Fraidy Cat and Scaredy Dragon [Art & Eliza]

The feel of the arms wrapped around his neck wasn't exactly a familiar one to Rokam, but he found it stangely pleasant and companionable. He was trusting by nature, but somehow never seemed to make many new friends, and so he was pleased to have met Silence- and it seemed like she was pleased to have met him, too. He was relieved that she wasn't going to call him out on the shadier parts of his past, and he didn't pry into hers either, sensing that she perhaps didn't want to talk about it.
'Yeah, Ellias knew some of that stuff, but everything I do is real magic,' he explained. 'I mean... Pick a card out of your deck. You'll get me, I bet.' As he said this, he turned his concentration to the new possibilites which had opened up of her taking a card, pushing one to the front of his mind and encouraging it.

She pulled a random card from her deck and looked at it. "Club dragon. Wow, so that's your talent." she said smiling. "That's pretty interesting." She set them aside and heard her stomach growl. "Really now? I just ate something before I wandered out here. How long have I been gone?" She looked up at the sky and saw it at high noon. "I've been out here for over two hours now, that would explain." She stretched her legs and looked at Rokam. "Care to do some active wandering instead of sitting around?" She didn't have any feeling in her butt so it was safe to say she needed to get up and move around.

Silence’s compliment combined with his own success brought a grin to Rokam’s face.
‘Well, magic is a card dragon’s biggest asset,’ he said, still smiling. ‘Something like that is pretty basic, but when I’m working with Jaden I can do bigger things.’

When the woman’s stomach rumbled, he looked down at her in amusement, before blinking in surprise when she said how long she’d been out. He, too, glanced at the sun- evidently she had been out before they bumped into each other, because he was sure that they hadn’t been talking for two hours.
‘Sounds good to me,’ he agreed, getting to his feet and stretching as well, looking just as much like a cat as Silence had said earlier.

"Bleh, I can live without magic. Too much to have to worry and think about." She patted him on the neck and walked further away from the circus grounds. She generated a small puff of fire in her hands to warm them a bit and smiled. She ducked under a branch only to nearly trip over a root and fall to the ground. Thankfully she caught herself on an overhead branch. "Yes, I'm actually this clumsy a good bit of the time. Why I don't know, but I am." She started to watch her footing a bit more until they got to a clearing and she sat in the grass. "Nice and sunny!"

While Silence might be able to live without magic- and likely he could too- it had been an integral part of Rokam's life as long as he could remember.
'I can't imagine what it'd be like to live without magic,' he admitted. 'It must be really odd, not knowing anything about what's going to happen.' Then again, it was a strange thought for most that he knew about the past, the present and the future as well.
He started as the little curl of flame ignited in her hands, but before he could do anything it died away again.
'Wow,' he said, somewhat impressed. 'Only the red cards can breathe fire. A lot of other dragons can, but not me.' He paused. 'It's odd, because apparently it doesn't hurt their mouths, but it does the rest of them, whereas my mouth can get burnt easily.' He pattered happily on alongside Silence until they reached the clearing, where he turned his face up to the bright sunlight for a moment, enjoying its warmth on his skin, before flopping onto the ground and rolling contentedly in the grass.

Silence laughed and watched him roll around. "You are a fairly young dragon aren't you?" She moved over closer to him and lay down in the grass. "In fact since my mother died I haven't rolled in grass for any reason." She inhaled deeply and sighed. "She was wonderful as mothers go, I wouldn't have traded her for anything or anyone." She rubbed her eyes a bit and crossed her arms defensively. She refused to open her mouth anymore on the subject and turned onto her side away from Rokam. "I'm sorry, it's just not easy to talk about her yet."

Abruptly, Rokam stopped rolling and stared at Silence.
'I'm not that young,' he protested, shaking a stray strand of grass off his face. I'm nearly 122, I'll have you know. I know plenty of dragons way younger than me!' He rolled up onto his feet and sat next to where the woman was now lying.
'It's okay,' he said awkwardly, wondering why she thought he'd want to talk about her dead mother. His social skills weren't really the best. 'I know how it is to lose someone. I... They weren't as close to me as I guess you were with your mother, but all the same...' He trailed off lamely and decided not to bother with any more awkwards words, instead just lying down in the grass beside her.

"You've gotten me to smile more in the past two hours than most people have in a year. But I have to say if it gets cloudy we're heading back to the circus, okay? When it rains here, it tends to pour and getting stuck out in the rain isn't my idea of fun." She looked over at him and grinned. "You also get to see our resident dragon Asrai, and our temperamental tiger mom-to-be. She's having kits in a few weeks. You'll also see Felix and his new mate that I've named Tasha." She watched the clouds roll by and sighed contentedly. This day was amazing.

When Silence spoke to him, Rokam flicked his horns in surprise.
'Really?' he asked, looking somewhat anxious. 'But... Why don't you smile much?' The dragon was generally quite upbeat and positive, and smiling that little seemed like a very dismal thing to be doing. 'Well, I don't mind rain too much, but we can go back if you want. I'd like to meet Asrai.' He smiled happily at this thought, his tail twitching from side to side again. 'Do you have a real tiger, too? I've never seen one before! How big are they? And the cats... I've seen them before, of course.' He rolled onto his back again and lay with his legs in the air, following the woman's line of vision and looking at the clouds. 'Hey, doesn't that one look like a cat?'

She laughed a bit at his chipper lack of an attention span. "Actually yeah it does look like a cat, doesn't it?" She almost didn't answer the question of laughing but sighed. "When you're alone for most of the formative years of your life you tend to not want to smile. Nobody to talk to, no family no friends but a cat you could never understand. I suppose you understand my species better than I do, but it seems that I'm an outcast, not many people like getting close to me." When he got overly excited again she smiled. "Tigers are almost as big as you are, in orange and black striped fur and a set of fearsome teeth. They're wondrous creatures though, quite beautiful." She silently wished someone would think of her as beautiful, but that was too far-fetched to even DREAM about in her mind.

'Oh...' Rokam wasn't sure what to say to Silence's sad explanation. 'I don't understand humans better than you, though,' he quickly added. 'I don't get them at all. Why, for example, do they think they can beat me at cards?' He shook his head in mock sadness. 'It's a little offending, really. Still, they all they realise their mistakes after we've played a hand or two.' He gave the woman a mischievous smile, before listening with interest to her description of a tiger. 'I always imagined them more cat sized,' he admitted. 'Their teeth are probably scarier than mine...' He demonstrated this truth by baring his at Silence. They were sharp, but not particularly large or dangerous-looking.

A moment of quiet passed, before a frown came onto the dragon's face and he rolled smoothly back onto his belly and into a sitting position.
'You are beautiful, though,' he informed her sincerely. 'Your eyes are a really nice colour. Mine are just black, much more boring.' His moment of seriousness gone, he gave her another bright smile and then hopped onto his feet to stretch.

"My eyes...?" She knew they were silver and that in itself was a one in a billion trait that seemed almost exclusive to her family lineage, but nobody ever admired them, just thought they looked odd. "Humans as a whole are a stupid species, it's when you take each individual into account and really look at them that your ideas about them change. Rumors went about the last town we visited as a circus that I had dragon blood somewhere down the line." She couldn't resist a laugh and sat up. "It was utterly preposterous!" She looked at his teeth and cringed. "Trust me as a human looking at those teeth, they're more than a bit spooky my friend." She knew better than to fear the small friendly dragon now, and stayed relaxed with a smiled on her face.

'Mm. They're... Shiny. It's nice.' He finished stretching and flopped back onto the ground, sitting with his tail curled around his fornt legs once more. 'That really was stupid. Have they ever seen a dragon? Even if you looked like one, which you don't, there's no way a human and a dragon could have children. That just wouldn't work. Maybe some magical race could have draconic traits, but that wouldn't be human or dragon.' He shook his head before moving onto her comment about his teeth. 'I don't think they can be as bad as a tiger, can they?' he said with a slight frown. 'Don't they have really long fangs... I mean, like a walrus or something? Or is that only some tigers?' His face was puzzled as he struggled to remember.

She laughed again, this time only at the innocence of his question. "Tiger's teeth are nothing compared to a dragon's teeth. Walruses have TUSKS not fangs." At the mention of the rumor she shook her head. "Supposedly given a bit of magic or some such nonsense but that's neither here nor there. I also know you're not all that menacing, you're too cute." She petted him again and hugged him round the neck. "Want me to take you to see the circus? It's mid-afternoon by now so I'm sure things are getting slow."

Puzzled, Rokam frowned again. 'Hm. Maybe I'm thinking of a special kind of tiger.' He paused for a few moments more before giving up on remembering and moving on. 'I think tusks and fangs are close enough, really. Both big toothy things. Except in elephants, of course. Are you magical, then? Apart from the fire? Or not?' He was surprised at how many questions Silence managed to raise from him.

'Go and see the circus?' he gasped, leaping to his feet in excitement. 'Yes! Let's go!' He hopped around the woman, nudging her up with his nose before dashing off across the clearing. 'This is going to be so much fun!' he called behind him.

She stuttered and looked after him hopelessly, her running was less than good. "Oh but. . .-but I can't run!" she called following him. She stopped now and then to look for him and continued on as best she could. Eventually she caught up to him, gasping for breath and a mess. "Please! Slow down Rokam!" She coughed a bit and leaned against the nearest tree. She gathered herself and wiped a bit of sweat from her face as she looked at her companion. "Couldn't we just walk?" She looked at him pleadingly and straightened up.

Rokam hadn't even noticed that Silence had been left behind, assuming that she was just following a little way behind him. Now, he was extremely annoyed with himself for not noticing that she was quite a long way off sooner- or predicting that it would happen. All the same, if no harm had been done then it wouldn't really matter.

'Are you alright?' he asked her, somewhat concerned. 'I'm sorry, I wasn't really thinking. We can walk, that's fine.' He set off again at a much more manageable pace, checking to make sure that the woman was with him.

"I'm sorry, I know how badly you want to get there but I'm a bit slow." she finally pulled herself together and started walking beside him. She put an arm around his neck and sighed. "After all that we're actually not that far off." she remarked as she pointed to a bunch of tents through the trees. "See?" She stood at the treeline and looked around, this wasn't where she'd left from, but it was close. She could see her own tent from where she was standing. "What did you wish to see first? I have all afternoon and if I'm correct most everyone's gone home by now but the people who work here."

'Oh, no it's fine,' Rokam quickly assured his new friend. 'You're not going particularly slowly, I was just going faster than you.' When he caught sight of the tents, he was immediately distracted. 'I don't think I've ever seen a circus, this will be interesting.' He flicked his horns as they drew to a halt, looking slowly around at the brightly coloured tents and peering forwards when he saw a performer dashing past through the gap between two tents.

'You don't have any work to do, do you? I don't want to get you into trouble.' He scanned the tents once more before making a suggestion. 'Could I see where you work?'

She pointed to a tent under an oak tree and smiled. "That is typically where I stay throughout most of my work day. It's also where I sleep and do most other menial every-day tasks. Also where my cat and Tasha spend much of their day." She whistled quietly and Felix came running out. 'Oh. . .I see you have another traveling companion.' "No I don't really have work much, it's been quiet lately." Silence picked her cat up and smiled. "Felix don't be jealous." She set him down and let him wander away back to the tent. "Finicky, persnickety, little thing he's gotten to be. Come on I'll show you my home." She walked off to her tent and drew the curtain aside. "Careful of all the bottles I keep, please."

Nodding with interest as Silence pointed out the tent, Rokam peered at it from where he stood. To him, it seemed like an unpleasantly small space to spend most of her time, but then he had never really understood the appeal in buildings. Unless the weather was really nasty. But then, what were trees for?

When Felix emerged from the tent, he watched Silence pick up the cat. As she set him down again, the dragon lowered his head and made an attempt to communicate with the animal, but it ignored him as it sauntered away. He looked somewhat disappointed, but stood straight again and obligingly followed Silence to her tent. When they reached it, he peered inside with interest, not trusting himself to enter and not knock over the bottles. His tail always seemed to be swinging around behind him.

'I think I'd better stay outside,' he told the woman sheepishly, flicking his horns back and swishing his tail across the ground behind him.

"Don't worry, Felix is like that a good bit; it isn't just you. Antisocial little hairball, but sweet when it suits him." She vanished into the tent and reappeared just a moment later with a bit of bread. "You know, before I woke up here I had no idea this island even existed. Only dragon I'd ever seen was the one that ate my family. Now here I'm seeing all sorts of things that I only ever saw in dreams." It was almost like she "was" dreaming some days, but then she'd find out it was real. "Just a culture shock I suppose."

The cat certainly didn't seem to be too keen on his company. Rokam was happy to take Silence's word that the cat didn't much like others in general, watching the woman as she moved in and out of the tent with her bread.
'Nobody really knows that the island is here,' he explained. 'There's protective magic which sees to that. Even if you were looking for it, you might not be able to find it from outside.' He pondered for a moment before adding, 'I don't really know. I've never gone outside. But I don't think there are many dragons outside of Dragons Cove. Definitely not like us. One day, though...' He closed his eyes and sat down, coiling his tail around his legs. 'Maybe things will be different one day.' He sat in silence for a few moments, swaying slightly, before shaking his head and opening his eyes. 'It's difficult to see that far into the future. So, so, so many possibilities... It's easy to get carries away.' His eyes still loked slightly glazed; he shook his head again, blinking, and they focused again.

"Best to leave it unknown for now." she replied with a slight smile. "Knowing what will happen in the future tends to change the path you're walking on." Upon hearing that he'd never been off the island she shook her head. "It's a huge world outside this place, but it's not one most would like. In fact I like it here better than my old home." It was a rather bold thing to say but it was true, her old home had nothing on this place, even if she was dropped here for some unknown reason. Being a nomad wasn't all that bad either, even if people didn't like her. "The only interesting thing that happened at home was a donkey biting my father's butt when I was little. What about you, see anything interesting ever happen?"

Silence's words surprised Rokam somewhat; they weren't too far off what Jaden had told him. Well. The dragon had actually told him not to pry in anything more complicated than he could handle, which essentially meant the very distant future, but the point was that some things were fated, and the whims and emotions of one being shouldn't be allowed to edit the fate of the world. 'It's an extremely big world,' he agreed. 'I can't easily get a hold on what's happening over there, but there's an awful lot of it. I think Dragons Cove is enough for me to handle, really.' He grinned, but after a few moments the expression faded, to be replaced again by an odd, dreamy one. 'But... When Jaden and I work together, our powers are so amplified. I can hardly imagine what it must be like to work with all four cards. Especially if we were all experienced...' He sighed wistfully. 'Jaden's beginning to look for old accounts on cards. He's hoping to further our use of the magic. He thinks that we're not using it like it was meant to be, but we don't know what happened to any of our parents, or if they were even the last cards... We don't really understand it.' He was silent, musing, for a time before he jumped as Silence's question finally filtered through to him.

'Oh! Well... I see all sorts of things which might happen, but I don't see so many which actually do happen. But once you've lived on Dragons Cove for a while, it's impossible not to have seen some interesting things. There are just so many to see. Magical things, and all sorts of strange creatures... Have you ever seen the Leviathan dragons over by Bolarf?'

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