HALF: Dead nor Alive

They both heard a faint growl and grunt coming from the dragon, it meant that the dragon was still alive or at least hadn’t died yet. They both hurriedly ran toward the site, but the heat was unbelievably hot and Archie might melt his skin because of it.

“It’s too hot for me, Eve,” Archie said as he ran next to her, and his face started to sting from the heat and it slowly worsened.

Eve looked up and around. “Call that woman, the woman that can control the wind,” Eve said as she looked at Archie.

Archie didn’t know if the wind witch was there with them because she hadn’t shown herself yet to Archie for quite a long time. He believed that the chance of the wind witch to be around them would be so small.

“Are you here with us?” Archie asked as he stared at the sky.

The wind blew really hard from above and directly blew the hot air around them.

“I’m always watching,” The wind witch whispered into Archie’s right ear. “It was really a sight to see that I didn’t want to bother to do anything but watch the entire thing,” The wind witch continued.

“Can you blow the hot air away? I can’t handle it anymore,” Archie asked as he wiped his face from the sweat._.

“I will make it rain,” The wind witch said and the wind dispersed around Archie that the heat disappeared for a millisecond and came again.

The wind witch blew the hot air up into the sky even though it was hard to do. She tried her best and finally dark clouds were made by the sudden change of the temperature.

Thunders rumbled and everyone was staring at the dark sky above Archie and Eve. It wasn’t enough to drop the temperature but it was enough to prevent Archie from melting.

“I knew she never left your side, Archie, she just didn’t want to show herself because of my presence,” Eve said with a smile on her face. “How fun to have someone who is always by your side,” Eve said to herself.

Archie stared at Eve with his eyebrows furrowed and focused on the last few words she said.

The rain started to fall, but some of the evaporated before it could touch the ground. The rain that didn’t get evaporated became warm and it didn’t feel nice at all, only made things worse and fuggy.

The fog and the smoke made them unable to see anything in front of them, they both looked back and they were surrounded by them as well. It was a good thing that it happened because they could go all out and nobody would be able to see them.

“Eve, I think this is the best chance for us to kill it before the fog and the smoke disappears,” Archie said as he kept walking forward.

“Really? Let’s do this then,” Eve said and she pulled out her wings without hesitation. “You should try to use your wings as well,”

“I don’t think I can, not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t want to risk it,” Archie replied. “You should do it, I will catch up with you,”

Eve chuckled and then flew so low that she split the fog and smoke, then Archie ran as fast as he could to catch up on her.

Archie followed Eve’s trail and he finally saw the silhouette of the dragon right in front of him. The dragon was moving its neck and wiggled it around as it growled weakly, then Archie slowly walked toward it and saw the dragon’s face was blown up and melted, he could see the flesh and the hanging tongue.

Eve was flying right in front of the dragon’s face and she just stared at it as if she was communicating with the parasite. Archie looked up and watch those two exchanging stares, he looked so confused because the dragon looked like it was asking for Eve to spare its life. It felt weird because Archie could feel it and could feel the emotion of the dragon.

“What did he say, Eve?” Archie asked, but Eve wasn’t responding to his question and kept staring at the dragon. “Eve?” Archie asked again.

The dragon slowly tilted its head and looked down at Archie, it made a weak and soothing noise. Archie didn’t know what it was doing but he could tell it tried to communicate with him. The dragon then slowly lowered its head and rested its neck and head on the ground then its eyes started to close.

Eve was still flying but she slowly descended and looked down at Archie with concern written on her face. Archie wanted to know what happened but after looking at her expression, he decided to wait and asked her once they got back.

The rain and the wind started to give Archie a chill, he then looked at the fog slowly getting thicker. He walked toward the dragon’s head and he knew the dragon was already dead, and it used its last energy to speak with Eve.

“Let’s go back,” Archie said as he walked toward Eve.

“Wait, let me get something,” Eve replied as she jumped on top of the dragon’s body.

Eve tore the skin and the flesh of the dragon’s chest, and then she walked inside it to find something. Archie looked around and made sure nobody was coming toward them.

It took Eve quite a while and Archie started to get worried that he decided to get on top of the dragon’s body to look for her. He looked at the hole in the dragon’s chest and walked inside as he called for Eve.

Archie heard a munching sound from in front of him, and then he saw Eve was eating the dragon’s heart hurriedly.

“I thought something happened to you,” Archie asked as he looked at the massive heart that was as big as a small house.

“Don’t eat it,” Eve said when Archie wanted to touch it. “You won’t be able to survive if you eat this with your current strength,” Eve stared at Archie.

“No, I’m not planning on eating it. I just want to touch it,” Archie replied as he shook his head.

“You can have this instead,” Eve said as he pulled something underneath, and then she showed a tissue of the dragon. “It’s the heart tissue of the dragon, it will help you progress but don’t eat it now because the parasites inside your body are still undergoing evolution,”

“Okay, I will keep it for later,” Archie grabbed the tissue and put it in his backpack.

Eve was done eating the heart and Archie was quite surprised that she managed to eat all of them in a single sitting. She really had a big appetite to be able to eat that many and wasn’t bothered by her surroundings.

They both walked out and saw the fog was getting thinner and thinner since the rain had stopped. The wind witch appeared right behind them and said that Faye and the others were on their way here and they would be there at any minute.

Eve wiped the blood on her face and arms with a towel, then she put it on Archie’s backpack and wrapped the heart’s tissue with it.

“Archie, I’m about to pass out,” Eve said as she started to stagger and couldn’t balance her body.

Archie grabbed Eve’s arm and then carefully moved his backpack to the front and then carried her on his back. She was going to evolve into something new and he thought that there must be a reason why she did that, and the first thing that came to his mind was that she was preparing for something.

Dozens of silhouettes could be seen in front of him and he decided to jump down from the dragon’s body. He then saw Faye and the others were fascinated by the destructive power of the weapon because they saw the dragon’s face and it was still melting because of the serum.

“Archie? What happened to Eve?” Faye asked as she ran toward them.

“She got a heatstroke, she passed out just now,” Archie answered.

Faye could see that Archie’s face was reddened and she believed it immediately. “I see, then we should go back as soon as we got a few samples of this parasite,” Faye said as she looked at the dragon. “Pure breed, huh? This is going to be a big discovery,” Faye mumbled to herself.

“I don’t know what are you going to do with the samples, but I just hope that you don’t regret it,” Archie said and stared at Faye. “You shouldn’t play with things that are not meant to be played around,”

Faye nodded her head with a serious expression. “I know, we are not going to do anything with it, we are just going to find out about the parasite’s weaknesses so we can fight against it in the future,” Faye explained.

“I see, then you can take your time because there’s no more threat here, at least for now,” Archie said as he looked around.