Rivers of blood and sand
Chapter 30

Ander wasn’t panicking like the last time around, but I was once again in his arms, probably because I’d been standing when I was pulled under. My gaze immediately landed on the summoner, and to my horror, his head was reattaching itself to his body—and yes, it was as disgusting as it sounded.

My limbs tingled as I disentangled myself from Ander. I quickly relayed the new information about the summoner as I retrieved my weapons and prepared myself for a long fight. Ander followed suit, drawing sigils on his left arm in preparation for the summoner’s next form. Based on the patches on his skin, he had over six forms that we’d need to kill. My body already preemptively ached at the thought of how much this would suck.

My body was tense, ready the moment he finished healing. Even though I’d been mentally preparing myself, I still jolted when his eyes opened, the glowing yellow taking up the entire eye, with no pupils. A chill invaded my body as he continued watching us. A rumbling growl shook his body as he climbed onto all fours. White fur rippled over his skin as bones snapped and his features changed.

Before long, he was fully shifted into an animal that was akin to a polar bear. He was almost twice the size of the normal animal, with a longer snout, full of rows of jagged teeth. His ears were big in comparison to his head.

The snarl that left his lips had a shiver running down my spine and my dragon rearing up. Before he could attack, Ander sent a blast of energy that sent the summoner flying backward. Blood stained its white fur in multiple places once he stood up and shook out his fur. He lunged at us again, and as I dodged his powerful swipe—the air whistling next to my ear as he just missed me—I slashed out with my dagger, drawing more blood from him. Ander deftly avoided getting bitten by him, kicking out and catching the bear in the side and sending him sprawling.

“Ander!” I called out as I tossed the dagger covered in summoner blood. He easily caught it and began using it to draw sigils on his arm. As he drew, I kept the summoner distracted, earning a slash across my back that had me screaming as fiery agony raced down my back in five lines. I collapsed onto my hands and knees as I tried to replace my breath through the pain.

I was vaguely aware of the summoner breathing down my neck as he stalked me, but I couldn’t make my muscles respond. Before he could touch me, he was thrown away from me. When the pain dulled enough that I could finally even out my breaths and unclench my teeth, I looked up and found the summoner. He was in his humanoid form over thirty feet away from me. The patch of white fur was now gone from his shoulder, and his head over ten feet away from him. At the back of my mind, I wondered how that would work.

Ander didn’t waste any time, making me eat more conjured food and drink a ton of water as he drew sigils between the scratches and added a salve—which fucking burned as he coated the wounds.

The blood had stopped dripping down my back by the time I managed to climb to my feet, the wounds on my back protesting the movement. Sounds of shifting sand had my attention shooting to the summoner, more specifically, his head that was rolling across the sand, like a ball that had just been kicked. What the fuck? All I could do was watch on in horrified silence as the head landed next to the neck and began attaching itself back onto the body. With the rate he was healing, we’d have a few minutes before we had to face him again.

Once he awoke and shifted into a birdlike animal, that somewhat reminded me of an ostrich, but instead of feathers, he was covered in scales. We ended up following a similar pattern as before. My healing back twinged when I swung my sword, a pained groan leaving my lips. This animal took more work to kill with how fucking fast he ran. In the end, I found an opening and took off its head. This time, I tossed the head even further away. It may not stop it from reattaching, but it would give us a moment to catch our breaths.

The next animal was basically a kangaroo, with some variations that made it all the more deadly. Kangaroo summoners were always known for their powerful kicks. Even with this knowledge, I wasn’t prepared for how much it would hurt to get kicked by this fucker. There was little doubt in my mind that it had broken a rib, probably two. It hurt to breathe, much less move my left arm without a sharp bolt of pain.

I wasn’t much help to Ander after this since I could barely move. The summoner tried capitalizing on this multiple times, and it was this distraction that allowed Ander to get its blood. He drew a quick sigil that immobilized the summoner long enough for him to kill it and throw the head even further away.

I tried protesting when he knelt in front of me, drawing more healing sigils on me, telling him to save his strength. His only response was to roll his eyes and ignore my protests. He conjured more food, and this time, he also ate some of it.

And so the pattern continued.

We faced a multitude of animals, a giant fucking snake that was as thick as my body and over thirty feet long. That one was a bitch to kill. It managed to bite Ander in his leg, and thankfully it wasn’t poisonous. I didn’t have the supplies or skills to deal with that. After that, there was an animal close to a walrus, which was harder to kill than I initially thought. Its skin was thick and hard to pierce, and it moved faster than you’d picture a walrus to be able to move on land.

None was as bad as the bird, which was a giant version of a falcon, with razor-sharp feathers—we found that out the hard way. The damn thing would swoop in to attack us and fly away before we could retaliate. I had multiple scratches from its claws and fucking wings. At this point, I was pissed. We’d been fighting this damn thing off and on for at least an hour. My ribs and back had long since healed, but there were always new injuries to take their place. To make matters worse, the summoner had learned to avoid bleeding around Ander, so we had to kill it the old-fashioned way.

After we killed the Panther with gray fur, I did something I had yet to do. I moved close to his headless form and scanned his body, looking for any patches of his animals. All I found was a dark brown patch of short fur on his thigh.

This was his last animal, and of course, it was a fucking griffin.

My energy was nearly drained at this point, my dragon and I both needed a nap, or at the very least, to be able to sit for a while and not have to move. To say I was in a bad mood would be a vast understatement. I was downright cranky, and rightfully so.

As with the falcon, he kept using his wings to his advantage. After what felt like the twentieth drop by, I’d had about enough of all this bullshit. I let loose a blast of fire at him as he reached for me with his sharp talons and he slammed into the ground, sending sand flying in all directions.

Not one to waste an opportunity, Ander used this to his advantage and eventually, he killed the summoner.

Neither of us moved or looked away from the dead summoner, waiting to see if he would heal. Even though we knew he didn’t have any more animals in his arsenal, we weren’t willing to take that risk. It wasn’t until his body turned cold, that we let ourselves relax and accept that it was truly dead.

I’d been sitting in the sand, with my elbows resting on my bent knees as I watched the dead summoner and when I attempted standing, I nearly fell over. Ander’s hands landed on my hips, holding me steady.

My torn and blood-soaked clothes—both mine and the summoner’s—caught my attention and had me groaning.

Ander’s lips twitched and when I gave him a deadpanned look, it became a full-blown grin. He drew more blood from his arm and cast a couple of sigils that made a pair of jeans and a shirt appear. They were identical to the clothes I was wearing, which made sense; he had touched my clothes several times when he took them off of me. The thought had my blood heating—the same blood that was no longer just mine, at least for the moment. His fingers brushed mine as he handed me the clothes, sending heat and electricity surging through my body.

Doing a twirling motion with my finger, I said, “Turn around.”

The expression on Ander’s face could only be described as baffled amusement as he stared at me, waiting to see if I was joking. I wasn’t. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by the way he watched me, not with a dead body only twenty feet away. No, thank you. That wasn’t a kink I’d ever develop.

“I’ve seen you naked multiple times,” Ander said slowly, his dark eyebrows pulling together.

“Congrats, you can think about that while you turn around,” I repeated the gesture, this time more impatiently.

His lips tugged into a half grin and for a moment, I thought he would ignore my request. After rolling his eyes and chuckling under his breath, he finally turned around. My movements were quick and efficient as I yanked off my ruined clothes and pulled on the new ones. It was amazing how just changing out of those nasty clothes was enough to improve my mood, not having to smell the gross summoner blood anymore. For good measure, since my blood was on them as well, I let out a stream of fire from my palm, just enough to torch the clothes.

A smirk tugged on Ander’s lips as he watched me toss my burning clothes aside. Questions began plaguing my mind again, the ones he hadn’t given me the chance to ask earlier. As much as I wanted to ask them, now wasn’t the time.

Even so, I couldn’t help but notice the way he watched me. His gaze wasn’t heated exactly, but there was an undercurrent swirling in his eyes. He was attracted to me, that much had been made abundantly clear the past two days. But the real question was: Did he want to be mated to me? He rejected the notion that he could ever be jealous where I was concerned, so I wasn’t too sure. Part of me was too scared to ask. What if he decided to reject me, but for real this time?

As we moved away from the body, I took deep breaths and decided it was best to focus on the task at hand. I relayed all of the new information I learned to Ander, glancing at him every so often. A thoughtful expression took over his face as he stared off into the distance.

When I asked him if he knew about the central point of the dimension, he nodded and confirmed he knew what it was. A good thing too, since I didn’t understand how it differed from the true center of the dimension. My relief continued when he also confirmed he knew how to replace it.

Finally, something was going our way. Now, all I needed him to say was that it was close by and I’d be happy.