troops out to find and capture these creatures and bring its heart before him and have his royal alchemists create the concoction that will bring back his wife.

Unfortunately, every knight he sends either comes back with no memory of ever having been in the forest that day, or just doesn't come out of the forest at all. Up until Piixie, that is.

Piixie is the King's best Knight, his most loyal and strong. Their family has served under the royal family for many generations, and for some reason, Piixie seemed to remember everything that went on in the forest. Unfortunately, they simply cannot find a trace of the dragons anywhere.

And for two months after they first went out dragon hunting and came back with nothing, each time the King telling them to 'look harder' and 'trudge deeper' the next time, they searched the deep and dark forest trying to find these legendary creatures, to no avail.

It seems, now, the King begins to grow impatient.

He snarls, "Don't speak to me like I'm some lunatic, squire, I AM CERTAIN OF MY DISCOVERIES. How on earth could you miss them?! They are as big as a boulder!"

'The same way lots of other people missed them for so long, what do you think?' Piixie thought. Though they dared not speak it aloud. Best knight or not, the punishments for disrespecting his majesty are put on public display, and Piixie had no desires of having themselves be disfigured in such ways in front of so many people.

Instead, they replied, "It would appear these are intelligent beasts. Perhaps after being caught off guard after so long of being nothing more than a myth, they are being more cautious! Covering their tracks and such. Do not fret your majesty, I will find your dragons, and I will tear one of their hearts out, with my bear hands if I must, and present it to you on your finest silver platter!"

The King looked thoughtful for a moment. 'Please', Piixie hoped,'please, accept my ass-kissing with that chickpea that is your mind!'

The King stopped looking thoughtful, and looked down upon Piixie with a resolute face.

"Alright," he sighed, "however long it takes you, you are my best, after all. Please, leave me to my throne for preparation for tonight's great feast."

"Yes, your majesty." Piixie bowed deeply and elegantly, the show of repsect practiced a many a times, and walked backwards out of the room until they were out of the King's line of sight.

When they walked out of earshot, they breathed a sigh of relief. Tonight would be a very important night, the great yearly feast of the kingdom. They'd made it known to the king much earlier that they'd be busy tonight, the excuse used being that they've been checking to "see the dragon's nightly patterns". He bought it, of course, but Piixie didn't think they could keep up their patterns this way. It wouldn't do to keep lying like they were, anyone slightly wiser would be trying much harder to catch them in their deceit, but so far there had been no other way, so what else was there to do but to trudge on?

Speaking of trudging on, Piixie made their way to the royal kitchen. There, the cooks (husband and wife, a very fat and happy couple) had been huddled together, whispering not-to-quietly next to a large boar, cooked medium rare at Piixie's peculiar request.

"Oh I wonder," said the wife cook, "whom does Knight Piixielus bring this here boar for?"

"It's certainly none of our business," replied the husband cook,"but I do declare it is strange they wanted us to prepare this boar in secret. Surely whomever this 'special person' may be is welcome under the King's court?"

Piixie cleared their throat to gain their attentions, and they quickly scrambled to gather themselves away from the big meat.

The wife cook said, "Oh dear, you're just in time! It's just finished cooling."

The husband added on, "Would you like us to help you carry this roasted boar to its destination?"

They unconsciously leaned in out of anticipation. 'Hah,' thought Piixie, 'such goofballs.'

"No thank you," they replied, " I can very much carry it myself. I appreciate your offer." The cooking couple tried not to let on their disappointment (they failed) and resoluted with Piixie. To show their lack of need for more strength (and, maybe, to show off just a little), Piixie grabbed the tray with one hand, and held it above their heads as they reached into their pocket.

"So, we agreed on 10 shillings for this exchange?" They asked.

The cooks looked thoughtful, then denied the payment much to Piixie's surprise.

"Please," they near begged, "just tell us something, anything, about this sweetheart you've had us prepare the boar for. The mystery kills us so!"

Piixie smiled, a small, knowing smile, and looked the couple in the eye and said, "well, for the first time in my life, I feel as though the world around me is full of so much wonder. That maybe, just maybe, there truly is a place of magic, and that they themselves have come from it to find fancy with poor, old me."

The cooks swooned, as expected, with the romantic words and left it alone. Though, it would probably not be for the last time.

They wished Piixie and their "sweetheart" a good feasting, and Piixie bade them farewell and set off to the front entrance to get on their horse. But before they left, they heard a small, "Oh, I remember when we were young and in love-" and chuckled at the two cooks' behavior. Such goofballs.

If only they knew.

Piixie made it outside and walked to where they had posted their horse and placed down the boar before hopping on the saddle themselves. After adjusting positions, they were satisfied with how the boar was placed in a way that would make it least likely to fall, but for precautionary measures, they brought some ropes and tied the boar to attach it to the saddle. Once they finished with that, they gently gave the horse a good squeeze with their calves to signal it to move, and once it began with a simple trot, it eventually ended up galloping away from the castle, and into the forest.

'Three miles two lefts, four miles three rights, then wait. Three miles two lefts, four miles three rights, then wait.' Piixie repeated this to themselves a many a times before, so as to not forget how to get to this part of the forest.

After the third right, they already begin to see the clearing of the meeting spot. After their last right, they enter a large treeless spot in the forest. They hop off of their horse, remove the roast, tie the horse to a tree, and walk towards the center of the clearing with the roast in hand.

And then they waited. For about 2-3 minutes, they stood at the center, looking out into the deep dark trees, waiting for something.

Until a rustle, and a faint red light in the trees makes them focus on one spot between two big oaks. Something's big paw, or claw, reveals itself with a calculated, elegant step and with the paw a head inches forward. A reptile like eye, now glowing a bright red, focused on Piixie like a cat watching a mouse. Slowly the whole body of a large, lizard like creature appeared from the shadows, a deep blueish-silver color of its scales reflecting the sunlight the treeless clearing provides.

"Hello Moon," Piixie cheerfully said, "nice to see you again!"

The large creature, long ago dubbed 'Moon', bowed its head to meet the Knight and snuggled against them.

Piixie giggled at the bold show of affection. "Okay, okay, I missed you too old friend! Shall we be off then?"

Moon sniffed gently at the roast, then stopped nuzzling them and backed away a little. He lowered himself into the ground, and spread his wings down in that similar stair-like way for Piixie to climb on.

Piixie smiles a bit more at the familiar sight, and climbs onto Moon's wing until they reach his back.

Snug and secured, they hang onto his neck and say, "I'm ready."

Slowly, Moon flaps his ginormous wings and begins to hover his body above the forest floor a bit. A bit longer then necessary in order to dust away his footprints. After successfully leaving the ground, he puts more force into his wings and takes off above the trees. As he emerges, his reflective scales begin to shimmer and his deep blue scales begin to lighten up until they match the sky itself. He lifts his wings to cover Piixie, and sets off in their journey to his home.

Piixie doesn't spare much gaze to what's beneath them, as there is not much to see that they haven't seen before these past two months, and instead focused on the gentle beats of Moon's wings as he smoothly flew above the forest. They closed their eyes, not to fall asleep, but simply to let themselves endorse in the peace the clouds bring.

Almost as soon as it started, after what could have been hours but felt like seconds, their journey ended when Piixie felt Moon's wings slowly come to a halt and they feel him slowing down in his glides. He lowers himself before a giant cave, a faint yellow glow coming from the inside. Piixie wakes themselves up from their trance and slides off his back with the boar in hand. They walk inside with Moon behind them, watching the entrance to make sure that no one has followed them.

As they trudge along inside the cave, the yellow light inside begins to grow brighter and brighter, until at last, at the end, they are greeted with Moon's roommate and brother, dubbed 'Sun'.

Sun was similar to Moon in many ways, except his scales being a yellowish-gold in comparison to Moon's blueish-silver. Both boys had these cat-like eyes and spiky backs, only Sun had an array of what can only be described as "frills" around his head, like the rays of the sun, hence his nickname. Moon, on the other hand, had a large spike on the back of his head that reached a bit down his neck, giving him the appearance of wearing a nightcap of sorts. His nickname was based more off his coloring of the night sky, and also to be a foil to his counterpart's. Piixie thought it was quite clever.

One glaringly obvious detail on Sun was his leg. It was severely wounded, courtesy of the first Knight sent by the King to find these dragons and tear out one of their hearts. This one caught Sunny off guard while he was hunting and stabbed him in a tendon, luckily avoiding any arteries. Moon found him and quickly took care of him and took precautions to make sure this never happened again.

At first, he simply ate or killed anyone who came into the forest, but Sun was so distraught by this that Moon tried to uphold his brother's morals. Eating only those who wished to cause harm and simply hypnotizing those who wandered too close to their home. This went on for some time until they met Piixie.

Piixie is considered a great knight, coming from a long, long bloodline of knights who served their time's kings for as long as they lived. It was in their blood, the villagers said. It simply was who they were destined to be.

Piixie, for one, couldn't care less about destiny. During their sword practices, they found themselves daydreaming about fighting ghouls and trolls instead. When out exploring the forest (in the patches of groves, mind you, not the real thing), they would imagine worlds beyond, with fairies and fae. Of course, growing up to be put into such a serious career, they had to abandon such beliefs for sake of being a stoic, down-to-earth leader perfectly suited to be the King's most prized knight. Though sometimes they still catch themselves wondering, looking out into the trees, almost as if hearing the trees themselves call out to them.

They had this feeling when the king ordered them to go out in the forest to hunt some 'dragons', as silly as the whole thing was. Really, an entire dragon? From tales older than the kingdom probably was? Laughable, really. If it was such an obvious footprint, how come no one else had found one like it centries ago? And that would imply there's another dragon too, given the tales really are true. So overall, Piixie felt the whole ordeal was a ridiculous coping mechanism of the king who refused to accept his wife's passing.

Though, it would be a lie if they said they didn't feel something when they rode inside the forest on their horse, like the trees were calling to them again like when they were younger, as if the darkness welcomed them as they trudged deeper into the dark woods.

They tried to ignore these feelings but...something was there with them-

(Flashback)

Piixie had broken out of a trance and looked around to find themselves in a large clearing. They had forgotten how far they traveled to get here, and began to fear that they were hopelessly lost when a snap of a branch had caught their attention.

"Hello?" They asked. "Who's there? Identify yourself, fiend!"

A rumble, deep and powerful, was their only answer. Piixie felt no fear of the local bears or wolves, but something about that growl, so guttural and, dare they say, serious, had them clutching onto their sword a bit tighter than they were trained to. Another growl, this time somehow coming off as, commanding.

It wants you to come closer...

Piixie realized they knew exactly what this thing wanted, and that terrified them into stupor. They wouldn't budge, and strangely enough, their horse had been quiet as well.

Until they heard another growl, with a little more force than the last, and their horse was walking toward whatever was hiding in the shadows.

"Stop!" Cried Piixie, for they had broken out of stupor and were finally panicking,"Don't go near that thing!! Stop you stupid horse!"

Either the horse didn't hear them, or was ignoring their shouts in favor of whatever was calling them closer to this creature. Some kind of hypnosis? But what animal has that?

Piixie hopped off of the horse's back and tried to stand in front of it. But to no avail, it simply pushed Piixie along with it, closer and closer to the thing hidden in the shadows. Piixie hated the thought of having to leave this horse behind - they had watched him grow up to be a strong stallion, and favored him the most out of all of their steeds, but they would have to abandon their horse if it didn't stop -

A pause has Piixie tripping up. A resounding rumble is heard so closely, yet sounds so softly murmured. Their horse has stopped walking, and is simply standing in place now. Before them some leaves rustle, and a large, blue claw reveals itself. Slowly, a horned silhouette of a head rises from the darkness and looks into Piixie's eyes with larger, redder, glowing ones. Piixie had been going to reach for their sword, but was locked into a staring contest with this beast, and was put in a trance almost immediately.

They stayed like that, staring at each other, into each other, for what felt like forever, but was only, in fact, just short of a minute. This thing, was looking for something in Piixie, and while they would never have guessed what would happen if it found what it was looking for, they later become glad that it hadn't NOT found it.

The staring contest ends when the beast finally blinks, and it's eyes stop their peculiar glow. The silhouette moves forward, and in the light of no trees, it's true face is revealed.

A dragon.

Piixie screams, and falls onto their back while looking up at the ginormous, lizard-like head. All training went straight out of the window now that they were facing something completely out of their range of experience. They scrambled backwards and tried to get up and run, but then something grabbed them by their neck and lifted them into the air.

Piixie was downright terrified at this point and started crying, "Help, HELP! RELEASE ME YOU WICKED BEAST!"

But their cries were left unheard, and they found themselves being lifted higher and higher above the ground. They realized quite quickly they were getting farther and farther from the ground, and figured it be best to stop struggling against this large creature of myth's jaws for fear it should choose to drop them.

They could hear the thing beating it's wings, until finally, they lifted so far and so quickly off the ground Piixie felt like their organs were doing somersaults inside of them. They just narrowly avoided throwing up. Piixie tried to look up at the dragon, but then they were on the move, flying high above the trees and the clouds to god knows where. Piixie tried once again to look up at the dragon, it wasn't very easy due to the position they were grabbed. They could only see about a small glimpse of its face and eye, but it was looking straight ahead. Piixie figured it best not to disturb the beast, so they took a look below them to see if they could recognize the landscape in case they had to travel back by foot.

And the view was just...wow. Piixie had never seen the world like this. Metaphorically speaking, because of their upbringing and status, it felt like everything and everyone was beneath them in a way. But now, soaring high through the air, the even great trees were like ants to them, in big clutters below dominating the landscape like colonies of ants devouring a small animal. Piixie felt, welcome, in the sky, if that makes any sense. It certainly doesn't to them now. But just perhaps...there's a reason the beast has chosen to take them?

As Piixie marvels over the world they fly above, the dragon begins to slow its beats. They look where they are headed and find out why. A cave. A very, VERY, large cave. 'That must be where it lives' thought Piixie. They were beginning to get closer and closer to the ground until finally they felt the beast land. It lowered it's head and opened its jaws wide enough for Piixie to slip out of its grip and land with a thump in their back.

"Ouch!" Cried Piixie, "a little warning next time, you foul thing!" The dragon was unperturbed by this display, and gently nudged Piixie foward into the cave. "Okay, okay, I'll go. But don't try anything! I've still got my sword ready, you monster."

Piixie felt they should have put up more of a fight, but they were also very curious as to what could be inside that gargantuan cave and why the dragon brought them here. Perhaps to eat them inside? But why go through all the trouble when it could have eaten them back in the forest? Questions swirl around in Piixie's head and leave a bitter taste in their mouth as they trudge deeper into the cave, their only light source being the glowing eyes of the beast behind them. The walk feels long and they begin to feel tired, but the dragon doesn't give sign that it's okay to stop moving. So they continue on, until they begin to see a bright light. The closer they walk, the bigger and brighter the light shined. They walked toward they light until they came across, low and behold, a second dragon. A brighter one, in comparison to it's counterpart, with a yellow color scheme.

It suddenly occured to Piixie - these were the dragons of the tales. The Sollios and Lunengari dragons were right here in front of them. Should they attempt to take one of their hearts? Well, no, there was a very simple answer to that question - god no. They were not only certain that a single dragon was big enough to simply stomp on them, but to take on two at once would most certainly result in death. But what now? Here they were, in a deep, dark cave, alone with two great dragons of legend, with only a sword to defend themselves. Would they disappear like so many others before them? Would the king send more knights to eventually fail?

As Piixie questions the future, they notice the yellow dragon's leg has a huge gash in it. They figure one of the knights who never returned must have done that to the creature. It doesn't look infected, but the wound looked like it's been half-hazardly healing for some time now. Piixie walked closer to it, but was stopped by growling from the blue dragon. It seemed to not want them getting close to its...friend? Brother? Roommate? Best to be determined later.

"It's okay," Piixie says softly, "I'm not going to hurt them." They were curious to look closer at the injured creature.

The yellow one huffed and looked over at the blue one. A series of guffaws and chortles emit from its chest and then finally a soft rumbling, perhaps even a purr. The blue dragon in turn responded with it's own series of noises, ranging from quick hisses to soft growls that lowered into a deep grumbling. The yellow one repeated it's previous sounds, only with a few more urgent hisses added in. Blue looks between Piixie and it's companion. It huffs lightly in the two's direction and walks past them to deeper into the cave. Not too far though, because Piixie can still see it's red eyes glowing in the dark, watching them from inside that corridor.

Piixie, still wary, walks cautiously over to the wounded dragon and kneels down to look over its injury. The urge to feel its scales was there, but common sense to not do anything stupid prevented them from actually making direct contact with it. Yellow hadn't made any moves since Blue had left, watching Piixie closely, almost curiously. It didn't look like it held any fear of them. Piixie couldn't say the feeling was mutual.

It gave a gentle purr in Piixie's direction, perhaps to ease their mind. All they thought was 'is it trying to soothe me, or lull me into a false sense of security?' Indeed, Piixie was at a loss of what to do.

Again, it purrs at Piixie and this time, uses one of its wings to brush over it's leg. It's then Piixie realizes what the dragon wants.

'It's asking for help' they thought.

"Alright, one moment."

Piixie removed their chest armor and ripped off their shirt underneath it. They then ask the dragon in a timid voice, "Um, excuse me, but I need for you to lift your leg a little." Then they feel a little stupid, how was this thing supposed to understand what Piixie wanted?

Surprisingly, yellow understood perfectly, for it lifted its leg just high enough where Piixie could toss it over the side and rewrap it around.

"Thank you." Piixie said.

Piixie wraps up the leg and sits back down before the creature. Yellow looks over its crudely made bandages before giving a satisfied huff, and a series of sounds in its companion's direction. Piixie had almost forgotten about the other dragon, who was now walking towards them with more familiarity than before.

"Okay, um, I did a good job, right?" Piixie asked, "Now what?"

Blue sniffs its friend's bandaged wound, huffs a little at it, then turns and huffs directly in Piixie's face.

"Acck!" They exclaim. While wiping off the moisture and exclaiming how gross that was, Blue had walked back to where it was standing previously in the dark. Only now, its scales and eyes were glowing much brighter, like Yellow's. It gestures Piixie with a flick of its tail.

Piixie's no idiot, it wants them to follow it. Deeper into the cave, away from civilization that they know, probably never to be seen again. But...

...maybe that's not what this is?

The stories go that the Sollios and Lunengari dragons only killed those who disrespected their forest and meant great harm. Piixie had, for the most part, been quite respectful of their surroundings for most of their life. But they came to kill these dragons. Surely these beasts could tell a knight's armor apart from normal people by now? So why would they be spared?

Piixie thought about their daydreams, and how they thought the world they took place in could never have existed. They thought about how they felt they never fit in with anyone in their kingdom, how it seemed that no matter what, there was something about them that would stay apart from the rest. They thought about the dragons' myths, and how they compared to the real things before them. They thought about their mad king, and his grief-fueled quest to cheat death.

Piixie thought about all of these things, and realized that maybe there was a reason for them never belonging. And maybe, just maybe, these dragons could hold the key to the answer they seek.

Piixie finally stands up and brushes down their pants. They walk cautiously toward Blue, until they hesitate at the last moment. If they do this, there could be no turning back. Whatever they find back here could potentially change their life forever. But when they look into Blue's eyes, those red, mysterious eyes that hold so many tales of old, Piixie's resolve is found.

"Okay," they go, "I'm ready. Let us go."

(Flashback ends)

It's been quite some time since all that, and Piixie wasn't lying, their life had changed quite a lot.

"Alright, time to eat!" Piixie shouted as they held the roast up high for their friends to eat. The boys were way ecstatic at being brought cooked food. Moon tried to lean and take a bite first but Piixie laughed and turned it away from him.

"Here," Piixie said. They ripped off the front two legs of the boar and the two back legs. "One of each, for both of you!"

Piixie tossed the boys their respective pieces of meat and they both gave huffs of approval, then softly growled for more. Piixie chuckled a bit and turned the roasted boar on its back and split open it's stomach in half. They tore the two sides completely apart and split the organs into even piles based on what the boys are particular to. They didn't bother to remove any fat or bones. The dragons will just swallow them whole and get mad when good food is wasted.

"Alright, so Moonie gets the livers, the pancreas, large intestines, and a lung, Sunny gets the kidneys, bladder, small intestines, and the other lung. And I don't feel to much like carving the head into two, so I'll just keep it for myself." They declared. The boys, while a little upset at the lack of brains being split, displayed themselves as satisfied as they dug into their respective piles.

"Good feastings to you Sun, and good feastings to you Moon!"

Piixie sat down and watched their friends gobble the piles of meat while also eyeing the parts they purposely left out of the pile. The head, and of course, the still heart of the animal.

Once the two brothers finished eating their share, they looked at Piixie with expectant glances. Piixie, already used to this part of their little routine, picks up the heart, and stands up. Moon and Sun get up from their crouching to follow behind. Sun still walked with a bit of a limp, but he managed to move around just fine. The boys heal quickly, as Piixie noted earlier in their friendship. They walk deeper into the cave with the boys not far behind them. They don't fear getting lost as much as they used to, so they lead the way today to a chamber as far into the cave as possible where no light apart from the ones the boys emit could ever be seen.

They walk until they see a stupendous structure in the center. But they know it is not a structure by now.

Piixie kneeled before the old skeleton, and lowered the heart of the roast before its skull. Piixie and the dragons all bowed their heads, a silent pay of respects to the fallen brethren before them.

The story tells of a knight taking a dragon's heart and using it to save his loved one from death's clutches. What it doesn't tell is the story of the dragon who loved that person all the much more than the knight could ever comprehend, who allowed the knight to rip out his heart to save the one person he came to love most. And by allowing them to eat his heart, would let him live on inside of them forever.

Piixie finally raises their head, and says, "Good feastings, greatest grandfather Eclipse."

As they say these words, a pulse inside of themselves vibrates through the whole room.

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