There is one bandit that hasn't run by the time Skellig goes to his knees, the leader, the one Skellig stunned at the very first. He makes the terminal mistake of moving, trying to stand up, when he's between Kreyu and Skellig. She can smell his distress, has no time for HUMAN niceties She stabs him with the claws of her transformed hand, not even noticing the sharp edge of metal on his stolen breastplate drawing her blood in a gash on that arm.

She was born from earth, air, fire, and water, and her blood is on the earth now as she moves toward him. She's steady, bright, a sun pulling him into her orbit. Both of her hands are covered in her own blood when she grabs his dominant hand in hers. (That hand will never hurt, never ache or be stiff again after this bloody baptism. There is POWER in a dragon's blood.) "Skellig, it's okay. I'm right here."