[Syn & Hydra] Little Wandering Child

"I never said you did Syn. I'm saying that if I'm going to do any flying that I will likely flail about like a bat out of Hades." It stood to reason as well that anything that didn't fly WOULD flail and thrash around, seeing as it wouldn't be used to being up in the air. She glanced at Suraya and flicked her ears back. "I was amazed you could fly that fast. Didn't mean for it to sound insulting." Syn definitely didn't look very happy and in turn she curled up as close to him as she dared and nudged his leg.

Why on earth was she doing this? Why was she apologizing to SYN of all beings?! Easily enough to believe that it might've been she was attracted to him, it might've also been that she just didn't like the idea of being on his bad side. He didn't really seem like the kind of dragon you wanted angry at you. In truth neither was she but that was beside the point.

((Indubitably!))

Just as the sun was rising, Mirage felt like she'd been rudely woken from a pleasant sleep. With an unamused groan she her face behind her paws and cuddled up to Syn sleepily. "Please don't let it be dawn already. . ." she mumbled. Eventually she stood and shook out her fur before laying back down and busying herself with grooming. Soon after getting bored of cleaning her fur, she snuggled back up to Syn and hoped he wouldn't be too irritable when he woke up. She wasn't sure if she was the first up either, but it wouldn't have come as a surprise if that were the case.

Not wanting to be up alone anymore, she gently nosed Syn's cheek. " Hey, wake up, you'll miss the sunrise. Syn wake up." she whispered. Something in the back of her mind told her that waking him up was like knocking down a hornet's nest, but the beauty of the sunrise was too good for her to let him sleep through it and risk being angry over it. Better for him to be ornery from being woken up than missing a wonder of nature.

"But Syn, you'll miss the gorgeous sunrise." she retorted. It was no use, she might as well have been talking to a doorpost. The only logical thing to do was lie down and try to get a few extra winks of sleep. Once the sun was a little higher in the sky she didn't have much choice but to get up, as the sunlight was starting to irritate her eyes even if they were shut. It'd soon get too hot to laze about sleeping. With a final grumble she sat up and stretched her legs. Guess it served her right for bugging Syn, now where had that Sunblaze gotten to?

No way was she going to try waking Syn again. His reaction the first time would likely be dwarfed tenfold if she attempted to wake him again. Instead of trying to rouse him a second time, she lay back down beside him and decided to wait till he woke up on his own. However, she did feel rather lonely being up on her own, so to alleviate that she rested her head against Syn's shoulder and almost started purring. He wasn't so bad, once she found his soft spots at least.

Mirage moved a smidgen and raised her head. "You're comfy what can I say? Sorry if the purring disturbed you." She knew how annoying it could be to wake up to some kind of annoying sound, but she didn't think it was all that offensive. Thankfully she wasn't one to drool, or things would've gotten ugly. When Suraya bounded over she got up and stretched her legs. "Guess that means off we go. . ."

-Time Skip-

Once within sight of the cliffs she could've died right there and been a happy dragon. This place was beautiful! "I know you like your desert quite a bit, but there isn't a word I know to describe how beautiful those cliffs are." Nothing else seemed to exist or matter for all of five seconds till she came back to reality and discovered the massive shindig that the Sunblaze had been talking about. The next thing that she noticed was that she was the only one of her kind there! It felt truly lonesome that there wasn't a single Mist Hound, large or small, at this event. Sooner than she expected, she shrank back behind Syn almost feeling ashamed. "Hide me, please."

As always, Syn was begrudging to agree that the cliffs of Shayenne were magnificent, but they really were, and it wasn’t as though he could deny it- he’d never seen anything like them before! For the last hour of their run, they had traded the desert for grasslands, which made this place foreign to the Desert Chaser. He had never really adventured out of his desert, with obvious reasons, from the muck he had wandered into just on his first day out of it, when he had ended up in Mirage’s bloody marshland.

Suraya was bristling with importance as she led the pair of dragons towards where she had set up her party, on the outside of the big town, in a little glade of trees about halfway down the slope near the cliffs, that allowed entrance onto the grasslands from Shayenne itself. There were banners and pennants and all sorts of pretty things strung from the trees, and a few other dragons she had roped in to help were sorting out other little things, like food tables and rugs. There was even a weather dragon (or at least, it looked like the dragon was trying to manipulate the weather, staring very intently at the sky). Perhaps it was just looking very hard for something.

More than decorations or food or the nice trees all around, however, Syn was more interested in the people at this party, as Suraya wandered off to oversee something or other. Yes, there were two-legs at this party.
“Go and play with someone else, Mirage,” mumbled Syn as he fixated on a close-by avian, his eyes narrowing to excited points. “This is a party, we’re here to have fun.”
That sentence was weird enough for it actually register to the desert chaser that he just didn’t say things like that. What on earth. Oh well, he started to stalk towards the small flutter-person, tail swishing cheerfully from side to side as a small band started up on a little stage between two highly decorated trees.


((Feel free to describe more stuff, take control of NDCs, whatever you feel like really! ))

She would have protested his leaving like that, but since she no longer had something keeping her out of the spotlight, she was forced to simply stay quiet. She heard a strange sound and followed it to a musician. She crept closer with wide curious eyes until he noticed her and moved away looking more that just scared. She stopped in her tracks and sighed to herself as she wandered under a large tree. Upon stopping a small tan fluff ball dropped onto her back and then jumped down to run off with a few others that seemed to be of the same age. There was a host of other dragons of all kinds scattered about the event, and a large group of humanoids as well. She couldn't very well just leave in the middle of everything; for one thing Suraya would drag her back, and two Syn might venture to think she'd abandoned him, neither sounded too pleasant.

"What is a dragon to do when they're the odd one out. . .?" she lamented to herself as she decided to just sit under a tree. It felt rather wrong to be the only of her kind in such a large expanse of land! Out of the blue, the musician from earlier wandered over and sat beside her. He couldn't have been older than 15 with golden blonde hair, shining hazel eyes, and a natural smile. He played a short tune on his flute and reached out to pet her ears before looking across the clearing and spotting Syn. He retracted his hand and redirected it at the Chaser with a happy but questioning look. "I suppose you don't actually speak then, guess that'd be a good thing if I decided to keep you." she remarked as her ears twitched. Syn would likely hate her for keeping a human, but this was a silent human! Surely that'd be a plus, right?

The boy shook his head and gestured to Syn again before looking back at her and drawing a heart in the dirt at his feet. She looked a bit shocked and shook her head furiously. "No, no, no, I don't think he's capable of feeling that way about anyone but himself. He tolerates me well enough, but I don't think he'd stick around to help me if I got into trouble." The next question put her on the spot: did she have those kinds of feelings for him? It sounded utterly preposterous! Yet. . .there was room for "maybe". "I guess it doesn't really matter whether I do or don't. If I "did" then it wouldn't matter because I know for a fact he's incapable of such feelings, and it wouldn't matter if I didn't because there simply wouldn't be any questioning it." The boy got up and made his way over to Syn much to Mirage's dismay, and he was most of the way over by the time she decided to say something. "Oh no. . .there goes my good reputation. . ." she groaned to herself.

Mirage noticed Syn's posture and immediately froze, he was actually planning on EATING the boy! She got up and wove through groups of people and skirted random dragons before moving a paw around the boy and nudging him backward. "Syn, eating the two-legs is going to seriously tick off Suraya, not to mention everyone else here. We wouldn't get a mile." she warned. The boy smiled and waved at Syn before looking at the trees and realizing what was going on, this was one of those dragons you avoided for fear of it eating you. His smile fell away and he moved closer to Mirage, thinking she'd protect him, that made things all the more complicated. She sighed and nudged him to go and find a human to talk to for a short time so she could sort out her friend.

With a quick nod his smile came back and he took off like a shot. When he was out of earshot she looked back to Syn and flicked her ears back. "I don't really fancy having this many people and dragons on my hide for eating party guests. I can guarantee no amount of running will get you away from some of these dragons. Just be patient, you can catch one when the party's over, okay? In the meantime they actually have food on tables here, snack on that?" On that note she went back to her seat under the tree and watched the humans do some kind of strange dance, the boy was among them with a girl who closely resembled him, likely his younger sister. She knew Syn would be at her throat for a while for not letting him eat the boy, but something about him made her happy.

She wasn't sure if it was the fact he actually liked her company, or that he was a silent human and therefore wouldn't provide noise problems. The boy came back over with his sister and she told Mirage her brother's name: Zaneth. Mirage was now very tempted to keep "Zaneth" as her personal little cuddle toy since he seemed to like her so well. Sadly that wouldn't happen as their mother quickly yanked both the boy and his sister away from her. The woman was talking about how dangerous dragons could be and that they shouldn't get near them. Zaneth yanked away from her and ran back to the Mist Hound, leaving his mother speechless. Finally the woman just walked away muttering and left them alone. Humans were very strange indeed!

Mirage busied herself with cleaning her forelimb and her face after having chewed on a strawberry tart. "Because these dragons think that dragons and humans can get along just find together. For the most part it's true if that's how you've been raised. Those of us that grew up wild on the other hand, anything our stomachs can handle can be considered food." She glanced at Zaneth and rolled her eyes. "He's mute Syn, and he doesn't seem to mind dragons all that much. Besides they come in handy on occasions that aren't mealtimes. Stop being a drama queen for a little and just accept that they're here for a short time. After this you can go bathe as much as you like."

Now "she" felt awful and lay down by him. Maybe it was the sugary treat she'd eaten, or it was the attitude that Syn had for that moment. "Think we could sneak out before anyone noticed?" she asked looking at him. "Don't think this is quite our cup of tea. You don't have to eat right this minute, yeah?" She was liking this scene less and less the long Syn had to wait to get his food. "I'm sure there's a town nearby where you can get your meal." She stretched and gave a long yawn before sitting up and shaking herself out. "If you want to leave, I won't argue over it."

Mirage had to bid a sad farewell to the boy, and told him to catch up to his mother before she cleaned up a bit and skirted the party-goers to catch up to Syn. "Well you don't smell like a basket of roses either Mister High and Mighty. You need a bath just as bad or worse than I do from where I stand." she snipped as she kept a slight distance from him. It was bad enough he'd nearly eaten several people, which could have cost him much more than just a meal, now he was mad at HER too. Two could play that game! In her own right she was Hades to deal with when she was angry, as had been displayed when she first met Syn and he as covered in mud.

After a thorough bathing she looked around and spotted a nice tree to laze about in, so she climbed up and made herself comfy. "Don't suppose you can climb trees can you? If you can't I will be stunned, because thus far I've found nothing I can do that you can't do just as well or better." That was sounding more and more like an insult to herself every second following the moment that that statement was spoken. "Then again you're antisocial, you hate water, and I believe you have a serious case of narcissism. I bet there are lots of things that I can do that you can't." she teased.

She laughed as he started to walk off. "You really like me, I know you do! Besides who'll keep you out of mud pits and away from poachers? You with your stuck up personality, horrendous temper, and blatantly obvious fear of intimacy are the picture of mental instability my friend." She hopped down with all the ease of a cat jumping off a stepping stool and followed him proudly. "Glad to see I finally got a decent reaction out of you at the very least." It was painfully obvious that she'd ticked him off, but he'd cool down eventually. "Forgot to mention how attractive you were, how silly of me."

Truth be told, she wasn't nearly so scared of Syn's wrath as she should have been. Then again, they had near equal strengths and weaknesses so really what did she have to fear? "Sometimes I wonder about what's under your arrogance and hatred of humans. If there is anything else that is. Are you really so shut off from the rest of the world that all there is to you is hatred? While yes I agree that humans are far less than helpful, that isn't the point of my question." His dislike of humans wasn't what she wanted to know about, the information she wanted ran deeper than just dragon/human conflict. "I know I've made you mad with all my talking, and that you see me as your underling, but I'm still curious about you. No amount of violence will deter that."

"Yes, I think I know you so well!" she retorted. "You shut yourself away from the world and everyone in it because you think you're better than the rest of us. Well sorry to burst your bubble but you aren't, you're just a stuck-up dragon!" She moved up next to him keeping his pace. "No sane being LIKES to be alone, Syn! Even a stuck-up know-it-all like you needs company." Why she was still trying with this one was beyond her, but there was always hope. At this rate though, hope was fading fast. "Why is it that you can't stand to have equals? What is so wrong with being as important as everyone around you?" She moved around in front of him and stopped in her tracks. "What are you so afraid of, Syn? I'm not going to leave you alone so easily."

Why he never let anyone close to him was a complete mystery. Now it was a waiting game, what was he going to do now that she'd finally snapped at him? More than likely he'd try to rip her to pieces for actually speaking up, but that wasn't an easy task for a dragon that relied on speed for hunting. Something told her this wouldn't end well, and when that something decided to speak up it was usually right. 'So what now?' was the only thing she was wondering. She knew he was mad, and that was fine, but she didn't know what he was going to do to HER for getting him mad.

Mirage was speaking crap, she was just going off on one- and it was annoying, how hysterical she seemed to be getting. Pulling just any old string to try and get Syn to react. Well, he wasn’t going to fall for that one, that was how he’d end up agreeing to all sorts of stupid things. Today staying at this godsforsaken party, tomorrow giving up eating humans for good!
“Lookit yourself in the mirror, if you want stuck up,” he said, not even missing a step. “Who was the one choosing to live in a bog, then expecting to find other people.” He laughed, but there was no emotion behind it. Not even bitterness. “And you talk of sanity.”

He snarled angrily as she suddenly jumped into his path, pulling himself to a sharp halt.
“Afraid of? I am afraid of nothing, and noone. Especially not you.” He hissed, his fur standing up on end in anger. “Get out of my way. I am leaving.”
Did he have to add that she was not coming? He could make it very clear, if she did not understand. The company had been enjoyable, at times, but he realised that living on his own for many months had conditioned him to entertaining his own whims, doing what he liked, and not having to put on one grace, nicety or pleasantry. That was just how he liked it. And going back to that was going to be not one fur off his back.

Upon realizing she was getting nowhere fast with him, she calmed down and simply stepped aside. "Ah well, you'll be seeing me again someday, count on it." What he'd said to her stung a bit, but letting that show would only give him his satisfaction, which he didn't deserve. "Perhaps under better circumstances than these. Later days Fluffy!" she called as she took off in the opposite direction. She went back to steal Zaneth, succeeded, and then took off to the south to see what else there was outside the desert and the swamp. The boy's mother hadn't been too pleased, but in the moment it took for the dragon to steal him she couldn't get a word in edgewise.

After running a good few miles, she stopped. "I'm taking you with me to see the island and you may be away from home for quite some time, you sure you're okay with leaving?" When the boy simply smiled at her and pointed forward she resisted a laugh. "Very well then, Zaneth, off we go to Didienne!" With that, she was off in a sprint again. Hopefully it'd be a while before she ran into her favorite Desert Chaser again.