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Sticks and Stones... and Dragons [M]

Started by RedOptics, June 02, 2017, 04:31:40 PM

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RedOptics

The Thunderblacks were interesting to say the least to a foreigner, looking quite desolate from afar, but upon getting close there was indeed quite a bit of life.

Keona and Travis had come one province further to finding a lost piece of a blood-line they had been looking for since Yoreiqi. The light-skinned winged woman took to a glide over the changing landscape. Gold to green to stone-grey. To her, mountains were cold, unforgiving, but the one thing she worried most about was the dragons.

It would be quieter than she had imagined to say the least, but that only fueled the negativity within.

"Are you sure this is the right place...?" She asked the demon beside her, clutching a young bengal tiger close to her chest.

Wrathwyrm

They had left a glassy tower behind in the Seraj Isa, and had flown up north, in the direction of Adela.  She - the rare and beautiful light-skinned Yoreiqi - and he - the dark-haired and possibly Serenian man with demon wings - were on a quest.  Keona was, in truth, only half Yoreiqi.  She had a father that were looking for, and the demon in human-like form was helping her.

But, as the lady said, were they going the right way?

The general idea that Travis had in this was 'Go north and find mountains', the Thunderblacks.  He looked down for a moment, seeing what was likely the Serha Plains right now, and then he looked ahead, seeing a high mountain range growing out of the horizon.  They tell you that mountains with life on them - like trees an such - are the oldest mountains.  The Thunderblacks must've been this very thing.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure.  It's kinda' hard to miss."

Now, something that Travis didn't know was that, while the presence of dragons on the mountain range was well-known, he did not know that people lived here.  Boy, was HE in for a surprise!  So were they...

RedOptics

"Eheh... my bad." The woman looked around, eyes heavily scanning the are for any signs of life. Nothing so far, but the flick of a scaly tail nearly caught her attention way up in the distance, "I'm guessing the next thing to do is rest here for a bit?" She asked, feeling Ira squirm uncomfortably.

Oh right, Ira did not like giant lizards one bit. And it was quite clear by the way his tail curled. The things he heard was unsettling him, but Keona couldn't pin point anything. "Mind if we find an unoccupied cave anywhere?" Keo suggested, looking down at her companion before up at her other companion.

Wrathwyrm

"Yeah, I think that would probably be in order."

Truly.  You wake up in the morning and fly over miles of valley lowland to reach a mountain highland, you will need a break at some point.  That...and there'd been the distant sound of movement on the horizon, which held the promose of something large having been there a moment ago.  Keona asked about finding an unoccupied cave and Travis wondered if there would be any.  Unoccupied, that is.  Caves would be there, of course, but how many were home to the winged scaleys?  Nevertheless, he nodded.

"Might take a while, but let's do."

Ahead of them, they had a mountain-y area with enough room on them to be considered paths.  Whether or not that was for goats or people, we don't know.  What Travis DID note was the abundance of caves.  They could investigate and see which one's didn't look/smell like they were occupied by dragons.

RedOptics

Hiking up her wings, Keona turned to face away from the wind that picked up, listening to it whistle through the stones and peaks. "If I'm honest with you, I didn't think such high places were this cold..." She couldn't even tell what was snow up top the land, thinking it was simply a type of stone. Ira could feel the heat she created increase, and warbled softly before climbing out of her grasp to hang around her neck, keeping the worst of the breeze from the area.

Deeping inside however, she was praying to the Gods they didn't run into something that wanted to eat them. She had heard all dragons held different levels on intelligence, some could speak to people, some simply ate them. Some knew magic, and some breathed fire. It was indeed a fascinating thought to think about, but the more she considered the odds of a completely untamed, wild beat running at them the more anxious she got.

Wrathwyrm

"Well, they're not all volcanoes."

Once landed, it was safe for Ira to walk around, though chilly.  Travis offered Keona his jacket if she needed it.  He didn't.  Or rather, the discomfort was not going to cause him much harm.  In any case, now that they were here, he was going to have a look around to get a layout of the land.  They were at a sort of crossroads, with the steady path they were on branching off into a high road and a low road.  He crouched down to inspect the ground.  It was kind of hard to preserve tracks around here, but there were still traces of things that Travis could identify.

"Let's see...  Dragon tracks that are kind of small, fresh-ish goat tracks, goat...skull...  Okay, that's not good."

Seemed like some pups cornered a goat around here and ate it.  Then, Travis blinked.

"Human tracks?  And they lead away...up there."

He pointed to the high road.  Of course, so did the dragon pup tracks.

RedOptics

Graciously accepting the jacket, the woman wrapped it around herself and huddled within. Ira seemed to be further unsettled by the lingering scent of a scaly beast, rather, multiple tiny ones at that.

"Maybe they were tamed?" Keona asked, trying to lighten the mood a little by throwing out positive suggestions. Of course it wouldn't help much, because it opened new theories such as the tamer being evil, and using multiple little dragons to hunt other people. She tried to keep those thoughts out of her mind, focusing on more brighter things. How cute is a baby dragon? At what point can you begin to ride them?

Looking around, she sighed, "There isn't much else in options... We either follow the tracks or continue to guess...." Looking at Travis she sighed softly, a tired glaze in her eyes.

Wrathwyrm

'Tiny' being a relative term, of course.  The tracks belonged to creatures that were still larger tha the little tiger, like around the size of a horse.  Juveniles tended to be big enough to at least carry off said horse.  And adults?  They gulp it away in about one bite.  Travis paused at the suggestion that the smaller dragons could be tame, or at least amicable.  Were they?  You get all kinds in this world.  There was bound to be a case like that.

"Might be.  Hopefully."

He could hear the fatigue in her voice, and straightened up.

"Let's follow them and see.  We should rest, having made it here."

He led the way, though as he did...there was the distant-but-large sound of wings, huge leathery ones.  Looking up, the two of them could see something worthy of the "Whoa" that Travis produced: A Silver Dragon.  It was high up, and fairly large.  It had to be a young adult, at least.  Now, we know that Ira would not like this, but dammit...that was a majestic sight.

Provided he wasn't a threat, of course.

RedOptics

While the tracks were indeed large, she remembered something about little dragonets coming from sizable eggs... They weren't more than seven years old perhaps? That didn't matter at the moment, instead Keona looked up at the flying beast, freezing in place once the sight was beheld.

Ira on the other hand... Well. The usual happened. He yowled and hissed and sprinted for cover behind a nearby rock, shaking in his fur. The woman paid him no mind however, since he wasn't tumbling down the mountain side. A good sign in fact.

"What if it tries to roast us...?" She whispered, taking a slow but sure step back, nervousness radiating from her skin more so than heat itself.

Wrathwyrm

The winged creature flew through the air, dipping this way, swaying that way, and just generally gliding through the air.  He didn't seem like he was doing anything, at first, and then he sort of let out an echoing draconic howl.  Okay, he was definitely up to something, because he was calling out to other dragons, it seemed.  Was it mating season or something?  Wait, he was doing something with his mouth...  It was a sort of gathering of frost...

"Well, I don't think he's gonna burn anything."

Silver Dragons enjoy another kind of breath altogether.  They are partially born of ice dragons, so more than likely they have ice breath, instead of fire.  This one was making something, a big hail-stone.  A...big ice ball?  Other dragons - young dragons of different types - answered the call and flew out there.  And there, the Silver Dragon lobbed the ball up and whacked it with his tail.  This was...a game!  Almost makes you want to watch...  However, Travis, mindful of the fact that this was also a good time to move along, said so.

"C'mon, they're occupied.  We can find whatever people are up here and take our rest with them.  Who knows?  They might even have Adelans up here."

That was their cue to follow dem footsteps.

RedOptics

Watching the majestic beasts make fun out of an ice ball, Keona nearly missed the fact that Travis wanted to move forward, and let her eyes linger before taking the first step forward. She clicked her tongue and signaled Ira to follow. The little tiger reluctantly did, keeping close to her ankles as they followed the footprints.

"I was always told that dragons were always hungry, and that they wouldn't hesitate to gobble you up..." Keona said softly, "I mean, that was aside from one story that everyone on the island had heard of. And that was the Volcano dragon, but it never existed to begin with." The winged-woman explained, seemingly tense and paranoid, eyes scanning the area intensely.

Wrathwyrm

It was kind of hard to take your eyes off of ir, wasn't it?  It made you want to know like...was this just to pass the time, or was it a game with rules?  Was it just sort of a 'Keep the ball in the air' kind of a thing?  Travis DID wonder, but for reasons of sanity...he wouldn't be going out there to find out.  Instead, he was leading Keona and the little tiger up the path, making sure that nothing from the sky was paying them any attention.

"Wild dragons are pure predators.  If this is where Adela gets their mounts, then there's probably a bunch of those around.  These ones might still be a danger, but I guess they're thinkers...and bored."

"Aye, that would likely be the case."

Agh!  There was a lady standing at the top of the path where it levels off, a strong mountain woman with heavy clothes and a metal shepard's cane that had hide tied around where it was normall gripped, presumably to keep from feeling the cold of it through her gloves. Oh, and she appeared to be herding the small dragons whose footprints they'd seen earlier.  There were three of them, bright-eyed and curious like puppies.  Well, they were dragon pups.  Probably didn't speak, if they were intelligent.  If not, well...at least it seemed like this woman was trained to handle such things...right?

RedOptics

Surely wind dragons didn't have a big taste for... them right? The possibility was always there, but maybe if they put up enough of a fight they'd move to hunt something else? Keona could feel her heartbeat pick up, and in turn the heat she gave off intensified as well to the point the tips of her feathers glowed like embers.

Then the woman appeared with little dragon pups, and Ira let off a yowl before sinking his claws into Keona's skin and climbing to her shoulder. The woman hissed in pain before the wounds cauterized and left little scars up her body. "Damnit Ira! That hurt!" She growled before grabbing him and strapping him against her chest with her arms.

Wrathwyrm

Actually, Travis jumped as well, and then he looked back and forth between the woman and the tiger.  Both had caught him off-guard, since he'd been keeping mostly an eye on the big dragons.  He'd noticed, for instance, that the Silver Dragon had scars on its forelegs before the dragon herder - Dragherd? - came upon them.  She seemed a little confused by what was going on between Keona and Ira, so Travis covered for that.

"Hello, we're a pair of travelers bound north for Serendipity.  You umm...  You have pups.  Why is that?"

"That would be the raising of the youth for the Dragonriders.  They form a bond with their rider, but the wee ones aren't ready for that yet.  There needs to be a bit of growth an' development first."

"I don't suppose you know anywhere we can stay for a while until we've rested and when they-"

He indicated the flying dragons.

"-are done?"

"Well, I raise dragon pups for a living, and yer cat hasn't entirely warmed up to 'em.  I wouldn't inflict the babies on such a gorgeous creature.  Maybe better to take you to the man who raises an' cares for the goats."

"Goats for meat?"

"Aye, and goats for milk.  They perform a double duty, for which we're grateful."

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