Ghost & Rogue [In for a penny, in for a pound...]

Seeing that the storm dragon wanted a fight, the Shadowhunter decided to fight back, but not viciously as not to harm the dragon much. There was a moment in which everything was still before the flames changed directions, missing the two by mere centimeters.

Ladon roared, but his rider stopped him from attaching. "Identify yourself dragon." He repeated. The power singing in his veins, begging to be used to eliminate the threat, but he held still against such temptations, and continued to wait calmly for a reply from the attacking dragon.

Silver's eyes turned to their original color, although a bit paler than normal. A hint of silver appeared, showing he still held much more power. He quickly pulled his bow, took aim, and fired one, hitting the dragon's left wing with sharp accuracy.

Two more arrows quickly followed suit as Ladon moved, just enough not to collide with their opponent. That dragon have no idea what it got itself into, he almost felt sorry for it, almost .

The magpie dragon flipped twice in the air, gaining more altitude, at the same time, trying to change their location.

There was a look of concentration on the Shadowhunter's face before the black arrows in Tabri's wing started to shimmer, expending the size of the wounds before turning to smoke, and returning to Silver's waiting hand.

Impressive, thee at once, huh? It's better if we - Ladon didn't get to finish what he was saying as he noticed the flames heading to their direction. He hastily closed his wings and then re-opened them. Although he had avoid most of the flames, the end of his right wing took some damage.

Knowing better than to make a sound, he flew until they were directly behind the other dragon while Silver scribbled a rune on his neck, and his wound started healing.

There was another rush of power running in the Shadowhunter's veins as his eyes turned silver once more. Noting what the dragon was doing, he figured it would be safer to fight from distance as not to expose their location.

Silver threw his sword in the air, where it disappeared, and released two arrows after it. There was a moment where Ladon wondered if it was wise to throw that sword as if to get rid of it, but he didn't question his rider about his actions.

Not seconds later, there was a strong sound of beating wings, which revealed two large ravens, what was surprising though, that the two creatures with silver eyes were even larger than the two dragons. Both bowed to the young Shadowhunter before making their way towards the enemy.

Ladon shivered as he felt power radiating from the two creatures in waves. Whatever that was, it was something entirely unpleasant for the other dragon.

The two ravens fixed their silver eyes on Tabri at once. The silent creature seemed to shimmer, although the moonlight couldn't possibly reach them in the dense smoke. It took them quite a few seconds to take all of the flames, which they seem to absorb, only to gain size.

The smoke vanished as the intincety of their shimmer increased. In a blur of movements, the now silver-eyed Shadowhunter appeared on the back of the raven on the left.

It took Ladonna few seconds to feel that his rider is no longer on his back. Just as he was going to head into the smoke, his rider's thoughts drifted into his mind. Ladon, get the others away from here while you can.

With that in mind, Ladon closed his wings tight to his body and dived to the ground below.

Tabri scowled in annoyance as the two beasts came out of her smoke and fire unscathed, confusion passing her mind before the deciding thought huh, should have used more…

Her eyes flicked to the leftenmost bird as she saw a blur of movement, glowing with an inhuman desire for cruelty as they fixed on her quarry.
“A human…” she breathed, her lips curling up in a menacing smile before she turned in the air and snapped her wings shut, hurling down on top of the man and bird like a stone dropping into a lake. She opened her claws wide, ready to close them on the flesh and bone that she would touch- even if it killed her.

==x==
Rilos and Cerid had, quite wisely, stuck to the ground as Silver had instructed, watching the sky battle with fear. Neither of them were fighers, and while Rilos had watched a few in his long years, the closest Cerid had come to a battle was looking at romanticised pictures in story books. The wild dragon was so wild it looked like Silver and Ladon might be crushed, if it weren’t for the shadowhunter’s powerful magic. Which really was something, and Cerid vowed to plague him with questions until she worked out exactly what he could do. Now though, the two ran for Ladon as they saw him plunge down out of the sky, Rilos shouting to the magpie dragon to catch his attention. He only hoped it could be caught, and the dragon wasn’t unconscious from a blow they had missed.

As the ground got closer, the magpie dragon opened his wings wide, barely saving himself from crashing.  He noted that Rilos and Ceridwen were running towards him.

Wincing while closing his wings, he headed towards the two. 

-

Silver was caught between using enough skills to keep himself alive and not using his more lethal attacks as not to kill the offending dragon.

The raven on the right suddenly turned white, blocking the oncoming attack, while the other just moved back. 

Again, three arrows were buried in the dragon's other wing.

“Ladon, are you alright?” Rilos called out as they got closer to the magpie dragon, a little relieved to see that he had somehow managed to open his wings in time to land. Ceridwyn was trailing along behind him, her eyes glued to the sky as Silver disappeared into the clouds of smoke the other dragon had made. She came to a slow stop behind Rilos, trying to work out what was happening above all the smoke and fire.
“What do we do? Help? Or get help?” asked Rilos as they met with Ladon, noticing how his wings seemed stiff- the blast of updraft if one snapped their wings open fast he had heard hurt somewhat- he himself didn’t feel anything, but of course, his flight was powered by magic, and there was little to snap back against the air.

==X==

As one raven moved in to intercept her attack, Tabri let out an angry blast of flames, snarling as she snapped her mouth shut again. All she wanted to do was get that little human in her claws and chew him to bits, and these giant birds were getting in the way! It was all well and good burning feathers and torching birdflesh, but she was, quite frankly, getting bored of such trivialities. She abandoned her attack and went after the human again, her eyes fixing on him angrily as she varied her flight erratically left and right to try and catch him from one side or the other.

((Don’t know if they were new arrows or not, but if they were, try not to pp. I’ll let her get hit if I feel like it, not if you suddenly decide for them to hit! ))

Ladon looked up at the sky, then back at the dragons. He looked at Rilos when he spoke, We do neither, now, we get as far as possible from here. He looked one last time at the cloud of smoke before motioning for Rilos and Ceridwen to follow.

-

The Shadowhunter kept some distance between him and the wild dragon. Trying to distract the creature from Ladon and the others. An idea occurred to him. Although ridiculously dangerous, he couldn't but feel that it would have the desired effect. He just needed to time it right.





-= Sorry ^^; I totally got carried away. sorry for the uninspired post here ^^; =-

"Neither? Are you sure?" Rilos couldn't help but question Ladon's lack of movement towards helping Silver, but he knew the man better than Rilos himself did- or probably would. He didn't really know about the whole rider-dragon bonding thing. Ceridwyn was looking scared at the prospect of either of his suggestions, and it was probably the best for her (if not Silver) if they didn't interfere, so he just followed after Ladon without pressing the point.

==X==

As Tabri flew on, worrying the two ravens as much as she fancied, the arrows that had managed to embed themselves in her wing making it ache. Not that she really cared, but it was getting a little painful, and as much as she liked divebombing things, she rather liked saving herself afterwards. Taking such thoughts into consideration (albeit very small consideration) she evened out her flight a little so she could glide instead of having to flap, then took a swoop over the pesky human's head with her claws outstretched to rake him from his strange mount.

For the second time in the last couple of days, Silver had to distract his opponent with the massive energy blast, temporarily blinding whoever was in the blast's range.

He took the opportunity to jump off the raven's back, form blurring as he teleported to where he felt Ladon's presence last.

-

Ladon almost attacked Silver, the shock of feeling a weight on his back without sensing the other's presence was enough to cause that. And no matter how many times that happened, it was still startling. The way his rider vanishes and appears due to his speed never fails to amaze him.

-==-

Achos growled loudly. His brother got away again! And now here he is, looking at their campsite. Knowing he was less than a day behind them and still wasn't able to confront them made his blood boil, as it always did.

Tabri shook her head in annoyance as her night sight was blasted away by the bright light that Silver conjured, her drop onto the raven’s back missing horribly and she plunged towards the ground instead, pawing at her face to try and get rid of the sparkly lights in front of her eyes.

Almost too late she realised that rubbing at her eyes while divebombing the ground was a really bad move, and she immediately flared her wings, yelping as they billowed with air, just rescuing her from a splat on the ground. Even with her emergency measures, she still hit the ground with a hard thump, growling as she nearly fell over still blinking and pawing at the sparkles. They really were irritating!

==X==

Rilos nearly jumped out of his skin when Silver suddenly appeared on Ladon’s back, the spines on his back flaring involuntarily as he bounced away from the magpie dragon’s side before relaxing.
“Silver! You got away! …How?” His eyes skirted the sky then back to the man, wondering how he had suddenly appeared without them noticing him fall out of the sky, or any other normal explanation. Unless it was magic?

To be honest, Silver looked drained from the excess use of magic, but he managed a smile anyways. " Just teleported. We need to get both of you away from here." The Shadowhunter extended his left arm to the side, palm up.

After a few seconds, his sword and two arrows appeared. He looked at Ladon's puzzled look, " The ravens were summons. It is no surprise that the weapons return to me when I call for them."

-==-


Achos was a distance away from the blast. Eyebrows lifting in surprise, well... How lucky can he be?

Smiling mischievously, he headed in the blast's direction. This time he might be lucky and even manage to catch the three dragons!

“It’s not just us that need to get away from here.” said Ceridwyn mildly, padding closer to Ladon and his rider. “Even for you, it’s not good that danger is so near.” Turning her head to one side, she noted that the man wasn’t looking as bright as he had been before, but that was to be expected after all. Even someone so strong had to get tired after a while. She started in surprise as the weapons materialised in his hand, looking at them with some confusion and close interest. At least he had some sort of weapon again.
“Maybe we should find somewhere to rest away from that dragoness? Tangling with her again tonight may result in quite the mess…”

==X==

As Tabri slowly regained her normal nightsight, she started up a stream of violent curses as she saw that the man and his two pet birds had gotten away. Escaped! From her! She ripped at the ground with her claws, throwing great clods of earth behind her as her cursing only grew louder. He wasn’t going to get away with escape so easy!

When Achos got to the explosion site, he found himself looking at a wild dragon. Must be what Silver confronted. He mused.
He cautiously advanced towards the wild dragoness. He actually might use her to finish off his younger brother once and for all.

-==-

That is a fine suggestion, Silver, I too, think we should rest for the night. Away from here of course. Ladon tried to convince Silver, who was too tired to argue.

"Alright. But we need to make sure that we're enough distance away. That was one dangerous dragon..." Said Silver, and an instant later, Ladon was ready to take off.

Ripping up dirt was nowhere near as exciting as ripping up a person might be and Tabri quickly got bored, sitting amongst the muddy carnage she had just wreaked. She was so pissed off with the fact she had let one prey escape her that, when the next prey arrived, she did nothing more than stare at him angrily, then burst into a mindless rant.
“Why would you fight back? With birdies?! It not fair, mesays, not fair. I wouldar thought it weren’t that bad, being eaten; warm, cosy, bit messy but waars fun w’out mess?” She rounded on the man, snarling. “Fun, so why fight?”

==X==

Rilos nodded along with Ladon’s suggestion, hoping that taking off again wouldn’t attack her back onto their trail. It looked like they were far enough away, but you could never be quite sure…

He waited until Ladon and Ceridwyn were in the air before he spread his much larger wingspan, shooting up into the air behind them. It was one advantage; he might have to wait for airspace, but when he got going, he could catch up with any other flying dragons with ease. They headed away from the town, up further into the valley, not wanting to lure the lightning storm into the range of innocents lest she decided to go on a massacre.

Achos looked at the dragon with amusement as it complained about his brother escaping. Must be because he had company to keep safe. They're still with him. He smirked.

Knowing his brother, he wouldn't try to get away from a fight unless he was trying to get innocents out of harm's way. Foolish little brother! He scrowled before turning his attention back to the Lightning Storm.

Shadows bending and solidifying as a bow," Do you still want to catch who escaped? Then we have something in common. You can have that stupid dragon of his" He hissed the last part.

As much as he hated dragons, he couldn't miss the opportunity if it meant getting rid of the lot of them. Teaming up with this dragon may be his only chance.


-==-

Ladon kept looking over his shoulder, making sure they weren't followed. You seem to have a place in mind Rilos. Where are we going? He questioned.

" Keep in mind that we need to cover some distance before we set camp. All of us need some rest, and I think all of you agree with me." Silver shouted over the wind.

Tabri went back to clawing at the ground as she lost interest in the man in front of her, scratching out the outline of a person and a bird before she ripped up the whole piece of ground and blasted it to pieces with a angry mouthful of fire.

She got to her feet at the man’s words, prowling slowly towards him and looking at him from all angles as she weaved her head back and forwards.
“The blacksy white one? Can I crunch it round the middle?” she licked her lips, forgetting she didn’t actually have the dragon there and then. “Melikes this plan. Me wants to go after them and rip their insides out.” She grinned fiercely, her eyes glowing with excitement.

==X==

“Uhm, well I was thinking we could get out of this meadow,” said Rilos. “As nice as it is, it’s rather exposed in the case of that dragoness returning.” And he didn’t want to get attacked by her again. Crazy dragonesses were not his idea of fair company.

He thought he had flown over some sort of cover on his way down the valley a few days previously and, lo and behold a stand of trees eventually appeared crawling up one side of the valley, their thick branches covered in bright leaves. Shouting across to the others to follow after, he slowly skated down towards it, flaring his tails so he didn’t leave the other behind going fast. He landed on the edge of the forest, tucking his wings into his sides and landing at a lolloping run like he always did, looking through the trees. They were definitely big enough to hide the others, and he wouldn’t have to duck too much to fit either. Perfect.

Achos let his shadowy bow dissolve. " Indeed. You even can have the Spined Shadow for all I care. I am Achos, what can I call you with?" He questioned with a smirk. This is starting to get very interesting indeed.

-==-

Ladon's eyes widened slightly as he took in the forest below, but said nothing. He swiftly landed next to Rilos, holding still for his rider to dismount.

" A well choosen place." Mummered Silver as he inspected the place, " We should keep moving though." He said thoughtfully.

Tabri considered Achos’ proposition, working her way swiftly through all the outcomes that might arrive. Most of them ended up with what she wanted (the ‘blacksy white” one being crunched), so she nodded her assent. She didn’t like how comfortable the man seemed with talking to her, a dark, dangerous dragon who could rip your head off before thinking it, but she didn’t know how to put that into words, so she just had to content herself with telling him her name instead.
“Tabri, let’s crush some two-leg. Rip it and burn it.” She grinned fiercely, her tails swishing from side to side and flattening the little grass that was still alive, and not a smoking heap. “Kill it!”

==X==

A faint smile crossed Rilos’ lips at Silver’s praise and he flicked his tails towards the forest. “After you.”
He followed up the little group as they moved into the wood, Ceridwyn keeping close to Silver and Ladon in case anything decided to jump out and attack them suddenly. Rilos camouflaged completely against the shadows, and if he hadn’t purposefully been making a little noise, even passing within a few feet of him wouldn’t have let you notice him. This was what his breed were famous for- the fabulous ‘ninja-dragons’ of the night. And, he had to admit, he loved it.

The forest was relatively quiet, the odd patter of leaves crackling off to either side as a badger snuffled for food, or a frightened deer bounded away. Bats occasionally flicked under the canopy, diving across the heads of the four after a meal before disappearing off into the sky again. Better the little carnivores than the big one they had just left.

Achos smirked at the dragoness, the shadows surrounding him as a cloak. "Let's get going. I know where to find them."

-==-

Silver stopped walking, looking around. "This should do for now... Ladon, you're dismissed." The magpie dragon just bowed his head and walked away, heading away from the forest.

The Shadowhunter's eyes landed on the two dragons. "We could use a fire... " He mumbled quietly. His golden eyes brightened for a brief second before the shadows surrounded them, hiding them from the rest of the forest.