Treasure and riches. Glory and namesake. That was what Desmond strived to gain and of course he would share all of it with Saffron. The only problem was that they would have across through this blasted forest. It had been a day or so since feeding when they stumbled onto a shortcut to a port heading for Abed. All it took was to cross the forest where many would deter from. He had heard the warnings and tales, but truly he didn’t think anything of it. Now he was wanting to tear his hair out from his head as they walked through the mist that seemed like ages since they started.

No matter what the direction was taken, it seemed like they didn’t get far at all. He was pondering if they were walking around in circles the whole time. But he was reluctant from exposing his temper just yet. “Well, this is a fine pickle. We can’t even go back if we wanted to”, he muttered as he ceased walking. His foot tapped against the earth impatiently and arms crossed into one another against his chest. He was overly annoyed with this place. “At this rate, we'll be old and grey by the time we make it through here. If that happens, then we’ll forget why we were bloody out here in the first place” He certainly didn’t wish for that, but if they couldn’t find their way, then perhaps that wouldn’t matter.

They would starve first.

Such a thought brought on a dreadful frown across his face before he threw his head back and sighed loudly. “I don’t want to freakin’ starve. That is the worse way for our kind to go, Saffron.”

Saffron was groaning from time to time. She was holding onto the baby dragon who was resorting to eating small animals that they were coming across here or there. Saffron would rather Ellura eat since they went through a rough time getting her. She was curled up in Saffron’s arms as she kissed the top of her arms. The animals they did find were way too small for Desmond or Saffron. 

Her fingers trailed the baby dragon’s white scales. “Are we there yet?” The question left her lips several times as she lost herself to boredom. Finally, Desmond spoke up and she groaned loudly. “Desmond are we lost?” Not that he would ever admit to being wrong.

She tilted her head and looked at him. The thing about Saffron was she wasn’t overly selfish when he came to Desmond’s needs. “I mean if it comes down to it you could always just kill me and feed.” She said it as if it was the easiest thing ever. Like it was the air she was breathing. It was cold and it didn’t even cross her mind as a bad thing. It was just something she would do for him.  It was not even a conscious thing she thought about as it left her lips. Allura looked up to her vampire mother and tilted her little head.

“What?” Saffron wasn’t even sure that she was wrong in what she said. “I don’t want to starve either. This was a bad idea.” She scolded Desmond. It was hunger slowly getting to her. Any attitude he gave her resulted in. “Are we there yet?” She held onto the dragon before taking charge and walking ahead of him.

“I hate this place. This is the worst vacation ever.”

It was bad enough that they were lost, and that he was trying to keep his temper as they paced about endlessly. It was only worse when his precious little Saffron decided to question him at every turn if they were lost or if they were at their destination yet. Each time, he would answer along the line of “no”, though with each time he did so, Desmond just simply got more annoyed than the last time.

Biting his tongue, the vampire kept his focus ahead of them, hoping that sooner or later they were make it through this hell. It felt like each time she had opened her mouth, it only did so to draw his ire. But the next thing to come out of it made him stop once more and looked to her with a dumbfound look. “Woman, I’m not going to kill you! I couldn’t feed off of your blood for substance anyway. I need warm bloods.” Even the bloody dragon had to look at her “mother”, unsure of what she was babbling on about.

Desmond rolled his eyes at her, “You’re the one that wanted to adventure everywhere. And look, here we are adventuring. I’d rather had stayed put in Kurayo like I wanted.” She spoke those venomous words once more and he growled at her, and it was in no way cute either. “Sure. We are here, don’t you see the ships and the friendly people singing happy songs? Oh, I surely do.” Before he could continue, Saffron took it upon herself to lead them and he rushed to catch up. “Saffron wait up, damn it. And this is no vacation!” 

Saffron paused and turned her heel to look at Desmond. She hissed at him and held the dragon close. “I said to go around the damn haunted forest.” She got up to him. “I said, the stories don’t sound so good. I SAID we needed to walk around.” The hunger was practically dripping from her red eyes. “You didn’t listen to me. Now we would be at the damn port, on a fucking ship, ready to go play in spice fields.” Her voice cracked before she turned around and started to lead off.

“Fuck you. Catch up.” Saffron would have never spoken to Desmond like that if it wasn’t for the hunger gnawing at her every being. Even the dragon was making sad noises or hurt noises as she gripped. “Sorry Allura,” Saffron loosened her grip and the dragon calmed down in her hand. The fog was killing her and she didn’t like it but she kept going.

Saffron kept sulking as she walked around. It had been a day since they entered the forest. Her long strawberry hair was swaying at her hips. Her red eyes were constantly darting about. She gave him the silent treatment for an hour. However, unlike with Desmond, the forest began to open up. It opened up to a lake. There was memorials to many, lit candles, and lots of floating flowers.

It took her break away looking at the lake. “Well, I made progress.” She turned around and looked at Desmond. “I think.” Her eyes were exhausted though as she wobbled back and forth just a tad. She would start seeing things eventually if she didn’t sleep soon. She sulked over to him and frowned. "I'm sorry for being a mean person. I'm just hungry."

“Simmer down woman”, he exclaimed, giving her another roll of the eyes. Desmond was far from wanting to deal with her at this point, especially as he could feel himself itching with hunger. Damn, it had been a day since they feed and from the looks of things, another day would go by for them before they would. Though he was trying to figure out if it was starvation that would end them or if they would rip one another apart first. Saffron was getting quite snippy with him and it was unlike her. But that was the least of his concerns; Desmond’s temper was boiling with each word spewed from her mouth. “Bloody tales. I thought they were full of nonsense; humans typically are. A place with no end shouldn’t exist.” His eyes narrowed with a hint of danger. “Don’t forget who is master, child.” Of course he wouldn’t kill her, but he wasn’t going to take her annoyance for too much longer. Perhaps he would leave her here for a bit to cool down, but the more he allowed himself to think about it, the more he grew to go against it. Heaven knew that with their luck, he would lose her for days out here.

Still she wasn’t helping her case as she took the lead, and he hissed before begrudgingly trailing behind her. While she kept going, he kept his mind fresh of all sorts of colorful profanities for this situation. Fortunately she kept quiet for once and it only brought him some comfort in not hearing Saffron complain every two steps.

Unfortunately the land seemed to favor her as it lifted the fog away for them to see a place finally. His frown deepened since before they were stuck in a endless loop and suddenly she took charge and saved their skins from being lost forever. Desmond’s eyes took in everything they could of this place, especially the lake before addressing Saffron. “Yes, yes. We are both exhausted and hungry.” His temper simmered down and he relaxed a bit more. He wasn’t the sort to admit his mistakes usually, but the damn woman brought it out in him. Whether he liked it or not. “I’m…sorry”, he mumbled the last word to be nearly inaudible.

“Sorry”, he repeated.

Her red eyes glared towards him at the mention of who was in charge. She said nothing respecting his words but her glare was still there. She trailed ahead hearing the hiss that left his lips. She was going to turn around and hiss back at him but she decided against it. She knew that he was in just as much of a bad mood as she was. They were both hungry.

Saffron held onto Allura and tilted her head at him after the fog lifted. “Hmm?” She couldn’t hear him through the mumble but she had a feeling what it was. Finally, he repeated it loud enough for her to hear completely and she offered him a small smile. “It will be alright… We’ll get through.” She walked over to him finally out of her sulk and patted the top of his head. She was shorter than he was but she could reach just enough for that.

“I think this lake would be in the middle of the forest because from the vantage point we had been at I didn’t see this… unless the forest has the ability to change…” She mused but she pushed herself up against him and Allura made a noise up at them. “I know you are hungry too Allura.” She pet the dragon’s small head. “It looks like we’re all hungry…”

Her red eyes peeked around and she mused about. “Unless we can eat that bird thing.” She pointed to a bird man not far away. “Is there more? Do you think they taste good?”

Although he was several lifetimes older than Saffron was, Desmond was behaving just as vulgar, just as childish as she was and it was truly due to hunger pangs and being stuck out here for as long as they had. He knew that it was getting to her as well. Hell, he was shocked that Allura wasn’t feeling it as well; the baby dragon hadn’t eaten just as long as they had.

He stopped and looked to her, the dangerous glare that was in his eyes melted and he relaxed even more. “If we get through the place first. I can’t make heads or tails of this place.” They were on speaking terms again, but it didn’t solve their situation with their hunger constantly attacking them and that they were still lost. Going backwards didn’t seem to be an option anymore since they would likely just get lost even more. He licked at his lips, feeling that his tongue wasn’t as moist as usual and he grimaced at the thought of starving to death. He was also concerned for Saffron; her life had relatively just started and it looked as though it would end.

“Please don’t say that.” He looked to the lake and then back at her, there was some concern in his eyes. “I don’t want to be in any more enchanted places after this. I just want to be some place normal where we can feed to our hearts’ content and get Allura something to eat.” Speaking of which, the little one spoke up and his eyes fell onto her. Fortunately Desmond was getting used to her presence, albeit it was a slow process but he was warming up to the frost dragon. “She especially will need something to eat, being as young as she is.”

For a moment he looked dim wittedly at her, unsure what the hell she was talking about. “Bird thing?” He turned to where Saffron pointed at and his eyes widened. “I don’t know what that thing is, but I’m surely not biting that thing until I do.” With that, he started to head towards the thing, curious of what it was and if it was edible like Saffron had suggested.

In truth, Allura was more worried about her parents. They were behaving like rabid animals due to the hunger pangs. When Desmond’s glare had disappeared the dragon appeared to be more at ease. Saffron nodded a bit more now that they were calmer. “I can’t either… I just felt like going forward.” Her eyes drifted to the lake as she studied it. It was a rather odd thing.

It hurt, her stomach was burning with a fire and she felt like even if she did find food that she wasn’t going to be in control to even share with Desmond. She would have to be careful, she knew how she was underneath the pretty little smile. She would destroy anything right now to get at food. She rubbed her strawberry curls and frowned towards their situation.

Tilting her head she nodded as she saw the concern springing forward in his eyes. “I don’t know how much more I can take…” There was a whine from her lips finally as she felt her stomach hit her with pain once more. “Normal places sound very nice… and Allura can have all the little cow meat pieces she wants.” The dragon looked up to Desmond with concerned eyes as it made a little noise as him. She was just as hungry as they were after all. “I’m more worried about her than us right now… I don’t want to feed her just any meat. I don’t know what that would do to her.” Saffron had an amazing maternal instinct when it came to the dragon. “I know she can eat livestock but I can’t see her eating people.” That could become a problem after all if she began to prefer that type of thing.

Looking at the Tengu as she pointed Saffron tilted her head as she followed him. It was an odd looking creature alright and it stared at her as much as she stared at it. Thought it must have realized why Saffron was staring after the vampire licked her lips at it. It moved back just a bit and Saffron was more quick with the hungry soaking into her. The shadows of the forest played into her as she appeared behind it and snapped its neck rather flawlessly.

She dropped it in front of Desmond and Allura was perched on her shoulders. “The least we can do is see if its edible. I don’t know if I or Allura can take this anymore… Something is better than nothing.”

Bloody hell…he didn’t want to think about tasting the blasted thing. Desmond was hungry all right, starving even, but this… this was simply out of the question. He wasn’t about to feed on some flimsy birdman creature. Hell, he would rather eat human food than that thing. But his lover, on the other hand, seemed as though she had thought long enough about it and was on the move. Groaning to himself, Desmond slowly followed her down as she hunted the bird creature and killed it in a matter of moments.

“That didn’t last too long”, he sighed as he watched the body fall right in front of him. The thing looked even stranger now that he could study it closer. But the pain from hunger reached him as well and he held his arm against the pit of his stomach. An annoyed look crossed his face and his fangs ached the longer he stared at the thing. It wasn’t the most appetizing thing he had ever seen but Saffron was right. It was better than nothing. 

Of course, he had a suspicious feeling that it would have to be him to taste it to make sure they could eat it. Kneeling down right beside the body, he hesitantly moved some of the deep, dark feathers away from what he assumed was its neck. Sighing again, he looked at Saffron and Allura and then back at the creature. Desmond’s mouth opened and his fangs ready to pierce the neck. Lowering himself towards it, he tried to bite it through the remnants of the feathers that were left blocking the spot he chose to get to the flesh. The blood came to him and filled his mouth- it wasn’t the most savory thing but it was edible. He drained some more of it before pulling away and looked to Saffron with blood staining his lips. “It’s fine to eat. Likely for Allura to eat as well.”

“I don’t feel like playing with it right now,” She tilted her head at him. “If I wanted to play with it I would have given it a chance but I’m hungry right now.” Her eyes lit up a bloodthirsty red as she spoke through the snapping of bones. She made sure it was truly dead.

Saffron tilted her head as she watched him. “Dessie?” She didn’t get her thought out in time to stop him. She took to the bird’s weird neck and began to pull the feathers out. “Why don’t we just do this?” She stripped the neck so it was easier to get to. “That’s what we used to do to the chickens on the farm… It can’t be that much different…” Once she got a bald spot she began to drink it in.

They shared it and before long she was pulling all the feathers off and chopping it up the best she could. “Here you go Allura,” she said with a smile as she pushed the smaller chunks of meat towards the dragon. For a few moments, the baby dragon was cautious but Saffron nodded and she dove in to eat. Once she got her own fill she climbed into Saffron’s arms and snuggled in. “Tired from a good meal?” She doubted it was overly good but it was enough to sate the dragon for a long time.

She sat on the ground and looked up at Desmond. “How are we going to get out of here? I killed it and we could have asked it…” But she had been too hungry. “Maybe if we just keep pushing past the lake we can reach the city… After that I want a real person to eat though.” She reached out and took his hand as they walked a bit slower now that they weren’t starving. “We can’t panic or we will get turned around.”