Dark Mirror: Clans

[Midnightmoon]

"Everyone has a very basic common knowledge of the herbs within Ice Clan Territory. And i do believe..." Sarin looked over her should at the others and one of the females nodded, "yes, Aneira learned a lot more from her mentor. If nothing else the rest of us can provide a set of fresh, if chilly, hands." Widening their flight pattern Sarin pointed for everyone to keep an eye on their own side, to keep an eye out for attack.

[Kauria]

Dew clung to Deka's black scales in silver droplets. Her muscles complained from being held still for so long, and she slowly clenched and unclenched her claws to keep the morning chill from dulling her senses and reflexes. Everything smelled like water.
It was, at least, a chance to rest. Her position, shrouded by broad-leaved foliage, afforded a view of the entire valley from a good height. If they passed this way, she would see them. Deka folded her smaller arms and let her chin drop onto the elbows.

A flicker of motion below caught her attention, and all her senses roared to life again. Her heartbeat thudded faster in her powerful chest. Had it just been an animal? No—there, across the valley, in the shadow of the opposite mountains. Six dragons. She peered harder in the watery morning light, but no hidden seventh dragon made itself apparent. That was troubling. Too many possibilities.
Five of them appeared to be ice dragons, and the dark-colored one was probably the asher. Deka suppressed the hiss of distaste that customarily accompanied the term. Moving slowly, so as not to disturb the plants that provided her cover, she backed out of her hiding place and flung herself off the opposite side of the cliff, putting the sheer spine of small mountains between herself and the dragon party.
Her mind raced through the twists and turns of the river valley, imagining the uneven faces of the cliffs ahead. When the pass narrowed and the mountainous barriers shrank, she'd strike. Until then, she could only try to match their pace as best she could, relying too much on guesswork for comfort. She was flying blind.

[Midnightmoon]

As the mountain openings got broken up by more frequent hunks of rock jutting out, up and around cliff faces their party found themselves getting closer to each other. It got to a point where they had to fly single file or risk flying into or ontop of each other which would put them in a worse possition then what they were already in. Sarin looked warily at the walls, a bit worried. She found her mouth cracked open and could feal a frost coating her teeth. Having it "warmed up" would provide a quicker reaction time then starting from scratch so she didn't smother the reaction, at least not while they were stuck in the mountains.

[Zetherus]

Thoron turned to lay on his side. Looking at Luna now, he offered plainly, "Is there anything I can do to aid you on your troubles?" The giant rolled to his chest and stood up while carefully lifting his wings from under his paws. He then stood up on his hind legs and looked to the sky while the shadow of his huge armored wings left the ground below him in darkness. "Do you ever think or wonder where you had come from, old enemy?" He growled out to the sky as he arched his wings inward exposing the giant heavy plates to the sun's rays. No. And nor do I care to tell you. Rung out Loktus' voice in his thoughts.

[Kauria]

Deka tensed, watching the gap in the rock face approach. Her concealment would drop down and away, she'd strike, and she'd get out of range fast enough to avoid a counterattack. She hoped. Harrying a herd of prey animals was one thing, dragons were another entirely.
The dark dragon stretched her wings rigid and opened her foreclaws for attack.
The gap's start swiped past, and Deka found herself unexpectedly close to a dragon at the tail end of the pack. They shared a half a moment of stunned staring, but Deka yanked her wing down and banked sharply, angling her body so that she hit him with all four taloned paws.
Their momentum flung them into the opposite wall of the ravine, the ice dragon taking the brunt of the shock. Deka tore one claw free and shoved them both off the rocky face and towards the river below.

[Midnightmoon]

The ice dragons snarl evolved into rawring in pain from first getting slashed and gouged to slamming into rough rocks at high speeds. That attack was so fast that by the time the others had looked back and Sarin had slowed to turn back around the pair were falling to the water. "Stay here and watch for others." She instructed her team as she dived down after them. She fired off a shot as her ice dragon twisted in the Dark Dragons grasp, trying to free himself and slash her with claws elongated with ice.

[Kauria]

Deka felt the bitter sting of an icy beam streak across her scales and onto the more tender wing membrane, but she forced herself to focus on disentangling from the other dragon first.
He seemed to have the same idea. The ice dragon shoved against her chest with ice-tipped claws, drawing thin red stripes across her scales, and wrenched their wings apart.
Deka freed her claws from his shoulder and kicked down hard, pushing him down into the water and propelling herself up. She twisted in midair and shot away from the female that had come after them, pulling up to fire her own breath weapon in response.
Gotta put more distance in between us and the rest, she managed to think above the clamor of information and simmering bloodlust in her mind.

[Midnightmoon]

Sarin's hands frosted now too, and crystals formed on her scales from the river spray freezing there. Slowing her dive she quickly glanced down and saw her team member clambering up out of the water downstream, seemingly alright for the time being. Normally Sarin wouldn't give chase to a fleeing foe, "but we can't afford for her to get away and call reinforcements, if they aren't already on their way." she thought to herself grimly before having to quickly form a mirror of ice from the wall to reflect a breath blast. Ducking underneath and swooping back up she fired another ice shot.

Mana 28/67

[Kauria]

Deka shot higher with another clap of her wings, but the return shot still struck a hind foot, blossoming into an encasing spray of ice over her claws. She snarled and cracked away the frost before it could do more damage, shaking out the tingling numbness of the intense cold. The dark dragoness stroked farther away, keeping the group in her sights, and fired another beam of shadow at the nearest dragoness.
"That the best you can do?" she called out, speaking the first words of the encounter.

[Nohiki]

To her surprise, tara didn't notice the attack until two of the group already started dealing with it. "You, gang up on 'er! Turn that ##### into crystal!" she barked on the rest of the ice dragons, heating the air below her wings to gain altitude quickly, flying to intercept the fleeing dark dragoness.

[Midnightmoon]

"It's not my specialty-" Sarin winged up to try and "jump" over the shot. Legs spread wide it missed a direct shot but hit her lagging tail. The fealing was akin to an ice blast but with a more acidic bite. Sarin hissed at the sensation and continued, "but it seams to be doing pretty well. You have little hope of winning this fight. Surrender and save us all the energy." She said the last part without malice.

[Kauria]

Taunting wasn't exactly her style, Deka decided. Time to meet seriousness with seriousness.
"No," she said, dropping the word like a granite coffin lid. She was patient. She could play this game all day if she had to. Ancestors knew she had waited all morning.
But how long would the ice dragons wait? She didn't have the spellcasting stamina to keep firing from a distance. Funny how to slow things down, I need to speed things up.
Deka rolled in the air, twisting to face away from the group, and stooped into a dive, heading back towards the wider section of the valley with all the speed she could muster.

[Nohiki]

"Nooooooo....." tara growled lowly, stopping in her charge when the shadow dragoness started moving away from her. she'd never catch her like this. Tara slammed her palms together: "Have it your way." she said, charging a fireball between her palms as she pulled them apart. thrusting her palms forward, she let the fireball away, guiding it on it's path towards the shadow.

[Midnightmoon]

All the ice dragons felt the increased heat through their chilly shroud and moved out of the way with haste. As they tried to cwtch up to the Shade they spread out to try and box her into their formation.

[saphira]

luna had been about to answer him and say no and that she was perfectly at ease when she heard the voice in thorons thoughts, almost cold and calculating. her eyes widened in shock and she was stunned into silence, she even thought about rolling away from him but decided against and just rolled enough so her belly was against the earth.