Shimmering Light of Darkness (Rogue X Eldarwen)

Rilos’ fear ebbed slightly as Abraxas started to breathe fire too, feeling the heat from her flames behind him, hardening the mud stuck elsewhere. He had had the smallest doubts that maybe she couldn’t breathe fire at all- Some dragons couldn’t, take Zack, his paper dragon friend, for example- but his doubts were quickly quelled. Thankfully.

As they threw fire in wide arcs in front of them, forcing back those monsters that were further away, and roasting those that were closer, the marshland itself began to smoke as well, the damp, dark plants that grew underfoot so waterlogged that they didn’t burn, but roasted slowly too, their feathered, alien leaves curling in on themselves as they charred and withered. Curls of black smoke, heady scented, twisted into the air, creating delicate patterns against the pale white misty backdrop, like ink in a pool. This didn’t really affect the dragons though (or Rilos at least), on account of their fire attributes, and was just another addition to the land.

As Rilos continued to blast the few monsters that dared to come any closer, their once-companions-in-terror melted into gloop in spats across the quagmire, his thoughts turned from “Send these monsters into a fiery pit of doom!” to “This mud is getting quite stiff now…” And indeed it was, turning from a deep, rich brown into a slightly lighter, but still just as thick, exoskeleton, deep cracks running like the edges of plate armour through his main joints. Obviously the heat from his fire was enough to almost bake the mud hard like clay, which made it increasingly difficult for the dragon to move. The monsters moved back for a moment, considering their options, also giving RIlos a breather. The Spine Spike found that his mouth was almost cemented open, the mud cracking and giving way only when he used the maximum of force. Which was going to prove to be quite a problem, considering his whole body was coated with the disgusting stuff.
“Monsters are backing off, but I’m stuck in place.” He managed to croak out, trying to wriggle his mouth more free. “They melting with your fire too?” He asked, interested as to whether the monsters were similar (for future reference if ever he came across them again), or whether they were reacting differently with the fire from a different dragon.

As soon as she heard Rilos’ words, the horse dragon wanted to burst out laughing, but restrained herself. Not in the least because any unnecessary movements were making her feel more and more like a boulder set in the landscape. In addition, the length of time she had spent breathing fire was beginning to take its toll. She was breathing harder than if she had run for miles without pause and the flames were beginning to grow thinner. So as not to give any stupid ideas to the remaining monsters, she simply stopped as long as she was sure that she would still be able to roast a few more, should they decide to come for them again. Her vision began to blur out and phantom pictures of weird smoke curling through the air made her shake her head to chase away the illusions – little did she know that it were not illusions but actually nature giving way to the force of the flames.

When the curls and spots in front of her eyes were beginning to disappear again, slowly fading into the mist, she nodded with relief that things seemed to have gone well on his side as well, only to realise that Rilos could not see the movement, so Abraxas replied: “Yes, they’ve melted her too. Looks weird. Disgusting actually.” Finding it rather hard to speak, the horse dragon was playing around with her head to find some kind of movement that would get the mud to loosen at least a little but to no avail. “How are we ever going to get out of our new shiny coats?” Cursing, Abraxas tried to turn towards the Spine Spike dragon but only partially managed. The furry front part of her body was not quite as much affected by the hardening of the mud as the rest of her body was but it was still very uncomfortable and it would be a strain to ever move from this spot.

Then suddenly an idea began to form in her head... Hard objects or materials such as stones or hardened anything usually goes off when hit or falling down for instance. If they could get close enough to each other... “Do you think you could move your backside towards me?” It would be the easiest way to experiment with her idea without having to move more than just a few steps, and without having to take their eyes off of the situation around them. “If we could get close enough to start rubbing against each other, maybe we could crumble the dust off? The scales should be hard enough, especially with the mud on top, to be able to at least get some kind of result, no?” But before she took a step herself, she wanted to make absolutely sure that no danger was imminent: “What happened to the shit demon? Where is it??”

Behind him, Rilos heard Abraxas breathing faster, and he guessed that she wasn’t so used to breathing fire for long periods of time. He wasn’t either, but he was bigger, so it hadn’t taken as much toll on him as it had for her. He stopped, the monsters having cleared too far for him to reach, and they seemed to have gotten the idea that he wasn’t going down without a fight. He certainly wouldn’t like to be turned into a pile of goop, which seemed to happen with any type of fire. Well, that was that question answered.
“Not really a big fan of shiny coats.” He said, the mud under his jaw cracking suddenly, making speaking a little more comfortable. He gave a wry smile as he heard the horse dragon curse. She wasn’t the only one.

At her request of moving closer, Rilos wondered what she was up to. What a bizarre request! However, what she was proposing made sense. Dragon scales were as tough as anything; that’s what made dragonhide so valuable to the slayers, he knew that.
“Good idea.” He said, already gauging how far away he was from Abraxas. As she thought of the shit demon, he looked around for its huge, ungainly bulk with wide eyes. He couldn’t see it anywhere… Was that a good or a bad thing?
“I can’t see it…What about your end?” He asked, still scanning the shifting mist clouds that were making it difficult to find something that was so strange-looking. “Maybe it’s gone?”

Still keeping a lookout for the demon, Rilos swished his tail a couple of times, starting to loosen some of the dried mud around his back legs. It thinned out a bit at the top of his legs and over his back, where he had been in the mud for a shorter time. When he started to wriggle his claws, there was a lot more resistance, and when he twisted his head around slowly to look, he saw that the mud was boot-like, his paws completely enclosed in the drying casing. He tugged harder, slowly sliding his paw back and forth in a slowly widening crack around his foot (where the mud was softer) before wrenching it out with a crackle of mud. Now he had one foot out of the mud, stuck at a stupid angle where he didn’t want to put it back on the ground and get stuck, and the other foot still caked in place.

Slowly, he wobbled, swaying dangerously for a moment, before toppling over sideways with a crash, limbs flailing. It was not Rilos’ day.

He can’t see it either? That thought sent another wave of shivers down her back, making the horse dragon shake from top to bottom. She took a deep breath before she replied: “No, I can’t see it either.... and that is what’s worrying me! Though I’m hoping you’re right. Maybe it just left. Maybe it got tired of chasing us?” At that last thought, a tiny surge of hope resurfaced again. Maybe they would get out of this mess after all.

Clinging onto that tiny shred of hope to keep the panic from getting a hold on her again, the horse dragon followed Rilos’ example as the spine shadow dragon began to wriggle around to follow up on her suggestion. It was easier said than done, much easier than she’d thought. While she had concentrated on the battle, the mud had taken the opportunity to harden even more than it had before and even the tiniest movement required a lot of effort. Every scale seemed to be glued to the next and in turn glued to her body, it was very uncomfortable. “I think all we need now is a bit of frosting to make for a decorative effect,” she grumbled more to herself but loudly enough. No matter what she did, didn’t seem to be fruitful enough to really loosen anything, so she began slashing her tail around angrily.

Before she could completely succumb to her frustration though, the mud seemed to decide to give up its fight and let her move a few muscles here and there. She was about to convey the happy news to Rilos when she felt movement behind her, which was quickly followed by a loud crash. Frightened, she tried to turned around to see what was going on, only to see the spine shadow lying on his side with his legs held at weird angles. Dumbfounded, she stared at him, wondering what the hell he was doing but when she saw the look on his face, she suddenly burst out laughing. All the tension suddenly seemed to seep out of her and found release in this little funny moment. Abraxas just couldn’t stop laughing, no matter how hard she tried, as soon as she thought she’d be able to restrain herself, another fit of laughter followed. “I’m... s..sorry,” she giggled, “but .. you .. really .. should see your face.” She was still grinning when suddenly she realised that this might actually have been a fantastic move: “Hey, that must have loosened the mud, right?! Oh please say it did!” Excitement washed over her as she waited for his reply. If only she could get at least one foot out, she could just let herself fall to the ground as well, or ... she could just ask him to give her a shove.

Rilos pulled a wry grin from his awkward position on the ground, the mud on his neck cracking as he looked up at her. Although he could see the funny side, it was kind of embarrassing, falling over right in front of her. But she was pretty when she laughed… He started to laugh too, a deep rumbling purr that made his whole body judder.
“I don’t think I’ll try that next time.” He said, wriggling to regain some dignity, but it just made him look even sillier. “Next time I’m chased by a shit demon into a swamp, that is!”

“Would be getting pretty bruised with all this falling over, if we didn’t have scales.” He mused, thinking of their slipping and sliding earlier in the deep muddy pond.

He lay on his stomach now, which was a much more comfortable position. Big chunks of dried mud lay around him here and there, chipped off by the force of hitting the ground. Slowly he flexed a wing, the movement cracking the smaller pieces of mud off, to reveal his black scales below. They felt much lighter already, and when he trapped one bone under a carefully positioned claw, the mud slid off like water off a duck’s back.

“Hey, it did work!” He exclaimed in excitement, scrubbing his paws together and ridding them of the mud. “Ooh, that feels much better.” Of course, it had not all been taken off by the fall, but it had exposed a fair bit of his flat scales, and jarred a couple of his neck spines free, which was much better than nothing at all.

Lifting up his front end, he gave Abraxas’ lower legs a good shove with his nose. Maybe the same trick would work for her, as it had for him? The movement cracked more of the mud around his shoulders, flaking to the ground. He repeated the action again, shoving Abraxas hard, before turning back to his own to prise his claws, then his many-dividing tails apart from one another.

Abraxas had thought she’d have her laughter under control by now but as soon as Rilos started wriggling around on the floor so he could get up, a new wave of giggles burst out. It didn’t help that he was laughing himself by now, his laughter rather infectious. “Yeah, next time we’ll avoid the swamp,” she agreed, huge grin plastered over her face. “That might make things a little easier.” Though she would be happier if she could be certain never to encounter a shit-demon again in her life.

As Rilos was working on his mud, the horse dragon began tugging on her legs once more, but to no avail. She had the awful feeling that her claws were baked into the floor, and that would so not be a good thing. So as to at least try something until Rilos found another way, she was rubbing her head against her front legs, slowly chafing off bits and pieces. Then her eyes fell back on the spine shadow dragon as he proclaimed his success. “Oh, do me, do me!” she pleaded when she watched him pull off larger and larger chunks of mud, then suddenly coughing loudly to hide another laugh that threatened to come out when she realised how dodgy that had just sounded.

As soon as the mud began breaking loose on the fur, she began tickling all over, her body seemingly grasping for every bit of air it could get underneath the disgusting and stony coat. With the next harder push, the horse dragon suddenly lost her balance and crashed to the floor. She immediately felt the mud crumble under her weight and it was a relief indeed. In horsey fashion, she rolled onto her back as elegantly as possible and wriggled around to scrub her fur and scales free of anything that still remained sticking to her. With a loud groan, she rolled onto her stomach, shaking her head. “Thanks for that. That felt soooo good,” she sighed. There was still a fair bit of mud clinging to her but at least she felt like she could move relatively freely again. “How’s it going at your end, Rilos? Mud-free yet?” she asked, a small smile playing around her lips.

Rilos laughed again at Abraxas’ dodgy remark. Things looked much rosier when there was no shit-demon chasing you through a swamp. That, and you weren’t the only one lying on the floor half covered with mud. The spine spike slowly preened his spikes with his teeth, spitting the little bits of mud that flaked off onto the ground. Rattling them experimentally, he was pleased to find that they had little or no mud on any of them now, and that they once again made that eerie hollow sound when they clinked together.

He suppressed another laugh as Abraxas rolled on her back, immediately making him think of something a horse would do. Although it did look like it was relaxing…
“Mud’s not too bad now, although my tails are a bit stuck together still.” He waved his three main tails, which were partly muddy here and there, sticking together the finer strands that split his tails even further, so that when he flared them, they looked almost feathery like a peacock. “But they will wait until I can take a bath. Yuck, I can still feel that mud underneath some of my scales.”

Staggering to his feet, feeling very light now that he was no longer covered in mud, he looked all around once again, to see if the shit-demon had re-appeared. He frowned, slightly worried. Which direction was the way out of this place? All traces of amusement gone again, he tried to work out the best direction to go.
“Do you… Do you know which way we go to get out of here?” He asked hesitantly, worry flickering across his face. “I’d rather not stay the whole night here, waiting for that shit-demon to come back…” A warm nest and a bite to eat sounded good right about now.

Slowly rising on her feet, the horse dragon shook herself once more, a whole-body shake, with mane and tail swashing around. Critically, she looked herself up and down. “Hm, I think I’ve got the most annoying bits off. The rest might come sooner or later. Hopefully,” she added with a mutter. Rilos seemed to be happy about his spikes clinking together, even though he was wishing a bath his way, which she had to admit, was not the worst thing they could encounter.

“Ahm…,” considering his question, she looked around herself, wondering where they had to go to get out. “Where did we come in?” Though that was an easy question to answer. Mudpieces and prints were all along the way the dragons had come, which would make it easy to retrace their steps. “I’m wondering if it weren’t better to go back towards where they’d come from and then take a normal route out of the swamp. She conveyed this to Rilos, but immediately added: “But I’m not sure I actually want to take myself up on that suggestion. Who knows what might still linger in that fog. I personally do not want to encounter any more shit-demons.” Looking around some more, Abraxas wondered why everything had to look the same in the dark? She could still distinguish some of the gooey blobs that were left over from the previous battle, but most seemed to have evaporated already, leaving behind nothing but a wet stain on the ground. Nothing much else was to be seen, a few outlines of bushes and what probably used to be young trees could be seen, but everything was blurry, lost in the background of the dark night. “How about we just continue they we’ve been going so far? This path, as tiny as it might be, is bound to lead somewhere, right?” She had no clue where it would lead to, but everything was better than remaining in this spot, without moving, just hoping for danger to find them again. With another smile at Rilos, she looked back to the path and took a few hesitant steps before she turned around and looked at the spine shadowed dragon again. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she asked herself why she kept smiling at him so much?

“Shit-demons would definitely not be pleasant company.” Agreed Rilos, “They infinitely detract from what companionship has formed already.” He traced their footprints back into the mist with his eyes. They were easy to see, and he hoped that something else didn’t decide to follow them, to try and find a “midnight snack”. What a depressing thought.. he mused.

He nodded at Abraxas’ new idea, turning from their footprints to where a tiny track, little more than just a rabbit run (but he hoped it was something more anyway) leading in the opposite direction to where they had come from. Maybe it would take them to civilisation- Maybe the track was so small because it was infrequently used?

He stepped after Abraxas, keeping close and marking her position to make sure that he knew where she was if the mist were to descend again. It still shifted and shimmered in front of their eyes like a mirage, but it was nothing compared to what it had been earlier that night, when you could hardly see the claws in front of your face. The track wound its way steadfastly through the marsh, hard and comfortable in comparison to the boggy land all around them, marked by the thin water reeds that grew in thick clumps. Here and there they had to jump over a trickling stream connecting one puddle to another, but still it held out, drawing them towards wherever it lead to. A small smile crept over Rilos’ face now and again, when he saw his companion, or when he saw that the path still continued.

Suddenly, he gave a murmur of excitement.
“What’s that?” he asked hopefully, spines tingling with pleasure. In the thin mud of the path he saw a footprint, small, tapering at one end. It was the footprint of a human, a human with long, tapered boots on! “We’re going the right way Abraxas!” He looked up at her, eyes lit with elation. There was a way out of this forsaken place after all!

After what they’d just been through, the horse dragon could hardly scold herself for jumping at shadows, but she disliked the fact that she was shivering regularly when she thought she was figures in the fog around them. They were merely ghostly apparitions of her imagination, nothing real, but still it was a thought she could not quite shake, and it made her reconsider ever playing such a prank on someone again like she had on the spine shadowed dragon. “In case, I haven’t yet apologised for playing with you earlier, here’s an official one: I am truly sorry for having done that to you, Rilos.” It was the truth, for as much as she liked praying pranks once in a while, this had just turned into something else completely, and it had turned out nasty, which had not been her intention at all.

For the remainder of their journey, Abraxas was silent, mostly paying attention to where they were going, listening to the faint echoes of Rilos’ feet on the path, the clinking of his spines once every now and then. The change in texture underneath her feet was a blessing after the long and uncomfortable run through the marsh earlier. Every few steps another piece of mud would come falling down from somewhere on her body and she soon felt like it had to be all out now, though she couldn’t be sure, mud was very persistent.

Luckily, Rilos’ voice seemed rather pleased at his question, otherwise the horse dragon would immediately have run back. She was tired of surprises she did not like and did not want to encounter another unpleasant creature. But alas, it was only a footprint he’d spotted, one she’d probably not seen on purpose as it was a human one. He was right, it meant they were going towards some kind of civilisation, which meant the right direction, but she wasn’t all too pleased that it was human civilisation. However, when she saw the happy gleam in his face, she couldn’t be her usual self and just tell him it was useless as it was human. So, she tried to put an eager and happy tone into her voice, when she replied: “That is amazing indeed. Let’s just keep heading down the path, and see where it is taking us to. Shouldn’t be long now until we reach a settlement of some kind.” Here she was hoping it would be dragonic or something other that was not two-legged.

Obviously, the horse dragon’s hopes were left unanswered. The further they went, the more footprints they encountered, of various sizes as well, and it gave her all the more the impression they were going towards a human town. Her mood dropped a few degrees. She disliked humans and did not trust them further than she could throw them, but here they were, marching straight towards one.

Then suddenly, the fog lifted completely and there were lights seen in the not so far distance. “Oh great,” she muttered, “they’re still awake and dancing around their fires.” She looked at Rilos, simply staring at him, very obviously blinking, but didn’t say anything else and she did not smile. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder if this was the end of their journey where their paths would separate and everyone would go in another direction. She certainly did not want to see the humans if it wasn’t really absolutely necessary, which in her opinion it wasn’t but… she didn’t know what Rilos had planned.

“Ah, don’t worry about it Abraxas. But next time, if you must, could you save the jokes for some less creepy weather?” He gestured with one wingtip to the sky above, where clouds drifted dark against the slightly brighter night, and the stars that were starting the peek through onto earth. Little flickers of excitement filled Rilos as more footprints started to dot the path- Sure, they were human mostly, apart from the odd canine or even oxen, but it was nice to see some sort of civilisation.

And then the human settlement was visible as the fog lifted, revealing the land all around. Rilos’ grin stretched wider, and he looked back at Abraxas. Behind them, thread of mist still swirled over the swamplands, shielding the lands they had become so lost in from prying eyes. Rilos heard Abraxas grumble slightly under her breath, and he turned again to look at her, his smile fading when he saw her blank face. He came to a halt, his heart sinking.
“You…You don’t like humans, do you?” he asked slowly. Was this settlement going to get in the way of leaving the swamp? His heart sunk, hoping the horse dragon wouldn’t pick skulking around the edges of the marshlands over dashing through (or maybe even just around) the settlement. He took a step towards her. “We don’t have to go through that place if you don’t want to… I don’t like humans much, but they won’t stop me from getting away from this swampy place.”

The spine spike dragon looked back at the village, flickering lights glowing within its walls.
“Maybe those are just lights in some of the houses?” he suggested, trying to persuade the smaller dragon. “They might not be guard lights, they might be just so the humans can find they way around? I’ve heard they have bad eyesight…” He twisted his head slightly, hoping to win Abraxas over. He really didn’t want to stay anywhere near this swamp for longer than he had to.

Following Rilos’ glance backwards, a shiver ran down her spine as she saw the fog glide over the landscape like flames licking on flammable ingredients. It was almost terrifying, as if the fog dared anyone to venture into the swamp and be lost in its misty dreams. With another shudder, the horse dragon turned back to the front, wanting to leave all that behind now. As quickly as possible.

At his tone, her heart sunk even more as well. He just sounded sad and it made her feel like it was her fault. “No, I don’t like humans. I just don’t trust them,” she finally replied, hoping Rilos would understand. “But you’re right. We have to get out of this muddy place soon before we both start growing totally paranoid. It’s already bad enough, it seems.” This statement was accompanied by yet another glance over her shoulders towards the swamp to make sure there really was nothing following them.

Abraxas shot the spined shadow dragon a devastating look. She did not much care for him trying to persuade her to go through this thing, fires or no fires, guard lights or not. Those were humans, they were talking about. Queasy little things that immediately grew nervous around dragons and preferably took them down fast and without prior notice. Yet, she did not want to offend Rilos, so she did not voice those thoughts. “Fine then. Let’s go around it. I really do not want to have that swamp in my back, it’s making me nervous. But I don’t want to get too close to those humans either if possible.” Looking over the settlement before she looked back at Rilos, her tail twitched around as if trying to get rid of something annoying and her face showed the unspoken question of what was going to happen to them, which however was another thing she left unspoken. “Do we have a deal?” She then asked, her voice growing softer as she saw him incline his head.

Rilos shrugged, not minding whether they went around or thorough the village- Although Abraxas certainly seemed to.
“Sure, let’s go around then. I hope the swamp doesn’t come too close. At least it won’t be as bad as right in there-“ he flicked his tail towards the hidden swamp “if we do get a bit stuck, which I doubt, because humans don’t normally make their houses right next to sinking land. Or do they?” Rilos frowned slightly, thinking over the question. “No, I don’t suppose they do.”

The spine spike dragon looked down at the ground, noticing how the path seemed to be drier than the rest of the land around, more dirt than green moss. A little behind him (closer to the village), another line of dirt seemed to lead around to the left of the village, behind a small, twisted, leafless tree.
“Look, here’s another path!” He turned around, starting along the new path that he had seen. The village moved around to his right, the houses sometimes obscuring the light from within the village.

Taking a breath, Rilos spoke quietly to the horse dragon. “After we’ve circled this settlement, I’m going to go and find somewhere to take a bath. Then, I think I’m going to head for the desert.” A bath was definitely required. Although most of the mud that had dried on him had now fallen off, he could still feel little itchy pieces rubbing under some of his scales, and the smell still lingered- Damp, woody. He turned to look at Abraxas. “What… What are you going to do?”

Following Rilos a few more steps until he suddenly exclaimed he had found another path, she peeked around him and almost barely visible, there indeed was a path that seemed to be leading around the village. Perfect, just as if it had been made for two dragons escaping the swamp and wanting to avoid the humans, Abraxas thought sarcastically, but she was certainly not the one going to dispute the spined shadow dragon when he steered onto it. It was a rather small one but at least it was a path where they could relatively securely step without walking through mud that was coming up to their knees. Yet, the constant play of lights from when they appeared and disappeared behind houses was making the horse dragon a little nervous, though she tried not to show it.

Laughing, she agreed. “Yes, I think a bath definitely imposes itself, even if we have lost quite a bit of the mud on the way already. Hopefully, we can do that not too far behind the village, I’m starting to itch all over. When Rilos spoke again, Abraxas almost halted in her step. Yes, what was she going to do? “I haven’t really thought about it. I have generally just been wandering around a little without a plan as to where to go for real. It’s how I came across you in the first place. Which reminds me, why have you even been in that swamp in the first place?” Neither of them had probably wanted to end up there, well she knew she hadn’t wanted to but somehow they both had been there.

The path they were on seemed endless in the horse dragon’s opinion or maybe it was just because she grew more uncomfortable the longer they remained in the proximity of the village. She kept thinking that soon somebody would just up and attack them right there and then, though Rilos was most likely right. The humans would be sleeping right about this time of the day, so nothing was going to happen to them. Right? She still twitched her tail from side to side nervously as they progressed around the village.

“I ended up in the swamp because I was flying over it on the way to the desert- The cloud cover today has been really bad, so I had to fly low. I didn’t want to crash or go the wrong direction, so I had to land. I was pretty lucky to land on solid ground, and not in mud or water.” Rilos thought back to earlier that night, when he had been scared and cowering by the strange, twisted tree in the swamplands. It seemed almost as if it were a dream, on reflection. “How did you end up there?” Rilos didn’t think the horse dragon would have picked to voluntarily enter such a spooky place, and how could she not have noticed the change from dry to damp?

The path that they were following meandered slightly out of the swamp edges, now just a dirt mark on the grass that lead straight up to the edges of the village, and the houses that sprawled low across the ground. There were few windows that looked out on the imposing marshlands- But why would there be, it was a horrid place- all of which were dark. The few lights that were in the village seemed to come from buildings closer to the heart, or flickering along the streets.

As they crept around, a wider track cut across their path, running out from the village to somewhere else, probably another human settlement further away from the swamplands. A little gravel crunched under Rilos’ claws, and he picked his feet up, trying to reduce the noise. The track lead into the settlement in a straight line, then disappeared around a bend of the houses, heading for the heart of the village. Rilos looked up to see if it was safe to cross- He had to admit, now he felt exposed, with nowhere to hide and right next to a human built road, and didn’t fancy running from humans, who, knowing them, would either scream, or attack them.

But it wasn’t their lucky night, as Rilos came to a stop beside the track, peering into the village, a light appeared around the bend- A flaming torch held high by a human male. Rilos backed up as he saw it, but it was obvious that he had been seen as well, as the human slid to a stop, his mouth black and gaping as a shadow in the light of his torch.
“Human. Human!” hissed Rilos to Abraxas, trying to move out of sight.

“If you’re wandering about without really paying attention to where exactly you’re going, only being led by your nose or gut, you tend to end up in weird places from time to time.” Abraxas followed Rilos on the little trail, regularly glancing back towards the swamp and to the village, as if she were waiting for an attack any second. It might be a little paranoid, but she preferred to make sure there really was no immediate danger instead of having yet another bad surprise. “I’ve basically just not looked where I was going, and by the time I realised I was uncomfortable and my surroundings had changed towards the bad, it was too late to turn back. So I tried to find something to lighten my mood and take my mind off the fact that the cold wetness of that place was creeping into my bones. That’s when I bumped into you…”

She might have kept talking a bit longer if they had not suddenly hit gravel on the track and both of the dragons stopped as they saw where this path was leading them to. “I do not like this,” the horse dragon murmured, every hair on her back telling her that it was not a good idea to keep following the trail into the settlement. “Maybe we should…,” she began to whisper to Rilos, eyeing the bushes lining the path, when suddenly a human appeared in their line of sight. Human and dragons were staring at each other, each probably wondering what the other would now do. Rilos’ exclamation almost made Abraxas laugh. For someone who seemed to be somewhat in tune with walking through human villages, he was now quite quickly panicking at the sight of one. Though she was not happy about this unfolding of the events either and it was most certainly too late now to turn back, despite the fact that neither of them actually considered that as an option.

As Rilos scrambled to get out of sight, the horse dragon followed the example, slowly backing away into the shadows. The human was still standing there, completely dumbstruck it seemed, and Abraxas was picking up her previous line of thought. “Maybe we should…,” but again she was interrupted as the human now suddenly awoke from his position, which had rooted him to the spot with his torch held high, and began screaming “Dragons, dragons!”, adopting much the same manner as Rilos, the volume only a few notches louder.

The horse dragon’s blood froze in her veins and she did not wait for the reaction of the rest of the settlement, as soon as she realised that more and more lights were suddenly appearing in the houses, but simply shouted towards Rilos: “Run!” and broke into the undergrowth next to the path they had been following, hoping there was a way around or away from the village. For real, this time…

Rilos heard Abraxas’ mumblings faintly behind him as they made their way around the village, but her story was interesting enough. He certainly knew the feeling of wandering until he was lost, although having wings, it made escaping easy from anywhere he decided he didn’t want to be. Like now, with a human right in their sights- And them in his sights too. He started to back into the sparse bushes that were by the trackside, but it was no good- The human’s cries pierced the air, bringing more two-foots to the edge of the village. So much for a quiet walk around, then off for a bath.

Rilos turned quickly, leaping over the bush that he had split his tails on and racing after Abraxas, his heart beating fast. Behind them, he could hear the shouts of the humans as they rallied at the gate of the village, then set off into the night, each calling to the others. He dashed in and out of the small obstacles that he came across, keeping his head down and trying to stay upright as they fled. As he leapt over a half-rotten tree trunk that had come from goodness knows where, his front legs splashed into more mud, making him stink again. And I had just got most of it off too… he thought in irritation, swapping direction to try and avoid the mud.

He ended up at the track again, dashing over the stones with a loud crunching underfoot that immediately gave away his presence. A few of the humans who had made their way further away from the village walls spotted him and started in his direction- He could see Abraxas fleeing in another direction a little way off. He didn’t want her to get caught, but knew that she was at more of a disadvantage than he was. Oh, what a stupid idea for them to even get close to the village! He slid to a stop for a moment, trying to work out the best route to take- Or create a diversion. More humans appeared at the top of the track, trapping him between them and the village walls. Well, there was nothing for it… He rushed towards the walls a little, flaring his wings and trying to look as dangerous as possible. That would draw off the pursuit from Abraxas, and when he was cornered- as he probably soon would be- it would be a matter of taking off into the sky and into safety. It probably wouldn’t work that way, and not many things too, but it was a hope.

It was a good thing that humans were so incredibly loud and felt the need to shout all the time, so at least you knew where they were, even though it might be slightly unnerving to constantly have such a sound in your ears when you were fleeing, especially when fleeing from exactly those humans. The floor was slightly more slippery than the horse dragon had anticipated at first and keeping her balance was not the easiest thing to do, even less to be stealth, especially with so many branches, roots and other obstacles lying in the way, seemingly intent on making their escape as hard as possible. It wasn’t long until she heard a sticky splash behind her when Rilos jumped right into a muddy puddle and she could imagine his happiness at this fact. It almost made her grin.

However, it quickly froze on her face when Rilos broke a branch or something else that made quite a loud noise, immediately alerting the humans to his position. Seeing that they were not all too far apart from each other, though seemingly heading in slightly different directions as they were choosing the path that worked best for them, she froze on the spot, not daring to move for a bit, afraid they might see or hear her as well. As she observed Rilos contemplating his next move, she was raking her brain herself for any bright ideas to get out of their current mess. As the humans drew closer, her tail began to twitch nervously. This is not good. This really is not good. It pleased her even less when Rilos started rushing the village walls, in what probably was an attempt at diversion and the humans immediately began shouting and running after the spined shadow dragon but it would not work, it could not work, however he was planning to escape this. There were too many tree tops above him and the village in front, humans behind.

Without thinking about it any further, the horse dragon broke into a gallop and sprinted towards the humans, growling angrily. She tried to come at them from the front so that they had to confront her before getting to Rilos, it would give him enough time to reconsider his escape route and she would be out of the way once the humans would have shaken off their initial shock. They indeed halted in their step when they suddenly saw her coming at them, though they did not merely take as long to recover than she had thought they would. Sliding across the forest floor, whirling up leaves, dirt, little rocks and whatnot as she did so, some of it splattering down onto the humans, the horse dragon turned around on her hindlegs and ran for it again, zigzagging around trees in an attempt to confuse the humans, hoping they would fall for it or at least be distracted long enough for Rilos to get out of his trap. She did not have time to look back to him at this moment in time however, unsure whether the humans were now picking up her trail or not. So she kept storming through the bushes, not paying attention anymore to whether she was making noise or jumping through mudpuddles or not, she just ran for it in meandering patterns to avoid being hit by projectiles in ase the humans got stupid ideas into their heads and to confuse them.

~((Right, so seeing that the sprite has been changed and Abraxas actually has wings again, for the sake of everything we’ve written before, and so it doesn’t seem completely ridiculous now (not being able to fly etc), Abraxas has a wounded wing and can currently not fly. Does that sound ok? ^^))~

Rilos kept heading towards the village for a few more moments, hearing the crashing of the humans behind him running down the road. They were shouting to each other, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying, so their plans were of no aid to him. The breath caught in his throat as he got closer to the village walls, but at the last moment, a new thought occurred to him. He couldn’t fly with trees in the way! He slid to a halt, jumping around to face away from the village again. His heart sunk as he saw the road lined with advancing humans, more than he had expected. They certainly came to the battlefield when the thought of capturing a dragon was at hand!

He couldn’t see them for long as Abraxas jumped in front of them, trying the same trick he had before, although evidently with a little more thought than just “Crap, let’s try and head them off any direction you can”.
He dashed off the road again, knowing that he would have better chance of escaping the humans with the cover of the trees. And if he couldn’t escape on foot, then he would find a big tree that could support his weight and wait it out. He wound his way around the tree trunks, trying to make as little noise as possible, but it wasn’t easy to navigate in the dark, in an area he hadn’t been before, and with numerous things underfoot to trip up on or catch in your claws.

He could hear Abraxas crashing through the woods to his left somewhere, and he started to make his way towards the sounds. There were other sounds behind them too, but they were further away, and he figured they were probably the humans chasing them. He couldn’t see much under the dark of the leaves, cutting out even the little light the stars gave over the open, but there were a few movements through the trees- and there was the largest, Abraxas!
“Abraxas, over here!” he called quietly, trying not to attract the attention of the humans that were still following them. She was weaving through the trees, and with good reason- a whizzing noise came from nearby, and a sharp arrow sliced through the air from nowhere and hammered into a tree trunk. He yelped, and dashed off in a different direction, borrowing her idea. There was no good in getting hit by arrows, especially when he couldn’t escape into the sky!

Jumping slightly, Abraxas was glad that the arrow had missed her, though narrowly, but it had missed. For crying out loud… those bloody humans! she cursed inwardly, wishing them far away, off onto a distant planet inhabited by vile, creeping insects or something in the likes as more and more arrows came swooshing their way. When Rilos silently called out to her, she switched direction to follow the sound of his voice, hoping that they were now running into the same direction instead of losing themselves in the woods and ending up on their own some place they did not know. She was glad however that he had gotten away, though she had trouble repressing the need to call him an idiot.

She could still hear the shouts of the humans, which now seemed to spreading out into a line to follow them through the woods. The dragons were gaining a little distance between themselves and their followers due to their speedy legs, but she was fairly certain that their pursuers would not give up that easily, rather they would go on following them, searching for their tracks until they had caught up one way or another. It was frustrating really. It could be so easy if they could just lift off now and disappear into the clouds, but no, of course there were trees in the way so Rilos couldn’t get away and she had an injured wing so flying was definitely not a good idea for her at all, if she did not want to make it worse – if the wing could even hold her weight again by now, which she strongly doubted.

Steadily heading away from the village and the swamp behind it, the horse dragon was growing tired from all the running again, slowing her pace a little as she began looking around for her companion. Rilos had dashed off a little ways as the first arrow had come flying. “Rilos?” she called tentatively, not able to distinguish him in the darkness of the forest, his dark scales not really making much for a contrast in this environment. The arrows had subsided by now and the humans were quite a way off but they could still be heard and that worried Abraxas more than she liked. So far they were not letting off, apparently intent on capturing themselves a dragon or two. “Where the heck are we?” she murmured, seeing only trees and bushes but nothing else. It was slightly unnerving, reminding her of the swamp in a way and that thought sent a shower of shudders down her spine as the awful fear of the shit-demon or its minions suddenly turning up here. Carefully, she trotted onwards, just heading in a straight line now, or what she thought was a straight line, hoping to bump into Rilos soon, preferably before something weird happened again.

Rilos hated how humans never gave up once they discovered something. They were like a pack of wolves after a piece of meat. After a night of desperate sloshing through the murky marshlands, fleeing from humans through unknown woods was hardly what he would call a favourable turn of events (especially when the alternative was taking a long bath in a clear lake, or at least the thought of finding a lake quickly). Although the least of his worries, he could feel his paws aching with all the running.

When a quiet call came through the trees, a little way from behind, Rilos thought it was probably safe to slow down again. He wound his way towards the sound of the horse dragon, his eyes searching through the dark of the trees. She was faintly visible, but only just- Her dark coat and scales blended in well in the night, and it was that sort of time when everything was bleached of colour, just monochrome shades of black and white. She was trotting in a similar direction to where he headed, and the human noises were behind them, so at least they were both going the same way. And for the moment, safe. He felt a wave of anxiety that he didn’t know was over him lift, and he hailed Abraxas quietly.
“Over here, are you alright?” his eyes were wide, trying to see better in the dark, but it wasn’t making much difference. Dark nights with no moon weren’t really his style; he was more into starry high up places.

He threaded his way through the trees at the same pace as Abraxas, slowly gathering his breath. All this running and stopping and starting and creeping around human settlements was turning out to be quite a physical strain, amongst everything else. It was also starting to make him kind of hungry too… He shook his head to try and clear it of such thoughts, losing his balance a bit and stumbling against a bush he would have missed otherwise. More tracks the humans could follow if they had trackers in their party.
“Do you know where we are? Maybe we could find out if we looked from up a bit? I could go up a tree…” he sounded a little doubtful, but he supposed he could find a tree big enough if they walked far enough. As a young dragon, he used to spend many hours up trees, languishing in their branches, but he was much smaller then, and he hadn’t climbed one for a long time… Was climbing the sort of thing you don’t forget?

It was not long until Rilos’ response came through the trees and the dragon made his way towards Abraxas and she was glad to see he was at least on his four feet still. “I’m fine. Are you?” she replied in a low voice, trying not to draw any more attention to where they were headed than they already did. As they carried on side by side, she glanced up at him at his question. “I have absolutely no clue, and I’m not even sure we might not have doubled back at some point during our escape,” she replied, stating that which was obscuring her thoughts at the moment, namely the fact that they might be heading straight for the swamps once more, and thus straight for that shit demon. It was not a happy thought and it made Abraxas shudder to have it voiced out loud.

Though Rilos’ next comment made her chuckle a little, easing the tension in her fur and scales. “Do you really think there’s a tree out here that might be able to carry you?” she asked, teasingly looking him and down once. He was rather large after all and most of the trees, despite being somewhat rooted in did not look strong enough to be able to hold the weight of a full-grown dragon. “Having a look around from a different point of view might be a good idea however,” she added, her gaze stealing upwards, trying to catch a glimpse of star or moonlight but in vain. It all seemed to be millions of different shades of grey. “It would be quite nice to be able to just take off into the night sky now.” It was annoying her all the more now that she could not make use of her wings, even though the tree tops would be somewhat of a nuisance if they wanted to even try to take flight now. No good could come from it. The branches could rip into their wings and injure them and they could hurt themselves more than it was worth.

“Do you think those humans will give up at some point?” The question was a hopeful one, though Abraxas was fairly certain that it might be a vain hope. “Either way, I think for now we should just carry on in this direction and hope that we’ll find a way out of the forest, or a big enough tree,” she added with a grin towards Rilos.

“I’m still in one piece.” replied Rilos, giving a smile. “At the moment.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to say more than that- He would decided whether he was good or bad when the sun rose, or they were sure they were no longer being pursued by humans, whichever came first.
Rilos groaned. “Oh, if we’ve doubled back…” he shook his head, not wanting to even consider the thought.

Rilos blushed as Abraxas laughed. “Yeah… maybe that wasn’t such a good suggestion. I used to be able to climb up trees.” He followed Abraxas’ gaze upwards into the dapple of the canopy. It was dark, but not the same dark as the night sky- it was dirtier, somehow. “It would be nice.” He agreed, his wings just itching to be used. It was places like this he longed to be as small as his friend Zack, who could easily zip in and out between the trunks of the trees. He shook the thought out of his head- of course he couldn’t be small like Zack, he was magical, but not that magical- and kept walking.

“I don’t know much about humans. They’ve never really struck me as a race that gives up easily.” He gave a huff of air. “If we’re anywhere close to dawn I bet they’ll be hunting through the day too. Sounds like carrying on is the best plan.” As much as he hated to admit it, it seemed like the best course of action. He grinned back at Abraxas, trying not to blush again.

They kept walking as the trees started to thin out, their trunks becoming thicker as they had more space to grow in. It was still dark underneath the trees, but not as dark as it had been earlier in the night- It was more the dark that pre-empted the dawn, rather than the pitch of the early hours of the day. A bird started to stir here and there, testing a trill of melody into the silence of the night, before someone tapped the conductors’ stick for the start of the dawn chorus.

Abraxas shuddered slightly as a cool breeze swiftly made its way through the forest, rustling in the leaves and the dragons’ scales. “This place is growing somewhat uncomfortable,” she grumbled, “or is that just me?” Maybe she was getting paranoid after all? Or was it already? She wasn’t sure which one was worse, to know to be growing into something like or knowing one already was… Shaking her head, she tried to rid herself of such ridiculous thoughts and looked at Rilos. “That is not really motivating insight,” she stated sarcastically, speaking out loud what they both were thinking. “But I guess if they keep hunting us through dawn then we’ll just have to fly as soon as we’re out of the forest.” It would be painful, on her side, but it would be the only way, otherwise they would never be able to get out of this mess, and Rilos seemed intent not to leave her side and just take off on his own, which was nice, but she didn’t want to have his blood on her hooves. If it came down to that.

“I can see the light!” the horse dragon suddenly called out, not too loudly though in case the humans could hear the sound and would be alerted to their path even more. She had no clue how far behind the humans were by now, but the odd sounds were still to be heard behind them. Hoping it was only animals, Abraxas tried not to think about the many traces they had left behind in the muddied ground for their hunters to easily follow them wherever they went. “Well, you know what I mean,” she added a little embarrassed at her childish outburst once she realised the trees were thinning out and the birds started up a few tunes here and there.

It wasn’t long until the trees began thinning out even more and the light steadily began to change from the dull and irritating grey into something resembling oncoming dawn. It felt like a weight falling off her shoulders and Abraxas gave a small sigh of relief when they finally, after what seemed like ages, reached the edge of the forest. “Rilos, we made it out!” The horse dragon happily stated, her pace quickening as she could distinguish the horizon behind the trees. Just as they took the last steps out of the forest, the sun came up completely as well, letting its rays slowly crawl over the scenery before their eyes, making everything sparkle in a soft golden light, glittering with drops still clinging to everything from a rain shower that seemed to have passed here earlier in the night. “Rilos, Rilos!” Abraxas grew more excited by the second, the more her eyes were taking in the beautiful grass in front of them, littered with flowers here and there that were now slowly beginning to wake up under the gentle touch of the sun. “Oh my god! Is that.. Is that a lake?!” She almost jumped up and down in excitement as she saw a different kind of glimmer in the distance, a glitter that was not produced by remaining raindrops.

Although Rilos had felt the cool breeze the same as Abraxas, he chose to ignore it- He convinced himself it was just a brisk chill, nothing sinister. It was nothing sinister at all, not at all. After all, you could still have a wind without it being dark monster generated, or made from evil spirits or whatever else made creepy cold winds… He tried to put it out of his mind, laughing off Abraxas’ comment.

He shot Abraxas a befuddled look as she called out, her outburst seeming completely irrelevant to anything that just occurred. “You see what light?” he asked, looking around and about. Everything looked similar to how it had before, except maybe the trees weren’t as densely packed? He could definitely walk in a straight line without having to dodge here and there around trees, that was for sure. He gave another laugh as she adapted.
“I think I know what you mean…” he said, looking up into the trees where birds twittered their tunes. It was comforting to know that the birds felt safe enough to sing- at least, he hoped they were joy songs, and not warnings.

Rilos picked up his pace too as Abraxas trotted forwards at the gaps that appeared in the treetrunks, trying to ignore the steady crumbling of the new mud he had picked up in his claws. He closed his eyes against the bright sun as it flooded the meadow in front of them, feeling its early warmth in his scales. He flattened his spines along his neck, flicking his tails out of a shadow that had appeared. Abraxas’ excited voice reached through his relief and he opened his eyes again, scanning across the meadow and its long, waving grasses, the flower buds that interspersed here and there, and a bird that flitted across their vision, beating its wings fast and skimming across the tops of the field before dipping below the plants.

“A lake? Where?” he asked eagerly, taking a few more steps forward. His eyes lit up in excitement, finally feeling free of the shit demon and the humans that had pursued them for the night. With the coming of the day, things seemed to have changed. To be sure, he had changed too- Not only had his mood lightened, but as the sun hit his scales, some of the darkness lightened, returning him to his normal blue, purple and green from the shadow form he had been wearing for the night. He gave a smile, lolloping forwards into the grass with long strides, the smell of sweet hay rising around him.
“Come on, I don’t know about you, but I need a bath!” he called back at her, breathing in the heady summer scent. “A long bath, I’ve got mud stuck under places I didn’t know you could get mud stuck under!”

» And there was Darkness throughout the land.. (Lycanscar X Eldarwen)
» Rogue ]}-Shadow & Light-{[ Aero
» The Beauty and the Chicken (Rogue X Eldarwen)
» Darkness falls. Jaej meets his end, another finds more friends.
» Eldarwen & bluemoonstonight {Title to come}