Young Blood

[Nohiki]

Phoenicia took the crystal and examined it. "Hmmmm.... Maybe. It is made to show her how to get to you but it might be possible to track where the other end is. Good thinking." she said and returned the stone. "However it's not Tea i'm worried about." she sighed. She knew Lantea had special gift in avoiding capture. Herself she didn't know how, but sometimes the little dragoness was nowhere to be found, only boo on her from behind the seconds later. "Don't worry, we'll bring them home." she thought for a minute, remembering something important. "Stay with daddy, and for gods' sake do what he says, please?" she said and hurried out, taking off. And for gods' sake don't let daddy think of something crazy.

[Kauria]

"Whoa, wait!" Ourias shouted after his friend, scrambling to his feet. He watched helplessly as the blur that was Zephyr crashed into the feathered creature and sprang away. We can't take it by ourselves, he thought, petrified by the reality of their situation.
Try telling him that, another part of his mind replied immediately. You're both adults, and both better off working together. So go help him.
His feet moved, and he surged onto the field.
"You don't have to do this by yourself, Zye. If I can help, let me know."
The gyrada flopped to its feet, feathers bristling.

[Midnightmoon]

Zephyr only heard a murmur. He released the bolt and it flashed at the creature. The stun didn't last though, and at the last instant it pulled back. The bolt struck the tree instead, only static reached out to grab it. It turned and lunged for Zephyr. By the time it's claws reached him he had lept away and the gyradas hit the long grass. Zephyr struck it's flank a second time, it was ready for a fight this time though, and turned away from the blow resulting in it's feathers only becoming singed. It followed the dodge with a counter, snapping out to grab a wing.

[Kauria]

Ourias winced as the gyrada scored a near-miss, but clenched the ground to stop the urge to rush to Zephyr's aid.
The energy dragon struck with a speed and accuracy unlike their earlier sparring match, fueled by an invisible rage, and Ourias had no desire to interrupt him.
So, instead, he gathered up his paws, pulling each claw from the soil, and sat beneath the splintered remains of the tree, his barbed tail draped across his feet. I'll wait. I'll know if he needs me.

[Midnightmoon]

Zephyr twisted away, pulling his wing up and out of the strike. Next he spun, whipping his tail around. The lash struck the creatures shoulder and it stumbled, then it reached down and grabbed Zephyr's tail as it continued past it. It caught its balance and yanked the tail in it's vice jaws before Zephyr could regain it. With a snarl Zephyr was yanked off his feet, up into the air and was crashed back down. With the energy gained by the impact he agumented and current he sent along his scales. He could still the gyradas hold. He looked over his shoulder and the thing still held on, though it looked stunned once again. Its claws were frozen in a rake aimed for his wing membrain and flank.

(OOC: you can jump in any time you want.)

[Kauria]

Okay, and that would be now. Ourias jolted to his feet as if he had been shocked, and scrambled into action. He lowered his head and rammed into the gyrada's neck.
The bird-creature made a strangled hissing noise and, released from the hold of the charge that had frozen it, abandoned Zephyr for the moment. Instead, its claws flashed out to rake a set of furrows across Ourias' striped shoulder.
He gasped and crumpled with the force of the blow, landing pinned under the creature's foot. Something cracked.
The Heart. He'd have to use the—
No Heart, something insisted from the depths of his clouded mind.
Ourias snarled in pain and frustration, and swept the pinpricks of life from the grass under him to knit together the torn flesh on his shoulder. Exhausted by the healing attempt, he gathered up the remainder of his energy to shout, "Zephyr! Help me!"

[Midnightmoon]

When Zephyr was released he flipped around, finally Ourias's cry got through his rage muddled brain. He charged a third time, knocking the gyradas off of his friend, then chomped down on a wing and sent a curent of electricity through the bite. By this point he was finally getting tired. His ferocious attacks had kept the opponent at bay when the fight had first broke at, but the rage had compeled him to use energy recklessly. The creature shuddered with the shock, but was slowly turning its head to to make a jab with its deadly beak.
Then it stopped. Zephyr barely glimsed something rocked out the side of its head and disapear, he heard something shatter a second later. Another larger one appeared in its chest, this time lodgeing there. Then suddenly it colapsed, making Zephyr let go and jump back in surprise. It twitch every once and a while with residual power but it was definately dead. A voice said. "These creatures may have mostly disapeared but you'd think you'd have enough sense to stay out of its way, or at least have a better strategy to killing the thing." A blue dragon sat at just inside the tree line, and drops of water clung to her scales some dripping every once and a while. "I'm Dinara," she said before Zephyr could get the words together, "And you two are idiot one and two." "I had it under control." Zephyr snapped, he also had to sit down. "Yes, and that is why your dark friend over there is bleeding on the grass." Dinara said cooly. Then a glob of water came to float beside her head. "Want some help?" she asked Ourias.

[Nohiki]

"He should be here now. Have you seen him?" said a wizard wearing red. "Seen who?" said Phaedrus, suddenly coming to being behind the man. "You're late. Where is your mount?" "I don't need a service of an animal, magic is all i need!" said Phaedrus with disgust. "Watch your mouth apprentice, you don't want to make me angry!" said the older wizard as his face gained the color of his robe. Half a second later, Phaedrus said two words none of the others understood, and all that was left of the Master was a red wooled sheep. The other wizards around laughed at the older wizard being beaten by a fresh recruit five seconds later when he changed back, embarrassing the wizard enough for him to forget punishing Phaedrus for insubordination. "Let's go, he wants to see you."

Phoenicia flown all the way to Energy peak instead of teleporting, trying to see if she can locate any more of the wizards. Nothing as far as she could tell, but she was flying too high to be certain. Once she landed on the energy peak, she accessed the tomb with the Atlantean weapons. To her relief, all were still where they should have been. From there, she headed towards Sol's cave to see if Lantea wasn't hiding there, as it was one of only few places where she could replenish much of her power. She also visited the library in the fire fortress and her usual hideouts around the nest, but the blue dragoness vanished from the face of the world.

[Awesomoman]

Gorn started having some weird feeling in his head, one that seemed familiar. It went away when Pho and the younger two appeared. When she mentioned the wizards he knew exactly what was going on. When she finished he nodded and said, "You can count on me. Please be back quick." After she flew he off the feeling returned. He turned to Ciro and Taranis, "Stay here and don't mess with anything. I have to go meet an old acquaintance." Taranis started complaining again, "But Dad-" "NO. I don't want to hear any complaining, this is serious." Gorn snapped. He took a breath and calmed himself. "You can't leave, but if anyone other than me or your mother enter this cave, you can beat the crap out of em." Taranis shot up with a grin, "Alright!"

-------------

Gorn didn't have to walk far before he found who he was looking for. "Dagon, my god you look uglier than you did before." Gorn laughed. "Well good to see parenthood hasn't ruined your sense of humor. Tell me, how are your darling kids doing? Well, the ones that made it back." Dagon replied with an evil grin. Gorn glared at him, "I don't suppose you came all this way for us to aggravate one another, what the hell do you want?" "Well the same thing we wanted last time we came here. The power of you dragons and possibly all the land you own." Gorn growled back, "You just don't give up do you?" "No, no i don't. I expect you plan on rallying the troops in an attempt to throw us off?" Dagon asked. "You only got as far as you did last time because you caught us off guard. This time you wont even make it out of the tundra." Gorn said smugly. "Well, i see your spirit is still high and strong, i can't wait to break it. Anyway the main reason i came was to let you know our line of communication is still open so if you ever feel like surrendering-" "I'd rather die." "Well that can be arranged. Well i must go, have an army to run you know. And you have someone to look for. Ill tell your in-law you said hi." With that Dagon chuckled and disappeared. Gorn shook his head, "This is gonna be one hell of a week."

[Kauria]

Ourias clenched his teeth in a grimace of pain, and shook his head. With effort, he lifted his chest from the ground, only to collapse again. "Yes . . . please," he choked.

[Morty]

"Now what?" said Ciro, throwing himself on the floor of the cave. "What are we gonna do now? We have to get Tea and Sol back, why are mom and dad acting like they're already dead? This is stupid!" he railed, trembling, whether it was with fear or with rage however was unclear.

[Nohiki]

"For what it's worth, they aren't dead. THEY want us ALIVE." said Phoenicia as she walked in. "They're probbly at the continent by now though. I just hope Tea isn't captured, that might give us a chance of finding them."
----------
Phaedrus and his mentor watched a golden dragon being dragged in. The dragon was of considerable age, indicated by the color vanishing from her mane. However, it was still dangerous, indicated by the injured wizards limping behind. Watch it! he thought, catching himself burying his fingernails into his palm, his hands shaking. "Which kind is that?"

[Midnightmoon]

The blob bubbled over and swirled around the would, slopping up the blood and turning the water cloudy. When the colapsed and dropped to be soaked up by the ground the would was healed and the scales that replaced the would were a pale streak. "The scales will the soft for an hour or two but other then that you'll be fine. Now if you'll excuse me I have a dragoness to track down. Hopefully she hasn't moved in the past few years." Dinara picked up the staff that under her claws, hiden in the grass. After a sulky second Zephyr couldn't help asking, "Who are you looking for?" Dinara paused, then said with a shrug, "A cranky earth dragon, named Ivy." "Does this have anything to do with that?" "Yes." "Then I'm comming." Dinara stopped and looked right at him, Zephyr stared back stubbornly. "Fine." Was all she said, then she was off again already on the other side of the small vally. Zephyr looked at Ourias questioningly.

[Kauria]

"You're definitely not going anywhere without me again," Ourias said, standing shakily. He screwed his eyes shut. "I don't think I've broken anything that won't heal on its own." The shadow dragon swallowed and looked up at Dinara. "We know Ivy. I haven't seen her recently, but maybe Zephyr has."

[Morty]

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ciro asked, incredulous. "The longer we wait, the less chance we have of finding Tea!"
//lolshortpost

"Light dragon." chuckled a mischievous, rasping voice in response to Phaedrus's query. "Gave us a fair bit of trouble, but as you can see, she's settled down now." The voice emanated from the bent frame of one of the hunters, a thin, cloaked figure with a pronounced limp that seemed to be directing the rest of the group. His snag-toothed grin peeked out from under a mat of black hair, obscuring the rest of his features. Though frighteningly gaunt he did not show any sign of weariness from hauling the fully-grown dragon across the ground, unlike most of the workers, who seemed to be taking shifts. "Mi'lord is going to have a lot of fun with this one, oh yes. So don't you think about sneaking any experiments, apprentice." said Raurik slyly.