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It was just like any other day down in their city, at least that’s how it started for Nom. He, his sister Katie, and brother 4c were walking through what could best be described as a trash canyon looking for anything that could be useful. Most of the stuff that was thrown down here was broken and unwanted by those that lived above. Nothing more than the dirt under the oh-so-great humans' shoes.
Anyone who grew up down here knows the story of how they were thrown down in the dumps by humans, because they were different, monsters they called them. And everyone knows that the moment you try to break free from this place, well let’s just say that if you return it certainly wasn’t alive. His parents sure didn’t, when they ran away promising to give him and Katie a better future. All they did was leave them to fend for themselves, in this wasteland. So Nom just kept his head down. He had everything he needed right here anyway. He had his friends, he had his sister, he had his brother, and he had a home in the community of Bannerfall. What more could he possibly want?
“Hey, Nom check this out!” 4c excitedly bounced, trying to get the dragon hybrid's attention.
“What did you find?” Nom questioned as he jogged over from the trashpile he was digging in.
“The humans threw down oil barrels and at least two of them are not leaking” The slim proudly showed the oil-covered mess of mostly dented barrels to his friend, while pointing to the intact ones.
“That’s an awesome find, this stuff looks to be machine oil and we could really need some more of that.” Nom smiled as he started moving the barrels so they could take them back to Bannerfall.
They were stopped in that action by Katie diving forward and pulling them to hide behind a pile of trash, before either of the others could ask what was happening Katie pointed up to where light entered the ravine, to where a group of clearing-aggravated humans was now gathering. Their shouts were too far away for any of them to understand. So the group stayed hidden.
Nom and Katie tried to focus their eyes to see what the humans were doing. There was one dressed in elegant black that seemed to be speaking to the crowd gathered, that human also seemed to hold some kind of metal chain wrapped around another being dressed in light blue. The one in the chain didn’t seem to be moving much, maybe they were hurt.
And then, in a shocking revelation, the one in black let go of the chain and kicked the one in blue over the edge to be plummeting into the ravine, before the humans walked away from the edge. But Nom's attention now was fully on the figure in blue, which was still quickly descending, and the dragon didn’t know what came over him but he ran out of his hiding place and flew partially up into the sky to catch the figure without a second thought, shielding them from the otherwise inevitable crash.
Once he landed back on the ground, Nom actually dared a look at whoever had just been falling from the sky. In his arms he found a young man, if Nom had to guess he’d put the stranger to be around his age. He had blond hair that almost appeared golden in the light and fell around his face showing off his pointed ears, thankfully it wasn’t a human. Just imagine the horror of saving one of them. His clothes looked like they used to be pristine, all light colours of fabrics, which was something you didn’t often see around here, now dirtied slightly with blood and mud.
The stranger looked practically perfect if you were to ask Nom. But then Nom's eyes fell to the metal chains wrapped around the stranger and the way his skin was blistering as if it were burned everywhere the chain was touching. And it was actively getting worse. The stranger also clearly wore some cuts and bruises all over his body, like he had just been in a fight, and many were bleeding. His breathing was shallow and his eyes were closed, clearly unconscious and getting worse. If Nom had not caught him he probably wouldn’t have survived the impact of the fall.
“Nom?” Katie hesitantly asked as she took one step out of the hiding place. Her voice eminently snapped Nom out of his trance.
“He’s alive, but it doesn’t look very good, probably a fea, judging by the iron burns.” Nom started rambling as he placed the stranger on the ground and started to carefully try to rip open the chains, so he could free the stranger from them before getting him to Bannerfall, where someone more qualified could take a look at him.
“A fea?” 4c asked as he got to the other side of Nom, looking the unconscious man over, “How did he even get to top side? I don't think he's from down here, or at least I’ve never seen him before.”
“I don’t think that should be our focus right now, 4c, he needs medical attention,” Nom countered as he finally ripped through the chain and started untangling it around the blond, trying not to hurt him further.
Katie didn’t yet know if they could trust this stranger, but as she saw the little sparkle in her brother's eyes she knew it was pointless, so she just took 4c so they could cherry back the stuff they found, while she let Nom handle the unconscious man, whom he was clearly fascinated with.
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It’s been about a day since Nom caught the falling fae, and brought him back to Bannerfall with Gracie and Cam immediately stepping up to provide medical assistance. Now the stranger was lying still unconscious on a bed in their medical building. Nom had not left the stranger's side even once during that time and was currently sitting in a chair next to the bed, waiting. The stranger could wake up any second now, as he'd made it through the worst of the injuries as the burns started healing.
Nom was thinking over something Cam had said once he finished providing the best medical care he could to the stranger, which was that he found a few unusual things. For one his autonomy didn’t perfectly correspond with that of a fae, and there were things about it Cam couldn’t really place to any other creature's autonomy either. But even more curiously than that, Cam had found his wings to have been repeatedly ripped over the course of years and healed over again. Currently they were intact but it was clear that they never had been for very long in the past, which the medic found very concerning.
Gracie added to the concern, by saying that it could result in his fae magic being unpredictable, as fae magic is focused in the wings, and having them repeatedly damaged could definitely affect his affinity or control over his enait magic, along with the high possibility of him being unable to fly.
That with the fact that he was unconscious before he got here meant that someone would have to stay by the stranger's side for when he eventually woke up. And now immediately volunteered. He didn’t know why but there was just something about this stranger that absolutely captivated him… so he waited for the moment where the stranger would wake up. When he could get to know him.
That’s why when the stranger started to stir, Nom's attention was immediately on him. The stranger slowly opened his eyes, which were a green more beautiful than any shiny emerald Nom had ever seen. The stranger seemed confused for a moment as he sat up in the bed, before he looked down at himself and at the bandages wrapped around his arms. He then started to look around the unfamiliar room but immediately froze once his eyes landed on Nom. Making it so that the two were just staring at each other for a moment.
“Hey,” Nom greeted as he shoved all of his nervousness down, and gave the man a big toothy smile. That might have been a mistake as the man snapped out of his trance and scooted back on the bed in fear even as pain clearly shot up his limbs until he hit the wall behind him. He was shivering and looked at Nom as if he was about to attack the poor fae.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe now. But you probably shouldn’t move so much quite yet, it’ll put a strain on your iron burns,” Nom continued with his smile. The poor stranger must have been through quite a bit for this to be his natural reaction. Nom already didn’t like whoever put him through such a thing.
Nom tried to reach out to the stranger to gently guide him back into a more comfortable sitting position, but the moment he did, the stranger jerked back and curled into himself, with his knees pulled up to his chest. Wait, was he afraid of Nom? Surely not why would he be? Maybe he should make sure…
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” Nom asked even though he sounded more uncertain than he wanted to. He knew he could be terrifying if he wanted to but, even then this was not the reaction anyone had ever had before.
Then the fae spoke for the first time since he woke up his voice broken and scared, “Please don’t eat me.”
And Nom's mind immediately split into two reactions, one being horror creeping in at the blond thinking Nom would even want to do such an atrocious thing, he never in his life had eaten someone. Especially not someone who was injured. And the other part of his mind was marvelling at how beautiful the stranger's voice sounded.
“I'm not gonna eat you, why ever would you think that?!” Nom said sounding slightly more agitated than he meant to, his brain really didn’t like that the shiny fae was afraid of him. Like really really didn’t.
The blond brought both his eyes back to Nom's face seemingly studying his expression before answering in a whisper, “You look like a monster from a fairy tale,”
Nom tried to process the words, before exclaiming in confusion, “What the heck is a fairy tale?! That's just absurd i have never in my life eaten anyone or wanted to for that matter! I don’t eat people!”
The blond seemed to relax a bit as he let his legs fall away from his chest, “You promise you’re not gonna eat me or tear me to shreds with your sharp teeth?”
“Yes, I promise. If I had wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have caught you when you fell into the trash lands.” Nom told him with a huff as he sat back in his chair to give the fae some space, he seemed really out of it and confused, “We saw a group of humans throw you down, looked really brutal, but what else is new with that bunch? Always out for a fight, killing us just for the fun of it.”
“Humans?” The guy asked like something had just dawned on him.
“Yeah? Did I say something that isn’t right?” Nom asked clearly concerned he did something wrong, but the blond didn’t answer he just sat there in shock. After a few long moments passed, the dragon hybrid had had enough and broke the silence, “My name’s Nom, by the way.”
The fae looked back at him as a hesitant smile formed on his face, “I'm Scott”
“Lovely to meet you Scott, take all the time you need, you’re welcome here in Bannerfall for as long as you want to, or at least till you're healed.” Nom tried his best to be reassuring.
“Thank you,” Scott quietly said as he felt his body grow tired again once the fear adrenaline was fully gone. Even if every piece of knowledge he'd ever heard indicated the individual with horns and wings to be a threat, Nom really didn’t seem like one. But maybe Scott was also still too tired to think about it too much, even if it was weird the other didn’t seem to realise he was human, judging by how Nom talked. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to eat him, even if he wasn’t half as rabid as Scott had been told a monster would be.