Rise of the Dragon Riders {CLOSED}

[tenebria]

Visilva clamped her teeth down hard as the paralizing feeling began to shift to the sides of her mouth, and her snout. She flared her nostrils, trying to keep herself moving and attempting to not panic. Although she definitely was. Her heart began racing, whether from the venom or from exhausted fear, as she realized the truth. The poison dragon had been carrying the katanas in his mouth. Of course he had gotten venom on them. And now that venom was in her mouth and traveling through her veins. Just at that moment, the sun burst over the horizon, blazing into her eyes. She winced, narrowing her eyes, and the Nest came into view. She was so close! Determination flashed in her gleaming gaze, and she thrust herself forward, wings straining as she sped towards her home. She was not only racing her exhaustion, but also the venom in her veins. The early morning air currents billowed under her wings, pushing her faster. As she neared the Nest, she could make out faint figures on the parapets. Summoning strength, she let her jaws open slightly, and let out a bellowing harsh cry that was slightly muffled in a gurgling noise as she tried to not lose the katana at the same time. Someone had to hear her and be there when she landed, because she wasn't sure if her jaws would work by the time she got there.

[tenebria]

Dálkr moved along the northern parapet, heading further to the west. The guard on that side most likely had already descended, despite the fact that morning had barely risen. As he rounded the corner, he frowned. Correct he had been. The only sign of any guard was the stone gargoyle that was crouched on the ledge. Turning his gaze back to the horizon, his eyes caught a glitter of movement and he frowned, leaning forwards slightly. What was that?

Kivlaa was keeping her eyes well trained on the ocean, which was a glorious sight in the first touches of dawn. The light shimmered across it, the water turning so many shades of beautiful blue and gold. She let out a slight sigh of peace, then stiffened. There. The dark shape, no longer so dark and glinting brightly, was speeding back. For a moment she growled low, wings flaring slightly. But something of the movement of the dragon stilled her. It was familiar... a bronze dragon... wait she'd seen them fly before! Rarely had she seen them in the nest, but she now remembered them to be no threat whatsoever. A slight smile came over her muzzle in relief, and she lifted her gaze over the ocean one more time, shifting herself as she prepared to abandon her post to go hunting. But what she saw when she raised her head, seemed to freeze her. Black dots, hardly visible in any true form, had bristled over the horizon. Dragons? Kelpies? They seemed too large for such creatures. A growl built in her throat, and she let out a low lilting clearly warning cry to her master... and the same moment as he let out an irregular shout.

Dálkr kept his eyes trained on the reappearing shape that was unsteadily making its way to the Nest. A dragon no doubt.. but why the irregular flight pattern? He frowned in a concentrated fashion. The scales seemed to be of a dark blue, and he could see the glint of white horns. Which dragon was that? For a moment his memory left him, then his eyes cleared. The shadow dragon! She must have gone out flying during the night. But why did she seem almost ill in her movements? She drew closer, and a choked gurgling cry escaped her throat, seeming to him quite clearly a call for help. Why was the dragon not opening her jaws to cry louder? He let out a growl of frustration. What he would give for a spyglass at that moment! Instead he waited, eyes trained on the dragon as she continued her approach. And then the glint of metal shone from her mouth. Dark metal. A blade. The Elf's eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right. This situation was not a regular one in the slightest. He began to hurry his way down the parapet towards his silver dragon. He felt the unexplicable urge to go down and meet the shadow dragon as she landed, and he wanted Kivlaa to be there. She might not be the best socializer, but she was a dragon. Another cry, this one seeming almost pained, came from the west, and he hurried his pace even more, letting out a low shout for his dragon.... just at the moment a warning cry sprang from her own jaws.

[tenebria]

Morvok growled low in his throat, eyes gleaming with undampened anger. "You know FULL well what you did WORM!" he growled in shaking anger, his claws clenching the dirt. Varp glanced at the sharp claws and gulped slightly. No doubt the enormous beast was imagining his own skinny neck in those claws. It would take another level to get out of this. "I only wish I truly did, for then I could pay repentance for my wrongdoings against you o great, fearful Morvok" he said, rolling his head slightly to the side so he could speak without a full mouthful of dust. "Does the word DEADLIGHT bring anything to mind?" he bull like dragon growled, blowing an angry breath out of his nostrils. Varp seemed to look as if he were searching for the word, then his eyes widened in shock "You mean the POISONOUS deadlight? No... did... did someone try to disorient you before your battle?" he asked, eyes glimmering with shock and amazement at once. It was quite the art. He was very proud of his ability to even change his eyes expressions. Morvok let out another snarl, but looked slightly less certain now. "They did, YOU did" he said, quickly getting back on track. Varp shook his head, getting a mouthful of moldy dust at the same time. "No, no my liege, not I! Perhaps if we think, we can find the culprit?" he suggested cautiously. Morvok glared at him. "I HAVE been thinking" he growled in anger at the insinuation. Varp quickly nodded "my humblest apologies again master, i fear I have displeased you. Let me nulify this evil of mine by helping you discover the one who is set against your awesomeness" he said, pressing himself against the dirt as he held his breath. The dragon seemed to search him with his enraged glare, before giving the slightest of snorting nods "Tell me now, WHO did this?" he asked, his claws clenching again. He wished to see the blood of this opposer staining the ground before him. "Let us... me, let me think of who could have benefited the most from your disorientation" Varp said, swiftly adjusting his words to appease the beast. As he did so, the sounds of the guards and riders began to grow in the camp, as dawn had come. But the noise... was so much more than usual. His eyes glittered slightly with distraction as the sounds of harsh shouts and grinding metal caught his ears. The scrape of bone against metal got his attention swiftly, and he hastily turned his attention back to his more immediate problem. "WHO?" Morvok thundered. He wasn't interested in the whys. At this point, all he wanted was a name. And that could be easily supplied. "Who did you fight last night? Who caused you pain last night? That is who" Varp said, eyes glittering. Morvok's eyes cleared, then seemed to be smothered with rage, his nostrils flaring as he lashed his enormous tail. "DIAVOLO!" He snarled in low pure anger. "My liege, you are so wise, so powerful, I cannot imagine he thought he could escape with this! I know he stands no chance against you at your full strength your glorious fearfulness" Varp said, adding the idea of attack even more strongly as he groveled in the dust. Morvok gave a low bellow "HE WILL PAY!", and then he spun and thundered off, heading for the arena cages. One fire dragon was about to get a nasty surprise. Varp rose from the dust, shaking himself off and wincing as his new cuts on his belly zapped with pain. But it could have been worse. So much worse. Padding over to the edge of his cage, he dove his nose into the cracked bucket and sparing slurped up the last of the muddy liquid at the bottom, allowing his tongue to feel slightly less like a dried sponge. Now... now he could turn his attention to the bustle that had overtaken their camp.

[Chloriosus]

Ice contemplated that thought for a second before giving in. "I suppose that is how it was, though I am quite sure it changes from moment to moment." As they exited the stalls taking care to be very quiet so as not to wake the other dragons, some of which seemed to be arguing with enough rage to decapitate each other, they discovered some dreki with stones pinning to the ground. They were squirming and sqeaking like sick piglets pitifully, and were trying to unflatten their spine. As the two approached, some dreki started spitting their fire shells at them. Ice ducked his head. This was not his line of power. "They've been here alright.", he said apprehensivly.

[Chloriosus]

Regen bristled again, and this time her eyes sparked a bit with excitement at this argument. At Leilanis' remark that she only represented the pretty flowers she gave an exaggerated yet inquisitive spark. "Really? I didn't know that, because I really couldn't tell. I don't think anybody else here can, either. And no, I by no means meant the Umbictu flower. I meant the much more horrendous Frictous flower." At this Sorgen began moving again. The fact was that he was a sleep walker. Of course most dragons probably don't know what that is, so this whole scenario must have seemed very strange indeed to them. I don't know about Leilani, but Regen thought this behavior really peculiar. First he started stalking about the stall, mumbling unintelligible words whilst stumbling about. At first Regen found this quite humorous, but things took a more dire turn when Sorgen unsheathed his dagger and took up a fighting stance against Regens' tail.

[Chloriosus]

As the dim yellow streaks turned to deep red vile stipes, Crimson put on a final attempt of speed towards the nest. He could already make out some of the individual rooftops of the various buildings. His eyes swerved the area just in case he could catch a glance of the shadow dragon already down at the Nest. He couldn't see her anywhere, so she was probably already back with the riders. He swerved the area for a landing place.

[Chloriosus]

"Alright Irrational, release! No not that, the other thing!" The next moment a small wad from a miniature trebuchet was launched against a clay bottle, hitting it on the rim, then bouncing back and clattering harmlessly to the table. The bowl stood there, unspeaking, as if mocking its attackers. "Ughhh!"Astolet angrily removed the somewhat greased over and already darkening with use set of goggles from her eyes and firmly set them down on the table. "This isn't working! I was SURE it would work this time." She propped her right leg against the table and rubbed her eyes stifling a yawn. This was exactly the 39th time she had said that very phrase within the last six hours, and staying up all night with nothing to show for it with a crow who kept chanting phrases over and over were taking a toll on her train of thoughts. She breathed out and took up the small model, examining it's mechanism carefully. "No use, It'll work this time" Irrational cawed, hopping about and cocking his head at the little wooden thing. Carbonite was taking a nap under some spiky weapon prototypes, not even bothering to open his eyes. Irrational unduly hopped up to him and pinched his tail. "No use!", he cawed. "No use! I was sure it would work this time! Fetch a bolt, Carbonite!" Astolet shot him a half despaired smile before diverting her eyes back to the trebuchet. "The leverage is well enough alright. If I were to increase the length of the firing stick proportions any more it would be likely to misfire or give inaccurate results." She carefully moved the leverage rod up and down, testing its resistance. "Maybe I should try heightening the resistance.", she said thoughtfully, glancing outside the window. The dark was slowly fading. "Would you look at that, its almost morning." She stared blankly at the sky for a few seconds. Irrational was getting tired of all this, and to show that he was getting bored he began dropping all sorts of tools from the table. The clattering sound drew the inventresses attention back to the earth of non mechanical things. "Hey! Ratch! Cut that out! Get off!", she shooed him off the table with an indignant air. Irrational flew off the table and hung upside down on a pole that ran across the room, doing his best imitation of the sound and sights of a bat. Astolet shook her head. "Alright, I'll try tightening the spring works some more." She set down the model and checked under the table for her tool. While she was dong that, the perpetuously boisterous crow fluttered down onto the table and twisted at some springs with his beak. Carbonite lazily opened his eyes and began waking up. Unlike his bothersome feathery friend, he needed his nights sleep. He quickly analyzed what Irrational was doing and yawned, spitting the oil that collected in his mouth over the night into a bowl that stood near the furnace. "Ok, I got it." Astolet tightened the spring with her tool, handing it to Irrational when she was finished with it. The crow immediately dropped it back on the floor. "Lets test this shall we?", he asked with a merry imitation of Astolet's voice. She nodded and placed the small ball back in the concave holding stone. "Yes, we shall.", she said resolutely, putting her goggles back on and aiming the trebuchet for the bowl. She then pulled back the lever stick, and released. What happened next was a very chaotic scenario. He small stone ball was flung with so much force that it not only shattered the bowl, but ricocheted off the wall and headed back towards carbonites direction. Astolet ducked under the table and Irrational fluttered into the air with indignant squawks. From one of the spiky weapons the ball ricocheted back to the wall again and headed back through the room. Astolet noticed it was heading for Carbonite, and quickly jumped up and moved him. The ball missed Carbonite, but it his the little pot of grease that had been recently filled, casting it into the fire. "Seriously?", were Astolets' and Irrationals last words before an explosion ensued that blasted off the top of the furnace. Irrational and Carbonite were thrown against the roof, and Astolet ended up on the floor. She was about to get up and start putting out the flames that had ensued, when a searing hot pain she had despite her years as an inventress hit the area of her right hand. Or rather, where her right hand HAD been. With growing horror Astolet realized the blast had blown her hand off. With a gasp, she started flailing her arm, gritting her teeth as she scanned the ever more flaming house for the duo. "Bad bad bad bad BAD!", she gasped between coughs. She finally caught glance of Carbonites scales witch were glowing in many bronze tones. He grabbed her left hand in his mouth and flew outside along her, where Irrational was attempting to put out the flames by spiting about him. Astolet stared at the burning house in disbelief before realizing what exactly had caused this. "IT WORKED!!!", she exclaimed throwing both arms in the air before realizing what a bad idea that had been and bringing her right arm back down, gabbing it firmly around the upper arm, cutting off the circulation. Right.",she said bitterly. "Ok, Carbonite, you and I try to salvage things as fast as we can. Irrational, you fly for help!" The crow fluttered off, and CArbonite and Astolet, who thougt of inventions now and everything else later, began to drag out various prototypes.

[tenebria]

Leilani gave an angry hiss, her calm visage broken slightly as her eyes flashed. HOW DARE THE CREATURE CONTINUE TO INSULT HER! Before she could get out a retort, the human in the stall began tottering around, then seemed to draw his blade and set about attacking his dragon. She watched for a few moments in disdainful confusion, then shrugged. If he was going to kill his own dragon then she would be the better off for it. Leaving the two to deal with their issues, she curled up tightly, blocking her ears to any noises, and falling asleep in sudden exhaustion, not realizing that dawn was already making an appearance.

[wingfeather]

Dókar watched through slitted eyes as the distant pinnacle, he knew to be the Nest, came into sight. He rubbed his huge hands together as the red sun began rising. Here he was in his element, at his back were some two hundred ships, all carrying at least fifty men each minus crew, plus about twenty dragons depending on the count of weapons and other warfare machines that was being carried as well. The ships were not in full sail since he didn't want to be upon the Nest too soon, he was waiting for the signal, the sign that they were to attack. He count help but smile, the sunlight glittering in a sinister way off his gold tooth, this was a day he had been waiting for for a very very long time.

[wingfeather]

Harrow woke up suddenly by the sound of clanking cookery. They were hidden away in a low key area so no one had discovered them yet luckily. He shot up suddenly, ''Arrow,'' he whispered hoarsely, ''this is the worst thing ever! It's a catastrophe! A disaster of the worst kind!'' He leaned in closer to his twin, ''we slept,'' he said in a very quiet voice as if the very mention of the word would bring fire brimstone and all the curses of the world upon them.

[tenebria]

Varp slid lower to the ground to avoid eye contact with any others as he let his drooped gaze sweep the grounds. Riders and guards were beginning to make their appearances, rushing too and fro, weapons strapped to their backs as they began unlatching cages. With their evil studded whips loosely held as a warning, they herded a large crew of dragons to the feeding grounds. It was so early... why were they eating so early? Varp shifted his wings in suspicion, then winced. New rips scarred the fragile membranes, a reminder of the thrashing he'd endured a few days ago at the claws of that hated bull of a dragon. Suddenly a dark eyed elf strode up to his cage, cracking the whip lazily against the bars. "Keep to the ground beast, or i'll be forced to iron tie you again" he warned in a deceptively drawling tone, lips curling in a disdaining sneer. Varp winced despite himself, his limbs remembering all too well the increasingly familiar weight of those metal alloy clamps that turned him into a helpless lizard. Immediately he averted his gaze, and the guard let out a low laugh "That's it" he said, unlatching the door and throwing it open with a grunt. "Crawl on out, you know the way" he said as he tapped the whip against his boot. Varp immediately almost ran out in haste to escape from reach of the whip, and in vain hopes to reach the feeding grounds before the more territorial dragons. But the guard knew him too well, and couldn't resist having fun with the lowliest of dragons. A familiar slithering sound made Varp shudder, and before he knew he was reacting, his scales unhinged and he threw himself into a mildly more reinforced ball, just as the painful whip snapped out, the studs scraping against his scales and making him wince. The guard let out a disgusted snort and shoved his shoulder against the scaley ball. For a moment Varp was worried he'd be catapulted helplessly, until he remembered it was simply an elf. That was the one good thing, only a dragon could move him in this position.

[wingfeather]

Dagor awoke with the sun and was soon up and about. He generally never bothered with breakfast and thought it a waste of time for in the mornings was the best time to get things done in his opinion, also it was the only time when annoying young riders wound not barge into his forge clamoring to get their saddle buckles unbent or a new edge set to their blades. He started up the furnace and began setting out the design for a new weapon he was making. He picked out his best metal and found his most precise tools, then set to work, the clangs his huge war hammer drowning out the snores of Spruce

[wingfeather]

Elexian woke very suddenly, he glanced in the direction of the window to see the first pale rays of morning light seeping through. He sat up quickly, something was off. He checked under his bed to see if the Dreki gad come raiding in the night and stolen his boots again... nope they were still there. He slipped them in quickly and laced them tight, but still the feeling of foreboding stayed. Quietly he walked out of the barracks and luckily just before the commander strode in to begin yelling at everyone to get up and overturning beds to show how serious he was. Elexian shivered slightly in the early morning air as he quickly exited the barracks and made his way towards the stables, still unable to shake the dark feeling he had woken up with.

[wingfeather]

From within her cage a black and blue feathered ball uncurled itself and stretched as much as she could within her cramped enclosure. After ruffling her feathers and smoothing them down again she looked out her cage. It appeared that the other dragons were still asleep, or at least mostly. She found herself looking out for a certain elf but  growled low to herself. She didn't like him and never wished to see him again, but even so she could not take her eyes off the place she knew he normally came from. Her stomach growled suddenly and she looked around and sniffed the ground to see if there was anything to eat. But she didn't have any luck. With a sigh of resignation she settled herself to wait for the one who always fed her. To amuse herself the feathered dragon ran her tail back and forth across the bars.

[wingfeather]

Fire quickly dodged a small colorful ball of fire, ''seems so,'' he said as he continued walking. He looked up at the sky, ''this is about the time when they'd be drinking that vile black stuff made of dark rocks that makes the two of them go nuts,'' he told Ice, ''do you think they could be in the mess hall?''