You As A Dragon

[skwerl56767]

((I think I remember what was going on... just a quick post so this doesn't stall.))

 

I was still devastated by the loss of my instrument, but I was recovering... slowly. That is, until something tripped over the fluff I was crying on and flopped over onto both of us.

" Mmmph!" Was all that came out of my new muzzle as it was buried deeper into the fur; which smelled like... coffee? The strange thing writhed and felt scaly, grumbling and sounding like a dragon.

Dragons... there were dragons everywhere in here. But how did I manage to be tackled by the one clumsy one?!

Flattened onto my belly like a pancake, I attempted to wriggle out form under this new dragon while at the same time not breathing in more coffee-fur, but there was a loud CRACK! and suddenly everything shook for a moment. Not like an earthquake, it was in my head... I don't know how to describe it any better than that. I'm also not sure what happened after that; did I fall unconscious? Was it immediate, or did time pass? Everything had went black for a moment, and then my senses slowly came back, along with a burning sensation throughout my entire body...

 

I blinked a couple of times and finally moved my freakishly-long neck to the side so my face wasn't stuffed in the other dragon's fur. I blinked again.

Interesting... I was filled with adrenaline, and I felt like I was wrapped in a blanket that was just burning, but it was almost... comforting. I didn't feel like crying anymore. I could also see Coil, now positioned obviously in front of me like a cat about the race away from a strange dog; just next to him, conveniently, was my violin Fiddlesticks.

Coil inched forward almost until our muzzles touched, shaking.

" H-h-hello?"

Coil! I thought. Coil, help me! For some reason though, it was like my whole body was paralyzed; I could only twitch my tail and swing my neck over to the right, neither of which were helpful; even one side of my head had a slight buzzing sensation in it. Did... did something happen? Concerning that crack?

" Mrrr!" I grunted. Coil just gave me a puzzled look. "Mrrrr!"

" What?"

COIL! I felt like screaming. COIL JUST-! Okay! Hold on. You know about this Kayla; dragons don't talk. Er, not like that... how the heck am I supposed to do this? I'm not actually a dragon, am I? This is crazy...!

I attempted to swing my head over more, but just ended up rolling it and squishing one cheek into the ground. I furrowed my brow, repeating Coil's name in my head and trying to "send" it to him.

...That's how it worked. Right?

Coil! Coil! It's me! Kayla! I tried to send, but instead a clear voice rang out in my own head, with the resonance of my own voice:

" Erng. Kih. loil. Kliol. Irt. Mm. Kih-luh."

Coil gave me the best, perplexed expression ever. If wasn't paralyzed and a dragon, I would have burst out laughing.

" Kih-luh! Imn! Kih-luh! Der... " I tried looking pointedly at the violin. " Bing bing. Hrlp."

" 'Bing bing'?"

" Hrlp mne."

" 'Help'?"

" HRLP. HRLP NERRR!"

" Okay, okay! I'll find help!" Coil backed away from me like I was a slimy puddle of muck he didn't want to fall in. He stared for a while, and after I held the stare he decided to leave and actually do something about this. I wasn't interested in being a couch potato and a dragon, anyway...

 

----------

 

Coil backed away form the strange dragon, who's telepathy was broken. None of it made any sense... in fact, none of these dragons in the cave made sense! All dragons learned telepathy early on, sometimes even flying, but these guys were having trouble with both. There were some dragon "tutors" though that were scoffing and rolling their eyes at the other dragons' behaviors, as if they were dealing with hatchlings. Coil though didn't know much outside the traveling orchestra that raised him, so he was completely clueless as to any help he could find. It could be right in front of his nose and he wouldn't know!

The blue pygmy crawled up a crystal of water mana crystals to try and have a good view of everyone in the cave, but unfortunately he was still lost. So he tried out a broad message to every dragon that seemed to know what it was doing:

" Hello? Anyone? Any healers? There's a dragon here who has bad telepathy; I-I don't think she can move!"

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Eon patiently waited as the Falconiform introduced herself. "Hello Eon, a pleasure to meet you and Dalek as well. Though I'm sure I won't be too unsettled by her composure, though unless she becomes angry then that's another story." She then drew her wings closer to herself to give Eon more room to work with. "I'm Paige, Falconiform and my friend here that kindly sent for you two is Esprit, Spirit ward. Its nice to meet both of you. Uh...err...as you can see I'm not exactly stable just yet heh..." She then gave him a small smile, revealing her teeth. Well, at least she was sort of relaxed. Eon looked back at me, to see how I was faring. "What?" I asked. He shook his head before turning his attention back on Paige. "In order for you to walk properly, you have to keep your claws underneath you," Eon said. "Almost like a..um..." He looked back over to me. "Dalek, what is that thing when your pushing yourself up off the ground, but you're actually not." "A push-up?" I asked. "Ah yes," Eon said, before turning back to Paige again. "You might want to try that." "You actually might want to keep the wings apart," I said, chiming in. "There are some wyverns that keep their wings apart, same distance from their body." I then decided to concentrate before inhaling and finally closed the frills on my face. "YES!" I exclaimed rather loudly, forgetting to keep it private. My victory was short lived when the frills reopened like they had a mind of their own. I quickly put my paws on my muzzle, seeing how I was lying down. "No!"

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

(introducing some side characters for now, they'll be more into the story later)

 

A Guardian Dragon stood in a clearing along with another Guardian Dragon and a Thunder Dragon. The first Guardian Dragon watched as the other Guardian Dragon carefully stroked a perfectly round rock with a stick to a rather small hole. The Thunder Dragon was leaning against something he made in his travels that he is rarely seen without now. It was carvened out of wood, extremely long in length with needle like teeth running down the actual looking blade. On the end of the blade, the Thunder Dragon took time to make it look like a thunder dragon's skull. Jutting out from the lower mouth wood piece was what looked like to be another handle, but this one being made out of a material the Thunder Dragon had found. It made a 'Bing Bong' sound if he shook it just right, but if he was being honest, it was meant to show off and scare then to actually harm anyone. "Right," one of the Guardians said. "Doey, I believe it is your turn." "Alright," Doey said rather relaxed. "Let me show you how a professional does it." The other guardian laughed and the Thunder gave a small rumble of approval as Doey walked up to his round rock, stick in his paw. "Show us, oh Mighty Doey," the Thunder said. "Hang on Wraith," Doey said. "I got to angle it just right so I won't hit Picky's rock."

 

The second Guardian Dragon gasped. "Don't you dare." "I won't Picky," Doey said. "Has anyone seen Dalek and Eon?" Wraith asked. "No," Doey said. "They're normally here by now." with that, Doey hit the rock with his stick and it smoothly rolled to Picky's rock. "I'm kind of a bit worried," Picky said. "Dalek and Eon never miss a game unless one of them is sick." "Do you think we should go find them?" Doey offered. "This game can wait. I'm more worried about them." "Agreed," Picky said. "I second it," Wraith said, taking off in flight, his weapon making some noise as he did. Doey and Picky were not too far behind.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Raptor of Dragons

[DuskOfTheStars]

He turned back. Again. The Su set reached for her, only to withdraw his claw as teeth snappened hairs away from them.

 

Dusky shot him a look of loathing. "No help. No help."

 

End backed up. Yep, definitely pissed. Awesome.

 

She hissed.

 

Then he cleared his throat. "Try pushing down with your front claws."

 

She responded by straining mightily, her body barely moving up, never mind getting off the ground.

 

The Sunset reached out again.

 

"No... help. No help." she snarled before straining again. No lifting off the ground. Her claws scrabbled and slid. She growled.

 

He could only shake his head at Dusky's misplaced pride. She never asked for help. She always pretended it was just gone. It wasn't fine when the Magi went missing. It wasn't fine when the eggs she'd hunted for were lost and died. It wasn't fine when people calledher stupid. And from it was born a desire to never need help. To be tough. No matter how much she cried ir failed, she had always stared them down. Said she was fine.

 

 

 

----

 

 

The Magi paced, chewing on a mana shard. She was running low on money. Money meant food. How long was it since she had had a proper meal? Oh, she had spells, but spells to rend your opponent's guts, spells to summon magical constructs, spells to tear apart bone - they weren't good for much of anything beside battling. Worse yet, she was low on magic and mana shards. The one she was eating? Her weekly allowance, eaten when Cirion's phase changed. She'd be out next phase.

 

Then she saw the Moonstone duo. Lachrymose Moon and Lunar Starlight, outside her cave. They were always racing. Or practusing for a race. They won money, didn't they? She needed money.

 

She teleported out.

 

The Moonstones yelped, as much as a dragon could. Lachrymose was female, Lunar was male. They were always in cross-country relay races as a team, handing off to one another.

 

Oh, yes. This worked.

 

Pasting a false smile on her face, the Magi stepped towards them. "Hello."

Edited October 9, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[XiraCaster]

"In order for you to walk properly, you have to keep your claws underneath you, almost like a..um..." "A push-up?" "Ah yes, you might want to try that."

 

"A push-up...?" I echoed, tilting my head in slight confusion. How could I possibly muster a push-up in this form? Then again, I only had to keep what could be assumed was my forelegs under me in such a fashion. So...claws beneath huh? Sounds easy enough. Before my next attempt at walking could be made, Dalek came through and provided more generous advice.

 

"You actually might want to keep the wings apart. There are some wyverns that keep their wings apart, same distance from their body."

 

"They do?"I inquired, shifting my gaze between both Eon and Esprit. Sure enough their wings and claws matched the instructions almost perfectly, though of course it wasn't exactly spot on since it came naturally to them. "Thank you both for the advice, I think its about time that I give it a try...I hope." Looking back at Esprit, the Spiritward gave a reassuring nod of encouragement that filled me with just enough determination to get back on my claws again. Starting with my hind legs I shifted my body into a crouching position, tucking my front claws beneath as I pulled my wings in. Folding them in the neatest way manageable. With a little growl and a swish of my tail I slowly began to push myself off of the rocky floor. Though my legs were a little shaky I hadn't fallen yet. I shifted one claw then the other to ensure that the wings were kept at a respectable distance apart however, I still had yet to walk. Esprit seemed to sense my unease for he took a few steps away from me and waited. "Try walking to me. Go at a pace comfortable to you so long as you try to make it here." Nodding my head I began to take my first step....then my second. Before I knew it, I was actually walking. I didn't even care that I was sluggish and wobbly albeit a bit clumsy. I was just ecstatic to be able to move to some degree. "That's it! Keep it up Paige." At this point I was almost to Esprit, oh how I was proud of myself! That was until...

 

"YES!"

 

The Frill's sudden excitement had caught me off guard and startled a jolt out of me, causing me to lose my footing and stumble. Almost in an instant I found myself back on the ground with a thud. Oh well, least I knew I could get back up. Rising up again, I swiveled my neck around to see that Dalek's frills had closed. I was about to congratulate her on the achievement but then they sprung back out, disheartening the Frill. "Its okay, you'll get it down eventually." I soothed, taking my time to walk over to her with my Spiritward companion following a safe distance behind. "I'm sure with how much and hard you've been practicing you'll be able to control your frills in no time."

[Esko]

Suddenly, I felt something rather strange. As if some sort of energy was prickling on my skin. No, scales, I have scales now. No more skin. Realizing that I was laying on top of two dragons, I rolled off and mumbled an apology. Well, it came out of my maw as a warbled mess; I still was too used to opening my mouth and saying whatever I had to say. I know that Tonitrui always spoke in people's heads. What was that called again? Some fancy term that I don't remember. Telk-something. I fought my way to standing up again, and clenching my jaw I got back to work. I inched my arm forward, and my hand -no, paw?- scraped against the rock. It didn't hurt, but it felt weird. This would take a while, but I didn't want to wait a while. At least the racket quieted down some.

 

---

 

"You're leading me in circles."

 

"No I'm not. This is an entrance."

 

"An entrance is an opening, stupid! There's no opening here, it's a dead end!"

 

This same process occurred a few times, with the strange "special ghost" leading him to the destination. The creature revealed it was a cave. Very helpful. Toni growled and rolled his eyes at the pathetic thing. They would be going around and around the entire day if it kept leading him nowhere.

 

"Okay, for real this time. Go that way." The little ghost pointed a wing. Toni growled low, walking on. Sure. How many more times will you lie?

 

((Mouse and I are working on the post to move along the plot.))

[MyaMouse]

Harley

L had been gone for a while. Harley knew he couldn’t really be in too much trouble, being a soul, but still, where could he be? She sat on a smooth, flat boulder in a large cave, which was brightly illuminated by a beautiful (and useful) variety of mana crystals, legs crossed, bored out of her skull. They had gone through most of their candidates for transformation, and now the small, tired girl was waiting for Tulvir to return so they could go explain themselves to the newbie dragons. Harley took out a small sketchbook and began scribbling drabbles to pass the time.

 

The clunking of heavy boots caught her attention. About time, wolf-boy. She looked up from her journal to see her long-time friend headed towards her, scythe dirty with a rusty substance coating the bottom of the blade and thick black hood down. That silly lock of hair, the sky blue one, came from an experiment they had conducted years ago involving a mystery powder and 10-year-old-Tulvir’s stupidity. It was now permanently dyed there, though they weren’t concerned with removing it. She even secretly thought it looked cute, though he wouldn’t hear it from her any time soon.

 

One thing caught her attention. The dirtiness on the scythe was dried blood. Had he killed something again? He sat down and took out a rag to wipe it off, working to remove the tough, sticky dried blood. Harley looked extremely pissed. Even if she was slightly obsessed with her work, she hated, hated, hated any type of killing unless extremely necessary, and even then she didn’t like it, even to the point of becoming a vegetarian.

 

The girl got off the rock and approached her friend. “Hey Harles, have you seen L anywh-” He didn’t have the chance to respond before Harley nailed a punch to his gut. For a twenty-year-old girl at a total height of five feet, she knew how to hit hard. Tulvir was no stranger to her force, and yet he still was taken by surprise. Go figure. The wolf-boy fell backwards, grimacing. Deki watched from the distance, death mana shards in his talons. The loud sound of crunching crystals could be heard. Even though he seemed nonchalant about the incident, a soft chuckle escaped his throat, though not loud enough to be heard by his two human companions.

 

“Well hello to you too.” Tulvir coughed, standing up and brushing himself off.

 

“Compared to what those dragons are gonna do to you when you step out there to explain the situation, that was nothing.” Harley placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I’ve told you how many times before, no killing people!”

 

“Unless absolutely necessary.” Tulvir piped up, throwing her past words back at her.

 

“I still don’t like it.”

 

“I only killed one guy, and he was coming at me with a farming tool. Those things are worse to be beaten by than swords.”

 

“Tell that to the man you murdered with a scythe.” Harley didn’t quite believe that he had only killed one, but she decided to argue about it no further. “It’s probably time to go give them their mission. You’re doing it.”

 

“You’re not coming with me?” Tulvir grinned, almost in a charming way. Harley glared back, but kept her composure. Sometimes, he drove her out of her mind.

 

“I would, only to save you from the onslaught of dragons, but that’s your punishment for killing someone. Besides, someone has to look for L.” She reminded him.

 

“Alright then.” Tulvir bent down and picked up the dropped cloth to finish removing the last bits of gunk. “Wish me luck.” He turned to the small tunnel that led to the rest of the underground cave system and walked through, bending down to do so. “And good luck finding L!” He called back before continuing. Harley shook her head slightly. He was a giant ball of ridiculous, really.

 

Tulvir

 

Rubbing the spot where he’d been punched earlier, Tulvir stepped into the large cave where all the dragons were collected. A wave of uncontrollable telepathy hit him, and he clutched his head, swearing softly under his breath. It would be a miracle if he could get their attention with how loud the room was. “OI!” He shouted, whacking the scythe blade against a crystal. A metallic thwang! rang across the cave, the sound bouncing off the walls. That should do the trick. If most of the dragons heard it, they would hopefully all stop what they were doing and listen. Hopefully.

 

((originally i was going to put in everest and era's perspective but this needed to go out already))

Edited October 13, 2016 by MyaMouse

[skwerl56767]

((Yay plot!))

 

Coil's owner could only lay and listen to what was going on around her; Coil however was still as uptight as ever. The pygmy sprang into the air when a loud shout resounded in the cave.

AH!! This is too much for me! He thought. He balled up and shot a frantic gaze all over the room. Too much commotion! Too many dragons! Cramped! Chaotic!

Coil threw his paws over his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to think. Okay. Just breathe. Think. We need a healing dragon. Healing dragons must have Life mana or something react to them. So pay attention to the crystals.

Coil opened his eyes again. There were plenty of crystals all over the cave, so much so that it looked like they were inside a kaleidoscope or a geode, but all of the crystals were glowing and reacting to all of the different dragons; Coil's hopeful plan was quickly crushed.

He suddenly jumped again when a sharp clanging sound shook the cave. His eyes darted frantically, finding a strange figure to one side of the cave. Human? Where did he come from?

" Kih-loil?" The strange telepathy reached the pygmy, but he didn't respond, staring at the tall scythe the figure was carrying. What was it doing with that...?

Edited October 13, 2016 by skwerl56767

[Lemniscate]

-----~Silver~-----

As I floated in the watery tunnel, I thanked my large draconic lungs for being able to take in so much air. It was oddly peaceful and cozy in the small tunnel, if not slightly claustrophobic. I didn't get the usual nervous feeling I got when I dived into water, probably because my increased lung capacity made drowning unlikely. I probably consumed more oxygen too though... hm, would this form better for diving or would a human form be better? How much oxygen do dragons need anyway? My thoughts quickly wandered off topic, only brought back to reality by a sudden odd noise in the water. What was that? I started swimming back to the entrance of the tunnel, then thought better of it. The sound was echoing from the opposite direction of the entrance, closer to the main cave. Would this tunnel lead me to the main cave? I might as well try, since Jaq'lai could still be looking for me in the side cave. Or maybe he had gone to investigate the noise too? I could always peek out of the other end of the tunnel to see what was going on and dart back down if Jaq'lai was nearby.

 

Turning myself around, I decided to try and use my levitation underwater to give myself a speed boost. It was a little risky, but not going back for air was a risk move as well. Concentrating, I began to move myself through the water at a brisk pace. However, the tunnel didn't seem to show any signs of moving up. On the contrary, it began to slope down. A frown began to crease my draconic features as I calculated the distance to the tunnel's entrance. I wouldn't be able to turn back in time now. A tinge of panic began to creep into my mind, but I pushed it away. Stress would only make me consume more oxygen.

 

I stepped up the pace a little more, increasing it to the limit of my control. Still, the tunnel only sloped downwards. I was beginning to estimate my chances of turning around and making it out alive when the tunnel suddenly ended. A wave of dread washed over me as I realized this, and I felt my lungs starting to ache. Stupid Silver, you should have gone back and taken a breath before swimming down here. But noooo, you were too impatient. I began to berate myself as I moved my tendrils to cover my face. As I did so, I felt a sharp poke. Ow! What was that? I whirled around to where my tendril had brushed the side of the tunnel. A small, sharp blue crystal was growing there. It looked like the crystals back in the main cave. The main cave... the main cave! It must be close!

 

Rejuvenated, I began searching for another fork of the tunnel. Just as I was beginning to think it was a false alarm, I saw a crack in the ceiling of the tunnel. Excitedly, I tried to pry it open with my tendrils. It didn't budge. My spirits were momentarily dampened, but I brightened up again as realized I was a dragon now. I was huge and tough and could probably smash rocks with my body. Or at least I thought I could. Now would probably be a good time to test my theory out. Rearing back, I levitation slammed myself into the side of the rock as hard as I could. Immediately, it crumbled above me and rolled down my scales to rest on the tunnel floor. It was a bit loud, but the water muffled the sound by a lot. Enough that the dragons on what I estimated to be the surface couldn't hear it at least. The aching in my lungs reminded me of my goal, and I quickly shot myself upwards.

 

I was lucky the tunnel was just as wide above the rock shelf, otherwise I would have been in trouble. It was tight enough of a squeeze as it was now anyway. As I drew closer to the surface of the water, the glow of mana crystals replaced that of my tendrils. Although I was excited and desperate for air, I reminded myself to be stealthy. Carefully, I raised my face above the water just enough for me to be able to breathe. My body wanted me to take large gulps of air, but I forced myself to take even, quiet breaths. Stealth was of the essence. Luckily, it seemed that Jaq'lai had teleported himself back before the sound had occurred, as I didn't see him anywhere in the cave. He would have had plenty of time to search the cave I had been in, so it would have made sense for him to come here afterwards. The only reason I could think of for his absence would be his return to my cave.

 

Yet again, I thanked my luck for letting me show up on the side of the cave. Most of the dragons were facing away from me and those that weren't would have had their sight blocked by several piles of sleeping dragons. I could just barely see enough to make out a cloaked figure holding a scythe. It definitely wasn't a dragon, and it seemed to know what it was doing. Hm, maybe I shouldn't refer to the figure as an it. That seemed rude. But I couldn't make anything out anyway... Get back on track, Silver! Figure out what the... person, I guess, is doing here! Maybe they're the one who caused all this.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Silverphoenixx

[DuskOfTheStars]

Dusky's head lifted off the ground, and she stared. Now that the rogue telepathy had been blocked out, she could hear his yell. And she wasn't the biggest fan of his tone. The Alt Black had grimace-type look on her face, but that was as far as she got.

 

End of the Days had clamped his claw firmly over Dusky's mouth. Personally, he wasn't sure what to make of this wolf boy... but if there was one thing he knew, it was that s good impression could be crucial. And Dusky snapping at him would be BAD.

 

"Erm... sorry about... her." He gestured at the red-bellied Alt Black.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[Sugar-Free]

Chris's head flicked up, eyes wide and gasping.

 

"Oi!"

 

A clanging ringing burst out from the end of the cave, louder than even all the struggle surrounding me. It tore at my ears as if I was next to an iron bell, held atop the belfries amongst the monasteries. A sicky feeling of anxiety stirred within my belly, memories of towns and people looking on me...

 

Chris bounded in front of me, taking a few steps forward and angling a wing back to cover my vision. I peeked around his feathers to see...

 

"Aah!" He spotted my movement and looked back, grimacing.

 

"Stay back, Akita! This...this man...!"

 

A man, indeed, with a scythe in tow and black garb--

 

"It's him! He's the reaper guy!" What was Chris trying to hide from me? This was HIM, or at least it had to be someone in his crew. He was important, he was responsible for everything, for all of this! I tried to push around him, but he dodged and held me back.

 

"Chris, stop! He knows what we need to--"

 

"NO! He's dangerous! I...I won't let him..." Chris's gaze fell on the figure and back to me with some form of frantic irritation. After a moment of fight, he turned and placed his paws on my shoulders, looking at me with his mellow, usually kindly eyes.

 

They were grim.

 

"Stay," he breathed, just loud enough from me to hear. "Stay, and don't come near me or him, okay?" Without waiting on a reply, he pushed back and went back to the figure beyond. What was his deal, anyway?

 

"You!" He stood up tall and lifted his wings from his sides. "Who...who are you? Why did you bring us here? And what do you want with us?!" His voice...I'd never heard it so unsure-sounding, so...angry? This wasn't like him, and it worried me. He was never so curt and up-front like this...

 

Helpless to stop him, I watched and waited. But I couldn't help breaking his rule; I slowly inched closer to his side, as to get a better look at our captor. As well as an overdue explanation.

 

 

 

[Pyrowings]

Banc finally snapped out of his trance, the more rational part of his head telling him to suck it up and deal with it. Okay. Okay. Okay. So. He is a dragon now. He was kidnapped and dragged into a cave. With a lot of noise. And a lot of dragons. Would they want to eat him?! Particularly that crazy-looking giant orange snake--Calm down, Banquo. You can't do anything if you start becoming irrational... Okay, okay, use this energy like she taught you... Panic... Use it, look around... Banquo looked around, head whipping back and forth, so strangely... Away... From his chest. He did see much more, though. There were some dragons on the other side of the lake thing and an ever larger a pile of dragons past the lake, many of which he's never seen or heard of before. Some were... Well, it looked like they were talking, but Banc couldn't hear anything... They were talking in his head? Frowning, he tried to speak, but only heard a weird growling noise come from his mouth... You are a dragon now. Yeah. Somehow. Magic, right? Ha...Ha... Banquo groaned at that thought. Magic. Magic, magic, magic. It was always--

 

*CLANG!*

 

The sound reverberated through the air, startling Banquo. What in the world was that? He looked around, trying to--

 

A teal blue head popped out of the water in front of him. A giant teal blue head. The head was almost as big as his entire body! Banquo leapt back and stumbled as he tried to regain his footing, instead landing rather painfully on his stomach. It didn't seem to notice him, at least...

[Lemniscate]

-----~Silver~-----

As I continued to try and observe the figure, I noticed there was a large blurry - or was it foggy - patch in my vision. That was weird, my vision was fine a few seconds ago. All of a sudden, the fog leaped backward. What?!? Startled, I shifted my attention to the patch of fog. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the patch of fog had eyes, wings, and a tail. It was a dragon after all, not a large patch of fog. Shadow Walker probably, judging from the body type and color. Not a very graceful one either, seeing as it just landed on its stomach. However, graceful or not, it was another dragon. It was compromising my stealth. Worse, it could attempt to try and talk to me, something I really didn't want to do right now.

 

Growling quietly to myself, I quickly disappeared back under the water. For a moment, I entertained the thought of knocking the other dragon out, but I quickly thought better of it. That would be a bit too extreme, plus it would likely create a lot of noise. I didn't even know if I could knock another dragon out anyway. Ugh, curse that dragon's half transparent form. If the Shadow Walker had been more noticeable, I would have retreated immediately and avoided this situation. As it was, the Shadow Walker was likely going to become curious and investigate my whereabouts. Sighing, I wrapped my tendrils around my face. I really didn't want to have to deal with people, even if they were dragons now. Heh, in a way I supposed being a Chrono Xenowyrm fit me. They were supposed to be the most elusive Xenowyrms, after all.

 

After a while of deliberating, I decided I had to deal with the other dragon somehow, no matter how much I didn't want to. Floating to the surface again, I tried to write a message on the cave floor using my tail and the water from the pool. I didn't want to risk telepathy, but I had no idea if the other dragon could understand English or not. It was better than nothing, though. Carefully spelling out words upside down so the other dragon could read them, I wrote, "Please go away and ignore my existence." Just in case it didn't get the point, I added an unwelcoming glare. Hopefully, no more dragons would come over and investigate me.

[TehUltimateMage]

Mage -- Dinner Party with Pyro

 

I didn't really listen when she explained the locally sourced constituents of the soup, though periodically nodded my head to pretend that I was interested. The tip of my tail tapped anxiously on the ground, and it was a while before I noticed and stopped the subconscious gesture that betrayed my urgency. The other dragons would have picked up on it, though. Stupid thing had a mind of its own.

 

In the rush I nearly forgot what I was here for, but Pyro's question re-ignited some of the indignation and I couldn't help but bare my teeth and let out a low snarl. If I were sitting like a human, I would have slammed my palms onto the table and spilled some soup in the process. "All my mana stores vanished overnight! Samples, catalogues, collections over a decade! That stuff ain't cheap or easy to find, ya know!"

 

This was probably no way to act to a dinner host, I admit. "Ah I, I apologize." My frills lowered in defeat. "Been a stressful few days. But who -- or what...?"

[Pyrowings]

"Mage is on edge," Empyreal noted. I nodded at her as thanks, worry and curiosity both rising. What was going on?

 

Before I knew it, Mage had snarled. I looked over with alarm and hoped that Mira wasn't anywhere she could hear. Mage had her frills raised as high as they could go and her teeth bared. "On edge" was quite the understatement.

 

"All my mana stores vanished overnight! Samples, catalogues, collections over a decade! That stuff ain't cheap or easy to find, ya know!"

 

.... So that was the matter. The strange "misting" had caught her raw mana stores too. Though I was surprised Mage haven't heard about it before.

"Basii, will you fetch the papers?" I asked privately just as Mage seemed to deflate.

 

"Ah, I apologize," she sighed as she lowered her frills. "Been a stressful few days. But who-- or what...?"

 

I reached over and patted her shoulder, bowl in my lap held by my tail. "I suppose we have to finish this meal later, as conveniently enough, this was the exact issue I wanted to ask you about."

Right on cue, Basii cleared his throat, handing the papers to me with a sweeping bow. "Your papers, my mistress."

 

"... Anyway," I began, "About a month ago, I was doing fieldwork when I heard rumors of strangely disappearing mana. At the time, I only made a note of the rumors, not really believing that entire caverns of mana could disappear. For obvious reasons."

 

"But I kept hearing whispers about this, and I decided to visit a wizard from the Windbirth Islands who was making a trip to the mainland..." I trailed off--this isn't relevant! "Well, let me spare you the boredom; long story short, I did some testing with mana shards, and the results are both alarming and fascinating," I finished speaking and offered the bundle to Mage. It contained at least 2 weeks worth of experiments I made with light mana, dark mana, neutral mana, and magi mana, with some tests done under different light conditions, others based off location, one even done with the mana submerged in water. Another was a large map of Galsreim with marks made where I either heard about a rumor about mana disappearances, marks where I personally saw a place devoid of mana, and marks where I conducted some of my experiments... The ones where the mana did disappear had an additional mark. Some other sheets had the results of me consuming potloads of caffeine to stay up all night until the mana I was watching completely vanished.

"As of currently, mana is only vanishing along the leylines in the continent, which means that admittedly, while certain areas that thrive on mana, such as the Forests of Vivian which, as we both know, only are lush year-round due to the high concentration of life mana, are in danger of having their entire ecosystem collapse, other places like the Windbirth Isles will still stay aloft," I said, then wondered if that was too dense. "But I'm sure that somehow, this... Sublimation of mana will spread even to places like the floating islands or other continents. If and when that happens...." I trailed off again, shuddering. Floating islands crashing to the ground, life becoming unsustainable in certain places because of how dependent they grew on mana, wars fought over what little of it is left.... Mana-dependent creatures all dying... The ramifications would be incomprehensible. "As of currently, nobody is worried over this, I know. And I might be freaking out for no reason, I'm not going to discount that. Maybe I am crashing a wall to chase a mouse, but... This has only been going on for what, one and a half months? And from the anecdotes and what I personally seen, mana is disappearing at a very alarming rate... And in fact... Empyreal? Would you mind telling Mage what you sensed?" I turned to look at the thunder, who looked up from her bowl at the sound of her name.

 

"No, I wouldn't," Empyreal said, tone grave " When Pyro came to me and asked me to help her, I noticed...."

Edited October 26, 2016 by beiningtian

[Sugar-Free]

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