And why had Amalia needed anyone to stand in front of her? Bold and brave Amalia, who usually chafed at such treatment? Or at least, resented it from him. But Deimos's list of tasks and tacit defense of the Flood soothed some of the bard's feathers, ones that had been ruffled and ready to resent the bartender for his deadly quest. True, the man had made a mistake with the cannibal early on, but it sounded as though after that he had worked with the others to try and redeem something from the debacle, protecting those who remained.
"Did he ever say why a dragon's heart was needed?" A last question into the whole wretched mess, the General's terse descriptions painting a bleak picture in stark blacks and whites. The dragon rousing angry and lethal in its rage, killing and injuring within seconds; no defense against it, no weapon strong enough to turn it aside if even Adam's firearms had failed. A group in shock at the sudden deaths of companions and friends, scrambling to escape without further losses, making a desperate effort to glean some small spark of hope from the wreckage, for the sake of a Temple that Safrin's own demigod had destroyed, to salve the goddess's pride. If Sunjata hadn't killed the cannibal. If Peter hadn't approached the dragon in such a fragile form. If the companions had stayed back, safe and protected behind their humans...
If and if and if. How many of those ifs ran through Deimos's head even now, days and weeks after the event itself?
And then there had been that hunt in the woods, and Sunjata's premature exit from the task...
"Do you blame him?" he asked quietly, a dangerous question, and one whose answer might add new layers of complexity to the tapestry of connections between the Outlanders and those Naturals who stood by them.
"Did he ever say why a dragon's heart was needed?" A last question into the whole wretched mess, the General's terse descriptions painting a bleak picture in stark blacks and whites. The dragon rousing angry and lethal in its rage, killing and injuring within seconds; no defense against it, no weapon strong enough to turn it aside if even Adam's firearms had failed. A group in shock at the sudden deaths of companions and friends, scrambling to escape without further losses, making a desperate effort to glean some small spark of hope from the wreckage, for the sake of a Temple that Safrin's own demigod had destroyed, to salve the goddess's pride. If Sunjata hadn't killed the cannibal. If Peter hadn't approached the dragon in such a fragile form. If the companions had stayed back, safe and protected behind their humans...
If and if and if. How many of those ifs ran through Deimos's head even now, days and weeks after the event itself?
And then there had been that hunt in the woods, and Sunjata's premature exit from the task...
"Do you blame him?" he asked quietly, a dangerous question, and one whose answer might add new layers of complexity to the tapestry of connections between the Outlanders and those Naturals who stood by them.
