Weathering the Hunt [ HeartofFlame ]

[SanctifiedSavage]

Flying into the rain was probably the worst. He absolutely hated the stinging needles across the little exposed skin of his face. The sooner they reached the southern slope of the mountains, the better.

He couldn't even see the damned ground in the growing storm. He had to trust in the warm, moving body beneath him. Granted, Alyce would've trusted Isothaire regardless. He'd jumped off cliffs with the dragon before.

When they did finally land, it came as a shock to the Rider. He jerked in the strapped saddle and cussed colorfully into the growing rain storm. One of Isothaire's wedge shaped heads twisted to regard him. "We're here." The dragon's low, rumbling words were heard and felt. Alyce made a face, unstrapped himself, and slid sort of gracefully down the side of Isothaire's foreleg. Right into some knee deep mud.

Alyce cussed some more while Isothaire rumbled a laugh and extended a wing, at least protecting his 'little brother' from the rain. "You couldn't land somewhere solid?!" he shouts up, trudging through the mud until he finds ground a bit more solid up a slight hill, onto rock.

The large dragon made a show of lifting one leg. "Solid for me."

Alyce sighs and looks up, into the rain, waiting for his partner. Then, maybe, they can hunt down somewhere to weather out the storm.

@HeartOfFlame

[HeartOfFlame]

Gale squints into the prevailing rain and tries not to curse. There's a strong wind blowing into his face, throwing sharp, pattering rain across his exposed eyes and brow, and completely blotting out the landscape beyond two meters in front of his face. He can barely make out Dragon's head, bobbing up and down as he flies, and he quietly wonders how they hadn't seen this coming. It's not as if a storm of this magnitude can just sneak up on you, provided you're actually paying attention to the weather before you set out. He sighs softly, inside the damp cover of his mask, and lifts a hand to shield his eyes slightly. There's a vague lump in the distance that might be the mountainside, but it's impossible to tell.

In the next moment, Dragon is setting himself down. There's little grace or aplomb to the motion, just a sudden, downwards drop, and Gale lets out an entirely undignified sound as his grip on the dragon's 'mane' slips and he slides abruptly down the side of his shoulder into hard rock, and what feels suspiciously like deep, deep mud. A low rumble escapes Dragon, and, in the process of slowly extracting himself, Gale turns a baleful glare on him.

"This wouldn't be a problem if you stopped refusing to wear a saddle!" He shouts over the din of the weather, shaking out his hands where the mud has slipped through his gauntlets and stuck between his fingers. Gross. A crack of lightning splits the air and he realises, somewhat late, that Isothaire is landed less than ten feet away from them. Well, that explains the sudden landing, but his point still stands.

Pulling himself to his feet with a muffled groan and a small sound of despair at the state of his attire, Gale moves around Dragon's traitorous legs and approaches dry land, where Alyce is waiting, soaked to the knees in mud himself. That brings him some small measure of comfort.

"You couldn't have found a better place to land?" He asks, pulling at his mask with muddy fingers to expose the quiet grin hiding behind it, "Like, I don't know, a swamp? Or maybe a marshland?"

@SanctifiedSavage

[SanctifiedSavage]

Alyce is soaked through and through, his leather and cloth sticking to him like a second skin. Wild hair plastered to his face and neck. Thankfully he'd braided some of it back so he could still see. And Isothaire was kind enough to continue to provide shelter.

He didn't get to see Gala land, but he got to see him trudge up covered in mud. Which markedly improved Alyce's mood. At the quip, he immediately answered, "I'd thought about landing in the lake, but Isothaire thought this was better. Besides, we had to get here before it got too dark. We'll get picked off by the... whatever the thing is we're out here to hunt."

Isothaire lowered his heads, one twisted to watch them. "Wyvern. We're out here for a wyvern," he rumbles, water running like small rivers down the dragon's face and off his wing.

Alyce snaps. "Right! Wyvern! Just one, hopefully..." He hooks an arm through Gala's and starts marching off into the rain, toward the rising mountain that looks like a gloomy shadow. "Let's find a place to stay for the night!"

Isothaire rumbles a laugh and withdraws his wings when his little brother starts off. He trails slowly, idly keeping an eye out.

@HeartOfFlame

[HeartOfFlame]

Gale laughs at Alyce's response, flapping his arms almost comically to try and be rid of the mud clinging to his hands and forearms, though to little effect. At least the rain is washing him off a little.

"At least the lake would have given you a bath!" He replies over the rain, grinning as Dragon stomps a little closer and offers a little protection from the weather. At Alyce's mention of the creature they're out here for, his expression falls a little, eyes darting about the small area he can actually see through the rain and failing light. Getting taken off-guard by that thing is definitely not very high on his list of things to do today, and he nods when Alyce decides to look for somewhere more covered than they are now, out in the open. And hopefully dry.

On the bright side, the sides of mountains are traditionally pockmarked with small caves and alcoves, Gale has found more than a few on this particular landscape in the past, so finding a suitable place to make camp shouldn't be too hard. He lets Alyce pull him along, keeping a wary gaze on their surroundings even as he knows Dragon and Isothaire will undoubtedly be keeping watch with their much sharper senses. Never hurts to be careful, though. That, he knows well.

It's not too hard to pick out the dark entrance of a cave on the cliffside, after a few wet minutes of walking - even with the near dark of rapidly approaching night, and Gale raises the hand not captured by Alyce's hold to point towards it.

"How about there?" He has to shout to be heard over the prevailing wind, even with how close they are, squinting to the side to see his friend's face with how the rain is blowing into his face, "Looks pretty big, might fit all four of us."

@SanctifiedSavage

[SanctifiedSavage]

It almost looked like Gala was trying to fly away. He stared at his friend a moment – not making the connection that his friend was shaking off mud – before grinning. Hey, if his friend wanted to flap around, who was Alyce to stop him?

As they marched off, up toward the gloomy shape of the mountain in the storm, Alyce rapidly lost what they were looking for. He knew they were going up to the mountain, and that they were there for a hunt, but the rest of it was sort of lost in his focus of march, march, march in the rain.

Isothaire kept an eye out for his little brother. Alyce was hardly the most observant of all of them.

When the cave was pointed out, Alyce nodded a little and simply led them in that direction. What did he mind?

Isothaire stuck his heads in the dark first, just to make sure that it was safe, before turning in the small space. He was a big dragon, after all. It fit him, just so. "Safe," he rumbled.

Good enough. While he pulled in Gala, Alyce asked, "Did you bring anything to eat?" Were they going to wait out the storm? Because if that was the case, they were going to need some food. He should've brought something. Granted, he'd not planned for rain...

@HeartOfFlame