Here Be Dragons

Triston pulls his hand back when he realizes Lambi's not going to shake it - not that he can blame him. He rubs the back of his neck instead and coughs slightly. "So, uh . . . I was thinking. The dragon hunters already saw all of us here on this island, and they might send more hunters here. If you want, Tide and I could fly with you to wherever you're taking the Changewing egg. You know. Just as added protection," he adds with a shrug.

He tells himself not to get too attached to the pair, even if Tide already is. He knows they're bound to go their separate ways eventually, just like everyone else he's met. But something draws him to Lambi and Luna, and it drives him crazy that he can't figure out what it is.

Then Tide takes to the sky, bobbing his head and flapping his wings to try and entice Luna to play - and Triston falls backward into the grass with his support gone. "Aw, come on! Tide!" he protests. Tide only rumbles in response; it sounds like he's laughing.
 
(cue me totally missing the fee act that he had his hand held out 😂)

Lambi felt a bit bad when the other pulled his hand back, wondering if maybe he was rude. He didn't really greet people very often, none of the villagers really spoke to them let alone shook their hands. So when he was presented with a handshake he was naturally confused and reluctant to react. "That's a fair point...theyre going to be really really mad about their ship," he bit his lip as he was nervous about the repercussions of his actions. When triston offered to fly with them back home he perked up a bit, happy to have an escort home. "You sure that wouldn't be too much trouble?"it was clear he was eager to have someone to ride with back home," Have to warn you though...there's a village on the island where we live and they're not the nicest people. So...probably just shouldn't make eye contact with them..." He didn't think they'd bump into in on the way back to his place. His mom and him usually flew in at a different side of the island and villagers usually avoided that side of the island like it was a plague.

Lambi watched as Tide took off, laughing when triston went straight to the floor. Luna looked at the glider before back at her rider. "It's ok, best get some energy out before the ride home," he did take the changewing egg out of the pouch before letting her loose though. Once she had the go ahead the light fury took off, the force of her takeoff causing a bit of a gust of wind. Now in the sky he joined Tide in making that rumbly laughing sound before flying around him. The light fury didn't get alot of chances to play with other dragons. She was usually with Lambi and protecting him. Though the dragons back home did try and play with her occasionally so when she had the time she'd play a bit with them.
 
Triston pushes himself back up into a sitting position and scoffs. "Nothin' I can't handle. Tide and I have met our fair share of . . . interesting villagers. But no, it's no trouble. Not like we have anything better to do." For the most part, he and Tide spend their days traveling and helping dragons they come across. He's used to getting out of town fast when things go south.

He watches Tide and Luna play for a few minutes, closing his eyes slightly as the dragons' wings send a gentle breeze rolling through his hair. Half of him wants to strike up a conversation with Lambi; he really should practice talking to people more. But he has no idea what to talk about. Finally he pulls in a breath and glances briefly at Lambi. "So where are you planning on taking the Changewing egg? Know where a colony is?"

Tide chirps and dives in and out between the trees, occasionally trying to send a fine mist of water towards Luna to splash her. Then he spots the perfect pine tree. He curls up around its trunk, nestling in the branches to try and hide from the light fury.
 
Lambi watched as the other pushed himself back to sit up after falling over. He moved the change wing egg to sit in his lap as he moved to sit criss cross apple sauce style. It still made him nervous to bring Triston back, his mom would probably freak out at first until he explained. "Yeah, Luna and I are used to villagers since we grew up on an island with them," he said with small chuckle. It was difficult as a kid when he didn't understand why all the other kids teased him but as he grew older he learned not to care. Plus when you have a protective light fury always by your side people learn real fast to back off. Of course Luna never attacked anyone but she wasn't afraid to growl and scare them off.

He checked over the egg during the silence, making sure it wasn't damaged. It was clear he would need to come back to the island later to see if the dragons came back at least for their eggs. If not any orphans or stragglers he would have to take home and find a place for them. Hearing Triston he looked up from the egg. "Uh not exactly? We've got this changewing back home who had all her eggs stolen from her, I think she'll be ecstatic to take in this little guy!" the poor dragon bad been so depressed since they brought her home she wouldn't do much. Which was understandable when your entire clutch was stolen from you. Luna followed Tide easily through the trees, distracted momentarily by the mist. When she looked back up she didn't see tide but she wasn't deterred. Quietly she opened her mouth to send out a small plasma blast, using her blast as an echolation. Using her scales she blended into the background as she headed towards trees sneaking up behind him. Once she was close enough she jumped up and roared playfully to try and scare him.
 
Tide is so startled that he flails around and sends the entire tree crashing to the ground with a roar. Then he swoops upward, playfully nipping at Luna's ear and swishing his tail. He sprays water at her again and heads closer to the beach. Then he dives straight underwater and turns to swim just below the surface, watching to see whether Luna will brave the water.

Triston nods slowly and pulls his sword out from his sheath. Then he grabs a nearby rock and starts sharpening it. If there's one thing he's learned, it's that keeping one's hands busy keeps one's mind off of other matters. "I'm sure she'll appreciate it. She . . ." Then his voice trails off.

Lambi had said the Changewing was at home. ". . . How many dragons live near you? Does the village know they're there?" he asks, his eyebrows furrowing in worry. If the village Lambi is talking about is anything like his village, the dragons could be in serious danger.
 
Luna laughed, a rumbly sound but definitely a happy sound. The whole tree coming down did make Lambi looked up but he laughed quietly see how she spooked the tide glider to take down the tree. The light fury smacked him lightly with her tail when he nipped her ear before chasing after him. They reached the water and she slowed down a bit as he dived straight in, unsure of how to approach. She looked back at the trees for a second before looking back at the water. After a few seconds she started towards the water, standing in it and kind of smacking it with her paws a bit. She didn't go swimming too often, but she was having fun stomping in the shallow water.

Lambi watched the other casually take out his sword and start sharpening it on a rock. He had weapons, his mom insisted he carry something but he preferred not to use them and most he had were long distance or meant as a distraction. "Ah...right now we have about 10 living in the house with us. The rest are living on the island that's right next to ours," they hadn't found a safe place to move all the dragons to yet. "The villagers know about them...but they leave us alone...mostly thanks to my mom threatening to burn down the entire village and gut them if they touched any of the dragons." They tried their best to stir any wild dragons away from the village so the villagers wouldn't have an excuse to attack them. "It's not a permanent solution but we hope to find somewhere else to move them too where they can be safe," most dragons only stayed with them until they were healthy again, after that they had a choice to stay or Lambi would lead them to a nearby colony. There were a few that were permanently unable to live in the wild so they lived in the house with them.
 
"So you need a quiet, safe island to move a bunch of dragons to," Triston says. He puts his sword away in its sheath and raises an eyebrow. "I, uh . . . I might know a place, provided all the dragons get along with each other. Tide and I named it Skull Cavern. There are a whole bunch of underground tunnels connected to it, and the main cave lets out right near a beach," he adds.

Tide is delighted when Luna joins him in the water. He bobs up above the waves and floats over, lazily flapping his wings to propel himself toward the shallow end. Then he sprays a wave of water at the light fury.

Triston can't help but smirk at the pair's antics. "I can't believe Tide made friends so fast," he says softly. "Normally we travel around a lot and don't have time for that kind of thing." He huffs and runs a hand through his hair. "I mean, I'm fine just on my own with Tide . . . but I guess it might be good for him to have a few friends that aren't humans."
 
Lambi nodded a bit as he thought back to finding and island. "Yeah I've been going out almost everyday to check out the nearby islands, so far alot of them have established colonies and I don't want to mess with them," he didn't want to disturb the dragons that lived on those islands. When triston said he might know an island the pink haired boy's eyes absolutely lit up. "You do!? That sounds perfect! The caves would be a perfect place for the dragons to hide if they needed to," he hoped they wouldn't need to hide but worse came to use they could. Other than that the caves could be used for the injured dragons or the nesting ones, etc, there were so many optiona Lambi was excited to get back to tell his mom. He looked over to where Luna was playfully making big splashes in the water towards tide. She started shooting small blasts at the water just to make the water spray up.

"She's probably happy to have a dragon near her size and age to play with, usually she's the jungle gym for the baby dragons back home," he said with a small laugh. When they were on the road they didn't have time to stop and play with other dragons very much either. He let her play for awhile longer before standing up and whistling quietly, hearing the tune Luna turned around to bound back over to him. "My mom's going to absolutely die when she hears about this island!" he started putting the egg away safely in the saddles pouch again,"Well after I explain you're a good guy, fair piece of advice don't show your sword and probably let Tide go first. She likes dragons more than people." Plus if she saw Tide he hoped his mom would be a little less reluctant to try and attack Triston. "Hope you're up for a decent flight," he laughed as he climbed on luna's back. Thanks to the light fury's speed the two could travel extremely far in short periods of time. But he didn't want to over exert Tide so he would keep her pulled back a bit.
 
Triston can't help but smile in spite of himself when Lambi lights up at the thought of Skull Cavern. He briefly wonders if this is what it's like when friends talk to each other, but he quickly pushes that thought back, and he stands up when Lambi whistles for Luna. He grins and gives one sharp, long whistle.

Tide zooms over and skids to a stop, very nearly knocking Triston over. Triston laughs and carefully climbs into the saddle. He winces a bit when he puts pressure on his leg, but soon he's in place and is ready to go. "Heck, if she can understand dragons, I won't have to go at all. Tide can just explain the plan to her. I won't mind." For one thing, he doesn't want to upset Lambi's mom with his presence alone. And for another, he's not sure he's in a good position to defend himself if he needs to - and he doesn't want to put all the pressure on Tide.

He scoffs and grins when Lambi asks about the long flight. "You kidding? All Tide and I do is fly and swim around. We barely stop except to rest and night and find food. As long as it's under a day's journey, we can keep up no problem. Especially if the weather stays nice."

Tide grunts and nods in agreement, swishing his tail.
 
Lambi was overly eager probably but he couldn't help himself. It wasn't very often he got to speak to another person. Well another person that wasn't trying to kill dragons and wasn't his mom that is. Technically he spoke to lots of people in his village but they were never pleasant conversations. "It'll just take her a second to get over her attack first ask questions later approach to things," he said with a small laugh as he double checked everything on his saddle. Eggs secure, satchel secure, looks like they were all ready to go. "My mom hasn't met a single Viking-other than me of course-who wasn't a dragon killing maniac. She doesn't like other people, she pretty much never goes into the village. Technically I am allowed because I wasn't cast out, I was born outside the village which means I fall under kind of traveling merchant standards, "and he did bring in supplies to trade occasionally. People tolerated him but his mom they weren't lenient on.

He heard him scoff and couldn't help smirking, glancing down at Luna who was already eager. "Oh well since you're so confident we will be sure not to go easy on yah then," he laughed before squeezing Luna's sides lightly to tell her to go. In an instant th light fury took off, shooting up into the sky at incredible speed. Their was a reason the furies were almost never seen or caught, they were the fastest dragons after all. Lambi laughed as he looked down to make sure triston and tide made it off the ground. Just to mess with them he let Luna go fast for a bit of the journey, occasionally slowing down so the other could still see them. When they were getting close he slowed her down completely to let him catch up. "Still feeling like Mr. Confident over there?" he smirked at the other as Luna laughed, the light fury not even slightly out of breath. The journey wasn't long, at least not for him since they could make it back in record time.
 
As expected, Tide falls far behind Luna very quickly, but he's able to track her from a distance by scent. By the time he and Triston catch up to the pair at the island, Tide is panting lightly. Triston huffs and crosses his arms, but he's smiling. "Well, I never said we'd beat you to the island," he admits.

Then the island comes into view. Triston stiffens, resting one hand on his sword hilt, and Tide growls and flicks his ears back. ". . . It'd probably be best if Tide and I skipped the village," he says in a somber tone. "We, uh . . . we don't get along with most humans. Which way to your mother's house?"

Tide starts scanning the ground below, his frills alert for signs of danger. The humans are too far below to much of an actual threat, unless they have long range weapons like nets or harpoons. But he can never be too careful when it comes to protecting Triston.
 
Luna was careful not to go too fast and stay in sight the best she could. But sometimes without even trying the dragon blended into the sky and it made her hard to see. She sent tide a smile though when he caught up, happy to mess with another dragon for the first time in awhile. "That is true, you never did say you'd beat us to the island, guess I took it as an unofficial challenge. He scanned the island before going to fly around the island, the opposite direction as the village. It was pretty easy to avoid going through or anywhere near the village when they were flying home.

"Oh yeah it's really easy to avoid the village. We live on the far side of the island so we can land there without bumping into anyone," he reassured the other as he lead him to a small clearing on the other side. Once he handed he hopped off Luna and the two began to lead him to the forest. "That little island over there is where alot of our dragons lived, they're the ones that chose to stay here with us instead of find a colony to join," he didn't really mind it as long as it was their choice and they were happy. Eventually after a short walk in the woods they came up to a house, it was a bit all over to place as they added extensions over the years for the dragons. "I'm uh..going to go ahead just wait here one second," he hurried ahead into the house, leaving Luna with Tide and Triston. There was some loud voices, not yelling just a bit loud before it got quiet again. After a minute Lambi came back out,"Mom this is Triston...and his dragon Tide, they found the abandoned change wing egg and helped get rid of trappers." Lambi's mom narrowed her eyes as she looked at Triston, she was an older woman, age matching that of someone who would have a son Lambi's age. There were some visible scars on her arms and one on her face, her hair was a faded pink, less vibrant than her son's. She huffed after staring at Triston for a moment before going to Tide's side, more interested in the dragon. "Is he kind to you?" she spoke only to the dragon first.
 
When the group lands at the house, Triston is fairly at ease at first. But then Lambi heads inside and leaves him alone with the dragons. All at once, all of the anxiety about having to meet Lambi's mom crashes over him, and he starts backing away towards the woods. "Maybe I'll just . . . wait back there . . ." he mutters.

Tide huffs and pushes him back to the front of the group with his head. He's pretty sure it'll look worse if Triston isn't with the group.

Then Lambi's mom comes out. Triston flinches back when she makes eye contact with him, his breath catching in his throat.

Before Lambi's mom says a word, Tide senses how stressed Triston is and curls around him, gently licking his cheek. Then he cranes his neck towards the older woman and sniffs a few times. He rumbles and delicately licks her cheek as well before curling slightly tighter around Triston, as well as playfully slapping his wing against the boy's head.

"Ah! Hey!" Triston protests, laughing and pushing the wing back off. He sighs in relief and leans against Tide. He's actually relieved the woman doesn't seem interested in talking to him.

((Can she understand dragons? Because I could definitely have Tide chat with her ^^))
 
(ahh we could have her be able to understand them think that might be a bit cool since she's been around dragons for a long time 😂 dragon whispererrrr maybe she can understand them like idk dragon telepathy 😂 not the weirdest sentence I've ever written tbh)

Lambi is admittedly just as nervous as Triston for the other to meet his mom. He has never actually seen her talk to another person in a good way, usually the only interactions he saw were he beating the life out of someone or threatening one of the villagers who was trying to hurt a dragon. Trying not to let the other sense his nerves he moved over to Luna who plopped her head on top of the boys head. When she comes over to him and doesn't immediately look like she wants to kill him he relaxes a bit. He tried to shoot the other a subtle thumbs up to let him know this was going better than he thought it would.

His mom watched how tide acted with Triston with a close eye, watching every move. It certainly seemed that they were close but she wanted to know for sure. She listens to tide closely and softens for just a moment when he licks her cheek. "Hmph...you pass. For now," she decides, still glaring at Triston but it was less than before, "Your tide glider is fond of you, I can tell your bond is tight." She turned back to walk over to her son and Luna. "That's one point to you then, for finding someone like us, now get that egg to its new nest before it gets too cold then its dinner," she started back to the door,"You're allowed to join us for dinner too." With that she went inside and shut the door, and Lambi let out the breath he was holding. "Ayeee that went better than I thought! She didn't immediately stab you sooo that's a plus!" he laughed before starting to walking around the house, "Also despite the short sentences and tone she doesn't completely hate you. She just doesn't really talk to people very much so she forgets about her tone," he explained, Luna trotting beside him.
 
((Yeah sounds good!! Maybe later when she feels the boys are ready she might teach them the same skill ^^))
((Also last post for now, I'll be back tomorrow!))

Triston, too, lets out a heavy sigh, collapsing against Tide's side. "I mean, she was already friendlier to me than most people, so . . . I guess so far she's all right with having me around." He drops his gaze and rubs the back of his neck. He hasn't eaten a meal with other humans in months. "You guys eat around a fire pit, right?" he asks hesitantly. "That's how we ate back in my old village. We'd grab a log or rock and just sit down."

Tide gives a soft chirr, and Triston glances up at him in surprise. "Hm? Oh, right, the egg. Lambi, do you want us to wait here while you introduce the egg to the Changewing? Too many people and dragons might make her nervous." Heck, the same is true for him, but he doesn't want to let Lambi know that.
 
(I'm curious how she'd go about teaching it 😂 I'll have to think about that and alrighty goodnight!)

Lambi couldn't help laughing when he saw the other collapse back into tide. He could understand that reaction as he mom tended to be a bit intense. "She usually chastising me for not being quick enough to jump on people. And to be far she's right, usually Luna comes to my rescue, I'm like a marshmallow when it comes to fights," the light fury huffed in agreement not happy her human tended to be a bit oblivious sometimes. The question about the fire pit took him a second. "Ahhh kinda, we cook our food in the fire but then we usually eat it sitting down for a few seconds before having to get up so the dragons won't get it,"hs said with a small laugh," And you guys can come along, she probably won't react much at first." He and Luna lead the way around the house where they had some makeshift nests/stables.

Each stable housed a different dragon and the beds/nests differed from each one. Most of them lifted their heads up to watch as the newcomers passed but didn't try anything. Eventually at the very end they reached a large stable, inside a lone change wing was curled up. Lambi stopped in front it before turning to Luna to grab the egg. He kept it behind him at first as he entered the stable. "Heey Mimi? You've got some visitors girl," he said gently watching as the change wing turned to look at tide and Triston. She huffed quietly before looking away not in the least bit interested. "Hm...cant blame ya for not being interested in them, they're hardly as interesting as this little guy," he very carefully placed the egg on the ground in front of him before backing away. It took Mimi a second before she spared a glance. Almost immediately one could see the change in her eyes, reaching out her tail to pull the egg close. After a few minutes of inspecting it, she roared loudly happy before pulling the egg even closer to the next and started to cover it. Lambi laughed as he climbed out,"Told ya I knew someone who'd be veeery happy to take in an egg!"
 
Triston beams. At least he'll be able to eat normally without looking too out of place. "I know that struggle," he says, laughing and giving Tide's chin a gentle scratch. "We've worked out a deal, though. He eats first and then he doesn't touch my food. Usually." Tide rumbles, laughing slightly, and Triston playfully pushes his head away.

Then they're invited into the stables. Triston peers into each room they pass, his eyes wide. He's never seen so many kinds of dragons in one place. "You and your mom rescued all of these?" he breathes at last. "Wow."

His expression softens when the group finally arrives at Mimi's stable. He knows a depressed dragon when he sees one. But before he can inch forward and try to interact with her, Lambi gives her the egg, and her entire personality lights up. Triston smiles and watches her settle in with her new egg. "Aww," he murmurs. "I'm glad things worked out."

Tide rumbles gently and nudges Triston's shoulder.

Triston gives a soft sigh and shrugs him off. "Yeah, I know. Doesn't matter now." He claps his hands together and glances toward Lambi. "So. You guys need any help getting dinner ready?"
 
Lambi laughed as they walked past each of the stables. "The worst are the baby dragons, they have no mercy when I comes to the food," they had a few babies here right now, ones they couldn't find a colony for so they were living with them until they were old enough. He was so used to the dragons he forgot it might be weird for Triston to see all them. "Yeah...the ones here are the ones that either can't go back into the wild or the ones that need a little extra care," Big part of the reason we need to move is that the more dragons we have to keep the less space we have here." The babies were especially difficult to keep out of the village, it was all hands on deck when a baby decided to go on a trip.

It always pained him seeing how depressed Mimi was, a dragon should never look like this. But after seeing her light up at the egg he couldn't help smiling. He walked away from her to explain more of her story,"A group of trappers took all her eggs...and left her for dead when we found her. I know one egg isn't much but to her it means the world." He would be happy when her baby was old enough for the two to find their own home. As they walked he shook his head at the question," Nope, the dragons are happy to return the favor by hunting for us though we did have to teach them not to touch the village animals anymore. Makes for a uneasy truce with the village but it's something at least."
 
"Well, the good news is, you and your mother will have plenty of room to care for dragons if I can convince her it's safe," Triston says at last. As the group arrives at the fire pit, he pauses a short distance and waits uneasily. He's not entirely sure if he's supposed to sit down first or not.

Tide has no such qualms. He rumbles happily and curls up near the edge of the fire pit, closing his eyes as the heat warms his scales.

Triston finally settles for leaning against Tide. He crosses his arms over his shoulders, glancing quietly at some of the dragons approaching before mostly glancing at the ground. He aches to talk to Lambi more - the boy's the kindest person he's ever met - but he doesn't want to make a bad impression on Lambi's mother, so he does what he assumes is polite and quietly waits for her to announce the meal.
 
"I'm sure she will come around it'll just take her a second as she's not used to getting help from outsiders," he tried to reassure the other that his mother didn't hate him. She was just...the type of person that takes a bit to warm up to people. As they reach the fire pit he sat down on a log nearby, Luna coming up to lay down around the log. Lambi looked over as tide flopped down and laughed before going to drag a basket over. "Here Tide and Luna can share these fish," he moved to dump out the basket, letting fish spread over the ground in between the two dragons. Luna rumbled happily as she moved to eat a fish that was close to her.

Soon enough Lambis's mom came back out from the house, carrying a large tray of meat. She tossed a leg of meat to both Lambi and Triston to cook themselves before taking her piece and starting to cook it. The shorter male waited a few minutes to let them cook before speaking up. "So um...Triston knows of an Island that we could maybe move the dragons to,"he said trying to be nonchalantly as his mom raised her eyebrow before glancing at Triston," I was thinking I could probably go check it out or we all could and you could see if it'll work?"
 
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