Rise of the Dragon Riders {CLOSED}

[tenebria]

Nuana watched them walk off for a few moments, then turned and began a swift walk for the mess hall. She attempted to keep herself elegantly straight as she did so, but her stomach was growling rather hungrily, and by the time she came within sight of the entrance, she was half running.

Leilani gave a slight hiss as one of the twins DARED place his mangy hand on her saddle, but seeing as her rider had told her to go with them, she gave in, although the rigid way in which she held herself told of her displeasure. In fact she was so focused on her state of mind, that she didn't hear the tell tale out of control buzzing that began to fill the air above them... and increasingly getting louder.

[tenebria]

Visilva swooped higher as she approached the distant Vail with leisure. She was in no hurry, and she certainly planned on staying out past dark if possible, as the darkness was soothing to both her eyes and scales. As a creature of the shadows, she was much more comfortable after sunset. A sudden glint of scales caught her gaze and she hung her head down, peering back slightly to catch sight of a dragon and rider, speeding swiftly in the same general direction as she. Curious, she did a quick barrel roll into a low lying cloud, from which she could watch and not be seen. But even the time it took her to do such a swift movement was almost too much, as the duo were certainly in a hurry. Her gaze narrowed slightly and she gave a low growl of confusion in her throat. Why did the dragon's flight seem off? She thrust her wings and caught a cutting air current that swept her forwards swiftly, allowing her to glide and observe.

[Chloriosus]

Firasko warily scanned the area. Something, she felt, wasn't quite right. Crimson felt it too, and gave a quiet warning whistle. They flew two circles around the surrounding area, both time seeing nothing. Firasko whistled for Crimson to land silently, which he unduly did, swooping down and landing silently. She then let her dark eyes rove over the area again. No one was around, and they both stood there still as statues, straining their ears. There, behind that tree covered hill. A sound emerged from there. Almost unnoticable, but still barely audible. Firasko ceased breathing for a few moments. It was the swift flapping of wings. Dragon wings. Not one, not two, many. And they were approaching, fast. Firasko thought, "Wait, I as far as I know I am the only one sent out to scout at this area. And even if I weren't, there wouldn't be a large group..." Suddenly, she heard a sharp trill, like a signal. In a moment's flash, she was back on Crimson, giving the order to take off, and unsheathing both swords as he did it. Sure enough, from behind the hill came several airborne enemy riders coming straight at her. The one in the front reached was bearing a sword, and had almost reached her.

                       Crimson sped up, conducting a spin around the rider, Firasko taking a hit at the rider, who parried it and returned the attack, just to find Firasko already on his other side, and his left arm missing. With a yelp, he swung around his weapon, his dragon swooping up and following after Crimson, who swooped downward and flew on his side past through some trees, carefully navigating. Several more enemies seemed to be waiting on the floor, armed with bows. Firasko observed them as they bypassed them. She wouldn't have been surprised if their aim was about ten feet off, but it wasn't. these men were well trained, and it was because of Crimsons hard silver scales that he didn't get wounded. A line of riders approached from the front. Firasko's mind raced. She gave a small nudge to Crimson with the heel of her left foot. He slightly opened his mouth, and quick as a flash she half stood and let her right katana swipe right between two of his venomous teeth, generously coating the blade, before doing a flip jump up over the line of riders, Crimson diving under them. As she flew above them, her body contorted as he Katanas whirled this way and that. Two riders went down of fatal injury, amd another one dropped soon after, blood of unearthly color streaming out of his mouth. Crimson tucked in his wings and spun up to catch Firasko, reaching her just in time to catch her. Crimson began to turn around, but Firasko whistled to him not to. She was greatly outnumbered here, and the men and women were skilled.

                             Escape would be the only option here, but she didn't want to do that before finding their camp. "Their camp, I have got to find their camp!", she kept telling herself in her mind, her eyes wildly searching. She swerved around several more hills, the riders in hot pursuit. Finally, she spotted it, a small legion of tents hidden inside a sheltered little cave, almost impossible to spot. The cave was not natural, it had been carved out tediously of the rock, the pick axe marks still visible,and the entrance swarming with more riders taking off, trills and shouts coming up at intervals. She smirked slighty, and gave a weak pick whistle to Crimson. Interpretation: Got 'em. The swooped down racing through the tress, tying to throw off the pursuers, when more attacked from the front. Firasko guided Crimson upwards, but there were more above the tree tops. They spun upwards at sickening speed, Crimson begining to tire and his wing was throbbing. Two riders matched their speed and came at them from two directions. Firasko repoisoned her sword and jumped, signaling Crimson to come down and catch her while she leapt onto one of the other rider's dragons, decapitating the rider as if he was a training dummy. At that moment, an arrow hit her in the right arm, and another between two ribs. She doubled over then sett her teeth and braced herself before racing the dragon she was riding into the other rider. The dragons colided head on, their wings entertwining, and both of them dropping. Firasko ended other rider before juming again, just to see several riders grinning up at her. Had she seen this coming? No, she had not.


                       Crimson, meanwhile watched her from the corner of his eye when she dropped onto the other dragon and crashed into the other, before losing sight of her momentarily as he shook of a pursuer by biting the dragon in the tail.. When he looked back, she wasn't in the air anymore. Reaching a speed he had never aquiered before, he sped to where she SHOULD be in the air, just to find... nothing. She wasn't there, and she wasn't below him either. No matter where the more and more frantic dragon looked, she was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't have reached the floor in that minisecond period of time he hadn't seen her, there was no question about it, but yet, there was no trace of his rider, and the crowd in the air started clearing up. Crimson landed, running along the floor, checking anywhere if he could find her. She wasn't there. Suddenly, behind a tree, he caught glimpse of her katana. He jumped over at it. The katana was there, sure enough. Covered in red. Without Firasko anywhere in sight. The second one lay not two steps away. Crimson picked the both up in his mouth, flying at very low altitude through the trees to see if he could find some trace of Firasko, anywhere. The darkness fell, the air started clearing of all the riders, retreating to their place. Crimson found his wing tiring even more. With a sharp heave, he landed.

[wingfeather]

''I was thinking Serhan,'' Harrow answered, ''we haven't messed around with him for a while.'' He adjusted his grip on Leilani's saddle taking care to position his hand safely away from the razor scales.

[Chloriosus]

Arrow nodded, and started chewing on some straw, then spit it back out. "Good choice, youngster.", he said, ruffling his younger brothers hair. "Remeber the last time we got him? I do believe it was mud that we did it with, though."

[wingfeather]

Elexian continued his monotonous pacing of the West wall, watching the sun and waiting for night when he would finally be able to be released from duty.

Meanwhile.....

The completely chastened Dreki swarm was returning back to the Nest, they were very disappointed that the prank they attempted on a certain shadow dragon had utterly backfired and were now trying to find something to bring back their ''dignity''. Suddenly the noticed an elf patrolling the West wall, after a fast series of squeaks and croaks they swooped down and landed on the vertical wall just beneath the patrolling elf. One poked his head up and discreetly clambered over the battlements, he then began swaggering behind the tall elf in a very exaggerated way. The others all poked up their heads over the wall and started snickering, Elexian heard this and swiftly spun around. All the Dreki squeaked and hid below the wall. Elexian ran and looked over the battlements, and the Dreki immediately squealed again and flew away. The remaining Dreki who had been walking behind him had been mirroring all his actions. Elexian looked at him suddenly and laughed, which the Dreki returned and a strange high pitched chuckle.

[wingfeather]

Dagor stumped back to his forge, he noticed with a frown that the door was open. Grumbling he entered with Spruce plodding along behind him. Seeing the wiry boy in his smithy he went and hefted his war hammer to his shoulder, ''what do you need lad,'' he asked moving toward the furnace, ''Spruce lad, would you get the fire up, we got quite a few weapons to forge before night.'' Spruce made a gurgling sound then poured his lava into the furnace spilling some of the red hot liquid all over the ground before flopping down on his side and closing his eyes, filling the smithy with his loud snores. ''Well lad,'' Dagor prompted eyebrow raised, ''i'm a busy dwarf.''

[tenebria]

Leilani elegantly ignored the twins garbled speech (to her refined ears) and sped up her graceful walk, wanting to get out of their grubby clutch as fast as possible.

Nuana slowed and fixed her hair quickly before walking into the... empty mess hall. A few maids were clearing last minute eaters bowls from the tables. Frustration and hunger filled her, and she tossed her head, stalking over to a young maid "Go to the kitchen and order the best bowl of dinner that the cook has" she said in an airy tone. The young made almost dropped the bowl as the pristine rider approached her. Bowing swiftly, and almost spilling the left over contents of the meal, she rushed off into the kitchen, tripping in her haste over a broom handle as she entered. A clatter and some rather harsh yelling followed. Nuana ignored this chaos and carefully sat down on a bench, brushing the table off with a wrinkling of her nose as she brushed some greasy crumbs off the wood.

[wingfeather]

Harrow looked back at his brother with annoyance then slicked back his hair with his fingers then turned his attention back to the stable, ''Serhan attend,'' he called loudly in an imperious voice. Quickly the young teenage boy dropped the wheelbarrow he was pushing and ran over to where the two men were standing near an elegant looking petal dragon. ''Would you mind taking Nuana's dragon to her stable, Serhan,'' he asked, ''it's right through that passageway,'' he said pointing to a very ordinary looking hall. Serhan looked at Harrow, ''N...Nu...Nuana,'' he asked, ''of...course,'' he stuttered, this ''honor'' bestowed upon him driving from his mind any past happenings and pranks played by the twins. ''Good lad,'' Harrow said, he was about to walk away but then looked as if he had just remembered something, ''oh and be sure she doesn't get dirty, or else you'll have to polish her till you can see your face in those pearly scales,'' he warned. Serhan nodded eagerly then began leading the white dragon away. Harrow smirked, ''little brother, I don't know what it is these youngsters have with miss persimmon, if you tell any of em that a command was from her they will jump to it as if they were on fire,'' he said shaking his head, ''anyways where do you think would be the best place for us to watch this?''

[tenebria]

Alalëa closed the heavy oak door quietly behind her and swiftly began descending the stone stairs, her boots clattering on the steps as she hurried, her eyes downcast to hopefully not catch anyone's attention. If any had, they would simply assume the tall cloaked figure was a scribe or messenger headed back from documenting a manuscript. Finally reaching the bottom of the tower steps she turned down the torch lit hall, her steps taking her to familiar territory. The air in this dark passage was slightly mustier, the sharp scent of ink permeating the air. This was the scribes and messengers domain, but she continued past the oaken doors that appeared by the flickering flames. Her destination was the furthest door, the oldest door.

[tenebria]

Visilva's view was obstructed swiftly from the dragon and rider by the thick clouds that shifted over the Vail. Folding her wings she dove beneath them, only to find the pair gone. Her eyes narrowed, and she swiftly began swooping along the ridge, eyes searching for any glint of wings. Finally she began to wonder if they had simply vanished into the mist, as the sun dipped lower and lower. Until suddenly a flash caught her eyes, but a ways off from the edge of the Vail. For a moment caution and curiosity were at war, and it was quite a good thing they had. For as she hesitated in the cloud cover, yet another glint of scales blinded her vision, and she turned her bright gaze. What she saw froze the blood in her veins, and she billowed her wings, shooting herself upwards on an air draft deep into the cloud cover. Dragons. And not just dragons. Riders. And not from the Nest.

[Chloriosus]

Sorgen laughed nervously and leaned on a small counter like table, almost knocking down some tools. “I was going to sign up,”, he started , then paused to stare ant the fat green dragon vomit out a bunch of molten soup like lava. “ For the dragon tournaments.”, he finished. “Would I have to meet any requirements or anything like that? I mean, except for having a dragon to ride, of course.

[Chloriosus]

Careful to keep as much to the shadows as possible, Crimson systematically scoured the forest floor in search of his lost rider, the two Katanas still securely stored in his mouth. He checked over the whole groundwork where they had fought, also taking care to watch the trees, but coming across nothing but some unfortunate enemy stragglers who had lost their dragons in the chaos. And slowly, minute after minute, the conviction dawned on Crimson that Firasko was gone. That she was not coming back. He didn't want to believe it, it was hard to imagine his silent and unquitting rider gone. She was very skilled, very resourceful, she had to be, surely she had found some way to escape. Maybe she had fallen onto another dragon on her fall, or maybe she was looking for him. That was the thought that fueled back up Crimsons determination, it strengthened his stamina to keep searching. Every so often he stopped and whistled out the sound that he had chosen for her name man years ago, but no whistle answered him. After a while, he quieted a little bit. His search wasn't off, but he was aware of the possibility that he could possibly be followed by his sounds. He moved his search area closer to towards the Nest, keeping watch lest someone was observing him.

[Chloriosus]

Arrow thought this over thoroughly over the course of one milisecond. Bold of you to think he would waste more time than that, let alone stay on the same thought. "Of course, the feed sacks do well. As do Firebomb and Spitball's heads."

[wingfeather]

The sun had only set halfway, the Dreki, who had remained with Elexian even as his friends abandoned him, was sitting on the elf's shoulder. He yawned cavernously, Elexian too was feeling a little tired. It had been a long day, but he wanted to see his dragon again and could not wait for his replacement to arrive, just a little longer, he kept telling himself. Despite being at such a high altitude he was beginning to get hot, especially with the settling sun blazing right at him. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and continued walking, being refreshed every once in a while by the evening breeze.