A flashback to two nights before they entered The Blacksmith
Xan pulsed with anxiety. The frustration rattled her but she didn;t know why. Unable to contain her restlessness, she fumbled with her weapons, sending them clattering to the floor with a clang. Frustration fueled her actions, and she hurled the remaining weapons aside before storming out into the hallway.
There, Chondrus sat sprawled on the floor, his antics annoying others. Xan, upon spotting him felt a rush of heat over her face. He threw a grape her way and she caught it with ease in her mouth. He spoke to her in smooth words but she was on edge.
He moved his legs to allow her past and to excape the embarrassment she slid into the first room she came across. As she squeezed past him, a blush spread across her face, adding to her mounting panic. She thundered into to Alke's room and slammed the door shut, the embarrassment chasing her in.
Alke, oblivious to Xan's turmoil, patted down a small fire. Xan didn’t even notice. All she felt was the heat crawling under her skin, a desperate need for coolness.
Alke tried to calm Xan and offer solutions but there was a growing voice in her head that told her she needed to cool herself, she needed to hold her egg of ice.
They walked up to Estor's room - the coolest on the ship. Loreus rushed to gather the Chosen. Braz arrived with a bucket of ice, into which Xan nervously lowered the egg. The warmth retreated only slightly, and she felt hot, trapped and unable to stretch out. Theo blasted ice in the direction of the egg, but Xan redirected him last minute, sending a patch smashing into the wall of the cabin. A ghostly sigh was quickly followed by a sharp reprimand from Calliope. “You be quiet!”
Xan began to self comfort “It’s fine, it’s fine”
The egg speaks “Are you ready?”
“We’re going to do this together, we’ve got this, we’re going to win”
A tail lashes out of the egg, suddenly and violently The egg shell smashes and the tail curls out, finding Xan’s ankle. She freezes in fight stance, but looses when she sees the tail on her ankle.
“Hello! A tail” she shouts, pointing down as if nobody else can see the dragon’s scaly tail on her ankle.
Water ice vapour shoots out of the egg from a snout..
“You’re cool.”
Tiny delicate silver scales and black horns, curled back and almost touching each other. Eyes of multicolours, black with yellow iris and a black slit. A blink comes her way. She returns it.
Arms appear from the egg and in seconds they have a stance ready to run. A skinny form with loose skin under the scales. The eyes dart from Xan to the pile of weapons and before they can keep an eye.
Xan goes for food then returns. The hoard is missing and so is the dragon. Xan hunts around the ship and finds her dragon curled in her room, with the hoard. A little tricksy Pyxie.