darkness is her shining knight [p, m]

[Bree]

She hadn't used her draconian form since becoming a panwere. It was strange, and yet the rush of the wind and the feel of her wings stretching wide was a sensation she had sorely missed. She had flown far from her own mountains, wanting to explore, and upon spotting a new mountain range, the dragoness began circling for a landing. Despite her age, she was quite large. Her growth rate would slow when she was fully grown, but wouldn't stop. Currently she stood at about 100 meters tall, and was nowhere near fully grown.

Her landing shook the ground, a thunderclap in the otherwise peaceful environment. Her scales glittered dark, almost black, rendering her somewhat invisible due to it being night. The moonlight above was scarce, and if she'd been a lesser creature--a mortal, maybe--she wouldn't have been able to see a thing. Fortunately for her, she had excellent night vision. The animals and people she preyed on probably didn't appreciate her vision, but Sche had a hard time caring about anyone but her sister and nephew.

[Hundelar]

It was night time, a dark night that engulfed everything below the stars in a deep black aura and Vermithrax had just filled up of some travellers that were walking on the wrong path, at the wrong time. He couldnt help but smile while remembering the taste of their horses while gliding back to his giant pile of gold, where he intended to sleep until he felt like doing another thing, feeling the wind against his body, the dragon caught of a different smell on the air, when was the last time he felt the scent of another dragon? And yet it didnt feel entirely dragon, it was too young, too human. This was enought to get on the dragon curiosity and he changed the course of his flight, while a little anxiety began to grow inside him, this dragon was circling arround his treasure and it was getting a bit too close, coincidence? He would not risk.

Upon gliding to the ground, The Destroyer could now see its target, a big dragon, sure, not as big as himself but about half of his current size, and that was something. The dragon scales were black and it would render him almost invisible, if not for Vermithrax senses, he could see everything clearly as if in daylight, as he tried to gather as much info as he could from a glance, the titanic one started to  slow down his flight pace for landing.

Upon gliding nearbyn above that strange, black dragon, Vermithrax found it would be better to engage conversation at the moment, if she decided not to respond in a friendly way...well, he could take care of that.

"Well hello there, young one." He said now looking straight to the female dragon.

"Im Vermithrax, owner of these mountains, is there anything i could help you with?"

He said in that confident/arrogant tone, with a somewhat grim smile on his face, but always keeping the calm, polite tone, while steering down, to his hinder legs, and finally touching his folded bat-like wings, on the ground, as he looked down to that strange black dragon, his body makind a "S" shape with his torso and long neck. She was a big dragon, indeed, but not as big as him, and now the difference in size was clear as they were standing about 50 meters from each other. Vermithrax was examining her scent carefully, thinking now that he had a pretty good idea of that creature nature, which made his smile even bigger, Vermithrax loved that deduction game.

[Bree]

The wild scent around her soothed her, had her relaxing--until a dragon showed up. He was about the same size as her sister. The dark red dragoness stared at him with cold grey eyes for several moments before folding her wings against her back and laying down. She rested her head on her paws and closed her eyes before reaching out with her mind to communicate telepathically with him.

Nice to meet you. I'm not here to challenge you for territory or steal things from you, if that's your concern. She lifted her head and shook it, making a sound suspiciously like laughter. "I'm exploring. Or I was. But this looked like a nice place to relax for a bit. I haven't flown in..." She paused, blinking. "Ah...six years? I think? Anyways, my wings started to stiffen. Figured I'd land before I crashed."

Massive shoulders rolled in a shrug, and she returned her head to her paws. "Don't suppose you've seen any other dragons about? In shades of red, perhaps? Female, most likely as big or bigger than yourself?" Perhaps she and Kassir'a weren't the last. Perhaps there were others, hiding as dragons. "Or maybe one in particular. She'd be several shades lighter than myself--my red is often confused with black--with mismatched eyes. About your size."

Had her sister been here recently? Scouting, perhaps? Sche was supposed to be the scout, and would be disappointed if her sister had come instead.

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax observed that dragon behavior carefully, she showed not surprised, nor fear, so she was used to be arround powerfull beings, which was odd, cause dragons dont tend to live together, his thought was interrupted by the dragon voice echoing on his mind, a sudden action that could have triguered the dragon action, but he was intrigued by that creature.

"Indeed, this is a nice place to be, which is why i've been arround for a some time now" He said in a deep voice, with genuine calm, as he began to slowly walk a circle arround the female dragon. For now he had took her word and believed she did not want to steal from him, but he would not let his guard down

"Unfortunately i have not seen a draconic being for some time now, actually, very few beings dare entering my territory...but youre not really that, are you? Telephatic habilities, and your scent..." He said calmly as he sniffed the air again,confident on his deduction.

"No no, youre one of those blood elfs, arent you? You used to be numerous in the past, but i havent seen one of your kind in a while, i thought you were extinct" he asked in a deep voice, as he stopped circling arround her. He was sure of it. Vermithrax was very old, and have seen a lot, this was not the first time he saw a blood elf, nor the first he witnessed its shapeshifting powers. He was both intrigued, and suspicious, as he stared the dark scaled dragon.

[Bree]

For the most part, his words went right out of her head.

At least until he mentioned her race.


Her head shot up, startled grey eyes locked on the male. Then she began shifting shape until she stood as an Elf, tiny compared to him. "Correct. Does my scent tell you anything else about me?" The musk of animal was strong, as her different forms vied for control. Her form started to ripple, but she held the change in check. "My name is Sche'zan'i. My sister and I are the last of our kind. She's the Queen."

Her eyes narrowed, and then widened. "Were you--were you one of the Dragon Mounts? Or one of the companions? Our people were always close with dragons. Lore dictates that the first of our kind, the first Elf to sit the Blood Throne married a dragon, and from then on our people could shift form into dragons. Probably because the Elf queen and dragon have one hundred daughters, from which all daughters of the Blood are descended."

If he had been a mount or companion--or husband, for that matter--then surely he'd know that bit of lore.

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax watched, satisfied, as the dragon turned into a tiny, humanoid, blood elf, form, her scent in blood elf form had a resemblance with dragon form, but somewhat different, he could smell some variety of scents, she was not living by herself also, she lived in a mountain region. He looked down while hearing her words.

"I couldnt tell anything that you dont know already" He said, and kept looking to that small creature while she introduced herself. he could tell that he managed to deeply involve her mind into this, thats dragon manipulation, its like they always known precisely what you want to hear, her mind seemed to be filled with doubts.

"A mount, me?" He said in a heightened tone, almost ofended as he lowered his head  to get closer to the elf, the smile was gone . "Listen carefully, blood elf, if some of my kind find themselves confortable with being enslaved and mounted like mere pets, thats up to them. I, however..." And as he speak, he began to raise his upper body again, while a red light began to glow on the dragon chest and a sudden burst os flames came out of the dragons mouth towards the sky, the darkness of the night suddenly vanished and everything could be seen clearly by anyone, the flames went skyhigh before spreading and vanishing leaving everything dark again. "...am not to be confused with those" and now he had regained his calm tone again.

He did got offended, dragons can be quite sensitive and are easily angered. This time he was not particularly mad after all it was a fair question, he only wanted to state things clear to the blood elf assuming him for a mount, that was absurd to that titanic dragon.

"Yes, i remember that much, even though the origin of your shapeshifiting powers have nothing to do with the breed of two species, Strelgthar was a powerfull dragon who had the unique gift to share fragments of his power by giving his blood to one, he eventually ended up falling in love with this elfly creature, and decided to share his powers with her, they did, however had numerous children but none of them had inherited his draconic powers. What i heard is that somehow his beloved elfling died, and he decided that he did not want to live anymore, so he shared equal parts of his power to every single one of the children, until his very existenced faded off" he said while making a movement similar to a shrug "from that point on it was a genetic snowball, i guess, as every new born blood elf also inherited the draconic powers."

Vermithrax gave a small pause before speaking again he liked to move arround whoever he was talking to, and that blood elf was no exception "You said you and your sister are the only ones left, thats odd, i recall crossing paths with another of your kind a few decades ago, is she dead?"

[Bree]

She grinned at his statement, tossing her hair back. "Panwere. Fun, really. I'm also a Necromancer." She was powerful, even for one of her kind.

At his offended tone, and display of fire, she lifted a brow. "It's not enslavement. The pact was that they would help us fight in battle, and allow those who couldn't shift to ride them. Oftentimes a pair bonded so closely in battle through the mind meld that the ended up together for the rest of their lives. The dragon's were always honored, though. We never asked for what they would not give, and what they gave, we cherished." She shrugged, flashing a crooked grin. "Kassi secretly wants a dragon spouse. I think every one of our kind did, honestly, but I'm just as well without a partner at all."

One of the more peculiar abilities of her race was the ability of the Queen to retain all the memories of her ancestors. As Andrakhar explained a more detailed version of the lore on the Goddess - Queen Ta'ssa'ni, Sche'zan'i blinked in realization. "You know, my sister would be the one to ask for sure. She has the memories of every queen that has ever ruled before her. She would know what really went down."

A pause, then he spoke again. "Probably. It was likely our mother or father--er, second mother. Sorry. We call the one who carries the daughter mother, and the other parent father. Anyways, they're both dead. Died shortly after my first birthday. Kassi is the only mother I know. She's only four years older, but... she became queen really early. She was only five when she came into her full powers and received the memories. It was hard, I remember that much. Those memories saved our lives, though."

Then she paused before adding, "Kassi says there was a war. Every Elf went to fight. A necromantic Elf who wanted to be Queen... instead, she destroyed her race. Our parents were taken by the Maidens to safety, but it wasn't really safe. An undead assassin knew how to kill our kind. Mother got us to Adela and was slaughtered there. She hid us, so the assassin couldn't find us, but we saw it all. I remember it...not as vividly as Kassi,  but I do remember. When I said we were the last, I technically lied. The Necromancer is still alive, as far as we know."

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax listened to that curious as she fiercely defended the relationship between blood elfs and dragons, he knew the dragons were not forced into doing anything, but he was to proud to view it as an acceptable thing. He payed attention to the way she spoke of her sister, she seemed to admire her, but there was also this sutile heavy tone in her voice which is a common trait of people whos been through a lot, but shes also too young and sounds like she have that need to rely on someone, as if her sister have all the answers and solutions. He listened as she told him about the necromancer and the death of their parents, she didnt sound like someone who wanted revenge, she was so calm while stating those facts as if she was reading out of a book page. He also felt unconfortable as he was feeling a weird empathy towards that tiny creature, something rare for Vermithrax, that blood elf haf a strenght and determination in her eyes that amused the dragon..

"I see, you surely went through a lot, child, but youre not sounding like someone who seeks revenge. But i can also sense a strong determination in you, what is it that you want, may I ask?"

[Bree]

"I have no emotional attachment to any of it. My sister is the only person I care about. What I seek is the restoration of my people, and my sister's peace of mind. She wants the necromancer dead, and our people revived. If revenge will ease her burdens even a little, then it will happen. What else I seek... I'm not sure. A place to settle in, to call home. Where I can be alone or at least in the company of someone who doesn't mind my differences and will leave me be. Maybe with a hunting partner." She rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "I haven't really thought about it. Solitude is more my style--and Ta'ssa'ni forbid Kassi dies before having any kids. I wouldn't make a good Queen. Nimir-Ra, Ulfric, or Regina, maybe, but not a Queen." She flashed him a grin. "I'm not very good at being an Elf."

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax's mind started to work again as he heard that blood elf words, what first seemed  like a threat to his treasure was now beginning to become an opportunity as his mind began to fill up with ideas and schemes he did not however, had any intention to harm that curious little being right now.

"This is a big world, child..." he said, as he layed down his giant head to her level, slowly began to draw a circle around her body with his long neck, in a snakish way but still givin her space in the circle to walk arround. "...and there's only two of you, it takes more than simply raw power to rebuild a nation, have you ever stopped to think of how much gold you would need? Not to mention the other technicalities as finding a nice, inhabited place, as i dont think you plan on living in mountains and caves for the rest of your lives."

He said while looking straight to her. She really was an interesting creature, he did not exactly liked her, but he kept felting that weird empathy from before, a feeling almost unnatural to him.

[Bree]

"My sister plans to retake the ancient strongholds of our people and contact the Old Dragons, the ones bonded to our race. From what she's seen in our mother and grandmother's memories, the wealth of these strongholds are intact and some of the Dragons yet live." She paused, thinking about it.

"It's plausible the Dragons took the strongholds to protect the last remnants of our people. They lost many as well--mostly from Dragon mates going mad with grief when their Elven wives were killed." She shrugged. "So, as for wealth and manpower, we should be set. But my people have always been secluded,  a kingdom unto themselves not involved with anyone else. Our strongholds will provide ample living space."

Then she looked at him, staring him down with keen grey eyes. "You offering to help, big guy?" She moved over and sat down across from his eye, leaning back against his neck to look at him. "We could give you some gold for it, I guess...dunno what else you'd want. You don't seem like the type to want a betrothal. I might be able to talk Kassi into letting you eat the Necro once we're done with her, if you want."

[Hundelar]

"Humph, don't be a fool, child, the elvish business do not concern me at all!" he said looking the other way and slowly lifted his neck into his standard position wondering in which point they became so intimate, he could not simply become the Mr nice guy like that and go "hooray lets go help the blood elf's", he had a reputation to look after, even though he did felt like helping her.

"However, there is something i would like to show you that could be of your interest, if you were so kind as to get on me so i could take you there, I'm willing to let yourself be carried by the great Vermithrax, just this once." He proudly asked feeling some sort of discomfort, when was the last time he allowed someone to get on him? It wasn't the same as riding as he was in control of the route, but still, "just think of it as if you were carrying food", he thought to himself, as he lowered his torso, making a bridge with his wing for her to get up on him off the ground.

[Bree]

She snorted quietly, rolling her eyes at him. "If you say so, scales." While any sane person would be more cautious and in awe of a dragon his size, Sche'zan'i wasn't impressed. She, too, could turn into a dragon. Not to mention she was a sociopath--danger excited her, and being a smartass to ancient and powerful beings was the icing on the cake.

As he moved, she stood up and watched him. His wing extended and she sauntered over, climbed up, and slid into place on his back. "Relax, scales. It'll be over soon if you fly fast. Just catch me if you decide to do a roll and throw me off, okay sweetheart?" She flashed a predatory grin and tapped his side lightly. "I might even clean the hard to reach places if this surprise of yours is as interesting as you think it is." She hated trying to get clean in dragon form. It was an absolute nightmare.

Not that she had to explain that to the actual dragon she was currently sitting on.

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax growled in response to the way she was speaking to him, she was abusing her luck, most people would have already be turned to ashes by being far less provoking, but as much as he felt disrespectful, he also kind of liked the way such a small woman had the courage to speak to him as if he could not kill her any moment now.

"So you like it fast? Have it your way then" And with no warning whatsoever he bursted into a sprint, running with his 2 legs 2 arm-wings as if he were a horse, reaching an incredibly high speed, way faster than you would expect a being of that size to be. As he gained speed, the dragon flapped his wings as he jumped into the air, beginning to fly and gain altitude, but slowly began to decelerate,after a minute or so as he began to fear she could actually fall off his back."

"So, was that fast enough for you?" He asked in a clearly delighted tone, hoping to finally catch some fear on the blood elf voice.

[Bree]

A small giggle--yes, an actual giggle--escaped her at his growl, and she smirked as he asked her if she liked it fast. Then he launched forward, and she let out a scream of excitement, clinging tightly to his back with a huge grin on her face. When he slowed down, she threw her arms up with a shriek of a laugh, leaning back and smiling hugely. "No! I think you've gotten slow in your old age!" She laughed again, flopping on his back.

"That was great. No wonder we got hitched to dragons so often." She patted his scales. "You won't scare me, pretty boy. I'm a sociopath. I'm mentally unstable! I love adrenaline rushes and danger!" She snorted, sitting upright with a whoop of excitement. Her adrenaline rush hadn't gone down yet, apparently. "It is soooooo not the same in dragon form. Hey you should fly higher! I'll jump off your back and shift into dragon form and fly back up before I hit the ground."

Now they were in the danger zone. She would be inclined to put herself in dangerous and possibly fatal situations until her high faded. Adrenaline addict? Yup.

Mentally unstable and dangerous? Oh, yeah. Definitely.

[Hundelar]

Vermithrax could not believe that, that woman had to be crazy, teasing an ancient dragon, flopping on his back, and claiming to be excited and mentally stable, maybe she really was, the dragon thought to himself. He also took that "you wont scare me, pretty boy" as a challenge and decided to put up to the test, as he began to flap his wings to gain more altitude.

"Just be careful now, child, i dont wanna be responsible for the actual extinction of the blood elfs" he said as he reached the clouds, he suddenly stopped to flap his wings, folding them against his body and leaning in a 90º degree, his head facing the ground directly, as gravity made him gain insane speed in short amounts of time, thinking that would not be enough, Vermithrax began to spin as they were getting closer and closer to the ground, upon getting too close, the dragon opened up his wings as wide as he could, creating a parachute effect as the wind hitting the wings made them decelerate rapidly, making him steady again literally only a few meters away from the ground.

"So, was that enough for danger addction or should i go an try to eat you now?

[Bree]

Oooooh,  old guy was feeling challenged. She grinned broadly as the gained altitude--and then went into a spiral dive toward earth. She let her legs come off his back, and howled with excitement. Muscles straining in protest at her holding onto him while the wind tried to rip her free, she shifted into her leopard half-form to get a better grip on him using her claws.

The last-minute pull up flattened her into his back, and once the pressure let up, she sat up and laughed. At his question, she grinned hugely. "I might just have to give you a big, wet, sloppy kiss for that, Vermithrax." Wouldn't that just mortify the hell out of the poor guy, getting a kiss. She smirked at that thought--he might actually try to eat her if she did kiss him.

[Hundelar]

He felt some sort of relief as he felt she managed to hold herself against his back the entire time during the dive, the relief didn't take long to become anger as she kept going on with the teasing.

"You may want to think that again, i don't think an inferior being like yourself would be able to whistand a dragon's kiss, we tend to be...overly aggressive" He said, making a sound that looked like a laugh, but sounded way more like a growl, such a curious blood elf, to think that he was planning to kill her on sight, now he was taking her to his cave, this was turning out quite interesting.

[Bree]

She grinned at his words and winked, though he couldn't see it, and spoke in a gravelly voice brought on by her changed form. "Good thing I enjoy aggression." Her gravelly voice was a wicked purr, a smile on her muzzle that was more bared teeth than anything else. She began shifting back into Elf form, chuckling softly. "We almost there, big guy? Ooooh, I'm not being kidnapped, am I?" What a laugh that would give her. Her sister would come looking and since they were linked through telepathy, it wouldn't be hard for her to find Sche'zan'i, and once she did, all hell would break loose on Vermithrax's head. Then again, if she was being kidnapped, Kassir'a might well leave her on her own as some sort of test or something. It would all depend on the day and what memories were flooding her system.

[Hundelar]

"Kidnapping? Trust, if i were to kidnap you, i would not be nearly so gentle. And you would be not so nearly alive. " That girl was crazy, the way she spoke, its almost as if she wanted to be kidnapped. Not many people would have the courage to provoke him the way she did, either she was too confident on herself or too insane to be aware of what he could do to her. A little of both, Vermithrax guessed.

"We're here. You better get down fast" He said as he made a not so swift landing that made the ground around him tremble and the rock under him crack, he landed in front of a huge mountain with a human sized cave in it. Vermithrax hated doing this, but it couldn't be helped since he didn't bother to dig a cave himself, as he began to shapeshift, his size began to shrink, his scale were getting pale, and his wing were vanishing inside his arms; By the end of it, a very tall, around 7 feet, muscular man was standing in place of Vermithrax, he had the same golden eyes, black hair and no beard. A scar draw a line from his abdomen until his chest, he also had a few on his arms and neck oh yeah, he was also completely naked, not that this particular fact bothered Vermithrax in any way.

"Guess i look way less terrifying now huh?" He said now in a human voice, not as nearly as deep as his original one.