sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Thu Jun 29, 2017 5:38 am

Castles were still separated into small rooms on the inside and if those were removed it would probably collapse, but he decided not to get into such technicalities when it wasn't even a serious discussion. Her next words worried him more, not because of their exact content but because of Zerechia herself. "You're not a different person to who you used to be. Not really." He said quietly. "No more than the me right now is different from the me from our first meeting, or the me from before the incident that had me falsely branded as a criminal. Of course I'm different, but I am the same person." It was almost circular logic, but it made sense if one thought about it. Of course, that didn't mean she'd still want the same things if she actually knew why she decided to rid herself of most memories. Knowing the reason even without feeling the same emotions could be enough for her to change her mind. But it wouldn't be fair to turn back because of that; it would be so manipulative and selfish he would no longer be able to say he really did love her with a straight face.

"Can't say that I have." Kilian mumbled when she revealed that small bit of trivia about dragons dying all over the place. Either it was too dark or he was too focused on watching and listening for living dragons, or both, but he hadn't seen anything that definitely screamed 'dragon remains' at him. There were side chambers a smaller dragon could fit inside, he supposed, and crystal growths that could have once been a dragon or covered its body, but he couldn't say for sure. Just as well, he wasn't exactly interested in seeing dead children, whichever species they belonged to. He wasn't exactly parent material, but just thinking Chia's kind sent their equivalent of Vassia to simply die and let their life aid in the creation of more crystals was extremely disturbing. So what if it took them a century to get there, they were still children among their own kind.

The central sanctum was absolutely massive, easily comparable to the lake above it, if not larger; it was a bit hard to tell with the lack of perspective down here. And covering most of the floor was nothing but bones. Everywhere, some bigger, some smaller, but all generally the same shape. "Right, right." He started walking forward again, Zerechia's comment snapping him out of his stupor. "You might want to keep your eyes closed." He added, sort of wishing he could do the same. It was one thing not to care about a species too much and entirely different one to witness a mass grave like this. You couldn't tell what it was from the outside, but everything was out in the open down here. He could understand tradition, but why did dragons care so little for one another? Just letting their young die, this complete lack of remembrance, just putting the dead as far out of the way as they could?

"Wait, other side? Not the tree?" He realized with a delay, but he wasn't going to argue: she probably knew what she was talking about. He circled a little to the right, going around the absolutely enormous trunk and roots, still taking in the marvels of this place while he could. The whole cave was one huge crystal, or perhaps countless smaller ones grown together. Seemingly lifeless, but the tree in the middle was the opposite, more full of life than anything he had ever seen. He wasn't even sure how he could tell, but he could.

What waited for them on the other side was yet another surprise to Kilian. He couldn't see it at first, next to the massive bones and glowing crystals everywhere, and no wonder. Encased within a smaller growth right at the wall was a woman's body. Just a normal human woman, save for the bright red hair on her head. He was confused at first, but then something clicked. This was a dragon graveyard after all, and there was just one person he knew of that fit the description and was related to both Zerechia personally and dragons in general. "This is Bryna?" He asked quietly and squeezed her hand tighter. In the end, it all came down to her sister.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Thu Jun 29, 2017 7:17 am

Chia was smiling to herself as he continued moving. Progress, now that they were so close it was making her spirits rise despite the headache. His next comment would have made her giggle if it was not for the tone he said it. She could tell that he was disturbed. Whatever about this place was causing him distress she had only a few good guesses. "Yeah yeah, I'm keeping them close, but I doubt the sight will bother me too much besides the headache." Chia said and she squeezed his hand sligtly to show her support.

"Yes the other side, now go." She said as she used her free hand to make a go on style motion. She was rather impatiently being led forwards around the tree. It wasn't until Kilian spoke up again as well as stop. She took a deep breath to steel herself. She hesitated. The name he spoke of sounded familiar. Important even. She could keep her eyes closed, Kilian could lead them out and they could forget all about this place and use her riches to buy a nice house and raise a family in piece and quet. A few second lated her fantasy was completely broken by remembering Casandra and realize that such a life was impossible as long as the crazy witch was on the loose.

Slowly oppening her eyes the first thing that caught her eyes was the brilliant red hair. Then the face which looked so peaceful. Her headache was all but forgotten for just a moment, as the rest of the woman's form was being taken in by the former dragoness. The tattered dress which covered her features hung slightly down from her form almost as if she was floating. Chia took a single step forward trying to put her hand to the crystaline surface when suddenly she could feel it. Jules seal broke in a wimpering instant, crushed under the intesity of memories and emotions. The migrane flared up to extreme levels, yet they still paled to the emotional anquish that Chia was feeling. Falling to her knees she cried out in a wail of sorrow and pain, both physical and emotional. As her voice filled the cavern her own but much more flawed seal broke under the stress from the memories trying to force themselves through cracks too small, as soon as it shattered everything flooded back to the dragon. Every success and every failure.

Moments later as soon as she had begun she stopped wailing. Her eyes was closed and she took a deep breath. "Ow..." was all she said which was shortly followed by a sob. She remained quiet for a while simply taking deep breaths as she calmed herself. It wasn't until Kilian voice his consern she picked herself up off her knees and stood up. Turning to face him she opened her eyes. "Oh nothing. Just thinking of how I should have just eaten you when we first met so that some adventurer could finish me off, as if I was dead I would not experience this massive headache right now. I even removed every sense of feeling and pain using the strongest pain removal spell I have ever casted, yet it still hurts more than anything you could ever imagine." Zerechia was breathing heavily through her gritted teeth yet. "If the pain haven't killed me in the next few minutes remind me to kill you." She added before letting her eyes back onto the body of her long passed sister. "Brina... I..." She spoke but stopped and shook her head before turning away. "Nevermind. Dead people can't hear. Come on, let's go before my head explodes, or Koleth get's the brilliant idea to hit on me again." She let out a pained chuckle. "I honestly don't know which is worse." She did her best not to think about much as clearing her mind did help against the pain.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Thu Jun 29, 2017 8:25 am

Kilian felt extremely stupid as he looked upon the body of Zerechia's dead sister. How did she know this would be the answer to everything? And why was this the answer? Did it mean that if he had simply told her everything he knew, instead of trying to spare her the pain of knowing, they could have avoided all of this? There was no way it could have been that simple, right? He was more hoping that would be the case than convinced of it. He wasn't sure how he'd live with himself if he knew that most of the misfortune that befell Zerechia and everyone else was caused by his cowardice. His fear that she'd leave him, among other things. Did he ever truly understand her, or what she wanted?

Her cry of anguish made him flinch, but he was sort of expecting as much. He still remembered how devastated she seemed after their visit to Ravencaw, and that was merely after a reminder of having lost her sister and what she had done to the people who took her. This was her experiencing it all over again, probably. He wasn't entirely certain of the mechanism of curing magic-induced amnesia and frankly, he did not care to learn. He was feeling enough of his own emotional turmoil in the moment, as once again, he was inadvertently hurting her. That was all he ever seemed to do anymore.

He gave her a bit of time before intruding with questions and placing a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" He asked, deciding to cast the trivial 'are you okay' to the pits of hell where it belonged; she was very clearly not, one way or another. Her response was like a needle stab to the heart, bitter and hurtful, though he supposed he deserved that. Taking a deep breath to push back the negative emotions, he decided to focus on the positives, such as her memories apparently being back. But then her mention of the headache raised concerns. Wasn't it being caused by her own seal? And if that was broken, why was she still experiencing the side effects? Could be residual pain from having it broken, but was that something he wanted to bet on after they had come this far? The answer was no, he did not.

"Wait, hold on. The headache should be gone." Of course, that was an assumption based on incomplete information. With her memories back and the seal broken, there wasn't supposed to be anything left to cause her pain. Unless the seal was still intact at least in part. "Are you sure you're back to normal? You can turn into a proper dragon, right?" Perhaps he was being too careful, but he didn't want to miss something as they would most likely never come back to this place. He wanted to be sure they had done everything they needed to, or at least everything they could.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:38 pm

Chia scoffed as she was making her way around the tree. "The stupid seal is gone, but the headache is worse than ever." She replied coldly as she focused on getting out. She did not liie being here for no reason. She was making headway for the exit when Kilian asked her if she was back to normal. The dragoness sighed before replying. "Yes I am back to normal. Yes I can turn back into a dragon I just want to stay hu-" She started before she cut herself off. "So that's why I have the headache and it only seemingly getting worse every moment. Give me a moment." She stopped moving forward and sat down on a large exposed root of the tree. Using what she knew frok her old memories as well as what she had been taught by Jules over these six months she focused her magic on herself. Putting her finger up she tapped her forehead with it and seconds later she leaned back with a sigh of relief.

She spent a whole minute just laying on the root relaxing herself. "It's gone." She funally spoke up. "Hah hahahaha." She started to laugh out loud. "It was that simple. The brain of a human simply can't hold fifteen hundred years of memories without starting to break. Good thing you made me realize or I might had just died or gone irrevocably insane before we even left the cave." She simply took deep breaths and relaxed. "You do know that getting children when I am not fully human may some effects on them right? Like my niece..." She decided to speak up both to lighten the atmosphere and to tease him a bit. Altough right now her body was entierly human except for her brain which had some subtle changes to it.

It was a while later she oppened her eyes and looked at Kilian before looking at the room around her. "Well I promised to show you the largest soulstone in existance, well here it is." She raised her hands towards the tree. "It is also here were it is the safest to um... Kill you, to then revive you." She had planned to do just that when she first mentioned it to make him a dragon like her so they could be mates for thousands of years, but that was before she started taking Kilians wishes into account.

A while passed in silence before Zerechia spoke up again. "All of this was a mistake." Her voice was soft, almost like a whisper. "I never ment to seal my memories. It was a mistake, I tried to make myself fully human so that you would accept me. I was using my magic to transform my body and then seal that instead so that I couldn't undo the changes, hoping you would accept me as a human and not a dragon." Lifting her shirt she looked down and ran a finger along her side, still feeling the old scar from getting stabbed in that alley. "You know, you're still lunch once we are out of here right?" She teased with a giggle before standing up. "Anyway we should probably move out before the others get too worried."
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Thu Jun 29, 2017 2:47 pm

Kilian felt like she was scolding him when she angrily answered the question he felt was quite stupid. Actually, he was just feeling stupid and very guilty in general right then. There were things he wanted to tell her, and probably things she wanted to tell him, but for the time being he simply wanted to be out of her way. Something was still wrong with her and he had no idea, and even if he did there would most likely be nothing he could do to help. Just as usual. It was a relatively simple matter that tormented him to no end, that the only times he was helpful at all was when violence was involved. And even at those times he had failed to guard her from harm time and again. And when violence was neither the question nor the answer, well... the past half year was a testimony to his failure as a human being.

He could do nothing but watch her do her thing and try to think of how he could possibly help out if her idea didn't work. Fortunately, his lack of solutions did not turn out to be a problem as she had resolved the issue with her headache. "Wait, seriously?" It was a rhetoric question though, he simply couldn't believe it was that simple. He was feeling more like a complete moron with every passing minute. He was used to thinking of himself as being very smart, but he didn't exactly do many smart things today. Or for a long time now. Or ever, perhaps, since studying magic was no longer the exceptionally amazing thing it might have been five hundred years ago. His whole life... He stopped beating himself up; tempting as that was, it never ended well before.

"The tree is a soul stone?" Kilian was once again quite surprised. When she mentioned it before he didn't think she meant it literally. He assumed it was as big as one, or that its shape was loosely reminiscent of a trunk and branches, or something along those lines. "But it's alive." He said in slight shock. The nature of soul stones was in their name, they were 'stones' that contained 'souls'. Their composition was not universal or singular, but they were all crystal-like formations, non-organic minerals. "It's overflowing with life, even." He added, taking a step closer as he looked around at the massive crystal formations around them. Yes, they were definitely rocks holding magic power and possibly life force; the tree was completely different.

"Soul stones aren't..." He mumbled and looked down at his left arm. Even without touching the trunk, something he was scared to do, he could feel an odd resonance with the great tree. Perhaps there were exceptions to the rule. Although much smaller in several senses of the word, Kilian himself was no less unique. A soul stone that wasn't just alive, but animated and possessing a consciousness. Was the promising young wizard long dead, his mind merely copied onto the current Kilian in the same freak accident that created his unusual power? Or was he the same person, irreversibly altered? He certainly wasn't simply the same boy. He might have freaked out at such questions once, but they seemed to matter very little now. He was himself; that was it.

"Actually, this would be the worst place to kill me." He spoke with certainty, even though he wasn't sure where it was coming from. "This tree and I are... similar. If you were to... liberate me from this mortal coil," he chuckled a bit, "I feel like something bad would happen." He didn't want to go too deep into detail as he wasn't sure of the exact consequences that would follow. He just felt it wouldn't end well. The energy surging within the trunk and roots was certainly enticing. Almost calling to him. All he had to do was place his hand on it and... Probably get obliterated beyond any hope of redemption. He could, potentially, attempt to drain the tree and become more powerful than any living dragon, and possibly more powerful than all of them together. But that seemed a little too easy. Free cheese was notorious for only appearing in mousetraps; he didn't want to take that risk, especially now that things were getting back to how they were supposed to be.

When she said this was a mistake, Kilian felt his heart fall. Luckily, she elaborated before he could assume too many bad things. He sighed in relief; it wasn't restoring her memories that was the mistake. "You're right, it was a mistake." He said a bit heavily. Her seemingly out of place comment about children made more sense now, as a prelude to the brief explanation. "And entirely my fault. It's not that I didn't accept you, I was just being... just plain stupid, worrying over something that didn't even make sense. And I made it your problem..." He shook his head. "The simple fact is, you are a dragon. And I don't want you to force yourself to be anything else, not for my sake, not for any other reason. Whatever consequences we might have to face for it." He concluded confidently.

"I think it would be more along the lines of early breakfast." He smiled back and nodded. "Yeah. Let's head back."
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Fri Jun 30, 2017 3:30 am

She couldn't help but sigh as he said that, the headache having since shrunk to the very least below the threshold of her painkilling spells. "Yes seriously." She replied to his rethoric question anyway, her eyes narrowed in very slight annoyance. Yet she decided perhaps he was just tired, she herself was very tired, yet with the shift of the structure of her mind she was no longer mentally fatigued like before. This did not stop her still very human body to feel sluggish and tired. Yet as she looked at him she could tell something was on his mind. Yet Zerechia was uncertain to just what may be going through his mind. Taking a deep breath she banished her annoyance and looked at him. "It's okay. We succeded. I got the memories back and we are both still alive." Getting out would be as trivial as simply teleporting them to where Jules was but seeing how Kilian reacted last time she was a bit uncertain she wanted to put him through that pain.

Hearing his surprise from her statement caused her to laugh. "Why yes it is." The next few moments was quite amusing to her as he stumbled with trying to grasp the idea of the tree being a soul stone. "Yes it is alive." She patted the trunk, feeling the power inside of it resonate with the power inside of her. "It is indeed, probably even more alive than you and I. If your life energy was a candle flame and I was a massive bonefire, then this tree would be an raging inferno stretching across the entire horizon." She tried to explain it. But it was quite hard tl meassure up. The energy of the tree was strong that it would easily hide the signature of Kilian if not for his aura having a sort of muddling effect.

Hearing him mumbling she simply giggled. "Perhaps you're right. Soul stone is perhaps not the right way to describe it." She spent a few moments to think about it befors she clapped her hands together. "How about spirit tree ? Sounds descriptive enough of how it functions as well as being not a stone." She smiled at him. Her mood getting better as the moments pass. "This tree is very special in the culture of the tribe of the dragons living here. It is even significant enough to be carried into the myths of mortals. Gaia, the tree of life." She added. "While I doubt there is too much merit to the myths, there is true power under it's bark. But why it is special is neither of those. The locals call it the keeper of memories. Quite fitting considering the reason we came here." She smiled at him before she looked up and the canopy. Lifting her hand she pointed up all around it. "You see those flowers. Each of them carries a distinct part of the essense of a dragon that have died in this area. I also heard from Koleth is that supppsedly a human once came far enough through the barrier before dying from an unfortunate accident that the tree was able to pick up his essense, and now the flower that marks his passing resides among those of the many dragons that have passed away before, and after him."

She looked up before her eyes settled on one of the many flowers. "That one, right at the very edge of that branch there." She made sure Kilian knew which one she was speaking about before she closed her eyes and concentrated. "Hmm... Male, and quite young. Can't be much older than four hundred years old. The energy as well as the petals are vibrant meaning he must have been content for most of his life. Probably happy even. But then there is a sort of jaggedness or maybe more like a crack in the energy, it is also seen in that dark line in one of the petals. Perhaps a great emotional pain, maybe some great shame or the loss of a loved one? But seeing as it have not quite tainted the rest of the energy means he probably let himself pass shortly afterwards." Zerechia just shrugged. "Over thousand years ago Brina mentioned how she wanted to have her own flower up there. Something about being so red and beautiful that it would make all the dragons living here envious." She chuckled at that. Yet it made her more solemn once her quick laugh passed. "If only things stayed like it did when we were young and foolish. Like how kids think they got it all figured out, but then realize as they grow older that they were all wrong." She sighed.

How adverse he was to her mention of ending his life in order to reset his body, and give him half of her lifespan, altough the latter part she still kept to herself, was quite a surprise. "You sure? Outside of here doing something like that would be risky as I could only hold your essense for so long. In here there is no way for it to escape, and I know how to extract it from the tree." She tapped the root she was using as a seat with a hand. "I would not have to make it perfect on the first try, even if I am sure that with the new knowledge from training with Jules I would be able to without a problem." She added letting a bit of her confidence and arrogance show through. She did raise an eyebrow when Kilian mentioned how he and the tree were alike. She however didn't question it and instead let it go with only a nod.

"Yeah. I supppse you're right. It wouldn't have happened if you didn't make that comment. It wouldn't have happened if I took my time to calm down before making life altering decisions too, or perhaps even just talked to you about it." She sighed. It had seemed so easy to make such a snap decision. How in her mind at the time she had thought it would make every thing so much better. "While it was a bad mistake at least we have learned valuable lessons. Now we can look forward. And I look forward to getting into a bed snuggled up next to you. Perhaps even have Vassia snuggled there with us as well." She gave him a smirk. "Well We'll have to deal with the consequenses. But in the end everything looks like it will turn out okay... Well if we manage to deal with Casandra." She chuckled at that. With her magical power and now proper training Zerechia was pretty sure she was the most powerful dragon alive, perhaps even ever, well besides the accended drake.

She chuckled at him pointing out what kind of meal he would be. "I supposed that is true." She replied before she stood up and started dusting off her robes. "Kilian, would you prefer if I stayed in a human body or if I changed into a form closer to what I was born as?" She finally asked him.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Fri Jun 30, 2017 8:04 am

"I guess you're right, names are not that relevant." He nodded when she offered a different moniker for the tree. A rose by any other name, as the old adage went, quite fitting in this case. Not to mention, how much did mortals know about soul stones, really? Not a whole lot, evidently. Even the man who was betting his life on it - that is the professor who killed Kilian's friends - didn't anticipate what had happened then. Was it because of a Gift the young man already had at the time? Or did his dormant Gift awaken because he had become something like a living soul stone? Was there even a Gift in the first place, really? He sort of assumed so because of some striking similarities between him and Casandra, but what if she had simply performed a similar experiment on herself? What if it was by more or less coincidence that their unusual abilities were of basically the same nature? It would sort of make sense. After all, Zerechia herself said it would be impossible to prolong one's life significantly by consuming another's. On the other hand, if the recipient wasn't a human but a living construct specializing in absorbing magical energy and life force...

"Chia, I'm sorry." He merely apologized as he stepped closer and gave her a small hug. "I just didn't know what to do. I thought you wanted to forget everything, so I never did tell you about your sister. And yet I still forced you to remember..." He sighed heavily. Of course, since it turned out she didn't want her memories gone, this was for the best, but that didn't change the fact he acted quite selfishly. Her talk of the tree and how she could tell the memories of passed dragons was fascinating to be sure, but if he were honest, she was all he cared about right then. Well, her and their relationship, if he were completely honest.

The question if he was sure about not being killed threw him off. Surely there could only be one correct answer. "Well, I guess you'd know best..." He sort of mumbled while trying to choose the words for the actual answer. While he was doing she had already moved on to the discussion of why all of this happened. He felt guilty, but she just kept tossing him one curve-ball after another, not giving him time to properly answer anything. "You know I'm not comfortable getting... physical when she's around. She is just a kid." He paused. "Actually, I wouldn't be comfortable with anyone else or her as an adult, either. I think it's a pretty private matter, you know?" He shrugged. He made no comment about the old witch; with Zerechia's power returned in full, it was more of a question of 'when' rather than 'if'. But then came the ultimate question, one that had been hanging over them even before she made a rushed decision to give up her dragonhood.

"If you mean that for eating me, I suppose your dragon form would have an easier time." Kilian decided to lighten the mood just a bit before getting more serious. "But if you mean just in general... that would be a loaded question." He sighed and paused for a moment. "Do you know why I said what I did after Ravenscaw? It was the stupidest reason ever, really. I felt conflicted because I wasn't attracted to you as a dragon. Physically, I mean. Because for some reason I just decided I absolutely had to be if I actually loved you. But that was just utter idiocy. I am a human, finding anything except other humanoids sexually attractive would be weird. And it has nothing to do with how I feel about you as a person. Or at least very very little. And it's not like I figured it out just now, I was just, well, I don't know what to call it. An idiot attack, maybe? Sounds about right. I was confused enough by other things that I turned into a complete idiot." He took a deep breath before continuing.

"I don't want you to be anyone you don't want to be. If you want to be a dragon, then, obviously, that would present some difficulties, but I am fine with it. I am willing to do my best to make it work, regardless of any circumstances, as long as you want it to work. And I know this isn't exactly answering your question, but it is your choice, not mine. Though if you do choose to remain in a human-like form... I liked the silver hair and eyes better, and I do believe they suited you more." He said with a slight smile. "That's how I feel, anyway. But if you insist I gave you a straight answer... I'd need more time to think, and preferably the reason you're asking me that."
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Fri Jun 30, 2017 11:50 am

Zerechia couldn't help but give him a look that was a mix between annoyed and amused. "What? I was talking about sleeping, not having sex you idiot." She gave him smirk. "But I wouldn't mind that either." Chia chuckled as she poked Kilian with her index finger. "To be honest I think sleep first would be best, then we can look at getting intimate when we are not exhausted from being awake all night." His comment about Vassia being just a kid was also rather amusing. "You know, Vassia is about as old as you are right? She can also give herself a very adult looking body if she wanted to." She added in a matter of factly way, but soon sighed and nodded. "But you are right. She is a close friend, not a lover. She may have some cuddles and some hugs but that is as physical as it goes."

"Well, no. I mean for going back to the others. You think they would react better if they saw you return with a dragon in tow rather than just me? At least it would signal a success of the mission, and it would make the other dragons less likely to attack us if they saw us. I think?" She not too certain about that. But her plan did involve making some changes to her base form. "Besides I know you'd prefer for me to be humanoid when getting intimate. That is just the way things goes. I can understand humans nof being attracted to dragons the same way. Heck I am not sure whether I am attracted to dragons that way anymore." She shrugged but also chuckled. "Altough perhaps you are right about the hair." Letting a single finger touch a lock of the hair it slowly turned silvery, spreading from the point of contact. Less than half a minute later all her soft blonde hair had vanished and what remained was locks of silver that was shining in the dull light from the walls. "How does it look?" She asked with a smile. "Illusion magic is great right? This way I don't have to change parts of my body to change my apperance just a little." She smirked. "But that was not what I had in mind. I'll show you." Chia said before she stood up and took a step away from Kilian.

Channeling her magic she gave him a quick smile before in a flash no longer stood a woman there but rather a dragon about the size of a housecat. "Oh, I think I am a bit out of practice. I was aiming to be just a little bigger." She said in a squeeky voice. "Being this small is weird." She took a few unsteady steps before she got her barings. "Can't believe I had almost forgotten how to walk on four legs, geez." Spreading her wings she flapped them carefully a few times before giving a mighty flap, well as mighty as her stature allowed, and took to the air. "Well at least I remember how to fly properly." She said as she circled around Kilian. Having had her fill of flying she landed in front of him and in another flash transformed back. "Nah, I think I'll stay human, I enjoy having a sense of touch." Her blonde hair turning silver with a quick flick of her wrist. "Now let's go back to the others, I think Vassia is worried sick." She chuckled before she started making her way towards the exit.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Fri Jun 30, 2017 4:46 pm

"Well excuse me for being a primitive human man with a one-track mind." Kilian threw up his hands. "I'm just not entirely comfortable having her sleep in our bed, either. I have a problem with commitment and relationships of any nature, just in case my former lover becoming my sworn enemy didn't tip you off." He chuckled at that comment, not that he found it particularly funny. The situation with Evelyn was complicated. He didn't really want anything to do with her anymore, but he wouldn't feel right if she threw her life away, or what was left of it, by associating with Casandra. "Yeah, I figured she could be. I just thought it was like with dragons, you know? Longer lifespan means slower maturation. I guess not?" He shrugged. In the end, it didn't matter that much. He'd feel bad if he was doing something 'perverse' around a child, but he'd feel basically the same, if not worse, if she were to present herself as an adult. He simply did not want onlookers of any sort.

"I think we should try to remain discreet while we're here and, if memory serves, I didn't see a single other silver dragon around. They might get curious and then they might get pretty pissed at you for coming back here. So maybe hold off on doing that?" He suggested, thinking his logic was pretty sound. They could probably get far enough away from the lake before the first rays of the sun graced the valley, and then nobody except Chia's dragon suitor would even know they were here. That would be the best case scenario for them, as far as he could tell. Of course, it seemed he was overthinking things again, deciding she was asking something very serious and heavy when she was not. Just as well; he wanted to get the whole being attracted or not attracted to her different forms out of the way.

"All I'll say now is I'm willing to experiment." Kilian commented when she joked about being no longer seeing her own brethren as potential mates. "But it's a topic best left for later." He added and started heading toward the exit. He felt a great relief when everything just seemed to work out, they both must have, but it was a little early to relax just yet. The time for celebration would come once they were out of this place, even if that kind of made this feel anticlimactic. Zerechia seemed to be of a different mind, however, instead starting to fool around. "Aww, who's a cute wittle dwagon." He made a joke at her expense as he watched her fly around him in a circle. Well, no harm done, he supposed.

"What do you mean, you enjoy having sense of touch? Do dragons not have it?" He asked as they started walking back through the massive tunnel leading to the surface. There was no way she meant that literally, he thought, but to be fair, he knew little about her kind still.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Sat Jul 01, 2017 4:35 am

"Hah, and your current lover wants to eat you. Literally." She replied by giving him a silent rasberry. But soon after she looked at him thoughtfully. "What happened with her anyway? She just kind of vanished on us." She asked him.

Zerechia hummed as he brought up the point about slower maturation. "Maybe. I only know she have the ability to have a more mature body from what she told me, but I don't know what her actual relative age is. She sure acts like a kid sometimes." She tilted her head back and fourth as she thought about it. "Maybe we have to ask her to be more clear about just how old she is, compared to a human." She just added with a shrug. "Regardless I think she is welcome to stay with us if she still wants to. But then she get her own room and bed." She gave a confident nod. The dragoness had already started thinking about the potential house they could have. "Now that I think about it, should we um... Invite my niece to come live with us? She seemed so lonely last time."

"First of all, I can make my scales the coppery colour of the dragons living around here as well. But even so they would reccognize me because of my aura. It's how Koleth did." She held up a finger. Flipping up a second to join the first she continued. "Secondly, I was thinking of something a lot less noticable." She huffs with indignance. "It would just be easier to show you." Her nose flared as she huffed again.

She had not minded him joking at her expense during her flight, She was just happy that she was able to be silly again. Also her fear of heights was not making her uncomfortable this close to the ground so she was actually enjoying flying for once. His confusionnover her comment as she transformed back caused her to chuckle a bit. "No not really. Well besides in our tongues." She explained. "A dragon's sense of touch is very underdeveloped. Most likely because of the heavy scales. As a full sized dragon I doubt I would be able to feel you touch me. Anything less than a heavy strike from sledgehammer would not even be noticable." Zerechia was making a swinging motion as she said that. "I doubt you would be able to feel a casual poke to your chest if you wore heavy armor." That was a pretty decent anology Zerefhia thought to herself. "So yes. Dragons do not have a sense of touch. Not really a sense of taste either to be honest. Human tongues are so much better at picking up all the delicious flavours." She was starting to drool as she thought about food. If there was one thing Chia was certain was always going to be a constant for her, then that would be her appetite.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:31 am

"Yeah." Kilian hummed. "Yeah, I guess that is kind of odd. That and me being okay with it." He shrugged. He had thought about it enough without making any headway, so why keep bothering? "I don't really know. I think the soul enchants really fucked with her head. Last we talked I said some pretty nasty stuff, that she mostly deserved mind you, and she probably just snapped. I mean, telling me to go to hell is one thing, going rogue on the hunters is something else. There was no word of her still when we left for the desert, and given the circumstances, well... She might have gotten involved with Casandra." He sighed a bit heavily. "And she used to be such a nice girl, you know? A little up her own ass, but... Well, whatever." He ended the topic with another shrug. There was little more to say. He wasn't going to take responsibility for her decisions, he beat himself up for various reasons more than enough over the years.

"Really? When did that happen?" He didn't see the need to hide his surprise and slight jealousy, perhaps. Zerechia had always spent more time with Vassia than he did, being practically inseparable with the little vixen during waking hours, but she only started talking after he had finally made up with the dragon turned human. He was pretty sure he didn't miss that much of their time together, and yet apparently it was enough that something rather important like that slipped past him. Then again, the only time he inquired into her past was when he asked for her birth name, just in case she might prefer that to the name they gave her when they still thought she was an actual fox. "Anyway, I'm not saying she needs to go. I just wish I could figure out what our relationship with her was. We can't treat her as a pet, obviously. I was thinking adopted daughter at one point, but I'm not sure I'd make a good parent and she might actually be older than me? Just a friend might work, but... I think I forgot what friends were, really." He sighed a bit solemnly. "And yes, we should definitely go see your niece again, though she might be a little... upset, let's say. You came out of nowhere, and not under the best circumstances, and then vanished again. I thought we'd see her the next morning, but..." He raised his hands in a defeated motion. She knew what happened that night and he had no desire to speak of it unless necessary.

"I see." He just nodded when she explained how a dragon's thick scales made their sense of touch rather poor. It was actually a lot more logical than his assumption that the scales wouldn't affect it. "This reminds me. That arrow you had me remove when we first met... Did that actually bother you at all, or was it just a convenient circumstance to test my intentions?" He asked with a smile. He kind of wanted to make a joke about her being unable to properly taste him in her dragon form, but he decided to leave it for later. He was quite tired and they still had a long way to go.

***

The trek back was an endurance test of sorts. Now that the big problem had been resolved, the mental and physical fatigue really started catching up with Kilian. It was all so stupid if he thought about it. So much time wasted, so many arguments, Zerechia almost dying twice - and all because neither of them spent one extra minute to think on a single occasion. He'd probably start punching walls, but walking uphill was taking most of the strength he had left. Good thing dragons were lazy - why wouldn't they be, when they had thousands of years to spare? - giving the lovers more than enough time to get out of the caverns and leave the jungle before the first flying lizard could be seen in the still mostly dark sky.

Vassia was the first one to greet them back, rushing toward them as soon as they came into sight and leaping toward Chia. The hunters followed suit, except they were a lot more reserved in their greetings. "How did it go?"

"Well, all things considered." Kilian answered dryly. "But we don't want the other dragons discovering us. Let's find some shade to rest in and then leave this place." It wasn't that he disliked this place, it really was quite picturesque, but it would be the worst thing ever to get caught and probably killed after they had already gotten what they wanted.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:46 am

Zerschia chuckled at Kilian's description of past Evelyn. "If she ever show up hostile with the intent of hurting you in revenge I won't be held responsible for her continued existance." Altough she got her memories back and with it her unbound font of magic, she still had to be careful while in this body, there is no saying if this body could handle the powerful unleashing of her full magic potential. So far the only thing she have changed was the inside of her head. Nothing a quick transformation wont change though. Chia thought to herself.

The dragoness was surprised at his surprise. "You were sitting on the other side of the room speaking with Jules when she told me. You know, during that party?" Zerechia had seen more extravagant parties in her long life, even one held by royalty. But in a sense the party she femember from just a few weeks ago probably was the best. To just celebrate being friends. It was something she had never experienced before. She nodded when Kilian mentioned not being able to treat Vassia as a pet. Well unless she wanted to of course, but while Chia got that Vassia might be just a little machocistic and be okay with it, it would still be rude. A friend would be much better. "You know, from what you told me about your past I think you never figured out friends to begin with." She said shaking her head slightly and shrugging. "Yeah it would." She nodded to the idea of seeing her last ties to her sister. "That, and the fact you broke her arm. If anything that would probably be the big reason she wouldn't want to see you." She actually chuckled at that. "Well we'll speak to her and if she just wants us to leave her alone we'll just do that."

"Oh, that." She said before giggling. "A little big of both to be honest. Ever had a splinter? It was like that. But more importantly it was annoying me that I couldn't get it out. But at least it served as a perfect test of intention." She laughed. "Had you pushed it in further you would have been lunch." She could see him smiling and she knew he had something silly on his mind but she let it go. Instead she simply pulled him into a kiss. Once broken she smiled at him. "Let's hurry before our companions become dragon food."

***

Chia was breathing deeply from her exhaustion. That was one drawback with having a mortal body, it simply lacked the endurance of her dragon or exguise forms. Her mind was still working to process everything that had happened in the last six months, that and working on dealing with the coldness of the desert. In a sense it was laughable. She was a cold dragon and yet she was shivering from the cold desert night. At least the sun was rising over the horizon and would with it soon bring the infernal heat instead.

When they crossed the hill she was unprepared by the surprise affection from Vassia and fell back on her ass. But even so her arms wrapped around Vassia also. "Hey there. Missed me?" She asked Vassia with smile as she stroke the vixens hair.

Turning her attention to the group of hunter she simply stated. "I don't have headaches anymore, so it went well I think. Also I think I owe Jules a lot stories." She smiled a little but it broke quite soon as she let out a loud yawn. She looked over at Kilian. "Me and Kilian are exhausted. But I don't think it's a good idea to stay here. If the dragons spot us we could be in a bit of trouble." She repeated what Kilian said but it mattered little to her. "Let us just get a few hours of rest then we can move out." She stroked at Vassia's hair, almost afraid that she'd fall asleep if she stopped. "Once we got our rest I can carry us all out of this desert in no time." With that she let herself fall backwards onto the sandy dune. The soft sand was surprisingly comfortable despite how cold it was. Only a second later her eyes had closed and she was already asleep.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Sun Jul 16, 2017 6:23 pm

Kilian felt like a mountain was lifted off his shoulders when they reached camp. Vassia was the only person here he was sincerely happy to see, but even Jules' wrinkled old face seemed comforting in this instance. They were finally done with this, done with everything. Anything they would have to face in the future would pale in comparison to the things they had already gone through. He still had no idea what exactly they were going to do from here on out, but whatever it was, they would finally start building a life for themselves, instead of continuously picking up the pieces. Actually, they already had something of a plan in mind. A house to settle down with Vassia in tow, going to see Zerechia's niece whose name they ended up never learning... Travel the world, try the different cuisines, relax properly... Visit old friends of hers, because he had none left...

"The thing I envy most is how she can fall asleep anytime and anywhere," Kilian smirked as he watched his lover pass out almost right away. He took a little time to set up a tarp around her, with some help from less sleepy members of the group, and then lied down next to her. Unlike usual, however, he was out like a light as well, all the troubles usually keeping him awake at night now left behind. The phenomena on his right arm spread up to his shoulder, a clear sign that he had been taking risks, but they'd find some way to deal with it now. Even the ever-persistent Casandra was no longer a threat. She could never stand against Zerechia in an open fight, and now that the dragon learned proper magic, the odds were even more skewed against her. Which was good; he was looking forward to some payback. Or never seeing her again, he supposed, though he would always be expecting her to attack them in that case.

Neither of the lovers could get as much sleep as they wanted to, however, as the hunters decided it most prudent to leave the forbidden area before noon. Even if the couple never told them any details, the message that remaining here could end badly was very clear in their short debriefing. It was no consolation that Vassia was about as sleepy, apparently having stayed awake the whole time while waiting for them to return. "I suggest we cross back through the 'barrier' on foot," Jules more or less decided for everyone. "A flying dragon isn't exactly subtle." He assumed that was what Chia's offer to carry everyone meant. Even if riding one was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he'd rather miss it than have it end badly for everyone. "Then we can use whatever means to hasten our return." He added in order to express his interest.

"Until then, we have an important decision to make." Kilian nudged Zerechia with a smirk. "What are you looking forward to more: a bed, a bath, or decent food?"
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Mon Jul 17, 2017 3:41 am

Chia was rather grumpy as she was awakened by noon, but she knew the dangers so instead of just ingoring the others trying to wake her and go back to sleep like she wanted she actually woke up. Then again, her mind now being different from a human now needed a lot less sleep to remain functional, the rest of her body didn't. It was kind of nice to wake up surrounded by Kilian and Vassia though.

Having gotten up and helped pack up their tarp she was listening to Jules. He was right about a flying dragon not being too subtle. But he was wrong about that they needed to cross the barrier on foot, after all a dragon had four functional legs too. "Yeah I suppose." She conceded. "The barrier should probably not cause any issues for you on the way out. It was made to keep others out, not to keep them in." Though she was not certain, it was ancient magic, predating even her, and she hadn't really studied it. But she couldn't help but pick up on Jules eagerness.

Chia couldn't help but giggle in response to Kilian's question. "While a bath would be great, and sleep is always welcome, I think I rather have a good well sized meal." She used her elbow to nudge him back, showing him what intent she had for him without giving it away to the group.

Once they were all packed up and ready to go Chia took the lead, who knows what the barrier will do to the others on the way out, so she was ready to lead them out if need be. Taking their first step into the hazy sandswept barrier she noted that other than the perpetual sandstorm there didn't seem to much. Looking back at her group she could confirm as much as they seemed to mostly keep after her without any corrections needed to be made from her. Holding Vassia's hand she could also tell that the vixen was able to not stray either. Passing it this time was a lot faster than last time and after only fen minutes of fighting the swirling sands they were in the clear. What greeted them was more sandy dunes and scorching sun. Chia hated the sun. "Hey everyone. Have you ever seen it snow in the desert?" She said jokingly.

Having everyone situated she smiled back at the group, even at their three escorts that seemed to have warrying degrees of amusement from her joke. The female one kept such an annoyed face constantly. Did she do anything but be pissed all the time? Chia wondered. "Alright we are now past the barrier. Stand back everyone I'm going to need some space. Also keep the camels calm." Zerechia said as she started walking away from the group. Once at a sufficient distance she weaved the magic in that very familiar pattern and in a flash of light gone was the fairly small human girl and in her place was a massive silver dragon whose scales shined and shimmered in the sun. "Urgh I hate the desert. Too hot!" Her deep voice rang through.

Laying down on the sand she used the downwards facing of the dune to help make it easier for her companions to climb aboard using her tail and following along her spine. "After Kilian was such a wimp last time I added some extra safety measures." Chia joked at his expense with a chuckle. But before her companions could climb up on her back she quickly shifted. "Wait... Do you feel that?" She asked. Her companions would not have any chance to answer before a large burst of sand sprayed over the area. Easily burying everyone under a small blanket of sand. The others would be able to hear the loud roar from the dragoness, but as soon as everyone had managed to get themselves out of the sand the dragoness was gone replaced only with a deep hole in the dune slowly being filled up with sand.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:01 am

Kilian blushed softly at Zerechia's remark, its hidden meaning revealed to him alone. Maybe also Vassia, actually: they had joked on this matter with her around before, though it was hard to say how seriously she was taking any of that. Well, she had already been witness to a number of questionable things the two lovers did, so perhaps she had learned not to question it anymore. That and he kept forgetting she was at least about his age, despite her appearance, and chances were good she wasn't all that innocent or naive when it came to matters of intimacy. It might be a good idea to get those things cleared up so that he could finally figure out how to treat her: a child, an adult, something in between? The confusion was just making things awkward between them, even if that was probably his own fault since Chia wasn't bothered. Then again, she probably saw mortals being more or less the same age, since most kinds could not physically live to be her age.

He was glad to see her assumption about the barrier being one-way was correct, as it saved them a lot of time and the hassle of keeping everyone on track, literally. Unfortunately, the weather was worse than last time, and they encountered a harsh stinging wind as soon as they left the protection of the valley. He wondered if it was just natural, with the raised rock surfaces all around it and the place itself being a depression in the terrain, or if there was magic involved there as well. Then again, the terrain itself might have been artificially created to block out the dry wind and annoying sand. Whatever the case was, it mattered little, he supposed: unfortunate as it was, they wouldn't be coming back to this place of wonder, as neither of them would be welcome. Luckily, the small sandstorm passed quickly, not that the desert sun was particularly gentle.

"Technically..." Jules raised a finger when Zerechia asked about snow in the desert, but simply trailed off. It was extremely rare, but precipitation did happen in the desert sometimes. And if it happened at night, it might be cold enough for the moisture to freeze into small snowflakes. Not that he personally witnessed it ever before. "That might be quite the spectacle." He let out a chuckle. While he had certain reservations about careless large scale use of magic, with her seal gone there was no more risk of a catastrophic miscast, and everyone could do with a little cool air.

Kilian was the last to climb onto Chia's back when she transformed, but not out of fear or because he took offense at her joke. He always had the perfect comeback anyway: after all, she was also afraid of flying, even though she was much larger and could do so on her own. In either case, while the others were confused about what to do with the camels, wondering if they'd even be able to take them along when the animals did calm down, he walked around her, admiring the sight of his beloved dragon, until he reached her head. "Welcome back, Chia." He said softly and placed a kiss on what would be her cheek. He doubted she could even feel it through her scales, now that she told him how much they got in the way of tactile perception, but he felt like making this gesture regardless. He owed her at least that much after everything that happened. He would have liked to have this conversation, but in a more comfortable environment and without any onlookers. Not wishing to hold everyone up, he started making his way toward her tail, not that there was a need to rush from what he could see.

He was about halfway to rejoining their friends when something happened. Zerechia seemed to have caught on first, but no sooner did she finish speaking than the ground shook violently, causing him to slip and almost fall over on the shifting sands. "What..." He began speaking, but the words were interrupted by a sharp breath as he found himself thrown into the air. For a few seconds, the whole world turned into one whirling mass of sand as he flew within a cloud of sand, landed on a dune of sand and got buried by a rain of sand. At least it was a comparatively soft landing. It took him several seconds to emerge on the surface and clear his eyes so he could see at all. He noticed his companions were in a similar situation. Vassia was a bit further off, probably because she was the lightest of them all, Jules was better off, apparently having placed some kind of defensive spell on himself out of pure reflex, and one of the hunters would have slipped into the giant hole had he not been holding on to a camel at the time of the strange explosion.

Wait, giant hole?! Indeed, in place of the massive dragon was just a deep concave, sort of like an antlion pit.

"Is everyone alright?" "What the fuck was that?!" "Impossible!" Those words reached his ears, but not his conscience. He was just stunned, walking toward the hole in a trance, staring at the place his beloved dragon stood seconds ago, now gone without a trace. How could this possibly happen? Actually, what did happen? The answers lent themselves readily, but he didn't care to accept them.

"Kilian!" It was Vassia's crying voice that brought him out of the stupor.

"Get the fuck back!" He practically growled, ripping off the right sleeve of his shirt, not in a state of mind to simply make it go away. He grabbed his wrist with his left hand, focusing on everything that this thing replacing his right arm was or could be. He had been with Zerechia for a long time, siphoning a bit of her magic passively, and sometimes purposefully, and he had just been to a dragon graveyard, a place that held the lifeforce and magic of many dragons passed. Now was the time to make it count. The black appendage had become twisted and misshapen before bulging outward into an oversized claw. A faint purple glow surrounded it, occasionally discharging miniature lightning into the surrounding sand, fusing it and setting it ablaze with a similarly colored flame.

This wasn't enough. Even in this seemingly lifeless desert, there was still life. He could use that, too. The very sand around him seemed to start losing color. "Get back here, you son of a bitch." He mumbled through gritted teeth. His 'great plan' was to flare up his aura enough that the sand worm - what else could it be? - would consider coming back for him. At which point, he had no idea what he would do then, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. Except he needed to figure that out fast as he could feel the ground trembling again. "That's right. Come get me." He said quietly, keeping up whatever it was he was really doing.

The creature did not make him wait. The ground did not burst beneath him, but instead fell through into an absolutely enormous pit. Of course; this thing was big enough to swallow a dragon whole. A dragon whose scales he thought he could see glistening deep below for the brief moment the sun came through. And then there was just darkness and the sensation of falling, followed by a massive piercing pain in his chest. He couldn't even scream in pain, skewered through his lungs on one of the giant teeth. But he was conscious, and that was enough. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do, even if he realized it wasn't knowledge he was supposed to have. He placed his black claw on the tooth and focused for a moment, causing it to crumble into pieces. These things were big enough that he kind of fit between them, not nearly comfortably, but...

He tore into the place the tooth used to stick out of, causing a gush of disgusting blood to burst forth and stain the rapidly closing hole in his chest. Now that he could breathe again, he could go looking for Zerechia. Of course, looking was a relative term in this complete darkness, but that mattered little. The incline and movement of the worm itself let him know which way to go, and he did, bashing away the teeth in his way with his deformed arm, and making sure to slice open some of the worm's flesh, too, to leave a trail if nothing else. Of course, the movement of the giant creature made him fall forward or backward more than once, cutting him against the sharp bones, but he kept going. If this damn worm wanted to see which of them could last longer, well, he would gladly oblige. "Chia!" He called out into the darkness from time to time; finding her was his main purpose, after all.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:50 pm

One seconds she had been carefully laying down to let the others climp up her tail, and to reaquaint herself with her draconic body. It had been a while after all. Then the next the whole world is upturned. She just barely had enough time to cast a fall dampening spell over her allies as they were tossed off her before the miday sun and it's bright light vanished leaving the dragoness in darkness.

The darkness would have been fine if it had not been accompanied by constant motion, gurgling sounds, and sharp moving points cutting into and in some places past her scales. It did not take her long to realize just exactly what this was. A sand worm, of the same kind that Vamir had entertained Vassia about. If she had not been so absolutely terrified by this turn of events she would have been amazed that a sand worm actually reached the size to eat her in a single quick gulp. Starting to quickly breathe the accrid air Zerechia tried her best to calm herself down. It was not so much the situation as it was the suddeness of it, dragons do not deal well with surprise. Just like how Jules had poured ice water over her. "Ice! That's it." Ignoring the teeth cutting into her sides she took a deep breath before unleaching a torrent of liquid nitrogen. Or she would have if she could. Instead she sputtered and coughed as nothing seemed to leave her special organ. "Oh right. Human body, no ice breath organ." So it would take a while before she could do that.

Hearing another loud gurgle she was reminded that she was swallowed alive. Chia was not sure if she could not feel any acid because there was none yet, or because the pain from the teeth cutting past her scales was hiding the feeling of the acid. Not wanting to take any risks she focused on her acid resistance spell. It was such a simple magical formula that she could do it even in adverse situations like this. With that up she didn't have to worry about digesting. Altough it was not stopping her slowly and rather painfully being cut apart by the incredibly sharp and durable teeth that was slowly pulling her deeper within the beast.

Zerechia's first plan to deal with the worm was to simply teleport far away, like several miles up. But with her being this close contact there was a big chance she would teleport the worm along with herself, and a fall from a dosen miles up onto points sharp enough to cut through her scales like butter was probably a bad idea. But with no other plan she decided to risk it. Her focus on weaving her magic was interrupted when she suddenly felt a huge shift in gravity. "Did it just turn around?" Confused she tried figuring out what was going on. A massive flare of energy, she had forgotten her ability to see life energy, but that flare was unmistakable. Her eyes widened as she realized what must have been happening. It was going straight back, straight towards Kilian. She tried to squirm to do something to dissuade it from attacking her lover. But her movements only caused more of the sharp teeth to cut into her and pull her even deeper. By now there was viscous liquids dripping onto her, making her glad for the acid resistance spell.

She tried to think of something. She tried her claws but they did nothing against the slick hides of the worm's insides. She tried biting but it only managed to accompish her cutting her tongue and lips. Maybe she should just try to focus on using magic like under Jules'es tutelage, but that would need time and focus, resources she had short supply off. While trying to think of a new solution there was another lurch of gravity, signifying the swallowing of her lover. If she was being torn up by these teeth then he would be absolutely ripped appart. There was a quick moment she she held her breath. But the motions returned to the same as before, telling her it succeeded in getting what it was after. She was about to break down in dispair as she was certain Kilian was dead, no human could survive this mouth for long.

Maybe she should just give up? To be this worm's meal, at least something would get use out of her body then. After all without Kilian what use did she have living? But there was a poking at the back of her mind, trying to remind her of something she had forgotten. The energy was still there. It wasn't until she heard the shout of the familiar voice that she realized that she had missed it. "Kilian!" She shouted back. Whatever the human was doing it was terrifying and amazing her at the same time. Zerechia like to think herself one of the most powerful dragons in the world but the power she was feeling was sending shivers down her neck. That is the power of a force able to kill her in a heartbeat if it wishes. Yet it was unfocused and chaotic. The energy was spilling everywhere and looping back into itself in a odd feedback loop. Whatever Kilian was doing with that energy it was working. The worm was shuddering in pain, or whatever it is worms feel as they are being torn appart. "Kilian!" She shouted out again. She could see in the darkness but she doubted he could. Hopefully her voice would be able to guide him. "Kilian!" A third time she shouted his name, she could feel him approach.

Once her eyes laid down upon him she was terrified. She could see the blackness had spread to encompass so much of his body. It was a horrific sight, whatever the energy was doing it was tearing him appart as the energy he wielded was feasting on him in order to fuel itself. Seeing it all brough a couple of memories to the forefront of her mind. Of her being confused and scared at seeing a lifeless crystal and Kilian telling her not to worry about it. It dawned on her exactly what he had done. Had she realized this sooner then she would have done something about it. He absorbed the crystal enchanted to cause temoral errasment. Kilian's current power was fueled by a mix of his own life energy, magic, and temporal instability. He was a walking paradox waiting to happen. "Kilian, whatever you are planning you better do it quick or you will tear yourself apart!" She shouted, for their sake she hoped his plan was solid, or else she might not be able to counteract or dampen the consequences of this reckless use of his power. She would just have to pray he would not be taken from her this day.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:17 pm

There was not much Kilian could say for sure in this hellish darkness filled with weird loud noises, constantly moving slippery floor, sharp and largely jagged surfaces and pain that had quickly become constant. He had been patching himself up by draining the life from the massive worm just as quickly as its teeth were cutting him up and the fluids were burning his flesh straight off his bones, but while his body was holding admirably in this endurance race, his mind could only take so much. He was quite used to hurting and moving forward in spite of it, but never quite this much all at once. There was a constant trickle of blood seeping between his teeth just from how hard he had to keep them shut, despite the fact all the wounds he suffered got patched up right away. He had time to be concerned for Zerechia at first, but now he was just focusing on staying conscious and walking or falling forward, whichever worked. If he stopped or, ascended drake forbid it, started losing progress, he would die. If he passed out, he would die. Even if he simply didn't move quickly enough he would die.

That was the base level he was operating on, something he set for himself while the pain wasn't too much to think. Technically, he would only die in one of those cases, but he had no idea how well his lover would fare. Probably not at all; if something could swallow a dragon, it could probably make a meal of one fairly well. That was how nature worked in general. But even in his barely conscious state he maintained some of perception, and that perception told him something was very wrong with his right arm. The feeling of a normal human limb was gone the moment it first changed shape, but it had been shifting more or less constantly ever since he was eaten by the worm, ever since he started draining its absolutely massive life force and channeling it to restore himself and further empower whatever it was that took the place of his right arm. The one thing he could tell was that it was growing, spreading. Not onto his body, but outwardly.

He had no way of keeping time, but eventually the pain dulled. It could be shock, or perhaps his brain just burned out. Whatever the case, he was glad to be able to breathe ever so slightly easier and still retain control of his body, even if parts of it felt numb. It was around then that he heard the dragon call back to him. He could hear it quite clearly, too; she must only have opened her mouth once she heard his voice, which was naturally much weaker. She sounded like she was in pain, but more alive than not. That was some good news, he supposed. "Chia! Hold on!" He shouted back into the darkness, not putting much meaning into his words, just letting her know that he was fine. Well, relatively fine, anyway. Better than could be expected, all things considered. He wasn't actually sure he'd even be able to survive this long when he tried to lure the worm back. Nor that he'd find her before at least one of them was dead. If he took a moment to think about it logically, he really should have stayed behind and looked after Vassia, hoping that Zerechia would be able to save herself. After all, what could he do that a dragon could not?

Kilian could not actually see the silver dragon, but he sort of felt that she wasn't far in front of him. Right, he could feel what he supposed was her own life force, fresh and pure, very distinct from that of the disgusting creature that had swallowed them. It was curious he could tell, but also only appropriate, considering he had been devouring the worm from the inside. But he knew he wouldn't have liked what he saw if he could, and for this reason he kind of pitied Chia. His clothes and hair were long gone, his body was covered in black patches that looked the same way his right arm used to, his legs up to his knees were just solid black, there was a big black hole on his chest, where the first tooth pierced through him, and countless blackened scars where other teeth have cut into him. One of the black spots covered a significant part of his forehead and his left eye. There was barely any normal skin left visible.

But worst of all was the right arm, its place held by an undulating bulbous growth that just sprawled over the worm's flesh, crumbling its teeth and tearing the flesh with what seemed like a mess of twisted claws and mouths with disorderly fangs. The man could not see it, but he sort of felt what it was like. An absolute chaos of organs he was never supposed to have that was making him feel all kinds of confused and sick, and which were acting almost outside of his will. In a sense this thing was more like a trained animal than his limb right now; he let it know what he wanted and it followed the command to some degree. Almost as soon as he thought that he felt something change again, and Zerechia could see parts of the black mass grow body parts similar to those of dogs and begin to spread out, focusing on the teeth around her, diluting the acids that were dripping on her with the worm's blood. In fact, there was probably more of the latter pooling below them by now.

"I don't have any kind of plan." He said in a deadpan voice, deciding to keep the part where he expected to die long before this point to himself. "I think I can kill this thing, but... No idea how we're getting back topside..." He trailed off. In the end, while he supposed he could do one thing that the dragon could not under the circumstances - kill the damn beast that swallowed them - it was destructive. Quite appropriate for a human, and for Kilian specifically, and for how everything about their relationship went. He was always breaking things, never creating anything. He couldn't quite place it, but he was sure there was some poetic irony in that. That it would once again fall to Chia to save them.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:29 am

The dragoness was glad that she did not have to deal with the sharp spikes cutting into her anymore. But the chaotic limb still worried her. However for their base survival she had to put that aside. "Well that is very like you. Storming ahead with no plan idea what to do. She chuckled, but that chuckle turned into a groan as she could feel the pain from her many puncture wounds and cuts. "Yeah I think you can, whatever you are doing it is already dying. Too bad worms don't have a gag reflex right?" She leaned her head down towards him to get a closer look at his limb. "Don't worry about getting back up. I can teleport remember. I just have to teleport us far enough upwards to be in the air and then glide us back down to the ground. Once the worm is dead I will not bring it by accident."

Seeing Kilian go to work almost disgusted Zerechia. For once she wished she could not see in the dark. His lifeforce was still not straight up visible but rather all over the place, constantly becoming stronger as that of the worm's weakened. The way his limb seemed to just suck the life out of the worm was so unlike anything she had ever seen. The vision of it was giving her a bit of insight into just the sort of disgusting magic that Casandra have been using. Narrowing her eyes she decided to focus her attention elsewhere. Now with the teeth gone she could help Kilian by clawing at the exposed flesh. Massive gashes spewing blood all over was created by the long, powerful, and surprisingly sharp claws. With so much blood covering her Chia wanted a bath so badly.

With their combined effort the worm was weakening rather quickly. It wasn't until only a couple of minutes later that she could feel it on the verge of dying. "Almost there Kilian! Just a little more." She stopped her clawing and instead tried to focus on the teleportation spell. As soon as the worm died she would get them out of there. The way Kilian's limb had only grown in stature and disgustingness was a worry, what if it caused the teleport to not work? There was no way she would leave him down here. She rwther spend days slowly trying to dig her way through the stone and sand than to leave him. She was almost done with her spell when she fould feel the motion of the worm stop. It had stopped, too close to death to continue moving. "Get ready, it's almost dead." She knew she shoukd worry about how Kilian currently looked, more of a black mass than a man. But just like Chia thought earlier she needed to focus. Then with a disgusting lurch the worm finally reached the end of it's wretched life. In the end it ate the wrong dragon.

With it dead Zerechia was free to cast her spell, one small issue remained, she would need to physically touch Kilian to bring him with her, but she was kind of afraid of doing that. "I'm ready to teleport us out, we just beed to touch. Once outside I'll fly us back to the others." She was almost too afraid to look at Kilian as he approached. When he touched her she could feel it, not the touch directly but the wrongness it exhuded. "Here it goes." The dragon said with a gulp before unleaching her teleport.

With a lurch the two was taken from the belly of the now dead beast and far up into the sky. So far up that the dunes in the sand almost looked like the pattern of a fabric. Despite being above the desert the air was very thin and incredibly cold, something which did not bother Chia but she was afraid it would bother Kilian. Holding him secured in her clawed forelimb she carefully opened her wings and dived downwards. Her stomach was hating her and threatening to release it's content and her mind was screaming at her to stop this terrifying behaviour. But for her Kilian's well being was the top priority, so she pushed the voice back and kept diving. It wad not until shd was only a kilometer above the ground that she opened her wings fully. There was small punctures and tears in them created by the worm's teeth but not enough to really impact her flying. As she neared the ground slowly she looked into her hand. "Kilian, are you okay?" She asked with worry.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby nicktaken » Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:26 pm

"Don't ask me. I've studied wizardry, not zoology." Kilian responded with a dry quip. He hadn't noticed it right away, but the pain from being harmed by the worm's teeth and acids was gone by now. He had cleared the former, but the latter were still around. Yet it didn't hurt anymore, which made him feel equal parts relieved and worried. The relief was natural and obvious. The worry came from knowing there were few reasons he would not be hurt, none of them good. Perhaps his expectation not to find the dragon alive had been realized after all. If not for the pain going away bit by bit, he'd think this was a delusion he was seeing as he was dying on the worm's tooth, the very one that left a large hole in his torso. However, even if that were not the case, could he still be called a living thing? In any case, he was definitely not human any more, provided he had been since the night that ruined his seemingly perfect life. He had passed that point once his claw arm turned into this nondescript thing that was busy consuming the very beast that had them for lunch.

At one point he just toppled onto his knees and started puking up blood mixed with a liquid of the same black color. He could not see, but he could sense something was off apart from the fact he was vomiting what tasted like his own blood. Something was happening to him, something bad, but he couldn't stop. Worms were primitive creatures, enough that they could recover from even seemingly fatal injuries on their own. Aberrations were especially good at that, and the physical harm he caused it wasn't that bad considering its scale. He was doing most of the damage by draining its life force directly. If he stopped, they both died. If he kept going, well, he wasn't sure of anything anymore, but there was at least a chance. He never got anywhere in life by... Technically, he never got anywhere in life, period, but he certainly didn't mean Zerechia and become friends with her by being meek and weighing his every action. He had made a ton of stupid mistakes, but everything worked out in the end. Why would this time be different?

Unlike the dragon, he couldn't tell how close the worm was to dying, but he felt the moment of its death very distinctly, simply because his feasting former right arm was suddenly deprived of that delicious life force. He stayed silent when Chia said they needed to touch. Could he even speak anymore? He wasn't sure. The massive desert beast wasn't a dragon, a huge concentration of power, but it was many times the size of one. Even the most fragile thing in existence would become extremely tough if it grew to such a size, and this creature? This creature was pretty tough by any standards. The amount of life force it held was absolutely enormous, perhaps more than that of Zerechia herself. Perhaps this wouldn't even be the first time it had eaten a dragon, even if not an adult one. But those were semantics; what mattered was that a human body couldn't contain so much. Kilian vaguely felt what his body had become, and he tried to pull it together when he touched his lover with some sort of appendage, but it was no longer something he could identify as remotely human.

The teleportation happened in an instant, as usual he might say. He felt the spell carry him and he felt the change in atmosphere. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything regardless. His eyes were gone. In fact, what the dragon was holding with both claws was just a mostly shapeless, slightly bubbling and squishy black mass. Each time a bubble popped, the whole thing shuddered, and Zerechia might feel a burst of magic and life force dissipate from it. And it hurt him a lot. This was worse than when the worm had eaten him. Every burst, which happened every few seconds, was absolute agony and terror. He was either going to dissipate like this, or worse yet, explode violently. He had consumed too much, he simply could not maintain his form. It would take a creature similar to the very worm he devoured to contain all this energy. Or perhaps...

Chia barely had enough time to ask her question when the black mass suddenly burst outward, sending out numerous tendrils. They bound her within seconds, their strength fed through draining hers. With her wings stuck she fell heavily into the sand, but it didn't stop there. The black mass continued to wrap around her until her whole body was covered. What was left on the dunes was a huge black blob that had the rough shape of the dragon inside it and was being distorted and stretched by her struggles, but not once ruptured. The struggles gradually grew weaker until they stopped completely a couple of minutes later, after which the blob started rounding out and then growing flatter. It practically became a large black circle lying atop the sands when its surface started to distort again, bubbling, growing out and gradually taking a shape. It took no less than five minutes until one would be able to tell the shape was that of a dragon, though it kept going after that, growing in size slightly and getting more distinct edges.

The last thing to change was its hide. The strange bottomless blackness popped like a film of liquid, staining the sands, and in its place stood a dragon. Muscles visibly rippling even beneath the thick scales, which were black as pitch, with the exception of pointy silver spots here and there, not unlike a starry sky. The dragon opened its solid silver eyes, blinked, and let out a howl of despair. The realization of what had happened hit him like nothing ever before had. Of all the things he could have done, this was the absolute worst of it. In his mindless state, he actually... He shot up into the sky and howled again, shaking the desert to its very core. For everything to end so stupidly after all the trouble... Truly, things only got worse when he tried to help. He could not live with what he had done.

After flying up, Kilian turned around and dove for the ground below head first. He had never felt such intense hatred as he did for himself right then. Not even if he put everyone else together, and he had a lot of reasons to be mad at a lot of people. If he would have just died, done something stupid when he first met her and got himself killed, or at least done so inside the worm after making sure she could escape... His mind consumed by the thought of killing himself, he didn't notice his aura flaring up again, only that the air in front of him suddenly shattered like fragile glass.

Chia barely had enough time to ask her question when the black mass suddenly burst outward, sending out numerous tendrils. They started coiling around her with frightening speed and strength, and her wings were about to be constricted when a large black shadow shot past her, ripping the deformed creature from her claws and down toward the ground. There was a loud tremor as the black dragon landed very heavily and was forced to make a running stop, its muscular form and powerful wings barely enough to cope with the abrupt landing it made. Sticking out of its semi-open maw was what used to be Kilian, sending its tendrils out and attempting to wrap them around the creature. But here, the immovable wall had met the unstoppable force; both sides had the same power to drain the life of another, but the dragon held a massive advantage in raw power. Biting down harder a few times, it reared its head back and sent the black blob down its throat and into its stomach, where it continued to very visibly but futilely struggle.

"Chia!" He exclaimed in a shaking voice as he turned toward her, partly because the other him was upsetting his internal balance. He had no idea what happened or how, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He would break down into tears, but dragons were physically unable to cry.
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Re: sLAY THE DRAGON! (DarkPinkie)

Postby DarkPinkie » Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:04 am

Zerechia roared in surprise as the tendrils shot out at her. Quickly being wrapped up all over her wounded body was not a pleasant experience. Not to mention how it locked her wings from providing proper lift. A thousand meters of fall usually was quite unpleasant. At least there was soft sand at the bottom. Yet the whole blackness surrounding her was terrifying, but Chia trusted Kilian, whatever he was doing she believed he knew what he was doing. When they crashed into the ground she groaned from the pain of the impact, seemed nothing broke due to the sand. That was all good. Kilian, I like hugs and all but you can let go now. she thought to herself. Yet the blackness closed in tighter and fuller around her form.

It was very shortly later that she could feel that the blackness started to drain her essense. In a fit of panic the dragoness started struggling, but as it dawned on her that her struggles was ineffective she slowed down and eventually stopped. She gave up entirely to the black mass that used to be Kilian. If anything was to kill her she was glad it was Kilian, she just hoped he would survive. With a solemn thought towards Vassia and Jules her mind faded.

- - -

Zerechia roared in surprise as the tendrils shot out at her. But her roar was cut short by a big black shape quickly diving past her and ripping the blob that was Kilian out of her claws. "Kilian!" She shouted out as the black dragon shaped beast hit the ground. Diving down after it she herself landed rather abruptly on the dunes, the sand shifting underneath her leg that she fell down on her barrel. Seeing the black monstrocity chew on and finally swallow Kilian she shouted out to him. "Kilian!" Barring her teeth and narrowing her eyes at the creature Chia prepared her wounded body for a fight. "You spit Kilian out right now or I will destroy you!" She shouted at the weird shadow dragon.

When he suddenly called her by her nickname Chia got confused. Pausing for a moment she realized that she couldn't quite feel the life force of this dragon. The form was similar in size to her own and there was those silvery spots all over, yet it was the diffused and spread life force that tipped her off. "Kilian?" She asked, her teeth withdrawing as her confusion became apparent. Whatever this thing was it's energy was almost identical to that of Kilian only much more powerful, and dragonlike. In fact she could feel two of them, even if it was hard to make out. "What's going on?" She asked as she finally expended the effort to properly rise to her feet. Many of her shiny silvery scales shimmered with more of a ruby colour as a layer of crimson blood covered many of the scales. She had lost a lot of blood but she would be fine, all but the biggest of wounds had already stopped bleeding and was regenerating, and even the big ones was slowed to a trivkle. However the blood loss was making her a bit lightheaded but she didn't think she was delusional yet. She was simply so confused and wounded that there was only one reasonable thing to do. "Kilian... You make a handsome dragon." She said before she promtly fainted. The dragoness'es body hit the sand with a loud thump, knocked out cold.
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