Rogue ]}-Shadow & Light-{[ Aero

Perhaps it was a beautiful day. Perhaps the drizzly wet weather had finally passed and everything was cloaked in glittering dew and green buds. Perhaps any normal person would have looked at the radiant dawn this morning and thought that it had been a beautiful sight. Perhaps all of these things would register for Arasolra as well, if she weren't bored out of her mind.

Usually, when confronted with boredom she would start setting forests ablaze just for the heck of it and see if any adventures arose because of it. However, everything was wet to the core, and it took far too much effort to set a forest aflame than it was worth for her amusement. So, the sunblaze had taken wing and was lazily riding the currents of the wind searching for something that was at least mildly interesting. She'd actually been flying for a while now, scanning the sky and the ground for something to entertain her when finally there was smoke on the horizon. The closer she got, the more she came to realize that the smoke wasn't a forest fire or anything equally interesting like that, but was actually a campsite. And where there was a campsite, there were usually people. That meant that entertainment was just a strategically placed ember away! Filled with renewed purpose, Arasolra made a b-line for the campsite, filled with excitement at the prospect of finally finding some entertainment.

Rilos was not an evil dragon, although his looks apparently portrayed him as though he was; his black scales and startling blue markings made him look more like an electric eel, than a harmless cat. But those refugees at the Everbridge, who had fled from Racksom, were frightened enough that they would drive away any dragon that looked even vaguely scary or different- why was why Rilos found himself running away from the sprawling camp they had made on the very first morning he had managed to make it there. Which hadn’t been an easy task to start with. He had landed a fair distance away from Racksom once leaving the city, travelling by foot across the Everplains- harangued for most of the way by Kagan, for one reason or another.

But anyway, now he was being chased right out of the camp again, leaving Kagan in his wake to try and explain that Rilos wasn’t going to come and try and wreck more havoc. Maybe they got that idea from his armour; it certainly wasn’t something you saw on every dragon, and it wasn’t in the most wonderful of states either. He didn’t really have eyes to see it with though, most of the dirt and grime and blood being on his right side, which, of course, he couldn’t see from.

He stopped to look back and take a break on a slight crest of a hill, wondering whether he was still being chased, and if so, how close those people were. Hopefully they would stop when they got to Kagan, then he could go back and finally get a bit of rest, without having to be on his guard all the time. And being on his own made him jittery too; he wasn’t used to having a limited view of the world, and kept banging into things, and it was strange when people crept up on him. Slightly paranoid at this thought, he checked all around him for movement, freezing on the spot and crouching down low (like it would make much difference) when he saw a flying dragon in the air. It was big, much too big for normal dragons… which left only a limited number of dragons it could be, and none of those good.

It was a near thing for Rilos. He almost was ignored, the sight of the camp too much of a draw for Arasolra to not go and investigate. But one look down at the forest below and she recognized the vivid green and purple of his tail plumes. Could it be? Was her very favorite dragon just down there? She glanced between where Rilos cowered in the woods, almost all the way hidden from a less wary observer and the camp beyond. Well, the camp probably wasn't going anywhere.

She banked, loosing altitude in wide circles around where she saw the blue and black dragon in the forest, hovering briefly before setting down on the forest floor with a gust of wind. A tree stood between her and the blue dragon, so she simply opened her mouth and exhaled a beam of light, instantly obliterating the tree. Well, that would make a nice backdrop while the two of them had a chat, wouldn't it? Delighted to find such a fun playmate, she bounced over to where Rilos was cowering, tail swinging joyfully. "Hello!" She trilled in an almost musical voice, prancing right in front of Rilos then plopped down with her forepaws splayed wide. "It's been a while, yeah? Would you like to play again? I'm outrageously bored at the moment."

Rilos kept a wary eye on the big dragon in the sky, trying to hold himself in place and not bolt for the hills as he definitely recognized who it was up there; yes, Arasolra, the sunblaze. Oh gods, of all the dragons to come across... this was not good. He picked up a fast shuffle as she spotted him, taking great lazy spirals in the air before she landed- there was certainly little hurry, Rilos wouldn't be going anyway fast, and anyway, still trying to hide seemed like the best bet. Who knew, she might decide that he was a mouse that she wanted to chase, if he ran?

He visibly flinched as she came in to land properly, casually torching a tree that was in the way with one of her ferociously hot blasts of fire. Oh how wonderful, so she had recharged. He curled his tails tightly around his middle, huddling into the smallest ball he could manage- which wasn't very small, really. He was quite a big dragon, after all. He cowered back from Arasolra as she bounced to a halt in front of him, bunching his weight on his hindquarters.
"Oh, hello!" he said, voice coming out much higher and squeakier than normal. "How lovely to see you again, it has been a while." All his words were coming out faster than he wanted them to, and he could hardly keep up with what his mouth was actually saying too. "Well, I was kinda errmm... busy, and playing wasn't quite on my mind." He creased his eyes a little, a look half between fake-apology and fear of retribution. "Maybe another time however, I'm sorry you're so bored."
What the hell was he saying?

"Busy?" She asked, sounding mildly offended, as if the idea of anyone being too busy to play with her was a phenomenon unheard of. Arasolra came forward from her splayed poison, flicking her tail as she sized Rilos up while walking toward him, one carefully placed paw at a time. "What are you up to that's so important?" She asked, her tone deceptively mild as she paced around him, brushing her shoulder against his back before sitting on the side that she'd burned his face on, tilting her head at the blackened scales. "Maaaybe, I should make the other side match? That'd be fun. Then again, you look rugged enough with only the one eye like this… hmm… what a dilemma. Are you sure you're too busy? I mean, there's really nothing much to do around here. I know. I've been searching for entertainment for days and aside from harassing the flock of gulls down by the sea, there really isn't much to do." It was funny. The way she talked about not having anything exciting to burn was like a real travesty to her. "So we should do something together. You're not a bad sort, and sort of sturdy."

Rilos tried not to cower even further than he already was as Arasolra slowly padded up to him, but he could feel his back tensing and his legs tightening anyway. He flinched as she touched him, trying not to pull back too far and mentally having to shout at himself not to be such a coward. His eyes flicked shut for a second, then he opened them again just as fast, wanting to keep an eye on the sunblaze. Not that he could, what with her sitting on his blind side, and the knot of fear in his stomach only served to grow at this fact.
“I um… well…” he stuttered, hardly able to get the words out. “Um… nothing. I was doing nothing,” he finally gave in; she would probably torch the people who had been chasing him and Kagan, if the goblin didn’t stop them first. She was more the worry now. “But you really don’t need to do that, I mean, I rather like my face…” He gulped, wishing he could slide away from her a little further, but wary of the consequences.

“Hey, we should erm… play a game!” he said suddenly, thinking of a way to get away from her. He tried to animate his voice, hoping he didn’t sound too frightened in his chirpiness. “I’ll go and hide, and you have to find me. Or something like that.” He gulped, then bounced away from Arasolra’s side, as bounce-ily as he could. “Count to one hundred… no, one thousand, and I shall go and hide in the best place I can find.” Somewhere very, very far away.

She had contemplated licking his face, had even stuck her tongue out to see if his blackened scales tasted differently than the ones that hadn't been charred when he offered the idea of hide and seek. Instantly she was on alert, perking up noticeably at the thought that she might finally have some excitement to augment this rather boring day. She stood, her tail twitching in excitement. "How about ten?" She replied, sounding eager. "It's way too boring to count all the way to one hundred or a thousand. I'd get bored halfway through and come looking for you anyway, and that's not hardly fair at all, is it?"

Arasolra trotted merrily around him, batting at his tail playfully before coming back over on his non-blind side, grinning in a way that showed all of her teeth. "Oooor…" She trilled merrily, dropping her front end and rubbed her shoulder against the ground, ploughing a small furrow into the ground. "We could just play chase. That's always fun. It's even more fun if you promise not to fly, then you have to run around the trees to catch your prey and its just exciting that way. What do you say, huh? Chase? I kind of like that idea. Say you'll do it. Please? Pleeeeeeeease?" She regained her feet and decided to invade Rilos' personal space, bumping her shoulder against his chest and rubbing the rest of her body against him, nosing his side as she went.

“Well, ten sounds a little too short, I’m not sure I’ll be able to hide particularly well in that short a time…” Rilos said doubtfully, looking slightly sick at the prospect. She certainly was very… eager. But he didn’t want to disagree, that might end up with him being charcoaled again. And anything was better than that.

Oh, she really did have him trapped right where she wanted him. But still, he tried to smile as the sunblaze frolicked around him, concealing his worry. He jumped again as she pounced his tail, losing his cool for a moment before trying to collect himself again. Her toothy grin was unnerving though, and it took all his willpower not to run for it. His eyes widened as she suddenly pushed herself against his front, surprised at such a familiar gesture.
Nobody had ever done that before.
And he secretly kind of liked it. Despite being terrified for his life.

“Chase? Uh…” The spined shadow didn’t like the sound of that, but as he didn’t want to be completely blinded by a fit of anger from his new companion, he had to agree, and sound pleased about it, too. “That sounds… wonderful! Will you give me a few seconds for a head start? I feel rather stiff after our last… play… and I’ll be able to run faster that way.” He touched his nose to the end of her tail as she rubbed past him, easing away. Then, fast as he could go, sprinted off in the direction he had come from, running as fast as his sore legs could take him.

"A few seconds…?" She mumbled under her breath, not at all liking the idea of having to wait for much of anything, even for a little bit. But before she could voice her opinion, Rilos was fleeing as fast as he could, if with a bit of a hobble. Snorting a puff of smoke, Arasolra stood where Rilos had left her and silently counted to ten, watching as the blue dragon made his way through the forest rather recklessly and without any grace, her tail flicking slightly behind her. Had he never run around ground bound before? Must not have. He looked a bit like a four-legged chicken as he took off. Oh well. Maybe if she let him get warmed up he wouldn't be so easy to track and capture.

"TEN!" Arasolra declared to the empty air and then bounded off into the forest, following the rather large trail of downed trees and wreckage that Rilos had left in his wake. He was a lot faster than she had first expected and as she loped through the forest she began to notice that she wasn't quite catching up, the sounds of him crashing through the forest ahead actually getting softer. Well, she wasn't going to let him simply escape! That would be no fun at all! But she'd stick to her game of not flying, because that wouldn't be fun to simply take wing and get him, either. Instead she poured on a bit of speed and nimbly wound her way through the forest as much as a dragon of her size could. Arasolra took a detour into the forest, intending to cut Rilos off by running across his path a different way, her greater agility making a bit of difference in the cramped quarters of the forest.

Rilos knew he was being as un-subtle as he could possibly be, but there was no time for that now. He had to get away from Arasolra! He didn’t want to be barbequed, not in the slightest! And it wasn’t entirely his fault he kept bumping into things, his depth perception was off, so it was hard for him to judge exactly where things were. In time, he might get used to it however. Hopefully.

He could hear the sounds of pursuit behind him after much too short a time, which made him run faster. Oh, there was no way he wanted her to catch him; but maybe he could try and avoid her another way? Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks, looking warily behind him to see if she was in sight, then carefully stepping away from his rather messy trail, creeping into the undergrowth. There were quite a few thorny brambles around, and although they caught on his scales as he moved through them, they didn’t hurt too much, just scratches. He poofed into his shadow form, electric blue spines turning into a nice ebony shade, then settled down as much as he could in the undergrowth, tugging a few branches over his side. Hopefully that would hide him well enough for her to miss him when she came looking.

She had been tracking his sound rather easily during the brief sprint into the woods. It was almost like the male dragon was trying to run into every tree he came across. She didn't take into account that Rilos was half blind and that he probably was running into just about everything in his way. Or at least, everything on his blind side. Just as Arasolra thought that she would start turning to ambush him from the side, the noise stopped. She trotted to a standstill, pausing mid-stride with her ears perked and stood completely still. Not a muscle moved as she looked into the forest where she thought he would be, sniffing the air and listening hard for anything that would give him away. The birds were quiet, fled from the scene of two predators frolicking through the forest like they had been. After a few seconds more with nothing heard, Arasolra placed a cautious step out in front of her.

Silent as a cat, she wove her way forward through the forest, slinking through the trees. Being large and bright red like she was, she wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous huntress to ever roam the forest. But she usually made up for it by frying her prey before it could get away the second it saw her. In the span of a minuet she made it to the place where Rilos had stopped his running and jumped off the track. She stood in the clearing that his body had made and began sniffing around, testing out her nose to find what she was looking for. The scent of the trail led her to inspect a patch of thimbles that had been crushed by heavy feet, a sign that wasn't exactly hard to miss. She looked into the space beyond and frowned when she saw that the trail seemed to abruptly end. Had he taken flight? She looked up to to the canopy for guidance. No broken branches and no claw marks in the ground from taking off. Maybe he had switched paths again? Following her nose, the sunblaze dragon continued along the faint trail that Rilos had left, not at all considering that the darkened part of the forest she was running straight into was actually the dragon she was looking for.

Rilos thought he was doing pretty well hiding when he heard Arasolra reach the spot where he had stopped running, looking carefully for him. Maybe he had got free, he hadn’t left that much of a track once he had stopped. He tried to stay still, hoping he was blending nicely into the rest of the forest. At least there was enough undergrowth for him to hide in, and his special camouflage powers were definitely working to their full extent.

She used a different tactic to try and find him than he had guessed she might use though, instead of just looking, putting her nose to the ground and sniffing like a dog. How strange! He half looked up from the brush he had shoved his head in, then seeing her come his direction, hid back again, worried that her tactic might possibly be working. He could feel himself just getting more and more nervous as she tracked him through the brush, then suddenly she stepped on his leg, the one he had managed to somehow hurt when he crashed into a house back in Racksom.
“YEEEAOW!” he shouted, completely giving away where he was hiding and squirming away from her, managing to drag up a load of brambles in his horns. He flicked his tail from side to side, whacking another nearby tree before leaping clear, breathing hard.

She had hunted down plenty of prey before, but never had she met something that could turn invisible! Well, invisible might not have been completely right. Arasolra was so startled by stepping on Rilos and having him jump away that she jumped back as well, her back plates flaring, her body lighting up briefly as if from the inside as she prepared to fight whatever it was that she'd stumbled upon. It took a second to realize that the black blurb of hard-to-see-ness in front of her was actually Rilos, and after this realization she relaxed slightly, the glow from within quickly dying down until her scales were their normal luminance. Though he was still camouflaged, it was much easier to see him now, and Arasolra watching with no little amount of amusements as a couple of trees met their demise at the end of his tail.

Snorting with laughter, she pranced around to his side, watching the thistle branches stuck in his horns bob about in mid-air. "That's a nifty talent." She said, her jaws parting slightly in a smile and giggled as best a dragon could giggle. "You didn't tell me that you were going to be good at hide and seek, otherwise I would have said that we should play that instead of chase. How do you do that anyway?" She asked, nosing his blackened shoulder as she did so, thoroughly entranced by his partial invisibility trick now that she knew about it.

The fact that Rilos was hopping around like a mad dragon and flicking his tail probably meant that Arasolra had won this round of chase. He shook head head slowly as he stopped freaking out, trying to get the thistles out of his horns; they slipped slightly out, but still decided to stick, tickling the side of his face as he looked at her.
“I… didn’t think you would manage to find me,” he admitted as she nosed at him, pawing at his face. He managed to get rid of the nice bush-look he had going on, trying to recover a little of his dignity. “It’s just something I’ve always been able to do. How do you do that thing with your scales?” He tipped his head, looking at her properly- her scales had lit up in the opposite way to how he darkened his.

Now she had found him, he had to think of another way to get away from him however; it was all very well and good that it had kept her happy, but spending more time in her delightful company didn’t make him particularly happy. As much as she seemed to think that it did. Maybe he could distract her if they ran back into that nice angry mob that had been following him before she had ran into her. At least he had already run that direction trying to get away from her, so they were closer to the Everbridge and the camp there than he had been before.
“Again?” he suggested awkwardly, stepping away and pretending he was excited for another game.

"I just did." She answered in a not so helpful way, nosing his scales one more time to see if he would go invisible and blocky again. When he didn't she was a tad disappointed and wondered if giving him a good scare would make it happen again. Maybe she'd find out later. The suggestion for another round practically had her leaping with joy, bouncing on the balls of her toes in barely constrained excitement. "Oh yes! Of course!" She nodded vigorously. This was all very new and exciting! A playmate that actually stuck around! Usually they either ran for the hills or were charred to a delicious crisp by now. Which, while satisfying to her stomach, often left her bored and desperate for another playmate. Maybe she wouldn't burn this one much so that he stuck around a little longer. This was quite fun! "You're good at hide and seek, so let's do that." She suggested with another little joyful leap, hopping sideways and flattening an innocent tree with her bulk, her tail twitching like a cat about to pounce.

"Unless you want to play a different game." She suggested hopefully, noting that Rilos didn't look all that eager. Maybe he didn't like chase or hide and seek, and had a completely different funner game that he knew of? "We could play something else if you want to. I'm not picky. I just want to play something. It gets so boooooring out here." She sat with a huff of breath, her tail thumping loudly on the forest floor. "You can only hunt down a herd of deer so many times before its just not fun anymore. Foxes are smarter, but they're soooo small that its really not worth it once you catch them. Humans are really the most terrible at hiding, though. You'd think that with them being so smart that they'd know how to hide better, but they really don't. They're kinda bad at it actually." And now she was babbling, her list of woes on what was and wasn't good at playing games a remarkably long one, assuredly composed after years of terrorizing the inhabitants of forests and mountain ranges everywhere.

It looked as if it was going to be more hide and seek then. Rilos could not say he was particularly happy with the decision, but nor did he fancy the option of becoming the mouse in a more extreme version of tag. Especially with this speak of different chase partners she had found before now. Charcoaled Rilos was not on the menu today, not if he could help it Even still, not charcoaled, it was going to be a difficult day. He mumbled some half-hearted apology on behalf of all those poor past playthings, testing the waters with a weak smile.

“You’d best start counting to some number them. A large number.” In the hundreds, preferably the thousands. Enough time for him to escape and hide for good a long, long way away. He backed off a couple of paces, testing the ground with his paws, then bounded off as fast as he could without hitting any trees.

Running in the most eclectic direction he could pick, he found (to his dislike) the trees thinning out around him. It was good for not bumping into anything, but where was the cover now? Worst of all, he was going uphill, which made things twice as difficult. Perhaps he could hide behind the hill, or spot some other place to hide from the viewpoint?
He paused once he reached the peak of the hill, looking behind himself nervously for signs of Arasolra following him, then in front again.
So much for new hiding places.
He would have been better off staying close in the woods. He sighed and thumped a paw on the ground in frustration.

The ground suddenly rumbled ominously back at him, a long crack splitting through the grass under his feet. He looked at it in disbelief before it all suddenly gave way beneath his claws, plunging him down into the earth with a howl of fear.

"You had better hide good!" She laughed and turned, laying down on the ground with a small huff and buried her face under her paws. "Doing the disappearing thing would help!" Arasolra heard him scurry off through the bushes, as graceful as a wounded deer and grinned her herself and began counting. Now, given that she had about the attention span of a gnat, she didn't count for very long seeing as counting bored her to tears. Boredom bored her to tears in fact, and she liked the chase better than the finding anyway. That's where all the exciting things happened; during the chase when the prey was fleeing. And Rilos definitely counted as prey in her mind.

Springing up, Arasolra allowed herself a small stretch before turning in the direction that she'd heard her blue friend crashing through the trees and followed the trail of tattered leaves that he left in his wake. It wasn't hard to follow the wide path that he'd made. His skills at forestry navigation were nearly as bad as a human's, and she had herself a little chuckle at comparing the two. In fact, he seemed to be heading directly out of anywhere that would be a good hiding place and towards where she knew that the trees thinned until the forest was nonexistent at all. For a moment she was disappointed. Would he have given up and flown away? That would have been sad.

But 'lo, she spotted him on the hilltop and crouched down low, eyes locked on the target. Silly dragon. You didn't hide by perching on top of a hill and waiting about to be found. Maybe he thought he was being invisible? Well, she'd have to tell him that it wasn't working when she caught him. With a grin she took a few running steps out of her crouched position, taking a daring leap toward Rilos with every intention of tackling him to the ground.

The she heard the crack and the rumble, and the blue dragon disappeared right out from under her, leaving a gaping black hole where he had sat. Arasolra snapped out her wings, trying to stop in mid-leap but her weight and momentum carried her forward. Her front paws slammed into the earth and it easily gave way under impact. In a horrifying moment she realized that she was falling and tried to fly away but her wings only gripped the dirt around the hole that she was falling through and folded as gravity did the rest of the work, dirt piling in over top of her and pushing her down.

With a frightened roar she plummeted, not quite sure which way was up and which way was down, desperately clawing to get her wings to work properly and stop the sudden freefall she found herself in. She only succeeded partially, managing to put the breaks on her fall before more dirt from above fell on her in chunks and she slammed into the bottom of the pit. Gasping, Arasolra lay still, breathing hard and trying to figure out exactly what had just happened.

Rilos twisted and turned as he fell, his unplanned descent into this nowhere-land made even more terrifying by the blackness his blind eye provided him, hiding whatever monsters might be on his right. His wingtips slapped against soil and a lump of stone buried behind him somewhere scratched at one of his tails as he fell past it, making him howl with fear. It was a fear at what waited for him at the bottom, a fear of being buried under ten tonnes of rubble that might not spare him from the grim, painful death crushed under it all a second time, when he might have been called “lucky” to escape such a fate once before already.

His worries lasted all of a few seconds- not that the felt like such a short time- before he hit the bottom of the underground cavern with an ungainly thud, rolling on the soil mound that he had been so lucky to have as a softener to his fall. More soil and rocks followed him down, scattering across his back and sides. Those that were heavier, he yelped more sharply at, until the flow died down to a gentler patter of loose soil that just warranted a long groan.

Until, of course, it was interrupted with the much heavier and entirely unwanted Arasolra, hitting the ground no more gracefully than he had. He could barely move to get her off, her weight on his hindquarters and back more than sufficiently aggravating the recently healed and healing wounds she had given him on their first meeting. Instead he just opted for choked sobs, wishing he was dreaming this whole nightmare, and could he please wake up now in some soft nest far away?

When the ground under her claws suddenly shifted Arasolra cried out in a brief lapse of courage and scrambled for better purchase. Not knowing that what she was clawing into was Rilos, she slipped off his hind quarters unexpectedly and toppled over sideways, landing awkwardly on her wing and banged her head against the stone floor. With a whine she curled her head under her paws briefly until the sting went away before righting herself, twitching her wings to get the dirt clods off and folded them neatly against her side. The slim light they had available from the hole above wasn't enough to properly see anything in the cave, so with a brief flick of concentration the squiggled lines on her body began to glow like they had before when Rilos had surprised her by being invisible. The soft light was enough that she could spot her blue wounded companion, and she paced over to his side, nudging at his head and neck with her snout.

"You still alive?" She asked and cocked her head, stepping back a pace to get a good look at him where he lay on the floor. Turning her head toward the ceiling, she eyed the hole that they had come through and crouched, abruptly leaping into flight and shot toward what could possibly be their only escape. He couldn't get near the hole, however. Escape was at the end of a sharp tunnel, like a sink hole, and it was too small for her to get through with her wings extended in flight. She tore at the entrance a bit, but all that got her was dirty claws and a heavy stone in the chest that she had dislodged. Screeching in aggravation, she dipped her wings and hovered back down, her claws clicking on the stone floor next to Rilos. "We're stuck." She proclaimed sourly with a bit of a pout and huffed, throwing herself on the ground and curled her tail around her nose.

Rilos cowered within himself until the quiet shower of dust came to an end, then stayed quiet for a little while longer, only wearily picking himself up from the dirt when Arasolra lit up the cavern with her scales. He checked himself all over carefully as she jumped towards the ceiling, scrabbling backwards out of the way in case she fell out of the very-much-reduced sky. He shivered as dust trickled down from behind his spines, then winced with dislike at the ear-destroying noise of dislike she gave when there was no way out. Backing up against one of the rough walls, he sighed to himself and tried to steel some courage within himself. Fabulous, underground with a crazy girl-dragon who had quite the penchant for burning things when she got ‘bored’.

“I am… fine?” Well, not exactly fine, he felt like curling up and sleeping for a week was very much in order, and perhaps a rewind of time by a couple of weeks but, there was nothing to help that. He was a little more level headed about these things that Arasolra apparently, and it was only when she had gotten bored and curled up that he started to slowly investigate the cavern, poking his nose into all the cracks and trying to find some sort of exit- or indication as to what this place was. There was an awful lot of stone and rubble, although, it wasn’t like that which came out the earth (at least, Rilos thought, he didn’t know however), and there had definitely been some sort of structure to the place before their untimely entrance.
However, he did find a gap through which he could feel a breeze, some dark place behind a big mound of rubble that blocked it. He nosed at it for a few moments more, then set to with his claws, working slowly to prize the big rocks free.

She continued to pout, her paws tucked under her chest and twitched the multi-pronged tail over her nose further. "Well, at least I'm not alone." She mumbled to herself and growled faintly in frustration. This was not how she wanted to end her day: stuck in a hole. But not just any hole, a very dark hole. Arasolra was no particular fan of the darkness, but at least having company would make it a little better.

Thinking to take a small nap until she came up with a fabulous plan to get out of this situation, her musings were interrupted by Rilos' investigation. She watched him quietly from her place on the floor, not even so much as twitching to get up and help him as he scanned the large room that they had fallen into. After a few moments of his silence prodding around, she was going to ask him what he thought he was up to when he started digging at the wall. Slowly, Arasolra drew herself to her feet, the start of the soreness from the fall beginning to work its way into her muscles and stretched, her back arching high in the air. Shaking herself, she padded forward, her claws clicking on the stone floor and came to Rilos' good side, her scales glowing faintly. "What've you got?" She asked, cocking her head to the side and examining what looked like a very ordinary and boring rock that he was clawing at.

Rilos prized at the rocks in front of him with all the strength in his front paws, scrabbling at the stone like a cat wanting to get through a door when he missed. He looked to Arasolra promptly as she stepped to his side, then shuffled aside a pace to put a little bit more space between them, small as that might be. It seemed safer.
“I could feel a little air through here, so I thought to check, perhaps.” He looked to her nervously, as if he might have done something wrong to anger her, then set to trying to claw away the rubble even more firmly, straining to get his claws under the mess before prizing it all away. He had to jump back across the floor to avoid all the rubble as it came free in a dusty mess, shutting his eyes to protect the little sight he had and snuffing out his nose against the dryness.

Once the dust had cleared, he stepped forwards blinking, interested to see what had come of his labours.
“Well. That was… dramatic. At least this is not merely a wall.” A tunnel had opened up in front of them, dark and long, but big enough to fit them through. It was somewhere better to go than this cavern that seemed inescapable from though, however uninviting it was in every other respect.
“Uhm… after you?”

Last edited by Aero on Wed Feb 05, 2014 4:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

Arasolra cocked her head at the hole that Rilos was attempting to dig, sniffing at the hole experimentally. It didn't seem very promising, but then again, anything had to be more promising than this boring little hole in the ground. "Well, if you think so…" She mumbled and sat next to Rilos as he worked, content to watch him struggle rather than lift a claw and try to help. When the wall started sliding inwards however she quickly skittered away with a small yelp, ending up on the opposite side of the cave staring at the newly created hole. The dark tunnel was less promising than the look of daylight, but at least it was something to occupy her time.

"After me?" She asked with a snort, then huffed and walked forward. "Well, I guess so." She mumbled under her breath and squeezed past the initial entrance. With the insides so dark that she could barely see, she was forced to light up her scales or else risk stumbling over something in a most inelegant way. Arasolra, for all her confidence, did not much like the dark.

Though originally scary and long looking, it didn't actually take her very long to reach the other side of the tunnel, only to come to what seemed like a huge empty space. Fluttering her wings in frustration, Arasolra gave a great snort. "Well, that was a fantastic little jaunt! What are we supposed to do now?" She shot Rilos an accusing glare over her shoulder, and with another huff paced forward a few steps to see if this empty dark space was anything but another cave. The light from her scales touched a line of runes carved on the floor, and as Arasolra stepped over them they began to glow faintly. The glow extended all across the floor, suddenly running the length of the cavern.

With a sharp recoil Arasolra shuffled back, wondering what she could have just done and if it would kill them or not. Instead, it became apparent that she had activated some kind of old magic, the purpose of which seemed to be simple illumination. For, right before her eyes, the darkness of the cavern slowly became a dimly lit city that had long ago been ruined by time. "Oh.."

As Arasolra disappeared past Rilos into the new tunnel he had excavated, the spined shadow looked longingly up at the ceiling and the small gap of light at the top. Oh, how he wished he could turn tail and escape out of that now, but he feared for the sharp walls. Falling twice from such a height within less than twenty minutes didn’t sound like something he would easily walk away from. He felt very fragile, these days.

At least it was dark, with plenty of places to hide away from her in. Rilos’ spines glowed gently, not nearly as brightly as the Sunblaze lit up her scales however. He could see perfectly fine, and if he just hid back a little he wouldn’t be so noticeable for her to take another swipe at…
The tunnel was short; almost as short as Arasolra’s temper, which he had the misfortune of entertaining the moment she stepped out into a new cavern. He shrunk into the darkness of the tunnel back from her glare, cowering and hoping he wouldn’t receive anything more than just a few sharp words.
He sent up a thanks to the friendly Guardian watching over him as she didn’t act against him though, for all his hoping, tentatively stepping out after her as she kept walking forwards.
Then quickly retreated backwards again into the tunnel until all that could be seen was his spines, as the cavern… not just a cavern, there had to be a word for something even bigger than a cavern… a whole underground world was down here! His mouth gaped open as more of it became revealed, great buildings towering up towards the ceiling above, roads running through the centre of it, and the strange lights glowing from throughout the whole of it.
“Oh my…”

He stepped forwards, past Arasolra tentatively to see better, blinking at the sight before them. He had seen human cities before but, this was nothing like those.
“Where are we?” It was magnificent! It was… well, still all underground, which was somewhat offputting, but still! What a place to find.

Arasolra touched her paw to the line in the stone that had lit up when she'd touched it before, and she was glad that all the lights didn't wink out again. The gaping maw of darkness that had been there before the gentle lights of the city had been illuminated was something terrifying to the dragon who always lived in the light. Drawing a deep breath and huffing, she turned a baleful gaze on Rilos. "We're in a hole in the middle of nowhere." She answered blithely, her scales dimming now that there was no need to light up the cavern and started walking. "The sooner we find a way out of this pit, the better. I don't like it down here."

Her wings itched with the need to fly, the stone ceiling above their head making it feel entirely too claustrophobic for Arasolra, who was used to open skies and nothing between her and touching the clouds. This whole being under ground thing just rubbed her in all the wrong ways, and for once, she wasn't in a mood to play. "I've seen ruins before. Cities that were forgotten in the mountains and such. But I've never seen one so intact before." She had neared the edge of the city, the houses made of the same sturdy stone as the rest of the cavern with lanes between them large enough for a dragon to comfortably pass through. At this far edge, the buildings were low single story affairs, but gradually increased in size the closer to the center the city was. "Why do you think they all left?"

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