First Impressions.

I promised no magic stuff. Penny was really there. Eating an sammich. I decided to play the cool and practical approach.
"I may have a way to save Salone, but you need to come with me because I have no idea whre I'm going. You can ask two questions now. The rest when we get there. I will tell you that it's not dangerous, It's possible this will cure Salone, and you can have all the credit for doing so. Bottom line. Salone needs this, and I'll find it with or without you. I would very much like to have you, you're a good person...I can tell...but beyond that It'll just be faster if I have a guide. So...if yes, ask the two questions. If no, then I'll see you later, hopfully with a cure for our friend." I said. What? I promised practical, not fluffy and warm.

Penny turned the newspaper when the bell tinkled. She lowered her newspaper and a look of surprise flit across her face, "Shouldn't you be with Salone?"
She asked before he made it over to her table, she held the sandwich out to him, poor kid looked half starved. Penny's dark pink lips tightened into a line.
"Eat the sandwich," She told him. "Can you swear that this will help her? What is the chance that this will actually work?"
Penny folded up her newspaper slowly and looked at him directly, her watch glinting.

"I can swear to you that the information on the cure is in one of seven places. I know for a fact a cure exists, and I know for a fact its in one of these seven places." I said to her. I was hoping she wouldn't ask questions. I pulled out a map of the 'Super Continent' and showed her the seven locations. The closest was real close. the second wan was pretty far away. The third was in Ireland. The fourth in India, the fifth in Japan, the sixth in Australia, and the last one was the Arch-Dragon Focus Site, and I have no idea where it's at.

Penny gave him a look and said, "How did you hear about this cure?"
She pulled the map forward and looked at it along with the red dots that represents one of the focus sites. "There are only six sites."
Her faun eyes flicked up to his face before darting back to the map. She reached down and drew a line from each point to each point with her finger.
"Now, what am I supposed to do?" She folded her arms and rested them on the table, looking at him. She was suspicious that there was something more going on but she kept her facial expression neutral. She was still trying to work out Jake's and Salone's relationship in her mind.

"I know the cure exists just as much as you know her condition exists." I deadpanned her. She needed to trust me. I even told her so. "I will find this...with or without you. I owe it to her to find it. Now you can be the great friend I've heard bout ad help me, or you can be the skeptic I've heard about. Which one is more important to you? Salone, or an hour of your time?" I asked her as nicely as I could. No doubt it could have been taken the wrong way.
"There are only six sites because the seventh one is lost, I've yet to locate it." I explained with a sigh. The last one wouldn't have the cure I don't think. She scanned the map and seemed to try and draw a line from each dot.
"All you need to do is take me here." I said pointing to the most frequent wildfire location. Little did she know that there was a cave leading to the draconian artifact. Now it was up to her.

Penny's face tightened, "Well then, generally as a rule of thumb insulting people doesn't generally get you what you want."
Generally people who insulted Penny wound up missing a few fingers or a kidney, but since they were pressed for time and Penny had left her surgical scalpel in her office she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"You're lucky there isn't a fire going on right there," She sighed, picking up the remains of her sandwich and tucking them back into the clear bag. "You're still not eating, I expect you to eat. You look like a scarecrow."
She pulled Salone's car keys out of her pocket and walked over to the car, starting it. Biting her tongue as she got in. She started it while waiting for Jake. Silently she held out her hand for the map again.

"I didn't mean to insult you.... I just...really, really want to get this cure." I said. I don't like disappointing humans while im one of them. She made the comment about me looking like a scarecrow. I felt my face flush.
"Hey, I'me the biggest Dr-rack runner." I said. I was proud of myself for changing Dragon to track, but my heart froze up in fear. She held out her hand, and I handed her the map. That was after the embarassing moment when I had to apologize for not having money to pay her back at the moment. This lady seemed really reasonable. Whike on the motorcycle, I lifted my shirt and poked my abs. I wasn't a scarecrow was I? Was I really that unsightly? THIS OREAH IS GIVING ME ANOREXIA! Or reverse anorexia at least! I wolfed down that sandwich in record time, then looked under my shirt again to see if it made a differencr. It didn't and I moaned a little in disappointment.
I remembered why I was here. Who cares if I look like a scarecrow. If I need to gain weight it was gonna have to wait! I just hope Salone can hold it together long enough to not rip off a doctors head.

Penny made a noise of amusement as she started the car, "She always liked jocks."
She muttered to herself before putting the map down and pulling out of the parking spot. She flicked on the radio.
"This place is about an hour away, filled with cliffs and whatnot, but its very popular with wild fires. But i'm guessing you already knew that."
By this point she had hit the highway and they were about fifteen minutes away.
"How did you two meet anyhow?"
Penny was very curious about this, Salone had never mentioned a Jake before, but then again, they hadn't had much time to talk before she got sick again. Penny was also still very suspicious... but the chewing out of the two would have to come later.

"On the beach. She was teaching me how to walk and stuff." I said. This time it wasn't u til much later that I caught myself. I just hope she didn't ask really. I moved on quickly.
"How about you guys?"

Penny's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, her jaw tightening slightly.
"We met at a party, Salone had gotten backed up into a corner by some guy who had gotten a little too handsie. She was eighteen, I still have no idea what she was doing there. I was seeing the whole thing out of the corner of my eye. Anyway, panicking she shifted and nearly ripped the guy's face off with puma fangs. I always have a gun and ended up shooting her. A bizarre way to meet your best friend, that's for sure."
Penny sighed, chewing on her bottom lip looking for an exist. "That was when her condition first showed up."
The woman turned off onto an exist ramp and shortly after onto a dirt road.

We made it to a dirt road with little to no troublle, and soon we were where we needed to be, or close there to. Now we were only about five mintues away. The Problem with these places, these Focus Sites, were the fact that they were incredibly damaging to mortal minds, unless they were of significant intelligence. Penny , according to Salone, was brilliant so my concern is that she will get the same vision from the Site if I let her touch it. There was a cave, although it was magically warded to appear to none other than dragons. But if I took her with me into the cave that would be different.
"You don't need to follow me if you don't want. If you do follow me, you must promise to not touch a thing. Curiosity killed the cat, just remember that." I said the last sentance with a sing-song voice and walked towards the cave.
Once inside the cave it was almost a direct descent down. The dark cavern tunneled down for at least a mile we reached a solid gold door. I recalled the door reacting to dragons and titans only. Thankfully ther door opened with the slightest push. The doors were twenty foot thick and weight more than any mortal man could push. I looked at Penny. "Uh-uh It said where to push on the....inscription. It's in a different language." I said as i ignored her and prssed on. People with draconian blood it was light as a feather, titans could just open the massive things, and to everything else it was impossible. Once inside there it was. An orb of light on the 'ceiling', which was free of stalagmites and all other natural marks. There was only the light, a seventy-foot grassy area that formed a perfect circle with various beautiful flowers woven into the beautiful grass. In the dead center, there it was. I placed out an arm, to stop Penny form possibly going forward.
"Penny...I promised Salone something. If you take another step forward....then it's out of my hands." I told her. I was practically pleading, but in the end the choice was up to her.

Penny got out of of the car and followed after Jake, eyeing him untrustworthy. The long legged woman kept pace with him easily, her eyes continually moving, taking everything in, becoming permanently stored in her brain. She did have a photographic memory after all. She made a noncommittal noise every time he handed over a detail and her brain filed it away.
"Fine, I will stay here, but you better explain everything when we get back home," She said in an icy voice, crossing her arms. "You and Salone are going to get an earful from me."
She backed up a few paces and watched, her face still stone like.
***
Back at the hospital, Salone had managed to relocate her actual clothing. She liked pants much better than the backless dressing gown, things got a bit too breezy for her liking in hospital garb. Buttoning her shirt she opened the window, holding her flip flops in the other hand. Salone pulled them on and then she jumped, transforming into a hawk and then flew back to her house. Within five to ten minutes the nurse discovered her missing and called Penny. Who in turn did not answer her cell because she had no service.

I walked up to the Focus Site, watching my step. To Penny it ptobably looked like I was goofing around, but in tryth I was trying to avoid the water. Oh the flowers were all illusions, to try and get humans to step into the waters that steal souls. Where there were beautiful flowers and the bright light in the cave...there was really this place. The only difference was that there were dragon skeletons all over the place. To see my own 'people' all skeeltal and adronign the waters as if they had fallen victim. I approached the Focus site and I was abruptly ripped from the ground, pulled up and the massive floating object bbeggan to come apart. The pools of soul-stealing water began to form an orb from behind it and suddenly i was greeted by a massive red eye and a roar that sounded like a dragon.
My mind was instantly flooded with the memories of every dragon that had died since the beginning of time. Well a seventh of them at least. Knowledge poured into me like I was an empty chalice submerged into water. I dropped form the gorund only to find that I was crying out. My mind was throbbing, there was apain unlike anything else in the world. I think I was incoherently begging someone to kill me, sobbing because the pain was so real and vivd. I had never done this in human form...I had no idea how much I was going to be affected. I wonder what Penny must have thought, seeing this. There was too much informastion to sort through.
Salone must have been wearing the pendant. I could feel her moving locations on the earth. It was in too much of a straight line for it to be on land. it was by air. Did she change like she thought she would? I had so much time to process the infromation. This human body was too weak.
"Salone...not at hospital...flying somewhere."I told Penny with broken woeds ans deep breaths in between, trying to defeat this headache. Where are you going Salone?

Penny moved forward as if to comfort him and come to his aid, but as she moved forward she realized the flower faces seemed to be following her. A shudder ran down her spine as she found a sudden dislike for flowers.
"Jake!" She called out, spotting him writhing in pain on the floor, there is defiantly something beyond normal going on. As soon as she called out however he got up and stumbled towards her, she caught him under the arms.
"Easy, easy-what?" She she stared at him hard, "Come on then, we can't let her get hurt."
With that she hurried out of the car. When she sat down she tossed him a thing of pain killers and a water bottle.
"Take two. She is probably back at the house then."
***
Back at the house Sasha was sniffing Salone head to tail. The girl had turned into large grey wolf and she was sitting underneath the back step, panting, her eyes closed in pain. The feeling had lessened considerable after shifting but it was still pretty high.

"Salone!"[/collor] I managed to say before I made my way to her. I noticed my reflection in the mirrior, my hair was slightly darker than it was before, and my eyes had lost their light blue color in exhange for a darker blue color. I sighed, I knew this was going to happen. now my entire personality would change, with so many souls having left their mark on my brain, I would soon begin to adopt different philosophy or theories. I'd stop being Jake. But that doesn't matter. Salone living mattered, and Jake owed her that much. The world couldn't stand to lose any more good people. I triewd to focus, and I forced the water in the tub to animate, turning into a large hand, that reached out and tapped Penny on the shoulder. This took only a moment, but Penny couldn't see it. Once I knew trhe hand made contact, I executed the power, unsure if Penny saw it or not.
   "Animas Geroria." I said, my voice boomed. Soon Salone would change back, and the damage that had been done by slaying Vuulthran was undone. Salone's life woulld return to as it was before, but her time was still numbered. But at least...I managed....tha-....

(Jake passed out)

Salone slowly regained contentiousness just as Jake hit the ground. She crawled out on her grey white stomach and licked at his ears and the back of his neck trying to get him to wake up. Sasha seemed to sense her desperation and joined in, by this time however Penny had noticed Jake on the ground.
"Salone get the door," She said softly, her watch whirred and she was encased in scaly black armor, the machine gave her extra strength that would allow her to lift Jake up. Salone, still as a wolf, slipped through the dog door, followed by Sasha. Salone got the door and she looked tired and haggard. She trailed after Penny as she moved him to the guest room; the pendant winked at Salone's neck and she fingered it nervously, sitting down next to the bed. Penny gave her a disapproving look as the armor came back off and folded back into her watch. She sighed and left the room, leaving Salone to rest her head on the desk and wait.