Of Dragons and Riders IC

M

Mexma

Guest
Original poster
Summer has come to the Northern hemisphere of the planet and Winter has taken the South one. Either way, the last four Dragons have to find food before anything else comes up. The Humans still deny their existence, for their imagination has grown thinner and thinner over the years. But there is only one person who still believes they exist, and this person is an ancient man who just wants them dead.


The sound of a car screeching to his right, the men in the buildings yelling at each other instructions, a woman pulling her son away from a man selling cotton candy and hot-dogs in the corner of the street...Roth had seen the world change, its surroundings, the countries, the geography of the planet, even the way people talked and dressed; even he changed his way of speaking and adapted his garments to what society liked to call 'fashion'. But he never truly changed. His mind had only an objective: find dragons. He had asked many scientists, by formally breaking into their laboratories, if they knew anything about the beasts he was looking for. They had taken him as a madman, said that he had gone marbles. But he knew better, even as he strode down the crowded street, he still knew better. He paid for a newspaper in a stand and leaned on the wall opposite it, browsing through the pages and looking for a certain articles. He read through it, his eyebrows raising from time to time in a pleased manner. He then folded the newspaper and tuck it under his arm, walking in the direction he had come from in long strides. The title of the article he had read was printed in big letters on the front of the newspaper. SHADOW WING BRINGS JUSTICE AGAIN.
 
Kitty stood on top of a small hillock overlooking a wooded field. Flowers swayed in the gentle breeze of the early morning, birds sang a morning melody greeting the rising sun. Over it all Kitty watched. It was not often that she was still up to watch the sun rise, usually she was tucked in bed soundly asleep. Stay strands of black hair fluttered in front of her eyes and tickled her nose, causing her to sneeze a few times before she could raise a hand to move the errant hair.

Around her hips lay a bag full of plants and herbs and a few types of local spices. One hand rested gently on the bag as to prevent the bruising as the other hand covered a dainty yawn. She blinked sleepily and slowly, having been up all night hunting herbs in the light of the full moon; the sun gradually rose, bringing light to the small meadow. She was a little disappointed at the lack of stars that night but at the same time was glad the the moon lit the way for her. 'Time to head home, to bed. I still have quite a walk ahead of me, then I need a shower....' a sigh went unheard in the morning noise and she turned to walk away.

Some movement near the tree line made her pause and stand still. She waited, knowing that something was moving out there. A flash of red and two little fox cubs came tumbling out of the tall grass, behind them stood their mother, a sleek red beauty with a quail in her mouth. Kitty didn't want to move lest she scared the family but at the same time, she really wanted to be heading home. Quietly she knelt down to kneel in the grass, observing the antics of the cubs as they raced around their mother yipping and yapping with little care in the world. The mother barked a little at her cubs then settled down to eat her part of breakfast.
 
"Almost there! Just half a mile more and you'll have reached 30 miles for the week." Sweat rolled down Boone's back as she pushed herself to becoming a better runner. She let out a big growl and sprinted through her last tenth of a mile. Boone slowed her pace to a walk as her daily run came to a close. She slowed her breathing as she pushed a button on her GPS watch to shut off its internal tracker. Boone walked a ways to cool down her heated body. It was still pretty early on the streets of Seattle, 0645 to be exact, and not many people other than the marketeers at Pike Place Market were even up yet.

Boone decided to take a detour on the way up to her apartment and stopped in at the market. She walked through the catacombs of Pike Place and slowly made her way down to the harbor. Boone enjoyed watching the water. One moment it could be calm and forgiving, and then the next the undertow could wash you away in a vengeful manner. The ocean reminded Boone of herself in many ways, especially in the sense of "make one wrong move and you're done for."

Boone let out a sigh as she watched the storm clouds rolling in. "Looks like this will be an unforgiving kind of day." A gust of wind picked up and Boone braced herself on a wooden post on the dock. She should hurry home lest she get caught up in the rain. Even if these fisherman probably wouldn't mind a soaking wet runner hanging around.
 
Onixa was a nocturnal dragon and currently lay curled up in a shady spot in the forest, her wings laying out and basking in the sun. Being a dragon, she was naturally mysterious. She often kept to herself and often wondered if there were any other dragons then she. When she heard something scuttle past her, some foxes, she growled at the disturbance in her rest and cracked an eye open and released a jet of fire from her nostrols to scare off the disturbing foxes.
 
It was the twenty-first century.

Felle knew not where she was, nor what she was supposed to be doing, but her internal clock was sure- it was the twenty-first century. And it was time to wake up. The great white dragon stirred.

Sleep slowly drained out of her body as consciousness settled in, filling every scale with the pure kind of energy one feels after waking up from a long, pleasurable slumber. Felle yawned, and, snapping her jaws shut, unfurled her long wings and stretched as far as she could reach. Something cold and hard brushed against them; curious, she opened her light grey eyes, and was surprised to see that she was in a cave. Not just any old mountainous cave, either, but an underwater cavern- which, now that she thought about, wasn't too surprising. Her kind had been using underwater caverns for millennia. Then why did this one feel so ... Wrong?

Felle lifted her head and looked around, and suddenly everything came rushing back to her. The massacre. The warnings. The hibernation. A loud keen trailed out of her open maw as she realized why the cavern felt so unnatural- she was alone. So desperately alone ... No one was left alive of the sea dragons but herself. The sad melody of Felle's wail echoed throughout the empty chambers; above her cave, fish suddenly began to thrash and flail in fishermen's nets, breaking them. Sharks swam for cover. Whales grew silent. The ocean had become aware of the sea dragon's awakening.

When she was finished, the albino lady stood (but only barely- it seemed she had grown in her sleep) and approached the mouth of the cave, located on its floor not a hundred feet away from where she had been resting. The water was blue and clear, just like old times. How much else of the world was 'like old times'?, Felle wondered distractedly, but without a second thought, she dove out of the cramped caverns that had imprisoned her for too long and into the ocean. Her ocean.

It felt so liberating to be out in the open again, stretching cramped muscles and aching wings. The water was such a comforting color, too: just the right shade of blue. Felle took a deep draught of water into her gills and expelled it slowly. It was good to be awake, she decided.

However, it wasn't long before Felle noticed the pollution laced heavily into her waters. She hissed in disgust. The filthy humans had done this. She angled her body so that she slithered right to the surface, and when she came within a few hundred feet of the air, her wings unfurled. In a fountain of glittering spray, the sea dragon burst from her waters and ascended into the skies, keeping an eye out for boats ... There were a few around, but none near close enough to see her. Good. Felle didn't want to have to deal with humans just yet, especially since the discovery of her polluted waters had just made her very, very angry. She spiraled into the sky, and an enormous collection of cumulonimbus clouds formed in her wake.

White wings gliding effortlessly through the growing storm, Felle sent crackling blue bolts of lightning down through it. Winds began to pock up. The sun was gradually blocked out. The sea dragon's fury would later be recognized as one of the worst storms of the year, by the humans-but any dragon watching would immediately recognize the handiwork of a severely pissed off member of their kind.

((Just to be clear- she's still in the ocean, so far from civilization that people wouldn't really be affected by the storm but not far enough that they wouldn't see it.))
 
Elizabeth perched on an old hollow log and waited, tapping her fingers against the dry wood impatiently. She had been awake since before dawn and now it was at least two hours past sunrise. Bryce was still asleep, the lazy jerk. Today was one of the few days that the Faire was closed, and it was the absolute perfect day to teach her how to use a sword properly. Of course, she hadn't exactly warned him of her plans to ambush him as soon as he left his tent. If she had, she had no doubts that he would hide in there until noon. She grumbled to herself and debated just walking in, but she had a feeling that Janice had stayed the night with him and she had no desire to see them both naked. Frowning at the thought, she finally got up and wandered away to find something to occupy her hands until he dragged himself away from his cot.


Picking up a simple carved bow and a quiver filled with arrows, she slid on a thick leather belt and wandered off to the nearby field that they used as a shooting range. She paused to tie her dark blonde hair back in a messy bun to keep it out of her light brown eyes, then stretched a little. It wasn't as if she were dressed appropriately for this. She was supposed to practice singing today, so she had dressed as she would on a normal Faire day, corset and everything. Oh well, too late now. She smiled to herself and drew the first arrow, her gaze focused on a target about fifty feet away. When she released, it went hopelessly wide.


"Why do I even try? Throwing around pieces of wood from a length of string.. Ridiculous.." she muttered, pulling her skirt up to reveal several slim knives attached to her thigh. She tugged a couple free and took a relaxing breath, then allowed them to fly. Every single one hit the innermost circle. "If only I could do the same with a living target and a rapier.." she mused, wandering down to the target to collect the blades. As she got closer to the trees, she could have sworn that she heard something, but she shrugged it off as an animal and pulled the knives out. She inspected them all carefully, then turned to walk back to the starting point.
 
The blue shade of early morning shined on a farmland and it's animals. A full ranch of cows, pack of sheep, a full coop of ropster and hens, a barn, and a house to settle it all. It was quiet outside, dimming with the fading sounds of crickets, morning bugs, and the yawn of awakening cows. At the sound of the moos, the farmer who owned the property stepped out to gather his cattle. A stick of hay in his lips and a cattle prod in hand, he was making his daily rounds with the stock of beef. The man whistled and called over his dog to gather the sheep, while he tended to his business.

High in the sky, using the clouds as a coak, Einarth spectated from above. It was early morning, yes, but he had to find food when it was available. He'd fill himself on four or five cows a day to keep going, and continue to move the rest of the day at night. His nose sniffed the scent of ripe meat waiting to be plucked into his jaws. He growled lightly and held his wings into a glide, tilting himself to the left and began falling from the sky. It wasn't to far from night, but niether far from morning, little shadow left his end. For Einarth to act, he'd need to act quick as the wind.

The farmer didn't notice him high above and walked away from his cattle, giving Einarth time. As he approached, the cows flew into a panic and began to scramble. The farmer turned his head and looked around to see nothing in the fields, then looked up. He jumped when he caugh a glimpse of the dragon, but as he wiped his eyes Einarth disappered. "What in Sam Hell..." he mumbled as he turned in circles. The old man was scared and confused, so he ran to his barn to grab his shotgun. But noticed something different. The doors were wide open.

He stepped in slowly, and grabbed his shotgun lying on the doorside. In the back of the barn he could hear the sound of ripping flesh and crunching bones. Einarth had snuck his way in and started eating already, he was just so hungry at the moment. Back in the old times he could fly without worry of death, now mankind has it out for them. The man stepped ever closer to the sounds, closer, then closer. And as it surled out from cover, he saw a 25 foot tail come from the back of his barn. "Sweet, merciful Jesus..." he breathed as his heart began to beat.

Einarth turned to the sound of the man and loked at him with a stare. In his massive jaws was a chunk of meat off a cow he caught, blood covered his scaled lips and made him looked.. evil. The farmer stared blamky and wide eyed at Einarth, not saying a word in sock. Einarth noded his head as if to say 'Sup' and stood there. The farmer blinked once at th 45 foot tall lizard... then fainted and fell backwards. He looked at the man, then leaned forward to smell him to check if he'd died. After confirming he was alright, Einarth grabbed the rest of his kill and took flight out the front doors of the bar. He took back to the sky and covered himself in the clouds, he could now return to the far out forests with food.
 
Her knees ached, having knelt most of the night to pick herbs, and now because she was watching the foxes. Stubbornly she refused to move even though her eyes threatened to close and her head kept going down in sleepiness. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was telling herself to get moving and to get home before her parents got too worried.

Kitty was almost asleep on her feet when something startled the playing foxes. Alertness caused her to perk up just a bit and notice the fleeing foxes, their bushy tails held low to the ground and the mother herding her two kits in front of her. Kitty merely blinked, not having noticed what scared the foxes away nor hearing anything to give away the intruder. Could it have been a bird? Her mind came up with the answer albeit slowly. No, no birds were around that would startle the family. Her nose though, picked up the faint scent of something burning. Fire? This early in the morn? Surely not! Kitty lurched to her feet, almost falling down when they refused to wake up and looked around the meadow carefully.

Fire was not something that should be ignored, no matter how tired and sleepy she was. Once feeling reached her toes, she began to walk the perimeter of the field, looking and smelling for the fire. A few times she almost stumbled when she stepped into hidden holes or tripped when she didn't pick her feet up high enough to clear a fallen tree. There! A thin line of smoke, very faint but still visible trailed between the trees. A few seconds of debate, wherein she wondered if she really ought to get someone else to take care of it or to just find it herself and then go get someone, or to just skip it all together and go home to a nice comfortable bed with fluffy pillows.... She really was too tired to be doing this she mused, her mind made up.

She shook herself awake and headed off into the trees, following the remains of the smoke trail. It wasn't too long before the smoke trail dissipated into nothing and she was left very tired, scratched, and very very irritated. Who was she to be wondering the woods at this godforsaken hour!? Really now, who in their right minds would want to be awake? She certainly did not want to be awake. Huffing, she tossed a twig into the brush and went to sit down, only to stop
half way to the ground. What was that? It was scaled, she thought, and it looked like it had wings...not that that meant anything. Was that smoke? She blinked and straightened up. Was that the source of the smoke? Her mind tried to comprehend what she was seeing,but it failed. Miserably so.

Kitty walked forward quietly and reached forward a hand to touch the great big black thing. Great Big Black Thing, really? She must be even more tired than she thought...
 
"And make sure you knead the dough before putting it into the oven."

"Yes, Grandfather."

"If you do not knead it, you will be the one to eat the hard rolls at the end of the hour."

"Yes, Grandfather."Xeri truly did try to hide the hiss in her response towards her grandfather. She truly did. He was only an elderly man that had Xeri's best intentions at heart. A simple task such as roll making, however, did not make for such pestering rules. His unwavering beetle like eyes never left her long, slender fingers that kneaded the dough; it had to be handled properly and apparently his watch. It was not as if she had never completed the task herself. She was a 21 year old woman and knew exactly which techniques to take when kneading dough. Still, her grandfather took her cooking quite seriously. Even more serious as her archery training! Xeri's fingers moved forward, pushed in, then pulled backwards in that exact pattern. That process had to be repeated a few times before the dough was in a taffy like texture. As said before, Xeri knew this process like the back of her hand and the back of her grandfather's.

"I have already taken the liberty of heating the fire top, but let me tell you this regardless. Make sure your fire top is on a low flame, otherwise--"

"--Otherwise it will burn the bread and--"

"--Your fingers, making--"

"--Making Finger Rolls, I know."
she snapped, harsher than she intended. One quick bite on her tongue later and Xeri turned to give a slightly frustrated and restrained smile to her grandfather, who seemed taken aback. "I know,"she said in a softer tone, "Why don't you just...sit down somewhere, Grandfather. Let me handle the lunch." Her grandfather twisted the tiny whiskers on his blonde and grey speckled mustache before giving into to her concerned tone. He sighed, not giving her an answer, but instead, giving a short nod to her kneading patterns.

"You just keep that up."he warned before shuffling off to the living room. This time, Xeri's smile was a tad more heartfelt and wanted. Needed was probably the better term. For some reason, deep down in the pit of her stomach, she felt as this were her last lunch...
 
Two more rounds of tossing later and Bryce had finally dragged his lazy carcass out of bed. He managed to fend Elizabeth off for about ten minutes, giving him time to scarf down food and enough coffee to pretend to be as awake and alert as she was. At least his tiredness would give her an advantage, she figured as she picked up her practice rapier. Bryce already had his and was taking a stance on the other side of the dirt circle that they practiced in. If she wanted to perform in the Faire, she had to be perfect. So far, she wasn't even close. She took a steadying breath and lashed out at him, but he smacked her blade away with shocking ease and kicked the back of her knees to make her fall on the ground.


"Again," he said simply, watching with an impassive yet obviously amused expression as she got up and dusted herself off. It was clear that he thought this to be revenge for rousting him out of bed, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of quitting.


"You really should try smiling in the morning, Bryce. You resemble a fat bear when you frown," she informed him, moving right after she said it so that he was still glaring at her moodily. He was a little unprepared, but she still barely managed to tick against his hand before he had beaten her back. This time she toppled over on her hind end and squeaked a little as she sat down. "Alright, alright. That was definitely my own fault. I'll remember it next time though," she said, earning an eyeroll from Bryce. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew she was right. Her memory was stunning and she never made the same mistake twice. The problem was that she seemed to find every different mistake there was to make before she fully learned something.


"Go beat up the target for a little while. I'm going to shower and dress," he said, waving off her protests as he tossed his practice rapier aside carelessly. She sighed and shrugged, setting her own blade down and running back out to the field. Throwing knives sounded a lot more entertaining than whacking a wooden target with a dull blade. Plus, nobody could see her out here and she got the silence of the trees. It was perfection.
 
With the rising of the sun came a wave of warmth, rousing Enfyra from his sleep. With a booming yawn the dragon began to stir. Raising his right wing, a glare of sun rays greeted his jade green eyes. Raising his head and stretching out his long, powerful neck he surveyed his surroundings; the Immolation Mountains. This once lush landscape has been a perpetually burning pile of rock for a few centuries now. This was all his own doing. It was Enfyra's domain, his home.

It had originally been destroyed at the turning point in Enfyra's life, when he could not control his rage. Now he maintained this molten expanse as a guardian. As long as he remained the land would continue to burn and no other being dared to stay in such an inhospitable environment, most importantly this included the humans. This was a double edge sword of a solution, however. It's boiling surface may have kept those who Enfyra had no wish to make contact with out, but it also drove his food source away.

With a stretch the dragon reached his full thirty foot length, the majority of his tail left dangling over the edge of the cliff that he had spent the night on once his muscles relaxed. Lifting himself up onto his four legs, he turned to look down the edge. He would need to hunt closer to human settlements than he liked to get again since his preferred prey wouldn't be back until the changing of the season. With a leap and spread wings Enfyra took to the air. With his wings spread wide he caught the updrafts that the lava below provided, effortlessly rising upward without a single flap of his powerful wings.

Approaching one of the nearer towns to his home, Enfyra's sharp eyes scanned the ground below for a potential food source. He had not been to this particular settlement in years, letting the prey items repopulate and become rich again in this region. It was very much like how human farmers would leave one of their fields empty for a season in order to let the soil recover it's nutrients. Moving from area to area to hunt also made the chances of any humans seeing him more than once less likely, reducing how believable their stories of spotting him were. Add to that the rarity of his kind and the newer generations of humans began to believe dragons to be nothing but myths and legends.
 
Onixa cracked open an eye when she felt something touch her hide of hard scales. Now what dares disturb her rest? She wondered, and lifted her great big black head to see a human touching her. Onxia folded her wings to her sides and stood on her four paws, her claws long and sharp. She held her head high, looking down at the girl with a curious blank expression and flicked her red tongue in the air, tasting the air.
 
The storm had set in by the time Boone had returned to the streets. The terrential downpour soaked through her clothes as soon as she stepped out from underneath the market's onning. She sprinted across the street and made her way back to her apartment building as quickly as she could.

Once back in the safety and warmth of her apartment, Boone took a moment to watch the rain fall through her window. She looked past the beaded water building up on her window that overlooked the bay. In the distance, Boone could make out an odd figure leaving clouds in its wake. Boone couldn't distinguish what the "thing" was exactly, but from the looks of it...it was pretty damn big.

The gargantuan airborne creature disappeared as the clouds came together in its wake. Boone watched a little longer to see if it would make a second appearance. When it didn't return she sighed and decided to take a shower to warm up. She needed to get started on her writing soon. She'd a hit a wall recently and she had to focus to break through her writer's block.
 
Kitty blinked. And blinked again...and again and again. She watched the Great Big Black Thing raise to it's feet and the claws of the thing! They certainly did not look dull, she started at the feet and worked her eyes up the length of the body till she got to the head. Kitty's expression was one of bemusement tinged with a little surprise.

The creature had wings, was scaled, had wicked claws, and a red tongue; her mind cataloged these features and began matching them to features of other animals she had seen. Oh! And it could puff smoke. She couldn't forget that, no way. That in and of itself made her thoughts pause, no animal she knew of puffed smoke.

Kitty withdrew her hand, as it had still been touching the Great Big Black Thing and stepped back away from it. She shook her head as if to clear it and said " Right! Sorry to have disturbed you, I'll be, um, leaving now?" under her breath she muttered "I'm tired. I'm just going to head back home now" With that she turned back around and with a wave of her hand began walking back the way she had came, or she thought she was going back the same way. One tree looked an awful lot like another tree and so on. Somewhere she knew what the black thing was but right now was too tired to remember what it was. She'd remember it later, she was sure.


 
Onixa watched with one huge black eye as the girl left, amused. She laid back down and curled up, wrapping her long spiked tail around herself and rested her giant black scalled head on her front paws, snorting a puff of smoke in her amusement and falling back asleep.
 
His meal was digested and sustained long before he reached his home. Einarth had taken refuge in a cave nearby from the city he guarded, as well as it's region. He had watched from a far as the world around him grew, evolved, and adapted. The human race may not be in league with that of a dragon, but they showed to impress. Military now armed with more advanced weaponry, polatics barely that of Monarchy, but one change hasn't been made: their cattle still tasted good.

Einarth landed softly into his cave, using his wings to brace the wind and slow down. His species were built more for speed in the air instead of the ground. He was made with only one pair of legs and massive wings. His tail was made to match his size and offer more balance in flight, while the wings gathered more air to add into speed. This made it easier for him to snatch away that farmer's cow, that and the farmer be on your ass frightened by a massive, fire breathing lizard.

Out in the distance the sound of speaking caught his keen ear. His big golden eyes looked in the distance of his cave overlooking a valley; what he spotted was what appeared to be a circus of some sort. What really interested him was a girl and a man, training in mid-day. She held a rapier as well as the will to master it, while her trainer cared barely to support it. Einarth's heart warmed at the memory of the old days, when his previous rider in the Sky Backs would wield her longsword and bow, devestating their enemies. The girl resembeled so much of her, in fact as he gazed deeper into the distance he could see her form of sword fighting was similar.

"Such determination..." he grummbled peacefuly to himself, watching her work. It made him smile and wag his tail paced in amusement. She had a nack for being extraordinary, a feeling that peaked his interests. But his mind was soon brought back to reality when he heard the following words. "Go beat up the target for a little while." Those words made Einarth go 'hm' in his head and looked to his right. Three dummies, all with wounds from weapons, next to his cave. "Uh oh..." he muttered as he laid flat on his stomach and folded in his wings. His stone colored skill helped him camoflouge with the stones surrounding his cave. This would have to suffice if he planned to hide.
 
Elizabeth trudged out to the targets, knowing that there were spare blades sitting out there for her to use. She sighed inwardly and glanced at the cave near the targets, tempted to go exploring instead of practice. No, no. Later she could explore. If Bryce came back and she wasn't doing what he told her, then he'd escape to go off drinking with the boys or romancing the other girls. She picked up one of the swords laying about and ran her palm along the blade experimentally. Completely dull. It may as well have been a rod instead of a sword. She walked over to a target and frowned, repeatedly poking the dummy in the eyeball until she got frustrated and threw the useless sword aside.


"How is this supposed to be a challenge?" she grumbled to herself, trying to figure out how to make this actual practice. She tapped her chin for a few minutes, pondering, until she smiled and dragged one of the dummies over to a tree. Using her own gloves, she strung it up on a low branch and let it swing freely. Giving it a push, she let it swing around and nodded in satisfaction. She went back over to retrieve her tossed blade, then returned to the dummy. Giving herself a running commentary in her mind, she decided that she might as well make a game out of it.


"Well, Bob, this is it. It all comes down to this. Whoever wins will be the new champion!" she said, her voice quiet as she smiled to herself. She hopped all around as if dodging blows, then smacked at the dummy's leg and jumped back again. "A fantastic first strike for Elizabeth, there. No doubt Dummy will have issues walking around while losing that much blood." She ducked around the swinging dummy and slashed across its cheek, then poked it right in the belly and flicked her sword to the side as if gutting it. "Oh! The crowd is going crazy! I think we're crowning outselves a new champion today!" she went on, then went to hit the sword against the dummy's throat. Right as she did, the lace gave out and the dummy fell on top of her, knocking her down.


"And the fight turned around at the last minute! Dummy wins!" she declared, laughing as she kicked the weighted form aside and scrambled back up to her feet.
 
Kitty huffed in irritation, hopelessly lost. She should have made it to the clearing by now! Her parents would be so worried by now... A cellphone would have come in handy right about now she snapped to herself. Needless to say, the daytime was not Kitty's time, no sir it was not and it showed! A yawn escaped and her jaw popped causing her to wince. It was to her downfall (quite literally mind you) that she did not pay attention to where she was walking and promptly fell a few feet into a creek.

"Oh great! All my hard work, ruined!" She sat sputtering in the creek quite awake now after the cold shock. Frantically, she checked the bag at her waist, making sure the herbs were all right. A few adventurous minnows came up and nibbled at her submerged hand making her jerk her hand out of the water. She continued to sit there, fuming over the injustice of it all and slowly going numb from the water.

' Where's the stars when I need them? Orion and the Big Dipper, Leo and Cancer? How about Draco? Wait a minute....Draco....Draco...Draco is the dragon, right? Right. Great Big Black Thing? No....Surely not? Can't be. Dragons are myth, daddy said so. But dragons breathed fire didn't they? And the Great Big Black Thing was puffing smoke....' Her mind slowly connected the dots but the ending conclusion was that if the Great Big Black Thing was Draco, then it should be able to help her get back home! The stars have never failed her yet.

With determination, she scrambled up out of the creek and on to the bank. Her twisted ankle made itself known, the pain just now reaching her brain. She grimaced and rummaged around in her bag, looking for some willow to suck on. A few minutes and the pain receded to a manageable level, allowing her to limp back the way she came.

Kitty carefully avoided logs and rocks that somehow she had managed to get around safely before. It took her longer than she thought it would to reach Draco. But when she did, she went right up and plopped down by the creature's foot.

"You wouldn't happen to know the way home, would you?"

She was so tired. And quite possibly so dead.

 
Onixa yawned and stood up again, running her tongue in and out of her mouth like a cat that ate something unpleasent. Her teeth were longer then a man was tall. She stretched like a cat, her huge black claws digging into the soil. Onixa looked down at the woman who sat on her foot, looking amused. She sniffed the girl, curious as to why she wasn't running away. Home is here. Onixa thought, misunderstanding the girl. She didn't talk at all to humans, keeping to herself. She snorted, amused, ruffling the girl's hair with her hot dragon breath.
 
His right eye peeked open to se the girl approaching, from the knives he thought she was after him. But she started hitting the dummies with a dulled out longsword. Einarth got a better look at her and saw more similarities than he anticipated. Her hair was medium sized, her eyes intimidating as well beautiful, and her form with a longsword was good at best. He was witnessing the unreal, as many times and years he'd seen it already, he was seeing his own. As much as he'd rather deny it, he was eeing a reincarnation of his former rider.

When he listened to her laughter, how she acted, it was definately like his old rider. She was always making a game out of something utterly serious. It made him grin and open his other gold eye to watch. His tail began to swing from side to side off the ground, silently rubbing against the air in sounds of 'swoof' and 'swoop'. From what he could sense of her, she was talented. Unique between the others that surrounded her and let it show. But what he remember so shortly was the old lore, Dragon Riders.

A Rider and their Dragon could sense each other's danger, here each other's thoguths, and the rider could understand a dragon's ancient tongue. But who was he to trust this girl so easily, maybe she was a lucky spawn and not his rider. What way could he test this, what ability? Einarth knew one way that would conceal his position and answer his question. But before he could put it into action, she fell back on his snout, lined up with his head. It surprised him and made him speak in his dragon language in anger.

"Solaat Roth Kuur!"
(Get off of me!)