Hatchlings

[Renhart]

((Hope you weren't waiting too long.))

 

"We've been finding lost hatchlings, so I just wanted to make sure..." Crusher told the feathered hatchling, keeping his eyes on the water. He thought he might as well get that nagging concern out of the way first, but now he was focused on the fish within arms reach. He then quickly shot a claw forward, making a big splash, but he withdrew an empty fist from the water. "I guess I'm not very good at this," Crusher admitted, watching a group of fish dart away from him. He glanced between the Brute and the feathered one.

"Maybe one of you can show me how it's done."

For a moment, he was tempted to try using his telekinesis, but he wasn't very good at kinetically moving water and that could potentially end in embarrassment.

 

"Um, thanks..." Irah said with hesitancy as Cetn began to help her without saying a word. She knelt down to pull the last remaining thorns from her leg scales and then watched Cetn, waiting for him to finish (since she couldn't go anywhere with her tail being held on to).

Edited September 21, 2016 by Booo

[SaphireKat]

"Um...... Ok I'll try..... Vulkoor said uncertainly. He looked down into the water, expecting the silver fish to be gone, but it still swam against the current. Vulkoor took a deep breath and plunged his head into the water. Vulkoor gripped the fish and pulled out of the water quickly, sending water droplets everywhere. He threw the fish onto the bank and sneezed, trying to get the water out of his nose. The fish flopped around. "Someone kill it!" He snorted. "Good job you idiot" He thought, "Trying to drown yourself over a fish."

[Renhart]

Crusher gave Vulkoor a look that said 'Really?' before he stepped over and stabbed the fish's head with his claw to kill it quickly and not make a mess. "Okay, that's one..." he said, a little disappointed that it was all they had managed to catch so far. He looked over at where Cetn and Irah were sitting. "Why don't you two come over and help us?" he called. "The sooner we catch enough for everyone, the sooner we can eat."

Edited September 23, 2016 by Booo

[skwerl56767]

Cetn just looked up at her with a thorn in his jaws and grinned shyly, before letting go of her tail and spitting out the thorn.

" Er um, uh... yeah." He just stammered out. There was some splashing in the trickler, distracting Cetn; much to his relief, he didn't know he was this awkward around other dragons!

Crusher had looked over to Vulkoor, who simply looked down at the water blankly. Suddenly the Brute shot forward into the water, making quite the din, and threw something shiny onto the bank, shouting to kill it. At first Cetn just stared as Crusher finished it off, but then he burst out into stifled giggles.

I thought everyone could fish! He thought. Or maybe they don't eat fish?

Trying to swallow his amusement in vain, he glanced over at Irah before Crusher called them over, his grin now less strained. He quickly plodded over, trying to keep his distance from the trickler so he wouldn't slip in - he has trusted overhanging ledges one too many times before - and stepped in beside Crusher. He stayed on the ground though, where he wouldn't electrocute himself.

" You guys have electricity, right? That's what I use! Keeps you from being drenched." He looked at Vulkoor, who was sopping wet. " It catches all of the fish in the water! I just uh... need to charge it first. I sort of used it before we started fishing." He decided not to elaborate on why and nosed around for any black rocks; spotting one just off the trickler's edge, he walked over and started rubbing his tail tip on it. With any luck it was a sparkrock, and he would be ready for fishing in no time!

[SaphireKat]

Vulkoor stared at Cetn blankly."Electricity? I thought only Electrics, Thunders, and Bolt dragons had that ability." Vulkoor said. He snorted, water still in his nose. He looked back at Crusher, who gave him a judgmental look. Feeling slightly undignified, Vulkoor frowned and puffed his chest out before marching himself over to the bank, not waiting for Cetn to give him an answer. Well anyway I'm just gonna catch more fish! He said with certainty before he began staring down at the water looking for fish.

[Renhart]

Irah just smiled back at Cetn, unsure what else to say, but her smile quickly vanished once Cetn had his back turned. Why is he like that? she thought, taking her time while she walked over to the river. Is he like this with everyone?

Irah went over to the Soulpeace and stood next to her, staring into the water to make it look like she was interested, but she wasn't even hungry with such a heavy heart.

 

Crusher looked stupefied at Cetn, watching him rub his tail end on a rock. "Alright then," he finally said and walked off the riverbank and onto some dry grass to sit down on. He could have continued fishing like Vulkoor, but instead he thought he'd stay back and see what Cetn had planned since fishing was something he obviously wasn't familiar with. "How long will this take?" he asked Cetn.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Booo

[Renhart]

((Bump.))

[skwerl56767]

Cetn stared back at Vulkoor, dumbfounded. " Don't all dragons have electricity?" He asked, equally confused. He thought about the dragons he mentioned... he had heard of Electrics and Bolts, but he didn't know was Thunders were. Evidently another dragon that used electricity.

Crusher left the trickler to sit on the riverbank, anxious to have breakfast already. " How long will this take?" He asked.

" Uh, I don't know." Cetn admitted. " Usually I nap after using electricity. I don't know if it affects this at all." He kept an eye on his tail tip, but it wasn't sparking yet; it wasn't even tingling with the stored energy. " It might be a while...

So, um, about what you said to Vulkoor..." Cetn decided to make some small talk while they were waiting. " What did you mean by 'unwanted company'? Do howlers come after you or something?"

Edited September 30, 2016 by skwerl56767

[Renhart]

Crusher was looking perplexed at this point. Did Cetn really think that all dragons were capable of using electricity? And what on earth was a howler?

"Um, no....not quite," he replied, feeling that he had a lot of explaining to do. "There's a Vampire who likes to come after me. You know what a Vampire is, don't you? Well, he's no ordinary Vampire; he's much stronger and completely insane, to say the least. And as of late, I suspect that he wants to pit others on me as well."

Both Cetn and Vulkoor might now begin to have second thoughts about staying in the clan, but they had to know what they were getting themselves into or they would suffer dearly.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Booo

[ValidEmotions]

Roluth skidded to a halt, claws digging up the forest floor until his momentum pitched him forward. Chin slamming into the ground, the Colossus whimpered. "Finally!" Venia's voice carried to him, pitched with worry. The Pygmy lighted on his head, leaning over so that their gaze found his. "I told you not to run off! Imagine if y-" They sat up abruptly, rising on their hind legs and listening, tail twitching. "Do you hear that?" they asked, glancing back down at Roluth. The hatchling paused, wondering what caught his companion's attention.

 

Then he heard it too. Voices.

 

Scrambling to his feet, Roluth accidentally threw the Pygmy off their head, causing Venia to cry out with shock as they fell to the ground. Looking sheepishly at them, Roluth's attention quickly went back to the distant sound of voices and what could have been a source of water. Voices meant dragons, and dragons meant food. Excited about being able to eat, the Colossus took off running again.

 

"Roluth! Wait!" Venia shouted after him, flapping their wings furiously until they burst through a line of trees and came to an abrupt stop, colliding with Roluth's backside. Landing on the ground with an oof, the Pygmy shook themself off and got to their feet. "Now look what you made me do, you big lu-" They stopped short when they spotted the cluster of dragons at the river. "Oh... Oh my..."

[SaphireKat]

Vulkoor looked over his shoulder at the Magi. He snorted. "I knew a vampire once." He said. They're so weird. The one I met never talked to anyone and they only stared at others. Kinda Creepy. Vulkoor said with a bit of the heeby jeebies. He shook his head. "Why is one after you? He asked, now turned to face the Magi.

 

(Did he ever learn crusher's name?)

[skwerl56767]

" Vampire?" Cetn had never heard of such a thing. He didn't know just how powerful this dragon really was, so he simply shrugged off the implications. Vulkoor seemed to know what a Vampire was though, so that made one of them at least.

Cetn began to feel his tail tip tingle, and checked it. It hadn't sparked yet, but it might have enough charge to zap a fish or two... well, it might be better to charge it some more. That way they could catch more fish in one go. He tried rubbing it a little faster to see if it would help the process.

 

((EDIT: I don't think Vulkoor learned Crusher's name yet. Can't remember if he learned Cetn's, though Crusher did call Irah to come out so he could know her name.))

Edited October 2, 2016 by skwerl56767

[DuskOfTheStars]

It seemed they had moved on from fishing. The Bleeding Moon was an odd one. Electricity? Bleeding Moons didn't live around here mostly - and they weren't frequent players in dreams, so she was unsure as to whether electricity was normal for them. But did she really look like an electricity user?

 

Then their conversation turned to the Magi's unwanted company. Howlers? Based on dreams, they probably weren't it. She saw unwantwd company in nightmares, but she'd never seen these howlers as much orher than shrieks. And then...

 

"Vampire?!" Eternal Peace snarled. She knew them from nightmares. They tended to be villains, nightmare versions slaughtering dragons and hatchlings,and biting eggs. As the Soulpeace had learned, your memories could flow into your dreams. And she strongly suspected that nightmare incarnations of vampires weren't too far off the mark for most, because the vampires in nightmares were fairly consistent..

 

This one was bad. But how bad? If the nightmare ones were any gauge, more than likely she didn't want to meet him. And the insanity... nope. Not going to go out her to way to confront him. Yup, definitely unwanted, bad company.

 

Then the hatchling mentioned one that just stared, calling it creepy.

 

Creepy? You have no idea what creepy is. That's benign...

 

So they didn't all act the same. But it still sounded like the vast majority were creeps. She turned, watching the fish dart around the river. Briefly, she entertained the prodpect of going for one, then she remembered the electricity plan. She didn't want to know how much power he could put into.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[Renhart]

Crusher sucked his breath in when Vulkoor asked why a Vampire was after him. "It's.... a long story," he replied, not wanting to spill all the details after having just met him. He then realized that he had been so distracted that he hadn't thought to introduce himself. "And perhaps it would make more sense if you got to know me a bit better first. My name is Crusher, by the way."

 

Crusher then heard a voice that he didn't recognize and turned his head to see two hatchlings, one orange and one green, standing a short distance away. "Hello there!" he called to them, "Don't mind us. We're just catching some fish and then we'll be on our way."

Edited October 3, 2016 by Booo

[Renhart]

((ಠ_ಠ))

[Renhart]

((Is everyone stuck or something?))

[DuskOfTheStars]

((Nobody's saying anything to EP, and I'd think there'd be a reaction to her reaction. Also I don't know what to do with her.))

[SaphireKat]

{IDK what to do with Vulkoor :/ }

[Renhart]

Irah directed her attention to the Soulpeace when she snarled. Did she know the nature of Vampire dragons and have a strong aversion towards them? Or maybe she was like Irah who had only ever met one who was extremely malicious, and she assumed that they were all evil. Crusher had briefly mentioned Vampire dragons to Irah before, saying that they only come out at night and steal others eggs, but that was all she knew about them. "Are they all really that bad?" she asked the Soulpeace, hoping she had met at least one who was friendly.

 

((That's all I can think of right now.))

Edited October 9, 2016 by Booo

[DuskOfTheStars]

The Soulpeace looked up, staring at the other dragon. A bright metallic. She spat, "I've seen the creatures bite eggs, murder hatchlings and adults, and terrorize dragons with their presence. What do you think?"

 

Eternal wasn't going to mention her dreamwalking. Why should she? She had discovered other dragons... did not like... it. It made sense, though. Dragons believed dreams were private things. Well... the truth was different. There were probably others like her and the old Daydream. They could be idealistic, neutral, or malicious. But what was odd was how dragons could get so... she fidn't know how to dexcribe it.. over ordinary dreams.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[skwerl56767]

((Had some inspiration. Also if humans had been encountered by the Hatchlings before and they could communicate smoothly I can change that part.))

 

Cetn only idly listened to the conversation as the new hatchling explained how bad Vampires were. Sure, it sounded bad, but the sheltered Bleeding Moon had no idea just how much of an impact a murderer would make, so he could only interpret how awful a Vampire - or at least, the one targeting Crusher - could be. The best thing he could compare it to was a Walker killing an animal, just to cut off its head and leave the rest to rot; Walkers being those short, upright, hairless creatures that wore artificial scales on their bodies and spoke to one another with verbal noise that a dragon could just barely understand. He had only seen a few of them hunting, with weapons that weren't attached to their bodies, but he had only seen one hunter that spoke about "hunting for sport". Maybe Vampires were the same way, and they just hunted for sport? But what sort of dragon would hunt other dragons? That didn't make any sense!

Cetn's mind buzzed with these quizzical thoughts, thinking about all of the things the other dragons talked about that he didn't know. It seemed like he would learn a lot, being with these dragons. Despite Crusher implying the danger of being with him due to his... pursuer... the prospect of exploring beyond the little forest bubble (and the metaphorical bubble in his head) made the danger seem more benign than being attacked by a squirrel. So of course Cetn naively decided to stick around with his new buddies despite a very real Vampire threat.

 

Cetn felt his tail tingling, and looked down to it; no sparks yet, but very, very close. He wouldn't need much more charge to zap a couple of fish, right?

" Electricity is done." Cetn announced, making his way back to the trickler and keeping his tail away from the water; electrocuting himself with a spare charge wouldn't do anyone any good. He waded in backwards just a little bit, making sure he could reach the center of the trickler without being so close as to startle any fish. He waited... waited... saw a flash of silver, and waited until it gleamed again. There should be enough fish close enough to him now... He steeled himself for the jolt he would feel for being in the water once he releases the charge. He let his tail fall in-

ZAP! The force of the release made the water splash as though a boulder flew in! In spite of anticipating the jolt, it was enough to make the hatchling jump out of his scales and scramble back on shore. Apparently it had charged up more than he had thought!

Eyes wide and shaking of stray droplets of water, Cetn sunk his claws into the soft earth to let his shaken nerves calm down - happened every time - and looked back at the water.

" Did I catch some? I think I caught some." He gave Crusher a lopsided grin, realizing he was acting like an amateur. " Er, that was more power than I expected. Doesn't usually... blow up like that."

Edited October 10, 2016 by skwerl56767

[Renhart]

"Oh, well... I wouldn't know since I've never seen any, except for one who's a total freak," said Irah, not expecting the Soulpeace to sound so hostile. She then heard Cetn announce "Electricity is done." and looked behind the Soulpeace to see him position his tail over the water. She didn't know what to expect, but she knew that electricity and water didn't mix well and backed away from the river's edge just to be safe. Soon, there was a big splash in front of Cetn followed by multiple fish floating belly up, slowly drifting with the river's current. "Woah... How did he do that?" she asked no one in particular.

 

Crusher's eyes widened at the sight of the fish closest to Cetn being fried almost instantly. "Impressive," he said, barely showing his surprise. "If you can do that once more, we should have enough fish to feed everyone," he told him.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Booo

[ValidEmotions]

"Ah! N-No worries!" Venia said quickly, climbing up Roluth's back to rest on his head. "We... Haven't seen any other dragons, honestly. Just came as a surprise," they explained, chuckling nervously. "Wh-What's going on?" they inquired, picking up talk about Vampires as Roluth started mumbling about being hungry and wanting to eat some fishies.

 

One of the hatchlings, a Bleeding Moon, suddenly called over about electricity being ready. Ready? For what? The Pygmy shouted in surprise as the river around the hatchling was abruptly electrocuted, causing the water to practically explode. Their paws slipped as they started, a yelp flying free of their muzzle. Reflexively, a barrier wavered into existence around them, only to shatter when they bounced against the ground. Groaning, Venia picked themself up off the ground once more, shaking off their body to dissipate the lingering feeling of embarrassment.

 

"Fishies!" Roluth cried, excited and practically unaware of Venia's spill. "Eat now?"

[SaphireKat]

Vulkoor lifted an eyebrow at the shimmery blue and purple dragon. Her reaction seemed a little sudden and snippy for the conversation. Vulkoor didn't have time to think of it because there was a loud crack of electricity into the water, causing him to jump. He stared at the Bleeding Moon. Perhaps this dragon wasn't any ordinary Bleeding Moon. Then again, Vulkoor wasn't any ordinary Brute either. "Should I tell them about my ability? Vulkoor thought to himself. No.... Maybe I'll just tell Cetn. He decided. No need making the Magi think of him as weird, but maybe the Bleeding Moon would understand. Vulkoor stared at the silver bodies in the river and stood at the water's edge. "Do you think it's safe to go in to retrieve the fish?" Vulkoor asked. He grabbed the fish closest to him without going into the water and threw it up onto the bank before grabbing another relatively close one. Then, he heard the cheerful cry of a young hatchling, and he looked to see an excited colossus. Vulkoor was completely ignorant to them until now, but the "little" colossus seemed really hungry. Vulkoor gently picked up a fish and tossed it to the Colossus.

Edited October 15, 2016 by SaphireKat

[skwerl56767]

Cetn beamed with pride at Crusher's praise. " T-Thanks! I don't know if I can charge again in a timely manner..." He jumped and whirled around when something came crashing through the brush toward them.

Large. Almost bigger than he was! Green and scaly... another hatchling?? He didn't recognize this one either. It must be an older dragon though, considering its size.

" Fishies! Eat now?" It was practically bouncing. Cetn raised a scaly brow; that wasn't the sort of telepathy he was expecting... Vulkoor, just noticing the newcomer, picked up a fish that had landed on the riverbank and tossed it over to it. As Cetn's eyes followed the fish, he saw another dragon behind the larger one, this one with its wings developed. Crusher had been looking in that direction... wait, was he talking to that dragon? Wow Cetn must have really zoned out, for him to not notice the new voice.

I need to pay more attention next time. Cetn told himself. He was about to ask these newcomers' names when Vulkoor asked if the water was safe to touch.

" Should be. I haven't been shocked yet, anyway." He answered. He tested the water in the most dangerous, stupid way by wading into it; nothing. " Yup, it's good."

 

Cetn went downstream a bit to retrieve the smaller fish that had started to float away with his mouth, before returning to the group. He walked over to Irah, dropped a fish at her claws, then walked over to the first newcomer - the hatchling that knew about Vampires and reminded him of mountains - and gave her a fish too. With only two more fish in his jaws, he tossed another one toward the peach-colored dragon for when it recovered and gave the last one to Crusher.

Well... coupled with the second fish Vulkoor found in the trickler, that was one fish for everyone. No wait... drat, he almost forgot about Artemis and the other two hatchlings! Wow, there were a lot of mouths to feed now...

Without another word, Cetn quickly went back to the rock he charged his tail with and began rubbing the tip again. He didn't want to stall when they were almost done fishing, and needed to start moving before they lost daylight or were found by any animals... or that Vampire creature Crusher was worried about.