{Liz & Kat} Non-muddy forest explorations! {Hydra & Measle}

Measle nodded, taking in Hydra’s warning, but sniffed gently at the rabbit anyway. It made a tiny squeak sound, but stayed otherwise silent, making little snuffling sounds at him. He smiled, turning back to Hydra. “It’s lovely – you’re right, they are too cuddly to eat!” he said, quietly so he didn’t scare it. Jackdaww cleared his throat, and took the rabbit completely out of the bag, cradling it in his arms. It looked so out of place – a fluffy little thing surrounded in Jackdaww’s reasonably muscled (but very thin) arms, complete with chain mail. However, he did seem to know what he was doing – it looked quite placid, and certainly wasn’t going anywhere. Sitting himself on the floor properly, |Jackdaww held the rabbit out to Measle and Hydra, deciding to keep hold of it himself since Measle wouldn’t know how to, and he didn’t know about Hydra.

*A Few Weeks Later*
The morning sun was a rude awakening to Hydra as she slept, and it made her want to just freeze the stupid thing so it'd stop shining. "A curse on the sun and its rude way of waking us mortals." she growled to herself as she stood to stretch. 'I really hope we do some traveling today. I can't sit still any more!' After a yawning spell she puttered around camp for a bit. There was no end to boredom it seemed. "Wish those two would wake up..." she muttered tiredly. The healing process was a tiring one though, that she knew very well, and for Measle it was probably much the same.

The sound of Hydra moving around woke Measle instantly, although he was still in one of his usual foul morning-moods. He had hoped that Jackdaww’s eccentric training habits would have taught him to deal with mornings, but they hadn’t. He yawned, and stretched, expecting the usual twinge in his ribs. None came. He stood up sharply, twisting this way and that, but there was no pain. Finally, they could get moving again. He looked at Hydra with bright eyes, grinning in wordless joy. He wasn’t good at staying still – he hadn’t managed to stay inside the castle with Jackdaww for more than a day, and a week seemed too long to be in the same place, let alone however many days he had spent waiting for his ribs to heal.

Across the camp, the morning sun was waking Jackdaww too. He sat bolt upright, before shielding his eyes to see where the sun was. As he realised it was already above the horizon, he let out a short stream of select curses, before leaping up and reaching for his chain mail shirt, ready to train as usual. It was a habit he was keen to keep, and his rush to get ready stopped him noticing either of the dragons.

"Well, well, well, my favorite lightning storm isn't so grouchy today. This is a pleasant surprise! Your ribs feeling better finally?" she asked. After seeing him smile it was clear he was feeling better. "Well thank goodness, I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever get well!" A happy flick of her tail later, and her anger at being woken up was gone. Any other words were useless so she simply cuddled up to Measle with a smile. She wanted to ask if they could do some traveling today, but it was a smarter idea to just enjoy the time with her friend while she had it.

“Yes, I think they are fixed.” He said brightly, before settling down beside Hydra, glad to be able to do so without pains running down his sides anymore. However, he was itching to get moving again, and could hardly sit still. Jackdaww had darted off into the woods, and there was a far-away clacking that suggested he had managed to start his training successfully, which meant that they had about an hour before he’d be back, but after that he was going to want to be off.

“Do yu have anywhere you want to see, Hydra? I’ll be nagging Jackdaww to leave today, but as far as I know we’re not actually going anywhere.” He said, resting his head on her shoulder sleepily – his morning grogginess not quite worn off yet.

"A while back you wanted to take me to a town or some such idea. Suppose we could explore the next one we come across?" The sun rose a bit higher in the sky and Hydra grew tired of waiting for Jackdaww. "Shall we sniff out your toothpick human and get a move on or wait for him to finish on his own?" She figured he'd just tell her to wait and laid down with a flustered sigh. "Tell me about your human? I honestly know very little about him now that I think about it." He seemed rather nice but he was so /odd/ sometimes! She wasn't about to admit that Jackdaww made the human race seem downright adorable either, but he did with all his quirks.

“Ok, we can try that then.” Measle said happily, itching to be on his feet again. He’d missed it, all the moving, but now that he knew they were going somewhere he was happy to stay with Hydra as the sun rose slowly to the east.

“He should be nearly done, but I’ll call for him if you like – it’s not like he’s really busy, just playing with his shiny sword.” Measle commented, giving an amused half-smile. Ever since he’s met him Jack had been obsessed with the sword, but he’d never managed to see it as anything more than a silver toothpick.

Hydra’s sudden interest in Jack, however, caught him by surprise. “Erm, well, he’s, err..” he stumbled over his words for a moment, trying to remember enough about his human to explain. He was never sure how much he was allowed to tell, but Jackdaww wasn’t there, and he trusted Hydra. “There isn’t much to tell – we just live in the woods together now, but he used to live in the big castle in the capital city. He was going to be a knight – he had been training since he turned four, but gave it up at fourteen to run off into the woods. He’s a good guy, but he’s got absolutely no common sense.” What else was there? They’d had lots of adventures together, but he didn’t want to bore Hydra with a long tale of their escapades.

"He'd have made a funny knight. He's so clumsy and awkward and you're right he has no common sense either." She tagged him lightly with the end of her tail and grinned. "Let's go crash his training session!" With that she made to run off but hadn't any idea where the scrawny human could be! "Uh. . .On second thought you lead the way. I've no idea where he is." She couldn't hear him either which was something very unusual to her. He was either being very quiet or something was wrong, she was hoping it was the former. Heaven forbid there be trouble again!

“Funny, but damned good.” Measle said with a laugh, “He does know his stuff – he just had… more important things to worry about than his training, or the palace.” He was solemn, but only for a second – Hydra’s suggestion to crash his training session was enough to ignite the little mischievous spark that he had never known he had before meeting her. It was only when she mentioned that he should lead the way that he realised he too had no idea where his human was.

Measle held his head up carefully, listening. Hydra was right – he wasn’t making a noise any more, and for a second he was consumed with worry. It would be just like Jack to disappear like that. However, a moment later, he heard a curse, and a stream of swearing erupt from the trees somewhere to his left. That would be Jackdaww, right on cue.

“I think that way’s our best bet.” He laughed, leaping to his feet and prancing in the direction of the curses (which had now stopped, but were echoing slightly in the woods). It felt good to be able to move his ribs again, and he felt like all he could do was move.

After hearing the swearing she snorted. "Stealth isn't his forte, I can tell." She headed off to find Jackdaww and groaned upon finding him. "What have you done now? We heard cursing." Her tone was much like a mother scolding her child, which to her Jack acted like a child. "You haven't hurt yourself have you? We're supposed to start traveling again today." Staying there another day wasn't an option, they were going to get moving and that was final! Measle had JUST gotten better, if his human got injured she was sure to cause an ice age out of anger.

“No, I’m fine – I just, erm…” Jackdaww trailed off, picking himself up from where he had been sprawled on the ground. He brushed the dust from his trousers, and whistled slightly, trying to pretend that nothing had happened. The illusion was stunning – no, wait, the other word: terrible.

“Jackdaww, spit it out – what happened.” Measle demanded, in mock-anger. Jackdaww looked at his boots, looking a little red. “I fell over my bootlace, O.K?” he muttered, blushing. Measle grinned, shaking his head, but didn’t say anything else. He was relieved that he wasn’t hurt, and he had already deal with lines such as: ‘that wall walked right into me’ from his human. He was getting good at dealing with Jackdaww’s antics.

Measle’s face lit up at the fact they were travelling. He had suspected it, but somehow the fact that Hydra had decided it made everything real. He was sick of sitting about, and now his feet were itching to hit the road again. “Come on, Jack – we’ve got to pack up camp!” he said excitedly, bouncing on the spot just because he could.

"Double time it kiddo come on!" Insanity was going to set in if she didn't do something and took off into the sky. "I'm scouting ahead by air. Measle you can join me if you wish, or you can watch your clumsy human." She waited patiently for an answer and simply watched Jack to make sure he didn't totally wreck anything or hurt himself. "Whichever you choose, I'm not going too far at any rate." After a few minutes she landed to rest her wings, only land wrong and fall on her face. "Hellfire." she muttered standing upright again.

Jackdaww nodded, almost saluting Hydra before his thoughts kicked in, and ran off to tidy up the camp. /He can catch up later…/ Measle thought, before setting off at a slowish pace in the direction Hydra had taken. He needed to get used to moving around a bit first before he tried flying – he had never been good at the latter, and it seemed like he should start with what he new. However, her call of ‘hellfire’ brought him running, full of concern.

“Are you alright?” he asked cautiously. It didn’t /look/ like she was badly hurt, but he was no expert, and was unusually paranoid about her and Jackdaww that day. He figured that was down to all his pent up energy, but then again, recently both Jackdaww and Hydra had been getting too close to danger for his liking. It worried him, he couldn’t hide that.

"I was clumsy and landed wrong, other than some dirt on my face I think I'm fine." She got up and shook herself off before trying to clean off her face, failing a bit. "I think the city of Caspan is a few hours from here if memory serves me right." She gave up trying to clean her face and took off again. "Jackdaww can track us from the ground right?" She walked along and looked at him still self-conscious about the smudges on her face. She hoped he could because she wanted to fly REALLY badly! Walking wasn't an option, no way in the world. It was she'd been doing for a while now.

“He can manage, I’m sure. If he does something daft before breakfast the rest of the day tends to work quite well.” Measle said, springing up and down a little. He felt bouncy, and flying suddenly sounded like the best idea in the world. He felt weightless – like he could float without even unfurling his wings. He nuzzled Hydra’s cheek, brushing off some of the dusty mud that had settled there after her stumble, before allowing his excitement to take hold once again.

“Let’s go then!” he smiled happily, springing off the ground and into the air, snapping his wings open easily, before gliding around Hydra in a circle, waiting for her to take off. In the back of his mind he could feel a voice telling him he was acting like a hatchling, but he didn’t care – he needed to feel lively then.

Hydra took off after him with a smile. "Hey get back here you silly lightning bug!" she teased. 'My favorite lightning bug.' she thought to herself. She caught up to him and gently tapped his side with her tail. "You're it!" She flew off ahead and glanced down to see where Jackdaww was then looked ahead in case there was danger or a detour he'd need to take. No such things just yet, but she did see the faint image of the city of Caspan ahead. Perfect place for a would-be knight and two small dragons to stay at for a night or two. "Measle you want me to like cities? There's your first chance." she called gesturing ahead.

Measle laughed, and whirled round to chase after Hydra again, his face lit up with a huge smile. As he caught up to her, however, he caught sight of the city Hydra was indicating. This far south it had to be Caspan, which was promising. He couldn’t remember visiting it, but he had a feeling Jackdaww took him there once when he was still a hatchling. Apparently it was nice, as cities around there went, and should be perfect for introducing Hydra to the better side of humanity – the side Measle knew.

“Alright, Caspan it is then. If we’re lucky we might even make it by nightfall.” He said, trying to judge the distance between them and the city. He was hoping that they’d have another night in the woods, however – cities always seemed friendlier in the mornings, when everyone was a bit more relaxed and lazy. It was easier to fit in if you arrived During the daylight hours, somehow.

He pointed at the town with his nose for a moment, trying to recognise it, before his tail snaked around to tap Hydra. “You’re it again!” he cried, darting off again, laughing like mad.

She tagged him again and shook her head. "Let's just see if we can get Jackdaww there by nightfall. We can get there no problem it's him who's really slow. I didn't see any detours to be made along the general direction we're headed in, but there's always the possibility of wild animals wandering about." Though thankfully there were no large shapes moving about besides him, and as she flew a bit lower she couldn't see anything bigger than the human roaming about. Guess they were close enough to the city that the wild game had moved further out into the woods. "Well it seems we're close enough to the city that most of the larger animals have moved away from it. He's safe for now."

Measle tagged along after Hydra while she surveyed the area, letting her figure out if there was a problem or not. On the ground he knew exactly where to look or danger, but the sky felt like Hydra’s place, and he didn’t quite understand it all properly yet.

“Well, that’s good then. Maybe we’re better aiming for tomorrow morning though - the chances are we’ll miss the gates being locked.” He said, trying to hover, but not quite managing. He looked a little bit like a fairy elephant, trying to stay in the air, so went back to gliding in little circles to keep his place. He could dimly feel his muscles complaining that they were being used too much, but he didn’t care – he felt all shiny and new, and on top of the world. He tagged Hydra gently, and continued on in his slow circle, waiting to see if she noticed him with an expectant grin on his face. Gosh, he felt so childish, but he was too happy to care.

She turned to him and smiled. "Let's walk with Jack for a bit?" Her wings were beginning to tire and she dropped a bit lower. "Besides we can't fly after dark and we'll have to wait till morning to get to the city." Again she tried to clean off her face and failed as she waited for his answer. "Ugh. . .Hygiene is so difficult when you can't reach what needs to be cleaned!" she grumbled again trying to get the dirt smudges off her snout. The day was wonderful otherwise, and upon checking on Jack, it just kept getting better. It seemed like with his one mishap that morning the rest of the day was going swimmingly.

“Yeah, sure.” Measle smiled, spotting Jackdaww below them, but almost unbalancing as he peered for a better look. He /definitely/ ached a bit now, and his excessive springiness was wearing off, but he did still feel quite energetic. It was good – it combated his usual morning grumpiness perfectly, leaving him feeling like it was mid-afternoon.

“Let’s go then!” he grinned, folding in his wings to dive downward, before flaring them again in alarm as it all got too fast for him. He made a mental note to get some practise in so that he could actually do that one day, and started to glide slowly downwards, wary of loosing balance as the ground crept closer, inch by inch.

From the ground, Jackdaww looked up at the two dragons with a little laugh. He hadn’t seen Measle that bouncy for years – the little dragon was usually so grown up. However, it reminded him how young Measle really was – although he acted like a nurse for Jackdaww, Measle was still only just starting to near adolescence. It was a strange thought, but as Measle started his slow, one-little-baby-step-at-a-time journey down to earth he shrugged it away. He was probably about to be faced with two energetic dragons, which would demand all of his attention.

In a divebomb-like move, Hydra hit the ground tumbling and ran smack into a tree. "Seems like I'm going to be running into things a lot today." It was that energetic adrenaline rush that she'd had just a little while earlier that was making her lose it like this, but that didn't occur to her initially. She shook her head and pulled herself to her feet only to find that she'd covered the area in pine needles. "That, my dear lightning bug, is "not" how you land after divebombing." she mumbled still getting her bearings. "Jack don't you dare try doing it either you're enough of a handful as it is." Now it was apparent to her that this must be what Measle felt like, adrenaline-wise at least.

Measle drifted down slowly, but did a bit of an aerial-stumble, and sped the rest of the way down as Hydra crashed. He landed in a heap, but at least that time it hadn’t been in the middle of a lake. He pulled his limbs back into line, and nudged Hydra carefully.

“Well, at least you didn’t land in the middle of a lake, my little snowflake.” He smiled, brushing a little clump of muss from her head with his nose. Jackdaww made a face behind him, sticking his tongue out in an expression of mock-disgust at the affectionate gesture, before spluttering indignantly.

“How would I even /manage/ to do that? I’m not even off the ground!” he objected, crossing his arms over his chest in a juvenile expression. However, he was grinning broadly, and struggling to stop himself laughing – even he had to admit that he’d done worse before.

"There's no limit to your clumsiness Jack." she replied simply. "You could trip over air if it got in your way." She sneezed a puff of ice crystals out her nose and began cleaning her scales. Her eyes crossed as she tried to see if she had anything else on her face and looked at Jackdaww. "Do I have anything on my face?" After dusting herself off she rested against Measle and exhaled. "Jack try to make it as far as you can tonight. There's a city a little while off and if we make it far enough today then we might be able to get there early in the morning when the gates open. That sound alright?"

“Hey, I’m not that clumsy!” he said indignantly, pulling another face. He knew Hydra was right, of course, but he didn’t feel like admitting that. He shook his head to say there was nothing on her face, before, turning his back on the two dragons, as if to continue on his way without them. However, Hydra’s words caught his attention, drawing him back to them.

Jackdaww nodded. “Yeah, that sounds fine. We’re near Caspan, right? It must be a Caspan, we’re in the right area…” he trailed off, thinking. Measle nodded at him, impressed that Jackdaww actually knew where they were. Usually they just presumed that there was no ‘wrong’ direction to go in, and forgot where they had even started from, so this was certainly unusual. Had something important happened in Caspan? Maybe, Measle couldn’t remember.

» [Syn & Hydra] Little Wandering Child
» The Forest of Tarz (Exxor x Eldarwen)
» Measle {Miniture but Mighty}
» :: Mystery of the Godless Forest :: -{Aero, Nen, Spirit, Rogue}-
» Hydra :: A Place In This World