Shimmering Light of Darkness (Rogue X Eldarwen)

Rilos nodded in agreement at Abraxas’ words, content to just follow the little hedgecats like she had resorted to doing. After all, at least they seemed to have some idea of where to go, whereas he would have been wandering aimlessly around the meadow for… well, probably hours, if not days. Which would have been rather pleasant, but wouldn’t really have gotten him anywhere- certainly no nearer to the desert at least. Although he didn’t really mind wandering through the meadows like they were (the hedgecat still on his head was a little offputting, but he managed to forget about it after a while), still smiling as the river wound its stately way through the grassland and the strange purple hedgecats played around their feet.

He caught Abraxas’ opening look as he glanced at her on an odd coincidence, missing the dark shadow that suddenly approached until she leapt into the air with a squawk. Looking around to see what had startled her, he too jumped back as he saw the shadow that had appeared in front of them, just as surprised as the horse dragon, flicking unintentionally into his shadow form (not that it would do him much good being camouflaged black in the middle of the day in the middle of a bright field). The hedgecat on his head hissed at the dark smoke that puffed around them for a moment, before the smoke disappeared again. He had to avoid the hedgecats that twisted their way between his paws, picking up one foot high as he nearly trod on one that seemed intent on getting squished as it promptly leapt under his other paw. The hedgecat on his head dug its claws in, making him yelp.

“Ouch! What is it?” He put his head down close to the ground and shook off the little creature before straightening up again, shrugging helplessly at the hedgecat as it growled and miaowed at him angrily, wanting to be let back onto his head again, but he ignored it for the time being. The shadow thing had backed off slightly and Rilos took a few bemused steps towards it, shaking the paw that the hedgecat came after distractedly as the little beastie nipped at his claws.
“Well, this meadow really seems to have some strange things in it, because I’ve never seen one of… these things before.” He watched it for a moment longer, then turned back to Abraxas, giving up on the hedgecat and putting his head on the ground so it could jump back onto him and assume its position snuggled around his spines again. “Are you alright? That sounded pretty bad…” He looked at her wing in concern, hoping her hop-flight hadn’t made it any worse. He hoped that the shadow creature wasn’t malicious, otherwise that had just been a bad move- you weren’t supposed to turn your back on an opponent, were you? He quickly looked back at the shadow, carefully marking its position.

Snorting briefly, Abraxas looked at the shadowy dragon next to her and slightly raised a mocking eyebrow. “Camouflage? In bright sunlight?” The tone said it all, she didn’t have to add that she thought he was kidding but she didn’t have any trouble containing the laughter that otherwise would have made her burst out loud now, pain written all over her face instead. For the time being, the shade was forgotten as it lay hiding away in the grass, shivering all over. Neither of them knew what it was and the hedgecats’ agitation didn’t reassure Abraxas as to the friendliness of the thing. However, if it had really wanted to attack them, wouldn’t it seize the opportunity now that they were confused and distracted by themselves? Yet nothing happened and the hedgecats began to ease down again, some even gently sneaking over to the shade to inspect it.

When Rilos addressed her once more, she was harshly reminded of her wing, which she had been trying to shrug back into the deepest corners of her mind for the time being, readying herself for an imminent attack. Now that it did not seem to come and the tension in her muscles eased a little with Rilos’ calmness helping to soothe her own agitation and not only that of the hedgecats, it seemed, the wing began to throb more noticeably. “It’s… it’s nothing,” the horse dragon mumbled in between gritted teeth. Even barely shifting position to look at Rilos when he had switched to his shadow form had sent another surge of pain through her shoulder and by now every single cell connected to her wing seemed to be throbbing with hurt so that she couldn’t even properly distinguish the source of it all.

“Let me just…,” breathing deeply the horse dragon tried to chase away the dizziness that threatened to spread, “... lay down for a while.” And without further ado, she heavily sank to the ground, without paying heed to whatever it was on the ground beneath her, thus making hedgecats hurry away from where she suddenly slumped down. As she watched Rilos scoop up the hedgecat again, it was all happening through a sort of haze for her, she smiled a little: “Your hat really seems to like you.” Resting her wing spread out over her body and the grass was slowly beginning to ease the hurting a little bit and the horse dragon began to breathe slightly more evenly again and didn’t have to force herself to do so.

Curiously enough, the shadow still hadn’t moved. Until now. As Rilos was bent over Abraxas’ wing to inspect it, a gesture she found quite useless but still very considerate, especially as she wasn’t very used to this kind of treatment, the horse dragon noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, very slowly turning her head into that direction, trying not to strain any muscle that was connected to her wing, she noticed the shadow slowly edging closer again. It seemed to be frightened but curiosity nevertheless won over the fear and it edged closer, flanked by the few hedgecats that had moved over to inspect it. The latter didn’t seem frightened or alarmed, and neither seemed any of the other in the meantime, which in turn made Abraxas wonder what on earth this thing was. Still it moved closer, always keeping an eye on the two dragons, keeping low to the ground as if it could hide away in the bright green grass. “It is a bit like you Rilos,” Abraxas mused. “Trying to camouflage its shadowy presence into the bright, sunlit grass.”

“I know, I know.” mumbled Rilos self-consciously, flicking his tail. He just had to go and make a fool of himself. At least the hedgecats didn’t seem too mystified by his sudden change in colour, and he was glad it was only Abraxas that found his sudden colour change as strange as it really was. He took a moment to concentrate and poof back to his normal colours, nodding to himself as he checked all his spines had gone back to blue and green again. He didn’t half look strange when only a few of his spines turned brightly coloured again, leaving the others to retain their black colours. Luckily that hadn’t happened this time though. “That happens sometimes, it wasn’t on purpose.” He gave the horse dragon an embarrassed smile. “Honestly!”

The smile dropped off his face as Abraxas sunk to the ground and he tried not to fuss as he looked over her wing again. It certainly didn’t look like nothing- he wasn’t surprised she had had to lie down after stretching it like she just had.
“I wish my magic did healing things…” mused Rilos, watching his front claws and where he put them as he padded round her wing and settled on the grass too, his eyes flicking to the dark shadow lying a little way away. “It just seems to do silly things like turn me black and invisible, or make lightning do funny things when I’m around it.” He smiled wryly at the ground. “Not very useful when it comes to it really, unless it’s a game of hide and seek.”

He followed Abraxas’ gaze to where the shadow was slowly starting to slink towards them, turning his head to one side as it tried to hide in the grass. Wow, he must have looked just as silly as that trying to hide amongst the grass from the sprites… It sure was a good thing black scales hid blushing, because otherwise he would have been very red. He rose to his feet again and padded slowly up to it, noting how the hedgecats didn’t seem frightened or wary of it. That must have only been a good thing- maybe the hedgecats’ sense of good and bad was similar to a dragon’s? They certainly hadn’t liked the sprites either…

“Mm, I hope it’s just as uhm… harmless,” he agreed, trying to work out quite what the creature was. The hedgecat on his head didn’t take any notice, rumbling with purrs as it took advantage of its comfy spot. Flicking his tails in curiosity like a cat, he edged closer and closer to the thing, waiting for a short moment before he stretched out his nose and touched its side.

There was a sudden flash of blue and a crackle as his nose touched the creature and he leapt back in shock, breaking the contact almost instantly. He blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the sparkly white light that stuck around in his eyes, backing away from the shadow. It felt like a zap of electricity had just shot through him- it was normally what it felt like when he released some of his magic, but it was different to normal; maybe because he hadn’t done it on purpose. He scuttled back to Abraxas’ side, wrinkling his nose and blinking his eyes.
“Oops, I didn’t mean to do that… I hope it didn’t make it angry or anything…” He twitched his nose again, making it tingle where he had touched the creature. It had been very cold, like ice. Strange.

“U-huh,” the horse dragon grinned. “I believe you.” Abraxas winked at Rilos’ embarrassement after he had carefully checked that all his colours were back in order and her face did not clearly gave away whether she was serious or joking. Either way, the companionship was rather fun and she felt less like chaotic herself through Rilos’ presence, who seemed to have a knack for getting himself into weird situations, such as being hunted by vicious sprites or camouflaging in bright sunshine.

“Yeah, believe me,” Abraxas muttered, “sometimes I wish I had healing powers as well. It such a more fulfilling power to have than many other things,” she agreed as she thought about the lack of powers she herself had. Other than her blatant skill in playing pranks and being mean to others she hadn’t really discovered anything she was particularly skilled at, and seemed completely devoid of any magical powers other than the typical flamebreath every dragon breed possessed. “What can you do to lightning?” The horse dragon looked up at Rilos curiously and a little surprised at his statement. That was definitely an interesting feat she thought and not something she had seen or heard of so far. The two of them hadn’t actually talked about what their specific abilities and she felt a little stupid at being surprised to hear that he had any apart from the colour-changing thing. Simply because she didn’t possess any didn’t automatically imply that others didn’t either.

“But I guess, hide and seek should be interesting with the both of us, though my red stains might give me away quicker than I’d like,” she joked, following the dragon’s gaze back to the shadow. The latter was indeed an odd creature and the horse dragon still did not know what to make of it. A shadow.. lying flat on the floor, it seemed to make sense as such but what on earth was it? What was it’s purpose? And most importantly, what did it do? She watched it closely as Rilos moved towards it, bending his nose down to the being. While she was doing so, one of the hedgecats decided to nestle itself against her body between her front legs and the horse dragon briefly nudged the purring little form before she looked back at the shadow, just in time to see the most curious thing happen yet.

Jumping lightly at the sudden charge of electricity which seemed to pass between the two beings, Abraxas shooed away the angry hedgecat with the movement, but she didn’t even notice. Her eyes were glued to the shadow. It seemed to almost vibrate with the lightning as if it had actually been struck by it. The most curious thing however was that the shadow seemed to blink in astonishment, though not a surprise as if this had never happened before but as if it had not expected this to happen in this place or with the dragon.

“Weird,” Abraxas murmured as Rilos returned to her side. She herself settled back into the grass to rest, her wing still pulsing a little but in a dull sort of way. Nothing else seemed to happen and it certainly didn’t seem like there was any danger to them, despite the crackle. “Look, Rilos, that didn’t hurt it and it didn’t scare it away…. What is this thing?!” The hedgecats were slowly growing bored of the shadow, which seemed intent on staying plastered to the ground at a relative distance and unmoving. They were starting to play amongst each other instead seeing that their exciting journey had apparently come to a momentary halt, which did not disturb them though.

Minutes passed without the shadow moving and Abraxas didn’t know what to make of it. Just as she was about to get up herself and edge closer to the thing to test if the crackle would happen when she touched it too, the shadow suddenly lifted itself off the floor and sat on what looked like it’s haunches and cocked its head to the side, inspecting the two dragons. “Hello,” it then said, making Abraxas’ jaw drop open in surprise.

Rilos kept his eyes firmly focussed on the shadow, hoping it wasn’t about to try and kill them or turn into a shit demon or anything like that all of a sudden. “Well, it’s more lightning tends to do strange things to me, if you like,” he explained, trying to both be courteous and look at his companion as he spoke, and watch the shadow at the same time. “I don’t know why, it’s always happened, but whenever there’s an electrical storm, my spines start lighting up like fireflies. It’s most strange.” He gave Abraxas a small smile, quite proud of the fact that it happened, even though he didn’t quite understand how. “Maybe it’s thunder? I’m not sure… I’ve never seen it happen to anyone else before.” I’ve never see another spined shadow before though, he added silently to himself, trying to quash the dark thought. It wasn’t the sort of thing he needed ruining his day. “Does anything out of the ordinary ever happen to you? Ever woken up one day and had metal and things stuck to your scales?” He grinned- that had happened once too, but he had no idea why. Maybe his internal magic had gone a little barmy that night; whatever it had been, he was walking around with spoons and tiny specks of metal and all sorts of other random things stuck to his hide for days after. He really did have the worst luck.

But as it was, his good luck seemed to be holding out for the time being. Or at least, his reasonable luck- the shadow didn’t make any move to try and attack them, so he just settled back onto his four paws, watching the hedgecats investigate the shadow, then when they got bored, wander off to find other entertainment amongst themselves. “I’m not entirely sure what it is,” he said. “In fact, everything we’ve come across so far has been most strange… I’ve never seen anything remotely like that shit demon, or the sprites, or these hedgecats, or this shadow. It’s like… I don’t know, we’ve been thrown into some sort of strange dream world, where everything you didn’t expect turns up.” He certainly didn’t expect to find himself wandering through a meadow with another dragon and some sort of fluffy purple animal perched possessively on his head. Was this an instance where the phrase “variety is the spice of life” was applicable? He didn’t know, but he thought it might be. At least the things they were now coming across were less malevolent than those they had unfortunately met in the passed night.

The little hedgecat perched on Rilos’ head didn’t seem at all phased by the magic touch between the spined shadow and the shadow creature, staying firmly in its place as Abraxas and Rilos watched whatever new creature it was that they had just come across. The spined shadow slowly relaxed as the shadow didn’t make any moves against them, eventually letting his stare lax as he watched the hedgecats play in the long grasses, chasing each others’ tails through the flowers. He was engrossed in two hedgecats’ tussling when the shadow finally moved, and almost flicked back into his dark camouflage as it spoke, head turned to one side. However, he just managed to restrain himself, instead contenting himself with just tightening his claws around the earth underneath them, and trying not to flee or panic.

He gulped worriedly, hoping that, because it could talk, it wouldn’t try and hurt them or send them the wrong direction to the dessert desert, then tentatively returned a greeting.
“Uhm… good day?” He paused, not quite sure how to phrase the question he wanted to ask. He just went for the simple option. “What… who are you?”

Rilos’ lightning thing sounded rather weird and the horse dragon could by no means even dare to venture a guess as to why such things happened or did not happen. It was not like she had seen anything like that before nor had heard of it prior to meeting the spined shadow dragon. It sounded fascinating however, and she began hoarding the idea of putting him out into the rain at some point and observe the lightning and thunder taking effect on the dragon. “Metal stuck to my sides?” Abraxas raised a questioning eyebrow at her companion, and added: “That sounds like a story you will want to tell me.” With a grin, she looked back to the shadow, before musing over Rilos’ thoughts about their recurring weird encounters. “You’re right, it all seems fairly surreal, though the thought hadn’t crossed my mind yet that we might be in a dream world. Wouldn’t that also mean the dessert desert doesn’t exist here? Or would it only exist here? But then… where is here?” The thought sent a shiver down her spine and she was a little afraid of actually accepting the notion of being in a different world. What if they could never go back if this were proving itself to be true?

Even if the hedgecats were friendly and the shadow seemed to be so until now, the horse dragon wasn’t all too sure. The sprites had turned out to be vicious and she didn’t even want to think about their encounters the previous night. Abraxas’ jaw almost dropped to the ground when the shadow suddenly began talking however and its voice seemed so very melodic and soothing, almost as if he were talking in song. She felt rather than saw Rilos twitch next to her, her eyes glued to the shadow, eyes wide open as she wondered how it was that everything was surprising them through the power of speech. Shouldn’t it be considered normal that creatures were able to talk? Why were they always so surprised? Did that maybe have to do with the fact they were in a dream world and things were reversed? Or… ?! The horse dragon had completely lost track of her own thoughts, unsure what it even was she had wanted to think but she grew worried about the recurring thought of not being in her own world.

“Who I am?” the shadow asked, repeating the spined shadow dragon’s question. “My name is Delano.” With a dignified nod in the dragons’ general direction, the shadow looked from one to the other. “As for what I am.. well, as you can see I am a shadow, which in turn is merely a shadow of my former appearance. I used to be an elephant, a glorious one, but I’ve been cursed. Now this is my appearance doomed to be that of a shadow, doomed to be hiding in the shadows myself. It was a horrible time at first until I finally found a way out of that darkness and am now roaming about to see the wonders of the world, for which being a shadow has its advantages. But enough about me, who are you two?” The shadow perched up a little, curious to hear about the two dragons.

Abraxas was dumbstruck by the story, unable to really grasp it and wondering whether she had just heard right. An elephant?! The shadow hardly had the form an elephant would usually have but maybe that was just a side-effect of the curse? Was that really what had happened to him? “I’m.. My name is Abraxas and this is my friend Rilos,” she finally replied, the surprise and incredulity still written all over her face. She ventured a quick glance in Rilos’ direction to see what he was thinking before returning her gaze to Delano. She wasn’t really sure what else to say, apart from stating the obvious: “As you can see, we’re both dragons.”

Rilos pulled a face at Abraxas’ eagerness to hear his unfortunate history with metal and sleeping, shaking his head. “You may wish to hear that story, but that doesn’t mean I’ll tell you. It was so embarrassing.” He could feel his scales going all hot even just thinking about it.

His bright mood dissipated slightly at the thought of the dessert desert not actually being a real thing in whatever world they were in, and he shook his head stubbornly. “No, I’m sure there’s a dessert desert here somewhere. If there are things like this shadow, and the hedgecats, then there’s bound to be a desert around here somewhere. Isn’t that right, fluffy one?” he asked the hedgecat on top of his head, tipping his head slightly to one side to make it yowl. He tried not to think of the fact that maybe it was all just a delusion he was hanging onto, firmly pushing that unwanted thought to the back of his mind and focussing again on the shadow in front of them. Even if there were strange things in this world, some of them horrible, there were always good things too, and that was what mattered. Because there was always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if the tunnel was very long and dark.

For only being a shadow, Delano seemed like quite a regal being. Rilos told himself that he should really stop being surprised about everything he was learning, but everything was just so strange- out of all the things he thought he would spend the day doing, he never expected to be holding a conversation with the shadow of an elephant and trying to balance a rather spiky (but cute) living hat on his head. Although, he wasn’t as surprised as he would have been the day before, when life was distinctly standard. He had to disagree with a little of what the elephant-shadow was saying though.
“I can’t say living in the shadows is that bad a way of living. I suppose if you’re not accustomed to it, it may be a little different… although I’ve never had much of a problem with it.” Although, he had to suspect that that very fact was due to him being a spined shadow- and the name said it all, really. “I have to say though, having the option of exploring during the day is nice. But,” he yawned, showing his teeth, “tiring, if you’ve been up all night too.”

It wasn’t really sinking in that he was talking to the shadow of an elephant, but somehow he was becoming accustomed to all the strange things they had been coming across. He caught Abraxas’ incredulous look and shot her a mad grin, not quite sure how to react to Delano- he certainly didn’t think himself any different from any of the other creatures they had come across, so who were they to say he was strange? He took a deep breath and shot the shadow a smile, hoping he could see it (he didn’t question how, if he actually could).
“Can we uhm… do anything to help? I don’t know if there are any downsides to being a shadow… except from the lack of features or uhm… limbs… but if there’s anything you want?” he paused, hoping Abraxas wouldn’t be too annoyed by his offer of assistance. “I can’t think it’s much fun being cursed, even if you seem to have found some way of getting out of the shadows…” he tailed off, not sure how to continue.

Absentmindedly, Abraxas nodded along to Rilos’ statement Yes, there was a dessert desert. There simply had to be, why else would anyone send them on such a quest? Well… Zack hadn’t exactly sent Rilos on a quest to find it but apparently he had been so happy about this desert that it simply had to be a real place, right? Pushing the slight hint of panic to the back of her mind, the horse dragon tried to avoid any thoughts about reality or parallel universe or whatnot. The only thing that mattered was the here and now.

Silently, Abraxas nodded along. She too was of the opinion that living in the shadows was not always such a terrible thing. Of course, she might be doing it for different reasons than either of the others, but that didn’t change the fact. A huge grin spread across Abraxas’ face at Rilos’ next words as she remembered their many adventures since they had first encountered each other what seemed like ages ago but had in fact merely been hours. The lack of sleep had not even begun to register in her mind as her body automatically replied to the spined shadow dragon’s yawn and her mouth opened wide in one of her own. Had they really not slept until now?!

At Rilos’ offer of helping, Delano cocked his head to the side, ears pricked up in surprise. “Would you really be willing to help me?” He asked, utterly delighted by such an option. Abraxas was a little taken aback by the direct offer her companion had made, not quite sure what to think of this, especially after the shadow was so obviously eager to accept their help. For one, she would first prefer to hear how he had managed to step out of the darkness of the shadow world to walk amongst them like a normal being now. It somehow didn’t sound like it was supposed to be that way. Then again, Abraxas knew that she was always far too suspicious about everything and she might just be doing Delano wrong. Maybe it had not been an evil trick that had made him walk in the light again. Snorting, she inwardly scolded herself. Not only was she being far too suspicious but she was also going completely nuts. World of darkness and light..

Shaking her head, the horse dragon looked at Delano, the curiosity still present on her face: “What exactly would such help entail?” she asked, her careful nature winning over her overly curious nature. Delano chuckled. “Well, as Rilos,” he shot a quick glance at the other dragon to make sure he had gotten the name right, before he continued, “has already stated, I’m actually really missing my limbs. You see, as an elephant, I was so used to having a trunk that I am having the hardest time adjusting to a life without it, even after so many months of being cursed. Imagine a winged creature suddenly losing its wings and having to get used to running.”

Funny, Abraxas thought, desperately fighting the urge to look at her own damaged wing. Unaware of having stepped on any toes, Delano went on: “It is said that there is a fantastical place where all your wishes can come true but that it is guarded by an evil creature. Said evil creature however possesses a talisman which can remove curses.”

Seeing where the shadow seemed to be going with this, Abraxas interrupted him and asked with a sigh: “And you want us to get that for you?”

Rilos hoped he hadn’t gone too far with offering his and Abraxas’ assistance to Delano without consulting her first, but it was too late to regret it now anyway. They would just hope the shadow elephant didn’t have anything too nasty he wanted them to do. Which, of course, knowing their luck, nasty would be exactly what would be in store for them. His tails flicked self-consciously as Abraxas rephrased his offer in a slightly more hesitant manner, internally scolding himself for not thinking to ask such a simple question first. Amateur really.

He flicked the shadow a small smile as Delano said his name, trying to push his mistake to the back of his mind for contemplation later- but not now. The thought of an elephant actually having a trunk hadn’t crossed his mind when he had thought about it before, what with most animals just having four legs and possibly wings, but now he truly saw how much of a disadvantage it probably was for Delano. He froze as the shadow elephant unintentionally brought up the lack of flight for a dragon, flicking a worried glance in Abraxas’ direction and hoping the accidental mention wasn’t going to upset her. Or at least Rilos assumed it was accidental- for all Delano’s good-natured appearance (not literally, but personality wise at least), he could turn out to be another one of the “bad guys”. After all, they had seemed to come in good waves and bad waves- shit demon, way out, humans, hedgecats; was the shadow elephant the next bad thing on the list?

“Uh… indeed,” agreed Rilos hesitantly, his eyes flicking to Abraxas again. I’m not agreeing with his analogy, he thought anxiously, wishing the horse dragon could hear his thoughts. He pricked up at the thought of a magic wishing place- maybe that was where they would find the dessert desert, being such a fantastic concept- but immediately drooped again at the shadow elephant’s addition of an evil creature. Why did it always have to be evil? Why did it always have to be nameless? Why couldn’t, just for once, the thing guarding the prize at the end be friendly, just a couple of guards that were good at their job, and if you had a good enough reason to get the prize, they would just let you through. Or, even better if the prize was signposted and available for everyone. But of course, he thought ruefully, that would never happen. Fate was too cruel a mistress for that.

However, he tried to remain positive- maybe they would get to this magical place when the “evil creature” was having a day off. A slim possibility, but it was a little hope. Either way, he had managed to dig both himself and Abraxas into the position of having to go and get this talisman that Delano wanted, so there was no way to get out of it.
“And this talisman’s not going to do anything bad to us, if we take it off this creature, is it? I can do without being turned into a shit demon like the ones in the marshes where we came from, thank you.” His words came out a little more sharply than he intended, and he wrinkled his nose in apology before continuing, “Well, I suppose if that’s what you wish us to help us with- which direction do we take to get to this place and its guardian?”

Noticing that Rilos had not managed to not look at her wing, she was in a first moment glad that she had not, hoping it would not make it obvious to the shadow that she was actually injured. But then it suddenly hit her that it because of the shadow that she had jumped up and rekindled the pain in her wing. Sometimes her fears just got the better of her, especially when it came down to strangers. Maybe she really was just paranoid. Wings were not a trunk, but maybe the shadow made sense in his own weird way and she was doing him wrong?

A magic wishing place.. Even if it was guarded by an evil creature, the thought of finding such a place was rather appealing, for various reasons, especially when she considered the picture of a chocolate mousse floating around in her mind. At least from a curiosity point of view, Delano had her hooked on this. But why that talisman? What was so special about it? And the fact that the elephant had somehow managed to become detached from the actual shadow world was nagging at her.

Delano looked at them incredulously at Rilos’ statement. “Shit demons?” He looked at Abraxas, who nodded gravely in agreement. “You’re serious? Wow…” The elephant shadow clearly had not heard of such beasts before and was just as dumbstruck at the existence of such things as they had been when they had fled from it. “Ehm.. yes.. the talisman. No, the talisman does nothing really unless you have an absolute dire need of it. Think of it as a genie lamp if you will.”

Abraxas looked skeptic. “A genie lamp?” “Well yes, if you ask it to grant you a wish if you’re in dire need, it might or might not grant you that wish.” The shadow looked from one dragon to the other, fidgeting a little. The horse dragon continued questioning: “And how exactly does this work? I mean, if it may or may not do as you desire?” Even more fidgeting followed this question, and Delano looked at Rilos, hoping the spined shadow might go a little easier on him. “I don’t really know…” the shade finally admitted.

Abraxas frowned and then looked at Rilos, the question plain in her eyes. She was not sure whether she should believe Delano or whether there was any danger involved in embarking on such a quest but on the other hand, she didn’t really know how they could not go now. What the creature was saying just sounded weird, and she began feeling a little uncomfortable, starting to shift around a little. One of the hedgecats edged closer to her trying to put its nose against her face but seeing that it was a little too small, the horse dragon indulged the creature and bent her head a little lower so the hedgecat could touch her.

Delano’s lack of proper knowledge about the talisman that he was sending them off to fetch wasn’t very reassuring for Rilos, and he tried to keep the panic off his face. So great, the shadow was sending them off on some quest even he didn’t quite know what it would entail. The spined shadow gulped, letting Abraxas take the lead in questioning the shadow elephant a little more closely. The more they heard about the foreign object they had to go and get, the more unsure Rilos was about what he had just done, agreeing to help Delano. He offered no respite from the horse dragon’s questions as the shadow looked in his direction (how could he even do that?), just as anxious as she to know exactly what they were getting in to.

He let out a long breath as Abraxas looked at him again, debating the merits of withdrawing his offer to Delano over actually helping him. Well, that would be one way to make himself feel guilty for the rest of his days… “I suppose we’ve signed up for this now,” he sighed, resigning himself to whatever monster they were bound to come across next. “Maybe we’ll come across the dessert desert on the way? And the hedgecats’ll keep us company, so it won’t be so bad, right?” He was half convincing himself as he spoke, nodding to try and reinforce the fact that it was actually a good idea. It was, helping other people was good.

“Well, I suppose we’d best get on, I’d rather face this err… monster… by daylight, rather than dark. Everything seems so much more frightening in the night, don’t you think?” He shot a glance in Abraxas’ direction, remembering how she had scared him so the night before. “That, and we’ll be tired out by tonight, having stayed up all night and day today.” It was already starting to tell on him, but the constant input from the hedgecats and Delano and Abraxas and everything else going on around him was enough to keep him awake- for now. Despite Delano’s apparent knowledge of the creature that guarded his talisman being evil, the shadow elephant (or elephant’s shadow, it wasn’t quite clear what he was) agreed to accompany them a little way on their new quest. The hedgecats at least seemed pleased enough to be heading off again, returning to their former bouncing and rushing around in the long meadow grasses and generally enjoying themselves like they had been. It would all have been very pleasant, but there was the matter of that nasty evil thing waiting for them at the end of their journey…

Rilos tried to put the thought of it out of his head as they wandered onwards, but his happy dreams of trifles and toffee apples were invariably interrupted by the odd sharp-toothed and long-clawed monster that seemed intent on having them for its own. Some things were just too inconsiderate…

Abraxas almost imperceptibly nodded at Rilos’ statement. Yes, they had indeed now gotten themselves into this, it would be awful to back out of it now, even if they might be heading into an adventure, they would never have signed up for under normal circumstances. But then again, what had been normal about the past few hours. Not much really, the horse dragon had to admit despite herself, so maybe this was just the course of things for the time being and they would quite simply have to deal with such a fact.

“Yes, I’m sure they’ll want to accompany us,” Abraxas agreed, with a look towards the few hedgecats listening intently to the conversation while others were still playing about in the grass, or still sleeping in their various assigned spots, like for instance on top of Rilos. The horse dragon quickly shot a glance towards the little one curled up on her friend’s back and let a small smile play around her lips. Maybe they could even come in useful from time to time. At least, they definitely seemed to have a sense of what could potentially be dangerous and what not. They didn’t seem scared of Delano, but they did keep a bit of a distance to him despite their curiosity about everything new. Maybe the shadow elephant was not dangerous in itself but had the potential to be?

“And if we do indeed find the dessert desert on the way, that would be amazing,” the horse dragon continued, trying to deviate her own thoughts away from the path they were currently headed down. Looking back to Delano, the horse dragon said: “Well, looks like you’ve acquired our services. We shall do the best we can but don’t be mad at us if we fail.” Briefly she wondered why on earth Delano did not seem intent on even accompanying them. He wanted it, why not help or get it himself? He didn’t seem to be bound to the shadow world anymore, so he should be able to move freely, no? It was just then that the shade agreed to accompany them for a portion of the adventure and the horse dragon was slightly more appeased again.

“You’re right,” Abraxas looked back at Rilos, happy that they were thinking along the same lines. “We should really get going before darkness catches up with us again. I’ve had enough unknowns last night to last me for quite a while.” Grunting a little, when her body protested as she got up off the ground again, the horse dragon set out next to the spined shadow dragon, surrounded by what seemed a million bouncy hedgecats to be off on the next part of their adventure.

For the next part of their journey, it seemed to remain rather peaceful. The hedgecats were bouncing around like little furballs and clearly enjoying themselves a lot. They never seemed to tire either, unlike the dragons. Rilos had already been about to fall asleep when they had been talking to Delano and Abraxas could feel her bones starting to ache with the need for a few hours rest. At some point, her wings began to drop more and more but she caught them before they began dragging over the floor and halted.

“I know we’ve said that we wanted to reach this place and the talisman before night but how about a few hours rest?” the hrose dragon suggested, trying not to glance at the slightly disappointed Delano when he heard that it would take them longer to reach their destination. “I just can’t keep going like this, and neither can Rilos. We haven’t slept in over a day and if that talisman is really guarded by something vicious, then we’d better have a few strength reserves at hand, otherwise we’re doomed from the start.” It sounded plausible and it was the truth, so hopefully the shadow would understand and not be too unhappy about the wait. The hedgecats immediately came racing back to where they had already run off too before they had noticed that the others had stopped.

Rilos didn't exactly dislike his and Abraxas' walk further through the meadows towards the destination of their new quest for Delano, but he didn't exactly enjoy it either. Of course, it was great fun watching the hedgecats bounce around their feet as they enjoyed running through the long grasses, sometimes disappearing so all that could be seen was the rustling grasses as they rushed underneath them somewhere, their little purple bodies barrelling through like cannonballs through walls, but as the day wore on, he felt himself getting more and more tired. Yawns kept forcing their way through, even though he tried to hide them, convincing himself that he wasn't tired. He shouldn't really be tired- he had been up for much longer than this before, after all! However, that time he hadn't had so much adventure along with the whole aspect of lack of sleep. Apparently adventures took quite the toll on his energy levels.

Although he didn't want to offend the shadow elephant, the spined shadow couldn't help but keep his distance as they walked onwards. It wasn't that he didn't like Delano, because he seemed nice enough- it was just the fact that he was such a strange creature, and the shade unsettled him. Rilos was a creature of the night, of shadows, himself, but he had never seen or heard of a shadow elephant before, and it gave him the chills. None the less he tried to keep on good terms with the creature, noting down his certain peculiarities for later, when he might be able to search through all his memories for any trace of some sort of thing that might have been like Delano.

Abraxas seemed happy enough wandering through the meadows too, sometimes looking a little distant as she obviously daydreamed further about their eventual arrival at the dessert desert. That indeed would be a happy time! As they walked further though, she too started to look a little sleepy, just as Rilos was feeling. He was quite grateful when she finally decided to call a halt, nodding a little too over enthusiastically at her idea of sleeping for a few hours.

"Yes, that sounds like a very good idea," he said, shaking his head slightly to keep himself awake. "I do hope that whatever's at the end isn't too terrible though... I think we've had our fair share of nasty things already today." He gave the horse dragon a wry smile, settling down with his paws curled underneath him a little like a cat might do in front of a fire. He snuffled at one of the hedgecats that dashed up to him, a sleepy smile on his face. “Are you going to make sure nothing bad comes and says hello, hedgecats?”

When the hedgecat seemed to have agreed to his request, diligently sitting down and waving its tail in the air, Rilos yawned again and curled up with his tails over his nose, blocking out the light with them. He mumbled a goodnight, then promptly forced himself to block out all the sounds and whispering urges to stay on his guard, finally letting himself go to sleep.

==X==

It was a little cooler when Rilos woke up again, yawning and stretching out long like a cat before sitting up. There was a yowl from his back as a hedgecat slipped off his back where it had nestled into his shoulder, its claws scraping down his scales before it landed in a spiky heap on the ground. It was not in the happiest of moods, hopping around and hissing at him as he tried to placate it. It took him a while, in which time he had probably woken up all the others too.

Abraxas could not have been more grateful when Rilos agreed to sleep for a few hours and the shadow elephant didn’t object to this. There were no reserves anymore and she felt like she was stumbling over her own feet more and more, so much that she might even just suddenly fall asleep while standing up. She gave the spined shadow a knowing look at his words, and nodded: “We have indeed, and I’m not very keen on encountering any more of those. I’ve had quite enough for at least a few weeks, if not months.” However, she also knew that with their luck they might run into the next gruesome thing in the morning hours of the next day, if they could even sleep quietly during the night, which she did not want to jinx, but she could imagine something happening.

The hedgecats quickly grouped themselves around the dragon and the shade, who kept himself a little away from the others but merely out of respect for their privacy. “Of course I do not object,” Delano waved away their doubts. “I perfectly understand that you need a few hours of rest. I myself do not need to sleep but I will keep as quiet as possible so as not to disturb you.” Abraxas nodded, though she was not quite sure what to make of this, but the sleepy haze in her head was growing stronger by the second and she did not want to bother with more worries than was necessary. Thus, she quickly followed suit as Rilos settled down for the night, making sure the hedgecats were not currently sitting where she was planning on planting her body.

She too had her legs folded underneath her but rather than flicking her tail over her face, she buried her face underneath her left wing, almost facing Rilos with the movement. She wanted to make sure that if she woke up due to an unusual noise or anything that seemed out of the ordinary that she could immediately check on her companion. The hedgecats scurried around for a while longer, positioning themselves in tactical positions around the two dragons in order to keep watch over them. Some settled down to sleep themselves, taking advantage of the dragons’ body heat to keep themselves warm and snuggled up, while the remaining ones had their tails stuck up into the air to keep an eye out.

=X=

The next morning came far too quickly after a quiet night’s sleep. The horse dragon had slept soundly and without dreams, and she was not at all pleased to be woken up by hissing and wailing as one of the hedgecats was loudly complaining about a wrong move her dear friend Rilos seemed to have made. Lifting her wing a little, she glanced out from underneath, wanting to see what all the commotion was and upon seeing Rilos plead with a purple little spikeball, she began to chuckle. “You have quite a way of waking up people,” she muttered as she lifted herself off the ground, stretching into the four winds.

Delano was sitting a little ways away, staring off into the far distance. Despite the noise the hedgecats were creating in the meantime, the shade did not seem to have noticed yet that they were awake. A sleepy hedgecat was scratching at the horse dragon’s leg and she merely shook her head, replying: “No, it’s time to get up, little one.” Pointing towards Delano, Abraxas added: “Would you mind letting him know, too?” With a wide yawn as a reply, the hedgecat trotted towards the shadow elephant to let him know that it was time to get moving again.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked Rilos, eyeing the dragon with her head lightly cocked to the side. He had woken up without any outside help it seemed, thus she hoped he felt as refreshed as she did. She could have done with a few more hours sleep but was not going to complain about it. “A little chilly this morning, is it not?” Abraxas shuddered briefly as the realisation fully hit her, wondering whether it was maybe just an impression. Shaking her head, she nudged a few more hedgecats, who seemed to be refusing to wake up unlike most of the others, who were already bouncing around in excitement once again. “They’re just little energy balls, are they not?” Abraxas laughed.

The little hedgecat that Rilos had accidentally woken really would not be quiet, and refused to respond to any of his pleas or, eventually, bribes, to make the little thing shut up. His scales grew hot as he heard Abraxas stirring, and the hedgecat finally decided their morning wake-up call was over once the horse dragon was awake- for better or worse. It was the typical outcome.

“Sorry,” apologised Rilos as the hedgecat padded off after its friends, purple tail waving in the air. “I didn’t mean to wake you… they just seem to wail when they’re ruffed up the wrong way.” He shrugged, unable to do anything to change what had already happened. “I did sleep well, and you?” he asked at Abraxas’ question, nodding. “Apart from, of course, little one deciding to be our alarm. Must have been a shock, with him suddenly squealing so loudly like that.” Understandably, she looked pretty groggy- Rilos felt pretty awake, but he had been up a little longer than the horse dragon. Out of all of them though, the hedgecats were definitely the most active of the little company!

He looked briefly at Delano as a few of the hedgecats bounced over to the shadow elephant’s side, the shade seemingly lost in thought over some fantasy of being a proper elephant again, or something else- cake? It was definitely a possibility.
“Hm?” He almost missed Abraxas’ question, but managed to catch it. “Oh yes, much colder than yesterday. We’ll have to start walking soon, otherwise we’ll both get chilly. Well, as chilly as you can get being a dragon,” he laughed. “How’s the wing?” She didn’t seem to be in as much pain as she had been the day before, but that might just have been because she hadn’t stretched properly yet. Even if it wasn’t properly healed yet, they would probably make good time- it was relatively early, and if they kept up a steady pace through the day… and then maybe they would reach their destination sometime in the afternoon? Preferably sometime when the “monster” Delano kept speaking of was fast asleep.

The little hedgecats didn’t seem to require any breakfast to have them bouncing up and down like little children excited on the eve of Christmas- maybe they ran on air? There certainly wasn’t anything else they could eat in such quantities to give them enough energy for their normal level of energetics, that was for certain. Rilos’ adopted hedgecat eventually pottered back to his side, scrambling up his tail like he was completely familiar with doing so, and had been doing so for years. The spined shadow found he didn’t actually mind.
“I think we’re ready now, at least. Little one’s decided he’s not walking again,” said Rilos as soon as the hedgecat had settled himself. It was time to find Delano’s talisman- and then, the dessert desert!

“I slept well enough, thank you,” Abraxas replied, unable to stifle a wide yawn. Blinking sleepily, she wiggled around some more to stretch without overdoing it. “They really do have a knack for making incredibly awful sounds from time to time. But I guess, it got us up.” Shaking her mane, the horse dragon tried to force herself to wake up properly and only barely listened to what Rilos said, catching herself in finding that terribly rude. At his cautious question, she looked at him and gave him a brief smile.
“The wing? Oh, well, I barely register the pain at the moment, so that must mean it’s not too bad anymore. Thanks for asking. I will have to keep it still today however, otherwise it will never get the chance to heal properly. Yesterday’s little stunt definitely did not help that process.”

The hedgecats were jumping back from the shadow elephant’s side without seeming to have achieved much of a result in their little quest and Abraxas decided to ignore this fact, instead turning back to the shadow spined dragon. “Shall we get going then? We can always get some food along the way?” she suggested, not even quite sure what it was that Rilos ate. She herself could live on quite a few things and didn’t need anything in particular, but maybe that was not the same for him? She couldn’t even remember what they had done the day before with regards to food, it seemed like such a long time ago. And as if on queue, her stomach began rumbling. Looking a little sheepish, she muttered: “Looks like my body is telling me to finally give it something to digest.”

Watching the little pet hedgecat settle on Rilos’ back, Abraxas shook her head with a smile on her face. “I think you will soon have to give him a name. But yes, you are right, time to go!” The last few words, she said a little louder, in return to which the hedgecats began squealing again but this time in excitement as the adventure was moving on. Finally, Delano seemed to be stirring as well and the horse dragon assumed the shade would follow them if they simply started walking now, even though the shadow elephant did not utter a single word and barely even looked in their direction. The horse dragon was anything but sure that this was a good sign, but it was too late now for second thoughts. Far too late.

Grabbing a mouthful of grass, here and there, the little company moved onwards in seemingly good spirits. “If we get this over and done with quickly,” Abraxas told Rilos, “then we can soon be off on our way to the dessert desert again!” The idea filled her with joy, and lots of pictures with cakes and all sorts of chocolate were floating around in her head again, before a huge ugly monster suddenly crushed them all with one big fist. Shuddering, the horse dragon added: “Though I fear this might not be as easy as Delano has made us believe. Even if the place itself could sound fairly alright. Making your dreams come true.” Musing over this a little, the horse dragon went on: “It’s not something I would want for me personally but I can see where some creatures might find this very attractive.” After a small pause, she added, looking at Rilos: “What about you? Any deep, dark desires you might want to have fulfilled while we’re passing through there?”

Abraxas seemed more worn out from the day before than Rilos did, but maybe it was because she hadn’t been awake for as long as the spined shadow, or maybe she just hadn’t had enough, or as good, a sleep. Anything was possible; she’d probably wake up a bit more once they were on the move again.

“Mmm, breakfast sounds like a brilliant plan,” agreed Rilos, nodding quickly. He had had a bit of food the day before, but not enough to sustain him through the next day as well- and he didn’t like going for long periods of time without eating. Abraxas seemed like she definitely didn’t like going long periods without eating too, her stomach rumbling loud enough for the spined shadow to hear. He laughed lightly, starting out walking in the same direction as they had been walking the day before, once they had met Delano.

Rilos hadn’t thought about giving the little hedgecat a name… but the little creature did seem to be getting quite attached to him. Not to mention the spined shadow rather enjoyed the hedgecat’s company too, and, well, if it wanted to stick around with him after their little adventure involving the shadow elephant, then fair enough!

“Maybe I should give him a name,” mused the dragon aloud, looking up at the sky. “Maybe something like… Spiky? Or Prickles, or Purple-fuzz-ball?” A bemused grin spread across his face, and he looked across at the horse dragon.

“Are you eating grass?” He tipped his head to one side, quite confused by this new development. Since when did dragons eat grass, of all things? That was such a… well, it was like a cow, or a sheep, or… or a horse. Oh, well that made sense! He looked sheepishly away from Abraxas as the thought suddenly occurred to him, feeling heat rush to the scales on his face. Ah, and he had been doing so well for the last five minutes of this day too. He just seemed to have some way of making things either awkward, or asking a silly question, which then made things awkward. Great, just brilliant. “Erm… I’m more used to dragons eating meat and erm… well, I guess cake, and fish, that sort of thing.” He fluttered his wings against his sides self-consciously. “I mostly eat fish, which is why it’s a tad strange for me. For you to be eating grass, that is.” He tailed off, embarrassed he had made such a scene of himself now.

But her next words startled him even more, and he had to stop himself for looking at her strangely. Why would she not want her dreams to come true? Surely that was something everyone wanted to happen? Or maybe… was that the point of dreams- so you had something to hope for, something to live on and try and achieve? Couldn’t it be though, once you had achieved one dream, that you could live for another?
“I expect not to find it as easy as the shadow elephant says, but how else might he have convinced us, if he told us the worst of what may lie ahead?” said Rilos, lowering his voice so Delano might hear less easily. “He cannot have many takers for a quest around here, with only the little hedgecats, and a human or two to persuade. Wouldn’t you make it sound as enticing as possible?”

The spined shadow didn’t meet Abraxas’ gaze as she looked across at him again, instead looking across at the ground. “I’ve always wanted…” he started, twisting his mouth a little before blurting out, “I’ve always wanted to meet some more of my kind. Not just dragons, spined shadows.” He chanced a quick look across at her, then stared down at the ground again, adding in a quieter voice, “I do like other company, I do, but I think I’m the only one left, and… its hard to know it.”

“Mmh, I do eat grass, but it’s merely to fill up the stomach or for snacking. It’s not something I could live on for longer than just a while.” Abraxas explained, ripping off yet another mouthful of grass along the way. Her stomach was still growling, so as if to prove her point, and she continued, completely ignoring the fact that Rilos was getting more flustered by the second: “I need to hunt like any other dragon. Being a horse dragon has the little perk however that I can live without meat for a while if necessary. I don’t often have fish however, that might be a nice change. Although a lovely, juicy deer would be nice right about now.” The horse dragon trailed off as the image of a herd of deer popped into her mind, making her mouth water.

She wondered a little whether it was a good or a bad thing that she kept visualising almost everything in her mind but decided to push that thought away again as she looked at Rilos and his little pet hedgecat. “Spiky,” she mumbled lowly, grinning at the thought of it turning into the name of the hedgecat.
“Not sure what you could call it,” she said, louder this time so the spined shadow could actually hear what she said. She wasn’t all too good with names and was glad she rarely had to come up with them. “Ask the hedgecat, maybe it will tell you?” Smiling, she remembered their surprise at the very first time one of the hedgecats had spoken to them. It had not happened since and Abraxas was slowly beginning to wonder if it had only been a dream.

Cocking her head to the side lightly, Abraxas considered Rilos’ words and almost scolded herself for being too pessimistic once again. What her friend said sounded absolutely plausible and he was more than likely right about this assumption. “True, there would have been no other way to convince anyone to come on this quest. Maybe it just won’t be as bad as I’m imagining right now. I’m just used to expecting the worst, you know?” It might not be a healthy way of living but it had kept her from getting into too much trouble from time to time, especially when she was going out of her way to annoy others or play the odd prank. Plus, well, it did keep her from disappointment if she simply didn’t expect too much and considered the most complicated way possible instead of the easiest.

“The last one?!” Abraxas suddenly exclaimed, not taking her eyes off of Rilos’ even though the latter was avoiding to return the gaze this time around. “That would be a shame however. If the others are anything like you ,then it really would be a shame if there were none left. But why?” she asked, very aware of the fact that she might be stepping on a few toes but this was intriguing and her curiosity would burn a hole into her tongue if she did not ask.
“As for me, no, I don’t really want to have any of my dreams come true, they’re not really good ones. And other than to live in peace, I do not have any wishes, and I fear that if that were to be my wish which would come true than everyone but me might become extinct or something ridiculous along those lines.” It was then she realised that her feelings and those of Rilos were quite similar, even if he was feeling lonely for being the last or only spined shadow, whereas she was afraid of ending up completely alone, quite literally.
Most of her life had been and probably would be spend on her own but she enjoyed nothing more than the random company of someone she bumped into and got along with well, to go on short or longer adventures with said being and then later on going their separate ways with the knowledge that they have a friend out there somewhere. It made her wonder how things would turn out with Rilos, if they were to survive all the many bad surprises they seemed bound to have on their journey.

“Look!” she called out. “The river is bending back closer to us. Maybe we should take the chance and attempt to go fishing?” A grin spread across her face again as she once again looked at Rilos, hoping that this would rip them both out of their respective rather gloomy thoughts.

“Oh yes, I had forgotten they could talk!” Rilos said with a laugh, twisting his head round to the little creature nestled at the base of his neck and blowing warm air at it. Its spikes blew in the movement and it blearily opened its eyes, uncurling with a catlike stretch along the length of his back, seemingly unphased by the fact they were still walking. The spined shadow gave it a moment to wake up properly, before he tentatively posed his question, hoping the little creature wouldn’t fluff up and take offence like the first one they had crossed had at their insolent questions.
“Little one, do you have a name?”
It looked at him with wide eyes, whiskers twitching slightly with the breeze, then suddenly squeaked a single word:
“Parumfeeroo!”
The little hedgecat’s voice was strange, quite shrill, but very breathless too, like it had run a hundred miles before it had got to them, so the word came out more like “Parum—fee—roo!” It gave him a strange, wide-mouthed smile, then broke the word down even more, “Parum, Parum, Parum fee rooooooo!”

Rilos looked at Abraxas in bewilderment, then burst into laughter at the little critter’s strangeness, the spines along his neck shaking. Parumfeeroo (as the little hedgecat was now known) didn’t seem phased by the dragon’s laughter, puffing herself up with all her spines sticking out of her back and rumbling with a strange high-pitched noise that could be mistaken for nothing but laughter.
“I think Parumfeeroo is a little different from Spiky, don’t you?” he asked Abraxas, still laughing at his new pet. Who would have guessed such a mad name?

His mirth died down again as Abraxas sounded so surprised at his admittance that he was the last spined shadow, eyes raking the ground for something he could distract himself with so he didn’t have to look at her. There was nothing to offer its assistance though, and after a while he had to look up again, reluctantly meeting her eyes.
“Yes, the last one,” he repeated. Although he was warmed by her compliment, it did nothing to make it any the less awkward- or less awful- a subject.
“I don’t really know. Maybe we’re not suited for this place? Maybe they all left, and forgot about me? I think I hatched in a cave, somewhere in the mountains. It’s quite difficult to remember, being so long ago. Nobody else was there, not until I managed to come across a couple of other dragons, who took care of me.”
He could remember that far; he had been living off whatever he could catch before they had found him, on the small side and hungry for a lot more food than he had managed to find himself. They had said they had seen a big dragon leaving the area a while before, but Rilos had never managed to work out who it had been. The most comforting thought was that it might have been his father (this was the story he told himself), his father who had flown to another part of Dragons Cove for adventures.
After a few years, he had had to amend that to another part of the world. Now he was starting to think they might have just gone extinct- apart from himself, of course.

He looked up quickly from the ground, which he had gone back to staring at, when Abraxas told him about her own dreams, eyes widening slightly. Although she had put it in quite a bleak light, he could associate- she was lonely too! Maybe that was why they hadn’t separated after the marsh and the shit-demon; they both longed for company. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to her confession though, so just had to nod slowly, mulling over her words for a further time.

The suggestion of fishing was definitely a good one of Abraxas’, and he looked up eagerly, his hunger returning to the front of his mind. “That sounds good! I do like a bit of fish for breakfast.” He tentatively smiled, knowing it would help, even if he didn’t feel good. It was something just about the action that made him feel better inside. “Have you fished before? I can show you, if you haven’t. It’s rather tricky though…” He tailed off, then added as brightly as he could manage, “I’d bet you were good at it though!”

Curious, Abraxas observed Rilos and the hedgecat on his back, her eyes growing wide when the little beastie suddenly squealed its name a few times, nicely breaking it up for them so they could easily pick up the individual pieces of the word to pronounce properly.
“So cute!” she gasped, smiling brightly at the spined shadow dragon, though Parumfeeroo apparently did not like her new bed to be laughing so hard. “I think you really just got yourself a companion!” At the mention of the name Spiky, she agreed, laughing as well: “Completely and utterly different those two, and even though both names are adorable, I think Parumfeeroo definitely is more suitable for this little one.”

“No,” Abraxas shook her head, refusing that the other spined shadows had simply left Rilos here because they had forgotten about him. “They did not forget you. How could they? I’m sure there was another reason if they did indeed leave. Maybe they had to fight a major evil somewhere in the world and that fight is not over yet? You know like in made-up stories you hear.”
The horse dragon had grown shiny eyes at the notion of these stories. She liked sneaking up on unaware humans when they were sitting around campfires and told each other stories of what had been, of what was and of what might come to pass. She didn’t even believe half of them but it was always interesting to listen to. It was a nice pastime.
“Or maybe your species is just so very unique that there are simply are no more than a handful at any given time?” She did not quite know how it would thus be possible for Rilos to ever create purebred hatchlings if there really was no other one around, but she wasn’t really keen on logic at the moment, but rather on cheering up her new friend.

“Let’s do it! Let’s go fishing!” Abraxas grinned glad to divert off their rather gloomy topic but then she hesitated just a little when Rilos asked about the technique. “Well.. uhm.. technically I have no idea what I’m doing, though I did manage to catch a fish once or twice,” the horse dragon explained. However, in the end, her excitement remained unaffected by the fact that she really did not know what she was doing and she was looking forward to the experience. “So, if you know how, I would gladly watch and learn!”

Happily bouncing off towards the river, the horse dragon looked at Rilos in a gesture to make him hurry up and move on already, though she was sure he would not need an extra invitation. Neither did the rest of the hedgecat family, and not even Delano needed to be called after. He seemed to have woken up from his trance and was now hopefully blinking at the two dragons, as if just woken up from a good dream and asked: “Is it time for breakfast already? I feel like I have only just dozed off.”

In response to Abraxas’ questioning look, he shrugged with an apologetic grin: “The hedgecats sort of guide me if I need to move in my sleep, I don’t particularly realise that I’m walking while I’m sleeping. Of course, they do take advantage of that sometimes and joke around, but they have been behaving rather well lately.” He gave them a loving look before he too walked up to the riverbank. “I don’t know how to fish,” he said, “so I cannot give you pointers, but I will happily watch while I replenish a bit of strength.” That in turn consisted of him dipping a foot into the water and chilling in the sunlight.

Abraxas’ words gave Rilos a little hope- yes, maybe there were a few other spined shadows out there, they were just hiding- at least for the moment, even if he went back to thinking that the rest of his species were extinct later in the day. It was something to hold onto, at least.

Fishing was a good diversion Abraxas had picked to use on Rilos, and he gladly set aside his depressing thoughts for a yummy breakfast instead. He grinned as the horse dragon admitted she hadn’t had much of a technique at fishing, but that was kind of exciting; he could show her how to do it properly! No doubt Parumfeeroo would have a go at trying to catch herself some breakfast too; the little hedgecat was properly awake now, and bouncing around on his back, ready and raring to go. She might not be very good at it, but she certainly had the enthusiasm for it!
“Well, if you’ve caught fish before, then you can’t be that unpractised! They’re not easy to catch, even with a bit of skill.” He hurried after Abraxas as she picked up her pace, bouncing along like the hedgecats were around their feet again. Parumfeeroo got a bit of a shaky ride over to the riverbank, at one point wrapping her claws around Rilos’ spines and yowling like an unhappy cat.

“Ah Parumfeeroo, don’t make such a noise, little cat!” Rilos said, laughing at his new pet. “It’s not so bad!” He skidded to a halt along the side of the river, crouching down like a massive tiger stalking his prey. The water was deep, running smoothly along with hardly a ripple here and there; clear enough for fish to live in, with lots of food buzzing around on the surface too. It was like the spined shadow had suddenly become a lean, mean, hunting machine- normally he was useless and awkward and quiet like a mouse, but when he was hunting, ohh no. This was where it was at!

He dropped his voice as he looked across at Abraxas, hoping not to scare the fish in the river. “You have to make yourself all coiled and quiet like this…” he said, hunkering down in the grass at the edge of the water, blue eyes focussed firmly on the water in front of him. There was a moment of quiet, then he suddenly pounced, leaping into the water and making a giant splash as he snapped out with his jaws. When he resurfaced, water pouring off his horns, a fat fish was clamped tightly in his mouth, tail flapping uselessly. “And then you catcha!” he said through his mouthful, wading back towards the bank. Parumfeeroo ruffled up her spines on his back, having hung on as tight as she could when Rilos had jumped. She didn’t seem too put off, in fact, seemed quite keen to try out her strange bouncy rollercoaster again, when it only consisted of one big jump, rather than lots of little ones. Her tail flicked from side to side, and she clambered her way up Rilos’ spines like a kitten trying to get up a staircase for the first time. Apparently she wanted breakfast too, and the moment Rilos dropped the fish onto the ground, she was on it in a flash.
“Guess I’m going to need to catch a few more fish!” he laughed, pulling himself onto the bank again. “Why don’t you give it a go? Try upstream a few paces, the fish downstream tend to get a bit scared if there’s suddenly mud and splashes coming down a river at them.”

He guided Abraxas to a spot that looked like it had some potential, stepping away from the bank so he didn’t cause a shadow and scare the fish away, sitting near where Delano was. “Do you not eat?” he asked, wondering why the shade seemed to be completely uninterested in trying to find himself a meal.

Abraxas observed the spined shadow dragon, listening carefully to what he told her, and after a while tried to imitate him. She could not reach the same smoothness to the stealthy movements but she did her best not to be too clumsy. After all, as Rilos had said, catching even only a few fish required some skill and playing pranks as well – the horse dragon knew how to sneak up on creatures even if it wasn’t always as effective as she would hope for.
Nevertheless, it usually seemed to work out somehow, sooner or later. The hedgecats were buzzing around like an excited bee hive but it did nothing to interrupt either Rilos or the fish in their routine. Abraxas was amazed at this fact, wondering if the hedgecats did not eat fish if the latter were so very calm in their presence.

When Rilos suddenly pounced and reappeared with a huge fish dangling in his mouth, the horse dragon straightened up in surprise and looked at the animal. “Wow, that thing is huge! Very nice catch! And you know what? It’s pretty amazing that Parumfeeroo is still sticking to your back as if she were glued on.” The hedgecat made her grin. Its absolute determination to stay on Rilos’ back was fascinating. Though it was quickly forgotten when the dragon’s new companion decided she wanted breakfast and stole Rilos’ fish as soon as it hit the ground.

Laughing out loud, the horse dragon replied: “Yes, it definitely looks that way. And here I was thinking, they might not even like fish.” More and more hedgecats came closer to the river and Parumfeeroo’s catch – or what she seemed to consider her catch – and the horse dragon looked back to Rilos. “Looks like we’re going to need many more fish!”
She willingly followed Rilos a few paces upstream and immediately went to imitate what she had seen him do earlier. It had not been quite the way she had done it when last trying to catch a fish but he seemed to be successful in a much quicker way than herself, thus she decided that his way was definitely the best to go. Crouching low, she observed the fish swimming peacefully under the surface of the water as she was slowly creeping closer only to suddenly leap into the stream full force. It took her a few snaps before she actually felt the squishy, scaly animal between her teeth, but she finally pulled her snout of the water, happily presenting the small bit of their breakfast to her tutor.

In the meantime, Delano blinked into the sunlight before closing his eyes again as he answered Rilos’ question. “No, I don’t eat in this form. As a shadow, all I need to do is regenerate energy from time to time, through sleeping, sunbathing, soaking in the water from time to time. Anything that replenishes. Basically, I use similar food sources, if you so will, as plants would use but no proper food that I would have to catch and eat.” The shadow elephant didn’t move along the river with them seeing that they would have to return into that direction anyways, he just sat there enjoying the sunlight and the water, while the dragons were catching breakfast for everyone around. At least they wouldn’t have to fill up Delano’s stomach as well.

After dropping yet another single fish onto to riverbank, Abraxas grinned: “Your technique actually works so much better than mine!” Of course, with the amount of mud she had whirled up now, they would need to move upstream for a bit once again if they wanted to catch a few more fish, this one already being jumped by a handful of hedgecats. Wading out of the water and upstream for a few more paces, Abraxas repeated the procedure and came up with another fish but before moving onwards, she stopped and looked at Rilos: “Is there not a quicker way to catch these fish rather than just one by one?”

Rilos was pleased by Abraxas’ words as Parumfeeroo feasted on the fish he had caught her; the hedgecat getting quite possessive over her meal as her friend came to try and get a bite of it too. They all descended into a low growling, broken by the occasional yapp as they pulled the fish to pieces. It would have been quite the sight to watch the little purple critters, if Abraxas hadn’t been more distracting with her fishing attempts.
“Oh, well done!” he said as she surfaced with her first fish, hopping to his feet again. She looked proud of her achievement, and with good cause; fish were hard to catch if you weren’t used to it. Like they had done for Rilos’ fish, the hedgecats pounced on it hardly even before it had hit the bank, tails waving enthusiastically in the air. There was definitely not going to be much left for the two hungry dragons if the hedgecats kept on like they were already going.

He turned back to the shadow elephant again as he spoke, dragging his eyes away from the mess of purple beasties on the ground and nodding. Well, it made sense for Delano not to eat then; after all, he didn’t exactly have a form, so why would he have to eat? It was slightly off-putting though- Rilos had never come across someone who didn’t have to eat before, and so it was a strange concept. Although, as he said, it was like a plant soaking up the sun, and was it so strange for them not to be physically eating? These were all good things that Rilos had never thought to think of before now, and Abraxas and Delano both had been challenging many of his assumptions over the past couple of days. And he had thought himself well educated.

After the hedgecats had finished their first fish, and were looking for another to eat (apparently Abraxas wasn’t supplying them fast enough, a few hedgecats always looking eager and sometimes volunteering a yowl of complaint), Rilos joined the horse dragon in the river to hunt again. It was fun to fish with someone else, and he couldn’t help but show off just the tiniest bit as he leapt into the water, angling his wings so he disappeared under the surface without a splash before coming up with another fish in his jaws. He snapped again nearby and caught another, too slow to get away- this time he kept one for himself, swallowing it down in two big bites before offering the other to Abraxas before the hedgecats could get a hold of it. From the bank, Parumfeeroo complained bitterly, despite still having a little of her own fish left to eat, and looking swollen round the belly from having eaten so much in such a short space of time. The other hedgecats trying out their own stalk-and-leap tactics on the empty water made him laugh, and he almost dropped his mouthful.

“Would you like this one? The little ones will eat it otherwise,” he said as he hopped onto the bank again, shaking the water off his hide. He followed her up the bank, pausing and surveying the swirling mud wafting down the river every so often.
“Well, sometimes, when I don’t feel like pouncing, just hitting the water with a bit of fire works quite well,” he said, finally dropping his fish. He padded upstream a fair way, surveying the water from quite a distance, before finally picking a spot to work from and creeping up to the edge of the river. Fish swam lazily through the water at the bottom of the bed, waving their tails with a slow, even motion. They were fat, and delicious looking. He took a quick look downstream to where Abraxas was- she should be able to catch any fish that he managed to miss with his claws- then suddenly rose to his full height, blasting a strong ball of fire down into the water. Steam erupted from the surface, and when it cleared, a good number of fish were floating with the current, definitely belly up; lightly grilled too, for a bit of a change of taste!

Abraxas grinned as she watched Rilos join her in the river, showing off his superior skill in fishing and diving around as though he were a fish himself; but apparently no matter how good he was at fishing and no matter how quickly she was learning to be more efficient, they were still not quick enough to fill up the hedgecats’ stomachs – not to mention their own.
“How do you do that submerging thing? If I only even so much as poke my head under water, they’re all swimming away in a panic!” she laughed. She was having quite a lot of fun, and she was glad that Rilos was enjoying himself too.

“Thanks!” Abraxas sighed and gladly took the fish from Rilos, having sent her last one flying to shore once again to feed the ever-hungry purple beasties. “They’re really food-orientated. I wouldn’t have thought!” They were energy bundles for sure and it should have occurred to her that in such a case they would also eat a lot to recuperate all that energy, but they were so very tiny that Abraxas had not considered their stomachs to be able to devour such huge quantities of fish.

Watching them attempt fishing on their own however was hilarious and the horse dragon nearly chocked on her morsel of fish as a particularly courageous cat jumped out into almost the middle of the river and landing with a very loud splash in a fountain of water, fish dispersing in every direction, other than into the cat’s mouth of course.

Shaking her head in amusement, Abraxas contemplated Rilos, her head lightly cocked to the side. “With fire, you say? Now that sounds interesting and definitely like a quick idea. And the fish will already be roasted at the same time as well.” The horse dragon definitely was up for trying this and when Rilos moved stream upwards once again, she did not hesitate to follow him a few paces but then decided against it. This, she wanted to see.
Once she realised how he was going to go about this, she positioned herself close to the river, ready to jump in, should it be required, though she would probably forget from the looks of it. Watching Rilos rise up, she realised – for the first time actually – how huge that dragon really was! It was a rather impressive sight and for a moment, Abraxas felt very tiny in comparison. But then, all of those thoughts were already forgotten again when the spined shadow dragon blasted the fire into the water and soon afterwards, fish were floating belly up towards her and hastily, she picked them out of the water, one by one, but definitely making sure the hedgecats did not get to all of them!

“That was awesome!” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling in excitement as she was clearly making a mental note to only ever go fishing like that again. “And I never even thought of it! The trouble I could have saved myself,” she laughed as she was shooing a particularly curious and apparently hungry hedgecat away from the fish she had kept aside for Rilos and herself. “We should definitely do that again some time!” In addition, the fish was absolutely delicious this way as well, and Abraxas began to understand why humans preferred their fish cooked.

Once they were all looking rather round after their little breakfast feast, the horse dragon threw a lazy glance towards Rilos and moaned: “I think we should get a move on to find this ominous place Delano is looking for, so that we can move on to find our lovely dessert desert. Though I really do not think I can move as of yet,” she added with a groan as she tried to lift her full stomach off the ground. “Why did I think it was a good idea to eat this much?”

Delano, hearing that they were going to move onwards, picked his feet out of the river (the shadow elephant had gradually moved along the river with the rest of them so as not to be left by himself) and gave them a hopeful smile. “I hope you enjoyed your breakfast. I have to admit though, I’m glad you’re still willing to help me. I was somewhat afraid that by now you would have changed your mind to this respect. You cannot imagine how very grateful I am, and how much I’m looking forward to finally be released of this dreadful form!”

Abraxas shot him a smile, still somewhat unsure what to think of this weird shadow but she could understand that he wanted to be freed of the prison he was held in though she still had doubts from time to time as to his sincerity. Nevertheless, it would be an interesting adventure, one way or another. Even the shitdemon made for an entertaining story, even if it had been absolutely terrifying the moment they had lived through the event.
“Don’t worry about it, no matter what this journey will bring, we’ll try to make the best out of it,” the horse dragon grinned. She was sincerely hoping it wasn’t going to come back and bite them in the behind but she tried to think about the dessert desert afterwards. Anything as awesome as that was worth a bit of trouble, she was sure of it.

Rilos jumped into the water as the steam from his blast of fire dissipated into the air, helping Abraxas round up all their newly-cooked breakfast. He dipped his head modestly at her praise, but still smiling at it. “Well, it’s good to learn both ways of fishing. The first is very good if you aren’t particularly hungry, or if you’re not in the mood for eating cooked fish. I rather like using it just for the fun of hooking a fish out of the water.” When there wasn’t much else to fill the day with, fishing was the perfect pursuit, Rilos found.

Although today, cooked, the fish definitely hit the spot, and he had to restrain himself quite a lot from literally just wolfing down one fish after the next. At least he had managed to get what seemed like a whole shoal of fish with his blast of fire; there was easily enough in front of them to call it a feast, and he enjoyed their extended breakfast immensely. He stretched more and more out across the grass as he ate, feeling wonderfully full by the time they had got to the bottom of the pile. The hedgecats seemed similarly pleased with their breakfasts, a couple resting up near them and grooming their paws of greasy fish juice. They really were like cats, the way they licked their paw pads, then rubbed them over their faces and back again!

“Ooh, don’t talk of the dessert desert, not so soon after eating all that fish,” replied Rilos in a similar full moan to the horse dragon’s. He was much too full to even think of dessert yet, let alone in the quantities that lay ahead of them. That could definitely be saved for a little later in the day; despite not wanting it that instant, there was no way on earth he was turning back from the dessert desert now. “But don’t call it ominous, where we’re headed, it makes it sound all the worse. For all we know, it’ll be nice…right?” he smiled hopefully, trying to delude himself. Maybe if he told himself it would all be fine enough times, it would be fine.

He gave a warm, sleepy yawn, then nodded slightly at Delano. “Don’t worry, we’ll still help you. We did give our word, after all.” Rilos wasn’t one to easily go back on what he had promised, even if it was to a shadow elephant. It may have been a bizarre thing he had agreed to, but all the same, and he would at least try. He struggled slowly to his paws, stretching lightly, not too much- his belly was so full! “Come on, we’d best get a move on again, it’s a way to cover, isn’t it?” Ugh, walking on a full stomach, but it would wear off quickly enough. “Come on Parumfeeroo, time to go little one.” He nudged the little hedgecat off the ground, prodding at her until she yowled and finally got to her feet, looking like she might fall asleep again. Apparently catnapping after food was the way for a hedgecat to go, as well as the way for a spined shadow.

They set off in the same direction as they had been heading before, starting quite slowly as they digested, then walking faster as they settled down into a rhythm and got used to moving. Eating so much would definitely help them later in the day; breaks for snacks or lunch could be cut, at least for Rilos, and Abraxas ate grass, so she could grab a mouthful here and there if she was hungry. They managed to make good progress, getting a lot closer to where they were supposed to be, and when late “lunchtime” would have been (Rilos was still full from breakfast, he had definitely overeaten) the landscape they were walking through was definitely on the fantastic side, as Delano had first described it. The grass had thinned out into sparse tufts, but it had grown huge, acting in place of trees. Rocks with one smooth, curved side and another sharp and jagged poked from the reddish earth in swarms, some big like oxen, others very small, like mice or rats. Away to one side, someone or something had piled up a load of the stones, one on top of another, those at the very top looking precarious. The river had long since swept away to one side, off their path.
“This place is… quite strange,” said Rilos, looking from side to side at the weird formations. The ground had been steadily sloping upwards for a while too, but the top looked to be in sight. Hopefully then, they would be at the place Delano had said he needed to go.

At the top of the hill, it all suddenly curved away from them again though, the land sweeping down in a wide arc to make a crater. A lake glittered in the middle of it, the river they had been following draining into it some way away from them. But it looked very promising, if… dangerous. There were more of the strange smooth-spikey boulders all over, gathered the most at the bottom, near the lake.
“Well, this… shows potential,” said Rilos, pausing at the top of the hill. Now just to find this talisman…

((Ahahaha mine is huge too 8D I just went ahead and time skipped, because otherwise it would just be lots of walking X) I am quite tired now... But this will do you through a while at work tomorrow hopefully! Very Happy

))

» 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}