Waking the Sleeping Dragon

[Anonymous]

Kherrin peered at the ground, something more difficult than it should have been in the dark with the constant fluttering of his wings disturbing his vision. The moon was barely a crescent, and there were clouds scattered across the sky, which only made it harder.

...He'd been spending far too much time around humans.

He opened his mouth and produced a series of ultrasonic clicks, letting his highly-developed auditory system take over from the visual cortex to form an image of the ground below. It was mostly trees, with the odd clearing; every now and then he had to suppress the urge to snap at a bat or owl that fluttered in front of his face. It was during one of these momentary distractions that he noticed it. Rather than the irregular patterns he'd been catching, he heard a hard-edged shape--multiple hard-edged shapes--not natural shapes.

Buildings?

His group was far from civilization. There was only one explanation--he'd found what they were looking for. With an agile flip, he reversed his direction, speeding back to the camp as fast as he could fly. He was tired when he reached the circle of tents--none of which belonged to him; he preferred roosting in the branches--but he ignored his exhaustion. He'd found it--he'd found the lost city!

Forgetting momentarily that his companions were not nocturnal by nature, he called excitedly, "I found it! I know where the city is!" His energy was not diminished when he realized that he'd been speaking in his native language, some of which was probably beyond their hearing ranges; he simply repeated himself in the common tongue.

[Anonymous]

Uxia was sleeping lightly in her tent, curled under the blanket she had brought along. Sleep was quickly becoming her escape place. Hatame couldn't bug her when she slept. Her dreams were blissfully free of the irritating little shapeshifter.

This trip was a little odd for her. Fell. A place she had heard much about, but the order didn't really know where it was. The organ of the curse she had been trained to fight. She wasn't sure what she would find there, if they would even find it. But anything could be useful. And if they did find it, she could report that back to the Order.

The strange sounds had Uxia awake instantly, on alert, one had gripping the dagger she slept next too. Then Kherrin spoke normally and Uxia relaxed for all of 5 seconds before what was said hit her. Scrambling up, the fighter left her tent, not caring that she wasn't wearing any pants, "You found Fell? Are you sure?"

She could feel her heart pounding and her belly rolled with a mixture of fear and excitement. It was almost a holy place, but, well, tainted. But she had heard stories for so long. Maybe there would be a way to stop it, buried somewhere in the ruins.

[Rhindeer]

Hatame was slower to wake. The sounds of a commotion beyond his tent made him stir, but rather than scramble to alertness like Uxia, he took his time rising, stretching languidly while his keen hearing caught the conversation outside. Fell? They'd found it? Whatever it was, exactly; he was only here because Uxia was, and due to the damned curse (curse his luck with curses!) he had no choice but to follow. Didn't seem like a big deal, though. Just some old city; he'd dealt with stranger.

He yawned loudly and rubbed at his eyes. Well, he didn't see why it couldn't wait until morning, but he recognized that note in Uxia's voice that said it probably wouldn't.

Grabbing his clothes, he crawled to the front of his tent, pulled the flap back, and poked his head out--then froze when his eyes landed on Uxia. Pants-less Uxia. Ah, gods bless warrior women and their tight bodies...

"Little breezy out tonight, eh?" he called to her conversationally.

[Anonymous]

Uxia glanced over at Hatame, expression darkening slightly at his appearance. He was an irritating stain on her life she could do without. He could fight a bit, which she acknowledged, but it wasn't enough to make up for that personality.

His comment confused her for a moment, then she realized he meant her lack of pants. With a shrug, she turned back to Kherrin, not bothered at all by her nudity, "Where is it? Can we go tonight?"

[Anonymous]

"Tonight?" Kherrin tilted his head, shutting his eyes for a moment as he calculated. He could cover roughly six times as much ground alone in the air as the group could on the ground. He had been flying for about an hour and a half before he'd spotted the ruins, but the path had been indirect... Call it an hour... "It'll be light by the time we get there, but we should reach it within a day."

Hopefully, it would indeed turn out to be Fell. In his profession, it was all too common that something apparently significant would in actuality be entirely mundane. Every now and then, though, one got lucky. Kherrin hoped that his group would be the first to arrive; such would be far too much to hope for, but if they were..! It would be a discovery beyond belief, a true prize of knowledge to bring back to the university.

The batlike creature chirruped happily under his breath, his species' equivalent of humming. Even though he knew not to get needlessly excited, the thought of imminent discovery had him in a good mood. So much knowledge, right under his tailtip!

Glancing around the assembled group, he shuffled his wings a bit. "Shall we go?"