The Fight and the Footsteps(Soapies!)

[JackieCat]

This thread is tagged to @Soapies!
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Keyne hissed threateningly, her body low to the ground as she and the other dragon circled each other.  The other dragon was larger than Keyne, almost two times as large, but instead of silver, as Keyne's scales were, his scales were deep gold and hishead was wreathed in a crown of horns.

He was the one who had provoked the attack.  Keyne had been flying over the grassy hills near the bottom of the Thunderblacks when he had shot out from behind a boulder and tackled her to the ground.  They were now both on the grassy hillside, boulders dotted around them.

Keyne lunged forward, crashing into the other dragon and sending him rolling backwards.  She latched her jaws around the back of his neck and dug in with her front claws.  He roared and twisted his head around, trying to shake her off as her back claws scrabbled at his back, scratching him.

He blew red fire at her, and she rolled aside to avoid being hit, but the back of his neck was bleeding now.  He leaped at her, and she jumped up into the air, flapping her wings to get out if his way.  He followed her up into the sky, and if there had been anyone watching it would have been an awesome sight.  The two dragons locked in combat, red and blue fire shooting all around them.  This fight was territorial, Keyne knew, and she had offered to leave, but the other dragon was intent on killing her.

The other dragon spun around in the air, his tail whipping around.  Keyne tried to roll out of the way, but the end of his tail hit her in the side, knocking the breath from her and sending her tumbling from the sky.  She hit the ground with a thud, and the other dragon dove down on top of her.  He landed on her hard, and brough his head back to sink his teeth into her now exposed throat.

His head descended, and Keyne brought up her from claws, scratching the other dragons eyes.  He screamed in pain, but continued to attack.  Keyne's head shot forward, her teeth sinking into the other dragons throat.  He thrashed around viciously, but she held tight.  Blood started to flow, and within seconds of that the other dragon was dead.

Keyne stepped back, and bowed her head to the other dragon respectfully before starting to clean the blood from herself.  She was sore from her fall, but she didn't want to rest next to the dead dragon.  She was about to leave when she heard a sound.  Footsteps.

As a dragon, she could hear fairly far, and the footsteps were still pretty far away.  Even so, Keyne stayed and waited.  From the weight and  gait of the person, Keyne assumed it was a woman, but she could not tell.   She wanted to see who this person was, and she knew they were coming in her direction, so she waited, listening all the while to the footsteps.

[Soapies]

Tap, tap, tap. Shirin's footsteps were the measured, consistent timing of a soldier. Her eyes were locked to the sky, however. She was taking in the light show. She supposed she should probably be afraid. But she was mostly just intrigued. The canopy of branches overhead obscured most of what was happening, and the speed of flying creatures didn't really help either. But the breath, that brilliant discharge of energy, lit up the night sky like it was the harvest festival.

She felt the thud more than heard it. It sent tremors through the forest path, through her feet. It was close. Not too terribly close, though. Nothing worth running towards. Whatever the outcome of the fight, if it even mattered to Shirin, it would be decided before she could get there. But, still. She should probably investigate. Knightly duty, and all that.

There was no effort made to conceal her coming. Why bother? She suspected she was not going to take a dragon unaware unless it was quite injured or preoccupied, in which case she wouldn't even need to. She just continued on, the steady tap, tap, tap that had been so drilled into her over the many years of training. It occurred to her at this point that most knights would probably be mounted. Shirin had never really trusted horses, though. Too finicky. Scared, all the time. Or bored. She wasn't sure which was worse. Fear was sickening. It was the emotional equivalent of being covered in ants when you can't brush them off. Boredom was just a weight on you, and not a particularly heavy one. But it took up so much valuable energy and threw off your balance.

Shirin drew her long, blue-metal dagger from her side and mechanically sliced a branch of thistle out of her path as she emerged from the wood. The full moonlight hit her then, revealing her form. She was a tall figure, for a woman. Her large, dark green robes made her seem thicker than she was, almost making her seem average. Her hair was thick and black, but cropped close to her scalp. In her hand was the glinting blue-metal dagger with the ivory white handle, though it was held non-threateningly, clearly more a tool than a weapon in this moment. Her face showed no expression, though inside she was curious as she approached the dragon, reaching out with her empathy, trying to gauge the creature's reactions to her.

[JackieCat]

Keyne sat silently as the woman appeared, but she growled under her breath, not threateningly, just a warning.  The dragon studied the woman, her hair, her face, her clothes.  Keyne took in her scent and her 'feel'.  She could feel some sort of power around the woman, but could not detect what it was, exactly.

'Hello,' she sent.  Keyne communicated through the mind, but she didn't send words to people, she sent certain emotions and other feelings of the mind to let the other know exactly what she wanted them to.

Keyne didn't take her piercing silver eyes off of the woman as she sent her message.  Keyne still had the other dragon's blood on her, she had been in the process of cleaning it off, but had stopped when she had heard the woman.

Keyne was calm and serene, but she was still on her guard.

[Soapies]

Shirin supposed not being on fire was a good sign. Or frozen. Or being made into a puddle. Whatever it was the dragons were doing these days. She let her eyes wander, taking in the silver dragon's defeated opponent. It was messier than she expected, though her stomach was strong and she wasn't the kind to get emotional about these things. Or most things. She turned her gaze back to Keyne.

"Do you require assistance?" She asked, her voice authoritative, though she wasn't sure if the dragon could understand the words. She figured the tone would get the message across. She stopped approaching at that point, maybe a hundred feet away. She wasn't sure what a dragon's personal space bubble was, but she figured better safe than sorry. She reached into her bag, carefully slung over her back, and pulled out a folded piece of cloth, holding it up to the creature.

"Towel." She shrugged and waited for a response.

[JackieCat]

Keyne understood what the woman said, but a small hiss escaped her lips when the woman reached into her bag.  Keyne's whole body tensed until she saw the item was a towel, she relaxed again, but was still on her guard.

'Ah, no thank you,' she sent. 'I am capable.'

She began to lick herself clean, after all, she was a dragon.  Though her eyes were averted from the woman, every other sense was at it's peak.  The dragon also had a sixth sense, one that could sense magic and other kinds of spectral things, so she would be able to tell if the woman were going to cast a spell.

'What are you doing here in the mountains?' She sent the question as she continued to clean herself. 'There are many dragons who would not take kindly to you and try to kill you.'

[Soapies]

Shirin put her towel back in her bag carefully, then sat down in the dirt. She crossed her legs tightly, and pulled an apple from some pocket of her robes and began to eat. It was a bit tart, but she liked it that way.

"Walking." She said, plainly. "Great way to travel, without wings." The comment could have been sarcastic, but her face made no show of it. "No one's killed me yet, dragon or otherwise. I think I'll be okay." There was a quick shrug of her shoulders, then a crunch of another bite of her apple, and a few seconds of sloppy chewing.

"My name is Lady Shirin Salesha Sycarus." She made her best attempt at a bow while she was sitting. "Pleasure to meet you."

[JackieCat]

Keyne looked up and bowed her head in greeting to the woman before going back to cleaning her scales.

'I am Keyne,' she sent. 'And I can sense a sort of power about you, what is it?'

Keyne wasn't, now, at least, the most subtle of beings, many dragon's weren't.  Keyne would sometimes banter, but other times she went straight to the point, saying what she thought, that was the sort of mood she was in today.  'It is interesting, I would like to know what it is, if you are willing to tell me.'

[Soapies]

"I can feel emotion." She shrugged, as if it was normal. And, to her it was. She didn't really understand how others could be so deaf to the waves of feeling people put out.

"Not a particularly interesting skill, but it has it's uses. Nothing to worry about, though." She took another crunching bite of her apple, sending juice squirting over her face. She wiped herself clean with an oversized sleeve as she chewed.

"So, what happened with him?" She motioned to the fallen dragon.

[JackieCat]

Keyne nodded at Shirin's answer and looked up, he scales clean, at her question.  She glanced over at the dead dragon.

'He attacked me while I was flying over his territory.' Keyne sent. 'His aim was not to scare me away though, he was trying to kill me, and would have if I hadn't killed him first.'

Keyne was sorry for the loos of life, but she understood that it was nature, they were both dragons, and territorial fights happened all of the time.  Though in many way she was like a human, Keyne was still very much a dragon, and understood more about life, and death, than many humans.

[Soapies]

"Fair enough." She didn't sense any deceit. Not that the affairs of dragons were of particular concern to her. She had asked more out of habit than true interest. She pushed herself up off the ground and began to stretch.

"Does a fight like that take much out of you?" She reached down to her toes, stretching out her back muscles after a long day of walking. "Forgive my ignorance."

[JackieCat]

At the woman's question KEyne wondered if she was using it to figure out how strong she was, so if Shirin was going to attack her she would know, but the dragon told the truth anyway.

'Somewhat,' she sent. 'But this fight was not extremely long, and though I am sore, it was not as bad as many other fights I have been in.'

Watching the woman stretch, Keyne cocked her head to the side. 'Where will you be staying tonight?' she wondered. 'It is getting dark, and it is dangerous to be out here at night, especially for a human.'

[Soapies]

"Too late to make it back to the city, I guess. I'll probably find a nice tree somewhere. Climb up, rest in a sturdy branch." She shrugged. "Danger's relative. I've been in places a lot more likely to kill me."

She motioned at the dead dragon. "Plus, we're still in his territory, I bet. Probably fine."

"But if you need me to stand watch while you rest, I can. I have nowhere to be."

[JackieCat]

'You do not need to stand watch,' Keyne sent. 'I was wondering If I needed to stand watch for you.  I am not very tired.  I can go for days without sleep, and though the battle has weakened me somewhat, I will still watch out for you if you need rest.  You have been walking all day, it seems, you probably need sleep more than I.  And do not worry, I will not kill you.  My rider is an elf, and we are not killers.'