Chapter Text
Moon was pulled out of his nap by a loud, insistent squawking. One he unfortunately knew very well. “Sun, Chica’s here.” He grumbles, moving to roll over. He pauses. Right, their human. Right, Sun was out hunting. Moon groaned, opening his eyes. He checked for you first, finding that you weren’t in the den. Maybe you went to see what the noise was yourself. Moon reluctantly dragged himself to the entrance of the cave, teeth preemptively bared in case Chica had the foolish notion to attack you. It would be dumb of her, and Chica wasn’t known to attack humans willy-nilly, but he was going to be careful.
Instead, Moon came to a halt as he saw Chica was injured. An arrow through her wing, still impaled. “Moon! Thank goodness, I am so, so sorry!” The harpy yelled, and cold dread settled in the dragon’s gut. “What did you do?” He growled, and the harpy flinched. “I-I didn’t mean for it to happen! Roxy told me about your little human and I wanted to meet him! So I went to meet him and we had a chat but when I was bringing him back I got shot! I didn’t mean to drop him, I really really didn’t but he fell in Monty’s lake and now-”
Chica flinched as ice spread along the ground from Moon’s claws. “He. Fell. Where?” Moon’s rage was palpable. “M-Monty’s lake! He’s alive, Monty hid him somewhere though and he won’t return him even when Roxy and I asked!” The temperature around the dragon dropped to below freezing. The harpy shivered, taking a few steps back. “I’m going to kill that serpent.” He growled, roaring loudly to call for his mate. He didn’t need him, not really, but Moon knew Sun would for sure want his own pound of flesh for this transgression. A roar was heard in response.
Chica, wisely, escaped into the forest, calling for Freddy. Sun arrived shortly after. “Moon! What’s wrong?” The golden dragon’s nose twitched. “Where’s Sunshine?” Moon scowled, which made Sun worry more. “Moon. Where did our human go?” He jerked his head in the direction of the lake. “Monty took him. He’s not dead, yet, but he won’t give him back.” The air around Sun boiled, and the nearby plants caught fire. The fire quickly began to spread, only spared a whole forest fire when Freddy arrived. “Sun! Moon! Please, calm down!” The bear pleaded, knowing damn well they could and would destroy the whole forest to get to you.
Of course, there was only so much the bear could do…especially when the group finally finds the reason they came into these woods in the first place. “Dragons!” The three creatures all faced the source of the shout, an adventuring party of six. Two humans, a tiefling, a bugbear, an elf, and a half orc. All armed to the teeth with magic items, armor, and weapons. “Uh, Jason, you said there was only one dragon-” The bugbear spoke up, likely the smartest of the group as he seemed ready to turn tail. “Shut up, they’re just dragons. We’ve killed dragons before.” One of the humans draws their bow.
Dragon teeth were artfully embedded into the bow, proving they must have, in fact, killed dragons before. “One at a time, Jason! Not two adults at once!” The elf hisses. “And definitely not when they look so mad-!” Moon stalks towards them, ice spreading with each step. A few of the group step back. “Which of you. Shot down. The white harpy?” He had a good idea, considering only one of them actually had a bow, but he wanted to watch them give him up. The entire group steps back, leaning the human with the bow closest. “And if I did?” He nocks an arrow, unconcerned with his fate.
“You have cost us a very valuable piece of our hoard.” Ice encased the human’s feet, working its way up to encase his body slowly. “So we are going to make sure you suffer every moment until we get him back.” He fixes his gaze at the other five. “If you are smart, you will leave.” The tiefling holds up their axe, racing forward with a battle cry. Sun darts forward, snapping his jaws over the tiefling and piercing through her armor. He tosses the upper half away into the woods, a low growl filling the air.
That was more than enough to convince the rest, and they turned and fled. “Wait! Guys! Don’t leave me here!” The human shivers as best he can, frozen entirely from the neck down. “Shame.” Moon bends down, carefully removing one of the man’s frozen fingers. He yells out, Sun thawing his hand just enough so he can really feel it. “You will be the only one paying for what you’ve cost us.” Sun muttered, growling lowly. The ice and fire spread into the forest, Freddy working to try and contain the damage so the whole forest isn’t destroyed. He didn’t dare try to help the screaming adventurer.
…
“You really gotta be more careful, Chica.” The rabbit nymph tsked, finishing up the magic healing. “I didn’t realize there were going to be adventurers out here, I promise! Normally the forest is so quiet, and I was just heading back the way I came with him!” Chica flaps her wings, flustered. “Oh gods, Bonnie, what are we going to do?” She buries her face in her hands. “Sun and Moon are never going to forgive me, I don’t think I can forgive myself if something happens to him!” Bonnie hums, tilting his head. “Hold up- him who?”
Chica sighs, leaning back. “Okay so- you know Sun and Moon?” Bonnie nods. “The mountain dragons, yes. What about them?” She fidgets with her claws. “So they picked up a human, a bard.” She tells him your name. “They’ve been courting him, although he only realized that recently. I decided I wanted to meet him, see what the fuss was about! Roxy said he was really good at singing, although I didn’t hear it myself. But I uh…kind of kidnapped him a little?” Bonnie groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Chica, seriously? You basically decided to steal away a part of their hoard, and worse, a potential mate? Do you realize how dumb that is?”
“I know, I know! It was dumb. I just took him back to my nest, so I had time to talk with him before Moon woke up or Sun came back! I-I thought it would be alright. We’d talk a bit, then I’d take him back, and it’d be like he was never gone. But when I was taking him back, I got shot by an adventurer and I dropped him. He landed in Monty’s lake.” Chica slumps, whining softly. “Monty’s lake? You mean the ONE person who hates the mountain dragons more than anything?” Bonnie’s ears laid flat against his head.
“Yeah! I know!” The harpy sniffles, wiping her tears away into her feathers. “Monty didn’t kill him, but he hid him away. He won’t- Roxy and I tried talking to him, tried to get him back- Monty won’t do it.” Bonnie pulls her into his arms, holding her as she cries. “What are we gonna do, Bonnie? We need to get him back, what if Monty’s torturing him or something?” Her tears soak the rabbit’s fur, and he rubs her back. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay. We can think of something. We will think of something.” He holds onto her tighter, humming softly to soothe his upset friend.
After a few minutes, the sobs turn into sniffles and finally quiet down entirely. “There we go. Okay, now that we’re calm we can make a plan. Chances are, we’re not going to be able to convince Monty to give him up. Which means we need someone who can swim fast enough to find them.” Bonnie hums softly. “So…we should talk to Foxy?” Chica wipes her face off. “I think that’ll be our best bet. Do you want to go get Roxy, and I’ll meet you at his pond?” Chica nods, sniffing again before flapping her wings. “I’ll see you there, Bonnie. Thank you.” The harpy flies off.
Bonnie rolls his shoulders, wiping his fur off a bit. With Chica taken care of, now he had to go see Foxy. The nymph stretches a bit, then hops into the nearest tree. His form melds into it, wincing as he feels the burning and freezing from the mountain dragons’ rage. Bonnie has other things to worry about, though, travelling through the root system. It was, of course, a little known fact that the forest was in fact a single organism, one that Bonnie encompassed. This meant he had more privileges than the average nymph. One of those being the ability to travel from tree to tree through the roots.
Bonnie pulls himself out of one of the trees surrounding the pond. A beaver’s dam blocked off one area, the dam being what created the pond Foxy lived in. “Foxy!” Bonnie yells, leaning over the water. The water shifts, and the kelpie pokes his head out. “Oi, Bonnie! What bring ye to me home today?” Bonnie hops over to the dam, sitting on it and dipping his feet in the water. “Oh, Foxy, as much as I hate to bother you, we need your help.” Foxy raises an eyebrow, pulling himself a little further out of the water. “Aye? Gods, Bon, what’d ye do now?”
Bonnie holds his hands up. “It wasn’t me! You’ll see once Chica gets here.” Foxy grumbles, but they don’t have to wait long. Chica sets down Roxy, landing as well. “Hi, Foxy.” She’s still a bit subdued. “Ahoy, lass! What’s got ye down in the dumps?” Chica sighs, then explains the situation. Foxy listens closely, then nods. “Ah, aye see…sounds like a right mess, then. Aye suppose ye came ta me ‘cause aye’m the only one who could swim faster enough ta get him out o’ there.” Roxy shrugs. “Pretty much, yeah. We’re just trying to get the runt out in one piece. Remember that time those adventurers almost killed Moon?”
The whole group shuddered, Bonnie especially. So many ‘trees’ had been burnt or literally clawed apart with the force of the dragon’s rage. Foxy had been practically boiled out of his lake, and even Chica and Roxy hadn’t gotten away without burns. Monty, though, had gotten the brunt of it. The reason that he doesn’t like them. Sun and Moon had merely been courting at the time, but Monty had been attempting to court Sun as well. The adventurers had been friendly with Monty before then, and thought they’d help him by eliminating the competition. They nearly had, too, if Sun hadn’t intervened.
And of course Sun knew Monty’s friends, and had torn up the forest on his warpath to the serpent’s lake. Monty had nearly died that day too, and he might have if it wasn’t for Freddy. Needless to say, after that the mountain dragons and the lake serpent were bitter enemies. “Aye, aye’ll help ye. It’ll be up to ye lot to distract him, then someone’s gotta get him to the mountain dragons before they destroy half the forest. Again. Although they might go fer the whole forest this time.” Foxy leans forward, humming. “Alright, lads, what am I looking fer?”
…
Sun is so relieved to have you back in his arms, holding your unconscious form close. “I’ll get him home, Moon. Can you?” Sun flicks his head back in the direction of the adventurer. “It will be my pleasure, love.” Moon purrs, nuzzling against Sun’s neck. Then he drops his head, nuzzling against your form gently. Sun ran back into the den, but Moon stalked off to the side. He’d need to clean the mess, too, can’t let their songbird see it. The dragon approached the man, who was missing seven fingers so far. Blood dripped from his hands, some of it frozen before it even hit the ground.
The human begins pleading as Moon approaches, sobbing and asking for mercy. The dragon rolls his eyes at such a pathetic display, a new layer of ice creeping up the man’s legs. “Shut your snivelling. You’re in luck, because we finally retrieved our treasure.” He sobs, but he’s at least smart enough to know that he wasn’t about to be let go. “Maybe in your next life, you won’t be so stupid.” Moon muses, as the ice freezes over his head. Sure, Moon could leave it as is, but he had to get rid of the traces. The dragon pulls the human icicle off the ground, tossing him into the forest. He turns away at the sound of him shattering.
He had a mate and a potential mate to get back to, after all.