(T4, Kaionar) Like Herding Cats (18th Board)

And there Geronimo went again, insulting his guests. "I think both of you need to stop pointing the finger at who's being more rude, but you especially, Geronimo. I've had enough of you in my house, and I'm rather tired of you making snap judgements. You're not flattering yourself by insulting all women, especially since you're acting exactly the way you say that you detest them acting. Besides, I doubt the other lady in our presence will take kindly to being insulted either, even if the insult isn't directed at her." He exhaled deeply. "Good lord, Geronimo. What I'm trying to get at is this: You're completely tactless, you fly off the handle, and you really like insulting people. If you want to be a man and stop acting like a teenager on her first period, you show grace, and kindness to the women around you, and you show composure. But your feathers are far too easily ruffled, and you're quick to ruffle the feathers of others as well. Have you ever heard of being quiet for a spell, instead of beng baited? You do yourself no justice."

"For instance, take the argument that I had back there with that Soldier. Did at any point see us insult one another? No. We made our intentions and expectations clear, and should our expectations have not been met, we would have acted. But there would have been no point in putting the other down. We know where the other stands - one of us had a desire to fulfill duties, and my motivation was to protect my guests and my daughter. There's always value in trying to see the situation from the perspective of another, and not escalating things by throwing out insults."

He could have given the same speech to Celandine, but the point of the matter was that he really didn't like Geronimo, so he was perfectly okay with sparing Celandine.

The walk was a long one and I'm sure there was plenty of back and forths with the arguing the entire walk. There was no way Zold was going to let them out into the city at this point, not with that dragon thrashing about. So he tunneled a few miles until he was at least on the outskirts. With his magic, he made steps back out onto the surface, picked Rose up around the waist and pulled her into a carry, and climbed out. He was even polite to offer his hand back to the people he led.

OOC| Btw, Ironshas is a new very remote village on the updated DC map (still in progress)
https://i.servimg.com/u/f74/13/39/62/08/map_in14.jpg

The blood rod was scorching with magic now, even through her thick gloves she could feel her hand glowing with heat, or was it her own excitement? Yes! Had any of her close fellows ever been so close to the greatest of dragons to walk Dragons' Cove? So few did, so few ventured from Ironshas. Here she was, finally with the courage to have journeyed, of all places to Kaionar, to meet one such god. Few could ever claim to have truly seen their god.

Isrin did not make any attempt to be inconspicuous now, ever since she had entered Kaionar she had shamelessly - perhaps stupidly - worn all her sacred robes. They were ragged, unappealing yet all black and red, laced with metal pieces that glinted and chinked with her steps. Also, an intriguingly shaped metal piece that was held on her forehead, small metal chain-links tying it back into swathes of wild hair, concealed under her hood.
Everything about her identified her starkly as a north cultist, a worshiper of the greatest of dragons- the Tribal Battle Blood.
The naysayers that never moved too far from the shrine never had this honour and she saw it as a divine privilege. Would she have some of his blood? Would she be bathed in a divine fire?
It was clear now, she could see the dragon, large and beautiful even through the whirls of dust it summoned around itself. This could only end well, she either lived to bask in the fire from the mouth of a god, or would take some of his own blood, perhaps drink it herself or save it...

She raised the blood rod. It was not hers; she had stolen it before leaving, sacrilege, but this was only fair was it not? It would finally be used! A gnarled wooden pole with tight rings of metal bound upon it. It was the length of the ground to her waist and engraved with many runic markings. Of course it was also enchanted and hexed with countless blood and dark magic spells- many were not entrusted to even use it, and she was one of those "many". Furthermore, the pole was soaked in the blood of countless offerings, and some from fresh cuts given when people paid their blood for good fortune at the altar.
By all that her people knew, it should have been irresistible to any Tribal Battle Blood, and the hexes should stop the dragon killing her. Well, only immediately. No spell could truly hope to hold a Tribal.

Her voice was shrill and fraught with excitement as she called out, the rod thrust higher into the air.
"Greatest God! Will you honour me today?" Her tangled, ratty braids of long black hair, calloused by sun, sand and wind streamed about as she pulled down the hood. It was rude to mask your full appearance in the presence of such a being.

He had waited for this moment for far too long and he was going to enjoy it. Slowly, Xaoc sunk his muzzle towards Felren, his teeth bared and a distant wisp of smoke sneaking its way from far down in his belly into his mouth. This was it. This was the moment this insolent human who had dared to bathe in the blood of his ancestors would die!

His runes were pulsing with his need for revenge, his need for blood and he was savouring the feeling of immunity this gave him.
Once again however, it was not meant to be.
A mere fingers-breadth away from chomping down on Felren’s neck, Xaoc halted. There was something else, someone else. Dragon’s blood!
The Tribal Battleblood’s head snapped up and whipped around to stare into the face of a crazy cultist girl. She could only be a cultist by the way she was dressed and most of all addressing him. But he couldn’t care less about her attire. His eyes were fixed on the rod she was holding high into the air. A rod stained with blood. A rod that was speaking to him like nothing else ever had.
What was this?

Forgotten was the human beneath his bulk. Xaoc stepped away from him, not caring where he put his claws. His eyes were transfixed on the rod. There was just something about it. Something enticing, something horribly wrong, but at the same time very enticing.
Finally, he briefly flicked his gaze to the girl holding the rod. “What would you have of me?” His voice was barely more than a growl, the pulsing of his bloodred runes in tune with the intonations of his question.

Just as she was witnessing his glory, he seemed to at once turn on the spot and she felt a thrill emanate through her. He was awe-inspiring, and to think, he was approaching her fast.
When the low rumble of his voice sounded, she knew then, the rod had done just as she had hoped. That she was deserving to wield it, and no cowardly blood-priest could say otherwise now. Now, she would make her few, scant requests and resign herself to however fate deemed it fit for her.
"Greatest God, I would desire you to bestow me with your wisdom. I would be privileged to have a mere fleck of your blood, or a single scale to hold. I wish for these simple things Most Holy One."
She spoke her piece bravely, still dazzled to see him manifest before her. Her journey had been one to finally know her god best, yet, she wished for some answers from him. Isrin had always loved those amongst her cult, they were all joined together by the power, but even they could not answer some of her deepest qualms. She was convinced that this dragon would have everything she needed.

The blood soaked into the deepest corners of the rod in her hands seemed to speak to him, almost as if it wanted to impart its knowledge and memories. Xaoc cocked his head lightly to the side as he listened intently to the voices. One voice spoke the loudest. It was only several minutes after the girl had stopped speaking that Xaoc realised it had been the human before him had spoken clearest and not a voice from the rod.

Something about what she had said though seemed odd but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Blood was rushing in his ears and coursing through his veins in a vivid dance, making it troublesome to concentrate on anything at all.
But the blood…
The blood was singing to him.

The Tribal Battleblood regarded the girl intently. “You want my blood?” His voice was still barely above a growl but the previously docile edge was slowly turning towards anger again. “And what would you do with my blood or my scale if I were to bestow such honour upon you?”

"Yes, I do." She said, a little more hoarsely, moving to shield her face from a gust of dust, but then lowering it again. Seeing the dragon so close to her, she was breathless for some time...and he was mesmerised by the rod, though she sensed his impatience. "If I have even a scale, or the smallest of trickles of blood, I wish to keep it for myself, to remind me of your power, to help my own power and become strong. As is the strength that is bestowed to you, in even the smallest detail." It was said as if a chant in its own right, yet every word was true from her mouth. The scale would be sacred, she would return and all would honour her for it. Or perhaps she did not need them at all, perhaps she would have her own followers. None could be more worthy to begin a new place for worshipers than the one that had received a gift from a God.

"What are we to do in this world Great God? How is it that we must live? How is it that we must live to serve you best?" She now reached out to him, kneeling before him the rod still raised and her heart furiously beating, the thrill was ecstatic.

Xaoc kept his gaze on her, but began fidgeting a little, beating his tail impatiently against a nearby house, which consequently lost a room or two. The rod kept him under its spell for the time being but the Tribal Battleblood was growing annoyed by the human girl before him.

“You would use my strength to further your own power?” he asked incredulously, his voice rising in volume, finally leaving the depths of a growl as his anger rose to the surface. “You deem yourself worthy of wielding the true power of a Tribal Battleblood even if just a barely noticeable fraction thereof?”

The many voices in the blood rod screamed out in agony as Xaoc tore himself fully away from the spell it had been weaving, turning the full power of his annoyance on the girl. Little, insignificant humans with their silly ideas. They could not even wield a magical artefact without breaking it!

To top it all off, she was now throwing herself onto her knees before him. The gesture infuriated him but at the same time, her words appeased him a little. At least she knew whom she was addressing. She knew that she was inferior to him, that she could not even dream of besting him, that the only way she could ever live was to venerate him and crumble to dust beneath the burning power of his glory.

“There is only one way humans serve dragons!” he roared, lifting his paw away from her reaching hand, more a gesture of show rather than actual need. She was still too far away from him to even graze him with a fully extended arm.

"No Master! If you are to deny me your scale, then surely I will know this sign was given to me with reason!" Even if it would be a sad thing to reflect on yet she still hungered to see what he may yet do for her, he could not simply leave her. Yet, she could feel her control of the rod weakening rapidly now as it became hotter, when the dragon broke from it quite obviously she dropped the rod and let it clatter to the floor, feeling a surge of its energy and an awful twisting and pulling in her mind.

Was it so awful, if it was the influence of a god?
"Tell me Greatest Dragon! What is the one way a human must serve you!" She let her hands fall forward now and place in the dust with her legs bent to a rest on the ground too. As she looked up, she could feel a grand moment approaching, and she now knew what she felt. Isrin could feel the fear scream all through her ears, she had been delighted to find her god, yet now, curses she could feel her fire surpassed with a different kind.
Did she truly want to be subject to this? Without the power of the rod to protect her, Isrin felt vulnerable. "Please tell me! I have searched for this answer my whole life!"

The Tribal Battleblood looked at the human on the floor in front of him as though he were contemplating an irritating bug that should be squished right that instant. It wouldn’t provide him with the satisfaction he craved, but he was loath of eating such a worthless one such as her.
Trying to subdue him. Him! Who did she think she was?

Growling he planted the leg he had extended away from her firmly on the rod. He could feel the blood it had been soaked in pulsing against his foot until every last shred of memory had escaped the clasps of the ancient wood.

Blood…
His every fibre was demanding blood. Her blood. But he didn’t want to taint his being by devouring her. She was plainly offering herself to him and instantly she had lost her attraction to Xaoc. The Tribal Battleblood lived for the fight, for the conquest, which this clearly was not. It almost seemed as she wanted to be devoured by him, one way or another.

“There is no way puny humans could ever serve me!” he roared, stretching his wings threateningly as he stomped his foot down on the girl.

Blood…
The call was getting stronger, louder and he needed to answer it. The scent of the tainted one had disappeared again, somewhere underground. Oh he would not escape the Tribal Battleblood. Xaoc would get him when he left his little rat hole, otherwise he would tear the whole city apart if need be.

For now, he needed a quick satisfaction. The red rock female!
Xaoc lifted his bulk into the air, not wasting another thought on the cultist he had just killed and went off in search of the wounded dragon. She had to be close by…

If she had been in a normal state of mind, she would have put Geronimo in her place in a heartbeat with a few cutting words. Sildred had very little tact, but at least even he knew went not to talk. Like right now. Staying silent was probably the best course of action, and one that she would certainly adhere too. Her head was hurting too much to offer up a list of reasons why the arguing in the first place was silly. When Sildred offered his arm she took it gladly, relieved that at the very least that she wouldn't have to stagger in an undignified manner all the way through whatever Tunnel that Zold had conceited. She had missed Sildred's initial reaction to the blatant display of magic, but she had seen its like enough to not be disturbed in the least. Mages with the ability to create quick escape routes were highly prized by the nobility of Kaionar, seeing as they were needed more often than what was considered healthy for the general populace.

Before they could get into the business of trekking through the newly created hole, Deorwynn took the bottle that she was handed, blinking in surprise and ventured a glance at Sildred's face. Typically, he gave nothing away, blank as a white wall to the end. "Thank you." She said quietly, dipping her head slightly as they walked through the tunnels. Normally she would be suspicious of an act of kindness, but this was Sildred, and he was nothing if not faithful to his duty, and that duty was keeping her alive. Whatever it was, she would trust him enough to drink it, unpleasant as it was seeing that it had been baking inside his armor for the majority of the day. A single sip was all it took to realize that he wasn't just dutiful, but probably crazy as well. The hot liquid burned her mouth like dragon fire and seared down her throat. Her nose wrinkled with disgust at the taste of the vile stuff, but it was at least strong enough that she wasn't concentrating on her headache anymore. She handed the bottle back immediately.

The longer they walked the more that her headache passed until it was a minimal throb in the back of her mind. "Captain Hadanna will be throwing his life away if he tries to fight that beast." She said quietly to Sildred as they walked, letting the argument between Geronimo and Zold go as it would. She had zero interest in getting involved, even if the soldier did make some rather cutting remarks about people in her station. The rudeness could be dismissed out of hand. Someone with a mouth like that in Kaionar no doubt already had several contracts on her head and would be dealt with soon enough. Fools took offense to words spouted by walking corpses, and her concerns were somewhere more important than the impertinence of a foot soldier. "He may be a brave and capable man, but I doubt that you soldiers have had much chance to interact with the dragons of this land. If that creature doesn't leave the city in short order, it will raze the entire place to the ground. What we can do about it at the moment, I don't rightly know." She considered the back of Zold's head as he went on a long tangent about the merits of minding your manners. "Unfortunately, he would probably be the most knowledgeable one here about the state of defense of the city state. But we can't afford to waste the lives of my guard here against an impossible odd."

She went quiet when they finally came out of the hole in the ground, a little disappointed to see that they were on the opposite side of the defensive wall now. And after all the effort she'd put into getting back in. Her quiet sigh was the only outward show of disappointment that she chose to exhibit. With a brief glance to Celandine, Deorwynn decided that she would gamble with the relevance of her possibly outdated information. "That dragon is going to tear the city apart." She said loudly enough that the others would be able to hear her easily. "Who is in charge of the city guard? Last I knew, Captain Viddar of house Golhos would never have let a beast like that within a hundred leagues of the city walls." It was a quiet accusation that could be taken two ways. Either Viddar was slipping, or whoever had replaced him was a twit.

-------

By the gods! Pain, pain, pain, pain!

Vex was barely conscious, slipping between wakefulness and the deep void of the simplicity of unthinking pain. The racket being caused on the side of wakefulness kept drawing her away from unconsciousness though. The roaring and crashing and smashing and screaming was simply too much for her to ignore. Trembling from her nose to her tail, Vex examined her wounds, wincing at the bright crimson blood dripping down her brown scales. With a great deal of concentration and a wimpier, she tried to summon her magic, faint as it was. She wasn't very good with things like this, but she had been a guard for long enough and in too many fights to not how to learn to at least seal up her wounds.

The tremendous effort of stopping the blood from continuing to drain out of her shredded belly muscles left her shaking even worse than before, but at least she wasn't bleeding out into the street. With unsteady footing she made it to her feet just in time to see the dreaded black dragon turn, rounding on her in a sudden flurry of fangs and bloodlust. A terrified squeak got caught in her throat and she did the only thing that she could think of, pivoting and swinging her bladed tail straight at her oncoming attacker in a desperate bid to fight the deadly dragon off enough to get her wits about her. She didn't know why it had taken so long for him to come and finish off the job, but she wasn't about to give up now.

When his searching eyes finally found the red rock, Xaoc roared loudly, his voice drifting far and wide over Kaionar. It was the cry of a Tribal Battleblood going for the kill. With his wings spread wide and his claws out and ready to grab her, the dragon rushed towards her, oblivious to his surroundings.

It was only when pain exploded in his right leg that he noticed a bladed tail had been swung at him. The strength of despair as well as his careless rush to get to her made the impact even stronger than it would have been otherwise. The blades implanted themselves deeply into his flesh, touching bone before Xaoc wrenched himself free with another roar.

This was not the kind of blood he had been longing for. He didn’t want his own flowing freely, he wanted to taste hers! And he would… He owed himself the satisfaction of savouring someone’s blood!
Hovering over her for a moment while contemplating that viciously sharp tail of hers, Xaoc realised that, as long as it had been since he had been seriously injured, he had not become immune to the effects of pain. However, unlike for a lot of other dragons, pain spurred him on.
“You will pay dearly for this,” he growled as he locked his eyes on hers, away from her tail.

Sildred was happy to be out of that godsforsaken tunnel and sighed inwardly in relief, relaxing visibly. Unfortunately, the stifling heat was once more upon him and he already felt himself start to sweat. He must have smelled horribly, but the Lady seemed to have enough tact as to not mention it. "I know quite well that Captain Hadanna will not lose his life, but he will not slay the beast either. You are right in saying we do not know beasts such as these dragons... but have faith in the Lion Father, he does not allow demons to strike down our faithful in their moment of courage." Which was saying a lot, coming from Sildred. He'd lost his faith a little when his wife had been killed during Racksom, but he realized that perhaps she had been taken because of her fighting spirit, as was the way with the Lion Father. Captain Hadanna was too important, yet, to the Surahnian cause, unlike his wife. The Lion Father would protect him.

That was more than Sildred had said to her the entire ride there. When she voiced her second question, Sildred fell silent and looked at the others for answers. Did they know what was going on with their city. He flinched when a voice spoke up from behind them, reaching for his weapon only to have Deos tug at him, patting his hand. He looked down at her, then over his shoulder at who could have possibly sneaked up on them and spoken. What he saw was a too pretty, rather short, sylph of a person. Its eyes were unnerving and he turned to look at Deos who was... smiling?

"Oh Captain Viddar? He was killed a little while after House Xerceis fell. His replacement choked on his food this afternoon, curiously after your party came into the city, fancy that my dearest Lady." Falcon sauntered up to Lady Deorwynn, wrapped in pastel silk but quite naked otherwise. He smiled up at her and then over at the beefcake holding her up. "I want some of that," he said and winked, referring to, of course, Sildred. "And I should think that the nobles choking on their midday meals would welcome you if they weren't already dead, Deos darling," he murmured.

Though she didn't put too much stock in the Surahnian gods, she could understand that there was some faith mumbo jumbo involved in the statement and simply nodded as if in agreement. Well, hopefully at the very least luck would be on Hadanna's side, though she would be better off to place her hopes in the man's intelligence. Only a fool would try and down a dragon with only a handful of men at his disposal, none of which were dragon slayers by craft.

To say that she was surprised to hear the voice coming from behind instead of from one of the members of the group gathered around her would have been an understatement. To say that she was even more surprised when she turned to see a familiar face would border on a lie. The most honest smile that she had let slip onto her face since fleeing her home four years ago graced her features when she saw Falcon walking toward them, her hand clenching Sildred's arm unconsciously to keep the big man from attacking. Her heart had warmed at seeing him alive and well, but it positively raced with nearly unbridled joy to find that he was just as effective as ever. She had no reason to believe his words would be false: Falcon was hers, in every sense of the word.

"I love good news." She declared in a breathy voice was that just a step below a whisper. Disengaging from Sildred, she eyed her long time associate and her smile finally dimmed to a more professional look of kind greeting. "Falcon, it has been a long time. I'm glad to see you unhurt." She touched his shoulder gently, mostly to confirm his identity with her soul searching but also partially out of true happiness to see him alive. "Tragedy strikes in threes, as they say." Her voice took on a mournful tone, speaking loud enough now for the others to hear her. "Captain Viddar was a good man. He will no doubt be missed. But this business with the other nobles dying so suddenly… Surely this is a sign of the end times." The window of opportunity presented now however was for her just a sign of the beginning of things. "We must get back into the city." She said, turning to face the others, but mostly concentrated on Sildred. He was the one that really needed convincing. No doubt he would do his best to get them as far away from that rampaging dragon as possible, but if she were to trust in her vision, then the time to act was sooner rather than later.

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She hit him? Oh gods she hit him! Vex was giddy with terror, trembling as her swing brought her around so that she was standing abreast of the Tribal Battle Blood and she was suddenly faced with a pissed dragon that was intent on murder and made that intention quite clear to her. With a squeal of fright, Vex hopped backwards, using her wings to facilitate the movement and slammed her tail into the ground before she landed, sending out a shock wave that rocked the nearest houses and toppled the shanties and merchant stands completely. As soon as her feet touched the ground she roared, a gout of fire streaming out of her throat and streaming at the black dragon, the fear that had overtaken her pushing her to acting without thinking, desperately trying to do anything in her power to keep that dragon away

As soon as the red rock jumped away from him, Xaoc leapt after her, intent on playing the cat and mouse game if needed but he wouldn’t play for long. His patience was running very thin and he could feel the anger and bloodlust pulsing through every single runed scale on his large body. The need was painful.

He was momentarily intrigued by the destruction she caused with her shockwave but all too soon turned his blazing eyes back on fully and attacked again. She was fighting purely on instinct now – just how he liked it. She would be unpredictable but she would at the same time put up a much better fight. It would make the reward so much more worth it!

Roaring his response, Xaoc was already out of the way of the flames when they came, returning the fire with some of his own. His wings were beating strongly to keep him aloft just a little above the female dragon, at the same time inadvertently fanning the fire their flames was already slowly starting up.

Oh gods! A litany of curses flashed through her mind when the Tribal Battle Blood suddenly burst through her torrent of flames, coming right for her with a sweltering stream of fire that would most likely boil the scales straight off her hide. Vex made a wild leap to the side to avoid the worst of it though the fire caught the left side of her front shoulder, searing some of the delicate membrane of her wing ridges. She crashed bodily into a house that stopped her abruptly from retreating any further to the side, tears stinging the backs of her eyes in pain. This is no time to feel sorry for myself! The building collapsed underneath her and she stumbled away from the wreckage, getting her claws firmly into the cobble street. With a coiling of muscle she took a few strides forward, snapping her wings open and with a roar and a stream of fire coming from her maw launched herself at the black dragon hovering just above her in the sky, claws outstretched. She didn't want to tangle with him again, not really, but there was simply no other way for it.

Sildred wore a scowl. The sound of rampaging dragons was still quite loud enough for him to know the city was, in no way, safe. He had a daughter back in New Surahnia. He had orders to keep this insane woman alive. He looked at her, then the rest of the group, and refused to look at her strange little companion. "No." So far as he knew, there was chaos in the city. If a dragon wouldn't kill them either intentionally or inadvertently, the panicking citizens and opportunistic rabble would. Well, Sildred could fend for himself, but he had a Lady to look after.

"Wow," said Falcon, "This one is living marble. Where did you find him." He smiled coyly at the man's deepening scowl. He refused to look at Falcon, and Falcon knew it was because he made the man uncomfortable. Well, he had to use his power over him then. "Well, there is two ways of dealing with a statue." He walked over to Sildred, who admirably kept his ground, but gripped his sword and whip tightly. "I like to push them over." He reached up and Sildred's lips parted, baring teeth. "We go into the city, milk-man."

"No."

Falcon laid his hands on Sildred and one could hear the grinding of his teeth. Another, less trained soldier, might have batted him away, but Sildred followed orders and his orders were to protect the Lady, not kill her servants.

"Lady. Recall your servant."

Xaoc could taste the female’s hesitation in the air and a slow, vicious smile curled around the corners of his mouth. She was done for; there was nothing else to it. Once again, the Tribal Battle Blood would rise victorious.
Nevertheless, she didn’t give in to her own fear and reluctance, steadily coming on despite the futility of it all. Her shoulder was scorched and so was her wing, which would make flying very, very painful in a matter of seconds.

For a brief moment, Xaoc deliberated whether he should keep up the game for a little while longer and wear her out even more before finishing her off, but he quickly decided against it. He wanted a more satisfying kill than merely see her drop from the sky in exhaustion.
Roaring his victory, Xaoc met her outstretched claws, ignoring the pain some of them were causing him as they scratched along his scales. These wounds would heal. The power of the blood would see to it. Thus practically throwing himself into her embrace, he knocked her head to the side and hungrily clamped his teeth down on her neck, tightening his bite with every second.

The heavy beating of his wings kept them aloft for a moment longer until he snapped his wings shut and dropped the small distance to the ground, letting the red rock cushion his own fall.

She watched the exchange between Falcon and Sildred with the curve of her lips spreading in a small smile. She had missed this, the chirping of her little bird. The expression was gone quicker than the blink of an eye and she righted herself, standing at her full height with her chin tipped up and shoulders back, her hands folded properly in front of her. "Surah, I can assure you that Falcon is no threat to such a strong man as you. Surely you are not scared of such a timid little thing. But if you are… well, perhaps I will see to the city myself." Deorwynn delivered the little speech with an understanding smile on her face and a gentle tone, entirely empathetic with his perceived fear, understanding even. "Dragons are terrifying things, even to we natives, but the city will not bend a knee to a phantom king." Turning her head slightly, she eyed the city walls, noting the smoke billowing up from the site of the dragon's battle. "I have sworn great things to His Majesty, and I intend on fulfilling those promises and serving His Grace." She turned her gaze once more on Sildred, no longer understanding, but with the eyes of a woman bent on doing her job, no matter the consequences. "I may not be Surahnian such as it is, but that makes me no more loyal to His Majesty. Come. Let us be off. We have a city to convert to the rightful ways of their Surahnian betters."

Without waiting to see if he would agree or protest, she turned on her heel and dismissed herself from their company, leaving them to stay or follow as they would.

-((This board can be finished as soon as Xaoc kills off my DM dragon. You can reply with reactions if you'd like, but it's come to the consensus that Kaionar will be declared as an ally of Surahnia OOC since political maneuvering on the scale that would be needed makes for a boring role play.))-

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The impact jarred her already torn side, the movement causing what small repairs she had made to rip open anew. Her wail of agony was cut off by the jaws around her neck and she struggled for breath, clawing desperately at the bigger dragon's chest for purchase to try and get away. But his teeth were in her deeply, cracking through scales and holding unflinchingly to keep her from escaping the undeniable fate that now awaited her. The crash to the ground and the full weight landing on her killed her almost as effectively as his teeth. Her ribs snapped under the weight of the impact, crushing her chest and tearing his earlier claw wounds completely open in a gush of fresh blood.

She tried to inhale but only resulted in making a wet gurgle, blood bubbling up from her punctured lungs when she tried to breathe and splattered on the backs of her teeth instead of drawing air. Her tail slapped the ground, making a weak tremor, the effort of trying to free herself from the Battle Blood taking the last of her strength in the futile effort to live.

(Eldar, feel free to finish her off, or consider her dead. I don't think Vex has anything left to give, poor baby Razz

)

The more the red rock struggled, the deeper she buried Xaoc’s teeth within her neck. Not that the Tribal Battle Blood minded. He could taste her blood on his tongue and the runes covering his body pulsed stronger than before, their glow almost too bright to look at. His own scales were starting to seriously feel the damage her claws were doing but the pain was nothing in comparison to the joy and satisfaction coursing through his body at his kill. Granted, it had not been an all too worthy opponent but a dragon was always better than a puny human, especially ones that are too damn evasive for their own good. Xaoc would have welcomed to rid this two-legged of his problem but the latter had deigned himself worthy of another few weeks of living.
No matter, Xaoc would get him sooner or later. For now, his bloodlust was satisfied and he could live with waiting a little bit longer.

With a last push behind his teeth, Xaoc snapped the red rock’s spine and proceeded to savour his kill before finally roaring his victory to be heard all over Kaionar. When his stomach could handle no more, the Tribal Battle Blood finally lifted his large body off the floor, wings beating steadily harder as he pushed himself aloft. The human had to wait. For now, Xaoc needed a bit of rest to digest his meal and nurture his wounds because as superior as he may have been to the red rock dragon, the little beast had still managed to rip him open in quite a few spots, which would now require some time to heal.

Thus, Xaoc flew high up into the air, circled one more time over partially ruined city of Kaionar, roaring, before turning and heading towards south towards the nearest forest to hide himself away in a cave for a while, away from anything to do with humanity.

» Grande Tourney of Kaionar :: Non-Dragons
» Grande Tourney of Kaionar :: Dragons
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