Sapphira knew that this should be easy right. Hunting something that has no idea you were coming was always easy. She flew low to keep her from being seen until the very last moment, then she would roast him and it would be over.
This one she didn't have too much emotional investment in, he wasn't a dragon killer he was a buyer of parts, though as far as she had found out he only bought things he happened upon, he never ordered certain parts. This was why he was going to get a quick death, this was why he was going to get skipped in all of the tortures that she usually inflicted.
She looked up at the sky, almost perfectly cloudless, which in a way worked against her. Clouds came in handy when it came to hiding. Still he wasn't expecting her so it still would be easy.
Her wings carried her silently through the air, gliding along the winds as the sun continued to beat down on her. She had to worry about her shadow now that she drew closer, if he saw that he would know something was coming. Of course he was in the thunder backs to there was always the possibility that he wouldn't freak out if he saw a dragons shadow. She also had to think about the fact that she was a very large dragon, a very large dragon who was flying low, which was rare unless she was looking for food.
Torak opened the roof of the main caravan, leaving it like that. No damned dragon would kill this client. He was being paid a hefty sum to protect this client through the Thunderblacks, and the dragon that was supposed to be assassinating the target would be obvious. A huge grey/silver dragon.
The caravan travelled the first mile in peacefully. Torak constantly checked the ground behind the caravan for shadows. If the dragon was smart, it would leave on Torak's warning shot, the huge firebomb. Cold fire, but fire nonetheless.
Then he spotted the shadow. Torak hopped up on the stand placed in the caravan, clearly visible, poking out the top of the caravan. "Leave now dragon, and leave with your life." Torak warned the dragon, the pendant around his neck being a recent acquisition from the client that projected his voice for the dragon to hear.
Sapphira heard someone speak and she let out a frustrated roar.
Someone had tipped the guy off, but who, who had she told? She felt her blood turn cold and the fire in her stomach churn. Plus who was this man in the caravan, who did he think he was? Could she smell nervousness, maybe even hesitation?
Her eyes narrowed on him.
'This is not your fight young one, if I were you I would take whatever bounty you have been given to protect this man and run, and I will leave you with your life. I will only fight you if you choose to stand in my way,' She spoke mentally to the man her gaze was locked on.
She didn't like killing innocent people, but as she said, if they stood in her way she would have no problem torching him like the rest. She didn't give the man long to think about what she said before she opened her great jaws and let loose hot flames. The flames shot out, torching the front of the caravan.
Torak ducked, pulling on the chain hiding the bomb, which dropped and spewed white fire everywhere. Dragons were one of the few things that definitely frightened him, and he was reluctant to start shooting at the dragon, but a client was paying a huge sum of money if the man inside the caravan didn't get roasted or eaten, and arrived with his parts.
The man was now at the rear end of the caravan, and Torak took a quick second to evaluate the situation. He could distract the dragon by teleporting onto it, but they were moving to fast to make an accurate teleport. And he really didn't wanna get munched by some huge, fire breathing reptile. Too scary a concept. He could teleport the man away, but would again, likely get munched. The only other option was to fight it from the caravan, and possibly get torched.
Making a quick decision, Torak loosed two bolts from his wrist mounted crossbow, aimed at her chest, as the horses at the front of the caravan got torched. He just prayed it would hit her.
Sapphire continued to spill fire onto the caravan. Even if she didn't kill the man directly he was going to have to walk the rest of the way on foot. She was having fun, and that was when she felt the first wave of pain. She looked over, seeing blood dripping from her forewing.
She let out a screeching roar. Each beat of her wings was more than excruciating and just keeping her wings expanded open was painful. She let out more fire, this fire hotter than the one before.
The pain fueling her rage but she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up, she would have to leave before she damaged her wing too much so she would still be able to fly.
Sapphira turned, her fire leaving the survives encircles in high violent flames and that was when she felt the next arrow. This one in her side between her front and back legs. She let out a deep grumble of a roar as she flew away fast to avoid any more arrows. She could feel her blood seeping from her wounds and the arrow in her side still remained.
She flew as long as she could before the dizziness and weakness of blood loss caused her wings to give out, sending her crashing down to the ground.
Veraxitoc had only seen the female dragon limply flying away.
The majority of the day had been just making sure Seh'lvah and Shamgar had been behaving the night before. Now he had gone to take his one possession from Dragon-top mountain. He had decided to take a small fly by of the whole mountain pass, when he had spotted the injured dragoness. She was definitely older than Seh'lvah. Perhaps she would be interested in the Colony.
As soon as Veraxitoc helped her.
Veraxitoc landed nearby, trying to look as friendly as possible in case she thought he was there to kill her. He approached with his head lowered, and drew out all his steps in case she snarled at him, or decided to bite at his legs.
"Excuse me miss? Are you ok?" Veraxitoc tilted his head, speaking physically to her.
Sapphira had landed hard, she had heard a few bones snap before she felt them. So she lay there, breathing slowly, letting her body heal. She would have to get the arrow out but it would be hard, and would probably mean that she would bleed more which was not good.
She had let herself get sloppy, she should have been able to take the man that stood between her.
All of the buzzing of the thoughts in her head drowned out the sound of the approaching dragon until he spoke. With the wound of his voice Sapphira's body jerked roughly to her feet, her body crouched low, her muscles tense in case she would have to fight. If one looked close enough they would see the pain in her eyes from the movement and position she was in, but she wouldn't let it show in her posture. She didn't know if the dragon was friendly or not. He was bigger than she was, not by too much but by enough that in her current health would be a problem.
In good health and without the injured wing she could out fly most dragons because he build was for speed and agility, not brute strength.
She didn't speak for a long time, in this form she couldn't speak physically at all, she had to speak to beings minds. After a few moments of silence, of looking him over, studying him she decided to reply
'What do you want?' She asked to his mind. She didn't meet too many dragons her size, and not many that were nearly her age, she could tell by looking at him that he was older than she was.
Veraxitoc wasn't close enough to see pain in her eyes, but he noticed the blood dripping from her wing, and decided that was enough to go with for now.
"I saw you were injured, do you require help? I can heal broken bones if you have any, and am willing to find the plants if you know any healing recipes."
She wasn't much smaller than him, and he couldn't tell what species she was. From her colours, she might pass off as a Crystal-back, but he didn't know. She was injured, and may desire help. That was enough for him.
Sapphira once again studied the male, was he really just wanting to help a complete stranger? She found it very odd, and very suspicious.
'What do you want in return?' She asked, a soft rumble, almost like a growl coming from her chest, almost as if she were trying to speak the words in her dragon form, or heating up the fire in her gut, preparing to throw flames to defend herself if she must.
Still her eyes continued to study the dragon in front of her, looking for any weaknesses in case he wanted something more out of her than she was willing to give. He was built opposite of her, he was built to take damage, he would be slower though. She on the other hand was built for speed, but she wouldn't be able to take near the damage he would be able to take. With her current wounds she was in no way in a condition to fight the male. Of course, if it came down to it, she wouldn't let her wounds keep her from trying to put up a fight.
Veraxitoc hadn't intended to get anything back, but he could ask her to hear him out on an offer to join the Colony.
"I would ask that you hear me out on a proposal. Not the romantic kind." Veraxitoc remained silent, not preparing to attack, and thus taking a leap of faith in this dragon. If she attacked him, he would defend himself, but she would have an upper hand for a few seconds.
He used his stance to convey the message that he would not be aggressive, although he trusted her not to attack.
Sapphira let out an audible sigh of relief, sending a slight billow of smoke into the air. The male didn't want to mate, that was good. She of course knew there would be no child from the union if he had because she could only become pregnant if she mated while in heat, and she wasn't in heat. Still the thought of mating turned her stomach, and it had for a long, long time, ever since her last mate had been killed.
She lowered her body to the ground with a groan. Her body ached and the arrow in her side was like a literal thorn in her side and she wanted it out.
'Could you get the arrow out of my side?' She asked simply. She usually wasn't one to ask for help but she couldn't reach it and could turn into her human form with it stuck in her side or she would cause more damage to her body.
"Of course I can. You may have to lie on your side. I will try and remove it as painlessly as possible." The bolt hadn't lodged too deeply, but Veraxitoc couldn't see if it had an arrowhead style head, or was simply a pointed metal stick with fletching on it.
Veraxitoc clasped it, keeping it as still as he could, and with his other paw on the area around the bolt began to try and remove it, desperate to avoid twisting it or catching anything.
Sapphira moved to her side. Her wounded wing was on the same side that the arrow wound injury was on, and she was sure he would see it as well, the rest of her wound would be easier to heal once she was in her avatar, human form.
Sapphira flinched slightly when she felt him touch the arrow, clenching her jaws as he began to pull.
'just hurry up and take it out, it hurts more if you pull it out slowly' She mentally spoke to the male, her voice a near growl.
OOC:Taken out of context Sapphira's words would sound so pervy.
OOC: My eyes read the slanted text first, lol, and I had to remember that we were talking about an arrow/bolt
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Veraxitoc listened to her as he pulled it out. It was, in essence, and pointy stick with fletching. That was good. Made them easy to get out, but by the same token, the penetrated the skin better. At least he could get the other one out now. "There you go, one bolt. Do you want me to cauterise the wound? Or leave it?" He hoped she knew what cauterising was. Few healers knew what it was, let alone just normal dragons.
In his head, instinct told him she was rather attractive, but he easily ignored it. He always had with female dragons. And, more importantly, she was injured. She needed taking care of.
Sapphira was glad when the arrow was out, she took a deep slow breath.
'No, cauterizing could cause infection, plus I don't know if it was poisoned,' Sapphira spoke craning her long neck to look at the wound slightly. It eased blood, which wasn't good do to the fact that she had already lost so much. Still she didn't want it Cauterized.
For a moment she sat there in silence before finally shifting into her avatar form, in that form it was much easier to see how broken she actually was, and it would make it easier to treat the injuries considering she was much smaller and scales and stuff wouldn't get in the way. She was clothed when she shifted, she always was, and she was thankful for that considering she was around a stranger.
Veraxitoc watched her as she shifted. He had done that once. He couldn't remember how. In all truthfulness, the dark blight had done it.
"How do you do that? I have seen so many dragons do that before, but I have no clue how?" Veraxitoc was curious. His head was tilted and he watched intently. It would make interactions easier if he knew how to do it.
Sapphira flinched as she shrugged.
"I don't know, I just do it. I just... imagine myself turning to this form, kind of... Like the first time you fly, you just tell yourself to do it, then you do it," Sapphira tried to explain as she lay on the ground. Her entire body hurt, she felt like she had been run over by a herd of elephants. She knew that most of the pain was from the fall out of the sky, she now wished she had just landed instead of trying to keep going.
Veraxitoc was very confused. He had already tried that and it had failed.
"How long have dragons been doing that? I don't remember seeing it before my long sleep." Veraxitoc tried thinking of as many ways to do it as possible. That blight had done it. How?
Veraxitoc willed and reasoned and tried in his mind, and failed all of them.
"Not all species can, my species have been doing it as long as we have existed," She took a deep breath. She had never had any problem shifting, it was always something that had come naturally to her.
"Try relaxing, if you try too hard it won't work, I don't know, imagine your scales falling off, like you are shedding your outer exterior?" She suggested. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, she knew she had several broken bones and moving around wasn't going to help her any.
"Are you still hurt? I am forgetting that you fell from a fair height. I can heal broken bones magically, but nothing else I am afraid..." He almost didn't say that last sentence, nearly telling her that she was outright pretty. Stop being stupid, you will find a mate one day, he thought to himself. He was wary of thinking, because of he stunt where spoke to him psychically. He could do that, but he always chose not to, he found the process too invasive.
Veraxitoc tried to hide the signs on nervousness, and thought he was doing well.
Sapphira looked up at the male, one thing about dragons were they were hard to read emotionally. If you were going to see any emotion they had it would most likely be through the dragon's eyes, or course, from her current angle and the fact he was so tall and she was laying on the ground, she couldn't really see his eyes.
"I think I have several broken, if not shattered bones," She spoke after she let her head rest back against the dirt once more. She wondered what he would look like as an avatar. He would probably have black hair, or at least that was what she imagined, she had no idea what color eyes he would have, probably the same color he had as a dragon, but of course that didn't always hold true.
OOC: D'awww Veraxitoc is cute lol
She was laying down. That was enough for him to easily breathe the spell over her.
"I will warn you, it will hurt a bit, and I apologise." Then spoke the incantation, and took a deep inhalation, filling his lungs with now magical air, before expelling the air gently over her. It would feel horrible, as he imagined it. He had never broken a bone before. He had torn his wing membrane, but never broken a bone.
Then he waited for the spell to take effect.
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OOC: Over 2000 years old and single, lol.
"I wasn't expecting it to be pleasant," She spoke, her voice full of sass.
"Just hurry up and get on with it," She added quickly as she tried to ready her mind for more pain.
The day was just not her day it would seem, more and more pain, well at least the pain she was about to feel now would be beneficial. Once the man blew over her it started. It was a dull ache, but a very intense ache none the less. She clenched her jaw and fist, her knuckles turning white. She didn't not make a noise though, she was deathly silent in the pain, waiting for it to start to subside.
The spell ended when all the broken bones were fixed. He knew it had ended because his breath began to cool again.
He sat and waited for her to get up, eager to interact with her now that she was fully healed. He wanted to know about her, to know what she does and how she got hurt.
His head screamed at him to tell her she was pretty, that she was attractive, to tell her some sort of compliment.
Finally the pain in her bones eased then disappeared. Now that was fixed, yes, but it didn't do anything for the aching in her muscles of the fact that she still had two arrow holes in her body.
Still she slowly sat up, blinking a few times to clear her vision. Her head still felt like it was spinning from how much blood she had lost but she could already tell that she had begun to heal. She would be okay, she would just have to take it easy.
She looked up at the big dragon, and decided she should shift back to her dragon form, she felt odd where he was in his dragon form and she was not. So standing and taking a few steps back she shifted back to her dragon form, letting out a soft sigh that set smoke streaming from her nostrils.
Veraxitoc approved of her choice to shift back to Dragon form. "You look much prettier in dragon form." The words slipped from Veraxitoc's mouth, and immediately he buried his snout under his paws. Idiot, idiot, idiot, you hardly know her and you are telling her she looks prettier as a dragon, stupid, he scolded himself mentally.
He didn't want to look up for fear of being slapped, and being seen to be embarrassed. Why, why, why?! He decided to peek anyway, just to see how bad her reaction was.
Sapphira definitely wasn't expecting the words that came out of the dragon's mouth, he didn't even know her name. Still she didn't have much of a reaction. It was a compliment and she didn't see why one would get offended over a compliment.
She actually like her avatar form better, not because she thought it was prettier, both her forms were equally attractive. She didn't know the man though so she wasn't going to talk about her personal preferences and have to explain all of that.
'Well, think you I suppose,' she finally spoke once he peeked up at her. She found his reaction most interesting. He was an older dragon then herself but at the moment he was acting as if he was still in his adolescence.
Veraxitoc looked up to see she was fine, and actually thanked him for the compliment.
"I just thought I would speak what was on my mind. That's all." Veraxitoc laughed nervously. He had been speaking the truth, but he could have waited a bit.
"So, what is your name? I'm Veraxitoc." Veraxitoc offered a bow, in keeping with old dragon customs.
If one could see her raise her eyebrows in her dragon form this would be the moment that one of her eyebrows would be raised.
He was honest, that was something she guessed.
'My name is Sapphira,' She answered when he asked her name.
She went to stretched her great wings, finding that one was still very sore. The bone healing didn't fix the problem. She wouldn't be flying much anytime soon.
"I know I have not healed you fully, as it is beyond my abilities, but I think you should be fine. Would you still like to hear my offer?" Veraxitoc looked at her. His head was telling him she was not his conquest, his servant, but his instinct told him to take her as a trophy. This was the same instinct telling him to woo and bed her. As such, he ignored it.
He hoped she would at least hear him out before saying she was not interested in the Colony. He had 4, technically six members. A seventh would be brilliant. She would make a good friend of his age to converse with. She would probably see things in a way akin to him, as his mind reasoned it. He needed a true friend.
'I said I would hear your offer, so I will hear it, I do not go back on my word,' Sapphira said, sitting back on her hind quarters. She began to swing her whip like tail slowly, in an almost feline way.
She let her eyes wander over the male, over Vertaxitoc. He was not bad looking at all in dragon standards. A dragon she, in her younger years, would probably have gone after romantically. Now was a different story though. She was older now, she didn't need protecting, she was much stronger and bigger now.
Ok, time to work some political advertisement, Veraxitoc thought.
"I have recently founded a Colony with several other people, and I was wondering if you wanted to join. But, I also know, of course, you can join any colony. Our Colony is different in that we are striving to break current convention, and have dragons of all species and other non-draconic races live in peace and harmony. We need ambassadors to improve relations with the human nations, and we only have 4 members, technically 6. But still." That was a quick, to the point little description, and he liked it.
Sapphira closed her eyes, thinking in silence as she listened to his words. It had been a long time since the last time she was in a colony. The last time was with her family, her mate, her children, her parents and a few of her siblings and their mates. She took a deep breath, before opening her eyes.
'I must think about this, it isn't something to rush into, I see it as a commitment and I don't know if I am ready,' She mentally spoke.
Veraxitoc did not understand, but allowed her the respect of not asking questions. She was a nice dragon in his eyes, and she deserved respect.
"Of course Sapphira. Do you wish me to leave you alone for a while to think?" Veraxitoc wanted to respect her privacy as much as possible, and she deserved it. Veraxitoc could tell that she had obviously gone through a traumatic event, and she needed time.
'No, you don't have to go away, it's not like you can hear my thoughts,' She spoke simply, letting steam rise from her nose. She looked down, closing her eyes as memories flashed behind her eyelids of the ones she failed, the ones of her last pack.
'I am not sure you want me in your colony,' She said simply, slowly raising her head back up to look at Veraxitoc.
"I cannot force you, but we accept anyone. We have a gryphon and a three headed dragon among our ranks. We will accept and welcome all. No matter their past, occupation, or species. Whatever your reason for wishing to decline, the Colony will look past it." Veraxitoc said, sincerity filling his voice as he spoke.
'Is there anything else I should know about this group before I join?' Sapphira asked simply. 'Plus, how are we going to get there, I can't fly and the forest is much to walk through in this form, so...' She trailed off, waiting for his suggestion.
"I have told you everything you need to know. But you would join as an elder colonist, and have all the rights associated with that. You would help me, George, Wallace and Finnegan run the colony. They're the three headed dragon. I warn you, Finnegan is quite rude, but we have a muzzle for him. Shamgar and Seh'lvah are our current teenage couple." But to get her there, Veraxitoc had an idea.
"If you shifted to your human form, I could fly you there. I am too big to ride, but you will be small enough to hold." Veraxitoc reasoned.
Sapphira shivered quiet visible. 'I'm not so sure about your idea, flying with my wings is one thing, trusting someone else's is another, are you sure you cannot shift?'
'I have no trouble handling someone rude, I can snap back with the best of them,' Sapphira added after a moment, ignoring the comment about the teens, not wanting to think about kids when the thought of them and her mate were so fresh in her mind.
"I have only achieved the feat once, and it was under the influence of very dark magic forces. I have no desire to become infected by that again. But not to fear, most are scared of me, as my species is apparently extinct. Most dragons flee, believing me to be a phantom." Veraxitoc despised and enjoyed being considered a ghost. It gave him the advantage of being feared, and respected.
'No its the fact that if you drop me I am going to fall.... Back down to the ground, and with my broken wing I won't be able to do much in the way of stopping it,' She said, the tip of her tail flicking back and forth slowly.
"Then hop inside my mouth, haha! I'm kidding of course, but worry not, I will not drop you. You have permission to bite certain parts of me off if I do." Now he had an incentive to carry her safely. He didn't want to lose those parts. They didn't just grow back.
Sapphira shifted, looking up at Veraxitoc from the ground where she sat.
"I would be dead, I wouldn't be alive to bite those parts off of you," She spoke with her arms crossed.
"When I die, you can take my extremities off in any fashion you like then."Veraxitoc reached towards her, going to pick her up.
"Just remember I am still injured so please be gentle okay," Sapphira spoke as she closed her eyes, preparing herself to be picked up. She did not like this, not at all. She would probably rather have teeth be pulled, but the situation called for it.
Veraxitoc gently grasped Sapphira's form, avoiding his usual clumsy habits.
When he had her in one hand, he walked up a nearby mountain, where he took a large leap over a cliff edge, and took flight. He beat his wings, and they eventually got higher. Not Veraxitoc's height of where most animals died, but another minute of beating and he would have been there.
"See, that wasn't so bad?"
"What are you talking about, this is horrible," Sapphira spoke as she clung to him tightly. Her heart was pounding and her palms a bit sweaty. She was terrified, it seemed odd for a dragon to be fearful of heights, but in her current form she could not fly, and she had already fallen from the sky once.
"Would you like me to fly lower, so that you may survive the fall, or higher, so that I may catch you if you fall? I do not desire to cause you distress." Veraxitoc was feeling an emotion he couldn't describe. He compared it to amused frustration, he wouldn't be able to please her, but he enjoyed trying.
"No, I want you to fly faster so this little trip can be over quicker," Sapphira nearly growled in frustration as she clung to him. Her nails, which were as sharp and as hard has her claws when she was in dragon form, digging into his scales slightly.
She was digging her nails in. Ow.
"I will fly slower, higher, and be forced to drop you if you don't stop with the nails. Now please, stop digging you nails in, and I will comply." Veraxitoc grumbled but he made himself climb higher, fly slower, and loosen his grip slightly.
Sapphira looked down, she hadn't even realized she had been clawing him. His scales were thick though, and her nails hadn't even cut all the way through them, she wondered how he could have felt it.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize," Sapphira spoke as she relaxed her hands so her nails weren't digging into him anymore. She didn't know if he would actually drop her but she didn't want to take the chance. So she closed her eyes and tried to not tense up again.
"It's ok. I will fly faster now." Instead of complying directly, he climbed as steeply as possible, until he was between the clouds.
"Hold on now. This is gonna get just a little bit faster." He leaned into a nose dive, spinning as he went, the scream of his talons echoing off the mountains nearby.
Sapphira's eyes shot open as she heard the screams. She didn't know if it was another dragon screeching before it attached or what. She wouldn't think another dragon would attack Veraxitoc, especially not alone. She was smaller than he was a few would ever get up the nerve to attack her, she couldn't see any attacking him considering how big he was. The wind was rushing by too fast for her to speak and in this form mental communication was much harder.
Veraxitoc levelled out of the dive just before the point of no return, his gathered momentum at least doubling his previous speed.
He retracted his talons and smiled, looking down at Sapphira, who appeared on high alert.
"What troubles you Sapphira? Was it my spinning-scream?"
Sapphira looked up at him, her head turned slightly sideways in a questioning manner. What did he mean his spinning-scream?
'What do you mean, spinning-scream?' She mentally asked knowing the air that was rushing past her would still her voice.
Of course, she didn't know his species.
"It is the sound produced when we extend the talons on our wing tips, which have special channels in them that funnel the air in a specific way, making a whistling sound. When we spin, it creates a screaming sound that, to most creatures, is unearthly. My people used to use it as a hunting cry, to indicate a large piece of prey had been found. Sadly that time ended long ago. My people no longer live." Veraxitoc sighed. His voice was powerful enough to project to where she was, even with the noise of the wind.
Sapphira could understand the sigh, she too was the last of her kind.
'I'm sorry to hear that' She spoke to his mind softly, she wouldn't say any more about the subject. She didn't want tot drum up any buried emotion for herself or him. She simply wanted to get on some solid ground and if at all possible, eat something. Then she might try to see if she could teach Veraxitoc how to shift.
They finally got to the Colony grounds, and Veraxitoc set her down on the ground again.
"Are you hungry? There are many animals that can be eaten around here. I can fetch you one if you'd like." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Seh'lvah fly in.
She saw the human and came to land next to Veraxitoc.
"Hello there."
It didn't take long once Sapphira's feet were on the ground for her to shift. She stretched slightly, shipping her tail around slightly but managing to avoid hitting anyone with it.
'I am a bit hungry, I mean, I have had a long day,' she started. She didn't think she would ask him to get her food though, in her culture, offering someone food who wasn't your relative was always in attempts to become their mate. Even if he didn't know this, she didn't want him doing it, it would feel a bit weird for her.
'I think I can manage my own food though, I might not be able to fly but I am still fast on my feet,' She said before she turned her head to the dragon that had joined them. She looked the girl over quickly, something she always did, almost as if she was sizing an opponent up.
'Hello, you must be Seh'lvah.'
"Yep, that's me, and might I ask your name?" Her eyes flicked to Veraxitoc, who scolded her for suggesting that he brought her home as some sort of trophy wife.
"Of course, if you need any help, just say." He chuckled, and went off to see if Shamgar, Azuma, or Wallace, Finnegan and George were about.
'My name is Sapphira,' She spoke as she head turned as she watched Veraxitoc leave.
'I guess I will talk to you later, I am going to go procure myself something to eat,' She added before turned, letting her sense guide her towards her next meal.
Veraxitoc came back and immediately Seh'lvah was laughing, and chanting to him. "Someone's got a girlfriend..." She giggled, trying to compose herself enough to rip it out of him. She could smell the pheromones on him that said he liked her, and that was enough.
"Don't even think about denying that you don't like her, just cause she can't smell your pheromones, doesn't mean I can't. You like her, and you know it. How did you even find a girl that was willing to come back with you?!" She laughed and rolled onto her back in hysterics.
"I'm not stupid, unlike some dragons, and don't just sleep with girls I like the day I meet them." Veraxitoc threw in a growl on the end of the sentence.
"Just cause you have NEVER done it... I've only done it once old timer, and I'm almost 20 times younger than you. You just can't handle that fact."
Sapphira didn't let her mind wander on Veraxitoc or Seh'lvah very much, that is until she caught her food. Veraxitoc had been right, the place they were at was filled with big game, which was surprising.
Once she had started eating she started thinking. She mainly thought about nicknames for the tow dragons, she found that their names were mouthfuls. Of course she knew her name wasn't super short and easy either but of course they could come up with something to call her as long as she liked it of course.
Once she had finished eating her full she returned letting her body shift to her human form as she approached.
"Admit how you feel Veraxitoc, go on. Sapphira will be back soon, so you can tell her then." The two dragons didn't notice the human form approaching, expecting her to come back as a dragon. As such, they bickered normally.
"I did not bring Sapphira here to bed her, and I have no intentions of proclaiming love to her face, I hardly know her. She is very pretty yes, but to just proclaim love is stupid. Just because I am attracted to her..." Veraxitoc had ended up raising his voice in pure frustration with the teenager.
"Well it is nice to know you didn't bring me here just to get in my pants," Sapphira spoke up, realizing the two hadn't realized she had approached enough that she could hear them.
She stood there with her hip popped and her arms crossed looking between the two.
Veraxitoc jumped as he recognised Sapphira's voice. Seh'vah just grinned and got up.
"I'll leave you two alone. Be responsible Veraxitoc, you are too young to be thinking of that..." She laughed mockingly as she took off.
"I swear, I brought you here because I wanted to help you! No other reason. Not that I am saying you are unattractive, because you are, but I brought you here because I could help you recover your wounds here, and that's because I ca- I'm just digging my own grave aren't I?" Veraxitoc buried his head under his paws again. He was annoyed, embarrassed, humiliated, nervous and guilty.
"For a dragon of your age you just let a teenager play you," She spoke. She was silent for a long time. She had heard some of what the teenager had to say so she knew he wasn't trying to say that he just wanted to bed her or something like that. If he had said something like that she would not be shifted into her avatar form.
"You have given me no reason to distrust you, but I have not known you long enough to trust you. If you for some reason have decided to care for me, well, that is your choice, just know, I do not plan to bed anyone anytime soon."
Veraxitoc just lay on the floor, flat, with an ashamed look in his eyes. He hated Seh'lvah sometimes. It was like having a younger sister in his eyes. He just caught hell off her. And now he had to repair an already brittle bridge.
"Ok..." He couldn't think of what to say next, he had allowed Seh'lvah to put him in the line of fire, despite the fact she was only 68 years old. He was 2,000 years old. He would make Seh'lvah pay. Any chances he had just got blown out of the water.
"You can stop acting like I am going to eat you now. I guess if anything you had one grace pass, considering you helped me, so consider it used and consider what just as completely forgotten," Sapphira spoke before she moved to walk past him. She didn't really know where she was going and what was around. She could go exploring on her own though, after all she was a big bad dragon.
Seh'lvah came back quickly, ready to see the fireworks. She either missed them, or they didn't happen. Now she had a very angry elder to worry about. So she decided to talk to Sapphira instead.
"Are you planning on staying or are you going? Cause I know which of the caves are taken and which rooms in the castle are taken. Or are you like Veraxitoc, he prefers sleeping on the tallest mountain peaks. I'm sure he'd be willing to let you stay on his peak if you were going to stay."
Sapphira looked at Seh'lvah with stern eyes. Even in her human form her age and power were clear through her gaze.
"I think you owe someone an apology, and it is not I. What you did could have caused trouble, trouble that was not needed. I know you were somehow probably trying to help him, but you are young, and the young are stupid and reckless, now go apologize," Sapphira spoke, leaving no room for argument.
"You aren't part of this colony. I don't remember Veraxitoc inviting you. You don't have authority over me yet." Seh'lvah grinned in triumph, unaware of Veraxitoc's offer earlier.
"And besides. He's long overdue for finding someone he likes. He's just too scared to admit he likes you. Cause he thinks you won't like him. I'm just giving him a nudge out the door." Seh'lvah knew she wasn't helping. But this girl had no right to attack her. Therefore she felt safe as long as she stayed on Colony grounds.
In a moment Sapphira was shifted, she really had no patients for mouthy little girls.
A deep rumble of a growl escaped Sapphira's chest as she looked down at the girl.
'Actually little girl I am part of the colony. You do not know everything that goes on and clearly you have not learned your lesson when it comes to talking to your elders, I have no problem teaching you that lesson. He is grown, you are not, so keep your nose out of grown folks business before you get it hurt. Now go apologize,' Sapphira spoke, her words sharp and full of venom and her eyes like daggers.
She gulped. Sapphira was a big, silver, short tempered Veraxitoc. "Well I'll go check with Veraxitoc if you have the authority to tell me what to do." In her head, Seh'lvah knew that if she went to check with Veraxitoc, he would no doubt be slower than this dragon. She might be able to get away with her limbs intact.
"Veraxitoc, since when was she part of the colony? You never told me that she had joined." Seh'lvah frowned, keeping her back to Sapphira.
"So you've accepted the offer to join the colony then Sapphira?" Veraxitoc's mood lifted slightly.
Sapphira simply nodded, her eyes still trained on Seh'lvah. She had a feeling that if she stayed there any amount of time at all herself and Seh'lvah would clash, she didn't care though, she felt the little brat needed to learn a few lessons.
Seh'lvah began to back away, trying to be as quiet as possible, knowing Sapphira was watching. She was damn well gonna try and get out of this mess without doing what she was told. Until she walked into a tree, and knocked it over.
"Ow?" She looked at the tree, and realised the was leaving it a little late to run away from Sapphira's wrath.
"If you think you can teach her some respect Sapphira, please do. Enjoy it if you can." Veraxitoc's spirits brightened a lot. Veraxitoc had a thing about hitting girls, only if they pose a physical threat. Most female dragons didn't share that view.
Sapphira turned to look at Seh'lvah, her body lowered as if she might pounce.
'Now apologize,' Sapphira spoke, a growl rumbling in her chest and smoke starting to rise from her nostrils.
"Ok..." She stood herself up, hoping this plan would work. She sorted herself out, began to walk towards Veraxitoc, then turned, and ran. She didn't care where she ended up, as long as she wasn't crispy and cooked through by the end of it. She didn't turn, she just ran.
Sapphira pounces, her strong body that was built for speed and agility moving like lightening. She tackled the girl roughly beneath her. She was careful not to hurt her too bad but she was planning on roughing her up a bit. Sapphira rolled Seh'lvah where she was on her back. She whipped her long whip like tail around, lashing the girl across the face before lowering her own face down towards Seh'lvah's. Letting the girl see the scar along her face, over her eye. She was built to fight, and it was something that she was good at.
'That wasn't very nice little girl. You see, I have both won and lost more fights than years that you have been alive. You cannot beat me when it comes to this. I am your elder and you are a little girl so I demand your respect, and trust me, you don't want to make me mad, I can hurt, and I have no problem with doing such,' Sapphira spoke to the girl's mind before pushing the girl rough against the ground then moving off of her.
Seh'lvah felt the sting of Sapphira's tail, but tried not to show it. She was terrified. But surely Veraxitoc would save her. As the scolding finished, she was even more unhappy with Elders. First she was told what she couldn't do, now she was being told what to do. She hated not being an adult.
As Sapphira moved off her, Seh'lvah muttered to herself. "Stupid bitch." And then Seh'lvah began t get up and walk off.
Sapphira turned on a dime, back on Seh'lvah in an instant.
'Excuse me little girl, I am not a female dog in heat, if anyone is it would be you, but since you clearly want to see my bad side, here it is,' Sapphira started as she took the girl, grabbing her by her neck and slinging her body against a tree, breaking the tree with Seh'lvah's body before turning her own sharply,whipping her tail harder at the girls face.
The throw hurt, but Seh'lvah had lost it. She lunged at Sapphira, aiming at her neck.
Then she felt a huge blunt force knock her off course, and she ended up flying into the lake.
"Enough Seh'lvah. Or Shamgar will be sleeping with a corpse at the foot of his bed." Veraxitoc had lost his temper now, and was sick of seeing Seh'lvah trying to one up Sapphira. Now Seh'lvah would contend with a force that could hurt more.
Sapphira turned on Vertaxitoc, her gaze sharp but it slowly eased up. She didn't really appreciate him stepping in, she could handle her own without him. She knew he did it to help though.
'I wasn't going to kill her, only knock her out Veraxitoc, she is no threat to me,' Sapphira mentioned, her voice slightly annoyed but not aggressive.
Veraxitoc walked away, not noticing his eyes had started glowing. He felt angry and aggressive.
"She deserved it. She has been a pain in my side for too long now." He snarled as he walked, turning to spew a stream of crimson fire. Only for a few seconds, and he aimed it out of her way.
"And I am no longer in any mood to play her games."
Sapphira shrugged her shoulders slightly, making her wings move slightly.
"Well at least you are standing up to the brat," Sapphira spoke her voice cold as she turned her back to the situation.
"Well no-one attacks someone in the colony unless I allow them to. This is my Colony. I will not have it brought to ruin because of one stupid girl. Or two. Or three, or four or five. I am in charge, and you will do as I decide Seh'lvah. Or you will die, because you truly are beginning to test my patience, and I am in no mood for it. I will kill you if you try and attack anyone again. You are not being helpful, or useful, or worth-full. You are being unhelpful, useless, and worthless. Grow up, stupid bitch. Learn you place, before we change your place to the grave and put you there." Veraxitoc didn't even notice his eyes glowing bright purple until he looked away and saw purple light. The blight must have left something in him.
Sapphira had no issue with his harsh words, sometimes that was the only way to teach, especially people who hadn't been taught that from a young age. Sometimes, when it came to those who were spoiled when they were young, you had to be extra harsh or they would remain spoiled.
'Well I need to find a place for myself to settle into since I will be staying,' She spoke as she started to walk away from the two.
Seh'lvah sniffed back a few tears, and watched Veraxitoc torch a tree she knew had squirrels in it. Bastard, she thought.
Veraxitoc flew off to his mountain peak, and, rearing up on his hind legs, slammed his paws into the ground, roaring. A fair amount of snow slid down the peak in an avalanche style.
Sapphira left Seh'lvah where she was, she was a brat and set in her ways, it would take more than one incident for his words to sink in. So she walked around, exploring the grounds by herself. She didn't know where she would sleep, and it was early enough in the day that it didn't matter. She could wait until Veraxitoc calmed down.
Veraxitoc finally flew back down into the valley after an hour or two and landed.
"Sapphira? Are you here?" Veraxitoc's voice boomed across the valley, and he hoped she was still there, and that Seh'lvah hadn't discouraged her stay.
After a few moments Sapphira appeared.
"Yeah, I'm right here getting the lay of the land," She spoke as she walked towards Veraxitoc.
"When I thought of the idea for the Colony, I decided we needed somewhere peaceful to live. And here we are. In a valley full of life, no murder, no thievery, no crime, no problems other than internal affairs. A good choice of scenery, no?" Veraxitoc flourished his wings, showing the landscape.
"It is a very suiting place of scenery for a colony that is meant to be an almost utopian," Sapphira spoke as she sighed deeply.
"So what else is here? as far as places I can sleep when that time comes?" Sapphira added as she looked away from Veraxitoc.
"There are rooms in the castle, although they are not suited to dragons of our size, caves in the mountainsides, or mountain top peaks. I prefer my peak. It is the tallest, and I have an unnatural ability to make it that high into the sky. Larger dragons with larger lungs can make it. Azuma can, and no doubt you could. Or we can find you somewhere else." Veraxitoc's tail began ticking, swinging rhythmically.
'Well if there are beds in the castle I will shift and sleep in the castle, out of the elements and comfortable, Of course if there aren't I might have to figure out where I want to sleep, I would have to look at the different places,' Sapphira spoke as she sat on her hind quarters.
Beds in the castle? He knew there was one in the master bedroom. Although Seh'lvah slept in there. She wouldn't miss the bed, surely.
"There should be beds in the castle, if not, we can take the one from Seh'lvah's room, she doesn't use it."
'Well, I should probably go try to find a room that isn't taken, I don't know if you would fit though, you should really learn to shift, if you did it once you should be able to do it again,' Sapphira spoke with a sigh, her tail flicking back and forth.
"Would you teach me if you can? I know it is an impromptu request, but it would be useful." Veraxitoc sat as well, flicking his wings once to wake them up.
"I don't know how I am suppose to teach you, I could try, but, I don't know how useful of a teacher I will be, it has been something I have been able to do it since I can remember, I never had to learn how to do it," Sapphira explained.
"Well it is worth a try. And thank you for helping me with Seh'lvah earlier. You did a good job. She just needs to learn her place in the pecking order." Veraxitoc nodded to Sapphira.
'I doubt she has learned her place just yet, she seems like that hard headed type. I will try and help you learn to shift, but as I said, I don't know how helpful I will be,' Sapphira spoke before shifting.
"Do you focus on an emotion as you shift? Anything other than the form you want?" Veraxitoc was eager to learn how to perform this magic.
"Well, I just think about shedding my skin so to speak. I don't really focus on any emotions," Sapphira started as she shrugged.
Despite the early warning, Veraxitoc felt angry. Then he realised what the blight had allowed him to do. She might not have to do it, but he might have to.
"Perhaps the anger that the blight caused me to feel was the key." Veraxitoc thought of the things Seh'lvah had said, how she had tried to get him into trouble. And then, for a brief second, he felt weightless. He saw purple smoke around him, before he realised he was lower to the ground than before. He daren't look for fear he had made himself compact. But he was definitely smaller.
"Every dragon is different I suppose," She spoke with another shrug. She was starting to grow tired even though it was still rather early in the day. She blamed it on the injuries and all of the energy her body was using to repair her body that was rather broken earlier that day.
Now that he was a human he felt odd. Two legs was going to be the worst of it. The lack of tail and wings would come next.
"It feels to strange like this... I don't know. How do I look though?"
"More human than me," Sapphira spoke as she looked over his new form slowly.
OOC: Is he like Sapphira and shifts with his clothes?
Veraxitoc realised he might not actually be wearing clothes, and would be considered indecent. Humans found a lack of clothing offensive or arousing, and considering how unhappy she'd been at hearing his confession of emotions earlier, tried to cover himself. He didn't realise he was wearing clothes.
OOc: Yeah, he is wearing clothes.
"Nudity doesn't bother, me, I am not human, remember, plus, you are wearing clothes," Sapphira replied as she watched him act like he was covering himself even though he was fully clothed.
"So show me to the castle so I can have a place to rest, I am rather exhausted."
"O-o-of course. Uhh, this way." He felt a little embarrassed that he had just done that, and began to stumble towards the castle, getting used to not walking on four limbs.
They arrived at the castle and Veraxitoc was just getting used to his legs. "Here we are. After you Sapphira." He held open the door for her.
Sapphira walked slow knowing how difficult it could be to get used to the avatar form when you have spent a lot of time as a dragon. She looked around the place, mapping out the land in her mind as they approached the castle.
She walked in the door that Veraxitoc held open for her. Once inside she slowly looked over the impressive inside of the castle, rather impressive.
"Welcome to Colony Castle. Our home. Seh'lvah and Shamgar have the master bedroom at the moment, as they share. I sleep on my mountain. But we shall see if we can arrange a room for you." He beckoned towards the stairs. Ah, shit, stairs... What do I do? I don't want to look like an idiot and ask her to help me up the stairs, but I will look like an idiot if I fall because I didn't ask... Do I dare? He couldn't decide whether he was too proud or too nervous.
"I don't mean to sound like a pain, but I have spent 2000 years with 4 legs, would you mind helping an old git up the stairs?" He smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
Sapphira looked at Veraxitoc in silence for a moment, but she could relate to not being able to use your new legs so she took his hand and placed his arm over her shoulder.
"Just watch how I move my legs and just try to mimic the best you can, before too long the steps won't be a problem," She spoke as she slowly started to walk up the steps.
"Ok..." He mimicked her movement, and walked up the stairs, stumbling but twice. Then he tripped, he just grabbed her, trying to keep his balance. They didn't fall, and finally reached the top.
Sapphira looked over at Veraxitoc, "See, not so bad, just got to get used to your land legs." Sapphira looked around as they walked onto the landing at the top of the stairs.
"Thank you Sapphira. I appreciate the help. Really." He gave her a smile, and confidently walked to the first bedroom.
"Here it is, it has a bed." He opened the door for her, showing her the room.
Sapphira walked into the room, though it wasn't the master it was still rather spectacular and grand. Dominating the room was a large four poster bed, with dark wood and thick fluffy blankets. Across from the foot of the bed was a large fireplace, it would surely do good to warm the room when she was alone in it. She walked a little bit further, as her eyes wandered over the room taking in the furnishings.
"This is very nice, it all is covered in a thick layer of dust but that can be taken care of," She spoke turning to him.
"The castle was only recently restored by Azuma, so all I can do is apologise." Veraxitoc sighed.
"And about earlier... I didn't mean for you to hear what I said..." Veraxitoc sighed again, looking away from her eyes.
Sapphira shrugged, "It doesn't take dust a long time to settle, it won't take very long to clean. Sapphira went to turn only stopping when Veraxitoc began to speak again.
"What do you mean? About the whole not wanting to bed me?" She asked, not bothered by the subject.
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just not the reason I brought you here." He spoke, and realised what he had said.
Veraxitoc felt his face go red, and he turned away, rubbing his neck.
Sapphira chuckled a bit as she crossed her arms, if anything she was amused and flattered.
"For someone so old I would think you would be better at verbalizing your affections," She stated with a soft smirk.
"I don't usually have affections, but recently I have been thinking and it has begun to creep back into my mind... I have spent 2000 years on my own, with no one to truly care for, and I am deciding if I should begin to settle down. And you managed to catch my affections..." He fiddled with his thumbs, looking at the ground. He was embarrassed, and nervous.
Sapphira looked down for a moment, taking a deep breath as she thought about her next words carefully. She had never been one to rush into something. Plus she wasn't one to fall in love easily. Of course she didn't want to be harsh with the man either.
"Well, I'm flattered," She said simply, she could see that he was nervous, so she reached out, patting him on his shoulder.
"I suppose I should let you settle in? I'll come and fetch you tomorrow morning?" Veraxitoc was still red-faced but the hand on his shoulder gave him a needed confidence boost.
"That would be fine," Sapphira spoke with a nod of her head before turning towards the bed to start to take the fabric off the bed so she could clean it.
Veraxitoc left the room, and shut the door behind him. Then he walked to the wall opposite, and slumped to the grounds, his head in his hands. He almost cried, but he just sat there.
Sapphira listened for Veraxitoc to leave, and was surprised when she heard his footsteps stop. Was something wrong? She waited a few moments before walking to the door and opening it, looking down at Veraxitoc on the floor.
"You okay?" She asked as she leaned against the door frame.
"I-I-I-i'm fine... Y-y-you just settle in." Veraxitoc hated himself. He was an absolute idiot. He was an idiot who had run his mouth.
"You are stuttering, you are not okay, spill it," Sapphira stated simply, crossing her arms as she looked down at him.
"I said, I'm fine. J-j-just leave me. I need to wallow." He shifted back, focusing on his embarrassment this time. Then he took off, out the window, heading for his mountain top.
"Fine!" Sapphira replied, her voice revealing her frustration. She walked into her room and slammed the door. If he wanted to be that way, so be it, she didn't care, she had no reason to care. So without another thought about Veraxitoc she started to clean the room.
In his own self frustration, he flew to a nearby town, and, completely losing control of his temper and emotions, let the minor blight that was left take control, roaring at the townspeople and stomping around, eating their horses, and torching their crops. The blight then took him high on to the mountains, where he wrestled control back in his head, and began to smash up the mountain, breaking rocks and incinerating trees in a blind frustration. If she wanted to deny him, she could. He didn't care anyway, it wasn't like she was nice to him. "Rrraaagghh! I don't need anyone. I'm strong, and powerful. I could do anything if I really wanted to! And who would be there to stop me? Her? Seh'lvah? Azuma? None of them could beat me on a bad day. I HATE ALL OF THIS!!"
Sapphira didn't let herself think about what had happened, wasn't like she could go chase after him either, she couldn't fly after all. Still if he wanted to act like he was Seh'lvah's age, well that was his issue as long as it didn't interfere with her.
Before long she had the room looking rather nice, after dusting washing the things that needed to be washed and using her ability to control fire to dry what she washed. She sighed deep and laid across the bed, it was definitely comfortable.
Veraxitoc had thrown 40 rocks by the time he finally calmed down. He sat down, panting, and realised what the blight had done to him. He would never have gotten that angry. Nothing ever had made him that angry in his entire life, and yet now he was willing to torch villages when he got truly angry. And he had never been truly angry before. He felt upset, ashamed, and immature. He had torched a village's crops in his childish rage. And knowing that he had done that, he wouldn't go back to the colony tonight. He would stay away.
And for the first time, he began to cry. He climbed the mountain, sobbing as he climbed. Then he found out it was his mountain. So he sat, in his mountain cap snow, and cried himself to sleep, the snow around him melting.
Before long Sapphira fell into a deep sleep. She was very tired after all considering she was healing from pretty bad injuries after all.
Veraxitoc woke up, and tried to think of what to do. He could go and get Sapphira up, but after his stunt yesterday, he decided to let he steam off for the day. Unless she approached him. He would practice with his human form. See what exactly it could do.
He focused on how sorry he felt for himself, and shifted. The process of shifting was relatively easy. He just needed to learn what it would let him do. He decided to fly himself to the castle, and try the swords and weapons.
He arrived at the castle, and looked for the armoury, which he soon found. He shut the door, and began to try weapons. First he tried the bow, finding he was useless.
"Poxy bloody device..." He put it back on the rack, and picked up a shortsword.
The light design made it feel scrawny and useless, and he found that the dummy suffered virtually no damage when he tried to use it. He went through 8 swords, finding they were all useless, although he quite liked the huge claymore he picked up.
Then he saw the chain mace. He picked it up and judged the weight. "A blunt force trauma weapon. Curious. How much damage does it do?" Veraxitoc began to spin the mace, grinning as he felt how much force the weapon held.
After a few seconds, he swung the huge spiked ball at the dummy's head, and decapitated the dummy in the swing, and breaking a stone as the mace landed.
"I like this weapon!"
Sapphira was woke up by a rather loud splintering noise. It wasn't coming from the floor she was one, it was coming from below, still to her sensitive ears it was enough to wake her up so she was going to investigate. She jumped up, leaving her leather jacket, boots, gauntlet, weapons and belt upstairs in her room.
She padded barefoot towards the source of the noise. Down stairs and through hallways and doors until her eyes saw Veraxitoc's form and a decapitated dummy. She cleared her throat to alert him to her presents.
Veraxitoc jumped as he heard Sapphira, dropping the mace on his foot with a sickening crunch.
"Fuck!" He shifted back to dragon form, and realised something was broken.
"Nice," Sapphira spoke with a hint of a smirk on her face.
"If something is broken, you do less damage if you stay in the form that you broke whatever is broken. Or at least that is what I have learned. You probably broke your foot," Sapphira spoke as she crossed her arms, leaning heavily against the door frame.
"You tell me now?!" Veraxitoc didn't even think of his healing spell, he just sat there cradling his foot.
"Please don't sneak up on me like that, I'm not safe when I am scared!"
"I didn't sneak up on you and I am no where near as fragile as you think I am. I am an assassin, if I snuck up on you you would be dead," Sapphira spoke as she raised an eyebrow almost challengingly.
"Plus, you didn't give me enough time to tell you, now use your little healing spell and you should be all good other than it being a little bit sore."
"Oh, challenging me now? You understand what that conjured in my head? My species fight for right of a decision over a relationship. Winner chooses what happens, haha. Ow." He remembered his spell, and breathed the magic air over his foot, healing it.
"But of course, if you are challenging me for your own reasons, then fine. But in a form we are both used to." He stood, flexing his foot.
"I am not challenging you to a physical fight, and this place would not be the correct place to fight. You might be built like a mountain but defense is little use against stronger attack," Sapphira spoke as she turned her back on Veraxitoc. Once again not commenting on whether she actually liked him or found him attractive.
"Oh I see now... You're afraid of me. Afraid you might finally have met your match, and so you don't want to fight. You want to walk away. While cowards do survive, I never imagined you as one." Veraxitoc thought he was pressing the right buttons. He was certain she would test him
Sapphira turned on her heals, the air around her growing incredibly hot. She didn't let herself turn though.
"Me a coward, you are the one who ran away yesterday like a stuttering fool, so look in the mirror before you start throwing words around that are above your maturity level," Sapphira growled before once again turning her back on him to storm off.
"I made a mistake yesterday, I was stupid, I let my affections for you cloud my judgement. No longer will that ever happen. So come back, and fight like a real dragon, or run away little hatchling, run far away. Winner decides where we attempt to go from here. No binding contract. Just a decision as to where we devote our efforts. By my binding honour as a Nightspinner." Veraxitoc hardly ever made a binding pledge like that. If he didn't fulfil the terms made when one of them conceded, or mentioned giving up, he would be put through immense pain until he obliged.
In a wave of fire hotter than most dragons could produce Sapphira was staring nose to nose with Veraxitoc.
'You don't even know how I feel about you, if I find you attractive or not because you are the one who is too much of a fledgling to know how to court a lady,'Sapphira mentally spoke as a deep rumble of a growl escaped her chest. Her crawl dug into the floor, breaking easily threw the stone that made up the floor.
"I courted one once. Before I was forced to kill her. Now I am the last of my kind. You think that is something a fledgling would be able to do?! I wiped out my own kind in a single kill, killed the last person I ever loved, and for what?! To be treated like a child by you?! You know nothing of the pains of being alone, with all your friends having died in battles that should never have taken place! I have seen hundreds of good dragons fall, and for what, for nothing?! Do not call me immature, and do not test me, I have killed dozens of dragons bigger than you, and I survived. I survived because I was the strongest and smartest! Because I was willing to do whatever it took!" He stopped shouting, his voice shaking the entire room, the fire raging in his stomach subsiding.
'You aren't the only one who is the last of their kind you whining Basterd. I have killed creatures that haunt the dreams of some of the most feared dragons. I have faced monsters that you couldn't even imagine. So stop with your adolescent bad boy act, it is repulsing, and if you are trying to attract me with it, I am sorry to inform you, I can do bad all by myself, " Sapphira spoke, her body tense. She was injured yes, she wouldn't back down though.
"I have had enough of this. Good day to you Sapphira. Don't hurt yourself round these weapons, cause last I checked, cows can't use swords." He pushed her out the way and began his walk to the door, making sure his tail caught her face as he walked by.
Sapphira saw his tail coming from a mile away. She was younger than him yes, but she would not stand disrespect. So instead of letting his tail hit her she bit it, hard. She could feel her teeth easily sink through his scales.
Veraxitoc snarled, and tackled her, using her injured side and wing to his advantage, pressing on them and flaring his claws.
"You clearly do not know how much pain I can take. I regret not helping Seh'lvah the other day now, you are more immature than she is! And that's very difficult." He tried to pin her using her wings and pinning holds.
Sapphira spun in his grip, so they were belly to belly. She matched his claws with her own.
'Fine, I will leave. If I am so immature, if I am a cow as you say. It just shows what you are attracted to I suppose. I can't believe I actually kind of liked you, now that I see your true colors, you are scum,' She mentally spoke as she filled the room with her hot flames.
"No, stay. You clearly have something to say. I thought you might be different. I'm not attracted to this. I was attracted to the person who I helped in that forest. Or was that your kind of a sick joke?! Is it wrong to be lonely after 2000 years of watching my friends die?! If it is, then I want to die! So as it seems from you it is, kill me. Say what you will, and then you can kill me and leave. No one will truly be sad. Seh'lvah despises me because of who I am, Shamgar hardly knows me and the same with Azuma. Ornusjalil hates me, so do you! What do I have worth living for?" Veraxitoc submitted, waiting on her verdict. If he had to be alone, he wanted to die, and he would make it happen. He couldn't bear not having a close friend.
'LISTEN TO YOURSELF, you are the one pushing me away,'Sapphira spoke before moving out from under him. She turned back to her human form, now wearing all of her clothes and weapons.
"You are the one who is making it impossible to have friends, you called me a coward, you called me a cow yet you think I am going to stay? You aren't the only lonely one, you aren't the only one who has seen friends die, stop drowning in your own self pity."
Veraxitoc tried to calm himself down, but he was furious. He sat, frustrated that he seemed to be completely incapable lately, unable to even make friends.
"I hated the last 2000 years. Why do you hate them then? Who have you watched die?" Veraxitoc had a cold voice, trying to maintain himself. His mind raced back to that horrifying day, where he found out the girl he loved had killed 800 good soldiers, innocent men who had not fought in years. He remembered digging his teeth into her throat, not moving from her body for a whole 14 days, the fortnight spent only shedding tears of mourning for the last of his race. He remembered how he spent 4 years alone, no equal or superior that he could find. Then he had put himself into a 2000 year sleep to numb the pain. And now it was wearing off.
"My kind were hunted down until there was me. I watched my mate, my children, everyone killed before me," Sapphira spoke, her words bitter and angry. She leaned on the door frame, her back towards him. She was rather done with the notion of him or staying. He was too immature for her liking, especially in her liking for a mate.
"Have you ever slept for two thousand years? It's so empty. You can't dream, you can't just cast yourself off into an eternal dream. It's just darkness, and whatever thoughts you have conjured before hand. And it is so quiet. I didn't know that there were no dreams. I didn't know that it would only be nightmares plaguing me. Two thousand years of sleep for me to numb the pain. Guess I am not as wise and intelligent as I thought. Guess at heart I am still 165... And the last clear memory I have is digging my claws into Loreiaka's throat, killing the last of my kind. Do you want to know who made me do it?" Veraxitoc knew he had gone of on a tangent that was upsetting, but he had come to terms with what he did, long ago. His voice was cold, and heartless as he spoke, not bothering to insert the emotions he had long since left behind.
"Sure, go ahead," Sapphira said simply, her voice just as cold. She held little interest in his sob story.
"She told me to kill her. Did you have to kill your mate? Did you have to rip your mate's throat out because he left you no other choice? You have humans to blame. I have myself to blame. I give you my sincerest condolences about your mate and children, truly, but just because you have been hurt does not mean you have been hurt the worst. We have both suffered. I personally, would like some peace for once. To stop thinking about that day. Not once in 2000 years have I stopped. Even in my sleep I cannot escape it. I am haunted by what I did, and I want it gone. I suppose the reason I am acting like this is to see whether I am different. The reason I said you could kill me was because I wanted to see how far you can go. If, in theory, I had killed your mate, would you have killed me then?" Veraxitoc looked to the ground, knowing where he was going was a minefield.
"It was not humans, that hunted my kind down, humans are weak, and easy to kill," Sapphira spoke, leaning her head against the door frame.
"If you would have killed them I would have hunted you down just like I did the ones who killed my kind and kill you, yes, without mercy, and I do not regret any of it. Yes I can still see the faces of all the ones I killed, especially the children, but it does not haunt me," Sapphira spoke softly.
"I am not trying to say I have been hurt the worst, I am just trying to show you you are not the only one hurt, I hate self loathing, it makes me sick."
"You have the joy of not being haunted. I can't rid myself of it. I will never be free. I don't understand how you can free yourself of it. I don't understand a lot it seems..." Veraxitoc sighed, keeping himself composed. He couldn't believe that she could just rid herself of those she had killed.
"I accepted what I had done, and realized that I couldn't go back, and I couldn't change it even if I wanted, and I didn't sleep for 2000 years," Sapphira replied sharply.
"You think that sleeping was a bad choice? You are telling me that it was not a good choice? I spent a fortnight grieving, what do you think I was supposed to do?!" Veraxitoc was frustrated that she refused to feel any sympathy for him, or at least to show any.
"How is not dealing with something ever a good choice, just because you are ignoring it doesn't make it go away, just makes it worse," Sapphira replied.
"What do I do then? 2000 years of wanting to take back every second, I just want a way out, and some way to move on. I guess I can't grow up until I get over it. I'm still 165 until I get over it." Veraxitoc decided to lie down, torching a dummy with a spew of fire.
"The only way you can get over it is to face it, to live," Sapphira replied. You had to face your problems if you wanted to get over them, it was that simple.
"How? I have not known anything other than it. I can't escape it. You know more than I do. So teach me!" Veraxitoc took on a pleading tone with Sapphira. If she could help then he would take it.
"Coming to realization with your problems is something I cannot teach you, that is a lesson each must learn on their own. Plus, you called me a cow, why would I even want to help you, actually I don't even know why I am having this conversation with you," Sapphira spoke as she started to walk away.
"I'm sorry. For everything I have said, done. I know it probably means nothing, and you have every right to walk away. I was rude, selfish, violent, unkind. Exactly everything I promised myself I would never be. You should keep walking, so I won't stop you. Leave if you will. But know that I will miss you. Even this interaction of having an argument has made me slightly happier." Veraxitoc didn't look at her, he just stared at a single stone in a stack of hay, wondering how to come to terms with what he had done.
"I'm going to my room, I need to cool off, or no matter what you say I will not care, I became rather icy when angered. Maybe around noon you can come by, we can drink and laugh about this, but not until then," Sapphira spoke, her voice holding no emotion.
She then left, walking to her room.
Veraxitoc stared at the ground for a minute. She wasn't leaving for good. He could live with that.
He shifted, picking up the mace, and practicing with it. He did so for a good while, not looking at the window until a good three hours later.
Sapphira went to her room and laid on her bed once she took off her leather jacket, boots, weapons, gauntlets, and her belt. She didn't fall asleep, instead she just relaxed, letting the anger leave her like steam from a hot bath.
When Veraxitoc finally saw that it was noon, he decided to wait another hour, just to be sure, and then visit her. He remembered how to do stairs, but actually went and got a bottle of this drink he had discovered was quite nice, called vodka. He had only ever had a small sip, but he liked it.
He took it up to her room, and made sure to knock.
"I have drinks?"
Sapphira sat up as she heard the knocks. It hadn't felt like much time had passed, but that was often the case when one was in a meditative state for extended periods of time.
"Come in," She said, her voice sounding a bit tired as she pulled herself out of her meditation.
Veraxitoc entered with two glasses and the bottle of vodka. "Have you ever tried vodka? It's a foreign drink, very nice. A bartender once gave me a bottle to try, and I liked it, so I kept some." He poured her a glass, then himself one.
"I have drank a lot in my day, so I probably have drank it, just don't know it by name," Sapphira spoke as she took the glass. She wasted no time in taking a long drink of the liquid. She nodded soon after she swallowed the warm liquid down.
"Yeah, I have had this stuff."
"I'll put the bottle over here, let me know if you want another glass." Veraxitoc took a drink from his own glass, and shook the tingle away. It was a strong drink, and he liked things strong.
"I am sorry about what I said earlier. Perhaps I am immature." He shrugged and took another sip.
"I have thick enough skin that it doesn't really bother me, I have been called worse," Sapphira spoke with a slight shrug before she took another long drink, already killing half of the glass.
Some would call her a heavy drink, or even an alcoholic, in all reality she could drink many times what a human could and still only have a slight buzz.
"Well at least you can own up to it, most can't even do that."
"It does take a level of decency to own up to something, and not deny it. And I try to be a decent person." Veraxitoc took a large swig of his glass, and realised he had only left a quarter of his glass left.
"Hmm, I took a lot of my drink just then..."
Sapphira laughed as she looked at his glass before shrugging.
"It happens," She spoke before finishing her glass quickly.
"I don't think you brought enough, I drink like I am dying of thirst, of course you didn't know that."
"It's a good thing I had the bottle enchanted to refill itself once empty then, hm? Never hurts to have a magic bottle." Veraxitoc finished his glass, then poured himself and Sapphira another glass each.
"Good thing indeed," Sapphira spoke after her glass was once again filled. This could turn out good or bad, two people drinking who just got done arguing and were very possibly near fighting. Still she didn't care, alcohol was alcohol.
"Well I for one would like to apologise for my actions earlier. I was stupid, immature, and I let my emotions control me. So I say, I am sorry." Instead of taking another drink, he just waited to hear what she would say.
"Everyone is controlled by their emotions, it is training yourself to change your reactions to those emotions that is a sign of maturity," Sapphira responded before taking herself another big drink of the Vodka.
"I know for a fact that I am virtually the same as I was when I was 165. So perhaps I do need to mature. Change. I need that."Veraxitoc took the rest of his glass. He'd not felt this tingly feeling before. It was nice.
"I wouldn't suspect anything else, one cannot mature if one is asleep. Life is what makes one mature, through it hardships and victories, sleep doesn't force you through things there for it cannot help you," Sapphira replied before finishing off her drink.
"Sometimes those of my species who had slept after heartbreak died. I suppose I was hoping I was that heartbroken. I guess not." Veraxitoc downed the rest of his glass, and felt it rush to his head.
"And the sensation I am now feeling is called?"
"Probably just a buzz, and I don't know how much liquor you can drink, but after a buzz comes being drunk, I myself have never been drunk, I can barely drink enough to maintain a slight buzz," Sappira spoke, choosing not to comment on him hoping to die before he went to sleep.
"Dying doesn't end the chance of things getting worse, it ends the chance of things getting better," She finally spoke after a pause.
"Does it? I've always seen death as the quickest route to peace, but I do not kill, it weighs on my conscience too much now. I have killed too many for nothing, sent them to the depths of the hells and heights of heaven. I've always wondered what death would be like." Veraxitoc sighed.
"Death will come for you in its own time, to seek it out is foolish, that is what I was trying to say, to wish for death means you give up on the hope of things getting better, it is a great sign of weakness. It is the coward's way out. It is like a soldier running from battle," Sapphira explained as she raised her eyebrow.
"I understand what you mean, but is the cowards route the safest? They call it a fight or flight instinct, not a fight instinct. Flight must have a significant role in survival, no? A deer does not fight the dragon about to eat it, it runs. It is a cowardly move, but it furthers the purpose of the individual deer. To copulate and reproduce. The deer that runs the fastest gets the mates, not the stupid ones that stand and fight." Veraxitoc enjoyed philosophical debates, as much as he did politics.
"Fight or flight, exactly, it doesn't stand there waiting to get eaten does it?" Sapphira asked simply.
"That is a fair point. What do you suppose happens to the deer that stand there waiting to get eaten then? If you were the dragon in this situation, and your prey just stared you down, would you eat it?"
"It sounds now that you are trying to debate a tangent, suicide is not part of the fight or flight mind set of survival, it isn't instinct like fight or flight, animals of that level of thinking do not pick suicide," Sapphira spoke her face as cold as ice and as hard as stone.
"To kill 800 innocent men and women, kill the last 6 other Nightspinners, and to serve a demon lord, and then she stood in front of me, admitted it, and begged me to kill her. Did I make the right choice?" Veraxitoc wanted her opinion, he valued it. He wanted to know his decision was justified.
Sapphira shrugged, "That is something you have to come to terms with on your own. Do you think it was worth it? Do you feel you made the right choice even though it was a hard decision? My opinion doesn't matter when it comes down to it, what matters is how you feel about it, if you think what you did was justified, was right. Everyone's moral standings and values are different. Something I can see as justified and easy to get over can be something you find extremely hard to. So that question, my friend, is something you have to ask yourself."
Veraxitoc sat quiet for a minute, then replied.
"Yes, it was justified. She would have had to kill hundreds more if I hadn't killed her." Veraxitoc felt himself a little lighter.
"Then there is your answer, not you just have to come to terms with the reality of it, with what you had to do," Sapphira spoke with a shrug before finishing off her glass.
"I know what I did, and that it happened. I just couldn't bear thinking that I had made the wrong choice. Perhaps the Vodka helped my mind?" Veraxitoc beckoned to the bottle, seeing if she wanted more.
"Alcohol never helps the mind with decision, it only fogs it up, never make decisions while drunk, you will regret it in the morn'n," Sapphira spoke with a laugh as she nodded, wanting more Vodka.
"We learn from our mistakes, it is the only way to truly learn." Veraxitoc poured her another drink from the bottle, and topped his own glass up.
"I disagree with that. The stupid never learn, being of average intelligence learn from experience, smart beings, well, they learn from the experience of others," Sapphira spoke with a bit of a chuckle before taking another big drink of vodka.
"But only an idiot will put his hand in the way of a fire twice, or fall for the same trap three times. An idiot is someone who repeats the same test or process over and over again, expecting different results. A learner is someone with enough intelligence to know that at least one thing the person was doing should change every time." Veraxitoc grinned at his own comment. He took another drink of vodka and strengthened his resolve. He knew the drink would get to him eventually.
"You basically repeated what I said in different words," Sapphira pointed out with a sigh. The grin on his face suddenly started to annoy her. Did he think himself clever? She sighed, shaking her head and downing the rest of her glass of vodka.
"In essence. My bad." He took another drink and sighed himself. His face straightened, as he looked around to get a grip on the time.
"Well, I suppose I should ask, what are your opinions on the colony so far?"
"I'm not sure you want to hear them just yet, give me a chance to see more good if you don't want harsh frankness, which is what you would get now," Sapphira spoke honestly as she looked over at Veraxitoc.
"You must remember what I have encountered the day and a half I have been here. A disrespectful, out of control teen, and emotionally unstable leader that called me a cow," Sapphira spoke with a shrug.
"Of course. So those points for improvement then?" Veraxitoc was trying to make a productive conversation at least, not just a conversation. Perhaps it would go badly, and it would lead to a different conversation.
"Much room for improvement," Sapphira spoke as she poured herself some more vodka.
"Really, the girl is going to get herself into trouble with her attitude. If I had met her outside of this place she would probably be dead, I don't take disrespect lightly," Sapphira added after a moment.
"Very well. I will have a few stern words." Veraxitoc went to get up, but fell back in the chair. He had no clue how to get up to go and get something. He was useless.
"Um, this is embarrassing, I've sat down, and have no piggin' clue how to get back up..."
"Well, you are probably a little tipsy, so you might not want to rush off anywhere. The alcohol will start messing with your balances," Sapphira spoke as she stood with ease.
"The best way I can describe getting up is to lean slightly forward then push up with your legs like you were trying to jump up, but with less force."
"Ok, I will bear that in mind." Veraxitoc tried what she had said. With no complication but one.
He ended up flat on his face.
He started laughing at his own stupidity. "Owhahahaha!"
"I think you might be feeling some of the effects of the alcohol," Sapphira said as she reached down.
"Here, take my hand, I will help you up," She added as she held her hand down so he could take it. Her form may appear a bit weak, but if one assumed that they would be wrong, she was much stronger than she appeared, she was a dragon, not a human after all. She could have probably picked Veraxitoc up if she really wanted to.
"Thank you, yes, you are probably right, I should stop while I am still conscious." He smiled as she helped him up. He remembered that there was a room not far down the hall that was free. He didn't even realise that Seh'lvah was in the room between Sapphira and Veraxitoc.
"I think it best if I stop, no doubt I will suffer for this in the morning." He didn't know if it was the alcohol, or the way he felt, but he thought to say it.
"Excuse me speaking my mind, but I really can't stop thinking about how much I like you. I know it is stupid considering that our past two days have not been the best possible days. But I thought it best to speak my mind." Veraxitoc didn't feel shy about it. At least he knew what he was saying.
"Here, let me help you, we don't need you falling and hurting yourself do we?" Sapphira spoke gently, completely ignoring Veraxitoc's talk about thinking about all the time. It had been a while since her mate had died but she wasn't even ready to think about liking someone else. Sometimes it took centuries for wounds to heal.
"Thank you." She helped him up, and he stood, regaining his balance.
"Well, I best be off, I have things to do." He spoke in the manner of someone worried about something, but he felt calm.
"I don't think you are really in the right mind to being doing anything, you did drink a bit of alcohol, and I doubt you are really used to drinking so, you should sleep it off, let me help you to a room before you fall down the steps or something," Sapphira said, reaching out. gently grabbing his elbow.
"Ok then. I will sleep here for tonight. Or I can fly up to my peak, haha... That was a joke..." He appreciated the help. He was a wrecking ball when he had alcohol in his system.
Sapphira guided his arm over her shoulder so she could help him keep his balance.
"Okay, lets go find a room before you fall and hurt yourself or something," She said as she started leading him to the door.
"Three doors down is empty... No, two. The one next door has Shamgar and Seh'lvah living there..." He walked with her and realised what he had said.
"You don't, uh, mind her being next door do you?"
"If she doesn't bother me I won't bother her. If she starts bothering me, well, I can take care of my own problems," Sapphira spoke with a wink as she helped him out of the room and into the hallway.
"She won't, she has Shamgar and Methusela to keep her busy." He winked back at her.
"And they're quiet neighbours, no arguments or stuff."
"Well she has a problem with me and with the attitude that I saw from her earlier I can tell she can be spiteful, but as I said, if any problems occur I can handle them myself. I am old and strong enough that she is no threat to me," Sapphira replied as she passed Seh'lvah's room.
"Well I believe she is out with Shamgar at the moment." Veraxitoc mused.
"Here we are." Veraxitoc opened the huge door, which led to a fair sized room with a bed and the likes.
"Well let's get you to the bed," Sapphira spoke as she guided him into the room and to the bed.
"Here you go, now you can sleep it off without fear of hurting yourself," She added with a bit of a chuckle.
"Yes master, servant will go to bed now, hahaha..." He smiled as she lead him.
As Veraxitoc went to lay down on the bed, he lost his balance, and pulled her over with him.
With Sapphira's cat like reflexes and her training as an assassin she ended up landing straddling Veraxitoc. She had one hand on the handle of her sword and the other on his chest, her nails biting into him slightly.
She froze there for a moment before taking a deep breath and removing her hand from her sword.
"That was an accident... I swear..." He blushed, going completely red.
"Umm, is it bad to say I don't mind being like this? Feel free to slap me..." He prepared for a nasty slap.
Sapphira simply moved off of him, not seeming upset.
"You are a man, so of course you don't mind," She said with little inflection in her voice.
"You are drunk and not used to your new legs, I wouldn't expect you to be able to do something like that on purpose even if you tried," Sapphira spoke before walking to the door.
"I am more than some man, I am a dragon! Do not mistake me for a measly appetiser when I am more than capable of being the main course..." He wasn't drunk out of his mind, he was just tipsy. At least, that's what he told himself.
"Well, you never know, I could surprise you." He smiled at her when she got to the door.
"Goodnight Sapphira."
"I didn't call you a human, I called you a man because you are male, you have the appendage that stops blood flow to your brain," Sapphira spoke before leaving Veraxitoc in his room and returning to her own.
Veraxitoc rolled onto the floor with a thud, and shifted to dragon form. He couldn't stand sleeping in human form. He had the motor skills as a dragon to move to the other side of the room safely. Or rather, crawl there. He wasn't sure of this "standing" business.
Coulda gone worse... Coulda had a flashback... No, don't tempt fate Ver, you'll make it definite to have one around her and that would not be good... Besides, Veraxitoc was thinking to himself. She doesn't hate me... Stop the blood flow to my brain... Maybe in humans... Not when I'm in dragon form... Not at all...
He dozed off slowly, his thoughts drifting between pondering and self debate, to the headache he would have in the morning. She handled her drink much better than him. Then again, he'd never had that much before.