Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
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Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Oct 15, 2012 18:34:21 GMT -5
Mags yawned cavernously and resettled against the back of the overhang. "Sounds . . . like a plan," he said, nestling his muzzle into the crook of his wing. Together, Erasmus and Lisim pulled out a thick blanket from one of the saddlebags, and Erasmus spent a few minutes helping his wife arrange the folds comfortably around her. As soon as he stepped away, Jaraen looped his body into a protective ring around Lisim and lay his head on the ground beside her. Half-asleep already, Mags responded to Erasmus' mental nudge by lifting his free wing enough to let his rider crawl under it. The fire elf pulled a cloak around his own shoulders and leaned against Mags' warm chest by the egg, falling asleep to the twin heartbeats of dragon and child.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Oct 17, 2012 20:02:14 GMT -5
"Ok, time to leave, my friends. We still have a few days to go before your all in safety." Lioh called, wapping on a knuckle of Mags wing. Then he left them to wake up to talk to the girl from last night. Crouching down he gave her a nudge, "I cannot compell you to take a different way through the mountain range, but I strongly insist you do so. We have to travel fast and hard. It will be very dangerous and I cannot promise your safety." He implored her, putting on his soldier front.
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Oct 17, 2012 20:32:33 GMT -5
The pair of dragons that had been sleeping in the recess uncurled stiffly, joints numb from a night of cold. Mags tested his healed arm warily, then helped scoop Erasmus to his feet with a nudge from his muzzle. Lisim was already strapping herself into Jaraen's saddle, lengthening the cables to accommodate the bulky blanket still wrapped around her. "Going flying?" Erasmus asked, rubbing his eyes. "Possibly. Also possibly going back to sleep. Don't want to fall off a mountain because I can't keep myself awake." "Ah, good idea." Erasmus smiled, fixing Mags' saddle and watching the earth pair from afar. "Did they stay up all night?" Lisim shrugged. Mags cleared the floor of the cave with a sweep of his tail, scattering ashes to sparkle darkly in the morning light. The pairs approached Lioh. "We're set tae go," Mags said. "Are the misses coming with us?"
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Post by saphira on Oct 18, 2012 11:09:36 GMT -5
"yes we're coming with you." quill said aloud packing up her bags and adjusting Katrina's saddle, "after all this will give us something to do. besides you all are likely to encounter worse." she finished as Katrina stood up.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Oct 18, 2012 18:38:45 GMT -5
Lioh didn't respond to that, but did agree with her, hoping that neither of them were correct. Climbing up into Oron's saddle he took the first few steps out of the cave and began to lead the way back to the mountain path. "So Lisim, how long have you two been a couple?" He started, trying to make the incedent ebb out of their minds for a while.
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Oct 28, 2012 22:00:55 GMT -5
Lisim looked to Erasmus. "It's been, ohh what, ten years since we first met?" Erasmus laughed softly. "But we've only been together for seven." "And married for three," Lisim added, extracting an arm from her bundle of blankets to hold up three fingers. "Almost exactly to the day, actually. We were married when the carnival was held in Essylia." "'Twas a pretty sight to see, the lights all above the clouds and below the clearest stars," Mags said reminiscently.
The winding path through the pass reappeared, a dirt trail cutting through the evergreens down the mountain's slope. "Until we get out of here, I'll be your eye in the sky," Jaraen said, crouching low beside Mags. "I'll make contact if I spot anything unusual." He leapt fluidly into the air with a flutter of pale silver and gold wings, circled once, and disappeared behind one of the looming mountain peaks. "Be safe, the both of ye!" Mags called after him, then started to pick his way down the mountain.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Oct 28, 2012 22:26:42 GMT -5
After the light pair left Lioh turned back to the other pair, "Three years? That's not all that long. Ah but what do i know. I any case what exactly else do you two do? You and the bonds run a carriage business but what does the missus do?"
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Oct 29, 2012 9:21:44 GMT -5
"The same. She's better with words than I, so she works more in seeking out interested folk and handling the finances." Mags' steps dislodged a small stone and sent it clattering down the path. The dragon flinched at the sound, drawing his neck back and watching the sheer stone faces nervously even after Erasmus had pointed out the sound's source to him. "It's a good business for meeting new pairs and getting to know the regulars, but it can be tricky offering our services in a different city for only a few days. Business was good this year, though, as was the carnival, with the exception of that . . . that . . . " "Monstrosity," Mags said, navigating over a boulder planted in the middle of the path. "Yes, that. Put a bit of a damper on things, if you'll pardon the pun." Erasmus peered at the earth pair suddenly. "Is that what you're worried about?" Now Lisim's curiosity's rubbed off on us both. Mags thought to his rider, a little too gleefully.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Oct 29, 2012 19:57:26 GMT -5
"Worried? About what, aside from the obvious." Lioh asked looking up at the rocks like Mags, trying to keep his tone light. He turned his gaze back to ground level and faced front and center again. "No I'm just curious." A while of silence he spoke again, trying a different avenue of inquiry. "Before i joined the guard I loved to play hoops, you know, that game with the rings and the the sticks? I would always go out with my companions and play every other day. I got really good before my training and then my duties made my free time scarce and far between. Those were the days..." "Days when we didn't have to worry about treachery and secrets." Oron gave a mental brush of comfort to that thought. "Heh, anyway, do either you or Lisim have any activities or clubs you like to participate in, you know, just on your own? Your own thing?"
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Nov 7, 2012 23:09:58 GMT -5
"Hoops, too, actually. When Mags and I were children, we'd run them through the streets until the sun set. We played tag, too, though neither one of us is particularly fast." "As seen yesterday," Mags grumbled. "Now, though, I guess we spend a lot of our time taking care of the carriage tack." That's not fun, Mags interrupted mentally. He said fun. "Fair enough. I actually do a bit of cooking." Erasmus rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "Which, er, would be why Lisim cracked that joke about recipe interrogations at the Silver Oar." He dropped his hand and smiled, his enthusiasm for the topic growing. "But I really do wish I'd got the chance to see how they make the food there. The whole restaurant smelled heavenly. I love to collect recipes, especially from the other clans, or even from the humans." "I like lanterns," Mags said, as if it weren't a complete non sequitur. Erasmus looked at the fire dragon strangely for a few moments, trying to sift though his train of thought. "Oh, you mean the pumpkin lanterns!" "Yes." "If you hollow out a gourd and put a light inside, you can carve all sorts of patterns into it, and it'll glow as beautifully as any lantern of glass or metal. Some that Lisim and I made in the past have been quite nice, if I may say so myself. They don't keep very long, but they're easy to make and easy to dispose." "I get tae break 'em," Mags said, a little too gleefully. Erasmus shrugged. "They're edible. Some dragons like them a lot." All around them, the dry, hardy pines were melting again into colorful forest. Erasmus could feel the tension seeping from his worried frame at the familiar landscape. They could still be attacked, of course, but he felt so much safer away from the high mountain pass. "I guess we'll have to give hoops a shot together someday and see who best remembers the ways his childhood." Erasmus flashed a friendly smile of challenge and leaned into the saddle, urging Mags up into a trot. "Chin up! We're almost in the clear!" He waved.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Nov 13, 2012 22:36:42 GMT -5
They were indeed almost out of the mountain range. Lioh returned the grin but behind his eyes he was thinking more solom thoughts, "Goddess, I thought I was better at this." "You usually are, but I guess your being too subtle. ...Let me try." Lioh mulled the notion around before sighing. "Fine, I'll bail you if you trip." Oron took a second to collect his thoughts before jumping in, "You know, it's the light clan who's behind this." Lioh almost fell out of the saddle, "W-what?!" "-that was your plan." "Your duster didn't work so I'm trying my shovel."
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Nov 20, 2012 23:05:44 GMT -5
Mags' trot fell immediately to a dead stop, and Erasmus got a faceful of neck-frill. Rubbing his nose, he leaned back to stare at the earth pair in bewildered silence. " . . . What?" His dragon was at a similar loss for words. His brow dropped, and Mags looked intently down at the path for several seconds. "Behind what?" he blurted at last, exasperated.
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Post by Midnightmoon on Nov 20, 2012 23:31:31 GMT -5
Oron stopped too, a few steps behind the fire pair. Lioh rubbed his eyes in thought before dragging his hand down his face in resignation. He sighed, "Behind the attack back there. They were the ones who wanted me and my own dead." "Or at least a sect does." Lioh glared tiredly at the back of Oron's head before continuing. "For the past few years our Spymaster has heard whispers of a type of experimental alchemy. Of course alchemy is all well and good but something was off about this type. He used his resources to find out more. ... I'm one of those resources. I had already found some peices of information that might solve this... this..." "Intregue." Lioh gathered his thoughts gain, aware that he had to tread carefully. "My information points to the Light Clan trying to... convert, magic. Change your physical and elemental affinity, even maybe make hybrids if it went well enough."
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Kauria
God
Spirit of Air
Howdy howdy!
Posts: 2,005
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Post by Kauria on Nov 20, 2012 23:51:12 GMT -5
"I . . . don't understand." Erasmus moved his hand from rubbing his nose to pinching the bridge of it. "To be honest, that sounds wonderful. With something like that, we could bridge the clan divides. I just can't understand why your organization would care so much about this as to put your life in danger, or why the light clan would care so much as to defend such experiments' existence with violence." He sighed, shoulders sagging. "So, how long have you two been in the information business?"
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Post by Midnightmoon on Nov 21, 2012 1:31:51 GMT -5
"Soon after I stopped having time to play Hoops." Lioh said with a touch of fatigue and sadness. Oron took a few steps closer but still gve Mags some space as Lioh continued, "The reason why everyone wants to keep it a secret? Well, sure, i guess if you put the technique to those uses it could possibly be something good, but there are so many more corrupt ways it would be used. Just think; there could be a frantic scramble to change and never be happy, disputes on loyalty stronger then before, not to mention the moral of it. Would you go against the nature of things just to satisfy your own greed? I'm sure you have the heart to resist, but most won't and some would crave it." Oron lumbered foreward again, continueing into the forest outside the mountain pass. "That is why I must get you guys back so I can inform the Spymaster so we can act." "Just keep that informtion in mind, Erasmus, Mags." "I guess he didn't know anything." Lioh thought. "Now he does... Kind of feal sorry to shatter the illusion."
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