Artemis] It's always better to be a bit crazy (Kassandra/Jittan) [Rogue

Time: 3pm; it is a fine summer’s day by the edge of Lake Racksom, the birds singing in the trees, the sun shining down on the deep blue waters… all in all wonderfully lovely and pretty much the best time of year for a picnic with friends. Also cake. Definitely cake is required for a day like this.

This roleplay happens /before/ the battle at Racksom.

Kassandra fidgeted on the spot as Tamarisk took a long, luxurious drink from the edge of the lake, shifting every so often and making the silty soil shift in little landslides into the water. She was impatient; never one for standing still for long, she had become even more edgy in the past few months, since she had gotten back from Tarz- a lich named Rintho had souped-up her electricity powers to almost twice their original level, but it had had more than just effects on her abilities. One of the most noticeable at first would have been her ever increasingly short threshold for menial or repetitive tasks, and her intense desire all the time to be faster, quicker, faster, faster, faster. She couldn’t help it; she could feel herself buzzing inside, wanting to get things done, to stop wasting time, even when time wasn’t being wasted.

Her horse really was taking his time about drinking, and she aimlessly scooped up a handful of dirt and stones from the ground, picking out those big enough to throw and piling them in one hand, discarding the rest of her handful and wiping off the dirt on her green cloak. She rolled them one by one around in her fingers before throwing them into the lake, first trying to skim them over the light waves, then just throwing them as far as she could, or getting them to make a splash. She knew she wasn’t being very subtle; but who, apart from herself, and Tamarisk, was in the areas? There were birds, a few deer maybe, a handful of rabbits or a fox, but nothing more. This was the middle of the forest, and nobody just came out here. It was too far from Quinsilla, and too far from Racksom- and Quinsilla wasn’t really the sort of place for people to be travelling to any more. There might have been a few like her, on their way to Racksom, but apart from that… nobody. Which was very nice, but if only it wasn’t so mind-numbingly boring and slow.

He hadn’t spent much time in these parts, but Jitt was sure that he hadn’t gone too far off course. That man had said that he just needed to keep on headed south and he’d reach Lake Racksom… But there seemed to be little sign of it anywhere nearby. With a sigh of irritable thirst, the dragon stopped and listened for a few moments, watching the forest around him. Maybe he’d be able to see animals going to drink?

What he did hear was much better than that- a splash of something dropping into water, not too far away to his left. Performing a clumsy sort of pirouette, he headed over that way, eagerly directing himself to a thinning in the trees. Sure enough, the painfully bright reflection of strong sunlight off water hit him as he emerged from the forest and plunged thankfully towards the lake, sticking his head straight into the water and slurping up litres at once. It wasn’t until he withdrew his head, shaking water from his muzzle, that he saw the woman and the horse on the other side of the lake- and froze.

What should he do? He was tempted to go over and talk to the woman- he did enjoy company, and he hadn’t seen anyone else since the man who’d directed him to the lake. He had seemed friendly enough, but they hadn’t got to talk for long. And maybe this person would know a good way down to the coast- which was where Jitt was headed. He loved sand. The desert was excellent for sand baths, all hot and the sand good and loose, but one thing he couldn’t stand was dehydration- and there was plenty of that in the desert. After realising he had become somewhat sidetracked, he took another long drink from the lake before looking assessingly at the woman again. Well, it wasn’t like he was unable to defend himself if necessary, and it would be nice to talk to somebody again. Spreading his wings, he hopped into the air and glid along a distance around the perimeter of the lake, jumping back up again as soon as he landed. Once he had bounced his way a little closer to the woman, he projected a thought cheerfully towards her.
Hey there!

Tapping one foot impatiently on the ground, Kassandra’s impatience didn’t wane with having to wait. She curled her fingers into Tamarisk’s mane, aimlessly tugging the knots out of his thick hair, until he grew annoyed with her and pulled away, blowing out an annoyed huff of air.
“Sorry,” she whispered, patting him lightly on the side instead. She felt him let out a long breath, his billow of air sending little ripples across the surface of the lake. They didn’t get far out, the gentle wind that ruffled the rest of the lake’s top obscuring them. Kassandra looked out a little further, still feeling jumpy. She wanted to stroke Tamarisk more, but it would only annoy the horse.

She froze as she saw another figure across the other side of the lake, the wind blowing so that she couldn’t have heard the dragon coming- although he was a long way away, it would have been hard to hear him even if the wind had been in the right direction. Tamarisk was snuffling at a few bits of grass here and there, rolling his bit around his mouth and making it clank. She wrapped one hand around his reins, tugging his head up. she backed up against him as the dragon took off, coasting around the edge of the lake like he had nothing better to do than come and see her.
“Time to go, Tam,” she said softly, pulling his head around and starting to swiftly lead him away down the edge of the lakeside, away from where the scythe claw dragon was swiftly advancing. Those were some mean looking claws.
She froze as he hailed her, turning slowly on the spot and pressing her back against her horse’s side. He certainly didn’t look like the friendly type, even if he wasn’t giving the same sort of vibe with his words.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice hostile.

What was she doing? Hadn’t she seen him? He was hard to miss; a large, bright red dragon approaching you in plain sight wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. It took a few moments for him to come up with the idea that she might be leaving because she had seen him, which threw him again. Maybe she was just scared; he must look pretty intimidating. Puffing up his chest proudly, he smiled when she stopped and turned back to him.
Just a talk, really, he explained with a shrug, taking another leap which put him close enough to the woman that he walked the remaining distance between them. It was only when he was crouching in front of her that he realised he had no idea what to say.

After a few moments of silence, the scythe claw swishing his tail across the ground, he stuck his claws into the earth to assure the woman that he meant no harm. She didn’t exactly look like she was relaxing and enjoying the nice day, all tense and ready to run. She’d been eyeing the claws warily, too, so he made a big show of digging them in. That had to reassure her, right?
What brings you to Lake Racksom, then? I, erm… I guess I’m just here for refreshments before I carry on. I’m going up north, you know, to the deserts? He hadn’t really formed a coherent travel plan yet, but this seemed like a good idea to him. And there were some villages along the edge of the desert where he could get his water and food before going out for the day. Lots of good strong winds in the desert too, with it so flat… Definitely a good plan! Filled with enthusiasm for his brainwave, he gave an overzealous grin to the woman, showing his teeth in a way which could probably be quite alarming- not that it occurred to him.

A talk? Sure, to put her off guard, then no doubt disembowel her when she was least expecting it. She flinched back against Tamarisk as the dragon leapt forwards again, dropping one hand to her hip where her sword was… wait a minute, where was it?
In her complacency, thinking that she had the lake to herself, she hadn’t bothered to unbuckle the weapon from the side of the horse’s saddle, thinking she could get away without having to go through all of the fuss of undoing the buckles, putting it onto her belt, then moving it back to her saddle once again once she had mounted up a second time. Her other hand curled tighter around Tamarisk’s reins.

She took another half-step backwards into the horse as the scythe claw suddenly dug his claws into the ground, making the horse snort and back up, twisting on the spot. She didn’t like this one bit, and the dragon was unnerving, how he was so relaxed with the situation. But one minute he could be testing his claws in the ground; they were sharp enough to slide right through the dirt, quite a way- and the next moment, she might be having the same claws sliding through her. It wasn’t a comforting thought.
“Refreshments,” she said, her voice high with a slight waver. “You can count me and Tam out of your meal plan, ‘cos you ain’t getting close.” She hardened her voice, frowning. The first move from Jitt in her direction, and he was going to get burnt to a crisp. He obviously had sinister plans for herself; she didn’t want to wait to find out what they were.

For the life of him, Jitt couldn’t figure out why this woman was looking so flighty. And what was she patting her side like that for, anyway? His eyes followed the movement and widened when they saw the sword hung on the saddle. He’d seen guards with swords down on their hips like that before; probably she carried hers that way too, most of the time. She didn’t need to be scared of him, though! Hadn’t he been making every effort to convince her otherwise?

But when she spoke, he was sidetracked from his plans to reassure her by another wave of confusion. What was she talking about?
Well, I don’t have any food for you anyway, and there’s water here which must be why you stopped. Why do you-
As he moved to step forwards again, realisation hit him and he grinned in amusement. She thought he was going to eat her and the horse! That was a silly idea to have gotten; he might eat a lot and drink even more, but he didn’t need that much food. Pulling his claws from the ground, Jitt bounced cheerily closer.

You’ve got it all wrong, he assured her, waving one front foot in the air in a manner dismissive of her fears.

Kassandra couldn’t understand why the dragon was talking about food for herself, when that would do nothing for him in the long run. He was confusing her… one minute he was being “friendly”, or at least putting on a charade of trying to be friendly, and the next he was waving his claws around like he was already dicing her up for his next meal. Neither made her feel any more comfortable, whether he was being outright threatening (which she could have dealt with), or this whole… trying to be friendly thing.

But her mind was made up, with his wide smile. She wasn’t going to let him get any closer without one helluva lightning attack coming his way. “Trusting” was not one of her personality traits, at all, and although sometimes it put her on a bad footing with people she otherwise may have gotten on with, it had saved her a few times too.

She slid one foot backwards as he jumped towards her, releasing one hand from Tamarisk’s reins and immediately charging it with green electricity, making it spark from her finger tips and run all the way to her elbow. That didn’t last long though as she discharged a bolt from her hand, letting it streak towards the dragon with a wordless shout. Another followed, then Tamarisk reared up in fright, almost dragging her off her feet and making her third attack go wild, a green ball of energy streaking out across the surface of the lake. She tried to pull the stallion back under control as he flicked his ears back, snorting unhappily, her other hand still green with energy.

Last edited by Artemis on Sat Jul 14, 2012 7:29 am; edited 2 times in total

The only warning Jitt got before Kassandra attacked was her slight change in posture. Next thing he knew, he hand started glowing all the up to the elbow. He was about to send a question, but all he got in was general inquiry before the missile was loosed his way and he was blown a step or two backwards from the shock, a circular burn on his skin left where the electricity had hit. A screech emitted involuntarily from his mouth, and it took a half second for him to get his wits back about him, his addled brain recovering from the shock. By the time he’d done this, there was already a second ball heading towards him as the horse reared, maybe spooked by the dragon’s noise and sudden movement. With another yelp of panic, Jitt hurled himself towards the lake, just barely clearing the electricity and soothing the burn on his chest.
What’reyoudoingpleasedon’thurtmewhy he projected frantically at her, scrabbling backwards through the water to get away. It was no good, though; seemingly out of control, a colossal blob of power crackled through the air towards him, painful even to look at. He had a moment of relief where he didn’t think it would hit him as it plummeted towards the surface of the water, Kassandra’s aim thrown off by Tamarisk rearing.

It didn’t take long for him to be proved wrong.

The electricity forked out over the surface of the water, little spikes of lightning making their malicious way towards him. That so much pain could be experienced at once baffled him. The only thing he found to be thankful for was that it didn’t last long; as more of the electricity focused in on him, he found himself floating into blessed unconsciousness, his head sinking under the surface as he toppled over sideways.

As Jitt screeched in pain, Kassandra leapt backwards, startling Tamarisk behind her even more than he had already been spooked. The horse bolted, almost wrenching her arm off as he ripped his reins free of her hand, snorting and tossing his mane like the dragon was nearby and needed fending off, cantering off into the forest and trying to put as much distance between himself and the mad beast.

Kassandra clutched at her head as a wave of barely decipherable words assaulted her from inside, pressing her forehead to try and make them go away- she didn’t understand this sudden rush of confusion and hurt that seemed to come from the dragon, but not from the dragon himself. She waited for the scythe claw to do something- her attacks had missed, so surely there would be some sort of response from him? Although, when nothing came in a long pause, she looked up through her hands and saw the dragon in the water. He certainly wasn’t going anywhere, from the looks of it. She spared a worried look for Tamarisk, turning her head to try and find him, but he had run further than sight. But she couldn’t go look for the horse until she had made sure that the dragon wouldn’t come after them.

She tentatively stepped towards the dragon, lingering at the edge of the water. Light waves lapped at the tips of her boots and she shuffled her feet backwards, out of the water’s touch. After a couple of seconds’ watching, she stepped one foot forwards and leant towards the scythe claw, taking hold of one of his long horns and lifting his head out of the water. It was heavier than she expected, and she had to use both hands to lift it properly, sharply aware of the fact that the dragon might just have been playing games.

As Kassandra slowly, cautiously lifted his head from the water, consciousness slowly began to seep back into Jitt. Gradually he became aware of a throbbing, burning ache all over his body, particularly concentrated in his head. He wasn’t sure what, but it felt like he was hanging from something at the same time as being slumped on the ground. And he was cold; at least that soothed the burn a little.

With an immense groan of pain and effort, he forced his eyes open only to have them drop shut again before they could adjust to the light. A second attempt yielded results; blearily, he could make out a slim woman watching him warily. He couldn’t remember her- he didn’t really remember anything, now he came to think of it- but he immediately felt a wave of fear, panic and mistrust which made his scales rattle in great clattering waves. Acting on his instincts, he did the only thing which seemed sensible to do when he couldn’t defend himself against whatever this evil witch would do to him. Jitt let his jaw flop limply open (not hard) and belched out a torrent of dancing reddish-orange flames, sheeting over the surface of the water and creating a cloud of steam which whooshed from the surface of the lake in a painfully hot cloud which he closed his eyes to, thankful for the protection of thick and scaly eyelids from the heat.

Kassandra didn’t want to get too close to the dragon, acutely aware that this beast might try to harm her back, now she had hurt him- keeping her distance, trying not to get too wet, and holding up Jitt’s head was a task though. The bottom of her cloak was getting all wet (as well as her boots, thankfully they were high quality), slowly seeping up the dark green fabric. She was busy looking at the rest of him when he opened his eyes the first time, but she felt his weight shift from her hands as he woke up, then saw him shiver. Uh oh. She shuffled back a small step, still holding on to his horns, and wincing at the tug of his weight on her shoulder muscles.

When he suddenly blew a long tongue of flame, barely missing her side and shooting out across the water, she dropped his head, giving a little scream of surprise and leaping backwards, arms up to protect her head from the heat. She nearly fell over in the water as hot steam rose up, painful on her exposed skin, getting her trousers wet and more of her cloak, and almost filling one of her boots up with water from a misplaced step. Moaning at how the steam burnt, she felt her way back to the shore with her feet, squealing again when she saw one edge of her cloak smouldering and smoking. She doused it heavily in the lake water, patting at the blackened fabric before looking up at the dragon again. Having finally deciphered what he had been saying before, she knew he hadn’t been looking for a fight- or, apparently, a meal- but now she wasn’t so sure. Although, her own actions were to blame for his upset now, she could see that…

The more time that passed, the more lucid Jitt became- or so it seemed to him at least. As the steam gradually dissipated, his eyes clicked open once more, to roam blearily around the edge of the lake. They passed over Kassandra's form several times before their gazes finally met. With a roar of uncharacteristic rage, he flared his wings widely and bounded through the lake towards her, kicking up walls of spray behind him. He was drenched by the time he reached land, and the wound on his chest began to burn excruciatingly as soon as he was out of the lake, but none of this fazed him as he bore down on the woman. A brief inspection proved that his front legs, bunched aggressively at his chest, seemed to sprout something very sharp indeed- and it seemed like an excellent idea to stab them right into her. Taking a few little skips and letting instinct guide him much more than logic or brain power, he brought down a flurry of attacks on his tormentor. She was going to pay for.... well... she deserved this, he knew it.
He just wasn't sure why.

The steam billowing from the surface of the lake made it difficult for Kassandra to see where the dragon was, and what he was doing (hopefully he had passed out again after his short fit of anger, but she wasn’t sure that’d be the case). It gave her a chance to ready herself for the worst case scenario, despite the disadvantage that she didn’t know whether it was necessary, or if the scythe claw had come to his senses and was backing off again- in which case, readying an attack was probably the worse thing to do.

Or not, as she saw his angry silhouette bowl out of the lake, claws bared menacingly at her. Throwing up a thick shield of electricity, she tensed and crouched a little as Jitt bore down on her, gritting her teeth and holding her shield strongly. When faced with claws as long as these, she wasn’t going to give in until her power failed her.

In a bid to make the dragon back off, she thinned her shield a little at the base and sent out a small attack at his feet, wincing at the crackling backlash she got from his sopping scales. Kassandra didn’t have time to wipe away the water flicked on her hands and face though (or dry out her sodden cloak), rather preoccupied. Staring potential death in the face did that to a person. Growling under the strain of having to sustain a shield under such pressure, she transferred all her concentration back to the thing itself, looking up at the mad dragon’s face and hoping to see some sort of defeat there.

Everything else was more than a little addled, but one thing Jitt was sure of was that he could kill this woman easily. His claws should go right through her- claws, that was it!- and that would be that for the human. But, for some reason, things didn’t quite go that way.

The main problem was that he couldn’t touch her, couldn’t even get near her. After a few desperate bashes he belatedly realised that some sort of wall blocked his way- but surely it hadn’t been there before? As if things weren’t bad enough or confusing enough already, every time he tried to strike his antagonist a jarring pain shot through him, harsh enough that after a few hits he stepped back to try and figure out where he was going wrong.

He didn’t get much thinking time.
Before he could do a thing about it, part of the wall seemed to spit out some kind of green blob, which came hurtling towards him at an alarming speed. When it touched him, he swiftly learnt that his former pain didn’t mean anything in comparison to what the green glowing stuff could do when it meant business. Somehow the sensation was horribly familiar… and he knew, with instant clarity, that the last thing he wanted to do was stick around and risk being attacked again. His mind spilling thoughts of general panic and despair, he turned tail on Kassandra and began to flee with bouncing leaps he hadn’t known he was capable of, insufficient wing muscles working at full power to speed him on his retreat.

There was no satisfaction when Kassandra hit the dragon with her electricity bolt, just the fear that had been there before. Normally she was relatively pleased when she hit a moving target like this, just because it normally put them out of action, or gave them a proper reason to stop, but this dragon had gone crazy… who knew what it would do now. For all her knowledge, it might attack her even worse than it had been attacking her before. By now her hands were stinging all over, tingling badly from the electricity she had been using, and being wet wasn’t helping one jot.

But thankfully, the scythe claw backed off. She didn’t relax as he made a run for it, twitching away at the barrage of emotions that hit her- were those her own? Surely not, they felt odd, alien. She didn’t let her shield drop, either, not until he was a good way away, far enough away to give her a good few seconds notice before he got back to her with either claws, or fire. Then she backed off quickly, walking backwards, then turning and running for the trees as soon as she could. She was wet, and her cloak was dragging stones and dirt after it, sticking on the ground, but nothing was going to prevent her from getting the hell out of there as quick as she could. Tamarisk would be somewhere close around… they would ride for Racksom.