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Tourist Traps

Started by Magyar, December 30, 2016, 09:48:25 PM

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Magyar

"This is strange for me," he continued, "I am not normally so taken by... dragon-sickness. I've always liked things of great value, don't get me wrong, but the desire was never overpowering."

He adopted a position mirroring hers, although he gazed still out onto the horizon. Red and orange hues like fire were faint in the sky. The sun had begun to set, and as he sat on the blackened stone of the mountain peaks, surrounded by pale green shoots of grass and the salty, wet smell of the sea. The ocean, light blue on their journey had darkened, and the lush greens were tinted brown by the light of the sky.

"Would you show me your den, little bird?" He asked after a time, glancing back her way, "Would I even fit inside it?"

DragonSong

Her eyes took on a soft shimmer and she raised her head, nodding quickly. "I'd be happy to show you," she murmured, hesitating a moment before darting her head forward to nuzzle the lower side of his jaw briefly before getting to her feet.

A musical little chuckle bubbled up out of her chest. "You should fit fine, as long as you don't mind keeping your wings folded."

Magyar

Hvittraak spared Melly a soft glance before hefting himself to his feet and flaring out his wings again. His mood from then on could be best described as a troubled thoughtfulness, and he seemed lost in thought more that he was in the present.

Still, he followed her, and kept up small talk, saying, "So, you know the people of this island well." It was a question, but his lack of genuine curiosity made it seem more of a statement.

DragonSong

"Yes." Melly spread her wings and ran a few paces before kicking off into the air. She circled above him, getting higher with each pass over his head. "They are fascinating, I find."

Magyar

"How so?" He inquired, taking off in a single powerful beat of his wings. She still had the lead on him, in height, but he soon matched her with a few more well timed flaps, and soon was being circled by the dragoness in the air as they rose.

"Did you hide your den in the clouds little bird?" He asked amusedly, "if not, why do we climb so?"

DragonSong

The dragoness chuckled and evened out her flight, banking left to move toward the center of the island's jungle. "Not exactly. There's no way into the ruins from the ground though, so it's best to approach by air."

She guided them over the trees with the ease of long practice, until the rough, crumbling edges of what once might have been some sort of pyramid or tower came into view, poking out above the canopy. "Here."

She circled the ruins, a gentle sort of relief at homecoming settling into her bones, before flying out into the center of the sprawling, ancient stone and clasping her wings to her sides to drop down through the massive hole in the center of what had once been a ceiling.

Magyar

Hvittraak tucked in his wings tightly to his sides, their leathery tips trailing alongside his tail as he squeezed into the already very large gap in the ceiling. He adopted a slithering kind of crawl, sliding his great scaled belly across the stone and into the ruined temple. The room in which they'd landed was just large enough to accommodate him, but even so he coiled more tightly than he needed to so that Melly could fit comfortably as well.

Odd, the shapes of dragons, one minute reminiscent of a gull on the wing or a panther in the jungle, and the next bearing a striking resemblance to a serpent under the rocks. And yet all of these things were not compared from the dragon, but to them, for not only were the sum of those parts great, but the drakes themselves were greater. Even while comparisons could be drawn, all in all, they always first and foremost evoked dragon.

DragonSong

"Oh." Melly chuckled a bit and shuffled back to give him more room. "Here, follow me- it might be a bit of a squeeze at first, but there's a bigger chamber further in."

She twisted to slip through what was- to her- a perfectly reasonably sized tunnel, that had perhaps once been a hallway of some kind. "There's holes in the ceiling through this place, but that one is the biggest, I figured it would be the easiest fit," she babbled as she crept along.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Y'know...you could take your human avatar- just until we get into the wider parts of the temple."

Magyar

Hvit stopped for a second, and blinked. He'd been so entranced in his thoughts he'd forgotten about the obvious solution to this problem. Crawling backwards just to provide some wiggle room, he began the violent transformation, coming out much smaller and much more clothed.

He flared his tiny wings and flapped once or twice, landing in the hollow area of Melisma's neck, where a dragonrider's saddle would go. Shuffling to get comfortable, he folded his wings behind him, and said, "Let's be off then."

DragonSong

"Oof!" Melly started a bit- she'd never had someone ride her before. "Um...comfortable?" she asked over her shoulder as she started making her way down the hallway again.

The hall widened a bit after a few paces, several intersecting passageways- or rather the holes that remained- visible to either side.

Magyar

"There are feathers in uncomfortable places, but yes," he replied, "I am comfortable."

DragonSong

"Oh- sorry." She shuffled her wings and tries to smooth all her feathers down properly.

A few more paces and the hall opened up into a soaring sort of antechamber, the ceiling far, far above their heads dotted with holes of varying sizes that allowed sunlight to stream down.

"This is one of the biggest rooms in the temple," she said, swishing her tail as she stepped into the space.

Magyar

"Do you know of this place's origin, or perhaps its function before it fell to ruin?" He asked, his eyes darting to and fro as he examined the ancient stone. His mind had shifted yet again on their journey, new knowledge provoking the scribe-like aspect of his personality to show itself. He was the kind of dragon that hoarded knowledge as much as he did gems and precious metals, and as with them, he always thirsted for more. He could give a rather detailed description of the history of his own dwarven mine, down to who commissioned it and why, and which dwarven monarch ruled in the far lands away at the time. He could list the passages and their former uses, and the mechanisms and their functions, and though few others were ever privy to his slew of knowledge, the simple fact that he knew it was satisfaction enough to him.

He lay forward in his impromptu seat, fitting himself into the slope of Melly's now much larger neck. He found it oddly amusing that now she was the larger of their duo, and snorted to himself as he shelved that thought away for later. While he seemed relaxed, his eyes were still keenly categorizing and researching the environment around him, studying the symbols in the stones and noting the architecture in comparison to the many others that he'd seen through his centuries.

"How did you come to live in this place anyhow?" He inquired, a tad absentmindedly prattling off the question as his eyes and mind drifted elsewhere. He seemed distant, but even then a part of his mind was focused on Melly and her response even if he didn't seem so.

DragonSong

"I'm fairly sure the center of the floor here was some kind of sundial, once," the dragoness responded, evidently delighted to be able to answer a question for a change. "If you look up you can see the ceiling used to be far more open- I think there was some kind of collapse, and the jungle has rather overtaken it since then."

She rolled her shoulders in a small shrug, then remembered she had a passenger and froze, squeaking, "Oh, sorry!" She cleared her throat and added sheepishly, "I'm afraid all I know about this place is that it was once a temple. There are carvings, tablets, a few remnants of some ancient scrolls, but in almost a century that's all I've managed to translate from them."

She paused, then added slowly, "I think...my kind- our kind, I suppose- used to flock here in much greater numbers. I've seen paintings, carvings, and there used to be more open places in the temple where one could enter from the air."

She fluttered her wings in another shrug. "I just sort of...found this place after my Papa died. I've been here ever since."

Magyar

"How did he die, if I may ask?" Hvitt inquired, leaning to get a better look at the hall in front of them, "Or was it simply a matter of incompatible lifespans?"

DragonSong

Melly sighed. "The latter. He was eighty, or nearly. He lived a good long life. Just...not as long as mine. Ours, I guess."

She gave another small sigh and came to a halt in the middle of the room. "Do you want to change back? Or you could get off and I could become human, so we're a bit more compatible."

Magyar

"Not used to a rider?" Hvitt teased but nonetheless dismounted his companion. It was a sort of lazy flap-hop, and he landed more heavily than he'd anticipated, and grunted quietly. Humanoid shape was not a form he chose to assume often, "I think staying in my current shape would benefit both your safety and the architecture of this place. You do not have to change if you don't want to, though."

DragonSong

"Can't say I'm used to it, no," Melly chuckled musically. She refrained from laughing at his slightly awkward dismount.

"And I certainly don't mind joining you in shape," she added as she did so, the gem in her brow glowing slightly as her form blurred and shrank into a more humanoid shape.

"Ah." She rolled her shoulder and stretched her wings above her head, head tipping back so she could look up at the ceiling. "I love it here," she murmured, almost to herself.

Magyar

The flash of her gem caught Hvitt's eye, and he flinched ever so slightly.

"I can see why. It is a fine place to live," he said, "but it troubles me that the halls are bare. They should be lined with treasure, filled to the brim with shining gold and sparkling diamond. Where is your hoard little bird?"

DragonSong

"Oh!" She smiled and fluttered her wings. "I mostly keep it all to one room. Come on, I'll show you."

She spread her wings and lofted gently into the air, circling the room to reach another hall and banking slightly to soar down it. This hall was strangely larger than most of the temple would lead one to expect- Melly could even fit down it in her natural form, if she had to.

She came to land at the entrance to another chamber, this one larger than the previous, but with no holes in the ceiling. However, the walls were essentially a series of massive columns leading out into the jungle, allowing green-tinged sunlight to bathe the carefully arranged collection that Melly had amassed.

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