Prequel: Bansished Bonds

[Midnightmoon]

Decades before there were four there were six. Along with fire, water, earth, and air there was light and dark (and the humans). The different clans were the same as they are today (-Eternal Bonds-). For the most part it was all calm between the clans, with the occasional skirmish as ideals and arguments arose and fell. And yet there is one thing that that will make a war break out. A thought that will enrage and an action that will banish all civility.

Let The Banished Bonds Begin...

(-This is a few generations back, way before anyones current characters were even born. I would encourage the creation of new characters but you could create ancestors for your current ones too.)

(-Whoever posts first decides the setting/ region where this starts.)

(-Note: "Eternal Bonds: Sequal" for a idea at what we thought would be good for a guide line for this plot.)

(-Place your new characters in the character section for EB)

[Midnightmoon]

"Haahah, leave her be, Torith, or else you'll be turning a new shade of red before you leave" Lioh laughed to his friend as he left the bar. The sun had gone down hours ago but the streets were still bustling. Bright lanterns in distorted glass containers made an array of colours dance among the people and dragons alike. It was the Delver Carnival, the most grand and most participated in activity of the year, known all across the continent. It is held in many places throughout the land but Lioh had to say, it was the most extravagant here, in Arisa. "Come on Oron, there are more sites to see, lets make the most of this free time." "You know how discerning I find being under water." "You have no need for concern, my comrade, I've already told you that the bubble the city resides in has never even leaked since it was created. And we were fine last time, all those years ago." Oron didn't respond, but Lioh wasn't concerned. Oron usually stated his opinion and left it as it was, it was his way. "Oh come on, I thought I say some element shows over this way." Oron followed close behind.

[Morty]

Meanwhile, under the same lurid dome of the undersea sky, the scientist was pacing back and forth outside the door to her picketed tent, unnoticed by the flow of merrymakers.
"It won't eat." said Moira, the scientist, wringing her hands. "It won't speak. It doesn't even want to go out. What did I do wrong?" she protested, biting her nails as she dithered in front of the tent flap. She had been hoping to bring her latest experiment out in the open for a bit of fresh air and excitement, but it didn't seem interested in anything she did. It was only the first live dragon that she had created that hadn't immediately dissolved into its base materials again.
Steeling herself, she ducked into the tent. It was dark, as the only lighting came from the watery lamplight outside the tent. She took a step forward into the darkness carefully, eliciting a whimper from the dark mound huddled wretchedly in the darkest, farthest end of the room.
"It's ok, Taro, it's just me." she said, approaching it with palms outstretched and felt her way to the cord tied around its neck. The creature yowled. "Come on! You are going to go outside, whether you like it or not." She yanked on the cord, dragging the emaciated animal to the exit. In the light it looked like a 8-foot-long dog crossed with an alligator, mottled green and black scales covering its malformed body. Long, thin limbs ending in powerful claws and a set of small, bony wings protruded from its torso. Its tail was long and misshapen, and its eyes shone milky white under the light of the lanterns. Still no more terrifying than any of the other monsters that lurked in the deep. She dragged the beast forward into the street and set off.

[Nohiki]

"Target eliminated." reported Fireheart, looking at the grieving elfin, "Now what about my map?" "Sorry, little man, it never existed." said the demon right next to him. It wanted to teleport away, but Fireheart put the demon under spell lock long time ago. "No map? Than the deal is off. He's all yours." he said as he made the dragon he 'killed' visible again. As he walked away, he heard terrible screaming as flames roasted his 'employer'. He pulled a brown sphere from his bag. Holding it in his hand, it changed color to match the planet, indicating his position and places he marked. He oriented himself, put the map bag and took off, heading for the undersea town.

[Kauria]

"All right, last stop of the day. Everybody off!" Erasmus circled around to the back of the wagon, and was nearly bowled over by an excited young water dragon. He laughed and knelt to help a small elven girl down from the cart. The few other passengers nodded their various farewells, and a serpentine dragon wished Mags a happy Delver Carnival as he left.
"Good job, you two." Erasmus thumped the wooden side of the cart and started unfastening the harness of one of the dragons coupled to the front.
"Lisim's at the element shows. We'll meet you there," the dragon rumbled, shaking off the straps.
"See ye later, Jaraen," called the other dragon as his companion took to the air.
Erasmus deposited the mess of leather and metal in the back of the cart. "Take 'er in, Mags!"
The remaining dragon strained for a moment, and then the wagon rolled into motion. Mags led the cart into the shelter of the stable they had rented for the festival, then sat back to have his own trappings removed.

When the pair finally made their way down the colored streets, it took some time to find Lisim and Jaraen among the peculiar folk that had turned out for the carnival. "There they are!"
"Where?" Mags whirled, clipping several nearby pedestrians with his tail. "Sorry," he mumbled, his tail curling into an apologetic coil on his back as he turned around again. Beyond the several irritated merrymakers, something peculiar caught his eye. That is the strangest dragon I've ever seen, he thought to Erasmus.
Don't be rude.
No, I mean there's something not right with it.
His rider followed his gaze to the malformed creature that slunk along the side of the street behind its rider. Sick, mayhap? It's none of our business. "They're this way," he said aloud, guiding Mags to the elemental display.

[Midnightmoon]

Lioh had stopped in front of a performer who was using wind- created by his dragon- to move streams of coloured sand, making shapes and fluid actions in air above their heads. Oron looked on with a bit of interest but still stood stiffly. Wandering over to the performer next to the air couple Lioh watched as a multitude of creatures were created in the flames. Occasionally the fire elf would throw in a chunk of rock and the flames would flare with colour, adding more life to the creations. Then the pair of elves glanced at each other and both their dragons stepped forward. Suddenly the sand flew between them, taking on a vague bird like form, and just when the "wings" were at their fullest the fire swept up and around it. When the light died down a large solid glass bird remained. For the most part it was amber coloured but you could see hues of green and purple as well. In the light of the many light lanterns it appeared as if fire still flickered under the surface. "Woooaaah, did you see that?! A phoenix, Oron. That was magnificent." Lioh hollered as he clapped heavily.

[Nohiki]

Fireheart reached the city. For some reason, everybody looked unhealthily happy and doing all kinds of seemingly random stuff. I'll never understand this planet... he thought for himself and decided to join the showing off, making his holographic 'bond' juggle fireballs as he worked his way down the streets to meet his possible next employer. (OOC: winks @ Morty) Been here for god knows how long and still nothing. No artifact, no spell, no power source... And no trace of other colonies either! What gives?! he shouted in his mind.

[Awesomoman]

An elf wearing a white cloak walked out of a shop waving back. "Pleasure doing busyness with." He started walking away and looking around, admiring all the events going on. Suddenly a white dragon appeared next to him. "I see you made quite a profit this time, Vieris." She said with a smile. Vieris patted a small pouch on his side with a smirk. "200 easy ones, and it only took half a day. Which gives us time to see if anyone else-" "Which gives us a break." Azelma interrupted. "We've been delivering non stop for weeks now. Lets just sit back and enjoy some of the performances." Vieris wanted to argue, but she was right, he really did want to take a day off. "Alright, but you're explaining to the boss why we were delayed." They began to walk around and watch the performances.

[Morty]

Moira dragged the agitated pseudo-dragon out into the bustling street, keeping the chain firmly wrapped around her wrist. The black dragon whimpered and snarled against its bonds, pulling in the opposite direction at first, but soon resigned itself to the fact that the scientist was on a mission. "We're going to see the element show, Taro. Maybe it will give me an idea as to what to attune your element to." she said to the dragon inattentively. It was difficult work weaving through the throns of people, the streets were flushed with spectators all clamoring to watch the displays of elemental prowess taking place in the lantern-lit courtyard. Moira's face lit up at the fantastic sights around her, the sting of jealousy reminding her that she was only here to watch. She dragged the dragon a little closer and proceeded. "The College of Alchemy will be so impressed when I show them my findings... Come on! You are going to have to get used to people, Taro, it's really not something you can avoid!" she berated while weaving through the crowds of people towards the element show.

[Awesomoman]

Vieris and Azelma simply watched the acts, until they came to some acrobats. The tricks were simple and quick, balancing on the tips of swords, Dragons flying in form and making amazing patterns. Some Elves went to the extreme by jumping around hoops made by the dragon. Rings of fire, rocks, even blades blocked the path of the acrobats who narrowly avoided them. After each trick the crowd would go wild, except for Vieris. "Hey whats wrong?" Azelma asked after a while. "Aren't you watching? A guy just jumped over a wave of fire and landed on a pole!" Vieris just laughed. "You know as well as i do all this is faked. Any one can pull off this stuff if its practiced over and over until its perfect, they've had years to get these right. Now if all this were done on the spot without any rehearsal, no planning, then it would be true skill." Azelma rolled her eyes. "Come on, at least appreciate the fact that they worked this hard to make it look this good. Think your first jump was perfect?" She said raising and eyebrow. Vieris smiled, "Alright you have a point. Still, i doubt they could do half the things-" "Hold that, this guys is about jump on a group of floating rocks that keep shifting."

[Morty]

Moira pushed her way through the throng to one of the less crowded displays. A dark elf like herself was demonstrating shadow magic. She watched in awe as he transformed the shadows cast by the blazing torch in the middle of the room into terrifying shapes of claws and teeth, forming monsters out of the living shadow. She noticed the creature she'd taken to calling Taro was similarly hypnotized by the display. She reached out with her mind to see if she could hear what the false dragon was thinking, but all she heard was the low howling that seemed to make up the creature's aura. Ever since she had raised it from the pile of seemingly innocuous salts and chemicals and imbued it with that so-called intelligence that had until recently dwelt in the skull of a porpoise, property of the College. What was it with skulls and housing malevolent presences, she wondered? Anyways the spell must not have worked too well because so far the 'intelligence' was making itself scarce.
Taro's foggy eyes were regardlessly fixed on the elemental display. Moira pushed a little harder with her mind to see if she could break through the mental barrier between her and the beast. She wanted so much to instill it with self-awareness, then she could truly have claimed to have created a dragon from scratch.
Suddenly pinpricks of black contracted in the monster's sightless eyes and snapped to stare straight into hers. Moira froze. The creature's labored breathing increased, it writhed and shuddered, then its eyes went to the performer on the stage. The other spectators seemed to have noticed something wrong and had started to back away. With astonishing speed it lunged at the performer's throat, just barely missing the jugular by a hair's breadth. But it was not the dark elf's blood it was after; clutched in its jaws was a silver pendant with a black jewel attached. Sii taal vor as viis. The guttural voice sounded from within the dragon's throat. The jewel disintegrated, and the dragon's dark shape began to meld with the shadows. Its back arched, massive spines grew out along its dorsal ridge, the atrophied wings expanded and unfurled, the dragon itself changing shape and growing until it was barely recognizable save its pinprick white eyes. Aar to von aadhim. It roared, sending the crowds screaming for their lives as they ran to distance themselves from the rampaging dragon. Moira was swept up by the crowd in their bid to escape. She watched in horror as the dragon advanced on the groups of spectators, shadowy tendrils still clinging to it as it lurched forward, absorbing all light that struck it.

[Awesomoman]

During one of the acts, the crowd started screaming and running, interrupting everything. Vieris and Azelma looked to see what was going on, a weird dark tentacle was creeping towards them. "RUN!" Azelma screamed. The two started running past the crowd, their speed gave them an advantage until Vieris glanced back to see how much distance they had. Someone, a dark elf wearing a lab outfit had fallen over, the beast was slowly reaching for her. Vieris didn't even think, he turned as fast as he could and headed straight towards the elf. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Azelma ran after him. Vieris was fast enough to quickly grab up the elf, switch directions and get out of reach of the beast. Going full speed toward Azelma he jumped on the back of her wing then slid down to her back. "GO!" He ordered. Azelma flew off and changed directions. Unfortunately, so did the beast. "Its following us. Why is it following us?" Vieris said.

[Midnightmoon]

(ooc: whoops, air fighting out of my league)

The crowds were running and screaming, and only the fact that the dragons were looking out for their riders prevented massive casualties. Oron crouched, head down, while Lioh climbed up onto his back and out of stampeding dragons and people. Not only were the streets crowded but the air was filling too. This was not the place for everyone to be trying to get away, everyone was trapped here in the bubble. Then something thing whooshed by Lioh's head when he reached the summat of Oron. Spinning around is spotted a white wind dragon siz zagging away. Another whoosh and all the lights in the street started going out and a grotesque black dragon was after the first. "It will take the guards a while to get through this crowd." Oron commented. "Well lets go then." Lioh retorted back and didn't bother getting in the saddle as Oron tried to get through the crowd. "Bring up a pillar and throw me up there." "With them moving iradically like that I can't guarantee that you will reach them." "Duly noted." Oron raised a pillar from the rock tile street and pushed it along in front of him as his trotted- he couldn't go any faster in the crowd- after the rapidly advancing pair. Half running half climbing Oron's neck Lioh jumped off his head and landed on the pillar. He barely got his balance when the pillar dropped slightly then rammed skyward, making Lioh sky born. He would have like to say that he hadn't made a sound, but truth be told he did. "Woooooaaaah!" He hollered. As he drew on stored up energy in his various gems he hoped that Lady Luck would be kind.

[Kauria]

The warmth of the festival was shattered as the crowd scattered in various directions, some dragons leaping to rooftops to get a better vantage of the situation. The lamp beside Erasmus flickered out in a smoky gust, leaving them surrounded by shadows and shouting. He felt his way to Mags' reins and fumbled with the clasp on his harness. An armored hood slipped over the egg, and Erasmus latched it at the bottom.
No sooner had he finished than the lantern flared back on again, slightly colder than before. "Lisim!" he called in relief.
Jaraen moved up beside them, rider visible on his shoulders.
"Hey there. Sorry, but it looks like we're gonna have to get out of here. Meet you at the stables," she said.
"Wait, what's out there?"
She bit her lip. "We have no idea."
Jaraen spread his wings before they could speak any further, and left just as another gurgling roar rent the evening.
"'Ras, we've got tae go now."
Erasmus hesitated, one hand on the saddle. "No. We're finding out what's going on."
Mags' chest expanded beneath his hand in a massive sigh. "All right." He roared, startling a path in the opposite direction most pairs were fleeing.

[Midnightmoon]

His assent didn't last long, he had closed the distance a slightly but he was falling short. "Get ready to catch me." "Prepare for impact." A small chunk of rock reached up at him, and with him using his stored energy his landing was softer then what it could have been. Non the less the impact jarred him all the way to his hips. "Again." The ground spat him upwards and his chased continued.