Out of the Frying Pan

John’s head throbbed, causing him to groan as he awoke. He attempted to lift his hand but quickly found them cuffed to the metal table they rested on. Not wanting to panic before it was needed, he looked around. There was a single metal chair opposite the one he sat on and seeing the canvas walls he knew he was obviously inside some kind of tent.

’What happened? Last I remember, that girl was coming at me and I was sure I was about to die. I’m pretty sure I’m alive or I’d doubt I’d have a headache like this,’ John thought, leaning down, allowing him to rub his head.

He was about to call out for someone, anyone really, just to find out what was happening, but he heard a stern feminine voice of someone close by, “I just arrived, could you please give me an update about what is happening?”

Another voice, much more timid and male, replied, “Yes, of course, ma’am. Lord Brighton found and neutralised the suspect as well as a mundane girl. Lord Brighton believes that the suspect kidnapped her. Once the barrier was forcefully collapsed, we created this new one in order to contain the suspect as well as treat Lady Kaen. Lord Brighton left soon after and informed us that Lady Brighton will be here shortly, in order to interrogate the prisoner. Lord Brighton said he exhibited draconic powers and suspects that he is likely part of the Red Scales Organisation.”

“Very good, and what of this mundane? Where is she? And what information do you have about her?” the first voice asked.

“We don’t really have any information. She was in possession of an extremely old Order amulet. It’s possible she might be either related to one of the older knights or a descendent of one, but we couldn’t find a connection right now; it will be something we will ask when she awakens. She also had lingering mana on her, Lord Brighton believes it is possibly magic the prisoner used to kidnap her. Unfortunately, during the skirmish, the girl was knocked **** and a metal spike impaled her leg,” the man replied.

John’s jaw clenched as did his fists causing his knuckles to whiten. Looking down at the handcuffs, he transferred them into his inventory, freeing his hands. ’How could I let her get hurt? I promised her I’d protect her and I can’t even fucking do that! I’m not about to sit around here while she’s in pain.’

’I can’t just walk out of the front door, especially if I want to get to Alison and heal her,’ John thought as he moved to the right of the tent.

He cautiously lifted the fabric to look outside; straight ahead was another tent. Looking left and right, he could see a few people walking around with different kinds of armour, mostly leather though. He crawled under the fabric and stayed low as he moved towards the other tent.

He pulled the canvas up a little in order to look inside and saw a hospital bed. ’First try! Now to get in there and heal her wounds up’ John thought. He entered the tent and stood back up. This tent was the same size as the first but set up much differently. Looking around, John saw cabinets, a table filled with first aid supplies and the hospital bed with two chairs close by, one having black crumpled metal on it. John furrowed his brow seeing the bed and realising this wasn’t Alison’s tent.

The blue girl from before lay on the bed ****. She had a large black eye and her lip was busted, her arm was securely strapped to a brace and the bandages holding it there were bloodstained, but the worst part was her hand. It was mangled, her fingers contorted with bits of bone sticking out; the sight made John wretch.

“What the hell happened?” he murmured as he looked her over. He couldn’t just leave her like this. “Eight seconds, that is, uh, fifty-six HP, I hope she doesn’t wake up because I should take advantage of the boost… or should I? I didn’t really pay attention with Moira, so I’m not sure how much of a boost it even gave, is it even worth it?”

Not wanting to really waste time, he took a deep breath and pressed his lips against hers channelling Healing Touch. A warm feeling filled his chest and travelled up to his lips as a light golden glow began to emanate from the point of contact.

He began to count internally, but the sickening crunch of bones repairing themselves cut him off. Instead, he was **** to look at his mana level. Once eighty mana had drained, he quickly backed off. Looking at her HP he’d managed to get her just under half.

He inspected her body, gauging how badly she was still hurt, but the only injuries left were superficial, though her eye was still blackened and her lip still split. John could see her beginning to stir and thought it would be best to exit, so he quickly crawled back through where he’d entered.

He scanned around and it seemed no one had noticed his disappearance, so he crept his way to the back of the tents and looked around. There was a makeshift training area with a few people currently using it, which meant their attention wasn’t on him.

There were only three tents which made it easy to figure out where Alison was. As he reached the back of Alison’s tent, there was a yell, “The prisoner has escaped!”

He quickly ducked into the tent before standing up next to Alison’s bed. An iron spike, seemingly recently cut, was sticking from her leg. He raised an eyebrow wondering why it hadn’t been removed but shook his head. The rest of her luckily seemed unharmed, and bringing up her health bar, it seemed she was only down about a third of her health.

Taking a deep breath he gripped the metal. “Please don’t wake up, Alison, I’m sure this is going to hurt,” he whispered. Holding her leg with the other hand, he hesitated before pulling the spike out in one smooth motion. Alison let out the beginning of a cry but John quickly moved up and muffled her with a kiss while casting Healing Touch.

An alarm began ringing out but John continued, jumping as he felt Alison’s hand reach the back of his neck and hold him just a little tighter. The sound of fabric from behind alarmed him slightly, before the a voice yelled, “Lady Brighton, I’ve found the suspect, he’s accosting the girl!”

“Well, don’t stand around, restrain him!” a more distant voice, obviously more feminine, called back.

John’s eyes had closed during the kiss and he watched as his MP bar drained. The sound of multiple people entering the tent could be heard but John ignored them as much as possible. “Step away from the girl now! You are outnumbered and outmatched within this barrier. If you don’t comply, we will be **** to take action against you!” a voice firmly stated.

His MP was getting dangerously low, but he decided to stay firm to ensure he healed Alison completely. “You’ve been warned! Get him and be careful not to hurt the girl!” a voice ordered, followed by the sound of several people moving towards him quickly.

John braced himself, ready for whatever they planned to do, but as he almost sensed someone stepping right behind him ready to strike him, a bright golden light erupted throwing the hostile group backwards onto the dirt. “This boy is under my protection, and by the Lady’s might, I will not allow you to cause him harm!”

Alison’s HP finally hit its maximum. John stroked Alison’s mussed hair before backing off, her eyes fluttered while piercing his. John gave her a warm reassuring smile before focusing his attention to what had been happening around him.

He turned to the light but was **** to squint; he could barely make out a glowing form standing close to him with their arms outstretched.

“Warden, we need you here now, please!” a confused voice called.

The glowing figure turned its head slightly looking back at John. “That was stupid, you know that, John? Alison is fine and would have been fine without you stubbornly putting your wellbeing on the line. Don’t forget to put my pendant back on.” The voice was feminine and somewhat familiar to John. Once she had spoken, the light turned into a luminous smoke that rushed towards the chair next to him; after the light had vanished, all that was left was the golden rose pendant.

He reached down, and as his fingers touched it, he felt a warmth that faded fast. He willed it into his equipment slot and felt it press against the skin of his chest. “What the fuck? Was that the question mark thing? Can I just call that out any time I want?” John thought out loud.

The people at the entrance of the tent all began muttering before a stern voice cut through them, “Why are you all standing around with your jaws on the floor?” Moira pushed through the group. “John?” She craned her neck slightly looking at the bed. “Alison?”

John’s stomach lurched a little. “Uhm, you know us?”

She sighed and smoothed over the fabric parts of her armour. “Of course, I know you, I wouldn’t make a very good leader if I didn’t remember the names of my peers whether that be a squire, one of my knights or a student from Ashcroft. Now move out of the way, I need to heal Alison.”

Without waiting for John to react, she quickly strode over and looked at Alison whose wide eyes gazed up at the imposing redhead with an awkward smile. Alison, feeling more than a little uncomfortable, raised her hand a little and gave Moira a small wave, eliciting a frustrated grunt.

“I think I might have to arrange a basic first-aid class for the entire order, she is completely fine, not even a scratch!” Moira barked looking back at the small group standing at the entrance.

“She is?” came an uncertain voice.

Moira let out a growl as she looked at them. “I will be reprimanding the one who gave the false report.”

“B-but it was Lord Br-” a timid voice started before swiftly being interrupted.

“I don’t care who it was, I have other things to take care of,” she fumed. Turning to Alison she smiled. “Sorry about that. You just rest up a little, while I have a nice chat with John.”

Alison nodded, and without giving John a chance to react, Moira firmly took hold of his hand and dragged him out of the tent and back into the one he’d started in. She pushed him onto the metal chair at the back of the tent before sitting in the one across the table from him, pulling off her gauntlets and placing them neatly at the edge of the table.

She took a deep breath before looking at John. “I guess my first question would have to be why has a dragon such as yourself been masquerading as a student?”

John looked confused for a moment. “What? Me? I’m not a dragon, those are just my powers.”

Moira’s brow furrowed. “Oh, well that makes things even more complicated then, doesn’t it. I assume you are part of the Red Scales Organisation then? You’d do well to be truthful, if I feel that even a hint of deceit comes out of your lips, this conversation will escalate.”

“I don’t even know who the ‘Red Scales’ are. I overheard someone outside the tent mention them earlier but that was the first time I’d ever heard the name. Are they a group of dragons or something?” John asked.

She looked at him, scrutinising his facial expressions, causing John to feel a little uncomfortable. “I’ll believe you for now, it doesn’t seem like you’re lying. Fine, how did you gain dragon-like powers if you don’t have any association with the Red Scales?”

John thought back to the day with the blue basilisk, he couldn’t tell her that, she was there and he kissed her, she’d probably kill him. “I, uhm, well that’s a long story, I didn’t even know about the Abyss a week ago, then I’d made a deal with a dragon resulting in me gaining dragon claws.”

Moira scoffed. “Do you expect me to believe that? A mundane just happened to meet a dragon and made a deal with them?”

“Well, technically no, I got my dragon powers like that but I woke up last Monday with strange powers, those aren’t really related to dragons though,” John admitted.

Before Moira could respond, the canvas flap at the entrance of the tent opened and a familiar blue girl walked in. She was pretty cute, maybe more so now because she was wearing a sports bra and yoga pants which hugged against her curves. She scanned the room quickly locking onto John; her eyes briefly lit up as if there were a fire behind them and she smiled.

John had managed to be relatively calm, though something in that smile just caused a bolt of panic to surge through him and he fell backwards out of his chair as he attempted to scrabble back. ’Fuck, is she going to attack me again?’ he thought as he backed up, all while the two girls stared at him, seemingly amused at John’s reaction.

Kaen turned to Moira. “Oops, seems I barged in, my bad… Anyway, Moira, while I’m here, have you seen Kim anywhere?”

Moira half-rolled her eyes but smiled. “She said she was updating your clan about everything, she should be done and back in the barrier by now so she will probably be close to the training area.”

“Thanks. Oh, also thanks for healing me all up, my hand feels much better now,” she said as she flexed her hand. “Anyway, better get going. Later, and later to you too, hope I get to see you again.”

She gave John a wink before disappearing back out of the tent. John slowly stood, feeling foolish, not only from falling onto the floor but also for seemingly overreacting. He dusted himself off before awkwardly picking the chair back up and sitting in it.

“So you were talking about when you got your powers? Care to elaborate?” Moira asked, leaning forward onto her elbows.

“Uh, yeah, so I got them Monday, and then soon after that, I ended up meeting this girl who said she was a fairy but then turned out to be a dragon and basically she gave me something that unlocked my dragon powers,” John explained; he wasn’t really lying but he was definitely omitting truths.

Moira nodded contemplatively. “Okay fine, I guess that is somewhat believable, but there is something else. Something that is nagging me, earlier this week something very strange happened and I think you are the one behind it. What do you have to say for yourself, John Newman?”

Moira’s voice was calm but it seemed to cut through the air; he couldn’t explain it but he had a bad feeling and his breath caught in his throat as he began to panic. ’What did I do? Which thing did she find out about?’

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