Eros lay defeated and hurt, just outside the Endless Desert dungeon, his wounds and his pride having taken substantial damage. The dungeons which he so valiantly challenged but days ago, now stand before him, towering over him, daunting and infuriating. At least his chosen resting area has shade though the trees are scarce. It's better than roasting beneath the sunlight. The singular tree stands tall, a patch of greenery sits peacefully within its shade. Amidst several giant boulders, surely a safe enough spot for an injured dragon to rest without being disturbed.

“Ugh, I should have listened when they said I wasn’t ready.” Sighing as he recalls an encounter the first day he had decided to journey into the dungeon. “Stupid fleshling, what do they know anyways. With their small horns and funny tail. Blagh.” 

“For starters, this stupid fleshing knows that you’re in an awful load of pain if you’re sulking out here.” The soft voice calls from behind a nearby rock. “And from the looks of it, I was right.” Stepping out from her hiding place stands a horned humanoid, her umber skin glistening under the last bits of sunlight, her silver and pink highlights vibrantly shining against the purple of her hair.

Sighing heavily, Eros looks toward the familiar voice, both curious and annoyed to hear it. “To what do I owe this unfortunate reunion, fleshling.” His gaze upon his newly acquired wound on his right hand, studying it absently before dragging his rigged tongue over it. A frail attempt to quell the throbbing. 

The female wearily gets closer to Eros, her hands fidgeting into her knapsack. “I have something that would work better for the pain…If you’d like.”

The closeness of her voice startling Eros, he looks up from his hand, tongue still licking the wound there. He slowly withdraws his tongue, his celeste eyes watching her fidgeting hands as the rest of her gives off a commanding aura, misled by how soft she spoke. Growling a warning, he reluctantly offers her his injured hand, eyes unwaveringly studying her.

“This will hurt, but only for a moment. The pain should subside once the salve takes effect.” Her voice quickly shifts to match her aura, as she takes his hand resting it in her lap. “Though you won’t be able to challenge the dungeons for another few days at least.” Talking as she applies the salve, a distraction perhaps but it seemingly works as she’s not been eaten yet. “This salve can only go so far and I have enough to maybe get you back on your feet.”

Unbeknownst to her, as soon as his hand rested atop her lap he felt a strange safeness and the severity of his wounds caught up to him. His eyelids drooped shut and he lay his weary head just inches from the fleshling. His body battered and bleeding ached beyond what he could handle, like it or not whatever trust he had in the fleshling were to be tested that night as he lay unprotected with naught but a tiny fleshing guardian. Boy was he in trouble, or so he dreamt.

He lay dreaming as his healer made her way with her salve and covered every wound she could reach without waking him. Working into the dead of night to tend his wounds, she stopped only to quench her thirst, her focus was getting the sleeping giant healed and on his feet. And so she did, the sunlight peeking over the horizon would bring another day of gathering and preparing more salves as she had in fact used every salve she had on her person, to cover the once rhodonite dragon in sticky herbal salves of varying colors.

As the sun shone enough to awaken Eros, it didn’t take him long to learn that his dreams were incredibly wrong. Though he was covered in sticky paste, he wasn’t in pain, not that he’d try his hand against Banshee, he was in better shape than when he had fallen asleep. As he shook the sleep from his body, a small thump near his hindlegs alerted him of the sleeping fleshling nearby. It would seem that she had fallen asleep against his leg and tail and he shook her off, not that she seemed bothered by it, she simply grumbled a bit before getting closer to him once again. 

“It’s not like I have anything better to do today.” Eros thought to himself before readjusting his body to coil around his sleeping fleshling. “A few days of rest sound nice, Banshee can wait a few days.” His final thoughts before he rejoined the sleeping world alongside his brave new healer.