Fraidy Cat and Scaredy Dragon [Art & Eliza]

Subject: Fraidy Cat and Scaredy Dragon [Art & Eliza] Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:15 pm

Silence had managed to sneak away from her circus life for a few hours mid-afternoon on a church day, and set out a-wandering. She didn't have any clue as to why she wanted to leave so much, but her one thought was dancing. She wanted to find a place where she could dance in peace and be herself. The world just wasn't very kind these days, or maybe it was just this place in particular that had trouble with her. Oh she wanted so badly to just fit in and have people like her, but what would that cost her? Her personality, her individual quirks? More than likely all the above. She was lost in her own thoughts to such an extent that she hadn't an idea of where she'd gotten to. "Oh great. . .Lost. . ." she muttered.

Stretching like a cat and opening his jaw in a wide yawn as he did so, Rokam let his eyes wander around the trees. As he straightened, his tilted his head slightly, puzzled. He had expected the woman to find him here, but she hadn't turned up. Again consulting the many whirling possibilities of the future, nearly all of which showed him encountering the woman one way or another, he swished his tail indecisively before choosing a direction and setting off in it purposefully. He was soon rewarded with the sound of footsteps tramping along the ground, unlike the smooth and flowing gait that his sinuous body gave him. Before continuing on to meet the woman, which had the potential to be a slightly dangerous experience, he quickly licked his paws clean of the mud they had accumulated during his walk. The leathery, pale yellow skin on his legs morphed smoothly into the tougher black pads of his feet. Once he was satisfied, he looked at his surroundings once more.

The thick canopy of the trees blocked out most of the sunlight, only a few rays trickling through the slowly thinning green filter with an odd tint to its colour. It illuminated the bed of dead leaves on the floor, the autumnal season turning the ground orange and brown where the leaves had fallen from the few deciduous trees in the area. Rokam couldn't see all that far ahead, which gave the illusion that the patch of trees went on for a lot longer than it actually did- the town was close by, not a long walk at all- even for a human- from where the dragon now stood. A small pond, with dragonflies whisking over its surface and a few small fish darting about in its water, lay nearby, and he quickly took a few draughts out of the water. Once his thirst was sated, he lifted his head and shook the stray droplets of water from his muzzle, startling a nearby frog with his sudden movement and causing it to hop straight into the pond.

Ignoring the animal, Rokam padded over to where he knew he would find the woman. As he moved between the trees her figure slowly came into view, standing next to a large boulder sitting in the ground with an irritated look on her face. The card dragon was far from experienced when it came to humans, but he thought that this one didn't look entirely normal. Drawing shadows to himself so that he didn't attract attention, he skirted around the trees until the woman was facing him. He didn't want to creep up on her from behind; it didn't look like her reaction would be good at any rate. However, Rokam had an unfortunate habit of never being able to leave things alone. He discarded the shadows which were surrounding him and trotted out of the trees.
'Hello,' he said, attempting to sound friendly and unthreatening. He had his horns forwards slightly, and he looked somewhat anxious to make a good impression on this new person.

She jumped out of her skin, almost literally and fell backward out of nowhere. "Whoa!" She looked up a bit scared and inhaled a gulp of air. "H-H-Hello. . ." It was only then that she realized the handful of leaves under her hands were now cinders. She backed away from the dragon a bit and sat against a tree. It took a few minutes, but she finally understood this wasn't the dragon she was terrified of. "I-I'm a bit jumpy. . .Sorry. . ." She dusted off her hands and stood up looking at the odd dragon before her. "Who. . .? What. . .?" was all she could utter.

Rokam suppressed a sigh at the woman's reaction- he had, of course, been expecting it, but all the same.
'My name is Rokam. I'm a card dragon,' he explained politely. 'But don't worry, I'm not nasty. Not even dangerous, really. I can't breathe fire or anything!' He didn't mention that, of course, the woman could create fire, nor that if he so chose he was quite sure that he could arrange a nasty accident for her. While he was capable of twisting fate in a bad way for her, he definitely didn't want to and he saw no benefit in telling her this and scaring her even further. She was quite scared enough already- the incinerated leaves he saw where she had fallen to the ground were plenty of proof of that. Disallowing himself another sigh, he waited patiently with what he hoped was still a kindly expression on his face for the woman to make a response to him. After a few moments of consideration, he added,
'What's your name?'

"My name is Silence. . ." Like most normal hard-working people she saw no real good use for magic besides healing, but even then the way she was raised that was a bit of an issue. "I work for the circus as a fire-breather. . ." She glanced over at him and blinked, trying to hide an amused snort. "A club I see." she said shortly as she produced a deck of cards. Not surprisingly she had a deck of dragon cards instead of king, queen, ace, etc. "This must be you," she said pulling a random card from the deck and showing a picture of a club card dragon. "Amateur card tricks, the children all go nuts over them." She felt at home when she did her small little tricks that most adults could probably see through, but they were fun and her target audience always liked them.

'Silence?' the dragon echoed, visibly surprised. Humans did have such odd names. 'Well, that's an interesting name. How did you come by that?'

As she explained her profession, he laughed.
'More of a fire-breather than me, then. And at a circus, too. That must be odd.' In fact, he thought it soudned horrible- all the people staring at him, trapped inside the tent with no way out. And there were plenty of things which could go wrong at a circus, he wouldn't enjoy all those dark possibilites hanging over him. When she took out the cards, he came over to her and peered at them in interest.
'I am indeed a club,' he agreed before adding proudly, 'And the only club, too. I'm entirely unique.' He gave her a grin, showing his pointy and cat-like teeth. 'That's a nice little trick you have there. Actually...' He hesitated for a few moments, but the woman seemed to have lost her fear and he wasn't one to refuse a chance to show off. 'Would you like to see a trick of mine?' asked Rokam, his eyes suddenly glinting and his face animated.

She sort of went wide eyed. "If dragons do magic I think I might just die right here." She did an odd shuffle of the cards and pulled a joker. "I'm still just a human and you're a dragon that's bigger than me." The general look on his face had her more defensive and she put away her cards. "Got a card in here for just about every dragon imaginable I suppose. Except the one I'm looking for. . ." she added softly. She looked up and sighed. "Why is it that every time I go to try and be by myself for a while I run into a dragon? Is it just my bad luck or is there a motive behind it?"

At Silence's words, Rokam blinked in confusion a few times. It seemed that the woman's fear had returned, at least to some extent, which was something he hadn't foreseen. And if dragons did magic...?
'Nearly all dragons do magic,' he told her. 'It's one of the main things about us. Flying dragons need it to stay in the air, a little, and fire breathing dragons obviously have it... And lots of us do other things. You don't need to worry about me, though, I'm not going to hurt you.' His words were true and he wanted Silence to believe him, but he was beginning to think that he shouldn't show her what he could do after all.

'What dragon are you looking for? Why don't you have a card for it?' He tilted his head curiously, intrigued by the cards that were unlike any he had seen before.
However, the woman's last questions were not ones that he had any idea how to answer, and he deliberately ignored them as he told her,
'You know, I have a theory that cards were made by humans because of the cards dragons. After all, how else would we exist?'

She set a hand on his nose and tried to smile. "Because it scarred me for life. I don't have a card for it because I got the cards 'here' on this island, the attack happened before I got here." She knew that'd bring up a flurry of questions from the cattish dragon, but most she figured she could answer. She tried another card trick where she makes a card disappear then reappear when she scatters the cards. "As for my name my parents gave it to me when I was born. It's kinda how we humans work, when we become parents we name our offspring."

When Silence placed her hand on the delicate skin on his nose, Rokam instinctively jerked back with surprise. However, he stepped forwards again in the next moment, giving her an apologetic look.
'I'm sorry,' he said, unsure of himself now that he'd heard the woman's latest words. 'I... I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive topic or anything.' He swished his tail back and forth uncertainly. He stayed quiet for a few moments, watching her hands deftly moving the cards about. When she spoke again, he laughed, highly amused by her assumptions.
'Of course, how do you think dragons are named?' he asked with a smile. 'But as far as I know, it's not a normal name for humans, so I wondered if maybe you'd chosen it to replace your given name.' He shrugged; he'd known humans to do it before.

"No, no it's my actual name. It's a name that goes back generations on my mother's side of the family. If I wanted to replace my name I wouldn't use Silence." She petted his nose lightly and grinned. "I'd swear you're like a giant scaly cat. Reminds me of little Felix but less of a ladies' man." Rokam was adorable, pure and simple. "You're cute as any cat I've seen." She sat down and gave a light sigh. "Come sit down, I won't be going anywhere for a little while, I'm just out here to relax." She laid out all her cards and looked at them curiously. She relaxed a bit and looked him over. "What happens when all four suits come together?"

'Hm,' Rokam said, the tip of his tail twitching with interest. 'It's an unusual name. I kinda like it.' When she spoke again, he let out a laugh, looking at his tail which he held off the ground and his general posture. 'I guess a little bit,' he agreed. 'But I'm better than any cat you'll find.' He smiled at her, stretching, and added, 'I guess I'd be more of a ladies' man if I had some ladies around. Who's Felix?' He sat down as she suggested, curling his tail around his legs and kneading the ground contentedly with his claws.

As she laid out the cards, the club dragon observed curiously, lying down and studying the images on each one. They were beautifully done, the images carefully painted and shaded so that the dragons looked extremely realistic. Rokam was just examining the bright colours of the rare Sunblaze when Silence spoke again.
'Hm?' he said, glancing at her and sitting up again. 'Oh, well, it's never happened to me, because it's not known whether there's a diamond or a heart around at the moment- probably not- but in stories of the past, it says that when the four cards come together, their conflicting wishes for the direction of fate, even if it's only vague and unconcious thoughts, are so strong that they kinda break fate and everything goes disastrously wrong. Calamity.' He paused. 'Of course, if they could manage to completely coordinate themselves then they'd be pretty much unstoppable in whatever they wanted to do. But that's never happened. Two or three cards can work together, their powers get hugely magnified. But with a full set... It's too much power.' He gave a shrug here. 'We unconciously make tiny changes all the time- we seem lucky, but in fact we just tweak fate tiny amounts without really noticing it. I think Jaden can tell when he's doing it better than me though, he's a lot more experienced. He's the spade, by the way.'

"I think I'd prefer you over Jaden, the spade was never my lucky suit. And Felix is this promiscuous little white tomcat that's taken up with me. He just found a new "mate" so who knows how long he'll stay with her." At the explanation she nodded. "Yes that makes sense I suppose. Heaven forbid it ever HAPPEN but an interesting thought." She reached over and petted him on the head. "You have very leathery skin, Rokam. It's like snake skin almost." She smiled and put the deck back together before shuffling the cards. "Ever seen a human dance?" If he had a rider she was quite sure he had at some point, but most times people danced without having put much thought into the process. She didn't like when people made dancing into more of a mechanical process than an art.

'Mmmm.' Rokam sounded thoughtful as he hummed on a monotonous note. 'I don't know. I'd love it if we could all work together. I bet if we were all as experienced as Jaden we could- but then, he's no fun.' He flicked his tail playfully to prove his point, before laying his horns back against his head and stretching his head out appreciatively as Silence stroked his head. However, at her comparison, he stopped and looked at her, surprised.
'Snake skin? Snake skins are really weird, all translucent and thin.' He glanced down at his own skin, which was indeed leathery. 'Unless you mean while it's on them, I guess. But then they're smoother than me.' He shrugged.

At the human's sudden change of topic, Rokam glanced at her curiously, wondering what had brought on the question.
'Never a human, I don't think,' he said slowly, thinking through his visits to human cities. 'But I've seen nightlings, and they're the same, really.' He reflected on his words for a moment before adding, 'Except maybe they dance differently. I don't know.' Lying down again, he stretched out his legs before flopping into the ground with a relaxed sigh.
'Why do you ask?' he inquired, watching her hands deftly move the cards about.

"I've spent most of my life dancing. My one actual passion." she said with what "could" constitute as a smile. "Before I found myself on this island I could dance all I liked and nobody ever said anything. Here I dance and people call me crazy. Ah well, it's the price I pay." She smiled at his comedic monotone, then paused as he looked at his skin. "I mean it's almost like I can't tell you actually have scales, your skin just feels like a piece of softened leather, which is better than actual scales that have a grain like a freshly cut plank of wood." She put her cards down and looked at the sky. "Reason I asked was because that was what I had originally come out here for. I came out here to dance."

At Silence's words, Rokam laughed, highly amused.
'That'll be because I don't have scales,' he explained, moving his head closer to her so that she could see for herself. 'Much nicer than those big stiff plates. I'm all nimble and flexible.' He examined her for a few moments, wondering how humans did dance.
'It's a shame that you can't do what you like best,' he eventually informed her. 'Why do people care?' After another pause, he added hopefully, 'Actually, can I see you dance? I think it would be interesting.' He gave her a bright smile, albeit a slightly odd one due to the unhelpful shape of his mouth.

Last edited by ElizaFlame13 on Sat Jul 28, 2012 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total

She grinned. "Sure, but it's not something you see people do here, it's called 'ballet'. The point is to make every movement effortless and graceful." She got up and twirled around a few times almost like she were doing a piece from Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy from the Nutcracker. She stopped after a minute or two and half fell back onto her rear. "I normally don't dance without shoes, but my cat chewed up my shoes so I'm without them at the moment. There's more than 50 terms for moves in this style of dance. It gets complicated very quickly and often you go through a few weeks of sore limbs just to get a new move down right. But the outcome of all that practice is amazing."

Rokam watched with astonishment as Silence pirouetted. She was right; it did look effortlessly graceful, and he enjoyed watching the elegant movements as she danced. When she stopped, flopping back onto the ground, he told ehr earnestly,
'You're amazing at that! I wouldn't be any good; too many legs.' He demonstrated this true by leaping to his feet and prancing about for a few moments, attempting to imitate the woman's movements.
'Nope,' he grinned as he stopped. 'I'm no use. It sounds... really difficult, and confusing. Why do you need special shoes?' Rokam didn't see why humans wanted to wear clothes all the time at all; it must be horribly uncomfortable to have all that on you, although they didn't have fur or anything else to keep them warm without clothes.

"Actually yes, they make special shoes for this kind of dance." She smiled. "It took years to truly get good at it, I wasn't just good at it from the start. I fell quite a lot as a little one when I was first learning." she said gesturing just a couple feet off the ground. "I was about four years old when I told momma I wanted to dance." She felt a cool breeze rush by and sighed. "A random little fact: I have a pair of boots but that's about the extent of my winter clothing." The cold didn't really bother her all that much unless she was out in snow barefoot. Weather actually had relatively little control over her physically speaking.

'Special shoes, huh? You seemed fine without them, really.' He had to admit that he couldn't see the point- why were they needed? 'I'm surprised you could stand to spend so long learning. I'd be far too impatient; I think I'd give up long before I got anywhere near as good as you.' He smiled at the thought of a young Silence announcing her life plans. 'I don't think dragons really do dancing. I guess they kind of could in the air, but then I don't do flying, so...' He shrugged, turning his head to the breeze and enjoying the sensation of the air flowing past him.

'Boots, dancing shoes,' he sighed. 'How can you stand carrying all that stuff around with you everywhere you go? And back when I had a rider... They lived in a village, which I'd hate. The friends are good, sure, but you're stuck in one place. It must be so boring.' He pulled a face, sitting down again before yawning widely.

"I travel with a circus. Most people have taken to calling me a gypsy because of that." She moved and sat closer to him. "I have three friends to speak of and they're all in the same circus I work for: my cat, a dragon, and an animal tamer named Rimegon." She probably sounded crazy for listing Felix as a friend, but that didn't matter. "Of course if I count you that makes four." she added with a grin. "In fact yes I have four friends including you." She couldn't very well say Rokam wasn't a friend at this point, he acted like one.

'Hm. I don't see why being in a travelling circus should make you a gypsy,' Rokam said, head tilted slightly to one side. 'It can't be very nice never staying still, though, if you only have three friends!' At her next words, he smiled happily. 'Well, I'm honoured to be your friend.' He leapt to his feet and managed a somewhat inelegant bow. 'How long are you going to stay in these parts for?' It would be a shame if she was going to leave straight away, when he'd only just got to know her. And in fact, now he thought about it, he didn't have many friends either. He had known a few people back in the nightling village, but even there most people hadn't talked to him much- and there was the added issue of him never going there anymore. Not since Yarri, his rider, had died. She was only supposed to be a temporary rider for him, and they hadn't been as close as the club dragon and her father, who had been his original rider from when he was extremely young, but all the same her overly violent death had somewhat traumatised Rokam and he hadn't wanted to return to the nightling village afterwards.

"No, no, I'm here for a while longer. We could use another dragon to keep Asrai company. And I'd feel very sad if I had to leave you behind. We travel all over the place here, most of them I've never heard of though. I guess I could sneak you in when we next get up to move?" The idea had some merit, bringing him along for the ride. He seemed like a lonely dragon despite his obvious loveable personality. With a resigned sigh she flopped onto her back. "Though I don't think I could let you sleep in my tent. I keep lots of colored glass bottles in there as well as a fake crystal ball, I'd feel awful if one got knocked over and cut you. I don't think the children would mind seeing a new dragon either. They ooh and ahh over simple card tricks I can only imagine how they'll react to a live card dragon."

'Ooh,' Rokam said, perking up at Silence's suggestion. 'I think that would be fun. It'd be nice to stick with some people for a while. What breed is Asrai? And I could help out with card tricks, too- I used to do a lot with cards, I had a friend called Ellias and we'd set up a stall in pubs and then he'd play- Rokam stopped abruptly, suddenly feeling horribly guilty. What he'd done with Ellias had definitely been cheating. What if Silence disapproved of it? He might lose this chance he had of travelling with the circus for a while, and it sounded more enjoyable than anything else he was doing. He felt like whacking his head against the large rock which sat in the ground, cursing himself for his stupidity.

"Asrai, is an unknown for me." she said with a small laugh as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "It doesn't matter to me what sort of past you have. I'm happy enough just to have your company. I'll admit I wasn't anywhere near perfect growing up. I caused trouble from here to Hades and back when I lived with my family." She wasn't about to elaborate on that. Didn't matter if Rokam "could" keep a secret, she didn't trust anyone with that kind of thing here. "Most adults think I use magic in a negative way, but the kids usually say "how did you do that it must be magic". Card tricks are "not" magic by any standard, they're just slight of hand tricks."

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