Antics in the rainforest; which way is the sunshine?

As Dyavol plumetted downwards, Sincostan jumped about with his head craned upwards, trying to guess where to position himself. The calculations whirling through his head were quickly adjusted when the butterfly dragon managed to force his wings out, and he skittered backwards to stand in just the right position as he felt the tiny weight plopping onto his.
'Yousa not hurt?' he checked, twisting his head round backwards to look at his new passenger. 'South? Itsa thissa way! Carefulta hold on, Mahayenka Dyavolla!' The name was beyond Sincostan to pronounce correctly, though it wasn't from lack of trying. He pranced happily off between the trees, breathing in the nice, life-filled scent of the rainforest as he did so.
'Don't getta behind!' he called back to the others, whipping his tail back and forth like an excitable dog as he glanced back at the others.

“I’m fine.” Dyavol managed to say, before gripping desperately to Sin’s back so he didn’t fall off as Sin took off towards the south. He didn’t have time to complain about the terrible mispronunciation of his name, as all of his energy was forced into keeping a grip on Sin. This was probably about the fastest Dyavol had ever moved on the ground, so he had no idea what was going on around him any more. He hoped the others were following, though, since he wasn’t sure if he could handle all of Sincostan’s energy on his own – especially not after that long fall. His wings hurt, and his tail spikes were covered in bits of slashed up leaf and insect. All in all, it hadn’t been the most successful of missions he had ever been on.

Hone didn’t quite know what Sincostan was talking about, and she wasn’t sure if she had heard him right- he had said the word ‘trigonometry’ very fast, and even when she slowed it down in her head, it still didn’t sound like a proper word- so she just nodded slowly. Maybe someone else could explain it to her later, someone who wouldn’t give her an explanation that had finished even before she had started to work out what was being said in the first place! That, and everything he had just written was quickly erased from the ground with one swish of the tear dragon’s tail, then replaced as he started working on another problem. It was all baffling to Hone.

Deciding to ignore all the numbers and lines and curious symbols, she instead changed her attention to Dyavol, who quickly decided to zip up towards the forest canopy, then came back down again even faster than he had flown up. He landed slap-bang in the middle of Sincostan’s back, which was quite fortunate, because he seemed to have descended at quite a speed, and Hone imagined that it would have hurt to hit the ground that fast. After all, it hurt enough just falling over from her own height, and she was a lot bigger than the little butterfly dragon too! Things were really happening much too fast for Hone to take everything in like she normally did, and she was almost left behind as the tear dragon immediately set off in the direction that Dyavol had instructed, making quite a messy trail as he crashed off through the bushes. She herself took a second more before running after the pair.
“Well, I guess it’s followin’ them two then eh?” she said, looking at Fenrir with bright eyes before dashing off along the trail that Sincostan had left behind. “Come on, they’re gaarn geet fast!”

Fenrir listening to the conversation on the other side of the water, growing more and more bored, and a tad irritated, by the nonsense they were babbling before getting to the actual point. To the wolf dragon, it seemed like ages before the butterfly dragon finally took the decision to risk the flight upwards anyways and he instantly stopped listening to the tear dragon again once the latter was talking about the markings he had been scribbling into the mud.

How could they waste so much time on this? Either you knew where to go or you did not. Either you were willing to fly up to check or not. But not this constant yes, and then no, and then yes again, and the insecurity, and … No, it was all just very annoying. Fenrir began swishing his tail from side to side in annoyance, not even realising he was doing so until a few angry flies began to take their revenge on the air he was producing and started biting him. Growling to himself, the wolf dragon forced himself to stay still, in hopes the insects would let him be once he was not disrupting their flight patterns anymore.

Finally then, finally, the butterfly dragon began to ascend into the green canopy above their heads and the wolf dragon began to wonder how far these trees were really growing. They looked so much taller than any trees he had ever encountered and he disliked the many plants that seemed to be swinging from one tree to the next, not to mention the many swarms of insects which seemed to have made the tree tops their homes. The butterfly dragon soon was not visible anymore and Fenrir could not be bothered to crane his neck upwards for ages waiting for Dyavol to reappear again. Instead, he began inspecting their surroundings some more, hoping for maybe another path to open up somewhere, maybe even with a sign pointing them into the right direction. Now wouldn’t that be nifty.

When the tear dragon suddenly began jumping around in agitation, with his neck almost twisted in an unhealthy position to look skywards, the wolf dragon once again focused on the spot where Dyavol might be reappearing anytime soon. Not having to wait for much longer, Fenrir saw the butterfly dragon plummet towards the ground with incredible speed for such a tiny being. He held his breath for a moment as the tear dragon looked like he was going to miss standing in the right spot but then Dyavol plopped onto Sin’s back and did not move anymore. All of a sudden, everything was happening quickly and Fenrir was left looking wide-eyed at the disappearing tear dragon when Hone towards him with a happy grin. “Yes, we should get going,” he replied to the already disappearing figures of the three dragons as he hurried to jump back over the stream and follow the others’ trail into the depths of the rainforest.

“What now? Where are we even going?” Fenrir asked, not having heard what the excited Sin and the exhausted Dyavol had said. “And why on earth are we not following a path?” he growled in frustration as yet another plant hit him square in the face as he was catching up to the others. “I’m sure there would have been a path somewhere which would have made this far easier.”

'We'ra goin'ta th'South!' Sincostan informed Fenrir brightly. 'We don'ta needa path, we'ra goin' straight.' True to his words, he plowed on through a thick tangle of leaves and branches, shoving them out of the way with his head and paws. While being lost in the middle of the rainforest hadn't exactly been great, he was now enjoying this expedition with some new friends- even if Fenrir did seem a little grumpy. Dyavol wasn't very talkative, but then he'd just flown about as high as he was able, and Hone seemed like she was fun to be with- what with their water fight and her positive attitude. In fact, the tear dragon would probably enjoy spending some more time with Hone once they got out of the rainforest- he could teach her some maths! She hadn't looked like she really got what he was doing, and filled with the brilliance of this idea, Sincostan sped his pace even more as he spoke.
'D'ya like-a mathsa, Hone?' he asked, pleased that he could pronounced her name at least.

“Right.” Dyavol said, gripping tighter to Sin’s back and standing as upright as he could manage at such high speeds. “This is all going well. So, any plans for when we get out of the woods? Anyone know where we actually are?” He believed in order, which would only be enforced by asking questions. He couldn’t remember which direction he had entered the forest from, and he wasn’t sure where he had come from before then either. He had been traveling for a long time, looking for another member of ME to meet up with, and he had managed to end up with a bunch of dragons that seemed far too bubbly for his liking in the middle of an insect infested rainforest. Great.

He made sure he was gripping properly (using the claws on his forelegs to keep hold) and turned around so that he could see Hone. It seemed polite to actually try to converse with them rather than simply sulking on Sin’s back. However, as math seemed to be the current topic, he wasn’t exactly enthralled by the concept of it all.

'We're going straight.' Fenrir repeated mockingly in his head, his mood dropping to the levels furthest down possible, once again. How these dragons could be in such an overly awesome mood was completely beyond him. Plant after plant hit him in the face and scratched along his sides while he was following the tear dragon's trail and no amount of blabbering could make him any happier, even less when the conversation was suddenly turned onto mathematics. With a snort of disgust, the wolf dragon decided to drain out their voices once more and tried to concentrate on not getting hit any more.

The butterfly's low voice drifted through the waterfall of Sincostan's talking however and Fenrir looked towards the small dragon. "Smacked up in the middle of a bloody jungle, that's where we are," the wolf dragon grunted. He knew it was not fair to replying to Dyavol in such a manner, but he did not particularly care. "We're heading for a clearing more like," he added, trying to sound slightly less gloomy and a little bit friendlier. "I'm not sure our search will be over after that. A clearing does not mean the edge of the rainforest after all. Much to our dismay," he added in a low voice.

“Yes, but the trees do clear noticeably that way, so we can hope. It’s a bloody big jungle.” Dyavol said, his voice holding a certain sharp edge as he tried to shrug off Fenrir’s somewhat harsh response. However, he couldn’t blame him – they weren’t in any ideal circumstances, and their companions seemed to be far too happy. It was enough to drive anyone to distraction.

“Well once we’re there, the treetops get lower, so I can get a better look over the top anyway. All we can do is make the best of it.” He added, in a voice heavy with either disgust or sarcasm. He was tired, and it was making him irritable. That and the wretched insects that were buzzing around everywhere.

“I have no idea whista gaarn!” cried Hone as the wolf dragon behind the three started up his complaining again, almost losing her balance as she unwisely looked behind her, and nearly crashing right through the middle of a bush. She just managed to miss the thick weave of branches at its centre, but she still came away with her wings full of snapped twigs and slightly browned leaves. Running didn’t help, and she shed a good many twigs behind her as she raced to catch up with Sincostan.

“Uhm well, I ain’t done maths afore, an’ it looks kinda weird… ista stories in it? I like readin’ with stories,” she said, dodging around another tree that tried to leap in front of her. She gave Dyavol a toothy grin as he turned around on the tear dragon’s back to look at her, ears twitching. She couldn’t hold his gaze for long though, the rainforest passing underfoot too quickly to not pay attention.

She suddenly slid to a halt, something through the trees catching her eye. “Hey, wait up!” she shouted after the others, then peered across at the thing she had seen. There was a big dip in the ground, where all the trees were either bent down towards, or missing completely- or scorched to a crisp. “Some weird thingie’s happened with t’trees…” Certainly she didn’t think that a big crater in the middle of the rainforest was a normal occurrence.

The ground certainly wasn't the easiest to navigate. Sincostan hopped about over the broken branches, his paws squelching in the mud and his feathery tail held out behind him to keep his balance and stop it from getting too dirty.
'Itsa notta problem,' he called back to the others, glancing behind him briefly. 'I'lla fly uppa throughda trees, there'lla beanough room inna th'clearing.' It was a shame that Hone couldn't fly; if she could, then the lot of them could just leave over the trees. That would be fun- he'd never flown in a big group of dragons before! Except, of course, it couldn't happen. His face turned slightly melancholy for a fleeting second before it returned to his normal smile and he bounced over a particularly large log.

'Thraint stories inna mathsa!' he told Hone firmly, grinning at her. However, a moment later he skidded to halt to reassess his words. 'Well, there'sa problems. Like iffa there'sa a tree, anda dragon standin' bya th'tree, anna th'dragon'sa thirty away fromma th'tree, and th'treesa sixty tall, then whatsa anglea-'

His words were cut off by Hone's call from behind. Distracted completely, he spun on the spot and leapt back over the log without a word of warning.
'Whoops, sorry Mahayenka!' he apologised briefly, darting over to the area which Hone was looking at. 'Whatsa this?' he asked, mostly rhetorically, before tiliting his head back to look up at the gap in the canopy. 'Itsa come in attangle, y'see alla th'trees are cut off atta th'top or fallen over there, butta here itsa hitta them atta the bottom. And then itsa slid... thatta way.' He gestured with his nose down a sleep slope with a clear path of destruction down it.

Fenrir wasn’t very pleased by the lash dragon’s rushing through the bushes and taking every single leave and twig along on the ride with her, because whenever she sped up to catch up with the speedy tear dragon, she lost them all again, which effectively sent them Fenrir’s way. The wolf dragon growled as yet another twig tried to poke his eye out and he was ready to jump the next thing that wanted to scratch, poke or annoy him in any other kind and rip it to shreds.

When the lash dragon stopped all of a sudden, the wolf dragon struggled to not bump into her and did not quite manage. Crashing into the lash, he growled and wanted to go off on a rant when he saw what had stopped Hone in her tracks. Forgetting about his anger, he bent his head low to inspect the site, wondering what had happened here. He even forgot about the fact that he was unhappy and dissatisfied about the fact of being stuck in a jungle full of annoying plants and animals with a bunch of dragons who were far too cheery for his gusto.

“Looks like something huge crashed here,” the wolf dragon murmured, carefully stepping around the place, avoiding every bit of lightly scorched earth. “Maybe a fire-spewing dragon but then it had to happen quite a while ago, otherwise this bit would still be sizzling hot and maybe even burning.” Fenrir was talking more to himself than to the others but his voice was still clear enough to be heard by everyone.

As he kept looking around, he noticed that a few trees had actually been ripped out and seemed to have joined whatever it had been in its glide along this trench. When Sincostan had explained his mathematical interpretation of the whole scenario, the wolf dragon had followed the movement with his eyes, and now, he was returning back to the point where it all seemed to have started. A rather large hole in the canopy of trees and a rather huge furrow in the ground, which seemed to end only quite a bit away. “Wouldn’t mind having a look at where this ended…,” Fenrir muttered as his eyes focused on the ditch in the distance.

Temero paused for a moment and sniffed the air, picking up on a group of dragons and a river not far off. Come to mention it, he could actually smell the river. Swinging his head in that direction the wolf dragon considered his options. While he was fine with other dragons, and might actually run into those with the same ideals as him, he was wary of such a big group in a place like this.

"Well, we have a choice," he said softly, not wanting to be heard by the group, just in case. "There seems to be some other dragons over there, as well as a river, but there is no way to tell whether they will welcome or attack us, nor how many of them are there. So, should we risk it?" Personally, he did not care either way. After all, he could look after himself in a fight and figured he could find a way out of this strange and dangerous forest. Besides, it was not like he was alone or anything, so surely everything would be alright?

((I'll let you decide because I do not mind either way as well. (: ))

More dragons, hm? Kesia pricked her ears in the direction Temero indicated, sniffing delicately at the air. Sure enough, there did seem to be others in that direction.
'Well, while I have no desire to be attacked, I think it's worth the risk. They might have more of an idea as to the way out than we do.' She assumed a somewhat smug expression. 'And unless one of them is a shade runner or some such breed, I think I will be able to outrun them in these trees. Even if I'm not as fast as some, I'm more agile.' She glanced at the dragon and then moved off in the direction of the noises of breaking branches, eyes scanning the gaps inbetween trunks to make sure that no attacking dragons would catch her unawares.
'You are coming, aren't you?' she suddenly asked Temero, pausing to look back at him again as she suddenly realised that he might come in very useful if the other dragons were aggressive.

Dyavol swore under his breath as Sin took off in a new direction, digging in his claws so that he didn’t fall off. However, as soon as he had recovered his balance, it became clear to him too that the huge, blackened hole in the trees was /not/ supposed to be there.

“It looks like a meteor hit it or something.” He said, trying to see through the trees. He couldn’t see anythi- no, wait, there was a dull, red-orange glow a little way off, and a cloud of smoke above it. That had to be what had caused the crater, didn’t it?

“Hey, look over there? Can anyone else see that glow?” he said aloud, pointing with one foreleg even though no one was likely to see him. He was intrigued – big, burning hot things falling in the rainforest was well worth investigating, and it wasn’t like they had anything else to look for, other than a way out. And of course, there was one fact bothering him: this was south of where they had started, right? And he had not been above the tree canopy for long. This could be /it/ what he had thought was a way out might just have been this huge crater…

----

Urgh, what had /happened/? Llarria sat up, her head pounding. She had been up high she remembered that – on top of a big hill, she thought. She must have fallen. Now where was she? She looked around, trying to ignore her pounding head, and saw that the ground all around her was scorched, and the plants next to her were smouldering, giving off a thick cloud of black smoke. Oops. She really had to get better at controlling her body temperature – lava dragons like herself could be quite destructive if they didn’t know what they were doing.

Getting to her feet carefully, Llarria began to map out her surroundings. She could see the line of trees she had flattened on her way in, and beyond that a sheer cliff. So, she knew where she had come from, at least, but where /was/ she? Before her mind had time to put together any logical thoughts, she heard a sound in the trees a little way off. She could hear voices – dragons, by the sound of it. Well, no time to think any more, she was going to have to prepare herself for whoever was coming her way, if they were indeed approaching.

When Dyavol mentioned that he had spotted something, the wolf dragon closely looked at the butterfly to see which direction it really was the tiny dragon was pointing towards. ‘Over there’ could mean a lot of things and with somewhat small limbs it was a little harder for the others to see where exactly ‘over there’ was.

Once Fenrir had realised however where to look – somewhere close to where he had been staring as well, namely not too far away from where the huge crater stopped, he could almost immediately spot whatever it was Dyavol had seen. Forgotten were his usual grumpiness and his dislike of having so many happy creatures around him as his ears raised up high, flicking back and forth to pick up sounds.

The slightly orangey tinge of the thing seemed to be glowing a bit, oozing small smoke pillars itself, and the wolf dragon was tempted to go a bit closer to inspect. All of a sudden, the thing started moving however, frightening Fenrir for a moment. Bouncing back a few steps, the wolf dragon instinctively crouched into a defensive position as he held his head low, ears still flicking back and forth, to inspect whatever it was. As it had been moving, it seemed to be a creature in any case. Narrowing his eyes into small slits so as to better see, Fenrir murmured in surprise: “Is that a dragon?”

Sincostan’s mess of maths-related babble went straight over Hone as she stared through the trees at the new crater they had come across, not really understanding what he was saying, and too interested in this new thing they had happened across to pay the right amount of attention to him to properly understand. Before she could say anything more to counter his fast flow of words though, the wolf dragon following suddenly crashed into her, sending them both sprawling to the ground. She sat in a messy heap on the ground, limbs tangled everywhere, for a moment, before bursting into laughter and struggling up to her paws again.
“Y’silly, whistae like?! I know I stopped fast-like, but I dinae think I had stopped that fast!” She burst into even more fits of laughter, flicking her wingtips over her mouth like a young human might do when they laughed. “But lookee, this is too interestin’ to not stop an’ look at.” Her eyes were bright as she followed Fenrir round the big scorched mark in the ground, keeping close to his tail. Ooh, it was most peculiar!

“I think we should gar an’ look at where it ends, aye, that’s a good idea!” said Hone as the wolf dragon muttered under his breath, ears perking up brightly. “Come on, we’ll gar an’ see! Mayhap there’ll be somethin’ interestin’ ‘long this crater-thing too.” Hone always liked investigating new things, and this was no exception. The rainforest was big and new and exciting, and although the others seemed very keen to find their way out of it, that didn’t mean they couldn’t stop for investigations along the way, did it? She bounced along to see what it was, stepping forwards even more eagerly when Fenrir shied away from whatever it was moving in front of them.
“Comeon! Mayhap they’re lost too? It might be someone friendly!” she said, dancing around in a circle and walking backwards so she could look at the others. It only ended up with her falling over a log, landing with another “thump!” on the ground. The person in front of them looked very strange from upsidedown, their red and black and slight grey hide looking very strange through the trees.
“Hey, hooista?” she shouted, throwing caution to the wind as she greeted this new person.

((Sorry if this is kinda jumbly, I forgot to post last time so I just mashed stuff together... running out of time before my lecture lol! Poke me if you want some more to work with Wink

))

Temero nodded slightly, following her slowly. This did not seem like a good idea to him, but the wolf dragon was ready for whatever happened. He could fight, those skills had been honed though all his time alone and even more so since he had joined ME. It was not fear of being hurt that caused his lag, it was reservation about meeting others.

If he could be sure that they were all part of his group Temero would have no problem with it, but this... Well at least there did not seem to be any humans. "I am Temero," he called in response to the raucous greeting, frowning slightly at the noise generated. What better way to bring all of the larger predators down upon oneself? If there was anything in this forest that was willing to take on a dragon of course. That he doubted. Very, very much. "I do not suppose any of you have a way to get out of here?" he asked boredly, ready to get out of this strange and ominous place.

What are the chances we all get lost in here, he wondered suddenly. This place could be a giant trap. Perhaps it was simply his distrustful nature, but Temero wanted to leave as soon as possible and get back to his normal comings and goings.

‘It wassa hot thing fasure,’ Sincostan agreed, dancing around the scorched area. Mahlyenki’s observation had him leaping to attention, craning his head round in an attempt to look at the dragon on his back. ‘Dya think?’ He bounced across the crater, allowing himself to skid down the slope when he reached it. ‘This issa fun!’ he yelled back over his shoulder, mouth wide in a maniacal grin. He laughed at Hone on her back, leaping onto his feet when he reached the bottom of the slope and prancing over to the huge, stirring figure. ‘Yahuh, hwista?’ he repeated, trying to mimic Hone’s manner of speaking and not entirely succeeding.
An examination of the creature soon yielded new knowledge; skittering backwards to talk to Fenrir, Sincostan informed him,
‘Itsa lava!’ Apparently entirely confident that their new find was non-aggressive, he slid back forwards, whisking his feathery tail teasingly over Hone’s nose to tickle her as he passed. He only stopped his approach when he was close enough to the lava dragon to feel the heat radiating from her skin, but he could hardly see her head from this close now that she was standing. Remedying this issue by skittering backwards a few steps again, the tear dragon then looked up again. ‘Area youakay? Dya need any help?’ A sudden thought struck him and he spun back round again to stare out of the hole her descent had left in the canopy. ‘Hey, dja know th’way outta here? Iffa y’don’t, Ah canna fly outta the hole anna look fath’way out! Witha Fenrir!’ Clearly pleased with this new plan, he swept his tail back and forth in the air, awaiting a response from the dazed-looking lava.

~*~

Kesia was more than a little apprehensive about this. The other dragons were all bouncing about behind the trees so much that she couldn’t count them easily, but there were at least another three of them- confusingly enough, one of them identical to Temero. To her horror, a glow between the trees which had been puzzling her suddenly revealed itself to be a behemoth of a dragon. What were the chances of this many congregating in such a remote location? From the scorched smell of the area- and the charred patch of ground- this dragon was glowing with heat more than anything else. The unicorn paused, poised to run, and took in the situation. Temero was approaching the other group and talking to them, but she thought it looked more like they had been talking to the lava dragon rather than the wolf dragon and herself. Nevertheless, deciding she could get away if needed, she took a few delicate steps forwards and offered,
‘And I am Kesia.’

The dragons bounding towards Llarria looked friendly enough, so she focused on pulling some of the heat back into her core, cooling her skin so that the greyish areas covered more and more of her surface, dimming the glow she was emitting. She then ducked her head down top a more polite level for the smaller dragons, and smiled warmly, despite the throbbing in her head and the confusion buzzing about in her mind. “My name is Llarria. What about yourselves?” she asked, a little confused by the amount of other dragons that just happened to be wandering around in the rainforest.

--

Gripping on to the energetic dragon, Dyavol found himself being dragged closer to the thing (which had now been revealed to be a lava dragon). He looked up at it suspiciously, not trusting anything that big. To the other dragons, she must have looked colossal, but she filled Dyavol’s vision completely, making his feel rather insecure. He didn’t like it, and decided to fly up to a more reasonable level. Dashing off upwards (ignoring his weary muscles) he made it to just about level with the lava dragon’s lowered head, and hovered there to make himself known.

“I have never seen a flightless dragon make such a huge crater – how did you get here?” he demanded in a sharp tone, not caring who she was. He could feel the heat radiating from the dragon’s skin, but that only gave him a pocket of hot air to hover on more easily, so he didn’t mind overmuch. He just wanted to get out of there, frankly, and making friends wasn’t even /on/ his agenda.

--

When the tiny, angry-looking dragon flapped his way up in front of her face, she snorted and recoiled a little. “Well it’s nice to meet you too.” she said sarcastically, shaking her head. “I sort of… crashed. I can’t really remember, but it looks like I came from over there.” She pointed with her scorching hot nose to the cliff a little way away. She must have been pushed fairly hard to have taken such a straight path to the ground, but that was all she could think was possible. She then addressed the lively dragon that had apparently been carrying the little butterfly. “I’m afraid I have no idea where we are, but you’re welcome to take a look – I imagine it should be fairly easy to reach the top of the trees now that I’ve cleared the way.” She said, laughing a little. However, the fact still remained that she didn’t know where she had come from or why. What could have – oh!

A fragment of memory returned to her. Yes, she /had/ been pushed, and she’d been working. That was all she remembered, but apparently something had gone badly. Well, that would have to be her first priority when she got out of the woods – she couldn’t have any ‘unfinished business’ walking around, could she?

Hone screwed her head round even further to one side as Sincostan butchered her words in his own frantic way of talking, pulling a slightly confused look. Well, what a strange and unusual day this was turning into! She had to admit, the others, grumpy and unfriendly as they were, probably thought the whole situation was bonkers, and in a way, the lash dragon had to agree. Not that she particularly minded, oh no, but it really was crazy, what with Sincostan around. She wondered lightly if he was always like this, then scrambled up to her feet again, shaking dead leaf litter out of her head fins and plastering another silly grin on her face. Not only had they found a huge lava dragon, apparently fallen from the sky (it was the turnips, she was certain of it, they had kidnapped this poor dragon to have their evil vegetabley ways with her, and now they had dropped her out of the sky when they were done with whatever they were doing. All smart dragons knew that turnips grow on top of clouds), but they had also found another dragon, and of all strange creatures, a unicorn too! She took a few hesitant steps towards them, before bounding up next to the new wolf dragon with an excited fluttering of her head fins.

“Howee, gosh, you’re t’same as ol’ Fenrir here!” she gestured wildly with one wing to where Fenrir was looking rather ruffled and worse for wear, apparently having had some intimate time with a fair few more branches on their pell-mell journey to where Llaria had suddenly appeared. “Yellow an’ black like a wasp an’ all! Temero, eh? Y’sure you’re not…” she paused, screwing her nose up in thought, then slowly said “Rirnef? Aye, Rirnef. Tha’s Fenrir backwards.” She gave the poor dragon a conspiratory wink, then turned wide eyes on Kesia.
“An’ you’re a unicorn! Tha’s so cool!” She stuck one clawed paw in her mouth, chewing ferociously and looking at the pair with wide, excited eyes, like a child might look in a sweet shop when they’ve just been given a bag of money. “How comes y’in t’forest?”

What? Fenrir’s head flew towards the tear dragon as the latter began talking to the huge lava dragon crouched on the ground in front of them. “Fly? Up? In this mess?” Fenrir looked up and then glared at Sincostan. “You’re not serious, are you?” He could imagine far worse things than this of course but he was not in any kind of mood to go flying upwards merely to check where to go.
If he actually could manage to fly up in this jungle, then he would not be stuck at the ground and frantically trying to look for a way out. However, it was of no use to explain all this to the bubbly dragon, he was obviously too easily distracted and would probably soon enough realise himself what with all his mathematical knowledge that this was not a good idea.

The two newcomers however, on top of the crashed lava dragon, were not what the wolf dragon had hoped for however and he was beginning to wonder if there was a nest somewhere. Curiously enough however, one of them was a wolf dragon like himself, whereas the other was a weird shiny horse with a horn on its forehead. With a grunt, he replied in a general direction towards the three new ones: “You may call me Fenrir.” He was not quite sure it was heard as he was grunting it more than properly saying the words but the others were throwing his name about more than enough anyways.

Fenrir rolled his eyes at Hone when she tried to spell his name backwards, apparently convinced that the other wolf dragon, simply because it was a wolf dragon, had to have his name as well. “Listen Hone, simply because he’s the same sort of dragon doesn’t mean he has the same name. Other lash dragons are not called Hone or Enoh either.”

Muttering under his breath, he stepped a few paces to the side, closer to the lava dragon but that was uncomfortable as well due to the heat still radiating from her body. Thus, he stepped away from her again as well, slowly backing away, not wanting to be included anymore in any sort of weird discussions. There were too many new creatures around anyway. And what were they all doing in this forsaken place anyway? Could it really be that all of them were lost? It sounded rather fantastical in Fenrir’s opinion, but he couldn’t deny that it was possible either. This jungle was a maze, not to mention a mess.

Temero took a moment to survey the little group, eying the Lava dragon more than a little warily. How on earth had that come to be falling from the sky? Now there was a mystery. But what was this that had come bounding up to him? She certainly was a friendly little Lash. At the questioning of his name Temero simply nodded slightly. "I am quite certain in fact," he replied, glancing at the other wolf dragon who was saying much the same thing.

Honestly he had never really spent that much time around others of his breed, so it was interesting to see another one. The experience was very much like looking into a mirror at his badly behaved reflection. Badly behaved because it refused to mirror his movements, not because of its attitude. Though the male seemed to think much the same way he did. Either that or Fenrir was simply fed up with the lash, something Temero could understand.

"So what exactly is going on here?" he asked, mostly ignoring Hone's last question. "Are you all lost like us or do you have some idea of where we are?" Obviously Temero thought it would be best to find a way back to the open air so that they could fly out. Unless not all of them could fly. And though he was of half a mind that it would be the problem of the flightless dragons at that point, he was not yet willing to condemn his brethren to be stuck in this jungle forever. Unless they sympathized with humans of course. Then he would not have a problem with leaving them behind.

Last edited by Artemis on Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:49 am; edited 1 time in total

If he got any more excited, Sincostan’s jaw would probably fall off. As it was, he was bouncing around with his mouth open wide enough for Dyavol to fit inside comfortably. He loved having so much company!
“Howdja crash? Ya don’ta fly, so-ya cannata flown acourse! Dja fall? Offfofa cliff? Itsa longaway ta fall, area youakay? Aya sure ya don’ta needma help? Yanno tearsa th’best healers yac’n find, anna there ain’ta many healers arounda here, acosa th’tribes!” He flicked his tail, puffing out his chest proudly. “Oh, anah foggata tah intraduce maself, Imma Sincostan anna Ahm pleasedta meetcha.” He briefly shot a reproachful look at Fenrir as he pointed out,
“Theresa huge gapfa usta fly athroughnow!”

When the new voices from behind caught his attention, his grin changed to a look of astonishment and he span on the spot to stare at the newcomers with an insanely joyful expression on his face. More people, still?!? This was the best surprise gathering he’d had in years! Maybe they could even have a party! He’d always wanted to go to a party, but much to his surprise he’d never been invited to one. It had been a shock when he’d found out that one of his old friends had had a birthday party, but obviously his invitation had simply been lost. And there’d be other chances, right? He was sure of it.

“You’rea Temero? Imma Sincostan. They’re aright yanno Hone, Ah’vea gotta sister who’sa called Socatoa anna that’sa nothing like Sincostan! An’ asidesa that, y’name abackawards isa diffarent than if itsa forwards!” He grinned dopily at her before turning his attention on Kesia as she did. A unicorn? He hadn’t even really known they existed; he’d heard plenty of stories about them, but those were impossible to confirm.
“That’samazing! Ah’ve neverra seena unicorn beforea now!” His tail whisked back and forth, wagging like a dog as he looked between the numerous others. He couldn’t decide where to focus! Luckily, Temero’s question gave him something to concentrate on, and he bounced round to face the wolf dragon face-on.
“We’rea lost!” His expression and tone of voice made it sound as if he couldn’t imagine anywhere better to be. Certainly having so many people around to talk to had washed away the bad points again and simply left this as a really, really exciting experience. “We’rea gonna fly uppa through th’trees anna see iffa wecanna see th’way out! Llarria lefta hole, but itsa odd, cause she musta fell but Ah don’ta know how!”

~*~

Observing silently from the sidelines, Kesia’s ears gradually flattened back to her head in distaste. At least none of these dragons seemed aggressive, but those two loud, excited ones were really grating on her nerves. They both had such stupid voices, too, that she could hardly decipher what they were saying. However, a few things they said caught her attention.
“You can see a way out?” she asked in surprise, glaring at the annoying blue one. “Why aren’t you looking for the end of this hellhole, then?” She looked more than a little annoyed, huffing and twitching the tuft on the end of her tail as she looked across at the annoying multicoloured one. As if the accent wasn’t bad enough, it hurt to look at as well. “I was chased into the forest,” she said primly, arching her neck. At least they were treating her with the awe due to her species; she may as well show herself to her best form. “Humans should stop chasing unicorns. They must know by now that it is a fruitless enterprise.” Not true at all. While unicorns were hugely rare, they had been caught from time to time and their horns, the hair from their manes, their tails, their blood, their hooves… All of it could be sold at extravagant prices, so it was worth months of stalking a unicorn if you could pin it down in the end. Kesia considered herself a survivor; agile, fleet-footed and always ready to run, she had never come close to being caught. Not too close, anyway.

“Well, it mightha been possibly, y’never know. I ain’t heard the name Fenrir afore, but that don’t mean y’Wolfies don’t do it different to us Lashies!” said Hone to the Wolf dragon, grinning madly. “Maybe all Lashies are called Hone, but y’wouldn’t know that, unless y’asked, or knew ‘nother lash dragon. D’you?”

Of course, they weren’t all called Hone, but that was besides the point now.

Temero seemed to agree with Fenrir, so apparently her theory was wrong about wolf dragons. It had been worth the shot though, she might have been right! She filed the idea way to try on another species of dragon another day, and turned her attention back to what was happening at the present. Like everyone else, the newcomers didn’t seem to know where they were, so they were all happily stuck in the same mess together. “No idea where we are!” she chirped happily, spreading her wings out wide and spinning on the spot. It was all just a fabulous, massive adventure.

“But I cannae fly…” she said, her cheery grin falling as Sincostan suggested flying out through the hole Llaria had made in the rainforest canopy. The tear dragon’s revision of words- yes, they would check the way out, not just leave, this group was too fun to break up yet- was better, and she felt a little less left out. She really hoped they wouldn’t leave her behind… Kesia seemed rather snooty, and Llaria… well, she seemed friendly, but she was huge!

All the excitement was slowly but surely getting on Fenrir’s nerves and the wolf dragon had to force himself not to start snarling at the tear dragon, who was obviously going completely nuts with these many new faces surrounding him. Nuts in a good way – for Sincostan, not for Fenrir.
He decided to somewhat ignore the glare and tried to stay out of line of direct focus of the tear dragon, not in the mood for being reminded that he was thinking the wolf dragon should fly up with him to check. If Sincostan wanted to have a wolf by his side, he could take the newcomer.

With a curious eye at the wolf, as curious as it got for Fenrir these days, he realised that there really was almost no difference between them and it seemed oddly unsettling to him. The unicorn by his side made him grin almost however, her attitude reflecting much of his own. If they wanted to find a way out by flying up into the green mess, they could do so themselves.

Oddly enough for him, and even though he was not all too fond of the easily excited lash dragon, his heart sank a little when she sadly announced that she could not fly. “Well, he only wanted to fly up there to see where to go. It’s not like anyone is planning on leaving you alone here in the middle of nowhere.”

If he could have looked sheepish, he would have done so now, wondering what on earth had just ridden him after he, only minutes earlier, would simply have snuck away and left them to do whatever it was they wanted to do by themselves, if only he had could. And now? Sighing inwardly, the wolf dragon stood there, waiting for doom to pass over him because surely now that tear dragon was going to jump at this and send him upwards along with him. As much as he wanted to pick up Kesia’s words and throw them at Sincostan now as well, he had just basically ripped their attention back to him. Unless someone else’s noise was going to cover up his words and made the others forget he had even opened his mouth...
In any case, it was safe to say that Fenrir had now officially utterly confused himself.

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