From the mountains

[Anonymous]

There was an odd whistling sound on the wind, like a breeze passing over empty whiskey drums or wine bottles. Autumn was here in all her lovely glory, wind and chill. But this whistling noise was not usual, nor was it unusual, just... unexpected. A small sparse forest lay innocent in the valley just north of the Kilanthro mountain range, the overcast afternoon anthropomorphizing the collection of trees. It looked like a collection of small children from the heights of the clouds, huddling together, shivering, looking sadly dull and cold. The forest seemed oblivious to its inhabitants or external influences; it just sought to exist.

The whistling increased.

A medium-sized dragon, one hailing the size of seven or eight adult clydesdales, appeared suddenly in midflight right near our schoolchild forest, his exposed teeth the source of our whistling noise. Bayani's lips curled further back on his muzzle to allow even more air to pour over his incisors and the whistling dulled slightly for its path was widened with the increased exposure. The lithe creature, light gray today, pumped once more his large mossy wings and then stretched them out as far as he could to ease his glide. The membranous material between his flight bones puckered and sank, puckered and sank as the wind raced under and over his wings, offering him the luxury of riding the gusts. The forest was his goal, and as his amber eyes turned to its color-changing leafy tops, his tail rose and the angle of his wings increased to a dive.

Elegantly, before reaching the trees, Bayani pulled up almost human-like in his vertical position in the sky and then somersaulted in the air, bringing his wings close to his body, diving into the trees and landing with a springy shock onto the earth within. He gently raised his long slender head, his four long horns gently brushing the leaves above him, but not tearing. Bayani's grace would never hurt Mother Earth. As the dragon's eyes moved back and forth through the forest grove, his light grey body slowly faded to a dark, smokey black. Then, as he opened his jaws wide to yawn, a drop of dark forest green appeared on his forehead and bled over his body until just above his four legs, which took on a mossy-bark like appearance. All of this went under almost completely without notice. His scales and outer covering just did that sort of thing, without a thought.

Bayani folded his hind legs underneath him and stretched out his front legs into a lying position. The sounds of the forest began again and the beast's eyes and ears took silent but happy interest as the songs played.

[Haze]

Autumn. It meant her time was ending. Brenna pouted up in her tree, balanced on the tip of a thin branch. Her arms hugged around themselves, fingers absently tracing the green lines that marked her skin, as she looked out across her forest. A little shiver grazed over her skin. The air was certainly cooler than she liked. The fairy let one arm drop to fiddle with the gauzy spider-silk type skirt that fluttered around her calves. She twisted it in her hands while she tilted her head. There was nothing much going on today.

She sighed, and sat down, dangling her legs in the air. She was feeling rather morose, contemplating the fact that soon would come her ending time, and that rebirth would soon wipe her of her memories. Not that she had many. This summer had been so uneventful. Her butterfly wings fluttered in disappointment. She had been sitting in this tree for too long. Day in, day out, watching as the forest life ticked quietly along. With a sudden set to her lips, the fairy threw herself from the branch, and took to the skies.

While her wings were thin, they were powerful. She hovered upright, spinning in slow circles as she decided a path to take. That was when she was a shimmer dance through the sky. Frowning slightly, she followed its path. She dropped into the shadows of the forest, deftly gliding and dodging obstacles. But she couldn't see anything. That is, until she heard the fear-invoking cry of a predator bird. Her face turned frightened, and she looked behind her. It was uncommon, to be attacked like this, but it wasn't unheard of. Brenna's heart leapt into her throat, and she beat her wings as ferociously as she could, trying to evade the bird.

It was quick. Faster than her, and it swooped in close. Brenna felt the birds one wings knock hers, and suddenly she was spiralling downwards. She tried in vain to right herself, but she was plummeting down. Down down down. I'm not even going to see the season out. I'm not going to be reborn. This is it. The end of little Brenna. She clenched her eyes shut tight as the earth rushed to meet her. She landed with a thud, and the breath was knocked from her. The landing however, was softer than she had anticipated. Opening her eyes wide, she found herself looking at something ... green. Like it was part of the forest. But she could just make out the shape of eyes. Big eyes. Very big eyes. Like she had landed on something's face. Nose. Snout. Something.

Her mouth open and closed a few times, but nothing came out immediately. Her eyes were frightened and curious all at once. Finally, her voice found her, and in a tiny flutter, hardly louder than the buzzing of a bee, she spoke the first thing that came into her mind.

"Hello. You make a good landing pad."

[Anonymous]

The cry of a bird sounded above the trees, in obviously pursuit of some prey to satisfy its hunger. A few flaming leaves fluttered around the dragon's settled form, a few coming to rest on his scaly hide; he stared passively at them, examining the size, shape and rusty color. It was during this silent musing that a tiny shriek alerted the dragon, and without a second passing, something small hit his muzzle, causing his sensory nerves to go crazy at the touch. A fairy sat at the end of the bridge of his nose, hard to see by other beasts with such close proximity, but Bayani managed just fine. She was hurt, no doubt by that bird he heard earlier, and the dragon felt a jolt of shock - Odd. She's so human-like its strange I can feel her emotions. Maybe the wings had something to do with it.... or the fact that she really wasn't human at all.

Bayani breathed hard through his nasal passages, causing the scales on his face to warm for the little creature, and then he gently put his nose to the ground and tipped his head so she would slide off easily. Retracting his neck slightly, he looked at her with curiousity. In all his years, he had known fairies and what they were, but never had had much interaction with one. As always, they fascinated him and he sought to learn more about them. He had known some to possess an ability to transform into humans, or something like it, and was also curious on that part. Luckily, Bayani wasn't a fierce dragon or scary, so he had been able to interact with various creatures throughout his life and learn more of their ways.

"Strange spot to pick to land," he replied quietly, "Are you alright, fairy? What's your name?"

[Haze]

Brenna gave a little squeak, for even though he was simply warming up her nose for her benefit, it was a sudden surprise she had not been expecting. She'd half expected him to lift his snout, and snap her up. She was just in that sort of frame of mind now that she had been prospective dinner for the bird. And then she was rolling, tumbling down head over heals until she landed on her bottom with a soft thud.

She quickly jumped back to her feet, brushing herself off, and giving her wings a straightening. Except something wasn't straightening. "Oh tumbleweeds and cottonsofts!" She stamped her foot as she looked over her shoulder at the wing hanging limply. There was a tiny tear near the top, probably ripped on a branch as she tumbled down. She gave a heavy heaving sigh, and plopped herself back down. "I didn't exactly pick it. Stupid bird thought I was dinner. Now I got a stupid broken wing."

I'm Brenna. Who are you?"

[Anonymous]

Bayani watched quietly as the little fairy sorted herself, blinking quietly as she expressed her exasperation. "Bayani," he replied in his low, soft rumbling voice. His ears perked in curiousity at the small lady, one of her wings torn. She was...fascinating, the way she moved, her words, her stance. The dragon was already making mental notes on the fairykind before him, documenting and filing into the vast recesses of his brain. "Where do you come from Brenna?" he asked finally, examining her closely to note her responses.

What an interesting species, the fairy. Bayani was also especially intrigued by the faint echoes of her feelings that came into his mind: frustration, exasperation, and a tinge of fear. Bayani frowned, wondering if her fear came from himself, and wondering how much he could really interact with her telepathically. After all, she was so humanlike, their own similarities were their wings and immortal state. Time would tell.

[Haze]

"Where do I-?" She frowned a little, and shrugged her shoulders at the question. "From around here, I suppose. I am a forest guardian, else I will be for the rest of my time." It was curious she thought, seeing this dragon here. He was ... well, to put it bluntly, he was massive, and Brenna was just a little wary that he might decide to use her as a toothpick. She rolled her shoulders forward, stretching her hands out far in front of her, tiny fingers interlaced.  

"But I don't think I'm going to be much use now, with a broke wing." Her hands dropped to slap against her legs. She gave a little jerk of her head, trying to get her over-long fringe out of her eyes, and pondered a little more on Bayani. It was true, she was only summer born, and had this been alive just three short months, but in all that time she had never seen a dragon in these parts, and especially not her forest. She said as much.

"I've never seen a dragon here before, Bayani. You don't ... you haven't come to make trouble, have you? To start fires, and things? Because if you have," her little eyes were as wide as saucers as the fairy tried to make herself look and sound as menacing as possible, "then I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave, yessir."

[Anonymous]

Bayani didn't smile, but watched the little fairy quietly as she spoke in a high, rapid tone. As his large chest and belly moved up in down in sync with his breathing, his wings gently rose from his back and then fell back down, rose again and fell back down again. His tail twitched unconsciously as his heartbeat slowed and Bayani rested at ease. To sit, to lie down, felt so good.

"No, Brenna. I don't come to make trouble, but I've no doubt I AM the only dragon around these parts. I've come to learn..." with these last words he retracted his head even more so the fairy could feel comfortable and asked another question, "What can you tell me about fairies, Brenna? What makes you different from humans, and are you similar to other creatures?"

With these last words, he expanded his thoughts, feeling out with tendrils of electrified neurons for those of Brenna's. For some reason he could feel traces of her feelings, but not entirely. It confused him. He wanted to know what was similar between he and Brenna. Oiy! Bayani winced and withheld a snarl at the sudden, but small, jolt of pain, shame and embarassment. Brenna's pain, shame and embarassment. It must be the wing Bayani mused softly.

[Haze]

"Well, good," Brenna stated with a sharp nod of her head. With the mood she was in, she didn't really feel sorting out an insidious dragon come to make trouble. If he was sincere, and he sounded like he was, then she could see no harm in giving him a little information about the forests around here. The space he made between them certainly did make her feel a little better. She was about to answer his following curious questions, but she found that actually, she couldn't answer them very well.

She frowned and drummed her fingers against her thigh as she thought. "Well, I have wings, obviously... I'm smaller - though not all faeries are - and I have control over the element of air, but - " The little woman broke off abruptly, seeing the change of expression on her new acquaintance's face , and her brown furrowed in confusion.

"Are you okay? I didn't hurt you when I landed did I?"

[Anonymous]

"No, no, not at all, Brenna. I'm quite healthy." I doubt something as small as her could hurt anyways.

"Air?" Bayani's thoughts pricked at Brenna's comment about her magical abilities. This intrigued him greatly, a small critter like Brenna having abilities to control the elements? It had been a long time since Bayani had interacted with another's magic, and he had yet to see a faerie do much of anything. But then again, he hadn't really seen much of faeries.

Bayani's scales began to turn a dark barky shade of brown, very slow and subtle, but a perfect replica of the trees around him. "What are the limits of your abilities?" he asked quietly, studying her with an inquisitive and rather scholarly eye. If one looked at him, they could imagine round spectacles almost dangling off his nose above his two long, beard-like whiskers